Though online grocery has been around for years in Vietnam, it’s only started to gain traction since the emergence of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The country’s grocery space has witnessed the spike in demand for home delivery of fresh produce and staples, due to the reluctance of customers to step outside and go to crowded places.

A recent survey by Nielsen Vietnam and Infocus Mekong Mobile Panel stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had caused Vietnamese consumers to reduce the visit frequency to supermarkets and grocery stores by 50 per cent.

Back then, there was no denying that Vietnamese shopping habits were still very traditional when it comes to groceries, with most preferring to go directly to brick-and-mortar stores to purchase goods instead of browsing online platforms.

However, given the recent growth in e-commerce, consumers’ changing habits and preferences, and the advent of new technologies, the country’s penetration into online grocery shopping has become increasingly popular, especially in metro cities, particularly amongst the young, tech-savvy and time-crunched people.

To put it bluntly, with a broad base of young customers, the online grocery market in Vietnam holds high-growth potential.

COVID-19 changed the grocery delivery scene in Vietnam

Noticeably, there are different business models around grocery delivery services – be it the shopping model, warehouse model, platform-based model, or the combination of those means.

The shopping model is the easiest and fastest for businesses to deploy. It only manages in-house delivery networks; neither does it need to associate with existing grocery stores nor update the product catalogue on the platform.

Also Read: These 5 Vietnam-based agritech startups are tackling the country’s fragmented farming sector

Customers will provide the list of items they want to buy as well as preferred shopping places. Upon receiving the order, the platform transfers the details directly to its delivery personnel who will shop from stores on customers’ behalf. In fact, many existing online food delivery and e-commerce businesses in Vietnam have extended in this model.

With the warehouse model, delivery players import goods from producers and manufacturers, stock them in the warehouses and then run logistics operations to distribute them to customers. Some of the notable players following this model consist of US-based FreshDirect, Walmart Grocery, or China-based Miss Fresh.

On the other hand, the platform-based model utilises the logistics and distribution networks rather than operating independent warehouses. The drivers will pick up groceries directly from retail stores and deliver straight to customers’ doorsteps, eliminating the need for physical warehouses. Participants who have excelled in this space include Instacart, Peapod, Shipt, etc.

COVID-19 has proved to be a transformative moment for Vietnam’s grocery delivery market. Demand has surged, the industry has seen unprecedented growth, and a slew of service providers have decided to enter the sphere to cater to this overwhelming need.

That is to say, major delivery and e-commerce players such as Grab, Be, and Lazada has recently rolled out their grocery deliveries in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the country’s retail giants like VinMart, Big C, or Co.op Mart have also jumped on the bandwagon to facilitate home delivery.

These brick-and-mortar stores are now waking up to the fact that consumer behaviours are increasingly shifting towards e-commerce and that they need to evolve to stay competitive.

On the other end of the spectrum, Loship, a Vietnam-based aspiring unicorn startup in fields of e-commerce and delivery, seems to be one step ahead as it had stepped into the grocery game since 2018, and that was one year before the arrival of coronavirus.

Grocery delivery battle in Vietnam

With regional, resource-rich companies participating in the game, along with an army of local startups vying for space, who will win the grocery delivery war in Vietnam?

No doubt, major regional players have the resources and brand reputation to capitalise on yet another niche. However, when it comes to grocery delivery, local businesses are poised to have assets that give them a competitive advantage over foreign rivals.

The scenario is somewhat similar to David and Goliath’s classic story. That said, Goliath was tall, dense and powerful, but was also very slow to move and respond. In the business world, large companies represent Goliath, which may have huge budgets, countless resources, and significant market share, but often lack the speed and agility of a startup.

They can be lumbering in decision making or getting new products to market, even illy prepared to confront the smaller yet faster-moving players.

Also Read: Is Vietnam the new golden child of tech startups in SEA?

On the other hand, due to lacking in sheer size, small and nimble startups are more agile, adaptable, and responsive to changing customer needs and business environments. And that’s a distinct competitive advantage for these entrepreneurial Davids.

Take Loship as an example. The Vietnamese unicorn aspiring startup got into the grocery delivery game in 2018 by launching the Lomart service, way before other competitors stepped in vying for a slice of the pie. This exemplifies the startup’s ability to sniff out unique opportunities and execute more efficiently than their counterparts.

Loship is proof positive that the possibility of wearing the grocery delivery crown is not limited to the international resource-rich players. Lomart follows the platform-based business model that doesn’t require warehouses – its drivers will fulfill customer orders directly from store locations and get them delivered within an hour. Over two years, Lomart by Loship has served about 30,000 customers across four big cities in Vietnam, with nearly 1,000 transactions per day.

Loship’s promise of one-hour grocery delivery is capitalised on its vast network of more than 100,000 drivers. By making free delivery available, Loship is pulling the biggest lever it has in the grocery wars: the ability to offer fast, free delivery. The platform has partnered with nearly 10,000 variously-sized grocery stores and supermarkets conveniently located throughout the suburbs of the four major cities in Vietnam.

Grocery delivery war in Vietnam, in a nutshell, may witness another “David vs. Goliath” story in the foreseeable future – with Loship being natural Davids, fighting against larger and more established competitors who seemingly have all the advantages of strength, size, and resources.

In such a case, don’t think of an underdog that got lucky; instead, think of a brave competitor who knows to utilise its strengths and unique capabilities to overcome the odds against larger rivals.

Believe it or not, the world is full of business upstarts that took on industry giants and emerged victoriously.

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Register for our next webinar: Meet the VC: TNB Aura

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Yes, “acceloration”. That is not a typo. Read on, I’ll explain what it means and why.

‘Disruption’ is a word that many people associate with startups, especially technology startups. Often, people or companies will label themselves as disruptors to give the impression that they are game-changers or trail-blazers within their industries. However, as we will explore and examine, the disruptors are usually not the ones that actually change the game.

To do that, we will take a short walk down history to …

The industrial revolution

The first industrial revolution started sometime in about 1760 and what we saw then was the transition to adopting new technology to existing hand production methods. New technology at that time meaning machine tools or mechanised systems to be used in factories.

This was pretty much the modern-day equivalent of disruption – the adoption of new, more advanced technologies to supplement and improve existing processes.

That, in essence, is what disruption is. One can succinctly say disruption is actually technological progress and advancement, just shortened to a single and catchier word. But I digress.

Back to the Industrial Revolution. The disruption, or adoption of new technology, gave rise to a whole suite of other trickle-down effects which spawned the creation of many new companies, business practices, and social norms and standards. As industries and people adapt to and embrace the disruption, we see the accelerated collaboration between the users of technology and the technology itself.

Also Read: A survivor’s guide for businesses dealing with COVID-19-led supply chain disruption

In fact, although the term is used in a more modern context, disruption has always been how the human race has advanced forward. The discovery and control of fire by men during the Early Stone Age was a significant technological disruption.

As more people adopt and use a particular technology or innovation, it brings about more advancement of that technology, which snowballs into more people using it, and so on. As mentioned earlier, I see this as an accelerated collaboration process and this brings us back to my very first paragraph – acceloration.

Why I think we need this

Acceloration is the accelerated collaboration phase that occurs after the initial disruption phase.

It is the phase where the growing adoption of a technology or innovation causes that same technology to accelerate in its growth, thereby finding even more useful benefits and uses of the technology or innovation.

The initial disruption phase is typically a lot shorter than the acceloration phase, which can last for many, many years after the disruption phase. And, as we will see, the disruptors do not usually end up as the key leaders in the industry. It is the accelorators that take the lead because of their adoption of the technology or innovation when it is accelorating.

If we peel the layers of the onion deeper, we find many examples of leading companies that, although looking like disruptors in the first instance, are actually not. Instead, they are accelorators.

Let’s bring ourselves back to the modern era for this.

Also Read: Indonesia is ripe for further disruption by tech-enabled firms: Adrian Li of AC Ventures

Search engines

When we think of an online search engine, chances are, Google will be the name that immediately pops to mind. However, they were not the first one that entered that space. They were not disruptors in that sense. Far from it.

The very first search engine was the Archie Query Form, which was created in 1990. That lead to the Veronica and Jughead search programmes in 1992 and 1993.

In 1993, the first web bot, the World Wide Web Wanderer, was created. Followed by, also in 1993, the first web search engine to use a crawler and indexer, JumpStation.

As you can see, the technology was already starting to accelorate with more users adopting it.

Yahoo! and Lycos were founded in 1994, and then Excite and Altavista in 1995.

Finally, in 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin started BackRub, which would eventually become Google in 1998, a good eight whole years after the very first search engine was created.

Social media

Facebook could be easily be considered the largest social media company in the world currently. Again, however, they were definitely not the disruptors, or the first, in this space. Even Friendster and MySpace were not firsts.

The very first social media website was Six Degrees and it was officially launched in 1997.

Also Read: Why disruption is no longer a buzzword in the Philippines

Friendster came on board about five years later in 2002, which was the same year that LinkedIn was founded. MySpace was launched a year later in 2003.

Facebook was then launched in 2004, seven years after the very first social media website.

Many other social media businesses came after Facebook too. Twitter in 2006, Instagram in 2010, Snapchat in 2011, and, most recently, TikTok in 2018 globally (2016 for China).

Ride hailing

You would probably be thinking of Uber or Lyft in this space. However, again, ride-sharing has a very long history which began in the United States in 1942 during World War II, when the US government began requiring ride-sharing arrangements to save rubber during the war.

Even in the early 1990s, there were researchers who envisioned the future of ride-sharing similar to what exists in modern-day.

What Uber and Lyft did was to accelorate the innovation and apply modern technology to what was already in motion. Technology such as the development of the GPS, the smartphone, and electronic payments contributed to the ride-hailing apps we know of today.

We have been focused on the technology space thus far. Let’s take the example of a brick-and-mortar business to see how the accelorators are also the ones which typically become the market leaders.

Co-anything spaces

Let’s start with the concept of coworking. WeWork was definitely not a first nor a disruptor in this space.

The very first equivalent of a coworking space was c-base, although it was called a hacker space at that time, which started in 1995. But it was basically the same thing. c-base provided free access to the internet and had a focus on its community.

Also Read: Startup disruption: the good, the bad and the ugly

The first official coworking space was not launched till 2005 when Brad Neuberg opened the San Francisco Coworking Space.

Greendesk, a shared workspace business and precursor to WeWork, was founded by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in 2008. This would eventually lead to the actual founding of WeWork in 2010, fifteen years after the first coworking space started.

Next, let’s examine coliving spaces.

The concept of co-living has been around for a long time. The term in the modern context is basically a marketing spin to appeal to a different or specific demographic.

Student accommodations have been around for quite some time and are an example of co-living spaces targeted at, well, students. Again, each individual has their own room, and there are community aspects for cohesion and networking too.

These thoughts would especially be useful for entrepreneurs or venture capital investors. Many a time, I find too much focus only on the disruptors. But, as we have explored, more attention should be paid to be accelorators because they typically are the ones that eventually become the leaders in their industries.

Disruption happened around the year 2000 for real estate when the first online property platforms emerged. Over time, disruption leads to acceloration as the industry accepted and embraced technology, and this, in turn, leads to the rise of smart building, smart leasing, and tenant engagement platforms which we see today.

Entrepreneurs should not be focussed only on finding disruptive technology or innovation but should also look at accelorative ones, the ones that have already been disrupted and are now ripe for acceloration.

Similarly, investors should look at, and look for, accelorators in a similar light.

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Register for our next webinar: Meet the VC: Vertex Ventures

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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Korea Development Bank invests in Riiid

The story: Riiid, an AI education solutions startup based in South Korea, has secured a US$41.8 million pre-Series D funding round. This brings its total funding to date to US$70.2 million.

Investors: Korea Development Bank (KDB), NVESTOR, Intervest, IMM Investment.

Plans with the capital:

• To advance Riiid’s proprietary deep learning technology that offers personalised test-prep solutions based on precise data diagnosis.
• To work on providing a ‘formative learning’ support solution to the education market, helping achieve learning objectives through continuous evaluation and feedback on performance in the entire learning process rather than preparing for specific tests.
• To accelerate its global expansion across the US, South America, the Middle East and beyond.

What is Riiid?:

• It offers Santa, a mobile test prep application for the popular English proficiency exam, Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC). Santa has been used by more than a million students in Korea and Japan, it claims.
• Riiid’s proprietary AI technology analyses student data and content, predicts scores and user behaviour, and recommends personalised study plans in real-time to help students optimise their learning potential.

500 Startups completes the first batches of Global Launch

The story: 500 Startups has announced that 24 innovative startups in the first batches of Global Launch have successfully completed the Singapore and San Francisco programmes.

Both go-to-market accelerator programmes are run in partnership with Enterprise Singapore (ESG) under the Global Innovation Alliance network.

The goal: To help global startups expand into Singapore (Global Launch Singapore) and Singapore-based startups establish a presence in the U.S. (Global Launch San Francisco).

The startups in the Singapore programme are

• Atta.ai (Japan): A flight and accommodation comparison service that predicts the best-time-to-book.
• 30 Seconds to Fly (US): Provides AI-driven workflow automation for travel management companies
• Clotify (Poland/Korea): A mobile app platform that transforms product placement on TV into a measurable sales channel
• Datagran: An AI data workspace that helps companies to build and put ML pipelines into production, fast without coding.
• Longenesis (Latavia/Hong Kong): Helps to transform clinical data into life-saving shareable assets
• Manet Mobile: A SaaS solution enabling hoteliers to offer a customisable, digital concierge service for their customers via mobile devices.
• Metigy (Australia): A decision support technology made for SME marketers.
• Naluri (Malaysia): A digital treatment programme that helps people manage their chronic disease risks and improve their mental health through personalised, digital health coaching and digital tools augmented by AI technology.
• Goama (Malaysia / Bangladesh): A casual e-sports platform focused on emerging markets, empowering super apps to drive engagement.
• Penbrothers (Philippines): An employment platform for startups and SMEs who want to scale their business through talent from the Philippines.

The startups in the San Francisco programme are

• Artifact: Helps to put every student art show online so they can build connections, get hired, and grow their fans
• Dinomao: Sells goods and services quickly through the form of entertainment
• ELXR: A DNA-based fitness training system in Asia, providing personalised fitness training programs based on an individual’s current fitness level, genetics potential and goals
• Ento: Aims to solve the problem of food insecurity. Its mission is to provide cheaper, healthier and more sustainable food source for the future
• Envolve: Automates analytics for brick and mortar retailers using AI
• Evie: Powers the next wave of intelligent automation across business operations with a next-generation cognitive collaboration platform
• Holistics: Provides a single platform to set up, run and scale analytics on top of the customer’s cloud data warehouses
• IOTA Medtech: Provides a scalable AI platform that prioritises patients that need care first and improves the workflow & productivity for clinicians
• Micepaid: An enterprise event application and event management software platform
• Plant Cartridge: Develops modern farming systems and undertakes turnkey large-scale production development for commercial growers using its patent pending cartridge system and controlled environment farming technology
• Pencil: A creative AI company providing a generative content platform to e-commerce, brand and agency marketing teams
• Wavel: Provides language solutions for businesses powered by A

 

Entrepreneur First unveils 7th Singapore cohort

The story: London-headquartered Entrepreneur First (EF) today unveiled its seventh cohort of nine deep-tech companies from Singapore.

The teams developed innovative solutions that address some of the world’s most pressing issues, including those impacting healthcare access and the environment. They cut across a diverse mix of industries, including biotech, fintech, and energy-tech.

The list of startups 

• Allozymes: Leveraging microfluidics to build a fast and affordable enzyme development platform
• BIOPONICS: Has developed a sustainable, bacteria-based solution as an alternative to chemical fertilizer production
• Cocoon: Empowers creators to become entrepreneurs with an all-in-one micro-business platform that enables them to launch and manage their brand, community, and business from one place
• DiviGas: Purifies and recovers hydrogen gas on an industrial scale with its nano-molecular filter, while helping to reduce overall carbon emissions
• inPact: Improves data-driven decision making by extracting business insights from contracts and unstructured documents through an AI-powered enterprise SaaS
• Origin Health: Its AI platform for pregnancy ultrasound scans expands access to quality prenatal care by improving the reliability of ultrasound screening procedures
• Surge Analytics: Enables rapid and cost-effective R&D for batteries and energy storage systems, with its AI-powered SaaS simulation software
• Venture L: Has developed a customisable platform for freelancers that integrates different tools, knowledge hubs and provides workflow visibility, to enable them to scale and build their business
• Waste Labs: Optimises waste collection systems in cities with a proprietary AI platform

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Image Credit: Riiid

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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world in an almost unprecedented way. We keep on seeing companies being affected, even in industries that have been perceived as more resilient in this crisis –such as e-commerce. The shutdown of Indonesian fashion e-commerce giant Sorabel, which was being announced yesterday, is an example of such incidence.

But how about other industries such as supply chain and logistics, which operations are tightly related to international and local travels, currently restricted by partial or full lockdown in various markets?

In this interview with e27, Marc Dragon, Managing Director of Reefknot Investments, a Singapore-headquartered global Venture Capital firm jointly formed by Temasek and Kuehne + Nagel, shares his insights on the major changes that have happened in the sector recently.

We also look into the available opportunities for the Southeast Asian tech startup ecosystem.

The three buckets of impacts

Before jumping into discussing the impacts that COVID-19 bring to the regional supply chain and logistics sectors, Dragon points out that significant changes have become apparent even before the pandemic strikes earlier this year.

“What the pandemic does was accelerating the need for transformation,” he stresses.

Also Read: Singapore’s new VC firm Reefknot makes maiden investment in AI startup PROWLER.io

Dragon elaborates on how the recent US-China trade war has led industry players to consider how their businesses are being run, and he divides them into the “three buckets” of impact:

1. Digitalisation and visibility of the supply chain

“It’s not only about having visibility of the supply chain and goods itself but also about being able to dynamically manage those supply chain systems, as enabled by the visibility,” Dragon says.

2. Sourcing strategy including the supply chain network design

“As soon as the US-China trade war began, companies are looking for alternatives to China … and COVID-19 has accelerated that. It is the kind of thinking that is saying, ‘We have to be aware of the risks’,” Dragon explains.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to have [the supply] much closer to the demand countries? It sort of alludes to some form of a decentralised supply chain as well,” he continues.

3. Cash flow management, resilience, and financial stability of the supply chain

“In the industry, previously, there is this general sense of looking at lean supply chain and being as low inventory as possible, as efficient as possible. But with the trade war and COVID-19, we have to ask ourselves … is being too lean really that good?” Dragon says.

“It’s even more important to be resilient. So there should be a combination of efficiency and resilience into the supply chain thinking and design,” he concludes.

Also Read: Reefknot Investments, SGInnovate enter into partnership focussing on logistics innovation

Now that the three buckets of impacts have been identified, industry players still have to tackle some challenges in order to make positive changes.

“The industry needs to figure out how to balance demand and supply. With COVID-19, what we see is not demands being cut … but different countries are coming in different waves. For example, China has pretty much passed that pandemic, the curve has flatted and the demand has come back. Manufacturing capacity has gone back by 100 per cent. But other countries in the world are still struggling to bring the curve down … So we see waves of demand,” Dragon explains.

“How this will impact ASEAN is a big question mark,” he adds.

The restriction of movement as imposed by partial and full lockdown in some markets also brought its own challenges, combined with the fact the airline and shipping industries have not started operating in full capacity. This has caused shipping rates to increase.

“Digitisation needs money, it’s urgent now, but companies are also not in a place where they can spend money freely,” Dragon stresses.

The startup ecosystem

Now here comes the question that has been on everybody’s mind: So what are the available opportunities for tech startups in the ecosystem? Especially since digitalisation is a big theme here.

Also Read: Startups should adopt the glocalisation mode of design and thinking: Reefknot Investments’s Marc Dragon

First and foremost, as investors are becoming “pickier”, there will certainly be challenges in terms of fundraising, Dragon admits.

But there is still room for startups to innovate, especially if they work in an area that is in dire need of it.

Reefknot Investments has worked with SGInnovate and NEXST to produce a white paper on digital transformation for the supply chain industry. The document displays case studies of startups that have the potential to help industry players tackle the challenges.

One example of such startup is Singapore-based DiMuto, whose technology is currently being used at an agriculture facility in San Joaquin Valley, US. The company’s Digital Asset Creation (DACky) device scans QR codes on boxes of fruits; these QR codes are associated with trade information such as purchase orders and shipping documents.

This kind of technology can help solve trade disputes such as orders that failed to be delivered.

So far, DiMuto is said to have identified, classified, tagged, and tracked over 30 million fruits (worth over US$100 million).

“The good news is that there is no one specific type of technology or one specific type of business model that will be successful,” Dragon closes.

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Image Credit: Reefknot Investments

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The startup ecosystem in China and Southeast Asia (SEA) is closely related in its own unique ways. It is often said that whatever trend arising in China at the moment will give us a preview of what might happen in SEA in the next few years. The two markets impact each other both directly and indirectly.

Within the last five years, we have seen Chinese investment in the region intensified. It reached a momentum with Alibaba’s investments in regional e-commerce giants Lazada and Tokopedia; its rival Tencent had also made its mark through investments in gojek, Sea Group, and VNG, among the few.

This year, despite setbacks and challenges caused by the outbreak that must not be named, we saw significant moves from these Chinese tech giants. There was the iflix acquisition by Tencent, as part of the effort to expand its streaming platform WeTV.

And finally, here comes the IPO announcement from Alibaba’s Ant Group.

Kickstarting the big moves

On Monday, Ant Group announced that it has commenced the process of a concurrent IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR board (SSE STAR) and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (SEHK).

While the company did not state further details about the IPO, including when it is set to happen, Reuters reported that Ant Group targets a valuation of over US$200 billion.

Also Read: Ant Financial to infuse US$73.5M into Myanmar’s Wave Money

Possibly one of the biggest IPOs of the year, South China Morning Post writes that Ant Group’s decision to list in Hong Kong and Shanghai, instead of New York City, “illustrates a shift in the balance of financial power eastward as more of China’s leading technology companies raise capital in markets closer to their users.”

Naturally, this will create a ripple effect on the industry.

For the startup ecosystem in China, the IPO can possibly trigger more Chinese startups to go public, especially as it coincides with the country’s recovery post-COVID-19 crisis.

“Everyone … wants to strike now while the iron is hot,” Brock Silvers of Adamas Asset Management told Dealstreet Asia.

For Southeast Asia, this upcoming IPO will trigger even tighter competitions among local e-payments companies, especially those with ties to Chinese tech giants.

The battleground

Last month, two major Indonesian digital payments platform OVO and Dana were reported to have agreed to merge.

Both platforms are already the top three most popular digital wallets in the country. This move will lead to the rise of a mega-player in the local market, which has begun to embrace digital payments on an unprecedented scale.

It is important to note that Dana is the result of a joint venture between Ant Group and local media and tech giant Emtek Group.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: Ant Financial seeks digital banking license, Ctrip discusses new listing in Hong Kong bourse

Ant Group is making big moves in foreign markets such as Indonesia, and it is almost natural to link this upcoming IPO as fuel to these moves. Especially since the company itself named “develop global markets with partners and expand investment in technology and innovation” in its official statement for the IPO.

Certainly, its competitors in the market are not going to take this lightly. And we will start to see moves as early as today.

Yesterday, KrAsia reported that gojek and Grab are competing to invest in LinkAja, a digital payments platform that counted state-owned mobile operator Telkomsel as a backer. For Gojek, this move is aimed to secure GoPay’s position as a leading e-wallet player in the arena, in the face of OVO-Dana merger threat.

For Grab, who is tied to OVO, this an opportunity for them to further strengthen their position.

That was the case with big markets such as Indonesia. Ant Group’s move is certainly not limited to those; even in emerging markets such as Myanmar, it has announced plans to invest more than US$70 million in local fintech company Digital Money Myanmar (Wave Money).

As the major players consolidate with mergers and acquisitions, the junior ones will need to consider their moves more carefully. They may follow suit with another merger, but they might also come out with something entirely different which might surprise us.

One thing we know for sure is that China is moving –and we willingly follow them.

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Image Credit: Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash

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Singapore’s multichannel growth management platform Insider raises US$32M Series C led by Riverwood Capital; Total funding raised to date is US$47M; The firm serves 800 global enterprise brands and has 550 people across 24 countries. e27

gojek names Severan Rault as new CTO; He previously held leadership roles at Amazon and Microsoft; Rault is also a serial entrepreneur and founded a wireless solutions startup Kikker Interactive (acquired by Microsoft in 2008); Rault has replaced Ajey Gore, who departed gojek last month. e27

Indonesia’s AwanTunai raises US$20M debt funding led by Accial Capital; The fintech firm provides micro-merchants access to supply chain financing services; AwanTunai serves underserved micro-SMEs with inventory ordering, digital payments, and low cost-inventory purchase financing. e27

Singapore’s smart surgical robots firm NDR Medical raises US$5.8M led by Microport; NDR will form a JV in China with MicroPort Urocare, expand to the US; NDR’s solution can be applied to biopsy, ablations and other surgical procedures that require precision. e27

Can SEA’s proptech come back to its pre-COVID-19 glory? Experts say the industry is still small and in its infancy; In FY2019-20, more than US$202M VC money was invested in the industry across 25 deals; During April-June 2020, US$25M+ was invested across six deals. e27

Singapore’s Percipient raises US$5M from Stat Zero; The digital banking startup is developing a solution called TWINNTM, which will help banks to “rapidly create a lightweight, enhanced and API-ready representation of enterprise data and processes”. Finextra

Fave raises funding from Indian fintech unicorn Pine Labs; Fave provides QR payments and loyalty cashback to restaurant and retailers; Fave’s QR code will become interoperable and integrated with Pine Lab’s terminals. e27

How can Singapore benefit from the US-China trade war?; The city-state is well known to be an open economy and highly dependent on international trade; Geographically, Singapore is strategically located as it is at the crossroads of major air and sea routes within APAC and the Indian subcontinent. e27

eBay launches e-commerce accelerator in Singapore; The Global 24/7 programme provides startup tools, trainings, and assistance for business owners to tap into eBay’s global marketplace of over 174M buyers; The programme commenced on July 1 and will end Dec 31 2020. e27

How startups can aid SEA’s Open Banking landscape; In the region, it is still in a nascent stage with regulators opting for a ‘market-driven’ approach; Open Banking can bring about many benefits that are met with today’s financial system, including improving customers’ financial health by allowing them to view their financials in one place, to make payments efficiently from one place. e27

Singapore’s e-commerce market is set to double this year; During 2015-2019, the CAGR was 15.4%, bringing the market to a US$6.2B value; This growth is looking likely to double and hit over US$9.5B by the year-end. Tech Collective

How looking into Vietnam can help startups save development costs; It is one of the 30 countries that have zero cases of COVID-19 death; Its GDP growth record is brimming with an average 6% rate, which is fastest compared to Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia. e27

Singapore businesses avoid massive layoffs, move toward cautious hiring; A survey says 89% of firms are planning for different working models, such as an increase in permanently remote employees and more flexible working hours; However, the percentage of participants that confirmed layoffs rose slightly to 15% in the June survey from 13% in May and only 4% in April. HR Asia

Razer’s digital bank proposition aims to dazzle the global youth; Should they be granted a license, the Razer consortium plans to create the world’s first global youth bank; It will operate an asset-light model which will result in significant cost efficiencies as compared to a traditional bank. Singapore Business Review

Singapore’s co-living startup Hmlet appoints Pramodh Rai as CTO, Rajive Keshup as CFO; Both were Sr. VPs in the company before the promotion; The firm has pivoted into an asset-light model, and aims to bring more landlords onto its platform to diversify its offerings and scale; It aims to serve over 5K members in APAC by the year-end. The Business Times

Elon Musk is hiring people for Tesla Singapore; The positions are Parts Advisor, Service Advisor, Service Manager, Vehicle Readiness Specialist, and Vehicle Service Technician; Tesla’s parent is worth nearly US$304.6B. e27

Vietnam’s tech skills set ranks 2nd in APAC; A Coursera study says the nation outperformed Japan, Australia to finish in second place; Vietnam’s strongest skill is OS (Android, iOS) development at competitive level; Vietnam scooped 22nd place in the global ranking. VNExpress

New Google initiatives to benefit 3K job seekers in Singapore; One of these programmes will put focus on providing on-the-job training opportunities for up to 600 applicants; During the training, each participant will also receive a monthly training allowance of ~US$1.1K. HRAsia

WhatsApp launches training programme to help 3,600 Indonesian SMEs to go digital; The tech giant is partnering with UKM Indonesia to roll out the programme; Participants will learn about using WhatsApp for Business, digital safety such as fraud prevention, content creation and financial planning. The Jakarta Post

Vertex Growth, Kuok Group fund lead US$30M in agtech firm Taranis; The US startup uses high-resolution drone images with AI to identify and analyse crop threats such as insect infestation, weeds, and nutrient deficiencies; Backed by Temasek, Vertex Growth closed its first vehicle at US$290M in September 2019. DealStreetAsia

SEA’s shiny future as a digital gold haven; Indonesia has a growing demand for digital gold, Singapore has reputation as a safe-haven storage location, and Thailand is becoming the third-largest gold trading hub in Asia; Blockchain has played an active role in developing the digital gold industry. Tech Collective

Telkom Indonesia sets out on steep road as ‘telco-tech hybrid‘; The state-owned telco has begun a quest for new sources of growth, as intensifying competition erodes its revenue and local dominance; Netflix deal is part of this plan; The firm’s big new theme is a transformation into a “digital telco”. Nikkei Asian Review

How future-ready schools create immersive learning experience; VR is set to become a common teaching method in the near future; Within SEA, Malaysia is looking into using VR for employee training as part of the Skills 2.0 campaign to help citizens maintain awareness of tech advances. GovInsider

Government subsidies via blockchain launched in Korea; Key primary uses for the system will be to speed up subsidy issuance for AI-based companies and those using smart contracts in order to receive mobile subsidies cards and use electronic wallets; The platform will also share data on illegal use of subsidies between institutions in real time. The News Asia

Facebook’s Internet infrastructure to bring up to US$300M to Cambodia; In the nation, Facebook’s connectivity infrastructure includes local servers or edge networks, which support economic development, allowing local ISPs to access its content at locations closer to their own networks. Geeks In Cambodia

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Sega Cheng was pursuing an Engineering Degree at Stanford University 15 years ago when he watched how an Artificial Intelligence-powered, self-driving car roamed around his campus one day.

“That was wild to me back then because I thought if one could do something as complex as driving a car with just a machine, imagine what other things you could solve with the same application,” he recalled.

“And that set the tone for my entrepreneurial journey. I wanted to build something just like that,” he said about that defining moment. “That’s when I realised that AI can really help people in many ways.”

Just like any aspiring engineer would do to kickstart a career, Cheng joined Google Taiwan where he built Google Maps (specifically Google Transit in Taiwan) working with a dedicated software engineering team.

And then in 2012, he left the tech behemoth to build something that “I would imagine would be irreplaceable just like Google”.

And that led him to start iKala.

AI competence in enterprises

iKala’s mission is to enable AI competence in enterprises. The company seeks to boost customer acquisition capability as well as its lifetime value by providing AI-driven digital transformation solutions.

Also Read: 2019: A hell of a year for marketers with chat and voice bots

The firm offers three solutions:

• iKala Cloud: The cloud service enables enterprises to get access to cloud infrastructure through GCP, G Suite as productivity solution, iKala CDP as a customer data platform, Straas that provides AI-enabled video streaming, and Picaas for AI image optimisation.
• KOL Radar: A performance-based influencers marketing service that helps businesses match with the right influencers. The service is currently available in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, with more than 50,000 influencers available to work with through social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and the latest one, TikTok.
• Shoplus: A social selling platform that seeks to connect to businesses’ fan page and turn it into a webstore. It offers features such as AI live sell for FB live streaming buyers, that allows users to capture buying intent automatically from comments and messages and contact the buyers simultaneously while doing live sales. It also provides AI chatbot feature for FB post buyers and AI messenger plug-in for buyers who reach users through messenger inbox that help capture customer shipping information automatically from the chatting content and create orders and send the bill to the buyers directly while communicating with them in the messenger.

iKala also has a new division called iKala commerce, which consolidated KOL Radar and Shoplus to become a sales channel, where merchants and advertisers can expand their territory using its AI-powered tools.

Currently, iKala has operations in Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

iKala.tv’s pivot

iKala was originally started in 2012 as an online streaming video service. 

“We started as an online video karaoke platform. But that was costly because of the royalty fees needed to be paid to record companies,” Cheng recalled. 

“It did never have a business model that could cover what we had, even though we once had over three million active users. The business model was not correct and investors were questioning if it was a viable business because we were burning a lot of money,” he recalled.

So the iKala team took a step back to understand how it could be turned into something more scalable and still solving problems.

“The pivot didn’t happen instantly, we carefully assessed everything before focussing our products on what now would be KOL Radar and Shoplus,” he shared.

How COVID-19 affects AI

While the firm has a variety of products catering to different types of customers across seven countries, including those with physical stores, iKala is not immune to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s a paradigm shift in the digital world and the physical world. Most businesses lose all of their sales channels, with stores closing with limited to no physical business at all. Sales channels are being shifted online, that’s for starters,” he said.

“What makes it hard for those who didn’t have AI tools in their disposal is that brands and advertisers are getting wiser and wiser in the allocation of their advertising budget since the pandemic. They’re not just throwing out money to test out which channels work best, but they now go for a performance-based marketing solution, which is measurable in each campaign with AI,” he continued.

Also Read: Singapore’s startup Wiz.ai nabs US$6M pre-Series A funding led by GGV Capital

Cheng then pulled out an example of one of its customers in Thailand who is using Shoplus to sell gold. 

“This guy managed to boost his sales up to 61 per cent between March and April this year without any additional investment in his company,” Cheng boasted.

He claims it proves his point that AI is increasingly moving from a “nice to have” tech into a “must-have tech” after the pandemic. “Previously, not many people understood the AI world and how it can benefit their business, and now, the paradigm shift allows people to embrace AI and make it applicative in their day-to-day lives, with advertising adjusting fast pursuing this AI commerce,” Cheng said.

The learning

Being in the business of AI, it’s easy to get all technical and just stay focussed on tech improvements. AI allows limitless possibilities and innovation, and iKala is on board with that, he says.

“We initially took pride in being a product company, but along the way, we evolved to become more and more customer-centric, and now we call ourselves a customer company,” he smiled.

The reason is that iKala has found out that what matters is not whether the product is the best in the world, but if it can solve the customers’ problems. “If we can satisfy customers’ needs, then we’re successful. This is especially true for AI adoption because everyone is using AI in different domains to satisfy their needs.”

“We’ve come a long way to use the right technology and methodology. We should put humans at the centre of AI adoption. We put AI behind the scene as the application for the human. Human and machine should not overwhelm each other but should work in favour of each other,” he added.

AI is happening now

With its ongoing mission of putting human-centric AI for customer acquisition through conversational AI, Cheng shared that in Thailand alone, more than 200 billion valuable conversations are happening every day.

“These conversations happen in a big social market in Thailand, which is worth about US$10 million in a year. There are conversations on social platforms happening in Southeast Asia now, and there’s a real business value generated from this conversation,” said Cheng. “I believe moving forward, conversational AI is a way to go for Southeast Asia.”

Right now, the company is actively approaching investors from the Southeast Asia region, he said. “We’re prepared to expand to Indonesia and also Malaysia.

The company also recently hired former Google Managing Director Dr Lee-Feng Chien (known to be the prominent figure behind the establishment of Google and its data centres in Taiwan) to its board.

“We imagine a future where every business can do e-commerce or social commerce just by talking on the phone, which can help them start an e-commerce business with minimum spending. That’s the goal and that is a highly viable business,” Cheng said.

“We hope that iKala commerce can handle all channels, social platforms, stores, all kinds of e-commerce platforms you have in your hand. That’s the direction that we’re going,” Cheng signed off.

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Picture Credit: iKala

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Updates: The article has been updated to include information about co-founder Lingga Madu’s departure.

Indonesia’s fashion e-commerce platform Sorabel is confirmed to be shutting down by the end of this month, joining the list of startups that were forced to end their operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an internal email to its employees (a copy of which is in the possession of DailySocial), Sorabel explained that it did its best to save the business, but had had to go through liquidation.

The liquidation process includes the disbandment of the organisation by a liquidator followed by debt collection and asset distributions to claimants.

“Due to this liquidation process, we have to terminate employment contracts with no exception, effective July 30. I am certain that no one would ever expect this to happen,” the letter stated.

The management stated its commitment to ensuring that all employees’ rights are being fulfilled during the process, including religious holiday support. It is also committed to abiding by all the regulations and decisions of the liquidators.

Also Read: How Sorabel was able to push for growth after rebranding

Employees are expected to return the assets of the company, which will be resold and processed by liquidators. The management also promised to help them find a new job from the investors’ network of more than 100 companies.

“This might be the end of our journey with Sorabel. I hope that we can keep the good memories that we have had together in this place … The company expresses its deepest gratitude to you for fighting until the very end,” read the letter .

Before this development, Sorabel had announced in February on social media the shutdown of its Philippines unit, Yabel.

The journey of Sorabel

The company was started in 2014 as Sale Stock before rebranding itself to Sorabel. Throughout its journey, it introduced several innovations, including the ‘try-first-pay-later’ feature.

The firm had also laid off around 200 of its employees in 2016. Despite this, it successfully closed a Series B+ funding round, led by Meranti ASEAN Growth Fund.

Sorabel Co-founder Lingga Madu once stated that its business model was the healthiest when compared to other e-commerce platforms in Indonesia.

In 2018, Madu claimed the company had achieved break-even and was ready to make a profit. Back then, he compared Sorabel’s unit economics to that of global fashion e-commerce players such as Asos and Revolve.

Also Read: Indonesian fashion e-commerce site Sale Stock changes its name to Sorabel

Sorabel became more aggressive following the rebranding in the beginning of last year. It began its expansion to realise its ambition to provide “quality and affordable fashion items” for the “next billion users.”

Yabel had even announced plans to expand to the Middle East.

In its final interview with DailySocial, Sorabel announced that it was closing a Series C funding round from investors, including Kejora Ventures, Ncore Ventures, OpenSpace, Shift, Gobi Partners, MNC Media Investment, SMDV, Golden Equator Capital, and Convergence Ventures.

In a message to e27, Madu stated that he and co-founder Ariza Novianti had left the company in October 2019.

He declined to comment on the liquidation of the company.

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The article Sorabel Tutup Operasional Akhir Juli 2020 was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Marsya Nabila for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

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Vulpes invests in Hiip

The story: Singapore-based influencer platform Hiip has secured an undisclosed sum in a bridge round of funding.

Investors: Vulpes Special Opportunities Fund (lead) and other unnamed investors.

Plans with the money: To take advantage of potential acquisition opportunities that have arisen as a result of COVID-19.

What is Hiip?: It is an influencer platform in Southeast Asia that claims to be helping 500 brands to connect and work with more than 10,000 social influencers based on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. The company has offices in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.

According to the firm, its revenue in June 2020 was double that of June 2019.

Grab, gojek competing to invest in LinkAja

The story: KrAsia has reported, citing unnamed sources that gojek and Grab are in a close race to become an investor in the Indonesian digital payment platform.

Why: For gojek it’s about beating Grab. If Ovo and Dana merge, they will be in a strong position against GoPay, said one source to KrAsia.

LinkAja is currently in the process of raising US$200 million Series B funding.

13 startups selected for YSI SEA-Temasek’s programme

The story: 23 young entrepreneurs from 13 startups from Southeast Asia will showcase their innovative solutions to address pressing sustainability challenges, at Youth Sustainable Impact Southeast Asia (YSI SEA) and Temasek Foundation’s Virtual Demo Day 2020 on 23 July 2020.

The entrepreneurs will pitch to an online audience comprising more than 150 high profile investors, incubators and businesses, in order to secure opportunities to further develop and bring their solutions to the marketplace.

The entrepreneurs, who are between the age of 18 and 35, are selected from a field of more than 1,100 applicants to participate in an online five-month-long Innovative Programme since March 2020.

What is Innovation Programme?: It is a platform to build capacity among the youths to innovate for sustainability, share fundamental sustainability knowledge to spur sustainable entrepreneurial activity, and enable impactful solutions to grow with tools, networks and opportunities.

This year’s Innovation Programme focuses on sustainable solutions for the circular economy, food and agriculture, and energy.

Which are the startups?

Archi: Converting biomaterial from coffee ground waste and other agricultural waste to consumer products such as cups and mugs

Bali Recycle Up: Recycling floral waste into organic incense

The Bamboo Company: Aiming to put bamboo in all parts of one’s life, from houses to products, from food to furniture

Cinemawithoutwall: Creating interactive visual data storytelling for better and faster decision-making, through a multimedia crowdsourcing hub

Circular Blueprint: Upcycling plastic wastes into eco-building materials to make housing more affordable, safer and better

Datanam: Enabling precision vertical farming that is optimised with data

Frescue: Connecting excess food supply with the unmet food demands by redistributing edible but unconsumed food to people and organisations

Hidragro: Providing hydroponic and aquaponic solutions along with training and education to farmers to provide healthier, tech-driven ways of growing and consuming food produce

Leaf.ly: Using Artificial Intelligence to reduce farm expenses by shortening the waiting time and optimising fertiliser input

Light of Hope: Providing clean, renewable energy by incorporating circular economy principles of recycling plastic bottles and using ‘Internet of Things’ for smart monitoring of energy consumption

Phytopia: Horizontally integrating the supply chain that connects farmers with agritech and students with affordable and healthier food in the form of a salad bowl

Rectyic: Converting plastic waste into functional lifestyle items

Solytair: Providing renewable energy powered outdoor cooling systems that help cities and businesses improve the health and well-being of the public on a large scale

Food Asia Award 2020 announces 11 finalists

The story: Singapore’s Future Food Asia (FFA) has revealed the 11 startup finalists competing for its US$100,000 Food Asia Award 2020.

When: The event will take place from 21-25 September 2020. The conference will allow all 11 finalists to present their innovation in front of investors, industry leaders and domain experts.

Who are the finalists?:

AgNext (India): Provides a technology platform for rapid commodity assessment solutions across procurement, trade, production and consumption of food and agriculture value chains.

Agrisea (US): Has developed a way to grow crops in high salt conditions such as salt soils or coastal ocean waters.

Aqua Development (South Korea): Develops and implements nature- inspired aquaculture system KAMI SYS, which it claims achieves 10x higher productivity, zeero antibiotics and chemicals, zero water exchange, competitive production costs.

Crowde (Indonesia): An agriculture-focused fintech startup that puts in touch investors with farmers that are looking for capital to grow business, create employment, and support local communities.

Flurosat (Australia): A full crop cycle analytics provider that delivers proactive reports and alerts on crop performance, stress, nutrient requirements, and sustainable management practices to crop advisors and agronomists in 14 countries.

Fyto Foods: Its plant-based meats resemble uncut real meats and when sliced or diced, would look, cook and taste like real meats with real nutrition

Marine Innovation (South Korea): Goes green and replaces the plastics with its seaweed-based products.

ProAgni (Australia): Develops and commercialises animal nutrition products which improve farm economics and address global challenges, such as food security, antimicrobial resistance, and emissions.

Soos (Israel):  Its solution uses sound waves to transform male embryos into egg-laying females, thereby increasing production capacity in commercial hatcheries.

TartanSense (India): Addresses the problem of weed management for cotton farmers in India through its flagship technology Brijbot.

TerraQuanta (China): Focuses on large-scale application of satellite remote sensing imagery and AI-based data processing technologies to provide insightful data service to fields such as agriculture, forestry, as well as environment protection.

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Image Credit: Hiip

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Fave, Southeast Asian fintech platform providing QR payments and loyalty cashback to restaurant and retailers, has announced a strategic partnership and investment from Pine Labs, Asia’s digital payments and merchant commerce platform.

The partnership will see Fave’s QR code become interoperable and integrated with Pine Lab’s terminals, enabling a single and seamless platform for digital payments and loyalty solutions in Southeast Asia.

Furthermore, Fave’s merchant payment acceptance and loyalty cashback solutions will expand into both debit and credit cards platforms via Pine Labs payment terminals.

For merchants working with Pine Labs in Southeast Asia, they will gain access to Fave’s loyalty solutions and reward their customers with cashback. In addition to that, they will get consolidation of payments and access to transparent reporting, payment reconciliation, customer insights and demographic data via access to Fave’s digital dashboard, Favebiz.

Fave’s collaboration Pine Labs is an extension of its ongoing focus on working with major banks, fintech firms and e-wallets in Singapore and Malaysia via SGQR, Paynet, and DuitNow QR to bring about customer loyalty solutions to the broader payments ecosystem. The collaboration is also crucial in furthering each company’s market positioning and value proposition in Southeast Asia.

Also Read: O2O platform Fave raises US$20M in Series B round

Fave Co-Founder and CEO Joel Neoh, said, “With digitalisation playing an increasingly critical role in the recovery of Southeast Asia’s economy, merchants recognise that they need to accelerate the development of digital solutions to ensure they remain competitive. We will work with Pine Labs to further strengthen Fave’s mission of helping merchants adapt to and digitalise in the new normal.”

Southeast Asia’s post-pandemic recovery has started with promising signs that it is underway with specific sectors such as automotive sales and F&B reporting business recovery and pent-up demand from customers.

According to research by Mastercard’s Impact Studies, there has been a notable decrease in cash usage since the start of the pandemic. The Asia Pacific region is leading the surge in digital payments with the majority of consumers believing it is the cleaner, safer way to pay. Ninety-one per cent of those surveyed reported that they are now using tap-and-go payments.

The commercial partnership between Fave and Pine Labs seeks to support this recovery.

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Image Credit: Fave

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