The buzzword for undergraduates today has been internships and the current situation we find ourselves in has increased its popularity exponentially. Given the poor job market today, even graduates are snatching at internships to tide themselves through these tough times.

This has led to an influx of higher quality interns and resulted in prospective interns today have a wider choice of industries to pick from than a year ago. In such gloomy times globally, it was an appreciated silver lining.

Before embarking on the search for my maiden internship, I was faced with the first key decision I had to make. Which industry to intern in? I was presented with a plethora of choices ranging from large corporate firms such as the Big Four to seed-stage startups that were just born months ago, at the height of the pandemic.

It was as diverse as the tech community’s opinion on which of iOS or Android is the superior smartphone operating system today. However, just like how some in the community above pledge their loyalty to either faction, I was immediately drawn to the tech startup ecosystem, for the below reasons.

Diversity

The startup ecosystem is a harsh and unrelenting environment. It is often said that it is the epitome of the phrase, survival of the fittest. Given the early stage of a business model that startups find themselves in with high cash burn and challenges to fund their growth and expansion plans, they must rely on lean operating structures that banked on those working for them to have high productivity levels.

Often in early stage startups, initial employees wore multiple hats and undertook different roles that were not necessarily related to one another. It was common to see founders hold the CEO, product, and marketing manager roles concurrently. These startups would have loved to make specific hires for those roles but they just did not have the financial ability to do so.

Also Read: Students, here are 3 reasons why you should never intern at a startup

Enter increased learning opportunities for interns. The flexibility in the job scope listed for interns meant they tended to learn more than their peers who chose their internships in the conventional corporate sectors. As Koh Kang Liang shared in his blog post, his three-month-long internship at ShopBack, back when it was still a 10-men team, saw him being tasked to oversee their hiring and networking portfolios, conduct market research and do up financial reports.

His initial job scope? Business development and analytics intern. While it represented a steep learning curve for him with multiple responsibilities, he remarked that he felt energised by them and saw his work translate into a real, concerted impact on the company. Looking back, he shared that while the internship was a challenging experience, it was a fulfilling one as he learned many skills along the way. Given ShopBack’s immense success today, I am sure Kang Liang would be doubly proud of his efforts early on to build it.

Culture

Entrepreneurs, though they look just like you and me from a physical viewpoint, are a different breed from the rest when it comes to their mindsets. They have high levels of determination, self-drive, and are not afraid of failure. They are doers. Consequently, they create teams that possess similar traits to them, and therefore, it is often said that startups consist of high energy, motivated teams that function at a fast pace in a productive and efficient manner.

The constant problem solving that was required to deal with the multitude of uncertainty, given its norm in the startup ecosystem, resulted in teams consisting of agile individuals that would not be afraid to shy away from problems but rather tackle them head-on to solve it. As we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the importance of soft skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving cannot be understated. Thus, being exposed to them constantly in the startup ecosystem would go a long way to developing future-proof careers.

The hierarchical lines are significantly more blurred in a startup compared to conventional corporate firms and interns can utilise this to their advantage. Those who you need to report directly to are often instead referred to as mentors instead of bosses and you could easily meet your founders at the water cooler and bounce off ideas and wisdom from them.

Also Read: Rethinking the way we do student internships

Given the small teams that startups operate in, interns might have the opportunity to take part in meetings involving C-suite executives and observe on a deeper level how businesses and decision-making are executed at the top. These experiences, I reasoned, would not have been possible at a big corporate firm due to the sheer size and complexity of their corporate management structure.

The power of tech

While much has been said on the negative impacts of technology on our lives, we cannot escape from the fact that we have greatly benefitted from it and humans would have been far worse off without it. From the invention of the steam engine in the First Industrial Revolution to the birth of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Fourth, technology has made us more productive and is a key reason why we are able to achieve constant progress as a global population.

However, technology does not only make us smarter workers, it saves lives too. Take eko.ai for example. Utilising AI tools to detect often silent symptoms of heart diseases, the Singapore-based startup aims to reduce the cost and time for such detection tests and in the process, save lives.

Given that startups exist due to the presence of problems in our community, it is only natural that they enter the market with a viable solution that solves these issues and increase the convenience and quality of life for everyone. ible’s Airvida air purifier band certainly achieves that. In an effort to combat the seasonal haze in Southeast Asia and bring better living quality and protection to the community, their wearable air purifier utilises negative ions to draw harmful air particles away from the user and reduce the inhalation of smoke, pollen and allergens by up to 99 per cent.

Therefore, the power of tech and the positive impact it could have on other’s lives drew me to the industry and as Kang Liang shared earlier on in the article, the fulfilment of your work would be much higher if you could see the impact it had on others.

Also Read: Why you should never intern at a startup (especially e27)

Take your pick

Ultimately, the tech startup ecosystem is not for everyone. It is important to note when choosing which industry to pursue your internship in, you need to consider whether your personal traits are aligned to that of the ecosystem. Given that I desired being given multiple responsibilities and working in a fast-paced environment to challenge myself, I knew that the tech startup ecosystem would entice me and I hope that after digesting the above points I shared that played a part in my decision, you would gain better clarity and truly choose an internship you would benefit from.

As mentioned at the start, internships are the buzzwords for undergraduates for a reason. A strong foundation is necessary for a long and rewarding career and internships assist in laying the bricks for your desired career.

Therefore, pick wisely.

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Undeniably, COVID-19 send the world travel industry back to 10 years ago when travel startups are standing on the verge of collapse. Additionally, the frozen demand for travel and tourism has caused investors to scrupulously pour capital. Due to financial exhaustion, the majority of travel businesses have reconstructed to survive.

The period from 2013 to 2019 referred as the golden edge of the travel and hospitality sector when investors saw the dramatically potential boom of the industry.

While the risk investment in 2013 accounted for US$1.4 billion, that number rapidly claimed to a peak of US$30.3 billion, which is equivalent to the average growth rate of 48 per cent annually.

Additionally, the portion of travel and tourism in the investor’s portfolio had increased from two to 18 per cent in five years. Unfortunately, the trend had ended due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

An adverse adjustment in investment preferences

In the first half of 2020, the value of investment deals in travel startups significantly drop over 42 per cent that the number of deals also fall by 25 per cent. It was due to the expeditious decline of global demands. The new transaction has rarely occurred, while the current cancellation rate is on the rise.

Accordingly, several startups are running out of money, leading them to implement a prudent financial plan instead of burning money to expand the market share as six months ago.

Also Read: How travel tech startup Travelhorse survives the pandemic by branching into new territory

Undoubtedly, the airline sector and its investors are suffering the greatest loss recently. In June 2020, investors of Delta Airline had lost over 26 per cent of what they invested in this brand due to the sharp drop in the global stock market. Besides, there was a surge of business withdrawing from the market, while the number of new entrances constantly decrease in the Asian market. 

On the other hand, the adverse change in investors’ preferences also induces pressure in a fundraising round of several Asia startups. An online booking startup, Traveloka claimed that it was struggling with a new round of fundraising, which was over 17 per cent lower than the nearest one.

Definitely, Traveloka has never been the only victim. Even Airbnb encountered financial trouble recently. In which, around 90 per cent drop in its online travel booking platform cause this vacation rental business falling into US$2 billion debt, while some big investors refuse to add new money for it.

Prompt response

Many travel companies have decided to temporarily change the core business models, investing in other industries instead of pure travel business. Along with the advantage of broad customers’ groups and strong online distribution, those enterprises have a high incentive to enter the FMCG market. Besides, some startups expect the grow via the online food industry, which refers to be the least influential industry. 

KKday in 2019 was the emerging online tour booking platform with rapid growth in three consecutive years. Unfortunately, its revenues were estimated to drop off a lift by over 90 per cent due to the pandemic, as the cancelled orders continuously erode its financial condition.

As a result, KKday has started using this platform for selling souvenirs and food. The revenue of non-travel products saved KKday from bankruptcy, contributing approximately 50 per cent of total revenue.

Klook in Hong Kong has paused its tour booking services recently to provide on-demand food delivery. In which, Klook has added the new feature, allowing customers to make a reservation at restaurants, select meal kits, and delivery option in its platform. Instead of booking tours, Klook’s customers currently order meals and raw materials to be delivered to their home.   

Redistribute resources

According to an industry expert, the withdrawal of many investors is a non-permanent trend that will see the industry recovering at the end of 2020. Bloomberg predicts the Asia online travel market will increase by 129 per cent until 2025, reaching US$78 billion.

That’s why changing business models is still a temporary response to the current market condition. Startups should be ready for coming back to the travel industry at any time. 

In the midst of the investment drop, travel startups need to implement new strategies to spend their limited money more efficiently. While the demand freezes, it is time for investing in improving the business ecosystem. The common strategy tends to be personnel reductions. 

In particular, Airbnb reportedly cut over 25 per cent of its workers this May as an impact of the decrease in revenue in 2020, predictably accounted for around 50 per cent of 2019’s result. The majority of part-time positions have been laid off, while the whole business forced to reduce expenditure for avoidable activity. 

Instead of focusing on international visitors, the majority of startups in Southeast Asia recently drive its resource into the domestic market.

Also Read: Report: Indonesian startups took 70 per cent of travel tech funding in 2019

In Vietnam, the country with zero deaths from COVID-19, domestic travel has restarted as normal. Luxstay, the Vietnamese answer to Airbnb, has restored its booking services since the middle of May. In which, it is focusing a promotion plan to Vietnamese rather than foreign tourists. 

In Hong Kong, a travel business selling culture tour has successfully launched a brand-new virtual tour of some featured building to over 700 students. This campaign finally got sponsors from the authority and bring huge profits to the company, helping it came over the crisis.

Since the future of extending the movement restrictions is probable happened, the term of virtual travel expectedly become popular, and inspire several startups capturing this model to survive. 

Final words, notwithstanding implementing austerity strategy or changing the direction, travel startups have done a good job to defeat the severe impact of the pandemic. With the investment expected to return next year, the travel tech industry will come in a new chapter with prospects of glory.

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Many companies in the world are severely suffering from the novel coronavirus spread. Corporate income has slumped globally, particularly for brick and mortar businesses that require employees to go physically to the workplace.

But surprisingly, there are other companies that have grown during the new normal. What do you think is the reason for their success?

The most important factor in the financial performance of companies during the current circumstance is its ability to use digital technologies. The more digitised, the better.

That’s why there has been a sharp rise in online sales since the outbreak of the crisis. Social distancing orders, lockdowns, and stay-at-home campaigns have made people use online shopping more than ever.

So if your business has faced a financial loss amid the COVID-19 pandemic, you may have to increase your online presence.

Of course, the sooner a company starts using digital marketing, the chance of saving brand identity is higher. Social media platforms are at the heart of digital marketing, especially because of the shopping features.

Instagram, for instance, is one of the best networks you can use for online shopping. The majority of one billion active users on Instagram follow accounts related to businesses.

Also Read: A step-by-step guide in setting up instagram for your business

Many of them also use these accounts to choose their favourite products. This can solely show that this social network is a great platform for companies to sell their products online.

Even if you don’t have a business, Instagram is a perfect platform for you to make money online. For example, you can’t find a marketplace for influencers better than Instagram as they’re making loads of money per each post.

Influencer marketing on Instagram is the first priority of around 70 per cent of marketers for brand awareness and lead generation. Reduced rates of many influencers during the pandemic is also another factor that can help you increase your online sales.

It should be noted that a marketing strategy can significantly help you increase your sales on Instagram or any other platform. It’s good to consider the items below in defining a plan on Instagram:

• Search: how many niche brands are there?
• Goals: what do you want to gain?
• Customers: who do you want to reach out to?
• Content: what should you feed your audience with?
• Promotion: what can you do to promote your content?
• Engagement: how should you talk to your followers?
• Analysis: How well are you acting?

Obviously, you need more details to be able to outperform your rivals on Instagram. That’s why our team put several useful tips into an infographic to help you increase your sales on Instagram.

Also Read: 5 ways to monetise social media technology for startup success

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While we all watched the outbreak of COVID-19 impacting economies throughout the world and play havoc, the mobile app economy is another matter, as mobile app session times and installs saw dramatic increases and decreases varying across industries.

Businesses –small, medium, and large– need facts, data-driven insights, and real-life examples of how brands are adapting to this change in consumer behaviour. It is time for organisations to look at revamping customer engagement methods.

MoEngage and AppFollow partnered to create a holistic guide to highlight engagement strategies for industries irrespective of their growth trajectory for brands across several verticals that need to essentially bounce back to pre-crisis numbers, sustain or accelerate their growth.

The paradigm shift in spending pattern

Customers are prioritising essential buying even with lockdowns getting relaxed in most countries around the world, the ways consumers are engaging with and consuming products and services have undergone radical changes.

For example, there is an all-time high for emotional spending on services ranging from entertainment subscriptions to online workout and meditation subscriptions, growth in loan applications to get through uncertain economic conditions, online shopping for groceries is becoming the new normal, etc.

Also Read: 5 ways you can improve your focus on customer engagement

New consumption patterns and digitalisation have and will change the rules of the consumer consumption game further.

What’s your app adoption trend: Grow, slowdown, or stagnate?

To understand the App Economy better, industry experts and leaders from leading global brands have provided their insights on how businesses might fare with lockdown relaxation on rebuilding their strategies to drive growth.

To map the right engagement strategy for your business, answering a Path Assessment Checklist consisting of a few questions that will help brands measure their milestones and take the right strategy forward.

Below are the three engagement frameworks to grow in a post-crisis world:

• Growth sustaining (for verticals observing unprecedented growth during crisis, viz. entertainment). Plan ahead by providing actionable strategies to define engagement flows, revisit and rework value propositions, curate relevant content, streamline marketing communications and re-evaluate spend. The key here is to streamline your approach by identifying channels that generate the most ROI and continue scaling up.
• Bounce-back (for verticals observing unexpected growth viz. travel & hospitality). Once you clearly understand which track defines your brand, the first step is to know how you can retain users and intensify your customer journey from the ground up. As a brand, you have invested in paid acquisition channels earlier so use that data to pursue paid activities. Pick up paid channels that offered almost 50-100 per cent ROI.
• Growth accelerating (for verticals with neither surge in growth nor heavy decline viz. BFSI). Strike a Balance between paid acquisition and organic channels and allow limited access to premium features- once the user realises the value of the features, they’d be willing to purchase the paid subscription. This also eventually results in stronger community relations.

Expert insights

Businesses striving to navigate and turn around their operations rely upon marketing experts and leaders from various global brands for success stories and how to nurture and grow in a crisis like this.

Also Read: 29 startups that are pros of customer engagement! (Part 2)

Each of these strategies above is accompanied by examples of brands that have successfully managed to turn around operations in the right way and enjoy growth during the crisis. For instance, marketing leaders from Asus Vietnam, OYO, and Aviasales give their take on crisis management and growth.

It is imperative for businesses to understand the changed consumer behaviour and accordingly realign and restructure their strategies for the future.

A key focus area for any business while handling a crisis should be – engaging and retaining existing customers. Once you have engagement and retention strategies nailed down, you can proceed with user acquisition.

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When he was 18, Careershe’s founder Steve Xie decided to pick electrical engineering as his undergraduate course. But he did not actually choose it himself. Like many other students of his age, it was picked by his parents, because they noticed he liked to “fix electrical objects like TV, computer, etcetera.”

In an interview with e27, Xie highlights that this is a very common problem in Asian households where parents wish that their children pursue the common career path of being a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Even the slightest interest shown by their child in these fields can be confused as an indication of their passion.

But is this the best way to make career decisions?

A significant chunk of students believe that the decision made by their parents is indeed correct – but only until they near graduation. This is because decisions are made with extremely limited insights.

“Most people realise what kind of jobs they want only in the third or fourth year [of university], or nearing graduation. After that, they suddenly get more clarity on the kind of major they should have taken,” Xie says, adding that this realisation is attributed to the generic nature of first- and second-year subjects in university.

Also Read: You’ve heard about speed dating. Here’s what you need to know about speed hiring

Despite completing his undergrad in engineering with NUS (National University of Singapore), Xie only discovered his true love for the business world after nine years of working with SSMC and HeidelbergCement Asia. He then decided to pursue an MBA in Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

While some realise have the liberty to make a quick switch after realising that they are not fit for the subject, many don’t. Enter Careershe.

Clarity before confusion

The idea behind Careershe is to provide students with an in-depth knowledge of the different career options, outcomes, and the best university degrees towards the desired outcome to help people pick the right path along the way.

When a student signs up on the mobile platform, they can see contents on a range of different occupations from various industries, from aircraft maintenance to creative banding. They can further explore the options through videos and infographics, detailing information such as salary and work scope.

To put it simply, Careershe is designed as a “career encyclopedia”.

Apart from that, the platform also helps individuals to identify their strengths and weaknesses through different kinds of psychometric tests.

The platform currently operates in China and works as a subscription-based model which costs as low as US$25 in total for a year.

“Careershe focuses on two parts: The first is to help students identify the career of their dreams by providing them insights on a range of career options,” Xie explains.

“The next phase of our growth is to show students how to get there. We want to build a pathway for them where they can upskill themselves along the way so that they can reach their desired destination.”

Partnership with Oxford

In addition to raising a funding round with only a business plan in hand, Careershe says that it has become the first Singapore-based venture to emerge from Oxford University Innovation (OUI) startup incubator.

Chandra Sekar Ramanujan, Senior Licensing and Ventures Manager at OUI, says in a statement, “We are very much attracted to Steve’s vision for Careershe, as well as the thought and market research that has gone into developing the idea. We have supported Steve in validating his business model and connecting with Oxford University’s world-leading academic resources – notably in big data and AI. At this time we are particularly interested in promoting ventures and partnerships overseas.”

Also Read: Meet the first batch of e27 Pro Perks partners

The company has also been affiliated with the TusStar startup incubator programme which has incubated over 5,000 firms.

Having built the product, launched to the market, and gleaned insights from users over the past year, the company is now focused on raising funds from investors and seeking partnerships. For example, with schools in China.

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Image Credit: Careershe

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The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanise production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution builds on the third, the digital revolution, that has been occurring since the middle of the last century.

Best characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the biological, digital and physical spheres; we have embraced it wholly, and it has fundamentally altered the way we live, work, and relate to one another. The scale, scope, and complexity of the transformation have been unlike anything humankind has experienced before.

And just like the revolutions that preceded it, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has the potential to raise global income levels and improve the quality of life for populations around the world. But let’s reflect on our own behavioural change and market expectation over the past decade.

Thus far, we, the consumers have tapped technology to increase the efficiency and pleasure of our personal lives — from requesting rides (GoJek), ordering in (Deliveroo), purchasing groceries (RedMart), making payments (GrabPay), watching films (Netflix), playing games (Sea) or simply communicating with each other (WhatsApp) — any of these can now be done remotely. Even more so, as we navigate life under the cloud cover of a global pandemic that is the COVID-19 virus.

And in general, the response has mostly been comprehensive and integrated, involving stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors, and to academia and civil society.

Also Read: Indonesia’s BCA launches 3rd SYNRGY Accelerator with 11 startups

From linear to circular

However research by McKinsey & Company shows a big shift across all industries, and the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire ecosystems of governance, management and production. When compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential, rather than a linear pace.

In fact, the team of Andreas Waschto, Tanguy Catlin, Jahnavi Nandan, Johannes-Tobias Lorenz, and Shirish Sharma from McKinsey & Company in their article predict that ecosystems will account for 30 per cent of global revenues by 2025.

Moreover, the actual composition and shape of these ecosystems will vary by country and region, both because of the effects of regulations and as a result of more subtle cultural customs and tastes.

But what it means for businesses is that putting customers at the centre of every digital activity will help drive scaled adoption and capture previously unimagined value. You only have to look at Amazon, Facebook, Grab and Alibaba, as examples.

How does this affect us as individuals or even employees or business owners, you ask? Well in our new, multi-dimensional connected world, we are already moving from linear to circular, participatory value models. However, most organisations are still comfortable in traditional processes, where the buyer captures value by consuming the product or service.

On the other hand, is a true circular, participatory value model, a distributed, decentralised value mechanism, embedded within the whole ecosystem, with value creation through a collaborative effort, comes into play.

Also Read: Has COVID-19 pushed us into the digital future?

In fact, if your organisation has been forced to move to a remote way of interacting with clients, this might be the perfect opportunity for you to involve the team in the build of their own bespoke version of this new, multi-dimensional world.

The eventual goal for organisations to thrive in this world would be to create a platform of co-creation, co-sharing and co-distribution among collaborating parties, as an “open value sharing” process, acting as an ongoing circular and participatory value model, as outlined by Annabeth Aagaard in her book Digital Business Models: Driving Transformation and Innovation.

If we reflect on which organisations are more of an ecosystem and less of a product-driven organisation, one might argue that product-driven “works”, as there are experts who spend years developing them. According to Kevin Kelly in his book The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 technological forces that will shape our future, another way of exploring this is by shifting towards creating an ecosystem that is “governed by co-evolution, which is a type of biological co-dependence, a mixture of competition and cooperation, where one’s success hinges on the success of others.”

That way, we will move away from just a core of experts, which can be deemed as stagnant, to a combination of a core while harnessing the power of a crowd, which is constantly, and dynamically, evolving.

What happens then?

In their paper –The importance of Non-Hub Elements – researchers Azusa Minamizaki and Euan McKay, argue that for organisations to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution, the “core” could be distributed at various sections of the highest centrality across the globe which is then able to develop active and scalable networks.

Also Read: Meet the 15 new startups that have received funding from Antler

According to Professor Matthew Jackson who authored the book The Human Network: The Science Behind our Hidden Positions in Life, such a network is known as the Eigenvector Centrality Network which relies on the measure of influence and strength within a network instead of relying only one individual as opposed to:

• Degree centrality: reliant on an individual being able to get a message out to millions of followers on a social medium gives a person the potential to influence what many people think or know. (extremely traditional), or
• Diffusion centrality: reliant on how well-positioned is a person to spread information and to be one of the first to hear it. Not a very scalable approach.

Simply put, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, or so the old adage goes. Professor Jackson shows us through his ground-breaking research that the relationships in school, university, work and society have extraordinary implications throughout our lives.

By understanding and taking advantage of these networks, we can boost our happiness, success and influence. But there are also wider lessons to be learnt.

Ultimately, the ability of organisations to adapt will determine the survival of the Eigenvector Centrality Network. If they prove capable of embracing a world of disruptive change, subjecting their structures to the levels of transparency and efficiency that will enable them to maintain their competitive edge, they will endure. If they cannot evolve, they will face increasing trouble.

Also Read: Why the future of AI needs more of diversity and the arts

As the growing possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge, are unlimited. Then suffice to say that the world is changing towards relying and creating access to infinite experts around the world, instead of depending on a finite few as we have done so in the past.

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Fresh out of ICE71’s latest cohort, Scantist captured our attention being the only Singaporean cybersecurity startup that made the cut.

Scantist’s story dated back to 2016 when Co-founder and CEO of Scantist and team found a critical vulnerability in the Adobe Reader software during the course of their research.

“This vulnerability allowed hackers to create a malicious PDF file which would trigger a denial of service attack when opened. We reported this vulnerability to Adobe, which promptly thanked us and even issued a bug bounty,” says Liu.

But his team got intrigued and even pursued the issued bounty. “Some of our researchers got excited and kept digging — and they found another two vulnerabilities with similar impact,” he explains.

They ended up applying this approach to other popular commercial software. “We found that these issues were everywhere which was extremely surprising. Every day our society uses this software with a belief that these are secure but turns out they are not,” he says.

Liu realised then that these vulnerabilities were present in applications built by multi-billion dollar software companies which presumably had the best engineering talents and all the resources they needed.

“If even they couldn’t be 100 per cent secure, what about the vast majority of software built and used every day by SMEs, government agencies, or even non-tech large enterprises?” he wonders.

Also Read: Meet the 9 cybersecurity startups graduated from ICE71’s 4th batch

So Liu and team set out on a mission to help secure software applications. “The idea was simple; translate what we had done in a research lab into a commercially viable product that everyone could use so that any piece of software (be it mobile, web, or IoT) can be free of security vulnerabilities. And that’s what vulnerability management is about,” he says.

Why vulnerabilities need management

Traditionally, firewalls and access control were seen as the key to securing systems. Software was used internally in an organisation – and as long as it can be used to keep malicious agents out, the theory is that it was secure.

But we have to take into account the present times, where everyone and everything is hyper-connected with software that is used increasingly to interface with customers, partners, and employees across the globe.

“Today’s situation made it no longer feasible to just ‘build a wall’. Accessibility is key, and you can’t control who accesses or tries to access your systems. If access cannot be limited and your applications are insecure, you will inevitably succumb to an attack,” the CEO explains.

Liu then drew an example from the Equifax breach in the US, which compromised credit ratings of over 140 million Americans. “That and the Panama Paper scandal, which began with a hack of the document management application at Mossack Fonseca. You see, the potential impact of vulnerable software is massive. An incident like that would be catastrophic for Singapore and it’s smart nation initiative,” he warns.

The challenge then is to ensure that the software the enterprise relies on is secure in and by itself.

“No matter who tries to access it, your applications need to be robust enough to ward off any malicious activity. But doing that in a manner that is cost-effective and does not add overheads or inconveniences the end-user is a massive challenge,” he admits.

Understanding cyber threats

When it comes to securing software applications, or any form of cybersecurity, there are two broad categories of threats.

“The first is the known threats — these are vulnerability issues that are well understood and have been seen in the past and are typically well-documented in the public domain. But despite that, they may still impact new software applications as there are just so many of them and keeping track of them is a humanly impossible task,” he adds.

Scantist steps in with its Software Composition Analysis — a lightweight, low cost scanner which looks at application (in source code or binary formats) and alerts the company if there are any known threats that exist.

Also Read: 5 cybersecurity strategies every startup must know

“And we don’t just stop there — we go one step further to give you the quickest way to fix these issues specific to your use-case so our customers can save time and money. This is a solution I believe every organisation needs to have in the digital age,” he says.

The second is the the unknown threats. These are vulnerabilities that are unique to your application and cannot be directly mapped against the existing known vulnerabilities. This however does not mean they can’t be found.

Liu claims that years of R&D has allowed Scantist to find these unknowns with its Smart Fuzzer. “This solution allows us to imitate a hacker by using intelligent brute-force to trigger application-level vulnerabilities at run time. We have gotten recognition internationally for it.”

What is Scantist

Software, in general, has all kinds of security weaknesses due to the design, implementations and even installation and misuse. “We call these problems software vulnerabilities, and what Scantist aims to provide is the automatic tools to help the developers and software end-users to identify these vulnerabilities so that these issues can be pacified before the attacks,” Liu summarises.

However, he notes that a one-time scan is not enough because vulnerabilities are found and disclosed every day, and secure software today can be vulnerable tomorrow.

Scantist serves even further by monitoring all the newly founded vulnerabilities in the world and informing their customers about these vulnerabilities so that they can take swift actions and manage the vulnerabilities.

NTU’s support and ICE71’s time

Scantist is heavily supported by Nanyang Technological University (NTU), so much that it’s dubbed the company as “cybersecurity spin-off from NTU”.

“There is no way we would have been where we are without the support of the local ecosystem, and NTU’s support is perhaps the largest,” Liu shares.

As a university faculty himself, Liu says that the ability to run a startup tackling the next generation of cybersecurity challenges would have been impossible without the university’s support.

“And so we take immense pride in letting the world know of our roots,” he says.

Liu himself graduated from NUS and joined NTU as a faculty member in SCSE in 2012. “Currently, I am a Chair Professor, Director of the cybersecurity lab at NTU, Deputy Director of National Satellite of Excellence of Singapore. My research is centred around cybersecurity, software engineering and AI,” he explains.

“We are aiming to bridge the gap between the theoretical contribution and practical software evaluation solutions for high quality and security,” adds he.

The other co-founder is Dr T Srikanthan (COO). He is the Director of NTU cybersecurity institute (Cysren) and a well-established researcher in hardware and a veteran in entrepreneurship.

As for their involvement in ICE71’s last cohort, Liu says: “As cybersecurity is even more crucial now, startups like us need more support to get our solutions to market more quickly to address the evolving cyber threats. Through ICE71, we’re glad to be connected to the vibrant cybersecurity ecosystems here and overseas. This will help us take off and expand internationally.”

Post-COVID-19 for cybersecurity industry

“Just like any other companies, we were forced to shift our operations to a 100 per cent remote workplace. As counter-intuitive as it may seem given the digital nature of our products, there were a lot of challenges as our customers still prefer on-premise deployments from a privacy standpoint. But our team was up to the challenge, and I am proud of how well we handled the situation,” Dr Liu recalls.

On the customer end, Scantist faced no significant adverse impact on the business. “We even found that organisations accelerating their digital transformation efforts and as a result really ramping up their security posture as well. We are working closely with our customers and partners to deliver our services in all sections,” he says.

What’s good about coming out of the other end of the pandemic is that there is greater awareness in the industry today that cybersecurity is critical and necessary.

“For me, what I see is that Southeast Asia is undergoing its next phase of accelerated economic growth off-the-back of the great digital revolution that is currently underway,” he says.

Liu then adds: “But still there is a lag — especially in cybersecurity — when it comes to best practices and latest trends. A big contributor for this lag is that we see cybersecurity as a hurdle, as an expense that adds limited value.”

What’s next for Scantist

Liu further explains that currently, the company is launching a new software architecture analysis tool to find critical software architecture issues and debts. “We hope this can help in a way that developers cannot ignore if they want to have better maintainability of the software.”

Next on the pipeline is that the company is ready to launch a new mobile app vulnerability assessment tool which aims to provide detailed security and privacy scanning for both known and unknown vulnerabilities for apps.

Also Read: Cybersecurity in the age of information warfare and IoT

An AI-powered vulnerability detection engines for source code and binary is also underway. “This could be more customised towards customer own code base with a low false-positive rate. The AI algorithms can make the tool smarter via self-learning,” he explains.

The long-term vision of Scantist is to provide a holistic intelligent software analysis framework for both qualities, security, maintainability, compatibility, and so on.

When it comes to application security in the vulnerability management domain, the world is moving to security by design principles and embedding security into every part of the software development cycle through the DevSecOps movement.

“Scantist wants to be the flagbearer for that change in the region. We are trying to play our part by providing comprehensive, accurate, and easy-to-use application security solutions.

Now what is critical is that the mindset around cybersecurity needs to change. Cybersecurity needs to be seen as an enabler. The true potential of technology – from self-driving to telecommuting and e-learning to contact tracing – can only be unlocked if cybersecurity is considered on every step of the digital transformation journey,” he concludes.
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Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash

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Xangle’s US$3M funding

The story: CrossAngle, operator of the global crypto asset disclosure platform Xangle, announced that it has successfully completed its Series A2 investment round led by Hanwha Investment & Securities, a subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group.

What is Xangle: Xangle is a public crypto disclosure service focused on providing transparent data for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

In order to provide its disclosure service, Xangle collects, verifies and integrates corporate disclosures from global projects and companies that have issued crypto assets. The platform provides the public access to both off-chain corporate disclosures and on-chain metrics and analytics.

Plans with the capital: The Series A2 investment is expected to enable it to develop an infrastructure for institutionalising crypto data services.

Uber gets new India, South Asia president

The story: The ride-hailing giant has appointed Prabhjeet Singh as the new president of its India and South Asia business. He replaces Pradeep Parameswaran, who was promoted to be the regional General Manager in the Asia Pacific region.

What is his role: Singh, who joined the ride-hailing firm five years ago, has helped Uber manage operations in dozens of cities in India and South Asia in recent years. His new job is to oversee the next phase of growth in what Uber sees as one of its “fastest growing and most strategic markets.”

 

The post In brief: Singapore’s crypto startup Xangle raises US$3.3M funding appeared first on e27.

Over the years, the idea of rapid-fire dating has gained massive popularity and has spread across the world, due to its fast, easy and somewhat effective nature.

But what about speed hiring?

Similar to speed dating, speed interview is a method that allows hiring managers to meet and assess different candidates together during a short time.

With the COVID-19 outbreak, many employers were left with no choice but to reduce staff costs by laying off employees, cutting salaries, and placing hiring on hold.

As companies continue setting up directories for employees that have been laid off ever since Airbnb showed the way, a group of startups have joined forces to help employees get facetime on the speedinterview platform in Singapore.

Some of the companies who are a part of this initiative include Hireplace, Wantedly, TalentStork, and PeopleStrong.

In an interview with e27, the co-founder of Hireplace Stewart Chen spoke about speed interviews, how it is helping working professionals find jobs during the pandemic, and how to ace one.

Also Read: Hiring for startups: What founders really look for

What is the idea behind speed interviews? Is it a tested concept in the corporate world?
Speed interview is a format that has been applied in various recruiting events. I was in one, two years ago, that was meant for full-stack developers. The event completely sold out and there were around 50 candidates and 10 renowned employers. The event was a success with both the employers and candidates coming back for more the next year.

More importantly, it was not a career fair. It was small and intimate and I believe that’s the future of all hiring events. Having said that, career was pretty chaotic and waiting physically in a busy queue was not fun.

So I thought there must be a better way to do it, which is why we decided to have virtual speed interviews.

During COVID-19, what are some challenges surrounding human resource (HR)?
This pandemic has forced closures of many businesses but for those that are still standing, challenges in HR revolve around enabling remote or flexible work (WFH), digitising the HR infrastructure, employee engagement, but the most important issues are layoffs and furloughs.

Almost every day you come across news of layoffs from the smallest to the biggest companies and in Singapore, our jobless rate is at its highest in 10 years. There’s no longer a talent crunch. It’s now a job crunch and even graduates and interns are not spared.

How is Hireplace helping companies or employees during this time?
For companies that are still hiring, the number of applications has skyrocketed and HR might find it hard to cope with the sheer number of shortlisted candidates. I was talking to one of the banks in Singapore recently and they have 500 shortlisted candidates (out of many thousands) waiting to be interviewed.

So how do you do this effectively?  You can’t just put three candidates in one call and interview all of them in one shot without irking everybody. So here, we are helping the companies create speed interview sessions with these shortlisted candidates so that everybody gets a slice of 1-on-1 face time with the HR or hiring managers.

Also Read: Breaking down the hiring process for early-stage founders : team or product first?

Universities have tens of thousands of students that need to be placed under internships or full-time roles, and traditional virtual career fairs and job portals might not provide results quick enough.

We help some of these universities, such as NUS, by organising Virtual Hiring Events targeted to a specific role, companies and graduating or interning cohorts. These “events” can be completed under an hour like a meeting and employers can screen through 10 students easily from a particular area of study. Students like this as they get to speak to various employers in a short time.

If a company has never tried speed hiring before but want to try it, how can they prepare themselves? 

Speed interview can be really effective if the company has many candidates to interview for a role.

If they have that and want to try for their existing pipeline of candidates, they could contact us on hireplace or email us. On the other hand, if they want to attend an existing event hosted on speedinterview they could register their company on the respective event page.

In terms of preparation, they just need to make sure they are on a good internet connection with a working mic and webcam for their laptops. Really it’s just like a normal interview but time-boxed so really focus on the questions you want to ask, keep an open mind, and network!

What do people need to know about making a good first impression during speed interviews?
I think it’s the same way you make a good impression with any stranger. Be curious, interested and courteous.

However, since they could be your potential employer, I think it’s very important to do your research about the company and the role before going into the chat. Make sure you are prepared. It would also help if you have something that they could remember you by, a particular hobby, skill, story or even a cool hairstyle.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Indonesia proposes law that makes foreign talent hiring in startups easier

Do you think that speed interviews have some amount of bias in the process?
Firstly, bias is innate in everyone and this affects our actions, thoughts and how we choose our friends. The same bias creeps into systems, business rules, policies etc.

The field of AI which a lot of HR tech is built upon is not spared either. If your resume uses words such as “executed” and “captured” frequently, you might be a favoured applicant in Amazon (once upon a time), and there’s also a high probability that you are a male according to few articles. If algorithms can be biased, how do you expect humans not to be?

There’s no silver bullet to fix this and it’s simply our responsibility to be conscious of our actions as it would hurt those that are discriminated against. And the one thing in common in all job applications is that you need to be interviewed by another person.

We simply speed this process up but it does not introduce new biases that someone might already have.

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Image Credit: Unsplash: Kyle Glenn

The post You’ve heard about speed dating. Here’s what you need to know about speed hiring appeared first on e27.

Wavemaker closes its third SEA fund at US$111M, exceeds target; Backers include Concentric, Pavilion, Temasek, IFC; The new fund aims to invest in 60 new firms with an initial check size of about US$500K; Wavemaker is an investor in Moka (acquired by gojek), Zilingo, Red Dot Payment (acquired by Naspers). e27

Tinder co-founder, SpaceX backer invest in Filipino edutech startup Avion School, which helps Filipinos become software engineers in 12 weeks; Avion follows a concept called ‘income-share agreements’; The Philippines has 750K potential students, and there is a trend among people to learn coding. e27

5 survival strategies for startups in a post-COVID-19 world; While new-born startups had it extra-tough, the “valley of death” has engulfed startups in all stages; Startups have to reassess their expenses, approach existing investors, recheck and explore alternative business model to stay relevant and be successful. e27

How Fefifo aims to make farming cool again for the younger generation; The Malaysian agritech startup brings in the concept of co-working space into farming; The startup takes away all the business formality side of farming to give agropreneurs everything they need to start in the co-farming space. e27

Why the future of AI needs more of diversity and the arts; We have reached the point in time where humanity and technology co-exist and our lives get more intertwined with tech in one way or another; We need all sorts of minds in harmony orchestrating every gender of different myelinated fibre strength, not just in STEM but also in art to create the magic of AI. e27

What gaming industry can teach the fashion industry amidst COVID-19; With the consumer shift online, businesses should consider enhancing their digital marketing strategies to build a stronger e-commerce presence but entice customers to visit physical stores when they reopen. e27

Why the digital workforce needs more women; COVID-19 has the potential to decimate gains in gender equality or act as an accelerator for change; A UNDP study found 90% of people are biased against women and over 40% believe men make better biz executives; In AI, only 22% of professionals are women. CWT

Facebook reveals 13 participants selected for its Community Accelerator programme in APAC; From community leaders of LGBTQ to mental health awareness, participants have been selected from Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines; Leaders enrolled in the programme will receive up to US$30,000 in capital. e27

Chatbots are backfiring, ‘driving away customers’; Study says unpleasant chatbot interactions are caused by inauthenticity when customers feel tricked into conversing with a non-human; Such interactions are caused by inauthenticity, excessive questions or repeated answers on the part of the bot, failure to deal with complex queries due to a limited operational scope. InsideRetail Asia

China’s aggression is undermining its tech giants’ global ambitions; The likes of Alibaba, TikTok have long sought to transform themselves into global operations; But geopolitical tensions are making this harder; The main beneficiary of TikTok’s troubles will be other US tech groups, like Facebook. Nikkei Asian Review

Thai fast-food chain Central Restaurants to open 100 cloud kitchens by 2024; The country’s food-delivery services generate US$1.1B in sales annually; Such centrally located kitchens are on the rise across SEA; Grab, gojek are already in the biz, while Jollibee Foods has plans to spend US$141M to open cloud kitchens. Nikkei Asian Review

It is all about survival of the most adaptable, says PatSnap’s Jeffrey Tiong; With examples such as Zoom and Slack, the end-user is now opening up and guiding enterprise decisions; Use your product to become your spokesperson and let the customers experience its value. e27

Upskilling to thrive in the new digital normal; The unicorns of the 2030 decade will be born in the digital transformation, automation and modernisation of traditional arms of existing business; COVID19–induced digital innovations are shaping the customer experience journey in travel and mobility, tourism, service industries and public spaces. Digital News Asia

Farm-to-fork models, new retail drove US$165M agrifoodtech funding in Indonesia last year; With 7 deals, East Ventures was the second most active investor; The ‘farm to fork’ model will be a door opener for more tech innovation that promotes food, agriculture, and the sustainability of farmers’ livelihoods. AgFunderNews

Google to buy 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms for US$4.5B; The two firms will develop an Android-based smartphone OS; The telco is looking to roll out an e-commerce initiative that will tap into its huge 388M-strong subscriber base; Facebook, Intel and others have already ploughed some US$15B into Jio. CNN

Is the supply chain shifting to Vietnam in a post-COVID-19 world?; The country is a rising manufacturing hub for electronics, textile, footwear; FDI holds 80% of the local market share of electronics sector; However, the nature of the manufacturing industry in Vietnam poses a potential threat. e27

Thailand is ahead with 5G rollouts in SEA amidst the pandemic; Its usage in enabling remote healthcare devices, including AI and robotics used in hospitals, has heightened perception that it is instrumental to the national recovery; Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore are also pushing ahead with their 5G plans. Tech Collective

Singapore’s Her Capital launches debut women-focused fund for SEA; Plans to raise US$10M: To invest in startups led by at least one female founder/startups which develop products/services leveraging ‘she economy’. DealStreetAsia

Robotic automation potential catalyst for jobs growth in Malaysia; With cobots helping to increase productivity, companies often find themselves in a position to hire more people, thus creating jobs and not eliminating them; Recently, the government announced pilot programmes to explore the use of robotic tech in various sectors to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign workers. Bernama

Vietnam struggling to reach 5K science and tech firms target this year; It currently has only ~500 such firms; The government has found many barriers to reach the target; The country has improved policies and institutions, including amendments of some laws on investment, enterprises and corporate income tax. Vietnam News

Taiwanese scooter-sharing platform WeMo gears up for international expansion; It has a fleet of 7K+ scooters and registers 1M rides/month; WeMo recently raised Series A led by AppWorks; Its local competitors are GoShare, Gogoro. TechCrunch

E-wallet SmartPay offers online savings with Viet Capital Bank tie-up; SmartPay users including small traders can now save online at high interest rates and get other benefits; Since its launch in May last year, the e-wallet has signed up 185K+ merchants, ~1.7M users. Vietnam News

Thailand’s Digital Service Sandbox ready for businesses; The sandbox allows service providers/e-transaction services firms to test their innovations or services before release; Applications for the first round of selections are open till July 31. OpenGovAsia

GrabPay partners with InstaPay, allowing users to transfer funds to and from e-wallets; No card or bank details are saved in the app when you use your banking app or e-wallet; Users can save GrabPay as a transfer template in their respective banking or e-wallet apps. YugaTech

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Wavemaker closes US$111M 3rd fund; Her Capital launches women-focused fund; New retail drove US$165M agrifoodtech funding in Indonesia in ’19 appeared first on e27.