Daryl Lim met co-founders Yong Shin Leong and Chong Voon Foo at the Industry 4.0 networking event hosted by SG Innovate. Soon after, they decided to join a hackathon where they realised that they worked well as a team and had complementary skill sets.

Lim, Leong, and Foo soon after entered the realm of entrepreneurship by launching a robotics programming software startup that helps people develop deployable robotic systems.

Before this, Lim had founded his computing distribution startup which sold automation solutions to companies such as Seagate. This led him to understand the problems of automation which he describes as “really boils down to the deep difficulty of programming robotic systems.”

“Developed countries tend to offshore labour because of the low labour cost [abroad]. There is a lot that manufacturing jobs in Singapore that was gone already. There is a new revolution happening because of Industry 4.0. For example, US companies such as Tesla and Foxconn are hiring in the tens to hundred thousands of employees because they can have operations in local environments through robotic systems,” Lim shares with e27.

“I find it very interesting. I think that is really where I think nation-building has to go, to sustain jobs rather than just offshoring because it’s cheaper.”

How it works

Augmentus makes use of an iPad which has low computing power and a sensor camera to help individuals with no programming background develop robotic systems.

Also Read:  Best way for kids to learn coding? “They need to feel like they’re playing a game”

All they have to do is simply draw robot paths via a live video feed on their mobile or iPad device and observe how their robot moves without typing any code.

According to Lim, 70 per cent of the cost of owning a robot is in the software integration work. But Augmentus wants to eliminate the costs so that SMEs and farmers can harness the full benefits of robotic automation; at the moment only MNCs and people with deep pockets can profit from it.

Their product is set to be launched in December.

From offshoring to inshoring

Besides creating an easy-to-use robotic system, the young entrepreneurs also envision sustaining local talents in robotics manufacturing in the future –a move that was inspired by Tesla.

Singapore outsources most of its manufacturing jobs, and Lim believes in bringing many of the work back locally. Backing his argument, he gives the example of the US, which had previously depended on China for outsourcing. But now it has been making a local shift.

“As a country, I think we should be trying to sustain local talents in general,” he says.

Lim trusts that this will help create more jobs and help in building a more sustainable logistics supply chain.

Eyeing other markets

Augmentus is currently based at NUS Enterprise. In the future, the startup wants to focus on markets in South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Australia.

Lim and Foo have mostly kept themselves free from academics and have taken a one-and-a-half year off from NUS, while Leong has been with the company full time.

Also Read: How the future technology can destroy jobs… and also create

Despite receiving scepticism from investors as a group of student entrepreneurs looking to raise funds, they are now obtaining growing interest from them.

“I am open to the idea of working on Augmentus full time if the need arises,” Lim quips.

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Image Credit: Augmentus

The post To cut down the cost of building robotic systems, Augmentus enables people to create one using an iPad appeared first on e27.

Southeast Asia is home to one of the fastest rates of digital payments adoption —which is forecast to grow to more than US$1 trillion by 2025.

Reinforced by an internet economy of 400 million users and almost two-thirds of consumers in Southeast Asia choosing card over cash, it is no surprise that digital payments have become an accustomed part of everyday lives.

As the region’s digital economy continues to surge, it is a natural progression that traditional stores of value such as gold are receiving the digital treatment.

While the demand for gold has been on a one per cent year-on-year rise globally, gold consumption in the 10 ASEAN countries reached 309 tonnes in 2018, making it the third-largest market for gold globally.

In Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam together accounted for over 80 per cent of the region’s gold market. With a rich cultural and traditional importance in Asia, gold holds an important role in customary traditions such as weddings or baby showers —where gold jewellery, bullion, and coins are prized possessions that are handed down for generations as a symbol of wealth and prosperity.

The combination of rapid digital adoption and the cultural importance of gold in Southeast Asia makes the region a prime location for users to drive and pioneer the adoption of digital gold—enabling consumers to reap the enduring benefits of gold with the convenience and speed of digital payment.

Also Read: 4 ways you can capitalise on the food tech gold rush in Asia

Going digital simplifies the process of purchasing gold for mainstream consumers, as it removes the need to worry about high premiums, insurance, or safe-keeping of their gold. As a result, Gojek is also catching on to this trend and is now offering an online gold investment feature.

Governments across Southeast Asia have also played a crucial role to help emerging financial innovations, such as digital gold, to excel and thrive in the region. This is a result of progressive regulations and a favourable technological infrastructure—cultivating the growth of emerging technologies and digital innovation.

As a result, countries such as Singapore have experienced more than S$1.2 billion (US$875 million) in fintech investments in 2019, more than double the investments from the year before, further showcasing the region’s potential and growth. Understanding that digitisation is crucial to future-proof the region’s economy, governments in Southeast Asia have further legitimised new technologies through grants, funding, and piloting proof of concepts—fostering greater acceptance as users understand the benefits such technologies will bring them.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across Southeast Asia remain committed to the acceleration in technology development and adoption—further driving cashless initiatives to reduce physical contact in an effort to help flatten the curve and limit the spread of the virus.

The Singapore Government allocated SG$500 million (US$364 million) to boost e-payment adoption and neighbouring Malaysian Government assigned a digital stimulus to accelerate the adoption of e-wallets, providing all eligible Malaysians a one-off MYR30 (US$7) incentive to spend via selected service providers Boost, GrabPay, and Touch ‘n Go eWallet.

As a result, countries across Southeast Asia are seeing an uptake in digital payments adoption—as Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced that more than 50,000 businesses have adopted Paynow Corporate since April 2020, and GrabPay Malaysia reported a 1.7-time increase in cashless transactions.

While digital payments were seen as a convenience prior to the pandemic, they are now a critical factor in the “new normal” and will be a driving force for innovation within the region—sparking the growth of emerging technologies such as digital gold which places a traditional, physical asset within the digital realm.

However, anything placed in the digital realm is open to cyberattacks which have prompted businesses and authorities to explore blockchain technology due to it’s secure, transparent, and immutable characteristics.

Also Read: Indonesia to regulate digital gold transaction by the end of the year

Organisations and governments across Southeast Asia have been strong advocates of blockchain technologies—implementing the benefits of blockchain into its ecosystem through various initiatives such as Project Ubin and the establishment of Tribe Accelerator, Singapore’s first government-backed blockchain accelerator.

Such progressive blockchain initiatives have played a key role in the development of digital gold, offering an alternative channel for consumers and industry players to purchase this shiny metal in a manner that is secure, convenient, and transparent.

The unique combination of rapid digital adoption, enduring cultural traditions, and progressive government regulations will further develop the potential for digital gold and other innovations to come.

As Southeast Asia’s digital economy continues to flourish and thrive, the region’s future shines brightly—not just as a digital gold haven but also as a global leader in digital payments.

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SEA’s blockchain-based zero-commission ride-hailing firm TADA raises US$5M led by Korea’s Central; TADA plans to distribute and sell about 10K electric auto-rickshaws, E-TukTuk, in Cambodia by 2021; TADA says that over 81K drivers, 550K+ users have used its service in Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia. e27

SEA to see 310M digital consumers by end-2020; This means ~70% of the population that are 15 years old and older will go digital by end-2020, and the average online spending per person will triple from 2019 to US$429 in 2025; SEA’s e-commerce GMV grew 23% per year between 2018 and 2020, faster than China, India and the US during the period. DealStreetAsia

Thai agro-industrial conglomerate CP Group to buy HK e-commerce startup Chilindo for US$18M; The acquisition by its digital arm, Ascend Commerce, will complement its online shopping WeMall platform and develop Thailand’s digital economy; WeMall competes with Lazada, Shopee and JD Central. Reuters

How COVID-19 will pave the way for deeper tech cooperation between LatAM, SEA; LatAM has much to gain from the technological know-how of SEA; The similar population sizes, economic realities, and rapid increase in internet penetration rates underscore the adaptability of digital solutions across both regions. e27

Is construction tech the next big thing in SEA?; Construction tech startups can improve productivity, diminish delays and secure safety; It is genuinely benefiting the construction sector in areas such as field productivity, collaborations and back-office management. Tech Collective

Singapore, Australia sign digital economy agreement; They have agreed to set new rules to prevent unnecessary restrictions on the transfer and location of data, improved protection for software source code, and ensure compatibility between e-invoicing and e-payment frameworks. Open Gov

After the pandemic, higher education can’t afford to go back to ‘normal’; Simply delivering curricular materials online doesn’t constitute real innovation; Unfortunately, the “sage on the stage’ from before the coronavirus has now become the “sage on the computer screen”. EdSurge

COVID-19 and the rise of live commerce in SEA; By using a combination of live-streamed mini TV shows, competitions and product demonstrations, companies such as Lazada, Shopee and Tokopedia can boost their sales and make the whole shopping experience more interactive. Tech Collective

Singapore’s proptech platform Ohmyhome to set up operations in Philippines; It provides a hybrid model of a DIY platform and full-fledged agency services; The platform has 175K+ active users, 15+ listings of real estate properties to date; Ohmyhome has raised US$2.9M from Golden Equator and K3 Ventures. Malaya Business Insight

How startups can benefit from early investment in tech; Early investment in tech with a strong vision for the future means you are more likely to make the right decisions for the long term; It will also help to avoid mistakes that limit growth and to eliminate wastage. e27

Cybersecurity threats on the rise as companies shift to the WFH model; Those working from home don’t have the bolstered security of an office environment, as most home networks usually have weaker protocols; Google reported that more than 18M phishing emails were sent through in April. e27

Why a pandemic is a good time to experiment and innovate on behalf of your customers; Most people don’t want to buy product A or service B, but rather solve a problem using product A or service B; The sale happens when the customer feels the perceived value of the solution is higher than the price he will have to pay for the product or service. e27

Kay Mok Ku of Gobi Partners thinks VCs will become like influencers in a post-pandemic world; In his view, a new concept or a big market are both important; A new concept for a small market will not attract VC funding; a big market with an existing concept has no defensive moat so VCs will be concerned. e27

Smart pitches ‘real’ 5G network for Filipino businesses; The mobile operator formally announced the activation of its commercial 5G service on July 30, with the initial phase of deployment in key business districts of Metro Manila; The firm claims it has the country’s most extensive fibre network footprint at over 307K kilometers. NewsBytes.ph

China’s WeWork rival Ucommune withdraws US$100M US IPO, eyes backdoor listing; Beijing-based Ucommune is under increased pressure to shore up investors’ confidence in its loss-making biz; There are also growing concerns ignited by WeWork’s IPO fiasco in 2019 and the more recent accounting scandal of Luckin Coffee. DealStreetAsia

How are the co-working spaces doing during the pandemic?; The industry is undergoing a fundamental shift with greater focus on ensuring safety and wellbeing of employees and guests; The WeWork spaces have been modified with staggered seating and buffer zones to help members maintain a healthy physical distance. KrAsia

Renewable energy and the new normal in Indonesia; One of the types of energy that can be cultivated and become the most prospective business fields in the future is solar photovoltaic and wind; The 2 businesses were able to restore the level of confidence in energy investment, which according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) fell 20% in 2020. OpenGov

Vietnam startup Computer Vision Vietnam (CVC) eKYC receives US$500K investment from NextTech Group, Next100.tech fund; CVS eKYC offers AI to recognise face and characters, detecting invalid papers and faces to provide a complete and fully automated eKYC solution. Vietnam News

3 Indonesian startups selected for Google Accelerator; Hacktiv8, Kata.ai, Riliv will undergo the 3-month online programme for high potential seed to series A tech startups; They will join 12 other startups that were chosen from 600 companies proposed from SEA. The Jakarta Post

OVO claims it’s now Indonesia’s largest fintech ecosystem; The Lippo-backed startup first joined the e-money boom in 2017 and later expanded to P2P lending, investment, insurance, multifinance; Lippo has 600,000 merchants, of which 550,000 are MSMEs. Jakarta Globe

How tech can transform your employee experience; In the future, the success of workplace analytics will be determined by its ability to impact the humans running the business and employee productivity, rather than real estate or its footprint. Human Resources Director

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Image Credit: 123rf.com

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“To provide a platform for the provision of banking services to the unbanked…” – this could be literally an abstract picked by the great majority of 2017 fintech pitch decks, promising to change once and forever the problem of the unbanked population, by adopting blockchain technology. 

Three years later, with the majority of blockchain infrastructure platforms being stable, scalable, secure, and proving their value proposition, the number of projects solving real-world problems in that domain are only very limited and geographically restricted.

Most startups have already wiped out, despite raising big venture rounds, either from institutional capital or retail investors.

It’s worth mentioning, that banking the unbanked by using the blockchain technology, has not been just a push from the blockchain startup community, but also inspired by international organisations such as the World Bank. 

Deloitte’s report Can blockchain accelerate financial inclusion globally? reports, organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have launched several initiatives to extend the access to financial services for the unbanked and underbanked, while the United Nations and its member states have indicated financial inclusion as a pivotal enabler for many of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. 

Also Read: How Blockchain is disrupting the traditional finance industry

The unbanked population by its great majority resides in developing countries. Seven countries have almost half of the world’s unbanked population:

• China: 13 per cent
• India: 11 per cent
• Indonesia: 6 per cent
• Pakistan: 6 per cent
• Nigeria: 4 per cent
• Mexico:  per cent
• Bangladesh: per cent

Nevertheless, programmes and real-world change are far too slow, while blockchain has played only a limited role to ‘bank the unbanked’.

On the other side, we see some geographical areas, that blockchain companies are slowly becoming an integral part of the economy, by replacing the slow and expensive financial ecosystem. 

Startups that have failed to materialise

Humaniq, a blockchain startup, which has raised more than US$5 million from almost 12,000 retail investors with crowdfunding, aiming to offer financial services to eradicate poverty amongst millions of people living in the emerging economies, seems that is has failed to build any traction. The latest published reports date back to 2018, while both online communities and social media look barely active. 

BitSpark, which was founded in 2014 and raised more than US$700,000, has pioneered the first cross border cryptocurrency remittance. The Bitspark web and mobile app platform enabled individuals and businesses to join the Bitspark network as ‘Cash point’ agents facilitating the exchange of cryptocurrencies and cash on behalf of their customers. Bitspark closed its doors as of March 4, failing to prove it’s value to the market. 

PundiX, an Indonesian fintech company that was launched two years ago with a US$34 million ICO and an ambitious plan to equip thousands of retailers with crypto POS terminals, according to Decrypt’s has failed to materialise into real-world traction. It seems that the company has never managed to build the PoS devices. 

The list of failed startups is very long, though we have selected only a few to present, with different backgrounds and stories. 

Also Read: The battle between private and public blockchains

On the other side, there are a handful of projects, which are currently noticing increased adoption, even though this adoption might be geographically limited. Understanding a specific market, and dominating it, before expanding is necessary to grow a product. 

Latin America

Dash, one of the older digital currencies, which was forked from the Bitcoin protocol and is operated by a decentralised autonomous organisation run by a subset of its users, which are called “masternodes”, has slowly re-organised and currently dominating as a scalable digital payments infrastructure.

Their value proposition as outlined in the website is that you can move Dash in a second for less than a cent: any amount, any time, anywhere. 

Dash usage in Venezuela is on the rise, with notable partnerships such as with Burger King. Dash Text also allows people who don’t have smartphones to send and receive the cryptocurrency by SMS. Cell phone penetration is extremely high in Venezuela, with around 85 per cent of the population owning a mobile phone.

According to the Q1 report, commercial payments using Dash grew 104 per cent for Q1, helped by a number of partnerships in the Latin American region. This growth has been spurred by several partnerships in Latin American countries, notably in Venezuela and Brazil.

Southeast Asia

Created by an established payments processing company called Omise, OmiseGo seeks to use the OMG cryptocurrency to streamline how electronic wallets to issue and exchange assets. 

Also Read: XanPool launches platform to enable P2P transactions from local currency to cryptocurrency in SEA

The idea is that digital payments today mostly occur within single payment platforms like Venmo or Alipay, meaning money can’t move easily from one platform to the other. The vision, then, is that payment networks like Omise could leverage OmiseGo to trade assets on behalf of users, sourcing liquidity for trades and facilitating transfers on a blockchain that serves as a real-time market for assets in all participating networks.

Besides McDonald’s, Omise has attracted a host of big-name clients in Thailand, such as  King Power, the duty-free retail monopoly, and True Corp., the country’s second-largest mobile carrier.

India and Indonesia

After Binance US-dollar stable coin BUSD, Harmony has launched a fully audited and fiat-backed stable coin with Indonesia’s Rupiah Token. Rupiah tokens on Harmony will enable real-time settlement for cross-border payments.

Launching an Indonesian fiat-backed stable coin builds upon Harmony’s cross-border payments strategy, allowing local fintech and remittance companies to leverage these stable coins for global payments. These stable coins are fully-regulated and have fiat on/off-ramp support through digital asset exchanges and local partners.

The Rupiah Token stable coin, is part of Harmony’s MoneyHome project, enabling instant low-fee P2P remittances, with a geographical focus on exchange corridors of Indian and Indonesian remittance markets.

The Silicon-valley project has built notable partnerships in the region with Binance, CoinDCX, WazirX, and Tokocrypto to materialise it’s scope. 

Also Read: Roundup: Ryde launches cryptocurrency wallet; Techstars-EG partnership to drive more investment into APAC

Africa

Kamix is a commission-free money transfer application between Europe and Cameroon. The app is multi-purposed to better serve Africans and their diaspora as it features fully integrated mobile money, messaging and marketplace modules designed by Africans, for proud Africans.

With the ambition of its promoters, the Kamix application targets nearly 25 million users and 18% of the money transfer market in Cameroon by 2022.

Summarising what it has worked, and what didn’t, we can see that startups which have achieved small, but important milestones, had a great understanding of the local market, and the geography, while starting with baby steps.

Region-agnostic protocols, or generic products, have failed to structure a product that could be used. There are 100s more startups using crypto to offer banking services, though the market might fail to materialise due to expensive fiat gateways.

Crypto to fiat providers such as MoonPay, SimpleX, and Transak are charging expensive fees (more than 3 per cent) which is not viable for the emerging countries.

Crypto startups, need local partners, which will constitute fiat gateways, and ramp-on/ ramp-off solutions competitive to compete with legacy banking systems.

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The COVID-19 pandemic is driving unprecedented interest into ESG investing, for reasons including business risk preparedness, portfolio diversification, protecting local communities, and more. Companies that can play life-saving roles in natural disasters and directly strengthen the resilience of communities may stand to benefit.

We already see technology being used to track, trace and reduce COVID-19’s impact. In broader natural disasters, companies are coming up with innovative Disaster Tech or “D-Tech” solutions. These can vary from Google’s early flood warning system in India and the Red Cross’s disaster notification and first aid app, to startups such as One Concern, an AI platform for predicting earthquakes and floods, and Field Ready, a manufacturing company that specialises in 3D printing kits of essential medical devices deployed in refugee camps.

Venture capitalists see the opportunity for D-Tech

VCs acknowledge the need for D-Tech, especially in today’s environment.

Puja Bharwani, Director of Antler, commented that “D-Tech is an important vertical and it is one where corporations, governments, technologists and entrepreneurs have to work together to ensure the proposed solution has the desired impact given the scale at which it needs to be implemented.” Antler is a global early-stage venture capital firm with offices in twelve cities across six continents. Founded in Singapore in 2017, Antler aims to fundamentally improve the world by enabling and investing in the world’s most exceptional people.

With growing investor demand for ESG investments — assets have grown 14% annually from 2014 to reach US$31 trillion in 2018 – D-Tech offers opportunities to support profitable, high growth business, while providing sustainable social and environmental benefits.

Dominic Mellor, Senior Investment Specialist at ADB Ventures, added that “D-Tech has a role to play alongside technologies for planning and managing infrastructure, making local economies more diverse and resilient, and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”

Asia Pacific accounts for almost half of the world’s natural disasters. China, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, the top four natural disaster-prone countries in Asia, are expected to lose $380 billion each year between 2016 and 2030 as a result of natural disasters. D-Tech provides a way to reduce this impact.

Minette Navarrete, President of Kickstart Ventures (KVI), a corporate venture capital firm with a focus on the Philippines and the greater Southeast Asian region, commented that “KVI has an active focus on emerging markets, which are prone to disasters. A number of invested companies have clear, immediate usefulness in disaster situations.”

Bit Santos, Portfolio Operations Director of KVI, added that developing markets like the Philippines and others in Southeast Asia offer “opportunities for startups to address fundamental problems” such as those posed by natural disasters. Examples include engageSpark, which supports messaging services in areas of poor data reception; and AIAH’s KIRA, a chatbot that shares information and automates health checks.

These are just a few of the many great initiatives spearheaded by startups that can help turn the tide for affected communities in times of disaster, and whom VCs can help support and supplement with necessary resources.

Solving industry problems

Like any venture, D-Tech companies need to pass VC’s business viability tests, while also facing challenges specific to the field of disaster resilience: slow cash flow, lack of patient capital, and the need for community sensitivity.

“D-Tech firms are particularly vulnerable to funding and cash flow problems as a result of their relatively long sales cycles”, Mellor explained. “By their nature, the positive impact of D-Tech firms cannot be immediately felt until after a catastrophe has happened. Clients may therefore feel they are not getting immediate results”. Navarrete added that “firms will also have to contend with the delicate nature of private companies selling services at a time of crisis, which could naturally create a negative impression of profiting from a disaster”.

To help D-Tech start-ups grow, VCs can play a significant role by acting as connective bridges with the government and established institutions. Furthermore, the backing of a reputable VC can provide much-needed credibility to early-stage start-ups.

“For Antler, we work with various stakeholders and entities in the tech ecosystem to ensure startups get all they need — a similar ecosystem approach needs to be taken for D-Tech as well,” said Bharwani.

ADB Ventures, KVI, and Antler noted that startups within their portfolios will gain access to important operational networks across governments, municipalities, large corporates, and even non-governmental organizations. Startups may also gain added advantages specific to their VC’s firms, such as ADB’s reputational advantage, access to Antler’s global alumni and advisory network, or introductions to large corporate networks that Kickstart Ventures is connected to (such as Globe Telecom and Ayala Corporation).

Also read: Disaster Tech innovation is key in mitigating the impact of natural disasters

Prudence Foundation supports D-Tech growth

As the community investment arm of Prudential in Asia and Africa, Prudence Foundation leverages Prudential plc’s long term commitment and geographical scale to make communities safer, more secure and more resilient, by addressing key issues in education, health and safety.

Over the years, Prudence Foundation has worked to improve disaster resilience, most recently through the Safe Steps D-Tech Awards which aims to find, fund and support innovative technology solutions which save lives before, during and after natural disasters.

Donald Kanak, Chairman of Prudence Foundation stated “We wanted to see more focus on applying technology to making disasters less disastrous”.

The D-Tech Awards has partners in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, including e27, Antler, National Geographic, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), among others.

“It is through partnerships between the private sector, governmental and non-governmental organizations that real impact and inroads can be made,” said Marc Fancy, Prudence Foundation’s Executive Director.

Through the competition, startups are invited to pitch their solutions to a panel of judges — including VCs — for the chance to win grants from a pool of US$150,000. Finalists will also benefit from expert coaching and networking opportunities. Both for-profits and not-for-profits are welcome to apply and will be judged separately. Applications for the next round will open in November 2020.

Prudence Foundation, in partnership with e27, will be hosting two private working sessions on D-Tech on 27th and 28th August and encourages VCs to offer their advice and insight into growing D-Tech startups. If you are interested to participate in the conversation, please kindly answer this survey.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Prudence Foundation.

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Last month, we announced the launching of Perks, a feature of e27 Pro that gives members access to a highly curated basket of services and products across all sectors to help support their company growth. This collection of Perks is made available exclusively through e27 Pro, offered in partnership with different companies that cater to various business needs.

From software solutions to healthcare benefits, our curated basket of services and products are designed strategically to aid startups across the spectrum to achieve their respective business goals.

We recently talked about our initial list of Perks on e27, and trust and believe that we are only getting started! As part of our commitment to empowering the ecosystem as best as we can, the e27 team and its partners are gearing for bigger and more exciting things as the year continues to unfold.

Also read: 5 ways to build startup resilience and avoid failure

Since then, we have added a few more Perks to the list that our members could browse through. These additional Perks will ensure that e27 Pro members get to maximise their membership and optimise their businesses toward larger and further growth.

With these added benefits, we’ve been receiving glowing reviews from Pro members. Alex Tay, Founder of ZeusX Gaming, said “the perks from AWS and Hubspot are fantastic. More than made up the membership cost on their own.”

AWS Activate and Hubspot are only two of our partner companies offering Perks that collectively render over $10,000 worth of savings for member companies who use them. We push this ceiling further by adding more Perks and partner companies to the list.

As such, we’re happy to announce that you can now view the most up-to-date list of Perks on the e27 website. You can do this simply by going to the homepage and clicking the Perks button on the top page navigation bar. Or you can simply click here.

How does the official Perks page work?

All our Perks partners are featured in the Perks page where you can see a snapshot of the exclusive discounts and freebies they are offering to members. Simply click on the card of any Perk to expand its details and to claim it.

You will have to be logged in to your Pro account to claim these Perks. Note that each Perk would have their own terms, which are all indicated in each individual information card. This will ensure that Pro members are fully briefed before they can access the corresponding Perk they are interested in.

Also read: ZeusX to bring mobile gaming to the next level in 2020

Over the next few months, we plan to take e27 Perks beyond just software. Our team is currently hard at work to curate a variety of exciting new Perks categories for Pro members to choose from! With choices ranging from hardware solutions to even travel essentials, the Perks page is gearing up for exciting new things and is sure to spice things up for all e27 Pro members.

Check back soon to find out about other exciting developments!

Join e27 Pro

If you want to enjoy these exclusive Perks available only with Pro, be a part of the Pro community and sign up for an e27 Pro membership today! You may visit here for more details.

Stay tuned to find out what other Perks we have in store!

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Being stuck at home for most of the year so far has been challenging, and with a new surge coming we are likely to be self-isolating for a while longer.

Physical activity is crucial during this time if for nothing else than to give us something to do other than sit around and wait for a vaccine.

Work/life balance is crucial right now and any emerging technology that gives people safer options for social and physical interactions is going to become a booming industry.

Social media has been a lifeline for getting people connected to each other for virtual exercise classes, but what if technology could take working out at home to a new level?

Extended reality (XR) is one of the solutions that could get people back to playing real sports again but on a virtual scale. XR includes technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality, and when applied to play sports it also includes real sports equipment and sensors to simulate real gameplay.

When these technologies are used for sports, people can be safely socially distanced from each other while also experiencing the competition of realistic gameplay.

Networks are used to link players together from different locations, and competition can be achieved through virtual means, complete with leaderboards and tournaments.

Being able to play recreational games is crucial for work/life balance, which is out of balance for everyone right now. We need social interaction to be good at our jobs, and extended reality is one of the emerging technologies that can safely provide that.

Can extended reality help bring people together socially while satisfying their need for competitive sports interactions during the pandemic? This emerging technology is poised to become one of the business opportunities of the future spurred on by the pandemic.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Thailand’s fleet intelligence solutions startup DRVR close to raising US$450K funding

Learn more about the future of virtual sports from the infographic below.

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Register for our next webinar: Meet the VC: Gobi Partners

Register now: What is corporate venture building and why this is the right time to look at capturing venture opportunities across South-east Asia.

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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Today, you may try to ignore new technology in your personal life but that’s not an option in business. If you want your startup to succeed in today’s technology-driven business environment, being luddite isn’t going to help.

Investment in the right technology and its adaption can offer an edge over the other competitors in the industry. Let’s try to understand where to start with technology and how it can benefit startups.

Start with people

When a team works in silos, they may not understand the importance of using a new application that will help the company’s overall business.

However, if the team understands the big picture of the business and its vision for the future, they will easily comprehend and support the invested technological advances.

My advice is to get buy-in from every level. Once you see that the new technology has the potential to save time and drive innovation, next you need is to sell that vision to your team who will use the technology daily.

Lean workforce

Every business has operations that are repetitive and tedium. Adopting technology that can automate certain tasks - such as the influx of support tickets, workflow for escalation process to avoid bottlenecks, invoice processing and payment reminder to your customers; these are just a few examples that can allow your team to do higher-value work that brings more value to the business and also allow an individual to be more engaged in their jobs.

On a fundamental level, automation tools like BPA can equip your staff with the skills and mindset to spot inefficiencies and address them with technological solutions.

Also Read: Top 5 promising media tech startups to look out for in 2020

Your team will be able to process more complex problems quickly and communicate effectively which will allow your team to have the maximum impact on output by applying minimum energy on input.

Use data to drive results

Many of the startups fail because nobody needed the products those startups were offering. Smart startups first scrabble into an in-depth market analysis where they learn about their target audience and pain points.

They create metrics using data and perform extensive research to know if the solution can potentially meet customer needs, startups should create a Minimal Viable Product that captures their idea and bring it into the market as quickly as possible.

That’s how a startup can validate the potential of their project and gain feedback from users to make their products or services even better.

Don’t stop after a rollout. You should try to gain momentum with each implementation instead of letting another solution become stagnant before starting the process over again. Measure user impact metrics, ROI, and other meaningful interactions, and then use that information to make the business offering better with the help of technology.

If we take an example of a game startup company, right after the rollout of a new game. It is critical to know how a player is making progress to the next level which could mean a lot of things such as levelling up, completing quests, completing missions, or completing milestones.

Scaling up

Early investment in tech with a strong vision for the future means you are more likely to make the right decisions for the long term. It will also help to avoid mistakes that limit growth and to eliminate wastage.

Also Read: For COMEUP 2020, the post-pandemic future will be led by startups

Without the right technology to support your startup, you may end up in a situation called premature scaling. Problems start when the owners begin to focus on one area of their operation and advance it without proper synchronization with other parts of their operations.

This is normal because as an Owner you may not be able to keep track of everything unless you have a technology that allows you to see important details in a dashboard for better synchronization and decision making.

Technology can accomplish incredible things, if only it’s implemented in your business to tailor-fit your needs. The latest technology trends can make your job easier and give you an edge in the modern and evolving game in business.

Keep up with what’s hot in your industry and make the effort to integrate the technology that’s the best fit for your business. The tech industry has many exciting prospects to offer for startups with unique business propositions and solid products and services.

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It is 2020 but the fighting of the LGBTQ community continues the world over.  Take any industry, the community is still grossly underrepresented. Tech industry is no different either; their overall condition is yet to progress into a more inclusive nature.

As our recent oped pointed out, the startup ecosystem — even in places such as Silicon Valley — is yet to achieve LGBTQ inclusion. If this can happen in a country where its previous government had shown support for this community, just imagine the plight of the community in Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, where religions and traditional beliefs are often mixed and sway one’s judgment.

The domino effect

e27 got a chance to talk to Jay Lin, a gay entrepreneur based in Taiwan whose company Portico Media is focussing on LGBTQ-inclusive contents. Lin was one of the headliners of Startup Impact Summit’s “LGBTI – Why it matters for Impact and Sustainability” session.

Lin grew up in Taiwan before moving to the US when he was 10 years old. He then pursued higher education in a law school in the Bay Area, where he realised that storytelling in a media platform is something that is very akin to his inner passion.

“I started Portico Media in 2004, so it’s been around for 15 to 16 years, with the initial core mission to provide more channels to virtual cable operators. To do so, we partnered with big media companies in the US such as NBC Comcast, Viacom and linear TV channels in Taiwan,” Lin recalled.

In 2009, Taiwan was making a transition from analogue to digital. “So starting around 2014, with the company being more financially stable, I decided that I needed to use the influence that I had at that time in the industry to produce and distribute the content that focussed on LGBT programmes. I think there was a big disconnect between what was available then and what was being produced out here in Southeast Asia or Asia. And also in the West,” he said.

And so being in Taiwan, Lin felt like this was something that he could give back to his community first.

“Given that I’m also a part of the LGBTQ community, I can do something about it — but not to an extent where I could jeopardise the financial security of my company. So I started by doing a film festival — a once-a-year event — by bringing in different movies from around the world that I thought were meaningful, impactful or entertaining,” Lin said.

The festivals took off and was distributed in many major cities in the country. Its success motivated Lin to start the first LGBT movie streaming service in Asia, called GagaOOLala, in 2017.

The challenge with Asia

According to Lin, Southeast Asia is one of the most complicated and diverse territories in the world with 12 countries and different languages, historical backgrounds, cultures, religions and different layers of nuances that the company needs to figure out for themselves.

“We also need to account for how all these countries are at different stages of economic development as well as internet stability. We definitely entered from the get-go into one of the most challenging markets in the world. But given that it was so challenging and complicated, the learning curve was definitely very steep. And sooner or later, we found out that there were certain priority markets that we had to focus on,” Lin shared.

Lin added it is now clearer that markets such as the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand are the firm’s key territories. “We don’t need to focus on certain territories where too much advertising or too much buzz can create the opposite effect, attracting too much attention from people who are anti-gay.”

How to become an ally

With ‘Pride Month’, or LGBT History Month, coming to an end in July, we’ve seen many big companies struggling and succeeding in showing what an allyship to LGBTQ community should be like.

“I think we need to start with two layers — one layer is like internal openness to be accepting and embracing people from a different nationality, gender, sexual orientation and religion. I think those kinds of environments are the ones that a startup can thrive in. Because if you are able to create things that are catered to people from different backgrounds and those who have different experiences, they can share with you how to fine-tune or improve like the service or products,” he said.

Lin emphasises that inclusion should be a culture in a tech startup.

“I think in doing so, the employees of that organisation are going to feel vested in the growth of the company and to feel like they are truly a part of the company. And as employees, the sense of belonging will make them work that much harder for the company to succeed,” he said.

“Begin with an open mind and open hearts, because that’s when great ideas, management and leadership can come forth,” he added. “Bear in mind that gay people are or people as well, they’re underrepresented. We have preferences, whereby if you just switch and select the service or part just a little bit, I think you could have a huge impact as a startup.”

Opportunity, not exploitation

As it is still regarded as a highly sensitive matter for some countries in Asia, Southeast Asia in particular, tech startups mostly choose to remain mum on the matter. Next to none of them are participating in any LGBTQ rights campaign, nor are they showing a clear stance from the get-go.

This, to a certain extent, can be seen as a safer move made by most tech startups to avoid ruffling the feathers, especially in countries where there’s no real validation for LGBTQ community’s existence.

On this, Lin shared: “If you genuinely feel like this is something that is underrepresented and underserved and what you offer is ultimately a great service that can enhance the wellness of the LGBT community, I think a lot more products, services and technologies can succeed because right now a lot of people in different parts of the world who are a part of community are still closeted or unwilling to disclose their true identity. But they certainly do have those preferences and they do have those needs.”

Using GagaOOLala as an example, Lin said: “We have been getting subscribers and members from the most intolerant, the most horrific countries in terms of treatment of LGBTQ community. So, it proves that gays are everywhere and also have a need similar to everybody else, which in our case is to consume content that they can thoroughly identify and enjoy.”

A world where having two dads is acceptable

With the media products such as HahaTai, Drama Queen, GagaTai, LalaTai, GagaOOLala, and GOL STUDIOS, it seems like there’s nothing stopping Lin with his mission through Portico Media.

Lin admitted that his fight is not without reason because he is, in fact, is a dad of boys.

“I feel like a sense of responsibility as someone that got them into this world, into a great family, to do all that I can to make sure that I put them in a friendly and loving environment. I hope to embolden them with virtues and strength to fight off all the possible discrimination or the ignorance, as well as potential bullying that they’re going to face in the future. If their daddy can be the great barrier to pave the way for them, maybe with them and also a whole generation of younger LGBTQ, including themselves, can have a better life in the future,” he concluded.
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Photo by Joshua Stitt on Unsplash

The post This gay founder is creating a safe media platform for LGBTQ community in SEA appeared first on e27.

Mobile gaming is emerging as the prime pastime for a record number of consumers. With the onset of social distancing rules, more people than ever are using their downtime to discover new games, or binge on favorites. In a single week in March 2020, users globally downloaded a whopping 1.2 billion mobile games — amounting to the biggest week ever for app installs.

Leading this surge is gaming’s fastest growing category: hyper casual. These bitesize pieces of content have taken the industry by storm, allowing players who might not even identify as gamers to idle away a few minutes here and there. With simplistic yet satisfying mechanics, their accessibility and ease of understanding not only gives them broad appeal but allows developers to make them quickly, see what sticks and then scale the marketing once they’ve found a hit.

But a spike in the market in 1Q 2020 may not be indicative of an industry trend. Hyper casuals had dominated download charts long before COVID-19 (representing 78% of the most downloaded new games of 2019), and the category is poised to grow and evolve, with more titles adopting a ‘hybrid casual’ model.

The rise of hyper casual gaming is broken down in Adjust’s latest report, created in partnership with Unity. The report benchmarks hyper casual performance both pre- and post-install, while also giving marketers new to the genre a primer on what these apps are all about.

Also read: How this entrepreneur is stepping up the game for gaming tech e-commerce

How COVID-19 affected hyper casual gaming apps

The global pandemic has upended societies and economies everywhere, but what has been the impact on hyper casual gaming? Our first look suggests that the COVID-19 has significantly contributed to driving more users to the genre. Cumulative install and session data for six countries from Adjust reveals how stay-at-home orders have increased interest in hyper casuals throughout the pandemic.

For the period December 2019 to March 2020, installs more than doubled (103%) globally and as installs rose, sessions ballooned to match. Compared to December 2019, which had already exceeded one billion sessions, hyper casual sessions increased a further 72% in March. An examination of the ratio of paid vs. organic installs show the opposite dynamic as the number of apps installed from paid advertising declined 26% from 80% in October 2019 to 59% in March 2020. Ironically, organics come out the winner, showing that people stuck at home are more willing to browse and experiment.

The challenge going forward will be sustainability and growth prospects for the hyper casual genre after social distancing eases. Will new users continue to flock toward the genre? And will the broader trend of growing ad inventory be reversed as the overall economy picks up, allowing key metrics and methods to revert back to their pre-crisis mean? Will margins suffer from this drop? Nothing is for certain, but it does appear as though the business model of hyper casuals is here to stay. This will no doubt have implications for mobile marketers from other verticals, as the overall trend toward optimization and automation takes hold.

For more insights into the rise of hyper casual gaming and the effects of COVID-19 on the industry, download Adjust’s hyper casual gaming report 2020 here.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Adjust.

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