Although the pandemic has disrupted business processes at scale, leaders around the world stepped up to steer their workforces towards resilience.

A McKinsey survey found that 80 per cent of employees are happy with the response effectiveness of their leadership, indicating that they have “acted proactively to protect employee health and safety.”

With the ongoing disruption, leaders and managers must make smart, timely decisions to keep the business on track and well-poised for the recovery stage. This requires both an agile mindset as well as a  keen understanding of dynamic market movements.

In this particular context, companies simply cannot afford to take their leadership for granted.  EngageRocket Pulse of the SG Workforce research reveals that “manager support” (particularly through clear and regular feedback) is one of the top three drivers with a very high impact on employee loyalty.

Why reskill leaders and why now?

While telecommuting may be more challenging for some employees than for others, preference for it is universal. Our research reveals that across industries and generations, over two-thirds of respondents would prefer to work from home 50-75 per cent of the time. Sixteen per cent of them are even proponents for fully work from home, making it essential for organisations to have a long term vision on working arrangements to answer employees’ new expectations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a volley of new skill requirements. One of the new management competencies to look for is a pragmatic understanding of cutting-edge technology. It is important to understand how this technology might enable crisis-proof processes, happier employees, and steady growth.

Also Read: Leadership is not a benefit to yourself but an obligation to others

As companies begin to rely on digital channels for the most basic of functions, from registering attendance to onboarding an employee, it is important to reskill leaders with an eye on digital-first strategies.

Another essential soft skill for leaders in the new normal will be advanced communication. Remote employees aren’t just working from home – they are staying at home for the majority of the time, relying on colleagues and employer channels for regular communication on what’s happening around the world.

Simple things such as soft skills training can help employees communicate better with their teams and strengthen essential bonds. Thirty-six per cent of employees report communication among team members as a real challenge during the Circuit Breaker, highlighting the lack of resources/tools, the lack of processes to facilitate communication (e.g more channels to raise anonymous feedback), and the lack of clarity about policies and expectations. Companies need a clear framework to reskill leaders in these three critical areas to stay ahead in the new normal.

6 action-points to help navigate this unprecedented period

Companies often make the mistake of halting capability building during a crisis, opting for a more conservative approach. But this actually defers the risk of not investing in business growth – which is why leadership reskilling and upskilling is so important in the current environment. To get this right, we’d recommend the following framework:

Quantifiably define the new normal

A first step to adapting to any complex situation is acceptance. Leaders and managers might be change-resistant but this holds back their pace of learning. Furthermore, ambiguity around the situation at hand causes fear and apprehension among leadership which inevitably trickles down to the entire workforce.

You can combat this by using quantifiable measures to define your transition to the new normal. Employee engagement, revenue generation, customer loyalty, and new product development timelines – how have these core business metrics changed? Quantifying them and monitoring trends over time will give you a stronger grasp of what’s happening and what needs to be done for the road ahead.

Also Read: New normal preparation: How regtech can help the financial industry tackle money laundering

Assess performance accurately and fairly

Enable feedback gathering for employee development. Supported with a solid communication plan and follow-up conversations, running a 360 review feedback exercise can be highly effective in identifying competency gaps and skills.

In challenging times, this effect is even more prominent as participation and the integrity of feedback are heightened. Three-hundred-sixty feedback reviews are cost-effective automated processes to develop high-performing employees, providing real-time data to identify key areas to direct training resources.

Identify likely recovery routes and new management competencies

A conservative approach typically suggests a myopic view of business growth. It is limited to the here and now which is concentrated on crisis management, instead of recovery and future pathways. In order to enable effective leadership reskilling, companies must consider the mid-term and the long-term by chalking out both best and worst-case scenarios.

An analysis of the metrics revealed in step one will indicate which of these outcome pathways is most likely to occur. Next, analyse the insights revealed in step two to assess existing leadership and compare it with the most likely route(s) to arrive at leadership skill gaps.

Remember, these gaps are yet to exist in the organisation – proactive reskilling seeks to realign existing talent with future, projected requirements, with the goal of averting a similar crisis down the line.

Map out leadership groups to execute the recovery roadmap

Assemble groups of leaders and mid-management personnel with similar skill requirements. This step will help reduce reskilling inefficiencies, ensuring that there is no duplication of training effort across the organisation. These groups will cut across horizontals (your critical management layers) as well as key business functions or verticals.

Also Read: Leadership in times of crisis – how to lead efficiently when the pot is boiling

It also serves to tackle reskilling fragmentation in large companies. For instance, if two business units situated in opposite parts of the globe have a similar projected business trajectory for the next year after the Circuit Breaker, it makes sense to form leadership groups that include both units. The rise of online learning in a remote working environment makes this easier to adopt and implement.

Align reskilling initiatives with competency gaps among leadership groups

By step five, organisations have already isolated specific skill gaps and new management competencies to be acquired. Now, you can design a reskilling initiative to address these – note that reskilling tries to imbibe a completely fresh set of skills, as opposed to upskilling which only works on an existing foundation.

That is why the actual training in hard and soft skills should go hand-in-hand with cultural change management to break down any barriers to learning among leadership.  You might want to partner with a coaching service provider or platform to guide learners through this critical process.

This step is cyclical and iterative, which means that you need to reshape learning journeys as new skills gaps emerge.

Start to reskill leaders with an MVP; test, iterate and repeat

It’s crunch time. Rather than trying to build the perfect reskilling plan, it is a good idea to start off with a minimum viable product (MVP). This ensures that you hit the ground running, with minimal delays giving your team leaders the best possible chance of coping with the crisis.

After initial learning cycles, conduct employee surveys to assess how leadership capabilities – and consequently their on-ground impact – have changed. Based on survey results, companies can tweak, iterate, and redeploy training sessions, factoring in three elements:

• Employee sentiment on leaders 
• Leader feedback on the learning journey 
• The latest market developments 

Leaders need new skills to cope with a crisis as unprecedented as COVID-19, and this has both hard and soft aspects. A holistic reskilling framework that factors in the three core requirements of digitalisation, agility, and communication, executed through compassionate decision-making is the need of the hour. Finally, make sure to collect data on reskilling impacts by speaking to the ones who gain (or lose) the most from the realignment of leadership – your employees.

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As COVID-19 serves as a wake-up call, many people are turning their focus towards health. It is not just modern medicines like allopathy that are getting attention but also traditional ones like Ayurveda and Homeopathy.

Among the traditional ones, Ayurveda has a prominent place and is one of the most popular forms of wellness, especially in India. What makes Ayurveda popular is that it utilises only natural products like herbs to make medicines.

Of late, this treatment system has seen an increasing interest from people due to its less addictive and less synthetic nature, especially during the pandemic.

In India alone, over 70 per cent of people use it as it is comparatively less costly and has relatively fewer side effects.

Hempstreet is a startup that is looking to leverage the popularity of Ayurveda but with a spin — it makes “natural relief” products from cannabis for chronic pain and will use blockchain to prevent drug misuse. Studies have suggested that painkillers should not be used to relieve chronic pain and can be dangerous because of its addictive nature, which is why this startup is using Ayurvedic form of medicine to help people.

Founded in 2019 by Abhishek Mohan and Aradhna Rai, Hempstreet is emerging as one of the frontrunners in India’s Ayurvedic cannabis medicinal market.

“Cannabis has always been part of Indian medicine for a long time and we figured that there was a massive pain relief crisis in India. But, the use of opioids has also been a huge problem in Punjab (a state in India) and the US, so we didn’t want that to happen here. Therefore, we figured out a way to bring cannabis back into the Ayurvedic sector where it’s legal, but with the scientific backing,” Mohan said in an interview with e27.

The Delhi-based startup currently has 16 approved products with a network of 60,000 plus doctors and 300-plus clinics, according to Mohan. The firm will be deploying its first batch of medicine to 1,000 doctors by August end and more doses subsequently in 4,000 doctors by year-end, and more every month thereon.

Recently, Hempstreet raised US$1 million in a pre-series A funding round from US-based Pharmacon Holdings and Romain Barberis, a private investor in the cannabis space in the US and Canada.

Safety first

“Being a controlled substance, it is essential that it is dispensed responsibly and the “pill mill” scenario must be avoided at all costs,”,” Mohan said.

Many times, there has been scepticism around cannabis-focused startups as it is widely associated with illegal drug trafficking and addiction. This is a reason why Hempstreet is adopting blockchain technology for end-to-end tracking. What this means is that the startup can track medicines from doctors to patients to prevent misuse.

Hempstreet emphasises on research and has been working with institutions like the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for safe cannabis medication use.

“We focus more on the scientific community and research and are currently undertaking research in various fields like epilepsy and cancer, which does not always have to be Ayurveda focused but also other Ayurveda proprietary formulations largely around pain relief, digestion and many other kinds of wellness-related issues,” he added.

Also Read: The business of medical cannabis and how it might change in the next few years

In India, top politicians are also promoting natural forms of medical practices such as Ayurveda and Homeopathy for the prevention of COVID-19. Recently, a Minister with a federal government appealed to the central government to earmark a higher budget for research into this.

Although there are some other startups in the industry, what sets Hempstreet apart from them is that it has received support for distribution for their products from “day one”, claimed Mohan.

“Most of these companies come up with a product and then look for distribution. Plus, there are many shady companies in the market operating over the last couple of months. E-commerce majors like Amazon and Flipkart have banned the sale of hemp-related products as it was found out that many people are manufacturing and selling it online illegally,” he said.

According to Grand View Research Inc., globally the legal cannabis market is said to be maturing and is predicted to reach US$146.4 billion by 2025. For India, the potential is substantial and Mohan believes that there is an opportunity to create an entire ecosystem from scratch.

Cashing out on cannabis for farmers

Providing natural pain relief to people is not all for Hempstreet. It is also committed to driving a revolution of India’s farming of cannabis.

“We do not aspire to become major growers,” he added, explaining that in India growing cannabis privately is banned by law. To make it legal, cannabis needs to be purchased in the form of raw materials from the government. The idea is to work
with the government to bring farmers into the fold with best practices and technology,”.

Also Read: Is Southeast Asia ready for cannabis startups?

“Farmers need to make enough and it can’t be like every other revolution where they get killed. We want them to be able to trust us and for us, ultimately at the end of the day its a much much bigger purpose of where we want to go after,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: Hempstreet, Matteo Paganelli

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SaaS major Intuit acquires Singapore’s inventory and order management platform TradeGecko; As per Bloomberg, the deal size is US$80M; Intuit will integrate its accounting platform QuickBooks’s suite of financial, payment, reporting and accounting tools with TradeGecko. e27

Indonesian fintech startup Ayoconnect raises US$5M pre-Series B from BRI Ventures, others; This takes its total funding raised thus far to US$10M; It also named Alex Jatra (ex-HARA, Dattabot, and Kejora exec) as CFO; A a B2B company, Ayoconnect connects bill providers with online and offline channel partners. e27

Sequoia India brings on ex-gojek CTO Ajey Gore as operating partner; In this role, he will mainly work closely with the CTOs and CPOs of Sequoia’s portfolio firms; Sequoia’s investments include Byju’s, Carousell, Druva, gojek, OYO, Tokopedia. e27

Wahyoo raises US$5M Series A led by Intudo to digitise small eateries in Indonesia; The startup offers digital tools and services for eateries to attract customers, enhance marketing efforts, implement loyalty programmes, order and receive groceries; It plans to expand ops into new cities outside of Greater Jakarta. e27

Cambodia’s payment aggregator Clik raises US$3.7M seed funding led by Openway and Poems; Clik enables consumers to make payments from cards, wallets and bank accounts, and merchants to accept such payments; It has 2.5K merchants, 5 financial institutions in its beta programmes and has access to over 56K+ merchants via its partners. e27

Synagie proposes US$45M sale of e-commerce arm to founders, Gobi fund, Alibaba; The proposed sale involves the entire e-commerce, e-commerce enabler, logistics business; This will enable Synagie to focus its resources and capital on growing its insurtech biz; The S’pore firm has been loss-making — except for the net profit it foresees for H1 2020. Business Times

Swelling optimism boosts Sea’s shares by over 880%; Demand for its mobile games and e-shopping platform has surged during the pandemic; It is also bidding on a digital-banking license to accelerate its push into financial services; It is also looking for potential acquisitions in gaming, logistics and e-commerce. DealStreetAsia

Ethics and AI: Is the tech only as good as the human behind it?; When it comes to the discussion on the ethics of AI and how the tech can go wrong, the public’s minds remain affected by scenes in Hollywood movies — “What if it turns against us and starts shooting people on the street?; While we must be open to all possibilities, there are more grounded concerns on the ethics of AI. e27

New institute to lead digital finance research in S’pore; The institute AIDF will provide thought leadership and strengthen synergies between education, research and entrepreneurship in digital finance; Potential areas of focus for research include digital assets, ledger tech, AI, digital finance platforms, green fintech, next-gen financial services on 5G networks. Finews.Asia

MDEC, BNM launch fintech capacity building programme; It provides capacity building for fintech companies to develop meaningful innovative products and services by enhancing their understanding of legal, compliance and regulation requirements; Fintech Booster is open to all fintech companies including those without any presence in Malaysia. Fintech News

Storytelling: A humane way to advertise your startup; Sales storytelling seeks to create connections with potential customers by making them the protagonists in the story; The goal is to arouse emotions through convincing and relevant stories; This enables the brand to retain the attention of the target audience and positively impact it. e27

New normal preparation: How regtech can help the financial industry tackle money laundering; Some banks are working with regtech to tap on tech such as AI to assist their internal teams and better manage compliance risk; The algorithms thus created can be used to identify risky customers, accounts or transactions and file timely reports with regulators. e27

Aspire partners with Osome for same-day incorporation, account opening services; The Aspire Business Account can be opened online within minutes, Aspire claims; The account automatically comes with a debit card that allows biz owners to transact in over 40 currencies; This service claims to be 16% cheaper than doing both processes separately physically. Fintech News

10 startups awarded US$21.4K prize in COVID-19 competition; “RESQUE: Startups vs. Covid-19 Competition” is a nationwide contest that aims to help scale startups with pandemic initiatives; The programme is run by QBO Innovation Hub, Youth Business International, Google.org. NewsBytes.ph

US fintech firm Vesta gets EDBI backing for APAC expansion; It will establish its regional HQs in S’pore; Vesta’s expansion comes as online fraud losses increased by 50% in APAC in the past year due to the growth in e-commerce transactions; Vesta provides fraud protection and e-commerce payment solutions to online merchants, major telcos, payment processors, and acquirers. DealStreetAsia

Grab expands financial services including micro-investment solution AutoInvest; It allows Singapore users to invest small sums of money while spending in Grab’s ecosystem; With AutoInvest, users can choose how much they want to invest per Grab transaction, from as low as US$0.73. Vulcan Post

Thailand must leverage digital connectivity in the new normal; The nation has already taken an aggressive approach towards both mobile and fixed broadband development; To stimulate the 5G development and alleviate some of the investment required for operators, its govt. has introduced flexible payment terms that allow 700 MHz and 2600 MHz licenses to be paid over 10 yrs. Open Gov

Investment in IT, cybersecurity soars in Thailand; H1 2020 saw that cybersecurity spending predominantly concerned elements stipulated under the Personal Data Protection Act, including e-signatures; Cloud services in Thailand are forecast to grow by 29% from 2018 to 2025, with the market value projected to reach US$1B. Open Gov

Hybrid working model presents challenges for HR teams; Hybrid working could become permanent in the new world of work; In such a scenario, inclusion will become increasingly important, employee wellbeing should be a priority and collective ownership should be promoted. HR Asia

Timo joins hands with Viet Capital Bank as new banking partner; The new app Timo Plus will enable users to send and receive payments, manage savings and investments, borrow money, and create financial plans. Vietnam News

More than half of Myanmar consumers are interested in using digital banking, says Visa study; 43% consumers are interested in making payments with biometric authentication; The top-5 services consumers are looking for are bill payments (65%), money transfer to family and friends (56%), loans (41%), deposits and withdrawals (35%), cross-border money transfers (33%). Myanmar Tech Press

SEA’s and LatAm’s startup ecosystems are more similar than you think; Not only do both regions have relatively young populations, where the median age is below 30, consumers are also tech-savvy and connected to the internet; However, the regions still face complex challenges like logistics, security, financial inclusion, corruption, and pollution, that traditional players have not yet solved. TNW

Malaysia’s RHB Group launches first SME financing mobile app powered by AI; The app automates the customer on-boarding process; It enables customers to interact with RHB’s relationship managers via mobile app and submit applications remotely and securely at their convenience. MiDEC

Move over VR: XR in sports is the future; Extended reality (XR) is a solution that could get people back to playing real sports again but on a virtual scale; When applied to play sports, XR 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. e27

UOB launches digital bank TMRW in Indonesia; One of its key features is a game called City of TMRW, where customers can build a virtual city whenever they save; As users level up, they can unlock various options to enhance their virtual city; TMRW also offers QR code payments. Fintech News

MatchMove introduces cross-border remittance platform for businesses; This it claims will help SMEs in Singapore save up to 80% of their cost when compared to charges currently levied by most banks; According to a recent report by Google, Temasek, Bain & Company, revenue from digital remittance is estimated to hit US$28 billion by 2025. Fintech News

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Local payments platform-as-a-service firm PPRO raises US$50M

The story: PPRO, a local payments platform-as-a-service with operations in Singapore, has closed a US$50 million financing round.

Investors: Sprints Capital (lead), Citi Ventures and HPE Growth.

Plans with the capital: To scale the organisation and accelerate strategic growth plans for its global platform.

What is PPRO?

PPRO provides partners with the ability to accept locally preferred payment methods like e-wallets, bank transfers, cash, and local cards in more than 175 markets across the globe.

The company aims to remove the complexity of domestic and cross-border payments for top-tier financial institutions, payment service providers, and their merchants.

Other highlights:

• The firm reports today an 85 per cent increase in transaction volume from last year. Due in part to a massive digital shift in e-commerce consumer behaviour, PPRO is now processing an annual run rate of US$9 billion in payment transaction volume.
• PPRO has also grown the size of its team by 25 per cent since the beginning of the year. The majority of these new hires are positioned to strengthen PPRO’s three product development centres in Germany, Singapore and Brazil.

ShopBack goes to Vietnam, on-boards 150 merchants

The story: Leading rewards and discovery platform ShopBack will officially launch its website and mobile app in Vietnam on 8 August.

Online shoppers in Vietnam can earn up to 25 per cent cashback from over 150 merchants, including brands like Lazada, Shopee, Watsons, and Booking.com.

ShopBack Vietnam was launched in Beta at the end of 2019, and since then has acquired over 150 merchants and around 800,000 users. ShopBack Vietnam has seen consistent month-on-month growth of over 1.5x increase in sales and over 1.5x increase in orders this year.

What is ShopBack?

Founded in Singapore in 2014, ShopBack rewards its users with cashback across a wide range of categories, including general merchandise, travel bookings, fashion, health and beauty, groceries, and food delivery. It now serves over 20 million users in nine markets across Asia Pacific, including Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, South Korea, and Vietnam.

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MVLLABS, the company behind TADA, a blockchain-based zero-commission ride-hailing service headquartered in Singapore, has secured US$5 million in fresh funding led by Central, a South Korean company in the vehicle after-market space.

With this, MVL’s total funding raised to date has reached US$13.4 million since its inception two years ago. This includes a US$5 million in Series A round led by South Korea’s SV Investment in December last year and an extension round in May 2020.

Based in South Korea, MVL has plans to manufacture E-TukTuk (an electric auto-rickshaw system) for distribution in Southeast Asia alongside Myung-shin, a Korean automobile production plant company currently producing electric vehicles.

With this additional financing, MVL aims to accelerate its plan to supply electric vehicles in Southeast Asia, setting its sights to distribute and sell an estimate of 10,000 E-TukTuks by 2021 in Cambodia.

Also Read: Why youth entrepreneurship in Singapore is on the rise

“The biggest advantage of TADA is that there is zero platform commission to drivers. With this unique selling point, we hope to rapidly distribute E-Tuk Tuk to 600,000 platform users and bring heightened mobility innovation to the Southeast Asian market,” said Kay Woo, CEO of MVL.

MVL is a mobility ecosystem based on the Mass Vehicle Ledger incentive-based mobility blockchain protocol. MVL has been driving the mass adoption of its mobility blockchain through TADA.

TADA said in a statement that over 81,000 drivers and more than 550,000 users have used its service in Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Mobility data such as transactions, movements, accidents, and maintenance of vehicles are recorded and connected in a single MVL ecosystem. Users interact with MVL’s mobility data ecosystem on the blockchain through connected services such as TADA and other upcoming services.

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Image Credit: TADA

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Sequoia India is making key hires across its uppermost leaderships, including Ajay Gore, former CTO of Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek, as its new operating partner.

Other than him, Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav will also be joining in as the CMO and Shweta Rajpal Kohli as the Head of Public Policy.

Gore began his professional career as a Staff Scientist at NCST Mumbai (now CDAC) after which he quit to join ThoughtWorks. He then took on the role of CTO at Hoppr and left the firm after a year to start SoLoMo Media. He also co-founded the non-profits CodeIgnition and Innovation and Technology Trust.

In Gore’s new role, he will mainly work closely with the CTOs and CPOs of Sequoia’s portfolio companies.

He will also bring his experience, passion, strategic insight and innovative mindset to help companies scale engineering, data science products and design functions.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Group CTO Ajey Gore leaves gojek

“To give a boost to our efforts across several important areas, we’re excited to welcome these three widely respected senior executives to the Sequoia Capital India team in roles that will help us expand the work we do to build startups alongside our founders,” shared Shailendra J Singh in a LinkedIn post.

He further added, “At a time when technology is transforming the world and capital is abundant, the one thing that stands out for the very best startups or VC firms is the ability to attract and nurture extraordinary talent. The most promising startups have choices of which VC to pick. We believe the very discerning and highest quality founders will increasingly select venture capital firms with the best operating team who can help them succeed.”

Sequoia India is a Venture Capital firm that operates in Southeast Asia and India. Some of its portfolio companies include BYJUs, Carousell, Druva, GO-JEK, OYO Rooms, Tokopedia, Truecaller, Zilingo, and Zomato.

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Image Credit: Ajay Gore

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Wahyoo, a startup that provides digital solutions to ‘warung makan’ (small eateries) in Indonesia, has announced the closing of its US$5 million Series A round of financing, led by Intudo Ventures.

Kinesys Group, Amatil X (Coca-Cola Amatil), Arkblu Capital, Indogen Capital, Selera Kapital, Gratyo Universal Indonesia, and Isenta Hioe also joined the round.

“With this round of financing, we plan to expand our operations into new cities outside of the Greater Jakarta Region and make new hires, especially for our tech and product units,” said Peter Shearer, Founder and CEO of Wahyoo.

“We will continue to add new features and services to better meet the needs of ‘warung makan’ owners, especially improving supply chain systems and financial products, which are designed to help eateries improve margins and gain access to financial service.

Founded in August 2017 by Shearer, Daniel Cahyadi (COO) and Michael Dihardja (CTO), Wahyoo is an ecosystem builder focussing on digitising and improving the business operations of warung makan (traditional small-scale local eateries and restaurants dedicated to serving Indonesia’s burgeoning working-class population).

Also Read: Indonesia’s digitised hawker startup Wahyoo acqui-hires online store directory platform Alamat

The startup works directly with these eateries, offering digital tools and services to attract customers, enhance marketing efforts, implement loyalty programmes, order and receive groceries, manage financial accounts, and provide educational training on best practices through its Wahyoo Academy.

Eateries are also able to earn additional income via advertising and brand partnerships with Wahyoo.

Wahyoo is currently active in the Greater Jakarta Region (Jadetabek), with over 13,500 warung makan registered with it.

Prior to this round, Wahyoo had raised an undisclosed seed financing from Agaeti Ventures, Chapter 1 Ventures, Kinesys Group, SMDV, East Ventures, and Rentracks.

In February 2020, Wahyoo reportedly acqui-hired Alamat.com, a local online directory that seeks to help consumers find service- and-lifestyle stores as a part of its strategic move.
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Picture Credit: Wahyoo

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Gero raises funding to develop new drugs for ageing

The story: Singapore-based biotech company Gero has secured US$2.2 million in Series A funding, bringing the total capital raised since Gero’s founding to over US$7.5 million.

Investors: Bulba Ventures (Belarus), previous investors and serial entrepreneurs in the fields of pharmaceuticals, IT, and AI.

Plans with the money: To further develop its AI-based platform for analysing clinical and genetic data to identify treatments for some of the most complicated diseases, such as chronic ageing-related diseases, mental disorders, and others.

What does Gero do?

Gero is a group of companies that develops new drugs to treat complicated disorders using AI and physics of complex dynamic systems to analyse big datasets of biomedical data.

It collaborates with researchers from the leading global institutions such as the Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Edinburgh, National University of Singapore, and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center to develop new therapies.

Gero’s AI platform is currently in use to develop new therapies, reposition existing drugs, forecast chronic toxicity and for clinical decision support.

People’s Inc. launches solution to aid Singapore’s SMEs

The story: People’s Inc. (PINC) has launched a marketing-as-a-service (MaaS) solution under the brand name of PINC 360 to aid and serve small businesses in Singapore in view of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is PINC 360?

PINC 360 has launched “Wix and Shopify for small businesses’ social presence” platform, a tool to grow a small business with social media content.

The platform helps small business owners understand what specific content to post for their specific business. So, when to post, how often, what copy, design, call to actions and hashtags to use on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. Then the user needs to make final customisation and approve content for the whole month.

PINC 360 will post automatically at the right time and frequency, thus doing the heavy lifting for small business owners who really wouldn’t know where to begin in terms of creating and sharing content about their business.

The platform has access to 100,000-plus templates and images.

The pricing: PINC 360 starts at US$45 (platform-based) and DIFM at SG$ 388 per month.

Competitions: PINC 360 competes with visual design companies like Canva, Adobe Spark, and DIFM (‘do-it-for-me’) companies who do custom social content for small and medium businesses.

ECXX gets admission to MAS’s fintech sandbox

The story: ECXX Global, a company that operates digital asset exchange using blockchain technology, has secured admission from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to the Fintech Sandbox Express2 under a Recognised Market Operator (RMO) regime.

What does this mean?

With the approval, ECXX targets to launch a blockchain-based digital securities exchange platform, ecxx.co, that offers various asset-based digital securities — such as real estate, private equity, venture capital and investment funds — to institutional and accredited non-individual investors.

What does ECXX do?

With its own in-house proprietary system, ECXX has been operating a digital asset exchange that allows both professional traders and retail investors to buy, sell and store digital assets.

Its digital exchange platform is integrated with MyInfo, the one-stop Singapore government identity platform. This integration allows KYC checks on members of MyInfo who can log-in to ECXX’s digital asset exchange using their SingPass.

Recently in June 2020, Hatten Land invested US$6 million for a 20 per cent equity stake in ECXX.

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Image Credit: Gero

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Dian Kurniawati and Dinda Utami Ishlah had been researching on the recycling industry in Indonesia since 2014. The duo wanted to build a business that involved business and environment.

In 2014, the pair incorporated Tridi Oasis but the business didn’t kick off operations until 2017.

“Indeed, I was serious about the recycling industry for many long years before we started Tridi,” Dian Kurniawati, CEO and CFO of Tridi Oasis, told e27. “I had already set my eyes set on this industry since 2011 when I got serious about joining a business planning competition.”

Coming from an Engineering and Management educational background, Kurniawati developed social and environmental interest out of passion. She met her future co-founder Dinda Ishlah (COO) when they both were working in an oil and gas company.

“When we started out, there was next-to-no awareness about plastic waste management or how far it polluted the environment. It was harder and tech startups were the hotshots in getting funding. On top of that, we were often being questioned for being in the industry at such a young age and being females in a male-dominated industry,” Kurniawati recalled.

From waste to opportunity

The company is a classic case of passion proceeding knowledge and background that we all came to know and love, as the duo had no background in the environmental business whatsoever.

“We financed everything on our own at first. We tested and experimented with different plastics, we also tried to find the demand and to implement the right business model, up until we decided to focus on plastic bottle wastes,” Kurniawati recalled. “We also Googled everything back then.”

Now, the startup introduced recycling PET as its main product. PET is Polyethylene Terephthalate, a raw material made of plastic bottles in a form of flakes.

“These flakes can be made into a polyester textile fibre, which is then turned into yarn for clothing or shoes (like Nike which makes shoes made of plastic bottles),” Kurniawati explained. “Besides that, they can also be turned into a new packaging or a material to stuff dacrons.”

It’s a never-ending cycle for their products and that’s exactly what they aimed for — to produce something that has a circular life to it.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Myanmar’s waste-management startup RecyGlo raising US$900K to expand into Indonesia, Singapore

“We usually sourced our plastic bottles from the trash collectors and people who buy the plastic bottles from manual scavengers, sort it out to resell to bigger collectors with the machine to press all the plastic bottles to be ready to process. Sometimes, we also source directly from restaurants, schools, landfills and waste banks in housing complexes,” Kurniawati shared.

Pre-COVID-19, the company also regularly did a beach cleanup, not only for environmental awareness but to get plastic bottles that they needed. “We set up a beach cleanup organisation based in Jakarta to do it regularly alongside four other organisations,” she recalled.

After collecting all these bottles, Tridi Oasis then uses a certain machine in its facility that turns these plastic bottles into flakes, ready to be sold again to their customers (less than five currently as they’re selling in bulk).

Creating demand to solve waste problems

Plastic pollution is a huge cause for concern for Indonesia: it is the second-largest contributor of ocean plastics in the world. Its current waste management systems are not adequate to handle the large amount of waste generated, especially with plastic consumption expected to continue to increase amid the population and economic growth.

Indonesia is “monumentally” a laggard when it comes to waste management — at least that’s what Kurniawati thought when e27 asked on what the country needs to do more to catch up with the rest of the world.

Kurniawati further emphasises on the importance of having government-imposed waste management. “We think it would make a difference if the government is involved in the imposing of mandatory recycling, like making sure that every product with packaging that contains plastic must have a recycling content of x and x per cent; this in effect can create demand,” said Kurniawati.

The demand that Kurniawati meant will benefit all parties involved, like the recycling companies of Tridi Oasis’ league. “With the government’s regulation on this matter, companies that still use plastics will need to partner with recycling companies so that they can adhere to the regulation to recycle their production waste. The sense of responsibility needs to be built and maintained,” said Kurniawati.

Beyond plastic

For the bigger picture, Kurniawati added, the country needs to start by carefully mapping and getting to the roots of the waste problem. “It can also be done by really thinking about where the problems lie with plastic use, not simply eliminating it,” she said.

What Kurniawati meant is how the country needs to think about why the plastic is needed, how plastic can be valuable, and what kind of plastic management required from the production down to how it can be reused again to ensure there’s next to zero waste.

Also Read: Can the new waste disposal app bail out Bali from its waste problem?

“The problem lies in the inability to think beyond the plastic. The lack of understanding and awareness to simply put trash in the trash can as a start, so every waste can be managed accordingly instead of scattered around. Look at Japan, they still use plastic on daily basis and is recorded to be country with the highest use of plastic, but the people are aware enough that they need to do their bid in collecting their plastic waste and drop it in the recycling centre for the plastic to be available,” said Kurniawati.

Indonesia definitely can learn from the way Japan handles plastic waste instead of blindly banning plastic use.

Tridi Oasis’s next move

The company recently raised US$6 million investment from investors such as Singapore-based Circulate Capital via its Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF), which is dedicated to the ocean plastic crisis in South and Southeast Asia. A company from India also co-invested in the round.

Speaking of the investment, Kurniawati said that the funding will be used for relocation to a better facility for production and to increase their capacity.

“Circulate Capital is not only providing funding but also network and market access. They also take the role of becoming an operational advisor to help our operation be more efficient,” she added.

The next move is to diversify to other types of plastics. “In December 2019, we received a grant from the Korean Government Agency which we used for research in recycling multilayered plastic sachet waste. Why we chose sachet waste because it’s really hard to recycle and it’s everywhere,” Kurniawati shared.

“We have found a way to turn the sachet waste into something more valuable,” she added.

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Image Credit: Tridi Oasis

The post One man’s trash is another’s gold: How Tridi Oasis plans to transform plastic waste management appeared first on e27.

According to an annual national graduate careers survey conducted in 2019 by GTI Media Singapore, interest among local youths to create or join a startup has never been higher. Therefore, it is of no surprise to find the youth startup ecosystem in Singapore thriving.

Today, we will explore the reasons behind this growth by examining various aspects of the ecosystem, starting with current educational programmes in universities to nurture budding entrepreneurs.

University support

What do Carousell, Shopback, and 99.co have in common? They were founded by graduates fresh out of university, which turned out to be their very first career job too. Along with other startups such as e27 and Xfers, the sheer number of young entrepreneurs being produced in universities is no mere coincidence.

In fact, it is a by-product of initiatives in place by schools to cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit of millennials today. Since the founding of the now esteemed NUS Overseas College (NOC) in 2002, there has been a shift in emphasis by universities today to focus on entrepreneurship, as opposed to STEM in the decade before the millennium.

Student clubs such as the NUS Entrepreneurship Society (NES) has grown to become one of the largest in the local university scene, thus solidifying the fact that youths of today are increasingly interested in joining the startup ecosystem.

Also Read: 3 lessons I learned as a student entrepreneur

It is not only the entrepreneurship side of the house that gets increased attention. Venture capital (VC), an important piece of the ecosystem, is getting eyeballs too. Originally started out as a pilot project by SMU in 2017, Protégé Ventures has grown to be the first student-run venture fund in Southeast Asia.

Besides training students in the field of VC investing, they support student entrepreneurs in building their young companies too. With the presence of Protégé complemented by student entrepreneurs coming from NES and NOC, startups in universities find themselves in a micro-ecosystem after all.

Therefore, it is not shocking that Singapore is home to a multitude of startups founded by youth entrepreneurs.

Accelerating growth

Upon exiting the university ecosystem, it is paramount startups get the right support and funding, especially for those at the scaling stage where cash burn would be at its highest. Fortunately, there is generous aid in this aspect.

From accelerator programmes by corporate giants such as Singapore Airlines (SIA) and DBS Bank to incubator programmes by global early-stage VCs such as Antler, resources are aplenty for startups to thrive in the local ecosystem. These programmes are key to fuel the next stage of growth for these budding startups due to the extensive access to market resources and mentorship that they provide.

Furthermore, acceptance into incubator and accelerator programmes serve as validation of startups’ initial business model and instils confidence in young entrepreneurs for further expansion.

Also Read: Entrepreneurship in a pandemic: Seeking success through economic turmoil

Mentors are paramount for startups to succeed given the uncertain environment they operate in and the ecosystem here has been able to utilise past successes to its advantage by bringing in experienced mentors, both from the field of startups and other key players such as venture capitalists and large corporations, to aid youth entrepreneurs. That has certainly been the case for the Startup SG Founder scheme by Enterprise Singapore.

As of May 2020, their mentor network totalled 57 different established partners, ranging from VC firms such as Cocoon Capital to infrastructure support services such as Silicon Solution Partners. The wide variety of mentorship available in a government-led initiative is rarely seen in other parts of the region, where ecosystems are still maturing and thus have a scarcity of mentors.

Therefore, local youth entrepreneurs should fully utilise these opportunities available to their advantage and tap on the vast network these mentors bring about to take their businesses to the next level.

Funding

Given that research has shown that one of the top reasons why startups fail is due to a lack of cash, sufficient funding is a key driver for startups to succeed. This is especially so for early-stage startups given the high cash burn associated at the beginning due to the inability to achieve economies of scale.

Often, founders bootstrap their businesses by devoting personal savings into them and not taking a salary for months at a time. However, there is only so much one can pour into their firm from their savings. Ultimately, external funding must occur to fuel the next phase of growth. Out of the plethora of government agencies providing cash grants and equity financing schemes to assist startups, the Startup SG Founder grant is perhaps the most relevant for youth entrepreneurs to tap onto.

It provides first-time entrepreneurs with a capital grant of up to S$30,000 on a 3:1 co-matching arrangement. Therefore, to receive the maximum value of the grant, entrepreneurs themselves need to raise and commit S$10,000 to the business.

Private equity support for local startups is increasing too with the influx of angel investors and VC firms. Angel investors are high net worth individuals who invest in startups at their seed stage. They invest in companies despite there being no proven success of the company’s business model.

Also Read: Angel investing is full of risks –but that is why it is so rewarding

Therefore, they are advantageous to startups, particularly in the deep tech sector, that requires significant capital for a proof-of-concept to validate their business model. Notable angel investor groups include Business Angel Network South East Asia (BANSEA), Asia’s oldest angel investment network and Business Angel Scheme (BAS), which is supported by SPRING Singapore.

For late-stage startups that require large capital for scaling, founders turn to VCs to pitch their businesses in hope of securing funding. The vibrant VC scene in Singapore has resulted in a diverse range of VCs investing in local startups. From global VCs such as 500 Startups and Sequoia Capital to local players such as KK Fund and Jungle Ventures, the wide variety of venture investors here is a testament to the strength of the local startup ecosystem, driven by the potential of youth entrepreneurs.

The future

Youth entrepreneurs in Singapore are indeed fortunate to find a thriving and supportive ecosystem in place to launch their businesses. The abundance of public resources devoted is also a validation of the fact that the government views startups as the next driver of growth for the local economy, given that the nation has already previously exploited its competitive advantages in manufacturing and engineering.

The highly skilled local workforce would also be able to supplement the rise in startups, particularly in the deep tech sector with increased emphasis on data learning and artificial intelligence in universities today. Therefore, the future does indeed look bright for youth entrepreneurs in the little red dot.

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

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