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Quest Ventures, ScaleUp Malaysia team up to invest up to US$1M in Malaysian startups

Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures officially announced a partnership with ScaleUp Malaysia to invest in and scale the growth of Malaysian startups. The deal brought in MYR4.1 million (US$1 million) in Foreign Direct Investment to develop Malaysian startups.

The programme welcomes startups that are operating on business models that “have the propensity to disrupt existing markets or have solutions that are able to navigate future challenges and take advantage of opportunities brought about by the current economic climate.”

In total, 24 companies shortlisted from the second cohort’s applications will start the programme in October, which is culminating in the presentation of their solutions in front of the Investment Committee.

As part of the partnership, the programme will invest at least US$60,250 in up to 12 of these companies.

ScaleUp Malaysia first launched its cohort in December 2019 with 20 companies. Ten of them received an investment of USD$48,283. ​

Also Read: ScaleUp Malaysia kickstarts 3-month programme with 20 companies in first cohort

Through their “Pegasus” model, the accelerator grooms startups in the growth and post-product-market fit stage, ready-to-scale up businesses with high revenue growth and increased profitability rates that attract follow-on investments.

“In this second cohort, we want to empower solutions that tap into the buy-in of the digital economy and prime them through our syllabus designed to take local companies to the global stage,” said D​r V. Sivapalan, Senior Partner of ScaleUp Malaysia.

Earlier this year, ​Quest Ventures announced the first close of its venture capital fund named Asia Fund II after getting support from Singapore’s Pavilion Capital, ​which is a subsidiary of Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd. QazTech Ventures, which is a subsidiary of Kazakhstan state investment institution Baiterek National Managing Holding JSC, also pitched in.

The fund will be used to further expand and strengthen its presence within Southeast and Emerging Asia.

Applications for cohort 2 officially opens on September 8. Participants must be registered as a Malaysian company and will be shortlisted based on four key criteria: Revenue generation, ability to demonstrate product-market fit, having the ​potential of highly scalable products or service, and the possibility of global expansion.

Image Credit: ScaleUp Malaysia

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Accelerating Asia announces 8 startups selected for its third cohort

Accelerating Asia, an accelerator and venture fund which focuses on early-stage startups, has announced its third cohort of companies.

“We have expanded our geographical footprint into India and reaffirmed our presence in Indonesia via our recruitment efforts for the cohort, the talent of our startups are well placed to deliver returns for investors,” said Craig Dixon, co-founder of Accelerating Asia.

Based in Singapore, the programme boasts an acceptance rate of less than two per cent with only eight selected from 450 applications, where participating startups range from B2B, B2C and B2G verticals, including energy, transportation, healthcare and cleantech.

Each company in the programme will receive S$50,000 (US$36,556) while top performers will get S$150,000 (US$109,669).

Accelerating Asia is also approaching the final close of the fund and is continuing to sign partnerships with limited partners (LPs) for early and exclusive access to their startups, providing qualified deal-flow, pro-rata rights and a first-option for investment. According to the company statement, the startups have already started receiving more than S$1.2 million (US$800,000) in initial commitments from existing investors and angels who are Accelerating Asia’s limited partners.

With the pandemic, the programme has pivoted into a virtual programme.

Also Read: News Roundup: Accelerating Asia to invest up to US$141K each in third cohort startups

Here are the eight startups selected in the programme:

AskDr

The startup connects consumers to verified doctors via its health information platform.

Energy Lite

A platform which enables investors to finance small to medium solar projects.

KaryaKarsa

The startup that allows creatives to showcase their works and services through its direct-to-fans monetisation platform.

Kinexcs

A health and fitness platform that connects clinicians to patients.

MyBrand

An app-based platform for home-based culinary businesses and cloud kitchen brands to reach out to a larger mass.

Shuttle

The startup provides safe and affordable transportation for locals in Bangladesh

WeavAir

The startup helps operators save up to 30 per cent of operation and maintenance costs and 60 per cent of energy through its sensors and predictive analytics.

ProjectPro

A work automation platform that helps data scientists get their projects done faster

Since its launch in 2018, Accelerating Asia said that it has grown into a community of more than 48 founders from 28 startups, spread across Asia with 40 per cent female-led or co-founded ventures. They work alongside regional angel networks such as Angel Hub, ANGIN and Angel Central as well as leading institutional investors, including Cocoon Capital, Monks Hill Ventures, and Golden Gate Ventures.

Nineteen companies from their past two cohorts have raised a collective investment of over S$5 million (US$3.6 million) during the 100-day accelerator program.

Image Credit:  Startaê Team

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Looking east: Why the future of VC investment is beyond the Silicon Valley

silicon valley

When American investors think startups, they think Stanford and Silicon Valley. Google, Apple and Facebook share one area code with direct access to some of the brightest entrepreneurial minds right here in Mountain View.

It’s true that Silicon Valley has long been on the bleeding edge of tech startup innovation, but some investors erroneously see proximity to the valley as a shortcut to success, thinking they will outperform the market by mere virtue of setting up shop in the 650 area code.

On more than one occasion, a fellow VC has said to me point-blank: “If I can’t drive to where the company is based, then I won’t invest.”

This statement goes beyond laziness or hubris and becomes willful ignorance. Never mind the fact that other cities in the US (many on the East Coast) now have vibrant, up-and-coming tech ecosystems of their own.

Based on my research and findings over the last six years, as I seek to map the global startup and venture capital ecosystem, I’ve found that in many verticals, the best deals are not coming out of the US. This shouldn’t be a controversial thing to say, but many investors in the valley need to hear it.

Limiting oneself geographically, when nearly all tech investments are made on a global scalability basis, is foolish and bizarre. If US VCs want to stay at the top of their game and maximise returns amidst tougher competition, they need to broaden their competence and take a global view.

A variety of foreign markets are primed and ready

Post-World War II, large American multinationals expanded to Asia and South America to take advantage of cheaper manufacturing bases in developing economies. These giants weathered a hodge-podge of government regulations, cultural and language barriers, as well as basic infrastructure obstacles.

As pioneers of the industry, they paved the way for the second wave of investors in the ’80s and ’90s, as the manufacturing boom swelled. Regulations were in place, local workforces and SMEs were familiar with foreign investors, and key infrastructure had been set up.

Also Read: Why we are far from being the Silicon Valley of Asia

Today, we’re seeing this pattern play out again with American tech investors. Just 10 years ago, countries such as Indonesia barely saw venture investments beyond government-supported grant programmes. Since then, big guns such as KKR, 500 Startups, Tencent, SoftBank, and PayPal have set up local offices and participated in fundraising rounds passing the billion-dollar mark.

Indonesia now has six unicorns, and one ‘decacorn’ in ridesharing-turned-super app GoJek. With valuations at home skyrocketing and competition among an array of corporate VC firms, independent VCs, PE and accelerator models saturating the local startup investment scheme, markets such as Indonesia are primed and ready for the second wave of American money to come in.

In 2019, Indonesia-based VCs raised US$582 million, a whopping 79 per cent up from US$325 million the year prior. These numbers show that there is much more room for growth compared to Singapore’s US$2 billion hauls.

In 2018, the Indonesian government announced income tax incentives for VCs that put money into local tech startups. The aim was to further boost the archipelago nation’s digital economy and e-commerce aspirations.

For a country that is home to 267 million people, of which at least 50 million are in the growing middle-class with rising discretionary incomes, the hunt for the next Indonesian unicorn is on. American VCs can bring their expertise and best practices to play. In Europe, Africa, South Asia, South America and Asia Pacific, Indonesia’s story is repeated, with slight variations.

Paving a specialist path

Of course, not every VC has the heft of Sequoia or Accel to carve out a major footprint in the Asia Pacific or South America. So rather than throwing a dart at a map, smart VCs are playing to their strengths and conserving their gunpowder for investments in certain sectors only.

The first wave of American VCs has affected how governments and markets respond to fundraising, and as a result, we are seeing certain regions and economies acting as sectoral hubs.

Take Europe, for example. Even prior to Brexit, economies such as Luxembourg and Germany were already viewed as bona fide financial hubs. Post-Brexit, countries such as Belgium and Lithuania are taking on monikers as fintech hubs in their own right, and choosing collaborative approaches to draw investors in.

While the European Union is virtually borderless for talent and travel, financial regulations are still very much the privy of individual countries’ central banks. Fintech firms thus have space to disrupt traditional banking while gaining access to highly-educated tech talent.

Also Read: Mulling over the future of investing with Paul Meyers and Jussi Salovaara

Even when entering countries where language or cultural barriers still exist, American VCs can lend their firepower to local VCs in fundraising rounds without reinventing the wheel of market research and KYC. With more US investments in European startups, Americans are increasingly willing to participate in earlier rounds.

Broadly, VCs taking the sectoral approach can take note of regional trends such as:

Sector Hub Why?
Fintech Europe Disrupt traditional banking, strong finance, and tech talent base.
Healthtech China, North Asia The aging population as a result of the one-child policy (China), cultural focus on health and elderly wellbeing.
Agritech South Asia, South America Building on agriculture backbone to improve farm efficiency and aid farmer financing. Rising middle-class with more conscientious food spending.
Cybersecurity Israel Many startup founders come from intelligence services or defense force backgrounds.
Logistics South Asia, Southeast Asia Archipelago nations and those with disparate geographic features have unique connectivity challenges that need to be solved.
Gaming Asia Pacific Diversity in offerings including mobile games, e-sports, game development studios, and gaming infrastructure.

Finding footing in a pandemic

Prior to the pandemic, a 2019 report projected that Asia would overtake North America as the global centre for VC funding by this year. Although COVID-19’s impact on Asia’s much younger population has been less devastating than it has been in the US, VCs are keeping their powder dry and staying risk-averse in the hopes that the virus will see its end soon.

However, smart VCs will take this opportunity to forge partnerships with overseas funds, start exploring foreign due diligence, and invest in startups that will either: thrive in this new normal (gaming, edutech, e-payments, etc) or come out of the other side stronger (moving startups toward profitability instead of growth at all costs).

The good news? Those who do invest globally will be facing less competition, as many VCs are now focusing on their existing portfolio of startups. Valuations (namely in Asia) that have been skyrocketing over the last four or five years are now starting to normalise — offering American VCs a very attractive entry point into companies that can scale regionally or even globally.

If there was ever a time for savvy American VCs to deploy their financial firepower abroad, it is now. Those who refuse to look beyond the valley in 2020 will soon be in serious trouble.

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Ecosystem Roundup: 5 S’pore startups on track to be unicorns in 2021; Fvndit, Sunday, Kim An raise funding

5 Singapore startups are on track to be a unicorn in 2021; They are PropertyGuru, Ninja Van, Carousel, Zilingo, Biofourmis; As of September 2020, there are more than 400 unicorns around the world; The most valuable startup in the world is TikTok’s parent Bytedance. Vulcan Post

How customers help drive Shopback’s product development journey; The e-commerce firm measures customer value and used customer feedback metrics to shape its product development journey amidst the pandemic; During the ongoing crisis, ShopBack Singapore saw a 4x surge in orders for product categories such as fitness and electronics, while the internet services category increased by around 70X from Q1-Q2. e27

Despite Limited 4G Penetration, emerging markets on par with rest of the world in 5G rollout; The pace of the rollout will be expedited by a combination of regulatory enablement, enabling technologies and the broader use cases that 5G brings forward, says an an industry analyst. ABI Research

ASEAN consumers ‘less than satisfied’ with their e-commerce experience; As per a research buyers expressed most frustration with the cost of delivery and services, reliability of product, fake online reviews; E-commerce players are likely to see mounting difficulties if they fail to focus on consumer satisfaction and raise their standards going forward. Inside Retail Asia

Fvndit raises US$30M debt financing for its Vietnamese P2P lending firm eLoan; Investors include Accial Capital, Variant Investments; eLoan allows investors to lend money directly to SMEs driven by a data-driven crediting rating and decision-making system. KrAsia

Sunday raises US$9M from Thai bank SCB’s VC arm, Vertex, others; The insurtech startup plans to grow its domestic business in Thailand and Indonesia; Sunday has developed risk prediction algorithms that power its premium pricing and recommendation engines for health and motor coverages. e27

Kim An raises Series A to connect Vietnam’s FIs with MSMEs via its fintech platform; Investors are Patamar Capital, Viet Capital Ventures, East Ventures; So far, 25K+ loans have been disbursed through Kim An; As per a recent study, Vietnam is one of the most attractive fintech hubs in SEA. e27

Singapore’s Aerospring raises US$730K pre-Series A led by Sirius Venture; The startup’s patented vertical-gardening system uses aeroponics; The automated system grows up to 27 edible plants at a time using 10 sqft feet of space; The plants grow twice as fast and use 90% less water than traditional methods of gardening using soil. Business Times

Filipino fintech JazzyPay raises US$500K from Cocoon Capital; The startup provides payments and invoicing solutions to consumers across SEA; The virus outbreak has prompted people to adopt cashless payment methods as a form of payment and, in turn, contributed to the rise of a new cashless society. e27

Fiat or crypto? Why the payment giants are warming up to digital assets; Deutsche Bank predicts digital assets would replace fiat by 2030; With cryptocurrencies gradually taking the spotlight, this phenomenon has become an opportunity for traditional payment service providers to look into the blockchain and explore how they can integrate such tech into their systems. e27

5-step strategy for agri e-commerce startups to engage customers; For the startups who are planning to venture into the agri e-commerce space, managing the food value chain to build customer’s confidence around the quality of produce, food safety, and best value is essential for customer engagement. e27

Resiliency, innovation are mirror-twins in the digital world; Innovation happens when workers or organisations stretch the boundaries of what they are doing and come up with ideas and systems that often involve a new way of doing things; Both innovation and resiliency require the ability to evolve with time and situation and come up with a new paradigm. GovInsider

How proptech impacts real estate; Building great tech products and systems will create a better experience and outcome for consumers in the long term; The future is where there is greater transparency between owners, tenants, trades, and property managers, along with a stronger reliance on apps and portals. e27

Banks should turn to using AI in eKYC in the digital arms race; AI represents significant cost reduction opportunities particularly within the KYC space where it is time-consuming and previously required humans to manually read through the documents, and verify pictures against identification documents like the NRIC. Fintech News

Valyou launches blockchain-based remittance services in Bangladesh; Through this service, the Bangladeshi diaspora in Malaysia can send wage remittance via Valyou to a beneficiary in Bangladesh who is a bKash wallet user; The service is powered by blockchain technology from Ant Group. Fintech News

US property management Onerent enters Singapore; It is now planning to work in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam; Onerent offers a technology that promotes a contactless way of buying and selling properties. e27

500 Bruneians to participate first ‘Teens in AI’ hackathon SEA; It’s a developmental programme by UK’s Acorn Aspirations; The pilot hackathon, titled ‘AI For Good’, has begun with 53 school students aged 14-16 years; Participants will act as a pool of leaders/ambassadors for the next phase – a cross-school hackathon targeting 500 students to develop 100 solutions in Q1 2021. Biz Brunei

In Jakarta suburb, Mitsubishi and Temasek plan US$2B smart city; It will include homes, shopping centres and medical facilities, with the goal of housing 40K-60K permanent residents; Development is expected to take about 20 years. Nikkei Asian Review

hoolah Launches ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ solution for physical stores in Singapore; It is a fully digital, so installation is not required; According to Singapore’s Department of Statistics, retail sales in the country fell a record 52% in May, and analysts continue to foresee a slow recovery for the industry for the rest of 2020. Fintech New

Is Malaysia finally taking mental health in the workplace seriously?; The attitude towards mental health has changed quite tremendously; The stigma barriers are coming down; Corporate employers are now ready to launch employee mental health support programmes, and once launched, the employees are ready to participate. Tech Collective

Photo by Juliana Maltaon Unsplash

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A closer look at Zendesk: fostering better customer relationships for startups everywhere

Zendesk

In order to help empower the APAC tech startup ecosystem, we recently launched Perks: a curated selection designed to give e27 Pro members an access to top-class products and services with over US$10,000 worth in savings. In order to do that, we have partnered with some of the most amazing solution providers in the region.

We spoke to Kristen Durham, Startups VP for Zendesk, to get a closer look at their products and services and to help the community understand better how Zendesk can help them yield desirable results.

Can you describe what your company does? What industry you are in, who your target market is?

Zendesk is a service-first CRM company that builds support, sales, and customer engagement software designed to foster better customer relationships. From large enterprises to startups, we believe that powerful, innovative customer experiences should be within reach for every company, no matter the size, industry, or ambition. Zendesk serves more than 160,000 customers across a multitude of industries in over 30 languages.

How does your product/service help companies? What gaps in the market do your products bridge?

Our support products and sales management tools help meet the needs of our customers by delivering fast time to value through customer experience solutions that are empowering businesses to communicate reliably, authentically and seamlessly across channels. We’re also further building out our messaging solutions at a time when connected customer conversations are critically important.

Most importantly, our solutions are quick to implement, easy to use, and can scale to fit business needs. With Zendesk, it takes hours — not weeks — to get up and running, affording companies of varying sizes the flexibility and adaptability to quickly scale and meet fast-changing customer needs.

Can you give an example of how your product is being used by your customers? Any customer success stories you’d like to share?

The pandemic has put increased pressure on ticket volumes, and we’re serving clients in key industries such as airlines, retail, ridesharing, and travel and hospitality, aiding them through increased support, flexible payment terms and other means. Because the crisis has unfolded at varying paces and severity across APAC and the world, companies have also been impacted in different ways. Thus, our local teams continue to provide individualized support to our customers so they can better navigate these shifts. A few examples of how companies in APAC and around the world are using Zendesk include:

Supported by Zendesk, Singapore-based robo-advisory StashAway adopted the use of WhatsApp, which is now used for 60% of all incoming customer inquiries. Because of its easy accessibility and capability to reduce the first response time by half, messaging quickly became the preferred engagement channel for their customers. Today, despite challenges imposed by the pandemic, StashAway continues to give their customers peace of mind that they are always accessible by ensuring that they can meet customers where they are.

Also read: Kim An raises Series A to connect Vietnam’s financial institutions with MSMEs via its fintech platform

One of Thailand’s top cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitkub uses Zendesk’s complete support package to attract and retain a strong customer base by supporting and educating their customers. The market leader with 95% market share boasts over 500 useful articles on Guide, 3,000 ticket volume per month, and a 90% CSAT score. For the rapidly expanding Bitkub, scalable software like Zendesk is essential to supporting business growth.

When Mailchimp started using Zendesk, they realised the difference using intuitive tools and data visibility can make when building a customer-centric approach. Using Zendesk Chat, Explore and Support to empower 200 agents, Mailchimp saw a 200% increase in CSAT survey response. The team uses customer insight and data to refine their products, automations to increase support efficiency, and relies on triggers and more than 1,000 macros to help keep customer response times short. With Zendesk tools at their fingertips, Mailchimp saved a whopping 48,000 agent replies in a single year, and has a full resolution time of 24 hours on average for email and just over 26 minutes for live chats.

Are there any recent accomplishments of your company that you want to share with the e27 Community?

This year has tested us all, but as we work to keep our business moving forward, we are proud that we are able to continue to prioritize the wellbeing of our customers, our employees and our communities.

We have maintained steady momentum in APAC with 25 per cent revenue growth in the region in the second quarter of 2020. We welcomed new regional leadership with Wendy Johnstone joining as regional chief operating officer, Gari Johnson joining as SVP of sales for APAC, and Chad Pearce joining as vice president of marketing for APAC.

Also read: In Brief: Descartes Underwriting raises US$18.5M to expand to Singapore, Manny Pacquiao launches PacPay

Through the global pandemic and economic uncertainties, we’re helping our customers adapt so they can compete at this moment. Specifically, leveraging Zendesk’s flexibility as a competitive advantage, helping businesses quickly spin up help centres, add new service channels and tame spiking tickets with tools such as Answer Bot, our self-service chatbot. We are also equipping our customers with the resources they need to reimagine their CX strategies, such as COVID-19 Benchmark data showing how brands are adapting their customer service. Through our virtual events, including the virtual Zendesk Showcase APAC and CX Moments series, we’re connecting our customers with other like-minded businesses to come up with creative solutions to the challenges we’re all facing.

At the same time, we are working hard to keep our employees engaged so we can maintain productivity and satisfaction. We recently introduced a global caregiver leave benefit through the end of 2020, along with additional resources for caregivers, so employees can be there for those who matter most to them. We are prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) with our commitment to five core actions, which include training managers, investing in employee DEI education, and formalizing a Global Equity policy. And we have also expanded our mental health benefits and added flexible time off through the end of Q3.

Also read: Grab in talks with Prudential, AIA to raise up to US$500M: Report

Last but not least, we continue to make investments to help meet the needs of the many communities we call home, in APAC and around the world. These include supporting the development of crucial COVID-19 resources through the Tech for Good program, which has provided 67 Zendesk instances to organizations globally. We also connect employees with virtual volunteering, skill-sharing, and community engagement opportunities in their local communities. Since mid-March, Zendesk employees have logged nearly 4,500 hours of virtual service. Finally, we’re also donating directly to organizations that can help advance DEI in our communities, amounting to over a million dollars given to 10 organizations including The Asia Foundation.

e27 Perks

To find out more about all the Perks that come with your e27 Pro membership, check out our list of offerings here.

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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