In an effort to open up dialogue on new dimensions of innovation, the National Innovation Agency (NIA) of Thailand launched the Startup Thailand x Innovation Thailand Expo 2020. The project is a complete virtual event that does not only demonstrate Thailand’s strong innovation potential, but also creates a new phenomenon that combines all sectors to take part in the development of the national innovation ecosystem and make it stronger.

The event successfully concluded last September 18, which Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana, Executive Director of NIA described as “an important synergy of leading Thai startups and innovators that have come together to show the innovation potential of the country in a virtual event.” The initiative also seeks to create changes in the country in order to address issues surrounding different crises occurring around the world.

Also read: TechCrunch founder’s VC firm leads US$3.7M in ex-Golden Gate employee’s blockchain startup Persistence

This year, there was cooperation from 133 partner organisations and 412 agencies to exhibit their innovative works geared towards coping with the crisis across 6 important themes. The event also featured 47 topics as discussed by more than 100 renowned speakers from 29 countries around the world.

Throughout the event, NIA received positive responses from government agencies, private sectors, startups, entrepreneurs, investors, students, and other interested stakeholders. A total of 15,462 people registered to the event, with approximately 19,000 visitors having accessed the website, which is now open for those who want to catch up on all the sessions.

Addressing the future through innovation

With the Startup Thailand x Innovation Thailand 2020, NIA is creating waves in the areas of innovation and technology not just as a means of mitigating the effects of different forms of global crises, but also as a means to holistically improve and empower broad spaces including economy, society, education, and culture.

The project has resulted in a number of successes, including the creation of a vast network of more than 3,000 stakeholders and investors and a total amount of 20,000 million baht from 120 investors ready to be invested across 48 corporations.

Also read: Hong Kong to drive business growth and collaboration under the “new normal” by leveraging innovation and technology

Moreover, over 200 startups are able to offer more than 46,000 products and services through an online market interface, opening up employment opportunities of more than 3,300 jobs across over 600 positions, which provide a vital driving force for the country’s economy. Such developments help address changing consumer behaviour in the new normal, creating a collaborative network between private and public sectors across various spaces including professional development and education.

The initiative also helped create new data assets from the use of Data Analytics to predict what will happen in the future, creating innovative business opportunities, and establishing data-driven innovation.

Moving forward with NIA

Dr. Pun-Arj emphasised NIA’s commitment to driving the country’s future through innovation, which is why Startup Thailand x Innovation Thailand 2020 is not just an online event but also a policy-based initiative to promote and support startups and innovative entrepreneurs. The initiative primarily serves as a tool to raise awareness on the concrete use of “Innovation in Times of Crisis”, one in which the “Virtual World” it has created won’t end after the pandemic, but will become a mechanism for continuous innovation and the further development of the innovation ecosystem.

Also read: Ecosystem Roundup: How challenger banks can succeed in SEA; Singapore SMEs digitalise at higher rates than global peers amid crisis

Pun-Arj concluded by highlighting the need for the ecosystem to adjust the innovation paradigm to cope with the different crises that are happening, including COVID-19, environmental degradation, and global economic setbacks — all of which are, in many ways, inextricable with one another. From the online forums in the event, NIA found that the global trends are now pointed at Deep Tech which will play an important role in addressing today’s challenges not only as a defensive strategy, but as a force that actually drives global transformation.

Moving forward, the next step for Startup Thailand x Innovation Thailand 2021 will see a specific focus on ‘DeepTech Rising’. This future instalment of the NIA initiative highlights the important next steps that the world should be taking as we inch closer to a post-pandemic future.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
the National Innovation Agency of Thailand.

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ION Mobility, a smart electric motorbike startup in Singapore, has received US$3.3 million in seed funding from investors, such as Monk’s Hill Ventures, TNB Aura and Village Global.

500 Durians, the Southeast Asian unit of 500 Startups, besides AngelCentral syndicate, kipleX and Seeds Capital, also joined the round.

The funds will be used to launch its electric motorbikes in Southeast Asia, expand market presence and develop its R&D, supply chain and manufacturing capabilities.

Also Read: Grab, Hyundai launches their first electric vehicle service in Indonesia

ION Mobility aims to create an affordable and sustainable mobility for everyone by combining advanced software and hardware technology with human-centred design.

It wants to provide clean alternatives for urban users, so as to alleviate urban air pollution and lead the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) across Southeast Asia, starting with motorbike.

The plan is to convert the 200-plus million motorcycle users in Southeast Asia from petrol to electric to drive a sustainable future.

“There is no proven EV motorbike brand in Southeast Asia with products that can compel motorbike riders to join the inevitable electric revolution,” ION Mobility Co-founder and CEO James Chan said: “We are committed to offering riders across Southeast Asia superior alternatives to their petrol-based motorbikes with our next- generation, smart and connected electric motorbikes that are clean, aspirational and affordable.”

The market opportunity for the motorbike industry in Southeast Asia is expected to hit US$8.53 billion by 2023. ION enters the market focusing on Indonesia, which has one of the biggest motorbike markets globally, with 2019 motorcycle sales at 6.38 million units a year.

Also Read: How electric scooters will revolutionise Southeast Asia’s congested cities

ION plans to launch its first EV motorbike in Indonesia in 2021.

In addition, the company is set to expand its team and operations across Singapore, Jakarta and Shenzhen, develop its in-house research and development capabilities, and build up its supply chain and manufacturing partnerships.

“Southeast Asia has one of the largest and fastest growing number of motorbike users in the world. With a rising middle class and newer generation of riders craving for affordable, cleaner and relatable motorbikes, ION Mobility is poised to combine technical performance, modern design, and mobile connectivity to the masses,” said Kuo-Yi Lim, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill.

“We at TNB Aura believe that the emergence of a local OEM champion is both necessary and imminent, with Southeast Asia representing 8 per cent of the world population yet 25 per cent of global motorbike demand. We are excited to be supporting strong repeat entrepreneurs James and Joel in bringing a home-grown mainstream EV motorbike offering to the market, starting with Indonesia,” said Charles Wong, Co-founder and Managing Partner of TNB Aura.

ION co-fouders Chan and Joel Chang (COO) have a track record in building and scaling tech companies in Southeast Asia. Prior to ION, Chan was a venture capitalist and entrepreneur at Neoteny Labs, Silicon Straits and Wecash.

Also Read: Vietnam’s e-bike Saigon aims to replace cars for urban transportation

Chang, an automotive industry veteran, co-founded Scorpio Electric and has previously led a BMW dealer group’s establishment and expansion across Asia.

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Image Credit: ION Mobility

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MyCloudFulfillment (MCF), an e-commerce fulfilment company based in Thailand, has announced that it has closed a US$2 million Series A round of financing from local PE firm ECG-Research, Gobi Partners, Bangkok-based NVest Venture, and SCB 10X, a holding company of Siam Commercial Bank.

The investment will help MCF broaden its product development, build data-centric organisation and leverage collected data to help fuel e-commerce growth in the home market.

Also Read: These 7 homegrown e-commerces are on track to put Thailand on global map

MCF provides storage, packing and shipping services with sales channel integration and data analytics for e-commerce firms. Its Order Management analytics helps customers manage orders from multiple channels (online to offline) and make the best decision on promotion campaigns and sales channel optimisation.

In addition, its Inventory Management analytics can help suggest customers what stock keeping units (SKUs) to stock more or stock less and at what level. This helps customers save a lot of opportunity cost from over-stocking or under-stocking their products.

MCF’s Fulfilment Management analytics helps customers keep up with fulfilment movement, which means they can see statistics throughout the process — from receiving order to shipping out the products. This also shows level of profitability of each order, which we can use to help improve customer’s bottom line.

MCF claims that it recently passed milestones of over 100,000 SKUs in storage, over 50,000 of maximum daily orders, and over THB 500 million (US$16 million) worth of transactions during H1, 2020.

Nithi Satchatippavarn, MD and Co-founder of MyCloudFulfillment, said: “Thailand e-commerce market is currently in a sweet spot. Thai people spend almost as much as Indonesians on e-commerce transactions but Thailand is much more under-penetrated. Therefore, there are big opportunities for Thailand e-commerce market to grow further relative to other countries with similar or higher purchasing power.”

The global e-commerce market has been growing significantly. According to Statista, the value of the e-commerce market worldwide is projected to reach THB 75 trillion (US$240 billion) by the end of 2020, reflecting 26 per cent increase from 2019, while the number of e-commerce users is projected to reach 3,468 million users, a 9.6 per cent increase from last year.

Asia is the largest market, accounting for 61.5 per cent of worldwide users with Southeast Asia as the key growth driver. Statista forecast also shows that Southeast Asia will see 44 per cent growth in e-commerce transaction value from 2019.

Looking at the purchasing power in Southeast Asia, the country with the highest potential is Indonesia with average revenue per user of US$219 per user per year, followed by Thailand with average revenue per user of US$215.67 per user per year.

However, Thailand still has significantly lower e-commerce penetration rate relative to Indonesia. Therefore, the local e-commerce market still has large room to grow.

The e-commerce industry has changed significantly due to gradual adoption of Big Data and the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the new future with ‘Data Commerce’.

Also Read: Why e-commerce startups will revolutionise the supply chain in Southeast Asia

Dr. Arak Sutivong, CEO of SCB 10X said: “We have seen strong growth rate in Thailand e-commerce and logistic industries, especially during COVID-19. MyCloudFulfillment offers e-commerce fulfilment services which has potential to become the key solution for sellers who focus on e-commerce market. The company also has potential to grow throughout Southeast Asia and help drive Thai economy further by becoming key leader in fulfilment industry regionally.”

“Besides providing financial support, we also have a plan to develop solutions for Social Commerce together with MyCloudFulfillment to provide best experiences for sellers and end consumers,” he added.

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Image Credit: MyCloudFulfillment

 

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EVOS Esports, an e-sports platform owned and operated by Singapore-based Attention Holdings, has secured US$12 million in a Series B investment round, led by Korea Investment Partners (KIP).

Mirae Asset Ventures, Woowa Brothers, Indogen Capital, existing investor Insignia Ventures Partners, and several family offices across Southeast Asia and Japan, also participated.

The money will primarily be used for building out its tech capabilities, an EVOS spokesperson told e27.

This round comes less than a year after EVOS raised US$4.4 million in Series A funding from Insignia and several angel investors.

Also Read: Who’s driving e-sports and gaming in Southeast Asia: Gamers or fans?

EVOS was founded in 2017 with the aim to facilitate competitive e-sports teams across six major games. It trains and supports 13 teams comprising 62 players across five countries.

E-sports influencers form the pillar of EVOS’s live-streaming and content platforms. According to its Chief Strategic Officer Ang Teng Jen, its top influencers earn around US$30,000 to US$60,000 a month. To date, it claims to have worked with 400 gaming influencers.

To manage its influencers, EVOS provides streaming contracts, brand endorsement deals, and offline event gigs to influencers, as well as managing their social media channels and creating content for them. EVOS’ influencers have a total of over two million followers on their social media platforms with more than 34 million subscribers to their channels.

As of today, EVOS claims to have worked with more than 150 brands, including Lazada, Gareno, and Lenovo. It also partners with e-commerce brands to create e-sports content on the brands’ platforms, such as e-sports game shows and online user tournaments with professional players.

The company claims its revenue from the live-streaming arm has doubled since the start of 2020 and continues to peak month after month, with the its overall revenue surpassing its 2019 numbers despite the pandemic.

EVOS has grown to be the sixth largest e-sports brand globally, it said.

Also Read: What are the key trends in mobile gaming ads in Southeast Asia?

Ivan Yeo, CEO of Attention, said: “Global e-sports revenue is projected to grow at 15 per cent CAGR, with our region showing the highest growth rate at 24 per cent CAGR. As the countries we are operating in are still largely untapped, we intend to maximise this opportunity and are well positioned to launch the region’s first ever e-sports platform.”

Sang-Ho Park, Executive Director of KIP, who will be joining Attention’s Board of Directors, said: “E-sports is currently one of the fastest growing industries and Attention has managed to establish themselves as the most advanced e-sports platform across Asia.”

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UNICEF and ING Bank in the Philippines have announced a partnership to launch an initiative called ‘fintech for impact’ for early-stage startups developing digital solutions for teens, children and families.

The startups will receive equity-free investments and technical and business mentorship from UNICEF, ING and other undisclosed mentors for a year.

Also Read: How e27 Pro helps startups remain in view of APAC key investors

“We are continuously working on ways to support people in navigating financial challenges to have a positive impact on their financial well-being,” said Benoît Legrand, Chief Innovation Officer at ING.

This initiative is launched as COVID-19 has bolstered the need for more investments in the fintech sector.

“The investment supports open-source solutions that contribute to a growing body of digital public goods that can advance society,” Chris Fabian, Senior Adviser at UNICEF Innovation, said.

Also Read: Fintech company Achiko wants to help tackle COVID-19 with its new healthtech projects

ING Bank is a Dutch global financial institution with offices in over 40 countries while UNICEF provides humanitarian and developmental support to children worldwide.

The five startups:

Agrabah: A digital platform that connects farmers and fisherfolk directly to buyers and loans.

BeamAndGo: A remittance-based platform that helps migrant workers and their families to better manage their finances.

Educ4All: It connects students to educational loans.

Reach52: It provides affordable micro-insurance healthcare and health products to rural communities.

Saphron: It empowers grassroots micro-insurance agents to collect accurate, efficient data with a powerful new AI-enabled platform.

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Image Credit: Valencia Wong

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