Malaysia-based startup Nikahsatu has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from 500 Startups, according to Utusan Malaysia.

“The funding will help us increase the average transaction value over the next 12 months by providing full wedding categories on a single platform to as many cities and towns,” Rushdi Razif, co-founder of Nikahsatu, said.

Founded in 2017, Nikahsatu is an all-in-one wedding solutions platform which also provides marriage financing solutions, and is particularly focussed in the Malaysian and Singapore market. The goal of the company is to provide quality and affordable solutions to underserved segments.

Recently the company launched a digital card through which guests can send cash gifts to the bride and groom.

Also Read: Tokopedia buys wedding directory BrideStory and children activity platform ParentStory

The company claims to have recorded a seven-figure annualised revenue in dollars terms and says that it has grown 2.4 times in February (pre-lockdown) despite the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down wedding industries.

That being said, the company definitely has plenty of competition in the Malaysian market from companies such as Bridalgram.

What makes Nikahsatu different is its mission of providing high-quality wedding services digitally to smaller town brides with below 40 per cent of income.

500 Startups Managing Partner Khailee Ng said that he did not see Nikahsatu as a wedding business, but rather as “a captive e-commerce and fintech business that has in-built viral user acquisition.”

“The cost of scaling and the margins they can retain is impressive. They don’t need much venture capital to get to US$100 million revenues at all,” he added.

–

Image Credit:  Drew Coffman

 

The post Nikahsatu raises seed capital from 500 Startups to bring affordable wedding solutions appeared first on e27.

Tesla in early talks for potential investment in Indonesia; The archipelago is a major producer of nickel, a preferred chemical feed in the production of cathode materials for nickel-bearing lithium-ion batteries, primarily for EVs; The country has been increasing its capacity by 46 per cent year-over-year to 550K tonnes of nickel. Reuters

Singapore’s Sea is world’s best performing stock. And it can do better; With gaming, e-commerce, and now digital payments in its suite of offerings, the future of Sea is in its own hands; It has US$3.5B of cash in the bank; Tencent owns 22.9% of its outstanding shares. Channel News Asia

Lanturn, a Singaporean tech-enabled corporate services provider, raises US$3M; Investors are East Ventures, CoCoon Ignite Ventures; Lanturn’s services include helping companies incorporate in Singapore and handling visa applications for new hires. TechCrunch

Ant Group’s mega-IPO: Five things to know about the fintech king; Aiming for a valuation of over US$250B, the company hopes to raise US$35B in a dual listing split equally between Hong Kong and Shanghai; Ant is a virtual financial services mall for everything from loans to mutual funds, insurance policies and travel bookings. Nikkei Asia Review

Malaysia’s Cradle Fund mulls equity investments as funding tap runs dry for early-stage startups; The agency was asked by the Mahathir Mohamad government to focus more on grants instead of equity to avoid duplicating the work of other state-backed VCs; Subsequently, its investment programme DEQ800 was wound up. DealStreetAsia

Thai Union invests in Singapore’s Alchemy Foodtech, VisVires New Protein from its US$30M fund; Alchemy develops novel active food ingredients that fight diabetes whereas VisVires is a fund that invests in companies entrepreneurs in the sustainable agri-food industry. e27

How theAsianparent aims to help reduce stillbirth rates in SEA; The firm has developed Project Sidekicks which helps mothers count fetal kicks in a gamified manner; Other ways to help prevent stillbirths is by having mothers to sleep on their side which theAsianparent encourages through social media campaigns such as #SleeponSide. e27

Bukalapak co-founders’ early-stage fund Init 6 invests in Indonesian edutech Codemi; The startup provides cloud-based learning management system for corporations; It has also appointed Achmad Zaky as Commissioner. e27

SBI Group, Sygnum launch early-stage fund to back digital asset firms in SEA; The primary focus is on financial market infra and enterprise solutions being developed for the emerging digital asset economy; The two firms intend to tokenise the fund structure in order to increase accessibility for investors and offer them the potential for greater liquidity post-investment. e27

Vietnamese podcast startup Waves has ceased ops and returned money to its investors; In Feb, the startup had raised US$1.2M seed funding, led by Insignia; Waves had 30+ original programmes and 50 programmes created with partners on the platform as of Feb; 500 Startups-backed Voiz FM is one of its competitors in the country. VietReader

Rajan Anandan to entrepreneurs: ‘Trim the fat and build a leaner organisation’; Building a company that is efficient and can provide maximum value to a customer will become the winner during this unprecedented time; The best companies are almost always able to raise funding, no matter what. e27

Malaysia’s Nikahsatu raises seed funding from 500 Startups; The platform provides digital wedding solutions, nuptial financing solutions, and curated one-stop wedding solutions for Malaysian and Singapore markets; It has so far attracted close to 3M visitors from across the region. Bernama

FROGS wants to become the first startup in SEA to fly passenger drones; The drone, which had a successful test run in Indonesia early this year, can carry up to two passengers, fly at 100 kmph and has a 30 minutes’ flight time; The startup also designs surveillance, cargo, sprayer and passenger drones. e27

Irish biometric authentication firm Daon opens in Singapore; It has appointed cybersecurity expert Trilochan Sehgal to lead its regional ops; The firm aims to capitalise on the demand for its biometric authentication and identity assurance solutions, amid the introduction of digital banking regimes in the region. Finews.Asia

How businesses can protect themselves from digital risks; In 2018 alone, WiFi connectivity downtime caused losses worth around US$51M for APAC-based enterprises; As per a survey, over 31% stated that outages have cost their business more than US$1.2M while a further 17% said such shutdowns hit revenues by more than US$6M. e27

Singapore’s Reality Detector (RD) raises US$370K from Draper Associates; RD is a deep-tech startup that delivers video-based deception detection software; Its purpose is to create a world where all people can access undistorted reality and accurately place their trust in others, restoring authenticity, realism and credibility in human interactions.

How can we build digital resilience?; Organisations should look to incorporate ‘security by design’ approach as a default mindset; They should integrate automation, machine learning and analytics to increase the efficiency of their security threat detection capability. Gov Insider

iVS launches in-stream video ads marketplace in SEA; It provides advertisers with a single point of access to in-stream video inventory across premium publishers in the region, whereas publishers get a platform with hosting, transcoding and streaming capabilities; In March 2019, iVS raised US$4.5M from Kickstart, SGInnovate, Monk’s Hill etc. e27

Bukalapak launches new fintech unit Buka Investasi Bersama (BII); It aims to turn 500,000 of its users into mutual funds investors by 2021; BII is an extension of the financial services Bukalapak has been providing since 2016; It already runs BukaReksa, which also provides mutual funds services. e27

3 Singapore startups on the list of 10 selected for Accenture’s fintech mentorship programme 2020; They are Symbo, Staple and UVAS; The programme is based on five themes: data & analytics, digital bank solutions, emerging tech, health insurance, and intelligent automation; The 2020 programme formally kicks off this week and culminates in December. e27

How these 6 Asian startups use the digital revolution for social good; The R Collective, Freedom Cups, Impact Terra, Lumitics, BukuWarung, iHandal Energy are impacting millions of people in Southeast Asia. e27

Malaysian government mulling review of existing fintech policies; This includes policies to address the tech gap between generations, SMEs’ readiness to adopt digital financial services, as well as developing the halal economy via the digital platforms. The Malaysia Reserve

Deliveroo partners with barePack to curb single-use packaging waste from food deliveries in S’pore; Customers can elect to use reusable containers for delivery and pick-up orders from over 50 restaurants; barePack’s boxes are made from food-grade silicone and come with BPA-free polypropylene lids, while cups are made from stainless steel. RetailNewsAsia

Revolut Singapore ties up with NTUC Income to offer lifestyle-based insurance; Bite-sized premiums of $0.30, $0.50 and $0.70 will be linked to daily lifestyle activities such as dining, taking public transport, spending using Revolut Visa debit card as well as clocking steps on Fitbit. Fintech News

Shopee, Lazada, Qoo10, Amazon are hiring in Singapore: Which is the best to work for?; Currently, Amazon is hiring for over 200 jobs based in Singapore; Lazada and Qoo10 are hiring actively, from data science to strategy to product management; Based on the overall e-commerce traffic in Singapore, the top five e-commerce players that emerged are Shopee, Lazada, Qoo10, Amazon, and EZBuy. Vulcan Post

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Tesla in talks for investment in Indonesia; Vietnam’s podcast startup Waves shuts down; Lanturn raises US$3M appeared first on e27.

Despite one in seven Singaporeans experiencing mental health challenges at some point in their lives, only a quarter of those seeks treatment for it.

The uncomfortable truth is we do not perceive mental health to be as important as its physical counterpart. While there had been an increase in raising awareness and educating the community on mental health, few are doing what matters most – taking action to solve mental health issues.

That was the state of mental health in 2018. Back then, Joan Low was in the fast-paced banking industry. Having been a mental health caregiver for more than two decades, she saw gaps that needed plugging within the conventional mental healthcare system in Southeast Asia.

With a desire to solve hurdles impeding others from taking action on their mental health, she founded Thoughtfull. “We want to empower the community to take ownership of their mental health by making healthcare affordable and accessible to the masses,” Low tells e27 in an interview.

In line with their goal of providing accessible mental health solutions, its consultancy arm Thoughtfull Education works with corporates to implement end-to-end mental wellness programmes for their employees. Having interacted with thousands of working professionals through Thoughtfull Education, Joan realised the stigma surrounding mental health within workplaces was an issue that needed solving.

She shares that preventive mental healthcare was nascent within traditionally conservative Asian societies due to this stigma. “Majority only engage with mental health professionals upon reaching a breaking point where their issues interfere with their daily lives,” she says.

Also Read: Peace of mind: Meet the coworking space that aims to facilitate mental health professionals’ practices

Prevention is better than cure

“We wanted to shift the focus on mental health issues upstream to target the prevention of such issues from arising in the first place,” Low explains as she embarked on a quest to solve this issue.

The idea led to the birth of Thoughtfull Chat. The mobile platform connects users to accredited mental health professionals for daily conversations. Joan believes going digital adds an element of privacy that removes the stigma hindering potential users from engaging with their mental health issues.

“Daily engagements with professionals are a step towards normalising engagement with mental health,” Low opines. Online tracking of users’ mental health progress also serves as a barometer of one’s mental health condition and improvements in it encourages users to continue on the journey towards better mental health.

Acknowledging that mental wellness is a deeply personal topic, Low shares that Thoughtfull is mindful of providing a human-centric experience through their carefully crafted user experience on Thoughtfull Chat.

To ensure the quality and authenticity of a user’s journey on the platform, professional mental health experts on the platform are thoroughly screened and accredited by the relevant bodies before they are allowed to consult users.

Combating stigma with digitalisation

Leveraging on digitalisation to improve one’s access to mental health solutions, Low explains the long-term nature of conversations on Thoughtfull Chat is integral to preventing mental health issues from developing.

Further integrating mental healthcare into our daily lives, the chat app is easily accessible on mobile devices, making engaging with mental health manageable even for the busiest professionals. Thereby, further reducing the stigma associated with it.

Also Read: Holmusk closes US$21.5M Series A to build real-world evidence platform for mental health

Discussing the impact the pandemic had on their business, Low remarks the great groundwork done by the team since its founding in 2018 provided a strong foundation for them to capture the numerous growth opportunities presented this year. Having met its annual sales target within the first six months of the year, the Thoughtfull team is not resting on its laurels.

With new features released every fortnight, Thoughtfull Chat users can look forward to more products to enrich their mental wellness. The team recently launched a learning package within the app. Consisting of curated and evidence-based lessons packed with actionable tips, it is targeted at users keen to self-educate themselves on various mental wellness practices without the need for a coach.

“We are also working on implementing artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the user journey and provide more accurate and timely mental healthcare,” Joan closes.

—

Image Credit: Thoughtfull

The post How Thoughtfull aims to destigmatise mental health through daily chats with professionals appeared first on e27.

As a leading pregnancy and babycare site and app in Southeast Asia (SEA), theAsianparent regularly spends hours in their product team meetings, analysing user behaviour. One time, the team noticed an “odd pattern” where heavy users would suddenly stop using the pregnancy tracker feature on the app.

Initially, they attributed the change to usual stuff such as mothers getting too busy with birth preparations to update the app. But then they uncovered the truth.

“We dug deeper and uncovered the painful truth that it was because they had experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth. And with horror, we realised that we were sending them push notifications about the upcoming arrival of their child when they were already grieving,” explains Roshni Mahtani Cheung, Founder & Group CEO of theAsianparent, in an email to e27.

The findings had led theAsianparent to start Project Sidekicks, a new initiative that aims to tackle the issue of high stillbirth rate in SEA. With the goal to reduce stillbirth rates in the region by 10 per cent over the next three years, there are three directions that the company is taking with its platform:

1. Content
The company aims to raise awareness of stillbirth risks and prevention through articles, videos, and infographics across its platform and partner media.

2. Community
It also provides support to parents who have experienced stillbirth and assist through their recovery process.

3. Tech
And finally, the company launches new functions to help reduce stillbirth: Kick Counter, Professional Advice, and Timely Notifications.

Saving lives

In Southeast Asia, stillbirth rates remain high with countries such as Indonesia having the highest rate. According to statistics, 13 out of 1,000 births in the country are stillbirth.

Also Read: theAsianparent onboards ex-Mumbrella Asia GM Dean Carroll to drive offline initiatives for brands, communities

But the good news is that, according to the WHO, about one-third of these cases are actually preventable. For example, in the third trimester, parents are encouraged to track their child’s movements and seek medical help when they notice anything unusual.

In the platform developed by theAsianparent, this effort is represented through the Kick Counter feature on their app which helps mothers count fetal kicks in a gamified manner.

Other ways to help prevent stillbirths is by having mothers to sleep on their side which theAsianparent encourages through social media campaigns such as #SleeponSide.

The team is also aware that stillbirth is a sensitive topic for discussion.

“theAsianparent approach to tackling any topic, from the most benign to the most taboo, is one that is non-judgemental. We focus on providing information, letting our readers decide what perspective they take,” Cheung explains.

“For this campaign, it was vital that we had medical experts to help us with that information. Mums and dads were able to access them too, through our webinars these past few months, covering topics like mental health during pregnancy and the importance of kick counting,” she continues.

Members of its community also take part by sharing their experiences.

“The project name SideKicks also expresses how theAsianparent is right there with mums and dads in this journey and throughout their parenthood. And the amazing part always is that we create these campaigns for the community, but they’re the ones who grow it and drive it. That really is the beauty of what theAsianparent has become and stands for,” Cheung says.

Also Read: Tickled media’s theAsianparent closes a seven-figure Series C funding to expand its baby products business

What is next

Project Sidekicks was launched in July and theAsianparent continues to work with different partners to promote it.

“With our mission to help 100 million families have healthy pregnancies and families, we find Project Sidekicks at the core of what we’ve set out to do,” Cheung says.

In 2021, at the next phase of the project, the company plans to expand their coverage to include miscarriages and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

“I know that baby loss is such a tough, heavy topic to bring to light and discuss openly. That only means that there are so many questions unasked, stories never told, support never given, advice never heard,” Cheung stresses.

“So we are committing to this cause, with the hope that it makes a difference. Just one life saved through Project Sidekicks will make every second and cent that has gone into the campaign, worth it millions and billions of times over,” she closes.

 

The post How theAsianparent aims to help reduce stillbirth rates in Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.

The Digital Revolution is upon us. It’s changing everything, and it starts with data. It’s changing the world’s economy and bringing new leaders into the light, influencing international relations on a global scale, and creating disputes over data rights. A shift in power and thinking has arrived.

With new data comes new opportunity. When done correctly, this newly-available information architecture can help some of our generation’s brightest minds make an impact that could last lifetimes. That is what is happening in Southeast Asia.

Solve a problem and fix it. In the simplest sense, that’s what it comes down to. When brilliant minds sit around a table, talk on the phone, or ideate a business idea from across the globe, the inevitable beginning includes one straightforward question: What’s the problem in my neighbourhood, city, or country, and how can I fix it?

Make money, and you’ve answered the question correctly. Make money and improve your neighbourhood, city, country, or planet while you do it, and you’re using the Digital Revolution to change your world for the better.

Here are six Asian startups that are doing it right.

The R Collective, Hong Kong

Born from Redress, a charity founded in Hong Kong in 2007 to battle waste in the fashion industry, The R Collective employs sustainability-minded producers, designers, and marketers to create fresh clothing and fashion designs using end-of-life upcycled materials.

The R Collective rescues fabric and other materials close to destruction, reuses even the smallest scraps that don’t make it into specific designs in other projects, and reimagines fashion processes to give its clientele a new outlook on the industry with creativity and innovation.

The result is a 15 per cent decrease in fabric cutting waste when compared to traditional practices.

Also Read: How social good can target business challenges

The fashion and textile industry is the second-largest polluter globally and produced 2.1 million tons of CO2 in 2018, approximately four per cent of the planet’s emissions.

By pursuing a dedicated and driven approach to waste reduction in the fashion industry, The R Collective is doing its part to drive the industry as a whole toward circular fashion, a bold initiative championed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Design Strategies.

Freedom Cups, Singapore

There are 1.2 billion women worldwide who do not have access to or cannot afford necessary feminine hygiene products. Freedom Cups, a revolutionary company founded by three sisters, seeks to end the period problem worldwide by selling Freedom Cups to women who can afford them and giving them to women who can’t.

The business model is simple: for every one Freedom Cup purchased, one is donated to a person in need.

In addition to providing a humanitarian solution to a global problem, Freedom Cups also make a sizable difference in waste reduction. The cups are reusable, can be used for up to 12 hours at a time, last up to 10 years, are relatively inexpensive, and consist of medical-grade silicone. One Freedom Cup equals approximately 5,000 regular pads or tampons per woman. That’s a lot of saved waste.

Freedom Cups are available in single cups or a package of three. The company also offers a variety of other cleansing products, such as liquid soap and wipes.

Freedom Cups have partnered with women organisations around Africa and Asia to give back to low-income communities.

Impact Terra, Myanmar

Founded in 2016 by Erwin Sikma, Impact Terra provides data-based services to Myanmar’s farmers in a way never done before.

Also Read: Southeast Asia is in plastic waste crisis, and these 16 sustainable startups strive to turn things around

Over 70 per cent of Myanmar’s population is directly or indirectly affected by the agriculture industry. Now, with Impact Terra’s Golden Paddy Platform, farmers can get customised and real-time updates about weather patterns and local crop prices, as well as access to favourable and formal financing opportunities at reasonable rates.

Based on where a user lives, Golden Paddy will give actionable suggestions about market changes, updated farming best practices, and tips on overcoming climate change in the region.

Impact Terra’s mission is to digitally empower smallholder farmers worldwide by offering their data services to all corners of the country. Approximately 80 per cent of Burmese farmers have an internet connection on their phones, giving them up-to-the-minute status updates.

Impact Terra’s impact goes deeper than merely giving information to farmers. The benefits are far-reaching and wide-ranging in a country that saw nearly 25 per cent of its population living at or below the poverty line as recently as 2017. The Golden Paddy Platform lifts people out of poverty by reducing crop and food waste with its information architecture and availability.

It eliminates hunger by increasing food availability and informing about sustainable food production. It empowers thousands of women by allowing them access to the same information as men farmers. It creates climate awareness through its market research, financing opportunities, crop recommendations, and weather updates.

Lumitics, Singapore

Lumitics aims to reduce food waste by up to 30 per cent, cut yearly food costs up to eight per cent, and drastically lower users’ environmental footprint with its seamless food waste solution: Insight.

Intended for restaurants, hotels, casinos, cruise ships, and airliners, Insight offers data analysis with the push of a button to optimise production, preserve yield rates, engineer menus and provide a complete outline for smarter purchasing.

Also Read: Taipei to host global entrepreneurs’ conference exploring use of AI, IoT for social good

It’s simple: attach Insight to any rubbish bin in the kitchen, toss leftover food inside, press the button, and Insight tracks, identifies, measures, and quantifies the amount and type of food waste.

Co-founder and CEO Rayner Loi said the team has partnered with some of the world’s largest hotel chains and hopes to expand its reach quickly to maximise food waste reduction.

Over 1.6 billion tons of food is wasted each year globally, including just over 763,000 tons in Singapore alone. That equals to approximately six per cent of all emitted greenhouses gases during a calendar year.

More data gives business owners and corporations the tools necessary to make environmentally-friendly and cost-effective food waste decisions.

BukuWarung – Indonesia

BukuWarung gives the power back to the people. For the estimated 60 million micro-merchants dotting Indonesian cities, towns, and villages, BukuWarung allows small businesses to use digital and straightforward bookkeeping services.

Because many small business owners throughout Indonesia use low-end smartphones and flip phones, the app is ultra-lightweight to allow online and offline ledger editing.

Also Read: 6 social enterprises that want to change the world

Since BukuWarung’s initial launch, co-founders Chinmay Chauhan and Abhinay Peddisetty say the business has more than 200,000 active monthly users.

But BukuWarung has loftier goals set for the near future, including a full suite of financial services. As COVID-19 ravages the world, Indonesian consumers continue to demand contactless payments and instant payouts to optimise comfort during financial transactions. Investors believe BukuWarung fills this financial service need for the country.

On September 29, the company secured an investment round led by several prominent angel investors such as Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen and Uber CPO Scott Belsky.

BukuWarung hopes that it will reach all 60 million businesses across the country and become an all-in-one solution for business financial needs in time. So far, the company has 600,000 registered merchants across 750 cities, towns, and villages.

iHandal Energy Solutions, Malaysia

iHandal CEO Aaron Patel came up with the idea for his energy solutions business when he found the potential to save over 90 per cent of thermal emissions as a 15-year-old boy in high school. The idea came out of necessity after his dad suffered a stroke, and the boy had to help make money for the family.

iHandal offers arecyclable energy solution that takes wasted energy from businesses, hotels, and corporations and turns it into sustainable heating and cooling.

Also Read: For social enterprise, how to balance social good with the realities of business?</a>

iHandal captures excess energy and wasted heat, compresses it with its heat fuse technology, and channels it back into the building to different processes, saving money and reducing emissions.

The Malaysian-based company will first complete an energy audit for potential clients for free and offer a guaranteed amount of savings. The system will then run until it reaches the agreed-upon thermal energy cost savings.

iHandal’s vision is to develop innovative solutions to create a better environment for future generations. It aims to save 200 million tons of emissions by 2030, the rough equivalent of 42 million passenger vehicles per year.

The company has partnered with the Ritz Carlton Millenia in Singapore, the Tune Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, and the Equatorial Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, among others. The company has a 60 per cent market share in Malaysia and has contracts in Australia, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and the US.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image Credit: Matias Malka on Unsplash

The post How these 6 Asian startups use the digital revolution for social good appeared first on e27.

Our modern routine is full of tasks, obligations, calls, and overall a huge amount of distractions.

How do some people handle stress and stay more productive than others? The answer is deep work – a process of focusing on one thing without distraction.

A popular book called Deep work: Rules for focused success in a distracted world, written by Georgetown University professor Cal Newport unpacks the methods to develop a set of skills essential for achieving great exceptional results of work through the deep work phenomenon.

The origins of methodology

Newport defines deep work as “Professional activity performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”

The author’s central principle – the deep work, is the kind of research you will need to develop to succeed in your career. He outlines the key reasons why deep work matters:

• The speed of change is accelerating. The hard skills we have today may be useless in five years. Deep work gives us a practical method to continuously learn and reinvent ourselves.
• Secondly, deep work helps you produce original work of higher quality. Mediocracy simply doesn’t cut it in a world where you compete in a global playing field.

Also Read: How gamification is increasing productivity during COVID-19

He highlights major benefits to establish a deep work practice:

• It’s valuable as it enables us to learn new skills more quickly, as well as leverage our existing skillset.
• It’s differentiated because as the world becomes full of distractions, fewer people are able to go deep.
• It’s meaningful because we get more meaning and fulfilment out of being focused in our daily work.

Newport divides work into two categories:

Shallow work: Tasks that are logistical or non-cognitive. They are easy to replicate and are often performed in a state of distraction.

Deep work: Tasks that are generating new value and are not subject to replication. They push cognitive capabilities to their limit and are expected to be performed in a distraction-free environment.

Deep work vs distraction

Deep work is not something the majority of people are able to practise. To become successful in doing deep work, you have to practice a lot.

Unfortunately, in the modern world, there are a lot of barriers preventing the typical employee from practicing deep work. Firstly, we’re supposed to be constantly online. Email and corporate apps, messengers make the instant communication, sometimes out of working hours, a regular thing.

There are other distractions that chase us throughout the whole day. Social media is always attracting us with something new and wasting our valuable time, colleagues invite us for an online chat, and eventually, you get calls from friends and family.

Also Read: 5 common productivity challenges affecting remote worker and how to overcome them

Below are a few steps to help you achieve deep work.

Ritualise it

Our brain likes it when we establish a routine. To integrate deep work into your workday helps to identify the principles of dedication in advance.

The following rituals can help:

• Become very good at agenda management: you need to structure things like the space and the duration of the work you are willing to do. It is crucial to know in advance what exactly you are going to do during your deep work time. With an agenda in mind, you would stay concentrated and proceed to the predefined assignment.
• Finding a place where none and nothing will distract you is essential, as this will help you to stay focused.
• Finally, make sure you have all the tools you need to help you throughout your deep work time. Books, equipment, food, and anything else that might make you happy.

Execute like a business

Thanks to its effectiveness, deep work allows you to concentrate on the most important: a limited set of goals that optimise your deep efforts. Those targets will demand and inspire you to dig further.

In accordance with this approach, organisations use key performance indicators (KPIs), the main metrics for efficiency. This theory can also be used in your deep work routine as well to help monitor self-productivity.

Also Read: Why remote working is the future for startups

Being online

Being always online is a constant habit in today’s digital world. Very often the internet distracts us while doing an important task so minimising and controlling when and how long we can access it, can create magic. You should identify a time period when the Internet is allowed. This helps to prioritise critical tasks and get everything done on time.

Quit social media

Many of us spend a solid amount of time daily on just scrolling down our Facebook or Instagram. Try to stop that habit and instead devote that time to deep work. Whether you are not sure if you need to quit social media at all or partially, just be honest with yourself and ask if spending time on social networks really gives you a sense of fulfilment. If not, then you will for sure find something more exciting and useful.

Plan your day by minutes

Part of the reason why distraction is so easy is that we don’t have a day structure. The absence of deadlines and restrictions makes us hop from one task to another, without understanding that the result is not satisfying at all.

By planning our day in advance, we need to split it into smaller segments and decide the amount of time each task requires. If there are any unexpected things arising, you can always adjust them to your daily schedule. The schedule planned in advance allows you to value your time and find the right work/life balance.

Become hard to reach

Being accessible 24/7 is not always as comfortable as the risk of getting distracted is absolutely high. Try to become inaccessible while you are in the deep work sessions. Switch off your phone, your internet, and concentrate on the moment.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: Ali Yahya on Unsplash

The post Deep work: Methods for staying productive in a distracted world appeared first on e27.

Codemi, a Jakarta-based startup providing cloud-based learning management system for corporations, has secured an undisclosed sum in funding from Init 6.

Init 6 is an early-stage VC firm launched in April this year by Bukalapak co-founders Achmad Zaky and Nugroho Herucahyono.

The edutech startup will use the fresh capital for product development and security enhancement, it said in a statement.

Also Read: Bukalapak co-founders launch Init 6 to back early-stage startups in Indonesia

Along with this announcement, Codemi has also appointed Zaky as Commissioner.

Launched in 2013, Codemi helps companies overcome problems in conducting training programmes, such as limited trainers and space that hinder the delivery of training materials, difficulties in measuring the development, and learning outcomes of each employee and the high distribution of training materials, especially for companies with branches in various locations.

The platform enables participants to take classes, exams and discuss their classes. As for administrators, they will be able to manage the programme and content, while checking on reports and analyse them.

The firm has launched three new products — instructor-led learning, collaborative learning, and on-the-job learning.

Codemi earns revenue through subscriptions.

Also Read: Bukalapak names Rachmat Kaimuddin as new CEO, replacing Achmad Zaky

Its clients include Frisian Flag, Manulife, Ranch Market, and OK Bank.

Zaki Falimbany, Founder and CEO, Codemi, said: “The pandemic has greatly impacted how learnings are being conducted in corporations…we continuously work on our products so that they can facilitate easier learnings for employees and partners.”

—

The post Bukalapak co-founders’ early-stage fund Init 6 invests in Codemi appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based Intelligent Video Solutions (iVS), which was until recently known as iVideoSmart, has announced the launch of its programmatic in-stream video advertising marketplace in Southeast Asia.

The marketplace provides advertisers with a single point of access to in-stream video inventory across premium publishers in the region, whereas publishers get a platform with hosting, transcoding and streaming capabilities.

Also Read: 4 tips for creating highly engaging video advertisements

“We have a unique opportunity to develop the leading programmatic marketplace for in-stream video advertising in Southeast Asia, which is an unprecedented offering to the market. Building out the demand side function of the business is no small task, so we are primarily looking at getting the right mix of talent and technology in place as we ramp up the operation,” said Milan Reinartz, CEO of iVS.

Established in 2016, iVS is a video advertising platform for both publishers and advertisers in Southeast Asia. The platform uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to enable better monetisation opportunities and consumer engagement.

iVS aims to disrupt the video content industry by increasing video inventory available to online publishers, as well as improving viewer experience and video ads’ effectiveness through the use of embedded (non-invasive) and engaging ads targeted at individual viewer preference.

Today, iVS has over 150 publisher partners across the region, including Kompas Gramedia, Brilio, Tempo, Detik, Kaskus and several others of the Kapanlagi group in Indonesia; GMA, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Summit Media, ABS-CBN, Manila Times, Bohol Chronicle in the Philippines; TantanNews, Sinchew and PocketTimes in Malaysia; and AsiaOne and Mothership in Singapore.

iVS claims it currently serves over 120 million users across over 1.2 billion pages each month and operates in six markets, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and the US.

In March 2019, iVS announced a US$4.5 million Series A+ funding from a host of investors, including Kickstart Ventures (lead), Darwin Ventures, SGInnovate, Monk’s Hill Ventures and EE Capital.

On-boarding new CRO, CTO

As part of its expansion in the region, iVS has also announced the appointment of Hari Shankar as Chief Revenue Officer and Joc Cing Tay as Chief Technology Officer.

Also Read: Why every startup needs to embrace video marketing in 2020

Shankar previously held the roles of CEO at Singapore Media Exchange (SMX), Managing Director at Ecselis (Havas Media Group) and Head of Digital Acquisition (APAC) at PayPal.

Shankar will be responsible for acquiring new publishers and advertisers onto the platform.

“Despite the challenging environment, particularly for advertisers who saw budget cuts earlier this year due to Covid-19, we are seeing a strong rebound in demand for a solution that effectively engages consumers for advertisers and increases video inventory for online publishers,” said Shankar.

Tay was previously VP of Engineering at Appier in Taiwan, leading a team of over 100 engineers.

—

Image Credit: iVS

The post Monk’s Hill-backed iVS launches in-stream video ads marketplace; names new CTO, CRO appeared first on e27.

Fintech is booming in Singapore, a city known for being a global financial hub. The island city-state has received the lion’s share of funding in Southeast Asia over the past five years, and funding has only increased exponentially.

In 2019 alone, fintech-related deals accumulated over a billion SGD, far outstripping the amount of funding received in 2018 according to research from Accenture. This has been facilitated in part by the state’s favourable business ecosystem, which boasts low corporate tax rates, political stability, and low barriers to entry.

The nation has also made active steps to support fintech’s growth, suggesting a continued boom ahead. From 2015 to 2020, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the state’s central bank, set aside S$225 million (US$165 million) to support fintech initiatives, a programme which has helped fund the nation’s turn towards fintech.

Since then, the number of fintech firms has rapidly climbed from only 50 to more than 600. On the back of this success, MAS has announced that it is likely that the programme will be renewed as of 2020.

Given its stated intentions to support a diversified range of fintech companies, it is wise to assume that there will be an increased amount of spending on the industry and a growing set of funds available for new and maturing startups.

Also Read: Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam the most attractive fintech hubs in SEA: Study

What kind of initiatives has MAS launched to support the fintech industry? From 2015, MAS has taken a proactive stance in creating a favourable regulatory environment for businesses, emphasising innovation in tandem with security as well as supporting upcoming projects.

This was demonstrated in 2016 when MAS announced a regulatory sandbox for fintech companies to test their products in a live environment. This initiative has only expanded since – in 2019, MAS announced Sandbox Express to provide an even faster option for incoming players.

Its commitment to liberalising the fintech industry was further displayed in 2018, when it announced that it would issue up to two digital full bank (DFB) licences and three digital whole bank (DWB) licences, thereby opening up the banking sector to more players.

The country also boasts a highly skilled workforce favourable to incoming fintech entrepreneurs and the development of the market. This workforce is only set to grow —in 2019, the National University of Singapore (NUS) announced the opening of a fintech lab in conjunction with business and financial institutions.

This lab will be responsible for training the next generation of entrepreneurs and professionals. This development signifies the country’s commitment to expanding the labour pool available for upcoming fintech companies and bids good news for the booming market.

Singapore’s strategic location at the heart of the Malay peninsula has also made it an ideal location for leapfrogging into ASEAN markets. ASEAN markets offer a large pool of people who lack access to traditional financial institutions and would be well served by the development of fintech firms.

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

An emerging theme of fintech in Southeast Asia is hence that of financial inclusion. For example, FinAccel, a successful fintech company based out of Singapore, is a credit lending company that caters to online shoppers in Indonesia, a group of people that have been historically underserved by traditional banks.

Beyond consumers, there is a similarly large pool of SMEs in Southeast Asia that have been underserved by traditional financial institutions, which lack the flexibility and deep data analytics provided by fintech companies.

Thailand is another prominent country in the region committed to developing its fintech industry. The Thai government inaugurated the Digital Economy Promotion agency in 2017 and has made supporting the fintech scene a priority since.

For instance, the country has since introduced three regulatory sandboxes which cover different aspects of the financial services industry. The nation also has one of the highest internet penetration rates in ASEAN, making it an ideal location for the fintech industry to blossom. Notably, the Thai Fintech Association has only expanded since 2016, with 66 out of 124 members being fintech startups.

Lightnet, an up and coming fintech company, is a shining example of the road ahead for fintech in ASEAN. Lightnet is a fintech company that leverages blockchain to provide remittance services across Southeast Asia, primarily targeted at unbanked migrant workers, allowing them to bypass high transaction fees and unreliable payment routes.

The company taps on both the flourishing scene in Thailand as well as the resources offered within Singapore: its headquarters reside in Thailand and it is registered in Singapore, allowing it access to the best of both worlds. In fact, it is a truly regional company—similar to FinAccel, Lightnet’s strength is that it offers a necessary and overlooked service to millions of unbanked people in Southeast Asia.

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

Lightnet has benefitted from Singapore’s conducive environment for fintech players. In 2019, it received US$31.2 million from various investors in a Series A Funding Round. Its largest investor was that of United Overseas Bank (UOB) Venture Management, the private equity unit of UOB.

With this funding, the company will be able to increase its investment in the underlying blockchain technology its platform is built on, Stellar Network, and move forward with its first transactions in 2020. Lightnet’s vice chairman, Tridbodi Arunanondchai, has confidently predicted that Lightnet aims to facilitate over US$50 billion worth of annual transactions over the next three years.

As Lightnet moves into its next phase, it is likely that we will see a similar shift in the broader fintech funding environment in Singapore. In 2019, despite the rise in funding for fintech firms, the number of overall fintech deals actually decreased.

This is a result of the focus shifting from seed funding to series funding in tandem with maturing startups securing larger deals from investors. Over the next few years, we should continue to see a diminishing pool in seed funding and disproportionately larger growth in series funding as the market matures and bigger fintech companies consolidate.

Furthermore, it is also wise to expect a diversification away from payment start-ups over the next few years both in Singapore and in ASEAN more broadly. A report by (UOB) in November 2019 indicated that the fintech markets in Singapore and Thailand have been diversifying into insurance tech and personal finance, whereas in other ASEAN markets the focus is still largely centred on payment-related solutions.

Lightnet has cleverly tapped into this by expanding operations in Singapore, allowing it to capture the remittance needs of the broader Southeast Asian market while benefitting from Singapore’s encouragement of fintech innovation.

Lightnet provides a vision of what is to come in the future of ASEAN’s fintech industry: flourishing start-up scenes, an expanding regional market, and financial inclusion. Even as COVID-19 has heavily impacted national economies across the globe, it has nevertheless accelerated digitalisation globally.

Without a doubt, fintech is here to stay as leading players flourish in a world increasingly reliant on digital financial services.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image Credit: Austin Distel on Unsplash

The post Border-crossing and financial inclusion: The story of fintech in ASEAN appeared first on e27.

A group of Singapore-based tech entrepreneurs are raising funds to help daily wage workers in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It aims to raise at least S$10,000 (US$7,350) to buy food essentials –commonly known as sembako in Indonesia– to feed 200 families or more for a month.

The fundraising campaign is running for seven days and the group will be working with Solve Education, who will work with NGO partners to identify at-risk families and distribute the goods to.

Within less than 24 hours since its launch, the campaign has managed to secure more than half of targeted numbers.

Initiated by Goh Yiping (Partner at Quest Ventures), Janine Teo (Founder and CEO of Solve Education), Prantik Mazumdar (Managing Partner at HappyMarketer; MD, CRM Group, Dentsu Aegis Network), and Mohan Belani (CEO & Co-Founder at e27), the campaign was started as a response to Jakarta’s second lockdown.

While the movement is deemed necessary to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, as the number of new cases in Indonesia peaked on September 25 with more than 4,800 cases in a day, there are concerns regarding the livelihood of daily wage workers in the country.

In a statement, the campaign pointed out that since the first lockdown in April, an estimated six to nine million workers have already lost their jobs. The government has predicted that there will be about 15 million people laid off nationwide until the end of the year, where daily wage workers will be severely impacted.

Also Read: Why COVID-19 isn’t slowing down this VC from helping businesses scale

Strengthening the ties between the two countries

In an email to e27, Goh explained the situation in more detail.

“A message to my previous Indonesian driver, Zainal … who used to drive me when I lived in Jakarta confirmed the hard truth. He has lost his job because there is almost no customer left to drive around anymore with the stopping of flights and people working from home. I have come to appreciate that millions of daily wage workers like him, who were already struggling to make ends meet pre-COVID-19 days, are impacted severely since the first lockdown in Indonesia,” she said.

“This new lockdown is a huge contrast to the reopening of Singapore where life is as normal as can be, except for masks and social distancing. Malls, restaurants, most importantly, jobs, are beginning to spring back to life. It is very hard for one to even imagine the extended lockdowns and increasing job losses in our close neighbouring country,” she continued.

Having worked, lived, and/or have extended relatives and friends in Indonesia, the group started the campaign with the goal to help the neighbouring country’s poorest population.

While they currently have no plan to create a follow-on campaign, they plan to distribute the donation in batches if they are able to raise more funds than targeted from this campaign.

“We hope everyone can donate generously to … Indonesia, of which many of us have come to live, work, and have friends and families in. As for our team, we hope to contribute back to the country we have come to call our second home in the last few years and to show our solidarity and support to our neighbouring brothers and sisters,” Goh closes.

To participate in the campaign, please visit this link.

—

Image Credit: pisauikan on Unsplash

The post Singapore tech entrepreneurs raise funds to help Indonesian daily wage workers during COVID-19 appeared first on e27.