Philippine Startup Week (PHSW20) is back for its second edition on November 23-27 with the aim to highlight the Filipino entrepreneurial spirit.

Taking on the theme of “Filipino Startups Powering Up the New Normal,” the event will showcase the nation’s thriving startups and focus on stakeholders contributing to the growth of the local startup ecosystem.

One of Philippines largest startup conferences, the event is jointly organised by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), QBO Innovation Hub, and various private organizations and community partners.

The five-day virtual conference will be held via an online platform that aims to allow attendees to learn, interact, network, and collaborate remotely.

Also Read: Why it is important for tech companies to expand outside metro cities in the Philippines

DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez underscored the agency’s support for Philippine startups during and beyond the current health crisis, especially as it would also help the country’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) while also creating more jobs for Filipinos.

“Globalising the Philippine startup ecosystem remains our goal, and our desire to do so has intensified amidst the pandemic. In these trying times, DTI is committed to empowering innovative Filipino startups that foster the digitalization of our MSMEs,  enhance their productivity, and promote their resilience,” according to Lopez.

“Philippine Startup Week continues to be an amazing opportunity for innovative startup founders to connect, collaborate, and gain exposure to investors, sponsors, and fellow founders,” said DOST Secretary Fortunato T. De La Peña.

“As the government remains true to its commitment of elevating the country’s startup ecosystem, PHSW20 aims not only to celebrate entrepreneurship, particularly technopreneurship, but also to increase access to it by continuously fostering an engaged community and by providing opportunities to push the boundaries of technology and innovation,” he added.

“As a community-focused conference, Philippine Startup Week showcases the bustling startup scene and brings together the Philippines’ dreamers, thinkers, change-makers, innovators, and entrepreneurs,” said DICT Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II.

PHSW20 features five tracks — Discover, Develop, Collaborate, Invest, and Showcase. It will include three main events by the co-organisers and community events hosted by partner organisations and supported by AWS, Microsoft and Google.

The event is also set to feature startups from different programs, including the Emerge X Regional Pitching Competition led by Microsoft, the Top 100 Startups by QBO, and Seedstars Manila Competition.

Startup topics such as bouncing back from the pandemic, incubators emerging during the pandemic and opportunities for collaboration amidst the adversity, will also be discussed by a panel of seasoned entrepreneurs and industry experts.

Also Read: 3 startups thriving amidst COVID-19 lockdown in the Philippines

QBO Innovation Hub, the country’s first public-private initiative for startups and one of the main organizers of PHSW, will oversee overall operations throughout the conference.

“The PHSW20 this year is dedicated to celebrating significant strides in building a more dynamic startup scene while showcasing achievements of the Philippine entrepreneurial community in powering up the new normal,” said QBO Innovation Hub President Rene Meily.

“This will further position the Philippines as an innovation powerhouse that will ultimately define the future of tech and innovation across Southeast Asia. Just holding this conference in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis is a victory,” added Meily.

For more information, visit the Philippine Startup Week website here or register here to join the event.

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Image Credit: PHSW20

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You’re probably well aware of the effects on ASEAN’s economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but how do you look past the horizon?

For any startup, forging and adapting your long-term vision is imperative to drive success. Even for investors and corporates, understanding how this pandemic’s long-term impact is crucial to making their respective managerial and investment decisions. 

As part of our three-day Vietnam Venture Summit, we gathered industry veterans and policy influencers to get their take on what’s ahead. The summit’s first panel (video) was moderated by Bruce Delteil, Partner at McKinsey in Vietnam with over two decades of international experience.

Panelists included: Dong Jun Im (CEO of Hanwha Life Vietnam), Bernard Thiam Hee Ng (Senior Economist at Asian Development Bank), Steve Okun (CEO of APAC Advisors and ASEAN Rep. to EMPEA), Nam Thieu (General Director of Qualcomm Vietnam), and Jeffrey Joe (Founding Partner Alpha of JWC Ventures).

Disruptions, solutions, and revolutions

Every region was disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak. But while the virus has affected every nation, its timing, degree of shock, and countries’ responses have varied significantly. 

Here are a few key takeaways: Firstly, the pandemic’s economic hysteresis may spur ASEAN’s investment in sustainable infrastructure. Steven Okun had particularly astute observations in this area: fintech wave is moving trends in sustainable initiatives that have been a long time coming in financial inclusion, renewable energy and agritech.

On the same note, Bernard Thiam called for ASEAN to shift policy focus from financial support to transforming the economy with investments in basic, sustainable infrastructure. This yields a smoother transition to near-term job creation and future sustainable growth. 

For instance, although ASEAN’s internet penetration is rising, Indonesia’s 38 per cent of people still don’t have access – that’s over 100 million Indonesians. In a post-pandemic world, we’ll witness accelerated internet penetration as a result of considerable government investments in such areas.

With regards to the green energy facet, the market is largely untapped because ASEAN economies’ renewable power capacity is on average ten per cent lower than that of the Asian average of 34 per cent (Garrett-Peltier, 2017).

Economies in the ASEAN could invest in such infrastructure to support startups and corporations’ ethics-driven business models alike.

Next, a post-COVID world will invariably demand the continuous shift towards digital technologies as a cornerstone of business strategy – no longer making technology a strategic move, but an essential element to growth.

Also read: COMEUP 2020: Ushering the post-pandemic future with startups at the helm

Not only is the success underlined in the e-commerce channels, but also the accommodation of remote workers. In the long term, consumers and businesses will be unprecedentedly reliant on technology for expenditure and day-to-day operations, respectively. 

 Thirdly, emerging ASEAN countries may become an epicentre of labour-intensive manufacturing work. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak during this past March, trade was already regionalising in ASEAN.

Given the increasing geopolitical tensions between today’s gigantic manufacturing hubs and developed economies’ businesses, Nam Thieu can attest to global firms inclined to diversify their sourcing to ASEAN countries– a main motivator for Qualcomm’s recent talent initiatives in the region.

This enticement could be the ASEAN countries’ impetus to the development of labor-intensive manufacturing plants. Case in point, Vietnam has famously become a key manufacturer for Google’s and LG’s globally shipped smartphones. 

Penultimately, the post-COVID age presents a paradigm shift around its digital transformation and political tension between trade and protectionism. Akin to the G10 economies, ASEAN countries will experience increased demand for skilled workers in information technology fields. Vietnam is perfectly placed with its strong pipeline of tech talent, fostered by years of education and retraining by the government.

Jefrey Joe and Steven Okun also commented on the often contradictory factions within the region’s ruling parties: rising nationalist tendencies coexisting with the interest in opening up to trade deals and international competition.  

The catalyst for organisational change

As a startup founder, it’s imperative to reflect on the panelist’s insights within the meaning of your business: the context of your customer’s evolved needs and wants, your startup’s value proposition, and its overall resource-constrained capabilities.

Will your customer’s spending patterns change after the pandemic? Do new delivery channels need to be considered (e.g., switching from physical retail to e-commerce)? Do you need to take safety precautions even after the pandemic, particularly if you offer services that must be performed face-to-face? 

In a future of a technologically adept workforce, it’s important to strategise how you differentiate your product(s) digitally, notably in the light of the user experience and user interface. Supply chain and production capacities will be at the forefront of your mind – especially for resource-intensive startups – since cross-border supply chains will have been disrupted.

Ultimately, it’s crucial to assess where your startup’s business model lies within the aforementioned considerations upon hearing the panelist’s insights on the macroeconomic status of the ASEAN economy.

The learning doesn’t end here

The Vietnam Venture Summit is the (semi-virtual) place to be if you’re yearning for answers about how to navigate your startup beyond these turbulent times. You’ll have the opportunity to hear from ASEAN’s top CEOs, investors, and Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister.

With contributions from Timo Fukar

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In 2014, Singapore launched its Smart Nation initiative: a national-level digitalisation and automation master plan that seeks to maximise the country’s digital potential. Through this, Singapore hopes to foster growth and bolster its digital economy.

When it comes to the complex needs of building a Smart Nation, what digital transformation the Singapore government imbues upon its systems and processes must be, to some extent, matched by the private sector’s digital capabilities in order for the country’s collective digital potential to be maximised.

To support this smart nation initiative, network infrastructure must not only be robust and secure, but must also have inbuilt intelligence and reliability to support digitalisation efforts.

One way to deliver such a connectivity solution is software-defined networking (SDN) with Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV).

Digitalisation and automation powered by SDN

The SDN completely changes the game in this space: since it is primarily a software technology, it doesn’t have to yield to the limitations of hardware tech. Its emergence has redefined what it means to implement large-scale computing infrastructure in a completely virtual environment. Through the cloud, what typically takes weeks can now be pushed to the customer at an accelerated rate.

Ushering SDN’s latest technology into the Singapore market is SPTel, a joint venture company of ST Engineering and SP Group. The company is also known for its unique and diverse fibre pathways that combine leased SP Group infrastructure and owned fibre pipes, laid alongside the power network cables, providing enterprises with true network diversity.

SPTel terms this as their business class digital network and through it delivers ICT solutions on an “everything-as-a-service” model. By integrating this with a front-end customer portal and automated backend processes, SPTel has effectively gone digital in their solution offering. This allows customers to receive instant quotations without manual processes to minimize the risk of human errors.

Also read: Amidst uncertainty, digitalisation requires reliable connectivity

With network functions being deployed virtually, additional service requests or upgrades can be completed within minutes instead of days. This increased agility improves the speed at which organisations can react to changing network requirements with on-demand services such as additional bandwidth or cybersecurity.

This also allows for an improved total cost of ownership for the network, with services provisioned on an “as-needed” basis. This allows users to only pay for the bandwidth and services used according to their operational needs, as opposed to spending on oversizing to anticipate occasional peaks.

Susan Loh, VP, Sales, Marketing and Business Development, shares more, “ Our cutting edge digital solutions change the way you think about and plan for your network. By introducing innovative and sustainable commercial models such as dynamic resource allocation, customers can have greater control and clarity over their network expenditure and even optimize their performance as needed to ensure the best digital experience for their customers.”

SPTel’s Business Class Digital Network also provides an added layer of security for its users. This clean pipe network comes with inbuilt DDoS attack detection to alert users of threats on their network. Mitigation can then be done on the fly to minimize the business impact. This is part of a full suite of cyber-solutions that can be provisioned on-demand, including: Virtual Firewall, Virtual Web Application, and Virtual Secure Email Protection.

Holistic digital transformation

To support businesses that are currently operating with segregated teams or work from home arrangements and are struggling to find a solution to extend the secure corporate network environment to the home, SPTel has integrated an SDWAN solution with their Business Class Digital Network. This removes the need for additional VPNs and improving the productivity of segregated teams. IT managers can now monitor network utility, manage network traffic and configurations, and securely connect employees working on their home networks.

This provides users with a one-stop management dashboard that allows them full control over their ICT applications, streamlining security, network traffic, and other controls in one convenient virtual platform.

SPTel’s commitment to digitalisation

SPTel recently partnered up with the Connectech Asia 2020 conference for the inaugural Virtual Connectech Event. The three-day event featured an exciting line-up of speakers and engagement opportunities with players from all across the industry. There, SPTel unveiled their business class digital network, opening doors for organisations and enterprises across Singapore to accelerate their efforts towards digital transformation.

Also read: Malaysia as springboard to the ASEAN: A tech pass for global entrepreneurs

To see their solution in action for yourself, SPTel would like to invite you to request for an Innovation Hub Tour. This tour will provide an exclusive look at their new digital services and network capabilities. Request for a tour here.

At their core, SPTel provides reliable connectivity services as an alternate network provider in Singapore with unique fibre pathways. The digital services provider offers 2-tier network structure that enables data to travel through fewer hops for ultra-low latency performance of less than 1 millisecond island-wide between SPTel’s exchanges. Coupled with their pervasive hubs for edge computing and award-winning IoT-a-a-S platform, SPTel is well poised to be the digital services partner of choice for Singapore.

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

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Food Market Hub (FMH), a food and beverages (F&B) procurement and inventory management startup in Malaysia, announced today it has received US$4 million in Series A financing.

The round was co-led by Go-Ventures (a VC fund with gojek being its cornerstone investor) and SIG.

As per a press note, FMH plans to use the funds to strengthen its presence in its home country, as well as to expand into Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Also Read: Mosaic Solutions raises US$1.5M to provide data analytics, inventory management solutions to SEA’s F&B industry

FMH was founded in 2017 Anthony See and Shayna Teh, former cafe owners, who realised that increasing food costs were a problem within the F&B industry. This led to the creation of the startup that helps F&B operators manage and track procurement and inventory.

The platform automates purchasing and inventory-tracking by connecting outlets with their central kitchens and suppliers.

It also leverages on Artificial Intelligence technology to analyse past data to forecast future purchasing needs, resulting in optimised inventory control to further reduce costs.

Currently, the venture supports over 2,000 F&B outlets across Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it said further claiming that it processes close to US$200 million in purchase orders on an annual basis.

“A single restaurant may need to process some 200 purchase orders every month. Previously, most of this was done manually, making it tedious as well as prone to human error,” said See.

“And when a restaurant grows or becomes a franchise using a central kitchen, complexity increases exponentially. Having run F&B outlets previously, I know the pain points involved and we set up Food Market Hub to address this problem,” he remarked.

Also Read: 6 common roadblocks F&B businesses face in the digital era

“Technology has the ability to revolutionise the F&B sector, which has been badly hit by the pandemic,” said Nigel Quah, Investment Professional at Go-Ventures. “The FMH team has the deep industry expertise and has demonstrated that the F&B industry can benefit greatly from AI, analytical technology and automation.”

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Image Credit: Food Market Hub

 

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Although the COVID-19 crisis has shaken and disrupted global economies, the supply chain and logistics tech space have continued to see strong growth – more than 400 deals were inked in 2020, and deal activity is expected to continue growing at 12 per cent this year.

Given the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, startups in areas such as robotic fulfilment, digital freight forwarding, returns optimisation and predictive inventory forecasting are likely to witness growth.

Clearly, investors recognise the importance of digital transformation across global supply chains. In May this year, Singapore’s Ninja Van – a tech-enabled last-mile logistics company providing services across Southeast Asia – raised US$279 million from investors, in what was one of the largest startup investments in Southeast Asia since the outbreak of the pandemic.

In fact, over US$4 billion has been invested across Asia into the supply chain and logistics development funds over the past few months, clearly highlighting the tremendous opportunity.

The pandemic has also brought to the fore the need to diversify supply chains. In the quest for self-reliance and business continuity, many are on the path to decouple their global supply chains or are reshoring manufacturing to their own countries. However, there are many others who have been left in a quandary, exacerbated by the depth and complexity of their supply chains.

International supply chains have been significantly impacted due to the lockdowns, resulting in global demand and supply slumps. However, to ensure seamless continuity of goods flow, the digitisation of supply chains is now a must to bridge that gap, and imperative to maintaining this intricate balance.

Also Read: In October, logistics tech startups continued to gain investors’ attention as the world struggled through a pandemic

Benefits of digitalisation

Interconnectivity across stakeholders is a core component to ensure that supply chains are global in nature. This is especially important to mitigate subsequent disruptions in the face of more frequent shocks.

Most enterprises don’t have nearly as much visibility into their supply chains as is ideally required to address key areas such as revenue and costs. Apart from improvements, digitisation also drives end-to-end transparency across the supply chain; in doing so, it generates valuable data to optimise and enable strategic decision making.

With the adoption of emerging technologies such as satellites, IoT devices, digital supply networks, artificial intelligence and machine learning, greater value can be unlocked to optimise supply chains.

The pandemic has only accelerated the push for digitisation in supply chains. Governments are actively participating in this push by sharpening their focus on providing funding and incentives for startups in the supply chain and logistics sector. Well before the pandemic struck, the Singapore government in 2017 set aside S$2.8 million (US$2 million) for the Supply Chain & Logistics Innovation Playground initiative aimed to help startups develop their capabilities in supply chain and logistics.

More recently, in response to COVID-19 disruptions, it announced an enhanced industry digital plan to train around 86,300 workers from the logistics sector for new roles. The plan will also provide digital solutions for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at different stages of their growth, and approximately 5,300 SMEs stand to benefit from it.

Similarly, across the region, we have seen scores of restaurants and even mom-and-pop-styled everyday convenience stores taking their businesses online so as to counter the curtailing of outdoor movement. Taking business online is only part of the puzzle, however; the equally important aspect is to ensure that the journey of the goods to the consumer is efficient, cost-effective and easy to manage – digitisation will be key to achieving all of this.

Also Read: Andalin raises pre-Series A led by Beenext to expand its B2B logistics solutions in Indonesia

The role of startups

Startups have been playing an important role in driving innovation and digital transformation across the supply chain and logistics sector.

At Tramés, our goal as an end-to-end supply chain orchestration technology company is to create a streamlined and unified workflow for shippers and their logistics partners. With all stakeholders plugged into a digital platform, the ability to collaborate naturally increases; and doing so helps accelerate processes that are traditionally long and prone to error.

Taking an ecosystem-centric and inclusive approach to digitisation, the goal is to ensure that regardless of where a company is at in terms of digital prowess, it is able to transform its supply chain.

Due to current market conditions where negative sentiment is prevalent, startups face a greater chance of failure. Therefore, it is critical to create a conducive environment so that startups can thrive. By integrating and embracing innovative startups, it will be possible to cultivate a culture of innovation to usher in a new age of supply chain digitisation solutions.

Looking into the future

Across the board, the pandemic has led companies of all sizes to engage in cost-cutting measures. While it is important to maintain and balance costs in the current environment, it is also worthwhile to simultaneously have one eye on the future and to develop a resilient supply chain ecosystem.

It is imperative to start investing in digital supply chain infrastructure. Given the evolving nature of innovation in technologies, these investments need to be made on an ongoing basis.

Large companies need to make these investments into their innovation arms to fund research and development in this space, and to incubate ideas. Similarly, startups in this space also require adequate levels of funding and collaboration opportunities to sufficiently push the boundaries of innovation as they are in many ways at the forefront of new developments in this space.

However, in this quest, startups alone can achieve little. Partnerships that involve the corporate sector and the government can go a long way in ensuring that startups continue innovating with consistent support and backing.

Also read: How to turn product returns into returning customers this holiday season

When an entire industry, affiliated associations, the government and startups are on the same page to achieve a single goal of digitising supply chains of the future, the results can be tremendous and the benefits all-pervasive.

Only through an ecosystem-centric and inclusive approach, will we be able to realise the goal of creating supply chains that are truly sustainable, resilient and profitable.

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

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Homegrown autonomous maritime systems startup BeeX has emerged as the winner of the Smart Port Challenge 2020 (SPC) in Singapore, according to a joint press statement by MPA and NUS.

The second and third places were bagged by FUELSAVE (which enables utility vehicles reduce their emissions in a sustainable way) and Vulcan AI (which helps enterprises cut costs through its AI solutions).

The trio also won prize money of approximately US$7,500, US$3,700 and US$2,300, respectively.

Also Read: Magorium wins Singapore’s waste-tech startup competition WASTE 20/20

Founded in 2018, BeeX aims to reduce the costs and inefficiencies for underwater inspections via its autonomous underwater vehicles and unmanned surface vessels.

The SPC is a programme under the Port Innovation Ecosystem Reimagined @ BLOCK71 (PIER71), a collaboration between the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Professor Freddy Boey, NUS Deputy President (Innovation and Enterprise), said: “PIER71 is a collaborative effort that brings vital parts of the ecosystem together to fast-track technology solutions industry-wide. Our vision for this partnership with MPA is to raise the competitive edge of start-ups by injecting deep tech developed in Singapore, starting with those from NUS, to strengthen their offering to the industry, and to broaden their reach beyond Singapore.”

“In today’s age, what gives us a competitive edge is not capital but new ways to unlock value from our businesses. We must ensure that innovation thrives and flourish in Maritime Singapore. Through SPC, we support technology start-ups to co-create solutions with the industry, which can be exported worldwide,” commented Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Foreign Affairs.

Also Read: Danish venture builder Rainmaking launches advisory network to accelerate the growth of SEAs maritime startups

This year, SPC saw applications from 187 local startups, of which 16 were selected.

Besides providing cash grants, the programme will also provide an opportunity for all the 16 finalists to apply for a grant of up to approximately US$37,000 (S$50,000) to embark on pilot projects with maritime companies.

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Quintype, a content management software startup based in Bengaluru, India, announced today it has received US$3.4 million in Series A financing.

The round was led by IIFL AMC, a subsidiary of Indian wealth management firm IIFL Wealth Management.

The proceeds from this round will be utilised for expansion into Southeast Asia, beginning with Singapore.

According to the company, the expansion will help digital media publishers in the region move from traditional content management systems into their digital counterparts to effectively capture the booming online economy within the region.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa expansions are also on the anvil.

“As the digital hub of Southeast Asia, Singapore media publishers and content creators have been adopting a digital-first strategy, with the current pandemic accelerating the shift. With Quintype’s state-of-the-art solutions, we hope to help more local digital publishers to create the best content experience for their audience,” said Chirdeep Shetty, CEO of Quintype.

Also Read: Are you the solution to Asia’s content crisis?

Quintype was founded in 2016 by Raghav Bahl after he noticed that publishers struggled to adapt to the technological changes within the media industry.

The startup aims to provide fully-integrated software systems to enable media professionals (such as writers and editors) to distribute their content online without the need for technical skills such as programming.

With this software in place, publishers can focus on content creation and audience management without worrying about server-related issues.

Additionally, Quintype utilises data analytics to aid publishers in creating optimised content to deliver a better digital experience.

The startup claims it has served over 200 publishers worldwide and achieves a monthly viewership of over a billion readers.

“Quintype, with its suite of products, is set to accelerate the growth in digital content and publishing space. It enables more content creators to go digital easily and gives them the freedom to distribute, scale-up and monetise their content using an intuitive product with hundreds of built-in features,” added Prashasta Seth, Senior Managing Partner of IIFL AMC.

With digital consumer and advertising revenue in Singapore expected to reach S$2.9 billion (US$2.16 billion) in 2023, the SaaS startup will utilise the city-state as a launchpad for expanding its services within the region.

Also Read: 5 content marketing trends you need to heed

Alongside its financing announcement, Quintype also announced the launch of Page Builder, a layout configuration management solution that helps publishers manage website branding, layouts and styles easily through its no-code development platforms. 

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Image Credit: Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

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Steaker, a Taiwanese crypto asset management platform, has raised US$1 million seed funding from individual investors.

A notable investor is Jeffrey Huang (Machi Big Brother), a Taiwanese-American music, entertainment and technology industry leader and founder of both MITH and 17LIVE.

Founded in 2019 by Wilson Huang (CEO), Steaker has grown its asset under management (AUM) to over US$50 million.

Huang remarked that investment opportunities presented by the blockchain and crypto space should not be exclusive to the elite.

Read Also: Inside the changing landscape of Asian cryptocurrency exchanges

Therefore, Steaker distinguishes itself from conventional crypto management platforms by catering to the needs of younger and less knowledgeable investors.

“A majority of investors on our platform are retail, who account for 70 per cent of the total AUM,” Huang said.  

Despite his young age, Huang is a veteran in the blockchain space. He was previously Vice-President of decentralised social media platform MITH.

Additionally, he participated in the development of Ethereum’s layer-2 solution, Plasma.

On Steaker, users can choose from five types of investment options with different risk profiles and return characteristics, backed by strategies from stablecoin lending, DeFi yield farming, to algorithm-driven arbitrage.

In the future, Huang hopes to add more decentralised features to the platform while maintaining its convenience for non-crypto users.

With the rapid growth of cryptocurrencies over the last decade, the need for crypto-asset managers is growing. The latest study of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance estimated the number of identity-verified crypto-asset users at about 101 million globally in Q3 2020, increasing fourfold over four years.

In spite of the pandemic disrupting traditional investment vehicles, the crypto space has been witnessing rapid growth. Driven by the decentralised finance (DeFi) boom, the total value of cryptocurrency hit US$12 billion in late October.

Also Read: A lowdown on why DeFi is good for the growth of cryptocurrency

Steaker is also partnering with other digital asset management companies, local crypto exchanges and DeFi projects such as Cream Finance and WageCan to expand the scope of their offerings and enhance their portfolio management capability.

Their newly announced partnership with MaiCoin, the largest one-stop asset management platform provider in Taiwan, aims to increase the functionality and interactivity of Steaker’s platform. 

Earlier this year, Steaker was selected to join AppWorks Accelerator, the leading startup accelerator in Greater Southeast Asia (Taiwan and Southeast Asia). 

“AI, Blockchain and DeFi are the major paradigm shifts happening right in front of our eyes, creating huge opportunities for startups. In Steaker, we see a team leveraging these game-changing platform shifts in a very promising fashion,” commented Jamie Lin, Chairman and Partner of AppWorks, who is also a mentor to Steaker.

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Image Credit: Steaker

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Dhaka may be one of the lesser-spoken markets in South Asia but Kishwar Hasheeme believes that there is no better place to launch Bangladesh’s first full-stack cloud kitchen.

While the concept has already existed in Asia and been tested by brands such as Dahmakan and Rebel Foods, considering Dhaka’s status as a “developing market”, cloud kitchen is still in its early days and has massive growth potential.

“Food delivery is in its early stages in many Asian countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia, and has immense potential to grow over the next five to ten years. Food development and technology value chain that is designed for amazing doorstep experience is often overlooked, as most F&B entrepreneurs are focussed on retail and dine-in,” said the co-founder of Kludio in an interview to e27.

“We wanted to change this imbalance in experience and quality by creating Kludio, so that the underserved middle-income customers have a digital food court to rely on. One app, all your meals, for everyone. Dhaka is the perfect first market for our model because of its dense population, large middle-income demography, who are young and mobile-first. One fun fact is that Dhaka was also Uber’s fastest-growing market in Asia outside of Chinese cities,” Hasheeme added.

Also Read: Go-Jek’s VC arm invests US$5M in India’s cloud kitchen startup Rebel Foods

How it works

Cloud kitchens operate like a WeWork for kitchens where different restaurant brands rent their own kitchen stations, instead of paying for rent at a more expensive locale down the street.

What makes Kludio different from other cloud kitchen models is that it takes control of the entire production, from cooking and lead generation to delivery — ultimately taking ownership of the whole customer relationship. It is like an online food court owned by Kludio. 

“This model can be quite powerful from a differentiation point of view as well as in terms of the unit economics, which is evident from my personal experience at Kludio. However, there are many moving parts and require a diverse set of skills from food development, optimised production, fast logistics, technology development and mobile commerce,” he shared.

“We have built it all. The value chain is quite robust, and if done successfully, there is a layer of defensibility from aggregators, which other models of food preparation (restaurant and kitchens) do not benefit. This is one of the key differentiation for Kludio,”.

Among the food options available on the Kludio’s platform is Dough On The Go (a pizza outlet), Fry Box, and Fish & Chips. The multiple food brands on the app are all created, owned and operated by Kludio.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: GrabKitchen launches cloud kitchens in Thailand, Vietnam, accelerating regional expansions

To enjoy Kludio’s digital food court experience, users can simply download the app from the iOS or Android store and order anything they like. The delivery hours start at 12 noon until midnight.

“Since its inception, we started to see that our community of customers like the Kludio experience. This attracted more customers, investors and teammates. The model that we built is that of a digital court where you can mix and match brands in one single order much like a physical food court. While at it, we realised we were developing technology that can enable thousands of F&B businesses in terms of efficiency and digitisation,” he said. 

Kludio pre- and post-pandemic

On being asked how the landscape has changed for the startup, pre-and post-pandemic, Hasheeme replied that the challenges keep changing every quarter, every month and sometimes every day.

While that is part of the day-to-day operations, during the pandemic, the entire Kludio team managed to show resilience by participating in the change management process smoothly, he said. The team has developed a special bonding after navigating through the crisis together.

According to him, COVID-19 has turned out to be a blessing for the venture — it launched a consumer-facing app in August this year, which he claims to have crossed more than 20,000 downloads in just two months. The global trends of digitalisation have also boosted the firm.

Bangladesh has only recently been experiencing upward economic growth, thanks to its surging foreign trade which has led to more wealth and employment opportunities.

Although it is still lagging behind Southeast Asia and India in several parameters, Bangladesh has long been an attractive market when it comes to startup investments — evident from the investments made by the likes of Gojek, 500 Startups and Ant Financial into local startups in the recent past.

Kludio has also managed to draw investors and raised a round of funding from several notable investors. “We have raised US$500,000 till date from Grab’s former Chief Economist, Go Jek’s VP of Food Marketplace, Uber’s International Head of Innovation, BOD Tech Ventures (Frontier market tech investor) and Seedstars, to name a few,” he shared. 

The startup most recently pitched at Seedstars International Demo Day, a programme to provide startups with financial funding and global mentors.

Also Read: Yummy Corp bags US$12M Series B to grow its cloud kitchen brand in Indonesia

Although it is young, having started just last year, the firm has revealed plans to expand to other countries in Southeast Asia.

“Kludio’s offering works best in young, mobile-first cities so Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines are suitable for our international expansion plans,” Hasheeme said. 

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Image Credit: Kludio

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Mednefits, a Singapore-based employee medical benefits platform, announced today it has raised S$8 million (US$5.95 million) in a Series A funding round, led by Malaysian firm BLoyalty.

BLoyalty, through its digital engagement platform B Infinite, will work with Mednefits to enhance and automate medical benefits for its clients’ employees across Singapore and Malaysia. These benefits will amount to S$18 million (US$13.38 million) by 2021, as per a press note.

The fresh funds will be used to expand Mednefits’s footprint within these two markets and improve technological offerings on its platform by increasing automation of its services.

Also Read: HealthMetrics raises US$5M Series A to help corporates manage employees’ health, wellness better

Founded in 2014, Mednefits helps businesses take care of their employees with its automated, affordable and accessible employee benefits platform. It has since grown from offering medical benefits to now a full suite of healthcare and wellness essentials in Singapore and Malaysia.

The startup claims its platform has connected over 50,000 employees from 500 companies across Singapore and Malaysia to over 2,000 healthcare providers.

Prior to the latest round, the firm has raised S$12 million (US$7.4 million) in funding.

Employers across Asia-Pacific have long found the rising cost of employee benefits to be a key challenge, with 69 per cent of them citing it as the top challenge faced.

The uptake in costs borne from conventional employer-sponsored health insurance policies that bundle inpatient and outpatient insurance together. Additionally, paper-based claims are still a common practice within the industry, further inflating administrative costs.

Also Read: Startup founders are responsible for their remote employees. Here’s how to fulfil your duty of care

Chris Teo, CEO of Mednefits, said: “Digital technologies can help companies address business and operational challenges. By having businesses of all sizes on Mednefits’s cloud-based platform and an expansive network of panel clinics, we are able to offer competitive and  flexible corporate healthcare plans, while simplifying and automating reimbursements.”

“Mednefits’s vision is to lead the employee benefits transformation in Southeast Asia. We will use this investment to grow faster and further in Singapore and Malaysia, while also improving the product’s self-service capabilities by growing our technological know-how,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

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