In an article, Forbes highlights the major challenges that fintech startups face today, and regulatory issues fall into the top-three list.

“It is important to work with regulators and make sure that you hire a capable team member who is dedicated to understanding the trends, can interface with the appropriate regulatory bodies, and who has a solid understanding of any regulatory impact on your product or the way you market the product,” the article says.

In many countries, including Singapore, it has become a common practice for the government to run a sandbox programme to balance out between innovation and compliance.

But how exactly does one perform compliance in a fintech startup? For those who are new in this, what are the factors that need to be considered? How can one know they have done it right?

e27 reaches out to Rayson Tan, Chief Compliance Officer at Revolut, to understand how the UK-based fintech giant works with the regulator to ensure safety and security for their customers.

Also Read: Why companies should prioritise compliance during a worldwide pandemic

A little background information about Tan: Prior to joining Revolut, he has over 19 years of financial services experience. He has deep in-house experience building, running, and changing compliance programmes in financial services across investment banking, private banking, corporate banking, asset management, payments, and financial technology.

The following is the edited excerpt of the interview with Tan:

Can you explain to us the basic principles of regulatory compliance framework and how it is being implemented in your company?

There are many components to a good compliance framework, which includes having a coherent strategy and clearly set out objectives, having appropriate policies, processes, systems and controls, having a suitable level of resources and the right kind of people.

In what ways does it differ from traditional practices?

The traditional compliance model was designed in a different time and often has compliance teams focussing solely on promulgating regulations and internal policies in a largely advisory capacity. At Revolut, the Compliance department is more than just an advisor, and we play an active role in risk management and monitoring. We seek to focus on actual risk identification by understanding business operations and the underlying risk exposure and then being practical and smart enough to translate the regulatory requirements into business actions that work for our organisation.

What are the most pressing challenges you have ever faced in its implementation? And what are the most valuable lessons you got from it?

Our company has ambitious plans to be the world’s first digital bank. In the case of Singapore, the regulatory requirements have changed with the introduction of the Payment Services Act in late January 2020. We have and continue to expend energy interpreting new regulations and thinking of innovative ways of implementing them into day-to-day operations, this can be a labour intensive and complex process.

Also Read: Compliance, lending are the most popular fintech sectors among banks in Malaysia

The lessons that I have learnt in dealing with regulatory change is that you have to get up to speed very quickly and also going about managing the change in a methodical and structured manner. This means, for example, creating an inventory of laws and regulations and a clear mapping of the regulations to controls in place, and having a structured process to go about doing an impact assessment when the obligations change, and prioritising them accordingly.

There is also a need to build capacity quickly given the large volume of change. However, this does not mean adding indiscriminately resources by throwing warm bodies at the problem. Capacity can be built by using technology such as in the area of surveillance and monitoring.

What is your advice for fintech startups who would like to implement this in their companies? What are some of the worst mistakes a fintech startup can do in implementing this? How to avoid this?

Think how best to leverage technology to plot your regulatory journey. Technology is a powerful enabler, not only just allowing one to be more effective and efficient, but also helping one identify potential risk hotspots and taking corrective measures before they become bigger.

Other than the hard elements, it is important to establish a strong risk and compliance culture throughout the organisation. Most senior failures in companies in recent times have a cultural element.

One of the worst mistakes that I have seen is the adoption of a one-size-fits-all approach towards compliance. Each company’s circumstances are different and compliance officers should not be thinking that if this worked at my previous organisation, let’s copy and paste it here.

Also Read: Why using security information and event management (SIEM) tools makes sense even if SEA isn’t high on compliance yet

Working with regulators. What are some of the tips that you can share about building relationships and collaboration?

Initially, some regulators may have difficulty dealing with fintech companies as there is a perception they differ so much from traditional players.

The diverse nature of the fintech industry can create obstacles for some regulators who are looking to classify the variety of fintech companies and provide appropriate oversight. Given how rapidly the fintech industry evolves, regulators are often similarly on a learning journey and it is wise that you walk the journey with them and help give them perspective.

I find that constructive engagement works much better than strategies of avoidance or opposition. Engagement is often the best way of building an effective relationship. When a firm is not known to the regulator, and they have an issue, if there is no relationship, it can make it difficult to move on the issue. If you have a relationship you may find it easier to sit down with the regulator and pitch ideas to them.

What are the knowledge and skillsets required to work in this field?

Hiring the right people who can think about issues the right way is key to be successful as compliance undergo rapid transformation.

I like people who are proactive and inquisitive, who take it upon them to understands the business they are managing and its specific risks in addition to having the technical regulatory expertise. It is also important that compliance officers do not see their role as solely advising and being able to execute key tasks on top of the advice they provide.

Also Read: Why culture will play a huge role in compliance with data privacy rules

Lastly, I like staff who are willing to get out of their comfort zone are comfortable in learning new skills. For example, there is considerable opportunity to use more technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of compliance, if you don’t already know it, learn.

What is the future of compliance and how does your company plan to get there? What are the barriers that you need to jump through?

As regulations have become more important in shaping business strategy, the future of compliance has to evolve to one that is supporting the business as a strategic business partner. It has to evolve from a function that is focused on conservatism to one that operates in a more strategic and predictive capacity.

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Image Credit: Revolut

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ShopBack acquires South Korean rebates platform Ebates

ShopBack, an online rewards and discovery platform, has acquired South Korean cash-back startup Ebates, according to a company statement.

Although the terms of the deals were not disclosed, this acquisition will grow ShopBack’s user base and strengthen its list of merchants offering cashback properties.

The company is projected to have over 500,000 customers in South Korea this year.

Henry Chan, Co-founder of ShopBack, said: “South Korea’s digitally mature mindset and rapid adoption of e-commerce makes it a core and high-potential market for cash-back platforms. By entering the market through the acquisition of Ebates Korea, we will be able to leverage its strong local presence to become the nation’s leading cashback platform.”

Ripple, Siam Commercial Bank partner to ease money transfer solutions for customers

Thailand’s first indigenous bank Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) has announced a partnership with Silicon Valley-based blockchain company Ripple to ease money transfer solutions for customers, according to a company statement.

This partnership will allow Ripple to expand the coverage of its remittance services across 12 countries and help SCB to establish solutions that will enhance its financial products that can address its customers needs.

The countries where the service will be provided are the UK, the US, Singapore, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, and Portugal.

Also Read: For these 5 space tech startups in SEA, the future is as bright as the sky

ShareChat buys meme sharing platform Memer to serve the social needs of Indian masses

Regional social networking platform ShareChat has acquired a meme discovery and sharing platform Memer for an undisclosed amount, according to The Economic Times.

Post the deal, Memer’s product suite will be integrated into Twitter-backed ShareChat, and the eight-member team will join the Bengaluru-based startup.

“Today, ShareChat is on a rapid growth path, and it’s really important to keep a sharp focus on product innovation and faster execution. Therefore, we are looking for inorganic opportunities to complement our organic efforts and power the growth engine,” said Manohar Charan, VP of Corporate Development of ShareChat.

MindFi makes its mindfulness app free for healthcare workers during COVID-19

MindFi, a mobile app for mindfulness meditation, has partnered with the Labour Movement’s Healthcare Academy to offer healthcare workers free access to its service, according to the company statement.

“In these times of crisis, our public healthcare workers are at the frontline and selflessly doing their part for society. From the comforts of our homes, we want to help these carers care for themselves. We hope MindFi can be a useful tool for self-care during their brief moments of rest to restore some calm and comfort. We are also in discussions with more partners to broaden our social impact during these trying times,” said Bjorn Lee, founder of MindFi.

Also Read: e27 webinar: Sailing through COVID-19 crisis with mindfulness meditation

This initiative comes during a time when there is growing pressure on the nation’s healthcare system to combat the upsurge in COVID-19 cases.

MindFi app aims to provide a diverse set of mindfulness activities based on personal goals during this period to support the warriors of COVID-19

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Image Credit: Shopback

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Singapore-based fintech platform Helicap has raised US$10M in a Series A financing round, led by early-stage VC firm Saison Capital, according to KrAsia.

Existing investor East Ventures, and new investors Access Ventures and Lamivoie, besides unnamed individual investors also participated.

This round pushes the startup’s total funds raised till date to almost US$17 million.

Helicap said that it would use the fresh capital to grow its business further by enhancing its current platform and expanding towards the private debt space.

Helicap is an online investment platform that specialises in the alternative lending space in Southeast Asia and Oceania.

The company most recently registered its fund management subsidiary, Helicap Investments with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), according to founder David Wang. It also managed to obtain a capital markets services license by acquiring Arcor Capital last in 2019.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: HKs fintech startup Oriente receives US$50M; Singapores ZuBlu raises US$1M

Earlier, Helicap roped in the eldest son of late former Indonesian president B.J. Habibie as Special Advisor to the company’s Board of Directors. The company is speculated to be eyeing Indonesian expansion.

Habibie said: “As the Indonesian economy evolves and our labour force re-skills for the future, there will continue to be a large gap in the Indonesian credit market which is not addressed by traditional banks. As a result, there is a significant role for a rigorous data-driven firm like Helicap to play in the alternative lending space.”

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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Conicle secures US$900K from Humanica, 500 TukTuks and Stormbreaker Venture

Conicle, an edutech startup based in Thailand, has secured US$900,000 pre-Series A round of funding from Humanica, a local HR and ERP solutions company, and 500 TukTuks and edtech accelerator Stormbreaker Venture.

The funds will be used by the startup to expand into the international education market, as well as to further develop a comprehensive solution for Human Resource managers to improve their employees’ skills, drive digital transformation and respond to future work trends.

Concicle is a learning management system, which acts as an executive assistant and HR in developing the internal workforce under the concept of ‘modernise learning’.

A key strength of Conicle is its blended-learning approach with data-driven personalisation. The learning content will be personalised to each user alongside personalised recommendations for courses. Lastly, Conicle also gamifies their courses so that learners are incentivized to complete lessons to earn points.

So far, Conicle has bagged over 500,000 users from more than 30 leading companies, such as AIA, PTT Group, AIA, CPALL, Makro and Honda.

Vonder raises funding from Pongsak Trakulsuk, Stormbreaker Venture

Separately, Vonder, another edutech company from the country, has raised an undisclosed seed funding round, led by existing investor Pongsak Trakulsuk and existing backer Stormbreaker Venture.

The seed funding will be used to further penetrate the B2B corporate training market for HR, corporates and SMEs, in addition to developing and expanding new products for the regional market.

Vonder, which develops micro-learning solutions and HRD platforms, has  found a way to make learning more effective and fun by converting hard-to-digest and boring content into short gamified micro-lessons. These lessons can be effective for both the education sector and for staff training.

For corporates, HRs can create their own content, or the Vonder team can help HR to co-create or convert the organisation’s existing content into Vonder’s micro-learning format. Popular lessons are Tax 101 for employees, new product training for sales, regulations and Standard of Practice training.

Founded in 2018, the company aims to grow by 3x in order to raise Series A funding in the next 12 months.

In addition to its core products, the company also provides many features to support the HR department, such as the Vonder FAQ manager, a chat bot that helps to answer employee’s questions, and Vonder’s Pulse Survey, a feature that allows HR to survey their employees easier in a gamified way which incentivises participation.

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Khailee Ng is one of the most successful founders from Southeast Asia. In 2011, he sold daily deals site GroupsMore to Groupon, as part of the latter’s entrance into Malaysia. Just two years later, Ng sold social curation and news platform Says.com to Malaysian media giant Media Prima Bhd.

Now, as one of four managing partners of 500 Startups globally, Khailee also oversees Southeast Asia as a region. Ng is one of the few venture capitalists with direct experience in the region as both a founder and an investor. His track record in this role is equally impressive. Of the 180 investments Ng has made, three are already unicorns: Grab, Revolution Precraftd, and Bukalapak.

Gracy Fernandez: What is the toughest part about mentoring and advising founders? How do you make this investor-founder relationship successful?

Ng: I ask myself, how does this get done well, at scale? Assuming that I will be the primary mentor and advisor to founders creates limitations on how effective the firm can be at scale. The benefit of having a large portfolio the way 500 Startups does is that we have the economies of scale to run programs. We have run B2C and B2B growth programs, bringing down legendary talent from the likes of Facebook, YouTube, and Lyft, and in multiple geographies.

In Southeast Asia, for example, we have flown in 50 mentors, with 88 companies participating, clocking in over 2,000 hours of hands-on growth work! I wasn’t involved in mentoring and advising. But the team put together a successful program that did.

We noticed that founder burnout, stress, and depression were a real thing.

Also Read: Khailee Ng “angry and sad” about Dave McClure scandal, but will continue to support 500 Startups

We sought out experts. We found the Director of Emotional Wellbeing Research at Yale and his partner, a successful life coach. We tried and introduced their programs to founders in Southeast Asia. We got feedback like, “We canceled our divorce after practicing the tools we learned,” and “I was cured of my three months of insomnia and now manage my mental health way better,” all the way to entire management teams of our founders seeking more coaching. Again, when I embrace my personal limitations, I unlock unlimited potential. This is what I believe 500 to be, not a VC firm, but a VC platform.

Gracy Fernandez: Can you delve deeper into this problem, so people can better appreciate your innovative solutions? How have you seen founder burnout, stress, and depression negatively affect both founders and the companies they lead?

Ng: The divorce and insomnia examples are listed below. But across 500’s 2,000+ investments, there have been two founder suicides. That’s two too many.

On a basic level:
1. Founders may tend to over-personalize, internalize, and energize issues in business as issues in themselves, or their lives.

2. Tools and tactics to regulate awareness, communication, vulnerability, and strength are very helpful, but are not the first things they ask for. They just spend more time at work.

3. Having a foundation of friends, health, and family gives strength. But it is also the weakest part in most founding journeys with this “all in,” “go big or go home,” overglorification of over-working culture.

There is another way. Very rarely is a startup a quick sprint. We’re playing the long game here. It is better to have foundations and tools. You’ll need them.

Also Read: This world is a f**ked up place!: Khailee Ng

You don’t want to pick them up the hard way. That’s what the drive to run these programs is about.

Personally, when I was going through having my entire business wiped out at SAYS.com, from the Facebook URL ban, I had to put up a strong front every day, but I felt broken inside. That takes energy. Even after we created the new business, I felt it may happen again at any time, and I didn’t feel secure. The thing is, I still did not talk to my team about it. I only told them much later when I broke down, and they asked me “why didn’t you tell us earlier, we all could have doubled down and helped, shared the burden”. This is a familiar story that all founders can relate to. And I’m here to say, you don’t have to turn your problems into your entire universe. On the contrary, you have a universe of resources and help for you to overcome any problem at all. Anything.

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This story has been excerpted by courtesy of the publisher from Asian Founders at Work by Ezra Ferraz and Gracy Fernandez (Apress, 2020).

To purchase the book, please visit Amazon.

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With most of the world still forced to stay indoors, the gaming world in all its colourful, action-packed glory has become a ‘beacon of light’ to many. Given this recent spike in demand for gaming, ZeusX, a Singapore-based digital marketplace for gamers all over the world, is looking to ramp up its growth with more varied product offerings and aggressive user acquisition. 

e27 recently sat down with ZeusX founder Alex Tay to share his startup journey, the opportunities and challenges he faces in terms of attracting investors, clinching potential customers, and marketing.

The hurdles of being the ‘new face’ in the startup crowd

Newly established startups have to deal with several ‘birth pains’ of being new. For instance, they have to get people to understand what their business is all about and prove their reputation. Also, for marketplace platforms such as ZeusX, they must learn the ropes of seamlessly onboarding their initial partners.

While the young startup has not been immune to all of these, ZeusX utilised those disappointments and rejections as opportunities to improve their methods, product, and services.

On attracting potential customers, gaining visibility, and building trust by tapping into a reputable platform

Apart from product development, one hurdle many businesses must tackle is gaining visibility in the marketplace or ecosystem.

“In terms of attracting potential customers, the biggest challenge is that we are really new and trying to tackle an area where gamers are already wary of scams,” shares Tay. “So the number one question in their mind is — “Is ZeusX legit?”

“And because awareness and branding was a top concern, it’s important that people know about us from a reputable source and understand that we are not a fly-by-night operation,” the ex-corporate continues.

“We wanted to find a media platform which is not only reputable but is also well-known for covering startup movements in the region. Collaborating with e27 to address our top concerns was quite a no-brainer. We definitely achieved our original goal to promote ZeusX as a known startup, and had pleasant surprises in gaining visibility from investors too.”

Addressing the need to build trust among their users, Tay expresses that they “built a series of safeguards to ensure that buyer payments are only released to the seller upon successful delivery and validation of the item.” Additionally, they are adding more verification mechanisms for sellers and working with payment processing providers in filtering off problematic cards or transactions preemptively.

Key advice for those who are planning to take a leap into the same industry

“This is a bit cliché, but if you’re following your passion, it will become your engine of motivation all by itself,” Tay begins.

For Tay, this passion began at an early age of nine. “I was so enthralled with Super Mario Bros on Nintendo, and Archon and Battle Chess on PC that I wanted to be a games developer before I knew it was a real job. It motivated me to read those thick computing books even before I entered secondary school,” Tay confesses.

“Getting a desktop PC in my early teenage years also unlocked a whole new world for me. I mean, how amazing is that — being able to control colourful characters inside electronic screens?”

Get motivated by passion, but one must pursue entrepreneurship with a problem to solve and a clear monetization strategy

“The gaming industry is growing at an unbelievable rate and there is always room for more innovation. Just remember to have a clear monetization strategy from the on-start,” Tay continues.

As an avid gamer himself, who had also transacted in secondary platforms, Tay was really surprised to see most of the trades still taking place on forums, Reddit, and maybe some websites. “There have been limited innovations in this space when you compare it to the progress happening in e-commerce and even for sneakers trading.”

This was where Tay stumbled upon an old problem — there wasn’t any trusted central gaming platform where gamers can trade with peace of mind and get what they need easily.

Additionally, it was during a conversation with his friends when Tay realised that large-prized e-sports such as DOTA catered to only one per cent of gamers.

“So we asked ourselves, what about the rest of everyday gamers — the other 99 per cent? Is there a way for us to create a better living out of gaming, or even help to generate more value to our community? I carried these questions with me ever since that day.”

“The market is really fragmented,” shared Tay. “I followed the recent developments and thought I can apply both my passion and past expertise in creating that gamers’ marketplace that I’ve always envisioned.”

What’s next for ZeusX?

With more people gaming online than ever, there has also been an increase in customers and sellers who want to convert their efforts into cash. “Our approach,” shares Tay, “is not going to change much, but in order to help fellow gamers in need — ZeusX has decided to waive all sales fees until at least 30th June so that we also contribute back to the community.”

He went on, “In this unprecedented time, where COVID-19 is ravaging the globe and forcing people to stay home (and thus play more games), we do get a lot of interest all over since we are a gaming startup. Handling all these attention isn’t a bad problem to have, but we also don’t want to be distracted from the most important thing now, which is to product-fit our platform based on feedback.”

“Expanding our product offerings, introducing more payment options, and ramping up marketing efforts to acquire more users. ZeusX has a strong focus on mobile gaming and Esports games, so expect a good mix of the latest trending mobile game items as well as items from evergreen games too over time. Do watch out for us!”

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ZeusX recently partnered with e27 for a campaign to help level up their game. We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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Surge, a rapid scale-up programme for startups run by Sequoia India, has announced the 15 early-stage startups selected for its third cohort, which is underway.

The programme combines US$1 million to US$2 million of capital for each startup, with company-building workshops and support from a community of exceptional mentors and founders from companies like gojek, ONE Championship and Tokopedia.

The Surge 03 cohort includes startups from Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and India, who are solving a wide range of problems across a diverse set of industry verticals, including SaaS, development tools, consumer, F&B, education and Health.

Also Read: Vietnam’s BuyMed raises US$2.5M to expand its pharma distribution marketplace in Southeast Asia

The founders are from eight nationalities, including India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Italy, Canada, Barbados and Sweden.

More than half the current cohort is from Southeast Asia, while one-third of Surge 03 startups have at least one female founder.

The 15 startups have collectively raised US$39 million as part of the programme.

Since its launch in March 2019, Surge has grown into a community of more than 110 founders from 52 startups, spread across six countries.

Surge 03, which started on 13th April, is taking place completely online for the first time. Day-long sessions held once a week for 16 weeks, include online company-building workshops, small group discussions and interactive fireside chats with Surge mentors such as William Tanuwijaya, Founder and CEO of Tokopedia; Doug Leone, Global Managing Partner, Sequoia Capital; and many other experienced founders and investors from Vietnam, Indonesia, India and the US.

The eight startups from Southeast Asia are:

Bukukas (Indonesia): Helps owners of MSMEs understand and manage their financial flows more effectively with an easy-to-use digital ledger they can download on their smartphone.

Hangry (Indonesia): A cloud kitchen that serves up multiple in-house ‘virtual restaurant’ brands for online orders and delivery.

CoLearn (Indonesia): An edutech platform that empowers tuition centres and tutors to create online learning experiences for their students.

Thuocsi (Vietnam): An online B2B marketplace for pharmaceutical, health and personal care needs.

Pencil (Singapore): Brings the scale of algorithms to the creative process by generating ads that are predicted to work. It is the first generative creative platform for performance advertising teams in brands and agencies.

Pentester Academy (Singapore): Trains security professionals on the art and science of defeating hackers and making the internet safer. It does this by replacing theory classes with practical experiences that are both fun and edifying.

Tigerhall (Singapore): A mobile learning platform that aims to help professionals achieve their career and life goals by learning directly from Asia’s most successful people.

Tinvio (Singapore): A communication and commerce platform built around the idea that merchants and suppliers should be able to work smarter together.

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Image Credit: Surge

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Updates: The article has been updated on the funding amount

Singapore-based communication and commerce platform Tinvio has secured US$5.5 million in seed investment from Sequoia Capital’s accelerator Surge, according to a company statement.

Other backers include Berlin-based VC Global Founders Capital and Silicon Valley-based investment platform Partech Partners. This brings Tinvio’s total raised to US$6.5 million.

The company plans to use its newly-raised capital for product development and market expansion, primarily focusing on Australia, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia (SEA).

“Our 12 months goal is to provide financial services to businesses and extend our market leadership in current cities and launch in more languages in different places,” said founder and CEO Ajay Gopal.

The startup that was launched last year by an ex-investment banker is on a mission to help small and mid-sized business owners keep track of their orders, accounts, and receivables in a more simple and efficient manner. 

Most of the merchants in F&B, retail, and healthcare supply chains today still place orders over email, WhatsApp, or phone calls, while invoices and payments are exchanged mainly in paper form, he said. 

Also Read: Unlike in the west, layoffs are only the last option for Asian firms during a crisis: TranSwaps Benjamin Wong

“Tinvio’s frictionless chat-to-order mobile experience enables users to send messages and orders to their suppliers in just a few taps,”

The mobile app also creates digital ledgers of all orders, invoices, and issues for real-time monitoring and analysis, so that merchants can keep a track on all their orders. 

Tinvio’s claims that its customer base has significantly grown to over a thousand businesses, with 50 per cent monthly user growth and 80 per cent cohort retention. Its platform is currently available in over ten cities from Hong Kong and Singapore, with plans to provide digital financial services to businesses.

During COVID-19, the commerce startup has stepped up its efforts by initiating a movement called “Save Our Nomnoms“ to help local F&B brands raise immediate awareness and enable direct discovery for their restaurants through their website. 

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Image Credit: Tinvio

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Anthony Tan, co-founder of Grab, urged companies to stay strong together and support one another during the COVID-19 crisis in a letter originally sent out to investors stating the impact of the pandemic on Grab.

In a LinkedIn post titled Note to Investors on Addressing the Challenges of COVID-19, the ride-hailing giant provided direct insights on how COVID-19 has impacted Grab along with advice on why this is the most crucial time to remain collaborative.

Tan quoted Victor Frankl’s popular book Man’s Search For Meaning on how difficult times are simply a test for individuals to rise above challenges and unleash their true potential.

On that note, Tan believes that even though there may be rough roads ahead, one cannot lose sight of their “north star” which he refers to as the people and businesses who depend on the company for a living.

Even though hard times can run longer than expected, Tan believes that we, as a generation, still carry the tools and technology to find innovative solutions to tackle it.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Chilibeli raises US$10M, gojek denies staff layoff and Grab merger reports

Below is the note:

I hope this note finds you and your family safe and well. It has been a trying period for all of us, and I wanted to take this opportunity to have a frank discussion about the impact COVID-19 is having on our business and our ecosystem of partners.

COVID-19 is the single biggest crisis to affect Grab in the eight years of our existence. It has had an unprecedented impact on our operations, our business and the livelihoods of our partners.

Viktor Frankl once wrote, when humanity is faced with an impossible set of challenges, we are challenged to change ourselves. COVID-19 and the global economic devastation in its wake are those impossible challenges, and we are rapidly changing our business to overcome that challenge.

Impact on our Business

In cities and countries where there are movement restrictions, we have seen a sharp decline in our ride-hailing business with volumes in some countries down by double-digit percentages.

Our deliveries business is faring better. Stay-at-home measures are prompting consumers to order in food and groceries, contributing to demand for GrabFood and GrabExpress. To better serve our users who remain at home, we are expanding GrabMart, Grab’s daily essentials delivery service, and Grab’s on-demand concierge service, GrabAssistant to more cities and countries. This, in turn, creates additional income-opportunities for our drivers during this critical period.

Also Read: Stressful times ahead: How this e27 webinar will help you keep calm and carry on

While the full economic cost of the COVID-19 pandemic is unclear, there will be tough decisions and trade-offs to make as we continue to evaluate its impact on our business. We will right-size our costs, manage our capital efficiently and make the necessary operational adjustments in order to weather the storm and carve out a path to profitability.

Community Assistance

The spread of COVID-19 has devastated the livelihoods of our partners and upended everyday life for millions of our customers. Our driver-partners are now finding it difficult to support their families, and our merchant friends are facing store closures and disruptions to their supply chain.

Our immediate priority in the last couple of months has been to support our driver- and merchant-partners during this very difficult time, including a committed spend of US$40 million in relief initiatives for the region.

The relief initiatives include a financial assistance scheme for driver-partners who are stricken with COVID-19, so they can focus on recovering rather than worrying about putting food on the table. We are also working with NGOs to distribute food staples to needy driver-partners. For example, we recently distributed 80 tonnes of rice to drivers in Vietnam.

For restaurants and small food merchants, the crisis has led to a decline in footfall. To help small food merchants stabilize their business, we are moving them online as quickly as possible and offering commission rebates, commission deferrals and marketing support so they can better manage their cash flow during this period. Open-air bazaars and wet markets that have not changed their operational models for centuries now face an existential threat in COVID-19, and we are actively bringing them online so they too can reach more customers.

Frontline healthcare workers are risking their lives to protect ours. We are working closely with governments and hospitals to aid frontline workers by providing specialized dedicated services like medicine delivery and non-emergency ambulances, in order to ease the burden on public healthcare systems.

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Grab-IMDA partnership aims to help Singaporean startups expand overseas

Stronger Together

Ultimately, the impact of COVID-19 and the resulting acts of community kindness remind us that we are nothing without each other. At Grab, we are committed to serving others. Though the impact of this crisis may last years, we cannot lose sight of our north star – the people and businesses who depend on us for a living, our customers who rely on our services more than ever, and our broader community that is working hard to adapt to a new normal brought about by this pandemic.

We will devote our operational resources to alleviate the pain felt by our partners; we will use our technology to aid governments and healthcare providers; and we will build relevant services to give customers what they need, now.

COVID-19 is an exceptionally difficult generational challenge. But while it looks dire, we are in better stead to face this crisis today than decades ago, because we have the tools and technology to help us find solutions. COVID-19 will require exceptional effort from all levels of society to overcome. We must rise to meet this challenge with new solutions, so that decades from now when facing another generational crisis, we can say that the tools of the future were built today.

I’m praying for all of us. Stay safe and strong.

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Image Credit: Grab

 

 

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