Singapore’s VC firm Monk’s Hill makes the final close of fund II at US$100M

Singapore-based VC firm Monk’s Hill Ventures (MHV) said that it has made the final close of its second fund at US$100 million.

Temasek, the anchor investor in the first fund, besides several unnamed US-based and international endowments, foundations, and family offices, also invested in Fund II.

“For Fund II, we will continue to invest in great founders, who are addressing sizeable market opportunities in tech at the early-stage, mainly Series A in Southeast Asia. We focus on investing in founders with a plan to scale up profitably in major economies, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines,” an MHV spokesperson told e27.

The VC firm has already made three investments from Fund II – Glints, STOQO and Padlet.

Online fashion company Koovs lays off a significant portion of its team 

Indian fashion startup has announced the lay-off of half of the buying and merchandising team, according to Economic Times.

The reports come two months after India’s central bank RBI rejected Kishore Biyani‘s investment proposal to throw a significant amount of capital into Koovs.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Strata, Salesken raise funding; Biofourmis to help Hong Kong fight COVID-19

“Koovs has successfully refinanced the business and refocused its business priorities, which included streamlining of some of its operations,” Mary Turner, CEO of Koovs, said without answering specifics on the sacking of employees.

Singapore’s startup Paktor cuts jobs amid market slump 

Singaporean startup Paktor has announced job cuts this year, compared to multiple layoffs since 2018, according to reports by Tech In Asia.

The company’s headcount has reportedly fallen from about 250 to 190 between 2018 and 2019, according to ex-staff.

Paktor’s CEO Shn Juay said that the startup now has around 200 employees. It makes job cuts every year as part of regular operational reviews, she adds.

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Image Credit: Monk Hill Venture’s 

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The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. Since ‘The Economist’ published this ground-breaking truth in 2017, “Data, as the new oil,” has become a common refrain in business circles. But far from becoming a cliché, the weight of this statement is so heavy and profound that companies are taking heed.

With AI and ML making forays into several industries, we are coming to terms with making decisions based on petabytes of data.

Single-handedly, the data revolution has revamped the way in which most businesses today operate. It forms the backbone for customer-led innovation, business policies and practices, and even new product and service offerings.

For instance, companies like Amazon and Netflix that utilise customer data to provide customised user experiences have proven to be unstoppable.

In the financial services industry too, data plays a pivotal role in initiating positive changes across the board. Over the past few years, we’ve welcomed the emergence of challenger banks and mobile payment solutions that rely heavily on data.

Most notably, the far-encompassing definition of fintech, as a term that refers to the innovation that aims to improve and automate the delivery and use of traditional financial services, is now an everyday term that even the layperson can relate to.

Clearly, in this data-inundated marketplace, an organization’s winning edge will depend largely on how it is able to control its data. However, data supremacy is only one side of the coin. Equally important is its oft-overlooked flip side.

Consumer trust, the flip side of data overload

A recent study by the World Economic Forum and the University of Cambridge found that “trust and user adoption” of the latest technologies, such as AI, seemed to be the topmost hurdle faced by the financial industry today. Though technological improvements are indeed viewed positively, trust and buy-in from current and future customers will emerge as a key differentiator in the days to come.

Forbes noted that consumer trust directly impacts the bottom line.

Also read: Building trust in Machine Learning and AI in digital lending

Apparently, the average consumer today not only wants but demands to know all about a company before opening his/her wallet. More than 73 per cent consider transparency more important than price and 40 per cent say they will switch from their preferred brand to another that offers more transparency.

Clearly, the compulsion to base decisions on data runs both ways!

The cost of poorly handled data

In 2018, 500 million personal records were stolen. According to the RiskBased Data Breach QuickView Report at the end of September 2019, there were 5,183 breaches exposing 7.9 billion records. Compared to the 2018 report for the same period, the total number of breaches was up 33.3 per cent and the total number of records exposed more than doubled, up 112 per cent.

Another report from Norton reveals that there were 3,800 publicly disclosed breaches and 4.1 billion records exposed in the first half of 2019 alone.

All these data breaches affect companies in myriads of direct and indirect ways that we may not have completely fathomed as yet. Short-term direct losses—a drop in share price, revenue loss, and increased crisis management budget—are inevitable. In the ASEAN region, the average organizational cost of a data breach stands at about $3.6 million.

However, the indirect cost, often overlooked, is even more noxious—loss of reputation and customer trust. Data stewardship and protection or its lack thereof can directly impact your enterprise’s reputation, customer trust and overall business health for years to come.

Why data supremacy and trust must go hand-in-hand

How do these findings translate into the operational activities of a fintech? The Global FinTech Adoption Index 2019: notes that the ‘trust gap’ can create opportunities for both incumbent financial institutions and FinTech challengers.

“Even though non-financial services companies have led the way in deploying new technologies to deliver innovative services and have raised the bar on consumer expectations, they do not yet have the full confidence of consumers when it comes to providing financial services on their own.”

Fintech players must ensure that their offerings take heed of both the financial institutions’ need for data and the customers’ concerns for privacy. In May 2018, an EU regulation around data protection and privacy—the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—came into effect.

Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information and California’s Consumer Privacy Act also steps in the right direction. All these regulations ensure that data regulators protect personal data and establish data privacy standards for their businesses across the globe.

Above all, it puts the power back into the hands of the consumer—ensuring they have the right to demand how their personal data is being used and requesting companies to delete it if required.

Though the Fintech industry is well-equipped with technologies, communicating this message to customers and winning their trust will need to be prioritised.

If businesses can showcase their ongoing effort to keep stakeholders constantly updated, we can reduce indirect costs and more importantly, build a community of trust that will propel the industry to greater heights.

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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. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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People who want to own their own business but are afraid to do it often produce similar excuses. Because of these excuses, many people cannot start their own business.

Of course, starting your own business is a challenging process and requires a lot of dedication to succeed in this field. Mohab Ayoub, Algedra Interior Design Company’s CEO says that ”The way to success is not easy, and even a person on the road to success may lose hope and motivation when facing obstacles.”

These difficult processes can intimidate many people and cause them to step back. These difficulties experienced by others can turn into excuses for entrepreneur candidates who are afraid to start their own business.

In this guide, we will focus on these excuses:

Being too old or too young

One of the biggest and most suggested excuses is the age problem. Many people avoid pursuing their own dreams, using their age as an excuse. This is because they are sometimes very old and sometimes too young.

Older people think that it is not possible to start something new after a certain age, it can be difficult to set up some things from scratch. Of course, while starting some things from scratch, some of the comforts obtained must be abandoned.

However, one of the things that should not be forgotten is that, although it reaches a certain age, it gives the opportunity to have many experiences both in business life and personally.

These experiences can be very useful when starting a business from scratch. While making business decisions, starting from these experiences, some problems can be prevented before they even surface.

It is thanks to these experiences that what kind of management is to be made or what kind of decisions are taken can be achieved faster and reaching a certain age gives you this opportunity.

There are also those who do not take some steps because they are very young. The disadvantage of young people is the lack of experience. However, being at a young age also has its advantages.

Also read: 5 excuses aspiring entrepreneurs use to put off starting up

You can follow many innovations more closely and adapt to them more easily. This is a good opportunity to do entirely young people; because you know their demands and wishes.

The first job you do doesn’t need to succeed. You can learn some lessons from this job and have experience. In this way, you can learn from your mistakes and sail to new ports.

My environment is not wide enough

Having a wide environment when you start a business will offer you some advantages. This can both open up some doors to invest in your business and allow you to promote your business more quickly.

However, the fact that your environment is not wide right now does not mean that this will be the case all the time. You can start to expand your environment and promote your business by participating in industry-related events, meeting people in the industry through social channels.

Unless you communicate, others will not try to reach you.

Not enough time

One of the excuses made by people who have a regular job right now is that they don’t have enough time. If you have the idea of starting your own business and you are excused about time; you probably do not fully believe this job and you do not want to waste your time because you do not believe it.

When you have complete faith in your job, you can create the time required. If this job excites you, you can create time and continue both jobs by sacrificing both your social environment and sleep. Lack of time is entirely up to you.

Fear of failure

Another excuse is the fear of failure in the work. Everyone is afraid to fail; however, the greatest experiences and life lessons come with failures. When you look at the lives of successful people, you see that these people face certain problems and that they have some successes after failing many times in life.

The reason for this is that failure comes with experience. The more experience you have, the more confident you can take your next step and you will make better decisions.

Therefore, do not view failure as a negative situation. Accept the mistakes you make and encourage yourself to open a new door.

I can’t leave my current job

You will need financial resources to continue your life, and therefore it is important to have a regular job. But if this is getting ahead of your dreams, you have started to make some excuses.

To start your own business, you need to devote yourself to this idea. When you dedicate yourself, the obstacles that you encounter will not be a problem for you.

I don’t have the money to start a business

Another of the biggest excuses is that there is not enough capital. This situation goes beyond excuse and in some cases has a share of reality. However, it is another problem not to start your project due to the shortcomings you have.

If you have a very good project, if this project will solve some problems in the lives of consumers and you really believe in this project, you can start your project and then knock on the investors’ door during the draft stage.

Investors support projects that require a lot of capital and are really ambitious.

Expecting to be perfect

It will not make any sense if you do not implement it after starting your project. Many people expect the job to be perfect at this stage. This is actually another excuse. Because there are some fears behind it.

With such a point of view, you can never make your job perfect; because you want to constantly improve. Instead, start your project as soon as possible and try to perfect your work on the go.

In this way, you can bring the project to a better place by taking the ideas of the end-user, apart from your own ideas. You will start your more important business and you will now have more responsibility.

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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. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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

The post Why you shouldn’t let your mind dismiss your entrepreneurial dream appeared first on e27.

Finance

500 Startups invests in mobile-focussed Esports Players League

​Esports Players League​ (ESPL), a global e-sports tournament network and platform, has announced that it has secured an undisclosed investment from 500 Startups​ as a part of its seed round.

500 Startups said that it intended to support ESPL in executing its initial business objective of rolling out branded tournaments and platforms in ten countries in its first year of operation.

ESPL is a global e-sports tournament platform provider focussed on creating mobile ecosystems for amateur esports leagues globally. Through ESPL’s national franchise model, up-and-coming esports talents can easily participate in global competitions, all by facilitating grassroots participation.

ESPL was co-founded by former eSports.com CEO Michael Broda; Kin Wai Lau, Founder of ​iCandy Interactive Limited​; and Datuk Azrin Bin Mohd Noor of Sedania Innovator​.

According to the release, phase one of ESPL’s global roll-out has yielded franchise partnership agreements in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

ESPL also entered into its first media partnership with eGG Network, the largest esports TV network in Southeast Asia and Australia that reaches approximately 100 million TV viewers.

Indonesian AI-based NLP platform Datasaur snags US$1M funding from GDP Ventures

Datasaur, Indonesia-based NLP platform that categorises phrases to increase the understanding of computer system towards language and context, has raised US$1 million in extended investment from GDP Venture. The round was also joined by several angel investors like Calvin French-Owen, Co-founder and CTO of Segment.

Also Read: AI-powered data labeling startup Datasaur secures seed funding

As reported by DailySocial, the company will use the funding to strengthen the platform capability, minimise the bias in text-labelling, and increase privacy and data security, something that’s regarded as a crucial aspect of AI-based NLP and used to be outsourced.

“We basically handle all kinds of NLP, including entity recognition, parts of speech, document labeling, coreference resolution, and dependency parsing. We’ve built the intelligence into our system to make labeling more efficient and accurate, allowing companies to manage all their labeling systems in one easy platform,” said Founder and CEO Datasaur Ivan Lee.

Datasaur team is joining the Y Combinator accelerator batch Winter 2020 in San Francisco.

hoolah nabs Series A funding led by VC firm Allectus to accelerate expansion plans

hoolah, a Singapore-based company that provides interest-free payment installments by partnering with a variety of merchants, has announced the closure of Series A funding, led by VC firm Allectus.

Joining the round are Singapore-based iGlobe Ventures, who participated in hoolah’s seed round, and new investors including Genting Ventures; Max Bittner, former group CEO of Lazada; and Tim Neville, CEO of FNZ.

According to hoolah, the fundraise allows it to double down on their recently announced launch in Malaysia and fuel further expansion. It also plans to enable the team to build an omnichannel solution – enabling customers to shop online and in-store.

Business

Insurtech startup CXA Group shares profitability effort behind downsizing decision

Singapore’s insurtech startup CXA Group is releasing dozens of its staff despite having an ongoing US$50 million Series C funding round, says a TechInAsia’s article. According to another article by The Business Times, CXA’s decision was fueled by concerns from its investors, who want to see a “clear path to profitability”, as told by chief executive Rosaline Koo.

Also Read: AI-powered insurtech startup CXA Group to set up tech hub in Ho Chi Minh City

One source in the original report specified that the startup plans to retrench about 40 staff in the engineering, product development, and marketing departments. However, Koo said that only 12 staff in Singapore, out of a 319 regional team, have been laid off, mainly in marketing and other roles that involved “manual processing”, which have been automated, and there will be no further cuts.

The startup also states its effort in white-labelling its software that made the decision to let go some staff is to be expected, while other layoffs had to do with performance issues.

CXA so far has raised US$58 million from backers including HSBC, Singtel Innov8, the Singapore Economic Development Board’s investment arm EDBI, and B Capital Group. The startup is currently building up a tech hub in Vietnam and has hired 70 developers there.

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Picture Credit: hoolah

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Singaporean tech entertainment firm AnyMind raises US$26.4M Series B

AnyMind, a company started by Kosuke Sogo and Otohiko Kozutsumi, announced today it has secured US$26.4 million in Series B funding from Japan Post Capital and existing investors. The total capital raised to date is USD$62.3 million.

Already existing in 11 markets in Asia, the newly-raised capital will be used by the Singapore-based firm to scale its business and expand into India and the Middle East.

The group runs across three industries — entertainment technology, marketing technology and HR technology.

AnyMind Group is the parent company of AdAsia Holdings, TalentMind and CastingAsia.

Malaysia’s DoctorOnCall announces strategic partnership with Merchantrade Money

Malaysian digital health platform DoctorOnCall has partnered with money service business Merchantrade Money to expand user base, according to mobihealthnews.

Merchantrade Money application users simply have to click on “talk to a doctor” and “e-pharmacy,” to get a consultation.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: 500 Startups invests in e-sports platform ESPL; Indonesia’s Datasaur secures US$1M funding

“We believe this initiative will provide a growing number of our customers with better access to healthcare services and address any urgent medical needs conveniently and quickly. Our users could be overseas or in remote areas, therefore having DoctorOnCall directly on Merchantrade Money will give them the convenience and timely medical care they need, wherever they are,” said Ramasamy K. Veeran, Founder of Merchantrade Asia.

Oyo confirms 5000 layoffs globally as it aims to restructure 

Indian hospitality giant Oyo confirms layoffs of over 5000 employees globally, according to Kr Asia.

“The worldwide overhaul was in full swing. By the time our restructuring process is complete, OYO will have over 25,000 employees worldwide,” Founder Ritesh Agarwal told Bloomberg.

“In our previous phase, we added a lot of properties to our platform and built the brand and mindshare. Our first focus of 2020 is growth with profitability, ” he added.

The Gurugram-based startup claims to have 1.2 million rooms across 40,000 properties in over 80 countries.

 

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Image Credit:  Karla Rivera

 

 

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The good news is, they can be protected

We’ve all heard the worst of it: “WhatsApp hacked!” “Airline hacked!” “Bank fined!” Mobile app hacks are becoming increasingly common — it takes a hacker less than 5 minutes to break open a mobile app and get access to your source code, which can be used to launch attacks on your server infrastructure and on your ERP and databases, steal any intellectual property in the app itself, and also spread malware through fake apps pretending to be yours.

The good news is that your apps can be protected, even without dedicated security engineers in your team. Using the same technology as used by the world’s leading technology, banking, retail, and media companies, for services that go as low as $250 a month, you can equip your apps with formidable security.

The future may be mobile, but so are the threats

Most companies are going “mobile-first” for well-understood reasons. In several countries, a mobile device may be the first or only connection that an end-user has to the Internet. It’s not just consumer apps: the immediacy and pervasiveness of access to corporate information are driving enterprises to expose their operations through internal apps too, all of which make mobile apps a critical threat vector to your organization’s cybersecurity.

Particularly when it takes a hacker just 5 minutes (sometimes even less) to break open a mobile app and get access to the app’s source code. And, this bears repetition: once the hacker has access to your source code, they can use the knowledge of how your app works to attack the company’s servers, launch man-in-the-middle attacks, steal valuable intellectual property — especially critical for app-centric industries such as gaming, retail, and tech innovators —, copy your code to create derivatives of your app and your business, and even launch malware through your brand by pretending to be your app (this even happened to WhatsApp).

Digital security at the palm of your hands

Fortunately, the technology exists that can stop these attacks dead in their tracks by making it so exponentially hard for a hacker to reverse engineer your app that he moves on to a softer target equipped with a less secure system.

These technologies include strong obfuscation and anti-tampering, including the ability to optionally prevent an app from being run on jailbroken/rooted devices. If you have an in-house security team, they can use these technologies to protect your mobile apps, to protect libraries that you might be distributing, and even protect firmware on hardware devices, with a very fine level of control over how the security is targeted at different parts of your app. And if you do not have a security team, now you can use automated tools such as www.ProtectMyApp.com by Verimatrix that do all the heavy lifting for you for as little as $250 per month.

One of the globally leading companies in this space is the San Diego company Verimatrix, which helps keeps apps safe for world-leaders in the retail, banking, entertainment, automotive, and government sectors. In fact, Verimatrix currently protects over 2 billion apps and devices in 113 countries. To learn more, please reach out to Varun at varora@verimatrix.com and also download a whitepaper at www.verimatrix.com/downloads/whitepapers/the-wild-wild-west-of-mobile-security

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When I first decided to start my own business – a PR agency – I envisioned a sleek office decorated in steam-punk fashion with a huge reception to give people a sense of wonder whenever they came over for a meeting. I worked out the budget and put together a hiring plan that included a receptionist and a strong operations team to manage our plethora of clients.

Fast-forward two years into our journey and we do not have a physical office, but we have a strong list of exciting clients spread across three countries– Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

So here’s what happened. Firstly, commuting back and forth in any of the three aforementioned countries was a struggle for everyone. Secondly, when we first started, budgets made it very hard to fit in office rental as well as comparable salaries in Singapore, which is our home market. 

Thinking back to the beginning, I had one of two options, get a loan from a bank or beg for money from my friends, or postpone my dream until I won the lottery, so I could get my dream office. Instead, I decided to wing it, and start my business and build a company of remote workers. 

So here’s a summarised version of how we grew from two people who only ever communicated via email, to a team of over 27 full-time and contract staff across eight countries servicing clients based mainly in three markets.

Remote does not mean cheap

There is a huge misconception in the market that remote means cheap labour with questionable quality. When I began my journey at SYNC, I sought out experienced freelancers and content specialists who I knew and trusted to join the team, offering them market-comparable pay with the convenience of being able to set their own timetable. 

Also read: The future of remote work is happening now, here’s how to make it work for you

My payroll resembled a traditional PR agency, but I was able to remove the usual overheads and only invest in labour costs and some technology tools to help manage the team.

So while my overall burn rate was much lower, I did not pay less for talent. This really matters if you want to build a strong team that is able to maintain productivity and professionalism while working remotely.

Communication is key and even communication companies get it wrong

It might have been a lack of experience or overconfidence, but the first few months of running the business were quite a challenge. Communication, which is at the core of my profession, was also a challenge when you are used to just turning around to your colleague for a quick chat or popping into a meeting room for a 15-minute brainstorm. 

I had to adapt from years of working within a team, to a team of strong-willed individuals who did not quite understand what I was trying to achieve with my business. Trying to instill a sense of pride and belonging when you never see your team was another challenge – more so when you are trying to disrupt or change a traditional business such as public relations. 

Something had to change. So I changed because it was the best thing for the company.

From being a solitary and focused worker, I built a culture of sharing and openness that is pushed from top-down. If something goes wrong and it is my fault, I own up to it and my team provides feedback on my performance for everyone to see. 

I took a team of social introverts and told them that we were going to have to meet up every week. Now I meet my Singapore team at least once a week and I speak to them more than I do my own friends.

I see my Malaysia and Indonesia teams about once a month and they know they can reach me at any time – so I am fielding questions and getting updates seven days a week. 

While it is tough work, creating a real culture in a remotely-run business means you have to invest your time and become part of the fabric of the actual business.

Remote workers are not all beach-lounging hipsters

I class myself as a remote worker, but go for meetings regularly and dress (relatively) formally when meeting clients and partners. My team follows suit (most of the time) and we try to maintain a public-facing level of professionalism. 

Also read: Creating a culture beyond ping pong tables and sleeping pods

Most of my remote team of contractors and full-timers are your typical office worker with the exception that they get to wake up a bit later than normal, save time and money on commuting and are able to actually be home for deliveries on a weekday morning should the need arise. 

So, I do not get to spend a lot of time on the beach, even though I love it.

We are not the only ones doing it

Remote work has become more popular as employees are starting to realise that it is a viable job option, while at the same time businesses are fast realising that talent does not necessarily reside in a certain market or location.

In fact, according to a study called 2018 Global State of Remote Work, of the total companies and employees polled, more than half (56 per cent) of companies offer both remote and in-office options, and employees who work remotely at least once a month are 24 per cent happier than their work-from-office counterparts.

We also work with two companies that were entirely built on remote staff – Tech Collective Southeast Asia, a technology publication and Travel Wanderlust, a travel resource site. Both have built a core team of remote workers that use a pool of talented content developers and journalists across the world. 

There are options for everyone

Another interesting trend I have noticed is the availability of a growing number of resources and platforms for remote workers or digital nomads. From traditional players like Fiverr and Upwork to new players from Southeast Asia like MOPress from Malaysia and CoXplore in Vietnam offers affordable access to co-working spaces for the remote worker community.

Also read: Managing the millennial workforce over coffee and culture

MOPress offers businesses access to thousands of freelance writers, as well as AI tools for them to enhance their articles. It has an innovative monetisation scheme for writers that allows them to benefit from increased revenue if their articles are well-read. 

For CoXplore, a recent article says that the entire company is remote, and is part of the community that they cater to. The Vietnamese startup is still quite young but hopes to have their app available by the end of 2020 for remote workers to be able to search and book vetted coworking spaces, co-living spaces, and travel experiences with minimum effort.

Can you build a unicorn with just remote workers?

The short answer is I don’t know. 

I think you can build a very successful and sustainable business with remote staff, but building a billion-dollar business involves a wealth of infrastructure and a well-oiled engine to run it. 

However, for most of us, remote work and workers offer a sustainable and high-quality way to build a business without the hassle or barriers of large overheads. It is dependent on the type of business you want to run, as well as the type of entrepreneur you are. 

I am happy to say that this model has worked well for me.

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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. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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

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When I was younger, I used to love organising after-work drinks and dinners to know my colleagues better and to swap war stories.

It was at gatherings like these that you got to know each other not just as teammates but as people, which made all the difference when you’re working together in times of crisis.

These were also pre-social media times, so there was no urge or pressure to keep up, take photos and document where you were. We were literally just in the moment.

Ghosting at work

Fast forward fifteen years later and in the words of a great American poet, boy, have times a-changed. It’s not just about the work you do anymore and with whom, it’s also about who’s the inner circle you’re in and whose social media feeds you manage to get into.

Ghosting as a term has been used in the context of contemporary dating a lot. It basically means you’re ignoring a person because either you’ve found a better prospect or you’ve lost interest, or sometimes sadly, both.

But, I feel you can apply this to the corporate environment too.

This is especially true in larger organisations where competition doesn’t just exist between teams but more disturbingly, within. The promotions are limited, so are more vitally, the bonuses, and like a Gladiator contest from Roman times or a riveting Games of Thrones episode, you have colleagues pitted against each other through a game of wits to determine who will emerge as the vanquisher, and who will be ghosted.

I’ve worked in many environments where teams aren’t developed, where competition is encouraged between team members and where ‘impact’ is hardly defined but expected from managers who can’t communicate what their needs are.

One could argue that this promotes healthy competition between teammates, which in turn, ups productivity and increases numbers for a business. But, is this truly a healthy environment to work in?

Toxic environments

The answer, as most of us know in our hearts (unless you thrive in toxicity), is a resounding No. When you work in toxic work environments where popularity contests matter more than your work, not only does your productivity decrease as most of your time is spent not on actual work but on plotting, forming alliances and excluding the weaker members of your organisation it also makes you unhappier.

And if you’re not those who value politics over actual work, then you’re doomed. The politics will eventually either lead you to seek help, look outwards or just plain give up.

I had my first (and only) child, two and a half years ago. This changed my perspective on prioritising what’s important for me at work and at home.

So, whilst in my 20’s I loved socialising with my colleagues, even after work, I now know I need to really prioritise and balance my son’s needs with those of my work.

That has meant that I may need to decline the odd after-work drinks or a lunch invite so that I can put in that extra hour to my pending work projects and get back home to play with my son on the playground, before hitting the gym.

Has this put me in good stead with some of my former colleagues? Honestly, I would say no.

I know that building relationship is a vital part of my job but I also know that whilst work is but one aspect of my life, the other vital part is my son and my precious family time. This has meant that in unsupportive work environments, I had to force myself and sacrifice my family time just to get ahead and be seen as a team player, something which I never had to do.

Has this made me happier and more fulfilled? The answer again is a deafening No.

A Kardashian saga?

So, while many companies may say that what you do matters more than whom you know, we all know that this is nothing but a sugar-coated version of an altered reality.

The Kool-aid is there to drink and everyone needs to drink it or else you’re gone. The inner-circle dramas can almost be compared to a Kardashian saga- where people are talked about behind their backs, where performers aren’t rewarded but sycophants are, where appraisals are a time to decide which among the popular, chosen ones will be climbing up the ladder and at whose expense.

For someone who was bullied in her childhood and also sometimes in some very toxic work environments, I’m particularly conscious of the way bullies work in the corporate world.

They have a ‘mean girls’ mentality, operate in cliques, target the most vulnerable and make no qualms about excluding you from key work and social events. Ghosting at its corporate worst.

Thriving, instead of surviving

So, how do we navigate these very complex, interpersonal dynamics at work and how do you manage to thrive, instead of just survive?

Have your support network: These are the people in your network who will uplift and support you when the going gets tough at work. They may or may not be at your current organisation but what they share in common is a genuine feeling to help you. I’m grateful to have a lot of these in my network and with whom I seek advice from regularly.

Communicate openly: The challenge in toxic work environments is staying true to yourself yet also adapting to the needs of the majority. But what trumps here is open and transparent communication.

If that means having that open conversation with a colleague who’s been spreading rumours about you or your work, then be open about it. Not aggressive but open and more importantly, document it.

Know your colleagues: Ask questions, be open with your life and respect each other. This has helped me in my career, especially when I needed to ask for help.

Know the office dynamics: Knowing the alliances at work is good but don’t let it affect your work performance or your need to ‘fit in’. This need to fit in becomes very strong especially when you join a new workplace but sometimes it distracts us from doing what’s right for our work for the fear of being excluded.

Don’t gossip: I’ve been at the tail end of being gossiped about in recent workplaces but invariably, it comes back to the person who does it. Nothing is ever a secret, so unless you have a really riveting reason to start a rumour, don’t.

Hopefully, this will help some of us navigate what are clearly uncertain times and places, and I wish you all the luck on this wonderful journey called life!

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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. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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Business-to-Business (B2B) marketplaces have become the next big thing that has taken over many procurement and retailing processes, and online transactions have evolved to enable businesses to procure almost anything in the market.

A 2019 B2B online report predicts that online marketplaces will account for 40% of the global online retail market. Gartner estimates that within the next 5 years, 75 per cent of B2B procurement spending will be done online.

Asia contains both the largest and fastest-growing eCommerce markets via China and India. The strong dynamism within Asia had prompted the rapid growth of eCommerce, especially in China as China’s share in global ecommerce retail transaction value to about 16 percent more than the United States.

However, other Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, having some of the largest shares of eCommerce retail sales, has also played a vital role in the rise of eCommerce.

Also, the prevalent rise in mobile commerce has been observed, which is likely due to digital penetration rapidly improving in Asia, thus, the mobile commerce landscape in Asia has also been growing faster than the rest of the world.

The beginnings of Asia’s B2B eCommerce started with a strong focus on wholesale and cross-border commerce or acting as a business directory. These B2B marketplaces are led by markets where the source of manufacturing happens to facilitate wholesale distribution to the region or world.

Many like Alibaba, Indiamart, Tradeindia, TradeWorld.Asia and Thaitrade offer wide category search across multiple industry sectors, more similar to the format of large online bazaar than the professional B2B marketplaces as seen in the US eCommerce landscape in healthcare (e.g., Zageno, Medinas and Vetcove), manufacturing or machinery (e.g., Big Rentz, Iron Planet and Asseta), for example. However, this is changing in Asia. 

Also read: The changes B2B marketing has felt over the past 5 years

We are witnessing the emergence of the next generation of B2B marketplaces in Asia where enterprises are developing a focus in specific niches or geographic distribution.

Examples include IndoTrading is a private marketplace dealing with construction and industrial supplies, supplybunny.com as a supply ordering platform for restaurants, bakeries, and cafes in Malaysia, and OfficeMate is an e-procurement site for office supplies in Thailand.

What do B2B Marketplaces in Asia look like? 

A few B2B marketplace business models in Asia have emerged over time. Some offer and sell a wide range of general products from multiple vendors and suppliers, while others could be niche and highly specialised in their industry sector.

Some could offer rental or professional services as a way to address the trend of sharing economy and how people source for service offerings respectively.

Noting that category boundaries are not always sharp and separated by profile characteristics, we currently see five main types of marketplace. Each is defined by the nature of its wares and services, as well as by who holds contractual and warranty responsibility for them.

For illustration, we include Asia-based marketplaces that are either seen as leaders or tend to be mentioned more frequently within the sector. 

• Product-focused marketplaces. Product-focused marketplaces are the most common marketplace – it focuses on marketing and distributing items or commodities such as general supplies, consumer goods, and electronics. Zillingo, a 4.5 year old eCommerce that started as an online retail marketplace, has expanded into a B2B platform Zilingo Asia Mall and website which targets fashion wholesalers in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and other ASEAN markets. 88Spares was launched in April 2017 as an online marketplace and startup to specialise in selling spare parts for machinery in the textile and garment industries, to help factories save operational costs by cutting down middlemen and simplifying the purchasing process.
• eProcurement marketplaces. A one-stop-shop that allows buying organisations and their suppliers to efficiently maintain a list of contracted goods and services with pre-negotiated prices, participate in electronic trading, to quickly order and buy the goods and services they need. Eezee.sg is a unified Singapore-based B2B marketplace for industrial goods and supplies. It offers B2B features such as instant quotation and product sourcing service, allowing buying companies to procure products and negotiate pricing with ease and efficiency while discovering products not readily available from its marketplace. Pantavanij, a leading Thailand-based online procurement and auction platform, services more than 20,000 B2B suppliers and $6 billion purchasing volume each year. Its platform streamlines the procurement processes via its source-to-pay software which connects sourcing, purchasing, invoicing, payment, and spend analysis, with added functionalities like electronic request form, Price per Performance auction and rRFX (electronic request for X services).
• Service-focused marketplaces. An online service marketplace initiates, facilitates, coordinates, and concludes hiring and selling of services between individuals or businesses.  In Asia, there seems to be more B2C or peer-to-peer service marketplaces such as Kaodim than B2B, but we are seeing more B2B entrants. CaterSpot is a digital B2B food catering platform, connects food caterers with businesses, offices, teams, events, and corporations, allowing them to easily source for food caterers to order large quantity of food or tailored meals for their employees. In Australia, Expert360 connects businesses with contracting and professional industry experts locally. In India, Sulekha links local service businesses to 30+ million consumers with 200k+ service professionals across 200 categories in about 40 cities. Both Expert360 and Sulekha serves both businesses and individuals.
• Time-based or Rental-focused marketplaces. Airbnb is likely the most well known online rental marketplace globally. GorillaSpace, which operates in both Singapore and Japan, is an online B2B office and workspace rental marketplace platform that enables businesses to find both long-term office spaces and flexible workspace options, or a hybrid of both, with lease flexibility and competitive prices. It seeks to address a need within the commercial property market that is experiencing a shift from multi-year office space leases to more flexible options. Headquartered in Japan, Nishio Rent All proves that even a traditional construction machinery leasing company can adapt to changing market demands. Nishio Rent All now operates a Singapore-based online B2B rental marketplace platform where it allows businesses to browse their rental offerings and request for quotation via their platform.
• Business catalogue or directory type of marketplaces. Business directory marketplace might seem like an odd one compared to the usual eCommerce marketplace platform. Fundamentally, the idea is pretty much the same with the exception that the platform serves to enable business connections, submit quotations but not spot transactions. Yellow Pages Singapore started as a traditional telephone book directory but re-innovate their business to yps.com.sg, an online business directory listing platform, driven by digital disruption and consumers’ transition towards online platforms. 

What is driving the growth of B2B marketplaces in Asia? 

Online B2B marketplaces offer several benefits. The users of B2B marketplaces enjoy a quicker product and brand discovery, greater transparency in product, service, and supplier availability — as well as in pricing and purchasing terms. The past barriers of time zones and geographical proximity have become irrelevant, making marketplaces truly global and year-round. 

Suppliers often enjoy better inventory management. Sellers of long-tail products would also benefit as marketplaces provide price transparency and detailed product information page which enables consumers to make a more informed purchase decision and comparison shop, solving headaches that are often linked to long-tail products such as scant pricing or product information.

Also read: A beginner’s guide to the B2B e-commerce business

Customers, on the other hand, receive more control over their transaction history, personal details, tracking of deliveries as well as a product catalogue. An online marketplace eliminates some of the redundant operations processes such as automating repeat orders and purchases, sending system-generated updates the order processing or inventory performance. 

Aside from the direct benefits to the marketplace users, the Asia general and eCommerce economy have also benefited tremendously from the growth of ecommerce and marketplaces.

1. Driving improved economic efficiency and job creation in developing countries and least developed countries, offering a chance for them to narrow development gaps and increase economic performance. 
2. Creating new investment opportunities as eCommerce offers new business opportunities, new distribution and delivery to access new markets and customers, therefore supporting investment. 
3. Enabling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to go global as SMEs make up more than 96% of all Asian businesses and eCommerce helps in levelling the playing field and enables these businesses to gain international reach and potentially compete on a global scale. 

What’s next for B2B marketplaces in Asia?  

We anticipate more businesses to engage themselves with B2B marketplaces, be it as a marketplace operator/owner, supplier, buyer or ecosystem participant of marketplaces.

Following similar trends in B2C retail and B2B marketplace developments in the US, we are seeing more new enterprise B2B marketplaces launched and operated by existing companies to increase market reach and distribution (aka B2B enterprise marketplaces).

More two-sided B2B eCommerce sites will innovate to explore expansion into multi-vendor marketplace platforms and augment their product portfolio for a more holistic and integrated product and service offering to their customers. 

If brands choose to engage as a first or third-party supplier on marketplaces, they need to actively build their branding and set up an official presence on marketplaces as an effective way to manage the customer experience and to improve the brand image.

Marketplaces bring new opportunities, but also greater risk exposure if branding is not managed properly on these platforms that draw buyers and consumers that are constantly being bombarded with competitive comparisons, inauthentic products, counterfeited brands, and even fake reviews.

We have also observed that more marketplaces and ecommerce platforms are following Amazon’s expansion into private label brands. This move is strategically useful for market operators looking to increase their margins. 

Especially, as they know exactly which products sell best in which region, given the fact that marketplaces have sufficient collected data from third-party brands. However, this trend may only impact the B2C or retail marketplaces in the near term and be a watch-out concern for those in the B2B marketplaces in time as the market matures.

As a marketplace grows, its evolution to a marketplace ecosystem presents tremendous opportunities to add and integrate complementary value chain services such as trade financing, affordable credit facilities, insurances, warehousing and logistics, digital marketing or software development services that will service and benefit both suppliers and buyers.

Marketplace capabilities can be significantly enhanced without the hefty investment of building out some of these complex offerings on your own, but by partnering with the appropriate experts in their fields.  

More B2B marketplaces are also demanding for a user experience that is above and beyond what buyers get from dealing with individual vendors.

This user experience translates to not only the scale of offerings or the range of amenities and features offered, but the total experience: how interactive it is; how easy or convenient buyers feel about their purchasing or buying process; how indispensable the marketplace becomes to them; and how valuable it is in helping them perform their daily work and accomplish their business and even personal goals. 

Powerful digital and advanced-analytics capabilities are imperative to gain customer insights and formulate order management tactics or sales and marketing strategies.

Customer’s purchase history, shopping or wish lists, and other preferences is not only convenient for customers; it also gives vendors and the marketplace valuable data to help improve customer experience.

Advanced IT and logistics capabilities help provide faster throughput times and help reduce costs, offer competitive pricing.

Asia is presenting exciting B2B marketplace opportunities to the rest of the world. With a strong growth target, brands and marketplaces are no longer just focused on the B2C model.

Instead, B2B channels are increasingly being developed to increase revenue and drive performance. 

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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. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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

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Finance

Fintech, data science company Oriente secures US$20M from Silverhorn Group

Oriente, a tech and data science startup that seeks to create opportunity through financial access for Southeast Asia, announced today it has secured US$20 million debt funding from Silverhorn Group, a Hong Kong-based multi-asset investment firm.

The funding, which can increase up to US$50 million, will be used to grow Oriente’s loan book and extend the reach of its inclusive and affordable digital-credit and Pay Later solutions to the undervalued and credit-starved consumers and micro-enterprises in the Philippines.

Commenting on the deal, Geoffrey Prentice, Co-founder of Oriente, said: “As we enter the next stage of growth on our mission to helping ignite economic opportunity for tens of millions of consumers and micro-enterprises, the support we receive from our debt partners is critical.”

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Oriente is building solutions that provide real-time credit scoring, digital and O2O lending and other tailored financial services to millions in Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies. The company has two app-based ventures, Cashalo in the Philippines and Finmas in Indonesia.

Oriente is equity-funded by its founders and a group of family offices including members of the Berjaya Group, JG Summit Holdings, Inc., and Sinar Mas. To date, the company has raised over US$105 million in equity.

Quadria Capital announces US$595M second fund

Quadria Capital, an independent healthcare-focused private equity firm in Asia, has announced the closing of its latest fund, Quadria Capital Fund II, exceeding its US$400-million target.

Investors include leading global asset managers, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance, healthcare corporates, and development finance institutions across the US, Europe, and Asia.

As per a press note, the new fund has already invested in two companies — AKUMS Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, and the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, a gastric sciences hospital, in partnership with Mayo Clinic Network.

Business

Grab Ventures Velocity launches the third batch, adding BRI Ventures as a partner

Grab has kickstarted applications for the third batch of its startup scale-up programme Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) with the theme of “Enabling Micro-Entrepreneurs” with two new tracks — value-add services for restaurant businesses and B2B logistics.

The first track aims to engage startups that provide digital solutions to small and medium restaurant owners to help grow their business, reduce costs or simplify operations. The second track is targeted at startups disrupting the logistics industry with innovations in warehousing and trucking space.

This time, Grab Ventures has partnered with BRI Ventures, the VC arm of the country’s largest state-owned bank Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), seeking to elevate the startup ecosystem in Indonesia with new programmes.

Grab Ventures and BRI Ventures have signed a strategic MoU to create new joint initiatives to create unique growth opportunities for new-age Indonesian startups.

Following the success of Indonesian startups who were selected into GVV Batch 2 such as TaniHub and Qoala, GVV Batch 3 is inviting more such post-seed startups to develop through access to Grab’s ecosystem.

Also Read: Former Skype co-founder’s online lending startup Oriente raises US$105M funding

Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) is the flagship scale-up programme for startups from Grab Ventures, which was established in 2018.

Registration for GVV Batch 3 is now open. All startups in Indonesia and Southeast Asia can apply. The chosen startups in batch three will earn mentorship from C-level experts in the industry as well as a pilot methodology to test startup offerings in the Grab platform and access to a broad Grab customer base.

gojek-owned on-demand service arm GET becomes one of the most used in Thailand

Thailand-based on-demand service that’s also owned by gojek, celebrated its first year anniversary on February 27.

GET was first launched in Bangkok last year with three main services: GET WIN for transportation service, GET FOOD for food delivery service, and GET DELIVERY for delivery service. GET also added digital payment service GET PAY in April 2019 in the beta version to support the in-app transaction.

GET claims that it managed to establish its position as one of the most used food delivery services in Bangkok just within its first year and recorded 10 million transactions in total.

GET is helmed by Pinya Nittayakasetwat, who explained that the name adjustment from gojek to GET is for memorable branding purposes. To date, GET FOOD by gojek has clocked more than 20,000 food merchants.

People

Regtech startup Tookitaki appoints Joe Friscia to lead US, APAC expansion

Tookitaki Holding Pte Ltd, a regtech company operating with compliance and reconciliation solutions, has appointed industry veteran Joe Friscia, who’s former President of NICE Actimize and BAE Systems, to the Company’s Advisory Board. Friscia is to bring 25 years’ experience in the financial crime and enterprise software space to help Tookitaki scale operations in the U.S. as well as advise on expansion into the Asia Pacific.

“As modern-day criminals thrive with the aid of new and advanced methods of conducting financial crimes, machine learning-based technology is rapidly gaining traction in helping future-proof and thwart these evolving threats. For this reason, I am both proud and excited to be part of the Tookitaki team and helping them make Sustainable Compliance a reality,” commented Joe Friscia.

Friscia will contribute to Tookitaki’s business and go-to-market strategy to help position Tookitaki as the regtech advisor helping banks detect sophisticated money laundering patterns with best-in-class enterprise software solutions.

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Picture Credit: Grab Velocity Ventures

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