Tel Aviv, Seattle … Seoul?

South Korea’s capital — perhaps better known for corporate behemoths such as Samsung and Hyundai– is increasingly brought up in conversations about the world’s most promising startup hubs.

And perhaps it should. Quietly but surely, the bustling East Asian metropolis of 11 million people has built one of the world’s most dynamic startup ecosystems. According to Startup Genome’s authoritative 2020 Global Startup Ecosystem Report, the city placed 20th overall with an ecosystem valued at US$39 billion, nearly quadrupling the global average and early stage funding of US$1 billion.

Startupblink ranked the city 21st overall in 2020, up a staggering nine spots from the previous year.

And Seoul might only be getting started as the city aims to become one of the world’s top five startup hubs, and it’s backing that ambition with over US$ 1.7 billion through 2022.

Seoul has clearly become venture capital pay dirt. But why?

Seoul: where unicorns are born

If there’s a sign that your startup ecosystem has arrived, it’s unicorn production.

As of November 2020, South Korea had no fewer than 12 active unicorns, good enough for sixth worldwide and nearly double that of widely acknowledged tech giant Israel.

The latest company to join the list was ride-sharing company Socar, which achieved unicorn status in October on the back of US$ 52.2 million from local private equity funds SG Private Equity and Songhyun Investment.

Also Read: How South Korean startup Aqua Development is mimicking aquaculture for sustainability

Socar is the first South Korean mobility startup to go unicorn. Previous South Korean companies to achieve unicorn status include e-commerce giant Coupang, the so-called Amazon of South Korea that is valued at US$9 billion; fintech pioneer Viva Republic, the developer of popular P2P mobile payment service Toss; and biotech firm Aprogen, developer of bio-similar products.

Indeed, when you take into consideration former unicorns that have since exited through IPOs or M&A, South Korea has produced an impressive 20 unicorns, a number that compares favourably with any country not named the US or China.

The best-known ex-unicorn is Woowa Brothers, the operators of South Korea’s largest food delivery service Baemin, which was acquired by Berlin-based company Delivery Hero in a blockbuster US$4 billion deal last year.

The Baemin acquisition was a wakeup call to investors, entrepreneurs and journalists worldwide that one ignored Seoul at their own peril. At TechCrunch, Danny Crichton wrote at the time:

“While the country remains dominated by its chaebol tech conglomerates — none more important than Samsung — it’s the country’s startup and culture industries that are driving dynamism in this economy. And with money flooding out of the country’s pension funds into the startup world (both locally and internationally), even more opportunities await entrepreneurs willing to slough off traditional big corporate career paths and take the startup route.”

The second venture boom: letting the money roam free

Driving the rise in unicorn startups – and the growing dynamism of Seoul’s startup scene, more generally – is a much improved financial scene that no longer punishes risk-takers. Describing the bad old days, Andy Salmon writes at the Asia Times:

“Banks customarily lent to giant businesses with plentiful collateral; entrepreneurs who lacked such major assets were forced to take on perilous liabilities, and early-generation Korean venture capital firms were not much better.”

Also Read: South Korea’s thriving startup ecosystem: How “aggressive” VC investment, gender diversity play a role in it

But no longer. Startups now have access to money, both from local VCs and international investors – the latter playing an especially key role in unicorn creation. Even South Korea’s traditional corporate giants such as Samsung have gotten into the act, creating internal incubators to nurture and support promising startups.

Last year, new venture investment in South Korea hit record numbers, posting US$2.3 billion in the first three quarters alone. And those numbers may soon spike even higher on the back of recent regulatory changes that allow major corporations to establish venture capital funds, freeing them to invest in startups directly.

The government takes an active role

In addition to regulatory changes, the government is aggressively cultivating Seoul’s startup scene as well. Startup Genome CEO Jean-Francois Gauthier told TNW earlier this year:

“The national government has multiplied policies to help it grow. Everyone knows that’s important but no one acts as boldly as the national government and the Seoul Metropolitan Government to grow startups right now. The mayor recently announced a massive investment to become top five in the world — a very ambitious goal.”

For starters, Seoul Metropolitan Government has launched a KRW1.9 trillion (about US$1.6 billion) initiative to become one of the world’s top five startup cities. The city is actively helping local startups not only overcome the COVID-19 pandemic but to use it as an opportunity to prosper.

Also Read: How South Korea’s smart city startups curbed the spread of COVID-19

For example, the city is providing US$54 million in support this year to promising startups, including support for labour costs of “10,000 technological professionals” of promising startups.

At the national level, the country has earmarked US$62 billion for a “Digital New Deal” that will revolutionise the information landscape, while programmes such as the Tech Incubator Program for Start-ups (TIPS) make South Korea a rising startup hub according to the World Economic Forum:

“South Korea’s economy is primarily driven by large conglomerates like Samsung and LG, called chaebols, which have acknowledged the importance of startups as a driver of their continued economic success. TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Start-ups), a state-led incubation programme, discovers and nurtures promising start-ups by selectively matching them with government funding. As the government takes no equity and provides these funds without any strings attached, start-ups can aim high without having to worry about potential failure – and this has been a game-changer, especially when considering the risk averseness of South Korean society.”

Meanwhile, South Korea’s highly successful high-tech response to the COVID-19 pandemic is winning global praise. South Korea’s government is pledging to nurture the startup sector as a leader of the country’s post-coronavirus society, and US startups are now looking to South Korea as the country wins its war on COVID.

To be sure, South Korea’s big conglomerates will continue to play an outsized role in the country’s economy. But in Seoul, they no longer will be the only game in town.

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We, humans, are social creatures. We crave interactions. 

The mirror neurons within our brain allow us to connect unconsciously. For the majority of us, we are most comfortable when we connect and share our emotions. 

Human psychology plays a pivotal role in shaping retail experiences. We have realised that retail experiences do not centre around purchasing goods.

Addressing the need for people to connect when retailing, shopping malls were created in the late 1950s to bring people together.

Amenities such as indoor waterfalls and gardens serve to increase the engagement of shoppers. By enticing them to remain within the mall longer, they are more likely to increase their spending. 

While we have cracked the code for creating an engaging offline shopping experience, its online counterpart is proving a tougher nut to crack within the region.

Popularity of interactive e-commerce in China

However, one does not have to look far for successful examples of the rise in interactive e-commerce.

Also Read: Is China the new global e-commerce leader?

Led by Pinduoduo’s rapid rise since 2015, Chinese e-commerce players have started to embrace the model due to its lower user acquisition costs and high networking effects to grow their customer base.

Pinduoduo claims it has over 731 million active users on its platform. Leveraging on the universal usage of WeChat within the Mainland, the e-commerce giant has been able to incorporate it within its platform to increase engagements between customers.

By introducing gamification elements such as Candy Crush, Pinduoduo further promotes user engagement and interactions to offer customers a different online shopping experience.

“Our interactive features were welcomed by our users. Previously, the e-commerce shopping experience was solitary where the user simply typed in what they wanted into the search bar,” Frank Di, Director of International Corporate Affairs for Pinduoduo, shared in an interview with e27.

Di shared that the company has adopted a push-based model rather than a search-based one where users browse through items rather than search for a specific product.

Why creating an interactive experience is key

Pinduoduo had recognised that games play a pivotal role in improving user experience when one visits its platform. The interactive nature of games increases engagement and entices users to remain on the platform for longer periods.

Also Read: 5 reasons to work interactive video into your marketing strategy

A popular game asks the user to choose a specific tree to water regularly. To supply it with water, users need to buy from the app, share offers or invite their friends to join. When the virtual tree matures, the user wins a box of real fruits from their tree.

Through this, user-app interaction increased and new users are acquired organically through existing customers.

Importance of infrastructure

However, the rise of Pinduoduo and the rapid growth of the e-commerce industry should be attributed to pioneers within the field too, Di remarked.

Spearheaded by Alibaba in 2003, the first wave of e-commerce companies within China led to the development of the appropriate infrastructure to support online commerce.

From logistics networks being set up across the country to online payment solutions, these services form an important cog within the e-commerce industry.

He also shared that rising smartphone penetration within the nation is further fuelling this growth.

According to a Deloitte report in 2018, China ranks first globally in smartphone ownership, with a staggering 96 per cent of the population owning one.

This has led to a shift in the daily behaviours of the population. Gone were the days where computers represented the sole access to the internet.

Today, we have the internet and its capabilities at our fingertips.

The convenience of accessing a smartphone has led to what Di terms, “more fragmented time to browse our phones.”

Citing the example of one browsing through their phone while waiting for the subway, he remarked this was the key behind Pinduoduo’s decision to adopt a push-based model.

User demographics

Much has been discussed about Pinduoduo’s customer demographics and how the majority of their users reside in lower-tier cities in China. However, Di was quick to debunk the myth that Pinduoduo deliberately targets these rural cities.

“Our user distributions merely mirrors the population distribution in China. We want Pinduoduo to benefit all users. Therefore, we serve all kinds of users across China and the majority of them reside in the lower-tier cities,” Di shared.

However, he remarked that there were factors that have led to the favourable growth of interactive e-commerce within these cities.

Firstly, those residing in these lower-tier cities lead a more sedentary lifestyle compared to their Tier 1 counterparts in Beijing or Shanghai. This results in more disposable time for them to browse through e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo.

Secondly, the offline options in these rural cities are less desirable than Tier 1 cities. This results in a shift to online commerce as the primary option for purchasing quality goods. 

Influence of live streaming

While numerous e-commerce platforms in the region have introduced live streaming features onto their platforms, Pinduoduo embraces it on a different scale.

For its recent Singles Day shopping event, the e-commerce company partnered with a prominent local television company to host a gala night featuring performances from various Chinese superstars on their platform.

“Our users could watch the gala on the app and at the same time, purchase products on our platform,” Di shared.

 Also Read: 3 considerations to ensure viewer satisfaction with live streaming events

Given the importance of establishing trust within a customer’s retail journey, Di opined that live-streaming will represent the new normal in e-commerce.

“Mainly because of the nature of live-streaming, it’s easier for users to better understand a product. From a merchant perspective, it’s going to help the merchants to build trust with the users,” he said.

Will Southeast Asia be ready?

While the concept of social commerce has been widely adopted by e-commerce firms in Southeast Asia, interactive e-commerce remains nascent within the region.

This can be attributed to the lack of a widely-used social media platform where these interactions can occur. Unlike in China, where over 90 per cent of the population is on WeChat, users within the region have not gravitated towards a dominant social media platform.

This has resulted in e-commerce players facing difficulties integrating platforms within the app to capture the benefits of interactive e-commerce.

Although one can certainly argue that China, with its homogenous demographic and lack of competitors for WeChat, represents an unfair ecosystem for a diverse region like Southeast Asia to emulate, there have been inroads made.

Twitter has emerged as a possible platform to unite the region given its ease of posting short-form content.

Tokopedia utilised the social media platform for its #TokopediaWIB show, which had BTS fans across Indonesia interacting with the boyband through exclusive content and interviews.

According to Twitter’s recently released Global mCommerce 3.0 study, Shopee Live received 120 million views in Indonesia for its live streaming event in April, marking a new record for the brand.

Remarking that the future of e-commerce would centre around interactivity, Di suggested firms should focus on creating an engaging user experience to capture and retain users.

“Most importantly, one needs to focus on the user experience. Users always want to have deals with some element of interactive experience to it. Therefore, gamification features should be released to better serve the needs of the users,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: Pinduoduo

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Today’s guest – James Mayes

Today’s guest is James Mayes, the CEO and co-founder of a company called Mind The Product, and the world’s largest and brightest community of product managers. After 15 years of building high-performance technical teams for banks and startups alike, Mayes decided to found his own startup TweetJobs.

After exiting TweetJobs, he worked with a few great companies to learn more about the world of products. During this time, he found that there were meetups and conferences for CEOs, HR managers, and many other career paths, but nothing existed for product managers. So he embarked on creating a small meetup in the city and people from other companies would gather for a beer and chat about their craft and share stories about their work experience over time. Some of the people from that group decided to band together more seriously and create what is now Mind The Product.

Mind The Product now has five annual conferences, including MTPcon, meetups in over 200 cities and a highly engaged community of over 200,000 product professionals. He is also a jovial British man with such a clean accent that it makes you want to listen carefully to every word he says. So I hope you enjoy hearing from him as much as I do.

Also Read: The future is hybrid: What will events look like post-COVID-19?

Let’s give a warm welcome to James Mayes.

Twitter: @James_Mayes
LinkedIn: James Mayes
Website: Mind The Product
Podcast: The Product Experience

You’ll learn

• What it takes to run offline and online events
• How the pandemic is affecting events and how you should adapt
• What does the future of events (and work) look like

Resources

And remember, Entrepreneurship is a Marathon, not a Sprint, so take care of yourself every day, so that you can live and love, and have the energy and the passion to run your business, and to invest in your team, and to find a way to appreciate those moments of happiness.

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This article was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: Michal Czyz on Unsplash

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Singapore- and Malaysia-based fintech company MyCash Online has launched a campaign on equity crowdfunding (ECF) platform pitchIN to raise RM5 million (US$1.2 million).

The money is being raised to increase the company’s paid-up capital to RM5 million, which is mandatory to obtain an eMoney license in Malaysia.

The eMoney license will allow MyCash to operate a wallet for the migrant community. It is planning to offer a Visa prepaid card for them.

Also Read: Is Southeast Asia ready to give birth to interactive e-commerce platforms like Pinduoduo?

“As Malaysia has a significant numbers of unbanked migrant workers, we believe that there will be a huge demand for our wallet and prepaid card. We will also add remittance services to our wallet. For this, we are signing a partnership with a local remittance giant. We are in the midst of getting necessary approval from the central bank of Malaysia,” Co-founder Mehedi Hasan Sumon told e27. 

Asked why MyCash is taking the ECF route to raise the money for paid-up capital, Sumon said the company’s successful track record of raising money through ECF previously and the positive feedback it received from the crowd prompted it to consider it.

“We want to give our previous backers an opportunity to support us to build MyCash together. We are also in talks with a few VCs,” he shared.

Since its raising of a funding round from 500 Startups last year, it lunched its remittance services in Singapore. Sumon said that the firm has already bagged more than 10,000 customers in the city-state.

“During the COVID-19 lockdown, we worked with the Ministry of Manpower and visited foreign workers’ dormitories to help them to send money home,” he added.

In January, MyCash is also opening a physical customer support centre in the Little India in Singapore.

Also Read: (Exclusive) All female-led MadEats ropes in Tinder co-founder as investor to scale its internet food brands in Philippines

He also shared that over the past year, MyCash has grown from being just a mobile marketplace for migrants to a licensed financial institution. It is now fully licensed in Singapore and Australia.

The company now intends to apply for SandBox in Qatar with the help of Qatar Development Bank (QDB).

“We are also now in the middle of registering our entity in Qatar with the help of the Qatar Financial Centre and QDB. We are also part of QDB’s FinTech Accelerator. We hope to start our operations in Kingdom in early 2021 with the Sandbox approval from the Qatar Central Bank,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: MyCash

 

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Pickupp, a Hong Kong-based logistics startup, has secured an undisclosed sum in Series A investment from a clutch of investors.

The names include Vision+ Capital, Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, Cyberport Macro Fund, Swire Properties New Ventures and SparkLabs Taipei.

Pickupp will utilise the funds to accelerate its expansion in Southeast Asia, with an aim to serve 10 major markets within the next five years.

As per a press note, the startup will also seek to diversify its product portfolio and offerings, focusing on the retail and e-commerce industries.

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

Founded in December 2016, Pickupp began providing customised last-mile delivery services for bulk and ad-hoc deliveries in mid-2017. It has since expanded rapidly and is now operating in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Pickupp claims it currently serves more than 50,000 users and businesses across Asia, including companies such as Charles & Keith.

“Pickupp is redefining logistics with a data-driven approach. Our technology, agility, transparency and innovation enable our customers to effectively scale and thrive,” said Crystal Pang, CEO of Pickupp.

The startup further claimed that its flexible delivery services will help retailers optimise their business strategies and enable them to understand the needs of their customer better.

The logistics startup also runs an e-commerce platform and offers free islandwide delivery for businesses listed on it.

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Image Credit: Pickupp

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AQWIRE, a Philippine proptech startup, announced it has raised US$2.1 million in a Series A financing round, led by Spiral Ventures.

Other notable investors in this round include Singapore-based Gentree, PropertyGuru’s original investor Vulpes, Hong Kong’s Betatron Venture, and Steve Melhuish, Co-founder of PropertyGuru.

The company is also expecting US$2 million in venture loans to be used for float and security deposits.

The fresh funds will go towards expanding their products and enter new markets within the region.

According to the firm, the round was oversubscribed by US$4 million, which the founders declined due to concerns on further dilution.

“We decided to raise less equity as the company has been profitable since 2019, generating US$1.7 million in revenue,” said Ray Refundo, CEO and Founder of AQWIRE.

Also Read: How proptech is set to empower the Southeast Asian property market

Refundo said that AQWIRE is on track to close out the year with a 50 per cent increase in annual revenue and expects it to triple in 2021.

The company claims it is projected to break US$1 billion in yearly gross volume by 2023.

Founded in 2018, AQWIRE enables local developers and brokers to access foreign property investors, including 12 million Filipinos overseas.

The platform partners with overseas listing sites to provide cross-border property listing and management, mortgage loans and payments processing.

“Unlike most proptech which focuses on listing, we are also focusing on mortgage loans and cross-border property management,” Refundo shared.

Some of AQWIRE’s clients include notable developers in Philippines such as Ayala Land, Megaworld and Vista Land.

 

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Image Credit: AQWIRE

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The fallout from COVID-19 has challenged preconceptions about which industries would be the most resilient during arguably one of the worst health crisis that we have faced in a generation.

According to the joint report by Cisco and Jungle Ventures, healthcare and tech sectors rank as being the winners of the shift caused by the pandemic along with media/entertainment, education, and supply chain/logistics.

Meanwhile, sectors such as travel/hospitality and consumer (retail) have struggled with business losses. Companies in the consumer sectors are also adapting to business models because of the need to adapt as a necessity for survival.

“It will be a very long time before we understand COVID-19’s full repercussions to the global economy and public health. Amidst this uncertainty, however, the way we respond to the pandemic will serve as a litmus test for the resiliency and adaptability of governments, citizens, and enterprises in the long run,” the report stated.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), ASEAN went from a projected GDP growth rate of 5.3 per cent in 2020 pre-COVID-19 to a contraction of -0.2 per cent after the pandemic hit. However, by constantly keeping an eye on the current market response to COVID-19, opportunities can be created.

The report also highlights three drivers of mid to long-term momentum which can be significant for businesses to adapt with shifts and capture optimum value.

Also Read: How data can help the global fight against COVID-19

Here are the main takeaways:

Data is the new gold

“If a company has no real-time way of capturing data from users then the company will be left behind,” Naveen Menon, President, Cisco ASEAN said during the media roundtable.

In a world run by the internet, businesses are now seeing the importance of having real-time data to drive their overall strategy and outcomes. As companies adopt off-the-shelf solutions that offer data transparency and visibility, large organisations that have IT budgets are leveraging on the momentum.

From centralised to flexible environments

The boundaries between how people live, work and learn are all blurring creating complexities as well as opportunities for many companies. Therefore, a different way to deploy and use technology is now being required because of the changing working norms.

“Organisations will need to address the operational complexity of managing remote and physical teams at the same time, achieve similar levels of productivity and collaboration, and ensure security in complex and dispersed environments,” the report said.

Increased use of technology

Customers who were previously hesitant or sceptical about online services are now finding themselves to be propelled towards making use of tech.

Service providers can leverage this to grow from their early and niche adopter base to enjoying mass-market penetration.

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Image Credit: Tyler Franta on Unsplash

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Indonesia’s instant credit financing platform Kredivo bags US$100M credit line from Victory Park Capital; It will accelerate business scalability and realise Kredivo’s target of serving up to 10M new users in the next few years; Kredivo is operated by Singapore-based FinAccel. e27

Applications open for Singapore’s US$37M fund to spur sustainability efforts; The government-backed fund will support ground-up projects that aim to build a more sustainable future; Applicants will be expected to co-fund their projects; They may receive funding of up to 80%, subject to a cap of US$747K. The Straits Times

HH Investments VC Founder Maarten Hemmes on why the entrepreneurial journey is more important than the end result; He says the firm’s goal is to support 100 companies in the next 10 years; Distraction is the enemy of any thought leader as you will never be able to get to the bottom of a problem and simply end up with a lot of unrefined thoughts and little execution. e27

Enterprise investor Jason Green on SPAC hopefuls versus startups bound for traditional IPOs; “I would say in H1 of next year, I could easily see SPACs being the more likely go-to-market for a public company, then the latter half of next year, once the vaccines have kicked in and people feel like we’re returning to somewhat normal, I could see the traditional IPO coming back’. TechCrunch

The Elon Musk of Singapore looks to engineer the next deep tech unicorn; Peter Ho, CEO of engineering firm Hope Technik, is like the Elon Musk or Tony Stark of Singapore; The company’s products are diverse, ranging from robots to sensors to vehicles. TechInAsia

Investors pledge US$815M for Vietnamese startups through the next 5 years; Investors include CyberAgent Capital, AlphaJWC, Monk’s Hill, 500 Startups, Beenext, VinaCapital Ventures, Do Ventures; Vietnam has been identified as the next growth market for tech investment after Indonesia. TechInAsia

Why neobanks are better than digital banks; Fully-licensed digital banks undoubtedly have the opportunity to become strong challengers to traditional banks and deliver delightful service to customers; However, less publicised neobank business models could prove to be more nimble and innovative. e27

theAsianparent closes Series C round with an investment from SCB 10X; This deal follows an 8-figure fundraise in an oversubscribed Series C round in 2019, led by Fosun; The two firms will work together to provide curated financial info and analysis that will assist Thai parents to make informed decisions concerning household financial matters. e27

SEA will make US$205B each year if it builds sustainable agrifood system, says Bain & Co; The region lags other global regions in with regards to the development and implementation of ‘green’ initiatives; At current levels, SEA is expected to account for more than half of the world’s ‘mismanaged’ plastic waste by 2025; it also treats the least wastewater of any region, and suffers the highest deforestation rate in the tropics. AFN

Philippines’s New Wave joins hands with Emissary Capital to launch US$50M fund for ASEAN startups; The 2 firms will form a JV to serve as the new fund’s General Partners; The fund’s key focus market will be Malaysia and Philippine; New Wave will invest up to US$7.5M in the new fund as an LP. e27

MDI Ventures, Finch Capital join hands to launch new US$40M fund Arise to plug ASEAN’s pre-Series A gap; Arise seeks to invest in Indonesia-focused startups in SEA and the average ticket size will be US$250K-US$3M; A recent report shows local tech investing fell to US$5.6B in 2020, a 13% drop compared to the same period in 2019. e27

BRI Ventures’s Sembrani Nusantara fund hits first close at US$10M; Grab and Celebes Capital are among the investors; The fund, which targets US$21M in the final close, aims to build a pipeline for Indonesian startups to grow and find good exits; The fund aims to look beyond typical investment areas like fintech and focus on MSMEs. e27

Conversational AI and NLP startup Kata.ai raises Series B led by TPTF and MDI Ventures; It has also unveiled a social commerce platform QIOS, which allows SMEs to use and integrate AI in their sales process through chat-based apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram. e27

Filipino proptech platform AQWIRE raises US$2.1M Series A; Investors include Spiral Ventures (lead), Gentree, Vulpes, Steve Melhuish; It expects another US$2M in venture loans; AQWIRE helps developers and brokers access foreign property investors including the 12M overseas Filipinos; Its services include listing, mortgage loans, property management, payments processing. e27

The-Wolfpack debuts with US$5M fund targeting D2C startups in SEA; The ‘Wolfpack Pioneer VCC’ will look to invest in startups in the consumer goods, leisure and media sectors; The VC firm is now looking to raise a second fund targeted at more than US$15M. e27

Vietnam’s Lozi bags a bridge round to expand its B2B services; Investors include Vulpes Investment; Daal Ventures, Wealth Well; Lozi currently offers services such as food, grocery, medicine, package, flower, and B2B supply delivery, as well as ride-hailing and laundry services. TechInAsia

HR-tech startup Pulsifi bags US$1.8M to expand to Europe; Investors include Kairous Capital; Founder of KVC group; RedMart co-founder Rajesh Lingappa; Pulsifi’s platform unifies multiple hard skills and soft traits data on each candidate or employee, and accurately predicts each person’s work styles, role fit, culture fit and other outcomes. e27

Jakarta, Singapore named as top global fintech ecosystems in a new report; Europe and North America no longer dominate the top 20 global fintech ecosystems as Asia Pacific continues to contribute emerging global hubs; Jakarta’s entry to the list was pushed by the number of exits and funding round that the city has experienced. e27

TNG Fintech Group founder and CEO Alex Kong shares how to grow your human capital; There are a lot of things that you need to build a successful team, but one thing that has always stuck his my mind is people that are part of the solution; ‘When they come to me with a problem, I want them to think about solutions. You don’t come to me with just a problem’. e27

Why only regulation can solve cryptocurrency’s perception problem; Cryptocurrency has the potential to be an evolved form of money; It has features that existing forms of money do not have; Access to global liquidity, transparent and detailed tracking, and asset tokenisation are to name but a few. e27

Fintech Thailand Startup Map 2020 showcases growing industry; The map showcases the domestic fintech startup ecosystem which includes startups operating in payments sector (20), blockchain (20), financial comparison (10), insurtech (9), retail investment (9), P2P lending (8), personal finance (6); As of July 2020, the Thailand SEC had so far approved 13 crypto businesses the license to operate which includes cryptocurrency exchanges, brokers and dealers. Fintech News

Meet the 15 Asian startups that will advance to Seedstars World Competition 2020; Startups from Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan have made to the list; These firms stand to win the Global Winner prize of US$500K in equity investment in the Grand Finale. e27

Exploring Singapore’s thriving e-sports startups scene; With the rise of online gaming in the region, eSports startups in Singapore are establishing themselves as key players in the industry; Research from Newzoo found that Singapore is going to see a considerable surge in investors and players; The region is now the fastest-growing in the world for e-sports. Tech Collective

Meet the 4 SEA startups that have made it to Sequoia Surge’s new batch; They are Tazapay, Aampe, Otoklix, Epsilo; In total, 17 early-stage startups have been selected selected; The batch-4 startups have collectively raised US$45.35M in funding from both Surge and other investors. e27

How data can help the global fight against COVID-19; A singular platform and marketplace solution to load, store, integrate, and securely share any amount or type of data is needed to prevent future outbreaks of COVID-19 as communities around the world relax social distancing policies. e27

Five startups win Grab Ventures Ignite accelerator in Vietnam; Winners are bePOS, Stringee, GoDee, Papaya, Vbee; Grab Ventures Ignite helps Grab realise its aim to accelerate tech entrepreneurship and grow a thriving tech startup ecosystem in Vietnam. Vietnam News

Making Malaysia an attractive investment destination; After a sharp contraction in the second quarter of 2020 due to the Covid-19 containment measures, private investments in Malaysia have shown signs of gradual recovery; However, while business sentiment has begun to pick up steam, domestic investment remains below pre-pandemic levels. The Star
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As many as 37 venture capital firms spanning South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam have pledged over US$800 million to support Vietnam’s startup ecosystem over the next three to five years.

The pledge-signing ceremony was held at the Vietnam Venture Summit 2020, organised as part of The Vietnam Tech and Startup Week, in Hanoi.

The VC firms who pledged investments include VinaCapital Ventures, Do Ventures, Nextrans, ThinkZone, NextTech, VietCapital Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, Smilegate Investment, FEBE Ventures, Genesia Ventures, Monk’s Hill Ventures, Vertex Holdings, 500 Startups, and Quest Ventures, among others.

Also Read: Vietnam’s mobile commerce is set to open up avenues for startups

As per a press statement, the commitment marks the return of uptake in investments within the Vietnamese startup ecosystem.

According to an industry report by Do Ventures, US$861 million was invested in 123 deals within Vietnam, more than double the number in 2018. However, the pandemic put an end to this increase.

Investment proceeds in the first half of 2020 decreased by 22 per cent, from US$284 million in the same period last year to US$222 million, due to travel restrictions and uncertainties in global financial markets.

Therefore, the US$800 million pledged should result in resumption in increased investments into Vietnam.

This summit comes on the heels of the US-China trade war as Vietnam sees a shift of manufacturing and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.

With US$100 billion in electronic goods exported yearly and an annual GDP growth rate of seven per cent for the past decade, Vietnam is poised to take advantage of manufacturing firms moving south.

It is a key manufacturer for some of the greatest phone producers, such as Google, Samsung and LG.

Also Read: How to bridge the tech talent gap in a post-pandemic world

Recently, Chinese acoustics manufacturer Goertek, announced that its production of Apple’s Airpods wireless headphones will move to Vietnam, as a result of the trade war.

Ed Grefenstette, CIO at Dietrich Foundation, said: “We look towards past experiences in China to draw parallels and access opportunities in Southeast Asia. While talent used to be a bottleneck in Vietnam, we are seeing extraordinary best practices being adopted from around the world here.”

Vietnam, with its strong pipeline of tech talent, fostered by years of education and retraining by the government, is ready for the shift for talent demand. 

Among the delegates at the event were leaders from global tech firms such as PayPal and Google, industry veterans from Vietnamese startups such as VNG and Tiki and investors from VCs such as Softbank Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

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Image Credit: Vietnam Venture Summit

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