theAsianparent, Southeast Asian community platform for parenting, has welcomed the former General Manager of Mumbrella Asia, Dean Carroll, to lead its Events and Intellectual Property (IP) Division in the Southeast Asia region.

theAsianparent claimed that it has recorded nearly 30 million users monthly. The company’s vision is to help parents towards 100 million healthy pregnancies and families.

Carroll comes on board to diversify the business into experiential marketing and offline spaces for theAsianparent’s community of parents. Carroll was most recently the General Manager of media and marketing trade press site Mumbrella Asia, where he launched a series of events and led the team to win various awards regionally.

On his appointment as Head of Events & IP, Carroll said, “It was a no-brainer for me to join theAsianparent team. theAsianparent is already the market leader in the parenting category regionally, and the opportunity to scale up its experiential marketing offerings across the Southeast Asia region truly excites me.”

“With a baby on the way, I hope my insights from being a father will give me diverse perspectives for my work, while theAsianparent community concurrently helps me become a better father,” he added.

Also Read: theAsianparent.com raises “8-figure US dollars” in Series C to expand in Asia, Africa

theAsianparent has an existing footprint in the events marketplace, putting on activations for clients on a regular basis as well as its signature Baby Bashes and Chief Household Officer (CHO) Mums conferences. Going forward, it said to envision more business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) events on a larger scale, alongside a new awards series.

“While it is important for us to drive capitalisation efforts, it is equally important that we meet the needs of our strong and close-knit parenting community. With Dean, we hope to build greater offline presence with our community and provide them with what they need to have healthy pregnancies and families, while simultaneously giving our clients and partners the opportunity to reach greater audiences and forge stronger brand connections with parents and their families,” said Susana Tsui, CEO of Media at theAsianparent.

Last year, theAsianparent raised an eight-figure sum from investors such as Fosun International, JD.com, and Mirae Asset-Naver New Growth Fund, to expand to other continents such as Africa and Asia.

theAsianparent is the flagship brand of multinational tech and digital publishing company Tickled Media Pte. Ltd., which focusses on content and community platforms. Currently, theAsianparent is available in 11 languages in 12 countries.

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Founders with amazing ideas paired with amazing vision can make a real impact.

But getting that seed of an idea off the ground requires a tremendous amount of planning and working capital — capital to market your concept, pay legal fees, finance production, and manufacturing, fund developers, hire employees and get your product or solution out there in front of interested customers.

But where to begin?

You’ll first need to determine the business and capital structure of your startup, given this is something that will help in attracting interest from investors. To do so, establish key players in your management team. Define how they’ll be incentivised, i.e. with a portion of ownership in the company and/or cash compensation, and how business ownership will be allocated.

Then decide whether you’ll need to safeguard personal assets under an established corporation or legal business structure. Additional considerations might be needed if you plan to go public in the near future, such as the number of shareholders and stock option plans.

The next thing you’ll want to do is crunch numbers, asking yourself: “How will we carry our business forward?” To get where you need to go, you’ll need working capital. And to acquire working capital, some startups opt to bootstrap their organization by tapping into their savings or their network of friends and family.

Bootstrapping, though, doesn’t always offer the most realistic path to success nor does it deliver the level of backing most start-ups need to bring a new brand into profitability. It might also strain or even break some of your most important relationships. Those who are serious about success will still need serious investors as backing.

Also Read: 10 tips that will help launch your startup fast

To garner investor backing, you’ll need market research. This provides the groundwork and statistics to prove that an investment in your business is a good one and that it’s backed by an idea with the likelihood of becoming successful. Ask yourself if your idea is reputable and if or how those investors will be repaid.

Is your concept unique and, if so, what’s the actual market potential? Who will buy your product or solution, and how many customers could you ultimately reach? Also, demonstrate that you have founders with the expertise to support this objective. Outline your business and your business model, showing investors how profitable you could make them.

Finally, to become this profitable, how much funding would be required? This is perhaps one of the most challenging questions to answer because there are no real figures on which to base business projections. But as you develop them, be realistic about forecasts around cost and return.

As opposed to hoping you’ll woo investors by painting a rosy picture, try cutting sales projections in half and doubling expenses. Underestimating capital requirements just to attract funding could potentially put you in the red down the road. You’re always better off inviting more than you need to avoid going back to investors later.

Through planning and research take time, it can help you in building the strongest foundation for success going forward. Answer questions proactively and support plans with research and proof to demonstrate your startup’s ultimate potential for success.

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I started Vouch three years ago, leaving a comfortable government job to become an entrepreneur with the added pressures of a young family. Coming from an elite school and having done really well in my time in government, I was confident of success, even cocky.

Dreams of becoming the next Facebook, or selling the company for big money so I could retire before 35 drove me. Alas, leaping into the startup world was a humbling experience that quickly helped erase these delusions of grandeur.

Vouch’s first product was a platform that used big data to help retailers conduct targeted marketing online. Being a first-time founder, I made the mistake of building a product nobody wanted.

I had done surface-level market research, but little to no actual user studies on whether what I was building was something that retailers or consumers actually needed. After building out a substantial product with all the bells and whistles, every single retailer I approached turned me down.

All of a sudden I was a year in, and I had little to show for it.

My “build it and they will come” attitude had put us so far away from product-market fit that we didn’t even have a proper business to try to turn around.

Also Read: Creativity meets entrepreneurship: Why it is the next big thing Singapore needs to thrive

We were dangerously low on cash – overconfidence and hubris had led me to hire an over-sized team of developers, thinking that we would capture the market in three months. It was gut-wrenching when I had to let the team go, knowing that they were paying the price for my poor decisions.

Yet I was unwilling to simply give up – so many people had built and sold companies, with the pedigree I had to be able to do so too. I was still largely driven by pride and the promise of financial reward. I knew that I had to learn from these mistakes, and started searching for new opportunities.

The pivot

At that time, I noticed that there was a significant number of people selling consumer goods on Facebook in Southeast Asia, in particular, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. We had been experimenting with chat as a channel for reaching out to consumers as part of our first product, and it had proved promising.

So why not try using chat as a channel to sell?

After all, these sellers were already communicating with their buyers on Facebook Messenger. They were all annoyed at having to answer the same questions over and over again. They say there are no stupid questions, but they’re really are – most times, the answer to these questions were in their item descriptions, but potential buyers just didn’t bother to read.

The sellers also had trouble keeping track of inventory and sales; many were quite disorganised, or just didn’t have the time to properly log all sales.

Also Read: Bank BRI-Investree partnership earmarks US$143M to support creative entrepreneurs in Indonesia

Seeing an opportunity, I set to work, building an app that helped these sellers utilise chatbots to automatically answer commonly asked questions and manage inventory. I kept going back to these sellers to get feedback and eventually convinced some of them to deploy a minimum viable product (MVP) on their Facebook page.

They loved it and kept asking for more features, which I was only too happy to build, erroneously thinking that I had found product-market fit.

Eventually, when I tried charging for the product, only a small percentage of sellers converted into paying customers because their buyers were simply unaccustomed to be buying from a bot. I was unable to figure out how to solve this problem before running out of cash again. Second time around, I had built a product my customers wanted, but not what their customers wanted.

The second pivot

With the company bank account near zero, and my personal finances drained, it was a truly challenging period. This was also when we found out that my wife and I were expecting our third child.

Also Read: How the world’s most successful founders approach failure

Nevertheless, I decided to dig in and give it one more shot, taking the tech and platform that I’d built and hawking it to various companies. I was lucky to find some corporate customers who wanted to experiment with chatbots and started doing some projects for them, bringing in enough revenue to keep us afloat. I was also extremely fortunate to find angel investors who believed in me and who gave us some working capital.

Our real turning point came when the Singapore Tourism Board held its first Hotel Innovation Challenge, and we managed to find a really great partner in an international hotel chain to pilot using a chatbot to address service-related queries.

His team was really inspiring – they were willing to experiment and iterate with us, not minding that our product was not perfect. Thanks to the opportunity they gave us and hard work on both sides, we found that the ROI on this bot was exceptionally high – the hotel was deriving significant productivity savings, and guests that used the bot were getting accurate, instant answers to their questions, improving their experience. It was a win-win-win for all parties (guests, hotel, Vouch).

We were so convinced by this pilot that we decided to focus entirely on the hospitality industry. Thinking back, this particular experience also further moulded my motivations – I began to realise that we actually had a shot at changing how hotels operated and shape a much better guest experience.

Having lived frugally for the past year, I realised that money was no longer a strong motivator for me. Creating a valuable product for our users and changing the world (or hospitality industry), cliched as it sounds, was now my primary motivation.

Our next big challenge was to get even more guests to use our product. We were trying to change their usual behaviour of getting information from hotel staff, and changing people’s behaviour is always an uphill task.

Also Read: How entrepreneurs can use stress to their advantage

Improving utility

I had recently joined Startup Station Singapore, now Facebook Startup Accelerator, a six-month startup support program for digital-based companies in Southeast Asia. As well as learning core business principles and tools, our team was also introduced to product and sales experts from Facebook, who would become mentors and dear friends, and would help to guide Vouch’s growth.

We defined one of our goals as getting more than 50 per cent of guests to use our digital concierge. One of my mentors – a product development specialist – suggested the simplest of techniques: observing the guest journey, finding the pain points, and leveraging these pain points to drive users to our product.

To get users to change their behaviour, we either needed to give an incentive, or solve a particularly painful problem, and since we didn’t have the money to incentivise guests, we needed to find their problems.

Also Read: The importance of failure: 7 reasons why it makes us better entrepreneurs

It was a simple suggestion, but exactly what I needed to hear. We started to focus on the most important situational uses where a chatbot can add value during a hotel stay, and equally important, where it could not take the place of a human or other more suitable products. What did guests hate about their hotel stays enough to push them to try something new? In what cases would guests prefer to self-service? Armed with answers to questions like these, we were able to tailor our value to guests and the leverage strategic entry points to really drive usage and further increase the value of our product to both hotels and guests.

A little advice can go a long way 

Within six months of the advice from my mentors, Vouch increased its sales by more than five-fold, signing new hotel clients, delivering more services to hotel guests, and expanding into Indonesia. As a founder, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind, and ignore the real questions and issues that need to be addressed in the company.

Candidly, I admit that oftentimes the reason why these issues aren’t addressed immediately is because of fear – fear of rejection, or of being wrong. Speaking to my mentors regularly often helps me realise when I’m behaving irrationally or skirting issues, and these talks have gone a long way to helping us reach where we are now.

Today Vouch is working to enter more markets, widen our product scope, garner different types of clients, and ultimately create a marketplace for concierge services. We also have a clearly defined, simple but highly effective, approach that guides our product development and sales outreach.

Most importantly for me, the experiences that I’ve been through these past three years have shaped my motivations in a way that I feel is more mature and better for the company. This change in heart has also helped to attract people that share the same goal of creating game-changing products, and these people are the key reason why we are where we are today.

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Social networks are one of the most effective tools to promote and attract clients. It is not only big brands that achieve success in social media space. Even small companies and startups unlock their potential, forming a target audience in their niche. But success and profit come only to those who were able to properly organise work in social networks and form the demand for a product or service before the official launch of the business.

Despite the prospects and huge interest in social networks as a direct channel of communication with potential clients, not all owners of small and medium businesses have understood the intricacies of working with them. As a result – lack of clients, sales and complete disappointment in Social Media Marketing (SMM).

The main problem of many small companies and beginning businessmen is a haphazard approach to advancement and actions at random. To get a cool result, you need to structure the work in social networks or clearly form the requirements for the contractor. So how do entrepreneurs organise work with social media, so that even with a minimum budget to get good results?

It is important to understand that business in social networks should work for a single purpose – to bring their owner’s income. It is not possible to earn money and build a loyal audience in social media for free. Like any other advertising tool, social networks require investments, strategies and other resources. However, learning how to use their potential, as well as the possibility of targeted advertising, you will understand that it costs you money.

If your team has an intelligent designer, copywriter or SMM-specialist – great. If not, think about whether you can give your social media communities enough time on a daily basis to prepare and publish a couple of really cool posts, communicate with clients and fully promote themselves?

Also Read: What you need to know about social media tech in Southeast Asia

A quality SMM requires a lot of time, skills and money to be spent on:

– Writing a unique fascinating text, adapting the material to each social network, creating a content plan and schedule of publications;

– finding or processing images in graphic editors, taking photos, and working with video content;

– setting up targeted advertising, moderating ads, finding new ways to reduce the cost of the target action;

– communicating with subscribers, encouraging involvement and increasing their loyalty;

– reading fresh material on thematic resources, case studies and testing new tools.

Are you ready for this? If not, it is better to have a great SMM team that will back you up.

It is also necessary to calculate what budget you can lay down for targeted advertising campaigns. Keep in mind that social networks are not the same as they used to be. Today it is not enough simply to attract subscribers to the community in one way or another. You still need to make sure that they see your publications in their daily news feed.

For example, the Facebook algorithm works so that your posts will only see a small percentage of your subscribers. That is, no matter how great your material is, only 50-150 of your 1,000 subscribers will see it. And in order to get it to the feed to everyone, you need to promote each publication by paid methods.

Also Read: 6 effortless ways to grow your small business through social media

By the way, Instagram has also taken up the implementation of a similar algorithm of news distribution.

Determine your goals: what do you expect from social networks?

Do you want to attract as many customers as possible within 24 hours? Focus on advertising campaigns that guarantee fast results.

If your goal is long-term prospects and growth, then develop a community whose members will gradually become your clients for a long time. It may take a long time before you build trust in your target audience for a service or brand. However, the social media community is doing its best to meet these challenges.

Make a portrait of the customer. In detail!

Without a detailed portrait of your target audience, setting up your advertising campaign will be simply inefficient. So even if you contact a specialist in promotion in social networks, do not limit yourself to the typical “m / w, 20-60”. Think about where geographically your clients live, what kind of education and range of interests they have, how much they earn, what kind of car they drive, where they rest, what kind of entertainment they prefer to eat, etc. This is the case when there are no many details.

Decide on the channels

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are the four most effective platforms for today. To determine which of them you are on the way, again, ask yourself, which one of them is the most used by your target audience, explore the activities of competitors, look at cases from your industry.

To put it simply, the picture is roughly the same:

• Facebook can be used to help those who target advanced youth, travellers, businessmen, top managers and any other intelligent audience with good-paying capacity. And if you work in B2B segment, Facebook is a must.
• TikTok suits you if you are interested in young and active clients who need Spanchbob cases for iPhone, Korean cosmetics, clothing from China, Converse sneakers on the super discount and handmade. However, as this social media website is fairly new, not everyone understands how to promote their product there. Here’s a great tutorial on how to kick start your account.
• Instagram is what you need if you love and can take many “delicious”, beautiful photos. Fashion, restaurants, travel – you just have to be present on this site!
• YouTube is for those who have something to say or show to the clients. You can use it, for example, for product reviews, expert opinions, or post-training materials on your topic. Having charisma and a good camera is necessary.

It is not worth putting your efforts into all the channels of communication with the customer. It is better to concentrate on a couple of sites that suit you best.

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Twenty years ago, the concept of a ‘data leader’ simply didn’t exist. Yet today, it has become a core function for many forward-thinking organisations.

With a series of industry bodies rolling out programmes to drive data best practices – last year, Singapore’s PDPC (Personal Data Protection Commission) launched its Trusted Data Sharing Framework, followed by its DPO Competency Framework and Training Roadmap – there is certainly a mounting case for executive teams across APAC to ensure they have their data in order.

Earlier this year, Singapore’s PDPC (Personal Data Protection Commission) launched its Trusted Data Sharing Framework, followed by its DPO Competency Framework and Training Roadmap.

These were aimed at providing guidance for Data Protection Officers as they embark on their new roles and focus on building a compliant yet compelling customer experience strategy. Elsewhere across APAC, we’ve seen the introduction of the IMDA’s voluntary Data Protection Trustmark, as well as an update to APEC’s Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR).

And with the ACCC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission) now warning that companies are collecting and selling on consumer data via customer loyalty schemes, it seems that data regulations are only set to become tighter.

As data becomes arguably the most valuable asset for businesses, the message is simple – the customer (and therefore customer privacy and customer experience) – must come first.

So what three steps can companies take to become true masters of their data while remaining conscientious and compliant?

Adopt a privacy-first data collection model

The entire customer experience strategy of any business should focus on gaining, but also retaining, customer trust.

But with today’s multi-channel marketing approaches, meaning various functions within an organisation will have influences over a customer, it’s crucial that everyone across the organisation is responsible for the integrity of data collection practices as a whole.

Not just the C-Suite or Sales & Marketing, but anyone and everyone who handles sensitive customer information.

Also read: The Startup’s guide to securely handling data amidst GDPR and other privacy regulations

Customers are no longer willing to offer up their details without being sure of the tangible benefits of doing so. Therefore, regardless of who in the company may be conversing with a customer, they need to be explicit about which details are being collected; why and how they are being collected; and who they are being shared with.

And while it’s the DPO or CDO that is responsible for spearheading this initiative, everybody across the organisation should be aware of the need for transparency, and be mindful of the overall message being conveyed.

Implement a centralised data repository

With so many disparate teams collecting or accessing a variety of customer data (from different channels, devices and systems), governing and harnessing that data can be almost impossible.

Consolidation of data is by no means a new concept, although with over a third of APAC marketers still struggling with channel integration, it’s time data and executive teams consider the ways in which they can finally bring these sources and channels together effectively.

Integrating a solution such as a CDP (Customer Data Platform) will help to provide a single source of truth for the entire organisation, laying the foundation for teams to connect the dots between data touchpoints along the customer journey, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the customer experience.

Becoming familiar with data unification technology now will also prepare data professionals for a potentially more stringent regulatory landscape over the coming years.

Focus on first-party data

Unlike a Data Management Platform or Customer Relationship Management software, it’s easy to integrate other systems with a CDP to tap into behavioural insight, which enables teams to keep building and updating that all-important customer profile.

Once such a solution has been integrated, it can be used to extract quality data from a number of online touchpoints such as websites, mobile apps, and customer service systems; as well as offline touchpoints such as beacons or IoT devices.

Also read: How can privacy-focussed apps step up amid a world of data breaches?

Creating persistent profiles that can be accessed by everyone allows teams to get smart with their messaging. Customers finally begin to receive consistent and highly personalised content as they proceed along their path to purchase, and no longer endure the frustration of being offered products or services they have already purchased.

In twenty years, data has evolved from a nagging consideration to indispensable asset. It’s now up to DPOs to lead the way in mastering their data, by building a robust data foundation, embracing legislation, and paving the way for unrivalled customer experience.

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With only RM22 million (USD5.4 million) of venture capital invested to date, the startup ecosystem in Johor, Malaysia, has come a long way.

The local startups now boast a combined valuation of RM467million (USD115 million), with more than 400 jobs being created over the past 4 years, contributing an average of RM160 million per year to the local state GDP.  

There are also a staggering number of 46 coworking spaces, now, in Iskandar, Malaysia, combining for a total area of 300,000 square footage.

These figures were all taken from the Johor Startup Ecosystem Report which was officially published on 15 Jan 2019, in conjunction with IskandarSpace’s first year anniversary. 

Exactly a year after on 15 Jan 2020, the ecosystem reached another significant milestone by hosting the BASE Conference 2020, organized by START Malaysia. 

In his opening remarks, Feng Lim, CEO of START Malaysia, emphasized the significance of the inaugural event, as he aims to “create a platform as a testament to tell our people, our government, the (ASEAN) region and the whole world that there is serious innovation here in Johor, Malaysia.”

It was heartwarming to see ~900 fellow attendees across 15 cities flocking into Iskandar Malaysia Studios to witness the largest regional business & technology conference in the state to date for themselves.

Now hereon in this article, my job is to further amplify your FOMO by giving you a glimpse of what the event was all about.

Megatrends in emerging markets

The hot take from Riddhiman Das, CEO & Founder, TripleBlind, is that “the thought of Blockchain as a solution to solve societal issues in emerging markets is on the decline”. Russ Neu, Venture Partner, Impact, Quest Ventures believes that “A lot of new technology and innovation in the coming decade will be addressing the UN’s SDGs”.

 When should startup founders think/talk about an exit strategy

Paul Ark, Managing Director, Corporate Venture Capital, Digital Ventures, shared that, “It’s a delicate balancing act because as a founder, you don’t want to be seen as starting a company just to get out of it. But from a VC perspective, they have a horizon for their fund to exit.”

Also Read: START Mongolia merges with StartupJohor to form a united brand START

Ark added, “As you move aways from local funds in early-stage fundraising – who want you to move fast and break things – towards international funds/acquirers/stock exchanges, it is the administrative staff under the hood like your articles of association, employment contracts, and accounting practices that must be ironclad”.

On trade sales as an exit strategy

Koichi Saito, Founder & General Partner, KK Fund, believes that “To attract global investors and acquirers, you need to do so by showing a regional play and have a significant footprint in markets outside the startup’s domestic market. 

When we negotiate with potential buyers, we don’t start with the explicit intention to sell the company. It always starts with – we want to raise”

Sai Kit Ng, Chief Executive, Captii Ventures, added “As a founder, you cannot let someone who’s not active in the running of the company decide or dictate the trade sale. A typical VC’s metric is to look for the biggest returns, and they will wash their hands off the company once the deal is done.

(As a founder) you are in it for the long haul and there must be alignment in product, culture, legacy, with the potential acquirer so that you can continue to live with the deal moving forward.”

On tech startup IPOs

Ng feels that “IPOs are often over-romanticized and over-sensationalized. Founders must bear in mind that they will then be in for the long haul and be dealing with more stakeholders, including the regulators and the public’s interest.”

Ark added, “It’s not just about you wanting to go public. But why do you want to go public? That depends on where you want to be, where your market is, and how big that market is.

An entrepreneur who wants to list on a secondary board in Thailand is on a US$100m trajectory but another who wants to list on NASDAQ is probably on a multi-billion dollar trajectory, and those are two very different ambitions”

Ark also generously hinted that the IPO door has closed on all sharing economy business models that are not profitable, after the spectacular failure of WeWork. 

On the startup landscape in Malaysia

Jeffrey Paine, Managing Partner, Golden Gate Ventures pointed out that, “When it comes to government support, Malaysia is #1. (Korea is #2, while Singapore is #3). To continue doing what they do and do it well is extremely difficult, and they will continue to get better with more engagement with the private sector.”

Azman Hood, Vice President of Cradle, added “Since 2014, Cradle has iterated on its grants, set up an equity fund, and introduced complementary programmes such as the Ideas Bank and policies such as the Angel Tax Incentives. These efforts leverage on stakeholder partnerships to support the founding journey and continuing to build the ecosystem.”

On advice for Malaysian founders

Paine shared “If you are an introvert, find an extrovert to introduce 5 people to you. But only 5 conversations/meetings per week, because anything more and you will burn out”

In the same panel, Paine went on to share his candid perspective on the odds of Malaysian startups, with this anecdote “The Top 50 startups in Southeast are copycats, of which 80 per cent are consumer-facing, and 80 per cent of those have the word Indonesian in it. This will give you a sense of where the money is.”

Paine elaborated on his firm belief, that “99 per cent of startups should not take VC money and it’s perfectly fine to be a 20-person SME that runs a decent profit to feed all employees.

The no. 1 problem now – the 99% think that they are the 1%. The second problem is that – the investors think the same way. Overthinking leads to money being inefficiently allocated, and now the angels are scared to invest after being burnt before.” 

Paine’s final advice to Malaysian founders was that “Grants are important to give you a first short of getting towards a proof of concept. But the grant office is run by patent lawyers so getting it doesn’t mean you are VC ready.

If you are raising seed, also remember to talk to A and B VCs to get feedback first, before getting stuck in a particular direction only to realise you can’t raise the next round after 1.5 years in.”

Challenges for Malaysia’s startups

From Hood’s perspective, “The biggest challenge in Malaysia is the small market. It is a nice size as a testbed, but your business must have a regional play.

Singapore is the financial hub of the region that attracts global capital from (the likes of) Japan, China and the US. Rather than have a sentiment about it, be logical and systematic about having an office in Singapore to attract growth capital there as well”.

Paine echoed, “The idea cannot be a Malysian idea, it has to be a regional idea. So understand who’s doing the same Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and find out how they’ve figured it out. This is how startups that are based here should up their game over time. 

Sometimes you are just a 1-country play, then find out how you can make money 10 different ways. So even if the govt shuts down 3, you still have 7.”

Don’t miss out on Johor anymore

For the handful of Singaporeans who eventually decided against attending BASE Conference 2020 due to traffic – it’s actually not that bad to drive up or bus in on a regular weekday morning.

I live in the west of Singapore, and it took me less than 40min door-to-door via the Second Link.

In 2017, I was with Lim at a Startup Weekend event in IskandarSpace where he first shared his vision for Johor’s community and Malaysia’s tech startup ecosystem. Since then, he’s run a couple more hackathons, published a Johor Startup Ecosystem Report, got married, embraced fatherhood, and completed an M&A to form Start Malaysia.

Much inspiration and huge respect for the man and his team – for having the passion, conviction and dedication to walk the talk.

To sum it up, Lim promised, “We are committed to continue running the event and to continue to grow this ecosystem here. Malaysia is not just about Kuala Lumpur. You can create a great company in Johor, and anywhere else in the world.”

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Thailand-headquartered digital fashion brand Pomelo has appointed Anders Heikenfeldt, ex-Managing Director of an H&M venture, as its Chief Retail Officer (CRO).

The former H&M executive will be responsible for Pomelo’s retail expansion plans across Southeast Asia. This comes right after Pomelo’s Series C funding round where it managed to raise US$52 million.

He will also be in charge of growing the retail division, developing the company’s omnichannel strategy, and online platform.

“Anders is an exciting new addition to team Pomelo,” said David Jou, CEO and co-founder of Pomelo.

“His appointment reflects Pomelo’s commitment to redefining retail. He’s a great leader and we’re extremely happy to have him on board,” he continued.

Also Read: Pomelo appoints former Lazada CMO Jean Thomas as new CMO

Heikenfeldt has worked with H&M for over 10 years in developing and refining strategies to enhance the retail experience and prior to that, he has also served as COO of at 6ixty 8ight, an online Singaporean lingerie and nightwear store.

Bringing an executive of a multinational clothing-retail company such as H&M will definitely add more value to Pomelo’s current team.

As a fast-growing company, the fashion company has since hired 200 new employees and has opened 10 new stores locally in 2019.

“Southeast Asia is an incredibly fast-growing, unique market with so much potential. I’m excited to be a part of this journey as we continue to expand Pomelo’s retail footprint across the region and provide customers with an innovative, omnichannel shopping experience,” expressed Heikenfeldt.

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Image Credit:  Kai Pilger

 

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Vynn Capital, Southeast Asian early-stage venture capital firm, today released what is said to be the region’s first travel tech report Travelution. The venture firm focusses on selective industries, including tourism as well as synergistic verticals such as food and property.

Back in 2018, Vynn Capital jointly announced a partnership with the World Tourism Organisation of United Nations (UNWTO), which has been championing the effort of encouraging governments and companies to be innovative and adopt digital transformations.

Travelution was created with input from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (“PATA”) as well as UNWTO.

The report notes that the emergence of online booking solutions began in the 1980s before hotels and airlines partnership followed suit in the 1990s. The 2000s marked the different verticals in the travel tech sector, and the 2010s were the year of UX personalisation.

Noting further on the past decade’s trends of personalisation, the report pointed out that several sub-domains in the travel tech sector emerged, such as pre-trip, midway, and post-trip. Pre-trip involves information discovery served by companies such as Expedia, CTrip, TripAdvisor, and Airbnb. Meanwhile, midway entails support to travellers such as Triip, that offer personalised travel experiences for travellers who are exploring new destinations.

Also Read: Traditionally innovative: How Vynn Capital plan to bridge between startups and big corporations

Finally, post-trip involves the sharing of experiences and comparison of itineraries.

Entering 2020, the report shares that the major trend of this decade is still personalisation. The trend of personalisation in the travel tech sector expanded to the point where travel tech companies sell entire experiences across the value chain.

Travel tech companies invest to increase offerings such as food services, transportation, health and wellness, and activities operators. Furthermore, as travel tech companies expand into a vacation and short-term rentals, there has been a proliferation of property-related services.

Boundaries between industries are quickly breaking down and the ecosystem is flattening.

Looking at the bigger picture on the global travel industry, the report marks that it has grown to over US$1.6 trillion, over 10 per cent of world GDP. Tourism is recorded to employ two in 10 people in the global economy.

As for deals in the travel tech sector, 2019 saw an all-time high of 159 acquisitions and funding activity remains strong, with Asia leading the number of capital raising with 54 per cent. Indonesian startups took 70 per cent of funding, Singaporean companies tapped 28 per cent.

Online travel is the top sector in the internet economy with roughly US$30 billion in bookings and growing 15 per cent YoT.

Also Read: Asia VC Cast with Victor Chua from Vynn Capital

The firm further predicted that there will be more investments into travel tech startups in the region by larger traditional players as well as later-stage funds. At the same time, it is also expected that there will be more consolidations happening as an increasing number of smaller startups get bought out or absorbed by larger platforms and companies.

“Whilst many would view industries such as travel as a silo opportunity; we believe there is evidence of convergence – companies cutting across industries and people become savvier about industries that are deemed as a synergistic expansion from the one that they are in,” said Victor Chua, Vynn Capital’s Founding & Managing Partner.

“Investing into the right sectors is becoming more important and Vynn Capital believes that focusing on travel tech as well as the selected industries where we are investing is a competitive advantage over the long term, especially when Southeast Asia’s economies are converging,” he added.

The report can be requested from the firm or downloaded from the website.

Vynn Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm founded with the objective of bridging the gap between traditional industries and the new economies through the development of technology. Key industries of focus include Travel, Property, Food and FMCG, Female Economics as well as Business Enablers (including logistics and fintech).

Vynn Capital is currently active in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar.

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Image Credit: Alex Knight on Unsplash

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Field service automation startup Zinier raises US$90M led by ICONIQ Capital

Zinier, an intelligent field service automation company, today announced that it has raised US$90 million in Series C funding, led by ICONIQ Capital.

Tiger Global Management, Accel, Founders Fund, Nokia-backed NGP Capital, France-based Newfund Capital and Qualcomm Ventures also joined the round.

The funding will support global customer adoption and expansion of Zinier’s AI-driven field service automation platform, ISAC.

Zinier’s field service automation platform helps organisations work smarter — from the back office to the field — to solve problems quickly.

South Korean gaming company NPIXEL raises US$26M Series A

South Korean gaming company NPIXEL today announced that it has secured a US$26 million at a valuation of US$260 million, led by Saehan Venture Capital and Altos Ventures.

“This investment is meaningful in that NPIXEL was recognised by investors who have
handpicked unicorn startups and successful gaming companies in the earliest stages&quot,” said Bong-Gun Bae and Hyun-Ho Jung, Co-founders of NPIXEL. “We will focus on providing the best gaming experience to gamers all around the world, starting with GRAN SAGA.”

Founded in September 2017, NPIXEL has created GRAN SAGA, an MMORPG enchanted by the adventures of knights to save the kingdom and is set to be released in the first half of 2020.

The game is developed in a multi-platform that is not limited to just a single device but can be played across different types of devices including PCs, mobile devices and consoles.

AI and drone startup Clobotics bags US$10M from Tiger Investment to expand to Singapore [KrAsia]

Shanghai- and Seattle-headquartered computer vision technology company Clobotics has raised US$10 million in its Series pre-B+ round from Tiger Investment, 36Kr reported on Wednesday.

The new funds will be channelled toward research and development as well as the company’s expansion to Singapore. Clobotics closed its US$22 million pre-B round in August 2019 and scored US$21 million in Series A investment one year prior.

The company uses its fleet of drones to take precise photos for wind turbine blade safety inspections, sparing manual work and increasing efficiency by up to 10 times, according to its website. Clobotics’ clients include Europe-based GEV Wind Power and Shanghai Electric.

Betatron increases investment amount up to US$500K per startup [press release]

Betatron, a startup investment firm and accelerator programme based in Hong Kong, has announced it will be increasing the investment amount given to each startup up to US$500,000.

In addition, Betatron will be providing its startups with an investor roadshow across Asia and North America, including Demo Days in Hong Kong, Singapore and Silicon Valley in 2020.

The main focus of the Betatron programme is to help each startup raise the next round of funding and accelerate business growth. To date, Betatron has invested in 37 startups from around the world and brought them to Hong Kong for its programme.

Applications for cohort #6 close on 18th March 2020 with the four-month programme starting in Q2, 2020.

Startups don’t need to be in Hong Kong for the entire duration of the programme as it’s designed so they only need to be there for three two-week blocks.

Securemetric invests a 5 per cent stake in Indonesian digital startup [The Edge Markets]

Software company Securemetric has invested in a 5 per cent stake in Indonesian digital startup PrivyID for a cash consideration of 20.25 billion Indonesian rupiah (US$150,000).

The company signed a conditional share subscription agreement with PT Privy Identitas Digital today, it said in a statement.

PrivyID is Indonesia’s first non-government institution certified certificate authority (CA), as well as the first private company in Indonesia that was granted access to the National Identification database.

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Prisync, an Istanbul-based competitive pricing intelligence and dynamic pricing solutions startup, has secured US$1.1 million in seed funding to double down on its growth initiatives in the Asia Pacific region.

Collective Spark led the round, which also saw participation from German VC fund ESOR Investments.

The company will also use the capital to fuel its product development and grow its global customer base.

“In the last two years, we have seen great interest, especially in the booming Southeast Asian e-commerce market, namely Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia,” Burc Tanir, CEO and Co-founder of Prisync, said.

“We see a huge and growing customer base for numerous online sellers/merchants. Consumers here are price-sensitive, so pricing is a real competitive factor in the online retail market,” he added. “We plan to double down APAC-focused growth initiatives with this round of funding.”

Also Read: Will the new digital banks sound the death knell for traditional banks?

The APAC region constitutes nearly 15 per cent of Prisync’s global sales.

Prisync helps e-commerce companies of all sizes by automating their competitor price tracking and pricing optimisation processes. It currently serves hundreds of customers in more than 50 countries, claims Tanir.

According to the company, automated pricing technologies are still not widely used across the global e-commerce market, especially in the small and medium-sized businesses segment, which constitutes the target market segment of Prisync.

These companies either conduct such competitive pricing analysis and optimisation manually or don’t even bother allocating resources on that front. Prisync emphasises this market condition as a significant potential for Prisync’s global growth.

Last year, Prisync formed partnerships with two major e-commerce platforms Magento and Shopify.

In March, it acquired its Australia-based competitor Spotlite.

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