In order to help empower the APAC tech startup ecosystem, we recently launched Perks: a curated selection designed to give e27 Pro members an access to top-class products and services with over US$10,000 worth in savings. In order to do that, we have partnered with some of the most amazing solution providers in the region.

We spoke to Kristen Durham, Startups VP for Zendesk, to get a closer look at their products and services and to help the community understand better how Zendesk can help them yield desirable results.

Can you describe what your company does? What industry you are in, who your target market is?

Zendesk is a service-first CRM company that builds support, sales, and customer engagement software designed to foster better customer relationships. From large enterprises to startups, we believe that powerful, innovative customer experiences should be within reach for every company, no matter the size, industry, or ambition. Zendesk serves more than 160,000 customers across a multitude of industries in over 30 languages.

How does your product/service help companies? What gaps in the market do your products bridge?

Our support products and sales management tools help meet the needs of our customers by delivering fast time to value through customer experience solutions that are empowering businesses to communicate reliably, authentically and seamlessly across channels. We’re also further building out our messaging solutions at a time when connected customer conversations are critically important.

Most importantly, our solutions are quick to implement, easy to use, and can scale to fit business needs. With Zendesk, it takes hours — not weeks — to get up and running, affording companies of varying sizes the flexibility and adaptability to quickly scale and meet fast-changing customer needs.

Can you give an example of how your product is being used by your customers? Any customer success stories you’d like to share?

The pandemic has put increased pressure on ticket volumes, and we’re serving clients in key industries such as airlines, retail, ridesharing, and travel and hospitality, aiding them through increased support, flexible payment terms and other means. Because the crisis has unfolded at varying paces and severity across APAC and the world, companies have also been impacted in different ways. Thus, our local teams continue to provide individualized support to our customers so they can better navigate these shifts. A few examples of how companies in APAC and around the world are using Zendesk include:

Supported by Zendesk, Singapore-based robo-advisory StashAway adopted the use of WhatsApp, which is now used for 60% of all incoming customer inquiries. Because of its easy accessibility and capability to reduce the first response time by half, messaging quickly became the preferred engagement channel for their customers. Today, despite challenges imposed by the pandemic, StashAway continues to give their customers peace of mind that they are always accessible by ensuring that they can meet customers where they are.

Also read: Kim An raises Series A to connect Vietnam’s financial institutions with MSMEs via its fintech platform

One of Thailand’s top cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitkub uses Zendesk’s complete support package to attract and retain a strong customer base by supporting and educating their customers. The market leader with 95% market share boasts over 500 useful articles on Guide, 3,000 ticket volume per month, and a 90% CSAT score. For the rapidly expanding Bitkub, scalable software like Zendesk is essential to supporting business growth.

When Mailchimp started using Zendesk, they realised the difference using intuitive tools and data visibility can make when building a customer-centric approach. Using Zendesk Chat, Explore and Support to empower 200 agents, Mailchimp saw a 200% increase in CSAT survey response. The team uses customer insight and data to refine their products, automations to increase support efficiency, and relies on triggers and more than 1,000 macros to help keep customer response times short. With Zendesk tools at their fingertips, Mailchimp saved a whopping 48,000 agent replies in a single year, and has a full resolution time of 24 hours on average for email and just over 26 minutes for live chats.

Are there any recent accomplishments of your company that you want to share with the e27 Community?

This year has tested us all, but as we work to keep our business moving forward, we are proud that we are able to continue to prioritize the wellbeing of our customers, our employees and our communities.

We have maintained steady momentum in APAC with 25 per cent revenue growth in the region in the second quarter of 2020. We welcomed new regional leadership with Wendy Johnstone joining as regional chief operating officer, Gari Johnson joining as SVP of sales for APAC, and Chad Pearce joining as vice president of marketing for APAC.

Also read: In Brief: Descartes Underwriting raises US$18.5M to expand to Singapore, Manny Pacquiao launches PacPay

Through the global pandemic and economic uncertainties, we’re helping our customers adapt so they can compete at this moment. Specifically, leveraging Zendesk’s flexibility as a competitive advantage, helping businesses quickly spin up help centres, add new service channels and tame spiking tickets with tools such as Answer Bot, our self-service chatbot. We are also equipping our customers with the resources they need to reimagine their CX strategies, such as COVID-19 Benchmark data showing how brands are adapting their customer service. Through our virtual events, including the virtual Zendesk Showcase APAC and CX Moments series, we’re connecting our customers with other like-minded businesses to come up with creative solutions to the challenges we’re all facing.

At the same time, we are working hard to keep our employees engaged so we can maintain productivity and satisfaction. We recently introduced a global caregiver leave benefit through the end of 2020, along with additional resources for caregivers, so employees can be there for those who matter most to them. We are prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) with our commitment to five core actions, which include training managers, investing in employee DEI education, and formalizing a Global Equity policy. And we have also expanded our mental health benefits and added flexible time off through the end of Q3.

Also read: Grab in talks with Prudential, AIA to raise up to US$500M: Report

Last but not least, we continue to make investments to help meet the needs of the many communities we call home, in APAC and around the world. These include supporting the development of crucial COVID-19 resources through the Tech for Good program, which has provided 67 Zendesk instances to organizations globally. We also connect employees with virtual volunteering, skill-sharing, and community engagement opportunities in their local communities. Since mid-March, Zendesk employees have logged nearly 4,500 hours of virtual service. Finally, we’re also donating directly to organizations that can help advance DEI in our communities, amounting to over a million dollars given to 10 organizations including The Asia Foundation.

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COVID-19 proved to the world the importance of being adaptable, and ready to react quickly to change. For businesses, this meant pivoting quickly to new business models, new ways of working, and new channels through which to engage their customers.

In Singapore, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are expected to be the biggest casualties, despite job support schemes rolled out by the government to tide over this teething transition. However, there is a silver lining. While small businesses lack the deep pockets of their enterprise competitors, they are also often more nimble, more agile, and more able to quickly shift business priorities.

Businesses are now waking up in a digitally transformed world awash with new unknowns – and opportunities. Here are four key ways businesses can rewrite their go-to-market strategies to ride this wave of change.

Reaching outsiders through inside selling

Inside selling is not new. Most businesses are likely supported by some form of inside sales, whether they’ve termed it this way or not. Simply put, inside selling refers to the remote sales of products and services via remote channels, as opposed to outside selling, which hinges on meeting prospects physically.

With face to face meetings off the table, the pandemic has turned outside sales teams into inside sales teams overnight. To successfully support an inside sales model, SMEs can leverage user-friendly customer relationship management (CRM) software that helps their salespeople to get started quickly, while providing them with a centralised view of customer data.

This way, different team members have the same understanding of what the customer needs, without having to put their prospects through repeated questioning processes. This also enables them to deliver a personalised experience to prospects, across every part of the customer journey.

This transition could actually swing in the favour of SMEs who can strategically redistribute their resources to better attend to their customers:

• Optimising human resources: 85 per cent of consumers now conduct online research before making a purchase decision. This means salespeople’s time is better spent building relationships and providing prospects with helpful information online rather than focusing on running in-person demos. For resource-scarce SMEs, the shift to inside selling represents tremendous cost and time saving as customer relations and sales are now managed online. 
• Amplifying reach and boosting engagement: Tools like live chat, 1:1 asynchronous video, and sequences — which allow sellers to schedule personalised follow-up emails to prospects – enable salespeople to adapt how they sell to the way prospects want to buy and allow them to increase their productivity without losing the personal connection. In fact, inside sales teams make 43 per cent more phone calls, leave 10 per cent more voicemails, and send nine per cent more emails than organisations predominantly made up of outside sales people.

From offline to online

As many offline channels have gone quiet during the pandemic, the online engagement between consumers and companies has reached record heights. According to HubSpot data, website site traffic in Singapore increased by 17 per cent from Q1 to Q2, and marketing email open rates were 14 per cent above pre-COVID-19 levels by the beginning of Q3.

Also Read: Surviving COVID-19: How to adapt your digital marketing strategy amidst a global crisis

This underscores the importance of establishing a strong online presence, supported by a fully online marketing strategy. SMEs can track online performance metrics – such as webpage traffic, email open rates, social media engagement, and even digital ad ROI –  to gain deep insights on the most effective customer engagement channels.

This helps them to optimise budget spend and finetune their strategies to keep pace with rapid shifts in consumer behaviour in a matter of hours. This agility is critical for SMEs so they can quickly redeploy resources, adjust the tone of their messaging to reflect the times and communicate important information to their audiences in a timely manner.

Of course, ‘going online’ is not just about maintaining a website and as many social channels as you can. There is an extremely wide array of tools that perform different functions online, from chatbots to social scheduling tools to CRM software, but building a positive online customer journey isn’t just about utilising as many tools as you can. In fact, it is quite often the opposite.

It entails envisioning the online experience from start to finish, then picking out the solutions you need in-house to build that vision. Where the online journey is concerned, less can often be more.

Self-service is sometimes the best customer service

When businesses empower customers to self-serve, everyone wins – especially SMEs that are already running a tight ship. In fact, it can be an effective differentiator. HubSpot’s recent State of Service report found that 91 per cent of service agents acknowledged the importance of a great knowledge base optimised for search, yet only 40 per cent of companies currently have one.

There’s an immediate way for companies to set themselves apart from the competition here, just by providing information about their own products and services in a helpful manner.

On the other hand, tools like automated chat help free up customer service staff to work on more complex customer issues while customers find quicker solutions to their problems compared to emailing or calling a helpline. In fact, the volume of customer-initiated chat interactions has increased by 31 per cent during the pandemic, and self-service options like this will go from being a “nice to have” to a “must-have” in the digitally transformed world.

Furthermore, a chatbot isn’t just an interactive FAQ for your website. When integrated with other systems, it can help businesses manage the increased volume of queries, route leads to the right sales teams, and automates meeting bookings. All of this allows your sales and service teams to do more at the same time while providing greater customer satisfaction.

Less is more with your toolkit

As SMEs accelerate their digital transformation, many are rapidly adopting a vast array of new technologies and powerful online tools. However, there are potential downsides to consider. They could run the risk of taking on a host of disparate tools that don’t work well together, leaving them with a bloated tech stack that creates data silos, increases administrative work, and makes it difficult for teams to stay aligned.

Also Read: Customer is not always the king, says Tokopedia’s customer engagement expert

These processes and cost inefficiencies could critically deplete an SME’s resource which could be used to improve customer experience.

SMEs can shed their tech debt by constructing a lean suite of tools that suits their unique needs while enabling them to move agilely in the post-pandemic era. They should select a system that gives all internal teams access to a single source of truth on customer data.

Without this, customer-facing staff will be working off different information, making it monumentally difficult to deliver the type of seamless, contextual experience that customers now expect. Additionally, they should also factor the ease of integrating additional tools with their platform of choice.

Rewriting the memory of 2020

The go-to-market playbook for this era will be one made up of inside selling, online marketing, and self-service options for customers, powered by a lean tech stack that enables them to keep pace with customer expectations. SMEs that embrace these new strategies are the ones most likely to navigate these times with success and thrive in the post-pandemic world.

This way, 2020 will be remembered not for the economic stagnation that took hold, but rather for the rapid progress that took flight.

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Singtel brings back its social innovation accelerator programme Singtel Future Makers (SFM) this year with five startups on board.

The startups will receive support from a cash pool of up to USS$109,000. From August to October, they will also receive monetary and non-monetary support to work on their Shared Value Proof of Concept (POC) proposals.

The five selected startups are:

• Tic Tag, a startup that seeks to empower people to participate in the artificial intelligence and data industry, by turning manual data annotation process into a crowdsourced game. The startup collaborates with a social service agency to conduct a POC and usability tests on creating micro-jobs for the seniors.
• GenConnects, a startup that develops rehabilitative games based on research for persons with dementia to stimulate their sensory, cognitive, and motor skills holistically. This is supported by their mobile application which helps to assess and track these skills and provide customised real-time recommendations to enhance their care.
• Fairmarch, an online marketplace platform that connects socially and environmentally conscious consumers to impact-driven sellers. They believe in socially and environmentally responsible businesses that are inclusive and strive to deliver value beyond profits.
• Wiz.Ai, a startup that builds a talkbot platform that enables an enterprise to automate telephonic and app-based voice conversations. The platform is able to analyse spoken voice data and handle complex multi-round conversation intents, empowering enterprises to automate the full-landscape of customer service engagement. The startup works with ICT provider NCS on a POC proposal that leverage NCS conversation AI platform complement their service offering to hospitals.
• Senzehub, a startup that develops vital signs wearable that flags early warning of the condition deterioration which otherwise goes unnoticed.

They will undergo capability building workshops to refine their business strategies to strengthen their social purpose, improve their value proposition and pitching skills. They will also get networking opportunities with Singtel stakeholders, community partners, and impact investors. This includes one-on-one coaching with mentors from Singtel’s business units.

Also Read: Grab, Singtel form consortium for Singapore digital banking license

This year’s programme will end with a pitch day in early November.

Participating startups will also stand the chance to be selected for the regional Singtel Group Future Makers programme which brings together Singtel, Optus, and Singtel’s associates Globe (Philippines), Telkomsel (Indonesia), and AIS (Thailand).

Against the backdrop of COVID-19, Singtel also announced that it has awarded two Singtel Future Makers Alumni with a Special Pandemic Support Grant:

• AEvice Health (2018 batch), a startup that has developed an innovative wearable technology that uses artificial intelligence to help diagnose, manage and predict chronic respiratory diseases.
• Solve Education Foundation (2017 batch), a non-profit organisation that is committed to helping children and youth around the globe receive quality, effective education.

Besides the grant, Singtel also said that it will continue to provide them with mentorship, access to its leaders and industry experts, and regional networking opportunities.

Launched in 2016, SFM is the telco company’s social innovation accelerator and regional capacity building programme. It provides mentorship, coaching, business pilots, and funding support to empower impact startups leveraging technology to address social and environmental issues in the community.

Since its inception, the accelerator said it has invested US$3.7 million in the local and regional SFM programmes.

Singtel Future Makers welcomes startups that meet the following criteria:

• Addresses one of the challenge statements or themes (Digital Enablement, Health & Well-Being, Environment)
• Launches a product or service and looking to scale social impact
• Has the potential to solve real social problems in a sizeable, addressable market

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Image Credit: Singtel Future Makers

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Mosaic Solutions, a provider of profit optimisation solutions for the F&B and hospitality industries in the Philippines, has raised US$1.5 million in pre-Series A preferred equity and convertible debt, led by Australian early-stage VC firm Investible.

Other investors are IdeaSpace (a non-profit which recently launched Opportunity Fund out of Manila), KMC Founders Fund, and JC Capital.

Several high net-worth individuals, family offices and strategic investors like RCGI, besides owners of multiple concepts in the Philippines (Barcino, Single Origin, Bluesmith, Meat Depot and Meatworld International) also joined the round.

Also Read: 4 go-to-market strategy shifts to help startups navigate the post-pandemic economy

With these funds, Mosaic will further enhance its software, which provides restaurants and off-premise food retailers a “comprehensive and immediate” view of their key cost and revenue drivers.

To date, Mosaic (one of the companies of e27’s Top100 competition in the Philippines) has raised over US$3 million from investors in the US, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

Launched in 2016, Mosaic is a SaaS startup providing solutions including data analytics, inventory management, point of sale and purchasing, which are offered primarily to the F&B sector across Southeast Asia.

Its clients include multi-unit restaurant and bar groups, cloud kitchens, commissaries, hotels and casinos, and now retailers, such as supermarkets and convenience stores.

“Our cloud-based solutions provide customers with the information they desperately need right now — real-time, holistic data analytics, reporting and business insights, seen at the outlet and brand level,” said CEO Brett Doyle.

“Mosaic is first and foremost a solution provider for restaurants, but we made a shift in focus early in the COVID pandemic to include off-premise food retailers, signing our first off-premise retailer in March. We saw an opportunity to help this underserved sector and diversify our customer portfolio by adding a lockdown-resistant, high growth sector,” Doyle added.

Also Read: Looking east: Why the future of VC investment is beyond the Silicon Valley

Currently, Mosaic services over 100 customers across the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, India and the UAE, with a primary focus on the Philippines.

The company claimed in a press note that it grew its customer base (measured as number of outlets) at an annual rate of 300 per cent from 2016 to 2019. Further, with its expansion into off-premise, Mosaic more than tripled its footprint during 1H 2020.

The startup sees a great opportunity in the F&B sector across Southeast Asia, with on-premise F&B spending projected to double to US$5 billion by 2022, and the total F&B market projected to grow to over US$125 billion by 2023.

Besides seeking further growth in the Philippines market, next steps for Mosaic will include regional expansion supported by a Series A capital raise presently planned for 2021.

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Over the past few months, many players in the traditional payments industry have refocused their strategies and offerings to meet the demand for digital payments. Given that the COVID-19 pandemic prompted people to practice social distancing and turn to cashless payments, it has become an opportune time for many financial institutions to modify their work to accommodate more consumers.

For their digital payments, many people have also turned to cryptocurrencies. In addition to their virtual nature, digital currencies are also decentralised and immutable, making them a more secure payment option compared to fiat money. Additionally, cryptocurrencies are not geographically bound to one country, giving crypto holders a convenient way to transact with people in other countries without changing currencies.

Many individuals, organisations, and governments are starting to see the advantages of cryptocurrencies and their potential to create an entirely new way of how transactions can be completed. Cryptocurrencies have become so popular that Germany’s largest financial conglomerate Deutsche Bank even predicted that digital assets would replace fiat by 2030. 

With cryptocurrencies gradually taking the spotlight, this phenomenon has become an opportunity for traditional payment service providers to look into the blockchain and explore how they can integrate such technology into their systems.

Today, many payment companies have already integrated blockchain and cryptocurrencies into their solutions, with some partnering with cryptocurrency providers worldwide to expand their roster of payment methods. Some of these payment companies include:

Revolut

British financial technology company Revolut recently entered the blockchain and crypto scene by launching in the US with Bitcoin services. This development now allows American Revolut customers, except for those living in Tennessee, to buy and sell Bitcoin and/or Ether with fiat money and vice versa through the Revolut app. As of this writing, Revolut is planning to add more cryptocurrencies to its existing roster.

With this development, Revolut is also looking to expand its services to countries in the Asia Pacific region, particularly Australia, Singapore, and Japan. 

Also Read: How Binance acquired 35 per cent market share in a year with its new crypto derivatives line

The startup has been offering cryptocurrency trading and buying services in Europe since 2017. Aside from Bitcoin and Ether, Revolut also supports Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and XRP. It charges 2.5 per cent in conversion fees from standard customers and 1.5 per cent from premium customers for every crypto transaction.

PayPal

PayPal started taking interest in cryptocurrencies in 2013 when John Donahoe, CEO of PayPal parent company eBay at the time, John Donahoe, said that the payments platform would someday integrate Bitcoin to keep up with changes in the financial industry.

It wasn’t until this year that PayPal confirmed its interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain, building on the idea that digital assets can boost financial inclusion and reduce some “pain points” in the financial industry. It didn’t take long before crypto companies started taking advantage of this development.

Singapore-based blockchain solutions provider Pundi X is already supporting PayPal on its point-of-sale device XPOS. The integration of the two systems now allows merchants to process credit card payments on XPOS and complete purchases of cryptocurrencies via PayPal through the POS machine. Pundi X CEO Zac Cheah even noted that the integration with leading payment providers such as PayPal can help boost blockchain and crypto adoption outside the crypto community. 

Square

Point-of-sale solutions provider Square recently won a US patent for a payment system that will allow users to seamlessly complete crypto-to-fiat transactions. The system would feature automatic exchange and real-time settlements to help merchants accept volatile cryptocurrencies.

On the other hand, the system would also permit consumers to pay in their preferred asset, which would then be converted to an asset that the merchant wants to hold. The converted asset would still hold the value of the original asset.

Also Read: Why Bitcoin is set to boom in a post-COVID-19 era

Square started supporting cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, in 2018 when it permitted Bitcoin trading on its cash payments app. It’s no surprise that the company finally gave in to crypto given that Square CEO Jack Dorsey has repeatedly praised Bitcoin, even going so far as to predict that it will become a native currency of the Internet.

Ingenico

Like PayPal, Ingenico teamed up with Pundi X in 2019 to help more retailers using the APOS A8 POS device to accept payments in cryptocurrencies alongside those made in fiat money. Customers can pay for their orders using Bitcoin, Binance Coin, Ether, XEM, Wan and NPXS, among other cryptocurrencies. They can also top up on cryptocurrencies with APOS A8 POS. To provide a more seamless transaction experience, XPOS in APOS A8 provides conversion rates between fiat and cryptocurrencies.

Marcus Low, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific of Ingenico Group, has mentioned it is a great way to prepare for the future of payments and introduce cryptocurrency as a reliable payment option to our clients and customers worldwide.

As shown by these payments giants, blockchain and crypto adoption are making their way toward the mainstream.

More and more people will see how blockchain and crypto can change their lives as the world continues to keep up with changes and developments in the financial industry brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and other technological advancements.

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Dyslexics challenge their very description. The learning difficulty is, for many people like me, actually a business advantage. Figures such as Richard Branson and Jamie Oliver overcame their dyslexia to create hugely successful businesses and research suggests that dyslexics are disproportionately represented among entrepreneurs.

Commentators note the condition enables people to excel at problem-solving and focus on the wider picture. The same is true for me, a serial entrepreneur who lives with dyslexia. I realised from an early age that mixing up my letters and struggling to follow written commands made me almost invincible to failure. I did not avoid it; I expected it.

I believe this condition that grants me immunity to failure and the ability to learn visually, makes me a better entrepreneur.

Being like me

Dyslexia makes reading and writing pretty challenging and certainly hampered me inside the Singaporean education system, where grades are seen as a way to determine your future job prospects and opportunities. 

Dyslexia intrinsically changes how one communicates via the written word. In my experience, the learning difficulty makes me miss out on some words when reading and writing. For example, I might get confused with the letter “b” and “d”. This made school much more difficult than necessary. There were times when I might need five to eight hours to study for something my peers could do it within the hour. 

This felt somehow shameful for a young man who excelled at everything else apart from written tests. I have come across dyslexic peers who have simply been taught that they were born stupid or incapable. However, when I spoke to them about things that they are passionate they reveal themselves as extremely gifted and brilliant people. 

Dyslexics come to realise that our brains are simply wired differently. It does not make us stupid; in fact, it can help us to do many things that others cannot. I think about things in a very visual way, for example. This allows me to “see” multiple scenarios in the choices I make for my startup, bolstering my foresight for company growth. 

For me, dyslexia made me feel comfortable with failure and it strongly influences the entrepreneur that I have become. Interestingly, I am not an outlier in this thinking.

Our weakness is our strength

It is not correct to describe dyslexia as a hindrance to entrepreneurship. In fact, the reality is far from it. People like me actually thrive in being the boss because, well, it is how our brains are wired to function.

In my experience, people with dyslexia visualise rather than write information and this helps entrepreneurs entertain multiple business scenarios better than others. Perhaps we cannot convert this into the written word very well, but us dyslexics are excellent at considering multiple points of view and multiple possibilities in business.

Also Read: Productivity: What’s expected in the office vs what really happens

Julie Logan, emeritus professor of entrepreneurship at Cass Business School, in London, says that 20 per cent of the UK’s business self-starters have the condition. Her research into the US market showed that 35 per cent of company founders identified themselves as dyslexic, compared with 15 per cent in the general population. 

These figures are food for thought. The word “learning difficulty” implies somebody who is less than able. In the case of dyslexia, however, the opposite is true when it comes to entrepreneurship.

Why creativity is key 

Do not get me wrong – I have not always been thankful for my dyslexia. However, it has certainly carved my career path and shaped my decisions up until this point. I feel that this is a familiar story for many people like me and likely the reason there are plenty of us in entrepreneurship.

Dyslexics know how to best work through their condition. After all, it is something we grow with and learn to accommodate. This probably answers why we flock towards jobs such as entrepreneurship – more than most, we need to take charge and mould our work environment to our personal skillset. 

I now see my dyslexia as a gift. It assists me in finding unique solutions to problems professional and personal. It makes me the entrepreneur I am today, one who is adaptable and flexible to the given scenario. 

Personally, I do not think it would have been possible to find success as a serial entrepreneur without my dyslexia. My entrepreneurship has been coloured by the way the “disorder” makes me think. Dyslexia buoys my experiences with the world and undoubtedly makes me a better entrepreneur for it.

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Sunday, a full-stack insurtech startup based in Thailand, has raised US$9 million in pre-Series B bridge round of funding led by SCB 10X, the venture capital arm of the Siam Commercial Bank.

New and existing investors, including Vertex Ventures (Southeast Asia and India), Quona Capital, and LINE Ventures, also participated.

Also Read: How insurtech is changing the game in Southeast Asia

The Bangkok-headquartered firm aims to deploy the new capital to support its rapid growth plans in Thailand and Indonesia, while deepening its proprietary employee benefits platform and superapp ‘Sunday Service’ for health and motor insurance products and services.

Launched in 2017, Sunday uses Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and digital platforms to offer personalised insurance products and services “that suit all types of individual and business risks”. It has developed risk prediction algorithms that power its premium pricing and recommendation engines for health and motor coverages.

The insurance venture also offers self-services, such as disease symptom checker on the Sunday Service platform. Claims notification for vehicle damages is also available to make claim journey easier.

According to Sunday, corporates and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are deeply rooted in its business model as it is the number one requested employee benefits globally.

In addition, telemedicine service is available through API integration with its provider-partners. Medication delivery service will also be offered. The app also recommend suitable hospitals for customers.

Also Read: Asian insurtech on the rise: An overview of the main players

Over the past two years, the company raised two rounds of funding — US$11 million Series A extension led by Quona Capital in December 2019 and US$10 million led by Vertex in February 2019.

“In times of great uncertainty, consumer demand will shift towards affordable core insurance products that truly help with risk management. As a team, we believe Sunday is uniquely positioned to deliver one-stop personalised insurance coverages and services that meet these evolving risks and growing demands from businesses and individuals in Southeast Asia,” said Sunday Co-founder and CEO Cindy Kua.

“Southeast Asia has more than 360 million internet users, who are the most engaged mobile internet users in the world. This makes it an attractive market for insurtech companies to offer online personalised products,” said Mukaya (Tai) Panich, Chief Venture and Investment Officer, SCB 10X.

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Image Credit: Sunday

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Despite COVID-19 looming over the world, disrupting businesses and delaying launches, San Francisco-based startup Onerent is set to launch its property management platform in Singapore.

However, this is not the first time the company made an entry to Asia, the startup already has a fully remote team working from the Philippines.

When asked about further expansion plans in Southeast Asia, Onerent Co-Founder and CMO Chuck Hattemer expressed ambitious goals. He said that they are planning to work in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Part of its Asia expansion strategy includes a partnership with investor Far East, who participated in the Series A funding round for OneRent.

“We wanted to work with people on the ground locally, and that’s why we partnered with Far East Organisation. Right off the bat, they have such a great legacy within the Singaporean market and a history of real estate development, sales and leasing. So, the first thing we did was immerse our team with Far East’s team to understand the way property was in Singapore,” co-founder of OneRent, Chuck Hattemer told e27 in an interview.

Also Read: PropertyGuru raises US$220M from TPG, KKR to accelerate growth in Malaysia, Vietnam

Founded in 2014, Onerent is a proptech company which aims to digitise the rental process holistically. Its ACE technology will allow renters to take a virtual tour of the home, over messenger, WhatsApp and apple business chat.

This technology can especially be seen as more attractive during COVID-19 since it promotes a contactless way of buying and selling property.

However, there are still local companies such as PropertyGuru and 99.co which offer similar services and have been in the market for a longer time. PropertyGuru has also recently launched a similar technology which allows a fully virtual guided tour with a salesperson.

What makes Onerent different, according to Hattemer, is that it has also been backed by Google’s chief of AI Jeff Dean. Its other unique aspect is that it offers users the option to get real estate tasks done over just “a chat experience”. Through the chat, users can ask questions about their property, negotiate, and even manage contracts.

” With COVID-19 shifting consumer behaviour, we have had a lot of interest from real estate operators and developers who have been doing things in a paper-pendant-stamp way and want to adopt technology,” Hattemer said.

 

Real-estate during COVID-19

While it is true that COVID-19 is shifting consumer towards a more virtual form of reality, it is also creating a lot of economic uncertainty. When it comes to real-estate, there have been mixed reports.

According to a Bloomberg report, Singapore’s home prices fell the most in three years in the second quarter of 2020, while analysts have also made predictions that the slide may not be over.

On the other hand, while housing properties are falling the resale volume of the island city’s non-landed private homes have hit a two-year high in August, according to the Business Times.

“If we look at the past long-term property trends in Asia, it has always come back after demand shocks. This might be a testament to the fact that Asia is still urbanising and the long-term demand for property and the related proptech sector is still trending upwards,” said Kay Mok Ku, Managing Partner of Gobi Partners, a leading ASEAN-focused VC firm.

Also Read: How proptech startup iMyanmarHouse remains profitable despite COVID-19

But some skeptics argue that it is too early to get a clear view of how this pandemic will unfold in the proptech sector.

In times like this, one of Onerent’s key strategies for growth is giving people virtual tour access and rebates.

“For our primary business, we allow people to do a full virtual tour. They can even book a self-tour through a lockbox on the property and visit the property without anyone being there,” shared Hattemer.

“In the US, when they sign a lease and move in, they have, 90 days to be able to decide if they want to move somewhere else instead. So even though they signed a one year lease, we give them some leeway, if maybe it wasn’t right, wasn’t the right fit. For some of those features, in Singapore, it will be decided with Far East and how they market their properties.”

Onerent is also planning to offer rent rebates, to help with the pressures of paying rent for someone who is leasing a home with the company.

After its success in the US market, with the help of local partnership OneRent has strong ambitions for its Southeast Asian debut.

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Image Credit: One Rent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Southeast Asian tech giant Grab is in advanced talks with insurance honchos Prudential and AIA and several others to raise US$300 million to US$500 million investment, as per a Reuters report.

The Singapore-based company aims to reach investment agreements as early as October, the report added, citing unnamed sources.

Also Read: [Updated] Report: Grab is raising US$200M at a US$14.3B valuation from South Korean private equity firm

The money is being raised for Grab Financial Group.

As per this report, the deal can also support Grab in its sales pitch for the Singapore banking licence.

When contacted by e27, a Grab spokesperson declines to comment on the report, terming it “market speculations”.

The report comes close on the heels of Grab’s US$200 million fundraise from South Korean private equity firm Stic Investments. Early this year, it also managed to raise more than US$850 million in funding from Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and TIS Inc.

As per CB Insights data, Grab is currently valued at US$14.3 billion.

There have also been reports about Grab’s ongoing talks for a potential merger with rival gojek. As per a DealStreetAsia report, the two companies are still deadlocked over management and geographical control.

Also Read: Google, JD.com, Tencent confirm leads in GOJEK Series F fundraising

gojek — which counts Google, Tencent and Temasek among its key investors -recently raised US$1.2 billion from undisclosed group of investors.

Grab recently laid off employees as the pandemic hit the company, mainly its transport business.

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Image credit: Grab

 

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Insurtech company Descartes Underwriting raises US$18.5M

The story: Descartes Underwriting, an insurtech company specialised in climate risk modelling and data-driven risk transfer hailing from France, announced that it has raised US$18.5 million in Series A funding round. The fresh round of capital comes 18 months after raising US$2.5 million in seed funding from BlackFin Capital Partners.

The investors: The investors in the round include global venture capital firms Serena, Cathay Innovation, and BlackFin Capital Partners.

The plans: The new financing will be used to support Descartes’ global expansion to the US and Asia. While headquartered out of Paris, Descartes covers a wide variety of geographies including Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia and plans to open new offices in New York and Singapore. Descartes will also use the funds to grow its product range, target larger deals and deepen its tech capabilities and data science team.

What Descartes Underwriting does: Founded in 2018, the insurtech company scales up parametric insurance, leveraging new technologies and data science to challenge traditional insurance models. Founded by a team of experienced insurers and reinsurers, Descartes works with corporate brokers to design and underwrite innovative, bespoke and affordable insurance solutions.

Manny Pacquiao launches digital payment platform PacPay

The story: Technology startup Pac Technologies Pte Ltd announces the partnership with Remsea Pte Ltd, a fintech remittance firm licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in an effort to further both companies’ initiatives in the fintech space in Asia and beyond. Co-founded by boxing world champion Senator Manny Pacquiao, aims to launch PacPay this year.

Also Read: 7 lessons entrepreneurs can learn from Manny Pacquiao

What is PacPay: PacPay is a digital payment platform for global influencers, brands, and fans, providing users with seamless, faster, and safer cross-border prepaid solutions to make payments conveniently. Via PacPay’s rewards programme, users can connect with their favourite influencers for brands easily, participate in exclusive private events, and enjoy what it describes as ‘money-cannot-buy’ privileges and experiences.

During a media conference held in Manila last year, Sen. Pacquiao revealed his plan to develop PacPay. Fans of the legendary boxer have since indicated strong interest, many of whom have pre-registered for the highly-anticipated card programme.

Waze closes sales office in APAC

The story: In news shared by SGSME.sg, global navigation app Waze reportedly halts operations in Singapore, following the layoff of about five per cent or 30 people of its global workforce, due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

The affected sales offices are the ones in Asia Pacific -Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia- as well as in its smaller Latin America markets of Colombia, Argentina, and Chile.

The Chief Executive Noam Bardin’s official note said that “Waze users in many cities and countries are driving less or have stopped driving entirely due to the ongoing pandemic”.

The note emphasises that the affected employees will receive a severance package that includes career transition opportunities within Google, outplacement services from the date of the notice through six months after employment, financial help and eligibility for year-end bonuses, and healthcare benefits.

What is Waze: The Waze app is an Israeli startup, Google-owned company, that uses user-generated data to help riders on the road finding other routes to avoid traffic jams or speed cameras.

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Image Credit: Louie Martinez on Unsplash

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