We are hearing a lot about how the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the shift to digital payment trends. And, truth be told, the evidence is clear on this; for example, Worldpay from FIS’ recent global survey, Generation Pay, found that almost half in Singapore are now using digital wallets or cashless payments and 74 per cent of respondents find contactless payments are making their lives easier.

These trends have led to a number of think-pieces about the looming inevitability of a cashless society. However, there are still significant obstacles on the course to a cash-free payments landscape in Singapore, making the prospect still decades away.

With more than half of the population making some change to their payment methods amidst the pandemic, the cashless future that the fintech industry has been building towards seems more of a reality than ever.

However, the fact of the matter is that significant challenges remain, and I’ve highlighted below three reasons why we won’t be a completely cashless society anytime soon.

Implications for the underbanked

One of the most important issues when we consider a cashless society is that going cashless impacts people differently based on their access to financial services.

Going cashless wouldn’t just inconvenience those who still prefer cash, it could alienate groups like the underbanked or the elderly who rely heavily on cash and are otherwise unable to make transactions.

A report by Bain & Company found that two in five adults in Singapore are underbanked or unbanked. This means they do not have a bank account, or they may have limited access to mainstream banking services like credit cards or loans.

While we could see widespread adoption to cash-free transactions sooner than expected, to abandon cash completely is still unfeasible without disenfranchising a segment of our population. The government has ramped up efforts in recent months to encourage digitalisation, and there are new initiatives to help seniors go cashless.

However, businesses can also address the challenge by providing flexible payment methods that include both cash and digital payments.

Also Read: JazzyPay raises US$500K from Cocoon Capital to help businesses adopt cashless payments amid COVID-19

Existing infrastructure

Another problem is that there’s a lot of infrastructure in place to make cash work, and those things will take time to phase out. Consider ATMs: there are still thousands of ATMs in Singapore, and in recent years part of the over-the-counter consumer transactions have been migrated to next-generation ATMs.

Serving as “mini branches”, these ATMs can help fulfil common functions such as cash deposits, or account and card related requests without customers having to wait in line at a branch. Even as people move away from cash, it will still be quite sometime away before ATMs become obsolete.

On the other end of the spectrum is the technology required for contactless to work, which offers a faster, more frictionless payment experience that’s more convenient compared to cash payments. For example, contactless cards were first introduced in the early 2000s, but have only recently become a norm for newly issued cards in Singapore.

According to Visa, mobile contactless payments grew by 12 per cent in Singapore in 2019. Contactless card payments continue to be the most popular option, with 84 per cent of Singapore respondents using this mode of payment.

Additionally, 32 per cent of Singapore respondents to the Worldpay from FIS’ Generation Pay study said that they are yet to receive a contactless-enabled credit or debit card by their bank.

Cash is still king

We should also be careful not to overestimate the stickiness of behavioural change in the pandemic, and the inevitability of a cashless society. In fact, 71 per cent of respondents to the Generation Pay research in Singapore are still using cash, and 76 per cent said they feel more comfortable using the payment methods they have always used such as cash, check, and/or credit and debit cards. Cash management is also a concern as more than half agree that not using cash makes it easier to lose control of spending.

Also Read: Fave raises funding from Pine Labs to expand cashless payment solutions to SMEs

And consider the many instances where we rely upon cash, such as when we give red or green packets during festive seasons such as Chinese New Year and Hari Raya. Or when we are buying groceries at a wet market. Eliminating cash poses logistical hurdles and ultimately requires behavioural and mindset shifts, none of which have reached a critical mass.

As of today, there are no truly cashless societies, though it should be noted that China is well on its way to becoming one. The longer the pandemic lasts, the closer we will get to a cashless society, but with these hurdles, the old adage rings true in Singapore: cash really is still king, even if consumers are making unprecedented changes to their spending habits.

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COVID-19 has proven the well known proverb, “necessity is the mother of all invention” once again. Social distancing measures in response to COVID-19 have led to a remote working revolution and greatly accelerated digital transformation in the workplace. 

Organisations across Singapore and the world are reinventing themselves and adapting to the sudden shift in dynamics – and in recent months it has become evident that more needs to be done to better engage and support the overall wellbeing of staff who are adapting to unique and uncertain working conditions. 

While it’s generally acknowledged that businesses are doing their best to adapt to the ‘new normal’, employees still feel like they need more help to get through this state of flux. A recent survey on employment trends in 2021 found that 79 per cent of Singaporean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) said they still need more support from employers to achieve their 2021 career goals. 

It’s fair to say that in an already unsettled climate, the key to a successful business lies with the productivity of its employees. Unhappy workers who struggle to find stability and purpose can only contribute so much to an organisation before throwing in the towel.

In fact, our survey revealed that 36 per cent of Singaporeans cited a lack of mental health support as the main factor behind employee discontent, followed by financial support (33 per cent).

While working from home has several benefits – like more time with family and fewer hours spent commuting– the effects of the pandemic have triggered or exacerbated mental health issues, largely stemming from longer working hours and heavier workloads as the line between work and home diminishes.

Also Read: Looking beyond the crisis: Top 5 trends that will characterise work-life in 2021

Economic instability, budget restraints and pay cuts have also impacted employee wellbeing, leading to increased stress and anxiety that subsequently affects workplace efficiency and productivity. Whether its implementing blended working models or utilising technology to support employees remotely, employers must remain cognisant of employee wellbeing and needs as we move into the New Year. 

The good news is that there’s an upside to all this; the silver lining to this pandemic is a push for businesses to reassess the status quo and reevaluate employee engagement strategies for a new future of work. More employees are also becoming vocal about their needs, which is pushing organisations to equip themselves with resources that can help them live and work better. 

Here’s what our survey results suggests employers can do more of in 2021 to enhance the employee experience and boost engagement:

Be clear on expectations about working hours

Now that technology has enabled us to be connected at all times, it can be difficult for employees to feel like they are allowed to log off at the end of the work day. 

Our survey found that work-life balance continues to remain a key component of employee satisfaction and 51 per cent of employees agree this should be the most important value for employers to support in the coming year.

No surprises, but this sentiment was much higher for entry level employees (64 per cent) who want work-life balance to be a key priority for employers in 2021.

Employers must assist employees in finding a balance between work and rest, encouraging them to disconnect after work hours unless they receive any urgent requests.

Implement flexible work schedules and switch focus to achieving clear objectives

Flexible working arrangements have increasingly gained traction in Singapore and around the world, so it comes as no surprise that 48 per cent of Singaporeans surveyed indicated a desire for this in 2021.

Employers can also consider giving staff autonomy over their working hours, where possible, as this pandemic has shown all of us that the regular nine to six schedule is certainly not the only way to be productive. Focus on setting clear objectives then provide employees with the freedom to determine their most productive work schedule. 

Also Read: How to increase employee satisfaction for the long haul

Review salary cuts and budgeting

While it is understandable that companies may have a tighter grip around annual budgets, or carry out salary cuts to stay afloat during this time, it is also good to check in on employees who may need the financial assistance more than others.

In fact, 41  per cent of respondents have demanded more financial support to meet the rising cost of living and working amidst the pandemic-induced volatility. Perhaps a salary evaluation or an exception can be made on a case-by-case basis for employees who need the aid. This can help to assure and support employees during these uncertain times. 

Don’t forget to reward and recognise

Thirty-three per cent of Singaporean employees want to work for an organisation that rewards and recognises their efforts. Some ways to reward and recognise your employees in the digital workspace include making regular team announcements about any new achievements, recognising milestones and encouraging peer-to-peer shoutouts.

Making time for performance reviews and goal setting regularly with individual employees can also motivate and encourage.

Make time to connect

Recreating the same interactions you would experience in a physical office can be difficult to do online, but not impossible. Plan ahead for weekly or monthly online sessions where your team can bond and put work aside for a bit to get together virtually and have fun.

Also, the best way to find out if current processes are actually helping your employees feel motivated and engaged is to put in place a feedback system in place. Consider setting up a monthly survey where you can receive genuine feedback to find out what works or what doesn’t in your workplace.

Managers should also be checking-in with each of their reports for 1:1 coaching sessions. We recommend check-ins occur weekly or fortnightly particularly while employees are working remotely. 

Place more importance on your virtual on boarding

First impressions count. Bringing onboard new hires in the new normal is going to be a fairly common occurrence, and organisations now have to adapt to introducing employees into their culture and work processes digitally.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: How challenger banks can succeed in SEA; Singapore SMEs digitalise at higher rates than global peers amid crisis

Our survey shows employees are realistic in anticipating the changes that may arise in 2021 due to remote working, but while 69 per cent of employees indicated they feel prepared for these changes, entry-level employees feel somewhat unsure or unprepared (24 per cent) about the upcoming changes – stressing the need and importance for a robust on boarding process in times of uncertainty.

In such unprecedented times, it’s important to look at how you can create the same welcoming atmosphere as in real life, and also have a structured on boarding process to ensure new hires are clearly aligned with their new role, responsibilities and workplace culture. 

The workplace of the future will look vastly different from what we might have expected pre-pandemic, and the confidence that employees have in their organisations will be determined by how well employers adapt.

Technology has become an inextricable part of human experience and maintaining employee satisfaction and engagement will rely heavily on the digitalisation of processes and systems that simply makes more sense of today’s business and employee needs.

Through implementing better and more efficient ways of working, we can be confident that the future of work will be brighter for both organisation and employee.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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Waste management — an unromantic topic — is often a neglected but critical environmental service.

Organisations and smart cities collect and analyse waste and recycling data to improve their service performance and profitability. Many of them have invested million of dollars in waste management technologies, such as sensor technologies, radio frequency identification (RFID) and software systems, which help in collecting operational data.

However, there still remains a gap in analysing and extracting actionable insights from this data and using it to improve waste collection, recycling, pricing, performance and sustainability.

Two Singapore-based entrepreneurs Vladimir Chuchkin and Dr. Elias Willemse are determined to bridge this gap using new-age tech tools.

“Waste Labs runs a proprietary Artificial Intelligence platform that helps waste management companies and cities to build and operate sustainable waste collection and recycling,” said Chuchkin.

Both Chuchkin and Willemse have many years of working experience in the waste management industry.

Willemse spent 12 years doing his R&D in advanced analytical methods (Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Optimisation Modelling) to improve waste management. Chuchkin, on the other hand, had hands-on experience structuring and implementing complex energy projects including waste-to-energy plants.

Also Read: One man’s trash is another’s gold: How Tridi Oasis plans to transform plastic waste management

The two met at Entrepreneurs First, a programme that helps entrepreneurs find co-founders, in Singapore. They spent hours discussing how their experience could be turned into a scalable and sustainable business, and eventually conceptualised Waste Labs.

How Waste Labs works

The startup uses data and AI to address the four main elements of waste collection:

1. Identifying and analysing new customers (waste producers), 
2. Selecting optimal resources and scenarios to collect their waste, 
3. Analysing performance and profitability of existing waste collection operations, 
4. Improving resources and routes to gain maximum cost efficiency for the collection business.

“We start with building a ‘Digital Twin’ of the area. In a sense, it is a digital map of all the city’s waste and waste infrastructure. You can use it for visualising and modelling many different activities around waste management and recycling,” Chuchkin explained. 

For instance, in Singapore, the startup combined over 20 different datasets to identify and map all the waste and recyclable producers, population attributes, infrastructure relevant to the waste management, road networks, etc. 

“The next step is that we run our AI to calculate what we will need to collect the waste or recyclables in a new area. Our platform will advise on the number of routes, type of trucks and number of crew to service that particular area in a cost-effective manner,” he added.

Chuchkin further said it takes only a few minutes for Waste Labs to generate a collection scenario for more than 100,000 service points. “Such speed allows us to generate and test over 100 collection scenarios within a week. The Digital Twin is helpful to imagine how the future system will perform in real time.”

Waste Labs’s planning, he went on, is “13x faster” in comparison to the traditional pen-and-paper routing and typically allows you to use at least 10 per cent less resources.

Once the collection of waste and recyclables commence, the collector can further use the online platform to analyse and improve the collection performance. The collector is not required to install any special devices, but rely on their GPS records which are already available.

“We use AI again to decode and visualise how exactly they collect the waste, build the benchmarks and spot early operational inefficiencies. With these insights, the waste management or recycling company may opt to fine-tune their collection plan with the help of our platform and improve their efficiency and profits,” he elucidated.

Since its inception in May 2020, Waste Labs has implemented projects with a few major industry players in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. One of its first clients was ALBA W&H Smart City — a joint venture of the German ALBA Group that provides waste collection and recycling services around the world. 

As per Chuchkin, over 40 per cent of the world’s waste and recyclables are not collected, and it ends up polluting environment. Besides, the increasing scale and complexity of collection operations are slashing profit margins of the service providers. Waste management companies and cities strive to build data-driven operations but are limited in tools to extract actionable insight from their data.

Waste Labs’s services can be used by governments, municipalities and private companies, or anyone looking to understand their waste infrastructure better, analyse their performance, innovate and improve their waste processes, minimise carbon footprint, or reduce costs associated with waste collection.

“Today”, he maintained, “it goes beyond the traditional waste management companies; even businesses and manufacturers are forced to focus on end-of-life of their goods.”

Globally, the total addressable market (TAM) for waste management is US$4.7 billion. The Southeast Asian portion of it is approximately US$2 billion.

When quizzed about the company’s geographical expansion plans, he remarked that it aims to take the business to other parts of Southeast Asia.

“Of course, since Waste Labs was founded in Singapore, we are focusing on the markets that surround us. But the best part about our solution is that it can work anywhere. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the world’s most advanced economy, or one of the poorest/remote provinces of Southeast Asia, our platform can produce equally great results for any part of the world,” he said.

It also works for different types of waste — plastic, food, electronic or the most common municipal waste. What matters is the focus of the client on operational efficiency and sustainability.

“One of our aspirations is to be able to help countries, which are struggling to establish proper waste collection systems, plan comprehensive full-cycle projects where waste is collected and recycled or turned into electricity. From our experience, for this to happen, it’s not the technology but is the Data that is the Holy Grail,” he shared. 

A lean team, Waste Labs currently employs only four people, including the founders.

Also Read: Can the new waste disposal app bail out Bali from its waste problem?

Although the company was founded in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the pandemic had no impact on the startup’s initial growth. However, several challenges remain, one being the long sales cycle.

As for the revenue models, the company banks on several streams, including subscription and one-time fee. The fees range depending on the territory covered and the fleet size. 

“We believe we have a robust technology, so we received positive reactions from the market very early in the journey, which resulted in our ability to generate revenues starting from the third month of our operations. Currently, the scope of our initial contracts keeps expanding, and we are looking to get the funding to further accelerate that trend,” he said.

A bootstrapped venture, Waste Labs is now working to close its seed round to fuel its product and sales growth. Chuchkin revealed that the startup has already received commitments from some investors and is looking for one or two more.

“Meanwhile, we are always looking for like-minded data scientists and software engineers to join us on a mission to shape a sustainable environment and make the smart cities’ waste management systems more efficient,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: Waste Labs

 

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Geniebook, a Singapore-based edutech startup that identifies students’ strengths and weaknesses using Artificial Intelligence, announced today it has expanded its operations into Vietnam.

The expansion marks Geniebook’s third office internationally, with its headquarters located in Singapore, and another office in Indonesia.

Additionally, the company claims it achieved US$10 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), along with maintaining profitability and positive cash flow, thanks to a strong financial year in 2020.

Launched in 2017, Geniebook uses AI and Machine Learning to personalise learning by recommending assessment concepts and questions based on each student’s strengths and challenges.

Also Read: Singapore edtech startup Geniebook secures US$1.1M Pre-Series A funding

With students made to stay home for months due to COVID-19 safety measures, home-based learning has become a big part of 2020. Geniebook claims it has experienced accelerated growth, with an increase of about 10x in overseas users over the course of the pandemic.

The company also shared that its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) hit US$2 million in 2020, while its global user base has grown 100x since its launch in 2017.

“The challenges and opportunities that COVID-19 has brought for us in 2020 have not only propelled us to find ways to strengthen our business model but have also proven that our method works in all circumstances,” said Neo Zhizhong, CEO and Co-founder of Geniebook.

Also Read: Why digital capabilities aren’t fully deployed in the education sector

“As the predictability of the pandemic worsens, and home-based learning continues to be an important part of children’s lives, we see huge potential in digitalising and personalising learning in the world and in the region, with the growing Vietnamese market as our next step,” he added.

With close to 40 per cent of the Vietnamese population below the age of 24, Geniebook shared there is huge potential in Vietnam’s education sector to develop in the coming years.

According to the firm, Vietnamese parents are also investing more money and time into bettering their child’s learning, while students have been harbouring greater desires in recent years to expand their academic knowledge as well.

With a current staff strength of 200, the startup is looking to expand its team by hiring domestically and internationally to further “invest and scale” its online learning technologies.

In May 2019, Geniebook raised US$1.1 million in its pre-Series A funding led by led by Apricot Capital.

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Image Credit: Geniebook

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Updates: Changes have been made on the no. of teams, location based and some details have been removed as requested by LongHash.

LongHash Ventures, a global blockchain accelerator and VC fund headquartered in Singapore, has announced the 10 startups that will take the virtual stage for  Algorand Asia Accelerator’s demo day on Jan 22nd.

Out of the 10 startups, 3 are from Singapore while the remaining teams come from Australia, Europe and USA.

Algorand Asia Accelerator is a 3-month programme that provides selected startups with US$15,000 in seed funding. In addition, the startups were provided with end-to-end support in strategy formulation, go-to-market execution, as well as subject matter guidance across technology, mentorship, token economics, marketing and fundraising.

The primary objective of the accelerator is to accelerate the vision of Finance 3.0 to a much wider audience. For the uninitiated, Finance 3.o is the name given to an open financial system, which provides more control to users and reduces or eliminates middlemen, fees, charges, penalty, etc.

According to a LinkedIn post written by a company spokesperson, the startups have raised US$2.5 million in funding prior to demo day.

In 2019, LongHash Ventures kickstarted LongHash Hatch, a programme designed for blockchain startups. It saw participation from industry leaders, such as Fenbushi Capital, HashKey Capital, Kenetic Capital, and Dragonfly Capital, with Ethereum Foundation, Maker, Synthetix, and InstaDApp.

Also Read: Blockchain accelerator LongHash Ventures unveils 7 startups in its fourth cohort

Below are brief profiles of the Singaporean startups that will be showcasing on the demo day, and the remaining teams can be found on their demo day website:

DEXTF

An on-chain, non-custodial asset management protocol, which allows the creation of a digital fund in a matter of minutes where investors from around the world can invest in.

Founded in 2017, the startup has been funded by LuneX Ventures and SGInnovate and has been awarded the Financial Sector Technology Proof of Concept Grant by the MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) twice.

EasternBlu

A decentralised registry of music copyrights that brings transparency and efficiency to royalty ownerships and payments.

The platform currently has over 15,000 songs registered in its platform. The company also claims to be the “first micropayments and blockchain-based music registry” in China.

MugglePay

A consumer to business (C2B) payment solution enabling global, instant and low-cost settlements via cryptocurrency.

Founded in 2018, the company’s partners include OKEx, Shopify, WHMCs, PARSIQ, Celo and TRON.

You can sign up for the demo day here.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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