Keith Tan, on an invitation from Plug N Play Japan, was pitching his robotic barista, Ella, at the country’s annual trade show CEATEC.

At the event, he met several top executives of JETRO, a non-profit governmental organisation that promotes trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world.

And it was a turning point in his entrepreneurial life.

“After my return from Japan, I followed up with JETRO’s Singapore office, whose job is to bring tech companies from around the world into Japan and make introductions to that country’s corporates,” said Tan, a coffee lover who also runs Crown Coffee, a sustainable eco-conscious cafe in Singapore.

“I asked them if they could introduce me to Japan Railways Group. They replied in the affirmative and assured to connect me to JR East Business Development SEA, a subsidiary of East Japan Railway Company. I later came to know that JR East has a joint venture with Singapore’s SMRT,” he added, as he recounted the rendezvous to e27.

Also Read: Will China lead the Artificial Intelligence game by 2030?

A few days later, JR East executives came to Crown Coffee, where Tan showed them a prototype of Ella. “They immediately saw the relevance and use case for Ella in their train stations. This is when I was introduced to the JR EAST venture team,” he said.

What is Ella?

Ella is a robotic coffee barista powered by Artificial Intelligence and is designed for unmanned and contactless retail operations in high-volume environments.

The barista is powered by an ecosystem comprising patented proprietary Internet of Things (IoT)-connected software and external hardware, which Tan claims, will upgrade the coffee experience with speed, convenience, quality and consistency.

Each kiosk is capable of producing 200 cups of barista-quality coffee per hour and will operate 24×7.

In addition, Ella boasts of immersive and innovative digital touchpoints, such as an interactive transparent OLED screen and mobile app ordering system, with a payment gateway and e-wallet.

The motivation

According to Tan, Ella took birth out of necessity.

Crown Coffee was growing, forcing him to open four new outlets in the city-state to meet the increasing demand. However, the shortage of manpower was a problem. Tan realised that digitalisation is the only way out of this “happy” problem.

“We faced four major problems while running Crown Coffee: 1) high real-estate cost, 2) manpower challenge, 3) cost of hiring, training and retaining staff, and 4) maintaining quality and consistency,” he explained.

Ella addresses all these problems, he went on. Ella occupies only 6 sqm of the real estate space and is fully autonomous with no need for workers. Plus, it is easily scalable with its architecture.

The role of AI in Ella

On the backend, the computer vision powered by AI is monitoring the kiosk 24×7 for any abnormalities that may affect Ella’s operations. The algorithms are trained to detect anomalies, and retail video analytics are used to understand customers better.

Also Read: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Is the technology only as good as the human behind it?

“This feeds back into Crown’s backend system and we make decisions to improve user experience, predictive analytics for both upstream and downstream supply,” he explained.

The JR East investment

As part of the partnership, JR East recently made a strategic investment in Ella. This will accelerate the rollout of Ella across East Japan Railway’s network of over 1,700 train stations that serve an average of 17 million passengers daily. The project is slated to be completed before Tokyo Olympics 2020 to meet the increased demands, Tan shared.

“We are not looking to deploy Ella at every train station in the immediate future. We plan to start with Tokyo and aim to reach at least 500 locations by 2022. We are currently in conversations with another Japanese strategic investor who will offer maintenance and replenishment support,” he revealed.

In Singapore, Ella was already used by Marina Bay Sands’ MICE for the last two years at their exhibitions. The robotic barista is currently being deployed at the country’s leading shopping mall, Plaza Singapura.

In addition, Ella also serves clients in the banking, tech and healthcare sectors.

“We also operate Ella in our own locations and high-traffic locations such as train stations, commercial buildings and public attractions in Singapore.
We are also in talks with potential clients in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and China. The plan is to form a JV with local players for speedy access to market,” he informed.

Also Read: How the Internet of Things is making the world a safer haven

Besides Ella, Crown — with a staff strength of 20 — also runs a suite of digital solutions for F&B, such as a kitchen display system, which has been developed in house, and a mobile ordering app.

Are you in the market for the next round of funding?

“I guess we never had luck with VCs until this point. We aren’t willing to be pushed on valuations and we know we could deliver. So we will raise from family offices and corporate ventures who see the value in us. We will then execute our plans and deliver our order books, and once Ella is deployed in more locations and show revenue, I think VCs may come in on the Series B or C round,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: Crown Technologies

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At a virtual press conference, Indonesian agritech startup TaniHub Group announced that the company is currently finalising a “massive” funding round, following a US$17 million funding that it announced in April 2020.

Set to be finalised within the next few months, TaniHub Group President Pamitra Wineka said that the funding round will likely be “the biggest ever raised by an agritech startup in Southeast Asia“.

“We see this funding round as an opportunity for Indonesian farmers and produces to be recognised internationally,” Wineka said.

The company would not share further details on the identities of the investors and the exact amount of the funding. However, the new funding will be used to further develop TaniHub Group’s upcoming projects: Digitalisation of B2B ecosystem in the agriculture sector, automation of supply chain process, farmers acquisition, and social impact measurements of the works that the company has done.

Responding to questions from the media on the possibility of acquisition as part of its growth strategy, Wineka said, “We are exploring different business strategies that may directly impact our growth, but we are not able to confirm any of it just yet.”

Also Read: What new digital solutions mean for Indonesia’s F&B sector

Launched in 2017, TaniHub Group’s business lines included TaniHub (an e-commerce platform for food and agricultural products), TaniFund (a P2P lending platform for farmers), and TaniSupply (a unit that works on improving agricultural supply chain).

In 2020, the company claimed that it experienced a 639 per cent gross revenue growth with more than 1,700 SKUs recorded up until last year. TaniHub Group attributed the growth to the rising popularity of e-commerce platforms as triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The TaniFund platform has also channelled up to IDR89 billion (US$6.3 million) of funding for farmers in 2020, with an accumulation of IDR180 billion of funds channelled ever since its launch in 2017.

In addition to that, TaniHub Group has also opened a processing and packing centre in Malang, East Java, which is set to be followed by other centres across Indonesia. The centre is part of the company’s effort to get closer to the farmers and their potential market as well as to maintain product quality.

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Image Credit: Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

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By now it’s safe to say COVID-19 has been the strongest force pushing for digitalisation in retail that we’ve seen in a long time. Within weeks, everything suddenly moved online.

iPrice Group and App Annie reported back in September that usage of Android shopping apps in ASEAN grew by 39 per cent within three months. Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines saw growth of up to 55 per cent.

Efforts of e-commerce companies to advocate for online shopping in Southeast Asia paid off overnight.

What’s next then? Now that ASEAN consumers have installed their shopping apps, and opened their digital accounts, where is the market heading towards and what exciting developments can we expect from ASEAN e-commerce in 2021 and beyond?

Here are three data-driven predictions from the researcher team at the e-commerce technology company Seal Commerce Asia.

The era of B2B

Southeast Asia has been the playground of B2C e-commerce giants for a while, but starting from 2020, it is looking more and more like a dreamland for B2B and B2B2C -commerce as well.

Amid social distancing measurements, suppliers have moved their sales operations online and rapidly redefined their supply chains and fulfilment. On the other hand, B2B buyers, especially the mom-and-pop shop owners, who account for 70-85 per cent of the FMCG retail market in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, suddenly became much more comfortable with utilising technology.

These factors combined open up a previously closed door for B2B eCommerce in the region. Forrester forecasts that B2B e-commerce in the region will grow at 12.1 per cent per annum, with B2B online marketplaces at the core of changing buyer behaviour.

That’s why in 2020, many Southeast Asian B2B e-commerce platforms have sprung up and begun to attract investors.

Telio, which is claimed to be the first Vietnamese B2B eCommerce platform, raised USD $25 million in a Series A round. While in Indonesia, GudangAda secured two consecutive rounds of financing, with a total amount of 30 to 40 million US dollars.

Also read: Is COVID-19 the catalyst B2B e-commerce companies needed?

Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup announced the launch of VinShop offering store owners a digital platform where they can order directly from suppliers and vendors.

Zilingo raised a Series D round worth US$226 million to go after the opportunity to digitise the fashion supply chain in Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia.

Other already-established players in digital payment and B2C e-commerce also seem eager to expand their reach to mom-and-pop shops. All of this is to say, B2B e-commerce looks likely to be the next frontier and the new heated competition of eCommerce in Southeast Asia.

However, the development might not be all smooth sailing

B2B e-commerce marketplaces typically promise three supposed benefits: refilling stocks fast and effortlessly, finding and ordering from multiple suppliers easily, and finance.

Although these offers look great on paper, they might not be so attractive to the mom-and-pop store owners in practice. The power to pick and choose their own suppliers and make bargains is hard to give up.

Therefore, determining product market fit will be the primary goal for most ASEAN B2B eCommerce companies in 2021. Would the answer be continuous and heavy discounts as with B2C eCommerce, or would it be the promise of more customers through a B2B2C model? Only time will tell.

Social commerce and digital payments finally take over

In Quarter 2, according to iPrice Group and App Annie, the total number of sessions on shopping apps on Android phones in Southeast Asia has reached 65.1 billion, its highest ever.

For some such as Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines, the number of visits to Android shopping applications jumped over 40 per cent within just three months, an impressive statistic that surpassed all expectations.

These increases in app usage are creating huge opportunities for social commerce and digital payment in e-commerce.

These features have been key strategies of the industry since at least 2019. Every big e-commerce player in the region was looking for ways to reduce cash-on-delivery payments and implement social features to their apps, but not until 2020 with the pandemic that things were sped up significantly.

The Singapore government recently accelerated the adoption of cashless payment methods with incentives for businesses, like subsidising digital transformation costs.

In Indonesia, 55 per cent of Indonesian consumers claiming they are buying online now more than ever, and digital wallet startups such as GoPay, Ovo, and Ant Financial-backed Dana are becoming more common across the country.

In Vietnam, digital payment startup VNPay achieved the unicorn status in late 2020, while their competitor MoMo acquired 10 million new users, doubling their user base within 2020.

Meanwhile, e-ommerce giant Shopee noted a 40x increase in the number of live streams from brands and sellers in Singapore. Shopee Live also received 120 million views in Indonesia for its live streaming event in April.

Expect to see social commerce and digital payment play a central role in the Southeast Asian tech startup scene in 2021 when it changes the way consumers in the region approach shopping in general.

Cross-border e-commerce to benefit from the pandemic

Seal Commerce Asia’s own Shopify in Asia report shows that in 2020, number of new stores opened by Asian sellers on Shopify is 112 per cent higher than that in 2019. Sellers from Asia also account for 11 per cent of all new stores in 2020, up from 9 per cent a year before.

Among the top five Asian countries with the highest number of new Shopify stores in 2020, three are in Southeast Asia, namely Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Also read: B2B e-commerce in Asia is increasingly successful. Here’s what we can learn from them

Just like most things e-commerce, Shopify experienced unprecedented growth in 2020: the number of new stores created grew 71 per cent in Q2 compared to Q1, with a record number of merchants added to the platform in Q3.

With the pandemic situation not looking much better in Europe and North America at the beginning of 2021, this exponential growth rate seems likely to continue.

This means selling cross-border (either through Shopify, Amazon, or their own platforms) into the West will continue to be huge for Southeast Asian businesses.

But beyond that, one fact that is surprisingly underreported in the media is what this means for a slew of e-commerce-enabling startups in the region.

Take a look at the Shopify app store, which supplies sellers around the world with third-party apps for their online businesses, you will be surprised to find out how many of the top-ranking apps are coming from startups in Vietnam, Singapore, or other ASEAN countries.

There are enablers in store building such as Gempages, EcomSolid, or Pagefly, in marketing services such as Beeketing and LitExtension, and in logistics technology such as Parcel Perform.

By end of March 2020, over 80 per cent of Shopify merchants had used a third-party app to help run day-to-day operations.

And 2021 promises to bring things to an even higher level for them.

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The ASEAN region may not be known as a leader in blockchain technology, but it is by no means a distant laggard. Southeast Asia is home to several blockchain startups such as Indonesia’s Hara, a blockchain-based food and agriculture data exchange platform, and Singapore’s Electrify, which seeks to integrate blockchain in the electric power industry.

Most Southeast Asian countries appear to be receptive to the idea of blockchain being used in various applications. If there are challenges encountered, the government and private sectors usually come up with solutions instead of retreating from any engagement with blockchain.

Welcoming governments

There are many promising developments that signal the growing support for blockchain technology in Southeast Asia. Financial access throughout the region is still considerably below par, but this does not indicate a weak opportunity for blockchain to flourish.

On the contrary, it provides a compelling impetus for companies to innovate and for governments to adjust policies in favour of financial inclusiveness.

The Indonesian government, for example, appears to acknowledge the potential of blockchain. The ASEAN bloc’s most populous state and largest economy has softened its stance on cryptocurrencies after initially issuing an outright ban on these digital assets in 2018.

While the country still does consider cryptocurrencies as legal money, Bappebti, Indonesia’s financial services regulator, has announced the creation of legal frameworks to enable blockchain innovations and the use of crypto assets.

Singapore, on the other hand, is becoming a destination for initial coin offerings (ICOs). In late 2017, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that it was regulating digital token offerings. In the same year, MAS also introduced a tokenized version of the Singaporean dollar. Since then, ICOs in Singapore have been surging.

The Thai government has likewise helped make it easy to adopt blockchain technology and its applications. Thailand introduced cryptocurrency laws in 2018 and its central bank has been supportive of efforts to integrate blockchain-powered solutions in cross-border payments, security settlement, and supply chain management.

Also Read: [Updated] Meet the 3 Singaporean blockchain startups showcasing at Algorand Asia Accelerator’s demo day

In March 2020, Vietnam’s government released Resolution No. 17/NQ-CP, which lays out the essential tasks and solutions involved in developing the country’s e-government system. The resolution includes the creation of a legal framework for the application of modern technologies including blockchain, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data, and Open API.

Meanwhile, the Philippines claims the distinction of being the pioneer in using blockchain technology for the distribution of government bonds. A collaboration by the Philippine Bureau of Treasury, UnionBank, and the Philippine Digital Asset Exchange has resulted in the launch of an app powered by Distributed Ledger Technology (blockchain) to make it easier and more efficient for people to invest in retail treasury bonds.

Thriving startups

There are hundreds of blockchain startups in the Southeast Asian region. From the fintech system Vauld of Singapore to the agriculture data exchange platform Hara of Indonesia, many ASEAN businesses are already harnessing blockchain to explore novel business models or new facets of conventional businesses.

Crunchbase currently has a list of 385 ASEAN blockchain for-profit and nonprofit organisations. These include Biconomy, a tech firm that seeks to establish a transaction infrastructure for Web 3 applications; MathWallet, a multi-platform digital wallet that supports over 50 blockchains; and Conflux Network, an open network for digital assets and decentralised applications.

One of the most notable ASEAN blockchain startups is Singapore’s Electrify. Created by Electrify SG, the pioneering retail electricity marketplace in Southeast Asia, Electrify makes it possible for consumers to find the best power rates that match their needs and preferences.

Electrify has already facilitated the buying and selling of more than 60 gigawatt-hours of electricity. Through blockchain, Electrify is looking to decentralise its marketplace and enable faster transactions with lower fees.

Another standout is Bluzelle, a platform for sharing computing power. Established in 2014, this innovative business operates like a decentralised cloud service through which users store data in multiple computers, making their data safe from cyber theft and unlikely to be affected by server downtimes. The company successfully closed a US$19.5 million ICO in 2018.

Moreover, ASEAN can brag of being the origin of the world’s first blockchain-driven point-of-sale device: XPOS. The introduction of the concept of this blockchain-based solution was convincing enough that it attracted more than US$35 million in over three funding rounds. XPos makes it possible to accept payments through multiple modes including cryptocurrency. XPOS comes with complementary apps XWallet (e-wallet) and XPass, an NFC-based contactless transaction solution.

Also Read: 2021: Predicting another bumper (un)predictable year for payments

Considering the recent developments, the emergence of more promising and trailblazing blockchain startups from Southeast Asia is going to be unsurprising. With the rise of fintech and growing investor interest in the region, it is no longer that difficult to attract funds to bring innovative blockchain application ideas to the market.

Easier blockchain product development

Thanks to welcoming governments and brilliant technical and entrepreneurial minds, the ASEAN bloc is making strides at the forefront of blockchain technology. Even better, platforms and APIs for blockchain product development have been made more accessible nowadays.

The news of Crypto.com and Alchemy’s partnership, for one, is a significant development for everyone involved in the development of blockchain apps. This collaboration entails Alchemy’s role in the building of a developer platform and API that simplifies the process of creating applications on the Crypto.com chain.

It makes it easier to integrate apps for wallets and exchanges. Crypto.com, a Hong Kong-based company, is set to serve thousands of developers in the ASEAN with its enhanced platform.

Alchemy is the entity behind Supernode, the most popular Ethereum API in the world. More than 70 percent of the world’s leading Ethereum apps use Alchemy’s APIs. This translates to over $15 billion transactions facilitated by applications that rely on an underlying technology produced by Alchemy. With the company’s record in delivering reliable, scalable, and accurate APIs, developers on the Crypto.com platform can expect better outcomes as they strive to build world-class apps.

Another example of an excellent platform that makes development easier is Game Protocol. It helps achieve faster, easier, and more efficient development through its digital currency and the creation of collaborative communities. It democratizes the development process and provides quick access to crowdfunding for developments. Likewise, it provides a decentralized marketplace where developers can sell their products.

Towards blockchain leadership

ASEAN as a global leader in blockchain application is far from far-fetched. There is abundant potential in the region especially in the field of financial technology and in novel or groundbreaking business ideas. Southeast Asia is still far from reaching its peak in blockchain applications.

Also Read: Reimagining anti-money laundering processes with blockchain technology

Introducing the world’s first blockchain-powered POS and first energy retail marketplace is just a preview of what’s to come.

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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.

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community or like the e27 Facebook page

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Lupl, a legaltech startup founded by international legal firms, announced it has raised US$14 million in new funding as it prepares for its public launch in April 2021. The latest investment is in addition to the more than US$10 million raised prior to its beta launch, taking its overall funding in excess of US$25 million.

The US-based startup also announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Singapore’s Ministry of Law to leverage the platform to advance the digitalisation of the legal sector in Singapore.

This collaboration will begin with a series of industry engagement sessions in the first quarter of 2021.

Incubated through its development by a trio of international law firms – Germany’s CMS, the US’s Cooley and Singapore’s Rajah & Tann Asia – Lupl is an open industry platform for legal matters.

Features include a “Knowledge Hub” which provides a global repository of matter and workflow templates, designed to help users operationalise legal knowledge and repeatable process, and a data and analytics dashboard surfacing real-time analytics about legal matters.

Also Read: How Lupl aims to solve the fragmentation of technologies in the legal space

Lupl has been in worldwide private beta testing since March 2020 and claims it has over 500 companies in more than 50 countries on its waitlist. It further remarked it has over 100 industry partnerships in progress as part of its open industry platform vision.

The startup shared it is on track for a wider public release commencing from the beginning of April 2021, with an initial focus on the rollout of Lupl within participating organisations followed by a phased onboarding of legal departments and law firms.

In a press note, Lupl also announced additions to its management team with Jeff Green joining as CEO, working alongside Matt Pollins as COO. Cheryl Wilson Griffin has also joined as Chief Customer Officer.

By the end of 2021, Lupl expects to have a team of more than 75 people worldwide.

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Image Credits: Unsplash

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We can never get enough of Indonesian digital coffee chain Kopi Kenangan –and we are not just talking about their cup of iced coffee on a hot, busy day.

The startup has made headlines with their high-profile funding rounds, the latest being their US$109 million Series B funding round in May 2020. Following these updates, Kopi Kenangan has never been shy about their ambition to continuously expand.

“What if we can open, not five to 10 new stores each month, but one each day?” says Co-Founder & COO James Prananto in an interview with e27.

While the goal might sound ambitious, the results that the company made has been showing great promise. According to Jumpstart, Nielsen Company has named Kopi Kenangan as the number one in top-of-mind awareness in the milk coffee category and second only after an established multinational coffee chain in the general coffee category. This is an achievement that the magazine dubbed as “notable” given that Kopi Kenangan has only been operating for less than two years at the time.

To make that goal comes true, there are practical steps that the startup is implementing. In this deep dive series, Prananto spills the details on how Kopi Kenangan plans to open one new store each day.

In this article, you will learn:

– The importance of brand-building in scaling your business
– Using tech in scaling your business
– Why founders should always have a Day One mentality

Also Read: Kopi Kenangan snags US$109M in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital

A brand is not built in a day

Before we can touch on the topic of scaling up, first we need to learn how Kopi Kenangan builds their brand. They are certainly not the first coffee chain to ever operate in the Indonesian market, so to have a distinctive feature is a must.

According to Prananto, there are two ways the company intends to achieve it: through its brand identity and brand promise.

“What we believe is that winning is all about how you can be different from your competitor. Of course, with branding, there is a brand promise as well … the commitment from us to our customer,” he begins.

Kopi Kenangan does it by doing something that their competitors avoid. They adopt what Prananto describes as “cheesy” and cringe-worthy themes into their company’s brand, down to the names of the beverages on the menu. For example, their signature beverage is called Kopi Kenangan Mantan or “memories of the ex-lover” coffee.

“Back then in 2017, most coffee brands were really serious … It’s not approachable,” he says.

Once that brand identity has been established, the company starts to nail down its brand promise which is the use of high-quality coffee beans and machines.

“Branding is more than just graphic design or having a nice video [of your company]. It’s a whole experience that begins when you enter our store … Whether its the cashier greeting you good morning, whether they are smiling or not, whether we are using the proper machine,” Prananto points out.

“If you do [these] things right, you are creating brand awareness to your customer without having to spend so much on customer acquisition. I believe this is the biggest mistake that founders make, spending so much on customer acquisition without thinking about building their brand,” he continues.

Prananto also states that by the time Kopi Kenangan was developing its brand, the company did not have as much funding as they do today. The brand creation was done by the founders themselves.

Also Read: [Updated] Indonesian coffee chain Kopi Kenangan raises Series A extension from Jay-Z, Serena Williams’s VC firms

Even though the company now has its own creative director, Kopi Kenangan continues to see the brand building as a responsibility of every team in the company –not just the creative team. This is why Kopi Kenangan launched its own employee training centre Kopi Kenangan Academy to ensure standardised service quality.

What it takes to scale a business

Now that the brand identity and brand promise have been established, Kopi Kenangan moves on to the next steps that it take to realise its expansion plan. Prananto lays down the details on how the startup uses tech to help them launch one new store per day.

“First of all, we need to find a location, right? That is where we start on building our proprietary heatmap technology, where we try to identify where our customers are. Once we have identified [their location], we need to know whether there is already a particular store over there or not,” he explains.

Once a new location is secured, the company needs a method that will enable them to build a new outlet in a timely manner. To achieve this, instead of going to location one-by-one and build something from zero, Kopi Kenangan prepares a system that Prananto likens to a puzzle. With an existing blueprint of all the elements that should be in a Kopi Kenangan outlet, contractors only have to use these references and adjust to the needs of the locations.

This step is followed by preparing the human resource that will run the outlet –the part where their SOP and training programme come in.

But even this tidy mechanism comes with its own challenges.

“So, the biggest challenge will obviously be operational consistency, when you are aiming to open one store per day. In December 2019, we opened 42 new stores when most brands in Indonesia would open 40 to 50 outlets in a year,” Prananto elaborates.

“To overcome the challenge, again and again, we invest even more on our learning and development (L&D). On top of that, we try to use tech to tackle those challenges. I believe that as a tech-enabled company, you don’t just use it for your consumer-facing app. You use it to help you create a robust backup inside your organisation as well,” he continues.

Prananto also adds that the company is currently working on a smart management system that will allow the outlets to operate without the need of a manager. They expect to launch this system by mid-2021.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, June: Indonesian tech-enabled coffee chain Kopi Kenangan

Every day is a brand new day

While the use of tech is crucial in helping Kopi Kenangan expand its business, there is nothing that can ever replace culture.

For Prananto, it is all about implementing a Day One mentality which enables the startup to see every day as the first day they operate. They choose to adopt this mentality as there is a tendency for business operations to slow down after operating for a long time; they have to remain agile and excited for the work as the day the business was launched.

“This Day One mentality also means that you should always be customer-driven … Because the moment we become complacent is the day we become irrelevant,” Prananto says.

To unite the company into a single goal, Kopi Kenangan also implements the use of OKRs in its operations.

“Once again, branding is not just about graphic design. It’s all about the sensory experience,” he stresses.

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Prisca Akhaya T. also contributed to this article.

Image Credit: Kopi Kenangan

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Robowealth, a robo-advisor for mutual funds in Thailand, has secured an undisclosed amount in Series A round of funding from Beacon VC, the corporate VC arm of Kasikorn Bank (KBank). 

The partnership means that while Robowealth will be able to leverage KBank customers to grow its user base, the latter will be able to deliver value to its existing customers through the former’s wealth-tech services. 

Also Read: Grab’s fintech arm GFG raises US$300M Series A with an aim to close the financial inclusion gap; in SEA

Launched in 2017, Robowealth operates as a mutual funds brokerage securities company under the supervision of Thai Securities and Exchange Commission. The platform allows users to invest in both Thai and global funds, starting from as low as 1,000 baht (US$33). It targets both high net-worth individuals (HNIs) and novices with its solutions.

The startup’s flagship product suite, Odini, targets everyday people looking for simple ways to invest and grow their money via automated ready-made mutual funds portfolios.

The platform has an investment committee of fund managers and analysts, whose primary role is to select a set of suitable mutual funds both regionally and globally.

These featured funds are then directly served to customers, who can choose the right ones for themselves, depending on the market conditions and customer risk appetite. 

For HNI customers, it runs wealth management solutions under its subsidiary, Robowealth Investment Advisory Securities. 

According to CEO Chonladet Khemarattana, Robowealth customers have benefitted largely from the investment diversification to global markets during the COVID-19 lockdown. 

“Many tech stocks have greatly benefitted from the lock-down and the pandemic also encourages more people worldwide to quickly adapt to the digital platform which is the long-term benefit for wealth tech businesses,” he said. 

Khemarattana further added that Robowealth aims to reduce the economic inequality in Thai society as the country faces one of the world’s worst wealth distribution. 

Also Read: Don’t break the bank: Enabling financial inclusion and equity through tech

“Finding effective investment channels is still considered a big challenge for those who have a little cash surplus. Therefore, the core principle of Robowealth is to co-create the financial ecosystem, which enables Thais to start investing with minimal funds through convenient, user-friendly, and reliable channels regardless of the service ownership,” Khemarattana shared.

“Beacon VC focuses on investing in high-potential startups whose innovations and services can deliver real value to KBank customers through the creation of new financial products or services. While we would normally scout for new investments and find collaboration potentials with the business units, this is the first time that we invest in a startup that already has a working relationship with KBank,” Thanapong Na Ranong, Managing Director of Beacon VC, said. 

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Image Credit: Robowealth

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Darwinbox, an India-based enterprise HR tech platform, announced today it has closed a US$15 million funding round led by Salesforce Ventures.

Existing investors Sequoia India and Lightspeed also participated in the round.

As per a press note, the startup plans to utilise the new funds to accelerate its expansion in Southeast Asia by onboarding new partners, improve product innovation and “significantly grow” its team in the region.

Founded in 2015, Darwinbox is a cloud-based SaaS HR tech platform that combines “highly configurable” workflows with “intelligent insights” to help enterprises manage their HR needs across the employee lifecycle.

The firm shared it has witnessed a surge in the adoption of HR tech solutions during the pandemic as employers sought for solutions critical for remote working, including features such as touchless attendance and digital onboarding.

“More enterprises are abandoning legacy solutions in favour of our modern, agile platform that helps them stay ahead of change,” said Jayant Paleti, Co-founder, Darwinbox.

Darwinbox claims it has grown by more than 300 per cent since its US$15 million Series B funding round in September 2019. The Hyderabad-headquartered company further remarked it serves over 500 corporates across more than 60 countries. Notable corporate clients in Southeast Asia include Tokopedia, Alodokter and 99.co.

Also Read: What will the next wave of VC investment in HR tech look like?

“Cloud adoption in Asia is growing at a monumental pace and the pandemic has only further amplified the importance of going digital,” remarked Alex Kayyal, Partner and Head of International, Salesforce Ventures.

“We strongly believe that Asia, with its millennial heavy population and a high affinity to mobile-first products, has requirements that western products are unable to serve,” added Dev Khare, Partner, Lightspeed India.

“75 per cent of the workforce globally will be millennials by 2025. This young workforce wants to be enabled and empowered with the best technology. The most progressive companies understand this,” opined Harshjit Sethi, Principal, Sequoia Capital India.

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Image Credit: Darwinbox

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Turochas “T” Fuad, a veteran entrepreneur and founder of co-working space provider Spacemob (acquired by WeWork in 2017), has launched a new venture in the fast-growing buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) space.

Named ‘Pace Enterprise’, the fintech startup aims to bring in financial access and inclusion by facilitating extended buying limits to underserved segments in the Asia Pacific region.

Headquartered in Singapore, Pace is also available in Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong.

Additionally, the BNPL startup announced it has raised a “high seven-figure seed round” co-led by Vertex Ventures and Alpha JWC.

The capital will be used to further develop its platform and offer progressive services and solutions to consumers and merchants.

Also Read: How hoolah aims to tackle the misconceptions of Buy Now Pay Later

Using a bespoke financial profiling algorithm, Pace matches customers with appropriate spending limits that allow them to split their purchases over three interest-free instalments.

As the adoption for its BNPL solution grows, Pace plans to leverage those insights and unique buying patterns to offer the right fintech solutions to a developing digital banking ecosystem.

“The reason we launched Pace — and our long-term goal — is to create a broader and more inclusive digital fintech platform that empowers underserved populations. To achieve this, BNPL is the right first step that flexibly and seamlessly extends customers’ buying limits while giving merchants access to financing alternatives and entirely new customers segments,” said Founder and CEO Fuad.

“Pace has a clear and bold vision to create an inclusive and accessible ecosystem. With a strong founding team that has worked together for over 10 years and has a proven track record in building successful ventures, Pace is already transforming the fintech space,” said Kee Lock Chua, Managing Partner, Vertex Ventures SEA & India.

Since rolling out its BNPL offering in November 2020, Pace claims to have rapidly added over 300 points-of-sale from over 200 merchant partners, including Goldheart, OSIM, Sincere Watch, Carousell, Reebonz, and FJ Benjamin. Since implementing Pace’s easy-to-use and unique solution, merchants are already reporting greater reach and higher sales.

With Pace, businesses of all sizes can easily activate and offer BNPL payment options to their customers, including debit cardholders. This, it claims, enables greater reach and higher sales through sustainable spending.

As part of a BNPL pilot programme in Singapore, Pace has signed a partnership that enables specially curated Carousell merchants to offer Pace’s BNPL payment option to their customers.

The company aims to reach 5,000 merchant partners by the end of 2021 through its geographical expansion into North Asia and the rest of Southeast Asia.

The BNPL industry in Asia has witnessed massive growth over the past year with the change in consumer behaviour following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Singapore itself, there are a few startups, which include Rely and Hoolah.

Rely is probably the pioneer in the segment, which in December last year secured US$74.8 million credit facility from Polaris, the strategic partnerships arm of Singapore-based Goldbell Financial Services. Hoolah, which is also making inroads into the market, raised an 8-figure sum in Series A round, led by Allectus Capital, in March last year.

A well-known face in Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, Fuad has successfully launched and sold three startups thus far. His first startup was WUF Networks, an Internet of things software company based out of Silicon Valley. The company was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005.

Also Read: Buy now, pay later: The changing face of finance for a mobile generation

Fuad was also CEO and founder of travelmob, an online marketplace for vacation rentals. Headquartered in Singapore, travelmob was acquired by HomeAway (now part of Expedia) in mid-2013.

He established and ran Spacemob in 2016. He was appointed as Managing Director of WeWork Southeast Asia and Korea after the Spacemob acquisition.

In between his startups, Fuad was Managing Director for Skype Asia Pacific, responsible for its business expansion across Japan, China, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia.

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Image Credit: Pace

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With a PhD in Computer Science and a comfortable career as an Associate Professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, it would have been safe to assume David Chen would see out the remainder of his career in academia and groom the next generation of tech talent.

However, he had other ideas. Having been awarded with Nanyang Assistant Professorship’s (NAP) S$1 million (US$752,000) startup grant in 2009, he set out on a new career in entrepreneurship as he sought to solve real-world problems.

Since then, he has started consumer lifestyle app Nestia and career matching platform Matchimi. In 2017, he joined Singapore-headquartered AI and Big Data firm Advance.AI as a Group Partner and Chief Product Officer.

His latest venture is Atome, a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) payments platform. Launched in December 2019, the startup has since grown to a 200-member team and claims it is expanding rapidly across the region into Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and Vietnam.

In this wide-ranging interview with e27, topics discussed with Chen include:

• Skillsets from teaching that were relevant in entrepreneurship
• Future developments within the BNPL industry
• How to attract more women to join the tech industry

Below are the edited excerpts from the interview.

What were some skillsets from the teaching profession that were useful in entrepreneurship?

Similar to a good educator, a successful entrepreneur is often driven by a deep sense of purpose and the desire to make a difference to the next generation. Similarly, Atome was set up to improve the lives of consumers through technology. In fact, that is what Atome stands for: Make products and services “available to me”.

My PhD speciality was in algorithm design and analysis, and data analytics. Having a background in data is certainly useful as it aids in being able to interpret them and make data-driven decisions in business.

Another teaching skillset useful for entrepreneurs is a passion for learning and knowledge sharing. When it comes to technology, it is crucial for you to keep up with the latest trends and be ahead of the curve. We can never stop learning and improving, and as we grow Atome, this mindset would be important in helping us increase efficiency across the business too.

What were the problems you were looking to solve when you set out to start Atome?

I was tracking the increasing popularity of BNPL worldwide and how it served both consumers and merchant needs. As a consumer myself, I also never understood how credit card late interest charges worked or how much I had to pay when I missed a payment.

Also Read: How my entrepreneurial failures led me to rethink learning and upskilling

At the same time, I knew a buy-now-pay-later version in Asia could really address the needs of underserved and underbanked consumers in emerging markets like Indonesia and Vietnam.

We had the technology to solve this as our core expertise at Advance.AI was in AI-based credit risk profiling and assessment. That’s how Atome was born — with the aim of driving financial inclusion and empowering our consumers with the ability to pursue their passions in their own time.

Younger consumers don’t like the idea of applying for products that charge interests and annual fees. Many of them like to shop but also want a way to control and manage spendings without getting into debt.

What future developments you foresee could play out in the BNPL industry and the payments space as a whole?

As BNPL understanding and maturity grows, I foresee the business model could develop in a few ways.

Firstly, BNPL platforms will become e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. Besides that, providers will extend their services through financial services such as cross-selling to banks, lending, and other financial products.

Also Read: Why the Buy Now Pay Later concept makes sense for the Southeast Asian market

I also expect to see more regulation around payments and the fintech space in general as this concept is still nascent in many markets.

We observe that a large segment of consumers in Southeast Asia are still underserved by traditional banks, especially in markets like Indonesia where credit card penetration remains stubbornly low at under 3 per cent. Therefore, there is huge potential in this segment and we are certainly looking to capture it.

Why is it important to foster diversity and inclusion in tech and what more needs to be done to improve this?

Having a diverse team makes a business stronger because it reflects the real-world customers and society you serve. Also, constructive debate and differences in views reduce blind spots and help you do things better.

The Singapore government is encouraging more students to go into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This is a welcome move and particularly important if we want to encourage more women to join the tech industry.

Equally, it’s not just about women, but also ensuring no one gets left behind by tech — the Singapore government has been very proactive and supportive in encouraging lifelong learning and mid-career switching.

What more needs to be done by tech companies to attract women into tech?

Have more women in senior leadership roles. For that to happen, we have to build and groom the next generation of female leaders through various mentorship and training programmes. We also need to develop a flexible work culture to recognise the various roles women play in the family and company.

Also Read: How the tech industry can become friendlier for women

Being a former professor, I believe it is essential to develop opportunities for women to enter into tech and would also encourage more female students to explore the STEM industry.

Could the regional tech talent crunch develop into a problem which stunts the growth of Southeast Asia?

Yes, as digitalisation across all industries accelerates, so will the need for tech talent. However, there are bright spots too. Indonesia is quickly maturing as a tech hub and several big companies there are grooming local talent. Many overseas-educated Indonesians are now returning home to support the national digitalisation drive.

Similarly, in Vietnam, we see a tech boom and several mature local startups that will only grow and regionalise, supported by a young and energetic workforce.

Singapore, of course, is a global tech and talent hub, supported initially by international talent but local talent is also quickly being groomed and developed.

What are the skill-sets you look for in prospective hires and have the educational system in Singapore been adept at cultivating these skillsets?

We look for a balance of hard skills (technical experience and skills that are core to their function), but it’s also increasingly important for talent to have soft skills such as a growth mindset and good communication skills.

One area where I think the Singapore education system needs to broaden its academic criteria is to go beyond textbook teaching and grade-based assessments, and include more real world-based learning.

The post-pandemic world also requires our students to move beyond subject specialisation to problem-based and experiential learning.

What are your top three takeaways from your journey as an entrepreneur?

Firstly, never forget your “why” behind starting your business. For me, it’s about doing something that can create value, helping people, and benefiting the community.

Secondly, find a big problem to solve. You should aim to launch a product or service that addresses relevant real-world problems. These problems should also be sufficiently large so that you would have a ready market of customers willing to pay for a solution.

Lastly, learn from your mistakes. As we expand our business, we will make bets — both big and small — and some don’t always work out. It is important to fail and learn quickly by institutionalizing that learning so organisations become more efficient and execute better.

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Image Credit: Atome

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