Introducing Nongsa D-Town

Nongsa Digital Park (NDP), a Batam-based collaborative community for tech and creative talents, was recently mentioned as part of Singapore’s investment budget over the next three years. Deputy PM Heng Swee Keat announced that Singapore will be allocating around $24 billion over the next three years to enhance its digital connectivity and global presence, a plan which includes cross-country investments like NDP and its next phase of development, Nongsa D-Town.

Located just 40 minutes by ferry from Singapore’s Harbourfront, the digital hub provides an opportunity for rising startups from both countries to collaborate within close physical proximity. It is designed from the ground-up as a “digital bridge between Indonesia and Singapore,” complete with co-living and co-working spaces, a tech campus, and a plaza.

Designed by award-winning Singaporean firm Surbana Jurong and developed by two of Indonesia’s largest conglomerates, Citramas and Sinarmas Land, the interconnected layout of D-Town includes a residential village, tech campuses, a town plaza, and a commercial centre and is set to house 8000 tech talents when completed. There are currently about 1000 tech talents at the existing NDP working for tech companies and startups from Singapore and Indonesia.

The economic ties that bind

Singapore and Indonesia are home to Southeast Asia’s most vibrant tech ecosystems. Eleven out of the thirteen tech unicorns operating in ASEAN are headquartered in either country, and seven out of those eleven are homegrown startups.

The two countries have produced companies that dominate the regional market by virtue of first-mover advantages over their neighbours through superior technology, as is the case with Singapore, and massive population size, as is the case with Indonesia. Their respective startup scenes share and compete with each other for talent, resources, and market share. Startups based in one country have often dipped their toes into another’s market, with the Gojek-Grab rivalry being the most famous regional example.

Also read: Empowering fintech and e-commerce through digital identity verification

Overlapping time zones between Indonesia and Singapore facilitate ease of work across borders. Due to the accelerated transition to digital within the last year, cross-border collaboration between remote teams has become a common occurrence. Despite Singapore’s technological advancement compared to its neighbours, it faces a shortage of tech talent. Nongsa D-Town will allow talent from Indonesia and Singapore to collaborate directly within the same area, providing a solution to the shortage while further tightening economic ties between the two nations.

At 270 million people, Indonesia is the largest market in ASEAN. Indonesians are notoriously early adopters of new technologies when given the chance, with 32% of the population keen to use new tech products as soon as they enter the market according to a YouGov survey conducted in 2020. The sheer volume of Indonesian consumers eager to try new technologies makes the country an ideal stepping stone for Singaporean startups that intend to scale regionally, often through Batam as a port of call.

From boomtown to digital hub: A short history of Batam’s economic growth

Batam has historically been designated as a Free Trade Zone by the Indonesian government due to the island’s strategic location off the coast of Singapore. Formerly an industrial boomtown populated by state-run oil and gas employees, the island’s population has exploded since it was designated as part of a Free Trade Zone, or FTZ, in 2006. Previous trade agreements between Singapore and Indonesia and special government incentives like the elimination of tariffs and VAT for goods traded between Batam and Singapore, make Batam an attractive location to do business.

Within the perimeter of the D-Town Masterplan that will be launched on March 2nd, there is Nongsa Digital Park (NDP), an initiative supported by both Indonesian and Singapore Governments which is frequently mentioned in high-level bilateral meetings between President Jokowi and Prime Minister Lee. D-Town leverages on the initial success of NDP that saw several international companies have already taken advantage of the access to talent and the economic incentives currently offered to set up in the digital downtown.

Also read: Why Disaster Tech in Asia holds great potential, and how to scale the field

Indonesia’s National Special Economic Zone Council, chaired by Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, announced on July 10th, 2020 that NDP has the potential to create employment and boost economic growth, hence it was recommended to President Jokowi to be confirmed as a new Special Economic Zone.

Current tenants include Glints, an online recruitment platform headquartered in Singapore; R/GA, an innovation consultancy with offices in 11 countries; and the Webimp Group, a Singaporean firm specialising in bespoke tech solutions for enterprises.”

Nongsa D-Town: a Digital Bridge between Indonesia and Singapore

From both a company and a talent perspective, D-Town is optimised for innovation.

The settlement is built upon the three philosophical pillars of ecological, digital, and physical sustainability. Rather than the hyper-urban culture typical of many downtown tech hubs, life at D-town is designed to accommodate sustainable mobile work. This allows residents, tourists, and digital nomads alike the privilege to enjoy beaches, mangroves, rivers, and rolling hills while living in an area with well-developed digital infrastructure and high-speed internet.

Just as Batam has served as a physical and economic entrepot, D-Town will transform the island into a digital bridge between Indonesia and Singapore. Batam’s long history as a centre for cross-country collaboration will extend into the information age as the Nongsa SEZ opens a new chapter in the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Also read: Get to know these 10 verified investors who are ready to connect today

The grand launch of Nongsa D-Town is scheduled for March 2nd, 2021, and is viewable via webinar. At the launch, audiences will be able to listen in to first-hand experiences from D-Town’s partners and tenants. Notable speakers will include Marco Bardelli, Senior Director of Nongsa Digital Park; Irawan Harahap, Chief of Digital Tech Ecosystem & Development at Sinar Mas Land; and Andrew Wee, Director of Design at Surbana Jurong.

RSVP to the grand launch by signing up through this link.

– –

This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
Nongsa

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

The post Indonesia and Singapore are teaming up to build Southeast Asia’s digital hub of the future appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based digital banking network Tyme raises US$110mn Series B; Backers are Apis Partners, Gokongwei family-led JG Summit Holdings; JG Summit and Tyme will apply for a digital bank license in Philippines; As per UnaFinancial, Philippines is one of the markets in Asia with huge potential for the growth of neobank. More here

Digital fundraising: Ask yourself these 5 questions before raising money in the new normal; In the first episode of e27‘s Fundraising Fundamentals webinar series, Minh Vu Hong of Qualgro Ventures discusses the key things to keep in mind before approaching an investor. More here

SEA offers targets ripe for SPAC mergers as startups seek capital; Even as SPACs have a patchy track record in the region so far, they are gaining prominence as they offer alternative listing proposition to startups; Global SPACs have raised as much as US$24.26bn in Jan 2021 alone. More here

After failed merger attempt, Tiki and Sendo chart own strategies to take on bigger rivals; The plan to join forces was seen an attempt by both to take on Shopee in Vietnam; Even if the merger was materialised, the combined entity would still have been too small compared to Shopee. More here

Indonesia’s Amartha bags US$50mn debt financing from US-based Lendable; Amartha is an online platform that connects female entrepreneurs seeking working capital to lenders; The firm claims it has channelled funding of over US$222K to over 600K women micro-entrepreneurs in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi. More here

Hustle Fund hits US$33.6mn final close of second global pre-seed fund; Hustle Fund 2’s anchor LPS are US VC firm Foundry Group Next, Taiwan’s Far Eastern Group, LINE Ventures, and Shanda Group; It plans to deploy up to one-third of the fund in SEA companies in HK and Australia, among other places. More here

Next Gen, a 4-month-old plant-based meat startup, raises US$10mn seed funding; Investors are Temasek, K3 Ventures, the New Ventures arm of the Singapore’s EDB; The fund will be used to launch its plant-based chicken consumer brand TiNDLE, and for expansion across Asia and R&D for future products. More here

ZASH acquires Singapore’s TikTok-like video-sharing platform Lomotif; Lomotif claims it has grown its monthly community by over 400% since its launch and 740mn+ videos have been shared; Lomotif is growing fast platform in LatAm, Asia, Europe and West Africa, and ZASH expects this acquisition to put it at the top surpassing TikTok and Kuaishou. More here

OpEd
What to do when your unicorn loses its sheen; On the backdrop of the scandal involving Filipino propertytech unicorn Revolution Precrafted, the writer points out that while it’s not that the unicorns have never been involved in scandals of any kind, at some point, the gap between expectation and reality has to be closed. More here

Warung Pintar buys Bizzy Digital for US$45mn; Bizzy Digital is an integrated logistics and distribution supply chain B2B platform; The acquisition would give Warung Pintar access to a combined pool of 600 brands and serve 230K retailers in 65 cities across Indonesia. More here

Jungle Ventures joins US digital workplace platform Saltmine’s US$20mn Series A; Other backers are JLL Spark and Xplorer Capital; Saltmine seeks to expand its portfolio of clients and accelerate growth in Asia Pacific, particularly in markets such as Australia, HK, India and Singapore. More here

FUNDtastic raises US$7.7mn in Series A to further develop, market its investment platform; Investors include Ascend Capital Group (lead) and Indivara Group; In Aug 2020, the Indonesian firm acquired mutual funds and securities platform Invisee for US$6.5mn. More here

Indonesia’s social commerce platform RateS raises Series A; Investors include Vertex Ventures and Genesis Alternative Ventures (co-lead); The startup has expanded to over 400 cities and more than tripled its growth in 2020 alone since its inception in 2016. More here

ErudiFi raises US$5mn Series A to grow its ‘study now, pay later’ model in Indonesia, Philippines; The round was co-led by Monk’s Hill Ventures and Qualgro; ErudiFi is a tech-enabled platform that helps financially underserved students get access to quality education centres. More here

Singapore’s fashion-tech startup Pixibo raises US$1.4mn from Atlas Venture; According to TechInAsia, the money will be used to further develop Pixibo Fit Centre, where customers can opt for Pixibo’s ‘Try Before You Buy’ service, and this new checkout feature enables shoppers to pay for their purchases only after they had tried them on. More here

SATURDAYS closes seed funding to scale its eyewear brand in Indonesia; Investors include Alpha JWC, Kynesis Group, Alto Partners; SATURDAYS’s eyeglasses are made in-house with premium materials like Italian acetate and ultra-lightweight Japanese titanium for consumers in Asia. More here

Meet the 8 embedded finance startups joining BRI Ventures’s new Sembrani Wira accelerator programme; GajiGesa, Biteship, MYCL, CookLab, Gredu, Restock.id, Minapoli, Tumbasin and Brick.io are the eight startups; Fazz Financials and Prasetia Dwidharma are the operating partners for the first batch. More here

Value proposition of SaaS for SMEs has to be clear from the beginning: Akshay Bhushan of Lightspeed; Despite the promising proposition, SaaS startups within Southeast Asia have not enjoyed as much success as their European and American counterparts; Compared to the West, success stories have been few and far between in the region. More here

Ovo’s CEO provides an insider’s look into Indonesia’s thriving fintech scene; Jason Thompson says the most distinctive characteristic of the Indonesia fintech industry is its proximity with the government and regulators; Customers are very forgiving, and they will engage with you, give you feedback and help you develop the product. More here

Philippine’s central bank BSP creates unit for physical money, digital payments ecosystem; The unit would consolidate existing currency and payment management units and would be responsible for producing banknotes, coins and securities documents, as well as refining gold, and the printing of the National ID cards. More here

Exploring SEA’s bustling seed-stage investment landscape; Some seed-stage investments in the region are capturing the interest of industry stakeholders such as B Capital, Jungle Ventures, and Qualgro VC; This new focus on early-stage startups is one of the most significant investment trends of 2021. More here

AR tech to boost Indonesia’s online personal care sector; Many e-commerce platforms of the sector have started providing virtual makeup try-on features years ago in Indonesia but user-adoption picked up during the COVID-19 lockdown as people were forced to stay at home. More here

Two Singapore startups join fourth EY incubator programme; Speech recognition software startup AI Communis and AI digital operations platform In-D will be part of the fourth EY Foundry, which has been extended to New Zealand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka from previously being run only in Sydney and Singapore. More here

StarHub and Software AG partner for new 5G IoT platform service; Under this deal, StarHub will offer 5G IoT platform service, a new one-stop solution that provides IoT connectivity including StarHub’s 5G, device management, professional services to integrate existing or new systems, and managed services to run the entire IoT environment for any organisation. More here

—

Photo by Josh Hildon Unsplash

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Singapore gets new maritime startup fund, ZASH buys Lomotif, why Indonesia’s fintech scene is thriving appeared first on e27.

Pixibo, a Singapore-based fashion-tech startup, has raised US$1.4 million in a Series A extension round from early-stage VC firm Atlas Ventures, reports TechInAsia, citing sources.

The startup will use the funds to enhance its service and hire for positions across sales and engineering teams.

Pixibo also plans to scale its retail store services by the end of 2021 to South Korea, Indonesia, Australia, and the Philippines, as per the TechInAsia report.

Launched in 2016, the startup aims to help fashion e-tailers reduce their product returns by increasing their conversion rates and average order values through machine learning and data-driven solutions.

Online shoppers face one major plight which is receiving clothes that don’t actually fit them.

What makes the process of finding the right fit even harder is that different brands generally have different sizes for their products. For example, what could be a size EU 32 for someone wearing Nike can be a size EU 28 for the same person wearing Zara.

Also Read: Looking past the pandemic: The future of fashion retail in Southeast Asia

To solve this problem, Pixibo has created “Find Your Fit”, an AI size recommendation solution that gives shoppers personalised real-time size advice for every product.

The way it works is that the Pixibo algorithm asks the shopper for their height, weight, and age, information that the customer has to fill only once. After the input, the algorithm recommends the right fit for the user.

Its solution is being used by fashion marketplaces such as Zalora, FashionValet, MAP and Shinsegae, among others.

The company also told TiA that over 30 online fashion brands have signed up for its ‘Try Before You Buy’ service since launch and that it is on track to add 50 retailers by March 2021 and 100 more retailers by June this year.

Aside from its online service Pixibo also has an offline store called The Pixibo Fit Centre in Somerset Mall, Singapore, which sublets space to online fashion brands so that they can showcase their products.

The company has also expressed plans to launch automated kiosks, with attached fitting rooms so that customers can immediately try on the clothes they bought from online stores and not pay for the product if it doesn’t fit.

In January 2019, Pixibo raised US$1.1 million from Prasetia Dwidharma and EverHaus in a Series A round, according to DealstreetAsia. Before that, it has secured an undisclosed seven-figure funding from Start Today Ventures.

—

Image Credit:  Charles Deluvio

 

The post Pixibo raises US$1.4M to help fashion e-tailers reduce product return rates appeared first on e27.

Grab partners with IMDA, DISG to strengthen Singapore’s tech ecosystem

How it plans to do it: The partnership will see Grab work with Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) to grow its product and engineering teams’ capabilities through the support of talent development programmes such as the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA).

As part of its regional hiring efforts, Grab expects to create around 350 new jobs in Singapore this year.

Roles Grab is hiring in: Some of these hires will come from fields including AI, cybersecurity, data science, software engineering, as well as product management and design. Besides tech roles, Grab will be offering new employment opportunities in areas such as finance, operations, legal, public affairs and business development.

Bukku raises US$173k seed round

What will the funding be used for: The fresh funds, raised from six undisclosed private investors, will be used to expand its team and enter the Malaysian market.

About Bukku: Launched in 2020, the Malaysia-based startup provides cloud-based accounting software for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Besides, the company partners with dozens of accounting firms across the country, providing accounting services including company incorporation, company secretary, accounting & bookkeeping, auditing, and tax services.

Battery Smart raises seed round

Investors: The round was led by Orios Venture Partners, with participation by angel investment platform Faad Network.

What will the funding be used for: The fresh financing will go towards Battery Smart’s plans to construct 300 battery swapping stations in Delhi-NCR by the year-end and onboard 5,000 E-rickshaw drivers on its platform within the next 10 months.

Also Read: ‘Singapore isn’t ready for mass adoption of EVs yet; hybrid may be better for the present’

About Battery Smart: The Indian company provides advanced Li-ion batteries to e-rickshaws on a membership basis where the driver can stop at any of the company’s partner swapping stations and get a fully charged battery exchanged for a discharged battery.

Blueshift Raises US$30M Series C to scale customer data platform

Investors: The round was co-led by Fort Ross Ventures and Avatar Growth Capital. Existing investors including Softbank Ventures Asia, Storm Ventures, Conductive Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners also participated.

What will the funding be used for: Blueshift will use the proceeds from this latest funding round to further accelerate its global growth, as part of efforts to “cement” its leadership position in the customer data platform space.

About Blueshift: Blueshift is an AI marketing platform that leverages customer data to help brands deliver “relevant and connected experiences”.

More about the story: The Series C funding brings the total amount raised by the US-based startup to $65 million. Ratan Singh of Fort Ross Ventures will join Blueshift’s Board of Directors.

Indonesia to issue digital currency 

The story: The Governor of Bank Indonesia Perry Warjiyo, said that the central bank will issue a digital currency. This development was reported by CNBC Indonesia. 

More about the story: “We formulate the Central Bank Digital Currency, which BI will issue and circulate with banks and fintech on a whole shale and retail basis,” he told CNBC Indonesia.

Warjiyo also said that while the nation wants to introduce digital money, bitcoin will not be legal. 

—

Image Credit: Battery Smart

The post In brief: Grab to create 350 new jobs in Singapore; Battery Smart raises capital appeared first on e27.

Loship, a Vietnamese one-hour-delivery e-commerce startup, announced it has received an undisclosed investment from Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, who participated through his investment vehicle MetaPlanet Holdings.

Loship is MetaPlanet’s debut investment in Southeast Asia.

The latest funding, which is part of Loship’s Series C round, comes four months after its undisclosed bridge round led by Vulpes Investment Management.

According to Loship, the new capital would go towards upgrading its platform, increasing technological capabilities, and doubling down on marketing to strengthen its foothold in existing markets.

Loship shared Tallinn was introduced to the company through Vinnie Lauria, Founding Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, an investor since its seed financing round in 2015.

“It didn’t take me very long to realise Loship was on to something. MetaPlanet is planning to pay more attention to the rapidly growing economies in Southeast Asia. I’m delighted to be off to a strong start in Vietnam by adding Loship as our first portfolio company there,” said Tallinn.

Also Read: How Loship gives its rivals a run for their money in Vietnam with a unique combination of food delivery and podcasting

“MetaPlanet’s investment will help us build a much stronger image. The competition will be much steeper in the long term, and we hope to pick up deep tech insights from Jaan Tallinn that can be applied to the Vietnam market,” opined Trung Hoang Nguyen, CEO of Loship.

“We already have a winning playbook, and we look to expand it to more markets. We know what we want to do with our product. So, a huge portion of the funding will be poured into upgrading our app and increasing our tech capability. Also, we will ramp up marketing strategies to strengthen our foothold in the existing markets,” stated the CEO.

Founded in 2017, Loship traces its roots back to Lozi, a review app allowing users to find food, beverage, and coffee shops, before transitioning into a one-hour-delivery services platform.

Loship had earlier closed its Series A and B rounds from several investors, including South Korea’s Smilegate Investment, Hana Financial Group, and Golden Gate Ventures, before announcing its Vulpes Investment Management-led bridge round in October 2020.

—

Image Credit: Loship

The post Skype co-founder invests in Vietnam’s e-commerce delivery-cum-podcast platform Loship appeared first on e27.