New data reveals that Asian residential real estate assets are in aggregate now worth approximately US$90 trillion. That means Asia is home to about 45 cents of every dollar of residential real estate value located anywhere in the world. That’s why I believe Asia is an attractive post-COVID-19 opportunity for online marketplaces and technology companies.

We have based our US$90 trillion estimate on the piecing together of an Asia-wide number from more fragmented data looking at smaller jurisdictions.

Asia accounts for some 45 per cent of worldwide residential property value despite average purchase prices that are on the whole lower than in Europe or North America. 

Cross-border transactions

While calculating the total value of Asian residential real estate assets, we also tried to make a reasonable estimate of cross-border residential real estate transactions. Unfortunately, cross-border transactions are more difficult to measure. No useful data exists, except in the case of mainland China. 

Juwai IQI’s best estimate is that Chinese buyers alone acquired some US$202.8 billion of overseas residential real estate in the years 2015 to 2020. By logical extension, scaling this up to account for acquisitions originating in every Asian country (and not just China) would result in a considerably higher total.

At Juwai IQI, we take all of Asia to be our home market. That means we are trying to serve a region with a population of about 4.5 billion. To enable us to scale, we have had to put technology at the centre of everything we do.

Economic rebound in Asia

Asian residential property has weathered the pandemic with surprising resilience. In part, this reflects the pandemic-driven change in homeowner preferences, which has created new demand.

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

As in parts of Europe and North America, many Asian consumers are shifting from smaller residences in more central locations to more peripheral areas that offer the benefits of space and a better quality of life. High savings rates, a cultural affinity for real estate investment, and persistent undersupply problems have also supported the residential market.

The recently signed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (“RCEP”) is another factor in the positive outlook for Asian residential real estate. As the pact comes into force, it will also drive new investment in residential property.

RCEP is one reason we believe the ASEAN nations will be among those seeing the most rapid recovery of cross border real estate investment through 2022. Although the pact does not regulate property investment, its spillover benefits will boost the real estate sector.

Independent research suggests RCEP will raise global incomes by an annual US$186 billion, expand member trade by US$428 billion, and lead to its member nations generating half the world’s global economic output by 2030.

Asia’s wealth-creation machines have already begun to bounce back from their early-2020 doldrums. While the pandemic is far from beaten, it no longer has the paralysing effect it once did.

The pandemic has also produced some clear winners. The population of the Asian super-rich is multiplying. The Asia-Pacific held the world’s largest population of ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI). The region is home to 38 per cent of UHNWI. By contrast, the Americas hold 35 per cent, while 27 per cent are in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Impact of COVID-19

Why didn’t COVID-19 have a more significant impact on Asian cross-border residential investment? One factor that tempered the losses was the rapid implementation of technology. The industry compressed ten years of innovation into just six months.

As a result, both local and cross-border buyers found it possible and even easy to purchase overseas, including during the most restrictive lockdowns. Companies like Juwai IQI successfully deployed technology to enable buyers to research, inspect, negotiate for, purchase, and manage overseas properties — entirely online.

Also Read: Proptech is changing the face of real estate in Asia Pacific

Data from Asia’s largest economy supports the conclusion that investment fell much less than expected in 2020. China’s Ministry of Commerce and State Administration of Foreign Exchange reported outbound all-sector direct investment was down by just three per cent in 2020. That is minimal, given the seizures that paralysed the global economy last year.

Economic situation in China

Because of China’s role as the keystone economy for the region, its rapid emergence from the pandemic is a good sign for future Asian residential market growth.

Nomura bank’s latest data shows that in 2020, the U.S. GDP fell by 2.3 per cent while China’s grew by 2.3 per cent. That means China may now overtake the US as the world’s largest economy as early as 2026.

Other analysts report that Chinese consumer spending will likely more than double in 10 years, hitting US$12.7 trillion by 2030. That’s about the same amount that American consumers currently spend and more than double the US$5.6 trillion Chinese consumers spent in 2019.

That’s one reason the South China Morning Post dedicated a long article this week to the special promotions developers around the world are using to attract Chinese and other international buyers during the Chinese New Year holiday, which begins on 12 February.

Luxury real estate agent Jamie Mi told the Post that her team recently sold several top-end homes in Melbourne, Australia to international buyers whose key family members are still overseas. 

Her agency, Kay & Burton, is celebrating the Year of the Ox by offering its personalised concierge service to all potential international buyers who make an inquiry from February 12 to March 14.

“To make a decision is not always easy,” said Mi, who is partner and head of International Division at Kay & Burton. “We can organise a chauffeur service, personal interior stylists or lawyers to help them with home purchases.”

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Just over one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been impossible to ignore the stratospheric growth of digital payment methods across the world. In APAC specifically, we’ve seen Facebook and PayPal join Google, Tencent, and other leading technology firms in backing gojek, a popular Southeast Asian super app.

Not missing a beat, Gojek’s competitor Grab has been keeping busy by purchasing stakes in popular e-wallets such as Indonesia’s LinkAja.

It’s safe to say that there’s never a dull moment when it comes to the region’s fintech scene! But once the dust has settled behind this latest wave of M&A activity, what will be the next frontier for digital payments?

Social commerce and digital payments

When it comes to the battle of social media platforms, Facebook leads the pack with 2.8 billion monthly active users. However, it is closely followed by other popular social media and messaging apps such as WhatsApp and WeChat with 2 billion and 1.2 billion users, respectively. With such large user bases, these platforms are perfect for monetisation through e-commerce and digital payments.

In 2019, Facebook launched Facebook Pay in the United States, which is being progressively rolled out across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. Currently, users are able to pay for purchases on Facebook’s Marketplace, make peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and even donate to fundraisers.

In the same year, Instagram launched its checkout function, a feature that allows people to purchase products they discover on the platform without ever leaving it.

Closer to home, in a world first, the Singapore Tourism Board launched a WeChat Mini Program – a sub-application embedded within WeChat – targeting Chinese MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition) travellers. Known as MeetSG, the initiative allows Chinese MICE travellers to purchase tickets to leisure venues such as Gardens by the Bay, Sports Hub and Sentosa with WeChat Pay.

Social commerce isn’t just all about making your social feed or app the new Orchard Road or the next Pratunam Market. The real appeal lies in its ability to offer a quick solution for brands of all sizes to become embedded into the daily lives of their target audiences, with digital payments functioning as the intermediary for user engagement.

Also Read: Philippine fintech startup Ayannah seeks Series B funding to fuel its expansion into Vietnam, India

CNY: A testing-ground for the socialisation of commerce

With Chinese  New Year in full swing, albeit more physically-distanced than ever before, the humble red packet (hong bao) offers a timely case study that could hint at social commerce as the next hotspot for digital payments.

For generations, the handing out of red packets has been a tradition for family members to exchange well wishes during festive occasions. In 2014, Chinese social networking app WeChat pushed the proverbial and literal envelope by pioneering the use of digital red packets. Their popularity has surged ever since, with close to 823 million people in China using the platform to send electronic hong bao to relatives and friends in 2019.

However, the role of digital red packets extends far beyond the significance of festive cash gifting. Miaopai, a popular Chinese short video social media platform often introduces campaigns during Chinese New Year where users can win e-red packets by clicking on them while watching videos.

Last year, Alibaba Group allocated 500 million yuan in cash handouts on its super app Alipay, and a further 2 billion yuan on its sister e-commerce platform Taobao.

The significance of the digital red packet means more this year than ever before. It’s enabled us to stay close to our loved ones and maintain traditions held so fondly while keeping physical distance. And while we all hope for a return to a new normal in the months ahead, the socialisation of commerce and subsequently, payments, is one change that’s here to stay.

New frontier seeking same solutions to old problems

We’ve known for a while now that, as e-commerce becomes increasingly global, payments are becoming hyperlocal. It is no longer enough that e-commerce offers the usual option of Visa or Mastercard.

Leading international companies are leveraging partnerships to offer a variety of payment methods that reflects the complex payment preferences of consumers. The same challenge applies to social commerce.

Facebook and WeChat are able to develop social commerce platforms in a proprietary manner – only accepting Facebook Pay or WeChat Pay – because they can exercise market power. Yet, consumer payment preferences remain highly fragmented around the world; APAC perhaps the most fragmented region of all.

There are more than 40 e-payment licenses issued in Malaysia and the Philippines, while Indonesia alone has 41 licensed e-wallet operators. Although the lion’s share is concentrated on a select group of leading local payment methods such as GoPay, Dana, Grab, GCash and MoMo, a narrow focus on payment methods carries the risk of excluding a wide pool of consumers.

Also Read: The case of e-wallets: which e-payment apps do Singaporeans use the most?

For social commerce, an agnostic approach to digital payments built on strong partnerships is essential. There are signs that the industry is moving in this direction, with Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok hosting three payment options on its platform: Douyin Pay, WeChat Pay and Alipay.

Similarly, while Facebook Pay only supports debit, credit cards and PayPal, its partnerships with Stripe to process payments leaves open the possibility of more local payment methods being added in the future.

The power of payments infrastructure for social commerce

Just a few years ago, the ability to successfully establish an e-commerce presence was only within the reach of the large, multinational brands. With social commerce, everyone can do it; from the likes of Marvel Studios which managed to leverage on social commerce to achieve a 68 per cent ticket conversion rate in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines for the film ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ to your next-door neighbour selling home-brewed coffee concoctions on Instagram, social commerce is here to stay.

Digital payments are the last mile solution for social commerce, but it just might be the most important one; it can help individuals and businesses successfully execute their social commerce strategy. It all depends on whether they adopt a partnerships-first approach that leverages payments infrastructure and meets the demands of consumers or decides to go it alone.

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e-Commerce is one sector that has been on a growth spurt for decades; even a global health pandemic that brought economic slowdown and recession in many parts of the world had positive impacts on the online retail industry.

With people isolated at home and movement restrictions in place, online shopping was among the few avenues left for matters of both necessity and entertainment. The entire region saw unprecedented growth in online retail. The truth is, pandemic or no pandemic, the ease of being able to shop and sell online any time anywhere is something that we all love in the digital age. With more and more consumers shopping online, e-Commerce is expected to be on this growth trajectory in the coming years too.

However, while online merchants are mostly enjoying this boom and attaining unicorn and decacorn statuses within years of launch, they are also faced with certain challenges. One of the biggest hurdles that businesses in the e-Commerce sector in the APAC region face are fraudulent transactions and chargebacks. Only in a month’s time, between June and August 2019, an average of $160,000 in successful monthly fraudulent transactions was recorded by retail, e-commerce, and financial service businesses in APAC, according to the 2019 LexisNexis® Risk Solutions True Cost of Fraud APAC study.

Also read: GAOGAO: Creating an ecosystem of CTO level talent, support and growth with industry experts and new businesses

Fraudulent transactions can happen either in the case of a friendly fraud where a person is deliberately looking to get away with cyber theft, or when a person mistakenly sees a forgotten charge. These are just two examples of why a customer might call their credit card company to dispute the charges. The other type of more common eCommerce fraud comes from bad-actors who are trying to use bought or stolen information from something like the dark web and use the information of unsuspecting consumers and making fraudulent purchases with the information.

Established in January 2017, Lizuna, a Tokyo-based startup is helping SMEs fight back against fraudulent purchases and chargebacks.


Utilising big data, analytics, and machine learning for fraud detection and prevention

Lizuna CEO and founder Jason Sio started dabbling into startups way back in 2014 after he moved back to Japan from the US. He soon realised the challenge of fraudulent purchases faced by e-Commerce retailers and observed that the existing solutions were either too expensive or inaccurate and that there weren’t any customisable options in the market to fit different business needs. With a small yet strong team of 2 industry experts, Jason started the company with a vision to build a real-time adaptive system to stop and prevent online fraud.

Lizuna’s key offering is their flagship software solution Beacon, launched within a year of the company’s establishment. Before launching the software to the public, Lizuna conducted private testing of the software for almost two years through several partnerships with high-volume merchants that have a high risk of fraud activities and was successful in greatly reducing fraudulent transactions and chargebacks. The Beacon system utilises and combines big data, analytics, and machine learning for fraud detection and helps prevent such transactions. Following a two-step verification process, the software first enables a passive verification of the transaction leveraging big data. Thereafter, an active verification is prompted via direct messaging. Beacon allows merchants to automate and keep track of customers’ verification status easily and flags high-risk orders to quickly detect fraudulent behaviours.

Also read: RESC: Promoting sustainability with an IoT battery platform for e-mobility and smart grid

Beacon not only keeps track of order history for every customer but also has a visualisation feature that allows merchants to measure and track the velocity of unusual activities. Beacon is currently available to the public for Shopify merchants since April 2018 and Lizuna is actively looking at onboarding more e-Commerce partners.

Lizuna’s Beacon has managed to reduce the rate of un-detect fraud to just 0.3% in a period of less than 6 months for Shopify merchants and helped with an overall 70% or more reduction in fraud based on an average 1% fraud rate.

Looking at onboarding more merchants in Japan and Southeast Asia

This year, as more companies in Japan and across the region embrace digitalisation and stride towards e-Commerce, Lizuna hopes to expand and help more merchants with fraud prevention. Since the pandemic, more and more businesses are exploring online retail not only in Japan but across the region. According to a report by Research and Market, Japan’s e-Commerce Market is expected to reach USD 325.9 billion by the end of the year 2026. The Google Temasek report found that online shopping in Southeast Asia is set to hit $172 billion by 2025 versus a previous $153 billion estimate.

Also read: Here are 10 more verified investors on e27 for you to connect with

Currently, Lizuna is the only localized fraud solution platform available on the Japanese Shopify platform and available globally. In a post-pandemic world, for a resilient and robust business model, companies cannot afford to lose revenue in fraud. This is where Lizuna’s Beacon can help them protect their business from fraudulent orders and fake transactions. Merchants can either directly integrate Beacon into their systems or they can feature Lizuna’s Beacon system in their app store.

e-Commerce players in Japan and Southeast Asia looking to protect themselves against fraudulent transactions and chargebacks can contact Lizuna here. Learn more about them here: https://e27.co/startups/lizuna/

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

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Image Credit: Arisa Chattasa on Unsplash

The Southeast Asian (SEA) tech startup ecosystem can play a crucial role in building a more inclusive society for people with disabilities through the innovation that they create. By helping people with disabilities and their caregiver perform their daily routine, startups are even able to help them seize opportunities that are otherwise barred from them.

In order to achieve that goal, collaboration with different parties is encouraged to help startups access their potential users –and get a better understanding of their needs.

SG Enable, a Singapore government agency that is dedicated to enabling persons with disabilities and building an inclusive society, is an example of an institution that includes working with startups in their activities.

“A key area of SG Enable’s work is to raise awareness about assistive technology and its affordances, as well as support innovations for persons with disabilities because technology is a key enabler for persons with disabilities to learn, work, and live independently,” explains Ron Loh, Director, Enablers Development, SG Enable, in an email interview with e27.

Loh says that assistive technology used to be primarily specialised products. The good news is that mainstream tech providers have been incorporating accessibility into their product design, but there is still room for improvements.

“For example, speech-to-text (STT) applications and virtual assistant technology are now seen as common accessibility features that are built into mainstream consumer products such as smartphones … But there remain gaps that have yet to be filled. SG Enable has our pulse on the ground and we gather problem statements from the disability community during engagements with stakeholders,” Loh continues.

Of all the initiatives that SG Enable is doing, one that strongly involves the startup community is The Enabling Lives Initiative (ELI) Grant.

“It brings together the best ideas from the community of non-profit organisations, social enterprises and innovators (including startups) to create scalable, meaningful solutions for persons with disabilities,” Loh explains.

“This grant has its roots in the Tote Board Enabling Lives Initiative (TBELI) Grant, which supported more than 40 projects between 2015 and 2020 with committed funding of more than S$16 million addressing cross-cutting disability issues such as Data and Technology, Transition Management and Caregiver Support. These include projects by startups such as SPARK by Movinc and Project QuietStorm by Wika Media,” he gives further explanation.

Also Read: What this digital shift means for people with disabilities in SEA

In this listicle, e27 looks at the Singapore-based startups that working to provide solutions for elderly people, people with disabilities, and their caregivers.

These startups –Enabler, TagTeam Technologies and XCLR8 Technologies– have received support from Singtel Future Makers, a capacity building programme for startups and enterprises focusing on cultivating social innovation to transform the lives of the vulnerable in the community and as well as support the social service ecosystem. Meanwhile, Wika Media was supported by SG Enable’s Tote Board Enabling Lives Initiatives.

Wika Media

Even before the pandemic hits, many deaf children struggle to access formal education –and this is the problem that Wika Media aims to address.

The startup builds solutions to help deaf students access education and entertainment, whether they enrol in a formal school for special needs students or homeschooled. For older users, the solutions that they build are aimed to help with skills development which is a crucial element of economic and social inclusion.

As with many innovations, the inspiration for Wika Media solutions came from the co-founders’ own personal experience.

“One of Wika co-founder’s siblings is deaf, so she partly inspired and informed our product designs,” says Wika Media co-founder Roland Benzon.

Wika Media products

“Product development was iterative; we first developed an app and set-top box for displaying subtitles or captions. But as we demonstrated the prototype to test users, we learned that the hearing world’s presumption that captions are enough is misguided,” he continues.

The team learned that for deaf people, sign language is considered as their first language.

“In developing countries, sign language is the only language for many deaf people, since many have no access to deaf schools, hence, they cannot read captions,” Benzon explains.

This learning eventually led to the birth of Project QuietStorm which saw the team producing content –in the form of captions or sign language videos– to make video content accessible to the deaf. The project has received the support of Tote Board Enabling Lives Initiative.

“We have filed patents for our inclusive innovations. Better yet, all of our solutions have been preliminarily tested by more than 100 people, most of whom are deaf,” Benzon says.

Also Read: These 8 Southeast Asian startups work with people with disabilities to build a more inclusive society

Founded by Benzon, Cynthia Dayco, and Vic Icasas, Wika Media has been self-funding its business, in addition to raising an incubation investment from Mediacorp.

In 2019, Wika Media was named as one of the Judge’s Choice company, representing Singapore in the TOP100 2019.

This year, the company intends to soft-launch its Vernocular service, a streaming service that augments movies, TV shows and educational videos by delivering video-synchronised closed captions and/or sign language content.

XCLR8 Technologies

XCLR8 Technologies is also one example of a startup in which innovation was inspired by the co-founder’s personal experience.

“Several years ago, while back in Australia for Christmas Day, my mother had a severe stroke. Having to return to Singapore shortly after, it was extremely difficult to be part of the caregiver circle,” co-founder Lincoln Dacy explains to e27. “It made me think about how we could use technology to help people recovering from injury have better access to physical rehabilitation services, and the family members involved in the caregiving circle remotely.”

There are reasons why it can be difficult to access physical rehabilitation post-injury or -surgery, from limited mobility to the financial burden that comes with needing time off work, which applies to both caregivers and patients. Hospitals and healthcare institutions are also under increasing pressure to reduce costs and patient waiting times while providing better methods of care.

This is what led XCLR8 Technologies to create Rebee, wearable sensors and apps that aim to enable patients access to affordable physical rehabilitation in their own time and place.

Dacy says that customer feedback plays a critical role in their software development process, where they are working with senior citizens. The challenge that comes with working with senior citizens is that they tend to have low tech capabilities, pushing the startup to balance between creating an easy-to-use solution that does not sacrifice the provision of critical information.

“It makes our product development process a highly dynamic process that incorporates a high level of customer feedback. We develop the new features and exercise programmes, test with our beta customer groups, seek feedback, and make iterations then repeat the process,” he says.

XCLR8 has received S$20,000 (US$ ) grants from the Singtel Future Makers programme which the company used towards the development of its Android app. It has also received S$50,000 (US ) in a grant from the Singapore HealthTech Consortium for development of its next-generation advanced motion sensors.

Co-founded by Dacy, Claus Nestmann, and Xiyu Wei, the company is run by a team of nine that consists of web and app developers, orthopaedic surgeons, physiotherapists, and business development executives.

Also Read: This Bali-based startup wants to create a more inclusive life for people with disabilities

This year, XCLR8 plans to continue its pilot programmes in Singapore with different healthcare institutions. It will also develop strategic corporate partnerships in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

TagTeam Technologies

Despite taking inspiration from games such as Pokemon Go and Candy Crush –and dating app such as Tinder– TagTeam is doing a serious work that can help impact its users’ livelihood.

The startup points out that seniors and people with disabilities often struggle to find employment to support their lives. So it builds a platform called Tictag that aims to empower this segment by getting them involved in sorting, classifying, and labelling data for various AI platforms.

It implements gamification principles to make completing tasks feel more exciting and fulfilling.

“Tictag crowd-sources the manual but valuable process of data annotation on a gamified app as micro-jobs and rewards users with actual cash. Seniors, underprivileged and persons with disabilities are the demographics that Tictag aims to onboard as they benefit the most from these micro-jobs,” Keeve Quah, Co-Founder of TagTeam Technologies, explains.

Since September 2020, the startup says that it has incorporated a subsidiary in South Korea, secured a big client for an image recognition use case involving recyclable objects, completed successful social media campaigns, grown its team, and launched on the Google Play Store.

It is also close to securing its seed funding round.

TagTeam Technologies with seniors from Cornerstone Senior Centre

“We’ve secured the Enterprise Singapore Startup SG Founder Grant in 2019, a grant from the accelerators and competitions we’ve had the opportunity to be a part of. We’re now in the midst of our seed funding round and we’re closing our round very soon,” Quah says.

TagTeam was co-founded by Kevin Quah, Keeve Quah, Jin Lee, and Yihang Low.

When asked about their major plans for 2021, TagTeam reveals how their plans are being split according to the location of their operations. For their Singapore team, there will be a greater focus on clients and users acquisitions as well as a partnership with various organisations, from universities to non-profits. As for its South Korea team, the focus will be more on talents and clients acquisition.

Enabler

The next startup in our listicle is Enabler, which is run by people with disability. The company is led by multi-award winning social entrepreneur and 2014 ACT Young Australian of the Year Huy Nguyen.

As for the problem that the startup aims to solve, it is strongly related to the ageing population of Singapore, which is expected to reach two million people by 2030.

Also Read: Uber to provide free rides to persons with disabilities; partners with SG Enable

“Approximately 13.3 per cent of Singaporean seniors also have a disability, and 60,000 seniors in Singapore have mobility issues. As a result, there are not enough workers skilled in supporting people with disability to meet demand,” explains Huy Nguyen, CEO at Enabler (Australia and Singapore).

“Singapore is relatively new to disability inclusion, and care responsibilities have traditionally fallen to family members. Being a caregiver is stressful and emotionally draining, and the needs of people with disabilities are complex. Workers need to be adequately prepared for the job to reduce the risk of burnout,” he continues.

What Enabler offers is a solution to rapidly upskill new workers by delivering 3D simulation modules to workers via mobile app. It uses realistic 3D simulations to help users practise their skills without acquiring additional resources.

“Our unique training method is able to combine learning and assessment of communication skills, technical skills, and procedural skills into short, punchy and engaging training modules,” Nguyen explains.

“Each of Enabler’s scenarios and virtual characters is built from the real-life experiences of people with disability and the elderly. Our inspiration and motivation are drawn from our personal experiences and challenges. Our vision is a world where people with disability and the elderly have the quality support and care they need to participate in society and lead fulfilling and meaningful lives,” he adds.

The startup has completed a successful pilot with Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) which was enabled through a grant from raiSE SG.

“Our goal for 2021 is to tackle the most pressing topics and pain points of our caregiver and community nurse workforce. We actively seek resources to build topics in Personal Protection Equipment, Pressure Sore Prevention and Management and Falls Management. These topics have been requested to us by our partner KTPH and the greater community,” Nguyen says.

“Rolling out these topics will reduce or even eliminate the need for community nurses to provide in-home training, saving hospitals money and staffing resources. The convenient app-based digital delivery will also make this knowledge available to all Singaporeans, not just those who are able to access training by the hospital,” he closes.

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gojek, Tokopedia said to be finalising terms of mega merger ahead of dual listing; The target valuation in the public markets is between US$35B and US$40B; The latest terms under discussion call for gojek shareholders to own about 60% of the combined entity while Tokopedia’s investors hold 40%, source told DealStreetAsia. More here

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East Ventures (EV) appoints Pavilion Capital founding member Koh Wai Kit as Venture Partner; He has in the past served in the investment, strategy and portfolio management functions at Temasek; To date, EV has supported more than 170 companies across Southeast Asia; It’s an early investor in Tokopedia and Traveloka. More here

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Temasek-backed Reefknot invests into US-based supply chain startup Roambee; The fresh funds will go towards global expansion into new markets, including Asia; It seeks to open its Southeast Asian headquarters in Singapore by Q1 2021. More here

Bambooloo on creating everyday low carbon footprint products that save the planet; The firm makes a range of sustainable consumer products made from virgin bamboo pulp sourced from bamboo groves in China; Its products are also available in Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand. More here

LottieFiles acquires India-based design asset marketplace Iconscout; The Indian firm claims it has 2.2M+ assets, ranging from SVGs and vector icons to illustrations and 3D graphics; LottieFiles recently raised US$9M Series A, led by Microsoft’s Venture Fund, M12, with participation from 500 Startups. More here

Philippine edutech startup Avion School secures funding from Y Combinator; Avion is an online school that teaches Filipinos to become remote software engineers globally; Since its launch in May 2020, it has kicked off seven batches of students and partnered with over 80 companies globally; Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen invested in the firm last year. More here

Kairous Capital, SPH Ventures join TechNode Global’s US$1M seed round to help it accelerate Asia expansion; The Singapore-based media firm will set up an office in Malaysia soon; TechNode Global is building a community platform that offers news, provides fundraising and deal flow support and facilitates corporate-startup partnerships. More here

Is Southeast Asia ready to BNPL?; The first indicator of the market potential of BNPL in SEA is its age group demographics; A second indicator is the underbanked population; Finally, the growth of e-commerce in Southeast Asia highlights the viability of BNPL in the region. More here

This startup lets you create over 100 premium ice cream out of a mini capsule; Advantir Innovation’s flagship product is Swirl Go, an ice cream-making capsule that makes sure that consumers get their favourite flavour dispensed at its finest quality. More here

Philippine fintech startup Ayannah seeks Series B funding  for Vietnam, India expansion; Ayannah provides digital financial services to the middle-class population in emerging markets by partnering with financial companies to launch services on behalf of them; To date, it has raised US$9M+ from two funding rounds. More here

Razer co-founder Lim Kaling to sell his stake in Myanmarese military-linked Virginia Tobacco; He is selling his one-third stake in a joint venture that owns RMH Singapore, a tobacco company which in turn owns 49% of Virginia Tobacco; The development comes against the backdrop of the recent events in Myanmar. More here

Philippine startup Mosaic Solutions bags US$1M in pre-Series A from Gentree; Mosaic offers cloud-based management software for F&B and hospitality companies; It recently raised US$1.5M pre-Series A round in September 2020 from Investible, IdeaSpace, KMC Founders Fund, and JC Capital. More here

Digital tech growth to create 65M jobs annually in Asia Pacific; ADB said the expansion of the digital sector would contribute to an average annual gain of 26.8% in APAC’s GDP, 15.6% in trade, and 26.1% in employment over the next five years. More here

Unlimited ‘fuel for a flat fee? This S’pore firm offers a subscription plan for EV drivers; Homegrown solar energy firm Sunseap’s green mobility business arm called Charge+ plans to set up 10K EV charging points across Singapore by 2030; It aims to install charging points in public housing estates and private developments, particularly condominiums. More here

Can Asia copy Estonia’s digital nation model?; Since 2014, it has allowed citizens of other countries to become an ‘e-resident’ of Estonia; They can run an Estonian business or open a bank account without stepping into the country. More here

SME digital financing platform Funding Societies expands to Thailand; Thailand marks the fourth market in its six years of operations; Since 2015, the company claims to have supported over 65,000 SMEs in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia with over USD1.5B in funding. More here

Siam Commercial Bank’s venture arm SCB 10X sets up US$50M VC fund; The blockchain, DeFi, and digital assets-dedicated fund will invest across the capital stack in innovative and promising startups in blockchain infrastructure, blockchain innovative applications, and decentralised finance globally, to better prepare the bank for future disruption. More here

How the young, unbanked online users are spearheading the rise of AI-banking in SEA; There are around 290M unbanked people in the region and that only around 120M people have access to credit; The untapped potential behind the population without access to credit is one of the determining factors that make SEA so attractive to investors. More here

The WFH era: How SMEs should select the right digital collaboration tools; According to a Lark study, the top three tasks among Singapore PMEs are chat/messaging, video meetings, and emails; With the rise of remote collaboration, the study also found that Singapore’s professionals, managers, and executives use video meetings (94%), file search (90%), and messaging (80%) for up to half of their day. More here

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Image Credit: gojek

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Eurazeo CEO Virginie Morgon

Eurazeo, global investment company headquartered in Paris, has announced the initial closing of its Smart City II Venture fund at €80 million (US$97 million).

The fund will invest in the most promising startups in the energy, mobility proptech and logistics industries worldwide, including Asia.

The investors of the fund II include longstanding partners and new ones based in Europe and Asia, such as carmaker Stellantis, electric utilities EDF and Mainova, public transportation operator RATP, energy major Total, logistics firm Duisport, and Thai real estate developer Sansiri.

The Smart City Venture team invests into innovative digital companies which are supporting rapid transformation of cities for the benefit of their residents: work from home, shared mobility, electric mobility, food delivery and the renewable energy transition.

Also Read: How this Singaporean AI startup makes waste collection and recycling easy for cities, organisations

Up to 40 per cent of the fund will be invested in Asia.

Eurazeo’s first fund, Smart City I Venture Fund, has already made nearly 25 investments across Europe, Asia and North America. Its portfolio companies include Spanish last-mile logistics specialist Glovo, American provider of charging networks for electric vehicles Volta Charging, and Chinese autonomous mobility firm Weride.

Matthieu Bonamy, Partner at Idinvest Partners, a subsidiary of Eurazeo, said: “The Smart City Venture strategy aims to select and support the future global leaders in each of their sectors thanks to an expertise in our investments themes and a selectivity rate at the level of the best generalist funds.”

“The fund benefit is also extra-financial as we support entrepreneurs who take decisive action to reduce carbon emissions and enable the development of more inclusive and resilient cities. This is crucial today as cities consume 78 per cent of the world’s energy and produce more than 60 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases,” Bonamy added.

Eurazeo is a leading global investment company with a diversified portfolio of €18.8 (US$23) billion in assets under management, including €13.3 (US$16) billion from third parties, and has invested in over 430 companies.

Also Read: How South Korea’s smart city startups curbed the spread of COVID-19

With its considerable private equity, real estate and private debt expertise, Eurazeo accompanies companies of all sizes, supporting their development through the commitment of its nearly 300 professionals and by offering in-depth sector expertise, a gateway to global markets, and a responsible and stable foothold for transformational growth.

Eurazeo has offices in Paris, New York, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, London, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Berlin and Madrid.

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Image Credit: Eurazeo

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Kludio, a digital food court in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A round of financing from Steve Vickers, former Chief Economist at Grab Indonesia, and Singapore-based seed-stage VC firm Impiro.

Vickers will also join Kludio’s board, the company said in a statement.

The new funding will be used to scale the business and “introduce over 10 times more food options” for customers on its platform via existing and new partner brands.

Kludio is also currently in the hiring mode.

Established in 2019, Kludio is a multi-brand cloud kitchen that is optimised for sustainable and quick food preparation. What makes it different from other cloud kitchen platforms is that it takes control of the entire production — from cooking and lead generation, to delivery — ultimately taking ownership of the whole customer relationship. It is like an online food court owned entirely by Kludio.

Unlike other food delivery apps, such as Foodpanda, Deliveroo and Grab eats, Kludio provides more flexibility to customers by enabling mix and match of cuisines from multiple brands.

Also Read: Dhaka’s first full-stack digital food court Kludio shines despite COVID-19

What this means is that customers can now combine multiple cuisines or flavours together on a single app, as opposed to being able to order a certain type of cuisine from only one restaurant.

Among the food options available on Kludio is Dough On The Go (a pizza outlet), Fry Box, Chow Box, and Fish & Chips.

The Kludio app

The company claims to have clocked over 20,000 app downloads within just two months of its launch.

“While having a growing team, staying lean is in our DNA. Today, we have a team of over 40 colleagues across several roles. We have grown into the only full-stack operations where we control production, logistics and customer relationship through the app across multiple locations profitably,” Kishwar Hasheeme, co-founder of Kludio, told e27.

Last November, the startup raised US$500,000 in seed round from investors, including Vickers, gojek’s VP of Food Marketplace, Uber’s International Head of Innovation, BOD Tech Ventures, Seedstars, Rashmi Kwatra of Sixteenth Street Capital, and Unilever’s VP Zaved Akhtar.

The on-demand food delivery market in Southeast Asia has been on a growth trajectory for the past few years. According to a joint report by Google Bain & Co. and Temasek, it has jumped 13x in just four years and is forecast to touch US$20 billion in 2025, on par with on-demand transport services.

Also Read: COVID-19 accelerates food delivery startups in SEA with Grab responsible for near half of growth: Report

While the F&B industry is still underdeveloped in Bangladesh, Hasheeme believes that Kludio can close the gap by helping Bangladesh’s F&B businesses to rapidly scale up through Kludio’s value chain, infrastructure, and technology – uniquely designed for the local market.

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Image Credit: Kludio

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Bambooloo Products

Climate change is a serious problem. Governments and world leaders around the globe have acknowledged it and are taking active steps in addressing the menace.

The media is also actively reporting on the issue and has managed to successfully create awareness globally. The results have already started showing.

According to Pinterest, searches for “eco-friendly living” and “zero-waste products” have grown by 93 and 108 per cent in 2020. Additionally, conversations around sustainability on Twitter have also spiked by 285 per cent as of April 21, 2020, and this is unsurprising.

Consumers, especially Gen Z and millennials, are becoming environmentally conscious, which has put immense pressure on brands to respond positively.

But the key question is ‘how does one go from a traditional way of building a product to a more sustainable way of innovation’?

To find the answer to this question, e27 had a chat with David Ward, co-founder of Singapore-based The Nurturing Co. (TNC), which owns and operates sustainable plastic-free home goods brand Bambooloo.

David Ward

Behind the brand

TNC — originally started in the US in 2018 as a luxury toilet paper made from 100 per cent sustainable bamboo — aims to provide cost-effective, safer, healthier daily essentials that help reduce water usage, carbon impact, and slow deforestation.

When he originally started to create TNC, Ward knew little about sustainability. According to him, he landed in the industry by accident.

“I have always been an environmentally-driven person. Maybe, this is partly due to my father, who had grown most of our vegetables in our home and always had a “turn that light off, don’t run that tap” commentary based on an understanding that these resources were not infinite,” he narrates the story.

“After having spent more than 25 years in the fashion world, I wanted to spend my days on something I loved as a passion. So, on a Saturday morning in September 2013, I woke up with a mindset on doing something about this opportunity, having had the epiphany of creating a brand that would allow me to use all I had learned from the people I had worked with over the past 25 years in building international and fast-moving businesses but in the sustainable sector,” he recalls.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, December: Bambooloo by The Nurturing Co.

With a passion to inspire more innovators to create global sustainable brands, Ward wanted to build products that are good for the planet.

TNC’s flagship product is called Bambooloo, a range of sustainable consumer products made from virgin bamboo pulp sourced from bamboo groves in China. The products are made in Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)/ISO- certified manufacturing partner factories in the country.

Why the company chose bamboo as its main material, rather than trees that die immediately, is because they tend to grow back by more than a meter within a week.

Bambooloo expanded into Malaysia last year through its partner, Johor Bahru-based Starkers. Aside from Singapore and Malaysia, its products are also available in New Zealand.

Finding the product purpose

The first thing is to think about what you’re creating. Does it serve a purpose? Will people use it on a regular basis?

It would be great to replace single-use products, ideally with something that are reusable. If they’re not reusable, then they should ideally be made from materials that are less impacted when sourced and less harmful after use.

Create a benchmark for your product

We started our journey with a single heading on a piece of paper ‘NO PLASTICS’, and that was our benchmark.

Now the mindset is always one of excluding or reducing plastics at every point in the design process and on the consideration of the post-use material management — both for the consumer and for the repurposing and recycling of the material back into the supply chains.

Choose the right materials

Find substitutes for different materials like paper, bubble paper, or anything that is relevant to the product that you are creating. For example, grass paper can be a good substitute for paper, and pulp-tec is a good substitute for bubble paper that is normally used for packaging.

Also Read: Bambooloo raises US$250K+ via equity crowdfunding to expand its plastic-free home goods into UK

There are plenty of books and materials available online.

(Resources are provided at the end of this article.)

Leverage on building a community 

Invest in finding ways to generate awareness about how your product combats climate change. Use social media to share facts about environmental concerns rather than just talk about the product.

Transparency is also important for a sustainable brand to build trust with consumers; there are many brands which claim to be sustainable but, in reality, are not.

Do not rely on others’ data or pull numbers from someone else’s website. Check it out for yourself and make sure that everything you say stands up.

How to price a sustainable product

While balancing between doing good and making money is difficult, there are some strategies that can help in pricing your sustainable business profitable.

TNC employs the use of subscription services for our customers because it not only builds trust with recurring consumers but also offers the company a predictable source of income.

Every product manager knows that packaging costs can add up, therefore TNC makes use of smart packaging to reduce its costs. Our products come in an eco-friendly box, which has a design inside that tells our consumers how they have positively impacted the environment.

Additional Resources – 

Ward leaves several resources for readers to explore sustainability and innovation.

1. The Inconvenient Truth: A very uncomfortable documentary about the devastating effects of climate change

2. What Design Can Do: An inspiring talk on YouTube on what sustainable design can do

3. Crossing the Chasm: Book that focuses on the specifics of marketing high tech products during the early start-up period

4. Green Packaging Solutions: A book on recyclable packaging designs

5. Crushing It: Podcast on a variety of leaders from across the financial services industry on finding success in multiple areas of life, career, mental well-being, and physical health

6. Disrupt: Book for identifying and executing disruptive business opportunities

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Image Credit: Nurturing Co.

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The Co-founders of LottieFiles

LottieFiles, an open-source animation file format that is tiny, interactive and can be manipulated at runtime, announced today it has acquired India-based design asset marketplace, Iconscout, for an undisclosed amount.

As per a press note, Iconscout will continue operating as an independent platform.

LottieFiles had recently announced its US$9 million Series A funding round led by Microsoft’s Venture Fund, M12, with participation from existing investor 500 Startups.

Also Read: Microsoft’s VC arm leads US$9M Series A in LottieFiles, a platform for the ‘smallest animation format’ for designers

Launched in 2018, LottieFiles is a community platform for designers and developers, who create motion graphics using the Lottie file format. A JSON-based animation file format, Lottie enables designers to ship animations on any platform as easily as shipping static assets. They are small files that work on any device and can scale up or down without pixelation.

The company claims it has over a million designers and developers from over 65,000 companies using its platform to ship motion graphics across the web, apps, and platforms. 

Launched in 2016, Iconscout offers ready-to-use assets for designers, developers and marketers to use. The startup noted it has over 2.2 million assets, ranging from SVGs and vector icons to illustrations and 3D graphics.

“Our goal is to empower designers and developers and save them weeks of work by freeing them from creating, collaborating, testing, and editing design assets. We are grateful to the Iconscout team for coming along on this journey with us,” said Kshitij Minglani, Co-founder and CEO LottieFiles.

“We are thrilled that Iconscout will now have a global audience to cater to and a much bigger playfield,” closed Dalpat Prajapati, Co-founder Iconscout.

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Image Credit: LottieFiles

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SCB 10X Chief Venture and Investment Officer Mukaya (Tai) Panich

SCB 10X, the venture arm of Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, has announced the launch of a new fund worth US$50 million.

The fund will invest in both early- and growth-stage startups globally, particularly promising startups in blockchain infrastructure for decentralised finance (DeFi) and digital assets, to ready the bank for the digital financial systems of the future.

As per an official statement, the move is the latest in its attempt to spur its ‘Moonshot Mission’ even further. Moonshot Mission represents ideas and creations that have never been done before and the recognition of market needs in the future which can take the bank to reach the goals before other counterparts.

Also Read: Thai bank SCB doubles the size of its fintech-focussed corporate VC fund to US$100M

The bank, through SCB 10X, has set its eyes on strong potential companies and startups worldwide to create new capabilities embracing novel technology through investment to generate exponential growth.

SCB 10X Chief Venture and Investment Officer Mukaya (Tai) Panich, said: “With our new US$50-million blockchain-, DeFi-, and digital assets- dedicated VC fund, we will invest across the capital stack in innovative and promising startups in blockchain infrastructure, blockchain innovative applications, and decentralised finance globally, to better prepare the bank for future disruption.”

In her view, blockchain can reduce transaction costs, facilitate distributed trust, enhance security, and potentially become the new foundation for centralised and decentralised business models and platforms. In the financial industry, blockchain-enabled financial services have the potential to broaden financial inclusion, facilitate open access, and encourage innovation.

“We see strong parallels between traditional finance and blockchain-enabled financial services businesses. Blockchain technology can make financial services more innovative, interoperable, traceable, borderless, and transparent,” Panich added.

Also Read: A lowdown on why DeFi is good for the growth of cryptocurrency

In October last year, SCB 10X entered into a partnership with Alpha Finance Lab (AFL), an ecosystem of cross-chain Decentralised Finance (DeFi) products, with an aim to bridge the gap between traditional banking and emerging financial technology with a new suite of DeFi products under the umbrella of Alpha.

As per this partnership, the two firms will closely work with each other to build and launch innovative and impactful Alpha products that become key building blocks to grow the DeFi market by leveraging years of knowledge and experience in traditional finance.

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Image Credit: SCB 10X

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