In February, Kludio, a Dhaka-based full-stack digital food court platform, announced an undisclosed pre-Series A funding round that was aimed to help support its effort to scale the business.

In addition to Steve Vickers, a former Chief Economist at Grab Indonesia, the investor in the funding round was Impiro, a Singapore-based investment firm.

Impiro focusses on early stage startups, particularly seed and pre-seed stages. Claiming themselves to be sector-agnostic, this year the firm is looking forward to going beyond Southeast Asia in searching for the next big thing in tech.

Historically, the firm might be known for its past exits which included Guava Pass (which was acquired by ClassPass in January 2019), Monopond, Xendity, Twizo, and Silverstreet. But at the present moment, its portfolio includes companies in the transportation sector such as Bali Bike Rental and Bikago, e-payments such as Tranglo, and even F&B group such as Locavore.

This year, despite the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the global market, the firm is set to continue expanding its portfolio. In fact, Impiro Partner Eric Dadoun shares to e27 in an interview that he sees the situation as an opportunity for startups to seize –due to the changes in customer behaviours that are setting everything back to zero.

“It is a very difficult time for individuals from the perspective of an entrepreneur, [but] I would make the argument that right now is actually one of the most exciting times to be building a business,” he opines.

“For creative entrepreneurs, it is kind of a wonderland of opportunity.”

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: gojek, Tokopedia said to be finalising terms of mega merger; SEA’s VC firms report lacklustre fundraising performance in 2020

The advantage of doing it on their own

The firm’s history began in the Netherlands in 2006 when the four partners –Simon Landsheer, Dadoun, Maikel Lambregts, and Ben Chong — founded a mobile messaging company that was eventually acquired in December 2020 by Soprano Design, Silverstreet.

Over the course of time, since 2009, the founders have done a variety of personal and corporate investments in Southeast Asia. This is something that they expect to continue in 2021 and 2022 through Impiro.

“We’re definitely looking to continue this pace of capital deployment into startups. Not only in Southeast Asia, but more broadly in the region and potentially in Europe as well,” Dadoun says.

The fact that Impiro does not have LPs like in a typical VC firm gives them some unique advantages.

“We’re not a fund and that means we do not have LPs. We’re managing our own money and that gives us the flexibility to engage in different businesses, different sectors and essentially target opportunities that inspire and excite us,” Dadoun explains.

He also stresses that Impiro is not locked into a specific thesis or mandate.

“We can essentially look at a variety of businesses across a variety of different sectors … that sort of allows us the freedom to engage teams that we think are very interesting, that we just have a really good vibe with. Of course, it also allows us to act quite quickly and be quite nimble as we don’t have a very complicated internal process for our due diligence or decision making,” he elaborates.

When it comes to looking for a potential investment, as an investor in early stage startups, Impiro puts emphasis on investing in founders. This means putting the founders’ potential as a point of consideration in assessing a potential investment, as early stages startups typically are still building their tractions.

Also Read: TNG Fintech faces lawsuit from minority shareholder in fintech startup Tranglo, failing to materialise the latter’s Series A funding

“Ultimately, we like to view ourselves as founder-friendly as we ourselves are former and current founders. We are still young and energetic, so we love engaging with the teams that we are fortunate enough to invest in,” Dadoun says.

“Generally speaking, and it sounds very cliche, we really do invest in the people, especially at the super early stages where there is just not a lot of traction to look at, not a lot of numbers to look at. So, forecasts don’t really mean anything,” he continues.

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Image Credit: Impiro

The post Investing in people: How Impiro aims to tackle Southeast Asia and Europe in 2021 appeared first on e27.

The pandemic has pushed us to create new ways to stay connected with our communities, and a growing number of people worldwide are finding meaning and a sense of belonging in online groups. According to a 2020 global survey conducted for Facebook by YouGov, in 11 of the 15 nations surveyed, the largest proportion of people said the most important group in their lives is primarily online.

Online communities are significant contemporary organizations that can generate impact and provide members with a strong sense of community and belonging, despite not operating in the physical space. And digital technology enables online communities to form at unprecedented scale and speed.

Also read: Indonesia and Singapore are teaming up to build Southeast Asia’s digital hub of the future

The sheer number of people on Facebook enables community leaders to make membership available to a global audience. No matter how niche the topic, the investments made to reach new members is a fraction of that of the offline world.

As social distancing measures continue, more people are staying at home, which translates to more people on social media platforms like Facebook – thereby providing a boost to engagement. Even governments are pivoting to virtual community engagement, sharing timely, accurate information and updates with their citizens through online platforms and channels.

Leveraging members as a catalyst for growth

In today’s hyper-connected world, the impact of a single recommendation (or a bad review) can be far-reaching. Having the buy-in from your members would naturally lead to word of mouth marketing, which in turn drives growth in membership.

Besides investing in resources to help scale a community, allowing members to own the responsibility to create their own experiences, taking feedback and understanding their needs can add tremendous value.

Also read: Building a globalised ecosystem based on innovation and entrepreneurship

The opportunity for members to share their real opinions, in order to create genuine and honest discussion, helps members build trust in each other. When members are given a platform to provide their transparent and instantaneous feedback, community leaders can leverage that information to make decisions and bring about positive change.

For this to happen though, community leaders must make consistent and intentional outreach with members to understand and empower them, as well as capture success stories of members in order to encourage and support the growth of the community.

Empowering good leaders to scale and empower growth

As an extension to leveraging members, communities should also look to further develop leaders to better manage, promote and create authentic, engaging community ecosystems. These leaders can be part of the original founding team, or from members who have indicated that they have a passion or interest to take on a greater role in their respective community.

Once these leaders are identified and are able to commit to helping a community grow, there are resources that they can begin to tap on to further the unique skill sets that a successful community leader needs.

Among a range of support, Facebook provides leaders with educational material through its community website, and a range of tools and recognition to empower leaders to build, scale and connect communities more meaningfully. The Facebook Certified Community Manager Program is one such program that offers training and certification for leaders to establish best practices and standards around community management. Since its launch in October 2020, we have had thousands of people who have enrolled in our online courses, and hundreds of new certified community managers. Starting in March 2021, the program will also be available in several languages, including Indonesian and Thai.

Also read: Meet these 5 verified investors that are ready to connect with you today

In Asia Pacific, we have community leaders who have successfully completed the program and are now Facebook Certified Community Managers including Maureen from Indonesia who started the Facebook Group “Single Moms Indonesia” as a way of finding solidarity during a challenging time in her life. She became one of the first Certified Community Managers on Facebook to complete the set curriculum and pass the exam.

Additionally, we have programs like the Community Accelerator, which is part of the Facebook Community Leadership Program, a global initiative investing in the leaders who are building communities around the world, bringing people together, offering encouragement, and driving change. Through the Community Accelerator, participants receive growth-related training, hands-on mentorship and funds to grow their community and impact. Since joining the accelerator, Social Connect, which offers a platform for mental health survivors to seek help and share their stories, has doubled its growth, managed to reach over two million people online, and evolved into a business helping companies achieve maximum productivity while ensuring employee happiness.

Online communities are increasingly becoming a viable way to create a positive impact and successfully grow a new venture – particularly for ventures that offer members fulfilment and a sense of belonging. Through a strategic fusion of the resources that are available and a decisive commitment to scale further and engage deeper, more people can get on the track to building and growing a vibrant online community.

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

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.

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Photo by Kaique Rocha from Pexels

The post Scaling communities like startups appeared first on e27.

Europe’s and Asia’s fintech-focused startup incubator and accelerator F10 has announced the graduation of six startups from its inaugural programme.

During the programme, the startups received fundraising support from F10’s investor network, along with one-on-one coaching and mentoring sessions on market entry and product development.

PwC, one of the largest global consulting firms, alongside SIX (Swiss Stock Exchange), Bank Julius Baer, and R3 (blockchain development firm), also partnered with F10 this year.

The six graduating startups are:

Apiax: Transforms complex regulations into digital compliance rules which are accessible for everyone.

Couture.ai: Powers collaborative development and operationalisation of AI and ML models in production at scale.

CoverGo: A no-code, enterprise-grade insurance platform that enables digital insurance transformation.

Propine: An independent digital asset custody services provider that received CMS (Capital Markets Services) license from MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore).

Signzy: An end-to-end digital onboarding platform to take customers through multiple processes including KYC, risk modelling, digital forensics, government, and private data sources.

SynctacticAI: A predictive data science platform that helps businesses turn their data sets into actionable insight.

Out of these, SynctacticAI and CoverGo will go on to undergo the accreditation programme by PwC Singapore.

Also Read: F10 unveils 9 startups graduating from its fintech-focused incubator programme

Founded in 2016, F10 helps fintech entrepreneurs solve the challenges that come with the process of successfully selling their solutions to established banks and insurance companies.

“The innovative startups graduating today will be able to approach businesses with the confidence of accreditation from one of the world’s leading consulting and professional services networks,” said Jonas Thürig, Head of F10 Singapore.

“We have been working with the incumbents and newcomers in accelerating technology advances and digital transformation within the financial services sector. By working with F10 and supporting these innovative startups in their own personal journeys, we can be part of the ongoing evolution of financial services in Singapore and beyond,” Wanyi Wong, fintech leader at PwC added.

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Image Credit: F10

 

 

The post Meet the 6 fintech startups graduating from F10’s inaugural accelerator programme appeared first on e27.

A founder’s path is often a lonely one filled at times with self-doubt, loss of confidence and fatigue. Being a multiple startup founder, I have much to reflect on and understand what happened to me.

You see, I am not only a startup founder, I’m also a person in recovery– from depression, anxiety and insomnia.

These mood disorders may seem fluffy, but for majority of us, we would most certainly have understood stress and frustration in our entrepreneurial journey.

For us founders, failing fast, failing early is the mantra but how many of us are equipped mentally to embrace failures, one after another and be able to march forward relentlessly till we reach scale.

As a young founder, I harboured dreams that I could change the world, create a tiny ripple in this vast ocean. Like some, I chose the route of spending any free time I had on a side tech project while slaving away in a corporate day job. I was bootstrapping myself and it was incredibly exciting.

Little did I realise, balancing two intense jobs would take a toll on me. I started to stumble, committing every mistake there was to make in the founder’s rulebook and before I knew it, I had burnout without even being aware of it.

Without proper guidance and a stubborn will to cross the finish line at all cost, I was soon managing a zombie tech project on life support. Mentally, I was fatigued but refused to accept the idea of mental wellness. I would rather believe in the wind than accept I was suffering from burnout, though both were invisible and widely acknowledged.

As I rejected the notion of burnout, it developed into depression and a range of other mood disorders. Finally, it proved so exhausting that I was no longer getting out of bed much and I meekly surrendered to the fact that I needed help.

Also Read: Ryan Chew of Tribe: Why startups should pay attention to the environmental, social, and governance side of their business

The turning point came on a Monday, where instead of turning up at work, I checked myself into a hospital. Apparently, my condition was severe enough to warrant a week’s staycation.

Looking back, there are so many red flags and potential minefields any founder can encounter in their entrepreneurial journey. The idea of accepting failure as a good teacher to eventual success is noble. But the reality of it is, our minds have limited capacity to keep sponging up the stumbles and falls.

There will be days we feel grey, we lose hope and we struggle with our ideas. There will be moments where we make comparisons with our peers who are successful and we wonder why we are doing what we do. The challenges faced by Founders can range from vulnerability, imposter syndrome, stress, and anxiety amongst a range of roller-coaster emotions.

The startup world exacts every pound of sweat, passion, energy, and strength from founders, who, with their noses against the grindstone, often handle the workload of three or more people every day. Due to this high-intensity lifestyle, founders often end up experiencing burnout.

A few years ago, Business Insider published an article about depression in the startup community. According to the article, seven per cent of the general population report suffering from depression, while 30 per cent of founders report dealing with its effects, and more than 50 per cent of those get to burnout.

In the early 2010s, a clinical professor and entrepreneur by the name of Dr Michael Freeman surveyed 242 entrepreneurs about their mental health. Of the 242 entrepreneurs he surveyed, 49 per cent reported having a mental health condition.

While there are no specific studies focusing on entrepreneurs, there are countless clinical research papers and statistics on the rise of depression and burnout in the general workforce population. The contributing factors range from long hours of work, little personal interaction to a general loss of meaning in professional life.

Also Read: For your mind only: How to deal with founder’s burnout

Founder burnout is as real as it can be.

How can we change the world and not be a shadow of ourselves at the end of it?

It begins by understanding the cause of founders’ burnout. Normal stress can be healthy, and it can even contribute to one’s peak performance. But when we consistently don’t recuperate by resting, we start building chronic stress, which can lead to any combination of disorders and illnesses, ranging from hormonal disorders, muscle tension and aches, weakened immune response, to anxiety, depression, irritability, and insomnia.

Eventually, the continuous stress on the body over a long period of time disturbs the endocrine system, it starts taking over everything that the brain considers nonessential, like sleep, digestion, and the reproductive system. This is when burnout starts. At its highest degree, burnout is a state of complete mental, physical and emotional exhaustion.

From my own journey, I have reflected and identified some key learnings to avoid Founders burnout. I am sharing them here so you don’t have to go through what I did:

Identify your self-worth
I observed some entrepreneurs tend to identify completely with their work, which leads to their moods and sense of self-worth becoming intertwined with the ups and downs of their business.

It’s important to be invested in the business but even more so to invest in one’s mental health. Without the founder leading the vision, the entire startup cannot go on. You cannot give if your glass is empty.

Find your tribe
The founder’s journey can be incredibly lonely, no matter how successful your startup is. There will always be naysayers and difficult decisions no one else can make, except by the Founder. There will be many moments where we find ourselves at a cross junction, struggling with the what-ifs.

It is extremely important we gather support within the startup community, to ask questions, to bounce ideas and to support each other by validating what we do. I call it ‘mental fuel’ and we need it to go on to create something great. Remember, for every doubt a founder has, you can be sure you’re not alone within the community.

Let go
While I am not necessarily a God-fearing individual, I understand we can never control things we simply cannot. And in the startup journey, there are so many variables that are just uncontrollable. There are a million and one things that can go wrong in this path to greatness and often, to keep winning, founders can be harsh on themselves. Remember, be kind to yourself and don’t sweat the small stuff.

Also Read: How ThoughtFull aims to destigmatise mental health through daily chats with professionals

Leave time for me-time
Entrepreneurs sometimes relate their own sense of purpose with the purpose of their business, which can be dangerous when the bubble bursts, leaving the entrepreneur completely empty. Be reminded to put things into perspective and leave time for family, friends and exercise. Setting aside time for relationships and self-care can recharge a Founder multiple folds and last longer in this challenging entrepreneurial journey.

Celebrate the small wins (in a big way)
In the course of a Founder’s startup journey, there will be wins and losses, just like a basketball regular season. Hit that pause button to acknowledge and celebrate the small wins. While we may not necessarily get that hockey stick chart we all love, enough small wins make an upwards linear line. And that’s called progress.

There is a mental health crisis in entrepreneurship

As I embarked on my recovery journey, it is also through this wish to share my lived experiences with others that I founded CARA Unmask, a community based mobile platform where users can connect anonymously and securely with trained peer supporters and professional counsellors.

Global statistics and market surveys indicate two big findings:

• One of the biggest issues preventing someone with mood disorder from seeking help is stigma
• It takes someone on average from six to 11 years before they sought help with their mood disorder

Our mission is to overcome stigma and be that global digital front door to more conversations about our mental health. We aim to be the first line prevention, rather than handling higher cost, time and efforts for bigger mental health issues further downstream.

They say products are often a function of the founder’s experience. In this case, I simply wanted another to not have to go through the mental struggles and difficulties I encountered in my startup journey. There may not be necessarily anything serious about a founder’s mental health when they on board CARA but it does provide a safe space to share their struggles within a community that cares, rather than keep things snowballing inside.

Also Read: 7 strategies for beating startup burnout

Startup founders are one of the most inspirational people around; the will to persevere on and strong desire to make things better is bar none. However, the same group of people is also vulnerable to poor mental health, if not careful.

The journey to startup greatness can be lonely. So, start looking out for another fellow Founder and nudge them with a reminder to take care. After all, there is no true health without mental health.

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

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The post Feeling deflated, defeated and downright tired as a founder? You are not alone appeared first on e27.

Meet Stephen Halasnik, who runs four companies at the same time, all of which do 7-8 figures per year!

We discuss:

• Why he developed multiple businesses
• Why bootstrapping to profit IS still a viable option
• How to offset taxes by re-investing in new companies
• How to start multiple companies without burning out
• Why family is so important
• And more!

If you don’t see the player above, click on the link below to listen directly!

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For show notes and past guests, please visit our site.

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