Day: March 17, 2021

Aaron Lee, a full-time serial entrepreneur and part-time boxer, had just returned to Hong Kong after completing his education in the US.

However, as an expat, he encountered challenges in finding affordable accommodation in HK, as there were limited options available. The ones that existed charged exorbitant rents and their leasing terms were not flexible. And it got lonely to stay without friends in a flat in HK.

This led Lee to set up Dash Living, a home-sharing platform, which has grown to cover over 1,200 units in Hong Kong and Singapore. 

Besides solving accommodation problems for millennials like himself, Dash also solves one of the biggest challenges that young working professionals face: that is, finding affordable, all-inclusive premium living spaces.

One of the most important characteristics of co-living spaces is a community, and Dash has quickly managed to secure over 13,000 followers across its social media platforms.

“Building a community is certainly a crucial aspect for startups,” Lee said. “While we are more nimble, adaptable, and creative, we are also the underdogs with fewer resources than the big guys. Whether it is tenant communities,  investor communities, brand partners, or collaborator communities, having like-minded people around not only amplifies but also helps shape and nurture a company’s message and culture, ultimately helping it grow.”

In this interview, he shares with e27 how the seven-year-old company managed to build one of the largest co-living communities.

Also Read: Dash Living acquires Singapore’s coliving company Easycity, expands to the Asia Pacific

Create a dedicated community team 

One of the most common challenges facing startups over community hiring is finding the right professionals to do the job. And, beyond that, growing the community in the most organic way possible.

Dash has a dedicated team of community experts, with most of them having experience in the hospitality industry, which he believes makes them professionals at guest service and handling communication.

Dash’s community team engages with tenants almost every day with activities, events, and chit-chats to understand their needs better. 

The startup follows a lean structure where the freshest of employees can work alongside the founder and senior leaders. Lee believes that structuring the team in a way where everyone is viewed as “equals” can contribute to both growth and encourage newer ideas.

Understanding clients

In a world where people switch from one platform to another in a heartbear, Dash believes it is extremely important for businesses to understand the needs of their clients.

Therefore, an important aspect of the Dash community is developing a deep understanding of tenants’ backgrounds and interests. The company goes out of the way to carry out regular surveys to understand tenants’ needs before they check in to their rooms.

Through its in-built chat functionality, the Dash team can speak to the tenants not just about matters pertaining to the co-living space but also outside of their stay.

For example, the Dash team helps tenants with information about car parking spaces and restaurants with a particular cuisine. According to the team, this is some of the kind of instant help that it provides the tenants.

Creating a user-driven community

Once Dash engages with tenants through online and offline touchpoints, it focuses mostly on creating user-generated content, user-generated engagement, and events.

According to Lee, a true community is user-driven and not just merely platform-driven. One of the metrics to measure if a community is thriving is also to observe to what extent it is user-driven.

To encourage this, Dash provides its members with a platform where they can initiate and host events for the community, and as the host, it puts those memories and interesting stories on Dash’s blog (known as Dash Insider).

Responsive community team

Since most of the tenants in co-living spaces have similar difficulties and inquiries, handling queries is not very difficult, according to the founder, which is why being responsive is the most valuable thing.

The company has added features like “in-app messaging” to make the communication process more streamlined. Besides this, it also has a dedicated team to respond quickly to tenants staying in over 600 rooms in HK and 600 rooms in Singapore.

Offering perks 

The community team at Dash also offers its tenants perks that it probably wouldn’t find anywhere else. For example, free gym services for both tenants and their parents and discounts with shopping brands.

Also Read: From co-working to co-living, these 7 brands in Southeast Asia have got you covered

Besides responding and hosting events for the community, the Dash team also manages and explores perks with different vendors, for example, dining, discounts, gym pass, and also free usage of co-working spaces.

Hosting events

Bringing different people together under one roof is an important aspect of community building. The company used to host events at least once a month before the onset of COVID-19. For example, having a bakery workshop for all its tenants.

But it does not just self host events but also helps its tenants organise events.

Lee recalls how a French tenant organised an event for his neighbours on the rooftop with the help of the Dash community team, who helped him plan the event and get RSVPs from interested individuals.

After the pandemic hit, Dash quickly pivoted from offline to online events which include Zoom sessions focused on health and fitness. 

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Image Credit: Dash Living

The post How Dash Living built a social media community of 13K+ members for its co-living platform across Singapore, HK appeared first on e27.

Raising capital is no mean task. It often takes weeks or months before you get your first equity round. Alas, it takes even years to grab your first VC funding.

In the years to come, it is gonna be even harder to raise VC money in Southeast Asia, if Jeffrey Paine can be believed. You need to get your product and business model right, but that’s not enough. You also need to achieve a certain milestone to draw the attention of top VCs of the region.

In this part of the virtual webinar series on the topic Fundraising Fundamentals, hosted by e27, the Golden Gate Ventures Founding Partner gets candid about the region’s VC ecosystem and gives some valuable advice to founders seeking VC investment.

‘You need to be valued at US$700M in 10 years to raise VC money’

I met a thousand companies in Southeast Asia in the past 12 years. I would say there are only 52 companies with a valuation of US$200 million and above, of which 60 per cent are in the B2C space. Of this 52, 90 per cent are headquartered in either Singapore, Jakarta or Vietnam.

Also Read: Bali, Batam climb up digital competitiveness index in Indonesia as up-and-coming tech hubs: Report

About 40-50 per cent of these 52 firms are in some kind of trouble but nobody knows about it. They are way overvalued, which will cause them some trouble in the next two-three years.

So, if you’re a founder looking to raise VC money, you need to be valued at least US$700 million in ten years. But the chances of you hitting over US$200 million is very low. But if you still want VC money, your job is to work backwards. If you are not sure and don’t think you will ever get there, don’t raise VC money then.

Instead, raise money from friends, family or angels. Raise money from a seed fund where the fund size is quite small and their returns targets are different. If you think your angel will be happy if you achieve a US$30-million in seven years, then go raise money from them.

‘Provide value to your customers’

I would say 99 per cent of all SMEs are not raising VC funding and only about 1 per cent does. Of this 1 per cent, probably 5 per cent does very well. So the odds are stacked against you guys (startup founders).

Your job as a founder is to provide value to your customers. Whether you’re US$1 billion or US$700 million, you shouldn’t care that much. Your job is to make people happy, provide value and figure out a business model such that you can pay yourself and your employees. The employees are happy and can send their kids to school, they can eventually retire.

Don’t worry about the startup fantasy of raising money because based on 12 years of data, it’s almost impossible to raise VC money. Everything you read about or everything you hear on Clubhouse or any other place is about VCs, startups, tech, etc., but nobody talks about a SaaS company that makes US$2 million a year. They raise US$100,000 but nobody talks about these people, nobody talks about a one-man show that makes US$1 million a year with no employees.

Also Read: Investible aims to raise US$38M fund targeting early-stage startups in SEA, Australia

I think we should talk more about these people because 99 per cent of SMEs belong to this category (who generate millions in revenues but don’t hog the limelight). But we are only focused on 1 per cent, which doesn’t make sense.

‘Tell us your 10-year story’

The market will probably have a correction soon. Then what should you be doing? You need to tell your 10-year story as accurate as you can — whether you are US$30-million worth or US$700-million worth doesn’t matter.

Because we already know that you don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next 12 months. You may tell me your tenure story is not going to be real, but you should still try your best.

Be honest. Don’t bullshit because the more you bullshit and the better salespeople you are, you attract investors that do not know what they’re doing, then they invest in you to go on a road that doesn’t make sense to either of you. Then the next four or five years or less is a waste of time. So be very careful about what you’re doing.

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Image Credit: Golden Gate Ventures

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Sembrani Nusantara Fund (SNF), a fund operated by Indonesian corporate VC firm BRI Ventures, has led an undisclosed Series A investment Andalin, a local startup providing cross-border shipping solutions.

The round is SNF’s third investment since launching in June 2020. Last December, it announced back-to-back investments into Indonesian drink brand Haus! and local direct-to-consumer shoe startup Brodo.

The fresh funds will go towards establishing freight consolidation infrastructure and expanding Andalin’s branch offices in the international port cities of Semarang, Surabaya, Medan and Makassar. The company will also seek to launch operations in Japan, Thailand, China, Vietnam and South Korea.

This round comes fresh off Andalin’s seven-figure pre-Series A round raised in October 2020.

Established in 2016, Andalin provides digital cross-border shipping solutions in Indonesia to help local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) simplify their import-export processes — from freight arrangements to customs clearance and everything in between.

Despite the economic impacts of COVID-19, Andalin claims it saw demand for its services spike in 2020, with shipment volume increasing by roughly 5x and average revenue per client rising by 450 per cent year on year.

The company claimed that it facilitated shipments of goods worth US$20 million in 2020 and was close to EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation) positive by the year-end. As it seeks to increase its gross merchandise value to US$100 million, the company said it is on track to raise another round of funding by the end of 2021.

Also Read: Teleoperation: It’s here to revolutionise the logistics and supply chain industry

Nicko Widjaja, CEO of BRI Ventures, said: “With companies like Andalin strengthening the local import-export game, Indonesia will be able to start reducing its trade deficit. Even if you put COVID-19’s impact on global trade aside, very clear patterns still emerge in this market, such as the country’s overall e-commerce gross merchandise volume of US$130 billion in 2020.”

“We see an opportunity in digitising first-mile logistics, simplifying the often convoluted and opaque sourcing process for MSMEs while reducing cost barriers. If all goes well, this will encourage them to undertake more import-export activities,” said Rifki Pratomo, CEO of Andalin. “Andalin will increase the capacity and quality of export-oriented products to and from Indonesia, and hopefully reduce the trade deficit.”

The global freight forwarding market is expected to reach US$207 billion by 2026, up from US$170 billion in 2019.

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Image Credit: BRI Ventures

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Beenext joins Indian fintech startup YAP’s US$10M round

Other investors: Flourish Ventures and Omidyar Network India (co-leads), 8i Ventures, DMI Group (The Sparkle Fund), Better Capital.

What it intends to do with the funding: To expand across Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Vietnam and Indonesia.

About YAP: Founded in 2015, YAP is a fintech infrastructure provider that enables businesses and platforms to offer their own branded financial services while ensuring regulatory compliance.

As of now, YAP’s infrastructure serves companies in India, Nepal, the UAE, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

Tan Hooi Ling joins fintech firm Wise’s board

The story: London-headquartered Wise has also named Clare Gilmartin, former CEO of Trainline, as a director-designate.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: ByteDance game plan, and does AirAsia foray into food delivery even make sense?

More about the story: Wise will also be expanding its Singapore office and aims to hire over 70 people in expansion, engineering, product and operations roles.

New partnership to support Singapore’s halal startup ecosystem

The story: The Halal Angels Network has partnered with HalalNexus Singapore to support local firms and government to boost the halal startup ecosystem in the region, according to Singapore Business Review.

How it will help: By investing in the government’s startup initiatives and market opportunities in the halal consumer market, including B2C and B2B.

According to HalalNexufs founder Sulaiman Harun: “Halal Angels Network’s focus on halal startups and entrepreneurship will make it easy for us to connect and leverage with other like-minded startups, entrepreneurs and investors. Furthermore, as Singapore is poised to capitalise on the over US$2 trillion halal market size in the Asia-Pacific region, it represents a huge opportunity for halal startups here.”

SK Group kickstarts fellowship programme to support early-stage Vietnamese startups

How will it benefit: This is the second edition of the SK Startup Fellowship Programme. It will provide startups with financial grants (non-equity funds) and up to US$50,000 in funding.

Non-financial support includes a course on financial management from KPMG, training in investor pitching from the Business Startup Support Centre, one-on-one mentoring, workshops with Vietnamese businesses, and networking activities within the startup ecosystem.

Selection criteria: Vietnamese startups who have raised less than US$3 million in funding. Priority is given to tech startups solving social issues.

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Image Credit: Grab

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PatSnap, a provider of R&D intelligence and IP intelligence platforms for brands and enterprises, has secured US$300 million in Series E financing round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tencent Investment.

Existing investors Vertex Growth, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, CPE Industrial Fund, Sequoia China, and Shun Wei Capital also participated.

This development comes nearly three years after it secured US$38 million in Series D round in June 2018.

The London- and Singapore-based firm plans to use the fresh funds to further advance its innovation intelligence platform, accelerate product development, and acquire additional domain expertise in the industry sectors where its technology is used by research and development (R&D) and intellectual property (IP) teams.

Also Read: ‘Want VC funding? Your startup needs to be valued at least US$700M in 10 years’: Jeffrey Paine

The funds will also enable the company to expand its sales presence around the world and invest in the growth and professional development of its employees.

PatSnap’s flagship R&D Intelligence and IP Intelligence platforms use machine learning (ML), computer vision, natural language processing (NLP) and other artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Innovation teams at companies, brands, universities and research institutions use these platforms to get access to market, technology and competitive intelligence as well as patent insights needed to take their products from ideation to commercialisation.

PatSnap’s clients include Dyson, Spotify, Oxford University Innovation and The Dow Chemical Company.

“PatSnap’s mission is to empower innovators to make the world a better place,” said Jeffrey Tiong, founder and CEO of PatSnap. “Our global footprint, leadership and strategic position in the innovation economy have enabled us to attract top investors, customers and talent.”

Companies around the world are under pressure to increase the pace of innovation. And while more money is spent on R&D every year — US$2.4 trillion in 2021, according to R&D World — the returns are dwindling. An article published in Harvard Business Review also noted a 65 per cent drop in R&D productivity.

PatSnap’s AI-powered technology addresses this issue by analysing and connecting the key relationships between millions of unstructured data points across disparate data sources to deliver insights that guide R&D decisions and help accelerate the time it takes to bring new innovations to market.

PatSnap claims it has more than 10,000 customers around the world, supported by more than 700 employees working from the company’s Asian headquarters in Singapore, European headquarters in London, and North American headquarters in Toronto.

Over the past year, PatSnap says it has enabled its customers to significantly accelerate time to insight when dealing with unstructured data by an estimated 12x, leading to an estimated 3x increase in successful product launches.

“We believe in a connected world and are impressed with PatSnap’s AI-centric platform that helps organisations and researchers to connect the dots,” said Levin Yao, Managing Partner of Tencent Investment.

“PatSnap is the clear leader in the connected innovation intelligence category. Its impressive portfolio of customer use cases reinforces its role in enabling companies to significantly improve their ability to identify business opportunities and threats across multiple domains and industries,” Yao added.

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Image Credit: Patsnap

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