As an organisation that invests in transformational technologies, we at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India (VVSEAI) are no strangers to challenges and change. That’s why this year’s International Women’s Day theme, #ChooseToChallenge, resonates deeply with our philosophy.

There is no question that gender disparity is a real issue: the trailing numbers in wage amounts and leadership representation compared to men are clear for all to see.  We recognise now that women are just as capable as men, especially in the workforce, and broadly agree that maintaining gender diversity is not just a sensible thing to do but it also makes a lot of business sense.

Accepting and adapting to differences

Very often, businesses see securing the best talent as one of their key priorities and may even relate it to their profitability.  On paper, men are the more reliable hires because they don’t need months of maternity leave.

This means less disruption to business operations, which can be appealing to companies with limited manpower such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs).  However, this ignores the individual value of female workers, as well as the ability of companies to adapt workflow processes to their needs.

I believe that with the right support, women can be strong leaders without neglecting their other roles as wives and mothers.  Businesses that genuinely value their female employees will consider arrangements that help them balance working and caring for their families.

Remote working is one such example; now that companies are more familiar with it due to COVID-19, working mothers have a new option for more flexible work.

Meaningful change vs jumping on the bandwagon

It’s true that there are more women in leadership than before, but many still tend to hold ‘supporting’ roles such as in human resources, communications, and marketing instead of ‘frontline’ roles, such as being CEOs or being on the Board of Directors. In fact, the Singapore Board Diversity Index showed that 45 per cent of listed companies in Singapore lack female representation on the Board of Directors.

Women are not asking for special treatment. We just want to compete on an even footing with our male peers. I was fortunate that the leaders in VVSEAI were progressive enough to consider having women partners before it became fashionable to do so, but my experience shouldn’t be an exception.

Also Read: How women in tech can navigate the 2021 business landscape

Gender equality is not altruism. It isn’t unreasonable to want the removal of barriers such as gender-based discrimination and prejudice or to want to be judged on merit instead of gender, being paid what the role is worth, and having zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Having quotas for female leaders and staff is a good PR initiative to emphasise a company’s commitment to gender inclusivity, but it’s still just paying lip service if they are filled based purely on gender and are limited to certain types of roles or levels. While all companies should strive to support gender diversity at the workplace, only an authentic approach will inspire true change.

That is why at VVSEAI, our ambition as a company is to have a workplace where there are equal opportunities to succeed in every function and at every level. I believe the shift is starting but it will take time for a multi-generation bias to change.

Rejecting stereotypes in favour of merit

Women have been called the ‘weaker sex’ for generations – not just physically, but mentally as well. This is especially a disadvantage at the workplace, where the archetype of the ideal leader continues to be predominantly masculine.

Leadership qualities such as being direct, firm and no-nonsense are celebrated in men but are seen as being undesirable in women – even among other women. Yet these are just stereotypes created by our society. They have no bearing on actual performance.

Ultimately, organisations want to hire the best talent and talent does not discriminate between gender, age, race or religion – so neither should we. Employers should focus on the abilities of an individual when making selection decision. Companies should judge all employees based on the same criteria: performance, work ethic, experience and skills.

They shouldn’t fear diversity and difference; in fact, diversity builds stronger organisations by virtue of creating a more informed and tolerant workplace, making us better people by extension.

Taking on the challenge

At VVSEAI, our DNA and duty as a venture capital firm are to challenge the status quo by backing leading startups offering innovative business models and transformational technologies. We always strive to make a difference in everything we do. We will always #ChooseToChallenge the barriers and stereotypes that hold us back from progress as individuals and as a society, and gender equality is one of the ultimate obstacles that we must overcome together.

Our priority is to nurture tomorrow’s leaders, and some of the ways we have pledged are to create a more inclusive environment by creating more visibility for women leaders and celebrating their achievements as well as to identify female entrepreneurs in the investment opportunities we see.

Also Read: How ZaZaZu aims to empower women by starting conversation about sexual wellness

That said, change must always start from the top. The onus will be on the management to lead the way in shifting the gender mindset. For myself, being at Partner-level in what is still a predominantly male-heavy industry is already pushing the boundaries for more inclusiveness.

An inclusive workspace means respecting the difference of individuals to ensure people are valued and empowered, whoever they may be. As the cycle of leadership continues to turn and a new generation steps up – one more exposed to inclusiveness and equality – I hope that the shift away from this multi-generation bias will become less of a challenge and more of an eventuality.

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ACKTEC Technologies, a Singapore-based immersive learning startup, has raised US$1 million in seed funding from local family office Octava.

SEEDS Capital, EduSpaze, Govin Capital and a group of angel investors also participated.

The company said the fresh capital will be used to scale its immersive learning content marketplace KQwest across Asia.

Founded in 2018 by Rayvan Ho, ACKTEC specialises in providing digital learning ecosystems, structuring and digitising learning and development (L&D) content for organisations.

According to the firm, through its immersive learning platform ACKTEC Learn, organisations and institutions can transform their existing L&D content into immersive learning modules utilising technologies such as AR, VR and interactive 3D while maintaining a mobile-friendly format.

Also Read: A case for adult learning: How it is the answer to bridge the employment gap

“COVID-19 is changing the way people work and learn. There is a movement worldwide to more blended and digital modes of delivery– but it may be difficult to undertake this process without an understanding of how course content should be restructured, and what technologies and modes of learning are best suited to meet the organisation’s and the consumer’s needs,” said Ho.

“With this funding, we will be able to better support organisations who are looking to digitalise their learning processes, and help them transform and participate in the growing global digital learning ecosystem,” he added.

By cutting out the need for costly equipment and catering to the growing population of mobile device users, ACKTEC aims make immersive learning accessible and affordable for all.

“The ACKTEC Learn platform already serves over 705,000 active learners across 16 countries, through industries as varied as transportation, education and finance, and we believe in their ability to scale and reach a global audience,” shared Tan Ying Yong, Director at Octava.

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M Capital Management, a newly-established VC firm based in Singapore, announced today that it has made the final close of its maiden fund, M Venture Partners, at US$30.85 million.

The names of the LPs have not been disclosed.

The fund intends to invest in about 40 ventures — mainly in the seed and pre-Series A stages — focused on technology-enabled B2B or B2B2C business models. The average initial cheque size will be about US$500,000.

“We intend to remain sector-agnostic in this maiden fund. However, we are extremely focused on investing in seasoned talent. We seek to partner with entrepreneurs who have pedigree professional experience and strong academic backgrounds,” said co-founder Mayank Parekh.

“While it may sound simplistic, at this early stage, it’s all about ensuring the talent has the mental acuity, maturity, and resilience to build to last,” he added.

MVP was founded by Parekh, a former investor, and management consultant, along with Joachim Ackermann, former managing director of Google Asia Pacific. Other key team members include Dr. Tanuja Rajah who joins from Entrepreneur First, and Chethana Ellepola, previously Research Director at Acquity Stockbrokers.

Also Read: Founders should be able to back up their ideas with sales; Golden Gates newly-appointed Principal Jeffrey Chua

Since its inception, the VC firm has made 11 investments in total.

Its prominent investment is 3D Metal Forge, which recently got listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Other investees are health coaching startup Naluri, AI-enabled credit company Impact Credit Solutions and health-tech startup Cipher Cancer Clinics.

“While maintaining Southeast Asian, broader regional and global aspirations, a majority of our portfolio companies will be Singapore headquartered. Singapore presents a fabulous venture ecosystem and support network for our entrepreneurs and an ideal springboard to launch innovative and disruptive technology start-ups across multiple markets,” said Ackermann.

Singapore’s VC ecosystem is buzzing as of late even as the world is yet to come out of the COVID-19 crisis. On Tuesday, Niklas Holck, former Chairman of Nordic Eye Venture Capital, announced the launch of Tradeworks.vc.

The boutique VC firm targets early-growth startups and scale-ups at the seed to Series A funding stages, mainly in the logistics-tech segment.

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Pluang, a wealthtech startup headquartered in Jakarta, announced today it has raised US$20 million in a pre-Series B round led by returning investor Openspace Ventures.

Other existing investors, including Go-Ventures, also participated.

This round comes two years after the fintech startup bagged US$3 million in Series A funding in March 2019.

With the fresh capital, Pluang plans to launch several new asset classes and provide users with proprietary financial products. One new focus will be to introduce a novel way to utilise government bonds as a savings product.

It also plans to onboard several new partners over time using a part of the capital.

Also Read: Digital micro-savings startup Pluang raises US$3M, becomes the latest Go-Ventures’ portfolio

Founded by Claudia Kolonas and Richard Chua while they were at Harvard Business School, Pluang provides easy access to micro-savings and micro-investment products in Indonesia. By logging into its mobile app, users can check or top up their accounts, make transactions or cash out, anywhere anytime.

Users can make micro-savings as low as ~US$0.50.

Currently, Pluang offers gold, US equity indices and cryptocurrencies.

The company has been selected to provide mini-apps within gojek, Dana and Bukalapak.

The firm claims to have served over one million users to date.

“We plan to expand our product offerings in 2021, focusing on new financial products to give our users simple and convenient access to a wider variety of asset classes. Previously, these assets classes were only available to the wealthy in Indonesia. However, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to grow their savings, and our new products will reflect this,” said Kolonas.

Pluang believes financial education in Indonesia, a country with very low financial literacy requires a joint effort. Ecosystem partners can make a huge difference in educating users as they have existing user bases.

Also Read: Robowealth rakes in Series A from Beacon VC to lower wealth gap in Thailand through tech

“Pluang has demonstrated tremendous growth over the last 12 months with industry leading unit economics. We’re excited to continue supporting the team, as they sustainably accelerate their ambitions to help every Indonesian grow their savings,” said Shane Chesson, founding partner, Openspace Ventures.

“As a nation, Indonesians are just starting to get familiar with savings, investing and growing their wealth. Pluang is making excellent in-roads into educating new users, and getting them started on their savings journey,” said Aditya Kamath, Partner, Go- Ventures.

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NextPay, a digital banking platform for small businesses and entrepreneurs in the Philippines, has secured US$125,000 in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator (YC).

With this, NextPay becomes the fifth Filipino tech startup to be backed and selected by YC after Kalibrr (2013), PayMongo (2019), Avion School (2021), and Dashlabs.ai (2021).

Y Combinator is popularly known as the launchpad of many iconic startups such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe and Twitch.

NextPay said in a statement that fresh funds will be used to expand its line of digital banking services for payments, credit and personal cash management.

The fintech firm is also looking to partner with human resource and accounting software companies to further streamline enterprise financial operations.

Launched in 2020, NextPay is an alternative to bank accounts for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Its platform enables companies to collect customer payments via digital invoices, manage their cash, and pay their employees, suppliers, or bills in batches to any bank or e-wallet.

Also Read: Why digital lending services for MSMEs are the next big thing in SEA

NextPay operates on a pay-per-use model and does not require any set-up fees and minimum balances.

The company disclosed it has processed more than US$2.5 million worth of transactions for over 100 businesses in the Philippines. 

“Our goal is to empower smaller businesses with a spectrum of banking services that were previously unavailable to them because of the steep requirements and high fees that are typically aimed at larger, more developed companies that can afford them,” said Don Pansacola, CEO and co-founder of NextPay.

“NextPay wants to help the Philippines bounce back. We want to enable growing enterprises to maximize their capital, reach more customers, and generate more jobs and opportunities. This then stimulates economic transactions and creates a demand for stronger partnerships. It’s a domino effect,” he added.

“The opportunity to provide digital financial services to these market segments, which make up 99.5 per cent of all businesses, and are the lifeblood of the Philippine economy, is huge. Through our platform, MSMEs can conduct their transactions seamlessly and allow business owners to free up resources and focus on their operations,” noted Aldrich Tan, co-founder and Chief Experience Officer.

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The pandemic hit the Vietnamese economy and labour market hard. With inevitable lockdowns and social distancing, the job market has come to a standstill or even shrank. 31.8 million Vietnamese people aged 15 and over were negatively affected by COVID-19 in the forms of unemployment, staggered working hours, and income decrease, according to Vietnam’s General Statistics Office.

However, the country’s labour market has shown signs of a moderate recovery in the third quarter of 2020, especially with the rise of gig employment.

Gig jobs arising, especially in the food delivery sector

The gig economy has been here for a long time, but only when COVID-19 came around is it being embraced like never before.

Undoubtedly, food delivery is one of the most popular gig jobs. As more people are forced to stay indoors, online delivery has become a lifeline for people to purchase necessities from their homes’ comfort.

This results in greater demand for delivery drivers to accommodate such needs, thereby creating loads of gig employment opportunities. Many are now turning to part-time food delivery gigs for additional – or even primary – income during these unprecedented times. Surprisingly enough, women are making up increasing numbers of the delivery workforce.

Vietnamese women making inroads into food delivery

A recent International Labour Organisation study shows that most ASEAN countries saw a larger decline in working hours and employment for women than men due to COVID-19, and Vietnam was no exception.

The prolonged pandemic would further delay the return of women with children to the job market. All of the above explains why more and more women opt for food delivery as an alternate career option to make up for lost income.

Also Read: Making cross-border partnerships work within a Covid-19 reality

A spokesperson at the Vietnamese delivery startup Loship shares that the number of new female drivers signing up for their platform even more than double in the past year, particularly when COVID-19 took a heavy toll on Vietnamese women’s income.

“We are seeing an increase in drivers signing up for Loship, and a large percentage are women whose careers have been impacted by the pandemic. As a local food delivery startup, we aim to create more high-value jobs for Vietnamese women, fostering a culture of diversity and enabling livelihood opportunities across the country,” Loship CEO Trung Hoang Nguyen said.

The uptrend is likely to continue not only in Vietnam but globally as well. Amazon, Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart, or unicorn startup Swiggy are increasingly hiring women for two significant reasons, low attrition and higher retention.

At DoorDash, 55 per cent of the drivers are women, or women at US-based ride-sharing platform Lyft make up over a fifth of all drivers. This is all proof of the potential of women in this male-dominated industry, and how tech companies are continually creating many job opportunities for women.

Vo Thi Thanh Suong (Aunt Suong) is a typical female food-delivery worker in Vietnam. She has been part of Loship’s driver fleet for almost a year, ever since the start of the pandemic. Despite the age constraint, she excelled in some long-distance orders up to 30km from the city centre to the suburbs.

“I’m 60 years old, a woman, and still can drive. You’re never too old, or too weak, to try and work. As long as you’ve got a bike and you’re motivated, you’ve got something to give you some income and stability,” shared Aunt Suong.

Or, Truong Thi Hai Duong, who is also in her 60s, has worked as a Loship’s delivery-partner for almost a year. Since the pandemic outbreak, her work has been busier than before due to the increased customer demand. She averages 20 deliveries a day in the 9 AM to 6 PM shift and seems to be enjoying her job. “I enjoy the freedom and flexibility of the gig job. It allows me to focus on my family during the day and pick-up work where and when it best fits into my schedule,” she says.

Also Read: Understanding the economics of food delivery platforms

With more women aspiring to join the food delivery gig workforce, this employment trend could have a major impact on the future of the gig economy at large. And it’s likely to stay for the foreseeable future, especially when the job market is still struggling to get back to normal, and a number of traditional jobs are not coming back anytime soon.

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Influencers have an undeniable impact on audiences. With the potential to affect user’s brand favourability and self-confidence, content creators have the weighted responsibility to ensure their platforms authentically benefit and uplift followers. Amid these unprecedented times, compassionate and purposeful engagement is even more paramount.

Social media can be a powerful catalyst for good. As evidenced by viral cause campaigns such as #FridayForFuture and #StopHateForProfit , it is clear that purpose, inclusion and diversity are important user and brand considerations.

In a 2019 Deloitte report, 55 per cent of audiences felt brands should actively engage with causes. This strongly held belief is further supported by a 2020 Porter Novelli study where 64 per cent of consumers claim to have selected, switched and boycotted a brand based on its stance on social and environmental issues alone.

Interestingly, 35 per cent of digital users claimed an influencer inspired them to advocate for a cause with 52 per cent spreading awareness and 51 per cent making a donation as a result. Impact-driven engagement can deepen connections between digital users and content creators.

With the notion of purpose meaning something to all, this amplified affinity can be specially cultivated by creators who authentically align with followers’ values. As trusted voices, influencers have the privileged capacity to incrementally impact a cause. For brands working with influencers, the prospect of doing good can motivate heightened dedication to collaboration.

Recently, WHO partnered with INCA, GroupM’s influencer marketing solution, to carry out a global cause campaign to help fight the spread of COVID-19. Over 47,000 influencers, from celebrity Selena Gomez to renowned sports team Real Madrid, disseminated key health and safety information about social distancing and proper hygiene.

Garnering 34 million Instagram engagements and over three billion TikTok video views in two weeks, it made clear that influencers can catalyse awareness and action. That said, influencers have also gone astray. During The Blacks Lives Matter protests, multiple
creators were caught disingenuously participating to promote their online personas.

Also Read: Ex-Grabbers’ startup Evo raises seed funding to help influencers, live-streamers optimise back-office ops

Locally, Singaporean influencer Xiaxue and Malaysia’s ex-Miss Universe Samantha Katie James faced social media fury after releasing controversial statements on race. Shortly after, both lost partnerships with brands such as Daniel Wellington and Velvet Vanity Cosmetics, respectively. Acknowledging that genuity and sensitivity are key, how can creators, brands and marketers appropriately
incorporate and promote purpose in influencer marketing strategies?

Transparency

Audiences are becoming hyper-aware of ‘woke washing’, or instances where a brand or influencer advocates for causes that do not reflect previous actions. This can be detrimental to credibility and trust as evidenced by online boycotts of Jo Malone and HSBC earlier this year.

Conversely, the choice to not acknowledge can similarly spark strong user reactions. Instead, influencers need to be open about their efforts or lack thereof. With the latter, creators should transparently convey intentions to improve and create space for discussion by encouraging audiences to share relevant insights and experiences.

Commitment

For both influencers and brands, advocating for good entails a heightened commitment to learn from and listen to audiences. Social listening tools can give marketers insight into follower sentiments, dictating when best to express solidarity and promote calls to action.

Inclusivity and diversity is an especially pertinent topic with 69 per cent of Gen-Z and millennials reporting positive reactions to ads with diverse models . Efforts should go beyond visual representation however, by using the powerful reach of brand and creator platforms to sincerely amplify unique voices.

For example, hosting social media takeovers. Cause campaigns similarly need to take additional steps by leading with validated facts and figures, redirecting to essential resources and giving exposure to relevant third-sector organisations.

Consistency

One-off diversity campaigns or cause-related posts are insufficient. Instead, influencers and brands must continue being transparent and committed. This begins by genuinely evaluating how this extra lens of consideration can naturally complement core content strategies.

With ongoing efforts to listen and learn from audience sentiments, deep user engagement can be truly fostered and harnessed for sustainable change. Engaging with purpose is an alternate way to forge trusted and authentic relationships with audiences.

Influencers, privileged with reach, credibility and reliability, are uniquely positioned to be a powerful force for change. It is up to us as marketers, brands and content creators to harness this potential in genuine, authentic and accountable ways.

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Traditional real estate management systems are difficult to maintain and upgrade. In order to keep up with the dynamic landscapes of commercial real estate, it is essential to make use of the best that technology has to offer.  So what is the best that technology has to offer?

Citizen development and no-code platforms.

The one thing that traditional real estate management systems lack is their ability to customise an application. Real estate companies cannot afford such compromises considering the new set of challenges placed on landlords and tenants during the pandemic and especially at a time where competition is at its peak.

In order to thrive, real estate companies need to adopt no-code platforms to efficiently manage different aspects such as marketing, leasing, properties, tenants, and investments.

No-code offers development platforms and tools to create new applications without the need for a single line of code. These platforms use a combination of drag and drop graphical interfaces and templates to enable non-IT professionals to create and optimise an application.

These no-code applications are highly customisable and can be updated with just a few clicks.

You don’t need a four-year computer science degree or a professional to use these tools. Your imagination is all that is needed to build the necessary administrative and operational apps.

The best part?

No-code apps are built based on existing spreadsheets and databases. They provide speed and flexibility for your real estate or property management business at the fraction of the cost of traditional digital solutions.

Also Read: How today’s fast-growing companies can solve the real estate problem

At the same time, no-code apps can also be key to improving customer experience and nurturing long-lasting relations with your clients.  Whether you’re a solo real estate agent or are running an agency, no-code apps can be a game-changer when it comes to your operations.

The role of no-code in real estate

Agents can plan their next customer acquisition strategy with advanced reports and dashboards. With better and smarter forms, automated alerts, notifications, and reminders, No-code apps provide quick and easy access to information. Agents can collaborate with contractors, clients, and their real estate team, all at the same time.

Property portfolio 

Instead of storing each entry in complex databases, real estate agents can safely connect the necessary data to a no-code application which creates a list of the properties they are currently working with. By having immediate access to information such as a map, costs, facilities, power, and more, real estate agents can increase productivity and improve customer relations by providing a seamless experience.

Agent reporting 

It is difficult for all agents of a real estate firm to be up to date with an overview of each person’s work. The only simple solution in this scenario is to use a dashboard to keep track of each and every agent’s reporting, clients, and the status of each client.

With a no-code app, agents get instant access to deals closed, properties in progress, and much more. This saves time and provides ideas for new strategies to boost real estate agent performance.

Facility management 

From monitoring cleaning to conducting checks and keeping track of excel files, no-code apps let agents store and review all data on one screen. All relevant information about the maintenance of different properties stored on a single platform will help to avoid misunderstands and increases performance in real estate management.

Time tracking 

Filling endless time sheets at the end of the month is inconvenient and time-consuming. No-code platforms allow each employee to enter the hours they have worked for different clients from a few clicks on their phone. Activities can also be divided into different categories for better organisation. The time saved on documentation can have a positive effect on the customer experience and the performance of the agency.

Also Read: From brick-and-mortar to e-commerce in just 7 steps and no-code

Finances 

Real estate agents can handle the process of preparing quotes and offers for customers by setting up a no-code app. The Low-code app also makes use of formulas to calculate quotes on the basis of the numbers provided. This makes it much easier and faster to deliver offers to leads and clients.

Real estate agencies can get rid of inefficient excel based budget spreadsheets and can automate the budget approval process, and track employee use of financial resources. Through a custom dashboard with the reports and charts, agents can gain insights needed for efficient tracking and decision making.

How no-code platforms have helped the real estate industry

Quixy helps Assetmonk cut-down overall application processing time by 70 per cent

Investor management and tracking of investment applications manually were tough tasks for Assetmonk as the company grew.  In turn, Assetmonk faced higher costs, slower investor conversions, and a loss of competitive edge.

The Assetmonk team implemented a no-code platform known as Quixy,  to automate their end-to-end customer on-boarding processes spanning upload, review, and approval of application and payment processing. Customers were able to submit their applications and upload their documents from phone, tablet, or computer.

Once submitted, the backend team was automatically notified to process the application through the verification and approval steps. Customers had one-touch access to their application status without having to make any calls.

With Quixy, Assetmonk was able to cut down the overall application processing time by 70 per cent, resource cost for on-field executives by 80 per cent while also enhancing customer experience.

Isola Homes builds a better world through Quick Base

Seattle-based Isola Homes was in desperate need of a system that could manage all the deadlines, materials, and resources for the 130 construction projects it runs annually. With such a large number of projects, it was hard to keep track of the innumerable spreadsheets and custom databases.

Quick Base built an application as a solution for Isola Homes to keep up to speed and to manage manager key processes of construction management. The no-code application enabled Isola Homes to streamline its document creation and signature tracking processes through integration.

By consolidating paper-based processes into one web app that can be shared with clients and vendors, Isola Homes delivers a world-class experience to everyone with whom it does business.

Mendix uses low-code to turn real estate portfolios into “smart buildings”

Mendix, a Siemens business and global leader in low-code application development for the enterprise, assisted a Netherlands-based “smart building” solutions provider, called Octo to digitally enable remote building management and inspections for real estate managers and property owners.

Octo’s solution integrates data sourced from the internet of things (IoT) sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and drone imaging technology to conduct asset management, digital inspections, and predictive building maintenance. This application has enables customers to manage thousands of buildings.

Also Read: How no-code development for startups is a launchpad to success

Their most recent offering is a COVID-19-related application called HeadsUpp. The reservation and notification app enables building and office managers to monitor indoor occupancy levels and maintain social distancing for companies seeking to reopen facilities after pandemic-related lockdowns.

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Live streaming was already booming before COVID-19 hit. It exploded into an even bigger industry as most people worldwide saw the need to hunker in at home and find entertainment and work options through the internet.

A Market Research Future report projects that the live streaming market will be valued at US$247.3 billion by 2027. This expansion is attributed to the rise of various social media platforms and the growing interest and involvement of content producers and consumers worldwide.

Content monetisation has become a highly enticing opportunity for many that even celebrities have already set up monetised social media and live streaming accounts. A separate study by Fortune Business Insights has even more optimistic numbers.

It estimates the total value of the video streaming market to be worth US$842.93 billion by 2027, the biggest portion of which is live streaming.

“The streaming type segment is categorised into live and on-demand streaming. Among these, live streaming holds the largest market share, whereas, on-demand streaming is expected to show the highest CAGR in the coming years,” the report writes.

More than serving individual online video consumers

Live streaming at present has evolved from being aimed at individual online video consumers to providing live video services for enterprises. Many live streaming companies now serve as platforms for businesses to take advantage of live online videos for marketing, product selling, training, and other purposes.

Singaporean startup BeLive, for example, is offering live streaming services to help companies with their marketing, presentation, and training activities.

It provides a comprehensive platform with various tools for businesses to harness the power of live streaming to connect with customers or better engage employees and clients. BeLive has raised a total of S$3 million (US$2.2 million) in funding, and the 50-strong company has offices in Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, and Shenzhen.

Also Read: Singapore music collab platform BandLab acquires music livestreaming service Chew

The pandemic has forced most businesses to go online. This rush towards digitalising business processes has inevitably resulted in stiffer competition. Businesses cannot afford to be passive lest they allow potential customers to go to competitors that invest in aggressive promotions and customer engagement activities.

The viability of the Asian market

Asia appears to be one of the best markets for companies that offer live streaming solutions. With its growing middle-class and relatively tech-savvy young population, businesses that plan to include live streaming in their revamped business models have a sizeable number of potential consumers and business clients to target.

Infoholic Research LLP’s “Asian Live Stream Market: Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, Trends, and Forecasts, 2017–2023” report estimates that the Asian live stream market revenues will hit US$71.7 billion by 2023. It also projects the market to grow at a CAGR of 46.4 per cent within the 2017-2023 forecast period.

“Growth rate of the Asian Live Stream Market is more than that of the global average and the region is improving its infrastructure capabilities such as high-speed internet, the internet and smartphone penetration rates, to build the technology infrastructure and thereby attract investments in several other sectors as well,” the report writes.

Companies launching their own live-streaming platforms

BeLive has powered more than 54 million streaming hours to date. Its business model is an excellent demonstration of the live streaming market opportunities in Asia, particularly its existing ties with a number of major Asian corporations. Being the leading live streaming platform provider in Asia, it offers a glimpse of the current and future Asian live streaming business landscape.

Japan’s Rakuten Live, one of BeLive’s top clients, serves a user base of more than 100 million. BeLive powers Rakuten’s live streaming service that enables companies and merchants to engage customers through social media influencers and product endorsements. It also incorporated an e-commerce feature that allows viewers to buy products while watching live streams.

BeLive CEO Kenneth Tan says that the streaming service allows companies to boost their existing business while providing the opportunity to expand into a new venture just like what Rakuten did with Rakuten Live. Rakuten’s main business is e-commerce.

Also Read: Kamcord’s mobile game livestreaming app goes live in Korea, Japan 

Tan believes that his company offers a compelling proposition with its economic benefits for businesses that white-label the platform. “They could test their ideas in the market at a lower cost and at a much quicker pace if they adopted our technology,” Tan explains.

Companies that are remotely related to video streaming can explore opportunities from the booming live streaming market by using technologies or platforms supplied by another company.

Live selling

Along with the pandemic came the explosion of live online selling. Since most establishments have been restricted from conducting face-to-face business with their customers, many turned to the internet to sell their products through live video streaming.

However, it is not only small businesses that are powering the growing popularity of live online selling. Larger enterprises, too, have found ways to use live videos to reach out to prospective customers. This is particularly big in China, where companies hire social media celebrities as well as ordinary salespeople to promote products through live video streams.

Alibaba’s Taobao Live is regarded as the biggest live selling player in China and the rest of Asia, cornering around 80 per cent of the Chinese market. Its rapid growth amid the pandemic is an indicator of how live selling has risen to undeniable relevance in the Asian market.

It can be said that its success sparked counterpart services from Baidu and JD.com, which have partnered with Douyin and Kuaishou to livestream online programmes through which consumers can also shop.

Live online selling is not just some alternative for businesses to get by during the lockdowns. It also has palpable benefits. Tan points out how their clients “have seen an average of 20 per cent add-to-cart rate” by selling through live video streaming.

He also highlights its advantage of engaging customers, saying that “70 per cent of viewers who join a live stream (leave a) comment, and 40 per cent of them ask product-related questions.”

Train or engage employees and partners

Another way live streaming benefits businesses is by boosting engagement with employees and business partners. With remote work becoming part of the new normal across Asia, companies would have to get used to doing training, brainstorming, meetings, and other business activities online. Not all companies are equipped for this kind of setup, though.

Also Read: Philippines-based livestream mobile app Kumu raises US$1.2M seed funding

“We’re being forced into the world’s largest work-from-home experiment and, so far, it hasn’t been easy for a lot of organisations to implement,” says Gartner Senior Director Saikat Chatterjee.

In a snap poll at a webinar for HR chiefs conducted by Gartner, 91 per cent said that they have already implemented remote work arrangements since the start of the pandemic, but the HR heads reported that their biggest challenge has been the lack of infrastructure and difficulties in adapting to the new ways of doing work.

Companies welcome the availability of third-party solutions to augment their inadequacies in terms of technology and expertise. There’s a reason why tech giants like Samsung rely on smaller companies for specific needs in their operations.

Online education

While the general consensus is that online learning cannot replace traditional face-to-face schooling, there are many opportunities in the need for reliable platforms to facilitate online classes.

As early as February 2022, the city of Wuhan in China showed the opportunities for companies to move to education verticals, as more than 900,000 students shifted to online learning. The city did not have enough online education platforms to support the sudden explosion in the need for online classes. As such, live-streaming and short video services have redirected their resources to address remote learning requirements.

In a Global Times interview, independent industry analyst Liu Dingding said that “it is necessary for these internet platforms to enter the educational sector at present because they are good at providing broadband services with large servers … while traditional education services can provide good quality education.”

Many Asian cultures are known for their high regard for formal education. It will not be difficult to convince governments as well as families to spend on online learning platforms and tools to ensure organised learning.

Live video streaming has come a long way. Online videos are no longer just options for entertainment and simple online conferences. The Asian market shows how innovative companies can create new niches and find profitability in novel business models. Any company can have its own profitable live streaming platform using third-party technology.

With some ingenuity, businesses can find other ways to monetise relatively commonplace activities. Also, live streaming is a viable product that businesses can offer to other businesses.

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In Indonesia, one of the major problems facing the agriculture industry is the existence of multiple layers between the farmer and the end consumer.

As a result, farmers fail to obtain the right price for their produce and are forced to sell them for a song, with the middlemen taking the bigger chunk.

Segari, a startup born in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, wants to address this problem using technology, and it has already caught the attention of the region’s top VCs.

The grocery startup has just announced that it has secured what claims to be one of the largest seed funding rounds in Indonesia. Led by Singapore’s early-stage VC firm Beenext, it also saw participation from AC Ventures, Saison Capital and a few undisclosed angel investors.

Slides: Indonesia’s agritech ecosystem report 2019

Segari will use the capital to build the infrastructure needed from upstream to downstream while maintaining the quality of the produce.

“Although 30 per cent of Indonesia’s workforce is engaged in agriculture in one way or the other, many inefficiencies still exist in the industry. The existence of multiple layers between the farmer and the end customers is one,” said Segari co-founder Yosua Setiawan.

“While commerce is being disrupted by Tokopedia and Shopee, and the transportation industry by gojek and Grab, the agriculture sector has seen very little innovation. Segari wants to change this,” he added.

The company was founded in 2020 by the trio of Setiawan (CEO), Farand Anugerah (COO) and Farandy Ramadhana (CTO). A silver medalist at the National Physics Olympics, Setiawan has previously worked at Boston Consulting Group and Traveloka.

Anugerah, a Harvard Business School alumnus, has in the past worked at Grab Indonesia & Philippines. Ramadhana is an alumnus of UC Berkeley and worked at Amazon, Google Ads team in Silicon Valley and Moka before co-founding Segari.

How Segari works

A consumer can place his orders on Segari’s website or mobile app before 5 pm. Segari’s team will then fulfil the orders with the farmers and suppliers, bring the items to the warehouse, check for the quality, and then package them. By 6 am the next day, the startup’s logistics team takes the items from the warehouse for delivery before 10 am.

The startup says it is working with thousands of farmers all around Java and several vegetable farmer communities in West Java. The company helps them make decisions about what to plant, how much and when to harvest.

It also has communities of fruit farmers in Central Java where it has contracted for specific grades of fruits at specific prices, which allows Segari to have consistent and sufficient supply.

“To give the best freshness, our operation team ensures that it only takes 15 hours from harvest to your home for green vegetables. This involves extreme operational complexity. Because we do not keep inventory, we need to generate tight forecasting of customer demand, and balance it with the harvesting schedule of our farmers,” said COO Anugerah.

The startup says it employs experienced teams for quality check and product handling. It boasts of four different temperature areas in its warehouse to maintain the freshness of the produce.

For example, it keeps bananas at 16-20 degree Celsius so that they can ripe optimally, while the grapes are kept at -5 degree Celsius.

Trust deficit

According to the startup, despite the COVID-19 crisis, Indonesian consumers today are still reluctant to shop fresh produce and grocery products online. Most individuals living in Jakarta still go to supermarkets and traditional markets to purchase grocery items.

Surveys find that consumers still do not fully trust transacting online for fresh produce, fearing that they may receive bad quality produce. Those who have attempted to shop fresh produce online share that the quality they receive is inconsistent.

“Getting to a high level of quality and consistency is hard. Not everyone can do it, but that’s why we make it our focus. While other players may focus on wide SKU variety, cheapest prices, or other areas, we build our infrastructure to focus on quality. This is what our customers love about us, and make many of them purchase from us every week,” said Setiawan.

Setiawan further shared that Segari leverages its micro-warehouses and network of thousands of agents all around Jakarta to help move tons of its fresh produce every day while maintaining its quality.

“Otherwise, you’ll end up with 15-30 per cent wastage, as seen in a typical supermarket. This is also partially the reason we can offer the highest quality produce at cheaper prices than most supermarkets,” said Anugerah.

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Image Credit: Segari

The post Ex-Traveloka, Grab execs’ one-year-old online fresh grocery startup Segari raises seed funding led by Beenext appeared first on e27.