Brick, an Indonesia-based fintech API provider, has secured seed funding from a slew of investors, including US-based Better Tomorrow Ventures and PT Prasetia Dwidharma.

1982 Ventures, Antler and San Francisco-headquartered Rally Cap Ventures, besides notable angels such as executives of Aspire, Carousell and Modalku, also participated.

Brick will use the funds to scale its platform, increase coverage and expand to markets within Southeast Asia. The company also plans to launch new APIs for telcos, mobile wallets, e-commerce platforms and payment initiation products.

Launched in 2020 by Gavin Tan (CEO) and Deepak Malhotra (CTO), Brick’s fintech APIs allow users of client companies to connect their financial accounts and access different financial services. The company claims it is compatible with more than 90 per cent of “adult bank accounts” in Indonesia and is currently working with more than 250 developers hailing from 35 tech companies.

“We experienced first-hand the lack of modern infrastructure needed to deliver fintech experiences that customers are demanding. That is why we started Brick to power the next generation of fintech companies with easy to implement, cost-effective, and inclusive fintech infrastructure,” said Tan.

Also Read: Why banks will benefit from open API

“We are still in the early stages of fintech innovation in Southeast Asia and it cannot exist without good data infrastructure. Tech companies in Southeast Asia still do not have easy access to financial APIs. We’ve seen first-hand the fintech innovations that are enabled by creating financial APIs and are excited to back Brick, our first SEA investment,” shared Sheel Mohnot, General Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures.

“For fintech companies, time-to-market is a very important aspect of their product launches. Brick will allow Indonesian fintech companies to launch their core products faster. We believe that Brick will lower the barrier of entry into fintech, and thus it will contribute to the growth of fintech companies in Indonesia,” said Arya Setiadharma, CEO of PT Prasetia Dwidharma.

Brick noted the high demand, coupled with strong regulatory support from Indonesia’s regulators, makes Indonesia an ideal market for its services. Central bank, Bank Indonesia, released a set of open banking API standards in 2020, paving the way for the adoption of embedded finance.

The company is also part of BRI Ventures’s Sembrani Wira accelerator programme, where it will work with the bank to co-create “innovative and inclusive” fintech infrastructure.

“With digital banking on the rise, we see open banking and API partnership as keys to succeed in the digital world. We believe this is just the beginning, and we look forward to future collaborations with Brick,” commented Markus Rahardja, Head of Sembrani and VP of Investment & BD at BRI Ventures.

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Image Credit: Brick

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IP intelligence company PatSnap lands US$300mn Series E, becomes unicorn; Lead investors are SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tencent Investment; Founder and CEO Jeffrey Tiong said in an interview he wants to expand into Japan, where spending on research and development lags only the US and China. More here

Deep-dive
Talent attraction strategy focused only on incentives isn’t enough to drive candidates’ interest: Ninja Van; Imran Bustamam, Regional Head (HR) says flexible work hours, external training courses for staff development and pantry benefits are not enough; Employees today have much higher expectations when it comes to what a “good” employer should offer in terms of the employee. More here

‘Want VC funding? Your startup needs to be valued at least US$700mn in 10 years’: Jeffrey Paine; The founding partner of Golden Gate Ventures says about 40-50% of the 52 B2C firms in SEA with US$200mn+ valuation are overvalued, which will cause them some trouble in the next two-three years. More here

Commentary
Sea should stick to its core businesses, especially gaming; To grow its business and profitability, it might be a better idea for Sea to focus on developing another in-house game along the lines of its highly-successful Free Fire, along with continuing to steer its e-commerce and digital finance business to profitability. More here

Golden Gate-backed ALAMI acquires Sharia-compliant rural bank: Report; The deal will provide BPRS Cempaka Al-Amin with the fresh capital to comply with new rules set out by the Indonesian Financial Services Authority; In Jan, ALAMI raised US$20mn+ co-led by AC Ventures and Golden Gate. More here

Investible aims to raise US$38mn fund targeting early-stage startups in SEA, Australia; It has also appointed Rod Bristow, previously CEO of publicly-listed Clime Investment Management, as its new CEO; The fund’s inaugural fund has made over 32 investments, including Mosaic Solutions in the Philippines and Eden Farm in Indonesia. More here

Indonesia’s cross-border shipping solutions firm Andalin raises Series A from Sembrani Nusantara Fund; This is SNF’s third deal after its investments into Indonesian drink brand Haus! and local D2C shoe startup Brodo; Andalin claims it saw demand for its services spike in 2020, with shipment volume increasing by 5x and average revenue per client rising by 450% y-o-y. More here

ESB, Indonesia’s answer to Toast, bags US$3M in Beenext-led Series A round; ESB offers a cloud-based mobile ordering system that syncs up automatically with restaurants’ POS system, kitchen management system and ERP; Within six months of launching, ESB claims to have generated over 20 million annual orders for its customers. More here

‘Zombeast’ parent Storms to take its hyper-casual games to Indonesia, Africa with Series A financing; Investors are EDB New Ventures, Singtel’s founding investors — AIS (Thailand) and SK Telecom (S Korea); Storms is a joint venture between Singtel, SK Telecom and AIS that operates as a publisher for gamers and people who want to create games. More here

Bali, Batam climb up digital competitiveness index (DCI) in Indonesia as up-and-coming tech hubs: Report; In its latest Digital Competitiveness Index, East Ventures stated the country’s DCI increased from 27.9 in 2020 to 32 in 2021; This indicated a more even distribution of opportunities in provinces across the country, particular between top- and middle-tier provinces. More here

ShuttleOne launches Tezos-based lending, remittance platform for SMEs; The Singaporean fintech company uses blockchain to help informal workers remit money at a lower transfer fee and in a more transparent manner; It also helps SMEs connect with licensed money service providers and provides real-time settlement of cross-border money transfer services. More here

A look at Shopee’s key milestones as it rose to become SEA’s top e-commerce player; Besides purely shopping, Shopee also has various in-app entertainment options, such as live-streaming function ‘Shopee Live’, and interactive game show ‘Shopee Quiz’. According to Statista, Shopee saw approximately 14.1mn online visitors in Q4 2020; In 2017, Sea’s e-commerce registered a revenue of US$18mn; By 2019, it had ballooned nearly 50-fold to US$840mn. More here

Indonesian fintech API provider Brick bags seed funding; Investors include Better Tomorrow Ventures, PT Prasetia Dwidharma, 1982 Ventures, and Antler; The company will use the funds to launch new APIs for telcos, mobile wallets, e-commerce platforms and payment initiation products. More here

Singapore first to roll out AI programme for non-techies; A collaboration between Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and a multinational corporation and technology company launched AI programmes intended for the youth and the non-techies to further educate them on AI technology. More here

Baidu-backed iQIYI enters JV with G.H.Y Culture to boost SEA presence; iQIYI is a Chinese video-streaming giant whereas G.H.Y Culture & Media is an entertainment and content provider; iQIYI will tap on G.H.Y’s expertise in the production and promotion of dramas, films and concerts in APAC. More here

ADB Ventures debuts with investments in India’s Euler Motors, Smart Joules; Euler is an EV manufacturer and fleet operator focused on last-mile commercial logistics in India and SEA; Smart Joules provides energy efficiency-as-a-service for large hospitals and commercial buildings. More here

ComfortDelGro to invest US$37mn in clean energy tech over next 5 years; It also inked an MoU with the NUS to invest about US$7.4mn in a mobility-focused laboratory called the CDG-NUS Smart & Sustainable Mobility Living Lab; In addition, the company will also seek to set aside another US$29.7mn to replace its fleet of diesel buses with electric buses. More here

Amazon partners with Singapore’s Sunseap to export clean energy; The project is expected to generate 80K megawatt hours of clean energy annually, which is enough to power over 10K homes in the city-state; The project is set to be completed in 2022 and will supply renewable energy for the US giant’s offices, fulfilment centres, and AWS data centres. More here

Temasek leads US$50mn round of Chinese logistics startup Duckbill; It provides container trucking transportation services, international freight forwarding, and warehousing services by using big data and AI; The company claims to have served up to 6K firms to date and transported 700K containers by 2020. More here

Zilliqa’s ecosystem growth arm injects US$5mn to support 15 promising startups; This investment will be funnelled through two new initiatives in the ZILHive ecosystem — ZILHive Incubator and ZILHive Ventures; These two initiatives serve to supplement the US$5mn already previously committed to grants, accelerator, and education initiatives in 2018. More here

Branding lessons from a first-time startup employee caught up in a pandemic; With the global pandemic forcing almost every economy into lockdown, operational resiliency and brand communications became paramount; This was true both internally (for employees and inventors) and externally (for partners, customers and the wider market). More here

How no-code platforms are providing a boost to the real estate industry; 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. More here

Story of my life: What I learned while building my SME financing startup; Across ASEAN, the SME bank loan-to-GDP ratio varies between four to 20%; Therefore, this has resulted in a multi-billion dollar funding gap for SMEs, which presents a huge lending opportunity in the region. More here

How the gig economy is empowering women in Vietnam; Undoubtedly, food delivery is one of the most popular gig jobs; As more people are forced to stay indoors, on-demand food delivery has become a lifeline for people to purchase necessities from their homes’ comfort; A spokesperson at Loship shares that the number of new female drivers signing up for its platform even more than double in the past year, particularly when COVID-19 took a heavy toll on Vietnamese women’s income. More here

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Image Credit: Sea

 

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ADB Ventures, the impact venture arm of the Manila-headquartered Asian Development Bank, has announced its maiden investments in two Indian startups.

The investments in the startups — Euler Motors and Smart Joules — are part of ADB Ventures’s gameplan to back early-stage tech companies that solve development challenges in emerging Asia and the Pacific, the company said in a statement.

Founded in 2018, Euler Motors is an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer and fleet operator focused on last-mile commercial logistics, which aims to accelerate India’s and Southeast Asia’s transition to sustainable mobility. It has raised US$9.4 million in Series A round, which also saw participation from Blume Ventures, Inventus Venture Partners and other investors.

Euler Motors will use the funding to launch its new three-wheeler cargo vehicle this year and plans to expand across India.

Smart Joules, founded in 2014, is an energy efficiency-as-a-service company that claims to deliver savings of up to 40 per cent on energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions for hospitals and commercial buildings.

It has raised US$4.1 million in a Series A round led by Sangam (VC firm) and ADB Ventures. Other backers include Max I. Limited (conglomerate of Max Group) and unnamed angel investors.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Grab weighs US IPO through SPAC merger; After Grab, gojek invests in LinkAja; Ryde plans for SGX IPO

Smart Joules intends to use the funding to strengthen its management team, enhance its digital technology platform, expand its presence across hospitals and scale its cooling-as-a-service offering for commercial buildings and industries.

“ADB Ventures will spur high-impact cleantech, agritech, fintech, and healthtech innovations in developing Asia with its ecosystem building. Our vision is to crowd-in US$1 billion of commercial investment towards the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030,” ADB Vice President Ashok Lavasa said.

Additionally, ADB Ventures Equity Fund has announced it has received US$60 million in funding commitments from Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Government of the Republic of Korea, Climate Investment Fund’s Clean Technology Fund, and the Nordic Development Fund.

The fund will largely focus on climate and gender impact in South and Southeast Asia.

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The story: Malaysia-based car e-commerce platform Carsome has appointed Mei Han as the CEO of its B2C arm Carsome Certified.

The new role: As the CEO, Mei will focus on integrating and elevating consumer experience both online and offline by riding on Carsome’s product, tech and data capabilities.

Carsome Co-founder and Group CEO Eric Cheng commented that Mei’s appointment is crucial in Carsome’s bigger vision of expanding Carsome Certified in Southeast Asia. This arises from the company’s focus on vertical expansion from the consumer-to-business (C2B) to a B2C model in 2021, as part of Carsome’s “natural growth progression”.

His background: Prior to his current appointment, Mei was the Director of Platform Strategy in Carsome, responsible for product development and business intelligence.

What is Carsome: Launched in August last year, Carsome provides end-to-end solutions to consumers and used car dealers, from car inspection to ownership transfer to financing. The company currently transacts an annualised 70,000 cars totalling US$600 million in transacted value and has more than 1,000 employees.

Also Read: Carsome snags US$30M Series D to strengthen its C2B and B2C offerings

Lendlease announces two key hires

The story: Lendlease, an Australian property and investment group with a presence in Southeast Asia, has appointed Richard Kuppusamy as Head of Lendlease Digital (Asia).

Preetham Nadig has been appointed as VP Engineering of the digital unit and Head of Lendlease’s Singapore Product Development Centre.

The roles: Kuppusamy will oversee the leadership, management and performance of the digital business unit for the region, whereas Nadig will be responsible for driving Lendlease Podium’s product technology roadmap and the development of digital solutions for the built environment.

India’s solar analytics startup Prescinto raises US$3.5M seed

Investors: Venture Catalysts (lead), Mumbai Angels, Lets Venture and Inflection Point Ventures.

What is Prescinto: It is an IIOT and AI-powered clean energy SaaS platform that claims to increase solar power plant generation by 5 per cent.

Its AI identifies the root causes of the plant’s underperformance in real-time and helps in reducing costs of operation and maintenance. With an aim to increase clean energy without additional investment, the startup identifies and reduces the losses in the plant. This resulted in a return of 20X-50X for solar asset owners and operators in the first year itself.

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Image Credit: Carsome

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Malaysia-based Jocom International Holdings, which runs a grocery mobile app, announced today that it has raises approximately SGD5.6 million (US$4.1 million via listing part of its share capital on Singapore’s first regulated private securities exchange, 1exchange (1X).

The company will use the financing to enhance its technology and expand its presence into markets like West Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. Jocom has already started making inroads in China, channeling sales of Malaysian products to Chinese consumers.

The 1X’s second cross-border listing, as well as the third private securities exchange listing of its kind in Singapore.

1X is part of CapBridge Financial, and is backed by Singapore Exchange, SGInnovate, South Korea’s Hanwha Investment and Securities Co, Hong Kong’s Cyberport Macro Fund and AMTD Digital.

Founded in 2015, Jocom is an online grocery app that operates via its subsidiaries Jocom MShopping and Jocom Ethirty seven.

What makes Jocom different from other online grocery store apps is that it has full control over the entire order journey of its customers, from purchase and fulfilment to the delivery fleet and storage facilities.

Since its inception, the company claims to have built a sizeable base of three million users, 500 vendors and 15,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs).

Also Read: Dropezy bags funding from Taurus Ventures, Kopi Kenangan to scale its next-day grocery delivery service in Indonesia

Additionally, Jocom has expressed in a press statement that it has generated approximately US$40 million in sales revenue between 2015 and 2020.

According to the firm, the COVID-19 pandemic was a boon as it claims to have increased its sales by 30 per cent year-on-year.

“Our outperformance during Malaysia’s Movement Control Order at the height of the pandemic has proven our resilience and relevance as an essential, mobile-enabled business and we believe this is an opportune time to launch an overhaul of our own platform. Funding aside, our new status as a listee on a private securities exchange backed by the SGX will also expose Jocom to a new pool of investors and enhance its positioning for more business opportunities in the future,” Jocom founder Joshua Sew said.

According to Datareportal, since 2015, Malaysia’s e-commerce market has tripled in size to over US$3 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach US$11 billion in 2025.

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Image Credit: Jocom

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Investible, an Australia-based seed-stage investment firm, announced today it is raising its second early-stage fund, targeting AUD 50 million (US$38.8 million).

Additionally, the VC firm has appointed Rod Bristow, previously CEO of publicly-listed Clime Investment Management, as its new CEO.

Launched in 2014 by entrepreneurs-turned-angel investors Creel Price and Trevor Folsom, Investible invests in early-stage startups across Southeast Asia and Australia. The fund’s inaugural fund, which was oversubscribed in late 2019, has made over 32 investments.

The fund’s notable portfolio companies, representing 19 sectors across nine countries, include Filipino restaurant management company Mosaic Solutions and Indonesia-based agritech startup Eden Farm.

Investible claims that when combined with Club Investible — its network of angel investors who co-invest alongside its funds and assist in sourcing, engaging and supporting founders — the firm has achieved an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of more than 55 per cent and 3.9 times cash return on deals prior to 2015. Its failure rate sits at 16 per cent.

“Investible enables investors to access a new asset class and its approach to seed-stage investing delivers very attractive risk-return characteristics. In a world characterised by low yield, a well-researched and managed portfolio of seed-stage companies should be part of every sophisticated investor’s portfolio,” Bristow noted.

Also Read: What early-stage startups should know when fundraising with VC’s

He added the early signs of success from Fund I reflect a more significant opportunity for investors to capitalise on the growing demand for ‘smart capital’ at the seed-stage.

“From the beginning, our vision for Investible has been to elevate seed investment on a global scale and enable high-potential founders to achieve their goals. Trevor and I welcome the additional experience, leadership and passion Rod brings to the business, as we enter this next phase of growth,” shared Price.

Meanwhile, Price will team up with startup ecosystem veterans Mick Liubinskas and Elisa-Marie Dumas to launch a new sister company to Investible. The new venture will explore “innovative” ways to leverage capital, talent and development programs to help early-stage startups achieve their growth goals.

Investible shared Price will remain active within the firm as a member of the Board and the Group Investment Committee. Folsom will continue to serve as Investible’s Chairman and as a member of the Group Investment Committee.

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Image Credit: Investible

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I had spent the past three decades in senior management roles across various leading financial institutions. At Citibank, I pioneered a robust SME banking franchise concept which subsequently was replicated across Citibank globally.

At DBS, I conceptualised and executed a regional architecture and blueprint for DBS Bank’s SME business across Singapore, Hong Kong, India, China, Indonesia, and Taiwan to improve the value proposition of DBS’ SME Banking.

My biggest takeaway from these years of experience was this: despite playing a vital role in the economy, SMEs remained underserved when seeking financing. In Singapore, 99 per cent of companies are small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs).

Together, they employ more than 70 per cent of the workforce. Their combined economic activity accounts for about half of Singapore’s GDP, US$382 billion in 2019, yet faces a daunting funding gap to finance their growth.

Unfortunately, across ASEAN, the SME bank loan-to-GDP ratio varies between four to 20 per cent. Therefore, this has resulted in a multi-billion dollar funding gap for SMEs, which presents a huge lending opportunity in the region.

When seeking loans, SMEs struggle with a poor industry track record, limited management experience, and a lack of hard collateral. Additionally, traditional lenders’ risk appetites have trended conservative —only further exacerbated by COVID-19.

The result: more often than not, these SMEs do not get access to credit that they sorely needed. Financing solutions must cater to an increasingly digital economy that no longer falls into conventional models’ traditional parameters. The rise of the P2P lending industry results from these changing conditions: it has come a long way since the early days of casual crowdfunding platforms.

Also Read: Andalin raises Series A funding to connect Indonesia’s MSMEs with freight forwarders online

Today, individual borrowers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can access loans without the hassle of going through banks and lengthy financial assessments.

In online P2P lending, borrowers can skip past traditional intermediaries—such as banks— and seek finance directly from investors in a fast, efficient, and speedy manner.

A natural transition from traditional banking to SME lending

My transition from traditional banking to P2P lending was, for me, a natural progression. Having worked with so many SMEs, I experienced firsthand how many of their needs went ignored or unmet.

Seeing the recent advancements in Big Data analysis, AI, and the changing regulatory environments, I realised that there could be so much more done to drive SME lending innovation in the financial industry. Hence, I decided to join Validus, where I could make a real difference.

P2P lending connects lenders and borrowers directly on one platform. At Validus, we specialise in providing working capital loans and invoice financing—allowing SMEs to unlock their cash stuck in receivables.

This disintermediation reduces costs and increases the efficiency of loan transactions. It is beneficial for SMEs who are looking for an alternative financing method to jumpstart their businesses. Investors also obtain a higher interest compared to conventional bank savings accounts giving them an attractive investment alternative.

I have been fortunate to witness the positive impact of SME financing firsthand. Validus lending helped support over 10,000 jobs in Singapore in 2019, and SMEs who were using our services were able to experience strong employment growth of 12 per cent.

With more cooperation among industry players, P2P lending can complement the existing financial landscape. I am excited about the new opportunities that digital financing can bring to SMEs in Singapore and our region.

Building a stronger ecosystem through collaborations and partnerships

Years in the banking industry have given me crucial insights into what lessons the fintech industry can learn from established financial institutions. For one, we can learn from how large banks have put in place robust compliance and KYC/AML processes that make trust and stability the hallmarks of any banking system. We also have to understand the criticality of risk management in the P2P industry, which cannot be overstated.

Also Read: [Updated] Advotics raises US$2.75M led by East Ventures to expand its supply chain solutions for Indonesian SMEs

Validus’ operational licenses from Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Indonesia’s Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK), and Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) are a testament to our solid processes and robust risk management capabilities in these countries.

P2P platforms must appreciate that regulatory compliance requires a significant amount of investment in both people and technology and is a price worth paying to avoid problems like predatory lending and Ponzi schemes, which have affected the industry as a whole.

To get more out of the digital financing revolution, industry players must align with regulators and the needs of business stakeholders and beneficiaries, all to support the ecosystem’s digital financing revolution.

Validus’ evolution and growth

Our goal at Validus is to effectively address the SME financing gap and provide investors with attractive lending opportunities for diversified returns to become the #1 platform of choice for SMEs and investors.

We do this by implementing the latest virtual banking technologies and monitoring solutions, including data analytics, modern application stacks, a cohesive technology architecture, and microservices-based integration with mobile and web applications. In 2019, we created a presence in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand, where SME funding opportunities are much larger than Singapore’s.

Despite the current pandemic, we are well on track and are confident that we can continue to make our impact in the countries we operate. We are continually building partnerships in each of our markets. Hereon, our focus will be to develop strong teams and a deep-rooted presence.

And building awareness among the largest pools of funding, which in turn allows Validus to scale up faster than the competition, building better business communities and promoting inclusive growth among the region’s SMEs.

Efficiency will be critical – and working cohesively together becomes more crucial than ever. We believe our direction is leading us on the right path, as evidenced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore awarding us the top prize among Singapore Financial Institutions in the 2020 Global FinTech Innovation Challenge.

Also Read: 5 ways that will help SMEs scale even amidst a pandemic

As an experienced team well versed in the region, Validus wants to leverage deep technology to provide working capital loans to growing SMEs. But as with other startups, there are tradeoffs. Unlike being in a large bank with a safety net, running a startup can feel like we are constantly on a treadmill.

I, too, had to learn from my fair share of startup mistakes, recover quickly, and move on just as fast. But make no mistake. Failure is an essential part of the journey to success. I strongly encourage other startup owners to accept and embrace failure. Fail fast, fail often, but always learn from the experience.

The future of P2P lending shines bright

We must strive to bring together the best and brightest, not just from the financial services industry but also from the upcoming generation of graduates and talents with new ideas and aspirations for an inclusive, customer-first, digitally-led P2P lending space.

This humanises the technological aspects of providing financial solutions to SMEs through P2P platforms. Sure, Validus is a digital business, but it requires a lot of empathy. When a tech-to-touch model bridges offline and digital experiences, empathy addresses the day-to-day challenges and problems unique to each operating local ecosystem.

P2P platforms will need to adapt and react quickly to adequately address the increased financing gap caused by COVID-19 and manage the increasing risk of non-performing loans. The pandemic will be an important moment for the P2P lending industry – we will likely see some P2P platforms cease operations or consolidate, especially those who are not able to adapt quickly to the new normal.

As Southeast Asia’s fintech industry continues to grow, now is a fantastic time to be at the forefront of a growing business in the region. Banks will continue to be relevant, and fintech companies will plug the remaining gaps.

I am excited for the future of Validus and to welcome the new, improved, and integrated solutions that modern fintech companies can bring to bridging the financing gap for the core of all our economies … the SME!

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Evolve or get left behind. The concept may be a tough pill to swallow for corporations both large and small but that doesn’t make it any less true, especially in our rapidly digitising world.

Profound changes are already happening across all industries, despite the pandemic, from utilities to logistics to retail. In many ways, people are driving that change as digital habits take root and, as a consequence, their expectations shift.

Asia’s population, including in China and Southeast Asia, has been quick to embrace digital trends, which are reshaping economies and how we live. Indeed Asia’s rapid digital evolution has allowed some markets in the region to leapfrog with technologies – think smartphones and e-wallets – and it is where we see plentiful opportunities.

Consider the seamless, online experiences people get from PayMe to Taobao to Grab. Those experiences now influence their expectations for the next digital interaction, be it for food, finance or fun.

While the financial services sector has made strides to improve digital capabilities, there’s still room to grow; and in it, big opportunities for insurers in Asia to play directly into space – and for a strong market leader to emerge.

Where digital opportunities lie

The life insurance industry across Asia continues to grow, buoyed by strong fundamentals such as a growing middle class and favourable demographics. However, the adoption of emerging technologies like AI, automation and big data, which can transform the insurance industry, remains patchy across the region with some markets farther ahead than others.

Sometimes we see digital capabilities tacked on to existing processes with sub-optimal results. But processes oftentimes require a complete rethink, particularly those that impact customers the most – for example, when they need to make a claim.

Also Read: ‘SEA is lagging behind in the growth of insurtech, financial advisory, embedded finance’: Ganesh Rengaswamy of Quona Capital

For any insurer, that’s really the key ‘moment of truth’ and that’s also where some of the biggest opportunities lie for the insurance industry. Customers who have paid money in advance for an abstract product, to protect against an unforeseen risk, and now need to recoup a loss.

Historically, that insurance claims journey – namely, assessment, handling and settlement – has been complex, cumbersome and confusing to customers. Oftentimes people are at their lowest when they make that claim, and they seek reassurance and simplicity. So, as an industry, there’s a lot we can do to make that process simple and easy to navigate and, as a result, make lives better for customers.

Faster, analytics-driven systems and approaches can be implemented for claims handling, and for straightforward cases, that process can be fully automated through AI and machine learning. And that’s just one example.

The digital opportunities lie not just in claims handling though, life insurers also have numerous touch points at servicing.

Throughout a policy lifecycle, which could easily be 20 or 30 years, customers may need to add a beneficiary, change an address, make a payment and so on. Each of these interactions, no matter how simple, is an opportunity to engage and further strengthen relationships with customers.

The value of what an insurer brings, and what sets them apart, then extends beyond financial protection. In the digital age, it’s about offering, and delivering, exceptional customer experiences that are reinforced by intuitive digital processes.

This is particularly crucial in Asia where demand for internet-based services is soaring, and where customers are looking for platforms that are secure, simple and convenient.

Human-centred approach to digitisation

In an age of increasingly digital lifestyles and habits, and especially during COVID-19, giving customers the choice of how they would like to engage with an insurer, whether virtually or physically, has become incredibly important for both safety and efficiency.

Over the last two years, we’ve made significant digital investments company-wide to do just that, and it’s paying off. In many markets across Asia, our customers can now meet their financial advisors virtually, purchase most of their policies digitally, and submit their claims online, all done within secure and fully regulatory approved environments.

What we’re doing is taking a human-centred approach to digitisation, which translates to enhancing human relationships with efficient digital solutions. And what underpins this approach is having an innovative mindset. This means initiating disruption ourselves, rather than waiting for external forces to disrupt the industry.

Also Read: Why a robust digital insurance distribution system is the future in APAC

Disrupt or be disrupted

Disruption from within, however, may take longer to transpire if everything is done in-house. That’s where the value of partnerships comes in.

Bringing in a partner can expedite proofs of concept or development of a technology application. More importantly, startups typically possess the ability to be nimble and responsive – and they’re freer to experiment – which is crucial for the development of transformative ideas. And exchanging ideas with a specialised team can also nurture fresh perspectives on how to remove friction from the customer journey.

For example, Manulife’s commitment to expanding our health and wellness ecosystem inspired us to collaborate with venture accelerator firm Brinc in a programme called Boost. The aim is to support qualified startups that want to pilot their projects with us, fine-tune their product offerings and potentially commercialise their solutions.

Of course, as the volume of collaborations between insurers and startups rise, it’s important to recognise that there’s also a risk of failure, no matter how well you plan for it. But we should endeavour to debate and analyse these failures – the causes and their outcomes – instead of brushing them under the rug.

So much can be learned from these mistakes, and through exploring and testing new approaches and perspectives, we can confidently apply those lessons the next time around.

That enlightened mindset complements our human-centred approach to digitalisation. While improving outward interactions with customers, we’re also looking inwards to our employees – current and future – who are at the heart of our operations. Those professionals, including startup entrepreneurs, who are excited to break the mould, think big and disrupt from within should look to the life insurance industry.

Ultimately, the life insurance business in Asia is ripe for transformation. It’s now incumbent upon us to embed innovation and forward-thinking into the industry’s corporate DNA in order to empower all stakeholders, change the status quo and bring about truly meaningful change for our customers.

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Singapore-based gaming startup Storms announced today it has raised an undisclosed sum in Series A round of funding from EDB New Ventures, the arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

Other backers include Singtel’s founding investors — AIS (Thailand) and SK Telecom (South Korea)

Storms plans to use the money to strengthen its management and engineering teams in Singapore, multiply its user base and expand into new markets such as India, Indonesia and Africa.

It also plans to invest strongly in research and development (R&D) to advance its technology supporting mini e-sports tournaments.

Launched in 2019, Storms is a joint gaming venture between Singtel, SK Telecom and AIS that operates as a publisher for gamers and people who want to create games.

Also Read: Singapore startup StretchSkin develops wearable sensors for the healthcare and gaming industries

Besides that, Storms also develops social instant gaming platforms for both consumers and businesses. Its recent successes include Zombeast: Survival Zombie Shooter, an offline first-person shooter mobile game; and Umbra: Amulet of Light, a 3D puzzle game.

“We are proud to receive recognition from EDB New Ventures to accelerate further our focus and strengths in hyper-casual game publishing, and in building our social instant gaming platform that will provide gamers access to social games, delivered wherever and however they want,” said David Yin, CEO of Storms.

“Storms’s focus on hyper-casual games with social and community building elements rides on growing market demand. We are impressed by the deep industry and experience that Storms management team brings and are confident that the team will benefit from access to Singtel’s capabilities and regional telco networks in scaling the business,” said Beh Kian Teik, Executive Vice President, EDB New Ventures.

Despite being among the newer entrants to Singapore’s gaming industry, Storms has established a presence in Southeast Asia by partnering with high potential mobile game studios such as Niji Games and AK Publish.

With a rise in gamer demographics and high-quality connectivity infrastructure, mobile gaming has been growing in popularity as a form of digital entertainment for consumers in Singapore as well as Southeast Asia.

According to mobile data and analytics platform App Annie, mobile gamers in Singapore spent over S$534 million (US$397 million) on in-app purchases on games downloaded from Apple’s App Store and Google Play in 2020.

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Image Credit: Storms

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Hiring the right talent is always a challenge for any organisation. Often times, candidates applying for a job often try to show their best side, not their true side, during interviews. Some even submit their forged documents (education and experience certificates, etc.), without getting noticed. Honesty is on short supply.

But many companies have managed to tackle such challenges with the help of technology and rely on referrals to discover potential employees.

How does Ninja Van, with a strong 31,000-member workforce, address such challenges?

In this interview with e27, Imran Bustamam, Regional Head of Human Resources describes the end-to-end recruitment process at Singapore-based company, a leading logistics-tech company backed by the likes of Monk’s Hill, Golden Gate and B Capital.

Excerpts:

Hiring/recruiting people is one of the most challenging parts for any company. How does Ninja Van tackle this problem?

Most of the challenges faced by Ninja Van are typical of most companies. Employees today have much higher expectations when it comes to what a “good” employer should offer in terms of the employee experience.

At the same time, attracting good talent has never been more competitive, and a talent attraction strategy focused heavily on incentives alone (e.g. flexible work hours, external training courses for staff development, pantry benefits, etc) is not enough to drive candidates’ interest in a company.

We recognise that these trends are not just passing fads and are likely to have a long-lasting impact on hiring practices for all companies. Our team is progressively evolving our approach towards employee engagement and experience in order to be an employer of choice.

On top of that, we are looking at different ways to align with candidates on what we can provide as an employer to meet their career aspirations.

How do you discover talent? What are the different media/platforms that Ninja Van uses to discover talent? Do you incentivise employees referrals?

Ninja Van uses various platforms to engage and discover talent. We are actively involved in campus activities, such as hosting career talks and partnering with university career centres. These collaborations provide us with the opportunity to meet prospective candidates and gain insights into job leads, and other valuable information.

Also Read: How Vietnam’s e-commerce firm Tiki manages to keep employee churn rate healthy

Active recruitment for us means generating applications from candidates who are not actively looking for a new role but are potentially a good fit for the open positions we have.

So this active partnership with tertiary institutions also helps us build relationships with a wide network of graduates, enabling us to keep a pulse on when these potential hires, or their friends, are looking for jobs.

We also pay close attention to employer branding activities by highlighting our achievements as a company, our involvement and partnership with external stakeholders and sharing employees’ experiences on our LinkedIn page.

Additionally, we also connect with individuals on LinkedIn and utilise job search platforms such as JobStreet to advertise the open positions we are hoping to fill.

Our employee referral programme, ‘Ninja Get Ninja’ also helps with capturing candidate leads, encouraging our existing employees to tap into their own networks to refer potential candidates that would be suitable hires for the roles we are trying to fill.

Do you conduct a background-check of your new hires/potential candidates before onboarding? Do you also verify the social media accounts of your candidates?

We conduct background checks on candidates on a case-by-case basis. For instance, reference checks are used to learn more about a candidate’s strengths and limitations to best support them if he/she is offered a job with Ninja Van.

This process helps our talent acquisition (TA) team assess if the applicant has the right skill set for the job, especially for those applying for a more senior position. This is crucial as hiring good performers will add to Ninja Van’s established talent community, which eventually contributes to the company’s success.

Once you discover the talent, what is the next step? How many interview rounds are there?

Our TA team wears many hats in their role — they interview, advise and also serve as brand champions, to name a few.

Ninja Van places a heavy emphasis on culture fit and uses the company values to guide employees on the behaviour that is expected of them at work.

Once we identify a potential candidate, our TA team reaches out to him/her for the first round of phone screenings. If a candidate is successful, we then proceed to schedule an in-person interview with the hiring manager.

Depending on the role, shortlisted candidates might have to undergo several rounds of interviews as it helps hiring managers to ensure that the candidate is interested in the work, motivated and a good fit for our company culture.

Depending on the type of job, pre-hire assessments such as problem-solving tests might be given to review how candidates tackle selected scenarios they might face in the role, which would help hiring managers better understand where the candidate would fit and their ability to perform tasks.

If the candidate successfully makes it to the final round, he/she usually meets members of the team face-to-face in a culture fit interview.

Also Read: Breaking down the hiring process for early-stage founders : team or product first?

For senior positions, there is typically an interview with a member of the senior management team.

Can you share details about the on-boarding process? What is the probation period for employees? How many employees are currently working for you?

We strongly believe new hires need to get acquainted with Ninja Van in order for them to be able to contribute meaningfully to the company.

With a headcount of more than 31,000 employees regionally, every employee is briefed on our core values at Ninja Van — “Lean Towards Action”, “Learn and Improve”, and “Deliver on Promises” — as they shape the way they go about their work.

The employee journey starts when an offer is made, with our TA team briefing new hires on what to expect as part of the on-boarding process. On their first day at Ninja Van, new employees attend an orientation session before reporting to their respective departments. Managers assigned to each new hire will act as their mentor and help them understand Ninja Van’s business and goals.

New employees are also required to attend an induction programme which provides them with an opportunity to meet and interact with other new hires through a series of team-building exercises and icebreakers.

On top of that, all new hires are strongly encouraged to attend our ‘operations immersion’ programme that gives employees a first-hand experience of Ninja Van’s parcel delivery process — from sorting, delivery to parcel recovery in our warehouses.

Having this holistic understanding of the business helps employees understand how their roles support the company’s larger operational process and foster a better understanding of the challenges faced by their colleagues on-the-ground.

What is the average employee churn rate at the company? What measures has Ninja Van taken to retain talent?

Ninja Van believes in its employees’ growth and focuses on ensuring that our employees are constantly learning and improving. As such, employees have training and development opportunities to help them further their skills and create opportunities for professional development at Ninja Van.

How do you deal with document forging by your employees? What if any of your staffers are found to have forged their education/experience certificates?

The HR team conducts a check of an employee’s educational certificates and professional documents before an he/she joins the company.

Also Read: Why it is now essential to encourage diversity and empower women in fintech

As part of our policy, an employment offer will be rescinded in the event there are discrepancies in the authenticity of the documentation required as part of the hiring process. Ninja Van has a zero-tolerance policy on the lack of integrity.

Can you also share the details of Ninja Van’s leave policy, maternity/paternity leave, etc.?

At Ninja Van, we give employees the responsibility to manage their personal time and the time spent on their work.

All permanent employees at Ninja Van are entitled to the ‘paid-time-off’ programme, where they are allowed to manage the number of days of leave they require.

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Image Credit: Ninja Van

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