B Capital Group, a Singapore- and US-based VC firm, has raised US$126.3 million for its latest fund that seeks to invest into early-stage startups in the seed to Series A, DealstreetAsia has reported.

Coined Ascent Fund II, the firm managed to raise capital from 30 investors within a fortnight, as per the filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Although the target amount for the fund was not disclosed publicly, the report stated citing sources that B Capital was targeting to raise north of US$150 million.

Founded in 2014 by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and former Bain Capital executive Raj Ganguly, B Capital invests into B2B startups across four “technology-enabled” verticals”: enterprise technology and consumer enablement, fintech and insurtech, transportation and industrial, and healthtech.

Also Read: Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital hits final close of US$820M Fund II

The firm typically invests in Series B or C rounds, pumping up to US$50 million in each portfolio company, including reserves for follow-on funding. Its portfolio companies include Singapore-based logistics company Ninja Van, Indonesian coffee chain Kopi Kenangan and bookkeeping platform Bukukas.

Ascent Fund II is likely to be part of the firm’s decision to move up the funding cycle (into the seed and Series A stage) and invest in promising startups earlier on, allowing it to invest across multiple rounds.

B Capital has also been riding on the rising popularity of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) within the region by filing one of its own. According to an SEC filing, the firm is looking to raise up to US$300 million for its B Capital Technology Opportunities SPAC.

Last week, Appworks, a Taiwan-based early-stage VC firm, closed its US$114 million fund investing in Series A and B startups within the AI, Internet of Things, blockchain and decentralised finance sectors.

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Image Credit: B Capital

 

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Action in the SEA startup ecosystem is unending. Amidst all the fund raising and merger talks, we at e27 are also gearing up for our first exciting project in 2021– e27 Luminaries.

Our contributors this week, have shared their valuable experiences with battling burnout, growing a tech team and foraying into emerging markets. Cosy up and catch up on all the missed action from our community.

We would love to hear views or counter views. It’s a simple two-step process that will earn you a byline on e27 and add you to our league of popular contributors.

Managing 2021

A game changer: Why direct access to payment systems matters in a consumer-centric world by Venkatesh Saha International Expansion at TransferWise

“This is a momentous occasion not only for our journey in Singapore, but also a regulatory milestone that heralds the maturing of the local fintech industry. By giving firms access to FAST, previously the exclusive domain of banks, regulators are enabling greater competition and innovation in the payments space.

This is ultimately to the benefit of consumers because if there is one thing that the pandemic has shown us about payments, it is that speed, reliability and near-universal access have never been more important in a world powered by instantaneous digital interaction.”

Innovate or die: The only mantra you need for 2021 and beyond by Rakesh Patni, co-founder and CCO at Augmenteed

“The past 12 months, where COVID-19 has severely impacted businesses across the globe, have demonstrated that those corporations with a mature digital strategy and capabilities fared much better than those who perhaps failed to invest sufficiently in the preceding years before the pandemic struck.

To those organisations that have suffered from the major disruptions to commerce, digital transformation is imperative.

In the industrial context then, what are the key drivers of this transformation? What can we expect in the coming decade? We can broadly classify them into four categories.”

Managing markets

Why building user communities is far better than paid advertising by Angelique Parungao, marketer at Amity

“Paid advertising has been a go-to solution for marketers to capture and target their intended customers. According to Hubpsot, Google ad spending can go between US$9,000 to US$10,000 per month — and that’s only the median spending.

But with the staggering cost, why do businesses still prefer paid advertising?

For one, online ads such as paid-per-click ads get you immediate visibility against your competitors. Second, paid advertising also enables companies to control their spending based on the types of ads and how much visibility they want vis-a-vis the costs.

All costs, all promises?”

Why Absolute Pricing Authority and Costco branding concept are good for emerging markets by Chia Jeng Yang, Principal, Saison Capital

“Akshay Bajaj of SIG and I talked about the concept of Absolute Pricing Authority, the Costco model, and its relevance for emerging markets recently. I would like to share our conversation with the community at large.

So let us start with understanding what “brands” are: They are mental associations meant to increase conversions behind a job to be done and a particular action.

What if we want to build a brand that tries to tackle the job of ‘confidence in the lowest possible price of the market’ –which is defined as the brand with ‘Absolute Pricing Authority’. Costco Founder and former CEO Jim Sinegal mentioned in a recent lecture that he prides Costco on having the concept. It means customers can be absolutely sure that Costco has the lowest prices anywhere. There’s only one company at a time that can deliver on this promise!”

Managing your growing team

The danger of expanding too quickly and how you can keep your tech team artificially small by Shanice Ng

“Everyone likes the glamour of having a big team and expanding the company quickly. However, from past experiences, we have personally seen many companies grow their headcount too quickly when they face resource constraints for a limited time, and struggle to pay their staff in lull periods. To end up in a predicament like these companies is extremely dangerous for the company’s cash flow and team culture.

Instead of focusing on just quickly growing our headcount whenever we face resource constraints, we invest heavily in productivity by looking at three core areas.”

How to build an organisation of data scientists in a data-driven world by Gautam Kotwal, Chief Data Officer, Gojek

“Today, with the advent of the cloud and new and emerging technologies that allow firms to accumulate and analyse big data efficiently, companies that are not fostering a cadre of data-savvy employees are not only at a disadvantage. Simply put, they are not going to survive.

But survival does not only rest on the shoulders of a company’s engineers, data analysts and scientists. It is a responsibility shared with every member of the organisation, including creatives, writers and facility managers. With insights from data at the heart of every business decision, top-to-bottom integration of data must be embedded in the very culture of an organisation.

All employees must think like data scientists. And companies have to equip them with the right tools, knowledge and support to build a data-centric environment that they can keep learning from, and allows them to experiment.”

Managing mental health

Feeling deflated, defeated and downright tired as a founder? You are not alone by Bernard Ang, founder, Cara Unmask

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

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

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

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Ryde, a mobility app company based in Singapore, announced today that it is preparing for an IPO launch on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), according to a press statement.

The IPO is slated for 2022 at a SGD200 million (US$148 million) valuation.

Ryde was initially launched in 2017 as a car pooling app but has since expanded into private-hire and taxi booking booking services.

Besides ride-sharing, it also runs a diverse suite of services such as RydePET, a pet-friendly option for people to travel with their pets; RydeHIRE, a service for people who need to hire a driver for a couple of hours; and RydeSEND, a parcel delivery service.

What makes Ryde different from its competitors is that its drivers are charged a commission rate of 10 per cent in comparison to others who charge up to 20-25 per cent.

As of now, Ryde operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia.

The company also disclosed that it turned profitable in Q4 2020 with an increase in its gross transaction value (GTV) up to four times during the pandemic.

Also Read: Meet these 22 under-the-radar ride-hailing startups catering to Southeast Asia’s hustle and bustle

The app has facilitated over 16 million bookings and been downloaded close to 700,000 times.

The company is targeting to hit SGD120 million of GTV from both ride-hailing and delivery verticals in 2021.

According to founder Terence Zou, Ryde aims to capture 30 per cent of the ride-hailing market in Singapore by 2023.

“We aim to be the first profitable ride-hailing technology company to list on the SGX. We have engaged SAC in this exercise in view of their expertise in the Singapore markets,” he said.

“We look forward to accessing the capital markets to fund our expansion. An IPO listing will allow retail investors and our loyal users the opportunity to participate in our exciting journey of growth to be the premier mobility player in Singapore,” he shared.

“We are excited to be part of this journey to support Ryde, an inspiring home-grown technology innovator, in bringing the company to the next stage of growth. It is heartening to see that Ryde has chosen to list in its home country, and the Catalist is a perfect platform for fast-growing local companies like Ryde. We have confidence in the management and Terence’s leadership, and we look forward to guiding the company on the right path to a successful IPO,” said SAC Capital CEO, Ong Hwee Li, who is said to be going to lead Ryde’s preparations ahead of its IPO.

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Image Credit: Ryde

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Pivoting is a healthy and natural occurrence in business. Business models will always evolve. Founders need to ensure that they recognise pivoting as not “failure” or “conceding defeat.”

Pivots can be led by either exogenous factors (e.g. competition, industry or market forces) or endogenously (e.g. lack of passion, team is better suited to execute a different plan). When it is time to pivot, you will usually know, given one or more of the following is occurring:

• Revenue is declining
• Important metrics relevant to your business are diminishing (e.g. traffic, leads)
• Problems with customer/employee retention 
• Products/services are no longer needed as they may have been previously
• You’re not keeping up with market trends
• You’re experiencing apathy or perpetually negative emotions associated with working on the business

In today’s changing business climate, most startups must go through a “pivot” in order to find the right target customer, market position, and/or value proposition for their business. Pivoting is far more common than you might think. 

Pivoting is a natural part of a business’s evolution in that it is virtually impossible to exactly predict what the future will hold. Markets change and business is fundamentally about giving customers what they want. Founders come into a project with a business model in mind, encounter obstacles or opportunities that they did not anticipate, and have to make a change.

It is a mistake to view a pivot as strictly a negative phenomenon. Pivots do not always mean that a company is failing financially or operationally. It’s not always about the competition beating you, a lack of talent to turn the idea into a commercial success, or even basic misjudgment.

Moreover, it’s important to get past the psychological barrier of interpreting a pivot as synonymous with “quitting” or “failure.” It is simply about rationally looking at the situation and seeing what’s working and what isn’t.

Also Read: Pivoting beyond product: You need to look at your company/work culture, too

Oftentimes pivots are firmly positive and entail exploring an untapped market opportunity.

For example, there’s the well-known pivot story of Instagram. The app initially had started out as a check-in service similar to what Foursquare was in the midst of developing. Not wanting to compete in a market that had likely already been conquered (or at least very difficult to compete in), Instagram pivoted to photo and video-sharing.

It’s rare that a pivot comes to entrepreneurs as a type of “rude awakening.” It’s usually a natural progression that becomes increasingly more apparent and up to the founders to recognise, diagnose, and execute. It’s also not always a matter of cold, objective calculations. Companies with seven- and eight-figure annual revenues regularly pivot if they’re no longer passionate about what they do.

Failing to recognise when to pivot is a much more material issue. Consider the retail washout brought on by the rise of Amazon. This has fundamentally destroyed or greatly impaired the business models of brick-and-mortar companies that sell products that are easily available and sold online.

Many founders, who have been so involved in the company from the very beginning and are likely to have some level of emotional attachment, are particularly at risk because they might fail to see the company in the most objective light possible. In these cases, it’s helpful to have a business partner on board, ideally with a different skill set, that can help provide useful advice.

If you know that some part of your business is working and another is not, it would be prudent to invest more resources into what is. Businesses eventually need to turn a profit if they can legitimately run on their own merit. The value of a business is fundamentally the amount of cash you can extract from it over its life discounted back to the present.

Pivoting also doesn’t necessarily mean developing anything new, but rather recognising what you already have.

For example, when Yelp first started out it served as an email-based referral network to find local businesses that could help users of the platform. Nonetheless, the idea fell flat when it was found that user growth was limited and those who were part of the network did not answer referral requests in a large enough quantity to make the concept work.

Also Read: Time to pivot, not panic: The startup advantage to dealing with a pandemic

However, the founders noticed that users were choosing to write reviews of local businesses on the site. Though unexpected, the founders saw the potential to pivot the business to a third-party business directory and Yelp became the company it is today.

Shopify is another high-profile pivot. The company originally started as a snowboard equipment retailer in 2004 under a different name. One of its founders, a computer programmer by background, designed the site due to dissatisfaction with other e-commerce products available online.

The snowboard shop wasn’t successful, but the e-commerce platform they had designed was very compelling and easy-to-use. Therefore, the pivot, naturally, was selling this storefront design to other businesses and Shopify became the point-of-sale system today that’s worth, at the time of writing, over US$15 billion.

Questions to ask before pivoting

How do businesses know when it’s time to pivot? Start by asking these key questions:

Is revenue growing?

If revenue is growing, your costs are not growing in excess of the growth rate in sales, and this is an objective trend, you are likely on the right path.

Are peripheral metrics, such as traffic and lead generation, growing?

For example, if you’re a web-based business, is traffic growing? If traffic is not growing or declining and this is a trend, is this because there’s a correctable inefficiency or lack of execution that can be remedied? Or is it a function of a genuine shift in the market or industry?

Being up on all the relevant metrics associated with your business and current trends in your industry will help you decide the answer on whether your business strategy is where it needs to be.

Are you putting in the same amount of work (or more work) but seeing declining results?

If you are no longer getting the type of growth – whether that’s traffic, leads, revenue – it may mean there’s an execution issue. But it can also mean something operational or strategic is amiss.

Also Read: Why startup founders should be open to pivoting anytime

Is customer or employee retention an issue?

Is customer churn increasing? Are you observing that customers are migrating to competitors? This is a classic sign that a pivot is vital. Moreover, is employee retention an issue? Are team members losing faith?

Are customers demanding something else?

If through numbers or observations you are seeing that customers are turning away from the products or services you sell, it is time to pivot. And more qualitative questions …

Is the passion you once had lacking?

Apathy and being an entrepreneur are not a quality mix. It is common to feel stress and other negative emotions associated with running a business. But if one feels dispassionate or perpetually negative about a business, is something changing within the business?

Are your personal goals and ambitions changing?

Businesses aren’t the only things that evolve. The goals and interests of its founders also change as well. Even if none of the above mentioned applies – revenue growth is strong, customer retention is robust, new business initiatives are showing promise, and so forth – it is important for the founders to as closely align their goals and passions to the business as possible.

While pivoting can be a difficult necessity to come to terms with, there are tools you can use to help clarify your goals and track your progress so you can tell when it’s time to make a change. The OKR methodology is an agile goal-setting framework that allows users to define qualitative objectives and measure them using quantitative and specific key results.

Also Read: How startups can tap community networks to pivot for growth amidst the pandemic

This set-up, paired with weekly progress check-ins, team meetings, and continuous learning within an organisation, can help business leaders keep their finger right on the pulse of what is most important in their company.

If a key result is lagging behind, it could be an indicator that something in the market, and not necessarily in the team, is amiss. In order to properly define priorities, track goals, and achieve success, businesses should consider implementing OKRs in their organisation and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to pivoting and progress for their business.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community or like the e27 Facebook page

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Since GrabFood rolled out its services in 2018, it quickly went on to dominate Southeast Asia’s food delivery market.

The tech giant managed to quickly capture a large share of the food delivery space by amassing an estimated gross merchandise value (GMV) of US$5.9 billion in 2020, according to a Momentum Works report. This was despite the presence of close rivals such as foodpanda (with US$2.52 billion GMV) and gojek (with US$2 billion GMV).

For a customer, the process of ordering and waiting for food does not seem hard, what goes behind the scenes of actually running the platform is surely no easy feat.

In an exclusive webinar hosted by Grab, Xiaole Kuang, Head (Engineering Deliveries) at Grab, gives e27 an insider’s view into what actually goes behind the scenes of running a successful food delivery platform.

Planning

Grab builds and iterates its technology with the goal of delivering a memorable experience to the user, from browsing through the platform to the delivery of the item.

The three key things that Grab has given utmost care to are: 1) enable localisation at scale(for customers) and how to drive sustainable demand (for merchant partners), and 3) protect eater experiences in crunch time.

Also Read: Understanding the economics of food delivery platforms

Let’s dig deep further into how the tech giant is taking great care in order to provide a pleasant experience to customers, merchants as well driver partners.

For customers

1. Hyperlocalising

Grab is laser-focused on bringing a hyper-local experience for its users across different regions. This is also one of the key strategies that it has adopted that led it to win over the global ride-hailing giant Uber.

To hyperlocalise its content, GrabFood allows respective country teams to customise sections on the app’s homepage to highlight what’s more relevant to their customers based on consumption patterns derived from ordering habits.

No two regions have the same homepage.

2. Recommending alternative options

Like any good restaurant steward would do when a customer is unable to find his/her favourite food by recommending an alternative, Grab does pretty much the same.

Its algorithm is created in such a way that if a user types a dish that is either unavailable or has less than four options, the app finds merchants based on similarities in the menu to offer customers an alternative.

Additionally, the platform also updates the “recommended for you” section with alternative food menus, immediately after a user looks for specific cuisines.

3. Personalisation

Unlike most food delivery apps that recommend restaurants based only on the highest ratings, GrabFood provides personalised recommendations for users.

Its ranking logic is based on factors such as past browsing, ordering history (cuisine/budget/food preferences) and even general factors such as driver availability and estimated time of arrival.

Merchants that most closely match the user’s profile are listed first.

For merchant partners

1. Ease of order handling

Its merchant dashboard not only provides a 360-degree view of all incoming orders regardless of the order type but also enables merchants to keep their restaurant information updated, for example, communicating when an item is out of stock and more.

Additionally, it offers analytics tools on the GrabMerchant app, so that merchants can understand customers’ purchasing behaviours and can create relevant campaigns accordingly.

To sum it up, GrabFood has created an all-in-one platform for F&B business owners to run their online businesses.

2. Point of Sale integration

An example of an open platform tool that GrabFood has created is the Point of Sale (POS) integration, a system that allows restaurant owners to link the POS system used in their own restaurants with Grab.

Before the integration of the feature, merchants had to manually transfer GrabFood orders from Grab’s merchant app into their restaurant POS.

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

With the integration of the new system, GrabFood orders flow straight into the restaurant’s POS, which means that merchants only need to manage one system, helping them save time and improve accuracy.

3. Providing support

Emphasising with non-tech savvy restaurant owners, Grab understands that the working of its system may not always be crystal clear to merchants.

To solve this, the team has also developed a self-serve system that includes step-by-step guides, testing and debugging tools to help merchants set up POS integration on their own.

For drivers and eaters

1. Optimising fleet batching
GrabFood has developed an order batching system to optimise its fleet during peak hours or supply crunch time, for example, when there’s a heavy downpour during dinner time.

This system assigns two or more consumer orders with nearby drop-off or pick-up points for drivers with the aim of completing various orders in one single trip.

2. Optimising fleet-radius reduction
In supply crunch times (when there are too many orders and fewer delivery riders), it is likely that users may have to wait very long for a delivery-rider. Chances of merchants cancelling an order are also higher.

When the driver allocation rate and order completion rate decline, its system kicks in to start gradually reducing the delivery radius.

This helps to concentrate delivery-riders within a smaller area to help improve order completion rates.

Also Read:  In brief: Grab to create 350 new jobs in Singapore; Battery Smart raises capital

This is applied until the order completion rate stabilises and more delivery-partners are available in the area.

3. On-time preparation
On average, drivers spend six to eleven minutes waiting at restaurants for merchants to finish preparing their orders. But since preparation habits differ across markets, Grab says, it is still testing out different features to encourage merchants to prepare food more promptly and minimise waiting time for drivers.

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Image Credit: Grab

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Among the many impacts brought about by a very unexpected year, 2020 saw unprecedented growth for online merchants across Asia Pacific.

Take e-commerce, for example: last year, Bain & Company and Facebook expected Southeast Asia to have 310 million people shopping online by 2025. Instead, that milestone was achieved at the end of 2020.

This growth is undeniably great news for merchants across Asia, as well as those looking to expand across the region and further west.

At Payoneer, we’ve seen this rapid growth firsthand – with 260 per cent year-on-year (YoY) volume growth in Singapore from 2019 to 2020. Figures across the region tell the same story – India saw 170 per cent YoY growth, 90 per cent for The Philippines and 70 per cent for Malaysia.

However, with this growth comes lightening-fast development across merchants’ platforms. Whether it’s keeping up with new consumer trends, bringing onboard new sellers, or expanding into new markets, it can be easy for merchants to focus on the new and overlook the importance of their payment setup and its impact on customer experience.

Think about it from your experience as a consumer: we know the feeling of irritation that accompanies a less-than-smooth payment encounter with a merchant. The reality is, the bigger the merchant grows, the more that payment complexity can (and will) snowball.

Ensuring that the consumer experience is as streamlined as possible is vital to merchants’ success. Building and maintaining hard-earned customers’ trust, while maximising business growth, means investing in a seamless payment experience and removing unnecessary roadblocks for customers.

The case for payment orchestration

As they are getting up and running, many merchants will choose a single payment services provider (PSP) that combines just enough payment methods and risk management tools to meet their needs. This might work well initially for merchants, but can be limiting in the longer-term.

Also Read: Xendit bags US$64.6M Series B led by Accel to scale its digital payments service across Southeast Asia

What if your PSP stops supporting the exact payment method that is popular with your customers? What if, during the peak hours, your PSP suffers a system outage resulting in serious revenue loss for your business? Can you actually control your payments? Will they cover the regions where you plan to expand?

To overcome the limitation of a single PSP, merchants then often try to integrate multiple PSPs by themselves. And at a high level, this is a good idea. However, building payment connections in-house risks businesses ending up with a disintegrated, fractured payment setup.

Unfortunately, it not only results in a flawed customer experience and decreased payment acceptance, but also high transaction costs and increased demand for internal resources alongside risk and security issues.

This is where a payments headache starts to creep in, and it’s made even tougher by the fact that there is no single solution to solve the problem. Instead, the answer for merchants lies in the ability to bring on board a payment orchestration tool or provider that combines these payment processes on a single platform, and future-proofs their business to ensure a customisable, integrated and seamless payments experience.

Let the POP take the weight

Moving away from a single payment provider, and/or a DIY multi-provider system, and towards a payment orchestration platform (POP) has many strategic benefits.

Firstly, using a POP, merchants can seek out independent guidance – driven by data and analytics – on what works best for their specific business case and then integrate a bespoke payment setup for the markets in which they operate.

Payment methods and preferences vary from region to region, so merchants selling and expanding on a regional or global scale can take advantage of a POP that allows them to be able to cater to their customers’ payment preferences.

Think about the range of payment types across Asian markets as an example: we can choose Alipay, GrabPay, GoPay, PayLah!, WhatsApp or PayNow (just to name a few), or pay directly by credit card at checkout.

The routing capabilities provided by POPs also help merchants direct their transactions through the most beneficial payment providers. This eliminates declines associated with provider failures or outages and optimises the front-end checkout experience.

By helping merchants to boost their payment acceptance rates by routing transactions through regional payment processing providers in appropriate markets, a POP can improve the likelihood that transactions are accepted, making the process quicker and more successful for customers.

Also Read: 4 ways digital payments are helping businesses thrive amid a global recession

Business shouldn’t be risky

A frictionless payment experience at both the front and back end is far from the only positive aspect of opting to use a POP. Having a robust, yet flexible, POP means merchants can protect themselves and their customers with embedded risk management tools – without sacrificing convenience and ease-of-use.

More than ever, many customers are now shopping or using services online out of necessity, so the security of the purchasing experience is of continued importance. Merchants must be sure they can identify fraud without making purchasing so friction-filled that they block out legitimate customers.

At the same time, it’s crucial to ensure that returning customers who have registered payment details aren’t falling victim to fraudsters who seize access to their accounts. As you can imagine, getting this balance right is crucial.

This is why POPs enable a merchant to embed top of the line risk management tools into their platform – to help alleviate the responsibility, pressure and cost associated with security-proofing merchants’ businesses and to ultimately mitigate the detrimental effects of these situations when they do happen.

A seamless experience

The merchant landscape across and beyond APAC is more alive than ever before and using a holistic payment infrastructure with connections to a wide range of global and local payment providers, tools and risk management systems, comes with a host of benefits for merchants.

The bottom line is that the best possible frictionless and localised payment experience for customers in any country and sector is absolutely crucial for success. Your payment set-up should empower you as a merchant and enable freedom, choice and the ability to go beyond borders and capabilities.

With this in place, the alignment between frictionless payments and merchant success will continue to drive growth for those who choose to accept the current pace of change.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: Clay Banks on Unsplash

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Humans are inherently social. So much so that longitudinal studies have shown that happiness is largely determined by the quality of our relationships. From the playground to the office, people seek to fit in and belong.

Much has been written about how diversity and inclusion at the workplace drive productivity, efficiency, and creativity. More recently, studies have also shown that engendering a sense of belonging amongst employees directly translates to them feeling more invested in their jobs, which reduces turnover and sick days and increases overall performance. For large companies, this translates to millions in annual savings.

Unsurprisingly, companies are increasingly trying to make sense of corporate belonging. In February this year, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIBs) advocate Maya Toussaint shared with Microsoft key differences between the three concepts.

“Diversity is quite simply, representation,” said Toussaint. This means having diverse ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations represented at workplaces. Inclusion then builds on diversity and focuses on granting equal access to development and career opportunities, and ensuring employees feel welcome and respected.

Toussaint also quoted DIBs expert Verna Myers who explained that “diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance”.

A company that is diverse and inclusive then helps foster a sense of belonging. “It’s a feeling of being able to be my true self,” said Toussaint. “I was once told I shouldn’t laugh at work. I quit the following week. I clearly didn’t belong there.”

Toussaint now works at a company where she is told her laugh is missed when she is on sick leave, and where her ideas and expertise are constantly tapped on. She feels included, and also appreciated and celebrated for the skills and quirks she brings to the table.

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

While diversity is a fact and inclusion a behaviour, belonging is very much a feeling. Before COVID- 19 made working from home a global norm, a key feature of belonging was being able to feel and be your authentic self at the office.

But when home becomes office, does belonging become less salient? Do measures of isolation, exclusion, and alienation change when meetings (work and play) can only take place virtually? Back when belonging was tied to the physical space of the office, creating environments that cultivated a sense of belonging amongst employees was arguably more straightforward.

In 2019, entrepreneur and author Rebekah Bastian opined that company norms such as “appearances and even the ways people have fun and unwind” were crucial factors in fostering or inhibiting a sense of belonging amongst employees. It was as much about formal DIBs policies as it was about everyday interactions that enabled one to “develop a deeper connection with others by sharing (their) authentic self and receiving acceptance in return”.

Before the new normal, weekdays consisted of lunches with colleagues, bonding over shared experiences during idle pockets of time in the pantry, and going for the occasional drink together. These were the human spaces where belonging (or a lack of) was most felt. But what happens when these spaces are erased?

Companies and employees that once enjoyed diversity, inclusion and belonging will now have to grapple with translating this culture online. Employers need to be aware of how new employees might feel alienated in their own homes during Google Hangouts with colleagues they have never met.

Or how things might now get awkward when existing employees try to get their usual lunch buddies together over Zoom (when everyone’s families are there with them in the flesh).

Some employees might struggle with figuring out the culture of the places they will be spending the next few years at. While the context of corporate belonging has changed, the right culture remains the most important factor in cultivating a sense of belonging.

At home, idle time during work hours can now be spent doing a hundred other things (read: nap, play mobile games, tend to children, chores, the list goes on). Employees might not feel left out when everyone is forced to stay home, but they might feel increasingly disconnected, which might impact personal job investment and performance. How then, can companies carve out the time and space for relationships and a sense of belonging to organically grow again?

Also Read: Is your new work-from-home culture stressing your employees?

Some companies are trying their darnedest. There are companies that organise team lunches by delivering restaurant takeaway to their employees’ homes and eating together via Zoom. There are some that host team gaming sessions on HouseParty.

Others hire yoga instructors to conduct group online workouts. Some companies even manage to bring employees from all over the world together via Zoom by sending lunch to employees in Singapore, wine to employees in Australia, and dinner to employees in the US.

Many companies are also extra committed to listening to their employees during this challenging time. They have company-wide addresses by upper management, one-on-one check-ins between managers and employees, and conduct candid AMAs (Ask Me Anything) where CEOs address questions on the ground.

These are all laudable attempts at creating opportunities for bonding online, which is the cornerstone of belonging. Yet, perhaps the biggest challenge facing any organisation is their own employees’ attitudes towards these initiatives.

In the comfort of homes, there are many things people could or would rather be doing. But if we are serious about belonging, we need to carve out the time and space to invest in the relationships at work, from home.

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This past Monday marks International Women’s Day, where globally we have been celebrating women’s achievements in a push for equality. With the theme this year being ‘Choose to Challenge,’ it is an apt reminder to encourage people to come together and celebrate outstanding work by women, especially in a challenging business climate.

While women try to rise above everyday challenges thrown their way, 2020 serves as a lesson to the inequality that we as women can face at home and the workplace. With that, 2021 is the year for taking what we’ve learned, continuing that journey and living the values of this year’s theme – ‘choose to challenge’.

As COVID-19 continues to rattle Singapore’s economy, research reveals that nearly 82 per cent of women surveyed said their lives have been adversely affected, citing negative impacts on mental and physical well-being and work/life balance. Additionally, 60 per cent question whether they want to progress at all when considering what they believe it will take to move up in their organisation.

With the tech industry often categorised as a highly competitive and high-stress environment that is mostly dominated by males, how can women continue to thrive despite the perpetuation of traditional gender roles? The pressures experienced, along with living up to the expectations of a woman in the tech scene, shouldn’t be an impediment or threat to career progression.

Rather, this is a wakeup call for organisations to create an inclusive and safe environment that empowers women to choose to challenge status quo and enable progression, be it in the tech industry or anywhere else.

With this in mind – and as a working mother of two young girls leading the marketing team in a global tech company, here are three key learnings I’ve taken over the last year for how we can support women in the workplace and contribute to a more equal COVID-19 world:

Embracing flexible work to close the gender gap

It’s no surprise that the pandemic has created paradigm shifts in workplace flexibility and working from home arrangements. While many women have enjoyed the eased time pressures without having to rush for work and doing school drop-off, research indicates that women are more likely to continue carrying out domestic responsibilities while working flexibly.

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

Men, on the other hand, are more likely to put the time to prioritise their career. While it’s tempting to think that flexible work options will be an equaliser for women, women should not feel like they need to choose between work and family responsibilities.

This is where leading by example can help. Working for a business such as DocuSign that embraces equality and has actively created benefits like the ‘DocuSign Cares’ package, which can pay for childcare during mandated ‘work from home’, gives me the confidence that other businesses can support women in navigating the challenges of the COVID-19 world in a similar way.

Drawing boundaries in an era of hyper-connectivity

As a woman in tech, it’s inspiring to see how digital platforms have transformed our working models. It’s almost a year since the implementation of the Circuit Breaker in Singapore, we continue to find ourselves being constantly connected to work, staying online almost 24//7.

With technology permeating all boundaries of personal and professional life, women must step up through setting boundaries beginning with the gadgets and tools they use.

According to a recent study, 65 per cent of Singapore employers consider flexible working to be a key factor of work-life balance. Hence by drawing the necessary boundaries between work and personal spheres, engagement and disconnectivity, women can better manage their time, remain productive and perform at work all while maintaining work-life harmony to rise above glass ceilings.

Unlocking woman leadership opportunities

Leadership is a powerful tool that could make or break your organisation. By supporting women to take leadership positions, we can challenge gender stereotypes and drive equality in the workplace. COVID-19 has shed the spotlight on the need for upskilling, and it’s up to businesses to ensure that female workers are actively encouraged to participate in such programs.

For example, in APAC, half of our teams at DocuSign are managed by female leaders, who are constantly encouraged to build on their current skill set. With a diverse workforce, any business will be better positioned to build well-rounded ideas and a richer culture.

According to research from McKinsey Global Institute, increasing gender equality and championing women empowerment in Singapore’s workforce could add S$26 billion to the country’s GDP by 2025.

Now is the time to think about how we continue to deliver messages of positivity to women, as it’s clear that COVID-19 has prompted us all to think about how we can champion change in the workplace.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

The post How women in tech can navigate the 2021 business landscape appeared first on e27.

The founders of Indonesian coffee chain startup Kopi Kenangan have launched an angel investment fund targeting early-stage Indonesian companies, DealStreetAsia has reported.

Coined ‘Kenangan Fund’, its average ticket size ranges from US$10,000 to US$150,000 per investment and is sector-agnostic.

Besides an investment into logistics startup Dropezy last week, the fund has also backed other local startups including fintech platform Bukukas, podcast company Noice, and automotive firm Otoklix.

Launched in May 2020 by Edward Tirtanata, James Prananto, and Cynthia Chaerunnisa, the co-founders of Kopi Kenangan, the investment vehicle is also understood to have received commitments from the trio’s unnamed friends.

Also Read: Caffeinated expansion: How Kopi Kenangan achieves its goal of opening one new store per day

“The founders believe that investing in startups is an opportunity that cannot be missed, given the trajectory of the internet economy within Southeast Asia. However, financial returns are not the only reason they are pursuing this, it is a personal passion too. Investments will be opportunistic and agnostic in nature,” a Kopi Kenangan spokesperson told e27.

Due to the nature of the fund, it doesn’t have a formal general partner, limited partner, or any other commitment to a third party.

Though the fund bears the name of the coffee chain startup, Tirtanata clarified in the report that the investments made under the fund are not linked to Kopi Kenangan’s business and operations.

Started in 2017, Kopi Kenangan has experienced rapid growth and has raised a total of US$237 million in funding from over 14 investors including Sequoia Capital, Alpha JWC and B Capital. Last year, the company raised US$109 million in a Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital.

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Image Credit: Kopi Kenangan

The post Kopi Kenangan founders launch angel fund to support Indonesian startups appeared first on e27.

Meet Hugo Garcia-Cotte, who helps companies protect their goods from being faked.

Today, he shares how he went up against the Chinese mafia and won!

We discuss:

• His family’s influence on him
• Why moving to China was the best decision he’s ever made
• How being in China made him realise his unique advantage
• How he set up his company and struggled through fundraising
• One very important thing he recently realised which changed his business
• The story of how he came to take down the Chinese mafia
• And more!

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

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If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!

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

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This article was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: Michal Czyz on Unsplash

The post Taking down the Chinese counterfeited goods mafia with Hugo Garcia-Cotte appeared first on e27.