Technology has long been touted as the great equaliser that is helping solve the world’s complex problems, bringing benefits to societies and communities, as well as helping businesses keep pace with the dizzying pace of change. Yet, much has also been said about technology being an exclusive playing field for men, often leaving out women from a seat at the table.

While I have faced my fair share of challenges as a woman working in tech for two decades, it has been encouraging to see the rise of diversity and inclusion as boardroom priorities for many organisations, not just in technology, but also across various sectors in Southeast Asia.

This is indicative of real, positive change being driven by generations of female tech trailblazers who have ignited conversations and lobbied for equality. It is now up to us, the contemporaries in technology, to honour and build upon these efforts in creating an even more equitable and inclusive future for the sector.

There is still much to be done. A recent survey by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority showed that women only account for 32 per cent of Southeast Asia’s tech workforce. Building an inclusive home for women in tech remains a long and arduous journey, and everyone has a role to play in re-evaluating and challenging preconceptions and biases, as well as sustaining ongoing conversations to effect meaningful change.

Closing the confidence gap

Having had the privilege of working closely with many illustrious female tech leaders at ThoughtWorks, and through strong mutual support including deep dialogue and sharing sessions, I have noticed that many of us continue to face an unfounded lack of confidence and self-belief, despite the depth of talent and expertise that exists. Yet, these leaders have still managed to find success by honing an internal fortitude to deal with negative voices and imposter syndrome.

Women in technology need to actively remind themselves to focus on their own capabilities, rather than compare themselves with their male counterparts. And this can all begin by internalising this simple truth: that we are here because we have proven that we are capable enough to be in this position.

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

Mutual support is important and it makes things easier too, and I was fortunate to be placed in a positive environment where constant, strong encouragement enabled me to learn and grow in confidence. It is critical that we provide robust internal support systems for female tech talent, where they can find solidarity, empathy and dialogue with trusted coworkers and mentors.

This is especially needed due to the lack of mentors and sponsors for women in tech, whose workplace challenges are very different from men.

Challenging unconscious biases

There are unconscious biases that we all have as human beings, and these can sometimes be more pronounced in the tech sector. Research has shown that men are often advanced based on potential, while women are advanced based on actual accomplishments. Women and men also both judge resumes with female names more harshly than an identical resume with a man’s name.

Dealing with these issues eventually just gets to be too much for some women and they leave. I resonate with ThoughtWorks’ belief in building awareness and sensitising people on topics like building equitable tech, challenging unconscious bias, dealing with micro-aggressions, being a good ally, preventing discrimination and harassment in our workplaces, and more. 

Tech leaders should consider investing in practical unconscious bias training for all employees. We should not assume that employees from underrepresented groups will own these initiatives and programmes, unless they specifically express their interest. People working in tech must be encouraged to regularly question their own preconceived judgements and to recognise and curb their own biases.

Recognising the existence of biases and attempting to mitigate the negative consequences of biases are essential. We need to have open conversations about the issues surrounding gender bias, and we must commit to working to overcome that bias, even when it is hard or inconvenient. All this can be achieved through leading by example.

A home for women in tech

Inclusion is everyone’s job. It unifies us as a community, and brings out the best in individuals and teams. The tech industry has made remarkable progress over the years, but we are not done yet and there is plenty to do, with no single answer to the myriad issues at hand.

Ultimately, the move towards fairness and parity in tech should not be seen as simply implementing a set of company initiatives or programmes. Rather, it has to be about sustained, systematic shifts in cultural norms and mindsets at the workplace, where everyone can truly be themselves.

This will also mean closer collaboration with public and private sector stakeholders to set agendas at the national level, from driving awareness around diversity and inclusion, to developing training schemes supporting a greater understanding of fairness and equality.

Also read: Meet the VC: Stephanie Strunk of Amadeus Ventures on why women should support women

As we carefully navigate a post-pandemic world that is leaving traditional norms behind, it is my hope that the tech industry will take the opportunity to reset and effect powerful, positive change, furthering conversations around diversity and inclusion to give people an environment to belong and grow, and to feel respected, safe and valued. A home to all: regardless of gender, age, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion, disability, background or identity.

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COVID-19 has changed how we eat. The food and beverage industry has had to adapt to massive pandemic-wrought shifts: supply chains have changed, new hazard controls have been imposed, and — perhaps most pertinent to the layman consumer — consumer preferences have been upheaved. 

At some point during the quarantines, you probably gave up on cooking dinner and ordered food in. And, chances are, you did so through a food delivery platform. Food delivery services experienced an unprecedented surge in use, as an important (and in some cases, only) conduit between restaurants and grocery outlets, and their customers.

And, according to research from Bain & Company and Facebook, this habit is likely to persist even post-pandemic — people are expected to continue shopping for groceries and other essential items online even after the coronavirus pandemic ends. 

And as our (quite literally) consumption habits go online and stay there, it’s become important for food services to abandon the idea of a return to old processes. They need to consider how many of the newly-implemented processes we see as part of the “new normal” will last in the long-run, and how to use them to stay ahead of the curve. 

Consumer data has become even more important

Going digital makes collecting data easier than ever — and the collection and use of consumer data is a key part to the success of the new trends we’ve seen emerge during the pandemic. 

Besides food delivery services, another trend that has seen a surge amidst the pandemic are cloud and ghost kitchens: food production and delivery services that are entirely online, with no physical store presence whatsoever. An idea that is more than a decade old and originally conceived as a solution to increasing property rentals, the cloud kitchen’s catapult into prominence came amidst the pandemic, when social distancing norms and quarantines kept people out of physical restaurants.

And, much like the convenience offered by food delivery, the lower overhead costs of maintaining a cloud kitchen means that they are likely to remain after the pandemic. In China, cloud kitchens are expanding rapidly, as they ride the wave of online food delivery — a market already worth a whopping US$37 billlion.   

These services — be it tech platforms such as Grab Food and Foodpanda,  or even the in-house delivery service of your favourite local restaurant — benefit greatly from understanding data.

With an understanding of their peak periods and their consumer preferences —  such as their best-selling products and what products are bought together — restaurant and delivery companies are able to make informed decisions on sales strategies and minimise inventory wastage.

And, with information on delivery times and where their customers are ordering from, they can ensure they have sufficient riders at busy locations, resulting in a smoother delivery process and satisfied customers.

Also Read: Understanding the economics of food delivery platforms

Of course, data can’t do everything yet: Ensuring the quality of food still requires a discerning tongue, and is highly subject to human error. We can only rely on data that is being collected via customer feedback, and improve from there. 

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room

It’s come up time and time again, but it bears being said: For all that they have been a lifeline amidst the pandemic, in the long run, these food delivery services may be hurting the very industry that they are claiming to help. 

Food delivery services were conceived of in a different time: Before the pandemic, they often weren’t the only or even the primary source of revenue for restaurants. Rather, they were an additional revenue stream, and an additional way for them to manage excess inventory — they were a nice thing to have, but most of a restaurant’s income came from its physical visitors. 

Yet, times have changed. Now, for many dine-in restaurants, online delivery is the only way to survive. Further, as delivery habits have shown themselves to be sticky consumer behaviour — the Asian market for restaurant dining is expected to fall to 7.5 per cent over the decade to 2026 — these changes look to last.

A once-minor revenue stream has become a major revenue stream. And, when you consider the sizeable merchant fees that major food delivery platforms charge and the fact that these restaurants are operating far under their usual profits, it’s clear that only restaurants with higher margins can sustain these operations.

So what can dine-in restaurants do?

It’s a misconception that data is only effective for big tech platforms. As I mentioned earlier, even your favourite local restaurant can benefit from an understanding of data — be it from their physical or online sales. Knowledge of your customers’ preferences and habits, your inventory and wastage, are crucial for any restaurant owner to optimise their operations and increase sales.  

At Innergia Labs, we helped a local restaurant chain use data to increase their annual revenue by 8 per cent. Based on the data they collected via our Sycarda platform, their sales and marketing team analysed their store’s off-peak hours, taking note of average wallet spend, as well as the most popular à la carte items that customers tended to bundle together in their purchase.

Using these insights, the company then designed a set meal promotion to bring in more customers during off-peak hours. Over the subsequent three month campaign, they brought in MYR500,000 a month. Data is not just for the big guys.

Also Read: Asia’s food delivery potential is set to unlock post-COVID-19. Here’s why

Moreover: Competition in the online food delivery industry rising. There are new delivery platforms coming into the market everyday, and their competitive rates bode better for restaurant owners. It would be in their best interests for business owners to keep up with these alternatives, and work towards creating a more competitive climate for food delivery. 

And, beyond the pandemic, the creation of omni-channel experience will be crucial. Ordering food online may be a sticky habit, but there’s occasions when we would prefer to dress up and dine out. A restaurant could use their online presence to build awareness, to pique their customer’s interest in dining in-person — and offer a unique in-person dining experience that keeps customers coming back for more.

All-in-all, the F&B industry must embrace digital transformation. It’s not just a stopgap measure amidst the pandemic — and there’s no going back to the way things used to be. 

Still, if you’re a customer? Preemptively walk off your calories and dabao some food from your favourite restaurants. You’re helping them more than you think.

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

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Friz, a Singapore-based fintech startup focused on providing financial services for freelancers, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding from investors, including Y Combinator, 500 Durians, 500 TukTuks, Iterative VC and other prominent angel investors.

The company was part of Y Combinator’s recently-concluded W21 batch.

The capital raised will be used for the expansion of its engineering and marketing teams, as well as to expand into markets such as the Philippines and Thailand.

Launched in April 2020, Friz leverages data insights to provide financial products including credit cards, personal loans, insurance, savings and investment products for freelancers. With Friz, freelancers can keep track of and manage their incomes, expenses, savings, and borrowings all under one roof — hence boosting productivity and bridging borrowing gaps.

“We are currently serving white-collar freelancers in Singapore and will soon grow to support markets like the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand in the region. There are more than 80 million freelancers in Asia at the moment, and this is the fastest-growing market for freelance talent, as individuals are digitally savvy, fluent in English and have diploma/degree qualifications,” shared Ash Rhazaly, CTO and co-founder of Friz.

“Freelancers are entrepreneurs and business people in every regard. For a very long time, they have fallen through the cracks of traditional consumer and business banking — but it is high time that all these changes. At Friz, we are determined to create a new financial paradigm for the future of work,” said Nirali Zaveri, CEO and co-founder of Friz.

Also Read: How PI.EXCHANGE helps freelancers and small businesses have easier access to AI solutions

“Work-from-home arrangements have proven to large corporates and small businesses that remote work can be productive when managed through the right tools. This has led to a vast movement in favour of freelance jobs across the world. Employers are increasingly hiring more freelancers as they adopt agile and flexible cost structures, and individuals are enjoying the ability to access jobs from around the world and turning to freelance as a long-term career choice,” she added.

There has been a recent upsurge in the number of freelancers operating globally, which comes from the pandemic forcing individuals into working remotely.

This trend is particularly noticeable in the Asia Pacific region, where a reported 84 per cent of hiring managers are outsourcing projects to freelancers.

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Image Credit: Friz

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Circus Social, a Singapore- and India-based social media analytics company, announced today that it has raised US$1 million in pre-Series A funding.

Indian VC firm Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) led the round, with participation from several other strategic investors, including Saurabh Gupta, Director of DC OSSE; Ganesh Mohan, Head of Strategy of Bajaj Finserv; Samit Shetty, CEO of Navi FinServe; Royston Tay and Yang Bin Kwok, co-founders of Zopim; and Srinivasan Venkita Padmanabhan, President of Olam Group.

Circus Social will use the funds to scale its platform, expand globally and strengthen its team.

Founded in 2013, by Indian Institute of Technology graduate Ram Bhamidi and King’s College London graduate Prerna Pant, Circus Social is a platform that helps businesses makes decisions from real-time social media conversations.

Its offerings allow companies to track competitors, benchmark performance, analyse sentiment and predict trends using AI and Machine Learning.

The startup has clients across multiple industries in over 15 countries in Asia Pacific, including Fortune 500 clients across the Asia Pacific.

Also Read: Using social media to grow your startup: What companies can do to avoid disappointment

Mitesh Shah, co-founder of IPV, said: “Social listening has become a mainstay of the marketing strategy of most enterprises today. Brands want to know what their customers want and give it to them in real-time. Plain vanilla social marketing is passé. Circus Social founding teams’ understanding of AI and its use in social listening has proven its mettle based on the numbers we have seen, thus making it a good opportunity for IPV to invest in the company.”

With 4.8 billion internet users and over 3.96 billion social media users globally, roughly 51 per cent of the world’s population is on social media. An average user is on nine social platforms, making the market size and need for Big Data analytics products extremely huge.

The global social media analytics market size is expected to grow from US$3.6 billion in 2020 to US$15.6 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.1 per cent.

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Image Credit: Alexander Shatov

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Glints, a Singapore-based HR-tech company focusing on career development and recruitment, has raised US$22.5 million in a Series C funding round led by Tokyo-listed PERSOL Holdings.

Returning investors, including Monk’s Hill Ventures, Fresco Capital, Mindworks Ventures and Wavemaker Partners, besides angels such as Binny Bansal (co-founder of Flipkart) and Xiaoyin Zhang (former Head and Partner at Goldman Sachs TMT China) also participated in the round.

As per a press release, the oversubscribed round is the largest investment into an online career platform in Southeast Asia to date. The company previously raised US$6.8 million in a Series B funding round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures in July 2019.

Glints said the fresh funds will go towards developing additional features and solutions on its platform and expanding its presence in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Taiwan. It also intends to scale its product and engineering teams.

Launched in 2013, Glints combines community forums, skills education (Academy and ExpertClass) and job features (Job Marketplace) to provide a full-stack talent platform that supports professionals in their career discovery and development. The company claims over four million professionals visit its platform every month.

For employers, Glints provides a tech-enabled recruitment solution that it claims is twice as efficient as traditional recruiters. Its clientele includes gojek, Tokopedia, FWD Insurance, Starbucks and Mediacorp.

Also Read: Singapore faces talent crunch for engineering and product manager roles: Report

Despite headwinds from the pandemic, Glints noted it has seen “resilient” growth in 2020 with annual revenues more than doubling, continuing the trend of annual revenues growing at triple-digit percentages for the past three years.

The company also remarked it sees positive contribution margins across all business units, with Indonesia and Vietnam markets already profitable.

“With the pandemic accelerating the future of work and causing big changes in the labour market, our mission to empower the 120 million professionals in Southeast Asia is more important than ever. Existing solutions are transactional job portals and traditional recruiters that only provide part of the solution,” shared Oswald Yeo, co-founder & CEO of Glints.

“We are scaling Glints as a full-stack talent platform to support the professionals in Southeast Asia with their career discovery and development and to solve the regional talent crunch for employers,” he added.

“I am excited that we are strengthening our partnership with Glints. With PERSOL Group’s commercial distribution and experience in Asia and Glints’ leading tech-enabled talent platform, we will empower professionals in Southeast Asia and help solve the talent crunch in Southeast Asia,” opined Takayuki Yamazaki, CEO of PERSOL Asia Pacific.

“Oswald and his team have fundamentally reimagined a job seeker and employer’s journey in the context of the future of work. The speed at which they’ve achieved sustainable revenues with solid business fundamentals and the scale at which they have built a substantial talent and employer base is astounding,” remarked Peng T. Ong, Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures.

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Image Credit: Glints

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