Vickers Venture ensnared by alleged fraud; It’s been caught up in the allegedly fraudulent nickel trading scheme of a Singaporean businessman and his Envy Global Trading; The alleged mastermind, Ng Yu Zhi, has been charged with a range of suspected crimes from faking the purchase and sale of nickel to falsifying transfers from Citibank and account statements that showed millions in funds.

VC funding in SEA sets to see record year in 2021; Startups in the region have raised US$6bn in Q1 alone; VC funding in the region has been growing steadily since 2014, hitting a peak of US$12.6bn in 2018, reveals a Genesis Alternative Ventures report.

GajiGesa, a fintech focused on Indonesian workers, raises strategic investment; The backers include OCBC NISP Ventura and the founders of Kopi Kenangan; GajiGesa also recently expanded beyond the enterprise space with a new employee management system for SMEs and micro-SMEs; The startup announced a US$2.5mn seed round led by Defy.vc and Quest Ventures in February.

Indonesian e-commerce firm Sirclo nets US$45mn in funding; Investors include SMDV (lead) and East Ventures; According to Sirclo CEO Brian Marshal, this investment was part of the acquisition deal of Orami last month; Sirclo acquired Orami, an online parenting platform that’s also part of East Ventures’ and SMDV’s portfolio.

Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s firm to focus on funding SEA’s tech startups; Horizon Ventures will focus primarily on the Indonesian market; It has partnered with Alpha JWC Ventures to identify startups; In the past year, the two VC firms invested in Kopi Kenangan, Ajaib and Bobobox.

Singapore’s ProSpark secures seed funding for its corporate e-learning and training solution; Investors include AC Ventures (lead), 500 Startups and Azure Ventures; ProSpark has already expanded into the Philippines and attracted many prominent client base, including Gojek and Kopi Kenangan.

Malaysian B2B e-wholesaler Lapasar lands US$1.8M funding; Round was led by NEXEA and shopper360; The startup targets to serve 10K grocery stores, restaurants and hawker stalls over the next 24 months with its new mobile app Lapasar-Borong.

What does the future of CBDCs actually look like and why does it matter?; A centrally-backed digital currency provides better security, while reducing fraud and lowering costs; It allows for better monitoring of financial activity making crimes such as tax evasion much more difficult and offers a higher level of control and traceability in comparison to private cryptocurrencies and cash.

Chinese unicorn to launch its robot waiters in Singapore, other markets; Keenon Robotics has already launched operations in Japan in March and is looking to also expand to South Korea, Europe, North America, and the Middle East; Keenon Robotics says its robots account for about 85% of all food-serving robots ever sold in the Chinese market.

Facebook chats power a new US$48bn market in social commerce; In Thailand almost half of all ecommerce takes place through social media or chat rooms on Facebook, WhatsApp or Line’s app; The rapid adoption of commerce via social media across the region could offer valuable lessons to internet giants like ByteDance and Instagram, which are experimenting with the format as they try to disrupt the traditional styles of platform commerce.

Livestream e-commerce goes mainstream; The tech and its business model deliver an interactive experience for brands, influencers, or celebrities to promote and sell products; and for consumers to participate by asking questions and shopping during the event.

Digital remittance providers eye APAC markets; Asia’s digital remittance providers are competing with a foreign fintech companies who are entering the region at an accelerated pace; Names such as Wise and Revolut have all entered the region in the past two years.

BlackRock, Temasek to establish new funds to invest in late-stage environmental startups; Decarbonisation Partners is going to establish several funds with the initial injection of US$600mn; Eventually, they aim to hit the anticipated US$5bn+ in AuM in the coming years.

Getting risk culture right in the age of hybrid working; Having a workforce that understands the new risk elements in their work environment will go a long way to support a robust risk culture; Training programmes should be put in place to ensure that employees and customers are educated on security awareness to minimise security risks and to remind employees of the importance of upholding the company’s risk culture.

MAS launches global fintech Hackcelerator for a greener financial sector; FinTech firms and solution providers around the world are invited to submit innovative solutions to address over 50 problem statements that have been collected from financial institutions and green finance industry players.

What it takes to keep SEA’s digital economy booming; A total of 40mn new users were added in SEA in 2020, which brings the total to 400mn users; 70% of SEA is now online; Majority of new consumers are from non-metro areas; They spent on average an hour more a day on the Internet during lockdowns, with the highest spike in the Philippines.

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Image Credit: Vickers Venture Partners

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All of May, we are taking a closer look at the workplace and all concerns of all kinds of workers. Afterall, Labour Day is the flavour of the month. Catch up what all the hype about a 4-day work week is all about and if its even worth it and learn how to manage you tech talent in lieu of the pandemic.

Also marching on is our Earth Day theme with some spotlight on slow fashion and impact investing. Hope you feel enlightened.

Labour Day specials

Voice of Employees: How the pandemic accelerated focus on employee welfare by Leong Chee Tung, CEO at EngageRocket

“Over the next few months, as organisations looked down the barrel of a potential economic downswing and damage to business continuity, HR departments provided the support and infrastructure that employees needed to stay productive and bring their best selves to work – even if that work happened in a virtual space.

For these reasons, 95 per cent of CHROs agree that HR played a leading role in their organisation’s response to COVID-19. As an ally during the period of challenge and change, HR’s role spread across facilitating business continuity in the early months, gauging employee sentiment and therefore the ideal organisational response, and intervening with the right technology at the right moments.

Like Voice of the Customer in the sales and marketing world, listening to employees in the workplace seeks to capture genuine employee sentiment and intent in order to plan more effective and targeted organisational strategies.”

How to retain local talent as global demand for remote tech workers surges by Jamille Tran, a reporter from Tsinghua University

“Technology staff in India, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam have long been known as the top IT outsourcing solution providers for global companies, according to A.T. Kearney’s Global Services Location Index (GSLI).

“Even before the pandemic, companies based in high labour-cost locations, like Australia and the US, have already utilised remote workers for non-core tasks, or even set up hub offices in lower-cost locations,” said Christopher Lee, senior manager of People & Organisation Management Consulting at PwC Consulting Vietnam. “COVID-19 has only accelerated this trend.”

With the acceleration caused by the pandemic, technology jobs like data engineer, senior software engineer, solution architect have entered the fastest growing remote jobs by application volume globally from March to June on Linkedin, the world’s largest professional networking platform.”

Is a four-day workweek better for employers or employees? by Duckju Kang, CEO of ValueChampion

“A number of companies including Microsoft Japan, American-based fast food company Shake Shack, New Zealand-based financial services company Perpetual Guardian have experimented with the four-day workweek in different ways.

Some companies have kept the same working hours and gave employees a day off for a total of 32 working hours per week, while others kept the 40 hour work week but condensed it into four days.

The companies that tested out the shorter work week conducted the experiment for a couple of months before deciding whether to implement the changes permanently.

The experiments yielded a few surprising results. Despite the shorter week, companies saw improvements in employee engagement and productivity. Employers also saw more cost savings and less turnover. However, there were also some negatives.”

As Glints CTO, this is what I want you to know about building an engineering team in Southeast Asia by Seah Ying Cong, CTO, Glints

“I had some abstract ideals about the perfect team I wanted to build. But at the end of the day, I am at a company with a budget, hiring against a tight timeline in a constrained talent market with a thin history.

There are realities to contend with, many of which are unique to the fragmented and multi-cultural context that is Southeast Asia. If I could hop on a Zoom call with that eager hiring manager from five years ago, here’s where I would focus his precious and soon-to-be-frayed attention.”

Caring for the planet

How to become a millionaire investor while scaling sustainability impact in the world by by Jamille Tran, a reporter from Tsinghua University

“BlackRock, one of the world’s largest asset management firms, noted in its recent report that sustainable investing would be no longer a niche area but turning mainstream without compromising financial goals.

International investors are expecting that this millionaire opportunity would prevalently occur within developing countries.

“People in developing countries are very committed to improving their standard of living,” said Ippel, while underlining that these countries account for three-quarters of the world’s population. “They are more committed to growth than entrepreneurs in North America or Europe.”

Slow fashion is back: How environmental sustainability becomes the hottest trend this season by Sarah Garner, founder and CEO, Retykle

“Popular high street brands can now produce weekly collections which are vast when compared to the four seasonal collections of traditional fashion houses.

The amount manufactured at an incredibly fast pace is only possible with some fairly aggressive factors at play which include unethical methods and techniques for producing materials, utilising workers far beyond the standard and ultimately safety, quality and efficiency of the garment.

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition estimates that designers control upwards of 80 per cent of a product’s environmental impact, and that it lies in the first steps of development. It is tough to work backwards when you are working towards a more sustainable product.”

And more….

What does the future of CBDCs actually look like and why does it matter? by Kanv Pandit, Payments and Banking at FIS

“The uncertainty created by the ongoing pandemic has led to cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin becoming mainstream. Both Apple Pay and PayPal recently started supporting bitcoin payments in the US. In Asia, Singapore’s DBS bank launched a digital currency exchange last December – this is the world’s first cryptocurrency exchange backed by a traditional bank.

As consumer demand for digital currency payment options rises, merchants in Asia are now beginning to accept such payment options across various channels. For example, in Japan bitcoin is accepted by over 260,000 stores and Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten had just launched a crypto wallet this month that allows users to shop both online and in-store using crypto.”

How cloud technology makes trading a hassle-free experience by Jeremy Choi, COO, ABCC Exchange

“From social media and banking to healthcare and government services, there is a need for efficient and reliable data infrastructure, cloud technology can greatly enhance the user experience.

For high-frequency trading environments, which depends on split-second decisions and execution, the use of cloud technology can help streamline the transaction process.

Why exactly is choosing a trading marketplace utilising cloud technology so important in improving the experience of buying and selling digital assets?”

Advertising with privacy: How SoMin employs AI to build brands and preserve anonymity online by Deon Tan, Block71 Singapore

“Consumers will also benefit from the increased privacy and absence of in-your-face advertisements that clog up news feeds. All in all, sophisticated adtech tools create a win-win situation for both businesses and consumers alike.

However, building sophisticated performance tools requires skill and a wealth of industry knowledge. Fortunately, a team of experts at BLOCK71 Singapore have been working to build the future of ad optimisation since 2017.

This month, I sat down with Hendrik Schwartz and Aleks Farseev, good friends and co-founders of adtech startup SoMin, to dissect the intricate workings behind their AI-driven marketing performance system.

Read on to discover the game-changing powers of ad optimisation for both businesses and consumers.”

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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The post From our community: Hiring tips from Glints’ CTO, 4-day work week, the rise of slow fashion and more…. appeared first on e27.