The COVID-19 pandemic has forced society to reexamine its ways and develop new strategies for life and work to continue despite the many setbacks that have surfaced because of the global health crisis. As such, trends like segregated work environments and long-distance family relationships have emerged, along with a stronger need for digital solutions.

The need for smarter digitalisation has existed long before the pandemic, but current events have certainly accelerated these trends. Now, as billions of consumers across the globe are able to accomplish more and more tasks within mobile apps, across both their home and work lives, the role of mobile messaging tools and chat APIs have become increasingly prominent.

One particular company that has been making waves in the market is Sendbird, the largest white-label mobile conversations platform that companies can integrate into their apps and brand experience with just a few lines of code. Sendbird is the leading mobile engagement and communication platform trusted by modern digital and mobile-first companies like Reddit, Delivery Hero, and Paytm.

Also read: Open Banking: why this risky pursuit is the key to accelerating Fintech innovation

With the emergence of new trends in various areas including Chat API, Messaging SDK, In-app Messaging, Real-time Communication, Chat Platform as a Service (CPaaS), Cloud Communication, IP Messaging, Conversational Commerce, Enhanced Messaging, live commerce, and live video, Sendbird has seen heavy demand for its products across different industries.

Sendbird connects users with each other and with the brands they care about through rich in-app conversations across chat, voice, and video. “From food delivery to healthcare, education, entertainment, shopping, and so much more, every business is looking to connect digitally with its customers,” said Sendbird co-founder and CEO, John S. Kim.

Kim added, “users now expect to have meaningful conversations with each other, and with the brand, inside of the mobile app — and that’s where we come in. Whether it’s coordinating with a delivery provider, getting a question answered from a seller in an online marketplace, asking another user for advice in a hobby community, or talking to a doctor in a virtual video call, Sendbird helps hundreds of millions of users connect with the brands they love and get stuff done.”

Conversations as the centre of the mobile experience

Billions of users now engage in real-time mobile conversations on a monthly basis making it the most popular way for users to communicate. Companies are increasingly harnessing the power of mobile conversations within their own apps both to drive better business outcomes, but also to avoid risks of losing their users to other real-time channels owned by the technology giants.

More and more, brands are making the conversation with the customer the centre of the mobile experience. From within a chat thread, users can authorise a replacement item from a delivery provider, cancel a ride, make a payment to a friend, or check the status of an order.

“Modern brands in all verticals are increasingly adopting in-app chat to power digital, real-time, and authentic conversations with their customers to drive engagement and retention,” said Sendbird board member Karan Mehandru.

Also read: The 5G era is here, and you can be part of the revolution

“We believe Sendbird’s market leadership and product scalability put them in pole position to capture these tailwinds and become the first choice for every brand in the world looking to communicate authentically with their audience. We are thrilled to lead this investment and partner with John and the team as the company defines and owns this next dominant channel of customer communications,” Mehandru added.

Sendbird’s customer base currently spans communities such as Reddit and Yahoo Sports as well as two-sided marketplaces like Carousell, Handy, and Yell. It also includes food delivery and ride-sharing leaders like Delivery Hero, Ola, and iFood; digital health innovators such as Rally Health, Teladoc, and DocPlanner; fintech companies like PayPay, Paytm, and Picpay; as well as enterprises including Virgin Mobile UAE, ServiceNow, and Kookmin Bank.

“We needed to quickly find new digital ways for our users to build meaningful connections, and Sendbird’s video calling and chat APIs do just that,” said Ben Celebicic, CTO of Hinge, one of the largest dating sites in the U.S. and a member of the Match Group.

Celebicic explained that “with millions of daters looking for connection, we needed a partner that we could trust with our scale.“

New money for a new world

Last April, Sendbird announced that it closed $100 million in Series C funding in an oversubscribed round led by STEADFAST Capital Ventures. STEADFAST Managing Director and Head of Venture Capital Karan Mehandru will join Sendbird’s board of directors. Emergence Capital, Softbank Vision Fund 2*, and World Innovation Lab also participated in the round, as well as previous investors, ICONIQ Growth, Tiger Global Management, and Meritech Capital.

Funding comes as Sendbird has achieved new milestones. Now valued at $1.05 billion, it has become one of only 12 current unicorns founded out of Korea and the first in the B2B enterprise software space. Sendbird has also grown its monthly active users (MAU) and the number of applications powered by Sendbird by 3x since its Series B announcement. Over 150 million users interact on Sendbird’s chat and video platform every month through the apps of digital and mobile leaders including Reddit, Hinge, Paytm, Teladoc, Virgin Mobile UAE, and Delivery Hero.

Also read: Want to fast-track your growth? Fast-track your way to improved customer experience

Sendbird will use its latest influx of capital to aggressively accelerate its R&D efforts to help customers get more value out of both existing and new products. The company will continue to scale its workforce in its Silicon Valley headquarters, as well as in its other locations around the globe — New York, London, Munich, Singapore, Seoul, and Bengaluru — to make this happen. In addition, Sendbird also plans to enter new markets as the world looks for ways to incorporate meaningful digital conversations over chat, voice, and video into their mobile applications.

“Our customers operate in highly dynamic and competitive environments,” said Kim. “Helping them launch new mobile experiences quickly and see better business outcomes — that’s where our focus is. Last year we launched Sendbird Calls, APIs to embed voice and video experiences into mobile apps, and we’ve seen strong demand. The explosion of Clubhouse has shown that companies are just getting started on where to take voice and video. We’re excited to build the future of mobile experiences with our customers.”

These are only some of the exciting new developments in the messaging world, and we are excited to see catalysts like Sendbird further revolutionise mobile experiences and bridge gaps as we usher in the new normal.

For more information, you may visit Sendbird’s official page here.

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Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
Sendbird

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Philippine e-commerce enabler, Great Deals E-Commerce Corporation, has raised US$30 million in Series B funding round, led by local logistics major Fast Group.

The round was joined by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, besides existing investor Navegar.

This round comes almost a year and half after Great Deals secured US$12 million Series A from Navegar in January 2020.

Great Deals will deploy the fresh capital in tech development and the construction of an automated “state-of-the-art fulfilment centre”.

“We recognise that Philippine logistics is by far the toughest across the ASEAN region and remains to impede our e-commerce penetration outside GMA.

With this funding and strategic support from our new investors, this opens new opportunities to drive forward instant commerce, delivery under one hour, wherever you are. We can reach and serve more Filipinos faster and safer. That is the next big thing that can boost further the digital economy in our country,” said Steve Sy, founder and CEO of Great Deals.

Also Read: Great Deals raises US$12M from Navegar to be the Alibaba of Philippines

William Chiongbian II, Group President and CEO of Fast Group, said: “The Fast Group sees a lot of synergies with Great Deals in building capability. We are privileged to contribute to the growth of Philippine e-commerce, as it relies heavily on a strong supply chain backbone.”

“We envision strategic collaborations between Great Deal’s high-growth e-commerce solutions and Fast’s leading position in Philippine logistics. This partnership also marks Fast’s first M&A transaction since CVC’s investment less than six months ago,” said Brice Cu, Managing Director and Head of the Philippines at CVC Capital Partners.

Sy founded Great Deals in 2014 after spending many years as an entrepreneur in the retail and e-commerce sectors. He identified a glaring need to enable entrepreneurs like himself to succeed in the internet economy.

Great Deals offers end-to-end business solutions ranging from digital marketing, content creation, storefront management, web design, business analytics and customer service to warehousing and peak-scaling fulfilment.

The firm caters to both local and multinational brands, including Abbott, L’Oréal, Unilever, Nestle, Samsonite, GSK, Bayer, and Fila.

In 2020, Great Deals claims to have posted four-fold growth in 2020.

According to International Trade Administration, COVID-19 has increased demand for e-commerce in the Philippines. While the younger population was already open to online shopping, the need for social distancing has pushed the cash centric and face to face shopping culture towards a more digital one, and this is expected to continue.

What is lacking is proper digital and logistics infrastructure to truly enable a digital economy. There needs to be higher bandwidth capacity to service the retail market.

Plus, Filipinos are prolific users of social media. Estimates in 2020 showed that there were 76 million active social media users in the country. Of this, 75 million are on Facebook, 12 million on Twitter, and 4 million on LinkedIn.

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Image Credit: Great Deals

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It’s no secret that the race to digital adoption has greatly benefited consumers. Companies are proudly sharing their digital touchpoints and success stories, with a renewed focus on creating the very best customer experiences (CX). That’s great news for consumers everywhere, but businesses have an additional layer of responsibility to make sure their employees, the people turning this goal into reality, are not forgotten.

As a company’s ‘internal customers’, employees are just as powerful and relevant to your success. In fact, a study by KPMG shows businesses that invest in EX are four times more profitable than those that don’t. In the same way we champion great customer relationships, a new kind of EX is the way forward to help employees reach their full potential — one that is personal, relevant, and responsive.

After all, when your people are happy, they’re more likely to deliver the best interactions for your customers, creating a better experience for everyone.

Understanding the landscape of employee experience today

The pandemic has brought about a huge shift in the meaning of ‘good’ EX. With more teams working remotely, companies must now pay closer attention to their employees, finding innovative ways to improve visibility, gather feedback, and encourage engagement. 

In Singapore, our Zendesk CX Trends 2021 report found 77 per cent of employees on support teams feel overwhelmed by unprecedented change. As we navigate new ways of working, seamless communication and flexibility must stand at the core of great EX, allowing everyone across the organisation to respond to business challenges and employee needs with agility.

In response to volatility, leaders must put in place the right processes and culture to help their teams feel connected, supported, and included, so that they can be empowered to do their best work.

Also Read: How Globe Telecom used Google’s cloud-based services to empower its employees

Always respond with empathy

Empathy sits at the heart of any healthy relationship, and building up great EX starts with understanding and responding to the needs of your people. More than a year into the pandemic, we still can’t fully claim ‘business-as-normal’ but we have stepped up to the challenge of ‘business-as-adaptable’.

We’ve become better at dealing with changes and uncertainties, and more comfortable with springing into action to respond to new needs and the same flexibility needs to extend to the workplace. There must be a willingness for leaders to listen with compassion, communicate with honesty, and actively work to remove barriers that might stop employees from getting help. 

Our research shows that more than half (57 per cent) of agents in Singapore think a supportive environment is the most important factor in doing their job well.

That’s over half of a workforce who are at risk of losing motivation and belief in the company’s goals if they don’t feel heard and understood. Businesses would be remiss to ignore the importance of empathy when it comes to building up a strong, resilient, and productive workforce. 

Seek to empower with technology

If it wasn’t already clear, the two experiences—employee and customer—are tightly linked. When employees have the right tools to succeed, they can keep better track of performance indicators, stay connected with colleagues, and feel supported by their companies.

Yet, our research shows that despite the shift to remote work, 49 per cent of agents don’t have the right tools to work successfully from home.

Companies that want to drive great customer experiences must first think about investing in technological tools to support their people and the ongoing health of the business. 

Internally, leveraging a flexible, easy-to-use portal for communication and collaboration, such as an internal help desk, will help employees find the resources they need. When facing consumers, employees must also be equipped to provide customers the same stellar support they receive from their own companies.

Together, these tools can help employees communicate with each other as well as engage customers across various channels, including messaging, chat, email, and phone, improving the overall experience for everyone.

Also Read: As Glints CTO, this is what I want you to know about building an engineering team in Southeast Asia

To all businesses aiming to do the best by their customers, take a moment to remember that your employees will always be the greatest champions of your brand.

If you are serious about creating the best customer experiences, start by looking within and making sure you have the right focus on caring for your own internal customers.

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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.

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

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Secai Marche, an online marketplace that connects farmers with restaurants in Japan and Malaysia, has bagged JPY150 million (~US$1.5 million) in a pre-Series A funding round from Japanese VC firms Rakuten Ventures and Beyond Next Ventures.

The company will use the fresh capital to expand fulfilment services (including its own fulfilment services, logistics, inventory, packing and picking, co-founder and CEO Ami Sugiyama told e27.

A portion of the money will also go into hiring and sales and marketing.

Also Read: Eat Just’s unit GOOD Meat secures US$170M to bring meat made from animal cells to Singapore

Secai Marche — which aims to be the Amazon for fresh farm produce in ASEAN — earlier raised US$1 million from Beyond Next, Monex Ventures and some unnamed angels in October last year for expansion into Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. However, the rapid spread of COVID-19 forced it to put off the plans.

“We want to expand rapidly to counties in Southeast Asia. But we need to see how the COVID-19 situation improves before going ahead with the plans,” she said.

Founded in 2018 by Sugiyama and Shusaku Hayakawa, Secai Marche is an online B2B farm-to-table platform that enables F&B businesses to purchase “high-quality products with competitive prices” directly from farmers.

The firm sources ingredients, of around 3,000 items, directly from farmers in Southeast Asia and Japan. Among the products sourced, 30 per cent are from Japan, 50 per cent from Malaysia and the rest from other parts of ASEAN.

Secai Marche does everything itself — from purchasing, trading, picking and packing, to arranging the logistics.

Also Read: Secai Marche lands US$1M to become the Amazon for fresh farm produce in ASEAN

The foodservice distribution industry in Southeast Asia is huge but highly fragmented and inefficient.

“As one of the fastest-growing online grocery platforms in Southeast Asia, more than 300 retailers and HORECA customers are satisfied with our product quality, variety and impeccable services including the whole fulfilment services — from collection of items at farm, sorting, packing, quality management and last-mile delivery according to individual orders,” she explained.

Sugiyama also said that Secai Marche will reach out to investors for Series A round of funding year later.

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Image Credit: Secai Marche

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From gaining popularity in retail and e-commerce to getting reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is picking up even more attention in Singapore.

Despite having already shed some light on the misconceptions about BNPL financial services, plenty of myths still surround the industry. As a new form of financial service in Singapore, it is only natural for people to misinterpret and make judgements based on surface-level knowledge.

But the fact is, the myths the public holds about BNPL — such as viewing BNPL as an insecure cyber platform, a service that encourages irresponsible spending behaviour, or a credit trap that profits off customer penalties — are by and large, untrue.

It is first important to note that not all BNPL services are the same. While there are businesses that label themselves as a BNPL, some are actually a lending business that allows consumers to make borrowed payments at a later date. To be more specific, BNPL actually refers to platforms such as hoolah, that allows consumers to purchase what they need now, and pay for that particular purchase later in three interest-free instalments. 

As a consumer-centric business, hoolah helps customers purchase responsibly, values transparency, and even encourages quality, sustainable consumer decisions. In fact, we believe that BNPL may even be a superior alternative to credit cards or traditional bank loans, where interest fees are a main revenue driver for their business.

Studies back up our claims. It has been observed that concern over credit card interests, hidden debts and revolving debts have led to increasing demand for BNPL. A 2020 Finder report shows that about 1.1 million Singaporeans have used a BNPL platform, and 87 per cent of the surveyors who are millennials are the most likely age group to have used BNPL.

Also Read: Fundiin receives financing for its Vietnam-focused BNPL platform

So, instead of fearing that which you don’t understand, here’s the lowdown on some misconceptions about BNPL.

Myth #1: Encouraging overspending

Often, people claim that BNPL encourages overconsumption. This is because it allows users to think that they are able to spend more on the platform as using BNPLs would make the purchase seem more affordable due to the instalment format.

On the contrary, according to the same report by the Finder, it was found that BNPL has in fact had little to no effect on consumer spending habits. 73 per cent of Singaporeans surveyed claimed that they were not financially worse off while using BNPL services.

We take it one step further by implementing spending limits that are personalised to each user. If a hoolah user has hit their spending limit, our algorithm automatically rejects further transactions from being charged, deterring overspending.

We also encourage our users to practise responsible spending by creating social content that is educational in nature, such as financially savvy articles on our blog. We take our role in educating the public about financial literacy and responsibility seriously, and our BNPL services are intended to help the public reduce the impact of price, upfront spend, and ultimately cash flow affordability.

Interestingly, consumers are also moving away from fast consumption, to making better quality purchases, because of the financial stability that BNPL provides. A recent survey revealed that 72.6 per cent of consumers agreed that using BNPL services have allowed them to increase their purchases or to buy products that are of higher quality.

Similarly, RetailBiz shares how BNPL helps to ease cash flow problems for consumers by splitting up the payment into bite-sized instalments. This has two benefits to the consumers: their monthly cash flow has expanded and is thus more flexible. This, at the same time, allows them to make smarter, better quality decisions about the products and services they are introducing into their lives.

Indirectly, BNPL can help consumers make responsible and sustainable purchasing decisions – buying fewer, but better quality products, while reducing waste and the impact of their purchases on the environment.

Also Rsenead: Buy now, pay later: The changing face of finance for a mobile generation

Myth #2: Unreliable cybersecurity

 As technology advances and e-commerce increases in popularity, the digitalisation of our lifestyles also raises concerns about the security of one’s personal data. With horror stories of data breaches and virus attacks abound, it is understandable why consumers are concerned regarding the cybersecurity of BNPL platforms.

A 2018 report done by Shape Security, a cybersecurity firm, revealed that about 90 per cent of e-commerce websites’ global login traffic came from attempted credential stuffing attacks that year. This means that user accounts were breached using bots, leaving user information vulnerable to be used for irresponsible usage.

That’s why at hoolah, we’ve invested in building a bank-grade infrastructure that is robust and secure. Within our tech stack is our own proprietary risk decision engine, built and operated by our CTO, Jason Van, who previously spearheaded the technology for a global BNPL company and has a deep expertise in creating and implementing systems that are considered benchmarks in the industry for managing fraud and resilient payments.

Our proprietary fraud and risk management engines dynamically score each consumer’s interaction every time that consumer enters our environment. A wide range of consumer attributes are reviewed and assessed in real-time during an order process. Our risk engines heuristically learn from past behaviours of consumers to continually assess the purchase limits that we will allow for each individual consumer.

Myth #3: Profiting from late fees

 A financial service that helps consumers spend responsibly without profiting from them? Sounds a little too good to be true.

But it is the truth. We generate revenue from merchants, not consumers. While we charge late fees for users who miss the deadline for their installment payments, it is not an income driver for the business.

Also Read: Lessons from the buy-now-pay-later boom

For late fees, hoolah charges S$5 for orders under S$100 and S$15 for orders under S$1,000. This is subject to a cap of S$60. This amount is only charged when a consumer misses the scheduled due date or the 48-hour grace period. Otherwise, the main source of our income comes from our merchants such as global brands Nike, PUMA, Secretlab, Samsung, and more.

We take any penalties imposed on our customers seriously. Our first step of action for consumers with overdue payments is not to make an automatic charge, but to reach out and notify them of a pending payment that needs to be resolved.

Usually, late payments are often caused by forgetfulness and oversight. In cases where urgent reasons like health issues or a change of employment status have caused such delays, we have even waived the penalties.

In summary, encouraging spendthrift behaviours, cybersecurity breaches and profiting from consumers only make up a few of the many myths around BNPLs. 

Again, these concerns around BNPL platforms are understandable as it is a relatively new concept to the retail scene in Singapore. However, we always urge users to be financially savvy and make more informed purchasing decisions. Moving forward, there will always be newer establishments that may seem skeptical at first, but it is important that we remain open to new ideas and look for the right information from the correct sources.

The world is constantly evolving and all we can do is to learn and adapt to it. Who knows, maybe BNPL will be the next primary mode of payment in Singapore and beyond?

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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.

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

Image credit: Christiann Koepke on Unsplash

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