We have seen a constant and steady growth when it comes to innovations in the fintech space over the last few years, but the radical shift in market sensibilities brought about by recent events have certainly accelerated this. With the need for digitalization emerging out of virtually every aspect of work and life, the fintech space has stepped up in order to meet today’s unique demands.

With digitalization taking on an increasingly important role in society, fintechs have seen not only an increase in relevance and value, but is also under pressure to push for rapid adoption and accessibility. The goal, of course, is for the fintech space to penetrate as many markets as possible in order for them to be able to help bridge gaps, provide solutions, and further address the increasing need for seamless and tech-driven systems in as many sectors as possible.

As such, Indonesian FinTech KoinWorks is following the footsteps of NEO startups around the world like Starling, Monzo, and Revolut who have hit the limelight by providing instant digital bank accounts, debit, and credit cards.

Increased adoption rate for better accessibility

KoinWorks, which already has Indonesia’s largest user base of over 750,000 users according to OJK statistics, has been busy pre-registering early adopters for its upcoming SMEs new product, KoinWorks NEO. Unsurprisingly, 100,000 eager SMEs have signed up in less than 4 months since the program started.

Indonesia, with approximately 65 million personal businesses, is one of the largest markets in the world. Combine that with KoinWorks’ expertise in lending to digital SMEs and you can see why there is already a huge demand for their product. Equipped with an innovation mentality and agile approach, KoinWorks has built a variety of products, catering to SMEs on their growth journey. Ranging from a simple education centre to kick off SMEs’ entrepreneurship, access to working capital, and potentially as wild as fast click legal services.

Also read: How can corporate executives, startups, and VCs stay ahead of the innovation curve?

KoinWorks’ Multiple Products are stacked into one app, tagged as an SME Super Financial App. The new addition, KoinWorks NEO, will allow its SME customers to receive payments from multiple sources such as e-money (like GoPay, OVO, and ShopeePay), VISA, Mastercard, Amex, and JCB. Another highlight when it comes to KoinWorks NEO features allows SMEs to consolidate their multiple bank accounts using optical character recognition and machine learning into digestible reports for entrepreneurs to make sound business decisions. All of these products will allow KoinWorks’ SME customers to be more focused on growing their business, knowing KoinWorks will be there to hold their fort.

A proven leader in the fintech space

KoinWorks is a Super Financial App that won the 2019 Asian Banker Financial Innovation Award for the Loan Category, Top 5 VISA finalists in the VISA Everywhere Initiative, winner of the IDC DX Awards Indonesia 2020 in the Digital Disruptor category, and Top Fintech Startup Soonicorn Award 2020 by Traxcn as a fintech with the potential to become a unicorn. KoinWorks offers a variety of financial products where users can manage assets and loans through one platform/application. It is a breakthrough in the evolution of financial technology by making a commitment to providing the best financial solutions that are accessible and affordable for everyone into the company’s DNA.

Proven as a consistent winner, KoinWorks has been cash-flow positive throughout 2021. Their flagship products, KoinBiz & KoinInvoice, loans to SMEs, have grown to record high disbursements last month, plus the combination of strong take rate and low NPL (<1.5%) pushes revenue growth for KoinWorks up 42% Quarter on Quarter. Another one of their Q4’ 2020 product releases, KoinGaji, an Early Wage Access (EWA) solution for SMEs, has also hit strong adoption rates with 400% growth in the last 2 months. KoinGaji is expected to hit another major milestone of 10.000 employees in their ecosystem in the coming months.

Also read: How fintech startups can fast forward their growth

“SMEs in Indonesia will see KoinWorks App as their personal secretary. The availability of services and ease of access will only help SMEs to accelerate. SMEs are Indonesia’s pillar of economy and KoinWorks is right in line with Indonesia’s GDP growth mission.” said Willy Arifin, Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of KoinWorks.

Helping bridge gaps and develop solutions

With its increased market penetration allowing more users to seamlessly access their slew of products and services, KoinWorks hopes to sustain and even further its mission of empowering local businesses.

As a leader in the fintech space, the company is poised to further strengthen and develop their services in order to meet society’s growing demands while uplifting the very sectors that need them the most. Having already pre-signed 100,000 SME customers for Its upcoming KoinWorks NEO product, KoinWorks asserts its position as a major player in the global fintech space, championing the best interest of all major stakeholders and beyond.

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zennya, a mobile healthcare and medical last-mile logistics startup in the Philippines, said today it has recently secured US$1.2 million in a funding round led by local VC firms Foxmont Capital Partners, Ignite House of Innovation, and DayOne Capital Ventures.

The round also saw participation from several prominent families and angels from the Philippines and Thailand, as per an official statement.

The proceeds from this round will be used to expand zennya’s service to all major cities in the Philippines. The company is currently operating in Metro Manila and launching in Cebu by June.

Also Read: Solving multiple medtech problems with a single device powered by AI

“We look forward to expanding this year to provide nationwide coverage while preparing for regional expansion, doubling down on our end-to-end home health service delivery technology platform,” said David Foote, founder and CEO of zennya.

A portion of the funds will also go into talent acquisition, technology, and business development as zennya continues to expand its strategic partnerships and integration with leading hospitals, diagnostic centers, and insurance providers.

Launched in 2016 as an on-demand managed ecosystem and marketplace for home wellness and medical services, zennya has evolved to become a “one-touch healthcare super grid” that delivers hospital-quality care at home.

In other words, Zennya has created a virtual hospital ecosystem through integration of diagnostic laboratories, health maintenance organisations, and pharmaceuticals, wth a delivery network of doctors, nurses, therapists, motorcycle drivers, cars, and ambulances.

This network enables patients to receive healthcare services in their homes and offices previously only available in hospital and clinical settings.

It is basically a full-stack technology platform integrating, online healthcare training, medical records, last-mile cold-chain logistics, mobile diagnostics, tele-health, and just-in-time delivery of healthcare products and tools.

Through its proprietary in-house technology platform the company manages every aspect of the medical supply chain and service delivery with direct digital integration with its medical partners to reduce errors, counterfeit medication, and targets to deliver patient outcomes that exceed traditional brick and mortar operations.

At present, the platform also offers consumer services, including COVID-19 tests, blood tests, vaccinations, pharmaceutical deliveries, telehealth consultations, corporate health services allowing for on-demand pop up clinics, and B2B services enabling hospitals and clinic partners to deliver continuity of care.

zennya claims to have doubled its m-o-m revenue in Q1 2021, with more than 100 per cent y-o-y growth from 2020. It also said to have completed more than 500,000 services to date.

Also Read: Here are 5 reasons to expand your business to the Philippines

For the period of Q4 of 2020 to Q1 of 2021, zennya boasted of posting an 84 per cent growth in mobile number activations, 110 per cent growth in the number of patients served, and a 121 per cent growth in the number of repeat customers.

“As the Philippines’ needs rapidly evolve in this new normal, we believe zennya’s commitment to quality and technical excellence will set the standard for delivering healthcare and wellness to people’s homes for many years to come,” adds Franco Varona, Managing Partner of Foxmont, an early-stage VC and backer of Kumu, Kravers Canteen, and Edukasyon.ph.

According to Ignite House of Innovation CEO Andre Yap, “zennya allows us to connect all the disparate parts of the healthcare value chain into a one-touch healthcare supergrid and create 10x-type wins for patients, doctors and care providers, hospitals and clinics, pharmacies, pharmacos, insurers and corporations and employees across the board.”

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Image Credit: zennya

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For femtech startups, there have been questions about why the sector is ‘late to the party’ in Southeast Asia.

But Amina Sugimoto believes that instead of asking why they arrived late or why such startups are low-funded, we must discuss the regional challenges faced by women in Southeast Asia.

“When it comes to comparing Western and Eastern countries and how they should be, there is often a bias towards a western-centric point of view,” points out Sugimoto, founder of Fermata Inc., a company that provides solutions for women’s wellness.

“Instead of comparing regions of completely different cultures, religions, and lifestyles, I hope we can take a localised approach to public health and assess what each country and its citizens need,” she adds.

“Instead of asking whether femtech is late to arrive in SEA compared to its western originator, let’s ask what type of femtech products should be the focus and in which country, based on the population’s needs and readiness,” Sugimoto notes.

In a recent report, titled ‘Femtech Market Map of South East Asia 2021‘, Fermata spells out the different health challenges faced by women in Southeast Asia and where femtech is headed.

Here are the edited excerpts of the report:

Stigma against vaginal health makes it harder to develop femtech further

Sugimoto is of the opinion that innovations in female hygiene care are less likely to be adopted if women are not taught how the female reproductive system works. This causes girls to develop anxiety and self-consciousness around their vaginal health because they do not have the knowledge and normalised discussion around personal care.

Internal-use products like tampons and menstrual cups are harder to convince a woman to try than a sanitary pad. Furthermore, high-tech pleasure toys and fertility trackers also require the user to be familiar with her reproductive system and open-minded enough to give them a try.

Unfortunately, there are also no femtech startups in Cambodia, Burma, and Laos, according to the report. The reason is that, unlike developed countries that support innovation, less developed countries have to focus more on public health issues like having access to basic healthcare.

Cultural and social taboos around sexual health

Unfortunately, many counties in Southeast Asia do not have a national sex education policy. Therefore, each high school has different ways of teaching about reproduction and contraception, and few do not teach it at all.

Also Read: Rise of the she-economy: 11 femtech companies and organisations aiming to empower women in SEA

The Unicef’s ‘Review of Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Thailand’ elaborates that institutions stress topics related to the prevention of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), while in Singapore, the Ministry of Education has recently updated its sex education curriculum to go beyond abstinence and teenage pregnancies to be more inclusive.

Inadequate sex education programmes such as these are common in other countries as well. This often leads the young adults to gain incorrect information on the topic and affecting informed decision-making when it comes to their sexual health.

However, there are some startups that have observed this and aim to solve this issue. For example, theAsianparent, helps Asian women have healthy pregnancies and raise healthy children through its content platform.

Lack of education leads to myths and misunderstanding

In some Asian countries like Vietnam and Thailand, tampons are very hard to find (Asian women are still wary of using them), whereas, in others like the US, 70 per cent of the population regularly use the device.

Femtech solutions such as the Elocare wearable in Singapore can help women monitor, treat, and manage their symptoms with ease throughout their midlife stage.

Still, it is an untapped market that offers impactful opportunities as women approaching peri- and menopause now have more purchasing power than ever.

The full report is available to read here.

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Image Credit: Avrielle Suleiman

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Mekari, an Indonesia-based SaaS platform for human resource and finance management, today announced the acquisition of Qontak, a startup that provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and omnichannel communications platforms, for an undisclosed sum.

Following the acquisition, Qontak Founder & CEO Brendan Rakphongphairoj will be joining Mekari’s top management while continuing his leadership position at Qontak as one of Mekari’s business units.

This acquisition followed Mekari’s US$21 million Series D funding round led by Money Forward that the company has announced in April.

In a press statement, Mekari CEO Suwandi said that Qontak’s CRM and omnichannel communication solutions will provide an added value for their customers in increasing revenue, providing a better customer support experience, and increasing productivity of sales and support teams.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Goldbell acquires BlueSG; Thailand’s IPO Market is a success story in SEA this year

As a fellow Indonesia-based startup, Qontak said that it has secured more than 1,000 corporate clients of various scales. Qontak’s omnichannel communication solutions are integrated to leading platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.

The formation of Mekari began with a merger between four Indonesian startups that are working in providing SaaS solutions for businesses: Talenta, Sleekr, Jurnal, and Klikpajak.

Announcing their merger in April 2019, each of these startups are providing services in the field of human resources, accounting, and taxation.

The startup specifically targets the SME market in Indonesia, contribute 64 per cent or about US$60 million every year to the country’s economy, as shown in 2017 statistics.

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Image Credit: Mekari

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There is a great case to be made for globalisation that goes beyond today’s precarious market. As many countries focus on nationalisation coupled with protectionist policies, there is a growing culture of risk-aversion among businesses that keep companies from building and expanding to foreign markets.

This shouldn’t be the case. With roadblocks becoming increasingly unpredictable, companies simply need to be more agile and strategic when it comes to pursuing their goals of expansion. The reason for this is that with globalisation, the potential for business growth is limitless. We’ve seen this manifest in today’s trends: Digital technology adoption has surged, with a large spike in areas like e-commerce, videoconferencing, and robots — all of which provide us with a glimpse of how interconnected the world can be.

Cross-border e-commerce and remote work, when successful, have a huge potential to spur new opportunities for many economies around the world. Videoconferencing has been utilised for cross-border partnerships. AI and robotics offer us insights into the potential of tech. The only way forward is to look at all available tools and see how far they can take us.

Globalization 4.0 as a springboard for business growth

Globalization 4.0 is the future in which the global economy will be shaped mainly by the use of technology. With the opening of service sectors in rich countries to competition from developing countries, companies will look to alternate cross-border strategies and the use of emerging technologies to manage the risks of scaling up internationally.

For startups, operating through virtual borderless teams is very much a feasible and highly attractive strategy given the current environment. Globalization 4.0 will see these trends accelerate and also see new approaches to scaled expansion — via a hyper-local approach to market growth, recruitment, and compliance.

Also read: KoinWorks hits profitability, securing 100k SMEs as early adopters for its NEO product

How do startups decide when they are ready to scale outside their home country? Reading the signals that your product will work in other regions is important, but often it is the stakeholders like clients, investors, or competitors that compel a startup to scale beyond their borders. In the e27 Scaleup Success webinar, Jeffrey Paine of Golden Gate Ventures, an early-stage technology fund investing in Southeast Asia, says it often comes down to the founder’s DNA.

Founders who have the ambition to establish a global company from day one are often better prepared for regional expansion since it manifests in their leadership. Management needs to be convinced of the value of expansion, and they need to hire and convince the right team of what needs to be done to succeed.

International expansion is fraught with challenges

For startups looking to expand into new countries, the number one source of fear and doubt is the speed and complexity of setting up an entity. Recruitment is also top of mind for most startups looking to start operations in a new country. Significant risks inherent in setting up international subsidiaries are related to legal, HR, and Tax compliance.

Tackling the pain points like entity formation, legal compliance, hiring the right team, and dealing with localisation are significant hurdles to regional scaling. Cash Flow is another major factor — not controlling the balance sheet is a perennial reason for failure to expand.

Ken Chen, Co-Founder of iCHEF, says finding the right partners is extremely crucial. iCHEF sought partnerships in countries like Malaysia and Singapore that yielded success. The partners helped them figure out many of the solutions to many common frustrations like entity setup and employee work permits.

Also read: How can corporate executives, startups, and VCs stay ahead of the innovation curve?

Some of the rudimentary aspects that need to be addressed early on include connecting with the right partners and right services, setting up the right team who understands how to hyper localise the product there, and understanding the local regulations. The same is true for portfolio companies under VC firms.

Finding the right partner is about talking to potential partners to understand their abilities, motivations, and commitment to partner with you. Acquiring startups with a passion for the industry is a great option to expand, says Chen. Design an incentive matrix to understand the level of commitment of your partner and to figure out how you will share the success.

Research and due diligence hold the key to success

Due diligence and in-depth local research are the mantra startups need to double down on when they consider regional expansion. Lack of research is the number one reason startups run into trouble when they move into a new market. The more data and insights you have regarding the market, the better you will do, says Paine.

Every business has its own playbook but it is tailored to your home market. Usually, the 70-30 rule applies where 70 per cent of the original playbook will work, but certain cultural factors can only be understood when you have strong local talent that really understands how to build trust in the local culture.

The research aspect should not neglect the details such as how you will ensure compliance with local tax and accounting laws. Setting up to navigate the complexity of local HR policies, regulations and while managing cash flow properly, is where the right VC interventions can truly guide expanding startups.

Building the right team

The route to success is based on putting the people at the centre of your expansion strategy. Founders need to decide if they will lead the expansion themselves or hire a launch expert in that country. VCs point out that usually one of the founders needs to be there for 3-6 months to really make it work.

Key Success Factors in building international teams:

• Make sure the team you hire has all the support and resources they need to succeed.
• Empower them to take important decisions based on their local knowledge.
• Simplify the process of onboarding newly acquired international team members.

The first one or two hires startups make in a new country will probably turn out to be wrong, says Paine. Startups should plan for these situations by having a plan B in place until they better understand what they need to succeed. Getting people on board who are in sync with the HQ culture is a vital factor in recruitment.

Better globalisation strategies and remote collaboration technology can help startups assemble the right talent in teams with local intelligence, local knowledge and networks.

Also read: How fintech startups can fast forward their growth

The big decision founders will need to consider is whether to set up a subsidiary or to assemble a team without setting up a branch office overseas. Setting up a new entity involves getting licenses for trade, accounting, payroll, tax, HR etc, as well as finding the talent and onboarding them with payroll, benefits, and resources.

Startups can manage this risk by recruiting a team through an Employee of Record (EOR) platform or by setting up a PEO organisation. These solutions allow startups to assemble a team rapidly and get started while they understand what type of team setup is eventually going to be required.

VC intervention plays a prominent role in helping their portfolio companies to access international recruiting experts like Globalization Partners. Professional service providers like Globalization Partners help companies compliantly hire and onboard new talent in days, without having to get involved with entity formation in the country where the human resources are located.

Their AI-driven Employer of Record platform helps startups build a remote global without the hassle of setting up new entities. From payroll and benefits to tax filings and country-specific laws, they take all the responsibility and can even help you transfer the team into your entity when you are ready.

Even for startups who simply want to capture global talent in a post-COVID remote working world, deploying a PEO/EOR firm lets you capture this unique opportunity. Thanks to the pandemic, a lot of exceptional talent is available around the world. Startups can easily build a world-class remote team in days, with all the regulatory work done for you.

Request an EOR Proposal today.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
Globalization Partners

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