Shanghai-based SOSV Chinaccelerator has announced the 10 startups pitching on its 19th demo day.

Out of these, three hail from Southeast Asia.

Selected startups have received support from the accelerator in modules involving business strategy, growth hacking, business development, building traction, as well as fundraising.

Chinaccelerator aims to bridge China and the rest of the world, especially Southeast Asia, through sharing entrepreneurship and innovation lessons learned from the China market.

The accelerator claims to have invested in and accelerated over 170 startups and is the only active accelerator in Asia to have a unicorn go through its programme, i.e Bitmex from Batch 8 (Fall 2015).

A snapshot of the three SEA startups

Bizbaz (Singapore)

Offers a full suite of financial intelligence solutions, including but not limited to, comprehensive risk assessment, alternative credit scoring, fraud detection, e-KYC, financial product aggregation, and recommendation systems.

GetCraft (Indonesia)

A platform where brands can easily scout for and work with creators. According to its website, it has 10,000 creators signed up from Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

PouchNation (Singapore)

A hotel and event management and mobile payment solution, empowering hotels and event organizers with wearable technology.

Other startups:

AMMA Pregnancy Tracker (Russia, Hong Kong)

An AI-powered mobile app that guides parents from pregnancy through early childhood.

ARO (US, China)

A platform that helps global celebrities sell their branded products directly to consumers in China.

Also Read: Chinaccelerator announces 9 startups in the 16th Demo Day, to bridge China to the world

Data Forge (US, China)

An image annotation platform for training AI data models with high accuracy and low cost.

HuviAir (India)

Mining and construction site productivity tracking and enhancement in the cloud using drones, laser scanners, 360 cameras, and smartphones.

Lattis.io (US, EU)

End-to-end micro-mobility management platform for bike, scooter, and vehicle fleet operators to create a cost-effective and secure shared vehicle service.

Lucidefi (Korea)

DeFi trading terminal with AI-based prediction models helping traders make intelligent trading decisions in real-time.

SuperWorld (US)

A virtual world where users can buy, sell, create, and monetize tokenized assets (NFTs) from virtual land to digital art.

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COVID-19 has become the force that shapes our present economy and creates new customer demands and needs, thereby challenging businesses to improve their performance.

However, history shows that disasters are not new; what has changed is the advancement of technology that enables organisations to shift toward decentralised and networked structures.

This in turn allows for offshore tech operations to become a favourable business practice during the pandemic, for its non-disruptive nature and significant cost saving. But here’s the catch, organisations must overcome these key challenges in order to manage their offshore developers.

Communication

Did you know that 70 per cent of workplace communication is non-verbal? Through body language and facial expressions, we learn how serious an issue actually is; or the trust and confidence toward their company.

Unfortunately, offshoring your tech operations to another country means most interactions occur virtually via email, chats, calls, and video conference. There is a pretty good chance that communication will suffer as there are more layers and friction that hinder the flow of information.

According to a study conducted by Harvard Business Review, remote workers who don’t get to interact well tend to get incomplete stories, never the full picture and are more disconnected or alienated compared to onsite workers. Meaning it is one of the biggest disadvantages of offshoring tech operations that businesses have to overcome.

Also Read: Mio raises US$1M to help rural Vietnamese women become micro-entrepreneurs

Micro-management

It is a daunting challenge to get remote workers motivated to accomplish their tasks on time. The lack of physical presence can sometimes make you feel like you’re shouting into the wind in hopes that they will listen. And for those who claim to be working, you’ll have little choice but to take their words for it.

As a result, about 40 per cent of managers expressed low confidence in their ability to manage workers remotely. This often pushes them into panic mode where extreme methods are taken to offset their doubt.

Managers can start to develop an unreasonable expectation that those team members must be available at all times, ultimately disrupting their work-home balance and causing more stress on the job.

This, in turn, could create a negative spiral, where a manager’s  mistrust leads to micromanagement, causing  drops in employee motivation, further impairing productivity.

Time zone differences

An interesting advantage of building up your tech team in other parts of the word is that project teams can “work round the clock” to optimise schedule and capacity.

However, it might be a real hassle to find a common meeting time that works well for all parties due to the time zone differences. Someone will always have to compromise by meeting outside their normal business hours.

This inhibits productivity and can cause tensions in the team. Additionally, monitoring your offshore team is difficult. Are they working during office hours or are they slacking off? Are your offshore developers able to fix a P1 bug in a timely manner?

Cultural barriers

It is obvious that cultural differences hinder effective communication, right across the project, from within the project team to external stakeholders. This can be particularly challenging for tech talent from deferential cultures such as Vietnam who may feel less comfortable speaking up or sharing ideas directly, especially if they are new to the team or in a more junior role.

Also Read: How looking into Vietnam can help startups save development costs

Moreover, the difference in cultural value will also drastically impact the expectation and performance result.

For example, the Japanese prefer a long detailed report and being on time as a way to show dedication. On the other hand, Vietnamese offshore developers are more laid-back and open-minded. So if you are offshoring your tech operation into Vietnam, having a flexible timeline will encourage them to perform better instead of a strict schedule like the Japanese.

Remote HR Management

Most startups and SMEs struggle on managing their offshore developers, which are often be-prioritised from their core activities. This complexity is multiplied when it comes to remote workers in another country, where the culture and regulatory compliance can be drastically different from yours.

Not only do these gaps create risk that can prove to be costly for companies, they also mean the companies need a dedicated HR department to effectively manage their teams across the globe. In fact, more than 80 per cent of small business owners have to handle HR on their own – and more than 30 per cent weren’t sure they were doing everything correctly.

Offshoring part of the IT operation to other countries has become one of the common strategies for startups and small businesses to scale up their tech capabilities in an efficient and scalable fashion. But to make the most out of it and maximise the benefits, it is crucial for companies to identify any potential offshore challenges and eliminate them.

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When I quit RedDoorz in September 2019, little did I know I would end up in the food industry a little more than a year later. But as I was working on another hospitality company in the US back then, COVID-19 hit New York and all plans for that venture were dashed.

After some soul-searching amidst the lockdown, I came up with the beginnings of what would become Dishserve, and came back to Indonesia in October of 2020 to turn the idea into reality.

Simply, Dishserve is a network for ghost kitchens helping F&B brands reach customers faster and more efficiently. You might say — isn’t that just another cloud kitchen business?

The pandemic has brought on a wave of these with the increased demand for home deliveries, and certainly, that’s part of what led me to close in on this idea. But with Dishserve, there’s more than what meets the eye, and I didn’t want to settle for what other players were already doing

Why stick to a two-sided platform when you can be a three-sided marketplace creating livelihood opportunities for homeowners. While we use home kitchens for operations, the catch is that we do not actually own or operate any of these kitchens. These kitchens are fully operated by the homeowners.

Whereas other players own their kitchens and become a two-sided platform between F&B brands and customers, we also thought about the kind of value we could give to micro-entrepreneurs who cannot afford to go out to work, like stay-at-home moms or recently unemployed individuals.

Also Read: Co-founders of Grab Philippines, Zalora join cloud kitchen startup Kraver’s Canteen’s US$1.5M seed round

By working as a home kitchen in the Dishserve network, they are able to make up on average up to US$600 in additional income per month which is 2.5 times the minimum wage in Jakarta. Apart from enabling livelihood opportunities for homeowners, Dishserve also benefits as a business from reduced costs of operation.

The typical cloud kitchen business would aggregate both the mid-mile (food processing, cooking, production) and last-mile (heating, packaging, delivery) segments within the same location, and this can be costly as renting space to cover all these is not cheap.

By decoupling the mid-mile operations and last-mile distribution, letting the brands take care of the mid-mile objectives and the homeowners and platforms such as Grab, Gojek take care of the last-mile distribution, we act as a network for F&B brands to expand their customer base without interfering with or potentially compromising their food quality and consistency.

This means that the homeowners we work with only have to heat, assemble, and package the food before delivering them to the customer. So our app helps the homeowners manage this entire operation–from inventory, orders, invoices, and audits– in one place.

The kitchen audit feature on this app also allows us to maintain the quality and performance of this process. The homeowner/kitchen operator has to periodically send photos and videos of their kitchen and these submissions are moderated by our team. We also collect reviews and customer feedback, so that even if we are mostly hands-off on how the homeowners run their kitchens we are still able to maintain a level of consistent quality.

Through this three-sided marketplace approach we are hitting multiple birds with one stone: enable hundreds of individuals to turn their home kitchens into ghost kitchens, expand the last mile distribution and customer base of F&B brands, bring faster and lower cost deliveries to customers, and also develop a less costly and more profitable approach to the typical cloud kitchen model for Dishserve.

Why keep it fixed when you can make it flexible for F&B brands to grow

But apart from homeowners fully owning and operating their kitchens, there’s another catch. When it comes to working with F&B brands, we do not charge any fixed monthly operational costs. Our monetisation is all through revenue sharing.

We decided to go this route because we wanted to make it easier for F&B brands to expand without a fixed operating expense, especially with the economic difficulties of operating in the pandemic.

When brands expand they typically incur fixed costs like rent, manpower, electricity, renovation, and by working with Dishserve, they don’t have to pay a single dime for all this, primarily because they are working with our home kitchen network

It also brings benefits to Dishserve as well. By enabling F&B brands to expand and work with more home kitchens in our network, we are also able to reach more customers with them and the amount we share with them also increases.

Also Read: Understanding the economics of food delivery platforms

One can think of it as a flexible model that allows us to work with the ups and downs that come with operating in the F&B industry while also rewarding our business as we grow the network of F&B brands and home kitchens rather than depending on fixed revenue streams

It’s all about enabling growth

And these decisions where we deviated from the typical cloud kitchen model have paid off for Dishserve. We’re able to maintain positive unit economics and make money on every transaction.

The best part is that we work with some of the most prominent restaurant and catering brands as well as two leading cloud kitchens companies, strengthening their last-mile distribution with the 100+ kitchens in our network across Jakarta and the National Capital Region.

So with our approach to cloud kitchens — these catches I’ve mentioned — we’re not just making deliveries more efficient for customers, but also supporting the growth of F&B brands and the livelihood of homeowners across Indonesia

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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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Engine Biosciences, a Singapore- and US-based drug discovery company, has raised close to US$42 million (S$57 million) in Series A financing from a slew of investors.

Led by Polaris Partner, the round was also joined by Invus, 6 Dimensions Capital, WuXi AppTec, DHVC, EDBI, Baidu Ventures, Vectr Ventures, Goodman Capital, WI Harper, and Nest.Bio.

This comes after over three years after its raised US$10 million seed funding from leading US, Singapore and China-based VCs and multi-stage investors.

Engine will use the newly raised capital to expand its portfolio of precision oncology therapeutics, prepare for its first clinical programmes, and scale its tech platform.

Founded in 2018, Engine’s technology combines biological experimentation with AI to discover and develop better therapies for human diseases

By understanding and testing genetic interactions, it can decipher biological networks to enable more rational drug discovery for both single and combination therapies.

Compared with conventional drug discovery approaches, which are too slow and costly to test and map the huge number of genetic interactions that underlie diseases, Engine’s platform drives orders-of-magnitude gains in speed and scale.

Also Read: Singapore biotech firm Austrianova secures US$100M investment

Two scientific innovations lie at the heart of Engine Biosciences are NetMAPPR and CombiGEM.

NetMAPPR is Engine’s searchable biology platform, revealing gene combinations and drug targets integral to diseases. Whereas, CombiGEM is a patented technology that tests hundreds of thousands of gene interactions experimentally in diseased cells.

The company has performed several large-scale computational and experimental cycles with respect to genetic interactions and their relevance to multiple cancers, claiming to yield new and subsequently validated discoveries.

“Many breakthrough tools to edit, programme, and modulate biology have emerged and matured in recent years. The fundamental question continues to be whether we know the disease-driving errors in the genetic code of biology to direct these tools, including therapeutics,” said Engine Biosciences’s co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Lu.

“We believe Engine’s AI-enabled technology platform has the potential to discover new biology targets and disease-causing links amongst known targets,” said Leon Chen, CEO and Founding Partner of 6 Dimensions Capital.

“Considering the field’s tremendous needs for the right drug targets for the right patients and Engine’s unique capabilities in finding those, we continue to be excited by Engine’s potential to power new medicines,” Chen added.

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Getting into the coveted club of Unicorns is every entrepreneur’s dream. However, it is no mean task to build a billion-dollar company; it takes many years of investments, efforts and hard work to reach the magic number.

In Southeast Asia, there are more than 10 unicorns and decacorns like Grab, Gojek, Sea Group, Lazada, Traveloka, Bukalapak, OVO and Tokopedia. Many more are on track to become billion-dollar companies. For example, Ninja Van, Carousell, and Zilingo.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been boon for some of these tech giants whose business skyrocketed, but for some others, it was proved disastrous. While it boosted the valuation of some of these unicorns, the pandemic slowed down the growth of some others.

Below is the list of the four Unicorns that have made it to ‘e27 Luminaries‘.

Grab

Grab doesn’t need an introduction. It is the quintessential poster boy of the region’s startup ecosystem.

Founded in 2012 by Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling, Grab was started as ride-hailing company in Malaysia. In order to grow and scale faster, the company later moved its headquarters to Singapore. There was no looking back since., and it scaled many summits and became the market leader in many verticals.

Also Read: Meet the 4 Luminaries startups that made a pivot to tide over COVID-19 crisis

Today, Grab is a super-app platform in Southeast Asia, providing everyday services that matter to consumers. The app provides users access to millions of drivers, merchants, and agents.

Grab offers a wide range of on-demand services in the region, including mobility, food, package and grocery delivery services, mobile payments, and financial services across 398 cities in eight countries.

In April, Grab announced its plans to go public through a SPAC merger with Altimeter Growth Corp., in a deal that values the company at US$39.6 billion, the largest blank-check merger to date.

Over its nine year of existence, Grab has raised US$12.1 billion in funding from 53 investors across 34 rounds. It has also snapped up three companies, namely Bento, iKaaZ and Kudo.

The tech behemoth is currently valued over US$40 billion.

Gojek

Gojek recently hit the headlines when it made official its US$18-billion merger with Tokopedia to form GoTo Group. One of the most valuable startups and a darling of foreign and domestic VCs, Gojek was started as two-wheeler hailing platform in its home country Indonesia.

The company’s rise to a billion-dollar company has been steady. On its journey to the top, it conquered many heights and ventured into new verticals and introduced innovative features.

Gojek aims to be a super-app, along the lines of Grab, by offering multiple service across verticals, such as ride-hailing, finance, e-commerce, and health, among many others.

Founded in 2010 by Kevin Aluwi, Michaelangelo Moran, and Nadiem Makarim (who later quit to become a Minister in Indonesia), Gojek has thus far raised US$53 billion from 32 investors across 13 rounds, and has made 13 acquisitions.

The tech behemoth is currently valued US$10 billion.

Tokopedia

Established in 2009, Tokopedia is an online marketplace that intends to help individuals and business owners to open and manage their own online stores.

Its platform helps users build and manage online stores and a single e-commerce destination for customers. The firm offers a wide range of items — from fashion accessories, beauty and health aids, electronic equipment, food, beverages, to toys, enabling individuals and businesses to open and maintain their stores for free.

Founded by Herman Widjaja, Leontinus Alpha Edison, Melissa Siska Juminto, William Tanuwijaya, Tokopedia has raked in nearly US$2.8 billion from 11 investors across multiple rounds since its inception.

Also Read: Meet the e27 Luminaries startups that are making life easier through tech in these emerging markets

Alibaba, EV Growth, Sequoia India, SoftBank and CyberAgent are among its backers. As per multiple reports, the tech giant is valued between US$8 billion and US$10 billion.

OVO

One of Indonesia’s largest payments and financial technology company, OVO is a mobile app payment system. It provides online payments, rewards and financial services, which are available on 115 million smart devices in more than 300 cities across the archipelago.

It has thousands of merchants all across Indonesia in various categories, including F&B, fashion, beauty, entertainment, transportation, and travel.

The company became Indonesia’s fifth unicorn in 2019.

The company is backed by SoftBank, Lippo and Grab, and last valued at about US$2.9 billion. It has also made two acquisitions.

Last year, there was a report that OVO was in talks for a merger with rival Dana.

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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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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

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

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