More than one year into the global pandemic, as the economy around the world and in the region gradually recovers, small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore are expecting a brighter outlook for the future.

In the latest SBF-Experian SME Index released by the Singapore Business Federation, business sentiments for the six-month period from April to September 2021 are at their highest ever since the start of the pandemic in the first quarter of 2020.

SMEs are looking at business expansion opportunities and are expecting to step up on hiring. With many businesses becoming digital-first today, the questions here are, how and where should SMEs focus their resources and efforts at this juncture?

The scramble we all experienced 15 months ago as we migrated to more agile, flexible work methodologies underlines just how important technology has become.

And it will only become more central to the way businesses are run as both big and small organisations put in place hybrid working solutions.

Our 2020 Asia Pacific SMB Digital Maturity Study reveals that 69 per cent of small to medium businesses (SMB) in Asia Pacific are accelerating their digitalisation rates to address COVID-19 challenges.

Also Read: BukuWarung rakes in US$60M to build an OS for Indonesia’s 60M MSMEs

However, while we all intuitively know the importance of IT, managing it is a very different proposition, particularly if you are a small business with dozens of issues competing for your time and attention.

Most micro-businesses operate with either one or two people helping to keep things running and operating an ad-hoc help desk. According to the same study, lack of digital skills and talent is the top challenge for SMBs undergoing digital transformation.

With IT so central to the success of businesses, and with the accelerated evolution of the IT function, what role should an IT team or department play in SMEs?

Working with SMEs across the Asia Pacific region, there are three critical questions SME owners need to ask themselves when they consider their investments in the IT function:

Would a failure in your IT systems stop your business from operating?

Some businesses can manage pretty well if their IT systems face a temporary outage, or even for an extended period of time. While it might be inconvenient, and an increasing struggle with employees working remotely, a small bookkeeping firm, for example, could likely survive for a few days if there was an IT failure.

But imagine the impact for an online retailer? Without their website and the backend systems, the business would grind to a halt almost instantly and with it, revenues. And an extended stoppage would have long-term consequences as customers choose other retailers.

Is cybersecurity risk to your short-term operating viability, and your long-term success?

For companies that depend on the Internet, a cybersecurity incident could be catastrophic. Let’s take the example of our online retailer again. A Denial-of-Service attack – where a website is targeted with so much traffic it stops working – would bring revenue streams grinding to a halt within minutes.

But consider the impact of a data breach; customer trust could be seriously affected if credit card data was stolen. That is the kind of threat that can close businesses within just a few weeks.

Could technology help accelerate your business?

Technologies such as big data and AI are revolutionising the way businesses are able to identify business opportunities. While often the preserve of larger firms, the rapidly decreasing costs of both of these technologies and the rise of many tech-first emerging businesses are bringing them into the sphere of even the smallest of firms.

With the benefit of agility, smaller businesses can then take advantage of changing trends and get ahead of larger organisations.

If you answered “yes” to these questions, IT should be a central part of your business strategy which supports the resilience and drives growth. It also means that you require dedicated expertise in each of these areas, rather than a “jack of all trades” kind of IT personnel.

Also Read: 4 ways to protect your business from cybersecurity threats

The evolution of  IT: From technical support to driver of growth and innovation

As we have seen, IT teams are – or should be – more than just IT support functions helping people deal with laptop issues. At their best, IT teams should be a central part of driving a business towards its objectives.

Our 2020 Asia Pacific SMB Digital Maturity Study classifies SMBs across four stages of digital maturity, starting with the earliest stage of Digital Indifferent to the more advanced group of Digital Challenger and finally, Digital Native.

In terms of people and skills, Digital Indifferent SMBs are characterised by a lack of digital skills, while Digital Challengers make strategic investments in talent and Digital Natives see talent as a top priority and competitive differentiator.

The study found that Digital Challengers generate 50 per cent higher sales and productivity growth, while Digital Natives are able to grow their revenue twice as fast as SMBs in the early stages of digital maturity.

Other than making sure that all aspects of the IT infrastructure function smoothly, the IT function should ensure that the team stays on top of developments in technology including cybersecurity and data privacy regulations so they can recommend smooth, long-term upgrade paths that contribute to revenue and productivity growth.

The IT team – or its most senior member – should be a core part of the management team. They can bring their expertise to bear on all aspects of an organisation that might require technology to work or excel.

Whether that is putting in place HR management software or customer relationship tools, the IT team can help smooth the way from identifying possible vendors to the roll-out.

Given all of this, it goes without saying that IT teams must have excellent technical skills. But one aspect that is often overlooked is “soft” skills.

With the role that technology plays across a business, everyone in the IT team needs to come armed with more than just programming and technology skills: they need the ability to get on with colleagues, create alliances, and drive consensus.

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Intrepid Group, a Singapore-headquartered omni-channel e-commerce solutions company, has secured US$11 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding, led by Mirabaud Asset Management through its Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation fund.

Local VC firm Vulpes Investment Management, a group of global private investors, as well as existing investors including SGX-listed Thakral Corporation, also joined the round.

Also Read: Intrepid Group secures pre-Series B to help SMEs accelerate their growth on Lazada, Shopee

The money will go into improving its technology suite and take “our capabilities to the next level in order to continue to accelerate the growth of our brand clients’ business across the region.”

Founded by co-founders of Lazada, Intrepid Group offers both enterprise-grade SaaS and end-to-end e-commerce management to brands and SMEs to accelerate their growth on platforms such as Lazada and Shopee.

The B2B company has offices in six markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

With its asset-light model, the company claims to have already reached profitability in two of its markets, and is on track for regional profitability.

“In less than two years, Intrepid has become the partner of choice for over 60 international brands to grow their omni-channel e-commerce in Southeast Asia,” claimed Jasper Knoben, CEO of Intrepid.

In August 2020, Intrepid raised an undisclosed sum in pre-Series B financing, co-led by Thakral Sun SEA Capital (a VC firm backed by Sunway Group). Ten months earlier, it had received Series A funding led by Kairous Capital.

Renaud Dutreil and David Wertheimer of Mirabaud said: “As consumer purchase patterns see an accelerated shift to online, globally leading brands must adapt. Intrepid has been able to build an industry-leading team across entire Southeast Asia, and thereby rapidly gained the trust of a wide range of world-leading brands across multiple categories. The company has established itself as a preferred partner for leading global brands to effectively reach the ca. 700 million consumers of Southeast Asia.”

Also Read: Lazada’s ex-CMO’s startup raises Series A round, aims to help brands’ maximise e-commerce presence

“As ecommerce is growing much faster than offline and soon for many brands will become larger than offline, we see a mindset shift happening, where brands start to think e-commerce first. Concurrently, e-commerce is complexifying fast in Southeast Asia, with many consumer touch points to manage and optimise. We want to be the preferred go-to partner for brands to make the most of this amazing opportunity ahead,” said Charles Debonneuil, President of Intrepid and former CMO and co-founder of Lazada Group.

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Image Credit: Intrepid Group

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The article was first published on May 3, 2021.

If there is one good thing to come up from the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be the opportunity to re-examine how we are doing things –and how we can do better.

Previously, as part of our Earth Day celebration, we published a special feature that looked into how the pandemic has affected the environment, particularly in the matter of waste management. We concluded that there are many opportunities for startups to innovate; they can achieve great results by collaborating with various parties, including the government.

This time, as we celebrate Labour Day, we would like to examine the issues that have come out related to the workplace –our work environment and the elements that are included in it.

There are major themes that have come into the discussion in the past year, starting from the different ways we can do to manage our employees and even set up our businesses (remote working is here to stay, y’all).

But nothing induces anxiety as much as a discussion about job availability –and rightfully so. In Singapore, by September 2020, the jobless rate climbed up to 3.6 per cent from 3.4 per cent in just one month. This number is related to the retrenchment that was performed across different industries.

In addition to the fear of losing the job to the pandemic itself, there is also another layer of anxiety that engulf the discussion about the future of work. This is something that has been around for a long time, but it is about time we finally address the elephant in the room: The fear that robots will take over our jobs.

Also Read: Otsaw Digital launches home delivery robots in Singapore

Addressing the fear

When it comes to the discussion regarding the possibility of robots taking over human jobs, the first question that we need to ask is: Is there even any base to this fear?

Or have we been watching too many Hollywood films with plots that include robots going berserk and shooting civilians?

Byron Auguste, CEO of the Opportunity@Work, elaborates in WIRED how our fears of a potential “robot uprising” are not only wrong, but it is also preventing us from improving work conditions for our workers.

“Our fears about automation come down to three factors: machines will execute tasks more efficiently; machine learning will enable artificial intelligence (AI) to make complex decisions more effectively; and technology companies will sell software and algorithms to replace slow and distractible people with fast and focused machines,” he writes.

“Such fears aren’t without basis, but the biggest technology opportunities have always augmented the work of humans, rather than replaced it altogether.”

He even goes as far as stating that the institutional biases for automation over augmentation –that is, the prospect of losing your jobs to robots instead of having it improved by them– are not caused by the tech innovation itself. Instead, it is the result of a more complex system that does not work in favour of augmentation, or having robots as tools to improve the way we do our work.

“Our tax codes, accounting standards, executive-compensation systems, dysfunctional training systems, exclusionary hiring practices and divided societies do create institutional biases for automation over augmentation,” he states.

Auguste is not the only one to put emphasis on the improvement of work condition as facilitated by technology. In their The Future of Work After COVID-19 report, McKinsey Global Institute states that jobs with the highest physical proximity are likely to be most disrupted.

“Many companies deployed automation and AI in warehouses, grocery stores, call centres, and manufacturing plants to reduce workplace density and cope with surges in demand. The common feature of these automation use cases is their correlation with high scores on physical proximity, and our research finds the work arenas with high levels of human interaction are likely to see the greatest acceleration in adoption of automation and AI.”

This is long overdue.

Also Read: Singapore testing on-demand courier delivery by autonomous robots

During the pandemic, frontline workers –from your food delivery guy to the nurses who are interacting with COVID-19 patients on a daily basis– have shown how crucial the role that they play in our society. More importantly, the pandemic also reveals to us how risky these jobs can be.

As innovators in the tech sector, the worst thing that we can do is dismissing the risks of their profession as just a given. Something that they just have to bear with.

When done correctly, augmentation will also enable frontline workers to move a step up in their self-development and possibly career progression. In February, SMRT has begun implementing the use of cleaning robots at MRT stations in the Circle Line.

Instead of forcing workers to give up their job, the initiative provided them with the opportunity to upskill by learning how to manage the robots and troubleshoot minor issues.

Befriending the robot

Now that we have addressed our fear of having robots taking over our jobs, it is time to address upcoming opportunities: Having them as our new colleagues.

Dubbed by industry players as the fastest-growing segment in automation, the popularity of cobots –robots that serve as a function of collaborator of human workers– had been predicted even as early as 2019.

In his piece for Forbes, author Bernard Marr highlighted robot-as-a-service (RaaS) as a promising opportunity for both business owners and tech builder.

” … those who sign up for RaaS get the benefits of robotic process automation by leasing robotic devices and accessing a cloud-based subscription service rather than purchasing the equipment outright. The headaches of ownership, such as paying off an expensive piece of equipment plus handling maintenance issues that spring up, are avoided with RaaS,” he writes.

Even in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, we have begun to see tech companies scoring projects with various institution to help them improve operations with robots –from cooking noodles to performing surgeries. With the latter, we have also begun seeing investment into the category with the goal of expanding these companies business abroad –another testimony to the prospect of this sector.

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The story: The startup and investment community in Southeast Asia is co-creating “Makan for Hope Festival” to fundraise US$125,000 to support vulnerable communities impacted by COVID-19.

Why: As reported in April 2020, many of some 300,000 Singapore residents who earn below US$2,000 have seen sudden dips in their income during the pandemic, especially after new measures on April 7 restricted businesses deemed non-essential, among other things.

What is Makan For Hope: It is festival is a series of 30 online roundtable conversations taking place over lunches or dinners from June 24th to July 30th 2021. At each session, a seasoned founder or investor will host and share best practices, experiences or industry insights with 10 entrepreneurs or aspiring founders to inspire and encourage peer learning.

Also Read: Meet Mentor For Hope, the startup mentorship programme that will donate 50K meals for those in need

These hosts include CEO of Carousell, Shopback and Helicap as well as partners at Vertex Ventures, Golden Gate Venturers and Monk’s Hill Ventures.

The hosts are taking the lead in raising donations by donating minimally US$1,000 while interested participants donate US$100 (early bird price) to attend one of the sessions.

Early bird registration for Makan for Hope Festival sessions will begin on www.makanforhope.org on 10 June 2021. Aspiring entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs who are facing financial assistance may request for sponsorship. Meals for each session will be catered from social enterprises such as Soul Food and Pope Jai Thai and delivered to participants’ homes.

Endeavor Scale Up Philippines unveils the two graduates

The story: ScaleUp, an accelerator programme run by Endeavor Philippines, today unveiled the two startups graduated from the first cohort.

About the startups: Dealogikal and Expedock.

Dealogikal is an automation service for the procurement process through an online marketplace of commodities, logistics providers, and financing options.

Expedock is an automation service on data entry for shipment documents for freight forwarders.

About Endeavour Scale Up: Endeavor ScaleUp, which was launched in 2020, aims to accelerate early-stage startups and groom them into becoming high-impact entrepreneurs. Through a dedicated mentor with first-hand experience in scaling up a business, workshops by industry leaders, and guidance from the Endeavor team, the programme aims to double the revenue of candidate companies in six months.

With the first cohort coming to an end, Endeavor is now looking to launch its second cohort in July. Call for applications runs from July 1 to July 28.

For more information, click here endeavor.org.ph or contact at hello@endeavor.org.ph.

NUS develops charger for wearables that transmits power using the human body

The story: A research team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a solution that enables the wireless charging of wearable tech by using a device such as a mobile phone and treating the human body as a medium for power transmission, says a Tech In Asia report.

Also Read: Navigate the challenges of COVID-19 while feeding a low-income family in need through #MentorForHope

The team is led by Jerald Yoo, an associate professor from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the N.1 Institute for Health at NUS.

What is the solution about?: It involves installing a transmitter on a single power source, such as the smart watch on a user’s wrist, and placing multiple receivers anywhere on the person’s body.

The technology can then harness energy from the source to power multiple wearables through a process termed as “body-coupled power transmission.”

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Float Foods, a Singapore-based foodtech startup that makes plant-based foods, has raised SGD2.2 (US$1.7) million in an oversubscribed seed funding round, led by Insignia Ventures Partners and DSG Consumer Partners.

Other backers include Teja Ventures, Apricot Capital, Baksh Capital, Ebb & Flow Group, Water Tiger Investments, Innovate360, and Agrocorp Ventures.

The new round follows the receipt of a project development grant awarded by Temasek Foundation, bringing the startup’s post-money valuation close to US$5.6 million within under just a year of its incorporation.

The company said that the new funding will be used to boost the research and development (R&D) and commercialisation of OnlyEg.

The economics of chicken production is not a pretty one. More than 6 billion chicks around the world are killed every year after they fulfill the poultry farmer’s needs.

The meat industry makes use of chicken products in two major approaches. One is to grow broiler chickens which will later be consumed. The others are egg layers, produced to churn out as many eggs they can churn before being reclassified as soup chickens.

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

Founded in June 2020, Float Foods aims to eradicate the problem by offering people an alternative source of eggs without killing any animals.

Its flagship product is OnlyEg, a legumes-based substitute for both egg yolk and egg white.

The company claims that OnlyEg will be able to offer nutritional value that matches that of a whole chicken egg while adding that the product will be high in protein, and free from cholesterol, hormones, and drug residues.

OnlyEg is currently in R&D to be optimised with nutritional enhancements and longer shelf life, and on track for commercialisation in Singapore by 2022.

Concurrently, a secondary food tech of plant-based egg shreds and patties is currently in the process of being commercialised into the B2B sector by the second half of 2020.

“We’re proud that what we’ve built in the last year—amidst a global pandemic—can allow us the position to choose the right investors that not only believe in Float Foods’ vision of innovating and advancing a sustainable, plant-based food ecosystem in Singapore and beyond for everyone, but also pave a clearer way forward as we work towards delivering our promise of a fully functional, versatile plant-based whole egg substitute aligned with Singapore’s 30 x 30 goals,” said Vinita Choolani, founder of Float Foods.

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Image Credit: Float Foods

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NFC Indonesia, a subsidiary of digital distribution company M Cash Integrasi, has formed a joint venture with SiCepat, an Indonesian logistics company, to enter the Electric Vehicle (EV) sector. 

The joint venture will be called Energi Selalu Baru (ESB) and will focus on the distribution of electric motorcycles, battery exchange, and its supporting services. 

A statement from the company said that M Cash subsidiaries Digital Mediatama Maxima and Telefast Indonesia will take minority stakes in ESB by providing commercial, infrastructural, and ecosystem support.

Alternatively, ESB will take a majority stake in EV manufacturing company, PT Volta Indonesia Semesta. 

 Volta will be the key production house of the electric motorcycles for ESB while NFCX will provide and administer the digital platform for the vehicle registration and management, payments, and rewards.

As of now, its electric motorcycles are already in beta-testing with government agencies and a few private enterprises.

The current testing phase remains on track with the electric motorcycles and their accompanying support facilities to be expected to open for mass-market access in the late second half of 2021.

Also Read: Grab, Hyundai launches their first electric vehicle service in Indonesia

The range of electric motorcycles will also come with several pricing models for battery exchanges that will meet the needs of frequent, non-frequent, long-distance, and short-distance riders.

This marks the group’s first foray into Indonesia’s promising EV market that is slated to grow in tandem with the government’s push to develop a circular EV industry.

“We expect that as battery technology improves with time, going green in the transportation/logistics industry will become increasingly affordable and economical. For phase 1, we will also be adding up to 5,000 electric motorcycles to our fleets. We will continue to add more electric motorcycles to support the government’s move for greener Indonesia,” Kim Hai, CEO of SiCepat, said.

The President Joko Widodo administration is targeting to have a population of 374,000 electric cars, 11.8 million electric motorcycles, 6 thousand public EV charging stations by 2025.

These ambitious targets for EV production have advantages and will aid in reducing oil imports and will support a promising battery manufacturing industry.

Both of which are expected to help improve Indonesia’s socio-economic development.

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Grab and GoTo IPOs could spawn more SEA startups, says 500 Startups; According to 500’s Vishal Harnal, the public listings of Grab and GoTo would allow for more investment in smaller businesses; The comments counter speculation that the newly-capitalised tech giants may squash competition.

US-based Nityo makes US$100M strategic investment in banking-as-a-service platform MatchMove, becomes its largest shareholder; MatchMove empowers its corporate clients to offer own-brand, secure and compliant digital payments, remittance, loans, insurance, and investments to their own customers; Nityo is an IT services firm with a presence in 38 countries and serves over 3K enterprise clients.

Book-keeping app BukuWarung rakes in US$60M to build an OS for Indonesia’s 60M MSMEs; Investors include Valar Ventures (lead), Wise, N26, and Goodwater Capital; BukuWarung recently launched a Shopify-equivalent, called Tokoko; Over the last 6 months, BukuWarung claims to have recorded over US$15B worth of transactions and US$500M in payments.

Alodokter raises fresh capital, claims 30M MAUs and 43K doctors on its telemedicine platform; Investors are MDI Ventures and Samsung Ventures; Alodokter provides an end-to-end digital solution to patients including telemedicine, doctor booking, medical content, and health insurance services.

Filipino live-streaming app Kumu closes Series B; Investors include SIG, Openspace Ventures, PH Conglomerates, and Endeavor Catalyst; The firm claims ~11.2M registered users around the world watch live streams up to 60M times per month, with over 100K active streamers commanding about one hour of average daily usage.

Indonesia’s Qlue banks Series B financing to scale its smart city solutions to new markets in Asia; Investors are KDDI Open Innovation Fund, TMI, and ASLI RI; Qlue’s smart city platform enables one-stop centralised control of the detection, analysis, and solution of urban problems through AI and IoT.

Logistics firm SiCepat taps EV space in a JV with NFC Indonesia, buys EV maker Volta; The newly formed EV company ESB will focus on the distribution of EVs, batter exchange and supporting services; NFC is a subsidiary of listed digital firm M Cash Integrasi.

Singapore’s e-bond trading startup BondEvalue raises US$6M Series A, forms JV in Mexico; Investors include MassMutual Ventures SEA, Citigroup, Potato Productions, and Octava; The startup’s BondbloX allows investors to buy and sell bonds in denominations of US$1,000 instead of the usual US$200,000, and through a public exchange.

Malaysian digital healthcare startup Naluri secures US$5M Series A; Investors include Integra Partners (lead), Duopharma Biotech, M Venture Partners, and Sumitomo Corporation; Naluri offers human-led and AI-augmented digital health coaching that aims to transform the lives of people who are at risk of, or managing, chronic and mental health conditions.

Indonesia’s financial wellness platform wagely bags US$5.6M; Investors include Integra Partners (led), ADB Ventures, GFC, 1982 Ventures; wagely’s earned wage access platform reduces financial stress for millions of low- and middle-income workers, who struggle with unexpected financial expenses between pay cheques.

Thailand’s automobile workshops digitalisation startup Autopair raises funding; Summit Auto Body Industry led the round; Autopair will use the capital to digitalise 1,000 independent automotive workshops; It also plans to expand into markets like Indonesia and Malaysia.

MooVita raises ‘multi-million dollars’ Series A to bring driverless cars to Singapore’s public roads; Investors are Yinson Green Technologies and SMRT Ventures; MooVita is developing a solution that could transform various vehicle types into autonomous ones for multitudinous driving conditions and applications.

Philippines files criminal complaint against scam-hit payment firm Wirecard’ ex-COO; Wirecard collapsed last June, owing creditors almost US$4B, accused by its auditor of a sophisticated global fraud; Former COO Jan Marsalek is accused of violating banking, cybercrime and e-commerce laws.

Korean VC STIC Ventures invests in Vietnamese men’s wear e-commerce brand Coolmate; Hanoi-based Coolmate claims to have clocked revenues of US$1.7M in 2020, at a growth rate of 15-20% per month; It previously raised funding from 500 Startups.

Plant-based egg startup Float Foods raises US$1.7M seed funding; Lead investors are Insignia Ventures and DSG Consumer Partners; Float Foods aims to optimise its plant-based whole egg substitute OnlyEg with nutritional enhancements and longer shelf life track for commercialisation in Singapore by 2022.

Grab, BRI Ventures team up to launch accelerator for startups in Indonesia; The Grab Ventures Velocity Batch 4 x Sembrani Wira will identify and develop post-seed startups in the country, whose products and services focus on catering to merchants and micro-entrepreneurs.

What entrepreneurs can learn from Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open; Mental health problems have been on the rise and those who work in fast-paced, high-stress environments such as startups can be at risk; Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open may reveal some surprising lessons that startup entrepreneurs can learn.

How early-stage startups can build a thought leadership strategy; The major thrust of your thought leadership should always be market education, especially in Asia where most consumer and enterprise tech industries are still relatively new.

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Photo by Chris Sabor on Unsplash

 

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US-based tech company Nityo Infotech has invested US$100 million in Singapore-based embedded finance company MatchMove Pay in return for a significant equity stake.

With this investment, Nityo will become the largest shareholder in MatchMove.

Together, the two companies aim to empower clients to embed own-brand digital financial services in their own platforms and apps.

As per a press note, these fintech-powered platforms will enable MNCs, SMEs, families, and individuals to “instantly” access intuitive digital banking products.

Also Read: How fintech startups can fast forward their growth

MatchMove founder and CEO Shailesh Naik said: “Nityo brings us everything we need to grow: executive experience in growing and expanding a global tech company, thought leadership, growth capital, large and deep talent pools around the world, and existing relationships with many leading organisations.”

“This will immediately give us presence in 38 countries, combined with a massive ability to execute and deliver on the rising global demand for digital payments and embedded finance,” he added.

Nityo founder and CEO Naveen Kumar stated: “We are valuing the company (MatchMove) at US$500 million pre-money and US$600 million post money. With this investment and Nityo’s global strength, we are certainly looking to build a decacorn in the future, as we believe MatchMove is the most qualified soonicorn in the fintech space in Southeast Asia.”

MatchMove is a banking-as-a-service platform. It empowers its corporate clients to offer own-brand, secure and compliant digital payments, remittance, loans, insurance, and investments to their own customers (SMEs, families, and individuals).

Besides in Singapore, MatchMove has presence in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

MatchMove plans to launch programmes in Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Thailand by the end of 2021.

Prior to Nityo’s investment, MatchMove has secured over US$83 million via multiple rounds from investors, including NTT Venture Capital and Iconic World, as per the data compiled by Crunchbase.

In September 2019, MatchMove acquired a strategic equity stake in Singapore’s P2P lender MoolahSense for an undisclosed amount.

Also Read: Singapura Finance is the latest to join digital license race, partnering digital payment startup MatchMove

Established in 2006, Nityo offers services including infrastructure management services, outsourcing, system integration, application software development, IT consulting, IT security consulting, cloud computing, data science, big data analytics, industry specific products implementation & support, and quality assurance & training.

Nityo has operations in 38 countries and serves over 3,000 enterprise clients today.

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Image Credit: MatchMove

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Osome, a Singapore-based startup that has developed an accounting and corporate compliance app for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has secured US$16 million in a Series A funding.

Investors are Target Global (Berlin), AltaIR Capital, Phystech Ventures, and S16VC, besides Peng T. Ong, Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures.

The fresh capital will be used for international expansion and to fuel product integrations.

Also Read: What any founder needs to know about the art of accounting

This round comes about eight months after the startup received US$3 million from XA Network and AltaIR Capital.

Osome leverages Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques, combined with the experience of human experts, to solve the problem of time-consuming administrative tasks, such as payroll and secretarial work. This way, it aims to disrupt the fragmented accounting and corporate services industry.

Osome’s core offering is online accounting services for SMEs, especially those involved in e-commerce. The team plans to dive deeper in the e-commerce industry, launching more specific products and apps in the near future.

The company also helps with business set up and provides corporate secretary services. It checks compliance, tracks deadlines, files documents, and answers questions in a chat at any time of the day or week.

Also Read: Fintech startup Osome snags US$3M funding led by Target Global, preparing Hong Kong’s, UK’s expansion

The platform categorises, tags, and stores any documents you send to them, and then creates management reports, tax returns and does all necessary filing on time.

The firm claims it saw more than 100 per cent YoY revenue growth and US$9.5 million ARR with over 6,000 happy customers in Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK.

Currently Osome has five offices in Singapore, the UK, Hong Kong and other countries with over 200 employees.

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Image Credit: Osome

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Home to unicorn companies such as Gojek, Tokopedia, and Bukalapak, Indonesia is a promising launchpad for startups. But what makes the country so appealing to entrepreneurs?

According to Herman Widjaja, CTO of Tokopedia, “Indonesia is the country with the highest transaction value in Southeast Asia. The digital economy in the region also continues to grow in double digits, with e-commerce and online media sectors as the largest contributors. This growing potential for the digital economy acts as a catalyst for the booming startup scene.”

This year, we introduced the e27 Luminaries initiative as a way to celebrate the unsung heroes of the Southeast Asian tech startup ecosystem. We reached out to selected companies to nominate individuals that they felt have made a significant contribution to their success throughout the pandemic.

Far from being a one-hit-wonder, Indonesia almost dominated the e27 Luminaries list with a total of 14 startups. This proves that the local startup ecosystem is filled with players that are resilient enough to face the challenges of a pandemic.

Here are the companies that have made it to the list:

Finantier

A fintech startup that uses Open Finance API platform to provide infrastructure and data products with financial institutions to create “seamless and personalised” experiences for consumers, who can benefit from their data. The startup is currently still in its beta phase and is also a part of  Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 startup batch.

One being asked how Oloan rode out the challenges, he said, “I emphasized to the team the importance of communicating, especially when working remotely. I also introduced online collaboration tools to better track and manage work processes. This helped increase efficiency while reducing miscommunication. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of adapting and the team did well to roll with the changes,”.

Luminary: Victor Oloan

Role: Senior Engineering Manager

His impact: Building the platform from scratch amid a pandemic

Also Read: Despite the pandemic, these e27 Luminaries successfully spread their wings into new markets

GajiGesa

A financial wellness platform that aims to improve the long-term financial health of employees and companies by providing them with financial education, and other financial management tools.

Saragih said that putting the mission first and doing honest communication to the team about the intentions, and showing vulnerability was a crucial part of passing through the storm because “it’s the fears and anxieties that we all share, which draw us closer”.

Luminary: Ade Yuanda Saragih

Role: Country Head for Indonesia

His impact: Leading the company’s operation in Indonesia throughout the challenges put forth by COVID-19.

Gojek

A super app that was initially started as a motorcycle ride-hailing company but has since expanded to different verticals, like digital payments, food delivery, logistics, and many other on-demand services. It has recently announced its merger with fellow Indonesian unicorn Tokopedia.

Luminary: Severan Rault

Role: CTO (Chief Technology Officer)

His impact: Enhancing the platform and maintaining strong leadership

GudangAda

A B2B e-commerce platform for FMCG wholesalers, manufacturers, and retail businesses. Through its platform, traders can connect to meet and transact online with wholesalers and mom-pop retailers of all sizes.

Luminary: Andre Widjaja

Role: Chief of Business Development

His impact: Building the company’s sales and BD team and preparing it for expansion.

Also Read: A horse of another colour: Meet the 4 unicorns from e27 Luminaries

Inavoice

A one-stop solution for people in the creative industry who want to create their own audiovisual products. In addition to building a platform for voice-over talents which the startup began with, it has also expanded to include background music.

Luminary: Punto Adhil Dewanto

Role: Admin Staff

His impact: Establishing and running the company.

Jala Tech

Jala Tech is transforming the shrimp industry by offering a vastly improved management system. The goal of the company is to get farmers to make decisions based on actual data.  To do that, its system provides water quality monitoring, planning, and reporting tools, complete with a decision support system so that farmers can initiate the right treatment at the right time, based on data that has been collected and analysed.

Luminary: Christine Kombong

Role: BD Executive

Her impact: Helping the company’s community of shrimp farmers.

Koinworks

Brings together SMEs and lenders online under a single platform so that the former who have historically been underbanked by traditional financial institutions can borrow easily from the latter.

“Stand in your customer’s shoes. In KoinWorks, we know that COVID strikes hard for SMEs especially during the first hit, we are trying to understand their financial dilemma and craft a solution to reduce their stress and let them think about how to bounce back. So as COVID is the norm now, businesses are growing bigger than they are before because it’s just another lesson learned for their entrepreneurial journey,” said Jonathan Bryan CMO of Koinworks, on successfully enduring the pandemic.

Luminary: Jonathan Bryan

Role: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

His impact: Managing to maintain brand position amidst a challenging time.

Also Read: Meet the Singapore-based tech professionals of e27 Luminaries

MYCL

A fashion tech startup that cultivates mycelia (a type of fungus) along with sawdust to make a substitute for animal-based leather. Its designed process consumes far less water than the traditional animal-based leather-making processes.

Luminary: Jean Rosy Tency

Role: Head of HR

Her impact: Keeping the company’s morale high throughout the pandemic period.

OVO

A mobile app payment system that ensures that financial transactions are simple, instant, and secure. The platform provides its users with access to payments, transfers, cash-in/out, rewards, asset management, and investments.

Luminary: Jason Thompson

Role: CEO

His impact: Leading and growing the entire company.

Sociolla

An e-commerce platform for beauty products and a subsidiary of Social Bella, an integrated beauty-tech company that focuses on developing “a scalable and sustainable” online and offline ecosystem for beauty and personal care. One of its major goals is to empower customers to use local brands. 

Luminary: Ngoc Phungbich

Role: Chief Business Officer

Her impact: Driving successful expansion to Vietnam.

TaniHub

An agritech startup that focuses on bridging farmers to a wider market. Its business lines include TaniHub (an e-commerce platform for food and agricultural products), TaniFund (a P2P lending platform for farmers), and TaniSupply (a unit that works on improving agricultural supply chain).

Luminary: Astri Purnamasari

Role: VP Corporate Services

Her impact: Establishing a strong and robust company culture.

Tokopedia

An e-commerce giant that aims to build a super ecosystem where anyone can start and discover anything. The company works with various marketplaces, logistics, payments, and financial technology businesses, while also providing more than 500,000 payment points across Indonesia.

Despite the uncertainties that lied ahead, Tokopedia under the leadership of Widjaja made significant improvements to their technology.

One such example is how the team built a system capable of detecting unusual-priced healthcare products during the early phase of the pandemic after they noticed the rise in price and demand of such products.

Luminary: Herman Widjaja

Role: SVP and CTO

His impact: For his work in building a culture of innovation and teamwork as #OneTokopedia

Also Read: How Tokopedia managed customer experience and engagement amidst the pandemic

Xendit

A digital payment infrastructure company that enables businesses to accept digital payments without the need to implement integrations with individual providers. It has since expanded its services to include services such as fraud detection, lending, and tax management.

Luminary: Sujinun Jutakorn

Role: VP of Sales

Her impact: Leading the sales team and securing winning sales during the pandemic

Zenius

Zenius is an edutech startup that targets all education levels, from elementary school to senior high with public university test prep. The cost to subscribe to its online course starts from US$12 to US$46 per month. Zenius is said to already have a library of 80,000 educational videos.

Luminary: Rohan Monga

Role: CEO

His impact: Leading the introduction of new products to the market.

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