Gojek to sharpen the focus on Vietnam, Singapore following Thai exit; After Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam are the second and third-largest markets in the region; Both countries are also underpenetrated in terms of financial services; According to DealStreetAsia, Gojek GMV in food delivery was behind rivals Grab, Foodpanda, and LineMan in Thailand last year.

SEA’s startups ride pandemic tailwinds to raise US$5.7B in Q2; According to DealStreetAsia; deal volume in Q2 soared to new heights at 231 transactions, up from 211 in Q1; Top three fundraisers were Trax (US$620M), VinCommerce (US$410M), and The CrownX (US$400M).

Oy! raises US$45M in funding, becomes Indonesia’s newest centaur; Investors include Softbank Ventures Asia, Pavilion Capital, AC Ventures, Alfamart, Wavemaker, and MDI Ventures; This brings its valuation to US$108M; In the B2C segment, Oy! provides a mobile app that helps customers with the inter-bank transfer.

Easy Eat AI attracts US$5M from Ritesh Agarwal’s family office, others; The list of backers also include Prophetic Ventures, Maninder Gulati, and Cem Garih; The Singapore- and Malaysia-based startup digitises all customer-facing interactions in restaurants — from browsing menu, ordering and tracking, to payments.

Malaysia’s Easybook completes US$5M Series C led by Emissary Capital; Easybook.com provides ticketing and route management software solutions to bus, train and ferry operators across the region; It operates in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei; Easybook currently manages a US$1.6B worth of regional long-range travel inventory.

Singapore govt. to invest US$37M to bolster digital trust capabilities; This investment will allow Singapore to tap on new possibilities and demands arising from a global digital trust market that is expected to grow exponentially; IMDA will bring together research institutions, institutes of higher learning, and the industry, to drive research and translation in trust technologies.

Vietnam’s B2B food sourcing startup Kamereo bags US$4.6M Series A; CPF Group, Quest Ventures, and Genesia Ventures co-led the round; Kamereo optimises sourcing and purchasing in the burgeoning F&B industry; It quickly connects buyers to farmers, allowing each to speed up the lengthy process of delivering fruit and veg supplies to the kitchen.

SGX-listed Metal Component Engineering acquires Singapore wellness platform GainHealth for US$3.1M; The acquisition will help GainHealth expand its reach within the pharmaceutical industry’s digital ecosystem; GainHealth offers products that have been reviewed by clinicians for use as over-the-counter and prescription medication.

Koh Boon Hwee, Carousell co-founder join edutech startup Skills Union’s US$1.5M seed round; The list of investors also include Online Education Services, KDV, and Hustle Fund; Skills Union offers courses that are in demand by high-growth companies, such as software development, UX/UI design and growth marketing;

Vietnam expected to be ‘rising star’ in SEA’s startup ecosystem, says Golden Gate Ventures; It will emerge in 2022 as the third largest startup ecosystem in the region; More startups in SEA are expected to go public, with the annual number of IPOs expected to cross 300 by 2030; The VC firm anticipates that funding for the entertainment and media sector will grow substantially over the decade.

Indonesia’s fintech sectors experience rapid growth from e-money services; E-money is becoming a more popular method of payment; Credit and debit cards continue to account for the lion’s share of retail e-transactions in terms of value, accounting for 82% of total value in 2019; However, in terms of the number of transactions, e-money has eclipsed credit and debit cards in recent years.

Vietnamese top list of most online shoppers in SEA; Vietnam has some 49.3M online shoppers, according to the E-commerce White Book 2021 released by the Vietnam E-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (IDEA); Its e-commerce market in 2020 reached US$11.8B; In the past two years, it has seen positive changes in online purchasing with both consumers and firms moving online.

Impact investing turns mainstream amid growing interest in Asia, Leapfrog partner; Impact investing offers opportunities for family offices, institutional investors to invest that way they like with the controls they like, says Fernanda Lima; The pandemic acts as a bit of an accelerator.

NUS to partner two Indonesian universities to boost innovation and entrepreneurship; NUS, through its arm NUS Enterprise, will offer scholarships to students from the University of Indonesia and Gadjah Mada University (UGM) to attend the Master of Science in Venture Creation programme in Singapore, starting next year; The universities will also roll out an initiative in Indonesia to build and scale up high-impact, deep tech ventures.

80% employees in SEA prefer remote work post-COVID-19, says survey; The 2021 EY Work Reimagined Employee Survey showed only 15% of respondents from SEA want to work in the office full time when restrictions are eased; The survey finds that nine in 10 Southeast Asian respondents want flexibility in terms of where and when they work.

How SMBs grow their business with TikTok; With the amount of attention that TikTok puts on digital content, there is massive potential for TikTok to be used as an avenue for advertising; SMBs can leverage TikTok’s vast reach to grow their business, tapping on the diverse customer base and laser-sharp user algorithm to execute targeted marketing campaigns effectively.

—

Photo by myHQ Workspaces on Unsplash

The post Ecosystem Roundup: SEA’s startups raises US$5.7B across 231 transactions in Q2; Oy! raises US$45M appeared first on e27.

Social media marketing trends are a powerful tool for any business looking to make the most of digital marketing. Marketing, of course, starts with the trends that influence industries and consumers.

Understanding online Asian markets is an important part of many digital marketing campaigns for an important reason. By the end of 2020, an estimated 989 million people had access to the internet in China, followed by 696 million people in India.

Those two countries alone make up 36 per cent of the total number of internet users in the world. When the rest of the Asian market is added, it becomes even clearer why understanding trends in these regions is so beneficial.

Here, we delve into the three digital and social media marketing trends for small-to-medium-sized businesses in Asia looking to get ahead of the curve.

Advertising is shifting to data-driven targeting

Billboards are a traditional example of exposure marketing. They’re a fixed visual relying on a message being placed in a high traffic area to keep brands relevant in the public mind. But the internet is a virtual space, meaning consumers flow in and out in a less routine way.

This has encouraged a growing: targeted ads. Unlike exposure marketing, digital promotion with targeted ads looks to meet individual consumers exactly where they are.

Some consumers spend the majority of their time online on social media, where targeted ads come through programmes such as Facebook ads and Instagram business accounts. This type of marketing is most obvious on YouTube, where, because there is so much data around what people like to watch and engage with, advertising firms are tailoring their video ads to align with people’s interests.

Also Read: Here’s why startups need to approach digital marketing as applied data science

Luckily, this type of marketing doesn’t need an advertising agency or a heavy media budget to do well. There are many available courses on targeted ads and some get specific on the product being sold.

Authenticity is performing well as a call to action

As advertising budgets increase, and as targeted ads become more sophisticated in their design, consumers are facing overexposure to marketing efforts. Marketing overexposure tends to make consumers more sceptical of sales pitches and fatigued when it comes to engaging with brands.

As a result of this, consumers are now seeking out authentic engagement with brands. They want to follow businesses that produce things they like on social media, and most importantly, they don’t want to feel like this content is just being put out to make a sale.

Businesses making the most of Instagram have invested in utilising the platform’s broad scope of tools. Reels and Stories are being used to showcase the creation process for smaller businesses who rely on the unique qualities of their product as the selling point, from vegan health products to performance artists moving their art online in the absence of live events.

When people can see the authenticity that goes into creation, paired with a ‘soft-selling’ approach, they’re more likely to engage enthusiastically.

Paid sponsorships are growing in the influencer market

As successful as targeted ads are, they aren’t a catch-all tool. Some consumers prefer not to be marketed to while relaxing on YouTube or browsing Facebook, Instagram or Twitter – and that doesn’t even take into account access to ad blockers.

However, these are the places most consumers spend their time, so different ways of engaging with them on these platforms is important. Businesses are achieving this through paid sponsorships on the content consumers already love.

Also Read: Here’s why startups need to approach digital marketing as applied data science

The Asia-Pacific Influencer market was predicted to grow by 32.8 per cent between 2019 and 2025 – a projection made before the pandemic, which rapidly increased the number of online engagements. In the context of online business, influencers are people with strong online followings, whose content and personality make them trusted figures to their audiences.

Many influencers build their content around specific niches, from beauty, health and lifestyle to food, gaming and tourism. This makes paid influencer sponsorships particularly attractive when the influencer’s niche aligns with the business sponsoring them.

Influencers place a great emphasis on the trust they establish with their audience so they also act as gatekeepers in a way, giving consumers a level of comfort that the sponsorship deals they do take on offer worthwhile goods or services, or the brand is of genuine interest. Influencers often embed their sponsors’ ads into their content, making it entertaining for audiences and harder to skip – negating the limitations of targeted ads and building brand trust in the process.

Digital marketing is largely influenced by consumer-driven trends. Many of these trends overlap globally, but some are more strongly impacted by local consumer behaviours. Understanding them in both contexts, of course, is the key to catching the wave at the right time, especially when it comes to markets as large as Asia.

For businesses, this means marketing strategies should be built around data-driven targeting, leveraging paid sponsorships and offering an authentic call to action.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast or infographic

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

Image Credit: rawpixel

The post The key digital marketing tips to help small businesses thrive appeared first on e27.

Before we get into fintech companies, let us begin this article by taking a quick history lesson.

In the late 1930s, airplanes were the latest in reconnaissance, a far cheaper and faster way to get intelligence than deploying scouts. Airplanes allowed the British Empire’s forces to defend Singapore by keeping an eye on the wide swathes and populations of Malaya without ever having to set foot on the ground.

Their reports were filled with details about how Malaya was thick with “impassable” forest. Without an army of seasoned tropical jungle fighters (which the Japanese were not thought to be), an attack on Singapore from the Malayan peninsula would be impossible. They concluded from their aerial examination that the invasion of Singapore would almost certainly be via sea, and so the cannons should be pointed out in anticipation of the Japanese navy.

But as history would have it, the Japanese army invaded from the north, via Malaya, catching the British by surprise. The Japanese had already occupied half of Singapore by the time the British readied their forces.

The British commanders directed their cannons on the heartlands of Singapore, indiscriminately bombarding the Japanese advance and imperial subjects, but it was too late. With minimal trouble, the Japanese then conquered the island, subjecting Singapore to one of its most brutal episodes in history.

What went wrong?

They used the latest technology – they were able to get intelligence faster and cheaper, see more than ever before. Why didn’t it work?

While airplanes can provide the big picture – the forest – they can completely disregard the reality on the ground, the trees. The dense forest cover of Malaya was actually rubber plantations with walking paths beneath the wide canopy or sparse jungle with traversable trails. The lightly equipped Japanese soldiers were able to march and ride bicycles through the woodland comfortably.

Also Read: Nium acquires India unit of scam-hit German fintech giant Wirecard

Since the British were completely unaware of the on-the-ground reality, the Japanese were able to quickly push through Malaya into Singapore territory.

The next billion

Western tech companies today are examining emerging markets and drawing some bold big picture conclusions. The emerging middle class in developing countries such as India, Pakistan, Brazil, and Nigeria are certainly similar in terms of proportion, affluence and growth.

Even the challenges they encounter may be similar, but the solutions for each country, and possibly even within each country, will be very different. Google uses the term the next billion users (NBU) for the segment of users who came online for the first time between 2015 and now.

But far from being a homogenous mass, tech companies learned that they have to tailor products to the specific requirements and preferences of the subsets within the NBU population.

Businesses thrive when they can address a product market. That is one in which a single mass-producible product meets the needs of the majority of customers. Often you can only guess that you’re in a product market and try to push it out to see whether anyone buys it.

When you’re addressing an incredibly diverse market such as the next billion, you have to find the common denominator that you can turn into a product– not culture, language or market size. It’s money.

The cannons facing South

Fintech is where the big guys can really shine. They can partner with governments and banks, often the largest and most legible institutions from “the airplane” and work with them to deploy on the ground.

Also Read: War of warungs: Decoding the race to win the warung game in Indonesia

However, fintech, in its most common form, digital payments, is a solution looking for a problem for the next billion. People like cash! There are significant societal problems that result from cash, but it is beneficial to many folks.

So, why are all these companies and governments still trying to push for it?

They see the population from the top-down. They see a world full of potential Chinas – a country where nearly 40 per cent of GDP flows with no visibility to the government at all. That terrifies many governments and they want a handle on it.

It also terrifies VISA and Mastercard. And who can forget the banks? They want visibility as well, and they’re now in a race to get it. But these products are having a tough time proving sustainability, because the fundamentals have little to do with the ground realities and customer problems of countries or markets where NBU (next billion users) live. 

China’s fintech succeeded because the Chinese financial ecosystem is so impoverished. The average person cannot hope to get more than a 1 per cent return on their investments within China. Real estate is an oft-traded commodity for greater wealth, but for those who don’t have the capital to purchase real estate?

You’re basically screwed. In such an environment, Alibaba and Tencent came in to offer investment accounts, which eventually became high-yield checking accounts everyone used to buy everything.

The draw towards fintech is simply not present in more mature capitalist economies like India, where the average middle-class individual has a variety of financial instruments available to them. Consumer fintech is a mislead for many NBU countries.

The nimble infantry

In contrast to the big guys, smaller players such as BukuWarung and KhataBook and OKCredit have made a killing focusing purely on MSMEs. Where the big guys had difficulty deploying a one-size-fits-all solution, the little guys went and chased things on the ground with real merchants and built businesses that are at their core incredible value-creating machines.

Also Read: iGlobe Partners closes new US$100M fund to back startups innovating in smart cities, synthetic biology, fintech

This, to me, is the future of the NBU – since the markets themselves are distinct and fragmented, the solutions to them will be as well. At some point in the future, there might be a winner in the fintech NBU space that unites all of them, but for now, my money is on the companies that started merchant-first, with that careful attention given to their feet-on-the-street teams. I truly believe in places like southeast Asia, it’s the little guy’s game.

NBU markets are united by a few other issues: data is lacking, both in terms of cellular data and market data, literacy is scattershot. In many NBU countries the sheer diversity of languages blows away anything the West has going on.

This is mostly because Western nation-building projects often included a language homogenisation phase, such as the Vergonha in France.

All of these problems will get solved in diverse ways: India has Jio, which completely flipped the data market in the country. Indonesia has GoJek which offers everything from massages to food delivery.

There will not be one technological solution built in California that fits all and scales across the globe the way Instagram and Facebook did.

That world is now gone, the reality is that the territory that looks so uniform and impenetrable from up above, is very navigable down on the ground. The future belongs to those who keep their feet firmly planted.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast or infographic

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

Image credit: ximagination

The post Fintech companies targeting the next billion users are living a pipe dream. Here’s why appeared first on e27.

The US- and Asia-based Venti Technologies, a safe-speed autonomous mobility company, has announced an US$8 million seed funding round from LDV Partners and Alpha JWC Ventures.

The investment will further Venti’s capability in fulfilling new and existing customer agreements with global ports operator PSA Corporation, automotive manufacturer SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC-GM, automotive logistics provider SAIC Anji Logistics Tech, and real estate developer and operator Seedland.

Representatives of the two lead investors, Lake Dai, partner at LDV Partners, and Chandra Tjan, co-founder and general partner at Alpha JWC are joining the Venti Board, expanding it to five members.

While LDV Partners is a deep tech VC firm that focuses on ground-breaking technical teams, this marks Alpha JWC Ventures’ first investment in autonomous vehicles, which the firm believes to be a “game-changer” and “a first for Asia”, among 28 deals fuelled by its US$123-million fund so far.

“Venti’s founders, vision, product, and track record so far have been astonishing, and we are very excited to work together to revolutionise the autonomous vehicle industry and achieve huge success on a global basis together,” Tjan said.

Also Read: Report: Preventive healthcare, manufacturing will be the key to China’s AI development

Founded in 2018 by a clutch of MIT professors in computer science, artificial intelligence, and electrical engineering, Venti Technologies employs mathematical modelling and theoretically grounded algorithms to ensure safety, reliability, cost-effectiveness and top performance. The technology leverage driverless vehicles in safe speed applications including, ports, airports, factories, warehouses, mining, agriculture and communities.

“We are delighted with the partnership and support these influential investors are providing Venti as we scale our operations and build our base globally, including targeting growth opportunities in Asia, Europe, and the US,” said Heidi Wyle, PhD, founder and CEO of Venti. “Their understanding of our innovative technology and huge markets make them particularly powerful partners.”

As the digital transformation in the logistics industry is accelerated by the pandemic, the logistics automation market is gaining steam with the emergence of IoT, exponential growth in the eCommerce industry, advancements in robotics, and the growing demand to ensure workforce safety. Marketsandmarkets forecasts that the global logistics automation market size is projected to grow from US$48.4 billion in 2020 to US$88.9 billion by 2026, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.6 per cent.

—

Image Credit: Venti

The post Venti raises US$8M seed funding co-led by LDV Partners, Alpha JWC appeared first on e27.

HealthifyMe raises US$75 million in Series C

The story: HealthyifyMe, an AI health and fitness startup, has raised US$75 million in a Series C round, bringing its total raised to US$100 million.

Investors: LeapFrog (lead), Khosla Ventures (lead), HeathQuad, Unilever Ventures, Elm (Saudi Arabia PIF entity), Chiratae Ventures, Inventus Capital, and Sistema Asia Capital.

What the funding will be used for: Product enhancement, expansion in Southeast Asia and India, and North America, and acquisition of relevant companies in the digital health and fitness space.

About HealthifyMe: Founded in India in 2012 and headquartered in Singapore, HealthifyMe is a one-stop digital health and fitness platform that provides personalised solutions to help users achieve their fitness and nutrition goals.

It offers localised health content, calorie tracking, meal plans, fitness workouts, and health advice – powered by a team of online nutritionists, personal trainers, and an artificial intelligence fitness coach.

More about the story: The company claims to have crossed 25 million app downloads recently and is on track to hit US$50 million annual recurring revenue within the next six months.

“I have been tracking HealthifyMe for a few years now. What they have achieved in India with their AI coaching solution at scale is truly pioneering for health and fitness globally. We are excited about the potential as they scale globally – specifically in North America, where two out three adults are overweight or obese,” said  Vinod Khosla, Founding Partner at Khosla Ventures.

Thunes acquires European payments platform Limonetik

The story: Singapore’s B2B cross-border payments company Thunes has announced the acquisition of the European payments platform Limonetik.

More about the story: Thunes Cross-Border Payments will be integrated into Limonetik payments allowing businesses to get paid in 70 countries, using over 285 local payment methods such as mobile wallets, payment by installments (BNPL), QR code payments, and more.

The solution will be known as Thunes Collections.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: SEA’s startups raises US$5.7B across 231 transactions in Q2; Oy! raises US$45M

“Limonetik has been driving the transformation of collections with its platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model, while Thunes possesses a powerful global payments network. We are incredibly excited to extend our combined payments and collections solutions across the world,” said Christophe Bourbier, founder of Limonetik.

Youtube to acquire Indian social commerce startup simsim

The story: Google-owned video-sharing platform YouTube has announced its plans to acquire Indian social commerce startup simsim. The terms of the deal remain undisclosed.

The reason: According to Gautam Anand, vice president for YouTube APAC, this move will allow viewers to buy products from Indian retailers which will, in turn, help small businesses and retailers in India reach new customers in even more powerful ways.

About simsim: Launched in July 2019 by Amit Bagaria, Kunal Suri, and Saurabh Vashishtha, simsim allows creators to post video reviews about products from local businesses in three regional languages in India—and allows viewers to buy those products directly through the app.

More about the story: “There will be no immediate changes to simsim, the app will continue operating independently while we work on ways to showcase simsim offers to YouTube viewers,” the company stated in a blog post.

Taiwan’s Kdan Mobile Software raises US$16M Series B

The story: Kdan Mobile Software (Kdan) has raised $16M in a Series B funding round.
Investors: Dattoz Partners (lead), WI Harper Group, Taiwania Capital, and Golden Asia Fund Mitsubishi UFJ Capital.

What the funding will be used for: To further develop Kdan’s enterprise offerings and for expansion.

About Kdan Mobile Software: Founded in 2009, Kdan is a SaaS company that designs and provides cloud-based productivity and content creation solutions for desktop, web, and mobile environments.

More about the story: According to the company, Dattoz Partners will take a seat on the Kdan Mobile Board to help guide the company in its expansion goals.

“We see tremendous growth in the market for software and solutions that empower the post-pandemic hybrid workforce. Kdan’s powerful product suite and the leadership team’s ability to execute have led to its strong momentum in several key markets, including the U.S. and Asia markets,” said Yeon Su Kim, Dattoz Partners’ CEO.

–

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

Image Credit: HealthifyMe

 

 

 

The post IB: HealthifyMe raises US$75M Series C, Youtube to acquire India’s simsim appeared first on e27.