PropertyGuru to go public in merger with SPAC backed by Richard Li, Peter Thiel
This will give the combined company an equity value of about US$1.78B; This deal with Bridgetown 2 Holdings is expected to fetch proceeds of US$431M, including a private investment of US$100M from Baillie Gifford, Naya, REA Group, Akaris Global Partners, and a Malaysian asset manager.

Singapore public transport booking startup Easybook banks nearly US$5M from Malaysia’s Emissary Capital
Lee said that Easybook will use the new funds to invest in online marketing, hire new IT and operation staff, and help the company march through the pandemic; Easybook plans to keep its business anchored mainly in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Vietnam tech unicorn VNG expects loss to reach US$27M in 2021 due to COVID-19
The company, however, is targeting revenues of about US$330M this year, an increase of about 26% compared to its 2020 total revenue; Formerly known as VinaGame, Vietnam’s first tech unicorn now has an estimated valuation of about US$2.2B.

Andalin in talks for US$3M as it looks to grab a slice of SEA’s US$2.8T international trade market
The money will be used to grow its trading business, scale trade financing offerings, and introduce its SaaS-based freight management system; The startup is backed by BRI Ventures’s VC arm, Beenext, ATM Capital, and Access Ventures.

Ant-backed Philippine fintech Mynt targets ‘double unicorn’ status in future fundraising
Mynt, the group behind the popular GCash app, closed US$175M in January at US$1B valuation; The ambitions target is just the latest sign of how the fight is heating up between traditional lenders and startups like Mynt, KKR-backed Paymaya, and Grab, with each camp increasingly moving into the others’ territory.

‘Education is not a content business but a human one’: Nas Academy’s Nuseir Yassin
Unlike other platforms that give teachers control over just the monetary aspects of teaching, Nas gives its teachers full authority over their audience and distribution and helps them build their own curriculum from scratch.

Singapore sports content platform 1 Play Sports raises US$2.5M in funding
Investors are ThinKuvate, H Capital Investment, and high-profile angels; 1 Play Sports live streams sports events and publishes related stories on its social media platforms; It has broadcast 3K+ hours of sports content such as the Southeast Asia Games 2019, ASEAN School Games 2019, and AIA Singapore Premier League 2021.

Philippine payment platform DragonPay receives strategic funding from Xendit
Last year, Y Combinator-backed Xendit partnered with DragonPay to launch the installment payment scheme in the Philippines; Xendit claims it processes more than 65M transactions, amounting to US$6.5B in payment value annually.

Lippo Group’s Siloam Hospitals incubator backs 3 healthtech startups
They are Bithealth, Aido Health, and Prixa.ai; The incubator seeks to keep the hospital group’s interest aligned to growing digital innovation trends in healthcare; It invests less than US$1M in early-stage healthtech startups.

Philippine central bank orders halt on social media platform Lyka’s payment system ops
The central bank’s monetary board categorised Lyka features that let users earn and exchange in-app gems as operation of payment system (OPS) activities since this digital currency can also be used to pay for off-app products and services.

Jirnexu partners with over 5 digital banking license contenders in Malaysia
The company is confident that it can help traditional banking players optimise their operations with the newly formed partnership; The race for digital banking licenses has intensified ever since the Malaysian central bank BNM received 29 applications for only five licenses.

BNPL firm Atome records 100X order volume growth in Malaysia
The company also added that its online and offline merchant network has grown to serve more than 500 retailers now, a 500% increase from when it first launched in Malaysia at the end of 2020; The growth comes against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and the extension of the movement control order.

myTukar appoints former BMW exec Jeffrey Ong as CEO
He succeeds Fong Hon Sum, who assumed the role of myTukar’s Chairman in June 2021; Prior to joining myTukar, he spent six years at BMW, designing the blueprints for its financial services products across the APAC and launching several programmes such as the BMW Group Corporate Mobility Solutions, BMW Group Private Circle Programme.

Gojek teams up with Indonesia’s Bank Jago for cashless payment
The integration will give Jago customers increased convenience when transacting on the Gojek app; The feature enables them to connect their bank account and Jago pockets to the Gojek app and make cashless payments for Gojek services including transport, food, and bill payments.

Entrepreneurship is at an all-time high, but are you doing it right?
Entrepreneurs are hyper-focused on building their business and bringing their ideas to fruition—and they should be—leaving the non-mission critical, tedious, time-consuming administrative tasks to professional and experienced advisers, secretaries, and accountants; Business success depends on many people, including customers, investors, and team members; Businesses need people who truly believe in their mission and vision, and are willing to hustle to achieve it.

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Words of wisdom from founders

3 lessons from a founder who scaled his startup to 13 markets in five years by Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder of AnyMind Group

As a company, we started in the advertising industry, but shortly after, expanded into influencer marketing and publisher ad monetisation.

In the past year, we expanded into the direct-to-consumer (D2C) space with products for cloud manufacturing, e-commerce enablement, and logistics management. We started with one product, but have expanded that to seven.

All this happened within a period of five years whilst scaling our operations from one market then to 13 markets today.

Throughout this time, there were various learnings for us, let me share three of them.

Entrepreneurship is at an all time high, but are you doing it right? by Julien Labruyere, co-founder and CEO, Sleek

Earlier, the government allocated S$8.3 billion to support Singapore’s Transformation and Growth Strategy, which included S$300 million for the Startup SG Equity co-investment scheme.

A strong appetite for entrepreneurship is encouraging and essential as it drives innovation and creates new opportunities for Singapore’s economic recovery.

But with so many startups unable to survive past the first year, building lasting success is easier said than done. Here are three best practices to bear in mind.

The key digital marketing tips to help small businesses thrive by David Fairfull, CEO, Metigy

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.

The power of the fintech world

Fintech companies targeting the next billion users are living a pipe dream. Here’s why by Saurya Simha Velagapudi, Startup Consultant

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.

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.

How NFT is bringing ownership of digital assets back to content creators by Kenneth Hu, CTO at Formosart.io

Moreover, today Instagram blocked your account, or the App Store removed your app, or even Facebook reduced its reach. You can report it to the platform but it does not mean your problem can be resolved, so the final decision is not in your hands.

A game player bought a virtual treasure in a certain game. This object appears to belong to the game player, but he cannot let the game player decide whether it can be used on other platforms. The reason is that the ownership of these digital assets does not belong to the individual creator or purchaser, but is dominated by various platforms.

However, NFT is a solution that allows the ownership to really return to the creator’s hands when creators can really decide whether to put their creativity on the platform or not.

Life in a pandemic

How COVID-19 was a blessing in disguise for these Vietnamese startups by Duyen Tran, PR at Loship

Consumer spending has plummeted, and even F&B and food delivery services have been suspended. The government is having a hard time dealing with a dilemma: how to keep the economy going while at the same time shutting it down to protect people from infection.

In face of adversity, that’s when the DNA of entrepreneurs comes into play. And the resurgence of COVID-19 is another opportunity for entrepreneurs to display their grit, tenacity, and flexibility to adapt to an evolving situation.

For some high-potential Vietnamese startups, this is not the time to stand still and just plan for survival.

How to ensure your digital transformation will serve your ROI by Jacob Davis, Revuze

Digital transformation, which focuses on staying relevant in the eyes of customers, gaining an edge on the competition, streamlining internal processes, reducing overhead costs, and improving ROI, is the new approach of utilising a novel or existing technology that can help to improve or create a process, product, or experience which yields potential business desirability.

Your main objective must be how to improve customer experience by using technologies such as AI, machine learning, analytics, and self-service. While doing this, you must be able to measure your ROI.

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Although we’re not quite yet at a cashless society, over the past few decades, banknotes and coins have become ever less important to the citizens of countries with advanced economies. Across large swathes of the globe, the ubiquity of credit cards and innovations like Apple Pay and GrabPay has made it easy to go weeks or even months without handling a physical currency bill.

Central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, may move the world even further away from cash. Simply put, CBDCs are digital-only legal tender issued by one of the world’s central banks.

They’re secure, they have individual identifiers for tracking, and they stand to make the backend processing of money settlement more quick and more efficient.

Widespread interest

By January 2020, the Bank of International Settlements discovered, over 80 per cent of central banks had begun looking into CBDCs. In the Asia Pacific region, progress has been especially swift.

South Korea’s central bank has initiated a pilot programme that will run through the end of 2021, while this month the Monetary Authority of Singapore tested the international settlement capabilities of its digital currency.

Four major Chinese cities are participating in a CBDC pilot programme. As the breadth of interest in this new technology shows, CBDCs are a very big deal.

While CBDCs do not necessarily need to exist on a blockchain, there are countless advantages in doing so. For example, the decentralised nature of blockchain increases the security of the network, making CBDCs less susceptible to cyber attacks.

Climate-conscious innovation

However, blockchains (specifically “Proof-of-Work” blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum) have come under heavy scrutiny for their impact on the planet, largely as a result of the energy requirements necessary to run.

Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies are “mined” by computer rigs seeking to meet the requirements of this “Proof-of-Work” algorithm.

Although bitcoin mining takes place in long lines of server racks, rather than in pits sunk deep into the earth, mining a bitcoin can be just as environmentally destructive as mining gold or coal. In 2019, bitcoin mining used up as much energy as the Netherlands.

That’s why it’s vital that any CDBC implementation avoid the catastrophic environmental damage that many cryptocurrencies inflict.

Assessing the energy-efficiency of a blockchain’s design is absolutely critical when it comes to deploying CBDCs as it would have a long term impact on the planet. Central banks must be cognizant of the fact that not all blockchains are built the same, and operate on different levels of efficiency.

Proof-of-stake blockchains like Tezos for example, require significantly less energy to run and are therefore the more environmentally-friendly choice.

Seamless and painless

Proponents of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin allege that they’ve discovered the future of money, but anyone trying to operate in crypto quickly runs into problems, including slow transaction processing, extreme volatility, and illiquidity.

It is rare to pay for a good or service with cryptocurrency; in almost all cases, you must first convert your digital holdings into a traditional currency. And that’s getting harder every day.

Also Read: What does the future of CBDCs actually look like and why does it matter?

By contrast, the experience of using a CBDC will be seamless for the end-user, hardly different from using one of today’s card- or phone-based payment services. That’s because we’re already transacting in central bank currencies; a digital central bank currency introduces new efficiencies to transactions, but the money is backed by the same institution that issued the physical bills that once filled your wallet.

Safer societies

Central banks serve an essential role in safeguarding their countries’ economies, but their decision-makers need more and better data for a twenty-first-century world that is ever more connected and ever more complicated. Because CBDCs can be tracked, bank analysts will have better sense of economic trends.

They’ll find themselves better-placed to stimulate growth with new policies, and they’ll receive early alerts about which segments of a market may be overheating. Major decisions such as interest rate adjustments will be more obviously justified; the monetary system will grow more trustworthy.

Central bank digital currencies also make the anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer (AML/KYC) process easier, potentially leading to a global reduction in fraud and financial malfeasance.

Because CBDCs would operate more quickly than traditional fiat exchanges, countries would have a powerful tool for quickly stopping the spread of financial contagion.

Finally, CBDCs deepen countries’ liquidity pools, thereby allowing higher economic activity for the growth and benefit of participating societies.

Privacy drawbacks?

Tracking currency has obvious benefits, but it would appear to have privacy downsides as well. When the European Central Bank surveyed potential users about a digital euro, privacy was the most common concern raised.  Is it really the case that a CBDC will erode privacy?

The first point to consider is that older forms of physical currency are surprisingly traceable. While it’s common to say that cash payments are “untraceable,” a physical note invariably has a serial number on it.

Second, as Bank of England fintech director Tom Mutton testified and Finextra reported, “the bank has no commercial incentive to gather user data; choices can be made within a system to protect data; and technologies, such as zero-knowledge proofs and digital identity frameworks, could enhance transparency while still increasing security and privacy.”

In short, CBDCs are transparent enough to deter financial crime while being sufficiently opaque to preserve user privacy.

Central bank digital currencies’ day may not have come quite yet, but it’s clear that the 2020s will be their decade. As I write this, several APAC countries, including Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, and China, are among the world’s leaders in developing, testing, and implementing digital currencies.

That willingness to innovate, experiment, and think big will pay substantial dividends down the line. If the implementation of CBDCs continues, the people of the Asia-Pacific region will have a brighter financial future.

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As businesses navigate their way through the COVID-19 pandemic, many of them have had to make difficult decisions, including deferring international expansion plans.

A study from Enterprise Singapore (ESG) in February found that local businesses going overseas fell by as much as 38 per cent to 1,600 due to pandemic related travel restrictions.

This has some very real and serious implications. Because, for some startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore, the case for expanding overseas could not be stronger.

From attracting new customers to opening up entirely new revenue streams, cross-border expansion presents immense benefits and backtracking could compromise growth in an economic recovery.

Technology as an enabler of international expansion

We already know that SMEs that digitalised in 2020 earned more and have a better outlook for the future. According to the UOB SME Outlook 2021 Study, two in five SMEs that implemented digitalisation initiatives in 2020 had stronger revenue growth than non-adopters, with those that digitalised their entire business or multiple areas outperforming those who digitalised only one.

Tapping on digital technologies and tools is important for businesses seeking to expand into new markets during this time. The borderless nature of technology enables these SMEs to grow their brand and reach new customers without the need for a physical presence.

With consumer behaviour shifting online, SMEs can leverage this increased digital footprint by moving online without the hassle of having to register a local company, hiring a local team and other tasks that are capital-heavy and time-consuming.

Also Read: Why customer education plays an important role in Wise’s international expansion plan

Complementary partnerships with startups

Pushing forward with expansion plans at this time should be a serious consideration for long-term growth. Fortunately, SMEs don’t have to go at it alone —exploring collaborations with startups in the markets they’re seeking to enter is one great way to kickstart their expansion plans.

There are many programmes and government initiatives such as the IMDA Grow Digital programme that help SMEs connect with potential clients, suppliers and logistical support. All these are important connections to establish.

However, in addition to these collaborations, partnering with startups offer the added advantage of greater affordability, negotiation of terms and win-win situations, flexibility and adaptability, newer technologies, and efficient access to market and implementation.

It is worth noting that SMEs and startups are different, from the way they are funded to their business goals.

At The FinLab, an innovation accelerator by UOB, we believe that building a strong understanding of local markets through networking with such startups is crucial for cross-border collaborative opportunities within the Southeast Asia region.

By tapping on a solid regional network of businesses, The FinLab has played matchmaker since 2018 and facilitated over 550 matches between tech startups and SMEs through digitalisation efforts across Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, to date.

Finding the right and suitable partner is a vital and delicate process. Start by looking at how each business can fill gaps and bring value to one another.

Startups, by nature, are more agile and efficient and can bring a fresh viewpoint that spurs innovation for SMEs. In turn, startups can tap on the established network and market expertise that SMEs bring to the partnership.

Here are some best practices businesses can follow to ensure successful partnership outcomes:

Set up for success with open lines of communication

Collaboration with overseas partners can take many forms and while there is no perfect formula for a successful alliance, the best success stories are always rooted in both parties having a mutual understanding of one another’s roles, concerns and expectations.

Lack of trust, mutual interest, and an imbalance of power are only some of the key barriers to collaboration. According to innovation leader Nesta, a mismatch in speed, coordination and cultural issues are less apparent struggles but contribute no less to failed organisational partnerships which subsequently leads to a failed expansion.

Also Read: Is it the right time to expand your business?

To overcome these challenges, start by establishing clear and open lines of communication which can streamline overly complex decision-making processes, facilitate the free exchange of ideas and foster an environment open to diverse thinking.

Ultimately, setting clear goals, understanding and meeting differing needs, and defining roles are steps organisational partners need to take to leverage their strengths and compensate for each other’s weaknesses.

Pilot smaller projects

Before getting into a more serious commitment, it is a good idea for partners to “test the waters” by piloting small projects to manage potential risks and to determine compatibility for a longer-term partnership.

Instead of launching several small pilots which would produce limited success, apply the “Goldilocks Principle” to find the sweet spot – a project small enough to mitigate risks, but substantial enough to deliver real results to make a case for full-scale rollouts.

Success stories aren’t a coincidence, but rather the result of strong collaborations done right. Building opportunities together can be hugely rewarding for both businesses financially as well because it provides opportunities to learn new ways of working.

Regional or even international expansions will become increasingly crucial to an SME success.

However, while the internationalisation process is essential for company survival and growth, business leaders cannot expect quick rewards. Patience is key and thankfully, there are many resources that SMEs can turn to for success.

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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

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(This article has been updated with the full list of investors, HappyFresh’s fund deployment plans, and quotes from the CEO)

HappyFresh, an Indonesian grocery delivery startup backed by Grab Ventures, has secured US$65 million in a Series D funding round, co-led by Naver Financial Corporation and Dutch investor Gafina.

STIC, LB, and Mirae Asset Indonesia and Singapore, besides existing investors such as Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund and Z Venture Capital also participated, the company said in a statement.

CEO Guillem Segarra said HappyFresh will use the funds to enhance its existing operating model together with the partnerships it already has with supermarket retailers across the region.

“This will unlock additional operational efficiency, higher service levels, and quality controls to improve customer experience further. We want our customers to get all the groceries they need at the freshest condition and at an even faster speed, ensuring an effortless online grocery shopping experience,” Segarra added.

HappyFresh will also use a part of the capital injection to put in place plans to improve service offerings, such as more payment methods, better user experience, and assortment, bringing HappyFresh’s service to more families in each country across the region.

Early this month, The Korea Economic Daily reported that HappyFresh was raising US$33 million from existing investors, including Naver, its subsidiary LINE Ventures, and Mirae Asset, as part of its US$65-million target. These investors had earlier injected US$20 million into HappyFresh as part of the Series C round in 2019.

Also Read: Naver, Sea, Vertex invest in Vietnamese VC firm Do Ventures US$50M fund I

Launched in 2015, Jakarta-headquartered HappyFresh delivers fresh, high-quality groceries to thousands of customers in Southeast Asia’s major cities. The firm claims it has been experiencing “unprecedented growth” over the past 18 months.

“We have been on a mission for the past six years to provide freshly handpicked groceries of the highest quality to our customers. Especially over the past years, all our efforts have been put into being there for all the families that have trusted us to bring your groceries to your doorstep safely,”

HappyFresh has moved further towards achieving long-term profitability in a time when it’s proven challenging to sustain a business. In 2020, traffic claims to have grown by 10-20x across the three countries it operates in. “We see a big shift in customers’ behaviour; retention and frequency rates have significantly increased while the overall basket size has been consistently growing. We attribute this to a major shift in the share of wallets from offline to online, which is here to stay,” Segarra added.

Prior to the latest round, HappyFresh has raised three rounds of investments — from Grab Ventures in September 2018, a Series B round led by Dubai-based PE firm Samena Capital in January 2017, and US$12 million in Series A before that.

In January last year, HappyFresh partnered with messaging platform LINE to launch LINEMAN, which provides users with a grocery delivery service on its messaging platform in Thailand.

Southeast Asia’s online economy has hit an inflection point, powered by rapid adoption and fundamental shifts in consumer behaviour. With a corresponding retail market size of US$350 billion, the grocery retail segment in Southeast Asia presents a sizeable and growing market opportunity for HappyFresh.

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Image Credit: HappyFresh

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