Ransomware attacks are on the rise worldwide, with the Asia-Pacific region alone experiencing a 168 per cent increase in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to Check Point Research.

Not only are ransomware attacks becoming more common, but they are targeting organisations across all sectors and sizes, especially Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and startups.

With the average ransom demand now reaching up to US$180,000, hackers are always on the lookout for digital “open doors” into company systems. As such, it is crucial for organisations of all sizes to be aware of the cyber risks they face and build resilience.

The anatomy of a ransomware attack

Much like criminals in the physical world, cybercriminals are most effective when three key elements merge together: Motivation, resources, and opportunity.

The motivation behind ransomware attacks is primarily economic, as companies are often willing to pay millions of dollars to the attackers in order to have their files unlocked, systems restored, and business operations resumed smoothly.

As cybercriminals continuously upgrade their malware and their strategies become increasingly sophisticated, attackers are developing resources to conduct cyber-attacks of enormous magnitude and impact.

The WFH policy introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic has also exposed organisational cyber vulnerabilities, given that employees often use personal devices connected to home or shared networks which are far less secure than organisational ones.

Combined with bad cyber hygiene and a lack of general awareness of cyber best practices, organisations are at risk of a cyber breach now more than ever.

A matter of seconds

Last year, the number of ransomware reports Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA) received almost doubled. The increase can be linked to the emergence of ‘Ransomware-as-a-Service’ (RaaS), a business model which leases ransomware variants to their clients in exchange for a percentage of the ransom paid by the victim.

This way, people with little to no technical knowledge are able to launch sophisticated ransomware attacks on organisations.

Once it has penetrated a system, ransomware acts rapidly and can encrypt important files on every single device on the network. This can happen within hours, minutes, or even seconds, depending on the number of targets in the attack and whether the attacker has spent time silently monitoring and exfiltrating data prior to encryption.

Most importantly, time is of the essence. A few seconds can make the difference between securing valuable information or bearing the risk of losing data while having to pay out a much bigger ransom.

The length of time a cyber attacker has free reign in an environment from the time they get in until they are eradicated– is known as its dwell time.

Also read: The WannaCry ransomware attack is wreaking havoc across the world, here are 14 steps to protect your company

The longer attackers have access to a network, the more opportunities they have to collect vital data and cause disruptions across the company’s digital systems.

On a global level, the average cyber dwell time in 2020 was 56 days. However, Asian companies are performing much worse than their US and EU counterparts when dealing with cyber-attacks.

In Hong Kong and Singapore attackers are often able to operate undetected for much longer, with most cyber-attacks dwelling in systems between 90 and 180 days respectively, while others have lasted years.

Reducing dwell time through compromise assessments

With some of the highest dwell times worldwide, Asian companies can and should take steps to improve their proactive defence and address cyber threats on the front foot.

Organisations can start by keeping systems and patches up to date to ensure the attacker has fewer opportunities to leverage vulnerabilities in your computing environment. To augment this, deploying Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) products and employing a professional incident response and digital response firm to conduct frequent and recurring Compromise Assessments ensures early detection of a cyber-attack and increases the chances of disruption.

A Compromise Assessment, or “CA”, answers the fundamental question: “have I already been breached?”, and can provide a measure of comfort for companies in knowing that they have a high degree of certainty of their safe status. SMEs should minimally conduct a CA once a quarter.

The CA provides a two-fold benefit. On the one hand, it  can detect the early stages of an attack by hackers who enter a network through a phishing link, circumventing the cyber defences in place since an employee was tricked into letting them in. These hackers are using the combined power of human intuition and qualitative thinking alongside the quantitative horsepower of computing.

As a result, deploying a digital solution alone is woefully inadequate against the combination of this human-computer one-two punch as it is logically only half of what the adversary is leveraging. In light of this, CAs deploy high-level cybersecurity specialists with various technological solutions and approaches to eliminate the unfair advantage enjoyed by hackers.

On the other hand, a CA can also catch active intrusions that various anti-virus and EDR solutions are unable to detect. If that is the case, the specialists transition immediately to quarantining, killing, and remediating the situation, logically resulting in less financial damage than discovering the attack once it is fully executed by the criminals.

Thus, one can easily see the importance of a recurring CA to disrupt attackers in this situation as it is akin to having security guards patrol the building on the hour versus purely relying on CCTV to detect everything on its own.

Finally, having a clear incident response plan, including a good cyber insurance policy which offers expert digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) services and management support in the event of a cyber-attack, enables teams to react in a controlled and proven manner, saving precious time and resources following an attack.

Ransomware: Everyone is at risk

The biggest misconception that exposes SMEs to cyber-attacks is the sense of “security through obscurity”.  Startups and SMEs tend to believe that they will never be targeted by cyber-attacks because they are not important enough.

This concept is no longer valid, as hackers are now looking to target the most vulnerable companies rather than the biggest ones.

Paired with the advent of RaaS numerous low-skilled “hackers” are now probing and attempting to deploy downloaded ransomware scripts to any company with an open port that they scan, which are often SMEs who have little to no investment in their cybersecurity.

This means that today 43 per cent of all cyber-attacks are against SMEs which lack structural preparedness and organisational cyber security awareness, but also the financial resilience needed to survive an attack.

Therefore, preparation is key to survival via proactive defensive measures CAs, as well as securing the human element via the education of employees on cyber best practices while ensuring that all systems are appropriately patched and protected.

Additionally, having a well-rehearsed incident response plan and playbook allows for immediate response in the event of a breach, which is most cost-efficiently handled via a comprehensive cyber insurance policy.

In the ever-changing world of ransomware attacks and cyber threats, startups and SMEs should not brush off investing in their cyber defenses simply because they are smaller or less visible in the same way that they would never leave their office unlocked, unsecured, and unchecked.

Proactively defend vital systems, diligently patch company software tools, and have a plan in place in the virtually inevitable event of a breach.

These methods will help organisations put their best foot forward when addressing cyber threats.

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It is common knowledge that investment is part of the startup building process. There are many avenues for startups to raise funds, such as old-school methods (angels, VC, and corporate VC rounds), crowdfunding, and initial exchange offerings (IEOs). But convincing investors and raising money is a tedious process. Worse, maintaining and balancing relations with different investors is even more challenging.

Like many of its peers, Sky Mavis, a Vietnam- and Singapore-headquartered startup, also went through different financing rounds to raise US$9 million. These developments hit the headlines for Sky Mavis’s association with some globally renowned VCs, individuals and corporates. They included Libertus Capital, 500 Startups, CoinGecko Ventures, Animoca Brands, and billionaire Mark Cuban.

Sky Mavis, which develops a blockchain-based game Axie Infinity, drew more attention when its crypto token AXS reached a market cap of US$2.4 billion in late July. And the company has since been making headlines.

Also read: Vietnam’s Sky Mavis receives US$7.5M Series A to grow its blockchain game Axie Infinity

Correlation between the company and its token

At US$69.91 per token at the time of writing this article, AXS is ranked 34th among the 6,073 coins listed on CoinMarketCap and has a market cap of US$4.2 billion. Remember, the price was just around US$3-4 a month ago.

AXS price mooned in the past month. Image credit: CoinMarketCap

Launched on the Ethereum blockchain, the AXS (short for Axie Infinity Shards) is the native play-to-earn governance crypto of the Axie Infinity ecosystem. It means that AXS holders will have a say in forming Axie’s decentralised organisation and can help define its development trajectory.

For the uninitiated, Axie Infinity is like a combination of Pokemon, Cryptokitties, and Decentraland (where you can buy virtual land). Players battle, collect and breed Axies (the name of the cute little in-game pets). Each Axie is a non-fungible token (NFT) that is traded throughout the ever-expanding Axie ecosystem.

Sky Mavis announced on August 17 that it reached 800,000 daily active users in July, and it soon hit the one million mark. The rise of AXS can be attributed to its unique economical design and game design, besides the crypto market’s FOMO (fear of missing out) nature.

AXS token holders can participate in key governance votes and decide how the Axie Community Treasury funds are allocated. They could also soon stake their tokens to receive rewards from the treasury, but only by voting and playing.

“This is a good way to align ecosystem’s long-term development goals and ecosystem players’ motivations,” Trung Nguyen, CEO and co-founder of Sky Mavis, told e27. “The more people utilise the token, the more utility the token has.”

These exciting models and good-looking numbers captivate the best VCs in the world to take a look at Sky Mavis.

Now that people are talking about AXS’s fully diluted valuation of around US$11 billion, but can it be considered the company’s valuation?

“It probably affects our valuation when dealing with other equity investors as AXS tokens are a part of the company’s asset,” said Nguyen. “However, it should not be comparable with Sky Mavis’s valuation because a large part of the token supply is still locked.”

Based on the current release schedule, AXS tokens will only be circulating fully by early 2026.

The upside is, Nguyen pointed out, there is a long and bright future ahead of Sky Mavis, which may catapult it even more within the VCs community. 

However, as the crypto market is driven by price fluctuations, much more volatile than the traditional capital market, a sudden plunge in price would worsen the company’s fundraising plan.

“But the risk is a nature of the investment, isn’t it?” he asked.

Nguyen added that while Sky Mavis is a company that might develop several projects, AXS is the governance token of only one project Axie Infinity. Thus, it indicates the discrepancy between the two groups of investors — one that invests in the company and the other in token sales.

When the mixed investor relations come into play

Let’s dive into the origin of the AXS token. After its launching in 2018, Axie Infinity conducted the sale of AXS tokens on Binance in 2020 and raised a total of US$2.97 million. This fundraising method is called IEO.

In IEO, cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance Launchpad will raise funds for project owners or token issuers. They oversee the token sales of blockchain projects, which go through a comprehensive due diligence process that may take as long as six months. ‍In return, the exchanges receive a listing fee and sometimes a percentage of the token sale.

In IEOs, information such as the company’s white paper, founders’ background, token design, and crowdfunding motivations are thoroughly examined before commencing a public sale.

“At Binance Launchpad, one of our core differentiators as a platform is the rigour and depth of our diligence process,” said Lynn Hoang, country director of Binance in Vietnam. “We may do multiple projects in a month, or we may wait a month if we determine we have not found the right project fit.”

The goal of the exchange is to support the ecosystem by offering access to users and assist promising blockchain-based project teams in driving adoption and awareness. Until now, 48 projects have been launched on Binance Launchpad with a total of funds raised of more than US$90 million from over 8 million unique participants.

Also Read: Initial Exchange Offerings are a thing. Here is your catch-up

“Crypto exchanges will have to do their best to safeguard their reputation. A successful listing means that the project is well developed and the exchange gains credibility in the community,” Nguyen explained.” In addition, this fundraising route has gained ground among retail investors as it reduces the risk of scams compared to ICOs [Initial Coin Offerings].”

Given Sky Mavis already had several investors in 2019 and later in 2021, how is it dealing with the stream of retail investors of AXS token?

“When you have new investors, there are new obligations, communications and relationships that you have to manage,” said Youngro Lee, COO at Republic. “That’s part of the journey. They learned very quickly that there’s never free money.” 

Republic is a US-based platform that offers both crowdfunding and token pre-sale instruments for early-stage startups. 

The complexity in the case of Sky Mavis and AXS can be stated as below. Suppose many people invest in the token, but the company’s focus is serving its VC backers’ intention rather than committing to the NFT project. In that case, this will immensely hurt the token investor community. The reverse could also happen.

“How to ensure the benefits for both groups of investors?” Nguyen said. “Our straightforward solution is not to reward our team members upfront.”

Sky Mavis still rewards a small part to members, but most of the amount set aside for the team (21 per cent of the total token supply) belongs to the company. “We have to earn board’s approval before making any fund allocations,” Nguyen said. “And it is subject to a certain lockup period even when the approval has been made.”

The company’s members see the lockup as a motivation to develop the project’s ecosystem, affecting the locked-up token value. Meanwhile, equity investors will be assured that founders will need to grow since the company still holds the token asset. 

This way, investors of both the company and the project will immediately align their incentives.

A similar story in crowdfunding 

This way of dealing with a large number of individual investors resonates with the story of US-based Gumroad. The firm took the crowdfunding route after raising a total of US$8.1 million+ through a group of VCs and angels. However, Gumroad, founded in 2011 in San Francisco with a service for creators to sell their work, failed to secure its Series B in 2015 as there was no interest from VC.

“We failed to raise and had to lay off almost everyone,” Sahil Lavingia, Gumroad’s founder and CEO told Crunchbase.

But after becoming profitable through the revitalisation period, till April 7, 2021, Gumroad used platforms such as WeFunder, StartEngine, SeedInvest, and Republic, to successfully close the remaining US$5 million equity crowdfunding from 7,331 ordinary people, who wanted to invest between US$100 and US$1,000 at the same US$100-million valuation. In addition, part-time Gumroad creators, Lavingia’s Twitter followers, YouTubers, Figma founder Dylan Field, and VC firm partners also co-invested.

This follows a new US regulation, announced on March 15, which enables companies to raise more money via equity crowdfunding, up to US$5 million via Reg CF and US$75 million via Reg A+ in 12 months. “I think it’s more accurate to say that this is our limited version of an ‘IPO,’” Lavingia noted in a blog post.

In the context of crowdfunding or equity crowdfunding, companies are often dealing with a large number of investors, which is very similar to a publicly-traded company. Lavingia even moved it further when he claimed to have already published the company’s financials.

“From that perspective, companies need an online presence and digital communication, whether it’s emails or social media,” Youngro Lee told e27. “Successful companies that are good at investor relations are those that are also very comfortable doing and utilising these kinds of online-based digital distribution channels.”

Gumroad is also open about its decision-making through a “2021 Open Board Meeting” published on the CEO’s Youtube channel. But the CEO realised that having thousands of investors can put external pressure on decision-makers in issues like moderation, de-platforming, and price.

“These are all very different considerations that companies should consider because this is a public process. You can’t have it both ways,” said Lee. “If you’re interested in leveraging the internet, raising capital from a large group of people theoretically could make it a little easier for you to raise capital.”

But if a startup is driven by “super-secretive ideas, trade secrets or intellectual properties,” crowdfunding might not be the right solution.

How do Gumroad and Sky Mavis manage their public presence and relations with both retail investors and VCs? It lies in the fact that their innate business models leverage the “community” concept, in which transparency is vital.

“It depends on the circumstances of the actual company, and what they’re trying to achieve and what kind of investors are looking for,” Lee added. “This will dictate the strategy that they use in terms of what, what specific crowdfunding or other fundraising mechanisms.”

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Image Credit: Gumroad, Sky Mavis, e27

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Pandemic-driven lockdowns have increased global reliance on and demand for digital financial services such as digital payments and remittance– especially within Southeast Asia.

Boosted by accelerated digital adoption and rising consumer dissatisfaction with traditional bank offerings, not only is the growing digital banking industry expected to generate up to US$60 billion by 2025, but the influence of traditional banks is waning as a result and 18 per cent are projected to shut by 2030.

Many digital banks in the region were created to cater for the sizeable unbanked and underbanked population in Southeast Asia, which is one of the world’s largest.

Their success, as well as the latent opportunity of a previously untapped market, has led to wider acceptance among regional financial regulators and could herald a major democratisation of financial services – as well as driving financial inclusion in SEA.

Staying in the game

Digital banks must survive to be disruptors and drive change. As the incumbent, traditional banks have the advantage of brand trust and recognition, making it hard for digital banks to compete as a newer player.

Some digital banks in other regions have been unsuccessful due to poor funding strategies, focusing on the wrong demographic or failing to inspire customer trust and loyalty, so Southeast Asian digital banks, specifically in the emerging markets like Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines, must avoid repeating these mistakes.

As digital natives, digital banks can leverage technology to lower the cost of funding and provide a better customer experience. For instance, using AI for customer service reduces labour dependency, turnaround times and customer waiting times, resulting in better efficiency and higher customer satisfaction.

Digital banks who have successfully leveraged technology have reported saving 20 to 30 per cent more on their per-account operation costs compared to traditional banks.

Digital banks also need to capture and grow overlooked market segments– such as the underbanked. By adopting a customer-centric vision, they can understand the specialised needs of this demographic and provide a unique value proposition that meets those needs.

This will go a long way towards increasing customer trust and stickiness, thereby helping digital banks build their customer base, scale across the region and further drive financial inclusion in SEA.

Diversifying and personalising lending and financial products

Despite significant inefficiencies in traditional lending systems, resulting in millions of creditworthy individuals being underserved or overpaying for loans, digital banks in other regions have not adequately filled the gap with innovative lending products.

Considering the digital lending industry is projected to be worth US$110 billion by 2025, this is a missed opportunity that Southeast Asian digital banks would do well to capitalise on.

The ‘old wine in new casks’ approach will not be sufficient here: digital banks must innovate to offer novel lending products and experiences to really differentiate themselves from traditional banks.

Also read: 3 ways fintech innovations are enhancing financial inclusion

With data and technology, they can help the unbanked open accounts with no minimum deposits, offer alternative credit scoring assessments for the underserved to qualify for loans, grant loans in five seconds or waive processing or early settlement fees for a higher borrowing limit – all uncommon features among less agile traditional banks.

Digital banks also need not limit themselves to traditional financial products. Southeast Asia’s heterogenous makeup and sizeable population also mean that there are markets for a diverse range of lending products, many of which remain underserved.

Some digital banks in the region have achieved success by innovating new lending products to capitalise on these gaps, such as creating specialised Islamic products and women-focused banking solutions. If digital banks continue to differentiate themselves with more financial innovation, this ensures that more financial needs are being met over a wider demographic distribution by default.

Expanding reach via consortia-driven ecosystems

Digital banks in other geographical regions often operate in vertical structures, which limit their ability to scale and has sometimes led to their downfall.

In contrast, many digital banks in Asia are consortium-driven, which is where partnerships are formed with established companies and associations to provide a myriad of services to customers across super apps or similar platforms. This allows digital banks to reach a far wider pool of customers and makes it easier to onboard them.

Being part of a consortium gives digital banks greater access to more business and consumer data ecosystems. With data-driven technology and analytics, they can be more responsive to changing consumer needs and wants by creating better customer-centric experiences and products that leverage on the strengths of all ecosystem members.

Some consortiums embed digital banking as part of a wider portfolio of everyday services on a single platform, which simplifies and improves financial accessibility – a boon for the underbanked and underserved.

Leading the way for financial inclusion in SEA

The first step to addressing the economic divide within the population is to ensure that everyone has the same access to and understanding of important financial services.

Digital banks play an important role in narrowing the gap by lowering the barriers for the underbanked and the underserved to participate in the financial ecosystem – as long as they can stay abreast of the unique needs of this market and innovate accordingly.

Ultimately, digital banks pave the way for a much-needed shakeup of the financial system and the time is right for them to capitalise on the supportive regulatory climate to improve financial service access.

In this modern age, no one should be deprived of financial services and healthy competition through innovation can only be a net positive for Southeast Asia’s overall socioeconomic growth – not to mention improving lives all around.

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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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Indonesia’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) insurance marketplace Lifepal announced today that it has secured an oversubscribed US$9 million Series A funding round.

ProBatus Capital led the round, which also saw participation from Cathay Innovation, Insignia Ventures Partners, ATM Capital and Hustle Fund.

This round takes Lifepal’s total fundraising since inception in 2019 to US$12 million.

Lifepal, which claims to have over four million visitors per month, said in a press note that it will use the fresh funding to improve its product and customer experience.

The company was started by former Lazada executives Giacomo Ficari, Nicolo Robba, and tech professionals Benny Fajarai and Reza Muhammad, with the vision of making financial protection accessible to everyone.

Serving the growing demands of Indonesia’s 270 million population in transparency, convenience, and access to a large selection of products, Lifepal acts as a one-stop platform offering over 300 policies across health, life, automotive, property, and travel.

The firm incorporates both educational content and an online marketplace that enables customers to select the right solutions from the comfort of their homes. Plus, its contact centre model provides live agents to address consumers’ potential questions and aid in payments and claims processing.

“We believe this three-pronged approach, tailored specifically to the needs of the Indonesian market, is driving the impressive growth that Lifepal has demonstrated since its launch last year,” said Ramneek Gupta, founder and managing partner of ProBatus Capital.

Also read: Insurance industry is poised for its “PayPal” in Asia

On top of these building blocks, Lifepal employs data from its financial content and community platform to offer accurate recommendations to consumers by matching them with the right product and customer support representative. This supports Lifepal’s relationship with its customers across the long customer-lifetime-value typical of the insurance industry with claim support, renewals, and cross-selling.

The insurtech firm has formed partnerships with more than 50 insurance agents which include some of the region’s largest players. It also claims to achieve 12x y-o-y expansion and growing 20 per cent m-o-m.

“During the pandemic, we experienced a strong increase in demand due to heightened awareness of health risks combined with the availability of our online platform during a time when in-person visits were avoided by most people,” said CEO Ficari. “We have entered the market at an exciting time: consumer behaviours are shifting online and we have the rare opportunity to continue to scale our traffic & branding to become the dominant online destination for consumers for the years to come.”

The growing middle-class and the rapid adoption of digital services has further Indonesia as one of the fastest-growing insurance markets globally. The market value is expected to reach US$58 billion by 2025, according to Munich Re Economic Research.

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Image credit: Lifepal

 

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Malaysian on-demand adtech company Rodeo raises US$270K in funding

How: The money was raised from 85 investors, including Fidelity Funding, VJ Anand (ex-SVP Gojek), Nitesh Malani (chairman Yayasan Usahawan Malaysia), Simpson Wong (MD – XES), Akash Gupta (CEO – Zypp India), Shoant Tan (CEO – TanTanNews and Dipankar Mitra (CEO of Simbiotik Tech).

The money was raised via the equity crowdfunding platform pitchIN.

Also Read: Ex-Lazada execs’ Indonesia-focused D2C insurance startup in Lifepal receives US$9M Series A

Plans: “With the funds, we are able to put efforts towards building and extending more revenue streams rather than sticking to just profit from the usual few media that we use. One of our key strategies that have been put in place will be reaching out to more customers via our Rodeo Home Elevators,” said CEO Valens Subramaniam.

More on Rodeo: An adtech company specialised in transit media and digitalization. It provides an advertising platform using various vehicles such as car, trucks, motorcycles and even bicycles. It connects advertisers to target clients with relevant, interactive, engaging and contextual advertisements. It also provides data and analytics for every campaign that allows advertisers to monitor their campaign’s performance.

Australia’s SEEK invests in JobKorea

The story: SEEK Limited, the Australian listed tech company that owns two leading online employment marketplaces JobStreet and JobsDB in Southeast Asia, today announced a US$48M investment in JobKorea, Korea’s largest online employment platform.

SEEK will own a 10 per cent stake, and Peter Bithos, CEO of SEEK Asia, will join JobKorea’s Board.

Plans: This investment will provide an opportunity for SEEK to add value to JobKorea’s market-leading position, while SEEK focuses on its operations, fast-tracking its ongoing transformation and growth of its existing Asia businesses. SEEK’s digital teams continue to make major inroads in building products and solutions driven by AI and market data, which combined with SEEK’s deep local insights and resources in each location, differentiate it from other international players.

For JobKorea, this partnership will provide an opportunity to leverage SEEK’s experienced management team and their significant expertise in operating global online employment and human capital management platforms.

ZILHive Accelerator unveils new cohort of 8 startups

The story: Zilliqa, a Singapore-based blockchain platform, has announced its 2021-2022 cohort of ZILHive Accelerator projects. Six of the eight startups accepted into the Accelerator this year were advanced from an earlier Incubator programme which began in March. The inaugural 14-week ZILHive Incubator matched technical and non-technical participants into teams that could design and build innovative solutions on the Zilliqa blockchain protocol.

Also Read: VCs, IEOs, and crowdfunding: How the likes of Sky Mavis manage good relationship with each investor

What is ZILHive Accelerator: A six-month programme focused on launching blockchain-enabled projects from concept to commercialisation. The programme is part of ZILHive’s end-to-end ecosystem designed to foster innovative blockchain applications throughout various stages of maturity. Startups in the accelerator will be able to apply for additional funding under ZILHive Grants, aimed at supporting specific pre-launch needs such as regulatory compliance or technical integration with third-party apps.

The eight startups are

Access: Looks to combat ticketing fraud and prevent ticket scalping by issuing tickets as non-fungible tokens

Cerchia: Building blockchain-based tools to help catastrophe bond issuers, re-insurers, and investors better predict and price the risks of natural hazards through crowdsourcing

Green Beanz: A project that aims to incentivise consumer-facing companies and NGOs to improve the transparency and accuracy of their corporate social responsibility and sustainable development goals reporting

HeyAlfie: A smart dashboard for users to manage, invest and borrow digital assets through a single interface, by connecting multiple types of wallets (custodial, non-custodial, and even exchange accounts)

Invopay: An invoice financing platform designed to help small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) better manage their cash flow with low-interest loans secured on the blockchain

MustPool: A gamified no-loss prize protocol, where the deposited principle remains safe and the prizes come from the interest earnings, leveraging different staking and lending dApps on Zilliqa

Tyron SSI Protocol: A self-sovereign identity protocol that enables users to manage access to their data securely, while allowing them to provide verified credentials selectively without relying on middlemen or centralized databases

Ultimate Franchise Fantasy Sports: A fantasy sports platform offering digital asset ownership to sports fans through the use of NFTs to represent athletes in the various sports leagues.

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Image Credit: Rodeo

 

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