Fonos, a Vietnamese digital audio content startup, has secured US$1.1 million over two rounds of seed funding, led by Singapore-based AngelCentral Syndicate.

Other investors that participated in the round are HustleFund and iSeed, alongside prominent local angels, including Thai Van Linh (a well-known local investor on the TV show ‘Shark Tank Vietnam’).

The Ho Chi Minh-based startup will use the new funding to expand its content library with products and services such as audiobooks, book summaries, guided meditations and to venture into new types of audio and written content.

Founded in 2020 by Oscar Jesionek and Xuan Nguyen, Fonos gained prominence in the local audiobook space with standardised in-house audio recordings made by professional narrators. 

The firm produces short 10-15-minute book summaries, guided meditation, stories, news, and offline reading options. Its audiobooks are multi-genre, ranging from fiction, classics, economics to startups. Of these, non-fiction books are the most popular. 

Also read: NOICE, a podcast network founded by Indonesia’s minister, nets 7-figure USD funding

“We want to have something great for listeners for all types of situations,” Jesionek explaining his “super app” vision. “We’re listening closely to what our users are telling us and plan to grow our content library accordingly.”

Jelinek told e27 that the current transition to paid audio content is a boon for the media industry in Vietnam because companies like Fonos could reinvest into their products.

“There is a real demand for high-quality content that can be consumed on the go by Vietnamese millennials,” CEO Oscar Jesionek said. “For a long time, people thought that Vietnamese would not pay for digital content. With us as an example, you can see that this is not true.”

Fonos claims it exclusively features hundreds of best-sellers by both international and local authors. It has also formed partnerships with many leading local book publishers such as Tre Publishing House, Alphabooks, Thai Ha Books, Nha Nam, and Dong A. 

Despite the stringent lockdowns and social-distancing measures, Fonos claims it witnessed a 5x growth in monthly revenue since the beginning of the year. Its monthly active userbase also spiked to over 80,000 in August alone.

The audio content market in Southeast Asia has become crowded in recent years. Not only prominent players such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but even startups like Clubhouse, are giving local businesses a run for their money.

“They also have some disadvantages. For example, their lack of local content,” stated Fonos CEO. “If you go on Apple and Spotify, the only type of local content they have is podcasts, and these are not exclusive. So we’re not competing on the same type of content.”

With a population of more than 90 million, coupled with the smartphone penetration rate being in the top 10 globally, Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing markets for digital mobile-first content.

Based on eMarketer 2019 data on digital audio listenership and voice assistant usage, the digital audio listener base exceeds 300 million across countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.

Therefore, beyond Vietnam, Fonos is paying close attention to other markets in Southeast Asia.

“We are keeping a close eye on it, but in the short-term, we’re not actively working on going international right now,” shared Jesionek. “We see a ton of potential here in Vietnam that still gives us so much room to grow.”

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Image credit: Fonos

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Indonesia’s startup ecosystem tends to be described with words such as “emerging”, “nascent”, and “potential”. But are these words still apt for a nation that clinched 70 per cent of total VC funding in Southeast Asia last year?

The question on everyone’s lips is whether 2021 could be the breakout year for Indonesia’s startup economy. What would it take for the narrative to shift from ‘emerging’ to ‘established’ or ‘globally competitive?

A tale of two valleys

The answer lies in looking at another startup ecosystem that has followed a similar trajectory to what we’re now seeing in Jakarta. 

São Paulo in Brazil could provide strong indicators for this pathway and is a strong example to follow –it is currently ranked in the top 20 cities for startups, the highest-ranked city in all of Latin America (LatAm).

It is a sprawling city of 12 million that rivals Jakarta’s 10 million, but the two cities have more in common than just population numbers. Both have a tech-forward population.

Internet penetration in Indonesia stood at 73.7 per cent in January 2021, compared to Brazil’s 75 per cent. Social media users in Indonesia are equivalent to 73.7 per cent of the total population, compared to 70.3 per cent in Brazil. 

Both markets are also seeing strong growth in the middle class, with an associated rise in overall spending power. Brazil’s middle class comprises more than 113 million people, up 40 per cent since 2003.

Indonesia’s middle class now numbers more than 52 million. This is the fastest-growing population segment, rising 10 per cent annually, and now accounts for close to half of national consumption.

Also Read: Everything from soup to nuts: Meet the 27 ghost kitchen startups in Southeast Asia

The ingredients for startup ecosystem maturity

With such foundational similarities in market conditions, the factors that have propelled São Paulo into the world’s top 20 startup cities are of particular relevance to Jakarta, in particular:

• It has become LatAm’s home of innovation and has seen an associated rise of unicorn businesses. Today, São Paulo is home to eight unicorn businesses, compared to Jakarta’s five.
• It has seen strong government commitment to grow the ecosystem in recent years, such as the launch of a new legal framework for startups. There is also InovAtiva Brasil, a public programme considered the largest acceleration program in Latin America and supported startups by connecting them to market and investment opportunities.
• It has built a strong international reputation, rather than just local. It is a regional decision-making hub for 65 per cent of Fortune 500 companies and large global tech companies such as Google, Amazon, and Netflix (as well as Stripe, of course!).

These three indicators  –innovation, public-private collaboration, and internationalism– could be the three things Indonesia needs to measure itself on to gauge its progress in following in the footsteps of São Paulo and achieve the goal of startup haven status.

Innovation: The rise of invention and reinvention in the Indonesian economy

The recent merger of Gojek and Tokopedia to form the GoTo Group demonstrates the emergence of two of Indonesia’s most innovative digital startups onto the global stage.

However, one of the most exciting elements of Indonesia’s ecosystem is the ground-up innovation we are now seeing across the board. Creative and ambitious people are driving ideas and growth. If necessity is the mother of invention, then ambition is the mother of reinvention. 

Traditionally offline industries such as education, retail and health sectors see an injection of innovation from entrepreneurs looking to bring these services online and available across the archipelago.

For instance, Kiddo is re-energising the education sector with a marketplace where parents can book online and offline activities for their children.

Also Read: Capturing the next frontier opportunities in the Indonesian e-commerce landscape

In retail, Utas is a website builder that brings Indonesian companies into the e-commerce space. The company recently struck a partnership with the Ministry of SME and Gojek.

And in health services, startup Riliv offers online counselling and mental wellness services. Powered by Stripe, the Surabaya-based startup has seen an 85 per cent increase in demand for online counselling and subscriptions since the COVID-19 pandemic began and acquired 230,000 users.

The timing of these success stories isn’t coincidental– in the past, any of these startups would have trouble converting their great idea into a revenue-generating business online. Now, the infrastructure is becoming available across the nation to democratize opportunities for budding entrepreneurs.

Government impetus

Alongside this ground-up innovation, the public-private collaboration also has an increasingly influential role in pushing its startup economy forward.

From Kemkominfo’s Aptika Directorate-General for Digital Innovation Hub programme to Bank Indonesia’s Sandbox 2.0, the government is putting the growth of the startup economy very high on the agenda.

These initiatives put a strong emphasis on ensuring all elements of the innovation economy in Indonesia – government, VCs, corporates and startups –are working together effectively.

Stripe is also partnering with several venture capitalists and accelerators like Alpha JWC, AC Ventures and SMDV to support startup growth, from on-the-ground community learning sessions to free processing credits to early access beta programmes. 

This private-public collaboration in Indonesia is key to fostering a conducive environment for startups to flourish, not just through policies and initiatives but also through real-world learning. 

The crucial next step: Internationalism

So while Indonesia is making strong strides in innovation capability and public-private collaboration, perhaps the biggest gap that needs to be overcome in the coming years is building a stronger international reputation and a more international mindset. 

While Indonesia’s domestic market is strong, the startup economy cannot hit full maturity until it begins to see a more regular pipeline of Indonesian startups expanding beyond national borders and attracting more outside investment from the rest of the world.  

With the scale of the domestic market, it is unsurprisingly that the vast majority of new startups in Indonesia are not born with global ambitions. While this works for the short-term – considering the scale and untapped potential internally – to realize their full potential, Indonesian startups must eventually look outwards.

Also Read: The 27 Indonesian startups that have taken the ecosystem to next level this year

As barriers to growing a global business online are gradually removed, there is a massive regional and global opportunity on offer for Indonesia’s most ambitious entrepreneurs. 

The newly merged GoTo Group is a fantastic example of this. Both Gojek and Tokopedia utilised the local environment they grew up in to create products –and now an entire digital services company– designed to meet the needs of an international audience.  

The role of GoTo Group and other Jakarta-based unicorns such as Bukalapak and Traveloka serve to inspire local entrepreneurs that they can now convert their great ideas into global businesses and raise the profile of Jakarta’s scene to international observers. The more examples we see like this, the more Indonesia’s reputation on the international stage will grow.

With the pace of development and innovation over the past year alone, it feels like Indonesia’s startup economy is on the verge of something inspiring. With this continued momentum and a stronger international focus, it may not be long before São Paulo, and another top 20 global startup cities begin looking over their shoulders.

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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.

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Image Credit: ximagination

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Singapore-based Borneo, which provides a real-time data security and privacy observability platform, has raised US$15.5 million in a Series A investment round led by Vulcan Capital.

Vulcan was also joined by Prosus Ventures, Lytical Ventures, and existing investor Wavemaker Partners.

This round brings Borneo’s total funding raised to date to US$18 million.

The company will use this fresh capital to continue investing in its technology platform and meet growing customer demand. As per a press statement, Borneo is already working at a cloud-scale at some of the fastest-growing technology companies and is seeing overwhelming demand driven by technology IPOs.

Also Read: The third world war may already be happening online. Here’s why you need better cybersecurity

Borneo is a privacy information and data management platform offering security and privacy solutions for hyper-growth technology companies through real-time privacy data observability and insights. Its developer-first suite of tools to identify high-risk and sensitive personally identifiable information through sophisticated machine learning techniques and open APIs.

It integrates with existing tools and workflows and enables companies to achieve privacy compliance by building a solid data security foundation. This allows security practitioners to utilise non-blocking workflows and fast-track remediation without hampering business teams operating in fast-moving and high-growth environments.

The firm claims it has tackled and solved privacy challenges at global, hyper-growth companies such as Facebook, Dropbox, Uber, and Yahoo!.

“Borneo is fast becoming the guardrails for the new data economy. We integrate with your existing security stack to provide the required privacy data intelligence. It prevents data leaks and privacy violations that can result in multi-million dollar fines and erode end-user trust,” said Prithvi Rai, CEO and founder of Borneo.

Sachin Bhanot, Head of Southeast Asia Investments at Prosus Ventures, said, “More than ever, companies are managing a high variety and volume of data while navigating increased pressure from both consumers and regulators on data privacy practices. The Borneo team has created an adaptable, robust, and efficient platform to address these challenges.”

Also Read: Cybersecurity threats on the rise as companies shift to the WFH model

Vulcan Capital is the multi-billion-dollar investment arm of Vulcan Inc., the company founded by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen.

Prosus is a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world.

Lytical Ventures, an affiliate of Lyrical Partners, is an NYC-based fund dedicated to corporate intelligence, including cyber security, data and analytics, and AI.

The post Ex-Uber security head’s startup Borneo raises US$18M led by Vulcan Capital appeared first on e27.

Today we centre our attention on the Spanish startup ecosystem and what it is like being a female entrepreneur trying to navigate the system.

There are many factors that make this ecosystem unique. While the number of unicorn startups in the country remains limited, especially when compared to the Southeast Asian region, lately investors have begun to flood into the local tech hubs –particularly those that focus on early stage investments.

But what else do we need to know about it?

Today’s guest is Emily GC Lomban, the CEO and Co-Founder of Froged, a Spanish startup focused on helping companies improve customer onboarding and retention while reducing churn rate.

She will tell you about the Spanish startup ecosystem, the challenges and opportunities faced by local players, and more importantly, how she navigated the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated industry. Because, yes, this is a challenge that continues to resurface in every startup ecosystem around the world.

Also Read: Akulaku CEO William Li: ‘Asia’s BNPL sector has great potential compared to Europe’

So if you have never heard about the Spanish startup ecosystem before, and would like to learn more about it, check out this episode featuring Lomban:

If you don’t see the player above, click on the link below to listen directly!

Acast
Apple
Spotify
Stitcher

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This article on the Spanish startup ecosystem was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: ©Violin/123RF.COM

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The global economy has been rapidly changing over the past year since the COVID-19 hit. While some companies managed to thrive, others have suffered.

The economy will never be the same again. Most brick-and-mortar businesses are forced to digitalise their businesses, or they face the risk of extinction. Old businesses that have worked in the past 50 years may not be able to survive in the next few years to come.

Kelvin Seetoh and Jonathan Ang, who are founders of The Full-Time Investor, speak out about what investors must look out for if they want to continue to do well in the next few years:

Investors look for value creation

In order for the value of a company to be growing, the people driving the company must be constantly seeking to address the problems that customers face, to be innovative in creating new solutions that are more effective in solving the problems, and doing it more efficiently, so as to create ever more value for customers and society.

We resonate with Abraham Lincoln that the best way to prepare for the future is to create it. We believe that massive value and wealth will be created by investing in and partnering with future innovators and creators.

Purpose-driven and capable leadership for investors

When we invest in companies, we are not merely investing in any corporate structure or corporate assets. We are investing in people.

We are tapping into an entrepreneur’s ambition, talent, energy and ability to bring like-minded individuals on his journey to transform the world into a better place through his business.

Our role is to sieve out such incredible people and invest in their listed entities. Some of our favourite management include the Rales brothers of Danaher Corporation, Albert Nahmad of Watsco, Mark Leonard of Constellation Software and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

Also Read: A wave of change: What sets impact investing apart from traditional investing

These entrepreneurs did not create a business purely to make money. Instead, they are imbued with enthusiasm to make this world a better place.

To this group of entrepreneurs, a problem is nothing more than an opportunity. An opportunity to bridge the gap between potential solutions and the problems.

An opportunity to create solutions to meet customers’ needs, and to create value for society. By creating more value for the world, they are rewarded financially. They are problem solvers and they are trailblazers.

We believe by having a vision but not executing it, it is no more than a nice dream.

We want to partner with leaders and management teams who are not only visionaries but who are willing to create a better future by taking actions to make their vision a reality.

Holistic ecosystem empathy

A holistic ecosystem is an approach to viewing the organisation’s assets, talents, partnerships, with the goal of better understanding and serving the needs of customers and society.

This is not a purely functional or mechanical approach. Rather, it is driven with empathy at its core. The inherent drive to understand the needs of others, and being aware of their thoughts and feelings, so as to better align all elements of the ecosystem to create a true win for all.

In fact, research has shown that empathetic people are capable of recognising the pain of others as a problem that is in need of a solution. This is the foundation of Value Creation that lies at the core of all quality businesses.

Out of this empathy framework, we created a “win-win-win” approach. In any business transaction, the company must win along with its employees and customers.

It is important for a company to make profits to keep its operations running, but it should not sell with a mentality of extracting the last dollar from its customers. This means creating wins for customers by charging them fair prices for the products or services delivered.

Also Read: Why UK is the new global tech capital for Southeast Asia entrepreneurs

A company should take on a long-term approach. Focus on the happiness of its customers by cultivating lifelong relationships with customers as opposed to one-off transactions.

Businesses who think of the best interests for their customers tend to grow faster because they enjoy strong marketing tailwinds from influential word-of-mouth and customers.

The best businesses tend to enjoy such benefits without spending huge advertising dollars because the product sells itself. The value proposition is clear and the customers enjoy it.

Simplicity in complexity

As Peter Lynch who was a successful fund manager once said: “Never invest in any idea you can’t illustrate with a crayon.”

We love to operate within our circle of competence. We think it is extremely foolish to reverse the compounding process by operating outside our circle of competence. This adds risk to our investment process.

Mathematically, should our investments go south, more effort is needed to recover its losses.

If we do not understand some companies, we put them into a “too hard” pile. We find that it is perfectly fine to miss out on opportunities that we do not understand. Having said that, we see ourselves as life-long learners who are fueled by our intellectual curiosity to understand the world better.

This ensures our circle of competence gets enlarged over time. It’s extremely dangerous to be the frog in a boiling pot that is oblivious to how the world is changing and sticking with our old lenses in an evolving world.

Over time, we realised the best investment ideas are compelling enough that it does not require too much convincing work to underwrite the investment.

The worst ideas are those that require hours of deliberation with no clear conclusions. In this situation, we may end up convincing ourselves to keep them because of our sunk cost fallacy arising from our psychological biases.

With regards to macroeconomic news, it is filled with complexity which many investors try to decipher with very little success. We wonder what is the value-add to our research process. We deem this as noise. What is useful to us is signals.

This refers to corporate developments such as expansions, strategic hirings, new product releases or collaborations with other companies. It is quantifiable to some extent and it signifies the pace of execution within the company. As we shift our attention more towards signals, we outperform as investors.

When you treat your investments like partnerships, it will drastically change how you choose to invest. By investing our money with those companies we selected, we are partnering with the best management teams.

Also Read: Investing with gender lens: Proven strategy to achieve 2x+ in returns

It’s the most rewarding journey of growing our wealth by supporting these transformative companies. We hope to inspire a new generation of investors who will see investing as a vote towards supporting these companies.

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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

Image credit: 123rf

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