Meeting the protein needs of a projected population of 10 billion people by around 2050 in an inclusive, sustainable, and nutritious manner is a significant challenge, but one that is achievable.

Transformation of the food value chain is essential, with experimentation in the novel food space playing an important role.

Meat is a major component in the consumption patterns of most people in the world as it is perceived as a nutritious source of protein.

It is this critical importance of meat to the sustainability of the food system that so much attention is paid to trends in meat consumption and the alternative protein space.

Evolving consumer demand for alternative protein

With conversations around environmental and welfare issues gaining traction in Asia, more people are understanding the impact of a meat-heavy diet on health and the environment.

As consumers continue to lean towards sustainable and healthier products post-COVID-19, the next decade sees a potential tipping point where alternative protein may go from being “niche food” to “mainstream food” in this region.

Even before the pandemic, Singaporeans have been considering healthier options with two in five adopting a flexitarian diet. With consumers in Asia being no strangers to the idea of alternative protein, Singapore is well-positioned to be the ‘Silicon Valley of food’ in the region.

In Singapore, the city-state’s sovereign fund Temasek has invested close to US$5 billion into the agrifood sector, backing corporates and startups in areas such as agri biotech, alternative proteins, vertical farming and commodities.

Apart from this, over 15 alternative-protein startups have set up a base in Singapore according to Enterprise Singapore (ESG).

The science of food security

The concerted push towards research and development (R&D), utilisation of innovative and sustainable technologies, and biotech-based food and ingredients fuelled the potential to diversify and strengthen our food security.

Underpinning these developments is innovation, which plays a pivotal role in ensuring sustainability and accelerating local food production efforts.

Also Read: SGProtein to launch large-scale production facility to accelerate Singapore’s alternative protein market

Food development and manufacturing have been recognised as key sectors of the global economy. On a local level, Singapore has been working towards its vision of being a food and nutrition hub in Asia.

Initiatives such as FoodInnovate have brought together several agencies, such as Enterprise Singapore and Agency for Science, Technology and Research, to develop a repository of resources for local food companies to create and commercialise food products on a larger scale, at a rapid pace.

Singapore– the rising food tech nerve centre

While there has been an increasing adoption of alternative proteins, more investments and resources are needed. For instance, the Singapore government has also shown continued support for this sector by taking a major step to commit S$144 million (US$107 million) for investments in strategic sectors such as urban farming and alternative proteins.

This has, in turn, enabled local consumers to have access to a wide variety of meat-free brands that are now readily available.

The alternative protein industry is set to play a bigger role in our diets and in reshaping our food system, with meat-free options gaining popularity today. Meeting the needs of this growing demand and sector calls for greater collaboration in the food technology sector.

Ultimately, pointing towards a need to fill in the gaps when it comes to equipping the local workforce with the right skill sets and companies with the necessary capabilities to level up in the food technology industry.

Pathways to success

For food manufacturers, the common roadblocks include the lack of quality facilities, equipment being expensive, huge opportunity costs and high minimum order requirements from third-party manufacturers.

Set up to plug the gaps in the market for small batch production, SIT partnered with Enterprise Singapore and JTC to unveil a brand-new small-batch food production facility, FoodPlant, that will enable local food players of all sizes to trial new products on a smaller, more cost-effective scale.

The new facility will provide a much-needed boost to food manufacturers looking to innovate and scale the rollout of new products, post-R&D while reducing capital and operating costs through shared facilities and services.

With many hurdles to cross in Singapore’s journey towards establishing itself as an Asian alternative meat hub, educational institutions can also contribute by nurturing the local talent pipeline for the sector as the regional appetite for alternative proteins continues to soar.

Consumers form the first impression of any food during their very first taste of it. Therefore, it is key for manufacturers to create products that do not compromise on taste and mimic texture that bears a close resemblance to meat.

High Moisture Extrusion Technology for Meat Analogues (HMET) is essentially the first step towards producing meat analogue products – plant-based products that are similar to conventional meat in terms of texture and appearance.

Plant protein such as wheat gluten, soy and pea are put through an extruder machine, which uses heat and shearing to alter the protein structure to yield product textures that resemble muscle meat – a “basic requirement” to attract more meat-lovers to try out alternative protein products.

Also Read: Revolutionising the food industry with Malaysia’s StixFresh

With an aim to further build the expertise of local food companies and to see more players adopting this technology, SIT is the first university in Singapore to offer a Continuing Education Training course on HMET to the public in a practical, hands-on setting.

This is a specialised course for food tech professionals on high moisture extrusion, a process that texturises plant-based protein into viable meat alternatives.

By supporting food tech professionals with an avenue to hone in-demand skills, educational institutions can groom the local talent to meet evolving industry requirements.

At the same time, they can inspire students to pursue a wide variety of professions much needed in the food industry, ranging from food and flavour technologists to sensory specialists and production engineers.

In Singapore, significant collaborations between educational institutions and industry players help local enterprises build capabilities and foster an ecosystem that fuels the development of new food products to meet the growing demand for alternative meats.

Ultimately, such initiatives address food sustainability challenges and support the future of food in the city-state.

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Global professional services company Accenture has named three Southeast Asia-based fintech startups in its list of 11 startups that have been selected into the 2021 FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific programme.

The startups are:

Alpha Fintech (Singapore)
The startup enables merchant service providers to access any product provider across the merchant service lifecycle via a single solution ecosystem, standardized into one abstraction layer. This helps providers monetise previously hidden data assets to facilitate cross-selling and better manage financial portfolio risk.

Perx Technologies (Singapore)
The startup is a category-creating lifestyle marketing SaaS platform that helps enterprise and digital-native brands deliver continuous and meaningful engagements and experiences in the mobile-first economy to monetize customer actions by creating personalized, last-mile interactive digital experiences that generate revenue.

PT Ayopop Teknologi Indonesia (Ayoconnect) (Indonesia)
Indonesia’s largest API marketplace and leading financial APIs developer, Ayoconnect builds and operates the necessary infrastructure for embedded finance while simultaneously enabling developers and companies to choose from a wide range of financial white-label products.

Also Read: Building Malaysia’s fintech ecosystem

Other companies on the list are Advanced Alternative Investment Systems Ltd (Canada), Asiabots (Hong Kong), CONTRENDIAN Limited (Hong Kong), Diginex (Hong Kong), IPification (Hong Kong), Lagoon (Israel), Qantev (France), and Seleya Technologies (Hong Kong).

The 12-week accelerator programme by Accenture provides fintech startups with mentorship from leading financial institutions to help them fine-tune and scale their businesses. It has received more than 1,350 applications since it was launched in 2014; its 59 alumni companies have raised more than US$716 million in venture financing.

Receiving submissions from 28 countries, this year’s programme is run in collaboration with Hong Kong Cyberport who is providing the startups with the opportunity to participate in the Cyberport Incubation Program (CIP). The two-year programme will provide selected startups with a range of business, professional and mentorship support.

The program will culminate in November when the participants will present their solutions at a virtual Demo Day to an audience of venture capitalists and financial industry executives.

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Image Credit: ©siraphol/123RF.COM

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We are putting the spotlight on NEXEA, which comprises of a venture capital, startup growth accelerator, and angel investor network. They operate in Southeast Asia, with particular focus in Malaysia, focussing on startups in Seed to Series A stages (connect with NEXEA).

Ben Lim, Managing Director of NEXEA, answered a few of our questions about the startups they’re looking for, what makes them stand out, and what makes Southeast Asia startup ecosystem both challenging and exciting.

On how NEXEA was born
We established NEXEA about six years ago. At that time, a few of us exited. So partly, it’s fresh capital and we wanted to invest it somewhere. But partly also, at the time, I was looking for something to start, and one of the ideas that I wrote down was actually angel investment work. Then we added on our accelerator and our other programmes as well. It sort of grew from there.

On being more than just funding
We came from entrepreneurial backgrounds. That’s one of the key differences. We kind of intuitively understood startup entrepreneurs from the start and that’s why we have programmes like the Entrepreneurs Programme. That’s why our accelerator focus so much on adding value to the startups.

On NEXEA’s edge vs others
Definitely our mentors. They are ex-entrepreneurs, people who have exited already. They are on the board of listed companies and have grown companies from nothing into regional market leaders. So, they really understand building startups and, at the same time, how to guide the newer entrepreneurs because they’ve actually been through the journey. It’s like learning from an Olympic champion; it’s different from a lot of the other coaches and mentors out there that have not been successful themselves.

Also read: Antler partners with e27 to assist startups with cross-border investment opportunities in a restricted travel environment

On being sector agnostic
It’s just not possible to look at one specific industry or sector in this region. So far, I think you will find too few companies to invest in if you just looked into, let’s say, purely fintech. It doesn’t make enough sense. So we look at all sectors.

And what we really do is we try to find the best in every sector – every pocket of sectors- because we also have an advantage there versus other VCs that, let’s say, only have a fintech background: we have many mentors, many investors that are from various backgrounds and they are all experts in their own industries. So, we sort of have that advantage over a lot of other funds. And because of that, we are able to focus in many sectors and we do varying degrees of investments as well.

On the kind of startups NEXEA is looking for
We are looking for ideas that could really change the way certain industries work. If your startup is, for example, using an underlying technology that can change a certain industry or sector, we are really interested in opportunities like that. If you’re able to leverage a new form of technology that will disrupt a certain industry, that’s the kind of growth potential we’re looking for.

On what they’re really looking at
We find that the main factors of success will be the team, the market, and maybe even the business model. Specifically, we look for great potential in the team itself and hope they can go really far and bring the company really far, because it’s not easy finding people to replace them as well.

On the huge impact of a founder’s attitude
When we are asking all kinds of questions about the business, we are actually watching the attitude of the founders. How do they answer it? Do they think deep enough? Are they actually humble or can they be humble? It’s okay to be a little bit cocky, right? If you’re good, you tend to be. But if you don’t know how to stay humble, that’s gonna be a big issue.

Because not being able to stay humble, basically means that you’re not able to learn. You’re not able to take in some of life’s greatest lessons, and into a person that the company needs over time. And we believe so because the level of a company heavily depends on the on the level of the founder itself. If the founder stops growing at a certain point, so does the company.

Also read: How smart technologies help an essential but dirty industry clean up impact

On why being in Southeast Asia is both a challenge and a huge opportunity
A lot of the region is still developing. And in that sense, the ecosystems themselves are developing to various degrees in each country. One of the key differences between Southeast Asia and Europe, for example, is that Europe has a slightly more unified system. For example, they have a single currency and alone that enables a lot of things even if each country may have its own culture and nuances.

In Southeast Asia, it’s all different currencies. Every country in Southeast Asia has its own different challenges so every government has its role to play in growing on its own. Southeast Asia is a much more challenging market to break into; it’s as if you’re breaking into six different countries rather than one unified market. And it’s a natural barrier for entrance from China, US, and even Europe. They would love to come here, but they know how challenging it is to go into a single country – forget about six. It’s usually the Southeast Asian guys that can build companies in Southeast Asia. So, a lot of times these companies from outside the region will look at acquisition instead. And that’s a good thing for us and that’s going to be a key driver in the success of this ecosystem, so we just got to play our strengths there.

Speaking of strengths, on NEXEA’s
I feel that we are better able to support B2B startups, naturally, because we also work with quite a number of corporates. A lot of these corporates are looking for companies that can that help them digitise or help them be more efficient. They’re also looking for B2B startups that they could potentially invest in or acquire in the long term. Because of that, we somehow naturally have better capabilities in supporting B2B startups and helping them to grow much faster than normal.

On what could make them say to startups “yes, let’s talk some more.”
Very simple: it’s the pitch deck. On our site, we even have a template for that. And it’s as simple as that. What we need is already in the pitch, so as long as startups can show that and show it clearly and concisely, that will really get a message across to us and we will try and reply to every single one.

On why startups should connect with NEXEA
If they’re looking for investors that can add value to the startup through mentoring – and again, these people have very deep entrepreneurial and even C-level backgrounds – then this is the perfect place to look for investment with mentoring on how to really grow their businesses.

NEXEA is verified investor on the e27 platform. Startups with e27 Pro memberships can connect directly with NEXEA by visiting their profile and clicking Connect.

The post More than just funding: NEXEA play to their strengths in helping startups grow appeared first on e27.

Over the past decade, the online food delivery space has been growing steadily in Asia owing to ever-increasing smartphone penetration and ease of ordering food using mobile apps. This trend has been expedited in the past two years with online food delivery becoming an essential service amidst movement restrictions due to the pandemic. 

Globally, the online food delivery market is worth more than US$35 billion annually and is forecasted to reach US$365 billion by 2030. A Google-Temasek report forecasts that the food delivery market in Southeast Asia alone is expected to grow from US$2 billion in 2018 to an estimated US$8 billion in 2025. With a drastic shift in consumer behaviour towards online food delivery platforms amidst the pandemic and given increasing demand, there is a pressing need to fill this gap.

As such, global, regional, as well as local players are making strides across different markets in the region. The largest player in the online food and grocery delivery landscape in Asia is foodpanda which operates in more than 400 cities across 12 markets. Regionally, the foodpanda platform reaches more than 10 million people in Asia, building an ecosystem connecting riders, merchant-partners, and everyday customers using the platform.

foodpanda: Capturing appetites in Asia

Jakob Angele, CEO of foodpanda who comes with a background in management strategy, has been spearheading foodpanda’s expansion and growth across the region for more than six years. “When I first joined foodpanda, it was a small, independent company that looked very different. There was not much excitement among investors about food delivery platforms; we had to start with very little funding and faced many challenges. Since those early days, many things have changed and business has grown extremely fast, even before the pandemic” said Jakob.

Back in 2012 when foodpanda was first launched in Singapore with just 51 restaurants, and a focus on the CBD area, the online food delivery scene in Asia was quite young. foodpanda began its venture in the region with operations in five markets, including Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. This year, foodpanda commemorates its ninth year of operations in Asia.

At a time when there were no other food delivery aggregator services, foodpanda quickly established itself as the pioneer and go-to online food delivery platform. However, convincing partners was not an easy feat. “We would knock on doors and get rejected multiple times. Interestingly, in Singapore, the first brand that agreed to try us out was Burger King and then other brands started becoming curious. There was no secret recipe though — we had to be very consistent in our efforts and eventually, things turned around,” shared Jakob.

As a pioneer in this industry, Jakob shared that the biggest switch in the business model came around in 2015 when foodpanda was growing quite well. “At that time some restaurants had their riders and that was an easy model for us that was working well for everyone. But eventually, we identified two big problems: the restaurants weren’t able to keep pace with our scale of growth in that we were getting too many orders and restaurants just did not have enough riders, and the second issue was that the subsequent customer experience was getting affected. There was a long wait time, around 60 minutes!” That’s when foodpanda decided to get riders to solve both problems. “This was a stepping stone that helped us scale — we went from 60 minutes to delivering orders within 25 minutes or in 10-15 minutes in some markets through pandamart. We have come a long way,” he added.

In 2016, foodpanda was acquired by Germany-based Delivery Hero, a global leader in the food delivery industry. Today, the online food delivery platform operates in more than 400 cities across 12 markets in the Asia Pacific, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan, Philippines, Bangladesh, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Japan. For foodpanda, a major part of Delivery Hero’s Asia business saw significant growth in the region with orders increasing by 194% as compared to 2019 and GMV growing more than double. In the first half of 2021, the food delivery platform completed more than 747 million orders — almost three times the number of orders from just one year ago.

Since then, foodpanda has been aggressively expanding in the region over the past five years. From 2019 to 2020, foodpanda started operations in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. In September last year, the company launched operations in Japan, its 12th market in the region, hoping to grow a “still largely untapped” market and further strengthen its position as the leading food delivery player in the region. 

Navigating the challenges of food delivery in diverse Asia

Asia is an extremely diverse market with a wide range of demographics, and there is no one-size-fits-all business model or market condition for the region. Jakob explained that one of the main challenges in Asia is that significant groundwork is necessary. This includes educating consumers on what food delivery means and how it can make their lives easy; From a marketing point of view, creating educational videos, and tapping into local channels of social media have become an integral part of their core business strategy. foodpanda operates not just in developed and urban markets like Singapore and Hong Kong but also in developing markets, such as Bangladesh and Pakistan where user demographics are completely different.

Also read: Making construction cleaner, greener, and more climate-friendly

Jakob shared that localisation has become extremely important and relevant in a region like Asia. “Internal organisation and strategic decision-making are key to success in Asia. We have empowered local operations in terms of commercial and operational strategy, from how to run logistics, picking cities, identifying restaurants, to how we spend our money,” he said.

As the regional CEO, while Jakob is involved in those decisions, the country teams play a vital role. “We understand that no matter how smart the headquarters are, even if I travel to each country three times a month, a local understanding comes only if you live there,” he added. “One of the main reasons behind foodpanda’s success in a diverse region like Asia is the fact that a lot of tech and operational innovations are created by our local teams that understand the nuances of their markets. This is very unique to foodpanda,” he said.

Adapting to the new normal: quick commerce

Amidst the pandemic, like most businesses, foodpanda was also faced with multiple challenges. Many countries went into lockdown, and many restaurants couldn’t open. “COVID-19 was hectic. The world around us changed as we knew it, but the team did an amazing job to respond and react to this,” said Jakob. The foodpanda team worked closely with their restaurant partners to come up with the best way to cope. Suddenly, they were also faced with a huge influx of restaurants reaching out to be onboarded as partners needed to digitalise.

“Previously, we had around 14 days to help restaurants go live, but during COVID-19, they needed to go live the next day. We had to reinvent our whole onboarding process to be more responsive. For restaurants in financial trouble, we tried to support them by allowing them to defer their payments in some cases,” shared Jakob. To ensure safety for the riders and consumers while providing accessibility, variety, and convenience, the food delivery platform was also the first to launch contactless deliveries as a default option.

Also read: How businesses can maximise their growth using the right financial tools

They have also added the delivery of groceries and daily essentials to their service repertoire. foodpanda is spearheading the growth of quick-commerce (q-commerce), where groceries and daily essentials are delivered on-demand, within 25 minutes. Across the region, foodpanda partners tens of thousands of retail and SME partners as part of its foodpanda shops vertical, including supermarkets like Tesco, convenience stores like 7-Eleven and Family Mart, plus health and beauty stores like Watsons and Guardian. This is in addition to the thousands of SMEs, mom-and-pop stores, and neighbourhood bakeries or speciality foods on the platform. 

In 2019, foodpanda launched its first pandamart cloud stores in Singapore and Taiwan, offering customers a wide selection of over 5,000 groceries and daily essentials at the touch of a button. foodpanda today operates Asia’s largest network of cloud grocery stores, with more than 200 pandamarts across 40 cities in 10 markets — a number that foodpanda is looking to double within the year as it expands its grocery delivery offerings.

What’s next?

foodpanda’s main focus is to use even smarter technology to power q-commerce. Be it food or groceries, they want to deliver anything customers need in 25 minutes to their doorstep. With COVID-19, consumer behaviour has evolved and appetites for safety and convenience have grown exponentially. Previously hesitant consumers are also going online for daily needs. This is why the q-commerce model works, and it will become even more integral to everyday lives. 

Also read: Antler partners with e27 to assist startups with cross-border investment opportunities in a restricted travel environment

“There is now a higher level of interest in our offerings. There were many new downloads, including different demographics like older customers aged 55 and above who are now using our technology. We see these customers using us even after the pandemic, and this gives us a lot of confidence that we are on the right track,” shared Jakob. However, he added that COVID-19 has been a challenging time in that they’ve had to adapt to highly localised government rules and regulations that are dynamic and sometimes very complex. So, a critical focus is how to continue helping riders and merchants sustain their businesses and earnings during the crisis and beyond.

The food delivery sector in Asia may be competitive, but platforms like foodpanda have proven to offer restaurants and F&B establishments, SMEs, and even delivery riders a valuable lifeline in the midst of the pandemic. Businesses that contribute to uplifting communities and promoting digital inclusion and empowerment will play a key role in the overall economic recovery of the region.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by foodpanda

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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Employees are the heart of any and every organisation and as organisations grow and evolve, so must their employees.

More than anything, the pandemic has highlighted a glaring shortfall. As much as businesses focus on tangible assets such as inventory and machinery, or intangible assets such as IP and brand, we often overlook the single asset that makes it all possible– our employees.

As the world is changing and competition among businesses is increasing, business leaders need to invest in rapid and flexible workforce transformation and skills development to help their employees grow and evolve with the organisation.

We often talk about talent development and retention, but what do skills have to do with it, and why is identifying and closing skill gaps and upskilling so important?

Challenges faced by employers in a volatile business climate

The pandemic has disrupted business operations and accelerated the need for workplace transformation, affecting businesses across varied industries. This uncertainty has forced many businesses to pivot, such as by embracing e-commerce, online channels or simply to innovate their business processes.

And as businesses pivot, businesses struggle to understand their current workforce’s capabilities, to identify the skills their workforce needs to pivot and to understand and close emerging skill gaps by ensuring the necessary training is done.

More often than not, these businesses fail to properly engage the right upskilling or development training to smoothly transition their employees.

This is true both for SMEs and startups, who have limited resources and experience in workforce development and also for large companies and MNCs, who have a huge workforce to manage and lack data or automated processes to facilitate the transformation.

In a survey from PWC, 74 per cent of CEOs said that a lack of availability of the right skills would constrain growth and hamper companies’ ability to tackle the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: The “shmart” entrepreneur: Skills entrepreneurs need to become future-ready

Only 18 per cent of CEOs said they had made significant progress in “establishing an upskilling programme that develops a mix of soft, technical and digital skills” and only 24 per cent of CEOs said they had significant progress in “Defining skills needed to drive future growth”.

Ten per cent of companies in the survey said they had made no progress at all. CEOs are struggling to put their intentions into practice.

Importance of skills management in a workforce

There is an ongoing revolution in how companies are addressing their organisational structure and workforce development. Historically companies have organised their company into mainly job role clusters, with development pathways based on job role seniority.

Companies would then provide training based on the job role, where every staff member at certain job levels will be required to attend standardised training.

However, as industries continue to be rapidly disrupted, and new job roles are required with new and complex skills requirements, companies are struggling to keep up with the pace of change, and employees are subsequently affected in their ability to keep up with the changes in their skills requirements.

Businesses have started to become more granular in their approach, developing competency models and frameworks, and further detailing jobs into skills and skills proficiency levels.

This change has created more complexity for businesses and has driven the need to start understanding skills more, such as to develop a unique skills language for the company, to define the skills required within the company, as well as identify and validate the skills that their workforce possesses.

An effective skills management system in a workforce will not only help in retaining employees but will also create an agile workforce that can seamlessly pivot along with their organisations in case of an industry or market-wide disruption.

A characteristic of the current labour market is the limited availability of in-demand skill sets, which naturally pushes companies to spend on workforce development. It is cheaper for employers to build than buy talent. Developing key skill sets internally can be less costly than hiring new talent, which can cost as much as six times more.

An agile workforce translates into an organisation that is future-ready – ready to meet the needs of the organisation tomorrow, today. An agile workforce also supports the values of productivity, innovation and creativity – creating employees who are active stewards of the organisation’s vision and mission.

If the benefits of skills management are so extensive, why isn’t everyone doing it?

Creating a holistic skills management system in the workforce is no easy feat. It takes a large pool of resources, commitment and organisation to be properly executed. Coupled with the heavy workload from day-to-day operations, it’s near impossible to find the time to establish and execute this process.

Currently, it’s challenging for companies to have an understanding of their workforce’s current skills and capabilities. Typical data sources such as CVs and resumes are unstructured data that is difficult to consolidate, digitise and make sense of, and tend to be outdated data points without relevant skills information in the first place.

Also Read: How Endowus co-founder Samuel Rhee attracts, builds, and maintains a world-class team

Secondly, every company is unique and thus finds it challenging to come up with a customised framework or “language of skills” for their own company. The reliability of the data is also questionable– companies prefer to have a validated assessment of the skills of their workforce.

Finally, companies struggle to implement any change as current systems and processes for skills mapping are manual and unconsolidated, resulting in painful implementation and pushback from the workforce in supporting the change process.

Creating an effective skills management system: Where to begin?

To start off, it’s important to state that every organisation is different, and so is every team member. As a result, skills management practices are highly varied between each organisation. But fundamentally, the capabilities that are required share similar characteristics.

To bridge skills gaps, the organisation needs to have a deep understanding of the skills and capabilities of its workforce before taking remedial action.

As part of this ‘Skills Intelligence’, it is important for any organisation to have the knowledge or understanding of their employees’ skills and proficiency, and to have the ability to assess and access the type of skills needed for their business operations.

A key factor of success here is in the ability to build a unique library of skills personalised to the company’s context – a unique skills language. Skills databases will need to be continuously upgraded as the market evolves and the need for different skillsets changes.

This process will have to be rooted in truth and facts, which is where the importance of utilising current labour market information to understand the latest market skills characteristics is required.

Secondly, a system and process for identifying, collecting, validating, consolidating and analysing internal skills data based on the company’s unique skills language need to be set in place.

Buy-in and support from the employees of the organisation are essential for any change initiative to take place, thus relying on manual methods which are painful, tedious and slow would ultimately lead to resistance and failure.

A structured and systematic system, preferably utilising technology for ease of use in collecting and managing the data, would accelerate the process and reduce friction as well as costs in time and effort to collect skills data.

A detailed skills library will serve an organisation in many ways – such as providing a database for managers to identify missing skills from their team members, supporting deployment and identification of talent for various roles based on skills fit, ensuring that fresh trainees or employees are given the right training to diligently perform their tasks, or simply having a data-driven real-time dashboard to truly understand the company’s skills assets and make better decisions.

Also Read: Monk’s Hill Ventures head of talent’s guide to startup jobs search in Singapore

AI and big data in human resource practices

Digital technologies are great enablers of change, across the many facets of business and processes. With the help of AI, businesses can derive the benefits of accessing skills data insights at their fingertips, reduce labour-intensive processes, and enable new approaches such as the ability to build their own unique Skills Bank and Skills Intelligence databases.

AI can allow us to develop, aggregate, and apply, both internal and external data, to plan and create a holistic talent strategy plan.

This removes the labour-intensive processes that typically bogs down the HR departments, saving both time and financial resources by up to 90 per cent.

This concept is not just a sci-fi dream, it’s quickly becoming a reality. AI-powered transformation platforms are already here, complete with the ability to reference external labour market information, collect internal skills data, and create a unique library of skills for any workforce.

These platforms are able to facilitate access to a wealth of market data to identify future-ready skills and create development roadmaps to guide employees’ personal development while empowering them with self-directed career and skills development.

When I founded JobKred, this was the exact market gap that I was determined to solve, using data science technology to accelerate human capital development.

Especially in Southeast Asia, there is a lot of untapped talent that has the right capabilities but not the right skill sets that the market needs, and help provide clarity and direction to both enterprises and individuals in their skills development has been a key mission for us.

As an AI-powered skills intelligence and competency management platform, JobKred was created to ultimately reduce employee attrition rates, identify and develop missing skills, and transform organisations to be future-ready through effective and data-driven skills development.

Working with clients from Fortune 500 enterprises, top-ranked universities, government agencies and international aid agencies like the World Bank, JobKred has gained immeasurable experience, expertise and data in the whole life-cycle of skills intelligence and workforce development.

The future of HR practices

Employers need to be nimble and embrace new ideas to transform their business, traits that are key to rethinking and reshaping the future of work in the current economic climate.

This includes taking the leap forward in job redesigning, adopting digital technologies, and taking on new ways to work as well to rapidly adjust their business’s competencies, to reduce employee attrition, increase business agility and extend their business life cycles.

The significance of an agile workforce will continue to increase, and HR will play an increasingly important role in making better and more informed decisions by utilising skills intelligence.

Also Read: Want to work at a leading tech company? Here’s how

Skills are the currency of the future in the business world. Just like a currency, it’s more than just about accumulating it in a war chest for future use – it’s about finding and gathering the appropriate resources, growing the assets in the right way, and utilising them at the right time to further develop your businesses.

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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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Accelerating Asia, a Singapore-headquartered accelerator-cum-VC-fund, today announced the launch of its second fund worth US$20 million.

As per an official statement, Fund II has already secured about 50 per cent in soft commitments from existing investors and partners.

The new vehicles will focus on seed to pre-Series A investments into high-potential startups across South and Southeast Asia. It will start deploying capital in 2021.

Also Read: Accelerating Asia to launch Fund II in H2, ups investment size to US$250K

In an interview with e27 last year, Accelerating Asia’s co-founder and general partner Craig Dixon said it was planning to launch a new fund in the range of US$20 million to US$50 million Fund II.

Upon the capital disbursement in 2021, Accelerating Asia will raise its ticket size from US$150,000 to US$250,000 and looks to invest in a broader number of high potential early-stage startups. It aims to bridge the gap between seed and pre-Series A investments across Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Accelerating Asia employs the VC accelerator model to lower the risk of their investment. It claims that its 3-month accelerator programme receives over 1,000 applications each year, with the top two per cent are selected for funding.

The fund’s latest cohort has closed the application round this June, and the startups are slated to raise Series A within six to 12 months of graduating and receiving investment. It boasts that 80 per cent of portfolio startups receive follow-on funding from the region’s leading VCs, including D4V, Chiba Dojo Fund, Headline Asia, Impact Collective, SOSV, MDI Ventures, Falcon Network, and Anchorless.

“We believe they are well-placed to grow and scale and perhaps even be part of the dozens of unicorns expected to rise in the region by 2025,” said Amra Naidoo, co-founder and general partner of Accelerating Asia.

Most of the startups invested are addressing at least one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals, and 65 per cent are considered Gender Lens Investments.

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

According to the press statement, Accelerating Asia has also committed to donating one per cent of the fund’s carry and profit to more initiatives that support early-stage entrepreneurs.

The pledge sees participation from 10,000 members in 100 countries, including the likes of Salesforce, Twilio, Canva to ignite half a billion dollars in new philanthropy.

Accelerating Asia’s first fund has invested in 36 startups across ten markets and 20 verticals. The fund I portfolio companies have collectively raised US$30 million to date, with around 70 per cent of capital raised through Accelerating Asia’s network.

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Image credit: Accelerating Asia

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In 2014, Komatsu, the world’s second-largest construction company based in Japan, took about two weeks to collect high-precision data on an average project site. Back then, drones utilising manual mission planners were still inefficient.

A group of entrepreneurs embarked on a journey to find a solution to this pressing problem, which is elaborated on in the Climatic talk show’s first episode.  

“We needed to be able to deploy over 10,000 sites in a matter of months, and it was nearly impossible to do it with drones. So we set ourselves to solve this problem,” Christian Sanz, CEO of US-based Skycatch, a provider of drone data solutions for the construction and mining industry. 

In 2014, Skycatch announced a partnership with Komatsu. Thanks to its technology, surveying Komatsu construction sites has become easier and it takes only 20 minutes. 

Pain points of a conservative industry

The construction industry’s efficiency has been on the decline for the past several decades. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, the efficiency has fallen by half since the late 1960s for various reasons, the biggest being the skilled labour shortage.

“Construction sites are very complicated,” said Thomas Abell, chief of digital technology for the development unit at Asian Development Bank, which deploys a multitude of construction projects across the Asia Pacific. 

“They have a lot of material. They also have high requirements to manage the design tolerances,” he added. “So you need to send people who understand what’s happening with the materials and equipment to the project sites.” 

Also read: How smart technologies help an essential but dirty industry clean up impact

Even before the emergence of the pandemic, builders couldn’t keep up with the rapid urbanisation in every corner of the world. And COVID-19 has changed things for the worse. As construction picks up pace after a tumultuous year, workers struggle to return to work and meet the growing demand.

“Normally, you send consultants or project officers to the sites to monitor the projects. But the pandemic has made it impossible,” explained Abell.

According to new research of the Associated Builders and Contractors of America (ABC), the US alone needs to hire 430,000 more workers to meet the increasing demand for construction services in 2021. This quarter, 88 per cent of contractors say they’re having a hard time recruiting skilled labour. Newly designed machines and robots are urgently required to fill this gap.

According to Skycatch CEO, the construction industry faces a shortage of skilled labour and lacks automation machinery. Besides, fragmented processes in construction and constant human errors are also posing challenges.

“One single error could cost a half a million-dollar repair. Plus, it takes two weeks of redesign, causing more material to be delivered on the site. It means more waste and more CO2 emission,” said Sanz.

It’s common knowledge that CO2 contributes mainly to climate change. Statistics from the UN’s 2017 Global Status Report show that buildings and construction account for approximately 40 per cent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions.

There is a clear link between the amount of machinery used, the material delivered and environmental fallout, or how much CO2 is released into the atmosphere when construction is in progress. 

“If we can reduce one day of construction, it makes an impact on the environment as it reduces CO2 emission. It also makes the whole process more efficient,” Sanz explained.

Efficiency coupled with climate change mitigation

Experts have pointed out several significant global innovative construction trends, including the ability to capture the real world in a detailed digital model, or digital twins; the production of smarter, better, lower-carbon materials; and the management of the construction ecosystem surrounding self-contractors, contractors, and planners.

Some startups have been forging ahead with innovative solutions for construction planning and data analytics.

In 2014, Skycatch first collaborated with Komatsu to generate high precision data at construction sites through its drone technology. The startup enables its partners, including Komatsu, to see minor details of the sites inside out and track them efficiently. 

Another synergy between Skycatch and big corporations is in the infrastructure investment of ADB in Port of Nauru, where the supervision was done remotely through Skycatch’s daily 3D model of the actual site that can be used instead of physical surveillance.

“The other thing is that most of the analysis takes place after the mistakes,” Abell said. “What we’re doing at Skycatch is we’re building technology for you to see the mistake before you even install anything.”

For example, Skycatch’s drone data and analytics track change over time across dams, reducing industrial accidents. When combined with sensors and IoT devices like piezometers and inclinometers, the tailings dam engineers get a far larger digital picture of potential mishaps to solve.

Bangkok-headquartered construction-tech company Builk One Group, which has just closed its Series B+ round, also provides a range of SaaS products. They include business management services and online construction material trading platforms to enable firms in Thailand and ASEAN to digitalise their construction projects. It has also developed a technology for construction sites to enhance operational efficiency and reduce errors.

“We can use these technologies in planning. We can also use them in the actual construction more efficiently, leveraging materials more quickly, locating issues, turning around projects more quickly, and even doing projects in more financially efficient ways as well,” Abell added.

This practice also presents a massive opportunity for startups to support the industry in realising physical climate risks, according to Hara Wang, investment director at the nonprofit climate tech accelerator-cum-investment fund Third Derivative.

“They can help the building and construction sector in better understanding and monitoring the performance of construction and infrastructure projects, especially when the risk of heat and flooding increases as a result of climate change,” said Wang.

Also read: COVID-19, the environment, and the tech ecosystem: what opportunity is available out there for us?

British multinational professional services firm, Arup, has created machine learning technology in Shanghai as part of a project to address the city’s rising flood and river pollution problems. 

Since 1990, climate change and Shanghai’s tripling population has put the city at higher environmental risk. Arup has employed satellite images and a machine-learning algorithm to map parts of the landscape, identifying “green” infrastructure and maximising the potential of the existing network before deploying any new construction projects.

Technology has helped in building infrastructure in cleaner, greener, and significantly more climate-friendly. 

Asia’s smart construction at the forefront

According to an ADB report, Asia is expected to contribute roughly 60 per cent to global growth by 2030. As per The World Data Lab’s figures, nearly 90 per cent of the 2.4 billion new middle-class members will be in the region.

As construction is also the inevitable companion to economic development, Daniel Hersson, senior fund manager at Asian Development Bank’s ADB Ventures, believes that most of the world’s new infrastructure and building expansion will thus likely occur in Asia. 

“Asia is the big market for many, many solutions,” said Hersson. “You can’t avoid that. Not only most of the growth but also most of the opportunities will be in Asia.”

Hara Wang echoed this viewpoint. She says she has witnessed that Asia is more exposed to physical climate risk than any other part of the world. However, it is still the ideal location for taking advantage of decarbonisation prospects.

“It’s also critically important that we have this climate adaptation and climate resilience mindset for this new phase of infrastructure build down in Asia,” added Wang.

As the region is home to some emerging hard-tech advancements from China, India, and some regions of Southeast Asia, Wang emphasised that Asia is no longer just the implementation place but puts itself at the forefront of the world’s fundamental technology developments.

But when it comes to the symbiotic relationship between construction companies and technology startups, it’s about the technology and getting people to accept and choose to utilise it. 

“A large company like Komatsu with decades of experience can achieve efficiency if it works with a fast-growing startup like SkycatchThat’s where we see a lot of value being created,” said Hersson of ADB Ventures.

Nori Onodera, who leads the smart construction solutions company Earthbrain, a spin-off from Komatsu, stated that construction corporations face challenges in figuring out exactly what pieces of technology are required to hit the goal.

“Some of the technologies are already in existence today, so it’s just a matter of implementation; some of the technologies don’t quite exist yet, especially technologies for them to cover these emissions, not coming from power consumption or transportation consumption,” Wang explained.

The inflexion point lies in the globalisation of the innovation ecosystem, which is not just from the perspective of startups and technology but also other collaborators at the borders of startups, corporates, policy-making networks and investors.

“It’s not just about startups themselves; it is actually about the innovation ecosystem built around each technology,” she said. “It takes a dance globally to make it work.”

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Image credit: 123rf

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Image credit: 123rf

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Image credit: 123rf

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J&T Express in talks to raise US$1B from Tencent, others at US$20B valuation
It plans to establish a nationwide distribution network in Middle Eastern and Latin American markets by early next year; J&T Express recently achieved its goal to raise US$250M in a new round of financing following the Chinese Spring Festival.

Malaysia’s unicorn Carsome adds US$200M more to its kitty to grow its retail, auto-financing businesses
Investors include sovereign wealth funds, Catcha Group, MediaTek, Asia Partners, Gobi, and 500 SEA; Carsome has rolled out numerous auto-financing offerings for car buyers and used car dealers, especially for graduates who typically face challenges obtaining bank loan approvals.

True Global Ventures hits final close of its new blockchain fund at over US$100M
Its looks for companies that bring the latest technology in DLT across 4 verticals: entertainment, infra, financial services, and data analytics & AI; True Global was founded by 40 partners, and its LPs include Octava Family Office.

Bukalapak posts 35% revenue jump in first earnings report after IPO
The Indonesian e-commerce major’s revenue jumped to US$60.5M for H1 2021, following a massive improvement in the performance of its O2O segment, Mitra Bukalapak; Revenue from its e-commerce marketplace grew roughly 4% to US$37.1M.

Doctor Anywhere nets US$65.7 M Series C for geographical expansion
Backers include Asia Partners, Novo Holdings, Philips, and OSK-SBI Venture Partners, and EDBI; Currently, Doctor Anywhere serves more than 1.5M users across SEA, and has close to 2,800 doctors and medical professionals within its network.

25 notable startups in Malaysia that have taken off in 2021
There is no question that 2021 has been a challenging year, but these startups continue to make progress and break barriers; e27 chose these startups based on the news coverage that we did of the country in 2021 and presented it to you based on chronological order, starting from the most recent updates.

Indonesian B2B marketplace Ralali eyes US$50M Series D
Ralali, which connects buyers to suppliers and wholesalers, is looking to close the deal by year-end; The startup is eyeing to reach profitability before going public; In 2019, it raised US$13M in Series C led by Zigexn founder Jo Hirao and Singapore VCs Arbor Ventures and TNB Aura.

Investing with gender lens: Proven strategy to achieve 2x+ in returns
According to Statista, in 2019, only 20% of the startups had a female founder; Moreover, only around 12% of the VC was invested in startups with at least one female founder, which had been the same since 2011.

KiotViet raises US$45M from KKR, Jungle Ventures
KiotViet is a merchant platform that provides solutions, including PoS, inventory management, CRM, and employee management services to over 110K MSMEs; KiotViet has additionally expanded to offer a B2B procurement marketplace and integrated logistics services for its merchants.

Play Ventures raised over US$30M for latest VC fund
Play Ventures Opportunity Fund seeks to raise US$80M; It has already attracted commitments from at least two investors; Five months ago, Play Ventures raised US$135M for its fund II; The firm has invested in 24 new gaming firms, including Gamejam and Potato Play.

New startup Aicadium founded by Temasek acquires Singapore’s BasisAI
BasisAI is a provider of scalable and responsible AI software; After the acquisition, BasisAI will merge with Aicadium; The deal brings together capabilities including deep AI and machine learning as well as product development expertise that spans decades; It will also help with Aicadium’s global expansion plans.

Accelerating Asia launches US$20M Fund II for early-stage startups
It has already secured US$10M initial commitments from existing LPs; Fund ll looks to bridge the market gap for pre-Series A investments in SEA and South Asia; It will start to deploy capital in 2021; For Fund II, Accelerating Asia will increase its investment amount into startups to up to US$250K and invest in a greater number of startups.

Ayoconnect snags US$10M pre-Series B to democratise Open Finance in Indonesia
Investors are Mandiri Capital, Patamar Capital, Ilham Akbar Habibie, and Jeff Lin; Ayoconnect combines financial data from several sources, allowing its partners to provide better, more inclusive financial service.

Vietcetera sealed US$2.7M pre-Series A, targeting content for Vietnamese middle class
Investors include North Base Media, Go-Ventures, East Ventures, Summit Media, Genesia Ventures, and Hustle Fund; Vietcetera pursues a bilingual content format in both Vietnamese and English, aiming to become the media hub bridging Vietnam with the world.

Singapore PM pulls up food delivery apps on labour practices
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that he was especially concerned about delivery staff recruited by Grab, Foodpanda and Deliveroo as the workers had no employment contracts, no basic job protections, and earn “modest incomes” that make it difficult for them to afford things like healthcare, housing, and retirement savings.

Temasek’s Heliconia invests in Singapore’s pop culture collectibles maker XM Studios
The money will be used for global expansion and also diversify its business with other IP verticals such as sports and entertainment; XM Studios specialises in hand-craft luxury collectibles.

Rocket Academy rakes in US$1.1M to tackle global software engineer shortage
Investors include Darius Cheung of 99.co, Marcus Tan of Carousell, Stanley Tang of DoorDash, Kishore Mahbubani, XA Network, Taurus Ventures and Hustle Fund; Rocket’s speciality training courses are designed to be longer and more comprehensive than traditional coding boot camps, yet shorter and more affordable than university courses.

Why these four Vietnamese startups made it to the Forbes Asia watchlist
Among the 100 featured companies, Hoozing, Logivan, Loship and Med247 made it to the list; Forbes Asia recently released the inaugural 100 to Watch list, which spotlights notable small companies and startups on the rise across the Asia Pacific region.

Malaysia-based app for part-time workers bags $950k in Series A from Shopper360
Troopers matches users to part-time positions that suit their capabilities; After landing a job, users can check in for attendance, make field reports, and be notified about salary payment via the platform.

Indonesian proptech startup Prospeku secures funding from OCBC NISP’s investment arm
Prospeku’s app is designed to help property agents manage deals and list their inventories in classified ads platforms such as Rumah123, 99.co, and CicilSewa; Prospeku has also partnered with Bank OCBC NISP to provide loan facility for property buyers.

Why being a young entrepreneur is better
Whether to pursue a passion project, start a business, or bring this mindset into a job, it is almost always disadvantageous to start early. In fact, it’s the best time in life to fail!

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Image Credit: Play Ventures

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What is fractional trading? In a fractional share trading system, users can invest as little as $1 into some of the largest US-based companies such as Tesla, Apple, & Amazon. An Amazon share today costs above $3000. But with fractional share trading, anyone can invest as little as US$ 1 to own a fraction of each share in these globally known US brands.

Normally you can’t buy or sell a fractional share on the stock market, but a brokerage firm can split up full shares to sell fractional shares to new investors.

Fractional share trading proves to be the game-changer that can level the playing field for individual investors. As such, over 97% of Gotrade’s orders are fractional share trades.

Also read: Making construction cleaner, greener, and more climate-friendly

Gotrade makes it possible for non-US investors to buy fractional shares by acting as an introducing broker to Alpaca Securities LLC – a U.S. stock brokerage regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Alpaca Securities serves as an intermediary for Gotrade and splits its stock inventory into fractions.

Gotrade users can decide how many fractions of a share they want to buy, by ordering in dollar value instead of having to buy one full share. Gotrade app applies notional value trading rules to automatically calculate the number of fractional shares a user can buy. 

Gotrade is levelling the playing field for investors

Gotrade does not charge the usual fees charged by brokerage firms such as commissions, custody, inactivity or dividend fees. Their monetization strategy is based on collecting the relatively smaller currency exchange fees when users deposit money, and also on the interest generated from uninvested money lying in brokerage accounts. Gotrade supports local deposit methods in over 70 countries with lower currency conversion rates.

How Gotrade Works

Currently available on an invite-only basis, Gotrade works only with fully-funded cash accounts which the founders say is a safeguard to protect users. FINRA and Securities Exchange Commission regulations dictate that users accounts under $25,000 can make a maximum of three-day trades every five trading days.

Gotrade is the brand name of TR8 Securities Inc., a company licensed to trade in the Malaysian free trade zone Federal Territory of Labuan. To protect users, accounts are insured by up to $500,000 by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Money transfers take place through firms regulated in Singapore, like Rapyd, and the United States, including Alpaca and BMO Harris Bank.

Eliminating barriers to US Stock investing

Rohit Mulani, the company’s CEO, explained that the idea for Gotrade was planted when he became interested in American stocks but discovered many barriers to trading. “When I was 18, I actually looked to get access in Singapore, and banks were charging $30 per trade. Effectively, the market taught me that I could not get into the market. Fast forward ten years, I decided to look into it again, and the banks were still charging $25 a trade,” he said. 

“On top of that, their user interfaces were something I didn’t want to look at. So we decided to build a brokerage platform where anyone can get access.” Launched in stealth mode last March 2021, the company has already racked up one hundred thousand users from 145 countries. Gotrade’s users applaud the app for its friendly user interface and its intuitive UX.

Also read: How businesses can maximise their growth using the right financial tools

While the idea for an investment app that eliminates the hurdle of high transaction fees was the initial spur, fractional share trading is what the founders think will attract relatively new investors to Gotrade. 

Mulani says about 65% of Gotrade’s users have traded stocks before, while the rest are first-time investors. “With demand coming from 145 different countries, it shows there’s a huge demand to start investing in the US market. Moreover, it shows that investing needs to become accessible by tearing down borders and lowering fees as much as possible.” With the power of fractional trading, Gotrade helps bridge this gap by making stocks available to people investing as little as US$ 1.

What’s the context

Fintech platforms launched with a vision of democratising access to global capital markets are riding high in recent months – crypto investment platform eToro recently announced a $10B public merger deal. According to the State of Finance App Marketing report by AppsFlyer, the APAC region has seen a total of 2.7 billion fintech app installations between Q1 2019 and Q1 2021.

With its commission-free and fractional investing, Gotrade is an attractive proposition for retail investors. Given the surge of interest in digital financial services, the startup could be well-positioned to benefit from the rising popularity of consumer investment apps.

Led by London VC LocalGlobe, Delaware-based fintech startup Gotrade has raised $7 million to enable users in 150 countries to invest commission-free in fractional US stocks. Gotrade’s mission is to make investing accessible to literally anyone. Gotrade enables commission-free trading for local investors around the world, who were not able to previously invest in US stocks due to high access fees, and pricing barriers. Want to start trading today? Download and get started from $1, with the code 560115.

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This article runs in collaboration with Makan For Hope, a non-profit initiative by Asia Startup Network. The Makan For Hope Festival brings notable mentors and aspiring entrepreneurs in 30 meaningful virtual conversations over food from social enterprises to raise S$125,000 for Fei-Yue to support the children and seniors from low-income families.

Growth is usually the top business priority for early-stage entrepreneurs. To achieve growth, there are many different strategies and tactics and they would typically fall into one of three main categories – build, partner or buy.

That was the topic at the recent Makan For Hope Festival session hosted by Chris Yeo, Grab Financial Group’s Managing Director and Head of GrabPay and Head of Grab Ventures. Below are the key insights and takeaways from the session.

Build

Your first option when it comes to implementing your growth strategy is to build it yourself. What build means is that you invest your company’s own resources and talent into expanding your in-house capabilities.

Partner

Your second option is a partnership. But before you pursue a partnership, it is helpful for one to understand the various types of partnerships. As shared by Yeo, partnership agreements can range from being purely commercial, partially commercial, to strategic partnerships.

And of course, we also have the ‘buy’ option that could either be a minority or majority investment, which the latter is effectively an acquisition.

Here is a framework shared by Yeo below, based on his experience at Grab:

• Proximity to core

One of the first things to consider when approaching the make-or-partner decision is whether the topic of partnering is more adjacent to your core business. Or is it more explorative?

• Required speed to launch

How quickly do you need this product or service up and running?

• Importance to having 100 per cent control in the new business

How valuable and important is it for you to own and retain control of a new business versus allowing a partner to co-lead in that business?

• Availability of the right partner at the right time

Has the right partner come along at the right time?

Well, this certainly requires exercising good judgement…

It is exciting when your first partnership opportunity with a big corporation presents itself. It means you have finally been noticed, though it might be also due to the fact that you pose a competitive threat to them.

One of the participants, Manuel Ho, founder and CEO of a chatbot startup, shared that careful due diligence revealed the key motive behind the partnership, the larger corporation intended to “pick their brains” and gain access to his team’s IP to solve their own problems.

With this in mind, here are three tips shared by Yeo in navigating the potential pitfalls for startups partnering with corporations.

Ensure you have a robust Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in place

IP conflicts are a common regulatory challenge in startup-corporate partnerships. So before divulging your business idea or any data associated, it is critical to evaluate and determine the most valuable assets that you want to protect.

Next, you should ensure these assets are clearly outlined as “confidential” under an NDA which has been vetted by a lawyer. Whether you are part of a startup or advising one, it is important to take proactive steps to ensure a robust NDA is in place, especially for IP heavy startups.

How much data to disclose

After signing an NDA, whether it is mutual or unilateral, you should always be mindful that, as the disclosing party, the amount of data you disclose or as Yeo called it your “secret sauce”, is entirely up to your own discretion.

Also Read: Can partnerships with other startups be impactful?

Data sharing agreements may also be necessary and similarly should be vetted by a lawyer. The rule of thumb is to disclose on a need-to-know basis.

Think about the future: Go in with a medium-term view of a partnership

Because startups are still in their nascent stages, changing course or pivoting is almost always bound to happen. The truth is that in such dynamic environments, it is hard to foresee that the partner you are considering today will still be right for you in the future.

So, the best approach is to evaluate the decision with a medium-term view towards the partnership. Even if you move on, sustaining contact with them could be useful, as you never know, they might be helpful to you down the road.

Common pain points

Large corporations might be excited and involved at the beginning, but can lose steam along the way. And for a startup, the clock is always ticking.

The last thing you want is to spend a significant amount of time cultivating a potential corporate partner and have it come to nought.

Another challenge raised in the session is that often, startups are taken aback by the level of complexity of corporate processes, which causes the process of corporate partnerships to be slow and tedious.

Summarising Yeo’s insights to “grease the wheels” and increase your chances for a successful partnership.

• Bring the partner into your cap table as a strategic investor

This is the most effective but probably the most expensive way to bring alignment to the partnership and ensure that the partner is invested.

• Build the relationship 

Sometimes, cultural and inter-organisational asymmetries can lead to friction early in the process. Mutual understanding and flexibility on both sides are key to addressing such gaps early on.

• Engage with the right decision-makers

Often, the reason for corporate partnerships progressing slowly is that startups fail to engage with the key decision-makers within the corporation. Therefore, as a founder, it is imperative to be clear on who the key decision-makers are and ensure that your team is in contact with the main decision-makers. 

• Be familiar with enterprise sales

As a founder, it is important to have a good grasp of the processes and strategies of enterprise sales, such as the corporate purchase process and partnership criteria on the partner’s side.

Buy: Thinking about merging or acquiring another company?

Your third option to scale your business is to acquire or merge with another business. According to Crunchbase, venture-backed startups are acquiring other startups at a record pace over the last decade.

But before you decide to jump into an M&A opportunity, it is important to ask yourself whether it is strategic in the first place.

Does an M&A fit your business’s objectives and strategies? Timing is another aspect to consider. Is it the right time to go about an M&A at your current state of operations?

If the answers are no, you should certainly reconsider your interest to pursue an M&A.

If you are thinking about or embarking on an M&A, here are a couple of questions to think about.

• Is the business attractive on a standalone basis? 
• What are the synergistic opportunities?
• Will the founders or senior management team be able to fit well into your culture? Would you actually hire them on a standalone basis? 
• Is there a clear line of sight for Post-merger Integration (PMI)?
• Is the price right?

When it comes to implementing your growth strategy, you typically have three options to reach your goal: build, partner, or acquire. Each has its own merits and downsides.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy so do your homework, tread carefully and ask the right questions to determine which option is the right one for you before you jump on the boat.

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