SGRecycle, a Singapore-based social recycling startup, has secured US$1.4 million in a seed funding round led by recycling industry company Tai Hing Group. 

The startup plans to use the capital to expand its presence nationwide through scalable cloud computing and sensors deployed at its smart recycling stations. 

“The ultimate goal is to have all SGRecycle stations islandwide at the most convenient and accessible place, everywhere in Singapore to encourage the nation to practice the recycling habits,” said JacQueline Lim, managing director of Tai Hing Group.

Launched in 2020, SGRecycle is a network of SGRecycle stations placed around Singapore. It allows contactless recycling of paper waste by combining built-in sensors and cloud technology.

“This reduces the risk of COVID infection and also increases the general public’s awareness of returning their trash for cash at the same time saving our environment together,” said Looi, co-founder of SGRecycle. “Everyone plays a part in this ecosystem.”

SGRecycle stations allow the general public to receive cash incentives or merchant vouchers when recycling waste paper. Sensors will calculate the weight of the waste paper and credit points to people’s mobile accounts. 

Also read: How this Singaporean AI startup makes waste collection and recycling easy for cities, organisations

The startup claims it helps potentially increase 5-10 per cent of Singapore’s recycling rate, which has been at a 10-year low in 2020. This pullback is caused by the suspension of a sector (construction and demolition) with traditionally high recycling rates due to the pandemic. Singapore’s domestic recycling rate fell to just 13 per cent in 2020, compared to a domestic recycling rate of 32 per cent in the US, 46 per cent in the EU, and 67 per cent in Germany.

SGRecyle has piloted 30 stations at shopping malls, community centres, schools, and residential facilities in Singapore. The first SGRecycle station has been installed in Tampines, which strives to become a model Eco-Town by 2025 as part of Singapore’s Green Plan 2030.

The startup also plans to deploy more artificial intelligence (AI) and green components like facial recognition and solar panels in its stations. The firm could then utilise its data wall to analyse the big data received for recycling patterns and user behaviour insights.

Singapore aims to increase the domestic recycling rate from 22 to 30 per cent by 2030 and the non-domestic recycling rate to 81 per cent by 2030. 

To achieve this goal, Singapore has applied the Extended Producer Responsibility regulations for electronic waste this year and for packaging waste by 2025, which means that companies will be responsible for the material they produce and use.

According to the “Singapore Green Technology and Sustainability Market Report”, the green technology and sustainability market in the country was valued at US$6.89 billion in 2018. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 26.8 per cent to US$36.31 billion by 2025. 

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Image credit: SGRecycle

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Intelligent Video Solutions (iVS), a video advertising enablement platform for Southeast Asia brands, has closed an oversubscribed US$3.2-million pre-Series B round led by Singapore-based Tin Men Capital.

Other investors are Philippines-headquartered Kickstart Ventures, besides Singapore’s Vulpes and SG Innovate.

The company will use the investment to foray into new territories in the Asia Pacific, namely Japan and Australia. iVS will also onboard more talent, including senior executive positions, in the coming weeks to aid this expansion strategy.

Established in 2016, iVS employs AI and machine learning to enable better monetisation opportunities and consumer engagement for publishers and advertisers in Southeast Asia.

It enables publishers to deliver and optimise their video advertising inventory without giving up control and customer ownership to third-party video platforms.

“We help local publishers and broadcasters retain independence and monetisation leverage while offering advertisers brand-safe in-stream video ad inventory at scale across markets,” said Hari Shankar, chief revenue officer of iVS.

Also read: Advertising with privacy: How SoMin employs AI to build brands and preserve anonymity online

The startup counts publishers such as the Philippines’s ABS-CBN, The Manila Times and Singapore’s Mothership, global media agencies such as Publicis, Dentsu, IPG, and brands such as Disney Plus, Netflix and Spotify, among its clientele.

iVS also improves viewer experience and video ads’ effectiveness through embedded (non-invasive) and engaging ads targeted contextually or through first-party data of individual viewer preference. This is also based on the advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) service model, where the revenue is earned from platforms or advertising agencies instead of users.

So far, the startup claims to serve more than 100 million unique visitors with access to over one billion premium video ad impressions per month.

iVS CEO and Tin Men Capital co-founder echo the opinions that there are large untapped opportunities in the Asia Pacific’s AVOD market. According to Digital TV Research, global AVOD revenue is predicted to expand significantly and reach US$56 billion by 2024 with the rise of advertising technology. This explains iVS’s recent launching of an in-stream video advertising marketplace in Southeast Asia, which aims to increases video inventory available to advertisers.

“Our focus remains on building out a business model with fully aligned incentives between media companies and vendors. This remains an ongoing challenge in markets where CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) are low, while costs of delivery are broadly the same as in mature markets like the US or Europe,” added Milan Reinartz, chief executive officer of iVS.

Since its last funding round in February 2019, iVS’s net revenue is reported to grow by 537 per cent despite the pandemic-induced slowdowns.

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Image credit: iVS

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Singapore-based agri-foodtech company DiMuto today announced that it has raised US$2.35 million in Series A funding round led by The Yield Lab Asia Pacific.

The funding included the participation of SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore; PT Great Giant Pineapple; Patrick Vizzone; Ocean Crest Investments; and Asia Capital Pioneers Group.

The company’s existing investors SGInnovate and Latin Leap also returned in this funding round.

In a press statement, DiMuto said that the funding will enable them to scale up product development and meet the growing demand for agro-food trade visibility as well as trade financing.

Ryan Gwee, Chairman of Asia Capital Pioneers Group, also mentioned the possibility for DiMuto to team up with its portfolio company Aleta Planet, a fintech company that works on payments.

DiMuto uses blockchain, cloud, IoT and AI to create combined visibility between the movement of goods and money on DiMuto Platform. The platform enables primary data collection for valuable insights, enabling agri-food businesses to better manage their supply chain.

Also Read: Adatos nets Series A for its AI-driven remote sensing solution for agri, carbon markets

With its Produce, Trade and Market modules, DiMuto provides visibility on product quality, documents, and payment records for each stage of the supply chain, from pre-shipment farm production to post-shipment product receipts.

The ability to capture and organise such data also helps DiMuto’s financing services to verify that Environmental, Social and Governmental (ESG) standards are being met.

The company has specifically designed their proprietary digitalisation devices –Digital Asset Creation device (DACKY)– in the form of a flyaway kit that enables implementation on the ground to be easily completed in as short as one week.

“DiMuto was really born out of my dual experiences of operating in the finance world for 15 years and operating a global fresh fruits and vegetables marketer and distributor,” said Gary Loh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DiMuto.

“During my ten-year stint in the food industry, I realised there’s an urgent need for business leaders to be able to see all aspects of their business right down to the granular detail of each box, each payment, and each receipt, as well as see the auxiliary service providers supporting their operations. Being able to capture and have the visual confirmation of such business data on a single platform helps business leaders run the organisation better,” he continued.

DiMuto said that it has executed implementations in Indonesia, China, South Africa, Ghana, Malaysia, Kenya, and Colombia over the last six months, with 25 more projects in the pipeline.

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Image Credit: gexphos

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Komunal, a fintech company offering neo-rural bank services in Indonesia, has received US$2.1 million in its Series A round of financing.

The round, led by East Ventures, saw participation from Skystar Capital. Both had invested in Komunal’s seed round in 2019.

As per a press statement, Komunal will use the new funds to boost financial inclusion in Indonesia by enhancing its product, DepositoBPR.

Launched in 2019, Komunal aims to have reliable credit methodology, alternative data & technology and community partnership with existing rural banks (BPR) and co-operative loan (Koperasi) to improve the funding access to Indonesia’s MSMEs.

The DepositoBPR product enables societies nationwide to access the highest possible government-guaranteed deposit rates from BPRs in any region without visiting the bank.

Also Read: P2P lending platform Komunal raises investment to improve the funding access to Indonesia’s MSMEs

On the other hand, rural banks can source deposits nationwide without incurring the hefty cost of opening additional branches and marketing efforts to attract more deposits. In other words, BPRs can source deposits regardless of the geographical boundaries and convert their higher fixed operational cost to lower variable fees to Komunal by using the platform.

Indonesia has 1,500 BPRs. However, they only account for a 1.5 per cent market share of the entire depositors in the country. Most of these are located in suburban areas and not equipped by digital channels — making their product inaccessible to urban depositors.

Komunal has engaged with 60 BPRs across Java and Bali and launched the beta version of DepositoBPR services in August 2021. The company focuses on doubling the BPR market share by offering a higher rate and more seamless transactions to new and existing clients.

So far, Komunal has disbursed US$50 million of loans to hundreds of SMEs in Indonesia, more than double the amount compared to the same period last year. The company said it would continuously support SMEs in getting credit access, targeting US$150 million of SME loans by next year.

During this pandemic, Komunal strengthened its cash flow with a minimum burn rate as a group — thanks to its lending businesses which has achieved profitability recently.

The neo-bank startup is now planning to launch an “e-billet” feature by the end of 2021.

“Almost all BPR deposits are using physical billet/deposit certificate. It means BPR in Bali, for instance, will need to send the physical deposit (billet) to its depositor in Jakarta (and vice versa when the depositor wants to withdraw their deposit), incurring relatively high logistics costs in the process. The e-billet will effectively eliminate this friction and help our vision to make the product accessible nationwide,” said Kendrick Winoto, co-founder of Komunal.

“We believe a strong partnership between funding agents and rural banks will boost the country’s financial inclusion tremendously. As BPRs have relatively smaller assets than commercial banks, they have dynamic lending and funding needs. While we have seen many fruitful collaborations on the lending side, unfortunately, BPRs don’t have many options to solve their funding needs. However, they offer attractive and safe products,” said Hendry Lieviant, co-founder of Komunal.

Also Read: Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam have a huge potential in APAC for neobank growth: Study

“During the pandemic, the irony was even clearer. Commercial banks are overflowing with liquidity despite offering record low rates, whilst many BPR had difficulty sourcing deposits because 95 per cent of the country’s depositors reside in urban areas. We hope this platform can bridge the gap. We appreciate OJK and BPR Association support and advice to sharpen this ‘first of its kind’ product,” he added.

Willson Cuaca, co-founder and managing partner of East Ventures, said, “We have heard that many startups provide solutions to unbanked consumers, under-served consumers and non-credit-worthy micro and small businesses. However, none of the solutions addresses rural banks. Komunal introduced the new concept of “neo rural bank” to upgrade smaller banks with advanced capabilities. We hope this approach will accelerate financial inclusion massively and deeper to every Indonesia region.”

As per a recent UnaFinancial report, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam have the highest prospects in Asia for neo bank.

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Image Credit: Komunal

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bolttech, a Singapore- and New York-based insurtech company, said today it added more funds to its US$180-million round, announced in July, to take the total funds raised from Series A to US$210 million.

US- and Germany-based global investment firm Activant Capital Group led the latest tranche, with participation from EDBI and Spanish firm Alma Mundi Insurtech Fund.

The additional capital will help bolttech further enhance technology and digital capabilities and strengthen its presence in Southeast Asia, Europe, and its other existing markets.

Also Read: The future of insurance isn’t just digital — it’s efficiently digital

The insurtech startup was launched in 2020 with a mission to transform the way insurance is bought and sold. With a suite of digital and data-driven capabilities, bolttech aims to make connections between insurers, distributors and customers easier and more efficient to buy and sell insurance and protection products.

bolttech works with insurers, telcos, retailers, banks, e-commerce and digital destinations to embed insurance into their customer journeys at the point of need.

With about 1,400 people on its payroll, bolttech claims to have built a global footprint that serves more than 7.7 million customers in 26 markets across three continents –- North America, Asia, and Europe. It transacts US$5 billion in premiums on its platform, providing a gateway to more than 5,000 products and 150 insurance providers.

In July this year, bolttech bagged a US$180 million Series A funding round led by Activant. Tony Fadell (Principal at Future Shape, inventor of iPod, and co-inventor of iPhone), Alpha Leonis Partners, Dowling Capital Partners, B. Riley Venture Capital, and Tarsadia Investments also joined. With that round, bolttech’s valuation had crossed US$1 billion, giving it a unicorn status.

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Image Credit: bolttech

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Evermos, a Halal/Sharia-compliant social commerce company based in Bandung, Indonesia, has received over US$30 million in an “oversubscribed” Series B investment round.

Led by Asia Impact Investment Fund II (owned by UOB Venture Management), the round also saw participation from IFC, MDI Ventures, TMI and Future Shape. Its Series A investors Jungle Ventures and Shunwei Capital also joined.

Evermos intends to utilise the financing to expand its leadership and growth teams and deepen technology development.

The company also looks to further penetrate lower-tier areas. At the moment, 70 per cent of its resellers are in Java island. Going forward, it will double down in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

The startup was founded in November 2018 by Ghufron Mustaqim, Iqbal Muslimin, Ilham Taufiq and Arip Tirta. Evermos enables individuals (resellers) to sell locally sourced products to their community via WhatsApp or social media platforms. While the resellers focus on generating demand and selling the products, Evermos manages inventory, logistics, and customer support. According to the startup, this empowers resellers to operate their businesses without the need for capital.

Today, the social commerce startup claims to have generated micro-entrepreneurship opportunities for more than 100,000 active resellers across more than 500 tier 2 and 3 cities and regencies.

Products from 500-plus brands, of which more than 95 per cent are sourced from local small and medium enterprises (SMEs), are curated and made available on the platform. These encompass a wide range of products suited to the Indonesian lifestyle, including Muslim fashion, halal health, beauty and F&B products.

The founders claim the business has seen rapid growth, with total transaction value increasing by more than 60x over the last two years.

Also Read: Social commerce startup Evermos brings Halal products into Indonesia, grabs US$8.25M Series A

Co-founder and deputy CEO Mustaqim said: “Ekonomi Gotong Royong’, or ‘Collaborative Economic Empowerment’ is the underpinning philosophy of Evermos. By leveraging our network of resellers, we are providing a platform for our local SMEs to grow their business while enabling our resellers to generate additional income by selling these local products.”

Evermos president Tirta remarked: “Our vision is to empower one million micro-entrepreneurs over the next five years. One of the key factors that influence how we run our company is measuring the sustainability and societal impact of our platform. A share of the company’s income is used to uplift individuals and SMEs in lower-tier cities.”

Currently, the startup is running a pilot programme, Desa Evermos, with almost 100 villages in Indonesia to partner with the local businesses in the villages and convert the underproductive residents into community assets by becoming its resellers.

Clarissa Loh, Senior Director at UOB Venture Management, said, “The population of more than 200 million living outside tier 1 cities in Indonesia represents a huge opportunity for Evermos given the consumer demand. As e-commerce penetration in these areas tends to be low partly due to low internet connectivity, logistics challenges and distrust or unfamiliarity of online shopping, Evermos’s innovative social commerce model can bridge the gap by enabling social sellers to market products to these consumers.”

In 2019, Evermos bagged US$8.25 million in Series A led by Jungle Ventures, with participation from Shunwei Capital and Alpha JWC.

According to a 2021 McKinsey report, Indonesia’s social commerce industry is projected to grow to US$25 billion by 2022, accelerated by COVID-19, with people looking for alternate sources of income. The pandemic had impacted employment opportunities in parts of Indonesia, including job losses seen in some families. Some resellers had been able to supplement family incomes through product sales on the Evermos platform, allowing them to earn income to tide their families over in these tough periods.

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Image Credit: Evermos

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Asia has been an attractive tech hub for investors from around the world for the past few years now. With tech hubs like India, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam among others producing unicorns and decacorns every year, the investment scene in the region has been bustling with VCs ready to ride the digitalisation and tech disruption waves. 

However, 2020 has brought about a shift in VC sentiment. With the coronavirus pandemic bringing life as we knew it to a halt, many sectors almost shut down while some like edtech, fintech, and healthtech soared. Emergent trends in the tech scene in Asia have changed and so has the overall approach of investors.

We spoke to several regional investors who helped unpack the current VC climate and shared how startups can rely on technology to leverage due diligence for better fundraising.

What the new fundraising landscape is starting to look like

There are three key changes to fundraising, according to Alex Toh, fintech investor of SC Ventures’ Innovation Investment Fund. 

Firstly, VCs have been looking more inward in their portfolio for potential internal rounds before looking for new deals. Secondly, VCs tend to scrutinise startups more carefully and with great focus on cash flow and paths to profitability. Thirdly, due diligence has been limited to virtual and as such, most deals that are done during this period are with companies that investors have already met and shortlisted.

“While there are ‘pure virtual’ deals done where investors have never met the founders in person, these are rarer and we may see less ‘new’ cross border deals for now,” Toh added.

Also read: These 3 Taiwan startups are looking to expand in Southeast Asia

With that, key areas of focus for startups looking to raise funds, grow business, and scale have also changed. 

In the new normal, agility is key. Being open to understanding the changing landscape and pivoting accordingly while being ready for due diligence is the way forward. The investor approach towards risk-taking has naturally changed — VCs are more inclined towards startups that have a future-proof plan in place, who show openness and preparedness for due diligence, and who lean on business safety and success.

This is where startups can leverage technology to eliminate human errors, maximise data analytics, and create a robust and secure data room that helps them attract funds that enable them to survive, scale, and succeed in a post-pandemic world. 

Improving fundraising efforts in terms of due diligence

Christopher Quek, a Managing Partner at TRIVE, a Singapore-based VC firm focused on Impact tech startups, shared, “Due diligence is a critical and minimum obligation for institutional VCs who are responsible for the funds given by LPs (Limited Partners). It is crucial in alternative investments as well where not all information is public. At TRIVE, we have rejected deals after stringent due diligence in the past. Due diligence also includes checking with fellow VCs and ecosystem players on the background of the founder and the startup.”

Startups, SMEs, and even big corporations can leverage technology and embrace digitalisation to help improve the overall process of due diligence. Although the efficacy of this largely depends on the nature of the business, VCs believe that tech startups tend to be easier in terms of due diligence as compared to traditional businesses that lack any form of digitalisation. In the new normal, due diligence in traditional sectors such as material sciences, food, and pharma is even more challenging due to the restrictions in visiting physical spaces.

Quek shared, “To help facilitate a smooth due diligence process, startups need to have set up data rooms ready to be released and updated as and when potential investors are keen to review. This instils confidence within the investors and helps establish a good rapport with the founders from the get-go.”

Also read: Tech-for-good: How 4 tech companies are gearing up for an uncertain future

Toh also stressed the importance of having organised data rooms. “As a startup’s traction changes very quickly, a good practice would be to segment your data rooms for each investor so you know what you provided to each and at which dates. A quick video conference call after can help address any concerns and questions the investor may have on the data.”

There are tools that help startups do this. For startups that need to quickly organise hundreds of documents for potential and even multiple investors, a data room with AI-enabled document categorisation and integrated redaction features will allow them to be ready in less than a day.

Organised data rooms are also helpful when it comes to customising your approach, which is another important thing startups should do, according to Toh. Startups should not just simply fire off information to a large number of investors, but should take time to research each investor before reaching out and provide a customised introduction or pitch deck. “While it is tempting to do a ‘spray and pray’ outreach to all VCs as more investors are willing to speak over a video conference, a customised note still differentiates your company.”

What will VCs be looking at in the new normal: Why due diligence is key

Moving forward, startup founders need to be as transparent as possible. Hiding any material information about the company and their backgrounds are never a good idea, and transparency is going to be more crucial in a post-pandemic world where the economic climate is still volatile and unstable.

“Founders also need to remember that integrity is vital in the startup journey. TRIVE has rejected startups before after receiving negative feedback on the founders from external sources,” Quek shared. 

Speaking on key areas that businesses need to focus more on in the new normal, Joe Zhang of TNB Aura, Singapore-based VC company focused on tech startups, shared, “A lot of investors are now looking at unit economics and profitability more extensively, so that is crucial. Founders also need to address the “elephant in the room” as in have a few COVID points in the pitch — how did they adjust, how did they transform the economy of their business, how are they better and safer today? Investors are more inclined towards founders who learnt their lessons, adapted and have come out with a better plan prepping for the post-pandemic world.”

Paolo Limcaoco, the Southeast Asia Investment Officer for Accion Venture Lab, Accion’s seed-stage investment initiative, shared that due diligence is key to making any investment. Amidst the global shift due to the pandemic, Accion Venture Lab has had to shift its ways of doing diligence, moving it mostly digital and remote.

Also read: Meet these 4 founders who are raising millions and redefining the way businesses are done

“Now, when looking to invest, while we look to understand the product-market fit and financial inclusion aspect of the business, as early-stage investors, an integral part of our diligence is evaluating the founders and the rest of the team, making sure that they are thoughtful, mission-aligned, and dedicated. With the pandemic, face-to-face settings are not possible anymore. So, the focus on digital meetups with the team in both formal, as well as informal settings, has become even more crucial for due diligence.” 

Limcaoco further added that while scalability remains important, sustainability has become just as crucial. He believes that highlighting the viability of the business model and operations in the future will be key for founders in the new normal. 

“Investors will want to know how your business was affected, how you survived, and what are the steps you have taken to be a company that will thrive moving forward, so startups need to be prepared to answer these questions,” he said.

One of the most important things startups should do is to research — who the investors are, how their investment portfolio looks, are they a good fit — even before reaching out. And when those questions are answered, it’s best to include that in their pitch or introduction. 

“We are strategic investors and it is very helpful to know how you can or are providing strategic value to the bank even before we start diving in on financial returns,” said Toh. “Do they know how we can help? For example, SC has a strong presence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and if your future growth market is there, it would be a very strong alignment and we see this with most of the investments we have made.”

Leveraging technology for better due diligence

Startups need to understand that moving forward, there are a few fundamental changes that have reshaped the current climate and will have impacts on the near future as well:

• How businesses communicate has changed. Businesses across Southeast Asia are unable to meet or interact physically and this has made the entire process of due diligence more time consuming and challenging
• VC sentiment has also shifted. VCs have become more cautious of their existing portfolios. They are not as keen to make new investments as before, hence the drop in fundraising across the region in Q2 and Q3; they would rather focus on maintaining existing startup cohorts. 
• The new scope within different sectors. While sectors such as edtech, online entertainment, and eCommerce are thriving, travel, and hospitality are among those that were the worst hit. However, investors are more conservative in general, so not necessarily an increase or decrease in each of these sectors can be seen.
• Initial approach is just the hand that knocks and not a foot through the door. Depending on how prepared you are and how open you are to sharing information, VCs may choose to open the door or keep it shut.
• A structured and well-kept data room is very telling. It speaks volumes about how prepared you are to not only share important information but also to keep the fundraising process going by making it easy for investors to see all the necessary information needed to determine what your long-term growth plans are.

Due diligence is the very foundation of the marriage between startup founders and VCs. An investment is at least a three to five-year-old relationship and it can be very painful to dissolve that relationship if things go wrong. This is what due diligence eliminates — it helps establish trust, transparency, and a two-way communication channel between involved parties. 

Moving forward in the new normal, startups need to understand the changing VC sentiment and be prepared, organised, and ready to share information and documents with potential investors instantly for conducting due diligence and raising funds for business growth and scalability. 

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Datasite.

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

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SOCAR raises US$55M Series B from EastBridge Partners, Sime Darby
Investors are South-Korea-based EastBridge Partners and Malaysian multinational Sime Darby Berhad; The Malaysian car-sharing platform plans to use the funding to support continuous tech enhancements, the introduction of clean mobility initiatives, and further development of its P2P car-sharing marketplace TREVO.

E-commerce firm Blibli to acquire Ranch Market operator in Indonesia
Blibli, which is backed by Indonesian conglomerate Djarum Group, will buy more than 797.8M shares of Supra Boga Lestari; Kusumo Martanto, CEO of Blibli, said in a statement that the acquisition was made to strengthen the company’s ecosystem and accelerate business expansion.

Growthwell Foods raises US$22M Series A to manufacture plant-based meat, seafood for F&B businesses
Investors include PE firm Creadev, GGV Capital, Iris Fund, Temasek and DSG Consumer Partners; The startup plans to use the capital to accelerate its business expansion and product development efforts within Southeast Asia.

Wealthtech startup Ajaib set to be unicorn with DST-led round
The online brokerage platform is understood to be raising over US$100M in its latest funding; It would be the company’s third round in this year alone, including a US$65M in March and a US$25M round in January.

SCB Abacus raises US$12M Series A to accelerate product development, talent acquisition
Backers include Openspace Ventures (lead), Vertex Ventures, and CAI Partners; SCB Abacus is a fintech spin-off in the local banking industry that enables the company to combine “the resources of a leading national bank with the expertise and scale-up experience of international venture capitals.”

Tokopedia CEO defends merger with Gojek to lawmakers
William Tanuwijaya said the merger was never intended to control the domestic market and that people still have abundant choices for similar services offered by both Tokopedia and Gojek; Reuters first reported that Indonesia’s anti-trust agency’s plans to scrutinise the merger to check for potential monopolistic behaviour.

Singapore taps Temasek, EDBI to boost SGX appeal
Gan Kim Yong, minister for trade and industry, revealed four core plans: establishing a co-investment fund, setting up a growth fund for initial public offerings, enhancing the Grant for Equity Market Singapore (GEMS) scheme, and forming a strategic partnership model for SGX.

How Tribecar aims to build business, environmental sustainability with a subscription-based car-sharing model
Tribecar has introduced a subscription service that allows customers to rent a vehicle for only S$88 a month instead of the usual price of S$128; It also runs an initiative where new drivers can sign up for this subscription service without paying for an additional New Drivers’ Surcharge during the included free hours.

Ackcio nets US$3M Series A to expand industrial monitoring applications
Investors include Atlas Ventures, Enterprise Singapore, Wavemaker Partners, and Aletra Capital Partners; Ackcio provides cutting-edge, long-range, mesh-based wireless monitoring solutions to industries such as construction, infrastructure, rail, and mining.

Vietnam’s Clevai bags US$2.1M to bolster AI-driven adaptive learning
Investors include Altara Ventures, FEBE Ventures and FJ Labs; Clevai is an AI-enabled, after-school tutoring platform for students from kindergarten to K-12; Its Clevai Math product provides live-streaming classes in mathematics with teachers from the country’s top-tier schools.

Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Giftee invests in loyalty, rewards platform TADA
The TADA investment marks Giftee’s second investment outside of Japan and is part of its expansion in Southeast Asia; Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Giftee provides an end-to-end solution, from e-gift issuance to distribution.

Crowdfunding for startups: Where to begin and how to go about it
Crowdfunding is one of the most secure methods of raising cash because no one is going to ask you to return it; They just want the goods or services that you committed to providing.

E-payments continue to drive the Philippine economy post-pandemic
The government aims to increase customer preference for digital payments by converting 50% of total retail payments to digital form and increasing the number of financially included Filipino adults to 70% by onboarding them to the formal financial system via payment or transaction accounts.

Choco Up invests US$630K in Singapore augmented reality startup BuzzAR
BuzzAR provides location-based solutions that allow retail and commerce firms to create personalized AR experiences for their customers; It also offers an AR wayfinder, which uses a point cloud to help users navigate shopping malls and view shop details with their phone cameras.

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Healthcare is all the rage. In 2020, venture funding into health tech companies nearly doubled, reaching a record US$14 billion. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, another US$7.2 billion was poured into the sector globally. For too long, healthcare has been seen as an industry too complex, too manual, too regulated, and too unwieldy for innovation.

As the world moved on to become more productive with the help of tech, globalisation and Moore’s law, healthcare remained analog, local, and inefficient– all of which had driven up the cost of healthcare. 

Then came the year 2020, when a pandemic forced the entire healthcare industry to rethink the many broken and ossified aspects of it– vaccines were made and approved at record speed, data-driven healthcare became a norm, and telehealth utilisation more than quadrupled from figures that had taken over a decade to achieve.

Technology is now seeping through healthcare systems that had revolved around brick-and-mortar facilities– hospitals, research laboratories, and care homes, just to name a few. In this article, we discuss some of the most exciting trends that are set to change everything we know about healthcare. 

Virtual care

When it comes to healthcare, there is (was) no remote working. Earlier use cases of virtual care were largely limited to niche, low acuity services. Thanks to unprecedented regulatory approvals, virtual care has now woven into a much broader set of care models across the entire acuity spectrum such as remote monitoring of blood sugar levels for diabetics, teleconsultation in family medicine, digital triaging at the emergency department, and even remote ward rounds in hospitals.

The implications are massive, as the maturation of virtual care will fundamentally change patient/clinician interactions and redefine healthcare supply/demand dynamics. Competition among clinicians will no longer be local, and home-based care may soon become a norm.

Imagine consulting a physician from the comfort of your home, and have your care team organise care workers, medical supplies, and equipment delivered to your doorsteps. 

Also Read: Pharma entrepreneur Thomas Miklavec shares his journey on expanding his startup across SEA

Data-driven healthcare

Healthcare data has long been kept within the walls of healthcare systems and electronic health record (EHR) providers. Such practices have limited the power of data and encouraged top-down, heuristic decision-making in clinical medicine. The rise of virtual care and the unbundling of healthcare services will force the migration of patient data out of EHRs and into a cloud where all providers can access it.

At-home care, home-diagnostics, virtual care, patient-reported outcomes, remote patient monitoring, genetics, social factors all contribute to a more holistic and longitudinal understanding of patients health, and are infinitely more valuable together than they are apart.

Rich and holistic patient data will in turn lead to higher precision in clinical medicine, faster research for drug development, better underwriting of risk for health payers, and ultimately – better patient outcomes. 

Value-based care

For many, allocating a significant portion of their retirement savings for old age medical treatment is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. As alluded to in my previous paragraphs, healthcare suffers from an intractable cost-disease. Having to spend a quarter of one’s savings for major surgery or millions of dollars for novel oncological therapies is simply unsustainable for both governments and individuals. 

A major driver of ever-increasing healthcare costs is the misalignment of incentives between payers, patients, drugmakers, and providers. As healthcare becomes more transparent, competitive, and tech-driven, it is almost certain that we will usher in an era where patients will pay for therapeutic outcomes (performance) rather than inputs (doses, consultations).

For healthcare systems, value-based care practices will encourage greater focus on improving, rather than attracting patients for more procedures and longer stays.

For patients, novel therapies may come in shorter therapeutic windows at a lower cost. For payers, the benefits of healthier policyholders are all too obvious. 

Bio at the crossroads

The sheer potential of biology in the coming decade probably warrants an article of its own, but we will try to cover as much as possible. 

Like healthcare (among industries), biology has long been seen as a laggard among the sciences. Compared to the many breakthroughs in physics, chemistry, and even computer sciences, much of what researchers do in biology have remained the same since the first major small molecule drug, Aspirin, was discovered in the 1890s.

As biology lacks constants and predictability, such complexities, coupled with a vast number of unknown unknowns, meant that drug discoveries are often highly bespoke and artisanal processes. However, as material sciences and computational power approach a certain level of maturity, they are beginning to allow for the unlocking of biology.

Last year, researchers at London’s Google Deep Mind unveiled the Alpha Fold A.I. system that is capable of accurately predicting up to 99.1 per cent protein folding patterns at speed. The breakthrough was touted by Arthur Levinson, CEO of Genentech, as a ‘once in a generation’ advance in biology.

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Alpha Fold demonstrated how computational methods hold the potential to transform life sciences research and speed up drug discovery. A new generation of industrialized biology platforms is now poised to enable ‘plug and play’ medicines, or new therapies that leverage a common foundation and reuse programmable components.

One such example is Moderna, whose technology will have likely a lasting impact on drug discovery timelines.

The time is ripe for us to completely rewrite the playbooks for one of society’s most critical industries that is healthcare. The transformation will take time, but if technology is applied right, we may be able to solve many of healthcare’s problems within the next decade.

As venture investors, the critical task of choosing who and what to fund for the future of healthcare will be paramount. 

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The Singapore government and its sovereign wealth fund Temasek will establish a new co-investment fund, starting with SGD1.5 billion (US$1.1 billion) in the first tranche.

Called Anchor Fund @ 65, this fund will support promising high-growth enterprises and market leaders in their public fundraising in the city-state’s public equity market, whether through primary, secondary, or dual listings.

In addition, it will provide pre-IPO financing to catalyse the growth of target enterprises and support them in their journey towards an eventual public listing.

Also Read: Temasek, DBS team up to launch growth US$500M debt financing platform for Asia’s tech startups

65 Equity Partners, a wholly-owned investment platform of Temasek, will manage the fund commercially. In addition to anchoring the investee enterprises’ public listings, Anchor Fund @ 65 aims to drive good corporate governance and facilitate shareholder value creation.

Additionally, EDBI, the investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board, intends to establish a new Growth IPO Fund to invest in later-stage enterprises, typically at two or more funding rounds away from a public listing.

Through this fund, EDBI will partner with companies to grow their operations in Singapore and work towards an eventual public listing in Singapore.

Starting with a size of up to SGD500 million (US$370 million), this fund will bridge the gap between EDBI’s typical growth-stage investments and the investments of the Anchor Fund @ 65, strengthening end-to-end access to financing for companies in the Singapore ecosystem.

Lastly, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said that it would enhance the Enhanced Grant for Equity Markets Singapore (GEMS) scheme to expand the scope of support for the Listing grant and Research Talent Development grant.

The GEMS scheme, introduced in February 2019, aims to strengthen Singapore’s equity capital market through a Listing grant, a Research Talent Development grant, and a Research Initiatives grant.

The Listing grant helps issuers defray some of their listing costs. At the same time, the Research Talent Development grant aims to groom equity research talent through the co-funding of hiring expenses and enrich research coverage of Singapore-listed companies.

Also Read: SGX, Temasek team up to advance digital asset infrastructure in capital markets

On the other hand, the Research Initiatives grant intends to support crowd-sourced initiatives to propel the development of Singapore’s equity research ecosystem.

Last month, Banking major DBS and Temasek signed an agreement to jointly launch EvolutionX Debt Capital, a US$500-million development-stage debt financing platform. Based in Singapore, EvolutionX aims to accelerate growth and nurture the next generation of technology leaders.

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Image Credit: Temasek.

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