As any HR professional will realise, the pandemic has triggered a number of organisational trends.

One particular note has been the democratisation of the crisis management function. Simply put, COVID-19 demonstrated that crisis management is no longer the remit of just a select number of senior employees or subject matter experts.

Instead, it is now a task dealt with horizontally across an organisation, an agnostic practice to serve for the good of all.

Global crises impact organisations globally, so employees at all levels have had to roll up their sleeves in this respect. Necessity has meant they need to have a part in crisis management.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in HR teams. As HR professionals are now becoming more influential regarding the shape and execution of their company’s crisis management strategy and plans.

Findings from International SOS’ APAC Trends Watch survey highlight this, as 79 per cent of relevant experts predict that HR professionals will now have an essential role on crisis management teams, particularly as we work towards an endemic COVID-19 in Singapore.

As business leaders and the authorities map out strategies to return to travel, facilitate a larger proportion of employees in the office, and return to business as usual, crisis response scenarios need to ensure a level of agility and adaptability to survive and thrive. This requires establishing framework conditions conducive to the proper conduct of the practice.

As HR is regularly responsible for the skills and development of individuals within a company, it can play a vital role in the acquisition and/or integration of these key elements into crisis management planning in the near future.

Also Read: Education is not a content business but a human one: Nas Academy’s Nuseir Yassin

Why is this trend accelerating?

HR should always have been an integral part of crisis management. Very often the lack of HR integration is due to either a poor structure by the design of the crisis team or to a silo approach that compartmentalises crisis management to a single entity.

No matter what the scenario, crises are intrinsically linked to people, thus to HR.

HR teams are gaining more responsibility for many different functions out of necessity. In contrast to many previous crises, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a significant cause of disruption for a long period of time – it is a marathon, not a sprint.

It is this dynamic that’s causing more personnel, including HR professionals, to become involved with crisis management, as the impacts on employees are different to a “normal” business crisis.

Notably, the impact on mental health has been significant. Given mental health policies often fall into the domain of the HR function, it is understandable that HR professionals are now becoming more involved in crisis management and response, particularly as we move into the recovery phase of the crisis.

But there has now been an increased level of positive integration of HR in supporting the staffing of crisis management teams in situations of exhaustion or burnout.

HR, for example, played a decisive role in identifying replacements or in providing organisational support for staff engagement; valuable support to business leaders.

How can HR teams respond to this new dynamic?

With HR professionals now becoming more involved in crisis management, the need for agile responses before, during and after a crisis and then proactive planning for the recovery phase is more important than ever.

In preparation for a crisis, HR teams should try, through regular simulation, scenario planning and benchmarking, to identify where they have gaps in knowledge and capabilities, and then proactively find partners who can provide specialist support in these areas.

Looking at COVID-19 specifically, the need for medical knowledge is clear, and many HR professionals have been looking for insight from experts and doctors into how to manage the situation and their duty of care responsibilities.

Also read: Report: Communications roadmap is key to successful startup fundraising in time of crisis

“Plans are nothing, planning is everything.” President Eisenhower was right, and that is why it is key for crisis management teams to be able to train in immersive, dynamic scenarios to test their responses, processes and teamwork.

Regular simulation and crisis planning sessions organised by HR, and to which HR will proactively participate (through their representative or as observers), can therefore be a game-changer when making decisions in the pressure cooker environment of a crisis.

Recovery phase

With regards to the recovery phase of crisis management, HR professionals should work closely with their crisis management colleagues and/or key stakeholders that were involved to provide effective employee communications.

Openness and transparency in this area are vital. Crisis management plans and strategies must be shared at different levels in order to foster a collective dynamic and proactive (re)actions.

Furthermore, clarity is key, as confusion is likely to cause further stress for employees. Specifically, regarding COVID-19, employees are likely to be anxious about various issues. Fear over catching the virus, uncertainty about any planned return to the office as well as feeling under strain from the blurring of work and home lives due to work from home experiences.

In this situation, the response of HR professionals in managing crisis recovery can be key. Not only can actions be taken to improve staff morale affected by the pandemic, but also processes can be improved to account for the changing working environment.

It’s almost inevitable that the working environment that organisations and employees face post-pandemic is going to be different to the one that preceded it.

However, while the challenges that the HR function faces might now differ, it’s clear that the crisis management lessons that should have been learnt during the pandemic (through an After Action Review or a global Gap analysis) need to be remembered.

By embracing the responsibilities of supporting and being a key part of the crisis management team, HR professionals remain at the heart of the battle and can ensure that their organisation’s recovery is an effective one, improving both business outcomes and the productivity and morale of their workforce.

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Go Zayaan, an online travel agency (OTA) startup in Bangladesh, has raised US$2.6 million in a seed round led by Wavemaker Partners.

The round saw participation from other SEA-focused VCs, including 1982 Ventures and Iterative, and angels such as Airbnb China CEO Kum Hong Siew, former Airbnb APAC managing director JJ Chai, and five former Priceline executives.

Liechtenstein-based private investment company Century Oak Capital also joined.

Focusing primarily on the Bangladesh market, Go Zayaan plans to use the fresh capital to improve user experience, attracting new talents, and expand its customer base and travel service network.

Also read: From the contributor community: The future of travel, user retention strategies, and more

Founded in 2017 by digital marketing-savvy entrepreneur Ridwan Hafiz, Go Zayaan works with local airlines, inter-city bus firms, hotels and tour operators to bring more travel services online.

The startup aims to bridge the gap between offline and online travel services by creating a holistic travel booking infrastructure, including financing, transport modes and lodging options, and integrations with the country’s mobile financial services industry.

While OTAs only take up about 4-6 per cent of the total travel market in Bangladesh, travel suppliers are catching on fast with digital technology adoption in recent years.

During the pandemic, as tourism face headwinds, Go Zayaan decided to focus on domestic tourism and boasts of achieving a 5X growth rate in the past 12 months.

The startup also claims to have clocked over 500,000 monthly active users and 40 per cent returning customers to date.

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Image Credit: Go Zayaan

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Vietnam’s fintech has emerged as a rising star in the ASEAN region lately. Why should you choose the fintech market, and how to start a fintech business here? Let’s explore.

Within the context of a robust digital transformation wave covering every aspect of the economy, fintech is definitely on the top list of potential and high-return investments. CSIRO (2019) has considered Vietnam one of the rising stars in the global fintech industry.

The fintech ecosystem in the country grew from 44 startups in 2017 to over 130 companies in 2021, as cited by the Vietnam Fintech Report 2020, a remarkable growth rate of 173 per cent within three years. The revenue of the industry was estimated to be US$7.8 billion in 2020 (Vietnam Briefing), fueled by the rising adoption of digital transactions, a growing e-commerce sector, and the support of the government in promoting fintech as part of the bigger national plan on pursuing a digital economy by 2030 (Fintech News).

Most investors in Vietnamese fintech startups are foreign investors, including financial institutions and venture capital funds. For example, Momo’s latest series D funding round was co-led by Warburg Pincus and Goodwater Capital at over US$100 million.

In recent years, fintech has grown to a multi-disciplinary industry that includes e-wallet payment services, financial literacy, fundraising and crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, wealth management services, mobile money, and even the trending sub-sector of cryptocurrencies.

Among the 130+ fintech startups, the top five most active sectors are digital payments solutions (31 per cent), P2P lending (17 per cent), blockchain (13 per cent), and wealth management and POS services tying at 7.5 per cent.

In terms of payment methods providers such as digital wallets, Vietnam ranked high in terms of usage density owing to a young demographic, the rising smartphone users, and the upward development of e-commerce sites, according to EY’s ASEAN Fintech Census 2018.

Along with the increasing trend of digital payments, the total transaction value of this sector is expected to reach nearly 30 million dollars in 2025. Listed in the top fintech companies in Vietnam are Momo, Nextpay, Zalopay, VayMuon, and Kilimo Finance, among others, specialised in various fields.

Also Read: Touchstone Partners launches ‘no-frills’ incubation programme in Vietnam

Consistent with Fintech Singapore’s report on the Vietnam fintech market, B2C sub-sectors dominated in terms of quantity and investment amount, B2B sub-sectors such as SMEs financing, digital banking, and data/credit/scoring management only amounted to an insignificant number.

This helps predict the likely fintech trends shortly, with new startups perhaps filling in the gap.

However, the past years have also witnessed positive expansions of the digital banking system, signifying cooperation between fintech businesses and traditional commercial banks.

As noted by the Digital Banking in Vietnam by Austrade (2020), the banking sector in Vietnam is driven by trends of digital transformation as the Vietnamese government is initiating a solid push towards a digital economy.

Innovations in mobile banking, QR code payment, and cooperation with other e-wallet enterprises have been applied by many banks such as MBBank, BIDV, and Techcombank, which have become even more critical in the context of COVID-19.

The most recent prominent case is the partnership between Shinhan Financial Group and Grab to develop new payment applications.

Opportunities for FDI investors in the Vietnam fintech industry

As one of the fastest-growing industries, fintech has been an attractive destination for many investors. According to CB Insights, one out of every five dollars invested in venture capital so far is in fintech.

Looking at Vietnam’s foreign investment market, between 2019 and 2020, the Vietnamese fintech market attracted US$435 million in funding, which was the second-highest in the ASEAN region. The increase in e-payment and online commerce due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought confidence to investors in the fintech industry in Vietnam.

Undoubtedly, this sector has been the topmost attractive investment sector since the beginning of 2021 to now.

Fintech regulations in Vietnam

Vietnamese laws currently provide neither a definition of fintech nor a single comprehensive regulatory framework for fintech activities, which is a bottleneck for the ecosystem. Current regulations are mainly concerned with fintech activities in the payment industry.

Fintech products in Intermediary Payment Service Provider (IPS) are governed by Decree 101 on non-cash payments and Circular 39 on IPS. IPS includes financial switching services, electronic clearing services, payment gateway services, supporting services for money collection and payment, supporting services for electronic money transfer, and e-wallet services.

Also Read: Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the most attractive fintech hubs in SEA

Following this Decree, IPS providers must be locally established enterprises that have obtained a license to provide IPS (“IPS License”) from the SBV. Therefore, foreign investors can invest in fintech in Vietnam through a legal entity. Currently, the government is drafting a new decree that will replace Decree 101 on non-cash payments.

One of the new policies mentioned in the Draft Decree amending and replacing Decree 101 is the proposed regulation of IPS agent activities assigned by banks to fintech businesses. If this Decree is passed, the market will be fiercely competitive in service quality and fees.

Regarding the future development of fintech, the government has issued many programs and projects. Among them is the legal framework for virtual assets such as cryptocurrencies. This sector bears a massive potential to the future payment services and the finance industry as a whole and a regulatory sandbox for the fintech sector.

As the government had newly issued a draft decree on regulatory sandbox for the banking sector in 2020, it will provide fintech businesses with a rigorous legal environment to test their services and products.

Key legal issues when setting up a fintech business

When thinking about establishing a fintech business, here are some fundamental legal issues that you should pay attention to:

• Entity formation and registration
• Licensing and sublicensing, as some fintech activities require a special license, for example, the IPS license – Intermediary Payment Services or a Non-Bank Credit Institution – NBCI.
• Registration of appropriate business line
• Special ownership arrangements: stock options, preferred shares, team member stock options, etc.
• Technology contract
• Intellectual property protection and cybersecurity issues

Market access and operational conditions for foreign investors

As stated above, regarding the regulations focused on electronic payment gateway services, here are some market access and operational conditions for foreign investors to keep in mind. The most popular form of investment for foreign investors in Vietnam fintech is to license authorities to perform intermediary payment services under their approved business lines.

The 6499 VSIC code, interpreted as “Other financial service activities not elsewhere classified (except for insurance and social insurance”, has been the most common for companies providing Payment Intermediary Service at the time being. Additionally, non-bank institutions can only be allowed to undertake the payment intermediary service after attaining a Provision of Payment Intermediary Services (“License “) from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).

The prime condition for attaining this License is a minimum charter capital of at least 50 billion VND. In addition, the company must satisfy the following criteria: a comprehensive business scheme, a legal representative and technical infrastructure, and IT systems appropriate to the requirements of intermediary payment services.

As of October 2020, there are 41 licensed service providers in Vietnam approved by the SBV, including Napas, Viettel Pay, and FPT.

Also Read: Deconstructing digital banking: How it can cater to the underserved in Malaysia

However, peer-to-peer lending is a case when it is not included as “Banking Services and Other Financial Services” under WTO commitments between Vietnam and other members. P2P Lending companies, in fact, unlike companies in the financial services business, provide a digital technology platform instead of giving money/loans.

An Official Letter No. 5228/NHNN/CSTT dated 8 July 2019 of the SBV stated: “In Vietnam, some companies have registered their business lines as financial advisory, financial brokerage, and self-introduction as P2P Lending companies providing services to connect investors and borrowers; however, the current Vietnamese law is yet to have regulations on P2P Lending activities”.

Hence, at present, there is no specific business line for P2P Lending Companies to register under the Vietnamese laws, and foreign investors have to apply for investment approval from the relevant Ministries and follow the process to obtain the investment license to start a P2P lending business in Vietnam.

Entry strategy for foreign investors in Vietnam’s fintech market

The potential of the Vietnam fintech industry is undeniable and foreign investors could choose from a wide array of market entry modes. Here are some of the most notable cases with success entering the Vietnam market.

In August 2021, Vietnam’s fintech ecosystem welcomed an Indonesia-based fintech startup – Kredivo, through a joint venture deal. The startup offers “buy now, pay later” solutions and has partnered with Phoenix Holdings, a diversified portfolio of financial services, to establish Kerdivo Vietnam JSC.

“The launch of Kredivo in Vietnam, our first market outside Indonesia, is another key achievement and milestone for the business this year,” said its COO Valery Crottaz. This is because the country has low penetration of credit cards and a rapidly growing middle class, together with the booming e-commerce market, he added.

In terms of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals, activities are becoming more robust as a massive number of large deals were made in the last few years, according to Vietnam Fintech Report 2020. For example:

• In September 2018, Grab acquired a Moca – a Vietnamese mobile payment startup
• In December 2019, Ant Financial acquired a substantial stake in e-wallet eMonkey, and in November 2019, Lazada Vietnam integrated eMonkey into its platform.
• September 2020, Indonesia’s Gojek has acquired a controlling interest in WePay.

In conclusion, there are inevitable opportunities for the fintech ecosystem in Vietnam and other fundraising organisations and investors in the world. The growth of this sector is also well-aligned with government direction towards a digitalised economy and society shortly.

Although the fintech sector in Vietnam remains a significant challenge related to a holistic regulatory framework, a well-trained human resource, and the rapid development of advanced technologies, the Vietnam fintech market is expected to take huge leaps in the future.

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Investible, a seed investment group in Australia, today announced the launch of a new US$72 million climate tech fund. 

This comes close on the heels of the first close of Investible’s second US$38.8-million sector-agnostic fund in June. 

The new climate tech fund will back seed-stage global startups, with the cheque sizes ranging from US$500,000 to US$800,000.

Half of the fund will be used to participate in follow-on rounds.

The fund’s six sectors of interest are energy, transportation, industry, buildings and cities, food and agriculture, and forest and land use. These are selected by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) as the most important for achieving a low-carbon, more resilient future.

According to a press statement, while the fund will primarily focus on Australian businesses, it will earmark up to 30 per cent of its capital for other international markets.

Launched in 2014 by entrepreneurs-turned-angel investors Creel Price and Trevor Folsom, Investible combines instinct and insights to back the next generation of game-changers. The firm has de-risked portfolios by distilling the complexities of early-stage investing into a thorough and consistent process. 

Also read: Circulate Capital hits US$14M first close of new climate-tech fund

Its prominent portfolio startups are graphic design platform Canva, online beauty site Ipsy, Singaporean Parcel Perform, and Indonesia’s Eden Farm.

“The numbers show a large and diverse portfolio approach is key to generating stronger returns. Over the last decade, Investible has built a proven screening and investment methodology to both sources high-quality deal flow and offer a compelling proposition to highly sought-after early-stage companies,” said CEO Rod Bristow.

Investible has built a climate-focused investment team managed by Tom Kline, CEO of New Energy Solar, and Patrick Sieb, who has 22-year experience in infrastructure and technology investment banking. 

Climate emergency and global regulatory tailwinds in the sector have provided a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity for technology investors. Investible is said to double down on its efforts to expedite that growth.

“The size and urgency of the problem mean that businesses that help solve it will be precious,” said Kline. “The scale of climate action required is so significant that it will require a transformation across almost every industry and country.”

Kline believes that climate techs provide an unparalleled opportunity for entrepreneurs as they develop profitable firms while addressing one of humanity’s most pressing issues.

UNEP’s emissions gap report echoed this viewpoint. It underlined that faster adoption of technologies plays a critical role in allowing large-scale improvements in global emission to achieve the 1.5°C temperature goal by 2030 as stated in the Paris Agreement. 

In August, with funding from the City of Sydney, Investible launched Greenhouse, a growth hub dedicated to enabling climate tech startups to scale in the late of next year.  

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Image Credit: Investible

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We live in a world where things are bought with just a click of a button— easy, fast, and so very tempting. The pandemic bolstered this, with consumers moving dramatically to online channels for shopping and retailers responding in return with advanced digital strategies to better interact with their customers.

The shift has been significant, with McKinsey identifying that COVID-19 has prompted the rapid digitisation of customer interactions.

APAC is leading the pack with an adoption acceleration rate of four years when it comes to digital transformation. 

Interestingly, despite the region accounting for three-fourth of all global retail growth, Southeast Asia has the lowest regional e-commerce market share globally. Such statistics may come as a surprise, especially with Shopee, Lazada, and Zalora dominating the restricted e-commerce space. Still, it does indicate that there are significantly ample opportunities to scale.

SYNC expects the value of Southeast Asia’s e-commerce to nearly double in five years, up from a US$132 billion sales forecast in 2021. 

Such momentum has a two-fold effect: setting the bar high for many retailers competing in the highly saturated retail space while placing pressure on those trying to pivot from traditional to digital but may not necessarily have the capabilities to support the move.

Resultantly, it comes as no surprise that many are scrambling to find intelligent solutions to stay ahead in the digital race. 

E-commerce: The data battlefield

For small businesses and retail startups to make a name for themselves, they need to compete with leading e-commerce marketplaces— or at least have access to tools that can better level the playing field.

For one, e-commerce marketplace Shopee handles an average of 2.8 million transactions per day across nine countries, with a deluge of sale events on a near-monthly basis.

The advantage? A huge base of data points to be utilised to enhance their business and customer engagement strategies. Online brands should have the same data at their fingertips, but the fact is, not all can benefit from the same access and value from their data.

Also Read: How the tech-enabled second-hand fashion resale market is growing in Asia

Hence, the battle ensues— the ongoing race to transform data into actionable insights. 

Without data, brands and retailers lack the validation and visibility of their current market position. The repercussions for this can be considered, including a higher risk of misinformed business decisions— be it inventory stock-outs, over discounting, or ineffective marketing campaigns, to name a few.

This, in turn, has a knock-on effect on a brand’s competitive position with significant financial implications in the form of wasted retail dollars and loss of critical market share. But the challenge doesn’t end there.

For those who have looked to tech infrastructures such as retail SaaS solutions, the lack of interoperability across these systems has made it more difficult for brands to understand what their data is saying.

The average retail company of 50 employees will deploy anywhere from 70 to 83 retail SaaS solutions in 2025— an alarming number that points to the risks of a siloed set-up.

With so many SaaS solutions, consolidating insights is too tedious, time-consuming, and resource-intensive— especially for small businesses— to serve as the foundation for real-time implementation.

In today’s market, this effectively equates to missed opportunities. 

Survival of the fittest

To better make sense of their data, artificial intelligence can go a long way, transforming the entirety of the data collection process: from creating self-enhancing models that can accurately filter through the data to the consolidation of the data to provide visualised insights.

That being said, maximising cost efficiencies should be the top priority when evaluating retail tech investments, and sometimes, less is more.

A single synergistic AI solution can be sufficient and effective in serving decision-makers through all aspects of the retail value chain. Here’s how: 

Foresight in designing and merchandising 

Retailers worldwide lose over US$1.1 trillion every year due to out-of-stocks and overstocks alone. Individually, this could account for up to 11.7 per cent of lost revenue. AI can address such inefficiencies by offering insights into assortment planning and stock allocation.

Through scraping, analysing and synthesising the data made available online, an AI-based tech stack can provide an end-to-end view of consumer preferences across multiple platforms and, as a result, allow them to reflect actual market demand and optimise inventory flow. 

Agility in sales 

Pricing is always a tricky game to play, especially with your biggest rivals breathing down your neck. Accenture indicated that companies risk losing up to 20 per cent of revenue growth without digital operating models that support agility at speed.

Sophisticated AI algorithms such as Omnilytics’ Product Match can mitigate this. Taxonomies (structured naming conventions) are applied to the product data once the data is scraped from all retailers and marketplaces in the market; taxonomies (structured naming conventions) are used to the product data.

Text, image, and feature models are then used to filter out a sample of matching competitor products. With this, brands can see how their products are performing against competitors and on different retail platforms and subsequently plan effective pricing strategies to maximise revenue from all their product offerings.

Curation in management

Synthesising and visualising all data points, AI systems can provide hyper-accurate trend forecast reports that can help brands fine tune their business strategies and react before the market to increase profitability and hit their growth milestones for the year.

Also Read: Looking past the pandemic: The future of fashion retail in Southeast Asia

Ultimately, an all-encompassing AI solution can grant a 360 view of market demand, enabling management to make effective data-driven decisions based on actionable data intelligence. With such technology, a single key is all you need.

Conquering the high street

Indeed, transforming data into intelligence is the only way for retailers to mark their territory in the e-commerce arena. Brands, no matter how established or new, have to evolve their digital on-ramp strategies to include more robust tech capabilities that can withstand the harshest of seasons and enable them to establish dominance in the retail space. 

Building the future blueprint of retail intelligence involves its adoption in the immediate present, and brands are stepping up their game.

With a plethora of solutions now on the market, a holistic retail tech stack will soon become an essential arm of the retail system.

Retail data has already disrupted the way retailers do business. Now, retail intelligence is here to propel them further — the opportunities are endless, and it’s only just the beginning. 

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