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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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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.
Singapore-based Accredify, a company that allows organisations to create and issue verifiable documents, today announced the closing of a US$2-million financing round led by VC firm Qualgro.
Pavilion Capital, Endeavour Ventures, and K2 Global also participated.
Accredify was founded in 2019 to provide a solution to combat a rise in fraudulent education degree certificates in the higher education sector. It assists Asia’s top universities in the creation and issuance of digital tamper-proof graduation certificates and transcripts.
To verify documents, users can drag and drop the digital document into an online verifier portal. The results are instantaneous.
The company says all digital documents issued by Accredify’s cloud-based system are tamper-proof and traceable back to the source of issuance.
The startup is currently expanding its services to enable universities to create modular learning programmes for students. This initiative allows students to customise their degrees based on individual courses they apply for.
In addition, Accredify offers a suite of APIs and options for systems-to-systems integration. Organisations can create and prepare individualised tamper-proof digital credentials in large batches at the single click of a button.
The firm works with more than 900 clients in Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, and the UAE. It claims it has verified more than seven million documents so far.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Accredify expanded its offerings and entered Singapore’s healthcare industry by pioneering the issuance of verifiable COVID-19 swab results following a rise in cases of forged COVID-19 negative test results. Accredify also co-developed HealthCerts, an internationally recognisable standard for COVID-19 test results. The test results issued by Accredify are recognised in 82 countries and by 70 airlines.
Accredify co-founder and CEO Quah Zheng Wei said, “Over the decades, there has been a transition from physical to digital documents, and we believe the next phase is an evolution towards verifiable digital records. Our goal is to be the leader in Asia in digital document verification.”
In September 2020, Accredify announced a partnership with SGInnovate to launch a digital health passport that would help accelerate the re-opening of travel borders. The passport allows individuals to store their medical information, including COVID-19 testing and vaccination reports digitally signed by accredited bodies, on the app. By using blockchain technology, medical records in the app can be traced back to the source.
Friz co-founders Friz Ash Rhazaly and Nirali Zaveri (R)
Friz, a neobank for freelancers, has announced the completion of its oversubscribed seed funding round of US$1 million from a host of investors, including Indonesia’s Amand Ventures, Iterative Ventures, and Y Combinator.
An Ivy League University Endowment Fund, founders and CEOs of unnamed Indian e-commerce startups, and early Qonto and Funding Societies employees also joined the round.
This deal follows a pre-seed round from investors, including Y Combinator, 500 Durians, 500 TukTuks, and Iterative in April this year.
According to The Online Labour Index, the freelancer economy has almost doubled since 2016, with 70 per cent of the global freelancing talent coming from Asia.
Workers are embracing project-based work increasingly due to trends in remote work and growth in freelancing platforms. However, most non-salaried, contract freelancers face difficulty accessing basic banking products like tailored debit cards, credit cards, or invoicing.
A considerable part of the problem is that traditional consumer banking is built for salaried employees, and most freelancers cannot open a business bank account without business entities.
Friz wants to solve this issue by providing a neobank in partnership with Matchmove, Mastercard and Funding Societies.
Launched in April 2020, Friz leverages data insights to provide financial products including credit cards, personal loans, insurance, savings and investment products for freelancers. With Friz, freelancers can manage their incomes, expenses, savings and borrowings, all under one roof.
Since its inception, Friz claims to have registered 500 per cent growth month on month.
“70 per cent of our customers are very unhappy with mass-market banking and want a personalised financial tool that solves their problems. Our users are tired of broken financial solutions and being excluded from basic financial services,” Nirali Zaveri, CEO and co-founder of Friz, said.
Since its launch in Singapore, Friz has seen organic traction amongst digital marketers, content creators, programmers, accountants, lawyers and many more knowledge economy freelancers who cannot wait to experience financial freedom.
Japan’s heavy manufacturing conglomerate Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., through its Precision Machinery Business Division, has partnered with the Intellectual Capital Management Group (ICMG) Co., Ltd. to hold the Co-Creation Challenge, a competition that calls upon innovators to collaborate on solving four pressing sustainability challenges faced by the world today.
Selected entities such as startups and research institutions will gain the opportunity to leverage KHI’s assets and expertise to co-create innovative solutions. This opportunity includes conducting PoC and scalable projects in collaboration with the KHI Precision Machinery Division team. The location of PoC is to be determined as it depends on the entities selected. Those interested in this Challenge are highly encouraged to sign up through the website.
Since its establishment in 1896, Kawasaki has positioned innovation front and foremost, captured by its “Global Kawasaki” value centred on advocating for environmental sustainability in creating a brighter future for generations to come. This value carries over to the Precision Machinery Business Division, Kawasaki’s hydraulic components and systems maker founded in 1968 that has adhered to its principal creeds of “consideration for the global environment” and “safety and security”.
ICMG, as a partner in the competition, shares the same spirit of leveraging Asia’s innovation ecosystem to address social issues, with the aim of “creating purposeful and impactful innovation to the world”.
The DNA of innovation
Through the competition, Kawasaki and ICMG call upon innovators, or co-creators, who are also pursuing “the DNA of Innovation” to put their best ideas related to four distinct challenges on the table, with the end mission of delivering “abundance” and an “enjoyable daily life” to those coming into contact with the resulting products.
The theme of the first challenge is creating a sustainable housing development ecosystem, which falls under the Challenge Statement for Housing. This challenge correlates to providing a safe, secure, and comfortable living environment for the global population, estimated by the United Nations to hit 9.7 billion, of which 72% will live in urban areas, by 2050. Here, Kawasaki looks forward to collaborating with co-creators to reduce the negative environmental impact of housing developments by optimising construction processes as well as utilising sustainable natural materials and manufacturing equipment.
Moreover, Kawasaki aims to boost the energy efficiency of the construction process to attain carbon neutrality from upstream to downstream, with smart construction as one of the potential solutions. Given the focus on sustainable construction, co-creators that KHI seek include those with the expertise to develop new housing development materials, especially natural, and technologies as well as those that have automation, mechanisation, and digitalisation solutions for the safety and security of construction sites. To facilitate co-creators, Kawasaki will provide working assets, from hydraulic technology to teams of experts knowledgeable in mechanical technology.
The second challenge adopts the theme of creating a sustainable energy ecosystem with hydrogen energy as it is linked to the Challenge Statement for Energy. The challenge is a response to escalating climate issues and the falling behind of sustainability goals outlined in the Paris Agreement by the United Nations. Kawasaki intends to accelerate the implementation of sustainability measures by promoting decarbonisation through the heightened use of hydrogen-related technologies for producing, transporting, and utilising hydrogen which is a clean and readily available source of energy.
Therefore, co-creators that KHI seek include those that intend to leverage hydrogen, including using hydrogen to replace fossil-fuel-powered equipment, to forge a sustainable energy society. Co-creators will have at their disposal Kawasaki’s invaluable assets, such as high-precision control technology for hydrogen gas and wave power generation systems producing clean energy, to design and deploy the solutions.
The third challenge marked by Kawasaki is creating sustainable smart ports, which slips under the Challenge Statement for Logistics. As the world economy becomes more enmeshed with one another through the global division of labour, cargo volume has shot upwards as local producers spread across continents export their products. Kawasaki observes the need for marine logistics to maintain agile supply chains, especially at a time when COVID-19 has forced ports to curtail their activities. Congruently, the exposure of port workers towards risks, including physical injuries due to their heavy nature of work, requires significant reductions for the safety of all. Here, technology can offer breakthroughs via sophisticated port operating systems embedded with Internet of Things (IoT) and digital transformations (DX) that enable the realisation of sustainable “smart ports”.
These technologies must also enhance workplace safety and operational efficiency, allowing ports to run smoothly even when human resources are deficient. Communities surrounding the port need to feel the positive impact for these technologies as well, considering that a win-win solution contributes positively to the working environment. The considerable focus on logistics necessitates co-creators to be fluent with smart port systems and technologies, encompassing freight management, port equipment manufacturing, and automation solution providers. Co-creators have the freedom to access Kawasaki’s assets, which also comprises software and IoT-compatible control technologies, besides the company’s worldwide production and sales bases.
The last challenge has direct implications for daily life since it borrows the Challenge Statement for Food Security, which is creating a sustainable ecosystem promoting food circulation. The first challenge has already raised the issue related to the global population explosion, which will potentially trigger a food crisis due to various causes, notably climate change and the decreasing number of workers in primary industry. All this raises the world’s susceptibility to food crises induced by inadequate food production. Kawasaki sees the urgency in tackling this issue by advancing sustainable food production via sensing technologies, digitalisation, and robotics.
These innovations will digitally transform agriculture, producing machinery and systems that can withstand harsh environments, maintain yields amid labour shortages, and ensure safety for the present workers. More than possessing a deep understanding of food production and consumption, co-creators must have the know-how of inserting technology such as software into food production machines.
Co-creators with the capacity of designing technologies to transform waste into valuable consumption will be at an advantage as well. These co-creators will gain access to Kawasaki’s range of agricultural assets, also comprised of Hydro Static Transmission (HTS) systems that can act as human limbs and Camera Stabiliser that will benefit automation to reduce workload and promote workplace safety.
Submit your entries today
Co-creators keen to spell out their solutions to the above challenges can submit their entries up to the deadline of 15 October 2021.
Upon the receiving of proposals, Kawasaki will announce on 12 November the selected applicants who will move to the next stage, namely the Co-Creation Session which will be held up to 27 January 2022 to further delve into the business opportunities of the solution with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. Precision Machinery Business Division and ICMG.
Kawasaki’s internal panel will finally organise the judgement for the continuation of the next steps as a co-creation partner on 28 January 2022. Interested co-creators can check out further details and send in their entry here.
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by ICMG
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Banks are about to be hit by the same sucker punch that e-commerce landed on brick and mortar stores and how Netflix landed on cable TV.
Banks need to start adopting digital asset services solutions in this digital era, just like how every retailer needs e-commerce to be a part of their core business to avoid being left behind.
The financial industry has adopted digital solutions on a piecemeal basis with a disjointed assortment of systems and integrations as a result, with fintech companies building sleek UX and top-layer solutions on top of a complete mess.
Emergency loans in the US, for example, are a lot quicker with fintech through traditional banks, Small Business Administration loans or virtual banks in HK.
Fintech was a false dawn for internet-based money and innovations that banks have mainly co-opted and the industry, serving up better user experiences but very little else. Existing fintech is classified as the old guard of TradFi, with a fancy frontend on the same banking technology that existed 20 years ago.
DeFi represents a step-change in providing more than just digitisation. It creates an all-encompassing base layer, always-on and does not have a central point of weakness. We have already seen crypto trading take off in a big way and believe that lending protocols will change how money works.
TradFi has yet to decide how it feels about crypto
Traditional finance (TradFi) is not ready to go entirely into the crypto industry, just like Walmart has only half-heartedly embraced early e-commerce. Some legacy institutions like JP Morgan are co-opting with crypto and, at the same time, occasionally dismissing it.
Banks need to stay on top of how DeFi can change the modern financial system, similar to how e-commerce has disrupted industries. With banks trying to adopt DeFi, fintech will become increasingly meaningless.
The promise of DeFi is a lot bigger than fintech, and we are building an efficient lending protocol with greater transparency where investors can continuously monitor loan payments, spread their risks geographically and by sector without risks of system failure.
Blockchains are exciting places to build new infrastructure, especially for financial services. Crypto has already shown that you can swiftly launch and attract funding for new ventures. In addition, public blockchains such as Ethereum provide the rails for building new financial tools in an efficient way.
The crypto lenders have grown immensely by attracting liquidity and providing a beautifully simple way to deposit assets and earn interest through them or even borrow assets. Soon, crypto native and DeFi will become by-words for the e-commerce world.
To keep up, banks and finance companies will need to embrace crypto as part of an “omnichannel” offering, in the same way, Walmart and IKEA have Click & Collect.
Otherwise, TradFi will be classified as the same negative frame of reference as “Brick and Mortar”.
Momentum is building now
DeFi is still in its early stages, but the ecosystem will continue to mature with more experienced TradFi players joining the front. Not only mirroring TradFi but also improving for better options.
Initially, we were focused on servicing borrowers who struggle to attract debt financing from traditional channels and where over-collateralisation is not an option.
However, we quickly see a future where companies with global business opportunities will unlock economic potential through connection to redefined capital markets. We are already seeing banks starting to serve cryptocurrency and traditional institutional investors getting excited by DeFi, not just for the attractive yields on offer but because of the transparency, security, and ease of use through web apps.
We believe that DeFi represents the e-commerce moment for finance. If you are building a new financial service, you either make it on legacy systems with massive operational risk and liabilities, or you build it on a public blockchain at lightning speed.
Public blockchains like Ethereum will be a natural choice for building financial services and businesses in the future. Investors are already allocating funds to DeFi as they agree that this is the future. However, banks moving into crypto are trying to square a circle and have introduced further liabilities by building on top of their legacy systems.
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DutyCast, the creator of a browser extension that helps consumers buy online globally with ease, has scored undisclosed funding from Vietnam-based VinaCapital Ventures.
It is not clear how DutyCast is going to utilise the capital. We are contacting the startup for more details and will update this news story accordingly.
Founded in 2020 by four Vietnamese, DutyCast aims to improve the cross-border e-commerce experience for shoppers by providing transparency and security around final prices, duties, taxes, and related logistics expenses.
As stated on the company’s website, the startup ensures “no hidden fees or surprise charges” for customers.
After adding DutyCast extension to the browser, users can then shop and put products of multiple stores in one single Dutycast cart, checkout once, and pay in local currency with a credit/debit card, bank transfer or cash on delivery (COD).
“Anyone living here or in other countries knows how difficult and sometimes frustrating it can be to order from online retailers based overseas. Dutycast provides a straightforward solution to that,” said Trung Hoang, partner at VinaCapital Ventures.
He believes that the DutyCast solution can scale beyond Vietnam and said that the VC would assist DutyCast in realising this international ambition.
DutyCast supports customers to shop at several sites, including Amazon, iHerb, Sephora, ASOS and Ulta Beauty. The startup claims it is expanding its global partner network to more than 1,000 stores with the likes of Victoria’s Secret, Nike, and Bath&Body Works.
In 2020, Vietnam’s e-commerce market reached US$11.8 billion, which accounted for 5.5 per cent of the total retail sales in the country, as per a report released by Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency, Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
According to Facebook and Bain & Company’s annual Southeast Asia report, Vietnam’s e-commerce sales is forecast to upsurge from an estimated US$12 billion in 2021 to US$56 billion in 2026, ranking only after Indonesia.
This growth rides on the tailwinds of the young and digital-savvy population and a widening middle class of the country.
Aspire lands US$158M Series B to scale its ‘all-in-one finance OS’ for SMEs across SEA
Investors include undisclosed global growth equity firm, DST Global, CE Innovation Fund, B Capital and Fasanara Capital; Aspire serves a new generation of internet businesses with a mobile-first digital account across Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.
Ascend Money becomes Thailand’s first fintech unicorn following US$150M funding
Investors are Bow Wave Capital Management, Charoen Pokphand Group and Ant Group; Ascend Money operates the digital payment and financial service platform TrueMoney; It has already made inroads into Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.
Investible targets new US$72M early-stage climate tech fund
While the fund will predominantly focus on Australian businesses, it will also invest up to 30% internationally; It will invest in companies that assist in reducing emissions across six sectors– energy, transport, industry, buildings and cities, food and agriculture, and forests and land use.
New Singapore VC fund to invest US$75M into crypto, blockchain firms
Launched as a variable capital company, the fund will focus on pre-series A and series A companies working on blockchain-based or DLT infrastructure, DeFi solutions, and regulatory tech tools; The fund was formed by SBI Group, Sygnum, and Azimut Group.
Vertex Ventures eyes raising US$400M in new SEA, India fund
Vertex aims to kickstart the process of raising its fifth fund for SEA and India by Q2 2022; The VC firm is looking to invest with its fifth fund in 2023, after wrapping up its fourth fund by the end of 2022; While India, Singapore and Indonesia have been the focus for the VC firm, it is now also hunting for investments in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Enterprise SaaS startup Quincus raises Series B at US$100M+ valuation
Investors are by US-based UP.Partners (lead) and GGV Capital; Quincus is an enterprise SaaS platform that helps solve logistics problems for logistics providers, e-commerce, airlines, freight, and household brands worldwide.
Lippo Group invests US$3.3M in fintech startup Moolahgo’s pre-series A round
Singaporean Moolahgo’s eWallet app allows users to send money and make payments to 40 countries and has a network of over 1,000 banks and agents; Moolahgo will use the fresh funds to drive the startup’s expansion into the retail digital payments segment, which will be spearheaded by eWallet.
Wavemaker joins US$2.6M financing round of B’desh OTA startup Go Zayaan
Other backers are 1982 Ventures, Iterative, Airbnb China CEO Kum Hong Siew, ex-Airbnb APAC managing director JJ Chai, and five former Priceline executives; Go Zayaan works with local airlines, inter-city bus firms, hotels and tour operators to bring more travel services online.
Indonesia’s D2C beauty and wellness startup Base bags pre-Series A
Investors are Skystar Capital, East Ventures, Antler, iSeed SEA, Pegasus Tech Ventures, and XA Network; Base offers organic, vegan, and halal staple skincare products — from cleansers to sunscreen — primarily targeting the Gen-Z and millennial consumers.
Indonesian investment app Makmur scores seed funding
Investors include Beenext, Kinesys Group, Trihill Capital, and angels; Makmur enables Indonesians to plan their financial goals (emergency fund, retirement fund, and children’s education fund) on a single app.
Touchstone Partners launches ‘no-frills’ incubation programme in Vietnam
Touchstone will invest between US$50K and US$100K in convertible notes with “straightforward and founders-friendly” terms for startups; Construction B2B marketplace Debion and no-code automation SaaS Autotable are the first two startups receiving fundings from the programme.
Ease Healthcare nets US$1.3M
Investors are Insignia Ventures and high-profile members from XA Network; Ease is women-focused healthcare services startup; It will use the funds to launch its own line of products focused on preventing or improving women’s health conditions, including vaginal infections, PMS, and urinary tract issues.
