Far from appealing and trendy projects like carbon exchange or offsetting, sustainability is also a matter of under-looked and partly ignored things. To my dismay, e-waste is one of them. Why

Because dealing with trash is not noble? Because it asks us to choose between consumerism and sobriety? Because finding value in waste is never considered by companies (let’s debunk this later). Well, hard to say.

What is 100 per cent sure, though, is that e-waste is going to be one of the biggest challenges of our century … and no one knows it.

Eco-Business wrote a couple of years ago about “Defusing the e-waste bomb in Asia”. Nothing much has changed, so I guess it’s time to put this topic in the spotlight again.

So what’s the situation now in Southeast Asia? Is it the same everywhere? Are there model students in the classroom?

Is Singapore paving the way as they do in other fields (agritech, new sustainable tech, food waste)? And most importantly, what’s the risk of e-waste in the end?

To reply to these questions, I felt the need to write this mini-series to explore the situation —and possible future(s)— about e-waste in Southeast Asia, with a strong focus on three significant countries: Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

This first article is just playing the role of an appetiser to help you understand what the problem is and why a portion of Asia’s future is at stake here. Okay, no more time to (e-)waste! (Sorry, I had to do it!)

Also Read: Throwaway gold: How data can tap into the unrealised potential in plastic waste

So, let’s set the scenery first. According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2020:

• A record 53.6 million metric tonnes of e-waste was generated worldwide in 2019, and it is expected to reach 74 metric tonnes by 2030.
• Asia generated the highest quantity of e-waste in 2019 at 24.9 million metric tonnes, and the region shows the fastest growth in e-waste trends.

• While developed nations are now taking e-waste seriously by ensuring proper disposal, most middle and low-income countries do not have an adequate e-waste infrastructure. In some countries, e-waste management is even totally absent. It should not come as a surprise as e-waste management requires processes and players —thus, money— to thrive.

A vast definition …

Electronic waste or e-waste describes all discarded electronic equipment and devices. It’s not only laptops and smartphones; e-waste also includes TV, DVD players (feel old yet?), printers, machinery.

Also Read: Waste Labs raises pre-seed money to digitise, plan, improve waste collection processes using AI

They can either be:

• Refurbished/Reused after being repaired
• Resold on secondhand platform
• Recycled through material recovery
• Disposed of, purely

The 3R covers these different end-of-life scenarios (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), a key concept about waste and circularity. NEA’s section is available here in case you want to read more about it.

E-waste isn’t always easy and convenient to recycle. Local governments sometimes have e-waste collection days a few times a year, but that means that homeowners have to store the unwanted items in the meantime.

Several electronic stores will accept electronics for recycling at no cost (Best Buy and Staples). And several electronics companies take their products for recycling, including Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, and Dell.

New usages for consumers (streaming, video content-based social networks) and corporations (5G, IoT, new wave of tech) are also massively contributing to increase e-waste “mathematically”.

Indeed, new usages mostly imply better performance and up-to-date equipment, meaning the lifespan of connected devices dropped. To show this phenomenon, we can have a look at the average lifespan of the equipment.

In the 1990s, devices were supposed to live for 20–25 years; today, the average is around four to five years. With substantial gaps between consumer goods (under three years for some smartphones, for instance) and company machinery (about seven to eight years).

The growing trends of the new tech will probably make this lifespan shorter shortly, hence the need to take action now, especially in Asia, where digitisation and middle-class development is growing way faster than in other areas of the world.

More sophisticated tech also implies devices that are harder to recycle. Nano alloys, the blending of tiny portions of minerals on some motherboards, make recycling very hard (and costly!), even if you have the entire process.

You have 0.4g of gold in a random smartphone, but is it worth getting it back as you will need a tremendous amount of energy to recover it? Hmm, food for thought for you to think about the vicious link between mineral resources depletion and energy consumption.

Also Read: Go smart or go waste? Smart construction in Asia is up for grabs

… for a vast problem!

E-waste comes with a whole bunch of nasty consequences. It is tough to be exhaustive in a one-shot article, but the main issues revolve around the environment, human health and social trouble.

Environmental problem

There along comes the elephant in the Room! I guess I do not have to mention this one extensively, don’t I? You guess that dumping e-waste in the wild is not great for the planet? You guessed it right.

Examples to show the impact of e-waste on the planet;

• Improper management of e-waste contributes to global warming; A total of 98 Mt of CO2-equivalents were released into the atmosphere from discarded fridges and air-conditioners that were not managed sustainably.
• For pollution, let’s sum it up by saying that e-waste is mostly burned or buried, leading to toxic gas emissions (made of Mercury, Lead or CFCs, for instance). This causes tremendous problems for biodiversity. E-waste causes air pollution, water and soil pollution as well. For example, heavy metals and flame retardants due to e-waste burning can infiltrate soils and cause contamination of underlying groundwater or crops. When heavy metals contaminate the soil, the crops become vulnerable to absorbing these toxins, which can cause disease and drops in agricultural yields.
• The vicious part about this consequence is that — just like Cloud-based infrastructures — this footprint is outsourced somehow. Few countries take care of e-waste, so we do not see the impact. In Southeast Asia, a lot of e-waste is sent to be “processed” by Indonesia. But outsourcing e-waste management to countries that are not prepared to take care of it sustainably is a huge mistake and lead to terrible consequences (see the example of Ghana below).

In future articles, we will talk about the iconic example of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to explain how critical e-waste is for this country. Mentioning the situation in Phnom Penh is also worth, even though less heard of.

Human health problems

As mentioned earlier, toxic gas emissions are harmful to our health. Especially, mercury, lead, cadmium or polybrominated flame retardants can induce adverse health effects on human health (brain, heart, skeleton).

It can also considerably affect the nervous and reproductive systems of the human body, leading to disease and congenital disabilities. Plastic burnt in the process won’t make it better for sure either.

I don’t have the time to list all human health problems due to e-waste but if you want to know more,  check out the “disaster in the making” of e-waste-induced illnesses in China.

Social problems

These problems mentioned earlier lead conclusively to social trouble; fight for money made of illegal recycling and resources recovering. In some countries, you have parallel economies out of any government control that is thriving.

Add the tensions on markets and supply chain disruption— that is not due to e-waste management — and you have a dangerous cocktail ready to explode.

Also Read: Fixing food waste problem means less hungry people and a great economy

The situation in Agbogbloshie, Ghana, speaks for itself, with kids being intoxicated and stolen from their families to take care of dumped e-waste.

To finalise this explanation of issues due to improper e-waste management, I wanted to add one last thing. It’s not a problem per se, though, and it might even be part of the solution. Indeed, I wanted to focus on the $$$ value lost in e-waste.

If I told you that the value of raw materials in the global e-waste generated in 2019 is equal to approximately US$57 billion, would you believe it?

Then, you should, because that’s the number stated in the 2020 Global e-waste monitor report.

Another number to understand why we do not bother yet. Statista estimated that a single metric ton of circuit boards usually includes 40–800 times the gold ore concentrations mined in the US. The number is 30 to 40 times for copper.

All this give perspective, right?

Need to rethink an entire model

Today, we are not here to discuss the solutions to reduce e-waste— that’s for another day! But this article’s just an intro for you to understand what’s at stake. However, we can briefly mention some solutions (Note this order is on purpose!).

• Sobriety: Decrease our consumption of electronic devices — Companies and consumers alike
• Sustainable design: Design devices and software that are more flexible and easier to maintain/recycle (all hail Fairphone)
• More transparency: Increase consumer pressure on hardware manufacturers to get more clarity in manufacturing processes and recycling.
• Government intervention: To lead the way, Governments must provide processes, infrastructures and a legal framework to make things possible. Some countries (Japan, Taiwan) are pretty advanced on such topics today. But countries that rely on entire underground activities cannot just kiss them goodbye. E-waste regulations must be national and regional to be fruitful. We will start to look at this in the following articles, taking Singapore’s case as an example.
• Innovation; Recycling e-waste today is not a piece of cake. Innovation can help us get more value from our e-waste, but it’s the ultimate solution that should not be mentioned; first, it will not save us by itself.

I will take time in the future to explain in-depth these possible solutions — and others — but it seems pretty apparent that decreasing e-waste will ultimately lead to the necessity of rethinking an entire model and a change of mindset overall. Quick fix measures won’t be the long-term solution!

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

Hope to see you for the following article about Singapore coming out in December. So wait before you buy the new iPhone for your sister, please.

In the meantime, stay safe and join the #ReuseRevolution.

Sustainably yours …

–

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Indonesian courier startup J&T Express has secured US$2.5 billion from Boyu Capital, Hillhouse Capital Group and Sequoia Capital China, Reuters has reported.

Chinese internet and gaming powerhouse Tencent and VC firm SIG China also joined.

The round brings the unicorn’s valuation to US$20 billion, second only to Indonesia’s most valuable startup GoTo.

The proceeds of the round will be utilised to support J&T Express’s expansion plan in China and Latin America. J&T also looks to raise US$1 billion in a listing in the Hong Kong stock market as early as Q1 2022, according to a Reuters source.

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

Launched in 2015 by ex-Oppo executives Jet Lee and Tony Chen, J&T Express engages in the delivery of goods, both shipping by land, sea or air. The firm owns automated sorting warehouse networks in Singapore and Indonesia.

Since its inception, J&T has made inroads into Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and China, besides Indonesia. The foreign markets are said to make up 70 per cent of J&T’s business.

Driven by the pandemic-fulled boom in the e-commerce sector, J&T has witnessed healthy growth across all markets. In Indonesia alone, the startup delivers around 2.5 million parcels each day, up 40 per cent from the pre-pandemic level.

J&T also serves as the delivery partner of brands, such as Bukalapak, Tokopedia and Shopee, which cover two-thirds of its service orders in the archipelago.

Last month, the firm acquired its Chinese competitor Best’s logistics business Best Express for US$1 billion.

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Image Credit: J&T Express

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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Philippines, the economy became vulnerable, and millions of Filipinos were put out of work. With mobility restrictions putting physical transactions on hold, digital solutions swept in to save the day.

The need to digitise everything became the catalyst for cashless transactions and, eventually, the rapid rise of crypto adoption. This is a massive development, considering that cash is still king in the Philippines, and around 70 per cent of the population remains unbanked and underserved.

But digital solutions still triumphed amidst the pandemic, especially those that were accessible via mobile phones because around 79 million Filipinos relied on their smartphones for their day-to-day activities. 

Play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity and accessible mobile apps like Coins.ph enabled Filipinos to dabble into crypto to earn extra income amidst the pandemic. MetaMask, the non-custodial crypto wallet primarily used by Axie Infinity players, reported that its monthly active users over the past year grew by 1,800 per cent, with around 2 million users coming from the Philippines alone.

As of October 2021, the Philippines currently ranks 15th in Chainalysis’ global cryptocurrency adoption list. It won’t be long for the country to rise in rank as crypto adoption continues to grow.

It’s important to note that the pandemic wasn’t the only driver of crypto adoption in the Philippines—hundreds of Filipinos have been investing and trading in virtual currencies since the early years of crypto.

Also Read: Go-Jek acquires majority stake in Philippines’s blockchain fintech company Coins.ph

Financial institutions and regulatory bodies have also been studying the benefits that decentralised solutions bring to the financial sector and gradually integrating them into their operations over the years. 

Let’s take a deeper look into how blockchain and crypto adoption evolved in the Philippines.

Crypto milestones in the Philippines

Investing in virtual currencies was undoubtedly difficult in the early years of crypto. Early crypto adopters in the Philippines shared that they had to buy and sell crypto using foreign crypto exchanges such as Mt. Gox and Bitstamp and claim free Bitcoins through faucet websites. 

It wasn’t until Coins.ph entered the scene in 2014, providing new vehicles for Filipinos to make everyday financial transactions such as payments, remittances, and online shopping using crypto.

It also allows Filipinos to quickly make cross-border payments, which are often challenging to accomplish traditionally due to tax implications, complicated processes, and high fees.

Fintech company Satoshi Citadel Industries (SCI) also forged its ground within the same year to build the blockchain ecosystem in the Philippines.

Upon seeing the growth of crypto adoption in the Philippines, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issued an advisory informing Filipinos of the features, benefits, and attendant risks when dealing with VCs.

Crypto adoption in the country increased over the years, albeit slow as crypto was still considered a risky investment and existing regulations did not cover virtual currencies.

By 2017, Bitcoin quickly rose in popularity when its value intensely increased from US$1,000 to over US$19,000 within a few months.

Also Read: Blockchain Space launches in the Philippines to help the industry grow

The BSP at the time began to require crypto exchanges to register with them as remittance and transfer companies and put adequate safeguards to address the risks associated with crypto.

Many local financial institutions made more mainstream crypto solutions for Filipinos in 2019. UnionBank and Coins.ph, for instance, rolled out the first crypto ATM in the Philippines to help their customers exchange their virtual currencies for cash and buy and sell crypto on the spot.

The bank also introduced its stablecoin called PHX to help rural banks access remittance and payments under its blockchain-based i2i network. 

In the same year, Filipino crypto holders were permitted to sell crypto for cash through all 7-Eleven stores across the Philippines as part of an initiative by crypto investment app Abra and payment processor ECPay. 

By 2020, Filipinos can finally access 16 cryptocurrency exchange service providers approved by the BSP, including PDAX, which has been making waves in the crypto scene in the country since 2017.

More than just a provider of crypto trading services, PDAX has also been collaborating with industry leaders further to foster the blockchain and crypto community in the Philippines.

Also Read: PDAX raises US$12.5M to take advantage of the popularity of cryptocurrencies in Philippines

We partnered with UnionBank and the Bureau of the Treasury to launch a blockchain app called Bonds.ph.

The app is designed to allow Filipinos, especially those unbanked, to invest in the government’s new retail treasury bond and help the country raise funds to recover the economy amidst the pandemic. Within its first month, the app was downloaded almost 25,000 times from 85 countries.

Crypto adoption increased even more in 2021 when Axie Infinity rose in popularity, enabling Filipinos to earn crypto just by completing quests in a game. Some players can even earn as much as P25,000 per month just by playing the blockchain game.

As we near the end of 2021, it’s safe to say that crypto will remain in the Philippines, especially as it’s given Filipinos a new way to weather the pandemic.

More importantly, crypto allows Filipinos to enter the formal financial system and build their wealth, which millions have always struggled to achieve over the past few years.

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Bareksa, an integrated digital investment platform in Indonesia, has obtained an undisclosed sum in a Series C funding round from Grab.

Through this partnership, Bareksa will gain access to Grab users and partners, offering them investment opportunities with payments handled by OVO.

The funding aligns with the startup’s strategy to strengthen the synergy between Grab, Bareksa and OVO as Indonesia’s leading digital payment platform.

In 2019, Bareksa had raised Series B funding from OVO.

Also Read: Grab acquires US$274M-worth stake in Emtek, fuels talks of OVO-DANA merger: Report

Karaniya Dharmasaputra, co-founder and CEO of Bareksa, said: “Grab’s funding will further strengthen our presence as the first integrated online mutual fund marketplace in Indonesia. By synergising with Grab and OVO, Bareksa will be able to provide wider access, educate the benefits of investment and provide a seamless e-investment experience to millions of driver-partners, kiosk owners and MSMEs, as well as Grab and OVO users.”

Karaniya, president director of OVO, added: “The synergy of the Grab-Bareksa-OVO triangle is expected to increase its contribution in helping to encourage financing of the national economy. With the full support of Grab and OVO, Bareksa believes that it can further support the vision of the Indonesian government and regulators, particularly the Indonesian Financial Services Authority and Bank Indonesia, in expanding national capital market services while increasing financial literacy and inclusion.”

In 2020, the penetration rate of mutual funds in Indonesia was only 3 per cent of the GDP. However, during COVID-19, the number of capital market investors increased. Data from the Indonesian Central Securities Depository (KSEI) noted that until August 2021, there were 6 million capital market investors. KSEI said that throughout 2020, 70 per cent of retail investors bought mutual funds through the fintech platform.

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In this episode, we speak with Jenn Cornelius, Chief People Officer at Ritual, an LA-based direct-to-consumer health brand. Prior to her role at Ritual, Cornelius was the Head of Future of Work and Organizational Design at Pinterest, Chief People Officer at Sweetgreen and Head of Organization Design for Apple’s Retail division.

In our conversation, Cornelius discusses a number of important topics including how virtual work affects organisational design, the role of HQ in creating serendipity and ensuring employee readiness (when it relates to launching teams in new markets), balancing decision-rights to empower local market team, as well as the importance of company culture and facilitating connections to help teams create meaning.

Also Read: The ‘godfather’ of Hungarian startup ecosystem shares the keys to global expansion

This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets.

If you are an international business leader looking to connect with others leading global expansion, join the Global Class Community. More info here.

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The article was first published by Global Class.

Image Credit: Global Class

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We live in unprecedented times, where working from home and being isolated from friends and family for long periods have become the norm. The past two years have required quite a bit of adjustment; work and personal/home life became intricately intertwined. All of us have had to juggle between tending to unique/family needs while handling tight deadlines and often increased workloads in our professional lives. This often takes a toll on our mental health.

As humans, we are social beings by nature. We thrive in the presence of others, and social interactions are crucial for our psychological and physical health.

While the workforce started working remotely in the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, expectations remain the same, or even higher, as some businesses are struggling to survive while others are trying to capitalise on unprecedented growth opportunities driven by the massive shifts in consumer behaviour during this pandemic. 

At Carsome, we understand that this can be challenging for our team members, especially those with a family needing care.

As such, I was glad to become one of the champions of our self-care month throughout October this year, in honour of World Mental Health Day, which falls on 10 October.

Here is a summary of what fellow Carsomers were up to, in the spirit of #CarsomeCares: 

Normalising discussions on mental health

Mental health issues are no stranger among employees across all organisational levels. According to news sources, more people reported at least one symptom of a mental health condition in the past year.

Also Read: How to tackle employee mental health to build a resilient workforce

We want fellow Carsomers to feel empowered in asking for help if they are struggling.

So, we scheduled various mental health talks throughout October to spread awareness and shed some light on relevant mental health topics that could benefit all of us. 

Our team members are the backbone of Carsome, and they’ve been an integral part of growing the business to where it is today. We want to support them in any way we can, especially in regards to their mental health. 

Mental health support

An important takeaway of the COVID-19 pandemic is that support for mental health went from a nice-to-have to a true business imperative. Besides having talks, we wanted to extend the support into something more tangible.

That’s why we partnered with Doctor Anywhere to provide a mental health self-assessment tool for Carsomers to assess and recognise signs of anxiety. 

Also read: Voice of Employees: How the pandemic accelerated focus on employee welfare

To take this one step further, we also paid for team members to consult with a psychotherapist. We understand that anyone can be affected, and we want to provide the necessary mental health support for our team members so that they don’t have to worry about the cost.

We were glad to hear that close to 300 team members have benefitted from the self-assessment tool. Additionally, more than 10 were able to get the help they needed from a professional. 

In the true spirit of #CarsomeCares, our HR teams across all of our markets worked tirelessly to put together well-curated care packages and sent them out to all 2,000+ Carsomers.

It was heartwarming to see all the exciting photos and videos featuring these care packages shared by team members all across the region.  

Movement for the soul

Physical activities have been proven to help increase the production of the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins.

With that in mind, we organised classes that cater to the mind, body, and soul for Carsomers to join throughout the month. 

Team members who have not met each other also had the opportunity to break the ice, get to know one another better, and bond while doing these activities together.

Some of our team members broke a sweat practising yoga with renowned artist Atilia Haron, an avid yoga practitioner and instructor.

Others joined in on the origami fun and folded away their stress and worries by making origami curry puffs and bunnies.  

Also Read: Why Khailee Ng puts mental healthcare support as key to successful founders-investors relationship

Mental health days

It is not easy to juggle between work and personal lives as we continue working from home. Despite that, Carsomers have gone above and beyond to ensure that tasks and deadlines are completed, and work continues during the pandemic.

We declared dedicated “mental health days” with specific activities for both individuals and teams. 

Wellness Wednesdays

On every other Wednesday, teams are encouraged to gather and bond through fun activities outside of work. I was excited to see many teams organising Wellness Wednesdays activities and having so much fun during those virtual get-togethers.

Carsomers gathered virtually for karaoke or word game sessions, among others, fueling creativity and encouraging them to connect despite the physical distance.  

Freedom Fridays 

The pandemic helped coin the term “Zoom fatigue”, and I can relate to this as my days are frequently packed with back-to-back meetings. So there was no surprise on my immediate buy-in for Freedom Fridays, a.k.a. no-meeting Fridays, which took place on alternate Fridays in October.

Freedom Fridays, gave our team the chance to focus on serious work activities that require minimal interruptions. It also allowed team members to recharge and plan deliverables for the next week.

I found Freedom Fridays very productive, ultimately putting pressure on other meetings to be more focused, efficient, and goal-oriented. 

Make it #CarsomeCares

The activities for our self-care month were guided by our #CarsomeCares spirit and aimed at helping Carsomers weather any situation. We want our team members to know that we care about their wellbeing, and we understand that they do some of their best work when they are happy and fulfilled.

Tough times don’t last, but tough people do – so to fellow Carsomers and everyone else out there, stay strong and take care of yourself. We will get through this together!

–

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Stockbit, an Indonesia-based stock trading platform and community, has secured approval from Financial Services Authority (OJK) to acquire local securities company Mahakarya Artha Sekuritas.

The deal value has not been disclosed.

Mahakarya Artha Sekuritas has been Stockbit’s brocking partner since September and will now be rebranded to Stockbit Sekuritas, TechinAsia has reported.

The acquisition will enable Mahakarya’s users to open stock accounts and trade in the Indonesian Stock Exchange via the Stockbit app.

In May this year, Bibit, a mutual fund investment app acquired by Stockbit in 2019, raised a US$65 million growth round led by Sequoia Capital India. The Stockbit app itself also raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by East Ventures in 2019.

Also read: Pocket power: 27 personal finance startups in SEA to help you manage money

Founded in 2013, Stockbit is a social network for stock investors, before gradually changing into an app that integrates stock trading, information aggregation, and social networking. Its Bibit and competitors aim to simplify capital investment for first-time investors while requiring a lower fee and a smaller minimum initial investment sum than traditional brokerages.

To provide its users with stock trading services, Stockbit is required to team up with traditional securities firms, such as Sinarmas Sekuritas. This partnership then ended up in August before Stockbit’s tie-up with Mahakarya.

According to OJK, retail investors in Indonesia surged 56 per cent year-over-year in 2020. Investors in mutual funds also grew 78 per cent year-over-year to 3.2 million. 

However, financial literacy in the country’s capital market remains low at 4.9 per cent, with a total of only 2.69 million retail equity investors out of its 270 million population.

This presents opportunities for investment services, which are buoyed by the COVID-19 pandemic when people took advantage of a market pullback and turned to online environments.

Last month, Indonesia produced a unicorn in the stock and mutual fund investment sector. Ajaib, a Robinhood-like mobile-first stock and mutual fund investment platform, became a billion-dollar company after a US$153 million Series B fundraise. The app requires no minimum sum to open a brokerage account and claims to charge the lowest brokerage fees in the market. 

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Also read: Stockbit

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When Malaysia first took notice of the COVID-19 pandemic, not many businesses in the country were prepared to strap themselves for unprecedented times. The first nationwide lockdown declared in March 2020 became the first step to a challenging journey for F&B businesses.

Since then, many businesses have stayed resilient and adapted by finding new methods to stay afloat during this period, realising that digitalisation is one of the only options to sustain their business.

This is also evident in the local F&B industry, with a report by Flanders Investment and Trade indicating that the pandemic has triggered Malaysian F&B retailers, such as food suppliers, supermarkets and restaurants being seen to shift their operations and embrace digital marketplaces.

Challenges faced by the F&B industry

When the lockdown was first declared, the F&B industry faced its own unique set of challenges. In an ecosystem where business deals were traditionally carried out physically, the food supply chain was severely disrupted due to restricted operation hours, logistical difficulties, and communication hurdles with suppliers, buyers, and end-consumers.

This is also the challenge suppliers face in reaching out to retailers and vice versa.

For example, on one end of the food supply chain, several farmers in Cameron Highlands were forced to give away their farm produce due to the perishable nature of the produce, whereas, on the other hand, buyers were flocking onto online marketplaces, only to find limited options available for their choosing.

This is a clear reflection that the pandemic has affected the mode of communication, even between buyers and suppliers, thus impacting the source of revenue for all parties within the industry.

Also Read: How millennials and the pandemic are driving the growth of cloud kitchens in Indonesia

The emergence of digital solutions for the F&B industry

The shift in communication habits has also forced F&B businesses to pivot and adapt to digital solutions to sustain and identify new revenue streams for their business operations.

Adopting digital space has given businesses an increased interest in the digital marketplace, which allows them to connect with companies within the F&B industry.

For instance, Saladplate, an online marketplace, was launched to bridge the gap between suppliers and buyers, making it easy to digitally discover new products and services through an innovative sourcing solution.

Okinawa Trading, a Japanese company that specialises in exporting fresh meat to countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia, is one of the brands that has embarked on a digital transformation journey using Saladplate’s solution.

Having onboarded Saladplate during a promotion with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Okinawa Trading has increased inquiries from buyers, opening doors to more business opportunities.

Furthermore, since joining Saladplate, the number of website visitors on Okinama Trading’s page saw an inspiring 414 per cent increase, with buyers spending an average of three minutes on the page.

Another example of a digital F&B platform would be Food Market Hub, a procurement and inventory system for F&B businesses. Food Market Hub streamlines all operational data from procurement to inventory and eventually into the accounting systems.

It then churns the data and consolidates the cost of goods sold, ultimately allowing F&B business owners to make smarter decisions for their business.

Din Tai Fung, an upscale Taiwanese restaurant chain, are among the businesses that have successfully adopted the platform. The brand has seen a 31 per cent increase in year-on-year growth result in 2020 through the platform, which has helped streamline communications between the central kitchens and outlets, enabling it to weather through the pandemic.

Also Read: How Philippine cloud kitchen industry is piggybacking on the country’s unique food culture, shifting customer behaviour

These success stories are just the many examples of why both F&B suppliers and buyers should embrace digitalisation to stay afloat, build resilience and regain normalcy in this new digital age.

With many more digital solutions and guides to digitising made available, F&B businesses can use it to their advantage to adopt this new average while looking at other possibilities for growth.

Previous challenges such as communication hurdles, low sales volume and mismanagement of inventory and expenditure can be resolved, thus enabling these businesses to remain resilient and scalable even during these challenging times.

Platforms such as Food Market Hub and Saladplate, or a combination of both, albeit temporarily, would be beneficial, cost-efficient and would potentially help bridge the communication currently faced by both buyers and suppliers in the F&B industry.

Digitalisation is paving a new future

As digitalisation becomes a key fixture during this new normal, the digital transformation journey for businesses is expected to continue even in a post-COVID world. A report by Bain & Company indicates that COVID-19 has rewritten the rules of survival for businesses.

Online purchasing, digital consumption and average online basket size have risen substantially and will continue to grow at record-setting rates, providing an opportunity for traditional businesses, significant marketplaces, and disruptive business models to thrive.

The report also indicated that around 83 per cent of online buyers share that they are likely to continue their increased spending online even after lockdown restrictions are lifted.

Echoing the importance of digital transformation, the Malaysia Digital Economy Malaysia (MDEC) recently launched an SME Digital Guidebook and Quick Guide for the Food & Beverages (F&B) and retail industry.

Intending to help businesses in the F&B industry reassess their digital opportunities and readiness, MDEC, a government-linked company, introduced a step-by-step guide to enhancing their current digital capabilities and beginning their digital transformation journey.

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

All these potentially indicate a rebound for the Malaysian F&B industry should they pursue and consistently transform their business digitally.

By identifying these new opportunities, F&B businesses can regain normalcy while opening doors to future growth.

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Foxmont joins Talon’s US$5M Series A round

The crux: Hong Kong-headquartered competitive gaming, entertainment and culture startup talon has secured US$5 million in Series A financing round.

Investors: Animoca Brands (lead), Hana Digital Transformation Fund, HZL Capital, AK Partners, Token Bay Capital, Foxmont Capital Partners, Arete Capital Asia, BlackPine, Yieldly, and PAC Capital.

Plans: Talon will continue to grow its lifestyle and cultural platform, focusing on working with fashion labels, KOLs, musicians and traditional sports athletes to deliver entertainment to the next generation of youth, targeting Gen Z and millennials.

Also Read: Monde Nissin CEO backs Foxmont Capital’s initial close of US$20M Fund II

As part of this strategy, it will place a strong focus on the development of digital and blockchain solutions alongside Animoca Brands to deliver unique experiences, collectibles and opportunities via different metaverses, P2E games and NFT platforms.

Additionally, Talon will further expand its regional footprint into Southeast Asia, focusing on the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.

About Talon: It is an e-sports, culture and lifestyle platform in Asia. Established in 2017, it operates six professional e-sports teams in five markets. Talon operates its creative studio to run e-sports marketing, content creation, and activities for Talon and its partners. Talon boasts over 25 million followers across its combined social platforms.

With headquarters in Hong Kong, it has regional offices in Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines and South Korea.

India-based CoreStack bags US$30M Series B

The crux: CoreStack, a global multi-cloud governance SaaS provider, has secured a $30 million Series B funding round.

Investors: Avatar Growth Capital (lead), Dallas Venture Capital (DVC), Iron Pillar, and angels.

Plans: The funding will help CoreStack grow and innovate its AI-powered continuous and autonomous cloud governance and expand into new markets.

About CoreStack: CoreStacki is an AI-powered next-generation multi-cloud governance solution. It helps enterprises achieve autonomous cloud governance at scale.

CoreStack’s proactive approach to AI-powered cloud-native governance utilises a cloud-as-code approach, orchestration frameworks, deep AI/ML, and patented connector-less model. The firm enables enterprises to realise outcomes across FinOps, SecOps and CloudOps, such as a 40 per cent decrease in cloud costs and a 50 per cent increase in operational efficiencies by governing operations, security, cost, access, and resources.

India-based Eximius Ventures launches student venture partner programme

The crux: India-based micro VC firm Eximius Ventures has launched its first cohort of the student venture partner programme, an initiative designed to empower undergraduate students to participate in deal sourcing and support upcoming startups from their campuses.

Objective: Through this programme, Eximius Ventures aims to accelerate the success of nascent-stage student-led startups and groom the student venture partners to become a part of the VC ecosystem.

The one-year programme will allocate up to US$500,000 to student venture partners for investing in startups from their network. It will also enable them to present deals to Eximius’s internal committee (IC) and gain hands-on experience working at a VC.

The programme has selected three students: Aryan Mittal from IIT Delhi, Bhargav Chaudhari from IIT Bombay, and Parth Goel from IIT Kharagpur, and is scheduled to start in December 2021.

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I attended the Rafflesian Women’s Conference 2021, themed “Unleashing the power within” recently. Listening to both the male and female speakers led me to a mini epiphany about how, as females, we have been lamenting about gender inequality with an almost “victim” mentality.

What if, part of the solution actually lies in us evolving our mindset? What if we could simply rise up and take charge? Perhaps, there is no shame in gaining and wielding power and embracing who we are in the workplace.

What does power mean in VC investment?

The word “power” instinctively conjures the mental image of an external force that is bestowed or taken away, that in turn provides control, dominance and authority over others. Somehow when females are powerful in that type of way, she is criticised as a ‘bitch’ or unlikeable.

Throughout history, powerful female leaders like Empress Wu Ze Tian had been criticised and even “demonised”. This may be the reason I never really found having that sort of ‘power’ to be admirable.

But my perspective shifted when I heard my managing partner, Chua Joo Hock, speaking on the panel. I found it incredibly refreshing when he defined power as such:

“Power is the ability to influence and impact with purpose… influencing outwards from where you stand and who you are.”

That’s not the usual definition of power I’m used to hearing but it does make sense. We can exude and wield power from a more feminine sense, from within.

Many of the female speakers shared that women leaders often face an internal struggle between appearing more masculine and domineering to be accepted by their male peers, versus embracing their feminine, more collaborative and empathetic selves.

Also Read: A woman among women: 27 female-led startups in SEA that are going places

What if we reframe Power?

Perhaps, as females, if we reframe the definition of power the way Joo Hock has defined it, we would find it easier to embrace our strengths and step up as more powerful leaders in our own arena.

This means listening and recognising someone else’s point of view (his or her truth), connecting my purpose to their motivations, and focusing on winning together.

Where conflicts arise within the team, one should try to understand the behaviour of the other person and where they are coming from, diffuse any misunderstanding and provide a safe environment for discussion. We can let our shared purpose be the guide, and let the best idea win via ‘coopetition’.

Rather than silencing others with my truth as the truth or my way as the way, getting the team’s buy-in through command or compulsion, and then ending up having to tell them what to do, I would rather be a leader who communicates a strong purpose in a non-threatening and authentic way and galvanises a team to strive hard and take the initiative without being told.

This force-multiplying effect of the power to influence and impact with purpose adds to the foundation of the team’s technical ability, performance, skill and experience.

What if our weaknesses are our strengths instead?

Based on a World Bank report, Female entrepreneurs: How and why are they different, the narrow definition of success that highlights only economic motivations for entering entrepreneurship tends to better fit the male model, whereas women tend to also focus on non-economic factors, such as personal fulfilment and a desire to serve the community. Our acts of voluntary attending, if aligned towards a personal north star, become very powerful indeed.

People-pleasing is found to be more commonly present in women than men, in part due to reinforced normative gender roles and their associated behaviours. However, the way we are wired as females made us more empathetic and collaborative.

As a leader, we tend to influence outcomes.

We would help our employees feel heard instead of just faceless, replaceable parts of a profit-generating machine. Soft influencing, including rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, and personal appeals, can help to build a coalition of the willing to work towards a goal.

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

I was inspired by the female panellists’ sharing of the journey they went through to get to leadership positions and then choose to lead differently yet effectively from their male counterparts in the male-dominated industries they worked in.

In particular, the sharing by Virginia Tan and Shiyan Koh, both female VC leaders, drove me to think more deeply about how as investors, we have the ability to drive more gender-equitable VC investing.

Why are there so few women in leadership roles in tech

Being an investor in the technology sector, this question has been weighing on my mind: why are there so few women in leadership positions in technology companies?

Globally, 28 per cent of tech roles are held by women. In Singapore, this number looks better, standing at 41 per cent.

However, women occupy less than one-fifth of spots on the boards of directors at tech companies.

The lack of female top leadership in technology companies today is in part due to fewer venture-backed female-founded technology start-ups decades ago.

Luckily, the total number of VC-backed tech startups with a female founder globally has grown from 410 companies in 2009 to more than 2,700 in 2019. While access to opportunities, funding and support has improved for women in the startup space, there is still a long way to go.

This year, only 2.2 per cent of capital invested into venture-backed startups in the US went to startups with all-women founders. If we look at startups with both male and female founders in the US, this percentage increases to 15.6 per cent.

In Southeast Asia, the percentage of capital invested into venture-backed startups with all-women founders is a staggeringly low 0.9 per cent.

Also Read: For the startup ecosystem, profitability is a gender equality issue

Women have been labelled the ‘weaker sex’ for generations— not just physically, but mentally as well. As a result, women entrepreneurs have been seen as less ambitious and less focused on potential gains, and often face subconscious biases about their marital status and children, which may be considered limiting factors for company growth.

As VC firms, we are in a position to influence and lead change

At Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, we frown upon such gender stereotypes in favour of merit. We recognise that women are just as capable as men in leading startups, and hence we invest in both men and women-founded startups.

In fact, 30 per cent of our current portfolio companies have at least one female co-founder, which compares favourably to other venture firms.

According to this recent Crunchbase article, 22 per cent of deal counts of male-only founded US venture firms were female-founded startups, while this percentage stands at 28 per cent for female-founded venture firms.

Female-founded startups that we have backed include Sunday Insurance, Tickled Media and Janice Wong Holdings, just to name a few.

Our conscious effort to judge on merit alone is also reflected in how we run our fund internally. Around half of our investment team are female (myself included).

That is not because our managing partners have a need to fill a certain gender quota during recruitment, but rather because when they hire, they interview equally large groups of female and male candidates and decide who the best person is for the job.

It is also worth pointing out that we are one of 12 firms that have one or more female partners on their investment teams, out of 34 VC firms that are active in Southeast Asia.

Ultimately, women in VC like myself and women founders I have met are not asking for special treatment. We simply want to compete on an even footing with our male peers.

Gender diversity also makes good business sense

I find that gender diversity in our portfolio companies is a strength.

Also Read: How this SEA VC is rising to the challenge of gender inequality

First, in a traditionally male-dominated tech sector, women in tech tend to be able to design products for an audience that the men may find difficult to design for.

This is the most obvious within FemTech and the SheEconomy, but also applies to designing products for the elderly, children and patients, where feminine instincts to nurture, protect and care can translate to user experiences that are more friendly for the technology end-consumer.

Second, businesses founded by women have been observed to deliver higher revenue— more than twice as much per dollar invested— than those founded by men, making women-owned companies better investments for financial backers. This is also why microfinance lends proportionally more to female borrowers.

Lastly, a growing body of evidence shows that organisations with a higher percentage of women in leadership roles outperform male-dominated companies.

The advantage of having diverse and unique viewpoints often contribute to higher levels of innovation-driven revenue, and allows the company to be built on an inclusive and strong foundation, including factors like fair employment, equal pay, and a participative culture.

There is a clear gap in funding for women-led startups. At the same time, female founders deserve to be funded for their unique talent and strengths, not their gender. I look forward to a future where there are no male or female entrepreneurs, but just entrepreneurs.

At my VC fund, we will continue to open doors and empower founders, whether they be male or female, to reach their own vertex — the highest point of a journey, of achievements and of stars.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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