Global VC firm 500 Startups is teaming up with Enterprise Singapore (ESG) to launch a new virtual programme, called 500 Ignition Singapore.

This initiative will help emerging entrepreneurs in the city-state build innovative ventures from scratch by helping them assemble founding teams, validate potential opportunities and create a product roadmap and business plan.

Set to run for 12 weeks, 500 Ignition Singapore aims to help selected startups by connecting them with industry experts for mentorship, finding the right co-founders, and providing them with shared resources that can help facilitate their startups’ long-term growth.

Key mentors joining the programme include Leesa Soulodre (General Partner, R31Ventures), Jin Tanaka (co-founder and Managing Partner, Shogun Capital), Jaspreet S Dua (Entrepreneur-in-Residence, 500 Startups), Mimi Aminah Wan Nordin (CEO, Constellation Ventures), Anurag Rastogi (Member of the Board, FinCode), and Garry Huang (Entrepreneur-in-Residence, 500 Startups).

The programme will take place in three phases.

Also Read: Tribe raises funding to expand its accelerator programme globally

In the first phase, participants will be divided into teams to learn best practices on how to gather insights to craft compelling value propositions for their products and services.

The second phase will include helping startups develop a minimum viable product (MVP) and the third phase will have teams learning other core components that make a successful startup like marketing, sales, etc.

While the applications for the first cohort of 500 Ignition are already closed, individuals can apply for its second cohort from today until May 21.

500 Startups is currently running another Ignition programme in Cambodia and intends to run similar programmes across ecosystems with emerging startup talent, desiring to engage with youth in entrepreneurship and aiming to stimulate new job creation.

“The past year has witnessed significant disruption across myriad sectors and hence fresh ideas are needed to meet ever-evolving demands. We are thrilled to partner with Enterprise Singapore in this endeavor to provide aspiring founders with the foundation and mentorship they need to launch a business,” said Ee Ling Lim, Regional Director of APAC, Business Development, 500
Startups.

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Image Credit: 500 Ignition Singapore

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COVID-19 has introduced the world to a new working culture — ‘work from anywhere’. Although the culture has always been around, it has never been adopted more widely that this before.

As people shifted from offline to online, remote working brought with itself its own set of unique challenges. For example, managers began facing difficulties like hiring, bringing in better workplace management, burnout, and keeping away from home distractions.

To solve these problems, many companies began looking for solutions in the market that would solve their own remote working challenges.

While there are many players in this sector, in honour of International Workers’ Day, e27 is rounding up six of the most notable startups from Southeast Asia that are making remote working easy.

Here is a snap-shot of the seven startups:

(The information for this article was collected from the e27 Startup Database  as well as other platforms such as HRtech map and Tracxn)

HR management

Gimo

According to the World Bank’s Global Findex Database 2017, nearly two-thirds of Vietnam’s adult population do not own a bank. Often, they must rely on costly financial services such as long-term, high-ticket-size bank loans or high-interest-rate loans to take care of their cash flow emergencies.

To solve this problem, Gimo provides transparency and convenience of payroll to local workers without a bank account. Users can request income payment in advance and track earnings through the mobile app that is integrated into their companies’ human resource management and payroll systems.

The startup aspires to tap into millions of workers who have limited access to financial services and help them alleviate their financial stress and security.

Country of Origin: Vietnam

Total funding: Undisclosed

Investors: ThinkZone Ventures, and BK Fund (an investment fund of the Hanoi University of Science and Technology)

Pulsifi

Pulsifi provides companies with a people analytics platform that uses predictive models and Machine Learning to automatically generate holistic profiles of each potential or current employee. Through this information, business and HR teams can make better-informed, data-driven decisions on hiring, teaming and development.

Also Read: Eliminating hiring on gut feeling: How Pulsifi bridges data and hiring

Founder Jay Huang claims the platform has over 90 per cent accuracy when predicting the outcomes of people at work.

Country of Origin: Singapore

Total funding: US$4 million

Investors: Kairous Capital

Swingvy

An all-in-one HR cloud-based software for small and medium-sized businesses in Southeast Asia. Swingvy connects crucial HR information like payroll and benefits, and automates administrative tasks all in one platform. The company serves over 5,000 companies and has offices in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Taipei and Seoul.

“Our vision is to be an Operating System of companies. We will build a new type of organisation management platform to create a workplace where work empowers people. We’ll face a paradigm shift in the way people work, and the platform should evolve before the shift arrives,” says Swingvy co-founder Jin Choeh.

Country of Origin: Malaysia

Total funding: US$7 million

Investors: Samsung Venture Investment Corporation

For talent acquisition

IoTalents

An online community and platform for hirers to connect and transact with permanent or contract niche candidates in the IT sector. To make the task easier for hirers, IoTalents sources talents through its own profiling technology, algorithmic matching, and talent mapping solutions.

Country of Origin: Singapore

Total funding: Undisclosed

Investors: Undisclosed

JobWiz

A tech job portal that helps talents find jobs based on company perks and salary ranges. Individuals can also filter jobs based on perks like flexible hours, work location, days off and learning budget.

Also Read: Swingvy co-founder and CEO: I only hire people who are smarter than me

Country of Origin: Singapore

Total funding: Undisclosed

Investors: Undisclosed

Hireplace

One of the major problems of hiring is over-relying on CVs and overly-crowded career fairs. Hireplace aims to solve the problem through its unique online speed-dating interview format.

To use the feature, employers need to create an event on the Hireplace website and send calendar invitations to the shortlisted potential candidates. The event will then takes place as rapid video interviews on mobile and laptops.

Country of Origin: Singapore

Total funding: Undisclosed

Investors: Undisclosed

For talent rewards

Reward Nation

Talk is cheap, and Reward Nation helps team members give each other recognition through a points system which they can later collect to buy something nice.

The way it works is that each member of a company team has a set of points to give out to one other. Reward Nation then tallies the total reward points of each individual and allows them to redeem their points and buy something nice.

Rewards include vouchers for flight tickets, restaurants and transport.

Country of Origin: Singapore

Total funding: Undisclosed

Investors: Undisclosed

UpLevel

A learning platform that helps companies upskill their python and data science talent of all levels (from beginner to pro) to improve their coding skills with hands-on training projects. The projects not just help learners develop hard skills such as coding, but also improves their soft skills like problem-solving and algorithmic thinking.

Also Read: DarwinBox bags US$15M to expand its enterprise HR-tech platform in SEA

Country of Origin: Singapore

Total funding: Undisclosed

Investors: Undisclosed

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The Founder-on-Founder Podcast series is a weekly podcast hosted by Olivier Raussin, managing partner at FEBE Ventures, an early-stage Venture Capital fund supporting outstanding entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. The podcast features tech entrepreneurs with a focus on Southeast Asia’s innovation business and tech landscape.

The podcast highlights stories from outstanding entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia on their journey, revealing previously unknown insights and offers advice on running a tech company.

Featured in this episode is Vidush Mahansaria, a technology entrepreneur with several years of experience in the tech and finance industries across the US, Europe and Asia.

 

“I started working for Grab under Ming, the president of Grab. It was an amazing experience, getting to see the launch of food delivery, mobile payments, the acquisition of Uber and more. After that experience, I decided I needed to spend more time with other best-in-class companies founders around the world to broaden my perspectives.

So I hopped over to the other side and joined ICONIQ Growth, which is a large tech investment fund in San Francisco. After meeting a wide variety of entrepreneurs and understanding their companies, I decided a year ago that it was time for me to make my own leap of faith. Thus, I became a founder and started Vara with one of my best friends from college.”

Also Read: War of warungs: Decoding the race to win the warung game in Indonesia

Vara’s product, Bukugaji, is revolutionising the labour market in Indonesia. The truth is that the vast majority of companies globally employ less than 20 staff. In fact, most of these companies manage their employees and payroll completely manually.

Bukugaji is a powerful and lightweight staff management platform that caters to both small companies as well as their staff. It has also recently been selected as one of the four startups in Southeast Asia to be in the Lightspeed Extreme Entrepreneurs 2021 cohort.

Starting up during the pandemic

After growing up in Thailand and studying and working across the US, Europe and Asia, Vid decided to start up back in his home region of Southeast Asia. The unfortunate circumstance and timing of the pandemic resulted in a 12,000-mile gap between him and his co-founder.

And that hasn’t been the only challenge: “Building for a language that we don’t speak, in a culture that we’re not familiar with, in a geography that we’ve never lived in is hard enough, anyway. Doing that from a distance while not being in the same room has been an undeniably challenging experience. At the same time, however, it’s led to incredible personal discoveries around creating and scaling a product-led company by leveraging global best-in-class talent.”

Discovering an exciting market opportunity

As any former investor would, Mahansaria entered the Indonesian market with “a thesis in mind, a product that we wanted to build, and a problem we wanted to solve.” This initial foray into the startup world was met with challenges when his initial ideas fell flat.

This led to an “entire process of pivoting, trying, building and experimenting with deliberate iteration.” Over time, by “listening to your users and what the market wants” compounded to an exciting market opportunity “for whom we can truly innovate and build around.”

Growth is also important, he said. “It’s important to make sure that the baseline of what you’re building is strong, because you don’t want to be filling up a leaky bucket. As a result, focusing purely on growth is a dangerous game because at some point that growth needs to be sustained. If you’re not retaining your users, for whatever reasons, you will not be able to compound your growth efficiently.”

Mahansaria also goes on to share his experience with fundraising (Vara is backed by Sequoia), team-building, and other interesting insights. “Dive deep with core market insights and establish a strong perspective of what the world should look like. The stronger your determination  in the future you want to create, the more likely it is that your narrative with investors will reflect that passion and vision.”

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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In today’s digital world, one of the biggest goals for startups is being recognised and trusted by their core audience through the art of brand awareness. Whether engaging with influencers, partnerships or simply posting content, social media is a powerful tool for building trust. 

Businesses can use social media to maintain and strengthen existing customer relationships, while also having the opportunity to generate new leads. Forty-nine per cent of our global population uses some form of social media, and that means a big portion of their prospective buying audience is on social media. 

In fact, 54 per cent of consumers say they use social media to find new products or brands. With social media acting as a powerful channel to connect with customers, it’s crucial that business leaders understand how to unlock their full potential to drive success.

However, knowing where to begin can be a daunting task, particularly if you’re a startup with a small marketing team or a sole trader wearing several operational hats. Building public awareness and trust in an oversaturated social media marketplace is no easy feat.

However, there are some simple social media best practices that startups can adhere to, allowing them to maximise their efforts, campaigns and budgets. Here, we explore the social media best practice that startups of all types can use as a guide to drive customer engagement and brand recognition. 

Analyse the audience

The first social media best practice tip? Learn everything you can about your audience. If you don’t know who your audience is, you can’t give them what they want. Whether you’re targeting baby boomers, millennials, sports fans, new parents and every intersection in between, it’s best to drill down on audience demographics to increase engagement. 

You may have already built out your buyer personas, so you can use that as a foundation for your social media strategy. Otherwise, you can use native social media analytics to understand your audience demographic. Social media analytics can help you to gain a deeper insight into your audience demographic, including who they are, where they’re located and how engaged they are. 

Also Read: Circus Social secures US$1M to help businesses make decisions from real-time social media conversations

Demographics can tell you a lot more about your customers. You can gain an even deeper understanding of who they are through social listening. This social practice will help you to find out what your customers are talking about, how they’re talking about your brand and products — and what kind of topics they care about. 

The average person spends two hours and 25 minutes on social media per day, so social listening allows you to harvest key insights to fuel different aspects of your social media strategy, from the way you approach customer service to publishing. 

Build a customer-first social media strategy

Creating meaningful connections with consumers on social media can be a difficult task. We’re often told of the importance of seeking out your audience on a diverse range of channels and creating unique content that speaks to consumers in the cluttered landscape. One of the best ways to do this is by building a customer-first social media strategy. This means designing a strategy that’s centred around your customers and is chiefly focused on fulfilling their needs and meeting — if not surpassing — their expectations.

For example, rather than posting content whenever you feel like it, post content that appeals to your customers at an optimised time to ensure maximum reach. This is bound to attract and engage consumers more effectively, in turn boosting your social media performance and customer relationships. 

Drawing on one of Metigy’s customers as an example, Share with Oscar is an on-demand platform for booking a private parking space. Instead of predictable posts relating to parking pain, Share with Oscar ties its content to cultural moments, such as a visit from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle; the platform posted a tongue-in-cheek article about the Royals not being able to find parking at Bondi Beach.

Also Read: Watch out, these startup social media marketing strategies are bullshit

The Share with Oscar team then used Metigy’s AI tool to help identify the best time of day to post the content in order to deliver optimal results — and the post generated more than 13,000 views with a spend of just AU$10. Showcasing the true power of well-timed content.

The majority of marketers believe that their efforts through social media marketing have been ‘somewhat effective’ or ‘very effective’ for their businesses, so it’s clear that startups building a customer-first social media strategy will ride the wave of successful social media marketing. 

Personalise the experience

It’s not enough to know what your customers are saying, but you also have to respond appropriately at the right time to strengthen the relationship. In most cases, this means responding as quickly as possible to let the customer know you’ve heard them and that you’re working to find a suitable solution or response.

Social media has become a new interface for customer service. Nearly six in 10 consumers would unfollow brands on social media because of poor customer service, while 29 per cent would unfollow them if they ignore posts or mentions from people. 

Regardless of the channel, social media connects people with their family and friends. So, even when consumers interact with brands over social media, they want to feel comfortable as if they were talking to a friend. This is exactly why you should always try to keep your responses and conversations as personalised as possible. 

In addition to using their first name, you should apply a friendly tone that would make consumers feel comfortable and welcome. If you have multiple teams or employees monitoring your social media accounts, it’s best practice to create a style and tone guide, to ensure consistency across communications. The overarching goal is to make the interaction as humanised as possible, mirroring a face-to-face interaction.

Tap into trust and transparency 

Trust is at the heart of every strong relationship, especially the relationship between brand and customer. Transparency is critical to this. After engagement, transparency is the second most important factor that makes a brand best in class on social media. 

So, the lesson to startups is that if you make any mistakes, own up to them. If you’re making changes or updates to your business, let your customers know. If there are any problems with your product or service, keep your customers notified and let them know that you’re working on resolving them.

People trust other people, so a customer-first social media strategy can also mean putting a human face to your brand to win people’s trust. Make sure you regularly publish content that showcases your employees or C-suite executives to remind your customers about the humans behind the business.

Also Read: Achieve your social media marketing goals with these 4 strategies

This could mean showing what’s going behind the scenes of your brand, how your employees work or showcasing snapshots of company events.

Today, social media has become an absolute must for startups of all shapes and sizes. However, without following social media best practice it can be difficult to drive strong results. It’s possible to build an engaging and successful social strategy if you put social engagement at the centre.

The main focus should be applying a customer-first approach and working towards better understanding your target audience and discovering what makes them tick. 

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community or like the e27 Facebook page

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Sayurbox, a farm-to-table e-commerce company in Indonesia, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B investment in a round co-led by public-listed automotive major Astra Digital International and Syngenta Group Ventures.

Global Brain Corporation, Ondine Capital (based in China and Southeast Asia), investment company Strategic Year, and other undisclosed investors also participated.

The capital will be used to support Sayurbox’s ongoing development of supply chain infrastructure, accelerate its growth in its existing markets, and expand into newer regions of Indonesia.

Last week, there was a news report (in Bahasa) that Astra had invested US$5 million in Sayurbox earlier this year.

Founded in 2017 by ex- gojek executive Rama Notowidigdo and Amanda Susanti, Sayurbox is an online grocery marketplace providing thousands of affordable and high-quality vegetables, fruits, meats, seafood, and grocery items sourced directly from local farmers, producers, and suppliers.

The company not only promises better prices for farmers and consumers but also reduces the agricultural waste caused by supply chain complexity.

As of now, Sayurbox operates in Greater Jakarta, Surabaya, and Bali.

Also Read: Indonesian e-grocery startup HappyFresh raises US$20M Series C

“This partnership is an important step to unlocking the potential that digital innovation brings to agriculture in Asia, and complements Syngenta’s commercial strategy to work with digital startups that connect farmers with multi-stakeholders such as traders, buyers, suppliers, and consumers,” said Djony Bunarto Tjondro, Director of Astra.

“We see huge value in the transformation and digitalisation of Indonesia’s food supply chain. With leading technology, superior quality product and stable service, Sayurbox sets in the best position to capture it,” added Ondine Capital founding partner Randolph Hsu.

“We are excited with the demand we are seeing for Sayurbox in Java island, as well as other regions in Indonesia. With like-minded investors who believe in our vision, we will seize this huge opportunity to continue to bring goodness to all; from the homes of local farmers and producers directly to more Indonesian households, providing freshness in one box and convenience at your fingertips,” Sayurbox co-founder, Amanda Susanti, added.

Also Read: Sources: Tokopedia is involved in a funding round for Sayurbox

As per the data obtained by Tracxn, the Indonesia online grocery sector is heavily crowded with 69 startups competing with each other.

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Image Credit: Sayurbox

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Over the past quarter, the e27 Memberships team has been working tirelessly to bring onboard a prestigious list of Experts onto the e27 platform. These Experts come from varying areas of expertise from different industries and verticals.

The goal of the e27 Experts Program is to create a platform for mentors and coaches to share knowledge with their fellow peers and members within our e27 ecosystem through private 1:1 sessions.

We hope to equip every aspiring individual with relevant mentorship, useful feedback and open up more partnership opportunities for everyone to up-skill themselves and attain their individual goals.

Check out these 5 verified Experts that you can connect with for advice, mentorship, and other partnership opportunities:

Geoffrey Handley
General Partner at Haitao Capital
Advisory Boards | Principals & People | Strategic Architecture

Geoffrey is the General Partner of early-stage, cross border investor, Haitao Capital. He is also an EiR at SOSV’s Chinaccelerator (#2 angel & seed-stage investor globally – Crunchbase) and a 5x founder with multiple exits including 2x IPO & acquisitions.

Widely known as an early mobile visionary and published thought leader, he was the Global Board Director & Secretary of Mobile Marketing Association & Founding Director at AsiaPac Chapter. Some of his achievements include being listed under Entrepreneur.com’s Brightest 10 List, Gartner’s Mobile “Ones to Watch”, and W3C Mobile’s Most Influential.

Sign up here and Connect with him

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Jan Wong
Founder & CEO at OpenMinds
Branding | Bootstrapping | Digital Marketing

Jan Wong is an entrepreneur, youth advocate, and founder of OpenMinds; an 8 year old bootstrapped, data-driven martech company based in KL, Singapore and Hong Kong. Starting at the age of 17, he has ventured into eight businesses, a part-time lecturer at the Asia Pacific University (APIIT / APU), a certified e-commerce consultant, published an academic journal during his Master’s degree, sits on the Academic Advisory Board of KDU, Sunway College and Sunway University, a regional keynote speaker in events and conferences, a mentor for multiple startup communities including Techstars Global and NEXT50 Singapore, a regular contributor on BFM radio, a 2-time TEDx speaker, recognised as one of the top 10 new generation businessmen to watch in 2020, listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 list and recently published his first book on Building Your Digital Net Worth.

Sign up here and Connect with him

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Rachel Wong
Counsel at Eugene Thuraisingam LLP I CEO of Founders Doc
Legal Advice for Startups I Legal Services I Consultancy Services I Legal Templates

Rachel graduated from King’s College, London (LL.B.) in 2013 with First Class Hons. Since then, she has worked as a corporate M&A lawyer in leading international law firms such as White & Case LLP, Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee and Allen & Gledhill LLP in Singapore and London. She is also a committee member of The Law Society of Singapore (Corporate Committee and the CPD Committee).

Whilst helping one of the founders in their series fundraising process in Singapore, she was impressed by how ‘founder-friendly’ certain venture capital funds and law firms in Silicon Valley were – in particular, Founders Fund. She also felt that the legal community in Singapore could do better in providing more robust legal support for the growing startup community in South-east Asia, whilst taking into account the cultural nuances and trends in this region. With this in mind, Founders Doc was born in 2021.

Founders Doc collaborates with Eugene Thuraisingam LLP, where she spearheads the Corporate Practice, to ensure that founders in South-east Asia get the full support that they need. Founders Doc is, in essence, an in-house legal service provider; whilst the law firm arm serves to support companies in more complex transactions.

Sign up here and Connect with her

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Frank Lee
Managing Director at Tech JDI
Investment | Scaling Tech Teams | Vietnam Markets

Frank is the Partner at TNF Ventures and Founder at Tech JDI.

In TNF Ventures, he manages all aspects of company operations, and portfolio management.
Till date, TNF Ventures has a total of 20 portfolio companies.

On the other hand, Tech JDI is a venture studio building startups and providing venture support services to help fast scaling Series A/B/C tech companies grow their 2nd tech teams in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He manages numerous teams, and has operations in 3 offices between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

Sign up here and Connect with him

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Tamara Singh
Head of Asia Pacific, OMFIF

Following a decade in the United Kingdom and two years in Hong Kong, Tamara returned to Singapore in 2012. A multi-disciplinary Business Manager, her experience spans energy, financial services and fund management, covering trading floors in London, New York, as well as across Asia. Tamara recently departed GIC Pte Ltd, Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, to embark on a portfolio career as the Head of Asia Pacific for the Official Monetary & Financial Institutions Forum, whilst also fulfilling demanding commitments as a dedicated mother, Coach and Consultant. Tamara is a member of the UNDP’s Private Sector Advisory Group and UNESCAP’s Infrastructure Financing and Public-Private Partnership Network of Asia and the Pacific. She also works with industry groups to drive the adoption of solutions to reduce common challenges within the finance ecosystem and is currently experimenting with the roll-out of a purpose-led virtual community for anyone interested in gender inclusion.

Tamara has degrees in Law and in Applied Accounting, and attained an Executive Masters in Business Administration from INSEAD whilst pregnant with her second child, which she cites as being “efficient but not necessarily recommended”. Tamara is involved with organisations and causes that are focused on equality and education, including sitting on the Board of Conjunct Consulting, South East Asia’s first social change consultancy. She coaches clients including accelerators, social enterprises/not-for-profits and corporate decision-makers.

Sign up here and Connect with her

Happy connecting,
e27 Memberships Team

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“After working at and founding various small and large companies, my co-founder and I realised that the biggest challenge every company faced was the same – their people.”

That was Jay Huang’s lightbulb moment which set him on the quest to solve the age-old problem of hiring for companies.

Though companies have evolved and embraced new technologies, the process of hiring has lagged behind. A resource-intensive task, hiring has long been a drawn-out process where one’s gut feeling was usually the deciding factor in whether a candidate was selected.

Companies argued it was difficult to make data-driven decisions when qualitative hiring metrics such as one’s job fit and personality traits cannot be easily quantified.

Huang had other thoughts. Together with his co-founder Peter Yoong, the duo, with the help of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, attempted to bridge the gap between hiring and data through Pulsifi.

“Before Pulsifi, HR and managers had to juggle between multiple disjointed sources of data on each person, such as their resume, personality and psychometric assessments, video interviews, and performance data to make decisions on hiring,” the CEO explains.

Also Read: How foodpanda CTO approaches hiring and retaining the best tech talent

The Singapore-based company solves this with its People Data Platform. By unifying multiple hard and soft skills data on each individual, it is able to generate a personalised report on the individual’s fit for the company.

The platform’s machine learning model is built upon data from over 50 years of organisational psychology research. Huang added the model constantly improves its accuracy by analysing “tens of thousands” of job profiles parsed through it by client companies.

After processing the data, Pulsifi’s platform develops success profiles and predictive models to ascertain an individual’s fit with an organisation, while providing customised tips to increase individual employee engagement.

Huang claims the platform has over 90 per cent accuracy when predicting the outcomes of people at work, helping Pulsifi’s clients improve quality and efficiency in talent acquisition and management.

The five-year-old company commercialises its platform through a recurring subscription model, which has been the go-to revenue strategy for similar B2B SaaS companies.

As the company charges companies based on the number of candidates or employees, reaching large enterprises is key. Therefore, besides digital marketing, Pulsifi also invests in a sales team that sells directly to multinational companies.

The company already counts Nestlé, Heineken, Reckitt, KPMG, and Singtel among its clients.

Also Read: What metrics to monitor as a B2B SaaS company?

Despite being an HR company and having developed a platform specifically to aid companies in combating poor hiring decisions, Huang shared poor hiring was the culprit of Pulsifi’s early challenges.

“At that time, we were a very early-stage startup figuring our way around. We brought on team members who had skills, but not so much the mindset, capacity and drive to shape Pulsifi in product and business. We ended up wasting a lot of time and resources doing the wrong things,” he remarks.

Noting that early-stage startups are handicapped from the get-go due to the lack of resources, he opined a good hire will go a long way in overcoming the numerous growth challenges a young company would face.

Globally, companies do seem to share a similar sentiment. The talent management software market is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 per cent to hit US$ 11 billion by 2026.

Noting organisations are seeking to move away from traditional resume screening to explore more holistic methods of evaluating candidates, Huang shares people data analytics will play an important role moving forward. “Those organizations that do will significantly pull ahead of those that do not, by providing a superior candidate and employee experience,” he opines.

Having recently raised US$1.8 million in an angel round in November 2020, the Pulsifi team has been hard at work expanding into Europe.

When quizzed on future plans, Huang disclosed the company is looking to raise a Series A round in the second half of 2021 to support its ambitions to scale its platform and cover more talent acquisition and talent management use cases.

With the pandemic placing renewed importance on hiring well and the increased influence of data within businesses, the outlook certainly does look rosy for people analytics platforms like Pulsifi.

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Image Credit: Pulsifi

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SOSV invests in zero-party data platform Bounty Media

Who is Bounty Media: Founded in November 2019 in Singapore, Bounty Media is an adtech and martech platform offering a monetisation solution for advertisers and publishers.

The plans: Bounty Media has partnered with Vidio and Viu in Indonesia to serve their collective 70 million monthly active users. It will be rolling out throughout Southeast Asia and greater APAC through 2021 and 2022, expanding its content partners to include entertainment, education and language learning, mobile gaming and more.

Also Read: Meet these 5 verified Experts that are ready to connect with you today

The connection with SOSV Mobile Only Accelerator is also timely as Bounty Media will be able to provide an extra monetization platform that underpins the 105 million users inside the MOX ecosystem, offering the ability for global brands to entertain audiences with premium content, apps, education, and news media in exchange for first-party data.

The deal brings Bounty Media’s total seed round raised to SGD550,000 (US$415,000).

gojek rumoured to have bought shares in retail giant Matahari

The story: PT Multipolar, backer of IDX-listed PT Matahari Putra Prima, is rumoured to have sold its shares to three companies — PT Pradipa Darpa Bangsa (4.76 per cent), Panbridge Investment (3.33 per cent), and Threadmore Capital (3.81 per cent).

Pradipa Darpa Bangsa is rumoured to have a link with ride-hailing giant gojek as they happen to be sharing a single address.

Matahari said in a statement that it has no information regarding the relationship between Pradipa Darpa Bangsa and gojek Indonesia.

gojek Chief Corporate Affairs Nila Marita declined to comment.

According to Matahari Corporate Secretary Danny Kojongian: “There is no information or fact that has not been conveyed that will significantly affect the company.”

Korea’s Giftiicon enters India

The story: Giftiicon, a Korean gifting platform, has launched in India with a new app startup specifically designed for the market.

What is Giftiicon?: Founded by father-daughter duo Nakkyun Chong and Ji Hyun Chong, the platform focuses on the casual gifting market where the act of giving and receiving gifts becomes instantaneous, impulsive and hassle free.

The app enables users to send a gift of their choice in just 30 seconds through SMS and WhatsApp without necessarily knowing the address of the recipient.

Target group: Aimed at millennials and Gen Z, the concept behind the platform is to simplify the gifting process and eliminate cumbersome registration requirements along with personal information.

Giftiicon allows users to pick from multiple categories of gifts listed on the platform, from F&B and Cosmetics to Home Decor and Flowers. At the time of redemption, users have the option of visiting the store to pick up the gift or request a pick-up via apps like Dunzo who is Giftiicon’s delivery partner. They also provide the option of scheduling a gift so that users remember important dates like birthdays or anniversaries. There is also a Gen Z focused unique feature called ‘Tease’, that lets users request a gift.

For the merchant, Giftiicon enables pan-India marketing and requires no extra inventory investment as products are only required when the gift is paid for. Giftiicon also has tie-ups with payment gateways, which eliminates the hassle of POS integration and encourages immediate purchases.

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Image Credit: Bounty Media

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2021 has been a breakthrough year for the Korean startup ecosystem despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Korean Chat API startup Sendbird raised $100 million in Series C funding with a valuation of $1.05 billion. Sendbird is now one of the 12 unicorn startups based out of South Korea. South Korea’s largest e-commerce company, Coupang, raised around $4.6 billion in the biggest US initial public offering (IPO) this year. In the first quarter of 2021, at least 34 companies (many of which were tech startups), have applied to the Korea Exchange (KRX) for IPOs.

South Korea wants to grow its tech ecosystem and digital economy by making it easier for startups from abroad to expand in the country. The South Korean government aims to attract global startups to set up operations in South Korea and help broaden the spectrum of tech-related products and services available in the vibrant market.

As such, startups from around the world are now able to apply to K-Startup Grand Challenge 2021, South Korea’s government-backed global acceleration programme. The programme started accepting applications from April 15, 2021.

Organised and financed by the Korean government, South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) and National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), the programme represents an unparalleled opportunity for startups to expand into the South Korean and wider Asian markets.

What global startups can expect from the programme

The programme opens up a slew of perks for all interested participants. KSGC 2021 will offer 60 teams and entrepreneurs an all-expenses-paid, 3.5-month residency programme in South Korea that includes access to expert guidance, co-working spaces, state-of-art R&D labs, corporate partnerships, entry to Asian markets, and more.

Not only that, but startups will be able to immerse in a conducive environment where they have access to some of the latest innovations today. The acceleration programme is hosted at the startup campus in Pangyo Techno Valley, a tech hub near Seoul. The top ten chosen startups will also win grants worth $320,000, with the first-placed team receiving $120,000.

The programme has historically yielded some of the most successful expansions by global startups into the region.

Texas-based health-tech startup Ommo technologies spread its reach to the Asian markets with participation in the K-Startup Grand Challenge 2020 programme. Since joining the KSGC programme in the summer of 2020, Ommo technologies has raised US $3M led by Korean investors.

Kyul Ko, Co-founder & COO, Ommo technologies shared — “KSGC helped pave the way for us to reach out to potential investors and partners. Not only does the Korean government support domestic startups, but it also helps international startups help find their home in Korea to take advantage of the support it provides, KSGC being the epitome. Once you are able to run your business successfully in Korea, then all of Asia is within reach.”

How interested participants can join

To apply, startups must be less than seven years old, and their representative must be of foreign nationality. They must also demonstrate a clear interest in expanding into the Korean and East Asian markets.

The programme first launched in 2016, aims to promote the expansion of an open entrepreneurship ecosystem in Asia and assist in South Korea’s evolution into a prominent startup and business hub in the region. In the year 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the programme saw a 58% surge in applications, with 2,648 teams applying from 118 countries.

For further information and to apply for the K-Startup Grand Challenge, visit the website at https://www.k-startupgc.org. You may also check the Facebook page and the LinkedIn page for more information and further updates.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
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In this latest coverage of e27 Luminaries, we are taking a look at the internal work of an organisation –the foundation of every successful business.

While we previously looked at people who contribute to developing great products and bringing those products to the market, today we are putting the spotlight on the operations and administrative heroes of the companies. People who are leading initiatives to improve how an organisation work, enabling them to face challenges in a particularly difficult time such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are different elements involved in operations and administration management, from human resource to finance. In this article, we are looking at high-achieving professionals that have supported their teams with their work:

Marlon Ramirez, Head of Operations at Ayannah

As the company’s Head of Operations, Ramirez played a great role in helping Ayannah’s navigate the changes brought by the pandemic, enabling it to continue its growth trajection.

“When the pandemic struck and the company reverted to a work from home set-up, Marlon and his team were able to ensure that our operations ran smoothly. Despite the pandemic, Ayannah grew eight times in 2020 and we attribute our success to the operations team’s ability to continuously serve our customers.”

Viktor Kyosev, Acting COO at Greenhouse

Greenhouse is one example of companies that have managed to survive the pandemic by pivoting their business –from operating a coworking space to providing a platform for curated B2B services marketplace.

“Viktor has shown how important it is to adapt even in the most challenging times. The pandemic dealt a deadly blow to the coworking sector, however, Greenhouse managed to emerge with a whole new business model in order to survive.”

Also Read: Winning the deal: Meet the business development professionals of e27 Luminaries

Punto Adhil Dewanto, Administrative Staff at Inavoice

The Jogjakarta-based startup is an example of a platform that launched itself at the peak of the pandemic –yet it managed to secure significant clients from the central bank to the leading FMCG companies in Indonesia. According to Inavoice, as an administrative staff, Dewanto played a crucial role in establishing the company.

“This person is credited with his ideas of developing a dexterous modern administrative form, and supporting the brand’s internal operations. Sometimes, [he could be] working more than the allotted time … Even though he is not the founder, Punto is a very important person in Inavoice.”

Ming Hui Lee, Partner, Head of Operations at Moovaz

In 2020 alone, in the middle of the pandemic, Moovaz announced two acquisitions: the first one of expat-focussed media company The Finder, followed by van-hailing platform GetVan.

These major moves indicated the company’s growth from strength to strength and can only be achieved through a solid foundation in operations.

Jean Rosy Tency, Head of HR at MYCL

During the COVID-19 pandemic, MYCL found themselves shifting the focus of their operations towards the health and safety of their team members. The company even set up a task force to help employees transition to working from home setups.

“The challenges of working from home include not being able to unplug after hours, difficulties collaborating and/or communicating with colleagues, and a lack of motivation. [Tency] consistently initiated monthly activity engagement for team members,” the company explains. “Although productivity is important, the primary goal of these activity engagements … should be to maintain productivity while concurrently protecting employees’ mental health and well-being.”

As a result, the company has zero COVID-19 cases in 2020 and managed to save a considerable amount of cash.

Lee Chee Meng, Co-Chief Operations Officer at Pickupp

In a post that Meng has contributed to e27, he explained the three trends that will reshape the logistics and retail industry in Singapore in 2021 as the economy recovers from the pandemic.

“There will be opportunities for growth in 2021 as we learn to adjust to the post-COVID-19 world and form business decisions around the new trends and parameters,” he wrote. “New trends have emerged at the back of these customer behaviour shifts and it is vital for SMEs.”

Pickupp itself has announced a Series A funding round in November 2020.

Alexandre Wallemacq, Operations Manager at Propseller

In October 2020, proptech startup Propseller announced a US$1.2 million seed funding round that became a testimony to the strength of its operations as a relatively new platform in the ecosystem.

The startup said that it plans to use the funding to support talent acquisitions and product development, with the goal to triple its team size within the first half of 2021.

Also Read: Innovating for the future: Meet the engineers, developers, and products managers of e27 Luminaries

Lynette Seow, COO at Safe Space

The most interesting part about Seow’s journey with Safe Space, a Singapore-based startup that works in mental healthcare, is that she started out as a volunteer before joining the company as its COO.

“She has proven integral in the scaling of Safe Space and we would like to recognise her for leading both our product and research efforts,” the company writes.

The company announced a US$250,000 seed funding round in November 2020.

Durgalakshmi Sathiakumar, COO at Shiok Meats

Alternative protein is one of the most popular verticals in foodtech today, especially as customers are becoming more health- and eco-conscious since the pandemic. Shiok Meats, a Singapore-based company, is one of the leading companies in the vertical.

In September 2020, the company made headlines with its US$12.6 million Series A funding round -a testimony to the strength of their operations and trust given by investors.

Nandini Joshi, Chief Operating Officer at StashAway

The COVID-19 pandemic and the restriction measures implemented in many countries have pushed businesses to make adjustments in their daily operations, and Joshi played a crucial role in making sure that the Singapore-based company is able to meet those requirements.

“Nandini let the internal coordination for us during the COVID-19 period and was the one that ensured that we met the restrictions and regulations imposed,” StashAway explains.

This week, as evidence of investors’ trust in the company, StashAway announced a US$25 million Series D funding round.

Yin Ching Loh, Chief Financial Office | Head of Network at WhiteCoat

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of having access to healthcare services, and this is the issue that Loh has managed to tackle during her time at WhiteCoat.

“Yin Ching started and dramatically expanded our network of allied healthcare providers last year, successfully diversifying WhiteCoat’s suite of offerings from primary care (GP) to include specialist care and mental wellness service in the midst of the pandemic … Our users can now teleconsult a variety of licensed medical practitioners on the WhiteCoat app, at their convenience and in the safety of their own homes.”

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The e27 Luminaries is an initiative by e27 to celebrate the unsung heroes of the SEA startup ecosystem. Discover these notable companies and individuals here.

Image Credit: Studio Republic on Unsplash

 

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