Hiring the right talent is always a challenge for any organisation. Often times, candidates applying for a job often try to show their best side, not their true side, during interviews. Some even submit their forged documents (education and experience certificates, etc.), without getting noticed. Honesty is on short supply.

But many companies have managed to tackle such challenges with the help of technology and rely on referrals to discover potential employees.

How does Ninja Van, with a strong 31,000-member workforce, address such challenges?

In this interview with e27, Imran Bustamam, Regional Head of Human Resources describes the end-to-end recruitment process at Singapore-based company, a leading logistics-tech company backed by the likes of Monk’s Hill, Golden Gate and B Capital.

Excerpts:

Hiring/recruiting people is one of the most challenging parts for any company. How does Ninja Van tackle this problem?

Most of the challenges faced by Ninja Van are typical of most companies. Employees today have much higher expectations when it comes to what a “good” employer should offer in terms of the employee experience.

At the same time, attracting good talent has never been more competitive, and a talent attraction strategy focused heavily on incentives alone (e.g. flexible work hours, external training courses for staff development, pantry benefits, etc) is not enough to drive candidates’ interest in a company.

We recognise that these trends are not just passing fads and are likely to have a long-lasting impact on hiring practices for all companies. Our team is progressively evolving our approach towards employee engagement and experience in order to be an employer of choice.

On top of that, we are looking at different ways to align with candidates on what we can provide as an employer to meet their career aspirations.

How do you discover talent? What are the different media/platforms that Ninja Van uses to discover talent? Do you incentivise employees referrals?

Ninja Van uses various platforms to engage and discover talent. We are actively involved in campus activities, such as hosting career talks and partnering with university career centres. These collaborations provide us with the opportunity to meet prospective candidates and gain insights into job leads, and other valuable information.

Also Read: How Vietnam’s e-commerce firm Tiki manages to keep employee churn rate healthy

Active recruitment for us means generating applications from candidates who are not actively looking for a new role but are potentially a good fit for the open positions we have.

So this active partnership with tertiary institutions also helps us build relationships with a wide network of graduates, enabling us to keep a pulse on when these potential hires, or their friends, are looking for jobs.

We also pay close attention to employer branding activities by highlighting our achievements as a company, our involvement and partnership with external stakeholders and sharing employees’ experiences on our LinkedIn page.

Additionally, we also connect with individuals on LinkedIn and utilise job search platforms such as JobStreet to advertise the open positions we are hoping to fill.

Our employee referral programme, ‘Ninja Get Ninja’ also helps with capturing candidate leads, encouraging our existing employees to tap into their own networks to refer potential candidates that would be suitable hires for the roles we are trying to fill.

Do you conduct a background-check of your new hires/potential candidates before onboarding? Do you also verify the social media accounts of your candidates?

We conduct background checks on candidates on a case-by-case basis. For instance, reference checks are used to learn more about a candidate’s strengths and limitations to best support them if he/she is offered a job with Ninja Van.

This process helps our talent acquisition (TA) team assess if the applicant has the right skill set for the job, especially for those applying for a more senior position. This is crucial as hiring good performers will add to Ninja Van’s established talent community, which eventually contributes to the company’s success.

Once you discover the talent, what is the next step? How many interview rounds are there?

Our TA team wears many hats in their role — they interview, advise and also serve as brand champions, to name a few.

Ninja Van places a heavy emphasis on culture fit and uses the company values to guide employees on the behaviour that is expected of them at work.

Once we identify a potential candidate, our TA team reaches out to him/her for the first round of phone screenings. If a candidate is successful, we then proceed to schedule an in-person interview with the hiring manager.

Depending on the role, shortlisted candidates might have to undergo several rounds of interviews as it helps hiring managers to ensure that the candidate is interested in the work, motivated and a good fit for our company culture.

Depending on the type of job, pre-hire assessments such as problem-solving tests might be given to review how candidates tackle selected scenarios they might face in the role, which would help hiring managers better understand where the candidate would fit and their ability to perform tasks.

If the candidate successfully makes it to the final round, he/she usually meets members of the team face-to-face in a culture fit interview.

Also Read: Breaking down the hiring process for early-stage founders : team or product first?

For senior positions, there is typically an interview with a member of the senior management team.

Can you share details about the on-boarding process? What is the probation period for employees? How many employees are currently working for you?

We strongly believe new hires need to get acquainted with Ninja Van in order for them to be able to contribute meaningfully to the company.

With a headcount of more than 31,000 employees regionally, every employee is briefed on our core values at Ninja Van — “Lean Towards Action”, “Learn and Improve”, and “Deliver on Promises” — as they shape the way they go about their work.

The employee journey starts when an offer is made, with our TA team briefing new hires on what to expect as part of the on-boarding process. On their first day at Ninja Van, new employees attend an orientation session before reporting to their respective departments. Managers assigned to each new hire will act as their mentor and help them understand Ninja Van’s business and goals.

New employees are also required to attend an induction programme which provides them with an opportunity to meet and interact with other new hires through a series of team-building exercises and icebreakers.

On top of that, all new hires are strongly encouraged to attend our ‘operations immersion’ programme that gives employees a first-hand experience of Ninja Van’s parcel delivery process — from sorting, delivery to parcel recovery in our warehouses.

Having this holistic understanding of the business helps employees understand how their roles support the company’s larger operational process and foster a better understanding of the challenges faced by their colleagues on-the-ground.

What is the average employee churn rate at the company? What measures has Ninja Van taken to retain talent?

Ninja Van believes in its employees’ growth and focuses on ensuring that our employees are constantly learning and improving. As such, employees have training and development opportunities to help them further their skills and create opportunities for professional development at Ninja Van.

How do you deal with document forging by your employees? What if any of your staffers are found to have forged their education/experience certificates?

The HR team conducts a check of an employee’s educational certificates and professional documents before an he/she joins the company.

Also Read: Why it is now essential to encourage diversity and empower women in fintech

As part of our policy, an employment offer will be rescinded in the event there are discrepancies in the authenticity of the documentation required as part of the hiring process. Ninja Van has a zero-tolerance policy on the lack of integrity.

Can you also share the details of Ninja Van’s leave policy, maternity/paternity leave, etc.?

At Ninja Van, we give employees the responsibility to manage their personal time and the time spent on their work.

All permanent employees at Ninja Van are entitled to the ‘paid-time-off’ programme, where they are allowed to manage the number of days of leave they require.

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Image Credit: Ninja Van

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Aaron Lee, a full-time serial entrepreneur and part-time boxer, had just returned to Hong Kong after completing his education in the US.

However, as an expat, he encountered challenges in finding affordable accommodation in HK, as there were limited options available. The ones that existed charged exorbitant rents and their leasing terms were not flexible. And it got lonely to stay without friends in a flat in HK.

This led Lee to set up Dash Living, a home-sharing platform, which has grown to cover over 1,200 units in Hong Kong and Singapore. 

Besides solving accommodation problems for millennials like himself, Dash also solves one of the biggest challenges that young working professionals face: that is, finding affordable, all-inclusive premium living spaces.

One of the most important characteristics of co-living spaces is a community, and Dash has quickly managed to secure over 13,000 followers across its social media platforms.

“Building a community is certainly a crucial aspect for startups,” Lee said. “While we are more nimble, adaptable, and creative, we are also the underdogs with fewer resources than the big guys. Whether it is tenant communities,  investor communities, brand partners, or collaborator communities, having like-minded people around not only amplifies but also helps shape and nurture a company’s message and culture, ultimately helping it grow.”

In this interview, he shares with e27 how the seven-year-old company managed to build one of the largest co-living communities.

Also Read: Dash Living acquires Singapore’s coliving company Easycity, expands to the Asia Pacific

Create a dedicated community team 

One of the most common challenges facing startups over community hiring is finding the right professionals to do the job. And, beyond that, growing the community in the most organic way possible.

Dash has a dedicated team of community experts, with most of them having experience in the hospitality industry, which he believes makes them professionals at guest service and handling communication.

Dash’s community team engages with tenants almost every day with activities, events, and chit-chats to understand their needs better. 

The startup follows a lean structure where the freshest of employees can work alongside the founder and senior leaders. Lee believes that structuring the team in a way where everyone is viewed as “equals” can contribute to both growth and encourage newer ideas.

Understanding clients

In a world where people switch from one platform to another in a heartbear, Dash believes it is extremely important for businesses to understand the needs of their clients.

Therefore, an important aspect of the Dash community is developing a deep understanding of tenants’ backgrounds and interests. The company goes out of the way to carry out regular surveys to understand tenants’ needs before they check in to their rooms.

Through its in-built chat functionality, the Dash team can speak to the tenants not just about matters pertaining to the co-living space but also outside of their stay.

For example, the Dash team helps tenants with information about car parking spaces and restaurants with a particular cuisine. According to the team, this is some of the kind of instant help that it provides the tenants.

Creating a user-driven community

Once Dash engages with tenants through online and offline touchpoints, it focuses mostly on creating user-generated content, user-generated engagement, and events.

According to Lee, a true community is user-driven and not just merely platform-driven. One of the metrics to measure if a community is thriving is also to observe to what extent it is user-driven.

To encourage this, Dash provides its members with a platform where they can initiate and host events for the community, and as the host, it puts those memories and interesting stories on Dash’s blog (known as Dash Insider).

Responsive community team

Since most of the tenants in co-living spaces have similar difficulties and inquiries, handling queries is not very difficult, according to the founder, which is why being responsive is the most valuable thing.

The company has added features like “in-app messaging” to make the communication process more streamlined. Besides this, it also has a dedicated team to respond quickly to tenants staying in over 600 rooms in HK and 600 rooms in Singapore.

Offering perks 

The community team at Dash also offers its tenants perks that it probably wouldn’t find anywhere else. For example, free gym services for both tenants and their parents and discounts with shopping brands.

Also Read: From co-working to co-living, these 7 brands in Southeast Asia have got you covered

Besides responding and hosting events for the community, the Dash team also manages and explores perks with different vendors, for example, dining, discounts, gym pass, and also free usage of co-working spaces.

Hosting events

Bringing different people together under one roof is an important aspect of community building. The company used to host events at least once a month before the onset of COVID-19. For example, having a bakery workshop for all its tenants.

But it does not just self host events but also helps its tenants organise events.

Lee recalls how a French tenant organised an event for his neighbours on the rooftop with the help of the Dash community team, who helped him plan the event and get RSVPs from interested individuals.

After the pandemic hit, Dash quickly pivoted from offline to online events which include Zoom sessions focused on health and fitness. 

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Image Credit: Dash Living

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Raising capital is no mean task. It often takes weeks or months before you get your first equity round. Alas, it takes even years to grab your first VC funding.

In the years to come, it is gonna be even harder to raise VC money in Southeast Asia, if Jeffrey Paine can be believed. You need to get your product and business model right, but that’s not enough. You also need to achieve a certain milestone to draw the attention of top VCs of the region.

In this part of the virtual webinar series on the topic Fundraising Fundamentals, hosted by e27, the Golden Gate Ventures Founding Partner gets candid about the region’s VC ecosystem and gives some valuable advice to founders seeking VC investment.

‘You need to be valued at US$700M in 10 years to raise VC money’

I met a thousand companies in Southeast Asia in the past 12 years. I would say there are only 52 companies with a valuation of US$200 million and above, of which 60 per cent are in the B2C space. Of this 52, 90 per cent are headquartered in either Singapore, Jakarta or Vietnam.

Also Read: Bali, Batam climb up digital competitiveness index in Indonesia as up-and-coming tech hubs: Report

About 40-50 per cent of these 52 firms are in some kind of trouble but nobody knows about it. They are way overvalued, which will cause them some trouble in the next two-three years.

So, if you’re a founder looking to raise VC money, you need to be valued at least US$700 million in ten years. But the chances of you hitting over US$200 million is very low. But if you still want VC money, your job is to work backwards. If you are not sure and don’t think you will ever get there, don’t raise VC money then.

Instead, raise money from friends, family or angels. Raise money from a seed fund where the fund size is quite small and their returns targets are different. If you think your angel will be happy if you achieve a US$30-million in seven years, then go raise money from them.

‘Provide value to your customers’

I would say 99 per cent of all SMEs are not raising VC funding and only about 1 per cent does. Of this 1 per cent, probably 5 per cent does very well. So the odds are stacked against you guys (startup founders).

Your job as a founder is to provide value to your customers. Whether you’re US$1 billion or US$700 million, you shouldn’t care that much. Your job is to make people happy, provide value and figure out a business model such that you can pay yourself and your employees. The employees are happy and can send their kids to school, they can eventually retire.

Don’t worry about the startup fantasy of raising money because based on 12 years of data, it’s almost impossible to raise VC money. Everything you read about or everything you hear on Clubhouse or any other place is about VCs, startups, tech, etc., but nobody talks about a SaaS company that makes US$2 million a year. They raise US$100,000 but nobody talks about these people, nobody talks about a one-man show that makes US$1 million a year with no employees.

Also Read: Investible aims to raise US$38M fund targeting early-stage startups in SEA, Australia

I think we should talk more about these people because 99 per cent of SMEs belong to this category (who generate millions in revenues but don’t hog the limelight). But we are only focused on 1 per cent, which doesn’t make sense.

‘Tell us your 10-year story’

The market will probably have a correction soon. Then what should you be doing? You need to tell your 10-year story as accurate as you can — whether you are US$30-million worth or US$700-million worth doesn’t matter.

Because we already know that you don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next 12 months. You may tell me your tenure story is not going to be real, but you should still try your best.

Be honest. Don’t bullshit because the more you bullshit and the better salespeople you are, you attract investors that do not know what they’re doing, then they invest in you to go on a road that doesn’t make sense to either of you. Then the next four or five years or less is a waste of time. So be very careful about what you’re doing.

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Image Credit: Golden Gate Ventures

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Sembrani Nusantara Fund (SNF), a fund operated by Indonesian corporate VC firm BRI Ventures, has led an undisclosed Series A investment Andalin, a local startup providing cross-border shipping solutions.

The round is SNF’s third investment since launching in June 2020. Last December, it announced back-to-back investments into Indonesian drink brand Haus! and local direct-to-consumer shoe startup Brodo.

The fresh funds will go towards establishing freight consolidation infrastructure and expanding Andalin’s branch offices in the international port cities of Semarang, Surabaya, Medan and Makassar. The company will also seek to launch operations in Japan, Thailand, China, Vietnam and South Korea.

This round comes fresh off Andalin’s seven-figure pre-Series A round raised in October 2020.

Established in 2016, Andalin provides digital cross-border shipping solutions in Indonesia to help local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) simplify their import-export processes — from freight arrangements to customs clearance and everything in between.

Despite the economic impacts of COVID-19, Andalin claims it saw demand for its services spike in 2020, with shipment volume increasing by roughly 5x and average revenue per client rising by 450 per cent year on year.

The company claimed that it facilitated shipments of goods worth US$20 million in 2020 and was close to EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation) positive by the year-end. As it seeks to increase its gross merchandise value to US$100 million, the company said it is on track to raise another round of funding by the end of 2021.

Also Read: Teleoperation: It’s here to revolutionise the logistics and supply chain industry

Nicko Widjaja, CEO of BRI Ventures, said: “With companies like Andalin strengthening the local import-export game, Indonesia will be able to start reducing its trade deficit. Even if you put COVID-19’s impact on global trade aside, very clear patterns still emerge in this market, such as the country’s overall e-commerce gross merchandise volume of US$130 billion in 2020.”

“We see an opportunity in digitising first-mile logistics, simplifying the often convoluted and opaque sourcing process for MSMEs while reducing cost barriers. If all goes well, this will encourage them to undertake more import-export activities,” said Rifki Pratomo, CEO of Andalin. “Andalin will increase the capacity and quality of export-oriented products to and from Indonesia, and hopefully reduce the trade deficit.”

The global freight forwarding market is expected to reach US$207 billion by 2026, up from US$170 billion in 2019.

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Image Credit: BRI Ventures

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Beenext joins Indian fintech startup YAP’s US$10M round

Other investors: Flourish Ventures and Omidyar Network India (co-leads), 8i Ventures, DMI Group (The Sparkle Fund), Better Capital.

What it intends to do with the funding: To expand across Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Vietnam and Indonesia.

About YAP: Founded in 2015, YAP is a fintech infrastructure provider that enables businesses and platforms to offer their own branded financial services while ensuring regulatory compliance.

As of now, YAP’s infrastructure serves companies in India, Nepal, the UAE, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

Tan Hooi Ling joins fintech firm Wise’s board

The story: London-headquartered Wise has also named Clare Gilmartin, former CEO of Trainline, as a director-designate.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: ByteDance game plan, and does AirAsia foray into food delivery even make sense?

More about the story: Wise will also be expanding its Singapore office and aims to hire over 70 people in expansion, engineering, product and operations roles.

New partnership to support Singapore’s halal startup ecosystem

The story: The Halal Angels Network has partnered with HalalNexus Singapore to support local firms and government to boost the halal startup ecosystem in the region, according to Singapore Business Review.

How it will help: By investing in the government’s startup initiatives and market opportunities in the halal consumer market, including B2C and B2B.

According to HalalNexufs founder Sulaiman Harun: “Halal Angels Network’s focus on halal startups and entrepreneurship will make it easy for us to connect and leverage with other like-minded startups, entrepreneurs and investors. Furthermore, as Singapore is poised to capitalise on the over US$2 trillion halal market size in the Asia-Pacific region, it represents a huge opportunity for halal startups here.”

SK Group kickstarts fellowship programme to support early-stage Vietnamese startups

How will it benefit: This is the second edition of the SK Startup Fellowship Programme. It will provide startups with financial grants (non-equity funds) and up to US$50,000 in funding.

Non-financial support includes a course on financial management from KPMG, training in investor pitching from the Business Startup Support Centre, one-on-one mentoring, workshops with Vietnamese businesses, and networking activities within the startup ecosystem.

Selection criteria: Vietnamese startups who have raised less than US$3 million in funding. Priority is given to tech startups solving social issues.

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Image Credit: Grab

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PatSnap, a provider of R&D intelligence and IP intelligence platforms for brands and enterprises, has secured US$300 million in Series E financing round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tencent Investment.

Existing investors Vertex Growth, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, CPE Industrial Fund, Sequoia China, and Shun Wei Capital also participated.

This development comes nearly three years after it secured US$38 million in Series D round in June 2018.

The London- and Singapore-based firm plans to use the fresh funds to further advance its innovation intelligence platform, accelerate product development, and acquire additional domain expertise in the industry sectors where its technology is used by research and development (R&D) and intellectual property (IP) teams.

Also Read: ‘Want VC funding? Your startup needs to be valued at least US$700M in 10 years’: Jeffrey Paine

The funds will also enable the company to expand its sales presence around the world and invest in the growth and professional development of its employees.

PatSnap’s flagship R&D Intelligence and IP Intelligence platforms use machine learning (ML), computer vision, natural language processing (NLP) and other artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Innovation teams at companies, brands, universities and research institutions use these platforms to get access to market, technology and competitive intelligence as well as patent insights needed to take their products from ideation to commercialisation.

PatSnap’s clients include Dyson, Spotify, Oxford University Innovation and The Dow Chemical Company.

“PatSnap’s mission is to empower innovators to make the world a better place,” said Jeffrey Tiong, founder and CEO of PatSnap. “Our global footprint, leadership and strategic position in the innovation economy have enabled us to attract top investors, customers and talent.”

Companies around the world are under pressure to increase the pace of innovation. And while more money is spent on R&D every year — US$2.4 trillion in 2021, according to R&D World — the returns are dwindling. An article published in Harvard Business Review also noted a 65 per cent drop in R&D productivity.

PatSnap’s AI-powered technology addresses this issue by analysing and connecting the key relationships between millions of unstructured data points across disparate data sources to deliver insights that guide R&D decisions and help accelerate the time it takes to bring new innovations to market.

PatSnap claims it has more than 10,000 customers around the world, supported by more than 700 employees working from the company’s Asian headquarters in Singapore, European headquarters in London, and North American headquarters in Toronto.

Over the past year, PatSnap says it has enabled its customers to significantly accelerate time to insight when dealing with unstructured data by an estimated 12x, leading to an estimated 3x increase in successful product launches.

“We believe in a connected world and are impressed with PatSnap’s AI-centric platform that helps organisations and researchers to connect the dots,” said Levin Yao, Managing Partner of Tencent Investment.

“PatSnap is the clear leader in the connected innovation intelligence category. Its impressive portfolio of customer use cases reinforces its role in enabling companies to significantly improve their ability to identify business opportunities and threats across multiple domains and industries,” Yao added.

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Image Credit: Patsnap

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Indonesia’s Sharia-based P2P lending platform ALAMI has acquired BPRS Cempaka Al-Amin for under US$10 million, DealstreetAsia has reported citing undisclosed sources.

BPRS Cempaka Al-Amin is a Sharia-compliant P2P lending platform.

As per the DSA report, this deal will provide the bank with the fresh capital to comply with new rules set out by the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK). The ruling body has mandated rural banks in Jakarta must have a minimum paid-up capital of IDR 100 billion (US$6.95 million).

Neither ALAMI nor BPRS Cempaka has confirmed the development with DealStreetAsia.

A person with the knowledge of the matter told e27 that there’s a conversation around ALAMI’s acquisition of a BPRS, but declined to share details.

Also Read: ALAMI is on a journey to popularise sharia-based finance in Indonesia. Here’s how they do it

Launched in 2017, ALAMI partners with sharia banks to provide invoice financing services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It recently expanded its services to provide P2P lending solutions upon securing a P2P license from OJK and claims to have grown three times year-on-year.

The company announced in January that it had raised more than US$20 million in an equity and debt funding round co-led by AC Ventures and Golden Gate Ventures. Other investors participating in the funding round included global fintech fund Quona Capital.

This influx of capital came a year after its US$1.5 million seed funding round led by Golden Gate Ventures, which ALAMI claimed to be the first sharia-based VC funding in Southeast Asia.

In September 2020, Nikkei Asia reported that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Islamic finance thrived in Indonesia as banks and fintech companies “rushed” to seize opportunities in the market. E-payments platform LinkAja launched its sharia-compliant service in April as the market saw a rising demand for halal products and services in various aspects of life.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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Esensi Solusi Buana (ESB), an Indonesia-based restaurant management platform, has raised US$3 million in a Series A funding round led by Beenext.

AC Ventures, Skystar Capital and Selera Kapital also participated.

ESB plans to use the fresh money to introduce new features to its technology stack and expand its partnerships with restaurants. It aims to emulate the path of Toast, a similar company from the US that is currently valued at US$8 billion.

ESB noted the F&B industry in Indonesia accounts for over US$57 billion in annual revenue and will continue growing rapidly driven by increasing numbers of middle-class consumers. Despite this, the industry struggles with losses due to operational inefficiencies from manual inventory planning, disorganized waste management and fraud.

The startup was founded two years ago with the goal of solving that problem by building an end-to-end SaaS platform for F&B businesses. Its suite of solutions includes a cloud-based mobile ordering system that syncs up automatically with restaurants’ POS system, kitchen management system and enterprise resource pricing (ERP).

According to ESB, these technology stacks allow restaurants to reduce time to serve customers and eliminate errors in information entry.

The firm disclosed that it has experienced growth of 12x in the number of partners over the period of 2020 and seen less than five per cent churn from its user base. Notable clients include local F&B groups such as Boga Group, MAP Boga and Ismaya Group.

Also Read: What new digital solutions mean for Indonesia’s F&B sector

“We’ve had good feedback from our merchants and brands, and over 90 per cent of them continue to utilise our system as they’ve experienced the operational benefits ESB has to offer,” noted Eka Prasetya, COO of ESB.

ESB also helped F&B business during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions by launching solutions for restaurants to deliver independently and enable contactless dining. With this function, restaurants can serve delivery orders without having to incur the commission cost charged by delivery platforms, allowing them to increase their margins.

Within six months of launching, ESB claims to have generated over 20 million annual orders for its customers.

“ESB is empowering and enabling restaurants to focus on what they do best, serving their customers with great food, and letting ESB take care of the technology,” said Teruhide Sato, Founder and CEO of Beenext.

“ESB’s data-driven and hardware agnostic approach enable the platform to solve a pressing pain point for merchants today,” opined Adrian Li, Founder and Managing Partner of AC Ventures.

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Image Credit: ESB

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Singapore’s container haulage platform Haulio raises pre-series A

Investors: Supply Chain Angels (lead), B7 Capital, GHS Ventures, Guava Capital, iSeed SEA, Iterative, PSA unboXed.

What the funds will be used for: Expansion across Southeast Asian markets within the next three years.

About Haulage: Founded in 2017, Haulage aims to digitise port logistics for companies, clients and drivers. It works by bringing hauliers and shippers into one single platform to better streamline fleet management and trucking services.

The firm claims to have moved over two million tonnes of cargo since launching its portal in May 2017, averaging 300 containers a day.

Batumbu receives digital lending licence in Indonesia

The story: Batumbu, a subsidiary of Validus, has received approval from the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) to operate as a licensed digital financing platform.

About Batumbu: Founded in 2019, Batumbu offers short-term financing solutions for SME entrepreneurs. The company claims to have disbursed over US$153 million to MSMEs since starting its operations, recording close to 650 per cent annual growth in 2020.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: ByteDance game plan, and does AirAsia foray into food delivery even make sense?

So far Validus has regulatory approvals in Singapore (Validus Capital) and Thailand (Siam Validus).

Ouch! bags US$364K seed funding for its insurance platform

Investors: Vynn Capital, Temokin, undisclosed angel investors.

What the funds will be used for: Product and business development.

About the startup: Ouch! is a mobile app for users to purchase, manage and learn about digital insurance products.

More about the story: The company is slated to revamp its app in April and has plans to introduce “something big in the future”. It also intends to raise more funding later in 2021.

74% of Singaporeans are shopping online after COVID-19: Visa study

The story: According to the study, 71 per cent of respondents are using home delivery services more habitually, while 25 per cent have started using home delivery for the first time.

67 per cent of Singaporeans have also reduced spending on international travel, out-of-home entertainment (63 per cent), luxury items (59 per cent), and fine-dining (57 per cent).

How the data was compiled: Survey conducted on 1,000 Singaporeans aged between 18 and 65.

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Image Credit:  Nilantha Ilangamuwa

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Bali and Riau Islands have climbed up the digital competitiveness index as the provinces with the most promising digital ecosystem in Indonesia for the tech industry to grow in, according to a recent report by East Ventures.

Bali has moved up to the fourth position, up to three positions from last year’s result, while Riau Islands moved up to seventh from tenth, just below Jogjakarta which has been widely known as a centre of tech talents in Indonesia.

Bali, with its capital city Denpasar, is also reported to have the second-best digital infrastructure in the country after DKI Jakarta. This assessment was concluded from the number of villages in the province that have received 3G and 4G networks.

As for Riau Islands, the proximity of its largest city Batam to Singapore have turned this province into a destination of digital investment. There were also several collaborations between Indonesia and Singapore in the form of projects such as Nongsa Digital Park.

“[The index revealed that] digital competitiveness between provinces in Indonesia tend to be dominated by provinces in the Java island followed by Sumatra and Borneo. Provinces in the Eastern part of the country tend to score the lowest,” the report details. “This pattern remains consistent in both 2020 and 2021.”

In the report, the top three positions were still dominated by DKI Jakarta, West Java, and East Java –a position that remains consistent since the report’s previous edition in 2020.

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East Ventures explained that there are six factors that they considered in deciding a province’s digital competitiveness: Human resource, ICT use, ICT spending, entrepreneurship and productivity, labour, infrastructure, funding, regulations and government capacity.

Bali and Riau Islands received top scores particularly in the human resource as well as entrepreneurship and productivity factors.

In general, the report stated that the country’s digital competitiveness index increase from 27.9 in 2020 to 32 in 2021. This indicated a more even distribution of opportunities in provinces across the country, particular between top- and middle-tier provinces.

COVID-19 and the growth of the digital economy

The report also highlighted changes in the national digital economy as affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The statistical survey agency in Indonesia revealed in August 2020 that the national aggregate number of internet users in the country increased six per cent within just three month –from 48.4 per cent in 2019 to 54.4 per cent in 2020.

There was also an increase of users accessing the internet from home from 95 to 96 per cent, followed by a decrease from users accessing from office (32 per cent to 30 per cent) and school (15 per cent to 13 per cent). This change was certainly related to the lockdown measures implemented in some parts of the year.

Commenting on the urgent need for digital transformation in a post-pandemic era, Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartanto stated in the report that the government will put greater focus on developing talents through various training programmes.

Another factor that is just as crucial is access and connectivity, represented by the installation of fibre optic cable across Indonesia, and the country’s effort to get corporations to set up their data centre in Indonesia.

“We already have a full geospatial data that we just have to integrate with the data centre at the development planning agency (Bappenas). In the past few years, we have been encouraging cloud data centre to move to Indonesia. We have been in talks with the Singapore government about setting up a data centre in Batam, West Java, and one more province. In the future, we will also be working on a 5G prototype,” he stated.

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Image Credit: Hazmi Abdun Nazir on Unsplash

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