Boom in entrepreneurship

In the last decade, entrepreneurship has been on the rise globally.

Driving this growth, we have seen governments, VCs and incubators work together to put policy frameworks and mechanisms to establish this as a legitimate career option while also de-risking it by providing support, grants and a runway for individuals to take the plunge.

As we enter the post-pandemic world, we find ourselves in a global recession.  There have been significant layoffs, restructuring of companies, mass migrations and what has come to be known as the great resignation.

During this period, the incentive for people to start their own business, build a personal brand or re-invent and re-skill themselves to become more relevant is becoming more attractive and, in some cases, necessary.

Last year, more than half the adult culture across 35 countries started a business to earn a living for various reasons, including the dire job market.

Human resilience has emerged and is coming to life as more people are choosing the entrepreneurship route to start a business or independently leverage their expertise.

Today, the number of subject matter experts (either as a side or main gig) from around the world on a wide range of topics has increased by over 30 per cent. These independent consultants and domain specialists have a great bank of knowledge to share and use their expertise to build audiences and create different revenue streams.

Also Read: Knowledge commerce is building the next wave of entrepreneurs

Adding to this growth of experts, re-skilling accelerated digitisation, and remote work, while accessing expert knowledge will be integral to a recovery in the new normal and the future of work.

There was a 10.6 per cent growth in productivity in the US due to digitisation, and in Asia, there were 40 million new internet users in 2020.

The monumental shifts in the way we work have created a need to update how people access domain expertise in real-time, learn new technologies and acquire business skills.

The problem with accessing expert knowledge

Expert knowledge refers to the gold dust of high-quality experience, proprietary information and niche knowledge that is not indexed or found on Google, Quora, Wikipedia or even in books. It’s the kind of knowledge that only a few experts possess on a range of topics, which is precisely what makes it so valuable.

Currently, there are three ways to access this knowledge:

• through disjointed and unauthenticated platforms
• through the long, cumbersome process of getting in touch with a consulting or research firm
• in the form of conversations, dialogue, teaching and learning.

These processes are not accessible or affordable to the large group of people who need them. The data received online from Google or Quora is data from raw information available online. It is not “expert knowledge.”

We want to create a solution engine holding a bank of experts. Yes, that one person with the precise knowledge to answer a specific question asked by a startup founder or entrepreneur or another expert who wants to discover something new about a domain.

Wizly aims to create a global platform for leading subject matter experts to connect with the new-age workforce, who will solve business challenges in real-time through micro consulting monetisation methods.

The platform will more efficiently solve business problems while also reducing the friction that comes with effectively connecting the various parties involved.

Also Read: Why steward leadership matters when startups dress to impress

Wizly is being built to power the economy of professional knowledge where professional experts can create content, talk to users and solve user problems.

It is owned by experts and users and powered by Wizlings, a solution currency used on the platform. It will empower thousands of individuals through the information to help them reach their goals and be successful.

It can empower the experts by helping them build an audience, monetise on their knowledge and build a brand that can give them heightened visibility.

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Recruiting, onboarding, retaining, and upskilling should be one of the things every company owner thinks about and develops a solid strategy around. Because without a team, and a well-defined HR strategy, your company won’t survive in the long term.

Today’s guest is Pia Beck, the CEO of Curate Well Co, which coaches impact-driven entrepreneurs who want to intentionally scale while maintaining the integrity of their work — and without losing connection to their community.

Beck spent a lot of time in HR Management before starting this company and can relate to the nuances of bringing humanity to the forefront of your organisation.

We talk about:

– How can you establish an HR strategy?
– How do you know the first position to hire for, second, etc?
– What is the best way to search for potential people?
– How can you set up a hiring process that measures everyone in the same way?
– What would a normal hiring process look like?
– What are great questions you ask during an interview?
– The three things she gives her employees

Also Read: How your HR team can help with crisis management

Thanks so much to Beck and I hope you enjoy the show!

If you don’t see the player above, click on the link below to listen directly!

Acast
Apple
Spotify
Stitcher

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The article was first published on We Live To Build.

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The fintech sector is growing, and fintech players disrupt the traditional banking system with agile and nimble models. They also satisfy new customer demand for speed, efficiency, and a better user experience.

Some banks rock the boat by employing a collaboration strategy, touting happy engagements with tech startups. But how do these “marriages” go when trust, legacy system and security hurdles come into play?

A “marriage” that is sure to happen

Users have started adopting digital services as banks close their physical branches. Shoppers now prefer all-in-one financial services at their fingertips with no extra costs. 

At the same time, entrepreneurs look for easy-to-use and reliable business banking services. Investors are ready to buy, trade and hold neo assets such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

These emerging consumer tribes are forcing banks to transform to usher in a digital-first era post-pandemic. They have no choice but to be proactive in cutting down excess baggage in processes, dependency on IT and red tapes that drag transformative initiatives.

“We are seeing fintechs leading the way in the transformation to digital, with banks in general not too far behind,” said Mohan Jayaraman. “Traditional banks will need to double down on their efforts to adopt technology and innovation to scale their digital offerings.” Jayaraman is MD (Southeast Asia and Regional Innovation) at Experian Asia Pacific.

To remain their edges, banks are responding to the heated competition in different ways. According to a Statista survey, while 43 per cent preferred setting up their own fintech incubators, the majority (50 per cent) prioritised partnering with, investing in, or acquiring startups. 

Accelerator programmes, such as Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, capitalise on these insights to help startups gain access to and build partnerships with leading financial institutions across the globe.

For the record, e27 listed the 21 tech startups providing services to banks (though not all are fintech). Banks have started adopting cloud, moving into curated open-source stacks, and applying marketing tools like gamification. They are also leaning on advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation (RPA) and blockchain from startups as a part of their long-term strategies. This, however, signals hidden hurdles behind the touted happy engagements between these firms.

Also read: 21 Southeast Asian startups that help banks gain ground in fintech competition

How much “trust” do they have to maintain the long-term relationship?

Trust is not always in place when it comes to adopting external tech service providers. At an event in 2020, Hung Nguyen, CEO of Vietnam’s TPBank said, partnering with third-party technology vendors was just a short-term solution for banks. His company prefers to develop new products, services and business models in-house.

Alex Graham, a UK strategy analyst, working with PE/VC investment funds and scaleup companies, echoed this view in an article on Total. “For all the wealth and resources that banks have, to rely on fledgling startups to drive the innovation of their industry strikes me as misguided,” noted Graham.

He underlined that this passive response to fintech wastes internal resources of funds and sends “a defeatist message”. Instead, he recommended that banks establish independent innovation lab offshoots. 

These labs would eliminate any internal politics and be staffed with incentivised employees that seek to tackle problems within their current business.

These, however, result in a “buy or build” dilemma that hinders efficient collaborations between banks and tech startups. Perx Technologies shared with e27 that this mindset is presented as some banks think they can create the solution independently. Banks are also advised by a top consulting firm to co-innovate and co-invest in the transformation in the next period.

“Three years later, they are back to square one or nowhere close to where they need to be,” said Amrith Ganesh, vice president (marketing and product strategy) at Perx Technologies. Perx is a Singaporean startup providing customer engagement and loyalty management solutions.

Indonesia’s financial API platform Ayoconnect also finds it challenging for newly established startups to approach and persuade bank clients. “Newly established startups with no track record may find it challenging to convince banks and other financial institutions in Indonesia that they are the right partner for this highly regulated and complex business,” said Jakob Rost, CEO and founder of Ayoconnect.

The goal is not to think alike but to think together

The hesitance to work with tech startups also comes from the fact that most traditional banks are plagued with legacy, heavy bureaucracy and processes.

“For the more established banks, an organisation-wide transformation is a major undertaking, especially given legacy systems in place. It requires investment, time, patience, and stakeholder buy-in,” said Jayaraman of Experian.

A Forrester study commissioned by Experian found that one in four APAC organisations encounters hurdles in increasing credit decisioning and management automation due to legacy technology and systems.

Moreover, national or central banks often require every bank in its country of origin to adhere to legal requirements, restrictions, and guidelines constructed to safeguard their people’s money. This slow down the due diligence process of banks when involving third-party service providers.

With a lot of banks, the IT procurement and compliance department are often outdated. Integration and release plans also have to be aligned across various teams with different priorities and skillsets. 

In addition, banks generally have their apps and want to do tighter integrations by consuming APIs and building custom interfaces.

“These challenges generally mean that even though it’s easy to get started on Perx, launching with most traditional banks takes about six months,” added Ganesh.

Barriers also include concerns over startups’ life span. Startup Genome estimated in its 2019 report that 11 out of 12 startups fail. Harvard Business School senior lecturer Shikhar Ghosh even discovered that about three-quarters of VCs-backed firms in the US don’t return investors’ capital.

“It is not about digitalising for the sake of it but digitalising strategically,” said Justin Hurst. He is the field CTO at US-based cloud computing company Nutanix.

We also have to admit that while it is important to have in-house tech capabilities, leveraging external tech partners is a way to achieve speed-to-market and gain first-mover advantages. A collaborative approach also takes less time for banks to develop new innovative products and solutions, which might not be within their current range of expertise or understandings.

“Companies must understand that technology is no longer the sole differentiator, but it’s the content, business model, distribution, and customer experience that matters,” said Ganesh of Perx. “They should then partner and co-innovate as much as possible to win the crowded war of digital finance.”

The strength of startups is that they create a minimum viable product (MVP) first. They then secure a team that can constantly build, measure, and learn to find the best scalable solution across the larger market.

The following steps boil down to how well banks and tech startups can think together to overcome integration hurdles. This is when backup plans and trials are advised as critical steps for banks before stepping into any long-term relationships with startups.

Hurst also added that the ability of enterprises to leverage existing staff and skill sets — rather than spending time and resources re-tooling or re-hiring — would be critical to ease the migration to new technologies.  

Protect the marriage of banks and tech startups

These fresh partnerships foster data growth from consumer journeys, which requires banks to be alert about some inherent concerns of a data-sharing economy: data security and fraud detection.

According to Boston Consulting Group, a cyberattack is 300x more likely to happen in banking and financial institutes than in other types of businesses. On top of that, an Accenture study in 2019 revealed the average cost regarding data breaches for financial services companies globally touched US$18.5 million per year.

Another Accenture research indicated that consumer trust is eroding fast in banks — only four in 10 respondents (37 per cent) trust their bank to oversee their data, especially with regards to the use of customer data.

“Banks and fintechs will need to urgently strengthen their defences across people, process and technology, with enhanced standards of security hygiene,” said Fergus Gordon, managing director and banking industry lead at Accenture. “If data is the new oil, trust is the new currency.”

In the case of Perx, banks share some amount of customer and transactional data with the startup, but the customer information is anonymised.

“The data collection, if any, is done by the banks and hence the consent for data collection and usage is between the bank and its customers,” stated Perx’s Ganesh. “We follow security measures to protect the data that is eventually stored with Perx on behalf of our clients.”

The growing adoption of technologies, such as AI, has also made this concern more mainstream in the banking sector.

As per an OpenText survey of financial services professionals, 80 per cent of banks responded that they are highly aware of the potential benefits of AI and machine learning. Another report showed that 75 per cent of respondents at banks with over US$100 billion in assets are currently implementing AI strategies. AI can supercharge customer experience by enabling frictionless, 24/7 customer service interactions and bolster better investment and security.

“We are beginning to see vendors being required to provide information on how AI is ethical, transparent and fair, and not biased,” said Adrian Fisher, Asia Head of TMT at global law firm Linklaters. “Banks need to make sure that they are comfortable with feeding a whole bunch of data into an algorithm, which will then be used for other purposes.”

He emphasised a governance framework to report how AI has been working in practice between banks and tech startups. Some guidelines, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), offer some valuable pointers for banks in this situation.

“Ask your service providers questions such as ‘how have you trained your algorithm’, ‘what data sets have you used’, ‘what is the process’, etc.,” Fisher underlined. “And make sure you’ve got a kind of a constant monitoring.”

In countries such as Vietnam, cybersecurity has also attracted strong interest from governments. Techfest, Vietnam’s national event hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology for the local startup community, even set up a new tech “village” specialised in cybersecurity this year to call for more funding and innovations in this sector. This is in line with the rise of fintech and e-commerce unicorns, such as VNPAY and Tiki.

Luong Duc Truong, CEO at cybersecurity solution provider VSEC, mentioned the three important developments in cybersecurity technologies: cloud security, smart device and application security, and risk management.

“A burgeoning startup ecosystem could provide much more flexibility and diversity in dealing with cybersecurity problems in a well-defined market like banking,” said Truong, who is also co-head of the cyber security startup village at Techfest. “No matter whether they are tech startups or large third-party technology service providers, the point is this firm can help banks optimise the cost while yielding more values.”

All in all, whether capitalising on in-house capabilities or leveraging the startup ecosystem, these strategies need to coexist in the short term as there is no “one size fits all” solution to digitalisation. “Maybe, we won’t use the term ‘traditional’ banks in the future but might see a new hybrid solution emerge in this fast-evolving ecosystem,” stressed Jayaraman.

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Malaysia Venture Capital Management (Mavcap) has announced the launch of two new VC funds to support Southeast Asian startups.

The funds — Orbit Malaysia Fund I and Ficus SEA Fund — will have a collective target fund size of RM160 million (US$38 million).

They will provide equity funding to startups with strong growth potential in Malaysia and other markets in the region, focusing on verticals such as artificial intelligence, fintech, healthtech, greentech, industrialtech, IoT, and edutech.

CEO Shahril Anas Hasan Aziz said: “The new funds will strengthen Mavcap’s aspiration to help local startups grow their businesses and excel to become tech unicorns and tap into regional growth opportunities. They will also provide opportunities to draw upon our broad global network together with the new fund managers as we strive to cultivate regional and global champions.”

Also Read: Gobi Partners, Mavcap, Sunway Group launch early-stage fund for Malaysian startups

The Orbit Malaysia Fund I will be managed by Jakarta-based Kejora Capital, with Sunway Group and Mavcap as anchor investors. This marks the second collaboration between Mavcap and Sunway, following the Malaysia SuperSeed Fund II in 2019.

Meanwhile, Ficus SEA Fund is investing in highly promising local startups in logistictech and greentech. It also considers other potential areas, including Islamic fintech, augmented reality and ESG solutions. The fund has a Shariah-compliant investment structure.

Asyrul Ramali, CEO of Ficus Group Capital, added: “With our investment focused on robust growth sectors, we foresee positive returns for investors in the years to come, particularly in the post-pandemic environment as the world forges ahead towards recovery. To further spur Malaysia’s immense entrepreneurial talent, we look forward to guiding along with investments for promising startups to capture new opportunities and flourish.”

Orbit Malaysia Fund-I and Ficus SEA Fund are the latest additions to Mavcap’s 14 funds at various investment stages. Mavcap’s investments include 500 Durians, Axiata Digital Innovation Fund, Asia Greentech Fund and Meranti Asean Growth Fund. From these billion-ringgit-sized assets under management, 10 tech unicorns have emerged, including Carsome.

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DiviGas, a Singaporean startup developing industrial membranes designed for refineries, has secured US$3.6 million in seed funding led by the venture arm of MANN+HUMMEL, a global company in infiltration and separations.

Other investors are UK-based Energy Revolution Ventures; US-based investor in battery and energy storage technology Volta.VC, and climate angel investor Albert Wenger.

Also read: Singapore’s climate change: Moving towards net-zero through greener buildings and emerging technology

The startup intends to use the money to support the commercialisation of a new next-generation polymeric hydrogen separation membrane. This molecular filter purifies hydrogen while also helping to capture CO2.

The capital will also enable DiviGas to send its first industrial-scale production pilots of Divi-H under the first two mass manufacturing lines to a select group of partners. It will also foster DiviGas’s upcoming product, CO2 filtering membrane. 

Founded in 2019, DiviGas has developed a new process for manufacturing membranes. They aim to recycle unrecoverable hydrogen gas generated in refineries, chemical plants, fertilisers, methanol and metallurgical production, power-to-gas systems, gasifiers, and many other production facilities. 

By employing the membrane, DiviGas claims that to save the average refinery US$3-6 million annually with a 2-3x return on investment.

DiviGas’s polymeric membrane, Divi-H, also upgrades existing hydrogen plants to generate so-called “blue” hydrogen where the CO2 is captured when splitting natural gas. 

Divi-H is developed with a new polymer composition within modules containing tens of thousands of polymeric hollow fibres. This results in extra resistant properties and can be utilised in various applications, from fuel gas recovery to loop optimisation through H2/CO adjustment and carbon capture.

Also read: Fireside chat: Racing to net zero with the voluntary carbon market

“We are convinced that Hydrogen and CO2 separation is key for decarbonising and growing the hydrogen economy, for which Divigas has a unique solution,” said Adonis Pouroulis at Energy Revolution Ventures. “Only through new technologies, deployed at pace and scale, can we accelerate the advent of a sustainable world.”

According to the firm, every year, US$110 billion of hydrogen gas is generated in refineries, chemical plants, and fertiliser plants, of which 15 per cent or US$16 billion are lost to flaring. Hydrogen production is also a major emitter of CO2, generating approximately 1000 million tons or more than two per cent of global CO2 emissions.

The world has put a lot of attention to climate change as the recent COP26 summit brought parties together to supercharge action towards the targets of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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Indonesia-based venture capital (VC) firm Kejora Capital today announced a partnership with Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Group to launch Orbit Malaysia Fund, a US$25 million fund for startups in the country.

The company also named Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad (MAVCAP) as its anchor investor.

It will be led by Raymond Hor as Fund Director.

Orbit Malaysia is a regional Series-A-stage fund with a focus on creating cross-border partnerships between industry players. It aims to invest in startups in the fintech, agritech, e-commerce, edutech and health tech sectors.

In a press statement, the fund said that these companies will be able to tap into Kejora’s digital ecosystem as well as Sunway’s various business divisions ranging from property, healthcare, education, retail, and digital.

It will also introduce an initiative called “Jakarta Express” to help Malaysian startups and investors explore opportunities in the Indonesian market.

Also Read: 25 notable startups in Malaysia that have taken off in 2021

The Malaysian startup ecosystem has recently made headlines with the rise of startups such as Carsome –which had recently secured its status as the first unicorn startup in the country.

It has led to increased optimism in the local startup ecosystem, with several industry players calling for more investments in the country.

According to Statista, private equity (PE) and VC firms invested more than US$5.9 billion in Malaysian startups between 2014 and 2020.

“Malaysia is home to a fast-growing and vibrant startup ecosystem, and there is great potential for Malaysian companies to become Southeast Asia’s next unicorn. With a proven track record in the region and combined cross-border ecosystem, we are confident of replicating our success to empower Malaysian companies to scale rapidly throughout Southeast Asia and beyond,” said Hor.

“Orbit Malaysia is an alliance set up in the spirit of collaboration to leverage on the combined resources not just to help startups, but also as a platform for more private corporations to participate in VC investment. We look forward to working together with more corporates to enrich Malaysia’s funding ecosystem,” he continued.

Based in Jakarta, Kejora Capital has over US$600 million in assets under management (AUM) with 38 portfolio companies, including four unicorn exits.

Alongside Orbit Malaysia’s current active investments, it has previously invested in regional startups in various industries, including fintech lender Kredivo, drone-based solutions provider Aerodyne Group, and delivery startup Sicepat Express.

Also Read: 5 emerging opportunities within Malaysia’s gig economy

As for Sunway Group, it has been involved in the startup ecosystem by running various accelerator programmes, such as the Sunway iLabs Super Accelerator, Sunway Ventures and Sun Sea Capital.

It has also invested in early-stage startups such as Jomrun, Red Dino, Ento, CozyHomes, Quadby, and Wise AI as well as growth-stage startups such as Intrepid and The Lorry.

In addition to these companies, Sunway’s venture building portfolio includes companies such as Sunway XFarms, 42KL coding school, Sunway R&D, PopBox, and Sunway Pharmacy.

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Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the virus, many traditional brick and mortar businesses faced challenges as they adapted to the new normal.

Economies began to shutter one by one as governments prioritised the safety of their citizens while trying to minimise the impact of these decisions on their respective economies.

One industry, in particular, has seen a significant shift in its operational norm. The F&B industry was plunged into a state of uncertainty when lockdowns and the pandemic started, as restaurants were prevented from hosting dine-in patrons.

While these establishments suffered, cloud kitchens were largely unaffected by the pandemic as it was not reliant on in-house operations or a physical location. 

What are cloud kitchens? There are two types– infrastructure cloud kitchens and brand operators.

Infrastructure cloud kitchens

These are centralised licensed commercial food production facilities that enable a business to manufacture and distribute food.

Many of the facilities provide location and equipment services to delivery-optimised restaurants, catering companies, meal-prep companies, packaged food producers, and food product testing. 

The use of cloud kitchens has become more popular to lower overheads and increase margins. This, combined with a rise of the food delivery industry has seen cloud kitchens become the go-to option for entrepreneurs to start their own food business on limited startup capital.

Also Read: SG healthy food chain SaladStop closes US$8.8M round to deepen its footprint via cloud kitchens

Brand operators

Meanwhile, brand operator kitchens focus on delivery-optimised restaurants that are distributed through commercial kitchens. Brand operators find value in renting industrial kitchens and distributing through delivery aggregators as it is more economical and affordable.

Significant rental and staff expenses and rental commitments can be kept to a minimum,m allowing owners to focus on their branding and product instead of financial risk and administrative duties. 

Why has it become so popular in recent years?

The rise of Instagram and other social media platforms has become a catalyst for entrepreneurialism in recent years, spurring demand for these facilities. Many of these fledgling companies are deterred by the capital intensive nature of having to invest in facilities required to run a successful F&B outlet.

But with the rise and introduction of cloud kitchens, barriers to entry have been significantly lowered. Now, entrepreneurs can pursue their passion for food with minimal risk by using cloud kitchens.

These facilities are rented out and can be used as a testing ground for an individual’s or business’ venture while building on their consumer base. 

Many recognise the opportunities presented by food aggregators as it enables them the opportunity to reach out to a broader audience as food delivery services flourish. Entrepreneurs can gain access to data from aggregators to develop products that appeal to their customers.

The cloud kitchen model allows the focus to be centred on delivery-only distribution and creates fewer distractions compared to a traditional restaurant.

What are the risks?

Much like any venture, starting a cloud kitchen business whether as an infrastructure provider or brand operator comes with risks. Some of these include:

Food quality

As a delivery-only brand, businesses operating digital restaurants will have to separate themselves from traditional restaurants by improving on certain aspects of their delivery.

Also Read: How cloud kitchen startup COOKHOUSE, started amidst COVID-19, managed to win 35 F&B clients in Malaysia within a year

Where traditional F&Bs can rely on their reputation to attract sales, brand operators must work tirelessly to ensure that the quality of their product is of the highest order. By operating these brands, they must ensure the food they produce can travel well enough during the delivery process that it does not degrade or negatively affect the quality of the food. 

Reliance on third-party delivery service providers

Brand operators will need to hedge their risks and use a variety of aggregators. This way digital restaurants should be able to reach a diverse mix of consumers. With no physical presence to garner the attention of new customers, this multiplatform approach will ultimately protect it from poor performance compared to if it simply was available on a single platform.

Reliance on third-party aggregators could also pose logistical complications and some things may be out of its control.

For instance, food aggregators are closely scrutinised over the treatment of their riders, which is something a brand owner cannot control. Brands must ensure the platforms they are on can cope with the volume of deliveries and the quality of services provided. 

Regulations

Food production is a highly regulated industry that serves to protect the interest and ensure the safety of consumers. Uncertainty in how these facilities operate presents a risk that may cause health authorities to become more stringent on infrastructure providers.

For example, regulators may seek more oversight on infrastructure providers given the ease with which a brand can move in and out of these premises.

Who are the key players in the industry today?

Today we see an abundance of cloud kitchens in the global market, with the Southeast Asian market quickly adapting to this change. As of 2019, the value of the global cloud kitchen industry was valued at an estimated US$865 million while the Asia Pacific region represents approximately half of the global market, with a value of US$463 million.

Indonesia and Singapore are quickly becoming breeding grounds for the cloud kitchen explosion in Southeast Asia. Companies are popping up and offering their brand or infrastructure services to the mass consumer market seeking to dip their toes and broaden their horizons in newer and more exotic cuisines.

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

Some of the more notable names in the region include Hangry, a company that currently operates four brands in their network of kitchens in and around the Jabodetabek area (the greater Jakarta area), Grain, a digital restaurant providing healthy on-demand and meal plan services to their consumers, and most notably dahmakan, a cloud kitchen company based in Malaysia recognised as one of the first-ever Malaysian startups to be admitted into the Y-Combinator accelerator program.

On the infrastructure side, we see companies like Coox, Singapore based Smart City Kitchens, and Cookhouse, a premier infrastructure provider based in the KL and Selangor areas of the Klang Valley region in Malaysia.

Several aggregators, too, have recognised the opportunity and sought to capitalise from their relationships. Grab Kitchen and GoFood Kitchen have taken the opportunity to partner with some of the more notable brands in their portfolio.

By providing their own cloud kitchen services, they seek to help their brands grow on the platform by providing them with a wider network of kitchens that will access more consumers.

Where is the industry now?

Although the industry is not new, it is still in its early days and has significant potential to grow. Social media continues to be a source of inspiration as many people find success in their pursuit of starting their own food businesses.

With the abundance of new homegrown businesses coming into popularity, the potential growth of the global market is expected to witness a CAGR of 21.7 per cent through to 2024 and the Asia Pacific region will represent a US$1.3 billion market.

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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.

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

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Kristal AI offers private investors a service that removes the biggest barrier for people wanting to invest in personal wealth — access to elite investment opportunities which have traditionally been restricted to privileged customers of private investment banking companies. Founder and CEO Asheesh Chanda is an ex Hedge Fund manager who has spent 15 years handling investing for high net worth clients at institutions like Citibank, BNP Paribas, and JP Morgan.

Their model is based on deploying proprietary AI-driven robo advisor technology and leveraging its committee of investment experts. Kristal AI has an internal committee that curates a community of global experts to make high-end elite investment products accessible to millions of potential new investors. “Kristal AI wants to transform the private banking world from one where only the privileged few have access to the best service and investment opportunities, to a world where investments are more accessible, transparent, and personalised through the power of technology and human expertise,” said CEO Chanda.

Also read: QBO partners with e27 for Startup Venture Fund Pitch

The leadership team at Kristal AI wants to create long-term value for clients utilising technology to offer digitised wealth management services which they believe is the way to bring value and innovation in this sector. “Today, only the rich get access to the best advisory and best products. We see this is a problem. At Kristal one can get access to institutional products like VC Funds, Hedge Funds, Pre-IPO at 1/5th the ticket size,” explained Chanda. 

Clients get personalised advice and portfolio creation services and unlike traditional private wealth accounts, there are no account minimums to get started. Chanda formed the idea of starting Kristal AI based on his personal experience of trying to access private banking services and discovering that the personal wealth management space was not accessible even to individuals with a fairly substantial amount of personal assets to invest.

What pushed Asheesh Chanda to build Kristal AI

Chanda described his experience of trying to open a private wealth account: “Sometime in 2016, as I was trying to open a private wealth account for myself. I discovered that even after having a few millions in my bank account, I couldn’t get access to the best products and advice at the bank. Why? Because I was a million short, in other words I wasn’t “rich” enough. Some frustration, some anger and after maybe a few rounds of beer, I realised that there is an opportunity to change something for the better.”

These insights led to the main idea behind Kristal AI: to address this gap in the personal wealth management space by serving investors whose requirements lie somewhere between the products offered by retail and private banking — and to apply technology-enabled innovation in helping to bridge these gaps.

“There is a segment of investors who are stuck between Retail and Private banking. They want something more personalised and of high quality than what they get in retail banking, but since they aren’t ‘rich’ enough, they can’t get a private banking service,” Chanda pointed out. 

Also read: QBO partners with e27 for Startup Venture Fund Pitch

To meet the needs of this burgeoning segment Kristal AI came into existence, offering private wealth accounts that don’t require a minimum balance to get started. In addition, Chanda found that “there is also a segment of second-generation affluent investors who prefer a more high-tech experience and don’t trust the high-fee model of traditional private banks. They like the low fee, low minimum products, and AI-enabled human advisory.”

The core approach of Kristal AI’s investment methodology is a wealth advisory service based on a unique collaboration between an Investment Committee comprising industry experts and Kristal AI’s cutting-edge data-driven AI algorithm. 

Key innovations that set them apart

Their personal wealth management service differentiates itself from other competitors chiefly through the following key innovations:

• Advisory and execution over just execution
  

According to Chanda: “Most wealth tech platforms are pure transaction platforms catering to DIY clients. However, Kristal realises that not everyone has the time and interest to manage their wealth, hence we provide advisory support to help build personalised portfolios for clients and also monitor the performance.”

• Premium products at retail prices:

Chanda explained that no wealth tech platform offers the range of products that Kristal AI has: “Other platforms are limited to stocks and ETF, while we offer VC Funds, PE Funds, Hedge funds, Pre-IPOs, and Digital Family Office. Additionally, we offer these premium products at retail prices. A fund with a 1 million dollar ticket size is available on Kristal for $50,000. No private bank is able to offer such competitive pricing,” he adds.

• Not just robo, but Human + AI Advisory

Unlike most robo advisors which are purely tech plays, Kristal advisory is hybrid, explained the Kristal AI CEO. “With Kristal AI, the AI-based algorithm is complemented by an investment committee with 130 years of experience, whose inputs are taken in by the algorithm to provide personalised advisory to investors.” Plus, there is an investment advisory team dedicated to help affluent investors invest and monitor portolfios.

200 investment products to choose from

Looking at the range of products listed on Kristal AI’s website one can see a diverse and wide range of over 200 investment products to choose from for private wealth investors, including their customised products they call “Kristals”.

From curated ETF portfolios to alternative investment options such as high potential startups, Hedge funds, VC funds, crypto funds, Pre-IPO deals, and more, clients get to choose from a number of options. Private individual investors would not usually have access to these kinds of investment products without being charged the hefty fees associated with investment banks that serve institutional investors.

Also read: B2B platform Komachine on a mission to transform the industrial machine industry

Chanda laid out the main advantages of choosing Kristal AI as your private wealth manager as:

• More choices, not just in stocks and ETFs, but a broad range of investment products and solutions including their proprietary algorithm based tool.
• Curated products that are fully assessed for safety and quality of investing, so that investors can fund with ease.
• Advisory support from a dedicated advisory desk to help choose and monitor investments. “An ideal service for busy clients who are time-poor,” explained Chanda. 
• Low cost of investing — No account opening or maintenance charges are levied and no minimum balance is needed to open an account. However, Kristal does recommend a minimum amount of USD 500. 

Kristal AI began as an ambitious idea sketched out on a blackboard by CEO Asheesh Chanda and Vineeth Narasimhan in 2016 and is now present and thriving in three countries. “We have hit SGD500M in AUM and have expanded in India, UAE, and Hong Kong,” he proudly stated.

Chanda believes the success achieved so far is due to Kristal AI’s team of financial advisors, researchers, and market experts who take a “unique yet holistic approach to our clients’ needs and work hard to achieve their goals.” Chanda concluded by saying Kristal AI is committed to providing the best investment strategies to investors and building a world-class community of portfolio managers, affiliated partners, and investors.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Kristal AI

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The best way to predict the future is to invent it. The next best way? Ask the people inventing it.

According to the World Economic Forum, 65 per cent of kids will work in jobs that don’t yet exist.

Yet mainstream education is still teaching kids the same math, science, and history subjects you and I were taught decades ago. Clearly, schools are not doing enough to prepare kids for jobs of the future.

Asking founders building the next Apple/Amazon/Google what skills they are hiring for is a great proxy for the skills needed for future jobs. The future will be invented by the people building the next big thing.

Ask any founder what the biggest determinants of their company’s success are, and talent inevitably comes up. Good founders have an uncanny ability to peer into the future and see what’s next. They also know the skills they need to be hiring for to build the products that will get them there.

If anyone has an inkling of what jobs of the future will look like, it’s founders who are inventing the future. So that’s exactly what we did.

We sat down with the founders of three of the fastest-growing tech companies in Southeast Asia –Ninja Van, Glints, and Yola-– and asked them what skills they are hiring for right now to determine a good proxy for the skills needed for future jobs.

Also Read: Businesses are learning to code without coding

The three skills they told us were 1) first principles thinking, 2) clear communication, and 3) self-awareness

A key question I get is If kids can learn to code, why can’t kids learn first principles thinking? Or clear communication? Or self-awareness?

One of the best analogies I’ve come across of traditional teaching versus designing for learning is filling a cup versus lighting a fire. Kids are not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. They are curious, creative human beings whose natural instinct is to build, not memorise.

Kids like coding not because they get a kick out of writing code, but because they are excited about what they can build with code. What if we help kids understand first principles thinking (breaking down complicated problems into basic elements) and show them how they can apply reasoning from first principles in everyday life?

What if we teach kids the basics of clear communication and show them how to negotiate with parents more effectively? Or what if we teach kids self-awareness to help them discover strategies that cultivate better habits and behaviours that will guide them for life?

By asking founders what skills they hire for, we help kids develop skills that are relevant to future jobs, jobs that may not exist today. At Doyobi, we work directly with founders to design courses that help children ages 9-15 develop these skills.

Also Read: How the future of work will shape the future of mobility

For example, in the Critical Thinking Skills Series: How to think from First Principles course, learners practice using first principles thinking to identify fake news, break down a problem, and learn how to apply first principles thinking at school.

Firas Alsuwaigh, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Ninja Van, co-developed this course with us because he noticed most people apply complex solutions to difficult problems. The best people find simple ones. Simple solutions require you to reduce problems to their first principles. Why leave it to chance that kids will learn first principles if we can get them started on it today?

Founders work with us because they see how these skills make employees more effective in the workplace, and how they don’t come naturally to most people because they are overlooked in school. Founders also relish the opportunity to give back to the community by doing their bit to help kids prepare for a future that will be shaped by innovations in technology.

Getting founders who are inventing the future to work with us to develop courses that prepare kids for the future creates a virtuous cycle that reduces the likelihood of kids leaving school unprepared for the real world.

Technology has had a major impact on the way we live and work and will continue to transform industries. We cannot predict what jobs will exist in the future, but we can help kids develop the skills they need to be adaptable and resilient.

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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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The education industry has been through many changes and has experienced exponential growth in recent years due to the global pandemic.

Despite the advancement in technology, many educators are not leveraging it due to a lack of technical knowledge and scepticism as they continue with their manual and tedious work processes. 

Even though educators have long been adopting technology in their teaching– from the traditional education of using chalk/ blackboard, marker/ whiteboard, transparency/ overhead project to PowerPoint and online videos/ illustrations, many of them cannot fully comprehend nor maximise the usage of those edutech features.

With the maturity of technology, it is essential to focus beyond the hardware and software components and the digital aspects as the industry evolves into the digital world. 

These led to the emergence and assimilation of artificial intelligence in work processes to improve educators’ efficiency and effectiveness while maintaining academic integrity.

Going beyond the ability to deliver lessons virtually and remotely, it is equally important to resolve other problems educators face and replicate the social aspect found in a traditional classroom.

Need for efficient teaching

According to the McKinsey Global Teacher and Student Survey, educators work longer hours at about 50 hours a week. Still, they are spending less than half of the time in direct interaction with students.

The increased burden of lesson preparation work includes mundane admin chores like the ongoing collation of teaching materials and the creation of worksheets, in addition to class management tasks. 

Teaching time was further reduced by grading students’ work. A report by OECD found that countries like Portugal and Singapore spent nearly twice the international average of 5 hours, at 10 hours and 9 hours, respectively. 

These time consuming yet essential works takes away precious time which can be better allocated for teaching and assessing students’ performance to identify learning gaps. 

Imagine these tedious processes can all be stored in a cloud. All the years of hard work in content creation are digitised, stored and organised in your library, easily accessible everywhere with just a click of a button.  

Such automation of administrative workload improves efficiency and reduces the hours that educators have to work beyond standard hours.

The time saved contributes to a more balanced work-life and adds to the positivity of educators’ well-being and mindset, which impacts the way they deliver lessons.

Need for effective teaching

Every child is unique, and every child’s learning progress is different. The time for a “one-size-fits-all” lesson plan is long gone.

With globalisation, students’ needs become more complex, and stakeholders’ expectations rise along with it. As such, there is also increased pressure on educators to deliver the results.

Also read: How edutech is solving the global teacher’s crisis

To optimise learning outcomes based on the limited teaching time, the teaching curriculum has to be well-thought-out and executed. The need for educators to assess and determine their students’ understanding and mastery of topics to pinpoint areas for improvement become extremely important. 

Traditionally, assignments are marked manually and returned to students for their revision. There is no easy way of obtaining class level statistics on each question attempted or identifying areas for improvement for each student.

This led to the increasing significance of learning analytics benefiting both the educators and the students. With technology embedded into teaching, educators can quickly access students’ performance progress reports and identify learning gaps.

Vital information showing the students’ strengths and weaknesses and summarising from the school level, class level to individual student level is made possible.

Such analysis acts as the first line of defence, sending educators to make a prompt revision to their teaching plans. It also equips them with in-depth knowledge of students’ learning progress to curate personalised lessons, facilitating more effective learning to boost academic outcomes. 

Such personalised education enhances students’ learning experience and allows them to reach their full potential. 

Schools that can provide diagnostic assessment benefit not only educators and students but also the parents. Parents who entrusted their children to the school will now have more transparency and, thus, have more confidence in the school. 

Just like lesson plans, it is also not a ‘one-size-fits-all’. Different schools and different subjects will have other focused areas. For instance, a system that caters to Math would emphasise calculations and working steps. Thus, it would not be suitable for use in English, especially for composition writing.

The data points for analysis are very different; features like Rubric assessment are essential for composition writing but not Math or Science. 

Therefore, a genuinely effective teaching platform also stems from having customisable features and tailor-made to fit the needs of educators and their teaching plans.

Need for 2-way communications

Besides academic assessment, communications are of utmost importance in fostering the relationship between educators and students in non-physical classroom settings.

Online learning is no longer just conducting lessons virtually but as much as possible to recreate the experience of in-person learning with active communications from educators and students. 

Disseminating and retrieval of information are also done most effectively via constant communications.

Active interaction encourages students to participate in the discussion, enables the better articulation of lessons taught, provides assurance and consultation support in the absence of physical class, and fosters relationships and builds life-long social skills. 

To overcome the problem, there has been an increasing interest in interactive whiteboards to facilitate collaborative learning.

Therefore, a total edutech solution also needs to consider enabling educators to provide real-time valuable and detailed feedback beyond text format. 

Timely communications and engagement are vital factors to students’ success and enhance the e-learning environment.

The emergence of digital learning

Education is an essential part of children’s life where they learn and socialise, playing an essential role in their growth and development. Therefore, technology is now seen as an enabler to sustainable education.

It brings everyone out of their comfort zone to explore and adapt technologies to keep life as normal as possible. Economically, harnessing technology has also become a business survival tool. 

Also read: How edutech startups can accelerate active learning

The demand and expectations that came along with COVID-19 have brought the education industry into a new era.

With uncertainties still looming, we will continue to experience disruption to schools and learning centres, resulting from the implementation of restrictive measures or abrupt closures. 

As echoed in the Singapore Parliament by its Education Minister, Chan Chun Sing, on Nov 2, the workload for teachers has more than doubled to keep education going during the pandemic. The stress level has also been at an all-time high, with more school staff seeking support from in-house counsellors.

This highlighted the urgency for schools and learning centres alike to relieve the tension educators face before they burn out. Some measures are being explored to reduce the workload to allow educators more time. 

Short term measures such as re-prioritising school programmes and offering sabbatical leaves are being considered to provide educators with more flexibility and time away from work to rest and ‘reset’ themselves. However, technology will be explored for the long term to scale up teaching resources. 

Therefore, acceptance and adoption of new smart technologies are inevitable, as they vastly improve ones’ efficiency and effectiveness. Like the saying from George Couros, “Technology will not replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers can be transformational.”

Technology will be deeply embedded in the teaching journey, acting like a facilitator that complements educators in making purposeful interventions and bringing learning to life for students, accentuating the experience of total education. 

And that also sums up SmartJen motto on empowering educators with knowledge on digitalisation to make personalised education easy. We redefine total education by providing a holistic online teaching platform that supports educators from the beginning until the end to achieve collaborative and engaged learning.

Our unique integrated e-assessment and learning management system streamlines work processes and enables personalised education based on data and AI-enabled technology.

Completing the virtual classroom with video conferencing features and interactive whiteboard, educators can now provide onsite and offsite teaching seamlessly.

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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

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

Image credit: rawpixel

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