CapBay, a Malaysian multi-bank supply chain finance and peer-to-peer financing platform, announced today it has raised US$20 million in Series A round.

The fresh investment comes from returning backer Singapore-based KK Fund and several Malaysian angel investors with expertise in finance, technology and growing startup companies.

As per a press note, CapBay aims to use the funds to further strengthen its technological and funding capabilities. It will enable more efficient financing and market expansion in order to reach a wider range of investors and underserved small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it claimed.

Launched in 2016, CapBay uses existing trade data and relationships to facilitate inclusive business financing. Through its propriety credit-decisioning model, businesses can obtain short-term financing while banks and investors can participate in financing deals.

Also Read: Why P2P lending can be the end of banking as we know it

CapBay said it has funded MYR 100 million (US$24.7 million) across 500 investment notes on its P2P platform since its launch in March 2020. Its supply chain finance arm has facilitated more than MYR 800 million (US$198 million) across 10,000 transactions covering SMEs.

CapBay has expanded investment opportunities for P2P investors on its platform through various strategic partnerships.

The Malaysian firm was selected to be part of national telco Telekom Malaysia’s Vendor Financing Programme in September 2020. This allowed P2P investors on Capbay’s platform to invest alongside institutional investors in a safer asset class backed by the government and corporate receivables.

CapBay also recently entered a joint venture with Kenanga Investment Bank by acquiring a 49 per cent stake in Kenanga Capital Islamic to create Malaysia’s first Islamic supply chain finance fintech.

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Image Credit: CapBay

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With a large population, strong technological foundations, and abundant talent pool, China remains a competitive and potentially lucrative market for technology firms even amidst shifting economic trends. While it is prudent for foreign brands to heed the key success factors of localisation in China, the more pragmatic way to make inroads into the China market is through an established acceleration programme.

That is where XNode comes in. As the leading global platform for innovation, XNode has accelerated over 130 startups in the past three years and facilitated the fundraising of over USD 152 Million. In Singapore, XNode partners with Enterprise Singapore under the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) and has accelerated the market expansion of 15 Singaporean companies into Shanghai since October 2019.

With the goals of validating product-market fit and establishing a go-to-market plan, the programme consisted of expert workshops, mentor sessions, and meaningful 1-on-1 business connections to potential local partners, clients, and investors. Rounding up the programme with a demo day, XNode lined up potential investors and partners to which the startups pitched their progress and value propositions.

Successes from Batch 1 of XNode’s Shanghai Programme

Among the alumni of XNode’s inaugural batch of startups under the China-Singapore Innovation Launchpad acceleration programme was Buzz AR, an AR-for-Retail startup that brings the “Disney” experience to premier luxury shopping destinations. During her stint as a VR model, co-founder and CEO, Bell Beh, saw the possibilities of spatial computing and started work on bringing similar experiences to more people while juggling between odd jobs and her Masters of Law Programme at UC Berkeley.

During her time with XNode in Shanghai, Bell was introduced to ecosystem players from the mixed reality and real estate spaces for potential collaborations and to validate Buzz AR’s product-market fit.

“XNode is arguably the best programme we have ever experienced. It led me to our first pilot with the Bailian Group, an 80 Billion Yuan department store operation in China. We’ve also been shortlisted to deploy our AR Wayfinder at WAIC 2021, the largest AI Expo in the world, the one that Jack Ma debated with Elon Musk in 2019,” recalled Bell when asked about her experience in the China-Singapore Innovation Launchpad programme.

Also read: CapBay bags US$20M Series A to scale its multi-bank supply chain finance, P2P financing platform

Buzz AR, which captured over SGD 1 million in project bookings within nine months, has recently also clinched longer-term enterprise contracts, bolstering its position in the APAC region for the coming three to five years. The company’s next milestone is the launch of Buzz X, the first entertainment and utility mobile application in Southeast Asia that will make AR accessible to all.

Desmond Pheh, another batch 1 alumnus, runs Livingwear, a clothing company that combines design, technology, and data to make “Reliable Essentials” that fit consumers and the environment — excellent quality basicwear at transparent and fair prices.

Through XNode, Desmond discussed potential collaborations and secured tractions with players in the e-commerce, investment, and marketing spaces. “XNode has helped me make some strong relationships and network in China and I know if I were to return there, I will not go in blind,” said Desmond, who has since been focusing on fundraising to accelerate product development and introduce Livingwear’s new collection in 2021.

Following the pioneer batch in October 2019, seven more Singaporean startups, hailing from medtech, healthtech, adtech, and RPA, landed in Shanghai in August 2020. Their participation in the first four-week virtual phase of the acceleration programme will be followed by physical dealmaking sessions with potential partners that they were connected to — including ecosystem giants, active players in the VC landscape, and crucial government enablers.

The Promise of Shenzhen

Home to renowned tech giants like BYD, DJI, Huawei, and Tencent, Shenzhen is a tinkerer’s haven for rapid innovation where mistakes are made fast and insights are uncovered even faster. With a fast growth mentality, effortless access to production facilities, and support by the local government, hardware companies would be miles ahead of counterparts in other geographies just by setting foot in Shenzhen.

This hardware Silicon Valley nestled in China’s Greater Bay Area also happens to be the destination for startups participating in XNode’s upcoming acceleration programme. Tapping into XNode’s network of manufacturing giants, hardware startups, and investors, startups under the programme would be plugged into an environment where fast-paced deal-making meets rapid product iteration, where suppliers could be involved from the get-go and where funding opportunities and ecosystem support are readily available.

Also read: Singaporean entrepreneur: bringing the Asian internet business model to Central America

With an increasing exchange of innovation and entrepreneurial infrastructure, the way ahead for Shenzhen is further cemented at the government level with the Singapore-China (Shenzhen) Smart City Initiative (SCI), securing Shenzhen’s importance as the next destination for Singaporean startups.

XNode is now calling on hardware startups to express interest in joining the upcoming China-Singapore Innovation Launchpad acceleration programme in Shenzhen. Interested startups are encouraged to drop a note at contact_sg@thexnode.com with your company name, sector and funding stage to get on XNode’s radar.

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XNode

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Danish occupational pension scheme Paedagogernes Pension (PBU) announced it has committed US$16.2 million into Southeast Asia-focused SEAF Women’s Economic Empowerment Fund (SWEEF).

According to an announcement, the pension scheme has become the cornerstone investor in the official launch and first close of the fund.

The fund also received financial backing from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the regional development arm of the UN, and Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

SWEEF is a regional investment fund targeting women-led startups in Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. It will also invest in sectors where women comprise a large portion of labour and in companies that “demonstrate a commitment to gender equality”.

The fund will be managed by a local team, the majority of which consist of women investment professionals.

PBU is a pension scheme for early childhood teachers and youth educators in Denmark. Online data reveals it has a total asset under management (AUM) of EUR 9 billion (US$ 10.9 billion).

Also Read: How the tech industry can become friendlier for women

“The investment into SWEEF has a clear link to our strategy for responsible investments, where we focus on empowering women and strengthening gender equality,” said Sune Schackenfeldt, CEO of PBU.

“Women in developing countries are the foundation of the family. With investments that have a special focus on women’s conditions, we strengthen their employment, earnings and opportunities for social and economic advancement,” he added.

“We have learnt that meeting the needs of women entrepreneurs requires us to innovate and go beyond the usual lending modalities towards promoting mentorship, business development support services and access to growth capital and that is exactly what our partnership with SEAF offers,” said ESCAP Deputy Executive Secretary Kaveh Zahedi.

US-based impact investment fund manager SEAF will manage the fund. The firm claims it has committed capital of US$1.2 billion with 40 funds in over 30 countries.

The launch of SWEEF follows SEAF’s Women Opportunity Fund. Launched in 2018, the latter has invested in six women-led startups in Southeast Asia, including Philippine-based cosmetics firm Ellana Cosmetics.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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Last year, the pandemic changed radically the way we host events. While most events were cancelled, others quickly shifted from in-person to virtual venues or incorporated hybrid events. Now that we know what event trends work in the new normal, many event planners are looking for ways to establishing these solutions in their event strategies this 2021. 

At EventXtra, we’ve rounded up the latest event trends and technologies that will help your events pivot this year.

Physical events will make a comeback with hybrid events

With the COVID-19 vaccine in production, the event trend will slowly shift back to in-person events with a mix of virtual event formats. According to a Bizzabo survey, 97 per cent of global event marketers believe that hybrid events will gain popularity.

In hybrid events, event marketers and organisers can vastly expand audiences and transform their in-person events into a formidable integrated engagement vehicle. This is possible through event technology adoption, either when streamlining the pre-event processes or hosting different types of events. 

In 2020, software solutions that streamline business workflows skyrocketed, mostly video-conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Skype. While this trend will continue to rise, the demand for an all-in-one event solution will likely increase this year.

We’ll see most event-driven businesses use an all-in-one event solutions that can facilitate online registration, attendee management with integrated virtual event hosting, and post-event analytics.

Hybrid events as a marketing platform

With integrated event solutions, we’ll see more frequent event experiences that cater to “niche” interests and personal living online other than business events.  Live and on-demand events will also become more popular this year, given the available features in most event platforms like recording and live streaming. 

Also Read: With Altafy, picking the right speakers for your events will be as simple as shopping from Zara

There will be an increase in pre-recorded sessions in hybrid events to build preview teasers or “anticipation” to audiences attending either in-person or virtually. This way, event organisers can also minimise the technical pitfalls that may happen during a live-session.

As virtual events reach more audiences, more and more businesses outside the events industry will incorporate virtual events in their marketing strategy, especially hosting personalised events that build communities and online following. 

Personalised events will help build communities

Building community is one of the most crucial success factors when hosting virtual and hybrid events. In the past, this was quickly done as event-goers can simply rely on physical interaction and networking opportunities at physical events.

However, in the new normal, building a genuine connection is challenging to be done digitally. Thus, personalisation in virtual and hybrid events is critical.

Personalised events will help build niche communities with more “intimate” and shareable experiences. Businesses and event organisers must ensure that their virtual and hybrid events are interactive, valuable to attendees, and not just a “one-time event.”

To do this right, prepare by finding ways to build extended experiences like online networking and learning opportunities that cater to different community interests. Develop avenues for attendees, speakers, and exhibitors to interact through live-streaming sessions, online apps, or social media groups.

How should you host physical events today?

When hosting physical events today, consider hosting your event in multiple venues to attract more attendees and ensure that your event follows social distancing measures in your country. Prepare to layout your event space and make sure your entrance can accommodate health screening areas equipped with thermal scanners.

Also Read: The future of events with Mind The Product CEO James Mayes

This will ensure that no attendee is unwell when they arrive at your event. It’s also essential that your event provide masks, sanitisers, and testing options to all your staff and attendees. 

Designing a safe event space using event tech tools

Most “pre-event” processes, along with registration and ticketing, will take place digitally to practice safety measures. Based on Juniper Research, contactless ticketing users will leapfrog to 468 million by 2023, a 160 per cent increase from last year.

This means that there would be an emphasis on completely touchless interaction in pre-event management this year.  If you’re an event organiser, prepare by finding ways to integrate online registration, online payment, and self-check-in in your event management process using tech tools.

Online registration with integrated payment transactions

Explore event management software that can streamline or integrate lead capture and payment transactions so you can easily control the limit of your attendees. There are touch less event registration tools can that can generate timed entry slots like Eventbrite.

• Self check-in

Explore RFID wristbands or badges and mobile ticketing applications that enable “tap and go” experiences through scanning QR-codes such as EventXtra; NFC technologies such as SafeTix and Pouchnation, or facial recognition tools. 

• Contact Tracing

When hosting in-person events today, designing contact tracing guidelines for your attendees is essential. It’s a best practice always to request your attendees’ information after the event to establish your contract tracing. Before doing so, ensure that you gather the right attendee information aligned with your country’s data protection laws. 

If you want to learn more about the latest event trends, please join us in our upcoming free webinar event, “Event Trends in 2021,” and get exclusive event insights straight from Asia’s leading event experts!  At the end of the webinar, there will be a fire chat session where attendees can ask our speakers questions, so don’t miss this opportunity!  

Are you or your organisation interested in organising virtual events? Click here to learn more about EventXtra.

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A few friends asked me what my 2021 New Year’s resolutions were. I couldn’t give a proper answer. Still feeling 2020 drained all my energy. It didn’t feel like it would make any sense to have New Year’s resolutions.

In an attempt to understand why I wasn’t all cheery about 2021, I looked back at 2020. The year going down in history as lockdown year was supposed to be a year to get my sh*t together.

No travel and working from home should have led to more downtime with the family, more exercising, reflection, writing, reading, and being more productive.

I was not as productive as I would have hoped in 2020. I missed most of my personal training goals, I was more tired at the end of the year than I felt in a while, and I was more stressed than I can remember. The mental challenge of not being distracted was far worse than I expected.

A usual year consists of meetings, travelling non-stop, short trips with the family, hanging out with friends, speaking at conferences, and half-ironman races. Always on the move was the way to go. It gave me comfort.

It gave me the feeling I was achieving something. I felt productive. Whether I was or wasn’t didn’t matter. Like everyone else, 2020 forced me to sit down and think.

Think about work, life, friends, my health (increased alcohol consumption didn’t help), and the future for our children. Speaking with friends and colleagues, it turned out I wasn’t the only one. The happy hour seemed to have moved from Friday, 5 PM to Tuesday, 12 PM in more households.

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

Having all of this on my mind, without my regular distractions, was hard. The daily grind taxed me mentally— signing in and out of Zoom calls, getting bombarded by news of injustice and tragedy every time I refreshed the page on CNN, and knowing that the return to ‘normal’ was a long way away.

It seemed like each week, each month, a new personal or societal challenge would come to bear, mentally taxing a system already stretched to its capacity and leaving me more tired than I’ve felt in a long time.

In the meantime, I also suffered a knee injury after an ultra run. It is the first time I have to deal with an injury that keeps me away from running for a while. This was the final straw. I wanted to know how I can fix this before going into 2021.

Assuming the new year’s start would be very similar to how the year ended (working from home, limited to no travel, etc.), after looking back at my journals and speaking with friends, I picked up a gift I received in March 2020 from my good friend Dennis List. The gift was Jerry Colonna’s Reboot, Leadership and the Art of Growing Up.

We all went through our number of self-help books, but this one hit home the hardest. Two parts of the book left a big impression on me because it helped me answer how I can approach 2021 differently than 2020.

“How am I complicit in creating the conditions I say I don’t want?”

“What I am not saying that needs to be said?”

~ Reboot, Jerry Colonna

I took a renewed look at why I have felt less productive than I hoped and what I was actively doing to improve. One of the significant learnings was that I tried to copy how I worked in 2019 to 2020— a full schedule, always on the go, not taking any breaks from work, social life, and sports. Instead of taking the time to clear my head, I filled the day with more Zoom calls.

Also Read: How to embrace mental wellness in startup culture

Instead of taking time to reflect, I worked more hours to make myself feel “productive”. Of course, the opposite happened. The hope of feeling I am getting things done turned into frustration and exhaustion. Being tired more often and not producing the work with which I am familiar.

Doing the same over and over and expecting a different outcome has never worked. I am not sure why I assumed it would lead to a better result this time.

The most significant step I took was to build white space in my schedule. Creating room in my schedule was difficult for me because I want to be available for anyone who needs support — going against my advice of saying no. My takeaway was that I don’t have to solve everything through a meeting or zoom call.

A quick text back and forth is sometimes enough to be helpful. I have become religious about building time on my calendar to reflect, read, or write. Slowing down helped to provide more clarity, be more diligent, and feel less anxious. I am curious to see if the effect will last and see more improvements throughout the year.

The other major lesson I learned was that it’s okay to feel like crap at times. It was good for me to recognise how I feel and to address the origin of this feeling. It is not always possible to solve feeling like crap but recognising it was a huge step forward.

I hope that everyone who struggled to get through 2020, has a better 2021 kick-off. The lessons I learned were invaluable and I hope sharing these with you will give a few insights on how I navigated difficult times.

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iSTOX, a Singapore Exchange (SGX)-backed digital securities platform, announced today it has closed its US$50 million Series A funding round, as two Japanese government-backed investors joined the round.

The VC arm of Japan Investment Corporation, JIC Venture Growth Investments (JIC-VGI) and government-owned Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) joined other new investors including Japan’s Juroku Bank and Mobile Internet Capital (MIC) in the latest round of financing.

Existing investors SGX, Japan’s Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings and Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management also made fresh investments.

Oi Yee Choo, Chief Commercial Officer of iSTOX, shared in a statement the new financing will be utilised to bankroll the expansion of iSTOX’s “geographical footprint” and investment offerings. She shared the platform will roll out private issuances by blue-chip issuers for individual investors and expansions in China will continue. The company is also seeking issuance deals involving Europe and Australia.

Founded in 2017, iSTOX is a financial technology company regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as a multi-asset platform for the issuance, custody and secondary trading of digital securities.

iSTOX said it allows multi-asset issuances of fractionalised private market securities, including equity, bonds and funds, making them accessible to a much larger pool of investors. It graduated from the MAS Fintech Regulatory Sandbox in February 2020.

Also Read: Capital markets platform iSTOX raises US$5M from Korea’s Hanhwa

After obtaining a full MAS license in February 2020, iSTOX signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Chongqing Monetary Authority in November 2020 to set up a digital securities exchange in Chongqing to serve the Chinese market, marking the first overseas expansion by iSTOX. In December 2020, iSTOX listed the world’s first unicorn fund in digital securities form.

“Capital markets are transforming rapidly because of advancements in technology. MAS and our institutional investors have been far-sighted and progressive, and they support the change wholeheartedly,” she further added.

“We have decided to participate in the launch of the next generation of digital financial services and platforms covering Asia. We believe that this project will also contribute to the development of Japanese financial services,” remarked Hideki Yarimizu, CEO of JIC-VGI.

iSTOX claims the Series A announcement takes place at a time when private markets are outperforming public markets. In the past decade, global private equity returned 13.2 per cent on average, approximately double the returns from global public equity. Private market assets under management grew to US$6.5 trillion in 2019, almost 2.7 times more than in 2010.

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Image Credit: iSTOX

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Erik Cheong is a serial entrepreneur from Singapore. In 2016, he co-founded Park N Parcel which employs an asset-light business model to deliver logistics services to the major e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Lazada. Erik switched his venture-building focus to the Central America market where very few Asian entrepreneurs have explored before. In 2019, a super app, dubbed as OMNi, was launched in Costa Rica as a joint effort spearheaded with his Costa Rican partners, Moises and Samuel. In the same year, Erik was invited to join the eFounders Fellowship (Southeast Asia) organised by Alibaba Group and UNCTAD, and was nominated as one of Forbes 30 under 30 Asia (Consumer Technology).

Meet the OMNi mafia at the headquarter office in San Jose, Costa Rica

Recently, Polymath Ventures spoke to Erik about his stories of founding businesses over the years and to seek his advices on building technology-empowered businesses in the Central American region. Below is the extract of the interview.

Polymath Ventures: Could you share with us the vision and mission of launching OMNi? What brought you to build a company in Costa Rica, which is located in a far-flung continent from your home country?

Erik Cheong: Our team aims to make OMNi the leading super app in the Central American region. So far, we have built a team of over 600 employees and activated four major service modules, namely the fintech, the mobility, the healthcare, and the lifestyle, achieving around 800 thousand downloads in Costa Rica. In terms of downloading, OMNi is already ranked as Top 5 mobile applications in the Central America, competing against Uber, Rappi, and Glovo.

Also read: Preventing burnout for entrepreneurs with KC Rossi

While I was working on Park N Parcel, I have encountered many Chinese entrepreneurs as well as the corporate executives from the Internet companies in China. My interactions with these Chinese business partners allowed me to understand how they leverage on technologies to vastly disrupt the commercial activities in arenas of E-commerce, financial services, sharing economy, healthcare, etc. My participation in the eFounders Fellowship deepens my knowledge base further and personally, I am also tremendously influenced by the speed of company building in the Chinese style and the Chinese way of viewing companies as inter-connected modules in an ecosystem rather than stand-alone silos.

When I launched Park N Parcel, I could sense the accelerating momentum and increasing intensity of peer competition in Southeast Asia with unicorns emerging in several aspects. At that time, I happened to know my current Costa Rican business partners who introduced me to the huge untapped market in Central America, which could be examined as an integrated market with shared culture and uniform language. Such market characteristics project a great potential of regional market expansion unlike Southeast Asia, where the market is extremely fragmented in terms of economic status, language, and geography. Based on all of these considerations, I’ve decided to give a business trial in Central America.

PV: According to your observation about the Asia and the Central America status quo, what is your opinion about the ecosystem gap between these two markets?

EC: Simply referring to the fintech sector, I’ll say it probably takes 3 to 5 years for Central American countries to reach the current status of the cashless society in China. Our team is working hard to bridge this gap with our payment methods.

PV: Could you elaborate more about the payment service offered by OMNi?

EC: Our fintech team is currently pushing on the B2C QR payment. In Asia, the processing fee charged on the bank card payment is capped at 3% while in Central American countries such as Costa Rica, the payment processing fees charged by the banks and payment processors commonly range from 5% to 13%.

Also read: How art consultant The Artling uses AI to help interior designers pick the best sculpture for the hotel lobby

QR payment by OMNi helps the local merchants to save on the transaction fees paid. Moreover, contactless payment is much safer and strongly recommended by the government worldwide to replace paper payment or even card payment. The COVID-19 situation in fact encourages the local residents to adopt OMNi payments such as virtual wallet, peer to peer, or QR, at a faster rate across several geographies. As a next step, we hope we can develop more use cases such as utility bill payment and payroll payment via OMNi.

PV: Undeniably, the pandemic hammered the economic growth globally. Nevertheless, a lot of disruptive businesses — such as OMNi Moni —benefited from the consequences stroked by Covid-19.

EC: Yes, and it is not limited to the payment sector only. Under our Mobility module, we have launched the shared services targets on the last mile transportation for the commuters and students in the city and suburb of San Jose, Costa Rica. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the local government published a series of regulations such as the restriction on the taxi services after 10PM on weekdays. Nowadays, we have observed a service peak after 10PM on a daily basis as OMNi Bike is the only biking service provider in Costa Rica, so far free of competition from Uber or Didi.

PV: OMNi successfully turned a crisis into an opportunity of growth, that’s impressive!

EC: Timing really matters. During the COVID-19 lockdown, OMNi also launched the OMNi Session under the lifestyle section — an entertainment channel for the citizens who have to stay at home over the past months. So far, we have accumulated millions of views on our OMNi Session, taking the first-mover advantage compared to other similar offerings.

PV: This is really an act demonstrating sharp business acumen. Besides OMNi Session, what other services are also available under Lifestyle section?

EC: We also provided asset-light B2C Ecommerce services via Ingo. Our users can browse the store catalogue on our website, placing orders online and subsequently collecting the goods directly from the stores by themselves or choosing a delivery. We offered the API backbones to connect the shop POS front-ends with our website, enabling the real-time inventory updates for OMNi users.

Also read: SGX, Temasek team up to advance digital asset infrastructure in capital markets

PV: You sound like a priest who travelled to the Central America to spread your experience and knowledge of building Internet companies in Asia.

EC: I genuinely learnt a lot from how modern Chinese build the Internet businesses. For instance, I have studied the business case of Ping An Good Doctor, which in turn inspired me to launch the OMNi Healthcare that aims to provide digitally enabled medical services to the community in the Central America in the near future.

PV: It is unbelievable to hear what OMNi has achieved in so many sectors within two years. Along the way, have you and your team encountered any difficulties or challenges?

EC: I find two issues bother many entrepreneurs here. First would be the bureaucracy of the governments. I’ve seen the resistance to innovate or change the old practices and how there’s fear when these authorities are faced with new technology.

The second challenge I found in the Central America is that the local community’s unfamiliarity about Internet business conducts, posing huge friction for us to deepen the market penetration rate within a short time span. Again, I was inspired by Taobao’s create approach, sending salesman to villages or wet market where they teach the farmers how to use Alipay. I also let my sales team head to the local markets, teaching the fruit sellers and coffee retailers how to use OMNi to collect payments. Furthermore, OMNi has launched a 24/7 hotline service, allowing OMNi users to consult anytime when they encounter any problem while using OMNi services. I believe the community education would help the local users to learn about the new Internet services.

PV: Could you offer some advice to the entrepreneurial community on company-building in the Central America?

EC: I personally believe in two things. The first success factor would be localisation. For instance, during the market research before launching OMNi Bike, I found there was a strong biking culture in Costa Rica while no technology companies were offering the shared bicycle services at that time. This somehow indicates a chance of success if we are the first to bring in the idea of shared bicycles.

Another case of localisation strategy would be how we target our first badge users for OMNi FinTech services. Though the local community hasn’t used QR payments at all, the Chinese migrants in Costa Rica heard about WeChat Pay and Alipay before. Therefore, we decided to push our sales resources to the local Chinese community before influencing the native Costa Ricans to adopt this digital mode of payment.

Also read: This eco-friendly and energy-efficient air-conditioner cools you, not your room

Market product fit is such a determining factor for a new venture’s success, especially in its premature stage. Besides localisation, I think branding also plays a critical role. For example, we did spend effort in designing the OMNi logo as well as the color theme of our shared bikes, embedding the sense of high-tech and modernity to attract the young users such as the university students and young working professionals in San Jose.

PV: Insightful sharing! I sincerely appreciate this interview session today as I’ve learnt so much from you.

EC: You are welcome. I hope to have more conversations with entrepreneurs who are also interested in building something interesting in the Central America and Latin America in general. I always believe that discussion breeds excellent ideas.

– –

This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
Polymath Ventures

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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Southeast Asia’s relationship with e-commerce over the last few years has been one of acceleration, and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter of 2020 seems to have further fuelled the industry’s rapid expansion. The segments benefitting the most have been groceries, electronics and home goods as people prioritised the stay-home essentials.

The entire fashion retail ecosystem, on the other hand, took a major hit at the global level with many brands and retailers forced to dramatically reduce or sell off their operations.

That said, for those remaining, this has been a wakeup call to be swift in adapting to consumer needs and building an online presence, or risk being left behind.

Digital is no longer a choice

Throughout Southeast Asia, digital penetration continued to grow at a significant rate, with over 40 million new internet users in 2020 alone. Regional lockdown curbs only served to catalyse this growth, having accelerated the adoption of e-commerce and digital payments as more people began to embrace online shopping within the comforts of their own home.

In fact, a whopping three out of four consumers in Singapore had indicated their preference to maintain their newfound e-commerce shopping levels even after the pandemic subsides.

To help brand partners transition, ZALORA has been working with industry bodies and governments to support training and on-boarding to digital platforms. For existing brand partners looking to accelerate digital, the biggest roadblock has been logistics and fulfilment in a complex landscape like Southeast Asia.

Zalora’s 1SS (One Stock Solution) service supports this need. 1SS is a “Fulfilment as a Service” solution, offered to brand partners to help them reach a wider customer audience more effectively. By leveraging Zalora’s operations and fulfilment capabilities, it gives brands an opportunity to have a connected retail between their offline and online business.

Furthermore, consumers in Southeast Asia will be the winners from us co-creating exciting innovative solutions with our partners.

Also Read: E-commerce wars in Vietnam intensify. Here is all you need to know

Realtime data as guiding light amid flux

Another pressing challenge faced by industry players today is making sense of the changes in consumer trends and demands. As the lifestyles of many transitioned to being home-based, purchasing patterns and fashion preferences similarly followed suit.

Categories such as sports and activewear, loungewear, beauty surged at the height of the pandemic, despite consumers’ initial concerns about the financial impact the virus had brought about. Sustainability, too, rose in its pertinence, with over 60 per cent of consumers affirming that they would be willing to spend more on sustainable and ethical fashion items.

Counterintuitively, Luxury and premium also accelerated in select markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong. It is clear that the virus has caused a complete overhaul of consumer priorities, prompting a total recalibration of perspectives and strategies for e-retailers.

On this, Zalora’s data insights platform Trender, served as a north star for brands to sift through the noise and identify key trends that would assist them in maximising valuable opportunities amidst such a fluid environment.

The future is fast and female 

While companies deal with challenges, there are also new and unique opportunities lying in wait for businesses to seize in 2021 and beyond.

This is especially so in Southeast Asia, where the future of fashion is indisputably female. In line with statistics from Zalora’s customer base, women contribute to 80 per cent of household expenditure, and female shoppers outnumber their male counterparts by four to one.

Demographics are also shifting towards younger generations, with the region’s 200 million millennials and GenZ-ers expecting to comprise Southeast Asia’s largest consumer base in the years to come.  

As these tech-savvy millennials and GenZ-ers bring new demands and expectations, businesses will have to continue finding ways to appeal to this whole new generation of shoppers.

As brands actively seek to engage their customers and build affinity amidst an increasingly saturated playing field, the growing demand for localised assets has led to an increase of more than 120 per cent in terms of value invested across the industry.

Content has long been king, and brands should thus look to deliver fresh and appealing content to engage with this rising consumer pool – whether through influencer marketing (Nike’s Modestwear Campaign with Abby Asma), Instagram live video sessions (ZALORA Singapore’s #SaturdaySweat workouts), or even editorial productions (ZALORA Philippines’ /covers).

Similarly, in response to the increasing awareness amongst millennial and GenZ consumers around environmental sustainability and the rise in demand for circular fashion, brands must take it upon themselves to lead the charge in developing sustainability strategies that pivot towards greener and more innovative long-term solutions for the fashion industry as a whole – highlighting their commitment not just to the environment, but to their customers as well. 

Also Read: How COVID-19 is changing traditional retail and e-commerce in SEA

Technology innovations will blur the lines of offline-online

Further, given the rapid adoption of simple services such as digital payments and e-wallets, and more complex features like augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) product previews, the typical offerings of a brick-and-mortar store will have to be reinvented for a virtual space.

For example, we anticipate more shopping apps to offer mixed reality features, from try-on experiences of clothing and accessories to virtual visualisations of products, such as placing virtual sofas in your living room before you order, thus bridging the gap between offline and online experiences.

If there is anything COVID-19 has made clear in no uncertain terms, it is that the industry will continue to change and evolve beyond a stable climate. With this forced introspection, businesses must realise that in order to thrive in a post-pandemic world, they cannot rest on their laurels, but must remain agile and innovative in order to quickly and effectively adapt to the changing times.

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It’s been one heck of a year, for blockchain especially. The industry hasn’t seen this much excitement since the ICO fervor of 2017. In March 2020, crypto prices saw a significant crash as the global economy entered into lockdown due to COVID-19.

Fast forward to the year-end, BTC has reached an all-time high of US$33,000 on the back of increasing interest from major institutional investors. Meanwhile, decentralised finance (DeFi) has very quickly captured everyone’s mindshare, now with over $18 billion of total value locked into an ever expanding list of decentralised platforms such as Compound and Uniswap.

They say heroes are often born in a crisis. Well, despite the pandemic, this past half year saw 14 new companies added to Taiwan’s blockchain ecosystem map, indicative of three primary trends currently driving the industry forward.

Also Read: How ASEAN is shaping up to be a blockchain frontrunner

Proliferation of DeFi

The concept of DeFi may be relatively unknown to outsiders prior to 2020, in the same way that BTC was prior to 2017. That’s because it was really only this year that DeFi was thrusted into the limelight. Decentralised lending protocol Compound was arguably the frontrunner of the DeFi craze.

Launched in 2018, the platform enables users to collateralise cryptocurrencies and earn interest, while also allowing them to borrow other crypto assets against the collateral. Algorithms are used to automatically adjust interest rates based on supply and demand, while smart contracts eliminate the traditional need for an intermediary such as a bank. 

Compound was certainly novel in and of itself, but what really helped jumpstart adoption was in June 2020 when it started distributing its native governance token Comp to all lenders and borrowers on the platform.

Similar to shareholders of a publicly listed company, token holders are entitled to vote on any changes to the protocol, or sell their tokens on the secondary market for extra returns on top of the interest earned from lending.

The free reward was enough to attract hordes of early users eager to park their crypto in hopes of maximising yield, otherwise known as “liquidity mining,” allowing Compound to briefly overtake Maker as the leading DeFi project in terms of total value locked-in (TVL). It wasn’t long before the rest of the industry started rolling out liquidity incentives of their own.

Decentralised exchanges Balancer and Uniswap each announced distribution of their respective governance tokens to users within months of each other. Both serve as automated market makers that create liquidity pools for users to seamlessly buy and sell tokens, albeit in slightly different fashions.

Similarly, in Taiwan, we saw the launch of Black Hole Swap, developed by Hakka Finance, and C.R.E.A.M Finance, started by the founder of both Mithril and M17 (AppWorks is an investor) Jeffrey Huang. C.R.E.A.M repackages the best functionalities of Compound, Uniswap, and Balancer all into one platform, and is now among the top five decentralised lending platforms in terms of TVL according to DeFi Pulse.

Also Read: Taiwan’s blockchain future is bullish, with favourable regulation, environment, talent, and community

The DeFi space is relentless. Hacks, forks, “vampire attacks”—it seems like the moment any one project finds some modicum of success, there will be a handful others lurking in the shadows, ready to replicate, iterate, or outright steal the idea right out from under.

But it’s still early days for DeFi, and one can argue that this type of competition is natural for such a nascent industry. The hackers, arbitrageurs, speculators, and bad actors will stress test the technology and incentive schemes and fully push them to the limits.

Ultimately, only the fittest, the most resilient and practical will be left standing, collectively strengthening the ecosystem as a whole. 

NFTs on the rise

Following DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have continued rising in popularity globally. Gaming and artwork collectibles serve as the primary use cases so far, no doubt perpetuated by decentralised marketplaces such as Rarible, SuperRare, and Async.

There are now fully virtual worlds like Decentraland dedicated to showcasing NFTs. In the offline world, famed auction house Christies recently sold their very first NFT artwork for over US$130,000 back in October 2020. 

The jetsetters of digital collectibles, Dapper Labs officially launched NBA Top Shot in mid-2020, with revenues reaching US$2 million by year end. The NFT-powered marketplace allows users to buy and sell “digital moments” captured from NBA games. These moments are then stored on the Flow blockchain, an entertainment-focused protocol developed by Dapper Labs which recently raised US$18 million in a token sale.

In Taiwan, Lootex has been a long-time believer of NFTs, creating a decentralised auction house for people to create, buy, or sell crypto items. They just recently partnered with startup Eternalink and Spanish winery Nekeas to create NFTs every time a bottle of the limited edition Eternalove red wine is sold.

Meanwhile, Alex Liu, the founder and CEO of Taiwan’s largest crypto exchange MAX mentioned in a recent interview that NFT serves as a critical bridge between the virtual and physical worlds and will be the focus of their development efforts in the coming years.

Riding off the excitement of DeFi, NFTs are clearly growing in prominence, with weekly trading volume nearing US$2.5 million in December, up severalfold from a couple months prior. While collectibles and entertainment have occupied the spotlight, NFTs and their verifiable proof of authenticity have the potential to extend into many other areas including real estate, supply chain, identity verification, and copyright management, and yes, even crossovers into DeFi.

Also Read: [Updated] Meet the 3 Singaporean blockchain startups showcasing at Algorand Asia Accelerator’s demo day

Compared to DeFi, however, where Taiwanese startups have gained global recognition, NFTs have received much less interest in Taiwan; but, certainly there’s much more room to play and momentum is already visibly picking up.

Crypto goes mainstream

Although beginning with a rather sluggish start, 2020 was most certainly a win for crypto bulls. 

Increasing interest and support from major institutions like Square, MicroStrategy, MassMutual, Visa, and PayPal collectively served as a monumental endorsement, helping to push the price of BTC far past its 2017 levels and into a record high of US$33,000 at the time of writing.

Evidently, COVID-19 was a large driver in accelerating digital adoption, boosting confidence in cryptocurrencies like BTC as a safe and reliable store of value. Many countries from China to the US are now exploring the creation of their own central bank digital currencies (CBDC), perhaps in direct response to Facebook’s Libra project, which has since been renamed to Diem to signal its independence and distance itself from the social media giant. 

When it comes to crypto investment, although much work has been done under the hood to reduce friction and improve the overall user experience, widespread skepticism and caution is still common among the average retail investor due to the volatility and complexity of the market.

In the second half of the year, we saw several Taiwanese startups working on innovative ways to reduce the entry barriers for new investors. Targeting newcomers with zero crypto investing experience, Cappuu is an easy-to-use crypto wallet that allows users to purchase stablecoins with credit cards and invest in high-yield DeFi products without any gas fees.

Recently closing a US$1 million seed round, Steaker is a crypto asset management platform that presents several different predetermined investment strategies based on users’ risk appetite and return profile. Fuly.AI helps investors automate their portfolio allocation and interest collection on crypto exchanges like Bitfinex to maximise returns. 

Also Read: How Taiwan’s blockchain industry is powering through the downturn

The pace at which blockchain has been evolving is truly astounding, and the pandemic has likely only turbocharged the development. Given its more conservative nature, Taiwan has traditionally lagged behind the latest and greatest in software innovations.

But if its success with DeFi this past year is any indication, Taiwan punches well above its weight when it comes to blockchain, so far matching industry trends stride for stride.

If Taiwanese entrepreneurs can continue evolving and iterating alongside the speed of crypto, they will be well positioned to define the next wave of blockchain projects moving into 2021, whether that’s in DeFi, NFT, or otherwise.

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Speaking from his own experience as a traveller in the UK, Crisman Wise understood the struggle to find an international remittance platform that is simple to use and inexpensive. With the initial goal of helping a friend, in July 2018, Wise built a solution to ease the process of international remittance in other currencies without the need for an extra cost.

The solution was later called Transfree (an acronym of transfer free). In the next two years, after a long and winding road to secure a remittance license from Bank Indonesia, the service finally managed to secure the license from the central bank in July 2020.

“We see international remittance as a major issue that many people are facing. With the initial goal of helping a friend, we found that this is something that could develop into something else. That was how we came up with Transfree,” said Wise, who is the Founder & CEO of the company.

Wise acknowledged that as a traveller, he had to deal with an international cash transfer to and from Indonesia which can be quite costly when done on leading remittance platforms.

In terms of business model, the service that Transfree offers does not differ significantly from competitors such as Transfez, Zendmoney, or Transferwise. They enable customers to transfer money to a bank account abroad in different currencies. The difference is that Transfree does not charge customers for this service; the startup monetises through the exchange rate gap.

Also Read: BRI, Visa join remittance firm Nium’s Series C round to facilitate tuck-in acquisitions

2021 targets

At the beginning, Transfree was meant to help international students in the UK in sending and receiving money from back home. But as time goes by, the team realised that there is a greater potential in the migrant workers’ segment, who might be burdened by the high cost of sending money back home.

According to data by Bank Indonesia, throughout 2018, Indonesian migrant workers abroad sent up to IDR153 trillion (US$10.9 billion) home, providing a massive business opportunity.

In just two years, the startup managed to serve transaction between Indonesia, Europe, and Australia. Most of the leads that Transfree received came from close relations and recommendations. This number was later used by the startup to validate demands.

Transfree is set to launch its service in Indonesia in Q2 2021. Other targets for the quarter is related to their fundraising effort as the company is currently run through bootstrapping. The Transfree team aims to realise its vision of making international remittance as easy as a local remittance.

“We are focussing on our launch in Q2 this year. The focus of our service will be Southeast Asia. We are still unable to disclose transaction volume targets, but we can say that the traction has been really good. We are trying our best to seize momentum,” Wise closed.

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The article Dapat Lisensi BI, Startup Remitansi Transfree Segera Resmikan Kehadiran di Q2 2021 was first published in Bahasa Indonesia by Kristin Siagian for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

Image Credit: Crisman Wise

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