Singapore-based ‘The Incubation Network’ has partnered with ECCA Family Foundation to launch an initiative to support early-stage startups focusing on Thailand’s emerging plastic waste economy.

The Incubation Network is an impact-driven initiative that sources, supports and scales holistic, innovative solutions to combat plastic pollution through strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems with a diverse network of key partners.

As part of the initiative, ECCA Family has committed US$2 million of strategic funding to spearhead the effort.

As per a press statement, The Incubation Network will bring to the table strategic relationships across both public and private sectors, including the world’s largest FMCG companies, government bodies across North America and the Asia Pacific, VC firms, global development networks, industry experts and more.

Its three significant partners, including Seedstars, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, and STEAM Platform, will launch incubators, accelerators and knowledge-sharing platforms for entrepreneurs. These will strategically tackle bottlenecks founders in Thailand face throughout a startup’s life cycle, focusing on the regional plastic waste value chain.

“Together with our partners, the Federation of Thai Industries and Thailand PPP Plastics, the Alliance is rolling out projects in Bangkok and Rayong with unique models for collecting and segregating plastic waste. 

Also read: How the upcycling movement can help build a true circular food economy

“The Thailand Plastics Circularity Accelerator programme complements this effort by supporting ventures in developing and deploying solutions to create value from the plastic waste captured in the communities we are serving,” said Nicholas Kolesch, VP (Projects), Alliance to End Plastic Waste.

The Incubation Network is also set to onboard as a member of the Thai Government’s public-private partnership for plastic and waste management, which aims to cut down over 50 per cent of marine plastic debris by 2027.

According to the World Bank report, Thailand is ranked sixth in the top 10 sources of global ocean plastic, contributing approximately 322,000 of the 8-10 million tonnes entering the seas each year.

In Thailand, an estimated 87 per cent of the value of recyclable materials — close to US$4 billion annually — goes untapped. Inefficiencies in plastic management have resulted in much of the country’s waste being incinerated, dumped in unsanitary landfills or leaked into the environment, primarily via waterways. This not only results in animals and people ingesting microplastics but damages water and air quality and accelerates climate change.

Established in 2019, The Incubation Network is a partnership between non-profit organisation “The Circulate Initiative” and impact innovation company SecondMuse.

The organisation has helped to scale over 75 startups to date, of which at least 29 per cent has female leadership. This is done via incubator-like programmes with a local lens on specific plastic issues, such as why flexible packaging has low recycling value in Southeast Asia and how to introduce circular economy foundations to startups.

Christian Algot Enevoldsen, founder and chairman of ECCA Family Foundation, said: “Thailand is already making bold efforts to address its plastic waste challenges. Organisations like The Incubation Network can provide the country’s innovation ecosystem and entrepreneurs with technical support, connections and funding that will help them accelerate their development of commercially viable solutions.”

ECCA Family Foundation was established in 2020 to support and inspire transformative change with a strong focus on preserving our global ecosystems, especially the oceans and forests, and protecting biodiversity for future generations.

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Image Credit: The Incubation Network

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Singapore-based Quincus, which provides an enterprise SaaS platform for the supply chain industry, has closed an undisclosed Series B fundraise at over US$100 million valuation.

Led by US-based electrification and mobility fund UP.Partners, the round saw existing investor GGV Capital’s participation.

Quincus will invest the new capital for market expansion and technology development. It will enhance its multi-mile offerings by strengthening its real-time visibility and machine learning optimisation platforms. This will allow carriers, airlines, and supply chain operators to optimise and transport their shipments across multi-modal networks throughout the first, mid, and last mile.

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

The new round follows nine months after Quincus closed its Series A round in January 2021, led by GGV Capital, Masik Enterprises and Aletra Capital Partners.

Quincus was founded in 2014 by Jonathan E. Savoir and Katherina-Olivia Lacey. It has worked closely with several household e-commerce, logistics and airline brands to solve their supply chain problems.

Since the beginning of 2021, Quincus claims to have seen a 600 per cent growth in shipments across 48 countries. The company transacts over 70 million shipments per month while analysing over 1.4 quadrillion data points.

Co-founder and CEO Jonathan E. Savoir said, “Companies are seeing the urgency to provide better and faster services to satisfy both consumers and businesses today while ensuring their operations are kept cost-efficient. Moreover, there is also a need for a greener supply chain as many today face environmental, social, and corporate governance. Quincus is well-positioned to provide the relevant solutions to achieve customers’ supply chain and logistics goals with our simple plug-and-play technology applications.”

Headquartered in Singapore, Qunicus has a presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Taiwan, Vietnam, UAE, the US, and the UK. It plans to grow its team to over 400 people to support its operations in its newly launched offices in Canada and the Middle East by the end-2021.

The company also looks to expand into new markets across the Americas, South Korea, and Japan by 2022.

Katherina-Olivia Lacey, CPO and co-founder at Quincus, added: “We believe that Quincus’ approach to supply chain technology innovation could reshape the movement of goods and commerce around the world and eventually, grow economies. With Quincus’ data lake, where data is consolidated, analysed, and fed into a single dashboard, customers will have the opportunity to make better decisions in a complex situation, such as applying mitigation measures to minimise environmental impact. We are honoured to have the support of investors who believe in what we can offer. We hope to tap on their expertise to create technology inclusivity within regions that might not have access to them.”

Also Read: How tech startups can transform the supply chain in Southeast Asia

Ally Warson, Principal at UP.Partners, added, “UP.Partners believes that international supply chains are ripe for disruption and that Quincus holds the key to unlock enormous efficiencies for the logistics industry. The economic effects of covid have forced global logistics players to rethink how they operate their business fundamentally. The digitisation imperative has accelerated faster than ever. Quincus’s solution solves strategic pain points across the entire logistics chain.”

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Image Credit: Quincus

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The e-commerce landscape in Southeast Asia is heating up. With a vast population primed and ready to access digital commerce services, this movement has been supercharged by the pandemic.

Sellers are no longer constricted by geography. Instead, the globalisation effect we’ve seen over the past 18 months has opened up an opportunity to operate in a truly regionalised and globalised economy.

The time is ripe for local e-commerce sellers to look beyond their borders and expand into the Southeast Asian market, which is supercharged by a new wave of buyers and recent cultural and technological changes.

But how should they go about it?

A market of opportunity for e-commerce

Since the pandemic’s start, the potential for opportunities within e-commerce has skyrocketed– initially due to region-wide lockdowns and safe distancing measures.

Now, this shift in purchasing behaviour is likely to become a permanent fixture as the market recognises the value and convenience of online purchases and the infinite range of goods that are no longer locked to a single economy.

Buyers understand the value of moving beyond local goods and services, and sellers need to be there to fill that need.

A massive change in purchasing behaviour has been driven by the battle of the super apps in SEA. Players such as Grab and GoTo now command market share across a broad set of e-commerce industry verticals. The latter, a merger between Gojek and Tokopedia, which combines Gojek’s customer experience, geographic reach and payment choice with Tokopedia’s pricing, product selection and logistical support, is a perfect example of the many potential extensions of the traditional e-commerce model.

Also Read: Capturing the next frontier opportunities in the Indonesian e-commerce landscape

Super apps such as this can compete in more markets, offer robust logistics infrastructure and a loyal customer base that can be quickly tapped into by savvy e-commerce sellers looking to piggyback on this regionalised approach.

Southeast Asia’s saturated mobile penetration rate (more than 100 per cent) is also a key driver for the continued growth of e-commerce in the region.

The rise of mobile availability and increased usage is opening doors to e-commerce and mobile commerce in Southeast Asia, with businesses able to serve consumers digitally, even in the most remote areas.

This high mobile phone penetration has also allowed fintech companies to serve underbanked businesses and micro businesses by delivering solutions, such as e-wallets, to the region. Such solutions are closing the technology gap between Southeast Asia’s underserviced sellers and those with more advanced solutions.

Battling the barriers

Reaching out into regional (and often crowded) marketplaces across Southeast Asia is not without its challenges.

Firstly, with no centralised currency, operating across borders becomes pricey. In Europe, the Euro reigns supreme – in Southeast Asia, there is no single or dominant currency, meaning that e-commerce sellers operating in the region must accommodate local currencies.

In doing so, they are losing hefty sums in transfer and conversion fees while exposing themselves to currency risk. Bridging the gap between the consumer and the international marketplace seller becomes key.

Logistics are also inevitably more complex when you’re dealing with multiple territories. Sellers must navigate between local postal systems and commercial carriers while juggling different handoffs, learning about the diverse shipping regulations in other countries as they go.

To deal with these new challenges, it’s essential to build a robust infrastructure so you can set up a standardised approach to deliveries that have been stress tested to withstand peak sales periods.

There is also a risk for online purchasing behaviours to regress to some degree. We saw an unprecedented pace of change in purchasing behaviours over the past 18 months, and in some cases, the shift was equivalent to changes that previously took a decade.

Although purchasing behaviours will likely never go back to what they once were, there is a chance that consumer preferences can pivot back toward physical commerce for specific products as part of the physical retail opening.

With many consumers making large purchases in early 2020 (such as investing in gym equipment, home renovations), some sellers have also noticed a decrease in this purchasing behaviour as the pandemic wears on.

Also read: Bring in customers, not fraudsters this holiday season

Prudent sellers will evolve, focussing on products that will remain resilient even as the region slowly reopens. Meeting a broader set of consumer demands will ultimately mean they are better suited to a post-COVID world.

Capture the opportunity

Localisation is a significant factor in regional expansion to effectively capitalise on this market of opportunity, regardless of your target market.

The key to capturing the opportunity in Southeast Asia is adopting and recognising local customs and practices: marketing and promoting during the proper peak seasons, accepting local currencies and ensuring your product offering is aligned with local demand.

It is also important to partner with the right payment provider. For those looking to break down borders and tap the vast pool of Southeast Asian buyers, employing a powerful cross-border payments solution with a robust infrastructure to allow for multiple payment methods is crucial.

Finding a payment solution with an established network will also minimise dependence on a single provider to secure a continued flow of payments – even in times of turmoil or unrest.

Aligning your strategy and outreach with the new, borderless world of e-commerce will open you up to a unique set of challenges, but the benefits are unmistakable. Achieving success will mean understanding the markets you’re selling to and leveraging recent shifts in consumer behaviour, technology and payments infrastructure.

Those who can reconcile the challenges of expanding into the Southeast Asian market will tap into an opportunity that transcends the traditional notions of localised commerce, giving sellers access to a more prominent buyers’ market than ever before.

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Early this month, Malaysian car-sharing platform SOCAR announced a US$55 million Series B fundraise from South Korean VC EastBridge Partners and Malaysian multinational Sime Darby. The fund is intended at introducing clean mobility initiatives and further developing its people-to-people car sharing marketplace TREVO.

According to SOCAR, it has 2,200 cars on its platform in 36 different models in over 1,000 locations in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor, Ipoh and Melaka. It currently has close to 6,400 car listings in major cities in Malaysia and Indonesia onboard its TREVO platform. The company has some grant plans to capture Southeast Asia’s sizzling car-sharing market.

e27 spoke to its CEO Leon Foong to know SOCAR’s products, plans, and its new initiatives in the pipeline.

Edited excerpts:

SOCAR has just raised US$55M in new funding. Why does the company need such a massive amount of investment?

We will use the Series B funding to expand our multiflex mobility footprint in Southeast Asia. We want to grow our Malaysian and Indonesian businesses and launch in at least one new country in the next 12 to 24 months.

The investment will also be channelled towards continuous technological enhancements, investing in further trust and safety measures.

We will also be using our fleet expertise to introduce clean mobility to the masses. We will be leveraging our peer-to-peer marketplace expertise to further empower fleet and private car communities across Southeast Asia via the TREVO platform.

Once we achieve our targeted liquidity level for our platform, we can then work with partners to offer users other ancillary services that car owners and drivers need, such as insurance coverage.

Could you share more details about TREVO?

TREVO is a people-to-people car sharing marketplace that enables drivers (guests) to book any car that fits their needs and wants from car owners (hosts) in the TREVO community. One of the key goals of this business model is to add value to the multiflex ecosystem by empowering a new segment of users to earn money from sharing their cars when they are not using them. In the process, we aim to alleviate the financial burden of servicing hefty monthly auto loan instalments.

Also Read: SOCAR raises US$55M in Series B funding round from new investors EastBridge Partners, Sime Darby

Across Southeast Asia, we are currently seeing a huge trend in terms of a “consumption upgrade”, people wanting to upgrade from 2-wheelers to 4-wheelers as a status symbol. This leads to an increase in demand for people to access cars to transport their families around and also leads to an increase in personal car ownership and thus underutilised personal cars.

Ultimately, TREVO is about driving people forward towards achieving their financial and lifestyle goals. We saw that the sharing economy has been embraced in Malaysia as a new business model during the last three years and wanted to seize this opportunity especially when there are so many underutilised vehicles in Malaysia.

What is your synergy with EastBridge and Sime Darby? Is Sime Darby’s a strategic investment?

EastBridge’s investment in us aligns with its Korea+ core investment strategy that leverages EastBridge’s Korea and pan-Asia network, whereby investments are focused on companies with solid fundamentals, high growth potential and global expansion prospects.

As for Sime Darby (a global trading and logistics player), we see them as a strategic partner in the mobility ecosystem. In the future, we aim to further our collaboration in new/used car sales, aftersales, fleet management, logistics and finance/insurance.

We will build on our existing partnership with Sime Darby’s motors division. Aside from the funding, we also have the ‘Fund Your Drive’ programme that seeks to make car ownership more affordable and accessible. The programme offers a guaranteed resale price at the end of a 12-month period for buyers of Sime Darby Auto Selection cars and guaranteed minimum income from car-sharing on TREVO when the car owners use the platform to generate income from their vehicles.

What are the five key things that you did right to win the hearts of the consumers in Malaysia?

I am passionate about the industry and growing the mobility ecosystem in Malaysia. From my personal experience in the mobility space, I’ve learned that mobility is hyperlocal.

For example, in Indonesia, Gojek is one of the local giants, and it has adopted the hyperlocal strategy well, so never underestimate the importance of localised features.

Hyperlocalisation in terms of products and service offerings can push consumers to continue using the product or service. This is something that I’ve learned. We will continue to apply this for SOCAR and TREVO within Southeast Asia. In any market we are in, we love to partner with the local conglomerates and strategic partners.

Understanding the local environment is critical. Hot sunny days, coupled with frequent showers and high humidity, means that Malaysian drivers and car-sharing users might not want to walk long distances as part of their journey. With that in mind, we launched SOCAR-2-U, where you can get a car delivered right to your doorstep and have it picked up after.

The “pre-paid” mindset. Unlike most developed countries where consumers have established credit scores and prefer post-paid accounts, Malaysia is still predominantly a pre-paid country. With that in mind, we were clear on rolling out upfront pricing where our members would know what they are paying upfront for the service chosen.

Flexibility. We allow members to extend reservations while the reservation is live, in small increments such as 10 minutes.

Not all cities are built equal. We approach Penang differently from the way we operate our SOCAR and TREVO business in the Klang Valley. Penang is an island, and the majority of longer-distance trips would involve crossing the bridge.

With that in mind, we could offer new product offerings, such as floating car-sharing bookings within Penang Island. Here, SOCAR members could pick up the car from any public parking space and drop it off at any other Penang Island City Council (MBPP) parking lot.

Also Read: South Korea’s car-sharing startup SoCar drives into Malaysia

One of our popular product offerings within the Klang Valley is our ‘one-way’ airport booking (especially pre-lockdown), where people could pick up the car from anywhere and drive to the airport and end their booking there.

Hire people who care and understand the market. I’m lucky to have a team who not only believes in building up a solid multi-flex car-sharing community but are also part of the community themselves. When you use the product regularly, you naturally see the gaps that can make the experience better. You are constantly seeking to build a better product, as you as a consumer will also benefit. We acknowledge that we are far from perfect, but we strive to use this investment to improve the areas we’ve highlighted as crucial areas for making car-sharing more seamless.

Car-sharing is a highly capital-intensive business. How do you manage to run it without bleeding much? Do you own the fleet?

In the last couple of years, residents of the Klang Valley have enjoyed greater access to public transit, with more MRT and LRT stations opening. However, much of the country is still dependent on private vehicles to move around.

For areas that do not have the best accessibility via public transport, we see a business model like ours filling the gaps between the limitations of public transport and the choice of not owning private vehicles.

We strive to complement the existing public transportation sector by providing more options with our fleet of cars for travel needs. Moving forward, we foresee the dependence on private cars and motorbikes decreasing, as those who would like to enjoy the benefits of utilising a car without owning one will have a greater array of choices, such as opting for a SOCAR or TREVO vehicle.

For SOCAR, we own the fleet. Currently, we have 2,200 cars in 36 different models in over 1,000 locations in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor, Ipoh, Melaka and Seremban on our SOCAR app.

Meanwhile, for TREVO, we have car owners and car rental companies listing their cars on our platform. TREVO currently has close to 10,000 car listings in major cities on its app-based P2P car-sharing marketplace in Malaysia and Indonesia.

What opportunities do you see in the market? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on your business?

Due to the pandemic, those who do not own cars may be concerned about being near other commuters in crowded public transportation daily and perhaps worry about touching surfaces in crowded public areas, thus exposing themselves and their family to possible infection. SOCAR is an option for them to have a private vehicle for commuting or longer trips temporarily.

Given the current unemployment rate resulting from the pandemic, some Malaysians planning to buy a car may have to shelve their plans due to income uncertainty.

Here, the sharing economy is primed to fill the gap, whether by temporarily offering access to private cars through car-sharing services like SOCAR or a P2P car sharing marketplace like TREVO. It also empowers Malaysians to defray the cost of car ownership by earning income as a TREVO Host.

Malaysians who own underutilised cars sitting in parking lots and outside homes across the nation — including those who are doing less commuting after opting to work from home in the ‘new normal’ — can also take advantage of the P2P car-sharing model to earn extra income.

Logistics for SMEs has also seen a solid shift to e-commerce and contactless deliveries. In response to the needs of businesses suffering from a surge in third-party delivery costs or could not quickly scale up their delivery services, we launched the SOCAR Business Mobility plan during the first MCO.

As the economy reopens and interstate travel resumes, we will see a massive rebound in domestic tourism coupled with an increase in demand for land transport. More people will want to drive to a destination of their choice and enjoy the freedom of having their own vehicle for the journey. SOCAR and TREVO will be primed to serve this increase in demand.

If the numbers in the US are any indicator, we are preparing ourselves for a rapid spike in demand. We are currently working on building up a reliable supply base when both Malaysia and Indonesia reopen for interstate travel.

What are your expansion plans? Do you plan to take the business out of Malaysia to Singapore/Korea?

In late 2020, we introduced TREVO to the Indonesian market for several reasons, such as the emergence of Indonesia’s middle-income class and the government’s initiatives to reduce carbon emissions over the next ten years. Due to this, we foresee that the adoption of car-sharing will continuously grow in the Indonesian market.

As mentioned earlier, we want to grow our Malaysian and Indonesian businesses and start business operations in at least one new country in the next 12 to 24 months.

Also, we hope to expand our service offerings to more cities and states in Malaysia to make vehicles more accessible to all to complement the mobility ecosystem.

Any country that has underutilised vehicles will be a market that we will be interested in expanding to. We hate to see cars lying around in parking lots not being used. Our technology is built to facilitate car-sharing to ensure that the owners of these underutilised assets can make more money by fulfilling a renter’s wish to drive a car that they might otherwise not have access to.

Who are the other major car-sharing companies in Malaysia? How tough is the competition?

There are a few major car-sharing companies in Malaysia, but our competitive edge against other industry players is our variety, accessibility, affordability, and convenience compared to other industry players. We are also the only full-stack player that offers both B2C keyless car-sharing with our owned assets as well as peer-to-peer car-sharing.

With SOCAR, we offer our users the option of 36 different car models ranging from hatchbacks to SUVs at an affordable price. We are also more accessible than others because of our presence in more than 1,000 zones across Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor, Ipoh, Melaka and Seremban. We are more convenient because bookings can be completed in just a couple of taps via our app. At the same time, our SOCAR-2-YOU door-to-door car delivery service – which we are continuously expanding, further increases access to our vehicles.

EVs are gaining momentum the world over, including SEA. What are your plans to tap into this opportunity?

We are looking to speed up the adoption of EVs in Malaysia. At SOCAR, we aim to expand our fleet in Malaysia by up to hundreds of EVs in the next two to three years. This includes rolling out up to 50 EV zones in Malaysia by the end of 2022.

To accelerate EV adoption in Malaysia, we recently signed an MoU with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), the largest electricity utility in Malaysia. The MoU outlines TNB’s plans to leverage SOCAR’s data on vehicle usage and travel behaviour to identify strategic locations along key travel routes for the installation of EV charging infrastructure. The demand data shared would determine the location, number and type of chargers for installation, including direct current (DC) fast chargers.

As a mobility provider, we are committed to driving the adoption of sustainable mobility. Car-sharing is already playing a fundamental role in taking cars off the road as one car is shared between multiple users on a monthly basis.

To take a step further, we want to use our platform and resources to enable our community of drivers to experience the benefits of driving an EV, showing them how fun and convenient it is to adopt the EV lifestyle where tailpipe carbon emissions become a thing of the past.

What are your future plans?

Moving forward, we want to continue maintaining close contact with the government and stakeholders to enable more Malaysians to embrace the idea of going carless and help more individuals from the B40 segment to benefit from our service offerings. We are confident that our business will bounce back in due time, as we offer added value to the multiflex community.

We also target to continue growing and strengthening SOCAR’s foothold in Malaysia, especially with the new offerings in the pipeline. With the upcoming offerings, we expect to see more Malaysians enjoying seamless multiflex mobility.

Lastly, given the growth that we have had in Indonesia, we need to start building more car-sharing communities across Southeast Asia. Personal mobility should not be restricted to those who can afford a car or get a loan. We believe that our peer-to-peer TREVO model will play a huge role in allowing more people in South East Asia to drive a car of their own choice without owning one.

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Image Credit: SOCAR

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Southeast Asia’s gaming industry is on the rise. Between 2020 and 2025, it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.5 per cent, running counter to how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many traditional sports sectors.

The gaming industry, particularly e-sports, has instead thrived, as illustrated by The Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF) bringing back e-sports as a medal sporting event at the 2021 SEA Games in Vietnam (which has since been postponed), following its debut in 2019 – hence illustrating the commitment by major stakeholders to back e-sports’ inclusion in a major sporting event.

This mainstreaming of e-sports in Southeast Asia had been gaining strong momentum in the years prior. For one, it has been underpinned by the region’s growing middle-class population, which had been seeing increased spending power, raising more disposable income that can be spent on leisurely activities, including playing video games.

Concurrently, Southeast Asia also continues to witness a growing internet penetration, which has enabled more users to engage in online gaming and spectatorship. 

While Southeast Asia’s e-sports sector is still nascent, there are several factors to support its continued rise – especially when it gains a stronger foothold in the region’s emerging markets. 

E-sports’ economic importance in Southeast Asia

While e-sports was very much the domain of gaming enthusiasts and hobbyists, it has since expanded to become a very promising sector in terms of earnings and industry development.

Especially during the pandemic, more people (namely those from younger generations) are working from home and crave more forms of indoor entertainment.

E-sports can meet that demand by offering content via live stream events or online video games, which contributes to economic earnings such as sales of gaming devices.

It also represents an opportunity for companies and investors to heavily back the industry – especially as more are exploring the implementation of disruptive experiences, given the eventual availability of 5G and the proliferation of more advanced technologies like AI and digital twins.

Also Read: The changing face of gamers and what it means for e-sports startups in SEA

This can encourage the growth of new forms of business opportunities for technology entrepreneurs to see how they can proliferate industry advancements to grow the market further.

Skilled technology professionals will also be key to the industry’s rise, namely in terms of gaming technology development, where Singapore particularly seeks to lean on to meet its aspirations of being Southeast Asia’s leading hub for e-sports.

Outside of its ecosystem, the e-sports sector will also help stimulate the growth of service sectors such as events management – creating opportunities for more live stream events to be conducted over the next decade, at least.

Singapore’s annual Formula 1 race is one instance; its organisers have developed the F1 e-sports Pro Series, which has created an ecosystem of opportunities for Singapore’s various hospitality and tourism industry players.  

Regional growth challenges

Despite its inherently strong potential, Southeast Asia’s e-sports industry still faces challenges for it to grow more actively in the region. More advanced markets such as Singapore have been better positioned to support startups and companies related to the e-sports ecosystem and have organised online gaming tournaments more regularly as compared to more emerging markets such as Vietnam and Cambodia.

This is largely due to greater industry maturity and available resources (both from the public and private sectors) in the former compared to the latter two. 

The lack of recognition for professional gaming as an occupation by government bodies also poses a challenge, particularly concerning international tournaments, as gamers may face issues procuring visas required to stay the course of a tournament or attend training camps.

This could then lead to low governance–  creating a grey area means that raises risks to the wider ecosystem, such as cheating, match-fixing, and illegal betting. 

Another challenge is the region itself. Being highly heterogeneous, key discrepancies such as the availability of payment models differ between the region’s various markets.

Not all countries have more sophisticated electronic payment methods; for instance, Singapore has options such as ApplePay and Samsung Pay, whereas Indonesia is slowly integrating a more secure and easily accessible ‘UniPin’ cashless online payment system.

Contributing to e-sports’ growth

While e-sports face many obstacles in Southeast Asia, many industry actors play an important part in influencing its growth. These include game developers, competition organizers, and even the players themselves.

For example, “Hawaii” Yee Xiao Hao began playing the online game Dota with just friends in Brunei, but later transformed his hobby into a career.

Since then, he has been driving the development of e-sports as a whole in his country for a new generation of gamers, such as his co-founding of the e-sports Association of Brunei.

Meanwhile, game developers, bring specific industry expertise that can add value to a game’s ecosystem, as well as directly organising competitions.

For instance, Singapore’s Riot Games organised the League of Legends World Championships, while Garena developed games such as Free Fire as they realized that mobile games are easier to access, leading to many games optimized for mobile play too, such as FIFA and Call of Duty. 

Sponsorships and investments are also key to e-sports’ future. This is evident in teams participating in competitions that need various resources, of which training is among the most important.

Relatedly, organisers also play a crucial part, as seen in the partnership by ONE Esports and Toyota Motors Asia Pacific for an online Gran Turismo tournament series. 

Still, the growth e-sports has been experiencing would not have been possible without an established governing body to oversee the sport, including responsibilities over regulations and promotion. To date, only some organizations can be classified as governing bodies for e-sports, such as the International Esports Federation (IeSF).

Also Read: The changing face of gamers and what it means for e-sports startups in SEA

Nevertheless, some Southeast Asian governments are taking more direct approaches to nurture the industry, namely by organising and collaborating talent management in e-sports, as seen via bodies like the  Singapore Games Association (SGGA) and the e-sports National Association of the Philippines (eSNAP).

With greater government support and accreditation, there can be seen a shift in attitudes towards e-sports which will be important for its future growth and mainstreaming.

Levelling up e-sports in Southeast Asia

Despite regional challenges, Southeast Asia’s e-sports industry has the prerequisites needed to even grow further, with participation in multi-sports tournaments being one of the major steps in gaining global recognition.

Recently, the Global eSports Federation (GEF) has even announced the first three editions of the global e-sports games, with the first to take place in Singapore in 2021.

While countries and their governments are taking measures to ensure the sport provides more mass appeal, its importance to the region is becoming more prominent, given that will present new sources of national revenue and growth, while stimulating auxiliary benefits such as helping youth development and employment.

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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: ryanking999

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Singapore-based startup Merkle Science, which provides a predictive blockchain monitoring and investigative platform, has closed its US$5.75 million Series A funding round led by Darrow Holdings.

Other participating investors include Kraken Ventures, Bain-backed Uncorrelated Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Token Bay Capital, Kenetic, and Lunex Ventures.

Merkle Science will use the capital for product development to serve enterprise segments, such as law enforcement agencies and financial institutions. It will also continue evolving its behaviour-based Rule Engine, expanding its token coverage to over 500,000 tokens, and customising solutions for decentralised finance (DeFi) and NFT platforms.

The funding announcement comes in the wake of Merkle Science’s launch in the US market.

Merkle Science co-founder and CEO Mriganka Pattnaik, said: “Our vision is to build the infrastructure necessary to ensure the safe and healthy growth of the crypto industry, starting with understanding the risks associated with cryptocurrency transactions.”

Also Read: (Exclusive) Merkle Science raises US$804K in seed funding round led by LuneX, SGInnovate

“Globally, we have seen strong demand, especially from financial institutions and law enforcement agencies, as crypto-related illicit activity and regulations have taken centre stage. Merkle Science’s intelligence platform is highly customisable and built to evolve with crypto criminal activity, simplifying crypto compliance for our users and ultimately allowing them to focus on their core competencies,” he explained.

Founded in 2018, Merkle Science helps crypto companies, financial institutions, and government entities detect, investigate, and prevent illegal activities involving cryptocurrencies.

Unlike other blockchain monitoring and investigative tools in the market, Merkle’s platform takes a behaviour-based approach to transaction risk management, resulting in more proactive and effective crime monitoring and investigations. This approach enables its intelligence platform to evolve with crypto-related criminal activity, simplifying crypto compliance and ultimately allowing businesses to focus on their core competencies.

Its Blockchain Monitoring tool goes beyond the blacklists, so compliance teams may detect illicit activity from their incoming and outgoing cryptocurrency transactions and meet their local KYC/AML compliance obligations.

The tool also helps regulators understand the risks across all types of crypto businesses, stay on top of emerging technologies, and keep pace with the industry’s increasingly complex illicit activities.

Dean Carlson, head of digital asset investments at Susquehanna and newly-appointed board member at Merkle Science, noted: “As the crypto industry continues to evolve, regulatory challenges are the biggest hurdles to mainstream adoption by financial institutions. The Merkle team has the right mix of regulatory and technology domain expertise to become the gold standard for cryptocurrency compliance and forensics.”

As a board member, Carlson will guide the executive team at a critical growth stage as crypto goes mainstream amid fast-evolving crypto regulations.

With clients across APAC, Europe, and North America, Merkle Science claims it has grown its revenue by over 900 per cent.

In May 2019, Merkle Science bagged seed funding led by Lunex and SGInnovate.

In the past six months, institutional interest for cryptocurrencies and compliance in the US has surged, which has prompted both the co-founders to move their base to New York as part of Merkle Science’s expansion plans.

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Image Credit: Merkle Science.

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Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) refers to the use of smart sensors in machines that enhance industrial manufacturing processes. Also known as Industry 4.0 or the industrial internet, IIoT solutions utilize a connected network of intelligent devices that can monitor, collect, exchange and analyze data on a real-time basis to create value and transform business outcomes.

Using industrial IoT platforms, companies can analyse and act on data produced by connected devices to automate and improve how they design, manufacture, and service products. An industrial IoT platform enables us to leverage machine learning and advance artificial intelligence in real-time to bring in smarter manufacturing methods and enhance products.

Operational efficiency and cost optimization are the key drivers of industrial IoT, as it enables use cases such as asset performance management, predictive maintenance, remote service, connected logistics, and smart factories. IIoT can be applied to a range of industries with applications to save time and resources but increasingly also to innovate new service and revenue models.

Also read: Protégé Ventures as a gateway for VCs to invest in the future

IIoT’s primary focus on intelligent manufacturing is suited to heavy and high-tech industries like semiconductor, mining, aviation, oil and gas, defence, energy, but it also has a wide range of applications in sectors such as agriculture, logistics, finance. IIoT has great promise in the government sector to build smart cities and environmental solutions, as well as in healthcare and cross-industry applications such as smart buildings

The global industrial internet of things market size is expected to grow at 22.8 % to reach USD 1.11 trillion by 2028, according to a report by Grand View Research, Inc.

Sophic Automation: a regional powerhouse in Industrial IoT

For the past 14 years, Malaysia’s Sophic Automation has delivered software development, software and hardware integration solutions in the IIoT and Smart Manufacturing space. Employing a team of 100% local talent, their core competencies are in software, mechanical & electrical design. The company delivers industrial IoT solutions based around 4 main solution offerings to clients:

•       SMARTer worker: digitising traditional workflows
•       SMARTer machine automation: making machines smarter
•       SMARTer operations: digitised and remote operations
•       SMARTer asset: intelligent asset management

Koh, Dim Kuan (DK) and Lee Chee Hoo, founders of Sophic Automation Sdn Bhd (Sophic), started the business in 2007, bringing together decades of experience in leading digital transformation and Industry 4.0 solutions in smart factory and smart city projects.

CEO Dim Kuan says the team culture differentiates Sophic Automation from other software design houses because they continuously develop leaders and promote technopreneurship opportunities internally. “Sophic Automation provides turnkey in customized & hybrid solutions enabling seamless handshake between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) which differentiate us from competitors,” says DK. “With our focus on delivering software automation and system integration, we’ve managed to secure business to sustain our team and development,” says DK.

Koh Dim Kuan joined in 2011 as Director, taking charge of the company’s business development activities and operations management. The same year, Sophic secured its first SMARTer worker solution when we were engaged by a multinational semiconductor company to develop a machine monitoring system with mobile application for technicians and engineers to manage production equipment technical issues, and in the same year, Sophic also secured it’s first outsourced product design engineering contract from a multinational electronics company.

Powering Industrial Automation and Building Smart Cities in Malaysia

Sophic is among the top 5 IIoT solutions providers in Malaysia based on revenue and has ambitious expansion plans for the country. They have secured major deals that will play an important part in putting Malaysia on the path to Industry 4.0 transformation. Sophic MSC Sdn Bhd obtained Pioneer status from MSC in May 2012 with Liew Chee Kin joining in 2014 to lead the central region business.

Projects executed by Sophic in Malaysia have ranged from an automated visual inspection packaging equipment solution for a multinational food and beverage manufacturer, to a fully automated chemical compounding system for a glove manufacturer. In 2016, Sophic Automation obtained ISO 9001:2015 certification for smart manufacturing & automated digital solutions.

Also read: Learn the ropes around scaling your startup across borders

They were awarded a business growth fund from Malaysia Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) and secured funding from Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDEC) under the Digital Malaysia Grow Embedded Systems Industry Project, to develop a Universal Data Bridge and Connectivity Solution. Sophic Automation, has also been awarded “Best Investee Company” by the Malaysia Venture Capital and Private Equity Association in both 2016 and 2018.

Continuing its growth in 2017, Sophic won a smart cities project to enable intelligent video analytics and intelligent operations centre for Penang Island City Council (MBPP). This project entailed the provision of a Command, Control, Collaborate and Cognitive centre for the government sector client. Sophic also set up an intelligent command centre for a semiconductor manufacturer to achieve its lights-off operation objective. Sophic continued to ramp up its smart cities business in 2020 with the design and development of a mobile application, as part of a smart city project, for local state authorities in Malaysia.

Sophic and MaGIC: Partnerships key to accelerating Industry 4.0 in Asia

“As part of our business expansion plan to capture potential demand in the semiconductor and electronics industry in Vietnam, Sophic Vietnam was set up in February 2014 to penetrate into the Vietnam market and provide better services to our customers in the country,” says DK.

“The major gaps we’ve observed from various industries are around getting real-time data from their manufacturing plant,” says DK regarding the challenges Sophic is solving for enterprises adopting IoT. “Data connectivity and IoT has been a key solution we’re providing to address these challenges/problems. As Industry 4.0 is driven by data, data will be key raw digital information to embark on a digital transformation journey,” he points out.

Speaking on the market prospects for IIoT, the Sophic CEO says that thanks to a “strong and active engagement from government policy and agencies who conduct the ground events, as well as funding support to industry, the market awareness in IIoT has been established quite well, but somehow, the adoption rate from industry is not moving fast as expected. Possibly due to an unclear vision of IIoT among small-medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as concern around high investment and operating costs.”

DK is very positive about the growth trajectory of the company: “We’ve been expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30%+ since 5 years, and staff strength is now over 100 people. With our focus on software technology, the talent pipeline will be our core focus so we can expand our R&D activities. We want to bring to market a cost-effective solution that can serve SMEs. Growth through mergers and acquisitions is another option we’re considering down the road.”

Leveraging local and regional partnerships has been a key strategy, says DK: “We strongly believe in ecosystem partnership to leverage our partners’ strength to ensure win-win business for customer, partner and our team. We’ve been able to fully leverage each other’s strengths to conduct successful marketing collaboration, from leads to winning project bids.”

Also read: Leveraging digital-first CX for customer delight and business growth

“MaGIC has provided very good coaching to facilitate our business growth plan. The market promotion initiatives are very important as part of the product commercialization process,” says DK about the benefits of working with MaGIC. “It’s quite natural to expand regionally as part of the business growth process, which is mainly driven by market demand, and we aim to provide better customer services in the region and continuous product improvement. We’ll continue to focus on Vietnam in the near term and China & USA in the mid-term (3-5 years from now) because of strong semiconductor market growth,” says the CEO regarding their plans for regional expansion.

DK hopes their partnership with MaGIC will help create job opportunities at the local level and contribute to Malaysia’s GDP while developing Malaysia’s brand as a technology hub across the region. Sophic’s rapid acceptance in the market was the result of the MaGIC programme he explains: “It has helped us to expedite new product development and market validation by minimizing the customer’s concerns around risks. This paves the way for developing great customer relationships and we can secure a long-term relationship in the client’s overall digital transformation journey.”

“MaGIC’s programme has helped us fast track our new product’s acceptance in the market. MaGIC has worked with us to improve our new customer adoption rate and better predict prospects in the long term. Programmes such as Global Accelerator (GAP) and Global Market-Fit (GMP) are pivotal to our continued regional expansion,” concluded the Sophic CEO.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by MaGIC

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Verihubs, an Indonesia-based ID and data verification startup, has raised US$2.8 million in seed funding led by Insignia Venture Partners, says a TechCrunch report. 

Central Capital Ventura (CCV), an investment arm of Bank Central Asia (BCA), and Singapore-based Amand Ventures also joined the round.

Angels who participated in this round include Shipper co-founder Budi Handoko, Payfazz co-founders Jefriyanto and Ricky Winata, BukuWarung founder Chinmay Chauhan, Modalku ex-CPO Pramodh Rai, and Singapore’s Gotrade co-founder Rohit Mulani.

Under the terms of the agreement, the funds from CCV will be used to expand Verihubs’s offerings for end-users who have an account with BCA.

The startup is also teaming up with Indonesia’s financial services platform Payfazz to help unbanked users deposit money with local agents for their online payments. BukuWarung, a bookkeeping app for SMEs, is also will help Verihubs access transaction data.

Verihubs will also use a portion of the capital to develop its product pipeline, including creating its own credit ratings based on transaction and account balance data. 

Also read: Empowering fintech and e-commerce through digital identity verification 

Launched in 2019 by Rick Firnando and Williem Williem, Verihubs assists Indonesian digital enterprises in authenticating their clients’ identities, verifying their histories, and gaining access to their financial data. 

While Verihubs primarily serves clients in the banking and fintech sectors, its solution can also be applied to e-commerce, rental marketplaces and hospitality.

The firm uses AI-based identity authentication technologies and APIs to reduce verification time from a few weeks to as little as five seconds, allowing businesses to continue authenticating returning consumers via SMS, WhatsApp, or flash calls, and do KYC checks.

End users are required to take a selfie and then submit a photo of a government-issued photo ID when they first log into a Verihubs-enabled app. The AI technology will compare the two pictures and cross-reference the ID with telecom credit ratings and Indonesian government databases, including criminal histories.

The company intends to expand into other Southeast Asia markets after achieving the product-market fit in Indonesia. 

According to a 2020 report released by Fenergo, financial institutions globally suffered from more than US$10.6 billion in penalties for non-compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know your Customer (KYC), data privacy and MiFID regulations. In the Asia Pacific alone, fines for financial services firms totalled more than US$5.1 billion due to regulatory crackdowns on their illegitimate behaviours.

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Image Credit: Verihubs

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