While holidaying in Hong Kong a few years ago, Huen Su San chanced upon a Korean food brand. A successful businesswoman, she was already running a restaurant chain back home in Malaysia that had grown to nine outlets in Klang Valley.

Su San thought this Korean brand concept would work well in Malaysia and decided to start it as a side venture.

“I could not have timed it better as the Korean food craze landed in Malaysia shortly after. I saw my first Korean dessert outlet grow to four outlets, followed by a successful introduction of three Korean BBQ brands into Malaysia,” she recounted the story to e27.

Cut to now, Su San’s Beyond Korea Dining Group operates ten restaurant outlets across the four brands and two central kitchens.

Having run a successful F&B business, Su San faced many pain points and challenges, and she was determined to resolve them.

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

“I realised that F&B businesses would stand to gain immensely through a co-sharing kitchen and asset-light model,” she said. “Cloud kitchens are a more efficient way to operate and grow F&B online and delivery sales. This spurred me into action to start building Malaysia’s first shared kitchen in 2019, a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.”

Thus, COOKHOUSE took birth. A cloud kitchen enabler, it rents out fully-equipped ready-to-move-in kitchen facilities to F&B businesses for food production. Started in 2020 at the peak of the pandemic crisis, the company quickly grew to four locations, with another two in the pipeline.

As of now, over 35 different brands are operating within COOKHOUSE’s cloud kitchen facilities.

The firm doesn’t own any in-house food brands at the moment.

To go beyond Klang Valley

Su San started her career in commercial real estate in Singapore before returning to Malaysia to join the construction industry. She learnt the ropes of the local events industry after building Glasshouse at Seputeh, an indoor garden events venue in Kuala Lumpur. Having built strong teams around these businesses, Su San had leeway to pursue the cloud kitchen concept.

“COOKHOUSE can be described as a combination of different concepts amalgamated through my different industry experiences,” Su San remarked.

The dark kitchen venture has plans to expand beyond Klang Valley to other states and urban cities in Malaysia. Su San also hopes to explore international markets such as Jakarta, Singapore and Bangkok in the coming years.

“The online food and food delivery market in Malaysia is still in the early stages, and there’s still plenty of room to grow,” she shared.

While the pandemic has resulted in mushrooming all sorts of cloud kitchens in Malaysia, running cloud kitchens is not easy during the ongoing crisis. “Think about the F&B operators badly hit by the pandemic. They are unlikely to start new ventures in cloud kitchens. To run cloud kitchens with several operators like ours, our team has to coordinate many different moving parts simultaneously and have to balance and address the needs of all of our tenants,” the founder and CEO elaborated.

COOKHOUSE’s revenue comes primarily through the rentals and the services offered. It also generates revenues from the fees from its ordering platform at its hybrid kitchens, along with dine-in services.

The ghost kitchen startup recently partnered with Maybank Islamic to assist micro-and SME food businesses to obtain halal certification. They are working together to offer COOKHOUSE’s F&B partners financial assistance and halal certification through its facilities and cloud kitchens.

A self-funded company, COOKHOUSE has fundraising plans. Su San hopes to find the right investment partners to continue to grow the concept across Malaysia and internationally.

Also Read: How a few up and coming virtual kitchens revitalise the pandemic-hit F&B industry in Malaysia

“We started COOKHOUSE just a year ago but quickly grew to four locations, thanks to the pandemic and the popularity of cloud kitchens. While fundraising plans are in the pipeline, achieving profitability is our main focus,” she said.

With the sector continuously growing, cloud kitchens are here to stay in Malaysia.

“New-age tech has already started to blend into cloud kitchens and food delivery markets with the use of drones to send deliveries, robotic arms in kitchens, and of course the use of cloud computing and big data,” Su San concluded.

—

Image Credit: COOKHOUSE

The post How cloud kitchen startup COOKHOUSE, started amidst COVID-19, managed to win 35 F&B clients in Malaysia within a year appeared first on e27.

Makmur, an Indonesia-based investment app similar to Betterment of the US, has scored a “seven-digit” seed funding led by Beenext, with participation from Jakarta-based investment group Kinesys Group and Singapore-headquartered Trihill Capital.

Quest Ventures’s Partner Yiping Goh, Kopi Kenangan CEO Edward Tirtanata, GajiGesa CEO Vidit Agrawal, and former unicorn executive Andrew Lee also participated. 

According to a press release, Makmur will utilise the capital to add new features and products and scale the team.

Established in 2019 by Sander Parawira, a former Virtu Financial executive and engineer at Facebook, Makmur enables Indonesians to plan their financial goals (emergency fund, retirement fund, and children’s education fund) on a single app.

Also read: Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam the most attractive fintech hubs in SEA: Study

Users can then reach these goals through long-term investing, regardless of bullish or bearish market condition, with supports of experienced investment professionals based on quantitative research and big data.

Makmur obtained an official license from the Financial Services Authority of Indonesia (OJK) in February 2021. Since then, it claims to have formed partnerships with ten leading investment managers in the country.

The app is available on both Android and iOS, where people can start investing at an initial capital of IDR 10,000 (US$0.7) and no transaction fee. 

With a proprietary dynamic asset allocation technology applied to its goal-based investing and Robo Advisory features, Makmur can generate optimal plans tailored to users’ risk tolerance, investment horizon and prevailing economic conditions.

It also employs optical character recognition and face-recognition technology to offer users a simple and swift account opening experience.

Indonesia’s retail savings and investments market has constantly picked up pace in recent years. The value of the market tripled from US$108 billion in 2008 to US$326 billion in 2018, according to Researchandmarkets’s report. This number is expected to cross the US$400 billion mark in 2022.

On Monday, PINA announced its plan to launch a wealth management and financial planning app in November, following the Indonesian startup’s undisclosed sum in financing from a slew of regional investors.

Earlier in March, Ajaib, an Indonesian online investment platform targeting millennials and first-time investors, also closed its mega US$90 million in one of the largest Series A rounds in Southeast Asia.

—

Image Credit: MAKMUR

The post Makmur, Indonesia’s answer to Betterment of the US, scores ‘seven-digit’ seed funding led by Beenext appeared first on e27.

Base, a direct-to-consumer beauty and wellness startup in Indonesia, has secured an undisclosed amount of pre-Series A financing led by local early-stage VC firm Skystar Capital.

Existing investors East Ventures and Antler, besides new ones including iSeed Southeast Asia, Pegasus Tech Ventures, and XA Network, also participated.

The new funds will fuel the startup’s tech and overall growth efforts, including distribution, expansion and product development.

Launched in January 2020, Base (not to be confused with Vietnamese SaaS startup Base) caters to Indonesian consumers’ diverse beauty and wellness needs. It claims it offers a fast discovery process and personalised touch of holistic online consultation results on consumers’ profiles to enable an immersive experience.

The one-year-old company offers personalised-recommendation skincare through its smart skin test. It offers organic, vegan, and halal staple skincare products — from cleansers to sunscreen — primarily targeting the Gen-Z and millennial consumers.

Also Read: Social Bella snags US$56M to further expand its beauty-tech biz across SEA

During the pandemic, the company’s annual revenue grew more than 24x in 2021, fuelled by the community affiliate initiative.

Geraldine Oetama, Partner of Skystar Capital, said: “Base utilises technology and data to provide personalised skincare that is effective, paraben-free, and vegan. The growing demand for skincare coupled with Base’s technology and unique, personalised approach makes us very excited to scale Base to the next stage.”

“Base is becoming a safe space for consumers to be more comfortable in their skin, as we champion diversity and offer gender-fluid products like sunscreen that can work for everyone,” said Yaumi Fauziah Sugiharta, co-founder and CEO of Base.

The company recently onboarded Cissylia Stefani-van Leeuwen as its brand director. She has previously held VP Brand roles at Indonesia’s tech-behemoths like Gojek & Tokopedia. Armed with the tech forward-thinking and innovative consumer experiences, Base creates whitespace for an inherently crowded category.

A study by Euromonitor showed that the beauty industry remains resilient towards the pandemic compared to other sectors which have been severely affected. Indonesia’s beauty market is projected to hit US$10 billion by 2025, mainly driven by the fastest-growing categories of personal care (hair care, body care) and skincare, with an annual growth rate of 6%. This robust market opportunity is presenting Base in the right position to scale up its growth.

—

Image Credit: Base

The post Base bags pre-Series A for its organic, vegan, halal staple skincare products targeting Indonesian millennials appeared first on e27.

PolicyStreet, a Malaysia-based digital insurance platform, has completed its US$6M in Series A financing round, led by Altara Ventures, Auspac (financial advisory service) and Gobi Partners.

Existing investors KK Fund and Spiral Ventures also participated.

With the new capital, the insurtech startup aims to expand into new markets in Southeast Asia. It also plans to double down on its technological capabilities and business efforts.

Also Read: PolicyStreet raises US$1.8M from KK Fund, Spiral Ventures to grow its millennial-centred insurance platform

The company also announced that it has secured in-principle approval for a General Insurance and Reinsurance license from the Malaysian Labuan Financial Services Authority. The license allows PolicyStreet to create and underwrite insurance products.

PolicyStreet was established in 2017 by former insurance and finance professionals Yen Ming Lee, Wilson Beh and Winnie Chua. The firm offers a digital platform to simplify the insurance buying and policy management experience and make them affordable and accessible to consumers and businesses.

Today, the company collaborates with 40 insurance partners.

The firm previously received both Financial Advisory and Islamic Financial Advisory approval from the Central Bank of Malaysia.

The latest funding round follows a series of strategic partnerships PolicyStreet has recently announced. The company is working with digital platforms such as AirAsia Money and Carro (through its subsidiary myTukar) in Malaysia in the auto insurance segment. PolicyStreet also has a partnership with Foodpanda to provide coverage to its delivery partners.

Dave Ng, General Partner at Altara Ventures, said, “We believe in the potential of embedded digital insurance platforms to flip the existing model and put customers in the centre. We have a strong conviction in the PolicyStreet team to bring innovation and advancement in digital insurtech to our region.”

Also Read: Malaysia’s PolicyStreet gets central bank approval for financial advisory

Thomas Tsao, founding partner and chair of Gobi, noted: “PolicyStreet’s ability to quickly identify gaps in the insurance and protection market, as evidenced by its multiple strategic partnerships, has seen it capitalise on accelerating digital adoption. As more services enter the online space, the insurance and protection market will adapt and build new solutions in response.”

In June 2020, PolicyStreet secured US$1.8 million in a Series A investment from KK Fund, Spiral Ventures and others.

—

Image Credit: PolicyStreet

The post PolicyStreet aims to advance embedded insurance in SEA with its US$6M Series A financing appeared first on e27.

One weekend in the summer of 2004, Jeremy Levine, a venture capitalist at Bessemer Venture Partners, found himself dodging a highly persistent Harvard undergraduate, Eduardo Severin, pitching ‘The Facebook’.

“Kid, haven’t you heard of Friendster? Move on. It’s over!”

Yet, it was that very same summer, Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and a prolific angel investor, backed Facebook at a valuation of $10 million. By April 2005, Facebook’s valuation had ballooned 10- fold to $100 million and Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg had left Harvard.

What happened there?

Facebook is just one example of a game-changing student venture that has seen an explosion in value in a very short period. Other hugely successful student ventures founded during their time at university include Dropbox ($9 billion valuation at IPO) and Snap Inc. ($29 billion valuation at IPO).

Thus, it is no secret that universities are hotbeds for startups. Despite this, prominent venture capital players could very likely miss out on tremendous student-founded opportunities because they are not sufficiently plugged into the university startup ecosystem — and what could have been their best investments could end up on a list like the Bessemer Anti-Portfolio (yes, you will find Facebook there).

Protégé Ventures occupies a niche spot in the venture capital and student startup ecosystem

With Silicon Valley in the United States recognised as the global centre of technological innovation, universities like Stanford, Harvard, and MIT have tapped on the early adopter advantages that the country has in technology and have collaborated with well-known venture capital funds to invest in student ventures because they recognised the intrinsic value of investing in young talent.

One such example is Dorm Room Fund established by First Round Capital in 2012. Led by student VCs from universities like U Penn, Columbia, and Stanford, the fund has backed more than 300 companies and is one of the most active seed-stage investors in the US. Its portfolio companies have also raised more than $1 billion in follow-on capital from industry-leading investors like Y Combinator and Sequoia Capital, and notable investments include FiscalNote, Zodiac Inc., and Shield AI.

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

While we see similar student venture funds ballooning across the US and Europe such as Rough Draft Ventures and Campus Capital, there has been significantly less traction in Southeast Asia.

However, things have begun to change.

Established in 2017 by Singapore Management University’s Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (IIE) and Kairos ASEAN, Protégé Ventures is a nationwide venture capital training programme and student venture fund — the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. To date, Protégé Ventures has trained over 180 students and, in July 2021, it received a record 313 applications from students nationwide; a 20% increase from 2020.

With members from across universities in Singapore, Protégé Ventures is rooted deeply in the university startup ecosystem where students have immediate and direct access to changemakers in their campuses, as well as researches produced in the universities. Through intensive hands-on venture capital training and extensive network-building, the student venture capitalists (VCs) at Protégé Ventures not only learn about the ins and outs of venture capital while still at university, but also serve as a crucial bridge between industry venture capitalists and education stakeholders.

Protégé Ventures student VCs source and evaluate student-led startups across Asia, becoming trailblazers in the region. Where a startup shows potential, the student VCs pen investment cheques, ranging from S$25,000 to S$50,000, to fund the venture’s future.

Identifying promising student-led ventures

Amidst the pandemic in June 2020, Protégé Ventures invested in Intellect, a mental health startup on a mission to help individuals and workforces get timely access to mental wellbeing support. Soon after, Intellect went on to raise a seed round with investors including Insignia Ventures Partners and Carousell Co-Founder, Quek Siu Rui. By September 2021, not only did Intellect join the highly coveted Y Combinator (YC) accelerator that launched startups such as Airbnb, Reddit, and Twitch, they also raised a $2.2million pre-Series A fund co-led by Insignia Ventures Partners, XA Network and YC.

At the heart of the Protégé Ventures’ investment decision-making process lies its mission of ‘for students, by students’. Protégé Ventures is committed to empowering the next generation of founders in Singapore and the region by making at least 80% of their investments in promising startups led by students and recent graduates.

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

And Intellect is not alone. 85% of Protégé Ventures’ portfolio companies have also seen follow-on funding such as Lumitics that secured $750,000 in an oversubscribed seed funding round and Rooit which raised $500,000 in 2020.

The unique perspective and advantage that Protégé Ventures has in identifying high-potential startups led by students and recent graduates is clear. Being embedded in the university startup ecosystem, student VCs often find themselves amidst all the action: from getting front row seats at exciting campus startup events to passionately discussing the viability of classroom (and dorm room) ideas, and being the first to participate in user tests.

There is thus little doubt that their insider access to the university startup ecosystem provides the venture capital veterans they collaborate with unparalleled access to the university startup ecosystem.

Building a sustainable VC and entrepreneurial talent pipeline

Besides providing industry VCs with access to the promising ventures of tomorrow, Protégé Ventures plays a unique role as a pipeline programme for future venture capital professionals and entrepreneurial leaders. Singapore’s Ministry of Education has provided funding to support the expansion and scaling of the programme.

In March 2021, Protégé Ventures co-organised the inaugural VC Office Hours from the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition — Southeast Asia’s largest congregation of senior venture capitalists providing pro bono advisory. The event provided the Protégé Ventures student VCs with the rare and exclusive opportunity to shadow leading VCs from the region, where they could learn first-hand what VCs look out for when investing in startups.

Crucial to building a sustainable VC talent pipeline is the development of promising and entrepreneurial youth. VCs can play their part by teaching masterclasses, speaking at sharing sessions and mentoring Protégé Ventures’ aspiring VCs through internships.

Jeremy Loh, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Genesis Alternative Ventures attested to the calibre and drive of Protégé Ventures student VCs he met through masterclasses, the VC Office Hours event, and internships at his firm.

“At Genesis, we are always looking for driven, curious individuals who want to get an in-depth experience interning as an investment analyst. The student VCs at Protege Ventures have already been trained to think, analyse, and work as a professional VC and hence it makes a ton of sense to hire them as interns for our venture debt firm,” shared Loh.

Also read: How to foster mental wellness in the workplace and boost performance

“A Protégé Ventures student VC interned at Genesis and we had a super positive experience with her work attitude, quick thinking on her feet, and never-give-up mindset. We would definitely look to hire our next intern from future Protégé Ventures cohorts,” Loh added.

Student VC Benedict Chong, Managing Partner from Singapore Management University Class of 2021, parlayed his Protégé Ventures training into extended internships with Qualgro Partners.

“Protégé Ventures has been instrumental in my personal growth as a VC by familiarising me with many other facets of the venture capital industry beyond desk analysis. Alongside the tutelage of the amazing Qualgro team, this has emboldened me to stay agile and capture many more possibilities as an entry-level analyst,” he said.

Invest in the future with Protégé Ventures

Protégé Ventures is on the lookout for VCs to join its journey to empower young entrepreneurial talent as it grows its programme and enters its fifth year as a fund. As a partner to Protégé Ventures, VCs gain unparalleled access to student founders by leveraging on the student fund’s strong presence in the university startup ecosystem.

VCs can also build a strong talent pipeline of entrepreneurial leaders with Protégé Ventures through the following:

• Speaking at events and masterclasses to impart their wisdom and play an active role in inspiring the aspiring VCs and entrepreneurs
• Offering internship opportunities to students to equip them with the necessary mindset and skills to navigate the unknown and disruptive economies of tomorrow
• Sponsorship in Protégé Ventures to give students an experiential, hands-on learning experience as they deploy real capital into startups

To make your impact on entrepreneurial education, you may reach out to Protégé Ventures at hello@protege.vc.

– –

This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by SMU IIE

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.

The post Protégé Ventures as a gateway for VCs to invest in the future appeared first on e27.

Singapore-headquartered Aspire, which intends to provide an all-in-one finance operating system (OS) for small and medium businesses (SMEs) in Southeast Asia, has announced an oversubscribed US$158 million Series B fundraise led by an undisclosed global growth equity firm.

DST Global, CE Innovation Fund, B Capital and Fasanara Capital, alongside existing backers Hummingbird Ventures, Mass Mutual Ventures, Picus Capital, and AFG, also participated.

Besides, Taavet Hinrikus (co-founder of Wise), Alexandre Prot and Steve Anavi (co-founders of Qonto), Pierpaolo Barbieri (founder of Uala), Moses Lo (co-founder of Xendit), Hendra Kwik (co-founder of Payfazz), and Gerry Colyer (co-founder of Clara) have also joined the round.

Aspire is looking to double down on existing markets with the new investment while building the foundations to serve growing business clients across Southeast Asia.

Incorporated in January 2018 by Andrea Baronchelli, former EVP and CMO at Lazada, Aspire aims to “reinvent SME banking in Southeast Asia” by serving a new generation of internet businesses with a mobile-first digital account across Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

Also Read: Thailand’s Beacon VC invests in Singapore’s neo banking platform Aspire

The startup’s flagship product AspireAccount caters to digital merchants across the region and can be opened online in just a few clicks. It is free and comes with an instant credit limit for daily business expenses, a virtual B2B payment acceptance and other tools to help SMEs manage their cash flow.

As per a press note, Aspire has served over 10,000 businesses across Southeast Asia.

Aspire is a graduate of Y Combinator Winter 2018.

“We see a world dominated by integrated platforms across various business functions such as Salesforce for Sales or Slack for Communication. We believe the same is happening for finance, and we are here to build the operating system for the SouthEast Asia digital economy,” said CEO Baronchelli. “We build value for our customers by saving time, saving money, and boosting their growth.”

In August 2019, Aspire secured US$32.5 million in a Series A round of financing, led by Mass-Mutual Ventures (MMV) Southeast Asia, with participation from Arc Labs and Y Combinator, Hummingbird Ventures, and Picus Capital. This was preceded by a US$9 million seed investment from Insignia Ventures Partners, Mark 2 Capital, and Hummingbird.

—

Image Credit: Aspire

The post Aspire lands US$158M Series B to scale its ‘all-in-one finance OS’ for SMEs across SEA appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based women-focused healthcare services startup, Ease Healthcare, has attracted a US$1.3M seed financing round led by Insignia Ventures Partners.

Several high-profile members from the XA Network also joined.

Additionally, Ease Healthcare launched a mobile app that enables users to book doctor appointments and preventive tests on the go, make purchases, and run comprehensive contraception tracking. In addition, it allows users to manage critical sexual and reproductive health indicators through personalised guides and content and engage with the larger community of Ease users through a community forum.

Also Read: Breaking the taboo: Meet the Singapore-based startups that are working to provide access to sexual healthcare

Ease Healthcare will use the funds to introduce new features, expand its team, and continue scaling the reach of its services. A portion of the capital will go into launching its own line of products focused on preventing or improving women’s health conditions, including vaginal infections, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and urinary tract issues.

Ease Healthcare was founded in 2020 by serial entrepreneur and sexual and reproductive health rights advocate Guadalupe Lazaro and lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Rio Hoe.

Their own experiences inspired the duo as a couple accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare in Singapore. Through market research, the founder-couple identified four main barriers to access sexual and reproductive health services. They were the cost of these services, the inconvenient experience of making appointments, booking tests, and getting prescriptions; the lack of education around this aspect of personal health; and the prevalent stigma of availing these services.

These issues are more prominent in Asia, where health education is not as prevalent. They point towards underserved sexual healthcare and women care market in APAC that is worth US$10 billion this year.

They launched Ease’s initial platform in 2020 to cater to these needs and the pain points they identified in the market. This platform enables consumers to consult with medical professionals, obtain and renew prescriptions conveniently and affordably, get medication discreetly delivered to their doorstep within four hours, and learn more about managing their reproductive health.

Ease Healthcare’s platform works hand-in-hand with its network of clinics, pharmacies, doctors, and laboratories across Singapore. The app now includes and expands beyond these existing features with new services such as contraception and symptom tracking, personalised insights, and a broad range of relevant products available for purchase.

Ease Healthcare claims its community grew 6x over the past year to 20,000 members.

The company regularly shares educational content with its community, ranging from using various contraceptives to early warning signals for infections.

Also Read: How ZaZaZu aims to empower women by starting conversation about sexual wellness

“Our new app brings us a step closer to becoming the go-to platform for all women’s health care needs. It will enable every Ease user to control their health and wellness by significantly reducing the impact of stigma, lack of education, inconvenience, and costs that burden traditional channels. The long-term goal is not just to tackle access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, but address the larger picture of women’s health through a truly comprehensive ecosystem of products and services,” said co-founder Lazaro.

—

Image Credit: Ease Healthcare

The post Ease Healthcare nets US$1.3M to make it easy for women to access sexual, reproductive healthcare services in SG appeared first on e27.

We are racing towards the last quarter of this year, and six months have already passed since I last shared an update from our Facebook State of Small Business report.

Since the early months of the pandemic, Facebook has been surveying small businesses worldwide at regular intervals to find out what they’re going through and what help they need.

Last week, we published the results of our latest survey of more than 35,000 small business leaders across 30 countries and territories, carried out this July and August.

It finds that closure rates are falling worldwide in most surveyed countries, a sign that slight business recovery is underway. But there is still a long way to go and many challenges to tackle.

In the Asia Pacific, we surveyed small businesses in Australia, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. There is both good and bad news from the survey.

First, the good news: Most SMBs on Facebook in the Asia Pacific countries we surveyed reported that they were operational or engaging in revenue-generating activities. The bad news is that their sales have dropped significantly.

More than half of SMBs surveyed said that their sales continue to be significantly lower, leading to cuts in employment. Businesses in Vietnam, Indonesia and Taiwan are struggling the most from the impact of COVID-19, as more than 75 per cent say that their sales performance decreased during this time.

There are some silver linings. One is that many small businesses have found success by shifting online. For some, moving online has been the difference between staying afloat or going under. For others, it’s given them a whole new lease on life.

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

Globally, the use of digital tools has increased during the pandemic, and it’s up again in this latest edition of the survey: 88 per cent of all businesses said they use digital tools compared to 81 per cent when I last wrote about it in April.

More than half of those surveyed expect their use of digital tools to be permanent. In the Asia Pacific, nearly 50 per cent of SMBs we studied on Facebook reported at least 25 per cent or more of their sales were made digitally.

The other silver lining is that women-owned businesses in the countries we surveyed in the Asia Pacific are doing as well or even better than their men-led counterparts in closures and sales performance. Taiwan is leading this trend with 92 per cent of female-led SMBs (vs 80 per cent of male-led SMBs) on Facebook reporting that they were operational or engaging in any revenue-generating activities, followed by Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia.

This is an exciting trend as last year; we saw the female-owned businesses were consistently harder hit than male-owned businesses.

Supporting these gains is vital as one Boston Consulting Group study has shown that if women and men participated equally as entrepreneurs, global GDP could rise by approximately three to six per cent, boosting the global economy by US$2.5 trillion to US$5 trillion.

So what does this all mean? Throughout 2020 and 2021, our State of Small Business reports has painted a consistent and sobering picture. But the consistently positive takeaway from all the surveys is the power of digital transformation in helping businesses weather the storm.

This is why we continue to invest in new products and tools to help businesses connect with their customers and simplify day-to-day management.

Today, I’m excited to share five critical updates that will help businesses meaningfully connect with people:

Ads that click-to-message

Businesses can already buy ads that encourage people to message them, whether in Messenger, Instagram Direct, or WhatsApp. For example, Organicwa, a Thai restaurant, leveraged click-to-message ads to scale up its delivery operations.

Now, businesses can choose all the messaging platforms where they’re available to chat, and we’ll default the chat app in your ad based on where a conversation is most likely to happen.

Start a WhatsApp chat from an Instagram profile.

Instagram is the virtual storefront for many small businesses for customers to discover brands, and WhatsApp is the counter to discuss products, answer questions, and close sales.

Businesses can now add a WhatsApp click-to-chat button to their Instagram profile— and, starting soon, the option to create ads that click to WhatsApp directly from the Instagram app so that people can start a chat with just one tap. These updates will help small businesses find new customers and get business done.

Also Read: How one LinkedIn message changed the fate of my failing startup

Lead generation on Instagram

We will begin testing paid and organic tools to help small businesses find and qualify leads directly within the Instagram app in the coming months.

Advertisers use lead generation ads to connect with customers and connect leads in a more personal way while reducing costs — like Seoul Spa, a Vietnamese beauty clinic, did with their Messenger campaign, lowering their cost per lead by 72 per cent.

Facebook Business Explore

We will soon expand Facebook Business Explore in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore. By putting more businesses in front of interested people who are actively looking for them, Facebook Business Explore will help connect people with new and relevant companies in one easy and centralised place.

This will also help businesses reach new customers and drive deeper consideration that can lead to purchases.

Lastly, business owners have told us they want more separation between their personal and professional identities. To simplify this, we are testing Work Accounts, which will allow business users to log in and operate Business Manager without requiring a personal account.

Businesses will be able to manage these accounts on behalf of their employees and have access to enterprise-grade features like single sign-on integrations, giving them more control over the security of their employees’ accounts.

We are testing Work Accounts through the remainder of the year with a small group of businesses and expect to expand availability globally in 2022.

If you were to take away one thing from all this – it is the importance of business messaging in the post-COVID-19 world. Over the years, we’ve seen how person-to-person messaging has defined the norm for person-to-business communication. 

This is why we will continue to invest in ways to help drive better business results across the customer journey. We see messaging as a powerful way for businesses to connect, support and build a bridge to their increasingly digital-savvy customers. 

My goal in sharing these updates is to bring you along as we reimagine discovery and relevance for people, creators, and businesses. Together, we can build a vibrant digital economy with the potential to drive recovery and the next lap of economic opportunity for all. 

–

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: piksel

The post SMBs need to prioritise their digital strategies. This is how Facebook plans to help them appeared first on e27.

Ascend Money, a Bangkok-headquartered fintech firm providing payment and financial services in Southeast Asia, has secured US$150 million funding at US$1.5 billion.

With this, Ascend Money has become Thailand’s first fintech unicorn.

US-based Bow Wave Capital Management and existing shareholders — Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group and Ant Group — invested in the round.

The new capital will be used to enlarge the user base of its TrueMoney Wallet and expand its digital financial services, including digital lending, digital investment and cross border remittances across Southeast Asia.

So far, Ascend Money has made inroads into six Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Also Read: Flash Express adds US$150M more to its kitty, becomes Thailand’s first unicorn

Founded in 2013, Ascend Money operates the digital payment and financial service platform TrueMoney, aiming to drive regional financial access and inclusion for those financially excluded and SMEs around the region.

According to the press statement, TrueMoney serves more than 50 million users through its e-wallet application and 88,000 TrueMoney agents.

A study by Visa in 2021 showed that 85 per cent of consumers in Southeast Asia had adopted some form of cashless payment solution. While Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia are taking the lead, countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand are drawing near with an average cashless payment adoption rate of 88 per cent.

Buoyed by these favourable signals, Thailand’s payments segment has witnessed a leapfrog growth. The total transaction value is forecast to increase at a CAGR of 10.94 per cent during 2021-2025, resulting in a projected US$24,127 million by 2025.

Ant Group entered Southeast Asia with its first investment into Ascend Money in 2016.

Ascend Money’s is the second tech company from Thailand to enter the unicorn club. The first is Flash Group, the company behind the leading express delivery service Flash Express in Thailand, which made it to the club with a US$150 million round in June this year.

—

Image Credit: Ascend Money

The post Ascend Money becomes Thailand’s first fintech unicorn following US$150M funding appeared first on e27.

Vietnam-focused Touchstone Partners has launched a bespoke incubation programme for high-potential founders to develop their initial ideas in Vietnam.

Touchstone Fellowship Program (TFP) is open on a rolling basis. As per a press release, TFP aligns with the VC firm’s sectors of interest, including fintech, real estate, healthcare, edutech, and technology that enhances efficiency in major Vietnamese value chains such as manufacturing and agriculture.

Touchstone will invest between US$50,000 and US$100,000 in convertible notes with “simple, straightforward and founders-friendly” terms to kickstart founders’ ideas.

There are no hidden costs or fees. 

“Through the small cheques we provide to founders, they will be able to move along faster and deeper to prove their market fit and validate the business model. We saw how even a small amount of investment could help startups grow at least 3x,” said Touchstone’s Director of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Bobby Liu.

Also read: Why these four Vietnamese startups made it to the Forbes Asia watchlist

Construction B2B marketplace Debion and no-code automation SaaS Autotable are the first two startups receiving fundings from the programme.

Founded and led by Khanh Tran and Tu Ngo in 2021, Touchstone Partners also provides US$1 million in seed funding for startups, aiming to catalyse Vietnam’s tech ecosystem.

Last month, the firm injected US$1 million into the telemedicine platform Medigo, one of the first investments of its US$50 million debut fund since April.

—

Image Credit: Touchstone Partners

The post Touchstone Partners launches ‘no-frills’ incubation programme in Vietnam appeared first on e27.