Small and medium businesses (SMEs) made up 70 per cent of the employed workforce in 2020. They makeup 99 per cent of enterprises in the country and bring a healthy 43 per cent of the total nominal value-added of S$428 billion (US$322 billion). 

Even with their significant contributions to the country’s economy – Singaporean SMEs have faced an unprecedented challenge as the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures continue to affect life as they know.   

Sales revenue dips, fast-changing customer trends, negative repercussions on cash flow and supply chain problems are just some of the shockwaves SMEs have had to face down to keep their business afloat.  

And as Singapore undergoes yet another heightened alert in the middle of 2021, those with plans of market expansion, goals for the fiscal year or other expectations are forced to turn their attention once again to business survival.  

A hesitant approach to innovation

Businesses have been forced to consider business continuity above all else – which has postponed or even halted entirely the pursuit for innovation in their SME.  

Survey shows that small businesses continue to lag behind when it comes to digital transformations. A study of 782 Singaporean small businesses found that commonly attributed reasons to this delay remain to be: 

• High costs. SMEs hold on to the belief that digitalisation will be more expensive than they can handle.  
• Fear of cybersecurity issues. Without solid implementation, lack of knowledge and unavailable manpower – SMEs fear that their infrastructure will be vulnerable to malicious parties.  
• Lack of necessary digital skills amongst employees. Intent to digitalise might be there, but some SMEs worry about what this means for their employees who lack the knowledge to implement modern technology in their day to day operations.  

Be that as it may, automation and innovation are what differentiates a struggling business from one that adapts and thrives in an uncertain landscape.  

Cloud technology, versatile e-commerce stores, omnichannel sales and marketing strategies, digitalised supply chains and other forms of modern technologies are not just an option for SMEs anymore – they’re necessary.  

Also Read: What does the evolution of IT in SMEs look like post-pandemic?

Journey towards digital adoption

Adopting innovative technology doesn’t immediately equal expensive budget plans or pricey implementation fees. 

SaaS systems for instance, once a luxury only to be used by massive multinational corporations – are made readily available to any SME for affordable monthly subscriptions.

And for that fee each month, SMEs can monitor and improve their finances, digital marketing activities, payroll, and other processes with data-backed insights. 

Such fast-paced digital adoption has cultivated a workforce that is more digitally savvy, or at least ones with the ability to lean into new skills quickly and efficiently. This is why, now more than ever, SMEs should rethink their perception of the digital shift. 

Instead of going in blind or rushing towards digitalisation for the sake of business survival – approach this with strategy. 

 Do management and your workforce have a positive attitude towards digital adoption? If not, how can company culture be revisited to ensure that your workforce is passionate about replacing traditional systems with modern ones? 

Understand what changes you want to be reflected with new technology before using any system. Will this avenue bring you more sales in the long run? Will it increase customer satisfaction? Does this new technology have the power to streamline your supply chain? 

How will implementing new technology impact business as you know it? Is there a need to hire talent to see this through? 

These are the key elements and questions to consider when scaling a small business in Singapore with the help of automation and innovation. 

An upper hand with flexibility

Smaller workforces that can be found in SMEs are agile, quicker on their feet to evolve than multinational companies who must completely transition from legacy systems. 

Quickly implementing such systems will allow SMEs to get competitive in the ways that matter now. 

Another advantage that Singaporean SMEs specifically have is strong support from the government to affordably implement digital strategies.

Also Read: Future-proofing Singaporean SMEs for a stronger digital future

Such initiatives include claimable bonuses, tax relief, wage subsidies and other measures meant to help small businesses ride out the wave of COVID-19 and the consecutive Circuit Breaker.  

Those that might be relevant to your own small businesses are the Digital Resilience Bonus (DRB) for Food Service & Retail businesses that have been impacted by physical distancing and lockdown measures as well as the Start Digital programme for any SME looking for an affordable way to migrate their operations online.  

Singapore has made these bonuses and programmes available to businesses below a pre-requisite employee workforce size.  

All of these are meant to increase the competitiveness of Singaporean SMEs in the global market – as they make data-empowered decisions for their businesses.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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Pace Enterprise, a ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) startup owned by Spacemob founder Turochas “T” Fuad, has secured an ‘eight-figure USD’ debt financing round led by Genesis Alternative Ventures.

The Singapore-headquartered fintech startup will use the cash to grow its business in Southeast Asia.

This big deal comes fresh off a “seven-figure seed funding” round co-led by Vertex Ventures and Alpha JWC at the time of its official launch in January. Since then, Pace claims to have registered a 1,300 per cent growth in user base and 200 per cent growth in merchant partners.

Also Read: Debunking BNPL myths: Is it going to be the primary mode of payment?

In addition to this, Pace has announced that it has inked an exclusive regional partnership with luxury goods and retail specialist Valiram.

Through this partnership, Valiram’s brands in the region will offer Pace’s BNPL solution to all its customers, allowing them to split their purchases over three interest-free instalments.

The collaboration will extend Pace as an alternative payment option to over 20 international brands represented by Valiram in the region, including consumer brands such as Michael Kors, TUMI, Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, Steve Madden, as well as Nike in Thailand and Pedro in Malaysia.

Payment via Pace will be available upon checkout across all points-of-sale, including websites, mobile apps, and over 200 points-of-sale in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Macau.

“Through this partnership, the brands under our group will be able to unlock a new segment of consumers. With Pace’s simple, accessible and transparent interface which gives users control over their budgeting and expenditure, we also hope to empower our customers to practice sustainable spending,” said Mukesh Valiram, Executive Director of Valiram.

Beyond Valiram, Pace has also secured multiple local and regional merchant partnerships, with brands such as ALDO, Miniso, Swee Lee, OG, Benjamin Barker, and Motherswork. Pace is also expanding its existing partnerships with OSIM, FJ Benjamin, and Wonderscape group.

“Our aim is to change the way consumers in Asia Pacific shop. With over 900 points-of-sale and over 550 per cent growth in gross merchandise value (GMV) since January, we’re encouraged by the exponential growth we’re experiencing,” said CEO Fuad said.

Also Read: Buy now, pay later: The changing face of finance for a mobile generation

The BNPL industry in Asia has witnessed massive growth over the past 18 months with the change in consumer behaviour following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Singapore itself, there are a few startups, which include Rely and Hoolah.

Rely is probably the pioneer in the segment, which in December 2020 secured US$74.8 million credit facility from Polaris, the strategic partnerships arm of Singapore-based Goldbell Financial Services. Hoolah, which is also making inroads into the market, raised an 8-figure sum in Series A round, led by Allectus Capital, in March last year.

Who is T Fuad?

A well-known face in Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, Fuad has previously launched and sold three startups. His first startup was WUF Networks, an Internet of things software company based out of Silicon Valley. The company was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005.

Fuad was also CEO and founder of travelmob, an online marketplace for vacation rentals. Headquartered in Singapore, travelmob was acquired by HomeAway (now part of Expedia) in mid-2013.

In 2016, the serial entrepreneur established and ran Spacemob in 2016. He was appointed as Managing Director of WeWork Southeast Asia and Korea after the Spacemob acquisition.

In between his startups, Fuad was Managing Director for Skype Asia Pacific, responsible for its business expansion across Japan, China, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia.

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Image Credit: Pace Enterprise

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Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic caused many businesses to stay shut and forced customers to remain indoors. This has led to online shopping becoming one of the best ways for consumers to get the items they need in a fast and convenient and safe way. 

It’s a phenomenon that has a far-reaching impact across the region, with the pandemic accelerating the shift to digital shopping and resulting in major changes in supply-chain interactions. We’ve seen announcements about more business owners prioritising a digital-first approach when it comes to their retail strategy.

At the same time, more people have experimented with shopping online for the first time, with existing online shoppers buying more, both in terms of the quantity and variety of items. 

This has led to both shippers and customers increasingly demanding richer experiences and safety considerations, with both groups asking for uncomplicated, reliable, and safe service offerings.

But for all its convenience, shopping online can’t replace browsing and shopping in a physical retail outlet, so one of the key challenges brands face today is how they can reinterpret the in-store retail brand experience into a unique offline one that still manages to deliver that “wow” factor to their customers, further creating opportunities to cement customer loyalty

Beyond the product itself, what we’re seeing is that online shoppers prioritise delivery options and the perceived quality of delivery service when considering which company to shop with.

When selecting a logistics partner, online retailers need to consider two main issues; what needs and expectations do they and their customers have, and how are logistics companies addressing these identified issues? 

Also Read: zennya nets US$1.2M to scale its mobile healthcare, medical last-mile logistics services in Philippines

Immediacy of response

In today’s customer-centric world, delighting shoppers has never been more critical, with COVID-19 putting additional pressure on customer service teams. 

Part of creating a great experience is in resolving issues quickly and giving assurances of reliable outcomes. When it comes to reliability and hassle-free experiences, Ninja Van has taken on a Fantastic Service Recovery (FSR) approach to the entire parcel delivery process, and it’s an important initiative that drives our teams towards identifying and addressing potential challenges in the workflow even before they become issues and resolving problems quickly with reliable solutions. 

Customers are also increasingly demanding an omnichannel brand experience, so companies that have real-time tracking and immediate communication across multiple touchpoints will satisfy that need while providing customers with convenience and peace of mind. 

Our proprietary NinjaChat system does just that, offering shipping customers and online shoppers real-time tracking updates with the flexibility to directly manage their deliveries through their preferred social messaging platforms (FB messenger, Telegram, Viber, Line, etc). The system also enables users to chat directly with a member of the Ninja Van team.

This allows us to optimise our customers’ experiences, helping online retailers boost customer satisfaction and increase the likelihood of repeat sales.

Reimagining the physical network

Logistics companies that offer alternatives to doorstep delivery such as retail partner collection points and parcel lockers tend to be favoured by consumers due to the added convenience of such options.

Also Read: How Pomelo tackles the problem of high product return with its O2O retail experience

Doorstep deliveries and collection points can co-exist and provide balance in meeting expectations from both business owners and consumers. Businesses that offer both options tend to be preferred by customers due to the added convenience of such options, and have often seen improvements in trust scores and transaction volumes with business partners.

Contactless delivery

Contactless delivery is more important than ever and it is also now seen as an effective way to help businesses meet the health and safety concerns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, logistics companies that do best are the ones that have developed a way to notify both shipper and customer almost instantly for each successful delivery, without the need for any physical contact.

The pandemic has underscored the importance of digital tools in helping businesses adapt to the business environment, and business owners should leverage these digital capabilities to identify opportunities for improvement and growth.

Final thoughts

I am a big advocate of the ‘less is more’ and believe that parcel deliveries should be an uncomplicated affair for both businesses and customers. We are constantly working on fine-tuning our business to make sure we’re creating solutions that are relevant and bring long-term improvements. 

Last but not least, last-mile logistics will increasingly be about personalisation and scale and technology can play a crucial role in customer interactions in the years to come. The less people have to think, the more scalable a business gets and companies should leverage these opportunities brought on by technology to future-proof their business.

The winners will be those companies who can adapt and seize the opportunities emerging in this new normal.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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

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Cryptocurrency, from concept to application, has changed how people think of finance, giving rise to new financial innovations within the space. Paired with both retail and institutional investors seeking ways to maximise returns in a low-interest rate environment, decentralised finance (DeFi) has come to the fore.

From lending to borrowing and trading with smart contracts, commercial use cases have proven the potential of DeFi in disrupting the financial services landscape globally.

In April, DeFi became a US$100 billion sector, and though recent price corrections have seen declines in the total asset value committed to the DeFi ecosystem — now standing at approx. US$106.5 billion as of June 3 — it’s apparent that confidence in the space is only growing.

But much like the initial crypto hype of 2017, DeFi itself has seen its share of scepticism — especially when it comes to how decentralised DeFi actually is. In reality, decentralisation shouldn’t be seen in absolute terms but rather, as a continuum.  

Understanding decentralisation

Firstly, DeFi protocols are open-source and auditable by anybody. All transaction records are stored on the blockchain and remain immutable and publicly available, thereby enabling a more transparent model of finance.

On top of that, DeFi has become the beacon for financial inclusion and accessibility, as transactions are permissionless, meaning that anyone with internet access can trade on DeFi applications regardless of identification, geographical location or the amount of funds available in their crypto wallets.

Furthermore, users can trade on decentralised exchanges (DEXs) 24 hours a day, seven days a week with no downtime. Earlier this month when the market experienced what can only be determined as a “black swan event”, centralised exchanges like Binance and even Coinbase couldn’t keep up with the drastic price fluctuations and as a result, users were unable to access and exchange their holdings without experiencing limitations and restrictions.

Also Read: 3 trends that defined Taiwan’s blockchain industry last year

On the other hand, many DEX’s, like that on DeFiChain, encountered no such issue. 

Unlike traditional exchanges, DEXs are non-custodial by design, meaning users have sole control of their funds rather than having to deposit them with the exchange directly.

This protects them from hacks that can easily exploit single points of failure on centralised platforms, such as the infamous Bitfinex hack back in 2016 which saw US$623 million worth of bitcoin stolen, or the Mt. Gox saga, which eventually resulted in the Tokyo-based exchange filing for bankruptcy. 

CeFi: the OG

Similar to traditional finance, all trade orders and funds on CeFi platforms are handled by a centralised exchange. They also act as custodians, meaning the exchanges control the private keys to your assets. As such, traders will need to trust that the custodians will hold your funds securely and allow you to withdraw them whenever needed. 

In addition, centralised exchanges are also subject to the relevant regulations in the markets in which they operate. They include know-your-customer (KYC) data collection practices and anti-money laundering (AML) frameworks, which can vary not only from country to country but also in countries like the US, at a state versus federal level.

Along the decentralisation spectrum

Ultimately, decentralisation is determined by governance. DeFi projects have governance mechanisms in place to make crucial decisions about protocol updates, recruitments or even changing the governance structure.

Most DeFi platforms adopt on-chain governance mechanisms, where individual stakeholders can vote on these decisions directly on the blockchain. It’s also worth noting that for most projects, the governance of DeFi platforms is independent of blockchain governance, which usually aims to achieve two potentially distinct goals.

While some DeFi projects are designed to be as participative and decentralised as possible, some gravitate towards the end of the spectrum over time by relinquishing control of their holdings to the community entirely— something DeFiChain is working towards.

One way this can be achieved is through a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) which allows decisions and transactions to be fully automated based on rules that are completely determined by its participants. Participants vote on proposals that can impact anything from the trajectory of the development of a platform or even vote to dissolve a DAO entirely.

At the code level, all source codes for open source DeFi protocols, platforms and projects should be distributed in a highly permissive open source license, and be managed in an open manner by the developers involved in the project.

Bridging the CeFi-DeFi gap

DeFi’s merits lie in the fact that it can mitigate the vulnerabilities of CeFi systems, with transparency, accessibility, censorship-resistance, and security as the most common benefits cited by advocates. However, like any form of innovation, DeFi still has an uphill climb to make before it can truly reach a meaningful form of mass adoption.

Also Read: You don’t care about crypto but here are some things you need to know about DeFi

Whether we like it or not, the traditional financial services ecosystem — as it exists today and always has — has set a precedent for what most consumers have come to expect, such as convenience and ease of use. That being said, participants of the traditional financial services sector have also been innovating across its verticals, from payments to lending, insurance, and investments.

With bulge bracket banks such as JPMorgan becoming more confident in blockchain technology as an enabler of fast payments, it shows that disruptions in the space such as mobile payments and insurtech have served as a stepping stone to a more digitally-powered financial ecosystem.

While CeFi will always have a role to play, it’s important for financial service providers to strike a balance between centralisation and decentralisation in order to reap the best of both worlds.

Recent crypto projects have managed to combine the advantages of both systems with CeFi’s flexibility to perform fiat-crypto transactions and integration with third-party DeFi platforms via liquidity (or farming) pools or lending.

Instead of deeming DeFi a threat, traditional centralised institutions such as banks would do well to capitalise on the technology to boost business outcomes and address the inefficiencies in their systems.

Once a sweet spot between CeFi-DeFi is identified, these models will be able to deliver a higher level of trust, compliance, and convenience while still staying true to the mission of DeFi that is making finance inclusive for all.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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The Founder on Founder Podcast series is a weekly podcast hosted by Olivier Raussin, Managing Partner at FEBE Ventures, an early stage Venture Capital fund supporting outstanding entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. It features tech entrepreneurs with a focus on Southeast Asia’s innovation business and tech landscape. The podcast uncovers stories from outstanding entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia on their journey, insights and advice on running a tech company.

In this episode, the founder of Locad, Constantin Robertz, shares his story in building Southeast Asia’s first cloud logistics network as a solution to the emerging supply chain needs and demands of e-commerce and omnichannel distributions.

Born and raised in Germany, Robertz got into e-commerce around Europe and started building Zalora, a fashion e-commerce platform in Singapore in 2013. Through his time at Zalora and working with a lot of brands, Robertz came to understand their challenges in the supply chain which led him to found Locad.

“In the early days, a lot of brands would only be in e-commerce through one or two channels. A lot of the fashion brands started out on Zalora but over time, as the e-commerce industry matures, all of the brands are going multi-channel, selling on three to four platforms and marketplaces per country while building their brand presence across five to six other countries,” he explains.

“Then I figured that not every brand, retailers and businesses that want to sell online should have to go through figuring out how to build warehouses, the tech that supports it and runs their logistics. Because of that, we built Locad as the on-demand supply chain and fulfilment network for e-commerce brands so they can focus on selling more and developing great products and not figuring out how to run warehouses and logistics.”

Also Read: Meet the 12 startups from Antler’s latest Singapore cohort

Locad combines an integrated technology platform with a network of warehouses and logistics partners. It is a scalable and distributed supply chain network running on a fully digital and integrated platform with real-time visibility of order and inventory movements. Locad empowers business growth of brands and retailers in the e-commerce landscape with an international fulfilment network and flexible on-demand warehousing.

The company started last year with the Philippines as their first market and has recently launched its platform in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. Now they are on the mission to expand to the rest of Southeast Asia with warehouse offerings in at least every capital city, and integrations with logistics companies and cross-border carriers.

“By the end of the year, we aim to cover most of the Southeast Asia region with a plug and play on-demand, fulfilment network,” Robertz states.

Turning obstacles into opportunities

With his team located across different countries in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Locad built a remote working culture which eventually helped them in the long run for their future international expansion plan.

“Locad was born during the pandemic and we decided to make this constraint an opportunity and built a distributor team around remote working. Because we are always meant to become a regional company, at the end of the day we might as well figure out early through building the company as remote working, then it might be easier down the road when we make it international,” Robertz ends.

Listen to the full podcast here.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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Jala Tech, an Indonesian shrimp industry data company, is the only Southeast Asian startup to have been selected for the 2021 Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific programme.

Other selected startups hail from India, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia.

Launched in partnership with Unreasonable and Barclays, the programme aims to scale high-growth ventures that address global challenges.

Each venture was selected based on its potential to address key social and environmental issues, such as transforming the future of food production or innovating renewable energy.

The programme helps startups by connecting entrepreneurs to its international network of experienced specialists and mentors in various verticals.

“Unreasonable Impact was co-created with Barclays with a shared intention to help entrepreneurs take their businesses to the next level, faster. We firmly believe that the most valuable, influential, and lasting companies are those solving humanity’s most pressing challenges, and we’re so incredibly grateful and privileged to support these ventures and Fellows, and welcome them into our global community of life-long support,” Daniel Epstein, founder of Unreasonable Group, said.

Also Read: Indonesian agritech startup Jala Tech secures seed funding to empower shrimp farmers

Founded in 2015, Jala Tech is built by a team with a background in fish farming. The goal of the company is to get farmers to make decisions based on actual data.

To do that, its system provides water quality monitoring, planning, and reporting tools, complete with a decision support system so that farmers can initiate the right treatment at the right time, based on data that has been collected and analysed.

While Jala’s core market is currently shrimp, their device is applicable for all types of water monitoring systems and treatment plants, including smart city water management.

Jala Tech was also nominated to be a part of the e27 Luminaries Series, a content series highlighting the unsung heroes of the startup ecosystem.

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Digital banking is one of the hottest trends in the Indonesian tech startup ecosystem today –and for good reasons. Earlier this year, we have witnessed how major players in the ecosystem entered the battleground, such as Gojek with their Jago app and Bukalapak with their collaboration with Standard Chartered.

Recently, even LINE Messenger app announced its participation with the launch of its banking platform, launched in partnership with KEB Hana Bank.

Traditional banking institutions in the country certainly do not want to miss out on the opportunity, and of the existing players in the ground today, BRI Agro is one with a rather unique background and preposition.

Founded in 1895 in the Dutch colonial era, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) is the country’s first state-owned bank with a long history of serving customers in rural area. It has long been known for providing financial services and products that cater to the needs of an agricultural society, such as commercial loans for farmers and migrant workers.

But entering the digital era, the bank has started to make a transformation. In 2019, BRI introduced its VC arm BRI Ventures, led by former MDI Ventures CEO Nicko Widjaja. The VC firm has invested in leading names in the ecosystem, including PayFazz, Modalku, Bukalapak, and Investree.

Following up on that, the bank also prepared its subsidiary BRI Agro to become the next prominent players in the local digital banking ecosystem.

Also Read: Meet the 8 embedded finance startups joining BRI Ventures’s new Sembrani Wira accelerator programme

“Global funds are now looking into Southeast Asia for investments in digital banking as we have begun to show readiness in our infrastructure. The branch-centric banking model of the past has become obsolete even in 2020,” BRI Agro CEO Kaspar Situmorang tells e27.

Situmorang was appointed to the position as recent as April 2021. Previously, he was the EVP of Digital Banking Development and Operations at BRI. During his time, he initiated an open banking initiative that was one of the first to be introduced in Indonesia. Before joining BRI, Situmorang worked in notable tech companies in Germany, Singapore, and the US.

So, what is BRI Agro’s strategy in winning the Indonesian market through digital banking services? How do they differ from similar platforms? Situmorang shares the details in this interview.

We also discuss intriguing points from his recent contributed post on fintech trends in Indonesia.

The next frontier: Gig economy workers

Situmorang begins our discussion by explaining the state of digital banks in various markets. According to him, despite its promise and popularity, digital banks in the US and Europe continue to struggle to be profitable.

He named three global players that have successfully recorded profit with their digital banking services: Tencent’s WeBank, Alibaba’s MyBank, and KakaoBank.

“The three profitable digital banks in the world … are those who have successfully explored [the potentials] of their existing ecosystem. This is the reason why, even in the US, digital banks have yet to make profits as there is an imbalance between their customer acquisition cost (CAC) and the customer lifetime value,” Situmorang elaborates. “The profitable ones are those who acquire customers from the existing ecosystem which resulted in a very low CAC.”

Before explaining how BRI Agro aims to tap into the potentials of the ecosystem, Situmorang gives an exposition of the leading players in Indonesia’s banking ecosystem today.

First, there are the hybrid banks which are defined by their use of digital technology to improve the existing traditional banking processes. Fifty-two per cent of the market in this segment in Indonesia have already been captured by leading private and state-owned banks, including BRI.

Second is the sharia-based bank which is dominated by Bank Syariah Indonesia, the result of a merger between three state-owned sharia banks.

Also Read: BRI Ventures’s Sembrani Nusantara fund hits first close at US$10M; Grab and Celebes Capital among investors

Lastly, there are the digital banks. While Situmorang acknowledges that state-owned banks are yet to become a market leader, he says that BRI Agro is prepared to compete in this segment.

“We are fully prepared from the aspect of talents and licensing,” he states.

In its customer acquisition strategy, BRI Agro will tap into the potentials of BRI’s existing two digital ecosystems: The first one consists of the 500,000 BRI Link agents across Indonesia, and the next one consists of the portfolio companies of BRI Ventures.

With this network as a foundation, BRI Agro aims to target Indonesia’s growing gig economy workers as its main audience.

Situmorang further defines these gig workers as those who may have experienced being laid off during the pandemic, but could not be considered ‘unemployed’ as they have been branching into various online-based gigs since then. This group consists of a wide range of profession from ride-hailing drivers to social media influencers.

“In Tier 2 and 3 cities in Indonesia, we have seen cases of young customers who work as a farmer in the morning and do dropship business throughout the day, before turning into ride-hailing drivers at night,” Situmorang elaborates.

“Our approach is different than other banks who are targeting the lifestyle segment who consists mainly of young customers who only use their phone to play TikTok or stalk their exes, instead of making a living. Because, last year, the number of gig economy workers in Indonesia has reached 46 million. This is a 27 per cent increase from the previous year and we are expected to reach 74 million by 2025,” he continues.

For these customers, BRI Agro is going to offer its banking products and services through the network of BRILink agents and other agents in the network of BRI Ventures’s portfolio companies such as PayFazz or Bukalapak.

An untouched segment

By using the B2B2C approach, BRI Agro believes that it can balance out its CAC and lifetime value.

“While BRI’s goal to provide banking services to the unbanked, our goal is to reach the underbanked –those who are yet to use banking products and services apart from bank accounts,” Situmorang says.

Also Read: BRI Ventures, IDX partner to help more Indonesian tech startups get publicly listed

In his recent opinion piece published on e27, Situmorang writes about how ASEAN fintech brands have been playing on the shallow end by dabbling in lending or simple payment services.

“We need to look into the future. We act as if there was already a saturation in the market when there are still segments that remain untouched,” Situmorang says.

“This is what we call the new SMEs. Of the 60 million MSMEs in Indonesia, 46 million of them are already online, but what about the rest? Many banks are unwilling to facilitate these businesses because the data was not yet available … but now that we have it, we want to be on the forefront in this segment,” he stresses.

When asked about how the digital banks scene is going to be like in Indonesia within the next few years, Situmorang says that digital bank positioning in Indonesia will remain slightly complicated. But there is one thing that he is certain of.

“There will be two types of players: The digital banks that are part of a larger finance ecosystem, and those whose construction is not part of any ecosystem. The latter has a greater potential to fail as we have seen in Europe or the US,” he closes.

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Image Credit: BRI Agro

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Flexible remote work is the way forward, as 77 per cent of Malaysian employees want it to stay, according to Microsoft’s annual Work Trend Index.

In my daily work, I have gleaned some valuable insights from speaking to leaders, mid-managers, and career leaders to keep a realistic pulse. With that said, I think a hybrid work model is the best that Malaysia can hope for, not remote. 

Many are not ready

The hybrid work model is not a realistic model for everyone. It is indeed not a silver bullet. Manufacturing, engineering, and other site-based roles will likely not benefit from hybrid work.

However, my conversations reveal certain roles such as administrative/office staff or knowledge workers can adopt a hybrid model, despite operating in manufacturing, construction or similar sectors.

I remind the leaders I come into contact with to always think about applying a flexible work model in small groups, not the whole company. The distinction between hybrid and remote is also important: 

In hybrid-remote organisations, a portion of the workforce is fully remote and another portion works in the office. That allows the office to cater for a small number of employees who need to go in.

Also Read: From our community: About being a startup mentor, hybrid work models, emerging tech hub in SEA and more

Going 100 per cent remote means having no office space, with all staff working from home all the time. For some variety, companies typically try to interact frequently as a way to stay close virtually, with some making sure to have in-person meetups each year in company-wide off-sites. 

This, in particular, is a mode of work that I think most Malaysian companies are not ready for. 

A forced, but necessary transition

But since remote and hybrid work is here to stay, Malaysian companies should make the most of it as soon as possible because it could mean a more resilient and productive workforce. 

The word resilience also gets thrown around often, and it means clarity of purpose, stronger connections, and a can-do attitude at all levels of a company, which helps mould it to be pandemic-proof. 

To add to the issue, those already practising remote work are struggling, especially those at the bottom, and helping them is key to a successful transition. The same study from Microsoft shows that business leaders are faring better than their employees:

To me, this only highlights how important it is for businesses to implement remote work successfully. An example of a successful remote work culture might show why that is, but it takes a lot of effort.

One success story

One client of ours was just such an exception. SalesCandy went 100 per cent remote at the start of COVID, with them giving up the rental of their office. They used to have a 25-30pax space in one of Kuala Lumpur’s prime locations, Q Sentral. Today, they all work from home, all the time.

They managed it for these reasons, I’ve observed:

• A younger workforce. As a young company, their C-levels are in their early 40s/late 30s. But the staff themselves are in their mid-twenties to early thirties. Being young has helped with:
• Early adoption. It clearly has played a role. Before COVID, their employees had a choice of working remotely. 
• Going all-in. But when COVID did strike, they saw the obvious benefits and went all-in, dispensing with the rented office. After that, going forward was the only way.
• Clear directives. In the time they transitioned, clear communications and drive from the C-level team to all staff members led to less resistance in the new work model.
• SaaS. They had their suites of software to facilitate video calls, chat, document sharing. But more importantly, they had:
• Over-communication. They embraced remote work and its shortcomings. The foundation of it is simply communicating often and making up for the lack of physical intimacy, which could have led to isolation and low motivation.

Also Read: The hybrid work model will outlast the pandemic. But will one model fit all?

Think of the above as a checklist – not all are necessary or achievable. For example, practically no one could have predicted that selling an office space pre-COVID-19 was a viable move. Although, I would like to single out one aspect of SalesCandy’s practices that stood out to me:

Onboarding

Day one issues can be even more pronounced when done remotely. So much is lost in translation just being physically distant. When onboarding, for example, not interacting physically means a loss of knowledge transferred.

Done well, it can result in over 80 per cent better retention, and 70 per cent increased productivity, according to Glassdoor’s research.

Find ways to accommodate a new hire’s preferred working style. A simple way that surprised me was the strategy they used. It is as simple as a document that goes:

“How would you like to work? How can I reach you? When can I reach you? Do you prefer to text or rather take a phone call? Are you a visual thinker/need visuals more?”

These are small but important questions that can start a working relationship on the right foot. For more, their CTO spoke on the topic in our recent webinar. Similarly, how do you break the ice with a colleague you don’t see for months at a time?

Get everyone on a call, new hires to introduce themselves.  For example, mandate video calls. The newer the hire, the more often these calls should happen – daily if needed.

Reinforce and focus on the culture you want to develop

Workplace culture is present in any company, whether you notice it or not. To improve or understand it, discuss it often with leadership, managers, and employees. If you feel your current culture is fine as it is, try to reinforce it.

Also Read: Does remote working really work?

Request that each team member establish certain norms that would ensure successful remote work on their part. Do also treat colleagues as individuals with their preferred methods of remote work. We’ve put together a short guide on how to meet their needs here. 

• Trust your employees

A lack of trust in employees is usually felt by them, which can lead to them feeling unmotivated and consequently becoming less productive. There are alternatives to that. 

Instead, try other ways for your teams to share work schedules and stay in touch with their progress – tools like Jandi, Trello, or Microsoft Teams, which allow groups to effectively interact, cutting down on “meetings that could have been emails.” Through these tools, managers are still kept aware of employees’ day-to-day tasks, which can reinforce trust.

• Managing without micromanaging

We can agree that the number of mouse clicks does not equal productivity. Detractors say workers are not productive when remote, but I say that whether employees slack off during remote work can’t be proved or disproved.

This applies especially to knowledge workers, who will instead benefit greatly from tracking objectives and key results (OKRs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) and judge their achievements from there. These checkups could be daily/weekly.

Measuring keystrokes and time is not the recipe for success. Do high-value work, and instead be focused on the output. 

• Keeping emotional connectivity 

In my opinion, there is no replacement for an old 1-on-1 with a manager, where you might start team meetings with compliments to an individual over their achievements since you last spoke. Paying attention to a person’s wellbeing in and out of the office is very underrated in my opinion.

To put it simply, a happy and engaged workforce is more often a productive one. And in such times, keeping employees happy and engaged is tricky but ultimately possible.

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After raising fresh funding yesterday, Finantier seems to be on track in its mission to provide financial inclusion to users from emerging markets with its open-finance solution.

Launched in 2020, Finantier provides the infrastructure and data products for businesses to build the next generation of financial services.

“By enabling individuals and businesses to aggregate and leverage their digital footprint, we are helping them to access financial services that were beyond their reach in the past. In this way, they can be financially better off to provide for their families and support their businesses,” explains Diego Rojas, co-founder of Finantier.

In this interview with e27, Rojas discusses Finantier’s growth story, future plans, and its experience in the well-acclaimed Y Combinator accelerator.

What motivated you to build Finantier?

As a software engineer and CTO, I was personally involved in building products in the US, China, SEA in P2P lending, alternative financing, payments, etc. My co-founders Keng and Edwin also have a wealth of experience working within the fintech ecosystem, and we wanted to continue in it.

Fintech is a vertical where you can make a really big positive impact and can actually see the outcomes of how your products can change people’s lives for the better.

We built Finantier to be able to cater to a wide range of fintech sectors, by providing them with the infrastructure (through APIs) to access the data they need.

When we started, we were looking at the Open Banking space because we knew that it was hard to access and work with financial data. However, soon afterward we decided to focus on Open Finance because we didn’t want to leave anyone behind.

Building an Open Finance platform meant that we could help those with bank accounts and also those who are unbanked.

Also Read: Finantier secures funding from Y Combinator for its Open Finance platform

While building the company how did you put together the early resources such as capital and people?

We got our pre-seed funding from East Ventures and AC Ventures very early in our journey so we not only had capital but also strong support within Indonesia to keep building the platform and make a few initial key hires, particularly for the tech team.

Things moved really fast from there. We got the opportunity to join Y Combinator for the W21 (Winter 2021) batch and began working with banks, clients, and partners earlier this year to continue building the platform. We also engaged regulators from day one and are actively working with them in order to comply and propose solid guidelines in sync with a global trend around Open Finance and Open Data.

How do you plan to use the new funding from this round?

With the funding, we are planning to double the team by the end of this year and expand to other countries, especially the Philippines. Thailand and Vietnam.

How has being a part of the Y Combinator cohort shaped you in your entrepreneurial journey? 

The whole journey has been great, we have received the opportunity to work with founders of amazing tech companies such as AirBnb, Stripe, DoorDash, who have come to share their expertise and give talks. But they are also people to who we can actively reach out.

Other than that the level of exposure is also incredible because on demo day we have more than 5000 investors attending. Its a great experience overall and you can’t really compare it to any other programme.

What do you consider Finantier’s most significant milestone so far?

This might sound really cheesy but building the team and setting the corporate culture has been our most significant milestone.

Sometimes it is easy for a company to overlook company culture in its early stages but it’s actually really important from the beginning to transmit these values.

But if done right and the culture is properly set, other things will naturally flow.

How do you plan to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to identifying future market demands and increasing your product offerings?

In YC we were taught to make something that people want, and sometimes they would simply ask are you making something that people want or not? But that makes you think and reflect right?

And for us, it’s not simply about offering only data or credit scoring and payments. Those are only the initial blocks of something bigger.

When it comes to actually engaging clients and partners, we need to really talk to them to understand the pain points, and to deliver to solve those pain points.

Also Read: Finantier secures funding from Y Combinator for its Open Finance platform

However, in different markets, there are different needs. But in the way that we approach this is we consolidate a set of common pain points for a segment and adjust our products to serve this demand.

But sometimes companies come to us with new use cases. And those new use cases represent opportunities to us.

Our motto is also to build something that people want and this is something we take seriously in the company when we go out to new markets.

What are some financial struggles faced by people in Southeast Asia? Could you share some insights that are unique to Indonesia?

Countries in SEA face similar challenges when it comes to financial inclusion, however, some are ahead of others in terms of infrastructure, readiness, regulation, and maturity of the fintech market.

Also Read: The evolution from open banking to open finance

Indonesia is a massive market with high internet and mobile penetration, which allows innovation to flourish but also brings a new set of challenges. Indonesia is already working on an innovative framework: BI FAST that is going to change how financial services and payments will be provided.

I believe everyone acknowledges that the next five years are going to be really exciting in this space and soon other countries will follow suit.

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Image Credit: Finantier

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