Naluri Hidup, a Malaysia-headquartered digital health service provider, has closed a new funding round worth US$5 million, led by Singaporean VC firm Integra Partners.

Existing backers — strategic investors Duopharma Biotech and Pathology Asia, and VC firm M Venture Partners — also participated.

Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia (Japan), Palm Drive Capital (New York), INP Capital (Vancouver), Hibiscus Fund (a VC fund managed by RHL Ventures and Korea’s KB Investment) also joined Naluri’s latest round.

Naluri will use the funds to expand operations in Singapore and Indonesia, as well as launch its service in Thailand and the Philippines.

Also Read: Feeling deflated, defeated and downright tired as a founder? You are not alone

It also plans to deepen its tech and data science capabilities to enhance its product and predictive algorithms including natural language processing and depression detection, as well as device connectivity and patient monitoring.

The startup will also continue to invest in clinical research to strengthen the evidence-base in diabetes, renal, cardiovascular, cancer and mental health therapeutic areas, including launching clinical research in Europe.

Naluri was co-founded in 2017 by Azran Osman-Rani (CEO), former chief of iflix Malaysia and AirAsia, with Dr. Jeremy Ting and Dr. Hariyati Shahrima.

The Kuala Lumpur-headquartered startup offers human-led and AI-augmented digital health coaching that aims to transform the lives of people who are at risk of, or managing, chronic and mental health conditions.

Premised on the fundamental understanding that physical and mental health are inextricably interconnected, the company provides structured multi-disciplinary support to those affected by diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, anxiety and depression, as well as advanced chronic conditions such as renal disease and cancer.

Working with leading corporates in the region, including Reckitt, AXA Affin, and SP Setia, Naluri helps contain rising healthcare expenditure and improves employee productivity and engagement.

In 2019, Naluri had raised US$1.5 million in an oversubscribed pre-Series A round of funding, led by Global Founders Capital.

CEO Osman-Rani said: “With mental health at the fore in light of the pandemic, we are delighted that companies are now taking bolder steps to tackle physical and mental health holistically.”

Also Read: Malaysian healthtech startup Naluri raises US$250K seed funding from 500 Startups, BioMark

“Our work shows that Naluri is taking a differentiated and practical approach to healthcare that really gets at the root of the problems facing healthcare provisioning in Southeast Asia today, with the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases driving unsustainably high medical inflation, and the rise of mental health issues exacerbated by the pressures of Covid-19,” said Jennifer Ho, principal at Integra Partners.

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Image Credit: Naluri

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Stemly, a Singapore-based SaaS platform that helps businesses lower their working capital and financing costs, has raised US$2.5 million in a seed financing round.

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It is often surprising how trends in our digital behaviour can change in such little time. The newest, most cutting-edge technologies of today can seem outdated in just a year. 2020 was a defining year for many mobile app developers precisely because of the global health crisis whose impact changed virtually every aspect of how we work, how we play, and how we live. For some mobile apps, they saw immense growth due to the amount of time people have been forced to spend with their mobile devices. For others, many setbacks and challenges were experienced.

With such an unpredictable and often precarious market, the resilience of industries and verticals is often defined by the choices that each developer makes. Are they able to adapt swiftly and seamlessly to our fast-changing times or will they lag behind? More than simply adapting and staying afloat, will they be able to soar above the challenges of present times and be able to come up with informed strategies using data?

In order to address these questions and help ecosystem players come up with solutions based on hard data, global app marketing analytics platform Adjust recently released their latest Mobile App Growth report. It is a comprehensive study that charts growth and retention trends around the globe covering the tumultuous year of 2020.

Also read: Leading Aichi into the future with collaborations and innovations

“Now more than ever, mobile marketers need a roadmap to identify just the right users, in just the right locales, at just the right points in their journey. Adjust’s data, coupled with Facebook’s insights into user preferences and actions, enables marketers to target and retain their highest-value users,” explained Andrey Kazakov, COO of Adjust.

Their first Mobile App Growth Report, launched in 2019, provided a breakdown of growth potential, aiming to help marketers extend their footprint and scale successfully. In their latest report — released in partnership with Facebook — they want to provide an anatomy of app growth, with an examination of global and vertical trends, and a data-based analysis of some of the assumed wisdom of growth marketing.

Being a leader in the mobile marketing world and championing growth through the power of data, Adjust’s slew of solutions include measurement, fraud prevention, cybersecurity, and automation tools. The company’s mission is to make mobile marketing simpler, smarter, and more secure for the more than 50,000 apps working with Adjust. Their annual report is only one of the many ways that the company intends to help mobile marketers out there who are looking to restrategise and sharpen their insights when it comes to mobile apps.

Highlights from the report

In the brand new report from Adjust, the macro-environment of the app economy has been laid bare, revealing key insights into the health of the industry and the enormous changes rippling through it over the course of 2020. Using data from Adjust’s platform, The Mobile App Growth Report uncovers which markets are growing fastest and identifies the key app verticals that are driving growth.

Despite 2020 being a tumultuous year, the Mobile App Growth Report reveals that many app verticals actually experienced growth, proving that mobile is incredibly shock-resistant as an industry. Those verticals that did experience an initial negative impact at the start of the pandemic such as food & drink or travel rebounded strongly over the summer months. Finally, huge growth in Southeast Asia and South America demonstrates that apps with the right expansion strategy can still prosper and rapidly grow.

Also read: How this Taiwan-based company adds purpose to your purchase

As well as taking a look at the overall health of the app economy, the Mobile App Growth Report provides a data-based analysis of growth marketing trends, zooming in on those verticals and regions that went through the most dynamic change to show app marketers where the highest growth potential can be found. The biggest insights include:

• Gaming apps continue to win globally, topping the charts as the highest-ranking vertical by Growth Score. This is in no small part due to innovative business models like hypercasual, instantly playable games that are designed to engage with simplistic, satisfying mechanics.
• India became the fastest growing app market in the world with 700 million unique mobile phone subscribers, comprising 451 million internet users. Entertainment & Business Apps were the fastest-growing verticals, while e-commerce lagged behind.
• APAC is the big story for e-commerce in 2020, with Korea and Vietnam topping the charts as the two fastest-growing markets in mobile-first commerce. For Vietnam in particular, apps there have massive room to grow, building in untapped markets with eager consumers.
• The trend to watch in Entertainment apps is the rise of subscriptions. According to research conducted by Adjust, using Apptopia data, some 79% of the top 225 apps in the Google Play Store and 49% of the top 225 apps in the App Store are subscription-based — despite making up less than 1% of apps overall.

Future-proof your strategies for mobile marketing

Looking forward to the rest of 2021, there is cause for cautious optimism, with investment bank Morgan Stanley predicting a 20% increase in online advertising in 2021. Indeed, the growth of mobile in 2020 hastened timelines for the transition to mobile-first for many brands. Meaning marketers will need to face new growth opportunities — as well as challenges — along the way.

“The mobile app is truly a global business. It’s easy to start because of the low barrier of entry, but also easy to fail if you do not understand the markets and users well,” shared Bryan Wang, Adjust’s Director of Marketing Science, Greater China Region & Gaming. He added, “The data and insight in this report can help app advertisers identify their new market entry strategies and enable the winning tactics effectively.”

Also read: Fundraising masterclass for founders with Founders Grindstone

Through this report, Adjust hopes that mobile marketers and app developers will be able to strengthen their products and services while remaining agile to the unpredictability of the future.

For more details on the best tactics for growth in 2021 and more insights into the global app economy, download the Mobile App Growth Report from Adjust.

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

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This article is published as a part of a partnership with Future Food Asia. Iamus is one of the 10 finalists of the US$100,000 Future Food Asia (FFA) 2021 Award to be hosted from June 7-11.

Over the past few years, robots have found a home in the agriculture industry. Their inclusion comes as no surprise as they manage time-consuming and repetitive tasks on the farm. They may not fill the shoes of our perception built on fan favourites such as R2D2 in Star Wars, but robots are making food production more efficient.

The poultry industry is no different, and robots in the coop are helping boost food security, improve animal health and welfare as well as contribute to better labour conditions and farm profits. But can these robots go from task based work to providing predictive insights?

 From Filipino small-holders to Irish large-scale processors

Six years ago Shane Kiernan cofounded a business in the Philippines that provides outsourced manpower solutions to the poultry industry – from cleaning poultry sheds to vaccinating baby chicks they did it all. In the course of this business they observed all the challenges and opportunities in poultry production and were particularly curious to understand the drivers behind the wide degree of variability seen in the performance of poultry growers.

One question stuck with Kiernan: why was it that the same tiny proportion of farmers typically outperformed their cohort despite having older equipment or buildings? Fortunately his curiosity carried him to a conversation with Manor Farm, the largest poultry processor in Ireland.

A series of meetings followed where my curiosity validated farm variability is a US$9 billion annual problem for the poultry industry– an industry where low margins and animal welfare pressures abound.

Globally with over 350,000 poultry sheds raising 60 billion birds annually for protein consumption the market was massive but what was the solution to the challenges?

Also Read: This robotic machine can detect, locate and pick the harvestable crops from your farm and store them in a bin

Gallus: A chicken’s best friend

With investment from the family behind Manor Farm and others involved in animal feed milling, Kiernan started Iamus in 2018. Since then Iamus have developed their “Gallus” solution.

An integrated solution that acquires proprietary data from a mesh of static sensors and an autonomous robot that results in predictive recommendations to the customer that lead to improved margins and better animal welfare outcomes.

This year the team is undertaking extensive customer validation trials in Ireland and Thailand.

The company has invested their time and capital on building the hardware and software components of their. Last year they developed a machine vision capability in their robot. Up to this point our robot relied on non-visual sensors to navigate the poultry shed environment and detect the birds.

“There was a further benefit to machine vision – we could see the birds! In fact we could do more than just see the birds, we could categorise them based on established animal welfare indicators. The possible outcomes that arise from this capability was huge and is our biggest achievement to date allowing us to provide predictive interventions that create enormous value for our customers.” said Kiernan.

Tackling welfare and wastage

The mission at Iamus is to minimise waste in poultry through real-time animal welfare solutions. Gallus aims to change production outcomes by offering predictive insight to poultry producers so they can make necessary and timely interventions that lead to improved margins and better animal welfare outcomes.

Both in Asia and Europe, the robot solution is in great demand, yet they remain constrained by capital and resources to install Gallus. “The Future Food Asia Award Finals is a tremendous opportunity for us to spread our message, share our vision, engage new stakeholders and hopefully make the world a better place” says Kiernan.

Poultry, specifically chicken, is an already efficient source of protein that is the choice of billons of people around the world. Yet wasted opportunities to further optimise production interventions are missed that negatively impact on the carbon footprint and bottom of the line.

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Despite a successful career as a woman in the field of science technology engineering and mathematics (STEM), like many other women, I did not have it easy when I first started out as an ambitious graduate in the construction industry.

When it came to deciding where I should apply for my first job, my parents were very hesitant that the construction sector was the right field for a young woman. The industry had long been seen as a male-dominated sector that was labour intensive and had an expectation of long working hours.

Nonetheless, in spite of my parents’ recommendations I was drawn to the technical side of construction, and what I saw as the inherent beauty of the underlying calculations, and so was determined to challenge the stereotype.

Take the first step

From my beginnings as a junior architectural technician, I have gone on to diversify my experience and build up considerable knowledge in construction projects.

I am proud to be continuing to pursue my passion for numbers and engineering as the leading senior female asset valuer at my current employer, where I conduct site inspections and collect and analyse data to assess replacement costs for different types of buildings.

It is also exciting to be a senior member of a cutting-edge team using new cloud and analytics technologies and data to build models that automate valuations for large projects.

But like so many other women in STEM will have experienced, my career has been one full of challenges as I faced numerous cultural and workplace hurdles.

Also Read: Check out this comprehensive list of 46 startup resources and opportunities for women

Despite the industry’s best efforts, women remain under-represented and I think now is the right moment for a new push to encourage female talent into roles including surveying and asset valuation– a career path too many women are still unaware of.

A just cause for Singapore to champion

Although more women are pursuing degrees in STEM courses at Singapore universities, there is still a leaky pipeline of talent in related jobs, as noted in a recent study by the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

In fact, only 58 per cent of women with STEM qualifications continued to work in related jobs after graduation compared with 70 per cent for men– a phenomenon that is true globally.

Data from UNESCO, meanwhile, showed that only 33 per cent of researchers are women though they represent 45 per cent of students at the Bachelor’s level of study.

The same study from NTU found that women leave STEM careers, not because of a lack of interest or confidence, but because they encounter barriers of diversity and inclusion.

Women often feel marginalised at work as their male counterparts are more likely to be employed and make career progress than they are.

A US$13T opportunity hiding in plain sight

While fortunately, this has not happened to me personally, many women do face discrimination as colleagues question or do things that do not respect them and undermine their authority in the workplace.

Unfortunately, it remains the case that many parents still think that STEM fields are more suitable for men rather than for women, an attitude that can strongly influence the psychology of developing young minds.

Also Read: Building the rainbow bridge: How businesses can foster Diversity & Inclusion in the workplace

These gender biases lead too many women to feel as if they do not belong in their jobs, even as the under-representation of women remains concerning and has real economic consequences.

According to the McKinsey Global Institute, the global GDP could increase as much as $13 trillion in 2030 if we took action now to close the gender gap.

Women are important contributors to the discovery and development of new technologies in jobs such as architecture, real estate, information technology, and the natural physical and mathematical sciences that are central to innovation and economic growth.

My position is clear: more can and must be done to balance gender equality in STEM in Singapore and elsewhere.

Closing the STEM gap

My advice to talented young women looking to develop a fulfilling career in STEM may seem obvious but it is nonetheless important to reiterate – you must be willing to follow your passions and put in the hard work.

Closing the gender gap will take more than grit and an individual’s initiative; it requires the collective action of the industry as a whole to deliver real and lasting change.

Employers are central to helping tackle negative stereotypes at the workplace by listening more to women and encouraging equality and diversity in their hiring practices.

By encouraging regular discussions on gender inequity and proactively putting systems and practices in place that recognise and remove conscious and implicit bias, they can begin to shift cultural norms and help promote careers that talented female graduates will be drawn to.

Men must also act as compelling catalysts for other men in positions of power to engage in equitable workplace practices that support women through recognition and promotion where earned.

Also Read: Singapore faces talent crunch for engineering and product manager roles: Report

Seizing this moment of global transformation

Various programmes in the industry, including here in Singapore, are already helping to create a supportive ecosystem that empowers women to pursue their dreams in this exciting field that I am so thrilled to work in.

These initiatives create awareness around the importance of inclusivity and representation, while also providing inspiring role models and networking opportunities for young women.

Gender bias is a systemic issue that will take time to change, but I am optimistic now is the right moment to redouble our efforts as the world starts afresh after a deadly pandemic.

So much of our old thinking has already been challenged and gone out the window; so much of the way we work and assumptions we held just twelve months ago will never be the same again.

Getting more women into STEM is a just cause for Singapore and other leading innovation hubs to champion – I hope only to serve as a reminder to the Class of 2021 that it is possible.

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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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Kumu, a live-streaming app based in the Philippines, today announced that it has raised an undisclosed Series B funding round co-led by SIG, who is also a shareholder in ByteDance, and Openspace Ventures.

The funding round included existing investors Summit Media, Kickstart Ventures, Foxmont Capital Partners, and Gobi-Core Philippine Fund.

It also introduced new investors Gentree Fund, the venture vehicle of HM Investment Management, and Endeavor Catalyst Fund by the global non-profit Endeavor.

In a press statement, Kumu stated that it will use the new funding to scale its current operations. The startup said that it has experienced “tremendous growth” over the past year when it topped the Google Play rankings in the Philippines, with users spending almost an hour per day on the app.

“Our success lies in our ability to focus on Kumu partners and users, connecting them in creative ways,” says Angelo Mendez, Chief of Content and Co-Founder of Kumu.

Also Read: Philippines-based livestream mobile app Kumu raises US$1.2M seed funding

In April 2020, Kumu announced its Series A funding round. This funding round included an investment from Gobi-Core Philippine Fund (GCPF), a US$10 million fund jointly formed by Gobi Partners and Philippine VC firm Core Capital.

The company raised its US$1.2 million seed funding round in 2018. The funding was led by Summit Media, with a personal angel investment from the company’s president and CEO Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng.

Kumu has recently made announcements of high-profile hires in the company. On June 8, the startup announced the appointment of Crystal Widjaja as its new Chief Product Officer. Widjaja is known as the Chief of Staff and SVP of Growth at Gojek, in addition to being Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Silicon Valley growth school Reforge.

In May, the company also announced the appointment of Chief Growth Officer Alex Tshering, former SVP of newly listed apparel brand FIGS.

Mark Velasquez, former Director at ING Philippines and Vice President at Credit Suisse, was named as CFO in April.

Live streaming continues to gain traction in various markets around the world, including Southeast Asia. In this contributed post to e27, Kay Banzon wrote that a Market Research Future report projected that the live streaming market will be valued at US$247.3 billion by 2027.

“This expansion is attributed to the rise of various social media platforms and the growing interest and involvement of content producers and consumers worldwide,” she said.

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Image Credit: Kumu

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The Founder on Founder Podcast series is a weekly podcast hosted by Olivier Raussin, Managing Partner at FEBE Ventures, featuring tech entrepreneurs with a focus on Southeast Asia’s innovation business and tech landscape.

Featured in this episode is Thomas Miklavec, a serial French entrepreneur and founder of POC Pharma, a B2B service platform connecting the pharmaceutical world.

Before starting his career as a serial entrepreneur in emerging markets in the pharmacy space, Miklavec took some initiatives for NGO work during his undergraduate, working on HIV/AIDS programmes mostly in Africa. He supported companies to build plans, prevent and provide care and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients.

He then pursued an MBA from Harvard Business School and spent a few years at McKinsey as a consultant in strategy. With a plan to build the most scalable and sustainable venture that can be replicated from one country to another, Miklavec built Sanisphere.

Sanisphere is a data company that supports pharmaceutical companies and has expanded in over 20 countries in Asia and Africa. 

After that, Miklavec went on and built POC Pharma with takeaways on what he has learned from Sanisphere.

Based in Hong Kong with a Southeast Asia regional play starting with the Vietnam market, POC Pharma is a SaaS company helping the stakeholders in the Pharmacy Channel (drug manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, pharmacies, payers …) to digitally manage their interactions and collaborative workflows. 

Also Read: Early-stage learnings from former Grab employee on building a startup to help labour in Indonesia

When working in a highly regulated sector such as pharmaceuticals, Miklavec advised on being very aware of the framework that you are working in and adapt your product to the market.

With POC Pharma being VC-backed, it has given him more opportunities to invest in his product better than he did as a bootstrap entrepreneur when building Sanisphere.

When asked about fundraising, he said: “Have a very clear vision about how you define success. What do you want to do when you launch this venture? What are your objectives? Think twice about your aspiration and ambition to define what you really need. From then you can consider bootstrapping, small funding, or even very big funding.” 

Like all other entrepreneurs, founders are often overwhelmed with many projects and responsibilities and often struggle between the ‘dreamy’ essence of being an entrepreneur to dealing with concrete things on a day to day basis.

It is recommended to have this agility, swinging from ‘dreaming’ to doing concrete tasks and being focused on execution and gaining more focus. The technique he uses to leverage these priorities is taken from what he learned when at McKinsey is, “Zoom in, zoom out”. 

“Try to regularly find some topics where you want to zoom in and go very deep from time to time and up to when things are under control, and zooming out.

So after you have done that. take a step back and think how does it fit into the big picture, and what is the purpose that I am trying to serve here? If you zoom out too much, you have a big risk of getting disconnected and not knowing the direction or even what the daily tasks that you are executing.”

The final and simple takeaway that Thomas would like share at the end of the day is, 

“Be proud of what you do, be proud of who you are and how you behave as these are what is left when things are over.”

Listen to the full podcast episode 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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Ever considered filing patents for the tech solutions that you have built? What are the benefits of having your patents filed? What kind of preparation do you need to make? Is the process going to be difficult? What are the Do’s and Don’ts?

Meet Dr D’vorah Graeser, who helps founders successfully navigate the world of patents. Dr Graeser and I break down everything so you can walk away as an expert in patents –just like her.

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

Acast

Apple

Spotify

Stitcher

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This article was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: Michal Czyz on Unsplash

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More than one year into the global pandemic, as the economy around the world and in the region gradually recovers, small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore are expecting a brighter outlook for the future.

In the latest SBF-Experian SME Index released by the Singapore Business Federation, business sentiments for the six-month period from April to September 2021 are at their highest ever since the start of the pandemic in the first quarter of 2020.

SMEs are looking at business expansion opportunities and are expecting to step up on hiring. With many businesses becoming digital-first today, the questions here are, how and where should SMEs focus their resources and efforts at this juncture?

The scramble we all experienced 15 months ago as we migrated to more agile, flexible work methodologies underlines just how important technology has become.

And it will only become more central to the way businesses are run as both big and small organisations put in place hybrid working solutions.

Our 2020 Asia Pacific SMB Digital Maturity Study reveals that 69 per cent of small to medium businesses (SMB) in Asia Pacific are accelerating their digitalisation rates to address COVID-19 challenges.

Also Read: BukuWarung rakes in US$60M to build an OS for Indonesia’s 60M MSMEs

However, while we all intuitively know the importance of IT, managing it is a very different proposition, particularly if you are a small business with dozens of issues competing for your time and attention.

Most micro-businesses operate with either one or two people helping to keep things running and operating an ad-hoc help desk. According to the same study, lack of digital skills and talent is the top challenge for SMBs undergoing digital transformation.

With IT so central to the success of businesses, and with the accelerated evolution of the IT function, what role should an IT team or department play in SMEs?

Working with SMEs across the Asia Pacific region, there are three critical questions SME owners need to ask themselves when they consider their investments in the IT function:

Would a failure in your IT systems stop your business from operating?

Some businesses can manage pretty well if their IT systems face a temporary outage, or even for an extended period of time. While it might be inconvenient, and an increasing struggle with employees working remotely, a small bookkeeping firm, for example, could likely survive for a few days if there was an IT failure.

But imagine the impact for an online retailer? Without their website and the backend systems, the business would grind to a halt almost instantly and with it, revenues. And an extended stoppage would have long-term consequences as customers choose other retailers.

Is cybersecurity risk to your short-term operating viability, and your long-term success?

For companies that depend on the Internet, a cybersecurity incident could be catastrophic. Let’s take the example of our online retailer again. A Denial-of-Service attack – where a website is targeted with so much traffic it stops working – would bring revenue streams grinding to a halt within minutes.

But consider the impact of a data breach; customer trust could be seriously affected if credit card data was stolen. That is the kind of threat that can close businesses within just a few weeks.

Could technology help accelerate your business?

Technologies such as big data and AI are revolutionising the way businesses are able to identify business opportunities. While often the preserve of larger firms, the rapidly decreasing costs of both of these technologies and the rise of many tech-first emerging businesses are bringing them into the sphere of even the smallest of firms.

With the benefit of agility, smaller businesses can then take advantage of changing trends and get ahead of larger organisations.

If you answered “yes” to these questions, IT should be a central part of your business strategy which supports the resilience and drives growth. It also means that you require dedicated expertise in each of these areas, rather than a “jack of all trades” kind of IT personnel.

Also Read: 4 ways to protect your business from cybersecurity threats

The evolution of  IT: From technical support to driver of growth and innovation

As we have seen, IT teams are – or should be – more than just IT support functions helping people deal with laptop issues. At their best, IT teams should be a central part of driving a business towards its objectives.

Our 2020 Asia Pacific SMB Digital Maturity Study classifies SMBs across four stages of digital maturity, starting with the earliest stage of Digital Indifferent to the more advanced group of Digital Challenger and finally, Digital Native.

In terms of people and skills, Digital Indifferent SMBs are characterised by a lack of digital skills, while Digital Challengers make strategic investments in talent and Digital Natives see talent as a top priority and competitive differentiator.

The study found that Digital Challengers generate 50 per cent higher sales and productivity growth, while Digital Natives are able to grow their revenue twice as fast as SMBs in the early stages of digital maturity.

Other than making sure that all aspects of the IT infrastructure function smoothly, the IT function should ensure that the team stays on top of developments in technology including cybersecurity and data privacy regulations so they can recommend smooth, long-term upgrade paths that contribute to revenue and productivity growth.

The IT team – or its most senior member – should be a core part of the management team. They can bring their expertise to bear on all aspects of an organisation that might require technology to work or excel.

Whether that is putting in place HR management software or customer relationship tools, the IT team can help smooth the way from identifying possible vendors to the roll-out.

Given all of this, it goes without saying that IT teams must have excellent technical skills. But one aspect that is often overlooked is “soft” skills.

With the role that technology plays across a business, everyone in the IT team needs to come armed with more than just programming and technology skills: they need the ability to get on with colleagues, create alliances, and drive consensus.

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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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Intrepid Group, a Singapore-headquartered omni-channel e-commerce solutions company, has secured US$11 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding, led by Mirabaud Asset Management through its Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation fund.

Local VC firm Vulpes Investment Management, a group of global private investors, as well as existing investors including SGX-listed Thakral Corporation, also joined the round.

Also Read: Intrepid Group secures pre-Series B to help SMEs accelerate their growth on Lazada, Shopee

The money will go into improving its technology suite and take “our capabilities to the next level in order to continue to accelerate the growth of our brand clients’ business across the region.”

Founded by co-founders of Lazada, Intrepid Group offers both enterprise-grade SaaS and end-to-end e-commerce management to brands and SMEs to accelerate their growth on platforms such as Lazada and Shopee.

The B2B company has offices in six markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

With its asset-light model, the company claims to have already reached profitability in two of its markets, and is on track for regional profitability.

“In less than two years, Intrepid has become the partner of choice for over 60 international brands to grow their omni-channel e-commerce in Southeast Asia,” claimed Jasper Knoben, CEO of Intrepid.

In August 2020, Intrepid raised an undisclosed sum in pre-Series B financing, co-led by Thakral Sun SEA Capital (a VC firm backed by Sunway Group). Ten months earlier, it had received Series A funding led by Kairous Capital.

Renaud Dutreil and David Wertheimer of Mirabaud said: “As consumer purchase patterns see an accelerated shift to online, globally leading brands must adapt. Intrepid has been able to build an industry-leading team across entire Southeast Asia, and thereby rapidly gained the trust of a wide range of world-leading brands across multiple categories. The company has established itself as a preferred partner for leading global brands to effectively reach the ca. 700 million consumers of Southeast Asia.”

Also Read: Lazada’s ex-CMO’s startup raises Series A round, aims to help brands’ maximise e-commerce presence

“As ecommerce is growing much faster than offline and soon for many brands will become larger than offline, we see a mindset shift happening, where brands start to think e-commerce first. Concurrently, e-commerce is complexifying fast in Southeast Asia, with many consumer touch points to manage and optimise. We want to be the preferred go-to partner for brands to make the most of this amazing opportunity ahead,” said Charles Debonneuil, President of Intrepid and former CMO and co-founder of Lazada Group.

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Image Credit: Intrepid Group

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