Many are talking about The Great Resignation; or as LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky puts it, The Great Reshuffle: the largest ongoing talent migration in history. This is especially true for Gen Z, the newest entrants to the workforce.

Having grown up in the shadows of the 2008 financial crisis, amidst economic shifts in Southeast Asia and a global pandemic, this new generation is driving to forge their own path. 

Against this backdrop, the rising generation is rethinking how and why we work. With The Great Reshuffle, we’re seeing more and more of Singapore’s youngest workers eschewing traditional trajectories and instead choosing to venture into entrepreneurship.

In fact, 61 per cent of Entrepreneur First (EF) Singapore’s most recent founders – like Jackett’s Rachiket Arya and Avni Agrawal from SixSense – have spent less than four years in the workforce before founding their own company.

A collective burnout

There’s a growing sense of discontent in people’s work-life– with millions around the globe now leaving their jobs. So much so that in 2021, “How to start a business,” topped “How to get a job,” in Google search queries.

Recent turbulence has Gen Z searching for more meaning and purpose to the work they do, and a path of true authorship, not only ownership. Their definition of success has evolved beyond titles and compensation, and they’re increasingly motivated by career autonomy and financial control.

Also Read: A woman among women: 27 female-led startups in SEA that are going places

EF has seen this first-hand with 85 per cent of our latest cohort having less than six years of working experience, before deciding to work for themselves. 

Financial gains are the biggest driver for 65 per cent of aspiring entrepreneurs surveyed– but it’s not only about the money anymore. This rising generation is valuing autonomy as equally important as financial gains in influencing them to launch their own startups.

Their focus on autonomy extends beyond personal flexibility and decision-making, but rather a chance to shape products, industries and a future to their imagination. 

This rang true for Natalie Doran, who left her secure role in a previous company to co-found security monitoring software platform, Lytehouse. For her, gaining flexibility has been the most important aspect of building her own business:

“Flexibility isn’t about work hours and location, it’s the flexibility of the role and the company itself. Anyone in a startup has the power to transform the lives of their customers, shape the product, even change the direction of the whole company in a single day,” she said.

It is the impact that a startup can have in revolutionising the status quo that motivates the entrepreneurs, which goes beyond financial gains. 

Building a better world

Gen Z is on a mission to do things differently. They believe in their individual power to drive broad-scale change, often challenging convention to do so. Contrary to popular belief, passion is no longer the most important ingredient to building a successful startup, falling to the fourth important driving force in a business.

For younger entrepreneurs, the most important trait is problem-solving, against a backdrop of making meaningful and sustainable change. We see this in EF’s portfolio consisting of startups tackling hard, real-world problems that reflect emerging trends in the areas of fintech, food & agriculture, education, entertainment and cleantech – all sectors that are in need of improvements in this climate. 

Also Read: 5 lessons from 5 years as a millennial entrepreneur

We also get a sense that Gen Z is responsive to the world around them. Emerging entrepreneurs are solving for disruptions in production, demand, supply chain management, and shifting consumer trends – caused by the systemic vulnerabilities of the food industry that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exposed.

Food & Agriculture, the most visible area that needs growth, is a topic most Singapore founders are intent on addressing. An increasing number are working on streamlining the steps taken for food ordering and delivery, food science and developing new crops, robotics and automated farm management.

All around the globe, more leaders and future founders are championing sustainability to protect our ecosystem and preserve natural resources for generations to come.

We see this trend here in Singapore, where startups like ESGnie are using AI to enhance in-house ESG research capabilities and ensure that investments aren’t being greenwashed, and Green Li-ion who are pioneers in lithium-ion battery rejuvenation with a novel, patented technique which increases rejuvenation efficiency by 200 per cent.

Innovation is further bolstered by the Singaporean government’s commitment to R&D with the RIE 2025 plan. This plan invests S$25 billion over the next four years into talent development and mission-oriented research (amongst other priorities) to future-proof technology growth and delivery starting in Singapore, but built for the world. 

The role of the Singapore startup community

These motivations are a window into why more are actively pursuing the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship.

In recent years, we’ve seen Singapore’s venture and startup ecosystem begin to flourish – and most recently, seeing regional juggernauts list on the NYSE and NASDAQ has lit inspiration for aspiring founders.

Singapore now boasts a strategic position in the top five ecosystems for startups in Asia with a growing pool of active investors entering the region from abroad.

Also Read: 27 Singapore tech startups that have made us proud this year

Twenty-three per cent of the aspiring entrepreneurs believe the support of strategic investors and venture builders is the important factor to establishing a startup, just after self-motivation. In fact, it is this support that helps accelerate growth and provide leverage, especially in the earliest stages of growth and uncertainty. 

The support needed goes beyond the capital. Undoubtedly, financial support is still critical in building up momentum, but this rising generation of founders believe that it’s a candid advisory from trusted counsel that helps them achieve their goals. Being connected to other ambitious technologists can help to accelerate this journey.

For Phasio co-founder Harry, his team found the support of exited entrepreneur and EF Venture Partner Teik Guan Tan critical when building up their momentum, “we felt that we can be vulnerable with him, yet we also know that he will hold us to account. The importance of support such as this cannot be overstated,” he said.

Collective burnout, the motivation to fix ongoing issues in the world and the ever-prevailing support of the venture ecosystem in Singapore are seen as meaningful drivers for change in growing a more robust generation of founders.

No longer fulfilled by the status quo, more Gen Z aspiring founders are proactively forging their own path.

These emerging founders have all the necessary components to build right here in Singapore – and they are beginning to see and create their own future now.

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Malaysia-based content aggregator Newswav has scored RM6 million (US$1.43 million) in a new Series A funding round led by OSK Ventures International (OSKVI).

Newswav will use the capital for user acquisition, strengthening its leadership in the content aggregation space and diversifying its revenue stream. A portion of the funds will be used to enrich its content, drive user engagement, expand the creators’ platform, and scale up its in-house adtech capabilities.

CEO Swee Wai Hoow said: “Content consumption patterns and preferences have transformed significantly over the past decade and were further accelerated as a result of the pandemic. We see changes not just from the type of content that users are consuming, but also the amount of time they spend online, especially on their mobile devices.”

“By working closely together with news and content publishers as well as individual content creators, we’ll be able to furnish richer, more relevant and relatable content to our users and at the same time deliver additional traffic and ad share revenue to our content partners. We aim to be the only content aggregator platform that Malaysians will ever need,” Swee added.

Also Read: Malaysia-based OSK Ventures International invests in fintech TurnKey Lender

With a mobile-first focus in mind, Newswav launched its mobile app in 2017. With over two million installations, Newswav has more than 15 million average monthly visits across its mobile app and website combined.

The firm provides content in three different languages (English, Malay, Chinese) and three different formats (articles, videos, podcasts) for audiences.

The portal aggregates about 200 publications and content creators, including well-known publishers such as The Sun Daily, SCMP, Malay Mail, The Edge, Sinar Harian, BFM, The Vibes, Daily Express, and World Of Buzz.

Newswav claims it registered a strong revenue performance in 2021 with up to 3x revenue growth compared to the year before.

Newswav’s other investors include BFM Capital and YYC Ventures. It currently has close to 30 employees.

“Newswav has created not just a popular content distribution platform but also a way for its media partners, independent journalists and third party contributors to monetise their content with a win-win revenue sharing model,” said Malek Ali of BFM Capital.

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The Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Center (MaGIC) and Deloitte are working together to help bolster the agriculture sector towards rapidly adopting cutting-edge technologies, including multiple drone use cases and artificial intelligence (AI), to thwart the threat of a global food crisis. With the world’s increasing population disrupting agriculture supply chains, aggravated further by the COVID-19 pandemic, MaGIC and Deloitte have identified not only an increased need to address challenges in the food security space, but also opportunities for tech solution providers to develop new and unique innovations that can be adopted by the agriculture industry.

This year, the two institutions collaborated on a roundtable discussion called the Agriculture/Agritech Roundtable and a thought leadership paper titled the “Emerging Tech & Innovation in Malaysia’s Agricultural Landscape” to highlight technological solutions for pressing agriculture issues that have the potential to impact millions of lives. The roundtable initiative seeks to highlight the urgency of solving problems in the agriculture space and the need to have all hands on deck — particularly tech companies that already possess the tools needed to help bolster and embolden food security.

Khalid Yashaiya, Acting CEO of MaGIC, said that without intervention from new innovations, the world will soon face a food security crisis of unprecedented scale. Rural communities tied to the agriculture sector are especially fragile, having already suffered from loss of income and livelihood during the pandemic.

“The agriculture sector has been impacted by high market demand, higher production costs due to their dependence on imported goods, declining productivity and revenue, and other challenges which have led to losses in earnings. Despite this, the agriculture sector has a high potential of becoming a major contributor to the increase in shared prosperity and food resources to the world’s 9.7 billion population by 2050,” he added.

Malaysia and Agritech Solutions

Khalid highlighted that as it is, Malaysia is abound with solutions anchored on looming issues in agriculture. The country is not lacking when it comes to innovators, from manufacturers of agriculture drones to developers of solutions that enable farmers to sort high quality vegetables, ready to take on the challenges faced by the sector.

“This is why it is crucial for the government and its agencies to encourage and facilitate this growth,” he said, adding that MaGIC empowers innovative startups by developing a vibrant and sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem in Malaysia and accelerating their commercialisation journeys.

Also read: Harnessing the power of AI to help improve gastric cancer detection

Justin Ong, Executive Director of Deloitte Southeast Asia and Innovation Leader of Deloitte Malaysia, further said that today’s Industry 4.0 offered the perfect opportunity for agriculture players to adopt mature technologies that boost productivity and efficiency. Startups, being the source of new technologies, will be the locomotive of change.

“The agriculture industry is traditionally labour-intensive. This gives rise to many opportunities for innovative solutions and digitalisation. With their outside-the-box thinking, unconventional way and readiness to adopt new technology and business models, startups disrupt the industry with ideas that close the gap and increase productivity,” he said.

What’s sprouting in Malaysia?

Drones, Internet of Things (IoT), big data analytics, and online sales platforms have emerged as crucial innovations for agriculture. Malaysia already has homegrown startups focused on deploying those technologies, as these three startups exemplify.

Braintree Technologies

Braintree Technologies is a local startup that offers drone-as-a-service for plantation mapping, evaluation, design, and planning. The drones run on AI-powered computer vision algorithms that increase precision and automation leading to optimal yield and cost-efficiencies.

“We build agriculture robots at Braintree Technologies. Right now, we are focusing our solutions for the oil palm & chilli industries. We are building chilli-picking robots and pest-control robots.  We offer our solution as Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) and our clients pay us per hectare of the job done by the robots,” said Arif Makhdzir, Founder and CEO of Braintree Technologies.

Additionally, the increasing use of technology can make the sector more interesting to high-skilled youth. “My plan is to see a new generation of farmers who are less than 40 years old and they earn lucrative income by just operating their automated farm from anywhere in the world from their phone,” he said.

Makhdzir finds that MaGIC’s roundtable initiative is a great platform to hear the perspectives of different parties from varied backgrounds like big plantations, startups, and government, with the hopes of turning the discussion outcomes of the discussion into actual National Agrofood Policy. “I think it benefits us to have the point of view from varied backgrounds and if we can collaborate to create a better ecosystem,“ he concluded.

Langit Collective

Innovations are equally necessary on the consumer side. Langit Collective tackles challenges related to market access by connecting indigenous rural farming communities with consumers via online sales platforms. 

Lilian Chen, Co-Founder and CEO of Langit Collective, said that the startup aimed to “create an alternative economic model for rural indigenous communities by revaluing their existing agriculture produce”.

Langit Collective further empowered farmers through data collection and food chain transparency. The Food Prints Initiative is the startup’s brainchild to achieve food integrity and enable consumers to learn more about the source of their rice. “With the scanning of a unique QR code, consumers will be able to get access to the overview information of where, and who farmed the packet of rice they purchased,” she noted.

Also read: Fast Forward with HPE!: Helping startups grow through community support

Chen expressed that MaGIC’s roundtable is a great attempt to bring all the different stakeholders involved in agriculture to further understand each other’s challenges in the industry. She hopes that this would lead the way to a more holistic approach in agriculture.

“In our constant pursuit in improving methodology, precision, and the need to control the environment to produce food or commodities, we become more siloed and our focus skewed only towards solving food security issues,” she said. “I hope there is more awareness about regenerative agriculture that focuses on rebuilding ecosystems, biodiversity that regenerates the soil (carbon sequestration) whilst producing food.”

Initiatives like this could be a great step for a more collaborative environment that brings better awareness and better solutions, not just to food security issues but other related issues as well. “It can be a powerful tool to solve environmental problems whilst solving food security issues,” Chen concluded.

Planting seeds for the future

Braintree and Langit Collective are two of the country’s budding startups whose innovations can help revolutionise the agriculture space. With these startups leading the charge and supported by reputable institutions like MaGIC, the country can inspire stronger and more collaborative efforts to help foster a more sustainable food system.

Collaboration and fostering a healthy ecosystem for innovations are fundamental for future developments in agritech. According to Justin, coopetition, or the collaboration between competing businesses, which in this case are corporates and startups, will lead to positive outcomes that will reshape the industry.

“While it is natural for businesses to be wary of new entrants in the market, we believe that many opportunities are there to be realised if traditional players work together with startups,” he pointed out.

Also read: China Mobile International hosts mCloud Carnival 2021

The government continues to play a key role by encouraging startups to hatch innovations in the market. The Malaysian government has created the National Technology & Innovation Sandbox (NTIS) to give space for startups and technology companies to test run their solutions. Khalid mentioned that the sandbox in agritech would bring about insightful case studies that become benchmarks on how the government could form regulations that promote innovations. 

“NTIS ensures that Malaysia doesn’t just adopt but create and commercialise solutions using emerging and advanced technologies. It moves products along the technology readiness tranches in an expedient manner, from ideas to invention and implementation — and onward to commercialisation” he added, emphasising the role of agriculture, food, and water as key socio-economic sectors.

With an agritech industry strengthened by the support of a startup ecosystem whose unique innovations in technology can help yield better and more efficient food production, Malaysia and the rest of the world can look forward to a more bountiful future.

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

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Since we launched ‘The State of ESOPs in Southeast Asia’ in mid-December 2021, I have been encouraged by the buzz of conversations on the topic of employee stock options (ESOPs).

I first discovered a strong interest in this topic when we received 60+ survey responses from startup founders, from pre-seed to Series B, within 48 hours of launching the survey in November. To date, more than 300 startups across Southeast Asia have downloaded the report to understand how to make ESOPs work for them.

Having had dozens of conversations with founders, employees and investors on this topic in recent months, I wanted to share some notable takeaways for startup founders who are thinking of designing competitive ESOPs in 2022 in order to attract and retain talent, as well as build culture.

(Thankfully, only one in three founders saw ESOPs as a way to ‘cut cost’– I am of the view that ESOPs are anything but cheap. Unlike cash which is fungible and can be earned through revenue or fundraising, company shares once given cannot be earned back.)

Make it accessible, otherwise, you are better off without

In the recent survey of 134 startups in Southeast Asia, almost half structured ESOPs strike price based on the price per share for the latest fundraising round. Furthermore, another one in two startups gives employees less than six months to exercise their options.

To put this in perspective, let’s take the example of Jane, who joins startup ABC as a senior product manager. Startup ABC offers Jane 0.5 per cent of total company shares in addition to her cash compensation, and structures ESOP prices and exercise duration in an aforementioned manner.

Also Read: SEA tech founders playbook: A to Z of becoming a fundraising legend (Part 1)

Assuming Jane:

• Joins ABC after they have completed seed fundraising at a post-money valuation of US$4 million
• Has vested all her options
• Decides to leave ABC as a good leaver

Jane has six months to cough up US$20,000 to convert her stock options into shares (US$4 million x 0.5 per cent). Failing which, her stock options would be forfeited. In most countries in Southeast Asia (bar Singapore), US$20,000 could amount to almost an entire year’s salary in cash.

Furthermore, the upfront capital required to exercise stock options escalates dramatically with the startup’s stage of funding.

Stage of Funding	Median post-money Valuation (USD M)		Exercise Price (USD)
Seed	4	Assume employee has 0.5 per cent of total company shares	$20,000
Series A	34		$170,000
Series B	110		$550,000

Source: Median valuation data from PitchBook for Southeast Asia-HQ companies

From this illustration, an employee who joins a Series B startup would need more than half a million dollars to exercise their stock options, a setup that essentially renders ESOPs prohibitive.

As more employees start to learn about ESOPs and conversations increase, startup founders can no longer play the information asymmetry game and shortchange employees. Once found out, the startup risks irreversible damage to its employer brand, and loses competitiveness in the war for talent. 

Invest in educating employees on ESOPs

To avoid situations where employees feel shortchanged on ESOPs, it is then the role of founders to invest in educating employees. We start to see promising signs that founders in Southeast Asia have stepped up to this role. More than 9 out of 10 leaders make the effort to explain ESOPs to their prospective hires, mostly before they start work.

Also Read: How does startup dilution for founders work with ESOPs and investment?

To build on these positive intentions, here’s a non-exhaustive checklist founders can work through together with employees to ensure they have a sufficient understanding of ESOPs:

• Why are ESOPs valuable to me, as an employee of the company?
• What are cliff and vesting, and what are the cliff and vesting periods applicable?
• What is the strike price and what is the strike price applicable?
• What is the exercise period and what is the exercise period applicable?
• Are there good leaver / bad leaver provisions? In what situations will my vested options be forfeit?
• What happens when there is a liquidity event? Do I get accelerated vesting?
• In what priority will I receive the distributions from a liquidity event (e.g. my company’s investors will get distributions first, then the remainder will be allocated between founders and myself)?
• Are there any restrictions on my ESOPs?
• Who can I ask about ESOPs if I have further questions?

Step outside to understand local nuances

While the vast majority of startups we surveyed operate in more than one country, almost 4 out of 5 had headquarters incorporated in Singapore. Unsurprisingly, Singapore presents itself as a highly favourable destination for ESOPs, with clear legislation and taxation guidelines. 

Juxtaposed against the often-murky and non-straightforward legislations and tax guidelines, ESOPs outside of Singapore are comparatively more complicated. Employees in these jurisdictions are often employed under local subsidiaries, where the issuance of ESOPs in relation to the parent company needs to be established. A case in point was the recent reporting on how Grab employees in Vietnam had to liquidate their ESOPs prior to their SPAC listing due to local laws. 

Founders may be well-served to develop a nuanced understanding of ESOPs across key markets, especially those outside of Singapore. A two-pronged approach of firstly, speaking to trusted investors and fellow founders for firsthand learnings, followed by verification with legal and tax counsel, can help sidestep costly ESOP pitfalls.  

Know your competition well

With growing awareness and conversations around ESOPs among both founders and employees, it is critical to know what competition looks like. 

In The State of ESOPs in Southeast Asia report, we shared the ESOP ranges offered to leadership, senior and junior employees. In the follow-up conversations, we learnt there was a deeper desire for founders to have a more granular understanding of how ESOP varied across maturity– after all, a Series B startup may be better placed to offer higher cash compensation than one without any external funding, hence compelling the latter to offer more ESOPs at the same seniority. 

As such, we have segmented the ESOPs offered to employees across both roles and stages of funding. As ESOPs are most often associated, set up or topped up during new rounds of fundraising, we think this can be a handy guide for founders to understand what the landscape looks like. 

Also Read: SEA tech founders playbook: A to Z of becoming a fundraising legend (Part 2)

 

Dare to differentiate, and share about it

While our report laid out the state of ESOPs in Southeast Asia as-is, founders should not be afraid to deviate from the ESOP canon and dare to create differentiation to stand out in the competitive landscape today. 

An advantage can be as simple as establishing monthly vesting structures (only one in three startups do so today, with the others vesting less frequently), or even a change in the typical cliff + vesting period.

Also Read: 12 legal considerations when drafting your ESOP

While the norm is for a 12-month cliff followed by a 36-month vesting period (adding up to 48 months), an increasing number of startups have decisively shortened this period and even removed the cliff altogether.

Hence, founders must not be afraid to lay out these differentiators and proactively share about it throughout the recruitment process, not leave it in an ESOP policy that is mostly unread.

ESOPs can be the lethal weapon in a startup’s arsenal to win the war for talent. Thoughtful structuring of employee stock options can not only move the conversation away from a negotiation of the numbers (cash, bonus, basis points) to a more holistic, thoughtful conversation but also be an organic promotion channel for prospective employees. Ultimately, the goal is to align the risks and rewards between founders and employees – and a well-crafted ESOPs plan might just be able to do that.

The production effort for the report was supported by Svested, RDF Strategies and BYRD Creative.

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ErudiFi, a startup offering tech-enabled education financing solutions in Southeast Asia, has secured a debt facility of US$15 million from Singapore-based fintech company Helicap.

The startup will use the funding to support the needs of students across the Philippines and Indonesia by offering them affordable tuition instalment plans.

This round comes close to a year after ErudiFi bagged US$5 million in Series A capital, co-led by Monk’s Hill Ventures and Qualgro in February 2021.

Also Read: How edutech is solving the global teacher’s crisis

Launched in 2018, ErudiFi helps students secure funding for higher education through partnerships with leading universities and vocational schools. It operates as Danacita in Indonesia and Bukas in the Philippines.

As of December 2021, ErudiFi claims to have served more than 12,000 students and partnered with over a hundred educational institutions in Indonesia and the Philippines.

“Our partnership with Helicap enables us to further our mission of expanding access to education in Southeast Asia. The need for an affordable financing solution is greater than ever, with the ongoing pandemic leading to an increasing number of Filipino and Indonesian youths deferring further studies due to financial constraints,” said Naga Tan, CEO and Co-Founder of ErudiFi.

David Z. Wang, Co-Founder and CEO of Helicap (the parent company of Helicap Investments and Helicap Securities), said: “Education financing is a huge opportunity in Southeast Asia, and ErudiFi continues to shape and expand its trusted relationships with universities and partner institutions.”

Since 2018, Helicap has facilitated more than US$100 million in investments that improve access to financing for underbanked populations in Southeast Asia. As a signatory of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), Helicap Investments uses its proprietary credit analytics technology to make high-impact investments and bridge the US$500 billion financing gap in Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Edutech is surging, but here are the 3 issues it is facing

According to HolonIQ, edutech is a growing sector in Southeast Asia, and the region has managed to raise a total of US$480 million in investment for startups operating in this sector over the last five years.

In Southeast Asia, there are many edutech startups such as Topica (Vietnam), Taamkru (Thailand), Ruangguru (Indonesia), and Classruum (Malaysia) that are helping plug the educational gap by increasing the quality or access to education.

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Singapore-headquartered digital container haulage platform Haulio has secured US$7 million in a Series A funding round led by Temasek unit Heliconia Capital.

New investors that joined the round are Ondine Capital (China), Cornerstone Ventures (Taiwan), FuturePlay (South Korea), Newtown Partners via the Imperial Venture Fund (South Africa), and XA Network.

Existing investors, including B7 Capital, ComfortDelGro, iSeed SEA, Iterative (US), and PSA unboXed, have also participated.

The fresh funds will be used to strengthen Haulio’s haulage capabilities, service quality, and product engineering and development. The startup is also following its regional growth ambition throughout Southeast Asia.

As per a press statement, Haulio is actively hiring top talent in strategic business functions to support its growth plans in markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Also read: The first-mile container logistics is ripe for digital disruption. Here’s how Haulio is doing it

Founded in 2016 by CEO Alvin Ea and CPO Sebastian Shen, Haulio connects hauliers and shippers.

“Container shipping volumes are on the rapid rise, so there needs to be greater optimisation and streamlining of haulage trips, given the increasing shortage in equipment and drivers,” said Ea. “The complex and fragmented nature of our business continues to be a challenge, especially when container haulage has been a vertical that often gets left behind.”

Haulio boasts of having onboarded 90 per cent of Singapore’s hauliers and established presences in Indonesia and Thailand. In Thailand alone, it has aggregated more than 3,000 hauliers. For shippers, Haulio provides prime mover and trailer rental and leasing service and embedded financing.

In 2021, it partnered with fintech players such as Funding Societies and Aspire to offer faster pay-out and supply chain financing and with ComfortDelgro and Goldbell to offer leasing of prime mover trucks.

As of now, Haulio claims to have transacted more than two million containers, with over 50 per cent of the transactions completed in 2021 alone. The startup expects to triple its revenue by the end of 2022 as the global supply chain rebounds.

Haulio said it also helps reduce the carbon emissions from container trucking and unnecessary transportation of empty containers due to its effective job matching and resource pooling. So far, it claims to have optimised over 200,000 containers, saving over 3,000 metric tonnes of carbon emission.

Last year, Haulio raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding. In 2018, it netted US$741,710 in seed round.

According to a market study by Quince Market Insights, the global first- and last-mile delivery market reached US$ 493.2 million in 2021 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 13.8 per cent over the forecast period 2021 to 2030. Asia is set to grow as the top player in the global maritime trade arena, especially in the SEA region with trade volumes expected to increase by 130 per cent in 2023 to US$5,653 billion.

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Image Credit: Haulio

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Hongkong- and Thailand-based fintech startup Fraction has bagged US$3 million in a pre-Series A financing round led by East Ventures, it announced today.

The round also saw participation from Indonesia’s Emtek Group, Singapore-based Thakral (consulting and technology services company), V Ventures (Singapore), and unnamed regional investors.

With this, Fraction will establish its first fractional real estate offers powered by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and distributed ledger solutions based on the Ethereum blockchain. 

Besides, the company also plans to expand into various asset classes, services and countries, with the goal of democratising access to investments and money for millions of people who are now unable to participate in these wealth-generating activities.

Fraction previously secured an undisclosed seed round from conventional finance and technology investors such as Singha Ventures, Tanarra Capital, and Skystar Capital.

Also read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

Founded in 2018, Fraction enables people to own and transact pieces of real estate in the form of NFTs that have a “real-world legal link” to the property. Its offerings include ‘initial fraction offering’ (IFO) of real estate tokens, a secondary market trading platform of fractional tokens between investors, and related intermediary services covering the complete end-to-end journey.

“We can now enable true financial inclusion letting small investors participate in attractive asset classes that were previously inaccessible,” said Eka Nirapathpongporn, Co-Founder and CEO of Fraction.

With Fraction’s plug-and-play platform, individuals and companies can invest, sell and manage fractional ownership of anything — from a small stake in a city condominium, beachfront resort, or art piece, to managing a private fund, assets and investors.

As per a press statement, Fraction obtained the initial coin offering (ICO) portal license (subject to activation approval) from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (SEC).

Real estate is one of the largest markets on earth with a value of US$326 trillion in 2020, per a Savills report. London-born advisory and accountancy network Moore Global predicted that the tokenised real estate market would be on track to become a US$1.4-trillion market.

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SG IoT startup KaHa snapped up by Indian wearables brand boAt

India-based Imagine Marketing, the parent of wearables brand boAt, has acquired Singapore based smart IoT product development company KaHa.

The acquisition will enable Imagine Marketing to augment its wearable product offerings in terms of the concept, design, electronic firmware, algorithm development, Android/iOS applications, new feature integration, social engagement and analytics.

This acquisition will also allow Imagine Marketing to scale up its smart and holistic wellness wearables ecosystem.

Also Read: The IoT opportunity is right outside your door

Founded in 2015, KaHa has capabilities in developing products in the IoT space. It has a technology-focused platform for wearables through patented AI and ML capabilities, end-to-end smart wearable solutions (hardware and software), and data-driven smart IoT platforms, providing solutions and analyses for multiple use cases.

KaHa has developed its proprietary COVE IoT platform. With in-built artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, COVE provides users with actionable intelligence and personalised experiences across a range of consumer verticals: health & wellness, sports & fitness, digital payment and safety. The platform includes electronics design, printed circuit board assembly, application frameworks for iOS and Android, cloud services, data analytics and smart after-sales service tools.

KaHa has offices in Singapore, China, India.

DeCloud picks majority stake in blockchain firm Ascent Solutions

Singapore-headquartered DeClout has announced the completion of 70 per cent of Ascent Solutions, a company specialising in IoT and blockchain solutions.

Ascent Solutions is an Internet of Things (IoT) smart connectivity firm that provides digital solutions for smart city infrastructure and end-to-end visibility and intelligence across the entire supply chain for both governments and private sectors.

Since its incorporation in 2010, it has developed iTrust, a blockchain and IoT solution for trade financing in 2018, and implemented a real-time IoT monitoring solution to track in-transit petroleum products for the Ghana authorities in January 2020.

Also Read: How play-to-earn is fueling the next wave of blockchain adoption

Headquartered in Singapore and established in 2010, DeClout invests in, incubates and scales companies to become global or regional market leaders. The group’s companies comprise of fast-growing trade technology firm GUUD, ICT solutions provider Aeqon, green-tech service provider ARCO, neutral hosting solutions provider dhost, and its corporate venture arm DeClout Ventures.

DeClout is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Exeo Global, the regional headquarters of Stock Exchange-listed Exeo Group.

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eFishery, a digital cooperative for fish and shrimp farmers in Indonesia, has completed a US$90 million Series C round of financing, co-led by Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Sequoia Capital India.

Its existing investors Northstar Group, Go-Ventures, Aqua-Spark, and Wavemaker Partners also returned to co-invest in this round.

Also Read: Go-Ventures, Northstar Group co-lead eFishery’s Series B round

eFishery will use the money to scale up its platform, strengthen its digital products, and expand regionally, targeting the top 10 countries in aquaculture, such as India and China. It aims to acquire one million farmers in three to five years. “This funding will gear us to hire aggressively, especially for engineering and product development talent. We aim to recruit a thousand new employees this year,” Gibran Huzaifah, Co-Founder and CEO of eFishery said.

Based in Bandung, eFishery provides tech alternatives to traditional farming methods to improve outcomes for fish and shrimp farmers. It offers an end-to-end platform providing farmers with access to (i) technology, (ii) feed, (ii) financing, and (iii) markets.

Since launching in 2013, the company claims to have deployed thousands of smart feeders, serving over 30,000 farmers across 24 provinces in Indonesia.

eFishery’s latest suite of cutting edge products includes eFarm, and eFisheryKu app. eFarm is an online platform that provides farmers with comprehensive and easy-to-understand information about their shrimp farming operations. At the same time, eFisheryKu is an integrated platform where fish farmers can purchase their farming supplies, such as feed, at competitive prices.

Farmers can also apply for a loan through eFund, which links fish farmers directly to financial institutions. A key component of eFund is Kabayan (pay later).

Also Read: eFishery, Shiok Meats co-founders on MIT Technology Review’s list of emerging innovators from APAC

To date, more than 7,000 farmers have been supported by this service, with the total loan approved exceeding US$28 million.

Since its Series B round of funding, eFishery has grown its headcount 3x, with more than 900 employees now onboard. Prior to this, it had raised a pre-Series A round in 2015 and a US$4-million Series A round in late 2018.

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Crowdo, a Singapore-headquartered neobank for SMEs, has attracted S$8 million (~US$5.9 million) in pre-Series B investment in convertible notes.

The financing was co-led by existing shareholders Gobi Partners and iVest Capital (a Southeast Asia-focused family office), alongside SEEDS Capital (the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore).

Along with this, Crowdo has also bagged debt financing from Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) through its WLB4Climate, the fourth issuance in its innovative Women’s Livelihood Bond Series.

The fresh capital injection will enable Crowdo to expand its ESG (environmental, social and governance)-driven financing products for underserved SMEs. It will launch a new ESG financing product this month targeting women-led enterprises with a plan to disburse up to S$16 million (US$11.8 million) during 2022 alone.

“One of our flagship products will deliver up to US$50 million in financing to women-led businesses and companies over the next few years to promote gender equality and increase women’s access to financing,” said Crowdo CEO and Co-Founder Leo Shimada.

Also read: How debt financing, crypto, SPACs keep the climate-tech funding momentum in SEA

Founded in 2017 by Shimada and Nicola Castelnuovo, Crowdo offers two online platforms to digitise SMEs’ operations to boost productivity and understand and access financing and banking products.

“Crowdo is already catering to under-served SMEs in emerging markets and wants to boost our social impact with specially-tailored financing products with ESG impact in mind,” added Shimada.

So far, Crowdo claims to have disbursed over S$100 million (~US$73.8 million) in financing since its S$1.4 million Series A round. The startup said it recorded a 5x monthly revenue growth rate during 2021.

Crowdo is licensed by the Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) for digital lending in Indonesia and registered with the Securities Commission Malaysia.

In Malaysia, where Crowdo offers equity financing to high-growth startups, it closed 2021 having facilitated close to S$10 million (US$7.4 million) in equity investments.

In Indonesia, it has formed multiple alliances with digital banks, multi-finance institutions and conventional banks, offering its tech-driven acquisition and onboarding infrastructure and artificial intelligence-driven credit assessment technology for SME funding.

Also read: The journey ahead: Singapore startup ecosystem becoming Asia’s Silicon Valley

Crowdo boasts of achieving group profitability since mid-2020.

According to a McKinsey report, the share of consumers in Asia–Pacific emerging markets actively using digital banking increased sharply from 54 per cent in 2017 to 88 per cent in 2021. Meanwhile, the digital adoption rates among consumers in developed Asia–Pacific markets have remained stable at approximately 90 per cent.

 

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Image Credit: Crowdo

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