Global investors have started to notice. As the pandemic recedes, economies are adjusting through new rates of technology adoption. Companies that typically took years to transition customers to new platforms now do it in weeks. The pace of change has changed — almost overnight.

One major beneficiary is Australia’s fintech industry. Until two years ago, developers from down-under barely figured in global rankings. But in 2021, industry analyst, Findexable, promoted Australian finance technology again. Australian fintech is now rated sixth in the world.

This means Australia’s A$4 billion fintech industry has pulled ahead of every European country, except Switzerland and the UK. The ranking also signals Australia’s leadership in Asia-Pacific. Findexable ranks Australian fintech second only to Singapore in Asia

Australian fintechs are capitalising on their success. Around 44% of Australia’s 700-plus fintechs have raised more than A$100 million in financing. Small commercial lender, Judo Bank raised US$209 million at the height of the pandemic.

Some Australian fintechs have become global players. US-based Block Inc. has offered US$29 billion for Australia’s buy-now, pay-later pioneer Afterpay. And Airwallex — based in Melbourne and Hong Kong — raised US$100 million in November, giving it a US$5.5 billion valuation.

Australia: a nation of early adopters

Australia’s vibrant tech industry sits on solid foundations. In 2018, the UK’s Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Australia first in the world for tech readiness along with Singapore and Sweden. When compared to other countries, Australia stands out as a nation of tech-happy, early adopters.

This benefits Australia’s big four banks. All are now investing heavily in fintech to improve customer services. In fact, nearly 60% of digitally-active Australians use fintech products.

A high-skills workforce also helps. Australian colleges and universities train a local tech workforce to service critical industries. Besides its fintech cohort, Australia is home to roughly 600 edtech companies, 500 medtech companies, and 400 agtech and foodtech companies according to Australia’s 2021 Benchmark report. Approximately 98% of these companies are small or medium-sized.

Also read: Meet the 26 innovators pitching on JETRO x Techstars pitch day

And Australia’s fintech talent pool keeps getting bigger. The tech workforce has grown by approximately 65,000 since the start of COVID-19. As borders re-open, expertise will expand. Australia’s talent visas, lifestyle cities and fast-growing demand for skilled people continue to attract technology professionals from around the world.

At the core of Australia’s fintech prowess is a sophisticated A$10 trillion financial sector. This is the nursery for Australia’s extraordinary rise in global fintech. It has in-built advantages. Australia is one of the few countries in the world that has 100% banking penetration. This means millions of citizens checking their funds on advanced banking apps.

These factors all add up to core competitive advantage. Australia’s technology sector is now worth A$167 billion and employs 861,000 people, according to research by Accenture. The sector is highly diverse, with over 35,200 sole traders and 26,100 companies that employ fewer than 20 employees. Fintech is one of its biggest constituents.

A fertile fintech ecosystem — from regtech to insuretech

One key feature of Australian fintech is its very broad base. Today, fintech has spawned multiple subsectors that cater to different finance-related activities.

Regulation technology – or Regtech – thrives in Australia’s pro-innovation regulatory climate. By some estimates, Australia is now the third-largest regtech hub in the world. Canberra-based Castlepoint Systems went global while still a startup, thanks to its world-first, standalone audit and compliance technology.

Australian Insuretech is also taking off. This is partly because Australians have the confidence to complete complex financial transactions via smartphone apps. Embedded insurance startup, Covergenius secured A$100 million in Series C funding in September last year.

Niche skills are also on tap in Australia’s diverse talent pool. Proficiency in BlockChain powers Australian prowess in payments technologies  – from consumer-oriented Afterpay, to open access platforms at the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Pro-fintech regulation attracts global investors

A healthy fintech ecosystem has made Australia a magnet for investors. US- and UK-based fintechs see Australia as a natural testbed for global expansion. Recent investors are lured by pro-innovation regulation and organic clinks to huge markets in Asia-Pacific.

British super-app developer, Revolut, made Australia an early first stop in its global expansion. Temporary licensing helped the company set up in Australia. Australian CEO, Matt Baxby, lauds Australia as a venue for piloting new fintech.

Also read: Regional insurtech Igloo’s AI-driven capabilities drive customised products and seamless customer experience

“Australia has a familiar regulatory regime and high-quality fintech talent,” he said. “This makes Australia an attractive market for Revolut’s expansion outside of Europe.”

Afterpay talks up Australia as a testbed for fintech development. Marty Gray, Senior Manager for Public Policy, cites a regulatory environment that is oriented towards innovation. This includes sandboxing.

“There is a proactive relationship in Australia between the industry and regulators, and this helped us get our financial product established,” he explained. “It gave us a first-mover advantage.”

Australia also has a fintech bridge with the UK and one in the works with Singapore. These government-to-government agreements reduce barriers for companies to develop and deploy fintech products across markets.

Overseas advisers help startups go global

The Australian Government has been quick to aid fintech expansion. A global network of 68 offices and missions deliver market insights to inquisitive investors. Meanwhile, fintech advisers based in Australia help local startups go global, faster.

The result is that even small Australian fintechs can gain first-mover advantage in global markets. Handii took its online market place for insurance rectification work to the US just three years after launching in Australia. Its journey included mentoring organised by Austrade and introductions to venture capitalists in San Francisco.

“The Austrade team guided us through the VC [venture capital] process,” shared co-founder, Christie Downs. “The mentor helped us refine our pitch, curate a target list of investors and build a forecasting model.”

Overseas investors encounter an advisory network that’s keen to attract fintech pioneers.

Also read: Japanese aerial-tech startup Aerosense bullish on opportunities in Southeast Asia

“Introductions made by Austrade helped us to navigate the local regulatory and compliance environments,” said Revolut’s Baxby. “This has been a key enabling factor for us.”

Revolut is just one of a growing number of investors that pay testament to Australia’s ability to nurture fintech pioneers and act as a testing ground for global expansion.

“Australia can also serve as a gateway to markets in the region because of its location and economic ties”, added Baxby. “We believe the resilience and growth shown by fintechs in Australia highlights the maturity of the industry in Australia. This bodes well for the future of fintech in Australia.”

To learn more about how Australia’s best and brightest fintechs can help power your business, please visit Austrade.

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

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During the past year, the advent of blockchain technology has accelerated throughout developing regions, including Southeast Asia, with Ethereum functioning as the preferred network for many financial institutions and various developers. 

The growing popularity of Ethereum can be linked to the fact that it is used by thousands of developers who set up decentralised apps that power everything from the DeFi and Metaverse movements to the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

According to Joseph Lubin, the co-founder of the Ethereum project, many developing nations are gradually improving the financial and technological infrastructures of their respective countries using Ethereum. 

For instance, Chile has utilised Ethereum’s proof-of-work blockchain to track energy data. According to the National Energy Commission, the country chose Ethereum because of its ability to “augment levels of security, integrity, traceability, and confidence in the information available to the public.” 

Being one of the most popular chains to build on, traditional institutions also leverage Ethereum. For example, Union Bank, one of the largest banks in the Philippines, has partnered with Lubin’s ConsenSys to develop banking solutions run on Ethereum for the country’s rural sector. The government has also decided to offer Manila residents rewards in Ethereum tokens for cleaning up their polluted beaches.

Despite the rise in adoption of Ethereum across emerging markets, there are also growing concerns regarding high transaction costs caused by increased usage and demand. Why then is adoption still growing strong in emerging markets? 

Also Read: The transition is now: these Web3 apps are transforming global finance

Many factors influence these dynamics, which will be explored in the following sections.

Decentralised finance: An alternative for the underbanked

Ethereum was the major catalyst in introducing DeFi or “decentralised finance”, a protocol that aims to provide financial and banking services on the blockchain network that is also geared toward disrupting intermediaries like banks.

When compared to the traditional financial system, DeFi is a form of financing that specifically adds value to the rising miseries of the underbanked since anybody may join and connect to this novel system framework, even without KYC and without a bank account.

As of now three biggest DeFi lending protocols are Maker, Curve Finance, and Aave, with a total value of US$17.5 billion, US$15.2 billion, and US$11 billion, respectively, all of which are built on the Ethereum Network.

In many developing nations, the existing loopholes in the financial system prevent many individuals from opening their bank accounts, much alone using them for business. 

Especially in regions like India, the Philippines, and more, lending and borrowing are challenges because most people under the poverty line struggle to provide proper documents and collateral. 

For such places, almost anyone with access to an internet browser can start using DeFi protocols and begin lending and borrowing without signing anything. 

By doubling down on the path to lower barriers to entry and easily accessible loan activities, the idea of DeFi gained popularity with TVL at 96 billion as of 14 Jan. 

For example, imagine a DeFi loan built on top of a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. With this digital financial instrument, borrowers and lenders can put up their collateral, where a tamper-proof smart contract is responsible for distributing interest payments. The technology is securing the collateral in case of default.

DeFi also has other use cases built on Ethereum, like digital remittances. As predicted by the World Economic Forum, the adoption of digital remittances might drive the growth of the global economy.

This way, families may save money on remittance costs while still contributing to long-term development. Furthermore, DeFi provides an alternative to hefty transfer costs, which are currently estimated to be 7 per cent of each dollar sent home by migrant workers. 

While it is too early to know if DeFi is the only answer to assisting the unbanked, they constitute a viable opportunity for individuals to investigate other financial possibilities.

Also Read: Top people to follow for developments in blockchain and crypto in 2022

Growing adoption is driven by culture

Without any doubt, Ethereum-based blockchain innovation is delving into one of Asia’s most vibrant cultures, that of gaming and e-sports. 

NFTs and play-to-earn games such as Axie Infinity have swept the APAC regions, especially growing economies like Southeast Asia, demonstrating the influence that decentralised applications based on Ethereum have on communities. 

One of the major innovations in blockchain technology is the development of play-to-earn gaming, which allows users to earn money while playing. What previously was simply a source of leisure in communities is now becoming a source of income that enables gamers to play the games they love with purpose and deeper vested interest.

The growth of play to earn gaming can be attributed to the success of Axie Infinity in the Philippines since there has been a boom in the number of daily users for a slew of games built on the Ethereum network, including Alien Worlds and Gods Unchained. 

Due to lower minimum wages in developing countries, more people are drawn to GameFi, speeding up the industry and developers who build on Ethereum. 

The money usually generated from play-to-earn gaming can go near approximately US$50-US$100, which may not be as high for developed regions like the US. Still, in emerging economies with lower capital income, the amount earned through game playing can put at least a day’s meal on the table. 

Another popular choice is the NFT fantasy soccer game Sorare, built on Ethereum, which allows players to manage their soccer teams via digital player NFT cards.

Play-to-earn and GameFi dApps are making a noticeable impact due to their attractive model incentivising passive income, especially in lower-income countries.  

Limitations of Ethereum in emerging markets

Regardless of its growing popularity, scalability has been a major issue for the Ethereum platform. As more individuals embark on Ethereum, the network starts to encounter problems. 

Ethereum uses a Proof of Work (PoW) model, allowing only 30 transactions per second (TPS) compared to the massive demand of 1.355 million TPS every day, causing network congestion and excessive transaction fees. 

Nonetheless, early efforts to resolve the problem have resulted in unacceptable compromises regarding security matters or other factors such as the user experience.

For emerging economies, while there are many reasons to join the various blockchain trends like DeFi, NFTs, and GameFi, the high costs of entry have been a major hurdle. 

For example, NFT minting fees on the Ethereum blockchain fluctuate according to the supply and demand for processing power, ranging from US$50 to US$100.

There has been an emergence of other networks like Solana, popular among developers who no longer want to deal with Ethereum’s volatile transaction fees, with Solana advertising itself as the cheap and more efficient alternative.

Also Read: NFT adoption is soaring in Southeast Asia. Here’s why 

Ethereum’s scaling solutions

Scaling solutions are needed if Ethereum’s smart-contract-based blockchains are ever to grow to support finance and Web3 applications for billions of users. Thankfully, the cavalry is beginning to arrive, with many proposed solutions coming online recently.

Today, there is a vast community working towards solving the issues of high transaction costs on the Ethereum network. 

Being around longest, the Ethereum community is strong, with billions of dollars of investment going into scaling solutions that will bundle up transactions off-chain, introducing a newly emerging ecosystem of Ethereum congestion alleviation. One of these solutions includes zk-rollup technology, a scaling technology that enables reduced transaction fees and improves user experience.

In general, there are hundreds of transactions on the main blockchain, but with ZK-Rollup, they are combined into a single transaction. Since fewer data has to be transferred over Ethereum’s primary blockchain, transactions may be completed more quickly and at a lower cost. 

According to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, “ZK-rollups would be Ethereum’s go-to scaling strategy for the near and mid-term future”. Buterin also published a roadmap called Endgame, in which ZK rollups have a key role to play. 

ZK rollups are making a strong statement and could very much have the ability to become the key protagonists of the current development phase of Ethereum scaling solutions.

Many notable companies like Aztec, Polygon, ZK-Sync, and Polygon Hermez, to name a few, are working on scaling solutions for the Ethereum blockchain. In the following three to six months, these networks may begin to compete with each other. As they do, they will become even stronger and better, increasing the opportunity for developers and users. 

Conclusion

With large unbanked populations, significant banking risks, and lower bank and credit-card penetration in aggregate, the deployment of cryptocurrency can be advantageous in developing markets. But while the idea of Ethereum and DeFi, on principle and by design, is meant to be universally accessible to all, high costs on the network have become the biggest technical problem facing the industry today. 

One of the key solutions to Ethereum’s woes is Zk rollups designed to have superior speeds at lower costs and have the potential to play a prominent role in Ethereum scaling solutions. 

The advent of technology like this will be especially important if the growth of Ethereum should continue in major emerging markets where high costs can be a major hurdle for entry.

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Blockchain gaming incubator and launchpad Seedify has secured undisclosed funding from NGC Ventures, a Singapore-headquartered institutional investor focusing on blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.

As per a press statement, this strategic investment will drive Seedify’s expansion within the blockchain gaming arena and the broader metaverse.

Besides, both firms will collaborate to incubate and grow new gaming projects for optimal impact.

Also read: 7 Metaverse companies in Southeast Asia that caught our attention in 2021

Founded in 2021 by CEO Levent Cem Aydan, Seedify runs on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and is a platform for IGOs (Initial Game Offerings). It facilitates the launches with detailed verification processes for the participants.

The startup allocates tier systems to participate in these projects’ private and seed funding rounds before their official launches on exchanges. Interested game innovators submit their project proposal to the Seedify decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO). It then allows the holders of its SFUND token (Seedify’s native token) to vote proportionally to their holdings on project proposals and participate in the governance of key decisions that Seedify faces.

If the project passes the community voting process, the entrepreneurs become part of the Seedify incubation programme and receive their seed fund. 

The venture also helps build a community of gamers and creates a marketing strategy for these projects. The incubatees often give Seedify 3 per cent of its total token supply to cover costs, besides transferring some part to the SFUND holders in the form of rewards. With this, token holders play a role in the startup’s success and receive a return on investment through decentralised finance (DeFi) seed fund mechanism.

Three main pillars of the startup’s offerings are Seedify Game Studios, Seedify Game NFT Launchpad, and the Seedify Utility NFT Set. 

Notable games that have been listed on the Seedify platform include strategy-based land building metaverse Cryptoblades Kingdoms, play-to-earn NFT space game SIDUS, real-time multiplayer PVP arena NFT game Cryowar, and metaverse VR experience Bloktopia.

Also read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

NGC Ventures’s other metaverse investments are BigTime Studios, Republic Realm, Terra Virtua, VRJam and Boson Protocol.

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Image Credit: Seedify

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US-headquartered global independent asset manager Franklin Templeton has launched an early-stage fintech startup incubation programme in partnership with F10 Global Innovation Network Singapore.

This two-year programme, dubbed FT Singapore FinTech Incubator, will kick off in July 2022. It will focus on startups in artificial intelligence/machine learning, capital markets technology, cybersecurity, blockchain, P2P lending, digital distribution and wealthtech, insurtech, regtech, data science, and predictive behaviour analytics.

The selected startups will receive seed funding from Franklin Templeton and are expected to be housed at 80RR FinTech Hub in the heart of Singapore’s business district.

Other benefits include two years of residency in the island state, individualised milestone-based programming and extensive mentoring and guidance by Franklin Templeton and F10.

Also read: Jakarta, Singapore named as top global fintech ecosystem in new report

These startups may also be considered for collaboration opportunities with Franklin Templeton in terms of early business unit exposure, technology steering, potential Beta customer trials and further early-stage funding.

The partnership aims to strengthen Franklin Templeton’s leadership and reach in fintech and innovation in Asia and support promising new startups in Singapore and the region.

Founded in 1947, the Franklin Templeton holding company is one of the world’s largest independent investment managers, with more than US$1.4 trillion in assets under management (AUM) and clients in over 165 countries. In 2019, it launched its inaugural fintech incubator in Silicon Valley in collaboration with Southern California’s incubator EvoNexus. Startups admitted into the fintech programme each receives a seed funding amount of US$150,000 in simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) from the firm. 

Launched in 2015, F10 is a global incubator and accelerator with offices in Zurich, Singapore, Madrid, and Barcelona. It teams up startups and big businesses such as banks, insurance companies and investors to foster innovation.

To date, F10 has incubated over 200 startups that have raised US$200 million+ in funding, as noted on its website.

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Image Credit: Franklin Templeton

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Most have probably heard of The Great Resignation by now, but what of The Great Paradox? The latter is a relatively newly-coined phenomenon referring to employees that need to feel connected to one another as well as the organisation yet at the same time desire more flexibility in their work life.

These seemingly contradictory desires have been driven largely by how work and the workplace have evolved in the last two years. The pandemic has accelerated automation and artificial intelligence advances due to sheer necessity.

These days, more people are using video conferencing software than ever before. In mid-March, as many countries across the world established lockdowns, video conferencing applications saw an incredible 62 million downloads worldwide within a week, a 90 per cent spike compared to the same week in 2019, according to mobile data and analytics provider App Annie.

The communications and collaboration industry represents the fastest growing market segment by value. It largely benefits from the fact that most new platforms are cloud-based, making their deployment relatively cost-effective.

The underlying problem

However, employees increasingly feel disengaged and complain about video-conferencing fatigue and anxiety, being summoned to video calls more often than they would need to. Digital transformation is hardly a bad thing, but virtual teamwork also does have its pitfalls.

Also Read: How COVID-19 accelerated digitalisation in the F&B industry in Malaysia

Interacting with coworkers remotely tends to lack the richness of a face-to-face conversation. The absence of social connectedness and physical interaction with colleagues and clients can lead to a fall in productivity and mental well-being and an increased feeling of isolation, loneliness, and uncertainty.

Even though many of us are moving towards hybrid working models, there is a glaring need for technology that can help bridge the gap between employees when not everyone can be in the office at the same time due to physical restrictions.

Remote work has raised our expectations of what video conferencing should look like, and rightfully so. So how can technology help us be more productive and connected and feel more involved?

The evolved solution: Smart video technology

Intelligent video integration brings on features like facial recognition, which can recognise each person in the virtual meeting room and frame each face to ensure that we can see each other in a less cluttered interface.

This enhancement means that we can read non-verbal cues more easily in meetings, and remote workers no longer feel excluded because virtual and physical attendees of the video conference can be represented on equal footing due to the full room feature, which can show a 180-degree view of the space.

Room systems with intelligent audio and video features, in addition to purpose-built devices for video conferencing, can result in delivering a consistent user experience throughout the organisation—whether for internal meetings or conferences with external stakeholders.

By standardising and optimising devices and software, enterprises can better support their employees in the office or working remotely.

Also Read: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Is the technology only as good as the human behind it?

However, currently, less than 10 per cent of rooms are video conferencing enabled, let alone intelligent video-enabled. Interestingly, an overwhelming 80 per cent of respondents in a 2021 survey shared that they will be accelerating their investment in conferencing solutions within the next 18 months.

This means that there is a growing need for businesses to adopt such technologies better to suit the changing needs of both customers and employees.

To ease the despondency of virtual teamwork, organisations must learn to adopt smart technologies to help them lessen the mental anxiety that arises from constant video conferencing among employees. COVID-19 wreaked havoc on businesses in all industries, yet some of the biggest employee-related challenges, from travel restrictions to difficulties in supporting the remote workforce.

Therefore, intelligent video integration can create a virtual environment that mimics real, physical conversations, returning employees’ feelings to the same room, creating involvement.

Adopting an intelligent video conferencing software solution helps address these issues and supports businesses in building a more engaged workforce. It needs to be part of the larger business processes to ensure that remote working does not cause disruption but rather provides continuity for their employees. The right technologies must be adopted to enable collaboration, push innovation, and drive growth.

Attracting and retaining valuable employees is a top priority in many organisations. The way to enable that is to transition to technology in their collaboration spaces, which can help employees perform at their best.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) today announced the completion of its more than US$50 million Series B funding round, led by Tiger Global.

The co-investors are Kingsway Capital, Jump Capital, Draper Dragon, Oak Drive Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, Ripple, and UBX Ventures.

Investors from its earlier rounds, including Beenext Ventures and Cadenza Capital Management, also joined this round.

PDAX started raising Series B with a US$12.5 million funding in August 2021.

Also Read: Why the Philippines is set to become the crypto capital in Southeast Asia

Established in 2018 by CEO Nichel Gaba, PDAX is a central bank-licensed digital asset exchange platform. It provides Filipinos with a “safe, easy-to-use” platform to buy and sell digital assets and engage in metaverse applications.

Officially launched in the Philippines in 2019, the app is available on the web and both iOS and Android.

In 2020, PDAX, in partnership with the Bureau of the Treasury and Unionbank, launched Bonds.ph. This blockchain-enabled app allows retail investors to invest in treasury bonds from their mobile devices.

“Crypto is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet. The Philippines already sees applications in play-to-earn games, NFT projects, cross-border remittance, trading and investment,” said Gaba.

The company will use the Series B funds to build a safe and accessible infrastructure for the digital asset economy.

“Today, PDAX facilitates the exchange of crypto and fiat currencies and enables payments in and out of metaverse applications. But there is still a lot of work to be done in building infrastructure. We are in the middle of developments that will continue to make access to digital assets safer, easier and more efficient for everyone,” he added. “As the space grows, PDAX will continue to work with regulators to ensure that all these innovations protect and create value for users.”

PDAX believes that blockchain technology and digital assets will create a level playing field, empowering Filipinos to grow their wealth from all walks of life.

Also Read: Inside the changing landscape of Asian cryptocurrency exchanges

There are more than 100 million people in the Philippines, but most do not have easy access to financial services. “PDAX is making crypto more accessible to millions of people in the Philippines,” said Alex Cook, Partner, Tiger Global. ​​

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Vietnamese quick commerce startup Rino has bagged US$3 million in a pre-seed round of financing from Global Founders Capital (GFC), Sequoia Capital India, Venturra Discovery, and Saison Capital.

Rino will use the funds to expedite its blueprint for 10-minute instant delivery by setting up hundreds of “dark stores”, a retail distribution centre or warehouse that caters exclusively to online shoppers.

A portion of the funding will be channelled to develop Rino’s logistics units starting with Ho Chi Minh City.

Also read: The future of social and quick commerce for developing countries

Rino was launched in 2022 by CEO Trung Thanh Nguyen, who served as Beamin Vietnam COO and Grab Vietnam’s Head of Two-Wheel division.

The startup taps into the grocery sector’s last mile, aiming to provide rapid and reliable goods “at a touch of a button”.

Unlike current local platforms, which can take 30 minutes to 48 hours to fulfil fresh food and grocery orders, Rino does it in 10 minutes. This is possible thanks to its inventory and procuring system that works directly with suppliers and integrated dark stores.

These dark stores, owned by Rino, are located in densely populated residential areas so that delivery personnel can collect orders within minutes after purchase and deliver to several homes on a single trip.

“The quick commerce landscape has benefitted from permanent gains as consumers of all demographics continue to rely on e-commerce options even after COVID-19 lockdowns taper off,” said Chris Sirise, partner at Saison Capital.

Quick commerce has been gaining momentum in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia, where companies such as Bananas, Astro, and RaRa Delivery recently attracted VC funding.

As per a McKinsey report, Vietnam’s US$108-billion retail sector is the fastest-growing in Southeast Asia and is poised for rapid modernisation. However, delivery and logistics have yet to catch on.

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Image credit: Rino

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Vietnamese blockchain-based roleplaying game (RPG), Summoners Arena, has completed its US$3 million seed financing round led by Pantera Capital.

Coinbase Ventures, Onechain Technology, GuildFi, Merit Circle, Cosmic Guild, Coin98 Ventures, Istari Ventures, Spartan Group, Impossible Finance, Kyber Ventures, and Kyros Ventures also participated.

They were joined by angels, including Krafton CEO Chang-Han Kim and Injective Labs Head of Business Development Mirza Uddin.

With this funding, the play-to-earn game firm plans to accelerate the growth of the Summonia universe, developing and integrating new features and tools to better user experience, as per a press statement.

A portion of the funding will also be channelled to bring on new hires across all functions.

Summoners Arena is backed by game developer studios OneSoft, Zitga, and Sonat.

Also read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

Founded in 2021, Summoners Arena is built on Binance Smart Chain as an idle RPG game where players explore the Summonia Metaverse as Summoners. Players need to summon Heroes (represented as NFTs) to engage in five-vs-five battles with their fellow Summoners in various game modes. They can then participate in immersive gameplay in Summoners Arena and experience game features that enable ownership over gaming assets while earning digital assets.

Summoners Arena is poised to launch two official versions of the game, a non-blockchain free-to-play (F2P) version where users cannot earn digital assets and a Play-Own-Earn (POE) version. Players of the F2P version are rewarded with free characters and features when they join the POE version.

“By prioritising building an amazing game first and layering in crypto-economics second, their P2E model is setting a strong example for other projects in the space, learning lessons from early attempts at the play-to-earn model,” said Paul Veradittakit, Partner at Pantera Capital.

Summoners Arena made its initial game offering (IGO) on Binance NFT, a launchpad for gaming assets.

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Image Credit: Summoners Arena

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A report by McKinsey & Company recently revealed that telehealth usage had increased 38 times from its pre-pandemic baseline since an initial spike in April 2020. As a result, Health Tech investments have leapfrogged with three times more VC digital health investment in 2020 than three years before.

Health Tech, a portmanteau of ‘healthcare’ and ‘technology’, isn’t new. However, this phenomenal jump in demand and investments was borne out of necessity after the COVID-19 outbreak when people were confined to their homes and had to find ways to continue seeking medical care safely.

Perhaps one of the main drivers for this skyrocketed growth is a growing mobile-first generation. The region is experiencing a rapid digital penetration rate, seeing an increase in 100 million internet users from 2015 to 2019.

Among these, Indonesia has a 48 per cent digital penetration rate, and Thailand has seen a slightly higher at 67 per cent, signalling readiness for innovation, even in conservative industries like healthcare.

Furthermore, we have to look at chronic diseases like obesity that can lead to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer and diabetes. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 62 per cent of all deaths in Southeast Asia are from NCDs, of which almost half are below 70 years of age.

Paired with the growing demand for convenience and access, cost-effectiveness and high-quality healthcare, there are immense opportunities for Health Tech growth in the region to support long term chronic care management.

We look at what’s next for health tech in the SEA region.

Telemedicine is more than a pandemic novelty

While Health Tech was forced to rise to the ranks during the COVID-19 pandemic, it shouldn’t be treated as a stopgap – instead of as a way to look at proactive healthcare management sustainably to take on a preventative approach to looming epidemics and chronic illnesses.

As highlighted in the McKinsey & Company study, telehealth usage hit an inflexion point at the beginning of the pandemic but continued to stabilise at way higher levels than before.

Also Read: MedHyve raises pre-seed round to make medical procurement easy for small hospitals

Even as we approach the new normal, there is an opportunity to consider telemedicine services as a permanent supplementary health management tool, especially for long-term healthcare and wellness monitoring purposes that apply in personal lives and the workplace.

Health tech must lock in sustainable outcomes in the long-term by tapping in on the momentum of the pandemic and the mobile generation.

While health tech has already established its consumer base, it’s essential to consider new user adoption. That way, they’ll be able to identify and gather new and existing user behavioural trends, attitude shifts, and underlying blockers to better understand the motivations behind the demand for different types of telemedicine services in today’s digital age.

While Health Tech and telehealth, in particular, bring about accessibility and ease of visits, there is also a need to consider the challenges of innovation in an industry as intricate as healthcare. Because of the lack of necessity in the pre-COVID-19 era, many may experience a natural resistance to the idea of speaking to your doctor virtually as the first port of call.

Adding to the resistance are looming concerns over technological infrastructure, and patient-doctor suitability as other industries too face the threat of security breaches in the digital landscape. As we witness other industries stepping up their digital transformation efforts, we must learn from their experiences and apply them sensibly to the healthcare industry.

In addition, health tech providers must hire the right people, such as doctors and physicians, who are adept at handling the technology and invest in knowledge sharing about how telehealth can be used to keep people abreast of their overall healthcare management regularly without compromising on their safety.

Meeting the growing demands of organisations and the future workforce

Due to the pandemic, many organisations have begun relooking their HR policies and implementing a hybrid work model of remote and on-site workers.

As such, B2B health service providers need to consider how telemedicine services can be used as a smart health management tool for HR leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners.

Corporate healthcare needs to take on a more WFH focused approach such as by means of telehealth for consultations, chronic disease management and health screenings. By partnering with telehealth providers, business leaders are empowered to gain a holistic view of the health of their entire organisation.

By prioritising the health of their employees, both employer and employee can reap cost-saving benefits and, in the long run, benefit from an enhancement of their overall work productivity.

Also Read: Modern solutions to modern problems: How Plusman LLC innovates healthcare

Increasing the accessibility of medical care through telehealth is just the beginning of long-term proactive health management for companies. Throughout the last three years of the pandemic, organisations have seen an increased focus on healthcare management, such as daily COVID-19 screenings and temperature checks, quarantine procedures for positive cases and more.

When these processes are not efficient, it can lead to ambiguity and work safety issues which can affect workplace productivity and absenteeism rates.

With the uptick of health-conscious individuals, it is no longer viable to focus purely on preventative care (e.g. visiting a doctor only when symptoms get serious) that does not encourage individuals to continuously monitor their bodies and stay healthy.

With telehealth, employees and employers can use more accessible and affordable costing models to complement traditional medical insurance.

For instance, at Good Doctor Technology, our B2B partners benefit from subscription packages for unlimited consultations for sick care and corporate wellness management and COVID-19 care programmes.

Revolutionising the traditional approach to healthcare management

Reactive health management looks at waiting for symptoms to escalate or waiting to fall sick before speaking to a healthcare professional. Before the pandemic, it was common for patients to attribute symptoms to the common flu or brush more dire symptoms off by administering self or home medication interventions.

With the increasing trend of people taking their health matters into their own hands, it is important to educate them on how to care for their health safely while retaining independence. Besides increasing the accessibility of healthcare services through telemedicine, Good Doctor Technology aims to place healthy lifestyles at the forefront of health management.

By educating the public on healthier behaviour, increasing the supply of doctors, and providing the convenience and ease of consultations, we are putting people back in control of their health to create more sustainable outcomes.

That being said, telehealth isn’t just about supporting patients through critical healthcare services at the speed and comfort of their homes. There is a need for people to be more mindful of their overall health to not worsen in the future.

By moving away from the traditional reactive approach to managing one’s health, primary healthcare costs incurred by patients over time can also be better managed. Of course, this is not to say that we have to move away from physical clinics altogether.

Rather, telehealth is now moving towards an O2O (online/offline) model in the new normal where virtual services complement physical services to provide a much more holistic care approach for patients.

Also Read: How can tech help with COVID-19 control and our return to normalcy?

Patients can also receive the right care at the right time in this collaborative ecosystem as they will be triaged and referred to traditional healthcare facilities only if they cannot manage their symptoms at the primary care level.

This will help avoid overburdening hospital resources and allow healthcare professionals at the tertiary care level to focus on severe and intensive care cases. Through teleconsultations, minor urgent primary care issues can be handled outside of the hospital walls and chronic care management cases can still be attended to effectively.

That being said, there are still questions to be explored in the industry that require time and experience to be answered sufficiently. Such as is the healthcare ecosystem gradually becoming more closed-looped, and what does this mean for the industry?

As we move towards a data-driven world, does aggregating patient data improve their overall wellness journey, and what role do platforms play in this?

These are not minor queries but have a significant impact on the future of health tech in the region, and this is a good thing as we continue to move forward. Besides the healthcare industry adapting to digital models, the pandemic has forced healthcare providers to embrace new approaches, some of which the world might not have been ready for.

Still, there is no doubt that we will continue to see new challenges and opportunities for Health Tech in the years to come.

By constantly innovating, reacting quickly and collaborating with like-minded organisations and people, health tech is well on its way to transforming the future of healthcare in the region.

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Image Credit: natalimis

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VC fund-cum accelerator NEXEA and Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) have renewed their partnership to continue helping startups grow their businesses during this challenging time.

The Entrepreneurs Programme, which serves as a P2P networking platform, has now opened up to a total of 30 slots for technology or digital-related startups in the idea stage, early-stage or growth stage.

Also read: Exit Strategies: Ways to get your money back besides IPOs and M&A

Before being accepted, founders or C-suite executives need to go through interviews and test sessions and have a minimum viable product (MVP) or already generate revenue for their startups.

Founders can then participate in the group to learn from their peer founders and receive free benefits from partners such as Microsoft, IBM, HubSpot, Google Cloud Platform, among others.

These startups will also receive mentorship from NEXEA and MaGIC’s network of mentors, who are successful ex-entrepreneurs or C-levels who own or have sold (IPO and M & M&A) their businesses.

Since collaborating with NEXEA in March 2021, MaGIC has empowered 30 participants through the programme.

“By value-adding to the startups’ growth development cycle, we are effectively enhancing the value and impact for our innovators to deliver its benefits back into the ecosystem,” said Khalid Yashaiya, Acting CEO of MaGIC.

As of the third quarter of 2021, the Entrepreneurs Programme is reported to assist startups to gain more than RM75 million (~US$17.9 million) in total combined revenues and over RM1 billion (US$238.8 million) in combined startup valuations. In this quarter alone, startups generated a total of RM41 million (~US$9.8 million) in combined revenues, noted in a joint statement.

Also read: 25 notable startups in Malaysia that have taken off in 2021

These startups also managed to achieve RM118 million (US$28.1 million) in combined funding. They include B2B e-wholesaler Lapasar, online parking solutions firm ParkIt, payment platform Riipay, and employee lifestyle support service provider Perkaholic.

 

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Image Credit: NEXEA

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