AI Rudder, a voice artificial intelligence startup based in Singapore, has closed a US$50 million Series B funding round.

Investors include Tiger Global, Coatue, Cathay Innovation, First Plus, VenturesLab, Sequoia Capital India, and Huashan Capital.

This round brings the startup’s total funding raised in the last 12 months to US$60 million.

AI Rudder will use the new investment to double its headcount, add more clients, and increase its global presence. Currently, the platform supports more than 15 languages, including English, Bahasa, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Vietnamese. It plans to add Arabic, Cantonese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.

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

“Advancements in the machine and deep learning technologies are opening new possibilities for voice AI to be more human-like. This fresh infusion of capital will support continuous enhancements to our suite of products, enabling our clients to deliver more frictionless digital experiences to their customers,” said Kun Wu, Co-Founder and Managing Director, AI Rudder.

“The ubiquity of technology and SaaS has allowed us to impact businesses across continents — in countries like Mexico, Kenya, Australia and beyond,” he added.

Founded in 2019, AI Rudder develops advanced voice AI technology to help businesses solve B2C communication challenges across various industries, including banking and finance, fintech, insurance and e-commerce. Today, it has more than 200 clients.

Over the last year, AI Rudder claims to have experienced 400 per cent revenue growth year-on-year.

AI Rudder also has offices in Shanghai and Jakarta.

Last November, AI Rudder secured US$10 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Sequoia Capital India and Sequoia China Seed Fund.

In the past, the startup raised two rounds of investments: a US$1 million seed round in January 2020 and a US$2 million in June 2020.

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With the new normal being implemented worldwide more rapidly than anyone is prepared for, businesses have been urged to stay afloat using any other means possible. This means adapting to the e-commerce space, where most of the market has shifted dramatically.

In Southeast Asia, the sudden wave of merchant digitalisation has proven the need for businesses to go online as a necessity during the pandemic.

According to Google’s report, one in three small businesses believe that they wouldn’t have survived the pandemic if they didn’t go online. Meanwhile, eight out of ten merchants expect more than half of their sales to come from online sources over the next five years.

The impact of the pandemic on small businesses was immediately apparent. Mass layoffs and closures had already occurred. For some of us, if we didn’t see it happening to a relative or a good friend, we would have seen it happening to a friend of a friend or maybe that favourite humble restaurant that you used to frequent.

The ones that made it, or perhaps, barely made it in this challenging time, may have shifted their efforts towards going online. The extreme environmental shock didn’t give anyone enough time for a proper transition to the next phase, and it’s not going to slow down anytime soon.

Online accessibility is a necessity

Before COVID-19, society was already conditioned to seek more convenience and accessibility to enjoy an easier life. Most of us are, for lack of a better word, merely spoiled by modernity and the wonders of the internet that allows people to connect through an augmented view of the world.

Until recently, we still see a division between people who find the importance of moving to the online space for future progression and those who think adopting a lifestyle facilitated by the online platform is optional. However, once the pandemic arrived, these demands for accessibility suddenly turned into a necessity overnight.

The digital business sector is expected to expand more rapidly than it already has before COVID-19.

Also Read: Why live commerce is here to stay in Asia

Despite the high rate of internet penetration throughout Southeast Asia, many merchants still have yet to fully digitalise the fundamental aspects of their businesses that will allow them to function properly as e-commerce. A lack of prioritisation may cause this because they didn’t foresee the widely unexpected crisis.

Adaptation and survival

Things will never be the same as before. So the best thing we can do is adapt and survive.

Most transitional phases may prove difficult, but they have to be done. What’s needed now is more opportunities for merchants to reach customers more sustainably and efficiently.

An example of a platform that provides a space for both merchants and customers to be connected is ZCITY. This app provides services that simplify the e-payment experience by hosting a wide range of available merchants in one app while providing cashback and promotions for each purchase. Transactions can be done via trusted e-wallets, credit cards and online banking for ease of mind. 

First steps to look at

The best way for a business to get started is to first look for current gaps in their services and employ strategies to fill that in.

You can refer to other successful e-commerce businesses as role models. Observe how they manage the difficulties encountered while discovering the technologies needed to allow seamless online operation.

The goal is to create a smooth and straightforward experience for your business, merchants and customers.

It would be best if you didn’t overlook reassessing growth opportunities for your company in the new normal. That way, you can appropriately modify business models and reallocate capital to strive towards those opportunities efficiently.

Also Read: The era of live commerce has finally arrived. Will retailers embrace it?

Unlearning old habits

It’s time to challenge our preconceived ideas about what made organisations successful a couple of years ago and carefully analyse the current data.

After the pandemic, the severe disruption of global consumption has created a massive paradigm shift everywhere. With that, we were pulled along an inevitable flow where wading against the currents would only prove to be self-destructive.

Reinforcing a business culture centred around digital technologies has proven to give ample benefits beyond just reducing costs. More and more businesses reported the importance of boosting their capabilities through modern technologies as it far outweighs the initial concerns about cutting costs for the pandemic.

Embracing digital transformation

As people turn online more and more to buy products and services, we too must embrace digital transformation to maintain our competitive advantage.

The majority of these changes will likely be here to last or trigger new trends that dive even deeper into the roots of virtual networking.

As easy as it is for organisations to default to old habits during crises, sacrifices have to be made while undertaking more of the perceived risks that will return more value. Adapt your business to the new reality. Not to only survive this crisis but also to thrive in the post-crisis world.

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Starting young

As someone who started early at age 17 in the tech industry, it is not lost on me that women have a role to play in the heavily male-dominated field.

Based on research, women’s employment may increase GDP by 4 per cent and place Indonesia as the 4th country with the highest GDP count. Yet, only 51.89 per cent of productive women are fully employed.

Data also shows that Indonesia’s startup has a huge potential market in digital ecosystem acceleration, with over 2,300 startups and Indonesia dominating 41 per cent of the ASEAN market.

With these findings in mind, it’s clear that women more than belong but are the key players in Indonesia’s working space and digital landscape.

During my marketing and business development career at Yuna & Co. (the first personal styling platform fashion tech startup) and digital marketing boutique over the last six years, I’ve learned that courage and perseverance are vital to personal and professional growth.

As a woman working alongside founders and teammates, it’s important to be bold in voicing my ideas and opinions with data-based facts. Over time, I’ve come to enjoy a leadership style that balances between vision and coaching to move toward mutual goals.

Naturally, I am deeply drawn to initiatives that involve women’s empowerment. When given a chance to helm a CSR program for a notable transportation service company in Indonesia, Kartini Bluebird, I aimed to empower the wives of the taxi employees with home-based vocational training.

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

The goal was to equip these women with sufficient skills and help pave the pathway to financial independence by launching their small businesses.

The future is female

To continue advocating for female empowerment, I actively participate in the women mentoring community, WomenWorks. It’s a great space where fellow females can connect and interact, acting as mentors in their respective fields.

I highly encourage more young women, especially in Indonesia, to continue to seek the same communities, where they can be exposed to exemplary women in their unique expertise and given a chance to collaborate to further positive movements everywhere.

In conclusion, women’s empowerment is strongly linked to taking action and creating a supportive environment or community.

It could be in the form of a small mentoring community, CSR program, or a solid initiative for young women such as STEM education to encourage budding talented females to participate and break the male-centric stereotypes in the tech industry.

Empowering startups and women in tech

I consider myself very lucky to find my calling at a relatively young age. My experience and perspective in the tech industry and a strong desire to champion women have solidified my career path.

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

I’m truly looking forward to helping local startups and women in the tech startup industry by empowering them with the much-needed tools, exposure, access and network to unlock their fullest potential.

As the only woman in the business development team entrusted with the role of senior account executive at e27, I’m excited to inspire and give more women in tech the opportunity to voice their voices through the e27 Contributor Program.

Now, new women in the digital ecosystem, struggling founders, and even professionals in the industry can collaborate and get support with the available resources, including having campaigns tailored to their specific needs.

In addition to the program, there’s also the newly launched Pro+ e27 membership, designed with end-to-end support for all startup founders with three key aspects, i.e. branding for awareness, fundraising, and lead generation.

Last but not least, I welcome all prospective startups into the e27 power network and help founders scale up. Let’s have a coffee chat and get all the digital access already waiting for you! Send me a LinkedIn DM to connect!

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NFT came out with a bang in 2020 and took over the digital art industry in a storm.

Now, almost two years later, NFT is dying a slow death, with hundreds of thousands still hoping to find other fools to hold the bags by following whales who pump.

Through this short-lived fame, NFT has shown us the potential of what could happen to the art industry if democratised.  I’ve been studying this topic for a while, and it is even more exciting how the art market can be changed.

Forget about all the hype & buzzwords for a while and think art as we knew it: physical paintings transacted in fiat currencies.  Does it sound fancy, expensive, and unattainable?  Take away the aura of owning a Van Gogh, traditional artists aren’t different from digital artists at the core.

In both traditional art and NFT markets, there are five secondary market traders and three thousand wealthy individuals who lead and influence the market.

The NFT world works exactly like the traditional art market

I’m sure you have heard it before, but here’s how it works in the art industry (from what I’m seeing, this may be how the Beeple NFT worked too):

I, along with nine other friends, buy 20 of artist Nobody’s artwork over time, starting at US$1,000, slowly increasing the purchase price over time to say, US$10,000.

Friend A submits one of Nobody’s artworks he owns for auction, and I go buy it for US$25 million. Friend A gives me back US$25 million post-auction. Major news outlets report this fantastic purchase, and all of a sudden, the 20 paintings we bought are worth US$25 million each.

We just made US$500 million (=$25 million x 20 paintings) out of thin air and made an artist super famous.

Also Read: How generative NFTs are extending the boundaries of digital art

When Nobody sells his painting for US$15 million on the primary market, that painting is going to be snatched up because it’s at a significant discount. Everyone knows he can flip that painting for US$25 million at an auction somewhere. We have created liquidity for Nobody’s painting.

Assume now my friends and I want to cash out on the US$500 million. Since we have 20 paintings to sell, the market can’t digest all of them at the same time; given we paid next to nothing for them, we are willing to sell them at US$10 million each, and we still made US$200 million.

Now the market price for Nobody’s painting is US$10 million instead of US$25 million.

Everyone who bought and sold Nobody’s painting before this drop made money and are happy, but the last person who bought Nobody’s painting at US$15 million has to either sell it for a loss or hold onto it, hoping for a bigger fool to show up.

This happens in a thin liquid, or rather, an illiquid market, where the valuation basis is inconsistent.

A peek into the world of NFT art

But the craze in NFT has given us a glimpse of what could happen to art if we had a big enough market that is transparent.

Everyone should be able to freely express his opinions about art, despite their prices, given how the game has been played.  I wouldn’t say I like Basquiat’s art, and I should be able to criticise it. My prediction is if free market had been allowed, Basquiat wouldn’t even make it.

So how do we get the masses involved with art and truly democratise the industry?  It likely isn’t with NFT, as crypto is hardly a mass-market product.  But from NFT, we learnt that more people would be excited about art as an investment product. Money speaks louder, fact of life.  Penny stocks have their places too.

Many existing collectors may disagree with me.  But I’m not speaking to the “cultured” and snobbish few who can afford Picasso’s. We, the masses, can take ordinary artists without high-net-worth networks to the moon.

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Southeast Asia is lagging behind the west in climate tech, and this is a function of economic maturity and action from key stakeholders (governments, enterprises, consumers and investors), said Steve Melhuish, Founding Partner of Wavemaker Impact.

Unlike in the west, where governments are taking climate change seriously (for example, the EU has a green plan and commitment to a 55 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030), the ASEAN region doesn’t give due attention to the problem.

All talks and no action

“ASEAN’s governments and enterprises are talking but not acting,” said Melhuish, also the founder of the region’s proptech giant PropertyGuru. Taking Singapore as an example, he said the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is expected to rise to 65 metric tons per annum by 2030 (an over 18 per cent since 2014). According to a recent Yale Report, it is the worst-performing among the world’s wealthiest nations in GHG emissions.

In this region, only Thailand and Vietnam have made ‘net-zero’ commitments, and only US$9 billion has been deployed to green in 2020 versus the US$2.7 trillion needed over the next decade.

Also Read: How to tackle climate change by choosing a career in cleantech

In contrast, western countries have already initiated several concrete plans to tackle climate change. “Many European Union (EU) governments have banned fossil fuel car sales, imposed import tariffs and carbon taxes, new regulations, and implemented a sustainability taxonomy. All European countries have committed to net-zero by 2050. European and North American regulators are increasingly starting to prosecute companies and boards that ignore ESG (environment, social and governance),” he said.

Globally, corporates are also taking climate change seriously. About 75 per cent of global MNCs stated they would remove suppliers that endanger their net-zero transition by 2035. Most have also hired chief sustainability officers (CSO), made net-zero commitments, and published impact reports. Companies representing 27 per cent of global market capitalisation have set science-based targets versus only 4 per cent in SEA.

“In Southeast Asia, SMEs account for about 40 per cent of the GDP and 75 per cent of the workforce, but they are fragmented and lack financial and human resources or sustainability skills,” he said.

Things, however, have started changing. “We have started seeing large publicly listed companies (CDL, Capitaland, Olam, etc.) hire CSOs, publish sustainability plans and impact reports, and start making ESG disclosures,” remarked Melhuish, who also runs Planetrise, which invests in sustainable businesses.

Countries like Singapore have introduced several initiatives to create a better climate-tech environment. “Over the past 24 months, Singapore introduced several initiatives. They include new SGX rules on ESG disclosure, MAS’s new centre for sustainable finance, Carbon Impact Exchange plan, and the ’30 by 30′ food plan (aimed at producing 30 per cent of its own food by 2030). It also plans to reduce fossil fuels energy reliance from 95 per cent, with 30 per cent renewable energy imports by 2035.

In addition, the island nation has also launched an SG Eco Fund and set up EV charging points and grants to support energy-efficiency projects and investments in new carbon capture and hydrogen tech. Last month, it also proposed a carbon tax rise from US$5 per tonne to US$25 per tonne by 2025 and agreed to review a potential net-zero commitment.

Four other SEA countries also came on board and set up an ASEAN Taxonomy Board last year. In addition, we saw US$9 billion ploughed into green assets in SEA in 2020.

The region now has over 30 sustainability-focused active institutional investors.

“From a climate-tech startup ecosystem perspective, all this bodes well for the region. I now see about 15 climate tech startup deals per month (compared to 2-3 until four years ago). In addition, almost every week, I engage in discussions with experienced and wannabe entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and investors about how they can play a role in climate action.

Climate tech is beyond alt-protein and EVs

Globally, in climate tech, the alternative protein vertical has attracted substantial investment in recent years, including in Southeast Asia (although the meat industry contributes only about 15 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, it contributes massively to deforestation and poor animal welfare). Companies such as TurtleTree and Shiok Meats, or alt-protein funds like Big Idea Ventures and Better Bite Ventures are doing a great job focusing on these areas.

“However, based on my experience, over 80 per cent of the climate tech deals I receive every month are non-alt-protein. They span energy, nature/land use, building & construction, manufacturing, and transport-related. Over the last three years and a half, only two of my 16 Asia climate tech investments have been in the alt protein space,” he said.

The region will bear the brunt of climate change in future and represents a US$2.7 trillion climate-tech opportunity. But SEA gets virtually no attention today; less than 3 per cent of climate-tech investment globally goes to SEA, and most of this goes into EVs.

However, EVs address one of the smallest emissions contributors in Southeast Asia, whereas land use, food and agriculture are almost 50 per cent of emissions in Southeast Asia.

“There is a mismatch of investment and entrepreneur focus today in SEA. Hence, we at Wavemaker Impact are working with experienced entrepreneurs and have identified over 50x Southeast Asia-specific opportunities that could each have the potential to build 100 million tonnes x US$100 million revenue ventures,” he said.

Melhuish believes that tackling climate change is a monumental task that requires a huge effort from all of us — governments, enterprises, consumers and investors. There’s no bigger problem (or US$ trillion opportunity) than climate change. It will require massive investment in research, design, science and transformational tech to address our global emissions in the next 20-plus years.”

Also Read: Wavemaker Impact, Enterprise SG to groom 12+ climate-tech firms over the next 3 years

“But it will be too late if we do not act urgently. We need talented founders to focus on solving real business problems (revenue, customer acquisition, cost, productivity, etc.) focused on stakeholders in the largest emissions sectors in SEA. They need to adopt [suitable] business models and finance and use existing technologies to build venture grade climate-tech ventures that can scale rapidly. There is a massive opportunity for the climate-tech startups founded today in SEA to become the next generation of tech unicorns in the region,” he concluded.

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