When it comes to climate change, Southeast Asia, with its long coastlines and heavily populated low-lying areas, is among the most vulnerable regions. Extreme weather events, typhoons and floods are frequent in this part of Asia.

Sustainable development and living are the only way forward. Innovative tech solutions need to be developed to achieve sustainability and address this crisis.

New startups have emerged in climate tech of late, but their number is scarce (a large chunk of which is in the alternative food and electric vehicles domains). Predictably, the amount of investments flowing into the sector is also inadequate; as per a report, roughly 0.8 per cent (US$396 million) of the total funding invested globally came to SEA in 2021.

The reasons for this slow growth are many.

“In our experience, three things are holding back climate tech investments in Southeast Asia,” said Rob Kaplan, Founder and CEO of Circulate Capital.

Firstly, the pipeline isn’t perceived to be strong enough, he said; if you want to invest US$100 million in climate tech, you would like to see over a US$1 billion opportunity because you only want to invest in the top 10 per cent. There is no visible pipeline of that scale in SEA. As a result, investors are reluctant as they don’t have access to the information and tools they need.

The second reason is, Kaplan added, there’s not been a successful investment track record for investors to look at in climate tech in SEA. It is a chicken-and-egg problem. On the one hand, investors aren’t confident in evaluating the risk as they have no previous investment experience. On the other, they won’t get that experience until they start investing.

Also Read: There’s a mismatch of investment and entrepreneur focus in SEA’s climate tech: Steve Melhuish

Third, there haven’t been enough investment products focused on climate tech in SEA historically. “When we launched in 2018, finding investors and funds using the words’ impact’ and ‘ESG’ were few and far between. Today, so many folks are looking at the space that we have multiple WhatsApp groups!” Kaplan noted.

Circulate Capital, based in Singapore, invests in companies addressing plastic waste and climate change crises. The 4-year-old firm has invested more than US$50 million in over a dozen companies, including Tridi Oasis, ACE Green Recycling, and Reciki.

Amasia’s Managing Partner John Kim echoed Kaplan’s views and said the region lacks a robust and collaborative ecosystem for climate tech startups to thrive. “I would compare climate tech development to the development of the digital ecosystem.”

When Amasia started investing about a decade ago, said Kim, the ecosystem was still nascent. Certain key players, like Temasek, worked hard to demonstrate the potential of SEA’s digital ecosystem by providing funding and leveraging its network to make key connections in the space. “The Temasek Foundation is doing something similar with climate now: they are running the Liveability Challenge to generate interest and awareness of the potential for climate tech in Singapore and SEA more broadly.”

In Kim’s view, developing climate technologies requires a robust and collaborative ecosystem that includes top research institutes, significant VC investments, and capable entrepreneurs. SEA has a keen interest in fighting climate change, given how acute its effects will be here. All the ingredients for development are here; they need to be melded effectively.

All the climate tech VCs e27 spoke to for this story, including Earth Venture Capital’s General Partner Tien Nguyen and Aera VC’s Founding Partner Derek Handley, shared similar sentiments.

“Entrepreneurship and venture investment develop through the history of economy, education, and culture, which the US or Europe has longer tractions than SEA. The region needs more time not only to improve startup quality but also to attract more relevant capital. We have the potential of a large and young population, a growing source of tech talents and a supportive government in terms of climate change,” said Nguyen. Headquartered in Vietnam, Earth Venture Capital seeks to support pre-seed to Series A-stage climate tech companies with a potential to expand globally.

Alt-food, EVs attract the most capital

It is not just that the venture money being poured into the region’s climate tech is paltry, but a large chunk of it is consumed by alt-food (plant-based meat, milk, etc.) and EV players. VCs believe this is because these are the sectors that existing investors are more familiar with.

Also Read: How electric mobility startups are tackling climate change in Asia

“Foodtech (and fintech) are some of the strongest entrepreneur and VC communities in SEA. It’s only natural that as folks started looking at climate tech, they would start by digging deeper into the areas with strong networks, experience and interest,” stated Kaplan.

Further, these sectors [alt-food and fintech] have received significant support from the government over the past five years. There are tons of incubation and acceleration programmes and a robust support ecosystem.

“Most often, innovation and technology [in SEA] are considered synonymous with specific industries, such as fintech or e-commerce. But innovative materials, waste management technology, and advanced recycling techniques are critical for the circular economy ecosystem,” Kaplan pointed out.

Steve Melhuish, a distinguished entrepreneur-turned-climate tech-investor and Founding Partner of Wavemaker Impact, concurred with Kaplan’s views. “Alternative protein has attracted substantial investment over recent years globally including in SEA — given the meat industry contributes roughly 15 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions and contributes massively to deforestation and poor animal welfare; for instance, TurtleTree Labs and Shiok Meats.”

TurtleTree is a cell-cultured dairy company that in November 2021 secured US$30 million in a Series A round of funding led by Verso Capital. Shiok Meats, a cell-based crustacean meat company, netted US$12.6 million in a Series A funding round led by Aqua-Spark, in mid-2021. Another key player is Next Gen Foods. This plant-based chicken startup recently raised US$100 million in Series to expand in the US.

However, Melhuish of Wavemaker Impact has a different experience to tell. “Over 80 per cent of the climate tech deals that 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.”

Kaplan suggests that structured incubation mechanisms need to be created to attract new innovators into climate tech. His firm Circulate Capital has initiated specific programmes to make the sector more attractive. One such initiative is a partnership with The Incubation Network (TIN), which sources, supports and scales innovative solutions that tackle plastic pollution. Together with TIN and global impact innovation agency SecondMuse, Circulate Capital encourages more and better ventures to get involved in the circular economy.

Also Read: ‘Climate tech: SEA needs more time to improve startup quality, attract capital’, says Earth Venture Capital’s Tien Nguyen

“We encourage all investors to get off the sidelines of investing in this sector. Large, institutional investors have not been allocating Capital to ClimateTech or any related sectors. The more they can signal their demand and interest in the space, the more likely we will be able to start seeing the scale of investment needed to drive returns,” Kaplan pointed out.

Kaplan also maintains that there’s a significant opportunity to invest in the waste and recycling space in South and Southeast Asia. Solving the plastic waste issue and capturing the economic value of plastic waste will help lessen the pace of global warming.

“Geographically, Asia represents an enormous opportunity to deploy interventions as the largest volumes of mismanaged plastics over the 2020-2040 period are expected in this region. We see this as a tremendous opportunity to invest in infrastructure and innovation to get circularity as a default option in rapidly developing parts of Asia. We want to skip incremental change of outdated systems and drive straight to exponential impact. Asia can build the next-generation model, and we have started seeing it already,” said Kaplan

Singapore-based Amasia also is doing its bit for a flourishing climate tech ecosystem in the region. It has developed a ‘4Rs framework’ (Review, Renew, Rethink, Rebuild) that considers the climate crisis more broadly as a symptom of certain behaviours we have developed as a society. Given that these broader behaviours are the problem, the solutions are broader than people typically think.

“For example, our wasteful behaviours around food production and consumption have an immense impact on the climate. Six per cent of the world’s carbon emissions result from food waste (3x the emissions from aviation),” said Amasia’s Kim.

“Materials production is another place where more can be done to fight the climate crisis. At Amasia, we have an experimental bucket, including companies like Seppure in Singapore, making industrial processes more efficient. Companies such as Unravel Carbon that collect data are also essential to measuring and managing the problem. We see plenty of impactful startup activity here in Southeast Asia, but they are not of the air-into-diamonds variety yet,” Kim remarked.

The government role

To stimulate the growth of climate tech in the region, different stakeholders have different roles to play. “We certainly need to allocate funding for R&D, though VC is not always the place for that funding to originate. VCs also need to understand developments in climate technology and become comfortable investing in technologies that help the climate in many ways. Entrepreneurs need to recognise that their particular skill sets can impact the fight against climate change and leverage those strengths,” Kim said.

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

The governments in the region also have a role to play in accelerating adoption and providing individuals and companies with incentives for change. “This comes with the caveat that startups should not become too reliant on government subsidies to make their tech competitive, lest we repeat some of the failings of the late-2000s cleantech bubble,” Kim concluded.

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Something every entrepreneur goes through but is not often talked about before, during, or after the experience, is feelings of isolation.

Being an entrepreneur puts you in a lonely place mentally because you are at the top of your organisation, and no one can understand what you are going through in trying to build, launch, and grow a successful company.

Add on to that the pandemic forcing people to be literally isolated from each other, and you have a recipe for success (or disaster).

In this very candid and frank episode about loneliness, I talk with Janet Semenova, the co-founder and CEO of Boutique Travel Agents and Centered CEOs about her experience as an entrepreneur, and how important it is to understand and develop coping mechanisms.

Also Read: Why Khailee Ng puts mental healthcare support as key to successful founders-investors relationship

More specifically, we talk about:

– What is isolation?
– How long after starting your company did the pandemic force your team to go remote?
– What is the difference in a normal day between working in an office with your team and being remote?
– How did this experience change you as a person?
– Did the feelings of isolation get worse, better, or no change?
– Do you think working fully remote long-term is making people stronger, or weaker/causing a soon to be seen mental health pandemic?

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

Acast
Apple
Spotify
Stitcher

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The article was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: chalabala

The post Coping with loneliness as an entrepreneur with Janet Semenova appeared first on e27.

Up and down the island, Taiwan boasts a professional, well-trained workforce.

The salary scale is key among the essential factors in deciding where to locate, whether as an employer or an employee. Stable salaries attract a greater range of talent in a virtuous cycle that enables workers to feel their full value and employers to maintain reasonable labour costs.

Sourcing a qualified, educated workforce is a similarly important consideration, and the Taiwan labour market offers companies a pool of educated candidates without exorbitant salary premiums for advanced degree holders.

Taiwan’s online job banks are a common hiring platform for both employers and employees, but there are some variations in salary trends among the two major sites.

A deeper breakdown of salary insights

Data from the 1111 Job Bank site show labour costs across the island to be surprisingly consistent, as seen in the table below. Salaries in the north are only fractionally higher than salaries in central and southern parts of the island in virtually every examined industry, including marketing, sales, human resources, finance and accounting, and general staff.

To illustrate, a business salesperson in northern Taiwan can expect to earn only about 7 per cent more than a counterpart in central or southern Taiwan. This salary trend is consistent across experience levels.

A senior human resources director, for example, earns a monthly salary of just 2 per cent more in northern Taiwan than in central or southern parts of the country; someone in the same job with only one to three years of experience similarly earns just 3 per cent more for locating in the north.

The sole exception here seems to be bookkeepers, who see a 10-15 per cent higher salary in northern Taiwan than the remainder of the island.

The post How remote work has changed the salary scale in Taiwan appeared first on e27.

E-grocery firm Sayurbox bags US$120M
Investors include Northstar, Alpha JWC, and IFC; Sayurbox is a farm-to-table distribution platform for fresh produce; The startup claims it works with more than 10,000 farmers, offers more than 5,000 products, and serves around 1M customers.

Climate tech is in a chicken-and-egg situation in Southeast Asia
Developing climate tech requires a robust and collaborative ecosystem that includes top research institutes, VCs, and capable entrepreneurs, say the region’s climate tech experts.

Finch, Indogen, Tokocrypto launch Web3-focused fund for SEA
Cydonia Fund will primarily invest in pre-seed to Series B startups; The investment vehicle is led by top Tokocrypto executives Teguh Kurniawan Harmanda, Chung Ying Lai, and Nanda Ivens.

Indonesia B2B marketplace Ralali closes first tranche of Series D round
Investors include Bee Accelerate, SBI Group, ICMG Partners, Beenos Asia, and Arbor Venture; Ralali connects suppliers with SMEs through its marketplace; Last year, the company said it had more than 1.5 million business owners on its platform.

Google launches US$6M sustainability fund for startups in Asia
The fund will be disbursed to startups that are addressing the “most pressing sustainability challenges” such as pollution, waste, biodiversity, renewables, and the circular economy.

Nium raises US$5M more in new funding
Investors include Moore Strategic Ventures; Its valuation stands at US$1.97B; The new round brings Nium’s Series D+ funding to US$8M and follows a US$2.96M in February; Nium last raised ver US$200M in July 2021 in a Series D led by Riverwood Capital.

Vickers Venture SPAC to merge with US pharma firm
Scilex is a subsidiary of Sorrento Therapeutics, which produces non-opioid pain management products; The combined company will have US$140M at closing and is eyed to be worth US$1.6B.

Ride-hailer Taiwan Intelligent Life nets US$5M from Japan’s Headline Asia
Headline Asia will acquire a seat on the Taiwan Intelligent Life’s board; The investment aims to accelerate the expansion of 55688, a ride-hailing platform created by the Taiwanese firm in 2011, into a super app that offers lifestyle services.

Handprint raises US$2.2M seed funding
Investors are Thunes and unnamed angels; Handprint allows companies to select from verified impact projects, embed impact into their business functions, and track how their positive impact grows over time.

AppWorks launches dedicated accelerator, Web3 arms
It will provide entrepreneurs with resources and support Web1 and Web2 founders as they transition to the new model; The VC firm also announced that it will begin raising capital for its AppWorks Fund IV in Q2; It has a target size of US$360M.

Singapore’s BNPL players eye ground rules
The city-state is setting up a buy now, pay later working group (BNPL WG) as an industry-led initiative to develop a framework for the market; The framework will mitigate risks of consumer over-indebtedness, ensuring that BNPL offerings will have a positive impact on Singapore consumers.

Singapore Airlines, NUS set up aviation lab to transform air travel experience
The lab will co-create innovative technologies and solutions that would accelerate the digital transformation of Singapore’s aviation sector, and help redefine the air travel experience for passengers.

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