Expanding into new markets can always be a challenge for startups as they work to navigate new challenges, find their target audience, and more.

According to the Startup Genome report on why startups fail, it was identified that 74 per cent of startups fail because they scaled prematurely. However, waiting too long to scale can also result in startups missing out on key opportunities that could lead them to success.

In this article, we highlight five signs that startups can evaluate to determine if they are ready to expand or not.

You have met or exceeded your goals

One of the biggest signs that you are ready to expand your startup is through your current status in your roadmap. When you are finding yourself in a position to meet your goals and milestones quickly, or you are repeatedly exceeding expectations, then the chances are that you are ready to expand.

When we talk about goals, we refer specifically to goals around customer growth, product validation, projected revenue and profit. When these areas and other goals specific to your industry and company are easily met, it could be time to explore the next steps.

You have experienced long-term profit

Profit is a key indicator of the health of your startup. If you are seeing sustained profitability over a long time, then this is a clear indicator that you have a sound business model and are doing things right!

This places your startup in a solid position to explore expansion as it will already be in a stable enough position to take risks with new markets and invest in market expansion.

Customer demand is increasing in other geographies

Seeing an increase in demand is always a positive sign; however, if you are looking for a key indicator to expand to a new market, take note of where this demand is coming from. If you are starting to see an increase in demand in a different geography, it would be strategic to consider that market as your next step for expansion.

Also Read: Scaleup Success: How can startups tackle the challenges of international expansion?

This could also be fueled by existing customers wanting to expand their use of your service in other regions, which could also help propel you into a new market as you would be able to prove your business model through them.

Your industry is growing and gaining traction

Another key indicator that your startup is ready to expand would be to look at your industry. You must understand your industry trends and use them to guide you in the direction you should go.

If you are to consider expansion, take a look at your industry in the different markets and garner key information that can inform your next move. This includes market saturation, potential customer base, potential market share, and more.

Another area to keep an eye on would be your competitors. If they are also growing, they too would be considering expansion and may indicate that the industry is gaining enough traction for you to explore other markets.

You have a strong, reliable, and stable team

Your startup’s team is important as the foundation of your business. Suppose you have seen stability in your team for an extended period, seen their strength in how the day-to-day elements of your business are run, and you have the confidence that they would be able to support you successfully as you enter a new market. In that case, you have a team in place for expansion.

Usually, your team should be people you can count on and passionate about your goals and committed to your success as much as you are if you can trust them to handle things while away, you are a step closer to expanding.

Final thoughts

These five signs have been valuable to us in identifying if startups are ready to enter new markets. If you are prepared to explore market entry, you have a few next steps to take:

• Start your market research and discovery and build up your reputation to approach your new target market.
• Find a partner in your target market that you could collaborate with for your market entry. This could be a local startup, a corporate, or another ecosystem player.

If you are interested in de-risking and accelerating this process, finding an accelerator or market entry program that focuses on your target market can support both steps above and save you time and improve your chance for success.

Interested in a new generation of accelerator programs? Explore Rainmaking Expand as they build modular and customised programs for the startups in their programs to tailor their market entry.

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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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Singapore-based social music platform BandLab announced the closing of its Series B financing round at US$65 million with a post-money valuation of US$315 million. Prosus Ventures, the venture arm of Netherlands-listed Prosus, is the new investor in the round.

BandLab earlier announced a US$53 million Series B, led by Vulcan Capital, in December last year. Other investors in the round are Caldecott Music Group and K3 Ventures.

The funds will allow BandLab to expand its team and grow its offerings to music creators and aspiring artists worldwide.

Launched in 2015, BandLab is a next-generation social music creation platform, which aims to support creators of all kinds, from first-time creators to Grammy-winning producers.

Its cross-platform creative ecosystem comprises Mix Editor, a royalty-free Sounds library, Mastering, and a newly announced AI-powered SongStarter.

Also Read: Singapore music collab platform BandLab acquires music live-streaming service Chew

Beyond creation tools, it also offers artist services like distribution and direct fan subscriptions. The upcoming integration of its recently acquired independent artist services platform ReverbNation into BandLab will further expand the suite of services available to independent artists.

Its parent BandLab Technologies also runs the professional-level digital audio workstation, Cakewalk.

“BandLab has built a next-generation platform democratising music creation for creators globally,” said Sachin Bhanot, Head of Southeast Asia Investments for Prosus Ventures. “The company has experienced impressive growth while generating solid user engagement.”

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When we are talking about innovation, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Technology, Sales, NFT, Accelerator, Hackathons, Blockchain.

It is hard to think about one specific thing when thinking about innovation. It somehow evolves its meaning to everything and nothing simultaneously, and more often than not, it costs a lot of money.

So what is innovation?

A recent study by Delloite shared that innovation is not only wholly new; successful innovation must be both new (but not necessarily new-to-world) and improved (as measured financially).

So, in other words, innovation is not only super new and unmeasurable, but in fact, it’s the improvement of something that exists and making it better.

“Innovation is taking two things that exist and putting them together in a new way.” – said Tom Freston, Co-founder of MTV. 

Why innovation is important, and how to unlock it?

When you see history through the ages, we can see that innovation has come in waves and is, in fact, directly responsible for massive economic growth and value creation in its time.

Starting from the investigation of steam engines and the first industrial revolutions to mobile phones and social media. Founders need to understand these general trends to capture the first waves of opportunities that come with innovation.

Then, the next question is how do we unlock those tremendous opportunities. Stay ahead in the game and create the proper strategy to accelerate other new innovative ways and market entry strategies for your company.

Also Read: The next fintech innovation will be a customer-led phenomenon

Five general tips to plan your innovation initiatives:

• Start with demands: A study showed that demand-driven innovative initiatives in which efforts are focused on identified customer and market opportunities have more likelihood of success. Start with getting to know areas of improvement, conduct proper surveys for your organisations, check which areas to improve, and identify key customers and their correlating market opportunities.
• Say goodbye to PoC: If you are doing corporate innovation or doing business with large enterprises, you will face the term POC. The problem is POC customers aren’t actual customers. Of course, your innovation initiatives are not fully commercialised yet but to garner real customers; you need to deliver its real value to your potential customers.
• Start quietly and be loud once you have product-market fit: measuring financial outcomes too soon, risk premature decisions that will impact your innovation journey, try sandboxing your ideas and build based on what works. And once you have that product-market fit, showcase your result and engage with strategic partners across the regions.
• Look to the past for clues about the future; it’s not always about the newest invention: History always repeats itself, even if the past patterns don’t always apply to the end. Companies such as OVO and Shopee are among the few that started late, but both can thrive and become successful.
• Harness the power of partnerships, leverage their asset and reduce risk: Test assumptions of your innovation strategy, whether you start with implementing new features for your product, to even having new ventures for your company, garner different perspectives with existing partners, reducing the risk of failure, and validate those assumptions fast.

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, whether you are just starting your company or managing a big corporation, everyone will always need to grow and innovate themselves.

If you are in Asia, Asia has become one of the hotbeds of innovation over recent years, with one of the most dynamic startup scenes anywhere. With its venture deals, with record highs in 2021. Funding was up 89 per cent from the 2020 mark. Starting any innovation journey in Asia will be very exciting in the following years.

So start with demands, engage clients directly but quietly, learn insightful clues from past initiatives and leverage key partnerships to achieve sustainable results for your innovation initiatives. 

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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.

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

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Global edge-to-cloud company Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) recently culminated the 2021 run of Fast Forward with HPE — an initiative designed to identify, support, co-innovate, and go-to-market with the next generation of digital disruptors in the Asia Pacific startup ecosystem.

Three B2B startups were chosen as winners among over 200 aspirants in the third episode’s “Pitch Day”, presenting an astounding opportunity for these top digital disruptors to collaborate with the technology heavyweight. The opportunity also grants them access to strategic partnerships with HPE to scale business growth and leverage go-to-market access as they shape the digital future, from the Asia Pacific to the world.

Amit Gupta (CEO & Founder, Ecosystm), Santhosh Viswanathan (Vice President & Managing Director, Sales Marketing & Communications Group, APJ Territory, Intel Corporation) and Suchitra Narayan Director, Advanced Manufacturing & Venture Building, SGInnovate served as judges for the 3rd and final episode. They challenged the top four startups from episode two on their business fundamentals and growth strategies. In the end, Cloudpick, H3 Dynamics, and Transcelestial emerged as the top 3 startups of the competition.

Cloudpick

Cloudpick is a technology startup founded in 2017 that provides smart retail and artificial intelligence solutions enabling AI-powered autonomous stores through computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning. It demonstrates its competitive advantage in delivering digital transformation to the retail sector, especially with increasing consumer acceptance of retail technologies. Cloudpick’s technology is currently used in more than 160 locations in 12 countries across North America and Asia.

The organisation has since received investment funding from reputable investors such as Cathay Innovation and Intel Capital. When asked about the adoption potential of the retail sector on manpower requirement shifts in retail towards more automation as a future trend, Mark Perry, Global Business Director at Cloudpick, elaborated how their solution enables a reshaping of the culture of retail where clients are able to benefit from 3 core value propositions: innovative branding, astounding customer experience, and increased profitability.

Also read: In the age of e-commerce, complete and accurate data analytics is key

This is made possible through being able to process more transactions at peak hours, having automated restock notifications and planning powered by AI, as well as the enablement of personalised dynamic marketing. The key hurdle to overcome is the expansion of client education. Additionally, Perry noted that the solution is not about cutting manpower but about bringing people into more value-adding aspects of the business.

H3 Dynamics

H3 Dynamics, an automation and drones service company founded in 2015, offers remote sensing, inspection, machine learning, condition monitoring, security and safety services, among others. H3 Dynamics is on a mission to decarbonise aviation with a unique solution focused on distributed hydrogen-electric propulsion. It has 80 employees across 3 regional headquarters in Singapore, Austin, and Paris, and have raised multiple funding rounds from a full range of investors including Mirai Creation Fund, backed by Toyota Motor and SMBC, and Ascent Hydrogen Fund.

When asked about growth plans across the business units of H3 Dynamics, Eric Feddal, Chief Revenue Officer, elaborated how the company is gearing up to raise its Series C round. As a software-as-a-service company in the field of autonomous cargo, it is their strategic priority to ensure commercial viability across their business lines involving AI use cases in non-urban environments such as dams and mines where drones are used and where weather challenges present human risks that can be mitigated through technology.

Also read: B2B tips: Doing business with large enterprises

Furthermore, one of its key focus is its emerging business vertical in aerial technology with its hydrogen-electric propulsion solution. Because of their diversified interests, they are seeking an end-to-end collaboration with HPE, having demonstrated autonomous cargo at scale.

Transcelestial

Transcelestial, a Singapore-based company founded in 2016 is building the future of Superfast Global Internet Distribution, enabling last-mile internet access that aims to boost internet penetration through affordable 5G deployment.

Their proprietary wireless laser communication technology named CENTAURI uses a space laser network in delivering high-speed affordable internet. This means that wireless distribution is possible, and right-of-way issues and digging costs are unnecessary. The shoe-box sized technology also has a built-in automatic alignment feature which makes deployment seamless. It is backed by investors such as Airbus Ventures and Wavemaker Partners.

Also read: Mobile app trends 2022: A global benchmark of app performance

When asked about the commercial scalability and mass adoption of the company’s technology, Rohit Jha, CEO & Co-Founder of Transcelestial, talks about how the organisation considers the fact that it’s being developed outside the US market as a factor of success. Specifically, a substantial market opportunity presents itself in areas where last-mile connectivity is a pervasive challenge, and Transcelestial is well poised to address this. With the amalgamation of both fibre optics and wireless technology, it can deliver internet connectivity and add further value to both consumers and businesses in the last mile. The next product optimisation goal is to provide connectivity of 100gbps along a 5km radius through a space network. Besides this, they have gained validation from the US market as well, being able to service clients in urban settings too.

HPE’s roles in nurturing these startups

HPE helps businesses manage their data and applications wherever they live, transforming insights into outcomes at the speed required to thrive in today’s complex world.

Fast Forward with HPE is on the lookout for the next set of digital disruptors to support and co-innovate with for its 2022 cohort. If you run a B2B digital startup in the APAC region with ready go-to-market solutions, have received prior investor funding, have industry vertical-led offerings, and have B2B-focused solutions or services, you can submit your interest to their official page.

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

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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Last week, we went public with our intentions to give a deeper coverage of the Web3 ecosystem. Since then, we have published several feature articles on companies and investors in the space, particularly those who are working in the Southeast Asian region.

This time, we are back with a listicle that features 22 notable Web3 investors. Some of these investors are focussing solely on the Web3 space while some of them invest in a wide range of companies. Either way, they were all looking forward to rocking the ecosystem with your startups.

Hopefully, this listicle can help guide you in the right direction in your fundraising journey. As always, for e27 Pro members, you can simply hit connect on the profiles of investors on our platform to begin reaching out to them.

1. LUNO EXPEDITIONS

Investing in both fintech and crypto spaces, in its investment philosophy, LUNO EXPEDITIONS puts a strong emphasis on the intersection between the finance industry and crypto. In an email to e27, CEO Jocelyn Cheng stated that it recently surpassed more than 10 million customers across over 40 countries that it operates in. “This follows a successful year that saw us grow our global customer base by 35 per cent y-o-y and aligns with our mission to make crypto accessible to the masses.”

This year, according to Cheng, the firm aims to scale up investments and expand focus beyond crypto into the broader fintech space. “We are building a leading platform designed around the needs of early-stage founders across the globe.”

2. Binance Labs

Recently, Binance Labs Investment Director Nicole Zhang made an appearance at the Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai. At the event, she pointed out how traditional VCs will turn to crypto projects to place their bets on in the future. According to her, it is because crypto projects are seen as “the right way to channel the audience.”

A study conducted by Forbes in the US found about 40 per cent of young Americans make only crypto investments nowadays. According to Zhang, this is a significant number that has alarmed traditional VCs. “They realise they need to grab the heart of the younger generation because they’re the future,” she stressed.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

3. Cake DeFi

In March, Cake DeFi, Singapore-based fintech platform that aims to make DeFi services and applications more accessible to the general public, announced the launch of its venture capital (VC) arm Cake DeFi Ventures with US$100 million in earmarked capital. It is looking to invest in tech startups in Web3, gaming, and fintech, especially those in the metaverse, NFT, blockchain and e-sports industries that “will bring synergistic value to Cake DeFi’s core business.

“… because we are entrenched in the Web3 space, we are able to offer more strategic value as investment partners beyond just capital injections. We are able to give them access to resources, proprietary R&D and connections that will aid startups to grow in this space. As a global company with customers in 191 countries, we are able to offer expertise and networks to support these startups in their own global expansion plans,” said Cake DeFi CTO U-Zyn Chua.

4. Cydonia Fund

Cydonia Fund is the result of a partnership between Finch Asia and IndoGen Capital which seeks to invest in pre-seed to Series B startups in the Web3 space in Southeast Asia. It has onboarded notable personalities in the regional blockchain sector including top Tokocrypto executives Teguh Kurniawan Harmanda, Chung Ying Lai, and Nanda Ivens.

As part of the agreement, IndoGen will bring in its whole ecosystem participation to support its growth, including Jababeka, Mahaka Media Group, and the Japanese Trade Organization (JETRO).

5. Animoca Brands

Widely known as the company behind The Sandbox, Animoca Brands has been making notable investments in the Web3 space, including a US$50 million investment into Brinc’s metaverse accelerator programme in January.

In an interview with e27, co-founder Yat Siu stated his belief on how Web3 is going to redefine labour in Asia in a big way.

“While investing in and supporting small companies in the open metaverse, we are creating a movement. That’s why we invest so aggressively. This way, we want to give some autonomy to people,” he says.

6. Alpha Venture DAO

Previously known as Alpha Finance Labs, Alpha Venture DAO’s journey began in 2020 with the introduction of the world’s first leveraged yield farming platform Homora. It has also incubated external projects as another mode to create and capture value, and further its mission of expanding the boundary of Web3 use cases.

The problems that Alpha Venture DAO aims to solve include the lack of support for founders (especially advice from builders with operating experience), the lack of decentralisation, and the lack of a supportive community.

Also Read: ‘I have seen the future, and it works.’ But is it Web3?

7. Brinc

Having raised US$130 million in funding led by Animoca Brands, Brinc intends to expand into new locations and launch new programmes and funds. In an interview with e27, Founder and CEO Manav Gupta details the organisation’s plan to expand to Web3.

“We will invest in Web3-native companies across culture (arts, media, gaming, e-sports, entertainment, collectibles), metaverse, DeFi, DAOs, guilds and infrastructure through Launchpad Luna. We will continue to expand the scope of our investment as we bring on more exciting partners across sub-verticals like Metaverses, De-Fi, Fitness, etc.”

8. Coinbase Ventures

Coinbase Ventures has been making investments in crypto startups in the region, including Indonesia-based crypto exchange Pintu in 2021.

In a blog post, Emilie Choi, Head of Corp & Biz Dev and Biz Ops at Coinbase, explains, “We’ll be providing financing to promising early stage companies that have the teams and ideas that can move the space forward in a positive, meaningful way … Our focus is on building strong relationships and helping to spur on the development of the ecosystem.”

9. Paradigm

From its base in San Francisco, Paradigm aims to back disruptive, global crypto/Web3 companies and protocols with as little as US$1 million and as much as US$100 million. It has made 73 investments including one in Sky Mavis, the owner of the popular NFT game Axie Infinity.

10. Pantera Capital

Pantera Capital is the first US-based institutional asset manager that focused exclusively on blockchain. Since 2013, it has invested in digital assets and blockchain companies, providing investors with the full spectrum of exposure to the space.

In Southeast Asia, the firm has invested in Pintu and OmiseGo.

11. Blockchain Capital

Blockchain Capital is one of the leading names in the industry, with big names such as Coinbase and OpenSea being their portfolio companies. Within the eight years of its history, it has made over 125 investments in various companies and protocols across different stages, geographies, and asset types.

In April 2017, the organisation invented the Security Token with the creation of the BCAP, a tokenized VC fund raised through a security token offering.

12. Digital Currency Group

DGC incubate, acquire, and operate businesses that provide a variety of financial and professional services to financial institutions, corporations, and startups. Its subsidiaries include Genesis, Grayscale, Coindesk, Foundry, and LUNO (which runs its own investment arm LUNO EXPEDITIONS).

Its portfolio companies are available across various markets from the US, Japan, to Kenya.

Also Read: A new digital era: How to earn a passive income in Web3

13. XCEL Next Ventures

XCEL Next Ventures is the company behind X-PITCH which is known as the X Games for startups. The competition has named the 18 startups from the TOP150 semi-finalists that have received funding rounds in April this year. Aside from the US$1 million investment prize that the top three startups have received in total, semi-finalists have also raised over US$17 million as of March 27.

14. Appworks

In August last year, Appworks announced that it has closed a US$150 million third fund that is targeting AI and blockchain startups in Greater Southeast Asia. By the time it was announced, the fund was already in the process of constructing a portfolio of roughly 40 deals, including 20 investments starting at US$2 million in Series A to Series C companies and 20 in the seed stage.

It has also teamed up with e27 to help startups build an investor network.

15. Genesia Ventures

In February, Tokyo-headquartered VC firm Genesia Ventures announced the first close of its third fund at approximately US$90 million. Like its previous funds, it aims to invest in companies that empower digital transformation (SaaS), new economy (sharing economy, decentralised platforms), media and entertainment (VR/AR, content), and frontier tech (robotics, digital twinning, space tech).

16. KK Fund

KK Fund invests in early stage tech startups operating in the diverse industry sectors including blockchain, Internet of Things, entertainment tech, fintech, edutech, HR tech, mobility and healthcare tech, and property tech that are primarily based in Southeast Asia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In the Web3 space, its recent investment includes Singapore-based Metareum, a metaverse platform that connects games, scholarship, NFTs, and communities.

17. RHL Ventures

A sector-agnostic investment firm that is based in Malaysia, RHL Ventures typically invests in early stages companies in Southeast Asia, particularly their Series A and B stages. However, they also participated in later stage rounds.

A regular contributor in the e27 Contributor Programme, Managing Partner Rachel Lau has shared her views on the kind of creative thinking that helps foster innovation.

Also Read: 3moji aims to transform the way NFTs are used in metaverse with its avatar system

18. Partech Partners

Another example of a sector-agnostic investment firm, Partech Partners has a history that began in 1982 in Silicon Valley. It invests from EUR200,000 to EUR75 million in a broad range of technologies and businesses for enterprises and consumers, from software, digital brands and services to hardware and deep tech, across all major industries. The organisation invests in global companies from its offices in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin and Dakar.

In Southeast Asia, its portfolio companies include Tinvio, Finantier, and Transcelestial.

19. C Ventures

C Ventures describes itself as the first investment club for the world’s most elite families and funds, bridging the West and the East, curating a global cultural ecosystem targeting the Millennials and the Z Generation, with a focus on disruptive businesses in technology, lifestyle and media. Led by Adrian Cheng, the firm has made a move in the Web3 space by investing in the digital asset financial services platform Matrixport and fashion NFT platform RTFKT

20. East Ventures

As one of the most active early stage investor in the region, East Ventures has also made some moves in the Web3 space. It has made an investment in Blockstream, a Canada-based Bitcoin and blockchain infrastructure; Bread, a New Zealand-based decentralised financial institution; and Indodax, an Indonesia-based platform for buying and selling Digital Assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and others.

21. Rebright Partners

Rebright Partners is an Asia-focus early stage venture capital firm that is backed by prominent Japanese corporate and institutional investors. In Southeast Asia, its portfolio company in the Web3 space includes Coins.ph, the Philippine-based blockchain startup.

22. Quest Ventures

Quest Ventures recently announced a partnership with the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) to launch the Social Impact Accelerator. In the Web3 sector, the firm has invested in Intelllex, a platform that supports crypto and fintech businesses as their knowledge partners.

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