By the end of 2025, the global public relations (PR) industry will likely surpass US$129 billion. Yet, despite this tremendous growth potential in the sector, the PR industry in Southeast Asia is not doing as well as it should.

Based on my experience working with over 300 entrepreneurs in the region, the lack of PR and content marketing innovation prevents startups from thriving.

As the world evolves and adopts novel solutions and technologies, the industry remains rotted in its traditional methods and processes. And while clients and entrepreneurs want effectiveness and clarity when working with partners, PR messaging is not hitting the right notes, thereby hindering collaboration.

Meanwhile, startups in Southeast Asia still face many challenges in establishing themselves. They have to deal with complicated bureaucracy, poor infrastructure, and an underdeveloped regulatory environment.

They are also constantly searching for investors to provide capital to boost their growth and product developments.

Even though these factors are vital, communication can make or break businesses. Companies need to rethink the relationship between PR, content, and startups in order to succeed and promote economic growth.

The traditional way of doing PR and content

PR firms and startups in Southeast Asia still follow traditional public relations and content creation models. While these techniques were tried-and-tested successes in the past, the world has changed and become ever-more digitised, making it challenging for the old ways to be as effective.

Some of the issues associated with traditional PR and content creating include:

High costs

Traditional content and PR campaigns are often expensive compared to digital marketing campaigns. Going digital gives cost-effective and sometimes free promotional and messaging opportunities for building a brand and selling more products.

In effect, startups are hurting their cash flow by paying for overpriced solutions.

Poor measurement

The lack of innovation in the sector restricts companies from conducting thorough analytics to understand their audience, predict consumer behaviour, and reach their PR goals.

As a result, businesses are unsure how to measure their PR success or even define it.

Success results from tying PR goals to the startup’s goals. For example, if the brand is focused on inbound lead generation, increasing web traffic, or establishing itself as an authority in its industry, then it is essential to target PR efforts toward reaching those milestones.

Also Read: How startups should approach public relations

Thus, it is possible to say that the press release, if that’s the PR tool used, played a part in raising awareness about a product, leading to website visits and boosting sales.

Zero transparency

There is a lot of bloat in PR both in agencies and in-house departments, creating a scenario where uncertainty arises about what the PR firm is doing for the company.

PR and content experts may be doing an excellent job, but they may neglect to let the business owners understand the process and the end goal.

Thus lack of transparency can cause mistrust, preventing everyone from collaborating towards success.

Lack of understanding of cultural differences

Companies that expand to other Southeast Asian countries may find it challenging to operate and communicate with a regional audience.

In some cases, PR and content consultants may not know the cultural implications of how businesses work in a different country. As such, they cannot provide suitable solutions to the startup owners for their new markets.

How to solve the PR and content problem in Southeast Asia

So, how do we solve the PR and content problem affecting startups in Southeast Asia with the above issues in mind?

Focus on results-driven campaigns

First, define how PR fits into the marketing solutions. PR must embrace the changes and evolve because technology has become part of our lives. Today, there are more digital opportunities for spreading targeted messages than ever before.

Most marketers have already adopted technology, using social media campaigns, automation, and online content marketing, and PR and content professionals must follow suit to get the results they are seeking.

PR experts can now position effective messages in multiple channels, employing Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques to appear in search results.

Also Read: Be credible and reliable: Key tips for startup communication in the new normal

By engaging online audiences and nurturing relationships, the sector’s professionals can boost the startup’s brand, enhancing sales opportunities. They should also remove the fluff in content to have clear, concise messages that resonate with the target audience.

Effective PR and content techniques training

Even though the PR industry’s history involves professionals learning on the job, employees require training on the significance of PR and content production and its impact on the company.

This need for continued professional development goes doubly for senior PR executives to prevent the entrenchment of bad habits at the core of the business.

Each department should also collaborate to guarantee uniformity and consistency in the brand messaging. Inconsistent communication affects branding and limits the impact of PR campaigns.

If teams are dispersed across Southeast Asia or globally, at least some of the messaging should be specific to the local area and the overall message regionally relevant.

Train business leaders 

Finally, train business leaders rather than PR or content consultants. It will help create a professional team of consultants who can customise or personalise solutions to meet the needs of the startups in various sectors.

The PR industry in ASEAN is growing and moving beyond the traditional approaches that have served it well historically. Digital transformation in Southeast Asia is driving companies to adopt technological solutions to address the challenges facing them in their respective industries.

Innovation in PR efforts and content management is crucial for startups to stand out in the competitive space.

While old techniques, such as posting stories in magazines, are still relevant in some situations, industry experts must use digital tools and media to brand startups and get their messages to the audiences quickly.

Information travels fast nowadays. Therefore, rapid, consistent messaging across all channels is essential while maintaining awareness of the communication differences between the countries in Southeast Asia.

Embracing innovation, focusing on results-driven campaigns, and training PR, content experts, and startup leaders will help achieve better PR results.

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Fintech has evolved from its early roots of finding ways to easier move money to a robust, thriving ecosystem of platforms that offer services that range from simple payments to integrated banking solutions, and even niche solutions for specific needs.

With a market size projected to grow to over US$6 billion by the year 2030, there are vast opportunities in the fintech space. Let’s talk about six fast-growing startups that are making their way ahead of the pack.

Reevoy

Founded by IIT/IIM/ISB alumni Ankur Khetan, Ishan Dadhich, and Mohit Agarwal, Reevoy is an international digital sourcing and financing platform for the fashion and lifestyle B2B global trade industry with a US$300 billion opportunity.

Reevoy has clocked over US$30 million annualised gross merchandise volume (GMV) value and US$2.4 million annualised revenue run-rate as of March 2022, working with fifteen global brands and over 40 factories. They also have a strong pipeline of more than ten global brands and over 70 factories ready to get onboarded.

With that, the startup is on track to get to approximately US$100 million annualised GMV and US$7 million annualised revenue run rate by December 2022. It has factored US$20 million over 1,000 invoices with zero non-performing assets and has an outstanding book of approximately US$4 million. The company is on track to close a US$5 million debt line at a low cost to further accelerate its platform growth.

Its asset-light, working capital enabled, and export-focused model makes it scalable and defensible to capture the market as a clear leader.

Reevoy is backed 9Unicorns, Better Capital, and marquee angel investors including Kunal Shah, Anupam Mittal, Aman Gupta, Alok Bansal and Himanshu Aggarwal.

Also Read: Pocket power: 27 personal finance startups in SEA to help you manage money

OneStack

OneStack is building a plug-and-play platform to offer neobanking and fintech solutions as a service. Its objective is to make every rural and small bank a neobank by empowering and digitising all the long tail banks in the country.

It plans to onboard the banks to the National Payments Corporation of India, an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in the country, and offer all financial services to the banks to retain and acquire new customers.

OneStack is currently building services to start working with consumer internet companies by enabling embedded finance for large e-commerce companies.

Its technology enables any bank and consumer internet company to go live in as short as a few days, and offer neobanking and/or fintech services. OneStack helps its customers build backend product platforms and offer white labelled mobile applications for neobanking services. It aims to digitise over 95,000 cooperative banks and 380 million users that stay in non-metros.

The startup has already raised a seed round from 9Unicorns, AngelBay, Faad Network, and angel investors Kunal Shah and Abhishant Pant. They plan to raise US$4 million with Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns as key co-investors.

Crypso

Crypso is a vertical social network for Indian crypto users to build a social trading application.

Founded in October 2021 by Suraj Kalwani, Ravi Chirania, and Rakesh Raman, their goal is to make a billion Indians participate in the crypto and Web3 revolution.

With this platform, users get to see the portfolio and trading strategies of their peers and influencers, join community group chats around areas of their interest, share their portfolio with communities for feedback, and execute trades based on social signals.

The platform has raised US$3 million to build a public product that is expected to launch in May 2022. Currently, it is in closed beta and testing the product with a strong community of over 2,000 users on Telegram and Discord.

Crypso is focused on young Indians between the ages of 18 to 35, who are driven by economic incentives to earn huge returns on crypto investments. The platform provides one-click execution of trade signals from crypto experts, influencers, and traders.

Also Read: How this homegrown fintech is helping Singaporeans with alternate investing

Insurance Samadhan

Insurance Samadhan resolves insurance grievances like mis-selling and claim rejection for life, health, and general insurance.

The company has resolved more than 4,500 grievances in the last three-and-a-half years, with an app that assists policyholders in filing their claims, and maintains and services their insurance portfolio.

Insurance Samadhan founders Deepak Bhuvaneswari, Shilpa, and Shailesh –who are currently the CEO, COO, and Insurance Head, respectively– put together domain expertise of over 50 years. Their other team members Sanjay, their Legal head, comes with 25 years of legal expertise, and their CTO Ravi has 12 years of experience,

The startup has raised US$1 million in seed and pre-seed rounds, and it plans to raise US$10 million soon.

Glimpay

Glimpay simplifies banking for India’s 100 million creators, freelancers, influencers, solopreneurs and micro-businesses.

Compared to corporate employees, these segments of working professionals currently have no access to all aspects of finance in one place and use fragmented financial tools and services – a gap that Glimpay aims to bridge.

Most of these working professionals use traditional solutions to accept payments that jumble with other transactions, which often means minimised clarity in earnings and job expenses that make financial and tax planning difficult.

What Glimpay is creating is a seamless Earnings Management Platform to redefine credit for Independent Professionals in India.

They are looking to raise US$1.5 million for aggressive user acquisition, hiring a small team for product development, and building Applied Data Science solutions.

AlgoBulls

AlgoBulls is a platform created to provide automated, customised, and personalised stock market trading experiences.

Founded in 2019 by Pushpak Dagade, Jimmit Patel, and Suraj Bathija with an aim to provide democratisation of trading solutions for the retail audiences who otherwise could afford to access such high-end technology, AlgoBulls provides an end-to-end solution to its users with ready-to-use strategies and market knowledge in an automated form without any need of manual intervention.

The Mumbai-based startup is operational in over 15 cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, and Jaipur in India.

The company intends to expand their client reach to 150 cities. It also plans to launch its product in the US within 2022.

To get to know these six exciting startups better, catch Demo Day 2 (DDay2) organised by Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns. You can access the showcase by registering here.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns
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Singapore-based medtech startup Us2.ai, which uses machine learning to automate the fight against heart disease, has raised US$15 million in a Series A round led by IHH Healthcare and Australian healthcare-focused fund Heal Partners.

Lifesciences-focused Pappas Capital and existing investors joined the round, including Sequoia India, EDBI, and Partech Ventures.

The firm will use the funds to drive its growth targets for clinical implementation in the US, Europe and Asia. In addition, US2.ai plans to expand its commercial activities with leading pharmaceutical companies, research labs, and imaging providers worldwide.

“Our focus has been to create a comprehensive solution beyond the existing industry standard of partial automation requiring manual intervention and providing limited measurements,” said James Hare, CEO and co-founder of Us2.ai. “Our software automatically processes full echocardiographic studies of 2D and Doppler images from any vendor in less than two minutes. It thus delivers complete echo reports, with fully explainable measurements, editable annotations and conclusions for every heart chamber.”

Also Read: New technology that’s challenging the status quo in medicine

Us2.ai’s software tools improve clinical decision making and cardiovascular research for clinical trials using echocardiography, the safest cardiac imaging modality. It connects institutions and imaging labs worldwide on a platform of ready-to-use automation tools for view classification, segmentation and federated learning across diverse, anonymous patient and disease cohorts.

Its product Us2.v1 has automated measurements that include 2D (cardiac volumes, all four chambers of the heart), M-mode (e.g. tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion), spectral Doppler (blood flow across all valves, both PW and CW measurements) and tissue Doppler. They have covered most standard measurements for adult transthoracic echocardiography recommended by the American Society of Echocardiography, European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging, and British Society of Echocardiography.

Fully automated Us2.v1 measurements were utterly interchangeable with expert human measurements and were completely reproducible for a given patient study.

Us2.ai has completed multiple projects with global pharmaceutical partners and a groundbreaking approval study at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

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With the Russia-Ukraine still going in full swing, roughly 4.6 million fled Ukraine. The war has predictably destroyed Ukraine’s economy as the government revenues have shrunken and goods trade has been severely disrupted. Many businesses have either closed or are running only in a minimal capacity. The World Bank has forecast that the Eastern European country’s economy will collapse by 45.1 per cent this year.

Although diplomatic and international-level talks are on, there seems to be no end to the conflict.

As Ukrainians continue to flee their war-torn country, many startups and multinational corporations came forward to lend a helping hand. Among them are two Singapore-based companies — Ahrefs and Xctuality.

Ahrefs, an SEO service startup founded by Ukrainian entrepreneur Dmitry Gerasimenko, has managed to raise US$1.3 million for humanitarian organisations in the country.

The firm, whose nearly 20 members have family and friends in Ukraine, raised the money by offering to extend customers’ subscriptions to the Ahref platform by twice the amount of their donation. It means for every US$100 donated, the customer will receive US$200 of subscription value in return.

The funds will be spent on food and medicine delivery, transportation, and temporary refugee homes.

Also Read: How Singaporean startup Xctuality helps creators, brands accelerate into metaverse

Xctuality, which helps creators, and brands accelerate into the metaverse, took a different route to help the displaced Ukrainians. The startup wrote a post on LinkedIn inviting applications for various tech jobs. The priority is given to war-affected Ukrainians, many of whom have fled to safety in neighbouring countries. However, the majority are still within Ukraine and doing their best to seek protection in less affected parts.

According to its Co-founder and CEO Warren Woon, the response to the posting has been good. Many of his friends and their contacts have shared the message, and Xctuality has been receiving inquiries and conducting interviews.

“I have many Ukrainian friends both within and outside of Ukraine. They are wonderful people with a long history and rich culture. Seeing war tearing their lives apart overnight was shocking and sad,” said Woon. “I knew immediately that I had to help somehow.”

“Xctuality is a fully remote company, comprising 25 members across six Asian countries. Hence, working with anyone anywhere in the world is fine as long as there is reliable internet. We look at the technical competency of our potential hires and their complementary fit into our company culture. We welcome all who are interested,” he shared.

He also mentioned that while some people’s bank accounts have been affected, the majority can still use their bank cards and receive deposits. “Alternatively, we can look at either crypto or paying out via more traditional remittance services,” Woon said on being asked about how to pay their salaries.

Warren added this initiative is more of a personal mission for him. “Prior to this war, Ukraine was home to many highly-skilled and experienced tech talents, and we should do what we can to help keep alive and nurture this talent pool.”

“We’ve learned about the history of World War II and seen movies about such plights in war movies. This is happening now in the 21st century, and we are living this historic event. How we react tothis and what we do about it may have an immeasurable impact for generations to come,” Woon concluded.

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Market access has become an increasingly important topic as countries are slowly opening borders and choosing to “live with the virus” so to speak by declaring the COVID-19 an endemic.

Entering a large market like China definitely is on the agenda of many corporations and startups alike where, if done correctly, has the potential to spike their growth. Considering the very different regulatory and business environment in the country, it is definitely a safer approach to enter the market by having a lead that is a locally-based company.

Local market access is key

Global Innovation & Technology Platform or GITP is one such company. Based in China, GITP provides technology companies with local expertise in the country based on a multidimensional assessment of information such as market, technology, intellectual property, and government policies. This includes the design of suitable business collaboration models, technology, or brand repositioning to suit the local market or developing brand new application market, developing a project marketing plan, providing a list of potential business partners, and providing corresponding landing services.

GITP also provides some of the valuable services a company should consider when entering China. These services are as follows:

Project Liaison: This involves the shortlisting of potential business partners from an extensive network of local connections in China and pitching projects to the shortlisted business partners of your choice via professional industry experts. Technology companies should be kept informed on the latest updates with customised progress reports.

Intellectual Property (IP): In reference to core technology or the product of technology companies, GITP helps conduct search and analysis of similar IPs filed in China, outlining the number of similar IPs, major IP applicants, and the main protection direction and other relevant information. GITP helps conduct risk assessments on IP registrations in China with expert advice from legal professionals on the technical data protection aspect.

Technology Assessment: Establish technology readiness of the project and offer project launch expertise. Provides detailed research and analysis on relevant technologies in China and evaluation of the competitive edge of the project in the China market. The result of the analysis includes advances in research on relevant technologies in China, technology application status in the local market, technology solutions employed by major local competitors, as well as competitive advantages compared to technology solutions in China.

Also Read: Could China’s CBDC threaten decentralised cryptocurrencies?

On the other hand, technology companies should also consider pitching opportunities or competitions organised by the provincial or local government of China.

The Global Entrepreneurship Competition 2022

For that, GITP would like to bring technology companies’ attention to the Global Entrepreneurship Competition. The Global Entrepreneurship Competition 2022 aims to build a multi-level, multidimensional and diversified international entrepreneurial model. This competition seeks to discover startups around the world, with the goal of facilitating entrepreneurs to grow and expand their businesses in Beijing.

The organisers and partners aim to use this competition to continuously empower entrepreneurs already in or interested to land in Beijing by providing a full range of “Beijing Services” such as talent settlement, children’s education, healthcare, designated apartments, and more.

Featuring top investors, famous mentors, and leading entrepreneurs to provide all-round entrepreneurial guidance and acceleration, this competition will be set up in seven major global areas worldwide, namely North and South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. There is a prize pool of over approximately US$15 million (100 million RMB) to be awarded to successful startups, with 28 Talent Scout Awards up for grabs.

This competition will also prioritise startups with a focus on seven tech verticals, including:

– AI / Virtual Reality / Fintech
– Medical Health
– Information Technology
– High-end Equipment
– New Energy / Energy Conservation & Environmental Protection
– Cultural Creativity
– Agricultural & Food Technology

Also Read: Meet the 10 startups pitching at Chinaccelerator’s 19th demo day

The project’s supporting services

Office Space: The award-winning startups would receive support with free office space of up to 300 square meters in Beijing Hycore Building for up to three years. Other than that, the industrial parks offer office space rent discounts and renovation subsidies.

Enterprise Services: Provides personnel service, social insurance service, business registration, and other whole process services to award-winning startups.

Media Communication: Media resources will be coordinated at all levels to provide opportunities with paper media, network media, short-form video interviews, television interviews, and other multi-channel for the promotion of award-winning startups.

Exhibition and Promotion: Award-winning startups will be given exhibition opportunities at Global Entrepreneur Summit as well as two tickets.

Development support

Investment Matchmaking: The startups can get direct investment opportunities from Investment Fund and more than 100 collaborative investment institutions.

Incubation and Training: Provide incubation, training, and acceleration services to award-winning startups.

Industrial Connections: Regular industrial networking will be held to provide direct opportunities for award-winning startups to work with industry giants, leading enterprises, large state-owned enterprises, and listed companies.

Capital Market Connection: The award-winning startups will have the opportunity to connect with both local and overseas capital markets.

Urban Industrial Policy Support: The award-winning startups can be given priorities to industry supporting policies at both the district level and city level, including the first set of equipment, technology acquisition, government procurement, and others.

Enter the lucrative Chinese market

The Global Entrepreneur Entrepreneurship Competition provides ample opportunities for startups to gain a chance to enter the lucrative Chinese market, as well as to capitalise on the incentives provided by the Chinese government on tech-related projects.

The sign up is 100 per cent free of charge, so come be a part of the largest global Entrepreneurship competition! The registration is closing on April 28, 2022.

Interested startups and SMEs may register here. For more information, visit GITP’s official page.

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

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Singapore is well known for having one of Southeast Asia’s most attractive startup ecosystems. Its flexibility in foreign ownership and low tax rates make Singapore an accessible location for investors.

Within the third quarter of 2021, Singapore startups raised SG$11.2 billion, and just in the fourth quarter of 2021, two of Singapore’s most popular startups, Carousell and Ninja Van, attained unicorn status.

Of the fifteen Singaporean startups that have attained unicorn status over the years, two of them, Trax and Acronis, are Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies.

Trax, a retail analytics company, founded as recently as 2010, attained unicorn status in May of 2019 and is valued atUS$2 billion in 2021. Meanwhile, Acronis, a cybersecurity vendor, which was founded in 2003, attained its unicorn status in September 2019 and is valued at over US$2.5 billion in 2021.

SaaS companies have proven an attractive investment. This is due to its business model, which allows SaaS companies to own recurring revenue. On top of that, they offer predictable revenue, have a lower barrier of entry for their clients, and scale quickly.

The range of products made available by SaaS companies has also made investing in them very profitable, leading to many venture capitalists actively investing in SaaS startups. According to Growthlist, the top VCs in the world investing in SaaS startups are sure of the massive potential that SaaS has.

Basic framework for evaluating SaaS companies

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies operate with a distinct business model. SaaS companies spend an upfront marketing cost (also known as customer acquisition cost) to generate prospects.

Upon signing up, the customer will pay a subscription fee (usually on a monthly basis) to use the software product. With continued satisfaction with the platform, the customer will renew their contract or purchase additional software features. If the platform is unsatisfactory, the customer leaves or churns from the platform.

This business model gives SaaS companies certainty over their revenue as they can expect a certain group of customers to continue paying for their subscription over the contract time. SaaS companies typically measure monthly recurring revenue (MRR) as their key metrics.

With an understanding of a SaaS company’s business model, how would investors evaluate the attractiveness of different SaaS companies? What are the key metrics that SaaS founders should note to prove their business’ viability?

Also Read: How can you build a living, thriving community around your SaaS product?

This article will explore an investment evaluation framework that acts as a guideline that investors follow when evaluating SaaS companies.

Does the company provide a valuable service to its customers?

Investors first evaluate if the SaaS provides services well received in the market.

Four key metrics that investors pay attention to are:

• Monthly recurring revenue/annual run rate
• Renewals
• Churn
• Non-financial metrics such as net promoter score (NPS) and user engagement score

Monthly recurring revenue is the total revenue generated from all active subscriptions within the month. This metric is important as it helps to predict incoming monthly cash flows.

Annual run rate (also known as revenue run rate or sales run rate) is a method of forecasting future revenue over a more extended time period (often one year) using previously generated revenue.

Run rate assumes that current recurring revenue will continue and uses that information to forecast a company’s annualized recurring revenue’s future performance. The annual run rate can be calculated as monthly recurring revenue multiplied by twelve times.

The renewal allows investors to gauge the number of repeat customers or sales upon contract expiration. It also indicates if the SaaS company fulfils users’ needs compared to its competitors. This is because users would already have done a comparison before renewing their contract upon expiration.

Churn measures the number of customers or amount of sales that have been lost. A SaaS company with a high churn rate indicates the company’s inability to meet users’ needs, and it could work on improving its products/services.

A net promoter score (NPS) measures how likely customers will recommend the product, which will lead to future sales. User engagement score measures the number of time users spends on their platform, indicating future churn or renewals.

Is the business model sustainable?

When evaluating SaaS companies, traditional GAAP accounting is not useful due to its revenue nature.

With most SaaS companies, acquisition (CAC) costs such as sales and marketing and other operating expenses are expensed upfront, but revenues are recognized evenly over time.

Investors assess the sustainability of the SaaS companies using:

• Gross profit margin
• EBITDA before sales & marketing cost
• The” Rule of 40”

The gross profit margin is indicative of the cost to serve customers. The lower the margin, the less scalable the SaaS company would be.

EBITDA pre-sales & marketing cost (operating profit, including R&D, spent, with depreciation, amortization and sales and marketing costs added back) measures underlying profitability if investment in growth is halted.

The “rule of 40” accommodates a loss-making business if growth is fast enough and a slowing business if profitability is large enough. The general rule is that Revenue growth rate + EBITDA margin should be greater than 40 per cent.

Is there a product/market fit in an attractive market?

Investors use three key metrics to evaluate if the products/services of SaaS companies have product/market fit in an attractive market.

The following three key metrics are:

• Growth
• Average selling price (ASP) trend
• Market size

Investors would measure the growth of a SaaS company by looking into its booking growth, which measures the value of the contract signed and is indicative of future revenue.

In addition, investors would also measure MRR growth, which measures the level of recurring revenue over a month, and churn rate to evaluate the growth of the SaaS company.

ASP trend helps investors evaluate if there is an attractive market or not. A low ASP cannot support long sale cycles or the high cost of acquiring customers (CAC).

Also Read: What metrics to monitor as a B2B SaaS company?

High ASP indicates greater marketing effort, beyond inbound marketing, is required to win customers. Increasing ASP indicates that customers are more willing to pay for services, meaning an improving quality of service.

Investors pay attention to the total addressable market by using market size as a product/market fit metric. The total addressable market must be large to support long term scalability potential, and the market should also be expanding to accelerate SaaS companies’ prospects further.

Can the company scale profitability?

Investors take on a holistic view of the company, considering both qualitative and quantitative factors when gauging if a SaaS company can scale profitability or not.

First, investors would understand the deployment model and sales efficiency and margin to get insight into the business’s scalability, viability, and efficiency.

Second, investors would understand the Go to Market (GTM) strategy. An effective GTM strategy is highly significant given the profitability of delivering a standardized software service.

The acquisition cost should also be compared against the customer lifetime value (LTV) to gauge how effective the marketing spend is. LTV measures the amount of profits that a customer will generate over their expected period of usage of the software.

In general, for every dollar incurred in acquiring the customer, lifetime value should be three times or higher for a business to scale profitably.

What is the company worth?

Determining the valuation of a SaaS company is ultimately the most important decision for investors. Using the framework mentioned above, investors could solely focus on the quantitative metrics or both quantitative and qualitative metrics in determining the valuation of a SaaS company.

Putting all these factors together will help ascertain the fair valuation multiple of the SaaS company.

This article is co-authored by Charles Phan (Project Lead) and Darrell Su (Senior Analyst), Capital Advisory at Paloe.

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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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Technology today goes a long way towards humanising the insurance industry. Insurtech has been a catalyst for growth for the sector, but arguably even more so since the pandemic’s start. Traditional insurance companies have been forced to reach out to customers by alternative means with restrictions and lockdowns.

As with every other industry, the insurance sector is becoming more technologically advanced to meet growing customer expectations. Competitive market pressures also increasingly challenge the industry to innovate its processes or be left behind.

Despite much market volatility, which has disrupted industries worldwide, the digital insurance market has rapidly grown, giving rise to insurtechs. Tech-first insurance companies are revolutionising the industry with innovative offerings that deliver simplified, fast-paced, and affordable insurance for the masses.

In 2022 and beyond, let’s look at some of the key trends paving the way towards insurance 2.0.

Big data in product development

Over the past few years, consumers have become more digitally savvy. This has resulted in an increasing preference for innovative insurance products delivered in a seamless and digital-first way.

We have also seen the emergence of technological advancements and shifts that are reshaping products. Insurers are now starting to put customers at the heart of everything they do, leveraging big data and underwriting innovation to understand what products need to be improved and determine the correct pricing to develop on-demand and value-for-money insurance policies that truly cater to their needs.

Also Read: Insurance 4.0: Harness your data reservoir for genuine impact

For example, micro-life insurance and in-patient products offer individuals tailored coverage at lower values starting from 8,000 rupiahs (US$0.56) per month.

Delivering delightful customer experiences through personalisation

While “insurance” and “love” might not be commonly used together, changing the public’s perception and making insurance delightful is important for the new generation.

A key part of customer-centricity is personalised services. With customers wanting to feel special and not just another face in the crowd, personalisation is the best way to achieve that.

Incorporating chatbot AI systems can help personalise the customer service side of insurance. The use of machine learning enables the chatbot to identify ways to personalise the conversation, making it feel natural and, at the same time, accurately answering customers’ queries.

Rise of AI-powered claims processing

Lesser human intervention is involved in manual processes like automation, and AI solutions roll out across every domain in the industry and join forces with front-end customer experience technologies to increase efficiency and deliver higher customer satisfaction.

Despite this, many traditional insurers are still spending disproportionate time manually handling their claims processes.

Insurers today will need to leap utilising AI and advanced algorithms to simplify claims processes and spot “red flags” in fraudulent claims, to effectively increase efficiency and accuracy.

From the moment a customer opens an insurance claim, AI technology can streamline the administrative process through automation, processing claims in an average of just 18 seconds.

Collaborations to fill gaps and expand market reach

Generally, the insurance process is complex, time-consuming and lacks transparency.

With the increasing competitive challenges to attract and retain customers, insurers will need to develop and use a broader distribution ecosystem that engages customers when and how they want and meet them at their point of need.

Through a multi-channel strategy, they must create an ecosystem of connected channels, using a range of digital capabilities to connect with customers.

Insurtechs with new and innovative products are blowing their traditional counterparts out of the way by leveraging partnerships and ecosystems across many different areas of the distribution spectrum.

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

We are also starting to see partnerships form within the industry with insurers leveraging new marketplaces to expand reach and companies including Gojek, Shopee, and Xiaomi becoming channels for insurance.

Together, the partnerships represent a powerful distribution ecosystem that places insurance products directly in the path of customers’ life journey events, where relevant and needed.

Greater focus on increasing financial literacy for the community

The global pandemic has heightened awareness of the importance of insurance protection.

In particular, it has drawn attention to the predicament of large uninsured and under-insured populations, especially in emerging markets within Asia, where a lack of financial literacy and mistrust of financial institutions hinders greater insurance penetration. However, it is precisely in countries like Indonesia where insurance can make a difference in the lives of everyday people.

With the widening protection gaps, insurtechs are leading the charge in making insurance more accessible and affordable for all through microinsurance policies that are low in cost and efficient in administration.

From mobile-based insurance apps to remote services via AI-powered digital assistants, insurtechs are improving their outreach to customers in rural locations and offering advice on insurance through digital channels.

In a world of digital transformation, leveraging emerging technologies and data sources to drive efficiency and expand capabilities may be the thing to enhance the customers’ experiences.

Insurers and insurtech firms must continue focusing on accelerating their digital journey, streamlining processes through automation and providing customised services are needed to remain relevant in the long run.

Insurance can be delightful, and we want to bring the words “insurance” and “love” closer together.

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With a growth of 49 per cent YoY in their GMV in 2020, the potential of e-commerce in Indonesia has become one of the most talked-about by many people.

A study by Google-Temasek reported that the GMV of e-commerce in Indonesia is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 37 per cent from 2020 to 2025 to reach a GMV of US$146 billion in 2025.

However, despite the high growth potential predicted by many analysts, several concerns might inhibit e-commerce in Indonesia from reaching its full potential. One of which is the high unpenetrated population in non-tier-one cities in Indonesia.

Reports from KataData and Kredivo in 2020 stated that two-thirds of the total e-commerce transactions in Indonesia are coming from tier-one cities in Indonesia, which only account for 13.85 per cent of the total population.

Whereas a report from Alpha JWC Ventures and Kearney stated that in the next five years, there will be two to three potential unicorns from e-commerce, lending, and SME services that will emerge on the back of the growth of tier-two and -three cities.

This fact indeed leads to a big question on why it’s even possible and what leads to such a huge gap. The low participation of lower-tier customers in Indonesia is not strange, given the unequal adoption of technology and digital literacy between urban and rural cities in Indonesia.

Nielsen, Kearney’s analysis even stated that more than 80 per cent of the population in the non-metropolitan areas are considered laggards when it comes to adopting technology. This figure contrasts with tier-one cities where the percentage is just under 20 per cent.

The high internet penetration rate in Indonesia, which is 73.7 per cent, does not necessarily change customers’ behaviour in Indonesia easily. Therefore, those unpenetrated customers play an important role in determining Indonesian e-commerce success.

Lately, we have seen many startups target lower-tier customers with an approach to empower offline sellers and local communities that already exist. This certainly indicates that community trust and the word-of-mouth advertisement method are still the most effective in determining customer buying decisions in those regions.

For example, startups such as Mitra Bukalapak and GrabKios are trying to digitise local mom-and-pop stores, or social commerce players such as Chilibeli, RateS, and KitaBeli that utilise agents in the area to market their products.

The quite striking characteristic difference between the tier-one and non-tier-one customers has become an important foundation for the Indonesian e-commerce giant in finding a way to boost adoption for the unpenetrated customers, mainly from the non-tier-one region.

Also Read: How can you get ahead of the game with e-commerce in the Australian market?

In recent years, e-commerce players in Indonesia have been trying various ways to attract lower-tier customers into e-commerce, such as by building an entertaining platform to boost traffic, trying to maximise word of mouth strategies, and even introducing cash-on-delivery services to the smooth buying process.

Live stream feature to boost engagement and trust

Are we on air? Great!

Hello, everyone watching online; today, we have a lot of great deals for you. All the products today just for 100 NTD sounds great. So make sure you watch the entire live stream today and quickly let us know which products you are interested in in the comment section.

Back in April 2020, I worked as a live-streamer in an online shop selling various products through Facebook live streaming to Indonesian migrant workers in Taiwan.

Before working here, I didn’t understand why a certain type of people would like to spend their time watching long-hour live streaming to buy the products they want if online shopping can be as simple as click and buy.

Later that I know those prospective buyers like it if we as sellers could demonstrate the products we sell, such as using them or showing further details.

More than that, other viewers can sometimes give testimonials about the products. At the same time, we promote these products, so this can encourage potential buyers to be more confident and convinced on buying the products.

Live shopping was initiated back in 2016 by the Chinese e-commerce giant Taobao and slowly began to gain popularity since it mixed the convenience of online shopping with real-time engagement, such as communication between customers and sellers that could boost customers’ trust in purchasing products.

In the last few years, other players such as TikTok, Pinduoduo, and Kuaishou began adopting the same feature.

Contributing to ten per cent of total China e-commerce GMV in 2020, live shopping in China is predicted to grow double in their presentation to total e-commerce GMV in 2022 to become a 28B yuan business, according to HSBC and Qianhai Securities.

E-commerce players in Indonesia began implementing live shopping in 2019, and many use public figures, KOLs, and actresses as talents to generate traffic.

Tokopedia did this in the early days of their live shopping feature, namely the Tokopedia Play. By the time Tokopedia Play was released, they had designed this service exclusively for official sellers. They packaged it as an entertaining platform before opening the service to all sellers as it is today.

Nowadays, the average live streaming audience from the official store at Tokopedia that collaborates with KOL as talent can be watched by around 88,000 people. Tokopedia also stated that the overall live streaming could lead to an increase of up to 262x in-shop visits and drive up to 100 per cent shop’s daily orders.

Then, what is so special about the live shopping feature so it can become a new trend that shakes e-commerce?

Arun Sundararajan, an Indian economist, once mentioned in his book, The Sharing Economy that the explosion of crowd-based capitalism must also be balanced with the ability to build a “digital trust infrastructure”.

In a non-face-to-face setting, building trust involves establishing authenticity and assessing intentions.

Also Read: Are social sellers missing an important piece of the data puzzle?

The introduction of live shopping in e-commerce apps allows customers to assess product authenticity and sellers’ intentions to build trust in online shopping.

The solutions offered in answering doubts about shopping online are the main contributors that could further attract new target customers and boost sales.

In-app TikTok like video sharing feature as promotional content

Short video sharing services with vertical formats have become a new trend among the world community in recent years. Yes, TikTok, as the social media that initiated this feature, has now evolved into one of the social media with the most users in the world.

In Indonesia itself, TikTok is also a very popular platform, with the number of users reaching 92.2 million users. Based on Statista data, TikTok Indonesia’s monthly active users are the second largest globally, with 22.2 million, just behind the United States with 65.9 million.

One of the Indonesian sellers and influencers on TikTok, Natasha Surya, shared tips on how she was able to sell 7617 fur carpets in less than 2 hours through her Tiktok live streaming feature.

Natasha said that a few days before the live, she always made a short video review within 60 seconds of the products that would be sold on live streaming via her Tiktok.

The videos that are made always explain the advantages and disadvantages of the product, the unique selling point of the product, and the amount of discount offered. Natasha argues that this aims to facilitate the decision-making process of prospective buyers.

Seeing the trend of selling using video-sharing as a promotional method is considered quite effective. One of the e-commerce giants, Shopee Indonesia, released the in-app TikTok-like video sharing feature in Q4 2021.

This new feature is intended to help sellers promote their products in the Shopee apps. To optimise this video-sharing feature as an effective promotional tool for attracting potential buyers, Shopee Indonesia even makes the Shopee video section one of the buttons on the main page.

Shopee video also implements a similar concept to TikTok for-your-page (FYP), where users can watch various short videos randomly distributed according to the audience’s preferences.

To attract fans of short video services to switch from TikTok to Shopee video, Shopee does not limit the uploaded content always to be related to promotions and sales. Still, Shopee video encourages various types of video content that are entertainment, like TikTok.

Opening access to everyone by cash-on-delivery feature

Since the cash-on-delivery payment method was adopted by various e-commerce in Indonesia in 2018, this payment method has increased significantly.

The COD method has become the majority of payment methods in Indonesian e-commerce, with 78 per cent of the total payment methods. This percentage is almost four times higher than all digital payment methods combined, such as bank transfers, cards, or digital wallets.

Based on data released by Central Statistics Bureau in 2019, it disproportionately shows that out of the 34 provinces in Indonesia, only the capital city of Jakarta has a preference for digital payment methods (Bank transfer, Card, or digital wallet) higher than 50 per cent.

Meanwhile, the other 33 provinces still rely heavily on the cash-on-delivery payment method. Seeing the cash-on-delivery payment method that is so dominant today, can you imagine what Indonesian e-commerce was like before this payment feature was implemented?

Uniquely, every e-commerce in Indonesia has its strategy for introducing the COD feature in its apps. For example, one of the leading e-commerce in Indonesia, Tokopedia, utilises the COD feature only as a method to gain trust and form shopping habits from new target customers. That is why this feature is only available for use a maximum of six times for each user.

On the other hand, Shopee can be said to be at the forefront of promoting this COD feature by providing a free shipping fee for the first six deliveries and even the lowest service fee compared to its competitors, which is two per cent of the total transaction value for subsequent deliveries and even coverage delivery areas are available throughout Indonesia.

Shopee does various ways to attract new target customers to use this feature. Apart from promoting free shipping, Shopee is also campaigning for the COD payment feature through advertisements on local Indonesian television.

Also Read: Indonesia’s GoTo aims to raise US$1.11B in IPO

Using a jingle from an old Mexican song called “La Cucaracha”, they turned the lyrics into an offer to use the COD feature because it offers free shipping, and we can pay for the products we buy as soon as they arrive in our hands.

The ad also features a well-known senior Indonesian comedian carrying an orange box and singing energetically as he delivers the package to the customer.

With lyrics that are so interesting and simple, Shopee wants to make this advertisement attractive marketing psychology for potential customers to be able to sing along and finally understand the message that Shopee intends to convey.

Making advertisements with unique concepts like this is a mainstay of Shopee in attracting customers’ attention. Of course, we still remember the megastar Cristiano Ronaldo who danced baby shark in one of the Shopee advertisements a few years ago.

Big four e-commerce competition and TikTok as a newcomer with significant advantages

With the four big players controlling 91 per cent of the total e-commerce GMV, it is certainly interesting to see how the strategy of each marketplace in winning the competition becomes the best.

Shopee and Tokopedia are currently considered tier-one, while Lazada and Bukalapak are in the second tier with a large gap.

In terms of monthly active users, it was reported that Tokopedia outperformed all other marketplaces with 129.1 million. However, in terms of their transaction amount (GMV), it can be seen that Shopee slightly outperformed with US$14.2 billion, followed by Tokopedia with US$14 billion.

The data attached above certainly cannot conclude who will be the winner of e-commerce in Indonesia in the next few years. With the market for non-tier-one customers still wide open, the competition becomes very interesting. Anyone who can maximise this potential can certainly be a game-changer who will play a significant role in e-commerce in Indonesia.

Tokopedia play, which uses KOL and influencers as talent in live streaming, has succeeded in attracting customer traffic to enter its apps, as seen from the high monthly active users.

While the effectiveness of the Shopee Video in bringing new customers will also become something interesting to see, considering its efficacy on TikTok in encouraging smoothness in the buying process.

On the other hand, TikTok is also very serious about entering the e-commerce industry. This is evidenced by the introduction of the shopping cart feature and Shopee Seller University, which is a place for TikTok to educate its sellers on how to maximise their TikTok account as a platform for them to sell their products.

Also Read: 2022: Making the year of the tiger a roaring success for payments

The availability of live-streaming and shopping cart features will open up opportunities for TikTok influencers to sell their products directly to buyers. Seeing the number of active TikTok users today, which has reached 92.2 million, is certainly a valuable competitive advantage for TikTok in attracting target customers.

Various strategies implemented by existing e-commerce players in Indonesia to attract unpenetrated customers, the emergence of social commerce startups that focus on tier-two and tier-three, and the participation of social media platforms such as TikTok in enlivening e-commerce in Indonesia make me believe that e-commerce in Indonesia will grow rapidly in the upcoming years.

In terms of market share, I would expect the big four to drop in their dominance percentage due to the many new players entering the market.

On the other hand, the competition will also be tougher, as big players’ features, strategies, and approaches become more and more similar to one another.

Reflecting on the past, the majority of startups in SEA are willing to “burn a lot of money” as their surefire strategy in attracting new users, and in the end, only the one with the most money will survive and excel.

This is certainly a very positive thing from the customer side because shopping at e-commerce becomes easy and close to them.

The opening of COD access to all provinces in Indonesia and the high penetration of social commerce in their area will make customers better off because they have more choices and power to compare prices.

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Although 21 per cent of the US millennials are actively collecting NFTs, the industry is still struggling to grasp real adoption among the masses. For instance, the process of creating and collecting NFTs is tedious and technical to the average user, let alone understanding the underlying utility. Similarly, there is also a loose link between NFTs and the inherent value they represent. All of these technical hurdles are slowing down mainstream adoption despite the huge potential.

But on the brighter side, new technological advancements in the industry are solving these challenges, bringing an array of novel opportunities. Location-based NFTs are disrupting user experience and utility, making NFTs easier and more ubiquitous to access by all levels of users. Moreover, location-based NFTs add a new layer of scarcity by requiring users to physically go to a specific location, drawing potential on how NFTs can empower new business models.

Location-based NFTs explained

Location-based NFTs, also known as geotagged NFTs or Area NFTs, are a class of digital content, albeit pieces of metadata, that are tagged to real-world locations. These non-fungible tokens secured by smart contracts can represent digital identities of social media profiles, a concert ticket or even an exclusive voucher for a local restaurant. The location part comes in to enable business logic that encapsulates geocoordinates. For instance, in order to access these NFTs, users need to travel or be within the radius of the specified coordinates as in the case of Lost Worlds, a mobile-friendly platform for location-based NFTs.

Making location a key aspect for unlocking NFTs creates a new breed of possibilities in rewarding loyal customers and users. Think about fans who can unlock branded merchandise only when they are present at a live music concert. “Binding NFTs to a real location allows shared experiences to be blended through the interaction of the physical and virtual worlds. By allowing any business to expand their offerings to consumers with unique geotagged NFTs, we see more value behind the utility of NFTs for many sectors including fast-moving consumer goods, retail businesses, restaurants and entertainment,” says Quaison Carter, CEO & Co-Founder at Lost Worlds.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

Location-based NFTs drive new businesses models

Entrepreneurs are still catching up with how NFTs can help revive their offline businesses, especially after the pandemic’s disruption of consumer behaviour. That’s why 41 per cent of businesses are trying to pivot from offline to online operations, even though most of their revenues are generated from in-store purchases. Fortunately, location-based NFTs can help revive the existing habit of in-store experiences that consumers are almost giving up on and transform into a hobby.

A majority of NFTs making recent headlines are primarily seen as another “profile picture” collection that offers little utility beyond art. But the truth is that NFTs are more than what meets the eye, especially now that geolocation technology is in play. This technology expands shopping experiences to become part of hobbies or turns daily outdoor activities into lasting rewards.

Geolocation NFTs are merging the real world with the metaverse to make Web3 apps accessible to more users. With a typical smartphone and a free Web3 wallet, anyone can start using NFT platforms like Lost Worlds. This empowers brands to engage and connect with consumers in innovative ways that drive content ownership, monetization, and redemption, as well as shared digital experiences with friends and family.

“Besides a fluid user experience, attractive rewards remain a key driver for customer retention and acquisition. With location-based NFTs, businesses can invite users to redeem exclusive rewards only when they physically mint them at select places. This concept will help drive consumers to visit physical stores, unlock redeemable content in the form of NFTs, and in effect drive more revenue for offline retailers,” says Quaison.

Rethinking consumer and brand interactions

Location-based or Geotagged NFTs are just starting. Their practicality opens up many use cases to disrupt all industries, as long as location can be fused into the user engagement model. For instance, the music industry can adopt location-based NFTs to redefine the experience of acquiring, using and interacting with artists and their content. Fans flock to events when they stand a chance to collect exclusive giveaways, as a means to emotionally connect with their favourite celebrities. These giveaways, in the form of NFT merchandise redeemed at select locations, are now reinventing how fans engage with artists.

Similarly, record labels can leverage this technology to stimulate new revenue streams for their artists. By leveraging location-based NFTs and shared experiences, record labels can create digital experiences that directly connect fans to music artists. For example, record labels can host events that bring communities together based on regional or seasonal events. These communities create a ready market for NFT-driven campaigns that upgrade the overall fan-artist experience.

Also Read: NFTs provide new ways to handle IP management, empower content creators: Inmagine CEO Warren Leow

Expanding the potential of NFTs

“One of our goals is to encourage business owners to tap into the full potential of NFTs that bring new engagement models for their end users,” says Quaison. Consumers are already intrigued by NFTs and are more inclined to see how they can spend, redeem, or unlock them as rewards. It’s just a matter of time before NFTs become closely integrated as the new normal.

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The content was first published by The Human & Machine.

Image Credit: The Human & Machine

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Indonesia-based fintech startup JULO today announced that it has raised US$80 million in funding from Credit Saison, a Japan-based company that provides digitalised and localised financial services to the underserved market in Southeast Asia and India.

This funding includes a mix of US$30 million equity and US$50 million debt fully funded by Credit Saison.

In a press statement, the companies stated that the investment round was structured to scale JULO’s growth with a two-pronged approach.

The US$30 million equity will be used to advance JULO’s analytics, for product development, marketing, and customer acquisition plans by hiring additional talent across their developer, data scientist and business intelligence teams. Meanwhile, the US$50 million debt will be used to fuel finance loans on the platform.

As the only corporate investor in the startup with a global lending business, Credit Saison stated that it will play an active role in JULO’s hyper-growth phase and provide governance direction as the company scales. Both companies will also explore preliminary opportunities to expand into other emerging markets together.

For Credit Saison, the investment is aimed to accelerate its expansion to the Indonesian market. The investment strategy builds on its existing activities in emerging markets via Saison
Capital, the corporate venture capital arm with a focus on discovering startups with an opportunity to build embedded finance capabilities.

Also Read: The 27 Indonesian startups that have taken the ecosystem to next level this year

“Credit innovation requires a deep understanding of local consumer behaviours and needs in order to truly improve the financial health of all. JULO has emerged from the past few years as a resilient and COVID-19-proven business with more than US$300 million in disbursements under its belt to date. We look forward to joining hands with them in this next phase of growth to accelerate financial products that will drive truly meaningful change for individuals in Southeast Asia,” said Kosuke Mori, Senior Managing Executive Officer and Head of Global Business at Credit Saison.

JULO is one of the earliest in the Indonesian market to offer a virtual credit card service.  In 2021, it launched a digital credit card which claimed to have seen 97 per cent of users utilising non-cash features to top-up e-wallets, top-up phone credits, pay utility bills, and process payments on e-commerce sites.

Previously it raised a US$60 million Series B funding round in February.

Its investors include Skystar Capital, Saratoga Investama, East Ventures, Quona Capital, Central Capital Ventura, MDI Ventures, Gobi Partners and others.

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Image Credit: JULO

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