Lazada receives US$378M from parent Alibaba
This is the largest capital injection since June 2020, when the company had received US$1.3B from Alibaba; Alibaba, which has a huge presence in SEA, is looking to expand into Europe; Alibaba already has AliExpress in Europe.

Indonesian used-car platform Moladin raises US$95M
Investors include DST Global, East Ventures, Northstar Group, and Sequoia India; Moladin helps agents and smaller dealers use tech to simplify transactions for selling used cars; It said it has over 40K agents and dealers across Indonesia.

Indonesian digital identity network VIDA raises US$47.7M Series A
London-based Hedosophia is likely the lead investor; Other backers are Alpha JWC, SEA Frontier Fund, YTL Corp., Endeavor Catalyst, and Breyer Capital; VIDA offers ID verification, legally binding and verifiable digital signatures, and verifiable credentials.

Animoca Brands leads US$24.3M Series A of gaming metaverse firm Untamed Planet
Untamed Planet plans to create metaverse games that immerse players in virtual worlds featuring wild natural landscapes wherein NFTs can be collected; The studio also secured a partnership with nWay, Animoca’s video game arm.

SG CRM startup Privyr raises US$6M
Investors include MassMutual Ventures SEA, Vulcan Capital, and Wavemaker Partners; Privyr’s CRM mobile app helps sales staff and businesses contact and convert leads into clients; It claims to have 45K+ sales professionals across 75+ countries.

Indonesia’s community-powered social job platform Atma nets US$5M pre-seed funding
Investors include AC Ventures, GFC, and individuals from GoTo Group, Ula, Lummo, Kopi Kenangan, MMS Group and Xiaomi;
Atma intends to build an end-to-end ecosystem that includes a job marketplace, an upskilling institute and a community-based support system.

New Zealand VC firm Global From Day One launches US$5M Web3 fund
GD1 Crypto Fund 1 will invest in pre-seed series A firms across verticals, including DeFi, DAOs, and NFTs; The fund has also sealed two deals that will see GD1 invest in companies backed by global VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, True Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins.

Carsome acquires WapCar, AutoFun to strengthen automotive content strategy
This follows its acquisitions of CarTimes Automobile in Singapore and iCar Asia; WapCar provides a full range of content which covers car exploration, transaction, and ownership experiences that aim to assist customers and car enthusiasts in their journey.

Carousell to buy Singapore fashion recommerce firm Refash
Carousell will leverage Refash’s network of 10 physical thrift stores across Singapore to help users sell their secondhand products in a shorter span of time; Refash has processed 5M+ pieces of clothing.

Play-to-earn gaming model bound to evolve, experts say
The primary objective of the emerging model will be to build games that are fun to play, where players will be incentivized for their skills and the number of hours they spend on the game.

Lazada faces backlash from Thailand for ‘insulting’ monarchy
The e-commerce firm released a promotional video, now-deleted, which portrayed a woman in a wheelchair wearing a traditional Thai costume, being accused of stealing her daughter’s clothes; Lazada has since issued an apology.

SG crypto firm Coinhako gets MAS nod for digital token services
The license allows the firm to operate as a regulated provider of digital payment token services; The company has more than 400,000 registered users in the city-state; Coinhako reported a total trading volume of about US$5.1B in 2021.

Chinese Tesla rival Nio eyes secondary listing in Singapore
Nio’s class A ordinary shares will be listed at US$0.00025 per share by way of introduction; The company is among a number of Chinese firms that have been found not to meet the US SEC’s regulatory requirements related to auditors.

YGG SEA to kick off US$37.5M token sale
The subDAO will initially offer 75 million SEA tokens worth US$0.50 each; SEA token ownership will give its community members voting rights on proposals, ecosystem reward allocations, features, and rewards systems.

UOB to inject over US$100K to greentech startups with new accelerator
The Greentech Accelerator will focus on energy efficiency, zero-waste supply chains, and carbon management and reporting; For its first cohort, it will take on 10 startups and SMEs for a three-month-long programme.

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Starting a business is hard. And scary too.

If we fail, we have to go through the rigours again. However, if we succeed, the fruits of our labour may well be worth it. Having mentored and trained thousands of entrepreneurs since 2016, I have realised that new business owners typically face this problem they create for themselves, and that is seeking perfection.

Please don’t get me wrong. Perfection is good. But it is often the pursuit of “it must be perfect the first time!” that made many new business owners stuck in their little bubble. Yet many do not understand that perfection is the end goal, not the starting line.

Before the pandemic, many business owners were afraid to go online because they did not understand the potential of having a digital presence and showcasing their business. It was ubiquitous to hear them say, “Digital marketing is for the big brands. They have the budget, and I don’t.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Contrary to popular belief, digital marketing has allowed new and small business owners a much more levelled playing field with the big brands, allowing exposure on massive platforms.

Imagine this. A business used to need to pay at least five figures or more to advertise on traditional media like newspapers or television, but now, your business can be on anyone’s mobile phone screen for as little as US$2 a day. This is a game-changer.

Untapped potential in the digital space

Many businesses focus only on one aspect of their business, and it is usually one of these two. Their offering and marketing.

Those who focus on the former usually believe that they have the best thing ever and that everyone will buy from them, and they do not engage much in marketing. They don’t realise that if no one knows about them, no one will buy from them.

Also Read: What you need to know about digital marketing for the new normal

Those who focus on the latter will spend on marketing and sometimes neglect the value of their offer. But what they don’t realise is that if you do not provide the correct value to your customers, they won’t buy. In the rare instance they did, they will not come back again.

The sum of all parts makes a business tick, and there is a better alternative to address this issue for any business entrepreneur.

It is a well-known fact that 95 per cent of businesses fail within the first five years. While many contributing factors exist, offer and marketing are usually the prime culprits. I learned this as I experienced what it is like pivoting into a new business and career venture first-hand. 

My first-hand experience

I had a relatively stable life growing up. I attended good schools, had the freedom to pursue my interests academically, and I primarily did not need to worry about finances. As I found a stable career path in the military as a Naval Officer, I started to have fear, which is the fear of regrets.

That is why I left my stable career on my 30th birthday, which is a symbolic date to give me a second shot to give myself a chance to live life without regret.

After volunteering to help out a contact for an event pro bono, I realised that I had a knack for offer creation and marketing. The second round of this event was done to prove the process’s success, which paved the start of other opportunities coming my way.

Through this experience, I started to share how they can achieve such success with others. 

That is when Inbox Income Academy started and birthed my passion for helping others achieve success in their business. And very soon, I realised two things:

• Some people want to learn and do it themselves, and others want me to do it for them.
• I did not want to be a “trainer” with no real life and everyday experience.

To fill that gap, I started Inbox Consults. Now, I share up-to-date practices with my students in Inbox Income Academy, which I execute for my clients and myself through Inbox Consults.

Embracing failure and executing your business plans

These are the two lessons that have shaped my business today.

The first is to embrace “failures”, or as I prefer to call them, lessons learnt. More often than not, things do not always work in your favour in the first instance, and that is ok. What is important is that we learn from these episodes, improve upon what we need to do, and go for it again.

The second lesson is that while planning is important, execution is even more so.

In my years of military training, planning was drilled into me. We have the primary plan, the contingency plan, the back-up to the contingency plan, the what-if-the-back-up-also-fails plan.

Also Read: Diversity and inclusion marketing campaigns: Everyone, every day, forever

In business, if we only plan without executing it, nothing will happen. The execution brings results, and striving for progression and work towards perfection is part of the process.

A “soft love” approach

My SSG-approved program, “Soft Love” Launch Formula, is an acronym for sales, offers, funnels, traffic, leverage, offers, visibility, and execution. My framework and system are to help anyone start their business online and achieve more revenue online in 30 days or less.

Many people want to be able to start a business online, but they lack the system and knowledge to do so. I condensed my years of experience and proven track record into an easy to understand and implementable framework to help entrepreneurs and businesses head into the digital world and start making more.

It is clear that the future is in the digital space, and businesses that refuse to pivot will be left behind. But for the uninitiated, moving online could prove daunting. They need a proven framework that they can use to begin this journey, and SOFT LOVE Launch Formula provides that.

Final thoughts

For those who are looking for a change, ask yourself this question. “What is the best, probable, and worst-case scenario?” If the “worst-case” consequences are something you can live with, do it.

If you are content and happy with life, it is ok to stay where you are. There is no need to follow the trend, be an entrepreneur, or have a career change. However, if you are unhappy with yourself, do something about it. Your life won’t change unless you take action to change it.

If you are looking to do business online, I highly recommend that you learn from someone actively doing an online business. Online is a rapidly changing and unforgiving space. The pace of change is too fast. Something that worked just two days ago may not work today.

Have the courage to test out some campaigns, and do not be afraid to invest in advertising. Only when you do you will get data that will help you become better, and your business will grow the next time you do it. Once you are familiar with the basics, you can choose to work on your business and outsource the work to others and maintain oversight.

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Technology and artificial intelligence have transformed the educational landscape in recent years, creating a paradigm shift in education as we know it. Now ubiquitous in many of our lives, these technologies have become an integral part of the way we learn.

As AI solutions show increasing promise in supporting educational markets, online and tech-driven solutions have come under the spotlight in the fallout of the pandemic. Education institutions and classrooms worldwide are implementing edutech and artificial intelligence into their curricula, and the global edutech market is poised to reach US$181 billion by 2025 with increasing investments in AI to spur the development of technologies to support future educational needs.

With an increased need for dynamic learning strategies, educators have had to update themselves with new technologies and evolving pedagogies to cope with the learning needs of digital natives: their students.

But, the multitude of implications, applications and possibilities for AI in education remains vast. Still, one thing is for sure, the use of AI and edutech is now becoming synonymous with the future of education.

Unlocking the power of data

With the transition to virtual classes in the wake of the pandemic and the ever-growing use of technologies within the classroom, educational organisations now have access to a plethora of data and information on their students.

Also Read: How edutech is solving the global teacher’s crisis

Unlike the physical classroom, where data points on student behaviour and progress are limited to the observations of the teacher, AI can collect, organise and analyse learning behaviour and user interaction to determine current learning levels as well as uncover learning gaps and potential issues to be then raised to the educator. 

The data collected can then be used to create an adaptive learning curriculum that adapts to each student’s current learning progress. All learning materials and assessments can be customised and tailored to each student’s specific needs and levels to ensure efficient learning takes place.

Powering automation and simplifying administrative tasks

An educator’s workload never seems to end, and with the challenge of delivering high-quality learning materials digitally, AI has stepped up. By helping to automate time-consuming and tedious tasks such as attendance, grading, developing course content and tracking student performances, AI can help to ease the burden on educators. 

AI can be integrated with existing software platforms to provide automatic feedback and assessment results, automating repetitive processes such as marking homework and providing instant feedback on submitted work. This means less time spent manually entering grades or checking for plagiarism, which can free up valuable teaching hours.

Leveraging tutoring chatbots and use of NLP

In addition to automated systems, AI can also be utilised to develop intelligent tutors that can assist teachers in delivering effective lessons. These tutors can be programmed to respond to questions posed by students and offer guidance on topics they may not understand, all while keeping track of the student’s progress through the lesson. 

This allows learners to ask questions without feeling embarrassed and ensures that they receive the most appropriate response from the tutor. It also helps reduce the amount of unstructured time required for teachers to spend answering questions, thereby freeing up more time for teachers to focus on other activities. 

When combined with the other applications of AI, such as automatic grading and the generation of assessment questions, AI-powered tutors can provide immediate and real-time feedback to students.

With natural language processing (NLP), these AI tutors and chatbots hold conversations with users to assess student learning better, leading to improved knowledge and critical thinking skills through the use of question-and-answer to better gauge comprehension of learning material and reinforce new knowledge learnt.

Also Read: In this age of digitalisation, is edutech a bane or boon for educators?

Simply put, having an AI tutor in the classroom is akin to having a patient, relentless teacher who never gets tired, frustrated or bored and will never judge a learner for their nagging questions. 

Additionally, NLP features can also help educators better understand what is happening cognitively with their students. By analysing language use in the classroom, NLP can help identify and predict students’ mental states during learning.

When analysed in conjunction with data gathered from other student behaviour and activity, both the AI and educators can identify struggling students early on, leading to improved and timely support.

Becoming a classroom of the future

As technology advances, so too does the way we learn. The future of education is no longer confined to the traditional classroom; it’s online and accessible 24/7. By using AI to make learning easier, faster and more personalised, we are paving the way towards a brighter future for our children and youth.

To best utilise edutech and AI to provide a superior digital learning experience,  institutions and organisations should put proper thought into selecting tools after discussions with both technical teams and the educators on the ground. After all, the implementation of such solutions should only be for the betterment of students, educators and faculty.

No longer a distant notion, AI has come a long way since the term was first coined by John McCarthy at the 1956 Dartmouth Conference. Intelligent systems have become commonplace, a thriving innovation that’s taking us one step closer to the world of tomorrow. 

With the right kind of AI, edutech enterprises can shape the future of curriculum and the very culture of education and learning. AI’s prevalence is all around, and the possibilities are varied and endless, but it is up to educators to embrace it and use intuitive technologies to fuel the learning experience. 

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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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