Pakistan startups, the last massive untapped opportunity in the world
After two decades of uncertainty and confusion, Pakistan’s tech startup ecosystem appears to have finally found its feet; In 2021, a record US$352M was raised by 50+ startups, statistics by consulting agency Invest2Innovate shows.

The collapse of UST and LUNA was devastating, but there is still hope for crypto
What exactly happened doesn’t really matter; What really matters is that when something bad happened, Terra couldn’t handle it; What really matters is that an undercollateralised, algorithmic stablecoin will fail no matter how long it succeeds.

Zilingo creditors recall their loan due to unfulfilled obligations
This prompted the firm to hire an independent financial adviser “to explore options for the company,”; This comes at the heels of CEO Ankiti Bose’s suspension amid a probe on an alleged accounting mishap.

Indonesian SaaS firm Mekari bags US$50M in Money Forward-led round
Founded in 2015 by the name of Sleekr, the company rebranded itself as Mekari following successive M&A actions with four SaaS peers, including Talenta, KlikPajak, and Jurnal; It currently has more than 35K clients and 800K active users.

Merah Putih fund secures first close at US$300M
The fundraising milestone comes less than six months after the government launched the vehicle in December last year; Merah Putih was set up by the government in partnership with the VC arms of some state-owned enterprises.

Temasek tops up Amazon, Pinduoduo stake
The investment firm boosted its holding in the two firms by over 15%; It first revealed its purchase of Amazon shares in 2017 and Pinduoduo shares in 2020; Temasek earlier trimmed its interests in Airbnb and Lumen Technologies.

Elon Musk mulls Indonesia visit for investments after talks with Widodo
President Joko Widodo reportedly invited Musk when they met on a Space X site in Texas; The president’s camp said that the Tesla and Space X boss is “hopefully” eyeing November for the trip.

SG
Software security provider GuardRails scores nearly US$4M in funding
Investors include Sequoia’s Surge Ventures, Cocoon Capital, and SingtelInnov8; The GuardRails software runs security scans in the background and provides real-time alerts of important vulnerabilities once it is integrated into a workflow.

B Capital co-leads US$2.8M round of Indonesian personal finance app Finku
Global Founders Capital and Trihill Capital also participated; Finku allows users to track their transactions across several bank and e-wallet accounts and gives them real-time insights into their expense behaviour.

Binance CEO slams Terraform for lacklustre response
Terraform Labs, the company behind plummeting stablecoin TerraUSD, has not responded to Binance’s request to restore the network, burn the additionally minted token Luna, and recover the UST peg.

Elon Musk says US$44B Twitter deal on hold
Twitter, in a filing earlier this month, had estimated that false or spam accounts represented less than 5% of its monetizable daily active users in the first three months of the year.

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Copyright: ivanbabydov

The post Ecosystem Roundup: There’s still hope for crypto despite the UST, LUNA crash; Is it worth investing in Pakistani startups? appeared first on e27.

I was 22 years old when our product was sold for five-digit UK pounds. It was the beginning of everything.

Studying in the UK gave me exposure, and I participated in a start-up competition called the Venture Catalyst Challenge with my classmates. We have used the Internet of Things (IoT) technology to control household items such as TV sets and curtains remotely. It was a great motivation for my interest in exploring entrepreneurship. 

Later, I returned to Hong Kong and worked in a bank to save some capital for a start-up. Three years ago, my two partners and I developed a takeaway mobile app, allowing users to order meals through apps picked up on their own while enjoying a generous discount.

However, our project ended after running for six months because the takeaway market in Hong Kong was already overcrowded. In six months, I burned through six digits’ worth of funds and had to fire seven employees, one of the hardest decisions I had ever made to date.

After that, I twisted the app idea and created an all-in-one communication app tailored for hotels. Yet, I realised that my second idea wouldn’t work towards success after joining an international exhibition named RISE.

I got a chance to talk to the potential customers directly, but there were no inquiries from hotels, only from people in the e-commerce and retail sector.

It seems that I was unlucky, but I don’t think so. I have learned some things from these two experiences, which have driven my success with SleekFlow today.

“There is no such thing as overnight success or easy money. If you fail, do not be discouraged; try again.” – Henry Sy

Keep optimistic but don’t love your product too much

To develop an error-free product that can satisfy the market’s needs, you may experience many trials and failures. Like my previous two start-up experience, I thought my ideas were good at the beginning stage, but later I discovered some bugs.

Also Read: How this founder went from being a tutor to a modern day mompreneur

I tried to make improvements or even twisted to another idea when I found that they may not be possible or unable to fulfil the market’s needs. So, failure always happens when you develop your products, and you have to be optimistic.

Also, you cannot love your products too much. Otherwise, you will not be able to improve them when you discover any problems.

Know your market

Understanding the market size and the market behaviour is vital when you try to create a product or start a new business. You can develop a prototype first and let people try this Beta; you may receive constant feedback.

It’s okay if your first idea isn’t perfect. Find out your niche advantage, leverage it as a starting point, and then keep promoting and expanding.

For example, when we first started with SleekFlow as an omnichannel chat management platform, we only carried a message of “multiple logins” for our customers. Other than constantly assimilating the technical knowledge for our tech start-up, we have had to take the initiative by collecting the opinions of clients and those in the industry.

Even competitors are our source of information and learning. Fast forward to this day, we have expanded with a wide range of functions according to their needs and requests, making it a sales accelerator that generates conversions through conversations.

Use low resources to make a minimum viable product

You won’t know whether your product is suitable for the market or if there are any bugs if you don’t have any viable product. However, developing a small sample of products may require a high cost, and it may not be affordable for start-ups.

No worries! Actually, there are many resources for you to grab for free. You should leverage low resources and make a minimum viable product first to test if it works. There are also some useful podcasts sharing insights from industry experts that could be inspiring for you!

Don’t be afraid to seek advice

Advice brings you surprises sometimes! I found out that my second idea, an all-in-one communication app tailored for hotels, wouldn’t work either after joining an international exhibition.

Also Read: Investor-turned-founder on building SEA’s EV motorbike ecosystem

I heard a lot of opinions from that exhibition and got tangible resources plus industry networking. I used to be afraid to seek advice, but now I know that advice is essential for your future success.

You can get advice from others by simply messaging people on LinkedIn or joining an incubation program like mine. People always share their insights genuinely, and what you have to do is just write a proposal and struggle through a series of interviews.

Make evaluations from time to time

The budget for a start-up is limited, so you have to be careful in making every step. You should not merely spend on increasing the number of users but make evaluations from time to time.

You have to evaluate whether the current customers are worth it for you to spend lots of resources to retent and whether your business model can generate income and be sustainable. By making evaluations frequently, you will be able to find problems and solve them immediately to ensure your business is running smoothly the right way.

Success will follow if you don’t give up

Starting a business is not easy, and I experienced it twice before starting my current business. The best advice that I can offer is not to give up easily. Keep trying and squeeze every last drop of success out from failures. I wish every one of you the best of luck.

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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

Image credit: SleekFlow

The post This founder’s story is the only optimism you need amidst the upcoming tech slowdown appeared first on e27.

Being an entrepreneur is not easy. Whether bootstrapped or raising the next round, the founder experience comes with life lessons. Every founder’s journey is different from the other. Full of challenges, burnouts, small joys, and aptly glorified highs, this roller coaster of a journey deserves to be told.

Even if you have just joined the bandwagon, your story is valuable and inspiring. Building a SaaS product to help small businesses or working on climate change innovation; revolutionising health, education or any other consumer space; the ecosystem wants to know you and what you are building.

At e27, we always strive to serve the ecosystem. This time around, we want to open up our platform and its wide reader base for founders of all ages and backgrounds to share their stories.

Inspire the next generation of founders, share life lessons with your counterparts, attract investor attention, and even present your idea/product/MVP to the ecosystem via the e27 Contributor Programme: Share your story campaign.

What you need

All you need is about three hours on your calendar, a calm space to gather your thoughts, and the will to share your story with the world. We will do the rest of the heavy lifting for you.

Use this magic template and follow the instructions.

Also read: How to use the e27 editor to write great articles

What will founders gain

As a startup, you don’t always have the luxury of hiring a particular PR person to build media relations. Getting your founder story published with e27 will make it easier for you to take it to investors and establish greater credibility.

Investors are looking for founders with a story, and your article can you get your foot in that door. Sharing your motivation and product expertise will build a stronger case for your startup when fundraising in the market. This also shows how passionate you are about making your startup.

We will share your story just like all other e27 articles amply on your social media and send it to our entire newsletter audience. The added validation of your ideas from other founders and professionals in the community will greatly endorse your ideas.

Managing Partner at RHL Ventures, Rachel Lau, says: “The visibility has been great. Like, someone from LinkedIn would occasionally say to me ‘Hey, I read your article on the Vietnam stuff, and I think it’s great”, and it’s nice to get that kind of message. I think the contributor channel has the right exposure from the right target audiences, which also becomes a challenge to me to write to the right target audiences.”

We have groomed a thriving community of two million readers in the tech and startup industry, making it a great place to reflect upon the interests of the startup economy in Asia. The e27 Contributor Programme is your chance to share your thoughts and opinions with this community.

With the anticipated slowdown in the tech space, it may be hard to keep the spirits up, but we need each other even more at times like these. Plus, a little bit of fame never hurts.

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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

Image credit: Rostislav_Sedlacek

The post Share your story: How to find founder fame in just 3 days appeared first on e27.

Blockchain Fest 2022 is set to be held in Singapore next month with a lineup of speakers that includes Andy Meehan, ex-Captain of Special Investigations who had spent over a decade in Asia as a private litigator and in-house counsel for cryptocurrency and blockchain international institutions. Meehan currently works at Gemini APAC as Chief Compliance Officer and will present his point of view about the state of crypto regulation in Singapore and the region.

In addition to Meehan, the event is also set to bring in Anndy Lian, business strategist and author of the best-seller Blockchain Revolution 2030. With a 15-year of experience in the business field, the Chief Digital Advisor of the Mongolian Productivity Organization will explain how the technology will revolutionise and redefine traditional business.

These two speakers are just two of the industry professionals that you will get to meet at Marina Bay Sands on June 2-3, 2022. As Asia’s largest international B2B event on Blockchain, Exchanges, Cryptocurrencies, DeFi, GameFi and NFTs, Blockchain Fest 2022 covers top-level content from leading brands and speakers.

Also Read: AI enhanced blockchain: Changing the security game

Through a series of formal and informal events, the conference agenda is created to explore the convergence of these technologies in one place: a series of keynotes, interactive panel discussions and speeches from honoured speakers with impressive expertise in blockchain.

Besides Meehan and Lian, it has also confirmed Co-Leader of the Financial Inclusion and CBDC Working Groups at the Global Impact FinTech (GIFT) Forum Dr Oriol Caudevilla and Executive Director of the Inatba Marc Taverner.

Tickets to Blockchain Fest 2022 are available under the online, standard, business, or VIP categories. To purchase these tickets at a discounted price, head over to the event website.

For the latest updates on the conference agenda and speakers, follow Blockchain Fest 2022 on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Twitter.

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Image Credit: Blockchain Fest

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Tokocrypto Sembrani Blockchain Accelerator, a programme run by Indonesian cryptocurrency exchange Tokocrypto in partnership with BRI Ventures, has announced US$40 million investments in its participating startups.

The investees are VC Gamers, nanobyte, Avarik Saga, Creo Engine, Eizper Chain, Duckie Land, Play Fix, Play it Forward DAO, Mythic Protocol, getKupon, Avarta and Survey.

The startups were also provided with the necessary tools for fundraising, team culture, blockchain development, listing advisory and tokenomics to develop the skills required to make a mark within the blockchain industry.

“The startups selected reflect the flourishing blockchain ecosystem in Indonesia, and this is just the beginning. Two years ago, the term blockchain seemed foreign, but today it is a digital powerhouse in NFTs, decentralised finance, and even GameFi,” said Tokocrypto CEO Pang Xue Kai.

Also Read: Tokocrypto, BRI Ventures launch blockchain accelerator programme

Tokocrypto Sembrani Blockchain Accelerator is part of the multi-dimensional TokoVerse by Tokocrypto created to bolster blockchain technology adoption in Indonesia and beyond. It focuses on four primary pillars: branding and marketing, investment strategies, investment landscape tactics and access to fundraising opportunities.

The programme’s mentors include Nicko Widjaja (CEO of BRI Ventures), Pang Xue Kai (CEO of Tokocrypto), Teguh Kurniawan Harmanda (COO of Tokocrypto), Lai Chung Ying (CSO of Tokocrypto) and Nanda Ivens (CMO of Tokocrypto).

As per a statement, the programme has initiated the support of over 50 investors, including Tokocrypto, Binance Labs, Cydonia, Solana Labs, Signum Capital, YGGSEA, Alameda Research, Huobi Ventures, Crypto.com, QCP, Avocado DAO, and Intudo Ventures.

Since the programme’s launch, Tokocrypto has connected the participants with global mentors such as Tamar Menteshashvili from Solana Labs and Nicole Zhang from Binance Labs. Investors listed previously were invited to the programme’s Demo Day, which took place on April 11 2022, where participants demonstrated the progress and achievements that have been made to date.

Together with TokoLabs, Tokoverse has developed Asia’s first crypto hub, T-hub, Indonesia’s first and largest NFT marketplace, TokoMall, and an educational mobile app, Kriptoversity, to name a few.

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