On August 25, 2021, a tweet by Mattias Martinsson, Chief Investment Officer at Tundra Fonder, a Swedish asset manager specialising in frontier markets, drew the attention of many.

“Have followed Pakistan for 15 years. Can’t recall any time when VC activity was anywhere near [that] we’ve seen in the last few months. Impact of reforms kicking in?”, he tweeted.

The tweet, which referred to the record amounts of venture funding being poured into Pakistan in 2021, well captured the changing market sentiment.

And this positive sentiment could, well, mark a new dawn for the Islamic republic’s startup ecosystem.

However, the picture was totally different until three-four years ago. Pakistan, plagued by security concerns for many years, had not been a preferred destination for foreign VCs. The unrest in neighbouring Afghanistan, following its invasion by a US-led coalition in the 2000s, had ripples in Pakistan. Consequently, the country faced several massive terrorist attacks. Its unpredictable and unstable political system added to the woes.

This precariousness scared away global investors from investing in the nation.

While Pakistan was struggling to check the growing terrorist activities and shed its image as an insecure nation, its arch-rival India was marching ahead, attracting billions of dollars in VC money. India, whose digitisation rate grew fast in the recent years, also minted around 100 unicorns in the last 10-plus years, whereas Pakistan produced none.

Finding the feet

After two decades of uncertainty and confusion, Pakistan’s tech startup ecosystem appears to have finally found its feet — if the growing VC activity is any indicator. In 2021, a record US$352 million was raised by more than 50 local startups, statistics by consulting agency Invest2Innovate (i2i) showed. To put this in context, local startups secured only US$465 million between 2016 and 2021 (see the graph).

What made the 2021 boom more exciting was that a big chunk of the dollars came from international investors. Among them were notable VCs, such as Kleiner Perkins (the US), Defy Partners Management (the US), Wavemaker Partners (Singapore), and Zayn Capital (UAE).

The kind of VC money invested in 2022 so far also brings cheers to the ecosystem. In the first three-month period, startups secured 7x as much investment as in Q1 last year, with names such as Indus Valley Capital, Defy Partners, Acrew Capital, Wavemaker Partners, B&Y Venture Partners, and Zayn Capital injecting capital.

Also Read: The 5 women in tech from Pakistan you must know

Many factors are attributed to this investor confidence. The primary reason is the improved security situation; the number of terror-related incidents in the nation has dropped in recent years. An improved digital infrastructure also worked in its favour. Pakistan, with a population of 228 million, had 82.90 million (about 36.5 per cent) internet users as of January 2022.

Besides, Pakistan recently introduced new reforms to become more startup-friendly. The previous PTI government, led by Imran Khan, realised the importance of startups to the country’s economic growth and wanted it to be a hub for new businesses, along the lines of Silicon Valley. The government had also been very responsive to the growing startup ecosystem and instituted several policies from “tax holidays” through special zones to regularising holding companies to creating fintech licenses.

In February this year, the government also established Pakistan Technology Startup Fund worth one billion rupees (US$5.4 million) to provide seed financing to 50 startups annually.

In addition to these initiatives, the central bank, the SBP, introduced new legislation that allows international investors to invest in an entity registered in a foreign land but has operations in Pakistan (it was disallowed earlier).

The reforms also included a legal framework for Electronic Money Institutions (aimed at offering innovative payment services to the general public), the Digital Banking Policy (aimed at granting the license to set up wholly digital banks), and the setting up of Special Technology Zones.

With all this in place, Pakistan now has an active startup ecosystem, with many incubators and accelerators, including i2i, the National Incubation Centers, Nest IO, Plan 9, and Plan X. Several co-working places like COLABS, Daftarkhawan, and The Hive have also emerged recently.

Many early-stage VCs and angel networks are also operational in the nation. The names include CresVentures, DotZero, Planet N, Lakson Investments, Fatima Ventures, Deosai Ventures, 47 Ventures, i2i Ventures, HBL ventures, Indus Valley Capital, Virtual Force, Karavan, Zayn Capital, Walled City Co.

According to Kalsoom Lakhani, Co-Founder and General Partner of i2i Ventures (the US$15-million VC arm of i2i), the pace at which things are moving in Pakistan right now is probably 20x faster than she had ever seen. Moreover, the time between two successive financing rounds is also getting shorter, she says.

As a result of the changing business environment, many foreign-educated young Pakistanis have started quitting their overseas plum jobs at MNCs like Morgan Stanley and McKinsey to set up their own ventures back home. For instance, Aatif Awan, with over a decade working for tech behemoths such as LinkedIn, came back in early 2020 to launch his own VC firm Indus Valley Capital. This early-stage VC firm has already backed eight companies, including Bazaar (a B2B e-commerce marketplace, which recently secured US$70M in a Series B round) and Airlift (a quick commerce startup that bagged US$85M in Series B in 2021).

According to Awan, Pakistan now has all the necessary ingredients to grow — quality startups, a critical mass of internet users, and smart VC money. It is geographically smaller and well-connected, with fewer provinces. Regulatory barriers are also lower.

All these factors have attracted foreign VCs to Pakistan — the last big untapped market globally.

However, the road ahead is still more than bumpy for local startups.

Lack of exits a problem

As startups make waves and put their names on the global map, new problems worry the ecosystem. They include lack of access to growth-stage capital and reluctance among people to open bank accounts (about 100 million adults don’t have access to formal and regulated financial services).

As for exits, the higher valuation of startups is a common concern for many investors. This effectively closes the possible exit routes for startups. According to Suleman Rafiq Maniya (Head of Advisory) at Vector Securities, it may be hard for VCs to get an exit through the stock market because the valuations of startups are higher compared to listed companies.

Exit through acquisitions is also scarce, likely discouraging investors from investing further in local startups. Barring Alibaba’s acquisition of Daraz and Ant Group’s buying of a 45 per cent stake in Telenor’s EasyPaisa in 2018, there have not been any major exits in the past three years. Awan says that the market is still too early for material exits, and it will take the ecosystem a few years for more substantial exits to materialise.

The Pakistan Startup Ecosystem Report 2021 by i2i warns that if foreign VCs don’t see clear long-term prospects locally, they may desist from cutting bigger cheques or making strategic investments.

The Series A and growth-stage capital crunch also poses a problem to Pakistan like any other emerging ecosystem. “There is a lot that a government can do here but I think it is the private sector that should take the lead here. The government can ensure a fair playing field. For that reason, early-stage Pakistani VCs should take the lead to fill the gap. If they fill this gap, they will be able to attract foreign VCs,” says Taraec Hussein, an investor with Gobi Partners, one of the most active VCs in Pakistan.

What future holds for Pakistan

Indus Valley’s Awan believes that the momentum that Pakistani startups gained in H1 2021 will continue in 2022. More top investors, including traditional and cross-border VC funds, will come to invest in Pakistan. Global accelerators like Y Combinator and 500 Global will also double down on local startups.

“The Pakistani startup ecosystem has had a late start, but it’s taking off quickly. The year 2021 saw more VC funding than all prior years combined, and 2022 seems on track to more than double that. By 2025, the VC funding in Pakistan is projected to exceed US$2 billion annually. In the next three-five years, several unicorns will be minted in Pakistan across B2C e-commerce, B2B e-commerce, logistics, and fintech,” believes Awan.

Also Read: Gobi-backed Pakistani startup Airlift raises US$12M Series A led by Uber investor First Round Capital

“We expect the new government to continue with startup-friendly policies. There is broad recognition across the political spectrum on tech being the major driver of foreign direct investment (FDI) and exports, so all parties recognise the importance of investing in the tech ecosystem,” Awan shares.

Conrurrs Gobi’s Hussein: “Venture capital is now a key economic pillar of any country and for that reason, it will be extremely foolish for the new government to pull back some of the reforms brought by the previous government. Also, there is so much buzz, interest and hype around VCs and entrepreneurship, founders and startups in Pakistan.”

However, Awan warns that there will be some failures in the local startup scene. “As more and more startups get early-stage funding, the founders will realise that capital isn’t the hardest part of building a great company. Finding product-market fit is hard. Building a world-class team is hard. Competing with multiple well-funded startups and going after the same market is hard.”

Some startups may scale to a certain level but then fail to go past that thanks to any of the reasons mentioned above. It is not a bad thing but is actually a positive thing for the ecosystem. “Because in the long run, people will learn from these experiences and go on to build something bigger and better,” Awan concludes.

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NFTs are tokens that can be used to portray possession of unique items. They enable us to tokenise things such as collectibles, art, and even real estate.

They can merely have a single official owner at once, and they’re guarded by the Ethereum blockchain; nobody can change the record of possession or copy/paste a fresh NFT into existence.

It stands for non-fungible token. An economic term that you might utilise to explain things is non-fungible such as a song file, your computer, or your furniture. These things are not exchangeable for other items since they have unique characteristics.

On the contrary, they can be switched because their worth defines them instead of their unique properties.

Now that we know what NFT is, let’s jump into its standards.

Ethereum blockchain

The ERC721 was the novel non-fungible token standard constructed on Ethereum. Ethereum was the pioneer in this space and is even currently the most broadly utilised blockchain platform for developing and introducing NFTs.

However, the Flow and Tezos blockchain protocols are keeping up fast and will possibly exceed Ethereum in the near forthcoming.

Transactions on entire blockchain platforms have a connected cost, generally an insignificant figure. The transactions on Ethereum are worked in ‘gas.’ When Ethereum was established, gas was connected to the cost of ETH on the open market; the pioneers didn’t anticipate the price of ETH to increase to the point where it would become exorbitant to transact on the platform.

Also Read: NFTs: The good, the bad, and the future

Ethereum’s inherent language is Stability. Ethereum also began with the evidence of work agreement mechanism and planned to change to the evidence of stake consensus mechanism.

Flow blockchain

To comprehend Flow, we require to begin with Cryptokitties. An NFT founded game that enables users to purchase, trade, gather and reproduce digital cats is Cryptokitties. It was started to utilise ERC721 tokens. It became so famous that it blocked the Ethereum blockchain network.

The game is set out to resolve this issue by the team behind and in the procedure formed Flow, a blockchain that was created with crypto-collectibles and games in mind.

Tezos Blockchain

The liquid-proof stake consensus mechanism is utilised by this decentralised blockchain known as Tezos. Tezos has an inherent cryptocurrency named Tez. The platform makers acknowledge that transaction fees require to be low for broad adoption and comfort of use.

How does an NFT work?

Over a blockchain, NFTs survive, that is, a shared public ledger that registers transactions. You’re possibly most habitual with blockchain as the fundamental operation that builds cryptocurrencies feasible.

Particularly, NFTs are usually retained on the Ethereum blockchain, even though other blockchains assist them moreover.

An NFT is established from digital items that depict both intangible and tangible objects, including:

• Art
• Designer sneakers
• Videos and sports highlights
• GIFs
• Virtual avatars and video game skins
• Collectibles
• Music

You won’t believe that even tweets matter. Jack Dorsey, the Twitter co-founder, sold the tweet that was posted by him first ever on the platform for more than US$2.9 million as an NFT.

Even a piece of digital art was sold for US$69 million Non-Fungible Token (NFT).

Basically, NFTs are objects that are collected only digitally. Hence, rather than acquiring a tangible oil painting that can be hung on the wall as a masterpiece, the purchaser gets a digital file.

They also acquire exclusive rights of ownership. You read it right: It can only have a single proprietor consecutively. NFTs’ special data build an easy way to validate their possession and move tokens among owners.

Even the creator can reserve particular information within them. For example, artists can signal their work of art by including their signature in an NFT’s meta-information.

What are the uses of NFTs?

Through NFT marketplace development and blockchain, artists and content makers get an extraordinary opportunity to add monetary worth to their work.

For instance, the artists no longer need to depend on auction houses or galleries to trade their art when there is an NFT marketing agency. Rather, the artisan can directly trade to the client as an NFT, which also allows them to maintain extra profits.

Furthermore, artists can schedule royalties so they will obtain a sales percentage anytime their art is traded to a new owner. This is an appealing feature as artists usually do not obtain future income after first selling their art.

To create money with NFTs art isn’t the only way. Brands such as Taco Bell and Charmin have invited themed NFT art to increase charity funds. Charmin labelled its offering non-fungible toilet paper, as well as Taco Bell, sold out its NFT art in a matter of minutes, with the greatest bids approaching at ether 1.5 (ETH) equals US$3,723.83.

Also Read: NFTs for fundraising: What you need to know before jumping on the bandwagon

In February, a 2011-era GIF of a cat “Nyan Cat,” through a pop-tart body, traded for approximately US$600,000. In late March, NBA Top Shot produced more than $500 million in trade.

Even celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Snoop Dogg leap on the NFT bandwagon, releasing special memories, moments, and artwork as securitised NFTs.

Difference between NFT and cryptocurrency?

NFT is usually built utilising a similar sort of programming as cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum or Bitcoin, but that’s the point where the similarity ends.

Cryptocurrencies and physical money are “fungible,” meaning they can be sold or traded for each other. They’re also the same in worth; one dollar is constantly valued by another dollar; one Bitcoin is always the same as the other Bitcoin. A trusted resource is built by Crypto’s fungibility of operating transactions on the blockchain.

NFTs are diverse. All have a digital signature that makes it inconceivable for NFTs to be traded for or same to one another (hence, non-fungible).

The future of NFTs

The greatest hazard to NFTs is either the bubble bursts. NFTs could be the white-hot event of the moment, but, as with any novel technology, they still have a few ways to go before they are extensively recognized and turn into truly mainstream.

Notwithstanding the eye-watering sums varying hands in front-page transactions, they are still an extremely niche product and may rightly be crossing fancy digital tulips.

Owners of tokens could wind up sitting on an excess of NFTs with tiny buying concern if there is a decline in their popularity, in the same method as several bubbles have exploded over the last numerous years.

Despite that, as with the broader utilisation of the blockchain, it does look clear that because of NFTs’ utility as records of ownership in the business, they might well be here to remain in any form.

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The Facebook Community Accelerator, which helps leaders harness the power of their community in Southeast Asia, has announced the culmination of its 8-month-long program. 

The program, launched by Meta (parent company of Facebook) in partnership with the region’s leading startup ecosystem platform, e27, aims to turn the impactful ideas of community leaders into actions. 

The 19 community leaders, who underwent hundreds of hours of training, coaching and mentorship, showcased themselves on Demo Day on March 31, 2022. They shared their learnings, the impact they have made on the members of their communities and their future vision with the ecosystem partners.

A vetted list of 15 external Judges from across the Asia Pacific and more than a hundred interested curated Ecosystem Partners attended the event. 

Check out the original 19 communities and their leaders here.

The power of communities and their impact

“Communities can touch and transform lives,” remarked Ellen Alarilla, Head of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility (Southeast Asia and Oceania) at Ericsson. Acknowledging the community leaders’ outstanding efforts, she added, “They all had solid, ambitious plans to scale and extend their impact beyond their current reach and have already touched and transformed lives in their communities.”

Throughout the programme, the communities showed their tremendous power in bringing an impact. According to Holly O’Keeffe, a judge of the program and Chief Impact Officer of Thegoodgap, former-CSR lead at Experian Asia Pacific communities are changing the world with technologies. 

“We have become so used to tech playing an everyday role in our lives that we often take it for granted. The accelerator shone a bright light on the many new ways leaders use technology to change the world for the better and why it’s important to support leaders on their missions,” said O’Keeffe.

Echoing a similar sentiment, Thibaut Briere, Founder of GrowthMarketing Studio, added that he was moved by the fact that each community leader has tried to solve real, concrete problems that have affected people. They go through a lot of work to bring people together and support the community, Briere said.

Gina, a coach, Founder of Connected Women and a community builder of over 16 years, commented that she wished she had received this kind of support in her early days. She also applauded Meta for giving special focus on developing community leaders and helping them put a framework in place for sustainability.

“Too many wonderful communities are short-lived or continue to become a burden to the founders because they fail to find ways to be sustainable. This programme placed an importance on the role of community leadership and helps founders create long-term, wide-scale impact as they become sustainable and scale.”

Also Read: How collaborations between these Facebook communities yield better impact

A few of the communities coached by Gina during the programme showed tremendous progress and saw up to a 33 per cent increase in engagement. 

Amplifying impact and further support

As part of the programme, a selected few communities received up to US$30,000 in additional funding with the help of US-based non-profit Global Giving. 

Below are the details of the communities that have received funding and their stories:

The Bicycle Scouts Project, Inc

• Country: the Philippines
• Community Lead: Myles Delfin

Created in 2013 by Myles Delfin, Bike Scouts provides a network of support and alternative means of access to communication and essential supplies in the aftermath of severe disasters. It is a social teamwork platform for anyone who wants to do something good for their community or anywhere in the world where help is needed. Since its inception, Bike Scouts has grown to add multiple pages and local community groups where they can make a difference.

The programme has enabled Bike Scouts to further scale the membership to 4,000 team leaders around the Philippines. These members themselves are the leaders of their local groups, representing Bike Scouts in their respective regions.

These members have at least 150,000 volunteers who helped serve over 40,000 requests for assistance over the past eight years and delivered 5,000 bicycles for donation. They also secured a social purpose brand activation client project worth US$38,000.

“I feel that the end of the program is just the start of our work. We will all accomplish awesome things with our communities using the lessons we’ve learned from all our amazing coaches, mentors, teachers, and friends. I am eternally grateful for that opportunity and all the incredible moments of joy and a sense of family,” said Delfin.

Bounce Back PH

• Country: the Philippines
• Community lead: Jason Dela Rosa

In March 2020, Jason Dela Rosa started Bounce Back PH to help small businesses and subject matter experts endure and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to create a community where businesses and business leaders can work together and help each other recover from the crisis. With over 65,000 members, the group has launched hundreds of learning and mentorship programs, donation drives, retooling, and business matching activities for SMEs.

Also Read: Facebook Community Accelerator Program introduces the 19 communities of the 2021 APAC cohort

Through the Facebook Community Accelerator program, Bounce Back achieved several milestones. It over-achieved its revenue goal by 133 per cent and engaged more than 9x more partners. It also launched the first-ever Metaverse bazaar to help push sales for its members. In addition to that, Bounceback also enrolled 126 scholars who were mentored by 45 business executives and industry leaders. It also gained 7,000 new members during this period and launched an influencer program with over 10 million audience reach to help MSMEs to gain traction.

Dela Rosa said: “I want to thank all the community leaders for being the light in times of darkness, and for all the inspiration for us to be better each time for our communities. To our coach, Tamara, the e27 team, and Meta, you have placed our vision on the right track when all seems confusing. We will never forget this experience ever. You can always count on me for future collaborations.”

Home Buddies PH

• Country: the Philippines
• Community Lead: Frances Cabatuando

Home Buddies, started by Frances Cabatuando, wanted to inspire and equip Filipinos with ideas on how they could live and work while stuck at home during the pandemic. It aims to give Filipino home enthusiasts a safe, creative space where they can share and exchange home improvement tips and design inspirations.

Today, Home Buddies have managed to become a three million-strong community and continues to shape the local home improvement scene — hosting free webinars, empowering small businesses, and creating jobs for displaced workers. Its highly engaged community also enjoys weekly parenting talks, on-ground events, and exclusive promos and merchandise.

This year, Home Buddies continues to expand its influence with a subgroup called Home Buddies Hangouts. Here, the tight-knit community continues to share and exchange tips, with an exciting focus on how to create a more memorable and worthwhile home away from home experience.

“Huge congratulations to all my fellow community leaders! Thank you all for making me realize that I’m not alone in my mission to make the world a better place. Thank you so much to all our coaches and mentors for the guidance and wisdom imparted throughout the programme. We bring great inspiration to create a more meaningful impact on all our Home Buddies. Thanks so much!” said Cabatuando.

KakiRepair by KakiDIY

• Country: Malaysia
• Community Lead: Johnson Lam

Johnson Lam started KakiRepair in 2017 as a movement to encourage people to fix their stuff rather than throw them away. KakiRepair by KakiDIY is a collaborative platform powered by the community to post-repair related issues, diagnose, fix, and learn from one another. Its 47,000+ members actively post repair-related issues and constantly help each other solve problems and share best practices.

Today, KakiRepair has achieved notable achievements and hugely impacted the community and others. They created more than 50,000 PPE kits for frontline workers during the pandemic and refurbished and donated over 1,000 computers to underprivileged students. Other projects included helping flood repair missions wherein the community repaired more than 400 items for flood victims saving over RM 400,000 (US$90,000) of damages.

Kakirepair also won the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation’s Innovator of the Year award. KakiRepair has continuously proven itself to be a community sourcing platform. 

During the accelerator program, it created a new knowledge management platform with more than 500 sign-ups. KakiRepair’s future programs include travelling nationwide in its MakerVan, a motorhome converted into a moving maker space.

Johnson Lam said: “Thank You for recognizing the results and validating the impact of KakiRepair on the community and environment. This will fuel us to do more and accelerate our plans further, bringing KakiRepair across the border to APAC and beyond.”

Scoliosis Philippines Support Group Inc. (ScoliosisPH)

• Country: the Philippines
• Community Lead: Amanda Glenda M Bonife-Kiamko

Amanda Glenda M Bonife-Kiamko created the Scoliosis Philippines Support Group on Facebook to raise awareness, help give scoliosis patients a forum to share their issues and stories, and provide psychosocial support. Its 31,000+ members have been able to connect with other patients and make them feel empowered through meetups, awareness events, learning sessions, and story sharing.

The Facebook Community program helped Scoliosis PH conduct strategic planning, launch learning and wellness programs, and establish partnerships with multiple partners. Scoliosis Philippines has grown with more than 35,300 members, and its community page has over 70,000 followers. It also aims to reach out to more patients through a newly established 17 regional chapters that engage, educate and empower through their programs and Special Interest Clubs. 

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

Scoliosis PH built the Philippine Registry of Scoliosis Patients mobile app during the program. It is an initiative to support its goal of attaining equality, social justice, and rights for scoliosis patients and ensure that these rights are respected and guaranteed.

Bonife-Kiamko said, “Shout out and massive thanks to our excellent Meta, coach, e27 team and Ecosystem Partners, besides all the stakeholders involved. Thanks for mentoring and giving us this life-changing opportunity to learn, grow, and establish the Scoliosis Philippines Foundation, creating sustainable initiatives. Thank you to our APAC Cohort for inspiring us with your impactful communities and giving us sincere support throughout the program. It’s truly an honour to have shared this amazing journey with you all!”

Solo Female Travelers

• Country: Singapore
• Community lead: Mar Pages

Solo Female Travelers was started in 2015 as a place for women who love to travel independently to connect. The group empowers women to travel solo safely and on their terms via the communities, online resources, and women-only small group tours. The community has empowered thousands of women to take their first solo trip safely and confidently, breaking stereotypes, expectations, and barriers.

The Facebook program helped Solo Female Travelers to make numerous achievements and impacts — from increasing the community members to 150,000 members across different platforms. It also pioneered and supported more new travel destinations worldwide, made possible by additional team members from across the globe. It also has 92 per cent more page traffic growth. As such, the communities continue to bring impact in supporting women entrepreneurs through their partners and their work.

Mar Pages said, “Thanks to the Meta team and to my coach, Tamara, for supporting our dream and mission of empowering women through travel. You helped us bridge the gap between the seed of an idea and a growing tree. To my fellow Community Leaders, you inspire me every day to continue doing the work we do with passion and dedication, and you bring much light and positivity to my day.”

Final note

The six communities mentioned above were selected as the additional funding recipients from the original 19 communities who attended this year’s cohort (check out the other 13 communities and their leaders here). Each of these communities is considered the top in their respective countries. Each representative is an industry leader in their own capacity to turn their impactful ideas into action.

We would like to congratulate all the cohort members of the Facebook Community Accelerator 2021-2022 for amplifying their message to scalable and groundbreaking heights!  These communities have shown tremendous growth over the last month, and their work will continue to make an impact. 

If you are an organisation working on similar projects that align with our communities, reach out and engage with the community leaders for an exciting collaboration!

Visit the Meta Blog and the Facebook Community Accelerator Program official page for more information.

Disclaimer: All data and numbers are sourced from the community group data provided by Bike Scouts, Home Buddies, Bounce Back PH, Kakirepair, ScoliosisPH, and Solo Female Travelers.

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In Southeast Asia, 60 million new consumers joined the digital economy throughout the pandemic, representing 10 per cent of the total regional population pivoting to online services, including financial platforms.

Online services have been redefining the user experience, from ordering car rides to buying insurance to trading assets. Users can now access a myriad of services from the convenience of their phones in smart and effective ways. 

Led by the access provided by technology, the pandemic saw a new financial consciousness and ownership, led by younger generations and a rise in the retail investing trend. Today, retail investors make up nearly 25 per cent of overall stock market activity.

Reshaping online wealth management

Social investment platform eToro found digitalisation was a key driver to democratise access to capital markets.

Its recent Retail Investor Beat survey of 8,500 respondents across 12 countries showed that younger investors are leading in market participation by placing their trust in online investment platforms, now becoming the most popular method amongst those aged 18-34 (61 per cent).

Their increased reliance on smartphones has changed consumer habits and expectations, who now prefer online products for wealth management. This preference for a virtual set-up contrasts with older investors (aged 45-54) who prefer using a bank  (55 per cent).

With tech offering more access and new solutions, the elitist financial system will face significant challenges capturing younger demographics and future wealth holders. 

eToro’s research also found a ‘set and forget’ approach to investing is on the rise, with a third (37 per cent) of young investors believing that checking on their investments once a week is the ‘sweet spot’, and 32 per cent buying or selling their assets only once a month.

More mature demographics adopt a similar approach but are more inclined to hold their assets for longer, with one in four (24 per cent) selling only once a month.

Social as the new investment advisor

New sources of financial knowledge and advice are also gaining ground. While using recommendations from friends and family before investing remains the most popular source across demographics, 32 per cent of younger investors also seek financial advice from social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Also Read: The transition is now: these Web3 apps are transforming global finance

Their preference for these avenues is more than double that of their older counterparts, with only 15 per cent turning to social media and instead preferring (38 per cent) to traditional outlets such as newspapers.  Online forums are also gaining popularity, with nearly a quarter of those aged 18-34 looking at Twitter and Reddit for guidance.

Challenging the norms through access and education

Tech and digitalisation act as catalysts for inclusion and access in financial markets. We see younger demographics participating and recognising the importance of starting their investment journey sooner rather than later to set the foundations for their financial well being.

However, as democratisation increases, we also see a surge in financial disinformation as anyone with a smartphone can create content and share knowledge.

As social media and online forums become increasingly integrated into retail investors’ decision process, it is digital investment platforms’ responsibility to warn about the potential risks and create content and educate their users.

While reshaping expectations of online wealth management, digital investment platforms will continue to be a powerful tool to increase access to capital markets and increase financial wellbeing in Southeast Asia, but the sector will also need to understand they are not only financial enablers but must act as financial educators, and complement investors’ research.

Today’s leading companies have made the most of technology and innovation, challenging norms of traditional finance and must engage and educate users in new ways.

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Artificial intelligence or AI is a wide-ranging solution that is slowly but significantly disrupting the world of business. How AI impacts businesses range from how we integrate information to how we analyse data, and how we leverage the resulting insights to improve decision-making, resulting in lowering costs, increasing their productivity and enhancing their revenue streams.

Key stakeholders all over the world recognise the potential and importance of AI. The global AI Governance market was valued at USD 107.56 million in 2021 and is expected to reach a value of USD 528.06 million by 2027, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.97% over the forecast period 2022-2027. 

These trends can be seen emerging in the APAC region as businesses start to realise the importance of AI in today’s digital-first landscape. According to a recent report, Asia Pacific’s market for AI is set to grow at a CAGR of 41.60% over the forecast period of 2019-2027. Several reports have also indicated that AI is one area where APAC can lead the rest of the world.

One of the main drivers for growth for AI in business in APAC is enhancing consumer behaviour and expectations. As we inch further into the digital decade, consumers are increasingly engaging brands online and they expect a certain level of personalisation. In Singapore alone, research has unveiled that over 70 per cent of consumers want a better customer experience — specifically, one that treats them as individuals instead of just any other customer. And this can be achieved with AI.

Also read: PikoHANA: Helping Singapore startups scale through fractional finance

Adopting AI, however, can be challenging for companies, especially young startups and SMEs that may lack the knowledge and expertise in the field and might not have the resources, to hire dedicated teams because of specialisation, Work From Home (WFH), many companies now have remote and outsourced teams working in many different places. As such, there is a dire need to enhance the capabilities of software developers and facilitate better collaboration between teams of software developers and business users to future proof their business.

This is where Singapore-based AI API microservice provider Sentient.io is helping companies adopt AI easily and prepare their business for the future. Sentient.io aims to change the narrative of AI adoption by providing ready-to-use domain-specific AI algorithms for teams of application software developers in companies to consume via APIs.

Sentient.io: Addressing the challenges of AI adoption to help businesses grow

Christopher Yeo, founder and CEO of Sentient.io is fascinated with the impact of computer science, especially artificial intelligence on the future of humanity and how it is going to change our lives. With over 20 years of experience in database technologies, data warehousing, data mining, operations research and internet systems integration, Yeo strongly believes that AI is going to change the world of business forever.

“AI allows businesses to make better decisions, improving the core business processes by increasing the speed and accuracy of strategic decision-making processes. AI Technology helps boost the drive toward digital transformation for enterprises. AI enables human capabilities such as reasoning, understanding, planning, and communication — to be undertaken by software more effectively and efficiently. All of these help people to create new opportunities, free humans from repetitive work, and focus on creative work,” he says.

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Sentient.io enables software developers to build AI and data solutions quickly and easily by offering domain targeted AI and data as API microservices. It runs on the 4 pillars of making AI natural and intelligent where it can be easily integrated into daily life while constantly adapting and developing. Hence, the startup’s tagline: ‘Naturally Intelligent’. 

“We know that many companies have challenges to adopt AI to increase productivity, save costs and enhance revenue streams, Sentient.io has created an AI platform to help software developers quickly and easily access AI models via APIs, which accelerates their AI adoption,” explains Yeo. “Sentient.io enables developers and enterprises to seamlessly add AI capabilities to their software at fast speeds,” he adds.

Leveraging AI to foster a collaborative environment

There has always been a keen emphasis on collaborations and partnerships in the world of business. However, in the light of a prolonged global health pandemic that has changed the face of business and the economy forever, there has been an increased focus on innovation through collaboration. Several studies and reports have found that collaboration is going to be key in a post-pandemic future. Many companies need to cope with WFH, as well as multiple remote and outsourced teams. 

As such, Sentient.io’s TeamSpaces, an extended feature of the AI and Data platform, serves to address the issue of collaboration on the cloud, providing a dedicated space for companies to collaborate on AI solutions. Many companies have separate remote programming teams, TeamSpaces allow all these remote teams to collaborate around datasets and AI models.

TeamSpaces is based on creating a sandbox in a secure environment. Space owners can create tiers of management which allow for multiple organisations to exist and different roles for collaboration. Users or TeamSpaces have access to ready-to-use AI microservices from the Sentient.io Platform which saves them time to search from external sources or build from scratch. In addition, TeamSpace owners can upload their own microservices/datasets in order to fulfil their own organizational needs.

Take the next step into the future with Sentient.io’s TeamSpaces

From young startups or SMEs to established enterprises, any business looking to recruit the best data scientists or AI engineers or seeking a vibrant ecosystem of innovation partners can benefit from TeamSpaces. The assistance provided by TeamSpaces is undeniable and invaluable. Mastering collaboration and embracing efficiency made possible by this truly collaborative workspace, companies can count on both internal and external support, backed by a secure and conducive environment.

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In addition, TeamSpaces affords a safe and secure sandbox for corporate data, meaning that companies do not have to worry about potential data leaks as they use the feature. With the use of Role Based Access Control (RBAC), the owner of the space can assign different rights to different members to ensure security within the collaboration space. Access to data is also controlled by authorised API keys to ensure that sensitive data stays accessible to certain individuals only. Data on the collaboration space is also encrypted, providing an extra layer of security against outside parties.

With subscription plans or license fees that are available in the public cloud or private cloud/on-premise setups respectively, Sentient.io’s TeamSpaces is available at affordable prices, with packages that cater to specific industries and needs. Past use-cases of TeamSpaces have led to decreased costs of up to 50 per cent, as well as increased productivity and innovation. 

To learn more about Sentient.io’s TeamSpaces, visit https://www.sentient.io/teamspaces to ask for a demo. To explore other Sentient.io AI-as-a-service tools and solutions, log on to https://www.sentient.io/en/ or contact joshua@sentient.io

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Sentient.io

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