Education is key to building a sustainable future and the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed the way we learn.  Digital learning has become the new normal but how can it be reinvented to stay relevant for a sustainable future?

As part of the Huawei Digital Talent Summit at the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference this week, the topic was explored by over 80 experts from the education sector including representatives from government, academia, industry, and UNESCO.

People now see higher education as a lifelong process in which they may engage at different stages of their life and career so due to the array of flexible options. As distance learning makes studies more independent and fragmented, short online courses and micro-credentials are becoming more and more popular.

People can quickly reskill themselves for new jobs, especially in digital domains.  There are also increasing partnerships between enterprises and academia to help people get the professional training they need for the digital age.

Finding solutions to educational needs requires a collaborative approach. UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, Stefania Giannini explained that the profound disruption from the global pandemic may have created opportunities.

“It also acted as an accelerator of innovation in education with technology being the bridge to learning continuity for millions of students around the world.  We now need to go the extra mile to bridge the global digital divide that left many behind and to integrate ICT based solutions into high education systems and programs. We need to make technology work for education and not the other way around.”

At Huawei, we’re trying to do our part. Via the Huawei ICT Academy, we are working with university partners to develop dedicated courses for ICT knowledge. We now have about 2,000 Huawei ICT Academies around the world. And we aim to train more than 1 million ICT professionals by 2024.

Also Read: The future of education is AI: Here’s how it will look

The pandemic has also sped up digitalisation and made it clear that we need to improve digital skills among vulnerable groups and make sure no one is left behind in the digital world.

In Europe, for example, only one-quarter elderly have basic digital skills. As a result, the less connected elderly may have difficulties in getting essential goods and services in emergency situations such as food and medication during lockdowns.

We also need to address digital inequality. These dividers are even greater in remote and unconnected regions, where digital tools are not available. And even if people have the tools, they don’t have the skills to use them. We are actively working on bridging those gaps.

For example, Huawei’s TECH4ALL initiative is working with partners like UNESCO to promote digital inclusion.  In places like Kenya, we’ve set up the DigiTruck project. It’s a mobile classroom providing green power, internet access, smart devices and digital skill training for the rural area people.

Digital technology also has the potential to rebalance the world’s educational resources. We should leverage digital technology to build a more collaborative, open, and vibrant education system. Universities in Asia have been leaders in this area recently. They are actively using technology to enhance their research and attract top talent.

To solve the problems of tomorrow, we need to leverage digital technology to match the world’s best minds with the best higher education resources. This will further facilitate technology advancements and promote global innovation.

But to truly make a difference, universities, corporations, and governments will have to work together and at this summit speakers from the education sector including, Markus González Beilfuss, undersecretary for Universities of the Government of Spain; Ivica Šušak, State Secretary, Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia; Qin Changwei, Secretary-General, National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO; and Li Ming, Director of UNESCO-ICHEI.

At Huawei, we believe collaboration is the best approach to innovation. We support universities around the world by providing funds and have established 60 labs devoted to basic tech research. We also want to encourage open academic exchange. Recently, we launched the Huang Danian Chaspark, an open online platform for discussion on the latest technology and innovation challenges.

This type of openness and collaboration is what the world needs right now. It will help us cultivate outstanding researchers and future leaders who can build a dynamic and innovative world economy.

Digital technology is making higher education more accessible than ever. We need to take this opportunity to build a sustainable and inclusive future for all.

Vincent Peng, Board Director and Senior Vice President, Huawei Technologies, Co., Ltd was speaking at the Huawei Digital Talent Summit at the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference, May 2022.

–

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: Huawei Technologies, Co.

The post Openness and collaboration in education is what the world needs appeared first on e27.

“Rahul, what do you do?” After spending a decade in strategy and innovation, it’s a question I still struggle to answer. I am neither a pure breed consultant nor an entrepreneur. Instead, I am a venture builder. 

I define venture building as converting market imperfections into investable business opportunities. The exact nature of the opportunity is always uncertain, and how such opportunities might create, capture and deliver value is often unknown.

As a venture builder, my job is to navigate uncertainties, reduce risks in a data-poor environment and create investable business opportunities with our corporate partners.

The clarity, simplicity, and tangibility of what I do continue to elude several in my professional and personal ecosystem, and it’s easy to see why. My mum has a long-standing broad explanation that I am a business consultant (this is not entirely untrue). My children have a happy explanation that I work for a company that solves problems and keeps me in Singapore, which they love! 

As my job scope and story diverged and converged over the years, the answer to what I do has evolved from ‘I help corporates innovate’ to ‘I help corporates build innovation capabilities’ to ‘I help corporates drive innovation and transformation strategies’ to ‘I help corporates build startups.’

But, while simple and undeniably useful at dinner parties, none of these explanations provides a complete picture. 

I want to change this concretely, especially for my professional ecosystem, and make it relatable for everyone aspiring to become or partner with a venture builder. Given my love of analogies, I’ve broken down my job into three key roles: I am a detective (like Sherlock Holmes), I am a scientist (like Albert Einstein), and I am a stand-up comedian (like Chris Rock). 

I deliberately chose these three professions because these are the hats I wear as I navigate uncertainties, reduce risks and make my investors happy. In addition, these hats help me pursue an iterative learning process of creating new opportunities and new data sets that did not exist before. Further, they explain the method in the madness of venture building and the science in its art. 

Also Read: Holding tight or letting go: A paradox I face as a father and a corporate venture builder

These three hats put me into seemingly counter-intuitive modes that make my profession as a venture builder consistently rewarding for me, my team, and my corporate partners.

Hat 1: Detective (like Sherlock Holmes), asking questions and not seeking answers 

“As a rule, when I have heard some slight indication of the course of events, I can guide myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my memory,” Arthur Conan Doyle, from the story The Red-Headed League.

At the beginning of any venture-building journey, we know very little. We do not even know what we don’t know. We are dwelling in high uncertainty with limited data, lots of questions, and unquantifiable blindspots. Counter-intuitively, we need to leverage rather than mitigate our cognitive biases in such data-poor circumstances. 

Asking questions allows us to keep an open mind while leveraging these biases. Asking questions helps us to uncover the unknown-unknowns.

It catalyses creative thinking while taking advantage of two biases, the representativeness bias (i.e., generalising insights from a small sample set) and the overconfidence bias (i.e., having a great deal of confidence in our ability to generalise small sample sets).

On the contrary, seeking answers is lethal. It primes us to listen for answers we want to hear in areas with very limited knowledge, thus risking false validations of our assumptions.

Therefore, we should err towards asking questions and not seeking answers. The approach here is to hold back the urge to jump to conclusions consistently. Instead, assume we know nothing and go into every conversation with an open, neutral mindset.

This will ensure we are ready to learn, unearth market imperfections, and deeply understand the challenges that represent potential innovation opportunities. Interview probes like, ‘could you explain that to me,’ ‘tell me more,’ ‘what if,’ ‘how might we,’ ‘why,’ etc., are great hacks to sustain this approach. Watch this video to learn more about building this approach.

Hat 2: Scientist (like Albert Einstien), being “assumptions driven”

“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong,” said Albert Einstein.

Venture building primarily entails creating something new, and creating something new is fraught with uncertainty because we have to make decisions in a data-poor environment.

All we have is a theory on what a great venture opportunity might be, with many assumptions behind it.

Also Read: Searching for gold in the silver economy: A venture capital perspective

The sustainable way to manage our discomfort is to be assumptions-driven and recognise that we make many assumptions. Counter-intuitively, being assumptions-driven is not just about proving or disproving an assumption.

Instead, it’s about generating data to understand where and when the assumptions hold or do not hold, thereby increasing our confidence level in the business opportunity.

The discipline here is to consistently segregate facts from assumptions, prioritise assumptions, ask “what would need to be true’ for an assumption to hold, and then work on generating the data required to continue having these assumptions.

A simple hack to distinguish fact from assumption is whenever sentences start with an ‘if,’ ‘I think,’ ‘I believe,’ ‘I feel,’ etc., we are making an assumption. And an assumption is held when we can say, “we believe in <X> because of <add data>” or “we do not believe in X because of <add data>.” Watch this video to learn more about building this discipline.

Hat 3: Stand-up comedian (like Chris Rock), pursuing small wins over a big bang approach

In gearing up for his global tour, Chris Rock makes between 40 and 50 appearances at small venues. Rock says, “It’s like boxing training camp. I always pick a comedy club to work out in.” 

During these appearances, Rock performs 45 minutes sets in front of audiences of 30 to 40 people, where he brings a yellow legal notepad with lots of joke ideas scribbled. Many of the jokes will fall flat, but there will be 5-10 lines during the set that land exceedingly well, making it all worthwhile. Chris collects this data to build the next version of this set to perform the next night. 

Instead of a big bang performance with new content, Chris is rapidly iterating, relearning, and refining his content for the global tour by getting frequently punched in the face during the smaller venue performances.

Like comedy, venture building is also about rolling with the punches and creating the data to back venture opportunities. 

Counter-intuitively, placing smaller bets and going slow is the fastest and cheapest way to build a new venture. As venture builders, we cannot pin all our hopes on one big bet and wait to test everything in one big bang.

The tactic for building a new venture is to achieve a collection of small wins rather than one big win, wherein with each win, we unearth a new unknown or insight, raise/answer a fundamental question, or find data to back our assumptions.

The discipline here is to follow the loop, prioritise, execute, and reflect, by splitting the venture into multiple phases and defining the biggest assumptions that each phase must validate and answer.

While the individual objectives will vary for each phase, the collective objective is to drive a higher degree of validation across all phases. It is also critical to periodically invest time synthesising insights, reflecting, and reorienting the collective objectives. Watch this video to learn more about building this discipline.

Does the three hatted explanation of what I do pass the sniff test of simplicity? It is a resounding no. However, I hope it provides a complete picture of what I do and why I do it. What do you think?

This article is written as part of the Corporate Venture Launchpad programme. The SG$10 million pilot programme by EDB New Ventures aims to enable large, established companies new to corporate venture to launch a new venture in Singapore within six months. 

–

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: Canva Pro

The post 3 counterintuitive hats to decode the science in the art venture building appeared first on e27.

By all accounts, Vietnam is the world’s most surprising crypto hotspot. The Southeast Asian country has seen strong adoption of Web3 products, including metaverse games and NFTs, in recent times. “The local community is diligent and has a strong learning urge. The passion and involvement of users for Web3 in the country are crazy,” said Nicole Zhang, Investment Director at Binance Labs, in a recent interview with e27.

Indeed, the Web3 growth in Vietnam is hardly surprising, given the country has given birth to several leading metaverse games startups, including Axie Infinity, which is a rage among the youth. Beyond metaverse and NFTs, there are some other companies that are making waves in the country and beyond.

Here, we bring you the list of Web3 startups founded by Vietnamese entrepreneurs who are proving the Web3 industry is way beyond Axie Infinity and metaverse games (we have also included Axie Infinity on the list since it is one of the most popular companies built out of Vietnam).

Sky Mavis (Axie Infinity)

Sky Mavis was founded in early 2018 by Aleksander Leonard Larsen, Nguyễn Thành Trung, Đoàn Minh Tú, Hồ Sỹ Việt Anh and Jeffrey Samuel Kim Zirlin. It is the creator of Axie Infinity, a popular NFT-based play-to-earn (P2E) game where players breed, battle, and trade digital pets called Axie.

Axie claims to have more than 1.8 million daily active users. The firm, a unicorn now, claims it has helped create income-generating opportunities for underserved people worldwide — 25 per cent of players are unbanked, and 50 per cent have not previously used cryptocurrencies.

Sky Mavis is backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners and Paradigm, Libertus Capital, Animoca Brands, Hashed, Pangea Blockchain Fund, Consensys, and 500 Startups Vietnam.

In late March this year, hackers stole more than US$600 million in cryptocurrency from Sky Mavis breaching the Ronin bridge, which is used to support the exchange and interoperability of different cryptocurrencies from different blockchains.

Sipher

Founded by prominent Vietnamese entrepreneur Nguyen Trung Tin (CEO), Sipher aims to unify state-of-the-art blockchain tech, artwork, storytelling, and multiplayer gaming with decentralised financial technologies. Its vision is to create an expansive world that attracts and keeps the player base engaged for years to come as new worlds, characters and factions are introduced.

Sipher intends to create an ecosystem where people can play for fun while earning rewards for their time spent in-game. It also provides the community with ownership of in-game assets, which directly contributes to the growth and success of the gaming industry.

Also Read: The 27 Web3 startups in Singapore that show crypto is more than Terra Luna and stablecoins

Last October, Sipher announced the closing of a US$6.8 million financing round, co-led by Arrington Capital, Hashed and Konvoy Ventures. Defiance Capital, Signum Capital, Dragonfly Capital, CMT Digital, BITKRAFT Ventures, Delphi Digital, Alameda Research, Fenbushi Capital, Sfermion, Hyperchain, GBV, Kyber Network, Coin98 Ventures, YGG and Merit Circle also participated.

Summoners Arena

Established by serial entrepreneur Hung Tran in May 2021, Summoners Arena is a role-playing game (RPG) that aims to redefine user experience in the blockchain gaming space. It integrates traditional and blockchain gaming elements to provide a multi-layered experience for players to participate in immersive gameplay and experience true ownership over gaming assets while earning digital assets.

The firm is scheduled to launch two official versions of the game, a non-blockchain free-to-play (F2P) version where users cannot earn digital assets and a play-own-earn version. Players of the F2P version are rewarded with free characters and features when they join the POE version.

In the blockchain version (Mainnet), players can play a specific set of game features out of more than ten features already favoured by the players of the traditional version, such as PvP (person vs person), PvE (person vs environment), Dungeon, Weapon Forging, and Black Market.

To date, the gaming startup has raised US$4.25 million across seed funding and strategic financing round. The investors include Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Onechain Technology, GuildFi, Merit Circle, Cosmic Guild, Coin98 Ventures, Istari Ventures, Spartan Group, Impossible Finance, Kyber Ventures, and Kyros Ventures. Prominent angels, including Chang-Han Kim, CEO of Krafton, and Mirza Uddin from Injective Labs, are also among its backers.

Slime Royale

Slime Royale develops a fun NFT game, where players can gain real benefits while having fun. It operates as a platform where players are supported to create, own, and exchange their digital assets. It strikes a balance between play-to-earn and play-for-fun gamers.

The firm has designed what it calls a Balancing Economic System (BES) to protect the game economy from inflation and secure the benefits of NFT owners.

Although the most successful NFT games can attract two-three million players, this number is only a very small set of customers in the vast game market. (The entire world has three billion video gamers, top games can attract from one billion to 1.5 billion players). Slime Royale believes if it can attract dozens or hundreds of millions of players, it will add enormous value to the gaming industry as a whole.

As per Crunchbase database, Slime Royale is backed by Appota.

Poriverse

Poriverse is an NFT game that allows players to lend and trade NFT to earn more. It originated with a special NFT system of Porian pieces and classes, which allows gamers to purchase or strategically grow their own Porian NFTs. Fair winning opportunities among players are designed through unique Porians rented randomly for higher-value Porian breeding.

The startup also offers a metaverse game in which different worlds could be created, designed, owned and traded among players, world developers and game investors for greater earnings.

Poriverse enables you to collect Porians in Poriverse to create a team for your adventure and sell or rent your PORI NFTs to other players in the marketplace.

ASPO

ASPO is a game universe, which is currently developing a project called ASPO World. It is a tactics-based game that allows people to interact with one another in the virtual world it creates. ASPO tokens are available on BSC mainnet.

In the game, players freely set up for themselves a squad, including one main general and four spirits. Different spirits have different skills and have different advantages. After arranging the squad, the two sides will start fighting. There are two battle modes: manual control to adjust the amount (rage) and auto-attack to help players free their hands. Each character will fight in turn until the last champion of 1 side falls.

Also Read: What investors should know about security, hacking and cryptocurrencies

Players joining ASPO World are required to choose one of the three classes ASPO has designed (Fighter, Hunter and Witch) as their main character along with four other companions (spirits) to form a strong team in the arena. By engaging in the battles and activities, players can claim NFTs that can be traded on the marketplace.

ASPO has secured US$2 million in funding so far from nine investors, including Icetea.io and Hashed.

VerseHub

VerseHub has developed NextVerse, a VR-ready social-oriented metaverse. It aims to build a community where users can present themselves and communicate immersively and earn assets by playing games and watching videos. According to the firm, the game provides a real user experience as close to real-life experiences with unlimited possibilities.

It also provides a combined solution for communication, asset management, and co-working. Besides, it provides strategic, technical, and financial support to business teams and projects for their research and development, thereby helping them to adopt blockchain for better results.

VerseHub is based in London, with a physical and operational presence in Vietnam.

In November 2021, a group of angel investors injected US$1 million into VerseHub.

Meta Spatial

Meta Spatial is a metaverse virtual universe developed by the Spatial Studio. Meta Spatial is inspired by science fiction novels. The Spatial Universe is an “unlimited super universe” where the spaces are linked together through the Spatial Portal.

The firm aims to provide users with “the most extensive and authentic experiences” by creating unlimitedly different spaces and applying XR, virtual reality and extended reality technology in the Meta Spatial ecosystem.

The startup has also built a supporting technology platform for other startups to build metaverse applications for the community. Meta Platform wants to be the first in the world that allows personalisation to bring a citizen from the real world into the virtual world.

Meta Spatial has received capital from more than 100 investors around the world, including Okex, Polygon, Mex, CMC, X21, Master Venture, Redkite, and ZBS.

Ancient8

Founded in July 2021, Ancient8 is building a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) that develops a community and software platform to enable everyone to play and build the metaverse while earning rewards simultaneously.

Employing blockchain technology, the startup provides users with a comprehensive set of products and services, including scholarships and education, community, software, and investment in GameFi. 

It allows users to borrow non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to play popular games, earn rewards, and receive instruction from experienced gamers. Users may also invest in new games and have early access to NFT and game testing for superior user rewards.

Ancient8 partners with P2E games to produce educational content for local communities in Vietnam and educate people about both blockchain and P2E games. It helps more than 10,000 blockchain game players by providing scholarship and educational opportunities, community, blockchain and software products.

Early this year, Ancient8 announced a US$4 million seed financing led by Dragonfly Capital, Pantera Capital and Hashed. Strategic investors including Mechanism Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, 3Twelve Capital, Alameda Research, GuildFi, Coin98 Ventures, Kyros Ventures, Raydium, Jump Capital and Sipher also participated in the round along with previous backers Trung Nguyen (Axie Infinity), Santiago R Santos, Nick Chong and Loi Luu (Kyber Network).

AntEx

Antex is a decentralised multi-chain token management platform as a service. It provides the decentralised foundational layers for a new digital economy with the following products: stable-coin, crypto/fiat, DEX, launchpad, lock liquidity and lock token. It also plays the role of a bridge for applying crypto to real daily life through VNDT wallet and VNDT stable coin.

VNDT Wallet builds on the original vision as the payment gateway between cryptocurrency and fiat. It provides a liquidity gateway for crypto-fiat and its transactions via V-Pay by QR-Code in real life. The VNDT Wallet becomes an initial gateway in connecting the users to the decentralized finance ecosystem conveniently.

Also Read: Breaking the bro code: How women are taking over the Web3 world in Asia

In October 2021, Antex raised a total of US$7.3 million in funding: US$4.8 million through token sales and US$2.5 million from NextTech Group and Next100 Venture. The token funding round was led by Gelos Venture and with participants from Halving Capital, Amun Capital, Atlantic Capital, MIC Holding, Victory Venture, AVA Capital, ADN Capital, BSCLaunch, Crypto Era, Trade Coin X1000BTC, Ant Trading, Launch Zone, Easy Crypto, AliTrade, 68 Trading, BFA Group, CHIP Group, KTS Capital, Easy Trading, S-Finances.

KardiaChain

Kardiachain is a scalable and interoperable blockchain platform for decentralised applications. It aims to solve one of the most prominent challenges facing blockchain technology: fragmentation of the blockchain ecosystems. The team has developed a non-invasive solution, called Dual master node (or Dual node for short), to facilitate inter-chain operations among both existing and upcoming blockchain platforms.

KardiaChain follows an “integration without assimilation” approach, which focuses on simplicity and easy-to-use from the standpoint of both the end-user and the developer.

The ultimate goal of KardiaChain is to create a unified ecosystem where developers can easily create smart contracts that can run on multiple blockchains to optimise costs, avoid congestion, and allow communication with smart contracts on other chains in a trustless and secure manner.

Kambria

Kambria is a decentralised open innovation platform for deeptech (AI, robotics, blockchain, VR and AR). Using its platform with NFT IP marketplace and DAOs, anyone can collaborate in researching, developing and commercialising innovative ideas and get rewarded for their contributions.

Through partnerships with government agencies, top universities and leading companies, the Web3 company is building a sustainable open innovation ecosystem to accelerate advanced technology development and industry adoption.

Kyber Network

Kyber Network is a multi-chain crypto trading and liquidity hub that connects liquidity from different sources to enable trades at the best rates. It connects the deepest crypto liquidity from diverse sources to “provide the best rates and maximise returns” for everyone.

Its vision is to become the liquidity hub for the decentralised economy, where any user or application can easily access the required tokens for their liquidity needs.

DareNFT

DareNFT offers a universal NFT 2.0 protocol for digital assets. It is a multi-chain platform that allows users to mint their NFTs across major blockchain networks such as Ethereum, BSC, Polkadot, Solana, Cosmos, and Polygon. Users are also allowed to mint NFTs by staking the platform’s native token DNFT.

The DareNFT Protocol 2.0 will allow the following: creators to receive royalties from the derivative owner’s revenue, supports the co-owner model, supports the multi-chain rental NFT model, and is compatible with the existing NFT 1.0.

In October last year, the Web3 startup raised US$2.4 million in funding from notable investors in the blockchain and crypto industry, such as Kyber Network, AU21 Capital, Basics Capital, Magnus Capital, Momentum 6, and X21 Digital. Using the capital, it launched its GameFi platform entitled DarePlay.

Finblox

Founded by Peter Hoang and Dmitriy Paunin, Finblox provides a “secure on-ramp” into stablecoins and popular crypto-assets such as Axie Infinity and Polygon. The platform allows users to earn a yield on their assets passively, with no limits on minimum balances or withdrawal periods. The services are available in over 100 countries.

The firm claims it offers one of the highest interest rates available in the digital asset space. Users can earn a 15 per cent annual percentage yield on USD Coin. It also offers up to 90 per cent yield on other major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche and Axie Infinity.

Also Read: Women of Web3: Top women contributors tell us all we need to know about Web3

The returns are enabled through Finblox’s partnership with established crypto institutional borrowers and trusted DeFi protocols.

In March this year, the Web3 company attracted an oversubscribed US$3.9 million seed financing. The capital came from strategic investors, including Dragonfly Capital, Sequoia Capital India, Three Arrows Capital, Saison Capital, MSA Capital, Coinfund, Venturra Discovery, Kyros Ventures, First Check Ventures, and Ratio Ventures. Coins. ph’s Founder Ron Hose, and Xfers Founder Tianwei Liu.

Tomochain

TomoDEX is a decentralised exchange (DEX) powered by the layer 1 protocol TomoX. It combines the speed and experience of a centralised exchange and the security of decentralisation, letting operators bring a DEX to market without needing extensive technical knowledge.

With TomoX, one doesn’t have to wait to fulfil extensive requirements to launch one’s own intuitive DEX platform.

It takes just five minutes to launch a DEX. With a simple one-time deposit of 25000 TOMO into the Registration portal, anyone can propose a DEX in real-time. There is no need to go through lengthy due diligence processes associated with already established centralized exchange Cloud services, like Binance Cloud, nor deal with technical challenges to host and run it like with other DEX options.

All Day

All Day is a fantasy world that offers a lot of games, including a party game, a co-op game, a quiz game and also a turn-based RPG. Its Battle Royale Contest is a series of party games that massive multiplayer compete together.

Thetan Arena

Thetan Arena is an e-sports game. Its gameplay is designed to revolve around the combination between your personal skills and teamwork. Thetan Coin is its main in-game currency, which can be achieved by playing game modes and participating in many other activities. Apart from Thetan Coin, Thetan Gem is an exclusive currency that makes players become investors.

Thetan Arena’s mission is not just to create an e-sport game but a platform game that connects crypto owners with gamers and streamers. These three components will create a sustainable ecosystem that makes gaming, sharing, and in-game peer-to-peer exchange famous worldwide.

Metain

Metain is a blockchain-empowered co-investment platform focusing on real estate. Its vision is to provide high-yield, transparent and secured investment opportunities to middle-income customers. The platform aims to grow the Vietnam real estate investment market and improve its accessibility using blockchain technology to complement, not replace, existing reliable approaches.

The platform provides investors with NFTs that represent a dividend of property on a secure and decentralized platform via Smart Contract. Each share is backed by an NFT compliant with the ERC-721 standard. Thus, this allows the permanent integrity of the assets.

Metain Co-investment platform brings earnings to NFTs and stable coin holders with an interest of 15-25 per cent annual percentage yield.

In March, IDG Capital Vietnam invested in the Web3 venture.

ToCom

Tocom is a community platform where gamers can find new earning opportunities from the metaverse and be equipped with the necessary skills to earn from P2E games.

DeHR

DeHR is a decentralised social career metaverse. It can be described as a “decentralised LinkedIn” where users can connect, earn, and exchange data on a daily basis through “connect to earn career” activities. Users can kick-start their earnings immediately by staking their resume, expanding their network and engaging with others through pre-designed missions and social activities. They can earn more with another source of passive income, staking and providing their own services.

The Web3 firm users can possess a unique avatar profile NFT. The avatar profile serves as a career passport and helps them get connected with the ecosystem of global talent, companies, and organisations through daily social feeds, DeFi and data marketplace.

—

Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

Copyright: ximagination

The post These 21 Web3 startups prove why Vietnam is world’s most surprising crypto hotspot appeared first on e27.

Last October, I shared my key takeaways and observations from my first year in venture capitalism at an early-stage VC fund, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India (VVSEAI).

In my first year, I guess, like many other analysts and associates, I aimed to perfect the hard skills, crunching numbers, modelling different scenarios, learning to challenge assumptions, and asking the right questions.

What does it take to be an outstanding investor?

This year, I’m close to my second year at VVSEAI, and I often thought,  what does it take to be an outstanding investor? I showed this meme in my previous articles as it resonated with me.

A VC role is perceived so differently by different people. Many think that being a VC is all about finding the right startup to invest into, riding its growth, and making huge returns for the limited partners, and that’s it.

And, so often, I hear that the main strategy is to invest in many so that hopefully, one or more of them lead to a goldmine. At VVSEAI, I soon learned that this couldn’t be farther from the truth from observing my partners. It is more than just about picking the right horses. It is also about backing them till they succeed.

My partners kept reminding me that the hard work starts after we invest. I thought I knew what that entails. Until recently, a portfolio founder, Prajit Nanu, shared his journey and various stories with all our team members at a recent company offsite.

Also Read: Nium adds US$200M more to its war chest to become Southeast Asia’s latest unicorn

Nanu is the CEO and co-founder of Nium, a recently-minted unicorn in the fintech space. Their vision is to build a modern payments platform that helps global businesses move money anywhere in the world, in real-time. For the uninitiated, Nanu is part of VVSEAI’s family.

We first invested in Nium’s Series A round back in 2016 (back then called Instarem) and have worked closely together.

Having built his startup into one of the top 250 fintech companies globally, Nanu has crossed paths with countless investors in the past six years.

It would be refreshing and extremely valuable to share his keen observations on what separates an outstanding investor from the rest. After all, Nanu has had extensive experience working with various types of investors.

The following are some of my reflections from his insightful sharing.

Sharing the same vision and conviction

“Not all capital is equal” is a familiar maxim in the venture capital space, and yet, not everyone fully comprehends what it means.

“I have seen many first-time founders who made mistakes by being swayed by investors who gave them the highest valuation, without considering the entire ‘package’ offered by the other investors,” Nanu shared. “Most importantly, does the investor share the same vision as you do?”

Nanu shared that although Nium is now a unicorn, their startup journey had been an arduous and turbulent one. They had iterated their model not once, not twice, but five times to become what we know them as today.

Little known to others, Nium’s business was at the cusp of shutting down no less than three times in its early years. He appreciated that VVSEAI shared the same vision and demonstrated the same conviction as he, right from the beginning.

During the challenging moments, when Nium was in “survival mode,” Nanu shared that his portfolio manager, Genping Liu, constantly reached out to him for ideas on gathering enough funds to survive the immediate year and steer the business forward together.

The rest of the VVSEAI team also called on their vast investor network to convince other investors to back Nium at a time when few wanted to, as Nium’s fate was uncertain. He felt that this was rare among the investors he had met, as he had heard of many stories where the investors pulled the plug when the going got tough.

Hearing this made me realise that an outstanding investor buys into the same vision as the founders and is ready to back them for the long term beyond having the ‘hard skills’. It’s easy to draw up an immaculate plan to recommend a startup for investment at the investment committee (IC) and then write a cheque.

But without the same conviction, it would be hard for the investor to defend the startup when things go south and justify additional funding to tide them over. Hearing how much time Genping spent with Nanu, I finally understand why he said that as a VC, ‘the hard work begins after the investment is made.

Being there in both good and bad times

“Beyond providing capital, does the investor add value in other ways? Would they open doors to potential customers and partners? Are they able to introduce new investors for the next round? Would they help attract C-suite and tech talent?

“Are the founders able to be vulnerable and honest with their investors so that he or they can support them?” Nanu thought these are important questions that someone fundraising should be asking.

Reflecting on what he shared, it became clear to me that the hallmark of an outstanding investor is ‘a fit’ with the founders, who can offer both tangible and intangible value in a complementary way to the founders through the ups and downs of the business.

Also Read: Mergers and acquisitions: Key to building an embedded finance ecosystem

At VVSEAI, it is sometimes astonishing how much time I see my partners spend with their portfolio founders, supporting their company’s growth. It is uncommon to see them having calls with each other as frequently as weekly and constantly helping to make introductions to the next potential customer, partner or investor or searching for candidates to fill the management positions.

Beyond the ‘tangible support,’ a particular quote from Nanu stuck with me. It underlined a simple fact that can sometimes be overlooked,  founders, though often very optimistic, are humans. They require emotional support and encouragement.

Nanu noted that in growing a startup, “Lots of rejections will happen, and a founder needs support, especially when the chips are down.” In investments, one often talks about the “sleep at night consideration,” arising from the margin of safety. To founders, the greatest margin of safety allowing for a good night’s sleep is knowing that your investors will be there during rainy days and thunderstorms.

In fact, Nanu mentioned that one of the most comforting aspects of Nium’s journey with VVSEAI was how the VVSEAI management is always just a Whatsapp message or call away — an open line he could tap on to confide in or seek advice without worry.

“In fact, I was consulting Genping so often, on topics as minor as selecting the ideal office location, so much so that I felt he was almost like another co-founder in Nium,” Nanu mused.

I recall an award-winning documentary Undefeated, American football coach Bill Courtney famously said that “The measure of a man’s character is not determined by how he handles his wins, but how he handles his failures.”

A similar parallel can be drawn for venture capitalists (VC), in which the true measure of a VC is not determined by how they celebrate the wins but by how they treat their founders amidst setbacks.

“The ‘outstanding’ investors are not only there to celebrate the wins, but can also always be relied on to sit by the founders’ side through uglier times.”

I’m proud that most of us at VVSEAI are someone whom a founder can turn to in both the good and bad times. When we mention that our founders are part of the “Vertex Family”, it is not something we say in passing, our founders hold an important place in our hearts.

Not afraid to offer stern, but fair criticism

“Iron sharpens iron. Man sharpens man.”

No one (myself included) likes receiving criticism or negative feedback. Whether it is due to pure ego or a firm conviction in your idea, a common knee-jerk reaction is to think that the critic is in the wrong.

Nanu shares, “At an early stage, you want your investor(s) to challenge you, but not block the path. Be supportive of the founders when they are pivoting … disagree if it’s a crazy idea, but do not mock their ambitions.”

He reflected on a period of tension in 2020, whereby Nium and VVSEAI engaged in a back and forth conversation regarding Nium’s intentions of applying for a digital banking licence in Singapore. Nanu notes that the constructive disagreement was a watershed moment that actually paved the way for Nium’s success today.

Also Read: What investors should know about security, hacking and cryptocurrencies

It was a tough call for him, but he eventually heeded VVSEAI’s recommendation to forgo the licence in favour of a greater focus on its global B2B payment business. In retrospect, he said it was “…probably the best decision [he] made that year.”

Nanu emphasised that some friction between investor and founder is actually beneficial, provided that criticisms are made with the same end goal of fulfilling the founder’s vision in mind.

Nanu’s nuanced recount made me realise that founders would grow to appreciate investors who are not afraid to initiate tough conversations from the heart.

In fact, by poking holes in the founder’s assumptions, investors (who tend to have amassed a great wealth of knowledge within their industry of expertise) who are not merely “yes-men”, go a long way in shaping business strategies for the better, especially for fresh-faced founders lacking an in-depth understanding of their market.

Obviously, bombarding a founder with overly harsh or non-constructive criticism can do more harm than good. I can only imagine such treatment completely wounding or demoralising a founder to a point where his/ her drive to fulfil the vision is eradicated. Being able to walk the fine line between challenging founders’ ideas and yet, not disregarding or disrespecting their grand ambitions is the hallmark of an outstanding investor.

Mulling over the three key takeaways from Nanu’s sharing, I had a eureka moment in which the seemingly disparate themes clicked all at once; for a founder, all the qualities that make a great investor are simply the ones that make a great friend.

To me, a great friend is someone who:

• Shares similar beliefs and convictions and sees the value of all that you have to offer
• It supports you in a complementary way to help your business grow more quickly
• It is reliable and trustworthy and can be counted on, be it rain or shine
• Does not mock your crazy ambitions but challenges your assumptions to get you one step closer to your dreams. The saying goes, “A true partner sees us more clearly than ourselves and is willing to say things most people won’t.”

We are grateful to Nanu for openly sharing his thoughts and perspectives on how a great investor should operate.

At Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, we constantly strive to be the best partner to our founders. This all begins with having honest conversations with our founders so that we can have the best understanding of their needs and go on to position their companies most beneficially.

This article first appeared on Vertex Ventures.

–

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: Canva Pro

The post In good times and bad: An outstanding investor will stand by you appeared first on e27.

Indonesia’s Zenius lays off 200+ employees
This amounts to over 20% of its 900+ workforce; As per sources, the 600-strong content team, which includes tutors and illustrators, was particularly affected; This comes amidst the global economic downturn.

These 21 Web3 startups prove why Vietnam is world’s most surprising crypto hotspot
Vietnam has given birth to several leading metaverse games startups, including Axie Infinity, which is a rage among GenZ.

Robo-advisory startup Bibit raises US$80M+ funding
Investors include GIC and Prosus Ventures; Bibit says it has enabled millions of investors across the archipelago to build investment portfolios based on their risk profiles and goals; It specifically targets mostly millennials and first-time investors.

Singapore private exchange ADDX bags US$58M pre-Series B
Investors include UOB, Stock Exchange of Thailand, and Krungsri Finnovate; ADDX uses blockchain and smart-contract technology to break down private market options like PE and hedge funds, thus reducing minimum investment sizes from US$1M to US$10K.

Oyo eyeing IPO after September, may slash valuation to at least US$7B
The firm chose to delay its IPO until its financial performance improves and to dodge market volatility; Its initial listing plan included a fresh issue of equity shares amounting to US$902K primary issue and a US$184K offer for sale.

SG Pharmacy platform SwipeRx bags US$27M
Investors are MDI Ventures, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, and SIG; The company provides digital tools to pharmacies to better assist in managing their locations and patients.

1982 Ventures closes debut US$20M seed-stage fintech fund
1982 Ventures, which has backed 25 startups so far, expects to make 10-15 new investments and follow-on investments in its existing portfolio; It has over US$5M in early commitments to its soon-to-be-announced Fund II.

Breaking the bro code: How women are taking over the Web3 world in Asia
The Women In Blockchain Asia aims to tackle the diversity problem in the geeky and technical Web3 industry; It has a specific focus on blockchain development, curation of Web3 solutions, and expanding the understanding of DLT.

Novelship, a marketplace for limited-edition sneakers, raises ~US$10M Series A
Investors are GSR Ventures, East Ventures, K3 Ventures and iGlobe Partners; It plans to expand in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan; It also aims to continue to explore metaverse integration.

Hong Kong climatetech startup Allinfra secures US$6M from Nomura-led round
Allinfra allows users to store, use, or monetise their climate-relevant information on a blockchain-based network; It has two main solutions: data management software Allinfra Climate and asset tokenisation platform Allinfra Digital.

Digital wallet Pebble raises US$6.2M funding
Investors include Y Combinator, East Ventures, and LightShed Ventures; Pebble’s e-wallet offers its users a 5% annual percentage yield on their money by converting deposits to stablecoin USDC before lending them to regulated financial institutions.

Singapore AI startup Polymerize secures US$4.2M Series A
Investors are Elevation Capital and InfoEdge Ventures; Polymerize is a SaaS platform for R&D teams in chemical companies; It aims to shorten development time by up to 50% and achieve R&D cost savings of up to 40%.

Indonesia-based career platform KitaLulus raises Series A
Investors include Tiger Global, Goodwater Capital, Rocketship.vc, and Go-Ventures; KitaLulus lets users look for jobs, take screening tests, and contact potential employers directly via WhatsApp.

True Global Ventures invests US$3M in document management startup Dedoco
Dedoco is looking to enter new markets, including the US, this year; Dedoco allows users to manage their documents on-premise, which means increased data privacy and document security.

Meet the 11 startups that have received grants from SG’s Maritime and Port Authority
The startups are collaborating with maritime corporate partners from PIER71 on pilot projects that focus on the use of smart sensors, vision and data analytics, artificial intelligence and wearables.

Two senior Grab executives quit as company rejigs unit to stem losses
Chris Yeo, who heads the payments and rewards business and has been with the company for nearly six years, is leaving along with Jeffrey Goh, who leads the payments gateway business; Both worked at the Grab Financial Group’s GrabFin unit.

Indonesia’s LinkAja ‘reorganising resources’ amid layoff rumours
LinkAja is an e-wallet service from Telkomsel and state-run organisations; It says that it has 68M active users and is operating in 680 traditional markets in Indonesia as of last year.

DeFi real estate platform CitaDAO to tokenise SG property after US$600k raise
CitaDAO itself aims to solve the limited access and liquidity problems in the existing real estate ecosystem. With the Real Estate On-Chain, participants can earn income generated from real-world property leases through cryptocurrency.

Funding Societies launches Shariah-compliant financing products
The zero-collateral financing is available for Malaysian MSMEs that have been operating for at least a year; Funding Societies offers a credit line of up to US$228,000.

Indonesia’s regional digital gap narrows: East Ventures report
Internet users in the archipelago have been supporting the digital economy’s growth by using online services for news, shopping, socializing, and banking, the report found; The median competitiveness score across regions reached 43.5, higher than 42.2 in 2021.

Terra employee faces probe over embezzlement allegations
The police have also asked local cryptocurrency trading platforms Upbit and Bithumb to freeze the Luna Foundation Guard to stop it from withdrawing corporate funds from accounts held at virtual currency exchanges.

—

Copyright: ilixe48

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Zenius lets go of 200+ employees, Bibit bags US$80M+ funding, ADDX nets US$58M appeared first on e27.