If COVID-19 has taught the world one thing, it is that the only certainty in life is that nothing is certain. As the pandemic gripped the planet for almost two years, workers used the global slowdown and shifting dynamics to take stock of their careers, assessing what, with all this newfound unpredictability, they really wanted from their jobs.

It has become starkly apparent that mundane, repetitive tasks, “working like a machine”, in other words, are no longer of interest to employees. In many cases, this has resulted in the Great Resignation, impacting companies of all sizes across the world. Today’s workers yearn for roles that have purpose and meaning, which stimulates and makes them pleased to come to the office each day.

Businesses that solve this challenge can benefit significantly. Happy workers don’t just bring improved well-being and reduce staff turnover; they boost the business’s bottom line. In fact, according to researchers at the University of Oxford, workers were found to be 13 per cent more productive when happy.

Forward-thinking businesses need to invest in technology and digital tools to make their staff empowered, productive and successful at work. And the name of the secret sauce? Intelligent Automation.

Using AI-powered automation will improve an employee’s satisfaction in the workplace by automating repetitive, low-value tasks. It frees up employees to focus on other, more appealing and engaging undertakings that draw on their core competencies and human creativity.

And by making it easier to optimise employees’ working hours and focus on higher-value tasks, companies save time and money. But increased productivity isn’t the only gain. The technology can deliver broader operational efficiencies, faster and more data-driven business decisions, and smooth the way to successful scaling.

Let’s look into how Intelligent Automation can elevate core business processes.

Streamlining expense management and human resources functions

As we’ve discussed, Intelligent Automation can play a critical role in helping employees find meaning in their work by removing the humdrum aspect of their daily tasks, raising their satisfaction in the workplace and making them less likely to leave.

Areas within the workplace primed for AI-powered solutions include expense management, the second most controllable budget in a company after wages, and human resources. These are departments where data capture and analysis, accuracy, and the need for repetition are implicit.

Also Read: These Artificial Intelligence startups are proving to be industry game-changers

Manual data input and tracking are incredibly fiddly and prone to simple human errors from incorrect keystrokes or placing numbers in the wrong field on a spreadsheet, especially when vast troves of information are involved.

The automation of expense management prevents mistakes in the compilation and computing of data and dismisses the need for time-consuming manual intervention to rectify computational errors.

Intelligent Automation can also track expenses to identify anomalies in expenses and flag potential fraud, either intentional or unintentional, or abuse of company policies that control and monitor expenses.

As an environmental plus, Intelligent Automation can streamline expenses by forgoing paperwork and its manual submission, by taking photos of receipts that can be directly loaded onto an app for immediate reimbursement, for instance, improving efficiency and cutting time and cost for employees and employers.

Ultimately, when expense management processes flow smoothly, business managers gain accurate insights into their organisation’s financial health, helping them identify cost-saving opportunities and potential risks.

Intelligent Automation brings similarly far-reaching benefits to human resources. The data collected by AI can be instrumental in analysis, prediction, and diagnosis that let human resources teams make better decisions, from recruitment of new hires all the way through an employee’s life cycle.

For instance, onboarding is a critical yet time-consuming step where an inefficient, poorly organised process can impact the long-term retention of fresh talent. New recruits often have many questions that can be answered more quickly and accurately by an AI-powered human resources solution than a human worker doing the task manually.

Human resources can integrate Intelligent Automation to harness multiple data points on an employee to proactively see if they are due for a salary increase based on performance and market rates.

It can also determine if staff have attained the necessary skills for a promotion, are on track to meet that month’s targets, or are likely to seek employment elsewhere due to unhappiness in the workplace.

Conventional methods of discovering these by HR are far from scientific, and riddled with gaps in information, often resulting in ill-informed or contentious outcomes.

The beauty of AI-powered automation is that what might take months of flawed investigation and deduction can be done in minutes and with a result that is clear, objective, accurate, and grounded in facts. And nobody can argue with that.

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Resolution Ventures makes first close of US$20M fintech fund, targets early stage startups
Aiming to invest in 25 companies, Resolution Ventures seeks startups that are building solutions with local and international applications; The fund is backed by an international community of fintech-interested institutions, family offices, experienced finance executives, and successful entrepreneurs.

Why GoImpact believes that education is the key to promoting ESG investment
Investing in climate tech has become increasingly popular; GoImpact believes in the importance of making informed decisions. The company raised a Series A funding round that brought its valuation to US$22 million.

LottieFiles raises US$37M in Series B funding to launch new solutions for global users
LottieFiles builds a JSON animation file format that enables designers to ship animations on any platform as easily as shipping static assets. In February last year, LottieFiles announced the acquisition of India-based design asset marketplace Iconscout.

Searching for gold in the silver economy: A venture capital perspective
A huge pot of gold can be found in the silver economy globally and in Asia, this article by Michelle Ng of Quest Ventures aims to identify the key opportunities for venture capitals.

Axie Infinity hack reminds us about the vulnerabilities in crypto markets: Advance.AI’s Ravi Madavaram
Businesses should conduct KYB and KYT verifications on top of eKYC to prevent crypto hacks and fraud, he says in an interview with e27. Such incidents will affect users’ trust and confidence in P2E games, but recovery is possible if businesses invest in security measures and are transparent about these to their users.

Female entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia raised over 17 per cent of all private funding in 2021
Despite the encouraging growth in funding, some efforts to funnel more money into female-run companies through Gender Lens Investing (GLI) projects are being met with “pinkwashing” accusations. This negativity is causing reluctance from some venture capitalists (VCs) to back female entrepreneurs, according to the report.

Tech giants expand support for ‘a passwordless world’
Apple, Google and Microsoft plan to implement capabilities that will allow users to sign in to websites and applications without a password. As noted in a joint press release, password-only authentication can create security issues that span industries – leading to account takeovers, data breaches and disrupted services.

Unusual Ventures just closed a US$485M fund by promising hands-on (full-time) help
Unusual invests in only 12 or so companies each year, writing initial checks of between US$2 million and US$10 million initially at the seed or pre-seed stage where the firm can be the first institutional money a startup raises. One “opportunistic” investment it made was a check into the security operations company Artic Wolf Networks, which has filed confidentially for an IPO.

MoneyMatch an equity partner in KAF Investment-led digital bank consortium, targets US$10M Series B raise
Consortium aims to target underserved MSME segments neglected by incumbents. It is ramping up investments in tech, upgraded financial infrastructure and business development.

‘Bored Ape’ unicorn raises US$320M by selling virtual land in its metaverse
The virtual real estate buying frenzy over the weekend reportedly was so intense that it crashed the Ethereum network and sent fees on the blockchain system soaring.
The land sale offered buyers the chance to buy a plot in the Otherside metaverse for around $5,800, plus transaction fees.

Insurtech startup Turtlemint bags US$120M as valuation tops US$900M
Insurtech startup Turtlemint has raised US$120 million led by Amansa Capital, Jungle Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners, the company said on Friday. The online platform for buying insurance has closed the current financing round at a US$900-950 million valuation, said a person in the know.

Blockchain game Apeiron raises US$10M in Hashed-led funding round
Developed by Foonie Magus, the game has now raised over US$17 million at the close of their seed round for the new play-and-earn NFT god game Apeiron. The company received US$3 million from pre-seed investment, US$10 million from seed investment, and US$4.5 million from NFT sales, putting them at over US$17.5 million in total.

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Thanks to the growing acceptance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the mainstream, professional investors are now fully cognisant of the upsides of investing in crypto.

Meanwhile, institutional-grade investment products such as the Fintonia Bitcoin Physical Fund have made cryptocurrency safer and more efficient than ever before. We’re seeing an unprecedented number of professional investors buying into the crypto space.

Apart from investing in crypto tokens directly or through a fund, there is another way for investors to profit within the fast-moving cryptocurrency ecosystem. We’re talking about finding yield, or passive income, through crypto.

Yield farming in the crypto ecosystem

Given that cryptocurrency is a notoriously volatile field, how is it possible to generate a stable income?

Collectively known as yield farming, the below strategies focus on generating consistent yield from your crypto holdings.

• Lending: If you’re on a crypto exchange, you can lend your holdings to other users. This method is similar to how traditional fiat banking works. Others borrow your Bitcoin to make transactions, and, as the lender, you earn interest from them.
• Staking: It is possible to stake your crypto holdings on a blockchain and get rewarded when ledger transactions are confirmed. However, this only applies to proof-of-stake blockchains like Ethereum, Solana and Cardano, not proof-of-work ones like Bitcoin.
• DeFi protocols: Some decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols allow users to swap pairs of cryptocurrencies. If you can provide these token pairs, you can earn a cut of the fees.

However, all three methods have risks. Being laCryptoes and DeFi protocols could be largely unregulated and average investors susceptible to scams, hacking, and theft.

While professional investors can practice yield farming methods, we believe the possibility of major security breaches is a risk too high for many professional investors to make them worthwhile.

Also Read: 13 years on since the birth of Bitcoin, it’s now blockchain’s time to shine

On top of that, investing on unregulated platforms leaves you open to a slew of additional risks and hidden costs, especially if you’re managing larger amounts of cryptocurrency.

A safer solution for professional investors

Generating consistent income from cryptocurrency is a top priority for professional investors, but the crypto ecosystem’s lack of security and safety is a significant obstacle.

Given the difficulties in moving fiat currency in and out of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the 1,000+ exchanges and overall cryptocurrency market inefficiencies, there is the opportunity to provide collateralised loans at higher risk-adjusted rates to ecosystem players who are profiting from these market inefficiencies.

That’s why Fintonia Group created the Fintonia Secured Yield Fund, an over-collateralised traditional private credit fund, as a solution to help professional investors solve this issue.

There is a great opportunity for professional investors (via the Fintonia Secured Yield Fund) to lend fiat money to cryptocurrency players, such as miners and crypto hedge funds, and earn interest from these borrowers.

At the same time, the borrowers’ Bitcoin is held as collateral so that the risk of default is kept minimal, and margin calls are made when the cryptocurrency price drops to pre-determined levels.

Essentially, fiat loans secured by borrowers’ Bitcoin holdings allow investors to generate an attractive, stable income at low risk amid a volatile cryptocurrency environment.

The crypto ecosystem’s need for fiat

Savvy investors would have noticed that this opportunity is like a bond or bank deposit, where investors earn interest from borrowers. But the difference is in who’s borrowing and why.

In the case of traditional financial products, borrowers use the funds to run businesses or purchase consumer goods like houses or cars.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency ecosystem players like Bitcoin traders, miners, and corporates are willing to pay much higher interest on fiat loans than traditional borrowers.

We’ll explain why:

• Arbitrage traders: Arbitrage traders and hedge funds profit hugely off the inefficient crypto market by taking advantage of price differences across exchanges and assets. However, they need a large amount of fiat to settle their trades. As a result, they’re willing to pay high interest on fiat loans.
• Crypto miners: Considering that each completed hash on the blockchain can generate a reward in the six figures, Bitcoin mining remains a lucrative industry. But miners need immense working capital to keep their operations running and would instead borrow fiat than sell their Bitcoin to pay operating expenses. Bitcoin returns have averaged 100 per cent+ IRR over the last decade. Mining expenses such as electricity bills and hardware purchases are largely settled in fiat.
• Corporates: More and more companies are holding Bitcoin in their portfolios, but they may still need cash for their requirements (e.g. purchasing property, cars or equipment). We come in to supply fiat, secured by their Bitcoin holdings.

In summary, cryptocurrency ecosystem players are making significant profits, but fiat is still needed to grease the wheels. At the same time, some players lack access to traditional borrowing options such as banks, which further strengthens the demand for fiat.

The Fintonia Secured Yield Fund allows investors to find much higher yields than that of traditional investment products.

Collateralised loans using Bitcoin: a star in today’s low-yield environment

Consistently high risk-adjusted returns of between six per cent and 18 per cent per annum through collateralised loans secured against cryptocurrencies stand out in today’s low-yield environment. Today, it can generate four to ten times as much annual income as a mainstream corporate bond.

Historically, high returns went hand-in-hand with high risk, but collateralised private loans secured against Bitcoin provide a much higher risk-adjusted return given the cryptocurrency market inefficiencies.

Also Read: How to find a good investment with new crypto tokens

In addition, Bitcoin is a great form of collateral as it is highly liquid, easy to value, transfer and verify and is seen as a store of value. The volatility of Bitcoin can be managed by setting an appropriate loan to value (“LTV”) ratio (typically 50 per cent LTV) and margin call ratios (typically at 70 per cent, 80 per cent and 85 per cent).

Typically for every fiat dollar borrowed, collateral twice as much of the value of the loan is deposited in the form of the borrower’s Bitcoin. Should the value of their Bitcoin fall below a safe ratio due to price fluctuations, the borrower is obliged to top up within hours. Otherwise, the Bitcoin collateral can be automatically liquidated to repay the loan.

Bitcoin collateral is deposited with a licenced, insured custodian, and typically held securely in an offline cold wallet.

As a MAS-regulated fund manager that complies with Singapore’s strict practices, Fintonia Group uses best-in-class risk management techniques in our institutional-grade funds.

These funds, designed especially for professional investors, help manage the security, legal, and financial risks around cryptocurrency investing. That’s how we can deliver high but consistent yields within the fast-growing crypto ecosystem, all without compromising the integrity of your investment.

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Malaysia-based integrated automotive e-commerce platform Carsome announced that it has acquired digital automotive content platforms WapCar and AutoFun from Tang Internet Limited and its subsidiaries.

Following the completion of the acquisition, Carsome aims to set up WapCar AutoFun Sdn Bhd (WapCar) as a fully-owned subsidiary of the group in Malaysia.

In a press statement, Carsome Co-founder and Group CEO Eric Cheng said that the partnership will enable Carsome to capture and serve customers from their early stage of car exploration and bring a more engaging and fun experience to the car transaction and ownership journey.

“We are thrilled to announce the partnership with WapCar and a team with seasoned expertise in the content space. We believe our collaboration through content, technology and data will augment our ability to bring trust, transparency and choice to customers together,” he stated.

This acquisition is the latest that the company has announced in recent months, following its acquisition of the various automotive businesses in Southeast Asia. Prior to this, it acquired a majority stake in CarTimes Automobile in Singapore and completed the acquisition of listing and content automotive platform iCar Asia.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Carsome said to have filed for US IPO; a US$10M fund for women-led Indonesian startups

Prior to the acquisition, WapCar had established its first flagship brands WapCar and AutoFun in 2019. It provides a full range of content which covers car exploration, transaction, and ownership experiences that aim to assist customers and car enthusiasts in their journey. The platform produces, manages, and distributes both Professionally Generated Content (PGC) and User Generated Content (UGC).

In 2021, the platform said that it has distributed on average more than 1,400 article write-ups and 100 videos on a monthly basis across YouTube and TikTok channels, which attract millions of customers across the region. As of last quarter of 2021, WapCar had become one of most visited auto content platforms with over 6 million average Monthly Active Users (MAU).

It operates a number of automotive content websites and social media channels across Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

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Image Credit: Carsome

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Singapore-based venture capital firm Resolution Ventures announced that it has made the first close of its US$20 million Southeast Asia-focused fintech fund Resolution Fintech Fund I.

Aiming to invest in around 25 companies, the firm seeks fintech startups that are building solutions that have local, regional, and international applications. It will invest in the pre-seed and seed stages of the company’s journey.

The fund is backed by an international community of fintech-interested institutions, family offices, experienced finance executives, and successful entrepreneurs.

“Resolution builds atop the top quartile track record of Managing Partner Sam Gibb and Blauwpark Investments, a proprietary fintech fund managed by family office Blauwpark Partners. The Fund benefits from the experience of its partners and Blauwpark Partner’s network across the Fintech sector. Early stage fintech companies and their founders benefit not just from capital and guidance, but also the relationships and infrastructure of an institutional asset management firm,” the firm wrote in a press statement.

In an email to e27, Gibb explains that the firm is looking for humble and teachable founders that are going after a large problem that addresses financial inclusion and mobility in the region.

Also Read: Understanding the traction metrics that investors are looking for in an early stage startup

He also wrote that the firm is open to investing in companies that are working in the Web3 space.

“… There are a lot of applications for Web3 rails to be able to better facilitate the financial infrastructure. We’re very interested in speaking to any companies that are building solutions that have a fintech front-end and Web3 back-end to leverage emerging technologies,” Gibb said.

“The incumbent banking system is built on decades-old technology and is largely a rubber band ball of archaic solutions tied together. There are better alternatives available and we’re keen to partner with the companies that are exploring the leading edge of innovation that could increase financial inclusion and mobility in the region,” he continued.

From this fund, the firm has made investments in Pakistan’s Oraan (a female-led Rotating Savings and Credit Association platform that aims to contribute to greater financial inclusion among women), Stemly (a working capital and inventory management platform that aims to optimise inventory levels and improving working capital management), Dropee (an e-invoicing and ordering platform for FMCG goods that aims to enable easy credit for retailers, connecting micro and SME businesses to distributors and wholesalers), and Vietnam’s Gimo (an earned wage access platform that recently completed YCombinator, aiming to disrupt the predatory market for pay-day loans and improving financial access).

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COVID-19 sent the world into various levels of social lockdowns and pushed many healthcare systems to their breaking point. Yet the pandemic created new opportunities in telehealth/telemedicine, an area already growing pre-pandemic.

For Southeast Asia, telehealth’s emergence may have been a pandemic-induced blessing.

Telehealth is no longer just about video and phone consultations with doctors. It’s expanding into areas such as screening, coaching, and remote monitoring. Some emerging players are also accommodating multiple nations and languages, an impressive potentially lucrative feat.

Southeast Asia’s digital-forward countries are offering case examples to which the world should be paying attention.

What is telehealth/telemedicine?

Telehealth is the delivery of healthcare services using information and communication technology (ICT), where patients and providers do not meet in person.

Telehealth broadly covers a wide variety of healthcare services such as telemedicine, mobile health, telenursing, and telepharmacy. It let medical professionals provide diagnosis, treatment, and prevention via a PC or mobile device.

It’s an especially potent tool for managing a highly contagious virus like COVID-19, as patients and medical providers can communicate at safe distances. Especially in the earlier stages when every doctor, nurse, and staff member was under continual duress, telehealth helped reduce infections among indispensable personnel.

How COVID-19 advanced telehealth in Southeast Asia

The pandemic pushed people toward “digital self-care,” using mobile messaging apps, chatbots, call centres, helpdesks, and websites to fulfil health-related needs at a safe distance. In Southeast Asia, with its young population and widespread mobile penetration, this wasn’t so alien.

“Social distancing” became a standard and telehealth was an ideal fit. Telehealth allows people to receive medical care without venturing into congested healthcare facilities. And it can reach people in remote areas where health services are limited.

When COVID-19 hit, some Southeast Asian governments worked with the private sector to promote telehealth use.

The Indonesian government, for instance, partnered with digital health platform Alodokter on free teleconsultation for COVID-19 patients. Telehealth platforms were also used for self-assessments, tracking, and contact tracing.

Also Read: Meet the 6 Indonesian healthtech startups of SEHAT Impact Accelerator

Telehealth use in Southeast Asia has varied depending on factors such as policy and governmental involvement. One study found that no Southeast Asian countries have specific laws on telemedicine.

Medical councils in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam tend to still focus more on healthcare professionals rather than telemedicine services and platforms. In Indonesia and Vietnam, only registered health facilities can offer telehealth services.

Another study found that during the first few months of the pandemic’s initial hit, the number of telehealth platform users grew four times. It reported that 94 per cent of Southeast Asian respondents intend to continue using digital services post-COVID-19.

Commercial interest in telehealth has certainly risen. While many Southeast Asian countries have below the global average number of physicians per (apart from Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore), demand will continue to rise.

A McKinsey report estimated that telemedicine and remote monitoring would account for US$37.1 billion of the projected US$100.4 billion Asian digital health market by 2025.

Key players in telehealth/telemedicine

HonestDocs (Indonesia and Thailand)

HonestDocs, with Indonesian and Thai platforms, targets two of ASEAN’s most future-forward populations. Users can chat with a pharmacist for free or post a question on the Q&A forum to get replies from licensed medical practitioners for as low as 200 baht (about US$6). The HonestDocs app also links to HDmall, with 12,000+ health, dental, beauty, and even pet services.

Doctor Anywhere (Singapore)

Doctor Anywhere offers a platform with 500+ general practitioner clinics, 15+ diagnostic centres, 300+ specialist clinics, and 100+ dental, traditional Chinese medicine, and physio clinics. Video consultation with a general practitioner on the platform costs SGD$20 (US$15).

Doctor Anywhere’s home-based supervised self-swab COVID-19 antigen rapid tests via video consultation were especially useful for travellers using the Vaccinated Travel Lane. As the need for such tests declines, this robust platform can easily refocus or replace the service.

Alodokter  (Indonesia)

Alodokter had more than 32 million visitors since Indonesia’s first confirmed COVID-19 case in March 2020, based on a report. It now has the most registered hospitals with the largest coverage of provinces in Indonesia. The platform’s directory of doctors includes their personal details.

Alodokter offers Aloproteksi, which gives users unlimited 24-hour chat with specialist doctors for as low as 39,000 rupiahs (US$2.75) per month.

DoctorOnCall (Malaysia)

The Ministry of Health of Malaysia partnered with DoctorOnCall to provide free access to consultations on COVID-19. In multicultural Malaysia, the platform is available in English, Malay, and Chinese.

It provides consultation across 50 specialities and doctor consultation is priced at 19.99 ringgit (US$4.75) per consultation. The platform also offers cashback for every purchase and referral, a common B2C tactic familiar to mobile users.

VieVie Healthcare (Vietnam)

The VieVie telehealth platform treats more routine medical conditions such as colds, allergies, pregnancy care, and skincare. It offers free doctor consultations via chat or phone, but accessing certain doctors requires payment or a premium upgrade. Users can receive a quick response from a licensed doctor within 10 minutes.

Also Read: What telemedicine and Health Tech holds across SEA amidst COVID-19

Challenges for telehealth moving forward in Southeast Asia

A WHO report shows the challenges to telehealth adoption, mainly categorized into four groups.

Policy

A standardised framework and repayment policies are still needed to regulate telehealth platforms. Recent policy changes during COVID-19 have reduced barriers to telehealth, but data privacy and personal information are still major concerns for users. Countries like Thailand and Malaysia have general data protection legislation that protects personal data.

A uniform repayment scheme is also needed to facilitate insurers to reimburse telehealth services fairly within and across countries. Countries including Malaysia and Thailand provide free telehealth services. Singapore has a national insurance scheme that includes telehealth rebates and subsidies.

Organisation

The lack of trained staff, sustainable funding, insufficient technical infrastructure, and technological barriers are problems that need addressing. During COVID-19, Southeast Asian governments worked with the private sector to promote digital health services that addressed the pandemic. The Ministry of Health of Malaysia, for instance, worked with DoctorOnCall to provide free consultations.

Technology

Telehealth is centred on ICT, making technology an ongoing focus. Dispersed archipelago countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines pose geographical challenges for installing ICT infrastructure.

The lack of ICT infrastructure in most Southeast Asian countries can be overcome by using existing resources and free mobile health apps with affordable consultation fees. Public hospitals in Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand have in some cases provided free telehealth services.

Individuals

Scepticism still exists on telehealth’s true usefulness. A study in Indonesia showed that Indonesian users were more likely to use telehealth if thought the technology was easy to use. For some users, cultural and language differences are a challenge. However, some platforms, such as DoctorOnCall, meet the challenge with multiple languages.

Southeast Asia is a global example of telehealth

Southeast Asia’s unique combination of a dynamic, young, future-forward population and broad multicultural diversity push it to innovate technologically and cross-culturally. Its telehealth advances offer some potentially compelling best practices for the rest of the world.

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Helene Li, CEO & Co-Founder, GoImpact

In April, GoImpact announced that it has raised a Series A funding round that brought its valuation to US$22 million. Tripling its last funding round, this investment included investors such as Oriental Watch Holdings Limited and a leading Hong Kong-based private investor.

For the Singapore-based company, this investment will enable them to further expand its global footprint, as said by co-founder Andy Ann in a press statement. “The funds we raised will allow an expansion of the team in Hong Kong and around the world. In the future, GoImpact will continue to seek partnerships with leading institutions and organisations to further our influence on a global scale.”

GoImpact is a platform that aims to drive the sustainability agenda forward through three key pillars: education (GoLearn), structured advocacy (GoNetwork), and a deal flow platform for sustainable investments (GoInvest). It was founded in 2020 by finance industry veterans Helene Li and Clarence T’ao as well as serial entrepreneur Andy Ann to bridge the gap between knowledge and investment opportunities through these three activities.

Investing in companies that aim to tackle the challenges brought by climate change has become increasingly popular nowadays, and GoImpact believes in the importance of making informed decisions  –the reason why education is the starting point of its user journey.

Its GoLearn platform offers lessons that are structured to align with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in five key areas. Within the last two years, it has established an education network consisting of top ESG and industry experts, prominent higher-education institutions, industry bodies, financial institutions, large corporations, and governmental agencies across the Asia Pacific and the Middle East. It has also participated in and co-hosted industry seminars to drive ESG adoption.

Also Read: COVID-19, the environment, and the tech ecosystem: what opportunity is available out there for us?

To understand more about what GoImpact offers, e27 speaks to CEO & co-founder Helene Li about the company, its mission, and their big plans for the future. Here is an edited excerpt of the interview.

Having had years of experience in the sustainable finance and ESG space, what inspired you to start this platform?

I was a management consultant turned banker. Throughout my banking career, whether with JP Morgan or with BNP Paribas, I have witnessed firsthand the momentum of sustainable finance, and how the capital owners … are actually demanding more and more of their assets be looped into this area, to create a better change, and to be better aligned with their own set of values.

About two years ago, just before COVID-19, we founded GoImpact with a very specific aim: to mainstream the agenda, and to fast-track the acceleration and mainstreaming of the agenda. So it doesn’t get buried in all kinds of talks about philanthropy or NGO activities, [because] it is a mainstream business and finance agenda. Both my co-founders and I are very much in the mainstream finance industry; we have seen firsthand how the momentum has shifted, and in some ways, the gaps.

So, the problem that we are trying to solve is to clear the roadblocks to mainstream and accelerate the agenda. And I think education is at the heart of these roadblocks. Because if you are less informed, or ill-informed about something, you are not likely to invest very much into that. So, having a good basic, fundamental understanding of what sustainable finance is all about, and what it can do for the companies, is important.

Like, here in Singapore, the SG Green Plan 2030 is very much something that Singapore corporations are subscribing to, and all the ministries are aligning to drive that. And it’s an important agenda. But do people have a thorough understanding of all that, and what it means to them as a citizen, as a company, as an investor? Maybe not. Maybe there are still gaps to be resolved. And that’s exactly the areas that we are playing at.

How does the pandemic impact the public’s interest in ESG investing?

Very much so. The silver linings of the pandemic are that it serves two things. First, as a disruptor, it exposes all the problems and cracks that we have in the system, be it in the supply chain, our over-reliance on certain ways to generate energy or food supply.

The second thing is that it is also an accelerator. It has put sustainability and sustainable finance on the front and centre stage.

If you are already investing in this sector, chances are you will try to weigh in more with your assets in the way you would construct your portfolio. So, yes, it has been an accelerator and a disruptor.

Also Read: How consumers are prioritising sustainability beyond the single lens of eco-friendly products

So what are the advantages of learning about sustainable finance through GoLearn compared to other sources?

I think it’s very important to note that we are playing very hard at a specific area that moves the needle significantly. So we don’t play at, for example, undergrad programmes or secondary school programmes, because we want to equip and educate the executives. People who are in a position to make decisions for the company, who are in a position to make investment decisions.

What we really want is to translate many of the talks into action. That’s far easier said than done … because we want to move the needle and play at executive education, all our programmes are very much expert-led and case-based. Executives learn through use cases. What has been done? What are some of the examples that are relevant and relatable to their specific industries?

In Singapore, we partner with the Singapore Management University which is the main institution that drives green finance learning in the country. SG FC –the Singapore Green Finance Centre– which is funded by MAS is being housed there. Our programmes at SMU have met with a lot of success. We were fully booked until the first half of 2023.

Who are your target audiences? And what is your user acquisition strategy?

We do a complete B2B2C. We partner with platforms such as the SMU Gear which has already a captive audience looking for programmes like that.

One of our major aims is to accelerate the agenda; we are all running against time to drive towards net-zero or to make the world a slightly more sustainable place. Not just for our generation, but for the next generation to come.

This is why being able to drive the business model faster, for us, is more important than just optimising on the profit. I see that very much as our business model. And that has paid off very well. It has also attracted the eyes of a lot of investors.

So, what will be the company’s big agenda for this year?

This year … we aim to deepen and consolidate [our existing partnership] while also trying to move towards a more asynchronous delivery [of learning]. This will actually be the real accelerator.

In terms of our mission, and in terms of the growth of the company, the way we see it is that … our solution is meeting a very good timing. It’s a very practical and comprehensive … because if you look at it, sustainability and sustainable finance are actually very broad. It is not just about carbon. It is not just about water. It is much broader than that.

I think the breadth as well as the depth of our offering really echoes and hits a sweet spot in the market. And we have been enjoying the results of that. We intend to consolidate that and move towards the asynchronous to grow even faster and to deliver a better return for our A round investors … as we are poised to ticket forward to another round maybe later in the year.

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The opportunities in the silver economy are manifesting more visibly globally and in the Asia Pacific region.

By 2025, the ageing population in the Asia Pacific will reach 600 million, potentially accounting for US$4.56 trillion. The markets ageing most rapidly in the Asia Pacific include China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

With the pandemic aggravating the existing ageing issues, there will be great potential for ageing technologies and innovations to grow and scale. We believe there is a huge pot of gold to be found in the silver economy globally and in Asia.

Through intensive research on the silver economy and correspondence with the Quest Ventures team, Zacchaeus Chok, a Quest Ventures Fellow, identified key opportunities for venture capital in the article below.

Zacchaeus Chok was attached to Quest Ventures through the Reactor Venture Scout Program.

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The combination of longevity and a decline in birthrate engenders a pressing economic and social need for innovation. Although population ageing poses a double whammy to public spending and productivity, a technology-driven silver economy ecosystem is poised to meet the unique demands of an ageing population.

The reward for being the first to capture the sunrise marketplace will be huge, with the Asia Pacific’s silver economy potential projected to reach US$4.56 trillion by 2025. Boasting a silver economy potential of over US$500 billion, Singapore, Japan, and Australia are Asia Pacific’s top three markets.

The demographic shift presents two sides: a growing market segment for investors and a potential liability for governments. In turn, public and private sector investments in supporting seniors will increase. 

Opportunities in the silver economy

Senior citizens have long been ignored by venture capital money. Yet, seniors will account for over 22 per cent of the population in the Asia Pacific by 2050 and entrepreneurs will be keen to cash in.

Investment opportunities span a wide range of industries, including housing, food, tourism and transport, with healthcare-related products featuring strongly.

Also Read: The world is flat but SEA is a (growing) bowl of venture capital and startup talent

Businesses need a strong understanding of the lifestyle aspirations and healthcare goals of seniors in order to successfully court the region’s 600 million senior citizens.

Building-integrated care solutions through telemedicine

The incoming class of senior citizens are likely to be more well educated, affluent and tech-savvy than their parents. For Singaporean residents aged 75 and over, smartphone usage grew from 41 per cent in 2019 to 60 per cent in 2020, along with an increase in internet usage.

At the same time, the adoption of digital services among seniors has sharply risen with COVID-19. Older patients can now book medical appointments online and have their medications delivered to their doorstep, rather than go to the clinic. 

With senior citizens demanding greater accessibility, affordability, and personalisation in healthcare, the way healthcare is delivered could benefit from decentralization. Digital technology improves the affordability of previously inefficient care delivery practices, such as home-based urgent care, hospital-at-home model and virtual primary care.

Homage, which recently closed its US$30 million Series C funding in late 2021, uses a matching engine to connect families with caregivers and therapists.

Investor sentiment in healthtech has reached record levels in Southeast Asia, with deal value has grown more than four times since 2017. Deals in the care delivery vertical represent the largest portion of healthtech deal values, with significant growth in digital health solutions, online pharmacies and remote patient support.

Despite the progress made in telemedicine, challenges remain in managing the infrastructure and logistics, defining data collection standards and coordinating medical equipment needs. 

IT can play a central role in overcoming the fragmented nature of caregiving

The rapid ageing of the population has resulted in increased pressure on health care delivery arrangements. Even though the value of preventive and promotive care has been given more weight, remarkable fragmentation in patient-centred care for the elderly persists.

For example, the patient referral procedure is locked in archaic data management systems and in some cases, paper-based record cards. When patients move to other facilities, re-evaluations are duplicated, causing healthcare professionals to spend unnecessary time and money. 

Volunteer management is another area where the consolidation of services results in significant social impact. For example, SG Assist provides timely and affordable assistance to dependents at home through a digitally crowdsourced Community Responder network.

Also Read: Cake DeFi launches US$100M venture capital arm for global startups in Web3, gaming, fintech

By streamlining the caregiving and volunteering sector through digital processes, a generation of tech-enabled social enterprises is paving the way for greater efficiency in the care sector. 

In addition to mobile and web technology, several Blockchain healthcare start-ups have emerged in Singapore, addressing health analytics, data privacy, and insurance issues.

MediLOT uses blockchain technology to securely store patients’ health records while Hearti Lab uses the same technology for policy agreements, smart contracts and risk management. 

However, many healthcare providers in Southeast Asia are still reluctant to share data or transition to cloud services. Besides Singapore, other governments in the region have been spending less on healthcare.

There remains significant work in integrating real-time patient data, defining standards, ensuring the interoperability of patient record systems and building security infrastructure.

Fortunately, there are signs of a greater governmental push to adopt technology in the near future, with the Philippines and Thailand governments introducing measures to incorporate technology into legacy systems. 

Widespread adoption of assisted living devices

Cutting-edge wearable technologies supported by AI and the Internet of Things, alongside fitness monitoring devices, are gaining steam among senior citizens, caregivers and community healthcare providers.

In the inaugural Healthcare Open Innovation Challenge launched by Enterprise Singapore in 2020, several innovative solutions to prevent falls among seniors and promote adherence to prescribed medication regimes were presented.

Singapore-based Longway AI designed a solution to predict and prevent falls while IoT startup EloCare developed a smart pillbox solution to promote medication compliance and traceability.

With more seniors wanting to live autonomous and dignified lives without burdening their caregivers, assisted living devices and the wearable technology markets present major investment opportunities. 

Challenges in the silver economy

Social entrepreneurship is an important linkway to developing the silver economy. Early-stage social enterprises are “catalytic innovators” that produce disruptive innovations outside of established corporations and bureaucracies, solving pressing social problems like our ageing population.

Since they carry significantly higher risk, they complement the low-risk appetite of government units. There are numerous examples of how early impact can lead to large scale adoption and system-changing impact, such as Indonesian health tech startup Halodoc whose digital platform services were recently tapped by the Ministry of Health to facilitate coronavirus vaccinations.

Young entrepreneurs are interested in creating products designed for senior citizens with needs unique to them but face numerous barriers to entry pertaining to talent, insight, distribution and capital. 

Removing barriers to entry and silver marketplace growth

The silver ecosystem is enabled by the right type of funding and capability building at every stage. Even though there exists significant government funding in the social sector, innovation capital is typically disbursed in limited amounts e.g., philanthropies awarding small start-up grants.

In the earlier stages, philanthropic grants offer capital to seed promising business ideas. Private impact investors and venture philanthropists source, develop and optimise these promising businesses by providing systematic organisation-building support. Successful social programmes with a track record are scaled further by the government and NGOs. 

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

While wealth owners are on the lookout to apply their assets toward more social causes, capability-building support is equally important to support innovation. Like venture capitalists, impact investors contribute their networks and expertise to nurture a new generation of social enterprises.

Social impact has largely focused on leveraging the skills and capabilities of the ICT industry but there is considerable potential to transfer skills, networks, and infrastructure in the venture capital ecosystem to the world of social impact. 

No clearly defined playbook for silver economy startups

The term “Silver Tsunami” captures the unique nature of this demographic shift, and investors have only just begun to take notice. Developing active-ageing products aimed at the elderly is not a mainstream idea.

Of the 204 digital health startups registered in Singapore in 2022, only a small fraction develop eldercare-centric products.

Unlike e-commerce start-ups with clearly defined marketing playbooks, many investors still have the perception that seniors are not tech-savvy and that the total addressable market for senior-focused digital technology is limited. 

Achieving scalable social impact hinges on a sustainable business model; silver social enterprises have to consider who is their target customer and how will they pay for the product. Overcoming perception challenges, social enterprises also need to consider how to position their technology products as simple as possible. 

Golden dividends in a silver economy

The full potential of the silver economy is yet captured by investors and entrepreneurs. Seen differently, longevity is a macro tailwind behind the digitalisation of healthcare, the consolidation of caregiving and the proliferation of emerging technologies like blockchain.

These step changes in senior-centric healthcare are here to stay and investors are already paying attention to hot spots like telemedicine, wearable devices and patient analytics. 

Small is beautiful, but the scale is necessary. Early-stage social enterprises are entering a fast-forming tech-enabled silver marketplace in Singapore, where novel ideas can be tested before expanding to larger markets in Japan and China.

Provided the right type of funding at the right stage, start-ups in the silver economy can optimise their business models for a growing consumer class and reap the dividends of a maturing silver market. 

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Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activity in Enterprise tech, e-commerce and fintech continue to be hot in the news in the last few weeks.

I’ve spoken and written, in the past, about the pivotal role of M&A and why founders and leadership teams should not underrate this tool in a company’s journey of growth. I have attempted to share my experiences in M&A in the context of recent activity.

In Asia, we already have seen a promising M&A trend in Q1 of 2022 (as an example, PhonePe acquired GigIndia). In Singapore, Nium, a fintech unicorn company, acquired cash management and alternate payments firm soCash.

M&A as an integral component of progress

When I acquired a company in the startup world, the objective was to access technology to build customer experience and add layers of offerings, with speed being the essence.

Broadly speaking, the reasons for M&A are to enhance the product-market fit to get the next round of financing, growth may start getting stalled which may not allow the company to be fit enough to become a public traded company (Nium is planning its IPO in the next 12-18 months) and when the buyer has approached the target company and the offer is compelling enough to target the company’s investors (here, Vertex is a common investor in socash and Nium).

For an M&A deal to work, the discussion on integration post-merger and aligning the combined value proposition to customers and partners on both sides may have been ongoing for a while now.

Such M&A efforts would need to make commercial and strategic sense, first, for both the parties before going ahead with any M&A discussion.

Embedding finance

There are small and large businesses keen to enter the fintech industry and offer financial services. At a broader level, this deal between soCash and Nium is about embedding finance within the customer experience.

Specifically in this deal, it lowers the costs for Nium to process transactions by embedding alternate payments method offering to its small merchant businesses and accelerating their revenue growth. It allows Nium to move to an adjacent market.

Also Read: Singapore’s pre-IPO and pre-token trading platform prePO raises US$2.1M

soCash allows Nium to have access to licenses, technology and thousands of collection points for its cardholders and wallet holders to withdraw instantaneously in Singapore and beyond.

This allows Nium to widen its business model beyond the issuance of prepaid or debit cards to customers. For socash, it allows its offerings to expand the customer segment and go beyond the shores of Singapore.

Expansion to emerging markets

I recognise the value of physical presence in any digital journey particularly in emerging markets. It is seen across industries that integrating alternate payment methods, including cash, allows revenues for merchants to increase revenue by 30 per cent to 40 per cent.

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

For instance, in LATAM, payment methods like PIX and payment slips are alternate payment methods driving more revenues for merchants than cards.

As these payment methods have local interfaces, merchants on these platforms can expand to new geographies and monetise their offering faster and spend less time on compliance requirements related to payments in these new geographies.

All about timing when it comes to shareholding value

The timing of this M&A deal between soCash and Nium is crucial. It allows the teams to work together to monetise this combined offering for at least a year before Nium sees its impact on valuation, and ring the opening bell on the stock market.

While it is simple to state that this deal enhances the shareholder value, for the founders, it is a much more complex calculus.

The personalities and backgrounds of the founders, on both sides, trigger motivations which become an important element to iron out the details of the deal. Calculating the expected chance of higher valuation or risk-adjusted outcomes by both sides is important for saying yes to the deal.

If this is not a pure cash buyout, then the soCash team will expect to see the value of its shareholding multiply faster by being offered shares in Nium than what they would have expected if the team had decided to be independent.

Post M&A and during integration, my experience shows that cultural, political and strategic elements play a key role in monetising the combined offering. The integration process would need to embrace challenges.

Integrating philosophies of product teams of both the companies, designing new incentive schemes for sales teams or continuing with the incentive schemes of either the acquirer or the acquired for the combined organisation, addressing the concerns of prioritisation in allocating resources to acquired business are some of the key challenges.

In one of the M&A deals that I was leading and involved around 5000 employees, I had advocated keeping sales and customer-facing functions separate. The products from the acquired businesses required different sales processes.

The sales team is used to sell to particular buyers/customers where the main discussion is around financials and these customers have different adoption curves and may find it difficult to sell new or challenger products to these buyers. It will be interesting to see if the teams are kept separate or if some functions of soCash will be merged.

In other situations, it is important to clarify the key metrics upfront. This helps the leadership teams of both the companies to focus on revenue growth and help capture new value and not be compelled to focus on penny-pinching measures (like costs savings will be the only metrics).

Every M&A experience is unique and situational. I hope to see speed and urgency in rolling out the combined offering if this M&A deal has to create and capture value.

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The LottieFiles platform

LottieFiles, the company behind the motion graphics platform for designers and developers, today announced a US$37 million Series B funding round led by Square Peg Capital, with participation from XYZ Venture Capital, GreatPoint Ventures, and existing investors 500 Startups and Microsoft’s venture fund M12.

In a press statement, LottieFiles said that it plans to use the funding to further its product roadmap and expand its operations to cater to the expanding user base. The company wants to launch a new design workflow and collaboration solution to its global user base in the summer of 2022, which will enable designers to save even more time per asset shipped and even more time to focus on creativity.

“The LottieFiles team spent the last three years studying and perfecting a blueprint that now works for design and developer teams from more than 135,000 companies. We are excited to bring LottieFiles into offering this year and grow our user base even more,” says LottieFiles CEO and co-founder Kshitij Minglani.

Lottie is a JSON animation file format that enables designers to ship animations on any platform as easily as shipping static assets. Launched in 2018, LottieFiles builds Lottie to help motion designers and developers save weeks of effort by not having to code motion graphics individually for each platform.

Also Read: 25 notable startups in Malaysia that have taken off in 2021

With its key advantages being its ability for cross-platform application and functionality, its lightweight and interactive nature, and its ability to play at 120 frames a second, Lottie animations are touted as the “perfect” replacement for conventional formats such as GIF or PNG sequences.

The company said that it currently count 135,000 companies globally as Lottie users including animation designers and motion designers from Google, TikTok, Disney, Uber, Airbnb and Netflix. LottieFiles also has integrations with the likes of Adobe XD, Adobe After Effects, Figma, Webflow, and WordPress.

LottieFiles previously raised US$9 million in Series A funding in January 2021, led by Microsoft Venture Fund M12. The company said that it has experienced 160 per cent growth in net new registered users since that time.

In February last year, LottieFiles announced the acquisition of India-based design asset marketplace Iconscout.

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