While the means for businesses to digitalise were readily available before the pandemic, it took a lockdown as the catalyst to fast track the adoption.

Those who quickly adapted to digital platforms didn’t miss a beat, as they quickly pedalled their wares and services online through e-commerce platforms.

As the world gradually transitions to a post-pandemic world, industries, specifically the point-of-sale landscape, will forever be changed, as smart tools, online integrations and contactless payment modes have become the new norm.

In Singapore itself, two years of ordering online have changed consumer behaviour, letting their fingers do the walking as they browse through and weigh their options before purchasing from the comfort of their homes.

A seamless way towards a cashless future

Suppose there was any indication that we are on the cusp of a cashless future. In that case, it can be seen in the heartlands, as neighbourhood food hawkers embrace a digital mode of payments such as GrabPay and PayNow and the government-issued Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers that citizens could claim for various food items and services.

Since Qashier’s formation in 2019, we have empowered SMEs with affordable and accessible digital solutions, including e-payments, an online/QR ordering platform, and a smart point-of-sale (POS) system.

That being said, there are still a large number of SMEs and MSMEs that have yet to make this important switch across the region. Two possible key factors behind this are cost and complexity.

Also Read: The 5 pillars of digital transformation that meet business objectives efficiently

Adopting smart POS solutions with the latest technology would usually come with a hefty price tag that only big companies would consider. Qashier’s subscription model makes POS solutions extremely affordable, with prices starting from just SG$1 for a day.

We also made adopting the technology easy, designing software solutions with ease of use. Anyone could get their setup done within minutes and start streamlining their business right out of the box, with no prior training required.

We value form as much as function, so Qashier smart POS terminals currently come in three stylish form factors: the lightweight QashierXS, the sleek QashierX1, and the larger, powerful dual-screen QashierXL.

As a smart POS provider, changing the way businesses interact with customers at the payment touchpoint is of utmost importance. By integrating card, e-wallet, and mobile payments into one device, we mitigate in-store clutter while allowing customers to pay with their most preferred payment mode.

On the merchant side, business owners can also track growth with end-of-day sales reports and find out which of their items are doing better among the others.

As the market is saturated with uniquely different businesses, Qashier serves to tailor-make solutions for every business by working out the right combination of tools. For instance, an inventory management system helps keep track of stock for a retail business. In contrast, an ingredient management system would benefit an F&B establishment more, notifying you when an ingredient is low in stock.

As your business scales, Qashier cloud-based solutions grow and can seamlessly track data across multiple stores.

A POS system that can integrate with food delivery platforms proved essential during the pandemic, but we wanted to provide more for our merchants. QashierEats, our online and QR ordering platform, allows merchants to easily set up a profile on the platform and begin taking online orders, which Qashier takes no commission from.

One such Qashier merchant, Caffe Pralet, found that with QashierEats, their customers were ordering their food online and using the platform for in-store pickups. Orders were sent directly to the POS, and preparation could begin efficiently.

Also Read: Shouldering the responsibility of digital payment security

A couple of popular traditional F&B merchants in Singapore have also successfully digitalised with Qashier’s solutions. Examples include Fei Fei Wanton Mee at Joo Chiat Place, which took on the portable QashierX1 Smart Terminal, as well as the bigger QashierXL Smart POS to streamline their payment methods, and another East Coast merchant Kim Choo Rice Dumplings, which elevated their operations with inventory management and customer relationship management tools from a QashierXL.

It’s one thing to want to create the best product possible, but we also wanted to assure merchants that we had their back, now and in the future. If merchants ever find themselves needing support, we have made sure that we have a local team on standby seven days a week.

We see a couple of technological trends becoming a mainstay in the POS landscape as we look ahead. First of all, it is the ability to have integrated payments. Customers should be allowed to pay the way they prefer, be it with cash, tapping a card, or wireless payments through mobile wallets. Merchants should also be able to accept every one of these modes in a single terminal.

Secondly, QR code menus are likely to be a permanent feature at most F&B establishments. The convenience for customers it presents is welcomed in a contactless world. The technology can be implemented to tackle the problem of a labour crunch, as a business would require less manpower working tableside.

Finally, the buy-now, payer-later (BNPL) trend will see more prominence, helping merchants push their big-ticket items to more customers than ever. The BNPL model provides customers with limited access to credit and cash to make purchases split into instalments both online and in-store, effectively offering credit terms to those who do not have or cannot get a credit card.

No matter the industry, one thing is for sure, small businesses must remain competitive in the digital economy. Technology shouldn’t be a barrier but a tool for them to elevate their businesses to the next level.

Adopting these new technological tools could be difficult at first, but partnering with the right POS partner may be the key difference that can propel the business to a cashless future.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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This year, Vietnam has proven itself to be the most promising land for Web3 startups in Southeast Asia. In a listicle recently published by e27, we covered 21 Web3 companies operating in the country –and we are certain that these companies will not be the last.

This time, we would like to spotlight Iron Sail, a collective effort to contribute to the development of the blockchain gaming space.

Launched in October 2021, Iron Sail results from a partnership between blockchain-based game hub Whydah and seven local gaming studios: Topebox, Wolffun Game, IMBA Game, Hiker Games, Divmob, 1B Game Studio, and KEIG Studio.

As a GameFi Hub, Iron Sail serves as the gateway to the metaverse by investing in promising GameFi projects. Its goal is to move toward an open metaverse where “everyone and everything is connected”, both online and offline. The project also aims to make blockchain game development more accessible and sustainable.

An example of a project that it is running includes Ark Rivals, an epic sci-fi action strategy NFT game. Having completed its Alpha launch in January, it saw 80,000 prospective players vying for 1,000 open slots. A month later, Iron Sail launched an initial exchange offering (IEO) and an initial decentralised exchange offering (IDO) for Ark Rivals. The project itself launched its Mainnet on April 26.

There is also another project called Raramuri, which is claimed to be the first marathon in the metaverse. Incubated by Whydah, it combines KardiaChain’s state-of-the-art technologies to provide an outstanding experience for runners.

The team behind Iron Sail had been strongly involved in the local GameFi ecosystem last year. Examples of the projects that it had been involved in included the launch of My DeFi Pet in April 2021. The game became the most played game in just three months and the second most used Dapp on the Binance Smart Chain. It had also launched Thetan Arena in September 2021, whose user base surpassed Axie Infinity’s as the largest one in the industry by December of the same year.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

Working together for the ecosystem

How did the partnership between Whydah and the game studios come to be? In an email interview with e27, Iron Sail Founder Tri Pham explains that following the success of My Defi Pet in 2021, many game studios turned to Whydah for advice and investment opportunities. They view Whydah as an institution that can offer in-depth partnerships with expertise in blockchain tech integration to create long-term value.

“By leveraging Whydah’s know-how in smart contracts, tokenomics, metrics design, and community development, game studios can focus entirely on game making instead of stretching their resources thin trying to tackle unfamiliar fields,” he explains.

The founder details the collaboration between the game studies and the blockchain solutions providers to empower the community along with these values: Respect the games, build a sustainable community, and give investor value.

So, what is the common challenge in blockchain gaming that the partnership aims to solve?

“Blockchain is a relatively new technology, even to global firms. Hence, it is challenging to implement blockchain into the core gameplay while operating the token economy system,” says Tri Pham. “Although blockchain is the best tool for players to keep track of their actions, assets, and trading activities for value, improper application of the technology may impair the overall in-game experience – from game lags to additional steps required to complete game activities.”

This is where Whydah’s expertise comes in, as it provides and advises on blockchain integration for this transformation of traditional businesses –in this context, the video game studios.

” … we help studios to deploy their games on different blockchain platforms to keep the games functioning normally while simultaneously providing the ability to have on-chain
records of all gamers’ actions. By reframing ‘crypto activities’ and including them as part of the gameplay, Iron Sail also introduces crypto investment concepts to newcomers and spices up the experience for hardcore gamers at the same time,” Tri Pham explains.

Also Read: Coins.Ph Co-Founder Ron Hose’s new NFT rental marketplace Playdex nets US$2M

In terms of customer acquisition strategy, how does Iron Sail aim to do things differently?

“We aim to acquire users through game genre diversification and a hybrid player base. We gather crypto players, via token incentives, as well as traditional gamers, via a freemium model. As Iron Sail is the collective effort of seven studios, each project will have its own unique value proposition. Each studio, and the game, will focus on its strengths in specific categories, rather than follow the market trends,” the founder explains.

“From Iron Sail’s perspective, we will acquire potential users and investors through various marketing strategies. This involves pushing social engagement on multiple channels to form sustainable communities with mutual goals and leveraging business with quality partnerships. Above all, we prioritise the quality of the game – it will have to speak for itself, and players will be the judge of that.”

Blockchain gaming in the future

With collaborations such as Iron Sail emerging in the ecosystem, one would certainly wonder about the future of this industry, starting with the next five years. When sharing his vision about it, Tri Pham highlights the role that blockchain technology will play.

“Blockchain has the potential to be the next pillar of technological advancement in the next five years, and the metaverse will open a new era of human interactions in the digital age. As a pioneer, Whydah and the Iron Sail project will seize the opportunity to scale up the open metaverse, starting with GameFi, and later SocialFi, before expanding across other realms,” he says.

“We strongly believe that GameFi is likely to be a strong foundational building block for developing the open metaverse based on its innate interactiveness and gamification. By developing a sustainable GameFi ecosystem such as Iron Sail and a healthy investment environment such as Whydah’s ecosystem, we lay down a functional framework for a true metaverse to be built upon.”

Also Read: A beginner’s guide into the world of NFTs

The founder is a firm believer in the possibility for the metaverse to continue expanding its use cases.

“Looking ahead, the metaverse could then branch out to other sectors such as education, entertainment, or any other e-activities that one can dream of. We believe that demonstrating what users can do in the metaverse will trigger a deeper sense of intrigue to encourage greater exploration,” he closes.

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Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

Image Credit: Iron Sail

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Request Finance, a Singapore-based enterprise crypto payments startup, today announced that it had closed a US$5.5 million seed round with institutional backers, including Animoca Brands, Balderton Capital, and XAnge.

The funding round also attracted the participation of Sebastien Borget (co-founder and COO at The Sandbox), Michael Kong (CEO of Fantom), and Stani Kulechov (founder and CEO of Aave), and Julien Bouteloup (Founder of StakeDAO).

The funding will be used to expand the company’s global team. In a statement, Request Finance said that it is actively hiring for several new roles, including a Chief Finance Officer (CFO), software developers, and positions in business development and marketing.

The funding will also support the company’s efforts to expand its in-app services to include invoice financing, escrow, and even yield-farming. These features are aimed at helping enterprises better manage their crypto-financial operations.

Request Finance also stated that as part of its mission to help enterprises simplify their crypto-financial operations, it has also backed the Web3cfo.club, a rapidly-growing, exclusive community of finance and operations leaders at prominent Web3 companies such as Bankless, Consensys, Edge and Node, and The Sandbox.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

Request Finance aims to simplify and automate invoicing, expenses, payroll, and accounting in crypto for more than 1,900 Web3 teams. Since launching in January 2021, the company said that US$200 million in crypto invoices had been paid through Request Finance.

By addressing common pain points with enterprise crypto payments, such as financial reporting and regulatory compliance, it has attracted users from different Web3 verticals. This includes DeFi companies such as Aave, metaverse and NFT-related projects such as The Sandbox, and DAOs such as Maker. Professional services firms serving Web3 companies such as accounting firms, PR companies, and event organisers are also users of its services.

Request Finance also said that it has also seen growing interest from Web2 tech companies as more clients inquire about paying in crypto.

It credited its rapid growth to several macroeconomic trends, such as the rise of remote work in the wake of the pandemic.

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Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

Image Credit: Request Finance

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As a cornerstone of sustained economic growth and prosperity, innovation is more important than ever in today’s world. It is critical in solving the complex sustainability challenges we now face. Leading companies have also acknowledged that sustainable innovation can present opportunities to re-invent products, services and business models, driving new growth.

Over the years, Europe and North America have successfully established themselves at the frontier of global technological innovation. More recently, however, we have started to see Asia-Pacific and Latin America gaining ground on the traditionally developed market hubs. They have begun to emerge as the new hotbeds for innovation.

These regions are not only supported by large, young and entrepreneurial demographics, but they also demonstrate a strong appetite for business-led innovation.

Against this favourable backdrop, we have seen the pace of innovation in Asia-Pacific accelerate rapidly over recent years, and companies are harnessing this innovative growth. Tech ecosystems have emerged in countries such as China, Singapore and South Korea and are growing at a pace that far outstrips the rate of change in Europe, with startups fuelling much of this momentum.

China’s leadership in fintech, e-commerce and AI has been well documented, but we have also started to see ASEAN countries emerge and grow in scale as Unicorn hubs. While Singapore and Indonesia lead this space in ASEAN, growth in Malaysia and Vietnam are likely to present interesting opportunities in the future.

Tapping the innovation potential of Asia-Pacific

Startups are disrupting traditional or entrenched ways of thinking and reinvigorating established business methods.

Also Read: How to stay positive and seek sustainable growth in a tough funding environment

The opportunities they offer to create new markets or completely transform old ones by introducing products, services, and ideas that challenge existing norms is an exciting value proposition as industries seek to embed sustainable thinking in their businesses and product lifecycles.

While prominent startups in Asia-Pacific have focused on fintech and e-commerce, there is a significant market potential for sustainability led startups in the region.

Close to half of the global plastic production is concentrated in Asia-Pacific, and the waste challenge remains urgent, systemic and complex. Alongside mounting fears that the volume of plastic waste is expected to nearly triple by 2040, plastic pollution remains a pervasive threat to the environment.

Plastic pollution must be addressed at the source, and innovations in material technology will be a key driver in transforming the future of packaging. Innovation of biodegradable labelling and packaging products, materials and solutions that will help perishables survive the last leg of the supply chain is necessary to drive this.

Sustainable packaging alternatives can help food producers and brands better manage supply chains and reap positive benefits for the environment while appealing to environmentally conscious consumers.

We believe that there are under-explored pools of talent which exist in the Asia Pacific and are keen to partner with the brightest and best innovators and startups who share our passions and goals of addressing some of the industry’s most urgent business challenges with an ultimate ambition of advancing the global sustainability agenda.

Tackling systemic challenges

As firm believers that geographical boundaries are no barriers to innovation, and in a first for the labels industry, Avery Dennison has launched AD Stretch, an accelerator programme, in Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

We hope to inspire and catalyse the startup ecosystems in solving sustainability challenges in these regions and seek to accelerate and amplify its impact as the programme rolls out in Europe and the United States later this year.

The challenges we have identified align around three key themes: maximising the consumer experience, creating sustainable, responsible and efficient value chains, and materials and packaging 2.0.

The first seeks to deliver both functional solutions, delivering information and sustainable value to buyers, and provide unique experiences that increase the value of products.

The second aims to develop innovations that advance the circular economy and reduce the environmental impact of our operations and supply chain.

Also Read: What COVID-19 taught us about sustainable choices and climate change

The third focuses on innovations that enhance trust, transparency and connectivity, from the production of our products to end-user delivery.

Accelerating innovation in materials science and sustainability

Our ambition for the AD Stretch programme is to develop our innovation capabilities across our industry’s full spectrum and pioneer new and sustainable solutions for packaging while solving environmental challenges.

While AD Stretch is still in its infancy, we aspire to see it develop into a platform for continual investment in innovation across the entire value chain of our industry, from materials to digital solutions.

As new problems emerge, we should be highly responsive to increase the rate of finding solutions. We are making a long-term commitment to engaging with external partners, helping bring their ideas to fruition and adding value for themselves, our customers, and the communities in which we operate.

Through programmes such as AD Stretch, we hope to propel our vision is coming together to solve global sustainability challenges that will help cultivate a more sustainable and regenerative world for future generations to come.

The AD Stretch Accelerator Programme aims to pilot new technologies focusing on value chain efficiency, sustainability and materials innovation for the labels and packaging industry. Learn more about the inaugural intake in the Asia Pacific and Latin America.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

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Razer Fintech, the fintech arm of gaming hardware giant Razer, today announced that it had acquired PT E2Pay Global Utama (E2Pay), B2B2C digital payment facilitator and e-money player in Indonesia, for an undisclosed sum.

In a press statement, Razer Fintech said that this acquisition marks its further expansion into Indonesia.

“E2Pay is one of Indonesia’s few digital payment players with a comprehensive set of licenses across various payment gateway services, e-money, and remittance. The acquisition of E2Pay allows us to accelerate our entry into Indonesia, one of the fastest-growing digital economies in Southeast Asia, as well as be able to better serve the digital payment needs of our regional and global merchants as the single partner of choice. I look forward to working closely with the E2Pay team to grow our presence in Indonesia considerably in the years to come.” said Razer Fintech CEO Lee Li Meng.

Founded in 2012, E2Pay provides a wide range of payment solutions to merchants and financial institutions, including payment gateway, e-money, and remittance services licenses in Indonesia.

Also Read: Morning raises US$1.27M in a round led by Razer’s VC arm to take its IoT-enabled coffee maker to global markets

The company’s most notable clients included local unicorns such as Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Traveloka and Blibli.

E2Pay said that its e-money platform MBayar serves over 500,000 registered users and supports payments for credit or data plans, bill payments, QR payments, cash withdrawals and fund transfer services.

These services complement Razer Merchant Services, Razer Fintech’s business-to-business arm regionally. The company said that it facilitates cross-border payments for its 60,000 merchants to the region’s largest populated country.

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Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

Image Credit: Razer Fintech and E2Pay

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