OnPoint, an e-commerce enabler in Vietnam, has secured US$50 million in a Series B round led by SeaTown Private Capital Master Fund, a fund managed by SeaTown Holdings, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings.

According to a press release, this is the largest private fundraising round in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce enabler industry in the last five years.

The company will use the new fund to continue expanding its e-commerce enabling ecosystem, strengthening talents and capabilities, and developing emerging technologies with a data-driven approach.

In addition, the partnership will allow OnPoint to tap into SeaTown’s vast networks and experience in the digital economy and consumer sectors across the region and globally.

SeaTown recently invested in the CrownX Corporation and Golden Gate Group in Vietnam.

Also Read: Why Vietnam is a ripe market for new-age banking

Tran Vu Quang, Founder and CEO at OnPoint, said: “Our goal is to create impactful values for the ecosystem by constantly innovating and developing sustainable, seamless customer-centric solutions. SeaTown is a valuable partner for us, given their long-term vision and a wealth of experience in the global digital economy.”

Since 2017, OnPoint provides a one-stop solution that enables consumer brands to accelerate their online growth on multiple channels, including e-commerce marketplaces, social media platforms and brand-owned websites. Its capabilities encompass all aspects of the e-commerce value chain, ranging from the set-up and operations of brands’ online stores to managing digital marketing campaigns, customer services, warehousing and order fulfilment.

Since its Series A round in 2020, the company has focused on developing proprietary technology to integrate and coordinate a network of service partners, utilising data and automating processes to streamline their operations.

Its digital marketing campaign management tool, Galaxy, leverages the power of big data, AI and machine learning. OnPoint has also launched OctoSells, a SaaS product to help SMEs merchants manage online stores “seamlessly”.

OnPoint’s client portfolio includes more than 150 brands from numerous categories such as health & beauty, fashion, mother & babies, electronics/home appliances, pharmaceuticals, digital products, FMCG, pet food, etc. Its notable clients include L’Oreal, Shiseido, Unicharm, P&G, Unilever International, Nestlé, LG, Panasonic, Mondelez, and so on.

“OnPoint’s vision is to ultimately become a platform that impacts all participants of Southeast Asia’s e-commerce economy from brand owners, merchants, service providers to consumers, generating valuing for its employees and shareholders,” added Quang.

OnPoint’s Series B funding round was advised by Rocket Equities.
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My involvement with a real cult began when I was an ignorant 19 years old, I was involved in a real cult for three months during my year-long student exchange in Japan. Initially, I thought I joined a “bible study group” and was looking forward to making friends and improving my Japanese by studying the Japanese bible. I did not know that I joined a cult until I got into the inner group and saw many red flags.

Some red flags include “inner circle members” telling me that the “head pastor went to jail and was framed”, and noticing in “church-wide” events (>5,000 people) that the cult has >80 per cent female members.

Later, I found out that the head pastor went to jail for raping women. Armed with verifiable evidence that only the inner group could have, I got into trouble with the cult because I started pulling all my friends out, and telling them to pull their friends out too.

Overnight the “international church” of 50+ international students literally dropped to zero, and for a while, the cult leaders were physically after me.

Did curiosity kill the cat?

Curiosity probably killed me then, and it wasn’t fun. I am thankful that a cat has nine lives.

Nonetheless, that experience really kickstarted my deep interest in human nature, parasocial relationships and communities. I have always been fascinated with communities that have cult-like elements because it’s so interesting to observe and study what intrinsically motivates people.

Most importantly, because I’ve been in a real cult before, I could empathise deeply with people who are drawn to cults or heavily involved in communities with cult-like elements.

And nope, people do not join cults because they are dumb. People join cults/cult-like communities because we are human. As human beings, we all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves eventually.

And as human beings, there are always emotional vulnerabilities that could be exploited by the wrong people (deep need for approval/ permission, porous boundaries, lack of fulfilment of emotional needs).

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

Indeed, all cults are strong communities, whereas not all strong communities are cults.

Cult vs cult-like: What’s the difference?

• A cult is “closed”. It restricts your freedom and makes you feel like you cannot/have no other options to turn to. The strongly associated emotions are guilt and shame.

The cult social system is engineered to exploit the emotional vulnerabilities of people. When your brain is so wired with many positive reinforcements that you cannot get elsewhere (the initial “love bombing”), it is very difficult to fight against these chemicals if you’re unprepared.

• A strong community with “cult-like” elements is open. You’re always free to leave it, and the community should empower you enough so that you don’t want to leave it, even though you can.

There is also a sense of gratitude to it, that you have received so much support from this community that you want to give back.

10 cult-like elements to strong communities

The following list shows 10 characteristics of a cult.

Strong Web3 communities with cult-like elements demonstrate some of these characteristics to lesser degrees:

• There is a charismatic leader and/or a chief thought architect unique to the community. The group displays an excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth.
• The leadership dictates (over Twitter in the Web3 context) how members should think, act, and feel. Usually, this is worked into and reinforced by the mission, vision and slogan of the group. The group has a polarised and strong “us-versus-them” mentality.
• The group feels that they are elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and its members. There is always a “saviour’s mentality” involved in their narrative, that they are superior beings on a special mission to “save” humanity from something. In the Web3 context, this could be liberation from nine-five work, financial slavery, etc.
• The leader is not accountable to any authorities, particularly in an accepted culture in the Web3 “decentralised” and “non-Doxxed” context.
• The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members participating in behaviours or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group. Or, in the Web3 context, members justify the actions of their leader even after they have been rugged.
• The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and control members. Often this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.
• There is a strong evangelism arm, and evangelists are usually empowered with bullets/ convenient and repeatable narratives of the project. The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members into the said communities, particularly common in Web3 spaces where people ask their friends to buy the NFT/coin.
• The group is preoccupied with making money, particularly common in Web3 spaces for speculators and flippers.
• Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities, also not uncommon in Web3 communities.
• The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They identify themselves with the project, believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave or even consider leaving the group.

Also Read: Unstoppable pioneers of Web3: 16 women spearheading the change

Strong communities: Engineering cult-like elements

Web3 is all about communities. Therefore, it is important to know how to build a strong community, and we could always refer back to how successful cults do it.

Megachurches are strong communities. Salesforce and Apple are strong tech communities. Duolingo and Starbucks are strong B2C communities too. All of them have cult-like features as well.

So, when it comes to communities with cult-like features, here is a possible system:

• Step #1: A strong community with cult-like features have a strong vision, mission and slogan that seem to solve the seeker’s practical problems. It does the “hook” with positive reinforcements and promises, which include: consistently being a reliable source to providing direct solutions and information to solving your practical problems.

On top of that, it also provides emotional value: companionship (if you are lonely), peace of mind (if you’re facing constant stress/ anxiety), initial physical safety (if you do not have a physical safe space), or an implied life/ romantic partner (if you are looking for a meaningful connection).

The initial goal for all prospects to join the open community is to ensure that they always get their practical problems solved. Yet, the more they interact with the community, the more emotional needs they meet as a byproduct.

• Step #2: Existing community managers and other community members are then encouraged to attend to the prospect constantly, to make sure the positive reinforcement + psychological/ biological feedback loop persists.
• Step #3: Next, existing community members will invite these prospects to attend an exclusive function (“for selected people only”).

The frequency gets higher and higher as the prospects show a willingness to attend more of such functions, in the lack of other activities that meet their practical and emotional needs.

The goal is to keep the mind in a constantly engaged state and to keep reinforcing the feedback loop of meeting both practical and emotional needs.

• Step #4: For community members who want to continue this positive feedback loop of meeting both practical and emotional needs, they will intrinsically want to step up.

The self-talk is in the forms of:

• • “I want to continue to do X so that I can continue to get positive reinforcements, if not more”; or
  • “If I don’t do Y, I will not get the positive reinforcements anymore”.

• Step #5: At this point, prospects’ decisions on their levels of commitment to the community will reach an equilibrium. Prospects are free to step up their commitment, maintain the status quo or leave (if they lose interest or have all their problems solved).

Therefore, as seen from the above possible system, it means that positive reinforcement and the consistent practical + emotional solving of community members’ problems are absolutely critical.

Practical implications to Web3 marketers

So what’s the big deal?

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

The point here is that if Web3 is all about people, communities and ecosystems, then it might be wise to learn how to build strong communities. To make the thought process more robust and thorough, it might be wise to continue to experiment with thought paradigms that guide the building of a community.

I believe evangelism and brand advocacy all start from brand values. The point is to define what your community stands for, and more practically, what it does not stand for.

I’ll also love to hear your thoughts on this topic, how do you think we can engineer a strong community- with cultish elements for your particular project?

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Populix, a consumer insights platform in Indonesia, today announced the closing of a US$7.7 million Series A financing led by Intudo Ventures and Acrew Capital.

Altos Ventures and Quest Ventures also joined the round.

Populix will use the money to recruit product and tech engineering experts to enhance data collection efforts, better meet more clients’ needs, and bring on marketing and regional expansion roles.

The company also plans regional expansion to neighbouring Southeast Asian countries by 2023.

Founded in January 2018, Populix provides “comprehensive” research and data collection for businesses, institutions, and individuals to make more informed business decisions through quantitative and qualitative studies. It claims to offer a pool of over 300,000 authentic, verified, and highly targeted respondents throughout Indonesia that are readily available, providing quick and reliable responses that illuminate the preferences, habits, and opinions of Indonesian consumers.

Also Read: Populix raises US$1.2M to provide businesses with valuable insights on Indonesian customers

For experienced research buyers, Populix offers comprehensive datasets on a subscription basis that track different generational groups in Indonesia. The initial datasets focus on Indonesia’s Generation Z, with plans to launch a Millennial-focused data set in Q4 2022 and new subpanels that include niche categories like car-owners, working professionals, and other respondent profiles.

Each dataset contains thousands of data points containing consumer consumption, online behaviour, lifestyle habits, emerging trends, and opinions and thoughts.

For mass audiences, Populix offers Poplite, a pay-per-use SaaS research platform that allows anyone to build surveys and collect targeted and actionable business intelligence. With Poplite, clients can choose from available templates depending on their business size or stage, specify target respondents based on their demography and launch a study on the platform or choose to build the survey from scratch.

Since 2020, Populix claims it has worked with over 1,500 clients ranging from Fortune Global 500 companies, governments, and major Indonesian conglomerates to SMEs, academics, and individuals.

“Consumer insights is a space traditionally dominated by large players with services often out of reach for many business owners. Populix shows that new business models can emerge in unexpected places and uproot preconceived notions of what consumer insights can do for businesses by adapting to the unique contexts of Indonesia,” said Theresia Gouw, Founding Partner, Acrew Capital.

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If you look at the world’s biggest data breaches and hacks, it highlights how cybersecurity has become a global phenomenon and that every individual is at risk.

As the world moved towards a hybrid workplace, Singapore quickly experienced a staggering 145 per cent surge in cyberattacks, with an average of 1,123 organisations in the manufacturing industry alone facing an attack every week last year.

According to Proofpoint’s annual Voice of the CISO Report, hybrid working policies and cloud tools made organisations more agile and resilient. But it also made them more vulnerable to cyber threats. For example, as much as 44 per cent of CISOs in Singapore are reportedly seeing more targeted attacks in 2022 since enabling widespread remote working.

Ransomware, supply chain attacks, personal information leaks, and crypto exchange hacks are widely recognised as the most frequent attacks in the region. As a result, the report unsurprisingly revealed that the region has a much higher risk perception of 64 per cent compared to the reported global average of 48 per cent. But how did we get here?

Why is the number of cyber-attacks increasing in Singapore?

The increment of the attacks results from two areas. The first aspect is that cybersecurity is growing in complexity more than ever before. More systems and processes are digitised via software solutions as we progress towards a more digitally connected region. As a result, more software means more vulnerabilities, which also implies the possibility of an increased number of attacks.

New software developments and delivery paradigms have led to the rise of further attacks, for example, software supply chain attacks grew by 300 per cent last year. These attacks typically target open-source and third-party software that technology teams often use as building blocks for their own systems.

The advent of cryptocurrency has made cyber-attacks more profitable. We increasingly see ‘ransoms’ demanded and paid for without traceability. Cybercriminals who have received ransom payments in cryptocurrency are increasing their funds and resources to launch even bigger attacks on critical infrastructure.

Also Read: Best cybersecurity practices for startups to stay ahead of the curve

The second aspect is the inconvenient truth that although cyber-security awareness is growing, it’s struggling to keep up with the pace at which the landscape is evolving. For example, when faced with a phishing attack, most people now know that they should always check the sender before responding to an email or message. But the recent OCBC phishing scam highlighted that attackers were one step ahead by assuming the bank’s identity.

Although most organisations understand the cyber risk, robust cyber security doesn’t come for free or cheap. It can be challenging for boardrooms to see the value of signing off another project.

But news that even the Singapore government is increasing its cybersecurity allocation from 2.4 per cent to 8 per cent of its IT budget shows things are beginning to change. Unfortunately, the bad news is that there is also a big gap for cybersecurity expertise between the supply and market needs, making security goals hard to reach.

Prevention is always better than cure

According to a recent threat landscape report by CyberArk, around 80 per cent of organisations in Singapore experienced ransomware attacks last year. To prevent these challenges, enterprises need to address the issues discussed in this article, and it doesn’t have to cost a small fortune.

For example, raising awareness and promoting cybersecurity training and education is one of the simplest yet most effective ways of improving security.

Security teams that set up processes on a national and global level will help enhance the cybersecurity knowledge of Singaporeans. In addition to this, the adoption of automatic tools can help teams keep up with the fast pace of software development. It’s also becoming imperative to augment the gap posed by limited security experts. But the bigger question is, what are the best tools?

Opting for the best tool in the region

While training, awareness, and other initiatives will deliver results over time, organisations should be taking charge of security by leveraging easily accessible, state-of-the-art tools built on sound scientific research.

For example, Thompson, Scantist’s Software Composition Analysis tool, is one such option trusted by multiple government agencies and businesses.

These tools provide greater visibility over building blocks such as open-source and third-party components used by software teams.

Also Read: There is a concerning lack of cybersecurity talent. Here’s how to tackle it

In doing so, it enables them to monitor and mitigate software supply chain security risks closely. As a result, this approach can play a critical role in reducing the risk of data breaches by as much as 25 per cent.

Businesses large or small can seamlessly integrate the solution into existing software development and delivery workflows and receive customised security reports based on their internal risk assessment and external compliance needs.

Some of these solutions often include a free tier allowing enterprises to explore the capabilities on offer before worrying about securing a budget for features that they might not need.

The journey towards a cyber-safe nation

While increased investment in cybersecurity measures is needed, it’s not a problem that you can throw money at and tick a compliance box. Instead, our journey to becoming a cyber-safe nation for all begins with smaller steps such as building simple processes and using easily accessible security tools.

Raising awareness and the promotion of cybersecurity training and education remain critical. When combined with the right tools, it helps businesses minimise hacking incidents without overloading their technology teams or costing a fortune.

These suggestions are just a handful of tips that make up the bare minimum needed in a fast-evolving and increasingly complex cybersecurity landscape.

For enterprises of all sizes, a cyber incident and a subsequent loss of reputation and shareholder value are inevitable. There is no avoiding the fact that cybersecurity has become everyone’s business, and if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

So, what role will you play in building a cyber-safe nation?

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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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