In recent years the development of autonomous driving cars has come in leaps and bounds. Contributing to this leap is in part the advancement of technology such as computer vision, but also its rapid adoption. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the global market for autonomous vehicles is still on track to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 53.6 per cent from 2022 to 2030.

With this resulting popularisation of Level 2+ autonomous driving technology and the proliferation of electrical vehicles, the demand for advanced driver monitoring systems (DMS) is on the rise to prevent dangerous driving behaviours and improve driving safety.

As more technologically enabled vehicle models are rolled out, the integration and availability of such technologies have become an important consideration for new car customers.

According to Gaogong AI Research, China’s leading research institute for smart automobiles, over 560 thousand new cars sold in China in 2021 alone are equipped with pre-installed DMS systems.

Euro NCAP, the European New Car Assessment Programme has also published relevant policies which give further impetus to the adoption of DMS in Europe. Key features of a DMS include drowsiness, gaze zone, distraction, and dangerous driving detection.

The rise of the new generation of smart applications

Now a new generation of smart applications is emerging that goes beyond the present capabilities of DMS. While DMS systems are solely focused on the driver, the safety, comfort, and convenience of passengers are often lacking.

The Occupant Monitoring System (OMS) is being gradually rolled out to provide an advanced and more comprehensive sensing solution for passengers in a vehicle. Current analyst reports suggest that the global occupancy detection system market size was valued at US$42.5 million in 2020, and is projected to reach US$225.5 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 19.1 per cent from 2021 to 2030.

We are also beginning to see novel applications launched in the Chinese market such as those that monitor a driver’s health indicators, including heart rate and respiratory rate.

Also Read: Exploring the future of connected vehicle technology and transportation industry trends with Geotab CEO Neil Cawse

Enabled by augmented reality (AR) technology, virtual driving assistants with customisable looks have also been incorporated in many cars to interact with the driver and provide timely warnings of hazards ahead or if dangerous driving behaviours are detected. Proactivity and humanisation are the key objectives here.

While pin codes and contactless keycards are making their way into cars in place of the keys in our pockets, we are also seeing the deployment of facial verification as a way to unlock a vehicle. In a similar manner to face unlock on your smartphone, the function offers enhanced vehicle security as well as driving settings that can be adapted to the driver.

When it comes to passengers, children are often the priority to be considered. The child presence detection function is becoming a key criterion for family users, which can alert the driver or parents if they are left unattended in the vehicle.

The Euro NCAP also announced that it will also begin scoring child presence detection in 2023. Other features include pet detection to ensure the welfare of animals on board, as well as left item detection to address those everyday inconveniences.

While the smart cabin is a relatively new field, applications are already reaching the latest vehicle models. As the world’s largest automotive manufacturing country and automotive market since 2009, China is at the forefront of smart cabin development, witnessing the wide deployment of smart cabin applications by leading automakers such as Chery, NIO, Great Wall, and BYD, etc.

Now those innovative features are also on the road to becoming mainstream in other parts of the world as the accelerated development of artificial intelligence reshapes people’s lifestyles.

The growth of the smart cabin category is part of a virtuous cycle, where greater adoption will in turn lead to greater technological advancements, thus the development of more applications. The possibilities are seemingly endless. With the proliferation of smart cabin technology, we can expect a safer, more enjoyable, and human-centric driving experience.

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Mysty Rusk is the Executive Director of the Free Enterprise Institute at the University of San Diego School of Business, and the founder of the San Diego Angel Conference, which seeks to activate new angel investors at a local level while committing to investing a specific amount within a specific time frame to ensure great startups get the money they need to move to the next level.

What you will learn in this episode:
– What is angel investing?
– What made you interested in becoming an angel investor?
– How do you identify the right person to become an angel investor?
– What should potential angel investors be learning to become successful?
– What are angel investors looking for when reviewing a pitch deck?
– What are angel investors listening for during a live pitch?
– Why you should tell a story with a path to success?
– What you should prepare for the due diligence process?
– Why you should never ask investors to sign an NDA at first sight?
– Why the terms of the deal can make or break the investment?
– What can stop the investment at this point?

Also Read: Hacking your way into angel impact investing with just US$10K

Talk with other entrepreneurs here.

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The content was first published by We Live To Build.

Image Credit: inspirestock, 123RF Free Images

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Indian startup fundraising falls for third quarter to US$7.6B in Q2
The funding dropped almost 38% sequentially in Q2, from US$12B in Q1 2022; At 383, the deal volume was also the lowest since Q3 2021; The April-June period also saw massive layoffs at Byju’s, Ola, Unacademy, Vedantu, and Cars24.

Singapore’s 99 Group raises US$37M in first close of Series C
The lead investor is Gaw Capital Partners; The online property platform will raise an additional US$15M for the round in the coming months; Once completed, the deal will push 99 Group’s total funding to date to US$80M+.

How KKday saved for a rainy day when many travel startups called it a day during COVID-19
‘KKday reduced the marketing spend while acquiring new customers by developing new products, significantly lowering acquisition costs and more efficient customer engagement’.

IFC, French firm Proparco back impact investor Circulate Capital’s ocean fund
This brings Circulate Capital Ocean Fund I-B’s total commitments to US$53M and comes 7+ months after its US$25M second close; CCOF I-B invests in companies across the plastic recycling and waste-management value chains.

Carousell buys Indonesian recommerce firm Laku6 for US$25M
The deal was supported by the Singapore-based firm’s investor Heliconia Capital; The acquisition aims to serve the rapidly growing market for preowned phones and support sustainability in electronics.

Thai financial marketplace Rabbit Care raises Series C
Investors include Winter Capital and local media conglomerate VGI; The Bangkok-based fintech firm is a marketplace for insurance products, covering motor, health, life, travel, and corporate insurance.

Biofourmis raises US$20M from Intel Capital
This is the healthtech unicorn’s Series D round announced in April when it raised US$300M led by General Atlantic; The Singapore-founded company enables remote disease management using medical-grade wearables.

SuperAtom raises US$22M to expand its consumer financing platform to LatAm
The lead investor is Nue 3 Capital; SuperAtom has developed UangMe, a credit platform providing access to low-cost financing in Indonesia; In addition, SuperAtom also offers a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) feature.

East Ventures-backed Qapita buys Indian ESOP management firm
The combined entity will also manage more than US$12 billion in employee stock option plans; Its customer base in India and Southeast Asia will grow to more than 1,200 customers.

Dash Living buys Japanese proptech firm intheHood Hospitality
As part of the deal, which is a share-swap-based M&A agreement, Dash Living will manage over 100 units of co-living spaces in Tokyo; The firm will have a total of over 1,800 units in Asia Pacific.

AirAsia to explore air taxis in Malaysia with UK’s Skyports
Initial assessments will prioritize Kuala Lumpur; While AirAsia brings its aviation expertise to the table, Skyports has extensive experience creating electric vertical takeoff and landing gear for aircraft.

EDB earmarks US$14.5M for corporate venture programme
Dubbed Corporate Venture Launchpad 2.0, the programme aims to support large corporations to expand into new ventures such as those in sustainability, agritech, fintech, senior living, and the metaverse over the next two years.

Stripe, Saison Capital to launch SEA-focused insights programme
Singapore-based Saison Capital will directly connect founders and operators from its company portfolio with engineering, product, public policy, recruiting, and sales leaders at Stripe.

Nas Academy nets US$12M in fresh funding
Investors include Pitango, BECO Capital, FTX, and HOF Capital; Nas Academy said it caters to students from over 110 countries; In 2021, it announced that it will expand its team to 1,000 people in the next five years.

Singapore’s Mighty Bear Games raises US$10M funding
Investors include Framework Ventures, Mirana, and Polygon; Mighty Bear will be using its fresh funds to launch its blockchain arm, which will develop triple-A Web3 games.

Filipino mobile ERP firm Packworks nets US$2M seed funding
Lead investors are Fast Group and CVC Capital Partners; Packworks aims to digitalise sari-sari stores by offering inventory, accounts, and data management services.

AC Ventures, Alpha JWC co-lead US$3.8M round of Indonesia’s Ideal
Ideal is a digital mortgage platform that helps people apply for property mortgages at different banks; It takes commissions from banks and property developers for every successful loan application.

Omni HR raises US$2.4M in pre-seed money to digitise employee management in SEA
Lead investors are Alpha JWC Ventures and Picus Capital; Omni HR enables firms to digitise employee records, automate administrative tasks, and interact employee data across different systems.

Robinsons Retail co-leads Filipino Q-commerce startup DART’s US$1.3M round
DART, which currently serves Makati and Mandaluyong, will use the funds to expand to new cities in the Philippines; The Q-commerce firm has also entered into an operational and supply partnership with Robinsons Supermarket.

Chope invests US$720K in F&B digital payments provider Getz Group
The Getz deal comes after local hawker SaaS and delivery vendor WhyQ raised US$360K from Chope as part of its Series A2 in November last year; The deal comes after local hawker SaaS and delivery vendor WhyQ raised US$360K from Chope.

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Recently Coinbase released a great memo on operating efficiently at scale.

I greatly respect Coinbase because they operate in perhaps the most unpredictable sector. One year they are growing 200 per cent YoY. Then a crypto winter arrives, and they need to shrink the business considerably. It’s very hard to adapt to such conditions at scale.

So I find their internal memos as some of the best written in the tech sector.

Here go my top five takeaways, alongside quotes from Brian Armstrong, CEO and Co-Founder of Coinbase:

Products are run as independent startups

The larger the company becomes, the more bureaucracy starts creeping in. It’s not easy to maintain a culture of innovation and frugality when that happens.

“We believe the right way to compete is to incentivise our product leaders to also run their product more like a standalone company. Companies must achieve profitable growth on some reasonable time horizon.”

Organise teams into small pods

Building on the previous point, the smaller the team, the more effective it is. There is no room for politics in small groups of people. Also, it’s clear to see who truly delivers on their targets.

“Within each product, we will be defining pods of <10 people working on a specific feature or area. If a pod grows to be more than 10 people, it will be time to split it in two and assign each one a more specific goal or focus.”

Ship products, not slide decks

It’s easy to get into a never-ending cycle of preparing proposals and fancy decks instead of shipping products or features. If you truly want to have a culture of execution, then you need to make it clear to each team what kind of output is rewarded.

Also Read: Funding Roundup: EventX bags additional US$8M; Coinbase, Grab execs join Ethlas’s US$2M round

“We’re experimenting with banning slide decks in product and engineering reviews. Instead of a slide deck, you can show:

• A dashboard with your metrics, hopefully, your team is looking at this at least weekly anyway
• Figma mockups
• But most importantly, show the product itself and use it live!”

APIs instead of meetings

The larger the organisation, the more people waste time on internal meetings. A simple solution is to have a process that forces each product and engineering team to publish APIs. In turn, that unlocks instant collaboration between different units.

“We need to move to a model where all product and engineering teams (not just shared services) publish APIs so that other teams can benefit from what they’re building without ever needing to schedule a meeting.”

Maintain an insurgent mindset

Armstrong said it best, it all comes down to having a founder mentality. A culture of ownership and accountability.

“Ultimately, a lot of this comes down to retaining the founder mentality inside the company and acting like owners. Most companies start off by being anti-establishment, seeking to right some wrong in the world. But as they grow bigger and more successful, they start to become the new establishment. They get complacent, feeling that they’ve won, and bureaucracy sets in.”

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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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Image credit: Coinbase

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The autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) industry has grown in the past decade, driven by e-commerce. Companies in the sector has adopted AMRs to support the rapid movement of products within warehouses and around the world. This has helped them keep up with the competition, enhance productivity and increase efficiency.

Four Singapore-based robotics enthusiasts sensed an opportunity in this space early on and started Botsync, a heavy-duty, intelligent, industrial AMR startup. The startup envisions becoming the go-to automation solution provider for internal logistics movement in the APAC market.

Botsync was founded in 2017 by Nikhil Venkatesh (CTO), Prashant Trivedi (Chief Commercial Officer), Singaram Venkatachalam (COO), and Nambiar (CEO) — all graduates of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University — to turn their passion into an industrial breakthrough.

Its flagship product is MAG, a deep learning engine-powered AMR that can autonomously navigate the operating site to transfer loads of up to 1,500 kg, utilising the base map and multiple integrated sensors. The product comes in two variants: MAG300 and MAG1000.

Also Read: Why robotics is just entering its prime phase

Botsync has also developed Volta, a compact indoor mobile robot for ROS (robot operating system) learning, teaching and research, and Copernicus, an all-terrain mobile robot for outdoor robotics research or solution prototype.

Wong Fong Engineering’s strategic investment

Last week, Botsync announced a pre-Series A funding round from Wong Fong Engineering, SEEDS Capital, Angel Central, VentureCatalysts, Amit Pachisia, ZB Capital, Iterative, Locus Ventures, Funderbeam, Nalin Advani and Roger Crook to support the “growing demand”.

The strategic investment by Wong Fong Engineering, a leading Singapore-based industrial machinery maker, is particularly crucial.

“Wong Fong Engineering has been a strategically aligned investor since our seed round,” says Nambiar. “Our strength as a company lies in our ability to design and develop intelligent systems. However, providing heavy-duty solutions requires an equally strong background and capabilities in engineering to provide high-quality solutions to our users. In this respect, Wong Fong has been a great partner to us, providing the collective engineering and production capability to improve the technical quality of our offerings,” he adds.

With offices in Singapore and Bangalore, Botsync plans to deploy MAG AMRs across Asia over the next two years. In addition to expanding to these two markets, it also aims to build a network of partners with local offices to drive commercial expansion in countries like Malaysia and Thailand. These plans are already underway in Thailand, and the firm looks to do the same in Malaysia moving forward.

Besides deploying its flagship product, Botsync will enhance syncOS. This no-code interface allows site managers with no formal or technical background in robotics to build customised and complex workflows. This removes the necessity of recruiting and building an expensive in-house robotics task force.

“Our AMRs are versatile as they do not require infrastructural elements to navigate. Users can explore and fully design solutions with the syncOS platform simply by dragging and connecting building blocks on the interface,” explains Nambiar.

AMRs becoming prevalent

In Nambiar’s opinion, with the increasing supply chain challenges, the usage of AMRs to drive productivity in intralogistics has become prevalent, especially in the manufacturing and hospitality industry.

Three factors drive this usage: Firstly, the use of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to support production lines has been phasing out. Companies in the automotive and electronics sectors now prefer to transit to AMR technology to drive their lines.

Secondly, there has been a greater push for digitalisation and visibility across the supply chain down to the manufacturing floor to improve companies’ response to supply chain shocks. A well-designed AMR solution integrated with the right tools can enhance this visibility on the production floor for users, giving them a greater understanding of where and how their inventory is used.

Lastly, the limited availability of forklift drivers has increasingly pushed companies to rely on AMRs. For operations that involve the movement of heavy materials that weigh close to one ton, forklifts continue to be the primary means to drive the intralogistics processes. With the greater availability of gig economy-driven jobs, companies now find it challenging to attract and then train and certify forklift drivers in shorter intervals due to higher retrenchment rates.

With the decreasing sensor costs and greater computing power, unit costs of robots have come down over the past decade. This has opened new opportunities for the sector to capitalise on and build better, more autonomous, flexible and cost-efficient robotic solutions.

“Having said that, lower costs and a cost reduction-based value proposition alone will not suffice to drive the adoption of AMRs.
Greater interoperability between the different robotics solutions for easier integrations and the ability to operate in more challenging environments will be instrumental for developments like low-code or no-code systems. This will allow users to derive more significant value from robotics, like overall process improvement and supply chain visibility, to justify their investment in robotics. Such initiatives can and will help drive the robotics density in the region to higher levels,” Nambiar explains.

Also Read: Southeast Asia paves the way for new value in robotics

Nonetheless, the AMR industry has yet to see significant growth. Several vital challenges prevent the growth.

“One significant challenge is that investment in robots is often justified by how much can be saved in labour costs. For example, lower labour costs in India remain a key factor in ensuring sufficient throughput is delivered while maintaining reasonable ROI timelines,” he remarks.

“However, in Singapore and Thailand, the adoption of robotics is higher than wage levels predict. While labour cost is one factor, the adoption of robotics differs based on the industry and national goals or plans around robotic development and adoption,” the CEO adds.

Another key challenge is the quality of the infrastructure and processes within a facility. Currently, many facilities in Asia run manual operations without a clear breakdown of processes. This impedes robotics implementation as there is no repeatable process to automate, especially in intralogistics and material handling.

“Additionally, the building infrastructure is crucial to support the logistics and operational service of AMRs, for instance, the flooring condition. Firms that cannot meet these quality standards may miss out on the opportunity to adopt robotic solutions,” he elaborates.

Pinning hope on India

For Botsync, AMRs’ adoption by e-commerce companies in India presents great opportunities. They use the systems to reduce operational costs and improve their overall delivery time.

“It has been amazing to see the traction in other sectors, particularly within the manufacturing space. More active conversations on AMR installations have started in companies of automotive and electronics sectors and sectors of other machines with greater importance placed on improving overall process standards, operating conditions and inventory visibility, driving increased adoption,” Nambiar notes.

The AMR market is still in its infancy, with less than 4 per cent of total potential sites globally today with an AMR implementation, thus presenting a huge growth potential within this sector. Intralogistics in the manufacturing sector, particularly within the automotive, electronics and machine component space, will be one of Botsync’s primary targets in this region. The third-party logistics space will be equally attractive in the future for us as we expand our product portfolio and system capabilities.

Over the past 18 months, the company grew from 15 employees to 30. During that period, it also expanded its business in India and moved to a 15,000-square feet office facility in Bangalore to support product manufacturing and testing and set up a dedicated sales and project team.

Nambiar admits that challenges such as relying on manual operations with constant retrenchment, associated training challenges, and the need for higher supply chain visibility are here to stay, regardless of the current economic situation. This is prevalent in Asia, where corporations have only recently started driving this initiative after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the various recent supply chain challenges.

“However, we expect that customer expectations from the same investment will increase. This requires products capable of delivering high levels of throughput with minimal downtime. This has always been a prime focus for our engineering work at Botsync, and with our syncOS developments, we are well positioned to deliver on this,” Nambiar concludes.

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Packworks, a Filipino mobile ERP (enterprise resource planning) platform for sari-sari store owners, has received US$2 million in a seed investment round.

Led by Fast Group and global PE firm CVC Capital Partners, the round also has been joined by ADB Ventures, Arise, Techstars, and IdeaSpace Foundation.

Packworks will use the funds to develop The Pack: SuperStore App, increase the breadth of offerings and improve its user journey.

It also plans to build a department that directly engages the sari-sari stores, provide additional services with partners, and build an open platform for financial institutions and brands to connect directly with store owners.

“We bootstrapped our way to helping 150,000 sari-sari stores. We’re helping communities all over the Philippines to grow and become more resilient. Imagine how many more we can help with all these awesome partners. Our vision is now global,” said Co-Founder and CMO Ibba Bernardo.

Also Read: GrowSari announces a US$77.5M Series C funding round, brings total funding to US$110M

Packworks started in 2018 as a solution for multinational companies in the Philippines to connect with neighbourhood stores. The company enables store owners to process their business inventory, bookkeeping, and data collection through The Pack: SuperStore App. They can also avail themselves of financial products and order supplies for a lower price without the hassle of coordinating and purchasing new stocks.

By 2019, Packworks rolled out nationwide with 220 stores and a gross merchandise value (GMV) of US$400,000. After a year, it gathered 27,828 stores with US$30 million GMV, reaching 130,000 stores with US$139 million GMV in 2021.

It targets to onboard 220,000 stores by the end of 2022 and 500,000 by the end of 2023.

“We think of ourselves as the railway or expressway infrastructure and not as the gas station or fast food shop operator. We expand partnerships to provide these services to our stores, such as inventory financing, e-payments, and micro-insurance,” Bernardo said.

It also aims to reduce the interest cost and handle money through access to e-payments.

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Malaysia’s TNG Digital raises US$168.3M led by Lazada
The funding round also included a follow-on investment by Touch ‘n Go, which is a TNG Digital shareholder and the firm’s parent company; This brings the total funding raised by the firm over the last 18 months to US$220M+.

1982 Ventures eyes over US$30M for Fund II
It looks to ramp up investments in early-stage fintech startups across SEA, Pakistan, and Bangladesh; The VC firm has so far garnered US$5M commitment from LPs; The fund is expected to be launched in Q4 this year or early next year.

Seedstars secures US$20M for second seed-stage fund
Investors are IFC, Visa Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Symbiotics; The fund aims to invest in 100 pre-seed and seed-stage companies across Asia, Africa, LatAm, and the MENA region over the next three years.

Cryptocurrency regulations should evolve: Mistletoe Singapore MD Atsushi Taira
If smaller countries like Singapore and Estonia can change the crypto regulatory framework, it can be a good starting point; Regulators need to be savvy enough to understand the technology and then accept new types of KYC.

Thai authorities investigating possible losses for Zipmex users
The Thai SEC is calling for affected users of the crypto exchange to submit information on how they were affected by the withdrawal suspension via a public forum; Zipmex announced the temporary withdrawal suspension on July 20th.

Binance names 27 projects in latest blockchain incubator cohort
The Most Valuable Builder programme aims to empower projects and founders building DApps on BNB Chain; The incubation phase will last for six to eight weeks, where selected projects will join coaching sessions and workshops.

Philippines not eyeing crypto ban, says central bank exec
Felipe Medalla’s liberal yet cautious outlook comes as Asian countries seek better ways to manage cryptocurrencies; Cryptocurrencies are fairly popular in the Philippines.

Singapore rubber trading platform HeveaConnect bags US$7.1M
Lead investors are Provident Capital Partners and DeClout Ventures; HeveaConnect provides a digital trading platform that connects producers, traders, and buyers. It has facilitated transactions of 600K+ MT of rubber since 2019.

Indonesia-focused fintech firm raises US$4.8M in Vertex-led round
Other investors are ADB, Accion Venture Lab, and Lippo Group; Fairbanc’s platform enables SMEs to take out short-term credit to buy fast-moving consumer goods from large consumer brands.

Alibaba shutters online retail platform Tmall in HK
The Chinese ecommerce giant gave no clear reason for the shutdown, except for “business strategy adjustments”; However, Alibaba said it will continue to provide payment and delivery services in HK via its C2C arm Taobao Marketplace.

SG maritime platform Smart Ship Hub nets US$2.5M in pre-Series A money
Lead investors are Ideaspring Capital and StartupXseed Ventures; Smart Ship Hub offers fleet management SaaS for ship owners and operators, charter parties, maritime insurers, and port authorities.

Alpha JWC, Picus Capital lead US$2.4M round of SG SaaS firm Omni HR
Omni HR’s main offering is an employee management system that helps companies execute human resource processes such as employee onboarding and leaves and document management.

Indonesian e-grocery firm KedaiSayur bags Series A
Investors include Kejora-SBI Orbit and Triputra Group; KedaiSayur has three business lines: an e-groceries app, B2B groceries ordering platform, and farmers management service; The firm claims to have served 100K+ customers and businesses.

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Travel was the worst-hit sector by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unable to survive, many travel-related startups, including online travel agencies (OTA), bring the curtain down on their businesses.

KKday, an e-commerce platform for tours, experiences and activities, was among the travel startups that came successfully out of the crisis. At the pandemic’s peak, KKday raised US$75 million (in September 2020), which provided it with the war chest to tide over the uncertain period. The Taiwanese firm has just secured an undisclosed sum led by TGVest Capital to bring its total Series C round to US$95 million. The firm posted good performance amid the crisis prompting investors to inject capital.

In this interview, Founder and CEO Ming Chen shares how the company survived the pandemic to post good results.

Edited excerpts:

Travel was one of the worst-affected sectors globally due to the pandemic. How did KKday survive the onslaught when many of your peers and travel companies either shut down or scaled down their operations? What was the secret sauce?

At the pandemic’s start, we actively controlled costs and suspended most marketing campaigns. We reduced our marketing spend while acquiring new customers by developing new products, significantly lowering acquisition costs and more efficient customer engagement.

We also successfully focused on domestic travel — staycations, outdoor, and watersport activities. Our product offerings more than doubled during 2020 as we expanded into staycation opportunities and souvenirs. The revenue growth from both these areas grew more than 10x.

Also Read: Travel experiences, activities platform KKday extends Series C round to US$95M for domestic expansion

For example, in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, where many countries were on stricter lockdowns then, we promoted souvenirs, online experiences, and food delivery vouchers to encourage consumption.

Today domestic travel has resumed, and we’re firing on all cylinders with customers purchasing through KKday ticketing products, activities-related products, especially with the summer seasonality, water sports activities, and outdoor activities products. We are seeing growth in many different product categories.

Lastly, we accelerated our development of rezio, KKday’s SaaS solution that works with local merchants to manage bookings and inventory on multiple channels). We wanted to move swiftly to support our local merchants and help them digitise while expanding their customer base, in addition to managing overall inventory at a time when there were several changes to border restrictions. We also offered rezio complimentary to merchants during this period.

Did you go austere during the pandemic and cut the headcounts?

We planned for the worst, so we remained highly disciplined in managing our cash flow and balance sheet. The largest cut was in lowering our marketing spending, where the team has worked hard to acquire users through different channels and unique products.

We reduced some of our headcounts during the pandemic. However, the headcount is now at the pre-COVID-19 levels, and we’re planning to increase this by more than 40 per cent. We were fortunate to raise additional capital during this uncertain period, and as a result, we could largely maintain our headcount across the region.

You said in a statement that you have plans to deepen your footprints in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Southeast Asia. Did all these markets recover from the clutches of the pandemic? How do you compare each of these markets pre- and post-COVID-19?

Pre-COVID-19, most of the revenues from our markets were derived mainly from international travellers. At the start of the pandemic, we quickly pivoted to domestic business. With the borders reopening, we expect domestic and international travellers to accelerate. Both domestic and international businesses (our dual engines) will drive our growth.

COVID-19, in some ways, was a blessing in disguise; it forced us to pivot to domestic travel as borders shut down. As a result, we acquired many users at significantly lower costs for domestic travel. They exhibited much higher engagement levels and more bookings than international travellers.

Now that borders are opening up and international travel is resuming, we’re leveraging our domestic travel base to cross-sell global travel products.

Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and Singapore exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels primarily driven by the domestic business during the crisis.

Do you see any drastic changes in how people view travelling post-COVID-19? Are there any behavioural changes and changes to the consumption pattern?

As travel restrictions are lifted, we will see (and are seeing) a surge in overall travel domestically and internationally. We see a couple of trends: 1) an increase of digital travellers: they are becoming savvier and using tools like KKday to plan their trip itineraries and save costs, and 2) travellers are also looking for more curated experiences when they travel (and travelling for longer). With this in mind, we plan to relaunch our signature tours to give travellers memorable experiences.

Over the last 12 months, more markets have opened up, and domestic travel has been a strong driver of our growth. While staycations remained popular, there was also a surging appetite for local domestic tours, activities, and attractions. We added 200,000 more experiences and activities across Asia Pacific during COVID-19.

In Japan alone, we added 35,000 new activities (some of the activities are part of our Activity Japan acquisition which focuses on outdoor activities).

We also expect domestic travel to be an important growth driver for us. Our domestic business has acquired many more users at significantly lower costs. They also show higher engagement levels, booking more on our platform than international travellers.

This is partly due to domestic travellers travelling at least 2-3x more than international travellers. As borders open up, we plan to cross-sell experiences and activities for domestic and international travellers. We see this as complementary.

You also mentioned in a press release that “hyper localisation and digitisation will be our north star for scaling and building our user and merchant base”. Can you elaborate on this quote? What exactly do you mean by hyper-localisation?

KKday has always been focused on going deep into local Asia markets to provide travellers with the best, most authentic, curated experiences. Today’s travellers, whether local or visiting from overseas, are more digitally savvy and are very interested in finding activities and experiences beyond the usual go-to spots for tourists, “off the beaten track” experiences.

It’s pivotal for us to curate these experiences via our local merchants and our KKday signature tours that we are relaunching. It is also vital for us to support the overall Asia ecosystem of local merchants in its digital transformation to empower them to be more operational and cost-efficient and expand their customer base.

Can you share more details about rezio? How does it work?

rezio is our SaaS all-in-one platform that provides a suite of services, including a simple setup for a powerful online store, real-time inventory management across different booking channels, customised vouchers for various booking scenarios, and integration with local payment gateways.

All features can also be accessed on any mobile device, allowing travel and experience providers to manage bookings on the go. rezio also provides real-time inventory across a merchant’s multiple channels. The platform reduces operational costs and increases efficiencies for merchants.

We have over 1,600 merchants, reaching 2.7 million travellers globally.

With an influx of domestic and international travellers expecting to return, many local activity providers have adopted rezio to help digitise and scale their businesses and get access to manage their bookings on multiple OTAs.

With the new funding, we plan to scale and build new rezio features to automate and streamline solutions for merchants. For example, KKday has partnered with Nami Island, a popular attraction in South Korea with millions of annual visitors, to integrate its software rezio with the attraction’s hardware (e.g. e-gate, kiosk, POS system).

Also Read: 3 learnings from KKday CEO and Founder on how his travel startup overcame the pandemic

Similarly, Asahiyama Zoo, one of the major zoo attractions in Japan, has just signed a multi-year contract with us to implement rezio’s solutions. These theme parks have millions of visitors, and we’re partners with these theme parks to help them sell and manage these visitors online.

rezio also has partnered with major OTAs, such as Viator, to deepen our global merchants’ channels and footprint. The partnership with Viator allows rezio to integrate its API to enable merchants to manage their products on Viator and Tripadvisor on top of its existing sales channels. We see overall increased appetite from larger OTAs.

KKday also plans to relaunch its in-demand owned and operated signature tours that provide travellers with curated quality local experiences as borders reopen.

Another crisis is on our doorstep as late-stage funding has drained globally due to several macroeconomic factors. How do you look at this crisis? Will it affect the travel industry in general and KKday in particular?

It has been difficult, and valuation comps (comparable company analysis) are significantly lower than four months ago. However, we do see that the travel industry is on an uptrend. We remain optimistic that travel is bucking the macro trends and is on an upswing, especially with borders opening up and international travel resuming. So there will be a lot of growth opportunities from my perspective. We’re exceeding comparable periods of pre-COVID-19 levels while international travel is just at the cusp of resuming in Asia.

In the last two and a half years since COVID-19 struck, we’ve also managed our business more disciplined way. As mentioned earlier, we’ve significantly lowered user acquisition cost by more than half of what it was versus pre-pandemic levels. We see increased engagement levels and more experiences and activities being booked by users.

Companies that demonstrate good growth, sustainable growth and a path to profitability can stand out more in these uncertain macroeconomic times.

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The third revolution of the internet is heralded to create a more intelligent and connected world. And with its acceleration in the banking and finance sector, Web3 is becoming a buzzword among financial services providers.

While it is too early to predict the shape Web3 will eventually take. If the past iterations of the web were any indicator, it takes time to bring about a paradigm shift, although when it does, everything will move forward at an exponential pace. Can financial services providers afford to wait for that eventuality?

What is Web3?

The first generation of the world wide web came online in the mid-1990s. It was essentially a static content delivery network that allowed people to share information, almost like an online shop front or brochure.

As the technology evolved and broadband speeds increased,  Web2 arrived a decade later, providing a much more interactive, social internet where businesses and individuals were able to generate and share their own content.

The tech behind Web1 and Web2 relied on centralised databases to deliver and enable functionality.

Conversely, Web3 makes use of a decentralised blockchain where there is no arbitrary central authority, but instead a form of distributed consensus. Conceptually, Web3 will be a unified universe where communication and data sharing occurs in a decentralised space. Depending on what technology it integrates with, Web3 can evolve how the web can be used for that technology.

With Web3, the focus is now on the backend, specifically to manage and understand data. Using AI, machine learning and the semantic web will deliver more relevant information, faster. Anyone and any machine in this Internet of Things (IoT) age can contribute and gain access to this global data, but no one will own the database. 

Web3’s integration with blockchain technology, for example, can create a database that is impossible to hack. This is a smart contract that transmits information under the mutual consensus of involved parties. And it is one of the premises behind decentralised finance (DeFi), which aims to cut transaction times and gain access to more financial services. 

According to Investopedia, DeFi is an emerging financial technology based on secure distributed ledgers like those used by cryptocurrencies. Consumers and businesses can lend, trade, and borrow by using technology rather than intermediaries to record and verify financial actions in distributed financial databases.

Also Read: Why the Web3-enabled gaming world still has hope

However, just like Web3, DeFi’s evolution is still in its infancy, so regulators and traditional payment players are still trying to figure out how DeFi would eventually shape up.

The need for regulation

With DeFi and cryptocurrencies being Web3’s early use cases, there are concerns that the new web could lead to a financial Wild West. Rationally though, the situation is not likely to get that out of hand.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum are presently not used for much more than being an asset to invest in, which makes them very volatile and inappropriate for use as payment. South America, Mexico and other regions are trying to get Bitcoin recognised as legal tender. This move, however, is unsupported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to its volatility.

That is why institutional intermediaries like banks must navigate the host of digital identity issues and overcome contractual and regulatory obstacles, including agreements for cross-border money movement. 

Some regulatory bodies are independently preparing for an acceptable DeFi future.  Project Dunbar is a technical experiment by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub and central bank partners. The objective is to study how international settlements can be made using multiple Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) over a common platform, considering the catalytic effect of the emergent Web3. 

The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s new guidelines on tokenisation and Dubai’s recent regulation are cases in point. In addition, Australia is exploring a Digital Services Act (DSA) legislative package that seeks reforms in crypto market licencing, custody, decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), debanking and taxes.

Web3 opportunities in the finance industry

As the capabilities of Web3 become more understood and ubiquitous, sentiments about its use will undoubtedly change and evolve. 

Some early moving banks are already leveraging the early capabilities of Web 3.0 in legitimate use cases. An S&P Global Market Intelligence report revealed that HSBC Holdings in Hong Kong had enabled hyper-personalised insights into its wealth management, courtesy of Web3. The bank estimated this could lead to 10 times more conversations between their relationship managers and clients. 

Such positive business models of Web3 will continue to emerge to disrupt markets in positive ways, keeping market interest buoyant and allowing stakeholders time to iron out teething problems with progressively feasible and accessible solutions. 

Undoubtedly, the vision of Web3 in the future of finance is still hazy. There is still much to be done to secure and build the properties of Web3 for financial services. But as early adopters and techies foray to bridge these two worlds, new asset classes and technologies will be created.

So, no matter how the integration eventually shapes up, witnessing the possibilities thrown up in the process is exciting indeed.

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With the global recession expected to impact Malaysia sooner than anticipated, we already see many of the region’s leading businesses make organisational changes to brace for the storm ahead.

Southeast Asia’s technology sector has been hit particularly hard with a series of tech giants announcing mass layoffs as they aim to build leaner teams. These economic developments were a 180 from the beginning of the year when the ball was firmly in the talent’s court, and businesses were doing whatever they could to retain people. Now, the Great Resignation could become the Great Retrenchment.  

However, one thing remains true: the ever-present need for the region’s brightest talent, in tech or otherwise. The global workforce’s heightened desire for greater work-life balance and autonomy is here to stay, ultimately pushing talent to search for new and best ways to work. And this is where freelancing comes in.

While freelancing can traditionally be associated with short-term, one-off gig work, at Workana, we have seen an increasing number of long-term engagements, with freelancers now having the opportunity to create a sustainable cash flow comparable to any full-time salaried remote worker. This is great news for workers who enjoy a little more autonomy and more frequent opportunities to review their engagements while still having access to financial security. 

Currently, a whopping 31.4 per cent of the global workforce freelances, and while the pandemic did not kickstart this, it has accelerated this trend. The number of talent looking to join the freelance pool is expected to grow dramatically in 2022, and with good reason.

From a worker’s perspective, freelancing is an appealing option as it represents the best of both worlds, leveraging one’s fine-tuned skills and professional talents while simultaneously having more freedom and control over jobs and personal time.

On the other hand, the employer gains access to the world’s top-tier talent pool and is no longer limited to talents within the vicinity of the office.

The opportunity for freelancing in Malaysia

Taking the plunge into the freelancing world is understandably nerve-wracking, and branching out on your own as a remote worker can be daunting. There are fears of not securing your next job, enough work, or finding it hard to stand out in a competitive landscape.

Also Read: What are employees looking for in a hybrid work world?

That being said, an impending recession could be just the motivation many Malaysians need to take their career path into their own hands and lead a flexible and financially secure life. 

Straight talk: the time to freelance in Malaysia is now. The freelancing community has hugely expanded across the country; at Workana, we have seen our pool of remote talents grow, while the rollout of Government initiatives that support freelancers and community leaders who spearhead discussions for freelancer welfare are ongoing.

Of course, the increased adoption of hybrid working models has also opened the eyes of many businesses and talent similar to managing a more flexible workforce or lifestyle. 

Hybrid models, in which people only go into the office for select days of the week, can be highly conducive to a freelancing schedule. Businesses are also likely to open the doors to fully remote talent, thus greatly expanding their hiring possibilities in Malaysia or across borders.

Ultimately, the available talent pool becomes wider than ever, which is great news when skilled tech talent remains in short supply.  

When it comes to digital gig work, there has always been a lot of potential in the Malaysian market; it’s one of the main reasons we chose to set up our APAC headquarters here in 2019. The talent pool is rich in digital talent, with high English language proficiency and cultural alignment with neighbouring markets such as Singapore and Australia, making the job opportunities ripe.

It’s also heartening to see the Government get on board with this way of working; the 12th Malaysia Plan 2021-2025 (12MP) has assured Malaysians that it will create an ecosystem to support the development of the digital gig economy.

This means talent can prioritise flexibility and self-employment and take full advantage of the opportunities available to grow their skills, portfolios and work experience, even when times are tough(er).

Grow your network for a steady stream of work

In Malaysia’s freelance industry, there is generally enough talent around to satisfy the demand, but connecting with the right clients or finding the right talent to take on a project can be tricky. 

Also Read: Why Malaysian employees are giving up on the traditional office structure

For freelancers to get a leg up as this way of working continues to grow, it’s about having the right portfolio and network. Reputation, success stories, and endorsements are often the key deciding factors for new clients to seal the deal.

New freelancers must start establishing themselves and build a solid body of work to put them in front of their minds as businesses grapple with finding the right people quickly. Partnering with a freelancing platform is a reliable way to ensure regular, quality work, thanks to review systems, client testimonial options, and live job requests to kick-start the process.

For talent, more will follow once the first few jobs are completed and documented well. 

Even if projected growth is slower over the next couple of years, companies constantly need skilled tech talent to jump quickly into projects and keep the ball rolling. So while the hesitations around leaving a steady job to embark on a career as a freelancer are valid, the opportunity to branch out and become an independent talent has never been better.

With the right support system, Malaysians will find freelancing a viable and secure career option. 

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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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