AnyMind Group, an end-to-end commerce enablement company, announced that it had raised JPY4 billion (approximately US$29.4 million) in its Series D funding round, with total funding to date approximating US$91.7 million.

The Series D funds were raised from new investors, including JIC Venture Growth Investments (JIC Venture Growth Fund I Investment Limited Partnership), Japan Post Investment Corporation (Japan Post Investment I, ILP), Nomura SPARX Investment (Japan Growth Capital Investment Corporation), and PROTO Ventures Inc. (PROTO Ventures 2 Investment Limited Partnership), along with existing investor Mitsubishi UFJ Capital (Mitsubishi UFJ Capital VII, Limited Partnership).

The funds will be used to strengthen the company’s advancement in the commerce enablement space and fund future acquisitions. It will be used to enhance further its AnyChat and AnyX platforms, which it launched this year, and strengthen its market share across its operating regions.

The funds raised will be used for future acquisitions in Japan and internationally. To date, AnyMind Group has acquired seven companies from various parts of the region, including Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and India. The reasons to make these acquisitions were either to acqui-hire a company’s leadership, expand into new businesses or regions, acquire additional sales channels, or all three.

In addition to the Series D funding round, the company has secured a JPY1 billion (US$7.2 million) credit facility from Mizuho Bank for future use.

Also Read: News Roundup: AnyMind Group acquires Indian mobile ads startup POKKT

“Despite COVID-19 and geopolitical situations impacting the world, we have still achieved solid growth as a business. On the other hand, we see economies across Asia, including our operating markets of ASEAN and India, rapidly regaining growth momentum. We will continue to grow our business at a pace that matches our ambitions, look towards expanding our capabilities through M&A, and strengthen our investment and profit structure for growth as we continue to become the next-generation infrastructure for commerce in Asia,” says AnyMind Group CEO & Co-Founder Kosuke Sogo.

“We will continue to make it exciting for everyone to do business by enhancing and expanding our innovations that form the infrastructure for the next generation of commerce. Over the years, we have developed platforms across the end-to-end spectrum of commerce that can be used individually and can now also be used as part of an integrated suite of tools to deliver more effective and efficient commerce for businesses. We are just at the start of our journey, as we power some of the most exciting enterprises and forward-thinking publishers and influencers in this part of the world,” he continued.

Previously, AnyMind Group’s Series C stock was issued for the acquisition of cross-border marketing company ENGAWA in January 2021.

AnyMind Group was founded in Singapore in 2016 and expanded into Southeast Asia, East Asia, India and the Middle East. In 2019, the company shifted its headquarters to Tokyo, Japan. At present, AnyMind Group operates out of 17 offices across 13 markets, with over 1,000 staff from 27 nationalities.

Before the launch of AnyChat, the company had developed and launched the manufacturing platform AnyFactory and logistics management platform AnyLogi. The company started in the marketing technology industry with platforms for advertising and influencer marketing and, after that, expanded into the publisher technology and creator technology space.

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Singaporean tech entertainment firm AnyMind raises US$26.4M Series B

The moves over the past two years were made as AnyMind Group created and enhanced its suite of tools, which look to form the backbone of businesses in the future. This future will be one where business can be done through a single platform, is borderless and open, and data can be utilised and maximised freely across traditionally siloed business functions. The company terms this “next-generation commerce.”

In 2021, AnyMind Group saw revenues of US$174 million with a compound annual growth rate (2017-2021) of 62 per cent.

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Image Credit: AnyMind Group

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Imagine a central control room where, with a few clicks, ‘bots’ are deployed at scale to handle different business processes automatically. This is no longer theoretical. Financial services institutions are already using this technology to manage key processes.

The transformation, part of what has been labelled the fourth industrial revolution or ‘Industry 4.0’, driven by waves of automation and connectivity, has been picking up speed in the last couple of years in the financial industries as new technologies and the expertise to implement them become more readily available.

Even in this futuristic-sounding scenario, humans still do most of the work. This hybrid workforce approach integrates automation capabilities (or bots) provided by robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence platforms to handle part of the workload.

Financial institutions must build an efficient process optimisation programme to take advantage of this shift toward hybrid workforces. Let’s get deeper into how to get started from an organisational perspective.

Organisational setup

An enterprise process optimisation programme is best driven by a central team, or Centre of Excellence (CoE), which shares many of the characteristics of an enterprise data team, a more established part of financial institutions.

In my view, three key roles drive the central teamteam’scess:

Commercialisation lead

Process mining platforms, which use process data to help identify process inefficiencies and how to mend them, can help generate a pipeline of ‘to-‘e-optimised’ processes. However, they are only one way to identify potential areas of improvement.

Also Read: Why robotics is just entering its prime phase

A programme should also be in place to encourage and collect feedback from staff, especially those who are themselves operating processes. This should be managed centrally by a ‘commercialisation lead’ who not only organises the collection of such ideas but, more importantly, calculates their ROI and prioritises the improvement pipeline.

This role represents the business side of the programme.

Automation expert

The industry lacks a standardised automation platform. Therefore, an automation expert must showcase the optimal way to deliver automation, either by leveraging existing IT infrastructure or by working in conjunction with external vendors and platforms.

This person will be deeply familiar with the strengths and limitations of the technologies available in the market and will work closely with the commercialisation to lead to prioritising improvements.

Not all processes needing improvement are worthy candidates for automation, and it is important to look at potential improvements from other angles. Digitalising the process, e.g. adopting an optical character recognition (OCR) solution at the beginning of a loan application process, can banish physical documents from the entire process and remove both the manual inputting step and the checking step.

This role represents the technology side of the programme.

Change management lead

Whatever the strategy for automation, bots, digitalisation or a combination of both, there will be changes to existing processes. An efficient and good communicator is therefore required to manage the change. This person should work closely with the HR department to re-skill and, sometimes, re-deploy staff. It is, of course, best to plan and communicate early with the staff that may be affected.

These three roles form the foundation of any process optimisation CoE; however, there are other important roles to consider, such as the overall CoE lead, who looks after aspects such as performance management of the CoE and reports to the COO.

With the CoE set up, its mission should be to fiercely consolidate operations by looking for ways to improve existing processes’ efficiency radically.

Preparing for future operations

The hybrid workforce becomes no longer a question of if but when financial industry leaders must put teams in place to help them embrace it sooner rather than later.

While the pace of industry transformation is quickening, this is still a time of first-mover advantage. We expect to see more financial institutions stepping into this space and then executing more and more systematically, with the help of a well-organised central team.

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Vietnam-based financial service app MFast announced that it had raised US$2.5 million in a funding round led by Ascend Vietnam Ventures with participation from Wavemaker and two other existing investors, Do Ventures and JAFCO Asia, bringing its total capital funding to US$4 million.

With the fresh funding, MFast is actively looking to hire talent across various areas (including technology, marketing, and sales), upgrade its platform, expand its agent network, and deploy new business models.

This new capital will also be used to develop technology and data analysis systems to generate consumer credit ratings. The company is also looking to expand to Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines and Thailand.

In a statement, MFast said it was born after its founders, Phan Thanh Long and Phan Thanh Vinh, observed a huge problem in Vietnam’s rural areas. Nearly 70 per cent of the Vietnamese population in the rural areas have limited or no access to banking, insurance, and credit-related services.

“Due to the lack of financial literacy and credit history, this population faces numerous challenges accessing financial services. It is often victims of predatory services from the grey and black markets. Products such as insurance, despite existing in Vietnam for more than 20 years, are still perceived in rural areas as a waste of money or perceived as catalysts for bad luck,” the company wrote.

Also Read: ‘Vietnam can be an excellent launchpad for regional, global startups’: says Eddie Thai

In September 2020, MFast was launched to tackle this pain point by connecting reputable financial and insurance institutions to its nationwide agent network of MFast users. MFast agents serve as the middlemen in introducing, educating, and distributing financial and insurance products to the end customers in rural areas.

Any Mfast users can sign up to become agents and participate in one or several sales stages from customer acquisition, loan and insurance package consultation, customer support in opening bank accounts, e-wallets, and credit cards, to post-sales services. The Mfast app also equipped agents with all the necessary knowledge sources and tools to do their jobs.

MFast also aims to digitalise the entire working process by replacing cumbersome paperwork and procedures associated with banking and shortening the approval and disbursement window.

“With a nationwide agent network, MFast reaches underserved populations, helping them overcome challenges in accessing financial services and breaking down prejudice towards insurance – a crucial aspect of a developed society. At the same time, we create benefits for our agents and partners. MFast provides agents opportunities to earn extra income while helping partners expand the insurance and financial services in the peripheral and rural areas,” said Phan Thanh Long, CEO and Co-founder of MFast.

After two years of operations, MFast said it has helped more than 600,000 people (with nearly 80 per cent living in rural areas) in gaining access to financial and insurance service packages and provided job opportunities for more than 92,000 agents across 63 provinces and cities nationwide.

Also Read: Ascend Vietnam Ventures’s early-stage fund AVV Alpha exceeds US$50M target

Thao Nguyen, Senior Investment Manager at Ascend Vietnam Ventures, said: “The market potential, MFast team’s great execution capabilities, and its significant social impact are the reasons we are keen to support MFast in putting its mission into reality. Throughout its agent banking model, MFast promotes financial inclusion in the peripheral and rural areas of Vietnam, contributing a great part to the sustainable development of the country’s financial system.”

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Image Credit: MFast

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The Singaporean business landscape proves to be continuously thriving due to the number of tech companies and startups in the country encouraged by pro-business policies. But due to the relatively small population that equals limited market size (despite the high spending power of Singaporeans), there is a need to diversify business options for growth and profit. Tapping into a bigger arena would contribute to improving this potential, meaning Singaporean businesses should start considering expanding into the international market. 

Japan is a possible market these businesses can look into, as the country’s consumer market is among the largest in the world. According to the International Trade Administration, Japan is the third-largest economy in the world next to the US and China, making it an exciting place for business.

Specific contexts in the country also make Japan a lucrative hub for developing certain technologies like pharmaceuticals and robotics. At the same time, the Japanese market is diverse in terms of industries. In 2018, Japan covered a broad range of local startups with a market worth of USD3.7 billion. 

Expanding ambitions from Singapore to Japan

The ​​Singapore Economic Development Board and Enterprise Singapore’s Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) is one programme that offers an opportunity for the most innovative and ambitious Singaporean startups to expand to markets like Japan. As an established network of Singaporean and overseas partners specialising in crucial demand markets, GIA opens opportunities for startups to exchange knowledge, technology, and skills to create an international community of innovation. 

For its Japan network, GIA’s partner is Leave a Nest, an innovator among deep tech platforms in the Southeast Asian region. Leave a Nest, in partnership with Enterprise Singapore, screens and guides successful applicants in the process of expanding and establishing their startup in Japan, particularly in Tokyo.

Also read: Market Access Taiwan: Traversing the Taiwanese startup landscape

GIA will walk participants through a visit to the host country, exposing them to potential partner companies, the investor, as well as the research institute during the third month of the programme. This gives startups ample time to make up their minds and strategise on how to gain a foothold in the market. 

The programme’s graduates have become notable across most fields. For example, Wavescan, which was among the first startups to participate in GIA, had been mentioned by Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat for its success in the Japanese market. Another programme alumni, Sentient.io, has managed to gain a foothold in the Asia Pacific market through investments from Real Tech and SEEDS capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore. The two startups present just a few of the possibilities for potential participants upon coming out of the programme.

→For application to the “Enter to Japan Market” programme, please apply HERE

Singapore as Japan’s entry into Southeast Asian markets

Another ingenious component of GIA is its reciprocity of opportunities. For instance, it’s not just Singaporean startups that are encouraged to expand to Japan; Japanese startups are also very welcome to explore business opportunities in Singapore. Japanese startups will find that Singapore has a strategic location to be an entry point and PoC to the ASEAN market.

For reasons already mentioned, this would be beneficial for both inbound and outbound companies given Singapore and Japan’s track records and consumer trends, once again contributing to building a global innovation network. Aside from their economic similarities, however, both Japan and Singapore face similar kinds of issues, particularly in terms of their ageing society, making the sharing of technologies between Japan and Singapore a welcome exchange.

Also read: From experts: Tips to improve operations and maximise ROI

For the “Enter SG Market‘‘ programme, Leave a Nest will recruit high-calibre early- to mid-stage startups in the field of deep tech and applied tech to seek business opportunities in Singapore. This process leverages the EntrePass Scheme to penetrate other Southeast Asian countries using Singapore as a base. 

→For application to the “Enter to SG Market” programme, please apply HERE

A customised process for startups

The conduct of the GIA programme is interesting in that it’s customised for all participating startups. Through a series of training over the course of four months, startups who pass the screening are mentored to understand their needs. The businesses are then pitched in one-on-one sessions with Singapore partners to see what works best for them. 

The same process is replicated for Singaporean startups looking to enter the Japanese market, with a focus on finding manufacturing partners in Japan for these companies. A small cohort of participants are selected from the pool of applicants and the process is highly customised to cater to their needs, noting where they currently are and what aspect of the market they can best connect to. The result is evident in the success rate of the GIA programme. Apart from Wavescan and Sentient.io’s successes, other programme alumni have found their niche in their respective target markets. Crown Digital and Profile Print, both dealing with artificial intelligence, are among the startups that have found investors for their business. 

Prototype manufacturing partnerships for startups

In the past, Leave a Nest ran a successful project specifically geared for ASEAN startups looking for state-of-the-art manufacturing partners in Japan. Dubbed as the Prototype Manufacturing Project (otherwise known as the Ota City Program), the project helped match startups with corresponding partner manufacturers in Ota City, which is home to several specialised factories that take care of the prototyping needs of different companies.

Also read: Looking to scale your company? Hong Kong is open for business!

With its reputable track record of building partnerships and connecting ecosystem players, Leave a Nest is partnering with Enterprise Singapore to once again offer the Prototype Manufacturing Project. Startups’ need for precise manufacturing can be challenging to find in Southeast Asia. Even in Japan, where GIA participants’ target market would be, one major challenge to establishing a partnership with a manufacturer would be the language and knowledge barrier. It would be best to work within an existing network like the Prototype Manufacturing Project and GIA to ensure an ideal outcome for startups and manufacturers alike.

To get an idea of how well the Ota City Program has worked for GIA startups, one needs to look no further. In 2018, three startups from Southeast Asia successfully entered the Ota City Program’s pilot run, paired with major Japanese firms to move to the next stage of their entry into the Japanese market. For 2022, another call for applicants has been released, especially for companies who are keen to work with Japanese manufacturers for their startups.    

→For application to the “Manufacturing Program,” please apply HERE.

→For application to the “Enter to Japan Market” programme, please apply HERE

→For application to the “Enter to SG Market” programme, please apply HERE

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Leave a Nest

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