We have recently published a new Market Map report, identifying the “indigenous” ecosystem of adtech and martech companies founded and headquartered in Southeast Asia.

The origin of this report can be traced to a dinner conversation between the author and a digital media industry colleague where the question was posed, “Given the dominance of the global platforms in digital advertising and marketing, would it actually be possible to reach a meaningful audience across Southeast Asia, using only a local Southeast Asian owned and built adtech/martech stack?”

We didn’t know the exact answer, but we did know from experience that there is a wide range of locally SEA-owned and built adtech and martech available.

This report sets out to establish some answers to this question with 240+ companies listed in this report, and while achieving a complete tech stack from local players without any intersection with global platforms may require considerable work, there’s no doubt that Southeast Asia has a vibrant and growing adtech and martech sector.

The primary selection criteria for the inclusion of a company in this report is that the company is founded and headquartered in Southeast Asia. If we have inadvertently omitted your company, please let us know.

Digital ad spending in Southeast Asia in 2022 is US$4.2 billion, but still, only 32.9 per cent of total media ad is spent.

eMarketer has reported that digital ad spending in Southeast Asia has grown from US$3.13 billion in 2020 to US$3.68 billion in 2021, a 17.8 per cent growth rate, and is forecast to rise to US$4.20 billion in 2022, a further 11.3 per cent increase.

While this is certainly strong growth, what is more, revealing is the fact that eMarketer also forecasts that the US$4.2 billion for 2022 still only represents 32.9 per cent of total media ad spending for SEA, well behind other global markets.

Also Read: 5 video marketing trends that marketers can leverage in 2022

In particular, large advertising/media markets such as the US and China, and the broader Asia-Pacific region now see digital ad spending has taken a majority share of total advertising expenditure, compared to traditionally dominant broadcast and print media.

eMarketer is forecasting that total APAC digital advertising will comprise 63.4 per cent of total media advertising spending across the region.

US$500 million near-term incremental growth forecast but a larger US$3.9 billion market opportunity awaits

The gap between digital ad spend as a per cent of total ad spend for Southeast Asia and other markets represents a significant opportunity for Southeast Asia and its local adtech and martech ecosystem.

High levels of market growth and shifting ad spending will drive the sector for the rest of this decade as advertisers and marketers continue to move their advertising and marketing expenditures from traditional media to digital media.

In simple terms, if today the local ecosystem had the same per cent share as other markets, the local digital ad spend would be US$8.1 billion, representing a large opportunity for growth from the current forecast of US$4.2 billion.

The current forecast suggests there will be US$500 million in digital ad spend either from new budgets or existing budgets moved from old media to new media over the forecast period to 2024.

Key trends that are changing the game

We see several key trends underway across Southeast Asia in the advertising and marketing technologies sector:

Audience and technology convergence

The lines demarcating media content, community (social media and messaging) and commerce are rapidly blurring, driven principally by maturing technologies and audience appetite.

Also Read: 3 stages of marketing for your startup that can drive effective results

As e-commerce rises, we have seen the arrival of commerce media, with social commerce being the conjunction of community and commerce, and content marketing are where media and e-commerce meet.

Browse your favourite social media and you will see advertising presented as content, with immediate links to buy now. Whether it is the 21st-century version of TV Shopping or a great travel blog that allows you to directly book that villa in Bali and the flights, of course, the path between consumer discovery and inspiration (the content ‘stimulus’) and the ability to buy now (the commerce ‘response’) is shorter than it has ever been.

New formats: Connected TV and audio

The average consumer now likely regularly uses screens in three sizes, across smartphone, tablet/laptop and big screen Android TV to watch the content they want to watch, when, where and how they want to.

With much of the streaming video content available now being consumed by people interchangeably across these three screens, streaming platforms have connected to the programmatic advertising technology ecosystem to deliver ads seamlessly across any device, small or large.

Streaming audio and podcasts are growing rapidly. With the simplified choice this provides to marketers; to buy multiple channels of ad delivery through a concentrated range of digital buying platforms, this will deliver an increased share of ad spend to digital media players and put pressure on traditional free-to-air broadcasters.

Identity, data, attribution and the demise of cookies

For marketers, understanding who their customers are and how, when and where they were acquired is a constant challenge, with the marketer’s goal being to own rich and deep first-party data, and have clear paths of attribution for the acquisition and retention of customers.

Being able to segment an audience into cohorts and profiles to drive a personalised approach to each group via their preferred channel is key to marketing success. Global players have made wide-ranging changes to introduce and enforce stricter consumer data privacy policies and regulations.

Many countries in Southeast Asia are slowly implementing regulatory regimes similar to the EU’s GDPR, and the highly fragmented markets and various walled gardens of global players mean that the marketer’s goal is elusive, at best.

Web3 and beyond

Beyond the near-term hype and fascination with shiny new objects, there should be little doubt that Web3/VR/AR is playing a pivotal role now and will in the next generation of early-stage media and technology companies, innovating and providing new media and consumer experiences for Gen Z and the near middle-aged Millenials.

Marketers are already in this new landscape. New forms of content, interaction, advertising and associated commerce are expanding in Southeast Asia very rapidly.

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Edukasyon.ph said today it secured an undisclosed sum in bridge funding from several investors, including KSR Ventures, Lorinet Foundation, and Bisk Ventures.

The investment is in the form of a convertible note.

The Filipino edutech startup has used the investment to bolster EDGE Tutor, its online K-12 tutoring services in English and Maths for students aged four to 16.

Launched in 2015, Edukasyon.ph provides access to senior high schools, colleges and universities, scholarships, online courses, and other resources. Edukasyon’s products are Finder (college and career counselling) and Advance (future skills training).

The edutech firm is currently developing a new product to provide parents and their children support and education using the curriculum made by experts.

Edukasyon’s partners include Rex Publishing, Union Bank, PLDT-Smart, Amazon Web Services, Unilever, Asian Development Bank, UN Women, and Ateneo de Manila University.

Also Read: Edukasyon investor Foxmont joins Philippine proptech startup AHG’s US$1.1M seed round

Since the close of Series A in 2019- 2020, Edukasyon.ph claims to have tripled revenues and achieved profitability for its B2B division.

The company said it is close to reaching its first million registered users and has built a community of eight million students.

The Manila-based startup previously closed a pre-Series A round in May 2018 and an investment from the Gobi-Core Philippine Fund in early 2019.

The edutech landscape has changed dramatically in the Philippines, with improvements in internet infrastructure, the explosive growth of e-wallets (estimated 63 per cent penetration by 2025), and massive exposure to online education (over 7 million students in 2021). Today, the country is estimated to be over US$20 billion education market.

 

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LingoTalk, an online language learning platform for schools in Indonesia, has received an undisclosed amount in initial funding from Iterative Capital and Eduspaze.

Several angel investors from the Asia Pacific region also co-invested in the round.

LingoTalk will use the money to enhance its LingoJunior product and acquire more primary school clients across Indonesia. LingoJunior aims to transform the way children learn a language in fun and engaging ways.

Founded by two graduates from Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), LingoTalk was part of the recent EduSpaze Accelerator cohort.

Also Read: Edukasyon.ph raises bridge funding to bolster K-12 English, Maths tutoring service

To date, LingoTalk has partnered with more than 150 schools in Indonesia to help them improve the language learning quality index and equip teachers with better teaching tools.

In the remaining months of 2022, LingoTalk will focus on working with schools, education institutions, and parents to uplift children’s language learning journey through innovative and impactful methods.

“At LingoTalk, we believe that a child’s story begins on day one and acknowledge the importance of giving them the learning opportunities to unleash their early potential. With the backing of our investors, we plan to refine the product and expand our reach to primary schools in Java and Sumatra Island”, Andre Benito, Co-Founder and CEO of LingoTalk.

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Astra subsidiary SMI set to pour US$259M into Bank Jasa Jakarta
Once the deal pushes through, SMI will have 1.1M shares, or a 49.56% stake, in the local bank; At the same time, WeLab will also increase its ownership in the bank to 49.56%.

Ascential acquires Singapore’s Intrepid Group for up to US$250M
Intrepid is an omnichannel e-commerce solutions company; It will become part of the digital commerce division of Ascential, which will now get a strategic entry point into Southeast Asia.

Naver-backed gaming firm Planetarium Labs raises US$31.8M Series A
Investors include Dynamic Sky Group, Krust Universe, Wemix and Greatest Enterprise; Planetarium Labs provides a moddable online gaming experience for AR/VR based on a distributed gaming architecture.

Indonesia’s Paxel raises US$22.7M in Astra-led Series C
Other backers are MDI Ventures, Central Capital Ventures, SIG, FJ Labs, and Endevour Catalyst; Paxel is a logistics startup that offers same-day delivery and smart lockers services.

Singapore cloud communication company Toku secures US$6M Series A+
It comes 10 months after Toku raised US$10M in Series A led by Deliver Hero-backed DX Ventures; Toku has been providing cloud communications to Gojek, JCDecaux, foodpanda.

Singaporean data firm Finquest bags US$5.5M funding
Investors include Capricorn Partners and Ad-Ventures Invest; Finquest leverages data and AI to identify and connect corporate buyers and PE investors with direct investment and acquisition opportunities in the private company space.

Juragan Material nets US$4M to grow its B2B marketplace for building materials in Indonesia
Investors are Go-Ventures (lead) and SIG; Juragan Material has over 9K SKUs and 180 brands across structural, architectural, mechanical and electrical products onboarded onto the platform.

Indonesian personal finance app Pina bags US$3M in seed money
Investors are AC Ventures, Vibe.VC, and Y Combinator; Pina enables users to monitor their assets and invest their wealth in stock or mutual fund products; It also has a feature that lets users learn how to manage their finances properly.

Indonesian language-learning startup LingoTalk bags financing
Investors are Iterative Capital and edtech accelerator Eduspaze; Backed by an AI recommendation system, LingoTalk’s platform teaches users to speak different languages; The firm has 10 language courses, including French, Arabic, Japanese, and Spanish.

Grab, BRI Ventures launch accelerator programme for startups
Through the Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) Batch 5 X Sembrani Wira Accelerator Program, Grab provides mentorship sessions, workshops, access to funding, and an opportunity for founders to test their ideas or products in the Grab ecosystem.

Korea begins second round of investigation on Kwon, TFL, LUNA crash
Initially, Joint Financial and Securities Crime Investigation Team of Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office will focus on reviewing legal principles and interrogating witnesses after taking over the case.

Singapore crypto platform Vauld pauses withdrawals amid industry crisis
The platform saw over US$141.5M in customer withdrawals since mid-June, which followed a slew of hits to the crypto industry; Vauld will apply to the Singapore courts for a moratorium on any proceedings faced by the firm.

3AC team’s properties may be seized for liquidation
The trio behind the Singapore-based crypto hedge fund are said to have amassed several billions of dollars in crypto assets at their peak; Between them, they reportedly owns five upscale properties, luxury vehicles and yachts.

Zilliqa co-founder’s new blockchain firm AltLayer secures US$7.2M in seed money
Investors include Polychain Capital, Breyer Capital, and Jump Crypto; AltLayer helps blockchain app developers set up a disposable layer to withstand surges in traffic, such as during minting events.

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Despite the pandemic and movement restrictions over the last two years, Southeast Asians celebrating Ramadan have been resilient. This year felt different and celebratory as family reunions became a possibility. Family, friends and togetherness took centre stage. The need to share time, space and happiness was never stronger.

I saw a flurry of activity in brand marketing war rooms as my team and the marketers planned campaigns that spotlighted the ability to share the occasion. They recognised the sentiments and planned to cut through the festive noise and reach their target audience through personalised advertisements and trusted channels.

SHAREit has, over the last few years, served as a channel for those in the emerging markets to share non-gaming or gaming apps, shopping recommendations and entertainment or educational content.

This Ramadan revealed key consumer behaviours for app sharing that will stay for the future. We compared the categories of apps shared during Ramadan in 2022 versus last year on SHAREit.

The growing prominence of app sharing in emerging markets

Are people ‘sharing’ apps? I have heard this question many times. App sharing has grown enormously in the last five years, driven by the huge populations in emerging markets like the Philippines, Indonesia in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa, amongst others.

Also Read: Crypto earning apps: which type is the best for you?

It started mainly in areas where the internet infrastructure was not well established, yet digital adoption was rising. People began sharing apps that make their lives easier or useful with friends and family.

Heavy apps that would take a lot of time to download from the internet could be quickly transferred over SHAREit amongst peers. Now over 10 million apps are being shared daily on SHAREit.

The app economy has grown massively due to smartphone usage, which is becoming more affordable, and as the world population becomes more mobile-enabled. The global mobile application market size was valued at US$154.05 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.5 per cent from 2020 to 2027.

Over the course of 2021, over two million new apps and games were released, bringing the total number of apps released to date to over 21 million, according to App Annie’s State of Mobile 2022 report.

Consumer spending on mobile apps reached US$170 billion in 2021. Download growth today is mainly driven by emerging markets like India, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Egypt.

Gaming hits a new high during the festive season

Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing gaming markets in the world. COVID-19, too has accelerated the rise in mobile gaming, as consumers turned to the game to beat the lockdown blues.

With the practice of social distancing reducing consumer and business activity to a minimum, gaming proved to be a distraction and an engaging activity for people at home looking for social interactions. We have seen an immense demand in markets like the Philippines and Indonesia for racing, simulation and elimination games.

Interestingly despite the fact that people could finally meet and social gatherings were back this Ramadan break, gaming continued to rise. In Indonesia, people share multiple games such as action, arcade, simulation, casual and board. Share of board games was substantial and grew by 95 per cent, but trivia games led among all game types as their sharing more than doubled compared to last year.

As travel restrictions ease, holiday is top of mind

Another interesting trend that stood out was the sharing of travel apps. A travel boom is looming, and we see increased interest, especially in domestic travel.

Also Read: Mobile app trends 2022: A global benchmark of app performance

According to a recent survey in Southeast Asia, respondents from the Philippines and Indonesia have shown the highest willingness for domestic travel.

The share of travel apps rose by 69 per cent after Ramadan as people were looking to plan holidays and getaways in the afterglow of the festive season. This is extremely good news for travel brands who have faced the brunt of the pandemic for the longest time and suffered from people not being active and even uninstalling apps.

Spike in food and fitness-related apps sharing

At the heart of most festivals lies food. While the share of food apps grew by 109 per cent during the Ramadan season since people looked for new recipes to cook and order delicacies, the health and fitness app share increased by 23 per cent.

Food delivery was one of the fastest-growing app verticals globally, becoming somewhat of a much-needed tool in consumers’ lives for ordering food safely, socially distanced and conveniently. According to App Annie, sessions in food & drink apps reached 62 billion in 2021. The rise and boom in food app usage and sharing is here to stay.

Medical app sharing shoots through the roof

With the rise in health awareness, people have become more conscious of where their food comes from, what they eat and workout and exercise regimes.

During the Ramadan season, we saw people in Indonesia turn to meal plans, schedules for suhoor and iftar, hydration guidelines, common side effects and how to deal with them. The share of medical apps increased by 491 per cent.

Consulting physicians over video conferences has gathered immense popularity due to the pandemic and is no longer a rarity.

According to App Annie, worldwide downloads of health & fitness apps surpassed pre-COVID-19 levels in 2021, despite a slight softening from a pandemic-induced high in 2020 in most countries. The top five meditation apps worldwide saw 27 per cent year-over-year growth in consumer spending.

Gaming, travel, food and fitness, and medical app landscapes will only continue to grow. For the players and app developers in the segment, it is vital to ensure they tap these growing demands from the consumers, adapt to their habits and lifestyles as we go on, and stay ready for disruption.

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Singapore-based cybersecurity startup watchTowr has announced an US$8 million pre-series A investment round co-led by Prosus Ventures and Vulcan Capital.

Its seed investor Wavemaker Partners also returned to join this round, bringing watchTowr’s total funding to US$10.25 million.

The startup raised US$2.25 million in November 2021 from Vulcan Capital and Wavemaker Partners.

watchTowr will use the new funds to improve its platform and seize growth opportunities arising from markets outside of Southeast Asia.

Launched in August 2021, watchTowr helps organisations understand and identify high-impact weaknesses in their cybersecurity defences. It provides organisations with a continuous, real-time view of their external attack surface through the eyes of a sophisticated attacker. This enables it to continuously identify vulnerabilities that would allow attackers to compromise an organisation.

Also Read: watchTowr can tell an organisation in real time if it can get compromised

By leveraging data analysis and interrogation within an agile technology framework, watchTowr codifies attacker tactics and techniques that mimic how real attackers break into organisations.

Benjamin Harris, CEO, watchTowr, said “Our technology gives organisations visibility of how they could be compromised, in real-time. Traditional assurance approaches, like penetration testing, are no longer effective or rapid enough to keep organisations secure. By continuously incorporating the latest attacker tactics and techniques into the watchTowr Platform, CISOs can understand their susceptibility to emerging vulnerabilities and threats in hours, rather than weeks or months.”

Over the last ten years, organisational attack surfaces have ballooned to include outsourced technology, shadow IT, cloud environments and supply chain risks. Most organisations have lost track of their attack surface.

Harris added, “When one combines the ballooned attack surface with the ineffective and incomplete security testing approaches that are still utilised today, organisations are not able to protect themselves adequately, especially when we consider the rapid and aggressive speed of change in cyber security. Attackers know this.”

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ORZON Ventures, a US$50-million VC fund powered by the Thai oil marketing major OR, has announced its participation in the Series A round of Hungry Hub, a local restaurant and hotel reservation platform for special occasions.

Founded in 2017, Hungry Hub is a restaurant and hotel reservation platform for special occasions in Thailand. It informs its users of the net price they will pay before walking into a restaurant. In addition, it also provides fixed-price offers and gourmet delivery services.

Hungry Hub claims to have partnered with more than 900 outlets in Bangkok, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Koh Samui and Phuket. The list includes top restaurants in Thailand, such as Copper Buffet, Audrey Café, The Coffee Club (Minor Group) and global hotel brands such as Marriott, Anantara and Banyan Tree.

The firm claims to have served over two million diners and generated over 1 billion baht (US$30 million) GMV.

Also Read: Thailand’s ORZON Ventures invests in Pomelo, Carsome, Freshket, GoWabi, Protomate

In August 2019, Hungry Hub raised seed money from Expara and 500 TukTuks (a fund under Thailand’s 500 Global network). Then, the platform received its pre-Series-A stage funding from ECG Venture Capital and MOVF Media Group.

Surasit Sachdev, Co-Founder and CEO of Hungry Hub, said: “This year, we will focus more on the luxury segment—be it the fine dining, the omakase, the chef table, and the restaurants/hotels that promise exceptional experiences to fit with our concept of special occasion offers. Our target for the next 12 months is to have 2,000 restaurant partners, generate 1 billion baht annually for our partners, and expand our services beyond Thailand.”

Rajsuda Rungsiyakull, Senior Executive Vice President, Orion Project of OR, said: “We see this investment in Hungry Hub will fulfil lifestyle ecosystem and add values to F&B business in the long run while catering to the needs of the consumers for both Hungry Hub’s partnered restaurants and those under OR’s portfolios, making OR one crucial part in daily lives of consumers of all lifestyles.”

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Indonesian edutech giant Ruangguru announced the acquisition of two edutech startups, Schoters and Kalananti, for an undisclosed sum. The two companies will complement a range of K-12 product ecosystems that is already available on the Ruangguru platform. Executives from respective companies will also continue to focus on the solutions that they have built for Ruangguru users.

“We recently acquired Kalananti and Schoters. In the past years, Ruangguru’s curriculum has been focusing heavily on [the needs of students] who are preparing to enter local public and private universities. With Schoters, we can also cater to the needs of those who are aiming to do undergraduate and postgraduate studies abroad with scholarships. Schoters is the biggest in Indonesia at the moment for this kind of service,” said Ruangguru Co-Founder and CEO Belva Devara Syah in a press conference on Monday, July 4, in Jakarta.

Executives at Schoters and Kalananti gave DailySocial their statements on different occasions. Schoters Co-Founder and CEO Radyum Ikono said that the discussion regarding the acquisition had started in November 2021, but the process was only finalised in June. Following the acquisition, there will be no significant changes in the business process for Schoters –they are even allowed to continue reaching out to potential users outside of the Ruangguru ecosystem.

Schoters solutions will be available on the Ruangguru platform, accessible by any users who might need them. “We will be part of the Ruangguru ecosystem. This is exciting as we have always been targeting high school students who intended to further their studies abroad. On one hand, Ruangguru has a pool of Indonesian high schoolers as users; as a small startup, joining them enables us to reach out to a wider array of high schoolers,” Ikono said.

Since its founding in 2018, Schoters claimed to have helped thousands of Indonesian students to study in 400 universities in 43 countries, including Cornell University, University of College London, Nanyang Technological University, and Harvard University. It has also helped hundreds of students scored scholarships with a growth number that exceeds 500 per cent in 2020-2021.

Also Read: How the metaverse opens new opportunities for education

In addition to providing college admission guidance and consultation, Schoters also provides solutions that help with foreign language skills, document preparation, and even accommodation search.

On the other hand, the acquisition process of Kalananti was finalised in March this year, enabling the two companies to accelerate their collaboration. “Our main product focuses on skills for the future, including coding. Many parents see coding as a highly relevant skill; this is why many [edutech companies] put coding on the forefront of their offerings. We are being acquired for the product itself,” said Kalananti CEO Ahmad Syahid Zakaria.

Zakaria said that, following the acquisition, he and the team will focus on developing a coding learning platform for children now that they have a more extensive resource to do it. Apart from coding, Kalananti also owns several other educational products, but they will continue on this particular product before getting back to working on the rest.

“We would like to narrow it down to a single product to mature. Prior to joining Ruangguru, we struggled with optimising the sales and marketing aspects of the product, so this is really helpful for us. This is why we are able to enter the product development stage of our flagship product, before diversifying to other products.”

Kalananti is an edutech startup that was founded in 2020. It focuses on providing coding courses and innovations for children aged 5-12 years old, exploring various future skills in a fun and exciting way.

Kalananti implements a blended learning approach that puts emphasis on concept and competence. For its ScratchJr programme, which is aimed for children aged 5-6 years old, children will be introduced to coding through creating game and animation –a process that does not require reading and writing skills. This app allows parents to help teach the basic logic with only using colours and icons.

Also Read: Openness and collaboration in education is what the world needs

Feature updates on Ruangguru

Other updates that were announced at the press conference included new products and features to welcome the new school year. One of the highlights is the launch of Ruangguru for Kids, an integrated learning ecosystem to develop the academic and non-academic potentials of children since early age.

This platform provides an array of subjects and learning modes for children aged 3-12 years old, from languages, coding, writing, reading and mathematics, to online schooling. Together with Dafa Lulu, Kalananti and Alta School complement these solutions as an interactive and animated learning platforms for primary school students, combining storytelling and gamification.

The Dafa Lulu platform is now complete with a Practice Zone feature, a special section for children to learn through various educational games; Dafa Lulu Live, to facilitate live lessons with teachers using Dafa Lulu content. Apart from the launch of Ruangguru for Kids, the company also announced new features for Adapto –an daptative learning video that adjusts its plot to students’ comprehension level– called Adapto X.

Launched in 2021, Adapto X utilises simulation and interactive games to emphasise on the more practical aspects of the lessons, helping students learn more easily. The company also introduced UTBK Centre, a university entrance exam preparation platform for high school students. Everything that a student might require to prepare for university entrance exam is available on the platform, from countdown to exam day, learning strategies, practice tests, analysis of acceptance rate, to information on universities and study programmes.

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The article was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Marsya Nabila for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

Image Credit: DailySocial

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In the last decade, the complexion of the finance industry in Singapore has changed dramatically. With the digital transformation, financial institutions and their clients have embraced technological advances and changed the way that we trade, communicate, and interact with one another.

It is a good time to reflect upon Andrew Grove’s famous book, Only the Paranoid Survive, where he reveals his strategy for measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads when a massive change occurs and a company must adapt to the new paradigms or fall by the wayside. In the financial world, the paradigm we may face is “customers need banking but may not need a bank; they need stockbroking but not stockbrokers”.

A career in the finance industry has transformed in tandem, and there have been two key drivers for these changes. Firstly, we have seen a geographic shift in the balance of the finance industry, as investors look toward the faster-growing markets in Asia.

These changing tides put Singapore in a prime position to solidify its position as a global financial centre, and financial institutions will need to be quick and agile to respond to new developments in the industry.

As a financial institution, we have made it a part of our ethos to be at the forefront of new developments in the industry. In 1996, we launched Philip’s Online Electronic Mart System (POEMS), an online desktop trading platform, and changed the way people trade. We have consistently innovated and evolved, and in 2017 we launched the redesigned POEMS 2.0, to optimise the user experience.

Secondly, the digital transformation has redefined the role of the financial institution. With customers increasingly going mobile, financial institutions need to adapt their services in kind.

For instance, we launched a mobile-friendly version of POEMS to pre-empt customers’ needs in 2010, and we have continued to listen to the feedback of our clients to improve the user experience. In 2022, we launched POEMS Mobile 3, taking in the feedback from our clients to optimise the user interface and user experience.

Since our early days as a brokerage firm, we have evolved into an integrated financial house with a presence in 15 countries serving over 1 million clients, with Assets Under Management accounting for a total of more than US$35 billion.

Also Read: Mergers and acquisitions: Key to building an embedded finance ecosystem

As the complexion of the industry changes with high technology, how do we ensure we are relevant to our diverse set of clients? How can we utilise technology to provide them with the right information so that they can make informed decisions about their investments? How do we, as the financial institution, give our traders, financial advisers, and trading representatives the right tools and skills to give clients the service that they deserve.

The refinement of a ‘high-tech, high-touch’ approach

While we embrace technological advancement, we are constantly reminded that human beings are essentially “social creatures” and we strive for interactive relationship building.

At PhillipCapital, we advocate a ‘high-tech, high-touch’ approach, where we constantly look for innovation to not only provide clients with new and more efficient ways of working but to also build and maintain trust with our clients.

While we have ridden the wave of technological advances, we continue to maintain an avenue for clients to get in touch with a financial adviser or a trading representative to preserve the relationships that are key.

In the world of excess, with thousands of financial products, we need professionals to curate products and present the solutions to clients. The advancement in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence will aid us tremendously in this area.

In more recent times, we have seen a growing trend of investors starting earlier in their careers, around the late 20s or early 30s. Meanwhile, our loyal customers have grown with us, and in the later stage of their lives, they are bringing the next generation of investors to start their journeys with us. As our clientele diversifies, we are constantly looking to adapt our services to cater to their varied outlooks, objectives, and preferences.

As we see different demographics of investors emerging, we also see new roles for our sales force emerging, younger investors may prefer to have a space for constructive debate to make more informed decisions, and the role of the advisor is to educate and advise through these forums.

For older investors, the role of the advisor may be more tuned to building on the trust that we have forged over the years and helping the customers navigate their investments in the digital era. In short, we have seen the rise of influencers and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in many sectors including retail and finance.

The content curation of these KOLs and the delivery to the audience have been widely accepted and appreciated by consumers and clients, as these KOLs continue to educate and engage the investing public.

Evolution of the fintech and financial literacy space

We have seen renewed interest in the fintech space, as well as services such as user interface and user experience support for our mobile applications. We are also working hard to deepen our digital capabilities while supporting our talents to harness their potential to serve the next generation of clients.

We have built a strong local talent pool of over 100 tech specialists, all of whom have been trained to leverage tech-enabled financial solutions to cater to a diverse range of customer needs and goals.

We have also seen a growth in the information and education space. As an industry, we are constantly looking at new ways to promote financial literacy and responsible trading, through new technologies to interact with our customers, as well as experimenting with new platforms or services to give our customers the requisite knowledge and research in a timely manner.

On a regular basis, we curate topics of relevance and currency and conduct webinars for our clients and the public. Every quarter, we hold Strategy Stock Picks webinars. Picking individual stocks is time-consuming and requires expertise.

For our research team to pick a stock, for every company in their respective sector, they will need to analyse the company, prepare a financial model, interview the company management, and weigh the risks of the individual companies.

The process requires extensive time and expertise, and our research team applies the skillsets of a consultant, an accountant, an FBI agent, and an insurance actuary, it’s a lot of effort and work!

In addition, we avail a wide array of educational tools on our POEMS platforms such as market journals, research reports, and videos. Some of these materials that benefit the public are also made accessible on our social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. As such, we have seen a need to form teams to develop and maintain these platforms, as well as curate and package our research in an engaging, yet informative way.

We are also working closely with our innovation team to engage, such as hackathons and financial education programmes. Given our presence in Asia and beyond, and our commitment to promoting financial literacy, we have developed PYTCH, a studio driven by research and strategy established to create financial content focusing on financial news, industry trends, investment strategies and talks, live TV, interactive TV, on-demand streaming TV, and an educational platform for both local and overseas investors.

Building a strong learning culture

With a constantly evolving space comes new opportunities for financial institutions to learn and grow with their employees. Both companies and their employees have a shared responsibility in building a strong learning culture, one that promotes adaptability and resilience among all employees.

Also Read: From sommelier to AVP of Customer Success at a tech unicorn: Lessons from my career journey

On the part of companies, training and reskilling programmes are beneficial to help employees deepen their expertise and acquire new skills. We have developed training roadmaps across all job functions to meet both current and future skills and competencies, in areas like wealth management, tech-enabled financial services, and data analytics.

This allows our employees to acquire transferrable skills across all domains in the finance industry, and plan long-term careers with us, such as offering opportunities for trading representatives to become portfolio managers.

At the same time, training and reskilling can aid in the development of soft skills in areas like critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, which allows our financial advisers and trading representatives to relate to customers, educate them, and value-add to the digital services.

Having a blend of both hard and soft skills will enable current employees to not only broaden their technical capabilities but also adapt and excel in the fast-evolving industry.

Effervescent skills for employees in the finance industry

All in all, we have seen that employees with the right mindset and ethos have embraced these challenges and found a home with us. We have identified four key attributes that have helped our employees in their careers in the finance industry:

• An eagerness to learn

Whether you are a fresh graduate or looking for a career switch, there is a seat for you if you are open and willing to learn. This industry welcomes anyone with easily transferrable skills, even if they are not from a financial services-related background.

• Being agile and staying relevant

Change is a constant in the finance industry, so it is important to always be on your toes and embrace new developments, especially when innovation continually pushes the sector to evolve. Those with the learning agility to learn, unlearn, and relearn in an increasingly flexible environment will be able to grow with the industry and find a fruitful experience in acquiring new skills, refining their current skillsets, and staying up-to-date with the new developments in the space.

• Being “paranoid” and building momentum

Reflecting on Andrew Grove’s book, it is important that we continue to strive and never rest on our laurels. With the fast-evolving world, we need this type of character and personality in employees and entrepreneurs. Momentum is such a succinct word but in business, we need momentum to keep on building and adapting to the world.

• Putting clients first

The human touch is still vital in understanding and empowering our clients to take charge of their financial future. Our role is to guide our clients along, focus on the bigger picture and recognise how we can optimise the new developments in the industry to serve our clients’ needs. As such, the onus is on us to never lose sight of their ability to effect meaningful change in our clients’ lives. In essence, be “client-centric”.

A service-oriented industry

As the financial landscape in Singapore continues to evolve, a career in the industry can be fast-paced, dynamic, challenging, and enriching. A rising tide raises all ships, and as the global finance industry looks to the East, we need to ensure that we remain at the forefront of change.

Also Read: How regulation is about to make “green finance” the new normal

However, at its heart, the finance industry remains service-oriented, and we will continue to put our clients’ needs first, as we adapt to the changing tides.

In addition, we will continue to help our employees to sharpen their skills, develop new capabilities, and keep pace with this ever-evolving industry. However, we cannot lose sight of our purpose, to help our clients achieve their investment goals and objectives.

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Zuno Carbon, a Singapore-based greentech startup, has closed a pre-seed funding round led by Blue InCube Ventures with SEEDS Capital.

The funds will be used to grow Zuno Carbon’s team and accelerate product development and marketing efforts.

Zuno Carbon provides organisations of all sizes with solutions to simplify carbon accounting through automation and process optimisation. Its goal is to enable ESG teams to shift their focus and resources from reporting to reducing their environmental impact with the help of AI-generated insights.

The startup’s solutions will initially target the energy, real estate, and manufacturing industries — which are the source of most of our greenhouse gas emissions.

Also Read: How carbon in the metaverse can help solve the real-world climate crisis

Zuno Carbon’s solutions have been deployed around the globe in Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the US, and Qatar.

“We are taking modern engineering approaches to constantly work with our existing customers to enhance our capabilities and make carbon reduction as painless as possible,” added Jon Adams, CTO and Co-Founder of Zuno Carbon.

“Sustainability has moved up the priority list for not just world and business leaders, but consumers and investors. Everyone wants to save tomorrow, and we believe that our technology gives us a fighting chance to see it through,” said Hari Nair, CEO and Co-Founder of Zuno Carbon.

“Zuno aims to simplify both the accountability “score-keeping” and engineering “take-action” aspects so an entire organisation can take coordinated actions to create an impact,” commented CL Goh, venture builder at Blue InCube Ventures.

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The post Zuno Carbon closes pre-seed funding to help organisations simplify carbon accounting appeared first on e27.