Globally, the metaverse has lately attracted a lot of interest. Now everyone is curious about what it is and how it will operate. The metaverse can turn any part of actual life into a virtual aspect. The word “metaverse” is being used outside the context of science due to the advancements in technology and system design. How individuals view virtual places has evolved along with a radical technological shift.

The metaverse domain promises to bring a rich virtual experience and creative ways for companies to profit from its advantages. Although the metaverse is not yet fully established, and tech experts have not yet decided on a suitable description for this field, we do know the essential features it will provide.

Instead of just viewing the Internet, picture the metaverse as a world you may enter. The metaverse will be projected around you through your devices, not behind your screen or inside. According to a hypothetical scenario, logging on to the metaverse would be similar to how you currently access the Internet. However, you would use a head-mounted display, such as a pair of smart glasses or a VR headset, to view material rather than turning on the Wi-Fi or 4G on your laptop or phone.

Digital assets, known as “non-fungible tokens,” address certifiable items like music, trading cards, and films, a sophisticated digital asset with unique media posts, virtual land, and advanced characters.

The increasing emphasis on using the Internet to merge the virtual and real worlds is a significant factor in the substantial increase the global metaverse market is predicted to experience over the forecast period. According to MRFR, the metaverse market is expected to reach US$105,597.5 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 45.2 per cent from 2024 to 2030.

Analyses of the metaverse market in the wake of COVID-19

The idea of the metaverse wasn’t particularly well-known before the pandemic. Both consumers and industries became more aware of it due to the pandemic. In 2020, tech companies announced they would begin developing this technology.

Also Read: How the multi-metaverse can flourish by eradicating virtual boundaries

Although the outbreak hastened the adoption of the metaverse by years, it was inevitable. There are many social, academic, and economic opportunities. Some firms require physical employees to operate, and the debate over whether it’s safe to return to work and whether people should work full-time at all persists.

A look into the metaverse market dynamics

Technological advancement

As the idea develops, it will likely be extended outside social media and video games. Some proposed metaverse features include digital identity, remote labour, and decentralised government.

The subsequent development in the development of the Internet is the metaverse. Augmented, virtual, and physical reality fusion occurs in a shared online environment. The contemporary Internet has a four-dimensional analogue called the metaverse.

By enabling users to roam around and explore 3D environments, networked virtual reality (VR) headsets and glasses have the potential to make VR more multi-dimensional. Examples of real-world uses include education, social networking, gaming, and job training.

During the projected time, there will be a significant increase in the worldwide metaverse market. The increased emphasis on fusing the digital and physical worlds through the Internet and the rising demand for metaverse to buy digital assets using cryptocurrency is the main reasons propelling the expansion of the metaverse market.

Increasing focus on converging actual and digital worlds

Digital twins like the digital and physical worlds become more complicated and powerful as time passes. Users can communicate online, use sensor data to recreate situations instantaneously, understand what-if scenarios clearly, more accurately predict outcomes, and send commands to alter the environment.

It develops innovative techniques for production and gathers information to make better judgements and forecasts that could help with the automation of challenging chemical and biological processes.

End users’ rising adoption of these technologies for enhancing their operations and providing services to their clients will likely offer opportunities for growth in the metaverse market in the coming future.

However, cyber-based attacks on the metaverse are a big concern in the global economy. The smooth running of the metaverse is seriously threatened by cyberattacks. A cyber threat is a malicious act that impairs system performance by disrupting software, causing software damage, and stealing data.

Data breaches and unlawful orders are a couple of examples of cyberattacks. System failure brought on by cyberattacks disrupts the metaverse. As a result, metaverse must be designed to fend off and lessen online threats.

End-user analysis

Due to the growing global gaming market, the media and entertainment sector is anticipated to provide the most significant revenue share throughout the projection period. Businesses are putting more emphasis on hosting virtual music concerts, and as more companies adopt this idea, it’s likely to help this market’s revenue growth.

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

At the New Year’s Eve event, famous singers included Young Thug, DJ David Guetta, and The Chainsmokers. According to Warner Music Group, the virtual music theme park has officially begun operations on The Sandbox platform.

Take Meta Platform, Inc. as an example. A lineup of significant virtual reality performances that took place entirely within the Horizon Venues metaverse was unveiled by Meta Platform, Inc.

Regional analysis

To enhance their corporate operations, several companies in North America are making extensive use of advanced virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D modelling technologies. From a business intelligence perspective, technologies like extended reality, AI, and 5G may make the metaverse futuristic.

The most important factor driving the expansion of the metaverse industry is the growing emphasis on connecting the virtual and real worlds through the Internet and the increased traction and acceptance of mixed reality.

During the forecast period, Europe is anticipated to have the highest CAGR of any market. Due to significant initiatives, the metaverse industry is projected to gain pace in Europe.

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Singapore’s leading telecom operator Singtel plans to invest US$100 million more into its corporate VC arm, raising its total capital commitment to US$350 million.

With the capital injection, Singtel Innov8 will further expand its portfolio of investments in Southeast Asia, the US, China, Israel and Australia.

“This capital infusion is meant for identifying and growing innovative startups with new technologies and capabilities that are synergistic and in lockstep with Singtel’s strategic reset to drive greater improvements in our core operations, accelerate our new growth engines, and place us at the forefront of new and fast-evolving areas,” said Yuen Kuan Moon, Group CEO Singtel and Chairman of Singtel Innov8.

“As we sharpen our business focus, we will recycle our assets and capital into selected growth areas, reshaping our portfolio to serve our stakeholders better and build momentum for the longer term,” he added.

Launched in 2010, Singtel Innov8 invests in startups aligning with the group’s businesses in 5G, artificial intelligence, digital economy, sustainability, cyber security and emerging technologies. It operates on an evergreen fund model, re-investing returns from portfolio exits into new investments.

The CVC has invested in over 95 startups, including BitSight, Carro, Cato, FinAccel, SenseTime, Shopback, and Sygnum. Some of its recent investments are Endowus, a wealth-tech platform, and Wiz.ai, which offers interactive AI-driven talk bots.

Singtel Innov8 has over 35 exits to its credit — Arista, Ruckus, Jasper, and Shape (all unicorns).

Apart from investing capital, Singtel Innov8 facilitates access and partnerships with business units across the group’s footprint and evangelises innovative technologies within the group.

Also Read: Grab, Singtel are new strategic investors in Bank Fama

Edgar Hardless, CEO of Singtel Innov8, added: “Our mandate is flexible, allowing us to invest in both early- and growth-stage companies. We believe in backing founders to execute on their vision and support the company’s growth through partnerships with the Singtel Group. Innov8 facilitates access to business units across the group’s footprint, evangelises innovative technologies, and supports partnerships with the business units.”

Singtel Innov8 partnered with NUS and the Media Development Authority (MDA) in 2011 to co-create a startup hub BLOCK71 Singapore. Innov8 also helped launch a second chapter, BLOCK71, in San Francisco in 2015 and the Innovation Cyber Security Ecosystem (ICE71) in partnership with NUS, IMDA, and CSA in 2018.

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For an entrepreneur with a great new idea that they believe will change the world and empower consumers, a dragon’s den-style pitching event can seem like a great opportunity to tell the investment community about it.

The lure of potential investment and access to incubators and accelerator programmes is waived in front of entrepreneurs keen to attract the capital to execute their idea. The model is set up to encourage entrepreneurs to come up with new ideas in the hope that they could be the founder of the next tech ‘unicorn’.

This model is so appealing to entrepreneurs and has been made into prime-time reality television shows exactly because the reality of raising money as a small company is often so difficult. During the early stages of building a business, most entrepreneurs focus on delivering for their customers and spend blood, sweat and years refining and improving their product or service to meet their market demands.

But to scale, to get bigger, most will need to go out and raise money, and this often means stepping outside their comfort zone and selling to a customer they are unfamiliar with and whose needs they have little understanding, the investor.

What should entrepreneurs know about the funding ecosystem?

The way the funding ecosystem is set up for entrepreneurs can make raising money a soul-destroying experience. On reality TV shows and in the tech press, optimistic entrepreneurs with a new widget, app or business idea pitch to experienced investors who make an informed decision, write you a cheque and offer you the promise of guidance and support as you build your business. Unfortunately, the experience of most entrepreneurs is very different.

Pitching to investors can be a long and dispiriting process involving cold-calling numerous venture capital and high-net-worth investors and trying to raise money through the strength of your pitch.

Also Read: Why has community building replaced the lean startup approach to lurk investors?

Often, rather than speaking to a senior investor, you pitch to junior staff who don’t understand your business or the market in which you operate.

If you get through the pitching process and are finally successful, the money often comes at a far lower valuation than you expected or with such onerous terms that you wish you hadn’t bothered in the first place.

To be fair to those investors, they need to protect themselves since backing a small business is risky, and their investment will be highly illiquid. But the strings often attached to a deal frequently create tensions between entrepreneur and investor. They can prevent the type of calculated risk-taking and creativity that is necessary when building a small business.

So, what are the other options for an ambitious entrepreneur looking to raise capital and build their business? One is to sell out to a larger company through a traditional M&A transaction, yet this often means losing control of a company they have spent years building.

Another is an IPO which offers access to a huge pool of public market investors, but most founder-led businesses are far too small to make this a workable solution.

What is Agglomeration, and how can it ease the funding process

This leaves small business entrepreneurs jumping through hoops for investors in return for a bad deal.

But raising capital and building your businesses doesn’t need to be hard. An answer is a cooperative approach called Agglomeration, which involves a group of small businesses within the same industry coming together under a central holding company that then goes public on a major global stock exchange.

Also Read: Of COVID-19 and funding winter: Why these 2 VC firms are bullish about SEA amid back-to-back crises

Each entrepreneur swaps private stock for public stock in the holding company but continues running their business as before. Their brand, their hiring and investment decisions remain under their control.

Unlike in a traditional M&A buy-out, synergies and company culture are not forced on member companies. But instead, successful business owners are empowered to keep doing what they have been doing so successfully, but now with a platform on which to aim even higher.

First, an Agglomeration is a great way for small businesses to access the huge pool of capital available to publicly listed companies worldwide.

By grouping small businesses, vehicles can be created that are big enough and interesting enough to attract investors and that have liquid shares so that investments can be made and exited freely, investing a far more attractive proposition.

Having public stock is also a game changer for individual small business owners. As well as tracking their wealth in real time, they now have a viable currency to attract senior staff to join them and help them grow.

Also, many small business owners would love to buy up their competitors locally or globally but need the cash to do so. Within an Agglomeration, each entrepreneur has the publicly listed stock of the Agglomeration to use as a currency to add products and talent through acquisitions.

A public listing within an Agglomeration also offers the entrepreneurs a degree of liquidity which means they can extract some cash from their companies while still retaining control and leadership. They gain financial freedom without giving up the company they have worked hard to build.

Agglomeration means “to form a cluster”, and it is an idea aimed at addressing a broken investment universe that prevents small businesses from raising the capital they need to build their businesses.

By empowering talented entrepreneurs and giving them the tools, they need to succeed; Agglomeration has the potential to change the way smaller enterprises grow and create value in the future.

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This article was first published on Singapore Economic Development Board’s (EDB) Insights, titled “4 Takeaways from companies actively building ventures in Singapore”. EDB is a government agency under Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry and is responsible for strategies that enhance Singapore’s position as a global centre for business, innovation, and talent. Get the latest insights, stories, and analysis on how companies are growing in Asia delivered to your inbox here.

Find out more about Corporate Venturing in Singapore and EDB‘s Corporate Venture Launchpad programme. You may also contact the EDB New Ventures team for more information.

At EDB’s Corporate Venture Launchpad community event, key executives share their corporate venturing tips gained from their journey to unlock new avenues of growth in Singapore.

To stay ahead of the curve amidst market disruptions, companies are embarking on corporate venture building where established companies build new capabilities beyond their core businesses. A 2021 Leap by McKinsey survey found over half of 1,178 business leaders across regions and industries placed venture building as a top-three priority, while a fifth-ranked it number one.

Recognising this, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)’s corporate venturing arm, EDB New Ventures, launched its pilot Corporate Venture Launchpad (CVL) programme in 2021.

The CVL pilot supports companies new to corporate venturing in Singapore by helping them build their new ventures quickly and effectively. Corporates can partner with appointed venture studios who bring venture-building experience, methodologies, and multi-disciplinary talent, as well as receive support such as access to industry networks, expertise, and risk-sharing capital from EDB New Ventures.

Also read: Lalamove: Driving growth in eCommerce with last-mile deliveries

Last month, executives from the programme’s appointed studio partners and participating companies, alongside EDB New Ventures, gathered to wrap up the first edition of CVL. More than 70 event attendees heard first-hand insights on what goes on in a venture-building sprint. 

Core members of various corporate venturing sprints and other key executives who have been successful in building a venture engine — which serves as an internal arm within the parent company and with the capabilities put in place to build a portfolio of new ventures — were also present to share their learnings and best practices. They are:

• Belina Lee, CEO, Mandai Global and Deputy CEO, Transformation & Growth, Mandai Wildlife Group
• Eileen Tan, VP, Digital Customer Experience and Analytics at SATS Limited
• Jochen Lorenz, Head of grow platform (ASEAN), a Bosch company
• Michael Pareles, Open Innovation Lead (APAC), Bayer Crop Science
• Suresh Sundararajan, CEO, Olam Ventures

Insights as shared by the panel of experts

These are some of the key takeaways shared during the event:

1. Make it make cents for senior management

Management’s support and alignment can make or break the venture. To secure senior management’s buy-in, it is essential to identify a clear impetus for the company to build a new venture. This largely depends on the maturity and nature of the business.

The main concerns of any business boil down to two things: money and talent. Building a compelling case means satisfying these priorities. SATS’ Eileen Tan explained that the CVL programme helped her company in both ways with co-funding and the promise of external validation.

The finite sprint timeline also supported their proposition: “Instead of asking management for, say, $1 billion upfront, you’re saying, ‘Give me eight weeks, I’ll prove to you that this concept is valid and a viable business opportunity.’ If at the end of the sprint, it’s not successful, that’s where you [can] stop.”

For more experienced corporates keen on building a venture engine, it necessitates a different ballgame of consensus building with leadership over time. Management should note that not all new business ventures serve to improve the core business. Such ventures should be able to create value on a standalone basis.

Once a common understanding is reached, Olam Ventures’ Suresh Sundararajan explained that the next step is to project how much capital will be needed over the next three to five years.

On the value of having external input during the concept validation of a venture, Eileen Tan, SATS Vice President, Digital Customer Experience and Analytics explained, “A lot of times, when you [build ventures] internally, there’s internal bias and a parent-mentality. You need some balance, having someone external to validate that thinking. Partnering with EDB, [and] with someone from the venture studio who has been there, done that, helped with check-and-balance and managing expectations from senior management.”

2.     Assemble the dream team

Once past the hurdle of convincing top management, the next and perennial challenge most companies face is finding the right talent. All panellists at the event were emphatic that there can be no compromise on securing good talent. More importantly, this is the point at which the corporate should already consider who will run the venture if or when it launches.

From pulling a member from the core business to initiating the hiring process, building a venture team can be a daunting endeavour. It can take time to figure out who has the makings of an intrapreneur — a corporate executive driving innovation internally.

Mandai Wildlife Group’s Belina Lee explained that while Mandai Wildlife Group initially had an internal startup team made up of members from the parent company, “It [was] difficult having a start-stop momentum”. Members had to manage the demands of their original job scope while working on the venture sprint, which led to breaks in the sprint. Eventually, a full-time core team was assembled, together with subject matter experts that were called in where needed to provide insight.

Also read: How Singapore startups explore opportunities in Japan—and vice versa

Meanwhile, Bayer Crop Science’s Michael Pareles, mused about his unique experience, “Internally, there are some people we put on sprints for their mindsets and, of course, their expertise. At other times, we also bring in external talent. When we worked with [the CVL appointed venture studio], they helped bring in people with an entrepreneurial mindset.”

Ultimately, different strategies are needed depending on the existing core team and venture opportunity. The CVL programme helps corporates by providing partnerships with appointed venture studios and filling talent gaps through access to industry networks.

Another crucial insight shared was that talent should be kept and not just found. To have them take ownership over the venture, Bosch’s grow platform’s Jochen Lorenz recommended that talent be incentivised and compensated adequately. If treated as an employee, they will act as employees — not intrapreneurs.

3.     Minimise barriers, maximise autonomy

While pre-sprint processes are crucial, momentum must carry through during the sprint itself. To maintain agility, sprint leaders should create a space of autonomy for the team to fully use the sprint’s short period.

In the case of building their respective venture engines, both Sundararajan and Lorenz agree that corporate ventures should be run as independently from the company’s core business as possible so that things can move smoothly and efficiently.

Governance from the corporates should be minimal, and the venture team should only go back to the board for business updates at pre-agreed intervals. The only exceptions are critical decisions that the board ought to take as warranted by business conditions, for example, a major pivot in strategy or capital infusion which was not planned for, Sundararajan quipped.

Also read: Scale your business across Southeast Asia with SLINGSHOT 2022

“Everything else is done with an open mind and should not be influenced by existing corporate systems and processes. Even in areas like corporate functions where one would typically prefer to leverage on the corporate, both should objectively decide on what is best for the venture rather than imposing pre-set processes. It is a fine balance of autonomy, outcome, benefits of standardisation, and control,” Sundararajan explained.

On the best practices of corporate venture building, Lorenz shared, “Build your venture as a separate legal entity, with separate management. It starts with separate processes. It also goes away from the usual kind of KPIs you have. The multinational looks for perfection, high [yield] return, and productivity increase with stringent processes. A startup looks for validation, for exploration with high agility.”

4.     Prepare for lift-off, Keep the Momentum

As the sprint draws to an end, the next challenge is ensuring there is no drop-off in momentum after approval is received.

Lee explained that it is important to do scenario planning even before the sprint to ensure that the team can act quickly once approval is gained. “Once we have the green light, we’re ready to go. We don’t have to ask, ‘What are the next steps?’ and then start planning.”

Building a new venture is by no means simple. While these tips bolster a venture’s chances of success, nothing is guaranteed in corporate venturing. Not all concepts might be validated, and not all new ventures can scale successfully. However, with a clear roadmap in place, risks can be mitigated to allow the team to move forward with confidence.

Ventures made possible

Promisingly, at least 40 corporate ventures have successfully launched in Singapore (as of January 2020). EDB New Ventures’ Michelle Tan, shared how the interest received on the CVL is owed not only to the conviction of the corporates but also to the quality of the appointed venture studios and the work that they do. 

New Ventures will be launching an enhanced version of the programme on 26 July 2022.

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Disclosure: This article is produced by EDB. This article is distributed by e27, sponsored by EDB.

Get the latest insights, stories, and analysis on how companies are growing in Asia delivered to your inbox here.

Find out more about Corporate Venturing in Singapore and EDB‘s Corporate Venture Launchpad programme.

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There has been a negative sentiment globally against cryptocurrencies since the plummeting of stablecoin UST and its sister coin Luna in May this year. Consequently, several other popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, also saw a drop in their value.

Many speculations were in the air about the events that led to the fall of UST and Luna – until blockchain analytics platform Nansen came up with an accurate analysis of the events that unfolded. Following this, the platform rose to prominence.

But how did Nansen dig into the reasons for the crashes?

e27 spoke to Ingrid Sia, Head of PsyOps at Nansen, about this.

Below are the edited excerpts from the interview:

How did Nansen manage to dig into the details and come up with a perfect analysis? What are some of the new vulnerabilities that could lead to more such disasters, and how can they be prevented?

Nansen provides extensive on-chain data by enriching it with proprietary wallet labels. This entity address tracking and analysis gives us informative insights in conducting post-mortems on major on-chain events, such as the collapse of UST, where we identified the activities of entities with a high level of detail and granularity.

This focus on on-chain intelligence storytelling enables our research team to produce high-quality reports backed by factitious events that are both transparent and immutable.

To prevent such events, we must first understand the underlying events that transpired before the UST and Luna depeg.

The crashes were the result of the mechanism of Luna, which undoubtedly led to a death spiral due to several factors:

• The correlation between UST and Luna’s market cap as investors viewed the latter’s market cap as an indication of the number of dollars that were backing UST
• The ability to mint/burn UST/Luna for the other asset to maintain the peg of UST.

The crux of the problem that led to the depeg was that multiple large entities attempted to bridge out of UST at once, causing the stablecoin to initially depeg. This led the holders to burn their UST for Luna and then sell Luna to exit the ecosystem, causing Luna’s price to fall.

Also Read: What lessons can crypto investors draw from the Luna, UST episode?

The decline of Luna’s price further spurred other UST holders and investors to exit the ecosystem in a panic since the market cap of Luna could not hold the massive amounts of UST wanting to exit the Luna ecosystem. This led to a larger depeg of the UST stablecoin through Luna, causing a death spiral.

This event was not preventable as the 20 per cent yield generated from UST was heavily subsidised by Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), who owned a huge amount of Luna, presumably used to generate UST to pay for the yield.

Although the protocol promised to use the collateral to generate yield across similar yield-generating protocols, many of such yields dried up as the markets slowed. Also, LFG was left paying for the generated yields out of pocket to continue incentivising investors to keep their funds in Anchor.

Moreover, the recent collapse of entities such as Three Arrows Capital and Celsius is attributable to opaque, off-chain (outside of the blockchain network) holdings. Theoretically, the transparency of the blockchain means that creditors can audit the holdings of any on-chain entity. However, data complexity and off-chain obfuscation make this ideal difficult to achieve.

While the debacle with Luna was inevitable, Nansen users could benefit from on-chain insights when such events happen through our real-time alerts that would notify users when entities are exiting a specific ecosystem. In particular, one of our users managed to save millions by doing this.

Is the overall macroeconomic situation also impacting the valuation of cryptocurrencies?

The global macro environment is one of persistently high (although tentatively peaking) inflation and slowing real growth. Since 2021, it has been a negative environment for risk asset prices, especially crypto prices, which tend to correlate with global money supply growth.

However, we note the following recent changes in data and central bankers’ tones:

a) the Chinese authorities have started loosening fiscal policy, mainly to prevent a systemic domestic mortgage crisis, and b) the US Fed Chair sounded slightly less hawkish at this week’s Fed meeting.

The current rally in risk and crypto assets could be just a bear market rally, as there is no sufficient proof that inflation has peaked, especially given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

However, there are some promising signs that the bottom in crypto assets is likely not too far down the road. According to bond market inversion statistics, the Fed pauses policy on average seven months after the yield curve inverts, which leads us to November 2022 (estimates have a range of a few weeks to 22 months, though).

Also, the US economy is showing signs of slowing. It will concern the Fed at a certain point, even if inflation is not yet back to its 2 per cent target.

How do you view the government regulations on cryptocurrencies? Do you think the current rules are disrupting its growth? Do we need very effective and innovative laws to protect users from scams?

No comments.

Where is the crypto industry headed? Does the industry hold a promising future despite the crashes, scams and hacks?

As a rapidly-growing industry experiencing 0-to-1 uptake in terms of users, use cases, and overall product-market fit, cryptocurrency is a new frontier where a new class of winners among individual traders and businesses is emerging.

Also Read: UST, Luna crashes: Can regulation alone restore investors’ confidence in cryptocurrencies?

Our goal is to empower that emerging class at the forefront of our industry. We hope that Nansen will become the information super-app of Web3, helping people become winners with on-chain intelligence tools.

DAOs are gaining traction. What potential do DAOs hold?

As on-chain entities/organisations, DAOs are exciting from an analytics perspective. Our recently-released DAO Paradise dashboards allow users to audit DAO treasuries, token distributions and other health metrics.

We believe this transparency is tremendously essential for the future of on-chain governance.

What is your view on CBDCs? Can they replace stablecoins in the future? What will be the overall impact of CBDCs globally?

A few statistics on CBDCs (as of June 2022) show their importance:

105 countries or ~95 per cent of GDP study the launch of domestic CBDCs,

Ten countries have already launched a CBDC pilot, the largest in terms of users being the e-CNY from China,

South Korea, Japan, India, and Russia have made some progress, and the Eurozone set a tentative deadline of “a few years” for a digital EUR,

The UK and the US are relatively further behind and still in the “research” phase.

It is improbable that people would be comfortable with their remuneration and spending habits being transparent for anyone to see. We will probably see a version where the underlying blockchain technology is primarily used between banks and other centralised entities (such as governments) and is not open for anyone to peruse.

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