Madhumita and Dinkar Agrawal built a technology consulting company in 2016, one business unit belonging to the electric vehicles (EV) segment. As the business grew, the husband-wife duo acquired hands-on experience in the entire value chain of EV technology — from the battery management system and motor to charging infrastructure.

This gave them a holistic understanding of the technology trends, issues and gaps in the EV sector. They leveraged this knowledge and experience and established Oben Electric in August 2020.

Based in Bengaluru, India, Oben Electric designs, develops and manufactures electric motorcycles.

Oben Electric’s first model is RORR, which boasts a neo-classic design for the 21st century and beyond. It is designed, developed and manufactured in-house — not imported, retrofitted, or re-engineered.

“RORR is a sleek and futuristic-looking electric motorcycle, offering a top speed of 100kmph and accelerating from zero to 40 km in just three seconds. It can cover a range of 200kms (IDC),” claimed Madhumita. “It is fitted with a 4.4 kWh LFP (Lithium Ferro Phosphate) battery that is fully charged in two hours.”

RORR also boasts interactive, connected vehicle features, such as predictive maintenance, ride details, battery status, geo-fencing, geo-tagging, battery theft protection, charging station locator, on-demand service, and roadside assistance. It also gets more battery life cycles, withstands higher temperatures, and is environmentally friendly. The battery pack’s outer casing is made of aluminium diecast, which fortifies and prevents the battery pack from explosions in case of unusual incidents.

Also Read: The growth of electric vehicles is saving the planet, one trip at a time

“Its combined braking system makes RORR safe to ride even at higher speeds. In addition, its ‘driver alert system’ provides riders with visual and auditory cues, indicating when the two-wheeler is on, stationary, or requires maintenance. A new gamification feature is on the cards wherein a RORR consumer will be able to engage and communicate with another,” remarked Madhumita, an alumnus of the prestigious IIM Bangalore.

Besides, its proprietary MHX technology allows the heat to be evenly distributed across a larger surface area and ensures maximum heat exchange with the environment, thus keeping the battery pack cool during the ride.

The price starts from INR 125,000 (less than US$1,570).

RORR is available in three modes (Eco, City, and Havoc) and three colour variants (electric red, magnetic black, and voltaic yellow).

Unveiled in Bengaluru in March 2022, RORR will ride to seven more new cities across six States in phase I. Deliveries shall begin around the festive season in India.

“We aim to launch one new product every six months across different consumer segments. This will also be undertaken in a phased approach over the next two years. The intention is to sell one million units pan India and export in the coming years,” said Madhumita.

The startup has a 3.5-acre manufacturing plant in Bengaluru, with an initial manufacturing capacity of 300,000 units per year.

Oben Electric has secured US$2 million as seed capital from We Founder Circle, GVK Group, MD of Fortune 50 PE Fund and several CXOs of MNCs.

A market with massive potential

India is one of the world’s largest two-wheeler markets, reaching 15.2 million units in 2021 alone. Market researching company IMARC Group expects the number to reach 42.2 million units by 2027, growing a CAGR of 18.6 per cent.

Efforts are on at the national and State-level to shift this growing segment to EVs across India.

“The traction we have observed in the EV industry has predominantly been more across the B2B segment, last-mile delivery systems, and public transportation,” noted Madhumita. “The B2C segment is slowly accelerating. Very few qualitative offerings exist in this segment, and there is only a handful of products.”

In her opinion, OEMs (original equipment makers) need to build ICE (internal combustion engine)-comparable products to make the transition faster for a consumer to shift to an EV. The manufacturers also need to provide better cost-effective products and refuelling experience, which translates to a shorter or faster charging time in EVs.

Only a handful of electric motorcycle makers operate in India, namely  Tork Motors and Emflux Motors. Tork offers a maximum speed of 105kmph with a range of 180km, but it takes four to five hours to recharge the battery fully. Emflux, with more than 3x the price of Oben and Tork, is more catered to premium customers.

Also Read: Thinking out loud: Are electric vehicles as sustainable as we believe?

Ather Energy is leading the electric scooter segment, selling 2,389 scooters in July 2022, recording a 24 per cent y-o-y growth. Ola Eletric, from the house of local ride-hailing giant Ola, is another serious contender in the e-scooter segment. Early this year, several Ola Electric consumers reported incidents of their vehicles catching fire, forcing it to recall its 1,441 units. According to Madhumita, this is a new and evolving industry, and the whole technology is getting better with time.

“As I mentioned, India doesn’t have many e-motorcycle makers, and we at Oben intend to provide consumers with ICE-comparable EVs and help them through this seamless transition. It is also crucial that EV products are manufactured in India to meet the needs of Indian consumers, topography, and climate,” she stated.

The government is waking up

Over the past ten years, various promotional measures have boosted EVs. Government policies, subsidies, and incentives have been formulated and launched to augment the acceptance of EVs and strengthen infrastructure. The more popular and recent one is FAME II — Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric vehicles — a flagship scheme for promoting electric mobility.

State governments are also rolling out production and manufacturing-related subsidies and tax incentives for EV makers looking at setting up their manufacturing plants.

Besides this, the government has also opened foreign direct investment (FDI) to support investment in the EV sector, which is now a US$206-billion opportunity market.

Consumers are also transitioning to EVs due to rising fuel costs and trends.

Thanks to all these favourable factors, India is witnessing a growth in EV sales across B2B and B2C segments with two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers. “Our strongest assumption is that if EVs can be offered as comparable as an ICE vehicle backed by robust after-sales support and better refuelling options, the consumer transition shall happen seamlessly, backed with trust and faith in the industry,” she said.

More clarity is required about the incentives and investments, especially for startups with promising products. Besides, a nodal regulatory body needs to be set up to ensure the quality of products. In addition, consumer awareness needs more push as it is still nascent in terms of understanding the product they own and its handling. The right means of communication and information about the product are critical factors in ensuring the right EV way. Manufacturers should be transparent with consumers and work closely with the ecosystem to deliver a great product, she went on.

She also mentioned that there is enormous scope for a lot of R&D in the battery vertical. “What we are witnessing right now is the first-line generation of batteries whose composition is mainly Lithium. Alongside Lithium-based composition is also NMC (Nickle Manganese Cobalt). Various robust battery types bring a different output set, performance, and life cycle.”

“New storage solutions are being researched and tested across various countries. The next line generation of batteries will be sodium-based, while others may be hydrogen, metal air, etc. These are still being tested and may be commercially available in the future. Hence, better-performing EVs can be expected globally,” Madhumita noted.

The world is going through an EV revolution, and India is at the forefront. India offers tremendous opportunities for domestic and foreign players as a vast market. But understanding the local conditions is a must for them to survive. Oben Electric has all the ingredients to become a leading player, but many challenges remain.

Also Read: Emflux Motors aims to replace Ducati with its electric sports bike in India

“The EV ecosystem needs to get stronger and grow manifolds — be it components, battery technology, or supply chain. The industry has been facing challenges that are slowing the transition. Firstly, most OEMs struggle to scout for good quality vendors and component manufacturers. Secondly, there is a dearth of skill sets and a limited talent pool. Thirdly, there is low awareness about government schemes to support the production of EVs and OEMs,” she said.

If India can fix all this in record time, it can become the EV capital of the world.

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Image Credit: Oben Electric

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Southeast Asia’s population of nearly 700 million people, along with its tens of millions of big and small businesses, many in markets still considered to be developing, are ignoring one of the easiest post-pandemic digital transformation wins available to them: digitising paper invoices.

There are estimated to be more than 70 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the region, representing 99 per cent of operating firms, all of which send and receive dozens if not hundreds of invoices each month.

That equates to billions of invoices each year, many still in paper form with the rest in traditional digital formats such as PDF that are difficult to extract data from, requiring optical character recognition (OCR) software.

Whether in paper or PDFs, the reality is that both of these are old analogue standards designed for a pre-pandemic world.

The real challenge lies in extracting all the raw invoice data and then storing it in the cloud for easy and secure future access. We think of this as an analogue-to-digital transition business will have to make in the years ahead for greater resilience.

What we see on the ground is interesting because, while the concept of e-invoicing has been talked about for years, its actual implementation in day-to-day life for most of Southeast Asia’s businesses is only just getting started in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Technologies such as OCR and artificial intelligence (AI) are now maturing on a commercial basis and will help to automate much of this invoice processing, even in emerging markets.

Moving from analogue to digital invoices

Singapore is a pioneer in the region when it comes to embracing e-invoicing among the private sector, going as far as to mandate it for all central government authorities four years ago.

Just before the pandemic struck in 2019, Singapore had already adopted PEPPOL, an e-invoice standard that is generated, transmitted and processed digitally with little-to-no manual processing.

Also Read: COVID-19 and the wave of business digitalisation

In Thailand, since 2016, the government has implemented a new policy known as Thailand 4.0, which seeks to drive e-invoicing adoption, though it has not yet gone as far as Singapore in mandating it in the public sector.

Value added tax (VAT) parties in Thailand could send e-invoices and receipts voluntarily using the country’s e-tax system, while in the Philippines, a similar e-invoicing system was announced this past December.

As part of the Philippines’ Comprehensive Tax Reform Programme introduced by the ministry of finance, there is an ongoing push to digitalise tax and administrative systems with a pilot launched this July.

Other key markets in the region that are seeing a national push towards digital invoices include Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Vietnam’s ministry of industry and trade’s e-invoice system, for example, was originally planned for 2020 but only launched this July after many delays, and provides services at an official online portal and via the country’s e-tax-mobile app.

The government has said it aims to create a transparent and fair business environment, more streamlined administrative processes, and higher productivity, all of which are integral parts of Vietnam’s national strategy for digitalisation.

The e-invoice system in Indonesia, known as e-Faktur Pajak, became mandatory between 2015 and 2016 and is based on a clearance model where all invoices issued must be first approved by the tax authority before being sent to customers.

Finally, Malaysia plans to introduce gradual e-invoicing starting next year, according to the ministry of finance’s 2023 budget statement, even though e-invoicing has been permitted but not mandatory for seven years already.

It’s time for Southeast Asia’s businesses to go digital on invoices

Given the priority digital invoices are taking on the national agendas of all these economies, it’s important that businesses big and small get behind the push and start preparing for the shift as part of their own internal strategies.

Also Read: Bizzi bags US$3M to expand its invoice processing automation solution beyond Vietnam

In the short term, this means investments into new digital and cloud infrastructure that can support their move away from paper and formats such as PDF towards truly modern digital standards.

Over the longer term, with government support, these investments will pay for themselves by delivering real cost savings, reducing carbon footprints, and increasing resiliency in the face of unexpected future economic shocks.

Based on our own research, businesses that have made the transition to fully-digital invoices on average save hundreds of man-hours per month by using a mixture of cloud, AI, and OCR technologies to automate processing.

If I were to highlight two markets outside of Singapore that I am particularly excited about, I would choose Thailand and the Philippines as having huge potential for the transition to digital invoicing.

If I were to name some sectors that I think need the most urgent help, I would say maritime and shipping, construction, and real estate have all lagged on digital historically and must now look to catch up as part of their post-pandemic recovery strategies.

In Singapore, where we have our regional headquarters, plenty of local businesses plan to expand into regional markets over the next 12 months and are now ramping up their investments into digital to support these efforts.

I would encourage digital invoicing and its benefits as part of broader digital transformation strategies to be on their radar as they do so.

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Image credit: Canva Pro

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Leading SME lending platform Funding Societies has announced a US$50 million credit facility from HSBC Singapore.

Funding Societies (aka Modalku in Indonesia) will be able to channel the funds via its range of tailored financing solutions across SME segments.

At the same time, the deal will enable HSBC to extend its global capabilities by tapping on the underserved segments across the region. Furthermore, it will act as the structuring bank, lender, facility and security agent in providing a flexible, scalable and pan-regional financing solution to support the fintech firm’s expansion.

Regina Lee, Head of Commercial Banking of HSBC Singapore, said: “As a leading SME digital financing platform, Funding Societies is playing an important role in contributing to Southeast Asia’s new economic growth by driving broader financial inclusion and supporting homegrown companies which are the building blocks of these economies.”

Also Read: Funding Societies enters neobanking space with investment in Indonesia’s Bank Index

The HSBC deal comes on the heels of Funding Societies’s most recent acquisition of regional digital payments platform CardUp.

Licensed and registered in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia and operates in Vietnam, Funding Societies provides business financing to small and medium-sized enterprises. It claims to have disbursed over US$2.6 billion through more than 5.1 million transactions across the region.

The SME lender achieved several other milestones, including its Series C+ equity raise of US$144 million in February, its recent investment into Bank Index in Indonesia, and market entry into Vietnam, its fifth market.

Its other backers are SoftBank Vision Fund 2, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Sequoia Capital India, Alpha JWC Ventures, SMBC Bank, BRI Ventures, VNG Corporation, Rapyd Ventures, Endeavor, EDBI, SGInnovate, Qualgro, and Golden Gate Ventures.

SMEs make up 97 per cent of all enterprises in Southeast Asia, bringing 40 per cent of GDP value across the region. In Singapore, the Department of Statistics released in its 2021 report that 99 per cent of enterprises are SMEs, contributing to 44 per cent of the nominal value added at approximately S$212 billion.

Commercial lending in Asia Pacific is projected to grow at a CAGR of 16.5 per cent, generating a revenue of more than US$7 trillion by 2028. This makes up about 25 per cent of the global market size of US$27.4 trillion.

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Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

Image Credit: Funding Societies

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One of the Facebook Community Accelerator’s last cohort finalists from Indonesia Peri Kertas Nusantara Community launched their development plan projects and shared 2,000 free papercraft kits to celebrate Indonesia’s 77th Independence Day Celebrations.

Peri Kertas educates and promotes Indonesian culture through 3D model artwork. In this first phase, they serve up to 10 provinces in Indonesia: DKI Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, Bali, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Papua, East Kalimantan, and NTT. 

Every package of the papercraft consists of landmarks, traditional closets, and traditional houses (rumah adat) from each of the provinces that can be crafted into a diorama. This series also includes information about the cultures of every papercraft they crafted. 

Peri Kertas Community is the biggest papercraft community in Indonesia, with more than 20,000 spread across 43 different regions all over Indonesia. Nusantara Papercraft Kit was one of the community’s initiatives in this region.

Also Read: Growth and changing landscape of 5G and data

Last year this Paper Craft Community was selected as one of the top 19 finalists of the Facebook Community Accelerator in the APAC region launched by Meta and run by e27 as the accelerator partner from 2020 to 2022. The program offers selected community leaders worldwide to turn their impactful ideas into action.

Peri Kertas’ launch event at Trans Studio Mall, Cibubur, on 17 Aug 2022 was patronised by the representatives from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, Jakarta Library, Nusantara Nature School, RWYC (Reconnecting With Your Culture) Indonesia, and e27.

At the event, the attendees shared how papercrafts are impactful not only in promoting Indonesian culture but also in how creative economics can bring business values to the Indonesian economy. Based on the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy’s records, shared from the Kominfo page in 2019, the creative economy sub-sector of Indonesia contributed 7.3 per cent of the total Indonesian GDP in 2019.

Moving forward

A community cannot exist without collaboration. While each of the communities come with their own unique vision and mission. We start to see more and more exciting community collaborations that will happen not only between one community with each other but also between governments and corporations, spreading from one region to also across regions as well. 

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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Jay Olos, who was ousted as the CFO of Y Combinator-backed PayMongo in May 2022, dismissed the allegations of financial irregularities and employee harassment against him, saying he never stole money from the fintech firm.

In a LinkedIn post, Olos, however, apologised for his remarks against female employees.

“Few days ago, my name was mentioned in an article which reported my departure from PayMongo some months ago. Several people reached out to ask about it and check if I am OK. I am OK guys. Still fighting albeit silently and away from spotlight. Though to be honest, it’s taking a toll on my mental health (sic),” he said in the post.

There are no financial irregularities, he added. It’s just that some don’t understand accounting, the scope of work, entitlement, and a CFO’s obligations to the shareholders. Also, governance policies and related internal control apply to all staffers regardless of their ranks and the stage of the business. “In my 17 years as a finance professional, I never stole from any company that I worked for because I value integrity so much.”

Also Read: Tinder founder’s JAM Fund invests in PayMongo’s US$31M Series B financing round

Regarding the allegations of harassment, he noted that he is a conversationalist, talks a lot and can be tactless at times. He asks a lot of questions, gives inputs and insights and jokes and makes fun of himself. “Sometimes, included in those jokes are green jokes or adult jokes that I only blurt for those people whom I think I am close to. It’s my way to build rapport in a remote work setting and to show the human side of me (as a finance guy, I am tough they say). Unfortunately, I learned that some female colleagues found it not funny particularly in a WFH set-up when calls and chats are subject to interpretation. A lesson learned for me, and I take responsibility for it. I apologise to those people whom I have offended. Rest assured that I continue to work on improving myself on that area (sic).”

Olos said he respects the privacy and confidentiality of the ongoing investigation at PayMongo.

PayMongo was recently in the spotlight when TechInAsia published a story about various issues in the company, including the fallout among top leaders, the firing of two co-founders, and allegations of questionable spending by co-founders and employee harassment. As per the TiA report, Co-Founder and CEO Francis Plaza allegedly splurged money on extensive trips to Europe and the US and bought a luxury Porsche car. Some of his business class flight trips and a company loan taken to finance a property rental in the Philippines are also under ongoing investigation.

The PayMongo board, chaired by co-founder Luis Sia, has opened a formal investigation against Plaza, who is also a board member.

Founded in 2019 by Plaza, Luis Sia, Jaime Hing, and Edwin Lacierda, PayMongo empowers online businesses to accept the full range of payment options, including credit cards, e-wallets, and over-the-counter payments. It provides an easy-to-integrate PayMongo API and e-commerce plugins. 

In addition, PayMongo Links and Pages products enable businesses to provide a simple digital checkout for their customers, even without a website.

Though the startup caters to businesses of all sizes, it emphasizes underserved small (and micro) and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (account for 99 per cent of businesses in the Philippines).

In February this year, PayMongo secured US$31 million in a Series B round of financing from investors, including JAM Fund (founded by Tinder founder Justin Mateen) and local VCs ICCP-SBI Venture Partners and Kaya Founders. Previously, the fintech firm bagged US$12 million Series A led by Stripe in 2020 and US$2.7 million seed round from investors, including Y Combinator, in 2019.

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