Globally, startups, particularly late-stage ones, are facing many challenges. Growth has been disrupted (owing to various macro-economic factors, including the Russia-Ukrain war and inflation), and VC investments have depleted, forcing companies to cut costs by firing employees and scaling back operations.

As the crisis unfolds, survival has become a top priority for startups, but how to navigate the rough sea and salvage the business is the question lingering in their mind. They struggle to find and connect with the right people and get the right advice on survival strategies.

Late-stage startups may have enough ammunition and experience to tide over the crisis, but early-stage startups, particularly those with limited resources, may not have such a luxury.

This is where startup events like Echelon become crucial.

Echelon, e27‘s flagship event, is staging a comeback after a three-year hiatus –the last event was held in 2019, just months before the pandemic hit. With over a decade of experience organising one of Southeast Asia’s most prominent tech events, Echelon is back in a new avatar to serve startups in the region and help them navigate the rough sea. The two-day event will be held at Resorts World Sentosa from October 27-28.

The attendees get countless opportunities to meet and connect with investors, corporates, governments, and entrepreneurs. They can seek partners to collaborate and build productive relationships with 500 of the most influential decision-makers and industry leaders from the Southeast Asia tech and startup ecosystem.

Besides, they can gain insights through discussion sessions featuring veteran and upcoming entrepreneurs and ecosystem enablers to shed light on today’s tech landscape and the future of startups in the region.

What to expect on Day 1

The Echelon agenda is being designed to suit the journey that a company may have to go through to grow.

We begin the first day of Echelon by exploring the state of the Southeast Asian tech startup ecosystem today. Through a panel discussion, we will look at fundraising trends and changes in customer behaviour that may affect how companies should approach their growth strategies. This panel aims to answer the big questions: What kind of opportunities are available in the market? What are the possible hurdles?

After that, we will go deeper into the different aspects of fundraising. We will learn from notable founders about their fundraising experience, especially during tough times like a pandemic or recession. We will also learn more about maintaining investor relations and how the pandemic has changed; this will include information on the platform that we can use to supercharge this process. And lastly, we will also look at the alternatives to VC funding available in the market.

Now, what happens after a company has successfully secured a funding round? That is when companies are executing their plans to grow.

This is why the next sessions will focus on Market Access. Here, we will learn the difference between Grab and Gojek’s models of scaling and growth. Should you look for regional Tier 1 city expansion or go deep into one market?

You will also learn about breaking away from the cash-burning model and setting up a presence in a foreign market –one of the most popular ways to grow in the region.

On Day 1, we will also hear from our sponsors about the role of payment services and finance in helping companies expand regionally.

At the end of Day 1, hopefully, you will be more equipped to get on the next part of your entrepreneurship journey. We are very excited to welcome you back to Echelon 2022.

Stay tuned!

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focussed discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon.

The 2022 Echelon edition will be colocated with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa on 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here 

The post Echelon 2022: Going through the long and winding road to growth appeared first on e27.

Indian edutech company BrightCHAMPS has acquired Schola, a live-learning platform for kids to master communication and English skills focused on the Southeast Asian market, in a US$15-million cash and stock deal.

The deal comes on BrightCHAMP’s June US$100 million investment war-chest announcement.

Ravi Bhushan, Founder and CEO of BrightCHAMPS, said: “The ability to communicate confidently, coherently, and creatively is a crucial life skill for kids and a prerequisite for success as an adult. Given Schola’s profitability and sustainable growth approach with low cash burn, we already know great synergy exists between the two companies’ operating models. The Schola acquisition will help us deepen our presence in the 30+ countries we’re already operational in and introduce us to many other parts of the world.”

Also Read: In this age of digitalisation, is edutech a bane or boon for educators?

Schola was founded in 2019 by former senior Facebook executives Aditya Gupta and Nhu Tran Le Thanh. The company offers a variety of courses in a live, 1-on-1 class model for kids from four to 15 years of age to build important capabilities for successful global careers tomorrow. These skills include communications, public speaking, leadership presentation, confidence-building, and several others.

Additionally, Schola courses have been designed keeping in mind the particular needs of kids who are first-generation English speakers, with an emphasis on learning through the real-life practice of spoken English.

Schola’s interactive and immersive curriculum is delivered by teachers with TEFL or TESOL teaching certificates with native-level or equivalent English proficiency. The company currently offers classes to students from 12 countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and others.

Aditya Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO of Schola, said, “Far too many kids from countries and families that don’t speak English as their first language end up getting overlooked for higher education or career opportunities despite being perfectly qualified in every other way. Our goal is that lack of English proficiency should never again come in the way of a child’s dreams once Schola touches them.

“We hope that the combination of BrightCHAMPS’ brand equity and our subject-matter expertise will help Schola lead the world in the communications live-learning space. We look forward to expanding our presence beyond the 12 countries we are currently operational in the coming months,” Gupta added.

Also Read: Edutech in a post-pandemic world: Where do we go from here?

Launched in 2020, BrightCHAMPS delivers students worldwide access to real learning skills. The company aims to bridge the gap between school education and children’s real learning needs. It aims to empower students to be technologically, financially, and socially smart by leveraging Invisible Learning to nurture the inner potential of every child. Its methodology relies on play-based learning and includes features like customised learning journeys, quizzing and parental dashboards.

It employs thousands of educators delivering 300,000 classes monthly across its coding, financial literacy, and robotics verticals for kids between six to 16 years of age to help them become future-ready and thrive in a modern world.

BrightCHAMPS is currently operational in 30+ countries, including the US, Canada, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nigeria, and many others.

BrightCHAMPS is valued at US$650 million after raising US$63 million from marquee names across geographies, such as GSV Ventures, BEENEXT, and Premji Invest, besides Flipkart Co-Founder Binny Bansal-backed 021 Capital.

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MetaverseGo, a Web3 mobile gaming platform that onboards new players via a mobile phone login, has raised US$4.2 million in seed capital led by New York-based VC fund Galaxy Interactive.

The round has also been joined by Delphi Digital, Dragonfly Capital, Mechanism Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC), Shima Capital, Com2uS, Akatsuki, Ascensive Assets, BitScale Capital, Yield Guild Games (YGG), BreederDAO, Mentha Partners and Emfarsis.

MetaverseGo will use the money for ​​software development, partnerships with telecommunication providers, and strategic hires.

Over the past year, Web3 gaming has seen remarkable adoption, with gaming DApps now driving 52 per cent of all blockchain activity. However, the long, complex, and risk-laden processes of onboarding new users to blockchain-based platforms remains a barrier for would-be players.

Also Read: Where is the future of NFTs and metaverse heading towards?

To accelerate adoption with mainstream markets and non-crypto natives, MetaverseGo provides access to Web3 games without the usual prerequisite of understanding how to use cryptocurrencies.

Established by Ash Mandhyan, Jake San Diego and JC Velasquez, MetaverseGo is a network and discovery platform for play-and-earn games and game assets.

Mandhyan (CEO) has more than 15 years of digital retail experience, having held leadership positions at Lazada Philippines (VP), Facebook and Bytedance. San Diego (CBO) has previously built The founder of Artphorce, a creative freelancing marketplace, and he also has more than 15 years of experience in the gaming industry, including roles at Level Up! and PlayPark Games, and most recently at Globe, the Philippines’ leading telecommunications company.

Velasquez (CTO) has 20 years of experience building software and 12 years building technology teams for high-growth startups. He is also the founder of Smartwave Studios, a Philippines-based mobile software consulting and engineering firm, and co-founder of Partyphile, a nightlife app in Asia, and Chatbot PH, a chatbot developer.

MetaverseGo enables users to discover and play a range of NFT games while earning MetaverseGo credits using only their mobile phone number and upon validation by a verification code. They can use these credits on mobile data, utility bills, and shopping vouchers.

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

“Crypto has always been hard, and blockchain games are even harder since there are significant upfront costs to buy the NFTs needed to play. Play-to-earn only took off in 2021 after scholarships popularised the idea of renting those NFTs so that NFT ownership wasn’t a requirement to get started. Since then, we’ve seen rapid adoption worldwide, but as long as crypto onboarding is as arduous as it is today, that growth can only go so far. MetaverseGo is solving this by making Web3 games accessible via a technology everyone knows how to use — a mobile phone number,” said Mandhyan.

“Digital ownership not only deployed blockchain technology at scale, but it also unlocked new gaming audiences. However, significant friction exists at the initial stages of the user experience to tap into this growth in the interactive sector. MetaverseGo helps to democratise blockchain gaming with an accessible Web3 platform that simplifies the onboarding, discovery, learning, and payout processes needed to foster meaningful connections and realise commerce gains around quality content,” said Richard Kim, General Partner at Galaxy Interactive.

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There are many misconceptions when it comes to Forex (FX) Trading. The top three misconceptions we have seen would be that it is a product that has high risk, high returns, and is too complicated.

Risk affects all asset classes, not just FX, and the key lies in how a trader manages trading and the risk-reward ratio. You can run very conservative strategies or take on risky bets, regardless of the asset class.

Here we use a simple example of stock trading: if you buy ABC shares at US$100 today and the price is going down, it is up to you to exit the trade at either US$99 (one per cent loss) or US$95 (five per cent loss) or even say US$70.

Now at US$70, it is essentially a 30 per cent drawdown, is this considered risky? Will you cut your losses before that? Investors will need to consider how many losses they can tolerate against the potential returns to determine the risk-reward ratio they are comfortable with. 

Unfortunately, FX trading has been associated with many get-rich-quick schemes or gambling for quick profits. In reality, there are no ridiculously huge gains or lottery-like winnings. There may be an occasional lucky trade that makes a good amount of profit, but it is simply not sustainable and possible to constantly make such trades.

Trading FX is just like trading any other asset class and requires a great deal of analysis, patience, and a disciplined approach to risk management. 

Lastly, FX is often misconceived as being too complicated. Of course, the presumption here is mainly due to the lack of knowledge, and in general, we find that investors are not as familiar with FX as compared to the stock or bond markets. This is also because there are not many regulated retail products in FX out there that are available for subscription.

As players with experience and knowledge of the FX markets, it is definitely more intuitive and safer in our own view. Although many may find stock trading more approachable or commonplace, it presents its own set of challenges.

Besides monitoring macroeconomic news and the company’s financials, one needs to track corporate actions, press releases, management movements, company restructuring, etc. There are just too many factors to keep track of in stock trading, and this is not the case for FX.

As with all investments, investors need to do their own due diligence, and they have to understand what they are getting themselves into. The risk lies in not understanding what you are doing.

An evergreen asset class

For all the years that we have invested in currencies, we have been fortunate not to have a losing year. FX is an evergreen asset class, unlike other asset classes, which can be more cyclical. Equities, for example, tend to cycle through several years of bull or bear markets. On the contrary, FX is not that seasonal, making it possible to aim for and achieve positive returns every year.

Also Read: 6 skills that startup founders can learn from forex trading

For the past three years, we have seen a lot of major events, from the pandemic global lockdowns to the Russia-Ukraine war, but we have stayed resilient throughout. We know that we are doing something right when we get texts from our clients saying that we are the only green in their portfolio again during such market events.

We believe that currency strategies can have a place in everyone’s portfolio. Many investors in Singapore are heavily weighted in properties, equities and bonds. We have seen that adding FX has helped our clients provide liquidity to their portfolios; it has also helped them diversify their portfolio holdings and reduce concentration risk. Moreover, FX itself can serve as a source of reliable returns for long-term portfolio growth.

We get a lot of questions about our secret strategy or proprietary algorithm that has been able to deliver such returns. For anyone who has spent a good amount of time trading, they will tell you that there is neither a holy grail nor one indicator or strategy that would give you profits 100 per cent of the time.

In fact, consistently profitable traders will more likely tell you that losing and winning are all part and parcel of the journey. The key here is to keep to your risk limits closely.

What new traders should take note of

Most new traders lose their monies when they first try their hand at trading. The advice would be for new traders to trade on demo accounts for at least three to six months first. Once you are comfortable with your performance,  try to allocate a very tiny fraction of your portfolio into live trading and ensure that you keep to your trading plan at all times.

You are going to notice that trading on demo accounts and live accounts could result in very different outcomes. So just start small and think that you could probably lose everything to the markets. 

We also find that most people who are just starting out and exploring trading typically just want to have their funds invested and to let their money work harder for them. In this case, perhaps the more prudent way is to manage funds by professionals instead.

While there will be fees paid to the managers, do note that there is also a need to factor in the cost of your time and energy and the high probability of losing all your capital when you trade on your own.

If you cannot set aside time to monitor the markets, a good strategy is to engage the right expert in the field and let the professionals manage the investments for you. Lastly, maintain good communication with the managers, and you can trust your money to grow to suit your lifestyle and future plans.

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As someone who battled anxiety from an early age, Theodric Chew has long realised the importance of therapy. However, he has been aware of the innate stigma around mental health awareness that deters patients from seeking help. 

Chew, a techie at heart, wanted to change this scenario and decided to conflate his personal experience and knowledge of the tech industry to build a startup providing better mental health care for all. 

That was the beginning of Intellect.

“I saw firsthand the benefits of therapy and proper mental health care, including the gaps in struggles and problems in healthcare. In Asia, even in Singapore, people need care. But due to the stigma attached to mental illness, people don’t seek help. In turn, it causes an issue in how things are run,” added Chew.

“That’s why I started Intellect — to tackle a problem I faced and know that most people in the world also experience or can deeply relate to,” added he, who founded his first startup at 19 and has headed the marketing teams at several startups in the past.

Founded in Singapore in 2019, Intellect aims to make mental healthcare and wellbeing support accessible for everyone. It helps people access an end-to-end solution for all mental health-related needs, such as cognitive-behavioural therapy techniques, besides assisting companies in supporting their employees’ mental health.

The firm intends to level up its product offerings to include the whole spectrum of mental health care, ranging from self-care to live counselling and coaching to crisis management. 

It aims to not only create a self-care app or a marketplace for therapists but also focus on connecting the dots at all levels of mental health support that anyone may need. The objective is to provide people with the necessary tools to take control of their mental health.

Intellect serves over three million lives and covers 14 languages across 20+ countries. 

A Y Combinator alum, Intellect in July raised US$20 million in a Series A round led by HOF Capital and Tiger Global. Its other backers are K3 Ventures, JAFCO Asia, Singtel Innov8, PERSOL Holdings, and Insignia Ventures Partners.

Also Read: How to tackle employee mental health to build a resilient workforce

Addressing the stigma

Mental health has been a peripheral issue in emerging markets for a long time, despite the severe impact not only on those directly affected but also on families and careers, as well as on social cohesion and economic development.

World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that globally, 264 million people suffer from depression, with many of these also suffering from anxiety symptoms. About 450 million people experience mental or neurological disorders worldwide.

The situation in Asia is no better. The state of mental health in the continent has been troubling for many years. Across Asia, a growing percentage of the adult population experiences a diagnosable mental illness in any given year: from four per cent (reported in Singapore) to 20 per cent (reported in Vietnam, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia). Vital factors such as low mental health literacy and lack of human and financial resources are the main causes for people to neglect seeking help when they need it most.

The pandemic has boosted the demand for mental health support in the last two years. According to the World Health Organisation, new depressive and anxiety disorder diagnoses spiked 400 per cent in 2021. However, over the past few years,  many entrepreneurs have identified this space as a high potential area for growth and have come up with various solutions.

Since the beginning, Intellect has prioritised providing individuals with the requisite information, awareness, and support they need. However, it has been challenging to communicate with people where they can find the tools and support they require for the issues they encounter in life. Therefore, mental health is a crucial issue that needs to be tackled in many Asian markets.

“Existing mental health benefits and mental healthcare systems are under-equipped to service this surging need at scale,” stated Chew. “Intellect goes beyond supporting workforces, going deeper into our broader vision of building an entirely new mental healthcare system tailored specifically for Asia.”

Also Read: YC-backed mental health startup Intellect bags US$10M Series A

Beyond the walls and borders

Chew shared that Intellect aims to become a part of everyone’s lives and ensure that proper mental health care is accessible to all, starting with other markets in Asia. As part of the regional expansion plans, it has just announced its official launch in Japan, which has a workforce that traditionally faced high levels of stress and mental health struggle. 

The launch comes with the strong backing of some of Japan’s largest VCs, including JAFCO Asia, Headline Asia, DG Daiwa Ventures, and some of the largest conglomerates, including PERSOL Holdings and MS&AD Ventures.

“Intellect’s entrance into Japan is timely and tailored to the local market’s needs. We hope to ignite a shift in mindset towards mental healthcare and wellbeing by sparking more conversations and efforts around this topic. We believe the combination of Intellect’s strong expertise, alongside our partnerships and backing from some of the largest Japanese conglomerates and investors, will provide a tailored experience for the Japanese population in a way that will make a big change,” concluded Chew.

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Avium, a Singapore-based startup building a network of studios by leveraging Web3 infrastructure, has secured US$2M in pre-seed capital led by Saison Capital. 

East Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Ricky Ow (ex-Warner Media), and Hepmil Media Group, among others, also joined.

Avium was founded by Ivan Yeo, Nathanael Lim, and Eugene Yap. 

Yeo previously founded EVOS Esports, a prominent e-sports organisation in Southeast Asia, with more than 100 million followers across its talent network. Lim is a blockchain lawyer for Huobi, Binance, Facebook and Razer. Yap is a former strategy consultant who has delivered projects for Morgan Stanley and Partners Group.

Avium builds an entertainment brand to greenlight original content by the Southeast Asian studios behind Marvel Comics, Valve, Netflix, Prime Video, and Tencent.

At the centre of Avium’s ecosystem is the Founders’ Pass collection, an NFT designed to incentivise the creatives and studios building Avium’s brand. Holding an Avium Founders Pass grants entrepreneurs, creators and artists access to the exclusive community building the Avium brand together with the founding team. Founders’ Pass holders are considered the founding members of Avium, with rights to build with studios and producers while leveraging on the brand. 

Also Read: Lazada ex-VP’s P2E mobile gaming platform MetaverseGo scores US$4.2M

The Web3 startup has also attracted a community of more than 10,000 highly engaged followers across its various social media platforms.

Avium has onboarded Caravan Studios and Circle Studios, two renowned regional art and animation companies. 

Caravan has developed entertainment IP for household brands, including Marvel Comics, Netflix, Prime Video, Lego, Legends of Runterra and Clash Royale. On the other hand, Circle Studios is the developer of Valve, Tencent, Dota and Mobile Legends.

The Avium ecosystem gathers stakeholders across the entire value chain required to create and produce entertainment in all forms of animated content. This includes the end-to-end process from the

1. Development of original studio entertainment (via creatives, digital artists, rendering teams, producers and more).
2. Creation of media and consumer products (via comics, animations and merchandising).
3. Distribution through media networks (brand distribution via content creators and e-sports channels).

“What catalysed Avium was the realisation that Southeast Asia’s studios deserve a better IP pathway to success. Globally, we already know their work via household gaming and media characters but have yet to give them an industry-recognised path to showcase the full spectrum of their brilliance,” said Co-Founder Yeo.

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Last week, Singapore-based Graas announced the acquisition of two companies –Shoptimize and SELLinALL– following a US$40 million Series A funding round led by Galaxy (Kejora-led SPV), Performa (multi-billion European Asset Manager-led SPV), Integra Partners, Yuj Ventures (Xander Group) and AJ Capital.

Dubbing itself as a “Growth-as-a-Service” solution, through these milestones, Graas aims to help brands ‘turbo-charge’ their e-commerce businesses. The company says it is currently working with 250 customers, with its platforms managing four million SKUs and 45 million data points every month –a number they expect to increase as it expands into the region.

“The growth and evolution of e-commerce in Southeast Asia (SEA) are far outpacing brands’ ability to effectively use the new tools and channels available to them – which ultimately puts pressure on their profit margins as they struggle to optimise their eCommerce operations,” writes Prem Bhatia, Co-founder of Graas, in an email interview.

“Consider a brand that has a modest e-commerce presence of 50 SKUs, selling across two countries. If they sold through three different channels, using three different advertising mediums, this translates to an approximate 9,000 decisions that need to be made and executed every month. The more variables added to this equation, the greater the complexity. In addition, data from these multiple sources are typically siloed, which makes meaningful analysis extremely labour intensive and hinders brands from being able to use this data to make effective decisions,” he continued.

Now that we have a general idea of what problem they aim to solve, what exactly is the work that they are doing? And what will their next steps be? In this interview, e27 discovers more details about the company –that we believe we will hear more of.

Also Read: In the age of e-commerce, complete and accurate data analytics is key

Seizing opportunities in the fastest growing e-commerce markets

Graas was founded by Prem Bhatia and Ashwin Puri, who had been involved in the martech field for some time. In addition to that, they are also serial entrepreneurs and investors. According to Bhatia, this allows them a “close view” of the markets, particularly the challenges faced by CMOs of top brands.

“India and SEA are the fastest growing regions for e-commerce in the world, with US$200 billion in GMV. Despite this growth, e-commerce accounts for less than 10 per cent of all regional retail. Unlike the US and the China markets, where there are strong dominant players in the ecosystem, these regions have become a battleground, with many players vying for market share,” he explains the background behind the company’s founding.

“As such, there is significant headroom to grow, and brands are hungry to evolve their e-commerce strategy. However, brands are finding it increasingly difficult to manage profitability as the e-commerce sector becomes more complex. Given the increase in some marketplaces, revenue shares with various platforms, advertising and customer acquisition costs (CAC) and fluctuating warehouse and last mile costs, margins are under threat,” he says.

This is why Graas has the vision to reduce this complexity through the use of a single dashboard, which is expected to brands reduce their time to market and create a streamlined, informed approach to marketing, inventory and content management.

“Our plug-and-play algorithmic solution gives brands the equivalent of an in-house data scientist. As a result, we are already seeing exponential increases in our clients’ growth via our solution, and that’s why we have defined a new category for Graas: ‘Growth-as-a-Service’. We believe this is a multi-billion dollar opportunity founded at the intersection of AI, e-commerce, adtech and fintech,” says Bhatia.

Also Read: How e-commerce merchants can capture growth in international markets

Earlier, he has explained the challenges that Graas aims to solve, but he further explains how they aim to do it in three ways:

1. Graas connects previously siloed business segments to reduce complexity and helps brands identify opportunities to scale their e-commerce business. This also creates a unified data pool.

2. It applies a proprietary AI engine we have developed to this data pool. This engine acts as an in-house data scientist, analysing vast amounts of information. It predicts trends and gives real-time insights and actionable recommendations that allow brands to stay ahead of the competition.

3. The solution turns insights into action by giving brands the tools to seamlessly execute data-driven recommendations that span: marketplace storefronts, brand.coms, social and conversational commerce, performance marketing, inventory management, warehousing and last mile logistics.

Apart from India, SEA is also a huge market for the company. It focuses on Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

What is on their agenda

There are several milestones that Graas has made following their Series A funding round, including the acquisitions of Indian D2C and data specialist Shoptimize and SEA marketplace specialist SELLinALL. You might recognise the latter as one of the companies on the Echelon Top100 list in 2015.

According to Bhatia, the acquisitions have allowed the company to integrate not only their technology but also the expertise and knowledge of its teams.

At the moment, Graas has over 350 employees across 11 offices in seven countries, and it is looking forward to continuing to expand.

Also Read: The long and winding road to e-commerce profitability

Apart from that, there are also several plans related to product innovation that Graas aims to achieve this year.

“Our goal is to use our AI engine to deliver actionable recommendations across advertising, storefront (content & promotions and inventory and supply chain. We’re the only AI engine that covers the entire e-commerce business, end-to-end,” he closes.

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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: Graas

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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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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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Image Credit: Funding Societies

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