Singapore-based fintech startup FOMO Pay today announced that it had secured a US$13 million investment for its Series A round led by Jump Crypto. Other participating investors include HashKey Capital, Antalpha Ventures, Ab Initio Capital, and Republic Capital.

In a press statement, the company said that with the injection of fresh funds, the firm will accelerate its growth and will invest in talent acquisition and its infrastructure. It will also strengthen research and development capabilities, expand geographically, extend its client base, and diversify product offerings following the crypto adoption curve, including working closely with regulators on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) projects.

“2022 has so far been a breakout year for FOMO Pay – we are seeing significant growth across all business lines. Our volumes for the first half of 2022 have surpassed the full year 2021 levels, and our client pipeline is extremely strong. We attribute this success to the hard work of our team and their effort always to put customers first,” said FOMO Pay Founder and CEO Louis Liu.

“This is a milestone year for us as we turn eight. We will continue to strive hard toward building Asia’s first licensed payment ecosystem with interoperability between fiat and crypto currencies, and we are grateful for the unwavering support and belief from our investors, stakeholders and partners. We are extremely proud and grateful to be one of the front-runners in this industry in Singapore.  Singapore has been at the forefront of innovation with a world-leading licensing and regulatory framework. Our goal is to work in harmony with all stakeholders on both developmental and regulatory approaches to achieve the vision of Singapore as an innovative and responsible global digital asset hub,” further added Liu.

Also Read: News Roundup: Singapore’s online hiring demand dips due to COVID-19; FOMO Pay forays into Malaysia

Founded in 2015, FOMO Pay is a payment institution that aims to enable the digital economy with global virtual banking solutions for financial institutions and enterprises. Its flagship solutions help institutional clients connect to e-wallets, credit cards, cryptocurrencies, and more with its global banking solutions.

It was the first firm in Singapore granted approval by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for Digital Payment Token Services. It is licensed to provide Merchant Acquisition Service, Domestic Money Transfer Service, Cross Border Money Transfer and Digital Payment Token Service.

The company said that it is working with several thousands of clients across Web2 and Web3 industries. Over the past year, FOMO Pay has announced several strategic partnerships with firms such as Circle, Acentrik (​​initiative by Mercedes-Benz), and Ripple.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged many creative individuals to come up with solutions to tackle different challenges in our everyday life –including those that may not seem to have a direct correlation with the pandemic. Natural Trace, a Singapore-based biotech startup, is one of those companies that is providing an innovative solution inspired by a tool that is commonly used during the pandemic: the PCR testing system.

The company is developing NaturalTag, which it describes as a world-first DNA-based food-grade tag to protect supply chain integrity. Simply put, this solution is in the form of powder or liquid that is added in minimal amounts to food products and ingredients. Businesses can later use the traces of these additions to track every ingredient in every product along each stage of the supply chain.

In the status quo, businesses use solutions such as blockchain, barcodes and serial numbers, as well as other external, non-food-grade tags, to track ingredients in the supply chain. What Natural Trace is offering is believed to be a better solution because, in addition to being food-grade, it is also tamper-proof.

“With a minimal quantity of NaturalTag microbial identifiers, each containing a natural and unique DNA sequence, the unique serial identifiers are captured into a traceability report, which generates origination information of each ingredient in a food product. Stored in Natural Trace’s cloud solution, companies and growers can retrieve the traceability report with fast turnaround times. This tamper-proof technology makes authenticating the origin of every single ingredient in a food product possible,” the company further explains.

By creating this solution, the Singapore-based startup aims to tackle the food safety, compliance, and integrity issues of the global food supply chain.

To understand better how the product functions, and the work that the team had done to create it, e27 speaks to Natural Trace co-founder Dr Chantal Roth. In this article, we will also look at what is coming up for the biotech startup.

Also Read: How Secai Marche champions farm-fresh food in Southeast Asia

Understanding where our food comes from

Natural Trace was founded by Switzerland-based Dr Roth and New York-based Prof. Lukas Muller, two scientists who specialise in genomics, and several angel investors at the height of the pandemic.

In our interview, Dr Roth explains how they came up with the idea for NaturalTag, starting with the problem that industries are facing when it comes to tracing food origins.

“There is a lot of ambiguity around the origin of raw foods. There is also quite a large percentage of counterfeiting going on. Apart from that, there is also the question about supply chain integrity, product integrity, and compliance … and it is quite a large percentage of the supply chain that is affected. We are talking about the market size of approximately US$3 billion,” she explains. “As you can see, there are existing solutions that are well known. For instance, barcodes or holograms, but they are externals,” she continues.

Dr Roth gives the example of vanilla exports from Madagascar to the US, an expensive product priced at about US$500 per kilogram. The problem with existing solutions such as external tags is that they can easily tamper. “With an external label, you can swap the product with a cheaper product … you can imagine that it makes a huge difference. Clearly, we need to be able to tag the product itself,” she says.

In the market today, there are other solutions such as chemical markers, but they certainly came with their own problems. For example, many of them are not made of food-grade ingredients. “That is one of the big concerns that partners have voiced to us. They told us that they have looked at different products, but nothing is food grade, and that is our big advantage, because our product is completely natural,” Dr Roth says.

Together, Dr Roth and Prof Muller have a combined experience of 40 years in the genomics industry, with a deep understanding of DNA sequencing and the advances in detection technology. Throughout the pandemic, they witnessed how testing tools are becoming more sensitive, affordable, and easy to use. It seems like the right momentum to try implementing the same concept, with all its advantages, for a different purpose.

The founders harvested the microbes that are being used in NaturalTag from food products such as yoghurt, milk, or cheese; once they are able to identify it, then they add a trace amount to the food product that they wish to track. After that, they use the existing PCR technology to detect the tag.

“We have both the short-term and long-term plans. As the technology evolves, we can also adapt our strategy, but in the short-term, we are using the PCR technology for the detection process as it is already well-established,” Dr Roth says.

Also Read: How digital technology can transform the food and beverage industry

As a B2B solutions provider, Natural Trace works with agents worldwide who are reaching out to companies that are looking for a tamper-prrof method of authenticating the origin of their products.

Moving towards the future

In June, Natural Trace announced the launch of its global headquarter in Singapore. In a press statement, the company dubbed Singapore a “natural choice” due to its food innovation and R&D ecosystem, which it saw as a conducive environment for a biotech startup.

It has also secured a partnership with the National University of Singapore (NUS) since September to conduct various experiments and testings for its food supply chain traceability solution. An example of food products that they are testing through the partnership includes red wine and how the solutions aged after a while. “We want to make sure that the tag is still detectable after, say, it sits on the shelf for six months,” says Dr Roth.

Beyond the existing partnership, Natural Trace has many big plans for 2022. First and foremost, the company is looking for a professional CEO –a position that is currently held by Dr Roth. The new CEO will join a team that consists of six core members, plus another group that is working on marketing and legal.

Second, Natural Trace is currently fundraising for its latest funding round. After successfully raising seed funding to kickstart operations in Singapore, which counted angel investor CL Goh from Blue InCube Ventures as one of its backers, the company is raising US$3 million in seed funding to support its expansion.

“A large percentage [of the funding] will go into production fixed costs. Another part will go into R&D; it is really important because we are in here for the long haul. So we want to make sure that we can develop our product for the next five to 10 years, make it better and better,” Dr Roth says. “There are also packaging and distribution and some other business functions.”

In terms of the characteristics of investors that they are looking for, Dr Roth says that they are looking for those with the same vision and ideology in building trust and increasing the traceability and transparency of the food we eat.

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Now that we’re clearly in a recession, many investors are closing the door on blockchain plays for time being. The ‘crypto winter’ we now find ourselves in is largely to blame.

However, I urge investors not to paint with ‘too broad a brush’ in dismissing blockchain-based opportunities. Instead, try to recognise the far broader relevance of blockchain to our future, rather than just looking at it as mere architecture for cryptocurrencies.

In May, one of the market’s largest stablecoins, TerraUSD, lost more than 90 per cent of its value in just one week, despite being touted as a coin that’s “pegged to the US dollar.” This triggered a proper crash and losses of more than US$300 billion for investors across the ecosystem.

At the end of June, Coinbase shares plunged 75 per cent before Goldman Sachs downgraded it to a sell rating.

Reports around that time also indicated that Goldman was looking to raise US$2 billion from investors to buy up distressed assets from troubled crypto lender Celsius. Simultaneously, industry stakeholders discussed a possible deal to see crypto exchange FTX buy out crypto lender BlockFi for pennies on the dollar.

Incidents like the TerraUSD crash are not exactly isolated, with the price of Bitcoin dipping sharply over the past few months. Back in June, its price hovered around US$20,000, 32 per cent lower than the month before and far from the all-time high of US$69,000 in November 2021.

But despite the market’s current doom-and-gloom outlook, blockchain as an agent of change remains key to the world’s digital and financial future. Investors should gather their wits and start shopping now, during this market correction.

Embracing decentralised ledgers

In the context of financial services, blockchain offers a variety of disruptive possibilities. The first and most apparent is bolstered transparency. For nearly every financial service company today, all business activity is built on transactions within a traditional corporate database.

Also Read: Helping crypto native companies navigate turbulent waters

Lots of ink is spilt in the press about ‘what blockchain is’ and ‘how it works.’ If you’re not already in the know, let me sum it up concisely: blockchain tech, while among other things, the foundation of crypto, on a much broader scale, does away with consolidated silos of power by replacing them with decentralised ledgers.

Perhaps the more powerful point is that it enables far frictionless and generally less expensive transactions of all sorts.

Decentralised ledgers are automatic records of transactions maintained across many computers (nodes) that are linked in a peer-to-peer network. For anything to be recorded or executed, a consensus is required across all nodes.

This simple concept is the basis of three global financial revolutions, all taking place at the same time. Apart from crypto, the others are decentralised finance (DeFi) and Web3.

DeFi is a term used to describe peer-to-peer financial services on public blockchains, primarily Ethereum. Web3 is an idea for a new iteration of the internet itself, based on blockchain. Like the other two, it incorporates concepts like decentralisation and token-based economics. We can save explanations of things like NFTs and DAOs for another time.

Another important component of blockchain is lowering transaction costs. The financial services sector is chock full of intermediaries (such as banks) that enter the equation to create trust between transacting parties. Blockchain is a way to create trust without such middlemen.

For example, if you’re a lender seeking to verify the creditworthiness of a potential borrower, running data through a dispersed network of parties on a blockchain for consensus may be more attractive than putting all your eggs into the basket of one credit reporting agency. In such a case, blockchain cuts out the go-between in favour of the crowd and lowers your cost of doing business at scale.

For investors and entrepreneurs alike, these are just a couple of down-to-earth examples of how blockchain can be used to build a better future for everyone.

A rational entrance

Here in Asia, our firm has already begun making in-roads into the global blockchain game by investing in a company called NOBI, one of Asia’s top asset management platforms for crypto assets. The startup helps casual investors who want to diversify their wealth with crypto but don’t exactly know how.

Also Read: Does investing in Bitcoin still make sense?

We believe in this company because it comes with strong fundamentals, addresses a real and long-term demand, and is not dependent on market hype, speculation, or a paper-based valuation.

That said, even with the recent meltdown, at the time of this writing, the total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours was still worth around US$915 billion. Meanwhile, the global crypto market is estimated to surpass US$6.7 trillion by 2025. We believe investors and founders who shy away from it now will lose out in the long run.

If you do have cold feet today, don’t worry. You’re not alone. After all, crypto is volatile. But now is actually an ideal time for investors and founders to venture into the blockchain. Recessions breed rationality.

As a venture capitalist, I look forward to the next few quarters, as blockchain deal prices will be quite reasonable. While formal financial institutions tighten their purse strings, the blockchain ecosystem can leverage opportunities that emerge from this disruption.

Keep in mind that the fluctuating value of crypto is part and parcel of the game itself. Even when prices were at their record highs in 2021, daily price changes across all tokens were not uncommon.

For example, even Bitcoin faced multiple drawdowns before the crash of this year, with six dips of 50 per cent or more from 2012 to 2021. With this in mind, those who can stomach such swings will gain in the long run.

Thesis-driven blockchain in Asia

Ultimately, blockchain is here to stay. We already see clear signs of the crypto market trying to pick itself back up.

For those of us in Southeast Asia, blockchain will continue to transform our financial sector in fundamental ways.

Some countries in the region already recognise the potential of crypto and are willing to welcome it. Singapore, for example, enacted stricter guidelines on cryptocurrency advertisements and passed a bill that provides regulatory frameworks for crypto companies, demonstrating its readiness to adapt to the new financial paradigm.

At the end of the day, smart investors put money on the table shortly after a correction. That time is now. Institutional players should start looking today at Asian venture funds that are thesis-driven on rational blockchain plays.

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Singapore-headquartered Graas today announced that it had raised US$40 million in a 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.

According to a press statement, some Southeast Asia (SEA) and India’s “best-known angel investors and industry leaders” across deep tech, retail, adtech and private equity have also participated in the round.

In addition to the funding round, the company also announced that it had acquired Indian D2C and data specialist Shoptimize and SEA marketplace specialist SELLinALL. Following the acquisition, the founders of both companies have joined the board of Graas and will continue to be a part of the combined entity.

The funding will also support the expansion into SEA and India.

Graas was founded by serial entrepreneurs and martech veterans Prem Bhatia and Ashwin Puri.

Also Read: Alpha JWC leads Filipino parenting e-commerce startup edamama’s US$20M Series A round

Its proprietary platform integrates previously siloed e-commerce data to reduce operational complexity and enable real-time decision-making. The AI engine helps predict trends and deliver actionable recommendations that span marketplace storefronts, social and conversational commerce, performance marketing, inventory management, warehousing and last mile logistics.

Graas said that it already serves over 250 customers today, and its AI predictive engine processes over 45 million data points every month across more than four million stock-keeping units (SKUs).

The company is run by over 350 employees across 11 offices in seven countries.

“While India and SEA are the fastest growing regions for e-commerce in the world with US$200 billion in GMV, they still account for less than 10 per cent of all retail in the region. There is significant headroom to grow, however, brands are finding it increasingly difficult to manage profitability. Given the increase in number of marketplaces, revenue shares with various platforms, advertising and customer acquisition costs (CAC) and fluctuating warehouse and last mile costs, margins are under threat. Doing business has become more complex and Graas is here to offer the solution,” said Prem Bhatia, Co-Founder & CEO of Graas.

“Graas’ vision is to demolish data silos, increase brands’ speed to market and create a streamlined, informed approach to marketing, inventory and content management – all in one dashboard. Our plugand-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’,” added Bhatia.

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As an institutional VC for over a decade and a startup guy before that, I’ve learned a few hard lessons about building companies across economic cycles. Churchill once said, “Never waste a good crisis,” and for startups, a recession is a great time to build.

Necessity is the mother of invention

When I graduated from university in 2003, the US had yet to emerge from the tech winter which followed the dot.com boom and bust. I distinctly recall interning in the tech M&A group of a Silicon Valley investment bank where I came to work one day to learn that all of my colleagues in the private equity team had been dismissed.

We all thought the world was coming to an end. And yet, while many unsustainable Web1 e-comm companies like WebVan and Pets.com went bust, emerging platforms like Google developed defensible technology (e.g. search algorithms) to create business models that could scale profitably, raising substantial funding in a challenging climate.

Many years later, as I graduated from business school in 2010, the world was again reeling from the Great Recession. I spent half my MBA summer interning with a private equity fund where we were buying and levering up sunset assets like newspapers at deep value discounts, and the other half at Microsoft Xbox where cloud gaming was beginning to upend traditional boxed software.

My colleagues and I all wondered when the economy was going to turn back to growth. And yet, while some over-leveraged financial institutions like Lehman Brothers shut their doors, new cloud-based Web2 platforms emerged in digital payments, social media and content delivery to generate tremendous value, startups like Facebook and games-as-a-service pioneer Zynga, which I joined as a PM, staying through their IPO.

Expect the best, prepare for the worst

There is no question that we are now in another tech winter. The Nasdaq lost 25 per cent in YTD June 2022 before bouncing back slightly, and multiples are predicted to compress another 25-30 per cent, suggesting valuations will come down further.

Also Read: How to survive a recession and thrive afterward

Moreover, high inflation is disincentivising savings and investment. Federal funds reached 2.25 per cent in July and is expected to hit three per cent by the end of year, leading to the highest borrowing costs since 2019. Technical recession is two quarters of negative growth, and on a macro basis we are absolutely in the thick of it.

However, startups are all about micro execution bucking macro trends. In addition to the examples above like Google, Facebook and Zynga; here in Asia, Alibaba and Taobao were forged in the midst of the Asian Financial Crisis while Grab and Uber were both founded during the Great Recession.

In the Southeast Asia of 2022, we have the benefit of a young, regional population, rising middle class purchasing power and strong and growing employment (as does the US which despite everything, just added 528,000 jobs in July).

Certainly, many fledging SEA companies will fail, but startups with strong leadership and a path to profitability have the potential to thrive. Some may even gobble up their competitors, establish market leadership, disrupt incumbents and accelerate the transformation of the industries in which they compete.

Three tips on how to build stronger in this recession

I expect that founders and management teams that do the following will be best placed to succeed:

Use inflation to maximum advantage

Where possible, increase pricing. For services businesses, wage inflation tends to trail consumer price increases, so inflation can increase short term margins. Where price hikes are not possible, lock customers into longer tenure contracts at prevailing pricing, and use that demand visibility to manage costs by batching or building inventory ahead of input price hikes.

Also Read: How small companies can prepare for recession

I recently spoke to a resourceful entrepreneur in the Indonesian food sector who shared that as his input prices such as seed costs increased, he shifted product mix toward lower cost and lower quality vegetables, and in doing so defended margin without passing price hikes on, enabling him to take share. These are the teams who know what it takes to succeed in tough environments.

Obsess about the balance sheet and statement of cash flows

In good times, most startups tend to focus on the top half of the P&L, specifically GMV and revenue. In tough times, cash is the only king. Financially savvy operators keep a tight rein on unit economics and the cash flow cycles of their businesses.

Cash management entails delaying payables and collecting receivables aggressively, even if it means causing friction with vendors or customers unaccustomed to tougher terms, or giving away some margin to factoring costs. Tight control makes for longevity.

Capitalise creatively

Companies that don’t follow the fairy tale of successive up rounds can often be shunned as failures rather than lauded as survivors. Savvy founders know to identify and avoid these external and internal biases, starting with openly acknowledging that raising at a flat or down round is a sign of maturity and adaptability and by finding VCs who share the same mindset.

I’ve heard some SEA VCs express they would rather make a new, small “club” bet on a seed team going after the same challenged business model than do the hard work of recapitalising a struggling or pivoting Series B startup that has fallen out of favour. Until you’re profitable, runway is crucial to survival, and you want VCs who are fighters, not cheerleaders, in your corner.

When the macro is correcting 25-30 per cent down, down rounds and recaps are necessary parts of fortifying the capital base; rather than fight it, partner with an experienced institutional VC willing to do the cap table surgery work, even if it means restructuring, giving up more dilution at a lower valuation or potentially causing friction with earlier investors unaccustomed to having their shareholdings substantially diminished.

Seize the moment

At the end of the day, opportunity is greatest during times of volatility. As Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change.”

For those with that attitude, this is a great time to build. At Altara Ventures we look forward to building Southeast Asian startups with resourceful founders who like getting creative as they face the challenges and opportunities ahead.

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Supply chain has a problem. Several of them, actually. The most recent being those that the COVID-19 trade disruptions have revealed such as the need for digital and paperless trade procedures to facilitate cross-border movement of critical goods during global health emergencies while maintaining open trade regimes for equitable access to essential goods.

But while global supply chains have largely bounced back as economies reopen borders and rebound, the supply chain issues have not gone away.

Trade costs continue to rise, with international shipping costs recently surging to an all-time peak according to the Asian Development Bank. This may further disrupt the international supply chain with its heavy reliance on sea freight transport.

But rising costs have a larger snowball effect on inflation in countries that import more, as well as those who typically pay higher freight costs including island states such as Indonesia.

Solving global logistics pain points

The archipelago nation has birthed many logistics startups, but most of these only operate in one vertical or a subset of the global supply chain. Not Andalin. The startup, which was founded in October 2016 by Rifki Pratomo (CEO), Ivhan Famly Gunawan (CTO), and Saut Tambunan (COO), aims to simplify international trade in Southeast Asia through a single platform that integrates international shipping, financial services, distribution and procurement services.

Speaking to e27, Pratomo said: “International trade is the backbone of the world’s economy. However, it’s a complex and very fragmented industry that is built upon three main activities: movement of goods (shipping); procurement and distribution (buying and selling goods); as well as financial and insurance services. Each of these activities has its challenges.

Also read: How accessible robotic solutions enable business efficiency

“In international shipping, businesses face unpredictable shipping schedules and space availability, inconsistent and volatile pricing, and inefficient management through manual coordination via hundreds of emails, resulting in lack of traceability.

“In procurement and distribution, there is no single comprehensive platform that provides a curated list of trading partners with online transactions, that is also integrated with shipping and trade service capabilities. Thus, buyers and sellers have limited options when looking for new trading partners.

“On top of that, international trade finance is still heavily dominated by conventional banking infrastructure, which lacks flexibility and speed to address the high dynamics of international trade requirements,” Pratomo illustrated.

Andalin believes that Southeast Asia is ripe for revolutionising, given that its intra-regional trade accounts for 25% of global trade, a massive market with a huge economic potential to capture.

Evolving into digital freight forwarders

International trade and international shipping have always been managed manually through multiple chains of emails between 12-15 different stakeholders for a single transaction.

Andalin co-founders got together in 2016 to start building the platform, starting with digital international shipping solutions, and in 2017 launched a marketplace connecting freight forwarding companies with cargo owners.

Pratomo recounted, “As we grew, we found that marketplace approach is not the right scalable model for this region and acquired the license to operate as a freight forwarder. In 2020, we launched our digital freight forwarding business, developing our platform to simplify and synchronize the shipping process for our clients, our team and our partners.

Also read: Strengthening cybersecurity measures in the face of Web 3.0

“The successful combination of the right technology, process, and human capital has allowed us to provide superior service which resulted in our continuous growth till today, gaining the trust and business of over 150 medium to large sized enterprises in Indonesia.

“From Day 1, Andalin does not consider itself to merely be a logistics provider. Unlike the current solution in the market which tends to provide service only in a single domain (e.g. freight forwarding solutions focusing on international shipping services only), Andalin views the international trade problem, solution and opportunity holistically,” Pratomo emphasised.

“In the future, we will explore and introduce other services into the platform, which potentially includes trading, financing and insurance services, to fulfil our vision of providing an end-to-end platform for international trade in Southeast Asia,” he said.

Make it simple and easy

Andalin aims to reform and simplify the complexity of international trade activities through its integrated end-to-end digital platform – also on mobile via the Andalin Go launched in May 2021.

Through its in-house developed technology customised for international supply chain needs, Andalin has provided better service levels compared to industry standards. For example, Andalin can issue price quotations to clients within 24 hours, compared to the industry norm of five to seven working days.

The digitisation of otherwise cumbersome manual tasks and shortened time taken have resulted in Andalin clients benefitting from up to 50% reductions in manual administrative work and at least 15% lower costs compared to their previous freight forwarding service providers.

“Our shipping schedule and price integrity, supplemented by our platform’s transparency, have enabled Andalin clients to better plan for their supply chain activities, minimising the risk of manufacturing downtime and/or delayed distribution,” Pratomo said.

To date, Andalin’s freight forwarders have covered shipping routes to over 160 countries in the world, with the most popular routes in the Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia. Its clients include well-known names such as Wings Group, Kawan Lama Group, Kino, Rentokil, and REDAChem.

The next building block, integrated solutions

As Andalin’s profile continues to grow, Pratomo and his team have been on a launching spree over the past year, rolling out services that are targeted at different supply chain pain points, while continuing to integrate global trade markets.

In May 2021, Andalin Go was launched, empowering customers to operate and monitor their shipments on the go, get instant quotes, and discuss operational technical details with the Andalin team in real-time. 

This was followed in November 2021 by Andalin Get, which addresses the scarcity of container cargo along the busy Indonesia-U.S. trade route. Andalin Get converts shipments that were previously FCL (full container load) into several smaller shipments (LCL or less container load), to ensure delivery of goods is not hampered. Andalin also guarantees LCL space availability as well as on-schedule departures.

The results? From February to December 2021, Andalin’s monthly revenue grew by 690%, while recording a 10.6x increase in total containers shipped.

Also read: Optimising business solutions through customer-centricity

These innovations quickly drew the attention of investors, and in February 2022, Andalin secured a US$4 million round led by Intudo Ventures. Two months later, Andalin signed an MoU with Vietnam’s leading industrial developer Becamex IDC Corp, to boost trade between Indonesia and Vietnam.

To build a complete foundation of doing international trade activities, Andalin has just recently launched the Andalin Trade platform in June 2022. The platform enables manufacturers and distributors across Southeast Asia to buy and sell from each other. Through Andalin Trade,  manufacturers and distributors simplify the process of sourcing, supplying, and negotiating for products with international counterparts. Users can bid and transact online, and instantly procure Andalin Shipping services from the platform.

“The integration does not stop there, as we will open our platform to collaborate with other businesses and institutions which provide services related to international trade, hence allowing us to reach our grand vision of establishing a one-stop integrated platform that simplifies international trade activities in Southeast Asia,” Pratomo said.

To explore Andalin’s various trade and logistics offerings, visit andalin.com

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Andalin

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Singapore-based health tech startup MiyaHealth today announced that it had raised an undisclosed sum in additional funding from HealthXCapital, Central Capital Ventura, and SEEDS Capital after raising S$6.5 million (US$4.8 million) in Pre-Series A in February.

In a press statement, the company said that the funding would be used to drive MiyaHealth’s aggressive growth strategy in product development, hiring and expansion of operations globally.

“Following our successful Pre-Series A fundraise, we are delighted to onboard new investors to further scale our product capabilities and expand our operations globally, starting with Europe and Southeast Asia,” says Dr Ramesh Rajentheran, CEO & Co-Founder of MiyaHealth.

“The pandemic has accelerated the need for governments, corporates, and insurers to contain health costs and improve health care outcomes. Patients are also more aware of and are increasingly vocal about the quality of their healthcare journeys. Having built our technology and established strategic relationships with ST Engineering during the pandemic, we are benefitting from this increased focus from payors and patients post-pandemic. At Miya, patients are at the heart of what we do, and that patient-centricity comes through in the products we have built.”

The company is also planning to kick off its Series A fundraise in the next six months to develop its product suite further, expand its operations globally and continue embarking on collaborations with key stakeholders moving forward.

Also Read: Traveloka ex-CMO’s healthtech startup Diri Care closes US$4.3M seed round

Since its inception in 2019, MiyaHealth has launched a suite of products that include MiyaPatient, a patient navigation platform with a predictive and personalised system that helps patients with chronic diseases cope with daily challenges; MiyaPayor, a platform that incorporates AI-driven claims processing, provider network management and predictive analytics to reduce costs for payors; and MiyaProvider, an upcoming product that improves patients’ experience in hospitals and clinics.

The company said that MiyaPatient is currently being deployed in Europe, and MiyaPayor and MiyaProvider platforms are being deployed in Indonesia and the Philippines. This follows the commercialisation of the MiyaPayor platform in Malaysia last year.

It has partnered with over 3,000 medical providers and 12,000 physicians to date for its flagship platforms, including its partnership with a leading hospital group in Indonesia.

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This article is published as a part of a partnership with Recruitery. Recruitery is an all-in-one hiring platform that provides headhunt, payroll, taxes, and compliance solutions for remote teams in SEA. 

Recently, I’ve seen many office employees continue to check their work email and messages when travelling. I believe this is due to the fear of losing associates during sabbaticals.

When they go out with me, they joke and drink, but five minutes later, I see their hands clutching computers or phones to check email, and I wonder why they can’t avoid work.

I questioned my pals directly, and their response was unsurprising: they work over the break to prevent feeling suffocated when they return to the office by arranging things remotely.

Qualtrics, a software business focused on customer experience, reported in a recent survey that almost half of American employees continue to work an hour every day while travelling. After the COVID-19 pandemic, this habit began to flourish as vacations grew more exotic than before. With a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection, employees may do any task from any location as long as they have access to the Internet.

Since the offices closed in March 2020, work has become a “ghost” that haunts workers in their homes until they go to sleep. The privilege to disengage while socialising no longer exists.

Consequently, the fear of falling behind is one of the primary reasons office employees cannot quit working. With the arrival of the summer tourist season, the already-desolate workplaces become even quieter. Because of the high volume, the operation has been relocated.

30 per cent of Qualtrics poll respondents said that bosses and coworkers expect them to continue checking text messages and phone calls while abroad. In addition, 27 per cent are anticipated to react to emails, while 20 per cent are predicted to engage in an online meeting.

Achieving work-life balance

The boundary between work and personal life is becoming more porous. For example, the vacation is cancelled instantly when the manager writes an “urgent” email.

According to other research, the chance of disconnecting on leave varies by age and employment. Only 47 per cent of those between the ages of 21 and 25 can give up work entirely, compared to 65 per cent of those aged 45 and older. This may be because the remaining group’s responsibilities expand with seniority.

Also Read: How small companies can prepare for recession

Teachers had the most significant trouble disconnecting from work, with 73 per cent of poll respondents stating that they find it challenging to ignore work-related emails even while on vacation. They were followed by attorneys (71 per cent), accounting specialists (59 per cent), finance professionals (55 per cent), and consultants (51 per cent).

In contrast to the areas above, employees in technology and healthcare find it simple to “leave work” and walk out.

I believe it is normal for workers to work on holidays. However, this is seen as a harmful trait that leads to burnout and increases the likelihood of resignation.

According to a poll conducted by Recruitery, up to 30 per cent of employees claim they want to resign after returning to the workplace, and almost half have already done so. In an age of tiredness and emphasis on money, I believe that employees’ primary source of mental health issues is their employment.

I believe that for workers to enjoy an entire vacation, the manager must encourage subordinates to relax in the most comfortable manner possible and instil in them the attitude that “it’s acceptable if they want to ‘disappear’ for a few days.” Employers must also verify that they can pay applicants according to their Paid Time Off (PTO) policy.

Managers must encourage employees to physically and psychologically disconnect from work during holidays. Long-term stress may lead firms to lose employees to rivals that value employee wellness. PTO is not just a competitive advantage when it comes to recruiting but is also essential for preventing employee burnout.

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Singapore-based RootAnt, the company behind the banco financial platform, has raised US$4.5 million in its Series A2 funding round anchored by SBI Venture Capital, according to a DealstreetAsia report.

According to an ACRA filing, SBI Venture Capital invested US$2 million in the funding round, followed by the participation of Hua An Investments Ltd and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. The two companies invested US$1.1 million and US$1 million in the fintech startup, respectively.

The funding round also included the participation of Sixtwo Capital, CMPL Angel Seed Fund, and R3 Limited.

It followed a US$1.5 million seed funding round that RootAnt announced in 2020. It was led by Chinese investment firm Linear Capital and co-investor KZM & Company Group.

Also Read: How digital banking is driving financial inclusion in SEA

In addition to that, SBI Holdings have also been reported to have invested in RootAnt for a 4.8 per cent stake.

RootAnt provides a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform that connects enterprises and financial institutions with new digital financial products.

Its banco platform provides new digital financial products that include supply chain finance and green finance that are integrated with alternative data from enterprise systems, customs, logistics providers, and government databases. It utilises AI and blockchain technologies in its implementation.

It is one of the latest companies in the Southeast Asian region to seize the opportunity provided by the rise of digital bank services.

As detailed in a contributed post to e27 by Srihari Sikhakollu, CEO at eRemit Singapore, some digital banks in other regions have been unsuccessful due to poor funding strategies, focusing on the wrong demographic or failing to inspire customer trust and loyalty.

However, digital banks who have successfully leveraged technology have reported saving 20 to 30 per cent more on their per-account operation costs compared to traditional banks.

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Meta invests in Take App, a Singaporean startup that helps merchants sell via WhatsApp
At its core, Take App serves as an easy way for those with little technical know-how to set up a simple website to facilitate online orders, replete with a shopping cart, payments, and a direct connection to WhatsApp for managing and tracking the final order.

Alpha JWC leads Filipino parenting e-commerce startup edamama’s US$20M Series A round
edamama will use the capital to expand its operations, including same-day and next-day delivery, to more locations across Metro Manila. It will also enhance its content and community elements, launch its own offline stores and scale its private label portfolio.

Vietnamese logistics firm restocks with US$6.4M investment
Boxme currently has two fulfillment centers in Vietnam that cover more than 12,000 square meters and can process over 50,000 orders per day. With the fresh capital, the company plans to expand these facilities to 30,000 square meters with a capacity of 150,000 orders.

Navis Capital Partners to exit B Medical Systems, strikes two new investments
With a global presence in over 150 countries, B Med is the world’s single largest vaccine cold chain provider. It provides storage and transportation of temperature-sensitive vaccines to a significant part of global populations.

Society Pass acquires Indonesian traveltech firm NusaTrip
Founded in 2018, Society Pass focuses on acquiring Southeast Asian ecommerce players to build a loyalty and data marketing ecosystem.

Does investing in Bitcoin still make sense?
While the crypto crash has left many shaken, the fundamental case for investing in Bitcoin has not changed in the least. It can actually be a good opportunity for investors to increase their exposure to Bitcoin, provided they have the ability to stomach significant volatility ahead.

How digital technology can transform the food and beverage industry
If the food and beverage sector is to achieve lofty growth, continued investment in technology must play a significant role. As one example of digitalisation within guest experience, it’s already hard to imagine a world without the option of online ordering and food delivery.

AC Ventures, BRI Ventures back Indonesian SaaS startup’s US$10M round
Founded in 2019 by Adi Wahyu Rahadi and Audia Harahap, Majoo offers solutions for SMEs, including an online cashier system, an online shop dashboard, inventory management, and accounting tools.

7 drivers of Southeast Asia’s “golden hour of opportunity” for startup founders and investors
Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem can grow ten-fold amidst the global turbulence and uncertainties with the “golden hour of opportunity”. This is why, in this article, we cover key, practical opportunities for both early-stage startup founders and investors to take advantage of.

Why ‘Indonesia-only’ Intudo Ventures believes SEA as one cohesive market is a fallacy
Intudo Ventures believes VC funds investing in SEA as one collective market underestimate the difficulty presented by fragmentation that such a strategy faces hopping from market to market.

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