ShopBack raises US$80M from Temasek-backed 65 Equity Partners
ShopBack has more than 35M users across 10 countries and powers US$3.5B in annual sales; The platform also facilitates 1M shopping journeys for over 10K merchant partners every day.

SG mobile app developer to list in US via US$2.5B SPAC deal
Asia Innovations Group will merge with Magnum Opus Acquisition, bringing in US$200M in cash to the firm; The deal is expected to conclude in Q1 2023; It also intends to raise up to US$150M in additional capital as part of the merger process.

Malaysian graftbuster probes MDEC over US$4.9M in false claims
The anti-graft agency’s investigation is centred upon two undisclosed companies that were paid claims by MDEC amounting to more than 19M ringgit and more than 7M ringgit to run training programmes from 2016 to 2020.

‘From a cybersecurity perspective, the Asian market still uses legacy tools’
e27 talked to Daniel Bernard, CMO, SentinelOne, which recently launched a US$100M global cybersecurity fund, S Ventures Fund; The VC firm sees a trend for desired automation, consolidation, and cloud security.

JD.com founder settles lawsuit for alleged rape
A former University of Minnesota student accuses Richard Liu of rape in 2018; A lawsuit was handed to Liu in 2019, with the former student accusing him of six counts of false imprisonment, civil assault and battery, and sexual assault or battery.

Crypto lender Nexo in talks to invest in or buy more companies in Asia
These companies range from distressed ones and those facing difficulties for various reasons to businesses; The potential deals are aimed at either expanding its footprint in Asia or allowing it to move into new verticals within crypto.

NFT gaming startup Metastrike closes US$3.3M funding round
The investors are GD10 Ventures, Jump Capital, and Kucoin Labs; Metastrike is an FPS-RPG, featuring an array of digital assets that players can collect and trade on the open market, such as weapons, skins, and projectiles.

Terra co-founder Daniel Shin likely to testify on Terra collapse
While the subject of the probe was not made public, Shin will likely be questioned on the crash of the company’s TerraUSD and Luna, Terra’s native token; His co-founder Do Kwon is also under investigation by Korea’s police.

Membership-driven e-commerce platform for essential goods Cosmart raises US$5M
The investors are Lightspeed, East Ventures, and Vertex Ventures SEA & India; Cosmart has already partnered with over 80+ principals and 500+ brands and has delivered over 100,000 products in Indonesia.

No funding winter for early-stage deals in SEA, say VCs
While there’s been an overall decline in early-stage deals in SEA during the first nine months of 2022, most VCs feel the region has largely managed to beat the global funding winter.

500 Global backs HK insurtech firm Yas’s US$4.5M raise
Other backers are Noria Capital, Zemu VC, and JKL Capital; Yas offers blockchain-enabled insurance products that provide coverage for accidents and NFT investments.

Xend founder launches Philippine proptech venture builder
Bjorn Pardo will also be spearheading the venture builder AHG Lab’s push into “proptech+”, which he says is the use of proptech solutions to address the needs of surrounding communities in addition to the needs of real estate stakeholders.

Echelon 2022 to discuss the state of the SEA startup ecosystem
Catch leading experts and industry insiders at Echelon 2022 as they discuss the post-pandemic tech startup landscape; They will touch upon why startups need to pay attention to debt restructuring, expenditures, marketing, and fundraising.

MENA on the rise with push and pull global economic drivers
With the right balance between investment returns and startup potential, PEs and VCs are more intrigued by regions like MENA.

The profitability trade-off: How startups navigate uncertain times to achieve quality growth
As startups progress from seed to early-stage and then growth and late-stage funding, they must recalibrate between profitability and growth.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused 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 co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

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The post Ecosystem Roundup: ShopBack raises US$80M, MDEC under investigation for US$4.9M false claims, SG’s ASIG to list in US via US$2.5B SPAC deal appeared first on e27.

Today, in the Asia Pacific, most startups and SMEs are leveraging technology-enabled business models, with a keen focus on regaining growth and gaining an edge over competitors. And in line with this urgent push toward digitalisation and innovation, the cloud has emerged as a core foundation of this renewed focus.

According to a report titled “The Future of Cloud in Asia Pacific” by Cisco and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the overall cloud spending in the region is expected to reach US$200 billion by 2024, with investments in cloud growing at a CAGR of over 20 per cent since 2018.

Getting clarity and some control over cloud expenses

Cloud has many benefits for businesses in a digital-first world, but it can be expensive.  Based on my observations, having worked with more than 300 digital native companies over the last six years, cloud costs contribute somewhere between 10-20 per cent of the overall operational spending (which can be even higher for SaaS companies).

Plus, there is an additional challenge – cloud cost wastage. Numerous surveys and reports conducted across APAC and beyond have shown that executives believe that over 30 per cent of their cloud spending goes to waste.

Furthermore, cloud costs might increase exponentially after IT upgrades or scaling an important workload. The cost increase might be a concern initially, but the workload enhancements could lead to more transactions and customers. To manage costs, establishing and adhering to metrics is vital.

As such, for small businesses and startups with low budgets, getting clarity on cloud expenses and figuring out how to optimise them is becoming increasingly critical. Startups are generally focused on creating product value and are thus often forced to choose between spending time implementing new functionalities and prioritising low-effort-high-impact architectural modifications to maintain momentum.

Also Read: How cloud computing is helping startups navigate the new normal

This is where modern technology consulting firms are stepping up to empower startups and SMEs to future-proof their businesses but just providing these solutions is not enough. Offering these solutions while helping startups and SMEs manage costs is the need of the hour, and at Searce, we are doing just that.

Lately, we see many businesses thriving on their DevOps (a set of practices, tools, and a cultural philosophy that automates and integrates the processes between software development and IT teams) to help keep cloud costs under control.

However, we think that FinOps or financial operations can be an ideal way to help startups control and manage their operating costs in a cloud environment.

What is FinOps?

FinOps is an operational framework that brings technology, finance, and business together to drive financial accountability. One of the main aspects of FinOps is to drive everyone to take accountability for their costs. To that end, every user of the cloud should feel responsible for their spending and empowered to take action to optimise it.

How FinOps is disrupting the approach toward cloud-led transformation

Reports suggest that the adoption of FinOps is swiftly advancing across APAC, and rightly so. There are multiple ways in which your company can cut down costs and benefit from the implementation of FinOps.

Reduced cloud costs

FinOps enable businesses to avoid big cloud bills and effectively cut cloud costs through visibility, cost optimisation, control and collaboration. On average, Searce customers have saved around 15-20 per cent after onboarding to their free cloud acceleration programme just by going through an assessment workshop where we highlight some obvious optimisations for these customers.

Generally, this is what a FinOps cycle looks like:

Inform Visibility and Allocation	Optimise Utilisation	Operate CI
Understanding the organisation’s resource consumption through context, data, budgets and forecasting.	Setting clear goals and targets by determining cloud costs through strategy, tracking, cost breakdown and cost growth boundary.	Aligning the organisation’s teams to business goals through drive and action with a keen focus on getting results for the organisation.

Complete transparency for better cost management and control

Through the principle of visibility in FinOps, you are able to identify organisational units, such as business units, teams, individual engineers, applications, cloud services and asset pools, and map them onto the cloud while preserving historical data for future trend analysis. As cloud resources are dynamic and constantly changing, it is important not only to capture the status quo but also to develop a process of getting visibility in dynamics.

Scope for cloud optimisation and improved performance

From analysing unused resources to VM re-flavouring (reviewing performance metrics from your VMs to see whether you need to choose less expensive flavours) and choosing the right instances based on business needs to storage and networking optimisation – cloud cost optimisation under FinOps covers a wide range of touchpoints.

Also Read: Desperate times, desperate measures: How to extend cash runway by reducing cloud costs

Implementing the principle of control in the FinOps process entails several items- creating dedicated budgets for granular items, setting TTL rules, creating clean-up scripts and so on.

Enables long-term optimisation and cost-saving processes

Lastly, collaboration in a FinOps cloud environment means cross-functional collaborations where engineers, operational, finance and executive teams are all involved. FinOps helps define cloud usage strategy, define and adjust cloud budgets, set cloud usage practices and review results and adjust if necessary.

Implementing FinOps

Now that it is clear how FinOps can help businesses manage cloud costs efficiently, it is also important to understand the ethos for the correct implementation of FinOps. Searce’s FinOps framework has been developed on the fundamentals of People, Process, and Technology.

People	Process	Technology
This aspect entails the team. The people who are responsible for FinOps practices, such as the core FinOps team and cross-functional stakeholders, use the cloud.	The Process dimension includes the steps (or Epics) you take to implement FinOps practices on the Cloud Platform.	Finally, the technology aspect consists of tools that can be leveraged to support the process.

yes

At Searce, dive deep into each of these pillars to analyse and establish one-time versus recurring actions, set clear goals and start measuring outcomes.

Cloud is an incredible solution that allows businesses to accomplish their goals and innovate at unparalleled speed. However, it requires methods to maintain financial discipline and ensure cloud costs don’t spiral out of control.

The mission of FinOps is to help businesses maintain this discipline while supporting their business goals. In other words, they preserve the reason the cloud is widely embraced in the first place – speed, flexibility, and capability. 

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

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Although many dine-in food & beverage (F&B) businesses exist in Singapore, the dine-in experience has not evolved much, according to qlub, a Dubai-based payments startup focused on restaurants that recently expanded into Singapore.

The city-state is, however, blessed with robust banking systems compared to many Middle Eastern markets. This bodes well for qlub, a QR-based payment solution that enables customers to split their bills with their friends.

“We realised that although there are many F&B businesses in Singapore, the dine-in experience has not evolved much, especially when providing customers with convenience and speed at the table,” qlub (Southeast Asia) COO Yong Sik Hoe said in an interview with e27.

Since the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurants in Singapore have begun phasing out the use of cash on the health and safety grounds of employees and patrons. Almost 90 per cent of Singaporeans already prefer going cashless, according to a study by qlub.

Post-pandemic, many F&B outlets are struggling, with rising rental and labour costs and difficulties in hiring/retaining staff. “I believe qlub can solve these problems by streamlining operations for these businesses,” Sik Hoe added.

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

qlub was established by a group of nine co-founders — many of who are Rocket Internet veterans with experience setting up and scaling companies such as Lazada, foodpanda, Namshi, and Snapp. It offers instant bill payments by scanning a QR code by phone, without app downloads or registrations required. Customers can use the service to split the bills with their friends and pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and debit/credit cards.

qlub is present in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Turkey, Australia, Japan and India, with more than 1,000 restaurant partners globally.

Early this year, the company raised US$17 million in a seed round co-led by Cherry Ventures and Point Nine.

In Singapore, more than 100 restaurants signed up to adopt qlub’s payment method since its pre-launch. Some of its partners are Merci Marcel, French Fold, Bar at Lorong 13, Ayam Penyet President, and Jibiru Yakitori & Craft Beer.

The firm employs ten people in Singapore and has team members in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines supporting its operations.

According to RAS, F&B sales are about US$829 million per month or almost US$10 billion annually in Singapore. About 70 per cent of the transaction is made with credit cards. “Singapore has a high credit card penetration and digital adoption. It is a testing ground, and we see overwhelming results despite just being in the market for a few months,” he revealed.

Sik Hoe also remarked that most Southeast Asian markets have robust banking systems. “We plan to launch at least one more market in Southeast Asia by the end of the year and many more in 2023.”

The F&B industries of Singapore and Dubai are almost similar. However, the Singapore market is much smaller, therefore, more competitive and fragmented, with many other players offering QR ordering or payment solutions. This makes it challenging to onboard new restaurants.

“Fortunately, we have a dedicated team working round the clock to integrate new POS systems with our solution so that restaurateurs can continue using their preferred management software without sacrificing quality or efficiency,” Sik Hoe concluded.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused 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. 

Here’s the full list of the speakers for the 2022 edition, which will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

The post ‘Singapore’s dine-in experience hasn’t evolved much despite many F&B outlets’: qlub COO appeared first on e27.

Petrochemical/chemical is one of the core industries providing products supporting our day-to-day lives. Currently, 96 per cent of the products we use daily are derived from these industries with their long and fragmented value chains. Due to the industries’ importance, it is vital to understand the challenges and find innovative solutions to address the pain points.

The petrochemical/chemical industry value chain starts all the way from oil and gas extraction, petroleum refining generating fuel products and petrochemical feedstocks, petrochemical plants producing bulk products; all the way downstream through the value chain in producing various plastics and chemicals used for manufacturing of fertilisers, textiles, industrial materials and a wide variety of consumer products such as shampoos, paints etc.

In order for this industry to function, it is essential to have tight coordination between all stakeholders within the value chain. However, with many stakeholders, dynamic supply and demand and a great many moving parts, it is not always easy for the industry to function smoothly.

Currently, the petrochemical industry in Asia is seeing a dynamic shift. After the 2020 crash in global markets due to the pandemic, 2021 saw a surge in demand as consumer spending returned and the need for products to combat COVID-19 drove sales.

This was especially true in Asia, given that the region is currently a key supplier of feedstocks such as naphtha, natural gas and basic petrochemicals like ethylene and propylene, all of which are used to make many of the aforementioned products.

Growth in 2022 was expected to continue based on the success of the previous year, and demand was forecasted to expand. However, demand instead began to wane, and various disruptions changed the flow of materials.

The Ukraine-Russia War has disrupted access to raw inputs, driving up prices and triggering a rise in costs that is filtering down to consumers. Higher prices potentially foreshadow a reduction in consumer spending as consumers may be forced to tighten their belts.

Furthermore, disruptions such as the trucking strikes in South Korea, which triggered shocks to the entire petrochemical value chain, impacting production, inventory, and higher costs, resulting in an inability to fulfil customer demand, are to be increasingly expected and proactively managed. 

These events, amongst others, illustrate the potential risks the petrochemical industry is exposed to and highlight the need for innovative solutions that have the ability to address critical challenges.

In 2022, in response to a slew of crises, chemical and petrochemical groups of South Korea identified several key areas that the industry needs to address in order to improve and stabilise itself. These were as follows:

• Improved and integrated supply chain management and automation
• Digital on-site management
• Production optimisation
• End-to-end solutions and digitisation

A number of companies have started to work on tackling each of these areas. However, a new challenge has now emerged. Despite attempts to implement end-to-end digital solutions, interoperability remains an issue as each corporate attempts to build and own its own systems.

Rather than helping, this creates further fragmentation across processes and companies. Furthermore, because no single actor owns the entirety of their supply chain, these solutions cannot truly be designated as end-to-end.

Also Read: ‘We hope to see more material science, heavy industry firms coming out of SEA to address climate change’

Addressing these challenges, solutions like Smart Tradzt are stepping in to deliver genuine end-to-end capabilities by providing modular, interconnected solutions that solve the industry’s key challenges. The team boasts a wide skillset and deep domain expertise across petroleum, petrochemical, supply chain, commercial excellence, digital trade and ecosystem collaboration.

Smart Tradzt has been working with companies to optimise and connect their processes and supply chains, boasting project experience with Exxon Mobil, Dupont, Siam Cement Chemicals and working with clients such as Petronas, Indian Oil and Cargill. By providing an array of modular solutions, Smart Tradzt has enabled companies to select and connect the solutions they need and seamlessly integrate them with current internal processes.

Smart Tradzt’s digital trade enablement platform is comprised of the following components:

B2B digital trade platform

One of the first challenges within the industries is that most of the sales and purchasing processes are still handled in an outdated way, with relationships and countless man-hours driving decisions. However, with the conventional sales channel disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of digital trade platforms has accelerated with the increased remote way of working.

Smart Tradzt offers a complete B2B digital trade platform that, by adopting the e-commerce model to industry processes and standards, allows companies to seamlessly handle the entire customer-facing portion of their business with a private marketplace.

The platform overcomes major B2B e-commerce pain points for the industry by moving away from price transparency through a list pricing mechanism, similar to what Alibaba uses, and instead providing the ability to enable real-time quotations with customised price offers and availability checking based on customers’ unique requirements.

This results in seamless dynamic negotiation with customers, with no sales intervention. Therefore, providing commercial operations efficiency and greater customer experience.  

Smart Tradzt ultimately believes that customers would, in fact, prefer public marketplaces, enabling them to conveniently source and choose suppliers offering the best options for their businesses. This would change the dynamics within these industries in important ways, and Smart Tradzt has already deployed such a solution for the Malaysian agricultural market.

This solution enables a many-to-many e-commerce marketplace that connects the industry and B2B/B2C buyers in a farm-to-table fashion. It is envisioned that the chemical and petrochemical industries will eventually adopt such digital channels with a hybrid of private and public marketplaces.

Dynamic pricing and commercial decision optimisation

Price volatility, reflecting the industry’s supply and demand situation, is a common feature of the commodity industry, where prices are often referenced to a commodity price index, such as Platts and ICIS, which is a proxy of the market price. Therefore, formula pricing is often used for price-risk management.

The current misconception in the industry is that nothing can be done to improve formula pricing because it is indicated by industry-level supply and demand. Furthermore, outside a few progressive digital leaders, most petrochemical companies are still under the illusion that enterprise resource planning solutions, such as SAP, are sufficient to manage their pricing.

Smart Tradzt provides its proprietary solution to optimise the pricing mechanism, taking into account pricing power, deal terms, market conditions, the supply situation and historical price realisation. This results in a science-based pricing approach which is also used to gain insights into customer price sensitivity and evaluate the demand to generate price guidance for both conventional and digital sales channels. This enables dynamic pricing to improve the company’s profitability and streamline the process.

Also Read: New climate-tech venture builder Wavemaker Impact targets to raise US$25M for Fund 1

Another major pain point addressed by Smart Tradzt is enabling structured real-time negotiation by identifying negotiation tactics which protect the supplier’s margin and automatically generate counter offers to the customer’s requested discounts.

This minimises the typical issue of unwarranted discounts by sales personnel and can also enable companies to identify who their most valuable customers are, helping to strategically prioritise sales to customers with higher margins during commercial negotiation and improving support for customer value pricing approaches. These capabilities have enabled petrochemical companies to benefit significantly from their digital transformation, typically generating ROI equivalent to two or five per cent of sales.

Supply chain/value chain management and ecosystem collaboration

The supply chain has been in the spotlight in recent years due to disruptions caused by various factors such as climate change, geopolitical tensions, and many more, all highlighting the risks around the severity of supply chain disruption to global trade.

Today’s supply networks are rigid, built for the world of yesteryear with its highly stable and predictable business environments. Therefore, lacking the ability to respond to the variety of global events resulted in shortages, congestion, damage to brand reputation, and direct losses of revenue.  

There is an urgent need for solutions not only to mitigate supply risks today but also to transition towards more transparent supply chains that are ready for future disruptions, as well as enabling newer ways of reducing costs through digitised ecosystem collaboration and value chain management. Smart Tradzt’s solution is positioned to address these challenges and capture supply chain cost-saving opportunities.

The platform enables end-to-end supply chain visibility, order status tracking, and disruption management and provides more accurate ETA predictions with AI. With their experience in this space, they have built a solution which not only evaluates options to handle shipment delays, assesses the impact of supply disruption and reprioritises customer order fulfilment based on customer segmentation but enables optimised costs through bulk shipment co-loading, load consolidation and multiple other solutions to temporary supply disruptions. Underpinning these capabilities is the ability to comprehensively model end-to-end costs and deal profitability. 

As petrochemical companies seek growth beyond their domestic markets, the ability to tap into high-growth regions and smoothen cross-border trade becomes increasingly crucial. With Smart Tradzt’s end-to-end digital platform, it is now possible to efficiently collaborate across ecosystem partners in a trusted manner.

By enabling better availability of trade finance (e.g. letters of credit) to overseas customers using blockchain bill of ladings, and facilitating customs clearance, growth in cross-border trade can be enhanced.

Also Read: On a mission to reform and simplify cross-border supply chains

This combination of solutions, in addition to the other services that Smart Tradzt offers, allows Smart Tradzt’s customers to streamline their B2B processes, resolve multiple industry challenges and begin to realise the benefits of true end-to-end digitisation, commercial excellence and supply chain management.

CK Chung, CEO of Smart Tradzt says, “We see a shift away from the traditional digital areas of focus within plant/factory optimisation, customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain planning (SCP), towards digital sales channels, commercial decision optimisation, and supply chain resilience (SCR). At Smart Tradzt, we are addressing these shifts by providing a future-ready, end-to-end platform that enables process transformation and leverages the synergy across different solution components to deliver process efficiency, holistic profit optimisation and more.

“We also support chemical companies’ strategic positioning to differentiate their commodity chemical and speciality chemical business and grow their overseas market effectively. In essence, petrochemical companies of the future would be competing on an ‘ecosystem by ecosystem’ and ‘value chain by value chain’ basis, while at the same time, tapping into opportunistic collaboration with other co-producers for win-win propositions.”

With the world rapidly adapting to a variety of changes and challenges, we are seeing that the chemical and petrochemical industries are no exception. As the industry contributes massively to so many of the products utilised in our daily lives, it is imperative that optimisation and cost-saving steps are taken, thereby also improving operations and downstream costs.

The call for improvement has been heard, and companies like Smart Tradzt are presenting corporates with solutions that speed up the journey towards full end-to-end digitisation and resolution of the challenges currently faced by the industry.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: Canva Pro

The post How Smart Tradzt is approaching the challenges of petrochemical industry appeared first on e27.

Think blockchain is just a fad? Once upon a time, Bill Gates thought consumers wouldn’t embrace the internet. In fact, he later had to revise his book “The Road Ahead” to talk more about the internet.

In 1995, Newsweek even published a column piece by Clifford Stoll predicting that the internet would just be a passing fad.

As someone who became a tech journalist in 1996 by joining the pioneering IT newspaper in the Philippines, Metropolitan Computer Times, I can tell you that many smart people didn’t believe the internet would take off.

CEOs, tech luminaries, and experts were saying in the 90s and 00s that the internet wouldn’t replace physical stores, put newspapers out of business, or entice people to watch movies and TV shows online, and so on.

Digital champions and critics

It was hard being a digital champion back then, and funny enough, it still isn’t a piece of cake now. As this article hilariously points out, the 1990s were a transition period from the analogue world to the brave new world of the internet:

“Those of us who are old enough to remember the world before we became completely dependent on the internet could never have predicted what life would be like now. Some of the things the internet has enabled us to do—wireless video chats with friends halfway around the globe, ordering food to be delivered to our door at the click of a few buttons, virtual support groups for every possible interest or ailment—were the stuff of imaginary, far-futuristic worlds, surely not realistic to expect in our lifetimes. (I mean, I figured we’d have flying cars before we’d have computers we could fit in our pockets, yet here we are.)

“The 1990s were this weird in-between phase where the tech geeks were all about the .com world, and tech-reluctant normies were all, ‘Gretchen, stop trying to make the internet happen. It’s not going to happen.’ Once the internet started becoming popular, some people did try to predict how it would all turn out.”

Social media sceptics

That happened during Web1 and was repeated during the advent of Web2 when sceptics said social media was just a fad. It wasn’t that long ago when many people scoffed at the idea of companies creating Facebook pages and posting these weird things called tweets. 

Now, for better or worse, we take social media for granted. And Web2 has thoroughly changed how we work and play, just as the first iteration of the web did.

Also Read: Web3, wallets, and winning the next culture revolution in Southeast Asia

Enter Web3, which now promises to decentralise the web, put the power back in the hands of users, and reward creators for their hard work. And just as you would expect, sceptics again say Web3 will just be a fad. 

Fad and FUD

Along with the fad accusations are the FUD. Particularly now that we’re in a bear market for crypto. How many times have pundits predicted that the crypto bubble has burst? And how many times have they been proven wrong? Just like those who predicted that the internet was just a fad. Or that social media was just a fad.

It happens whenever a new technology emerges, just like what’s happening now to the blockchain. You will have many sceptics saying it won’t take off, that it’s too technical for consumers, that society isn’t ready for it, and so on.

And, yes, we’re still in the early days of Web3. But it will continue to evolve, become easier for consumers to use, and reach critical mass. I think people have just forgotten how clunky email clients were during the early days or how primitive the first websites were.

Things will improve. We’ll continue to build Web3 and make it better.

As a digital champion from Web1 onwards and a gamer since I was a kid, I firmly believe blockchain gaming will be the entry point for the mass adoption of Web3. Just look at how the huge success of the blockchain game Axie Infinity and play-to-earn encouraged many gamers to learn crypto and create their own wallets. 

All gamers need is the right incentive. After all, for years, we’ve worked hard to level up our characters, complete missions, and finish games. All for the sake of virtual items and virtual currency. What more now that we can earn NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and cryptocurrencies that have real-world value?

So, no, blockchain isn’t a fad. But maybe being a sceptic is.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: AI-generated artwork via NightCafe Creator

The post Why blockchain isn’t a fad appeared first on e27.

For the past two years, the world has been busy handling cases of global health, COVID-19. There are so many adjustments to the regulation like people start working remotely, and children study from their homes with online classes. We are forced to live with technology and the surrounding internet.

Over these years, the technology industry has been on the rise. Every day a new tech startup comes up. Many experts predict that this year, we can recover our economy since the new industry is growing rapidly and the COVID-19 cases are also slowing down. 

But unfortunately, another problem comes, there is some conflict in western countries between Russia and Ukraine that is affecting the world’s economy and is now starting to become chaotic. Technology stocks began to decline drastically, technology companies are also making a lot of staff reductions. Some countries are increasing their interest rate and their inflation level.

Also Read: How to tackle cybersecurity threats during the holidays

Everyone started to plan their money wisely and cut some budget for something unnecessary. But, most tech companies have a challenge when they need to be more efficient, and at the same time, they need to be more protective of their data.

A study from Check Point Research (CPR) reported that the second quarter of 2022 saw an all-time peak, where global cyber-attacks increased by 32 per cent. The average weekly attacks per organisation reached a peak of 1.2K attacks.

So, what should this tech company need to do during the economic crisis?

What happens to cybersecurity?

The Economic crash has brought so many impacts, especially to the technology industry. As we can see, most tech companies lay off their employees to save their budget. Their stock prices are also going down during this time. In some cases, cyberattacks also worsen these tech companies.

Of course, cyberattacks make the company’s image look even worse. Cyberattackers can inject fake price quotes in data feeds, publish some fake news through reliable news organisations, or create numerous non-existent sell orders to cause stock prices to plummet and cause a market crash. 

The FBI has found that cybercrime has increased fourfold since the COVID-19 outbreak began. At their conference online, launched by the Aspen Institute, FBI assistant director Tonya Ugoretz said the FBI’s Cyber ​​Crime Complaints Centre (IC3) said she receives up to 4,000 complaints a day.

We need to be more serious to prevent these cyberattacks from occurring to our company during this critical time. Start from educating our employees with cyber awareness, and installing complete cyber protection.

Stay protected during the crisis with three steps

In this economic crash, people are very cautious about how they spend their money. On the other hand, cybersecurity is a must to have, but the cost is so expensive. We also need to pay for the software, management, and other details.

But the question is, can we ensure cyber safety with a minimum budget? When there is an issue, someone will always try to look for the solution. And yes, there are three steps that we can do to protect our company during this downturn.

Use an all-in-one console

It is the most effective way to reduce costs without sacrificing cybersecurity performance. Organisations often purchase different kinds of software directly from different vendors or multiple resellers, which usually results in a higher final price. A recession can be a good time to rethink your technology stack and identify key partners who can support multiple initiatives in an all-in-one console.

Simplifying the management of your tool set frees up time, money, and resources to focus on other projects.

Use automation

Many companies continue to struggle with digital transformation and building automation pipelines. Key industries such as energy and construction have a long way to go in replacing manual bottlenecks with digital energy, which will be a major source of growth for companies taking the plunge.

Also Read: How much does cybersecurity cost and how to budget for it?

An automation cybersecurity system will help the company get better protection and cut more budget. If previously they needed to check their system manually, now there is another company that can help them to detect it and will directly give a response. This technology may not be 100% AI, but at least it helps people in their job.

Focus on how to defence

The optimism and cash flow generated by growth markets are perfect for risky investments that create an aggressive advantage. But a recession is a good time to get back to basics and focus on defence. Security awareness training has consistently proven to be one of the most cost-effective strategies for reducing cybersecurity risks and mitigating potential consequences.

In fact, a company’s people (not technology) are its most vulnerable resource, and 80 per cent of successful cyberattacks are due to social engineering attacks.

It’s just a matter of time until we receive the attacks. What we can do now is think about protecting our company with trusted cybersecurity and using the budget effectively.

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In the 4.0 era, it is no secret that technology has the power to disrupt industries and change the world for good. But great technology has to start somewhere.

“Seeds to discovery lies in the simple things around us,” said Dr Kihoko Tokue who comes with a background in the field of behavioural science, and is the Managing Director of Leave a Nest Singapore, in a recent interview with e27.

Leave a Nest was founded by a group of visionaries that included 15 graduate students in Japan in 2001, who set out on a path to solve real global challenges with Science. Today, the company has a global presence with subsidiaries in Singapore, Malaysia, the UK, and the US. 

The ethos of Leave a Nest lies in the thought of “turning everyday wonder into scientific adventure” for education.

To add to that, Dr Tokue believes that observations lead to inquiry and questions that may eventually lead to great ideas and that some life-changing technologies come from a need to answer a question or solve a problem.

Also read: Looking back and moving forward: Leave a Nest at 20

A great example of this is the discovery of electricity. 2,500 years ago, a Greek mathematician and philosopher named Thales discovered the basic principle of static electricity when he rubbed a rod made of amber. Thales observed that due to static electricity caused by friction, matters like solidified amber could attract tiny objects such as dust and specks. Through observation and experimentation, 16th century mathematicians were able to figure out the difference between magnetism and electricity, ultimately leading to the modern day application of electricity.

In line with this idea of encouraging observations that lead to questions and eventually to innovation, Leave a Nest has launched the ONE Earth Programme. The programme seeks to nurture and strengthen the curiosity and inquisitive mind that is already present in children, with the goal of helping ignite their curiosity in their surroundings which prepares them for a future of innovation and solving problems.

The NEST methodology and the ONE Earth Programme

Dr Tokue strongly believes in and promotes a unique NEST methodology of education. “NEST stands for Nature, Engineering, Science and Technology. When we try to organise our learnings from nature, it becomes Science and when we apply efficient applications to Science it becomes engineering and technology. Our emphasis is the importance of understanding the foundation of science and technology, which comes from nature and engineering,” she explained

“We want future generations to embrace the foundation and root of things so they will not become a mere user of science and technology,” she added. 

In 2020, Dr Tokue came up with the idea of the ONE Earth programme. Born out of the need for an online nature education (ONE) programme during the pandemic, ONE Earth was born. “We were looking at online parties due to the pandemic and subsequent movement restrictions. Plus, we thought having an online programme, it will be easier to tap into the city youth living in urban places like Singapore and Tokyo,” she said. 

The programme couldn’t have come at a better time when the world was gradually realising the importance of sustainability and our dependence on Mother Nature. Now, in 2022, as the pandemic is nearing its end, ONE Earth is evolving into a hybrid programme in that there are online as well as onsite versions.

Also read: Deep tech startups gain multi-pronged support from Leave a Nest

“Being out in actual nature can never be replicated even with VR,” believes Dr Tokue. “However, not all of us can actually go out there due to multiple reasons- it can be lack of resources, health issues and so on. Hence, the online version gives everyone an opportunity to be a part of this programme,” she explained. One of the key elements of the programme is for the young generation to understand that human beings are very much a part of nature. At the core, we are animals too- just more evolved.

In the early 1980s, Harvard University biologist Edward O. Wilson proposed a theory called biophilia. This theory supported the idea that human beings are instinctively drawn toward their natural surroundings. However, most 21st century parents might question this theory, as they watch their kids express a clear preference for being in front of a screen for hours over playing outside. As such, Dr Tokue explains that she advocates nature but in no way shuns the power of technology. Instead, she encourages combining the power of technology and the potential of nature together. 

“I hope ONE Earth can be the first point of contact for the younger generation with nature- whether they are open to come onsite or join us from the comfort of their homes. As long as they have this opportunity to explore their options and feed their curiosity towards nature, our job is done,” said Dr Tokue.

Keen focus on micro-organisms, fermentation, and robotics

The programme focuses on three main topics: micro-organisms, fermentation, and robotics. Lectures as well as hands-on experiences on these subjects will be conducted to give students insights into how these subjects apply in our day-to-day lives. For example: how microorganisms can be used in the cosmetics industry or how robotics is changing the world slowly.

“Our focus is to orient their approach towards a more scientific one while showing them how nature inspires initial ideas that may lead to innovation,” shared Dr Tokue.

There is a dire need for workshops and programmes that remind kids and teenagers about observing the beauty of the nature and surroundings around us. This is where the Leave a Nest’s ONE Earth programme comes in.

Also read: Seeding ideas, nurturing explorations with Leave a Nest Grant

Welcoming 13 to 15-year-olds, the ONE Earth programme focuses on first-hand experience and output for learning. The programme is developed to help build the exploration and observation mindset in the younger generation. By joining the workshop, participating students will learn about scientific approaches and different forms of knowledge about each topic. Leave a Nest limits the size of participants to cultivate close communication and care for each student. There will be 1 teaching assistant per 4 students.

Interested participants can either join individual workshops or can choose to join all three in sequence or at a later time. Each workshop has a maximum capacity of 16 pax.

With the ONE Earth programme, Leave a Nest seeks to nurture future leaders that are not afraid to ask questions and repeatedly look for solutions for real-world problems by leveraging knowledge and harnessing the power of inquiring minds that may one day turn into a knowledge of Science and Technology.

Learn more about the programme here and register here. 

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Leave a Nest

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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The world economy is reeling under the combined impact of geopolitical risks, rising inflation and interest rate hikes. This is visible in the depressed GDP growth rates and the wild fluctuations of volatile and nervous stock exchanges. At the end of H1 2022, the S&P 500 was down 21 per cent from the peak, with valuations touching 16.6x, a 30 per cent correction from the 23.6x peak we saw in 2021.

With COVID-19 still mutating and erupting sporadically and political turmoil in many regions, the markets remain muted and listless. Charting the dynamics of the global economy, and in particular, the Southeast Asia region, is a detailed report I did for Kickstart Ventures, a corporate venture capital firm that invests in early- to early-growth stage tech startups globally.

 

In March 2020, when the market realised the immense magnitude and possible repercussions of the mysterious virus, it plummeted by 34 per cent, eroding a vast amount of investor funds and sentiment. The steep plunge was relatively short-lived, as the market rebounded, taking the S&P 500 less than five months to retrace its recent high.

The current market deviation, now in its ninth month, from its high in January 2022 is showing little sign of easing with the Fed rigorously imposing dramatic interest rate hikes to curtail inflation.

VC funds pivot

Amidst this dismal scenario, growth has not stalled in the SEA region. Relatively less affected by the pandemic, the region’s agility and resilience have continued to attract investments that have enabled it to surge ahead.

Even as the pace of startup fundraising decelerates, the smart money hasn’t abandoned the region completely. While China-focused funding dries up, funds have been channelled into the SEA region. 

SEA VCs are still very upbeat about the region’s positive demographics and ability to grow. Among the prominent VCs which have raised larger funds in 2022 are Sequoia (US$850M), Elevation Capital (US$670M), Jungle Ventures (US$600M), East Ventures (US$550M), Insignia Ventures Partners (US$516M) and Wavemakers Partners (US$136M).

SEA levels rising

In 2022, VC fund flow across the world has lost a bit of pressure but is still going strong in the SEA region. After crunching the figures, data suggests that while the average monthly deal value has dropped to US$1.6B in 2022, the deal count has risen 16 per cent YOY to an average of 102 deals per month.

This implies that while deal sizes are getting smaller, more deals are actually getting done, suggesting a larger proportion of earlier-stage deals. To put this fact into perspective, the average of US$1.6B per month deal value in 2022 is still a 2x increase over the 2020 figure of US$800M.

Also Read: How to navigate through the vast opportunities in the finance industry

At Kickstart, we have seen H1 2022 deal flow count to be steady at 318 deals, vis-a-vis the same period last year. The 2020 deal flow was the largest with 745 deals, with 2021 coming in second at 678 deals. If current trends hold, 2022 will likely track the deal count of 2021, which is remarkable given the multiple headwinds the world and the region are now witnessing.

Leading the growth wave and attracting a large quantum of funding are three potentially high-growth areas that have not only weathered the pressures of the pandemic but have displayed substantial growth and future potential.

3-D growth areas

The pandemic revolutionised the world, forcing people to re-align their priorities. Gauging the emerging needs, the focus is now on digitisation, decarbonisation, and decentralisation. These 3 “Ds” are now the key thrust areas that are set to register three-dimensional growth in the years ahead. 

Digitisation

Businesses and consumers have realised the immense value of going digital. This is reflected in a Google study, which estimates the SEA digital economy to be worth US$170B in 2021, which is expected to grow to US$360B by 2025. Attracted by the convenience, variety and payment options, e-commerce as behaviour is likely to persist and snowball.

Here in the Philippines alone, we estimate digital penetration (defined as the value of the digital economy divided by GDP) to be only four per cent, compared to Indonesia at six per cent, underlining tremendous growth potential given similar demographics. This digital economy is mainly driven by e-commerce, transport and food, online travel, and online media. 

Decarbonisation 

Numerous nations and media are pivoting attention on the adverse impact of climate change. According to the UN, 90 per cent of disasters are related to climate-change effects, costing the global economy US$520B, and pushing 26 million people into poverty.

The Philippines, too, because of its geographical location, is acutely experiencing climate change, bearing the brunt of around 20 typhoons yearly. In parallel with the escalated ESG spending, there are numerous startups focused on tackling the decarbonisation problem in an attempt to mitigate the long-term challenge of climate change.

Decentralisation

In the arena of decentralisation, blockchain is possibly the biggest innovation that is here to stay. The tarnished image of cryptocurrency and its recent meltdown has made people wary of blockchain products, too.

Also Read: What the fall of Terra Luna and the Asian financial crisis have in common

However, blockchain is a versatile solution with applications in digital identity, smart contracts, land titling, real-time payments, etc. Despite its volatility and speculative nature, commercially feasible and robust blockchain-based products and services are sure to become the preferred choice of tomorrow.

Our view

We have identified these three “Ds” as this generation’s thrust areas because a large quantum of development and innovation is concentrated in these business spheres, attracting both investment and talent.

While tracking trends in the SEA region, we saw that deal flow across the region remained largely the same compared to previous periods, as e-commerce and fintech account for the lion’s share of deals. The two sectors combined contributed 42 per cent of the deal count and 57 per cent of aggregate deal value during the 2nd quarter of 2022. B2C commerce, e-commerce enablers, B2C and C2C commerce combined to account for 64 per cent of e-commerce deals. In the fintech space, wealth tech, e-payments, and lending combined to account for more than 90 per cent of fintech deals.

The challenges of the pandemic gave a strong impetus to companies in the e-commerce, fintech, and healthcare domain. E-commerce grew sharply and tapered off slightly after 2021, while fintech grew slower but inched up steeply after 2021. Healthcare, on the other hand, grew rapidly in 2020, although it lost a little steam in 2021, the sector grew five per cent in the first half of this year.

While global markets, both public and private, undergo a correction, SEA will fare better than the rest as smart investors continue to be keen on the 3 “D” catalysts of the SEA growth story. With SEA estimated to grow 5.0 per cent and 5.2 per cent during the same period and with the Philippines seen to grow >6.3 per cent for both years, we believe that the SEA growth will stay resilient given the structural tailwinds.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

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It will take more than a global health crisis to make Singapore startups hang up the gloves. Within the third quarter of last year, startups raised up to $11.2 billion, more than twice the amount generated in 2020 — proof that the island remains an attractive hub in Southeast Asia for young entrepreneurs despite the beatings the world took from COVID-19.

The challenges of fundraising

Raising funds is not a drill, especially when investors are tightening their purses and requiring more convincing these days. A position paper by ACE shows that 69% of surveyed startups perceive fundraising as a “difficult task” that could take 1-2 years. They attributed the challenges to high expectations and grant hurdles.

Also read: Echelon 2022 to discuss the state of the SEA startup ecosystem

The failure rate for startups is high, particularly during the seed stage, as investors want a higher return of at least ten times. There’s also the issue with some early-stage founders who lack clarity about the real-world problems their solutions aim to address, preventing them from attracting investors. Another challenge is adjusting to the new normal as pandemic restrictions eased without returning to the way it was before.

Although, behind the uncertainties lie opportunities to innovate and keep the startup ecosystem evolving. High confidence is placed in local startups who have displayed agility in redesigning business models to ease the crisis’ impact, while mentors are ready to guide new entrepreneurs.

We turn to experts

Notable founder Aaron Tan, Founder and CEO of Carro, is among the leaders willing to show the way for startups. Carro has raised over $1 billion to date from various sources, including angels, VCs, venture debt, and credit lines. How has Aaron done it and what can we learn from his experience? 

In a fireside chat at the Echelon Asia Summit 2022, Aaron, together with Willis Wee, CEO and Founder of Tech In Asia, will discuss a founder’s approach to fundraising over $1B and raising capital at different stages and environments. They will explore key questions that can help founders navigate the post-pandemic fundraising scene. 

• How much of fundraising is an art vs science?
• What were the most challenging fundraising experiences and how did they overcome them?
• How is the strategy/story different from earlier stages to later stages?
• What are the do’s and don’ts that founders need to keep in mind?
• Post fundraising, how can founders maintain a positive relationship with investors?

Also read: Meet the 6 companies you can connect with at Echelon 2022

Join them in exploring the various aspects of fundraising during tough times, effective ways to start and maintain relations with investors today, the do’s and don’t’s in fundraising, and the points to highlight when speaking to a potential investor.

Echelon Asia Summit 2022 (October 27-28) returns after a three-year hiatus. It aims to gather the most influential decision-makers and industry leaders from the Southeast Asia tech and startup ecosystem.

Register for Echelon Asia Summit 2022 now!

The post Echelon: A founder’s approach to fundraising at different stages appeared first on e27.

Blibli aims for US$2B valuation in Indonesia IPO
This is a significant markdown from the US$4B that the e-commerce firm was reportedly targeting in June this year; At the time, the Djarum-backed company was planning to raise around US$500M in the IPO this year.

Fintech unicorn Xendit lays off 5% staff in Indonesia, Philippines
“The decision was based on the business strategy by seeing the future situation and comprehensive consideration to make sure that we are ready to face future opportunities and challenges,” says its COO Tessa Wijaya.

‘Singapore’s dine-in experience hasn’t evolved much despite many F&B outlets’
qlub (SEA) COO Yong Sik Hoe says the city-state is blessed with robust banking systems compared to many Middle Eastern markets, which bodes well for the payments solutions firm.

Singapore’s 3D printing firm Structo raises US$10M
The investors include SGInnovate, Seeds Capital, and Apsara Investments; It has partnered with the dental industry and helped develop application-specific solutions for the sector – from hardware, software, and solutions made out of photopolymer resin.

Vietnam’s Marathon Education raises seed financing
The investors include Vulcan Capital, Forge Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, and Goodwater Capital; The firm provides live interactive cohort-based classes in large- or small-class format to K-12 students in the country.

In September, the SEA startup ecosystem was all ready to go out again
We can even say that September was the month when the MICE industry in Singapore was making its comeback as the borders reopened and the world started turning again. But what does it mean for the tech startup ecosystem?

Alipay removed from Shanghai priority high-tech firms list
The company, owned by Ant Group, was removed because it didn’t meet R&D spending requirements, according to a notice from the Chinese government; As a result, the fintech giant may not receive certain tax benefits.

bolttech acquires majority shares in Indonesian insurance broker Axle Asia
This deal will accelerate the deployment of bolttech’s insurance exchange capabilities and complement its existing presence as a device protection provider in Indonesia.

Singapore’s risk assessment company Bizbaz raises US$4M
The investors include HSBC Asset Management, Vynn Capital, and SOSV; Bizbaz provides customer intelligence and risk assessment solutions to enable financial institutions to acquire and serve unbanked and underbanked populations.

Thai online learning platform Globish closes US$2.5M Series A+
The investors include depa, Premier, N-VEST Venture, ECG Research, 500 Tuktuks, and Stormbreaker Venture; Globish conducts 300K English and Chinese classes for learners comprising 20% of students and 80% of working-age people.

Indonesia’s climate tech venture builder Ecoxyztem raises funding
The investors are TAP Applied Agri Services, Konservasi Hutan Indonesia, and Pegasus Tech Ventures; Ecoxyztem provides access to talent, venture architecture for business modelling, go-to-market activities through business matchmaking, and investments.

500 Global selects 20 startups for Taiwan accelerator
The programme will be held in Taiwan this year, in collaboration with Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA), a deep tech startup ecosystem; Of the 20 startups, 12 are from Taiwan, and the rest are from HK, Korea, the US, the UK, Malaysia, Canada, and Indonesia.

Founders Factory, Pico Group launch venture builder in Asia
The collaboration will build a new venture studio and establish an accelerator programme for startups in areas like Web3, marketing technology, and event activation over the next three years.

Antler, Iterative back Indonesian mental health app for Muslims
Qalboo said it will use the proceeds of the round to build its app and R&D programme as well as recruit its first few team members; An internal study carried out by Qalboo found that 70% of Muslims in Indonesia suffer from mental health issues.

MAS to launch US$3.5M grant initiative for blended finance projects
Blended finance involves attracting commercial capital to projects centred around sustainability; The Asia Climate Solutions Design Grant will also be funnelled into high-impact target sectors in Asia.

AC Ventures partners with BCG to promote Indonesian ESG standards
The net impact ratio metric juxtaposes the degree of positive and negative resources used by a firm, which is akin to a profitability metric for ESG.

Velocity Ventures invests in Israeli robot kitchen firm
Hyper Food Robotics assembles 40-foot autonomous robotic “box” kitchens to prepare fast food; These kitchens handle all stages of cooking, from food preparation to packing.

Google launches circular economy accelerator
The 10-week programme for nonprofit organizations and startups in APAC and North America will focus on customer acquisition, product design, leadership development, circular economy deep dives, research, and workshops.

Binance to investigate potential US$110M exploit in Binance Smart Chain
The firm said about US$7M of the amount had already been frozen, with the help of its internal and external security partners as well as the community around the exchange.

TerraLabs co-founder seeks to withdraw from testifying in a parliamentary audit
In his written statement to South Korea’s National Assembly, Daniel Shin reasoned that his appearance at the proceeding may disrupt the ongoing probe into the Terra crash led by local prosecutors.

Thai media giant to work with Sygnum for US$300M hybrid equity-NFT raise
The amount will go toward T&B Media Global’s new interconnected metaverse platform Translucia; The hybrid equity-NFT structure is meant to provide both issuers and investors with a regulated means of participating in the opportunities presented by the metaverse.

Japan to expand NFT, metaverse investments
This is in line with PM Fumio Kishida’s pro-Web3 agenda; Under his administration, Japan has taken various steps toward digital transformation and Web3 integration, including setting up a Web3 policy promotion office to serve the country’s blockchain firms.

Binance gets digital assets license from Kazakhstan
Binance will offer digital-asset exchange and conversion services, the deposit and withdrawal of fiat currencies, cryptocurrency custody, and exchange trading in the country.

Why blockchain isn’t a fad
Blockchain now promises to decentralise the web, put the power back in the hands of users, and reward creators for their hard work.

How AI and automation can shape the future of farms
Developing an AI platform in the farming system reduces the time needed to conduct experiments and get results quicker.

The future of the rural economy is here
Over 80 per cent of Indonesia’s population is currently residing in rural areas; Social commerce platform Dagangan is leading the charge in accelerating the Indonesian rural business landscape.

Echelon 2022 to discuss the state of the SEA startup ecosystem
Catch leading experts and industry insiders at Echelon 2022 as they discuss the post-pandemic tech startup landscape and what’s in it for 2023.

Put yourself in the spotlight with our new contributor-only leaderboard
This leaderboard is a ranking chart based on article views where you can see our top trending contributors and their published bylines.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused 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. 

Here’s the full list of the speakers for the 2022 edition, which will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

 

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Xendit lays off 5% staff; Blibli aims for US$2B valuation in IPO; Binance to probe potential US$110M exploit in blockchain appeared first on e27.