The COVID-19 pandemic showed us just how important kirana stores are in India. Rather than abandoning their neighbourhood shops in favour of online deliveries, Indian consumers told us they bought more groceries from these local shops during lockdowns. They also said they had no plans to stop shopping there in the future.

We can now say emphatically that corner shops remain integral to Indian society and the overall retail ecosystem. Yet these independent, family-run stores face challenges in their day-to-day operations. We must therefore improve the efficiency of these neighbourhood shops and safeguard the long-term future of the network.

As India embraces digitalisation, there is an opportunity to use technology in a way that benefits kirana owners, local communities and the national economy.

The critical role of the kirana

My firm, Flourish Ventures, recently partnered with research firm 60 Decibels and our portfolio company ApnaKlub, a B2B wholesale platform, to survey shop owners and customers across key emerging markets.

Also Read: How insurgent brands are redefining India’s consumer growth story

We found that India’s kirana stores, and shops like those in Indonesia, Egypt and Brazil, are indispensable to their neighbourhood communities. They offer convenient shopping, access to fresh food and an assortment of other services that also includes credit.

In India, these small merchants are also important to our national economy. More than half of Indians buy all their groceries in kirana stores, and 90 per cent of the overall grocery market, US$600 billion in India, runs through them.

Among surveyed kirana customers, we found 86 per cent make purchases at least once per week at their local shop, while 30 per cent shop there every day.

These numbers are especially enlightening in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated the use of online shopping globally as people sought home delivery or contactless payment options.

Instead of putting local shops out of business, the pandemic has reinforced the importance of India’s kirana network.

Our research indicates that 84 per cent of India’s consumers bought more groceries, not less, from kirana during the COVID-19 lockdowns, with 92 per cent of survey respondents saying they plan to use kirana as much or more in the future.

Trust and technology

Although pervasive, kirana stores are a highly disaggregated market. There’s little commonality of ownership, and they lack the economies of scale that hypermarkets or e-commerce can leverage.

What kirana stores do command is trust.

In addition to proximity, 42 per cent of surveyed shoppers told us they value longstanding relationships; 43 per cent reported good customer service was a key differentiator, and 33 per cent said they regularly make purchases on store credit.

Adding technology to that trusted base will allow shops to compete on a whole new level.

Digital disruption upends all kinds of businesses, from books to travel. Disruptors target customer pain points and create streamlined and virtually consolidated offers. Applying the same theory to kirana back offices could have a similar impact with accretive effects rather than disruptive ones.

We found some of the biggest obstacles shopkeepers face revolve around purchasing and managing inventory, or serving customers:

• 74 per cent cited issues with ordering, checking, and receiving products
• 74 per cent said they had difficulties attending to customers
• 60 per cent reported challenges with managing inventory and product placement
• 54 per cent said they lacked visibility into profits and margin

Addressing these challenges should draw a wide and lucrative customer base for digital developers. There are 12 million kirana stores across India, and they all have similar pain points. That equals scale.

Digital opportunities

Almost all shop owners use digital tools, social media, messaging, aggregator sites, and other apps, at home, so there’s little resistance for developers to overcome.

Also Read: Why digital lending is the future for SMEs in India

Simply helping kirana stores on the supply side is an example of where digital tools can have a big impact. Kirana suppliers are often far from the stores. Travelling to wholesalers, picking stock and bringing back inventory is time-consuming and costly for shop owners, who sometimes are sole proprietors.

That’s a lot of operations ripe for streamlining, and many non-tech middlemen have popped up to address the situation. But these transactions are highly cash-based, with limited capital available from shop owners, thereby limiting their ability to scale. And as extra links in the chain, these middlemen also increase costs and squeeze margins for the shopkeepers.

At Flourish, we have invested in ApnaKlub, an online wholesale platform that consolidates FMCG suppliers and integrates logistics, inventory management and point-of-sale systems. Just as an ecommerce platform aggregates retail products for consumers, ApnaKlub does it on a wholesale level for shopkeepers.

Capturing sales data also helps stores and suppliers optimise shelf space and offer faster-moving goods, thereby bolstering revenue. The end result is greater variety for consumers and better margins for shop owners.

Financial services are also embedded into the app, eliminating cash-advance needs and further supporting small players in the ecosystem while increasing sales volumes.

The scale of opportunity to digitise our corner shops is enormous. There are many undeveloped avenues where technological innovation can further advance productivity and economic resilience for India’s small businesses, which directly translates into more jobs with higher skills for all of India’s families.

By keeping kirana at the centre of their communities, this technological dividend can bring wide benefits across India.

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Bitcoin guzzles energy. Therefore, it’s bad for the environment. That’s how the story often goes in media outlets like The New York Times. Not knowing much about how Bitcoin works (or, indeed, how even energy works!), the public is likely to agree with a blanket statement like this.

But those who have studied the relationship between Bitcoin and the environment beg to differ. At a recent webinar on cryptocurrency and energy, Brianna Lee Welsh of Reneum and Adrian Chng of Fintonia Group did just that, sharing their industry insights on the reality of Bitcoin mining and its usage today.

Could Bitcoin turn out to be good for the environment after all? Let’s take a closer look at the issue.

Is Bitcoin good for the environment?

It’s true that Bitcoin consumes the most energy among all the cryptocurrencies in the world. Running the Bitcoin network costs us an estimated 130 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per year, enough to power a small country, as the oft-bandied-about comparison goes.

Also Read: “We want to facilitate organisations’ Web3 transition from bits to atoms”: Brinc CEO Manav Gupta

One reason is that Bitcoin, being the world’s largest and oldest public blockchain network, is more widely used than any other.

But more importantly, mining Bitcoin uses Proof of Work (PoW) validation, a computational method that gets increasingly energy-intensive the closer we get to the total supply cap of 21 million BTC. It is this unique structure that guarantees Bitcoin’s resilience as a store of value.

Those are the facts of the matter. But, even as we acknowledge their truth, we maintain that Bitcoin can be good for the environment.

Why? Firstly, Bitcoin uses significantly less energy than traditional banking. The global banking infrastructure is vast, yet its energy usage has gone largely unscrutinised. However, new research shows it is a much more energy-intensive enterprise than Bitcoin.

Second, renewable energy makes up a large share of the energy used to run Bitcoin. In fact, Bitcoin can and does drive renewable energy adoption, which most people would agree is good for the environment.

Bitcoin vs traditional banking: which uses less energy?

Rather than comparing Bitcoin energy consumption with that of countries, it is perhaps fairer to compare it against the existing banking infrastructure.

Now, quantifying the total energy consumption of the global financial industry is a huge undertaking, and this field of research is still in its nascent stages.

Nonetheless, a few attempts have been made to estimate the industry’s energy use.

A May 2021 report by Galaxy Digital estimates 263.72 TWh per year, more than twice what Bitcoin consumes.

More recently, in June 2022, Michel Khazzaka produced an even more damning report about the state of banking. Khazzaka put the energy consumption estimate at close to 5,000 TWh a year, or 38 times Bitcoin’s 130 TWh!

Even without the data, it’s not hard to imagine that the global banking ecosystem is hugely energy-intensive.

“All we can say with confidence is that the global financial sector has a significant environmental cost,” writes Forbes’ contributor Martin Rivers.

“Its skyscrapers, computer systems and jet-setting bankers are not helping climate change. We can also safely assume that central banks and their money printers are no greener.”

On the other hand, Bitcoin allows financial transactions to be carried out with much greater efficiency and potentially less cost to the environment.

With traditional banking, there would be numerous entities and layers involved in checking, cross-checking, and confirming the transaction. But with Bitcoin, all the necessary validation is computed nearly instantaneously, making it less energy-intensive as a system.

Using clean energy to mine Bitcoins

Comparing total energy consumption is important, but it is not the only metric that counts today. In our fight against climate change, the source of energy is an important dimension to look at as well.

All things being equal, we would naturally choose renewable or clean energy (such as wind, hydro, or solar power) over non-renewable fossil fuels.

And it turns out that Bitcoin is one of the world’s industry leaders in green energy adoption. As of Q4 2021, nearly 60 per cent of the global Bitcoin industry ran on renewable energy, according to the Bitcoin Mining Council.

The surprising synergy between Bitcoin and clean energy boils down to two features:

First, Bitcoin mining is location-agnostic. Because the work is done by computers, it’s possible to set up a mining farm next to a clean power source (typically outside the city). Also, Bitcoin mining can take place around the clock, which reduces energy wastage.

Also Read: As the demand for energy soars, climate tech is here to save the day

In combination, these two factors explain why clean energy often works out to be one of the cheapest and most efficient power sources for Bitcoin mining.

Some proponents believe that Bitcoin mining actually incentivises clean energy adoption by driving demand and rewarding investments in renewable energy infrastructure.

How Bitcoin can help us fight climate change

Bitcoin has been unfairly vilified in popular media as an energy hog and an environmental disaster. But, in reality, this isn’t the case.

Not only is the Bitcoin network much more energy-efficient than the global financial infrastructure, but much of the power it consumes also comes from clean energy sources. Furthermore, Bitcoin can help fight climate change by incentivising clean energy adoption.

As ESG (environmental, social, and governance) concerns become ever more pressing, Bitcoin is surely a worthy addition to any responsible-minded investor’s portfolio.

Yet there are significant risks and challenges around investing in Bitcoin, as most professional investors would know.

Fintonia Group created the Fintonia Bitcoin Physical Fund as a solution for wealth managers, trustees, and other professional investors.

Managed by a regulated fund manager with licenses in Singapore and Dubai, the Fund is an institutional-grade product that eliminates most of the regulatory and security risks around investing in Bitcoin.

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

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Startups in Southeast Asia should focus on growing with good fundamentals rather than chasing valuation only, according to Carmen Yuen, General Partner at Vertex Ventures SE Asia & India.

“Companies to be mindful of margins and expenses, whether in good or bad times. At the end of the day, they need to demonstrate that they are running a good business so that even in a challenging environment like this, they can still raise funds to continue their growth plans,” Yuen said in an interview with e27.

Also Read: ‘Economic crises become less important when investing with a longer-term mindset’: Qin En Looi

She also feels that Southeast Asia needs to grow together and produce more quality unicorns. The region, as fragmented as it is, has slightly more than 50 unicorns, whereas India has already surpassed 100 unicorns. Depending on their performances, some of the region’s unicorns could even fall off the unicorn horse.”

“The purpose of a business is to achieve profitability. This is a discipline that all companies should have, regardless of macroeconomic conditions. It should not be a behavioural change only when there is a crisis,” she cautioned.

Based in Singapore, Vertex Ventures SE Asia & India is an early-stage investor and one of Southeast Asia’s oldest VC funds. It has invested in nearly 80 startups at their seed and Series A/B rounds. Vertex’s portfolio companies include Grab, Patsnap, Nium, FirstCry, Licious, Aruna, the Parentinc, and Sunday.

Carmen noted that despite the prevailing funding winter, Vertex has not slowed down its investment pace. Neither did it invest more during the last 18 months, when funding activity was exuberant, and valuations were sky-high.

“We have found a cadence that works for us; that’s about 12 new companies a year. We believe this is a good time to find gems at a fair valuation with the market correction.”

Also Read: ‘The next generation of unicorns will be from greentech’: Wavemaker Impact’s Steve Melhuish

The Vertex GP, who earlier held various key roles at EDBI and Spring Singapore, also touched upon the climate tech sector in the region during the interview. Southeast Asia contributes to environmental damage, yet the region stands to gain by participating in climate tech opportunities from an economic angle. 

“We will suffer from the impact of climate change, which includes floods that disrupt our coastal communities given the sizeable shorelines and low-lying areas in Southeast Asia. This year, we have already witnessed floods in Indonesia, including Aceh, where more than 18,000 people were displaced,” she remarked.

“Our region is young, with an average age of 29, many aspire to live a better life contributed by good GDP growth leading to higher discretionary consumption. This includes electrifying our homes, owning motorbikes or cars, and embracing air travel. In 2019 alone, we contributed 1,600 MtCO2 to the environment. Left unchecked, this could balloon in no time,” Yuen warned.

Southeast Asia is in a unique position from a supply perspective. Although the region covers only four per cent of the earth’s land surface area, it comprises six of the world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots, is responsible for 15 per cent of the world’s fish production, and harbours extensive seagrass beds, coral reefs and mangrove mass. 

“Consequently, our region is in a prime position to be a major global supplier of nature-based carbon credits,” she said.

In her opinion, offline events such as Echelon provide an avenue for founders to take a pause from their daily grind and meet with and hear from investors and gather feedback regarding their businesses. It allows them to access intelligence to connect the dots better. This could perhaps lead to more sound decisions being made.

Also Read: Nothing can truly replace the offline element of community building: Yinglan Tan

These events are also platforms for VCs to interact with peers; the last two years were challenging as we mostly met via Zoom and rushed through many investment opportunities. This is an excellent time to catch up, exchange notes and discern which innovations we want to back.

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Carmen Yuen will speak about the state of Southeast Asia’s tech startup ecosystem today and what’s in it for 2023 in a panel discussion at Echelon Asia 2022, which 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 has curated and invited 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. 

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Blibli set to raise US$528M in local IPO at US$3.5B valuation
The listing is slated for November 7; It is the third Indonesian unicorn going public on the local exchange IDX, following Bukalapak and GoTo Group.

Indonesia edutech firm Binar Academy lays off 20% of employees
The decision is attributed to an uncertain global economy; According to CEO Alamanda Shantika, Binar plans to strengthen its core business, streamline operations, and optimise investment efforts.

Indonesian quick commerce firm Bananas to shut shop, plans to pivot
Bananas says it couldn’t find unit economics that worked for the company; It has also laid off 36 employees; The company is pivoting to a new business outside the e-grocery space; The firm is backed by East Ventures, YC, and MDI Ventures.

PropertyGuru forays into home services with Sendhelper acquisition
With the Sendhelper deal, PropertyGuru.com.sg will become a one-stop destination for property seekers to find, finance, own, manage and maintain their homes.

Japan’s Tokio Marine leads insurtech unicorn bolttech’s Series B round
The round values bolttech at approximately US$1.5B; bolttech, which quotes ~US$50B worth of annualised premiums through its technology-enabled insurance exchange, will use the money for global growth.

Endowus acquires Hong Kong multi-family office Carret Private Investments
With this acquisition, the Endowus group of companies will now vertically integrate to serve the needs of different client segments and look to provide superior investment and advisory solutions.

HK’s voice AI company Fano Labs nets funding from Gobi Partners-led fund
Fano Labs’s AI voice analytics system Callinter analyses all the banks’ audio records and automatically flag recordings that might contain mistakes, and misconducts; Callinter can process audio 100x faster than humans.

Love, Bonito acquires Singapore-based activewear label Butter
The deal follows Love Bonito’s series C funding last year where it raised US$50M led by a Chinese VC giant Primavera; Love, Bonito has also bought a minority stake in healthcare startup Moom Health.

Asia-focused SPAC TenX Keane raises US$60M in US IPO
The SPAC, led by Xiaofeng Yuan, who is currently the chairman of Shaanxi 38Fule Technology, will look for target businesses with valuation between US$200M and US$600M.

HK-based chat management firm ImBee bags US$5M Series A funding
The lead investor is DCM Ventures; A SaaS company, ImBee provides one central inbox for instant communication channels with business tools and workflow automation, helping brands communicate with their customers and teams.

Indonesian agritech firm Beleaf raises US$2M seed funding
The investors include Alpha JWC, Sembrani Nusantara Fund, and Arise; Beleaf sells produce such as leafy greens and melons directly to restaurants as well as individuals through supermarkets and e-commerce platforms.

East Ventures leads pre-seed round of Indonesian fintech firm Pocket
Mostly catering to young families, the Pocket platform allows for digital accounts and connected cards to be allocated to different family members with their own spending limits, reporting, and analytics.

Singapore Web3 fitness app Gritti bags US$1.7M in seed money
The investors include Lingfeng Innovation Fund, Youbi Capital, and Bixin Ventures; Gritti is a move-to-earn app that incentivises users to exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

What is a Web3 browser and how does it work?
Web3 browsers like Brave allow users to access DApps, integrate cryptocurrencies and surf over the decentralized web with greater privacy and security.

How Neliti aims to help improve accessibility to scientific knowledge in Indonesia
Neliti builds a free-to-use website builder and content management system that creates web interfaces for academic content providers.

‘SEA needs to grow together and produce more quality unicorns’
Vertex Ventures SEA & India General Partner Carmen Yuen the purpose of a business is to achieve profitability. This is a discipline that all companies should have, regardless of macroeconomic conditions.

How can design-thinking promote consumer trust in the digital world
By adopting design thinking as a practice, platforms can keep themselves grounded on their users and fulfil their users’ needs for trust.

The race of Web3 and crypto infrastructure vs big tech
For Web3 to mature, there must be recognition of the value of sovereignty, and UX must continue to improve.

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At e27, we have kickstarted a new articles series called work-life balance to learn more about tech enablers and executives and their lives beyond working hours.

Bernadette Cho oversees the Singapore office and cohort at Entrepreneur First in Singapore, enabling the most ambitious and talented people to build startups from scratch.

Before Entrepreneur First, Cho served as the Chief of Staff at Funding Societies and Chief of Staff to the Co-Founder at Grab. She was the first product marketing hire at Grab and was previously the Head of Product Marketing for APAC Talent Solutions at Linkedin.

You can read Cho’s thought leadership articles here. 

In this candid interview, Cho talks about her personal and professional life.

How would you explain what you do to a five-year-old?

Entrepreneur First builds companies through talent investing, which means we identify brilliant people with the potential to become founders even before they’ve decided on a startup idea and set them up with the best platform to succeed.

What has been the biggest highlight/challenge of your career so far?

The biggest highlight (and challenge!) was starting my role at Entrepreneur First a few months before COVID-19 struck, and we had to pivot to a fully-remote model. It was inspiring to see the team pull together to serve our founders and reimagine how we ran and recruited our cohorts.

Similarly, it was equally exciting to see founders reinvent their business models, work around a lack of lab access, and still continue to drive outsized outcomes!

How do you envision the next five years of your career?

Hopefully, similar to the last five — working with driven, curious people who are looking to make things better than when they found them!

Also Read: What makes Desmond Yong thrive in ambiguous situations

What’s something about you or your job that would surprise us?

Early-stage professionals make for some of the strongest founders. They have fewer fixed beliefs and are willing to challenge existing ways of working and thinking, which enables them to design more future-focused and customer-centric solutions.

Do you prefer WFH or WFO, or hybrid?

I enjoy hybrid! Maybe it’s a result of the past few years, but I find a balance of home and office work is more fulfilling than only one or the other.

What would you tell your younger self?

Don’t chase titles; chase curiosity and let that lead you instead.

Can you describe yourself in three words?

Idealistic, impatient, learning.

What are you most likely to be doing if not working?

Exploring, but specifically places that are friendly for dogs and newborns!

What are you currently reading/listening to/ watching?

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen (late to the party!) and Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu.

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A growing number of businesses are turning to low- and no-code platforms in order to enable IT and business staff the opportunity to build apps. As a result, many businesses find these platforms to be a vital element of their operation. 

Nearly nine out of ten no-code platform users globally claimed their roles are crucial to business success, saying that they directly enhanced business performance in a survey of 318 customer firms worldwide. 

The study concluded that no-code apps enable a more comprehensive range of people to work on development. Women make up nearly half of the users; four out of ten are Millennials and seven out of ten work in non-IT areas.

Defining no-code

Software design solutions that allow non-technical users to run software without creating a single line of code are called no-code frameworks. 

These tools visualise offer user-friendly interfaces and drag-and-drop capabilities to help you visualise the implementation process and express your general business logic. 

Also Read: How no-code platforms are providing a boost to the real estate industry

It’s a programming platform that uses a visual development interface to allow non-technical users to construct apps by dragging and dropping software components to create a complete application. No code does not necessitate any prior coding knowledge on the user’s part.

Process of building application with no-code

Set up and agreement of priority

Consider no-code applications as a viable alternative to traditional IT requests in the areas of your business where there are problems or critical difficulties. Seek input from other leadership team members and the workforce as a whole.

Choosing the technology stack

Despite the fact that no-code platforms are meant to be used by non-programmers, they must integrate seamlessly into your existing IT architecture.

Start with a pilot

Beginning with a small pilot project that affects a single company procedure is always the wisest course of action. It is essential to conduct pilots so that you may learn from your mistakes as you go along.

IT mentors

IT executives have a wide range of experience in dealing with various groups’ security, integration, and user adoption issues. Leaders must assign IT liaisons to teams using no-code tools so that they can monitor the work of individuals developing business apps and keep in touch with IT regularly.

Security issues

A continual relationship between IT and line of business builders is needed to ensure that organisations can maintain a safe infrastructure while supporting the creation of no-code apps. When it comes to IT oversight, it depends on the nature of the apps being developed and how tightly they are linked to other departments’ activities.

Documentation

The first step in implementing no-code tools is for IT and business leaders to collaborate on a policy that identifies the various parties involved as well as the processes and technology that will be required. On the other hand, no-code developers should establish detailed programme roadmaps for their prospective consumers.

Trust buildup

As a result of allowing staff the power to design applications, leaders must refrain from micromanaging while encouraging regular communication and updates.

App testing

To begin even a simple pilot programme, leaders must implement a rigorous quality assurance methodology. To ensure that new apps are fully functional, they should be put through their paces by actual users from the organisation. Moving to a real-time production environment for the apps should only be done.

Prepare for challenges

Developing no-code software is trial and error, and organisations will likely expand on their initial successes over time. Leaders can focus on more strategic matters if workers have the tools to handle some of their difficulties.

Does investing in no-code make sense? 

In terms of business, what are the advantages of no-code programme creation? In addition to time savings, cost savings, and a single platform, WEM’s no-code creation methodology delivers value to the firm when developing business-critical applications.

Also Read: From brick-and-mortar to e-commerce in just 7 steps and no-code

Several benefits of no-code software development have been discussed: 

• It’s best to concentrate on the app’s core without coding. You will spend more time with your clients and create something they will appreciate using a no-code application-building platform, focusing on the application’s core.
• No-code architecture tools simplify front-end UI design by providing rich models that can be used and customised. You don’t have to start from zero in UI/UX, so you can spend more time with your clients and improve your app experience.
• 80 per cent lower development cost is guaranteed in no-code. Conventional and DevOps software development methods are expensive. Recruit technical skills higher up. Front-end and back-end developers, security consultants, financial experts, and software and cloud professionals may be needed. No-code applications encapsulate front-end and back-end development. One back-end or front-end developer can build the stack. They can evolve faster without starting from scratch. Building on a network eliminates the need to consider cases, databases, and security. 

Final thoughts

There is no way the no-code wave is stopping. For businesses to stay afloat in the ever-evolving world, starting with no-code adoption can pave the way for survival.

According to Gartner, by 2025, 70 per cent of new applications developed by enterprises will use no-code or low-code technologies. Jump on this no-code joyride!

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

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Australian VC firm Carbon Growth Partners (CGP) has received US$10 million from Singapore’s family office Silverstrand Capital.

Carbon Growth Partners, an investment company specialising in international carbon markets, raised the capital for its second fund, Carbon Growth Fund.

CGP invests in high-quality carbon reduction initiatives that positively impact local communities. It invests in projects across four continents, with 80 per cent located in developing countries.

Also Read: This family office has launched a startup accelerator with a mission to protect, restore biodiversity in SEA

A large portion of the fund’s strategy focuses on high-quality, nature-based carbon credits. The Carbon Growth Partners team considers environmental factors and seeks to ensure an equitable share of the sales of credits returns to local communities.

One example is the Delta Blue Carbon initiative in the Sindh Indus Delta in the south of Pakistan, home to the world’s largest area of arid climate mangroves. This unique habitat provides shelter to unique fish and shrimp species, invertebrates, turtles, migratory birds and coastal area floral species.

In response to widespread deforestation, the government-backed project has seen more than 75,000 hectares of reforestation, with a conservation program protecting a further 100,000 hectares. The project is yielding extensive co-benefits, with hundreds of jobs created alongside clean water, education and health programs for local communities.

“Carbon credits provide a way to deliver finance to the people and places that need it the most and which can have the most positive impact on climate change,” commented Rich Gilmore, CEO of Carbon Growth Partners. “In 2021 alone, we were able to raise US$100 million in investment for emissions reduction projects, and our new Carbon Growth Fund will help us do more of the same.”

Also Read: ‘There’s a lack of urgency among companies in achieving net zero targets’: Unravel Carbon’s Grace Sai

“The focus of our impact investment strategy is to address the biodiversity crisis,” said Kelvin Chiu, Principal of Silverstrand Capital. “The carbon markets effectively channel additional financial resources to important nature conservation projects that benefit local communities. The long-term supply deficit in carbon credits also makes it a financially compelling investment.”

Carbon markets are a critical component in reaching the net zero pledges made in Glasgow at COP26, particularly for hard-to-decarbonise sectors and products and provide a vehicle for businesses of all sizes to play their part in delivering a global climate solution.

Last month, Silverstrand Capital and The Meloy Fund invested in Koltiva, an Indonesia-based tech startup focused on agriculture supply chain.

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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. 

Copyright: meinzahn

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The pandemic has changed the world in many ways- one dramatic shift expedited by COVID has been the move towards a mobile-first world. Globally, the advent of smartphones was already changing consumer behaviour and impacting businesses’ marketing strategies over the past decade, but the pandemic made this quick and permanent. Consumers in Southeast Asia are leading this trend with over 887 million mobile connections across the region — 132 per cent of the total population. 

Consumers are spending a lot of time on their mobile phones. The question is, are you? Mobile marketing has grown to become one of the most coveted spaces to establish brand awareness, and one of the most critical driving forces for customer engagement. This makes mobile marketing an essential variable when building your business marketing strategies — whether you’re a young startup or an established enterprise.

Moreover, businesses have to be mobile-first not only because of the volume of users plugged into their mobile devices but also because of their remote capabilities. Through mobile marketing, businesses can engage customers anywhere, anytime.

A look at the evolution of mobile marketing: A dynamic space

For many businesses in Southeast Asia in the nascent stages of digital transformation, mobile marketing might still be new territory. This is where industry leaders like CleverTap, a SaaS-based customer lifecycle management and retention cloud company, are stepping up to help businesses ace their mobile marketing and engage consumers for growth and scalability.

Mobile marketing is a multi-channel online marketing technique focused on reaching specific target audiences on smartphones, tablets, or other related devices through websites, e-mails, SMS, social media, and mobile applications. The mobile marketing industry has boomed in the past few years, with the market size set to be valued at USD 337.8 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 22.9 percent. Research suggests that the Asia Pacific is expected to lead this growth due to high mobile penetration, surging internet usage, and a rising urban middle class. Sensor tower also predicts that spending on app stores will grow 120 percent in 2023 and reach $156 billion.

Also read: 5 innovative startups to showcase at Echelon 2022

“When we think about mobile, we think about smartphones and app stores, which is pretty accurate. With these new avenues, many apps have grown their communities and revenues. Brands use the web and apps to engage, retain, and monetise their users/customers. Mobile marketing allows consumer brands to understand user behaviour and engage those users in a seamless, real-time, and scalable way,” shared Marc-Antoine HAGER, Regional VP for Sales at CleverTap. 

However, in the 4.0 era, mobile marketing has come a long way, and businesses seeking to stay ahead of the competition leverage the latest technologies to offer seamless customer experiences through smartphones. This is where CleverTap is helping build fantastic user experiences for the world’s leading digital-first brands: with their smart, all-in-one platform that combines the best analytics, segmentation, and engagement tools so that companies can build valuable, long-term relationships with their customers.

Keeping up with the  complexities of the consumer landscape

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, CleverTap provides mobile app analytics and user engagement products to more than 1,300 customers in 100 countries. The leading customer engagement and retention platform helps over 10,000 mobile apps maximise user lifetime, encompassing e-commerce, travel and transportation, fintech, foodtech, and media and entertainment industries.

CleverTap understands that this is a dynamic space, and the platform has evolved over the past few years to keep up with the changing business and consumer landscapes.

Also read: Echelon 2022: A peek at the future of marketing measurement

“CleverTap’s dashboard has been evolving to ingest data at scale and target the users that will need help from the brand for catering to various needs, such as converting, recommending content, helping with a purchase decision, and so on. We have been continuously innovating, creating our own purpose-based data-based TesseractDBTM,” Marc-Antoine added.

For instance, ProgrammingHub, an e-learning company focused on teaching coding in an interactive and fun way, saw a 15 percent Increase in subscription ROI using automated campaigns with CleverTap.

When it comes to mobile marketing, there is a certain degree of familiarity that companies should achieve beyond automation. According to McKinsey, companies that demonstrate customer intimacy generate faster revenue growth rates than their peers. And the closer organisations get to the consumer, the bigger the gains.

Seventy-one percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalised interactions and 76 percent get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. Marc-Antoine believes many brands are still sending messages that are not personalised, leading users to mute brands. In the long run, this not only degrades brand messaging but also hinders growth. “Smart brands will need to extend personalisation to the maximum, even at an individualised level, to retain and delight users,” he says.

Also read: Echelon 2022: Ninja Van’s steady path to profitability

With a keen focus on personalisation and customers at the core of innovation, CleverTap is continuously developing new products. With innovation and consumer proximity as the two main pillars, CleverTap seeks to unlock untapped growth. “We will keep doing what has made us successful so far — listening to our customers and providing deep personalisation to unlock growth,” shared Marc-Antoine.

For example, With scalability and agility as pressing needs for India’s largest English newspaper, The Times of India, they found CleverTap to be the perfect partner in winning mindshare and market share in the Indian digital news industry. The newspaper saw over a 100% increase in subscribers after leveraging CleverTap’s scalable platform to automate user communication and reach out to customers at record speed. 

Be where customers are

From edtech to retail and eCommerce to fintech, CleverTap has helped thousands of companies across various industries achieve significant growth. If you want to learn more about mobile marketing and how CleverTap can help you ace it, visit https://clevertap.com today.

Want a more personalised face time? Meet CleverTap at Echelon!

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Photo by George Pak via Pexels

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

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According to The Straits Times, there have been more than SG$150 (US$105.12) million of unclaimed insurance, with Life Insurance Association Singapore (LIA) enhancing the “Register of Unclaimed Life Insurance Proceeds” on its website in 2018, we still face consumers being unaware of the policies that they have gotten over the years.

Based on a focus group study that we conducted in 2016, we found that there have been multiple occasions where the consumers who’ve purchased policies from multiple companies over the years would gradually lose track of them, especially when the policies are paid via GIRO in small amounts monthly.

In addition, there were situations where clients’ families were unaware of the policies in a position of mishap, which led to a long delay in the claim process (leading to family members having to stress over financial constraints) or worse, leading to unclaimed insurance.

Loved ones may not know what policies you have purchased

An example we’ve encountered was with a 61-year-old lady who bought multiple insurance policies throughout her life as she believed in the importance of good coverage. Unfortunately for her, she later suffered from a Hemorrhagic stroke which landed her in the ICU and subsequently in a coma for nearly two months.

Her family members were uninformed about her extensive insurance policies, and they admitted her to the lowest ward in the hospital for fear of the hefty hospital bills. Unbeknownst to her family members, her insurance policies would have covered her stay in a Class A ward in government/restructured hospitals.

Eliminating the communication pain points

Due to PDPA, most insurers’ digital platforms since 2016 would only directly reflect policies purchased from them. To overcome this communication limit, the FinStyle app was created to help users consolidate all of their insurance policies in one place.

Through the app, users will:

• Have a clear overview of the various policies they are being insured for
• Overall coverage sum
• The total premiums that they are paying for
• Basic policy details (e.g. policy number, maturity date and surrender value)

Also Read: Shouldering the responsibility of digital payment security

While the information might not be as comprehensive as a contract or policy illustration, the app aims to allow users convenient and quick access to an overview of their coverages and cost, ranging from individual policies to the whole amount.

Functions of the FinStyle app

With a pre-programmed smart calculator embedded in the system, consumers can calculate their individual protection needs by entering information such as their years to provide for family expenses, the annual amount required, final expenses and so forth, which then allows the app to show if the consumer has a shortfall or surplus in their coverage, taking into consideration their existing portfolio.

This function was created to give consumers a better understanding of how they can derive the sufficient insurance coverage they require based on their needs rather than purchasing coverage as advised by a financial consultant or friend. This will also protect the consumers from rogue financial consultants and improve the financial planning industry’s reputation in Singapore.

To prevent the issue of unclaimed insurance and allow family members to be aware of essential insurance details in times of need, FinStyle has a ”Shared Policy’ function that allows users to share their policies with other users selectively. This ensures that family members or trusted recipients know which insurer to contact and process the claims during unforeseen circumstances.

The FinStyle app works with various partners to host monthly events and publish investment and lifestyle insights to educate their users. The brand works with the iFast investment platform, where users can trade equities, bonds, ETFs and unit trusts directly from the app and gain direct access to iFast TV for the latest investment updates.

The gap between digital literacy and the financial services industry

The FinStyle app is free of charge, and users can key in all of the policies to keep track of the policies they’ve purchased over time.

“As an entrepreneur and philanthropist, I want to raise awareness of the importance of financial planning transparently and professionally to allow consumers to have a better understanding of what kind of insurance they are buying, why are they buying it, who are they buying it for and how it benefits them throughout their life,” shared Bentley.

The FinStyle app aims to help more individuals unaware of any insurance plans purchased by their loved ones. The app aims to revolutionise the financial services industry by providing users with 24/7 access to their entire insurance and investment summary while enjoying the features catered to their needs.

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Today, Facebook announced the new 140 participants of this year’s 2022 Community Accelerator Program. For the APAC region, startup ecosystem tech platform e27 was designated as the implementation partner to help community leaders on Facebook advance their skills and utilise digital tools to deepen their impact.

This four-month program provides selected community leaders of Facebook Groups with training, mentorship and funding for an initiative that extends their community’s positive impact. The program received more than 4,800 applications, and today it was announced the participants for this year’s program across nine regions, including Addicted to Gardening, Integration der Arabische Gesellschaft in Deutschland, and Women and e-Commerce Trust ( WE ).

Now in its third year, the Community Accelerator Program focuses on recruiting top community builders with highly engaged communities to help them advance their leadership skills and deepen their impact. Collectively over the 2020 and 2021 programs, the program has provided leadership development, coaching, curriculum and funding to 208 community groups and their leaders. 

Also Read: Meet Facebook Community Accelerator 2022’s additional funding recipients who are turning impactful ideas into action

Take a look at some of the 2020 and 2021 participants, like Nomadness Travel Tribe, who recruited and increased the reach of their group to international members and people of colour via an in-person “Travel Fest,” or Copa Menstrual México, which developed a project to donate more than 300 menstrual kits to young women throughout Mexico, or Kaki Repair, a movement to encourage people to fix their own belongings rather than just throw them away. 

The 2022 Community Accelerator selection committee looked for communities that would benefit the most from our unique programming and have the capacity to be fully engaged in it. One of the program’s key experiences will be for participants to identify an important initiative that will deepen their community’s impact by mobilising their members around a goal and creating a development plan for it, to execute in 2023. Participants represent a variety of community topics, from groups connecting over similar interests and hobbies like thrifting to actioning support for health and parenting, to name a few. 

Through the program, Facebook will award funds to the 2022 Accelerator participants to support work that advances their communities’ goals. Excited to partner and get to know more details about the APAC cohort? We will announce our upcoming cohort participants by next week, stay tuned!

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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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