In September, greentech startup Zuno Carbon was named the winner of the Startup Arena Pitch Battle organised by Tech in Asia and East Ventures in Singapore.

The competition was looking for a winner that was able to present compelling and innovative solutions that addressed challenges in the environment, social, and governance (ESG) fields. Selected as one of the six finalists, Zuno Carbon was named as a winner after a rigorous process of selection by a panel of industry and panel experts.

Founded in 2020, the Singapore-based company was founded by a team of engineers who believed that being sustainable should be easier.

In an email interview with e27, Zuno Carbon CEO Hari Nair says that the company’s work can be described as “products [that] help organisations measure and reduce their environmental impact.”

It provides end-to-end carbon management solutions for organisations of all sizes that provide unprecedented visibility into their supply chain emissions. The company is working toward enabling ESG teams to shift their focus and resources from merely reporting to actually reducing their environmental impact with the help of AI-generated insights.

Also Read: Beyond buzzwords: How climate tech startups can create an impact in green recovery

“Calculating one’s carbon footprint is not easy; there are a lot of different data sources and vendors to account for, and doing this manually takes a lot of time and effort,” Nair says.

“Some of our competitors use just financial data (i.e. how much you spend on supplies, materials) in order to estimate the footprint. However, we go beyond that to look at on-the-ground operational data. This allows companies to get a better understanding of where their emissions are coming from, and we use this granular data to show them how they can reduce their emissions as well.”

In developing their solutions, Zuno Carbon prioritised agile and user-centric design practices.

“We have two-week sprints, at the end of which we are able to release an incremental and valuable improvement to the platform. As such, it makes it easy for us to deploy our solutions and take in customer feedback to iterate and fine-tune the product to meet customer needs,” Nair says.

In the future, Zuno Carbon will develop its product further to offer an AI recommendation engine to automate carbon reduction strategies. It will also include a reporting module allowing organisations to report their social, governance, and environmental metrics.

“Thus providing a full ESG reporting solution,” Nair stresses.

Also Read: Amasia introduces impact assessment framework for climate tech companies

Greentech in Southeast Asia

Around the world, as the climate situation intensifies, there has been greater attention given to companies that can potentially positively impact our fight against climate change. In Southeast Asia (SEA) particularly, discussions about climate tech investments have intensified as companies in the vertical continue to appear.

Things are not always rosy as greentech companies face some unique challenges in the market. “Sometimes sustainability is at the bottom of a company’s priority list, especially for SMEs and large local companies,” Nair points out.

But this does not mean the region has no future for green tech.

“SEA is a hub for manufacturing, energy, and all sorts of industrial activity. As such, there is also a significant amount of emissions in the region. Governments and regulatory authorities have already begun imposing restrictions and reporting requirements on companies in this sector, and as the nature of activities vary from region to region, it is important that we cater to the local ecosystem,” Nair says.

“We aim to capture the market for carbon management in ASEAN across the energy, manufacturing, real estate, and logistics segments.”

In acquiring potential users, Zuno Carbon offers flexible subscription plans and workshops to help companies take stock of their sustainability efforts and see how its product can help them in this journey to bring them on board.

Also Read: Climate tech is in a chicken-and-egg situation in Southeast Asia

Most of their clients are larger companies with complex supply chains that want to change how they affect the world around them.

Zuno Carbon raised a pre-seed funding round earlier this year, and it is aiming to raise a seed funding round in the next three to four months or the end of 2022.

Next year, it plans to expand further into the region and release its AI recommendation engine to truly power decarbonisation for SMEs and MNCs.

—

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

Image Credit: Zuno Carbon

The post How Zuno Carbon plans to help organisations reduce their environmental impact appeared first on e27.

Choco Up, a revenue-based financing and growth platform, has announced a partnership with Dream Impact, a social enterprise and impact network in Hong Kong.

Under this partnership, Choco Up aims to deploy up to US$5 million in non-dilutive booster capital to help social enterprises and ventures across different impact themes developed by Dream Impact in line with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The themes include diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI), circular economy and human-centric education.

These thematic initiatives bring together different parts of society on each of these topics to identify social needs and develop social innovation initiatives. Choco Up’s growth funding is anticipated to help socially conscious businesses to achieve their vision and mission.

This partnership brings Choco Up’s knowledge, resources and expertise to Dream Impact and its network of impact-focused founders and enterprises.

Also Read: What Choco Up wants you to know about running a revenue-based financing platform in Asia

This cross-sector collaboration opens the door to multi-million dollar funding for numerous socially conscious businesses, empowering Dream Impact to amplify the impact of its work and Choco Up to expand its social footprint across industries.

Brian Tsang, Co-Founder and COO of Choco Up, said: “The partnership with Dream Impact marks an important milestone in our impact finance journey as we continue to expand our reach in the impact space and work towards enhancing financial inclusion for socially conscious businesses across Asia.”

Dream Impact is an impact-first organisation in Hong Kong committed to connecting social entrepreneurs to resources, bridging communities for collaboration and deepening impact in different fields.

“Choco Up understands the value of social enterprises and impact ventures that aim to shape the future that we collectively want. It shares our vision of a society where everyone is conscious of the work they do, the things they buy and the values they advocate,” said Dorothy Lam, Co-Founder and Chief Catalyst of Dream Impact.

Choco Up is a global technology and financial service platform providing e-commerce and startups with revenue-based financing and business growth solutions. It provides hyper-growing companies with non-dilutive funding and a flexible repayment schedule. It invests between US$10,000 and US$5 million per startup.

—

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

The post Choco Up to invest up to US$5M in social startups developed by Dream Impact of Hong Kong appeared first on e27.

More than just a trending buzzword, digital transformation has become a must-do for organisations. The ever-growing threat of digital disruption and pandemic-driven uncertainty has radically thrust businesses into rethinking how they operate.

In fact, according to Foundry’s 2021 Digital Business survey, 91 per cent of organisations have already adopted, or are planning to adopt, digital-first business strategies.

Yet, amid the flurry to pivot and adapt, it isn’t uncommon for organisations to overlook a key success factor in their transformation journey: people.

At the heart of any successful digital transformation lies the harmonious interplay between technology and people.

However, I’ve often seen many businesses place excessive importance on flashy new digital solutions and fail to recognise that any major organisation-wide change depends on and starts with their employees. If either element is absent or neglected, the potential for success plummets, evidenced by how only a meagre five per cent of digital transformation projects achieve or exceed expectations.

Also Read: The 5-part agile leadership guide that will make you a better business leader

So, to maximise the long-term success of digital transformation, organisations need to focus on the human side of change and prioritise the three essential elements of leadership, culture, and employee engagement.

Leadership: Envisioning change and communicating it well

Leadership can make or break digital transformation initiatives. From conception to implementation, it’s paramount for leaders at all levels to be aligned on a well-defined vision.

After all, as MIT Sloan School of Management senior lecturer Dr George Westerman once said, “If you think about digital transformation as two words, we pay too much attention to the digital and not enough to transformation. It’s not a technology challenge, it’s a leadership one.”

This requires leaders to have a clear picture of what digital transformation means for the company, the value it can provide, and the potential challenges to overcome along the way. When leaders are in tune with initiatives, they can act as champions for change within their business units and inspire confidence for them to take the first step toward transformation.

But having a clear vision is one thing; executing it well is another. Leaders play a key role in communicating their vision to their teams and being transparent about how the new initiatives can elevate employees’ work and equip them with vital skills for better performance and career progression.

By enabling employees to understand the potential of digital transformation, organisations can win their buy-in and empower them to collaborate towards a shared goal.

Culture: Fostering experimentation and agility

Another element that forms the bedrock for successful digital transformations is organisational culture. Indeed, studies have shown that 87 per cent of C-suites and executives agree culture creates bigger barriers to digital transformation than technology.

Since organisational culture starts at the top, leaders are usually the ones to establish and reinforce the company’s shared values. But if they hold all the cards, this might get in the way of introducing new initiatives.

Think of traditional corporate hierarchies and digital transformation like oil and water, with the former following a strict chain of command while the latter calls for agile decision-making and an open mindset.

Digital transformations are inherently uncertain, requiring constant experimentation and cross-team collaboration. This, in turn, requires a culture that encourages employees to innovate freely, collaborate, and correct mistakes as they go.

That’s why companies with flat organisational structures, like Silicon Valley start-ups and today’s millennial-led firms, are better poised to succeed in their digital transformations.

By removing layers of complexity and empowering employees at all levels to make decisions that matter, organisations can create a safe environment where people aren’t afraid of the unfamiliar and, ultimately, embrace change.

Employee engagement: Tap into your greatest asset

Employees can be agents of digital transformation or its victims. Any significant transformation is a massive undertaking, but it’s even harder when employees are uncertain and detached from the process.

Also Read: What is derailing your digital transformation?

But why shouldn’t you involve them from the beginning? Employees possess a wealth of intimate knowledge of processes, customers, and operations and are the people whose daily lives will be impacted by new initiatives. When organisations fail to engage employees, they threaten the success and adoption of digital initiatives.

Kickstart any digital transformation initiatives by involving your employees and helping them understand their roles, workflows, and needs. By engaging with your people via workshops and discussions, businesses can gain nuanced ground-level insight into operational processes and customer needs. This allows management to then refine their digital transformation strategies to ensure they best serve their employees.

Employee engagement also fosters a sense of ownership and collaboration among workers, dispelling the perception of digital transformation as top-down or IT-related initiatives. Doing so transforms employees into advocates, fostering greater innovation and motivation to make the transformation a success.

So, whether you’re forging your own path ahead or tapping on digital transformation solutions, set your organisation up for success by having a clear vision, creating an open-minded culture, and actively engaging with employees.

This article has been co-authored by Imran Mohd, Consultant of the Strategy Centre of Excellence at Temus, a digital transformation company established by Temasek in strategic partnership with UST.

–

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 Digital transformation: It starts and ends with our people appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based Betafi, which provides a unified user research platform, has received US$1.3 million in pre-seed funding led by Together Fund, Entrepreneur First, and Titan Capital.

Nir Eyal and the founders of Razorpay, Pine Labs, Snapdeal, and Livspace, also joined.

Despite technological advancement, user research remains manual, time-consuming, and daunting. As a result, 80 per cent of new products don’t go through early-stage testing resulting in expensive rework down the line.

Arjun Arora and Ethan Sherbondy also encountered similar challenges at their previous workplaces. This prompted them to develop Betafi.

Also Read: Why the success of your startup depends on software testing

“User research is still a manual process and involves a fair amount of logistics. We want to take the busy work out of the process, so you focus on what is truly important, uncovering insights. Ultimately, we want UX research to be as ubiquitous as software testing is today,” CEO Arora.

Betafi helps product teams conduct user interviews and usability tests effortlessly to validate their ideas, designs, beta software, and websites. The platform integrates with tools such as Zoom, Miro, Figma, and Adobe XD, making it easier to collaborate and build feedback loops in product development.

The startup claims the product saves users up to 30 per cent of total research time and effort, allowing them to focus on extracting meaningful insights to build incredible products.

Betafi was co-created with customers and launched on Product Hunt in September. Since then, the platform usage has increased by 50 per cent month-on-month, and users have done over 1,500 hours of feedback calls, claim the company.

—

The post Betafi attracts US$1.3 funding for its unified user research platform appeared first on e27.

Web3 community Metacamp has opened an NFT-gated Web3 co-working space in Singapore with the help of blockchain firm Solana.

This education, community and co-working space focuses on blockchain technologies and Web3. The space will focus on blockchain innovations, talents and companies.

“The occupants learn, connect and build through exclusive events. They learn in-depth about blockchain skills, projects and industry trends. They connect informally with startups, investors, talents, partners, and users. They experience a conducive and dynamic work environment to validate and grow their business,” said Metacamp Co-Founder Jonas Chen.

It has three floors and can accommodate more than 100 people (or 20 startups with up to five team members). The co-working space is divided into fixed desks and hot desks.

Amenities such as high-speed wifi, monitors, and sit-stand desks are provided.

Also Read: To leverage Web3 technologies, Web2 companies may start by building the right culture

Besides, individuals will benefit from meeting like-minded people and connecting with other startups, investors and talents in the ecosystem.

The NFT-gated system provides a secure method of entry into the co-working space. “The NFT-gated system allows approved members to enter the premises by holding an NFT in their crypto wallet,” added Chen.

The Metacamp co-working space charges a fee for membership, education services, and event hosting.

According to Chen, post-COVID-19, some people have become comfortable working remotely while some seek in-person interactions. He believes innovations can only spark through informal interactions.

Metacamp was founded in early 2022 by a group of Web3 professionals with a vision to grow professionals within the space by offering Solana-focused community events, education programmes, and corporate workshops. Since then, it has grown to a community of 600+ members.

 

—

The post Singapore gets an NFT-gated Web3 co-working space Metacamp appeared first on e27.