In this episode, we are excited to welcome Claudia Makadristo, Head of Africa Expansion for MetaMap, a fast-growing digital trust and reputation infrastructure layer that enables other service providers. Prior, Makadristo was Head of Partnerships and Regional Manager for Seedstars.

In our conversation, Makadristo talks about the importance of building relationships in emerging markets to understand local dynamics – especially with government regulators, introducing your company the right way, why you don’t want to underestimate local competitors who fully understand the local market well, the importance of having a solid local team to navigate local nuances in a market and why it’s crucial to understand the sensitivities and differences within a market, leading with empathy so you can effectively interpret your product or service for the new market.

Also Read: Yoco head of international expansion on building trust in a new market

This episode is sponsored by our partner, ZEDRA. Learn more about how the ZEDRA team can support you in expanding to new markets here.

Find our entire podcast episode library here and learn more about our forthcoming book on global business growth here.

—

The content was first published by Global Class.

Image Credit: Global Class

The post MetaMap Head of Africa Expansion on why you should never underestimate local competitors appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based battery recycling solutions company Green Li-ion announced today it has closed its US$11.55 million Series A funding round, led by Energy Revolution Ventures.

Cleantech investors, including EDP Ventures (the VC arm of renewable energy producer EDP), TRIREC, SOSV, Entrepreneur First, MB Energy Partners, Ilshin Holdings, Envisioning Partners, and GS Holdings also joined the round.

The funds will allow Green Li-ion to demonstrate commercial operations, expand into Europe, and for R&D. The firm looks to develop and pilot the next generation of recycling products.

Also Read: Transitioning to new energy? Here’re 5 prominent solutions for your business

Green Li-ion has developed a range of plug and play modular battery recycling technologies targetting recycling and manufacturing plants. The technology generates material profits for the recycler or manufacturer (by producing battery-grade materials directly from black mass). It also creates cost savings for companies in the battery supply chain.

Another benefit is that it enhances the overall sustainability of the end product.

Global demand for battery metals is currently at a historic high. This is anticipated to continue for the foreseeable future, with global power demands increasing and economies looking to decarbonise.

Accordingly, recycling spent and waste batteries will be an important source of battery materials. Green Li-ion claims its technology enables customers to undertake cost-effective on-site recycling of batteries.

Also Read: Green Li-ion raises US$3.45M to make Li-ion battery recycling ‘faster, profitable’

Leon Farrant, Co-Founder and CEO of Green Li-ion, said: “This is a pivotal moment in the battery markets. The world is experiencing exponential growth in the demand for sustainably sourced and manufactured batteries. We believe that our technology will help ensure that batteries can be brought to the market with minimal waste and safely recycled in an environmentally sustainable manner. We are at an inflexion point with the sourcing and development of battery metals, and we believe that Green Li-ion and its associated technologies have the potential to play an important role in making the battery sector climate positive.”

In March 2021, Green Li-ion had raised US$3.45 million in seed funding.

—

The post Green Li-ion closes US$11.6M Series A for European expansion, R&D appeared first on e27.

Millennial males continue to define the face of South and Southeast Asian consumers of fintech lending, the same as a few years ago. However, there has been a clear change, increasing uniform coverage of the population with online financial services.

How people got more involved with fintech

Seven to eight years ago, only a select few customers borrowed money online. Some were “innovators”, enticed by the emerging prospects of global digitalisation.

They were keen to experience all the benefits of digital financial services, speed, accessibility and convenience then and there, long before they would become an essential part of life (or not).

With no readily available options, others were indeed in a serious need of money, knocking on the doors of banks and other financial institutions.

Borrowers combining traits of both archetypes were the most common customers of the first online lenders. This group mainly consisted of tech-savvy male citizens who had pronounced spending tendencies. The data from our services show, for example, that over the past five years in Vietnam, 71 per cent of applicants were men; in India, 89 per cent.

The urban youth, among others, is the base driver of fintech development in the region. Various experts have claimed this, one of which was the Singapore-based banking corporation UOB and their 2017 analytics.

Indeed, the generation of 25-35-year-old urban millennials, as the most consumer-active and tech-savvy of all, became the segment’s defining audience for years to come. This is especially true for Asia, considering the overall youthfulness of its population: the average age in South Asia is roughly 28, in Southeast Asia, 30.

Still, online loans quickly grew in popularity, attracting new segments of the population. They benefited from the swift Internet penetration and other regional specificities. A significant contributing factor, especially in the Philippines and Indonesia, was geographic disunity,  which made Internet technologies the only viable way to access financing for the citizens of remote regions.

The predominantly low yet developing urbanisation also played its part. In the face of growing consumption, a common lack of employment, and consequently, no access to banking services, the rural population also turned to online lending.

The rising client mobility cannot be overlooked as one of the long-term trends defining the customer portrait of digital financial services. The smartphone is becoming an increasingly versatile tool of today, directly affecting the fintech sector.

Also Read: How this homegrown fintech is helping Singaporeans with alternate investing

For instance, across the Robocash Group footprint in South and Southeast Asia, at the beginning of 2018, every second loan application was received from a mobile device. According to more recent data, two out of three loans were received through smartphones.

The simplicity and speed of receiving funds anywhere with a smartphone have added to the popularity of online lending, making it accessible to everyone.

What comes next?

The global development of fintech certainly did not leave South and Southeast Asia behind. The penetration of banking services, in general, is on the rise (in the Philippines, for example).

More and more banks are shifting towards the digital. At the same time, regulation is being improved upon (evidenced by the recent emergence of special licences for digital banks in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines). 

Of course, COVID-19 has affected this process. Due to the proximity of the pandemic’s epicentre, Coronavirus had increased the rate of development of digital financial solutions in Asia.

For instance, India experienced a sharp improvement in financial inclusion with the emergence of entire “digital districts”. Due to the drop in consumption during the first and second waves of the pandemic, a surge in accumulated demand will likely increase the use of financial products, primarily lending.

Suitable options are becoming increasingly common to find online. The bottom line is that the Indian national financial technology sector promises to grow by an impressive US$100 billion to US$160 billion by 2025, showing an annual CAGR of 22.7 per cent (2020-2025). The impressive growth rates and bright development prospects also apply to fintech at the macro-regional level.

Thus, fintech services are becoming more and more widespread in South and Southeast Asia.

What changes may this bring to the customer portrait of online borrowers?

The ratio of males to females remains approximately the same (58 per cent/42 per cent in our holding for 2022). The millennial generation also remains the most active audience.

The younger generations have begun to show more engagement, and the average age of our applicants in the Robocash Group averages 32.4 years old. The new borrowers are actively adopting modern financial technologies.

However, the increasing involvement of the older population in digital lending will be the defining factor in the mid and long-term. On the one end, the natural ageing of returning borrowers will become more consolidated.

On the scale of Robocash Group, about 80 per cent of loans are now issued to repeat borrowers. On the other end, the older generations will generally become more involved in the internet space.

Also Read: 6 fintech startups you should keep an eye out for

By 2025, the age structure of internet users in India will change. The main share will consist of 35-54 year-olds, while the 55+ generation will also become significantly more active. Indeed, this trend is already emerging in Vietnam, where, according to our data, men aged 36-50 are more likely to borrow money than others.

Notably, the lending services themselves are changing, which entails a client transformation. The BNPL loans, which enable the purchase of goods in equal instalments, are gaining popularity.

Thus, according to UnaPay, the Robocash Group’s BNPL service in the Philippines, its average client today is still the same millennial (23-38 years old, 84 per cent), and two-thirds of the clients are women, who are more inclined to consume “here and now”.

Final thoughts

Shortly, we will see the evened-out distribution of fintech services among customers in terms of gender and across different age groups. This could be attributed to the inevitable global growth of digitalisation, which includes the financial sector.

In the developing countries of South and Southeast Asia, with their huge potential for growth in consumer activity and internet penetration, the trend promises to manifest itself especially clearly and rapidly.

–

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: freedomz

The post How the global growth of fintech defies age and gender appeared first on e27.

As passionate gamers, their vision was to create a high-quality and action-packed blockchain game. They wanted to think beyond the idle, farming, clicker, turn-based games available in the market that came with no proper graphics and animation or even music and sound.

“We were determined that our games should be what they are actually meant to be — fun. So, we came up with a business plan and presented it to several regional investors. We were lucky that they all shared the same opinion and even recommended us to big investors in the west. The rest is history,” recounts Tin Nguyen.

With the confidence gained from their meeting with the investors, Nguyen and the team went on to start Sipher.

A blockchain gaming studio based in Vietnam, Sipher aims to provide compelling gaming experiences. Here, players control avatars to interact with each other through PvE (player vs environment) co-operative dungeons and battle each other in PvP (player vs player) multiplayer battle arenas, engaging with the virtual world, battling for virtual lands, and earning items and rewards.

Sipher’s founders come from varied backgrounds. Nguyen is the CEO of Trung Thuy, a real-estate firm in Vietnam and on the Vietnam Forbes 30 Under 30 list of 2015. His partner Loi Luu is CEO and Co-Founder of Kyber Network. This on-chain liquidity protocol powers decentralised applications, including exchanges, funds, lending protocols, and payments wallets.

The third co-founder is Victor Tran, CTO and Co-Founder of Kyber Network. Tran has been involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency development since early 2016.

Also Read: Sipher closes US$6.8M seed round to develop metaverse game World of Sipheria

Unlike most blockchain games available in the market, the Sipher team not only aims to onboard the crypto- and NFT-savvy crowd but to introduce Sipher to the traditional gaming community to play a fun game worthy of e-sports.

“We are in the process of developing and onboarding experiences for the traditional gaming market to make it as smooth as possible. Think of it as mixing web2 practices with web3 technologies,” says Nguyen.

As Nguyen mentioned, Sipher’s games are yet to hit the market. Once they are launched, the company will introduce SIPHER as the governance tokens, which can be used for staking, cloning new characters, and crafting new rare equipment. Users will also have a share of the marketplace fees and voting rights on future decisions of the game development team.

ATHER will be the reward token, which will be burnt to level up characters, skills, equipment and other in-game items and features.

“We plan to target the global markets with our games titles. We don’t want to attack the markets such as Southeast Asia, which have taken the blockchain gaming industry mainstream. We aim for worldwide adoption,” Sipher CEO Nguyen tells e27.

Even though Sipher’s games are not launched yet, its community has grown with 108,000 followers on Twitter and 163,000 members on Discord.

Last October, Sipher closed a US$6.8 million seed financing round, co-led by Arrington Capital, Hashed and Konvoy Ventures. Defiance Capital, Signum Capital, Dragonfly Capital, CMT Digital, BITKRAFT Ventures, Delphi Digital, Alameda Research, Fenbushi Capital, Sfermion, Hyperchain, GBV, Kyber Network, Coin98 Ventures, YGG and Merit Circle, also joined the round.

Angels, including Holly Liu (Kabam), Kun Gao (Crunchy Roll) and Alex Svanevik (Nansen.ai), also co-invested.

The capital is being used to develop its upcoming ‘World of Sipheria’ game.

The gaming startup is now looking for a follow-on round. The goal is to onboard strategic partners that could help Sipher grow further. “We will prioritise investors with a good reputation and partners, who help us conquer new emerging markets outside of SEA like Latin America, Africa and India,” he remarks.

According to Nguyen, Southeast Asia is leading the charge toward the future of blockchain gaming. Vietnam, in particular, is consistently developing very innovative and state of the art technology. The region will continue to be a leader in this space.

Also Read: Metaverse is around the corner and you should play a role in it

Although the blockchain/metaverse gaming industry is still in its early stages in the region, its vulnerabilities have started manifesting.

The recent Axie Infinity hacking incident is a case in point. The hackers stole about US$615 million in USDC and ethereum from the metaverse game’s Ronin Network. As per media reports, the FBI and the US Department Of the Treasury investigation have found out that Lazarus Group, a hacking organisation based in North Korea, was behind this attack.

Nguyen feels that the highest priority should be given to cyber security to prevent such possible events in the future. “To prevent hacks and exploits affecting the users should always be our priority. Thanks to our connections at Sipher, we are consulting experts with experience providing cyber security services for the US National Defense,” he concluded.

—

Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

Image Credit: Sipher

The post How Sipher won high-profile VCs’ hearts even before its blockchain games hit the market appeared first on e27.

Global e-commerce markets are increasing, creating plenty of opportunities for local small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to grow beyond their borders. In 2021, over 300 Singaporean companies ventured overseas, in an expansion estimated to generate SG$4.6 billion in overseas sales.

Consider the United States, the largest export partner for Singapore. While just 12 per cent of the e-commerce market comprises international sales, cross-border shopping has grown 42 per cent since 2019, which points to the substantial growth potential.

According to the PayPal Singapore Online SMB Survey 2021, 81 per cent of SMBs in Singapore are already engaged or planning to engage in cross-border trade. A successful cross-border strategy equally needs a robust international payments approach.

As we see more SMBs make the step into cross-border trade, I believe that five key principles will help bring them one step closer to success.

Winning new customers through payments security

Most people are security conscious when shopping online. In Singapore, 82 per cent of consumers consider security as the most important factor in online transactions. These security concerns are amplified when consumers shop from merchants overseas.

Creating a secure checkout experience is key to easing customer concerns. Using payment processors with poor security standards exposes customers to risk and can harm a brand’s reputation.

By contrast, merchants who adopt reliable and secure digital payment options can gain customer trust and brand loyalty.

Localise payment options

Understanding local payment preferences is a fundamental part of driving conversion. In Japan, consumers overwhelmingly choose credit cards; in mainland China, the digital wallet Alipay is the payment method of choice; while in France, debit cards are the preferred payment method for online shopping.

Adapting to these different methods has never been easier with global payment solutions that can present consumers across different markets with their locally preferred options.

Know your consumer trends and preferences

Catering to consumer trends and preferences requires another layer of consideration, the unique characteristics of local market consumers.

Concerns about delivery time and costs and the proliferation of counterfeit goods remain the major cross-border barriers for American online shoppers. While in mainland China, Singapore’s third-largest export market, mobile-friendly e-commerce websites with Chinese language options are a major draw for cross-border shoppers.

For continued success across markets, merchants must keep a pulse on evolving consumer behaviour and adapt accordingly. Sasha’s Fine Foods, one of our local merchant partners in Singapore, provides a great example.

Launched in 2011, the company was Singapore’s first online-only grocer. Fast forward to 2020, demand increased by 300 per cent at the pandemic’s peak.

By pre-empting consumers’ needs and demands, founder Sasha Conlan had systems in place to ensure that her suppliers overseas continued upholding sustainable modes of farming and that her business could keep up with orders.

Also Read: How can you get ahead of the game with e-commerce in the Australian market?

Harnessing readily available analytics through e-commerce and payment platforms can provide merchants with real-world insights to optimise their business.

Capitalise on holiday seasons

Discounts are universally appealing, and gift-giving traditions are relevant among price-conscious consumers.

The global e-commerce phenomenon called Singles Day, or “11.11” in mainland China, in 2019, saw an impressive US$115 billion of online sales across 11 days. Similarly, seasonal events like Diwali also attract strong online participation in India.

Tracking holiday events across the international market can help merchants become locally relevant and top of mind as consumers hunt for deals.

Drive engagement and optimisation through social channels

During the pandemic, social media emerged as the top growth channel for Singaporean SMBs. Of the SMBs we surveyed, 53 per cent currently use social media to sell their products compared to online marketplaces such as Lazada and Qoo10 (40 per cent) and third-party e-commerce platforms such as Shopify (25 per cent).

The borderless nature of social media makes it easier for brands to be discovered and become focal points for loyal customers. The key is to develop curated social media content such as snippets and teasers to engage consumers.

Merchants should also turn their social media feeds from a shop front into a direct sales channel by including direct payment links to drive conversion.

Anothersole is a great example of a Singaporean brand selling globally, which has a strong social media presence through its curated content, amassing nearly 50K followers on Instagram.

Their effective user-generated campaign using the hashtag #myanothersole also fuels regular follower engagement, with everyday consumers actively sharing how they style their shoes.

Punching above our weight has never been easier

While Singapore is a small domestic market, we can punch above our weight through cross-border trade. The road to success lies in customer centricity, from understanding consumer trends and adapting to their preferences to creating a secure and frictionless environment from which they can buy.

With third-party digital platforms and partners making cross-border e-commerce more accessible, it has never been easier to capture global market opportunities.

As we look ahead, I hope to see even more local merchants of all shapes and sizes become famous international brands selling to consumers worldwide. To me, this is the spirit of Singapore.

–

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: PayPal

The post How e-commerce merchants can capture growth in international markets appeared first on e27.

Indonesia-based foodtech startup OFF FOODS today announced a US$1.7 million seed funding round led by Alpha JWC Ventures with the participation Global Founders Capital (GFC) and other strategic investors including Creative Gorilla Capital, Lemonilo, and United Family Capital (UFC).

The company plans to use the funding to support its research and development to offer new variations of its flagship product OFF MEAT, a chicken-like alternative protein, starting with other chicken-like options such as nuggets. The company will also continue to expand to other cities in Indonesia while also launching a direct-to-customer game plan to reach more users.

“We are doing more than just selling food. We are trailblazing a lifestyle change in Indonesia that hopefully will result in a healthier society and more sustainable earth. OFF MEAT and Indonesia are only our starting points. We are pleased to receive such enthusiasm from our new and existing investors, including established experts in the F&B industry, and we are excited to move forward with our product innovation, nationwide expansion soon, and eventually regional expansion in 2024,” said OFF FOODS co-founder and CEO Dominik Laurus in a press statement.

Founded in 2021 by serial entrepreneurs Laurus and Jhameson Ko, OFF FOODS aims to be the leading alternative protein brand in Indonesia and beyond.

Also Read: Everything from soup to nuts: Meet the 27 ghost kitchen startups in Southeast Asia

Price has been one of the key barriers for customers to adopt alternative protein products and embrace a plant-based lifestyle, and OFF FOODS aims to solve this issue by providing a more affordable alternative.

Since its launch in August 2021, the company said that OFF MEAT has seen 10x growth in adoption through business-to-business (B2B) partnerships with restaurants. Its products are currently available in seven cities in Indonesia through its partner restaurants.

OFF FOODS plans to continue expanding the list of F&B businesses that it is teaming up with.

In Indonesia, another startup that is working in the alternative protein space is Burgreens.

For lead investor Alpha JWC Ventures, this announcement was announced only a day after the announcement of its investment in Hangry, another Indonesia-based foodtech startup.

—

Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

Image Credit: OFF FOOD

The post OFF FOODS raises US$1.7M in seed funding round to promote alternative protein in Indonesia appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based global payments company Thunes has acquired a majority stake in anti-money laundering (AML) and compliance technology firm Tookitaki for over US$20 million.

This deal enables Thunes to extend and provide the AI startup’s AML and compliance capabilities to its global customers, including Grab, Deliveroo, UberEats, Moneygram, Western Union, Remitly, Revolut, Paypal, and Singtel Dash.

At the same time, the deal allows Tookitaki to deepen its presence in core APAC markets (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Taiwan), the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas.

The two firms will continue to operate independently, with the alliance strengthening both companies and enabling them to accelerate their global business expansion.

“This alliance will give all Thunes customers access to next-generation tech compliance systems, reducing the cost of transferring money across borders. At the same time, all Tookitaki’s banking and fintech clients will automatically gain access to Thunes’s network, unlocking pathways to scale globally,” said Peter De Caluwe, CEO of Thunes.

Also Read: Tookitaki secures US$19.2M in Series A funding

Tookitaki was founded in November 2014 in Singapore. It employs over 100 people across Asia, Europe and the US. It delivers AML and compliance solutions to banks and financial institutions using Big Data and machine learning technologies.

In 2019, the regtech firm received US$1.7 million in a Series A funding round led by Viola Fintech, an Israeli venture fund, and SIG.

Thunes is a B2B company. Through a single connection, consumers and businesses can send payments to – and get paid in – every corner of the world. Thunes currently supports 79 currencies, enables payments to 126 countries, and helps to accept 285 payment methods.

Thunes has regional offices in London, Paris, Shanghai, New York, Dubai, and Nairobi.

—

Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

The post Thunes picks majority stake in Tookitaki for over US$20M appeared first on e27.

Last week, Singaporean ride-hailing company Ryde announced that it would launch an NFT (non-fungible tokens) project in Asia targeting its community. Ryde, the first ride-hailing company in Singapore to accept crypto payments, wants to deploy NFTs to generate more real-world value, especially for the rapidly growing market segment of Singaporeans who hold crypto. The NFTs will unlock exclusive in-app rewards and benefits for owners.

The Sea Group-backed Ryde, which boasts over 200,000 monthly active users, also announced expanding its crypto payment model by adding over 70 currencies and ten different blockchain networks.

On Thursday, e27 spoke to its Founder and CEO, Terence Zou, to learn more about its NFT project and the crypto payments model.

Below is the edited version of the interview:

What is RydePal, and why is the firm venturing into NFTs?

RydePals, Asia’s first ride-hailing NFT, is aimed at members of our Ryde+ subscription plan. Each RydePal will be built using generative art, a combination of different design elements such as gender and age, colour, and accessories, representing the diversity of our users in the Ryde community.

To be eligible for the chance to receive a RydePal NFT, the first 3,350 people must hold an active Ryde+ subscription by 31 May 2022. The RydePal NFTs have real-world utility as they give NFT holders access to exclusive reward tiers in the Ryde app.

Also Read: Ryde plans for IPO on SGX, aims to capture 30 per cent of Singapore’s ride-sharing market

Outside of this token sale, RydePal NFTs can only be earned through an in-app activity like accumulating rides or staking RydeCoins in the Ryde wallet. The RydePals can also be traded on secondary NFT exchanges like OpenSea.

NFTs are great tools for building loyalty among communities. While designing RydePals, we spent a lot of time thinking about how other NFT project communities and game developers keep their communities engaged and reward desirable in-app activities.

NFTs also offer greater operational efficiencies in administering a membership programme than traditional systems. It does not rely on Ryde as a central authority to maintain a ledger of its members, and they are free to trade the NFTs as they see fit. All benefits and rights accrue to users whose wallets hold the NFTs.

Few NFTs today have real-world utility. With this project, we hope to deploy NFTs in a way that generates more real-world value, especially for the rapidly growing market segment of Singaporeans who hold crypto assets.

Can you tell us how RydePals works?

The table below outlines our NFT allocation breakdown according to the type of NFT offerings (standard versus rare), the platform where it may be purchased (via a Ryde+ subscription or through public minting), and the assigned price point or value per piece.

For the ‘Reserved Stock’ section, a quantity of 500 will be reserved for our top drivers who have excellent ratings and reviews. The NFTs will be airdropped to the first 500 drivers to meet the stipulated criteria: complete 400 trips in any three months between April and June 2022.

What are NFTs important in the ride-hailing vertical?

Our mission at Ryde has always been to “make every ride a better one”. Offering better prices is not the only or most sustainable way for us to give people reasons to choose to ride with us. Our driver-partners must be compensated fairly too.

NFTs are just one way that we try to give users another reason to choose Ryde. We believe that our “ride-to-earn” model of breeding new NFTs and gamifying rewards can turn each ride into something rather fun and exciting.

While Singapore is a fast-growing crypto market, NFTs are yet to take off in a big way. How do you plan to create awareness about NFTs among your subscribers and driver-partners?

NFTs have varied use cases across different industries that have yet to be fully explored. This provides us with an excellent opportunity to take the innovation lead.

RydePals will be the first major issuance of NFTs by a large, consumer-facing company in Singapore. We hope to generate greater awareness about NFTs among a more diverse base of Singaporeans.

As for our subscribers and driver-partners, we will provide detailed instructions on how they can set up a crypto wallet to hold the RydePals, and how to trade them on NFT marketplaces.

Ryde introduced crypto payments in 2020. How has been the response so far? What have been some of the challenges it has faced?

We started accepting crypto payments through Bitcoin in 2020. Since then, we have seen our users choose to top up their wallets with BTC.

Also Read: Collecting pixels: NFTs and the future of collectibles

Existing crypto payment gateways have limitations. One barrier to enterprise adoption of crypto payments is their pseudonymous nature and code-heavy formats; they are problematic for various bookkeeping, audit and other compliance reasons.

We have chosen to work with Request Finance, an enterprise crypto invoicing web app, to make it easy to accept crypto payments and bill our users in crypto. Request Finance has great enterprise-grade features like a single dashboard to manage all our crypto invoices. It also helps us see real-time payment confirmations, schedule recurring invoices, accurate mark-to-market prices at invoice payment, and integrate with accounting software like Quickbooks/Xero.

These basic features are currently lacking in the crypto payments space.

Do you expect your move to encourage more organisations in Southeast Asia to introduce NFTs?

RydePals will be the first major issuance of NFTs by a large, consumer-facing company in Singapore. We hope to generate greater awareness about NFTs among a more diverse base of Singaporean consumers and get more companies to seriously consider how NFTs can be of real value.

But as business leaders, we do our very best to avoid doing things for their own sake and must be mindful not to encourage irresponsible speculation. Technologies like NFTs are neither inherently good nor bad. At Ryde, we were deliberate about using NFTs in a commercially sensible and socially responsible manner.

—

The post Ryde CEO: ‘NFTs offer greater operational efficiencies in administering a membership programme than traditional systems’ appeared first on e27.

Have you seen Web3? Web3 may be one of the most commonly heard tech buzzwords you have come across in 2022. It typically refers to the dream of building a decentralised internet that will disrupt big tech corporations.

Hence, both Web3 and decentralisation concepts are often mentioned together. But buzzwords often lead investors to jump onto the bandwagon, and sometimes with both eyes closed.

In this column, I would like to help demystify the Web3 concept and highlight the key concepts for investors.

To me, Web3 is an exciting thesis but really still a work-in-progress, mainly an experiment for now. Web3 ventures fall into the riskiest of profiles. No one knows exactly what Web3 looks like, but it certainly generates a lot of excitement.

And you may recall that, in late December 2021, Web3 drew a new round of rapid-fire, beginning with the Bitcoin-loving ex-CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, unloading on Twitter, “You don’t own Web3. The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralised entity with a different label. Know what you’re getting into.”

Serious discussions between his followers and many Web3 proponents ensued. Predictably, Elon Musk also crashed the party, “Has anyone seen Web3? I can’t find it.”

To which Jack replied, “It’s somewhere between a and z”, clearly a jab at A16Z, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz which has pumped over US$3 billion into Web3 investments.

Those who have been following Jack know that he is a strong supporter of Bitcoin, having recently put wheels in motion for a decentralised Bitcoin exchange tbDEX. He also initiated the BlueSky project at Twitter to “free” Twitter from the inside. He’s a believer. So why would he launch an attack on Web3?

First of all, what exactly is Web3?

Web3 (technically Web 3.0) is a term coined by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood back in 2014. It is generally used to describe the next generation of the internet where users, instead of big tech or governments, own and control their own data.

The Web3 world resists censorship and is imbued with a solid open and collaborative culture. It is governed by the community through specific consensus mechanisms called governance tokens (more on this later), which are already in existence in today’s crypto communities.

Web3 is already here, though facets of it are not as decentralised as its true believers would want. It is where digital assets like NFTs live, where virtual real estate can be bought and sold, where (in theory) finance is decentralised, and where no one authority or institution makes the rules or dominates the ecosystem.

Such a vision certainly sounds very alluring as it indeed addresses many of the pain points of the current internet. I’m excited by the possibilities that the vision presents, birthing new innovations and encouraging rapid iteration on top of a new infrastructure, which is open in terms of both technology and community culture!

The challenge with Web3 is that it can’t be clearly defined, yet. And with interest exploding, people are jumping on the bandwagon and associating any remotely related stories (Metaverse play, anyone?) to cash in on the viral movement. A discerning investor would learn to see through the smokescreen and not jump on any old Web3 investments.

Also Read: Women of Web3: Top women contributors tell us all we need to know about Web3

Circling back to Jack, who clearly embraces a decentralised internet, but stands against those whose efforts hinder the formation of the new free world.

Jack’s stance is that Bitcoin is the most and perhaps the only truly decentralised system. Bitcoin holders do not have any claim to voting rights in the Bitcoin community, there is no governance token with Bitcoin.

What does decentralisation mean for investors, governance and power?

Yet even Bitcoin went through a few alarming episodes of over-concentration in power over its lifetime.

In December 2021, it emerged that the top one per cent of Bitcoin holders (the biggest 10,000 Bitcoin accounts) hold 5 million Bitcoins, which at today’s rate tally up to over US$200 billion.

As The Wall Street Journal reported, “The top Bitcoin holders control a greater share of the cryptocurrency than the most affluent American households control in dollars, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

“With an estimated 114 million people globally holding the cryptocurrency, according to crypto.com, that means that approximately 0.01 per cent of Bitcoin holders control 27 per cent of the 19 million Bitcoin in circulation.”

It is also important to realise that there is a trade-off between decentralisation and the ability to quickly build and iterate the functional features of the Web3 project at the initial stage. Sort of like the trade-off between democracy and state control when it comes to “getting things done”.

Many believe that this is all fine and trust that decentralisation may be achieved in the future.

This comes down to the governance token, which is a bit of blockchain tied to a specific cryptocurrency or decentralised finance (DeFi) project, which gives the holder “membership” in that community. Think of it in terms of a shareholder’s right to vote in matters related to the management of the company, in this case, the crypto or DeFi project.

On the positive side, the governance token acts to incentivise active community participation. But on the flip side, the existence of the token is not by itself a guarantee of legitimacy, and could well turn out to be an exit path for fake Web3 projects or Ponzi schemes.

Nor is it a guarantee that the system will get to its Holy Grail of true decentralisation.

In general, Web3 projects that issue governance tokens are seen as legitimate because there is a consensus mechanism to vote on developments.

What investors need to pay attention to is that Web3 governance tokens generally come with a specific income incentive (e.g. a fee that is collected from users, and can be distributed to token holders, or an incentive distributed through other mechanisms), and an element of control in the voting rights.

However due to institutions, large investors (such as venture capitalists) and very wealthy individuals accumulating investments in DeFi ventures, capitalists have also accumulated rights, ownership, and by extension, power. This is at the heart of Jack’s Twitter tantrum.

I agree with Jack that institutions might always find ways to gain control or exert a stronger influence.

Jack himself has experienced that firsthand in Twitter despite it being a US$40 billion company when activist investor Elliot Management accumulated a significant stake to exert pressure on the company’s direction.

A similar game has played out in the crypto world when in late 2019, Justin Sun, founder of crypto platform Tron, mounted what was effectively a hostile takeover of the Steemit blockchain project.

Less than half a year ago in December 2021, the EOS community voted to “fire” Block.one, the company that originally designed the EOS network, over claims that it is no longer acting in the network’s best interests.

The community also pushed to halt the issuance of EOS tokens over the next six to seven years, which would also halt the vesting of tokens to Block.one founder Brock Pierce.

Clearly, decentralisation won’t be an easy thing to achieve.

It’s all about the power of community

Instead of evaluating whether a Web3 project is truly decentralised when investing, investors should examine whether the community is deeply engaged and shares the decentralisation vision.

The silver lining behind these two negative examples at Steemit and EOS is the “power” of community, which does not usually exist in the Web2 world. Decentralisation, while a challenging goal, is the mission statement that unites the community of any Web3 project and is an integral part of the culture’s DNA.

Hence, it is ultimately the community that will determine the potential and sustainability of the project in the long run.

Blockchain by design keeps the database permissionless and infrastructure open. What empowers the community is the governance token. But note that it is nothing but a technological mechanism to facilitate the Web3 community’s operations. It is the community that ultimately decides on the project’s direction.

Also Read: How blockchain is giving a bigger boost to musicians than streaming startups

Whenever the power becomes centralised in the hands of a few and starts to shift the project away from its original mission, with the token, the community is empowered to fight back or “fork” away and build a spinoff. The community keeps the power in check.

It is worth noting that at the beginning, the community may agree to prioritise functionality over decentralisation.

Hence, many current Web3 projects are still experimental and indeed not very decentralised. Personally, as a tech investor, I find it somewhat acceptable despite the higher risk.

Know what you’re getting into

Still, Jack is not totally against VCs. He did tweet before, somewhat incoherently, “I’m anti-centralised, VC-owned, single point of failure, and corporate-controlled lies”, and “I’m telling you I’ve learned from the issues taking on VCs creates. Block *had* help from VCs yes. But ones that know their place.”

Not all money is the same. Each VC has its investment strategy and reputation, e.g. some choose to “spread and pray”, some are “vulture capitalists”, and some “know their place” in providing valuable support to help founders to achieve the great vision.

While traditionally a VC’s job is to identify and support promising founders, in the Web3 thesis, VCs will need to take the culture and strength of the community as one of the most critical investment rationale, if not the most critical one. For founders, community, and investors, it will be important to choose to follow VCs that are really in sync with your mission statement.

Jack is right. “Know what you’re getting into.” Web3 is an exciting thesis but can be controversial. The only thing we know for sure is, that the internet we know will be very different in the coming years.

This is a revised version of my article which first appeared in The Business Times’ Crypto Watch column. I publish the Crypto Watch column in The Business Times every second Monday of the month. Bookmark this link to read the new articles.

The writer is a general partner at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of Vertex Ventures.

–

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: dmitrydemidovich

The post ‘I have seen the future, and it works.’ But is it Web3? appeared first on e27.

Filipino buy-now-pay-later and consumer finance app BillEase has closed a US$20 million debt facility from emerging market credit provider Lendable.

The new funding adds to BillEase’s recent US$11 million Series B equity raised from investors, including BurdaPrincipal Investments, MDI Ventures, and KB Investment.

Georg Steiger, CEO and Co-Founder of First Digital Finance Corporation (FDFC), the operator of BillEase, said: “With Lendable’s support, we will be able to continue the strong growth in customer onboarding and expand our loan portfolio. We share the same focus on creating financing solutions that serve the emerging consumer segment as the Lendable team.”

Launched in 2017, BillEase provides merchants with instalment solutions to boost their conversion rate and average order values by enabling customised instalment payment products at checkout.

Today BillEase has more than 700 merchant partners — from airline tickets (Philippine Airlines) to flip flops (Havaianas), speakers (Harman Kardon) to ice boxes (Coleman/Focus Global).

Also Read: This e-credit card allows Filipinos to buy big-ticket items online with easy instalments

For consumers, BillEase serves as an alternative to credit/debit cards and e-wallets when shopping online. They are given a credit limit that can be used at any of BillEase’s merchant partners, such as gadgets retailer Kimstore or Philippine Airlines. Unlike traditional debit cards and e-wallets, customers do not have to top up before purchasing online or offline.

In addition to BNPL, the BillEase app also offers personal loans, e-wallet top-ups and popular wallets like GCash, PayMaya, Coins.ph, GrabPay, and ShopeePay, mobile loads and gaming credits.

BillEase claimed its Q1 2022 volumes were up almost 5x compared to last year’s same period, and the company already achieved profitability in 2021.

The Philippines has recently attracted increased interest from investors, especially in the fintech space, and this is primarily due to the potential impact fintech startups have on the lives of the emerging middle-class population.

“The Philippines represents a huge and untapped opportunity for fintech. The population is young, tech-savvy and largely underbanked. Several regulatory initiatives are coming together to significantly improve market infrastructure – instant retail payment networks, National ID, national credit bureau, digital banking licenses, just to name a few. The adoption of digital transactions also just got a massive push through the extended lockdowns. We are starting to see the shape of things to come but we are barely scratching the surface. This will be one of the most exciting fintech markets globally over the next five years.” Steiger added.

—

The post Filipino BNPL player BillEase secures US$20M debt facility from Lendable appeared first on e27.