International Women’s Day is a day to acknowledge and honour women around the world for the contributions they make each day to society. With power enough to shatter the shackles of patriarchy, women are rising above societal hurdles every single day, making them a stronger force to reckon with, in modern times.

During the past few years, there has been immense progress in various programmes across the globe to help advance females in a number of domains.

Through our contributor programme at e27, we celebrate the contributions of our female writers. We applaud their innovative ideas, success stories, and dedication to take the world by storm.

How machine learning really impacts us in our daily lives by Janine Teo

Machine learning is now considered to be one of the biggest innovations since the microchip. It is used to be a fanciful concept from science fiction, but now it’s becoming a daily reality. If we know how to harness its power, it can help us lead a happier, healthier, and more productive life.

In this piece, Janine Teo, CEO of Solve Education! shows us how machine learning really impacts us in our daily lives. From automation to efficient computation, from rectifying blurry pictures to rapid damage assessment, the machine learning revolution is already all around you.

Beyond burn out: Why you should also celebrate the pursuit and not just wins by Aulia Halimatussadiah

To be burned out is to be used up like a battery so depleted that it can’t be recharged. In people, unlike batteries, it is said to produce the defining symptoms of “burnout syndrome”: exhaustion, cynicism, and loss of efficacy.

Many months ago, Halimatussadiah, the CMO of Remote Skills Academy Indonesia, the Co-Founder of Storial.co, a social storytelling platform, and NulisBuku.com, a print on demand platform, felt uninspired even though she was leading a beautiful life.

In this article, Aulia Halimatussadiah talks about what led her to exhaustion and how she came out of it thriving.

“I break goals in small chunks. I make it a habit to create a daily intention and checklist that will show my progress on that day. I notice and celebrate my micro-progress and write it down in my gratitude journal. I also celebrate progress with my team/best friends.”

How Malaysian workplaces need to manage the impact of “coronastress” by Catherine Chen

According to the World Health Organisation, mental health refers to a state of well-being in which individuals realise their abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively, and contribute to their community.

The ongoing pandemic has pushed many beyond their limits from social isolation, resulting in potential long-term mental health issues and has sparked a new phenomenon coined as ‘Coronastress’, stress occurring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: Meet the 13 UN Women Care Accelerator startups transforming care work in APAC

Catherine Chen, the founding member of OKRs Coach Network, says, “According to the report released by IPSOS at the end of 2020, Malaysia has the highest level of anxiety among the 28 counties surveyed. For example, 67 per cent of Malaysian employees have increased stress due to changes in work routines and organizations, while the global average is 55 per cent.”

In this piece, Chen emphasises the compelling advantages of OKRs for building a value-driven mindset rather than task-driven mindsets and how workplaces can tackle corona stress effectively.

The long and winding road to e-commerce profitability by Vandana Agarwal

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce was one of the biggest stories in retail. It is no longer considered an edge case, it is the future of retail. But as companies see the proportion of e-commerce sales increase dramatically, the urgency has arrived and recent consumer expectations like free and expedited shipping often have entrepreneurs barely coping with logistics costs.

Vandana Agarwal is the Sales Manager at ClickPost, Asia’s fastest-growing logistics intelligence platform for e-commerce. With technology to the rescue, she pens down her thoughts on how to make e-commerce businesses boom with more profits in the coming era.

5 foodtech trends that will reshape Southeast Asia in 2022 by Vanessa Techapichetvanich

The food industry has opened its doorway to new technologies and mobile application based services which led to an immense transformation in how the food industry operates. The recipe of food and technology has given birth to food technology.

Southeast Asia is a region that is intensely passionate about food. Every country in this part of the world has a long and proud culinary tradition that inspires great pride.

Vanessa Techapichetvanich, Co-Founder and CEO at Jamulogy, talks about how 2022 will be the year that homegrown food and tech startups in this region see rapid growth and perhaps even make a few international headlines. Having been long overlooked by the West, it’s about time Southeast Asian food culture gets its time in the spotlight.

Gen Z is saying no to climbing corporate ladders. Here’s what it means for Singapore’s startup ecosystem by Bernadette Cho

The dawn of Gen Z in the workplace, a digitally native generation, is beginning to influence employers and their decisions about the future of the workplace.

Their unique perspective about careers and life goals makes them the best fit for the post-pandemic workforce. Called the ‘change generation,’ Gen-Z and the second half of millennials prioritize purpose over money.

There is nothing more than an empowering work culture that keeps their passion alive. When it comes to Generation Z’s work ethics, it’s just not enough to have a compelling purpose; they need to look into the ever-evolving ‘work’ itself.

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. Cho reflects, “No longer fulfilled by the status quo, more Gen Z aspiring founders are proactively forging their own path.”

Also Read: A women-centric dating app developed by an ex-diplomat seeks to end Tinder’s dominance in Vietnam

How prepared are you to meet Gen Z in the workplace?

From sommelier to AVP of Customer Success at a tech unicorn: Lessons from my career journey by Wenjun Ai

The world has become so competitive that doing well in your job and moving forward with your career is more important now than ever. Career advancement and recognition are on every professional’s list of goals. But what sets the exceptional professionals apart?

Wenjun Ai, AVP Customer Success, APAC at AppsFlyer reflects on her recent promotion to the position of Associate Vice President (AVP) of Customer Success in just seven short years. She shares the three key takeaways that she has distilled from her journey.

“And if there is just one thing you remember, it should be that we should always keep trying, pushing, learning, and growing,” says Ai.

How to use Twitter to market your product as a founder by Michelle Marcelline

With more than 145 million active daily users, Twitter should be a part of your marketing strategy. It’s the fifth most popular social media network, and it’s a gold mine of customer insights and opportunities to build your brand, drive sales and win fans.

Michelle Marcelline, Co-Founder at Typedream, a powerful no-code website builder that is simple and intuitive leads the way on how you can approach Twitter with a plan of action to build your personal brand. Understanding how the platform works and how it fits in your overall social media strategy is the key to success.

How IP strategy is driving the ride-hailing services to success in SEA by Cheryl Chng

Ride-hailing has revolutionised the way people travel and commute. It has become an integral part of society in Southeast Asia and consumers are increasingly reliant on such services for their day-to-day activities. Notable companies include Grab, Gojek, Blue Bird, and many more.

Also Read: Check out this comprehensive list of 46 startup resources and opportunities for women

The ride-hailing industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3 per cent – almost double the global average. Cheryl Chng, Director of Vertex Holdings shares the catch behind their success story.

How this founder went from being a tutor to a modern-day mompreneur by Nuha Ghouse

Nuha Ghouse started out as an ambitious educator with a limited understanding of technology but a massive passion for education which grew to the establishment of the leading edutech platform, Tutopiya.

Ghouse, the Founder and CEO of Tutopiya shares her journey from being a tutor to a modern-day mompreneur. She says, “In today’s high-tech world, female entrepreneurship has enormous potential for fostering socio-economic growth. As new generations take charge and the world emerges, female entrepreneurs must be primed as there will be more great opportunities for women in the future.”

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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

The post Top 10 community articles by women writers from the tech sphere appeared first on e27.

GoTo may raise up to US$2B in IPO at US$31-42.7B valuation
In a document, GoTo said it expects significant growth from 2022 to 2024 in terms of GTV; All eyes are on GoTo’s proposed listing after e-commerce giant Bukalapak became the first unicorn to make its public market debut on the local stock exchange last year.

Singapore’s Insider turns unicorn after US$121M funding
Qatar Investment Authority committed US$100M to the round; Insider enables brands to predict customer behaviour using AI and deliver personalised experience across multiple devices and channels.

CTO Corp, Bukalapak to launch US$69.7M e-commerce grocery JV
Bukalapak is understood to have about a 35% stake in the venture AlloFresh; AlloFresh is understood to have secured a US$20M investment from Growtheum Capital in exchange for a 10% stake.

SPH to sell SgCarMart for US$118M to Toyota consortium
The report comes days after SPH Media Trust, which was spun off from SPH in 2021 as a nonprofit, said it will get funding of up to US$132M from the Singapore government annually for the next five years.

Indonesian agritech startup TaniHub closes 2 warehouses, lays off employees
The company has decided to focus on its B2B segment, which includes hotels, restaurants, and modern trade retailers; It has also stopped selling fresh produce directly to customers.

Animoca invests in Hong Kong NFT platform UCOLLEX’s US$10M Series A
MCP IPX One Fund also co-invested; The UCOLLEX platform caters to the next-generation creators by making their NFT artwork available to toy and pop culture collectors; It also enables creators to build their fanbase economy.

Singapore DeFi startup DeZy raises US$2.2M pre-Series A funding round
Investors are Leo Capital, Iterative Capital, and angels; DeZy enables users to convert their cash into dollar-denominated stable coins, which are deposited across a range of DeFi protocols.

SpaceAge Labs nets US$1.25M to take its remote monitoring, IoT solutions to Aus, US
Investors are Silicon Solution Partners (lead) and SEEDS Capital; SpaceAge Labs carries out operations and maintenance of remote and distributed assets by collecting asset data using low power, long-range wireless IoT devices

Singapore ideal hub for expansion of Southeast Asian tech
The nation acts as ideal for cross-regional expansion because of its international reputation and government initiatives to cultivate investment, talent, and connections; It is home to over 600 investors and 200 accelerators and incubators.

DOST, Digital Pilipinas (DP) to build decentralised innovation centres
The agreement came a month after DP sealed a tripartite collaboration with Mapúa University and the DOST-PCIEERD to launch the Think and Tinker Laboratory – Technology Business Incubation (TBI) programme in promoting academe-industry-government collaboration.

TikTok Shop enters Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia
TikTok Shop allows locally based consumers to buy a wide array of goods while also offering businesses more opportunities to make sales via the app; TikTok also performed A/B testing in Indonesia earlier this month.

YGG SEA enters Vietnam, plans more offices in region
The sub-decentralised autonomous organisation has already set up shops in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia; The guild said that YGG SEA participates in more than 30 games, including Axie Infinity and Starsharks.

Fast-growing e-commerce fuels delivery service boom in Vietnam
The pandemic has given a remarkable push for the revolution of e-commerce, with 4 leading online marketplaces reportedly expanding around 8-50% last year; There was a significant surge in the number of orders on e-commerce sites between June-September.

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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 Ecosystem Roundup: GoTo may raise up to US$2B in IPO, Singapore’s Insider turns unicorn appeared first on e27.

As an ecosystem platform designed the strengthen the global startup community through networks, fundraising, and awareness, e27 is dedicated to helping today’s innovators become tomorrow’s global powerhouses. We have spent 15 years doing this through a range of services: from providing access to tools and insights that empower founders to forging connections that enable partnerships between stakeholders, and even to driving up content to help effectively engage audiences.

With the Asia Pacific throbbing at the heart of e27’s vast global network, it is important for us to highlight and provide access to opportunities for entrepreneurs from the region and beyond. As such, we are proud to announce the latest feature that we believe can help entrepreneurs amp up their startups to get that much-needed boost: e27 PRO+!

Taking Pro a notch higher

e27 PRO+ operates under three fundamental areas:

• Branding and Awareness
• Lead Generation
• Fundraising 

With its regional network spanning across the Asia Pacific and beyond, e27 has firmly cemented its position as a community builder in the global tech startup ecosystem. Furthermore, the organisation has built partnerships with some of the most reputable brands including VISA, ADB Ventures, SMU, MDEC, Enterprise Singapore, ICMG, and many more.

In the past two years, the team successfully launched the e27 Pro programme, a networking platform designed to help connect startups and investors for more meaningful business partnerships amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Providing access to top investors around the world, the e27 Pro programme now boasts as many as 140 diverse global startups ranging from e-commerce to healthtech.

Also read: Sagri: Bringing agriculture to the future and sustainability to the forefront with satellite data, AI, and GRID

Through Startup Connect, e27 has facilitated almost 10,000 connections between startups and investors, with two startups being able to bag multi-million dollar funding, namely logistics and supply chain company, iStore iSend, and SaaS recruitment solutions provider, X0PA. On one hand, iStore iSend raised US$5.5M in a Series B round, co-led by EasyParcel and Gobi Partners, while X0PA raised US$4.2M in a Series A round with XCEL NEXT Ventures.

They’re not the only ones enjoying this new platform. Travis Teo of Adzymic shared, “My cofounder and I really love this initiative, allowing us to connect with investors whom we had difficulty reaching. The connect rate is also more than our expectation, especially during this period.” Similar sentiments were echoed by Workbean’s Neil Rojas who explained, “The platform makes it easier to identify which investors to reach out to because data is presented in a way where we can easily filter things such as funding stage, markets, funding amount. The ease of reaching out to start a conversation is very valuable for us.”

While this endeavour has been a real game-changer, the e27 team believes that with access to extra tools, there is still so much more that can be accomplished.

What is e27 PRO+

More than the already proven fundraising feature that has helped startups connect, gain feedback, and discuss potential investment opportunities, e27 PRO+’ slew of new tools are here to help bolster companies beyond their fundraising journeys.

The new programme comes with a branding and awareness boost that helps shine a spotlight on the brand and amplify its presence in the startup ecosystem. e27 PRO+ achieves this by positioning startup founders as thought leaders, as a go-to entity in their respective verticals, and generally raise brand awareness.

This is packaged through e27’s media arm — connecting companies to relevant audiences and allowing them to discuss matters that they find most important. This media feature is broadcasted across e27’s 750,000 average monthly sessions, 150,000 registered users, and 71,000 newsletter subscribers. The team will also be featuring brand content across all relevant social media platforms such as Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.

Also read: Sagri: Bringing agriculture to the future and sustainability to the forefront with satellite data, AI, and GRID

Moreover, e27 PRO+ also helps companies improve lead generation by facilitating engagements and bridging the gaps between the parties — to educate, establish a foundation of trust, and nurture a pipeline for potential business opportunities. Apart from the newsletter banner ad placement and the social media feature, e27 PRO+ achieves this by highlighting brands through a special widget featured on the e27 website as by hosting a full webinar session dedicated to that company and its expertise.

As for fundraising, e27 PRO+ enables startup founders to build comprehensive startup profiles on the e27 platform, coupled with the connection dashboard to manage conversations with active investors. Not only does this help both startups and investors reach each other more efficiently, but it also streamlines the process of going back and forth to learn about each other’s important fundraising details (e.g. fundraising stage).

These are only some of the amazing and exclusive improvements that come with the e27 PRO+. 

How e27 PRO+ can amp up your startup journey

All these things sound great. But how can these exclusive e27 PRO+ features truly and tangibly impact your startup growth? For starters, the platform caters to your startup needs on an end to end basis. From building brand awareness to establish your presence in the ecosystem, to generating leads that can help you meet and sustain your business goals, to fundraising that can help your company grow and scale globally.

Also read: Sagri: Bringing agriculture to the future and sustainability to the forefront with satellite data, AI, and GRID

Of course, founders can go about these three crucial aspects of a startup journey on their own, but what e27 PRO+ does is collate them under one convenient platform. Through this, startups are able to save important time and resources that may as well go to day to day operations.

With e27’s mission to become a catalyst for a stronger and more vibrant startup ecosystem not only in APAC but across the world, e27 PRO+ is further strengthens the team’s commitment to its mission. If you are a startup that believes in the same values of enriching connections and building partnerships, visit us at e27.co.

The post Feeling the pressure to boost your startup? Let e27 PRO+ help you appeared first on e27.

VUCA leadership for your business has become more vital than ever before. The past few years have allowed us to witness how volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous running a business can be. Further emphasised by today’s changing environment and mobility restrictions, many businesses have unfortunately not weathered through this ordeal.

The shift to taking businesses online becomes ever more imminent. Doing this shift well in a way that continues to provide that personalised experience to customers is key in order to set your business apart.

Small and medium businesses (SMEs) are considered the backbone of Southeast Asia’s economy, representing 97% of overall business in SEA. Unfortunately, market volatilities brought about by the ongoing pandemic have caused over half of SMEs to close in several SEA countries. Given changing market trends, technology adoption becomes imperative for businesses to adapt, survive, and thrive. Particularly, enabling great customer service in this shift is vital.

Also read: Sagri: Bringing agriculture to the future and sustainability to the forefront with satellite data, AI, and GRID

As businesses transition from offering their services from an offline to an online environment, it is important to know the opportunities that come with providing seamless customer experiences. It’s good to keep customers engaged, and give them the information that they need when they need it to keep them satisfied.

CM.com brings conversational commerce best practices to Southeast Asia

Enter CM.com (AMS: CMCOM), the global leader in cloud software for conversational commerce that enables businesses to deliver a superior customer experience. Headquartered in the Netherlands and being in business for over 20 years, its customers include big brands such as Coca Cola and the BMW Group, in addition to thousands of medium and small-sized businesses. As the number 1 software suite for Conversational Commerce, CM.com is at the forefront of this field with vast experience across industries and has been duly recognised and accredited by reputable organisations like the GSMA, European Commission, and PCI DSS.

CM.com evangelist Michiel Gaasterland shares that their award-winning Mobile Service Cloud platform handles over 50 million human messages annually. When asked about emerging trends in the e-commerce marketing space, Michiel shares, “The overarching trend is rising customer expectations. Customers now expect you to be available when they need you. They want to use the channel they prefer. And they want to speak to a friendly, knowledgeable agent, capable of solving their problem in one interaction.”

CM.com’s solutions enable more seamless experiences for your customers, setting your business further ahead. They have various customer touchpoint modules including customer engagement, audience reach, customer contact automation, message personalisation and conversation monetisation. They also have multi-channel solutions, via SMS, voice and online chat, providing personalised service experiences for customers through AI-powered contextual conversations. Seamless and customised mobile marketing experiences are also achieved based on unique customer preferences, thereby optimising customer touchpoints for monetisation.

Delivering relevant solutions to the hyper-empowered consumer in the realm of digital becomes more competitive than ever. Staying ahead through impeccable customer experience from engagement to retention can be streamlined through CM.com’s Mobile Service Cloud and Mobile Marketing Cloud solutions. Mobile Service Cloud is an all-in-one customer service solution for customer service teams to maintain full visibility of all support engagements in one place.

Also read: Sagri: Bringing agriculture to the future and sustainability to the forefront with satellite data, AI, and GRID

Mobile Service Cloud addresses various customer service challenges. Michiel elaborates how CM.com’s solutions solve these, Mobile Service Cloud offers a truly channel-agnostic customer service solution: all core functionality works out of the box for all service channels, as well as providing easy access to all these channels such as e-mail, live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram DM, Twitter DM, Apple Messages for Business, as well as third party VoIP systems — and just released: native Voice capabilities. Mobile Service Cloud also adapts ‘conversations’ as the currency of the system, and not ’tickets’. Old school helpdesk systems turn questions into tickets and people into numbers.”

Michiel added, “We believe customer service is a conversation. Not a chess game that carries on for days. At CM.com, we like to say: ‘No queues, no tickets, no dramas.’ Old school ticketing systems all work with a queue. Since the queue is not owned by anyone, customers are left unattended. It also causes agents to cherry-pick the easy questions first, and leave the difficult ones for later. Lastly, queues create a cluttered overview because all support requests (with different statuses) remain in the queue until final issue resolution. In short: conventional ticketing systems are focused on the internal process, not on the customer. We solve this completely differently with a user interface that allows agents to put the customer back on #1.”

Sustaining service standards

More benefits to your business can be realised through CM.com’s solutions. While simple customer queries can be addressed through AI automation, more complex queries need human support. CM.com enables your team to deliver an experience to your clients where there is no drop in terms of service standards in the transition, as all conversations are appropriately tracked and documented.

Your business can also cut back on typical response times. CM.com’s Mobile Service Cloud solution consolidates information across multiple sources from the customer relationship management (CRM) software, the customer data platform (CDP), and the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Rather than having customer service agents dig for the relevant information across platforms, CM.com enables a streamlined experience for customer service support to efficiently solve customer concerns). The solution also enables your customer service team to effectively engage with your clients through their most preferred channels.

Also read: Sagri: Bringing agriculture to the future and sustainability to the forefront with satellite data, AI, and GRID

With respect to engaging with businesses in Southeast Asia, CM.com has not only considered globally renowned customer touchpoint channels to be integrated into their system but also provides channel integration of those dominantly used in Southeast Asia like Viber and Instagram — providing more options beyond the typical choices of just email and phone. 

Mobile Service Cloud integrates conversations of customers across the multiple channels they may be using, making it more efficient to solve customer concerns. With CM.com’s Mobile Service Cloud solution, your customer service representatives no longer operate in silos, but as a collective unit providing the best possible customer experience. Michiel further notes, “We offer advanced analytics that allows our customers to analyse and optimise their service performance. By automatically tagging all service conversations, customers can learn from their conversations and optimise the parts of the journey that contain friction. By connecting your Mobile Service Cloud to CM.com Customer Data Platform, you can truly integrate Service into your overall Engagement plan. Because who still sends a customer a marketing message one the same day they filed a complaint with your service department? Not CM.com customers.”

CM.com’s Mobile Service Cloud enables this synergy through a technology solution that is intuitive, easy to use, and adaptable.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by CM.com

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

The post CM.com enables growth for Southeast Asian businesses and beyond appeared first on e27.

Singapore-headquartered community-driven neobank IN Financial Technology (INFT) has fully acquired MyCash, an international money transfer company focused on migrant workers.

The size of the deal has not been disclosed.

As per a press note, the deal will enable INFT to take advantage of MyCash’s consumer remittance business. At the same time, Singapore-based MyCash will expand geographically into other Asian markets, including Malaysia and Indonesia.

Post-deal, MyCash leadership will continue to work with IN Financial Technology. MyCash Founder and CEO Mehedi Hasan will retain his position while helping the neobank expand in emerging markets.

IN Financial Technology is a one-stop employer-to-employee fintech platform. It aims to empower micro and small businesses in Asia to transform their business banking processes from traditional to digital. Its solutions include an online business account, virtual debit card, spend management tools, and business cash line.

Also Read: MyCash raises funding from 500 Startups; to take its financial services platform for unbanked migrant workers into new markets

Started its operation in Singapore last year, IN Financial Technology has also established its operations in Malaysia and Indonesia. It has already secured a lending license in Malaysia and is in the process of securing an e-wallet license in Indonesia. It plans to extend its network to seven markets in Asia, including Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

“The expanded demand for cross-border B2B remittance will continue to drive further growth for both companies,” said Eldwin Wong, CEO and Founder of INFT Group. Last month, INFT said it was rolling out a buy now, pay later feature, called INFT BNPL, to help customers grow their businesses.

MyCash Founder and CEO Mehedi Hasan said the acquisition amplified the value of its offerings to its shareholders and stakeholders with the strategically-planned growth trajectory to strengthen its position further. “Additionally, INFT’s business banking platform will enhance MyCash’s efforts to drive expansion for its B2B and B2C remittance solutions.”

Mehedi said he is currently working on a new SME buy-now-pay-later business in Bangladesh.

Launched in 2016, MyCash provides a tailor-made platform for the unbanked migrant population. It enables migrants to purchase products and services online without using bank accounts, credit cards or prepaid cards. Its services include mobile top-up, internet recharging, online insurance, e-commerce payments, and cross-border remittance. Users can pay bills and buy bus tickets through MyCash.

In 2019, MyCash secured an undisclosed amount in financing from 500 Startups and Malaysian architect Ng Sek San. A year earlier, MyCash raised RM500,000 (US$120,000 then) through equity crowd-funding platform pitchIN. 

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The post Singapore neobank IN Financial Technology acquires 500 Global-backed MyCash appeared first on e27.

Between 2016 to 2018, I was taking Lion Air flights approximately twice a month to Indonesia.

Lion Air flights were the most affordable (a fancy word for cheap), especially as I run on an NGO budget. And on 29 October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the water, and all 189 people on board did not survive.

I could have been in the plane that crashed

A recent Netflix documentary “Downfall” looked into the case against Boeing.

I teared when I saw the familiar Lion Air planes and Jakarta airport. It appears that Boeing’s company culture took a turn after the merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. The company started to focus more on sales instead of engineering.

In 2003, Europe’s Airbus overtook Boeing in terms of market share. Airbus A320neo’s fuel efficiency increased demand for Airbus’s aircraft. Boeing had to come up with something fast and was under pressure from Wall Street to deliver.

As a result, Boeing 737 Max was launched and sold to airlines worldwide.

The blame game

When Boeing 737 Max crashed in Asia and Africa, fingers were pointed at the Asian and African pilots instead of the American aircraft manufacturer.

Even though the pilots of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines were well trained and highly qualified, Boeing said that the pilots did not do what they were supposed to.

When the black boxes were retrieved, it was revealed that the pilots did what they were supposed to do and that the Boeing 737 Max was faulty.

Further investigations showed that Lion Air reached out for more training for their pilots for the new 737 Max planes. Boeing belittled them and refused to conduct additional pilot training.

Boeing 737 Max continued flying until China took the lead to ground this aircraft unilaterally

Boeing stood by their statement that their aircraft were safe to fly and had the US government’s support. No countries grounded Boeing 737 Max despite the two deadly crashes.

Also Read: Why innovations in the air traffic space remain a priority for a more resilient future

China was the first country to ban 737 Max planes. Australia, Canada, Singapore, Indonesia, Europe, New Zealand, etc. followed suit.

Prioritising profits over passengers’ safety

Boeing engineers raised their concerns for safety but were shut down by Boeing’s executives.

The “revolutionary” 737 Max includes a significant change, a new software: MCAS, which pushed the nose of the aircraft down, causing the two crashes.

From the documentary, it appears that Boeing wanted to avoid the expensive costs to train pilots and categorised MCAS as a minor change.

Over 300 people lost their lives as a result. But Boeing’s share price was unaffected.

Even though Dennis Mullenburg was fired, he walked away with over US$60 million. There must be consequences for people who disregard public safety.

Lesson on diversity for all of us

Here are my takeaways:

• If we were not biased towards Indonesia’s Lion Air, we might have caught the default in Boeing 737 Max earlier, and the second crash might not have happened.
• If we did not prejudice Ethiopian Airlines, countries could have grounded 737 Max much earlier.
• The world needs diverse voices. The USA cannot be the dominant voice that “leads the world”. We need Asian, African, Middle Eastern, Latin American, etc. voices at the table to hold each other accountable. I shudder to imagine if China did not lead ground 737 Max, how many more lives would have been lost?
• A company needs to heed the voices of their engineers as much as their sales and marketing people.

Perhaps I feel more strongly about this due to my close proximity to Lion Air. I would love to hear what your thoughts are.

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

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

Image Credit: almir1968

The post Why the ‘Downfall’ of Boeing is a big lesson on diversity for all of us appeared first on e27.

ScaleUp Malaysia, an accelerator programme that focusses on growth-stage companies in Malaysia, in partnership with Quest Ventures, Indelible Ventures, and Mranti, today announced the 11 companies from its third cohort that have raised investments from the investors.

Kicked off August 2021, ScaleUp Malaysia said that it drew over 200 applications from 26 countries including Malaysia, the US, Egypt, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan. Twenty companies were shortlisted to participate in Cohort 3 and placed into separate tracks, giving them exclusive access to Quest Ventures and Indelible Ventures respectively over the course of 16 weeks.

Each company will receive up to US$60,000 (~MYR250,000) in investment.

The following is a list of the companies and the tracks they were grouped in:

Quest Ventures track

GuruInovatif
A platform that provides complete online resources for teachers’ professional development.

MADCash
A digital platform that tracks the impact of funding an interest-free microloan given to unbanked women micro-entrepreneurs.

Also Read: 25 notable startups in Malaysia that have taken off in 2021

Open Academy
An education platform that provides real, non-theory based programmes, training, and content by industry practitioners.

SpareXHub
Provides an e-commerce marketplace for genuine auto spare parts. They believe Every Part Has A Car and this marketplace brings together automotive stockists, independent workshops and car owners in Malaysia’s first platform, where heavily discounted and guaranteed genuine car parts are sourced and sold in complete confidence.

VireServe
A Managed Service Provider that focuses on Cyber Security and IT Solutions. The platform can be used as a tool for freelancers and/or consultants to perform compliance consulting and act as lead generation to Service Providers (Technology Principals & System Integrators).

WA Sushi
An F&B e-commerce company, building “quality food made for delivery”. WA in Japanese means peace, harmony and the company’s mission is to “deliver happiness through great food”.

Indelible Ventures track

Howuku
An online platform that offers an all-in-one web optimisation and analytics solution. They provide a set of easy to use UX testing tools to help you visually understand your visitors so you can focus on improving conversion rates.

Kumo
A SaaS provider for the beauty and medical aesthetics industry.

Midwest Composites
A go-to Engineered Composites Partner. They design and manufacture Advanced Composites and Biobased Composites for customers that want to use futuristic materials in their products.

Also Read: How Malaysian workplaces need to manage the impact of “coronastress”

New investments by ScaleUp Malaysia

RECQA
A knowledge sharing platform for team members to share learnings and other relevant information and contribute to an organisation’s collective intelligence.

BizTech Asia
A cross-media and marketing B2B platform that enables business to business marketing for our clients via scheduled video & podcast content as well as networking & corporate gaming events.

BizTech Asia and RECQA are alumni from the programme’s second cohort. Quest Ventures and Indelible Ventures also announced that it is looking to announce one or two more companies at a later date.

ScaleUp Malaysia has also opened registration for startups to state their interest to participate in Cohort 4.

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ScaleUp Malaysia has partnered with e27 to provide their investees access to e27 Pro with complimentary 30 days access and a 40 per cent discount if they continue with their membership.

With over 400 verified active investors on the platform, e27 Pro members will have the ability to find, connect, and engage with the right investors for their companies.

Not a Pro member yet? Start here.

Image Credit: ScaleUp Malaysia

The post ScaleUp Malaysia invests in 11 startups from its third cohort appeared first on e27.

While there are various Singapore government grants available to Singapore-incorporated companies, not every company will qualify for such grants or find them sufficient for its growth or working capital.

In such cases, funding from investors becomes necessary, whether it is from the infamous 3Fs (friends, family and fools) or venture capitalists.

This article examines the common forms of debt and equity financing adopted by private companies incorporated in Singapore to raise funds.

Prospectus requirements

It is important to note from the outset that the Securities and Futures Act (Cap. 289) of Singapore (“SFA”) requires a prospectus to be issued for all offers of securities (including shares and debentures) or securities-based derivatives contracts unless they are excluded or exempted from such requirement.

Exempted offers include:

• Small personal offers where the total amount raised from such bids within any 12 months does not exceed SG$5 million (US$3.72 million) or such other amount as may be prescribed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (section 272A of the SFA)
• Offers made to no more than 50 persons within any 12 months (section 272B of the SFA)
• Offers made to institutional investors (section 274 of the SFA)
• Offers made to accredited investors (section 275 of the SFA)

In each case, subject to any further conditions such as the offer not having been accompanied by an advertisement (other than an information memorandum prepared as a basis for the investment decision) and no promotional expenses incurred in connection with the offer.

Companies looking to raise funds without a prospectus should ensure that their offers fall within the relevant exemption or are otherwise not regulated under the SFA.

In the crowdfunding space, debt-based crowdfunding (commonly known as peer-to-peer (P2P) lending) and equity-based crowdfunding are subject to the above prospectus requirements as they are considered to be offers of securities, including crowdfunding involving the use of digital tokens or cryptocurrencies which fall within the definition of securities under the SFA.

In addition, operators of crowdfunding platforms that facilitate such offers or provide advice relating to such offers may be seen to be “dealing in securities” or “advising on corporate finance”, respectively, which are regulated activities requiring a capital markets services licence under the SFA.

Also Read: What tech startups need to know about the legal aspects of online marketing

Other types of crowdfunding which are not securities-based (such as rewards-based or donation-based crowdfunding) do not fall within the above purview of the SFA.

However, crowdfunding for charitable purposes will be subject to the Code of Practise for Online Charitable Fund-raising Appeals, which ensures the legitimacy, accountability and transparency of philanthropic appeals hosted on crowdfunding platforms in Singapore.

Debt vs equity

The two main types of financing available to companies are debt and equity.

Debt financing involves the borrowing of monies, while equity financing involves selling part of the equity in the company. Deciding between debt and equity financing will depend mainly on the stage a company stands, its financial status and business needs, amongst other things.

In determining the type of financing to adopt, a key consideration is whether the company is willing to relinquish any equity as this would result in a dilution of ownership and, potentially, management control and a sharing of any profits of the company, which may ultimately cost more than a loan.

The upside to this is that, unlike a loan, no repayment of monies is required, which can be advantageous to companies without significant cash-flows or profits yet and which need a longer trajectory to break even.

Companies may also potentially raise more funds through equity financing, where the capacity of the business to support debt is constrained, particularly where the business’s growth potential supports a high valuation of the potential earnings.

In terms of speed, debt financing in a simple loan from investors is generally faster to secure. This is mainly attributed to the additional time required for investors to conduct due diligence and negotiate investor rights before acquiring equity in a company. This is usually seen as a long-term investment.

However, there are instances where debt financing may also involve such due diligence or negotiations, particularly if the loan is sought from banks or other financial institutions (which is outside the scope of this article), or in hybrid cases combining both debt and equity financing such as venture debt and convertible debt as further discussed below.

As part of such due diligence or negotiations, the investor may require the company to rectify any issues and provide certain warranties (to be qualified by any disclosures) and indemnities to mitigate any risks discovered during the due diligence exercise.

Debt financing

Loans are typically obtained as short to medium-term solutions to provide immediate or recurring cash flow for working capital needs. However, longer-term finance may be required to finance capital expenditure.

Also Read: Why companies should prioritise compliance during a worldwide pandemic

They may be subject to interest with a fixed repayment plan and secured by collateral provided by the company and its founders in favour of the lender, such as personal and corporate guarantees and charges over assets.

In addition, the lender may require the company to give negative covenants to restrict or prohibit the company from carrying out certain acts which may adversely affect the loan, such as incurring further indebtedness and creating further encumbrances over assets.

The lender will be able to assert limited control over the business management in this manner, despite not having any voting rights in the company.

Some companies may find debt financing unsustainable due to the strain of repayment, high-interest rates or lack of significant assets to offer as collateral over time.

The severe implications of becoming insolvent and possibly even being wound up due to defaulting on loans is another reason for businesses not to overextend their debts. Any guarantors of the loans would also be affected, running the risk of bankruptcy in the case of personal guarantors, usually the founders.

Therefore, many startups prefer to treat debt financing as an interim arrangement (such as a bridge loan or subordinated debt that converts into the next equity round) until they can secure more permanent financing.

Hybrid financing

An alternative form of debt financing is venture debt which has recently emerged in Singapore and aims to support high growth enterprises between equity financing rounds.

Under a venture debt, the loan quantum is usually a percentage (e.g. 30 per cent) of the amount raised in the company’s last equity financing round, coupled with an option for the lender to acquire equity in the company at a percentage (e.g. 20 per cent) of the loan quantum in the future.

The Singapore government has introduced venture debt programmes to support this, such as the Enterprise Financing Scheme (EFS) Venture Debt Programme, which provides a loan quantum of up to SG$8 million (US$5.95 million) to eligible companies.

Venture debt is distinguished from convertible debt, where the lender usually has the right to convert the loan quantum to equity upon the occurrence of certain trigger events (such as a qualified equity financing round), subject to any anti-dilution rights further discussed below.

This would result in a higher dilution of ownership of the company compared to a venture-debt where equity to be acquired limited to a percentage of the loan quantum.

This distinction is intended given that venture debt is meant to complement and not replace equity financing, providing startups with a quick boost without drawing significantly on equity reserves.

Equity financing

Equity financing is generally carried out via a subscription of new shares in a company with one or more classes (and sub-classes) of shares.

Also Read: 7 common legal pitfalls startup founders should avoid

While it is also possible for investors to acquire existing shares in the company via a share transfer (e.g. from a founder or a leaving shareholder) and limit the effect of dilution only to the transferor, the funds for such share transfer would be payable to the transferor and not the company requiring such funds.

Such share transfer would also be subject to a stamp duty of 0.2 per cent of the purchase price or the net asset value of the shares, whichever is higher.

Typically, the founders of a company would hold ordinary shares with voting rights and, depending on the parties’ negotiations, incoming investors may then subscribe for preference shares with preferential rights.

Any subsequent equity financing round would then involve a subscription of a new class of preference shares, usually with preferential rights ranking higher than those offered in the last equity financing round.

Preference shares are characterised by the preferential rights attached to them with respect to priority of repayment of capital in a liquidation event (such as a trade sale), participation in surplus assets and profits, cumulative or non-cumulative dividends, voting and priority of payment of capital and dividend about other shares in the company.

Parties may further negotiate for preference shares to be redeemable by the company and convertible to ordinary shares in the future, including in a qualifying IPO.

Anti-dilution rights may accompany conversion rights attached to preference shares. The company subsequently issues new securities at a lower price than the existing preference shares (i.e. a down-round).

Anti-dilution rights are usually based on a full ratchet or a weighted average. A full ratchet adjusts the conversion price of the existing preference shares to the lower price in the down-round, while a weighted average adjusts such conversion price by taking into account:

• The number of ordinary shares outstanding before the down-round calculated on a fully diluted, as-converted basis (i.e. broad-based).
• The number of the ordinary shares outstanding before the down-round is calculated by considering only ordinary shares issuable upon conversion of the preference shares in question (i.e. narrow-based).

As anti-dilution rights favouring the investor will inevitably further dilute the founders’ shareholdings in the company, the founders should consider whether they are willing to offer such anti-dilution rights and, if so, which formula should be applied in the circumstances.

Under section 75 of the Companies Act (Cap. 50) of Singapore, the rights attached to preference shares must be set out in the company’s constitution before issuing such shares.

It would also be prudent to amend the company’s constitution for consistency with any investment agreement between the parties to avoid any conflicting provisions in the company’s constitution, given that the company’s constitution is a public contract separate from such investment agreement and binds the company and the registered shareholders and not just the parties to the shareholders’ agreement.

In addition to the rights attached to preference shares, investors may also request other investor rights such as board representation, inclusion in the quorum for board or shareholder meetings, pre-emption rights or rights of first refusal, tag or drag-along rights, information rights and reserved matters (depending on whether the investor will be a minority or majority shareholder or is a lead investor in the equity financing round).

Also Read: 9 fundraising mistakes entrepreneurs and founders must avoid

Parties will usually spend some time negotiating such investor rights as they will allow the investor to exert influence over the company’s management. However, this may be beneficial to the company to a certain extent if the investor is a business collaborator or has relevant expertise to contribute to the company.

Venture capital investment model agreements

To facilitate seed rounds and early-stage financing, the Singapore Academy of Law and the Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association have launched a set of model agreements known as Venture Capital Investment Model Agreements (“VIMA”), which comprise the following documents:

• Venture capital lexicon
• Non-disclosure agreement
• Convertible agreement regarding equity (CARE)
• Series A term sheet (short and long-form template)
• Subscription agreement
• Shareholders’ agreement.

However, VIMA should only be used for general reference and not as legal advice.

The relevant documents provided in VIMA may need to be customised and supplemented to meet the parties’ requirements, especially to incorporate any negotiated points in compliance with applicable laws and best practices.

Legal advice regarding each financing round should be sought for this purpose.

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The post All you need to know about debt and equity financing appeared first on e27.

Imagine entering a store, restaurant, or office without temperature control. Uncomfortable, right? Especially in the Asia Pacific’s tropical and subtropical regions, building cooling is a business-critical expectation, not an option.

It goes beyond comfort. Establishments like hospitals and some factories require temperature control to operate properly.

Demand for cooling is expected to proliferate as economies develop, people’s livelihoods improve, and poverty decreases. Approximately two-thirds of today’s buildings will still exist in the next 20 years. On top of that, the world will add 2.4 billion square metres of new building floor area by 2060.

Also read: CM.com enables growth for Southeast Asian businesses and beyond

The linkage between cooling demand and socio-economic development poses a sustainable development challenge, however. Temperature control, along with lighting and other building operations, already contributes 28 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions annually and is a major contributor to climate change.

The world’s decarbonisation efforts, therefore, hinge on finding ways to cool buildings, both new and existing, more efficiently.

How should we start?

“Overall, about 20% of the electricity used in buildings goes to cooling,” said Priyantha Wijayatunga, Chief of the Energy Sector at the Asian Development Bank. “By 2050, it is estimated that it could be as high as 30% under cooling demand, and in some countries, it can be even higher.”

An increase in cooling demand will mean an increase in electricity consumption, and this is where the importance of sustainable energy consumption comes in, especially for Asia Pacific countries.

“Our energy sector contributes to almost 50 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the world,” Wijayatunga said. “Asia Pacific is a critical region when it comes to cutting down greenhouse gas emissions.”

Also read: Feeling the pressure to boost your startup? Let e27 PRO+ help you

Given the region’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, much of the discussion around solutions naturally gravitates towards increasing the supply of green energy. Yet, renewable energy sources cannot solve the problem on their own. Capital investment is high, and new infrastructure will be needed to support it.

That is why Arjun Gupta, founder of India-based Smart Joules, believes energy efficiency deserves more attention.

Energy savings is not only scalable but very profitable

“One of the biggest opportunities for Smart Joules and the way we look at energy management is to attack all the sources of energy waste that we find in every business and every factory,” said Gupta.

And what they found is that there are three things that contribute to energy waste: poor cooling system design, wrong cooling equipment, and operational inefficiency.

Smart Joules looks into these three things and works with their customers to improve their current structure and guarantee a reduction in energy consumption. While the solution may sound simple, it’s the technology-enabled execution that makes Smart Joules unique.

It starts with Smart Joules taking on all the risk by investing in all the cooling equipment at no upfront cost to the building owners. The building owners would then pay Smart Joules back over time by sharing their energy savings.

This business model innovation by Smart Joules may just be the key in addressing one of the highest barriers to improving energy efficiency in building cooling; with no large capital investment, more and more building owners can afford to easily shift toward energy-efficient cooling systems.

KIMS hospital is one of the companies that Smart Joules has worked with. “Electricity accounts for almost 50 to 60 per cent of the overall expenditure,” said Dr Abhinay Bollineni, CEO at KIMS hospital. “It’s very important to get the design right, it’s very important to get the cost structure right. And it’s very important that it can sustain for a long period of time.”

Also read: 36 unique startups to pitch before 1500 global investors

KIMS hospital ended up with savings of roughly US$50,000 yearly, which is shared with Smart Joules.

New solutions like these, while important, tend to scale slowly. How are we now supposed to make this accessible to more people?

“Partnerships are absolutely going to play a key role in making this happen,” said Gupta.

Existing companies already have the things needed to make a huge impact on a large scale. Gupta gave the example of an electric utility company with thousands of commercial customers. Working with the electric utility company instead of individual buildings or customers would give the solution instant scale.

Imagine an electric utility company with a geographical grid of about 50,000 commercial buildings and establishments. By partnering with Smart Joules and offering their solution at no upfront cost for building owners, energy-efficient cooling solutions can be instantly implemented in all of them.

For these electric companies, partnering with and sharing the upfront costs with Smart Joules to provide these solutions to their customers means implementing and investing in energy-efficient solutions at a large scale. This would result in them avoiding much more costly investments in new energy generation to meet increasing energy demand.

No upfront costs for customers, earnings from energy savings, profitable business opportunities, and reduced carbon emissions. This just might be the solution we were looking for.

The Climatic Series episode 3

In this episode of the Climatic Series, we take a look at how demand for cooling will lead to a surge in electric consumption and meet startups, investors, and other stakeholders who are working on meeting these energy needs in a more sustainable way.

Watch the talk show here

Watch the solutions showcase here

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Photo by Scott Webb from Pexels

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by ADB Ventures

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

The post Keeping us cool is heating up the planet, but energy savings may change that appeared first on e27.

Thai VC firm ORZON Ventures has invested in five local startups operating in mobility and lifestyle.

The startups are Pomelo, Carsome, Freshket, GoWabi, and Protomate.

ORZON Ventures is a US$50-million VC fund launched in October 2021 by SGHoldCo, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thai oil company OR and early-stage investor 500 TukTuks (now 500 Global). The fund invests in early-stage startups (Series A to B) in both OR-related businesses areas and in new businesses in the mobility and lifestyle sectors.

By investing in startups through ORZON Ventures, OR seeks to thrive beyond the oil business, realising startups’ strengths in the use of technology and their adaptability to the rapidly changing economic landscape. It is an opportunity for OR to develop synergistic projects with startups in Thailand and the region.

Also Read: Freshket nets US$3M to bring together farmers and food processors to supply fresh produce in Thailand

The startups have access to 500 Global and 500 TukTuks’ global VC network and business consultation from ORZON Ventures’s general partners, namely Krating Poonpol, Natavudh (Moo) Pungcharoenpong, and Pahrada (Mameaw) Sapprasert.

Below are the brief profiles of the five startups:

Pomelo: An online fashion brand and platform in Southeast Asia, Pomelo’s Tap Try Buy concept allows customers to order online and try in-store or at home before making the purchase. Pomelo also serves as an omnichannel enabler for brands. It now offers more than 500 brands locally and globally on its platform.

Carsome: It is an online platform for buying and selling used cars in the region. Carsome provides end-to-end solutions to consumers and used car dealers, from car inspection to ownership transfer to financing.

Also Read: Carsome completes acquisition of ASX-listed content automotive platform iCar Asia

Freshket: It is an online food supply chain platform for HoReCa businesses and consumers, offering a variety of more than 7,000 items of fresh and dried food from quality suppliers. Freshket now has over 10,000 HoReCa customers.

GoWabi: It is an online platform for discovering and booking health and wellness services online, matching OR’s direction of creating a lifestyle ecosystem for customers. Users can easily search for services, compare prices, find discounts, read reviews and ratings by other customers, and book and pay online. GoWabi also offers a SaaS tool for their thousands of providers to help manage and optimise their business.

Protomate: It is a hardware AI startup producing consumer electronics products and services in emerging technology areas. Its innovative solutions match OR’s mission to uplift the mobility experience for customers.

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