We’re running out of time when it comes to climate change. Our conscience is not shaken yet, even as the dire changes caused by the catastrophe are already visible in the cities we live in.

As per the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, one-third of the planet we live in is vulnerable; if the situation doesn’t improve, we will likely face huge losses in the agriculture, dairy farming, meat industry by 2050 and 2100. And it could push about 183 million people into poverty.

But there is a glimmering of hope as the likes of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have announced massive funds to support companies addressing climate change.

However, in Southeast Asia, things are still a bit slow. There are many reasons for that, but it is changing, says Derek Handley, Founding Partner of Aera VC, a new Singapore-based US$30 million climate tech fund.

e27 recently had a conversation with Handley, who sits in his office in Auckland, New Zealand.

Below are the edited excerpts of the interview:

What is broadly climate tech from your perspective?

From our perspective, climate tech is anything that is meaningfully working to resolve or reverse climate change contributions. As we know, climate change is quite a myriad complex net. But the simplest version is how you reduce, remove or avoid CO2.

There are different ways to do it; you can substitute a current human behaviour with a new behaviour that significantly reduces CO2. Alternatively, you can find ways to trap it, suck it, or remove it.

Other things that contribute to the broader biosphere ecosystem might be as simple as the health of the oceans is linked to climate change and related issues, the health of forests and forestation.

How is climate change affecting Southeast Asia and Asia?

Well, it’s a global issue. Although it affects every nation differently, it affects everyone the same as the world is heating up. Sea level is on the rise, and it causes many issues everywhere. In some Southeast Asian and Pacific nations that are lower-lying, it becomes more problematic in terms of their sea and sea level boundaries.

Also Read: Shiok Meats backer Aera VC hits US$30M first close for climate-tech investments

Things that contribute heavily to climate change, such as petrochemical or fossil fuel, also have a vast pollution effect. Coal-fired fuel power and hydrocarbon engines impact people’s health and livelihood. Forget about the actual climate change on the planet.

There are many other factors, including the ways we engage with the world, our country’s geography and nature, the long-term sustainability of different ecosystems of species and animals, who can no longer survive, and waterways and oceans that can’t thrive in a climate-warmed world.

There are also the geopolitical issues of the reliance on fossil fuels, which has their geopolitical challenges. If each country can rely on its climate-neutral or renewable grid, they have a lot more sovereignty.

Even in this Russian crisis, you can see that oil is a significant factor. And if the whole of Europe were renewable, there would be a very different dynamic between those two sides.

Yeah, the consequences of climate change are fatal. Despite this, few are investing in climate tech in this region. One study says only 0.8 per cent of the total funding invested across the globe came to SEA. Is there a reluctance among VCs to invest in climate tech?

Southeast Asia as a startup ecosystem is still some years behind America’s or Europe’s ecosystem. There’s a delay in the overall ecosystem development and maturity. When you are one, two or three decades behind, then it’s going to be delayed. Same as Australia and New Zealand.

And then, there are factors like how many founders have created unicorns, exited and are now seeding new founders. This number is less in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. We have a thinner layer of founders seeding new ventures and new funds. So the whole ecosystem is yet to mature.

The first wave of startups in Asia has been e-commerce, mobile commerce, and digitalisation. It makes sense because there’s a solid coding base, software ethos and culture of doing things with very little capital. So the first generation of entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia is based on that ethos.

As the problems become bigger and get more attention, we hope that there’ll be more founders looking to solve climate. As we know, if you have got a fund but no founders in the space, you have nothing to invest in.

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

There should be an emergence of dozens and hundreds of founders looking at climate change-related issues. This is why we focus on making a much bigger presence in Southeast Asia, even India.

Climate tech is also regarded as a capital-intensive business. Is it also the reason for the lack of interest in this region?

We need to differentiate here. The rest of the world already has a huge interest in climate change at the moment. Many investors have created giant climate funds — from BlackRock, Blackstone, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos. So you have billions pouring into climate capital at the moment. Many of these investors are late-stage funds (Series C, D, or pre-IPO).

And there are more and more seed funds emerging, and I think there are a few dozen funds launched last year, a lot in Europe and the US, but not so much in Southeast Asia or Asia — barring a couple of funds in Singapore.

There was one or two launched last year in Australia. This side of the world doesn’t have many, but it is changing, and more funds are coming. And even the more general funds are looking to invest in climate.

To your question about capital intensity, people around the raise money for any business, so capital is not much of a problem. Our first investment was Solugen, which raised over US$350 million in September 2021 from Temasek, GIC, BlackRock and some others. This company is more capital-intensive because they’re building plants to create new types of chemicals.

But many of our companies don’t need that amount of capital. Their software systems don’t require that much. But I think the main thing is that they’ll raise a lot of capital if they can scale. However, you can get quite far with not too much capital.

Is there a lack of interest among big corporates and family offices to invest in climate-tech VCs?

There was a lack of interest in 2017-19 because climate tech was not popular. But in the last couple of years, it has become a hot topic.

There are quite a few climate-tech companies in Southeast Asia. But most of them are into the alternative food segment and only a few in other sub-sectors…

I am not sure if I have a perfect answer to the question. But our instinct and our feeling at the moment are it is about to change. And we have been looking at more and more companies coming out of Southeast Asia and even India.

I think that over the next year or two, we’ll be making several investments in the space. The ecosystem is developing to such a point that those founders are emerging. But you’re right; they’re mainly in the food space at the moment.

You have invested in just one company in Southeast Asia, Shiok Meats. Do you plan to support more companies, especially those in the other sub-sectors of climate change?

We have already done a lot of food deals in California, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand etc. We are invested in that segment because we think anything replacing the traditional way of trading meat, dairy, and seafood contributes significantly to a new way of being much more climate-neutral climate-negative.

Also Read: Blockchain technology for climate action? Here’s why it works

We have also invested in carbon capture/recycling/conversion and decarbonising of heavy materials or industry and material science. We hope to see more material science and heavy industry stuff coming out of Southeast Asia. This is where you can do lab-based science to create new types of materials for the built environment — be it construction, fabrics, cotton, or any materials that can be developed using synthetic biology and other methods. It is like the food space, but it’s more for the built space. So we hope those kinds of things will emerge.

Also, you still need a lot of SaaS tools for measuring, managing, monitoring and financing the climate transition. We also expect these tools to emerge in this region.

We have many deals coming up, but they’re not over the line. So we can’t talk about them. One of them will be in Asia.

—

The post ‘We hope to see more material science, heavy industry firms coming out of SEA to address climate change’ appeared first on e27.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, various industries are being forced to reconsider how to carry on working with the minimum amount of disruption. This is also apparent in the education industry.

With government-mandated school shutdowns and going digital, there is no shortage of institutional and educator support as education could carry on through online learning.

The pandemic has opened up an opportunity for new solutions to change how students learn in even better ways than pre-pandemic, not just to act as a stopgap for school restrictions.

This is why when presented with a choice to stick to the status quo or innovate the education technology industry; entrepreneurs are the ones that turn ideas into reality. Like most good ideas, it’s simply about solving a problem. 

On my part, I was just 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.

Turning a passion into a meaningful purpose

During my stint as a tutor, most of my students spent more time travelling to attend my tutoring classes than learning in the classroom. There have also been requests to teach students already living in another country.

This created the potential since options for live online teaching were limited, resulting in an opportunity to maximise my time with my students.

Interestingly enough, accessibility in education was already apparent pre-COVID-19, long before edutech became the standard today. Despite some initial scepticism, Tutopiya had succeeded in its mission of providing personalised online lessons where each student learns at their own pace and convenience.

Also Read: Edutech is surging, but here are the 3 issues it is facing

One could say that the idea of providing personalised lessons online was borne out of necessity, fueled in part by a passion for teaching. In hopes of providing the best for my students, Tutopiya’s learning options could be expanded, and students could be connected with the best resources of learning materials, technology, and educators.

The global edutech market was only worth US$76.4 billion before the pandemic. By 2025, the market is expected to have grown to a size of US$400 billion. This indicates that the education technology market was already growing at the time but reached a tipping point just as the pandemic began.

Challenges as a woman in tech across Southeast Asia

With the help of emerging technologies, education and other legacy industries are no longer confined to their previously conservative boundaries, especially in this increasingly digital and globalised world.

To be more specific, there is a common misconception that founders in technology must have extensive tech backgrounds to succeed; coding skills, knowledge, programming, and analysis. 

If you know how to code, you can create your prototype, iterate it to a strong beta, and begin acquiring users and gaining traction. From basic website development to in-depth app development, there are misconceptions that the more a founder knows about technology, the better their chances of success are.

However, I believe this is not the case. For example, Brian Chesky, the founder of Airbnb, was a designer, to begin with. Despite having no technical knowledge, he could propel the digitally-based platform to the forefront of the online hospitality industry.

The skills might be critical but not mandatory as they are other skills that are far more important when it comes to being a successful tech founder.

Then, there’s being a modern-day mompreneur. Every day I am tasked with managing the home and the office and juggling between the two.

Having to transform from a mother to a boss instantly while also meeting the expectations of both families and customers is difficult for me and working mothers across the globe.

According to one study, over 252 million female entrepreneurs worldwide, with more than 90 per cent of them being mompreneurs who are still struggling to overcome the challenges they face daily.

My journey with Tutopiya is not without difficulties. This can be said in terms of obtaining assistance, whether it is due to a lack of relevant connections, given my lack of familiarity in the tech landscape or a need for financial or emotional support from peers and investors. I also needed mentors and sponsors to help me navigate my entrepreneurial path. 

Truthfully, it was challenging. According to a survey, 48 per cent of female entrepreneurs say a lack of mentors and advisors limits their professional development.

Having a well-connected mentor will undoubtedly assist in expanding business networks and will increase your chances of being presented with opportunities such as sitting on business or investor boards.

Also, a professional support system is frequently expensive, forcing some women to put off starting on their own business ventures. Of course, a support system is even more important, especially as a mompreneur.

Also Read: ‘Education is not a content business but a human one’: Nas Academy’s Nuseir Yassin

When it comes to new ventures and ideas, people generally doubt what they don’t know or can’t conceptualise. When Tutopiya first launched, my customers and friends frequently left sceptical comments such as “Sounds like Rocket Science!”, “I don’t believe in online learning,” and “How do you even learn online?!”

Getting ahead in tech as a woman

According to Crunchbase, 844 women founded or co-founded a startup in Southeast Asia in 2014. Some of them have been instrumental in transforming the region’s start-up scene.

According to a recent Mastercard study on female entrepreneurs, women own 16.7 per cent of businesses in Malaysia. According to the survey, Vietnam has 31.3 per cent of female entrepreneurs, followed by Singapore (27.5 per cent), Thailand (25.2 per cent), and the Philippines (23.9 per cent).

Climbing the tech career ladder, on the other hand, is no easy task as it is not necessarily the easiest environment for women to break into.

In my opinion, the path to the top for women technologists is much more difficult due to bias, different standards, a lack of a robust support system, and capital raising issues that marginalise them.

Enter the imposter syndrome. Women in tech can experience stress and anxiety if they believe they are not intelligent and creative enough or otherwise deserving of their success, even though there is ample evidence of their accomplishments.

Imposter syndrome affects 84 per cent of entrepreneurs and small business owners, which is defined as the feeling of being a fraud who is undeserving of success.

This is especially prevalent in the tech industry, with 58 per cent of tech entrepreneurs and employees reporting that they are currently dealing with some form of the imposter syndrome in their jobs, particularly software engineers, developers, and designers.

These tendencies are also more common in newcomers to the tech industry, particularly women, who must contend with a steep learning curve and prejudices and preconceived biases based on their gender.

Female entrepreneurs need a solid community to help them get through the difficult times in their business journey. After all, shattering the glass ceiling is hardly a one (wo)man job. When it comes to stepping outside gender norms, the entrepreneurial world can be brutal.

Also Read: The inevitable digitalisation of education and what educators really need

Problems that you would never think would ever arise and test everything about the business, especially in Southeast Asia, where it is now thriving with techs and startups. These strikes will eventually sap our motivation and determination to succeed, and that’s where a sense of community and support can help.

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.

A woman’s potential contributions to innovation, economic growth, and business investment can definitely be recognised with the right support system and determination.

–

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: Tutopiya

The post How this founder went from being a tutor to a modern day mompreneur appeared first on e27.

Singapore-headquartered Docsumo, an AI startup to help enterprises make automated decisions from customer documents, has announced a US$3.5 million seed investment.

New York-based fintech VC firm Common Ocean led the round, which also saw participation from Fifth Wall (US), Arbor Realty Trust (US), and Better Capital (India), which invested in its previous seed funding round.

Docsumo plans to utilise the fresh funds to expand its client base in the North American market and grow the team. It also plans to grow its products to cover additional use cases: customer onboarding, income verification, financial fraud detection, data for underwriting, and other critical, everyday tasks currently handled by analysts.

Founded in January 2019 by Rushabh Sheth (CEO) and Bikram Dahal (CTO), Docsumo helps enterprises capture, validate and analyse data from unstructured documents for automated decisions. Its core technology platform helps commercial lenders and insurers read financial statements, tax returns, insurance policies and other documents required for credit and insurance applications.

Also Read: Differences between AI and Machine Learning, and why it matters

Most document processing is outsourced to Asian countries such as India, where whole floors of people process applications for financial services. Docsumo applies machine learning technology to automate a core aspect of what humans do — reading text.

CEO Sheth said: “We enable companies to unlock 10x efficiency and act on incoming documents in real-time. What differentiates Docsumo is that the technology can accurately extract data from business documents with a high degree of structural variability and automate decisioning workflows end-to-end.”

Over the last 12 months, Docsumo has grown its team in Mumbai, India and Kathmandu (Nepal) and has experienced a 6x revenue increase. It currently services major enterprises in the US, EU, and Asia, including Arbor Realty Trust, National Debt Relief, Hitachi, and PayU.

Docsumo was part of the Techstars London accelerator in 2020 and raised a pre-seed round from Barclays, Sequoia, Jiten Gupta of Jupiter Money, and Amrish Rau of Pine Labs.

—

The post Docsumo banks US$3.5M to help enterprises make automated decisions from customer documents appeared first on e27.

Grab’s Q4 net loss surpasses US$1B as costs rise in ‘quarter of investments’
The net losses were 73% more than the US$635M in Q4 2020; The firm has been spending more on incentives to attract drivers onto its platform as countries reopen after the pandemic.

B Capital raises US$1.1B for third global growth fund
It has drawn commitments from 101 investors; B Capital typically invests between US$10M and US$60M in Series B,C, and D stage companies; The VC firm invests in B2B ad B2B2C companies in enterprise tech, fintech, healthtech, consumer enablement tech, transportation, and logistics.

Alt-protein startups funding hits high of US$312M in 2021 in APAC: report
As per the Good Food Institute report, startups in the plant-based category dominated the funding flow, securing nearly 70% of investment in APAC; Top deals included Next Gen Foods’s record-breaking US$30M seed funding and Australian V2food’s US$110M Series B.

Sinar Mas units set to invest US$225M into Indonesian e-wallet Dana
Around US$200M will be channelled through Sinar Mas subsidiary DSST Dana Gemilang, and the rest will come from its banking arm Bank Sinarmas; An Emtek Group unit, Dana is also backed by Ant Financial.

‘We hope to see more material science, heavy industry firms coming out of SEA to address climate change’
There should be an emergence of hundreds of founders looking to solve climate change, says Aera VC’s Derek Handley.

Singapore’s Zignaly banks US$50M from Luxembourg’s GEM Global Yield Fund
Zignaly will use the funds to expand into SEA, West Asia, Turkey, India, South America, and Europe; Zignaly’s platform lowers the barrier to entry for investors looking to add digital assets to their portfolios, entrusting decision-making to expert traders.

Volopay raises US$29M Series A to expand corporate cards biz to APAC, MENA
Investors include Justin Mateen’s JAM Fund, Winklevoss Capital, Rapyd Ventures, Accial Capital, Access Ventures, and Antler; Volopay will use the funds to expand into the APAC and the MENA regions.

Taronga Ventures raises investment from CDL, others for its RealTech Ventures Fund
Taronga is looking to invest in 20-30 companies in the real estate and built environment verticals; Taronga Ventures consists of the RealTech Ventures Fund, the RealTechX innovation programme, and Taronga Advisory.

Ex-Grab Philippines head raises US$10.7M for his social commerce startup SariSuki
Investors are Openspace Ventures, SIG, Global Founders Capital, Saison Capital, JG Digital Equity Ventures, and Foxmont Capital; SariSuki claims to have grown 36x since the launch, served about 60,000 consumers and grown to over 100 employees.

Tribecar owners acquire Singapore’s first car-sharing operator Car Club
Established in 1997 as NTUC Income’s car-sharing co-operative, Car Club was acquired by Mitsui & Co. in 2016, which later entered into a joint venture agreement with another Japanese company Willers.

B2B input marketplace AgriAku raises US$6M pre-Series A
Investors include Go-Ventures, MDI Arise, MDI Centauri, and Mercy Corps Social Venture Fund; AgriAku’s platform facilitates agribusiness activities for suppliers, retailers and farmers.

Cococart nets US$4.2M to help merchants set up storefront in ‘minutes’
Investors are Forerunner Ventures, Sequoia Capital, YC, Uncommon Capital, and Soma Capital; Since its launch, Cococart claims to have grown to support over 20K businesses in more than 90 countries, taking in over 500K orders.

Thailand’s ORZON Ventures invests in lifestyle and mobility startups
They are Pomelo, Carsome, Freshket, GoWabi, and Protomate; ORZON Ventures is a US$50M fund launched by Thai oil company OR’s subsidiary SGHoldCo and early-stage investor 500 TukTuks.

Document AI startup Docsumo raises US$3.5M seed funding
Investors are Common Ocean, Fifth Wall, Arbor Realty Trust, and Better Capital; It will utilise the funds to expand its client base in the North American market; Docsumo helps enterprises capture, validate and analyse data from unstructured documents for automated decisions.

SoBanHang raises US$2.5M more to transform into an OS for micro-businesses in Vietnam
Investors are FEBE Ventures, Class5, AlleyCorp, and Trihill Capital; SoBanHang helps small and micro enterprises build digital storefronts, sell to more customers, and manage multi-channel operations on smartphones.

Umami Meats secures US$2.4M seed funding to scale its cultivated seafood business in Singapore
Investors are Better Bite Ventures and Genedant; Umami will utilise the money to advance its low-cost production system for cultivating fish by establishing production-ready cell lines from multiple fish species.

Singapore E-commerce marketplace Kyberlife raises pre-Series A
Investors include PE Global, James Simkins (GETZ Healthcare), and Dr Michael Gorriz (Standard Chartered); Kyberlife facilitates transactions between principals in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries with their B2B consumers.

ScaleUp Malaysia invests in 11 startups from its third cohort
ScaleUp teams up with Quest Ventures, Indelible Ventures, and Mranti to run this accelerator programme for growth-stage startups; 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.

Singapore neobank IN Financial Technology acquires 500 Global-backed MyCash
INFT is a one-stop employer-to-employee fintech platform; Its solutions include an online business account, virtual debit card, spend management tools, and business cash line; MyCash will expand into Malaysia and Indonesia.

Touchstone funds Vietnamese car platform Bave’s US$1M pre-seed round
Bave’s platform connects drivers with merchants selling car equipment and parts as well as with businesses providing car financing and vehicle servicing; It also runs Agara, an inventory manager for garages and body shops, and CarGo, a car service booking app.

Indonesian crypto startup Blocknom raises US$500K
Investors are Y Combinator, Magic Fund, and Number Capital; Blocknom enables users to invest in crypto-assets and gain the interest of up to 13% per year; The company said that its interest earnings are the highest in Indonesia.

The post Ecosystem Roundup: APAC’s alt-protein funding hits US$312M in 2021, Grab Q4 net loss exceeds US$1B appeared first on e27.

Who to better market a product if not its founders?

One way for founders to get their products out there is by sharing their journey, learnings, and failures in public.

This is called building in public.

Why does founders marketing make sense?

To increase your product awareness, you need to build an audience surrounding your product. However, as Kevon Cheung said below:

You can’t build an audience surrounding your product without a personal brand. Therefore, as the founder, you need to grow your personal brand.

To grow your personal brand, you need to have a personal voice. Choose a few topics you talk about so your audience know what to expect by following you. No one likes to hear from a person who says this and that randomly.

For example:

• My journey building Product X (building Product X in public)
• My journey as an IndieHacker who left a 6-figure salary job

To have a personal voice, you have to know yourself. Who are you? What are you good at? What have you experienced in life?

Why build in public?

Idea validation and product feedback: Find a few people in the space and share your idea. Interview them:

• What’s missing from the current solution.
• What they did to hack the current solution to achieve what they want.
• If your tool exists, would they pay for it.

Build an MVP: Ask people to beta test your MVP and gather their feedback.

The post How to use Twitter to market your product as a founder appeared first on e27.

Indonesia-based agritech startup AgriAku today announced a US$6 million Pre-Series A funding round led by Go-Ventures, with participation from MDI Arise, MDI Centauri, Mercy Corps Social Venture Fund and several business angels.

In a press statement, the company said that they aim to use the funding to grow its team, particularly in its operations, supply chain, product, and technology division; strengthening the market penetration of its B2B agri-inputs marketplace nationwide; and continue innovating on its product ecosystem.

This funding announcement followed a seed funding round that AgriAku announced in December 2021.

Launched in May 2021, AgriAku’s B2B input marketplace platform facilitates agribusiness activities for suppliers, retailers and farmers. The platform helped source farming supplies from suppliers or manufacturers to be sold to agri-input retailers. These retailers are usually in the form of toko tani or last mile, local village shop that sells farming supplies to farmers in Indonesia.

The company said that in just nine months of operations, it has seen “exponential growth, becoming Indonesia’s fastest-growing B2B marketplace for the agricultural industry.”

AgriAku said that it has seen an average month-on-month growth of 200 per cent in gross merchandise value over the past four months. The number of active users on the platform has also grown significantly with over 10,000 registered farmer stores on the platform.

Also Read: The 27 Indonesian startups that have taken the ecosystem to next level this year

“We have been fortunate to see strong month-on-month growth across all key metrics. This growth has been driven by onboarding loyal suppliers, retailers and farmers, who can all see the many benefits of improved pricing transparency, access to reliable suppliers and technology tools to boost productivity. We shall continue to improve our platform and launch more innovative tech solutions to support the agricultural value chain. This will allow us to become an integrated, full-stack digital agriculture platform, addressing inefficiencies across Indonesia’s agricultural value chain. By becoming a trusted partner to sellers, buyers and farmers, we aim to support their growth, reduce their costs and improve their profits, providing a boost to Indonesia’s agricultural sector,” said Danny Handoko, CEO of AgriAku.

Prior to founding AgriAku, President Irvan Kolonas was the founder of Vasham, an Indonesian social enterprise in the agricultural sector.

Co-Founder and CEO Danny Handoko was previously the CEO of Airy, an Indonesian hospitality startup, with prior experience in Business Development and Business Intelligence at Traveloka and Ruma (Mapan).

The team is also supported by COO Rezky Haryanto Agustia, previously the Assistant Vice President for Supply Chain & Operations at Bukalapak and the Director of Business Operations at Transmart.

—

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: AgriAku

The post AgriAku raises US$6M in Pre-Series A round led by Go-Ventures to strengthen market penetration appeared first on e27.

Despite collecting a wealth of personal data from customers over the years, insurance firms have struggled with harnessing it to enhance their customer experience (CX) efforts. Being data-rich and insight-poor can become a deterrent in the long run to attracting and retaining customers, impacting the bottom line as a result.

This has been a systemic issue for insurers. Information asymmetry, where customers offer their information for little in return, stems from the industry’s lack of speed in prioritising the right technology to power their CX engine.

As with most large-scale transformations, success can take a while to realise, but time is not a luxury in today’s fast-moving digital economy. While customer expectations from insurers have shifted and continue to do so, the insurance experience remains essentially unchanged.

As lifestyles change rapidly, customers seek coverage and protection that:

• It is easily customisable and caters to their needs as well as their loved ones
• It is meaningful to their daily lives
• It is available on devices they spend most of their time on
• Can evolve and grow or shrink as their needs change over time

With the right approach to the data they have accumulated over the years, insurers can deliver meaningful, compelling solutions. They need to understand how best to harness data.

Personalisation and great customer experiences drive greater customer retention and positively impact the bottom line.

Research from the Publicis Sapient Digital Life Index 2021 reveals that over a third of Singapore respondents want personalised offers based on their spending preferences, customisable alerts and notifications, as well as personalised content or advice from financial services.

Easier said than done, true. But the good news is that the chances of realising success grow exponentially if efforts to use data are rooted in answering customer needs by adopting modern technology to enable new product innovation.

There are four main areas that insurers should structure their data efforts around:

Product development

With the knowledge gained from previous interactions, both within an insurer and through partners, insurers can create policies tailored to the customer and improve the overall experience.

This helps an insurer differentiate itself from competitors by boosting engagement and building relationships based on relevance, convenience and ease of insuring oneself, instead of simply competing on price.

Also Read: 3 easy tips for SMEs to build overseas customer loyalty

For example, 170-year-old MassMutual’s in-house startup, Haven Life, created a new business processing platform driven by data science models to speed up life insurance underwriting.

It analyses health information from an application and multiple external data sources to approve or reject the coverage in a median time of 40 seconds. No medical exam is needed for these applicants, dramatically improving the customer experience of purchasing medically underwritten term life insurance.

Contextual offerings

Upselling or cross-selling may be among the most obvious improvements that data can enable. They are areas upon which an insurer needs to improve, notwithstanding handling sensitive customer information. Customers find data-driven optimisation to be more beneficial.

Contextual offerings take optimisation to the next level by not just targeting potential customers on sites and apps they frequent but by taking the extra step of ensuring the offering is relevant and optimised to their needs and the context of the app or site.

This can only be achieved by a deeper understanding of the customer and analysing a combination of attributes based on data collected. By better understanding the customer, insurers can improve and position themselves to be with a customer through their life journey, despite some insurance categories being typically low-touch offerings.

For example, Manulife retained existing plan members by offering an immersive experience through its outreach efforts. It helped them go beyond financial numbers and engage in a holistic conversation about life stages and related goals.

Using the right experience and content to help customers optimise what might be possible in retirement, Manulife’s teams could engage and retain customers better by working towards a future they looked forward to.

Product distribution

Insurers need to make use of data to understand customer preferences better and deliver products and services to improve satisfaction and efficiency at the same time.

In many countries, such as Thailand, agents account for a large part of sales. For example, 37 per cent of respondents in Publicis Sapient’s Voice of the Customer survey said they made payment for a policy on an insurer’s website, while 42 per cent did so through an agent.

What is the best way to distribute one’s product in each market, especially in a digital economy where people are comfortable buying things on e-commerce sites? Can a direct-to-customer (D2C) approach work?

There is certainly a space for this.

Insurers with an eye on the future have already started developing D2C models with products designed specifically for online fulfilment and support.

However, insurance is a relationship-driven industry. It would bear well for insurers to consider optimising data usage to improve omnichannel customer interactions and conversions through agents, bancassurance and retail channels.

In South Korea, the largest insurance company, Samsung Life Insurance, used an omnichannel approach to reduce IT costs by US$20.8 million over four years and triple its developer productivity. The company’s customer satisfaction innovations received an ever-increasing rating on the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI), claiming a first-place among competitors for 11 consecutive years.

Also Read: Understanding pre-money, post-money valuations; option pools and dilution

Many insurers certainly think that partnerships and networks are a way forward to the future of distribution, and the numbers bear this out.

A Swiss Re study shows that more than 40 per cent of respondents in Indonesia would use OVO, a digital payment service, to buy insurance. In Malaysia, Touch n Go, Shopee and Boost, all digital channels, are popular for paying for insurance.

Insurers must be prepared to engage new digital players and other partners to meet customer requirements that may not be met currently. Using data to discover the gaps and fill them is critical.

Customer retention

Customers want insurance to be relevant, provide the right coverage when needed, and be rewarded when they use their coverage wisely. Though this sounds simple, fulfilling these requirements is a challenge for any insurer.

The key here is investing in the smart use of data to improve user experience and retain customers. After all, it’s always believed that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer as to keep an existing one.

In the insurance sector, leaders that have invested in customer experience improvements have also seen an uplift in conversions and retention. At the French insurance cooperative, MMA Group, the Nuance virtual assistant helps website visitors interact with sales agents to develop tailored quotes for health or auto insurance proactively or reactively.

Nuance analytics enables the agents to identify likely prospects based on their online behaviour and visitors likely to abandon the session before asking for a quote. At the same time, online chat sessions have increased MMA’s conversion rate from between 6 and 7 per cent to approximately 35 per cent and increased customer satisfaction.

Also Read: How startups should pivot towards being customer-centric

Beyond customer experience, the scalability and size of your loyalty offerings also matter. Some insurers may consider mergers, acquisitions or partnerships to open new doors and create a more attractive ecosystem. With this, a new system of rewards or new services can be made available to customers.

Moving on despite challenges

Some of the challenges insurers face today are deep-rooted and require a deeper transformation effort. Some may have longstanding legacy systems that require an overhaul. For instance, outdated underwriting and claims systems can hold back product development and poor customer experience.

Others may suffer from disparate data sets held in silos or may already have tried to create large data lakes but ended up with a technically sound project that has failed to solve any business problem.

The list of related problems goes on, including the lack of talent, manual processes, and varying regulations surrounding data privacy, which require expertise in the IT field and insurance to help solve.

In an industry with such a long history, change must be incremental. Insurers can start with small steps and take stock of and evaluate their transformation efforts.

They can first try to understand where they are on the map in terms of digital maturity. Once they know where they are on a transformation journey, they can turn to the technologies that use data to make a real difference.

There is a long list of action items that can be drawn up for insurers to improve their use of data. However, it is essential that they first acknowledge that having data alone is not enough. It is time to truly harness it to deliver the critical insights and analysis that create a genuine impact on consumers’ lives and, in return, on the bottom line.

–

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: sdecoret

The post Insurance 4.0: Harness your data reservoir for genuine impact appeared first on e27.

Kyberlife –a Singapore-based e-commerce marketplace startup for life sciences, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries– today announced an undisclosed Pre-Series A funding round led by PE Global, the venture capital (VC) arm of PANSAR Group, and industry leaders such as James Simkins (CEO of GETZ Healthcare), Dr Michael Gorriz (Global Group Chief Information Officer of Standard Chartered Bank), and Dr Soenke Weissenborn (Group Operations Director for IDS Immunodiagnostics Systems).

Existing investors such as Rapzo Capital and Amatar Investment also participated in the funding round.

Together with a seed funding garnered in August last year, Kyberlife said that it has raised “around one million Singapore dollars.” This Pre-Series A funding round is claimed to be oversubscribed.

In an email to e27, Kyberlife stated that the fresh funds will be used to develop user traction and growth in Singapore, and for regional marketing purposes.

Kyberlife facilitates the buying and selling between principals in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries with their B2B consumers of scientists/researchers, institutions, academia, businesses, laboratories and hospitals.

Also Read: Breaking the taboo: Meet the Singapore-based startups that are working to provide access to sexual healthcare

“With Kyberlife we are solving an imminent and overlooked problem within these traditional industries where consumers experience a laborious process of searching for products while principals have little control of their products on third-party platforms. It is our mission to achieve an efficient and active network for the community by being the one-stop shop for both parties to communicate and transact with each other. Consumers will experience higher transparency across products for easy sourcing while the principals will retain full control over their products,” said Kyberlife Co-Founder and CEO Ryan James Lim.

The company has secured partnerships with multinational companies such as Eppendorf, Merck, Roche and Tipbio Systems.

In a press statement, Lim said that there are many life sciences principals in Europe and the US who do not intend to enter Asia and Southeast Asia due to high set-up cost, exacerbated by COVID-19 travel-related restrictions. But with Kyberlife, they now have the option to reach out to their consumers conveniently and without any risk – to new market segments, via its open marketplace.

Kyberlife was founded and incorporated in Singapore by three founding partners: Ryan James Lim (CEO), Michael Tillmann (Chairman) and Wesley Lim (China Channel Lead).

Prior to Kyberlife, Ryan Lim and Wesley Lim started an e-commerce marketplace for B2C users in the cosmetics industry. Its technology was then absorbed into Kyberlife.

Tillmann has over 25 years of experience in senior executive and supervisory board positions for multinational companies in the pharmaceutical and
diagnostics industry. He held the position of President and CEO for Roche Diagnostics in North America and before that, in Asia Pacific and Europe.

He also founded a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) company, Vela Diagnostics where he met and formed a mentor-mentee relationship with Ryan Lim, who had worked as an intern at his company.

—

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: Cheryl Faith Ho for Kyberlife

The post Kyberlife raises Pre-Series A funding round led by PE Global, angel investors appeared first on e27.

Tribecar, Singapore’s homegrown car-sharing platform, has acquired the country’s first car-sharing operator Car Club from Japanese company Mitsui & Co.

The size of the deal has not been disclosed.

The acquisition is part of Tribecar’s efforts to expand and enhance its existing services and offerings across the island.

Car Club will continue to serve its existing customers.

Also Read: How Tribecar aims to build business, environmental sustainability with a subscription-based car-sharing model

The combined entity will offer Tribecar and Car Club members access to a fleet of over 1,400 vehicles in the coming weeks at locations islandwide. Members of both firms can now access various subscription plans, corporate programmes, premium luxury car options and other transport alternatives (motorcycles, cars, vans and lorries), ranging from hourly bookings to monthly subscriptions and leasing.

Established in 1997 as NTUC Income’s car-sharing co-operative, Car Club was acquired by Mitsui & Co. in 2016, which later entered into a joint venture agreement with another Japanese company Willers.

“With this new relationship, we will have more resources to develop our car-sharing technology arm for businesses and corporations in the region,” said Lewis Chen, General Manager of Car Club.

In January 2021, Tribecar partnered with local insurance firm NTUC Income and wholesale automotive marketplace Carro to provide usage-based insurance (UBI) coverage for its fleet of rental cars.

—

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 Tribecar acquires Singapore’s first car-sharing operator Car Club appeared first on e27.

Last January 2022, Malaysian tech companies took to the world’s stage to showcase their unique innovation at the Malaysia Digital Economy Week (DEW) at Expo 2020 Dubai. After a strong showing from the country’s delegation, the contingent was able to successfully land deals with international technology companies comprising 16 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).

Organised by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Ministry, in cooperation with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), DEW was a week-long event that focused on promoting Malaysia as a globally competitive digital nation.

Malaysian innovation prove to be attractive to global players

The signing of the 16 MoUs underlines the potential of some of Malaysia’s most prominent tech companies in technology sectors, such as DroneTech, Islamic and conventional FinTech, and Blockchain. The companies involved in the MoUs include Aerodyne, Accubits, ASC, ASDAM Digital, CALMs Technologies, CreateWills, DistiChain, Examus, FREYA Capital, Galaxy Racer, Gulf Business Machines, Global Psytech, Grayscale Technologies, HID Global, KGiSL Information Systems, National General Insurance, Numa Solution, Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), The Noor and Valeuble DMCC.

These MoUs signify ongoing global interest in Malaysia’s robust digital economy ecosystem. Malaysia is a leading nation in emerging technology industries – as they received top ranking in the Global Islamic Fintech (GIFT) Index while its DroneTech innovators are globally recognised players.

The signing of these MoUs will not only allow Malaysian tech companies to expand their reach internationally but spotlight the strength of their digital ecosystem.

Global Psytech is one of the Malaysian tech companies that made their way to DEW. The company signed MoU’s with two companies from the United States to enhance their product offerings and also expand their market outreach to SEA and beyond.

Global Psytech is a data tech company developing cutting-edge analytic solutions that apply psychometrics, AI and machine learning.

Nur Ayu Johar, co-founder of Global Psytech, said the engagements with visitors or trade partners during the Digital Economy Week “served as a golden window of opportunity not just to talk about what we do, but to share with them on systemic barriers that are apparent, affecting the majority of the global population such as lack of credit information.”

“I was also a panellist for the Industry Talk: Gateway to The Global Islamic Digital Economy, alongside Global Sadaqah, and Microleap, and we had an insightful conversation on how our solutions create a dynamic and inclusive environment for society through mechanisms in line with the principles of Islamic Finance,” continued Ayu Johar.

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

The Digital Economy Week has been a productive and rewarding experience for Global Psytech with the company founder remarking: “As far as potential business partners, we have achieved business deals amounting to more than a couple millions ringgit. For Global Psytech, we do not just advocate for financial inclusion, but we do the groundwork and have solutions for the underbanked and underserved.”

“We have had companies who are interested in our talent analytic solutions, including vendor management, some have expressed interest in analysing the behaviour of their app users, we have also encountered with companies were are interested for us to join programmes to increase our visibility in the MENA region, specially in the FinTech space,” concluded Ayu Johar.

Meanwhile, technology solutions provider Numa Solution founder Azhim Hadi Daud said they signed a MOU with Gulf Business Machines (GBM) to act as the distributor of their financial analytics solution covering multiple industries namely banking and financial institution, oil and gas, healthcare among others.

GBM is one of the largest distributors of IT solutions in the GCC region and this deal will cover multiple countries namely United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.

“We are targeting opportunities in excess of USD10 million for the next couple of years,” added Azhim.

Azhim feels there are a lot of opportunities in Dubai and the Gulf region for their IT solutions. “This can be attributed to multiple factors namely conducive business conditions, bigger addressable market and the appetite for the latest and greatest technologies for the business and enterprise. Talking to multiple businesses here in Dubai and GCC, the trend of the market does not show any slowing down in terms of consumption which is good news for companies like ours,” said Azhim.

On the other hand, Grayscale Technologies General Manager Tunku Izzudin Shah bin Tengku Abdul Hamid Thani, said he was happy to connect and make partnerships to explore what products and technologies they can bring to Malaysia.

“We were able to present the future direction of Grayscale Technologies as we move towards the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Being in a competitive field, we are able to potentially collaborate with IT companies from different countries, as the IT industry is huge and offers different types of services.”

Tunku Izzudin said they have signed three MoUs during DEW: “The first MoU is with Accubits, which specialises in implementing Blockchain technology in various industries, Big Data and also Artificial Intelligence. The second MoU is with FRENDS, a data integration platform that uses a low-code approach, and finally with Nordic Apiary to bring Nordic technology companies to the Southeast Asian market (SEA).”

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

Tunku Izzudin believes the partnerships will generate millions of ringgit in revenues over the next few years,: “For our partnership with FRENDS, we are looking to generate a recurring annual revenue of over RM 33 Million from year 4 onwards. From our partnership with Nordic Apiary, we are looking to generate a recurring annual revenue of over RM 100 Million from year 4 onwards. From our partnership with Accubits, we are looking to generate around RM 6.7 Million this year, to RM 13.43 Million in the year 2023, to RM 33.79 Million in 2024, to RM 53.45 Million in 2025 and lastly, to RM 73.31 Million in 2026.”

In addition to these deals, Grayscale is in talks with two IT solution companies based in Dubai to expand in both South East Asia and also the UAE. Tunku Izzudin added that by participating in the Expo and Malaysia Digital Economy week: “we were able to understand what the other IT companies are doing or venturing in the various countries, which strongly indicates that we are ahead technologically.”

Digital Economy Week as launching pad for Malaysia Digital

The Digital Economy Week at Expo 2020 Dubai also served as a platform to launch the Malaysia Digital programme. This project is designed to help accelerate Malaysia’s digital economy through a new framework centred on three primary components: Agility, Flexibility, and Relevance.

Malaysia Digital will offer options for companies to choose incentives and the flexibility for them to grow, expand, or reinvest anywhere within Malaysia. Improved governance and processes under the Malaysia Digital initiative will also see the Government and MDEC introducing two new initiatives, namely DE Rantau and Malaysia Digital Trade.

DE Rantau is a programme designed to establish Malaysia as a preferred Digital Nomad Hub in a bid to boost digital professional mobility and tourism across the country.

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

Malaysia Digital Trade is an initiative to drive interoperability and better implementation of standards and regulatory approaches in order to facilitate trade across borders and capitalise on the immense opportunities in digitalisation that has been accelerated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

These new projects are powered by MDEC’s mission to drive the digital economy through catalytic, high-impact initiatives, as well as strategic and sustainable investments and inclusive policies.

– –

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

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 Malaysian tech companies take on the global stage at Expo 2020 Dubai appeared first on e27.