This series is produced in collaboration with the Fintech Association of Malaysia (FAOM), a national platform that supports Malaysia becoming the leading hub for fintech innovation and investment in the region.

While researching for this article, I brought up insurance to friends and acquaintances, only to be, more than once, immediately told they were not interested in buying any packages from me.

In many parts of Asia, where insurance has been traditionally sold through networks of commission-earning agents, it’s treated with some measure of hesitancy and disdain. After all, insurance has been a financial product viewed as opaque and confusing to navigate for the average person for a long time.

Yet insurtech, accelerated by a pandemic that has brought forth the importance of the virtual, has brought about a sea change in attitudes towards insurance.

From 2013 to 2017, overall investment in insurtech startups increased from US$3 billion to US$ 2.2 billion at a CAGR of 69.2 per cent. Incumbent insurers, too, have been getting in on the action.

However, in 2016, according to AICB-PwC Malaysia FinTech Survey, Insurance Cut, 74 per cent of them viewed insurtech as a cause of business loss. In 2022 many of them are investing in, acquiring, or otherwise partnering up with insurtech players.

The Asia Pacific is expected to be the main driver of this growth in the next decade.

Wilson Beh is one of the pioneers at the forefront of the insurtech in Malaysia. Co-Founder of PolicyStreet, an insurtech championing inclusive protection for the digital and gig economy, licensed by the Central Bank of Malaysia and Labuan FSA, and Vice President of the Fintech Association of Malaysia (FAOM), Beh strikes a stark contrast to the image of a typical “insurance guy”.

He is incredibly well structured, laying out his points methodically and calmly. His tone is more akin to that of a detached analyst than that of a peddling sales agent.

Yet, when he brings up how he started in insurance, one can tell that it also comes from a deeply personal place: his voice quivers ever so slightly with emotion.

“I grew up in Nibong Tebal, a small town in Penang. I’ve seen how quickly things can turn bad when a crisis hits and growing up, I saw how family friends and relatives got into huge financial trouble due to unforeseen circumstances. It was clear then, even as a teenager, that insurance could have been a gamechanger.”

Value of insurance

Beh holds no illusions about the value of insurance.

“At the end of the day, insurance is just a fancy piece of paper if it is not triggered. This piece of paper is often so convoluted that many people, even current policyholders, don’t understand the coverage provided. Even if coverage is clear, the claims process is often anxiety-inducing for people, especially in the aftermath of a crisis.”

In insurance, delivery of the product is a marathon, not a sprint.

“I admit, insurance is not the ‘sexiest’ part of fintech. Five years ago, there was a huge push towards payments and wealth management, but insurance was largely viewed as quaint by comparison. The pandemic has changed that.”

Almost overnight, there has been a huge surge of interest in insurtech. Homebound and glued to computer screens, selling and delivering insurance products online became the norm instead of the exception.

“But this is not enough. Insurtech isn’t just about putting things online. It boils down to three goals. Firstly, how can we use technology to make insurance simpler? Secondly, how do we help insurance be more affordable? Thirdly, how do we ensure insurance is relevant to the lives of the people we want to reach?”

Also Read: Bots vs Bodies: can insurers strike a balance between human services and tech?

Building trust

“It goes back to first principles. It’s not just about having a dot com. At the end of the day, the process of getting insured is also about trust-building. That’s why for so long it’s been dominated by friends and family to push sales. What we need to do is to improve on that trust, not by pure association, but by proving true and tangible value to consumers.”

Trust building is all fine and good, but how does one build up such a subjective measure?

“Again, we can break it down into several components. I believe in professional trust-building which means simplicity, consistency, and relevancy.

“Firstly, we should strive to be unbiased, or at least agnostic when comparing products.

“Secondly, we must ensure that the commercial arrangements are fair and proper.

“Finally, and this is where much focus should be paid, we have to ensure that the entire process of getting insured and post-sales support is of top quality and even delightful.”

Achieving financial wellness through insurtech

Beh doesn’t view insurtech as an end-all-be-all, but rather as part of an ecosystem that should accompany a customer’s life journey.

He discusses the 4 stages of financial wellness in life: accumulation, preservation, protection, and distribution, and how he sees insurance as a companion throughout these phases.

To truly reach these goals, however, the insurtech industry still has a long way to go.

“We are still in the beginning phases, and honestly, we can do much more to tackle the needs of the underserved, particularly those from low-income groups. Insurance should not be a luxury, yet that’s how it is seen now.

“Going back to first principles, we have to ask ourselves why isn’t the low-income group getting coverage? Is it not affordable, relevant, or are we taking an ineffective approach?

“People rush to investments (things like buying gold or crypto assets) because they are eager to reap the benefits. So, the issue of insurance is also that the benefits are not very visible, and often not significant enough.

“This is where I believe new pushes in insurtech can be spearheaded. For example, embedded insurance is a new concept that has been popularised by a couple of insurtech unicorns, they underwrite bite-sized, on-demand coverage, which is embedded into large and strategic ecosystems like e-commerce or airlines.

“This is in turn ensures end users are protected meaningfully and relevantly when they practice a certain lifestyle or undergo significant changes in different life stages (think entering the workforce or having a baby).

Also Read: Why the digital ecosystem is key to transforming the insurance industry

“Another example is the mutual aid shared pool concept which is huge in China. While there’s been some pullback lately, I believe this is quite an innovative concept because it gives empowerment back to the insured, back to the members of the scheme.

“The power of peer-to-peer sharing enables participants to not only co-share expenses, leveraging off the power of big data and scalability to bring down the costs, but also onboard hundreds of thousands rapidly.”

The end goal

The holy grail for insurtech, in short, is where insurance becomes part and parcel of our daily life, without the need for lengthy consideration.

“Yes exactly! Hopefully, one day there will be no discussion of whether I should or shouldn’t buy insurance, or what coverage to have, but rather it’s almost a given and a part of life. Ultimately, the right business models are the ones in tune to the customers’ needs and want.”

And what of the outlook in his home ground of Malaysia?

“I believe that we are making positive progress, as you can see from the growing number of strategic partnerships with insurtech and sizable investment in the insurtech industry.

“Earlier this month, FAOM hosted a roundtable discussion on the licensing framework for digital insurers and takaful providers, which was extremely well attended by insurers, startups, and regulators. In fact, Bank Negara Malaysia is still collecting input on the paper and all are welcome to join.”

Why go down the insurance path?

To wrap up the interview, we go back to Wilson’s favourite topic: first principles. I ask him, point-blank: Why insurance? Why not something else in the vast world of fintech?

Wilson’s answer surprises me.

“Leverage.”

Leverage is often thought to be the realm of swashbuckling financiers or more recently Wall St Bets. What does it have to do with insurance, a centuries-old industry all about mitigating risk?

“Here’s the thing. We have the underserved and emerging affluent, from the gig economy, ranging from ride-hailing workers to young professionals, who may not be protected adequately.

“For gig workers, driving every day can be a risky business, and unfortunately, some of them get involved in very serious accidents. This is often a catastrophic incident for not just the driver, but their families which rely on them.

“But think about it. Today, we have insurance products that can be bought for less than a hundred dollars. The pay-out however, can often be 100 times that of the price paid and help the families cover expenses for at least a year or so.

“While the trigger for insurance is never pleasant, it can rescue some families from the brink. I used to be a banker, and so leverage is familiar to me, but in insurtech, here we have some of the most powerful leverage, available at the most affordable prices in the most accessible packages.

“Isn’t that, in its own way, beautiful?”

With many more developments on the way for the insurtech industry, I can’t help but feel excited about a world with a little bit more of this beauty.

Note: The Central Bank of Malaysia welcomes feedback to the discussion paper of the proposed digital insurer and takaful operators. Feedback can be submitted via e-mail to DITF@bnm.gov.my or through the Fintech Association of Malaysia at office@fintechmalaysia.org by 28 Feb 2022

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Singapore-based SpaceAge Labs, a provider of remote monitoring and IoT/AI solutions, has secured SGD1.7 (US$1.25) million in seed funding, led by deep-tech investor Silicon Solution Partners and SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore.

The startup will use the capital to grow its team, expand internationally, and roll out several pilot projects across Singapore, Australia, and the US.

“Growing populations, increased urbanisation, rising labour costs, lack of skilled workers, high safety standards and social distancing stipulations — various factors have been coming together resulting in the strong need for remote monitoring and IoT/AI solutions. This is why we set up SpaceAge Labs: to help governments and corporations improve the way they are managing their widespread assets for improved efficiency, reliability and safety,” said Deepak Pitta, Founder and CEO of SpaceAge Labs.

Also Read: How to firm up your IoT strategy to combat online risks

Incubated at NUS Enterprise @ Singapore Science Park, SpaceAge Labs carries out operations and maintenance of remote and distributed assets by collecting asset data using low power, long-range wireless IoT devices, together with advanced AI software to generate valuable insights from this data. The firm claims this increases the asset’s uptime (due to data-driven predictive maintenance) and reduces cost (less manpower required).

SpaceAge Labs’s flagship product is remoteEye, a sensor-agnostic IoT/AI platform that enables connected operations and maintenance.

remoteEye consists of three parts:

1. rEyeIoTNodes: Low-powered wireless devices that read and transmit data from industrial sensors located at the assets.
2. Wireless networks: The sensor data is transmitted to the cloud via low power wide-area wireless networks. The networks are low-cost (from S$1 per month per device), able to transmit over long distances (several kilometres) and consume low power (up to five years of battery life).
3. rEye Data Cloud: Enterprise-grade IoT/AI software that stores, analyses, and visualises this sensor data. This software is secure, easy to use, and scale from managing one asset to thousands of assets. Proprietary AI software and geospatial data analysis provide valuable insights and predictions that can be accessed via web or mobile.

While remoteEye can be applied in various sectors, SpaceAge Labs initially targets three sectors: water/wastewater, urban greenery/landscaping, and facilities management.

SpaceAge Labs claimed in a statement that it has IoT deployments with more than 30 customers, including two key Smart Nation pilot projects in Singapore.

In H1 2022, SpaceAge Labs will conduct pilots with landscaping companies in Australia to help improve efficiencies of their grass-cutting work in Brisbane and Sydney. If these are successful, it could lead to nationwide deployments. Similar landscaping pilots will be conducted in the US in the latter half of 2022.

In Singapore, SpaceAge Labs plans to conduct several pilots to monitor water consumption patterns, detect leaks in facilities, and monitor weather/air quality in outdoor spaces. In addition, it will also monitor water quality in swimming pools and water play areas and mechanical/electrical equipment, such as decentralised water treatment skids and water tankers.

SpaceAge Labs is also supported by Imagine H2O (a water innovation accelerator) and PUB’s Singapore Water Exchange. Planetspark, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SGX mainboard listed Excelpoint Technology, is also a partner working closely with SpaceAge Labs to help accelerate their technology alongside joining the round as an investor.

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Update: The previous version of this article stated that DeZy enables users to borrow, save, trade, or invest without intermediaries such as banks or brokerages. The company has clarified that its platform enables users to deposit funds and generate yield.

Singapore-based decentralised finance (DeFi) startup DeZy today announced that the company has raised at least S$3 million (US$2.2 million) in Pre-Series A funding round led by Leo Capital with participation from Iterative Capital.

The company also welcomed angel investors such as Michael Ng of Unagii, Tianwei Liu and Sharon Lourdes Paul of Xfers, Ishan Agrawal as well as Nihit Nirmal and Kelvin Teo of Funding Societies.

Existing investors such as HH Investments, HY Sia, and DeFiance Capital also returned in this funding round.

This funding round followed undisclosed funding from local investors such as DeFiance Capital, HH Investments, Impiro, and angels such as Tranglo founder HY Sia in September 2021.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

In a press statement, DeZy said that it plans to use the funding to support new product launches, grow its team, and “continue to redefine what finance can be for consumers.”

Launched in 2021, DeZy is a platform that enables users to convert their cash into dollar-denominated stable coins, which are deposited across a range of DeFi protocols. Absorbing both blockchain fees and forex fluctuation, DeZy offers up to 5.65 a year, with a 0 fee and no lock-in product to customers in Singapore.

It was started by four co-founders Eric Dadoun (CEO), Harald Lang (CTO ), Sharmini Ravindran (CMO ), and Simon Landsheer (strategic advisor). The company aims to empower people to “achieve meaningful savings, income growth and wealth accumulation” by simplifying decentralised finance.

This is claimed to enable users to deposit funds and generate yield.

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Making a living as a musician is hard. It is estimated that only 0.2 per cent of musicians globally become “successful” while 90.7 per cent remain undiscovered.

The odds are stacked against musicians, but that said, the future of music is brighter than ever with blockchain technology.

Music industry vs musicians

The music industry has been stagnant for decades, and the two major catalysts for change were the various levels of lockdowns across the world and streaming services.

To make a living with music, the bulk of musicians’ income comes from live performance (30 per cent), teaching (18 per cent), salaried playing (12 per cent), composing (11 per cent), session work (10 per cent), sound recordings (7.3 per cent), merchandise (1.9 per cent) and others.

With the pandemic, most of these income channels are down significantly.

Streaming became the only viable way to monetise one’s music. Millions of music lovers can tune in to talented musicians from all over the world who compose music, record songs and get paid for it all in the comfort of their homes.

But the top 3 record labels raked in US$19 million a day from streaming, while eight out of ten music creators earn less than US$200 a year from streaming.

Problems with streaming

All streaming services notoriously underpay content creators.

The largest player in music streaming, Spotify, pays on average US$0.0003 for every stream, and they recently announced that they would lower that even more.

To make the minimum wage of US$20 per hour requires a staggering 67,000 streams per hour.

Just like everyone else, musicians need to pay bills. When live performances and touring were still a thing, they’d be paid in cash after the show. With that option gone, streaming compounds the cash flow problem as their payment terms are 3 to 6 months.

Blockchain, the promising solution

To address the inadequacies of existing streaming services, audio exchange platforms have emerged on the blockchain.

First, there are streaming services that pay US$0.01 to US$0.10 per stream, at least 10 to 40 times more than currently offered by the incumbents.

Second, as the payout is in cryptocurrency, it is instantaneous and can be changed into regular cash (aka fiat).

Third, an additional benefit of being built with smart contracts is that all collaborators on a song will be appropriately accredited and paid fairly.

Also Read: Why brands are seeking micro influencers and where this trend is going

Blockchain as an added layer of technology helps solve the fundamental problems that musicians face. The only thing left to do is to get those streams going.

The keyword is community

To get millions of monthly streams overnight is only achievable with the backing of major record labels and their marketing dollars.

The goal of the average independent musician is to organically build a fanbase or community that supports their endeavours. Kevin Kelly famously stated in 2008 that musicians would need 1,000 true fans to make it.

This requires musicians to be proactive, not just to make music and tour but to foster genuine community engagement.

Social media outlets (Facebook, Discord, Reddit) are not just promotional pits to share announcements and sell merchandise. It should be a two-way relationship where you answer the queries of your fans. Lil Nas X’s social media game is an excellent example of how one should invest time and energy to engage fans.

Looking forward to music rights

No matter how you look at it, music is about ownership rights. In the past, music was all about selling records and signing deals, where the record label owned everything.

Nowadays, with streaming services, music rights are shared. Acts like Chance The Rapper, one of the pioneers in being a successful independent musician, is the epitome of what it can be in the present.

Today, the earning split is better, but the lion’s share is still not sitting with the creators. Streaming services are still centralised platforms with complete control.

Hence, the future of music will be one where musicians are fully independent, owning the rights to their creations and how it is distributed, and hence being able to dictate their earnings.

This can be achieved by making songs into Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), where the digital file can be kept on the blockchain as a one-of-a-kind collectible item.

For the Gen Z of creators and fans, who are savvier than those who came before them, this could be the one way that they can live their lives making music.

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Indonesia-based property tech platform Jendela360 announced an undisclosed strategic investment round from an entity affiliated to local conglomerate group Sinar Mas Group.

This investment followed a US$1 million funding round led by BEENEXT that the company announced in June 2020.

Jendela360 plans to use the new funding to accelerate its business growth, extend the rental and sales operation and aim to be the number one player in the industry by continuing to expand its products and services, invest in its technology and, naturally, toward hiring. The startup also wants to scale into new markets and go deeper into existing markets.

In an email to e27, Daniel Rannu, co-founder and CEO of Jendela360, gave a further explanation about the company’s plan with the funding.

“Before the pandemic, we only focused on long-term rental. But because of the pandemic, we have to enter the shorter-term rental market and property sales market sooner than we expected. This turns out to be a blessing in disguise … as now, more than ever, people are willing to try on a digital solution to find their desired properties. We’ve experienced tremendous (four times) growth as a property tech in the past 18 months,” he wrote.

Also Read: Sustainability starts at home: How I aim to tackle climate change as PropertyGuru CEO

“Since the Indonesian property market is a HUGE market. Our strategy for the next few years is to simply expand nationwide. Lucky for us, we founded Jendela360 to serve the Indonesian market where we have 270 million people living here, and there are still large parts of the pie that we can take on.”

In addition to its four-times growth, the startup also claimed to be operationally profitable.

Founded in 2017, Jendela360 aims to streamline the process of property transactions in Indonesia with its O2O approach. It offers data-driven apps powered by machine learning engines to generate leads and pair them with the right agents efficiently.

Rannu believes that the key factor to help the property industry digitalisation is by utilising the right technology, combined with the wisdom on how-to-do interaction, instead of replacing agents.

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Japan’s Arkray launches US$87M VC arm to back healthcare startups in Asia
It will invest up to US$2.6M each in startups across Japan, SEA, India and Israel; Focus sectors are digital healthcare, medtech, biotech, AI, IoT medical devices, cloud pharmacies, medical diagnostics, personal wellness & self-care, pet-tech, medical and functional foodtech.

Hyperlocal mapping: a solution for real-world interactions in retail metaverse
Hyperlocal mapping allows mobility companies to engage their workforce, vehicles, customers and products by validating pick-up locations on private maps with high precision.

Tinder founder’s JAM Fund invests in PayMongo’s US$31M Series B financing round
Other backers are ICCP-SBI Venture Partners, Kaya Founders, GFC, SOMA Capital, and angels; The B2B payments firm will venture into more financial products involving disbursements, capital lending, “buy now, pay later,” subscriptions and recurring payments.

StockViva closes US$5M Series A funding
Backers are Farquhar VC, Kharis Capital, Hong Huan Group, and Angelhub; StockViva’s mobile app provides real-time online education services by financial key opinion leaders, and online trading connection with different financial institutions in Asia.

Singapore AI startup 6Estates raises US$6.2M Series B+ round
Investors are Sinar Mas, Seeds Capital, and Farquhar VC; 6Estates is an AI fintech platform that specialises in multilingual natural language processing and machine reading comprehension technologies.

Singapore AR startup BuzzAR bags US$3.8M funding
Investors are F50 Elevate, Ian Wilson of Marina Bay Sands, and Peter Hlavnicka of SenzeCare; BuzzAR helps retail and commerce firms create personalized and location-based AR experiences for their customers; it has also acquired a mobile game called The Cooking Game VR.

Jendela360 raises funding from Sinar Mas affiliate to expand in Indonesia
Jendela360 aims to streamline the process of property transactions in Indonesia with its O2O approach; It offers data-driven apps powered by ML engines to generate leads and pair them with the right agents efficiently.

Animoca Brands acquires motorsports game developer Grease Monkey Games
The deal will allow Animoca Brands to benefit from Grease Monkey’s significant game development capabilities and expertise; So far, Grease Monkey has logged 45M downloads across both mobile and PC worldwide.

Malaysia city and property data company Urbanmetry raises US$2M pre-Series A
Lead investor is Monk’s Hill; Urbanmetry is a property data company that harvests, cleans, and analyses large amounts of city data, through AI and proprietary algorithms to extract trends and patterns in the built environment.

PRIMO gets pre-Series A funding to expand its omnichannel marketing platform
Investors are Fuchsia VC, Beacon VC, SOSV, and Infinity Technologies VC; PRIMO claimed 2x growth y-o-y on average over the past three years; It’s working with retail, FMCG, banking, finance, and insurance firms.

Chillchat closes US$1.85M seed funding
Investors include Solana Ventures, FTX Ventures, Animoca Brands, and Griffin Gaming Partners; Chillchat builds the pocket metaverse: a Create2Earn virtual world focused on user-generated content where players can quickly and easily create NFTs in the form of characters, pets, and worlds.

SOSV names 13 startups for 12th consumer tech cohort
SOSV has more than US$1.2 billion in assets under management from 1,120 companies in its portfolio; It said that tech firms in its portfolio raised a total of US$215 million in 2021.

US adds e-commerce sites operated by Tencent, Alibaba to ‘notorious markets’ list
They reportedly facilitated substantial trademark counterfeiting; The US Trade Representative identifies 42 online markets and 35 physical markets that are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy.

Sequoia to raise up to US$600M for new crypto fund
Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire said that the VC firm views cryptocurrency as a megatrend that would carry on over the next two decades; The cryptocurrency fund will be one of three new sub-funds under Sequoia Capital Fund.

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Singapore-based climate-tech venture firm Aera VC has announced the US$30 million first close of its new fund.

The fund, backed by families investing in climate solutions, will support startups accelerating the planet toward a sustainable future, the firm said in a statement.

Aera VC has already backed Houston-based chemical decarbonisation firm Solugen (valued at US$1.8 billion), Shiok Meats (Singapore), Carbon Chain (London), Noya and Twelve (San Francisco), and Fable Foods (Australia).

Separately, the VC firm has also launched an investment DAO (distributed autonomous organisation) called Aera Force, with 2000 ETH (approx US$6 million). It has been earmarked for pre-seed projects harnessing the power of blockchain to conquer climate and carbon-related challenges.

Established in partnership with the creators of Dream DAO, Aera Force will expand the global community of innovators, scientists and founders formed in the past five years by Aera VC.

Also Read: Investible launches new US$72M fund to invest in seed-stage climate tech startups

“The entire world needs to be rebuilt and decarbonised,” said Aera VC Founding Partner Derek Handley. “At Aera VC, our long-term vision is about investing across the sustainability spectrum by backing breakthrough technologies that reverse climate change, whether they spawn from blockchain innovations or through scientific discoveries. Every industry needs to be reimagined, from finance, food, and fashion to chemicals, cement, and construction.”

The new Aera fund expects to make up to 30 new seed investments over the next two years and contribute to follow-on rounds. The fund is continuing to accept further subscriptions up to US$100 million from institutional investors in 2022 who will join the international community of family offices.

The company’s new headquarters in Singapore positions Aera VC as one of the first global climate funds in the Asia-Pacific region. Aera VC portfolio companies have raised over a billion dollars since receiving Aera’s backing.

Aera VC was formed in 2016 by Handley, who was joined by fellow New Zealander Nick Winstone to launch the VC firm from their bases in New Zealand and New York. Handley has been investing in environmental and social-impact ventures since serving as the founding CEO of Richard Branson’s B Team sustainability collective in 2013.

In October 2021, Wavemaker Partners, an active Singapore-based VC firm, launched a US$25 million climate-tech venture builder in Southeast Asia.

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As we set out on the Agile journey, picking Kanban seemed like a no-brainer. It is visual, easy to use, and a perfect fit for the PM tool we have been developing. However, after a short few months, we realised scrum was indeed a better fit and switched. 

Here is our story. Hopefully, it will give you some insights. 

Why did we choose Kanban? 

As a small engineering team with a new product (we developed a project management tool called Teamhood), we had no strict timeliness or process to follow.

Thus, Kanban seemed like a perfect fit. It allowed us to visualise what was happening, prioritise the most necessary items and track their progress.

The team would meet for a daily standup to discuss progress, and monthly retrospectives would be held to see what could be improved. All of this was great until the product beta went live, and the engineering team’s focus had to shift. 

Why did it not work? 

With the launch of our beta version, we got the first paying customers. Yay! But with that came customer expectation management and a need to provide reliable forecasts for the new features.  

With the engineering team working in Kanban, the sales and marketing teams had issues in knowing when to expect new features. As a result, they could not plan timely marketing and sales actions to promote the new features coming out.  

Moreover, the clients needed to know when specific features would be live, and the engineering team could not provide those answers. As such, we knew it was time to change. 

How Scrum improved our process 

Thus, instead of Kanban, we switched to Scrum and introduced new practices to improve the process. 

First, we have chosen 2-week iterations to ease estimation and feature predictability. We had to think about which features could be delivered in two weeks and commit to them. This was especially useful for the sales and marketing teams that were communicating with existing and potential customers. 

Also Read: How can you build a living, thriving community around your SaaS product?

We have also divided the work into several boards to better separate different processes. Design, roadmap planning, backlog, UI/UK, and development are all done on different boards, thus better categorising all work items.

We have introduced various new ceremonies to ensure all the processes are under control. Roadmap planning and prioritisations, backlog review, backlog planning, backlog refinement, backlog planning, and others were added to ensure we deliver value to our customers and work on the most important features.

Lastly, we have started using T-shirt sizes to estimate the features. This helps us ensure each feature we commit to can be delivered during one iteration. Otherwise, we rework the feature to make sure it can fit the iteration or push it back to the drawing board. 

What’s next? 

We have successfully moved away from Kanban and into Scrum territory. However, the Scrum application is far from the textbook. Some could argue that it is far more resembling Scrumban. I don’t disagree. 

Will we move towards full Scrum in the future? No one knows. However, we will not do it just for the name. Instead of applying any of the practises blindly, we tend to look and see what works best for the process and our needs now.  

Have you changed Agile practices with your team? I would love to hear your comments. 

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Indonesian edutech startup Zenius acquired local offline cram school chain Primagama. According to a source, this acquisition includes all offline branches of the institution in the country. According to a statement on Primagama’s site, the company currently operates more than 250 branches in various provinces in Indonesia, serving four million students with 3,000 employees. It operates using the franchise model.

By the time this article was published, DailySocial has reached out to a Zenius representation.

Founded by Sabda PS and Medy Suharta, Zenius is known as one of the pioneers of online tutoring services in Indonesia. They debuted with offline tutoring and packaged material on DVD before becoming a fully online service.

Primagama itself was founded in 1982. The collaboration between the two organisations will allow the integration of online-to-offline learning models or blended learning, utilising their infrastructure and capabilities.

Previously, in the early 2010s, Primagama has developed an online service called PrimagamaPlus. However, due to a premature market, the service did not manage to gain traction as direct (offline) tutoring remained the primadonna of the time. Currently, the applications are available to support the learning process, but there has not been much traction.

Zenius’ corporate action was held amidst the collapse of many offline tutoring businesses due to the pandemic. The school-from-home scheme as introduced by the authority throughout the pandemic has caused declining demand for offline tutoring, especially when edutech services are gaining popularity.

On the other hand, Zenius’s collaboration with Primagama has the potential to provide a more engaging learning experience, especially once offline learning activities resume.

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

According to the 2021 KPAI survey, 78 per cent of students demand to return to class. Virtual spaces are considered less effective. Fifty-seven per cent of students find it difficult to follow the subject matter and conduct practicum.

Zenius growth

Zenius currently has several products with the best-selling being its online tutoring service. Throughout the 2019/2020 school year, the Zenius tutoring application was accessed by more than 20 million users. It contains around 100,000 learning videos and practise questions that are accessible for free. In addition to that, Zenius also provides Live Class services for direct guidance with selected teachers; there is also a written national exam simulation and several other learning products.

Apart from formal learning, the company also provides Zenius Land app for toddlers, ZenPro for professional learning with more general subjects, and teaching management platform ZenRu, in addition to its focus on students.

In early 2021, Zenius secured a Pre-Series B round backed by a number of investors, including Alpha JWC Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Northstar, Kinesys, and BeeNext. Earlier, they announced an investment of US$20 million in a Series A round. Zenius’s valuation is currently estimated at over US$100 million.

Market competition and value proposition

Indonesian edutech sector is growing rapidly. The two head-to-head players in the market are Ruangguru and Zenius – statistically, Ruangguru’s site visits and application downloads are far more superior. In addition to that, the two companies owned similar sub-product variants.

Zenius puts a strong emphasis on providing quality learning materials. Instead of driving students to simply memorise information, the materials by Zenius stresses the importance of understanding fundamental concepts and critical thinking through various case studies.

Apart from Zenius and Ruangguru, a number of edutech startups are performing a manoeuvre in the market. Recently, CoLearn secured a Series A funding of IDR244 billion (US$16 million). The app heavily focused on math and science subjects, helping students complete homework independently. Other than that, there are also Pahamify, Squline, and others.

Also Read: How edutech is solving the global teacher’s crisis

The presence of Primagama in Zenius’ line of business has the potential to strengthen its value proposition once it succeeds in wrapping up a hybrid learning experience – this could also be the first in Indonesia.

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The article was written by Randi Eka Yonida in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial.

Image Credit: torwai

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Vietnam-focused accelerator-cum-VC fund ThinkZone Ventures recently hit the final close of Fund II at US$60 million, dedicated to startups from pre-seed to Series A with cheque sizes up to US$3 million. With this, it joins a small number of local VCs established based on a government Decree of 2018 (concerning investments in local startups).

“This is a typical example for other local VCs to follow suit,” said Dung Tri Tran, Programme Manager in Hanoi & Central Region at Swiss Entrepreneurship Programme (Swiss EP) Vietnam, a partner of ThinkZone since its early days. “The ThinkZone team showed a strong focus and resilience in the lengthy but noteworthy one-year fundraising process of Fund II amid the devastating pandemic.”

Fully backed by Vietnamese investors

Against the pandemic headwinds, ThinkZone Ventures Founding Partner and CEO Do Bui admitted that his team had to tweak strategies several times before officially securing funding from all Vietnamese Limited Partners (LPs). “We first tapped into the abundant funding sources outside of Vietnam,” said Bui. “However, persuading foreign investors, who have limited hands-on experience of the local startup ecosystem, to inject millions of US dollars into a far-away fund wasn’t easy, especially only through Zoom calls and online discussions.”

The unfavourable prospects urged ThinkZone to pivot and tap into the local resources. Vietnam’s conglomerates, especially those who have been its long-term partners, turned out to be the silver lining.

“Every investor, be it foreign or local, has money. They all expect high returns,” Bui said. “But Vietnamese startups, most of them are solving local problems, will benefit from business synergies with local LPs.”

For instance, Phu Thai Holdings Group, whose Chairman Doan Pham has also been serving as Chairman of local VC fund BK Fund (a partner of ThinkZone Ventures) since 2020, joined ThinkZone Fund II as an LP. The group owns more than 30 businesses across distribution, retail, logistics, investment, and education. 

In combination with other LPs’ businesses in F&B, medicine, finance, and foreign trade, these diverse ecosystems provide ThinkZone’s portfolio startups with headroom to validate business models and scale across the country. Moreover, with the support of IPA Investments, an experienced player in the Vietnamese public market, ThinkZone Fund II can foster startups from seed through to exits with larger M&As and IPOs. 

“What I have always been contemplating is how to leverage my company’s resources. Learning from startups is one prominent pathway,” said IPA Investments CEO and VNDIRECT Chairwoman Huong Pham. “As Vietnam is developing exponentially, our next-gen founders are having the upper hand to startup and enjoy greater opportunities in the market.”

Fund II even hit the jackpot by partnering with corporations in traditional sectors such as plastic and packaging. They include Stavian Group, owner of Vietnam’s top polymers distributor Stavian Chemical.

“Venturing into tech startup investments serves as an extended arm for traditional businesses without hefty in-house R&D while still leveraging lucrative exit opportunities,” Bui explained. “By putting money in a reliable local fund, they can also optimise portfolio management cost and efficiency, enjoy larger cross-industry support for their startups from a group of different LPs, and then exert a larger impact on society.”

With this, ThinkZone Ventures believes it is primed to provide significant added value for local startups, making it an ideal addition to any potential investment deals joined by other foreign VCs.  In addition, by utilising Vietnam dong (VND) as the sole investment currency, a local VC firm can deploy its funds with better timings and flexible investment structures.

From an accelerator to a top-notch VC firm

Launched in February 2019 by Do Bui, a serial entrepreneur, ThinkZone has grown from an accelerator to become a prominent VC firm with an impressive portfolio of high-growth startups. Its investments include earned-wage-access (EWA) startup GIMO, fresh food-to-table platform FoodHub, online ride-hailing platform EMDDI, English teaching startup Educa, and social commerce platform OnGroup. ThinkZone also runs Innovation Lab, a training programme for startups and corpoprations.

With 13 deals in 2021, ThinkZone Ventures is one of the most active investors in Vietnam, as per data compiled by Tech In Asia. The firm has consistently formed partnerships with international partners, including AWS, Hubspot, Deloitte., and especially the Swiss Entrepreneurship Program (EP). Funded by the Swiss government, Swiss EP provides the accelerator with capacity-building support through international entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs) and experts.

“Swiss EP’s support left its mark on our accelerator development as it connected us with an experienced head of accelerator, international business lawyers, and startup mentors throughout the years,” Bui stated. “This enables meaningful networks within the local and regional ecosystems, especially in terms of public-private partnerships pilot programmes to boost local innovative businesses and technologies.”

This year, ThinkZone Fund II plans to invest up to US$200,000 each in companies at the idea stage. It also has the resources to join their follow-on rounds,

In a bid to arm its portfolio startups with the necessary networking opportunities, product and business development mindsets and financial management capabilities, Fund II will allocate 20-30 per cent of its total capital to the accelerator programme. 

Its investee GIMO, for instance, presents ThinkZone’s typical well-rounded support for a portfolio company. Having joined ThinkZone Accelerator Batch 3 in 2020, GIMO managed to fulfil its co-founding team, receive initial capital and seed funding in 2021, and access important resources, including lending capital.

“GIMO aims to make digital financial services accessible for underserved blue-collar workers in Vietnam through EWA model. Sustainable and low-cost sources of funds will help us to realise our vision better,” said its Co-Founder and CEO Quan Anh Nguyen. “ThinkZone Ventures has made this possible with support from its network of investors and partners.”

To date, GIMO claims to have provided on-demand pay to nearly 100,000 workers, primarily in the manufacturing and retail sectors. The number of beneficiaries has also grown 130 per cent monthly, the company claimed when it raised US$1.9-million seed funding. The startup has also been accepted to Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator Winter 2022 Batch.

Also read: Startup funding rounds: A handbook from seed to exit 

To put regulations into practice

Since 2019, ThinkZone has taken the plunge to join various formal and informal platforms to help improve Vietnamese regulations, including the revision of Decree 38 — the legal framework behind establishing local VC funds, such as ThinkZone Ventures’s Fund II and BK Fund.  

“This February, ThinkZone and Swiss EP joined a discussion with Enterprise Development Agency and National Innovation Center [both under the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam] to identify 15 points of adjustments in Decree 38,” said Tran of Swiss EP. “We need more time and effort, but this is a change for the better.”

Despite paperwork hurdles, ThinkZone managed to break the mould and launch Fund II according to local regulations and international standards. Bui added that ThinkZone professionally formulated the fund structure with a limited partnership agreement (LPA), even when it is not required in the registration documents addressed in the Decree. 

The agreement has clauses such as management fee, profit margin, promised performance, the commitment of General Partners, and decision-making processes for each investment level.

However, Bui expressed his concerns over the true USP of the Decree. “There are still unanswered questions down the road, and we haven’t seen a clear competitive advantage of forming a VC fund under the new regulation compared to that of our previous Fund I, which was run as an investment company,” said Bui. “However, ThinkZone is confident with what we have learned from international VC models’ best practices to apply it into the Vietnamese market.”

Also read: 2021 policy and initiative highlights: A foundation for SEA startup funding

In the past, it was common knowledge that most new-formed VC funds chose an easier path of establishing their entities outside of Vietnam, mainly in Singapore, to enjoy favourable investment incentives and avoid regulatory roadblocks.

“We notice that there are plenty of veteran investors in the local startup ecosystem, but they are hesitant to communicate with policymakers to transform the present-day local investment landscape,” Bui added. “The responsibility doesn’t lie solely on the government. Private sector players also have a role and should be willing to invest money, understand regulations, give feedback, and in the end, contribute to the long-term development of the society.”

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Image Credit: ThinkZone

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