Amid the NFT (non-fungible token) frenzy, you might hear people talk about a digital artwork worth millions of dollars, a virtual piece of land being sold at a record price, and brands building their own retail stores on those online properties — things that haven’t physically existed.

“It is still early days for the metaverse,” Janine Yorio, Managing Director at Republic Realm, told e27. “However, we believe a convergence of fundamental shifts in technology, society, socialisation, gaming, and retail will provide significant tailwinds for mass metaverse adoption and development”.

The retail industry, in particular, is quickly catching on in a “retail metaverse”, blurring the boundary between our physical world and the future virtual society.

Disrupting retail metaverse with hyperlocal mapping solutions

Brands are expanding from their physical stores into the metaverse that allows customers to experience physical goods in the virtual world. Gucci, Vans, Adidas, and L’Oreal are all taking their baby steps into this space and creating brand awareness among younger users.

“This generation grows up doing things just like we interact on Zoom. They’re more accustomed to immersive experiences when they use the Internet,” said Yorio. “The companies that fail to adapt will be left behind because the next generation of consumers is going to expect to find new products and their favourite old products in these immersive environments.”

Imagine purchasing a couch in your metaverse store, and it is linked with a physical warehouse and a carrier that will deliver the product to your doorstep within hours. This sounds like a shopping experience in e-commerce. 

But with the retail metaverse, instead of watching things through a screen and being frustrated with the real product’s quality that doesn’t match with how it is described on the e-commerce platform, you can step into the immersive 3D store and try things out without actually moving from your house.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

Case in point, the app that helps you plan a room layout and design with the exact size and feel of furniture via the support of AR/VR can be considered the initial version of this retail metaverse. What you are looking at on the app is just a few steps away from experience in the virtual twin of our actual world.

This no-boundary future will be made available with tons of complex technologies moving forward. Hyperlocal mapping solutions, with their ability to uniquely map out and address spaces with precision, hold the potential to enable direct interaction with physical places.

“You need to have a real-world metaverse, a replica of the planet because products and people still need to move from A to B,” said Xander van der Heijden, Co-Founder and CEO of UNL, a Singaporean startup providing micro-location and mapping technology. “Digitising locations, creating an infrastructure to interact with these places — what we’re creating is the real-world metaverse through the Internet of Places.”

Founded in 2018, UNL offers a library of plug-and-play geospatial solutions to help businesses build scalable, hyper-local services and applications. UNL enables direct interaction with physical locations by giving unique digital addresses to every geolocation and accurately linking data to locations to contextually represent real-world situations and events.

In simple words, its technology pixelises the physical world into a multi-resolution smart grid to give any location a digital and verifiable address — UNL geoID — similar to an IP address. UNL geoIDs uniquely map out and address spaces with up to 1×1 cm2 precision, covering outdoor, indoor and elevation.

On top of that, UNL goes beyond street names and postal codes to what it calls the “Internet of Places”. They are developing location domain name services to interface with these locations without using the initial numeric geoIDs. 

For example, Starbucks at Orchard will still be named Starbucks in the digital world, corresponding with its location in the real world.

It, therefore, helps mobility companies engage with their workforce, vehicles, customers and products by validating precise addresses and locations where they need to pick up people or drop packages. The solution can also be plugged into any step of the retail industry’s supply chain, supporting the greater movement of goods from supplier to vendor to end-user, providing clients with delivery and navigation even within large buildings.

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

Besides, its maps possess self-healing features that automatically collect data from different data sources (IoT, satellite, cars, smartphones, or end-user contributions), compare these data, choose the highest quality of data, and publish that.

Mounting demand in Southeast Asia

UNL is one of the first successful ventures from the Netherlands-based venturerock studio, a venture builder where Heijden also serves as a General Partner. However, the team decided to emphasise the Southeast Asia market as it recognised the biggest problems in the region are addressing and digital infrastructure.

“You’re talking about billions and billions in loss because of inaccurate addresses that result from the lack of last-mile information and data,” said Heijden. “We saw a huge potential in Southeast Asia, especially during the pandemic when companies can leapfrog existing stack and old legacy systems by adopting new innovative digital platforms, hence, move faster forward into the future of logistics.”

When the address is not accurate, the deliveryman starts calling the person to deliver the package. This costs them a lot of time and efficiency, which translates into a huge loss in revenue and profits.

These issues in the delivery space have already sparked demand from regional giants such as Grab or Gojek. These companies need to work with multiple third-party mapping providers as one often doesn’t provide 100 per cent accuracy. They then build their own internal mapping teams to combine these data and create their own data sets.

In addition, this kind of hyperlocal tech infrastructure can go beyond retail to support interactions in the whole economy covering various industries from entertainment to F&B and manufacturing.

The gaming sector, for instance, can utilise this immersive hyperlocal mapping to improve the player experience, a next level from what we did with Pokémon Go in 2016. For advertising and F&B, by creating an augmented reality, they can navigate people to collect tokens on locations, create 3D text sprinting around them, and then navigate them through to a restaurant to spend these tokens in exchange for coffee.

And suppose you still remember the “omniverse” that manufacturing giants BMW Group and NVIDIA are creating with its virtual factory planning. In that case, this technology will help engineers from all aspects of factory design collaborate in a shared virtual space. The entire factory can be simulated with hyperlocal details.

It’s not competition, it’s decentralisation

Now that the technology is said to accurately link data to locations to represent real-world situations and events contextually, how is this different from and better than an upgrade version of Google or Apple’s Maps?

Also Read: NFTs provide new ways to handle IP management, empower content creators: Inmagine CEO Warren Leow

“When you generate data on top of the Google infrastructure, they own your data,” stressed Heijden. “If you contribute data to our infrastructure, you keep ownership of that data, and we enable stakeholders to monetise on those data.”

With this business model, UNL can create an underlining infrastructure for companies, consumers, and governments to create virtual private maps and public maps, contribute data, and then be rewarded for that.

“We don’t see Google as a competitor. We are just focusing on a different market,” he added.

This virtual private mapping architecture of UNL is also associated with the whole story of decentralisation, which will serve as a huge pushback against big players getting involved in the space.

Remember Republic Realm announced the launch of its shopping mall Metajuku on the Decentraland metaverse? Yorio said these elaborate virtual malls are being built in the metaverse and opening a window to a nascent industry called ‘de-commerce’ (decentralised e-commerce).

Kevin Indig, Director of the e-commerce giant Shopify, echoed this viewpoint. He believes that the metaverse will most likely encourage the decentralisation of e-commerce, which gives brands the ability to escape from uniform marketplace formats to virtualise their customers’ shopping experience.

Hence, the development of this industry hinges on every agent’s participation and engagement in the retail metaverse, not in the hand of any big-pocket players.

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As more event organisers choose virtual venues to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19, data privacy and compliance with regulations such as the European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) is a top priority for any organisation that collects data on individuals from the European Union and European Economic area.

GDPR is a legal framework enforced by the European Union in 2018 which sets out mandatory rules on how companies can use EU citizens’ data. Any company that collects data from EU citizens is legally obliged to comply with GDPR, no matter where in the world that company is located.

But complying with GDPR is challenging to event organisers who aren’t as familiar with global data privacy laws. Large-scale events such as conferences, summits, exhibitions, product launches, trade, and jobs fairs have confirmed their continued existence and allowed a seamless and engaging experience, on par with their physical counterparts.

What organisations need to remember, however, is the implications of collecting a vast array of rich, valuable, and sensitive data from participating attendees and businesses.

Virtual and hybrid events platforms draw data from areas that include the number of logins and a breakdown of new and active users. This data also covers sessions, providing metrics on the number of total unique views, video replays, total unique replays, how many users liked each session, and how many made notes per session.

It records how many registrations each session has, how many chats engagements took place, how many impressions the Q&As delivered, and more. Ultimately, this data enhances the virtual and hybrid event experience for attendees and helps organisers form strategies that drive ROI and the risk of non-compliance.

Failing to handle such data ethically and safely can potentially tarnish an organisation’s reputation, leading to difficulties in attracting new business and repeated transactions from loyal customers.

Also Read: There is a concerning lack of cybersecurity talent. Here’s how to tackle it

Additionally, the financial consequences can prove catastrophic.  Companies found to be non-compliant can be fined up to GBP20 million (US$20 million) or 4 per cent of annual global turnover (whichever is greater).

To this day, there have been 281,000 data breach notifications, and GBP45.3 million (US$332.16 million) of fines imposed for a wide range of infringements across all European Union member states, with Germany and the Netherlands topping the table, closely followed by the UK.

Across many EU countries and the UK, the money collected from non-compliance fines is brought back to the community and used to fund public services, just like tax revenues.

On top of this, new data protection regulations are coming into effect on a global level, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Brazil’s Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD), and South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information (POPI).

Maintaining compliance with regulations around virtual events is, therefore, a complex undertaking, and there are a few key areas that businesses need to consider.

Here’s a list of GDPR issues that event planners need to be aware of to remain in compliance with the regulations:

Attendee consent

It’s crucial that organisers actively seek consent before collecting any attendee data. The agreement should be easy to access and as simple to understand as possible for attendees.

Event registration

Capturing data in the event registration form helps build a database of all event attendees. Under GDPR, organisers need to keep EU attendees’ Right to Privacy and be selective about the information the form asks for.

Data sharing

Event planners are obligated to disclose to attendees where their data is being shared for what purposes. They must also provide access to personal data for any attendee that requests it and fulfil any attendee’s request to transfer it to another data controller.

Data breaches

Cybercrime is an escalating issue, with stories of breaches regularly featured in the news cycle. If event data is breached, the organisers must notify the relevant authorities and affected attendees within 72 hours of becoming aware of it.

Opt-outs

Under the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ event, attendees have the power to opt out of marketing activities that use their data and can request that it be wiped from every database. Planners must honour these requests.

Also Read: How companies can manage data privacy in hybrid and multi-cloud work environments

Essential GDPR security measures

In the age of GDPR, there are three essential security measures event organisers should consider:

• Regular security system checks and updates: Checking and applying software updates to security systems as regularly as possible will help to ensure vulnerabilities are mitigated and the chances of a data breach are minimised.
• Regular audits and certifications: ISO 27001 certification helps ensure that your IT systems are standardised and secure, making compliance much easier to achieve. Storing and processing data requires any business to follow other standards too. Each system you use to work with event data must adhere to these standards and comply with audits.
• Upgrading security systems: While we’ve already covered the importance of keeping security systems updated, event planners should also consider upgrading to the newest and most technologically advanced security systems when the budget allows. This means you will have access to get the latest and greatest protection to help with compliance.

Looking ahead

While virtual events were initially integrated out of necessity due to Covid-19, a long-term online trend has emerged as businesses have recognised its value in a post-pandemic world.

As the events industry adapts to these virtual and hybrid models, potential data regulation hurdles and processes can be eased by following the above considerations and three steps to better security, alongside choosing a platform with high-security standards, built-in data collection, analysis, and management capabilities.

While setting a budget and auditing the security process may be time-consuming, the investment is considerably less than the risks to reputation, fines, and non-compliance.

Considering the ubiquity of virtual events now and into the future because of the benefits and convenience of offering a remote option confers, the sooner organisations codify their security standards with event planners, the easier it will be to protect organisations from data breaches and privacy violations.

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Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based games publisher and VC firm focused on open metaverse, has completed the 100 per cent acquisition of Melbourne-based indie motorsports game developer Grease Monkey Games.

The deal size hasn’t been disclosed. It will allow Animoca Brands to benefit from Grease Monkey’s significant game development capabilities and expertise. So far, Grease Monkey has logged 45 million downloads across both mobile and PC worldwide.

The current management of Grease Monkey Games will continue to operate the company after the arrangement, stated in the official announcement.

Its team will work closely with Animoca Brands to align efforts relating to blockchain integration, fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens, play-to-earn (P2E) capabilities, synergy opportunities, and product launches. Animoca Brands owns the REVV Motorsport ecosystem, whose all tiles are based around the concept of P2E.

Also read: How play-to-earn is fueling the next wave of blockchain adoption

Founded in 2014 by Yat Siu, Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 150 investments in NFT-related companies and decentralised projects contributing to building the open metaverse. Its investments include Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, and Star Atlas.

Animoca Brands also owns multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Bondly, and Lympo.

Launched in 2013 by Arran Potter, a veteran of the video visual effects industry, Grease Monkey Games develops motorsports games, connecting video game enthusiasts and motorsport fans worldwide. The driving game Torque Burnout and drifting game Torque Drift are its prominent original IP gaming titles.

Grease Monkey Games said it has an extensive portfolio of licensed partnerships with vehicle manufacturers including Nissan, Toyota, Ford, and BMW, and aftermarket parts manufacturers including Link ECU, Wilwood, and Mishimoto.

This February, Animoca Brands announced its partnership with global venture accelerator Brinc to launch Guild Accelerator Programme, aiming to enable millions of people worldwide to generate income by participating in the P2E gaming ecosystem.

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Thailand-based startup Primo World Company Limited (PRIMO), which provides omnichannel marketing platform for large enterprises, today announced an undisclosed Pre-Series A funding round from Fuchsia VC and Beacon VC.

Leading VC firm SOSV and Infinity Technologies VC, who contributed to the company’s pre-seed funding round in 2018, also took part in this funding round.

In a press statement, PRIMO detailed the key activities that the funding will support:

– Increasing the capability of the omnichannel marketing platform, the capacity of its artificial intelligence, and engagement modes to support more ways in which customers can interact with a brand

– Expanding personnel in both Bangkok and Phuket to accommodate a larger client base in all departments, particularly business development, product development, software development, engineering, and customer support

– Testing new products and business ventures to prepare PRIMO Omnichannel Marketing Platform as a customer-data infrastructure of choice for all companies in Thailand, while raising awareness of how to collect and leverage customer data systematically for the purpose of building the best customer experience.

Also Read: Atomionics raises seed funding to make navigation easy in areas where GPS doesn’t work

PRIMO claimed twofold growth year on year on average over the past three years. The company also said that it has grown its team from 18 in 2019 to 108 in 2021.

It is also working with clients in the retail, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) as well as banking, finance, and insurance sectors.

“Omnichannel marketing platforms have grown remarkably well despite COVID-19 [pandemic],” said Vee Sirasoontorn, Co-founder and CEO of PRIMO. “There is still much more room for growth, as all large enterprises seek omnichannel marketing tools that facilitate consolidating customer data from the whole spectrum of channels. Processing them serves as a basis from which to devise seamless experiences for segment-based engagement.”

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In this episode we are excited to welcome Tiffany Stevenson, Chief People Officer of Patreon, a membership platform that supports over 200,000 creators and their seven million fans, powering the creator economy.

Prior to her role in Patreon, Stevenson was the Chief Talent & Inclusion Officer at Box and held executive roles at Sephora and Charles Schwab. In our conversation, Stevenson talks about the differences between a company being “international” vs. being “global,” the importance of curiosity within the team to understand a local market and translate this knowledge back to localizing the business, how culture moves a company forward, how autonomy allows scale to happen and why Hubs could be the right structure for decision-making instead of a centralised HQ when you have a distributed workforce.

Also Read: How HackerNoon uses customer-centric approach to build meaningful new features on their platform

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

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

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The article was first published on Global Class.

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Instalment credit dates back to the 19th century when people purchased items and paid for them in small instalments over time. However, in 2014, the fintech industry re-invented and re-visioned this historical scheme as buy now, pay later, or BNPL.

One early entrant was Australian Fintech, Afterpay, which offered online shoppers an easy way to shop online using digital payment plans based on instalments.

BNPL is today’s version of instalment payments, encouraging users to, as the name aptly suggests, buy now and pay later, for the most part, interest-free. Over the past year, there has been a steady momentum in the growth and expansion of BNPL.

So, it is no wonder that customers, mainly Gen Z and Millennials, have become attracted to the scheme’s combination of immediate gratification and deferred payments.

As far as payment methods go, BNPL offers users some of the following benefits:

• Saving time – giving users access to immediate purchases
• Convenience – easy to shop and pay online
• Ease of use – approval of applications is faster and easier, usually done electronically
• Keeps credit score unaffected when payments are made on time
• For the most part, it is interest-free and can be cheaper than using credit cards

The COVID-19 pandemic has played a crucial role in fueling the adoption of BNPL. Movement restrictions led to the temporary shutdown of brick-and-mortar retail stores, triggering growth in e-commerce and a shift in consumer spending habits.

Globally, the BNPL industry accounts for 2.1 per cent or US$97 billion of global e-commerce transactions, and this is only set to increase. The sector is forecasted to see a 13.23 per cent annual growth rate, hitting about US$680 billion in transaction volume worldwide in 2025.

Also Read: How fintech startups can fast forward their growth

BNPL trends in the APAC region

Despite being relatively new entrants to the APAC region, some companies are already staking their claim on BNPL. Companies such as Atome, Hoolah, Akulaku, and Pace lead the charge in various parts of Asia, creating massive impact.

Moreover, the BNPL scheme has gained popularity and become Gen Zs and Millennials’ preferred online payment option as it allows users to defer payments and access credit more readily.

APAC is a lucrative region for BNPL growth. The high internet connectivity, low access to credit cards, and a high unbanked population make it an excellent market for BNPL Fintech’s looking for new revenue streams.

A KPMG report found that BNPL, along with embedded banking and open banking, has helped to keep investor interest in payments, garnering US$628.4 million of investments in Singapore, up from US$60 million in 2020.

In addition, banks are jumping on the proverbial bandwagon by partnering with BNPL fintech companies and even, in some cases developing their BNPL offerings. In Singapore, about 38 per cent of the population has used BNPL services, owing to the appeal of zero-interest rates and equal instalments.

Key statistics in the sector

• With an expected CAGR of 21.3 per cent, Asia Pacific will experience the fastest growth in the BNPL scheme, with the China market-leading growth.
• An IDC study shows that digital payment will yield an increase of 162 per cent across Southeast Asia by 2025.
• Three per cent of Singapore’s e-commerce market is BNPL, which will reach 13 per cent by 2024.
• There was a 280 per cent increase in retail partnerships in Singapore between 2019 and 2020.

The risk of consumerism in BNPL

BNPL allows financial institutions to market their services unlimitedly and without merchants. While this sounds exciting and seems precise what people want, some regulators worry that the trend might cause a significant increase in consumerism.

During the pandemic, there was an increase in online activities, especially online shopping. As a result of spending more time at home, more people became glued to the internet and online goods and services available for easy consumption.

The temptation for impulse buying might be more difficult to resist by online scrollers, and this can signal the start of an unhealthy consumerist culture. Consumers might incur debt and use credit in situations they really should not.

Fourty-three per cent of Gen Zers have missed their BNPL payments at least once in the past year, raising concerns about consumer protection in financing options available to customers.

To address this, BNPL Fintech’s typically use AI-based credit scoring to immediately approve/deny a user’s application to use BNPL services. Fintech is increasingly trying to mitigate lousy lending through AI and online software, especially BNPL.

Also Read: Why smart businesses will prioritise smart payments acceptance

Similar AI-based systems have already been used in the financial sector in issuing personal loans and credit reports.

How can BNPL encourage financial inclusion?

APAC still has a large unbanked population, with an estimated 290 million unbanked adults in the ASEAN bloc alone. This has limited the ability of individuals to earn, borrow, and SME business owners’ capability to expand and grow.

As many governmental and non-governmental agencies and private sectors, particularly in APAC, have prioritised financial inclusion, BNPL is emerging as a critical tool in helping tackle this issue. The Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) has invested in the financial inclusion scheme, recognising it as one of the main pillars of the Global Development Agenda.

By enabling purchases to be broken down into smaller, more manageable payments that can be made over an extended period, BNPL empowers people to procure products they might not usually be able to purchase. By its very nature, BNPL is an agile and swift payment solution that augments people’s spending power.

As more individuals face negative cash flows due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schemes such as BNPL can offer a lifeline, especially to migrant workers who have been attributed an unbanked status or face stricter qualification criteria for acquiring credit.

Thanks to BNPL’s soft credit cheques and non-traditional data, coupled with a convenient and straightforward application process, the underbanked can gain more access to credit which helps grow financial inclusion in a country.

The future

BNPL Fintech and banks have the potential to start a revolution in the finance industry, creating more decentralised systems for credit access for more people.

Credit card networks such as Visa and Mastercard are already increasing their play in this space by launching instalment products and entering healthy competition with BNPLs. With the increasing popularity and massive benefits, it’s clear that BNPL is here to stay.

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

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Indonesia-based crypto asset management platform NOBI (PT Enkripsi Teknologi Handal) today announced a US$4 million (IDR57 billion) seed funding round led by AC Ventures with the participation of Appworks, Skystar Capital Cakra Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and a number of angel investors.

The fresh funding will be used to support product development, increase the penetration and use of Honest Token (HNST), and strengthen its team.

As a platform, NOBI aims to help investors in diversifying their assets to crypto and help busy investors to manage crypto assets in a simpler manner.

Secured IDR1T (US$69M) worth of crypto transaction

The startup was co-founded by Lawrence Samantha (CEO), Edy Senjaya (CTO), and Dionisius Evan Alam (CPO). The platform’s services include Staking, Savings, and Trading Strategy, enabling users to enjoy the results of their Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other leading crypto assets.

“This is an important milestone for us. AC Ventures and other investors present in-depth experience in fintech, investments, and crypto. This funding round reflects their trust and commitment in the difference that we can make in uniting the crypto and finance space,” said Samantha.

Since its launch in 2018, NOBI has managed more than IDR1 trillion (US$69 million) worth of crypto assets. The company claimed 15x growth together with the significant rise in user number in the last six months.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

“In line with the global trend, there is an increasing crypto-asset growth in Indonesia. The domestic trade volume has surpassed more than 10 times at more than US$60 billion in 2021 through more than 11 million user accounts. NOBI provides investors with services that allow users to gain interest. The NOBI platform is user-friendly and intuitive, helping users to ease their way into cryptocurrency,” said Founder & Managing Partner AC Ventures Michael Soerijadji.

Increasing demand for crypto assets

According to data provided by the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (BAPPEBTI) as the extension of a regulatory body in Indonesia that handles crypto assets, the number of crypto investors in the country has grown two times faster compared to other instruments such as stocks in 2021, reaching the benchmark of 11.2 million. This is an interesting feat as the growth happens amidst the highly dynamic crypto price fluctuation.

In 2021, the transaction value of crypto assets in Indonesia reached US$61.4 billion or more than IDR859 trillion –a 122 per cent increase from the previous year.

The rapid adoption of crypto is in line with the rapid growth of wealth tech platforms in society. This indicates an increase in financial literacy and inclusion in Indonesia, where the public has begun to have a deeper awareness of the importance of investments.

Despite their limited numbers, a number of local platforms have been launched with the aim to help users to ease their way into crypto investment, including INDODAX, Tokocrypto, Pintu, and Pluang. This is interesting as other blockchain products have begun to gain traction and fans in Indonesia, including NFTs.

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

Image Credit: NOBI

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Sony Ventures hits first close of US$217M Fund III

Sony Ventures Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, has completed the first closing of its new JPY 25 billion (US$217 million) fund, Sony Innovation Fund 3.

Investors include Mizuho Group, Daiwa Securities, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, The Bank of Yokohama, The Shiga Bank, Koei Tecmo Group, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Estate, a university, and the Sony Group.

Established in July 2021 and managed by Sony Ventures, Sony Innovation invests in all stages of emerging technology companies and startups solving global environmental challenges. Its previous funds are Sony Innovation Fund (established 2016), Sony Innovation Fund by IGV (2019), a joint venture with Daiwa Capital, and Sony Innovation Fund: Environment (2020).

“We actively foster entrepreneurs and startups that lead the creation of next-generation technologies, promote open innovation, and contribute to the global environment and social development through our corporate venture capital activities,” said Gen Tsuchikawa, CEO of Sony Ventures Corporation. “Sony Ventures Corporation will not only invest in emerging technology sectors and high-growth startups but will further strengthen its ESG initiatives and eagerly support its portfolio companies.”

Employment Hero closes US$130M round, acquires KeyPay

Employment Hero — an HR, payroll and benefits company in Australia — has closed a US$130 million funding round, led by existing investor SEEK Investments with participation from OneVentures, AirTree Ventures and others.

This brings the company’s valuation to AUD1.25 billion (close to US$1 billion).

Also Read: How your HR team can help with crisis management

This news comes on the heels of Employment Hero’s acquisition of workforce management and payroll solution, KeyPay. With this acquisition, Employment Hero now has over 80,000 SMEs, collectively managing more than 750,000 workers using its platform.

Key Pay will be retained as an independent brand and receive ongoing investment to grow its team. Together with KeyPay, Employment Hero now offers a leading suite of total employment management solutions that cover four key pillars: talent solutions, core HR, payroll, and e-benefits.

Founded in 2010, KeyPay has a presence across Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

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Last week marked the Lunar New Year celebrations and the ushering in of the year of the Tiger. With each new year comes a new meaning and new beginnings, a timely message as the world continues to recover from the pandemic and usher in a new normal.

So what might this look like for Southeast Asia’s payments sector?

Off to a fierce start

Given the volume of people who celebrate Lunar New Year (LNY) worldwide, it’s no surprise that sales figures beat the Christmas holiday season.

For comparison, in the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday last year, online sales in the US were projected to total about US$39 billion. In 2021, Chinese retail sales during the Lunar New Year totalled over US$129 billion.

This is a massive opportunity for retailers to drive sales and win new customers for the rest of the year.

Sellers keen to seize this opportunity often get creative with Lunar New Year sales and auspicious discounts featuring the number 8, the luckiest number in China, driving shoppers to purchase and transform retailers fortunes for the year ahead.

But once the discounts have ended and the celebrations are over, the question all sellers will be asking is: what will consumers be spending their hard-earned money on?

Also Read: How voice AI is revolutionising the fintech scene

Consumer behaviour during LNY

The tradition of giving hongbao (auspicious red packet) to wish prosperity and good fortune to the recipient was revolutionised in 2014 with the invention of digital e-hongbao, which became famous when WeChat allowed users to send virtual red envelopes of money to their contacts.

Now, seven years later, about 80 per cent of survey respondents say they prefer to send digital e-hongbao to physical envelopes.

This soar in popularity was well-timed. In the past, LNY has prompted vast masses of people working away from their hometowns to travel back to celebrate. The world’s largest annual migration means that as many as three billion trips would be made each year across China.

But the pandemic and national lockdowns changed things dramatically in 2020, 2021 and for many this year, too, with restrictions in Southeast Asia.

However, for those who could make it home to celebrate, festivities centred around gathering with family and friends to eat were plentiful. In fact, according to a survey ahead of LNY last year, around 77 per cent of Chinese respondents said they planned on buying food for the 2021 holiday.

About half of the respondents decided to buy alcohol or wine. Beyond this, many choose to give a gift with e-commerce supporting those who are still social distancing. According to Alibaba’s Spring Festival Consumption Report 2021, tech products such as sweeping and window cleaning robots exceeded 300 per cent YoY.

Customising payments is the key to cashing in

Research conducted in 2018 in China, India and Indonesia asked consumers to identify the main obstacles which prevented them from using online services to their fullest extent.

The number one obstacle, singled out by 76 per cent of correspondents, was language, and even today, lack of language localisation continues to be an issue across digital platforms.

But localisation can’t stop at language localisation alone. According to PPRO’s research, most consumers will abandon a transaction if they reach the checkout and cannot pay with their preferred payment method.

Also Read: The future of social and quick commerce for developing countries

To ensure maximum consumer acceptance and the best possible conversion rates, merchants must ensure that their site offers a range of familiar and trusted local payment methods. And with so many local payment methods in APAC and new ones emerging every day, this couldn’t be more true.

To serve today’s Chinese consumers, at a minimum, it is best practice to accept all three of the most popular Chinese payment methods: UnionPay, Alipay, and WeChat Pay.

LNY celebrations may be coming to an end for another year. Still, to realise roaring success in the year of the Tiger, merchants must think local first and tailor their payment offering to their customers, wherever they may be.

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Singapore-based climate tech startup RIMM Sustainability today announced that it has raised a total of US$3 million in Pre-Series A funding round led venture capital fund BEENEXT and leading tech investor Mamoru Taniya.

Other key investors in the funding round include the Aswani family of the conglomerate Tolaram Group and Atlas Asset Management.

In a press statement, RIMM Sustainability said that the funding will be used to develop and launch its version 2.0 platform, release new features, and expand its team.

“We are delighted to have closed our preseries A round, the pedigree of our investors is a testament to our team, our platform and our roadmap. This is a great step towards our goal to become the world’s largest sustainability platform and create an ecosystem where companies, citizens and stakeholders can engage to identify and solve the most pressing sustainability problems of today and tomorrow,” Ravi Chidambaram, CEO and Co-founder of RIMM Sustainability, commented.

Also Read: COVID-19, the environment, and the tech ecosystem: what opportunity is available out there for us?

“The success of microfinance is based on banking the unbanked. At RIMM, our success as a sustainability platform will come from serving the unserved,” Chidambaram added.

Launched in 2021, RIMM Sustainability provides a SaaS platform that enables companies of all sizes to optimise their sustainability management effort. It builds tools for sustainability management, reporting and optimisation.

The company described its platform as “revolving around inclusivity and accessibility, focusing on unlocking an open world where sustainability is no longer elusive.”

Key features on the platform for SMEs include industry-specific assessments aligned to global sustainability standards (e.g. GRI, TCFD, SASB); benchmarking of sustainability performance against peers and industry, relevant and simplified educational guidance by sustainability experts; curated sustainability insights summarised on one comprehensive dashboard; Carbon Calculator to measure emissions across scope 1, 2 and 3; customisable sustainability reports for internal analysis and external communication to stakeholders; and access to strategy and recommendations report in improving company’s sustainability performance.

Also Read: How consumers are prioritising sustainability beyond the single lens of eco-friendly products

RIMM Sustainability was awarded a US$1 million Green Finance grant by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and a grant from the Monetary Authority of
Singapore.

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