Vietnamese payment app MoMo has announced an investment in sales management startup Nhanh.vn for an undisclosed amount. 

This development comes a month after MoMo raked in US$200 million in Series E round at US$2 billion for tech investments and future M&As. 

The investment is in line with MoMo’s attempt to back Vietnamese startups and boost cashless e-commerce in the country.

“We want to support small and micro businesses (SMEs) to quickly digitalise at lower cost and scale through the solution of Nhanh.vn,” said MoMo co-CEO and vice chairman of the Board of Directors Tuong Nguyen. 

Last June, the fintech unicorn acquired local startup Pique that uses AI to turn visitors into customers. It planned to capitalise on Pique’s 25 million user database to improve its product offerings further.

Also read: A horse of another: Here’s the complete list of Southeast Asia’s 28 unicorns

Founded in 2014, Nhanh.vn specialises in cloud-based omnichannel sales management solutions. Its offerings include sales management software, web design, and features linking merchants with shipping businesses. It counts Facebook Marketplace, Lazada, and Tiki among its clients. 

Nhanh.vn claims to have served more than 80,000 enterprises in Vietnam with its services.

Momo, launched in 2007, offers mobile payments and e-wallet services for iOS and Android devices. Its range of products include cash transfers, mobile phone recharges, personal loans and services, such as software license and online game cards. 

The e-wallet has been evolving into a super-app marketplace that includes insurance, credit products, and digital vouchers, among other things. It also plans to launch investment products this year.

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Image Credit: MoMo

 

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In the recent Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) 2021, Singapore was ranked 17^th globally and 5^th within Asia.

In spite of the pandemic, the island state still drew in S$5.5 billion of venture funding back in 2020, exhibiting the resilience of the Singapore Investment landscape. However, what goes behind this S$5.5 billion number?

Within the VC landscape, there were a total of 191 fundraises at the seed stage in 2020, representing almost 50 per cent of all venture deals completed.

One reason why Singapore is seen as an attractive hub for investing is that it is one of the most competitive economies and the second easiest place to do business in the world.

The island state is also primarily an English-speaking country and is uniquely located at the heart of Southeast Asia, making it a more accessible gateway for international players.

Taking a deeper look into Singapore’s startup ecosystem, we explore some of the more popular means to invest in startups and how they have evolved to suit the landscape.

Also Read: SEA tech founders playbook: A to Z of becoming a fundraising legend (Part 2)

Why traditional financing is still prevalent

In exchange for investors funds, the startup issues equity to the investors. The investors wait for the next fundraise or divestment event before cashing out their stake. Investing in the early stages allows investors to receive drastic returns on investment upon success.

However, with high rewards comes high risks. In the event a startup is not able to take off or grow, investors face losing all of their investments. Moreover, the illiquidity of private capital will require investors to hold onto their investment longer as they are required to wait for future fundraise or divestment.

As for the startups themselves, founders do not like giving up too much equity stake as they too wish to ride on the upside of their startup. Investors also prefer not to see too much dilution as they want the founders to be more incentivised and motivated to grow the company.

At some stage, the founders will be pressured by the investors to go for the next round of fundraising, even if they are not prepared to.

Should the startup be unsuccessful in raising money through traditional equity, the next alternative would be to seek a bank loan. Bank loans come with high interest rates since there is a higher chance of a startup defaulting or failing in its early stages.

With the burden of high-interest rates and monthly loan repayments, this could be highly detrimental to a startup’s growth.

Venture Debt: The rising alternative for fundraising

Venture debt is one of the emerging investment products that has increasingly gained traction over recent years. In a typical venture debt structure, the startup issues warrants, in exchange for capital, and arranges to repay the original investment and interest over a two (2) to four (4) year tenure in the form of a loan.

Also Read: SEA tech founders playbook: A to Z of becoming a fundraising legend (Part 1)

The investor has the flexibility to convert the warrants into shares, usually at a discounted price based on the valuation, set at the trigger event.

Venture debt financing allows the investor to receive capital back on a regular basis over the loan tenure. At the same time, the investor also gets to enjoy the upside by converting the warrant issued into an equity stake.

Nevertheless, venture debt does come with its own risks. As it requires fixed repayments to the loan from the onset, it can be a challenge for hypergrowth startups to manage cash flow.

The startup space is ever evolving, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Startup founders will have to properly evaluate their needs and circumstances to find out which is the most suitable for them.

Investors have also started turning their attention towards new emerging methods such as crowdfunding and frontier investment products such as revenue-based equity, which is becoming increasingly prominent within Southeast Asia.

The article is co-authored by Charles Phan, Project Lead, and Darrell Su, Senior Analyst, Capital Advisory at Paloe

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KoinWorks, one of the leading fintech platforms in Indonesia, has secured a US$108 million Series C investment round led by MDI Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Telkom Indonesia. 

Quona Capital, Triodos Investment Management, Saison Capital, AC Ventures, and East Ventures participated. 

KoinWorks will use the funding — consisting of US$43 million in equity and US$65 million in debt capital — to scale its solutions and hire 400 new employees globally. 

Indonesia has over 62 million MSMEs. It has a projected gross merchandise value of US$70 billion this year, and that number is expected to grow more than double in 2025. However, they are struggling to access finance. 

KoinWorks was founded in 2016 originally as a P2P lending company to support various levels of Indonesian society in achieving their financial goals. Focussed on underserved and underbanked markets, KoinWorks provides MSME owners and freelancers with a tool to kick off entrepreneurship and scale businesses by offering a range of products from neobank to credit and productivity tools. 

Also Read: KoinWorks secures US$10M from Lendable to help Indonesian SMEs raise funds online

“KoinWorks is here to democratise access to finance and debunk the myth that it’s only for a specific class of entrepreneurs. KoinWorks has shown that opening the doors to capital and providing educational tools helps SMEs grow their sales,” said Benedicto Haryono, CEO and Co-Founder of KoinWorks.

The platform features a marketplace of integrated applications, such as accounting software, POS, e-commerce, HRMS for SME, and a budgeting app. This is in addition to KoinWorks’s staple products such as working capital, invoice factoring, early wage access and treasury management.

The firm claims to have doubled its user base to more than 1.5 million users during COVID-19. 

The company is headquartered in Jakarta with a holding company in Singapore and has tech offices in Yogyakarta, India, and Vietnam.

In May 2020, KoinWorks bagged US$10 million from Lendable, which was preceded by a US$20 million raise in debt and equity investment from Quona Capital a month earlier.

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AMATELUS Co., Ltd. is the Japanese video technology startup behind SwipeVideo, a livestreaming software that allows multi-feed and 360-degree video viewing. Kei Oda, COO and Head of Overseas Business Development at AMATELUS described the product as a game-changer for the video viewing experience. The software gives users the ability to switch freely their point of view — simply having to swipe to change viewing angles whilst watching SwipeVideo.

SwipeVideo is a patented software featuring proprietary technology developed by the company that enables live-streaming or playback streaming of multi-angle video over any web browser.

With SwipeVideo, content creators are in control over the direction of the content to the viewer, providing a completely new video viewing experience with opportunities for increased engagement. Viewers can swipe to change angles, pinch to zoom in and out and playback in real-time, fast, or slow play.

SwipeVideo solves the problem of last-mile delivery for 360° and a multi-feed video explained Mr Oda. SwipeVideo does not require a specialised application so it can be embedded directly onto websites or viewed on popular apps like Instagram and Twitter. With VR/AR/MR content becoming popular around the world, tools for free-viewpoint video distribution and editing software, application development, and shooting are set to become more and more important for both content creators and consumers.

SwipeVideo’s early developments

 

The technology for this has been available for many years — it was first showcased in the Matrix movies over 20 years ago. Despite these early innovations, viewers have until now been unable to manipulate the viewing angle of such content due to the extremely large data requirements needed to stream simultaneously. With Swipevideo, real-time content delivery with no buffering is possible even in a 4G environment thanks to their proprietary software.

SwipeVideo can be used for both pre-recorded content and for live-streaming with as many angles as needed. Furthermore, content for such videos can be created with regular cameras available in the market, which means no specialised equipment is required. While the current market opportunities for SwipeVideo are in the B2B space, the potential is immense for applications that allow consumers to easily create and view exciting new content.

Also read: susuROBO: Anyone can become a live streamer in Southeast Asia and beyond

“Our product offerings are being streamlined with the ultimate goal for SwipeVideo to be an easily accessible SaaS product that can be used by corporations and individual creators alike,” Oda remarked about the product development roadmap. The startup is eyeing potential expansion and finds the Asian market enticing due to the rapidly growing numbers of the video consumption market in the region and a commitment to invest in network infrastructure.

Southeast Asia’s growing video consumption makes it an attractive market

“As a Japanese company, Southeast Asia is a natural expansion for AMATELUS,” said Oda. “We see Southeast Asia as a thriving and fast-growing hub where tech adoption is accelerating. Asian people embrace new technology and innovation, and we hope that SwipeVideo will soon be an integral part of video consumption in the region,” he added.

SwipeVideo use-cases are not just limited to 360° video, or multi-camera footage shot simultaneously. Separately filmed content can be merged to create a single, multi-angle movie. SwipeVideo has been deployed by businesses in projects across media, music, entertainment and fan-related content. Use cases for the free-viewpoint technology include videos that drive real-time experiences for events, e-commerce, physical stores, training, and technical instruction content.

Also read: Harnessing the power of AI to help improve gastric cancer detection

“We have been doing product iteration for the past 4yrs here in Japan. We have growing traction across a wide variety of use-cases, from technical education to sports and entertainment,” said Oda. “While we are currently laser-focused on our B2B business, we do see a future where SwipeVideo has many B2C applications,” added Oda. As the creator economy grows, the company is interested in developing new use cases for SwipeVideo.

“With the creator economy in mind, we are also considering SwipeVideo being embedded in NFTs – as a web video product, we would be able to create truly unique, tokenized content. SEA is a big hub for blockchain and tokenized economies, so we are extremely interested to explore this opportunity,” Oda explained about the future applications for the software.

Expanding to a variety of industries

In order to serve the region’s growing market, AMATELUS is focusing its efforts on making the software solution easy to deploy and use by clients across a wide variety of industries. “We have been testing out our successful applications with clients across the globe, and we are busy making sure that SwipeVideo is as easy as possible to deploy and utilize as a solution in a variety of use-cases. We realize that having a strong presence in local markets is an advantage, though like many other businesses we have suffered from the inability to travel during COVID.”

Also read: Exploring the future of connected vehicle technology and transportation industry trends with Geotab CEO Neil Cawse

Japanese agency JETRO is providing the company with vital support to help them make the expansion possible. “We are fortunate to have received strong support through JETRO – they have helped us across continents through accelerator programs, connections to local companies, mentors and potential clients,” Oda remarked. He emphasized that they are extremely committed to building a presence internationally. “We believe SEA markets to be an excellent opportunity for us, and we look forward to building upon our strong momentum in Japan,” Oda concluded.

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Olsera, a cloud-based point of sales (POS) startup that helps Indonesian startups to go digital, has received US$2.5 million in seed funding from Kejora-SBI Orbit, a joint US$30-million fund run by Kejora Capital and Japan’s SBI Holdings.

With this new money, Olsera looks to strengthen its technological infrastructure, recruit more talents and accelerate its merchant acquisition in 200 new cities in the archipelago.

Business owners in Indonesia face limitations in capital, internet access, and sales distribution channels on top of the need to grow their know-how to adopt and utilise their digital platforms effectively.

As a POS, Olsera helps MSMEs go digital. It records transactions and provides ERP features that allow them to control across departments from anywhere and anytime, including accounting, inventory management, promotions, employee management, and customer service.

The company claims to have helped over 10,000 MSMEs across 300 cities in Indonesia digitise their businesses.

Also Read: How tech can empower Indonesia’s 63M MSMEs in the post-pandemic era

Olsera looks to grow its partnership base and integrate with e-commerce platforms, such as Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, and Blibli, to allow businesses to view their business performance in each store and platform.

Data from Indonesia’s Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises shows that 64.2 million MSMEs have contributed 61 per cent to the nation’s economy, amounting to IDR 8.5 trillion in nominal value.

The government has set an ambitious target to onboard over 30 million MSMEs into the digital economy ecosystem by 2024.

“During the pandemic, we saw that quite a many MSME business partners were affected because the shops were still offline. We launched Olsera Store to pivot their offline stores to online,” said Ali Tjin, Co-Founder and CTO of Olsera.

“On the other hand, MSMEs in the services sector also suffered loss as social distancing occurred. We also need to digitalise their business. Thus we developed Zenwel. Specifically designed for the needs of services MSMEs, Zenwel provides great features such as calendar scheduling, online booking, CRM, and loyalty/membership programmes to improve their customer acquisition and retention,” he added.

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Gastrointestinal cancers are the sixth most common cancer and the third most common cause of cancer-related death in the world. Stomach malignancy diseases remain difficult to cure mainly because most patients are detected with the disease when it is already at an advanced stage. AI Medical Service Inc. (AIM) is a Japanese startup in the medical field with a mission to develop artificial intelligence-based systems that can help detect gastric cancers at an early stage.

The earlier the gastric cancers are detected, the higher the survival rate becomes. Medical research has found that about 4 – 25% of lesions get overlooked during endoscopy. This is because early gastric cancers are very difficult to detect, even for experts. Endoscopy exams are difficult and painful procedures and detecting tiny lesions in the inflamed gastric lining is challenging even for specialists with years of experience. The practice is also subject to human error as doctors in charge of double-checking images often have to read up to 3000 images per day in Japan.

Also read: Fast Forward with HPE!: Helping startups grow through community support

In order to aid early detection, founder and CEO of AI Medical Service Inc., Dr Tomohiro Tada — an expert endoscopist — started the company with a vision to develop an AI-based image recognition system that helps endoscopists improve their diagnosis. Starting with this goal of using deep learning technology to support endoscopists, AIM has developed and is ready to commercialise an Endoscopic AI solution that is reliable enough to detect and classify gastric cancers in real-time.

Leveraging deep learning tech to make real-time diagnosis a reality

The AI-driven software developed by the startup based in Tokyo leverages large scale training databases to analyse endoscopy images in order to support endoscopists in their diagnosis. The first product provides support for the endoscopist to aid them in stomach cancer detection, but with plans in the pipeline to cover other digestive organs including the oesophagus and intestines in the future. While the diagnosis is still made by doctors and not by the software, the technology has proven to be a trustworthy support partner, vastly improving the accuracy of clinical diagnosis.

Japan today leads the world in the advanced medical field of endoscopy owing to the use of AI image recognition technology which is contributing to the evolution of the field around the world. AI Medical Service Inc. has already applied for multiple global patents as the software has proven to deliver accuracy levels that are above the average endoscopy doctor. Not only do Japanese providers account for 70% of the world’s share of endoscopy equipment, but their specialised skills are recognised as the best in the world.

Also read: China Mobile International hosts mCloud Carnival 2021

Real-time assessments have become feasible owing to the improved hardware performance and the evolution of convolutional neural network models which form the basis of the artificial intelligence software. Making full use of deep learning image recognition technology, the company has developed an operational platform with its in-house “image anonymization processing software” and “image sorting WEB system” to maximise support for doctors’ diagnoses.

Owning to these breakthroughs, AI has advanced to the point where real-time detection of lesions during endoscopy is quite practical and set to become an indispensable tool in clinical departments around the world. Therefore, AIM is ready to embark on an ambitious expansion plan focusing on South East Asia.

Southeast Asia Expansion: AI technology to reduce non-detection of gastric cancers in the region

Since launching the company in 2017 the startup has grown to over 50 employees and is looking to expand in Southeast Asia in partnership with the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO). Masayuki Tokano, Manager for Overseas Affairs at AIM, is in charge of the SEA market business. Tokano remarked that even though their technology has potential for applications in other medical areas, AIM is dedicated to supporting endoscopists which was the original driver for their research: “We are committed to creating solutions that are truly useful in the clinical environment to save patients around the globe.”

Tokano is confident that their Endoscopic AI solution delivers accuracy equivalent to that of experts. “It is our mission to prevent gastric cancer from being overlooked, reduce the burden on endoscopists and provide cost-effectiveness to patients and hospitals with our Endoscopic AI,” he added.

Explaining their interest in exploring the Southeast Asian market Tokano says that the region is significant since gastric cancer is common not only in Japan but also in Southeast Asia. “The five-year survival rate declines significantly as the stage of the cancer advances. By supporting endoscopists in the SEA region with Endoscopic AI that is as accurate as experts, we can prevent gastric cancer from being overlooked and reduce the burden on endoscopists.” he explained.

Elaborating on the plans for the region, he said: “We are going to expand our solution, Endoscopic AI, in Singapore, Thailand and other regions with ageing populations similar to Japan with an aim to reduce the number of overlooked gastric cancers in the SEA region to ZERO.”

Also read: Expo 2020 Dubai: The Malaysian companies ready to break into the global Islamic fintech market

The expansion to SEA will be a significant achievement for the startup as it considers setting up an R&D hub in Singapore that will serve as their regional hub to drive not only sales but also R&D. “Our goal is to establish product value through joint research with renowned medical institutions such as The National University Hospital of Singapore and Mahidol University in Thailand, and to develop our product in the SEA region,” remarked Tokano.

The use of AI in Medical Technology is a market valued at 11 trillion Japanese yen, however, currently there is no commercially available Endoscopic AI system for gastric cancer diagnosis. Tokano outlined their product development roadmap, saying: “By gaining PMDA approval next spring and HSA approval at about the same time, our product will be the world’s first AI product for gastric cancer. Our Endoscopic AI is vendor-agnostic, and the first product will have the function to classify gastric cancer. We are also developing AI products with the ability to detect gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, colon cancer and so on.”

By conducting joint research with top medical institutions in the SEA region, the company would like to develop the market in collaboration with distributors and related organisations in each country, remarked Tokano.

Support from Japanese government organisations gives their mission of overseas expansion a strong impetus. AI Medical Service Inc. has received support for R&D and overseas development from NEDO, JETRO, JICA, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and etc. “For the overseas development of Endoscopic AI, we are encouraged and certified as a J-Startup by the government,” he added.

Tokano feels that Endoscopic AI is a win-win product for all stakeholders including endoscopists, patients and hospitals. “By deploying our Endoscopic AI solution trained with over 200,000 videos collected from over 120 medical institutions in Japan and abroad to the SEA region, we would like to prevent gastric cancer from being overlooked, reduce the burden on endoscopists and contribute to the development of the SEA region,” he concluded.

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

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My taste is not important, what counts is understanding the preference of the consumer. This was a lesson I learnt in my first job when I was a sommelier in France years ago. To this day, this fundamental has followed me — even after I leapt into the brand new world of mobile marketing analytics — and is just one of the many principles that have guided me throughout my career.

Reflecting on my recent promotion to the position of Associate Vice President (AVP) of Customer Success in just seven short years, I wanted to share the three key takeaways I have distilled from my journey. Hopefully, there is something for all of us to learn.

Gender doesn’t define your career potential

The first important lesson I learnt during my professional career: be confident and look at the bigger picture. From personal experience, as women, we tend to doubt ourselves. Thoughts like “Am I good enough?” or “How will others feel about my opinions?” — these hold us back!

Living in Israel has shown me that females can be confident in sharing ideas and voicing opinions, which is something I believe we should encourage more of our Asia Pacific female community.

“Diversity drives innovation,” says AppsFlyer Chief People Officer Lisa Zaythik. “Gender diversity supports our core business objectives and has a long-lasting positive impact on people, communities, and society as a whole,” and I couldn’t agree more!

As a company, I’m glad that almost 60 per cent of AppsFlyer’s APAC workforce comprises females, and one in four managerial roles are held by women. Whether in leadership roles or not, women should always think big and have a growth mindset. It is very important that we all realise we can lift each other up and come together to achieve more.

Also Read: A woman among women: 27 female-led startups in SEA that are going places

As Facebook (now Meta) executive Sheryl Sandberg – and my personal inspiration – writes, “… in the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.”

Her advice in Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, has been my north star throughout my career journey and has undoubtedly been the mantra behind my growth from Account Manager to AVP.

Diversity and collaboration are critical to team health

The APAC team I manage hails from 12 different countries across five different offices and communicates in seven different languages. I’ve had an incredibly valuable experience learning to work and interact with colleagues from such diverse backgrounds and geographic locations.

While there have been some initial barriers to our communication, I’ve found that abiding by some basic principles has helped us achieve our goals effectively and nurture the growth of our talent. For instance, it is crucial to be very transparent in all communication, especially when everyone is decentralised and physically segregated from each other due to the pandemic. This is doubly important if you are a team leader relying on the trust of your team.

As a leader, it is also necessary to consider and act on your team’s suggestions to show them that their inputs are valuable. Proving to your team that you are invested in what they have to say will motivate the team to see themselves as a collective and function cohesively, as well as to encourage further input on potential areas of improvement.

Keeping an eye out for your team member’s personal growth and career paths also goes a long way in building a competent and harmonious team. Meanwhile, placing too much importance on titles and hierarchies may have detrimental consequences to a team’s structure. Delegation is critical; you want to empower your leaders in each region and build bridges between the headquarters and local offices.

Partnership is truly a great thing when you learn to harness its power for greater things. It feels amazing to work with talented people, execute plans together, and move towards goals together. Partners also need to rely on each other’s opinions and ideas. Things can only move forward when people are able to work together and contribute their ideas.

Also Read: Exclusive: She was the mastermind behind the Go-Jek app, now she’s out to help others succeed

People are management’s best investment

While we work to address unconscious and historical biases and stereotypes in senior positions, employee development initiatives are also essential to both employee and company growth.

This could be anything like the AppsHire programme we’ve implemented, which encourages internal mobility and its global exchange programme allowing staff to work from 19 global offices, or offering employees free subscriptions for the meditation app Calm which helps our staff alleviate possible mental health problems while working remotely during the pandemic.

Such efforts are also extended to management and leadership roles, for which we provide opportunities for development through initiatives such as Lumina – a programme that analyzes your strengths and weaknesses and how you behave in different situations. This has helped me realise important insights: when I’m in my comfort zone I tend to be soft, while in extreme situations I can become too tough. This guides me in recalibrating and improving my approach to working with others more effectively.

While these are the biggest takeaways from my career journey, it is also important to remember that there are so many routes to success and what success looks like can be different from person to person – what fits or works for one person might not work in all situations.

All in all, as Sandberg so eloquently puts it, “Fortune does favour the bold, and you’ll never know what you’re capable of if you don’t try.” And if there is just one thing you remember, it should be that we should always keep trying, pushing, learning, and growing.

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Malaysia’s car e-commerce unicorn Carsome has secured US$290 million in a Series E financing round, bringing its valuation to approximately US$1.7 billion.

The round was co-led by Qatar Investment Authority (a sovereign wealth fund of Qatar), 65 Equity Partners (owned by Temasek), Seatown Private Capital Master Fund (a closed-end PE fund managed by SeaTown Holdings).

Also read: How Malaysia’s first unicorn Carsome practiced compassion to grow in the face of adversity

Mediatek, Sunway, Gokongwei Group, YTL Group, and Taiwan Mobil also co-invested.

With the newly raised funds, Carsome intends to accelerate investment in people, product, technology, data capabilities, infrastructure, and regional development of its retail brand, Carsome Certified, in major markets spanning Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Founded in 2015 by CEO Eric Cheng and Teoh Jiun Ee, Carsome aims to digitise Southeast Asia’s used car industry by reshaping the car buying and selling experience through end-to-end solutions — from car inspection to ownership transfer to financing. 

Since its inception, it has made inroads into Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. 

The company claims it works with over 8,000 dealers, transacts around 100,000 cars annually and has more than 1,700 employees across all its offices.

In a bid to expand from the consumer-to-business (C2B) to B2C model in 2021, Carsome has opened at least seven B2C retail centres, known as Carsome Experience Centers, across Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. 

One of its significant developments is Carsome Certified, launched in August 2020. The retail brand provides quality used cars that have passed a certain point inspection to ensure it is free of major accidents, frame, fire or flood damage. Customers can view the car’s interior and exterior, access a list of the current imperfections and a professional reconditioning report, as well as book a test drive on the website.

Carsome has also rolled out numerous auto-financing offerings for car buyers and used car dealers, especially for graduates who typically face challenges obtaining loan approvals from conventional banks. 

Carsome became a unicorn following its acquisition of iCar Asia in July 2021. In September, it announced to bag US$200 million more in a Series D2 round complemented by credit facilities. 

Recently, it partnered with Grab to launch the “Own Your Ride” campaign, which is slated to benefit over 100,000 Grab drivers and delivery partners across Malaysia when purchasing Carsome Certified cars. The campaign will last until April 2022.

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

The car marketplace “is set to achieve operational profitability” per a press statement”. Reuters hinted that Carsome’s profitability on an operational level is set to be realised in 2022. 

Last July, Carsome also acquired an all-equity stake in Universal Collection, a Jakarta-based car and motorcycle auction service.

 

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Image Credit: Carsome

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Live streams were already huge in Asia before the pandemic, but last year’s success in this space has been phenomenal. For instance, Shopee saw a 99% growth in live selling in 2020 globally, whilst on Twitch, people watched 1.65 billion hours of content in only two months of lockdown. Furthermore, in January 2020, Taobao Live, Alibaba’s live streaming platform, recorded a 110% increase in its sellers’ live sessions on its platform, in comparison with the same period the previous year. These trends demonstrate how live streaming is increasingly becoming mainstream with big and small companies jumping the bandwagon to reach out to new consumers and engage existing audiences.  

Given the popularity of live streaming, there is an obvious demand for platforms that enable it.

“Many aspiring and beginner live streamers have common challenges with growing their audience and sales. We use conversational AI to provide such live streamers with an AI sidekick, a virtual mentor who can help guide them through the successful streaming session. It’s kind of a  wingman for streamers,” says Maxim Makatchev, the CEO of Osaka-based susuROBO, Inc.

Also read: Harnessing the power of AI to help improve gastric cancer detection

susuROBO provides users with a no-code conversational AI platform, which is helpful for beginner live streamers and has a wide range of use cases across various industries. Founded by Maxim Makatchev, Ryo Chikada, and Amir Harati, susuROBO is now looking to expand and establish a presence in Southeast Asia through the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO).

“Our focus is on achieving engaging, empathetic conversation with users through the use of dialects and expression of personality through both verbal and non-verbal behaviours. We believe that such customer experiences will be especially important for the communities of Southeast Asia that include a great variety of cultures and demographics,” shares Maxim Makatchev, CEO of susuROBO who has a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.

susuROBO’s conversational AI no-code development platform is used in a wide range of applications, such as AI live streamers, outpatient care avatars, and voice-enabled devices for the elderly. 

A keen focus on Southeast Asia

Live streaming and elderly care may seem to have little in common, but according to susuROBO, they have one underlying core issue: conversation. 

“Whether we sell a product to thousands of viewers via livestream, or ask an elderly person about their day via a smart speaker, we are making a conversation. A good conversational AI platform can serve both of these diverse domains.”

According to WHO, Southeast Asia has an increasingly ageing population. Data suggests that while the proportion of people aged 60 or above was around 9.8% in 2017, it is expected to increase to about 13.7% and 20.3% by 2030 and by 2050, respectively. Furthermore, conversational AI and live streaming are on the rise in the region.

“Southeast Asia has a booming live streaming market and Singapore is one of the most crypto-friendly areas in the world. In addition to that, many countries in the region have large elderly populations. This creates unique opportunities for businesses like ours, that work on products that are at the intersection of these growing markets,” shares Maxim.

How about a sidekick with artificial intelligence?

Further tapping into these trends in the region, susuROBO recently introduced a new voice and gaze-controlled AI sidekick for beginner live streamers and an NFT-enabled early access program for its no-code AI live streamer development platform. 

“For live streamers who are just getting started or streaming solo, it can be tough to create engaging banter with their audience. So we’re introducing an AI live streaming sidekick that’s ready to jump into the conversation,” shares Maxim.

Also read: Fast Forward with HPE!: Helping startups grow through community support

The sidekick decides the most appropriate timing and phrasing based on the conversational context and the host’s voice and gaze. To encourage wider community participation, we’ve invited participants to a limited public beta program since last December,” he explains.

The startup’s new collection of NFTs, where each token will be corresponding to the AI live streamer’s appearance and personality, NFT holders will get early access to the beta version of the developer tools. 

They will be able to develop and train custom English and Japanese language and dialogue models. This will help them create a unique customised avatar personality, deploy and test their unique AI live streamer, and have a direct line of communication with susuROBO’s founders via Discord. 

Collaborations and partnerships for a better tomorrow

Many reports have advocated that collaborations and partnerships will be key to success, especially in the post-pandemic future. In line with this, susuROBO is actively working in fostering great partnerships across the region. 

“We are working to establish partnerships across a range of industries. We are already partnering with Monash University in Kuala Lumpur to develop a heart disease outpatient care support app with a nurse avatar. Next, we are looking to partner with elderly care facilities and live streaming agencies and technology companies,” says Maxim.

Also read: China Mobile International hosts mCloud Carnival 2021

Winners of a 5G technology subsidy from the City of Osaka for its project on voice-enabled elderly care devices, susuROBO has established a brand name and presence in Japan. Further strengthening their position in the country, recently, they graduated from Kobe 500 Founder Academy program, and have participated in a Plug and Play program that matches startups with enterprises. The startup is also a winner of the excellence award of the 2021 Osaka Health Industry Promising Plan contest.

After garnering due credibility and success in Japan, this startup is all set to enter Southeast Asia and hopefully lead the region in conversational AI and its applications. Learn more about susuROBO at http://susurobo.jp. 

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

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Over the last quarter of a century, the way people access, spend and transfer money has gone through significant change with the appearance of various fintech innovations. The recent proliferation of e-wallets and payment platforms has driven increased online purchases, and money is now flowing around the globe at unprecedented levels. By 2027, the value of cross-border payments is expected to reach US$250 trillion.

For users and entities such as small and medium businesses (SMBs), this has been transformative. The move away from physical money, combined with the ability to purchase online and internationally, has seen a boom in cross-border purchases. But problems remain due to the legacy infrastructure still required to make transactions.

Fintech is providing solutions, but underlying problems remain

With the increasing ubiquity of smartphones, fintech has provided multiple solutions for making cashless transactions. Digital wallets, for example, can be connected to payment platforms or banks and are soaring in popularity. For instance, in Australia, e-wallet use rose 90 per cent between March 2020 and March 2021, becoming more popular than contactless payments.

One significant advantage for small businesses and consumers is that markets have been able to expand abroad. In 2020, the number of real-time transactions rose 41 per cent, from 50 billion to 70.3 billion. Many of these are cross-border e-commerce transactions, which rose 17 per cent last year, despite a drop in trade.

Due to the vast and rising amounts of international trade – global payments revenue is predicted to grow from US$1.9 trillion to US$2.5 trillion in 2025 – the G20 has made cross-border payments a priority. They identified four primary issues – cost, speed, transparency, and access.

Also Read: How voice AI is revolutionising the fintech scene

These are complex issues and result from legacy infrastructure. The latter, transparency, is particularly problematic for SMBs. Large businesses have solutions for international payments, and fintech has several options for P2P transactions. But small businesses have been left behind. SMBs who fall under the required thresholds for trading volume are stuck with slow, expensive, and non-transparent payments.

However, fintech is coming up with new solutions and innovative platforms to help SMBs expand abroad.

Discarding traditional infrastructure solves a lot of issues for Southeast Asian Companies

A great example of a fintech company taking a new approach is XanPool and its platform XanPay. XanPool CEO and founder is cryptocurrency entrepreneur Jeffery Liu. He wanted to design a way to solve the problems created by relying on legacy platforms and structures, such as Visa, SWIFT, and banking networks.

Liu explains how XanPool and XanPay solve traditional problems. “We created XanPool to make onboarding and offboarding from fiat currency to cryptocurrency a lot easier. Because legacy infrastructure was created before the internet, it is no longer fit for purpose and was causing a lot of pain. It can sometimes take a week or more to make a transfer, there are foreign exchange charges and a standard merchant fee of three per cent, and there’s no transparency.”

With a background and in-depth knowledge of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, Liu built a platform that operates outside the limitations inherent with traditional structures. XanPool has created automated market-making software that allows buyers and sellers – liquidity providers – to buy and sell crypto using bank accounts or e-wallets. The liquidity providers are essentially a fiat gateway, and they make up the XanPool network.

G20 solutions are too slow

“The G20 has finally realised how important cross-border transactions are,” Liu says. “They have correctly identified the four main issues of cost, speed, transparency, and access. But their solutions are largely based on the traditional ways of routing money. For example, one of their targets is for 75 per cent of retail payments to occur in under an hour and within a day for the rest of the market. That is still too slow. There’s also the fact that most of the proposed solutions are for the end of 2027.”

XanPool’s processes solved all these issues and led to the establishment of XanPay. “By using crypto and a peer-to-peer network made up of individuals and businesses, transactions are instant and cheaper. That solves the problems of speed and cost, and the third – transparency – is also no longer an issue. The final problem of access led to us creating the XanPay platform.”

Also Read: A horse of another: Here’s the complete list of Southeast Asia’s 28 unicorns

Liu says, “There are existing solutions for most transactions with the exception of SMBs wanting to make cross-border payments. They face all four problems and a host of other issues such as chargebacks, credit card fraud, and rejection from main platforms if deemed too risky. Using XanPool’s existing cryptocurrency and network of local currency providers solves all these concerns. So, we created XanPay, which is a platform that works with local e-wallets and payment platforms.”

XanPay was created for small businesses to operate internationally. “The platform operates outside legacy payment frameworks and is designed for SMBs. Many small businesses are embracing e-commerce and want to expand, but they were being hampered by the old ways international payment structures route money. We are helping to change that.”

Although primarily based in Hong Kong, the company and platform were operating in four Southeast Asian countries from launch and have grown from there. “We’re available in over 20 APAC countries so far,” says Liu. “We have also integrated with 25 payment solutions and connected to over 500 banks. This has all happened in just the last couple of years and is only the start. We recently raised US$27 million in Series A funding, and that extra capital will help us to expand to new countries and markets.”

It remains to be seen if improvements built on top of traditional payment structures, such as those proposed by the G20, will be enough to benefit smaller merchants operating internationally. If not, there are a number of innovative entrepreneurs and fintech companies ready to fill the gap.

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