Singapore-based global Digital Entertainment Asset (DEA), a Web3 entertainment company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Rakuten Group for a collaborative partnership in the Web3 domain.

The partnership will see DEA and Rakuten collaborate on potential synergies in their respective businesses to enhance the value of their services further.

As part of the deal, Rakuten’s corporate VC arm Rakuten Capital will also make a minority investment in DEA by subscribing to share acquisition rights.

DEA operates the PlayMining GameFi platform, which features a catalogue of play-to-earn (P2E) NFT games, including Job Tribes, Cookin’ Burger, Menya Dragon Ramen and the recently launched Graffiti Racer. 

Also Read: Filipina actor Yassi Pressman nets US$2M for her new Web3 startups BrandNation, PEG

The platform has an NFT marketplace featuring hot content from household names among Japanese anime and video game fans and a metaverse initiative under development.

DEA also has its token DEAPcoin ($DEP), a P2E token approved by Japan’s Financial Service Agency. By having an NFT market, a token and a GameFi and metaverse platform in one place, PlayMining can offer IP monetisation opportunities to third-company game studio partners.

“Our vision for DEA is to become the world’s top Web3 entertainment company. Our agreement with Rakuten will go a long way towards helping us work toward this goal by increasing adoption of PlayandEarn gaming,” said DEA’s Co-Founder and co-CEO Kozo Yamada.

Rakuten Group provides over 70 services spanning e-commerce, fintech, digital content, mobile carrier business and other communications services, including professional sports. It runs several Web3 businesses, including an NFT marketplace, sales platform Rakuten NFT, and crypto asset trading exchange Rakuten Wallet.

Hiroshi Takasawa, President of Rakuten Capital, said: “We expect Rakuten’s membership base, brand and business experience, expertise in related areas, and DEA’s experience in GameFi, token economy and metaverse business promotion will contribute to the future business growth of both companies.”

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BayaniPay, a fintech startup offering cross-border financial services to Filipino professionals in the US, has secured US$4.5 million seed funding from East West Bank, Wavemaker Partners, and Talino Venture Labs.

The fresh capital from East West Bank and Wavemaker Partners will allow BayaniPay to expand the technology team as it scales its product lineup and expands into more geographies.

Based in Los Angeles, BayaniPay offers low-cost cross-border financial services from the US to the Philippines. It provides access to a digital checking account, a debit card, and zero-fee remittance forex rates for Filipino Americans sending money home.

Earlier this year, BayaniPay signed a contract with East West Bank in Southern California to offer banking services, including a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured checking account, for Filipino American customers.

Also Read: Filipina actor Yassi Pressman nets US$2M for her new Web3 startups BrandNation, PEG

This collaboration enables BayaniPay to offer cross-border, digital financial services for the 4.2-million-strong Filipino American community, which accounts for US$146 billion or 14.4 per cent of the Asian American market in the US.

BayaniPay already has partnerships with BDO Unibank in the Philippines, media firm Asian Journal, and Seafood City, a Filipino-owned supermarket chain in the US.

BayaniPay collaborates with BDO Unibank to enable its users in the US to pay for services in the Philippines through pay code technologies directly. Local businesses and services can provide Filipino American customers with pay codes that they can use for easy and convenient cross-border payment of bills, tuition and school fees, medical expenses, and even real estate.

Through BDO Unibank, BayaniPay offers zero fees and market-leading exchange rates. BayaniPay has gained over 7,000 users.

“Streamlining cross-border payment systems has become more urgent than ever as remittances grow in scale from overseas workers. Unfortunately, even today, existing remittance methods remain painful and expensive for the average remitter. BayaniPay is addressing this pain point with its suite of payment solutions that simplify various remittances,” said Eric Manlunas, Founder and Managing Partner of Wavemaker Partners.

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Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

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Venteny Fortuna International, a Jakarta-headquartered company providing growth funding and HR services for MSMEs, said on Thursday its application to list on Indonesia’s exchange IDX has been approved.

Venteny has received a pre-effective letter from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and opened a book building (IPO) for potential investors from 21-29 November 2022.

With this, Venteny is set to become the first Japanese founder-led startup to be listed in Southeast Asia.

The company seeks to raise as high as IDR 422,900,595,000 (US$27 million) or the equivalent of 15 per cent of the total issued capital.

It plans to use the funds (minus the issuance costs) to increase the group’s working capital and support its business development and growth. It expects to improve its capital, human resources, and technology.

The price per share of Venteny sets to IDR 350-450 (US$0.022-0.029).

Venteny was founded in 2015 by Jun Waide, a Japanese businessman and professional. Initially incorporated in the Philippines, Venteny expanded to Singapore in 2016 and finally started operations in Indonesia.

As the business continued to grow, in 2021, the management established a holding company, Venteny Fortuna International, to strengthen the synergy of all subsidiaries.

Venteny Fortuna provides growth funding and human resources services for MSMEs and large enterprises. Through its financing partners in Indonesia, Venteny disburses funding to MSMEs with competitive interest, supported by an integrated credit assessment process to minimise the risk of bad credit and a fast application process.

Also Read: Fonos raises US$1.8M in funding to expand into podcasting

It also provides employee benefits, such as welfare, protection, self-development, and entertainment,  through its employee super-app services.

Since being established in Indonesia until Q3 of 2022, the company claims to have disbursed funds of more than IDR 2 trillion (US$128 million) to businesses.

The group has been profitable since 2021. Based on the audited financial statements as of June 30, 2022, the group’s net profit grew by 800 per cent YoY.

In February 2017, it secured a seed round, followed by Series A round funding from SV-FINTECH Fund managed by Voyage Group and SV Frontier in December 2017.

“We are grateful for the customer’s trust, so Venteny has been profitable within two years of operations. This proves that Venteny has worked well on market potential and demand. Through IPO way, we invite everyone to participate in creating the future of the solid industry ecosystem,” says Waide, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Venteny.

With four offices in Indonesia, Venteny plans to increase it to 15 next year and start its operations in the Philippines and expand into Thailand and Vietnam.

The post Growth capital firm Venteny Fortuna seeks to raise US$27M via IPO on IDX appeared first on e27.

Sirclo Group, a provider of e-commerce solutions that help brands sell online in Indonesia, announced on Tuesday it terminated the employment of 8 per cent of its staff members.

The layoffs are part of the efficiency measures policy amidst the “current macroeconomic conditions”, it said in a statement.

The group has not divulge the number of employees affected by the move. As per its LinkedIn profile, 1,371 employees are currently working in the firm.

The company also stated that all aspects of the group’s business are in the optimisation stage to achieve long-term growth.

“As a rapidly growing technology company, Sirclo Group strives to remain adaptive in making business adjustments to achieve long-term growth. In a challenging macroeconomic situation, Sirclo has gone through a series of internal evaluations and will make significant changes, especially in the aspect of business focus, to ensure the sustainability of the company,” said CEO and Founder Brian Marshal.

Also Read: SIRCLO Group acquires Warung Pintar to strengthen its omnichannel commerce strategy

Sirclo said it would ensure that every affected team member receives a compensation package by applicable rights and regulations and comprehensive assistance to support their transition period. “The development of our ecosystem from year to year cannot be separated from the contribution of each employee in it,” added Marshal.

Founded in 2013, Sirclo is a provider of omni-channel commerce solutions in Indonesia. Its solutions are divided into two main categories — entrepreneur and enterprise solutions.

In the first category, it offers Sirclo Store, an online store dashboard for SMEs to sell across website, marketplace, and chat commerce. It also offers IbuSibuk, a solution empowering communities of mothers as key opinion leaders, micro-influencers and resellers.

In the enterprise category, it offers e-commerce enabler services, a solution for omnichannel technology development, and a B2B2C platform selling mom and baby products. It also offers a parenting platform Orami, which it acquired in April. Orami runs IbuSibuk, a digital economic empowerment programme for mothers, specifically for those passionate about entrepreneurship.

In September last year, Sirclo announced a US$36 million fundraise, led by local investment firms East Ventures (Growth Fund) and Saratoga. A year earlier, it announced a US$6 million Series B fundraising from East Ventures, OCBC NISP Ventura, Skystar Capital, and Sinar Mas Land.

Recently, many startups in Indonesia announced workforce reductions amidst a looming recession. The names include GoTo, Ruangguru, LinkAja, Zenius, Binar Academy, and JD.id.

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The future of commerce is undoubtedly conversational. Regardless of size, brands have prioritised conversational experiences by incorporating them into their communication strategies.

Now more than ever, brands look for ways to automate customer communication while keeping a human touch in every interaction.

By creating conversational experiences, brands meet the expectations of the modern customer and offer convenient and fast resolutions to queries. For example, the adoption of chatbots has helped customers get their FAQs answered instantly and keeps satisfaction scores high.

But brands need to keep in mind that conversational experiences shouldn’t stop at customer support. They can now engage with their customers through their entire sales journey over messaging channels. This is referred to as conversational commerce, and it’s a game changer for brands looking to innovate experiences.

But what is conversational commerce?

Also Read: How SMBs can use conversational commerce to boost year-end sales

A term coined by Chris Messina back in 2015, conversational commerce largely pertains to utilising chat, messaging, or other natural language interfaces (i.e. voice) to interact with people, brands, or services and bots that thus far have had no real place in the bidirectional, asynchronous messaging context.

Seven years in, with the aid of new technologies, conversational commerce has an updated look and feel for 2022 to address the ever-evolving customer needs.

What is the hype all about?

As messaging and interactivity functions mature across all digital touchpoints, be it powered by humans or machine learning, conversational commerce is seeing a renaissance.

Consumers can now ask for support from a live agent or a chatbot, get information on products and pricing, browse product catalogues, get personalised recommendations, and make purchases all within one conversation.

Opportunities are endless with conversational commerce as it gives a highly personalised experience. According to McKinsey, 71 per cent of customers expect relevant, personalised communications from brands and get frustrated when they don’t receive them.

The same study has found that personalisation directly impacts buying behaviours. Brands have started to recognise the importance of the customer’s journey and how conversational commerce outweighs social commerce in some areas.

As social commerce primarily uses the functions of social networks, it has its own set of limitations that conversational commerce can address. Typically, conversational commerce facilitates a more natural and seamless conversation between brands and their customers.

Customers’ queries are attended to in real-time, and orders and payments can be made without leaving the app, which leaves customers engaged throughout their shopping experience.

Reaping the benefits of limitless communications with customers

Conversational commerce is what customers look for when shopping today. They expect the convenience and comfort of conversing with brands through their favourite chat apps from any location.

Implementing conversational commerce use cases is not only beneficial for your customers but comes with massive business benefits for brands. Limitless communication with customers drives several business outcomes, including:

• Reducing shopping cart abandonment: Conversational commerce ensures that every step of the customer journey is elevated – from pre-purchase and purchase to post-purchase. Shopping cart abandonment is reduced when customers are kept in an active conversation, unlike on social media, where the use of ads is prevalent, customers get impatient and change their minds about their purchases.
• Retaining customers vs generating new leads: While social commerce has its strength in reaching out to the targeted audience, it does not guarantee a conversion. Conversational commerce, on the other hand, has the power to retain customers because the interaction that takes place offers convenient support leading to a pleasant and happy experience. Did you know it also costs seven times less to retain customers than to convert a lead?
• Upselling and cross-selling opportunities: Using target customers’ favourite chat apps as a sales channel is a great way to promote products. On average, customers spend approximately 38 minutes a day on WhatsApp, which means marketing messages will get the visibility they need to land impact when sent on the right channel. By leveraging past behaviours, shopping habits and interests, companies can send relevant products and services or upgrades on plans or memberships that will meet their needs.

Also Read: The thesis for cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia

Several companies have utilised conversational commerce to the fullest, resulting in growth, as seen with Bajaj Auto in India.

This automotive manufacturing company saw its conversion rates double and engagement boosted by 133 per cent just by adding WhatsApp and RCS (Rich Communication Services), an upgraded version of SMS with branding, rich media, interactivity and analytics delivered through default messaging apps, to its communication stack.

Bajaj Auto sought out communication channels that would let them meaningfully engage with customers instead of sending out transactional, one-way communication.

What’s next for conversational commerce?

Conversational commerce will continue to shape how consumers and brands interact with one another as emerging technologies such as AI push the boundaries, delivering automated messages that can be more timely, tailored, and cost-efficient.

Innovation in conversational commerce will drive new consumer demands that brands need to prepare for. In the coming years, organisations can expect to invest in analysing consumer habits, capture pre-purchase journeys, and strategically retain human touchpoints within their customer journey map. This is especially so as the modern customer journey is non-linear.

This new era of conversational commerce presents opportunities for brands to humanise their voice. By actively listening and engaging the customer from the start of their purchase to when their package arrives at their doorstep, it brings companies closer to their customer and forms meaningful connections with them, getting them to the top one message at a time.

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Organised by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, X-HUB TOKYO connects startups and established companies in Tokyo with the global innovation ecosystem, accelerating their growth and innovation in a new era. To realise its vision, X-HUB TOKYO helps Tokyo-based companies gain insightful market information and analysis and provides networking opportunities for the companies to seek funding and mentoring with leading investors and venture capitalists at home and abroad. With win-win and lasting collaboration, X-HUB TOKYO aspires to contribute to creating cutting-edge technologies, and sustainable solutions to solve complex challenges and strengthen the ecosystem. 

In the upcoming pitch event, X-HUB TOKYO is delighted to introduce the nine promising Japanese startups actively seeking collaborative opportunities with Singapore companies and investors to take their business activities to the next level.

1. IDDK Co., Ltd.

IDDK Co., Ltd. focuses on developing a ground-breaking Micro Imaging Device (MID), which is a microscopic observation chip that can be delivered to places previously inaccessible by conventional microscopes due to physical, climatic, or technical restrictions. MID is believed to create a healthier and better future for societies by enhancing the accuracy of disease diagnosis, observations, and treatment discoveries. IDDK is creating a remotely controlled and fully automated laboratory that companies can access in the future to observe how things work at the micro-level. In addition to healthcare, the technology can also be applied in other industries, such as education. IDDK Co., Ltd. is open to partnership and funding opportunities to accelerate its business growth.

2. INFORICH, Inc.

With the mission of “Creating a society that thinks and acts for the next person and generation”, in April 2018, INFORICH launched its innovative mobile battery-sharing service called ChargeSPOT to help people refill their mobile phone batteries conveniently. After five years in operation, INFORICH has provided over 30,000 charging units in Japan, 4,300 units in Taiwan, 3,000 units in Hong Kong, and 1,000 units in Thailand.

The company also continuously adapts to changing market conditions to improve user experience, such as integrating mini-programs with carrier-based payment applications, and upgrading the “ChargeSPOT” batteries with antibacterial and antiviral treatment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s comparative advantages lie in its international brand awareness, signage for every machine, and its respect for intellectual property.

Also read: Exploring corporate partnerships as a pathway to scaling your startup

3. Credit Engine, Inc.

Credit Engine is a SaaS product provider, which leverages data-driven technology to innovate financial services, including online lending and debt collection. The product aims to deliver a more seamless and stress-free experience for users when dealing with stressful financial matters. It also ensures an ethical debt collection process thanks to the digitalisation and automation of the processes that increase transparency, leading to higher collection rates with lower costs. Users can also track most of the processes via history logs and optimise the flow for better performance. 

4. Skillnote Corporation

With the purpose of solving the challenges of companies for human resource and skill management, especially for the manufacturing industry, Skillnote offers a Skill management system to allow users to record employees’ skill data, which will enable strategic human resource development. The insights can be used for strategic human resource management and project management. Skillnote is used by over 120 global companies and 100,000 users. The product incorporated CEO Takafumi Yamakawa’s deep understanding of the workflow and operation of the human resource department thanks to his 25 years of experience.

5. STANDAGE Inc. 

Powered by blockchain and AI technologies, STANDAGE Inc. has developed a digital trading platform, DiGiTRAD, which can solve all the problems of sales channel development, negotiation, contract, settlement, and logistics necessary to establish a trading business. The platform wishes to support Japanese SMEs and aims to expand their global operation, having established bases in Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Hong Kong and the United States, actively conducting import/export operations in each region. STANDAGE Inc. plans to expand its business further in other Southeast Asian countries and seek opportunities and funding for business development.

Also read: Customer retention strategies are getting trickier. Can you keep up?

6. SpoLive Interactive, Inc.

Creating the world’s first data management SaaS for various sports, SpoLive is a digital platform that enables emerging sports organisations to easily build an interactive experience with fans, just like Twitch. They can stream game stats and video simultaneously with ultra-low latency, creating real-time interaction between fans and teams and allowing fans to cheer remotely and feel a sense of unity and participation like in a stadium. The platform is also a tool for teams to collect and manage online data to improve their marketing activities.   

7. TBM Co., Ltd.

TBM aims to galvanise a global sustainability revolution by promoting two fundamental approaches: environmentally friendly materials and circularity. Regarding material, TBM develops and distributes LIMEX, a limestone–based new material that can be an alternative to paper and plastics, helping to preserve the environment. Major applications of LIMEX include booklets, posters, shopping bags, cosmetic packaging, and food containers, to name a few. In terms of circularity, TBM accelerates the circulation of materials such as LIMEX and plastic wastes by producing the flow of materials and operating recycling plants. LIMEX has successfully partnered with over 8,000 customers globally, and it is keen on speeding up sales expansion even further, especially in Southeast Asian countries.

8. NEWROPE Co. Ltd. 

Aiming to help the fashion industry to become more profitable and reduce waste, NEWROPE provides AI-powered services such as recommendation engines and trend analysis for E-commerce for fashion-related companies as SaaS. Based on these insights, fashion companies can understand growing customer trends, optimise their stock, and match customers with the right items. NEWROPE has developed its AI since 2016 and collected data since 2018, and it has cooperated with some fashion brands, retail including E-commerce, OEM, media and so on.

Also read: Dedoco: A founder’s journey to building next-gen digital trust technology

9. Hacarus Inc.

Founded in 2014, HACARUS INC. provides big insights from small data. Headquartered in Kyoto, Japan and backed by Osaka Gas and Miyako Capital (Kyoto University), among others, its technology enables humans to make better, faster and more reliable data-driven decisions. Its proprietary AI engine is built using Sparse Modelling, a method that understands data by its unique key features and is much more efficient than Deep Learning. Since its inception, the company has supplied solutions in 100+ AI projects across the Medical and Manufacturing fields. 

To learn more about these fascinating startups, join our Demo Day on December 6th. 

Sign up for the event here.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Tokyo Metropolitan Government

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

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After a successful debut in Jakarta, The Big Leap Roadshow makes its next move to Singapore!

This event results from a partnership between e27 and CleverTap, trusted by 10,000+ mobile brands and a pioneer in helping brands engage and retain their users.

Over the next six months, we will bring exclusive interviews, content, roadshows, networking events, and informal meet-ups with Southeast Asia’s leading tech leaders in multiple countries – Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.

After our first stop in Indonesia, we will host the next event on November 24 at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Riverfront Ballroom, 392 Havelock Rd, Singapore 169663.

In this event, we will touch on the topic of Unlock the recipe for accelerated growth with our distinguished speakers:

– Marc-Antoine Hager, SEA Regional VP, Sales, CleverTap
– Baptiste Le Gal, Chief Revenue Officer, APAC, Vestiaire Collective
– Thaddeus Koh, Co-founder, e27
– Igor Mostovoy, VP Product, 99.co
– Avantika Jain, General Manager, Fave
– Sistla Sumanth, Digital Technology Director, APAC, RBI
– David Setiawan, Head of Marketing, JobStreet by Seek
– Achint Setia, Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer, Zalora

Just like in Jakarta, this event will be an opportunity for notable growth leaders in Singapore to rub shoulders with a community of like-minded individuals. Having secured registrations from more than 100 names in the industry, the following is the handy list of growth leaders that you will get to meet at the event:

1. Leslie Lin, Head of Growth Marketing, SingSaver

According to his LinkedIn profile, Lin has more than 12 years of progressive experience in management and operations. He describes himself as a “a senior marketing leader with proven history of improvement for brands in the areas of leading new business initiatives and in translating strategy into tactics and execution with revenue enhancement across Asia.”

Also Read: Success is a moving target: CleverTap Co-founder Anand Jain

2. Frank Ng, Head of Marketing, Intellect

Ng’s expertise as a digital marketer includes the whole value chain: strategy, ad execution, analytics, and even teaching. According to his LinkedIn profile, his channel expertise spans across SEO, SEM, paid social, content creation and marketing, and app growth (ASO and app push).

3. Bassam Abdel Rahman, SVP, Zenyum

Rahman is a global marketer with a passion for growing businesses and brands. In his LinkedIn profile, he detailed having more than 17 year experience in working with the worlds bigger brands as well as SEA’s fastest growing unicorns.

4. Kenji Narushima, Chief Strategy Officer / Chief of Staff, Carro

As the Chief Strategy Officer / Chief of Staff of Carro, Narushima has over 16 years of extensive experience working in private equity investments in middle stream infrastructure such as transportation and energy, and has shifted into Venture Capital Investment.

5. Fabian Foo, Founder, MatchMde

As the Founder of MatchMde, Foo has more than 15 years of strong management experience in the IT and financial domain with expertise in project, product, incident, change, and delivery management. He has proven abilities in leading international, cross-functional teams in the delivery and deployment of multiple concurrent projects.

6. Theresa Pragasam-Sidhu, Head of Brand, Brand, Digital Marketing, StashAway

In her LinkedIn profile, Pragasam-Sidhu describes herself as a Strategic Brand Marketer with strong commercial experience in expanding revenue, market penetration, brand development/awareness and customer experience.

7. Aulia Damayanti, Performance Marketing Analyst, Rukita

Damayanti describes herself in her LinkedIn profile as a digital marketing enthusiast with specialisation in performance. She is experienced in strategic planning, social media management, and paid ads strategy.

8. Nikola Rudic, General Manager, Orientech Fine Banking

Rudic told e27 in an email that as much as crises destabilise global supply chains, they also present us with opportunities to venture into new markets, win new projects, or pivot a business.

Also Read: Customer retention strategies are getting trickier. Can you keep up?

“Beyond the crises, automotive industry in particular is undergoing structural changes due to the shift to EV. Our marketing strategy as well as our culture, is that of always being close to our clients, in order to keep up with the changes in demand and stay top-of-mind. Following these simple principles allowed us to win many new businesses in these difficult times, reaching nearly 40 per cent of last year’s sales amount.”

9. Rita Chang, CMO, klikit

This year, Chang told e27 that her greatest achievement was building the company’s one-year-old venture’s marketing team from just one to six “incredible people”.

“Our nascent team is the perfect mix of talent and personalities across growth, product, content, and creative. In 2022, we’ve built a robust infrastructure for execution within marketing and across the company — and we know every day there’s always opportunity to be stronger and faster for the restaurants, creators, and brands we serve at klikit.”

10. David Setiawan, Head of Marketing, JobStreet Singapore

Setiawan has more than 10 years of working experience in the field of digital marketing. In his LinkedIn profile, he listed rich experience in SEM, Programmatic, Direct Buy and Facebook Ad campaign management and optimisation.

11. Hse May Chan, Regional Head Brand and Growth Marketing, igloo

Hse May Chan is a data-driven communications professional with a journalism and economics background.

12. Desmond Ng, General Manager, M1 Limited

With a master’s degree in user experience design, Ng’s expertise and experiences involve a wide range of industries, from telecommunication, Virtual & Augmented Reality, and Interactive Digital Media.

13. Flame Rozario, Performance Marketing, MyRepublic

In addition to handling performance marketing at MyRepublic, Rozario is also an adjunct lecturer in digital marketing at Lithan. She also writes about archaeology and movies in her personal blog.

14. Elaine Cheong, Brand Strategist & Product Marketing Manager, Fave

In her LinkedIn profile, Cheong describes herself as a “certified brand strategist who currently leads go-to-market strategies and strategic initiatives with multiple hats in B2B and B2C- branding, product marketing, content creation, product design and project management.”

15. Saurabh Dutta, General Manager, Changi Airport Group

Dutta has over a decade of experience in consulting on mobile marketing and technology architecture in the areas such as retail banking, consumer brands, insurance and retail. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has been responsible for several major innovations in the field of mobile wallets (prepaid and real-time), mobile loyalty cards and marketing automation.

Also Read: Follow the steps of these 35 growth leaders to The Big Leap Roadshow in Indonesia

16. Nicole Teo, Head of Marketing, Coins.ph

Teo describes herself as a data-driven marketing strategist. She has over eight years of experience in marketing with a strong background in performance marketing for e-commerce and crypto companies. Her interests include innovations in tech and social impact, especially in Web3, art, fintech, gaming, and agritech.

17. Justin Ong, Manager – DMO Partnerships, Relations and Strategy (SEA & Oceania), Klook

In his LinkedIn profile, Ong describes himself as a lifestyle enthusiast, travel professional, and sales and relationship builder.

18. Yi Xuan Tong, Co-Founder, Marketing, Crater Merch

Tong describes her passion as improving consumer-brand relationships meaningfully and impacting audiences effectively with words, illustrations, and strategies in her LinkedIn profile.

19. Le Yi Khor, Co-Founder, Ottodot

As Co-Founder of Ottodot, Le Yi Khor defines her personal mission as empowering youths in realising their fullest potential through good design and technology.

20. Sabrina ‘Princessa’ Wang, Director, People’s Inc

Wang is an award-winning serial entrepreneur and advocate in the media, marketing and technology industry with over a decade of experience. She had been featured across various media.

21. Naushaba Salahuddin, independent communications specialist

In her profile, Salahuddin describes her niche as “Developing effective messaging and using strategic and innovative delivery channels to showcase solutions to problem statements.”

Also Read: Gen Z is redefining global consumption. Can companies keep up?

22. Soumyakant Dash, Director, Regional Head of BNPL, SE Asia GrabFin

With experience in strategy consulting and investing in financial services (FS), Dash is passionate about the coming together of technology and FS to deliver impact at scale in Southeast Asia and India.

23. Eddie Courtney Chan, Account Director, Pace

In addition to having experience as an operations manager and business development lead, with a history in notable companies such as WeWork, Chan has also worked as a personal stylist.

24. S M Ashik Ahmed, Vice President, Priyoshop

Before his work at Priyoshop, Ahmed was a senior auditor at a leading Chartered Accountants and Consulting firm in Bangladesh.

25. Roohi Taragi, Marketing Lead, Alta Group

Taragi is a marketing specialist with seven years of experience in planning, executing, and managing multi-channel marketing strategies.

26. Steffan Fung, Founder/CEO, ELXR

After a 16-year career with the Special Forces of the Singapore Armed Forces, Fung wrote in his profile that he embarked on the mission to make fitness more accessible and affordable through the Direct-To-Consumer brand ELXR.

Also Read: SEA’s mobile-first population are spending all their time on mobile phones: Are you?

27. Cecile du Passage, Head of marketing, Bim

du Passage believes that working in a multicultural environment is the most rewarding experience in her professional career as it allows one to learn and develop both technical and human skills.

28. Jamie Choo, Co-founder & CEO, Loominate

Choo describes himself as a founder passionate about design thinking and impact tech. He is an ex-industry director and space engineer, blending 14 years of expertise across technical, customer and business domains.

29. Cedric Lee, CEO, ConnectingDNA

With 19 years of experience in regional health and medical tech, Lee started the company in 2018 after discovering the solution for his health struggle through DNA testing.

30. Marcus Wong, Founder, Vision Direct Club

Vision Direct Club is Singapore’s first eye health app that aims to deliver primary eye care with step-up and step-down care. In building his company, Wong writes that he believes that great ideas are built on not being afraid of being ridiculed.

31. Bryan Se To, CEO, Lexly

According to Bryan Se To, two things fascinate him about entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship being the environment to nurture imagination, and the opportunity to lead a team and unlock their potentials.

32. Zhongye Woo, Founder, The Nutri X

Prior to founding The Nutri X, Woo spent two years as an investment analyst at venture capital and private equity firm Verlinvest.

Also Read: Keep your customers around with stellar retention strategies

33. Michelle Tan, Marketing, Chope

Prior to joining Chope, Tan already has an extensive experience in the regional foodtech industry with notable companies such as Foodpanda and Domino’s Pizza.

34. Dylene Contigno, Key Accounts, Cross Border Sales for SEA, Ninja Van

Contigno is an experienced Business Development Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the food and beverages industry.

35. Marisha Lakhiani, VP of Marketing, Mindvalley

At Mindvalley, Lakhiani is responsible for its US$100 Million in revenue and manage all the key marketing functions including product launches, product marketing, membership, B2B, localization, performance marketing, creatives team, marketing tech, and all brand channels.

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Want to be part of this amazing opportunity? There is time for you to sign up for The Big Leap in Singapore! See you on November 24!

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Filipina actress and celebrity Yassi Pressman has announced her entry into the Web3 domain by launching two ventures — PEG, a gaming guild, and BrandNation, an influencer marketing platform for digital and Web3 brands.

The 27-year-old actor also secured US$2 million in seed funding for the two startups, led by cryptocurrency exchange and digital asset custodial provider Sonla.

The capital will help drive the deployment of the proprietary PEGFi interoperable and integrated digital financial infrastructure targetting GameFi and Web 3 market participants. A portion of the capital will go towards supporting BrandNation.io.

Pressman, a celebrity with 20 million followers on social media, says she aligns deeply with P&E (play and earn) gaming and influencer marketing. She can attract large strategic clients in GameFi and Web3 for PEGFi and brands and influencers for BrandNation.io.

Also Read: ‘In Web3, talent is hard to find and expensive’

BrandNation.io is an online platform that effectively matches influencers with brands. Its features make it easy for brands and influencers to interact with one another, beginning with the core user experience.

Brands will be able to automate the campaign creation process for influencer marketing in a few clicks, gain access to real-time data about each campaign, and achieve mainstream adoption through collaborations with even A-list celebrities.

BrandNation.io can be integrated with all social media platforms, such as Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter, and real-time rewards and payments via PEG Token, the native token of PEG and the PEGFi ecosystem.

The PEG Token is backed by BLX, the native token of BLOX, a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) registered in Wyoming, the US. Users and brands with PEG can more efficiently transact directly with one another for collaborations and partnerships through the PEG and BrandNation.io platforms.

“Changing gaming and influencer marketing will not happen overnight, even with this seed funding. We’ll need a strong community to band together, inspired by the vision of what our respective industries can one day be,” said Pressman.

Also Read: Singapore gets an NFT-gated Web3 co-working space Metacamp

“Web3 products are not built through advertising, but through the community. Pressman has the influence needed to attract the critical mass of users for both PEG and BrandNation.io. She can lead them toward a more professional, efficient, and digitally enabled gaming and influencer marketing industry, respectively,” said Kiran Sharma, Senior Partner at Sonla.

In February this year, Pressman invested in the Philippine mental healthcare company, Mind You.

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At e27, we have kickstarted a new articles series called work-life balance to learn more about tech enablers and executives and their lives beyond working hours.

Vaibhav Aggarwal is a Senior Engineering Manager at Coinbase, leading core features and foundations for scalable growth. He is currently based out of San Diego, California, and he previously worked at LinkedIn and MyFitnessPal.

Aggarwal loves solving problems and building products. He also spends a lot of time thinking about new ideas, learning, work-life balance, living in the present and sharing that with people around him.

He is a regular contributor of articles for e27 (you can read his thought leadership articles here). 

In this candid interview, Aggarwal talks about his personal and professional life.

How would you explain what you do to a five-year-old?

I work with many smart people building cool things on the internet, computers and phones. I focus on getting more and more people to use those cool things.

What has been the biggest highlight/challenge of your career so far?

I have been fortunate to work at amazing companies and build great products. My biggest highlight has been working with my teammates on their growth as individual contributors or transitions to management. It has been highly fulfilling.

How do you envision the next five years of your career?

In the next five years, I want to become the best in the industry for leading product growth and the growth engineering strategy. I want to propagate the knowledge and help scale the companies I work with.

What are some of your favourite work tools?

Slack, Google docs/sheets, Xcode (when I was a developer).

What’s something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I’m from New Delhi. I moved to Fargo, North Dakota, for school and survived -30F for over four years.

Do you prefer WFH or WFO, or hybrid?

I prefer a hybrid model. I am currently fully remote, living in San Diego, which I genuinely enjoy.

Also Read: Blockchain promises to be as foundational and indispensable as internet: Amit Ghosh of R3

However, there is something to be said about social currency and energy. Every now and then, I wish to meet my team in person to work together, deepening our human relations and not working with boxes on the screen.

What would you tell your younger self?

Play long-term games. Do not optimise for the short term. Have one or two key goals and focus on that. Lastly, life is long, so have fun as you go along.

Can you describe yourself in three words?

Builder, curious, determined.

What are you most likely to be doing if not working?

Sitting on the La Jolla shores, at the gym, learning something new, generating ideas.

What are you currently reading/listening to/ watching?

I’m currently reading Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson

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Asia-Pacific (APAC) economies have shown resilience in the face of extraordinary change. The region has seen immense growth in the past two decades, with the World Bank reporting that the share of people living in extreme poverty dropped from over 22 per cent in 2000 to just below five per cent on average.

Amidst the global pandemic, countries remained active in pursuing income support and credit creation measures while leveraging digital technology to weather the storm and seize opportunities to come out stronger.

Despite the current uncertainties in the global economic environment, the APAC region is expected to dominate global growth in the upcoming year, per the latest S&P Global Market Intelligence report.

Need for APAC to fuel the energy transition

As the region continues to plot its rise, it also must channel all the resilience it can muster to address the existential challenge that climate change poses. It is a known fact that APAC countries are on the frontline of climate change.

The region’s many low-lying coastal cities are exposed to flood and typhoon risks, and extreme weather events have become common. As the region grows and energy demand reaches unprecedented levels, finding alternative energy solutions and making existing carbon-intensive energy infrastructure efficient has become an urgent necessity.

Also Read: Humble Sustainability raises funding to bring excess inventory back into circularity

Accelerating the energy transition will be crucial not just for sustainable growth but also for survival.

Accelerating tech-led sustainability

Technology is what allowed the energy revolution to begin, and it is what will help us in wholesale and broad-based transition to energy-efficient systems.

In fact, Schneider Electric recognises that solutions already exist to transform easiest-to-decarbonise sectors such as utilities, buildings, industry and transport, with more on the way to impact the hardest-to-abate areas.

Our analysis shows that it is possible to reduce emissions to the levels needed to put us on the course to reaching net zero by the middle of the century through the mass development and implementation of existing technologies.

Continued technological advances will also offer new possibilities for organisations to optimise performance in areas such as emissions and waste management, as well as to measure and achieve sustainability targets.

During the recent Asia Clean Energy Summit in Singapore, it was also discussed how decarbonisation technologies such as green hydrogen represent a game changer for the energy transition. It is encouraging that countries like Singapore are looking at how to take this forward.

At the opening of the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW), the government announced that Singapore would look at how hydrogen can complement and diversify the country’s power mix alongside solar, imported electricity, and other potential low-carbon energy sources such as geothermal energy.

Green hydrogen technology is a prominent example of how technology can further sustainable growth objectives. Its mass adoption has the potential to fundamentally transform the energy landscape, with its demand expected to grow to 500-680 million metric tons by 2050, according to an IEA report.

Green hydrogen technology uses renewable sources and water to generate clean energy that does not release carbon dioxide into the air. Hydrogen can be stored, transported, and used as a feedstock in industry, as transportation fuel, as heating fuel, and to generate electricity in various applications. Its disruptive potential has been felt in the global economy, with investments in low-carbon hydrogen technology increasing exponentially, backed up by policies from countries.

Nevertheless, it is still in its infancy and determining how to achieve cost-effective production is challenging. Finding the path towards efficient green hydrogen production would require new technologies and the availability and perennity of government subsidies to support green hydrogen projects.

As the production of clean hydrogen accelerates over time, the electrification and decentralisation of the power supply will also require more digital solutions to manage the distribution of energy and its usage in a safe, reliable, sustainable and efficient manner.

Data will be the lifeblood of these kinds of energy transition possibilities. It can help companies set a baseline to know what needs to be changed, measure changes over time and ensure there is meaningful change.

Most importantly, data can provide information for faster and more efficient decision-making. Any organisation seeking to achieve clean energy goals must have a robust and valid data set regimen, including all sources of emissions.

In line with this, it is encouraging to know that according to Schneider Electric’s 2nd Building a Greener Singapore report, close to three quarters (71 per cent) of Singapore business leaders who were surveyed in September 2022 believe their organisation is making good progress in energy management and are transitioning towards renewables.

This marks a 10-percentage point increase over the past 12 months.

Collaboration is key in pursuing a net zero future

As the climate crisis continues to exacerbate the global energy crisis, APAC countries cannot afford to rely on traditional modes of energy generation and energy infrastructure for sustained growth. Collaboration between private and public stakeholders will ensure that viable alternate energy technologies and data-driven solutions are operationalised.

Also Read: Sustainable growth in the SEA startup ecosystem: Why tomorrow starts today

For instance, Schneider Electric launched our SME Kickstarter Decarbonisation Programme this year with support from Enterprise Singapore to offer sustainability coaching and knowledge transfer to local SMEs, which make up almost 99 per cent of businesses in the country.

Specifically, we have pledged to provide training and mentorship to participants over three years to ensure they are equipped with the knowledge and guidance needed throughout their sustainability journeys, with a deep focus on decarbonisation.

Participants will take part in workshops covering key sustainability concepts and emissions reporting frameworks, and we have also pledged to support them in establishing their Scope 1 and 2 emissions, developing decarbonisation roadmaps and identifying opportunities for energy efficiency.

Ultimately, there is no one solution to tackle the climate crisis. A “one-size-fits-all” approach is not possible in bringing forth climate action in a region known for its diversity. Companies play a crucial role in creating real, achievable plans to tailor-make energy innovations for different markets, industries, companies, and stakeholders in the region.

These plans require a comprehensive and deep reflection on the priorities and objectives of stakeholders to make any kind of tangible change possible.

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