As part of its Project AsiaForward initiative, Alibaba Cloud has teamed up with tech ecosystem partners to celebrate the diverse achievements of tech-driven entities in Southeast Asia.

Known as AsiaStar 10×10, the initiative gives recognition to 100 companies, communities, and projects in ten categories across the region. Ten awardees were chosen for each category. The categories are:

1. Trailblazers are Series B to pre-IPO companies that have played an essential role in driving technological innovation in the region.
2. Gamechangers made moves that set precedents or broke records in Southeast Asia.
3. Growth includes early-stage startups that are developing unique and innovative products and solutions, and have raised funds up to Series B.
4. Enablers are SaaS companies that provide crucial support to enterprises of every stripe.
5. Explorers are Chinese startups that have successfully ventured into the region and established a strong presence.
6. Open Source highlights projects that have accelerated the region’s digitalisation by giving other entities the tools they need to build new applications.
7. Frontiers includes startups that are developing deeply technical products, such as quantum computing, biotech and medical advancements, space tech, and more.
8. Impact comprises startups that have brought about significant grassroots-level advancements where they operate.
9. Investors are the equity firms that provide the fuel startups need to grow, and are evaluated for the impact they showcase.
10. Launchpads are educational institutions, incubators, and accelerators that have provided safe environments to nurture great startups.

The awardees were selected from the list of final nominees curated by representatives of Alibaba Cloud, government agencies, investors, industry experts, and media outlets. They considered a variety of factors, such as revenue, funding, impact, uniqueness, potential, and more. The full list can be viewed here: https://asiastar10x10.kr-asia.com/awardees-2022/.

These are the final awardees for each category:

• Trailblazers

Series B to pre-IPO companies that have played an essential role in driving technological innovation in the region

1. Aerodyne — A DT3 (Drone tech, data tech, and digital transformation) solutions provider, Aerodyne has operations in 35 countries and manages the infrastructure assets of over 300,000 clients, making it the world’s second-largest drone service company.
2. Kumu —  Not only the first Filipino app to be the top-grossing social app in the Philippines according to App Annie, Kumu is also one of the highest-grossing social apps in the world, ranking among the top ten in multiple markets including Canada, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore app stores. This social media platform gives users the chance to win cash in various game shows and campaign engagements, as well as helps content creators convert engagement into income via e-commerce, virtual gifting, and advertising.
3. NinjaVan — NinjaVan’s well-established end-to-end logistics network spans Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, connecting over 1.5 million active shippers with close to 100 million recipients. It is the only last-mile courier with almost 100% service coverage in Southeast Asia, from tier-1 cities to almost all remote villages.
4. ShopBack — ShopBack provides shoppers with cashback services from online stores, serving over 30 million shoppers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia, and South Korea. The company matches brands with customers wanting to receive cashback rewards and other types of discounts.
5. Sunday — Sunday adopts AI and machine learning technology to underwrite its motor insurance and employee health benefits product, including dynamic data models to automate pricing and scale its underwriting process for complex risks. Originally based in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday has now expanded into Indonesia.
6. GrowSari — GrowSari is digitising small physical retail stores, called sarisari, with features like pricing tools, inventory management, and working capital loans. In addition to providing affordable, on-demand inventory as well as working capital loans, GrowSari’s platform also generates crucial data and insights into the operations of these stores for manufacturers and distributors to build their strategies and campaigns upon.
7. eFishery — eFishery offers an integrated end-to-end platform providing fish and shrimp farmers access to technology, feed, financing, and markets. The company started out by offering fish and shrimp farmers in Indonesia a digitally-controlled ‘smart feeder’ which offers automatic feeding coinciding with a mobile app where farmers can input variables such as fish and shrimp type, feed quantity and pellet size, feeding frequency, and feeding schedule.
8. MoMo — MoMo focuses on open banking and application programming interface development. The company’s primary product includes a mobile app that allows customers to conduct transactions directly from their mobile devices for payments at schools, hospitals, gas stations, and other vendors.
9. Kopi Kenangan — An Indonesian coffee chain, Kopi Kenangan serves affordable brews made with local ingredients and recipes. The company, which employs a ‘Grab & Go’ model, delivers most orders through its app, making it a convenient alternative to traditional coffee houses.
10. Jirnexu — Jirnexu develops digital acquisition and lifecycle management solutions for banks, insurance companies, and service providers. Solutions developed by Jirnexu are known to offer expansive reach, lower acquisition costs, and added convenience for customers.

Also read: Reimagining customer experience with Sendbird

• Gamechangers

Company moves that set precedents or broke records in Southeast Asia

1. Grab’s IPO — Grab went public on NASDAQ in a USD 40 billion SPAC deal in December 2021, allowing the ride-hailing company to raise USD 4.5 billion in cash proceeds. Grab’s listing is the largest U.S. listing so far by a Southeast Asian company. As the first SPAC merger of an SEA unicorn, this marks an inspirational and mind-blowing event in the region.
2. Bukalapak’s IPO — At the time of its listing, Bukalapak claimed the largest IPO in IDX’s history. It is Indonesia’s first tech unicorn that got listed on the stock exchange, raising USD 1.5 billion in August 2021. Bukalapak’s stock price rose almost 25% only minutes after the market was opened on its debut day. The rise boosted the company’s valuation to around USD 7.5 billion.
3. Merger deal between Gojek and Tokopedia — Grab’s biggest competitor in ID merged with ecommerce provider Tokopedia in May 2021 to allow for a move to become a super app in the biggest merger deal in Indonesia. The company debuted on IDX in Apr 2022, raising USD 1.1 billion. As an entity, GoTo contributes 2% to the country’s GDP, more than USD 1.8 billion in transactions, and has over 100 million monthly active users.
4. GCash’s explosive growth — With COVID-19 accelerating the demand for online payment options, Mynt’s payment app GCash has grown rapidly. In November 2021, GCash raised USD 300 million at a valuation of USD 2 billion. This effectively made Mynt a double unicorn based in the Philippines. As of May 2022, the e-wallet company managed to have 55 million registered users and 4.5 million partner merchants on its network.
5. Avant Meats’s Series A funding round — Avant Meats is China’s first meat cultivation biotechnology firm. It is the only company in Asia to develop cultivated meat for food, skin care, and cosmetics using its proprietary technology that produces zero-residue protein directly from fish cells, according to DealStreetAsia. In June 2022, the cell-based seafood firm raised USD 10.8 million in a series A funding round.
6. TiNDLE’s global expansion — Launched in October 2020, Singapore-headquartered food tech startup Next Gen has been making waves in the plant-based business environment. Next Gen’s plant-based chicken consumer brand TiNDLE has enjoyed success in a number of international markets including the United States, UK, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and Dubai. TiNDLE is now available in over 500 restaurants on four continents.
7. 2C2P acquired by Ant Financial — 2C2P is a full-suite payment platform helping the world’s leading enterprises securely accept and make payments through one point of integration. Through the strategic partnership announced in April 2022, 2C2P’s extensive pool of merchants—inclusive of global and regional brands—will be connected with Alipay+, extending its current 250 payment options to include even more e-wallets and local payment methods.
8. VinFast EVs’s expansion into North America — In July 2021, VinFast began operations in the US, Canada, France, Germany, and the Netherlands in preparation for its launch in those markets, moving closer towards its goal of becoming a global smart electric car company.
9. Society Pass’s listing on NASDAQ — Society Pass (Nasdaq: SOPA) is a loyalty and data marketing ecosystem in Vietnam that operates multiple e-commerce and lifestyle platforms across its key markets, including Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, and Indonesia. It raised USD 26 million in its IPO.
10. PropertyGuru’s listing on NYSE — On March 18, 2022, PropertyGuru was listed via the completion of a business combination with the SPAC Bridgetown 2 backed by billionaires Peter Thiel and Richard Li. The company opens the door to increased opportunities across Southeast Asia’s fast-growing property market and will also enable global investors to access this high-growth market.

• Growth

Early-stage startups that are developing unique and innovative products and solutions, and have raised funds up to Series B

1. ProfilePrint — ProfilePrint is a food ingredient search engine platform powered by a patented AI fingerprint technology. It can predict the quality and profile of a food sample within seconds by enabling sellers and buyers to ascertain the agreed quality of a food ingredient in an online transaction without the need for physical samples.
2. SariSuki — SariSuki acts as a consolidator of grocery items for their “KaSari” (community leaders) who in turn own virtual “sari-sari stores” that sell the goods to consumers. SariSuki commits to an under-15-minute grocery delivery service within its covered areas. It has served more than 60,000 consumers through its growing number of community leaders, with operations extending across Greater Metro Manila Area, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and some parts of both Rizal and Pampanga in the Philippines.
3. AiTreat — AiTreat developed a robot called EMMA, which stands for “expert manipulative massage automation.” It provides soft tissue therapeutic treatment to patients. EMMA is equipped with sensors to measure muscle stiffness and uses 3D vision technology to analyse the patient’s body.
4. Rovula — Rovula is a subsea robotics developer building new machines for subsea inspection, repair, and maintenance. While conventional methods of subsea inspection and maintenance are costly in terms of money and time, Rovula’s products, including unmanned vessels and a data platform, can cut those costs by 50%.
5. Duckie Land — Duckie Land is a multiplatform GameFi project built for a VR experience with multiplayer mode. Duckie Land gives gamers ownership of in-game assets and allows them to increase their value by actively playing the game. By participating in the in-game economy, players will receive rewards and create more value for other users and the ecosystem.
6. Eatcosys — Eatcosys is an F&B and retail technology solution provider to help businesses transform and reinvent their business models. It offers over ten services and solutions including catering and event venue booking, food delivery, loyalty and retail management solutions, food search insights, venture capital, and money lending to local businesses. Examples of their solutions include FoodAdvisor, MyCookingStory, and FeedMyGuest.
7. GlobalTrack Smart Logistics — GlobalTrack Smart Logistics is a platform that aims to help SMEs to track and manage their fleet operations safely and effectively through remote GPS monitoring. Its delivery management and fleet telematics systems are able to help fleet owners to monitor their logistic operations, fleet vehicles, and drivers in real-time, minimising vehicle downtime and ensuring timely maintenance for the avoidance of potential malfunctions.
8. PolicyStreet — PolicyStreet offers a digital platform that allows consumers and businesses to purchase insurance products and services in a more affordable and accessible manner. It currently has 40 insurance partners, served more than 250,000 people, and empowered them with more than 50,000 insurance policies.
9. Speedwork Autocare — Speedwork Autocare is a platform that serves as a one-stop center for auto parts and vehicle maintenance services while connecting online consumers with workshop operators. The company aims to bridge the gap between online purchasing and offline repairing work, with an emphasis on customer relationship management.
10. KAMEREO — With its digital platform, KAMEREO connects farmers and B2B merchants directly. As a result, they help increase income for farmers, offer better prices for B2B merchants, and lower food wastage that occurs in the supply chain. The company currently has around 200 members and has seen its business scaled up ten times YoY.

• Enablers

SaaS companies that provide crucial support to enterprises of every stripe

1. aCommerce — aCommerce is an end-to-end enabler that helps to scale online businesses. The platform has 100+ APIs from world-class technology partners and 170+ e-commerce clients, and is trusted by 13 of the top 100 global brands. Since commencing operations, aCommerce has connected e-commerce clients with over 11.6 million end-consumers.
2. AI — ADVANCE.AI is an AI company helping to solve digital transformation, fraud prevention, and process automation for enterprise clients. The company has over 1,000 enterprise clients across banking, financial services, fintech, payment, retail, and e-commerce sectors. Key clients include Standard Chartered, Bank BTPN, KEB Hana Bank, Bank Jago, Shopee, and Indonesia’s GoTo group.
3. Dropee — Dropee hosts over 80,000 SME businesses procured wholesale inventories in its marketplace, annually totaling more than USD 100 million in transaction value. In the five years since its launch, Dropee has established itself as one of the fastest-growing B2B wholesale SaaS-enabled marketplaces in Southeast Asia with a market presence in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
4. Mekari — An Indonesia-based SaaS startup, the company has more than 35,000 clients and 800,000 active users. Mekari is the parent brand of Talenta, Jurnal, Qontak, Klikpajak, and Flex. The company has recorded 11x growth between 2018 and 2022.
5. NexMind — NexMind provides cloud-based and algorithmic solutions based on artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and deep learning. The company has served over 350 clients, including notable companies such as Panasonic, Sogo, Volkswagen, OCBC Bank, UOB, Zurich Insurance, and more.
6. PatSnap — PatSnap is used by more than 10,000 customers in over 40 countries around the world to access market, technology, competitive intelligence, as well as patent insights needed to take products from ideation to commercialisation. Its clients include Tesla, Dyson, Spotify, Oxford University Innovation, and The Dow Chemical Company.
7. Peddlr — Peddlr helps small businesses manage their sales, inventory, accounting, and reports through their mobile devices. The company’s app has seen more than 350,000 downloads across the Apple, Google, and Huawei app stores via just word-of-mouth.
8. Sprout Solutions — Sprout Solutions is a software company that automates payroll, HR, and recruitment processes for businesses in the Philippines. The company has more than 1,000 clients across various industries, including Dole, TOA Global, Canva, IQVIA, MiraMed, KMC, Incenter Technology, and Intellicare.
9. ai— Wiz.ai, a humanised voice AI technology provider, currently has 200 clients across banking, insurance, fintech, telecommunications, e-commerce, healthcare, and the public sector. The company has offices in Singapore, Nanjing, and Jakarta. Wiz.ai is set to grow its revenue and customers 10x in 2022, with plans for global expansion to Australia, America, and Mexico as the next step.
10. Xendit — Xendit is a payment infrastructure platform that supports businesses of all sizes in Southeast Asia, from individual sellers all the way to growth-stage startups and large enterprises. It currently has more than 3,000 customers, including Traveloka, Transferwise, and Grab. Xendit has been growing fast, with its revenue having grown at an annual rate of 700% over the past five years.

Also read: We need to accelerate progress at the frontier of innovation

• Explorers

Chinese startups that have successfully ventured into the region and established a strong presence

1. PingCAP — Backed by the open-source community and public cloud facility, PingCAP creates a business ecosystem that knows no boundaries. Since 2019, the company has landed its service in the United States, Japan, Europe, and Southeast Asia, counting top-notch enterprises in every market as its clientele. PingCAP is on its way to establishing itself as an open-source infrastructure provider that boosts digital transformation for global businesses.
2. Cyclone — Founded in 2015, Cyclone integrates AI, NLP, and other technologies to launch its RPA robotics solution that includes a software automation platform, a cloud-native platform, and digital transformation services. In the past three years, Cyclone has expanded its footprint not only to the Greater China region but also to Japan and Southeast Asia.
3. Dianxiaomi — Dianxiaomi has built a SaaS product matrix that integrates functions such as enterprise resource planning, third-party warehousing, customer service, and logistics tracking, providing a variety of tools for cross-border e-commerce sellers on various platforms. Dianxiaomi collaborates with more than 50 e-commerce platforms, connecting over 1,600 logistics providers, and 80 overseas warehouses.
4. Agora — Founded in 2014, Agora is the leading pioneer of the global Real-Time Interactive RTE-PaaS Cloud. Its global audio and video communication services span more than 20 sectors, enabling enterprises from social live streaming, online education, games, VR/AR/IoT, insurance, telehealth, and team collaboration to use their business solutions in over 200 application scenarios.
5. J&T Express — J&T Express started in the Southeast Asia market in 2015, before it evolved into a comprehensive logistics service operator in just seven years. Not only does J&T Express lead the pack in the fast-growing Southeast Asian market and in the massive Chinese market, its express delivery network now has a global presence in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
6. SUNMI — Based on the quality products and advanced business model developed in its domestic market, SUNMI, the smart IoT devices and digital solutions provider, leverages its capability to digitise local economies overseas. As of 2022, SUNMI has set up branches in 15 countries, with over 3 million monthly active devices in more than 200 countries and regions.
7. Hago — Hago is a multiplayer social interactive product that enhances the metaverse and 3D avatar interactive socialisation applications. The company pioneers a variety of social gameplay such as livestreaming, interactive games, and multiplayer voice chat. In April 2018, Hago was launched in 33 countries and quickly became popular among the younger local generation.
8. Mobvista — Since its establishment in 2013, Mobvista has been providing advertising and marketing technology services for customers from gaming, e-commerce, social networking, and local lifestyle services. Its ecosystem of SaaS tools helps clients create, promote, and monetise their businesses and manage data generated through consumer traffic.
9. 37GAMES — 37GAMES is a publicly listed game company that has published a variety of games for players in more than 200 countries and regions including Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia. The company has been moving up in the rankings of overseas revenue earned by Chinese game enterprises, securing the #3 spot in 2021.
10. TapTap — TapTap helps gamers around the world discover new games. The company allows gamers to identify and select interesting new games, which are then shared with the rest of the gaming community. As of June 2022, TapTap has an average of 9 million monthly active users from over 170 countries and regions.

• Open Source

Projects that have accelerated the region’s digitalisation by giving other entities the tools they need to build new applications

1. ABYRES — ABYRES Group has developed strategic alliances with partners in hardware and software information technology solutions to provide customers with a comprehensive product and services portfolio. These relationships benefit customers through the ability to serve specific needs from a broad base of targeted products and/or service capabilities.
2. Bluzelle — Bluzelle is a blockchain for the gamification of finance (GameFi). It helps to produce high-quality games, protect players’ NFTs, and leverage DeFi yields with its 10,000 TPS cosmos-based blockchain. It has launched the world’s first Data Delivery Network, taking on global market leaders to meet the increasing demand for data delivery.
3. LottieFiles — LottieFiles simplifies the workflow for creating animation in software like Adobe After Effects by allowing app designers to preview how their animation looks in the app and then ship it without hours of coding. LottieFiles has been used by animation and motion designers at 150,000 companies, including Google, TikTok, Disney, Uber, Airbnb, and Netflix.
4. MAPID — MAPID is a geographic information system platform that connects various kinds of location data from trusted sources, and connects all users through real-time mapping collaboration. The company’s products have been used by more than 20 different industries, including transit-oriented development, logistics, citizen journalism, healthcare distribution, and public policy.
5. NukeViet — NukeViet is the first open source Content Management System (CMS) in Vietnam. The latest version, NukeViet 3.0, provides ground-up coding support for the latest web technologies, including xHTML, CSS 3, XTemplate, jQuery, and Ajax. It enables users to build websites and online applications rapidly, as well as provides packing features that allow users to share modules with the web community.
6. Somleng — Somleng is a collection of open-source tools that provide a full-stack cloud communications platform. Carriers can use Somleng to offer programmable voice and SMS services to their customers. It is being used in an early warning system in Cambodia.
7. SpaceChain — Based in Singapore, SpaceChain is building an open and neutral infrastructure for the New Space Economy by integrating space and blockchain technologies. It established the first satellite platform to provide secure custody, transact digital assets, deploy smart contracts, and facilitate Decentralised Finance Infrastructure (DFI) on space nodes.
8. Supabase — Supabase bills itself as an open-source alternative to services like Google’s Firebase. Its service offers many of the core features that developers need to get started, including a database, storage, and authentication services. The company saw rapid growth in 2021 with a community that has now grown to more than 80,000 developers and the creation of over 100,000 databases on the service.
9. Unicorn — Unicorn is a lightweight multi-platform, multi-architecture CPU emulator framework. It has been used by 125 products, such as Qiling (a cross-platform, multi-architecture lightweight sandbox), UniDOS (a Microsoft DOS emulator), and Pwndbg (a Python plugin of GDB to assist exploit development).
10. UniKey — UniKey is the most popular keyboard program for the Vietnamese language, and can be found on almost every Windows PC used by Vietnamese people. The core engine UniKey Vietnamese Input Method is open source and was first released as a part of the x-unikey Vietnamese keyboard for Linux in 2001. Since then, the engine has been integrated with input methods for different software frameworks, including all iOS devices that have Vietnamese input functions.

• Frontiers

Startups that are developing deeply technical products, such as quantum computing, biotech and medical advancements, space tech, and more

1. Baiya Phytopharm — Baiya Phytopharm is a plant-based pharmaceutical company utilising BaiyaPharming protein expression platform to produce recombinant molecular proteins from tobacco leaves. The platform has the flexibility to produce biopharmaceutical products within weeks rather than months or years, which results in faster results and fewer costs in R&D. These biological products of interest can be active ingredients in cosmetics, diagnostic test kits, drugs, or even vaccines.
2. Cortical Labs — Cortical Labs grows biological computer chips by incorporating human neurons in processors. Named Dishbrain, this “brain on a chip” is meant to eventually take over tasks that can be automated. Dishbrain may also have applications in the robotics field, with its ability to process the vast amounts of input data that a robot may encounter in real-life scenarios.
3. EyRIS — EyRIS uses an AI deep learning system to detect eye diseases. Its first DLS solution, SELENA+, performs automated image analysis for eye diseases such as diabetes retinopathy, with add-ons for glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. The company can also provide tele-ophthalmology services.
4. Gero — Gero uses AI to develop new drugs that can slow down aging and cure diseases. Its AI technology can identify rare mutations sufficiently affecting health from real-world big clinical, genetic, and molecular data. It then suggests druggable targets and uses drugs to reduce or minimise the effect of the mutation to treat the disease.
5. MiRXES — MiRXES pioneered a highly sensitive, specific, and robust detection technology for microRNA (miRNA) in the early 2000s. The company brought its technology from laboratory to clinic. In 2019, MiRXES launched GASTROClear, the world’s first microRNA blood test for the early detection of gastric cancer. The technology platform invented by MiRXES covers the entire workflow, from product design to manufacturing and clinical.
6. Nusantics — Nusantics analyses microbiomes to create biomedical solutions that fulfill consumer needs. It is the only genome tech startup in Indonesia. The startup first introduced its technology to the beauty industry. Its Nusantics Hub performs a facial swab test for consumers to assess and score the skin’s microbiome diversity.
7. SpeQtral — SpeQtral is developing space-based quantum systems for the global delivery of secure encryption keys. The SpeQtral team is known for being the first and only team in the world that has demonstrated a miniaturised source of entangled photons in space.
8. Transcelestial — Transcelestial is a laser communications startup that provides a point-to-point wireless communication network. Its infrastructure, requiring zero spectrum costs or right-of-way, combines 10 Gbps speed with the security of fiber optic cables. With a space laser network, it can potentially replace wireless networks and deliver high-speed internet anywhere on earth, potentially benefiting four billion people globally who do not have internet access.
9. WIR Group — WIR Group aims to enhance the metaverse for everyone through developing Web 3.0 software solutions using digital reality technology (AR, VR, AI). It provides creative advertising services using AR technology to interact with consumers and provides a virtual retail store network to facilitate offline retail outlets.
10. Yobite — Yobite uses Freeze Dried Technology to produce dried yogurt, and is the first company in Vietnam to successfully do so. It utilises a few technologies such as fermenting technology, food technology, and freeze-dried technology. The company participated in Startup Wheel 2022 and emerged in the top ten.

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

• Impact

Startups that have brought about significant grassroots-level advancements where they operate

1. Agrabah Ventures — Agrabah Ventures creates better opportunities for Filipino farmers and fishermen by providing a stable market channel that connects them directly with consumers and ensures that their produce is purchased at a fair price. It arranges the delivery of agricultural produce from farming communities to enterprises through a seamless digital experience of automated logistics bookings.
2. Amaan — Amaan aims to empower women microentrepreneurs across Indonesia by providing them with an integrated sharia digital platform. The platform offers aid via both financial and non-financial solutions, such as access to loans and savings accounts, learning content, health consultations, bookkeeping tools, and everything needed to manage both a business and a household.
3. Bidanku — Bidanku, which translates to “My Midwife” in Bahasa Indonesia, empowers and supports midwives and mothers in rural Indonesia through AI. Midwives are key providers of maternal and child health services in Indonesia’s small towns and rural communities, providing care and support for women during pregnancy and labor.
4. Magorium — Magorium is a deep-tech startup with a solution to the world’s plastic waste problem. Through advanced processes and equipment, their technology converts plastic waste into an innovative synthetic material, NEWBitumen. So far, Magorium has recycled 4,500 kg of plastic waste into NEWBitumen to build roads, and has reduced more than 1,000 kg of natural resources consumed for road construction.
5. Mio — Mio is a group buying platform that focuses on selling fresh produce and groceries in Tier 2 and 3 cities in Vietnam. Its mission is to bring financial independence to women in lower-tier cities and rural areas by enabling them to become micro-entrepreneurs by acting as sales partners in community trade.
6. Saora Industries — Saora Industries utilises affordable and green technology without compromising the environment, and making a positive impact on underprivileged and marginalised communities. According to Saora, it has purified 11,388,00 liters of water and helped 5200 beneficiaries across 42 initiatives and 24 project sites.
7. Sati App — Sati App is an on-demand peer support mental health app with the mission to create an army of empathetic listeners who are available around the clock for their users. The application links users to a trained volunteer listener as soon as one is needed. With a limited number of mental health professionals available, Sati App is tackling the lack of accessibility and affordability for mental health care in a low-resource setting.
8. Super — Super works with local communities to address challenges in conventional retail and supply chain management in lower-tiered cities and rural areas, especially in East Java. Low purchasing power and a small transaction volume per household, combined with deficient infrastructure, cause prices to be higher in rural areas.
9. Umitron — Umitron is a Singapore and Japan-based deep tech company aiming to solve worldwide food and environmental problems by empowering aquaculture with technology to achieve a more sustainable footprint. Over the past few years, they have developed products exclusively for the aquaculture industry using a combination of IoT, satellite remote sensing, and AI technology.
10. Zennya — Zennya is a digital health and wellness platform that delivers on-demand or scheduled clinical-grade healthcare and wellness services, including corporate health management. It makes use of a mobile app booking system to provide users with easy access to its extensive list of digital health services from its own providers.

• Launchpads

Educational institutions, incubators, and accelerators that have provided safe environments to nurture great startups

1. BLOCK71 (NUS) — An initiative by NUS Enterprise in partnership with government and corporate organisations, BLOCK71 is a community-based incubation program that provides mentorship and growth opportunities in local and global markets. Each startup is provided a unique experience, optimised based on the research capabilities and technologies of the university, and the investment and business acumen of its partners.
2. CU Innovation Hub — Chulalongkorn University’s Innovation Hub organises competitions and events to encourage and develop the creativity, critical thinking, and entrepreneurial skills of its students and staff. These include the Chula Innovation Club, which was opened in August 2022, and the Chimnovate Hackathon, which connects startups with industry experts and resources in the context of real-world challenges.
3. Draper Startup House — Draper Startup House positions itself as a digital innovation studio and a members’ club for startups, offering funding opportunities for startups of all stages. It is host to a diverse pool of global angel investors, syndicates, VCs, and other startup investors.
4. IMDA Innovation Team — The IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority) Innovation Team comprises both IMDA Pixel and IMDA Open Innovation Platform. PIXEL is an innovation space for corporates and start-ups to learn about the latest technology, and ideate, experiment, and build user-centric digital products.
5. Indigo — Created and run by Telkom Indonesia, Indigo is a startup incubator and accelerator that offers startups co-working spaces, funding of up to IDR 2 billion, and mentoring support from a pool of over 50 notable local and global mentors. Its Indigo Game Startup Incubation program is the first game industry incubator in Indonesia, offering game startups mentorship and support from the pre-production to pre-alpha testing stage.
6. QBO Innovation Hub — QBO offers Philippine startups the opportunities to explore synergies with corporates, government, the academe, and other ecosystem stakeholders in awareness and education initiatives, as well as customised innovation programs. Via its incubation program INQBATION, startups gain access to capital, resources, mentorship, and opportunities to connect with investors.
7. ScaleUp Malaysia — Scaleup Malaysia is an accelerator for companies looking to scale and grow, offering an MYR 200,000 (USD 42,185) investment for startups selected to take part in ScaleUp’s acceleration programs. ScaleUp educates founders and entrepreneurs that are building businesses with high revenue growth and helps them identify a path to profitability.
8. SMU Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SMU IIE) — SMU IIE provides incubatees with access to state-backed equity-free grants, mentorship support, and access to masterclasses and office hours organised by SMU IIE. SMU IIE also runs the Business Innovations Generator (BIG), a four-month coaching program designed to help early-stage founders validate their products and get ready for seed-stage investment.
9. UEH Institute of Innovation (UEH UII) — UEH UII organises training courses and programs for entrepreneurship and innovation, suited for startup projects, small and medium enterprises, and organisations in general. The company also runs an innovation lab for research and tech transfer projects. UEH UII organises incubation programs that last six months each, where incubatees are connected with a network of mentors and experts and provided with one-on-one training.
10. UPSCALE Innovation Hub — UPSCALE is both an incubator and an accelerator. It runs three programs: UP Enterprise for pre-revenue startups, Ignite Innovation Lab for market-driven industry collaborations and product developments, and entreLEAD, a program to help venture-backed startups with traction to scale up. UPSCALE’s programs are co-run with the support of partners, including USAID and Deloitte.

• Investors 

Equity firms that provide the fuel startups need to grow, and are evaluated for the impact they showcase

1. Alpha JWC — Alpha JWC Ventures is an Indonesia-based venture capital firm that invests in early-to-growth stage startups in Southeast Asia. It is one of the region’s largest and best-performing early-stage funds, with its AUM estimated to be worth USD 650 million. The firm invests in early-stage—or pre-seed, seed, and pre-Series A—and is often the first institutional investor on a startup’s cap table.
2. East Ventures — East Ventures provides multi-stage investment for over 200 companies in Southeast Asia, recording more than USD 86 billion of annualised gross merchandise value in aggregate by its portfolio. East Ventures has had 48 exits according to Crunchbase, the most notable being Mercari, RedMart, and Kite.
3. Gobi Partners — Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai, Gobi Partners has USD 1.5 billion in AUM to date, supporting entrepreneurs from the early to growth stages. It has raised 15 funds to date and has invested in over 320 startups. Gobi has also nurtured nine unicorns, namely Animoca, Amber, Prenetics, Carsome, AutoX, WeLab, GoGoX, Airwallex, and Esign.
4. iGlobe Partners — Founded in Silicon Valley in 1999, iGlobe Partners now has its headquarters in Singapore. Since its founding, the firm has managed funds exceeding USD 500 million for its investors. iGlobe’s panel of partners and advisors collectively bring decades of technology investment experience through multiple economic cycles.
5. Kickstart — Kickstart is a wholly-owned corporate venture capital firm of Globe Telecom, the Philippines’ leading mobile operator. Today, Kickstart advises the Ayala Corporation Technology Innovation Venture (ACTIVE) Fund, the largest venture capital fund coming out of the Philippines at USD180 million.
6. Quest Ventures — Quest Ventures is headquartered in Singapore, with locations in China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, and the USA. It has invested in over 100 startups that operate in more than 150 cities across Asia, including 2 unicorns Carousell and Carro. Quest Ventures provides accelerator solutions, communities, mentoring, and talent recruitment to its portfolio companies.
7. ThinkZone Ventures — ThinkZone Ventures focuses on Seed to Series A tech startups from diverse verticals, with investment sizes of up to USD 3 million. The company also invests in accelerator-stage startups with investment sizes ranging from USD 50,000 to USD 100,000. ThinkZone provides startups with support via ThinkZone Accelerator, which has the largest scale of support value in Vietnam.
8. Venturra Capital — Venturra Capital focuses on Indonesia and Southeast Asia, and invests in early growth stage consumer technology-enabled companies, covering eCommerce, financial services, healthcare, and education sectors. It has raised a total of USD 150 million in a single venture fund, Venturra Capital Venture Fund, which was launched in 2015.
9. Vertex Ventures SEAI — Vertex Ventures SEAI has over USD 7 million in assets under management, with which it invests in startups at seed and series A or B rounds. It has made 81 investments and 12 exits so far, the most notable exits being Grab, Yatra, and GlowRoad. Vertex Ventures SEAI has also invested in five unicorns, namely Grab, Patsnap, FirstCry, Xpressbees, and Nium.
10. Vietnam Silicon Valley (VSV) Capital — The first Vietnamese accelerator and early-stage VC firm, VSV Capital has USD 7 million AUM. Since its inception, VSV Capital has made over 80 investment deals from pre-seed to Series B and had five exits including Base and CyHome. The company takes a hands-on approach and works with startups in all aspects of their businesses, including product development, financial modeling and customer development, talent recruitment, corporate governance, and fundraising.

The awardees will receive their accolades at the Apsara Conference, to be held on November 4, in China, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

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This article was produced by Alibaba Cloud Project AsiaForward and distributed by e27

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The MoneySmart Group, which operates financial content and comparison platforms in Singapore and Hong Kong, plans to list on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) via a reverse takeover deal with hotel operator Asia Pacific Strategic Investments (APS).

According to a press release, the deal is worth US$161.7 million.

The purchase consideration will be satisfied by the issuance of new ordinary shares in Asia-Pacific Strategic Investments, which will collectively represent 80 per cent of the company’s enlarged share capital upon the expected completion of the acquisition and a listing within H1 2023.

Also Read: How did MoneySmart grow its revenue by 25 per cent amidst a pandemic?

Hotel operator APS has been in talks for a reverse takeover of the MoneySmart personal finance portal.

The listing on the SGX will help 13-year-old MoneySmart to raise capital for its strategic plans in Singapore and the region.

With the capital, MoneySmart anticipates rapid growth through investments in its membership and rewards programmes. In addition, it will also power other strategic partnerships through potential M&As.

The MoneySmart Group will also invest significantly in its new insurance brand Bubblegum. Launched earlier this year with car and travel insurance, Bubblegum aims to redefine the insurance experience for all customers.

Founded in 2009, MoneySmart Group operates financial content and comparison platforms in Singapore and Hong Kong. It provides aggregation, comparison, and financial advisory services for mortgage and insurance products to help customers make the best decisions with their money (loans, insurance or credit cards). MoneySmart also provides readers tips, tricks, news, reviews and commentary on money.

Also Read: Don’t know which credit card to use for a bill? MoneySmart’s new app has the answer

In 2017, MoneySmart raised S$14 million (then US$10 million) in a Series B round led by Kakaku.com, a Japanese online service provider. Existing investors SPH Media Fund and Golden Gate Ventures also participated.

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Gen Zers not only know what they want; they are more likely to seek out opportunities to get it. 

Innovative companies are recognising this impact and developing tactics to address Gen Zs, which is why as a business owner, it is time to shift your mindset to embrace this new generation of workers. 

According to a 2022 study conducted by Deloitte, “By 2025, Gen Z will make up 27 per cent of the workforce in OECD countries and one-third of the Earth’s population.” If this statistic doesn’t inform you how important it is to understand and cater to this new generation, I don’t know what will. 

Well-being is of utmost priority for Gen Zs. They want plenty of opportunities to develop, and that is how they choose their workplace. According to Forbes, 

• 32 per cent of Gen Z’s choose their workplace based on a good work/life balance 
• 29 per cent based on learning and development opportunities
• Lastly, 24 per cent based on a good salary 

Most Gen Z’s are not looking at jobs that can offer them the best salary. That is not top of their mind. Instead, well-being is.

They are individuals that are highly aware of social and environmental issues and do not shy away from taking action to live the life that they desire. They are individuals that are aspirational but are not willing to give up their work-life balance to enter the rat race. 

Is your workplace ready for this group of young professionals? If not, here are 10 ways to build initiatives at your workplace to support the future of work.

Also Read: NaaS is here to create resilient networks, are you game?

10 ways to start supporting Gen Zs at work and set up young talent for success

• Foster a positive environment so that they have a purpose-driven employee experience.
• Provide them with a safe space to learn. Always work towards formulating a good work/life balance, allowing them to learn and develop. This can be done through online learning, in-house training, or mentorship.
• Facilitate better communication with them. This is crucial, especially if your team is working remotely. The usage of project management tools like Monday.com, Trello, Asana and screen recording apps like Loom helps to build effective communication across teams too.  
• Give them the flexibility to work remotely because benefits like that will enable them to become more productive and out-put driven.
• Set up incentives. Schedule (and pay for!) team lunches or coffee breaks periodically to show them your appreciation. 
• Create challenges and embrace gamification, which can also be done remotely through features on communication channels like Slack and Gather.
• Organise monthly team bonding events – social events and outings, to adapt to a new remote work lifestyle. Even if you are physically apart, you can also organise virtual team-building initiatives. Some examples include Virtual Escape Rooms and Virtual Amazing Race. 
• Foster job satisfaction, look into their personal development and offer training. Companies like General Assembly offers corporate training packages to serve this purpose. 
• Be open and strategic toward sharing future company plans. Gen Zs want to know how a company is performing regularly, and they want to play a part in how they can contribute to the company’s north star metric, so it is important to keep them in the loop at all times.
• Ask them for insights and feedback on how to improve your business processes. You can do so using tools like Free Suggestion Box, Incognea, Peachymondays and Tinypulse.  When you are entrenched in projects, your team will often develop insights you may not see as a business owner.

Start building or refining these initiatives because being able to constantly innovate and adapt will give your company a tremendous competitive advantage down the road!

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The race towards winning the customer experience has considerably accelerated with rising competition among players around the globe and growing customer expectations. Nowadays, customers have become much more impatient than ever before as they have many other brand choices lined up, craving for their attention and eagerly promoting themselves as the best brand in town. As a result, even if a company goes to great lengths to perfect its customer journey, one bad encounter can ruin its reputation and prompt customers to try something new.

According to a survey, 86% of customers expressed their willingness to pay a premium price for a high-quality customer experience, and over 70% of them selected customer experience as a deciding factor when choosing brands. Moreover, modern customers comprised mainly of Millennials and Generation Z, also have very different expectations and consumption behaviours. Therefore, it is critical to revisit the drive of customer experience and factors affecting their engagement and loyalty. 

The evolution of the customer experience landscape

Without a doubt, digital technologies have become entrenched in customer experience, assisting their engagement with a business from the first phase of information search to the final phase of purchasing and consumption. Furthermore, following the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital transformation process has picked up at an unprecedented speed, evolving constantly with the introduction and refinement of more advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning. Additionally, customers have demanded a more personalised experience, yearning for a service that best suits their needs and makes them feel special.

Also read: We need to accelerate progress at the frontier of innovation

Nonetheless, despite the quick development of digital infrastructure that considerably facilitates access to digital applications, digital transformation is by no means inexpensive. In fact, the total global spending on the digitalisation process has been estimated to reach $1.78 trillion in 2021, and it will be almost $7 trillion over the period of 2020 – 2023. Additionally, with high demands for customisation for increasingly personalised services and continuous changes in the external environment, it is no longer optimal for businesses to opt for a one-size-fits-all digital solution. Therefore, many small and medium enterprises have difficulties when embarking on their digital transformation journey.

How Sendbird empowers businesses to build unique and branded customer experience

When Sendbird first started, it also encountered the same mentioned issues as it shopped for an effective customer engagement solution. “When we first began, we just built a solution that we wanted to use for our own mobile consumer application. We couldn’t find one that was modern, easy to use, and mobile-focused in the market back then, so we had to invent one for ourselves. Our goal was to enable user-to-user conversations within social apps and games. As we onboarded more customers, we started to see that simply enabling a chat experience was not the ultimate goal for customers. They wanted to create communities, facilitate transactions, connect doctors to patients, complete food deliveries, send money, and help people date and start families. We are now seeing businesses go beyond user-to-user conversations, into marketing and support conversations as well. Hence, customers pulled us into the customer engagement space over time,” shared Sendbird regarding how the company found its mission.

To address the challenges, Sendbird introduced the two ground-breaking selling points for its application. First, by offering customers APIs and software-as-a-service, Sendbird enables customers to minimise the complexity of building and maintaining the software services on their own and connect them with needed services and information.

Additionally, APIs free businesses from having to use a pre-packaged product like a SaaS tool that lock them into their in-the-box user interface and user experience. On the other hand, companies can use APIs to tailor the software services to create their desired customer experience, but they don’t have to start from scratch which significantly reduces the costs of their digitalisation process. Through this, Sendbird brings back the power of human conversations which lie at the heart of building every meaningful human relationship and getting things done.

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

“Whether ordering food at your favourite restaurant, buying a product at a marketplace from a seller, getting help from your doctor, or meeting the love of your life, we all rely on conversations. But in mobile experiences, some of these relationships are lost, and what’s worse, in the areas of marketing and support, the existing experiences today are transactional or unidirectional, so there’s no real relationship between brands and customers,” emphasised Sendbird. “We can evolve this into a bidirectional experience in marketing, as well as improving a ticket-based, transactional support experience into asynchronous and persistent conversations with the brand, giving customers and brands the chance to form lasting and loyal relationships,” they added.

Sendbird was determined to power businesses with the ability to send marketing messages as well as connect customers with support agents, delivering differentiated customer experiences. The company recognised that while messaging apps provided businesses with a floor to connect with a ready base of customers, they have a ceiling on the quality of experiences businesses could deliver to customers. For example, the latest case of spamming on WhatsApp in India where customers have become frustrated with being spammed with marketing promotions in what once used to be a private channel for connecting with friends and family. Consequently, Sendbird anticipated that more and more messaging would start to move inside the businesses’ own mobile app, allowing businesses to also reimagine workflows with messaging and reinvent the entire customer journey.

Sendbird’s continuous journey to lead market innovations

To become the pioneering market leader it is today, Sendbird has constantly evolved to adapt to the market, the customers, and its employees. For instance, Sendbird always tries to keep a beat in the market about the shift to app-based messaging as a way for businesses to communicate and engage with customers through thought leadership content, presence in industry forums, partnerships with other customer engagement companies, and various channels to create awareness. The company also provides programmes for both companies that are just starting out on their just customer engagement journey as well as those that are shifting their customer engagement strategy to using messaging inside their mobile apps. 

“When we first started, it was merely a dream to be able to partner even with just a few. Today, we are helping more than a quarter of a billion people every month to have conversations, and we have a real chance of powering over a billion people every day. This may seem obvious today, but it certainly was a surprise when we went from just a million users a month to 10M, then now well over 250M monthly users. We were able to partner with some of the largest brands in the world”, expressed Sendbird about the company’s proudest achievements.

Also read: Going the extra mile in digital innovation for Singapore’s commuter experience

With the core value of “Endless tenacity for customers”, Sendbird engaged with customers as though they are an extension of their team — helping them imagine and build customer experiences that serve their unique business needs. Sendbird holds at its heart the belief that with heightened globalisation, innovation is flowing across the boundaries of nations, and what used to be just a Silicon Valley thing is now a phenomenon happening across the globe. 

Sendbird expects an exciting future in which more ideas come from different parts of the world and get cross-pollinated. There will be an evolution of mobile marketing and support in the coming years. The user experience will become much more modern, mobile-native, and interactive with the rise of a secular trend of a new generation of customer engagement. Sendbird will continue doing what it has been doing best, powering more brands to build conversations with their customers across marketing and support, and introducing a novel and powerful set of tools and experiences for businesses and their customers.

About Sendbird

Sendbird believes conversations are at the heart of building relationships and getting things done. As such, it built the world’s most proven conversations platform for mobile apps across chat, voice, and video. Industry leaders like Reddit, DoorDash, and Hinge use Sendbird to drive increased transactions and loyalty for hundreds of millions of users every month.

Sendbird has over 250M MAUs from over 50 countries operating in industries ranging from marketplaces, ride-sharing, online communities, gaming, live video streaming, and healthcare. The company is headquartered in San Mateo, CA with additional offices in New York, London, Seoul, Singapore, and Bengaluru. Sendbird has raised over $220M from leading investors, including ICONIQ Capital, STEADFAST Capital Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Shasta Ventures, Softbank Vision Fund 2, and Y Combinator.

For more information, visit Sendbird’s official website here.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Sendbird.

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FishLog, an ecosystem enabler for the fisheries cold chain industry in Indonesia, has closed its US$3.5 million pre-Series A round from BRI Ventures, Accel, Insignia Ventures Partners, Patamar Capital, Indogen Capital, and Triputra Agri Group.

FishLog was established in 2020 by Bayu Anggara, Reza Fahlepi, and Abdul Halim to solve the fragmentation in cold chain fisheries in Indonesia.

Also Read: The future of farming in the Asia Pacific is here to empower farmers

The agritech startup improves cold storage, processor, and distribution in Indonesia’s fisheries to enable the industry to meet global supply and demand better. It activates fisheries coastal areas by establishing FishLog Quality Centers, an O2O hybrid platform that works with local cold storage partners. These centres provide local stakeholders, including fishermen, aggregators and traders, greater access to buyers by listing their inventory in the FishLog marketplace and digitising their operation.

FishLog also enables fisheries businesses to maximise upstream-to-downstream operations through its four products: inventory handling, financing, B2B marketplace, and cold storage digitisation.

The fresh funding will allow FishLog to improve this ecosystem of services further by providing existing players greater access to tools, operating models, and liquidity, and enhancing the industry’s ability to process products and SKUs.

Bayu Anggara, CEO and Co-Founders of FishLog, said, “While there is massive global business potential for the Indonesian fisheries sector, it has long been plagued by inefficiencies and fragmentation. Our mission at FishLog is to unlock the selling potential and maximise the storage utility of Indonesia’s fragmented fishing industry, building the best and most affordable way to ensure product and labour sustainability in the industry.”

Also Read: eFishery secures US$32M loan from DBS Indonesia to support expansion move

“Through this funding, we will continue to build the cold chain ecosystem enabler and operating system for the fisheries in Indonesia. Our vision is for all stakeholders in the sector to be able to participate productively in this industry, transacting safely, trusted by and seamlessly integrated,” he added.

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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.

Gunalan Ram is a marketing strategy leader with over 20 years of experience across project management, consulting, account strategy, and customer success encompassing multiple sectors and functions. 

He currently leads the influencer marketing and marketing strategy practice at CINNOX, a total experience platform that empowers team members and delivers an omnichannel experience to customers.

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

In this candid interview, Ram talks about her personal and professional life.

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

When five-year-olds visit Toys R Us, they are greeted by a breathtaking view of toys, games and educational products. Like how the kids enjoy personalised experiences through open play areas, interactive displays and spaces for special events and birthday parties, giving the kid a sense of joy and engagement.

This is what I do. I’m part of the marketing team, driving the marketing strategy of CINNOX. I help businesses build better relationships with their customers through personalised interactions.

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

I must admit there were many challenges in my career. But through challenges, there lie opportunities as well. For every job I have taken up, I learned the art of executing tasks through teamwork and guided decision-making.

I consider all work success as my highlights. I prefer not to single out any one of them. As long as I’ve displayed a strong commitment to the task and provided value to the other party, I consider that an achievement. 

Highlights could also be seen in forming good relationships with your team members and stakeholders.

Also Read: Dream loud, dream big and dream now: Surbhi Agarwal of Yellow.ai

For now, I’m learning and soaking in my role as a Strategic Marketeer at CINNOX. The biggest challenge in this job is not the product but the chaotic marketplace itself. Information overload leaves people confused and unable to reach any decision. How do I overcome or differentiate my point of view in such a cluttered scenario?

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

I don’t have a mystic crystal ball, so I can’t predict the future. We are living in a world that moves and changes so rapidly. What excites me is I am constantly challenged with new things to learn in my current position.

We can no longer adopt a cookie-cutter approach. Marketing has evolved so much over the years, from traditional to digital. Digital marketing is an entirely different beast from traditional one. As I’m already in my mid-40s, I hope to press on learning and strategising the best way to reach the audience.

That said, I’m very fortunate to discover CINNOX. The solution is not just a unified platform that helps employees and customers but an ecosystem for a user journey, be it a startup to an enterprise.

The platform’s capabilities constantly keep me wanting to have a deep understanding of the business. I always believe that the more you understand how a company and product are positioned, the more valuable asset you will be. This is not just for a marketer but for anyone.

So at least for the next few years, I hope to build trust and reputation for the brand.

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

My first job after my National Service lasted 15 years. I lived in a bubble, never getting out to venture into other domains.

In the company name CINNOX, if you take the first and last letters, CX = Customer Experience. The middle four letters, INNO = Innovation.

Though we are a startup launched in 2020, our parent company M800 was founded by a group of telecommunication pioneers in 2007 with a vision to revolutionise global communications.

What are some of your favourite work tools?

I love working on Google Workspace, though I don’t use them in my current work. We use M365 a lot to get our work done.

In my previous job, I used Jira for product development. I dabbled with project management tools like Trello and Miro occasionally, and I enjoyed the latter because of its visual strategy mapping.

For team collaboration and communication, it’s none other than our brand, CINNOX. I can use it to chat and voice/video-call my team members. Share and screen share our projects.

Do you prefer WFH or WFO, or hybrid?

I prefer a hybrid approach as it gives more freedom and autonomy. This enables me to fit my work and life together, reduces stress and helps prevent burnout.

Sometimes, it is healthy to see your colleagues at the workplace and talk about work and other matters outside of work. It helps to understand each other better, strengthens relationships, and improves communication. Going out for lunch or even a drink after work encourages team bonding.

Also Read: ‘Don’t chase titles; chase curiosity and let it lead you’: Bernadette Cho of Entrepreneur First

That said, I’m a remote worker based in Singapore. CINNOX is headquartered in Hong Kong. As such, I work from anywhere (WFA) because our platform enables us to work entirely online.

The only advice I would probably give is to try to have more human interaction to foster mental well-being. This will strengthen the connections that make teams thrive.

What would you tell your younger self?

Always be open to learning. Every day is a learning journey. If there is an opportunity to travel, go for it. Learn new cultures and meet people. The most important thing is not to underestimate anyone.

Can you describe yourself in three words?

Passionate, trustworthy and curious.

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

Binge-watching on Netflix, Prime, and Disney with my teenage children, I go shopping with my wife (reluctantly, lol), work out at the gym, and spend time with friends.

What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?

I’m always on Spotify when I work—listening to jazz, classical, and instrumental beats. Something to keep me calm, focused, and think better.

I like reading novels, and they must have an interesting start, or I’ll get bored quite easily. Recently I’ve been reading some non-fiction/self-help books. I just finished with The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli. It’s a psychology-based book for anyone who wants to make better decisions in life.

I love watching movies, any kind, as long as the story is good. Sci-fi, suspense, thriller, hero saves the world, comedy, documentary, reality, etc. Recently, I finished watching Stranger Things with my kids and was blown away by the creativity of the storyline. Currently, I’m watching Somebody Feed Phil, Season 6, a popular food and travel series by Phil Rosenthal.

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Partior, a blockchain-powered cross-border payment and value exchange, has closed its Series A financing round led by Standard Chartered.

Existing shareholders DBS, JP Morgan, and Temasek have also participated.

The transaction, whose details haven’t been disclosed, is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

The investment will help strengthen Partior’s vision and drive for the broad adoption of atomic settlement and clearing. The company recently announced its 2023 product expansion and launched its Hyderabad Research and Development Centre after atomising cross-border value movements last October.

Partior CEO Jason Thompson said: “Our vision has always been to transform global payments and become the worldwide ledger for financial institutions’ value exchange. Standard Chartered is one of the most established international banks in the industry and is a strategic partner to diversify our network and scale the delivery of our technology globally.”

Also Read: ‘Trade & supply chain sector is set to witness unprecedented blockchain adoption’: #dltledgers

Partior was founded last year by JP Morgan, DBS and Temasek as an independent company.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore-backed company aims to make digital clearing and settlement more efficient, reliable and secure for financial institutions worldwide. It harnesses the key features of blockchain and smart contracts (programmability, immutability and traceability) to address the industry’s longstanding pain points.

With Standard Chartered joining the Partior network, it will serve as one of the integrated Euro settlement banks. This creates synergy and strengthens Partior’s plan to scale its offering globally. Partior is on track to deliver its currency offerings of USD, SGD, GBP, EUR, AUD, JPY, CNH and HKD.

On the other hand, the investment will deepen Standard Chartered’s blockchain innovation capabilities to build a more transparent, efficient and secure infrastructure for global value movement. It will also further accelerate its deployment of blockchain technology across its global wholesale payments and settlements financial network and scale the delivery of Partior’s technology to global capital markets.

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Advancements in cloud computing have transformed the business landscape in the last few decades. More companies are kickstarting digital transformations to keep up with their tech-savvy competitors and meet the needs of their digitally-driven customers.

However, making a companywide transition to the cloud might seem intimidating, particularly for organisations that still rely on legacy systems. Before small businesses migrate to the cloud, they should consider several important factors, including cost, availability, security and availability.

Here are the benefits of migrating to the cloud and some tips to keep in mind to make the process simple and effective: 

Five benefits of cloud migration for businesses

Cloud computing for enterprises involves running cloud-based application software on various servers across the internet. More businesses are using the cloud than ever before.

Research shows that over 60 per cent of all corporate data is stored in the cloud, and that figure will rise in the coming years. One reason the cloud will become more ubiquitous in business is the widespread remote work trend. More people are working at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so companies need cloud technology to support their employees.

Also Read: Cloud communications firm Toku nets US$5M Series A+ for APAC expansion

Below are some primary benefits businesses can reap from migrating to the cloud:

Data accessibility

Cloud services allow users to access these applications from any location with internet access, which helps businesses with remote workers. Because the cloud transmits data over the internet, there’s no need for employees to work near physical hardware in an office. Anyone with proper credentials can access the company cloud, a centralised, web-based information hub. 

Scalability

Modern businesses need digital solutions that can scale up or down, depending on needs. For example, companies using the cloud can adjust the number of users if new employees join the team or others resign. 

Cost-effectiveness

The most popular cloud service providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), offer a pay-as-you-go model. These subscriptions allow companies to only pay for essential services, which helps reduce unnecessary expenses. 

Security

A significant benefit of using the cloud is enhanced security. Cybersecurity must be a priority for virtually every company. Therefore, organisations should invest in solutions that will protect their sensitive data. 

However, no IT environment is completely secure in today’s cybersecurity landscape. More businesses are moving to the cloud, and it’s becoming an increasingly popular target for hackers. The cloud is highly secure, but companies must utilise other preventive security measures to protect themselves.

Business continuity

Another benefit of using the cloud is business continuity. The cloud will come in handy if an organisation experiences a disaster, such as a cyberattack or hardware failure. 

Cloud computing solutions offer suitable storage options for companies in an emergency. Their IT systems are usually accessible from remote locations to keep operations running smoothly.

While this is not an exhaustive list, it does provide a glimpse into how businesses can benefit from the cloud. 

Tips for a seamless migration to the cloud

Follow some of these helpful tips to ensure your cloud migration process is successful:

Assess company needs

Before your company moves to the cloud, it’s important to identify why the transition is necessary, who will be affected by the change, a reasonable budget and other important considerations. 

Consider using the 80/20 rule when planning the migration: 80 per cent of your data will migrate easily, and 20 per cent might pose challenges. The 20 per cent is also referred to as “anchor workloads,” which are crucial to operations, create a complex IT infrastructure and are costly. Take them into account when planning your strategy.

Consider a piecemeal transition

Some organisations are eager to leverage the cloud and, as a result, transfer all their processes there. However, this could overwhelm your employees and cause more harm than good. 

Also Read: How can businesses improve their operating margin by controlling cloud costs

Consider migrating to the cloud over time and train your employees to get a feel for the new IT landscape. A slow transition approach will help the company adjust and fix any possible issues.

Outline roles and responsibilities

Migrating to the cloud might alter some of your employee’s roles and responsibilities. Keep them updated on these changes and what your departments should expect. All workers should be aware of the cloud migration and be ready to communicate during the process.

Your company’s IT department will play a significant role in the transition. IT professionals with experience in cloud tech will make a move easier. 

Choose a migration partner

Many cloud service providers offer helpful migration services for companies. These vendors know that more clients need assistance moving to the cloud, so they offer expert support to help facilitate the transition. 

Here are some of the most popular vendors with cloud migration services:

• Accenture
• Cognizant
• AWS
• Infosys
• IBM Managed Cloud Services
• Google Cloud
• Deloitte

These organisations and others simplify cloud migration to ensure the process is successful. 

Test, monitor and train

Once the company successfully migrates to the cloud, it’s important to run tests, monitor the new system and train employees on how to navigate the new environment. 

It might be challenging, particularly if seasoned employees are less tech-savvy than their younger peers. Employees must learn to leverage the cloud to fulfil their job responsibilities and contribute to the organisation.

Simplify cloud migration for your small business

The business landscape is rapidly changing. Companies must be agile, flexible and willing to adopt new technologies to align with their specific business objectives. 

Cloud technology is becoming increasingly widespread for all types and sizes of businesses. Migrating to the cloud will benefit your company, but only if the process is successful.

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Despite a record-breaking and highly promising 2021, global fintech funding has fallen short of expectations this year. In Q3 2022, funding dropped by 38 per cent from the previous quarter to US$12.9 billion. Also notable is how the mega-round share dropped to 34 per cent from the 66 per cent average recorded in 2021.

Such grim trends, exacerbated by restrictive macroeconomic conditions in Europe and globally, have led to a sharp reduction in the number of new fintech startups being created: an 80 per cent drop from last year’s.

Are investors losing faith in fintech? Should you?

The state of fintech investment in 2022

The decline in fintech investments speaks to the larger stock market downturn; it has particularly impacted growth stocks, which feature many fintech heroes. In 2022 H1, amidst the 20 per cent crash of the S&P 500 index, growth stocks in particular saw their stock values halved or even more significantly affected.

The fintech appeal lies in its long-term potential, with experts projecting a market value as high as US$700 billion by 2030. One closely related sector that recognises this is banking, as large banks are not slowing down in attempts to have a leg in fintech. Following in the footsteps of JP Morgan and the Bank of America, HSBC is one of the latest big banks to invest in fintech, staking US$35 million in Monese. 

Also Read: How is fintech different in Asia

The laggy growth rate in the fintech industry in 2022 has prompted these banks, which have demonstrated reluctance in the past, to identify opportunities for long-term strategic partnerships. Despite this trend, fintech are more willing to seek funding from VC firms than traditional banks due to the independence that the former might provide.

On the one hand, the unexpected growth in 2021, coming from a significant pandemic-motivated deterioration in 2020, has made a market consolidation inevitable as the market evens out. On the other hand, COVID-19 is not dead and buried yet, and even though the world seems to have returned to normalcy after the 2020 peaks, markets and economies continue to suffer from the short-term and long-term effects of the pandemic. 

However, one item of good news is that fintech companies are now more resilient, cybersecurity-wise, even though there is still a lot to be done. According to a WEF survey, it appeared that many firms took advantage of the pandemic downtime to enhance their cybersecurity infrastructures, which has been a major change.

Opportunities for fintech startups and investors

Presently, there is little doubt that 2023 VC investment in fintech will match 2021’s figures. But this particularly applies to late-stage deals.

While it may seem like overall investing activity is slowing, many early-stage startups are snapping up funding, which, even if lower than late-stage rounds, speak to the promising potential of the industry. Notably, digital lending has been going strong in this regard, with BNPL startups drawing massive interest from VCs and entrepreneurs. 

In particular, there are fewer regulatory obstacles in business lending compared with consumer financing. This creates a rich ground for innovative avenues toward profit-making while the debate on whether to categorise BNPL schemes as loans or otherwise continues.

More broadly, consumers (individuals and businesses) converge on certain major drivers, namely faster transactions, information security, and flexible cash flow management options. This also explains the rise of services like embedded finance.

It is also notable that the rise of fintech startups in recent years has been the response to perennial calls for more financial inclusion. Since 2011, the global unbanked population has reduced by 35 per cent as 1.2 billion unbanked adults have gained access to financial services. To achieve 100 per cent financial inclusion, it is pertinent to reach the over 1.7 billion adults still unbanked globally.

This is a major value proposition for emerging fintech startups; clearly, there is immense potential for growth in the sector. The liberating impact of fintech on underdeveloped and developing markets presents massive opportunities for disruptions in the coming years. 

Another important consideration for investors looking into fintech involves rising regulations for the industry. While the lack of stringent regulation for fintech startups (including neobanks) compared with traditional banks has enabled the former to innovate in ways that banks cannot, it contributes to the volatility of the industry.

Also Read: How payment networks are crucial to the rising fintech movement

However, with the clamour for fintech regulation becoming even more pressing, it remains to be seen if the industry’s startups might eventually lose some of their appeals. It is critical to watch how fintech startups respond to the growing need for more regulation as well as how regulators would attempt to balance risk containment with innovation-friendliness. 

Regardless, one vital channel that is opening for fintech startups is data analytics. Studies by KPMG and Mastercard emphasise the significance of data analytics to fintech growth in the coming years, to the extent that many fintech will seek to differentiate themselves by rebranding as data organisations providing financial services.

Empowering consumers with digital finance services requires acknowledging the need for hyper-personalised experiences, and data analytics and artificial intelligence are major keys to aligning with this demand.

Final thoughts

No sector received as much venture investment as fintech did in 2021, but we are in the final months of 2022, and it seems the glory days are well over. The goal for most established and new fintech is to help guide consumers through the struggling global economy toward personal financial stability. 

More so, opportunities keep expanding for collaboration in other sectors, such as the creator economy, whose rise has coincided with the fintech boost to support a new class of content-making entrepreneurs.

Fintech might be experiencing drought now, but that is not the end of the chapter, as there is still a lot of innovation yet to be captured, particularly via market expansions and the development of more financial technology infrastructure. 

There are plenty of reasons to be bullish on fintech startups in the coming months, but a conservative approach focused on long-term gains is the best way forward, given the present challenges of the sector and international economies in general.

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Across Southeast Asia, young professionals are struggling harder and longer than their parents and grandparents in their pursuit of owning a home. More often than not, owning a home will take up a chunk of their income and leaves no room for any semblance of financial freedom, causing stress and sometimes leading to debt.

However, younger Southeast Asians are no longer willing to put off having their own space and have found that renting a place can be the next best thing.

As a result, the stigma associated with renting is less apparent. Furthermore, with an increasing number of companies catering to the needs and concerns of the younger generation, a shift in perspective has come about. 

Renting is no longer seen as an unnecessary expense and a hindrance to the long-term goal of being a homeowner. Instead, it is now seen as an immediate and more flexible solution. 

Progressive structures for the younger generation

The conventional and restrictive structure of the real estate market no longer attracts younger and modern Southeast Asians.

This can be seen across the region, particularly in Singapore, where the landscape is continuously changing. Traditionally, the Housing & Development Board (HDB) scheme has enabled very high levels of home ownership.

However, with the rising prices of HDBs, especially in the resale market, coupled with the supply being unable to keep up with demand due to delays in the construction of Build-to-Order (BTO) properties, which can be as long as five or six years, home ownership in Singapore has declined over the years.

Also Read: Casa Mia, a Singapore coliving startup’s success story

This was further exacerbated by the pandemic, where many Singaporeans were cooped up with their families, prompting Singaporeans to opt for a more immediate solution.  

Furthermore, the requirements for owning an HDB are becoming more and more confining, with criteria indicating that one has to be married or above 35 years old to own a home. This does not gel well with the progressive population of young people who are less likely to be in traditional relationships and are choosing to get married later.

The alternative of waiting until age 35 to get a place is equally unattractive, and young people are no longer prepared to live with their parents until that age, hence the appeal of renting.  

In Indonesia, similar trends of declining home ownership have been observed. This is also due to the rising cost; according to data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the national share of households with a home of their own fell to just over 80 per cent last year from nearly 85 per cent in 1999. This is in line with the higher number of Indonesians renting a home at 37.71 per cent in 2020.

Additionally, with the greater focus on remote working, many Southeast Asians echo the same sentiments regarding home ownership and no longer feel the need to stay put in one place. This makes renting a more enticing option to cater to their mobile lifestyle. 

SEA’s home rental platform Cove leads a paradigm shift in the rental market

Cove, Southeast Asia’s leading one-stop home rental platform, saw that rental was growing everywhere. As experienced renters, the founders realised that the available offerings in the market were very sparse.

Having collectively rented over 30 properties in around 14 cities globally, the founders are familiar with the experience and the hurdles that young professionals have to go through to find suitable accommodation.

They understand the importance of homes to people and how homes are their safe spaces, where they live out many important moments in their lives. They held on to a belief that everyone, whether they rent or own, deserves to have a high-quality, comfortable place to live where they can feel a sense of belonging in.

To lead a shift in perspective amongst Southeast Asians, Cove knew the long-established rental processes had to change. Often tedious, antiquated and not tech-enabled, the undertaking alone can be a deterrent, with multiple agents, in-person viewings, poor listing websites and lots of paperwork.

In addition, there is often a prolonged process before tenants can settle down, namely, having to set up utilities, buy furniture and have very inflexible long contracts. 

Also Read: Throw your paper-based biz card away because Scard has a better alternative

With that in mind, Cove has used technology and a consumer-first approach to transform and make the experience more seamless. With flexible stays starting from three months only, everything is managed by state-of-the-art technology, from Virtual Reality (VR) tours to online booking and even the integration of smart home technology where possible.

The goal is to strengthen mindsets further that renting is the new norm. In just over four years, Cove has expanded its portfolio across Singapore and Jakarta to 6,000 rooms, more than 30 times the roughly 200 rooms it had in 2019.

The future of the rental market

Southeast Asia has always been conventionally a house-buying market, and stereotypes about renting have long been ingrained within the population. However, there has also been a growing acceptance that times are evolving and that a different approach is necessary.

Millennials and Gen Z now see renting as an investment in the quality of life rather than a “waste of money”. There has been a greater need to leave the nest earlier and live independently, enabling them to build life skills around budgeting and managing multiple responsibilities. 

Companies like Cove put renters at the core of their business by making renting more affordable through products like co-living, enabling young people to rent a place while still being able to save and ultimately buy a property in the future.

The all-inclusive nature of their offering also gives more visibility to utility costs. In addition, things like wifi and housekeeping are all included, reducing the administrative burden for people with limited time. 

Ultimately, renting a home is becoming the norm as younger professionals put their quality of life above anything else. However, the changing real estate market and mindsets call for more inclusive choices.

Businesses like Cove have kept up with the trends and placed people at the centre of their business model, evolving with their customers’ needs for a more sustainable and long-term outlook.

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

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