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Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy. With the rise of digital technology adoption, Indonesia’s economy is growing at a rapid pace, especially in its tier 2 and 3 cities. This is where the digital revolution is taking place as startups look to harness digital technology to empower small businesses and try to solve the inequalities in economic distribution. Alpha JWC Ventures is one of the region’s biggest venture capital firms (with a strong track record from 2015) trying to build a legacy of working with startups that are purely focused on growing the digital ecosystem in Indonesia.

Chandra Tjan is a successful venture capitalist who is a pioneer among VCs in Indonesia. He has invested in dozens of early-stage startups, including those that have grown to be unicorns like Carro, Kopi Kenangan and Ajaib. Chandra previously co-founded East Ventures and was an early investor and board member of e-commerce marketplace Tokopedia and all-in-one travel booking platform Traveloka.

With over a decade of experience in tech investment, Chandra has invested in more than 100 companies in Asia and the United States, having also inspired multiple companies along the way. 

“I got into investing in the very early days because I saw untapped potential in the Indonesian startup market and felt there was a lack of funding, support and a robust ecosystem at that time that allows Indonesian startups and founders to thrive and succeed,” Tjan explains.

And his sentiments were also felt by Jefrey Joe, general partner and co-founder of Alpha JWC Ventures, who was at the same time also looking at the evolving technology ecosystem in Indonesia and the growth of the internet economy. “I studied in Melbourne, Australia, and I started a DVD delivery startup back in 2004 when widespread internet penetration was still in a nascent stage,” said Joe about his beginnings as an entrepreneur who went on to launch businesses in several other sectors prior to Alpha JWC.

Also read: Scale your business across Southeast Asia with SLINGSHOT 2022

After working as a consultant at EY and Boston Consulting Group, and armed with an MBA from UCLA, Anderson, Jefrey made the transition into the startup world, going into the digital space as COO of Groupon, Indonesia which was then one of the largest tech companies in the region.

“After Groupon, I started a bill payment company called Alterra which made me realise that there isn’t much in terms of any support system for startup entrepreneurs and founders in Indonesia,” said the venture capitalist.

“Before I started AlphaJWC, I did a few angel investments and attended conferences in the US, and I saw a robust and mature tech ecosystem in the US. There were angel investors there, incubators like YC. Back then, I think my partner Chandra was one of the very few active investors in Indonesia- which showed how big the gap is in the market. After I met with Chandra, we strongly believed that our complementary skillsets and background could really close the huge gap in the VC space” he remarked.

In 2014 they started to formulate the plan together and by 2015 they officially launched Indonesia’s first independent and institutionalized VC firm. “It made a lot of sense because we believe that Indonesia, as the fourth largest country in the world in terms of population, should have a meaningful role to play in the global technology space,” added Joe.

“We have a big vision, and we think long term. Therefore being an independent and institutional firm is the first basic step for us. Also, my previous experience gave me valuable experience on not just setting up the fund, but how to run it.” Tjan further explained.

Since beginning in 2015, Alpha JWC founders Chandra Tjan and Jefrey Joe have grown their venture fund to an AUM of US$650 million.

A VC for the digital economy

As an entrepreneur turned VC, Joe believes the main difference between founding a startup and establishing a VC lies in the depth versus breadth of skills required. “Startup founders need to be focused in one vertical or industry, at least in the early days. While VCs invest and involve in many companies in different sectors. We need to act more like an enabler and value-added partner. Our ultimate goal is to increase the chance of success for entrepreneurs” he explained. 

Discussing the challenges faced by a VC, Joe says: “Frankly, I’ve been having a lot of fun. The success rate of startups is low and starting a new business is a lot of hard work. But we thrive and enjoy the process. Our founders know it’s hard but they’re made for the journey. So we all know what we signed up for, and in the process, working with these visionary, ambitious, talented entrepreneurs is a great experience,” expressed the co-founder of Alpha JWC.

Currently, Alpha JWC Ventures has a portfolio of around 70 companies representing USD 650 million in AUM. Joe believes the time is right for global investors to venture into the region: “From those 70’ish companies, more than two-thirds are Indonesia based. So, we are convincing the limited partners (LPs) that this is the right time to put their capital to work in Indonesia and that it’s the right time to invest”

Also read: Lalamove: Driving growth in eCommerce with last-mile deliveries

“​​It took us quite a long time to close the fund because back in 2016, there were no unicorns yet from Southeast Asia to speak of. There were some smaller exits here and there but the digital ecosystem was far from where it is today. We had to do a lot of work to convince people to invest when the ecosystem was not yet mature because not many people believed in our vision. We eventually won over our investors with our mission, strategy, experience, and vision for the Indonesian and regional startup scene,” Joe elaborated on the challenges of starting as a VC. 

While they are backing a lot of Indonesia-focused companies, when startups want to expand regionally, Tjan explained, “We either have direct access to investors across Southeast Asia or are one degree away from everyone in the space. So our network is one of the key assets because of how we have set up the fund. On the other hand, if any of the foreign startups would like to expand to Indonesia, we can definitely help them as we have done with other companies before.”

Differentiating Alpha JWC from other VCs

“Because we are entrepreneurs ourselves and both Indonesian, that is another unique positioning for us. I know the challenges in the space from the operational standpoint and the market standpoint. For example, how people inspect used cars before they buy in Japan, the US, India, China, or Indonesia are all different. The level of trust and the level of transparency in the market is different,” says Joe.

Being local, the Alpha JWC founders understand a lot about the market and that has contributed to the company’s success and how they build their team. They are not resting on their laurels in terms of performance but are on track to becoming one of the best-performing funds in the region.

Chandra says. “We invest in a laser-focused manner. Many funds larger than us usually come in at the Series B stage. Because we can lead from the seed stage up to Series B, we have a very tangible differentiation. It gives the founder many benefits when taking our capital because we can continue to support them in future rounds,” he pointed out.

Chandra believes that beyond their investments their firm adds value in additional ways: “We continue to lend support through our Alpha-X team when it comes to talent, organisation, marketing, branding and communications. Beyond that, we work side by side with our founders to set strategic direction, and mentorship, and also let them tap into our strong network of partners so that they can benefit and increase their chances of success,” he says.

“We have already been in the market for eight years, so the track record and reputation are certainly there. I can tell you how we add value. But our founders have spoken on our behalf many times with their testimonials,” remarked Joe.

Also read: How Singapore startups explore opportunities in Japan—and vice versa

While he admits the current economic outlook is uncertain, there is still value to be created here in Southeast Asia. “That’s why we need to be disciplined in terms of the valuation of early-stage startups. We need to focus on the right way and we always advise our startups to focus on getting their product and market fit right, get your fundamentals strong so that it can ride through good and bad market conditions.”

Joe further elaborated: “We always see what the right thing to do for the founders for the long term. We are long-term-minded and will still be here no matter what.”

Alpha JWC believes that you must build the right team that can spend enough time to understand the company. “We know about operations and execution, and because we are seeing a helicopter view of what’s happening in the market, locally and internationally, we can give founders valuable insights that are critical in shaping their business strategy,” he explained about their approach when it comes to advising startups.

Speaking about how they measure success, he said the metrics are black and white. “Our IRR are absolute and they are very precise. In terms of all those metrics we publish, it’s easy for you to see how we are performing, which a lot of our LPs are very happy with. For our founders, how do we measure success? We put a lot of emphasis on being a great partner to our founders, and we know that we have done a great job when our founders believe that we have made a meaningful impact in increasing their chance of success,” he added.

Putting Indonesia on the world map

In concluding the interview, Tjan remarked: “We want to put Indonesia on the map by creating value for investors along the way and making a lot of impact through what we do. Indonesia has a lot of potential and we want to make Indonesian startups known in a global space.

With his decade of experience in tech investments as one of the first Indonesian venture capitalists, Chandra knows how important it is to actively guide their portfolio companies. 

“Our founders’ successes are our successes. We only do well if our founders do well. With that said,  we are still in the early days and we can’t wait to see how this ecosystem will evolve in the next couple of years and hopefully, Alpha JWC could play an important role in guiding the next generation of successful entrepreneurs in building greater impact and legacy for Indonesia and maybe the world too”, Tjan added.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Alpha JWC Ventures

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GREENS, which aims to build a hyperlocal food ecosystem in Indonesia leveraging the AI and Web3 technologies, has secured an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding led by East Ventures, with participation from other unnamed investors.

The foodtech company will use the money to build the ecosystem for food decentralisation in two phases. Phase 1 will focus on enabling a food ecosystem by creating cloud networks of connected hyperlocal food outlets with the GREENS platform. In phase 2, the focus will be on Meta Farming, enabling everyone to grow food in the metaverse for self-consumption and sale.

Founded by Andi Sie (CEO), Geraldi Tjoa (CPO) and Erwin Gunawan (CBO), GREENS provides people with access to wellness through food.

GREENS’s solution is a hyperlocal food ecosystem where people can consume high-nutrient meals grown and harvested on-site using 90 per cent less water, 70 per cent less land, and zero distance from farm to the meal. It creates its technology platform on a blockchain network for parallel deployment in this world and the metaverse.

Also Read: Kra-Verse Food Hall where cloud kitchen meets metaverse

With multiple growing algorithms, it has built its first portable CEA (controlled environment agriculture) technology on the blockchain.

With meta farming, GREENS intends to democratise hyperlocal food with Web3 using agritech innovations in the form of a pod (GREENS pod) that utilises indoor cultivation systems, blockchain, AI and the Internet of Things to create decentralised food sources.

“The GREENS platform consists of a fully automated garden unit, named GREENS pod, that is modular, portable and plug-and-play. It is fully integrated for the production of high nutrient foods from seed to a complete salad meal and beyond, which can be accessed from wherever you are,” said Geraldi Tjoa, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of GREENS.

In October 2022, GREENS will open its first hyperlocal outlet in Jakarta.

Indonesia loses up to 48 million metric tonnes of food annually due to inefficient processing, storage, transportation, and selling of food crops. As a country with abundant agricultural resources, it has a very high risk of soil erosion. There is a threat to food security as the lack of organic content in the soil harms yields, leading to further malnutrition and even food scarcity.

In addition, based on the quality and safety scores of the food control system, Indonesia was ranked 7 out of 9 ASEAN countries in 2020. These are persisting and correlating issues surrounding the country’s broken food system, which calls the GREENS founders to advance food system transformation in Indonesia.

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Our society is experiencing a seismic shift faster than at any other time in human civilisation. A dance step can become a viral trend within hours after a live broadcast on social media, and it is just a matter of days for a virus to spread and become a global pandemic. 

We are more global citizens, and the ripples of every action have a far broader impact than we can imagine. 

Sometimes this makes us believe that we are far more knowledgeable, tolerant, and inclusive of various cultures. However, the divide among us can be primitive, and the quick-fix solutions fail to resolve the issues and often worsen them. 

One of such practices is called tokenism.

What is tokenism?

“The practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce.” – Oxford dictionary

Most of us have experienced tokenism in any work environment, and some may have knowingly or unknowingly participated in the larger scheme. The reasons are obvious; this concept impacts every social construct around us, not just in the present times, but it stems from our childhood in the societies where we have grown up. 

When I look back to my childhood, there used to be that girl who was “allowed” to play with the boys, probably with some pre-defined rules. 

Also Read: Autistic founders, advocates share their vision of a more inclusive workplace

Also, countless examples of forced inclusion of a character from a minority gender, ethnicity, race, and sexuality in books, movies, and popular culture have influenced me since childhood and continue to do so even today.

How does tokenism impact our careers?

Workplaces are just a reflection of society. The examples of tokenism are endless, and if you are still with me, you might be thinking, how does this impact me? It affects you in every way possible, from your career choices, growth, and compensation; tokenism impacts our professional and personal lives. 

You can either belong to the majority with unconscious biases and prejudices shrouding your decision-making and actions or from the minority with immense pressure to outperform and display stereotype characteristics. Both groups pull each other down, hindering a fair and equal growth trajectory that everyone deserves. 

Leadership that lacks a deeper understanding of these issues can pose a considerable risk to the organisation’s brand image.

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace

The concept and apparent benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) have been well-established. However, the actual implementation or fulfilment of the ethos in the workspace is rare and often sporadic. 

Most employers consider their DE&I goals as an afterthought and develop policies that emerge from insufficient understanding of the current state and the potential risks that loom in the future. 

Often recruiting a token individual seems necessary to create the impression of inclusiveness and diversity and not pay too much attention to building a sustainable process.

How to address the problem?

Businesses cannot create disciplines and work cultures within a few days, so they must consider a continuous process that delivers tangible benefits to justify the investment. 

To solve a complex problem and establish a culture of equity and inclusiveness, the organisation must mobilise every employee, especially their leaders. Most employees must address the problem statement, be more accountable, and course-correct before it is too late. 

I recommend starting here.

Analyse the current state

Ally with external diversity experts to inspect and evaluate the situation with zero biases. These can be time-consuming, but unfortunately, there are no shortcuts.

Generally, a comprehensive diversity audit can take several months and involves interviews, focus groups, data collection, and analysis — the complexity increases for multiple locations, departments, hierarchies, etc.

Implementing automation can improve efficiency and effectiveness by swiftly and accurately capturing the data but is often ignored as this is perceived to be a one-time effort.

Define the action points

Exploring and understanding the data expose the fundamental strengths and challenges of the organisation and benchmarking with the industry to identify possible opportunities and threats. 

The data must eventually lead to actionable insights that will lay the foundation of the values and aspirations of the organisation.

Introduce policies and improve processes

A review of policies, procedures, and practices from a legal and compliant perspective and a comparison with other organisations and industry’s best practices enables organisations to define policies and realign processes that impact the entire employee lifecycle. 

Adapting to token hiring or setting arbitrary quotas at this stage can lead to deeper diversity issues in the future.

Measure the changes

Key metrics to track the impact include employee sentiments and engagement. The objective is to develop relevant DE&I reports that will monitor the changes and drive meaningful progress to establish a diverse work culture. 

Organisations can look beyond pragmatism to evaluate KPIs like productivity and profitability, realign the talent assessment methods, and define outcomes of specific learning and development programmes.

Why is the problem not getting addressed?

Larger organisations invest in being legally compliant and mitigate future DE&I debacles stemming from gender biases, racially or religiously charged incidents that lead to complaints and protests and may culminate into large-scale resignations and tarnished image as an employer. But that does not help society as a whole.

Also Read: Why we cannot talk of diversity without inclusion

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employ two-thirds of the total workforce in the EU, half in the US, and 98 per cent of all Australian businesses!

SMEs often fail to see the benefits and relevance of diversity and find the implementation overwhelming. 

The absence of formal human resource expertise often leads to low awareness amongst business owners and employees. 

Hence, the struggle for businesses, the authorities, and society continues, and innumerable cases of biases never get addressed. Often practices like tokenism leave the workforce more segregated and dissatisfied.

Can technology solve the problem?

While various technology startups are actively resolving critical societal challenges like drug development, crime prevention, and agricultural yield, when it comes to DE&I, there are fewer early research and market applications.

A group of global experts in artificial intelligence, lawyers, and software developers is working together to develop a platform called KarmaV that can help organisations improve their diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies, monitor performance, and mitigate unconscious hiring decisions. 

Ground-up development of algorithms based on linear explainable models is implementing fairness and ethics in the recruitment process. 

Organisations can improve their diversity score and reduce hiring costs simultaneously by being more accessible to underrepresented groups and evaluating applications unbiasedly. The objective is not to create a tool that enhances the organisation’s public appearance by making lofty promises or suggesting knee-jerk actions but to build a highly-productive and engaged heterogeneous team.

Concluding thoughts

If DE&I technology can solve more existential business challenges, like profitability and talent acquisition or retention, rather than generating results that turn out to be more smoke and mirrors, both enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses will adopt it to thrive. 

Developing value and delivering tangible outcomes for the early adopters should be the primary focus for the solution providers to create a lasting positive impact on the whole society. 

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Globally, the metaverse has lately attracted a lot of interest. Now everyone is curious about what it is and how it will operate. The metaverse can turn any part of actual life into a virtual aspect. The word “metaverse” is being used outside the context of science due to the advancements in technology and system design. How individuals view virtual places has evolved along with a radical technological shift.

The metaverse domain promises to bring a rich virtual experience and creative ways for companies to profit from its advantages. Although the metaverse is not yet fully established, and tech experts have not yet decided on a suitable description for this field, we do know the essential features it will provide.

Instead of just viewing the Internet, picture the metaverse as a world you may enter. The metaverse will be projected around you through your devices, not behind your screen or inside. According to a hypothetical scenario, logging on to the metaverse would be similar to how you currently access the Internet. However, you would use a head-mounted display, such as a pair of smart glasses or a VR headset, to view material rather than turning on the Wi-Fi or 4G on your laptop or phone.

Digital assets, known as “non-fungible tokens,” address certifiable items like music, trading cards, and films, a sophisticated digital asset with unique media posts, virtual land, and advanced characters.

The increasing emphasis on using the Internet to merge the virtual and real worlds is a significant factor in the substantial increase the global metaverse market is predicted to experience over the forecast period. According to MRFR, the metaverse market is expected to reach US$105,597.5 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 45.2 per cent from 2024 to 2030.

Analyses of the metaverse market in the wake of COVID-19

The idea of the metaverse wasn’t particularly well-known before the pandemic. Both consumers and industries became more aware of it due to the pandemic. In 2020, tech companies announced they would begin developing this technology.

Also Read: How the multi-metaverse can flourish by eradicating virtual boundaries

Although the outbreak hastened the adoption of the metaverse by years, it was inevitable. There are many social, academic, and economic opportunities. Some firms require physical employees to operate, and the debate over whether it’s safe to return to work and whether people should work full-time at all persists.

A look into the metaverse market dynamics

Technological advancement

As the idea develops, it will likely be extended outside social media and video games. Some proposed metaverse features include digital identity, remote labour, and decentralised government.

The subsequent development in the development of the Internet is the metaverse. Augmented, virtual, and physical reality fusion occurs in a shared online environment. The contemporary Internet has a four-dimensional analogue called the metaverse.

By enabling users to roam around and explore 3D environments, networked virtual reality (VR) headsets and glasses have the potential to make VR more multi-dimensional. Examples of real-world uses include education, social networking, gaming, and job training.

During the projected time, there will be a significant increase in the worldwide metaverse market. The increased emphasis on fusing the digital and physical worlds through the Internet and the rising demand for metaverse to buy digital assets using cryptocurrency is the main reasons propelling the expansion of the metaverse market.

Increasing focus on converging actual and digital worlds

Digital twins like the digital and physical worlds become more complicated and powerful as time passes. Users can communicate online, use sensor data to recreate situations instantaneously, understand what-if scenarios clearly, more accurately predict outcomes, and send commands to alter the environment.

It develops innovative techniques for production and gathers information to make better judgements and forecasts that could help with the automation of challenging chemical and biological processes.

End users’ rising adoption of these technologies for enhancing their operations and providing services to their clients will likely offer opportunities for growth in the metaverse market in the coming future.

However, cyber-based attacks on the metaverse are a big concern in the global economy. The smooth running of the metaverse is seriously threatened by cyberattacks. A cyber threat is a malicious act that impairs system performance by disrupting software, causing software damage, and stealing data.

Data breaches and unlawful orders are a couple of examples of cyberattacks. System failure brought on by cyberattacks disrupts the metaverse. As a result, metaverse must be designed to fend off and lessen online threats.

End-user analysis

Due to the growing global gaming market, the media and entertainment sector is anticipated to provide the most significant revenue share throughout the projection period. Businesses are putting more emphasis on hosting virtual music concerts, and as more companies adopt this idea, it’s likely to help this market’s revenue growth.

Also Read: How carbon in the metaverse can help solve the real-world climate crisis

At the New Year’s Eve event, famous singers included Young Thug, DJ David Guetta, and The Chainsmokers. According to Warner Music Group, the virtual music theme park has officially begun operations on The Sandbox platform.

Take Meta Platform, Inc. as an example. A lineup of significant virtual reality performances that took place entirely within the Horizon Venues metaverse was unveiled by Meta Platform, Inc.

Regional analysis

To enhance their corporate operations, several companies in North America are making extensive use of advanced virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D modelling technologies. From a business intelligence perspective, technologies like extended reality, AI, and 5G may make the metaverse futuristic.

The most important factor driving the expansion of the metaverse industry is the growing emphasis on connecting the virtual and real worlds through the Internet and the increased traction and acceptance of mixed reality.

During the forecast period, Europe is anticipated to have the highest CAGR of any market. Due to significant initiatives, the metaverse industry is projected to gain pace in Europe.

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Singapore’s leading telecom operator Singtel plans to invest US$100 million more into its corporate VC arm, raising its total capital commitment to US$350 million.

With the capital injection, Singtel Innov8 will further expand its portfolio of investments in Southeast Asia, the US, China, Israel and Australia.

“This capital infusion is meant for identifying and growing innovative startups with new technologies and capabilities that are synergistic and in lockstep with Singtel’s strategic reset to drive greater improvements in our core operations, accelerate our new growth engines, and place us at the forefront of new and fast-evolving areas,” said Yuen Kuan Moon, Group CEO Singtel and Chairman of Singtel Innov8.

“As we sharpen our business focus, we will recycle our assets and capital into selected growth areas, reshaping our portfolio to serve our stakeholders better and build momentum for the longer term,” he added.

Launched in 2010, Singtel Innov8 invests in startups aligning with the group’s businesses in 5G, artificial intelligence, digital economy, sustainability, cyber security and emerging technologies. It operates on an evergreen fund model, re-investing returns from portfolio exits into new investments.

The CVC has invested in over 95 startups, including BitSight, Carro, Cato, FinAccel, SenseTime, Shopback, and Sygnum. Some of its recent investments are Endowus, a wealth-tech platform, and Wiz.ai, which offers interactive AI-driven talk bots.

Singtel Innov8 has over 35 exits to its credit — Arista, Ruckus, Jasper, and Shape (all unicorns).

Apart from investing capital, Singtel Innov8 facilitates access and partnerships with business units across the group’s footprint and evangelises innovative technologies within the group.

Also Read: Grab, Singtel are new strategic investors in Bank Fama

Edgar Hardless, CEO of Singtel Innov8, added: “Our mandate is flexible, allowing us to invest in both early- and growth-stage companies. We believe in backing founders to execute on their vision and support the company’s growth through partnerships with the Singtel Group. Innov8 facilitates access to business units across the group’s footprint, evangelises innovative technologies, and supports partnerships with the business units.”

Singtel Innov8 partnered with NUS and the Media Development Authority (MDA) in 2011 to co-create a startup hub BLOCK71 Singapore. Innov8 also helped launch a second chapter, BLOCK71, in San Francisco in 2015 and the Innovation Cyber Security Ecosystem (ICE71) in partnership with NUS, IMDA, and CSA in 2018.

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For an entrepreneur with a great new idea that they believe will change the world and empower consumers, a dragon’s den-style pitching event can seem like a great opportunity to tell the investment community about it.

The lure of potential investment and access to incubators and accelerator programmes is waived in front of entrepreneurs keen to attract the capital to execute their idea. The model is set up to encourage entrepreneurs to come up with new ideas in the hope that they could be the founder of the next tech ‘unicorn’.

This model is so appealing to entrepreneurs and has been made into prime-time reality television shows exactly because the reality of raising money as a small company is often so difficult. During the early stages of building a business, most entrepreneurs focus on delivering for their customers and spend blood, sweat and years refining and improving their product or service to meet their market demands.

But to scale, to get bigger, most will need to go out and raise money, and this often means stepping outside their comfort zone and selling to a customer they are unfamiliar with and whose needs they have little understanding, the investor.

What should entrepreneurs know about the funding ecosystem?

The way the funding ecosystem is set up for entrepreneurs can make raising money a soul-destroying experience. On reality TV shows and in the tech press, optimistic entrepreneurs with a new widget, app or business idea pitch to experienced investors who make an informed decision, write you a cheque and offer you the promise of guidance and support as you build your business. Unfortunately, the experience of most entrepreneurs is very different.

Pitching to investors can be a long and dispiriting process involving cold-calling numerous venture capital and high-net-worth investors and trying to raise money through the strength of your pitch.

Also Read: Why has community building replaced the lean startup approach to lurk investors?

Often, rather than speaking to a senior investor, you pitch to junior staff who don’t understand your business or the market in which you operate.

If you get through the pitching process and are finally successful, the money often comes at a far lower valuation than you expected or with such onerous terms that you wish you hadn’t bothered in the first place.

To be fair to those investors, they need to protect themselves since backing a small business is risky, and their investment will be highly illiquid. But the strings often attached to a deal frequently create tensions between entrepreneur and investor. They can prevent the type of calculated risk-taking and creativity that is necessary when building a small business.

So, what are the other options for an ambitious entrepreneur looking to raise capital and build their business? One is to sell out to a larger company through a traditional M&A transaction, yet this often means losing control of a company they have spent years building.

Another is an IPO which offers access to a huge pool of public market investors, but most founder-led businesses are far too small to make this a workable solution.

What is Agglomeration, and how can it ease the funding process

This leaves small business entrepreneurs jumping through hoops for investors in return for a bad deal.

But raising capital and building your businesses doesn’t need to be hard. An answer is a cooperative approach called Agglomeration, which involves a group of small businesses within the same industry coming together under a central holding company that then goes public on a major global stock exchange.

Also Read: Of COVID-19 and funding winter: Why these 2 VC firms are bullish about SEA amid back-to-back crises

Each entrepreneur swaps private stock for public stock in the holding company but continues running their business as before. Their brand, their hiring and investment decisions remain under their control.

Unlike in a traditional M&A buy-out, synergies and company culture are not forced on member companies. But instead, successful business owners are empowered to keep doing what they have been doing so successfully, but now with a platform on which to aim even higher.

First, an Agglomeration is a great way for small businesses to access the huge pool of capital available to publicly listed companies worldwide.

By grouping small businesses, vehicles can be created that are big enough and interesting enough to attract investors and that have liquid shares so that investments can be made and exited freely, investing a far more attractive proposition.

Having public stock is also a game changer for individual small business owners. As well as tracking their wealth in real time, they now have a viable currency to attract senior staff to join them and help them grow.

Also, many small business owners would love to buy up their competitors locally or globally but need the cash to do so. Within an Agglomeration, each entrepreneur has the publicly listed stock of the Agglomeration to use as a currency to add products and talent through acquisitions.

A public listing within an Agglomeration also offers the entrepreneurs a degree of liquidity which means they can extract some cash from their companies while still retaining control and leadership. They gain financial freedom without giving up the company they have worked hard to build.

Agglomeration means “to form a cluster”, and it is an idea aimed at addressing a broken investment universe that prevents small businesses from raising the capital they need to build their businesses.

By empowering talented entrepreneurs and giving them the tools, they need to succeed; Agglomeration has the potential to change the way smaller enterprises grow and create value in the future.

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This article was first published on Singapore Economic Development Board’s (EDB) Insights, titled “4 Takeaways from companies actively building ventures in Singapore”. EDB is a government agency under Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry and is responsible for strategies that enhance Singapore’s position as a global centre for business, innovation, and talent. Get the latest insights, stories, and analysis on how companies are growing in Asia delivered to your inbox here.

Find out more about Corporate Venturing in Singapore and EDB‘s Corporate Venture Launchpad programme. You may also contact the EDB New Ventures team for more information.

At EDB’s Corporate Venture Launchpad community event, key executives share their corporate venturing tips gained from their journey to unlock new avenues of growth in Singapore.

To stay ahead of the curve amidst market disruptions, companies are embarking on corporate venture building where established companies build new capabilities beyond their core businesses. A 2021 Leap by McKinsey survey found over half of 1,178 business leaders across regions and industries placed venture building as a top-three priority, while a fifth-ranked it number one.

Recognising this, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)’s corporate venturing arm, EDB New Ventures, launched its pilot Corporate Venture Launchpad (CVL) programme in 2021.

The CVL pilot supports companies new to corporate venturing in Singapore by helping them build their new ventures quickly and effectively. Corporates can partner with appointed venture studios who bring venture-building experience, methodologies, and multi-disciplinary talent, as well as receive support such as access to industry networks, expertise, and risk-sharing capital from EDB New Ventures.

Also read: Lalamove: Driving growth in eCommerce with last-mile deliveries

Last month, executives from the programme’s appointed studio partners and participating companies, alongside EDB New Ventures, gathered to wrap up the first edition of CVL. More than 70 event attendees heard first-hand insights on what goes on in a venture-building sprint. 

Core members of various corporate venturing sprints and other key executives who have been successful in building a venture engine — which serves as an internal arm within the parent company and with the capabilities put in place to build a portfolio of new ventures — were also present to share their learnings and best practices. They are:

• Belina Lee, CEO, Mandai Global and Deputy CEO, Transformation & Growth, Mandai Wildlife Group
• Eileen Tan, VP, Digital Customer Experience and Analytics at SATS Limited
• Jochen Lorenz, Head of grow platform (ASEAN), a Bosch company
• Michael Pareles, Open Innovation Lead (APAC), Bayer Crop Science
• Suresh Sundararajan, CEO, Olam Ventures

Insights as shared by the panel of experts

These are some of the key takeaways shared during the event:

1. Make it make cents for senior management

Management’s support and alignment can make or break the venture. To secure senior management’s buy-in, it is essential to identify a clear impetus for the company to build a new venture. This largely depends on the maturity and nature of the business.

The main concerns of any business boil down to two things: money and talent. Building a compelling case means satisfying these priorities. SATS’ Eileen Tan explained that the CVL programme helped her company in both ways with co-funding and the promise of external validation.

The finite sprint timeline also supported their proposition: “Instead of asking management for, say, $1 billion upfront, you’re saying, ‘Give me eight weeks, I’ll prove to you that this concept is valid and a viable business opportunity.’ If at the end of the sprint, it’s not successful, that’s where you [can] stop.”

For more experienced corporates keen on building a venture engine, it necessitates a different ballgame of consensus building with leadership over time. Management should note that not all new business ventures serve to improve the core business. Such ventures should be able to create value on a standalone basis.

Once a common understanding is reached, Olam Ventures’ Suresh Sundararajan explained that the next step is to project how much capital will be needed over the next three to five years.

On the value of having external input during the concept validation of a venture, Eileen Tan, SATS Vice President, Digital Customer Experience and Analytics explained, “A lot of times, when you [build ventures] internally, there’s internal bias and a parent-mentality. You need some balance, having someone external to validate that thinking. Partnering with EDB, [and] with someone from the venture studio who has been there, done that, helped with check-and-balance and managing expectations from senior management.”

2.     Assemble the dream team

Once past the hurdle of convincing top management, the next and perennial challenge most companies face is finding the right talent. All panellists at the event were emphatic that there can be no compromise on securing good talent. More importantly, this is the point at which the corporate should already consider who will run the venture if or when it launches.

From pulling a member from the core business to initiating the hiring process, building a venture team can be a daunting endeavour. It can take time to figure out who has the makings of an intrapreneur — a corporate executive driving innovation internally.

Mandai Wildlife Group’s Belina Lee explained that while Mandai Wildlife Group initially had an internal startup team made up of members from the parent company, “It [was] difficult having a start-stop momentum”. Members had to manage the demands of their original job scope while working on the venture sprint, which led to breaks in the sprint. Eventually, a full-time core team was assembled, together with subject matter experts that were called in where needed to provide insight.

Also read: How Singapore startups explore opportunities in Japan—and vice versa

Meanwhile, Bayer Crop Science’s Michael Pareles, mused about his unique experience, “Internally, there are some people we put on sprints for their mindsets and, of course, their expertise. At other times, we also bring in external talent. When we worked with [the CVL appointed venture studio], they helped bring in people with an entrepreneurial mindset.”

Ultimately, different strategies are needed depending on the existing core team and venture opportunity. The CVL programme helps corporates by providing partnerships with appointed venture studios and filling talent gaps through access to industry networks.

Another crucial insight shared was that talent should be kept and not just found. To have them take ownership over the venture, Bosch’s grow platform’s Jochen Lorenz recommended that talent be incentivised and compensated adequately. If treated as an employee, they will act as employees — not intrapreneurs.

3.     Minimise barriers, maximise autonomy

While pre-sprint processes are crucial, momentum must carry through during the sprint itself. To maintain agility, sprint leaders should create a space of autonomy for the team to fully use the sprint’s short period.

In the case of building their respective venture engines, both Sundararajan and Lorenz agree that corporate ventures should be run as independently from the company’s core business as possible so that things can move smoothly and efficiently.

Governance from the corporates should be minimal, and the venture team should only go back to the board for business updates at pre-agreed intervals. The only exceptions are critical decisions that the board ought to take as warranted by business conditions, for example, a major pivot in strategy or capital infusion which was not planned for, Sundararajan quipped.

Also read: Scale your business across Southeast Asia with SLINGSHOT 2022

“Everything else is done with an open mind and should not be influenced by existing corporate systems and processes. Even in areas like corporate functions where one would typically prefer to leverage on the corporate, both should objectively decide on what is best for the venture rather than imposing pre-set processes. It is a fine balance of autonomy, outcome, benefits of standardisation, and control,” Sundararajan explained.

On the best practices of corporate venture building, Lorenz shared, “Build your venture as a separate legal entity, with separate management. It starts with separate processes. It also goes away from the usual kind of KPIs you have. The multinational looks for perfection, high [yield] return, and productivity increase with stringent processes. A startup looks for validation, for exploration with high agility.”

4.     Prepare for lift-off, Keep the Momentum

As the sprint draws to an end, the next challenge is ensuring there is no drop-off in momentum after approval is received.

Lee explained that it is important to do scenario planning even before the sprint to ensure that the team can act quickly once approval is gained. “Once we have the green light, we’re ready to go. We don’t have to ask, ‘What are the next steps?’ and then start planning.”

Building a new venture is by no means simple. While these tips bolster a venture’s chances of success, nothing is guaranteed in corporate venturing. Not all concepts might be validated, and not all new ventures can scale successfully. However, with a clear roadmap in place, risks can be mitigated to allow the team to move forward with confidence.

Ventures made possible

Promisingly, at least 40 corporate ventures have successfully launched in Singapore (as of January 2020). EDB New Ventures’ Michelle Tan, shared how the interest received on the CVL is owed not only to the conviction of the corporates but also to the quality of the appointed venture studios and the work that they do. 

New Ventures will be launching an enhanced version of the programme on 26 July 2022.

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Disclosure: This article is produced by EDB. This article is distributed by e27, sponsored by EDB.

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Find out more about Corporate Venturing in Singapore and EDB‘s Corporate Venture Launchpad programme.

The post Four takeaways from companies actively building ventures in Singapore appeared first on e27.

There has been a negative sentiment globally against cryptocurrencies since the plummeting of stablecoin UST and its sister coin Luna in May this year. Consequently, several other popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, also saw a drop in their value.

Many speculations were in the air about the events that led to the fall of UST and Luna – until blockchain analytics platform Nansen came up with an accurate analysis of the events that unfolded. Following this, the platform rose to prominence.

But how did Nansen dig into the reasons for the crashes?

e27 spoke to Ingrid Sia, Head of PsyOps at Nansen, about this.

Below are the edited excerpts from the interview:

How did Nansen manage to dig into the details and come up with a perfect analysis? What are some of the new vulnerabilities that could lead to more such disasters, and how can they be prevented?

Nansen provides extensive on-chain data by enriching it with proprietary wallet labels. This entity address tracking and analysis gives us informative insights in conducting post-mortems on major on-chain events, such as the collapse of UST, where we identified the activities of entities with a high level of detail and granularity.

This focus on on-chain intelligence storytelling enables our research team to produce high-quality reports backed by factitious events that are both transparent and immutable.

To prevent such events, we must first understand the underlying events that transpired before the UST and Luna depeg.

The crashes were the result of the mechanism of Luna, which undoubtedly led to a death spiral due to several factors:

• The correlation between UST and Luna’s market cap as investors viewed the latter’s market cap as an indication of the number of dollars that were backing UST
• The ability to mint/burn UST/Luna for the other asset to maintain the peg of UST.

The crux of the problem that led to the depeg was that multiple large entities attempted to bridge out of UST at once, causing the stablecoin to initially depeg. This led the holders to burn their UST for Luna and then sell Luna to exit the ecosystem, causing Luna’s price to fall.

Also Read: What lessons can crypto investors draw from the Luna, UST episode?

The decline of Luna’s price further spurred other UST holders and investors to exit the ecosystem in a panic since the market cap of Luna could not hold the massive amounts of UST wanting to exit the Luna ecosystem. This led to a larger depeg of the UST stablecoin through Luna, causing a death spiral.

This event was not preventable as the 20 per cent yield generated from UST was heavily subsidised by Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), who owned a huge amount of Luna, presumably used to generate UST to pay for the yield.

Although the protocol promised to use the collateral to generate yield across similar yield-generating protocols, many of such yields dried up as the markets slowed. Also, LFG was left paying for the generated yields out of pocket to continue incentivising investors to keep their funds in Anchor.

Moreover, the recent collapse of entities such as Three Arrows Capital and Celsius is attributable to opaque, off-chain (outside of the blockchain network) holdings. Theoretically, the transparency of the blockchain means that creditors can audit the holdings of any on-chain entity. However, data complexity and off-chain obfuscation make this ideal difficult to achieve.

While the debacle with Luna was inevitable, Nansen users could benefit from on-chain insights when such events happen through our real-time alerts that would notify users when entities are exiting a specific ecosystem. In particular, one of our users managed to save millions by doing this.

Is the overall macroeconomic situation also impacting the valuation of cryptocurrencies?

The global macro environment is one of persistently high (although tentatively peaking) inflation and slowing real growth. Since 2021, it has been a negative environment for risk asset prices, especially crypto prices, which tend to correlate with global money supply growth.

However, we note the following recent changes in data and central bankers’ tones:

a) the Chinese authorities have started loosening fiscal policy, mainly to prevent a systemic domestic mortgage crisis, and b) the US Fed Chair sounded slightly less hawkish at this week’s Fed meeting.

The current rally in risk and crypto assets could be just a bear market rally, as there is no sufficient proof that inflation has peaked, especially given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

However, there are some promising signs that the bottom in crypto assets is likely not too far down the road. According to bond market inversion statistics, the Fed pauses policy on average seven months after the yield curve inverts, which leads us to November 2022 (estimates have a range of a few weeks to 22 months, though).

Also, the US economy is showing signs of slowing. It will concern the Fed at a certain point, even if inflation is not yet back to its 2 per cent target.

How do you view the government regulations on cryptocurrencies? Do you think the current rules are disrupting its growth? Do we need very effective and innovative laws to protect users from scams?

No comments.

Where is the crypto industry headed? Does the industry hold a promising future despite the crashes, scams and hacks?

As a rapidly-growing industry experiencing 0-to-1 uptake in terms of users, use cases, and overall product-market fit, cryptocurrency is a new frontier where a new class of winners among individual traders and businesses is emerging.

Also Read: UST, Luna crashes: Can regulation alone restore investors’ confidence in cryptocurrencies?

Our goal is to empower that emerging class at the forefront of our industry. We hope that Nansen will become the information super-app of Web3, helping people become winners with on-chain intelligence tools.

DAOs are gaining traction. What potential do DAOs hold?

As on-chain entities/organisations, DAOs are exciting from an analytics perspective. Our recently-released DAO Paradise dashboards allow users to audit DAO treasuries, token distributions and other health metrics.

We believe this transparency is tremendously essential for the future of on-chain governance.

What is your view on CBDCs? Can they replace stablecoins in the future? What will be the overall impact of CBDCs globally?

A few statistics on CBDCs (as of June 2022) show their importance:

105 countries or ~95 per cent of GDP study the launch of domestic CBDCs,

Ten countries have already launched a CBDC pilot, the largest in terms of users being the e-CNY from China,

South Korea, Japan, India, and Russia have made some progress, and the Eurozone set a tentative deadline of “a few years” for a digital EUR,

The UK and the US are relatively further behind and still in the “research” phase.

It is improbable that people would be comfortable with their remuneration and spending habits being transparent for anyone to see. We will probably see a version where the underlying blockchain technology is primarily used between banks and other centralised entities (such as governments) and is not open for anyone to peruse.

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With digital trade further accelerating in Southeast Asia, Singapore’s geographical advantage primes it to be the region’s e-commerce hub. The country’s revenue in the e-commerce market is projected to reach over US$7 billion this year, and the number of users is expected to amount to 4.1 million by 2022 as well, according to Deloitte.

On top of this, simplified COVID-19 measures and major easing rules have also contributed to brick-and-mortar sales. Retail sales increased 12.1 per cent in April year on year, largely attributable to higher tourist spending, and this positive trend is expected to continue as Singapore moves closer to normalcy.

As local retail industries, both online and offline, experience exponential growth, the storage sector must also evolve to support this trend. Beyond conventional storage spaces, there is much potential for the industry to cater to these growing businesses through capitalising on shared synergies between storage and retail.

The need for end-to-end storage solutions

As Singapore’s retail markets grow, so too do the demands of such businesses. Larger stock inventories would require more space, and busy entrepreneurs are seeking holistic, end-to-end solutions that cater to their logistics needs.

These demands largely lie in order fulfilment, where business owners discover inadequacies in last-mile delivery services, especially with the surge in demand. From their warehouses and storage spaces, these businesses often have to source a separate supply chain logistics provider to handle their delivery.

A third-party provider may sometimes cause more problems than it solves, due to inflexibility, service quality, logistical hassle and more. Furthermore, it adds another layer of cost and administrative work.

Additionally, e-commerce businesses find themselves without a conducive all-in-one space for daily storage cum logistical operations. Such tasks include packing, dispatching/receiving, stock-taking, and even photo-taking or live streaming for sales and marketing purposes.

Also Read: VFlowTech lands US$3M to scale low-cost, long-duration energy storage solutions beyond Singapore

Renting a separate studio or workspace eventually incurs additional cost and more travel time, challenges that busy entrepreneurs face as they establish their business.

What a one-stop storage solution looks like

Noting these pain points, there is the need for industry players within each part of the supply chain to successfully identify gaps which they can plug. With storage playing a huge role in end-to-end logistics, particularly for businesses within the retail industry, storage providers should look to introduce value-added services that can help make daily work processes even more seamless for businesses.

These can come in the form of onsite facilities that complement and optimise their customers’ operations, such as order fulfilment areas for packing, invoicing and stock taking, pick-up and return points for goods, and breakout areas for work discussions, photography and live streaming studios, and more.

Once they have established the support that they can provide to businesses for necessary day-to-day operations, storage providers should also look to extend in-house delivery services or collaborate with a delivery partner to achieve a suite of end-to-end offerings.

Another example of such services would be warehouse logistics, where businesses can outsource their logistics management responsibilities to the storage space. Business owners need not worry about warehouse storage and manpower issues, as the end-to-end warehouse management service would be handled externally, be it receiving of shipment, warehouse management, order processing, packing of orders or delivery dispatch.

This is particularly helpful for businesses when stock volume increases, and order numbers get overwhelming. These entrepreneurs can then concentrate on generating sales while leaving the time-consuming tasks of warehouse management to the storage provider.

Through these holistic, value-added facilities and services, the aim is for storage spaces to play an even more integral role in the supply chain and effectively morph into a one-stop integrated solution not only for storage but for overall business and extended operational needs.

The larger role of storage in supporting Singapore’s booming retail economy

E-commerce will continue to increase in popularity even after the pandemic. As many have discovered the slew of benefits that the digital economy brings, consumer behaviour and expectations have changed. As such, the market must constantly answer and anticipate these evolving needs.

Also Read: Why Singapore’s local supermarket– Melvados swears by old-fashioned business sense

While physical retailers are currently experiencing a bounce-back in sale figures, many have also seen the advantages of e-commerce and increasingly embraced it. In fact, many have switched to a fully digital presence.

With modernisation setting the perfect environment for business growth, the number of e-retail businesses in Singapore is set to rise, and they will need even more cost-effective options to store goods and fulfil orders as they pit themselves against their competitors.

In meeting these industry trends, the self-storage industry is set to flourish at an even quicker pace, projected at a 6.3 per cent CAGR for the forecast period of 2021 to 2026. Currently, there are more than 30 operators across 80 facilities island-wide, up from less than 10 operators just five years ago.

The self-storage market must continue pivoting and adapting its services to meet these changing needs, such as the implementation of holistic services while integrating more technology within their facilities to provide users with increased efficiencies.

With the industry growing alongside the e-commerce market share, the need for a physical space for storage, along with the full suite of value-added services will become a norm. In the future, storage spaces will eventually evolve into dispatch centres.

With Singapore’s plans to become a leading e-commerce hub in Asia, buoyed by government incentives and policies, the environment for e-commerce is ripe and set to thrive, with innovative storage solutions as its catalyst.

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