Intrepid Group, a Singapore-headquartered omnichannel e-commerce solutions company, has been acquired by Ascential plc (Ascential), a global provider of information, analytics and e-commerce optimisation. 

The deal is for an initial cash consideration of US$57 million, plus deferred consideration payable over four years. This is contingent on meeting certain financial targets, resulting in an estimated total consideration of between US$100 million and US$197 million.

The maximum total consideration payable for Intrepid Group is capped at US$250 million, Intrepid said in a press release.

The acquisition will provide a strategic entry point for Ascential into the high-growth Southeast Asian market. At the same time, it will provide Intrepid access to a broader network of resources and knowledge.

As per the agreement, Intrepid will become part of Ascential’s Digital Commerce division. The Singaporean company joins Edge by Ascential, Flywheel, Yimian, Duo Zhun, Intellibrand, OneSpace, Perpetua, Sellics, WhyteSpyder and 4KMiles to strengthen Ascential Digital Commerce’s presence in the region. 

Also Read: Intrepid attracts US$11M Series B, claims profitability in 2 markets

“Intrepid’s strong presence in Southeast Asia and proven expertise operating across the major marketplaces in this important region further enhances the capabilities and global reach of our Digital Commerce business,” said Duncan Painter, CEO of Ascential.

Founded by Co-Founders of Lazada, Intrepid Group offers both enterprise-grade SaaS and end-to-end e-commerce management to brands and SMEs to accelerate their growth on platforms such as Lazada and Shopee. The B2B company has offices in six markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It has over 480 staffers across e-commerce, digital marketing and tech experts.

A year ago, Intrepid Group secured US$11 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding, led by Mirabaud Asset Management through its Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation fund.

In August 2020, Intrepid raised an undisclosed sum in pre-Series B financing, co-led by Thakral Sun SEA Capital (a VC firm backed by Sunway Group). Ten months earlier, it had received Series A funding led by Kairous Capital.

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Humans, when put through challenges, emerge wiser. The pandemic is no exception. It has made us wiser and permanently changed some aspects of our lives and thought processes. One of the key takeaways for entrepreneurs is to reduce dependencies on humans and accelerate the adoption of technologies and automation.

Automation, for all the bad press that it gets like a job eliminator, in the long run, proves otherwise, pushing the human endeavour towards higher planes. The jury is still out on that, though.

Contrary to the common belief that deployment of technologies and automation would shave off the bottom line, well-thought-through investments in the right technologies and automation of processes, in the long run, would dramatically improve the profitability through error elimination, improved productivity and quality, enhanced decision-making capability, optimised inventory and many more.

Enter robotics

Robotics is a programmable machine or a software programme capable of carrying out complex operations automatically.

Also Read: Sesto Robotics nets US$5.7M to tap into the growing demand for autonomous mobile robots in Europe

It can take the form of a physical machine that can work in closed or open spaces; it can be pre-programmed for a task such as in assembly line manufacturing, or it can leverage machine learning and adapt to its task, or it can be a mere software programme that automates business processes, called robotic process automation (RPA).

 

Whether physical or digital, robots guarantee an increase in process efficiency, improve quality, lead to higher customer satisfaction and directly impact profitability on one hand while reducing deployable resources, collapsing completion timelines, and avoiding rework and associated costs on the other.

The differences are that physical robots are heavy on investment, good for 3D (dull, dirty and dangerous) jobs and where actions have to be conducted remotely.

A further look into such automation processes would help us understand the need for these technologies in certain environments, the ways of adopting them, and the resultant benefits.

Physical robots carry out 3D jobs or those termed almost impossible for human workers to undertake. Mainly because either boredom or fatigue sets in when humans perform repetitive, mundane tasks.

However, robots are more precise and versatile than human workers in such environments. This results in a lower failure rate, increase in production and profit margin commensurable to its speed.

Though no definite findings prove robots don’t make mistakes, these robots certainly make fewer errors compared to a human, saving on, in most cases, expensive rework (rework costs alone could be as high as five per cent in some instances).

Looking at the glass half full

While robotics is seen as “reducing” job opportunities, that “reduction” is more related to repetitive and mundane tasks. Looking at the glass half full, robotics shifts human effort to focus on more creative and better remunerative jobs. This also pushes society towards a knowledge economy.

Of course, there are challenges associated with change management, reskilling and upskilling, but it can spell a win-win for both workers and business owners if managed well. Besides, the competitive force drives innovation, and the choice is largely between shape-up or ship-out.

Automating manual work can also be looked upon as closing the labour gap and keeping humans away from hazardous assignments, thereby reducing consequent workplace liabilities. Automation brings with it certain predictability in scheduling, flexibility in workload management, and the ability to extend overtime; robots work anytime, anywhere, and without a break, if so warranted.

Robots lead to higher productivity, coupled with the emergence of remote diagnostics and, more recently,  self-diagnostics, reducing repairing expenses and loss-inducing production downtime.

Modern robots contribute to savings in energy costs (up to 20 per cent by certain estimates) and are capable of operating without any supervision and even under extreme weather conditions.

They are versatile; unlike human workers who take time and effort to master a skill, robots are versatile and carry out tasks set for them through programming, and in some cases, through self-learning. Certain companies are moving towards connecting robots to the cloud to accelerate self-learning.

The initial barriers to adoption

With so many advantages, the barrier to adoption is the initial investment which in many cases turns out to be prohibitive. Though it’s been proven beyond doubt that robots, in the long run, turn out to be cost-effective, it’s the availability of cheap labour to fulfil the current needs and the need for large capital investments that have kept the adoption rate of robots low in this country.

Also Read: Southeast Asia paves the way for new value in robotics

With the current labour shortage, there is deep thinking in the industry to find a more permanent solution to keep pace with growth objectives.

One of the solutions to overcome the barrier of big capital investment is through the design, development and production of robots locally in Malaysia. A conscious effort must be made to create an ecosystem for robotic companies to thrive in the country.

Empowering startups, setting up national competitions, creating sandboxes, encouraging students to take up robotic courses, and streamlining the supply chain, grants, and soft loans are some ways to exploit the benefits of robotics.

While physical robots benefit society by shifting the most difficult 3D jobs to machines, the software-based robotic process automation is capable of taking over mundane jobs from knowledge workers. Knowledge workers, who generally dislike tedious tasks like data consolidation, reconciliation, and report generation, could be moved to more challenging creative assignments.

In this scenario, RPA is much more effective, extending beyond the shop floor or production processes and into the offices of finance, marketing, sales, human resources (HR) and other departments across industries.

RPA is much more pervasive, not restricted to the shop floor or production processes. It benefits the office of finance, marketing, sales, HR and other departments of any industry segment for that matter.

With Automating Statement Reconciliation, for example, coupled with RPA and AI, businesses can use automation solutions to upload all the statements that they receive in the paper, PDF, excel or any other data formats onto their central processing system. These statements are then automatically reconciled against data from the accounts payable ledger, and outliers (in certain instances, fraud) are easily identified.

We can see an overwhelming need to improve the efficiency of the traditional reconciliation process, which is very time-consuming and prone to error. This applies equally to traditional manufacturing as well as financial institutions like banks.

Surprisingly, unlike physical robots, initial investments into such process automation technologies are significantly small. The returns could be seen almost instantaneously by choosing the right tools and manpower. Such success would give the confidence to invest more in technology and consider such investments as levers for higher profit.

Generally, it’s important to look at any technology spend as an investment for higher profits, better quality and greater customer satisfaction.

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Funding Societies (Modalku in Indonesia), a digital financing platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Southeast Asia, has acquired Singapore-based payments solution startup CardUp for an undisclosed amount. 

As per the deal, Funding Societies will acquire CardUp’s payments capabilities, such as card payments to non-card accepting recipients (domestic and cross-border), e-payments acceptance, invoice automation tools, and its licenses and integrations with third-party business software. 

CardUp’s payment services will complement Funding Societies’s lending products. This will enable SMEs to manage and pay expenses, receive payments, and borrow funds within a digital platform.

Funding Societies Co-Founder and Group CEO Kelvin Teo said, “Acquiring CardUp enables us to leapfrog and accelerate our market leadership in the regional fintech space, integrating payments capabilities, enhanced user experience and local licenses to our digital lending experience across key markets.”

Once the acquisition is finalised and approved by the regulators, Funding Societies will add CardUp Founder and CEO Nicki Ramsay to its management team to lead its payments business. All other CardUp employees across Asia will be retained. 

Also Read: Funding Societies enters neobanking space with investment in Indonesia’s Bank Index

CardUp will continue to operate its consumer and business services and maintain its relationships with card networks, issuers, and media partners. 

Launched in 2016, CardUp is a payment solution that helps individuals and businesses make payments to suppliers and collect payments from customers digitally. Businesses use CardUp for payments related to payroll, rent, corporate tax, vendor payments, receivables flows, and cross-border expenses. 

With a presence in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, CardUp has served many companies in the B2B and C2B industries. 

Funding Societies provides digital financing services, where developing MSMEs can apply for up to SGD2 (US$1.5) million in working capital financing funded by institutional and retail investors through a digital market.

In addition to Singapore and Indonesia, Funding Societies also operates in Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The company has facilitated more than SGD3 (US$2.2) billion in working capital through more than five million MSME loan transactions.

Also Read: Samsung backs Funding Societies to drive its vision of financial inclusion for SMEs in SEA

Funding Societies is backed by SoftBank Vision Fund, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Sequoia Capital India, Alpha JWC Ventures, SMBC Bank, Samsung Ventures, BRI Ventures, Endeavor, SGInnovate, Qualgro, and Golden Gate Ventures, amongst others.

In February this year, Funding Societies announced a US$294 million funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

SMEs are expected to push ASEAN’s digital finance market to US$60 billion by 2025. The region’s business payments sector will grow at a CAGR of 10 per cent over the next five years. 

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A large-scale disruption is going to emerge in the field of the automotive industry, as it is currently witnessing many technology-driven trends in the area of transportation. Electrification is a key one among them and innovation and sustainability is undoubtedly the main driving factor shaping the growth of the global market for electric vehicles and EV charging station.

In a carbon-conscious world battling environmental pollution and global warming, along with the ever-increasing prices of oil and unavailability of oil sources, the gradual shift to EVs is inevitable. The prior the auto industry understands this and adjusts itself to this reality, the better it will be able to receive the benefits of electrification.

EV is not a modern-day invention. EV goes back to the 19th century. Exactly in the year 1842, the first-ever EV was produced in Scotland.

In the early 1900s, almost 40 per cent of the then-running vehicles were powered by electricity. As oil became readily available and cheaper the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) started to rule.

It was with the emergence of Tesla as a major player and Elon Musk’s avowed mission “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”, that the global auto industry started to change rapidly.

The global interest in the adoption of the EV by the auto industry seemed to have opened with the wheels being set in motion by Tesla. An entire community has sprung up since, comprising auto manufacturers, battery manufacturers and components suppliers.

India has recently taken some small yet significant steps aimed at accelerating the adoption of Electric vehicles in India. The Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India has shortlisted 11 cities in the country for the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) in their public transport systems under the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles in India) scheme.

In order to increase the sales EV amongst the customers, the government announced providing an additional income tax deduction of ₹1.5 lakh (US$1,907.74) on the interest paid on the loans taken to purchase EVs.

These are some of the essential steps, but more needs to be done to reach a stage where EVs become a viable choice for many. Let’s examine what would be the next steps.

Continued government action needed

Incentives and subsidies by governments across the world have been key factors propelling the growth of EVs in the last couple of decades.

Also Read: How electric mobility startups are tackling climate change in Asia

China, currently the world’s largest EV market, has mandated a quota for EV production for all auto manufacturers. Before the 1990s, there were many attempts to commercialise electric bikes and scooters in China.

All those attempts failed. The electric bike market in China never really took off until the late 1990s. This was facilitated by favourable local regulatory practices in the form of motorcycle bans and loose enforcement of electric bike standards.

By this time, many Chinese cities started to ban motorcycles. Many cities suspended the issuance of new motorcycle licenses. These local motorcycle bans became the ultimate driver for the electric bike boom in China.

The alleged justifications for these bans include relieving traffic congestion, improving safety and reducing air pollution. The bans were imposed on all motorcycles, regardless of their power sources. However, electric bikes were categorised as non-motor vehicles and therefore exempted from the bans.

This loose enforcement of electric bike standards, however, is a result of the ineffectiveness of China’s local governments, rather than of conscious decisions to support electric transportation. Frankly speaking, the boom in China’s electric bike market was a policy accident rather than a policy success.

India should consider a carefully calibrated mix of fiscal and non-fiscal measures in this regard while being mindful of the current economic headwinds that the auto industry is facing.

Turbocharging the technology

EV adoption becomes easier when charging EVs is made easy and convenient.

“Range anxiety” needs to be addressed. The major threat to the adoption of EVs is the fact that most EVs today have a range of 150 to 175 km on a single charge, leading to a sense of constraint and anxiety, stemming from a fear of being stranded while on a drive, among owners.

Though it has improved, charging infrastructure in many parts of the world, including India, is still not where it needs to be. Utility companies, infrastructure providers and the Government have to work together in Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) models to make large networks of charging stations available to the general public.

The development of new, EV technologies is set to make this segment more appealing to consumers. Batteries are the key and critical area of innovation, where EVs are concerned. Lithium-ion batteries are the ones commonly used today in EVs. They are not yet adequately available and their costs tend to be high due to the insufficient supply of the raw materials.

Also Read: Why global investors are eyeing China’s EV landscape (Part 1)

Numerous new innovations are at present being created to discover proficient options in contrast to the Li-ion battery. Solid-state batteries are one such alternative being explored. A few businesses in India have started working on these technologies.

The smart, sustainable mobility solution

Initial costs of EVs are higher than that of ICE cars, but in the long run, they cost their owners far less as they consume no fuel and are cheaper to maintain. This is possible because a battery-powered electric vehicle has fewer moving parts than a conventional ICE car, making servicing and maintenance much more cost-effective.

Not just in the personal vehicle segment, the adoption of EVs in public transport systems can significantly reduce carbon emissions, thereby slowing down global warming and its catastrophic effects on climate change.

To emerge as a leader in the global EV space, India should chart a plan to manufacture every sub-system required by EVs, including components, batteries, and charging infrastructure. This will also help generate new jobs in the auto sector in the long run.

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US- and Singapore-based fintech company Miti Ventures, which operates under the brand name yufin, has bagged about US$1 million in early-stage funding from Mastercard Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Raja Rajamannar and former Portfolio Manager of Cadence Capital (a subsidiary of PIMCO) Kathy Burdon, among others.

77 Capital, Boleh Ventures, Zennon Kapron, Ramu Arivuvel, and Krishan Grover also joined.

According to the United Nations, micro, MSMEs account for 90 per cent of all businesses, 60-70 per cent of employment and half of global GDP. In the Philippines, there are many micro and small enterprises, such as sari-sari stores, street food vendors and carinderias — often run by women and many unbanked.

yufin serves under-served small and micro-merchants in emerging markets. The mobile app helps merchants manage their cash and credit transactions over their mobile phones. Using the app, merchants can accept digital payments, sell online on digital stores, order from B2B marketplaces and access better loans.

Also Read: 3 critical trends SMEs should zero in on in 2022

The product is currently available in the Philippines. The firm claims it has signed about 3,000 small merchant partners for yufin in Mindanao (the Philippines) since its launch in May 2022.

Shubhrendu Khoche, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy and Product Officer, said: “We are only scratching the surface. The potential is huge to benefit millions of small and micro-entrepreneurs in the Philippines and other emerging markets, raising income levels and increasing financial inclusion. We look forward to adding many more merchants to the yufin family over the coming months.”

Miti Ventures was set up by Khoche (ex-Mastercard and American Express) and Kurt Weiss (ex-Citi Innovation in New York). The firm has 16 employees in the Philippines and is planning to scale rapidly with the aim to roll the business model out elsewhere in Southeast Asia and in Mexico.

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It was an investment in Sky Mavis (Axie Infinity) that turned the spotlight on Ascend Vietnam Ventures, a new VC kid on the block. The early-stage VC firm, launched by former 500 Vietnam Partners Eddie Thai and Binh Tran in May 2021, made several successful bets after this investment, including in Kilo and Virtual Internships.

Recently, Ascend Vietnam announced that its early-stage fund, AVV Alpha, exceeded the US$50 million target amidst the funding winter, which has affected growth-stage startups globally. Against this backdrop, e27 sat with Eddie Thai for an interview. He touched upon the funding winter, the Vietnamese startup sector and the local Web3 industry.

Edited excerpts:

The world is gripped by a funding winter. How is the Vietnamese startup sector faring amidst the global downturn?

It has been pretty okay so far.

Part of it is probably a lagging effect. [As the startup world is undergoing a winter], public markets are going south and growth equity and early-stage capital are pulling back. However, it didn’t impact Vietnam much because the local startup scene is a bit younger than others; there are more early-stage startups and fewer late-stage startups.

The second reason is probably gravity. Whereas valuations in markets like the US were often untethered from fundamentals, valuations in Vietnam were probably less inflated by comparison. In other words, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Also Read: 500 Startups’s top execs set up new seed-stage VC firm Ascend Vietnam Ventures

But I think Vietnam’s relative insulation from the global downturn is more a factor of the positive forward opportunity. As per the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (even though it was released in April after a bunch of headwinds hit the global economy), Vietnam’s GDP is forecast to grow at least 5 per cent this year and 7 per cent next year. And within that growth, technology is going to be a significant component.

How does Ascend Vietnam Ventures look at the overall investment scene in Vietnam?

Vietnamese founders have endured harder times before. Not long ago, Vietnam received only 0.3 per cent of all venture capital worldwide. Since then, the digital economy and startup scene have changed dramatically. More and more entrepreneurs worldwide are discovering that Vietnam can be an excellent launchpad for their regional or global businesses. It has great tech talent, affordable startup costs, and a relatively accessible local market.

Due to the winter, many high-growth companies, including unicorns, fired employees en masse as they could not raise follow-on- funding. What does this indicate? Will the turn of events force growth-stage companies to go slow on their growth plans and focus on profitability?

I have indeed heard of companies in the US and elsewhere laying off many employees. As I understand, it’s not that these firms have not been unable to raise follow-on funding. Instead, for many companies, it has been pre-emptive cost-cutting in anticipation of a tougher fundraising climate and slower growth in the near term.

For most founders, this is the hardest thing to do. But it may be the difference between running out of runway vs survival and long-term success.

A tougher fundraising environment in the near term means many companies will have to step off the growth gas and work on their unit economics. But we have seen in past downturns that the best companies (and especially the ones that already have excellent unit economics) will continue to attract capital.

Globally, there are hundreds of unicorns, but most are non-profitable and don’t have a clear profitability path. For example, in India, only 25 per cent of the 100+ unicorns are profitable. The rest are burning cash. So do you think we should really celebrate unicorns?

Surely, the ultimate celebration should be for companies that achieve sustainable impact at scale. Yet the entrepreneurial journey to get there can be long and hard, so it’s important for founders to be able to celebrate intermediate wins when they have them.

Most of the entrepreneurs I have worked with only take a brief moment to do so before they turn back to their work. With each successive milestone, they feel more and more pressure.

Ascend seems to be very bullish about Web3. Does it have plans to back more Web3 companies from AVV Alpha? What is Web3’s future in the country?

We believe in the long-term potential of Web3 and the paradigms it enables to solve problems and create experiences in unique ways. It’s a reason we have hired our friend and former colleague Edith Yeung (one of the most influential people in crypto) as advisor of AVV Alpha.

Also Read: The 27 Vietnam startups that have grabbed our attention this year

We want to continue to be thoughtful about how we approach the space (we invested in only two Web3 companies with our prior fund). We need to know that each project will do what it purports to do in a way that’s genuinely better than other approaches. And of course, we will want to see the project led by a strong team with a long-term perspective and proper incentive alignment.

Crypto winter is tough on folks, but the silver lining is that it will clear out some of the hype and noise and allow stronger teams to emerge. So we expect to invest in a handful of companies out of AVV Alpha, perhaps three to five out of over 25 companies.

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When you think of a manager, you consider an individual responsible for overseeing internal work processes, execution of projects, and consequent reporting on the outcomes whilst ensuring their team feels taken care of. 

Following instability, organisations worldwide have been forced to adapt to new ways of work, with demands for change extending to managers. The great resignation continues with four out of ten employees wanting to leave their present job despite the increments offered.

As their employees ask for autonomy via hybrid working, managers must eliminate three key barriers: social pressures, health concerns, and unequal access to tech. If they effectively address these concerns, the hybrid working model will begin to self-pilot.

Employee autonomy must be nurtured

Jabra’s latest hybrid working research showed that 66 per cent of workers with full autonomy to choose where and when they work chose a hybrid model as their ideal workweek. However, only 57 per cent were currently working on a hybrid model. 

Of that 9 per cent gap, two per cent work from the office more than they like and seven per cent work from home more than they wish.

This begs a few important questions: if these workers have full autonomy, why are they either working full-time at home or full-time in the office when they could be choosing otherwise?

Empower, don’t punish

One reason employees may be working full-time in the office more than they wish solid social pressure. Despite an organisation letting employees work wherever they would like, a culture that says, “you need to be visible in the office to progress,” whether explicitly or implicitly, undoes any degree of autonomy. 

Jabra’s new research also found that 55 per cent of employees were concerned their careers would suffer if they didn’t come into the office regularly.

Also Read: The 5-part agile leadership guide that will make you a better business leader

The solution? 

Leaders must make it clear that employees won’t be unduly punished for not working in the office. A good place to start is with output-based performance evaluation. Although long-discussed, it’s not taken hold enough to make employees feel comfortable working in a way that best suits them. 

Another key step is to train managers in location bias, or the unconscious bias that leads to preferential treatment of those with whom they have the most face time. Employees often reflect the behaviour of their leaders, so one of the best ways to show that it’s okay to work from home is for leaders and managers to lead by example and do it themselves.

Communicate, update, and reflect on the reality

One reason employees may be working full-time from home more than they would like because, even two years into the pandemic, the virus is still a major health concern. 

40 per cent of all employees globally are reluctant to return to the office because of COVID-19. Similarly, 55 per cent are unwilling to enter a small conference room due to constant anxiety surrounding the virus.

Workers understand that a return to the office means increased exposure to the virus, a risk many are unwilling to take.

How do managers resolve this? It’s difficult for employees to return to the office if they fear their health and well-being. To address this, leaders must continually update health guidelines reflecting local realities. 

Managers must also advocate for spaces where employees can choose to work alone with limited contact with others. This way, everyone wins; employees feel their concerns are acted upon, and managers reap the rewards of a more engaged and productive workforce.

Build an inclusive tech ecosystem

Over the past two years, workers have received help from their employers to thrive in virtual environments. 83 per cent of remote workers say their organisation provides them with the necessary technology for equal and inclusive collaboration no matter where they work.

For full-time office workers, this number drops to 57 per cent. In a world where work is increasingly trending towards virtual environments, access to technology will be crucial in ensuring satisfaction, inclusion, and success at work.

If leaders want to enable employees to work in their ideal, hybrid working arrangement, they need to optimise office spaces for employees working primarily in virtual environments. Similarly, they’ll need to provide employees with personal, flexible technology to access those virtual environments from anywhere.

Also Read: Why leaders matter for a strong organisational culture

This includes identifying collaboration technologies that will enable both in-office and remote employees to collaborate on an equal playing field, allowing employees to move between these places without feeling left out seamlessly. Only then will employees truly be able to work a flexible arrangement on their terms.

Autonomy does not lead to redundancy

Although social pressures, health concerns, and unequal access to technology all play a role in potentially unbalancing a workforce, there are ways managers can counteract this. 

Managers must lead by example, demonstrating that working from home will not hinder progression. They must also take safety seriously, putting guidelines into place to reflect local reality.

Finally, leaders should optimise technology ecosystems to make the most of physical workspaces, providing professional equipment to facilitate effective collaboration. These pillars are fundamental to being a successful manager in hybrid work.

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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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Ascend Vietnam Ventures announced today its early-stage fund, AVV Alpha, has exceeded the US$50 million target.

AVV Alpha is backed by development finance institutions, funds of funds, corporate VCs, and HNIs from leading local and regional companies across Asia, Europe, and the US.

The fund seeks to invest in capital-efficient startups primarily in areas such as fintech, edutech, blockchain, and the future of work. It invests up to US$2 million each in 25 early-stage startups by 2023. It will then follow on with cheques of up to US$5 million.

In the past nine months, the VC firm has invested in ten startups, including

• Kilo (SaaS and wholesale marketplace for over 30,000 MSME retailers across Vietnam),
• Virtual Internships (remote internship placement & management platform for companies in over 70 countries worldwide),
• T&C Logistics (e-commerce fulfilment platform),
• Mandu (social commerce platform focused on reseller enablement).

Ascent Vietnam is led by Binh Tran and Eddie Thai (former partners of 500 Vietnam). The duo have invested together in Vietnam since 2015 and backed home-grown international firms, such as Axie Infinity (NFT gaming unicorn), ELSA (AI-driven edutech firm later backed by Google’s AI-focused fund), and Trusting Social (financial inclusion fintech firm later backed by Sequoia). 

Also Read: 500 Startups’s top execs set up new seed-stage VC firm Ascend Vietnam Ventures

“The likes of Axie Infinity, ELSA, and Trusting Social are by no means isolated successes,” said Binh Tran. “Vietnam’s dynamism, accessibility, low cost of living, and abundant quality engineering talent attract many founders. On top of that, many tech solutions built here can address similar challenges and customer behaviours in other emerging markets worldwide. Vietnam will continue to be seen as one of the best places to build global or regional market-leading companies.”

“We believe in the ability of all entrepreneurs in Vietnam to do great things, regardless of their backgrounds, and in our ability, opportunity, and obligation to help them do so,” Eddie Thai added.

In early 2021, Ascend Vietnam launched SHINE women founder initiatives in partnership with the Australian Government’s Investing in Women initiative. Since its inception, SHINE has organised training, mentoring, and community-building programmes for over 60 women entrepreneurs and executives, helping them advance their growth, people & leadership, and capital strategies and expand their support network.

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“If trailblazing were easy, the road would be paved,” goes the saying. It rings true for many companies and communities in the cryptocurrency space or crypto natives for short.

While no crypto native would want to give up their position as early adopters of digital assets, being ahead of the curve also has its challenges, especially when you come up against the limits of existing infrastructure.

This article outlines the major challenges that crypto-native companies face today and how they can navigate these challenges through Fintonia’s infrastructure, expertise and network.

What challenges do crypto natives face?

Crypto natives, including crypto token communities, crypto foundations and other entities that hold large amounts of crypto, face many challenges. Unfortunately, these challenges have not been given due attention and are ill-understood by the public.

Through our years of experience and expertise in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, Fintonia has identified four key areas that crypto natives face:

• Balance sheet management: Blockchain protocols and crypto foundations typically have outsize holdings in their native tokens, which results in significant concentration risk. For example, if Solana holds only SOL, and its price falls by 50 per cent, then Solana’s balance sheet would also be down by half.

• Structuring and signalling trust: Crypto-native companies typically comprise founders and employees across the globe. With your team spread across myriad countries and tax jurisdictions, having a well-thought-out company structure is integral for success. Furthermore, although diversifying the treasury across non-native tokens is fiscally sound, any move to sell the native token can be interpreted negatively by the public; it can signal a loss of confidence in the protocol or even appear to be a “rug pull”!

• Fiat on/off ramps: Crypto native companies still operate in a world that has not entirely accepted cryptocurrencies. The bulk of everyday business transactions, such as employee payroll, operational costs, and advertising spending, still have to be paid in fiat. However, the crypto/fiat exchange process is clunky and inefficient, not to mention costly. On top of that, traditional banks often shut down accounts associated with crypto companies.

Also Read: Cryptocurrency: Hero or villain for the payment industry?

• Onboarding with counterparties: The chaos of the nascent cryptocurrency space makes it exciting. But, let’s admit, this fragmented ecosystem can be frustrating to operate a business in. Not only do crypto natives need to work with multiple counterparties, but counterparty onboarding can take as long as 12 months, resulting in major opportunity costs.

Why partner with a regulated fund manager?

As the crypto market gets bigger and infrastructural challenges increasingly apparent, more blockchain protocols and crypto firms seek out fund managers for their financial management services.

Fund managers can address the four key issues in the following ways:

• Balance sheet management: We understand it’s important to diversify the treasury across assets. However, this can be challenging to execute in-house if your talent pool skews heavily towards tech and product. A regulated fund manager provides financial management expertise and the appropriate custodian solutions for your needs.

• Structuring and signalling trust: How do you structure your company properly? How do you meet your treasury’s needs without triggering negative public perception? A regulated fund manager can help structure the treasury’s portfolio, and fund flows to protect your assets and hedge against risk while sending the appropriate signals to the community.

• Fiat on/off ramps: For better or worse, crypto natives still need fiat for day-to-day use. A regulated fund manager bridges the gap between traditional financial institutions and crypto firms, working with third parties to give clients access to banking solutions such as borrowing and lending.

• Onboarding with counterparties: A well-connected fund manager allows crypto natives to eliminate the friction around counterparty onboarding. Clients can immediately leverage an established network of crypto exchanges and market makers and benefit from economies of scale.

In short, a regulated fund manager like Fintonia has the infrastructure, expertise, and network to address crypto natives’ challenges, helping them easily navigate turbulent waters.

How can crypto natives benefit from Fintonia’s solutions?

While asset management firms are a dime a dozen, not all are suited to working with crypto firms. Crypto natives need fund managers that understand the crypto ecosystem’s caprices, which can bridge the gap between traditional finance and digital assets.

Also Read: Breaking the bro code: How women are taking over the Web3 world in Asia

Fintonia Group, a regulated fund manager, specialising in digital assets, fits the bill. With over 100 years of experience in financial services and tech, we’ve built a financial ecosystem encompassing crypto natives, traditional financial institutions, and regulators.

As a registered Fund Management Company regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), we offer institutional-grade investment products to professional investors and financial management solutions for corporates, including crypto-native firms.

Key services and benefits we provide include:

• Portfolio and asset management
• Bespoke yield generation strategies
• Cash flow planning
• Fiat liquidity management solutions
• Private key signatory
• Transparent monthly reporting on assets

We plan and execute tailored solutions to manage clients’ treasury assets via a Segregated Account. Benefit from our seasoned industry professionals’ expertise and tap on their trading experience and network within the crypto and traditional finance markets.

Interested? Here’s what to expect

The crypto space is as diverse as it is dynamic. So we take the time to listen and craft bespoke solutions for our crypto-native clients. Our approach is as follows:

• Understand business model, and fund flows: No two companies are the same. We start by deep-diving into the client’s company structure and business model. This includes organisational structure, financial drivers and forecasts, scenario planning and correlations, key business risks, financial and operational requirements, regulatory, tax, accounting and legal needs.

• Determine strategy and fund flow: Having identified the client’s operational requirements and risk/return appetite, we propose a bespoke financial management strategy and asset allocation.

• Strategy execution and adjustments: This is where the client leverages Fintonia’s solutions and network of institutional counterparties, including custodians, exchanges, market makers and selected DeFi solutions.

Our solutions may be tailored, but they’re far from set in stone. They are designed to evolve with the client’s needs, as befits a player in the fast-moving crypto space, so clients can also expect regular reporting, analysis, and quarterly strategy reviews and adjustments. More than just a service provider to handle treasury matters, we’re also a strong partner who can grow with your business.

As entrepreneurs and founders, Fintonia is uniquely placed to understand your needs and tailor solutions, helping you pave your way through crypto’s chaos.

Here is more information on Fintonia’s Treasury and Balance Sheet Management solutions.

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The post Helping crypto native companies navigate turbulent waters appeared first on e27.

Mapan, a fintech startup helping lower-income Indonesians buy household goods at better rates, has closed US$15 million in a Series A round of funding, co-led by Patamar Capital and PT Astra Digital Internasional, a subsidiary of Astra.

The round also saw participation from BRI Ventures, SMDV, Blibli, Prasetia Dwidharma, Flourish Ventures and 500 Global.

With this investment, Mapan will look to grow its core “Arisan” service by expanding its product range and partnering with top suppliers. An aspect of Indonesian culture, Arisan is a form of informal social gathering where members take turns purchasing products for the group.

The firm will also introduce a wider variety of Arisan schemes and expand its reach, targeting to make its digitised Arisan product available to ten million households in Indonesia by 2026.

Mapan was founded in 2009 to help eliminate barriers to financial resources for low-income communities (it was later bought by Gojek) Through Mapan’s Arisan product, lower-income groups can increase their buying power to purchase household goods such as cookware, electronics, and furniture. It also provides other products and services, such as a bill payment app and consumer goods resale platform.

Also Read: Mapan reveals its current focus following new CEO appointment

Since 2015, Mapan has also focused on empowering women leaders of Arisan groups, which are traditional women-run rotating savings groups, by introducing the Arisan application. By recruiting women leaders and influencers as agents and creators of Arisan groups, Mapan has provided affordable goods financing to more than three million households to date.

Women influencers and leaders of Mapan’s Arisan groups can also count on receiving additional benefits, such as commission from product sales, incentives for recruiting and educating new agents, and other performance milestones, thereby bringing financial equality to women from low-income families in Indonesia.

“In line with Astra’s aim to prosper with the nation, Astra wishes to contribute to advancing the quality of life of the people of Indonesia, one of which is by contributing to the advancement of Indonesia’s digital economy. The collaboration with Mapan is one of our ways to enable people from all walks of society to meet their daily needs,” said Gidion Hasan, Director of Astra.

It aims to drive financial inclusion in the country, where 51 per cent of adults in Indonesia lack access to banks or other formal financial services. Mapan will also introduce additional products to enhance financial inclusion and improve access to financing sources for the masses.

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