Indonesian crypto wallet, trading platform Pintu scores US$113M Series B
Investors include Intudo Ventures, Lightspeed, Northstar Group, and Pantera Capital; Since its launch in April 2020, Pintu claims over 4M users have installed its app, up from 500,000 in May 2021.

How CoinDCX aims to be India’s gateway to the broader global crypto ecosystem
CoinDCX, a unicorn crypto exchange with 12.5M+ users, recently launched CoinDCX Ventures to nurture the crypto and Web3 industry in India and beyond; In April, it closed over US$135M in Series D round.

Vietnamese blockchain gaming guild Ancient8 nets US$6M
Investors include Makers Fund, C² Ventures, Pantera Capital, 6th Man Ventures, IOSG Ventures, and Play Ventures;
Ancient8 helps GameFi studios identify high-quality gamers and run Web3-native targeted advertising.

Request Finance raises US$5.5M to simplify enterprise crypto payments
Investors include Animoca Brands, Balderton Capital, and XAnge; Request Finance aims to simplify and automate invoicing, expenses, payroll, and accounting in crypto for more than 1,900 Web3 teams.

All hands on deck: How Iron Sail strengthens blockchain gaming ecosystem through collaboration
Launched in October 2021, Iron Sail results from a partnership between blockchain-based game hub Whydah and seven local gaming studios.

How the metaverse opens new opportunities for education
Education in the metaverse will be more democratised, the academic curriculum will be more equitable and open.

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Singapore fintech Capital C scores US$54M in fresh funding
Investors are Phillip Capital, Luminor Capital, Paradise Group, and Citystate Group; Capital C’s products include individual financing, SME financing, vehicle financing, and BNPL.

StashAway lays off 14% of staff
The robo-advisor StashAway has cut 31 staff members across five markets; The layoffs come after the company raised US$25M in a Series D funding round led by Sequoia Capital India in April last year.

Tiger Global-backed Lummo cuts 150+ employees
Inc42 previously reported that the company had let go around 100 to 150 employees in Indonesia as well as around 50 to 60 people in India; Lummo has two apps under its umbrella: LummoShop and bookkeeping app BukuKas.

iPrice Group lays off 20 per cent of employees
The layoffs are part of the group’s several measures to focus the business on its core mission, “to help people save money” shopping online; The decision comes three months after iPrice closed a US$5M from Itochu and KDDI Corporation.

Indonesian fintech startup Aino aims for IPO in 2023
The firm has raised an undisclosed sum in pre-Series B from Japan’s TIS Inc and Nippon Keei; It raised US$4M Series A from TIS in 2019; Aino provides digital payment methods in a number of sectors, especially public transport operators.

Why global investors are eyeing China’s EV landscape
Despite facing overcapacity issues, local electric vehicle startups have mushroomed in the country; Around 500 EV startups had been established in China by 2019, including some 300 EV makers.

Omnistream closes US$7M Series A for global expansion
Investors are SIG Venture Capital, Delivery Hero Ventures, Spiral Ventures, and Wavemaker Partners; Omnistream helps retailers optimise their physical footprint by generating store-level planograms that optimise assortments for hyperlocal demand.

Razer Fintech acquires E2Pay to further expand into Indonesia market
E2Pay provides a wide range of payment solutions to merchants and financial institutions, including payment gateway, e-money, and remittance services licenses in Indonesia.

watchTowr can tell an organisation in real-time if it can get compromised
The Singaporean cybersecurity startup bagged a US$2.25M seed funding from Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital and Wavemaker Partners in Feb 2022.

China mulls giving Ant Group second shot at IPO
The authorities are also close to granting the group a license that could pave the way for it to revive its listing plans and be regulated more like a bank.

Salary Hero raises US$2.8M to bring financial wellness to Thailand through EWA
Investors are Global Founders Capital, M Venture Partners, 500 TukTuks, 1982 Ventures, and Titan Capital; Salary Hero integrates and works directly with employers to provide earned wage access and financial wellness products.

Binance to expand operations in the Philippines
Binance is planning on financing traditional Philippine financial firms – such as payment service providers and banks – to help bring those businesses into the blockchain world.

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It has been over a month since crypto-assets TerraUSD (UST) and Luno crashed.

To explain the crashes in simple terms, in early May, the UST stablecoin — pegged against the US dollar — was trading at US$80 a coin, but it tanked to 35 cents following a massive sell-off. Its sister currency Luna also dropped and became almost worthless.

Some experts say the crypto crashes were not surprising — there was a bubble of irrational exuberance in cryptocurrency, which was already starting to deflate even before UST and Luna plunged.

While the crashes have rattled the market, industry watchers feel such events are healthy and necessary for the long-term future of cryptocurrency. Moreover, they will encourage many investors to think and analyse opportunities carefully.

On the flip side, the crashes have given more ammunition to policymakers globally to regulate the trading of cryptocurrencies. The US government is already seized of the matter and believes that regulation is essential to protect investors’ interest and guard them against financial contagion.

Also Read: What the fall of Terra Luna and the Asian financial crisis have in common

But the moot question is: can regulation alone restore people’s confidence in digital assets?

“Surely, governments will attempt to regulate crypto trading,” says Eddie Thai, General Partner of Ascend Vietnam Ventures, an early backer of Axie Infinity. “Some regulations may be necessary to restore confidence in the eyes of many retail investors. But I don’t think regulation will be the primary driver of overall investment interest in crypto versus potential financial gains and other factors.”

In any new space, he adds, governments often struggle to design and enforce well-balanced regulation; crypto is even harder to regulate effectively because of its fundamental design. “It’s this design that attracts a lot of crypto investors. Confidence will be gained back as investors become more knowledgeable about cryptocurrencies and their risks and as builders improve their design and execution.”

Even before the UST crashed, several governments had begun examining crypto regulations. For instance, Singapore in April approved legislation to tighten rules for cryptocurrency providers. The new law requires virtual asset service providers in the country which only do business overseas to be licensed.

Malaysia has also made it clear that it has no intention of recognising cryptocurrencies as legal tender.

“This crash will likely increase the urgency of governments and regulators to hasten their work on regulations,” opines Bobby Ong, Co-Founder and COO of CoinGecko, an independent cryptocurrency data aggregator. “We believe rules, if appropriate and proportionate, could help eliminate some outright scams so real projects could flourish. Beyond that, it is up to the projects to build sustainable offerings that will gain investors’ trust and confidence.”

Certainly, policymakers are worried and are taking every step to regulate and protect investors from potential losses in the future. However, many governments are still in the dark and have a vague idea about the differences between digital assets.

“What is more important is that governments are educated about the differences between various assets. A few regulated (private or public) stablecoins (like USDC) can emerge as default stablecoins,” says Kenrick Drijkoningen, General Partner at Web3 investor Play Future Fund.

Agrees Chris Sirise, Partner at Saison Capital: “Regulatory frameworks will be an essential driver of confidence in the sector. There are many mechanisms for a stablecoin to maintain its peg. Having one approved by regulators and audited by reputable third parties on an ongoing basis will increase confidence significantly. However, there is still a case to be made for decentralised stablecoins. That category will take time to rebuild trust, especially among retail investors.”

As all the experts mentioned above indicate that crypto should be regulated for the benefit of retail investors. But is regulation really possible?

Also Read: The 27 Web3 startups in Singapore that show crypto is more than Terra Luna and stablecoins

“To be very honest, from a functional and execution point of view, it’s impossible to regulate crypto markets. It is like a ‘casino’ that cannot be shut down,” says Elvin Zhang, Executive Director at Startech Global Ventures (part of Sinarmas Group).

As for the expected RoI, he says above traditional average (50 per cent annual internal rate of returns) can still exist in the semi-regulated ‘casino-like’ asset class. “Normal core productivity-related returns (less than 50 per cent) will veer back towards the regulated financial markets, and seasoned investors will find the two more and more differentiated when forming asset allocation strategies. General population confidence should then follow the above asset class bifurcation as well.”

But still, it is impossible to shut off something that is truly decentralised finance. The only thing governments can do is to control the valve that pumps money into the crypto markets. “But there is already capital control, meaning if you get money through some dark web, you are subjected to money laundering regulations. So that is the maximum governments can do,” Zhang says.

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Lyve Labs, a collaborative platform owned by Seagate Technology to build solutions that harness data flow, announced the winners of its Lyve Cloud Hackathon 2022 competition in Singapore on June 2.

The winners of the competition are Team YYQQ1314 (led by Tang Yun and Xu Qian), Team YSL (led by Liew You Sheng), and Team FastStream (led by Kai Wei Hoon). Each of these teams won cash prizes of S$8,000, S$2,000, and S$1,000.

Other participating teams are Team CSTOR (led by Oliver Wee), Team The Water Cooler (led by Lwin Maung Maung Thaw and Xu Haiyang, and Theekshana Wijewardhana), Team Linh AI (led by Giang Nguyen, Nhan Nguyen and Louis Phung), and Team BEANS (led by Callista Chang).

In this hackathon, the teams were to build solutions using Seagate cloud technology to tackle the challenges of improving data storage for customers and businesses. The participants had to choose one of the following challenge statements:

– Build a middleware solution on top of Lyve Cloud that serves as a media streaming server
– Connect other public cloud big data software stacks with Lyve Cloud
– Build a data migration and movement solution from other Cloud vendors to Lyve Cloud
– Create a solution to connect Lyve Cloud’s audit logs to other public clouds

Also Read: From gigabytes to zettabytes: How to develop a data-driven mindset

The participants were judged by a panel that consists of David Gu (Senior Director IT, Seagate Technology), Noa Franko-Ohana (Director, Lyve Labs), Muhammad Yazid (Director, Lyve Cloud), and James Xi (Technical Engagement Manager, Lyve Cloud).

In her opening speech, Franko-Ohana stresses the value of nurturing the local startup ecosystem in markets where the lab operates.

“Lyve Labs has rolled out several programmes, including Lyve Cloud for Startups along with the Innovator of the Year, to support the scaling of data-driven businesses while reaching out to young developers who have the ideas but lack the means to thrive. We are here to help you thrive,” she says.

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Image Credit: Seagate Lyve Labs

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While the means for businesses to digitalise were readily available before the pandemic, it took a lockdown as the catalyst to fast track the adoption.

Those who quickly adapted to digital platforms didn’t miss a beat, as they quickly pedalled their wares and services online through e-commerce platforms.

As the world gradually transitions to a post-pandemic world, industries, specifically the point-of-sale landscape, will forever be changed, as smart tools, online integrations and contactless payment modes have become the new norm.

In Singapore itself, two years of ordering online have changed consumer behaviour, letting their fingers do the walking as they browse through and weigh their options before purchasing from the comfort of their homes.

A seamless way towards a cashless future

Suppose there was any indication that we are on the cusp of a cashless future. In that case, it can be seen in the heartlands, as neighbourhood food hawkers embrace a digital mode of payments such as GrabPay and PayNow and the government-issued Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers that citizens could claim for various food items and services.

Since Qashier’s formation in 2019, we have empowered SMEs with affordable and accessible digital solutions, including e-payments, an online/QR ordering platform, and a smart point-of-sale (POS) system.

That being said, there are still a large number of SMEs and MSMEs that have yet to make this important switch across the region. Two possible key factors behind this are cost and complexity.

Also Read: The 5 pillars of digital transformation that meet business objectives efficiently

Adopting smart POS solutions with the latest technology would usually come with a hefty price tag that only big companies would consider. Qashier’s subscription model makes POS solutions extremely affordable, with prices starting from just SG$1 for a day.

We also made adopting the technology easy, designing software solutions with ease of use. Anyone could get their setup done within minutes and start streamlining their business right out of the box, with no prior training required.

We value form as much as function, so Qashier smart POS terminals currently come in three stylish form factors: the lightweight QashierXS, the sleek QashierX1, and the larger, powerful dual-screen QashierXL.

As a smart POS provider, changing the way businesses interact with customers at the payment touchpoint is of utmost importance. By integrating card, e-wallet, and mobile payments into one device, we mitigate in-store clutter while allowing customers to pay with their most preferred payment mode.

On the merchant side, business owners can also track growth with end-of-day sales reports and find out which of their items are doing better among the others.

As the market is saturated with uniquely different businesses, Qashier serves to tailor-make solutions for every business by working out the right combination of tools. For instance, an inventory management system helps keep track of stock for a retail business. In contrast, an ingredient management system would benefit an F&B establishment more, notifying you when an ingredient is low in stock.

As your business scales, Qashier cloud-based solutions grow and can seamlessly track data across multiple stores.

A POS system that can integrate with food delivery platforms proved essential during the pandemic, but we wanted to provide more for our merchants. QashierEats, our online and QR ordering platform, allows merchants to easily set up a profile on the platform and begin taking online orders, which Qashier takes no commission from.

One such Qashier merchant, Caffe Pralet, found that with QashierEats, their customers were ordering their food online and using the platform for in-store pickups. Orders were sent directly to the POS, and preparation could begin efficiently.

Also Read: Shouldering the responsibility of digital payment security

A couple of popular traditional F&B merchants in Singapore have also successfully digitalised with Qashier’s solutions. Examples include Fei Fei Wanton Mee at Joo Chiat Place, which took on the portable QashierX1 Smart Terminal, as well as the bigger QashierXL Smart POS to streamline their payment methods, and another East Coast merchant Kim Choo Rice Dumplings, which elevated their operations with inventory management and customer relationship management tools from a QashierXL.

It’s one thing to want to create the best product possible, but we also wanted to assure merchants that we had their back, now and in the future. If merchants ever find themselves needing support, we have made sure that we have a local team on standby seven days a week.

We see a couple of technological trends becoming a mainstay in the POS landscape as we look ahead. First of all, it is the ability to have integrated payments. Customers should be allowed to pay the way they prefer, be it with cash, tapping a card, or wireless payments through mobile wallets. Merchants should also be able to accept every one of these modes in a single terminal.

Secondly, QR code menus are likely to be a permanent feature at most F&B establishments. The convenience for customers it presents is welcomed in a contactless world. The technology can be implemented to tackle the problem of a labour crunch, as a business would require less manpower working tableside.

Finally, the buy-now, payer-later (BNPL) trend will see more prominence, helping merchants push their big-ticket items to more customers than ever. The BNPL model provides customers with limited access to credit and cash to make purchases split into instalments both online and in-store, effectively offering credit terms to those who do not have or cannot get a credit card.

No matter the industry, one thing is for sure, small businesses must remain competitive in the digital economy. Technology shouldn’t be a barrier but a tool for them to elevate their businesses to the next level.

Adopting these new technological tools could be difficult at first, but partnering with the right POS partner may be the key difference that can propel the business to a cashless future.

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This year, Vietnam has proven itself to be the most promising land for Web3 startups in Southeast Asia. In a listicle recently published by e27, we covered 21 Web3 companies operating in the country –and we are certain that these companies will not be the last.

This time, we would like to spotlight Iron Sail, a collective effort to contribute to the development of the blockchain gaming space.

Launched in October 2021, Iron Sail results from a partnership between blockchain-based game hub Whydah and seven local gaming studios: Topebox, Wolffun Game, IMBA Game, Hiker Games, Divmob, 1B Game Studio, and KEIG Studio.

As a GameFi Hub, Iron Sail serves as the gateway to the metaverse by investing in promising GameFi projects. Its goal is to move toward an open metaverse where “everyone and everything is connected”, both online and offline. The project also aims to make blockchain game development more accessible and sustainable.

An example of a project that it is running includes Ark Rivals, an epic sci-fi action strategy NFT game. Having completed its Alpha launch in January, it saw 80,000 prospective players vying for 1,000 open slots. A month later, Iron Sail launched an initial exchange offering (IEO) and an initial decentralised exchange offering (IDO) for Ark Rivals. The project itself launched its Mainnet on April 26.

There is also another project called Raramuri, which is claimed to be the first marathon in the metaverse. Incubated by Whydah, it combines KardiaChain’s state-of-the-art technologies to provide an outstanding experience for runners.

The team behind Iron Sail had been strongly involved in the local GameFi ecosystem last year. Examples of the projects that it had been involved in included the launch of My DeFi Pet in April 2021. The game became the most played game in just three months and the second most used Dapp on the Binance Smart Chain. It had also launched Thetan Arena in September 2021, whose user base surpassed Axie Infinity’s as the largest one in the industry by December of the same year.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

Working together for the ecosystem

How did the partnership between Whydah and the game studios come to be? In an email interview with e27, Iron Sail Founder Tri Pham explains that following the success of My Defi Pet in 2021, many game studios turned to Whydah for advice and investment opportunities. They view Whydah as an institution that can offer in-depth partnerships with expertise in blockchain tech integration to create long-term value.

“By leveraging Whydah’s know-how in smart contracts, tokenomics, metrics design, and community development, game studios can focus entirely on game making instead of stretching their resources thin trying to tackle unfamiliar fields,” he explains.

The founder details the collaboration between the game studies and the blockchain solutions providers to empower the community along with these values: Respect the games, build a sustainable community, and give investor value.

So, what is the common challenge in blockchain gaming that the partnership aims to solve?

“Blockchain is a relatively new technology, even to global firms. Hence, it is challenging to implement blockchain into the core gameplay while operating the token economy system,” says Tri Pham. “Although blockchain is the best tool for players to keep track of their actions, assets, and trading activities for value, improper application of the technology may impair the overall in-game experience – from game lags to additional steps required to complete game activities.”

This is where Whydah’s expertise comes in, as it provides and advises on blockchain integration for this transformation of traditional businesses –in this context, the video game studios.

” … we help studios to deploy their games on different blockchain platforms to keep the games functioning normally while simultaneously providing the ability to have on-chain
records of all gamers’ actions. By reframing ‘crypto activities’ and including them as part of the gameplay, Iron Sail also introduces crypto investment concepts to newcomers and spices up the experience for hardcore gamers at the same time,” Tri Pham explains.

Also Read: Coins.Ph Co-Founder Ron Hose’s new NFT rental marketplace Playdex nets US$2M

In terms of customer acquisition strategy, how does Iron Sail aim to do things differently?

“We aim to acquire users through game genre diversification and a hybrid player base. We gather crypto players, via token incentives, as well as traditional gamers, via a freemium model. As Iron Sail is the collective effort of seven studios, each project will have its own unique value proposition. Each studio, and the game, will focus on its strengths in specific categories, rather than follow the market trends,” the founder explains.

“From Iron Sail’s perspective, we will acquire potential users and investors through various marketing strategies. This involves pushing social engagement on multiple channels to form sustainable communities with mutual goals and leveraging business with quality partnerships. Above all, we prioritise the quality of the game – it will have to speak for itself, and players will be the judge of that.”

Blockchain gaming in the future

With collaborations such as Iron Sail emerging in the ecosystem, one would certainly wonder about the future of this industry, starting with the next five years. When sharing his vision about it, Tri Pham highlights the role that blockchain technology will play.

“Blockchain has the potential to be the next pillar of technological advancement in the next five years, and the metaverse will open a new era of human interactions in the digital age. As a pioneer, Whydah and the Iron Sail project will seize the opportunity to scale up the open metaverse, starting with GameFi, and later SocialFi, before expanding across other realms,” he says.

“We strongly believe that GameFi is likely to be a strong foundational building block for developing the open metaverse based on its innate interactiveness and gamification. By developing a sustainable GameFi ecosystem such as Iron Sail and a healthy investment environment such as Whydah’s ecosystem, we lay down a functional framework for a true metaverse to be built upon.”

Also Read: A beginner’s guide into the world of NFTs

The founder is a firm believer in the possibility for the metaverse to continue expanding its use cases.

“Looking ahead, the metaverse could then branch out to other sectors such as education, entertainment, or any other e-activities that one can dream of. We believe that demonstrating what users can do in the metaverse will trigger a deeper sense of intrigue to encourage greater exploration,” he closes.

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Image Credit: Iron Sail

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Request Finance, a Singapore-based enterprise crypto payments startup, today announced that it had closed a US$5.5 million seed round with institutional backers, including Animoca Brands, Balderton Capital, and XAnge.

The funding round also attracted the participation of Sebastien Borget (co-founder and COO at The Sandbox), Michael Kong (CEO of Fantom), and Stani Kulechov (founder and CEO of Aave), and Julien Bouteloup (Founder of StakeDAO).

The funding will be used to expand the company’s global team. In a statement, Request Finance said that it is actively hiring for several new roles, including a Chief Finance Officer (CFO), software developers, and positions in business development and marketing.

The funding will also support the company’s efforts to expand its in-app services to include invoice financing, escrow, and even yield-farming. These features are aimed at helping enterprises better manage their crypto-financial operations.

Request Finance also stated that as part of its mission to help enterprises simplify their crypto-financial operations, it has also backed the Web3cfo.club, a rapidly-growing, exclusive community of finance and operations leaders at prominent Web3 companies such as Bankless, Consensys, Edge and Node, and The Sandbox.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

Request Finance aims to simplify and automate invoicing, expenses, payroll, and accounting in crypto for more than 1,900 Web3 teams. Since launching in January 2021, the company said that US$200 million in crypto invoices had been paid through Request Finance.

By addressing common pain points with enterprise crypto payments, such as financial reporting and regulatory compliance, it has attracted users from different Web3 verticals. This includes DeFi companies such as Aave, metaverse and NFT-related projects such as The Sandbox, and DAOs such as Maker. Professional services firms serving Web3 companies such as accounting firms, PR companies, and event organisers are also users of its services.

Request Finance also said that it has also seen growing interest from Web2 tech companies as more clients inquire about paying in crypto.

It credited its rapid growth to several macroeconomic trends, such as the rise of remote work in the wake of the pandemic.

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Image Credit: Request Finance

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As a cornerstone of sustained economic growth and prosperity, innovation is more important than ever in today’s world. It is critical in solving the complex sustainability challenges we now face. Leading companies have also acknowledged that sustainable innovation can present opportunities to re-invent products, services and business models, driving new growth.

Over the years, Europe and North America have successfully established themselves at the frontier of global technological innovation. More recently, however, we have started to see Asia-Pacific and Latin America gaining ground on the traditionally developed market hubs. They have begun to emerge as the new hotbeds for innovation.

These regions are not only supported by large, young and entrepreneurial demographics, but they also demonstrate a strong appetite for business-led innovation.

Against this favourable backdrop, we have seen the pace of innovation in Asia-Pacific accelerate rapidly over recent years, and companies are harnessing this innovative growth. Tech ecosystems have emerged in countries such as China, Singapore and South Korea and are growing at a pace that far outstrips the rate of change in Europe, with startups fuelling much of this momentum.

China’s leadership in fintech, e-commerce and AI has been well documented, but we have also started to see ASEAN countries emerge and grow in scale as Unicorn hubs. While Singapore and Indonesia lead this space in ASEAN, growth in Malaysia and Vietnam are likely to present interesting opportunities in the future.

Tapping the innovation potential of Asia-Pacific

Startups are disrupting traditional or entrenched ways of thinking and reinvigorating established business methods.

Also Read: How to stay positive and seek sustainable growth in a tough funding environment

The opportunities they offer to create new markets or completely transform old ones by introducing products, services, and ideas that challenge existing norms is an exciting value proposition as industries seek to embed sustainable thinking in their businesses and product lifecycles.

While prominent startups in Asia-Pacific have focused on fintech and e-commerce, there is a significant market potential for sustainability led startups in the region.

Close to half of the global plastic production is concentrated in Asia-Pacific, and the waste challenge remains urgent, systemic and complex. Alongside mounting fears that the volume of plastic waste is expected to nearly triple by 2040, plastic pollution remains a pervasive threat to the environment.

Plastic pollution must be addressed at the source, and innovations in material technology will be a key driver in transforming the future of packaging. Innovation of biodegradable labelling and packaging products, materials and solutions that will help perishables survive the last leg of the supply chain is necessary to drive this.

Sustainable packaging alternatives can help food producers and brands better manage supply chains and reap positive benefits for the environment while appealing to environmentally conscious consumers.

We believe that there are under-explored pools of talent which exist in the Asia Pacific and are keen to partner with the brightest and best innovators and startups who share our passions and goals of addressing some of the industry’s most urgent business challenges with an ultimate ambition of advancing the global sustainability agenda.

Tackling systemic challenges

As firm believers that geographical boundaries are no barriers to innovation, and in a first for the labels industry, Avery Dennison has launched AD Stretch, an accelerator programme, in Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

We hope to inspire and catalyse the startup ecosystems in solving sustainability challenges in these regions and seek to accelerate and amplify its impact as the programme rolls out in Europe and the United States later this year.

The challenges we have identified align around three key themes: maximising the consumer experience, creating sustainable, responsible and efficient value chains, and materials and packaging 2.0.

The first seeks to deliver both functional solutions, delivering information and sustainable value to buyers, and provide unique experiences that increase the value of products.

The second aims to develop innovations that advance the circular economy and reduce the environmental impact of our operations and supply chain.

Also Read: What COVID-19 taught us about sustainable choices and climate change

The third focuses on innovations that enhance trust, transparency and connectivity, from the production of our products to end-user delivery.

Accelerating innovation in materials science and sustainability

Our ambition for the AD Stretch programme is to develop our innovation capabilities across our industry’s full spectrum and pioneer new and sustainable solutions for packaging while solving environmental challenges.

While AD Stretch is still in its infancy, we aspire to see it develop into a platform for continual investment in innovation across the entire value chain of our industry, from materials to digital solutions.

As new problems emerge, we should be highly responsive to increase the rate of finding solutions. We are making a long-term commitment to engaging with external partners, helping bring their ideas to fruition and adding value for themselves, our customers, and the communities in which we operate.

Through programmes such as AD Stretch, we hope to propel our vision is coming together to solve global sustainability challenges that will help cultivate a more sustainable and regenerative world for future generations to come.

The AD Stretch Accelerator Programme aims to pilot new technologies focusing on value chain efficiency, sustainability and materials innovation for the labels and packaging industry. Learn more about the inaugural intake in the Asia Pacific and Latin America.

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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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Razer Fintech, the fintech arm of gaming hardware giant Razer, today announced that it had acquired PT E2Pay Global Utama (E2Pay), B2B2C digital payment facilitator and e-money player in Indonesia, for an undisclosed sum.

In a press statement, Razer Fintech said that this acquisition marks its further expansion into Indonesia.

“E2Pay is one of Indonesia’s few digital payment players with a comprehensive set of licenses across various payment gateway services, e-money, and remittance. The acquisition of E2Pay allows us to accelerate our entry into Indonesia, one of the fastest-growing digital economies in Southeast Asia, as well as be able to better serve the digital payment needs of our regional and global merchants as the single partner of choice. I look forward to working closely with the E2Pay team to grow our presence in Indonesia considerably in the years to come.” said Razer Fintech CEO Lee Li Meng.

Founded in 2012, E2Pay provides a wide range of payment solutions to merchants and financial institutions, including payment gateway, e-money, and remittance services licenses in Indonesia.

Also Read: Morning raises US$1.27M in a round led by Razer’s VC arm to take its IoT-enabled coffee maker to global markets

The company’s most notable clients included local unicorns such as Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Traveloka and Blibli.

E2Pay said that its e-money platform MBayar serves over 500,000 registered users and supports payments for credit or data plans, bill payments, QR payments, cash withdrawals and fund transfer services.

These services complement Razer Merchant Services, Razer Fintech’s business-to-business arm regionally. The company said that it facilitates cross-border payments for its 60,000 merchants to the region’s largest populated country.

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Image Credit: Razer Fintech and E2Pay

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Salary Hero, a Thailand-based financial wellbeing platform, today announced it has raised US$2.8 million (THB100 million) in funding.

Global Founders Capital, M Venture Partners (MVP), 500 TukTuks, 1982 Ventures, Titan Capital, and multiple “high-profile” Thai corporates and angel investors also participated in the funding round.

In a statement, the company said that it will use the capital injection to continue building its customer success team to support its growing client base and expand its suite of high impact neo banking products.

Jonathan Nohr, co-founder of Salary Hero, stated, “We empower every Thai employer to be a hero when it comes to driving financial inclusion of their employees without disrupting their business. This round of funding allows us to double down on that mission and focus on launching more high impact financial products.”

Salary Hero integrates and works directly with employers to provide earned wage access and financial wellness products, such as financial education. Through its Earned Wage Access services, the platform provides workers with an alternative to expensive payday loans, helping them absorb unforeseen expenses that occur between paychecks.

Also Read: Rising above the competition in the EWA landscape

Salary Hero was co-founded in late 2021 by Bain Bangkok executives Jonathan Nohr and Prabhav Rakhra. As former bankers at Credit Suisse and Barclays, they identified an opportunity to use technology to service lower-income Thai workers, who are often overlooked by financial institutions.

The co-founders are joined by Tep Neeranatpuree, former head of corporate sales at Lalamove, and Thanakij Pechprasarn, former CTO of edutech company Gantik, to scale Thailand’s leading financial wellness platform.

The company said that it is on track to reach 100,000 users by 2023, seeing double-digit week-on-week user growth in 2022 with clients across manufacturing, logistics, hospitality and retail industries.

Its clients included leading car rental company Hertz.

In the region, startups that are providing similar services included wagely, Paywatch, and GajiGesa.

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Decisions, decisions. We know startup founders in Singapore have enough to consider while building their businesses, so we’ve laid out all the information to make it easier.

An Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) is a method of granting equity in a business to an employee over some time. As simple as it sounds, the employee receives options (or rights) to be granted real stocks in the business, as long as they comply with the rules of the ESOP (plan rules).

While there are multiple variations of employee stock plans around, ESOPs are the most common form of employee incentivisation for small and startup businesses.

In our experience, an ESOP often represents the best way to incentivise an employee’s performance whilst still allowing the company to maintain the control it desires and not tying it down with admin.

Generally, ESOPs are the most popular method of granting employee ownership for startup companies. So let’s get into why.

So what are the benefits of an ESOP?

• Incentivise: We have all been in that situation. Whereas an employee feels like you are working your hands to the bones, the usual discretionary ‘bonus structure’ just doesn’t cut it anymore. ESOPs allow employees the opportunity to become part of the company. This means they have intrinsic motivation to see the company become profitable. Rather than solely focusing on their own pay cheques week to week, they are in it for the company’s greater good.
• Retention: Most ESOPs contain’ time based vesting’ conditions, encouraging employees to stay at the company. This means that the options cannot be exercised (converted into ordinary stocks in the company) until they vest. And for an option to vest, the employee will have to remain employed or engaged by the company for certain periods of time. The most common terms we see involve 25 per cent of an employee’s options vesting after 12 months of employment and then the remaining 75 per cent vesting on a monthly basis over the three years commencing the after the first anniversary.
• Recruiting: As a startup, you may not be able to match the corporate salaries that highly talented and experienced candidates may receive in their corporate jobs. However, by offering equity in the business, you can compromise. Many startups can attract talent by offering them a combination of salary and equity to close the gap and get the best talent on board.
• Tax: Many jurisdictions worldwide have made changes allowing for ESOPs to be more tax effective for both the employer and the employee, with various concessions and methods of calculation available. An employee can be incentivised without attracting further tax liabilities with these concessions.
• Customisation: ESOPs can be drafted to suit your company’s needs. The vesting conditions can be different for each employee (for example, some employees may need to meet certain KPIs, while others may only need to meet the time-based vesting requirements). This way, you can structure the ESOP to provide the most value for your company while incentivising the employees to the greatest extent possible.

Common worries

So if ESOPs are so worthwhile, why doesn’t every company have one?

Also Read: The best new year resolutions for startup founders: Offering ESOPs that actually work

We have set out below the most common concerns we hear in relation to ESOPs, and in general, most are fueled by simple misunderstandings.

“What if an employee leaves? I don’t want ex-employees leaving with equity in my company.”

Most ESOPs contain general ‘buy-back’ provisions, which allow the company to repurchase options and stocks from employees in certain circumstances. One of those circumstances is when the employee leaves.

ESOPs will specify the price paid for those stocks, often based on whether the employee was a ‘good leaver’ or a ‘bad leaver’. These terms can be completely personalised for the company to cover any hypothetical scenario it may have in mind.

“How do I know the value of the options? I don’t want to give too much away?”

Cake can help you get valuations for your company to be used in your ESOP. It can also assist with providing a valuation to put a dollar value on each option. This will be helpful when using options as a substitute for a salary.

For example, rather than paying an employee a US$100k salary, you could offer a US$75k salary, in addition to US$25k worth of options, that will vest over three years of employment at the company—more cash left in your pocket, and more incentivisation for the employee.

“How could I ever keep track of when employees are meant to be granted stocks? And how would I find time to do it?”

We hear this a lot and have solved this issue for you. Once you’ve created your ESOP on Cake, it will automatically track time-based vesting rules.

Once an employee’s options have vested (and can therefore be exercised to be issued stocks in the company), both the employee and the company will get a notification. They simply click a few buttons, and the stock issue is complete.

Also Read: 12 legal considerations when drafting your ESOP

We have created the platform on a ‘set and forget’ basis, allowing you to focus on the growth.

Difference between ESOP and ESOW

Less admin

They require much less admin. Under an ESOW (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), the employees are issued stocks upfront, subject to vesting. If the employee does not satisfy the vesting requirements, the company can repurchase those stocks at a nominal value (US$1).

However, if, for example, a company offers stocks under an ESOW to 15 employees, and only five of those employees satisfy all of the vesting requirements, the company would be required to conduct stock buy-backs for each of the 10 employees where the vesting criteria were not met.

This can be a time-consuming process, as it will require members’ resolutions, buy-back a country’s, and updates to your country’s regulator (if any).

Comparatively, ESOPs are less ofdon’tadache. If option-holders don’t meet the vesting requirements, the options will simply lapse and can then be recycled into the option pool to be used for other offers. Simple.

No upfront payment

Under an ESOP, the option-holder is not required to pay anything up-front to accept the offer.

Under an ESOW, Fair Market Value must be paid for the stocks on acceptance of the offer. This can sometimes cause confusion and delays.

The option-holder only pays when it exercises the option with an ESOP, and it is often a nominal value. A company may be able to set the Exercise Price at US$0.01 per option, even where the company is doing very well if the relevant tax rules in your jurisdiction allow for it.

No two companies are the same, so it is important to consider your own staff specifically, and your editor’s in the next few years.

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