In Southeast Asia, 60 million new consumers joined the digital economy throughout the pandemic, representing 10 per cent of the total regional population pivoting to online services, including financial platforms.

Online services have been redefining the user experience, from ordering car rides to buying insurance to trading assets. Users can now access a myriad of services from the convenience of their phones in smart and effective ways. 

Led by the access provided by technology, the pandemic saw a new financial consciousness and ownership, led by younger generations and a rise in the retail investing trend. Today, retail investors make up nearly 25 per cent of overall stock market activity.

Reshaping online wealth management

Social investment platform eToro found digitalisation was a key driver to democratise access to capital markets.

Its recent Retail Investor Beat survey of 8,500 respondents across 12 countries showed that younger investors are leading in market participation by placing their trust in online investment platforms, now becoming the most popular method amongst those aged 18-34 (61 per cent).

Their increased reliance on smartphones has changed consumer habits and expectations, who now prefer online products for wealth management. This preference for a virtual set-up contrasts with older investors (aged 45-54) who prefer using a bank  (55 per cent).

With tech offering more access and new solutions, the elitist financial system will face significant challenges capturing younger demographics and future wealth holders. 

eToro’s research also found a ‘set and forget’ approach to investing is on the rise, with a third (37 per cent) of young investors believing that checking on their investments once a week is the ‘sweet spot’, and 32 per cent buying or selling their assets only once a month.

More mature demographics adopt a similar approach but are more inclined to hold their assets for longer, with one in four (24 per cent) selling only once a month.

Social as the new investment advisor

New sources of financial knowledge and advice are also gaining ground. While using recommendations from friends and family before investing remains the most popular source across demographics, 32 per cent of younger investors also seek financial advice from social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Also Read: The transition is now: these Web3 apps are transforming global finance

Their preference for these avenues is more than double that of their older counterparts, with only 15 per cent turning to social media and instead preferring (38 per cent) to traditional outlets such as newspapers.  Online forums are also gaining popularity, with nearly a quarter of those aged 18-34 looking at Twitter and Reddit for guidance.

Challenging the norms through access and education

Tech and digitalisation act as catalysts for inclusion and access in financial markets. We see younger demographics participating and recognising the importance of starting their investment journey sooner rather than later to set the foundations for their financial well being.

However, as democratisation increases, we also see a surge in financial disinformation as anyone with a smartphone can create content and share knowledge.

As social media and online forums become increasingly integrated into retail investors’ decision process, it is digital investment platforms’ responsibility to warn about the potential risks and create content and educate their users.

While reshaping expectations of online wealth management, digital investment platforms will continue to be a powerful tool to increase access to capital markets and increase financial wellbeing in Southeast Asia, but the sector will also need to understand they are not only financial enablers but must act as financial educators, and complement investors’ research.

Today’s leading companies have made the most of technology and innovation, challenging norms of traditional finance and must engage and educate users in new ways.

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Artificial intelligence or AI is a wide-ranging solution that is slowly but significantly disrupting the world of business. How AI impacts businesses range from how we integrate information to how we analyse data, and how we leverage the resulting insights to improve decision-making, resulting in lowering costs, increasing their productivity and enhancing their revenue streams.

Key stakeholders all over the world recognise the potential and importance of AI. The global AI Governance market was valued at USD 107.56 million in 2021 and is expected to reach a value of USD 528.06 million by 2027, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.97% over the forecast period 2022-2027. 

These trends can be seen emerging in the APAC region as businesses start to realise the importance of AI in today’s digital-first landscape. According to a recent report, Asia Pacific’s market for AI is set to grow at a CAGR of 41.60% over the forecast period of 2019-2027. Several reports have also indicated that AI is one area where APAC can lead the rest of the world.

One of the main drivers for growth for AI in business in APAC is enhancing consumer behaviour and expectations. As we inch further into the digital decade, consumers are increasingly engaging brands online and they expect a certain level of personalisation. In Singapore alone, research has unveiled that over 70 per cent of consumers want a better customer experience — specifically, one that treats them as individuals instead of just any other customer. And this can be achieved with AI.

Also read: PikoHANA: Helping Singapore startups scale through fractional finance

Adopting AI, however, can be challenging for companies, especially young startups and SMEs that may lack the knowledge and expertise in the field and might not have the resources, to hire dedicated teams because of specialisation, Work From Home (WFH), many companies now have remote and outsourced teams working in many different places. As such, there is a dire need to enhance the capabilities of software developers and facilitate better collaboration between teams of software developers and business users to future proof their business.

This is where Singapore-based AI API microservice provider Sentient.io is helping companies adopt AI easily and prepare their business for the future. Sentient.io aims to change the narrative of AI adoption by providing ready-to-use domain-specific AI algorithms for teams of application software developers in companies to consume via APIs.

Sentient.io: Addressing the challenges of AI adoption to help businesses grow

Christopher Yeo, founder and CEO of Sentient.io is fascinated with the impact of computer science, especially artificial intelligence on the future of humanity and how it is going to change our lives. With over 20 years of experience in database technologies, data warehousing, data mining, operations research and internet systems integration, Yeo strongly believes that AI is going to change the world of business forever.

“AI allows businesses to make better decisions, improving the core business processes by increasing the speed and accuracy of strategic decision-making processes. AI Technology helps boost the drive toward digital transformation for enterprises. AI enables human capabilities such as reasoning, understanding, planning, and communication — to be undertaken by software more effectively and efficiently. All of these help people to create new opportunities, free humans from repetitive work, and focus on creative work,” he says.

Also read: Deep tech startups gain multi-pronged support from Leave a Nest

Sentient.io enables software developers to build AI and data solutions quickly and easily by offering domain targeted AI and data as API microservices. It runs on the 4 pillars of making AI natural and intelligent where it can be easily integrated into daily life while constantly adapting and developing. Hence, the startup’s tagline: ‘Naturally Intelligent’. 

“We know that many companies have challenges to adopt AI to increase productivity, save costs and enhance revenue streams, Sentient.io has created an AI platform to help software developers quickly and easily access AI models via APIs, which accelerates their AI adoption,” explains Yeo. “Sentient.io enables developers and enterprises to seamlessly add AI capabilities to their software at fast speeds,” he adds.

Leveraging AI to foster a collaborative environment

There has always been a keen emphasis on collaborations and partnerships in the world of business. However, in the light of a prolonged global health pandemic that has changed the face of business and the economy forever, there has been an increased focus on innovation through collaboration. Several studies and reports have found that collaboration is going to be key in a post-pandemic future. Many companies need to cope with WFH, as well as multiple remote and outsourced teams. 

As such, Sentient.io’s TeamSpaces, an extended feature of the AI and Data platform, serves to address the issue of collaboration on the cloud, providing a dedicated space for companies to collaborate on AI solutions. Many companies have separate remote programming teams, TeamSpaces allow all these remote teams to collaborate around datasets and AI models.

TeamSpaces is based on creating a sandbox in a secure environment. Space owners can create tiers of management which allow for multiple organisations to exist and different roles for collaboration. Users or TeamSpaces have access to ready-to-use AI microservices from the Sentient.io Platform which saves them time to search from external sources or build from scratch. In addition, TeamSpace owners can upload their own microservices/datasets in order to fulfil their own organizational needs.

Take the next step into the future with Sentient.io’s TeamSpaces

From young startups or SMEs to established enterprises, any business looking to recruit the best data scientists or AI engineers or seeking a vibrant ecosystem of innovation partners can benefit from TeamSpaces. The assistance provided by TeamSpaces is undeniable and invaluable. Mastering collaboration and embracing efficiency made possible by this truly collaborative workspace, companies can count on both internal and external support, backed by a secure and conducive environment.

Also read: Behind the scenes of oVice: a leading remote work solution

In addition, TeamSpaces affords a safe and secure sandbox for corporate data, meaning that companies do not have to worry about potential data leaks as they use the feature. With the use of Role Based Access Control (RBAC), the owner of the space can assign different rights to different members to ensure security within the collaboration space. Access to data is also controlled by authorised API keys to ensure that sensitive data stays accessible to certain individuals only. Data on the collaboration space is also encrypted, providing an extra layer of security against outside parties.

With subscription plans or license fees that are available in the public cloud or private cloud/on-premise setups respectively, Sentient.io’s TeamSpaces is available at affordable prices, with packages that cater to specific industries and needs. Past use-cases of TeamSpaces have led to decreased costs of up to 50 per cent, as well as increased productivity and innovation. 

To learn more about Sentient.io’s TeamSpaces, visit https://www.sentient.io/teamspaces to ask for a demo. To explore other Sentient.io AI-as-a-service tools and solutions, log on to https://www.sentient.io/en/ or contact joshua@sentient.io

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Sentient.io

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

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Many small businesses never consider protecting their network until a breach has happened. Even then, the majority of them only focus on the network and infrastructure, leaving some of the most vulnerable elements, the endpoint devices unprotected.

Endpoint is any device that serves as a source or destination for communication through a network. Servers, desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and printers are all considered endpoint devices.

As the result of the growing trend toward remote work and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, the endpoint has played an increasingly important role in cybersecurity. 

Endpoint security is part of a comprehensive cybersecurity programme that is fast becoming a must-have for all businesses, regardless of size.

What is endpoint security?

Endpoint security is a cybersecurity solution that secures endpoint devices connected to the internet through your network.

Endpoint security solutions use an endpoint protection platform (EPP), which is installed on endpoints, to protect against malware and other intrusions. An EPP may be combined with an endpoint detection and response (EDR) platform that focuses on monitoring, threat detection, and responses.

Endpoint security can use the client-server model (on-premises) for the internal protection of a company’s enterprise or be web-based Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS).

What’s the difference between endpoint security and antivirus?

While endpoint security is often associated with antivirus, they are not the same thing. Endpoint security software includes antivirus, but also many other tools for protecting your business.

Also Read: How much does cybersecurity cost and how to budget for it?

Antivirus software simply detects and removes known viruses. Endpoint security offers a variety of tools and functionality that protect your company’s devices, network, and data. 

Here are just some of the features endpoint security can have:

• Blocking malicious websites
• Identifying phishing emails
• Stopping dangerous applications
• Running unknown programmes in a safe ‘sandbox’ environment
• Scanning Wi-Fi networks for vulnerabilities
• Protecting files and folders from being accessed or encrypted by any programmes not explicitly whitelisted (labelled as ‘safe’).  

Because of these additional features, endpoint security solutions are better able to protect against a variety of threats, including ransomware attacks and phishing scams, that often have an easy time getting through traditional antivirus.

Why is endpoint security so important?

Endpoint security is critical to protect your network and its information from data breaches and avoid financial losses due to costly remediation efforts and regulatory penalties. 

Here are the top three reasons endpoint security is crucial:

Remote Workforce

More people than ever are working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The internet has made working from home or working from everywhere extremely easy. But it does open the company’s network to more cyber threats, and the need for a secure network on-the-go is becoming more important than ever.

Reliance on the Internet of Things (IoT)

Beyond endpoints devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) includes other interrelated computing devices — sensors, closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, and environmental controls — that transfer data over a network with no human interaction. The result is more access points for potential data breaches.

Evolving of Ransomware

Cybercriminals use ransomware to demand payment from a victim under the threat of publishing sensitive data or permanently blocking access to it. These attacks have grown in frequency since 2012.

The hacking team demonstrated world-class capabilities to disregard security tools and forensic examination, proving that anybody can be hacked. Also, the year 2021 is already witnessing a bump in COVID-19 vaccine-related phishing attacks.

How to get suitable endpoint security for your small business needs?

Even small businesses now are practising remote or hybrid workspace, cybersecurity becomes increasingly complex, it requires a network and security protocols that aren’t limited by distance.

Furthermore, hacker techniques are continually evolving, requiring businesses to be on the leading edge of cybersecurity technologies.

Also Read: Better cyber safe than sorry: Don’t wait till you’re hacked

While many small businesses may not have the budget for an in-house IT department, they can outsource to Managed Service Providers (MSP) or subscribe to Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) like ArmourZero, which you just need to pay a flat fee based on the unit price, depending on the service you subscribed to, with no other hidden installation or service cost.

MSP and SECaaS companies have serious talent with deep and leading-edge technology knowledge, bringing your company the advantage of up-to-date evolving threats.

They will constantly monitor, upgrade, and update your system as your business grows and the attack landscape shifts, ensuring your system from endpoints to infrastructure is protected.

Don’t risk your business by leaving endpoints unprotected. Touch base with your cybersecurity consultant today and learn to optimise your IT infrastructure and protect it from malicious actors, inside and out.

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Indonesia’s largest poultry-tech startup Pitik has secured US$14 million in a Series A round of financing led by Alpha JWC Ventures with participation from existing investors MDI Ventures and Wavemaker Partners.

Pitik will continue developing advanced technologies and farm automation products to increase farm productivity with this new funding. It also targets to build a presence in all areas of Java this year and expand to other islands in 2023.

The startup will also grow its business to downstream services such as processing and distribution to end-users.

“Our big dream is to empower all poultry farmers in Indonesia through our integrated services and make sure we can improve their livelihood. This funding round will enable us to reach out to more farmers, drive further innovation, and unlock additional efficiency gains for farmers,” said Co-Founder and CEO Arief Witjaksono.

Also Read: Pitik nets funding from Arise, Wavemaker

Launched in mid-2021 by serial entrepreneurs Witjaksono and Rymax Joehana, Pitik provides farmers with full-stack farm management technology to improve productivity. Upon joining Pitik ecosystem, all farms are installed with IoT systems. They are also given access to its smart app to facilitate real-time farm monitoring and instant issue identification through its algorithm.

Beyond technology, Pitik leverages its ecosystem to supply quality farm input to farmers, provide financing services, and offtake the harvest with “the best prices and guaranteed payment terms”.

In the past six months, Pitik claims to have increased its farm network size by over 10x by partnering with hundreds of farmers in 53 West and Central Java districts. The poultry-tech firm sells over 16 million chickens annually from this network of farmers.

Last December, Pitik announced an undisclosed seed raise co-led by Arise and Wavemaker Partners.

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Today, the name of the game is automation. If your business is not embracing the power of automation then, like the proverbial weakest buffalo of the herd, you are going to get left behind and die.

To make sure that you don’t find yourself at the back of the pack, I’m going to be teaching you about the power of email sequences.

We all know how powerful email marketing can be. But imagine if you could reap all the benefits of email marketing without having to lift a finger? Because that’s what happens when you combine automation with email marketing. You get the ability to generate more leads, conversions, and sales, while you sleep!

To really stress the importance of why you need to embrace email sequences now I’m going to throw a few fun facts at you.

• Fun Fact #1: According to Salesforce businesses that take advantage of email automation average a 32 per cent boost in sales and revenue compared to those that don’t.
• Fun Fact #2: According to Campaign Monitor for every US$1 spent on email marketing an average of US$44 is made in return.
• Fun Fact #3: According to a survey by Venture Beat 80 per cent of respondents reported an increase in leads after automating their sales pipeline, and 77 per cent saw their overall conversions increase

Now if that doesn’t sound good to you then I don’t know what will. But, just in case, you’re not entirely convinced then here’s one last fun fact:

• Fun Fact #4: As of 2017, on average, 51 per cent of businesses have integrated some form of automation for their sales and marketing. Another 58 per cent of B2B businesses have a plan in place to adopt automation technology within the following year.

So if you haven’t started using email sequences then you’re already behind the curve, but I’m here to help you catch up and come out on top.

What’s in an email sequence?

Before getting into the meat of things, let’s quickly make sure we’re all on the same wavelength regarding what is and isn’t email sequences.

You may have heard similar terms during your travels such as email automation, drip campaigns, or sales cadence for example. What they all essentially boil down to is creating a strategically automated process with your emails. Where, based on specific triggers of your own choosing, you’ll automatically send off a specific series of emails.

Also Read: The 5 elements of the perfect cold email

Anytime you’ve received a welcome email from signing up to a newsletter, or been sent an email receipt of your latest purchase, you have been witnessing email sequences in action.

What I’m here to talk to you about today is how you can use email sequences to help you prospect more cold leads, nurture pre-existing leads, and in general help, you automate those time-consuming tasks that keep you away from selling.

Qualify leads and prospects

One of the most time-consuming sales tasks in the world is cold outreach. I cannot even begin to tell you the number of mornings I’ve spent sending out email after email, continuously copying and pasting the same thing over and over again. It commits the double sin of not only being incredibly mind-numbingly boring but also wasting huge amounts of time.

And while sinning, in general, can lead to a whole host of fun and shenanigans, in this scenario, it’s more tedious than anything else.

With email sequences, you can vastly cut back on the amount of time you spend sending out cold emails and quite literally double your results. Just ask the folks at Innovation Asset Group, who saw a 400 per cent increase in their sales pipeline by automating their cold outreach process.

How this works is very simple:

You have to create three or so emails for your sequence. You have your initial outreach email and a minimum of two follow-up emails. From there you can create a process where anytime a lead doesn’t answer your initial outreach email your follow-up email will automatically be sent, and if they don’t reply to that then the next email will automatically be sent.

The amount of time between each email can vary between different individuals and teams, but you can see how this drastically reduces the amount of time following up with cold leads.

By using this incredibly simple email sequence you never have to worry about following up with cold leads again as it’s all being done for you automatically in the background. You only have to worry about the people who bother responding to your outreach in the first place.

This way you can focus on actually having real conversations with real people, instead of copying and pasting the same bit of text from sun-up to sun-down.

Never lose momentum again

As all salespeople know, anytime a prospect shows interest you have a limited amount of time to follow up and connect with them before they lose interest in your business.

According to Harvard Business Review, on average, companies take up to 42 hours to respond to an online sales lead. This is shocking, especially when you consider that prospects are seven times more likely to become qualified leads when contacted within the hour of expressing interest.

But until we find a way to stay awake for 24 hours every day that doesn’t involve the violation of several statutes of the Geneva convention; salespeople can’t reasonably be expected to respond to each and every single inquiry within the hour.

This is when an autoresponder can come in pretty handy.

Anytime a lead shows interest in booking a consult, a demo, or a call, you can have a process where they are immediately sent a follow-up email within the minute, let alone the hour. Add in strong CTA and a scheduler, and you’ve drastically improved your chances of converting those inbound leads into sales.

Also Read: The key digital marketing tips to help small businesses thrive

According to GetResponse’s Email Marketing Benchmark report, triggered emails like the one I described above average a 45 per cent open rate.

Even if they aren’t interested in speaking with a salesperson yet, you can still ensure that you’re nurturing that lead with your email sequence. If they don’t book a call, then set up your email sequence so that they’ll automatically be sent content relevant to their interests.

Add in some personalisation tokens, and a few details unique to them to really increase your chances of getting a response. To maximise your results consider using including these sales email templates we’ve already prepared for you.

Keep leads engaged, no matter what

There are times when a lead will just go cold. The reasons behind this are about as numerous as the number of regrettable tattoos on Adam Levine.

Having a lead ghost on you sucks, but that doesn’t mean that you should give up on following up. Master entrepreneur James Altucher once emailed a billionaire investor for over a year before finally getting a response. I’m saying that you keep going until you get a response. Even if it’s a no, you don’t stop until you get an answer.

It’s almost an epidemic the number of salespeople that use something like Excel or Google Sheets to keep track of who they should follow up and when. Save yourself the trouble and set up an automated sales cadence built specifically for following up with ghost leads.

The general rule of thumb is that you don’t want to follow up any more than six times if you’ve never interacted with that person before. Following that, set up an email sequence with six emails spaced out over a couple of months.

This way, you can be sure that you’re constantly following up with them. The great thing about email automation is that you can schedule all of your emails ahead of time, leaving you free to focus on other leads. If they never end up replying to any of the emails, then too bad; move on; at least you’ve disqualified a bad customer.

But before you even get to that point, you can make sure you’re constantly engaging and nurturing your leads. Keep your leads warm by creating an email drip campaign that ensures you’re always staying at the top of their mind.

Create an automated email campaign dedicated solely to delivering relevant content to their inboxes. Don’t allow for a break in communication. That is the key to sales email automation. Depending on what pages they’ve visited, what lead magnets they’ve downloaded, or what webinars they’ve attended, create email sequences triggered by these specific actions.

Also Read: How Intelligent Automation can help power the future workplace

This way, you can ensure that, no matter what, your audience is constantly being engaged with things that interest them.

Conclusion

What is your most valuable resource?

It’s not money. It’s your time. What you do with the time you have ultimately dictates whether or not you’ll be successful.

With that in mind, why on earth would you waste your time on something like manual data entry? You are in sales, are you not?

To make the most out of your time, you need to embrace the power of automation. It isn’t some far-off future technology like jetpacks, and flying cars; automation is already here and if you’re not taking advantage of it by now then you’re already falling behind.

By embracing email sequences as part of your sales strategy not only are you going to save yourself more time to work on things that actually matter? But you’re going to double your efficiency and success rate effectively.

When it comes to doing cold outreach, following up, and qualifying leads, you don’t need to be wasting your time with them anymore. As I’ve just demonstrated, they can easily be automated, and it’s so easy that you can quite literally do it right now.

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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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A number of reasons for which the 17th of May 2022 is memorable, as we wake to the biggest drop in equities since the pandemic, Bitcoin is below 30,000 for the first time in almost a year, and TerraUSD (UST) has lost its peg and dropped down to US$0.1.

Let’s focus on the last one for a minute.

Stable coins are a necessary bridge into traditional finance when dealing with crypto products and hold a familiar store of cash value for all investors exiting and hedging positions against crypto.

For anyone that’s been following me for any time at all, you may be aware that I’ve been a very vocal critic of stable coins, especially during my time at CACHE. Admittedly our motives for uncovering the scammy nature of our stable(ish)-coin competitors as part of our mandate, but this didn’t stop us from bringing to light the fractional reserve nature of what was meant to be the go-to crypto to “store” fiat on-chain.

Enter the algorithmic stable coin. Terra isn’t the first to attempt at building a stable coin entirely backed by other cryptocurrencies, using a minting and burning mechanism as well as staking incentives to keep the value (more or less) pegged to US$1.

Bennett Tomlin had a great way of putting this, “Algorithmic stable coins, in general, are all a well-coordinated game trying to convince a sufficient mass of people that a thing that has no reason to be valuable is definitely valuable.”

The concept is quite simple for stable coins like Terra that Luna governs. You can exchange US$1 worth of the underlying Luna for Terra and vice versa. As simple as the idea sounds, the math doesn’t add up unless everyone believes the underlying asset is valuable. To quote one of my favourite classics, “the whole point […] is lost if you keep it a secret!”

Also Read: DeFi protocols were top hacking target in 2021: Report

If any of this reminds you of how fiat currency works, you’re dead-on.

In most countries, the value of their currency is represented by a basket of goods, also known as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which fluctuates with inflation. The price of goods is not centrally set in our (mostly) post-communist world; supply and demand take care of true price discovery.

However, our Central Banks do set interest rates; higher rates make borrowing expensive and encourage saving, and lower rates encourage borrowing and spending.

Here’s where the incentive part comes in.

Mining for bitcoin incentivises processing power allocation, and staking Ethereum incentivise holding; these are vital for the infrastructure of the protocols and incentivise productive behaviour. Algorithmic stable-coin stability relies on the belief that the tokens held in their treasury are worth something.

Faith is good, but incentives have had a more trustworthy track record.

So:

• Terra’s Anchor Protocol offers up to 20 per cent in savings/staking interest/returns.
• Olympus offers 467 per cent staking returns (down from over 7000 per cent).

The goal here is to build a system over time that is too big to fail and to hit the inflection point at which the governing token holds value out of mere adoption, similar to how Bitcoin and Ethereum’s tendencies gravitate around a certain price over extended periods. These large incentives may seem attractive but are rarely feasible over time.

One of the main issues with inflection points of success in models like this one is that they don’t tend to account for risk parameters outside of three standard deviations on each side of the mean. Once prices, demand, or supply fluctuate outside of three standard deviations, the model breaks into uncharted territory.

Bring in the assets!

The USP for tokenising assets is quite simple– bringing liquidity to illiquid markets.

Now, this isn’t a new idea; as a matter of fact, ETFs were the first real attempt in 1990 and were considered a massive failure, raising a mere US$11 million. 30 years later and globally, assets in ETFs and other exchange-traded products (ETPs) total more than US$6.5 trillion, invested in more than 7,430 products.

Asset-backed tokens can broadly be categorised into four subsections:

• Equity
• Debt
• Utility
• Physical-assets

If these seem familiar, you likely weren’t living under a rock a couple of years ago and remember ICOs. Back in 2017/2018, Initial Coin Offerings took the developing crypto world for a spin. Giving anyone with a half-baked idea, a whitepaper, and a website the opportunity to access millions in investments.

Ideas ranged from sustainability-focused ventures to inventors and innovative ideas to clear-cut scams. It didn’t take long for regulators to step in and consider these kinds of token securities, and dealing in securities requires licensing.

Also Read: The unrealised importance of DeFi in fixed-income securities investments

Let’s remember how the Supreme court determines whether an investment is security; the now-famous Howey Test’s four criteria:

• The existence of an investment contract
• The formation of a common enterprise
• A promise of profits by the issuer
• The use of a third party to promote the offering

Enter STOs: Security Token Offerings; tokenised digital securities traded on token exchanges. Now, this opens a few doors for DeFi and TradFi to find a common playground.

All the TradFi comforts of traditional assets (and new ones) given the modern infrastructure of DeFi products, with the new capabilities and efficiencies of blockchain products.

The limits to what can be tokenised are endless. From gold and physical commodities (shoutout to CACHE) to private investments, such as funds, real estate, and even digital assets (shoutout to InvestaX).

Now STOs may just seem like regulated ICOs, but they come with applications that far outweigh the volatile risk of traditional blockchain products. There are endless efficiency optimisation opportunities for traditional finance and products with a trail of owners dating back to origination, KYC requirements built into tokens, true price discovery on continuously traded secondary markets. Of course, complex structured products built directly on-chain.

One of the core problems with structured products on-chain so far has been the volatile nature of the governing tokens. With asset-backed tokens, 150 per cent collateral for a loan would no longer be needed. What if your token was backed by real estate? Or a brick of gold held in a vault in Switzerland? Or a successful business?

Traditional finance already addresses these needs and builds these products through a simple centralised entity: a bank. Blockchain allows us to democratise access to capital. It will enable us to build financial products and grant access to any relevant parties, regardless of geographic location, without losing efficiencies to manual processing.

A common infrastructure gives us the opportunity to build interconnected markets, allowing for true price discovery for otherwise illiquid markets such as carbon credits, real estate, cars, antiques and private company interests.

As we push forward into decentralised finance, we need to be willing to port existing needs and products on-chain to make room for new products more apt to our modern needs.

Special thanks to Michael Lints and Brian Hankey for checking the draft.

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Singapore has a thriving startup ecosystem. It stands 18th on the Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking created by the world-leading innovation policy advisory and research firm Startup Genome. 

The Singapore startup scene has a valuation of USD 22.5 billion, whereas emerging businesses worldwide are worth USD 3.8 trillion. 

However, there are still gaps and challenges businesses face in the city-state and one of the most common challenges is the woes of corporate financing.

Challenges for incorporating a business in Singapore

Singapore-based college application platform Cialfo is among promising edtech players in the region. Cialfo is not only an award-winning, fast-growing edtech company but also a digital transformation leader that is making higher education accessible by delivering 360 support to students worldwide. 

On the other hand, Endowus is Singapore’s leading digital wealth advisor, and the first that allows people to invest across all sources of wealth including CPF in a single platform. To date, they have returned more than S$2 million in trailer fees back to their clients.

Yet another startup, Singapore-based Konsyg, is a global provider of end-to-end sales services. With a rich client portfolio in Singapore and beyond, they claim to provide 70% more effective revenue and lead generation than internal sales functions and are among the emerging companies in this sector.

Also read: Behind the scenes of oVice: a leading remote work solution

These emerging leaders in respective sectors have had one thing in common in their journey- the challenges and costs that they have faced when it came to corporate financing.

“As a rapidly growing startup expanding its operations across 4 countries, regulatory, tax and legal compliance became a significant challenge as we venture into uncharted territories. Scaling quickly also means that we often do not have a reserve of internal capabilities and resources to manage a recurrent surge in business activities,” shares Evalyn Tan, Finance Director at Cialfo.

We’ve faced our share of startup related challenges! So, we started from scratch in 2017 in one of our cofounder’s basements with the idea of solving retirement, and we were bootstrapped all the way through till 2021 when we first raised external money. Accounting, corporate secretarial, tax and payroll needs were the main area where we needed help,” says Dominic Ong, the Chief Financial Officer at Endowus.

“From the very beginning, we were well aware that we don’t have an understanding of back-office-related matters, including process, taxation, and overseas operational setups. Plus, in the sales world, mitigating expectations is the biggest “woe”. Companies tend to want overnight revenue, which makes setting expectations always a challenge. The misconception is that a lack of overnight results is a flaw in the sales process when in reality companies should be looking more into pipeline development in order to judge the quality of the sales function. So, we needed the team to focus solely on managing client expectations and helping them achieve their goals through our services. So, we badly needed a reliable partner for matters like bookkeeping, taxation and financial management,” shares William Gilchrist, Founder and CEO of Konsyg

These challenges are faced by many young and small businesses in the city-state. In fact, many businesses in Singapore fail due to poor bookkeeping and inefficient finance management. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of options out there- large corporate servicing firms focus on volume while small-scale firms have limited resources and generally do not have automated processes, which slows down things considerably.

In fact, Singapore has a relatively easier and quicker process of business registration, which attracts investors from worldwide. However, Singaporean businesses are registered only if they meet strict eligibility criteria, follow the established registration procedure, and are issued with a certificate of incorporation by the registrar of business. Deviating from these rules is not acceptable and authorities follow them strictly. 

Plus, Singapore authorities strictly follow businesses’ tax compliance and apply harsh sanctions to non-compliant businesses without exceptions. While the perk is that corporate income tax is only at 17 per cent but for small and young businesses, with little to no knowledge of the compliance guidelines, it can be tricky to focus on these things. 

 PikoHANA: Empowering small and young businesses in Singapore and beyond

This is where PikoHANA, a mid-level corporate servicing team that focuses on accuracy, automation, and systems, is stepping up and helping fill in the gaps. PikoHANA helps SMEs scale by digitising their back-office and operational reporting, giving them access to information and data that allows them to make key operational and strategic decisions on a more informed basis.

Dominic from Endowus shares, “They (PikoHANA) were the ones that helped us to incorporate in 2017! PikoHANA took care of our accounting, corporate secretarial, tax and payroll needs, enabling us to focus our attention on achieving product/market fit – and we are now the leading digital wealth platform in Singapore!”

Also read: 5G tech? All eyes on Taiwan

“In Q1 2022, we received our license in Hong Kong, our first overseas market, and we asked PikoHANA to manage our accounting and payroll needs for that as well. It simplifies our life to have one partner supporting us for both markets,” he adds.

Evalyn from Cialfo shares, “We have partnered with PikoHANA to manage various business processes as well as corporate reporting and compliance. PikoHANA spearheaded the establishment of our company’s accounting and finance best practices. With a team of dedicated professionals who had an in-depth understanding of our business, PikoHANA empowered us with the ability to respond quickly to new business demands. This enabled us to focus on executing strategies and scale with peace of mind.”

William from Konsyg shares, “PikoHANA has been with us since our founding. PikoHANA has allowed Konsyg to focus 100% on our core skill set. We have been able to exist in complete peace, being able to trust that PikoHANA “has our back”. 

William adds that PikoHANA has helped him and his team get a better understanding of how the company runs from a back-office perspective. “PikoHANA is leading the charge in ensuring our staffing matters in terms of payroll, filings, and structural matters are met in real-time. I couldn’t imagine running this company without PikoHANA there, it would be nearly impossible,” he says.

PikoHANA’s fractional finance model covers more than just taxes and corporate returns. Their model encompasses anything connected to finance from CFO advisory, bookkeeping, accounts keeping, payroll, invoicing, vendor payments, etc. — essentially anything an in-house finance team does without taking care of both managing and training. The company’s differentiator is that they do all the low-value work for a reasonable price and on the side, they give good guidance and advice to help businesses grow and scale.

Also read: Three leading B2B digital disruptors win 2021 Fast Forward with HPE

“One of our goals is to be the leading college and career guidance platform in Southeast Asia, India and China. With PikoHANA’s support, we were able to replicate and roll out best practices at scale in each of these regions, thereby giving a positive experience and leaving a striking impression on our clients and associates,” says Evalyn from Cialfo.

With a core focus on SMEs with less than 50 employees, PikoHANA puts together a dedicated team for each client where there’s an assigned account manager with a response time of under 30 minutes (email, phone or zoom) and as many experts as needed, enabling startups to scale and expand easily.

If you are looking for a concierge, hands-on fractional finance team to support your growth and help with incorporating your business in Singapore, visit PikoHANA to learn more. PikoHANA also offers incorporation services in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as fractional finance services for companies incorporated elsewhere.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by PikoHANA

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Xendit, the payments infrastructure unicorn in Indonesia, has closed a US$300 million Series D investment round, co-led by Coatue and Insight Partners.

Accel Partners, Tiger Global, Kleiner Perkins, EV Growth, Amasia, Intudo Ventures, and Justin Kan’s Goat Capital participated.

Tessa Wijaya, Co-Founder and COO of Xendit, said: “Xendit will continue to expand into new markets — like Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam — where we can identify a need that doesn’t exist, similar to what we did in the Philippines. We plan to diversify our products with value-added services, like lending programmes we’ve already started in Indonesia.”

Known as the “Stripe of Southeast Asia”, Xendit is a fintech company that provides payment solutions to simplify the payment process of businesses (SMEs, e-commerce startups and large enterprises) in Southeast Asia.

The firm enables businesses to accept payments, disburse payroll, and run marketplaces on an easy integration platform. Businesses can accept payments from direct debit, virtual accounts, credit and debit cards, eWallets, retail outlets, and online instalments.

Also Read: Xendit bags US$64.6M Series B led by Accel to scale its digital payments service across Southeast Asia

Xendit serves more than 3,000 customers, including Samsung Indonesia, GrabPay, Ninja Van Philippines, Qoala, Unicef Indonesia, Cashalo and Shopback.

Over the last year, Xendit claims to have tripled annualised transactions from 65 million to 200 million and increased total payments value from US$6.5 billion to US$15 billion.

Xendit recently invested in Bank Sahabat Sampoerna, a private bank in Indonesia that focuses on micro and SME businesses. Xendit also made a strategic investment in payment gateway Dragonpay to complement its expansion into the Philippines.

The Series D round follows Xendit’s Series C funding led by Tiger Global last year. The startup was also the first Indonesian tech startup to be accepted into YCombinator.

Southeast Asia is a compelling backdrop for investing, innovation and disruption, with 61 per cent of 670 million people under 35 years old. The next generation of young digital entrepreneurs is quickly moving online. The surge in growth is creating higher living standards and increasing consumer demand, especially in e-commerce, fintech, travel and transportation.

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2022 has proved to be a testing year for China as the Shanghai Stock Market suffered a fall of more than 20 per cent between January and late April. Likewise, the yuan has suffered a sharp fall against the USD in recent days, signifying that further pullbacks may be on the way. 

Due to a cocktail of regulations, geopolitical tensions, and the COVID-19 pandemic, investors have remained fearful of Chinese stocks and firms from China with listings in the US. 

“Recently, the biggest drop in Chinese shares since the 2008 crisis was seen in US trading,” explained Maxim Manturov, head of investment advice at Freedom Finance Europe. “The main reason for the collapse was investor fears over the delisting of some companies and the threat of a Chinese military conflict with Taiwan. The Chinese regulator has instructed its tech giants (Alibaba, Baidu, JD, Pinduoduo, NetEase) to disclose detailed auditing information to avoid delisting in the US.”

“The country has a new record disease rate for coronavirus, so the authorities impose a lockdown regime in entire regions. What matters to investors is that China has no inflation problems like the rest of the world, which makes it possible to count on a relatively soft policy from the local central bank in 2022,” Manturov added. 

China’s COVID-19 cases have climbed to new highs that haven’t been seen since Our World in Data first began its records. Given China’s sprawling population, the threat of more infections is severe. However, it’s worth noting that data suggests around 88 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated against the virus. 

As a result, indexes in mainland China have been leading losses as wider Asia-Pacific markets have continued to fall.

The Shenzhen component fell by more than six per cent in late April to 10,379.28, whilst the Shanghai composite fell over five per cent to 2,928.51 as harsh lockdown measures were imposed in the city to stem the spread of the virus. 

Also Read: Winter for tech startups is here? Here’s how to deal with it

“It’s no surprise, and it makes all sorts of logical sense that the market should be concerned about the Covid situation because that impacts economic activity. It’s impacting earnings potential for many parts of the market,” noted Timothy Moe, chief Asia-Pacific equity strategist at Goldman Sachs.

The threat of US delisting

Compounding China’s struggling financial outlook is the threat facing stocks that have been listed in the US in the face of new regulatory rules. Alibaba, Baidu, Punduoduo, JD.com and Tencent have all struggled with fresh pressure from watchdogs. 

As we can see in the case of Alibaba, the company’s stock has declined 26.63 per cent since the beginning of 2022, and there’s potential for further losses should regulations continue to tighten, or the demand for added transparency conjures unexpected results. 

More recently, we saw Weibo, a Chinese social networking platform, become the latest major firm to find itself added to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s delisting watchlist for failing to comply with the rules laid out by the commission’s Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, with the rules requiring foreign firms listed in the US to allow their books to be audited. 

Likely, investor fears in the wake of the threats against Weibo’s status on Wall Street will continue to spread across more Chinese stocks in the US, with firms at risk of finding themselves added to the watchlist or even facing a full delisting. 

Despite investor fears negatively impacting US stocks in the short term in the wake of COVID-19 return to China, rebounds have since taken place as investors sought to buy into safer options.

Geopolitics threaten further downturns

Although Russia’s war in Ukraine has profoundly impacted global stocks, the boiling over of tensions between China and Taiwan may compound market downturns over the coming months. 

Also Read: Massive gains for global startups in China’s robust market

Writing for Forbes, John Markman suggested that China may use the Russian invasion as a form of justification to reclaim Taiwan. 

“When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the geopolitical calculus changed. Vladimir Putin saw an opportunity to grab a resource-rich country and further Russia’s status in the east. Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, now sees an opportunity to reunify China with Taiwan, the semiconductor capital of the world,” Markman said.

These mounting threats to China’s publicly listed companies may mean that investors should exercise caution in purchasing stocks, even despite the discounted prices. 

Western markets should also view China’s problems as a cautionary tale as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts global economies. 

For investors, it’s essential now more than ever to continue to review all factors associated with the stocks that are available to buy and the geopolitical climate that surrounds them. With the threat of the pandemic and further conflict as strong as ever, it’s reasonable to expect further volatility in 2022. 

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Payment infra unicorn Xendit banks US$300M
Investors include Coatue, Insight Partners, Accel, Tiger Global, Kleiner Perkins, EV Growth, Amasia, and Intudo Ventures; The funding will be used for Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam expansion and to add new services like working capital loans.

Luna, UST investors in South Korea plan to sue Terraform founder
LKB & Partners, one of the country’s top law firms, will reportedly sue Do Kwon on behalf of investors; The law firm will also seek to seize Kwon’s property and may file a case against Terraform co-founder Daniel Shin.

Jungle Ventures closes US$600M Fund IV
Investors are Temasek, IFC, FMO, DEGto, Mizuho Bank and StepStoneGroup; It will invest in 15-18 firms across India and Southeast Asia; The fund has already backed Timo, Sleek, Atomberg, Medici, Desty, Eveworld, Mio, and inFeedo.

Carousell drops SPAC deal talks with L Catterton amid shaky stock market
The blank-cheque company failed to reach an agreement with the online marketplace; In January, the two companies in January were reportedly in talks for a SPAC merger deal that would value the joint entity at US$1.5B.

Sequoia delays close of US$2.8B India, SEA fund amid Zilingo probe
Sequoia’s limited partners agreed to invest in the fund in April; However, a recent development has supposedly surfaced that would require disclosure to investors; Sequoia’s largest fund for India and SEA will reportedly close by the end of the year.

Antler to invest US$100M in Southeast Asia’s early-stage startups by 2025
The funding is expected to fuel the expansion of more than 300 new companies in SEA over the next four years; Antler has invested in over 127 companies, including XanPool, Reebelo, Appboxo, Sampingan, Airalo, and Homebase.

Japan’s SBI to launch US$75M digital fund with NTU, Kyobo
The joint fund will back digital technology and digital platform companies in their pre-Series A and Series A stages; Fund recipients should ideally be working on digital transformation in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Tokocrypto-BRI Ventures accelerator invests US$40M in participating startups
The Tokocrypto Sembrani Blockchain Accelerator investees include VC Gamers, nanobyte, and Avarik Saga; It is part of the multi-dimensional TokoVerse by Tokocrypto created to bolster blockchain technology adoption in Indonesia and beyond.

Coins.ph cashes in US$30M in Series C led by Ribbit Capital
It plans to use the funds to boost its Web3 ecosystem for its SEA expansion; The fundraise comes after the firm was sold by Gojek for around US$200M; Coins.ph said it has 16M users.

Singapore Web3 startup NodeReal bags US$16M from Sky9 Capital
NodeReal aims to help developers, Web3 firms, and large Web2 apps with blockchain infra using scalable and efficient solutions; It can maintain system stability in an environment of millions of daily transactions and increased user access.

Hong Kong VC Betatron’s new fund hits first close at US$15M
BVG IV is looking to raise a total of US$50M to back companies in industries like logistics, healthcare, commerce, and construction; It will make initial investments of US$500K-US$2M in seed to Series A rounds.

Pitik nets US$14M Series A to provide automation solutions to Indonesia’s poultry farmers
Investors are Alpha JWC Ventures, MDI Ventures and Wavemaker Partners; Pitik facilitates real-time farm monitoring and instant issue identification through its algorithm; It plans to expand in all of Java this year and expand to other islands in 2023.

Sequoia’s Surge leads US$7.4M round of Unravel Carbon
Alpha JWC, Amasia, XA Network, Rebel Fund, and GFC also co-invested; Unravel Carbon focuses on helping Asian companies track and reduce their carbon emissions, with a specialization in Scope 3 carbon emissions.

Ex-Traveloka execs’ job platform nets US$6.3M
Investors include Sequoia Capital and General Catalyst; Pintarnya helps blue-collar workers to find relevant job opportunities based on their skill sets and location; It also works with employers to select suitable applicants.

Singapore F&B startup Oddle raises US$5M pre-Series B led by Altara Ventures
Oddle helps F&B owners optimise their operations through its features; Its O2O offerings include QR ordering systems, reservation systems, as well as payment terminals and e-shop solutions.

NFT-backed crypto loan startup Pine raises US$1.5M in seed round
Lead investors are Sino Global Capital, Amber Group, and Spartan Group; Pine is a lending and borrowing protocol built on multiple blockchains to facilitate asset-backed financing.

East Ventures backs Indonesian career development firm’s seed round
MySkill provides several solutions to help users in developing their careers; Its offerings include an e-learning platform to enhance their skills, private mentoring with experts, and job discovery features. The firm currently has 700K+ registered users.

Singapore insurtech startup Anycover raises US$450K
Investors include Powerhouse Ventures, 1337 Ventures, Walter de Oude, and Khairil Abdullah; Anycover provides API solutions for small and medium-sized merchants to help them run their own extended warranty programmes.

SG high court issues landmark ruling to block sale of NFTs
The court sided with a local complainant to block any potential sale and ownership transfer of a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT that he previously owned; This decision comes after a UK court reportedly recognised NFTs as private property in a theft case.

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