SoftBank to scale back investments in face of a US$16B quarterly loss
The loss marks a dramatic swing in fortunes from a year earlier when it posted a US$14.7B in quarterly profit;  Its net loss for the full year that ended in March also came to a record US$13B, a reversal from its all-time-high US$39B profit a year before.

Luna cryptocurrency collapse: How UST broke and why it matters
The coin’s price fell from US$116 in April to just a penny on Thursday; Its marketcap now stands at US$641M, down from a peak of over US$40B; Over US$15B in crypto value has been wiped out through luna and UST alone, and it raises questions about other stablecoins.

East Ventures’s new multi-stage fund hits final close at US$550M
East Ventures will allocate US$150M for early-stage deals and US$400M for growth-stage deals; The firm, which manages over U$1billion in AUM, has attracted US$6.7 billion in follow-on funding for its portfolio companies.

Vietnamese EV maker VinFast’s US IPO to be delayed to 2023
The IPO is currently slated for the fourth quarter of this year; VinFast’s Singapore-based holding company had filed for an IPO with the US SEC, as the company readies a US$4B investment to build a factory in the US.

SYNQA rebrands to Opn, raises US$120M in Series C+ funding
The funding round was joined by JIC Venture Growth Investments, MUFG Bank, and Mars Growth Capital; Opn specialises in online payment, blockchain for fintech apps and digital transformation solutions for SEA and Japan.

Indonesian insurtech startup Qoala banks US$65M Series B
Investors include Eurazeo’s Tara Reeves, Flourish Ventures, KB Investment, MassMutual Ventures, and MDI Ventures; Qoala claims to have acquired 50K+ insurance marketers and is supported by 50+ insurers to sell insurance from multiple insurers.

Sea Group to buy Indonesian insurance firm amid super-app battle
Among Sea Group’s potential targets is Asuransi Mega Pratama; The insurance firm was acquired early this year by an entity owned by Andy Indigo, who is the nephew of Martua Sitorus, co-founder of Singapore-based Wilmar International.

Indonesia’s state-owned Bio Farma, MDI Ventures set up US$50M fund
The Bio-Health Fund will increase Bio Farma’s capabilities in terms of innovating life-science products, healthtech products such as telemedicine; Among the potential startups that Bio Farma could be eyeing is Nusantics.

Temasek’s Fullerton tokenises private equity fund
It will list its PE fund of funds digitally through the private market exchange platform ADDX; Tokenization digitalizes an asset through blockchain and smart contracts; The fund will be invested in six to eight private equity and private credit funds.

Traditional banking will morph into wholesale banking in coming decades: MoneyMatch’s Naysan Munusamy
DeFi and blockchain are more of a booster toward digitising the sector; However, these technologies could make traditional banks much less relevant over the coming few decades.

Fundnel, BRI Ventures to launch new US$50M+ fund for Indonesia’s growth-stage startups
BVI-Fundnel Secondaries Fund will back companies through a non-traditional route of investment; It’ll work with startups to find structured and standardised processes for employees to find secondary liquidity for their ESOPs.

Singapore VC firm raises US$34M for alt-protein investments
Good Startup aims to serve as a bridge between the growing alternative protein ecosystems in North America and Asia; It has already invested in 21 companies, including Eat Just, The EVERY Company, SuperMeat, VitroLabs, and TurtleTree.

Kra-Verse Food Hall where cloud kitchen meets metaverse
Kra-Verse Food Hall aims to recreate the experience of an offline food brand, wherein customers can walk in, browse menus, and order their favourite dishes; The startup recently raised a US$3M Series A led by Quest Ventures.

SG insurtech firm CoverGo raises US$15M
Investors include US-based SemperVirens, SixThirty, Tribeca Early Stage Partners, and Fresco Capital; CoverGo provides insurance enterprise software solutions to insurers, managing general agents, brokers, and bancassurances.

Investree acquires stake in Indonesian digibank
Amar Bank is a commercial and digital bank backed by Singapore-headquartered conglomerate Tolaram; Investree intends to use the acquisition to expand its financing products and offer broader digital business solutions to MSMEs across Indonesia.

Animoca Brands co-leads HK content firm Gusto Collective’s US$11M raise
Gusto Collective merges storytelling, data science, and tech to create interactive content for marketing purposes; It targets augmented reality, metaverse, and NFT innovations to improve customer experiences.

2021 was the year of crypto in Singapore, but education remains key in adoption: Gemini APAC
In terms of volatile price movements, it is vital for all potential crypto owners to do their own research before investing in a token, instead of developing FOMO and jumping on the crypto bandwagon, says Feroze Medora of Gemini.

Singapore robotics firm Eureka scores US$4.25M in pre-seed round
Investors are University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, Touchstone Partners and ATEQ; Eureka develops robotics technology to automate tasks in electronics, automotive, 5G telecom, and other industries.

Indonesian insurtech firm Aigis raises funding
Investors include YC, Init 6, Goodwater Capital, Carousell’s Siu Rui Quek; Rainforest’s JJ Chai, Hangry’s Robin Tan; Aigis helps companies provide health benefits such as online healthcare, medication delivery, and health insurance to their employees.

Cradle launches its first accelerator programme
The MYStartup Pre-Accelerator programme targets early-stage startups; 36 startups were shortlisted from 157 applicants; Startups that complete the program are eligible to receive up to US$34K in investment through the CIP Spark funding programme.

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Indonesia’s leading property developer Sinar Mas Land has launched the Urban Gateway Fund (UGF).

An early-stage fund, UGF will invest in promising startups developing full-scale smart cities in the archipelago, starting with BSD City.

The fund will support startups developing solutions in six segments of urban living technologies. They are mobility and transportation, proptech, data analytics and AI, omnichannel retail (for online and brick-and-mortar stores), sustainable resources management, and smart city tech.

Urban Gateway Fund will open access to an existing smart city ecosystem in BSD City and other Sinar Mas Land townships through three avenues.

First, UGF with Sinar Mas Land will provide a test-bed platform and facilitate the direct integration of ideas and prototype solutions into Sinar Mas Land’s communities.

Also Read: Getting smarter with tech: How will smart cities look like 10 years from now?

Second, Urban Gateway Fund will provide a comprehensive breadth of support to allow startups to incubate and validate their innovative and disruptive solutions on an urban scale.

Third, the fund will provide access to Sinar Mas Land’s leadership to support innovation and disruption in its main business of city development and property management.

Sinar Mas Land will manage Urban Gateway Fund in strategic partnership with East Ventures, Redbadge Pacific and Prasetia Dwidharma. The fund will support startup projects and companies focused on proptech and urban living sectors.

GS E&C, a Korean construction and development leader, will also be an investor and strategic partner in the Urban Gateway Fund.

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When it comes to discussions on the topic of infertility, there are two issues that are often left untouched.

First, data estimates that 180 million couples try to conceive per year, with infertility affecting approximately 50 million couples globally. Yet most of the fertility products on the market today are expensive, invasive, and primarily focused on female infertility despite the fact that men contribute to 50 per cent of cases overall, according to Singapore-based health tech startup Hannah Life.

There is also the fact that popular infertility treatments such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and intrauterine insemination (IUI) are not always suitable for everyone. In fact, studies pointed out that only a “small percentage” of couples need IVF as a suitable treatment for their conditions. The vast majority of fertility challenges can actually be remedied at home.

Second, there is also the psychological impact of infertility struggles which remains a taboo subject in many societies.

These issues are the reasons why Hannah Life builds its home-based fertility solutions to enable couples to improve their success rate in a safer space.

“Our vision is to become the go-to platform for any couple trying to conceive. The fertility health market is underserved with only three per cent of the industry needing IVF. The rest of the market – the 97 per cent and the TTC (i.e. trying to conceive) market – are faced with expensive and invasive solutions. We are focused on building an ecosystem with our proprietary fertility solutions that are less invasive, trusted, and affordable,” said Co-Founder and CEO Prusothman Sina Raja in a press statement.

Also Read: How ZaZaZu aims to empower women by starting conversation about sexual wellness

Helping couples beat infertility

Since its debut in August 2021, Hannah Life has launched three products under their twoplus brand.

One of them is the patented Sperm Guide medical-grade silicone device that is designed to create a high concentration of sperm cells near the cervical opening to increase chances of fertilisation and can be used multiple times during an ovulation cycle. According to the company, the significantly lower price point and ease of use also mean that any couple can use the twoplus products to increase their odds of natural conception.

Currently available in Singapore and the UK, Hannah Life says that the products have seen strong quarter-on-quarter revenue growth of over 300 per cent and served over 1,000 customers. To help ease the emotional strain that may come with infertility struggle, the company implements a D2C distribution model that allows users to access their products from the comfort and secrecy of home.

To find out whether the products are the right fit for them, the Hannah Life platform is completed with a comprehensive blog and quiz feature.

In an email to e27, co-founder Dr Benjamin Tee explains the product development process that they go through: “We focus on real problems that couples face to develop our products. That’s our starting point before inventing any new technologies or solutions. Next, we consulted with top fertility doctors and specialists to further validate the unmet need and the solutions we are developing.”

The team took over 1,000 design iterations and prototypes before launching their Sperm Guide product; they begin this process of product development in 2019.

Also Read: Why sexual wellness is the next frontier for entrepreneurs

Like many startups that aim to solve a problem, the founding of Hannah Life was inspired by the co-founder’s personal struggles. Meeting through the Stanford Biodesign Fellowship programme in 2014, Dr Tee and Raja intend to find a solution that can help users conceive in a more affordable way –which had not exist in the market.

Dr Tee is an award-winning innovator in biomaterial sciences and medical engineering technologies who received his PhD from Stanford University in 2014 and was selected as an MIT TR35 innovator in 2016. Raja received his degree in biomedical engineering from NUS and was named as Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia for Healthcare and Science in 2017.

Previously, the co-founders had started Privi Medical which was acquired by HeMo Bioengineering.

What is next for Hannah Life

This week, the company announced a US$5.15 million Pre-Series A funding round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures. Previously, they have also raised funding from the likes of Golden Gate Ventures, Y Combinator, Sam Altman’s Scout fund, Anthro Ventures, Enterprise Singapore, Medtech Alliance 2, and angel investors such as Loh Yu-Chie.

It aims to use the funding to hire and scale marketing and sales operations to prepare for its expansion in the US and Europe.

“These are large markets and we have strong networks there through our experience and investors,” says Dr Tee. “We aim to launch in multiple countries and help as many couples as possible in their family building journey.”

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Image Credit: Hannah Life

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When most people think of on-demand in the Philippines, they think of goods. On-demand companies ferry everything from products, parcels, groceries, and food from point A to point B to simplify consumer life.

Through these services, we are spared the hassle of commuting through the nation’s infamous traffic to shop at our nearest mall, deliver paperwork on our own, or wait in line at the hottest new eatery. 

While these services are absolutely necessary, there are already more than enough providers catering to them. If you need any evidence that the market is saturated, just go to any stoplight in the country.

There will be an enormous diversity of delivery drivers, some even wearing pieces of uniform from two different organisations (presumably as they changed citizenship to pursue better incentives, or because they switch between the two platforms depending on demand).

In short, we don’t need another uber of X, these problems are already competitively addressed by a multitude of local and multinational organisations.

All across the world and indeed Southeast Asia, consumers are already experiencing the benefits of the next stage of on-demand: information. Instead of pressing a button and someone comes to your physical location, you press a button and someone assists via an interface. The knowledge these resources brings is arguably as important to consumers, if not more so than anything you could physically deliver to them. 

Take, for example, the case of telehealth in Singapore. Organisations like Homage bring 24/7 opportunities for telehealth appointments with doctors. These consultations can save the person a potentially risky trip to the hospital (at a time when the threat of COVID-19 still persists) and give them critical health information.

The same applies to pretty much every sphere of knowledge work, including everything from online education and professional development to legal assistance and professional consulting of every stripe.

If knowledge is power, knowledge now is even more powerful. We can act on the information sooner, producing a greater return in the form of time, money, or other resources.

On-demand for everything

As entrepreneurs, we owe it to consumers in the Philippines to give them this instant access. 

But this space is still emerging in the Philippines. The most mature on-demand space in the country is arguably telehealth (in large part due to the fact we’re in a public health crisis), and that is still only relative to the other analogous industries.

Also Read: Disrupting new business and consumer engagement models with location-based NFT technology

Evaluated in its entirety, this space is still effectively a blue ocean for businesses and entrepreneurs. We have significantly more demand than we do supply. 

Our organisation, First Shoshin, has entered this space as well, via JojoCare. We provide on-demand access to lawyers, doctors, educators, and other knowledge workers, professionals, and specialists, via any internet-enabled device.

It would be necessarily impossible for us to address every aspect of on-demand knowledge, and so I would like to see more players enter this space. 

This call may seem counterintuitive, but collectively we can address some of the assumptions our industry still faces. For example, some Filipinos are still wary of interfacing with professionals on this level, believing that in-person interactions bring a higher quality of service.

Together we can establish a standard of excellence that contributes to overall market education about these digital services. The overall message? Digital is as good as in-person.

Filipinos are also tactile shoppers, even when it comes to services (for instance, we like reviewing brochures when making purchasing decisions or flipping through reports when evaluating results).

Together we can create best practises for how we can most closely approximate these tactical experiences across digitally-enabled devices. And there are some Filipinos who may be open to these solutions but don’t have the digital literacy skills needed to avail of them.

As an industry, we can band together to help educate more Filipinos, in the same way, that early on-demand delivery services collectively built up a pool of digitally-savvy drivers through patient, hands-on education. 

All in all, there’s more we can do as an industry than we can do on our own as any single organisation. And in the end, it’ll be the consumer, the person we should hold up as our guiding light, who will benefit.

This person will be able to more efficiently access the knowledge he needs to improve health outcomes for him and his family, make better decisions about his career or business, gain more knowledge, and all in all, live a better life.

The headlines of the on-demand economy may be dominated by famous tech companies and hot startups, but it’s this unnamed customer who will always win when a broader world becomes accessible at the push of a button.

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Indonesian insurtech startup Qoala has announced a Series B fund-raise of US$65 million led by Tara Reeves of Eurazeo, a European investment firm.

Several existing investors, including Flourish Ventures, KB Investment, MassMutual Ventures, MDI Ventures, SeedPlus and Sequoia Capital India, also participated. New investors in the round are BRI Ventures, Daiwa PI Partners, Indogen Capital, Mandiri Capital Indonesia and Salt Ventures.

“We will continue to invest in scaling up Qoala’s reach in our core markets. We will also focus on enhancing our technology and product experience to greatly reduce the hurdles to accessing insurance which are still very significant,” said Harshet Lunani, Founder and CEO of Qoala.

Launched in 2018 by Lunani and Tommy Martin, Qoala distributes retail insurance products to consumers for car, bike, home, and health through its omnichannel platform.

Qoala claims to have acquired over 50,000 insurance marketers and is supported by over 50 insurers to sell insurance from multiple insurers while managing pre-sale and post-sale services. It also provides several innovative micro-insurance products through partnerships with Traveloka, Redbus, DANA, JD.ID, Shopee, Kredivo and Investree, among others.

The startup said it grew 30x since its US$13.5 million Series A fundraise led by Centauri Fund, a joint venture between funds from South Korea’s Kookmin Bank and Telkom Indonesia.

Also Read: Why Asia’s insurance industry is poised for collaborative disruption

Last year, Qoala expanded to Thailand by acquiring local insurtech platform FairDee. Qoala also has a presence in Malaysia.

“Insurance penetration in Indonesia is currently only 2 per cent, far behind the global average of 6 per cent, with most consumers just beginning to understand the value of insurance. Hence, there is plenty of room for growth. In the next decade, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia are amongst the top 10 fastest growing global markets for insurance,” added Harshet.

“Qoala is the only insurtech with licenses in three Southeast Asia markets, and with this new round, we are optimistic about sustaining our growth momentum. Our business in Thailand has also grown 3x since we joined forces with FairDee in February 2021, which gives us confidence in our expansion capability,” added Qoala COO Martin.

Furthermore, Qoala aims to add over 250 employees this year. In parallel, it also plans to grant employees equity compensation and give them the right to acquire shares to strengthen their ownership in the firm.

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While blockchain has understandably been intrinsically linked to cryptocurrency and digital asset trading, it has much broader implications and potentially impacts the wider financial industry.

Among both modern and traditional finance operators, blockchain has the potential to revolutionise existing systems by creating platforms that are more efficient, cost-effective, transparent, and secure. 

However, even though contemporary blockchains are relatively young and by existing standards a more secure technology, there are already innovations within this space that will set the new standard for security in the blockchain, including the inclusion of AI technology into the blockchain. 

Accelerating security concerns

To better understand why AI will be a critical component in the evolution of blockchain technology, we have to look at two significant drivers that are accelerating the need for greater security.

Firstly, we’re seeing the adoption of blockchain in more critical systems across the banking sector and a variety of industries. As these systems are vital to an organisation, they present themselves as prime targets for threat actors and cybercriminals, particularly as these threat actors continually look for vulnerabilities within a single organisation and weaknesses along an entire supply chain. 

Secondly, given that blockchain is just starting to be widely adopted, organisations that adopt blockchain will likely look to scale or modify the use of their blockchain systems. While blockchain technology is, by its nature, scalable and flexible, these changes over time do present a security risk.

To illustrate this, we use the analogy of a fish tank. 

Typically when you first get a fish tank, there is a specific use case in mind, i.e. a particular volume of water, a specific type of fish, salinity, temperature etc. However, over time, the use of the fish tank might change, the volume of water may vary, and it may go from warm salt water to cold freshwater.

Also Read: These Artificial Intelligence startups are proving to be industry game-changers

All these changes add up and can create flaws in the tank, eventually leading to a structural failure. For blockchain technology, the more changes happen to the system, the more likely a critical security vulnerability will be introduced.

How AI-enhanced blockchains address security concerns

So how does AI come into play? Coming back to the fish tank analogy one last time, infusing AI into blockchain technology creates a self-healing tank that adapts as the usage of the blockchain changes and scales. It will allow the blockchain solution to continually scan for any security or operational flaws within a system and fix them automatically. 

In addition, AI in blockchain also goes beyond just ensuring the security and integrity of its platform, the pattern recognition capabilities of AI also have the potential to spot anomalies and potential fraudulent or suspicious activities that happen on the blockchain.

This can lead to faster and more accurate detection of illegal activity and have implications, particularly for the finance sector, as we continue to see an evolution of KYC and compliance requirements. 

Overcoming barriers to adoption

Despite a growing understanding of the benefits of blockchain, many still struggle with accelerating the adoption of the technology within their organisation. There are three key considerations that most companies should consider to address this.

Firstly, senior leadership buy-in is critical to set the company’s pace. As with most new technology, support from leaders requires providing them with education on the mechanics of the technology and the business benefits (along with the costs) in quantitative terms. In addition, it’s also essential to include less quantifiable benefits, including improved employee experience and greater security. 

Secondly, there will also be some critical decisions from a technology perspective, including whether to use a private or public blockchain. Both systems have their benefits and, with AI technology, are secure. But generally speaking, companies that require a greater degree of compliance should consider private blockchains, given the greater degree of control they can have. 

Also Read: Crypto and beyond: A guide to blockchain networks in Asia

This also ties into integration with legacy systems, and like with more technological innovations, a rip-and-replace approach is unlikely to be an economically sound choice, particularly for larger enterprise companies.

For companies of this size, they can explore how blockchain can be integrated with existing systems, both from a legacy and cross-functional perspective. Having a more “gradual” strategy can also help reduce concerns around security and interoperability. Of course, for smaller or younger companies, there is the opportunity to leap-frog this transformation and be blockchain first. 

Lastly, companies need to address the skills gap. Blockchain, as a whole, is still a relatively emerging technology. As a result, the people with the skills required for it are in short supply and the resources needed for talent acquisition can prevent some organisations from adopting blockchain.

To work around this skill gap, one possible way forward is to partner or collaborate with specialist technology partners that will be able to support them on their transformation journey. 

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Singapore-based venture capital (VC) firm Good Startup today announced that it has closed its Good Protein Fund I at US$34 million.

The fund saw the participation from investors including Vijay Goradia, Founder and Chairman of Vinmar International; Harris Komishane, former Head of Finance and Strategy for Fidelity Investments; and Professor Bala Vissa, INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship.

From this fund, Good Startup has already invested in 21 companies out of its target of 35 companies.

Examples of the companies that they have invested in included Eat Just, The EVERY Company, SuperMeat, VitroLabs, and TurtleTree.

Founded in 2021, Good Startup is a VC firm with the mission to remove animals from the food system to minimise environmental footprint.

Also Read: ‘Meat’ing the needs of the alternative protein space in Singapore

Aside from funding, the firm aims to actively work with its portfolio companies across a range of operational areas, including IP protection, organisation design, hiring and fundraising strategy.

It also aims to serve as a bridge between the growing alternative protein ecosystems in North America and Asia.

“The funding support from our latest round empowers us to continue our work at a greater scale. We are now in a stronger position to ramp up our stakeholder engagements and facilitate deeper ecosystem connections in strategic cross border corridors, such as those between Asia and North America,” said Gautam Godhwani, Managing Partner of Good Startup.

A recent study projected a 25 per cent rise in alternative protein consumption, equivalent to approximately US$1.7 billion for plant-based meat alternatives across the Asia Pacific region by 2025.

In Southeast Asia, startups that are working in the alternative protein included OFF FOODS in Indonesia and Cricket One in Vietnam.

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Image Credit: Good Startup

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In its research on Web3 Safety & Compliance, published ahead of its Web3 report, US-based blockchain data platform Chainalysis revealed that illicit DeFi transactions has risen steadily over the last three years in terms of both raw value and also as a share of all transaction value.

The value stolen from DeFi protocols has been trending up since the beginning of 2021, reaching its highest-ever levels in Q1 2022, driven by hacks of the Ronin Bridge and Wormhole Network, the report detailed.

It also highlighted that these increases happened particularly in two areas: theft of funds through hacking and abuse of DeFi protocols for money laundering.

“While cryptocurrency-based crime remains an important problem to solve, especially given that rising overall transaction volumes mean the raw value of illicit transactions is still growing, illicit activity has become a less prominent part of the overall cryptocurrency ecosystem over the last three years. However, DeFi specifically appears to be going through the same growing pains that cryptocurrency as a whole was previously, with illicit activity rising over the last two years,” the research stated.

It further explained that DeFi protocols have accounted for an ever-growing share of all funds stolen from cryptocurrency platforms since the beginning of 2020 and lost the vast majority of stolen funds in 2021. As of May 1, DeFi protocols account for 97 per cent of the US$1.68 billion worth of cryptocurrency stolen in 2022.

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

Who is behind all of these criminal activities? According to the research, a significant number of crypto stolen from DeFi protocols had gone to hacking groups associated with the North Korean government. This was the situation even in 2022 when the North Korean hackers had stolen over US$840 million –and the research did not shy away from the possibility that these groups were also responsible for hacks on other platforms.

DeFi and financial crimes

Another form of crime activities that had been reported to affect DeFi protocols are money laundering. Interestingly, the research once again dubbed the North Korean hackers as the culprit behind it.

An example of this crime activity happened in 2021 when Lazarus Group used several DeFi protocols to launder funds after stealing more than US$91 million worth of cryptocurrency from a centralised exchange.

“So far in 2022, DeFi protocols have become the biggest recipient of illicit funds, taking in 69 per cent of all funds sent from addresses associated with criminal activity, compared to 19 per cent in 2021. One reason for this is that DeFi protocols allow users to trade one type of cryptocurrency for another, which makes it more complicated to track the movement of funds — but unlike centralised services, many DeFi protocols provide this ability without taking KYC information from users, making them more attractive to criminals,” the research explains.

Another type of criminal activity that the research highlighted was wash trading. It is defined as a form of market manipulation in which a seller is on both sides of a trade or selling an asset to themselves in order to create a misleading perception of that asset’s value or liquidity.

Another form of wash trading were performed in order to collect reward tokens given out by NFT marketplace instead of inflating the value of any particular NFT.

“Wash trading is relatively easy to do with NFTs as some NFT trading platforms allow users to trade by simply connecting their wallets to the platform, with no need to identify themselves. One user could easily control multiple wallets and trade NFTs between them, and no one could know unless they took the time to analyse the wallets’ transaction histories,” it explains.

Also Read: With a US$18M seed funding round, Treehouse is ready to bridge financial inclusion gap with DeFi

“This type of wash trading scheme isn’t victimless. For one, the NFT marketplace is being tricked into paying out rewards for phoney activity. NFT collectors throughout the market are also potentially being tricked into thinking that this NFT marketplace has more transaction activity than it really does, and the same goes for the NFT collection the wash traders are using for their transactions.”

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I have served on the Boards or as a senior executive in companies that have created billions of dollars of value for their investors, so I am often asked where the next big opportunity lies. Apart from proptech, I see a significant opportunity in human resources technology. By the time you finish this article, I hope you will understand this “peopletech” trend and how to benefit from it.

Few employees are 100 per cent happy

There is clearly room for improvement in how companies hire, manage, and develop their employees. Very few people in the workforce have not at some point felt abused, misused, or simply overlooked. 

I’ll give you an example from my career. 

Not long after I graduated from business school, I was excited to land a role with a large financial institution in Germany. I was hired to be Head of Strategy for a business unit. 

But after signing and before starting, the organisation got confused, changed its mind, spent time debating my title, and in other ways wasted an entire month after I had officially begun before finally giving me a job to do. 

I earned no salary during that month. Worse, the uncertainty and the callousness with which I was treated made that experience one of the worst I have gone through in my professional career.

A huge opportunity

Perhaps technology cannot fully make up for human incompetence or indifference. Still, good HR technology can have a powerful effect on organisations that want to get the most from their teams.

Also Read: “We want to facilitate organisations’ Web3 transition from bits to atoms”: Brinc CEO Manav Gupta

To understand the scope of the opportunity that human resources technology businesses are addressing, let’s compare it to proptech, which we already know is huge.

Let me give you three data points:

• Consider that today an estimated 3.2 billion people are employed somewhere globally, and there are 2.3 billion properties. So, there are about 40-50 per cent more jobs than properties.
• Properties on average turn over every 10 to 20 years, depending on the country. Meanwhile, research from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that people change jobs every four years on average, a number that is consistent for many countries in the world. So jobs turn over 2.5 times to 5 times more frequently than properties.
• The value of both jobs and properties vary significantly by country. So, let’s look at the U.S. again. There, the average property is worth US$435k and the average job (over four years) is worth a smaller US$285k.

In sum, the opportunity for HR technology entrepreneurs is enormous. These statistics make it clear why the global human resource technology market is projected to grow to a total of US$36 billion by 2028, according to a report from Fortune Business Insights. That’s more than triple its 2018 size.

The best team usually wins

Perhaps most importantly of all, human resources technology is vital because, after all, it is dedicated to helping actual human beings achieve their potential. 

Individual human beings win Nobel prizes, sell products, brainstorm solutions, drive growth, care for their teammates, coach less experienced colleagues, and ensure your company‘s success.

In businesses, as in sports, the best team usually wins. 

I certainly would have loved to have best of breed HR tech during the five corporate takeovers I have gone through. Hundreds of millions of dollars can be at play, but mergers and acquisitions are often stalled or even thwarted due to missing paperwork. 

An always updated organisational chart is a key item on every checklist for due diligence data rooms. (Data rooms are the repositories of confidential information that potential takeover targets must prepare so their acquirers can do their pre-transaction research.)

Who works for whom and does what? That seems like an easy enough question. But I can tell you from experience that many companies cannot produce a live, detailed, and accurate org chart on demand.

Also Read: Why leaders matter for a strong organisational culture

I have seen first-hand how insufficient are the tools that traditionally have been available to most HR teams. And it is worse in smaller companies and startups. There, limited resources and fast growth can make human resources even more difficult.

All these realisations motivated my decision to invest in BrioHR.com. I believe this Malaysian based company has the potential to help companies and employees optimise their human resources across the amazing growth region of Southeast Asia and beyond. BrioHR’s solution also generates up-to-date org charts on demand.

In sum, there is a bright future ahead for players who provide end-to-end systems for empowering and managing people, systems, and platforms. There is a crying need for the facilitation of every stage of the employee-employer relationship, including recruiting, onboarding, employing, retaining, and developing team members. And companies like BrioHR are rising to the challenge.

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Recently, in their latest edition of the Global State of Crypto Report, crypto exchange Gemini dubbed 2021 as the “breakout year” for crypto in Singapore as the market saw a mass adoption of the digital currency in the same year. Despite scepticism here and there, it revealed that more than two in five crypto owners in Singapore first started investing in crypto last year.

The report revealed many exciting statistics. For example, · more than two in five crypto owners in the country (42 per cent) turn to crypto for its inflation hedging properties –even with its stable fiat currency.

Another finding that stresses the promising future for crypto in Singapore is that 82 per cent of crypto investors intend to hold to their investments for the long term with 26 per cent believing crypto is the future of money.

In Southeast Asia, Singapore was not the only country that has begun to jump into crypto recently. In an email interview with e27, Feroze Medora, interim Managing Director and Director of Trading at Gemini APAC, described a similar situation in Indonesia.

“Amongst non-crypto owners in these countries, 42 per cent of Singapore respondents and 45 per cent of Indonesia respondents labelled themselves as crypto-curious. This means that these respondents are consumers who, while not currently owning crypto, are either interested in learning more or are likely to acquire cryptocurrency in the next year,” he explains.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

“These encouraging results contribute to a very positive outlook for the asset class in the region,” Medora stresses.

To understand more about the state of crypto adoption in Singapore and Southeast Asia, check out the edited excerpt of the interview with him.

What are the factors that encourage the rapid growth of crypto in these markets?

Crypto has evolved from being the wild wild west to an established asset class, resulting in a shift in general public perception. With the market cap for crypto hitting almost US$3 trillion last year, the majority of investors surveyed from Asia Pacific saw crypto as a long-term investment.

Additionally, according to the report findings, countries with a history of currency devaluation also saw crypto as a hedge against inflation.

Countries such as Singapore have seen local regulators express a willingness to deliberate over-regulation and provide greater clarity for the cryptocurrency sector. This relative openness to cryptocurrency has resulted in a higher rate of adoption for such markets as opposed to countries whose regulators are closed off to the industry.

Also Read: Cryptocurrency is a notoriously volatile field. Is it possible to generate a stable income?

What role does inflation play in encouraging people to embrace crypto?

Investors in countries that experience currency depreciation may look to crypto, particularly bitcoin, as an inflation hedge. Many believe that bitcoin is ‘digital gold’ given its finite supply of 21 million bitcoin. Fiat currencies are not viewed the same way given their ability to increase supply.

Should the value of bitcoin, or any other chosen crypto, increase with time, this will protect against the decreased purchasing power of a currency that results from the loss of its value. Through this method, crypto provides an alternative avenue to preserve savings.

More than half of non-crypto owning respondents in Singapore cited that the major barrier to crypto adoption was the fear of losing money. What are the other barriers for users to embrace this technology?

The biggest barriers, according to the report findings, are the lack of education non-crypto owners have on the asset class, the fear of crypto’s volatile market – which these potential investors believe would lead to them losing their funds- as well as security concerns.

The good news is that there is no lack of educational crypto materials available online, including sites such as Cryptopedia. It is also on industry players to provide an environment that welcomes new investors, and not cater solely to crypto market veterans. Crypto was created to be accessible to everyone, regardless of education level and even gender.

In terms of volatile price movements, it is vital for all potential crypto owners to do their own research before investing in a token, instead of developing FOMO and jumping on the crypto bandwagon. Additionally, research should include ensuring that they use a trustworthy exchange to conduct their trades.

How deep should government involvement be?

As key stakeholders, governments help to lay down important foundations by providing regulatory oversight in the crypto industry. Two-way engagements with the crypto community at large will be key in developing thoughtful and effective regulations.

Ultimately, when regulations are done right, they can pave the way to healthy and sustainable markets, and help unlock the potential of crypto to a wider audience.

Also Read: Axie Infinity hack reminds us about the vulnerabilities in crypto markets: Advance.AI’s Ravi Madavaram

What are the things that crypto companies need to keep in mind when promoting this technology?

As crypto companies look to accelerate the transition to cryptocurrency, the priority should be to implement proper KYC/AML measures for maximal investor protection and security.

To build trust, crypto companies would need to develop and implement solutions and a robust infrastructure that provides a safer and more secure experience for their customers.

Two in five crypto owners (40 per cent) in Singapore are women, a higher adoption rate than a number of western nations, including the US (32 per cent) and the UK (35 per cent). The report also stated that the gender gap in crypto is narrowing. Would you be able to explain why this is the case? What can we do to further promote this?

This report has challenged the belief that cryptocurrency is a ‘boys’ club’ – especially in Indonesia where more women than men own crypto.

In this day and age, more people are technologically savvy – especially with mobile phone usage. The prevalence of crypto mobile apps has made crypto even more accessible to everyone – regardless of gender.

By increasing the amount of reputable crypto educational materials, and ensuring their availability to the general public, will help to continue providing an even playing field for all.

What are the opportunities that crypto platforms in SEA should embrace?

As mentioned earlier, a big barrier to crypto adoption is the lack of education. While many already do, more crypto firms in the region need to step up as educators of the space.

Crypto platforms have the opportunity to contribute to the pool of educational resources to help the crypto curious make better-informed investment decisions. This, in turn, will encourage crypto adoption even further and help to elevate cryptocurrency as a legitimate asset class.

What is next for crypto in SEA?

The world is no stranger to the rise of NFTs in the past year or so. NFTs have introduced more of the general population to the potential of Web 3, and with that has come the hot topic of the Metaverse. We can expect even more conversations around the Metaverse this year and a continued rise in popularity of NFTs – particularly more use-cases of this new technology.

Also Read: How to find a good investment with new crypto tokens

It would not be surprising to see crypto exchanges experience growth alongside the popularity of NFTs and the Metaverse this year as well. Crypto exchanges have long operated as the gateway into the digital economy, and as mainstream adoption continues to rise, more people will need the access that only crypto exchanges can grant.

We can expect to see more institutions entering the space as the industry continues to develop and grow even further.

Currently, regulators around the world are continuing to pay attention to crypto. It is our hope that within the next 12 months, we will start to see thoughtful regulations that benefit the industry as well as the investors.

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