Southeast Asia (ASEAN) has experienced rapid economic growth. With a projected GDP growth rate of six-ten per cent per year compared to the global average of three-four per cent over the next five years, the region is on track to become the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2030.

With a literate population of 600 million and an even larger young working population (40 per cent of whom are under the age of 30), the digital economic boom, which is being sustained by emerging digital businesses and the digitalisation of traditional industries, indicates a significant increase in demand for skilled and qualified digital talent.

Even with the challenges in the market, the predicted ICT market growth rate of 1.4x – 1.8x will increase the demand for digital talent that must be met in order for the region to thrive.

While this is a great opportunity, it can also be a challenge for many companies in the region. According to a survey of 600 startup employees and 40 startup leaders from six ASEAN countries, nine out of 10 startups face difficulties in recruiting tech talent, and 91 per cent of employees are open to leaving their current positions, making the challenge of developing a sustainable recruitment strategy and scaling their teams ever-present.

GRIT Search, a technology recruiting platform, created a playbook based on the survey in collaboration with Southeast Asian venture capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures and global consultancy firm Kearney to help companies compete for the best and brightest.

Employees need and want a strong company culture

Aside from monetary rewards (78 per cent) and employee benefits (68 per cent), employees rank the firm’s culture as the third most important aspect of their job (57 per cent). Getting the culture right also helps companies address the second driving factor for talent exits – misalignment with company vision and culture (25 per cent), which is also the most commonly chosen reason for talent leaving their companies in Singapore and Indonesia.

While culture is highly intangible, it has very tangible effects, such as improved financial performance and customer satisfaction due to increased productivity and firm margins, as well as higher dedication to customers due to more motivated and committed employees. As a result of the increased employee engagement, job satisfaction and turnover rates have decreased.

Also Read: ‘In Web3, talent is hard to find and expensive’

Open communication, such as encouraging one-on-one conversations between employees and formal mentors/senior executives, leaders empowering their team members to offer their ideas and speak their minds, as well as having a company-wide discussion around big conversations, all contribute to creating a culture in which employees feel welcome, accepted, and respected.

Leadership, in particular, bears the primary responsibility of shaping a company’s culture and establishing a positive tone for the organisation. Middle management is critical to creating team cultures, executing firm values, and communicating employee feedback to upper management, who are then able to translate the collated feedback into actionable suggestions for improvement.

Having frequent open-feedback cycles with employees and within teams keeps everyone on the same page, working for the betterment of the company while also ensuring employees’ needs are met.

No surprise, employees want fair compensation

Unsurprisingly, 78 per cent of employees rank compensation as the most important aspect of their job, and it is the primary reason for 32 per cent of employees seeking new opportunities. Employers are expected to provide desirable and appealing benefits packages in order to attract and retain top talent.

Competitive, merit-based compensation principles that encourage long-term loyalty are ideal. Companies can leverage different compensation structures by having regular salary benchmarks and variable pay incentives as a reward for good performance, especially for early-stage startups that may not have the luxury of offering generous salaries to their talents, such as equity or employee benefits.

Employee benefits were ranked as the second most important aspect of a job by 68 per cent of those polled. These benefits range from HR-related benefits such as medical coverage, as well as personalised rewards for birthdays and work anniversaries that recognise each employee’s uniqueness, to employee development benefits such as consistent upskilling and development opportunities, mentoring, and career flexibility.

Furthermore, with a lack of growth opportunities being cited as the third primary driver of talent exit, it has become even more critical to provide ample opportunities for talent to grow and enhance their skills. Companies can maintain their competitiveness by providing an avenue for their talent to flourish and consistently develop their abilities, whether by investing in tailored learning and development programmes or simply allowing them time off to pursue such courses.

However, rather than simply providing such benefits, organisations must be able to communicate the details and value of their compensation packages, as many employees may be unaware of their worth.

From offer letters and long-term incentive plan documents to employee onboarding handbooks, effective communication of the rewards packages provides clearer visibility, understanding, and transparency of the package value while increasing employee motivation.

Your recruitment strategy should reflect the stage of your business

Employers will undoubtedly have to modify their hiring strategies depending on the company’s current stage. For example, during the early stages of product validation, the company’s hiring priorities would frequently be to build their product & technology, marketing, and business development teams in order to gain traction among their target audience.

Also Read: Managing talent in an economic downturn

Once they have a dedicated user base and consistent revenue streams, the focus shifts to market-share dominance, diversifying their revenue and profitability, as a result, they would seek stronger C-level hires while expanding their data analytics teams to drive expanded business and market opportunities.

Furthermore, the key challenges for companies differ according to the stage, with early-stage firms facing a greater problem with compensation and later-stage firms and corporates facing a greater problem with perceived corporate branding.

Notably, when it comes to talent retention, the top reasons for employees to consider new opportunities are competitive rewards and compensation (32 per cent), misalignment with the company and vision (25 per cent), and a lack of growth opportunities (23 per cent), with companies in each country choosing a different reason.

Employees are more likely to leave early-stage organisations for new opportunities due to misalignment with the company and vision, whereas late-stage startups are more likely to lose their talent due to competitive rewards and compensation. As a result, the first step toward developing a successful recruitment strategy is to understand your current situation and tailor your strategies to your hiring requirements.

How to stay ahead of the competition

Finally, the art of developing one’s recruitment strategies can be perplexing and intimidating due to the numerous moving parts to keep track of. In order to succeed and effectively grow and scale teams in the new workforce era, companies must tailor their recruitment strategies to their employees.

Organisations are at a tipping point where they can still make effective changes to attract, retain, and engage tech talent, from compensation and employee benefits, to adapting their company culture to create cohesive employee branding.

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Northstar Group, an Indonesia-focused private equity firm, has announced the first close of its early-stage fund with US$90 million in committed capital.

A statement said that Northstar Ventures I (NSV I) received strong backing from a diverse group of global investors, including sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, family offices and high-net-worth individuals.

NS I targets to hit the final close at US$150 million. The second close is expected in Q1 2023 at around US$120 million, and the final close in mid-2023.

Also Read: Sayurbox raises US$ 120M+ in Series C funding led by Northstar, Alpha JWC

Northstar Ventures I will make early-stage investments, primarily in entities headquartered (or with significant operations) in Indonesia and, to a lesser extent, in other countries in Southeast Asia.

The fund’s core focus will be consumer internet, fintech, and enterprise software.

NSV I’s portfolio already includes investments in Makmurtech, Bunker Technologies, Growth Technologies SEA (Flex), Kendaraan Listrik Nusantara Holdings (Maka), Wahyoo Holdings, UTown Singapore Technology (Jagat), and 1BStories.

Patrick Walujo, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Northstar Group, said, “The successful fundraising of our first venture capital fund during a challenging second half of 2022 underpins the strength of our firm and the trust in our capabilities. We look forward to supporting more promising entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia to drive their business growth through our capital and expertise.”

Also Read: Northstar leads US$22M Series A of Indonesia’s multi-vertical audio platform NOICE

Founded in 2003 by Patrick Walujo and Glenn Sugita, Northstar Group comprises over 25 professionals based in Singapore and Jakarta. The group manages US$2.6 billion in committed capital and has led or co-led over US$4 billion in investments in more than 50 companies across Southeast Asia.

In December 2021, Northstar Group closed its fifth PE fund with US$590 million of capital commitments to invest in mature growth companies in the region.

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Born in China, Sheji Ho grew up in the Netherlands and worked in the US, China, and Southeast Asia. During his years of stay in these countries/regions, he, as a patient, experienced first-hand their different healthcare systems and models.

“In the Netherlands, I would go to the same family doctor for many years. On the other hand in Beijing, I had to wake up at 5 am to queue up at a hospital and wait half a day to get my health checkup done. While Singapore offered a similar experience to the Netherlands, Bangkok was almost like China,” Ho tells e27.

“These personal experiences, combined with the founding team’s professional experience at aCommerce trying to enable e-commerce for brands in Southeast Asia, led our team to build HD,” he says.

Headquartered in Bangkok, HD operates online healthcare and surgery marketplaces called HDmall in Thailand and Indonesia. The platform connects patients to hospitals, clinics, operating rooms, and surgeons while offering healthcare financing solutions to increase access to affordable care and surgeries. 

The healthtech startup claims it powers over 1,500 healthcare providers, including some of the biggest hospitals in these two countries. Over 250,000 patients have benefited from more accessible and affordable healthcare and surgeries through its platform.

The firm also runs HDcare, a service that enables healthcare providers — many already on the HDmall platform — to increase the utilisation of hospitals’ and clinics’ operating room capacities. HD took inspiration from JD Health in China and Pristyn Care in India to build a hybrid platform. In other words, HD is Booking.com for healthcare on the demand side and Airbnb for Surgeons on the supply side.

“We are the ‘Airbnb for surgeries’ that addresses the low utilisation rates across private hospital infrastructure,” he says.

COVID-19 a blessing in disguise

HD was co-founded in 2019 by Ho, Aditya Jamaludin, Raya Chantaramungkorn (all former top executives at Thailand’s leading e-commerce enabler aCommerce), and Frankie Shum (formerly with Ardent Capital).

Also Read: HD, the Airbnb for surgeries in SEA, secures US$6M funding

The healthtech venture was launched a year before COVID-19 struck. During the first few months into the pandemic, there was pressure on the founders to pivot and double down on telehealth (or food delivery) because, back then, people thought HD would be locked down for years.

“However, the team spent the first few months of the lockdown trying to sign up more healthcare providers while ignoring demand, betting on a recovery to normality sooner rather than later. “Fortunately, thanks to the long stretches of normal life in Thailand and Indonesia (the two markets it started with) allowed us to continue growing our business without many interruptions,” Ho reflects.

As the pandemic peaked, hospitals in Thailand (a popular medical tourism hub) saw their medical tourism demand evaporate overnight. This drove them to look for domestic patient acquisition, which led them to HD, allowing it to grow its supply rapidly.

“During the lockdown stretches, we focused on signing up for COVID-19 testing and vaccine supply, which led us to become the largest online testing and vaccine platform in Thailand,” he explains. “Looking back, we feel the pandemic was a blessing in disguise as we ultimately ended up benefiting from the global crisis.”

The pandemic also exposed pure-play telehealth as an unsustainable business model for emerging markets such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

“During the lockdowns and work-from-home periods, we noticed an increase in elective surgeries, which could be explained by people taking the liberty to rest and recover at home. This led to what is today HDcare, our private-label elective surgery product that leverages excess room space in hospitals,” he continues.

A diverse healthcare system

According to Ho, the healthcare system in SEA is as diverse as the region itself. For historical reasons, Singapore and, to a lesser extent, Malaysia followed a ‘western’ healthcare system. For example, residents of these countries go to family doctors for primary care instead of straight to hospitals and enjoy a mix of insurance and employer coverage versus out-of-pocket pay.

On the other hand, emerging markets, such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, have very different healthcare ecosystems and value-chain. The private health insurance penetration is low in these countries, and the workplace wellness movement is nascent and, therefore, has less employer coverage. On average, 40 per cent of people pay in cash for healthcare services.

Besides, the populations are relatively younger (therefore, fewer chronic diseases) in these three countries, and people mainly go straight to hospitals due to the absence of the private family physician practice concept.

Additionally, local regulations allow community pharmacies to dispense most medications without a doctor’s prescription (thus cancelling out one of the key reasons why people use telehealth in Western markets – to get a quick prescription and then fulfil it at your local Walgreens). ‘Dual practice’ is common with physicians and surgeons operating across multiple healthcare providers.

“These unique traits make it more difficult for something like telehealth to continue its rapid growth post-COVID-19 in its original form. More hospitals are adopting telehealth technologies directly but more to support existing patients (hence CRM) instead of using telemedicine as a patient acquisition channel. In response, many telehealth startups are trying to vertically integrate downstream, often into their own (built or bought) clinics,” Ho explains.

As for competition, Ho says he believes there’s room for multiple healthcare business models as the region is so diverse. Moreover, healthcare is complex and has a lot of unaddressed challenges that require more startups to work on it. “That said, we are tackling unique local challenges in emerging SEA markets like Thailand and Indonesia with a unique business model. Also, our team is distinct in that we’re the only founding team with e-commerce experience building a healthcare and surgery marketplace in SEA.”

An Amazon for healthcare

For emerging SEA markets, which are similar to a hybrid between mainland China (ex., Hong Kong and Macau) and India, the post-COVID-19 opportunity primarily lies in building a consumer healthcare marketplace.

“If you want to buy just about anything, there’s a good chance you head to Amazon to search for the product, consider options from around the globe by comparing prices and trusted reviews, and then complete the purchase. This magical experience does not exist in healthcare,” he explains.

For instance, a person who needs to find a doctor or book a medical procedure has many subpar options, ranging from Google searching “allergist near me” to facing their insurance company’s overwhelming provider directory. However, they don’t provide insights into the cost or quality. The experience of finding the cheapest option for your medication or the best health insurance is the same.

Also Read: ‘Current macroeconomic headwinds weigh heavily on healthcare sector’: Doctor Anywhere CEO

“That is why we need an Amazon of healthcare — the universal go-to place for people to shop for healthcare services, insurance, and drugs with trusted reviews, quality metrics, and price transparency,” he says. “We at HD consider ourselves fortunate to be in a position to build a healthcare and surgery marketplace to address unique healthcare accessibility and affordability challenges for emerging SEA.”

On Wednesday, HD announced US$6 million in financing from Partech Partners, M Venture Partners, AC Ventures, iSeed, and Orvel Ventures. The company will use the money to expand its team and develop its technology to serve over 5,000 healthcare providers and 300 operating rooms and facilitate thousands of surgeries by 2024.

“Given the current macroeconomic situation, we strongly believe in a move towards ‘back to fundamentals’. In healthcare, this means getting back to offering affordable and accessible care and focusing on the ‘nuts and bolts’,” he says.

“For HD, this means getting more healthcare providers on our platform, expanding our catalogue of outpatient and inpatient procedures, and accelerating the growth of HDcare, our private-label elective surgery product. Our ultimate objective is to build an Amazon for healthcare products in SEA,” he concludes.

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Indonesian creative and digital media startup Bingkai Karya announced that it had secured a “hundred million Rupiah” in pre-seed funding round. The investors participating in the funding round were undisclosed; they were described as a local corporation and a non-government organisation. Both organisations are drawn to the “progressive” milestones the company has made.

The funding will be used to develop media property (MP) products and intellectual property (IP) as a whole before transitioning into the Web3 space. It plans to also develop its human resource by recruiting the best talents.

“This [plan] is in line with our plan in 2022 to be able to expand beyond Indonesia. The next in line is to work with Europe for our IP and MP development strategies. This is why we try to improve the quality of our content, especially our English content,” said Bingkai Karya CEO Rizal Rosyadi in a press statement on Monday, January 2.

The journey of Bingkai Karya

Founded in 2018, the startup started off as a design graphic and illustration services for MSMEs social media platform in the city of Malang, East Java. By the end of 2018, it began to expand its offerings to podcast production. As the vertical grew, Bingkai Karya ended up transforming to become a podcast network and online news portal for the younger audience.

Also Read: Fonos raises US$1.8M in funding to expand into podcasting

The company has developed six podcast channels: Bingkai Suara (2018), Enpacking Podcast (2019), Chromatica Podcast (2020), Before and at 30’s (2020), Bingkai Gadis (2020), and Bingkai Sains (2021). Bingkai Karya has the vision to become an entertaining, educational, and accessible podcast platform for its listeners.

Bingkai Karya’s network of podcasts has been trusted by several local and international brands and local celebrities to do promotional activities. “We have been planning to focus on the Southeast Asian market. In terms of branding, commercial treatment, and curation, we have adjusted ourselves to the standard of the international media market.”

In its fourth year, Bingkai Karya published content in two languages (Indonesian and English) on its website and social media platforms. The platforms cover news on climate change and the environment that is relevant for Asian audiences, to be later published on their Instagram handle.

The company is also expanding to the world of edutech by launching an audio-based learning app called Pernahdengar. It is one of the platforms that help to improve the quality of education in Indonesia during the pandemic; it claims to help listeners with self-growth by eight times in various aspects of their life.

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The article was written by Marsya Nabila in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

Image Credit: Bingkai Karya

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Singapore-based direct-to-consumer brand Evo Commerce has announced the completion of its pre-series A funding round of US$2 million.

GSR Ventures led this round which also saw participation from 33 Capital, Rainforest CEO and Co-Founder JJ Chai, Wallex Co-Founder Hiro Kiga, and BrideStory Co-Founder Emile Etienne.

Returning investor East Ventures also joined.

The fresh funds will be used for global expansion and strengthening its e-commerce and online channels, besides scaling its manufacturing and R&D capabilities of new product categories.

Evo Commerce secured US$600,000 in seed funding in October 2022, led by East Ventures, with notable angel investors Aaron Tan from Carro, Joel Leong from ShopBack, Mohandass from Spenmo, and Jonathan Tan from Prism+.

Formerly known as Evolut Holdings, Evo Commerce delivers research-backed consumer products at affordable prices, with over eight products under its belt.

Its flagship product, BounceBack, is an anti-hangover solution now available and operating in ten markets globally. The company also delivers all-natural anti-hair loss solutions under MANTOU and beauty and hair care products under the Stryv brand.

“Evo Commerce will continue to double down on our efforts in bringing the best quality products at affordable prices to the market with improved customer experience. We hope to continue to grow ten times over in 2023 while maintaining our profitability with expectations to launch multiple products in the coming year,” said Roy Ang, Co-Founder and CEO of Evo Commerce.

The startup claims it serves over 20,000 customers across ten markets.

“Since the early days, we have witnessed the agility of Roy and his team in catering to the different needs of customers in the health and wellness industry. We believe there is a big untapped opportunity in the space, and Evo Commerce is leading the way in revolutionising consumer access to the best quality products in the region,” said Devina Halim, Principal at East Ventures

In 2022, the company saw a 12-fold increase in topline revenue and has raised US$2.5 million to date, amping up its R&D, prototyping and testing, and brand-building efforts.

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