A broad majority of businesses in Singapore said that they expect a major or moderate impact from key areas of fintech that include embedded finance (81 per cent); environmental, social and governance (ESG, 81 per cent), cryptocurrencies (69 per cent); DeFi (76 per cent) and the metaverse (82 per cent), according to a report by financial services technology provider FIS.

These key areas of fintech will continue to attract investment from firms in the coming year. According to Kanv Pandit, Group Managing Director, APAC, Banking Solutions at FIS, this is a response to the Singapore government’s “ambition to solidify the city as an international fintech and innovation hub.”

“The global economy is facing serious headwinds into 2023, with Singapore bracing itself for a downturn. That said, Singaporean businesses have made it clear that increasing investments into key areas such as embedded finance, Web3 and ESG are critical to capture growth opportunities,” said Pandit in a press statement.

The inaugural 2023 Global Innovation Report asked business leaders in financial services (banks, insurers, capital markets firms, and fintech companies) and non-financial businesses (retail, restaurants, travel, gaming, digital content, and enterprise technology providers) in Singapore about their business strategies and experience with embedded finance, Web3 as well as ESG frameworks.

Conducted between July to September 2022, it surveyed a total of 2,000 executives in nine countries, including Singapore.

Also Read: Embedded finance can help legacy banks grow loan book, go to market quickly: Finbox CEO

Popular sectors in fintech

The report gave a breakdown of the popular sectors in fintech and how businesses view them.

Starting with embedded finance, it stated that new use cases across banking, lending and investing are emerging. Additionally, the drive to deliver embedded financial services is rapidly accelerating in Singapore.

As embedded finance is defined as when consumers have unique, tailored financial services delivered to them at the point of need by non-financial companies, the tool enables speed and convenience in payments of goods and services in an online platform.

Based on the survey, 41 per cent of financial services firms said they will significantly invest in developing embedded finance products within the next 12 months. Thirty-seven per cent of the firms that are investing in embedded finance believe it will improve their brand, image or reputation as key reasons why. Meanwhile, more than half (55 per cent) of non-financial businesses say they are already offering or developing embedded finance services.

Web3, with its various elements, dominated the conversation in the finance sector last year, despite 2022 being a challenging year for the crypto sector. This year, the study shows that growth and investment in digital assets and the underlying technologies are primed to continue at a strong pace.

A majority of financial services firms (56 per cent) recognised DeFi to be a major growth opportunity for their organisation. Yet the same percentage (56 per cent) cited poor user experience as a barrier to adoption, with 54 per cent needing to better understand the risks involved before they will participate.

Also Read: Embedded finance can help legacy banks grow loan book, go to market quickly: FinBox CEO

Lack of clarity around crypto regulations, flagged by 30 per cent of financial services firms and 27 per cent of non-financial businesses, is amongst the biggest barriers to greater crypto adoption.

Fifty-three per cent of financial services firms are actively researching potential opportunities in the metaverse, while 39 per cent of non-financial businesses say it will be strategically important to have a presence in the metaverse in the next 12 months.

At a media briefing event, when asked by e27 about building trust in Web3 technologies, especially in a time when there are many negative publications on the crypto industry, Pandit said, “We have certainly seen the emergence of the underlying technologies as holding immense promise, and the use cases are diverse. The industry has gone through maturity and continues to mature in a very rapid fashion.”

“Therefore, if you look at the sort of the negative aspects of it, they’re centred around digital asset speculation. [But] there is definitely a case to be made for digital asset valuation and exchange within the form of stablecoins or just tokenisation,” he continued.

Apart from embedded finance and Web3, ESG was also one of the most touted sectors in 2022, and firms are looking forward to capitalising on opportunities in ESG in 2023.

Seventy-three per cent of financial services firms in Singapore, versus 66 per cent globally, say ESG offers an opportunity to improve their competitiveness in the market. The two biggest challenges around ESG are insufficient internal data or tools (37 per cent) and a lack of external technology to support ESG (37 per cent).

Also Read: Why blockchain is instrumental for the future of trade finance

To address the gaps relating to data, 66 per cent of financial services firms say they are investing in technology to improve their ESG reporting and disclosures, while 61 per cent are investing in technology to provide more granular ESG ratings of assets and securities.

For these businesses, innovative technology that helps to report ESG metrics will play an essential role in further elevating this segment.

But is there any other value ESG provides to these businesses apart from image-building and publicity?

To answer the question, Pandit said that we could expect regulators to require ESG reporting, compliance, and audit from businesses in the near future.

” … Probably sooner than we expect it to be, ESG reporting, compliance, and audit will probably be as important as financial reporting,” he stressed. “There is definitely that image and reputation thing, but there is also an emerging consensus that this will become a regulatory focus.”

In the short term, the ongoing recession might also impact the sustainability of the ESG sector. However, in the long run, regulators are expected to put ESG at the forefront.

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As a global technology-centred property company, we aim to find ways to seamlessly blend technology with our vision for growth and take our business to new heights. At the same time, data and technology powered the core backend of the company from its very start.

I remember the moment we envisioned a platform that transforms property agents from pen and paper and disparate systems onto a single platform that we called Atlas. The vision for Atlas was a turning point for our company.

As someone dedicated to driving success, I am always looking for technological innovations that can benefit our operations and make a positive difference for our team and customers. Adopting new technologies can bring numerous advantages to a business, including streamlined decision-making, increased profitability, higher productivity and fostering a culture of growth and innovation.

In this article, I will share how Juwai IQI’s SuperApp Atlas played a crucial role in our transition to a more efficient and sustainable way of working.

IQI Atlas and the start of a greener world

At Juwai IQI, we have built a company culture centred around embracing change. The team and I have been focusing on change and building and adopting technologies that drive growth, allowing us to go paperless and reduce up to 310,000 papers yearly. This wouldn’t have been possible without the development of the IQI Atlas SuperApp.

The re-engineered and digital sales process

The SuperApp is a revolutionary digital platform that aims to digitise every aspect of life, from sales processes to climate impact awareness. It provides agents with a seamless and efficient way to access and manage their tasks, including the sales process.

Also Read: Can Bitcoin help us in the fight against climate change?

To support this goal, it offers a range of powerful sales tools, including:

• E-signature: This tool allows agents to sign documents digitally, eliminating the need for paper.
• Manage my deal: This feature helps agents and homebuyers to track sales progress online and keep track of key details.
• Transaction Flow: Atlas guides agents on the process from the moment an agent acquires a consumer (most likely using the automated marketing and lead flow tools in Atlas’s Marketing Centre). For example, the owner and company will typically agree on terms such as duration and commission to secure a property. Atlas creates these documents automatically, sends them out for digital signatures, and continues the process when all signatures have been validated. After a sale has concluded, Atlas already has most of the documentation required for verification and processing an agent’s commission, thus reducing the time and resources spent on this part. Additionally, documents such as confirmation letters, official receipts, power of attorney letters, or bank-in slips can be created and submitted online.

The SuperApp and IQI Atlas offer a range of sales tools to help agents streamline and optimise their sales process digitally, including e-signature, Manage my Deal and Subsale claims, which not only provide agents with everything they need to succeed in the digital world but also encourage a greener world with the reduced consumption on the usage of paper.

One of the critical areas of thought when reengineering processes is to take a non-biased, top-down approach. This will help reduce redundancies in what may have been required for a manual, paper-driven operation.

Importantly, it will provide the opportunity to completely re-think the approach, potentially reducing the time, effort and resources that go into that new process. This helps drive a business and the areas mentioned previously of streamlined decision-making, increased profitability, higher productivity and fostering a culture of growth and innovation.

New carbon emission

We recently announced the development of a new carbon emissions calculator in IQI Atlas, which will provide data on the environmental impact and home running costs. Our goal is to empower consumers with greater awareness of the ecological impact of their homes and to enable them to reduce their carbon footprint and energy consumption.

Also Read: How Third Derivative assesses the impact of a potential climate tech investment

This function plays a significant role in communicating the benefits of new green buildings to potential homebuyers. It will be able to report the carbon emissions of properties, along with the daily carbon footprints of the people who live there, making it easy to compare the sustainability of houses. As a result, it will yield greater investments as green homes can be sold at a premium.

By integrating a climate emissions calculator into Atlas, we plan to feed data to third-party portals and our real estate listing portals in the Juwai IQI ecosystem.

Together we can create a better world

I believe that we can make this world a more livable place; Juwai IQI is committed to empowering agents to work efficiently and improving the world’s livability. Through IQI Atlas, agents can work from anywhere, anytime, allowing them to be more efficient and successful. It provided powerful sales tools to help agents achieve their goals in a straightforward, efficient, and environmentally friendly way.

Additionally, the platform features a carbon emissions calculator to further our dedication to sustainability and equip consumers with the means to make informed environmentally-friendly choices.

With IQI Atlas, we strive to leave a lasting positive impact on the world we call home. I invite you to join forces in making this world a better, greener place with the power of technology.

“One vision to make this world a better place.”

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ZaynFi, a stablecoin yield optimiser on BNB Chain, has announced a US$600,000 funding led by Cur8 Capital, the venture investing arm of UK-based Islamic Finance Guru.

An unnamed global VC fund with a track record of investing in fast-growing technology companies also co-invested in the round.

Co-Founder and CEO Syakir Hashim said that ZaynFi would use the funds to expand its engineering team and build new vaults, allowing users to stake other cryptocurrencies and building a strong community of users utilising ZaynFi.

Also Read: Web2 vs Web3 people: Disruption amid decentralisation as blockchain goes mainstream

Started by Syakir Hashim and Aziz Zainuddin, ZaynFi is a DeFi protocol that helps users stake stablecoins safely and simply for top-of-the-range returns on the Binance Chain. According to the company, it helps users stake into the best liquidity pools across popular decentralised exchanges, enabling trades to happen while earning trading fees and rewards.

It thus aims to open up the world of DeFi to the masses, enabling first-time users to utilise and benefit from DeFi products and services. The protocol also aims to attract halal-conscious offerings as it ensures its offerings comply with shariah principles.

“The team at ZaynFi has spent the last couple of months creating a minimum viable product, with a private beta being rolled out to stakeholders at the start of the month,” said Hashim.

Also Read: ‘Democratising ownership models is the most significant opportunity in Web3’: Infinity Ventures Crypto’s Brian Lu

A public beta is planned to be rolled out next week exclusively for ZaynFi’s 88,000-strong Telegram Community members.

“We are here to help existing DeFi users and the masses come onboard the world of DeFi and bring a new wave of liquidity to decentralised exchanges. This will be achieved through ZaynFi’s end-to-end service, which takes care of Liquidity Pool selection, depositing into Liquidity Pools, staking LP Tokens and switching to better-performing Liquidity Pools from time to time,” he added.

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The development of technology has changed activities in people’s lives, including tourism. Young tourists are tech-savvy and often travel, so choosing services when travelling is inevitable.

Mobile applications to select travel services of Generation Z in the digital transformation period have increased rapidly in the past two years, and especially in Asia, travel apps see great growth potential. 

Thanks to today’s travel apps, young people feel more comfortable when travelling. Isn’t this also an opportunity for businesses to build good travel apps? While the western market shows clear developments in travel apps, let’s look at the potential market: Asia.

Travel-addicted youngers present prospects for travel apps development

However, the use of technology to select services in tourism is not accepted by all customers, although the benefits of technology are clear. Many customers are still concerned and not bold in using mobile devices to book services when travelling, except for young visitors, in the Y and Z generation. 

Generation Z (born after 1995), accounting for 32 per cent of the global population, surpasses the Millennium (31.5 per cent) for the top spot in terms of numbers. Generation Z travellers have a sense of global awareness. They move freely across borders, and above all, they give travel priority.

65 per cent of Generation Z travellers rate “travelling and seeing the world” as the most important way to spend their money. Despite being budget-conscious, Gen Z will spend more on experiential travel, allowing them to explore life like a local rather than a tourist.

Solo travel: youngsters’ best friend”

In the old days, solo exploration of a strange place was quite a “luxury” because you needed a fairly large knowledge of geography and culture. However, the developed world has it all reduced to the mobile phone. Travelling alone has become a hot trend among youngsters recently. 

A survey by the UK’s largest online behavioural research centre – Hitwise, shows that the keyword “solo travel” has increased by 143 per cent in the past three years. This result was obtained based on the analysis of more than three million British searches. Southeast Asia and New Zealand are the two most ideal destinations in the eyes of those contemplating a solo trip.

Also Read: What travel tech can look like for the travel industry’s revival

In the Asia-Pacific region, governments are stepping up the exploitation of big data not only to promote tourism but also to develop and implement tourism-related policies.

It can be said that allowing young people to freely decide whether to travel freely or travel alone is a big contribution from convenient travel apps. Travel apps solve everything you need when travelling, and that’s why it’s more and more popular among young people. 

The development of technology in the 4.0 era is also one of the causes and impacts on the development of solo travel. With the support of technology, a series of applications providing travel services have become popular worldwide, from booking airline tickets and booking hotels to restaurants and car rentals can be done on mobile phones.

Clear pictures of how Asians adore travel apps

83 per cent of smartphone owners in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) Region already has a travel-related app installed. One or more travel applications are already installed on a considerable portion of people’s cell phones in the APAC area. This indicates that individuals in the APAC region are interested in travelling both inside their region of the world and more broadly. It is substantially higher than many other regions of the world. 

In the tourism industry in Asia, one of the most prominent names is Traveloka, with the position of leading the trend through a travel application that integrates two flight and hotel booking services. More than 80 per cent of travellers using Traveloka come from Asian countries like Indonesia, and 77 per cent of travellers use this travel app in Vietnam.

Next, you should not miss the Klook app — Asia’s largest destination travel booking service aimed at self-sufficient travellers (FITs), making it easy for them to book sightseeing tickets, tours, transportation, and activities with a network of more than 35,000 attractions at competitive prices. Hong Kong is where the majority of Klook.com’s users are from, followed by Taiwan, the Province of China, and Thailand.

Also Read: How can influencer marketing help the travel industry in a post-pandemic world

For tourists who love Vietnam, Foody, Lozi, or Food Places are great applications when aggregating dining places, restaurant reviews, small eateries, and roadside stalls with data warehouses in many provinces and cities, not only in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi. Vietnamese youth find using these apps convenient.

Gen Z’s interesting talks about travel apps

Young travel lover Maya from Thailand said, “Travel apps have become my go-to travel buddy.” You can now plan your destinations thanks to travel apps. When everything is planned out through a smartphone, there is no longer any surprise when setting foot in a new place. She had no idea how easy solo travel might be with these travel apps.

“Who needs a partner when you can plan a fantastic trip via phone,” said a young Filipino person in an interesting post. She used to fear getting lost or feeling lonely while travelling alone, but the travel app is like a fairy who makes things appear in front of her face. Just confirm, hop in the car to “Prom,” and enjoy yourself like Cinderella.

“Oh, Gofood — an app that saved my life in Vietnam,” said J. Although Vietnam is a stunning country with a lot to discover, he had never been there before, so on that particular day, he had no idea where to eat. Thanks to a mate who showed him how to download Gofood, J found a truly fantastic restaurant in Hanoi’s capital city within a matter of seconds, saving his life. “It’s incredible that this phone and this small software will someday be able to fill my stomach in this strange place”.

Opportunities for tourism startups to embark on developing travel apps

With the strong growth shown by the above numbers, solo travel is one of the new and hottest travel trends today. Grasping the potential market that continues to thrive, a series of travel tech companies in Asia have provided services and information aimed at this target audience.

The connection by information technology creates favourable conditions for all businesses to develop, especially SMEs that are not yet strong enough to reach out to the tech travel industry market and large-scale promotional activities. 

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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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Creative Gorilla Capital (CGC), a new VC platform initiated by a collaboration between Future Creative Network (FCN), Vynn Capital, and Pomona, has launched a US$20 million fund.

The new Gorilla Silverback Fund seeks to invest in consumer-focused (D2C) startups across the archipelago.

Gorilla Silverback Fund will consider startups with a clear path to profitability, tested product-market fit, and distribution prowess for potential investment.

The selected startups must also embrace sustainability, social equality, and responsible consumerism.

CGC has invested in over five startups, including Offmeat, Ringkas, Kynd, and Allura. “Our goal in the next three years is to work selectively and closely with future leaders to build a lasting winning brand that could thrive locally and globally. We truly hope that through our work, we can provide a lasting impact to revitalise the Indonesian creative economy and showcase Indonesian products to the world,” said CGC Founding and Managing Partner Benz Julio Budiman.

Also Read: How Ringkas replaces paper-based mortgage application process in Indonesia with digital tools

Based on whitepaper data released by Accenture, the rapid growth in the goods and services market reached 6x at US$7.9 billion between 2015 and 2020 and is expected to grow further. This is also influenced by Indonesia’s 260 million+ population, rapid urbanisation, and the rise in per capita income.

“By tapping into arguably the largest creative network in the region, new startups can access all the necessary resources to create a winning brand from day one. We will help startups to apply consumer insight and brand-led thinking to fuel their growth,” Budiman added.

Founded in 2016, FCN is a network of creative professionals and companies with over 42 companies and agencies under its wing. FCN will play an active role in providing complete access to integrated expertise and creative solutions in branding and digital services for CGC to nurture D2C brands further and achieve effective results.

Vynn Capital is a VC firm focusing on supply chain and mobility industries. Its portfolio includes the car e-commerce ecosystem Carsome and the property management platform Travelio.

Pomona is an adtech startup that specialises in sales conversion for FMCG products. Pomona used to do FMCG cashbacks for consumers and is now focused on a D2C incubation platform under the name Zeeus.

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