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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When it comes to innovation, good collaboration between startups and corporations is key. Startups have the speed and flexibility to develop new solutions while corporations lend their resources, network, deep knowledge, and trusted brands.

e27 dives deep into one program actively pushing for collaborative innovation: The Visa Accelerator Program. This program aims to help startups unlock growth potential and scale across the Asia Pacific region by developing joint solutions that address the biggest opportunities in the payments industry.

Creating partnerships to solve real-world problems in the payments space

At the Visa Accelerator Program, Kunal Chatterjee, Head of Innovation at Visa, Asia Pacific believes it is imperative not only for collaborations to be mutually beneficial to both stakeholders but also to embolden the ecosystem and serve the community. Both parties must align their goals and come up with meaningful solutions that address tangible, real-world challenges.

This is the onus of the Visa Accelerator Program: to come up with innovative ways to help boost the capabilities of the fintech startups so emerging problems brought about by the increasingly digitalised payments ecosystem can be addressed effectively.

Startups in the Visa Accelerator Program get to work with Visa’s payment networks, product architects, and business development teams to jointly develop a proof of concept and a business case pitch. By the end of the program, real-world solutions are launched, implemented by Visa and its clients and partners in Asia Pacific.

Driving growth and scale through Visa’s trusted brand, network, and infrastructure

“The Visa Accelerator Program isn’t developed in a silo. It is a combined effort across many business teams in Asia Pacific to determine where we focus our attention and resources to address some of the biggest opportunities in payments today and create products and solutions that better reflect the needs of our clients in Asia Pacific. On our end, Visa brings to the table our trusted brand, scale of business, and wider connectivity to the payments ecosystem to help the startups fast-track their growth. This is a win-win situation for both Visa and the partner startups,” said Chatterjee.

This is evidenced by the successful partnerships in previous cohorts, such as with Moneytree, a Japan-based startup that joined the program to empower financial institutions with access to wealth, data, and insights. “Collaborating with Visa’s product, design, and sales experts, we jointly solutioned a Minimum Viable Product and rapidly validated market fit utilising Minimal Viable Testing, all within a short span of six months,” explained Paul Chapman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Moneytree.

Another notable partnership Visa built is with TallyKhata, a Bangladesh-based fintech whose goal is to provide small business financing through their merchant platform and data. “The partnership with Visa was very impactful, from the structured approach towards solutioning to client engagement. In six months, we went from a proof-of-concept to a commercially tested product. The access to Visa leadership and product expertise along with client relationships for joint go-to-market helped us establish strong credibility,“ shared Shahadat Khan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TallyKhata.

Spanning across the Asia Pacific, Visa has also partnered with Cymonz, a New Zealand-based startup poised to simplify international payments by facilitating a centralised end-to-end payment service platform. “Overall, the program has been fantastic. The team at Visa has been very committed and instrumental in making the partnership a success and many doors have been opened by Visa, which created commercial opportunities to help us grow our company in the region,” elaborated Simon Lynch, Founder of Cymonz.

Commercial opportunities, funding, and implementation

The Visa Accelerator Program sets startups up for long-term success well beyond the span of the program.

Chatterjee explained, “In the last two cohorts, we secured nine commercial deals with Visa clients and partners in Asia Pacific. We also entered into six partnerships and commercial agreements. This reflects the value that startups bring into the larger payments ecosystem.”

Visa also enabled the growth of startups by investing into open finance solutions, such as with Brankas and Open.

“There are many other ways that Visa engages with startups throughout the journey and the end point doesn’t necessarily have to be a commercial agreement or investment. After six months, the startups have the option of entering into a post-program engagement model, depending on a range of factors including the outcome of its proof of concept test, as well as business requirements at the time,” added Chatterjee.

One such option is the Visa Fintech Fast Track program, which is designed specifically to get fintechs up and running on the network and making payments at speed and to scale into new markets leveraging the company’s expertise and reach.

Key challenges Visa is looking to address in 2023

In the spirit of fostering stronger corporate-startup partnerships to co-develop solutions for emerging challenges in Asia Pacific, Visa is looking for collaborations with fintech startups to address five key areas: Web 3.0, global money movement, embedded finance, merchant and small business enablers, and open banking.

Chatterjee concluded, “We have seen encouraging early successes and expectations are high as we recruit for the third cohort. We want to continue bringing the best startups across the region into Visa’s payments network and partner up to tackle the most promising opportunities facing digital payments today.”

Visa is looking for partnerships to fully realise the program’s commercial focus and benefits: to co-develop, test, iterate solutions, and validate them against a variety of commercial opportunities that Visa has with its partners from across the region, as well as uncover new potential opportunities.

Applications for the Visa Accelerator Program close on 10 January 2023. Learn more about the program and how to register here: https://www.visa.com.sg/apaccelerator

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Photo by Mikhail Nilov via Pexels

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This article is produced by the e27 team, in partnership with Visa.

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

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Sara Faatz is Director (Developer Relations) at Progress. She has spent most of her career in the developer space, building community, producing events, creating marketing programs and more.

With more than 20 years of experience leading corporate and product marketing and community building for organisations that target the developer audience primarily, Faatz has a proven track record of conceptualising and orchestrating campaigns that evolve the brand and positively impact the company’s image and revenue.

Over the years, she has run marketing departments (both large and small), built community programmes from the ground up, created partner programmes, and acted as a brand ambassador and spokesperson for various organisations.

When she’s not working, she likes diving with sharks, running, and watching hockey.

She is a regular contributor of articles for e27 (you can read her thought leadership articles here).

In this candid interview, Faatz talks about her personal and professional life.

How would you explain what you do to a five-year-old?

Explaining Developer Relations to a five-year-old would be challenging; even adults often struggle to wrap their heads around it.

In a nutshell, my team is responsible for so much — content creation (blogs, videos, live-streaming, webinars, etc.), social media, events (producing them as well as speaking at and sponsoring them), community and influencer outreach, as well as being an advocate for the technology, community and product. 

I would break my work down into two areas. First, my company makes tools for people to build all kinds of apps; for a five-year-old, I would liken them to the ones they play with on their phone or computer. 

And the people who work on my team are storytellers and teachers who help people use our tools. They write stories about building cool websites and applications for your computer, phone or table. They make Youtube videos to teach people how to use the tools to make their work easier and faster. They teach classes online and in person so that people building those sites know how to use the tools and how to build the applications and websites best.

Then I would tell them that my team also spends considerable time with people. They have the equivalent of playdates in groups of all sizes with people who also like the same technology. And they are explorers and learners themselves — learning about the technology we use and helping the people building our products and using our products have the best experience.

What has been the biggest highlight/challenge of your career so far?

When the pandemic hit, my team had to pivot quickly and completely modify how they engaged with the community. Before COVID-19, the team spent most time engaging in person. Many of my team members were on the road for 30-50 per cent of their time. Without skipping a beat, we came together to create CodeItLive, our twitch channel.

Also Read: Dream loud, dream big and dream now: Surbhi Agarwal of Yellow.ai

In the first nine months, we live-streamed almost 500 hours of content to more than 25,000 unique viewers and exchanged more than 31,000 chat messages during those streams. Everyone on the team had to learn a new skill. We fostered a spirit of experimentation, fun, creativity, and collaboration that has continued as we enter this new post-pandemic world.

I am incredibly grateful for the people I work with and am always in awe of their expertise, ability and resiliency. The team and the creation of the live-streaming channel and strategy are a highlight of my career so far.

How do you envision the next five years of your career?

I think about this question often.

At Progress, we focus quite a bit on career path planning for ourselves and the people on our teams. What I love about how we think here is that career progression is not like climbing a ladder; rather, it should be more like climbing a wall.

There are many different paths to make you feel the most accomplished. Growth and evolution do not have to mean upward mobility. They can mean learning and mastering a new skill, exploring a new career, or more.

When I think about what that means, I think about what makes me happy and satisfied in my current role. I love the people I work with, my work, and the opportunity to be creative, experiment, and learn.

In five years, I would love to be able to say the same thing about my role. Regardless of the title or what I am responsible for, I will be thrilled if I can continue to say that I am still learning, experimenting and being creative with amazing people.

What are some of your favourite work tools?

StreamYard is one of my favourites; we use it to stream on our Twitch and YouTube channels, but it is also super easy to record videos to share.

I am on video calls most of the day, so a good camera, mic and headset are key. I have a Logitech 920 camera, a Yeti microphone, and a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones.

And then this tool might surprise you the most — a notepad and pen. I love to take notes by hand and make lists. Lots of lists. There is something therapeutic about it.

What’s something about you or your job that would surprise us?

You might be surprised to know that I am a technical diver. The deepest I’ve gone is 220 ft (~67 meters). It is a hobby my husband and I share, and we have loved exploring deeper wrecks worldwide. Our daughter is also a diver, although she is too young to dive to those depths. As a family, we have been able to spend time in the water, and we love seeing sharks of all kinds.

Do you prefer WFH or WFO, or hybrid?

My answer is that it depends on the scenario and what you are trying to achieve.

Flexibility in today’s work environment is key. I have been a remote employee for more than 20 years. Even as a remote team member, I often travel to meet with people in person. Remote or WFH is different today than it was pre-pandemic. It is far more complex than it used to be because there are so many different ways people meet and interact.

That said, some of the general guidelines still hold true. Sometimes, being in person is the best option – long, all-day planning meetings, working sessions, team building, and creative brainstorming sessions. But there are other times when remote meetings are more than sufficient. So I am a proponent of the scenario that will net the best result.

What would you tell your younger self?

So many things. I would first tell my younger self not to try to boil the ocean. This is something I have to remind myself of, even today. Think big and then simplify – break a project or idea down into phases. The more complex a project or idea is, the more difficult it is to execute. You don’t have to do everything at once.

Also Read: What ST Chua is looking forward to at his stint in Ikano Insight

I think I would also tell myself that work-life balance is a dynamic state. It is not always an even split. There will be times when your personal life takes the most of your attention and vice versa. The key is to know when to make that switch.

And I would tell myself that the people I work with and the company I work for are the most important thing in my career. When you think of the benefits of your workplace, the biggest advantage is how you are treated and who you collaborate with daily.

Can you describe yourself in three words?

• Loyal: To the people I love, my friends, family, team, and colleagues.
• Problem-solver: Instead of focusing on the problem, I always look for a solution. They always exist if you look hard enough.
• Optimistic: In my heart, I believe that everything happens for a reason, even if we don’t understand it, and I believe everything will work out in the end.

What are you most likely to be doing if not working?

If I am not working, you will find me in one of two places — on the water or at an ice rink somewhere around the US. I live in Southwest Florida, and we spend a lot of time at the beach, on the water and outside. I love warm weather and sunshine.

I also have a teenage daughter who plays travel ice hockey. While ice hockey is strong and growing in Florida, there aren’t many girls in the southeast who play it. To find any real competition, we travel for tournaments and showcases across the northeastern and mid-western parts of the United States. She is incredibly passionate about and dedicated to the sport. I feel incredibly fortunate to spend so much time with her before she heads off to university in a few years.

What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?

The last two books I read were The Culture Playbook by Daniel Coyle and The Resilience Factor by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté. Both were easy reads and interesting.

I have two fiction books I plan to read – Sara Ackerman’s The Codebreaker’s Secret and Megan Miranda’s Such a Quiet Place. I have been saving those as a reward to myself. Reading is my guilty pleasure.

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I am a woman and a mother – I never thought I’d actually be able to build my career in tech and love every second of it.

It’s never too late to follow your dream

I’ve always loved tech and product design but always doubted that it could be an actual career path for me. As the saying goes, those who can’t do it, teach. So, in 2009, I started my 12-year journey as a tertiary educator in Singapore.

Although I enjoy mentoring new talent and lecturing on what I am passionate about, I couldn’t ignore my gut feeling that I should pursue my dream of being a product and user experience designer, one in which I would be able to influence both physical and digital products while ensuring synergy between all the relevant touchpoints.

To make the career change, I knew I had to go back to school to sharpen my skills, which was something that I was not only willing to do but also excited about!

When you’re a woman with a family and two children to care for, it’s not always easy to make a sudden change like that without endless worry and consideration. After all, what happens if you decide to leave your job and pursue something new, only to find out that it doesn’t work out?

The biggest challenge of my career and the biggest highlight of my life

After a lot of soul-searching and with the support of my family, I decided to go for it. It took me two years to convince myself to leave a comfortable, stable job and pursue something I am passionate about. I finally leapt and made the career switch. 

Also Read: Women in Tech: Female leaders shaking up insurtech in Asia

I put my all into it, and the teacher finally became the student. I went back to school to sharpen my UX skills after over a decade of being a lecturer. While losing financial freedom was tough initially, reskilling was definitely a worthwhile investment.

Five tips for growing your career as a woman in tech

I’ve been working as a UX designer for over three years now, and I’d like to share some tips with other women who are considering pursuing and growing their own careers in tech:

Never be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone to unlearn and relearn

Reskilling and upskilling require humility and determination. In fact, when I decided to pursue a career in UX, I faced rejection many times. It was emotionally painful to go through, but I had to persist in the face of self-doubt.

I kept reminding myself of my end goal: To grow my own career as a UX designer. Following your dream is not an easy journey, but it is definitely worth it when you’re able to do what you love every day. Therefore I have to constantly remind myself to be adaptable to our ever-changing industry needs.

My learning process is ongoing to this day. Currently, I am working on uncovering the data space to immerse myself in more data-driven projects. It is wonderful to work in Thoughtworks because we can attend training sessions run by fellow Thoughtworkers who are experts in various fields. Hence, the learnings we learn from it become more relevant and valuable.

Find a balance between professional growth and personal happiness

I have recently grown my family and am a very proud mother of three amazing children. I am so thankful that I was able to pursue my dream while also finding time to grow my personal happiness. To that, work-life balance is key.

Also Read: Unstoppable pioneers of Web3: 16 women spearheading the change

With hybrid working and great work culture, I am able to approach work differently depending on the nature of my tasks (e.g. team brainstorming vs planning and writing), so I split my time between the office and home.

Your biggest insecurity might just be your biggest advantage

I grew up in an environment where I was a minority. When following my passion in tech, I found myself in classes where I was the only woman or where I was the only one wearing a hijab – but that did not stop me from topping it.

Being a minority has never stopped me from excelling or pursuing what I have always wanted to do. On top of that, it gave me that added energy and rigour that I always brought throughout my journey. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Inspire and mentor others

I still enjoy mentoring. I am still lecturing part-time, which keeps me engaged with the youth and able to continue nurturing them to become bright prospects who are equipped with industry-relevant skills. I’m always happy to share what I have learned throughout my journey and career and impart my knowledge to the curious and eager minds of our future generations.

Learning in this instance is mutual, as I have learnt a great deal working with these great young minds who are very digitally savvy and resourceful, like how they are very adept at harnessing the power of social media to get their work done efficiently, for example.

Champion causes that matter to you

Women in tech face challenges that are quite unique to us – from having the confidence and resources to step into the industry to navigating and growing our careers within this male-dominated playing field.

Therefore, as a woman in tech myself, I get it, and I would do anything I can to uplift and support fellow like-minded and strong women. I am humbled to have been able to share my journey into tech and the importance of adaptability to technology’s ever-changing industry needs. 

The most important work you do is the work you do on yourself. With that, I champion continual and lifelong learning and strongly believe that women can and should follow their dreams. Additionally, I am privileged to have worked on social sector projects in Thoughtworks.

I believe we can greatly leverage data and tech to shape more predictive initiatives and policy decisions to help identify potential issues before they become entangled in larger social issues that require more attention and resolution. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, ‘an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure’.

Today is the day to define your own success story

I used to think that success was just showing up and doing your job well. But what I’ve learned over the years is that success is not just about being good at what you do — it’s also about being able to find happiness while doing it.

The best part of this job is that I get to do something that not only makes me happy every day but also very meaningful — and to me, that is the most important aspect of my career in tech and UX. 

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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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It’s no surprise that video gaming is surging worldwide, especially in Asia that has over 1.48 billion players. Today, gaming is no longer just a hobby. Immersive gaming is now a profession for competitive e-sports organisations and players of all backgrounds. Here are seven trends shaping up the next generation of immersive gaming.

Unreal Engine 5.1

Epic Games released Unreal Engine 5.1—an upgrade to the game engine used by half of all upcoming next-generation video games. It offers hyper-realistic visuals, including templates that allow for the creation of entire cities.

Moreover, Unreal Engine 5 eases the game development process by allowing builders to focus more on fine-tuning the graphics, instead of spending costly hours designing the core infrastructure. Developers can also build with cross-platform compatibility in mind. “Unreal Engine 5 allows developers with faster and easier development with interoperability of assets – it’s possible to make a cross-cooperation of games developed in Unreal Engine 5,” says Rastislav Bakala, CEO of QORPO Game Studio.

Unreal Engine 5’s enhanced tools makes it possible to develop large-scale metaverses. For example, the Matrix Awakens simulation demo packed more than 35,000 realistic walking people in an entire city, demonstrating “a vision for what the future of interactive content could be.” NVIDIA Ominverse is another industry-grade platform supporting digital twins for AI Avatars, which one day aims to become a standard for immersive games.

Also Read: How e-sports is evolving with blockchain gaming

NFT ownership

Today, Web3 game studios are taking the user experience up a notch through redefined player ownership. Essentially, players can create, collect and trade in-game assets as NFTs to truly own them. They are secured by blockchain technology that ensures the transparency of asset ownership and traceability. Players have full control of their ID profiles and in-game items. This is in stark contrast to the existing gaming landscape where game studios can suddenly restrict users from accessing their accounts.

A gamer who spent 5,907 hours on Google Stadia, a now shut down online game service platform, begged Rockstar for a character to be transferred before it became worthless. With NFT ownership in play, gamers can avoid these types of situations by truly owning their assets secured on non-custodial accounts, as opposed to virtual items controlled by the game developer.

While gaming behemoths Ubisoft and Square Enix have embraced NFT technology, others such as Steam have outright banned games that have NFTs. Still, NFT ownership stands to democratise what it means for players to truly own their game assets.

Cross-platform portability

Siloed platforms often place heavy limitations on what players can do within the game. To fix this, a cross-platform open ecosystem allows players to use the same NFTs across multiple games. A player can obtain a weapon in one game, and use the same gun across another shooter game. The concept also applies to achievement badges or player rankings.

Such portability is essential for a fluid cross-platform gaming experience, wherein players can utilise their valuable assets in many games and metaverses. NFTs use smart contracts to make asset portability possible at scale with greater transparency.

Also Read: A Founder’s journey from sewing machines to blockchain gaming

Titles supporting cross-platform NFT interoperability include games ranked in the People’s Choice Award, notably Illuvium, Star Atlas and Citizen Conflict. Cross-platform games seek to enhance the usability of NFTs by reducing friction and unlocking new modes of player interaction.

Asset monetisation

NFT monetisation and game sales peaked at US$5.17 billion in 2021. The motivations behind this stem from the problems in traditional gaming, as Bakala summarises: “There is no way for users to sell these assets for real money, in fact, users are basically funding a black hole. That’s an abuse of the free-to-play system by the developer. This should be the main standpoint of every game studio that wants to sell something – provide ownership of these assets to their holders.”

Ownership and monetisation of game items are not limited to weapons. QORPO Game Studio, the team behind the free-to-play metaverse shooter game Citizen Conflict, allows players to own and even monetise large-scale maps.

QORPO’s team experience working on titles at Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Ubisoft and Riot Games inspired the concept of empowering players to own, customise and monetise items in a transparent environment. Users now contribute directly to the game’s evolution, while capturing monetisation opportunities in a fair system.

NFT marketplaces

Roblox has 59.9 million daily active users, with 25 per cent of the game’s estimated revenue coming from the Roblox Marketplace. For Web3, the use of NFTs creates an ocean of opportunities for players to directly buy, sell and trade in-game items. This drives more liquidity of available game content, a heightened sense of scarcity and player-driven initiatives that enriches the game’s overall ecosystem.

Players can easily monetise their assets and even profiles on secondary NFT marketplaces. This means that users are no longer restricted to the game’s primary marketplace, which can have unattractive user policies. Content creators and publishers can launch their own digital collections and set royalty fees that generate revenue streams for the seller.

Also Read: What does blockchain gaming need to succeed in the long haul?

NFT marketplaces like QORPO Market also serve as a discovery platform for collectors to find rare digital game items. Avid collectors who don’t necessarily play games can still participate by trading NFTs, to support fellow users seeking to buy or sell game items.

The Sandbox, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, has generated more than US$530 million in NFT trading volume, a strong signal on how NFT marketplaces can benefit gaming ecosystems.

Community DAOs

Decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) are one of the most intriguing innovations in Web3. Any ecosystem, whether centralised or decentralised, requires a governing body if it’s going to be less chaotic.

DAO members have voting rights on important game decisions – from modifying the player rules to deciding on the project’s future roadmap. “DAO puts a vote on whether members want this update added to the game, and members vote. Once the guild voting ends, there is a verdict. Whether the vote passes or not, the decision was made by anonymous users, fully transparent, written on the blockchain, and managed by a smart contract,” says Bakala.

Play and Earn games with crypto and NFT rewards such as Decentraland have adopted the DAO contribution system as its decision-making system. In Citizen Conflict, users participate in the Citadel DAO to vote on the game’s aesthetics, marketing possibilities, or the future direction of the game.

Social metaverse

Gaming communities are bringing their experiences to the SocialFi Metaverse. Here, players can form common rooms to share moments, just like they would in real life events, but now in meta-virtual environments that blend digital gaming with real people.

It is laying out new possibilities on how gamers engage with vibrant communities, and explore what it means to be part of a borderless network of players. An example is a hybrid e-sports experience that rewards fans who attend the tournament both in real life, and through the online e-sports metaverse streaming platform.

Also Read: Why the Web3-enabled gaming world still has hope

Web3 profiles ensure that players have a digital identity in the metaverse. The player’s reputation and achievements for instance are tracked autonomously via smart contracts. Thus, Web3 identities such as Citizen ID in Citizen Conflict improves the quality of players by weeding out cheaters, and promotes transparency for the entire community.

Immersive gaming is poised to take an alternative trajectory in the years to come, in tandem with Web3 enhancements. These are just a handful of gaming trends driving fundamental change – with more coming to fruition.

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The content was first published by The Human & Machine.

Image Credit: The Human & Machine

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HD, a Bangkok-headquartered startup operating the healthcare and surgery marketplace HDmall in Thailand and Indonesia, has received US$6 million in new funding

Partech Partners, M Venture Partners, AC Ventures, iSeed, and Orvel Ventures invested in the round.

The company plans to use the funding to expand its team and develop its technology, enabling over 5,000 healthcare providers, 300 operating rooms, and thousands of surgeries by 2024.

HD is an online marketplace that powers over 1,500 healthcare providers, including hospitals. It connects patients to hospitals, clinics, operating rooms, and surgeons while offering healthcare financing solutions to increase access to affordable care and surgeries. Over 250,000 patients have used the platform.

In November 2022, the startup launched HDcare, an elective surgery product for healthcare providers to increase the utilisation of the operating room capacities of hospitals and clinics. Dubbed the ‘Airbnb for Surgeries’ solution, HDcare enables HD to help healthcare providers and patients.

Also Read: Big Data is like teenage sex! Here’s how not to be so bad at it

A portion of the newly raised funds will be used to accelerate HDcare.

On average, the company claims, patients getting surgeries such as thyroid, haemorrhoid, and orthopaedic surgery can enjoy 15-20 per cent better pricing versus market rates in addition to getting healthcare financing options.

For those with insurance or employer coverage, the HDcare team often helps patients navigate complex and stressful reimbursement processes.

Sheji Ho, CEO and Co-Founder of HD, said: “As we put the pandemic behind us, our investors and us see a once-in-a-lifetime supply-driven opportunity in HDcare that is very similar to how companies like Airbnb, Uber, and Groupon leveraged supply and emerged from the 2008 Financial Crisis.”

HD is also one of ten startups recently accepted into the Google for Startups Accelerator: Southeast Asia programme.

According to a recent article by The Lancet, as much as 28-32 per cent of the global disease burden can be attributed to surgically treatable conditions, with the most significant bottleneck being unable to access surgeries without catastrophic expenditure.

Unfortunately, as of today, 91 per cent of people in Southeast Asia aren’t able to access or afford surgeries compared to 52 per cent for high-income Asia Pacific.

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In the weeks leading up to the current funding winter, the startup ecosystem was troubled by many issues, such as layoffs, lengthier funding rounds and risk aversion among investors.

Thus far, criticism has largely focussed on startup founders and their unsustainable business models, prioritising rapid growth over profitability, and incurring high cash burn.

While there is merit in that argument, we all agree that the current climate for venture-backed fundraising seems muted. Many VC firms around the region are adopting a wait-and-see mentality as exit via the public markets becomes less viable.

The result? Startups are facing challenges in getting fresh funding; many are close to the end of the runway. This means that we can expect a pick up of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities as startup founders will look to exit when there is a lack of cash flow.

Who do you go to in such a scenario?

Usually, people will opt for investment banks, but have you ever wondered why? These organisations are usually hired as financial advisors to large corporates or institutions to execute M&A.

After all, they bring a set of highly specialised skill sets ranging from deal negotiation to investor relations to corporate finance expertise to get the deal done. Therefore, they are valuable advisors as M&A transactions are major events in any corporation and issues close to the startup founder’s mind.

On the other hand, we recommend CFO consultants as they position themselves as in-house corporate development functions within an organisation. These consultants either provide functional support to the CFO or act as the interim CFO to the organisation if there is a lack of one. In the context of an M&A transaction, they share the same objective, have similar expertise, and are equally vested in the firm’s success.

Also Read: The secret sauce of de-risking early-stage venture capital

With similar profiles, the next question would be: what should a CEO think about before engaging with these advisors?

Fee structure incentives

First, a CEO must understand that a large portion of an investment bank’s fee structure is contingent-based. This means that these fees are only earned upon successful deal completion.

As a result, an investment bank is motivated to do all it can to close the transaction. This structure tends to encourage the investment bank’s full commitment to seal the deal.

However, on the downside, an investment bank might be biased toward providing advice leading to deal closure and hesitate to call out points that would stall the deal. This translates to the relationship tending to be transactional, as they will immediately move from one deal to the next.

Conversely, a CFO consultant is compensated on a retainer basis. This could be a fixed fee that is decided upfront or based on the amount of time spent on the project. Without the need for the deal to be completed, a CFO consultant can provide a more objective view of things and is unafraid of pulling the brakes on a potentially sour transaction.

Furthermore, this allows the CFO consultant to be brought in at a much earlier stage of the process (i.e. two-three years prior) to properly plan for the exit ahead.

Depth of relationship with the client

To a large degree, an investment bank is akin to a special forces team. Whenever an emergency happens, they are called upon to solve the problem before moving on to the next one. Thus, the investment bank only appears whenever a major corporate event happens and leaves once the deal is done.

On the other hand, a CFO consultant partners with the client along the journey. They are constantly in contact with the client, whether in the midst of a crisis or on a day-to-day basis, providing advice along the way. This allows the CFO consultant to build an appreciation of the business and a deeper relationship with the key stakeholders in the organisation.

Level of understanding of the business

The strength of an investment bank lies in its expertise in running the M&A transaction process. Oftentimes, they require a high-level, strategic understanding of the business and financials before executing the deal. Therefore, they might not fully appreciate the business and only prioritise the items that directly lead to deal completion.

Also Read: Why venture capital is going big with cloud mining

For CFO consultants working with the client in the long haul, they have a complete context of the development of the business over time and have closer contact with the staff on the ground. This translates to a more comprehensive view of the business and the intricacies underlying them.

A suite of services

The range of services an investment bank provides will depend on the size of the firm. A full-suite bank can provide a wider range of services, such as corporate banking, treasury, or structured finance services. A boutique investment bank, however, can only provide financial advisory services. All these are targeted towards serving the financing needs of an organisation and supplementary advice on it.

CFO consultants’ value proposition lies in their skill set in the finance function. They are well-versed in any expertise that a typical finance team requires, such as accounting, due diligence and automation technology. Therefore, CFO consultants are more positioned towards getting the finance function to a standard rather than simply serving an organisation’s financing needs.

Ultimately, an investment bank and a CFO consultant are not mutually exclusive. Each serves different purposes, and the CEO should consider their options by comparing the organisation’s needs with the intended strategic objective.

It is often overlooked that CFO consultants provide personalised services and strategies to organisations compared to investment banks. Hence, it is important for startup founders to understand that CFO consultants are more suited as long-term partners to the management. At the same time, an investment bank is better called upon whenever the need arises.

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Vietnamese tech major VNG’s valuation slashed to US$364M
VNG was the country’s first tech unicorn and was once reportedly valued at US$2.2B; VNG shares will be traded on the Unlisted Public Company Market, which is the board for firms not yet listed on the Hanoi Stock Exchange.

GIC was the world’s most active state investor in 2022
The US$690B fund of Singapore spent over US$39B in 72 deals; Over half of that was piled into real estate with a clear bias towards logistics properties.

Indonesia’s multi-brand kitchen operator Legit Group raises US$9M+
The investors are MDI Ventures, SMDV, and East Ventures; The recent filings indicate that the company could raise an additional amount of up to US$4.65M in the round.

Major US-listed Chinese tech firms drop HK listing plans
Pinduoduo has delayed discussions about a potential listing in Hong Kong; While Full Truck Alliance, a Chinese truck-hailing platform, has also dropped its original plan to list shares in Hong Kong in January.

GIC, Saudi wealth fund to invest US$785M in Kakao Entertainment
The subsidiary of South Korean internet company Kakao plans to use the money to accelerate its growth as the company prepares for its upcoming IPO this year.

Bahamas takes temporary control of US$3.5B FTX assets
FTX’s assets were transferred to digital wallets under the Commission’s control for safekeeping until the Supreme Court of the Bahamas directs the Commission to return the assets to FTX customers and creditors.

Alternative plastic startup Alterpacks raises US$1M pre-seed money
The investors are Plug and Play APAC, SEEDS Capital, and Earth Venture Capital; Alterpacks upcycles food loss in manufacturing to create a biodegradable and home-compostable material to replace plastic food containers.

From ‘crypto winter’ to ‘ice age’? What does 2023 hold for digital assets
According to Alex Au, founder of HK’s Alphalex Capital, most investors will wait out the downturn, storing their digital assets in a ‘cold wallet’, a digital wallet that is not connected to the internet, to prevent hacking.

What startup founders don’t know about exit strategies
Startups are facing challenges in getting fresh funding; many of them are close to the runway; This means that we can expect a pick up of M&A activities as founders will look to exit when there is a lack of cash flow.

How to put CX at the heart of digital acceleration journey
Simply automating backend processes is no longer enough for companies to truly fulfil their digital potential; Customers are becoming more tech-savvy, and with a better understanding of technology comes less tolerance for poor CX or UX.

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