The agricultural industry sits in a particularly delicate position in the conversation on sustainability — being crucially important as it provides mankind with the means for survival while also being a core contributor to the climate issue. In a recent Earth System Science Data study, it was estimated that agriculture contributes to roughly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.

With this revelation, organisations and nations active in agriculture are looking to innovate, using bleeding-edge technology as a key driver to achieve sustainability goals. At the forefront of this shift stands the Brazilian cotton industry. It provides an exciting showcase for the role that technology can play in finding innovative solutions in a sector where sustainability is crucial.

Cotton — Traditional industry, modern problems

As with many other agricultural goods, cotton faced a global supply chain crisis in 2022. According to McKinsey’s fashion industry report, businesses in Asia especially felt this sting, with many citing material shortages as a key disruptor.

Creating a sustainable cotton supply while facing ever-increasing demand proves a daunting challenge. This is especially true in the case of Brazil: the world’s second-largest exporter of cotton.

Brazil’s cotton industry has experienced explosive growth, increasing its exports by 15 times in the last two decades alone. Despite this heavy expansion, the Brazilian cotton industry has established itself with a firm focus on sustainability. It is now the world’s largest producer of sustainable cotton, with at least 84 per cent of total production certified by the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), an internationally recognised non-profit group.

Also Read: How companies can pursue tech-led sustainability in APAC

To achieve these accolades, Brazil has fostered transparency across all nodes in the cotton supply chain. This comes with a firm understanding that sustainability can only be ensured when there is accountability and proper backing by scientific data. By recognising this key pain point, Brazil is continuously innovating and deploying technological solutions to address this age-old issue.

Tech-powered transparency

As with all industries, transparency is driven by accurate and readily available information. In Brazil, this translates to the traceability of cotton bales from start to finish. The nation has employed the use of QR codes and barcode systems to track cotton bales and provide easy access to crucial information. This would include information like the bale’s field of origin, sustainability certifications and in-depth quality details just to name a few.

The use of technology for traceability was especially highlighted this year. In 2022, the Sou de Algodão (which means “I’m made of cotton”) movement launched the SouABR (ABR being the Brazilian acronym for Brazilian Responsible Cotton) programme.

This was the first large-scale tech-driven traceability initiative in Brazil’s textile chain and was designed to offer all members of the supply chain transparency and to encourage more sustainable choices from consumers.

The SouABR programme heavily utilises the latest in blockchain technology to record, track and store immutable data on cotton. This data can provide information on the fibre’s origin and the production processes of each item all the way down to the end consumer. Furthermore, this data will communicate that the cotton has ABR social and environmental certification, which acts as an endorsement that the product adheres to the highest standards of sustainable cotton.

Additionally, users on all levels of the supply chain will soon be able to access information like this through the Brazilian Cotton Growers Association (ABRAPA) smart app, set to launch in the near future. The app enables bale-by-bale tracking via bar code and QR code, offering full transparency of Brazilian cotton from farm to port to cotton growers, textile industries, traders, and retail brands worldwide.

A brighter future for all to see

We can only begin tackling the issues of agriculture’s damaging effects on the environment once we can track and assess all the processes which contribute to them. Using the Brazilian cotton industry as a role model, we can see that the implementation of tracing technology has provided invaluable and widely visible insight into sustainability.

The digitisation of information makes it easily accessible and auditable — which ensures efficiency, reliability, and sustainability at all stages of the supply chain. With the more widespread adoption of innovative tracing technology across agriculture, the sector can reinforce accountability and take responsibility for the sustainability of not only the human population but the planet.

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Startups disrupt traditional business landscapes, so when the landscape for startups itself faces disruption, you can expect consternation and caution to abound.

As reported by startup ecosystem market intelligence platform CB Insights, 2021 was a remarkable year for global venture capital investment, with deal values doubling over the previous year as investors poured money into some of the world’s most innovative startups.

But like all periods of rapid growth, this level of investment can’t be sustained indefinitely, so this year, we have seen a contraction in both deal volumes and values.

CB Insights data also shows as of Q3 of this year, global venture funding reached US$329.2 billion, with a projection to hit US$438.9 billion by the end of 2022. This means we could see an approximate 30 per cent decline in value compared to the US$630.3 billion invested globally in 2021.

These declining numbers have caused concern among startups across the Asia Pacific region. However, there are strong reasons to believe that this situation, widely referred to as venture capital or ‘tech winter’, is something that many startups will be able to weather.

Weathering the tech winter

While the overall numbers are down compared to a year ago, they show that significant volumes of venture capital are still being invested – numbers that would have seemed unlikely just a few years ago.

For instance, total global funding in 2020 reached US$298.2 billion, and this year’s figures have already surpassed that amount. Furthermore, CB Insights also reports that 66 per cent of overall deals year-to-date have happened at early-stage, which should give new founders confidence that funding for fresh, innovative ideas is still available.

Running a startup in any economic climate isn’t easy, and at Amazon Web Services (AWS), we are committed to supporting startups to optimally run a business in the cloud.

Also Read: How blockchain companies are surviving the bear market

For startups at the earliest stages, our AWS Activate programme offers numerous benefits to help founders get up and running quickly and efficiently, such as by providing technical support and training, business mentorship, and the option to apply for cloud computing credits. Through this support, startups can use the credits to obtain one or more of the 200+ cloud services AWS offers while they are navigating the early critical steps of proving their concept and testing product-market fit.

Since launching Activate in 2013, we have seen hundreds of thousands of startups around the world benefit, including Carsome, The Lorry, and Zagana in Southeast Asia. In just the past two years, AWS has provided more than US$2 billion in AWS Activate credits to assist early-stage startups in launching their businesses and accelerating their growth.

Optimising spending

There’s no doubt that in times like these, investors are apt to focus on the fundamentals, with an emphasis on revenue rather than growth and an accompanying desire to see costs streamlined and more conservatively managed.

Some of the highest costs a startup takes on when starting out include people, marketing, and the cloud infrastructure the business is built on, so we encourage founders to assess if they are using cloud services in the most efficient way.

We take active steps to help startups building on AWS to save money on their cloud expenses. This includes regular reviews to ensure that our customers are using the most cost-effective pricing models and aren’t using more services than they actually need.

One of the services we offer is our Trusted Advisor online tool, which helps startup customers reduce costs, increase performance, and improve security by checking their use of AWS and making suggestions to help optimise performance. Initiatives such as these have helped our customers save up to 40 per cent on their cloud costs.

While it may seem counterintuitive, our team is actually tasked with reducing our customers’ cloud bills. An example is Indian AI-based data solutions startup iMerit Technology, whose revenue growth has nearly doubled every year for the past five years.

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

To ensure they’re managing their tech costs as they scale, iMerit has taken advantage of AWS’s Cloud Financial Management support to dive deep into their cloud spend analysis, uncover opportunities to run more efficiently, and right-size their service usage. Through a variety of cost optimisation exercises, the startup has reduced its cloud spending by about 20 per cent per month.

Building capabilities and community for lifetime success

Heightened motivation to save on costs does not mean that startups should forgo their ambitions for growth and learning. Upskilling is as critical now as it’s ever been, which is why we work closely with our startup customers to help them equip their teams with the most in-demand digital skills.

AWS Skill Builder, for example, offers more than 500 free courses to enable learners to build their cloud skills and knowledge, which fosters a growth-oriented culture primed to operate at the pace of innovation that startups are known for.

We also work closely with startup customers to help ensure their people and processes are optimised for success. One way we do this is by sharing knowledge of Amazon’s own culture and processes – something we call our Culture of Innovation.

We often talk about “every day being day one” at Amazon, and this gives us a unique appreciation of the challenges and opportunities that startups face and has enabled us to consistently anticipate and deliver for their needs.

An example of how Amazon’s cultural guidance has supported one of our startup customers is Vietnam’s Bizzi, an AI-powered accounts payable automation company that secured its seed funding in late 2021 and has doubled its team size year on year for almost three years running.

A “people first” startup that’s mindful of setting strong cultural foundations from the start, Bizzi have adopted a version of Amazon’s “two pizza team” methodology, which limits the number of staffers on any given project, ensuring teams remain fast and agile and empowered to bring new and innovative products and features to the market.

Our dedication to understanding the needs of customers and working backwards to fulfil them has helped AWS uncover numerous opportunities to build new revenue-generating services. This approach has helped AWS become the innovative and multifaceted organisation we are today, and it is something we are happy to share with many of our startup customers.

Stay focused on ideas and opportunities

So, despite the concern and conservatism in the ecosystem right now, we are still confident that this is a great time to launch and grow a startup. While no one has a crystal ball to see what challenges lay ahead of us, there continues to be an opportunity for entrepreneurs with great ideas to obtain funding.

AWS remains committed to supporting our startup customers to continue to innovate and solve the world’s biggest problems, and we are excited to see what big ideas come out of these unique times.

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The workplace is constantly evolving, and so must companies to stay competitive and attract and retain their workforce. Now more than ever, businesses and organisations are evaluating how their employees want to work, with people working in more and more places outside the traditional office.

In APAC, 62 per cent of employees say they are less inclined to quit their jobs because they are free to practice hybrid work. They have improved work-life balance, are less stressed, and more likely to build better relationships with their colleagues.

The only problem is that three out of four employees believe that their companies are not equipped for the future of hybrid work in the long run due to the lack of support in terms of company culture and access to technology and collaborative platforms.

Successful companies will adapt the office to provide environments for tasks and activities that cannot be done at home, and very successful companies will be those that shape those workspaces to enhance company culture, improve team cohesiveness and offer the workplace experience lacking when working remotely.

The office reimagined

With hybrid working arrangements, the reasons why an employee comes into a physical office change and the role of the office will need to be optimised to accommodate new working patterns and maximise the use of space available.

Businesses have the opportunity to significantly reduce the number of individual workstations and instead assign “neighbourhoods” that are customised to the needs of each team, offering formal and informal areas to encourage creative discussions and dialogues. Adding different colour schemes and team-related pinboards can enhance an employee’s sense of belonging without the need for a permanent workstation.

Also Read: How to make remote work more seamless and less distributed

The home office

Creating a sustainable home workspace relies on understanding what types of work are best performed when working remotely and constructing an environment to best support those tasks.

Companies implementing a long-term work-from-home regime should assess the ergonomic risks of their employee’s home workspaces. This includes equipment such as an office chair, one of the most important tools an employee will use.

Choosing intuitive designs with easy-to-use features becomes paramount in ensuring employee safety and comfort at home or at the office. That is why at Flokk, we believe that everyone deserves to be healthy, happy and productive whilst at work, which is why we offer a wide range of stylish, sustainable and, above all, comfortable seating perfect for every working environment.

The hub

With the freedom of hybrid work still preferred, going to the office full-time is definitely not the first choice. But this is where collaborative work happens, and niche co-working spaces that meet the various needs of companies and employees are key to that.

The wide availability of co-working spaces that offer flexible leases with short-term or daily workstations allows organisations to reduce costs and be able to hire employees from all over the world. And at the same time, it can provide employees access to collaboration tools within their local vicinity.

The new workspace ecosystem currently taking shape is a big challenge for organisations when it comes to reimagining their workspace designs, but it should also be treated as a golden opportunity to reap the benefits presented by a more flexible way of working.

Focused on user-first and inclusive designs for the workplace and home, Flokk continues to serve as a total furniture solutions provider in Asia with 50 per cent annual growth from 2020 to 2022. The company offers a wide range of flexible and sustainable furniture solutions that are designed to improve the well-being and performance of its users based on comprehensive insight into the needs and work of real people.

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Profet AI, a Taiwanese artificial intelligence startup that boosts operational efficiency for electronics, textile, semiconductor, and chemical manufacturers, has closed its Series A round of US$5.6 million.

Darwin Ventures led the round, with participation from Hive Ventures, AUO, SVTI, Harbinger VC, and Jensen Capital Management.

The startup will use the funds to expand into Japan, Southeast Asia, and China, besides accelerating new product development.

Founded in 2018, Profet AI provides auto machine learning solutions for semiconductor, electronics, chemicals and textile manufacturers.

It offers two solutions:

• AutoML Virtual Data Scientist Platform: a no-code development programme powered by its AutoML engine that enables users to rapidly design and develop enterprise AI applications for their everyday processes
• Ready To Go Applications: a library of tried and tested, industry-specific “Plug & Play” AI applications ready to be deployed and hyper-scaled in any public cloud or on-premises environment.

“Profet AI is designed for rapid model development and deployment to deliver instant time to value for enterprises worldwide. We will be looking at establishing joint ventures with strong partners in overseas markets to ensure the right product-market fit for each location. We look forward to supporting more companies in leveraging the power of machine learning in the coming year,” said Jerry Huang, Co-Founder and CEO of Profet AI.

Since its establishment, Profet AI has accumulated more than 100 customers across 12 major industries. The clients include ASE Inc., Qisda Corporation, Everest Textile, WUS Printed Circuit, Symbio Inc., AUO, and Cheng Shin Rubber in achieving AI-empowered core manufacturing competitiveness.

Per a statement, Profet AI doubled its revenue in 2022, demonstrating strong growth with a capital efficiency ratio of over 1:1. 

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SG startup pioneer Sim Wong Hoo dies aged 67
He was the CEO and chairperson of Creative Technology, an audio and video equipment manufacturing major based in Singapore; Sim was one of the city-state’s most well-known tech and startup pioneers.

FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to fraud, laundering
The FTX founder faced and pleaded not guilty to eight different criminal charges, including money laundering conspiracy, securities fraud, and wire fraud.

Animoca targets US$1B fund for Web3, metaverse
It aims to raise the fund in Q1 2023; Last October, its co-founder Yat Siu told Nikkei Asia that Animoca was looking to launch a US$2B fund specifically for the metaverse industry.

Indonesia plans national crypto exchange this year
The country’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency has been overseeing crypto trading to date; There’re currently over 25 licensed crypto trading firms in Indonesia, and the agency has been tightening regulations on them.

Crypto firm Huobi eyes 100M users in 2023
On December 28, company advisor Justin Sun tweeted that Huobi has been experiencing “impressive growth,” attracting an average of 20,000 new users per day over the previous 60 days.

Amazon and Salesforce to cut 25,000 staff in total
Both companies admitted that past aggressive hiring strategies and the current economic downturn were among the main factors leading to the layoffs.

SG-based e-grocery platform UglyFood to shut down
UglyFood sells excess “ugly” fruits and vegetables, its own branded products, and sustainably sourced goods; According to Crunchbase, the company previously raised US$120K in a pre-seed round.

Ant Group gets OK from regulators for US$1.5B raise
The approval comes as analysts predict a return of Ant’s IPO plans, following an entity owned by the firm winning rights for a plot of land in Shanghai.

Japan’s GMO VenturePartners sees US$240M in capital gains from 3 bets
A substantial amount was gained from fintech firms Coda Payments and GMO PaymentGateway Singapore, with contributions from 2C2P; Its portfolio firms also include FinAccel and Razorpay.

Northstar Group hits first close of early-stage fund at US$90M
Northstar Ventures I will make early-stage investments in consumer internet, fintech, and enterprise software, primarily in Indonesia; It targets to hit the final close at US$150M.

VNG sees no transactions yet on first day of trading
About 35.8M shares of VNG – the country’s first tech unicorn – started trading on Thursday in Vietnam’s Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) under the ticker symbol VNZ.

Tesla faces US$2.2M fine in S Korea for overstating driving range
The Korea Fair Trade Commission said the company didn’t let consumers know about its vehicles’ shorter range in cold weather; In lower temperatures, cars’ driving range can get 50.5% worse than what it advertises.

HD, the Airbnb for surgeries in SEA, secures US$6M funding
The investors include Partech Partners, M Venture Partners, and Orvel Ventures; HD will use the funding to expand its team and develop its technology, enabling over 5K healthcare providers and thousands of surgeries by 2024.

Darwin Ventures leads US$5.6M Series A of Profet AI
Profet AI uses artificial intelligence to boost operational efficiency for electronics, textile, semiconductor, and chemical manufacturers; It offers two products: AutoML and ready-to-go applications.

Evo Commerce, parent of D2C anti-hangover solution BounceBack, nets US$2M
The investors include 33 Capital, East Ventures, and co-founders of Wallex, BrideStory, and Rainforest; Singapore-based Evo commerce will use the funds for global expansion and strengthening its e-commerce and online channels.

Bio-degradable food container startup Alterpacks raises US$1M
The investors include Plug and Play APAC, SEEDS Capital, and Earth Venture Capital; Alterpacks is also creating bio-pellets to replace petroleum-based resins used in standard manufacturing machines today.

Indonesian media startup Bingkai Karya gets pre-seed funding round
The investors include an unnamed local corporation and a non-government organisation; Bingkai Karya is a podcast network and news portal that targets younger audiences.

SG startup community pays tribute to Sim Wong Hoo
Known as “the grandfather of Singapore tech,” Hoo was a pioneer in the space and led the city-state to its first listing on the Nasdaq; He was also known for coining the term No U-Turn Syndrome, or NUTS.

Ex-Ovo execs’ B2B insurtech firm Aigis pivots to project management, lending
The new platform Finnix offers a dashboard where creative entrepreneurs can track projects, make payments, and manage their budget and cash flow; The decision was made after the company saw unsatisfactory growth in insurtech.

MAS awards major payment institution license to PayerMax unit
PayerMax can now offer cross-border and domestic money transfers as well as merchant acquisition services in Singapore; PayerMax supports over 350 local payment methods across SEA, S Asia, LatAm, and the MENA.

Ex-aCommerce execs are building an ‘Amazon’ for healthcare in SEA
HD connects patients to hospitals, clinics, operating rooms, and surgeons while offering healthcare financing solutions to increase access to affordable care.

What companies can do to stay agile in the future of work
The new workspace ecosystem is a big challenge but should also be treated as an opportunity to reap the benefits of a more flexible working method.

How to scale talent in Southeast Asia during unprecedented times
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.

How to support startups to survive the ‘tech winter’
There are strong reasons to believe that ‘tech winter’ is something that many startups will be able to weather.

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Indonesia-based manufacturing hub platform Imajin has been reported to have raised a seed funding round from a number of investors, including Init-6. The venture capital firm, which was founded by Bukalapak co-founder Achmad Zaky, was a single investor in the startup’s pre-seed funding round.

According to the data reported to the regulator, this funding also included the participation of a number of investors, including East Ventures, 500 Southeast Asia (Fund III), Kao Kele Pte. Ltd., Jessica Hendrawidjaja (Shipper CMO), and Tsuda Yumi.

Imajin Co-Founder and CEO Chendy Jaya declined to comment on the funding when being contacted by DailySocial.

Founded by Chendy Jaya, Imajin is a platform that connected local manufacturers with potential customers. By July 2022, the startup has secured more than 400 local factory partners and 80 customers, including Japanese companies operating in Indonesia. Imajin also facilitated project financing for business owners with limited resources and provides a marketplace to supply raw materials.

In 2020, Imajin was appointed by the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) as the national manufacturing hub. A year later, it was selected as one of the participants of the Startup Studio Indonesia accelerator programme held by the Ministry of Communications and Informatics (Kemenkominfo).

Also Read: Growthwell Foods raises US$22M Series A to manufacture plant-based meat, seafood for F&B businesses

Expansion

Imajin has previously been reported to plan to expand its business to Java Overland and Batam. The company also considered expanding internationally to Japan to support local businesses, especially those in the automotive industry. It also aimed to accelerate the digitalisation of the manufacturing industry through new product development.

On the other hand, this market expansion was also meant to support the increase of local components included in products manufactured in Indonesia, which is regulated at a minimum of 35 per cent. It is projected to gradually increase to 80 per cent by 2026, especially for electric vehicles.

Apart from Imajin, other Indonesian startups that are working in the manufacturing industry are Manuva, which had recently rebranded from its original name of Tjetak. Manuva focuses on digitalising the manufacturing process in the Indonesian packaging, electrical, and garment industries.

The company believes that Indonesian MSMEs have the potentials to grow rapidly as the country is one of the biggest manufacturers in the world.

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

It was updated on January 6 to include confirmation by the company on the final amount of the investment.

Image Credit: Imajin

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Sim Wong Hoo, Singapore’s technology pioneer and Chairman and CEO of Creative Technology, passed away on Wednesday.

He was 67.

Wong Hoo founded Creative in 1981 and has played crucial role in developing the business.

Creative started with the vision that multimedia would revolutionise how people interact with their PCs. It is now famous for its Sound Blaster sound cards. It drives digital entertainment with cutting-edge audio solutions, premium wireless speakers, high-performance earphone products and portable media devices.

Since launching Sound Blaster, Creative has leveraged its leading-edge audio technology, a huge user base of 400 million, and strong brand name to expand into the exciting lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment (PDE) market.

Today, Creative sells Sound BlasterAxx audio enhancement devices and solutions, Creative D5xm Signature Series of modular Bluetooth wireless speakers, Aurvana premium headsets, Sound Blaster wireless gaming headsets, and cross-platform Sound Blaster Recon3D for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC or Mac.

Creative’s global corporate headquarters is located in Singapore, and it has business units in the US (Milpitas, California), Europe (Dublin, Ireland) and Asia (Singapore).

In 1992, Creative became the first Singaporean company to list shares on the Nasdaq. Two years later, the firm listed its shares on the main board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Six years, Wong Hoo became the city-state’s youngest billionaire.

In 2006, he sued Apple for patent infringements over the iPod. The US tech giant later settled the lawsuit by paying him US$100 million and licensing his patent.

Following Wong Hoo’s demise, the Creative Technology board has appointed Song Siow Hui, President of the Creative Labs Business Unit, as interim CEO.

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The Asia Pacific is home to a bustling business landscape. They say that a rising tide lifts all ships; however, because of its vibrant ecosystem and strong pool of diverse and competitive businesses, startups from the region may have a hard time staying relevant amidst cutthroat competition.

This challenge is even more pertinent for the burgeoning e-commerce industry. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a dramatic increase in e-commerce engagement across the globe. There is a catch, though. Because of the industry’s success, the number of competitors has also ballooned drastically. As of 2022, there are reportedly 51,300 e-commerce sites in Vietnam, 41,200 in Malaysia, and 29,500 in Singapore — the most it has ever been.

With such an oversaturated market, customer retention is becoming more crucial than ever for business survival and scalability. But how do companies stand out in cutthroat environments where thousands of sellers are fighting for customer attention?

One company which has pioneered ways to boost customer retention among Southeast Asian startups is CleverTap, a customer engagement and retention platform that provides the functionality to integrate app analytics and marketing. CleverTap, in collaboration with e27, is spearheading a six-month long roadshow titled ‘The Big Leap’. For the  Singapore leg of the roadshow, the partnership brought together a panel of industry leaders to discuss Retention Playbook: Bringing retention best practices across SEA, where they explored the importance of monetisation for startups and ways to achieve that by utilising opportunities in the post-pandemic digital environment with a keen focus on customer retention.

CleverTap has six regional offices all around the globe and a solid presence in APAC. The company helps build amazing user experiences for the world’s leading digital-first brands with their smart, all-in-one platform that combines the best analytics, segmentation, and engagement tools so that businesses can build valuable, long-term relationships with their customers. This makes CleverTap the perfect institution to pioneer efforts anchored on helping businesses retain customers.

Also Read: Success is a moving target: CleverTap Co-founder Anand Jain

How CleverTap makes a difference

With the volatile state of the pandemic, the global economy is not entirely crisis-free. The future looks uncertain and risky due to disrupted supply chains caused by wars, political unrest across different nations, trade conflicts, inflation, and an impending recession. As such, there has been a dramatic decline in global funding, reaching US$74.5 billion in the third quarter of 2022, hitting a nine-quarter low. In order to weather such economic blows, businesses must come up with creative ways not only to capture customer attention, but to retain them.

This is the onus behind The Big Leap’s Singapore leg: To help digital-first brands in the region stand out, capture customer attention, and engage and retain them. Trusted by 10,000+ mobile businesses, CleverTap has proven to be a global leader in helping organisations engage and retain clients.

The Panellists included key stakeholders from diverse industries: Achint Setia, Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer at Zalora; Igor Mostovoy, VP of Product at 99.co; Sistla Sumanth, Director for Digital Technology APAC at RBI; David Setiawan, Head of Marketing at JobStreet; Baptiste Le Gal, CRO APAC at Vestiaire Collective; and Avantika Jain, General Manager at Fave.

Through the event, CleverTap managed to bring together over 100 growth leaders in Southeast Asia to create a platform for sharing insights on how to develop engaging experiences to grow customer retention, increase customer lifetime value, and spark massive scalable growth with customers at the forefront.

Executing lessons learnt during the pandemic for a better future

One of the most pertinent lessons from the recent pandemic is how businesses must focus on executing strategic plans for a more resilient future.

Also Read: Looking back at 2022: A year of digitalisation, adaptability, and collaboration through the lens of the innovate team

Jain kickstarted the panel discussion by sharing how Fave, a rewards app that relied heavily on redemptions at physical stores, was hit badly when the pandemic came. “The offline aspect almost vanished, and we were forced to switch to online. Interestingly, we’re seeing that consumers are not returning to physical stores even after the pandemic is seemingly over. If anything, the online behaviour is ramping up,” she shared.

Fave plans on leveraging this trend and this development is so pivotal for the rewards app that currently, they are planning to roll out a cashback scheme in partnership with online merchants as part of their business model. For Vestiaire Collective, things were slightly different when COVID came. As a mobile-first platform, they saw a lot of users come in. On the other hand, Baptiste shared that when many users come in, it becomes a task to keep them engaged and retain them.

Setiawan from JobStreet shared that for them, there was a slowdown during the first year of the pandemic, but in the second year, they saw a jump. “We launched a big campaign back then to tap into the evolved talent pool, specifically looking at working from home. We ran a lot of articles trying to educate users on how to start going to interviews in this new candidate-first landscape, and that worked for us,” he added.

Sumanth talked about the importance of collaborations, highlighting how RBI’s partnerships with AliPay and Grab helped the company survive when F&B was probably one of the worst-hit sectors.

For 99.co, the struggle was that online traffic remained high owing to the boom in real estate due to factors like surging rent prices and people looking for bigger homes as work-from-home prevailed. Enquiries, however, stopped because people couldn’t visit the actual properties. In order to address this challenge, 99.co’s groundbreaking solution was to revolutionise customer experience by replicating their services in a digitalised environment, conducting their open houses online, and training their agents to operate through their digital platform.

Also Read: The Big Leap roadshow kickstarts in Jakarta with a panel on the Gen Z market

Taking The Big Leap for customer retention could boost your startup amid market woes

“Go where your customers are,” highlighted Sumanth from RBI. The first step towards engaging customers is having a presence on a platform of their preference. One of the emerging trends in 2022 is the dramatic shift towards mobile, which is expected to ramp up in 2023 and beyond. In 2022, there will be 326.3 million smartphone users in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia and Vietnam leading the way. These users will make up 88.0 per cent of the region’s internet users.

“It is established that people are moving towards mobile more,” shared Setiawan. “We look a lot into the lifetime value of our customers, and we run many retaining campaigns. In fact, we have tripled our retention budget since the pandemic,” Setiawan added.

Retaining customers is more expensive than acquiring customers. Sumanth shared that while running campaigns is crucial, it is even more critical to track the success of those campaigns. “What’s working, what is driving more conversions: looking at the results and quickly adapting based on feedback from these campaigns is a must,” he said.

Mostovoy also stated that if you are keen on seeing results next year, you should’ve started your retention campaigns last year! “To feed information in your apps, you need to run campaigns that are relevant to the users, and have a keen focus on keeping them coming back,” he added, emphasising the importance of competition analysis and being innovative and dynamic to stay ahead.

To learn more insights and engage with industry leaders from your country, register here and check out upcoming The Big Leap events. You may also visit https://clevertap.com to learn more about how CleverTap is helping customers like Gojek, ShopX, Canon, Electronic Arts, TED, English Premier League, TD Bank, AirAsia, Papa John’s, Tesco Kotak Mahindra Bank, SonyLiv, Swiggy, PharmEasy, and Dream11 retain customers.

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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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