Over the past three years, the pandemic has acted as the catalyst for the growth of digital transformation across Asian businesses since the onset of the pandemic.

At first, I felt several companies seemed to hold back and perhaps wanted to gain a better understanding
of what would happen. Once it was clear that COVID-19 was an issue with long-term implications, more organisations began investing heavily in digital transformation.

Companies also invested in building digital products to help their business not only survive but also grow and prosper. I felt this was particularly prevalent among retail businesses and restaurants that needed to reach their customers online through e-commerce and home delivery.

Cost optimisation is of the utmost importance in difficult times such as these. Improving internal processes and efficiency through digital transformation is an excellent way to improve margins and save on costs. This is vital in light of the likelihood of a general downturn or global economic recession.

I believe the demand for hybrid and remote working forced businesses to properly evaluate their working methods once COVID-19 set in. Introducing the correct digital tools and products to be able to collaborate effectively online during the pandemic through online meetings, collaborations, and communication was essential to this.

A global survey found that 97 per cent of respondents felt the outbreak of COVID-19 sped up digital transformation processes in their respective organisations either ‘somewhat’ or ‘a great deal’. Every organisation needs to be able to work with technology if they are to survive. If used successfully, it can improve processes as well as increase revenue and productivity.

I think that SMEs need to decide initially what path their organisation needs to take before investing
in the appropriate team to help build the correct digital solutions. It is very important to understand what you need to build, as opposed to only focusing on what you want to build. As well as needing capabilities to work with tech partners, organisations need to understand how to maximise value through this relationship.

Also Read: Year of the rabbit: Leaping into a bumper year for digital payments

A 2020 survey of small and medium-sized businesses in the Asia Pacific region found a shortage of digital skills and talent within their company was the leading challenge in digital transformation. This was followed by a lack of necessary technologies to enable digital transformation and a lack of budget/commitment from management.

I believe that tech transformation involves two choices: develop your own tech team or work with an external partner. Building an in-house tech team poses opportunities such as quality assurance, maintenance and support.

Building high-quality digital products are complex, so an organisation needs to have strong senior resources in place in tandem with a robust software management team to build out its capabilities. Its challenges include financial and time investment as well as meeting training needs as appropriate. Hiring top tech talent can also prove difficult if an organisation is non-tech in nature.

Conversely, organisations need to be able to work efficiently with external tech partners to help solve their digital transformation challenges and build digital products, bringing their business online. I certainly think an in-house product owner is essential to act as a bridge between the business and the tech team. They are also needed to help prioritise the work that needs to be done so that value is delivered quickly in an economic sense.

Trends

We are always on the lookout for new breakthroughs and new technologies and evaluating whether we should be investing in certain areas. But as a company, we are careful not to just shift our strategy towards whatever the newest trend is.

If a new tool can solve a specific problem, we’re open to implementing it as part of our tech stack. But at the moment, some new tools claim to be wide-ranging solutions, but they’re not solving a real-world problem.

We don’t believe in enforcing a “new” solution upon our clients without any real rationale because it’s increasing complexity, it’s usually increasing price, it’s difficult to maintain, and again, there’s usually a simpler solution already out there.

Take some of the most talked-about new technologies out there at the moment:

• Cryptocurrency: It seems to me that crypto and NFTs have reached their peak and are really on their way back down now. As for blockchain, there is a technology that is there, but it’s looking for a problem to solve as opposed to being a solution itself. It’s good that there is a lot of experimentation going on in this area, but I’m yet to see any sort of “real-life” problem that is being solved by blockchain applications.
• Cloud computing: A lot is happening in cloud-native solutions now; in fact, I can’t recall the last time we discussed anything happening “on-premises” everything we do is stored in the cloud, one way or another. It’s safer, it’s more scalable, and it’s even cheaper than hosting things yourself in most scenarios, so I think we’re going to see a lot of innovation in this area in the next few years.
• Artificial Intelligence: AI is getting a lot of attention right now, particularly the GPT3 model. Interestingly, the model can learn, reply and provide, but I must say what I’ve seen so far hasn’t always been factually correct. So the potential applications for this new branch of AI are very strong, but there are still some challenges to be overcome.

Foundation, adoption, and acceleration

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) published its Asia-Pacific Digital Transformation Report earlier this year. It attempts to gain a better understanding of how quickly digital transformation was achieved by governments, businesses and individuals due to the adverse impact of COVID-19.

Also Read: #dltledgers unveils 2023 trends in supply chain digitisation

The report stresses the critical need for stakeholders and policymakers to closely monitor digital transformation both locally and nationally and the importance of policy coordination and action. ESCAP has created a digital transformation framework to encompass the three different stages of transformation. These are foundation, adoption and acceleration.

The report also found that investment by the mobile industry in services, infrastructure and other innovations in Asia and the Pacific was valued at $400 billion over the past five years, greatly influencing the digital revolution. 94 per cent of the population in the Asia-Pacific region is now covered by mobile broadband.

A recent report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company shows how digitisation is driving
real change. The economies the report covers are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It predicts that Southeast Asia’s digital economy is forecast to hit $200 billion by the end of 2022.

What is perhaps most staggering about this figure is that it has been reached three years earlier than had previously been anticipated in an inaugural report published in 2016.

I believe the digital trends we can expect to see in 2023 will involve innovations that currently exist but will be developed further. These will almost certainly include cloud computing, AI, blockchain and super-fast networks such as 5G.

Solutions for remote, augmented and hybrid working, which became such an issue due to COVID-19, will continue to be at the forefront of the list of priorities for many organisations. As the economic recovery
continues in Asia, I certainly cannot see growth in the main digital sectors of travel, e-commerce, online media, food & transport and DFS (digital financial services) slowing down anytime soon.

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I am a software engineer by profession and a builder-problem-solver at heart. When there was no bill-splitting app that suited me, I built one. When there was no digital version of a board game I loved, I built one.

PlayTours was born during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many features had to be adapted for the virtual environment. Instead of being physically together, players use different devices, and others can view what others are seeing on the app – much like a Google Doc. Instead of requiring a facilitator to hide and show different parts of a puzzle, it is automated by the app.

Challenges as a newcomer

“Your website and software look great, but you’re only one year old. How can we trust you?” We get these sorts of messages quite frequently, understandably.

To help alleviate such concerns, I made sure that our customer service is top-notch. We reply with detailed guidance within 12 hours, we provide free hour-long video consultations regardless of whether they are paying or non-paying customers.

We also priced our software very differently from others; the more a customer uses our software, the less they pay per player. We do this because we seek longer-term, sustainable partnerships.

Also Read: 7 trends changing the reality of immersive gaming

The idea to build an all-in-one, team-building and event gamification platform started when I felt like I had overpaid for a museum escape room experience. We paid for six different players but only received one set of physically-printed puzzles, and it was inconvenient to take turns just to read them. When we needed help, we had to find the facilitators that were stationed around the museum and had to queue as they were overwhelmed with other confused players.

I felt that the facilitators and puzzle materials could be replaced with just an app, so I searched online. But I was left disappointed as the options were expensive and lacked key features. Plus, I have always wanted to build my own software company!

So, PlayTours was born.

In 2022, we entered Business Innovations Generator (BIG), Singapore Management University’s (SMU) incubation programme run by the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which provided PlayTours with valuable resources, mentors, and grants. We received the IIE Acceleration Grant and attended invaluable masterclasses to guide us away from any pitfalls. SMU BIG gave me the confidence to take more calculated risks.

We were able to onboard an additional digital marketer to speed up our marketing. Within three months, we revamped both our website and game builder, started regular postings on most social media platforms, and generated more useful articles for our blog readers. Our website visitors increased by 300 per cent, and we got a lot more conversions!

Being scalable and going global

Since its inception, I have built PlayTours with sustainability in mind – financial and operational sustainability. If we have 100x clients, we should not need 100x manpower. If clients have difficult requirements, we should not have to repeatedly keep changing our codebase.

With that in mind, PlayTours is self-service end-to-end, where organisers can build and run events without requiring any hand-holding from any staff members. If they need help, they can access our repository of tutorials in our blogs and within the game builder.

We also have a strict policy against building custom features for specific clients, as these create a lot of complexity in our codebase. All our features can be accessed and enjoyed by everyone. We have always told our clients that games are unique because of their stories and puzzles and not due to platform features.

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

To gain as much revenue as quickly as possible from the start, we immediately went global. Within 6 months, PlayTours has been used in every continent except Antarctica. Our all-in-one, flexible game builder meant that it could be used by many types of clients – small to large, casual to corporate. To date, we have been used in all kinds of events: scavenger hunts, team races, self-guided tours, staff retreats, social parties, and event gamification.

The future — AI, the community, and beyond

I have always wanted PlayTours to make it easy for anyone to build team games. AI makes it even easier. One of the problems of a game designer is to think of compelling puzzles and challenges. Our team of engineers will be integrating PlayTours with OpenAI so that that game designers can generate team challenges in a fraction of the time.

Giving back to the community with the software I built has been a dream of mine. To date, we have given extremely generous discounts and added services for non-profits such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Save the Children. They used PlayTours to run charity events and team-building events for their staff.

In 2023, we are focusing on our top-performing markets – North America, Europe, and Asia, and expanding our service to better serve clients with events larger than 10,000 players. Although the economic situation seems uncertain, what we are certain of is that we will adapt, just like we have always done.

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Aspire, a provider of an all-in-one finance operating system (OS) for businesses in Southeast Asia, has closed a US$100 million oversubscribed Series C round co-led by Lightspeed Ventures and Sequoia Capital SEA.

Paypal Ventures, Tencent, LGT Capital Partners and existing backers also co-invested.

Aspire plans to use the funding to enhance its product offering, expand its regional presence, and add more talent across Southeast Asia.

Established in 2018, Aspire offers businesses a unified suite of financial services, including international payments, corporate cards, and payable and receivable management accessible via a single, user-friendly account.

Andrea Baronchelli, Aspire Co-Founder and CEO, said: “From delivering real-time financial data, fast and transparent cross-border payments to empowering business teams with world-class spend management capabilities to move fast and move right, we look forward to empowering every modern business, big or small, with the right financial tools to realise their full potential.”

Also Read: Aspire lands US$158M Series B to scale its ‘all-in-one finance OS’ for SMEs across SEA

Aspire is the all-in-one finance operating system for new-age businesses. The company claims it helps SMEs save time and money with multi-currency accounts and cards, expense management, payable management, and receivable management solutions – all in one account.

It said it recently tripled its annualised total payment volumes to US$12 billion from over 15,000 businesses across the region.

Headquartered in Singapore, Aspire has over 400 employees across four countries.

In September 2021, Aspire closed an oversubscribed US$158 million Series B fundraise led by an undisclosed global growth equity firm. Two years earlier, the firm secured US$32.5 million in a Series A round of financing led by Mass-Mutual Ventures Southeast Asia, with participation from Arc Labs and Y Combinator, Hummingbird Ventures, and Picus Capital. 

This was preceded by a US$9 million seed investment from Insignia Ventures Partners, Mark 2 Capital, and Hummingbird.

Aspire is a graduate of Y Combinator Winter 2018.

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Southeast Asian consumer fintech platform Fave today announced that Founder & CEO Joel Neoh is set to depart the company by early March 2023.

Following his departure, Co-Founder Yeoh Chen Chow will continue to lead the business together with Avantika Jain, General Manager in Singapore; Aik Kuang Heng, Fave’s newly appointed General Manager in Malaysia; alongside local leadership teams in Indonesia and India.

“I have had the privilege of a lifetime to work with some of the best talents in Southeast Asia to build Fave into a household brand name – today, one out of every three Singaporeans, and millions of consumers across Malaysia, Indonesia and India use Fave on a daily basis for payments and rewards. With the strong leadership and culture we have built, I am confident in the company’s continued growth in the years to come. As I leave Fave, I look forward to further contributing to Southeast Asia’s technology ecosystem, paying it forward by helping other fellow entrepreneurs grow in their startup journeys,” Neoh said in a statement.

Also Read: Fave acquired by Pine Labs for US$45M, to expand its consumer payments app to India

Fave’s products have evolved from offering deals to QR payments and loyalty programmes on both the Fave app and other major banks and digital wallets.

Fave fully acquired e-commerce company Groupon in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia back in 2017.

It was eventually acquired by Pine Labs for US$45 million in 2021.

The company said that by the end of 2022, it had achieved its all-time highest volumes of transactions, reflecting the company’s growing popularity and market share.

“The data shows a staggering 40 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth and trajectory is well set for 2023. The company will be rolling out more collaborations with key banks and financial institutions across the markets; as well as targeting to enter the flexible payment processing space for online merchants in Q2,” it said.

Also Read: Fave raises funding from Pine Labs to expand cashless payment solutions to SMEs

Neoh was one of the founders of Groupon in Malaysia in 2011, where he later managed Groupon Asia Pacific’s US$2 billion business with over 2,500 employees. Prior to that, in 2009, he co-founded Says.com, a digital media platform that merged with Rev Asia and was acquired by media conglomerate Media Prima.

He continues to remain plugged into Southeast Asia’s digital and technology ecosystem as an investor in over 25 startups, through holding mentorship and advisory roles in Endeavour Malaysia, XA Network, Sunway University, as a limited partner in 500 Southeast Asia III, Better Bite Ventures, and as an investor in Nasdaq-listed Prenetics, among others.

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Image Credit: Fave

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There are no simple tools in the market to tap into the value of unstructured data (images, videos, audio, and text data) easily.

“Building in-house AI solutions requires a tremendous investment of time and money and the intrinsic transformation of the team culture,” says Ping-Lin Chang. “Only Big Techs have such a luxury. This is where Instill AI comes into the picture.”

Instill AI provides no-code/low-code tools to convert unstructured data into meaningful data representations. Users can integrate its service into their data stack, tap into the wealth of their unstructured data, and benefit from AI in a snap.

The startup was founded in 2020 by Ping-Lin Chang and Xiaofei Du. Chang (CEO) holds a PhD in Robotic Vision from Imperial College London with a research focus on Visual Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping and Machine Learning for Augmented Reality in image-guided surgery. Meanwhile, Du holds a PhD in Medical Physics from University College London with a research focus on Surgical Vision and Medical Image Analysis with Machine Learning.

Last August, Taiwan-incorporated Instill AI launched its open-source project Versatile Data Pipeline (VDP). According to Chang, VDP is the future for unstructured data infrastructure, where developers won’t need to build their own data connectors, high-maintenance model serving platform, or data pipeline automation tool.

Also Read: Will AI replace humans in customer service?

“Our mission is to make VDP the single point of unstructured data integration to streamline the end-to-end unstructured data processing pipeline. VDP can extract unstructured data from pre-built data sources such as cloud/on-prem storage or IoT devices and transform it into analysable or meaningful data representations by AI models imported from various ML platforms. It can also load the transformed data into warehouses, applications, or other destinations,” Chang explains.

VDP currently supports popular AI tasks, including image classification, object detection, keypoint detection, optical character recognition and instance segmentation. More AI tasks, such as text generation and text-to-image, will soon be released.

“Our ultimate goal with VDP is to streamline the end-to-end unstructured data flow, with the transform component being able to import AI models from different sources flexibly,” Chang states.

Chang claims that Instill AI’s solution can be modularised into working components to benefit a broader spectrum of AI tasks and industry sectors.

“To be more specific, our no-/low-code unstructured data pipeline solution can significantly save development resources to harness the latest AI technology for AI-first application companies (who build their core business based on AI features but do not want to allocate too much budget to build their unstructured data pipeline) and AI-empowered companies (who want to extract business intelligence from their massive unstructured data but don’t want to allocate too much budget to build their unstructured data pipeline) — no matter if they are AI-capable or non-AI capable,” he elaborates.

Currently, Instill AI serves customers in the fields of drones, service robots, cloud security cameras, manufacturing, AI content production, and so on. The company will release VDP under the open-source Apache licence 2.0 to benefit a broader community.

In the meantime, Instill AI offers Instill Cloud, a fully managed cloud service of VDP. The product will be launched early this year. The goal is to serve the community members who want to explore, process or analyse their unstructured data without worrying about the infrastructure maintenance themselves.

Funding and plans

Instill AI recently raised a US$3.6 million seed round of investment from investors such as RTP Global, Lunar Ventures, and Hive Ventures. It will use the money to double the team size by the end of 2023 to build the open-source infrastructure for unstructured data.

It will also continue to improve the user experience for each AI and Data practitioner who works on unstructured data or builds AI-first applications. “We will release a new user dashboard for monitoring, logging and auditing, a new component for logic operators to flexibly manipulate the dataflow, a new drag-and-drop UI to assemble components into pipelines easily, and more data connectors for unstructured data,” Chang explains.

Also Read: Preparing for the AI revolution: Ensuring a positive outcome for humans

The company is also keen to make the model import and deployment more user-friendly. Many new AI tasks will be added, including tasks for Generative AI. To unleash the full power of VDP, model training and evaluation features are planned in the 2023 roadmap.

The market size and trends

According to Precedence Research, the estimated global AI market size was US$87.04 billion in 2021, and it is expected to hit US$1.6 trillion by 2030, with a registered CAGR of 38.1 per cent from 2022 to 2030.

A MarketsandMarkets report pegs the global big data market revenue to be worth US$162.6 billion in 2021, which is poised to reach US$273.4 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 11 per cent from 2021 to 2026.

The modern data stack for unstructured data in the AI and Data market is valued at around US$87.04 billion and $162.6 billion, respectively, in 2021.

Chang observes primarily two trends in the AI industry.

1) No-/low-code AI solution: no-code for the non-tech savvy people to benefit from AI without coding and low-code for the developers to integrate with the existing stack easily.

2) Open platform: MLOps tools have been prosperously developed, particularly for the current best practice of Software 2.0 and data-centric AI. Considering the complexity of the MLOps cycle, it is challenging to build the components of an AI system all from scratch. Instead, people would prefer AI tools/services with vendor-agnostic and open frameworks that ensure easy integrations into the existing tech stack.

The advent of Generative AI such as ChatGPT, DALL-E and Midjourney has shown the power to automate content creation. It is just the beginning. More and more AI tools will emerge to take advantage of the rapid development of technology to find and solve new use cases.

“The AI industry is experiencing a shift from vertical AI applications/products to horizontal AI infrastructure. Machine learning and AI should be as easy to access as other off-the-shelf cloud services in the software industry today. With AI being the infrastructure that transforms every aspect of our lives, ‘AI-first’ will become the default norm,” concludes Chang.

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