e27 is bringing the tech ecosystem together through a series of MeetUp events across six cities this April. Over the last few years, the ecosystem has achieved a new mode of digital business meetings. With the global economy reopening, we have the unique opportunity to leverage offline events to take discussions surrounding the ecosystem and networking opportunities to the next level.

Startup founders have always regarded the importance of being efficient in time management, especially when building partnerships and collaborations with other ecosystem stakeholders. A hybrid format of digital connections, such as connecting with active VCs through the Pro membership platform, plays an ever-important role in initiating the first introductory meeting. The role of offline events is important as it facilitates a more closed-door networking opportunity featuring curated profiles.

e27’s Regional Meetup 2023 as an ecosystem enabler

e27 has evolved its TOP100 Roadshow with this year’s MeetUp events across six cities. The project aims to reignite its connection to the various ecosystems and stakeholders of startups, corporates, investors, and governments. While the program is a by-invite-only event, a specific portion of the RSVP remains accessible to the public via the waitlist.

Interested participants can access the waitlist here: https://forms.gle/ovaCkwTGjVs7g35LA

The MeetUps will cover important topics on industry trends and insights, featuring panels of industry experts and insiders. The panels will be moderated by e27.

Also Read: 8 startup frontrunners vying for a spot in the 2023 TOP100

The running theme for the program is “Southeast Asia Growth Series: How can the tech ecosystem grow sustainably and where to find future growth drivers?”  — a key topic that is incredibly timely and relevant in today’s tech startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia.

With the help of WebEngage as the supporting sponsor and WeWork as the official venue sponsor, e27’s Regional MeetUp will be taking place in the following cities on the following dates:

1. Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia – 12th April 2023
2. Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam – 13th April 2023
3. Manila – Philippines – 18th April 2023
4. Singapore – 21st April 2023
5. Bangkok – Thailand – 25th April 2023
6. Jakarta – Indonesia – 9th May 2023

TOP100 Partner

Ranked #1 consistently across all review platforms on ease of use and comprehensiveness of the platform, WebEngage is used by 800+ brands across India, the Middle East, Latin America, Southeast Asia and European markets. WebEngage is on a unique mission to ensure that no business should ever have to work hard to retain its customers. WebEngage helps them scale through a robust customer data and analytics platform – unifying data across silos, the best-in-class journey builder enabling automated triggers and campaign orchestration across channels.

 The third piece of the stack is the personalization engine that includes all the data in the system and AI/ML-driven product recommendations that boost the conversion for all channels including the web and mobile apps. This puts immense power in the hands of marketers as they try to live up to the consumer expectation of a personalised user experience, a habit formed by the Amazon and Netflix of the world. The company is working across several industries like eCommerce, Edtech, Fintech, Foodtech, Media & Publications, Gaming, BFSI, Healthcare, and Online Retail. The key clientele includes marquee brands like IKEA, Unilever, Walmart, Myntra, Bajaj Auto, Unacademy, GoIbibo, Pepperfry, HT Media, Wego, and many more.

Venue sponsor

WeWork is a leading global flexible space provider

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Echelon Asia Summit 2023 brings together APAC’s leading startups, corporates, policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to Singapore this June 14-15. Learn more and get tickets here. Echelon also features the TOP100 stage, where startups can pitch to 5000+ delegates, among other benefits like connecting with investors, visibility through the platform, and other prizes. Join TOP100 here.

The post Regional MeetUp 2023: Gathering tech community across 6 cities appeared first on e27.

Dear Pro member,

The Indonesian fintech industry is at an inflexion point!

As per an AC Ventures-Boston Consulting Group study, e-payments and lending have ceased to be the primary areas of interest for fintech investors. They have been replaced by wealthtech, insurtech, and SaaS fintech.

The wealthtech is booming because the millennial and Gen Z generations, who have benefitted from the country’s economic growth, have started exploring robo-advisor platforms like Bibit to foray into retail investing.

As for insurtech, easy access to insurance products, mostly micro-sized non-life products, has made the vertical popular.

The adoption of SaaS platforms is also growing, with 6M SMEs currently using them, representing a 26x expansion over the preceding three years.

As the region’s largest market, Indonesia is expected to see increasing investor interest in these three verticals in the coming years. Click here to read the report.

Let’s also look at the other top stories from across the region.

Have a nice weekend!

Sainul
Editor.

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The gist: The “world’s biggest startup funding festival” that never was
The details: The World Startup Convention garnered much attention but turned out to be a flop; Ads for the event falsely claimed that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Elon Musk would attend.

The gist: Wealthtech, insurtech, SaaS fintech are the new hot verticals in ID
The details: An AC Ventures-Boston Consultancy Group report says investment trends also echo the diversification of Indonesia’s fintech market, with lending and payments no longer being the primary areas of interest.

The gist: Bukalapak still in the red despite seeing US$130.8M in FY22 profit
Why: It recovered from a loss of US$111M the year prior; However, it mainly attributed the recovery to a marked-to-market gain from its investment in Allo Bank; On an adjusted EBITDA basis, Bukalapak is still in the red.

The gist: Indonesia’s Shox Rumahan shuts down, terminates all staff
The reason: This was due to the social commerce startup’s financial losses, co-founder Maria Octavyani Manao said in a document accessed by TiA; According to its LinkedIn page, the firm had around 100 employees.

The gist: Alibaba’s restructuring can benefit Lazada, analysts say
How: Under the new structure, Lazada will fall under the Global Digital Business Group, which also includes AliExpress, Trendyol, and Daraz; After the change, Lazada’s management could become “more decentralized and thus more agile.

The gist: Chinese regulators looking for buyer for SVB’s local venture
The details: China’s Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission convened a meeting this week to discuss offloading SVB’s 50% holding in SPD Silicon Valley Bank.

The gist: US charges FTX founder with bribing Chinese officials
The details: During a court appearance on Thursday, Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted bribery and campaign finance violations unveiled in two recent superseding indictments.

The gist: AnyMind Group debuts on Tokyo Stock Exchange
The details: The Japan-headquartered company seeks to raise about US$23M
The SEA link: The film was originally founded in Singapore and has 19 offices in 13 markets across Asia and the ME.

The gist: Lalamove parent files for HK listing
Why now: The Lalatech’s filing comes after the HK Stock Exchange eased listing rules for tech firms, which included lowering the required market value to US$765M from US$1B.

The gist: Thai insurtech firm Roojai bags US$42M in fresh funding
The investors: HDI International, IFC
The product: Roojai is an online insurance platform providing critical illness insurance, cardiovascular insurance, and personal accident insurance, among others.

The gist: B2B life sciences marketplace Labviva secures US$20M Series A
The investors: Senator Investment Group, B Capital Glasswing Ventures
The product: The B2B platform enables life sciences and research organisations to manage corporate purchasing and procurement to accelerate life science research.

The gist: Filipino fintech Advance raises US$16M funding
The investors: Do Ventures, Lendable, Phoenix Holdings, Kaya Founders, Foxmont Capital
Acquisition: It has also acquired BravoHr, a platform providing digital solutions for employee engagement, benefits, and rewards in VN.

The gist: India’s BetterPlace acquires Malaysian recruitment startup Troopers
The size: The deal is estimated to be worth US$15M-US$20M, says Tech in Asia
The product: Troopers provides part-time recruitment roles for people and offers staffing solutions to companies.

The gist: Indonesian insurtech firm Qoala raises US$7.5M Series B+
The investors: responsAbility Investments AG, Eurazeo, Indogen.
Plans: Qoala will use the money for the product and geographic expansion, primarily in emerging markets in SEA.

The gist: Indonesia gets new crypto exchange Mobee
The details: The digital assets exchange focuses on qualified investors, family offices, and institutional-grade clients.
Funding: Mobi has also raised an undisclosed sum in a funding round led by 1982 Ventures, with participation from strategic family offices and individuals.

The gist: Right-Hand Cybersecurity raises US$5M Series A
The investor: PayPal executive Jack Selby and his AZ-VC
The product: Right-Hand aims to expand its platform integrations with commonly adopted technologies to improve employee behaviours and lower risk tendencies.

The gist: SG’s rocket company Equatorial Space secures US$1.5M seed funding
The investors: Elev8.VC, SEEDS Capital, Masik Enterprises.
The product: Equatorial Space’s Dorado commercial-sounding rocket provides low-cost space access for science experiments, tech demonstrators, and academic payloads.

The gist: Indonesian supply chain tech startup Baskit raises US$1.5M
The investors: Forge Ventures, Sketchnote Partners, DS/X Ventures, Prasetia Ventures.
The plan: Baskit aims to strengthen the traditional distribution chains of distributors and wholesalers with commercial support and technology.

The gist: Khazanah-backed Gobi Dana Impak Ventures (GDIV) invests in Care Concierge
The product: Care Concierge provides home care, residence care, day-care, and shop care services for the elderly in Malaysia Other details: GDIV is a part of the Future Malaysia Programme, an initiative under the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah’s Dana Impak.

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Copyright: sakoen

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Lending, payments no longer hottest in ID; a mega Indian startup event that never was appeared first on e27.

Singapore-headquartered fintech company Little Wallet secured US$1.6 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Tikaani Partners.

“We recognise the opportunity in the SEA region and plan to invest our first round of funding in scaling up our operations and engineering teams, as well as marketing and strategic partnerships. With partners like Visa in place, we are prepared for the big launches in select SEA markets,” says Little Wallet co-founder Phoebe Tran in a press statement.

Little Wallet aims to pioneer the concept of “family banking” in Southeast Asia, which the company said has not been introduced in the region before. Its primary focus is to promote Smart Money habits and improve financial well-being for entire families.

It differentiates itself from traditional banking brands by creating a gamified, youthful, modern brand image that appeals to users aged 13 to 18–even as young as 6 to 12.

This platform offers services, including earning, saving, budgeting, spending, and giving. It comes equipped with a debit card, companion app, wearable device for tap and pay transactions, and an educational resource for teaching critical financial skills to youth.

Also Read: How digital banking is driving financial inclusion in SEA

“Traditional banks do a great job tailoring their services toward financially established adults, but none has done well building services for families and younger pre-collegiate consumers. These digital natives are a part of the multi-billion-dollar addressable market. Contrary to belief, most customers often stay with their first bank, so it is important to introduce them to banking while young,” cites Cyrus Daruwala, MD, Global Financial Services at IDC.

Little Wallet founder Rahul Sharma and co-founder Phoebe Tran are INSEAD global executive MBA classmates.

Sharma says, “Our customers’ data safety & security is our utmost priority. Our top focus is to embrace zero personal data knowledge, implement strong encryption techniques, adhere to industry standards, carefully select our technology partners, regularly test & monitoring security measures and educate our customers on security best practices.”

The company is one of the winners of Tech in Asia Startup Arena 2022.

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Echelon Asia Summit 2023 brings together APAC’s leading startups, corporates, policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to Singapore this June 14-15. Learn more and get tickets here.

Echelon also features the TOP100 stage, where startups can pitch to 5000+ delegates, among other benefits like a chance to connect with investors, visibility through e27 platform, and other prizes. Join TOP100 here.

Image Credit: Little Wallet

The post Little Wallet secures US$1.6M in pre-seed funding to enhance its services in Asia appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based Horizon Quantum Computing has secured US$18.1 million in a Series A investment from Sequoia Capital India, Tencent, SGInnovate, Pappas Capital and Expeditions Fund.

The investment will allow the startup to strengthen its science and engineering teams to accelerate product development, establish its new engineering centre in Europe, and bring its technology to the market.

This round takes Horizon Quantum’s total funding to approximately US$21.3 million.

Quantum computing faces two main challenges to widespread adoption: developing hardware capable of supporting quantum computation at scale and creating software tools that allow programmers to harness this hardware to solve real-world problems.

Horizon Quantum Computing is focused on the second challenge.

Also Read: Quantum computing could help us tackle Alzheimer’s disease: Dr Michio Kaku

Founded in 2018 by CEO Joe Fitzsimons, Horizon Quantum develops a new generation of programming tools to simplify and expedite software development for quantum computers. By removing the need for prior quantum computing experience to develop applications for quantum hardware, Horizon’s tools will make the power of quantum computing accessible to every software developer.

“Quantum computing has the potential to change how we think about computing completely,” said Fitzsimons. “While getting to large-scale quantum computing is a daunting challenge, it is undeniable that progress towards that goal is being made.”

“At Horizon, we focus on unlocking the power of future quantum computers and have made significant headway towards our goal of enabling conventional software developers to take advantage of the technology through abstraction and automated algorithm synthesis. The new investment will support our effort to break through the barriers to useful quantum computation,” he added.

Last year, Horizon Quantum joined Singapore’s National Quantum-Safe Network and recently saw its node’s first data transmission. It has also recently announced that it is opening its first European offices in Ireland, where it is building out its new engineering centre.

The company recruits a software engineering team in Dublin to boost worldwide operations.

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Echelon Asia Summit 2023 brings together APAC’s leading startups, corporates, policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to Singapore this June 14-15. Learn more and get tickets here. Echelon also features the TOP100 stage, where startups can pitch to 5000+ delegates, among other benefits like connecting with investors, visibility through the platform, and other prizes. Join TOP100 here.

The post Tencent, SGInnovate join US$18.1M Series A round of Horizon Quantum Computing appeared first on e27.

Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day are two moments that encouraged us to be extra careful about the way we support women in the tech startup ecosystem. If we were not careful, we might fall into the risk of purple-washing–an action where businesses present the image of being women-friendly without any concrete steps taken to do so.

This is the lesson that Pocket Sun of SoGal Ventures warned us in a recent interview with e27.

“Besides investing, there have been efforts to set up a separate programme for women. It definitely helps to build your reputation, but nothing comes as strongly as when you actually deploy capital into women entrepreneurs,” she said.

This reminded us to look at how we support women in tech at e27. We want to think that we have done a decent job, as seen through our latest #She27 initiative, where we spotlight 27 inspiring women in the tech industry who are breaking barriers, pushing boundaries, and making a significant impact in their respective fields.

But if you see ways to improve, we are always open to listening.

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

A return to Myanmar

In February 2021, the SEA startup ecosystem anxiously watched as a coup d’etat in Myanmar changed the country’s face forever.

I still remember that day vividly. The e27 content team dropped every single task of the day to focus on covering how the political event impacted the local startup ecosystem. We tried to contact our sources in the country; I recalled holding my breath when the responses came moments later, with startup founders stating that they wish to lay low for the moment. Safety was the priority.

Today, the world is a different place. In February 2021, most countries were under lockdown. Exactly two years later, most borders have reopened. Naturally, we begin to wonder if things are improving for our friends in Myanmar.

We covered the launch of Common Health’s e-commerce platform, which made us feel slightly hopeful about the situation. But before that, our editor Sainul wrote this feature article.

The things we learned from it were heart-breaking:

– Over 70-80 per cent of startups shut down
– Founders did not see the junta as being supportive of startups
– Even big businesses, such as Telenor and Ooredoo, either shuttered or sold
– This situation has triggered a migration of tech talents to neighbouring countries

“As the military junta tightened its grip on the government, pro-democratic people, including founders and techies, took to the streets … However, these movements were crushed. Several prominent founders were framed and arrested, many fled the country for safety after imprisonment for six to 12 months, and some got killed in interrogation camps,” we wrote.

Also Read: Women in tech have leaned in enough. This is what we should do instead

This reminded us of the one thing we often take for granted: Security. We can stress the importance of government support and other things when we talk about supporting the startup, but in the end, there is not much that we can do in an environment where we are unsafe.

As the month ends, may this always remind us of those living on the margins of society and those who had their opportunities limited by circumstances.

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Echelon Asia Summit 2023 is bringing together APAC’s leading startups, corporates, policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to Singapore this June 14-15. Learn more and get tickets here.

Echelon also features the TOP100 stage, where startups get the chance to pitch to 5000+ delegates, among other benefits like a chance to connect with investors, visibility through e27 platform, and other prizes. Join TOP100 here.

Image Credit: Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

The post In March, we celebrated women in tech and returned to Myanmar appeared first on e27.