Southeast Asian SME digital finance platform Funding Societies (known as Modalku in Indonesia) has secured US$27 million in debt funding led by AlteriQ Global. 

Aument Capital Partners (ACP) and Orange Bloom also invested.

The funds will be channelled via the fintech startup’s tailored financing solutions to support the underserved SME segments in its five markets.

Also Read: Funding Societies enters neobanking space with investment in Indonesia’s Bank Index

Licensed and registered in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia and operating in Vietnam, Funding Societies provides business financing to small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, it offers payments and collections intending to solve SMEs’ cashflow management challenges.

Funding Societies says it has achieved over US$3.2 billion in business financing, processing over 5 million transactions and serving about 100,000 SMEs across the region.

Last year, Funding Societies raised a US$50 million credit facility from HSBC Singapore.

ACP serves as a family office for its high-net-worth clients. Its newly set-up Sustainability Fund aims to support businesses and individuals financially to counter climate change and transition to more sustainable practices towards a low-carbon economy. This synergises with Funding Societies’s implementation of its Environmental and Social Management System launched early this year across its markets. It is an ESG risk assessment framework designed with technical assistance by the Dutch Good Growth Fund as part of the credit assessment part of the loan application process by an SME.

SMEs comprise 97 per cent of all enterprises in Southeast Asia, bringing 40 per cent of GDP value across the region. In Singapore, the Department of Statistics released in its 2021 report that 99 per cent of enterprises are SMEs, contributing to 44 per cent of the nominal value added at approximately S$212 (US$155) billion.

Also Read: Funding Societies acquires payments solution startup CardUp

Commercial lending in Asia Pacific is projected to grow at a CAGR of 16.5 per cent, generating a revenue of more than US$7 trillion by 2028. This makes up about 25 per cent of the global market size of US$27.4 trillion.

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The world of education is a vast and intricate ecosystem, shaped not only by the content of textbooks but by the relationships that underpin its foundations. This realisation struck me recently after watching the Netflix documentary on Lee Kuan Yew, the visionary leader who transformed Singapore from a struggling nation into a thriving global powerhouse.

What stood out beyond his strategic brilliance was his ability to nurture enduring relationships that spanned decades. It got me thinking about how this principle applies to the education landscape and the key role of long-term relationships in its evolution.

A statesman’s strategy, an educator’s lesson

Lee Kuan Yew’s 50-plus years of leadership offer profound lessons in relationship-building. He recognized that success is not a sprint but a marathon, and his approach to governance was rooted in the cultivation of strong bonds with his team, strategic partners, and long-term advocates. The result was a nation that rose from the ashes of adversity to become an economic and social marvel.

In the education sector, parallels can be drawn to the enduring giants of the industry. Take Coursera, for instance, a leader in online education. Its journey to prominence was marked by forging deep relationships with universities, instructors, and learners.

By collaborating with prestigious institutions, Coursera was able to offer a high-quality education experience, attracting both educators and students into a symbiotic partnership. This long-term commitment to quality and collaboration laid the groundwork for its global impact.

Also Read: What I learned after launching a successful business in Asia

Pearson and McGraw-Hill Education, two stalwarts of the traditional education world, have similarly thrived through decades by cultivating relationships with educators, institutions, and learners. Their textbooks and educational materials have become staples in classrooms worldwide.

These companies have weathered numerous storms and technological revolutions by consistently delivering value to their partners, earning trust that has spanned generations.

A new era, but old principles hold

As the education landscape undergoes a profound transformation characterised by digitisation, globalisation, and the rise of innovative models like online boot camps and lifelong learning platforms, the importance of relationships remains unchanged. New challenges require new relationships, and education companies must adapt to navigate these changes successfully.

In this new era, we see the emergence of challenger brands like Open Campus. What sets them apart is not just their innovative models but their deep-rooted relationships with strategic partners.

Open Campus, for instance, has forged robust connections with industry leaders like Animoca, a pioneering force in blockchain and gaming, GEMS Education, a global education powerhouse, and Binance, a leader in the cryptocurrency space. These relationships are not merely transactional; they are the lifeblood of Open Campus’s growth strategy.

The power of synergy

The synergy between Open Campus and Animoca exemplifies the potential of strategic partnerships in the education space. Animoca’s expertise in blockchain technology opens up exciting possibilities for credentialing and verification in education. By leveraging Animoca’s cutting-edge solutions, Open Campus is well-positioned to revolutionise how students earn and showcase their qualifications.

In GEMS Education, Open Campus has found a like-minded partner dedicated to providing quality education. This alliance enables Open Campus to tap into GEMS Education’s vast network of schools, educators, and learners, fostering a collaborative approach to delivering value to students worldwide.

Binance, with its global presence and commitment to education, is another strategic partner contributing to Open Campus’s expansion. Through Binance’s influence in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, Open Campus gains access to a vast audience of learners interested in the future of finance and technology.

Also Read: Acing in hackathons: What every tech enthusiast needs to consider

A path forward for the education landscape

In a rapidly evolving education landscape, startups and established players alike must recognise that long-term relationships are not only beneficial but often crucial for sustainable growth. Here are some key takeaways:

• Prioritise partnerships: Seek out partners who share your long-term vision and values. Collaborate with organisations that can complement your strengths and bolster your weaknesses.
• Quality over quantity: Building deep, meaningful relationships often matters more than amassing a vast network. Focus on the quality of your partnerships and how they align with your mission.
• Adaptability: Be agile and adaptable in your relationships. The education industry is undergoing constant change; your partnerships should evolve with it.
• Shared values: Ensure that your partners share your commitment to quality, ethics, and the best interests of learners. These shared values will form the bedrock of enduring relationships.
• Trust and reliability: Strive to be a trusted and reliable partner. Consistently deliver value and uphold your commitments.

The journey of education is not solely about textbooks and classrooms. It’s about the bonds we forge, the collaborations we nurture, and the impact we create. Just as Lee Kuan Yew’s relationships transformed a nation, the relationships within the education landscape have the power to shape the future of learning.

As we navigate this new era, let us remember that while technology and innovation drive progress, it is the strength of our relationships that will carry us forward.

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Do you remember the days when purchasing mobile top-ups for your prepaid phone or getting a gift card for Christmas involved endless queueing at the store? It’s hard to believe how far we’ve come and how technology has made these processes so much easier and more convenient.

As highlighted in earlier chapters, the rise of digital payments ushered in a new era of unparalleled convenience and helped spark new ways for businesses to reach their customers.

This groundbreaking technological shift naturally supported the digital provision of goods and services. Consumers could buy digital goods like mobile top-ups and game tokens on their electronic devices with just a few taps. It also meant that consumers could pay for digital services like household bills and movie tickets online.

At 2C2P, we help many businesses integrate digital goods and services into their business model. This is a natural extension of the payment services we offer, with the common objective of bringing convenience to consumers and allowing businesses to grow using technology.

Our digital goods and services solutions open new possibilities for businesses, helping them to expand their product and service offerings with minimal hassle. For large enterprises, this can be done via advanced system integration; for small businesses, a simple mobile plug-in will do. By following these easy steps, businesses can focus on providing a better consumer experience.

Also Read: How interoperability can spark a payments revolution in SEA

What are digital goods and services?

Digital goods refer to a broad category of products that do not have a physical, tangible form. We see them as a stored-value form of alternative currency, including mobile top-ups, electronic gift cards, digital vouchers, and loyalty points.

Digital services, on the other hand, involve the provision or delivery of content and information between a provider and a customer, for instance, online bills or ticket purchases. Most of these digital goods and services can be purchased and used directly on a smartphone. In fact, for many consumers in mobile-first markets, phones are their sole touchpoint.

In Southeast Asia, where many people (especially in rural areas) remain unbanked and rely on cash, the digital goods market plays a significant role – it allows them to participate in the digital economy without needing a credit or debit card.

There are typically two processes to digital goods: issuing and distribution. Issuing involves the creation or digitisation of physical inventory to produce digital goods. Then, distribution allows global digital goods to be spread across different ecosystems, whether through physical or alternative digital means. For instance, physical post offices and major retailers can distribute global digital goods, while smaller mom-and-pop shops can do the same. Additionally, digital platforms such as mobile wallets and mobile banking apps can distribute digital goods through their respective ecosystems.

What are the benefits of digital goods and services?

The ease of creating and selling digital goods encouraged companies to enlarge their inventory and offer greater convenience for their customers.

Think mobile data top-ups. Instead of waiting in line to buy a physical scratch card from a retail staff member, consumers can now easily purchase their top-ups online.

Also Read: Poko bags US$4.5M to streamline Web3 payments experience for all users

The same goes for services like household bills. Consumers no longer need to plan their schedules around postal and bank branch opening hours to pay their utility bills; all they need is to log in to a website – such as online banking portals – or mobile app, enter their account details, and make the payment.

The ubiquity of digital goods and services has streamlined the customer journey: a process that took hours can now be
accomplished in a minute or less. For example, the manufacturing of physical gift cards and paper vouchers typically involves extensive supply chains and administrative and inventory management processes. However, with digital gift cards and vouchers, the process is simplified, taking place digitally via electronic devices. This drastically reduces business costs and allows resources to be used for better and speedier customer experiences.

For many businesses, digital goods and services have become a vital source of revenue and enabled them to use their business resources, such as storefronts, cash flow and manpower, more efficiently.

Let’s take a neighbourhood mom-and-pop shop as an example. In addition to selling physical goods, store owners could also offer digital goods and services such as prepaid mobile top-ups, digital gift vouchers, and bill payments, allowing owners to increase their product offerings with the same amount of resources and physical space.

To top it off, having a larger product offering can help store owners increase their engagement with their customers, which would lead to greater customer loyalty as they would be incentivised to patronise the store more often. The same logic can also apply to digital businesses like e-wallets or online banking applications.

Digital goods and services have also catalysed a paradigm shift in business models for several industries. For example, in the past, computer, console and mobile games traditionally made money only through one-time sales.

Also Read: Payoneer: Global payments pioneer will be at this year’s Echelon

Nowadays, game developers sell in-game credits and game products to deliver a more personalised experience for their players, with great success.

For example, the mobile gaming industry, which derives a large portion of its income from in-game digital goods, generated US$89.6 billion in revenue in 2021.

Players are kept engaged with new in-game digital goods like limited-time avatars and mini-tournaments, leading to highly personalised gaming experiences. This prolongs the players’ game tenure, thus allowing developers to focus on enhancing features for higher and recurring revenue instead of one-time sales.

When did 2C2P venture into digital goods and services?

Back in 2013, we realised over discussions with merchants in Myanmar that digital goods could help them to better serve and grow their customer base.

At that point, the country, like other developing nations in Southeast Asia, had many mom-and-pop stores scattered throughout rural areas, often not serviced by large retail chains. These little stores served as one-stop shops for consumers to get groceries and access services such as mobile phone credit top-ups.

Consumers primarily used physical scratch cards to top up their mobile phone credits and paid for them using cash. There were a couple of problems with this arrangement. These stores were spread out nationwide and had significant logistical inefficiencies, so suppliers (such as billers and mobile operators) faced a distribution challenge.

Because digital goods and services were still a nascent product category, consumers were naturally sceptical at first, especially when mobile penetration rates were still low. In 2015, we started providing over-the-counter (OTC) mobile wallets to retailers, enabling customers to access digital goods at the shops.

Also Read: Wallex: Get to know this B2B payments expert at Echelon 2023

Education was a key phase of the onboarding journey; we took time to meet with the retail store owners to explain the value proposition of OTC mobile wallets and digital goods and address any queries or technical challenges they had.

Patience was also critical. We worked with one of the biggest retail chains in Myanmar to integrate digital goods into their point-of-sale (POS) systems. At first, they were hesitant to roll them out, but after two to three years, digital goods became their highest-selling items.

The market opportunity for digital goods in Southeast Asia is massive. We have partnered with thousands of local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to distribute digital goods across Thailand, Myanmar, and the Philippines, with plans to grow into Vietnam and Indonesia.

In addition, we are helping digital goods issuers make further inroads into Southeast Asia by connecting them with more distribution channels, allowing more consumers to purchase their digital goods easily.

The future of digital goods and services

Across the region, our technology is helping retailers plug a gap in their infrastructure. As a major digital ecosystem player, witnessing this transformation unfold over the last few years has been a fantastic journey. We will
continue to find new ways to strengthen the value of digital goods and services – creating more synergy between suppliers, distributors and consumers.

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Cracking the Payments Code is an e-book published by Singapore-based digital payments company 2C2P. This chapter is republished with permission. Download the e-book here.

Image Credit: RunwayML

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NexMind, an AI-powered multilingual digital marketing platform, has secured undisclosed seed funding from 500 Global.

The Malaysian startup will use the funding to expand its product offerings and accelerate customer acquisition worldwide.

Founded in 2019 by Francis Lui (CEO), Bernie Law (CPO), and Pattrine Hong (CFO), NexMind empowers professionals across industries with advanced SEO tools to create search-optimised content in 17 languages, with no technical SEO expertise required. Its SEO content generation tools simplify and streamline how brands create multilingual content that ranks on search engines like Google and Bing and e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon, Lazada, and Shopee.

Among the languages supported currently are Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese.

Also Read: Nexmind AI is on a mission to make AI accessible to more companies

The startup recently launched the Text2Social tool that allows users to generate engaging social media posts across multiple channels with just one click. It conducts in-depth audience research to identify multiple data points useful for generating effective social media content. This enables marketers to spend less time on data analysis and more time implementing data-driven decisions that support their marketing and communication goals.

NexMind’s users are from leading global and regional companies across multiple industries, including banking, insurance, electronics, security, IT, telecommunication, construction, transport, and healthcare.

“There are 5 billion internet users in the world, and 3 billion more are projected to come online by 2040. To reach them you’ll need to speak their languages. We believe NexMind’s multilingual AI solutions will propel the growth of today’s online businesses, accelerate the exchange of goods and services for the next wave of internet users, and have a positive impact on the future of our global economy,” stated Khailee Ng, Managing Partner, 500 Global.

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In this era, consumers devour enormous amounts of video content daily on multiple social media platforms — a whopping 86 per cent of global internet traffic in 2022 was used for video content. They increasingly turn to digital platforms not just for social interactions but also for their shopping needs. What distinguishes this trend is the seamless integration of purchasing opportunities within the social media experience. It means shopping has become an integral feature on popular social platforms.

For consumers, social commerce means their favourite social networks now serve as marketplaces, too. On the other hand, for businesses, this translates into an unprecedented opportunity to engage with their target audience directly, transforming their online presence into a thriving store.

One Singaporean company has been catalysing the adoption of live and interactive videos since 2014. BeLive Technology allows any website or app to broadcast live video with interactive elements such as live shopping platforms and analytics, live virtual gifting, and live trivia game shows.

In this interview, BeLive’s Co-Founder and CEO Kenneth Tan discusses the company’s offerings and current position in the evolving landscape of social commerce and shares insights into its future plans.

What gap in the market did you identify that led to the establishment of BeLive Technology?

BeLive Technology was founded to address the gap in the market for businesses seeking to harness the power of interactive video commerce, specifically in the live video commerce space.

Many larger enterprises were reluctant to rely entirely on public live-streaming platforms like Facebook and Instagram Live due to a lack of ownership, first-party data collection, customisation, and insufficient engagement or conversion features like add-to-cart or virtual gifting.

We recognised the need for an end-to-end solution providing businesses with more control and tailored services for their live and short video needs.

Could you share your insights on the evolving trends in social commerce and its foreseeable future? How does BeLive stay attuned to emerging trends and develop its offerings accordingly? How many clients do you currently serve? 

BeLive Technology serves customers and partners that invest in social commerce across multiple verticals like retail, broadcast and e-commerce. Even though we have a thesis on how our solutions can drive the development of social commerce in the region, we are also in commonplace conversations with innovation leaders in the space, using their feedback to influence our product roadmap.

We serve diverse clients across the retail, e-commerce and broadcast verticals like Shopback, Trendyol, Genting Group and Mediacorp. 

We employ a simple annual licensing revenue model pegged to user capacity and video traffic.

Also Read: Hard work takes over when talent fails: Latif Sim of BeLive Technology

How does BeLive leverage technology to enhance sellers’ and buyers’ social commerce experience? 

Our easy-to-install video solutions transform traditional text and image-based digital properties into swipeable, shoppable video experiences. Any website or app can display full-screen TikTok or Instagram Reels-esque short and live videos that increase user engagement time and intent capture by 300 per cent.

BeLive’s video solutions include features like virtual gifting, levelling and add-to-cart buttons that significantly increase the buying and selling experiences. We also have a vast network of partners that allow us to tap into the latest video content and social commerce innovations, like virtual humans, XR live commerce and AI assistants.

What methods does BeLive employ to foster community and trust among its users? 

BeLive’s video solution includes features like virtual gifting, levelling and add-to-cart buttons that significantly increase the seller-buyer experiences, bringing buyers closer to the creation of products that they love, introduced by KOLs (Key Opinion Leader) they trust.

Allowing merchants to broadcast authentic live videos and polished short videos directly on their shop pages and e-commerce platforms is invaluable for building brand trust and loyalty.

With data privacy concerns gaining prominence, how does BeLive Technology prioritise and ensure the security of user data and transactions?

All user data and transactions are stored not on BeLive’s servers but on our customers’ servers. We take only anonymous, aggregated user data to ensure maximum security and compliance for our enterprise customers and their users.

Also Read: Destroy your enemies by making them your friends: Kenneth Tan of BeLive

Besides traditional metrics, how does Belive Technology gauge its impact on fostering genuine connections between buyers and sellers?

One of our north-star metrics is “minutes delivered”, which directly correlates with the success of our customer’s video content generated. We have over five billion minutes, or the equivalent of 9,000 years of video content delivered so far!

BeLive Technology recently secured US$4.5 million in a bridge funding round. Could you shed light on the strategic goals or expansion areas this funding intends to support?

We invest deeply in our customers’ success, which involves constantly evolving our product, partner network and thought leadership.

Southeast Asia is on the cusp of a video-first revolution. Consumers are devouring enormous amounts of video content daily on multiple platforms; a whopping 86 per cent of global internet traffic in 2022 was used for video content!

This translates into the inevitable commoditisation of live video and short video broadcasts — every website and app in the world will eventually have a video solution like BeLive’s installed. With the support of our backers, we are sharpening our toolkits, streamlining processes and, most importantly, getting our heads down and building world-class, video-first experiences for our customers.

What innovations or developments can users and stakeholders anticipate from BeLive Technology in the next phase of its journey?

With video at our core, we will continue to build tools that empower content creation with clear business impact objectives like user time spent and intent capture.

We are also building the world’s first live and short video media network, helping brands simultaneously broadcast their videos on walled gardens and the open web. A brand can produce a single live stream or short video and have that video asset distributed seamlessly to any social platform, E-commerce platform or website that BeLive’s partner network covers.

Every video also has intelligent sentiment analysis, AI assistants and best-in-class interactive features.

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