In this edition of We Live To Build, we talk about why, as a visionary, stagnation can be worse than death. Stagnation is depicted as a threat that can gradually erode creativity, innovation, and overall dynamism, potentially harming businesses and personal growth.

To combat stagnation, we suggest changing routines to strike a balance between stability and flexibility. This approach allows for long-term stability while fostering short-term adaptability. We share personal examples of how to diversify daily routines, incorporating variations in waking times, meditation practices, workout locations, and work environments. This shift in approach has made their life more interesting and enjoyable.

Additionally, we also propose an extreme method to combat mental cobwebs and stimulate change: travelling to another country.

Also Read: Taking a six-week mental break: A personal journey

We would like to highlight the benefits of immersing ourselves in different cultures and environments to awaken the mind and find solutions to new challenges. Our extensive travels in 2023 are an example of how this approach has enriched life and provided fresh perspectives.

Ultimately, the text leaves readers with a thought-provoking question: Would you rather adhere rigidly to routine and risk stagnation or embrace change and flexibility to lead a more dynamic and fulfilling life?

—

This content was first published by We Live To Build. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

Listen to the podcast on YouTube, iTunes, and Spotify.

Featured Image Credit: RunwayML

The post In business, stagnation is worse than death appeared first on e27.

Being valued at over US$4.1 billion at the time of its much-hyped IPO in 2021, Babylon Health was once hailed as a pioneering force behind the revolution of the healthcare sector, applying artificial intelligence and deep learning to facilitate diagnosis and triage.

Consequently, in 2023, the news that the company was filing for bankruptcy shocked the world, and one of its core businesses was sold for less than a million dollars. Babylon is not the first unicorn to fail and is certainly not the last one.

Hence, it is critical for investors, venture capitalists, and people to revisit the stories of failed unicorn ventures to learn their lessons and prevent history from repeating itself.

Powa Technologies

Powa Technologies, an e-commerce startup, was valued at US$2.7 billion in 2016 and went public shortly after. It quickly established offices in the most expensive locations around the world, such as London and New York, but unfortunately failed to acquire any major customers and never became profitable. This led to Powa Technologies missing payments to employees and contractors, eventually forcing the unicorn into bankruptcy.

The rapid expansion of Powa Technologies may have been a contributing factor to their downfall; they were unable to keep up with the high costs while also managing their financial obligations. Moreover, with the lavish funding from its investors, Powa Technologies’ management was known to throw luxurious parties at prime locations and pay big salary checks for its executives while failing to develop and deliver its promised products.

In 2015, the company was already reported to have trouble with cash and was unable to pay its debt. However, being carried away by greed and illusions, investors continued to pay for Powa Technologies’ losses until the company eventually filed for bankruptcy.

Solar manufacturer Solyndra

Solyndra was a solar panel manufacturer based in Fremont, California, that went bankrupt in 2011. The company had received US$535 million of federal loan guarantees from the Obama administration to support its operations and expansion plans. Solyndra’s failure is often cited as an example of costly government intervention in the private sector and has been used by opponents of renewable energy subsidies to argue against such policies.

The primary reasons for Solyndra’s demise were price shifts in polysilicon, which made their panels more expensive than competitors; the inability of their panels to work with residential roofing systems or large solar farms (a key part of the market); and increasing competition more cost-effective products offered by Chinese or Taiwanese manufacturers.

Also Read: What to do when your unicorn loses its sheen

The consequences associated with these events have been far-reaching both politically as well as economically: On top of being an embarrassing example illustrating some potential flaws within Obama administration economic policies regarding investment incentives into green technologies, the US taxpayers are now left footing the bill totalling over half-billion dollars.

Babylon Health

Babylon Health, founded in 2013, was once a highly valued unicorn startup that provided an integrated primary care model leveraging remote patient monitoring to intervene and treat sooner. It also offered a healthcare app for AI-powered diagnosis and video appointments with its Babylon 360 value-based care platform. Unfortunately, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2021 due to several factors leading up to this decision.

Firstly, Babylon Health acquired bad assets such as Meritage Medical Network and First Choice Medical Group, which proved costly in terms of both finances and reputation damage when it came time for repayment. Additionally, the company failed to deliver on some of its promised technologies while spending beyond what it could afford without proper accountability or oversight from investors or board members alike. This unchecked spending further contributed towards their financial woes, resulting in a bankruptcy filing in 2023.

In sum, the downfall of such unicorns as Powa Technologies, Solyndra, and Babylon Health serves as a cautionary tale about how startups should be managed responsibly with proper planning ahead before taking any major decisions like acquisitions, etc., especially during times when many companies are struggling financially.

By learning from their mistakes, we can ensure similar situations do not occur again by being more mindful of our investments in new ventures going forward.

—

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: Canva

The post The fall of multi-billion-dollar unicorns: A warning tale appeared first on e27.

With an ever-changing and crowded social media landscape today, businesses could struggle to build a seamless omni-channel experience for their customers.

Threads, BeReal, and Bondee are some examples of modern platforms that rapidly emerged but waned in popularity just as quickly. Finding the perfect cross-cutting platform is even harder considering that region-specific channels like Douyin and Xiaohongshu are mainly popular in China and less so in other countries.

AIA, which has a presence in 18 Asia Pacific markets, has experience navigating the omni-channel landscape. The insurance provider is more than 100 years old but has evolved its customer engagement strategies to stay relevant. Three years ago, AIA embarked on another ambitious transformation journey via its Technology, Digital and Analytics (TDA) programme.

The learnings from the TDA journey unearthed valuable advice for businesses keen to overcome the omni-channel complexity – which is to build an experience that meets the customer where they want to be.

Expanding the perspective

The first principle to meeting the customer is to be digitally led. This means moving beyond a one or two-platform mindset and considering every platform where the customer could be. An elevated multi-channel experience is formed when businesses expand their perspective and curate a powerful ecosystem that plays to each platform’s strengths.

Social media is one scalable way to connect meaningfully with customers, making it a go-to platform for any business keen to uplift its omni-channel strategy. Better yet, social media’s scope of interactions is ever-expanding with the rise of super-apps in countries like Indonesia, South Korea, and China.

AIA China noticed this trend, where super app WeChat is used by everyone to chat, order food, make payments, and play video games, among other features. Although social-focused platforms like Xiaohongshu might seem a more popular choice to ground an omni-channel strategy, a digitally-led approach expanded AIA’s perspective and led to a WeChat integration with the AIA+ Super App, bringing two super apps together via an approach called One Experience.

Having WeChat in One Experience helped AIA build an integrated service ecosystem that harnesses the combined interactive experiences and user traffic of two super-apps. Customers have easier access to the AIA+ app to make service requests, submit claims, and even check their health and well-being.

Also Read: Unlocking growth and retention: Harnessing the power of omnichannel communication strategies

Through gamification, users can receive content relevant to their needs. One Experience contributed to 4.2 million users, 200,000 daily active users, and an average 4.5 rating on the app store for the AIA+ Super App (by December 2022), which is a testament to the success of this approach.

Putting the customers’ needs first

Meeting the customer means choosing platforms that meet their needs and not banking on trendy platforms. Using a platform with millions of users can achieve high reach for your business but lack customer relevance. Instead, a platform that offers convenience and relevant content will create long-term value by consistently bringing them back to your product.

Ideally, a chosen platform should be able to deliver personalised content that can reliably meet customers’ needs. This requires a setup where data analytics and customer experiences come together to ensure different audiences using the same application receive personalised content.

In Thailand, AIA’s super app, ALive, is using data analytics to provide an enhanced level of personalisation. Research into customer demographics and psychographics identified young couples and families as key customer segments, while physical, emotional, and financial issues were identified as their biggest areas of dissatisfaction.

The app was developed with relevant, personalised content to meet their needs. ALive is an example of an omni-channel experience that is personalised and effectively sustains interest from the customer, and it’s now been extended to more customer segments.

Another angle is to match the customer’s lifestyle and communication preferences to the platform available to them. Mobile platforms like WhatsApp are increasingly popular in industries like retail, banking, and insurance as businesses cater to individuals who want instant messaging while on the go.

In Indonesia, AIA customers can use ANYA to effortlessly tap into automated insurance offerings via WhatsApp, which is the most popular social media channel in Indonesia. According to a 2022 study by Kantar, seven out of ten Indonesians prefer business messaging services as compared to using a phone or email.

Also Read: Is omnichannel commerce a fairy tale for SMEs in Singapore?

Capitalising on this behaviour, AIA allowed customers to seamlessly access vital information and initiate self-service features like filing claims and modifying payment preferences on the app. Similarly, in the Philippines, BPI AIA Pamilya Protect uses Facebook Messenger to offer customers a simple and intuitive process of covering pre-qualification, purchasing, payment, and submitting e-contracts.

The new frontier for omnichannel experiences

Technology is rapidly changing, which further complicates the landscape but also creates new opportunities. Businesses must stay tuned to new technologies to test, learn, and discover innovative ways of meeting the customer.

The emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology for businesses to take note of as it can transform the intelligence of the omni-channel ecosystem and create hyper-personalised customer-facing content.

AIA is exploring more Generative AI use cases in the next phase of its transformation journey. Today, AI already powers AIA’s social media prospecting tool (SIM), which generates customer-facing content across different platforms for agents to craft more personalised customer messages.

AI-powered personalised marketing helped AIA’s agents deliver more than US$280 million in annualised new premiums through digitally generated customer sales in 2022 and could potentially be boosted with the adoption of new Generative AI models.

Meeting the customer

Existing platforms are evolving, and new ones will emerge. Against this landscape, businesses can overcome the modern omni-channel crowd, uncertainty, and confusion by adopting a customer-centric and digitally-driven approach while embracing innovation.

By following these principles, businesses will be guided by the right perspectives and motivations, giving them the confidence to build experiences that meet customers on any channel they choose, with personalised value at every stage of their journey or lifecycle.

—

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: Adobe Firefly

The post Meeting the customer where they want to be, in an omni-channel world appeared first on e27.

Southeast Asian investors are taking significant steps to bolster the region’s startup ecosystem through strategic investments in innovative companies. Among the key players, Petronas Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Malaysia’s Petronas, is collaborating with Twin Towers Ventures and Gobi Partners to support sustainable innovation in Southeast Asia and China’s Greater Bay Area.

With US$1.6 billion in assets, Gobi Partners continues to nurture startups, while Artem Ventures partners with Google for sustainable development. Other firms like Asia Fund X, ScaleUp Malaysia, and 500 Global are also actively driving growth in the startup landscape.

Here is the list of investors that invested in the region’s startups this week:

Petronas Ventures

Petronas Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Petronas, Malaysia’s global energy and solutions company. It invests in visionary entrepreneurs with breakthrough technologies and innovative business models supporting the parent company’s business growth and sustainability agenda.

It also aims to be the growth accelerator partner in Malaysia to influence the technology-driven startup ecosystem while serving PETRONAS business needs. PTV International Ventures, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, manages its direct investments in Asia and indirect investments into VC funds.

This week, Petronas Ventures’s investment arm Twin Towers Ventures (TTV) and VC firm Gobi Partners announced the collaboration to invest in the ecosystem of sustainable innovation within Southeast Asia and the Greater Bay Area in China.

Gobi Partners

Gobi Partners is a pan-Asian VC investor with US$1.6 billion in assets under management. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, the VC firm supports entrepreneurs from the early to growth stages and focuses on emerging and underserved markets.

Founded in 2002, Gobi has raised 17 funds, invested in over 380 startups and nurtured ten unicorns. Gobi has grown to 15 locations across key markets in Bangkok, Cairo, Dhaka, Guangzhou, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Lahore, Manila, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore and Surabaya.

This week, Gobi invested in Kiddocare, an on-demand caregiving platform in Malaysia.

Artem Ventures

Artem Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Malaysia. It currently manages TIM Ventures, a fund that invests in early-stage fintech and insurtech firms. The fund has invested in 12 companies. Artem also actively engages with the venture capital ecosystem as a member of the Malaysian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association. As part of a global initiative to support high-impact and sustainable startups, Artem partnered with Google for their Startups for Sustainable Development programme.

Artem invested in Kiddocare, an on-demand caregiving platform in Malaysia this week.

Asia Fund X

Asia Fund X (AFX) is an opportunity fund. It invests in promising startups in the digital economies of Southeast Asia, particularly in data tech, enterprise tech, sustainability, food tech and agritech, with established product-market fit and experienced founders.

Asia Fund X invested in Kiddocare, an on-demand caregiving platform in Malaysia this week.

ScaleUp Malaysia

Launched in October 2019, ScaleUp Malaysia is a startup accelerator that helps companies raise their next round. Its philosophy is building businesses with high revenue growth and a path to profitability.

ScaleUp invested in Kiddocare, an on-demand caregiving platform in Malaysia this week.

500 Global

500 Global is a VC firm with US$2.4 billion in assets under management that invests in founders building fast-growing technology companies. It focuses on markets where technology, innovation, and capital can unlock long-term value and drive economic growth.

It invests far and wide across sectors and geographies, including 35+ companies valued at US$1 billion+ and 160+ companies valued at more than US$100 million.

This week, 500 Global invested in NexMind, an AI-powered multilingual digital marketing platform.

pitchIN

pitchIN is a digital platform for investing and fundraising that connects entrepreneurs with potential investors. pitchIN started its journey in crowdfunding, firstly as a reward crowdfunding platform in 2012.

Its platform allows entrepreneurs to create profiles, share their business plans, and connect with potential investors. It also offers resources and tools to help entrepreneurs improve their pitch and increase their chances of success.

This week, pitchIN launched pitchIN Academy to offer practical and easy-to-understand educational programmes, activities and content on alternative financing and investment.

AlteriQ Global

AlteriQ is an Asia-focused private credit strategy with a strong edge in Southeast Asia. It builds a fully integrated financing ecosystem as a capital partner with a regional presence, proprietary network of relationships, and risk management expertise.

Aument Capital Partners

Aument Capital Partners is a multi-family office geared towards entrepreneurs, offering family office services from investment management, reporting, consolidation, cashflow planning and access to its venture partner programme.

Orange Bloom

Orange Bloom was started in 2012 as a ship-recycling consultancy and provider of turn-key solutions for ship owners’ ship decommissioning requirements within Southeast Asia. It recently set up The Orange Bloom Sustainability Fund to provide financial support to individuals/SMEs working on projects that counter climate change, advance environmental sustainability and involve the communities in Asia. Orange Bloom also assists SMEs in transitioning to a low-carbon economy.

This week, AlteriQ, Aument, and Orange Bloom invested in the Southeast Asian SME digital finance platform Funding Societies (known as Modalku in Indonesia).

Peak XV Partners

Formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA, Peak XV is a VC and growth investing firm investing across India, Southeast Asia and beyond. Over the last 17 years of its operations in the region, Peak XV has grown to manage over US$9 billion in capital across 13 funds and invested in over 400 companies. It works from five offices – Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, and Dubai.

This week, PeakXV backed Bright Money, a fintech company helping users get out of debt using AI and credit products.

—

Copyright: vectortone

The post SEA’s investors fuel region’s startup ecosystem with strategic investments appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based biotechnology startup Automera has secured US$16 million in a Series A round of investment co-led by early-stage life science accelerator and investment firm Accelerator Life Science Partners (ALSP) and Temasek-backed venture builder ClavystBio.

EDBI, Xora Innovation, and other undisclosed investors also participated.

Automera was established by Associate Professor Michael Lazarou, Loong Wang, and Taiyang Zhang at Talo Labs in collaboration with ALSP.

It is an early-stage company focused on developing a novel therapeutic approach via autophagy-based targeted protein degradation. The biotech startup aims to leverage its understanding of autophagy, drug development capabilities, access to quantum chemistry, and generative Al-enabled insights to enhance its drug development programmes. Automera’s autophagy-targeting chimaera small molecules (AUTAC) platform has broad potential across cancer and other disease areas, with oncology being the initial lead programme.

Also Read: ‘We aim to make early cancer detection accessible on a global scale’: Mirxes CEO

The AUTAC platform is a next-generation approach to realising the potential of targeted protein degradation (TPD) as a therapeutic modality. TPD, an emerging field of novel therapeutics, catalyses the degradation of disease-related proteins while retaining the benefits of small molecules.

“Automera was founded on the premise that improving health outcomes for people with serious diseases requires new technologies that make it easier, faster, and less expensive to develop safe and effective medicines,” said Loong Wang, Co-Founder of Automera. “We believe that our AUTAC platform is one such technology, with broad potential across multiple disease indications that are difficult to treat with current therapeutic approaches.”

Alice Chen, Executive VP at ALSP and Automera board member, said: “We plan to leverage ALSP’s unique company-building capabilities in Singapore, and we look forward to working with the broader Singapore community to enhance the platform technologies and early-stage therapeutic programmes that Automera will develop.”

—

Copyright: tongpatong321

The post Singaporean biotech startup Automera secures US$16M Series A financing appeared first on e27.