Day: October 14, 2023

The cryptocurrency boom in 2020-2021 made many countries think about issuing digital currencies. Having the advantages of crypto assets, they are issued by a single source — the Central Bank, which controls their further circulation in the financial system.

Asian countries have also participated in this boom. In 2021, Asian markets accounted for 30 per cent of all global cryptocurrency transfers. Last year and the beginning of this year, however, were characterised by turbulence in the market. From April 2022 to March 2023, the crypto market capitalisation decreased by 46 per cent to US$1.2 trillion for a while. 

This gave CBDCs another impetus. They started developing as an alternative method of transactions and a means of increasing financial inclusion, reducing risks of money laundering and financing illegal activities. According to BIS, the share of surveyed global central banks involved in developing CBDCs increased to 93 per cent in 2022. 

Today, 11 countries have fully launched CBDCs. 13 states, including India, Sweden, Singapore, France, South Korea, Canada and others, are at the pilot development stage.

The powerful foundation laid by the cryptocurrency market, as well as the rapid acceleration of financial digitalisation, contribute to the development of national CBDCs in Southeast Asia. There is another regional driver: in ASEAN+3, about 90 per cent of intra-regional trade transactions are still carried out in dollars. Local banks have to cooperate with global ones, which results in additional fees and longer processing terms.

Also Read: Is CBDC the answer to the crypto fallout?

A number of countries in the region, including Indonesia, Myanmar and Cambodia, are working on digital currencies. Singapore, the regional fintech leader, is also actively developing its CBDC. Until recently, it focused on Project Ubin, which explored the possibility of using blockchain and DLT technologies to settle payments and securities.

Last November, the national regulator MAS announced the launch of Ubin+, which would develop foreign exchange settlements using wholesale CBDCs. In addition, there are several interstate projects related to CBDCs.

The implementation of CBDCs has its pros and cons. Opponents of digital currencies mention the violation of privacy and the risk of vulnerability to cyber attacks. This could be solved by introducing a sophisticated regulatory infrastructure. On the other hand, the complete transparency of financial transactions generates interest for Central Banks.

In addition, a significant incentive for implementing CBDCs is that they can simplify many current tasks and facilitate the further development of financial technologies and the financial ecosystem through the integration and development of payment channels, cross-border payment systems and such.

Finally, the growing global economic instability adds to the relevance of CBDCs. In this regard, Central Banks receive an additional lever of control over the effective use of funds.

It is important that CBDC technology will not be the only benefit for the national economies. They will also push the development of related areas – for example, creating a renewed infrastructure for payments, improving the security system or simplifying regulatory legislation. Here, Central Banks act as pioneers for the entire financial system.

Finally, there are discussions about introducing a single digital currency in Southeast Asia, which promises high efficiency and reduced transaction costs. Undoubtedly, there are significant challenges along this path.

They mainly concern the interaction between various national CBDCs, which do not yet fully exist. The general strategy, however, remains realistic.

Considering close intra-regional economic ties, a developing single fintech space and the presence of its “headquarters” in Singapore, the potential introduction of a single digital currency looks like a powerful driver for accelerating regional CBDC initiatives. 

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On the second day of TechWeek Singapore on Thursday, Dr Patrick O’Connell, Chief Digital Transformation Officer, US Navy, revealed the seven reasons why digital transformation efforts in organisations fail.

According to the expert, who is hired by US Navy to lead digital transformation efforts in its organisation, the top three reasons include lack of ownership of these initiatives from the leadership; “shoestring, scattered, and unstable” budget; and the lack of stable, fulltime “all-star” team that runs the initiatives.

“You do not need to necessarily lead it as it may not be your skillset, but if [leaders] are not actively engaged, the company will not carry it out for them,” Dr O’Connell explained why leadership has to be actively engaged with digital transformation programme.

“And they will do it only for a while, wanting to buy some food and then gradually begin to drift off.”

He also stressed to importance of having a steady, strong budget to support the running of these programmes.

“Typically, as different executives come and go, it may change. The constant replanting is something that is sort of a death knell for transformation,” Dr O’Connell said.

Also Read: 

Other factor that is crucial in ensuring the success of digital transformation efforts is, interestingly, organisations need to make sure that they are not being overly dependent on the technology alone. Dr O’Connell stated that digital transformation goes beyond the use of technology itself; it is also about managing and making sure that it works, supporting by proper resources and team.

For private organisations, there are both advantages and disadvantages when it comes to exercising digital transformation.

“Generally speaking, industry has more degrees of freedom than the government. So they get to [start this] transformation before the government even gets there. But they also tend to move a little bit slower because the consensus is a lot less solid,” he stresses.

Held on October 11-12 at Marina Bay Sands, TechWeek Singapore features keynotes from renowned speakers, exhibitions from global brands, and priceless networking opportunities for tech industry players. It features seven shows under one big event: Cloud Expo, DevOps Live, Cyber Security World, Data Centre World, Big Data & AI World, eCommerce Expo, and Technology for Marketing.

The post US Navy Chief Digital Transformation Officer reveals why most transformations fail appeared first on e27.

Dear Pro member,

Indonesia’s J&T Global Express is gearing up for a substantial Hong Kong IPO to raise US$500M, making it the second-largest new share sale in the city for 2023.

The courier services startup initially had aspirations to raise at least US$1B in its Hong Kong IPO during the latter part of 2023. While the exact valuation sought in the IPO remains undisclosed, it’s expected to be substantial, given J&T’s impressive track record.

In 2021, the firm secured US$2.5B in funding at a US$20B valuation from notable investors, including Tencent Holdings and several prominent capital groups.

This IPO news provides hope for the Hong Kong stock market, which has seen a rather lacklustre year for new share sales, primarily due to increased interest rates and stricter regulatory requirements for mainland Chinese firms seeking listings abroad.

Despite these challenges, J&T’s IPO, following the footsteps of Chinese spirits maker ZJLD Group, aims to reinvigorate the Hong Kong IPO landscape and provide an exciting opportunity for investors interested in the logistics and e-commerce sectors.

Sainul,
Editor
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J&T Global aims to launch US$500M Hong Kong IPO on Monday
The Indonesian courier services startup had earlier aimed to raise at least US$1B via a Hong Kong IPO in H2 2023; The company raised US$2.5B at a valuation of US$20B in 2021 from Boyu Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia China, and Tencent.

East Ventures, SV Investment launch US$100M fund
The East Ventures South Korea fund aims to open the investment corridor between the Southeast Asian and Korean venture ecosystems; It will invest in startups in biotech, healthcare, future mobility, greentech, and media & content.

Dennis Nguyen steps down as Society Pass CEO amidst court cases, SEC probe
He is replaced by CFO Raynauld Liang; SoPa has entered into a structured financing pact to sell up to US$40M in shares to Strattners; Last month, a US court ordered SoPa to pay ~US$750K to its former CTO Rahul Narain for breaching his employment contract.

MoneySmart hits operational profitability, eyes IPO by 2025
Revenue increased 37% to US$17.6M for the first half of 2023 from the same period last year; After aborting a US$161.7M reverse takeover deal to go public late last year, the company said it intends to pursue an IPO within the next two years.

Indonesia demands Meta to remove online gambling content
This covers any content that supports, facilitates, or promotes online gambling activities; The ministry sent a warning letter to Meta on October 2; Meta has reportedly committed to and begun taking down the online gambling ads.

Jungle Ventures rolls out new programme to back idea-stage startups
First Cheque@Jungle is based on two core concepts: focus on only a few exceptional teams with bold ideas at any given time and a sizeable first cheque with no minimum ownership criteria.

Account Labs nets US$7.7M, set to launch smart contract wallet app UniPass
The investors are Amber Group, MixMarvel DAO Ventures, and Qiming Ventures; UniPass will initially be launched and tested in the Philippines before expanding to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

WORQ closes pre-Series B round to expand co-working spaces in Malaysia
The investors are Phillip Capital and the Leong family office; The startup says it is on track to double its space under management by the end of 2023 and aims to triple that space to 450K sqft by 2025.

Phasio lands US$2.5M to connect manufacturers, customers via digital storefront
The investors are Airtree Ventures, 500 Global, Entrepreneur First, and Gattaca Ventures; Phasio tackles the workflow between manufacturers and customers, from instant quotations and collaborating on designs to managing personalised order experiences.

TikTok faces scrutiny in Malaysia over fake news
Fahmi Fadzil, Malaysia’s minister of communication, said that TikTok’s efforts to comply with the country’s regulations are “unsatisfactory”; TikTok recently shut down its e-commerce feature in Indonesia.

Eazy Digital bags US$1M for Malaysian, Philippine expansion
Investors include M Venture Partners, Wavemaker Partners, and Orvel Ventures; A SaaS insurtech startup, Eazy Digital boasts features such as an automation campaign builder to launch data-driven and personalised campaigns to boost sales efficiency.

LUNA raises funding for its Operating System for Indonesian merchants
The investors include TNB Aura, Seedstars, 1982 Ventures, and Century Oak Capital; According to LUNA, it covers over 70 cities in Indonesia and is growing over 20 per cent m-o-m, with over 7,000 active merchants onboarded.

Mesh Bio raises funding from East Ventures
The Singapore-based healthtech startup develops clinical decision support analytics and automation solutions for patients; Dara, Mesh Bio’s health intelligence platform, provides real-time patient data such as health history, lab tests, and medical images.

UnaFinancial, Velexa launch digital investing platform in UAE
The platform enables UnaFinancial’s clients to acquire and trade multiple asset classes like equities, forex, bonds, commodities, and derivatives; In the initial phase, the platform will enable investment options and tools covering US Equities & ETFs and FX trading.

Ctrip co-founder Fan Min backs Vietnamese travel startup Vntrip
The app offers a travel management system to corporate clients to streamline the booking and approval processes for hotels and flights; Vntrip has raised over US$20M so far; The company said it’s working with 1,500 corporate clients across the country.

Gobi Partners invests in Malaysian reseller digital ecosystem Ejen2u
Artem Ventures also invested; Ejen2u’s offerings include a reseller management platform, education platform, reseller-based venture builder, and fintech solutions; Currently, Ejen2u’s platform serves over 340,000 resellers across Malaysia.

Xctuality develops virtual experiential platform, accelerating brands into metaverse”
Xctuality, founded by Adrian Oliveiro and Warren Woon, is revolutionising the virtual experiential space while helping SMEs enter the metaverse.

How Carrots&Cake fixes kids’ screen time dilemma with learn-first-play-later approach
Carrots&Cake’s key advantages are that learning time is focused and distraction-free, and through micro-learning, kids compound knowledge with small but consistent daily effort.

Unlocking marketing success for startups and SMEs: Strategies for excellence
When it comes to creating a marketing plan for startups and small businesses, there are unique approaches that founders need to keep in mind.

‘Our early SEA years were a great training for the challenges of MENA’: Wego CEO
Most business travel in the MENA region is still self-managed or outsourced to an old-school travel agency, says Wego CEO Ross Veitch.

Social commerce’s evolution, regulation in Indonesia: The TikTok Shop ban
Orderfaz Founder & CEO Reynaldi Gandawidjaja shares his thoughts about the recent TikTok Shop ban in Indonesia and how it will impact us all.

Philanthropy’s evolution: Entrepreneurs shaping the future of learning
The transformation of entrepreneurs into philanthropists reflects a profound shift in the values and priorities of business leaders.

How is Vietnam taking the lead in the blockchain market?
Vietnam leads in global cryptocurrency adoption for 2021 and 2022, second only to Thailand in ASEAN for holders.

Tech salary is escalating: How can companies survive the talent war?
As the talent war over engineers intensifies, companies should be prepared to face shorter average tenures and higher turnover rates.

The art of capital allocation: 5 pillars for a future-proof startup
In the intricate landscape of capital allocation, startups shape their path to success with a clear vision and strategy.

On-chain data and Web3 security: Insights from industry experts
Web3 security will shift from a reactive to a proactive approach, prioritizing prevention over post-attack responses.

How network security came to be the lifeline to patient safety and trust
AI networking features aid healthcare organisations in comprehending network performance and proactively spotting issues.

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The rising popularity of Gen AI has led to tech companies all over the world to speak more about how they are using the technology to improve their offerings. In Southeast Asia, we have seen the use of AI by companies in the health tech and property sectors such as Doctor Anywhere and Ohmyhome.

On the second day of TechWeek Singapore, Ohmyhome Group COO and Co-Founder Race Wong presented her company’s latest feature, HomerGPT. Inspired by popular tool ChatGPT, HomerGPT provided information through the use of a chatbot. But the difference about the platform is that it provides users with information related to properties, including the potential price of the property that they own.

“The data comes from different sources; from website, social media, WhatsApp. What we do is that we pull all this data into our data pool and use our match algorithm when there is a property that is going to be sold by Ohmyhome,” Wong explains.

According to her presentation, inaccurate information on property price can cost homeowners up to S$80,000.

“The price of misinformation is very costly for every single family,” Wong explains. “We are here to empower homeowners the most powerful tools to ensure that you make the right decisions for our family.”

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In the healthtech sector, Doctor Anywhere has used the AI technology at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to help predict demand for healthcare services.

The use of this tech began when the company realised that their prediction of an upcoming pandemic and when it can be expected to end is just as accurate as the government’s—if not more.

“We were able to use historical data trends and predict demands during the pandemic based on things like consultation numbers, medication, inventory, and logistics. And decide how we can handle this whole thing,” explained Wai Mun Lim, Founder & CEO, Doctor Anywhere, in his presentation.

“It is going to be a very, very profound impact on our operations because when we are able to minimise the risks, we were able to get more of this. We are able to minimise patient waiting time, provide better user experience.”

Held on October 11-12 at Marina Bay Sands, TechWeek Singapore features keynotes from renowned speakers, exhibitions from global brands, and priceless networking opportunities for tech industry players.

It features seven shows under one big event: Cloud Expo, DevOps Live, Cyber Security World, Data Centre World, Big Data & AI World, eCommerce Expo, and Technology for Marketing.

The post How these SEA tech companies are using AI to improve their offerings appeared first on e27.

This week marked a significant milestone for a variety of innovative startups as they successfully secured substantial venture capital funding. From a telehealth pioneer to an insurtech disruptor and a Web3 wallet innovator, these companies are poised for growth and development.

Let’s delve into the details of the investments that are driving their future endeavours.

Good Doctor

Founded in 2018, Indonesia-based telehealth startup Good Doctor allows customers to consult doctors online, buy medicines from Health Mall, and book offline doctor appointments at hospital partners.

The company boasts partnerships with over 2,500 doctors and 4,500 healthcare facilities, including pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, and official health laboratories. These partnerships serve a customer base of over 2,500 companies and 15 million users in both the B2B and B2C sectors.

This week, Good Doctor raised US$10 million in a Series A funding round led by MDI Ventures, with participation from existing investor Grab.

Circular

Founded in Singapore in 2021 by Nick Ramsay, George Oliver, Pantha Roy, and Yaniv Bernstein, Circular is a subscription service focused on high-end consumer electronics. It offers customers subscriptions on a wide range of premium tech devices with free damage protection that covers up to 90 per cent of the repair cost.

Through a flexible and affordable monthly subscription, the startup allows customers to sustainably access the latest tech gadgets at a fraction of the cost. Adding to its core categories of phones, tablets and laptops, Circular recently began offering popular gaming products as part of its Singapore catalogue.

This week, it secured US$7.6 million in funding from YC Continuity Fund, Global Founders Capital, Partech Ventures, and January Capital.

Ejen2u

Founded by Sheikh Ezaiddin, Imran Hadi, and Taufiq Zakir, Ejen2u provides a reseller digital ecosystem in Malaysia. It helps micro, small and medium enterprises — including brand owners, stockists, agents, and drop-shippers — increase their business. Its offerings include a cloud-based reseller management platform, reseller education platform, reseller-based venture builder, and several fintech solutions.

Ejen2u bagged an undisclosed sum in a pre-Series A funding round led by Gobi Partners through the Gobi Dana Impak Ventures fund, with participation from Artem Ventures.

WORQ

Founded in 2017, WORQ is a Malaysia-based coworking and flexible space provider. It aims to make real estate more accessible by offering office spaces designed like Google’s, making real estate available to users through a space-as-a-service approach.

In 2023, the company claims to have achieved an 80 per cent revenue growth while maintaining mid-teen net profit margins. The firm said the demand for flexible office space is on the rise, with growing interest not only from its traditional clients like tech startups and SMEs but also from global companies expanding into the region.

This week, the startup closed an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series B funding round from Phillip Capital and the Leong family office of property developer Mah Sing Group.

Phasio

Founded by Harry Conor Lucas (CEO) and Raman (CPO), Phasio provides a manufacturing interface tailored to address existing friction points between manufacturers and customers throughout the standard process. The company claims its software tackles the end-to-end workflow between these stakeholders — from instant quotations to collaborating on designs to managing personalised order experiences via a digital storefront.

Each tool featured on Phasio’s manufacturing interface is designed to streamline product development in a way that’s intuitive to the manufacturer-customer workflow. For instance, when collaborating on designs, Phasio’s interface enables the manufacturer and customer to view the design on the former’s website and leave comments on the parts in 3D. This means a single engineer can scale up their workflow from an average of two projects to ten at a time.

This week, the Singapore- and Berlin-based startup secured US$2.5 million in seed funding led by Airtree Ventures, with participation from 500 Global, Entrepreneur First, and Michael Sorkin’s Gattaca Ventures.

LUNA

Launched in late 2019 by Abdullah Lewis (CEO), Patricco Baron (CTO), and Irianto Siah (COO), LUNA is an Indonesian embedded fintech and vertical SaaS platform for retailers and MSMEs in Indonesia. It offers an Operating System for merchants to improve their operations, payments, accounting, access to financing, supply chain, digital marketing, customer relationship, loyalty programmes, HR, legal and compliance.

This week, it raised an undisclosed round of financing led by TNB Aura through its TNBA Scout initiative. Seedstars and existing investors 1982 Ventures, Century Oak Capital, and Prasetia Dwidharma also participated.

Eazy Digital

Eazy Digital is an insurtech startup built by serial entrepreneurs and insurance veterans Harprem Doowa (CEO) and Maethavee Sukul (COO). A SaaS platform, it empowers agents and brokers to automate their insurance sales and processes in Thailand.

Eazy Digital leverages technology to help insurance intermediaries break free from manual and legacy processes. The insurtech platform is built to handle millions of transactions with features such as an automation campaign builder to launch data-driven and personalised campaigns to boost sales efficiency. Agent request management that connects to a workflow system allows agents to request claims, amendments, quotations, and cancellations.

This week, Eazy Digital raised a US$1 million seed round led by M Venture Partners, with participation from returning investors Wavemaker Partners, OneDegree, Ascend Angels, and Orvel Ventures.

Account Labs

Founded in 2023 following the merger of Keystone and UniPass, Account Labs is a Web3 startup based in Singapore. The company offers a smart contract wallet, UniPass, which does away with complex 12-word seed phrases to log in. Wallet owners can use their Google account to set up and log into their wallets, with no Web3 familiarity required. Users can also top up their wallet directly with cards, Apple Pay, or GCash in the Philippines. Users can then send stablecoins directly to other Web3 wallets.

This week, the company raised US$7.7 million from Amber Group, MixMarvel DAO Ventures, and Qiming Ventures.

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