Day: February 20, 2024

Malaysia’s pension fund Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) [KWAP] has invested RM100 million (US$21 million) in two local startups and VC firms each under its Dana Perintis strategy.

The startups are Bateriku and Lapasar. Bateriku is an automotive service provider with a network of partners nationwide, providing job opportunities and increasing financial inclusion. Lapasar, on the other hand, is an online wholesale marketplace that focuses on meeting the needs of the FMCG industry, accelerating the adoption of digitalisation throughout the economy.

Also Read: Lapasar offers a B2C-like e-commerce experience to corporate procurement in Malaysia

The capital will support the growth and expansion plans of both firms.

The two VC funds that KWAP invested in are Vynn Capital and Antler. Vynn Capital is a home-grown fund that invests from the seed stage, focusing on the mobility and supply chain sectors.

Antler is an early-stage VC firm headquartered in Singapore, investing from pre-seed to Series A and beyond. It recently expanded its flagship residency programme to Malaysia, designed to support founders get their startups launched and funded.

These four are the first in a portfolio of fund investments from KWAP that will be carefully curated to inject capital into sections of the local ecosystem that most require it.

Launched in September 2023 with a targeted total deployment of RM500 million (US$104 million), Dana Perintis is designed to accelerate the development of the country’s early-stage ecosystem whilst generating strong returns for beneficiaries via investments in startups and VC funds.

Also Read: Antler partners with Khazanah, to invest in 30+ Malaysian startups over next three years

The four investments align with Dana Perintis’s six focus areas: digital economy, financial inclusion, food security, education, silver economy, and climate change.

The Chief Investment Officer of KWAP, Hazman Hilmi Sallahuddin, said, “We are confident in the prospects and potential of the investment in these four entities and look forward to working closely with them; adding value and lending KWAP’s support to ensure their success. There will be more investments and announcements to come, as KWAP continues its rollout of Dana Perintis.”

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X marks Echelon. Join us at Singapore EXPO on May 15-16 for the 10th edition of Asia’s leading tech and startup conference. Enjoy 2 days of building connections with potential investors, partners, and customers, exploring innovation, and sharing insights with 8,000+ key decision-makers of Asia’s tech ecosystem. Get your tickets here.

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PriyoShop, a B2B retail marketplace for MSMEs in Bangladesh, has completed its US$5 million pre-Series A round of financing led by Century Oak Ventures.

Evolution Ventures, Iterative, SOSV (Orbit Startups), GFR Fund, BonBillo, Accelerating Asia, South Asia Tech Partners, and Voltity also participated.

Also Read: How PriyoShop is revolutionising the B2B procurement process

With this financing, PriyoShop plans to enhance its technology infrastructure while expanding its geographical reach and market penetration. “The capital will be strategically deployed to enhance our technology infrastructure, expand our reach, and introduce innovative solutions, including our financing services, helping us better serve MSMEs and retail partners,” said Founder and CEO Asikul Alam Khan. “At present, we have roughly 55,000 merchants on our platform, and we expect to impact over one million merchants in the coming year positively.”

Launched in July 2021 by Khan and Dipty Mandal (CMO), PriyoShop works with small retail shops and major brands to transform and modernise the retail supply chain industry. Through its asset-light marketplace model, PriyoShop helps small businesses efficiently source goods, access consistent and competitive prices, and rapidly receive goods through next-day delivery. This helps MSMEs increase their business margins.

Through the company’s partnership with the digital financing platform LankaBangla Financing, PriyoShop can help MSMEs scale up their businesses further through tailored credit facilities and access to supply chain financing options.

PriyoShop offers partnerships with brands and suppliers, helping them digitalise logistics support, streamline operations, expand nationwide access throughout Bangladesh, and adopt full-stack digital infrastructure to manage their supply chains. Partner brands and suppliers can utilise PriyoShop Distribution Services to handle various products, including consumer goods, electronics, fashion items and more.

Also Read: Accelerating Asia on building a company culture that fosters innovation and inclusion

To date, PriyoShop has partnered with over 200 brands, including Pusti, Rupchanda, Teer, New Zealand Dairy, Pepsico, and Coca-Cola. The company is also expanding into the food & beverage industry, streamlining supply chains for hotels, restaurants and cafes.

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[This is the first article from e27‘s Key Opinion Leader (KOL) Series]

In my ten years of growing theAsianparent (TAP) — from running bootstrapped operations to fundraising to creating platforms from scratch to entering markets across continents — I thought I had cleared my hurdles in this Olympic test of leadership, only to face the next leg of the race: pole vault in the form of a pandemic.

Putting a screeching halt to my momentum, I stop to take a slow, deep and steadying breath. I didn’t train for this. The bar is too high. But if I don’t clear it, everything comes tumbling down.

This is the situation every leader came face to face with this year.

Also Read: 5 actions to consider for your startup as the economy reopens

Yes, it didn’t come with a pole. And no, it’s not the fear of the unknown that’s paralysing. We are neither strangers to fear, nor the unknown.

It’s volatility that’s the enemy — charting a path knowing the wind or ground could shift anytime. Yet what’s demanded of leaders is the opposite: stability, dependability, certainty. Tough to be in these times.

With TAP spanning 13 countries — lockdowns and re-openings happening at different dates with different measures — planning has suddenly become such a tall order; and the team must grapple with frustration in a way they never had to.

While this particular stress is new to us, being a cross-cultural company is not. The success of TAP has long relied on localised strategies, so we applied this internally.

We reviewed the needs and targets of each office, and of course, no ‘one-size-fits-all’ roadmap emerged. But those roadmaps became our lifeline.

Another thing that wasn’t new to us is remote work. Many in our team are mums and dads who thrive in flexible setups. When homeschooling was thrown into the mix, we translated our office daycare services into online tutoring. That was the obvious move.

Also Read: The future of remote work is happening now, here’s how to make it work for you

Then we realised that with both parents working from home, Monday to Friday office hours would be chaotic. So we offered 4-day work weeks (any four days of the week) at staggered work hours (any eight of the day). I think I heard a collective sigh of relief when it was announced.

Because we all need to breathe.

After we established protocols against COVID-19 to safeguard everyone’s physical health, mental health was our next priority. Part of this was holding company-wide meditation, yoga, fitness, Bollywood dancing, and art workshops.

These early pivots set the tone for how we, as a company, would be overcoming the challenges presented by the new normal — first, by acknowledging that the situation we’re all in is hard, but work need not make it any harder. And second, by making lemonade (because if 2020 were a fruit, it would be a lemon).

The team has squeezed out a lot of creative solutions, and one I found particularly sweet was our leadership team ‘offsite’.

We usually fly people in to one country, which means spending a lot of time and money on logistics. An online offsite requires much much less, so this year we were able to double our participants from 15 to 30. Some of the hotel savings even went to a fantastic lucky draw for the attendees: the latest Samsung Flip phone.

We were also able to have amazing guest speakers dial in from across the region for the seminar: From Beijing (Jeff Tiong, CEO of PatSnap), from Malaysia (Cheryl Goh, Founding CMO of Grab), and from Singapore (Happy Marketer’s Managing Partner Prantik Mazumdar, and Rotimatic CEO Rishi Israni).

What I’ve learned from all this?

While product pivots are the way for companies to find success, if not survival, in the roughest waters we’ve seen for a while, getting the team on board with new plans amidst a very palpable crisis requires shifts in culture.

Also Read: The new communications playbook for the new normal

Leaders have to dig deeper, communicate more clearly, and care more concretely than ever before.

In this pandemic, I’ve stopped taking our numbers at face value. There is a story to every drop or surge in sales, to the varying productivity rates across markets, to an uptick in traffic in certain categories over others.

And as CEO, my first job is to listen. And before that, to be willing to listen, so we can uncover these stories and learn from the truths they hold. And then act.

That’s our 14-foot pole.

That’s why no leader is unequipped to clear that bar, to weather this storm. A seasoned one will have years of hard-earned wisdom like the rings you’ll find in the trunk of an old tree. A young one will have the flexibility of bamboo, bending in the wind but not breaking.

Whichever one you are, listen to your team. Before that, ask. And then act.

Remember that pole vaulting isn’t a top-down leap. Bottom-up is the way to go, if you want to make it clear to the other side.

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Image Credit: Frans Vledderon Unsplash

This article was first published on September 15, 2020

The post Pivoting beyond product: You need to look at your company/work culture, too appeared first on e27.

In October 2023, the Singapore Police Force reported a series of renovation scams in which victims suffered collective losses exceeding SGD198,000 (US$147,000). The individual behind the crime vanished after receiving payments.

It was not a one-off incident; in fact, there have been 3,385 reported complaints in the city-state since 2021. In H1 2023 alone, the Consumers Association of Singapore received 631 complaints about delays and substandard workmanship within the renovation contractor industry. These incidents occur when interior designers face their own challenges, including clients withholding payments.

Also Read: Pivoting beyond product: You need to look at your company/work culture, too

“There was an immediate need for a secure and accountable payment system for the renovation industry,” David Ng, an entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in f&b, logistics, tech, gaming, e-commerce, AI, and blockchain, told e27. “The absence of such a system makes it challenging for homeowners to hold interior design firms accountable for their work and has led to instances of homeowners withholding payments. We realised that an escrow payment system could fix this problem.”

That was how HomePay was born.

Headquartered in Singapore, HomePay aims to address pertinent issues in the home renovation industry, specifically the lack of an escrow payment system and defined milestones. The escrow payment system provides a safeguard that releases funds only upon the homeowner approves completed milestones.

“By implementing an escrow model, the HomePay app ensures that funds are held securely in escrow in a DBS custodian account and renovation milestones are established, creating a transparent framework for both homeowners and IDs,” explained Ng.

How it works

Homeowners can pay their chosen interior design firm according to their pre-agreed progressive payment tranches using the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)-approved HomePay wallet. Half of each tranche’s funds are held in escrow in a DBS custodian account and are only released upon the homeowner’s approval of works completed for that milestone and tranche. This is aimed at providing an additional layer of security and transparency.

Furthermore, homeowners can provide feedback and approve or deny completed work before payment release, enhancing their control over the renovation process.

The app comes with a HomeProtect feature, which ensures homeowners that their renovations will be completed according to plan, even in the worst-case scenario of a sudden closure of the interior design firm. “HomePay will find an alternative firm or vendor to complete the job at no additional cost to the homeowner,” shared Ng, who is also a venture partner at Mocha Ventures and TNB Aura.

HomePay also benefits interior design firms as they can assure their customers that by signing their renovation contract, they have extra protection from an external party throughout their whole renovation and are certain to carry out their job scopes properly.

In addition, the HomePay app empowers interior designers with efficient workflow management and streamlined project management capabilities. Interior designers and homeowners can conveniently set terms of the project timeline and progressive payment schedules and sign contracts remotely through the app.

The fintech startup is considering enabling cross-function capabilities with interior design firms’ existing accounting software.

According to Ng, HomePay is open to working with any interior design firm — big or small — but especially those that want or prefer giving their clients additional confidence throughout the renovation. “We look into the history and background of the interior design firms’ directors. We ensure that all firms pass a strict Know Your Business process and are MAS-compliant,” he added.

The monetisation model

The company charges a per-project admin fee of SGD200 for the platform to secure large renovation amounts and be assured under HomeProtect. For interior design firms, the transaction fee is 1.5 per cent to 1.9 per cent of the total fees.

Also Read: How to craft your startup’s financial projections

The startup currently operates in Singapore. Ng said that as payment gateway solutions, such as VISA and Mastercard, are universally needed, HomePay’s model can be applied and scaled to other markets in the renovation context.

However, the initial plans are to expand regionally in Southeast Asia (particularly Malaysia and Thailand) before going global.

HomePay emerges as a potential solution to the rampant issues plaguing the Singaporean renovation industry. HomePay aims to modernise and secure the renovation process by empowering both homeowners and interior designers, offering peace of mind and a smoother experience for all.

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X marks Echelon. Join us at Singapore EXPO on May 15-16 for the 10th edition of Asia’s leading tech and startup conference. Enjoy 2 days of building connections with potential investors, partners, and customers, exploring innovation, and sharing insights with 8,000+ key decision-makers of Asia’s tech ecosystem. Get your tickets here.

Want more from your Echelon experience? Be an Echelon X sponsor or exhibitor. Send enquiry here.

The post HomePay aims to fix home renovation woes in Singapore with escrow system, completion guarantee appeared first on e27.

In 2018, the Ministry of Finance Malaysia set up Futurise to lead the National Regulatory Sandbox (NRS) initiative to provide solutions to regulatory challenges that can potentially hinder tech and innovation from operating efficiently in the market.

The NRS initiative addresses industry and investor concerns that innovation can face challenges when deployed in a market with outdated (or lacking) regulatory frameworks.

“If I could put it in simpler terms, we pave the ground for new and innovative ideas to operate in the market by safely testing regulations and policies in a secured environment called a sandbox. The NRS brings together different groups like corporate organisations, government bodies, academia and entrepreneurs to solve regulatory challenges faced by innovation,” said Futurise CEO Rosihan Zain Baharudin in a press statement.

“The top-down approach used in yesteryears when prescribing regulatory frameworks may not be conducive to innovation. Futurise acts like a bridge, connecting different parts of the ecosystem – from regulators, industry players, organisations and relevant bodies. It is all about collaboration and ensuring that everyone can contribute to building a more innovative and advanced Malaysia.”

As the global economy continues to face uncertainties this year, Futurise aims to continue fostering conversations and collaborations in tech innovation with various parties. The organisation stated that more stakeholders have approached to present regulatory challenges that they faced.

Also Read: Malaysia’s pension fund KWAP invests in Antler, Lapasar, Vynn Capital, Bateriku

“We have seen innovation remain persistent in both favourable and tough conditions. It’s been seen that challenging market situations can give rise to new technology-driven solutions, products or ways business is conducted,” Baharudin said.

In this interview, e27 aims to understand more about the work of Futurise and how they aim to make a difference in Malaysia’s innovation. Here is an edited excerpt of the conversation:

How does Futurise differ from Malaysia’s previous effort to promote digital innovation? In what way is it better to respond to the industry’s needs?

The Government of Malaysia has mandated Futurise to drive the National Regulatory Sandbox, an initiative to facilitate the collaboration between industries and government to develop progressive regulatory frameworks for the Future Economy. Through the National Regulatory Sandbox, Futurise enables innovation and adaptive policy-making to accelerate lab-to-market adaptation for local technology solutions.

In promoting and supporting digital innovation in the country, Futurise has been working on various initiatives. Amongst them are: For Online Healthcare Services, we have established testing guidelines enabling health workers and practitioners to assess their online healthcare offerings under the oversight of the Malaysian Health Ministry.

We have also established regulation guidelines for Mobile Childcare Services, regulating safety and compliance under Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat (JKM). Concurrently, our ‘Insights for Impact’ Industry Study focuses on freelance educators in the gig economy and aims to develop policies that enhance resilience amid economic uncertainties, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: ChargeSini aims to revolutionise Malaysia’s EV landscape with smart charging solutions

What are the most valuable lessons that Futurise learned from its recent milestones?

Futurise’s involvement in regulatory sandboxes is a dynamic platform, fostering an environment ripe for learning, innovation, and advancement amidst the intricate maze of regulations. This strategic engagement empowers stakeholders to navigate the complexities of regulatory frameworks while upholding stringent legal standards.

Drawing upon the wealth of insights from these experiences, Futurise emerges as a catalyst for industry players, steering them towards sustainable growth and igniting a culture of innovation. Through collaborative efforts with diverse stakeholders—including regulators, industry peers, consumers, and relevant entities—Futurise not only cultivates effective stakeholder engagement but also forges robust partnerships.

This collaborative ethos nurtures a climate of trust and transparency, propelling positive outcomes for consumers and
society at large.

What are Futurise’s thoughts on AI? Does it plan to respond to the growing interest in AI implementation in Southeast Asia?

Futurise is actively engaging with the rising interest in AI by teaming up with the Department of Personal Data Protection (JPDP) to launch the Data Protection & Privacy Regulatory Sandbox.

Recognising that data is the lifeblood of AI, driving its learning and performance, this collaboration is pivotal. Access to diverse, high-quality data is paramount for AI systems to thrive across various sectors.

In the sandbox, Futurise will craft seven guidelines under the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (Act 709). These guidelines encompass critical aspects such as Notification of Data Breach, Data Protection Officers, Data Portability, Cross Border Data Transfer, Data Protection Impact Assessment, Privacy by Design, and Profiling and Automated Decision Making.

Also Read: Artem Ventures: Malaysia is a fantastic starter market, but startups need help to scale internationally

Additionally, Futurise will play a key role in enhancing the existing Personal Data Protection Standard established in 2015, ensuring comprehensive standards and guidelines are in place to navigate the evolving AI landscape.

In 2023, Futurise collaborated with the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) to introduce the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) certification (C-UAS) and Manned Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft national regulatory sandbox. In the same year, it also introduced the MyAutonomous Vehicle 5.0 Guideline and the National Drone Sports Strategic Roadmap (NADSAR) 2023-2027. Is there any reason why air mobility is such a significant focus?

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) plays a vital role in shaping the modern world by facilitating rapid transportation, connecting distant locations, supporting economic growth, and addressing various societal challenges.

Many countries worldwide are accelerating the adoption of AAM as various regulators are warming up to the potential of this aerospace technology. In fact, the commercialisation of AAM is likely to take place in 2026. Thus, ambitious countries are racing to ensure the necessary infrastructure and, most importantly, the AAM regulatory framework is ready ahead of the take-off.

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Image Credit: Futurise

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