Tim Draper, the founder of Draper Associates and an early investor in Tesla, Facebook, and Skype, has led a US$3.2 million seed funding round of Singapore-based consumer crypto hardware wallet startup Ryder.

Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Asymmetric’s Joe McCann, as well as Borderless Capital, Semantic, Smape, and VeryEarly, also joined.

Also Read: Blockchain boom: The Philippines’s rise in Southeast Asia’s crypto scene

Ryder was built by Filipino entrepreneur Louise Ivan Valencia Payawal (CEO),  Marvin Janssen (CTO), and Julien Nerée (CPO). Its consumer crypto hardware wallet Ryder One is designed to prioritise ease of use and security. The wallet promises users crypto security in 60 seconds or less. The product features TapSafe recovery, a proprietary tap-based experience that eliminates the “single point of failure” previously inherent in traditional seed phrases.

“What the crypto industry needs more than anything right now is solutions that don’t require in-depth technical knowledge while maintaining high security standards. This is exactly what I saw in Ryder’s hardware wallet with its minute-or-under setup and offline design that keeps users’ holdings safe,” Draper claimed.

Ryder will use the newly acquired funds to strategically deploy to ramp production, scale the marketing and engineering teams, and further develop the wallet. The capital is also earmarked to enable the next large-scale marketing push and raise brand awareness globally.

Co-founder and CTO Marvin Janssen shared, “With Ryder One, we set out to make crypto feel natural and human and as easy as tapping your phone. By simplifying the overall experience and rethinking recovery, we’re opening the door for anyone, anywhere to truly and confidently own and use crypto.”

According to Payawal, Ryder aims to make crypto ownership more accessible, especially for his fellow countrymen. He previously accumulated experience at tech firms across Europe and the US, including a key role at Stacks, a prominent innovative contract platform built on Bitcoin, where he helped evolve the network to over 100,000 community members across more than 30 countries.

Also Read: US$2.36 trillion: Asia Pacific becomes crypto’s growth engine

His entrepreneurial track record also includes being the 2015 champion of Startup Weekend ASEAN.

The annual Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index for 2025 shows that Southeast Asia features prominently in the grassroots cryptocurrency activity. Within the top 20 countries for grassroots adoption, Vietnam ranks fourth globally, followed by Indonesia (7th), the Philippines (9th), and Thailand (17th). This strong showing is attributed to robust engagement from their populations across both centralised and decentralised crypto services.

As per the “Philippine Blockchain Report 2025″, the country is rapidly positioning itself as a significant player in the ASEAN blockchain landscape, propelled by a tech-savvy population, robust cryptocurrency adoption, and strong governmental support for emerging technologies.

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Investing in the climate x health nexus presents a unique challenge: solutions often fall between traditional VC, infrastructure, and impact investing frameworks.

Conventional diligence methods are often insufficient because they fail to account for external factors like regulatory momentum, public sector readiness, and blended capital requirements.

Investors bet on algorithms and insurance to tame Asia’s climate-health crisis

To address this fragmentation, the ‘Unlocking Capital For Climate x Health: The Investment Landscape in Asia’ report introduces a fit-for-purpose climate x health investment toolkit, designed to balance analytical rigour with market flexibility.

The 5-step investment decision framework

The toolkit rests on a structured, five-step assessment process:

Step 1 & 2: Calculating the venture score (VS): This involves a rigorous, four-quadrant assessment framework, scored out of 5, which focuses on internal venture quality:

1. Solution (30 per cent weight): Assesses problem fit, traction, and scalability. Key cue: look for “land-and-expand” potential, starting with one acute problem.
2. Team (25 per cent weight): Focuses on execution capability and founder-market fit. Key cue: early-stage success is 80 per cent the team; bet on adaptability and clarity.
3. Ecosystem (15 per cent weight): Evaluates external enablers like policy alignment, institutional demand, and de-risking architecture.
4. Market Model (30 per cent weight): Determines the path to returns, capital efficiency, and exit potential. Key cue: look for non-linear liquidity paths such as B2G contracts or DFI buyouts.

Step 3: Setting the risk-adjusted baseline (MVS): The minimum viable score (MVS) establishes the required baseline score for a venture to be considered investment-ready. This score varies significantly by solution category to reflect inherent execution risk.

For example:

• Digital health infrastructure (low risk) requires a base MVS of 3.2.
• Parametric health insurance (moderate to high risk) requires a base MVS of 3.7-3.8.
• AI surveillance (high risk) requires a base MVS of 3.9-4 due to long development cycles and high reliance on government integration.

Step 4: Adjustment for macro risks: External market realities are applied using four coefficients to refine the scores:

Also Read: Asia’s climate x health startups struggle in the ‘missing middle’ funding void

1. Sector beta modifier (SBM): Adjusts the MVS upwards for sectors with high operational complexity and regulatory hurdles (e.g., deeptech).
2. Tailwind coefficient (TWC): Reflects market momentum based on policy environment, capital flows, and consumer demand. Strong tailwinds allow for a more generous evaluation.
3. Investor risk appetite coefficient (IRAC): Personalises the MVS based on the fund’s strategy (e.g., bold, balanced, or cautious), ensuring the threshold matches the investor’s risk tolerance.
4. Exit market health coefficient (EMHC): Applied as a multiplier to the final venture score to reflect liquidity and return outlook, such as M&A or IPO activity.

Step 5: Investment Decision: The final decision compares the adjusted venture score (VS × EMHC) against the risk-adjusted MVS (RA-MVS). This systematic approach ensures that capital is deployed where ambition and realism are aligned, moving beyond mere product quality to factor in ecosystem maturity and policy fit.

The post Unlocking climate x health capital: A data-driven blueprint for smarter impact investing appeared first on e27.

e27 has been nurturing a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurs since its inception. Our Contributor Programme offers a platform for sharing unique insights. As part of our ‘Contributor Spotlight’ series, we shine a spotlight on an outstanding contributor and dive into the vastness of their knowledge and expertise.

In this episode, we feature Jatin Detwani, the Founder of Growwth Partners and RyzUp.ai, where he has helped over 500 startups and SMEs scale with innovative finance and data-led strategies. An INSEAD MBA and Chartered Accountant, he is recognised for his thought leadership at the intersection of finance, technology, and AI. Detwani also mentors at INSEAD and NYU, sharing his expertise to help founders build sustainable, tech-enabled businesses.

In the sections below, he reflects on his journey, the lessons he’s learned, and what keeps him going.

How I got here

The turning point came when I left a secure finance leadership role to build something of my own. Starting Growwth Partners shifted my focus from managing numbers to helping founders make sense of them to grow their business. Later, launching RyzUp.ai deepened that mission  combining finance, AI and technology to empower smarter decisions for finance teams to improve productivity by up to 50 per cent. 

If I had to explain my work to a kid

I’ve built a smart helper that makes numbers and reports work on their own. Imagine if your school notebook could instantly show you where all your notes are, highlight what is important, and remind you what to focus on. That is what RyzUp does for businesses. It shows them where their money is going, what is working, and what is not, without hours of spreadsheets. It is like having a tiny robot accountant who never sleeps.

Also Read: Singapore mandates AI literacy for public servants: A blueprint for the future of governance

Lessons learned along the way

I used to think success meant doing everything myself, learning every skill and handling every task. Now I realise it is about building a strong team and delegating. With the right people, tools, and systems, you can go ten times further than by just working harder.

What more people should notice

I think too many startups are chasing new ideas while not enough are fixing old inefficiencies. The real opportunity lies in making things faster, cleaner, or easier through AI, automation, new business or pricing models, or simply being more operationally efficient. There is a quiet revolution happening in areas like finance operations, marketing workflows, and compliance. These may not look glamorous, but they build lasting value.

One example is the billions of dollars worth of time finance teams globally spend on reconciling, checking, processing, and reporting financial data. With the right technology, all of this can be done much faster. It is a billion-dollar opportunity to build a global business. It may not sound sexy, but it is still a huge opportunity.

Why I write

Writing helps me think more clearly, and e27 felt like the right place to share those thoughts with other founders and businesses facing similar challenges. Most of my ideas begin as voice notes or questions from clients, and when something keeps coming up, I know it is worth unpacking in an article.

My advice for aspiring thought leaders

My advice to writers is to simplify the complex. Do not write to impress, write to be understood. If someone outside your industry can read your post and grasp it instantly, you have done your job. Keep it simple, stay consistent, and share from experience rather than theory. Readers connect with honesty more than perfection.

Also Read: Building trust in the age of AI: Lessons for Southeast Asia’s startups

What drives my curiosity

Outside of work, I make it a point to consciously build routines that keep me curious and balanced. Reading has been a big part of that lately; books like The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, Mental Models, and Deep Work are recent favourites. I also find energy in meditating, working out, playing tennis, and spending time with family.

Influences that shaped me

Books like The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and The Psychology of Money have definitely shaped how I think. I have also learned a great deal from conversations with founders and mentors who focus on building patiently rather than just quickly. Much of my writing voice comes from listening to how people talk about real problems before attempting to offer a solution.

Take a look at Detwani’s articles here for more insights and perspectives on his expertise.

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Join the e27 Contributor Programme and become a valuable voice in our ecosystem.

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There is a fundamental dissonance in today’s market narrative, one that pits the cautious choreography of global diplomacy against the raw, unfiltered mechanics of financial panic.

On the surface, officials like US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent project calm, insisting that Washington has no desire to escalate trade tensions with Beijing even as President Donald Trump prepares for a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.

Beneath this veneer of control, markets are reacting not to words but to the tangible consequences of prolonged uncertainty: a fifteen-day US government shutdown that has frozen critical economic data releases, including the weekly jobless claims report, and a palpable retreat from risk across asset classes. This backdrop sets the stage for a market caught between macro fragility and microstructural stress, where even a modest dip in equities or a shift in Treasury yields can trigger outsized reactions.

The mixed performance of US equities on Wednesday, Dow down 0.04 per cent, S&P 500 up 0.40 per cent, Nasdaq up 0.66 per cent, reflects this indecision. Investors are neither fully embracing risk nor fleeing to safety in a coordinated manner. Instead, they are parsing every signal with heightened sensitivity.

Treasury yields ticked higher, with the 10-year yield climbing one basis point to 4.03 per cent and the two-year yield jumping three basis points to 3.50 per cent, suggesting that despite the shutdown and trade anxieties, the bond market is not yet pricing in a sharp economic contraction.

Simultaneously, the US Dollar Index slipped 0.26 per cent to 98.79, indicating a modest loss of confidence in the greenback as a safe haven. In stark contrast, gold surged 1.3 per cent to US$4,193.39 per ounce, having breached the US$4,200 mark for the first time ever on Wednesday.

This milestone is not incidental. Gold’s ascent to these unprecedented levels aligns with data showing it reached US$4,179.48 on October 14, 2025, before climbing further. By October 16, it had hit US$4,215.64, underscoring a relentless flight to safety driven by inflation fears, geopolitical strain, and institutional distrust in fiat stability.

Also Read: AI still missing in action: Global firms lag in using tech for M&A and compliance

Meanwhile, Asian markets offered a flicker of optimism, led by Korea’s KOSPI Index, which jumped 2.7 per cent. This regional rebound may reflect anticipation of the Trump-Xi meeting or simply a technical bounce after recent weakness. Such gains remain fragile, tethered to developments in Washington and Beijing that are inherently unpredictable. The oil market tells a more pessimistic story.

Brent crude fell 0.8 per cent to US$61.89 per barrel, weighed down not only by US-China trade friction but also by the International Energy Agency’s projection of a supply surplus in 2026. When energy prices falter amid trade tensions, it often signals weakening global demand expectations, a red flag for growth-oriented assets.

Into this volatile mix steps a novel financial innovation: Calamos Investments’ Bitcoin Laddered Structured Protection ETFs. These products represent a significant evolution in the integration of digital assets into traditional finance. Designed to provide upside exposure to Bitcoin while offering structured downside protection, they aim to neutralise the extreme volatility that has historically deterred conservative investors.

The flagship offering, the Calamos Laddered Bitcoin Structured Alt Protection ETF (ticker: CBOL), seeks to match the positive price return of the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate while limiting losses through a laddered protection mechanism. This structure diversifies risk across multiple strike levels, making the ETF more compatible with model portfolios and risk-managed strategies. In theory, such instruments could transform Bitcoin from a speculative gamble into a legitimate component of diversified asset allocation, particularly for institutions bound by fiduciary constraints.

The current crypto market environment offers little support for optimism. Bitcoin’s price action is being overwhelmed by three converging bearish forces. First, leverage is unwinding at an alarming pace. Derivatives open interest has plunged 19.6 per cent over the past week, with a sharp 4.35 per cent drop in just 24 hours.

Perpetual funding rates have collapsed by 76 per cent this week, signalling a dramatic retreat from speculative long positions. This deleveraging echoes the catastrophic US$19 billion market wipeout witnessed earlier in October 2025, where low liquidity turned modest corrections into cascading liquidations.

Second, Bitcoin dominance has surged to 58.79 per cent, its highest level since June 2025, as investors flee altcoins in favour of perceived safety within the crypto ecosystem. Altcoin dominance has correspondingly collapsed to 28.34 per cent, and the Altcoin Season Index has plunged 59 per cent month-over-month to just 29, a clear signal that we are deep in “Bitcoin Season.” This capital rotation starves emerging projects of liquidity, stifling innovation and reinforcing Bitcoin’s role as a digital reserve asset.

Third, new token listings are increasingly triggering profit-taking rather than accumulation. The case of YieldBasis (YB) is emblematic: after listings on Binance and OKX, its price dropped 14.25 per cent as early backers sold tokens acquired during the presale at US$0.10. A similar dynamic played out with PancakeSwap, which fell 10.6 per cent following its CAKE.PAD event.

Also Read: The rate cut rally: Earnings, gold, and Bitcoin in the balance

These “sell the news” episodes are no longer isolated incidents but a recurring pattern that injects localised selling pressure into an already fragile market. The cumulative effect is a toxic feedback loop: macro uncertainty fuels risk aversion, which accelerates leverage unwinds and altcoin abandonment, while new token launches become catalysts for distribution rather than adoption.

In this context, the launch of Calamos’ structured Bitcoin ETFs arrives at a paradoxical moment. On one hand, the product is precisely what the market needs to broaden Bitcoin’s investor base and stabilise its price dynamics over the long term. On the other hand, its immediate impact may be muted by the prevailing fear and low liquidity.

Bitcoin’s seven-day RSI currently sits at 30.62, flirting with oversold territory. Historically, such levels have preceded short-term relief rallies, but without a macro catalyst such as a de-escalation in US-China tensions, resolution of the government shutdown, or a clear signal from the Federal Reserve, any bounce is likely to be shallow and short-lived.

Ultimately, the market is navigating a period of profound transition. Traditional safe havens, such as gold, are redefining their ceilings, while digital assets are being repackaged to fit within institutional risk frameworks. Until the macro fog lifts and derivatives markets stabilise, volatility will remain the dominant theme. For now, caution is not just prudent, it is the only rational response.

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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.

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AI security isn’t just about building guardrails to prevent a future iRobot or Skynet scenario. Many people have debated those possibilities, from Isaac Asimov to Arthur C. Clarke to today’s leading thinkers. That’s not the angle I want to dwell on here.

Instead, after reading this recent article from Think China I was struck by the sovereignty aspect of AI.

The piece warns that Southeast Asia risks being locked into ecosystems that could undermine the region’s independence. History shows that picking sides rarely leads to lasting sovereignty, and the concerns raised by regional leaders deserve close attention.

AI as a sovereignty issue

In the rush to deploy AI systems, governments are beginning to recognise the risks of concentration. If critical services, from healthcare to logistics to public administration, are built entirely on a few dominant platforms, national resilience becomes fragile. As with land, food, and water security, AI security may soon be a matter of sovereignty.

Some may call this scaremongering, since today’s AI providers are focused on growth and customer acquisition they wouldn’t possibly consider restricting services in a competitive environment. Yet the risk remains: if those providers ever switch off their systems, willingly or under external pressure, the impact could be devastating. Imagine public services grinding to a halt, or supply chains breaking down.

To understand whether such concerns are justified, it’s useful to look at parallels in the global system today. These examples aren’t predictions, but they are observations I have made that illustrate why dependence on concentrated power is risky.

Lessons from global systems

• The WTO and rule-based order

The World Trade Organisation only works when all players respect its rules. When the U.S. blocked judge reappointments to the WTO Appellate Body, the system was effectively paralysed. Some viewed this as a deliberate attempt to bypass rules that no longer suited the leading trading nation. The parallel for AI is clear: global frameworks can fail if dominant players choose not to participate.

• The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

The U.S. withdrew from the TPP after years of negotiation. The remaining nations signed the CPTPP, but without many of the U.S.-driven provisions. For smaller nations, it showed how quickly alliances can shift, and how reliance on one or two major players can leave others exposed. The same dynamic could emerge if AI platforms consolidate too much power.

Also Read: Enterprise AI adoption: Context, not cost, defines deployment

• Financial sanctions

Sanctions have become a common tool in global diplomacy. Supporters argue they uphold international law and human rights. Critics counter that they can be instruments of coercion, placing disproportionate pressure on ordinary citizens rather than political leaders. For nations dependent on financial systems controlled by a few blocs, sanctions reveal the limits of sovereignty. The lesson for AI is similar: dependence on external platforms can leave countries vulnerable to outside leverage.

• Frozen assets

The freezing and proposed repurposing of Russian state assets has sparked heated debate. Western governments frame it as lawful enforcement for accountability and reparations, while others see it as a troubling precedent. For sovereign nations, the question is: how secure are your assets if global systems can be reshaped during political disputes? In the AI context, the same question applies to data, algorithms, and cloud access.

• Media and social platforms

TikTok bans highlight how governments are weighing data security against open market access. While officially justified on national security grounds, they also reflect broader anxieties about who controls the digital discourse. Nations are left to weigh both the benefits of open platforms and the risks of relying too heavily on services outside their regulatory reach. The same dilemma will play out even more starkly with AI systems.

• The BRICS response

The expansion of BRICS is part of a wider push for multipolarity. While still evolving, it signals a desire among nations to balance the dominance of existing blocs. For AI, the implication is that countries will seek their own capacity rather than rely wholly on external providers.

Also Read: Why AI inclusion matters: Lessons from Mongolia’s Girls Code movement

Building resilient AI security

Taken together, these examples show why it’s reasonable to question how we build AI systems. Nations need to ask: how can we benefit from the efficiencies and services AI delivers while protecting sovereignty and resilience?

Legislation is important, but so is investment in domestic capabilities: chip production, data centres, research and development, and regulatory frameworks that ensure independence. Guardrails that govern AI reasoning and transparency matter, but without control over infrastructure and assets, those guardrails could be changed or removed by foreign entities.

In short, AI security is not only about preventing harmful outputs. It is about ensuring that the systems we increasingly depend on serve national interests and remain under sovereign control.

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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.

Enjoyed this read? Don’t miss out on the next insight. Join our WhatsApp channel for real-time drops.

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