Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator closing China unit- Reuters

Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley incubator of start-ups, said in a Reuters report it would close YC China, a Chinese version of its US program.

The move comes as tensions rise between the United States and China over trade and intellectual property in the technology sector. Y Combinator said the decision was a change in strategy unrelated to problems between the two countries.

YC China was created in 2018 under the leadership of Qi Lu, a computer scientist who was an executive in Microsoft Corp and Chinese search engine Baidu Inc.

Y Combinator said in a blog post that the incubator had changed its strategy to supporting local and international startups from its Silicon Valley headquarters.

“As a result, we decided that now is not the right time to run a new, country-specific version of Y Combinator,” it said.

Incubators typically run programs for start-up founders to develop ideas and turn them into businesses. Notable Y Combinator program graduates include Airbnb, DoorDash and Dropbox.

Qi will now fund companies under his own program called MiraclePlus, according to the blog. He was not immediately available to comment. Y Combinator said it will continue to support and fund Chinese companies interested in applying to its US program.

Nexus Frontier raising fund to expand to Asia- Press Release

London-based AI solutions firm Nexus FrontierTech has closed a US$3.8M seed round to propel its R&D and global expansion. The funding round was led by a family office based in Geneva, Switzerland, followed by a number of private investors, which include Nick Fry, former CEO of Mercedes AMG Petronas F1, Jennifer Lewis, former Managing Director of GIC, Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund, and Tom Yoritaka, former Managing Director of Cisco Global Ventures.

A number of these investors are also on the firm’s Advisory Board and heavily involved in the company’s expansion and
growth strategies. Founded in 2015 Nexus specialises in modernising data-intensive processes within the regulatory and compliance realm (RegTech). It builds configurable, scalable solutions to help businesses streamline operations and tackle the issues of inefficiency and data waste.

Also read: This 4-month-old Y Combinator startup wants to be the Stripe for the Philippines

With investment secured, Nexus is more ready than ever to grow their footprint in the UK and US markets and now tap into the immense business opportunities in Asia. They currently have their eyes set on Singapore as a business hub alongside its technology hub in Vietnam, where the company was established in its founding days.

BigGo search engine raises US$5M Series A for international expansion- Press release 

BigGo, the product search engine, and price comparison platform have completed the first close of its Series A round at US$5M. The first closing is led by Silicon Valley-headquartered venture capital firm SOSV, Uni-President Group, and Kyber Capital.

For Uni-President Group, the giant Taiwanese food conglomerate company, BigGo is its second internet investment after the investment in Sea Group, Shopee’s parent company, in 2017.

BigGo graduated from MOX Batch 3, an SOSV accelerator for cross-border mobile internet and the reinvestment will help BigGo expand internationally in markets such as Thailand, Japan, and the European Union. “In 2020, we expect to see a 300% increase in revenue from this year. We also expect a substantial increase in users from 11 million to 25 million users,” says Kevin Yen, CEO of BigGo.

BigGo currently sells more than 4,500 Shopee orders per day, with a record high of more than 10,000 orders in a single day. Many e-commerce companies experience substantial increases in conversions and revenue growth of their products on the BigGo platform.

BigGo business includes price comparison, cashback, offline price comparison, price history tracking, and extension services. The platform is available in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai.

Indonesia’s Tokopedia in talks to raise up to US$1.5 Billion- Bloomberg

Indonesia’s online marketplace Tokopedia, backed by the SoftBank Vision Fund and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is in talks to raise as much as US$1.5 billion for a final private funding round before an IPP, according to an article by Bloomberg.

U.S. internet companies, as well as existing investors, are considering contributing to the round, which could bring in US$1 billion to US$1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2020, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. No final decisions have been made and the value of the round could change, they said.

CEO William Tanuwijaya is hoping to attract new investors and raise the 10-year-old, Jakarta-based company’s profile overseas when he lists the firm’s shares locally and in another as-yet undecided market, he said in an interview last month. He declined to specify a timetable for the IPO because of uncertainty about how the trade war between the U.S. and China will affect markets.

WeWork to lay off 2,400 employees globally- DealStreetAsia

Layoffs at WeWork have begun as a part of the struggling office-sharing company’s plan to cut costs after staggering losses. WeWork said in a DealStreetAsia news that the recent reductions will affect 2,400 employees globally. Staff reductions began weeks ago in regions around the world and continued this week in the US. At the company’s Manhattan headquarters, there was an enhanced security presence on Thursday, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

They will receive severance and continued benefits and other forms of assistance, according to an emailed statement. The job cuts represent almost 20% of the company’s global workforce, which totaled 12,500 as of June 30.

WeWork, co-founded by former CEO and chairman Adam Neumann, is seeking to stabilize its business and show a path to profitability. The New York-based company scrapped an initial public offering in September, and its valuation has plummeted from $47 billion as recently as January to about $8 billion. The company reported a net loss of US$1.25 billion in the third quarter, eclipsing its sales and more than doubling its loss from the same period last year.

Image credit: Chastagner Thierry on Unsplash

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At the moment, there are more than 1500 cryptocurrencies existing today, with a combined market capitalization of over USD$18 billion. As the crypto industry progresses at a high pace, investors are constantly willing to trade in the market that never sleeps. In order to be able to participate in cryptocurrency trading, users turn to the so-called exchanges. 

Cryptocurrency exchanges, or digital currency exchanges, are platforms that enable customers to trade digital currencies for other assets. Cryptocurrencies can be traded for fiat money or different digital currencies. 

Without a doubt, exchanges for these cryptocurrencies have a great influence on the development of projects and their liquidity. Yet, to what extent does the number of featured exchanges matter when it comes to the bright future of the project?

Let’s discuss this.

ICO market: trust issues sunk its popularity?

The cryptocurrency market has been overtaken by the popularity of ICOs in 2017, with the peak craze going on towards the end of December 2017, when Bitcoin hit the ceiling at around USD$20K. In addition, thousands of ICOs have taken place last year, with only a fraction of them surviving and bringing value today. 

Unfortunately, the ICO market was ill-populated with hundreds of scam projects, which raised a significant amount of money and never delivered on their promises, and then suddenly disappeared. This trend has affected the trust of the community for ICOs, decreasing their popularity and success rates. 

According to the statistics from Mashable, “almost 80 per cent of 2017’s ICO were “identified scams.” 

IEO’s as a safer alternative

The year 2019 saw the birth of a new fundraising method, which combined the ICO model with a more solid and stable way of implementing the project. Initial exchange offerings (IEO’s) had a blast this year – during the first half of 2019, IEO projects were able to raise USD$1.6 billion.

The second half of the year has continued riding the trend, with the top exchange launchpads fueling the development of the IEO market. Investor demand for the IEO’s also stays strong, as a number of promising cryptocurrency projects are taking place, heated up by crypto channels in Telegram. 

However, what determines the success of IEO’s in modern crypto space? Some claim it depends on IEO project’s liquidity, others mention the token price and adherence to the roadmap of the project. Some talk about the community size as the gauge of the progress of a project. Today, we will talk about one particular factor – the number of exchanges listing the project. 

Does it affect a project’s long-term success or popularity? Does it determine the true value of the project?

The more the merrier? not quite

The number of exchanges listing the project is closely tied to its liquidity. Without a doubt, liquidity is something that plays a big role in a project. Yet, in the case with IEO’s, thanks to their mechanism of crowdfunding, they get instant liquidity as they are getting listed on an exchange. Thanks to this feature, IEO’s overcome one of the major setbacks that were faced by ICOs – lack of liquidity.

The key important fact when it comes to the IEO liquidity – quality matters over quantity, especially when it comes to multiple exchange listings. 

There is a multitude of cryptocurrency exchanges that are now realizing that the implementation of the launchpad is beneficial for them. Along these are Binance, Bittrex, Bitmax, Huobi, Kucoin, and OKEx along with many others. 

1. Binance, as a matter of fact, is one of the growing crypto exchanges that are now among the top 10 digital currency exchanges in the world. At the moment, it has more than 190 altcoins listed, with the number growing almost every day.

2. Kucoin is yet another prospective exchange that offers a variety of popular coins, including BTC, BCH, XMR, DAG, ETH, XRP, EOS, LTC, ADA, TRX, NEO and the like.

3. Bittrex is an exchange that is based out of the US and offers users the opportunity to trade more than 190 cryptocurrencies as of today. This exchange follows the latest US crypto regulatory practices. 

4. MXC is a Singapore-based exchange that was introduced by a group of professionals with a great digital asset background. At the moment, this exchange offers token trading, perpetual swap trading, OTC trading, and other financial products.

Now, many of these and other exchanges are listing coins on a daily basis – but aside from affecting coins’ liquidity factor, do these exchanges add a lot of value and stability to the projects? Not exactly. 

Just as we mentioned above, quality matters much more than quantity. Speaking differently, the success of a crypto project largely depends on the features of the exchange it is listed on. Some important factors that crypto projects should take into consideration when assessing the possibility of listing are:

Compatibility

Do token’s values reflect those of the exchange? How about the mission – does it align? If a project’s values and vision are in conflict with those of the digital currency platform, a listing might not bring any value to the project, if not depreciate it.

Safety

The importance of this factor cannot be overstated. With recent cyberattacks wiping out thousands of users’ wallets clean, tokens should double-check the exchange for the safety practices in place. Noteworthy, big and popular exchange does not always have the best security systems in place – remember Coincheck hack?

Regulations

Most of the major cryptocurrency exchanges are following the latest regulations when it comes to compliance. Yet, there were cases of popular exchanges overlooking simple regulatory rules. A prospective and stable crypto project would not want to be a part of such an exchange.

These are just some factors that should be on a discussion board of crypto projects that are planning to get listed on yet another exchange. The common belief in the crypto space is that the number of exchanges that the coin is listed on equals the project’s true value. Let’s see real-life examples.

Successful blockchain projects 2019 

GoWithMi

One of the great performing IEO’s, according to the CryptoRank’s list, is GoWithMi. The native token of this project, GMAT, has been able to hit 3.56X ROI USD, with its ATH ROI USD being a whopping 21.08X. 

GoWithMi is committed to building the world’s first complete decentralized location-based services (DLBS) infrastructure. The project has taken off on Gate.io and was able to raise USD$1,350,000 during its IEO.

At the moment, this promising Singaporean project is listed on Gate.io, Big.One and HotBit, with all three exchanges being under USD$500,000 daily trading volume. In addition, these three exchanges are not mainstream and they are not popular globally when compared to other giants like Binance and Coinbase.

Nevertheless, despite being listed on only three exchanges, GoWithMi continues to deliver on its promises and grow its community.

Tokoin

Another successful cryptocurrency project that was introduced this year is Tokoin. Tokoin’s TOKO has performed very well – it reached ATH ROI USD at 9x, with ROI USD standing at 4.18X. Tokoin is striving to secure a better future for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) globally. Thanks to its innovative platform, growing businesses are able to use their potential to the full without facing limitations.

Currently, Tokoin is listed on KuCoin and Atomars, according to Coingecko. In spite of the fact that users are now only able to buy this coin on these two exchanges, token’s performance stands among the top 10 for 2019.

Pledgecamp

Yet another example of a successful coin that has not been listed on multiple popular and big exchanges, and still was able to bring 2.93X ROI USD and 3.97X ATH ROI USD is Pledgecamp (PLG).

Also Read: How comprehensive compliance frameworks can enhance trust in blockchain

Pledgecamp aims to disrupt the crowdfunding industry with blockchain-powered escrow contracts. With an impressive list of advisors on its side, this token has been listed on 6 exchanges so far. These are Bithumb Global, MXC, Bitforex, Piexgo, OKEx, Binance DEX. 

Notably, even though this token is listed on Bitforex, which surpasses all other mentioned exchanges (and those of GMAT) in daily trading volume, Pledgecamp’s token’s price is trading cheaper than GoWithMi’s token.

Final word

We’ve discussed that the number of exchanges that list coins does not affect or determine its true value. Yet, what does then?

As mentioned in this article, some key factors like liquidity, community size, adherence to the roadmap are among those that will pave the way for a project.

Nonetheless, there is one more factor that has to do with the exchanges – it is the exchange platform that launched that IEO. Projects that took off of KuCoin, Huobi, OKEx, Gate.io, and Binance generally brought significant profits to inventors.  Following the same logic, investors tend to choose platforms they trust – they see it as a measure of a certain project’s future success. 

To conclude, it is worth to mention that the popularity of the exchange does not always reflect its safety or level of trust that investors have. Choosing the IEO project to invest in takes a lot of thought, and sometimes hyped-up projects fail without even reaching their goals.

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There are many ways that the implementation of AI technology can help retail businesses grow.

For consumer goods particularly, the use of AI starts in the supply chain.

According to Noodle AI, between 2016 and 2018, retail use of AI grew 600 per cent. The company also estimated that 95 per cent of supply vendors in the consumer goods space will be leveraging AI learning.

To get a better understanding on how AI can help consumer goods, check out the following infographic by Noodle AI:

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Image Credit: Heidi Sandstrom. on Unsplash

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Islamic finance has recently gained popularity in the Southeast Asian market due to its advantages. Apart from being a promising instrument to build wealth, it is also being touted for its ability to ensure justice in society and promote financial inclusion.

But how can Islamic finance reach out to a wider audience, especially those living in rural areas in Malaysia, where its advantages are badly needed?

This is where the sector can tap into fintech to further widens its reach.

As explained in the e27 Malaysia Fintech Report 2019, the adoption of Islamic finance through fintech has a large opportunity to connect with the masses, especially rural population who have less access to financial products and services.

“But in order to do this, Islamic finance must forge its own path with fintech, as it cannot replicate conventional financial instruments or products and expect adoption,” the report stated.

Also Read: ALAMI is on a journey to popularise sharia-based finance in Indonesia. Here’s how they do it

It also stressed that Islamic finance must utilise tech to meaningfully provide bespoke financial products suited to the needs of customers and microenterprises in rural areas, as the rural population still represents the largest underserved customer base.

Beyond serving the underbanked communities, sharia-compliant fintech products also have the potential to launch its products and services in the global market.

This is especially true as the government, through Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), already has a framework in place –Islamic Digital Economy (IDE) Mi’yar. The framework is meant to assist Islamic digital players to scale and find demand for their products/ services.

For more about fintech in Malaysia, please read the the e27 Malaysia Fintech Report 2019.

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Image Credit: mostafa meraji on Unsplash

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Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo today announced the appointment of 12 of his new presidential special staffs which included Ruangguru founder and managing director Belva Devara, and Amartha founder Andi Taufan Garuda Putra, Kompas reported.

In a press statement, Devara stated that he will continue on holding his position as founder and managing director of the Jakarta-based startup.

“As expressed by the President himself, I am expected to continue working in my current position as managing director of Ruangguru, to never forget my roots in the tech sector. That way, I can give him relevant inputs on new innovation to help the society,” he said.

Also Read: [Updated] Breaking: Nadiem Makarim named Minister of Education and Culture of Indonesia

The appointment of the two startup founders followed the appointment of Indonesian ride-hailing unicorn gojek founder and CEO Nadiem Makarim as Minister of Education and Culture last month.

President Joko Widodo himself has been publicly speaking about including the younger generation, particularly from the tech and entrepreneurship sector, into his new presidency.

These appointments are part of a growing trend in Southeast Asia of startup founders expanding into politics and public service. In Thailand, Pakornwut Udompipatskul, former General Partner of StockRadars, has also been elected as members of the parliament earlier this year.

Ruangguru is a Jakarta-based edutech startup which offers a range of services of private tutor marketplace to exam practice platform. The startup’s most recent funding round is a Series B round led by UOB Venture Management; it has also received a grant from MIT SOLVE programme.

Amartha is a P2P lending platform that focusses on women-led micro businesses. The startup has raised its Series A funding round in 2017.

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Image Credit: Ruangguru

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Today I aim to reveal the reasons that help startups and enterprises to succeed. I’ve gone through several resources from the Internet i.e entrepreneur.com, forbes.com, and also coordinated with many business influencers via Instagram and other platforms.

But, none of them gave me a satisfying answer. In the end, I came across TedTalks, particularly the “Single biggest reason why start-ups succeed | Bill Gross”. And I got an actual answer to what I was looking for.

The reason why I am sharing this with you is that I think many business people who want to start their own business or have already started a business are also trying to find the actual answer to this query but fail to reach any conclusion, just as I did previously.

I faced the same issue and now I’ve got the answer that you are looking for and I am sure after reading this you will get a pretty good idea.

Here is the TedTalks video that provided me with the answer to my questions.

Bill Gross is an entrepreneur and founder of Idealab. He is an analysis tech tycoon and curious individual who knows how businesses succeed in the market and where they could fail. He has analysed a ton of companies and collected abundant data that he showed and explained in his TedTalks.

Further, I also have some amazing tips and advice i.e what other things might help you to succeed in your business. As this is an entrepreneur regarding article, I have included a bonus topic of Uber incubator program as well in the end.

Here I have shared with you one of the most interesting facts which surprise me and Bill Gross i.e what factors affecting the most, help companies to succeed. I’ve also shared my thoughts that can help companies to succeed.

Because new innovations, new ideas, and a new way of business changes the concerning lives and the world for good. Think of Uber for instance. How they succeeded and how they changed the entire world with their passenger transport service.

But here is a question for everyone.

Why companies with a great idea can also meet with failure?

In my previous experience, I have seen many startups with great ideas, great execution meeting failure. I became curious to figure out why this happens with high potential startups?

I decided to find out what factors matter the most and create a systematic approach that startups need to integrate in their working.

This TedTalk gave me what I needed. It answered the same questions that I think every entrepreneur has, right!!

So, here are the five most important factors that account for a company’s success or failure.

1.Idea.

Ideas are one of them, if not the most critical part of the business. If you don’t have an idea, what will your business do? Ideas don’t just mean innovation; ideas mean what you want to accomplish with your business.

Here are my tips

1. If you don’t have an idea for your business. Take a real-world problem i.e what issue do most people suffer from, and try to provide a solution for that. Confusing, right!! Let’s take the example of Uber.

Uber found a real-world problem i.e. daily commute and provided a unique solution for that.

But, is a good idea enough for a successful business?

No.

There’s where the second factor comes to picture.

2. Team

Execution, adaptability, and planning of the idea matter more than the idea itself.

Here are my tips on how you can execute your idea well. Make the system decentralized. Handle everything in little pieces and then execute the complete plan from the centre. Confused? Let’s take the example of Alibaba.

One of the most important factors for the success of Alibaba is that they made their system decentralized. They handled the selling system locally, country wise, and then at the end report and analyse from the central headquarters in china.

I know your ideas may not need country-wise handling in the beginning. But, make sure you build a decentralized system because I firsthand witnessed an entrepreneur not able to handle the things when his business started expanding.

3. Business model

A perfect business model leads to lucrative revenue from multiple sources. But, what is a business model?. You have ideas, You have a team but don’t know how to execute those things then the idea and the team are valued zero. In a word, the business model is the plan to perfectly execute ideas.

My tip here is to try and figure out every aspect where you can expand your business. Here you have to try all possible ways to run a business and check whether it helps to succeed your startup. Let’s take the example of Grofers.

Grofers wanted to enter into a very competitive Marketplace. So they looked for a marketplace that had least competition (comparatively), hence, Grocery. They took advantage of the consistent demand and less competition that this marketplace offered.

4. Funding

Sometimes companies receive a massive amount of funding and sometimes they run on fumes. So, the next step is for you to figure out the importance of healthy funding.

My tip here is that before pitching for funding, you should secure your ideas by making the investors sign an NDA and other relevant documents. It has happened more often that an entrepreneur with a great idea pitched to several investors and within a few months that same idea is leaked as clone solution.

Your idea gets stolen and you can’t do anything about it. Hence before pitching your ideas, you must secure it by getting them to sign necessary documents.

5. Timing

It means you better not be early with your solution when the world is not ready for it OR be late when already several cheap clone solutions are available to the world. Perfect timing is very important i.e when people facing a problem are in dire need, at that time your product or solution should be their lifesaver.

Uber and Grofers are the best examples of this. People don’t want to stand on the curb and waste time waiting for a vacant taxi. Uber saw this problem and brought the needed solution at the exact time. Same goes for Grofers. People now don’t want to go to the store to buy their daily groceries. Grofers saw the problem and provided the right solution at the right time. They commit to delivery within 15 mins.

My tip here is to provide an on-demand solution of your business and integrate technology with it. Let me explain in broad terms.

What Uber and Grofers have done? They realized the real-world problem of travelling and shopping grocery. They took advantage of the digital world. Through a digitalized system, they provide a better app solution.

Because the internet and mobile have already become an integral part of the lives of people.People spend nearly 4 hours on an average on their mobiles. So why not take advantage of this habit of the users?

With a digital system, you reduce cost and increase efficiency. All you need to build is a perfect application. If you want to know how much does it cost to make an application then you can find your answer from one single guide. You don’t have to look everywhere.

But now my question is which is the most important factor among these five.

1. Here is an analysis of the Top 5 companies who succeeded. (Ranking factor from 1 to 10)

2. Here is an analysis of Top 5  companies who have faced failure. (Ranking factor from 1 to 10)

3. Here is an analysis of Top 5 giant companies who succeeded. (Ranking factor from 1 to 10)

4. Here is an analysis of Top 5 giant companies who have faced failure. (Ranking factor from 1 to 10)

From analysing 200+ companies, we concluded the following importance for the mentioned factor

When I got this report, I was surprised to see that ideas which are a strong pillar for any business is not the most important factor, rather the timing and team execution are. Then after deep thinking, I realized that this report is 100% correct.

Summing it up

Today most of the people who exceed in the market don’t have a great college degree, high certification, don’t even have enough money whey they start and don’t have enough experience to run business.

Still, they thrive and succeed because of the perfect timing and execution of the idea. Take the example of Alibaba, Uber, Grofers, Tiktok and many more. They are all the top guns in their industry now, because of the accurate timing and perfect execution.

You should focus more on a real-world problem, find the right solution, launch it at the perfect timing, and make good money doing so.

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GuardRails, a SaaS-based software security provider, announces that it has raised S$1 million (US$734,000) in a seed financing round led by Cocoon Capital, Singapore-based early-stage venture capital firm.

With the funds from the seed investment, GuardRails said it plans on scaling their team of software engineers, security experts as well as sales and customer success representatives. GuardRails is also adding support for even more programming languages, development platforms, and security testing technologies to allow it to realise their vision of making application security available to all.

GuardRails aims to help developers find, fix, and prevent security vulnerabilities in real-time at a claimed low cost. It was founded by Stefan Streichsbier, a renowned Austrian security expert who co-authored the first certifiable security standard in the European Union for web application security.

“Currently, companies need a small army to deploy and integrate security solutions tightly into the development workflows, after which they find heaps of cryptic vulnerabilities without any useful information on how to fix them. This is something not many companies, especially small businesses, can afford to do,” said Streichsbier, founder and CEO of GuardRails.

Also Read: ICE71 announces top ten cybersecurity startups from second batch

According to the Singapore Threat Report by US security firm Carbon Black, 96 per cent of organisations in Singapore have had at least one breach in the past 12 months due to external cyber-attacks. It was also found that 43 per cent of online attacks are now aimed at small businesses, where 60 per cent go out of business within six months of being victimised.

These breaches, the report informed, not only threaten the operations of critical infrastructure, but ultimately impact the lives of ordinary people as well, impacting industries in healthcare, education, and transport to name a few.

In May 2019, GuardRails graduated from ICE71 Accelerate and said that it has been trusted by almost 800 development teams across the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia.

DevSecOps, development, security, and operations, is the philosophy of integrating security practices within the DevOps process.

To date, GuardRails has added support for 10 programming languages and most recently launched support for GitLab in addition to GitHub. GuardRails has also been made available for on-premise deployments and is adding support for BitBucket by the end of the month.

Also Read: Cybersecurity in the age of information warfare and IoT

“GuardRails enforces software for enterprises down to the smallest SMEs. The interconnected, real-time nature of modern societies requires securing even the smallest software nugget. We have been incredibly impressed by the quality and agility of the GuardRails team and are truly excited to join their journey,” said Will Klippgen, Managing Partner at Cocoon Capital, who recently joined GuardRail’s board of directors.
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According to a Harvard Business Review report, 92 per cent of respondents reported an increase in the pace of their investments in big data; 88 per cent said their organisations faced greater pressure to invest in big data; and 55 per cent reported that their investments in big data had exceeded US$50 million—up from US$40 million the previous year. 

But data analytics, being the dynamic science that it is, is constantly in a state of flux. As corporations continue to pump money into analytics to fuel their digital transformations, small business owners must pay attention to new best practices and trends to achieve their business goals in the months and years to come. 

In an effort to help you stay ahead of the curve, here’s a list of DataVLT’s own top data analytics trends and predictions to watch out for in 2020.

Trends that will shape data analytics in 2020

1. Merging of IoT and analytics

When people talk about the Internet of Things (IoT), the focus tends to be on the number and range of devices that are and will be connected to the Internet, and for a good reason. It’s estimated that there will be close to 30.73 billion IoT connected devices by 2020, ranging from kitchen toasters, smart cars, and thermostats to video doorbells, refrigerators, wireless speakers, and so on.

We predict that IoT will eventually evolve from being a hardware challenge into a data one, with each IoT-enabled device generating data that should be analysed and acted upon to be of any value. This brings data analytics into the picture, and it’s a relationship that will only get deeper as IoT devices become more commonplace. 

Also Read: Making it rain with data analytics

As a Seagate and IDC report on digitisation notes, “In 2025, each connected person will have at least one data interaction every 18 seconds. Many of these interactions are because of the billions of IoT devices connected across the globe, which are expected to create over 90ZB of data in 2025.”

2. Conversational analytics and natural language processing

A Gartner report on data analytics trends published earlier this year predicts conversational analytics and Natural Language Processing (NLP) will transform data analytics shortly, adding that 50 per cent of analytical queries will be generated via search, voice, or NLP by 2020. 

Gartner notes that the rise of NLP means that program queries no longer have to be programmed into an analytics tool, which then opens the floodgates for new classes of users, such as office workers and support staff, to take advantage of analytics software. 

In other words, NLP and conversational analytics make data analysis more approachable, especially for users who are still building their data literacy. 

3. Data security and privacy 

The Cambridge Analytica data scandal of 2018 brought the issue of personal data collected under the spotlight, revealing the frightening effect of exploiting user data to influence people’s behaviours. In the case of Cambridge Analytica, Facebook data was mined and used without authorisation to build software that predicted and influenced voters during the 2016 US Presidential Election.

The scandal, however, is by no means the only instance of a high-profile data breach. Other organisations such as Yahoo, Sony, Equifax, Uber, and JP Morgan Chase have been hit by cybersecurity attacks that compromised the real names, email addresses, and telephone numbers of millions of users. 

It’s no surprise, then, that consumers and consumer protection groups are pushing for legislation to force businesses to disclose what data they collect from people and what they do with that information. 

4. Rise of data-as-a-Service (DaaS) 

In 2017, IDC predicted that 90 per cent of large enterprises would generate revenue from Data as a Service (DaaS) in 2020, up from 50 per cent that year. DaaS refers to the purchase, sale, or trade of machine-readable data, metrics, and insights in exchange for something of value between two or more organisations. 

As cloud computing technology continues to mature, enterprises can expect to gain better access to more extensive and richer caches of digital files over the Internet. The globalisation of DaaS could also facilitate faster and more efficient exchanges of information, particularly best practices and research data, in sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications, retail, and transportation among many others. 

5. Further specialisation of job roles in Data Science

As data analytics is becoming mission-critical to more and more organisations, the demand for data scientists has also increased with each passing year. In 2020, however, we expect roles in the field of data science to continue to branch off into different specialisations—even more than the ones we’re already seeing today. 

In the past, the title data scientist was broad and encompassed pretty much everything involving data, from data capturing and KPI measurement to data insights and forecasting.

Today, however, the job description has diversified into specific roles, including data analyst, business intelligence analyst, data engineer, data architect and more. There is also plenty of opportunities, even for non-STEM members with no programming background to enter the field. 

Growing specialisations and job complexity are due to the sector’s rapid growth. Worldwide revenue for big data and business analytics (BDA) solutions are predicted to reach US$189.1 billion by the end of this year, exhibiting a 12% increase over 2018. Experts forecast the sector will maintain this pace throughout 2022 with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.2 per cent. 

6. Augmented analytics

Augmented analytics is poised to be one of the next big things in big data and analytics. Research by MarketsandMarkets valued the augmented analytics market at US$8.4 billion in 2018. This market is estimated to grow to US$22.4 billion by 2025, according to Grand View Research.

Also Read: How much AI talent do we have in Asia Pacific? Here is a look at the data and trends

Augmented analytics uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to augment how analytics is developed, consumed, and shared. The most obvious benefit of augmented analytics is its ability to automate many analytics tasks, such as data preparation, analysis, and creation of accurate models.

7. Continuous confidence in cloud computing

The cloud will continue to come of age in 2020. According to IDC, spending on cloud IT infrastructure will reach $82.9 billion in 2022, accounting for 56.0 per cent of all software, services and technology spending in the same period. 

Meanwhile, in a recent report, Gartner is placing its bets on distributed cloud technology, which distributes public cloud services to data centres across different geographic locations, without losing control over the infrastructure. The transition from centralised public cloud to distributed cloud is seen as a turning point in cloud computing as it solves nagging problems such as latency and data sovereignty. 

8. Increased regulations

Laws such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the highly publicised California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) represent a turning point in data privacy regulations. While 2018 was the year of GDPR, we predict that 2020, which is when the CCPA takes effect, will bring renewed attention to the issue of data protection. 

Like the GDPR, the CCPA’s scope does not depend on where a company’s location, but on the consumer’s data that it stores. That means that a website hosted in Sydney must comply with CCPA if it collects and/or sells the personal data of any California resident. And while the law is state-based, CCPA is predicted to influence the rest of the US as well as the world due to the clamour for better data privacy laws. To date, more than a hundred countries have some form of data regulations, and we believe this number will continue to go up in the years to come. 

9. AI continues to make data analytics even more accessible

The continued evolution of AI and machine learning algorithms will pave the way for further automation and optimisation of data analytics processes. This, in turn, will provide organisations with more accurate business insights to act upon. 

Apart from augmented analytics, AI is bringing predictive analytics into the spotlight, allowing organisations to explore their historical data at a deeper level using data mining, statistics, modelling, and machine learning. While this type of advanced analytics is far from new, the surge in organisations using platforms like Azure, which houses powerful and scalable enterprise predictive analytics resources, will drive investment in machine learning by up to US$12.4 billion by 2022.

Data analytics is in constant motion

Data analytics is becoming the norm but is also evolving at a rapid speed. Enterprises that are ahead of the curve are leveraging analytics to make informed decisions on subjective strategies involving recruitment, marketing, and branding.

On the other hand, objective decisions involving inventory, supply chains, and fraud and risk detection among others, are based on increasingly complex data, which help determine statistical probabilities and predictions with better accuracy than ever.

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Tokocrypto, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, announces that it has become a government-approved platform for the trading of cryptocurrency assets in Indonesia. On February 15, 2019, Indonesia’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (BAPPEBTI) announced that Tokocrypto is the only officially-recognized cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.

The approval, the company noted, allows traders to eliminate legal concerns, enabling them to buy and sell cryptocurrency assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum on the platform with more confidence and certainty.

Based on a report by Google and Temasek, Indonesia’s digital economy is projected to quadruple from US$40 billion in 2019 to US$133 billion by 2025.

Tokocrypto was founded in Indonesia in 2017 by a Singaporean entrepreneur, Pang Xue Kai, who is also a governing council member in the Singapore Chamber of Commerce Indonesia. Year-to-date since 2018, it has facilitated more than USD 250 million in cryptocurrency assets.

“Being ​the first cryptocurrency exchange to be registered with Indonesian regulators to operate legally in the country ​is a huge milestone for Tokocrypto as it brings us one step closer to being the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in Southeast Asia,” Pang said

Also Read: Bitkub, Bitcoin and Bangkok: Thailand’s cryptocurrency exchange raises pre-series A round

​BAPPEBTI is the regulatory body in Indonesia overseeing crypto-asset trading. They have issued two regulations regarding crypto-assets trading in Indonesia, namely No. 5 of 2019 in February 2019 and No. 9 of 2019 in July 2019, in which Indonesian has to comply with these two regulations to be able to register with BAPPEBTI for licensing.

“We will also continue our efforts in engaging the cryptocurrency community across Southeast Asia as the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in the region. With the high potential of cryptocurrency in the region in terms of investments and transactions, we are confident that we are the pre-eminent gateway for traders and consumers alike to seize opportunities as they arise,” said Pang.

Following the registration, Tokocrypto said that it is also working closely with other government agencies in Southeast Asia to seek licensing and collaboration opportunities.
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Photo by Aleksi Räisä on Unsplash

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Known to be Singapore’s largest shipping company, Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS), has announced a partnership with early-stage investor and accelerator Techstars to launch the dedicated global maritime accelerator called the Eastern Pacific Accelerator powered by Techstars.

Eastern Pacific Accelerator powered by Techstars also announces its first class of nine startups, selected from hundreds of worldwide applicants. The class of startups was selected with consideration and input from EPS’ Operations, Marine Technical, Commercial, IT, Fleet Personnel, and Management teams, all who would work closely with each startup to test their technologies and accelerate their businesses.

The Eastern Pacific Accelerator powered by Techstars aims to bring digital, technology-led solutions to problems faced by the shipping and maritime industry. From November 2019, the nine startups will go through a three-month programme of research and development, mentorship, and collaboration at EPS headquarters in Singapore.

The nine startups are from Singapore, Denmark, the UK, and the US. One of the startups, C-Log has recently moved its global headquarters to Singapore, while US-based Volteo has spun-off Volteo Maritime as a Singapore company.

Nautilus Labs is also establishing a permanent office in Singapore while keeping its headquarters in New York City.

Also Read: Seed-stage accelerator Techstars raises US$42M funding; plans Southeast Asia expansion

Gil Ofer, the Head of Open Innovation at Eastern Pacific Shipping said, “We see a need for technology to propel the maritime industry forward, especially with a rapidly digitalising society and an increase in global trade. That means the shipping industry needs to innovate to solve problems such as fuel consumption, operational efficiency, fleet performance, and improving life-at-sea for seafarers – and we are doing just that with the Eastern Pacific Accelerator powered by Techstars.”

“EPS can provide access to a deep network of industry players, real-world data, and operational insights from our experienced maritime experts that will accelerate the development of their products,” Ofer continued.

The world’s shipping and maritime sector continue to grow, accounting for around 90 per cent of all goods moved globally, spanning over 50,000 vessels and over a million seafarers, according to the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS). The United Nations Conference of Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD), meanwhile, estimates that volumes of global seaborne trade will grow by 3.8 per cent between 2018 and 2023.

Despite the predicted growth, the industry remains challenged with a number of critical issues that can be solved with crucially-proven innovation to sustain its competitiveness and growth.

Claus Nehmzow, Chief Innovation Officer at Eastern Pacific Shipping commented, “Issues such as sustainability, reducing emissions, and seafarer’s mental and physical wellbeing can no longer take a wait-and-see approach. The goal is to address these issues in the maritime sector today through the accelerator and to inspire the industry to take a technology-first approach to solve problems.”

Also Read: Maritime tech startup Claritecs raised US$600K pre-Series A funding from INNOPORT

During the three-month programme, the startups will receive hands-on mentorship from industry experts, access to EPS’ operational data, and the opportunity to deploy their technology on EPS’s diverse fleet of over 150 vessels. The programme will also provide the founders with access to Techstars’ network of mentors, investors, and partners.

In February 2020, the accelerator will culminate in a Demo Day where the founders will pitch to an audience of top investors, multinationals, government partners and other ecosystem players.
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