Dear Pro member,

Halodoc has raised US$100 million in a Series D funding round led by existing backer Astra Digital. With this, the total capital raised by the Indonesian healthtech company so far has touched US$258 million, bringing it closer to achieving unicorn status.

The company’s success can be attributed to its extensive network of more than 20,000 medical practitioners, 3,300 hospitals, and 4,900 pharmacies, providing comprehensive healthcare services to the Indonesian population.

As of 2022, Halodoc boasts an impressive user base of over 20 million monthly active users, demonstrating its widespread popularity and effectiveness. This substantial investment will undoubtedly bolster Halodoc’s growth, allowing it to expand its services further and solidify its position in the competitive healthtech market.

This is the top story of today’s Ecosystem Roundup.

Scroll down to read the other major headlines.

Sainul,
Editor.

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Indonesia-based healthtech firm Halodoc raises US$100M Series D
The lead investor is Astra Digital; Halodoc’s platform offers its users a network of over 20,000 medical practitioners, 3,300 hospitals, and 4,900 pharmacies.

VinFast to close SPAC deal in August at US$23B valuation
The merger with Black Spade Capital brings VinFast to a US$27B enterprise value and US$23 billion equity value, making it one of the most highly valued EV firms globally.

Bukalapak posts US$40.7M net profit in Q2 as revenue increases 30%
A major driver for this growth is its marketplace unit, which recorded a 74% growth in revenue to US$45.3M; The segment encompasses its general Bukalapak platform as well as Itemku, which it acquired in 2021.

Blibli’s revenue up 16% in H1 2023, loss narrows by 29%
The company generates its revenue from first-party retail, third-party retail, corporate customers, and physical stores. Only first-party retail experienced a decline in net revenue for H1 2023, dropping 6% year on year to US$260M.

Vietnamese K-12-focused edutech startup VUIHOC raises US$6M Series A
The investors include TNB Aura, Do Ventures, BAce Capital, and Vulpes; VUIHOC aims to harness the power of AI to offer personalised learning experiences specifically tailored to meet students’ individual needs.

Biodiversity Accelerator+ unviels startups joining its 2023 cohort
More than half of the companies in the Biodiversity Accelerator+’s first batch have females at the helm, and 63% are based out of APAC; The 3-month programme will commence in Singapore next month.

SME financing platform Validus appoints Vineet Agarwal new Singapore CEO
He will replace Jayanta Roy, who is retiring; Agarwal previously served as the president of payments at the firm, where he helped roll out the company’s SME financial services offering in Singapore.

Airwallex pumps US$165M into Singapore entity
Airwallex Singapore recorded US$5.4M in revenue last year; Meanwhile, the fintech firm’s loss from operating activities increased to US$5.9M in 2022 from US$4.3M in the year before.

Capital A partners with UnionDigital Bank for SEA expansion
The aim is to push the expansion of BigPay, Capital A’s fintech arm, in Southeast Asian markets, including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Justin Choi resigns just a month after taking charge as Spenmo CEO
Choi resigned from his role at the expense management startup due to personal reasons; Jo-Ann Chung, Spenmo’s CPO, will take over as acting CEO.

‘Asia presents potential for high-impact, high-return investments in life sciences, deeptech’
Yet, there’re unique challenges to investing in Asia, such as its complex regulatory environment and cultural and language differences: says Harmonix’s Maximilian Winter.

How Circular can help to reduce e-waste through its device subscription service
Circular notices a problem of underutilisation that leads to the significant amount of e-waste generated in Singapore each year.

Top 10 tech events in Southeast Asia you can’t afford to miss
We have an action-packed quarter to look forward to tech events in the Southeast Asia region. Save the date!

In the age of AI, which human skills increasingly stand out?
AI has limitations, and likely, for decades, it will not be able to compete with a few critical human skills.

Tried-and-tested marketing strategies for startups across all stages in Singapore
For startups or emerging brands, marketing matters more than ever to ensure that they stand out and succeed in their respective markets.

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One of our greatest global health challenges is mental health.  As this challenge increasingly becomes more dire in recent years accelerated by COVID, many digital solutions have arisen.  Many of these have put data science and AI at the core, and more recently, capabilities in generative AI and Large Language Models.

I presented three ‘calls’ that are thematics of what will drive real-world application in mental health and some examples of global innovators that showcase these themes.  These were presented alongside speakers from MOHT and SAS Institute at a recent IDEAS event, hosted by Temus and organised by the Singapore Computer Society (SCS).

Real-world applications of AI in mental health can

• Enable precision in mental health. ML and AI can help more accurately diagnose and provide personalised treatment plans by collecting and analysing a wide range of data points (e.g., medical history, symptoms, and behavioural patterns) instead of relying on traditional inputs such as self-reporting.
• Combine physical and mental wellbeing together. Mental health has physical indicators that offer a far more powerful, objective basis, especially when we combine AI with other technologies such as IOT.
• Build solutions that can provide immediate cost savings now, not only focusing on solutions that provide potential savings in the future over very large population cohorts.

Bright spots in the industry

 One example AI being employed in digital health that I spoke about was Spring Health from the US. Their precision mental healthcare approach involved clinical assessment, personalised care plan, real-time provider feedback & recommendation and digital content.

Their mobile and web platforms use machine-learning models leveraging millions of data points to tailor interventions and treatment plans. Users reported an improvement in mental health (~70% of participants in a study improved their mental health), with fewer missed workdays, increase in productivity, and up to an average of US$7k in cost savings per participant.

Also read: How conversational AI is reshaping data insights and adolescent mental well-being

In the UK, BioBeats demonstrates how users can combine physical and mental wellbeing. It is a mental health app leveraging AI to interpret sensor data such as heart rate variability and activity, as well as psychometric data from a wearable.

A wellbeing score offers employees an overall measure of mental wellbeing based on personal health data e.g., sleep, activity, heart rate, mood and cognitive function; and delivers digital therapeutics. Companies saw a 31 per cent cut in employee absence and 54 per cent decrease in cost from reduction in length and number of sick leave when their staff used the app.

Big Health’s flagship product is Sleepio, a cognitive behavioral therapy app that aims to help users’ poor-quality sleep and insomnia. They use an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to provide people with tailored digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).

Evidence is everything in digital transformation: Big Health designed an interrupted time series analysis, comparing primary care use before and after the rollout of Sleepio, and focused on how many times people saw their GP and the relevant prescriptions they received. Sleepio became the first digital therapeutic to receive NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidance for NHS use last year to treat insomnia.

Why are we not already using technology widely to enhance healthcare?

Technologists must collaborate with both medical practitioners and financiers to ensure the implementation and effectiveness of the solution. Because medical treatments will inevitably involve insurance and/or public subsidies, there is also the question of whether digital care or prevention can pass the traditional lens and evaluation criterion to enable coverage. Lastly, verdict is still out on what is the ‘right’ balance between safety and innovation.

We are pioneering some of these technologies and the infrastructure and processes of industrialising technology hasn’t caught up yet.  This includes the necessary medical and legal frameworks for endorsing & measuring efficacy. Current medical and legal frameworks do not account for measuring the efficacy of AI-enabled healthcare, so tests need to be designed to ensure accuracy and robustness.

Also read: Moving mental health out of Freud’s era and beyond the couch with big data

In conclusion, AI is an amazing tool when added to the healthcare toolbox, but not a silver bullet at its current stage of development. It is most powerful when combined with other technologies for a more comprehensive and practical solution. We also must recognise the barriers to adoption and scale within the sector if we hope to continue to push the boundaries of health.

AI is here to stay, and here to help. The brightest brains around the world are and continue to pour capabilities and resources into this field —  we are only just starting to see the potential of these technologies in health and healthcare.

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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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Recently, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in his speech at UN Headquarters that “the era of global boiling has arrived”, stressing the increasingly urgent need for global action on emissions, climate adaptation and climate finance.

So far, the startup ecosystem seems to be rising up to the occasion.

Looking back into our own coverage of the latest updates in the Southeast Asian (SEA) tech startup ecosystem, this year alone, we noted that there are at least eight funding announcements in the climate tech and sustainability sectors. These funding rounds were raised by startups working on various solutions, from alternative protein to food waste.

During Echelon Asia Summit 2023, we also learned how leading investors such as Monk’s Hill Ventures have begun putting ESG elements in their consideration of a potential investment, regardless of which sector they are working on.

Apart from that, we also see new funds for investments in the climate tech sectors being announced, with companies working on different solutions to mitigate the impact of climate change operating in the market.

Also Read: Demystifying the financial impacts of climate change with Intensel

All of this might sound like a great effort to tackle the greatest crisis in our lifetime. But sometimes (often), one might wonder whether we have done enough, whether there are things that are left to do. We might think that we have done and considered all the best solutions, but there is bound to be a blind spot.

Da-dum.

(I added sound effects for dramatic effects. And to hit the word count.)

Now, I understand that this is not a question that we can answer overnight—let alone in a 600-word opinion piece. More importantly, the answer might look different depending on your role in the startup ecosystem. I can only speak from my experience as a writer and editor who has been working in the community for close to a decade.

Recently, I had the privilege of attending the Sustainability Media Academy held by EB Impact. The two-day event consisted of masterclasses, workshops, and panel discussions on reporting climate change issues for journalists and content creators in SEA. During the event, I had the opportunity to meet and learn from senior journalists and editors about how to tell stories about climate change.

There are many important lessons learned over the course of two days, but one that stays with me was this line said by senior journalist and media consultant Augustine Anthuvan:

Reporting climate change is all about people and their needs, not about technology or being green.

As an editor for a publication that focuses on the startup ecosystem, this hits me deeply. Certainly, in our coverage of climate tech and sustainability, we put focus on the startups and tech solutions that they build to solve the problem. But there is a stakeholder that we have been missing out on: the humans in the story.

Also Read: Following fund completion, Eurazeo aims to support up-and-coming leaders in climate tech

This goes beyond the startup founders and investors that are involved in building and growing the company. The humans here are the people who will be directly impacted by climate change itself, the most vulnerable parts of society —those whom the tech solutions are supposed to benefit the most. Who are these people? What are their challenges? How exactly can climate change (and its solutions) change their lives? What happens when they are missing from the story? Why are they missing from the story?

It definitely encourages me to rethink how I have been writing about climate tech and sustainability. And hopefully, I will get to make that change soon.

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Image Credit: RunwayML

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Airalo, an e-SIM marketplace, has secured US$60 million in a Series B investment round from a clutch of investors, its Co-Founder Ahmet Bahadir Ozdemir said in a LinkedIn post.

The investors participating in the round are Etisalat’s e& capital, Liberty Global, Singtel Innov8, Orange Ventures, Deutsche Telekom’s T.Capital, KPN Ventures, and Telefonica.

Existing investors Antler, Rakuten Ventures, Peak XV Partners, and I2BF Global Ventures also joined.

How the company plans to use the new capital is not immediately clear.

A TechCrunch report said the company currently grows revenues by 20 per cent, with about one million monthly downloads. It is also in talks to onboard more investors to raise a new round at a valuation of US$800 million to US$1 billion.

Also Read: Use this eSIM wherever you go in the world, thanks to these 2 Turkish entrepreneurs

Airalo was established in early 2019 by Abraham Burak and Ozdemir. Airalo — a combination of ‘Air’ and ‘Alo’ (which means ‘hello’ in many parts of the world) — aims to bring instant connectivity worldwide by allowing travellers to purchase virtual eSIM packages.

The firm allows users to download an affordable plan directly to their phone without the hassle of needing to exchange a SIM card. It means that if you are on a foreign trip, you no longer need to go through the hassles of buying local physical SIM cards at the airport and installing it or carrying multiple cards — no matter where you are.

In October 2021, Airalo secured US$5.4 million in a Series A led by Rakuten Ventures, with participation from Peak XV’s Surge, Antler, Singtel Innov8, Wayra (Telefonica), LG Technology Ventures, GO Ventures, Ground Control, Plug and Play, and I2BF Global Ventures. Two years earlier, the firm bagged US$1.9 million in seed funding from Antler and Surge.

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HD, the Bangkok-headquartered company behind the HDmall, a healthcare and surgery marketplace in Thailand and Indonesia, has secured a “significant investment” from Vietnamese VC firm FEBE Ventures.

The size of the deal has not been disclosed.

The capital will enable HD, which describes itself as the ‘Airbnb for surgeries’, to expand its reach and deepen its market presence in emerging Southeast Asia.

This round follows a US$6 million raise in January from Partech Partners, M Venture Partners, AC Ventures, iSeed, and Orvel Ventures and the launch of its new elective surgery product HDcare.

Also Read: These former aCommerce execs are building an ‘Amazon’ for healthcare in Southeast Asia

HD was co-founded in 2019 by Sheji Ho, Aditya Jamaludin, Raya Chantaramungkorn (all former top executives at Thailand’s leading e-commerce enabler aCommerce), and Frankie Shum (formerly with Ardent Capital). It connects patients to hospitals, clinics, operating rooms and surgeons while offering healthcare financing solutions to increase access to affordable care and surgeries.

HDcare works with healthcare providers – many already on the HDmall platform – to increase the utilisation of hospitals’ and clinics’ operating room capacities.

The firm works with 1,500 healthcare providers, including some of the largest hospitals. To date, it has served over 250,000 patients.

Since its launch in November 2022, the company claims the patient demand for HDcare has grown 30x. It aims to achieve profitability by the end of this year.

Sheji Ho, CEO and Co-Founder of HD, said: “FEBE’s network and market expertise will accelerate our expansion into Vietnam, a country with a population of 100 million and a healthcare ecosystem that aligns with our healthcare marketplace and surgery solutions.”

The healthtech recently entered into a strategic partnership with Johnson & Johnson MedTech, aiming to elevate the surgical skills of healthcare providers and surgeons operating on HD’s HDmall and HDcare platforms. This collaboration aims to increase patients’ access to high-tech and innovative surgical procedures, improving patient outcomes and reducing the cost of healthcare services.

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According to a 2020 report by the World Economic Forum, it is estimated that by 2025, automation and AI could displace 85 million jobs worldwide. Tools like ChatGPT have become so ubiquitous in a professional’s life that in fact, I had a lot of help in crafting this article and saved so much of my time.

Take for example the above figures. Previously, I had to do a Google search, scrolled through pages and pages of results to find a good search and read through the entire article to find the stats I needed. However, look at this screenshot of my question to Poe.com. Blam! All that I need is right in front of me.

However, I noticed right away that the result was a little outdated. So, I immediately switched to using Bing’s AI copilot. Unlike ChatGPT which has its training only from data before 2021, Bing is still connected to the internet and thus showed the numbers at 3.5x more at 300 million.

Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) like those used by OpenAI are known to hallucinate at times and give false results or answers. So when I find the results a little dubious, I will at least double-check it with another AI tool such as you.com or Google’s Bard, or even go back to Google search to find the appropriate article or report to look at the stats.

Also read: ‘Not all is doom and gloom’: Experts on the potential of AI to steal jobs in SEA

How you ask the question is also important. For example, I asked Bing the following, “Chatgpt is one of the fastest growing apps”, and this was what came back.

Meta’s Thread is, at the point of writing, actually the fastest-growing app – taking just 5 days to reach 100 million users. Here’s a fun fact: Within seven months of launching on May 25, 2007, Pornhub reached 1 million daily visitors, which was a huge achievement in those days.

Like it or not, AI is like a genie that is out of the bottle and impossible to put back. It will be a huge part of our lives- from healthcare to banking, from transportation to education- and its influence is likely to grow in the coming years.

As powerful as it is, AI has its limitations and likely for decades, it will not be able to compete with a few critical human skills that will make you harder to be replaced if you hone them well:

Common sense an EQ

AI is certainly stronger than humans in many areas. For example, in a 2018 study published in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers found that an AI system could accurately detect breast cancer from mammogram images with an accuracy rate of 94.5 per cent, which was higher than the accuracy rate of human radiologists in the study.

But take, for example, my earlier result of the fastest-growing app above. Someone with some knowledge of Meta’s Thread would have spotted it was the wrong question to ask and would also reject the answer. It takes common sense to detect that the first screenshot’s result was outdated and to ask the right question at the right place and the right time (though I always felt common sense is not that common at all).

It also takes common sense to know that AI beating doctors and radiologists is more interesting than say, stats of AI beating humans in counting the number of cars on a road and using it in the article.

Emotional Intelligence

As a professional, have you had a colleague who texted you while you were on medical leave or vacation? During Covid, many companies shifted to remote work and instead of walking up to someone’s desk to ask about something, many of us got used to texting, emails and calls.

That means out of sight no longer means out of mind, which previously would have suggested that someone was not working that day. With remote or hybrid work here to stay for many companies, it takes emotional intelligence to just recall at the back of your mind if someone is working that day, and if texting or calling him or her will be disturbing their rest.

Creativity

In the age of AI, data can be generated and arranged into various charts in a matter of a few clicks. But a human still has to be creative and decide among the many metrics, what the really important ones are to measure and look at and which are the vanity metrics.

Another AI tool I have been using is Grammarly. Especially when writing articles like this to proofread my grammar. While it has not taken the internet by storm like the GPTs have, it is still an AI-powered writing assistant which I have been using for many years, where it uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to analyse text and provide suggestions for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style.

Also read: How my entrepreneurial failures led me to rethink learning and upskilling

But it still takes human creativity to think of what an interesting topic to even cover is and how to frame them. (If you enjoy this article, then a human must have done a good job. If you share this article with someone else, then a human would have done a great job. If you are still thinking about the stats on Pornhub or telling it to someone else, then a human would have done a wonderful job.)

Recently, Mr Khailee Ng from 500 Startups asked these questions in his recent LinkedIn post: “Who gets promoted or paid more? Who shouldn’t? What kind of work skill will be most valuable as technology accelerates?” He believes “Doing, Decisioning, Driving” and progressing from one to another makes one more affluent in life and I would agree too.

With productivity being able to be increased so much more with good use of AI, I believe that trying to compete by “Doing” more would be harder and harder to differentiate a manager or employee from another. Instead, common sense, emotional intelligence & creativity will be some of the skills that will help in setting one apart.

That said, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Taking advantage of AI and the many things it can offer- while one continues to hone “the human skills”- could be good common sense too.

As a non-tech founder running a fintech startup, I was able to be more involved in the early part of the business when we were building our loan marketplace. Being able to ask ChatGPT what certain terminologies meant- where it offered explanations in a condensed and easy-to-understand paragraph or two instead of reading books or articles – allowed me to understand what my developers were referring to.

In fact, a couple of times, I was able to prompt ChatGPT well enough to generate some codes to propose to my guys other ways of doing some things that we were stuck on. Of course, this doesn’t mean I can start jumping in and working alongside them. But I was definitely able to jump in from time to time and offer different ways of looking at things.

AI has also helped us in, for example, our ads. Although we have part-time designers and copywriters, generating enough ideas needs to come first before we can tell them what to do for us. For example, I asked ChatGPT, “When would someone want to use a loan marketplace instead of approaching the lenders one by one?” This is what it generated for me.

If you think this is an extremely intelligent product placement, again this is human creativity.

Artificial Intelligence is definitely something that many feel apprehensive or even defensive about. Today, you would think nothing of it if an employer needs you to have some basic computer usage skills. You wouldn’t think that is another wrong or excessive. One day, using AI at work would be just like it. It’s just another tool. You, the human, are what matters.

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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

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

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Singapore-based impact investor Silverstrand Capital has announced the eight startups accepted into the second edition of its Biodiversity Accelerator+.

More than half of the companies in the 2023 cohort have women founders at the helm, and 63 per cent are based out of a wide range of APAC countries.

The three-month Biodiversity Accelerator+ programme will commence in Singapore next month.

The startups admitted into the new cohort are:

Arbimon (US): Arbimon‘s eco-acoustics platform enables global partners to monitor biodiversity and ecosystem health at scale with the power of sound and AI, promoting high-impact conservation and sustainable management. The startup has so far identified over 310 threatened species out of 3,552 recorded, including birds, frogs, and primates.

Bioverse (Brazil): Bioverse uses drones, satellite imagery, and mobile applications to provide critical operational data for the tropical forest bioeconomy. By equipping Amazonian communities with the digital tools they need to scale up their harvest of non-timber forest products (NTFP), it prevents deforestation and ensures more sustainable sourcing and equitable labour practices by corporate ingredient buyers.

Also Read: This family office has launched a startup accelerator with a mission to protect, restore biodiversity in SEA

Blue Sky Analytics (India): Blue Sky Analytics is a climate intelligence company leveraging satellite data and AI to provide high-resolution, high-frequency data for various parameters for carbon markets, asset monitoring, and climate risk analytics. As its next feature, it is adding offerings in biodiversity measurements.

EarthAcre (US, Kenya): EarthAcre aims to mitigate climate change and biodiversity collapse with the local community’s knowledge and technology. By implementing cutting-edge technologies for transparent, scalable quantification and monetisation of biodiversity, they are creating a mechanism for indigenous ecological knowledge to be the driver of permanence in nature-based solutions.

Guardians of Earth (Global): Guardians of Earth empowers organisations to address the biodiversity crisis at scale. By combining gaming, AI, AR, VR and Indigenous knowledge systems to create virtual twins called “Nature Realms”, Guardians of Earth engages people with nature in exciting new ways while amassing real-world biodiversity data. The biodiversity data collected by users is verified by an open, global network of trusted knowledge holders with a platform that financially rewards people for monitoring and raising the value of their natural capital assets.

Nika.eco (Singapore): Nika.eco provides a neutral, fast, and seamless workspace for carbon financiers and developers to streamline processes cost-effectively at the pre-feasibility stage of project development. By having coded software to produce pre-feasibility reports with risk, land-use history, and carbon sequestration analyses, they are bridging the skills gap in the carbon space to finance high-quality projects with proven additionality.

Oceanfarmr (Australia and the US): Oceanfarmr is accelerating the growth of restorative ocean farming on a global scale. With a full-suite solution for farmers – from software solutions to optimise farmer productivity, to farm financing products – they are enabling the growth of some of the world’s most sustainable sources of protein that also benefit the surrounding ecosystem and habitat diversity.

Xylo Systems (Australia): Xylo‘s cloud-based, data-powered AI platform makes it 10x easier and 5x faster for businesses to measure, manage and report on their biodiversity footprint, in line with global initiatives such as the TNFD and SBTN. It was named in The Australian’s Green Power Players List in 2023.

“The biodiversity crisis is one of the most urgent challenges of our lifetimes, accelerated greatly by commercial activities such as agriculture and mining. And yet, despite the outsized impact that the private sector has on biodiversity, only 17 per cent of the funding that goes into safeguarding nature today comes from private capital,” shared Kelvin Chiu, Founder of Silverstrand Capital. “The Biodiversity Accelerator+ is part of our efforts towards supporting market-based solutions that protect and restore nature.”

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VUIHOC, an edutech platform serving K-12 Vietnamese students, secured a US$6 million investment in a Series A funding round led by TNB Aura.

TKG Taekwang, IBK-STIC Pioneer fund, and existing investors such as Do Ventures, BAce Capital, and Vulpes also joined.

The startup will use the funds to enhance its product offerings and leverage the application of AI technology. It aims to harness the power of AI to offer personalised learning experiences specifically tailored to meet students’ individual needs.

VUIHOC claims it has over 1.1 million users, most coming from Tier 2 and 3 cities. It provides comprehensive access to diverse educational content, with an inventory of over half a million resources, including video lectures and quizzes.

Vietnam’s edutech sector is experiencing a surge in investment commensurate with its potential, with total investments in H1 2023 surpassing that of the entire year of 2022, according to the “Vietnam Innovation & Tech Investment Report 2023”.

Also Read: VUIHOC gets funding from Do Ventures

Since its last funding round in September 2022, the company has introduced interactive live-streaming classes with large group sizes, enhancing student engagement and fostering dynamic learning experiences. Furthermore, it has broadened its content offerings to encompass the K-12 curriculum, ensuring alignment with the national standards.

“Affordable and quality education needs to be accessible to everyone. We believe that technology support will bring the best possible education to all students, especially those outside of big cities, giving them better opportunities for the future. This has been our guiding principle for the past four years, and we can see the positive results in our students,” said Do Ngoc Lam, CEO of VUIHOC.

In the coming year, VUIHOC will enhance its product portfolio, integrating cutting-edge technologies to provide students with highly effective and captivating learning experiences.

Charles Wong commented, “VUIHOC’s tech infrastructure has allowed it to capitalise on a flywheel of high-quality education delivered at scale, attracting the best educators across the country, which in turn drives some of the best unit economics seen in the region.”

In August 2021, VUIHOC bagged an undisclosed amount in investment from Do Ventures. Over a year later, the company secured US$2 million in bridge funding.

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What happened to the devices that you no longer use? According to an NTU survey conducted in 2019, 64 per cent of respondents in Singapore hoard their old mobile phones and laptops.

“Many consumers purchase electronic devices on a constant cycle of upgrades and replacements. Despite their ‘old’ devices not being at all outdated when they upgrade, the devices languish at the back of cupboards and the bottom of drawers. All this has a significant environmental impact as far as resource consumption and electronic waste generation is concerned,” writes Circular CEO and Co-Founder Nick Ramsay in an email to e27.

This is where Circular steps in. The startup builds a subscription-based consumer electronics marketplace for Asia Pacific customers that aims to accelerate the adoption of the circular economy.

Backed by Y-Combinator, Circular says that it is able to help customers save up to US$745 with a 12-month subscription for devices such as an iPhone 14 Pro Max 128GB with damage cover.

Its catalogue includes gaming devices such as PlayStation 5 and Microsoft XBox. Apart from that, it is also looking to launch an “upgrader package” that allows customer to upgrade to new devices as they are launched or swap to new models.

Also Read: Climate tech startups can play a role in helping SMEs bridge sustainability, digital transformation: Paessler

“By shifting from a model of ownership to one of access, Circular encourages customers to use technology in a way suits their lifestyle. This approach maximises the useful lives of devices while minimising waste through refurbishment and safe recycling. Customers no longer need to take on short-term credit card debt, BNPL schemes, or long-term lock-ins with telcos. With Circular’s low-cost monthly subscription, people can experience the benefits of the latest technology at a fraction of the cost,” Ramsay explains.

The service is currently used by businesses such as climate tech startup Unravel Carbon, fintech company CardUp and digital media group GRVTY Media.

It is also a corporate partner with Go Green SG, a whole-nation movement led by the Ministry of Sustainability and Environment in Singapore.

Living the Circular economy

As a startup that aims to accelerate the adoption of the circular economy, Circular sees impact as a foundation of their business model.

“Every customer we onboard is shifted out of the take-make-waste ‘linear economy’ and so multiple devices are permanently removed from the waste stream. What’s especially exciting is that we see our customers come back for multiple devices, indicating that they quickly see subscriptions as better than buying are shifting their consumption preferences to the circular economy,” Ramsay explains.

Also Read: Following fund completion, Eurazeo aims to support up-and-coming leaders in climate tech

In terms of target, Circular wants to achieve having six users per device, “So that each device’s useful life is maximised before being retired and properly recycled.”

Ramsay also explains that, due to the impact-driven nature of its business model, there is no trade-off between impact and profitability.

“The reality is that in Singapore today, only 10 per cent of smartphones reach a second owner. What is more common is that phones get placed in a drawer and kept as a spare, ‘just-in-case’ option. By our calculations, smartphones are typically only used for 33 per cent of their useful lives – they then spend approximately 33 per cent in storage, and another 33 per cent in the e-waste stream,” he says.

“Ultimately, this is a problem of underutilisation, which Circular is aiming to resolve with our subscription model. By keeping products in use for longer and precious materials out of landfill, we hope to gradually shift patterns of consumption. That’s where the name Circular comes from.”

Circular is currently run by a team of 30 that is divided between Singapore and Sydney, Australia.

In addition to its acceptance to Y Combinator, it has raised two funding rounds from investors across Singapore, Australia and the US.

“We have big plans for growth in Australia and New Zealand where our early testing has shown an incredible amount of demand for subscription-based tech,” Ramsay closes.

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Image Credit: Circular

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As we head into the exciting months of August to November 2023, the Southeast Asian region is set to witness a flurry of business and tech events that will shape the future of various industries.

From conferences that bring together industry leaders to workshops and exhibitions that foster innovation, these events offer unique opportunities for networking, knowledge sharing, and investment prospects. Here’s a comprehensive list of upcoming events in the region that are not to be missed:

August 2023

World Blockchain Summit Singapore 2023

When: August 23, 2023

Where: Singapore

The summit gathers tech enthusiasts, developers, and investors from around the world, establishing itself as a prominent event in the blockchain industry. Explore the latest trends in immersive presentations, panel discussions, and workshops, focusing on DeFi, NFTs, smart contracts, and blockchain’s impact across sectors. Esteemed keynote speakers, including CZ from Binance, Charles Hoskinson of Ethereum and Cardano, and Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum, share valuable insights on digital finance and blockchain’s future.

The summit fosters meaningful exchanges among industry leaders, providing a platform for collaborative efforts and innovative endeavours in the blockchain world. Attendees gain fresh perspectives and valuable connections, making the summit an exciting and transformative experience.

Techsauce Global Summit 2023

Date: 16-17 August

Bangkok, Thailand

The Techsauce Global Summit is a remarkable gathering that unites tech enthusiasts, innovators, investors, and industry leaders from across the globe. This summit serves as a dynamic platform for exploring cutting-edge technologies, disruptive innovations, and emerging trends in various industries. Attendees can expect engaging discussions and enlightening presentations on transformative topics like AI, blockchain, fintech, healthtech, and more.

Key speakers include Ana Barjasic’ CEO of Connectology & European Innovation Council Board Member; Natalie Black, His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Asia Pacific U.K. Government; John Park, Partner, SparkLabs and more.

Coinfest Asia

When: 24-25 August

Where: Bali, Indonesia

Coinfest Asia, the immersive Web3 festival, returns on 24-25 August 2023 in Bali, Indonesia. Unlike typical conferences, this event offers a casual clifftop setting for networking and engagement. With over 2,000 participants from 50+ countries in the previous edition, Coinfest Asia 2023 introduces a new theme: Web2.5, merging Web2 and Web3 concepts.

The summit showcases real use cases and tangible solutions, providing a platform for impactful product presentations and strategic partnerships between Web2 and Web3 companies. Attendees, from founders to crypto enthusiasts, can gain practical insights, build connections, and explore evolving industry developments through hands-on workshops and discussions.

September 2023

DealStreet Asia PE-VC Summit 2023

When: 5-6 September

Where: Singapore

The Asia PE-VC Summit 2023 gathers key stakeholders from the private equity and venture capital sectors to explore Asia’s dynamic investment landscape. Attendees gain valuable insights into emerging trends, deal-making opportunities, and challenges in the region.

The summit features thought-provoking discussions on investment strategies, the future of PE-VC in Asia, and opportunities in diverse sectors.

Speakers include Byju Raveendran
CEO and Founder BYJU’S, Stefanus Hadiwidjaja, Chief Investment Officer Indonesia Investment Authority; Minette Navarrete Co-founder, Kickstart Ventures etc. Don’t miss this enriching event in Singapore, offering unparalleled networking opportunities and valuable industry connections. Stay tuned for the date announcement on the event website.

TOKEN2049

When: 13-14 September

Where: Singapore

TOKEN2049, the world’s premier Web3 event, is set to welcome over 10,000 attendees, with more than 80 per cent coming from overseas, making it the industry’s largest international gathering. This year’s conference brings together key business leaders from traditional finance, big tech, crypto-native entrepreneurs, builders, and policy-makers, solidifying its world-class status as the global premier Web3 event.

The conference program will cover a wide range of critical themes, including the evolving regulatory landscape, crypto and AI convergence, blockchain scaling, Web3 gaming and the metaverse, digital asset institutionalization, Web3 infrastructure, and multi-chain network and protocol interoperability.

Distinguished speakers include Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Co-Founders of Gemini; Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder and CEO of Circle; Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Templeton; Daniel Alegre, CEO of Yuga Labs; Richard Teng, Head of Regional Markets at Binance; Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly, Formula One Drivers and Web3 enthusiasts from Scuderia AlphaTauri and BWT Alpine Formula One respectively.

October 2023

Entrepreneurs Summit IV

When: 12 October

Where: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Entrepreneurs Summit IV celebrates entrepreneurship and innovation, gathering aspiring entrepreneurs, seasoned leaders, and experts for insightful discussions on startup trends and strategies. Esteemed speakers include Ben Lim, CEO of NEXEA; Joel Tay, Cofounder of Softspace; Noomi Fessler, CFO of Lapasar among others.

Gamescom Asia

When: 19 – 22 October

Where: Singapore

Returning to Singapore is the ultimate platform for Asian game developers to forge partnerships and expand their global audiences. For international studios, it serves as a stepping stone into Southeast Asia, one of the world’s fastest-growing games markets, connecting with fans and talent in the region.

The Trade Zone (B2B) offers an opportunity to meet decision-makers, foster partnerships, and expand audiences within Southeast Asia and beyond. Gain valuable insights from expert conferences that enrich your gaming knowledge.

In the Entertainment Zone (B2C), expect an exciting array of new releases, game demos, live stage entertainment, cosplay, online shows, and more. Anticipate a diverse gaming network with 30,000 visitors from Asia and beyond, providing ample opportunities for interaction, education, and business in the gaming industry.

e27 Flux Series

When: 15 November

Where: Jakarta, Indonesia

To succeed in this dynamic landscape, businesses need innovative strategies and insights to stay ahead of the curve. Enter e27 Flux Series: Marketing Leaders, a gathering of top marketing professionals from across the region. This project aims to equip participants with the knowledge and skills required to navigate the ever-evolving marketing landscape. By attending this event, marketers can learn from industry leaders, acquire valuable insights into consumer behaviour, and identify emerging trends that can reshape marketing strategies.

Engage in keynote speeches, interactive panel discussions, and practical workshops that offer hands-on learning experiences. Network with peers and other marketing experts to explore potential partnerships. Stay updated on industry developments and creative ways to engage your audience, empowering your brand for sustained growth. Don’t miss this exclusive event to revolutionise your marketing efforts and take your business to greater heights — all at the Flux Series: Marketing Leaders.

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