Modern history’s greatest health crisis, COVID-19, has had a significant impact on Singapore’s retail industry. Retail and F&B sales in Singapore fell by about SG$4 billion (US$2.95 billion) in total during the Circuit Breaker (CB) period, which was around 40 per cent of the 2020 full-year decline in the total retail and F&B sales of SG$10 billion (US$7.38 billion), as per government statistics.

Truth be told, no business can prepare for such a black swan event that caught the world completely off guard. Retailers in Singapore were no different and were struggling with dwindling cash reserves, supply challenges and demand fluctuations during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fast forward to today, and the situation on-ground has relatively improved. Total retail sales in Singapore were up 11.2 per cent YoY in September 2022.

Also Read: How retailers could prepare for the next consumer recession, if it were to come

From Pine Labs’ extensive experience with the merchant commerce ecosystem, I can tell you our retail partners were quite innovative in navigating the challenges around COVID-19.

During the pandemic, social gifting increased and was propelled by a surge in gift cards usage at online marketplaces like Amazon and Lazada. This was understandable as there are many benefits of gift vouchers for businesses, small or large.

Let me cut to the chase and outline a few of what we have picked from our retail partners.

Gift vouchers reduce customer acquisition costs

Remember, with each gift voucher, our merchant partners instantly acquire two customers, the purchaser and the recipient. Considering today’s high customer acquisition costs, this works beautifully, especially for smaller businesses looking to focus on their core competency instead of spending big on marketing to win customers.

Our merchant partners also report an uptick in revenues as the gift voucher recipients tend to spend on an average 20-30 per cent more than the value of the gift card.

Foster customer loyalty

Benefits of gift vouchers cut across diverse industry verticals, including travel, hospitality, and restaurant industries which were primarily struggling with consistent cash flows during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This made a lot of sense as businesses that were closed during the CB got the opportunity to infuse cash flow in their businesses by reaching out to existing customers and selling gift vouchers.

Reward and recognition

Employee reward and recognition is one area where we are seeing massive adoption of gift vouchers. Gone are the days when gifts were purchased and imposed on the recipients, and there was no way to find out whether those would be well received or not.

Today’s young Gen Zers want to be in control of the process, and therefore gifting the power of choice to them makes much more sense. True to this, we have seen several of our corporate customers rely on gift vouchers for their reward and recognition programme.

Also Read: 2022: Making the year of the tiger a roaring success for payments

We found that employee rewards, channel incentives, and promotions & campaigns were the most popular use cases for gift cards and vouchers.

Improves brand recall

In addition to gift vouchers appealing to their present set of customers, they also help a business reach out to an untapped set of users cost-effectively. Generation of happy pleasant memories associated with gifting aids in a stronger brand recall.

Advancing the cashless vision

Did you know that three in five Singapore consumers have tried going fully cashless during the pandemic, with Gen Z constituting a majority of this digital-savvy segment, as per Visa’s ‘Consumer Payment Attitudes’ study?

Closing thoughts

Gifting, be it at an individual level or corporate gifting, is here to stay. After all, experts have alluded to the fact that gifting has measurable social and neurological benefits.

According to Dr Mark Williams, professor of cognitive neuroscience at Macquarie University, we get a release of dopamine when giving and receiving gifts, which means gift-giving creates pleasure, and a good gift can reinforce a positive impression of the giver, creating a stronger bond in the long run.

At Pine Labs, we are proud to play our part in enabling a cashless and completely digital ecosystem for our merchant partners and their customers in Singapore. We have always been a tech-first company, and our cloud-based SaaS Gift Card platform is helping SMBs launch their gift card programmes effortlessly in any digital avatar, be it barcode, URL-based, or even QR codes.

We empower our merchant partners by letting them place their gift cards into Bank catalogues, loyalty programmes, and wallet providers through APIs, thereby helping them expand their reach and avail associated benefits.

Our customer base for digital gift vouchers is fast expanding to newer industry verticals, and the addition of insurance giant Singlife this month is a good example of the fast-paced adoption of gift vouchers by businesses across sectors.

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Despite an increased awareness post-pandemic, insurance penetration rates across Southeast Asia remain low due to affordability and accessibility. The rate is a meagre 1.2 per cent to 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Insurtech companies like Igloo attempt to change this situation by introducing innovative insurance products covering underserved communities.

Igloo, based in Singapore, has already introduced several unique insurance products in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. With an eye on new markets, the company recently secured US$27 million in a new funding tranche to close its Series B round at US$46 million. The money came from Germany’s InsuResilience Investment Fund II, WAM, Finnfund, La Maison, and Cathay Innovation.

In this interview, Igloo Co-Founder and CEO Raunak Mehta shares insights into the region’s insurtech industry and talks about the company’s products, growth, expansion and IPO plans.

Excerpts:

What is the synergy between Igloo and InsuResilience Investment Fund II? How does its participation mutually benefit? Does this indicate Igloo’s interest in entering the German market?

Igloo uses technology to make insurance more affordable and accessible to underserved communities in Southeast Asia. At the same time, the InsuResilience Investment Fund II supports technologies that drive affordability and accessibility to climate insurance.

Igloo has the expertise and capabilities to develop insurance products and solutions directly impacting our investors’ target communities, such as Weather Index Insurance. We also share their mission to build a sustainable future and contribute toward realising the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

While Igloo does not have plans to enter the German market, our recent funding round shows that investors outside Southeast Asia are paying attention to the impactful work we do to advance financial inclusion through insurance protection and focus on impact and social good.

How did Igloo manage to raise additional funds amidst a looming recession?

Despite the economic slowdown brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued to seek partnerships with local and regional insurance companies and digital platforms to facilitate new insurance products and solutions.

We drew investors’ attention with more than 300 million policies and a gross written premium (GWP) that has grown 15x since 2019.

Since our inception, we have facilitated more than 100 million policies targeted towards climate change, low to mid-income populations and the gig economy.

You said in a statement that Igloo is in the process of identifying and closing on various M&A opportunities. Have you identified any companies yet? When can we expect to close your first M&A deal?

We are evaluating multiple opportunities across SEA. The focus is on vertical integration to enhance our expertise and value proposition.

We are looking at closing multiple deals over the next year.

Is the insurtech industry ripe for consolidation?

Over the last two years, we saw an increase in demand for insurtech products and services, resulting in a significant growth of new entrants focusing on specific verticals, business lines, and distribution channels.

Also Read: ‘Microinsurance will play a pivotal role in accelerating financial inclusion in SEA’: Raunak Mehta of Igloo

With the insurtech industry maturing, we might expect fewer startups to emerge. Still, we foresee early entrants and established players continuing to grow as they utilise their learning and experience to innovate and build strategic partnerships with the right players to strengthen their positioning.

You operate in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Do you follow the same strategies in all these markets? Do you plan to introduce any new specific products to these markets?

We conceptualise our product offering through a combination of market research and inherent demand from our digital distribution partners. After this, we identify common pain points in each market to find opportunities to scale these products outside of their origin to drive our inclusive insurance agenda in the region.

An example is our recently launched blockchain-based Weather Index Insurance in Vietnam. We see a massive potential for this product. So we plan to expand this insurance solution to cover more agricultural commodities and take it to other parts of Southeast Asia shortly.

Where do the Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippine markets stand regarding the growth of insurtech? What local trends do you see in each market?

Although COVID-19 has increased awareness, insurance penetration rates across the region remain low due to affordability and accessibility.

For instance, the life insurance penetration rate is approximately 1.2 per cent to 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), with more than 70 per cent of the working population employed in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that do not grant proper insurance coverage.

This triggered insurtech companies like us to use our technology to develop more insurance products and solutions that could improve insurance penetration rates in our key markets.

Across the markets, we see growth areas we can support with insurance products and solutions. The positive results from Ignite (the blockchain-based Weather Index Insurance) in Vietnam and Indonesia led us to the Philippines, where most of the population relies on insurance agents and traditional insurance companies.

We also see a demand for protection plans geared towards protecting the Philippines’ gig economy, seeing the uptick of contractual workers in the market.

Do you have plans to introduce more niche insurance products in the region?

In the Philippines, we introduced pet insurance protection with the rise of pet ownership during the pandemic.

With its massive gaming community in Indonesia, we brought Gamer’s Insurance to the market.

We plan to bring Weather Index Insurance to more SEA countries, covering different crops and adverse weather events like typhoons or earthquakes.

Are you profitable already?

We are making a better-than-expected movement towards profitability on the back of higher revenue extraction and economies of scale effect on our cost base. Ceteris Paribus, especially with respect to macro variables, we should be able to turn cash flow positive over the next couple of years.

What are your exit plans? Is an IPO plan in the offing?

Our journey has just begun, and with the growth that we have delivered over the last three years with continuous improvement in our margins, we believe we have taken baby steps towards our vision of “insurance for all”.

A strategic sale or IPO may be possible over the next three to five years, contingent on prevailing economic conditions.

Can you share insights into the overall global insurtech industry? Do you foresee tech like AI and blockchain disrupting the sector?

Globally, we see strong demand for insurtech services. As economies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we will see more solid demand for new insurance products and solutions to help make insurance more affordable and accessible for underserved segments.

Also Read: Women in Tech: Female leaders shaking up insurtech in Asia

In countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines, we see the demand from insurance agents who would benefit from digital solutions that help them serve customers better. In other markets like the Philippines, we already see a demand for more personal insurance products like Pet Insurance.

As the shift towards the digitisation of the industry is imminent, this also presents opportunities to utilise and integrate new technologies into insurance products and solutions. In light of our recently launched Weather Index Insurance, we can also see blockchain integration disrupting the industry. Through smart contracts, insurance payouts could essentially be triggered for multiple types of coverage.

Index Insurance may be the start, but this could eventually make more traditional forms of insurance, such as personal accident or car insurance, more affordable and accessible.

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For Daniel Shen, connecting with people is the key to happiness. And it applies to teaching and learning too.

Daniel, Founder and CEO of game-based learning platform Soqqle, began his career in banking and finance with impressive experience at JP Morgan and Standard Chartered – some of the world’s largest financial institutions that many would die to work for. At the heart of these experiences is a spirit that gave him a competitive edge when starting his own business: building relationships with people to challenge the status quo.

“School should be fun”

Coming from a culture where schooling can be packed with assessments, public exams and stress, Daniel believes that acquiring new knowledge can be much more enjoyable if carried out in arguably the most powerful space on earth today – social media.

What if students can do assignments by posting videos on social media, view each other’s progress on their news feed, and solve learning challenges together on the same platform, no matter where they are?

In March 2018, Soqqle was born as a mobile app in Singapore where teachers create social tasks for students to do, at home or during class. Though this would later prove to be a farsighted solution as COVID-19 forced everything online after less than 2 years, market reception was far from ideal at the time.

Hong Kong: real business begins

So there’s a noble vision, but bringing it to the real world is another thing. As Daniel began touching base with educators in Singapore, he was met with immense resistance: “People worried about the impact on teaching performance, student perception, ratings… concerns were all over the place.”

His quest to find “super users” was filled with barriers. Traction was slow. And resources were drying up.

Frustrated, Daniel had no choice but look beyond his home country: “The conditions were extremely challenging for our solution in Singapore, so I had to search for opportunities elsewhere.”

He finally landed in another Asian city – Hong Kong. “I am quite surprised how few startups in Southeast Asia are aware of the vast opportunities there.” Noting the vibrant culture, daily life efficiency and the transparency for available resources, Daniel soon settled into the world’s freest economy recognised by the Fraser Institute.

In search for last mile development for customer fit, Daniel first arrived at Hong Kong’s startup scene in 2020 when he pitched to hundreds of investors and corporate partners as a contestant of the city’s signature Elevator Pitch Competition (EPiC) held by Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), Hong Kong’s flagship startup cradle. Little did he know that he would later find the resources needed for accelerating growth of his startup company there one year later.

Going full-fledged

In 2021, to take his team further, he joined an incubation programme at Hong Kong Science Park, which brought Soqqle USD 150,000 in funding in addition to diverse tech resources, physical and digital infrastructure, and support for talent recruitment like fast-track visa application. Headquartering in the world’s 3^rd top financial centre also meant extensive exposure to a massive web of global investors and potential partners.

In that same year, Soqqle ran their first pilot in collaboration with teachers and students at Lingnan University. According to Daniel, professors there were very receptive to new ideas and open to try something new in class, successfully advancing peer-to-peer learning with tremendous results.

“This gave us the confidence to go full-fledged to turn this into a metaverse concept.”

What started as a straightforward video app was fast becoming an innovative learning platform that engages students and teachers like no other tools before: “In June this year, we’ve begun doing private trials for our flagship metaverse product, Classlet.”

“Our partnership with Soqqle has created new ways to use the metaverse to help students learn in more real-world settings,” said Professor Paulina Wong from Lingnan University.

This was echoed by high school educator Ka Tim Chu (Tim), chairman of the Hong Kong Association for Computer Education (HKACE) and vice principal of Hong Kong True Light College, whom Daniel knew through the HKSTP Mentorship programme. Tim designed a metaverse programme with Soqqle to create learning scenarios.

Dixon Fong, Vice Principal of Pope Paul VI College, joined the pilot to teach Computational Thinking. “Students can interact with characters and objects in the metaverse to obtain data and learn about abstraction to deconstruct problems,” he said.

Soqqle will be presented at Hong Kong’s Learning & Teaching Expo (LTE) 2022 at HKSTP’s booth. LTE is an annual expo for education buyers, governments, and academics to discover and source latest educational tech and resources.

Since settling in Hong Kong, team Soqqle grew from 2 people to 6 in less than 6 months to support the product growth.

“HKSTP has given me opportunities I never had before,” said Daniel.

Next stop? China

More ventures continued to stem, while Daniel also sensed the enormous potential of growing his business beyond Hong Kong into the wider Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (more commonly known as the Greater Bay Area or the Bay Area) – a fast-growing region in southern China consisting of 11 cities (including Hong Kong) in thirst of innovation.

While Hong Kong is long renowned as a springboard for the China market, it is more recently highlighted as a gateway towards the Bay Area, home to over 86 million people with a GDP of USD 1.67 trillion in 2020.

“I see Hong Kong as our primary starting point and runway. Not only with incubation support, but it’s also an amazing testing ground. Now we’re much more ready to expand and explore the whole regional market.”

Besides being a hub of professional services for the Bay Area, Hong Kong is also leading the regional value chains especially in FinTech, PropTech and Biotech, with an ever-growing pool of specialists who can travel to any city in the Bay Area within an hour.

“The ecosystem here in Hong Kong is amazing. I found talent, funding opportunities and quality infrastructure – all crucially important for us as an early-stage startup,” said Daniel.

The HKSTP Incubation Programme is currently open to application. Click here to apply.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by HKSTP

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The world economy has never faced a more tough scenario than it currently faces, particularly with the massive layoffs of prominent technological businesses. Yet, there is a startup named Recruitery that can address the issue.

The situation with layoffs in technology firms

Concerns about an economic crisis, increasing interest rates, dropping revenue, falling equities, and so on have forced several huge technological businesses in the United States, the world’s largest economy, to lay off tens of thousands of staff to stay in business. 

It is still being determined how long this trend will continue. Still, suppose inflation continues to rise, impacting economies worldwide and weakening the financial climate. In that case, Randstad expects that the movement of technological layoffs in Southeast Asia will continue into the second quarter of 2023. 

Also Read: Your identity should not be limited to what you do at work: Sheryl Chen of Qualgro

There is no way to stop this trend, but Recruitery will be a solution for companies searching for outplacement and individuals affected by the wave of layoffs.

About Recruitery

Recruitery has an extensive network of headhunters, with over 10,000 headhunters, 1,000 of the top enterprises trusting Recruitery, and over 1 million transnational high-level human resources networks. As a result, they can quickly recruit personnel in 98 countries worldwide.

Recruitery has approximately more than 5,000 referrals per month, and the average time from job posting to placement is 20 days.

Recruitery was founded in 2019 in Singapore by a group of dedicated young individuals who feel that this is the right option for businesses that want to save on recruiting costs while still finding talent for the firm. 

The primary aim of Recruitery is to link businesses with a network of recruiting professionals and experts in various disciplines to reach out to possible applicants (not actively looking for jobs). The tool allows firms to reach five times as many potential applicants as the present system while saving 80 per cent of the time and 50 per cent of the money.

Recruitery’s strengths include a strong headhunters network and a high number of worldwide customers, a very user-friendly UX system, competitive fees, and a wide range of positions. 

Recruitery focuses on corporate, headhunter, and candidate-centred methods while building its solutions.

How Recruitery is bridging this gap

“With everything in place, Recruitery will become a ‘home’ for people impacted by mass layoffs, particularly in the IT industry; we will connect them with our headhunting partners (10,000 signed up) to assist them in finding a new job,” Recruitery CEO Toan Nguyen stated. 

“In the last few months, some startups requested assistance from specialists to help former employees who were laid off prepare and even design their resumes to find a job. This highlights the difficult circumstances for employees who are abruptly out of work, with venture capital financing drying up as investors become wary owing to unpredictable financial markets and geopolitical concerns,” Toan added.

Also Read: Addressing Singapore’s talent crunch with remote work

On the other hand, Recruitery has witnessed increased demand from organisations growing their staff during the last two quarters. In addition, following the disruptions produced by covid, there has been a surge in recruiting in fields such as information technology (IT), IT support services (ITes), and startups. 

Creating a platform that serves outplacement agencies and jobless prospects takes time and effort. But they’ve been preparing for this wave for quite some time, and the system is finally ready.

“We have a two-week sprint to rebuild the site’s layout, including providing additional messages and allowing the headhunter to connect directly to the firm on our platform. The headhunter can now interact with the firm about all of the candidate’s details, as well as oversee the whole recruiting process,” Toan added.

Recruitery intends to grow further into Southeast Asia next year and release additional UX tools to improve the platform and become the premier recruiting platform in Southeast Asia.

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Vietnam’s electric-vehicle maker VinFast said on Tuesday that it has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

VinFast, a unit of Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate Vingroup, will trade on the Nasdaq under the ” VFS ” ticker. 

The company has not disclosed the exact number of shares to be offered or the price range.

According to a Reuters report, VinFast will convert to a Singapore public limited company (VinFast Auto Ltd) for the purpose of the IPO.

Also Read:  Growth capital firm Venteny Fortuna seeks to raise US$27M via IPO on IDX

VinFast intends to use the proceeds to fund the expansion of its two all-electric SUVs — the VF8 and VF9 — to the US. It plans a plant in North Carolina, with an initial projected capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year.

Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and JP Morgan lead a nine-bank syndicate behind the deal.

“VinFast will continue to monitor opportunities for future fundraisers as the market becomes more familiar with the VinFast brand and story,” said VinFast CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy.

VinFast expressed its intention in April last year to go public in the US to raise US$2 billion with a valuation of about US$60 billion.

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It all began when one of our friends and Co-Founders, Mao, fell during a mountain climbing expedition. While he was not seriously injured, he still fractured his arm and had to wear a fibreglass cast to recover.

If you have ever been in a cast, the ordeal would likely be etched in your mind regardless of how long ago you had to wear one. Having the natural movement of your limb removed and the need to avoid water contact while lugging around over one kilogram affixed to you already makes wearing a cast a difficult experience for anyone. And to make matters worse, there is constant itchiness, pervasive sweatiness, and festering odour lingering under your cast through it all.

His negative experience with wearing a cast eventually led to the birth of Castomize, where we are using 4D printing to create orthopaedic casts and splints of the future, which will revolutionise the current casting and splinting space for both patients and doctors.

What exactly is 4D printing?

4D printing is a concept which would be new to most people, but it is really similar to 3D printing. According to Sculpteo.com, 4D printing is the process through which a 3D printed object transforms itself into another structure over the influence of external energy input such as temperature, light or other environmental stimuli.

Also Read: Healthtech data: The race for new oil in Southeast Asia

Even as a pre-revenue SUTD spin-off specialising in 4D printing, Castomize has experienced rapid product development and received heavy market interest in its 4D printed orthopaedic casts. Currently, we are finalising our market-ready model for commercialisation, which we anticipate being completed by early 2023.

How did it begin

Before Castomize became an SUTD spin-off using 4D printing technology, we used to be a year-end student project back in 2017 with the goal of creating a new and improved cast free of all the problems cast-wearers were facing at the time using 3D printing techniques.

While the project did well as a student project, it became dormant for a few years as our team chose to focus on studies at the time, along with the fact that the idea was operationally challenging for us to execute, having to custom 3D-scan and print casts for every individual patient.

Fast-forward a few years to early 2022, our team decided to revisit the idea seriously after graduating from university. Armed with a new patent which was developed from one of our team member’s Master’s studies and a research grant from the National Research Foundation, we looked at executing and commercialising our idea for a modern orthopaedic cast which would revolutionise the casting and splinting space

We resumed our product development with much excitement and hope. Our first goal was to move away from custom 3D-printing each individual cast as much as possible. To this end, we began exploring using shape memory polymers and 4D-printing concepts.

Tapping on the grant we were given, we hired two research assistants and purchased the necessary equipment to begin our development. We also got incubated at the Temasek Launchpad programme, where we gained valuable exhibition opportunities and connections with mentors.

However, successfully creating a workable prototype proved to be more difficult than we thought, and we had no substantial progress in our product development for a good four months. This lack of progress, coupled with the mounting pressure of being fresh graduates with no income, began to cause frustration within our team and began creating friction amongst our members.

The friction finally reached a breaking point when our then-CTO announced that he was leaving the team to pursue a full-time job instead. The rest of the team thought the project would have no choice but to end abruptly without our key technology member leading the development.

The rest of the team, including the research assistants we brought in, sat down and had a long discussion about our direction going forward. We began transparently reviewing the development path we had taken so far and started to see other development areas and methods which we could have explored but were not seeing at the time, primarily due to the firm belief that there was only one way in which we could develop the product to a working stage, and the lack of open and honest communication.

Also Read: New technology that’s challenging the status quo in medicine

It was around this period that we got accepted into SMU’s Business Innovations Generator incubation programme and got access to their vast network of entrepreneurs and valuable start-up resources.

Besides receiving valuable guidance from their masterclasses, we were blessed to be connected by BIG to Dr Timothy Low, CEO of Farrer Park hospitals, who is a current advisor to our team with regard to our product development and market penetration strategy.

How is it going

With a clearer sense of direction, mentorship, and renewed confidence, we felt a rush of energy as we embarked on a new path of product development. One of the research assistants who we hired decided to step up and take on the role of CTO, and under his creativity and ingenuity, we have managed to create a fully functional 4D-printed cast, which is lighter and more comfortable for patients while being able to be perfectly moulded to any patient without customised 3D printing.

We are happy and proud that during the recent SWITCH 2022, our product, which we were demonstrating during the exhibition, received overwhelming interest from multiple parties, including individuals from venture capital, healthcare, and the military. Surprisingly, we have also received interest from FMCG companies to explore collaborating on interactive packaging.

Besides our progress in Singapore, we have also been gaining attention in Korea, where we have successfully achieved the top 30 for the K-Startup Grand Challenge 2022 out of over 2,653 start-ups and SMEs that applied for the programme. We are aiming to test our cast in Korea alongside Singapore, as these two nations are well-renowned for being advanced in medical technology.

In the long term, we are looking at exploring other uses of 4D printing, both in medical devices such as stents and respiratory aids, along with uses in other industries such as packaging and veterinary care.

Currently, Castomize is preparing to raise a Pre-Series A financing round, with the majority of raised funds going into manufacturing as well as medical compliance for us to capture the market quickly.

We are also looking to hire talents who have knowledge in biomedical engineering, materials science, and business development to join us in our mission to revolutionise orthopaedic casting with 4D printing technology.

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Paywatch, an earned wage access (EWA) service provider operating in South Korea and Malaysia, announced a US$9 million pre-Series A financing.

Returning investor Third Prime led the round, joined by Hana Ventures (the venture arm of Hana Financial Group in Korea), Parkwood Corp., and the endowments of Vanderbilt University and the University of Illinois Foundation.

Paywatch will utilise the money to grow its product offerings, strengthen its presence in existing markets, and accelerate expansion into new markets, including the Philippines and Hong Kong, where it expects to launch in 2023.

Paywatch was founded in 2020 by Korean brothers Alex Kim and Richard Kim, the former Country Manager of MasterCard Prepaid and former Sr. VP of HSBC in South Korea.

Also Read: Why earned wage access is the future of pay

The startup works with employers and banks to provide instant workers access to their earned wages before payday. This helps workers avoid high-interest payday lending practices to cope with unexpected financial strain.

In addition, Paywatch also serves as a bridge that provides its underbanked users with direct financial access to banks.

The firm claims its solution has reached a 50 per cent engagement rate among its Malaysian users this year. It has over 100 corporate clients, including Lotus’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Wilmar International, TGI Fridays, Outback Steakhouse, and Metrojaya Department Stores.

“Though macroeconomic conditions are catching up to everyone globally, many low-income workers were already experiencing financial burdens. During our year in Malaysia, we have seen first-hand how much of a difference our service makes to employees’ state of mind. For companies, we have proven to increase recruitment and retention,” said CEO Richard Kim.

In January this year, Paywatch raised US$5.25 in a seed funding round led by Third Prime and unnamed family offices in Singapore and Hong Kong. SparkLabs, Won & Partners, and CTK Investments also participated.

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Singapore-based Osome, which has developed an accounting and corporate compliance app for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has raked in US$25 million in a Series B round from investors such as Illuminate Financial, AFG Partners, and Winter Capital.

The firm plans to expand its Asia operations, primarily in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Also Read: What any founder needs to know about the art of accounting

This announcement comes as Singaporean banking giant OCBC has launched a digital banking partnership with Osome to give businesses a one-stop shop for their financial needs.

Established by Ukrainian Victor Lysenko (who founded RocketBank and sold to payment provider Qiwi in 2017), Osome helps SMEs set up through a simple platform with easy-to-use software and an expert accountant to take care of financial admin.

It leverages Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques, combined with the experience of human experts, to solve the problem of time-consuming administrative tasks, such as payroll and secretarial work. This way, it aims to disrupt the fragmented accounting and corporate services industry.

Osome claims it has seen revenues double since its previous raise.

This year, the company launched a comprehensive accounting platform to complement its accountant offer.

Also Read: Fintech startup Osome snags US$3M funding led by Target Global, preparing Hong Kong’s, UK’s expansion

Osome now integrates with eight e-commerce platforms: Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Lazada, Esty, Shopee, Square, and Wix.

Ivan Ong, Principal at Osome investor AFG Partners, commented: “Osome is addressing a central issue in back office management for entrepreneurs and SMEs globally. In a short time, it has positioned itself as a market leader in a space that has significant growth potential.”

In June 2021, Osome secured US$16 million in Series A funding from Target Global (Berlin), AltaIR Capital, Phystech Ventures, S16VC, and Peng T. Ong of Monk’s Hill Ventures.

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Hong Kong-headquartered open metaverse company Animoca Brands has acquired a majority stake in the music and gaming startup Pixelynx through its controlled subsidiary.

The transactions details remain undisclosed.

Through this deal, Animoca aims to build, invest in and acquire studios, infrastructure and technologies that will power the future of the music industry through integration with gaming and Web3 technologies and communities.

Animoca Brands earlier invested in Pixelynx’s seed funding round in December 2021.

Los Angeles-based Pixelynx was founded in 2020 by musicians and technologists deadmau5 (Joel Zimmerman) and Richie Hawtin (Plastikman), along with music and gaming industry veterans Ben Turner, Dean Wilson, and Inder Phull.

It creates a physical and digital ecosystem for artists and fans by building products that blur the lines between music, gaming, and Web3. The ecosystem provides artists control over how they build experiences with fans, partners, and platforms to create new ways for music lovers to develop, share, and monetise music.

Also Read: Animoca Brands rakes in US$125M from Temasek, TGV, others

The startup’s upcoming debut game Elynxir is a next-generation mobile gaming platform that will bring fans closer to their favourite artists through exclusive music content, in-game collectibles, and playable immersive experiences. It leverages advanced AR and geolocation for players to discover games, music, artists, collectibles, and community-made content.

Elynxir will be integrated into the Animoca ecosystem with an emphasis on interoperability, open standards, and new interactive audio-visual formats.

Pixelynx also operates LynxLabs, a new investment programme to develop the next wave of music and entertainment ventures by offering them access to funding, artists, celebrities, token design, and technical support.

The lab has already invested in Volta XR and Oorbit.

Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands, commented: “Pixelynx is one of the new wave of companies that are paving novel pathways for the music industry amid a major technological shift from centralised to decentralised ownership.”

Inder Phull, CEO of Pixelynx, commented: “Animoca Brands has established itself as a dominant player in building the shared vision of an open metaverse. This deal marks the beginning of a new era in the music industry in which Web3, gaming, and transmedia content will unlock new formats, revenue streams, and business models that support artists, fans, and labels.”

The global music revenue is expected to reach US$131 billion by 2030 (source: Goldman Sachs, 2022). From a strategic fit perspective, Animoca Brands and Pixelynx will focus on developing new formats of music consumption that can be scaled across the metaverse to unlock new revenue opportunities through the access that both companies have to a global network of platforms, infrastructure, and rights-holders in the field of entertainment.

On Wednesday, Nikkei Asia reported that Animoca Brands plans to set up a fund worth as much as US$2 billion to invest in metaverse businesses.

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At e27, we have kickstarted a new article series called work-life balance to learn more about tech enablers and executives and their lives beyond working hours.

Will Fan is the Head of School at NewCampus, where he is reinventing management training for hypergrowth leaders in Asia.

Over the past decade, he’s empowered over 15,000 students across Southeast Asia, China and the Middle East. Fan has worked with scaleups, corporates and universities to make leadership development accessible and impactful.

Outside his life’s work, he is found writing for Forbes, practising headstands at yoga, and obsessing over his indoor plants.

He is a regular contributor of articles for e27 (you can read his thought leadership articles here). 

In this candid interview, Fan talks about his personal and professional life.

How would you explain what you do to a five-year-old?

I love this question. I am an owner of a school that teaches bosses how to become better bosses. My students often learn in groups of 25 to 50. They learn together on a computer and sometimes watch videos too. The students get to practice fun activities that help them become better bosses.

What has been the biggest highlight/challenge of your career so far?

Running a startup is already hard. Running an education startup is like doing it in hard mode as it is one of the slowest industries to reform (pre-pandemic). Founders in this sector have to balance everything — from appealing to multiple stakeholders and building a grassroots brand to creating a profitable, cockroach-type business over time.

It’s taken my team and me almost eight years to build a repeatable flywheel. It took countless years of learning, from selling to universities to governments to consumers. It’s been rough, but I’m proud to say that the accelerator is here.

It’s also critical now that the team switches mindset from “survival mode” to “growth mode” and capitalise on the momentum we have.

Ultimately, we want to build a brand that changes how people learn, work and live. There’s no proven formula to get there.

How do you envision the next five years of your career?

I’m eight years into a twenty-five-year journey, building the next hundred-year-old brand. My driver is to design what modern leaders represent and how they should be nurtured over time.

Growing up, I had very few role models, especially coming from an immigrant of Asian descent. So it’s vital for me to constantly build communities and ecosystems that provide such access and exposure.

Also Read: Cultivating an honest culture: Why leaders should be transparent

My superpower is being able to connect with people.

In the early days, it taught founding students; now, I am working closely with clients and partners who want to evangelise our mission.

Moving forward, it will be more of the same, hopefully scaling to new tribes of entrepreneurs and educators beyond Asia and creating a global footprint for NewCampus.

What are some of your favourite work tools?

Besides your usual suspects (Zoom, Slack, Hubspot), which is usually fundamental for a b2b startup, it’s also the bread and butter for NewCampus as a remote team of thirty-something people.

We’re spread across China, Australia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia. A core part of our workflow is ensuring that project management is well-documented and asynchronous conversations are cohesively written.

Personally, I’ve been very excited to incorporate Artificial Intelligence into my work. For example, this interview was transcribed by a speech tool, as I prefer sharing my thoughts verbally rather than in writing. 

For my creative hobbies, I’m diving deep into AI art and exploring ways to incorporate that into NewCampus content and storytelling.

It’s a huge opportunity to revolutionise many industries, and evolving your personal or professional toolstack is key to staying on top.

What’s something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I’m incredibly introverted! This usually surprises many of my clients, investors and even team members who have never met me in person.

You’ll often find me presenting to large crowds or swimming through networking events, but I need personal time to reset and reflect. The need to re-energise is real.

Daily, I may be taking 10 to 15 calls, but in between, I’ll be curled up on the couch. If I’m at drinks, I’m usually the quietest in the corner unless called upon to pitch and build relationships.

Do you prefer WFH or WFO, or hybrid?

I prefer to work from home. I have a sophisticated setup for recording content, hosting roundtables and teaching classes, and speaking to the remote team. My previous business was also in vintage furniture, so I absolutely love having my own “space” to think and reset.

Also Read: Your identity should not be limited to what you do at work: Sheryl Chen of Qualgro

Thursdays are our company’s “no-Zoom” day, so you’ll find me digitally detoxing and getting to know folks over meaningful coffee and drinks.

What would you tell your younger self?

I mentioned earlier that I had very few role models while growing up. For a long time, especially coming from the corporate world, it was important to put a face of confidence in everything we do. Flex your experience. Flex your wealth. Flex your status.

Looking back, it was really a naive kid with severe imposter syndrome. I’d tell myself that finding internal confidence is key for anyone to thrive. It’s why one of my core philosophies, when it comes to the team, is bringing your most authentic self to the table, whether it’s at home or work.

Finding authenticity may take you five, ten, or twenty years. Don’t rush it.

Can you describe yourself in 3 words?

Creative. People-oriented. Hungry.

What are you most likely to be doing if not working?

I’m a fanatic when it comes to working out. I go to yoga and f45 around six times a week. Especially in a tough startup climate, it’s key to take a step back and realise that everything is probably not as dramatic as you think. Often we find ourselves tunnel-visioned.

Getting a good sweat and resetting the mind keeps the journey sustainable and the experience fun.

Outside of fitness, you’ll find me illustrating, advising and investing in Web3 projects. It’s a way to learn about a new class of users, how emerging brands become relevant, and stay alert to what’s vogue.

What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?

I’m terribly outdated when it comes to music. Recently, I came across BTS, even though one of their songs, Dynamite, is a regular introduction for our cohort programmes. If you have any recommendations on what other songs are good, please share!

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