I learnt what professional courtesy really means the hard way.

My team and I were on a location shoot. It was a full-day affair involving 20 men from different walks of life. As the editor, my main job that day was to make sure everything was running smoothly, be there to cover anyone who needed to take a break, head out to buy lunch for the crew, anything.

My art director was also present because shooting 20 people who weren’t professional models required a whole new level of directing.

With my team in the zone, I pretty much had nothing to do except make small talk with the men waiting to get their hair/makeup done. After a while, I wandered into the photoshoot area.

As I peered over my art director’s shoulder, I made a comment about how to get the guy to relax, to pose, to smile; thinking my feedback would be helpful.

Then she stopped the photographer and turned to me. I was her boss, but she did not let this stop her. She stood up taller, looked at me, and said, “Debs, do you want to do my job? Because if you don’t, leave me to run the shoot because I know what I’m doing. I don’t tell you how to run a magazine, you don’t tell me how to do a shoot.”

Five seconds. That was all it took to learn a valuable leadership lesson that I still carry with me today.

What is professional courtesy?

At the very heart of it are two things: respect and boundaries.

At the workplace, everyone has been hired to do a job that the company believed them to be good at. If I were hired as the in-house barista, it means you don’t tell me how to do latte art. You need to respect that I know my beans and how to work the coffee machine.

And so, if you were hired to be the data scientist, I would never claim to build a better dashboard than you.

Boundaries add another dimension to the idea of professional courtesy. It means recognising who you can boss around and who really needs to take your s**t. This is especially important for cross-team collaboration where it’s hard to tell who’s the “boss”.

Also Read: Beyond burn out: Why you should also celebrate the pursuit and not just wins

It’s fine to tell your own team members what to do, but it isn’t fine to expect someone from another team to take orders from you, even if you are ranked higher within the organisation.

So here’s the analogy of how these two elements work together

The barista asks the data scientist to build a dashboard to track which coffee works best for post-lunch productivity.

The data scientist then finds out what metrics the barista is after, maybe a number of lattes ordered vs long blacks, maybe pulling results from a survey about how people felt one, two, and three hours after drinking what kind of coffee.

After a few days, the data scientist comes back with a dashboard, and the barista takes it to his boss (let’s call her the Pantry Godmother).

Instead of saying thank you, the Pantry Godmother tells the barista that she feels the colours aren’t attractive enough and doesn’t think the dashboard is right. She then sends the barista to tell the data scientist how to build a dashboard.

How should the data scientist react? How would you react if you were the data scientist in this story?

What’s the deal, really?

There’s nothing wrong with collaboration and feedback. But remember: the data scientist is well within his rights to tell the Pantry Godmother, “No. I won’t make your changes because you do not understand how data science actually works.”

If the data scientist accommodates her feedback and makes some changes to his dashboard, he’s doing her a favour — not obeying her.

If the data scientist makes the changes but includes more insights into how the dashboard could work better, he shouldn’t have to justify his decisions to the Pantry Godmother.

Also Read: Keep calm and remain communicative: Startup founders share how they cope with coronavirus crisis

Please understand that this analogy illustrates two very distinct job areas interacting with each other in the workplace. By no means am I saying that pantry staff should shut up and take whatever is given to them.

Why is it important to practice professional courtesy at the workplace?

Can you imagine the angst the data scientist must feel every time the Pantry Godmother tries to be a data scientist?

Once a colleague of mine wrote “Be My Valentine!” as a cover line for her February issue and was told by a senior person of the ad team that it should have read “Be My Valentine’s” because “Valentine’s Day”.

We spent a good hour on the phone discussing how to tell this person she was wrong. The stress we went through was unnecessary because how do you say to a person who believed she was intelligent that she was actually obtuse?

Contrary to popular belief, telling someone, they are wrong or that you’re not going to give in to their requests takes an immense amount of mental and emotional energy.

Like the data scientist, many of us would like to think that our decisions when it comes to our work are for the best— not necessarily the best but for the best. To have someone second-guess us every step of the way is not just frustrating, it damages relationships at work.

The data scientist doesn’t tell the Pantry Godmother how to manage the barista, how to arrange the teabags, and when to change the kitchen sponge. Why? Because he recognises that it isn’t his space.

Mental wellbeing at work goes beyond promoting work-life balance or improving the employee experience.

It’s also about people treating each other with professional courtesy, knowing the difference between feedback and instruction, knowing who is obliged to follow your orders, and knowing who really doesn’t need to give a hoot about what you think about their work.

If you wish to give your two cents’ worth during a cross-team collaboration,

• Do it in person: Do not ever send someone to play messenger. If it’s your feedback, you should be the one to tell the other party.
• Know that the other party is allowed to reject your feedback: If that person doesn’t report to you and works in a different function/team, they are not obliged to go with everything you say.
• Take what you are given: The other party is allowed to take what makes sense and do what they think is best. They can add their own touches to the project and do not have to justify why to you.

It is frustrating enough that work-from-home has made cross-team collaboration harder, so let’s be mindful about where your involvement begins and where it really ends.

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Singapore-based corporate cards and payable management startup Volopay has secured US$29 million in a Series A round of investment, led by Tinder Founder Justin Mateen’s JAM Fund.

Winklevoss Capital Management (US), Rapyd Ventures (US), Accial Capital (US), Access Ventures (Hong Kong), Antler Global, and VentureSouq (Dubai) also joined. Fintech veteran and Acorns Founder Jeffrey Cruttenden also participated in the round.

Volopay will use the funds (a mix of equity and debt) to expand into the Asia Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. It will also look to enhance its integrations with popular ERPs, HRMs, CRM software tools, and project management applications.

“With APAC and MENA churning out several unicorn level enterprises every year, it is indeed making a big wave on the global frontier. And this is only the beginning. Accelerating their growth would require an efficient expense management tool that is simple yet scalable, something that Volopay has always aimed for,” Rajith Shaji and Rajesh Raikwar, Co-Founders of Volopay, said in a joint statement.

Also Read: Volopay raises US$2.1M from Tinder co-founder, others to make expense tracking easier for startups

A Y Combinator startup, Volopay provides businesses with corporate cards, invoice automation, bill payments, and multi-currency business accounts without the hassle and limitations of a traditional bank. The multi-currency wallets enable clients to hold money in their base currency and any major currency (USD, SGD, EUR, GBP) and subsequently use it for payouts.

Volopay is building its own infrastructure and applying for financial licences in the markets it operates.

“Many of our competitors around the world will opt to integrate with third-party infrastructure suppliers to provide financial services. It limits the type of products you can offer clients. With each region playing host to its own network providers, it is almost impossible to deliver a consistent and delightful customer experience for our global company clients operating in different parts of the world,” Shaji commented.

“We are doing something no other company has done regionally; we are building our own infrastructure. Not being held back by the limitations of an intermediary, this foundation will not only let us create highly innovative financial products but also a pleasant and reliable customer experience across all our markets,” Shaji added.

Since its seed funding, Volopay claims to have grown to a 150+ member team spread Asia Pacific, such as Singapore, Australia, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Its clients include Funding Societies, Zipmex, Moneysmart, Smartkarma, and Austrionova.

Michael Shum, Chief Investment Officer at Accial Capital said, “Accial Capital views the B2B corporate spend vertical as a way to support entrepreneurs and SMEs with liquidity and close the credit gap. Volopay has a great ambitious team focused on redlining the finance workflows with its robust technology.”
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Singapore-based e-commerce enabler Cococart has received US$4.2 million in a seed funding round led by Forerunner Ventures (US) and Sequoia Capital.

Existing investor Y Combinator, Uncommon Capital, Soma Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, James Park of Fitbit, and Eduardo Vivas (Curated CEO) also joined the round.

The startup will use the new funding to grow the team, accelerate product development, and expand to other countries.

“We’re just getting started. There are still so many challenges in starting and running a business that we want to solve, from deliveries to supply chain to financing. We see a massive opportunity in front of us, and we want to bring Cococart to 200 million businesses worldwide. Our goal is to define the next generation of commerce,” said Cococart Co-Founder and CEO Derek Low.

Also Read: E-commerce enabler aCommerce files for IPO in Thailand

Founded in 2020, Cococart currently has merchants present in over 90 countries. The company aims to transform local businesses and enable new ways to sell online. The firm claims merchants can set up their storefront in minutes with no code, no design, no app downloads.

Most local businesses are still taking orders on WhatsApp and managing their orders using spreadsheets. With Cococart, they can set up a website with no learning curve. The store comes with everything from inventory management to mobile payment solutions.

Since its launch, Cococart claims to have grown to support over 20,000 businesses in more than 90 countries, taking in over 500,000 orders.

In 2021, the company grew its merchant count by 3000 per cent and customer base by 4600 per cent, according to Low. In that same time, the company grew their team from two founders to 22 people across 12 countries.

“At Forerunner, we believe the next revolution in commerce will be driven by empowered sellers,” said Kirsten Green, Founder and Managing Partner at Forerunner. “Cococart embodies this shift by enabling small businesses to manage online ordering and unlock new growth easily. E-commerce tools like Cococart stand to enable a growing generation of companies to compete and scale more efficiently.”

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Why does this keep on happening?

That was the subject of e27 Daily Digest that was disseminated to our community in November 2021 –right after we published our coverage of sexual harassment cases in the Southeast Asian tech startup ecosystem. The subject was chosen by the content team due to the fact that these issues seem to happen over and over again. Despite the fact that the mainstream media no longer pay great attention to the #MeToo movement anymore. Despite the fact that survivors keep on speaking up.

During that period, our friends in Tech In Asia also published a similar coverage on the issue, sending an even stronger message to the ecosystem that this is far from over.

We entered the 21st century with the hope that our society has progressed way beyond how it was hundreds of years ago. But we were appalled to discover that some things remain the same; despite progress here and there, the minorities continue to face barriers in developing their true potentials and achieving success. Issues such as sexual harassment and unequal pay continue to haunt the workplace, inside and outside the tech startup ecosystem.

Certainly, each issue is unique and requires its own unique approach. But when we look at how issues faced by women in tech is being narrated, we might suspect that perhaps we are going nowhere because we have been using the wrong approach so far.

The problem

Analytics Insight provides a handy list of challenges faced by women in tech today, and equal opportunities come out on top.

Also Read: A woman among women: 27 female-led startups in SEA that are going places

“Just like any other industry, gender biases are permeated in the technology sector as well. This is very obvious with how the tech world is referred to as male-dominated. The survey by JobsforHer observed that 82 per cent of the women working in tech feel unheard in their jobs. With already existing gender biases that women are fighting daily, this unconscious bias impedes females from enhancing their skills and experience,” the article writes.

When it comes to dealing with the problem of unequal opportunities, the narrative that has been going around the tech ecosystem –in SEA and other major hubs such as Silicon Valley– tend to put heavy emphasis on the individual’s contribution to this problem. For example, if a woman developer receives a lower salary than her male peers, despite having the exact same level of competency, then it must be because the woman does not negotiate for a better salary.

There is rarely an emphasis on the failure of the system that leads to this issue in the first place.

This narrative becomes even more popular with the publication of books such as Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead –perhaps one of the most popular works for the topic of women in business, including tech.

Personally, I have read the book and found merits in it. But I will not deny that there are also many points that are problematic in it, particularly its emphasis on women’s lack of ‘leaning in’ as the cause of their problems.

As women, we may have been conditioned to be polite and put other people first, and this may lead us to become reluctant to speak up for ourselves. But if we think that this is the only reason why women are not making progress in the workplace, then we are missing out on a very important point.

It is all about the framework

The International Labour Organization (ILO), together with the Australian Government and Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), released a practical guideline for employers to promote equality and prevent discrimination at work in Indonesia. Despite the local context, I found that the steps detailed in the guideline can be relevant for other markets.

In promoting equality and preventing discrimination, the guideline puts emphasis on the active role that employers play. From the details, we can see that this is a process that goes from the top to the bottom; leaders need to take initiative to review how diversity and inclusion are being practised in their organisation and identify issues. Only then that they can figure out the best policy and implement it for their team members.

Also Read: Levelling the playing field: How to build a home for women in tech

As you can see here, we are moving beyond motivating the individuals to lean in here. Instead, we are doing creating an environment and a system that ensures equal opportunities.

We can keep on telling women to lean in, but if there is no legal framework to back what they are fighting for, everything will be pointless. You can send young women to workshops to teach them negotiation skills, but if there is no policy that supports equal pay for all sexes, then we are not going anywhere.

What this means for business

This means you have to do something. (Duh! What did I write these paragraphs for?)

It is easy to dismiss International Women’s Day as a ceremonial feat when we spend the whole month of March talking about women’s issues –writing about high-profile CEOs, providing discounts for women– but fail to implement concrete steps throughout the year to ensure equal opportunities. This means the event should be momentum for leaders to start reviewing how equal opportunities are provided in their organisation, see where they can make improvements, and set up the framework to make sure its implementation. This is never an easy process; in fact, it requires an investment of time and resources.

Sometimes –often– it would be easier to just focus our effort into a single momentum. Instead of investing time and resources to make slow but real, impactful changes.

But let us go back to the opening paragraph of this op-ed and ask ourselves: how long do we want these things to keep on happening?

That way, hopefully, we will be inspired to choose between what is easy and what is right.

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Image Credit: mkitina4

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This series is produced in collaboration with the Fintech Association of Malaysia (FAOM), a national platform that supports Malaysia becoming the leading hub for fintech innovation and investment in the region.

While researching for this article, I brought up insurance to friends and acquaintances, only to be, more than once, immediately told they were not interested in buying any packages from me.

In many parts of Asia, where insurance has been traditionally sold through networks of commission-earning agents, it’s treated with some measure of hesitancy and disdain. After all, insurance has been a financial product viewed as opaque and confusing to navigate for the average person for a long time.

Yet insurtech, accelerated by a pandemic that has brought forth the importance of the virtual, has brought about a sea change in attitudes towards insurance.

From 2013 to 2017, overall investment in insurtech startups increased from US$3 billion to US$ 2.2 billion at a CAGR of 69.2 per cent. Incumbent insurers, too, have been getting in on the action.

However, in 2016, according to AICB-PwC Malaysia FinTech Survey, Insurance Cut, 74 per cent of them viewed insurtech as a cause of business loss. In 2022 many of them are investing in, acquiring, or otherwise partnering up with insurtech players.

The Asia Pacific is expected to be the main driver of this growth in the next decade.

Wilson Beh is one of the pioneers at the forefront of the insurtech in Malaysia. Co-Founder of PolicyStreet, an insurtech championing inclusive protection for the digital and gig economy, licensed by the Central Bank of Malaysia and Labuan FSA, and Vice President of the Fintech Association of Malaysia (FAOM), Beh strikes a stark contrast to the image of a typical “insurance guy”.

He is incredibly well structured, laying out his points methodically and calmly. His tone is more akin to that of a detached analyst than that of a peddling sales agent.

Yet, when he brings up how he started in insurance, one can tell that it also comes from a deeply personal place: his voice quivers ever so slightly with emotion.

“I grew up in Nibong Tebal, a small town in Penang. I’ve seen how quickly things can turn bad when a crisis hits and growing up, I saw how family friends and relatives got into huge financial trouble due to unforeseen circumstances. It was clear then, even as a teenager, that insurance could have been a gamechanger.”

Value of insurance

Beh holds no illusions about the value of insurance.

“At the end of the day, insurance is just a fancy piece of paper if it is not triggered. This piece of paper is often so convoluted that many people, even current policyholders, don’t understand the coverage provided. Even if coverage is clear, the claims process is often anxiety-inducing for people, especially in the aftermath of a crisis.”

In insurance, delivery of the product is a marathon, not a sprint.

“I admit, insurance is not the ‘sexiest’ part of fintech. Five years ago, there was a huge push towards payments and wealth management, but insurance was largely viewed as quaint by comparison. The pandemic has changed that.”

Almost overnight, there has been a huge surge of interest in insurtech. Homebound and glued to computer screens, selling and delivering insurance products online became the norm instead of the exception.

“But this is not enough. Insurtech isn’t just about putting things online. It boils down to three goals. Firstly, how can we use technology to make insurance simpler? Secondly, how do we help insurance be more affordable? Thirdly, how do we ensure insurance is relevant to the lives of the people we want to reach?”

Also Read: Bots vs Bodies: can insurers strike a balance between human services and tech?

Building trust

“It goes back to first principles. It’s not just about having a dot com. At the end of the day, the process of getting insured is also about trust-building. That’s why for so long it’s been dominated by friends and family to push sales. What we need to do is to improve on that trust, not by pure association, but by proving true and tangible value to consumers.”

Trust building is all fine and good, but how does one build up such a subjective measure?

“Again, we can break it down into several components. I believe in professional trust-building which means simplicity, consistency, and relevancy.

“Firstly, we should strive to be unbiased, or at least agnostic when comparing products.

“Secondly, we must ensure that the commercial arrangements are fair and proper.

“Finally, and this is where much focus should be paid, we have to ensure that the entire process of getting insured and post-sales support is of top quality and even delightful.”

Achieving financial wellness through insurtech

Beh doesn’t view insurtech as an end-all-be-all, but rather as part of an ecosystem that should accompany a customer’s life journey.

He discusses the 4 stages of financial wellness in life: accumulation, preservation, protection, and distribution, and how he sees insurance as a companion throughout these phases.

To truly reach these goals, however, the insurtech industry still has a long way to go.

“We are still in the beginning phases, and honestly, we can do much more to tackle the needs of the underserved, particularly those from low-income groups. Insurance should not be a luxury, yet that’s how it is seen now.

“Going back to first principles, we have to ask ourselves why isn’t the low-income group getting coverage? Is it not affordable, relevant, or are we taking an ineffective approach?

“People rush to investments (things like buying gold or crypto assets) because they are eager to reap the benefits. So, the issue of insurance is also that the benefits are not very visible, and often not significant enough.

“This is where I believe new pushes in insurtech can be spearheaded. For example, embedded insurance is a new concept that has been popularised by a couple of insurtech unicorns, they underwrite bite-sized, on-demand coverage, which is embedded into large and strategic ecosystems like e-commerce or airlines.

“This is in turn ensures end users are protected meaningfully and relevantly when they practice a certain lifestyle or undergo significant changes in different life stages (think entering the workforce or having a baby).

Also Read: Why the digital ecosystem is key to transforming the insurance industry

“Another example is the mutual aid shared pool concept which is huge in China. While there’s been some pullback lately, I believe this is quite an innovative concept because it gives empowerment back to the insured, back to the members of the scheme.

“The power of peer-to-peer sharing enables participants to not only co-share expenses, leveraging off the power of big data and scalability to bring down the costs, but also onboard hundreds of thousands rapidly.”

The end goal

The holy grail for insurtech, in short, is where insurance becomes part and parcel of our daily life, without the need for lengthy consideration.

“Yes exactly! Hopefully, one day there will be no discussion of whether I should or shouldn’t buy insurance, or what coverage to have, but rather it’s almost a given and a part of life. Ultimately, the right business models are the ones in tune to the customers’ needs and want.”

And what of the outlook in his home ground of Malaysia?

“I believe that we are making positive progress, as you can see from the growing number of strategic partnerships with insurtech and sizable investment in the insurtech industry.

“Earlier this month, FAOM hosted a roundtable discussion on the licensing framework for digital insurers and takaful providers, which was extremely well attended by insurers, startups, and regulators. In fact, Bank Negara Malaysia is still collecting input on the paper and all are welcome to join.”

Why go down the insurance path?

To wrap up the interview, we go back to Wilson’s favourite topic: first principles. I ask him, point-blank: Why insurance? Why not something else in the vast world of fintech?

Wilson’s answer surprises me.

“Leverage.”

Leverage is often thought to be the realm of swashbuckling financiers or more recently Wall St Bets. What does it have to do with insurance, a centuries-old industry all about mitigating risk?

“Here’s the thing. We have the underserved and emerging affluent, from the gig economy, ranging from ride-hailing workers to young professionals, who may not be protected adequately.

“For gig workers, driving every day can be a risky business, and unfortunately, some of them get involved in very serious accidents. This is often a catastrophic incident for not just the driver, but their families which rely on them.

“But think about it. Today, we have insurance products that can be bought for less than a hundred dollars. The pay-out however, can often be 100 times that of the price paid and help the families cover expenses for at least a year or so.

“While the trigger for insurance is never pleasant, it can rescue some families from the brink. I used to be a banker, and so leverage is familiar to me, but in insurtech, here we have some of the most powerful leverage, available at the most affordable prices in the most accessible packages.

“Isn’t that, in its own way, beautiful?”

With many more developments on the way for the insurtech industry, I can’t help but feel excited about a world with a little bit more of this beauty.

Note: The Central Bank of Malaysia welcomes feedback to the discussion paper of the proposed digital insurer and takaful operators. Feedback can be submitted via e-mail to DITF@bnm.gov.my or through the Fintech Association of Malaysia at office@fintechmalaysia.org by 28 Feb 2022

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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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Singapore-based SpaceAge Labs, a provider of remote monitoring and IoT/AI solutions, has secured SGD1.7 (US$1.25) million in seed funding, led by deep-tech investor Silicon Solution Partners and SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore.

The startup will use the capital to grow its team, expand internationally, and roll out several pilot projects across Singapore, Australia, and the US.

“Growing populations, increased urbanisation, rising labour costs, lack of skilled workers, high safety standards and social distancing stipulations — various factors have been coming together resulting in the strong need for remote monitoring and IoT/AI solutions. This is why we set up SpaceAge Labs: to help governments and corporations improve the way they are managing their widespread assets for improved efficiency, reliability and safety,” said Deepak Pitta, Founder and CEO of SpaceAge Labs.

Also Read: How to firm up your IoT strategy to combat online risks

Incubated at NUS Enterprise @ Singapore Science Park, SpaceAge Labs carries out operations and maintenance of remote and distributed assets by collecting asset data using low power, long-range wireless IoT devices, together with advanced AI software to generate valuable insights from this data. The firm claims this increases the asset’s uptime (due to data-driven predictive maintenance) and reduces cost (less manpower required).

SpaceAge Labs’s flagship product is remoteEye, a sensor-agnostic IoT/AI platform that enables connected operations and maintenance.

remoteEye consists of three parts:

1. rEyeIoTNodes: Low-powered wireless devices that read and transmit data from industrial sensors located at the assets.
2. Wireless networks: The sensor data is transmitted to the cloud via low power wide-area wireless networks. The networks are low-cost (from S$1 per month per device), able to transmit over long distances (several kilometres) and consume low power (up to five years of battery life).
3. rEye Data Cloud: Enterprise-grade IoT/AI software that stores, analyses, and visualises this sensor data. This software is secure, easy to use, and scale from managing one asset to thousands of assets. Proprietary AI software and geospatial data analysis provide valuable insights and predictions that can be accessed via web or mobile.

While remoteEye can be applied in various sectors, SpaceAge Labs initially targets three sectors: water/wastewater, urban greenery/landscaping, and facilities management.

SpaceAge Labs claimed in a statement that it has IoT deployments with more than 30 customers, including two key Smart Nation pilot projects in Singapore.

In H1 2022, SpaceAge Labs will conduct pilots with landscaping companies in Australia to help improve efficiencies of their grass-cutting work in Brisbane and Sydney. If these are successful, it could lead to nationwide deployments. Similar landscaping pilots will be conducted in the US in the latter half of 2022.

In Singapore, SpaceAge Labs plans to conduct several pilots to monitor water consumption patterns, detect leaks in facilities, and monitor weather/air quality in outdoor spaces. In addition, it will also monitor water quality in swimming pools and water play areas and mechanical/electrical equipment, such as decentralised water treatment skids and water tankers.

SpaceAge Labs is also supported by Imagine H2O (a water innovation accelerator) and PUB’s Singapore Water Exchange. Planetspark, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SGX mainboard listed Excelpoint Technology, is also a partner working closely with SpaceAge Labs to help accelerate their technology alongside joining the round as an investor.

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Update: The previous version of this article stated that DeZy enables users to borrow, save, trade, or invest without intermediaries such as banks or brokerages. The company has clarified that its platform enables users to deposit funds and generate yield.

Singapore-based decentralised finance (DeFi) startup DeZy today announced that the company has raised at least S$3 million (US$2.2 million) in Pre-Series A funding round led by Leo Capital with participation from Iterative Capital.

The company also welcomed angel investors such as Michael Ng of Unagii, Tianwei Liu and Sharon Lourdes Paul of Xfers, Ishan Agrawal as well as Nihit Nirmal and Kelvin Teo of Funding Societies.

Existing investors such as HH Investments, HY Sia, and DeFiance Capital also returned in this funding round.

This funding round followed undisclosed funding from local investors such as DeFiance Capital, HH Investments, Impiro, and angels such as Tranglo founder HY Sia in September 2021.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

In a press statement, DeZy said that it plans to use the funding to support new product launches, grow its team, and “continue to redefine what finance can be for consumers.”

Launched in 2021, DeZy is a platform that enables users to convert their cash into dollar-denominated stable coins, which are deposited across a range of DeFi protocols. Absorbing both blockchain fees and forex fluctuation, DeZy offers up to 5.65 a year, with a 0 fee and no lock-in product to customers in Singapore.

It was started by four co-founders Eric Dadoun (CEO), Harald Lang (CTO ), Sharmini Ravindran (CMO ), and Simon Landsheer (strategic advisor). The company aims to empower people to “achieve meaningful savings, income growth and wealth accumulation” by simplifying decentralised finance.

This is claimed to enable users to deposit funds and generate yield.

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Making a living as a musician is hard. It is estimated that only 0.2 per cent of musicians globally become “successful” while 90.7 per cent remain undiscovered.

The odds are stacked against musicians, but that said, the future of music is brighter than ever with blockchain technology.

Music industry vs musicians

The music industry has been stagnant for decades, and the two major catalysts for change were the various levels of lockdowns across the world and streaming services.

To make a living with music, the bulk of musicians’ income comes from live performance (30 per cent), teaching (18 per cent), salaried playing (12 per cent), composing (11 per cent), session work (10 per cent), sound recordings (7.3 per cent), merchandise (1.9 per cent) and others.

With the pandemic, most of these income channels are down significantly.

Streaming became the only viable way to monetise one’s music. Millions of music lovers can tune in to talented musicians from all over the world who compose music, record songs and get paid for it all in the comfort of their homes.

But the top 3 record labels raked in US$19 million a day from streaming, while eight out of ten music creators earn less than US$200 a year from streaming.

Problems with streaming

All streaming services notoriously underpay content creators.

The largest player in music streaming, Spotify, pays on average US$0.0003 for every stream, and they recently announced that they would lower that even more.

To make the minimum wage of US$20 per hour requires a staggering 67,000 streams per hour.

Just like everyone else, musicians need to pay bills. When live performances and touring were still a thing, they’d be paid in cash after the show. With that option gone, streaming compounds the cash flow problem as their payment terms are 3 to 6 months.

Blockchain, the promising solution

To address the inadequacies of existing streaming services, audio exchange platforms have emerged on the blockchain.

First, there are streaming services that pay US$0.01 to US$0.10 per stream, at least 10 to 40 times more than currently offered by the incumbents.

Second, as the payout is in cryptocurrency, it is instantaneous and can be changed into regular cash (aka fiat).

Third, an additional benefit of being built with smart contracts is that all collaborators on a song will be appropriately accredited and paid fairly.

Also Read: Why brands are seeking micro influencers and where this trend is going

Blockchain as an added layer of technology helps solve the fundamental problems that musicians face. The only thing left to do is to get those streams going.

The keyword is community

To get millions of monthly streams overnight is only achievable with the backing of major record labels and their marketing dollars.

The goal of the average independent musician is to organically build a fanbase or community that supports their endeavours. Kevin Kelly famously stated in 2008 that musicians would need 1,000 true fans to make it.

This requires musicians to be proactive, not just to make music and tour but to foster genuine community engagement.

Social media outlets (Facebook, Discord, Reddit) are not just promotional pits to share announcements and sell merchandise. It should be a two-way relationship where you answer the queries of your fans. Lil Nas X’s social media game is an excellent example of how one should invest time and energy to engage fans.

Looking forward to music rights

No matter how you look at it, music is about ownership rights. In the past, music was all about selling records and signing deals, where the record label owned everything.

Nowadays, with streaming services, music rights are shared. Acts like Chance The Rapper, one of the pioneers in being a successful independent musician, is the epitome of what it can be in the present.

Today, the earning split is better, but the lion’s share is still not sitting with the creators. Streaming services are still centralised platforms with complete control.

Hence, the future of music will be one where musicians are fully independent, owning the rights to their creations and how it is distributed, and hence being able to dictate their earnings.

This can be achieved by making songs into Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), where the digital file can be kept on the blockchain as a one-of-a-kind collectible item.

For the Gen Z of creators and fans, who are savvier than those who came before them, this could be the one way that they can live their lives making music.

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Indonesia-based property tech platform Jendela360 announced an undisclosed strategic investment round from an entity affiliated to local conglomerate group Sinar Mas Group.

This investment followed a US$1 million funding round led by BEENEXT that the company announced in June 2020.

Jendela360 plans to use the new funding to accelerate its business growth, extend the rental and sales operation and aim to be the number one player in the industry by continuing to expand its products and services, invest in its technology and, naturally, toward hiring. The startup also wants to scale into new markets and go deeper into existing markets.

In an email to e27, Daniel Rannu, co-founder and CEO of Jendela360, gave a further explanation about the company’s plan with the funding.

“Before the pandemic, we only focused on long-term rental. But because of the pandemic, we have to enter the shorter-term rental market and property sales market sooner than we expected. This turns out to be a blessing in disguise … as now, more than ever, people are willing to try on a digital solution to find their desired properties. We’ve experienced tremendous (four times) growth as a property tech in the past 18 months,” he wrote.

Also Read: Sustainability starts at home: How I aim to tackle climate change as PropertyGuru CEO

“Since the Indonesian property market is a HUGE market. Our strategy for the next few years is to simply expand nationwide. Lucky for us, we founded Jendela360 to serve the Indonesian market where we have 270 million people living here, and there are still large parts of the pie that we can take on.”

In addition to its four-times growth, the startup also claimed to be operationally profitable.

Founded in 2017, Jendela360 aims to streamline the process of property transactions in Indonesia with its O2O approach. It offers data-driven apps powered by machine learning engines to generate leads and pair them with the right agents efficiently.

Rannu believes that the key factor to help the property industry digitalisation is by utilising the right technology, combined with the wisdom on how-to-do interaction, instead of replacing agents.

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Image Credit: Jendela360

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Japan’s Arkray launches US$87M VC arm to back healthcare startups in Asia
It will invest up to US$2.6M each in startups across Japan, SEA, India and Israel; Focus sectors are digital healthcare, medtech, biotech, AI, IoT medical devices, cloud pharmacies, medical diagnostics, personal wellness & self-care, pet-tech, medical and functional foodtech.

Hyperlocal mapping: a solution for real-world interactions in retail metaverse
Hyperlocal mapping allows mobility companies to engage their workforce, vehicles, customers and products by validating pick-up locations on private maps with high precision.

Tinder founder’s JAM Fund invests in PayMongo’s US$31M Series B financing round
Other backers are ICCP-SBI Venture Partners, Kaya Founders, GFC, SOMA Capital, and angels; The B2B payments firm will venture into more financial products involving disbursements, capital lending, “buy now, pay later,” subscriptions and recurring payments.

StockViva closes US$5M Series A funding
Backers are Farquhar VC, Kharis Capital, Hong Huan Group, and Angelhub; StockViva’s mobile app provides real-time online education services by financial key opinion leaders, and online trading connection with different financial institutions in Asia.

Singapore AI startup 6Estates raises US$6.2M Series B+ round
Investors are Sinar Mas, Seeds Capital, and Farquhar VC; 6Estates is an AI fintech platform that specialises in multilingual natural language processing and machine reading comprehension technologies.

Singapore AR startup BuzzAR bags US$3.8M funding
Investors are F50 Elevate, Ian Wilson of Marina Bay Sands, and Peter Hlavnicka of SenzeCare; BuzzAR helps retail and commerce firms create personalized and location-based AR experiences for their customers; it has also acquired a mobile game called The Cooking Game VR.

Jendela360 raises funding from Sinar Mas affiliate to expand in Indonesia
Jendela360 aims to streamline the process of property transactions in Indonesia with its O2O approach; It offers data-driven apps powered by ML engines to generate leads and pair them with the right agents efficiently.

Animoca Brands acquires motorsports game developer Grease Monkey Games
The deal will allow Animoca Brands to benefit from Grease Monkey’s significant game development capabilities and expertise; So far, Grease Monkey has logged 45M downloads across both mobile and PC worldwide.

Malaysia city and property data company Urbanmetry raises US$2M pre-Series A
Lead investor is Monk’s Hill; Urbanmetry is a property data company that harvests, cleans, and analyses large amounts of city data, through AI and proprietary algorithms to extract trends and patterns in the built environment.

PRIMO gets pre-Series A funding to expand its omnichannel marketing platform
Investors are Fuchsia VC, Beacon VC, SOSV, and Infinity Technologies VC; PRIMO claimed 2x growth y-o-y on average over the past three years; It’s working with retail, FMCG, banking, finance, and insurance firms.

Chillchat closes US$1.85M seed funding
Investors include Solana Ventures, FTX Ventures, Animoca Brands, and Griffin Gaming Partners; Chillchat builds the pocket metaverse: a Create2Earn virtual world focused on user-generated content where players can quickly and easily create NFTs in the form of characters, pets, and worlds.

SOSV names 13 startups for 12th consumer tech cohort
SOSV has more than US$1.2 billion in assets under management from 1,120 companies in its portfolio; It said that tech firms in its portfolio raised a total of US$215 million in 2021.

US adds e-commerce sites operated by Tencent, Alibaba to ‘notorious markets’ list
They reportedly facilitated substantial trademark counterfeiting; The US Trade Representative identifies 42 online markets and 35 physical markets that are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy.

Sequoia to raise up to US$600M for new crypto fund
Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire said that the VC firm views cryptocurrency as a megatrend that would carry on over the next two decades; The cryptocurrency fund will be one of three new sub-funds under Sequoia Capital Fund.

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