e27 sat down with Raunak Mehta, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Singapore-based insurtech firm Igloo, a leading insurtech startup, to discuss how the company is leading the way in making insurance accessible to everyone.

“Igloo started focusing on the gig economy segment around the same time that the pandemic began. In Southeast Asia, 70% of the workforce belongs to the informal sector. With the pandemic this segment got disproportionately hit — a lack of health or income protection when they lose their jobs, fall sick, or run into accidents, can have far-reaching consequences for their ability to make ends meet.”

Igloo recognised that gig economy workers — particularly food or goods delivery riders — now had to meet a surge in demand for deliveries resulting from nationwide lockdowns across the region. With more time spent on the roads fulfilling orders also came increased risk and exposure to accidents.

The gig economy — a growing, vulnerable segment

According to the 2018 International Labour Office report on the Informal Economy, 68.2% of the labour force in Asia belongs to this segment, beyond the global average of 61.2%. Industry 5.0 and digital transformation have revolutionised the way people work and live, as demands and opportunities presented to today’s workforce ushered in by technology have enabled changes in higher velocities, and has provided a wider array of options for people.

Digital adoption has spurred the growth of demand for ride-hailing, food delivery and e-commerce services, providing more flexible jobs to people. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has also made the gig economy a rapidly growing sector, either for people who choose more flexible ways of work, to augment their income, or for those who undertake gig work by necessity.

Also read: oVice, a virtual office platform, uses innovative technology to redefine remote work

Gig work comes with its corresponding risks; much has been made, worldwide, about the lack of protection and benefits like unemployment insurance, medical and accident insurance usually covered by traditional employment models. Exacerbating the problem is a lack of awareness;  gig workers may not even know the risks they face, thereby reducing their likelihood of getting insured. For example, personal liability insurance may have loopholes when covering certain accidents and coverage. In instances where insurance is provided, it may not be robust and commensurate to protect gig employees from the risks, liabilities and damages they may take on in the line of work.

“The severity of these disparities are well documented,” said Mehta. “So much so it’s a key focus for Singapore, to look at increased  protection for gig workers and ensuring a more balanced relationship between platforms and platform workers.”

Changing the protection game for the gig economy

Igloo is revolutionising protection for the gig economy by making insurance accessible and affordable to this segment — one step at a time, but at a clipped pace. In 2019, partnering with foodpanda Thailand, Igloo created the competitively-priced PandaCare protection – comprising motor, personal accident and hospitalisation income protection – covering riders while providing a seamless claims process and customer service support.

The partnership has now extended to foodpanda in Singapore and The Philippines. In Singapore, PandaCare covers Accidental Death, Accidental Medical Expenses, Accidental Mobile Phone Screen Damage, Daily Hospital Cash, Permanent Total/Partial Disablement and Temporary Disablement. PandaCare is available through monthly coverage plans for as low as S$9/mth, instead of the typical annual plans in the market. It even covers riders when they are off-duty and can be purchased by immediate family members as well.

Besides food delivery riders, Igloo has also tailored insurance solutions for delivery drivers in Vietnam through its partnerships with one-hour-delivery e-commerce platform Loship and on-demand delivery company Ahamove.

The former allows Loship to offer first-of-its-kind failed delivery insurance to its 70, 000 delivery drivers so they can complete their jobs at ease. At an affordable rate of US$1.25/month, the protection covers shipping costs incurred for returned goods should consumers return their orders due to product discrepancies. The protection mitigates the problems brought about by delivery and fulfilment hiccups especially when Vietnam saw a 25% surge in online shopping during COVID-19 (Deloitte’s 2020 report).

Also read: Game on with MongoDB: Challenges and insights on the future of gaming

Meanwhile, Igloo’s partnership with Ahamove has it offering Personal Accident Cover and Hospital Cash Allowance protection to over 120,000 Ahamove drivers through a seamless and easy-to-purchase journey via Ahamove’s driver app.

Beyond these, Igloo’s suite of products geared for gig workers includes COVID-19 insurance, natural calamities insurance, and family relief insurance. What sets Igloo apart from other players are its digital native offerings, a wide array of microinsurance options, and the ease of buying and claiming insurance benefits. This will increase as gig work options continue to expand from digital disruption.  Raunak further elaborated on the growth of the gig economy, “That is what I’ve seen over the last 2-3 years and I believe this trend is only going to continue as the economy opens up. We are already seeing the great resignation; people are, for various reasons, choosing flexible gig arrangements that may allow them to focus on other aspects of their lives.”

Mehta added, “Our products have one striking similarity: in the event that there is a claim, none of the policyholders have to call up an insurance company and try to file for a claim and then receive their compensation after a long time. Almost all these products are end-to-end digital which means that in the event someone has an accident, they just need to go to a portal, submit their claim, and the claim gets processed at a fairly fast pace. This is what has enabled us to build a very strong business, which I believe more than the quantifiable monetary numbers, tells you how much of a societal impact that we are bringing forth.”

Financial inclusion for all

Igloo has other insurance product offerings that address various segments, apart from gig workers. A truly regional player, it has a substantial Southeast Asian footprint through key strategic partnerships — over 30 to date that help offer products that address the needs of the workforce across various industries. Their partners include Shopee, PhilInsure, GCash, Bukalapak, Lazada, RedDoorz, Lotte Finance and key regional insurance partners with Allianz, Baoviet, Mercantile, and Sompo.

They are optimistic in their mission to further cement their position as a leading regional insurtech and expand their offerings in the region. Raunak explained, “If 20 million policies are being facilitated just in the gig economy segment, Igloo itself is building a network effect to the forefront. We are able to come up with a good portfolio of products and services so that the next driver and the next to whom our solutions are offered benefit from it even more.

Also read: Seeding ideas, nurturing explorations with Leave a Nest Grant

“We are working with that mindset, deploying a lot of data and tech in ensuring that we come up with new, relevant products to match the inherent and new risks that populations face with socio-economic changes, as well as when consumer behaviour trends evolve and change.”

– –

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

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

The post Bridging the gap between insurance accessibility and the gig economy appeared first on e27.

Web3 is the next internet revolution where every platform, organisation and digital economy is being decentralised. Women, often underrepresented in emerging industries, are leaping to the forefront in the Web3 space.

At e27, we are giving the spotlight to the women advocates of Web3 who are passionate about communities, narratives, and emerging technologies.

We celebrate the contributions of these female writers through our Contributor’s Programme as we aim to see many more female voices in the near future.

For better or for verse: Focus of 2022 is Web3 and Metaverse by Madhura Moulik

Of late, two terms that are generating a lot of hype and excitement in the world of business technology right now are Web3 and Metaverse. While they both point to a vision of a decentralised future of the internet, there is still a long winding road to their full development.

Madhura Moulik, CEO and Co-Founder at Skilfinity, a Singapore based full-service digital marketing and analytics business for creating brand narrations and personalised user experiences, in her article anticipates 2022 will be about brands taking a blazing leap headlong into digital transformation using tools of Web3 and Metaverse.

“A lot of Web3 and Meta plays are very much in the novelty zone with plenty of opportunities to harvest the crazy bounties. There is no doubt in my mind that your industry and your discipline will be re-engineered by blockchain and Web3”, she says.

How this startup is making NFTs more than a speculative investment and a status symbol by Alfreda Lee

NFTs, an asset that is completely unique and irreplaceable have taken the world by storm. Once a fringe movement associated with crypto, today, NFTs are a global innovation that everyone wants to get in on. So many are opting to learn how to invest in NFTs, and many even want to learn how to make an NFT of their own and mint it.

Alfreda Lee, Management Associate at Enterprise Singapore showers bright light on the hype surrounding NFTs and brings attention to a Singapore based startup. So-col, short for social collectibles, is on a mission to make NFTs useful for everyone by harnessing its technology to transform the creator economy.

How blockchain can enhance sustainability in fashion by Sarah Garner

Transparency and sustainability remain two of the largest topics within the global fashion industry today. However, thanks to the emergence of new technologies, like blockchain, retailers can improve supply chain traceability while offering more transparency into their manufacturing streams.

Sarah Garner is the founder and CEO of Retykle, a sustainable haven for fashion-conscious parents their little tykes. A vocal advocate for sustainable fashion, Garner’s Retykle marches with the mission to make trading high-quality pre-loved items as easy and convenient as buying new ones.

Resale and regeneration is a crucial part of facilitating the extension of a product’s lifespan, refuelling our nature’s ecosystem, and dramatically reducing carbon emissions. Since its founding in 2016, Retykle has recirculated more than 150,000 items of clothing to date, saving 407,100 lb of carbon and 313 million litres of water!

If all our waste can be repurposed then demand for virgin materials will be greatly reduced. Designing with the end in mind is the way forward for an industry in peril.

3 lessons I learned in my transition from VC firm to crypto company by Nat Wittayatanaseth

Nat Wittayatanaseth’s life centres on democratizing access to tools to help people improve their growth potential. She deeply believes that financial access and literacy is some of the best tools and leverage to improve one’s life.

After having ended her career as a venture capitalist to embark on a startup journey by joining an early-stage crypto company, reality hit her hard. For a startup to continue growing, it needs to continuously find and hit new product-market-fit for a new product, new business line, and new geography. Rapid growth means continuously finding growth drivers from existing products or new products, existing business lines or new business lines, existing geography or new geography.

At the end of the day, what keeps you going is your inkling of possibilities, an inkling that this may actually work, and you’re super excited about what could happen if it works.

Seriously! We need to talk about cryptocurrency responsibly by Deborah Tan Pink

The popularity of crypto continues apace with more everyday investors, many of them complete novices, enjoying the benefits and rewards. However, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has recently taken steps to discourage the advertising of digital payment tokens (DPT) trading in public areas, citing the “highly risky” nature of such activities. So how can crypto companies communicate about DPT trading in a responsible manner?

Deborah Tan Pink, Head of Communications at Revolut Singapore elaborately pens down what is it that makes it so “highly risky”? As the crypto industry matures and sheds its image as a collection of novelty investments, companies will have to arm their customers with the power to make the best decisions for their money through education and thought-leadership and find ways to make such content engaging across generations.

Top people to follow for developments in blockchain and crypto in 2022 by Mary Ritz Pay Seng

Social media has changed the way we function as a society, including the way we connect with one another. It is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing which provides incredible benefits by reaching millions of customers worldwide. They help you to connect with the customers, increase your brand awareness, and boost your leads and sales.

It isn’t enough for CEOs to show up in conferences, do interviews, and give talks, they now have to be present online. If not, they risk losing lucrative opportunities to not only promote their organisation but also share their breadth of industry knowledge. Fortunately, CEOs of blockchain and crypto communities are already ahead of this.

Mary Ritz Pay Seng, Senior Manager for Strategy and Performance at ADA takes us through an intriguing journey to take a look at some of the most active crypto CEOs on social media and how they’re spreading their influence in and outside the crypto community.

More than hype: 3 reasons why NFTs are here to stay by Soh Wan Wei

Soh Wan Wei, Founder of IKIGUIDE and Head of Ecosystem at Multiverse Labs, an open metaverse with a mission to empower promising individuals and groups to become leaders in new digital spaces, believes that NFTs are the key building blocks to the open metaverse.

In her piece, Wei writes about NFTs’ incredulous statistics and the reasons why NFTs are not just a temporary hype. “The key takeaway here is this; just because something isn’t widely understood, it doesn’t mean that it won’t last. In the fast-moving blockchain world, we really don’t know what we don’t know! So perhaps it might be wise to rethink that assumption,” she says.

How is NFT transforming the art world and empowering artists by Faye Yang

In the last couple of years, the influx of attention and investment in the NFT space has proven there is vast interest not just in digital art, but specifically in the unique value proposition of digital scarcity and verifiable ownership.

Faye Yang, the founder of Stealth Startup is a passionate advocate for the conduit between art and technology. Yang delves deeper into the realm of NFTs and gives us her views of how NFTs are transforming the art world and where it stands among the general mass.

Yang writes, “So how do we get the masses involved with art and truly democratise the industry? It likely isn’t with NFT, as crypto is hardly a mass-market product. But from NFT, we learnt that more people would be excited about art as an investment product. Money speaks louder, fact of life. Penny stocks have their places too.”

13 years on since the birth of Bitcoin, it’s now blockchain’s time to shine by Katherine Ng

It’s been 13 years since the birth of Bitcoin, the world’s most well-known cryptocurrency which jump-started the decentralised blockchain revolution, now underway across the globe. As they enter the mainstream, the growth potential they hold is enormous and bright.

What has spurred crypto’s mainstream recognition? With blockchain having cemented its place in our digital future, what can we expect to see as we take stock of how far it has come in 13 years? Katherine Ng, the Head of APAC Marketing for TZ APAC, the leading Asia-based blockchain adoption entity supporting the Tezos ecosystem answers our concerning questions in her article.

The Shark Tank of Web3: How this DAO is bridging the funding gap for women founders by Maddy Bergen

“The funding gap between male and female-led ventures worldwide is still far from close to being equal. While women have proven their ability to become successful in business, they are still forced to face hurdles such as societal expectations and lack of representation, capital, and support, resulting in fewer entry points for women to break through into strong business networking opportunities.”

Being a VC Analyst, Maddy Bergen realised the underrepresentation of female entrepreneurs and felt inspired to do something about it, which is how Angel Alliance was formed. Angel Alliance is a Web3 initiative empowering female entrepreneurs by providing them with grants, exclusive access to resources to scale their businesses, and connecting female founders. Bergen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Angel Alliance.

–

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

The post Women of Web3: Top women contributors tell us all we need to know about Web3 appeared first on e27.

When it comes to climate change, Southeast Asia, with its long coastlines and heavily populated low-lying areas, is among the most vulnerable regions. Extreme weather events, typhoons and floods are frequent in this part of Asia.

Sustainable development and living are the only way forward. Innovative tech solutions need to be developed to achieve sustainability and address this crisis.

New startups have emerged in climate tech of late, but their number is scarce (a large chunk of which is in the alternative food and electric vehicles domains). Predictably, the amount of investments flowing into the sector is also inadequate; as per a report, roughly 0.8 per cent (US$396 million) of the total funding invested globally came to SEA in 2021.

The reasons for this slow growth are many.

“In our experience, three things are holding back climate tech investments in Southeast Asia,” said Rob Kaplan, Founder and CEO of Circulate Capital.

Firstly, the pipeline isn’t perceived to be strong enough, he said; if you want to invest US$100 million in climate tech, you would like to see over a US$1 billion opportunity because you only want to invest in the top 10 per cent. There is no visible pipeline of that scale in SEA. As a result, investors are reluctant as they don’t have access to the information and tools they need.

The second reason is, Kaplan added, there’s not been a successful investment track record for investors to look at in climate tech in SEA. It is a chicken-and-egg problem. On the one hand, investors aren’t confident in evaluating the risk as they have no previous investment experience. On the other, they won’t get that experience until they start investing.

Also Read: There’s a mismatch of investment and entrepreneur focus in SEA’s climate tech: Steve Melhuish

Third, there haven’t been enough investment products focused on climate tech in SEA historically. “When we launched in 2018, finding investors and funds using the words’ impact’ and ‘ESG’ were few and far between. Today, so many folks are looking at the space that we have multiple WhatsApp groups!” Kaplan noted.

Circulate Capital, based in Singapore, invests in companies addressing plastic waste and climate change crises. The 4-year-old firm has invested more than US$50 million in over a dozen companies, including Tridi Oasis, ACE Green Recycling, and Reciki.

Amasia’s Managing Partner John Kim echoed Kaplan’s views and said the region lacks a robust and collaborative ecosystem for climate tech startups to thrive. “I would compare climate tech development to the development of the digital ecosystem.”

When Amasia started investing about a decade ago, said Kim, the ecosystem was still nascent. Certain key players, like Temasek, worked hard to demonstrate the potential of SEA’s digital ecosystem by providing funding and leveraging its network to make key connections in the space. “The Temasek Foundation is doing something similar with climate now: they are running the Liveability Challenge to generate interest and awareness of the potential for climate tech in Singapore and SEA more broadly.”

In Kim’s view, developing climate technologies requires a robust and collaborative ecosystem that includes top research institutes, significant VC investments, and capable entrepreneurs. SEA has a keen interest in fighting climate change, given how acute its effects will be here. All the ingredients for development are here; they need to be melded effectively.

All the climate tech VCs e27 spoke to for this story, including Earth Venture Capital’s General Partner Tien Nguyen and Aera VC’s Founding Partner Derek Handley, shared similar sentiments.

“Entrepreneurship and venture investment develop through the history of economy, education, and culture, which the US or Europe has longer tractions than SEA. The region needs more time not only to improve startup quality but also to attract more relevant capital. We have the potential of a large and young population, a growing source of tech talents and a supportive government in terms of climate change,” said Nguyen. Headquartered in Vietnam, Earth Venture Capital seeks to support pre-seed to Series A-stage climate tech companies with a potential to expand globally.

Alt-food, EVs attract the most capital

It is not just that the venture money being poured into the region’s climate tech is paltry, but a large chunk of it is consumed by alt-food (plant-based meat, milk, etc.) and EV players. VCs believe this is because these are the sectors that existing investors are more familiar with.

Also Read: How electric mobility startups are tackling climate change in Asia

“Foodtech (and fintech) are some of the strongest entrepreneur and VC communities in SEA. It’s only natural that as folks started looking at climate tech, they would start by digging deeper into the areas with strong networks, experience and interest,” stated Kaplan.

Further, these sectors [alt-food and fintech] have received significant support from the government over the past five years. There are tons of incubation and acceleration programmes and a robust support ecosystem.

“Most often, innovation and technology [in SEA] are considered synonymous with specific industries, such as fintech or e-commerce. But innovative materials, waste management technology, and advanced recycling techniques are critical for the circular economy ecosystem,” Kaplan pointed out.

Steve Melhuish, a distinguished entrepreneur-turned-climate tech-investor and Founding Partner of Wavemaker Impact, concurred with Kaplan’s views. “Alternative protein has attracted substantial investment over recent years globally including in SEA — given the meat industry contributes roughly 15 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions and contributes massively to deforestation and poor animal welfare; for instance, TurtleTree Labs and Shiok Meats.”

TurtleTree is a cell-cultured dairy company that in November 2021 secured US$30 million in a Series A round of funding led by Verso Capital. Shiok Meats, a cell-based crustacean meat company, netted US$12.6 million in a Series A funding round led by Aqua-Spark, in mid-2021. Another key player is Next Gen Foods. This plant-based chicken startup recently raised US$100 million in Series to expand in the US.

However, Melhuish of Wavemaker Impact has a different experience to tell. “Over 80 per cent of the climate tech deals that I receive every month are non-alt-protein. They span energy, nature/land use, building & construction, manufacturing, and transport-related. Over the last three years and a half, only two of my 16 Asia climate tech investments have been in the alt protein space.”

Kaplan suggests that structured incubation mechanisms need to be created to attract new innovators into climate tech. His firm Circulate Capital has initiated specific programmes to make the sector more attractive. One such initiative is a partnership with The Incubation Network (TIN), which sources, supports and scales innovative solutions that tackle plastic pollution. Together with TIN and global impact innovation agency SecondMuse, Circulate Capital encourages more and better ventures to get involved in the circular economy.

Also Read: ‘Climate tech: SEA needs more time to improve startup quality, attract capital’, says Earth Venture Capital’s Tien Nguyen

“We encourage all investors to get off the sidelines of investing in this sector. Large, institutional investors have not been allocating Capital to ClimateTech or any related sectors. The more they can signal their demand and interest in the space, the more likely we will be able to start seeing the scale of investment needed to drive returns,” Kaplan pointed out.

Kaplan also maintains that there’s a significant opportunity to invest in the waste and recycling space in South and Southeast Asia. Solving the plastic waste issue and capturing the economic value of plastic waste will help lessen the pace of global warming.

“Geographically, Asia represents an enormous opportunity to deploy interventions as the largest volumes of mismanaged plastics over the 2020-2040 period are expected in this region. We see this as a tremendous opportunity to invest in infrastructure and innovation to get circularity as a default option in rapidly developing parts of Asia. We want to skip incremental change of outdated systems and drive straight to exponential impact. Asia can build the next-generation model, and we have started seeing it already,” said Kaplan

Singapore-based Amasia also is doing its bit for a flourishing climate tech ecosystem in the region. It has developed a ‘4Rs framework’ (Review, Renew, Rethink, Rebuild) that considers the climate crisis more broadly as a symptom of certain behaviours we have developed as a society. Given that these broader behaviours are the problem, the solutions are broader than people typically think.

“For example, our wasteful behaviours around food production and consumption have an immense impact on the climate. Six per cent of the world’s carbon emissions result from food waste (3x the emissions from aviation),” said Amasia’s Kim.

“Materials production is another place where more can be done to fight the climate crisis. At Amasia, we have an experimental bucket, including companies like Seppure in Singapore, making industrial processes more efficient. Companies such as Unravel Carbon that collect data are also essential to measuring and managing the problem. We see plenty of impactful startup activity here in Southeast Asia, but they are not of the air-into-diamonds variety yet,” Kim remarked.

The government role

To stimulate the growth of climate tech in the region, different stakeholders have different roles to play. “We certainly need to allocate funding for R&D, though VC is not always the place for that funding to originate. VCs also need to understand developments in climate technology and become comfortable investing in technologies that help the climate in many ways. Entrepreneurs need to recognise that their particular skill sets can impact the fight against climate change and leverage those strengths,” Kim said.

Also Read: Wavemaker Impact, Enterprise SG to groom 12+ climate-tech firms over the next 3 years

The governments in the region also have a role to play in accelerating adoption and providing individuals and companies with incentives for change. “This comes with the caveat that startups should not become too reliant on government subsidies to make their tech competitive, lest we repeat some of the failings of the late-2000s cleantech bubble,” Kim concluded.

—

The post Climate tech is in a chicken-and-egg situation in Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.

Something every entrepreneur goes through but is not often talked about before, during, or after the experience, is feelings of isolation.

Being an entrepreneur puts you in a lonely place mentally because you are at the top of your organisation, and no one can understand what you are going through in trying to build, launch, and grow a successful company.

Add on to that the pandemic forcing people to be literally isolated from each other, and you have a recipe for success (or disaster).

In this very candid and frank episode about loneliness, I talk with Janet Semenova, the co-founder and CEO of Boutique Travel Agents and Centered CEOs about her experience as an entrepreneur, and how important it is to understand and develop coping mechanisms.

Also Read: Why Khailee Ng puts mental healthcare support as key to successful founders-investors relationship

More specifically, we talk about:

– What is isolation?
– How long after starting your company did the pandemic force your team to go remote?
– What is the difference in a normal day between working in an office with your team and being remote?
– How did this experience change you as a person?
– Did the feelings of isolation get worse, better, or no change?
– Do you think working fully remote long-term is making people stronger, or weaker/causing a soon to be seen mental health pandemic?

If you don’t see the player above, click on the link below to listen directly!

Acast
Apple
Spotify
Stitcher

—

The article was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: chalabala

The post Coping with loneliness as an entrepreneur with Janet Semenova appeared first on e27.

Up and down the island, Taiwan boasts a professional, well-trained workforce.

The salary scale is key among the essential factors in deciding where to locate, whether as an employer or an employee. Stable salaries attract a greater range of talent in a virtuous cycle that enables workers to feel their full value and employers to maintain reasonable labour costs.

Sourcing a qualified, educated workforce is a similarly important consideration, and the Taiwan labour market offers companies a pool of educated candidates without exorbitant salary premiums for advanced degree holders.

Taiwan’s online job banks are a common hiring platform for both employers and employees, but there are some variations in salary trends among the two major sites.

A deeper breakdown of salary insights

Data from the 1111 Job Bank site show labour costs across the island to be surprisingly consistent, as seen in the table below. Salaries in the north are only fractionally higher than salaries in central and southern parts of the island in virtually every examined industry, including marketing, sales, human resources, finance and accounting, and general staff.

To illustrate, a business salesperson in northern Taiwan can expect to earn only about 7 per cent more than a counterpart in central or southern Taiwan. This salary trend is consistent across experience levels.

A senior human resources director, for example, earns a monthly salary of just 2 per cent more in northern Taiwan than in central or southern parts of the country; someone in the same job with only one to three years of experience similarly earns just 3 per cent more for locating in the north.

The sole exception here seems to be bookkeepers, who see a 10-15 per cent higher salary in northern Taiwan than the remainder of the island.

The post How remote work has changed the salary scale in Taiwan appeared first on e27.

E-grocery firm Sayurbox bags US$120M
Investors include Northstar, Alpha JWC, and IFC; Sayurbox is a farm-to-table distribution platform for fresh produce; The startup claims it works with more than 10,000 farmers, offers more than 5,000 products, and serves around 1M customers.

Climate tech is in a chicken-and-egg situation in Southeast Asia
Developing climate tech requires a robust and collaborative ecosystem that includes top research institutes, VCs, and capable entrepreneurs, say the region’s climate tech experts.

Finch, Indogen, Tokocrypto launch Web3-focused fund for SEA
Cydonia Fund will primarily invest in pre-seed to Series B startups; The investment vehicle is led by top Tokocrypto executives Teguh Kurniawan Harmanda, Chung Ying Lai, and Nanda Ivens.

Indonesia B2B marketplace Ralali closes first tranche of Series D round
Investors include Bee Accelerate, SBI Group, ICMG Partners, Beenos Asia, and Arbor Venture; Ralali connects suppliers with SMEs through its marketplace; Last year, the company said it had more than 1.5 million business owners on its platform.

Google launches US$6M sustainability fund for startups in Asia
The fund will be disbursed to startups that are addressing the “most pressing sustainability challenges” such as pollution, waste, biodiversity, renewables, and the circular economy.

Nium raises US$5M more in new funding
Investors include Moore Strategic Ventures; Its valuation stands at US$1.97B; The new round brings Nium’s Series D+ funding to US$8M and follows a US$2.96M in February; Nium last raised ver US$200M in July 2021 in a Series D led by Riverwood Capital.

Vickers Venture SPAC to merge with US pharma firm
Scilex is a subsidiary of Sorrento Therapeutics, which produces non-opioid pain management products; The combined company will have US$140M at closing and is eyed to be worth US$1.6B.

Ride-hailer Taiwan Intelligent Life nets US$5M from Japan’s Headline Asia
Headline Asia will acquire a seat on the Taiwan Intelligent Life’s board; The investment aims to accelerate the expansion of 55688, a ride-hailing platform created by the Taiwanese firm in 2011, into a super app that offers lifestyle services.

Handprint raises US$2.2M seed funding
Investors are Thunes and unnamed angels; Handprint allows companies to select from verified impact projects, embed impact into their business functions, and track how their positive impact grows over time.

AppWorks launches dedicated accelerator, Web3 arms
It will provide entrepreneurs with resources and support Web1 and Web2 founders as they transition to the new model; The VC firm also announced that it will begin raising capital for its AppWorks Fund IV in Q2; It has a target size of US$360M.

Singapore’s BNPL players eye ground rules
The city-state is setting up a buy now, pay later working group (BNPL WG) as an industry-led initiative to develop a framework for the market; The framework will mitigate risks of consumer over-indebtedness, ensuring that BNPL offerings will have a positive impact on Singapore consumers.

Singapore Airlines, NUS set up aviation lab to transform air travel experience
The lab will co-create innovative technologies and solutions that would accelerate the digital transformation of Singapore’s aviation sector, and help redefine the air travel experience for passengers.

—

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Sayurbox nets US$120M+; Google’s US$6M sustainability fund for Asian startups appeared first on e27.

In 2021, a JPG file was auctioned for US$69 million by a digital artist, Mike Winkleman (Beeple). This record-breaking sale for purely digital artwork became a major catalyst for the recent trends around NFT arts.

The NFT arts market has continued to maintain its upward trend as artists and content creators are capturing this new wave of a Web3-based digital arts movement. However, amidst the growing market, there’s also a rising number of crimes and detractors that could hamper further industry growth.

Asia in the frontlines of NFT arts growth

NFT arts have become the most popular use case for NFTs as they provide artists with the opportunity to sell their creative pieces directly to buyers and earn income. In yet another record-breaking sale, digital artist, Pak, sold his NFT art for a whopping US$91.8 million.

Last year, the NFT market hit US$25 billion with sales of NFT arts being a major contributor. Also, earlier in January this year, OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace for NFT arts and other collectibles hit US$5 billion in monthly trading volume. It is also noteworthy to mention that Asia is currently the frontrunner in this global sensation. According to Chainalysis, Central and Southern Asia accounted for 35 per cent of the global NFTs traded last year.

CoinUnited, the largest NFT collector in Asia, has contributed to the region’s lead in the NFT space by purchasing over 10,000 NFT artworks to date, valued at over US$200 million. The worldwide surge behind NFTs reflects in the ability to create digital content such as memorabilia, algorithmically-generated artwork and even memes. Examples include high-valued NFTs such as Shocked Doge and The Legacy, a compilation of Floyd Mayweather’s rise to glory, owned by CoinUnited. Other top NFTs in their collection include BoredApe, Meebit, RTFKT Punk, Cool Cat, Pudgy Penguin, CloneX and a host of others.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

“Our passion for NFT arts, among many reasons, is that we believe in NFT technology and how it is boldly redefining the future of arts. Content creators are increasingly crafting and sharing more value through digital mediums, where NFTs offer the right technology and ownership models that are opening more doors for innovation,” says Angus Lo, CoinUnited Co-Founder.

Skeptics may call it a fad, but it’s clear, NFTs are here to stay. In the coming years, industry pioneers expect to witness more incorporation of NFTs among individuals as well as corporate sectors. However, there are critical factors to consider before this becomes a reality.

Rising crime amidst a surge in popularity

As with all new tech developments, detractors find various ways to facilitate crimes and malpractices. The NFT art marketplace is certainly not left out. There have been incessant calls made recently about counterfeit NFTs that have resulted in marketplace suspensions. And it’s only getting worse with fakes in the market.

In recent months, the NFT space has also come under fire for aiding criminals in laundering money through minting and selling NFTs, as well as enabling malicious parties to counterfeit NFTs and rob artists of their respective earnings.

NFTs, leveraging decentralised blockchain technology, empowers users with autonomy over their work that wasn’t otherwise available in the legacy art world. Although a number of artists have benefited from NFTs, there is a growing number of creators concerned with these challenges.

Artists have made complaints that scammers have stolen their creative works and minted them on NFT marketplaces. As an open-source technology, anyone can mint an NFT. A user could take an image from a creator’s page, mint it as their own product, and make significant profits from the sale long before the original creator is made aware of what’s taken place. The problem can quickly stack up when NFT marketplaces go on to rack up billions of dollars from counterfeit sales.

Also Read: ‘NFTs provide new ways to handle IP management, empower content creators’: Inmagine CEO Warren Leow

Combating counterfeits and art frauds

DeviantArt, a long-standing community for digital artists, has sent 90,000 alerts about possible fraud to thousands of their users since taking the decision to monitor the blockchain for copied assets of creators in their community, company executives said. The company has increased its efforts in monitoring over four million NFTs that have been sold to see how many more counterfeits are in circulation. The number of alerts doubled from October to November 2021 and grew by 300 per cent from November to mid-December.

Relevant steps need to be taken to combat this major challenge in the industry. Steps that would provide lasting solutions and facilitate proper growth and positive innovation in the NFT space.

An initiative taken by Numbers Protocol, a decentralised photo network, is providing verification and tracking history for NFTs. Having acknowledged the loopholes in the NFT space, namely the lack of control over what assets are minted, the refusal to observe copyright laws, and the lack of overall transparency and verifiability in the space, Numbers Protocol has made it a priority to solve these issues.

Numbers Protocol has created the world’s first Web3 search engine for NFTs. With the search engine, users can upload an NFT image or video and proceed to view its verifiable history. This includes specific details like when it was first sold or how many pieces were created. This allows anyone to cross-check whether the NFTs sold in the marketplace are authentic, and can help prospective buyers to verify if the NFTs they own are truly unique.

Numbers Protocol’s search engine for NFTs has two key components: content-based and Web 3.0-based. As a content-based search engine, a user can upload a file without knowing its NFT identifier, and the result shows the history and other details associated with the file. The search engine uses the unique address generated to find key information associated with the content. The results provide verifiable information about the NFT, all provably secure through battle-tested encryption technologies.

“The centralisation of Web 2.0 has led to copyright issues, data manipulation and algorithm-based search results based on data profiles that continue to hinder what users search for. With information provided by the NFT search engine, users can better understand just how “unique” an NFT is and easily identify potential violations, such as multiple creator addresses,” says Sofia Yan, Co-founder and Chief of Growth Officer at Numbers Protocol.

Also Read: You’re not really diversifying your investments by buying altcoins

Where is the future of NFT arts headed?

China’s NFT market is predicted to reach US$4.64 billion by 2026 and this is expected to influence the global NFT marketplace in a positive direction. However, for the NFT market to continue its transition to the mainstream reality, it is important that clear rules are enforced to ensure that artists’ creative works are rightfully protected.

With the right solutions to combat ongoing challenges, artists and creators can be optimistic about capturing the opportunity to have true autonomy over their works and fairly monetise their creativity. These solutions, coupled with Asia’s bullish approach towards NFT arts could lead to a complete redefinition of the creator economy as we know it.

—

The content was first published by The Human & Machine.

Image Credit: The Human & Machine

The post A new type of digital arts are on the rise. How is Web3 redefining content ownership? appeared first on e27.

The lack of gender diversity is more pronounced in the real estate industry compared to other sectors. Real estate as an industry is stuck in the past, from a manual collection of data and analogue systems to poor female representation.

With digital transformation, progress towards gender equality and the growing relevance of sustainability to respond to the current climate emergency, we are witnessing the smartest companies across the real estate sector identifying now as the time to transition the way they operate. 

The real estate industry on its own is broad and can be categorised into corporate, financial, and property management, as well as operations and service groups. Currently, less than five per cent of senior positions are held by women in the real estate industry.

When it comes to tech and real estate, the outlook is bleak. The ‘proptech’ industry sits at the intersection of real estate and technology, with very low female representation. Still, for an “in-between” industry that is a niche in an emerging area, there are not enough female founders, and there is a lack of funding to kickstart their businesses. 

The bleak female representation in the industry

Historically, women tend to succumb to the lack of self-actualisation and are saddled with impostor syndrome when looking for careers, missing out on their full potential. Being a woman in proptech is a triple whammy, making it tougher to enter than other tech industries. 

Additionally, the property industry is deeply traditional, and core leadership teams tend to be sexist, with women having a reduced chance to be hired at higher hierarchical levels due to their ‘old school’ ways, all evidenced by the pay gap, lack of female founders, low percentage of women in the sector and hiring women at lower-skilled roles. 

Also Read: Why your next tech startup should be in the real estate industry

The main issue starts with entry barriers as many leaders in the industry worked their way up from skilled trades and other careers that are traditionally male-orientated, such as electrical, mechanical and facilities management. 

With the need to be more data-driven than ever before, the real estate industry is opening up to people who have not come through these traditional routes. There are more opportunities for university-educated professionals from fields such as sustainability, mathematics and data science.

This provides a huge opportunity to level the playing field and increase visibility to new and accelerated careers, particularly for young people and female talent. 

The underlying solution

As a smart building software company focused on evolving the way the built environment is being utilised for people and organisations, there is an urgent need to turn the tide and play a critical role in banishing hierarchical structures and creating a gender-equal workplace.

It starts with setting diversity metrics, and this also requires hiring managers to understand the difference between men and women in the application process and end bias-driven recruitment cycles.

Women often apply for professional jobs based on role descriptions they are fully qualified for. Men tend to be more aspirational, where a 30 per cent skill gap would not deter them from applying for the role. 

We believe one of the ways to reform or improve the industry for proper female representation is to have quotas on senior management and down. Some countries have soft and binding quotas that have performed better in terms of board gender diversity than those that have not adopted any quotas.

In Asia-Pacific, while some improvements are being made, up to 30 per cent on average for women on the board, there are still improvements to be had for specific industries, such as the real-estate sector. 

More women are entering who are interested in sustainability, engineering, and data science that can greatly change the way the real estate and proptech industry is operated.

Also, Read: Why Singapore becoming a tech hub is a great boost for the proptech sector

This proves a need for a broad range of technical and digital skills, as the industry is rapidly creating new, high-growth, lucrative and forward-facing careers.

The future is golden

There is a new generation of women who are facility managers and operators, asset managers and property managers, who are all skilled and technical. They are not going to stand for business as usual. 

Currently, the digitalisation of smart cities will be accelerated as more women become involved. Could female representation change the way buildings are operated at the macro level? Would new buildings and blocks feel different if women were in charge of design and construction plans? 

The fact that today’s smart buildings already follow an ‘a la carte’ data-driven approach that is aligned with what the owner, operator and contractor need. There’s no reason why women with their capital efficiency traits and listening skills cannot radically change the way buildings are operated. 

What’s needed is for the real estate industry to better show the variety of roles needed. This undoubtedly needs to start with education in schools and universities, followed by hiring women who may not have had direct exposure to the built environment or not know about the opportunities that exist in property, tech and other overlapping areas. 

–

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

Image Credit: belchonock

The post Why the real estate sector needs more female representation appeared first on e27.

Their journey started in 2014.

During a Techstars Startup Weekend event in Bali, Febriadi Pratama, a geek, and Olivier Pouillon, who worked in the waste recycling sector for 20+ years, joined hands to build a startup community to help local schools with waste recycling. The community was known as CashForTrash back then.

As the ideas and concepts evolved, in 2015, the duo decided to bring in digital technology to improve the existing waste management system — not just in Bali but across the archipelago. They then rebranded the organisation to Gringgo, a wordplay of Green and Go.

“The motivation was to create a fun and rewarding way so that people pay more attention to the issue of waste management — one of the most pressing problems, but was largely ignored by people. There’s not enough data to better understand what’s happening on the ground. We realised digital technology could be a better way to get people involved and create awareness,” Pratama tells e27.

Pratama, who is also a startup mentor, describes Gringgo as a ‘tech for sustainable development”. A company dedicated to tackling sustainable development issues.

Also Read: Climate tech is in a chicken-and-egg situation in Southeast Asia

Since 2015, Gringgo has leveraged digital technologies to solve the waste management issues in the archipelago with support from different organisations such as Google, USAID, and Coca-Cola Foundation.

The startup has developed an online platform and a mobile app for waste collectors.

It’s currently building an AI-powered platform to create a better system to help categorise different types of waste and their value. “This platform will allow households to understand better the value of their waste and, at the same time, contribute to improving the waste management system by making a behavioural change in separating the different types of garbage at the household level,” explains Pratama.

The company offers three products: Envi, SWAI app, and Gringgo Collect.

Envi is a B2B product. In partnership with various waste collection services, Envi increases waste management efficiency by digitising the process to ensure less waste ends up in landfills. Envi provides a web dashboard and mobile app for administrators and waste collectors. Through this, garbage collectors can track the human resources available, schedule them, choose the most efficient routes, monitor check-ins, and also track the collected waste.

SWAI app — an abbreviation of ‘solve waste with AI’– is the result of its collaboration with Google.org in San Francisco. The app urges users to collect different necessary data through the utilisation of missions (gamification) and the token economy concept (users can collect points and redeem attractive incentives). It also provides users with educational content regarding waste segregation. Data collected includes types of recyclables, how much and where waste is produced. This data will then be included in the startup’s cloud database, used to train its AI model, and analysed to measure the impact and identify potential problem areas to create solutions for waste reduction and consumer distribution and behaviour.

Also Read: One man’s trash is another’s gold: How Tridi Oasis plans to transform plastic waste management

Gringgo Collect is a data-collecting platform. The app helps users digitise and analyse data collection activity.

Gringgo primary relies on a SaaS model, with various subscription options. It also seeks like-minded individuals and companies willing to support and believe in its quest towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) through grants, CSR, and projects.

Pratama admits that human resources and funding have been a challenge for the company since its founding. “We are always looking for grants, programmes and VC funding. We’re currently funded by grants and bootstrap money and haven’t raised any VC money yet,” he shared.

For human resources, Gringgo looks to collaborate with other organisations.

“There is not enough awareness about climate change in Indonesia, but it is growing rapidly. We hope to bring a transformation and help mitigate the catastrophe,” Pratama concluded.

—

Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

The post How Gringgo leverages AI to help improve existing waste management system in Indonesia appeared first on e27.

Fitch Ratings estimates more than 290 million unbanked individuals in Southeast Asia (SEA). This is larger than the population of Indonesia, the fourth-largest country in the world.

The term ‘unbanked’ or ‘underbanked’ refers to those who do not use banks or banking institutions in any capacity. These individuals would also likely not subscribe to insurance, pensions, or any other types of professional money-related services. 

The more straightforward banking solution for all

This is where digital banks (or neobanks) come into the picture. They seek to improve digital literacy and lessen financial inequality amongst the underbanked population.

The unbanked problem has long been a critical issue for which economists, organisations, and governments have yet to find a viable solution. That said, while fintech players have prioritised financial inclusion, interest in digital banking is predominantly focused on middle-income families and youths under 30. 

Apart from improved access to financial services and more personalised services for specific needs, this segment of society will also access cheaper and safer transactions. This can then help boost economic participation and empowerment among the masses. 

In Malaysia, only 29 per cent of low-income families expressed an interest in virtual and digital banking, according to a report by PwC.

Conversely, only those earning more than MYR10,000 a month would seriously consider opening a virtual bank account. This contrast is mirrored in other countries worldwide, including Singapore and Hong Kong.

Digital banks have flourished, and intense competition within the space has been heating up with mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships springing up across the region.

Also Read: E-commerce for the future: How open banking enables greater security and trust

For example, Indonesia’s Bank Jago sought to integrate cashless payment systems on its app and got Gojek to invest. Meanwhile, in Singapore, the Singtel-Grab consortium nabbed one of the four digital banking licences on offer late last year.

The tale of caution

That said, digital banks face a set of challenges specific to their own. For one, there are significant cybersecurity and data protection issues associated with running an online-only bank.

According to a PwC commissioned survey, 36 per cent of Malaysians and 34 per cent of Singaporeans did not trust digital banks to store their information safely. This distrust runs deeper in neighbouring Indonesia, which has yet to introduce data protection legislation for consumers.

The nation’s less than impressive track record is also of little consolation, having had several large tech companies compromised in recent years. 

Tokopedia and Bukalapak were big names involved and saw over 100 million users’ personal information illegally accessed last year. Distrust and suspicion pose significant hurdles for fintech players to overcome with such incidents. 

While this space holds a lot of potential, the issue of profitability is pertinent to how this industry moves forward. To date, only three digital banks have achieved profitability, namely KakaoBank, WeBank, and MyBank.

It takes an average of between seven and ten years for a digital bank to return to the black, a significant investment in terms of both time and cost. Thus, for the digital banking sector to truly take off, a re-evaluation of the company’s current business model and finding ways to crack the code to profitability will become key. 

The future is bright

Nevertheless, the future of digital banks remains bright. There has been positive government and regulatory support, underscored by public interest and an eagerness to experiment with digital bank offerings.

Malaysia and Singapore lead the pack offering digital banking licences to non-financial entities. Meanwhile, whilst boasting a bustling fintech bubble, Indonesia has yet to grant licences to digital-only banks. Licencing is reserved for those with a physical presence.

In the Philippines, regulators have announced that it will stop accepting applications after issuing six digital banking licences. 

Digital banks are likely to stay as it offers innovative new services that appeal to their target demographic. While incumbents largely adhered to their product-focused, hard-selling mindset, fintech companies utilise new technology to tackle customers’ specific pain points.

Also Read: Deconstructing digital banking: How it can cater to the underserved in Malaysia

Grab-Singtel, for instance, focuses its lending services on SMEs and MSMEs who lack access to credit. Similarly, Filipino fintech company Tonik has emerged as a solution to the country’s underbanked and unbanked population offering a more extensive reach to those previously ignored. 

Due to a lack of physical branches, digital banks can offer services at a much more competitive rate. Gojek-backed Bank Jago allows users 25 free transactions before charging a fee of IDR3,000 (US$0.21) per transfer, a significantly lower amount when compared to traditional banks’ fees of IDR6,500 rupiahs (US$0.45). There are also no administrative or hidden fees for the opening or closing of accounts. 

Accelerated digitalisation prompted by the pandemic has also prompted an increased public usage of digital banking offerings. Singapore’s DBS Bank reported a 15 per cent year-on-year increase in sign-ups between February and March last year. 

Lower costs, improved customer service, and innovative technology on offer have seen customers move away from traditional banks in favour of their digital counterparts. These are likely reasons for the rise and development of digital banks. 

–

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, F.B. community, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image Credit: ipopba

The post Digital bank licences: Why does everyone want a slice of the unbanked? appeared first on e27.