Southeast Asia is lagging behind the west in climate tech, and this is a function of economic maturity and action from key stakeholders (governments, enterprises, consumers and investors), said Steve Melhuish, Founding Partner of Wavemaker Impact.

Unlike in the west, where governments are taking climate change seriously (for example, the EU has a green plan and commitment to a 55 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030), the ASEAN region doesn’t give due attention to the problem.

All talks and no action

“ASEAN’s governments and enterprises are talking but not acting,” said Melhuish, also the founder of the region’s proptech giant PropertyGuru. Taking Singapore as an example, he said the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is expected to rise to 65 metric tons per annum by 2030 (an over 18 per cent since 2014). According to a recent Yale Report, it is the worst-performing among the world’s wealthiest nations in GHG emissions.

In this region, only Thailand and Vietnam have made ‘net-zero’ commitments, and only US$9 billion has been deployed to green in 2020 versus the US$2.7 trillion needed over the next decade.

Also Read: How to tackle climate change by choosing a career in cleantech

In contrast, western countries have already initiated several concrete plans to tackle climate change. “Many European Union (EU) governments have banned fossil fuel car sales, imposed import tariffs and carbon taxes, new regulations, and implemented a sustainability taxonomy. All European countries have committed to net-zero by 2050. European and North American regulators are increasingly starting to prosecute companies and boards that ignore ESG (environment, social and governance),” he said.

Globally, corporates are also taking climate change seriously. About 75 per cent of global MNCs stated they would remove suppliers that endanger their net-zero transition by 2035. Most have also hired chief sustainability officers (CSO), made net-zero commitments, and published impact reports. Companies representing 27 per cent of global market capitalisation have set science-based targets versus only 4 per cent in SEA.

“In Southeast Asia, SMEs account for about 40 per cent of the GDP and 75 per cent of the workforce, but they are fragmented and lack financial and human resources or sustainability skills,” he said.

Things, however, have started changing. “We have started seeing large publicly listed companies (CDL, Capitaland, Olam, etc.) hire CSOs, publish sustainability plans and impact reports, and start making ESG disclosures,” remarked Melhuish, who also runs Planetrise, which invests in sustainable businesses.

Countries like Singapore have introduced several initiatives to create a better climate-tech environment. “Over the past 24 months, Singapore introduced several initiatives. They include new SGX rules on ESG disclosure, MAS’s new centre for sustainable finance, Carbon Impact Exchange plan, and the ’30 by 30′ food plan (aimed at producing 30 per cent of its own food by 2030). It also plans to reduce fossil fuels energy reliance from 95 per cent, with 30 per cent renewable energy imports by 2035.

In addition, the island nation has also launched an SG Eco Fund and set up EV charging points and grants to support energy-efficiency projects and investments in new carbon capture and hydrogen tech. Last month, it also proposed a carbon tax rise from US$5 per tonne to US$25 per tonne by 2025 and agreed to review a potential net-zero commitment.

Four other SEA countries also came on board and set up an ASEAN Taxonomy Board last year. In addition, we saw US$9 billion ploughed into green assets in SEA in 2020.

The region now has over 30 sustainability-focused active institutional investors.

“From a climate-tech startup ecosystem perspective, all this bodes well for the region. I now see about 15 climate tech startup deals per month (compared to 2-3 until four years ago). In addition, almost every week, I engage in discussions with experienced and wannabe entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and investors about how they can play a role in climate action.

Climate tech is beyond alt-protein and EVs

Globally, in climate tech, the alternative protein vertical has attracted substantial investment in recent years, including in Southeast Asia (although the meat industry contributes only about 15 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, it contributes massively to deforestation and poor animal welfare). Companies such as TurtleTree and Shiok Meats, or alt-protein funds like Big Idea Ventures and Better Bite Ventures are doing a great job focusing on these areas.

“However, based on my experience, over 80 per cent of the climate tech deals 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,” he said.

The region will bear the brunt of climate change in future and represents a US$2.7 trillion climate-tech opportunity. But SEA gets virtually no attention today; less than 3 per cent of climate-tech investment globally goes to SEA, and most of this goes into EVs.

However, EVs address one of the smallest emissions contributors in Southeast Asia, whereas land use, food and agriculture are almost 50 per cent of emissions in Southeast Asia.

“There is a mismatch of investment and entrepreneur focus today in SEA. Hence, we at Wavemaker Impact are working with experienced entrepreneurs and have identified over 50x Southeast Asia-specific opportunities that could each have the potential to build 100 million tonnes x US$100 million revenue ventures,” he said.

Melhuish believes that tackling climate change is a monumental task that requires a huge effort from all of us — governments, enterprises, consumers and investors. There’s no bigger problem (or US$ trillion opportunity) than climate change. It will require massive investment in research, design, science and transformational tech to address our global emissions in the next 20-plus years.”

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

“But it will be too late if we do not act urgently. We need talented founders to focus on solving real business problems (revenue, customer acquisition, cost, productivity, etc.) focused on stakeholders in the largest emissions sectors in SEA. They need to adopt [suitable] business models and finance and use existing technologies to build venture grade climate-tech ventures that can scale rapidly. There is a massive opportunity for the climate-tech startups founded today in SEA to become the next generation of tech unicorns in the region,” he 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 There’s a mismatch of investment and entrepreneur focus in SEA’s climate tech: Steve Melhuish appeared first on e27.

NFT came out with a bang in 2020 and took over the digital art industry in a storm.

Now, almost two years later, NFT is dying a slow death, with hundreds of thousands still hoping to find other fools to hold the bags by following whales who pump.

Through this short-lived fame, NFT has shown us the potential of what could happen to the art industry if democratised.  I’ve been studying this topic for a while, and it is even more exciting how the art market can be changed.

Forget about all the hype & buzzwords for a while and think art as we knew it: physical paintings transacted in fiat currencies.  Does it sound fancy, expensive, and unattainable?  Take away the aura of owning a Van Gogh, traditional artists aren’t different from digital artists at the core.

In both traditional art and NFT markets, there are five secondary market traders and three thousand wealthy individuals who lead and influence the market.

The NFT world works exactly like the traditional art market

I’m sure you have heard it before, but here’s how it works in the art industry (from what I’m seeing, this may be how the Beeple NFT worked too):

I, along with nine other friends, buy 20 of artist Nobody’s artwork over time, starting at US$1,000, slowly increasing the purchase price over time to say, US$10,000.

Friend A submits one of Nobody’s artworks he owns for auction, and I go buy it for US$25 million. Friend A gives me back US$25 million post-auction. Major news outlets report this fantastic purchase, and all of a sudden, the 20 paintings we bought are worth US$25 million each.

We just made US$500 million (=$25 million x 20 paintings) out of thin air and made an artist super famous.

Also Read: How generative NFTs are extending the boundaries of digital art

When Nobody sells his painting for US$15 million on the primary market, that painting is going to be snatched up because it’s at a significant discount. Everyone knows he can flip that painting for US$25 million at an auction somewhere. We have created liquidity for Nobody’s painting.

Assume now my friends and I want to cash out on the US$500 million. Since we have 20 paintings to sell, the market can’t digest all of them at the same time; given we paid next to nothing for them, we are willing to sell them at US$10 million each, and we still made US$200 million.

Now the market price for Nobody’s painting is US$10 million instead of US$25 million.

Everyone who bought and sold Nobody’s painting before this drop made money and are happy, but the last person who bought Nobody’s painting at US$15 million has to either sell it for a loss or hold onto it, hoping for a bigger fool to show up.

This happens in a thin liquid, or rather, an illiquid market, where the valuation basis is inconsistent.

A peek into the world of NFT art

But the craze in NFT has given us a glimpse of what could happen to art if we had a big enough market that is transparent.

Everyone should be able to freely express his opinions about art, despite their prices, given how the game has been played.  I wouldn’t say I like Basquiat’s art, and I should be able to criticise it. My prediction is if free market had been allowed, Basquiat wouldn’t even make it.

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.

Many existing collectors may disagree with me.  But I’m not speaking to the “cultured” and snobbish few who can afford Picasso’s. We, the masses, can take ordinary artists without high-net-worth networks to the moon.

–

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: troggt

The post How is NFT transforming the art world and empowering artists? appeared first on e27.

There’s a mismatch of investment and entrepreneur focus in SEA’s climate tech: Steve Melhuish
SEA will bear the brunt of climate change in future and it represents a US$2.7T climate-tech opportunity but the region gets virtually no attention today.

Wavemaker Partners closes Fund IV at US$136M
Anchor investors are Pavilion Capital, Temasek, IFC, and Vulcan Capital; In Nov 2021, Wavemaker launched Wavemaker Impact; Teaming up with Enterprise SG, the firm aims to work with at least 12 climate-tech companies over the next three years.

Cake DeFi launches US$100M venture capital arm for global startups in Web3, gaming, fintech
By the time of the firm’s launch, Cake DeFi Ventures has already invested in tech, media and events startup The Edge Of Company; It is currently in talks with a number of startups in Southeast Asia (SEA), the US, and Europe.

Web3 is going to redefine labour in Asia in a big way: Animoca Brands’s Yat Siu
Web3 will also create new tax revenues for countries like India and the Philippines and allow them to participate in the global economy.

Una Brands to invest US$100M into South Korea
For this, it has partnered with its local counterpart KlickBrands; Together, they will help companies across categories such as health, K-beauty, and home and living grow domestically and expand into SEA markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Employment platform Multiplier raises UD$60M Series B
Investors include Tiger Global and Sequoia India; A SaaS platform, Multiplier allows employers to hire anyone, anywhere in a few clicks using its workflow automated compliance, payroll, and payment platform.

Voice AI startup AI Rudder nets US$50M Series B to add new languages, expand globally
Investors include Tiger Global, Coatue, Cathay Innovation, First Plus, VenturesLab, Sequoia India, and Huashan Capital; AI Rudder helps businesses solve B2C communication challenges across banking and finance, fintech, insurance and e-commerce.

SG collaborative workspace firm Atlan raised US$50M Series B
Investors include Salesforce Ventures, Insight Partners, and Sequoia Capital India; Atlan makes working with data easier by providing a virtual hub for assets; It enables teams to create a single source for all data assets and collaborate through tools like Slack.

Regulation tech firm Silent Eight nets US$40M in HSBC-backed Series B round
Investors include TYH Ventures, HSBC Ventures and Wavemakers Partners; Silent Eight’s system uses data for investigations into money laundering and terrorist financing activities; Its AI-powered tech also enforces economic sanctions and investigates all other financial crime risks.

Tiger Global leads US$20M Series B extension of Singapore’s Cialfo
Cialfo is a SaaS firm that simplifies the career exploration and college search process by connecting high schoolers, counsellors, and colleges; It charges annual subscriptions for education institutions while keeping the platform free for students.

Jio Health bags US$20M Series B to expand on-demand home care services in Vietnam
Investors include Heritas Capital, Fuchsia Ventures, Kasikorn Bank, and Monk’s Hills Ventures; Jio Health’s technology encompasses telemedicine, e-prescription fulfilment, digital medical records, and machine-learning for clinical decision support.

Igloo closes US$19M Series B, promotes Raunak Mehta as Co-Founder and CEO
Investors include Cathay Innovation, ACA and Openspace Ventures; In line with its ‘Insurance for All’ vision, Igloo will focus on the underinsured low to mid-income population segments in Southeast Asia.

E-signature firm EthSign attracts US$12M seed funding
Investors include Sequoia India, Mirana Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Sequoia China; EthSign has built a decentralised e-signature service for securing contract agreements; It will also launch EthSign Smart Agreements, a customisable escrow framework for contract execution.

PoS financing solution firm AwanTunai bags US$8.5M
Investors include IFC, Global Brain, and Insignia Ventures; The firm is also raising debt financing as part of Series A3; AwanTunai offers affordable inventory purchase financing, integrated online ordering, inventory management to wholesalers and micro-merchants.

Tickled Media raises US$8M from LINE Corp
It had last raised US$2M from SCB10X in Nov 2020; The digital parenting platform reaches over 1.2M mothers in SEA, with content available in 13 languages; Its brands are theAsianparent, HerStyleAsia, AsianMoneyGuide, and NONILO.com.

TraktorHub, WebTrace merge to form Quipster to serve construction, logistics, mining industries
An online rental and sales marketplace, Quipster will also provide IoT solutions, integrated asset management and financial/insurance products; Both WebTrace and TraktorHub are backed by Prasetia Dwidharma.

Taiwanese data mesh firm Canner raises US$3.5M in pre-Series A
Investors include Taiwania Capital, Hive Ventures, and SparkLabs Taipei; Canner helps convert business-facing data to application-ready data; Its platform simplifies building next-generation applications on cloud data warehouses.

Ex-Facebook execs’ message management firm Cooby gets funding
Investors are Sequoia India’s Surge and Pear VC; Cooby is a conversation management tool; It helps sales management teams with syncing data, analytics services, and setting up a WhatsApp work number.

With a US$2M funding in tow, Protenga wants to innovate the food system with insects
The venture debt facility came from a syndicate of Singapore-based investors; Protenga is ready to develop its next-generation production facilities and introduce its pet food brand YumGrubs.

Indonesian e-commerce enabler Opaper bags US$1M
Investors include London-based Ratio Ventures and US-based OnDeck and Precursor Ventures; Opaper allows business owners to set up online stores, manage their inventory, and accept payments; It has so far onboarded 19K+ online sellers.

ASTAR healthtech startup spin-off Respiree bags US$3.4M seed funding
Investors include Oriza Greenwillow Technology Fund, Seeds Capital, and She1k; Respiree developed cardiopulmonary sensors that are integrated into its virtual care platform; The devices can track clinical deterioration more efficiently.

SG blockchain firm Gamepay scores US$1.2M in pre-seed funding
Investors include Seier Capital and 8i Holdings; Gamepay provides a platform for developers to launch P2E games; Later this month, the company will launch a non-fungible token marketplace for its own P2E game, Chickey Chik.

—

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Climate change — is it all talks and no action in ASEAN?; Cake DeFi launches new US$100M web3 fund appeared first on e27.

The first thing anyone hears about your company is the brand name and your messaging. Developing a corporate brand identity, training your team to understand and internalise it, and creating multiple versions based on who you are talking to is crucial to your success.

In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about how to handle these things with Hope Timberlake, the founder of Forte Consulting, which helps executives hone their team alignment, branding, presentation, and other various leadership skills.

More specifically, we discuss:

– What is a corporate brand identity?
– How do you develop your corporate brand identity?
– What is the logical order of how to establish a corporate brand identity?
– How do you differentiate your messaging based on who is the audience?
– Why you should create a repository for messaging?
– How do you test your messaging for clarity?
– How to train your team to parrot your messaging?
– Why you should use video to train for messaging?
– Why you should ask people individually about their understanding of the messaging?
– How do you put it all together to develop a pitch deck and talk to investors?
– What is the best storytelling formula?

Also Read: Corporate venture funding models: Determining the sweet spot between risk and control

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 by We Live To Build.

Image Credit: kasto

The post Developing your corporate brand identity with Hope Timberlake appeared first on e27.

In September last year, our team, ExMachina, participated and walked away as the winner of the Mercury Hackathon: All About NFTs, a six-week blockchain virtual hackathon.

Hosted by Tribe and AngelHack, in association with Filecoin, IPFS and Flow, the event drew over 2,000 participants who were all similarly motivated to flex their skills in a hands-on project related to blockchain applications and NFTs.

We were required to form teams of four, and I (handling business and operations) joined teammates Rachmanto Supatra (full-stack engineer), Tony Soekirman (tech lead) and Dimas Dewantara (full-stack engineer) to create ExMachina.

We were all located in Singapore, Batam, Jakarta, so we communicated via Trello for updates and used CODA for documentation for our collaborative workspace. We also relied on a group chat on WhatsApp to keep in touch daily.

We had weekly meetings every Wednesday evening and would delegate the workload according to our expertise. Tony, Raj and Dimas would work on the technical aspects across development, NFT and blockchain while I took charge of UI and UX.

We were assigned a mentor, Morgan Wilde, a software developer at Decentology. As an industry expert, he provided valuable inputs and advice and pushed us to question and experiment.

We got off to a rocky start when Wilde rejected our initial ideas. He explained that we should develop a product that can deliver value to a broader audience.

Through our brainstorming sessions, we identified a societal problem that had arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic and how we could use blockchain technology to impact lives positively.

This allowed us to dive deeper into exploring the topic of the rise in cases of loneliness and social isolation, which are mainly attributed to global lockdowns and restrictions on activities.

We discussed ways to tap into an interesting retro technology trend that could solve loneliness in the digital age, especially during the pandemic.

The eureka moment

Then it dawned on me, why not draw inspiration from Tamagotchi, a digital pet from the eighties that was well-loved as a digital companion?

Also Read: Hyperlocal mapping: a solution for real-world interactions in the retail metaverse

I had previously done some initial research work with a friend, Max Giammario (product and marketing), who is now my co-founder at MetaPals. We had created a marketing report on how Tamagotchi was popular with kids and with working adults.

It wasn’t just looking after a digital animal, but the emotional connections people formed by having responsibility for it, which meant caring for it and keeping it alive.

With the pandemic accelerating the trend to work and study from home, we’re spending more and more time on computers. And we thought, hey, we could bring the sense of companionship back.

We decided to reimagine MetaPals as a Chrome browser extension, where a user can ‘adopt’ a pet, dress, interact, feed and ultimately take responsibility for it.

We started preparing a business deck outlining our product direction because nothing was beyond the research stage. We knew we wanted to design unique NFTs of our digital pets and started crafting questions about their behaviours and personalities.

For example, we wanted our pets to do various actions like bouncing around the new screen or having a destructive personality. If the pets were ignored, they would start destroying web elements within the browser.

Depending on how active or sleepy each pet is, there were also some unique behaviours like running around energetically or sleeping in an isolated corner. All these various activities were then listed as individual actions that would make up the personality traits of each different pet.

Flow was beneficial for us as it is a blockchain built for next-generation games and digital assets compared with general-purpose blockchains like Ethereum.

In addition to enabling scalability, Flow also improves transaction speeds and is simpler to use as it splits validation tasks into four different nodes:

• Consensus
• Verification
• Execution
• Collection

It is also very developer-friendly as we can build on other developers’ work, making collaboration seamless and efficient.

Also Read: Metaverse is around the corner, and you should play a role in it

IPFS, on the other hand, was great in empowering creators like ourselves the ability to build and share on the decentralised web, whether it was to deliver content free from intermediary control or minting NFTs that will withstand the test of time.

NFTs in gaming are all about giving consumers actual ownership rights over their in-game components and giving the user a sense of worth and feel from the digital world.

MetaPals is much more than a browser extension

We see it as the first step to bringing life to the Metaverse and are excited to explore new ways to expand the world of MetaPals.

The Meta could quickly become a very stale, colourless and lifeless dystopia used by corporations to get more screen time for their products.

For it to become a true extension of the human experience, through our journey to create a world which we feel people want to join, we realised that we need to bring over the qualities that make us human: love, care, compassion.

There is no better way to do that than through man’s best friend, or any pet for that matter. MetaPals gives a peek into how we can slowly begin transitioning into a hybrid world, a truly immersive experience, not just in sounds and visuals, but with life and emotion.

–

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:

The post How we designed the future of digital pets in just six weeks appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based edutech company Cialfo has secured US$20 million in funding as part of a Series B extension, led by Tiger Global.

The news follows January’s announcement of a US$40 million round co-led by Square Peg and Australia’s SEEK Investments.

This tranche brings Cialfo’s total funding raised to date to US$77 million, including the initial US$15 million in Series A funding in February 2021.

The firm looks to increase its investment in strategic markets and initiatives, including special scholarships for students in its global community.

Formed in 2017 by CEO Rohan Pasari (India), Stanley Chia (Singapore) and William Hund (Australia), Cialfo empowers students and schools, from K12 to university, throughout the career exploration and college search and selection process.

Also Read: College admission platform Cialfo raises US$3M Series A funding

Its platform connects over 250,000 high school students, their counsellors, and families with over 1,000 colleges in 50 countries.

The firm has over 170 employees across Singapore, India, the US, and China.

According to Research and Markets, the global edutech sector is experiencing a digital transformation, with a suggested growth of up to 130 per cent by 2027, which is predicted to benefit people across a wide range of socio-economic and geographic backgrounds.

CEO Pasari said: “It [the funding] naturally also will allow us to invest in continuous product development so we can deliver even more personalised and practical support to our community of students, counsellors and universities. Importantly, growing our operations in critical markets, and expanding our 360 offerings to include scholarships, are among the ways we plan to capitalise on this infusion of capital and give more back in return.”

—

The post Edutech firm Cialfo adds US$20M to its kitty to extend Series B round to US$60M appeared first on e27.

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly transformed the way we live and work and, through this, catalysed Southeast Asia’s (SEA) long-anticipated shift from the physical to the online world.

Businesses have had to ramp up on their digitalisation efforts to stay afloat as consumers turn to the online sphere for their day-to-day activities. According to a joint survey by Microsoft and IDC Asia Pacific, nearly 75 per cent of organisations in Singapore accelerated their pace of digitalisation due to the pandemic.

On top of this, SEA’s booming internet economy is set to grow to US$1 trillion by 2030, as millions of new internet users fuel online businesses in fields including e-commerce and virtual finance, according to a report jointly produced by Temasek, Google, and Bain.

With more investors recognising the region as one with valuable digital economy opportunities, there needs to be a reliable, secure digital infrastructure for businesses to tap into for growth.

The accelerated pace is set to make the region a global technology giant, and well-designed data frameworks are vital in supporting this trajectory.

Latency is the new currency

As individuals and businesses consume more data in an increasingly interconnected world, particularly in SEA, reliable and fail-safe internet connections with the lowest possible latency (the round-trip time taken for data to travel between an end device and the server where the data is stored or processed, for example, when using an application in the cloud) are becoming more crucial.

Latency is decisive for the time it takes for a transaction to be registered when making online purchases, for getting a smooth reaction and good user experience when using applications hosted in the cloud. More, such everyday aspects make up the digital economy.

From a business perspective, latency issues cost money. Productivity related to virtual desktops, conference and video calls, and everything virtually related to working from home is dependent on high-performance interconnection.

Industrial activities like remote robotics and AI-supported research and development require the lowest possible latency for maximum efficiency. As such, low latency is essential for future-proofing Singapore’s economy, as booming and upcoming technologies like cloud gaming, virtual or augmented reality, e-health, and the connected car need latencies as low as 1-3 milliseconds.

Security is also enhanced when a firewall kicks in with minimal delays, ensuring businesses are better prepared and not compromised by cyber threats.

With this, latency in digital services and applications is genuinely revenue-related. It is the new currency in today’s post-COVID digital economy.

Reliable internet exchanges: The heartbeat of the digital world

While it is hard to imagine the internet as something stored anywhere else, your computer, Internet Exchanges (IX), play a significant role in the world’s rapid shift to the digital world.

Also Read: Why Malaysia is quickly becoming a cybersecurity hub for the rest of the world

They guarantee a smooth, secure and fast exchange of data packets between networks of any size, ensuring that everyday online activities run seamlessly and quickly, especially in today’s climate, where everyone is hugely reliant on the internet.

Being connected to an IX allows networks to directly connect to other networks and share data traffic (also known as “peering”). This significantly reduces latency by reducing the path length that data needs to travel.

Also, data centre-neutral IX platforms, like those operated by DE-CIX, are distributed. This means that the infrastructure is housed in multiple data centres in a metro region, significantly increasing the resilience of the entire IX platform.

In some cases, by connecting to an IX, company networks can peer with networks connected to several other interconnected IXs within a region.

By connecting to DE-CIX Singapore, for example, network operators gain the possibility to exchange data directly at low latency with other networks, such as internet service providers, cloud providers, content networks, CDNS, over-the-top (OTT) providers and enterprise networks, not only in Singapore but also elsewhere in SEA, enabling enterprises to gain access to a vibrant SEA interconnection ecosystem.

The rise of cloud adoption, but what are the risks?

Ramping up digitalisation increases reliance on cloud-based services across all kinds of businesses. Instant access to content, applications and services that are essential in our daily lives has made how we work and live simpler.

According to Alibaba Cloud’s Cloud in Asia survey, Singapore is the most prolific adopter of cloud computing in SEA, with nearly nine in 10 IT decision-makers saying their companies are already using cloud-based services.

However, the move to the cloud poses new risks for enterprises in Singapore and worldwide. For instance, as the reliance is generally on only one cloud partner to manage data and workloads, this tendency towards cloud concentration creates a single point of failure, as has been evident with major outages at big global cloud players in the past.

For several critical industries, the mitigation of this cloud concentration risk is being written into law in increasingly more regions around the globe. Therefore, companies are looking for solutions to manage a multi-cloud environment efficiently.

Truly mitigating the cloud concentration risk, however, does not just stop at using different clouds. It is also important to access those clouds from physically independent locations.

Using a distributed infrastructure involving diverse providers and multiple redundant pathways creates the resilience necessary for critical applications and data.

DE-CIX offers enterprises interconnection solutions that connect directly to the required application or compute source at the lowest latency possible.

Also Read: Creating a trusted internet with augmented whitelisting

For example, to the many cloud services an enterprise makes use of (through DE-CIX DirectCLOUD), or to applications such as those available through Microsoft 365, with direct connectivity possible for enterprises via DE-CIX with the Microsoft Azure Peering Service.

In this way, latency is minimised, and resilience is ensured.

The enterprise of the future is digital

With SEA’s internet economy set to flourish in the coming decade, seamless, top-quality and cost-effective interconnection services are a must to cater to the needs in the modern world of both businesses and end-consumers alike.

Latency is the new currency against today’s backdrop of accelerated digitalisation in ensuring that the exciting next generation of applications and services are well-supported with solid digital infrastructure.

DE-CIX Asia brings low-latency and robust interconnection to SEA. It offers better localisation of interconnection services across the region, one with more than 600 million inhabitants and massive digital demand, easing the pressure on existing internet infrastructure in the area and bringing content and applications closer to the users.

In establishing such strong foundations for SEA, we are excited to see further growth in technical innovations and disruptors as we collectively pave the way toward the region’s anticipated role as a global technology hub.

–

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: perfectpixelshunter

The post Is data latency the new currency in town? appeared first on e27.

Singapore-headquartered insurtech startup Igloo (formerly Axinan) has closed a US$19 million Series B funding round, led by Cathay Innovation.

ACA and Openspace Ventures joined the round, bringing its total fundraising to over US$36 million.

Igloo will use the new money to drive product innovation and innovate its dynamic risk assessment and AI-powered claims assessment tools. In line with its ‘Insurance for All’ vision, its product development and distribution focus will further target the underinsured low to mid-income population segments in Southeast Asia.

Besides, the insurtech firm will also acquire intermediary assets, which bring synergies to Igloo’s business model.

Alongside the funding, Igloo has also announced promoting its Chief Commercial Officer Raunak Mehta as Co-Founder and CEO. He will work alongside Co-Founder Wei Zhu, who is on Igloo’s Board of Directors.

Raunak brings tons of experience and has previously held leadership roles at Flipkart and Zalora. Since joining Igloo in 2018, he has spearheaded its market entry into the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and Malaysia.

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

Mehta said: “With the continued backing of our investors, we are well-positioned to expand our operations in countries like Vietnam, The Philippines, and Malaysia, and provide a highly localised offering for each Southeast Asian market.”

Incorporated in 2016 by Wei Zhu (ex-CTO of Grab), Igloo leverages big data, real-time risk assessment, and end-to-end automated claims management to create B2B2C insurance solutions for platform and insurance companies.

To date, Igloo has partnered with over 50 well-known brands across the markets in various verticals, including insurance, telecommunications, e-commerce, hospitality, health tech and financial services.

Igloo claims to have facilitated over 200 million policies across Southeast Asia since 2019. In 2021, it nearly tripled its gross written premium facilitation, and its solutions helped underwrite over 75 million policies in Southeast Asia.

Recently, the company launched Ignite by Igloo, an app to streamline the insurance sales journey for agents and direct intermediaries. The AI-powered app offers an accessible online solution that brings together multiple insurance products on a single platform and supports agents to improve customer engagement and manage products to better address customer needs.

Besides Singapore, the firm has offices in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Its tech centres are located in China.

In 2020, Igloo raised an undisclosed Series A-plus funding round, led by InVent.

Southeast Asia has a burgeoning digital economy, which is expected to hit US$360 billion in 2025, according to Bain, Google and Temasek’s economy report. This growth has catalysed a need for digital insurance products such as cybersecurity and e-wallet insurance, which has opened up a US$10 billion opportunity for digital players and insurance companies in the region.

—

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 Igloo closes US$19M Series B, promotes Raunak Mehta as Co-Founder and CEO appeared first on e27.

As the global community faces the threat of global warming and climate change, startups are looking at the possible solutions to some of the most pressing challenges that come with it –from food scarcity to water conservation. In Malaysia, one startup builds its solutions based on something that is already part of the natural ecosystem: insects.

“Insect’s role in nature is to create cycles, breaking down organic materials and standing at the base of the food chain. We have been and continue to be excited by the potential that technology provides to harness this power of insects and leverage for a more sustainable food system,” explains Founder and CEO Leo Wein in an email to e27.

“After initial research and first production of flies, Protenga took the idea of growing black soldier flies from academic papers to commercial activities.”

The company’s journey began in 2016 with this vision of making insects “do the work” to create a regenerative food system that is in balance with nature. Protenga built its first pilot commercial farm in Johor Baru after raising its US$2 million seed funding round in 2020; it uses insect by-products from the farm to produce organic fertiliser and animal feed.

After achieving several key milestones, the company returned today with the closing of a US$2 million venture debt facility with a syndicate of Singapore-based investors. With this new funding in tow, Protenga is ready to develop its next-generation production facilities and introduce its pet food brand YumGrubs.

By expanding its smart insect farms, the company aims to make insect farming accessible and profitable. This new production facility will also provide co-manufacturing for third-party and white-label brands to accelerate insect-based pet food’s growth and transition into the pet food mainstream.

Also Read: COVID-19, the environment, and the tech ecosystem: what opportunity is available out there for us?

“Accessing debt financing starts our journey of bringing insect farming from being predominantly equity-financed to a broader set of financing options such as infrastructure financing or conventional bank loans and decouples the expansion of our physical production facilities from our equity-based growth investments in our technology and commercialisation platform. We have also been extremely pleased with the very positive customer and market feedback on our pet food offerings, providing validation of our team’s intensive R&D work over the last year,” Wein comments on the funding round.

Saving the world with insects

When asked about how their smart farm works, and how exactly it differs from the rest, Wein begins his explanation by stating that Protenga technology captures 600,000 data points related to farm performance every day.

“Every grow-out cycle and every new facility … helps us better understand how to optimise production based on various feedstocks, micro-climates, SOPs, insect strains, etc. Like a giant parallelised experiment in search of optimal configurations which then can be quickly replicated across thousands of similar sites. By running many small(er) well-controlled experiments in quick succession or even in parallel, we learn and improve much faster than large-scale operators,” he says.

“The faster we can scale insect production, the faster we can transition the food system away from its dependency on the oil industry. With around a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions coming from the agriculture sector, the faster the transition happens, the better the world is at achieving its goals toward CO2 neutrality and limiting the impacts of climate change. We have a model which is capital efficient, allowing fast scaling,” he continues.

He further elaborated that feeding the world is a global challenge that requires massive scale for true commercial and impact success –and scaling the more sustainable solutions is where the efforts should be concentrated.

“Today, the annual global production of all insect protein is only about 10,000 metric tons, while fish meal alone is about five million tons (and soy is around 500 million tons). The world needs players optimised for scale and resilience which requires the right combination of business model, production system (tech and facility design), genetics, commercial product development and capital structure. We believe we built such technology,” he stresses.

Also Read: How consumers are prioritising sustainability beyond the single lens of eco-friendly products

With the work that they (and the insects) are doing, Protenga believes that they will be able to tackle six out of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), particularly in the area of improving farming and industrial practices and eliminating hunger.

Users of Protenga products themselves are divided into the B2B (for animal feed and fertilisers) and B2C categories (for pet food). Currently available in Malaysia and Singapore, the company is looking forward to making its products available in other countries “soon”.

What is next for Protenga

The Protenga team consists of 30 individuals with various backgrounds and skillsets, breeding specialists (ensuring the best quality of black soldier flies are grown), farming operators (taking care of the larvae), engineering (designing innovative mechanical, electronics and sensors IoT systems) and corporate roles.

The company said that with its seed funding, it was able to build and launch three facilities, enabling Protenga to produce significant double-digit tonnage every month, while using less than one third the capital compared to the industry.

When asked about what is next for the company, Wein said that the year 2022 will be all about scaling.

“We are launching our second-generation Smart Insect Farm which will step up further the automation of the operation, leveraging our insectOS tech platform combining IoT sensors, climate control and production efficiency best practices,” he closes.

“While scaling farming activities, we are also launching our Pet Food products, under the YumGrubs brand, to let dog owners feed their puppies with sustainable high-quality fresh food. We believe they will love it and it is a major step to make insect protein mainstream.”

—

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.

Image Credit: Protenga

The post With a US$2M funding in tow, Protenga wants to innovate the food system with insects appeared first on e27.

Climate change is the biggest challenge the world is facing today. It crosses borders and languages, income brackets and cultures. Its impact can be most effectively addressed when there is a concerted international effort.

Singapore’s recent budget decision to progressively raise the carbon tax to reach a net-zero target by mid-century is a positive signal of the city-state’s commitment to long-term climate goals.

Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 will require innovation in new energy infrastructure and green solutions to accelerate the reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Solar, wind, hydro and energy storage breakthroughs create thousands of new jobs. According to the World Economic Forum, there were estimated to be around 10 million new job openings last year, a number that’s only growing.

By 2030, the green economy is expected to offer up to 24 million new green jobs. These possibilities provide great opportunities for those looking to start a career in the green industry today.

Opportunities galore

With the energy transition underway, it’s no surprise that students, graduates, and professionals already in the workforce are thinking about contributing to the green transition and kickstart a career in renewable energy.

The good news is that these value-based jobs are competitively paid and in high demand, with the growing renewable energy sector requiring all sorts of roles, skills, and diversity.

Over the last few years, we’ve gone through a seismic shift where concerns about climate and sustainability are now acknowledged as a major strategic challenge by both private corporations and governments.

Also Read: Transitioning to new energy? Here’re 5 prominent solutions for your business

There are many diverse options that one can consider for a career in cleantech, such as shaping sustainability strategy at traditional companies and banks, driving products and operations at startups working on green solutions, becoming an investor in sustainable ventures, or even forming policies in the public sector.

Indeed, for those who don’t want to work in the private sector, there are opportunities in public service and nonprofits where you can make a meaningful impact.

A career in renewables or cleantech is also an opportunity to be surrounded by like-minded individuals who share a vision for a greener planet while getting the chance to work on cutting-edge technology and be at the forefront of change.

For students and graduates, there is no better time than now to be early adopters and ride the waves of change in Singapore and the wider region as every nation doubles down on its commitment to net zero.

Build networks and do internships

Today’s climate tech ecosystem encompasses startups building solutions across a wide range of industries and use cases.

My advice to today’s young people is to get excited at the prospect of a career in cleantech and get exposure as early as possible. Educate yourself about the opportunities, immerse yourself in research, read articles, and bookmark the names of companies doing compelling things that are of interest.

Internships are a great way to start, but so are attending trade shows and conferences, networking, and self-study outside your core curriculum at university.

Internships and placements while as a student allow you to get the best of both worlds, combining institution-based learning with structured on-the-job training. If you do well, you may even end up with a job offer after graduation.

My startup, VFlowTech, is reinventing energy storage with Vanadium redox flow technology in Singapore. We welcome interns and graduates, and professionals who are either already in the renewable sector or looking to make the switch.

Also Read: 13 cleantech startups to watch in Asia

We’re also partnering with Local universities like Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of Glasgow to support students with PhD scholarships. The new programme will nurture students who want to build a fulfilling career in cleantech.

Reskilling and switching sectors

Reskilling is an option for professionals already in the workforce who want to take an entirely new career path than the one they have pursued till now.

Even if you don’t have a background or expertise in the (renewable) energy industry, cleantech is so diverse that you may very well find a role that fits what you’re looking for perfectly. Indeed, many renewable energy and green companies are now refining their job descriptions to attract people from non-traditional fields.

Traits that make a good cleantech candidate include being solutions-oriented with a keen interest in the sector and a mind for designing new processes, technology, and equipment.

Just being interested and sustaining that interest over time is half the battle, as it’s always obvious when a candidate is genuinely interested versus just looking for a paycheck. Being a team player and knowing how to ask the right questions and accommodate feedback is also vital.

As mentioned, one of the best ways to get started is through networking and building relationships (or just sparking a conversation) with people already in the industry. So be curious, open, and engaging at events, online, or during internships and placements.

I wish everyone looking to start a career in cleantech in the year ahead the best of luck, and please do reach out to me if you’d like to grab a coffee and talk more about the exciting developments in this fast-evolving space.

–

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: wajan

The post How to tackle climate change by choosing a career in cleantech appeared first on e27.