Super, a social commerce platform serving second- and third-tier cities and rural areas in Indonesia, announced today it has completed a US$28 million oversubscribed Series B round led by SoftBank Ventures Asia.

Returning investors include Amasia, Insignia Ventures Partners, Y-Combinator Continuity Fund, and Stephen Pagliuca (co-chairman of Bain Capital and co-owner of Boston Celtics).

Partners of DST Global and TNB Aura also co-invested.

The company will use the fresh capital to double down on its presence in East Java and launch in other Indonesian provinces later this year, besides developing its white-label products.

This round follows the previous oversubscribed US$7 million Series A led by Amasia, which was also joined by the likes of Y- Combinator, B Capital, Insignia, Alpha JWC Ventures.

With this round, Super’s total investment raised to date has crossed US$36 million.

A graduate of Y Combinator, Super is a social commerce platform. It offers Superagen, an agent-led commerce that empowers community leaders to become self-made entrepreneurs by enabling them to sell various products to their communities.

The startup also builds a logistics network with “the lowest cost” and facilitates communication for social-buying behaviour, so the agents can sell various products through social networks like Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

Also Read: Leveraging social e-commerce to maximise your brand in China

“Imagine community leaders in remote villages acting as the Walmart of their community by aggregating demand. Super is doing the same. We deliver products to the agents once they hit the minimum order volume. They in turn carry out the last-mile delivery for their users,” explained CEO and co-founder Steven Wongsoredjo.

In his view, the price of goods in second- and third-tier cities can be up to 200 per cent higher than prices for the same goods in Jakarta. But purchasing power in these more remote areas is usually a fraction of what it is in Jakarta.

“Coming from a family business that serves the retail industry in these more remote regions, I was aware of this problem from a young age. It seemed so unfair that a mother in rural Indonesia could only buy one cup of milk for one US dollar, while that same dollar could buy you two-three cups in Jakarta. We wanted to provide fair prices for citizens everywhere, so we set up Super,” he shared.

The founding team quickly realised that the key to providing reasonable prices lay in a more efficient supply chain.

“We saw how the explosion of social commerce in China and India allowed for cheaper prices for consumers in those markets,” added co-founder and former Googler Debeasinta Budiman.

“We also find great satisfaction that our agent-based model empowers mostly female micro-entrepreneurs in areas of the country that traditionally offer less economic opportunities. The fact that we connect large suppliers to these agents eliminates the need for excess fleets and warehouses in a traditionally bloated supply chain. So as we expand our reach, we also help decrease Indonesia’s carbon emissions. Super’s business model is a win-win for everyone,” he continued.

The company mainly generates revenues through direct purchase from the principal and taking a share of the profit when selling to agents, as well as through white-labelling of products. The firm recently launched its own white-label brand, SuperEats.

Super currently operates across 17 cities in the East Java region of Indonesia. The company leverages a hyperlocal logistics platform to deliver consumer goods to agents, usually within 24 hours of order.

The CEO claims that the startup partners with thousands of community agents to distribute millions of dollars’ worth of goods to their communities each month.

At present, Super is focused on FMCG products and will look to expand its product range with the current fundraise.

Also Read: A look at the future of social commerce

Speaking of the competition, Wongsoredjo said. “If you track down social commerce in Indonesia, there are a few players, some of who do fashion products and some cosmetics etc, but there is no one in the FMCG space. Then, there are unicorns like Tokopedia but they are actually complementing our business.”

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Image Credit: Super

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Yesterday, together with the launch of e27 Luminaries, we have looked at the list of engineers, developers, and product managers that have played a great role in growing their companies throughout the pandemic. Through the platforms that they have worked on, they were able to make a difference, not only in their companies but also in the Southeast Asian tech startup ecosystem.

Now, we are moving on to the next stage of bringing innovation into the market: business development.

There are many different elements in business development. According to Investopedia, business development includes activities such as sales, strategic initiatives, business partnerships, market development, business expansion, and marketing. It plays a crucial role in getting a disruptive product out there, and eventually, bringing change to the ecosystem.

Here is a list of business development professionals at e27 Luminaries:

Andre Widjaja, Chief of Business Development at GudangAda

As one of the company’s earliest hires, Widjaja has played a crucial role in building the sales and business development team, setting the foundation for further expansion. He is spearheading the company’s business development to support business growth through customer acquisition and market outreach.

Recently, GudangAda announced a US$25.4 million Series A funding round. The company said that it has a full market coverage of FMCG wholesalers in Indonesia, and it is now targeting seven to ten per cent of the nation’s large retailer base for their next phase of growth.

Also Read: Meet the engineers, developers, and products managers of e27 Luminaries

Raunak Mehta, Chief Commercial Officer at Igloo

According to Igloo, Mehta played a crucial role in the company’s success. To date, the company has entered into 20 successful business partnerships since 2016 and will be expanding its partnership to 50 by 2021, across key markets such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

“Despite the uncertainties posed by the pandemic, Raunak was able to snag swift and decisive wins for Igloo, securing partnerships with the region’s largest insurance, telecommunications, e-commerce, travel and financial services companies such as Allianz, Cigna, MSIG, Sompo, Shopee, foodpanda, Bukalapak, Telkomsel, Blibli, Fabelio, RedDoorz, Union Bank of the Philippines, Mobifone and Loship to name a few; to launch lifestyle-focused products such as COVID-19 insurance, personal accident, phone screen protection and transit insurance for its partners and their customers.”

Christine Kombong, Business Development Executive at Jala Tech

Jala Tech explains that during the pandemic, the shrimp farm owners that they are serving are struggling to monitor their farms due to travel restriction. This situation was made worse with the farm owners’ lack of understanding on how to use technology.

“Facing this issue, Christine and the team concept the Smart Farm programme … that engages farmers to work as a community and assist them in adopting the technology, also educate farmer with the best aquaculture practice. As a result … the programme also improves five to 10 per cent of farm productivity by lowering the 10 per cent of feed consumption and increasing the survival rate from 70 per cent to 75 per cent.”

“Because of the success of the programme, she got the opportunity to pitch it to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. In 2021, the government is taking this programme and willing to implement it in several locations across Java.”

Jonathan Bryan, Chief Marketing Officer at KoinWorks

According to KoinWorks, the uncertainty brought by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to customers holding on to their cash and delay investing. But Bryan was able to handle the situation by focusing on a segmented promotion programme to re-maximise the marketing budget, and improving the company’s relationship with the media.

He also initiated the innovation in one of KoinWorks’ investment products, KoinRobo, to answer the needs of the users and people in Indonesia.

“Through those initiatives, Jonathan successfully gained user trust to keep investing and contribute to the growth of the total purchase of KoinRobo by up to 90 per cent in December 2020.”

Also Read: For e27 Luminaries, we are looking for companies that fulfill the following criteria

Aleksandra Hessel, Head of Business Development at The Nurturing Co

Hessel joined The Nurturing Co in early 2020, a little after the circuit breaker measure being implemented in Singapore.

“We would spend almost an hour with each team for the next few months, sharing and learning as she settled into her role. When Phase 3 started, she really started to step up. As a key person in a small team, Aleks has had to carry a lot of the weight of helping grow our Singapore customer base, across retail, F&B, hotel and corporate customer bases. Leaning into her own networks to help drive brand awareness and trust.”

“She is amazing at promoting the values of our company … We were extremely lucky to have her join us at such a key moment, and she is key to our future success here in Singapore and elsewhere.”

Jenn Lim, Business Development Manager at TurtleTree

As one of the earliest team members in the company, Lim has seen TurtleTree grow from a handful of team members to 25 full-time employees. Her contribution has helped TurtleTree to win various recognition from both investors and the startup ecosystem in general.

“She helped to build a structure to the company at the start and is active in developing the business. Her contribution has brought us to win the Temasek Liveability Challenge, which is key to exposing the company on a global platform. Following that, we also participated in the Entrepreneurship World Cup and emerged at the top.”

Carmelita Lumempouw, Marketing Manager at Quincus

As a marketing manager, there are several initiatives that Lumempouw has started. She also helped the company win several accolades, from ORIGIN Innovation Awards 2020 for Jonathan Savoir as Founder of The Year, 2020 Women in Supply Chain for Katherina Lacey (Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer) and several HRD Awards Asia 2020.

“She also successfully implemented #QuincusTalks, a monthly webinar series that covers supply chain, logistics, tech and, most recently, creating spaces for females in supply chain.”

Sujinun Jutakorn, VP of Sales at Xendit

In March, Xendit announced a US$64.6 million Series B funding round that the company intended to use to expand its digital payments infrastructure service.

Starting off in 2014 as a P2P lending platform, Xendit evolved into a payments infrastructure company that enables businesses to accept digital payments without the need to implement integrations with individual providers. It has since expanded its services to include services such as fraud detection, lending, and tax management.

Xendit claims it processes more than 65 million transactions, amounting to US$6.5 billion in payment value annually.

Joanna Chua, Business Director at Sqreem Technologies

During the pandemic, Sqreem Technologies was able to secure partnership with the government of South Africa to provide real-time contact tracing and communication system. The partnership was meant to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Channel Sqreem, their platform, can track an individual using their mobile device ID without needing to know personal information of the device owner.

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The e27 Luminaries is an initiative by e27 to celebrate the unsung heroes of the SEA startup ecosystem. Discover these notable companies and individuals here.

Image Credit: Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

The post Winning the deal: Meet the business development professionals of e27 Luminaries appeared first on e27.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of most economies worldwide, and Singapore is no exception. Singaporean SMEs employ two-thirds of the workforce and contribute nearly half of the city state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Covid-19 has wiped out thousands of SMEs, particularly in the Food & Beverage and retail sectors, with the remainder forced to go online and embrace e-commerce to ensure survival. And although the vaccine rollout is gathering steam, this consumer shift is here to stay.

While uncertainty is a constant in business, the adoption of modern technologies that provide SME owners reliable and up-to-date data reduces risk levels and allows enterprises to adapt quickly to unforeseen changes. With real-time data at their fingertips, SMEs can stay afloat during uncertainties by scrutinising cash flows, shifting business resources, and being lean, mean and responsive to sudden and unpredictable events.

Keeping SMEs afloat in uncertain times

Oracle NetSuite is one of the world’s leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, enabling businesses to manage inventory, track financials, host e-commerce stores and maintain customer relationship management systems.

Peter Quek, ASEAN General Manager of Oracle NetSuite recalled that when the pandemic hit, the immediate challenges were about securing the safety of the employees while ensuring that the operations were not impacted, and allowing business to carrry on .

“I had the privilege of talking to the CEO of Unistar — a credit and finance company based in the Philippines who invested in NetSuite almost four years ago. Amidst Covid-19, all of their offices and outlets were closed but they were able to continue business as usual. This not only helped them but their customers as well,” he said.

One such SME customer is Zilingo, a B2C fashion and lifestyle e-commerce startup operating in Asia Pacific and the U.S. The fashion industry as a whole was hard hit by the pandemic, but Zilingo was able to stay agile and adapt to the evolving needs of its customers.

Also read: Winning the deal: Meet the business development professionals of e27 Luminaries

COO Aadi Vaidya said, “The first thing we did was to see what our manufacturers were capable of doing with whatever they had. Thanks to NetSuite’s ERP, we quickly helped our lingerie manufacturers based in Sri Lanka switch to producing masks while our beauty manufacturers began producing hand sanitisers. That way, Zilingo’s operations could continue and we could weather the storm.”

Scalable, accessible and reliable

Even the smallest of SMEs use some form of accounting software to track finances, but the data collected is largely surface level and divorced from other parts of the business. NetSuite’s cloud ERP solutions streamline financial data with other key processes in the organisation, allowing SMEs to manage orders, production, supply chain, procurement and fulfilment activities as well as oversee financial planning from one platform.

Having all the necessary business data in the cloud gives SMEs added advantages such as scalability and accessibility, especially during the pandemic when employees switched to home working. Additionally, regulators and governments responded to Covid-19 with added tax incentives and deductibles, which can be reflected in NetSuite’s cloud ERP for companies to easily update and access.

Also read: Building a privacy-first internet: How developers and enterprises can adapt to the new privacy normal

The richness of data is vital even for those in the funding ecosystem, such as VC and NetSuite customer Accion Venture Lab.

Southeast Asia investment officer Paolo Limcaoco said: “It is almost impossible for a VC to invest into a startup where data visibility is lacking because that does not give us the whole picture- cash crunch, revenues, monthly burn and other key points. This was important even before the pandemic but has become even more pertinent now.”

Driving productivity and efficiency

Studies show that the digitalisation of Singapore SMEs could add up to US$24 billion to the country’s GDP by 2024 due to higher revenue and productivity gains.

Peter from NetSuite believes data visibility is more crucial now than ever before.

“With a robust ERP, you have access to a wide range of data points that you can leverage to understand the gaps in operations. From efficiently managing working capital to handling supply chains with tact, data visibility is key to all crucial touchpoints that help with business growth,” he said.

Also read: Dinner date with data: How F&B retailers can use retail data to drive sales in a post-pandemic world

The Singapore government has stepped up efforts to provide incentives for SMEs to leverage digital technologies to transform their businesses, such as the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)’s SMEs Go Digital programme.

Grants and funding support

A notable grant under this programme is the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG), which helps fund SME adoption of pre-approved digital solutions such as customer relationship management, data analytics, financial management, inventory tracking, online collaboration tools, virtual meeting and telephony tools, queue management systems and temperature screening solutions.

SMEs can get up to 80% funding support by adopting a solution from the five pre-approved NetSuite SuiteSuccess solutions that have been designed to support growing businesses.

By reimbursing much of the cost of new technologies, the Singapore government via PSG plans to expedite SMEs’ implementation of smarter cloud solutions.

The PSG grant is open to businesses that are registered and operating in Singapore, of which a minimum of 30% is owned by local shareholders. The purchased/leased solutions (NetSuite’s ERP in this case) must be used in Singapore, and the company must have at least three local employees at the point of application or deployment of the solution.

Qualified SMEs can get pre-approved quotes from NetSuite, and discuss the specific solution with a NetSuite specialist consultant. After choosing a pre-approved solution, SMEs need to submit their application together with the pre-approved quote on the Business Grants Portal.

NetSuite pre-approved packages under the PSG will cover the first-year license, implementation services if included, Learning Cloud Support (LCS) training and the number of users included in the pre-approved package.

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Disclosure: This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by NetSuite.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

The post Future-proofing Singaporean SMEs for a stronger digital future appeared first on e27.

Temasek Holdings has co-led the US$30 million Series C funding round of EAVision Technologies, a Chinese agricultural drone company.

Chinese state-sponsored fund CITIC and local agrifood tech VC firm Bits x Bites are the other co-lead investors in the round.

BASF, Continental Grain Company, Pagoda, Suzhou Oriza Holdings, Zhidao Capital, Songshan Capital, and Yongxin Oriental, also participated.

With the new funding, EAVision aims to enhance its R&D and accelerate its market expansion globally.

In China, mountainous farming accounts for more than 34 per cent of its cultivated land however these terrains are extremely risky for farmers to farm in.

Launched in 2015, EAVision makes it possible for these agricultural sectors to profit despite the demanding geographical constraints with the help of its stereo vision sensors and algorithms which enable it to navigate challenging terrains.

Also Read: Green for good: 9 agritech startups in Southeast Asia fighting deforestation

When flying over hilly areas, the company claims to provide exceptional stability.

In mixed tree-crop vegetations with complicated gradients, its object detection feature allows for safe navigation. These are coupled with its patented mist sprinkler that allows the vehicles to get as close as one meter from the crown of the vegetation to enable targeted input application.

This precision reduces off-target drifting into the environment and improves producer wellbeing.

Its technology is developed by a team of expert engineers in Computer Vision, including former chiefs in auto-piloting control and safety at Tesla and image detection system designers for the Chinese national railway information systems.

“UAVs are uniquely suited for China as its geographical characteristics make fixed-wing aircraft or similarly large land-based machinery popular in the west less relevant. This lends an opportunity for technological innovators like EAVision to cater solutions for these farmers to grow more with less, safely, and cost-effectively. We are excited to work with the team to bring these benefits to growers across China and beyond,” said Joseph Zhou, managing partner of Bits x Bites.

Temasek invests mostly in companies that operate in larger sectors like telecom, energy, and finance. It recently made a major investment of US$120 million in Indian edutech startup UpGrad.

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Image Credit: EAVision

 

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The team kicked off its sales effort in 2016 by targeting friends and family. “Our initial go-to-market strategy was just leveraging our own personal networks. So in the early days, it was basically just me and my co-founder doing a lot of sales,” explains the entrepreneur.

In terms of growth hacking, he also mentions two distinct play books that worked for Wallex. First, he would pay attention to new startup funding announcements in the press. Thanks to his tech venture capital network, there was a good chance that he knew the investors behind a given deal.

Hiro recalls, “After seeing new investment rounds, I would reach out to the investors and congratulate them. Then, I would ask if they could introduce me to the startup because I have a way to help them save costs on foreign exchange.”

With this simple and repeatable act, Wallex was able to get a handful of Singaporean startups as customers early on. According to Hiro, they were the ideal target market, as startups in Singapore tend to raise funding in USD and then operate internationally.

It was normal for a Singaporean startup to have a regional team and pay their salaries in different currencies (think programmers in India, ops managers in Indonesia, etc).

Taking the growth hack one step further, Wallex also found that it could hire experienced employees and then leverage their networks in the same way.

He explains, “Our early competitor shut down their operations at the time. We were able to pull in their sales team and this is how we got some initial anchor clients outside of the startup world.”

Building trust with content

In late 2018, Wallex expanded to neighbouring Indonesia. By then, the company had acquired a money transfer permit from the Bank of Indonesia and raised funds from Central Capital Ventura, the VC arm of the archipelago’s popular bank BCA.

Hiro explains that it was far easier to gain customer trust after securing the crucial ‘stamp of approval’ by one of the top banking players in Asia.

“There are usually two levels of questions in terms of why customers can trust us,” explains Hiro. “First, we tell them that we have money transfer licenses in multiple countries. Then, when customers say something about us being new and small, we’ll tell them that BCA invested in us. That’s usually enough to alleviate concerns.”

Another thing the team did to establish trust was structuring the Indonesian entity to be fully owned by local citizens.

Hiro adds, “We’re following the local regulations. But it also turns out that, in the context of trust, telling Indonesian customers that we’re an Indonesian fintech company resonates much better than saying we’re a Singaporean fintech firm.”

After establishing multiple footholds in the region, the Wallex team then decided to invest more into content to further establish its credibility. On the company’s website, visitors can easily find case studies and testimonials from anchor clients like global food chain Marugame and international lifestyle brand Ismaya Group.

Refreshingly, Wallex also shares its traction numbers in plain view. On the website, it shows a gross transaction value of US$1.7 billion, 75,000 transactions, and 19,000 customers. Hiro mentions that he believes it’s a smart idea to do this for brands that rely heavily on trust and reputation. The team is confident that Wallex has achieved a higher gross transaction value than the majority of its competitors in Indonesia.

It’s also easy to find information about Wallex online. Using PR tactics, Wallex has been regularly featured by reputable regional media like Tech in Asia, Kompas, and e27.

“That’s also done to increase our digital footprint,” explains Hiro. “During the sales pitching process, customers will want to find out about us online. If they see articles about us — the case studies, partnerships, and investments — then they’ll realise that we are legit.”

In 2018, Hiro discovered another simple growth hack. The team made a policy of putting the Wallex logo inside of remittance alert emails so that people on the receiving end (those getting paid) would also become aware of the brand.

The team then looked into its ‘power recipients.’ For example, one company in Singapore regularly received payments from multiple firms in Indonesia.

After speaking with the company directly, Hiro found that it was easier to convert them into a ‘sender’ user, as it was already familiar with Wallex’s brand.

Getting from 100 to 19,000+ customers

Before the pandemic, the Wallex team would regularly participate in offline events. This became one of his team’s most effective lead generation methods, and each event participation was tailored to Wallex’s objective.

Hiro explains, “We would open a booth at fintech or e-commerce events, for example, if the objective was to expose ourselves and to show that we’re credible. But if we wanted to focus on lead gen, then we would just go in as participants and collect business cards.”

Hiro admits that Wallex struggled when the pandemic hit, as customers still insisted on meeting offline. But things became more fluid once clients became comfortable with Zoom meetings and Singapore got the virus under relative control.

Other ways Wallex generates leads include good old fashioned cold calls, working with channel partners (e.g. notaries that handle new company incorporations, etc), and simple word-of-mouth. According to Hiro, while Wallex does get organic sign-ups, most inbound users show up just to look around. The biggest conversions come from word-of-mouth and referrals.

Building thought leadership

Today, Hiro actively shares his insights online, particularly on the podcasting app Clubhouse (@hirokiga). As a VC turned founder, he wants to help early-stage founders navigate the mistakes that he made, such as fundraising and organisational problems.

He says, “I just want to help increase their chances of building successful businesses.. I wasn’t able to do this while I was working at GREE Ventures because I had no deep experience or stories until after I became a founder myself.”

Sharing his own thoughts and content may prove to be beneficial to Wallex over time. Founders will be able to identify Hiro’s business and get familiar with the brand. That said, Hiro looks at getting leads from his passion projects as a mere bonus.

“This is just my way of giving back to the community and supporting the ecosystem,” he says.

Hiro reminds fellow marketers that B2B and B2C marketing plays are extraordinarily different. What usually works for B2C won’t necessarily translate well to B2B. It’s important to test quickly what method works and what doesn’t. Then, double down your resources on the channels that work.

According to Hiro, there will always be growth hacking methods that pop up along the way. But sometimes they’re subtle, so it’s super important for marketers to experiment if they think they’ve spotted one.

This article appeared first on ContentGrip.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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Topebox, a Vietnamese game studio, along with its blockchain partner KardiaChain, has raised US$1 million from Axia8 Ventures (Shanghai-based VC firm) and Blockdream Ventures (the investment arm of crypto exchange OKEx in Hong Kong).

Other backers include Megala Ventures (blockchain investor) and Animoca Brands (game developer).

This news was first reported by TechInAsia.

According to the publication, Topebox will use the newly raised capital to launch its latest blockchain game called My DeFi Pet.

Founded in 2012, Topebox is a mobile game development company that has produced gaming hits like Pocket Army, Sky Dancer: Free Falling, and King Rivals.

According to AppBrain, its portfolio of games has appeared in the top 100 apps in more than 10 countries.

Its latest title, My DeFi Pet, is a virtual pet game that combines DeFi, collectibles and the gamer’s own personality.

Also Read: Blockchain gaming trends in Asia: here’s what you need to know

The way it works is that users can create and breed their own monster characters and later sell them to other players for a profit.

My DeFi Pet is operated on Supported Network including Binance Smart Chain and KardiaChain.

Blockchain gaming first received attention when CryptoKitties, a game where users breed and trade digital kitties using Ethereum-based smart contracts, made headlines.

The game was such a sensation that the platform on which CryptoKitties operated, i.e Ethereum, actually slowed down.

Other popular blockchain games include The Sandbox, Age of Rust, My Crypto Heroes, and many more.

According to a report by ResearchAndMarkerts, the global blockchain market is growing very fast and the market size is forecast to reach US$23.3 billion by 2023, representing a CAGR of 81 per cent over the period from 2018 to 2023.

Yat Siu, co-founder, and chairman of Animoca Brands, believes that the mass adoption of the blockchain industry will come through games.

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They say that there are three kinds of people that you need to build a successful startup: the hipster, the hacker, and the hustler. The first two people are those who design and build the product itself while the last focuses on selling it, turning the team into an effective and functional unit.

In this first coverage of e27 Luminaries, we are putting the spotlight on the first two kinds: Engineers, developers, and products managers.

To select companies in the list, e27 went through media coverage in the past year to see companies who managed to survive and thrive during the pandemic with various notable achievements, from closing a funding round to expanding to new markets. We asked these companies to nominate individuals whom they believe had done a remarkable job in spearheading these innovations, and a great number of them nominated the engineers, developers, and products managers.

Here are some of those individuals, and what you need to know about them:

Nadine Yap, Chief Products Officer, theAsianparent

In November 2020, theAsianparent launched a new initiative called Project Sidekick that was aimed to tackle the problem of rising stillbirth rates in Southeast Asia. Under Yap’s leadership, the company was able to uncover the shocking reality behind why expecting parents stopped using their pregnancy tracker feature on their mobile app, and eventually develop a feature that can help prevent the problem.

In addition to her work in tech, Yap is also a politician in Singapore, particularly a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Ching Yaw Hao, Lead Software Engineer at Didian

As the company’s lead engineer, Ching heads all product and engineering development on the Didian Agent App.

“He has been instrumental in architecting and overseeing Didian’s technical infrastructure to ensure real estate agents are able to enjoy a seamless sales transaction process. During strict lockdowns, Yaw Hao was able to lead product and engineering efforts to enable and empower agents to sell online, allowing Didian’s partner agents to amass over MYR1.2 billion in property sales.”

Also Read: For e27 Luminaries, we are looking for companies that fulfill the following criteria

Hendry Poh, CTO, DiMuto

In April 2020, agri-foodtech startup DiMuto announced that it has raised an investment from Latin Leap that is aimed to expand its presence in the Latin American market.

Under the leadership of Poh, the company has built a platform that aims to solve agri-food supply chain problems such as food wastage, food safety, and food sustainability by using data

Jig Young, Chief Product Officer at Expedock

Expedock recently made headlines when it secured a US$4 million seed funding from investors that included Ali Partovi, who had previously backed notable startups including Airbnb, Dropbox and Facebook.

As Chief Product Officer, Young is leading the team behind a platform that uses Artificial Intelligence to “understand documents even without having seen one of the same formats.” With a specific focus on supply chain companies, Expedock claims it is able to generate savings of up to 90 per cent of their clients’ operational expenses.

Victor Oloan, Senior Engineering Manager at Finantier
In their testimony, Finantier said that Oloan joined the company when COVID-19 hit Indonesia badly.

“He decided to take a leap of faith and left his comfortable position in Moka to build from scratch the Finantier Architecture and to lead the engineering team to success. Victor is very humble and knowledgeable, loves to tackle challenging problems and is always ready to learn. He believes in Finantier’s mission and is always ready to go the extra mile to do his best to deliver, support a colleague and also give his perspective about the industry and how Finantier can do better!”

Severan Rault, CTO at gojek

Joining gojek in early 2020, Rault is responsible for overseeing the tech giant’s ecosystem technology, as well as managing engineering teams across Southeast Asia and India. His aspiration is to build the next-generation computing fabric that will keep gojek’s business agile and ensure it maintains scalability in line with the growth of its business.

Rault was director of software development at Amazon, where he helped lead the team that founded Amazon Prime Air, and has also held several leadership positions at Microsoft. He had also founded Kikker Interactive, a wireless solutions company acquired by Microsoft, as well as virtual reality company Betawave.

Clint Armstrong, Head of System Developer at Green Li-ion

The company is tackling a waste management problem that is not widely discussed despite its importance: battery recycling. Present-day battery recycling programmes are equipped to process only certain types of Li-ion batteries. As a result, 95 per cent of the batteries being improperly disposed into landfills.

Green Li-ion combats this challenge by building a patented multi-cathode processor that recycles all types of Li-ion batteries into 99.9 per cent pure cathodes. In March, the company raised US$3.45 million to make recycling Li-ion battery recycling faster and profitable.

Pang Zheng Yu, Software Engineer at Hiverlab

Hiverlab had to undergo a pivot at the peak of the pandemic, and the company stated that Pang’s played a crucial role in ensuring a successful transition.

“Zheng Yu was instrumental in the development of Hiverlab’s new products which helped us pivot in the midst of the COVID-19. As a result, Hiverlab not only survived but doubled in team size as the result of growth from this new unlocked market.”

Also Read: For e27 Luminaries, we are looking for companies that fulfill the following criteria

Thinh Ngoc Nguyen, CTO at Loship

As an e-commerce delivery platform, Loship differentiates itself by combining its service with something rather unlikely: Podcast.

The pandemic has provided unique opportunities for companies working in the areas of food delivery and e-commerce, but the podcasting side of the business provides a unique side that has successfully drawn the attention of investors. In February, the startup raised a funding round from investors that include Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, who participated through his investment vehicle MetaPlanet Holdings.

Gene Tan, VP, Products & Markets, Lomotif

Tan leads the products and markets team at Lomotif, the platform that is seen as the competitor to TikTok and Kuaishou. As a video-sharing platform, it is considered the fastest-growing in Latin America, Asia, Europe and West Africa.

Its recent acquisition by ZASH proved that when it comes to building a viral platform among global users, Singapore is certainly able to compete with other social media giants.

John Seegers, CTO at NextGen

NextGen Foods is one of the notable startups that is working to produce plant-based alternative to meat. In February, the company raised a US$10 million seed funding round from the likes of Temasek, K3 Ventures, the New Ventures arm of the Singapore EDB, NX Food, FEBE Ventures, and Blue Horizon.

Its R&D team developed TiNDLE, a plant-based chicken consumer brand, “with chefs and for chefs.” The product is meant to deliver the taste, texture and experience of chicken.

Satomi Jujo, Product Owner at RevComm Inc.

One of the changes brought forward by the COVID-19 pandemic is the rise of popularity of remote working –and with it, the importance of platforms that help this process. RevComm is one of the companies that are seizing this opportunity with their web meeting tool.

According to the company, Jujo has played a great role in building their MiiTel product and a new product called MiiTel Live during this time.

Herman Widjaja, SVP & CTO at Tokopedia

In their testimony, Tokopedia described Widjaja as a tech leader who “encourages the birth of innovation culture within the tech team.”

“Among his peers, his leadership is founded on the unique, impactful servant-leadership philosophy, ‘Helping each other, supporting one another and winning together.’ Herman believes that an essential part of leadership is bringing the most diverse and qualified minds together and inspiring them to achieve the same goal.”

Before Tokopedia, Widjaja has more than 13 years of experience working with Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Google. He is one of the initiators behind the Tokopedia Academy, holds 14 international patents, and is on the list of ASEAN’s 50 Most Innovative Chief Information Officers by CIO.com.

Kelvin YEO, Technical Program Manager at Transcelestial

As a deep tech hardware company, for Transcelestial, having physical access to laboratory and test equipment is essential for hardware development. But then COVID-19 happened.

“COVID-19 happened in a very sensitive time, right when Transcelestial was preparing to start commercial manufacturing of their state of the art laser communication device – the CENTAURI. Kelvin and the manufacturing team embraced this new challenge. Kelvin did an amazing job in leading the New Product Introduction process. Kelvin lead the manufacturing team transforming the CENTAURI from an early stage prototype to a small scale manufacturing line – all during the limits of COVID-19 and the multiple challenges posed by it.”

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The e27 Luminaries is an initiative by e27 to celebrate the unsung heroes of the SEA startup ecosystem. Discover these notable companies and individuals here.

Image Credit: AltumCode on Unsplash

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Pharmacy Online Concierge (POC), an online platform that digitises pharmacies in Vietnam, has secured US$4.5 million in an equity financing round, DealStreetAsia reports.

Investors joined in the round are Picus Capital (Germany), Goat Capital and FJ Labs (both US-based), Febe Ventures (Singapore) and 500 Startups.

A few unnamed angels also participated.

It is not immediacy clear how the company plans to use the fresh capital.

We have reached out to both POC’s parent POC Pharma as well as Febe Ventures fore more details.

Also Read: Docosan raises US$1M to provide online healthcare services in Vietnam

Established in 2020 by Thomas Miklavec and Charles Defrance, POC helps the stakeholders in the pharmacy field (pharmacies, drug manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, payers) to digitally manage their interactions and collaborative workflows.

The company helps pharmacists manage all their processes, increasing revenue and profit while improving their quality of service to patients.

Its services include trade programme and trade offers management, content and information sharing, data integration and visualisation, customised customer engagement, multichannel commercialisation, and order management.

POC claims to have over 20,000 pharmacies and 60 clients across 22 markets.

Prior to starting POC, the duo built Sanisphere, which provides primary data, advanced analytics and in-depth industry expertise to support pharmaceutical companies on commercial excellence in emerging markets.

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Image Credit: POC Pharma

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StashAway, a robo-advisor for both retail and accredited investors, is raising US$25 million in its Series D funding round led by Sequoia Capital India.

Existing investors, including Eight Roads Ventures (the global investment firm backed by Fidelity International and early investor in Alibaba), and Australian VC firm Square Peg also participated in the round.

The transaction will close in the next few months pending necessary regulatory approvals.

This funding round, which brings StashAway’s total paid-up capital to US$61.4 million, will be used to accelerate its investment product and feature developments across its five markets.

Also Read: Ex-Zalora CEO’s robo-advisor startup StashAway raises US$12M for APAC expansion

The company will also offer to buy back up to US$3 million in stock options from its employees and expand its engineering team in Singapore and abroad.

Abheek Anand, Managing Director, Sequoia India, will be joining StashAway’s Board of Directors as part of the funding round, pending regulatory approvals.

“StashAway is growing rapidly as it fulfils an obvious gap in the digital wealth management space, especially in areas where its competitors may be lacking: an easy-to-use platform, robust client relationships, and a very sophisticated investing framework. StashAway has built trust with its client base by navigating them through market volatility while providing strong returns,” Anand said.

StashAway was founded in 2016 by Ferrario, former chief of Zalora Group; Freddy Lim (CIO), former MD and Global Head of Derivatives Strategy at Nomura; and serial tech entrepreneur Nino Ulsamer (CTO).

It is a digital wealth management platform that delivers automated, personalised portfolio management to each client’s individual portfolios. Its risk-management investment strategy ERAA is designed to maximise clients’ long-term returns while keeping each individual customer’s specific risk exposure constant through changing economic cycles.

StashAway has a Capital Market Services License for Retail Fund Management from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and a Capital Market Services License for Digital Investment Management from Securities Commission Malaysia.

Also Read: Bibit snags US$30M to expand its robo-advisory platform in Indonesia

The new round comes less than a year after StashAway completed a US$16 million Series C fundraising round, led by Square Peg.

Prior to this, the robo-advisor raised US$12 million Series B, led by Eight Roads Ventures in July 2019.

Previously, it closed US$5.3 million Series A funding round from a group of family offices and individual investors.

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Image Credit: StashAway.

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UpGrad, an India-based edutech startup, has received a whopping US$120 million from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings.

It is the first external investment raised by Upgrad.

The startup plans to use the capital to further strengthen its team, scale its global market operations, and bolster its technology and product capabilities.

A part of the financing will go into expanding its graduate and post-graduate degree portfolio in India and scaling up operations to achieve its US$2 billion revenue goal by 2026.

“This capital will further fuel our commitment to global expansion as well as deeper India penetration, as we march forward with our goal of making India the teaching capital of the world,” UpGrad co-founders said in a joint statement.

UpGrad was founded in 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, one of India’s most influential personalities, along with Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli. Screwvala is not just an entrepreneur but also one of the biggest names in film production and distribution and a philanthropist.

The company’s goal is to help working professionals, students and enterprises upskill themselves in highly sought-after courses like Data Science, Management, Law, and more.

Also Read: Temasek joins Snyk’s US$300M Series E to help expand its cloud security services to APAC

Its programmes are designed in partnership with top universities like the IITs (Indian Institute of Technology), Jindal Global Law School, Duke CE, Deakin University, Liverpool John Moores University, and others.

The company claims to have an above 85 per cent programme completion rate with over 40,000 paid learners on its platform.

Temasek invests mostly in companies that operate in larger sectors like telecom, energy, and finance. It has most recently invested in Singaporean company Reefknot, China foodtech fund Bits x Bites, and EV Growth’s US$250 million Indonesia-focused fund.

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