Titik Pintar, a startup that aims to improve learning outcomes for Indonesian elementary school children via its online tools, announced today that it has closed an undisclosed sum in its first institutional investment from Indonesia Women Empowerment Fund (IWEF).

The financing will allow the edutech startup to continue on its growth path, improving its service for children, parents and teachers. It also looks to grow its collection of interactive lessons and educational videos via its SahabatPintar.id website.

Also Read: How edutech startups can accelerate active learning

“With the support of IWEF, Titik Pintar is able to build even better products for elementary school children in Indonesia. We believe we can help kids have fun while learning,” said Robbert Deusing, CEO and Founder of Titik Pitar.

“We were very humbled to see the strong traction of Titik Pintar last year, we got a lot of good feedback from students, parents and teachers. 2020 was difficult for everyone, and we worked hard to deliver fun educational content to Indonesian kids nationwide. We are confident to grow our user base in 2021 to 250,000 with the support of our strategic partners,” Deusing added.

Titik Pintar provides an ecosystem for edutainment. Tailored for every elementary school child in the archipelago, it offers gamified self-paced learning and remote micro lessons prepared by teachers, all aligned with the government curricula (Kurtilas).

All content is created in Bahasa Indonesia and English, so children can access and interact with the multimedia materials the way they prefer.

The lessons and videos are created on the website by teachers themselves, who can earn extra income from their contributions, while children and parents can self-pace their learning experience and find the best content for their needs.

Titik Pintar claims it has more than 15,000 users across Indonesia.

Also Read: Why edutech is becoming an investor favourite this season

The startup has previously secured a grant from the Dutch Government and investments from Indonesian and international angel investors.

IWEF is an impact fund addressing barriers to women’s economic empowerment by investing in disruptive tech solutions. The fund is jointly managed by Moonshot Ventures and YCAB Ventures, which is part of the YCAB Social Enterprise Group, a leading advocate for women and youth in Indonesia. IWEF is supported by the Australian Government as its lead sponsor and investor.

Tom Schmittzehe, co-founder of Moonshot Ventures, said: “Most teachers in Indonesia are women, whom IWEF seeks to promote, and through Titik Pintar, they will be able to earn a secondary income, while focusing on what they love most — teaching.”

Moonshot Ventures addresses development challenges faced by emerging economies in Southeast Asia. It invests in disruptive innovations and mission-driven entrepreneurs, in order to achieve large-scale impact.

Also Read: How the Coronavirus is teaching edutech startups a much-needed lesson

YCAB Ventures is part of YCAB Social Enterprise Group that invests in economic empowerment activities to end poverty and reduce inequality. Through its funding activities, YCAB Ventures has financed over 185,000 women owned businesses through 600,000 productive loans as well as has supported other likeminded social enterprises.

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Image Credit: Titik Pintar

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microLEAP, an Islamic and conventional P2P microfinancing platform, announced today it has raised a total of US$3.26 million (RM13.25M) in equity and other modes of financing from Malaysian investment holding company MAA Group.

The round comprises RM1.25 million in equity and RM2 million advance, besides a separate RM10 million, which will be invested across all of microLEAP’s available Islamic and Conventional Investment Notes.

microLEAP will use the funds for advertising, promotions, hiring staff and tech enhancements.

The Malaysia-based fintech company serves micro-enterprises that may find it difficult to borrow money via traditional means.

Also Read:  How Islamic finance can work with fintech to promote financial inclusion in Malaysia

What makes the company unique is that it provides borrowers access to micro-financing through both shariah-compliant means as well as conventional funding.

A largely Muslim-populated nation, Malaysia is seeing a steady growth for Shariah-compliant financing, which refers to funds that adhere to Islamic teachings with resolutions issued by the Shariah Advisory Council of the Securities Commission of Malaysia (SACSC).

This is evident from the growth of its Islamic Investment Notes/Islamic Financing offering, which it claims to have grown more than 1,000 per cent within just five months of its launch in April 2020.

According to the founder, the reason for this success is because microLEAP does not charge additional rates for Islamic funds in comparison to conventional funds, as it absorbs the Commodity Murabahah brokerage fees.

“On microLEAP’s platform, where we are the first platform to be able to do both Islamic and conventional P2P financing, Islamic is more popular. In fact, our Islamic financing is 92 per cent vs eight per cent for conventional financing,” CEO Tunku Danny Nasaifuddin Mudzaffar told Salaamgateway.

One can borrow between RM1,000 (US$250) and RM50,000 (~US$12,300), with free basic debt management, accounting, online training and complimentary personal accident insurance being provided.

It also requires a business to be in operation for only six months for it to be evaluated, and absorbs the Islamic Commodity Brokerage fee, which eases the burden for micro-businesses while donating the late payment fees to charity.

Also Read: Malaysia’s P2P financing startup Fundaztic to raise US$722K through ECF platform pitchIN

Tunku Yaacob Khyra, Executive Chairman of MAA Group, said that there is an unattended need for many small businesses to remain afloat which is why the company will be focussed towards providing added benefits that can be accessed easily by MSMEs.

In 2021, the company is set to launch two new products: the Islamic Car Dealer Financing and Islamic Invoice Financing.

Last year, microLEAP raised US$492,029 (RM2 million) seed funding from the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation.

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Image Credit: microLEAP

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Ajaib Group, an Indonesian online investment platform targeting millennials and first-time investors, has secured US$25 million in Series A funding, led by Horizons Ventures, the VC firm founded by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, and Alpha JWC.

Existing investors SoftBank Ventures Asia, Insignia Ventures and Y Combinator also participated in the round, which was closed in two tranches.

The new round brings the total amount of capital raised by the fintech startup to US$27 million.

As per a TechCrunch report, the money will be used to expand Ajaib’s tech infrastructure and products as well as scale its engineering team. In addition, the firm will also work with the government to educate millennials on investing and financial planning.

Founded in 2019 by Anderson Sumarli (CEO) and Yada Piyajomkwan (COO), Ajaib claims it runs the fifth-largest stock brokerage in the archipelago by the volume of trades, with one million monthly users on its platform.

Following the blueprint set out by Robinhood in the US, Ajaib leverages on the high smartphone penetration rate in Indonesia by operating as a mobile-first stock trading platform. By incorporating a simple user interface and investment education features, Ajaib is able to appeal to novice investors and millennials with elementary financial literacy.

Furthermore, it requires no minimum sum to open a brokerage account — further attracting cash-strapped millennials into investing.

Despite its large population, Indonesia has a low penetration rate for stock investments. There are only 1.6 million capital market investors in the country, which is less than 1 per cent of its population of 273 million.

This has led to growing interest from VCs in investment platforms targeting millennials and first-time investors.

Last week, Bibit, a robo-advisor platform, announced a US$30 million funding round from investors including Sequoia Capital India and East Ventures.

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

While Ajaib has long-term plans to expand regionally, its focus for the near future would be capturing the Indonesian market, where it sees “plenty of opportunities”.

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Image Credit: Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

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Happy New Year! Did you have a good break, yeah? Mine was pretty good and long but by the end of it I could not wait to come back to my desk and all the action.

Thanks to gojek, getting back work was far more exciting than I imagined. While we cannot think beyond the impending Gojek-Tokopedia merger (after the long ordeal of possible Gojek-Grab merger), the last week of 2020 and the first week of 2021 was actually very productive for the e27 Contributor Community.

From fintech predictions to productivity to customer engagement, our contributors flooded us with what to expect in 2021. Catch up on the missed action, including tips from COO of Zendesk and more.

2021: Predicting another bumper (un)predictable year for payments by Tristan Chiappini, VP, APAC at PPRO

“The year 2020 has been a year of momentous change for the payments industry not just in APAC but also across the world.

Trends that were identified this time last year as emerging have been hugely accelerated as a result of the pandemic. Rapid growth was predicted, but it was unpredictable on the scale that has happened.”

Top 5 fintech predictions that will take over the world in 2021 by Victor Fredung CEO at Shufti Pro

“The majority of the businesses faced a downfall when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Only a few of them were smart enough that somehow successfully showed an upward trend and out of them, one was the fintech industry.

Both businesses and customers start utilising contactless payment methods to avoid physical contact with each other. According to a study, there was 72 per cent of evident usage of fintech apps in Europe, especially since the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following are the top 5 predictions that will take over the world especially in 2021 and later upcoming years.”

Keeping customers happy

What customers really want from brands and businesses in the post-pandemic world by Wendy Johnstone is the Chief Operating Officer for Zendesk APAC

“In this ‘new normal’ we keep talking about, digital strategies and data capabilities drive the customer experience. Increasingly, customers expect quick, simple and accessible support that can instantly provide the answers they need.

Whether this comes in the form of a self-help knowledge base, a reliable AI chatbot, or a quick message to a support agent, the key is being wherever your customers are, whenever they start asking a question.”

How startups can improve customer engagement and grow LTV ratio by journalist Luke Fitzpatrick

“Customer engagement is an essential part of any successful business’ growth formula.

An engaged customer buys from you, recommends you to their friends, and has a higher average order value. There are tons of benefits but how do you create an active and engaged customer base?

That’s a good question. There are many strategies but the linchpin is a deep understanding of who your customers are and what problem they come to have solved. Here are some proven tactics to increase customer engagement and, by extension, customer lifetime value.”

From the founder’s mouth

Lessons from experience: Scaling your startup with a remote team by cofounder at SOTA Partners, Neal Taparia

“As Bob Dylan once sang: ‘The Times They Are A Changin’.’

When you are running a startup, you no longer need all your team members in one place. You can have them scattered across the globe and still manage to scale your operations. Thanks to countless communication and collaboration software, managing a remote team is a cake walk for startup founders.

You can have a developer from Japan, a UX designer from Ukraine, a QA tester from India, and a project manager from the US.

However, there is a catch. Managing a remote team is not the same as managing an in-house team. You need to approach remote team management from a different angle to keep teams motivated, productive, and also to scale your startup.”

Lockdown learnings: How I became a half-decent product manager in 2020 by Gijs Verheijke, founder and CEO of Ox Street

“When Ox Street started, I had a co-founder for about a month — a talented and experienced product manager, who was going to take care of the tech side of things.

Unfortunately, he got an ‘offer he couldn’t refuse’ from his employer and didn’t follow through. That left me as the sole founder, in charge of finding engineers and leading the development of our product.

No problem! I thought my experience with project management and team management in general, as well as my obsession with structure and clear communication, left me well prepared. I was squarely at the peak of ‘Mt. Stupid’.”

e27 2020 Year in Review: A transformative year with lots of reflection, change and appreciation by Mohan Belani, CEO at e27 and Head of Product

“What a year this has been. 2020 forced us to think differently and allowed us to experiment with a lot of the ideas that have been on the back burner. It forced us to rethink our role in the regional tech ecosystem, and here are some of the details to how we changed how we worked during 2020.”

Working with governments

What the Tech.Pass scheme means for startups and the rise of Singapore as a thriving centre of innovation by Charles H. Ferguson, General Manager, Asia Pacific

“It is no secret that Singapore has been vying to become Asia’s tech capital for years. With the mounting US-China trade rivalry and the shifting global technology chain, Singapore has become a rather ideal, neutral choice as a launchpad for any company that wants to seize opportunities in Southeast Asia.

Tech.Pass supports Singapore’s positioning as a regional tech hub. With the scheme, Singapore aims to develop top-notch talent that ensures Singapore stays ahead of the game in today’s fiercely competitive digital world while contributing to the growth of the regional start-up ecosystem.”

Data will help public-private partnerships build future resilience in SEA. Here’s how by Gautam Kotwal, Chief Data Officer, Gojek

“Across the globe, the monitoring and analysing of big data for actionable insights is being put to use, giving rise to initiatives such as contact tracing, movement control in highly-affected areas, or the distribution of financial aid to people in need. But state-sanctioned measures or corporate-led campaigns can only go so far. To make a real impact, the public and private sectors must work together, sharing information and combining resources.

In Southeast Asia, with infrastructure development and public funding so varied between nations, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are even more vital to ensure timely and beneficial solutions to socio-economic challenges.”

A wave of change: What sets impact investing apart from traditional investing by Bowen Khong, Impact Investing Advocate

“Governments, businesses, and most important of all, billions of people around the world realise the need for a change in the status quo. And millennials and the younger generations, whose future is at stake, are starting to demand more action.

This change in attitude is also reflected in the realm of investing – there are many “buzzwords” in the mainstream media to reflect this zeitgeist of ‘do good’ investing. They include terms such as impact investing, ESG investing, and SRI/ethical investing.”

Staying productive

SMEs, here’s how you can do more with less by Joey Lim, Vice President of Commercial – Asia, Lark

“Having lived through the biggest remote working experiment in history, many companies are now well-equipped to accommodate telecommuting arrangements.

However, as the number of COVID-19 community cases continues to remain at zero in Singapore, we see safety measures being relaxed and more people allowed back into the office. This poses yet another challenge for companies as they now need to adapt to a hybrid workforce, where only half of employees are working in the office, while the other half work from home.

For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), these frequent changes can dampen their productivity and efficiency. Compared to their larger multinational counterparts, SMEs have fewer resources, and oftentimes, employees need to wear multiple hats.”

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Crown Technologies, a Singapore-based startup that has developed an autonomous robotic coffee barista, has secured a strategic, cross-border investment from JR East Business Development SEA, a subsidiary of East Japan Railway Company.

The investment will accelerate the rollout of ELLA, the Artificial Intelligence-powered robotic barista designed for unmanned and contactless retail operations in high-volume environments.

ELLA will be deployed across East Japan Railway’s network of 1,657 train stations that serve an average of 17 million passengers daily, with completion slated to meet the increased demands of the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

“Japan has long been known to embrace innovation and be at the forefront of using AI and robotics to solve social issues and achieve economic growth. By placing their bet on our technology that we’ve built in Singapore to serve the exact purpose, it not only puts us on the map, but is also the strongest testament to the vision that my team and I have worked tirelessly to build upon in the last two years,” said Keith Tan, CEO and Founder of Crown Technologies.

Also Read: Will China lead the Artificial Intelligence game by 2030?

ELLA is powered by an ecosystem comprising patented proprietary Internet of Things (IoT)-connected software and external hardware that the startup claims will upgrade the coffee experience with speed, convenience, quality and consistency.

Each kiosk is capable of producing 200 cups of barista-quality coffee per hour, operating 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

ELLA’s modular set-up allows its offerings to be localised for Japan market.

Immersive and innovative digital touchpoints, such as an interactive transparent OLED screen and mobile app ordering system with its own payment gateway and e-wallet, allows JR East to tap into a myriad of engagement possibilities such as advertisements and notifications targeted directly to the end user.

On the backend, computer vision powered by AI is monitoring the kiosk 24×7 for any abnormalities that may affect ELLA’s operations.

Meanwhile, a fulfilment module, powered by its own mobile app, uses predictive analytics to forecast demand and digitise the supply chain management, allowing JR East to support the replenishment and servicing of the kiosk with only a lean fulfilment team with the power of Big Data.

“ELLA is transformational with the use of AI-powered collaborative robots. ELLA ensures safety in the post COVID-19 landscape as she operates in a sealed chamber and is contactless,” said Toshio Omiyama, Managing Director of JR East Business Development SEA.

Following this strategic round of financing, Crown will be launching its Series A round shortly, as well as the deployment 30 additional commercial units of ELLA across Singapore. It launched the first commercial unit in October 2020.

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Image Credit: Crown Technologies.

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Indonesia-based online B2B FMGG marketplace GudangAda announced today that it has appointed Huan Yang, former Head of Engineering at Grab Singapore, as its first CTO.

The news comes shortly after GudangAda successfully raised over US$30 million in a seed funding round, led by early-stage VC firms Alpha JWC Ventures and Wavemaker Partners.

In his new role, Yang will be responsible for managing technology for the platform and further growing its platform.

With an impressive career track record, Yang has spent over 13 years working with tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Uber and Grab as their software and engineering manager.

Yang joins GudangAda from Grab Singapore, where he was previously heading its Engineering teams in Singapore, Jakarta and Beijing to develop solutions to the company’s critical food delivery challenges.

Also Read: How two-year-old GudangAda managed to keep VCs interest ‘intact’ despite COVID-19

GudangAda believes Yang’s global exposure of having worked in different countries including Singapore, Shanghai, London and San Francisco will bring in a fresh perspective for the company.

“…we have already experienced significant growth in 2020 and I am looking forward to Yang’s contribution to help advance our platform and accelerate our growth moving forward,” Steven Sang, CEO of GudangAda said.

Huan’s appointment will be key to the company’s expansion plans, as it seeks to aggressively expand to more cities in the archipelago, further develop its warehousing and logistics offerings, and move into new product categories beyond the FMCG industry.

Founded in 2019, GudangAda connects small mom-and-pop retailers with wholesalers. The platform empowers the FMCG supply chain by enabling traders to become both a seller and buyer while facilitating bulk transactions between traders.

It claims to have established a presence in more than 500 locations in Indonesia with over 300,000 merchants.

Its technology solutions are mainly aimed at helping SMEs by providing a full suite of services starting from sourcing the product, managing sales and purchases, offering logistics transportation, and handling payments.

Also Read: Indonesian B2B marketplace for FMCG gudangada secures seed funding led by Alpha JWC, Wavemaker

Yang said: “Many traditional business players in Indonesia face constant challenges due to inefficient operations, low productivity or higher costs, and have difficulty adopting the technology. Working with GudangAda to deliver fast, cost-efficient and seamless solutions to benefit stakeholders is something I am truly passionate about.”

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Image Credit: GudangAda

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“If you’re not paying for it, you become the product”.

It is a common phrase used to describe how large and profitable tech companies make money through “free services”. Whatsapp’s latest privacy policy update lends credence to this euphemism.

When I — like the rest of the two billion users — received a WhatsApp notification about the recent policy terms update, I was curious to know what it was.

After reading the terms, it became clear to me that the app is simply trying to ask for permission to share my data with its parent company Facebook, effective Feb 8, 2021.

While end-to-end private chats continue to remain encrypted, here are the kinds of data WhatsApp will share with Facebook and Instagram: phone numbers, status updates, group details, profile pictures, about info, payments, transactions, time zone and IP address.

This essentially means Whatsapp has taken a 360-degree in terms of its privacy policy.

Also Read: What you need to know about data privacy in China

The company’s 2019 privacy policy terms says: “Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA. Since we started WhatsApp, we’ve aspired to build our Services with a set of strong privacy principles in mind.”

This line has since been completely scraped off in the 2021 policy.

If you’re one among those who feel creeped out in the past wondering why you have been receiving ads of sports shoes after just having a private conversation with a friend, prepare to get even more surprised.

The new privacy means Whatsapp will now be able to monitor the kinds of links of products/other things that you send your friends and families and use them to send it to other ads companies/brands.

In other words, Facebook now has total access to your data.

That’s not all the user data will be available not just to the businesses you are transacting with, but will also be available to other third parties that are working with these businesses.

Still hard to digest? Then look at the Cambridge Analytica Scandal of 2019, which clearly showed how Facebook in the past let third-party app developers access our personal data, who in turn sold it to companies which used it for different exploitative and illegal purposes.

What Whatsapp had to say

While these can be regarded as just opinions from a user, it will be unfair to bash Whatsapp without hearing the company out.

Will Cathcart, Head of Whatsapp, said, “We’ve updated our policy to be transparent and to better describe optional people-to-business features. We wrote about it in October — this includes commerce on WhatsApp and the ability for people to message a business.”

He added that businesses want tools to respond quickly to the messages sent to them and features such as Shops and Pay can help people buy things they want from businesses on WhatsApp much more easily.

While this justification sounds valid, it still cannot be denied that Facebook is now too big and wields immense power over our choices and compulsive needs. Not to forget the company’s long list of user data-related sins in the past year.

Big names, including Elon Musk, have also come out in the open to urge people to find alternative messaging channels, such as Signal and Telegram.

While being okay with the new policy is really a choice that each one has, it is important to understand fully what the terms are before you click on the dangerous green “I agree” button.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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Pintek, a fintech platform that provides credit to students and their families, educational institutions and their suppliers, raised a US$21 million debt facility from Accial Capital, a US-based impact-focused private debt investor.

With this debt facility, both Pintek and Accial hope to further accelerate the penetration of educational financing and contribute to a more accessible, inclusive educational ecosystem in Indonesia.

This comes fresh off Pintek’s fundraising round led by Finch Capital last month.

Started in 2018, Pintek, owned and operated by SoCap, aims to improve the access to investments in education in the archipelago by providing financial access to all communities and educational institutions and their suppliers.

Also Read: Pintek secures investment to help students, education institutions access loans in Indonesia

As of December, it claims to have partnered with more than 190 institutions in the K-12, vocational, higher education and non-formal segments, and has distributed credit to customers across more than 26 provinces in the country.

Pintek Co-founder Ioann Fainsilber said: “Being in a situation full of challenges, education institutions need to implement technologies to support the adoption of distance learning for their students. However, in part due to a lack of financial resources, the implementation of technology across the sector has been challenging. We build products to help this crucial juncture for the Indonesian education ecosystem.”

Tommy Yuwono, Co-founder and President Director, Pintek, added: “This is an opportunity for us to fully support the Ministry of Education and Culture’s key programme regarding the adoption of school digitisation as an effort to prepare human resources to face the industry 4.0 era. This allows us to provide smart financing solutions for educational institutions to maximise technology in teaching and learning activities, as well as achieving education 4.0.”

Also Read: Investree receives US$15M from Accial Capital to provide loans to Indonesian SMEs

Accial is an impact-focused, tech-enabled investor in small business and consumer loan portfolios in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Accial Capital combines data, technology, capital, and credit expertise to contribute to a world of widespread credit access and financial health.

Last November, Accial injected US$15 million into Indonesia’s fintech lending platform Investree.

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Image Credit: Pintek

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From peer-to-peer lending and robo-advisors to digital banking and crowdfunding, fintech is redefining traditional financial institutions as Singapore charts its path to becoming a leading regional and global financial centre.

This has presented numerous opportunities to the financial sector, with consumers reaping the benefits of tech-enabled features and services that make it easier to invest, make payments or even get loans.

These new services have also spurred job creation in the industry, with demand for talent in user experience or user interface design, data analytics, and IT security.

However, the automation of services like investing or wealth management also poses a threat to the existing workforce, with existing roles at risk of being phased out or revamped.

Global fintech hubs like the US and UK have already experienced large job cuts over the past few years, due to industry-wide restructuring and automation of traditional banking roles.

The impact isn’t just limited to the West either. HSBC, the UK’s largest bank, is in the midst of cutting up to 35,000 jobs globally, as have Citigroup and Deutsche Bank AG.

These are pressing challenges that loom ahead for Singapore, too. In August, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) MD Jacqueline Loh emphasised that while financial institutions have managed to subdue retrenchment levels thus far, it is critical to start redesigning jobs and encouraging employees to acquire new skills to adapt to the pervasive use of technology in the industry.

As we continue to integrate new technologies and innovations in our financial space, how can local financial powerhouses embrace these developments that are turbocharging the future of finance? More importantly, how can we still ensure that our current and emerging talents transition well in this evolving landscape, and have a seat in the future of this sector?

The value of a “high tech, high touch” approach

While the tools of the trade have evolved in recent years, the underlying goals in financial planning and wealth management still remain largely the same. Many readers would agree that despite many financial services going digital, managing money is still largely a personal decision that requires trust, clarity and education from financial institutions.

As such, we have adopted a “high tech, high touch” approach where our clients can reap the benefits of tech-empowered solutions, with all the clarity and understanding of seasoned experts to guide them through their investment journey.

In this way, we believe that clients are engaged holistically through various touch points to cater to their investment needs, wealth management goals and trading preferences. This approach also future-proofs our own workforce as one that complements and breathes life into digital services, rather than existing as a separate component.

Beyond just serving the needs of the current generation, this “high tech, high touch” approach ensures that the workforce remains resilient and ready to provide a hyper-personalised experience for the next generation of customers, alongside needed financial literacy and advisory in what could be a less “interactive” financial landscape.

Keeping current talent up to speed

There are concerns that the rising demand for tech roles in the industry will outstrip our current workforce’s pace to build the relevant skills. Earlier this year, the MAS conducted a pilot employment outlook survey that projected hiring and job losses from July 2020 to June 2021.

The survey revealed that tech-related roles lead the hiring demand among financial institutions in the coming year, accounting for 49 per cent of new jobs created. These include intermediate level roles such as application developers and business analysts, which are roles that Singaporeans can potentially be trained for. While our current talent supply might not be able to fill more advanced and specialised roles, we can re-skill and up skill our mid-career professionals to take on the jobs of tomorrow, alleviating fears of being left behind in their existing roles.

In this regard, both companies and their employees have a shared responsibility in building a strong learning culture – one that incentivises adaptability and resilience among all employees.

On the part of companies, training and re skilling programmes are beneficial to help employees deepen their expertise and acquire new skills. Within our own organisation, we have developed training roadmaps across all job functions to meet both current and future skills and competencies, in areas like wealth management, tech-enabled financial services, and data analytics.

Also read: What will the next wave of VC investment in HR tech look like?

This creates opportunities for current talent to develop transferrable skills across domains in the financial industry, which can support their transition into existing jobs with new skill requisites, or new jobs which require different capabilities.

At the same time, these programmes can focus on developing soft skills in areas like critical thinking, problem solving and creativity – which allows our financial advisors and trading representatives to relate to customers, educate them, and value-add to the digital services. Having a blend of both will enable current employees to not only broaden their technical capabilities, but also adapt and excel in the fast-evolving industry.

As for current employees, wherever they may be in their career journeys, it is high time to seize these new opportunities created to deepen their knowledge and capabilities. Having an appetite for learning is lifelong, and a key ingredient for continued success and resilience in this ever-evolving sector.

Grooming future talent for the financial space

As a homegrown financial house, PhillipCapital remains anchored in Singapore’s financial landscape and is committed to contributing to the recovery and growth of our local economy. We are working to recruit and train 500 Financial Adviser (FA) Representatives, and have received applications from individuals of all walks of life, including fresh graduates, as well as mid-career switchers who are exploring a career in the financial industry.

Currently, we also offer SGUnited traineeships for both fresh graduates and mid-career professionals to gain exposure in the financial sector, as well as meaningful internships with interesting projects in areas like digital innovation. As Singapore continues its quest to become a global financial hub, we hope to play a role in grooming the future workforce to serve an increasingly diverse pool of clients, while building a strong and sustainable pipeline of local talent.

We are also working hard to deepen our digital capabilities, while supporting our talents to harness their potential to serve the next generation of clients. We have built a strong local talent pool of over 100 tech specialists and engineers, all of whom have been trained to leverage tech-enabled financial solutions to cater to a diverse range of customer needs and goals. As part of our continued efforts to raise financial literacy and awareness among both our employees and members of the financial space at large, we are also working closely with our innovation team to organise hack-a-thons and financial education programmes.

Also read: Fintech in Indonesia: While growth declines, companies continue to gain traction

Through these initiatives, we believe that we can attract the next breed of financial educators and professionals to deliver better customer experiences and more personalised engagements, which are ever more important in this digital age.

Prized skillsets for the next generation

These are truly exciting times, and a career in this fast-paced, dynamic industry can be as challenging as it is rewarding. Besides future-oriented skills such as data analytics and data visualisation, the next generation will also need forward-thinking attributes to learn, unlearn and relearn in an increasingly flexible, horizontal organisation structure.

Based on our experience, we have identified three key attributes that have helped our talents make their mark in the industry:

Eagerness to learn

Whether you are a fresh graduate, or looking for a career switch, there is a seat for you if you are open and willing to learn. This industry welcomes anyone with easily transferrable skills, even if they are not from a financial services-related background.

Adaptability to changes

Change is a constant in this industry, so it is important to always be on your toes and embrace new developments, especially when innovation continually pushes the financial sector to evolve. From big data and automation to AI and machine learning, there are boundless opportunities to explore and learn invaluable new skills to capitalise on fintech’s increasing integration with the industry.

Drive to impact lives

It is easy to get distracted or disheartened by the potential disruptions that from fintech, but instead, we can focus on the bigger picture and recognise its complementary value in serving our clients’ needs. The human touch is still vital in understanding and empowering our clients to take charge of their financial future. As such, the onus is on current and future talents to never lose sight of their ability to effect meaningful change in their clients’ lives.

Thriving in a tech-first financial space through literacy, inclusion, and flexibility

Singapore’s financial landscape is at a critical turning point, especially when new digital bank entrants are set to shake up our traditional understanding of banking processes and wealth management.

While we cannot foresee the technologies that will come, or the future roles that will open up, we can be ready to help clients adapt and make the most out of new technologies – be it for wealth management, investment, micro loans, or even business growth.

Whatever this might be, we believe that training the future workforce to prioritise financial literacy, financial inclusion and financial flexibility will enable them to engage clients holistically and meaningfully, such that both individuals and the industry can grow as a whole and embrace the rapid changes of fintech adoption.

In turn, we can turn job security risks into opportunities for growth and thrive with continued resilience in the financial sector.

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1 year. 45 webinars. 1500 attendees. 8000 minutes of engagement. And over 50000 views (social media streaming)…..2020 was one roller coaster for the webinar curators and producers at e27.

Almost as if foresight, we jumped onto the bandwagon in late 2019 with Tedx speakers in tow. By the time lockdown hit, we were already putting out episode after another to share founder stories, VCs’ take on the days ahead, how to manage your startup amidst a pandemic; as if it were regular business.

We at e27 are extremely proud of the output and we could have not done this without you, our dear reader and all our fabulous speakers. Thank you for your enthusiasm, all the feedback on how we could keep improving the webinars and sharing your stories.

We wont let the tons of words, insights and ideas exchange fade just as yet. As we settle into 2021, here’s some of the best guidance and know-how from our webinar series in 2020 to lead us into a more promising and productive year!

Remote work is here to stay

Well, as much as we would like, going back to office seems like a distant dream. So take these tried and tested tips from Esevel founder Yuying Deng on how to successfully set up your home office.

Have a great year ahead!

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Image credit: GR Stocks on Unsplash

The post A week of binge watching: The best of e27 webinars for a promising 2021 appeared first on e27.