Millennials and Gen Zs have a new payment option at their checkout page. Termed “buy now, pay later” (BNPL), consumers only need to pay a portion for purchases, with the balance being paid for through interest-free instalments.

This payment option has made headways in European markets, with market leader Klarna being valued at over US$10.6 billion, making the Swedish startup the highest-valued fintech firm in Europe.

The entry of BNPL services in Southeast Asia should come as no surprise. With e-commerce trends accelerating, BNPL offers a tantalising alternative to credit-based instalments, especially in a region where debt is frowned upon.

According to a report by WorldPay from FIS, e-commerce transactions utilising BNPL services in Asia-Pacific are expected to double by 2023.

Credit to debit

The allure of BNPL payments is further heightened by the shift from credit to debit being observed in millennials today.

“What we have seen is that the younger generation, the 18 to 30-somethings, are more likely to use debit cards because they are more aware of the risk credit-based products possess and the debt they could incur. They are more inherently responsible, perhaps because of previous generations,” shared Stuart Thornton, Co-founder and CEO of hoolah, in an interview with e27.

The Singapore-based startup was one of the early entrants into the local BNPL market when it launched its payments platform in 2018.

Also Read: Buy now, pay later: The changing face of finance for a mobile generation

Consumers using hoolah only pay a third of the purchase price upfront, with the balance being automatically deducted interest-free over the next two months.

The platform claims transaction volumes have grown over 700 per cent year-to-date with topline sales up 350 per cent. This growth has led to hoolah actively raising for its Series B investment round, less than a year after its eight-figure Series A round.

Business model

Amidst the increased adoption of BNPL services, questions remain over the business models of these platforms. However, Thornton was quick to dispel the myth that hoolah relies on late payment fees to grow its business.

“We do have late fees in place, but they are minimal and are there to prevent consumers as opposed to driving a particular revenue stream,” he disclosed.

A check on hoolah’s website revealed late payment fees for Singapore-based consumers range from S$5 (US$3.75) for purchases made under S$100 (US$75) to S$30 (US$22) for purchases exceeding S$1 million (US$750,000).

Furthermore, consumers are given up to 48 hours past their payment deadline to inform hoolah on their inability to make repayments before they are charged a late payment penalty.

Revealing their primary revenue stem from deals with merchants, Thornton remarked hoolah’s value proposition to them is the ability to increase conversions by offering an alternative payment option for customers who might have otherwise, skipped purchasing due to insufficient funds.

The platform currently partners with over 1,500 merchants including household names such as Nike, Samsung and Secretlab.

Misconceptions

Despite the well-publicised benefits of BNPL services, the payment option still has its fair share of sceptics.

“BNPL services may give consumers, especially those whose credit profiles may otherwise disqualify them from conventional credit products, a false sense of affordability and encourage them to over-commit with multiple instalment plans,” warned Ho Kok Yong, financial services industry leader at Deloitte, in a Business Times report detailing the risks of the service.

Research detailing the impact of BNPL services in Singapore by financial comparison platform Finder showed that 27 per cent of a thousand Singaporeans surveyed admit to being financially worse off when using a BNPL service, with impulse buying being the most common mistake.

Acknowledging negative perceptions towards BNPL services remain, Thornton shares hoolah tackles these concerns by educating its users and utilising technology to identify high-risk consumers.

Also Read: 500 Startups invests in buy-now-pay-later services startup Split

“We firmly believe that it’s our responsibility to educate the consumer because ultimately, we’re looking after that consumer journey – from making that decision to purchase to repaying,” he opined.

hoolah publishes articles sharing budgeting tips and financial advice on its platform to encourage its users to make sensible purchasing decisions. Through observing user behaviour and their transaction history, technologies embedded within its platform can also identify consumers at risk of overspending and protect against it.

Expansion plans

Having garnered a wealth of experience working in the payments industry, with his most recent role being APAC Vice-President of business development at global payment processing firm WorldPay, Thornton is keen to put this experience to good use in expanding hoolah’s geographical outreach.

“When we started our business three years ago, we already had a clear intent to grow hoolah into a pan-region business,” he shared when quizzed on expansion plans.

“We designed our technology platform from the beginning to enable us to expand and at the same time, localise our capability in every market,” Thornton elaborated as he shared hoolah’s proprietary risk engine can be personalised to the markets they operate in.

Despite expanding its operations to Malaysia and Hong Kong in January and October respectively this year, hoolah is not resting on its laurels. Thornton shared Thailand represents the firm’s next target due to its retail-driven economy and popularity of social media platforms, making it an attractive market to launch BNPL services.

The CEO shared similar sentiments for the Philippines market and revealed hoolah has long-term plans to expand into Japan and Korea, where BNPL services remain nascent.

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Image Credit: hoolah

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An India-based entrepreneur-couple has designed a smart cradle, which they claim to help toddlers experience quality sleep automatically.

The crib, developed by San Francisco- and Bangalore-based Cradlewise, comes with a baby monitor, which senses early wake-up and initiates the bouncing to help safeguard baby’s sleep.

In addition, the crib provides actionable sleep insights to help parents understand and improve their little one’s sleep.

“This smart, safe and secure cradle is designed to imitate the natural bounce of a parent’s arm,” says Radhika Patil, who co-founded the startup, along with her husband Bharath Patil in 2017.

Also Read: How startups can improve customer engagement and grow LTV ratio

Equipped with a built-in baby monitor with quiet sight technology, audio monitoring and a night vision camera with an HD resolution of 1280 x 720, the self-learning crib is capable of detecting the early wake-up signs, she claims.

“The crib learns the sleeping pattern and acts accordingly to put the baby back to sleep. Along with the natural-soothing-noiseless bounce, it also plays curated music and prevents the baby from reaching the crying stage,” Patil explains.

The other salient feature is that it enables parents to connect their phones to the cradle using the smartphone app to get a live video of the baby or listen to the baby anywhere, any time. The night vision camera enables parents to get a glimpse of the baby at any hour of the night.

“The cradle monitors the baby and sends notifications and alerts to parents, notifying them about the changes and shifts taking place in the baby’s sleep pattern. This has proven to be the ultimate solution that is helping several new parents be close to their little one at anytime and anywhere, while being engaged in household chores or even at work,” she elaborates.

The cradle has a natural coconut coir mattress with waterproof, TPU-laminated cotton, natural antimicrobial Dunlop latex, and eco-friendly Coconut Husk.

Priced at US$1,499, the crib is 40″ in length, 25″ in width and 42″ in height, and is weighed 66 pound (30kg).

Also Read: Uncovering the rise and challenges faced by deep tech startups in Singapore

The crib can be lifted by two people, and has nylon bushes on the legs underneath. It can be easily dragged on a wooden floor without leaving marks. It can also be easily dragged on a carpet.

The three-year-old Cradlewise was incubated by Qualcomm. As part of the programme, Cradlewise team got access to the Qualcomm Innovation Lab to develop and test the electronics for its initial prototype, grants for filing a couple of key patents in the US, and benefitted from mentorship workshops that helped them grow as a company.

Qualcomm also connected the Cradlewise team to HAX accelerator, which fast-tracked their product development.

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Image Credit: Cradlewise

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The Nurturing Co (TNC), which owns and operates the sustainable plastic-free home goods brand Bambooloo, has raised GBP187,013 (more than US$252,000) in an oversubscribed equity crowdfunding round on Seedrs.

The money came from 193 investors from Singapore and the UK, in return for a minority stake of 7.43 per cent at a pre-money valuation of US$3.1 million.

The capital will be used to finance Bambooloo’s expansion into the UK in 2021, as well as to launch its new products.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, December: Bambooloo by The Nurturing Co.

“We took the decision to launch first in the UK under Bambooloo UK Ltd as our first main market outside Singapore, as we felt that the scale of opportunity, early and promising development of the sustainable alternatives sector and improving trade relationships with Singapore created a good set of signals for the timing to move on this plan,” Co-founder David Ward told e27.

TNC was originally started in US in 2018 as a luxury toilet paper made from 100 per cent sustainable bamboo. Its product are available on notable e-commerce websites such as Redmart, Cold Storage, and Lazada.

Bambooloo provides customers with 100 per cent plastic-free packaging. Its main goal is to provide cost-effective, safer, healthier daily essential products that help reduce water usage, carbon impact and slow deforestation.

Also Read: Singapore’s plastic-free home goods brand Bambooloo raises seed funding

The brand recently added a bamboo-based personal safety mask-line to its products.

“Daily essentials are every home need in today’s world. But importantly here in Singapore, we see an increasing opportunity to link what we offer to the overall sustainability goals of the government and the nation as a whole. This aligns directly with those of the Singapore government in seeking to reduce waste, better manage resources and create a smarter less impacting society,” he said.

Since its last angel seed round from TNC and a small group of investors in Singapore and the US, Bambooloo claims to have grown 280 per cent this year, despite the challenges created by COVID-19.

Earlier this month, Bambooloo expanded into Malaysia through its partner Starkers, which is based in Johor Bahru.

Aside from Singapore and Malaysia, its products are also available in New Zealand.

The startup plans its next Seedrs funding round in the summer, early autumn of 2021.

According to Ward, COVID-19 has in some ways created more overall awareness of our impact on the natural world, but also brought basic daily use essentials like toilet paper and anti-bacterial wipes into sharp focus for many many people. “And with more than 70 per cent of consumers seeking better less impacting alternatives we felt that the time to push international was now,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: Bambooloo

 

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Started in Taiwan in 2015, M17 Entertainment Ltd. runs 17LIVE, a popular live-streaming app designed by Taiwanese pop singer Jeffery Huang (a member of Machi which features instant photo and video sharing functions).

17LIVE integrates multiple themes (entertainment, game and community) into one by using technologies such as real-time interaction, live streaming, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

In the past five years, the company has expanded its business and team across the world, and it now has presence in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the US, Malaysia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It has more than 50 million users worldwide.

But how did the company achieve a large number of audience in a short span, and what strategies did it use to achieve its goals?

Also Read: M17 Entertainment raises US$25M for R&D and more

In this conversation, Alex Lien, CEO (Taiwan and Southeast Asia), walks us through 17LIVE’s different customer acquisition strategies.

Excerpts:

How does 17LIVE identify quality potential customers? What are the different tools employed to achieve this goal?

As an open platform, 17LIVE continues to advocate content-driven philosophy and delivers diverse topics, from politics and music to entertainment, to live up to the expectations of our audience of different age groups.

We focus on live-streaming content on social media to attract users.

We start by discovering LIVERs (those who deliver entertainment and perform talent on 17LIVE) proactively.

For example, during the Taiwan elections, every political party live-streamed on our platform, driving massive traffic to the platform.

We recently had an 80-year-old live-streamer signed into our platform, which is helping drive users from new demographies.

Can you talk about the different strategies 17LIVE has adopted to reach out to potential customers?

17LIVE focus on diversified contents, starting with music, and it now has over 5,000 music streamers around the world.

We start with music because it is easy to combine our expertise with that of our LIVERs. Music is also quite connected with artists and influencers and we have collaborations with well-known artists in regions such as the US, Hong Kong and Japan.

In Taiwan, we host regular Flash Music Events, an annual large-scale project launched in August 2020. Here, LIVERs will have the opportunity to perform concerts in 17LIVE Taiwan Tour Flash Music Events. These events gather new music talents, who march to every corner of Taiwan and perform surprising shows everywhere.

Also Read: ‘Companies shut down not because of crises but only when founders give up’: Joseph Phua of M17

The biggest feature of Flash Music Events is the comprehensive combination of LIVER selection methods and live streaming. It is not just another online competition, but it provides amateur LIVERs better opportunities to perform and interact directly with followers (fans) on the 17LIVE platform.

We also organise Golden Feature Award (GFA), which features rising stars and bands in Taiwan. Since its debut in 2017, it has inspired young people to dream big, break away from the framework, achieve breakthrough, grow up and show off their talents on 17LIVE.

The GFA is a showcase of LIVERs’ annual performance, where they stand on stage with the direct support from followers. 

We also have LIVIT in the US (17LIVE US), which has signed a contract with hip-hop star Flawless Real Talk (rapper Alberto Martinez).

Besides this, we have worked with musicians for online concerts in Japan, such as famous guitarist and singer-song writer Miyavi).

Other than music, topics such as politics and entertainment are also live-streamed on 17LIVE.

In Japan, we aim for diversified contents and organic streamers, where we have signed the likes of Kotaro Yoshida.

What per cent of your customers comes through paid, free, inbound and outbound marketing?

About half of our customers come via paid marketing.

On top of the typical affiliate networks, our focus has now shifted to organic traffic; a sizeable amount of our traffic comes from organic installs.

Our B2B partnerships also add exposure to organic installs (MoMo, Burt’s Bees). We also have offline events/concerts such as Taipei Fashion Week with VOGUE and Christmasland in New Taipei City (an annual Christmas event organised by Taiwan most influenced TV station, TVBS, in New Taipei City).

We also get traffic via musician/celebrity contents. For example, in Golden Feather Award, we acquired organic traffic through the performance of hit hip-pop star OSN Gao.

What steps do you take to “lure” potential customers to your platform? Do you also do content marketing (blogging, video, social media, search marketing, email marketing)?

Below are the steps:

• Signature original contents shows. 
• B2B partnership-oriented original content shows that drive organic traffic.
• Streamers promote 17LIVE contents via their own social network.
• Offline flash concerts.

How are your customer acquisition strategies different from that of competitors?

Our strengths:

• Global insights: Diversified contents and global offline events and we are not limited ourselves to a single religion but we are spread across the globe. 
• Glocal: We create localised global content and make local original content international.
• Quality content: As a live-streaming platform, our offline events (called real events in Japan) are popular.
• Promote LIVERs: Our PR team and in-house content team help in getting our LIVERs more exposure.

Do you rely on customer referrals, loyalty programmes etc. to acquire customers?

We run customised our loyalty programmes for our customers. We have our in-house merchandise team who designs exclusive merchandise that can be used in reward programmes, which adds to our brand value. 

How do you convert free users to paid ones?

We improve the content quality of LIVERs as they are the strongest driving force of conversion.

Our primary focus is to satisfy our customers and fulfil their needs and wants. We use Machine Learning and AI recommendation engines to provide tailor-made experience for our users to find the contents they love.

Also Read: 5 steps on how to increase your referral marketing effectively on social media

We also run online/offline events to drive roadmap conversion.

How do you tackle customer churn? What are the different tools/strategies used to retain customers?

17LIVE’s core strategy to retain customers by delivering quality content. Seeding users more interesting content is our mission. We focus on improving LIVER content because we believe the content is the strongest force to attract users.

17LIVE features central around building strong community around LIVERs.
We have in-house business development team to groom our LIVERs, fully support their needs, so that they can utilise our resources, online/offline events, apps and functions to retain users.

What is your customer acquisition cost (CAC)? What are the factors affecting your CAC?

We initially do market survey to know our target and to know where to invest.

Our CAC is handled and controlled by our internal user acquisition (UA) specialist, who has experience working with top content creators in the US.

Factors affecting CAC are content and LIVERS. We keep improving our content and promote the right LIVERs. We believe that right LIVERs and right content are crucial to the growth of our platform.

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Image Credit: 17LIVE

 

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Vietnam emerges as the top funding destination in SEA in 2021; The local tech startup ecosystem has significantly benefited from the young, tech-savvy population and growth of the middle-class; In 2019, Vietnam’s startup scene raised US$861M; Despite the COVID-19 snag, the trends for the next 12 months show they are still in the running to be at the top of the region’s investment list. More here

Global VC funding to female founders dropped dramatically this year; Crunchbase data shows more than 800 female-founded startups globally have received a total of US$4.9B in venture funding in 2020, representing a 27% decrease over the same period last year. More here

SEA to drive global demand for e-commerce; Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam are the top 5 markets; Singapore’s e-commerce market has advanced rapidly over recent years, but 2020 saw consumers in the country increase the value of their online transactions by 51% across Shopee, Lazada, Qoo10, Amazon and Ezbuy. More here

Asia is ready for a digital banking revolution; In the next 3 years, Asia will see 50+ new digital banks that will completely change the financial services landscape; The region will also see broader adoption of blockchain technology with new private exchanges, multi-currency e-wallets and digital assets. More here

Vietnam digital development among the fastest in the world; The nation scored 62.37 points in digital evolution momentum, standing behind China (85.51 points), Azerbaijan (65.28), Indonesia (64.03) and India (62.95); The key drivers were supply conditions, demand conditions, institutional environment, and innovation and change. More here

Thailand working to upskill vocational students in robotics; The scheme aims to cater to the anticipated demand for 200K robotics-trained workers by 2024; It will begin with mechatronics and robotic courses of the Human Capital Excellent Center, which are taught to a total of 5,200 students annually at 161 private and state schools. More here

Elderly 2.0: China looks to tap digital ‘silver dollar’; Brands worldwide are chasing the so-called “silver dollar” and governments also are keen to get elderly savings flowing into economies to boost growth; Most retirees in China are keen to adopt new tech and tap into a growing range of mobile services catering to them. More here

Chinese company develops sensorless motion capture technology; YunBo’s technology does not require people to wear inertial sensors or markers; Images taken with ordinary cameras are analysed using AI to accurately record body movements and reproduce even finger motions and facial expressions. More here

Japan support group for startups targets enterprising foreigners; BooSTAR X plans to set up an investment fund next year to support foreign residents looking to become entrepreneurs; While foreigners account for more than 20% of graduate school students in the country, the ratio of foreigners to entrepreneurs is less than 2%. More here

How Japanese startup ecosystem fared in the time of crisis; The country has witnessed some fascinating trends emerging in the advent of the pandemic; There has been a growth of SaaS startups in terms of catalysed digital transformation led by the government, growing SaaS adoption in enterprises, and maturing capital markets for the startup ecosystem. More here

Tencent-backed Chinese edutech startup bags US$210M in round led by TPG’s fund; Meishubao applies AI and AR to provide online arts lessons for users aged between three and 18 years old; The company claims that it has nearly 1K employees and over 20K teachers on the platform; It has over 5M registered users and a total of 500K paying users across 160 countries. More here

Cybersecurity to remain hot in the new year; According to Crunchbase data; the sector saw more than US$8.1B invested to date globally this year v/s US$7.4B globally last year; Cybersecurity as a whole will see high single-digit to low double-digit growth in spend next year, with strategics and investors eyeing bigger slices of the pie. More here

Data will help PPP build future resilience in SEA. Here’s how; Across the globe, the monitoring and analysing of big data for actionable insights is being put to use; 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. More here

Philippine digital growth and resilience spurred on by new grant; The World Bank unveiled the granting of a US$600M grant called Promoting Competitiveness and Enhancing Resilience to Natural Disasters Development Policy Loan that will be used to adopt a string of digital technologies in the country. More here

Vietnamese OTT app Zalo debuts AI-powered virtual assistant; Called Kiki, the assistant offers services to assist driving, listening to music, and language translating; It can help with calculations, weather updates, and has an information search command. More here

Spanish laundry startup Jeff expanding into Philippines; It offers solutions for entrepreneurs who can launch their own business after choosing from the brand’s range of business lines: home-delivered laundry and dry cleaning, beauty, fitness, and wellness services; Jeff recently raised US$21M from investors such as Alibaba, Dropbox, Uber. More here

Seoul Fintech Meet helps SEA startups on global market entry; Seoul Fintech Lab and Singapore Fintech Association agreed on cooperation to develop the fintech industry and foster fintech startups, raising expectations to play important roles in shared growth of both cities. More here

 

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As the pandemic slammed the global economy, protectionist measures to support local employment became a top priority for many governments. So, some might wonder why the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) announced a new work pass scheme called the Tech.Pass to attract foreign talent.

As defined by EDB, “Tech.Pass is a visa that allows established tech entrepreneurs, leaders, or technical experts from around the world to come to Singapore to perform frontier and disruptive innovations.”

According to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his keynote speech at the Singapore Technology Forum 2020 last November 17, the country needs to attract highly accomplished individuals to further develop Singapore’s technology ecosystem. Contrary to the perception that Singapore is closing up to foreign talent, Lee reiterated that Singapore will continue to bring in top talent in sectors like technology in order to enhance the country’s know-how, as well as to attract more capital and advanced technology.

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.

Within one to two-hour flight distance from other emerging tech cities in ASEAN such as Jakarta, Bangkok, Penang and Ho Chi Minh, Singapore makes a strategic regional tech node. At the height of US-China trade tensions this year, Singapore continued to see increased investments from US MNCs and unicorns and Chinese tech titans alike.

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.

Also Read: How foodpanda CTO approaches hiring and retaining the best tech talent

Host to 80 of 100 top tech firms and over 1,000 startups, Singapore has a constant high demand for tech talent. Given Singapore’s economic development strategy which includes further investment in deep tech areas like artificial intelligence, data science, cybersecurity and Internet of Things, among others, Tech.Pass should give the local talent pool its much-needed boost.

To be launched in January 2021, the Tech.Pass will welcome global technology entrepreneurs, technology experts and mentors into Singapore.

Different from EntrePass which is meant for those who want to start a business and Employment Pass for experienced foreign talent with a minimum qualifying salary starting from S$4,500-5,000 (US$3,300-US$3,700) for financial services, the Tech.Pass is targeted at C-suite technology leaders.

These talents could be from countries such as Australia, China, Germany, Japan, Israel, US, or the UK, or practically anywhere as long as they have a considerable amount of expertise to contribute to the tech ecosystem, and even better, if they are a high tech job creator.

In order to be eligible for this limited number of Tech.Pass, candidates must fulfil at least two of the following criteria: draw at least a S$20,000 (US$15,000) fixed monthly salary, have five cumulative years in a leading role of a tech company with at least a valuation of US$500 million or US$30 million in funding, or have five cumulative years of experience in developing a tech product with 100,000 monthly active users or at least S$100 million (US$75 million) revenue.

With a limited number of 500 passes, the qualifications and requirements guarantee that “real movers and shakers” of the tech industry get the spot. From my perspective, I see the Tech.Pass scheme as a “seed programme” with 500 seeds of the world’s best technical talent being planted to grow and incentivise companies, particularly startups, to establish and expand in Singapore and in the neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia.

Also Read: From our community: Why SEA needs HR tech, better cybersecurity talent, open conversations on ethics and more

Ultimately, as these seeds get ploughed into the field and get fertilised, they will bear fruit, meaning, greater opportunities for local talent to work in globally competitive teams and more job opportunities being created.

End to end innovation, strategic go-to-market execution, and operational excellence are paramount to the success of enterprises and startups alike. The fuel for this evolution is access to amazing talent, and the timing for the best available is right now.

Singapore, for the last few decades, has been a top choice for investment and business expansion due to its pro-business policies, low taxes, rule of law, strong IP protection and superb connectivity infrastructure. The country has leveraged its financial strength to attract venture capital funds and incentivise startups and this has made the Little Red Dot feature more prominently in the global tech map. Bringing in more of the world-class tech talent into the country via the Tech.Pass scheme, among other initiatives, further enhances global recognition for Singapore as a thriving centre of innovation in Asia.

With the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) signed recently, the 15-member states’ commitment to a multilateral trade relationship sends a very strong and positive signal to international investors. As RCEP gets ratified in the coming months, greater investments will flow into the region and more exciting things are in store, and Singapore is going to play a pivotal role as a regional tech hub.

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The term deep tech was coined by Swati Chaturvedi, CEO of Silicon Valley-based investment firm Propel(x), to differentiate tech startups built on commonly available technologies and tech companies that engage in long-term scientific and technological research and development (R&D) for the next level of innovations.

General tech startups built on existing technologies often provide an online solution for an offline problem, while deep tech companies tackle more significant issues and bring advanced solutions to complex challenges affecting humanity.

These startups are often conceived in research labs by PhD students or research scientists working on breakthrough technologies.

In Singapore, the majority of deep tech startups are spin-offs from university research programmes such as the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Graduate Research Innovation Programme (GRIP).

The venture creation programme enables PhDs and research staff at the university to start their own deep tech companies whilst completing their studies or working full time.

“A lot of investment from the academic side has been poured into the startup ecosystem. We are seeing a model where projects created and examined in an academic context, are given the change to be commercialised,” said Colin Miles, Chief Commercial Officer of Zilliqa, a spin-off from NUS proving blockchain platforms for enterprises, in an interview with e27.

Also Read: NextBillion.ai crowned as champion of the SLINGSHOT 2020 deep tech startup competition

An example of a similar spin-off having a larger than life impact is Breathonix. Founded in 2019, the NUS-incubated firm develops non-invasive breath tests for disease detection by detecting volatile organic compounds present in a person’s exhaled breath. They recently launched a breath test that could detect COVID-19 within a minute.

A fertile ground

Although deep tech remains a nascent sector within Singaporean startups, the government has made no secret of its desire to grow this vertical.

This shift in focus can be attributed to the city-state’s push to develop a competitive advantage in the region. Due to the lack of a sizeable domestic economy, Singapore knows it cannot afford to compete with large domestic economies such as Indonesia and Vietnam in the general tech space.

Driving home the need to establish a new competitive advantage was the 24 per cent drop in gross merchandise value (GMV) of the local internet economy in 2020, as reported in the annual e-Conomy SEA report. Regional rivals Indonesia and Vietnam reported 11 and 16 per cent growth respectively.

Deep tech represents an area where Singapore can shine due to its strong incumbent talent base and research facilities. Its education system is miles ahead of its regional counterparts and there has been an increased focus on generating talent for deep tech sectors.

One such initiative is PowerX. Launched by SGInnovate, a government arm supporting the growth of deep tech startups, the full-time traineeship programme is focused on upskilling talent with the essential skills to work in deep tech sectors such as robotics.

Apart from possessing a strong local talent pool, Singapore’s credible intellectual property (IP) laws protect deep tech startups and give scientists the confidence to work on their research without worrying about unlawful duplication.

Also Read: Due diligence meets imagination: How SGInnovate plans to further support the deep tech ecosystem

The republic was ranked second in the world and the top in Asia for IP protection in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2019.

Challenges faced

However, deep tech startups do have it tougher than their general tech counterparts. The lack of funding is often cited as the main reasons why such startups fail.

Venture investors shy away from investing in deep tech startups due to the high-risk and complex nature of it. With a high probability that the technology in development might fail, it is a risky bet many investors are unwilling to take, especially when there are proven business models in other sectors to invest into instead.

Difficulties also arise in conducting the necessary due diligence for deals as public awareness remains nascent of deep tech sectors and current tools utilised by VCs lack the ability to properly evaluate the value of deep tech startups.

Furthermore, these startups often ask for a higher initial cash outlay than their general tech ones. This can be attributed to the need to conduct long-term R&D for their products and the longer cash runway they need to generate before reaching profitability.

It is not infrequent to find research with an estimated time to market of at least 10 years, which is beyond the lifespan of a typical VC fund.

Besides, founders of deep tech startups are often “entrepreneurial scientists” that lack experience managing businesses and teams. Therefore, they require more guidance than general tech startup founders and this adds an unnecessary element of risk for investors to take on.

Increased help

The dearth of private investors in deep tech startups has forced the Singapore government to take matters into its own hands and step in. In the 2020 Budget, an additional S$300 million (US$224 million) was set aside under the SG Equity Scheme to catalyse investments into deep tech startups.

Last month, Seeds Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, announced a partnership seeking for 10 to 15 private investors to co-invest up to S$150 million (US$112 million) into early-stage deep tech startups.

Also Read: Deep tech investments: What are the opportunities and challenges?

“Through the co-investments with these private-sector partners, we hope to provide the appropriate guidance and resources that will enable deep tech startups to succeed in developing new and disruptive technologies that can help our enterprises emerge stronger,” Ted Tan, Seed’s Chairman and Enterprise Singapore’s deputy CEO, commented in a statement announcing the partnership.

Besides increased funding, accelerators focusing on deep tech startups have launched in recent years to nurture the growth of the sector.

One such example is Tribe Accelerator. Supported by the government, the accelerator focuses on helping startups utilising blockchain technologies in their go-to-market strategy.

Now into its fourth cohort, local graduates of the accelerator include Accredify, an education management technology company using blockchain to resolve the issue of fraudulent certifications across educational institutions and Xfers, a fintech startup seeking to improve financial access within Southeast Asia.

What does the future hold?

While considerable work has been done to grow the deep tech startup scene in Singapore, it remains far from the finished article. Apart from the government, the task of supporting this nascent sector has to be shared by other stakeholders within the ecosystem, from educational institutes generating talent to investors supporting these innovative startups.

Also Read: Breaking the glass ceiling: These 6 women are making their marks in the deep tech field

Deep tech startups represent the moon shots others are often afraid to take. Who would have thought detection of diseases was possible through the breath analysis test invented by Breathonix?

Therefore, we can and should do more to support deep tech startups in Singapore and empower those who dare to believe.

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Anisa Menur Maulani also contributed to this article.

Image Credit: Uriel Soberanes on Unsplash

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

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Today’s episode is very special because we talk about how geopolitics affects your business now and in the future

You will learn about:

• How immigrants are good for the US
• How Trump is dangerous for the health of the world
• How everything is connected and how it affects your business
• How Xi JinPing and Trump are similar but different

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!

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This article was first published on We Live To Build.

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The post Everything is connected –and this is how it will affect your business appeared first on e27.

As of March 2020, nearly US$1.2 billion physical events got cancelled due to the COVID-19, according to data by Predict HQ –and the number keeps on rising. With this being the new normal, many companies are now shifting towards organising their events virtually.

“With remote working becoming the new normal during this pandemic, everyday professionals are being approached to become speakers, moderators, or organisers of virtual events,” says Emma Hawker, CEO at Altafy.

Started in 2018 by an ex-events director, Altafy is a platform that makes the lives of event organisers easier by helping them filter and pick out the right speakers for their events –making the process as simple as shopping from Zara. Its goal is to solve the pain points of finding the right speakers for events, which will either make or break the event.

“Soon after I left my company, I decided that I wanted to help other organisers like myself. More so because it’s just very time consuming and laborious to find the right speakers or a good mix of speakers for events. Sometimes you miss really great ones because you didn’t know they existed out there,” she says in an interview with e27.

“So it was really about helping both sides and that was the inspiration, helping organisers find the right people and helping the speakers get their message out there,” she continues.

How it works

Altafy works as a yearly subscription model where organisers are charged a one-time yearly fee of US$1,800 to use the service. It provides organisers with a holistic search platform where they can filter out speakers based on location, experience, or years of speaking.

The platform also has an integrated chat functionality –similar to LinkedIn– to help organisers message speakers to find out more about them.

Also Read: 9 virtual tech and business events to attend while social distancing in April

Hawker describes the website as not just a search tool but as a productivity tool to keep track of the entire speaker scouting process. For example, apart from keeping track of all of the events that the organiser is running, it also enables them to see which speakers were shortlisted, pending and confirmed at any point in time.

“Essentially, it keeps track of everything that’s going on with your speakers at once, because that … can be very time consuming and is usually kept as data on Excel by teams,” she explains.

While the platform charges organisers with a flat fee, the platform is free to use for speakers. But this is not to say that all speakers on the website are paid speakers; some are also opinion leaders in their industry who are happy to speak free of cost.

Both aspiring and seasoned speakers can sign up on Altafy for free, and immediately start building their profiles, which showcase their speaking topics, showreels, photos, and other relevant information.

“Unlike any other platform, it is free for speakers to sign up. The way we see it, every business professional or leader has knowledge and expertise to share, and audiences want to hear from their industry peers who are living and breathing the same challenges and opportunities as them. We warmly invite industry practitioners to join us and share their experiences with a wider audience,” Hawker adds.

Future roadmap

In its initial stages, COVID-19 affected the events industry as physical gatherings became prohibited. While some thought it wouldn’t last for long, as time passed, everyone started hopping on board on the new virtual-only trends.

“Overall, there was an obvious dip in clients who usually do face-to-face physical events. But then we had more clients who have never been organisers of events themselves. For instance, it can be any company nowadays; they don’t even necessarily have to have an events team,” Hawker asserts. “But as I mentioned, with everything being online, it’s much easier nowadays.”

This has led Altafy to cater to a much larger audience.

Having been bootstrapped, the startup is now in the process of raising its seed funding round to focus on growing its sales and marketing team, along with onboarding a new CFO.

“We plan to some regional sales representatives along with expanding our marketing team. We also aim to onboard a new CFO that can help with the operational sides of the business,” Hawker says.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Thai fintech startup Masii.com acquires events ticketing platform One Place

Altafy also plans on launching an app version for its platform to further grow its visibility.

Lessons learnt

At the end of the interview, Hawker shares one of the most important lessons that she learnt as a startup founder: Not to be afraid to look vulnerable while asking for help.

“A lot of the time we can be a little bit apprehensive of asking for help, for fear that it makes us look like we don’t know what we’re doing or look weak. But actually what it is, is really, again, getting all of those inputs and the support that we need. Because being an entrepreneur, you have to be able to lean on other people and get support where you can,” she closes.

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Image Credit: Altafy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post With Altafy, picking the right speakers for your events will be as simple as shopping from Zara appeared first on e27.

It is safe to say that COVID-19 caught the world off guard. We, as a society and a nation, were not ready for a world characterised by lockdowns and social distancing. And in cases, neither was business – so, we scrambled.

According to the latest Agents of Transformation research from AppDynamics, 88 per cent of Singaporean IT professionals agreed the pandemic had created the biggest technology pressure for their organisation that they had ever seen.

Indeed, this year marked what must be the greatest acceleration of industrial transformation ever, as companies across all sectors migrated in their droves to digital and online environments. A deployment that would typically take place over the course of months, if not years, had suddenly sprung into action in a matter of weeks.

And all in a bid to maintain business continuity and ensure organisations could cope with unprecedented digital demands – from both customers and employees.

Of course, as businesses rushed to transform to maintain their connection with their audiences, so too did that very audience. A recent study by Google, Bain and Temasek suggested that 30 per cent of digital service consumers in Singapore, for example, patrons of e-commerce or people consuming online content – were new to these services.

However, perhaps what is more important to note is that a whopping 91 per cent of these new users said that they planned to continue using at least one digital service post-pandemic. Which stands to reason: are we really all going to go back to the office full-time? Schools? How about ordering our groceries online, and spending an evening at home with our favourite streaming platforms?

Also Read: Is digital transformation now a question of survival? 

The message is clear, consumers are ready to commit to digital, whether it is in their personal life or at work. And this presents businesses with a huge opportunity to engage on a greater scale than ever before. The question is– will they stick with you?

Now that so many people have moved to the online arena, the battleground has become fiercer. There are more options, and new points of comparison to consider. So, businesses will have their work cut out to retain or even capture new audience segments when choices are abundant.

So where are we focusing our attention? Unsurprisingly, after the initial mad dash to digitise, 88 per cent of technologists now agree that the digital consumer experience has become a key priority for their organisation based on the Agents of Transformation 2020 report. For example, how sleek is my app? Does it offer real utility? Can it take the heat?

Performance underpins it all

The challenge, of course, is that performance is tricky to maintain at the best of times – let alone when it is dependent on domains beyond a company’s control. Many IT teams have turned to cloud and multi-cloud environments to enable such swift digital transformation in 2020. This brings benefits, but also challenges.

That is why I would argue that the key to ‘stickiness’ is in building an end-to-end view of the customer’s digital experience – whereby we give technologists the tools to be able to see into and get insights across the entire technology stack.

Because fundamentally, they can no longer focus only on their own existing application environments and infrastructures – they also need to look into their systems and networks in both a public and private setting.

If you do not have full control over your stack, as is increasingly the case these days, performance issues such as public cloud latency are inevitable. But if you can see the issues before they really flare-up, you can take action before it is too late. For example, by re-routing around bottlenecks or optimising workloads so that they can scale.

The pandemic has left us at a crossroads now that the initial panic has subsided, we have a choice ahead. We can continue as we are, in the hope of a return to ‘normalcy’. Or we can accept that many of the changes that have happened are here to stay and take the opportunity to really consider what is needed to future-proof business and pave the way to long-term success.

As both business and consumer reliance on technology continues to increase, being able to rapidly identify and prevent technical disruptions should form part of that plan. It will be key to maintaining customer satisfaction and ultimately driving results – whether that is sales, downloads, or user engagement.

Because let’s face it, if people start to trim away the fat and focus on a few key digital services to keep as we enter the New Year, you can bet your bottom dollar they will be quick to drop anything that fails to give them the best possible user experience.

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