Ricult, a Thailand-based startup providing Artificial Intelligence-powered farming solutions, has raised US$2 million in a pre-Series A round of funding, says a report by Nikkei Asian Review.

The round was co-led by Bualuang Ventures, the venture arm of Bangkok Bank, and Krungsri Finnovate, the VC unit of Bank of Ayudhya.

With this deal, Ricult’s total funding raised in the seed round has touched US$5 million.

The agritech startup plans to use the funding for product development and to widen its presence in the domestic market, as well as expand into neighbouring countries such as Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Founded in 2015 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s alumnus, Ricult combines its “in-depth” expertise in weather analysis with satellite technology to develop a platform to help farmers and agribusinesses manage their farms more effectively.

This helps farmers increase yield from their cultivation, access online markets to sell their agricultural products, and offer a chat line with agriculture experts.

Its mission is not limited only to helping agriculturists, but also to benefit entrepreneurs throughout the agricultural supply chain, including banks.

Banks can consider the information in an approval process for loans to farmers and agricultural businesses, agricultural products insurance, or life insurance businesses. Merchants selling agricultural products can reach agriculturists on the platform through data solutions services.

The firm claims currently it has information of 200,000 Thai farmers and 100,000 global farmers on its platform, with the number of local farmers expected to reach one million and those worldwide to reach four million in the next three years.

Its next plan is to create business models which can scale up and expand into neighbouring countries such as Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

In a recent Techsauce article, Co-founder and CEO Aukrit Unahalekhaka, said in addition to business, Ricult wants to create a platform that can leverage technology to help people in society, especially farmers who are the backbone of Thailand.

“Often, many farmers are still using natural farming where it is impossible to assess productivity or various environmental factors. However, with the detailed and in-depth expertise of Ricult, farmers will be able to assess risks more accurately as it can forecast up to nine months in advance. In addition, data is analysed via satellite images on a single platform that provides product price information and chat service about cultivation with experts which will help develop the country’s agricultural knowledge as a whole,” he added in the interview.

Also Read: Taking a glimpse into agritech startups in Thailand

Previously, Ricult has secured seed funding from angel investors and venture capital companies, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dtac Accelerate, Chanwanich Group, Wavemaker, and 500 TukTuks.

Ricult expects to raise additional funds in 2021.
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Photo by eggy gouztam on Unsplash

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IUIGA opens its first furniture showroom

The Story: Singapore-based omnichannel retailer IUIGA announced the opening of its first furniture showroom at TripleOne Somerset.

The Features: The furniture and furnishings available in the store will be around the range of S$1,000 (US$750) or less. It will also provide complimentary layout design services that include 3D rendering.

The Plan: IUIGA will be opening six more stores by the end of 2020, with more details released closer to the date.

What is IUIGA: Launched in 2017, IUIGA sells products ranging from kitchen products to apparels to electronics. The company has recently raised a US$10 million Series A funding round led by Konimex Technologies, a subsidiary of Indonesian conglomerate Konimex Group.

Also Read: How COVID-19 is changing traditional retail and e-commerce in SEA

Report: SEA-based VC firms lack gender diversity

The Story: In their new Women in VC: The Southeast Asia Edition report, DealStreet Asia revealed that about 76 per cent of VCs with operations in Southeast Asia (SEA) do not have a single female partner. It also stated that for every one female investing partner, there are five male decision-makers in the region.

The Details: The report looked into over 120 SEA-based investment firms in the region, from angel investments, corporate VCs, to accelerators.

Report: Ant Group eyes US$225B valuation in IPO

The Story: Ant Group targets US$225 billion for its dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the next few weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. This IPO will likely be one of the largest in the world.

Reports stated that the sales could raise about US$30 billion in total if markets are favourable.

The IPO is expected to happen in October the earliest.

The Impact: According to South China Morning Post, the IPO is expected to give another boost to Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, which has already seen a renaissance of Chinese tech listings after it relaxed rules in the wake of losing China’s biggest tech firms to New York.

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Anisa Menur Maulani also contributed to this article.

Image Credit: IUIGA

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As COVID-19 continues to make a negative impact on many different industries and restrict customers’ movement up to an individual level, it has undoubtedly accelerated the pace of adoption of new technologies in various verticals.

One of which is VR. During the pandemic, the technology is gaining more attention among emerging industries such as e-sports and edutech, according to our recent interview with SOSV General Partner William Bao Bean.

In the medical and healthcare sector, as the public is being encouraged to limit visits to hospitals for the most urgent care and procedure, VR is coming to save the day. There are different ways that hospitals are using this technology; while patient consultations seem to be the obvious choice, staff training and anatomy reconstruction operations are also the way to go.

To understand more about the use of VR in healthcare, e27 interviews Silver Wings founder Kapil Chhabra. Silver Wings is a Singapore-based VR company that provides VR solution for a range of industry from automotive to tourism. The product that they offer includes a multi-user hologram table.

In the healthcare sector, Silver Wings is working with clinics in Singapore, such as the FeM Surgery group at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Novena and MacPherson. The project involves the use of VR as a visualisation tool to help patients understand surgery processes better.

Apart from that, Silver Wings also help medical students in their training process through the use of their technology.

Also Read: VCs get behind Disaster Tech in search for innovative life-saving technologies

The following is an edited excerpt of the interview:

Why do you think there has been a newfound interest by investors in the VR industry?

For an investor, it’s all about how scalable a product or solution is. Since VR is quite project-based, a lot of companies don’t have ready-made products that they can sell to the mass.

Back in 2014, to buy a VR headset would cost thousands of dollars, therefore people did not have access to the right content. But not anymore, people can now get VR headsets for a way lesser amount, which is why there is a growing interest.

How are you working with doctors to improve your products?

The best part about this technology is that as soon as any feature is updated, it is received very quickly. So from the product side, improvements are constantly happening. From the sector side, we do our best to enhance the medical process and try to minimise inefficiencies by first creating prototypes as solutions.

For example, before an operation, a doctor needs to talk to a patient about the medical procedures, what medicines they take, etcetera. All this is just a replication of things. Does a doctor really need to do that? Can it be done by a virtual doctor? So it’s really about improving productivity more than anything else.

What can be achieved if VR is more widely adopted in healthcare?

It is definitely a technology that can help the industry in many ways, especially for training. Imagine the kind of pressure that builds up for first-time doctors. And imagine using VR to replicate the whole process.

They can experience the same scenario and then get better used to the pressure of handling the real situation.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Thailand’s fleet intelligence solutions startup DRVR close to raising US$450K funding

How accurately can it replicate something as crucial as a doctor training?

It really depends on company to company how they approach it and how photorealistic their experience is. Generally, anyone who wears a headset can get overwhelmed because of the nature of the visual experience.

I do agree that sometimes the “real” feeling is not there, especially during training. But in terms of learning, it is much more enhanced. Currently, we are all learning through a video, which is some kind of a 3D model –but VR is beyond that. Imagine learning through a medium which is much closer to the real world.

Which countries in your opinion are leading in terms of VR adoption?

The best part about this technology is that as soon as anything is updated, it will be all received very quickly. But if I had to pick I would say that the US is pretty ahead because they are the ones who are researching it. In the Asian side, I would say China is really leading the way.

What do you think can be done to accelerate the pace of adoption in Southeast Asia region? 

There’s an awareness gap. We need to create platforms and events where people can come together and talk about the solutions that they have created. There has to be a better platform where people can easily notice and connected with each other.

Also Read: This infographic shows how VR and blockchain can work together in enhancing wellness through gamified meditation

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Image Credit: Lucrezia Carnelos

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When President Trump expressed the new punitive intentions aimed at TikTok, most experts propose that it is not the end of it. The tech war between China and the US has officially steps on the fiercest period in this decade. In which, the global technology industry would suffer the threat of depression.

In August, the US released a new rule that the regulated sector is not allowed to purchase any products from companies, which use telecommunication services of five Chinese technology firms, including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hangzhou and Zhejiang.

Along with a previous series of restriction regulations attacking Chinese technology, it not only broke the relationship between China and the US but adversely affect the global internet sector.

Obviously, both US and China are suffering from detrimental consequences coming from the decline of competitive advantage among leading enterprises. From the China government response, several American companies had lost the market share in this largest market.

Fortunately, there are still some sectors benefiting from this war, indicating an optimistic corner against this dark period on Earth.

US government make it difficult for Huawei, TikTok, and Tencent

The fact is China is the largest internet market, which covers the most advanced mobile network globally. Besides, most US IT enterprises consider China as the target and potential market due to the enormous population and tremendous purchasing power in this country.

On the other hand, the powerful accession of Chinese tech giants to the US also threatens local companies. The dominant advantages of those Chinese firms relate to competitive prices and short product life cycles. Evidently, Huawei, a leading smart devices producer, offer 5G devices at 30 per cent lower in price than both Ericson and Nokia, which is one of the victims in the war of America and China.

Also Read: How can Singapore benefit from the US-China trade war?

Obviously, citing the reason that Chinese companies steal users’ data, the US regulators release restriction policy for those companies with the aim to protect local firms and domestic production. Recently, TikTok and WeChat became a target, suffering a ban on national security grounds.

Parent companies owning those apps, ByteDance and Tencent, have been totally restricted from every deal with America.

That ordinance will take effect this September, which seemingly benefits several US IT firms, especially Microsoft. Significantly, Microsoft will be a potential candidate to take control of all TikTok activities in the US, of which market capitalisation value reached roundly US$50 billion.

In terms of Tencent, it is claimed to be the centre of the Chinese digital economy, which is a dominant technology corporation, serving roundly 1.2 million users globally. Generally, attacking Tencent bring more advantage and challenges compared to ByteDance.

In fact, the total market valuation of Tencent is approximately US$680 billion, making it the second-largest corporation, just under Alibaba. Stopping the growth of Tencent could reduce the spread of Chinese technologies.

According to CNN, due to the restrictions, Tencent would lose its game business to American firms since most game revenue of Tencent came from the US market. Additionally, The White House’s decision might adversely affect the global technology industry. It is due to Tencent is one of the largest investors in this sector, leading to unpredictable disturbance.

China may no longer be the world’s largest factory

Not only Chinese firms suffered losses during the US and China tech war, but Apple and other US companies with factories in China might also be struggling this time. Notably, Apple has spent tons of effort and money to expand its business to China that the tech war could blow away around US$44 billion of its growing motivation.

Once the restriction rule on WeChat takes effect, Apple might need to kick WeChat out of its app store, which means iPhones and iPads could become less attractive to Chinese users.

Also Read: How can Singapore benefit from the US-China trade war?

To prepare for the future, one of the biggest producers of Apple, Foxconn, has started moving its factories out of China, which decided to open new factories in India and Vietnam. Besides, in April 2020, Japan Government invested US$2.2 billion to supports companies moving their factories out of China.

Additionally, many other companies have implemented policies to help their companies not to rely on Chinese productions. As a result, roundly 75 per cent of American firms and 85 per cent of North Asia firms have been shifted out of China.

Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam are the real winners

Related to the flop of Huawei in the US and the EU, Japanese tech companies could replace the position of Huawei in those markets. According to Nikkei Review, two Japanese brands, NEC and Fujitsu, are allowed to develop their 5G infrastructure in the UK, after the British government ban Huawei in this country.

Until now, the Japanese government committed to investing more US$654 million to 5G companies such as NEC, which expectedly boost the competitive advantages of the Japanese firm in the global tech race.

According to UNCTAD, Taiwan could be the biggest winner of the tech war between America and China. Recently, there are only three companies in the world could produce advanced chips, including TSMC from Taiwan, Intel from America, and Samsung from Korea.

Since the US seemingly treats Taiwan as a strategic partner, Intel and TSMC are planning to collaborate that the stock price of TSMC has sharply increased. At that time, TSMC plays a central position that both America and China need it to win in the tech race. Many experts believe that TSMC could bring a powerful advantage to Taiwan this year.

On the other hand, if the tensions between two leader countries escalated unexpectedly, Vietnam could have a chance to sharply raise the export value to the US, especially with sectors of electronic assembly, chip production, and semiconductors.

Also Read: Avoid ugly language of nationalism when talking trade war

In which, Vietnam could take the market share of Chinese firms and attract more FDI in both hardware and software development sectors. For smartphone production, in particular, Vietnam is recently the largest factory of Samsung with a producing volume of over 240 million units annually.

Furthermore, Foxconn also considers opening its factories in Vietnam in the near future to avoid sanctions to China from the American government.

Final words: Tech war between America and China is predicted to continues this year and beyond. Generally, it harms the global technology industry, which inhibits the development of IT advancements.

Fortunately, there might be some areas that could revive from difficulties, which add some colourful light to a murky picture of the technology sector worldwide.

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Beyond the process of product development itself, the success of a product is often determined by how it is marketed towards its target audience.

We have written extensively about the COVID-19 outbreak when there are several noticeable changes in user behaviour. In this situation, startups might find themselves scrambling to adjust their marketing strategy to changes in the market.

In this second edition of our deep-dive series, e27 speaks to Tiger Wang, Head of Marketing at Shopee Singapore, to understand the best practices in building a marketing strategy as implemented in the company.

He explains how Shopee is building its marketing strategy — and how it adapts to the challenges of the time.

Topics covered in this article:

• Marketing Strategy 101: Principles and process
• Marketing Strategy 101: Testing a campaign
• Marketing in time of a pandemic

Marketing Strategy 101

In this part, Wang explains the main principles and process behind a marketing strategy

At Shopee, we pride ourselves in our highly localised marketing approach. We have seven different apps live across our markets, and each market differs significantly in terms of culture, user behaviour and shopping preferences.

When building a marketing strategy, it is important to understand the local consumers’ needs, expectations and nuances to ensure that it is customised for that particular market.

In all our markets, including Singapore, we recruit and support local talent so that we possess in-market expertise to better reach out to our users, helping create meaningful engagements with our consumers.

Additionally, our data science team works closely with the local marketing teams to build shopper models based on various behavioural and demographic data that is available to us.

Some examples include gender, age, brand preferences and preferred shopping features.

We then leverage data-driven insights using our strong data capabilities and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict user preferences based on their past purchases. By identifying relationships and patterns in users’ shopping and browsing behaviour, we can curate a more personalised shopping journey for them.

We continuously refine our recommendation engines to offer more customised and relevant shopping suggestions, promotions and push notifications made to fit their needs. Personalisation is critical in the e-commerce of today.

Also Read: Report: Shopee, Lazada compete for top spots in Southeast Asian e-commerce scene

The use of tech is a key factor that businesses need to consider when building their marketing strategy — particularly how to leverage their available resources and data to keep up-to-date on consumer trends and to adapt their strategies accordingly.

In a world of options and distractions, consumers are broadening their horizons and spending less time shopping in only one place. The need to create new ways of engaging consumers and capturing their attention is more important now than ever before.

AI has become an important element in the future of retail, enabling brands to optimise efficiencies and create personalised experiences. It is crucial at a time when brands need to provide more than just transactional experiences for shoppers.

Beauty brands such as L’Oréal use AI-powered digital innovation tools to offer instant, personalised and professional acne analyses without the customer having to visit a physical store, which is essential as more people remain confined at home.

It’s not just big players that should be using technology to implement an effective marketing strategy; SMEs can also leverage online platforms to create unique, memorable, and enjoyable experiences for their customers. This goes a long way towards building consumer loyalty.

Secondly, the need for engagement, entertainment and social interaction in a marketing strategy has never been more compelling as consumers increasingly value shareable experiences.

Therefore, companies need to elevate the customer journey by integrating these elements into marketing in order to cater to an increasingly demanding consumer base.

Tried and tested

Once we understand the principles of building a marketing strategy, it is time to get it tested. How do we know we have done it right? What to do when it fails to reach expectations?

The digital economy is constantly evolving. In order to succeed, we need to continue to keep our ear to the ground and adapt our strategy accordingly.

Nimble marketing is the recipe for success, and it’s crucial for marketing teams to collaborate and adapt campaigns as needed once they are live.

We monitor the performance of each of our marketing campaigns closely and gather relevant insights along the way. This allows us to make necessary adjustments when needed, following changes in local trends and current events.

Also Read: Lazada, Shopee and Zalora are most visited e-commerce sites in Philippines

The definition of success varies with each campaign depending on the objectives involved. We place great emphasis on powering the next wave of e-commerce, and one key pillar is quality consumer engagement; we consistently work to integrate a personalised, engaging, and social element in our shopping experience.

Certain campaigns are aimed at deepening engagement, such as those focused on games and live-streams.

For example, during our recent National Day Sale, we launched a host of localised games, including Shopee Flappy – Siam the ERP edition, Shopee Candy – Mama Shop edition, and Shopee Shake – Satay @ Lau Pat Sat edition..

All of our campaigns are formulated with data-led insights, which ensure they do not undergo trial and error — instead, they cater directly to shopping behaviour patterns.

It is important for marketers to understand that each campaign is a vital learning lesson and is an opportunity to continue fine-tuning the ongoing marketing strategies — don’t define campaigns by fails and successes, but rather use it as a stepping stone to perfecting marketing strategy.

Our signature 9.9 Super Shopping Day has been very successful over a number of years. It was introduced in 2016 to cater to the rapid growth of the e-commerce industry in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

As an annual shopping event tailored for the region with the largest collection of deals across all product categories, it is now a key date in the year’s online shopping calendar.

Each year, our campaign and hyper-localised approach for each market means we successfully outperform previous year’s 9.9 performance, proving that we continue to bring value to our users, sellers, brands and partners, through a personalised, engaging and social shopping experience.

In 2019, we celebrated our biggest-ever 9.9 Super Shopping Day, with three times the number of orders compared to 2018, and over 113 million deals offered on September 9. At its peak, 187,606 items were sold in a minute.

The success of 9.9 shows that our consumers’ appetite for deals and promotions is strong, especially in Singapore.

Also Read: Report: Shopee, Lazada compete for top spots in Southeast Asian e-commerce scene

Marketing in time of a pandemic

Since the start of the COVID-19, Shopee says that users in Singapore have spent 40 per cent more time in-app per week and the number of Shopee Live streams from brands and sellers have increased 40x. In Singapore, its in-app games were played over 60 million times and 1.6 million plays from February 1 to April 24. 

So how does their marketing strategy differ in times of crisis?

Regardless of external factors, the fast-moving e-commerce landscape regularly conditions us to be flexible and adaptive in our marketing strategies.

This means that during times of crisis, we are well-prepared to shift our strategies to meet users’ needs quickly and efficiently.

There are no one-size-fits-all blueprints or hard-and-fast rules when it comes to marketing during a time of crisis.

Rather, we believe the most important thing is to consider the most pertinent needs and concerns of our audience.

Needless to say, their priorities and habits will change during moments of crises. Brands thus need to be able to see things from their perspective in order to be able to market to them successfully.

For example, as people continue to adhere to social distancing measures, more users are shopping online for a growing number of different product categories.

There is a greater demand for health and personal hygiene products, as well as essential household items. In order to address this increased demand, we have implemented additional support measures wherever necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees, partners, sellers and users.

In all of our markets, we rolled out ‘Shopee from Home’ campaigns, which made it easy for users to search for and purchase the products they want on our platform.

In Singapore, we took additional steps to limit the over-purchasing of essential health items such as masks, thus ensuring sufficient supply for all our users.

We also worked to support our sellers and made sure they are able to cope with the increased online demand through enhanced logistics infrastructure, to further drive seamless shopping experiences during this period.

We are determined to use the Shopee platform to aid the evolving needs of all our users to help them to adapt to the new normal. The pandemic has definitely led us to shift our focus and priorities to address certain key trends and issues.

In Singapore, our recently-concluded Great Shopee Sale campaign focused on empowering local businesses — a huge topic of concern amongst Singaporeans.

As part of the campaign, we featured one seller a day on our ‘#SGUnited Shopee Support Local’ campaign microsite and social media platforms to drive more visibility to their online stores.

Also Read: How Shopee is using data science to take their platform to the next level

We have improved our social features to provide entertainment and engagement during this time of evolving needs:

• Shopee Feed: We have upgraded our in-app social feed to cater to the increased time spent and levels of social interaction on Shopee. Users can share content on what they are listing, buying, and selling with the community without having to leave the Shopee app. Users can follow and receive the latest real-time updates from their friends, as well as sellers and brands more quickly and efficiently than before. Shopee Feed is a key component that addresses the exploratory and social nature of online shopping today.

• Shopee Live Chat: Conversations between sellers and buyers are a crucial part of the social experience on Shopee and we have added new functions in our popular Shopee Live Chat feature to enable more meaningful interactions, based on observed user behaviour.

Being a home-grown company, Shopee has always prided itself in doing its part to help nurture and empower local businesses and SMEs. The strategies for our campaigns and initiatives targeted at local businesses and SMEs are designed to focus on this objective.

The COVID-19 period has been particularly challenging for these groups, and we have scaled up our efforts to help sellers on our platform navigate the current economic environment. We launched the ​Shopee Seller Support Package (SSSP) and the ‘#SGUnited Shopee Support Local’ campaign microsite to increase exposure for local sellers by driving greater traffic to them.

We provide these businesses with much-needed marketing support that helps establish themselves online, further optimise sales, and construct sustainable, long-term e-commerce strategies.

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Image Credit: Shopee

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Taiwan’s enterprise AI firm iKala raises US$17M led by Wistron Digital for expansion into Indonesia, Malaysia; iKala provides AI-driven digital transformation and data-driven marketing solutions; 400+ enterprises across 12 industries and 15K+ advertisers have used iKala’s tech. e27

Singapore’s See-Mode secures US$7M Series A led by MassMutual Ventures SEA; The medtech startup uses AI to help clinicians better predict the risk of stroke and vascular diseases; The firm plans to use the fresh funds for expansion into the American and European markets, R&D, hire people. e27

How Singapore is handling the biggest WFH experiment; When it comes to switching the entire economy to the remote mode, the city-state is among the countries with the best head start; The island state’s IT industry is known for its reliance on state-of-the-art collaboration and communication tools that make remote work possible. e27

Telkom Group-backed MDI Ventures launches new US$500M fund; The fund seeks to push digitisation of Indonesia’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs); So far, the CVC has invested in 44+ startups from 12+ countries; It also has 3 high-profile exits (Whispir IPO, Naspers acquisition of RedDot Payments, 8×8 acquisition of Wavecell) to its credit. e27

HK-based alternative protein fund Lever VC makes 1st close of Fund 1 at US$23M, targets a final close at US$50M; The firm was started by early investors in Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods; Lever VC is an investor in Singapore’s cells-based milk startup TurtleTree; The alternative protein sector is projected to grow by 31% y-o-y and become a US$85-140B market over the next 10-15 yrs. e27

BukuKas raises US$9M pre-Series A from Surge, Credit Saison, others; Total funds raised by the 8-month-old startup has reached US$12M; Since inception, BukuKas has partnered with 900K small merchants and retailers and the app is used in 700+ cities and districts across Indonesia. e27

Why the new Singapore variable capital company (VCC) is a fund structure game changer; Under the VCC Act, foreign corporate entities may also be re-domiciled to the city-state; A VCC can be set up as a standalone entity or as an umbrella entity with multiple sub-funds; Each sub-fund may have different investment objectives and strategies, investors, assets, and liabilities. e27

Why Sesamilk thinks plant-based milk is healthier than cow milk and has a bright future; Currently, Sesamilk is available in about 500 stores (online and offline) across Thailand and is exported to Japan, Macau, Hongkong, Vietnam; It has received seed funding from Lee Choo Chien of Singapore and Somchai Hirunyakorn of Thailand. e27

Joseph Phua steps down as group CEO of M17 Entertainment; Hirofumi Ono, the chief of its Japan business, has been promoted as new global CEO; Phua will assume the role of non-executive Chairman at M17; Under Ono’s leadership, M17 will aim to continue growing into a global live streaming platform. e27

The secret is out: The missing piece that will boost your corporate innovation strategy; Aside from taking into consideration factors such as innovation culture, resources and the executing team, adopting the appropriate innovation approach is key to determining the outcome of your corporate innovation efforts; This is where the concept of ‘pre-accelerator’ assumes significance. e27

Singapore’s Doyobi announces US$1M in funding from 500 Startups, Xoogler Angels; The online school offers coding courses for kids that are supported by Google, the government, as well as educators from around the world; Investment in edutech companies have grown from US$500M in 2010 to US$7B in 2019. e27

Singapore’s construction management startup Hubble raises funding from Malaysian PE, OSK Ventures; Hubble is the official partner of Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority for the development and implementation of the BuildSG-COVIDSafe platform; In June, Hubble raised US$3.7M, led by Tin Men. e27

SEA’s indexes miss equity rally because they lack tech stocks; Tech stocks have been at the forefront of the worldwide equity rally from March lows as the virus outbreak accelerated the global shift toward automation, and locked-down consumers fuelled demand for everything from video games to e-commerce. DealStreetAsia

Study: Gen Z is more likely than millennials to get into the startup game; 8 in 10 students believe college is important to achieving their career goals; 63% of those same students – all between the ages of 16 and 19 – said they want to learn about entrepreneurship in college, including how to start a business. The Next Web

E-commerce platform Aladdin Group returns as tech company; The group, which focuses on the halal sector and Muslim-friendly segment, now takes the approach of leveraging on Malaysian talents and pairing with a strategic partner in China that specialises in AI, e-commerce, social commerce. Malay Mail

In age of scarcity, Traveloka goes from ‘hunting’ to ‘harvesting’ in its marketing rethink; ‘When you’re in growth mode, you hunt for customers and once they are in your ecosystem, they become your crops and you farm them and the you harvest them’, says its CMO. WiT

How BukuWarung is changing the back alleys of Indonesia; The book-keeping app sets the foundation for merchants’ operational efficiency and enables access to financial services; it opens MSMEs up to the broader fintech ecosystem via technologies that can help these businesses scale faster, generate more income, and find more lucrative growth opportunities. e27

Hong Kong’s ‘banking alternative’ Neat adds US$4M to its US$11M Series A; Investors include MassMutual Ventures, Pacific Century Group, Linear Capital; With its offering of online company incorporation, multi-currency wallet, corporate expense cards and international remittances, Neat is primarily focussed on SMEs trading between Europe and Asia. Business Insider

Why Clik believes that Cambodia is the best place to pilot a new fintech infra; The nation has a pretty dynamic fintech sector and there’re quite a few players such as Pi Pay, a youth-targeted cashless mobile payment platform; Clik recently secured a US$3.7M seed and is set to launch its platform at end-2020. e27

Lu partners with Kasikornbank to meet rising demands for digital financial services in Thailand; Together, they will launch and operate an online wealth management platform for retail investors; Lu is the Singapore subsidiary of Chinese retail fintech Lufax. Retail News Asia

Lazada Malaysia records three-fold increase in SMEs that have digitised business; The e-commerce platform is focused on its efforts to support the gov. initiatives to aid local SMEs and the country’s economic recovery; In August, it launched online campaigns aiming to promote local sellers and products. Malay Mail

How IoT revolutionised medical care during the pandemic; From high-level healthcare devices to common household gadgets, IoT technology is getting more intelligent and connected to the internet, facilitating seamless communication between networks and devices. The Next Web

Thailand’s digital content industry poised to surpass US$960M; This is because the demand for digital content has surged, particularly in entertainment segment, due to the longer time spent online in the new normal. Bangkok Post

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Image Credit: 123rf.com

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Singapore- and Australia-based medtech startup, See-Mode Technologies, announced today it has raised a US$7 million Series A funding, led by Mass Mutual Ventures Southeast Asia (MMV SEA).

Other participants in the round include existing investors Blackbird Ventures, Cocoon Capital, Entrepreneur First, and SGInnovate, besides a group of angels.

This brings See-Mode’s total funding to date to US$8 million, which also included a US$1M seed round raised in 2018.

As per a press statement, the company plans to use the fresh funds for expansion into the American and European markets, R&D, hire people and build its sales and business development team.

Also Read: After Singapore Budget 2019, is medtech set to enjoy a hype cycle?

It is also broadening its partnerships to more research institutions around the world.

Founded in 2017 by Dr Mohammadzadeh and Dr Sadaf Monajemi, See-Mode uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help clinicians better predict the risk of stroke and vascular diseases.

Around the world, stroke remains a leading cause of death and disability. To help clinicians better predict the risk of stroke and vascular diseases, See-Mode is developing novel solutions to improve the analysis of routinely collected medical images such as ultrasound, CT and MRI scans.

See-Mode’s software applies AI and computational models on these medical images, allowing clinicians to obtain critical stroke risk factors that may not be accessible in current clinical practice.

This allows doctors to efficiently decide on the optimal treatment for patients, improving patient care and outcomes, without the need for additional tests.

Its debut product, Augmented Vascular Analysis (AVA), is a medical AI software for automated analysis and reporting of vascular ultrasound scans.

“20 per cent of stroke patients go on to have another stroke within five years. Tackling stroke is no small feat. We are lucky to be working with an outstanding group of clinicians from leading research institutions globally to further validate our products,” Mohammadzadeh said.

AVA is awaiting regulatory approval in several markets, including Europe and the US.

Also Read: Endofotonics secures US$12M in Series B funding round led by Singapore Medical Group

Additionally, the company is building two other new products — to detect vulnerable plaque using Machine Learning and to identify high-risk blood flow using computational modelling.

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Image Credit: Wren Steiner

 

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TADA to launch multi-wet market shopping platform

The story: TADA, Southeast Asia’s blockchain-based zero-commission ride-hailing service, has launched TADA Fresh Market, an online multi-wet market shopping platform.

TADA Fresh Market serves as a one-stop solution for all fresh grocery needs delivered directly from popular wet markets in Singapore to the buyer’s doorstep. It offers free delivery of fresh vegetables, fruits, seafood, meat, and poultry from 36 stalls across the Tekka wet market and Tiong Bahru wet market daily at affordable prices, with just a minimum spend of US$36.5.

The plans: With this launch, TADA has invested in development to repurpose its delivery technologies for transporting fresh produce, and additional equipment to uphold their freshness and quality.

The wet markets promise to the buyers a distinctively superior freshness to foods and offer more value but are not well connected to digital distribution channels. TADA Fresh Market seeks to fill the offline to the online delivery gap for the wet market vendors and consumers.

To shop, buyers must place a minimum order of S$30 to shop from the TADA Fresh Market website and for anything less than US$36.5 they need to pay a delivery fee of US$2.8.

HK’s Neat secures US$4M extended Series A funding

The story: Neat, a Hong Kong-based fintech company that offers online company incorporation and multi-currency wallets to cross-border SMEs, has added US$4M to its US$11M Series A round closed in April 2020.

Also Read: That’s neat: Hong Kong-based Neat to launch banking app that tells how much you can spend today

Investors: MassMutual Ventures, Pacific Century Group, Linear Capital and Robby Hilkowitz, Vectr Fintech.

What is Neat: Neat’s mission is to enable the entrepreneur economy – starting with fully digital multi-currency accounts built for today’s international entrepreneur.

The Neat Account gives you the ability to send and receive money globally at more competitive exchange rates than you would get from a bank; access Neat corporate expense cards for online and offline spending, as well as ATM withdrawals; it also includes intuitive expense tracking and security features.

Bangladeshis edutech startup Upskill closes pre-seed funding

The story: Upskill, a Bangladeshi edutech startup, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Seed funding, led by SBK Ventures, English Essence, and the founder of The Legal Circle law firm.

The entire fund raised consisted only of female investors.

The plans: The funding will be utilised by Upskill to support product development, strategic hiring, and further investment in scaling up the current business.

What is Upskill: Upskill is a skill-sharing platform that transforms classroom experiences with a blended learning approach to maximize learning outcomes. With online learning platforms and offline masterclasses, Upskill produces and distributes courses focusing on all kinds of skills that help people to be productive and earn through sharing their skills with those in need. The contents are designed and delivered by key industry or subject matter experts.

Grab, Unilever establish a partnership through GrabProtect

The story: Grab and Unilever today announced a partnership in Southeast Asia to protect Grab drivers and riders as well as support the livelihoods of small business owners as they weather the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The partnership covers Grab’s Transport, GrabFood, GrabMart and GrabExpress services. Unilever’s personal and home hygiene brands such as Lifebuoy and Cif will support Grab drivers to deliver safer and more hygienic rides under GrabProtect.

By leveraging Grab’s platform and technology, Unilever products will be available for consumers to purchase directly from Unilever’s vast network of retailers in Southeast Asia through GrabFood and GrabMart, thereby also helping small retailers and mom-and-pop shops around the region.

Also Read: [Updated] Report: Grab is raising US$200M at a US$14.3B valuation from South Korean private equity firm

The plans: With GrabProtect, Grab and Unilever seek to bring greater peace of mind to driver-partners and passengers by equipping vehicles in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines with Lifebuoy hand sanitisers and Cif disinfectant sprays, at no cost to driver-partners or passengers. It also seeks to help growing income for small and offline business owners through Unilever Ice Cream virtual stores on GrabFood and GrabMart.

On top of that, Grab’s on-demand delivery service for daily essentials available across eight countries in Southeast Asia. The partnership has kicked off in the Philippines and will expand to Indonesia, Singapore and other Southeast Asian markets by the end of the year. This will be complemented by GrabAds to help grow demand for Unilever products.
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Picture Credit: Neat

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The shutdown of the global economy after the COVID-19 outbreak was a harsh reality check for businesses around the world. However, while no one was prepared for such an unprecedented event, some countries turned out to be less unprepared than others.

A notable example is Singapore – the major innovation hub where the switch to work-from-home received considerable support from the authorities. Hopefully, the Singaporean experience can shed some light on the implications of remote work for workers and employers.

A favourable head start

When it comes to switching the entire economy to the remote mode, Singapore is among the countries with the best head start. To begin with, Singapore has been spearheading the digital transformation for years.

The IT industry is rightfully known for its reliance on state-of-the-art collaboration and communication tools that make remote work possible and, to an extent, preferable. Early adopters of the work-from-home approach cite numerous benefits to business operations:

• Higher employee satisfaction
  
• Improved work-life balance
  
• Cost and time savings
  
• Increased productivity
  
• Alignment with CSR policies

As a result, software engineers and mobile application developers in Singapore already had some experience of working remotely by the time the lockdown was initiated. As far back as 2018, more than half of the Singaporean workforce had at least one day of remote work, whereas 10 per cent did not come to the office at all.

Also Read: e27 Webinar: Work-from-home or work-from-office, which is better?

So, by the time businesses around the world were forced to adapt to the new reality, Singaporean companies were already equipped with the necessary tools and expertise to make a seamless transition.

Official endorsement

Singapore’s capacity to handle remote work environments was promptly recognised by the country’s authorities. According to the survey by the Ministry of Manpower, the availability of flexible employment arrangements allowed to decrease the waste of time and resources, cut operational costs and increase employee retention.

So, when the initial phase of the circuit breaker measures was coming to a close and businesses were allowed to resume operations, the official guidelines strongly advised to prioritise remote work wherever possible. The rationale behind this decision was the familiarity of the workforce with the use of internet-based means of communication.

To extend the support further, the Ministry has also published guides on implementing work-from-home environments, with instructions on communication, performance management, change strategies, and case studies. On top of that, a selection of grants and incentives were offered to companies seeking to implement such an arrangement.

Effects on businesses

While it is still early for making definitive conclusions, some data on the effects of these endorsements are already available. One survey of Singaporeans suggests that one-third of the employees feel more productive while working from home. They also report improvements in mental health due to increased flexibility of working conditions.

This is not to say that the transition to remote work is a miraculous solution that can single-handedly save the economy. In fact, Singapore’s GDP has been experiencing a massive contraction in GDP for two consecutive quarters, not in the least due to the COVID outbreak.

While such abysmal performance does not undermine the feasibility of remote work, it may well serve as a warning against over-reliance on trendy ideas without careful consideration.

Bumps on the road

Despite all of the advantages of working from home, the concept does come with drawbacks. Depending on the industry and the company profile, one or more issues may arise after the introduction of the work-from-home policies:

• Difficulties in communication
  
• Inconsistencies in corporate culture
  
• Loss of control over business processes
  
• Productivity loss due to distractions
  
• Compromised security of corporate information
  
• Lack of socialising options
  
• High dependency on technology
  

In fact, some of the highlighted issues have already taken a toll on the performance of remote workers in Singapore. According to the survey by IWG, more than 70 per cent of people who work from home in Singapore had to fund the setup of a home office from their own pockets, something that not everyone can afford in the middle of the economic crisis.

What’s more, it appears that the flexibility of the arrangement can turn against the people it should benefit. A survey by Cigna shows that more than 78 per cent of remote employees in Singapore work in an “always-on” WFH arrangement.

Also Read: Singaporeans wish to continue working from home post Circuit-Breaker, says survey

This essentially means that instead of a convenient work-life balance, they are essentially expected to be online at all times for work-related matters.

By any means, Singapore is in a unique position in this global work-from-home endeavour. On the one hand, it has a well-developed communication infrastructure and a business environment that aligns well with the requirements for its implementation. On top of that, the idea has been promoted (and even supported financially) by the local authorities.

On the other hand, the concept is still far from maturity and poses many challenges for workers and employers. While some of them can be addressed through self-organisation techniques, others will require organisation-scale changes in policies. All in all, the experiment is far from over and would require a lot more work before it bears fruit.

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Have you ever wondered about how technology could impact businesses in the cities you don’t regularly see on screen? Meet Ibu (“Madam” in Indonesian) Ance (pronounced “Ahn-Chey”), an Indonesian woman in Bukittinggi (a tier-two city in Sumatra) that owns three small businesses: a cell phone data and SIM card shop, a fresh pineapple shop, and a convenience store.

Her typical day looks like this: she wakes up at 6 AM in her minuscule one-room bungalow with a waist-height fence and tiny garage, hops on her motorcycle, and makes her way to her first shop. When she arrives thirty minutes later, the pineapple supplier arrives, and she spends time cutting them up for preparation.

During the day, she’ll sell pulsa (mobile data top-ups), as well as Indonesian confectionery and snacks. The customers tend to stop by while driving their mopeds along the narrow dirt streets. During the day, she manually records her transactions, sales, and repayments in her buku penjualan (accounting notebook) with pen and paper. From time to time, she’ll message her husband about how she’s doing at work.

At 5 PM, Ibu Anche closes the shop. Before she returns home via Bukittinggi’s busy streets in the evening, she would take all the cash in hand and then store it at home (not a bank). Ibu Ance then eats dinner with her family, spends some time with her two kids, and maybe watches a dubbed Korean drama – all before setting the alarm on her smartphone to 6 AM and going to sleep.

Ibu Anche is one of the 60 million micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia, accounting for more than 60 per cent of Indonesia’s GDP.

Also read: BukuKas makes book-keeping easy for Indonesian MSMEs to save money and time

They are, quite literally, the backbone of the Indonesian economy, and cover the full spectrum of B2B and B2C businesses: wholesalers, distributors, and small suppliers, the former; clothing shops, credit businesses, bakeries, and grocery stores, the latter.

Archaic business practices thwart MSMEs’ potential

It’s hard being a warung owner. Many of these kinds of businesses are being left behind by the emerging digital ecosystem due to their surrounding infrastructure and inherently simple characteristics.

With a weak cellular connection in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, they’re unable to make use of digital tools that require a consistent connection. And most offerings are too complicated for a warung.

What happens when MSMEs aren’t connected to that digital ecosystem? Just ask Ibu Ance.

Firstly, the lack of any robust credit score means that Ibu Ance is unable to obtain any kind of credit to purchase inventory from telcos or establish a line of credit with selected pineapple suppliers. Healthy, growing businesses in mature economies thrive on credit because it allows them to accelerate their growth by borrowing against future revenues and previous performance.

But in spite of her impressive business growth, Ibu Ance is unable to take a small loan from banks or organised lenders because she has insufficient data to prove her track record.

That credit deficiency also affects Ibu Ance’s customers, who would likely benefit from buying fruit and essentials with credit when they don’t have enough cash on hand. Unfortunately, like many buyers in Indonesian tier-2 and tier-3 cities, they don’t have access to that kind of basic offline consumer credit.

Also read: Everybody is helping MSMEs go digital today, but Indonesia-based Titipku aims to do it differently

Lastly, accounting for small business owners is inconvenient. Manual recording is a hassle, usually done by pen or paper or even text messaging on a mobile device. For businesses managing a lot of volume – or if you’re managing three different shops like Ibu Ance – that arduous process can take anywhere from four to ten hours per week.

The same applies to customer credit, and because merchants can’t sufficiently evaluate customers, much of that customer debt is never repaid.

Why GGV is investing in the rising consumer class

At Golden Gate Ventures, we’ve been investing in Southeast Asia for close to a decade. Our thesis is to invest in themes emerging from the rising consumer-class, ranging from consumer-facing apps such as Carousell, to SME and MSME services that consumers use for daily activities such as BukuWarung, TaniHub, Xendit, and Ruma’s Mapan (now GoPay).

BukuWarung has built a powerful tool for business owners such as Ibu Ance, so she can now track her finances with ease, check repayments, and understand her business better.

BukuWarung is a book-keeping mobile app that effortlessly tracks and analyses all transactions such as credit, expenses, and sales. It provides warung owners, shopkeepers, and entrepreneurs across Indonesia with simple yet valuable insights into the financial health of their businesses through intuitive business reports. More importantly, it provides an avenue for those same business owners and MSMEs to finally integrate with the broader digital ecosystem. 

How BukuWarung impacts businesses’ day-to-day

Ibu Ance’s activities today look very different from just five years ago. Since Ibu Ance started using BukuWarung, she has an exponentially better understanding of her stores. Daily, she still sells her freshly delivered pineapples, convenience items, and SIM cards at her small retail store.

The transformation now, however, is what she does after the workday is done: she checks BukuWarung. In the palm of her hand, she can view her automatically generated daily, weekly, and monthly business reports of all three stores she operates – each of which with rich data that’s easy to grasp.

In the evenings after work, Ibu Ance likes to spare her mobile data usage; conveniently, she can still view these reports, as BukuWarung also works offline. She can even view and manage all transaction data offline too.

Based on these reports, Ibu Ance has a much better insight into cash flows and customer debt. Before bed, she receives a repayment notification from the app to help her stay on top of her store’s finances. With the help of these official records via BukuWarung, Ibu Anche has been able to join the financial ecosystem. She now has three bank accounts: one for money transfers, one for topping up, as an ATM is nearby, and a bank for insurance purposes.

Consequently, Ibu Ance now feels safer with her digitised cash. Today, over 900,000 other merchants experience life-changing benefits from financial inclusion fostered by BukuWarung’s bookkeeping app.

The road ahead

BukuWarung, with its mission to build a digital infrastructure for MSMEs, sets the foundation for merchants’ operational efficiency and enables access to financial services; it opens MSMEs up to the broader fintech ecosystem via technologies that can help these businesses scale faster, generate more income, and find more lucrative growth opportunities.

BukuWarung is an essential vehicle for access to credit and other crucial financial services that the majority of first-tiered city people may take for granted. Ibu Ance’s story is just one of the 900,000 merchants that signed up to BukuWarung.

By and large, digital tools help businesses explore new markets, understand customers better, and become more efficient – the last of which allows them to focus on activities that matter most. Although technological development has been rapid during the past five years, the next five will bring unprecedentedly accelerated improvements, particularly in overlooked Indonesian cities.

With contributions from Timo Fukar

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