Joseph Phua’s plunge into entrepreneurship was accidental.

Just out of a very long relationship, Phua wanted to create an online platform to meet new people. It was back in 2013. Tinder was there but it was not of much help since the online dating honcho had no operations in Southeast Asia back then.

So Phua was “forced” to create a dating app to fulfil his personal needs. Paktor, the app he launched in 2013, is now the largest dating app in Southeast Asia. 

Over its seven years of existence, Paktor has raised a total of US$52 million in funding from about a dozen investors and acquired five companies, before being merged with Taiwan’s M17 Media to form M17 Entertainment. In May this year, Kollective Ventures acquired Paktor Group from M17 Entertainment.

Also Read: Paktor CEO on why online dating is better than a school or workplace romance

Phua recently stepped down as the CEO of M17 Group to assume the role of Chairman. 

In this candid conversation with e27, Phua talks about his startup journey, challenges faced, lessons learned, M17’s failed IPO, and his plans.

Edited excerpts: 

Accidental plunge into entrepreneurship

I was interning at McKinsey during the summer of my MBA and was going to join it in its Singapore office after graduation. I would have been working at McKinsey back then, had I not started Paktor.

Indeed, I never thought of becoming an entrepreneur when I started Paktor in 2013. I created the app as a platform to meet people but it ended up becoming something that people would use. 

After developing the app, we slowly started recruiting people who can help further develop it and manage the demand.

I started a dating app not because I anticipated a boom in the industry. The company took birth from my personal experience.

The story is that I had just come out of a very long relationship of eight years. I was single again and finding it hard to meet new people. I was using Tinder but back then it didn’t have operations in Southeast Asia. I found a need to build something to meet people here. 

And that’s how Paktor happened.

The beginning was tough because nobody knew us

The beginning was difficult because we were not established and nobody knew us. We didn’t just want to build a team but an international one because we wanted to see ourselves in multiple markets around the world.

Also Read: Singapore’s Paktor buys big stake in Taiwanese startup 17 Media

So we had to hire people across different markets. It took a lot of calls and interviews, and thankfully we got a good bunch of people who were willing to come on board. 

They believed in us and in what the team was trying to build. We eventually managed to get the first core team to join us.

Facing the many hurdles

Of course, we faced many challenges with regards to fundraising, finding a sustainable business model, expanding globally, overcoming cultural differences and learning about the different markets.

As you know, Southeast Asia is a fragmented market with many different cultures. Even within one country, there are different cultures in different regions.

The other thing was that since I was not a software engineer by education, I had to learn app development. In that sense, every process of starting a business was difficult.

We didn’t plan to become just a domestic company but a global company at the beginning itself. We thought to ourselves ‘why just one market and why not all’. Then we started expanding into different markets but there were still many more markets to be explored.

But our ignorance made things complicated. I didn’t know geographical expansion was expensive; there were so many different markets. We expanded into eleven markets but it was expensive. We didn’t think about this and we realise it was a mistake.

Trying everything to onboard early customers

We used different methods to onboard customers — from digital marketing to public relations to other standard ways.

Seven years ago, it took a lot of efforts to convince the customers of the benefits of mobile dating. 

Also Read: Paktor raises US$32.5M to boost social entertainment features

And then we had our first set of users, who would tell others about this. We would also try word of mouth marketing.

Meeting the first institutional investor

In 2013, at the beginning of our company, Vertex Investors’ Investment Manager reached out to us, but we were not ready to raise capital then. 

However, we went back to them a year later. Raising money from Vertex was challenging because we had to show them the metrics but we weren’t there yet and we were still fresh. What is more, it was our first set of institutional investors, so you could imagine the process.

If starting a business is a learning process, fundraising itself is a learning process.

I am saying that because you were new to the process, we didn’t understand how difficult it was to keep going because we assumed it was just part of the process. 

But when looking back now, we realise that it was so difficult; when you were in that process, you didn’t think about it.

By the way, we raised one round of funding from family and friends. Later, we raised a seed round from two angels based in Singapore and Hong Kong. This seed money helped us build/allowed us to last until we had enough product/metrics to raise from Vertex.

The first potential buyer and a fully-paid trip to London

Back in 2014-2015, a London-based dating company approached me and my partner Ng Jing Shen. This company was interested in acquiring Paktor because they were excited about the amount of users/traffic we had back then.

We got in touch with them in the early part of the week — Monday or Tuesday. And then on Wednesday, we were on a flight out to London. 

It was a business class trip and was very exciting for us because the entire trip was funded by this firm. It was like a mini holiday for us.

In London, we were put up in a very nice hotel. And later, we had a meeting with its CEO. We went through all the business details and we were like Alice in Wonderland. It was an amazing office with a very cool check-in counter. And it was all glass and lofty.

Also Read: Paktor’s parent M17 Group acquires MeMe Live, to expand its footprint in live-streaming space in Asia

After six hours of discussion, they realised that our average revenue per user (ARPU) was very low. While we had a lot of monthly average users (MAUs), it was not worth as much as they thought it was. 

So they were not able to give us what we needed from a price perspective and the deal didn’t get through. 

We were upset and we left the office dejected. But that didn’t prevent us to make the full use of the trip. We were paid for two nights’ stay in London. So Shen and I would go out sightseeing and made the most of it.

Ran out of money but not gave up

There were several situations wherein we ran out of money but we never thought of shutting down the business. I would say that even if our company had been left to myself and my partner, it would not have changed anything. It cost almost nothing to run the company, there had never been a need to wind up the business; it never crossed our minds.

For any company for that matter, I don’t think there is ever a need to shut it down. A company itself is a shell; what gives life to it are the ideas and the beliefs behind it. 

You believe in what you’re trying to build and you never have to shut down. You will shut down only when you lose that belief.

You can always pivot if you don’t have a product-market fit; you can always switch if you don’t have or are unable to find alternatives.

Even if you go bankrupt, there is still no need to shut down a company because you can always restructure the business. That’s why people go into bankruptcy protection because you want to restructure it so that you can pay off your debts and continue. You will shutter only when you give up.

My advice for the companies in the hospitality and travel sector is that bite off as much as you can chew. If the market is not doing well, you can always furlough employees. You cannot afford to pay them now but you want them back because this is your team. So everybody takes a break and you wait for the demand to pick up again.

Definitely, the travel sector will come back. So if you continue to believe in what you believed in the first place, there is no reason why COVID-19 can change it. It is a temporary situation, it could be a year or two years. If you believe in what do you do, why would you shut down the company?

If you believe in your idea, you should just continue to build for the future and build for what you think.

Having said that, there is nothing wrong in giving up. You give up when you decide that this is not what you want to do.

But the key question here is this: ‘are crises and challenges the only reasons why you to shut down a company?’ No, you shut down only when you give up.

Pivoted and restructured many times

Over our seven years of existence, we have pivoted many times. We had to change our strategy and restructure the business and had to let go of people. 

We first laid-off employees in 2013 and then again in six months after we expanded into 11 markets.

Also Read: Paktor continues spending spree, acquires Kickoff and Goodnight

I remember clearly back in 2013, our monthly burn was around US$250,000. By the end of the year, we ran out of money raised from family and friends.

We had to quickly control the situation. We couldn’t raise money because we didn’t have enough metrics. So we cut down almost 70 per cent of our workforce. We had to let go of 70-80 people.

Then we had to move from being a free service to a paid one. We started charging money. We had to explore different business models around charging for charging a service like this.

In the Chairman’s role

Our core mission has always been to empower artists and entertain the world. But before answering your question about my role as Chairman, I think we need to first define Chairman.

A chairman is somebody who sits on the Director Board and who represents the collective interests of all the board members.

What do board members and directors represent? They represent the interests of significant shareholders. In every round of fundraising, you would generally add a director to the board and this director will represent the class of shareholders from that particular round of investment.

So the board is made up of the collective interests of all the shareholders. As the head of the Board, I represent the collective interests of all our shareholders. I become the interface between the shareholders and the management team.

My role as Chairman is to make sure that the company continues to grow in the direction that the shareholders would like it to grow by interfacing with the management. I do so by making sure that we make the right calls and set out the right targets for the management to push forward to.

Key lessons learnt from failed IPO

TechInAsia recently wrote a detailed article on our IPO failure. 

Anyway, I can give you three key things that I learned trying to get out of the difficult situation.

In the last two years (from Q3 2018 to Q2 2020), I took away two key things trying to pull ourselves out of this mess.

The first lesson is that it is always going to be the darkest just before light or at the end of the tunnel. What my years of experience have taught me is that when you’re closest to giving up, you are closest to overcoming it. 

Also Read: Singapore’s dating app Paktor relaunches in South Korea as ‘Swipe’

For example, our fundraising round took seven months. It was frustrating but eventually, we made it.

The second learning is that running a business is all about its people. You must know how to lead like a person. Sometimes you forget about this in your rush to get things done and achieve results. Sometimes you don’t treat your people the way they should be treated. 

But over a while, you would learn how to deal with this every day. It is difficult but if you’re able to continuously improve yourself to be a better person, you will have a stronger team behind you.

The third key lesson is that you should be grateful for everything you have. It gives you a lot of power and energy. You will stop complaining about what you don’t have.

That’s important because in times of difficulty, if you keep comparing and keep looking at what you don’t have, then you will kill yourself.

New IPO plans

So I will leave the questions for IPO of M17 to the management. So I cannot answer on behalf of them. I would say that this has been covered quite extensively also in the recent interviews that it did.

So I think the answer they provided to the press about a month ago was that we are always open. We are always speaking to the different parties involved. We are always exploring all the different possibilities. And so it remains a possibility.

Good time to start a business 

There is nothing like a ‘good time’ to start a business. Nobody got rich when the water is hot. 

For example, when the equity market is hot, you will see everyone getting in and you also want to get in. 

This is relevant to the whole COVID-19 situation. This is a good time to start a business just like any other time. If it’s something that you want to do something you’re interested in doing, why not?

There is always a crisis happening in all the situations and all industries. So like today, COVID-19 has hit all industries. But aren’t there any industries that are booming? 

Also Read: Finding love in the pandemic-stricken world: How online dating has changed for the better

Yes, life industries are booming. So is it a good time to start a business in the life industry? Maybe, a bit too late. But is it a good time to start a business in travel? Maybe, because everybody is suffering here, so maybe there are opportunities here.

All I’m saying is that in every crisis, there is always going to be an opportunity. But I think you don’t have to wait for a crisis for an opportunity there.

COVID-19 is a major crisis. But before COVID-19, there were multiple crises. In March, oil prices crashed. Also last year, there were other issues in the market where it was difficult to fundraise.

No right time to step down as CEO

I don’t think there is ever a right time to step down from the top post. Every situation is different and different founders will face it differently.

What I believe is that everybody in any company is dispensable. If I feel that someone else can do the job better than I do, I should be replaced. My journey of finding a replacement and transitioning from the CEO to Chairman has lasted close to a year.

This year, our business has boomed and it is growing significantly. We have become immensely profitable and as this transition has happened, I see the current leadership with Hiro (Hirofumi Ono) at the helm is getting stronger in many ways.

He knows how to scale a business with 10,000 people much better than I do. Can I do this job well? I definitely can. But can I do it as fast, quick and effectively as he can, the answer may be no. I think if he takes two years to do the job, I might take two-three years.

So, it is all about finding the right person and putting him/her in the right position to achieve what the company and stakeholders want/need to achieve.

Will I return to the startup world?

I don’t think that you can ever say no to starting a business again but you never know what’s going to happen in the future. 

I don’t have plans for it for now but I wouldn’t say that it is not something that I will say will not happen.

—

Image Credit: M17

The post ‘Companies shut down not because of crises but only when founders give up’: Joseph Phua of M17 appeared first on e27.

It’s no secret – the food delivery industry is rapidly expanding across the world, exponentially accelerated in recent months due to external shocks faced by the broader F&B industry during COVID-19.

Asia accounts for 55 per cent of the online food delivery market globally, with much more potential for growth. Asia’s online food delivery penetration rate in 2020 is approximately 11.5 per cent and is expected to exceed 15 per cent by 2024 – a mouth-watering potential of more than 200 million new users.

But not all players in the region have succeeded in tapping into this growing market. Only a handful have been successful thus far; some are still fighting for a greater share of the pie while a few others some have exited the race altogether.

Asian markets are complex and diverse. This diversity can prove to be the greatest challenge for sustainable growth. The mix of highly fragmented geographies and under-developed ecosystems add to market complexities; making it difficult for global brands to succeed in the region.

I believe there are two critical components to a successful recipe – “glocalisation” and a focus on value creation to innovate smartly for sustainable long-term growth.

Glocalisation done right

Firstly, to fully embrace Asia’s diversity, international companies need to adopt a ‘glocalisation’ strategy supported by global insights, but closely in touch with local nuances. There is one key success factor for leading players in the food delivery industry – pivoting towards a localised approach to serve market needs.

Also read: Setting new rules for the food delivery industry in a post-pandemic world

Across major cities in Asia, each market has its unique characteristics that requires thorough understanding of the local communities’ appetite. Cashless payments, for instance, see greater adoption in mature markets like Singapore and Hong Kong, whereas cash is still king in younger markets.

On the flip side, key players born out of a younger Southeast Asian economy may have a strong hyperlocal approach, but struggle to replicate their success uniformly across the APAC region. 

What we realised very early on in our expansion was the importance of making food delivery available to everyone, including suburban and smaller provinces, and not just in capital cities.

For example in Thailand, competition in Bangkok is rife, but country-wide presence and extension into smaller provinces was a key strategy we took. Today, we’re present in almost 70 provinces in the country.

Value creation for sustainable growth

The COVID-19 crisis has had a profound impact on the F&B industry. Within a short span of time, businesses all across Asia were forced to temporarily suspend dining-in. Restaurants have had to look beyond their traditional businesses and view food delivery now as an essential service.

In times of COVID-19, platform providers are expected to offer a variety of food choices, at a price they accept and preferably deliver it quickly.

From street food favourites, desserts and bubble tea to finer dining options, consumers needed speed, variety and convenience. For merchants and restaurant partners, food delivery platforms helped digitise (and save) their businesses while tapping into a new generation of consumers.

The new mission for food delivery platforms in times of COVID-19 is to help traditional F&B businesses with immediate digitisation to survive the new normal.

Also read: Understanding the economics of food delivery platforms

But this is just the beginning and innovation cannot stop, because that is the lifeline to sustainable growth. 

Beyond food deliveries, COVID-19 sparked demand for quick, convenient and safe ways to obtain groceries and other daily necessities when people can’t leave their homes. Quick commerce or q-commerce was born – small quantities of necessities via on-demand, ultra fast deliveries.

Delivery Hero, the world’s largest food delivery company outside of China, has estimated that the quick-commerce economy will reach E€448billion globally by 2030. A Mastercard survey found that, across APAC, between March and April 2020, there was a 40 per cent uplift in consumers’ reliance on home delivery services; which means the trend is here to stay.

Soon, the expansion to adjacent verticals such as groceries and pharmaceuticals will bring a new wave of online consumer behavior.

The race to unlock Asia’s food delivery industry’s potential has experienced a seismic shift, and competition for survival will heat up. The pandemic pushed the F&B industry to look at their businesses and the need for digital transformation.

After we’ve ridden this wave, the industry will look back on the events of 2020 as the most significant factor that shaped the future of on-demand delivery. 

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: Lucian Alexe on Unsplash

The post Asia’s food delivery potential is set to unlock post-COVID-19. Here’s why appeared first on e27.

Cryptocurrencies have come a long way since the invention of Bitcoin in 2008. Backed by innovative technology, blockchain, the concept of cryptocurrency as a digital asset has encapsulated various arenas.

The digital currency is not merely looked at as speculation. Instead, in 2020 they are perceived as investment vehicles, security tokens representing a tangible asset, a mode of payment, and much more.

The future of cryptocurrency in 2020 and beyond

The significance and role of cryptocurrency have expanded substantially. From mere speculation to an investment instrument –the cryptocurrency industry is thriving. Moreover, its use cases are not restricted to financial transactions only. Instead, digital currencies with different applications in various industries have already transpired.

Today, we are going to take a look at what the future of cryptocurrency looks like, taking into consideration advancements in the sector.

Investment vehicles

Over the last three years, prominent organisations have started offering services pertaining to the cryptocurrency industry. With that, institutional investors, hedge fund managers, and investment managers have started developing an interest in cryptocurrencies. Investors are now keen to include digital assets in their diversified investment portfolios.

A recent survey, consisting of 400 institutional investors and hedge fund managers, revealed that nearly 72 per cent are keen to make investments in digital assets.

The industry has always held the interest of retail investors. Now, with the onset of institutional investors, cryptocurrencies are much more likely to be treated as investment tools alongside stocks and gold.

Also Read: Banking the unbanked: Have cryptocurrency project achieved the most claimed utility of the blockchain?

Easing regulations surrounding cryptocurrencies

Over the last two years, a number of governments have changed their stance towards cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Germany’s Financial Authority classified Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as official custodians.

At the same time, in 2020, the Supreme Court of India lifted the ban pertaining to trading with digital currencies.

Governments have now started drawing regulations to provide a legally compliant environment for trading and investments in cryptocurrencies.

In the near future, we are likely to see countries drawing regulations pertaining to the use, trade, and storage of digital currencies.

Crypto causing disruption in banking and finance

While the use-cases of cryptocurrencies have started developing in numerous industries, the financial ecosystem is first of the many that are likely to undergo massive disruption. From cross border transfers to tokenising financial instruments– cryptocurrencies have applications in a number of verticals in the banking and finance industry.

More than 20 countries have already started exploring the concept of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). As per this research, the costs of financial transactions using cryptocurrencies are significantly lower than transaction costs in the traditional economy.

According to another research, 90 per cent of the US and European banks have already started exploring blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency exchange hub

As all cryptocurrency trading and investments are gaining rapid interest, it would create an imminent need for supportive infrastructure. The current methods of digital cryptocurrency trading are not sustainable for the longer-term owing to discrepancies in methods and processes.

Also Read: Is Bitcoin the safest currency in times of rising global tensions?

In the near future, we are likely to see the emergence of exchange hubs catering to providing multiple solutions under one platform.

For example, exchange hubs such as Finxflo, a hybrid liquidity aggregator offers a one-stop-solution for traders to access the best prices in the cryptocurrency market with minimal hassles. Additionally, such an exchange hub enables storing, managing, and buying or selling digital assets from a single portal instead of navigating between multiple interfaces.

Cryptocurrency mainstream adoption

Apart from being treated as an investment tool, it is likely that cryptocurrencies will take a more prominent role in our day-to-day activities. The concept of digital currencies is growing increasingly familiar.

Furthermore, cryptocurrencies offer a lot of perks when used as a mode of payment transfer. Merchants, retailers, and organisations have started acknowledging this fact.

A recent survey reveals that 36 per cent of small-medium businesses accept Bitcoin as a payment method in the US. This number is likely to grow in the upcoming years as cryptocurrencies become mainstream.

In 2020, major retailers including Microsoft, Wikipedia, Burger King, Starbucks are a few names that accept Bitcoin.

Innovation with Crypto Tokens

In the upcoming years, cryptocurrency tokens are likely to be integrated with other technologies and innovations. This includes AI, smart contracts, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Tokens will be used to provide supportive infrastructure, build smart tools, and infuse automation by integrating innovative technologies.

Also Read: Banking the unbanked: Have cryptocurrency project achieved the most claimed utility of the blockchain?

For instance, smart locks (an IoT device) can only be unlocked if an owner deposits cryptocurrency tokens into a specified wallet. A smart contract with encoded rules can further automate this system.

Decentralised applications

Decentralised applications (dApps) are developed by leveraging the blockchain infrastructure. The blockchain-enabled dApps are developed for various industries including healthcare, supply chain, gaming, logistics, food and agriculture.

Cryptocurrency tokens will serve as the fuel to the decentralised application network. These tokens serve as a function of utility for accessing products and services of dApps. Since dApps are rapidly being developed for multiple industries, subsequently there will be a lot more digital currencies in the next few years.

What to expect next?

The potential of digital currencies empowered by blockchain technology is unprecedented. Looking at the current advancements and projects that are underway in the crypto and blockchain ecosystem, we are going to witness disruption in multiple industries. Even the current stats, analysis, and figures reveal that blockchain will be one of the greatest innovations of this century.

Owing to its advantages and subsequent developments in the cryptocurrency arena, the perception of this entire industry has transformed. The question has changed from ‘Is there a future of cryptocurrency’ to ‘What is the scale of implications of cryptocurrencies on our future’.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image Credit: Harrison Kugler on Unsplash

The post How bright is the future of cryptocurrency? appeared first on e27.

Lanturn, a one-stop online corporate services startup based in Singapore, announced today that it has raised US$3 million in a seed funding round from a slew of investors, including East Ventures and Hong Kong-based CoCoon Ignite Ventures.

Also participating in the round were individual investors, including Alex Turnbull; Saki Georgiadis, Managing Partner at RVP Equity; Meiyen Tan, Head of Oon & Bazul’s Restructuring and Insolvency Practice; Chris Kelly, Partner at White & Case in the Asia-Pacific; and Tiang Foo Lim, a venture partner at Next Billion Ventures and a partner at SeedPlus.

The funds will be used to enhance Lanturn’s corporate service and accounting practices, continue to develop the Zave corporate services platform, and develop new service lines.

Also Read: East Ventures forms new US$88M seed fund for startups weathering COVID-19, announces first close

Started in 2018, Lanturn provides cloud corporate services for accounting and tax, corporate secretaries, incorporation, virtual CFOs, immigration and visa applications. Its clients include early-stage technology firms, SMEs and Singapore-based private equity firms, venture capital firms and venture debt funds.

“Nobody runs a tech firm, an SME or a fund because they want to do tax filings, accounting, visa applications, etc., and it’s often deeply frustrating how much time administrative tasks can take if you manage them in-house without the benefit of custom-built technology,” said Velisarios Kattoulas, CEO of Lanturn.

“We think it makes much better sense for our entrepreneurs and investors to focus on their core businesses. We also think that cloud technology can make corporate services, accounting and other services more efficient. That’s why we continue to invest in the Zave platform, the corporate services platform that we started building in 2017,” he added.

Also Read: Online corporate service platform Sleek secures US$5M seed round, focussing on Hong Kong market

“Many startups and other small businesses have innovative business propositions, but they often find it challenging to juggle developing their products and solutions for the market while handling routine bookkeeping, compliance checks and so on,” commented Batara Eto, Managing Partner and Co-founder of East Ventures, which recently closed its eighth fund.

“We are pleased to support solutions that enable agility and adaptability among businesses, especially in the wake of the pandemic, and Lanturn provides that by leveraging technology to streamline corporate services and empower businesses to make more informed data-driven decisions,” Eto said.

Lanturn has a competitor in Singapore. Sleek, which was founded in 2017, had raised US$5 million in an extended seed round in December 2019. This round was led by Asia-focussed private investment firm MI8, Trafigura non-executive director Pierre Lorinet, and angel investor Fabio Blom.

—

Photo by Andrew Neelon Unsplash

The post Lanturn secures US$3M to provide online corporate services to organisations in Singapore appeared first on e27.

Indonesia-based fintech platform Kredivo has finalised its acquisition of local financing company PT Swarna Niaga Finance for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition process has begun since the middle of last year.

Kredivo Indonesia CEO Alie Tan said that the move will not change the company’s business direction. According to the CEO, ever since the beginning, Kredivo’s financing scheme is dominated by consumer credit providers instead of cash lenders. This is also the reason why multi financing license is deemed more suitable for Kredivo.

“This is why we can expect to grow rapidly and serve 10 million users in the next few years,” Tan told DailySocial on Tuesday, October 6.

His statement strengthened that of Co-Founder Akshay Garg who said that Kredivo’s lending service will be able to grow through multi financing licenses.

The license is considered more secure as there is already a fully formed regulation by the authority. In fact, the license also enables Kredivo to channel 30 per cent of its financing to online lending platforms.

Also Read: Kredivo raises US$90M to expand its lending biz in Indonesia; to roll out low-interest education, healthcare, Shariah loans

In a statement letter by Financial Services Authority (OJK), following the acquisition, PT Swarna Niaga Finance changed its name to PT FinAccel Finance Indonesia. The letter was dated September 22; it also serves a license to operate for the company.

“The Commissioner Board of OJK is granting this financing business license as related to the name change of PT Swarna Niaga Finance to PT FinAccel Finance Indonesia,” wrote Dewi Astuti, head of non-bank finance institution supervisory board at OJK in the statement letter.

This means PT FinAccel Finance Indonesia has officially secured two licenses as P2P lending and multi financing providers. The company is registered under the POJK 77 Year 2016 regulation on March 21, 2018.

Kredivo and Akulaku

Tan declined to share further details on Kredivo’s plan with this new license. “We will soon share the roadmap as we are still working on it internally,” he said.

One thing for certain is that by becoming a multi financing company, it will be easier for Kredivo to channel multipurpose financing to other sectors, as with the typical multi financing companies. They can expand to vehicle, property, and electronic financing, for example.

For resources, they can rely on loans from banks through channelling or joint financing, obligation, on/offshore syndication, or IPO. There is a similarity between Kredivo’s business direction today with Akulaku, another leading Indonesian fintech company.

—

The article was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Marsya Nabila for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

Image Credit: Kredivo

The post Kredivo finalises acquisition of financing company, aims to expand business ‘immediately’ appeared first on e27.

Despite one in seven Singaporeans experiencing mental health challenges at some point in their lives, only a quarter of those seeks treatment for it.

The uncomfortable truth is we do not perceive mental health to be as important as its physical counterpart. While there had been an increase in raising awareness and educating the community on mental health, few are doing what matters most – taking action to solve mental health issues.

That was the state of mental health in 2018. Back then, Joan Low was in the fast-paced banking industry. Having been a mental health caregiver for more than two decades, she saw gaps that needed plugging within the conventional mental healthcare system in Southeast Asia.

With a desire to solve hurdles impeding others from taking action on their mental health, she founded Thoughtfull. “We want to empower the community to take ownership of their mental health by making healthcare affordable and accessible to the masses,” Low tells e27 in an interview.

In line with their goal of providing accessible mental health solutions, its consultancy arm Thoughtfull Education works with corporates to implement end-to-end mental wellness programmes for their employees. Having interacted with thousands of working professionals through Thoughtfull Education, Joan realised the stigma surrounding mental health within workplaces was an issue that needed solving.

She shares that preventive mental healthcare was nascent within traditionally conservative Asian societies due to this stigma. “Majority only engage with mental health professionals upon reaching a breaking point where their issues interfere with their daily lives,” she says.

Also Read: Peace of mind: Meet the coworking space that aims to facilitate mental health professionals’ practices

Prevention is better than cure

“We wanted to shift the focus on mental health issues upstream to target the prevention of such issues from arising in the first place,” Low explains as she embarked on a quest to solve this issue.

The idea led to the birth of Thoughtfull Chat. The mobile platform connects users to accredited mental health professionals for daily conversations. Joan believes going digital adds an element of privacy that removes the stigma hindering potential users from engaging with their mental health issues.

“Daily engagements with professionals are a step towards normalising engagement with mental health,” Low opines. Online tracking of users’ mental health progress also serves as a barometer of one’s mental health condition and improvements in it encourages users to continue on the journey towards better mental health.

Acknowledging that mental wellness is a deeply personal topic, Low shares that Thoughtfull is mindful of providing a human-centric experience through their carefully crafted user experience on Thoughtfull Chat.

To ensure the quality and authenticity of a user’s journey on the platform, professional mental health experts on the platform are thoroughly screened and accredited by the relevant bodies before they are allowed to consult users.

Combating stigma with digitalisation

Leveraging on digitalisation to improve one’s access to mental health solutions, Low explains the long-term nature of conversations on Thoughtfull Chat is integral to preventing mental health issues from developing.

Further integrating mental healthcare into our daily lives, the chat app is easily accessible on mobile devices, making engaging with mental health manageable even for the busiest professionals. Thereby, further reducing the stigma associated with it.

Also Read: Holmusk closes US$21.5M Series A to build real-world evidence platform for mental health

Discussing the impact the pandemic had on their business, Low remarks the great groundwork done by the team since its founding in 2018 provided a strong foundation for them to capture the numerous growth opportunities presented this year. Having met its annual sales target within the first six months of the year, the Thoughtfull team is not resting on its laurels.

With new features released every fortnight, Thoughtfull Chat users can look forward to more products to enrich their mental wellness. The team recently launched a learning package within the app. Consisting of curated and evidence-based lessons packed with actionable tips, it is targeted at users keen to self-educate themselves on various mental wellness practices without the need for a coach.

“We are also working on implementing artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the user journey and provide more accurate and timely mental healthcare,” Joan closes.

—

Image Credit: Thoughtfull

The post How Thoughtfull aims to destigmatise mental health through daily chats with professionals appeared first on e27.

Tesla in early talks for potential investment in Indonesia; The archipelago is a major producer of nickel, a preferred chemical feed in the production of cathode materials for nickel-bearing lithium-ion batteries, primarily for EVs; The country has been increasing its capacity by 46 per cent year-over-year to 550K tonnes of nickel. Reuters

Singapore’s Sea is world’s best performing stock. And it can do better; With gaming, e-commerce, and now digital payments in its suite of offerings, the future of Sea is in its own hands; It has US$3.5B of cash in the bank; Tencent owns 22.9% of its outstanding shares. Channel News Asia

Lanturn, a Singaporean tech-enabled corporate services provider, raises US$3M; Investors are East Ventures, CoCoon Ignite Ventures; Lanturn’s services include helping companies incorporate in Singapore and handling visa applications for new hires. TechCrunch

Ant Group’s mega-IPO: Five things to know about the fintech king; Aiming for a valuation of over US$250B, the company hopes to raise US$35B in a dual listing split equally between Hong Kong and Shanghai; Ant is a virtual financial services mall for everything from loans to mutual funds, insurance policies and travel bookings. Nikkei Asia Review

Malaysia’s Cradle Fund mulls equity investments as funding tap runs dry for early-stage startups; The agency was asked by the Mahathir Mohamad government to focus more on grants instead of equity to avoid duplicating the work of other state-backed VCs; Subsequently, its investment programme DEQ800 was wound up. DealStreetAsia

Thai Union invests in Singapore’s Alchemy Foodtech, VisVires New Protein from its US$30M fund; Alchemy develops novel active food ingredients that fight diabetes whereas VisVires is a fund that invests in companies entrepreneurs in the sustainable agri-food industry. e27

How theAsianparent aims to help reduce stillbirth rates in SEA; The firm has developed Project Sidekicks which helps mothers count fetal kicks in a gamified manner; Other ways to help prevent stillbirths is by having mothers to sleep on their side which theAsianparent encourages through social media campaigns such as #SleeponSide. e27

Bukalapak co-founders’ early-stage fund Init 6 invests in Indonesian edutech Codemi; The startup provides cloud-based learning management system for corporations; It has also appointed Achmad Zaky as Commissioner. e27

SBI Group, Sygnum launch early-stage fund to back digital asset firms in SEA; The primary focus is on financial market infra and enterprise solutions being developed for the emerging digital asset economy; The two firms intend to tokenise the fund structure in order to increase accessibility for investors and offer them the potential for greater liquidity post-investment. e27

Vietnamese podcast startup Waves has ceased ops and returned money to its investors; In Feb, the startup had raised US$1.2M seed funding, led by Insignia; Waves had 30+ original programmes and 50 programmes created with partners on the platform as of Feb; 500 Startups-backed Voiz FM is one of its competitors in the country. VietReader

Rajan Anandan to entrepreneurs: ‘Trim the fat and build a leaner organisation’; Building a company that is efficient and can provide maximum value to a customer will become the winner during this unprecedented time; The best companies are almost always able to raise funding, no matter what. e27

Malaysia’s Nikahsatu raises seed funding from 500 Startups; The platform provides digital wedding solutions, nuptial financing solutions, and curated one-stop wedding solutions for Malaysian and Singapore markets; It has so far attracted close to 3M visitors from across the region. Bernama

FROGS wants to become the first startup in SEA to fly passenger drones; The drone, which had a successful test run in Indonesia early this year, can carry up to two passengers, fly at 100 kmph and has a 30 minutes’ flight time; The startup also designs surveillance, cargo, sprayer and passenger drones. e27

Irish biometric authentication firm Daon opens in Singapore; It has appointed cybersecurity expert Trilochan Sehgal to lead its regional ops; The firm aims to capitalise on the demand for its biometric authentication and identity assurance solutions, amid the introduction of digital banking regimes in the region. Finews.Asia

How businesses can protect themselves from digital risks; In 2018 alone, WiFi connectivity downtime caused losses worth around US$51M for APAC-based enterprises; As per a survey, over 31% stated that outages have cost their business more than US$1.2M while a further 17% said such shutdowns hit revenues by more than US$6M. e27

Singapore’s Reality Detector (RD) raises US$370K from Draper Associates; RD is a deep-tech startup that delivers video-based deception detection software; Its purpose is to create a world where all people can access undistorted reality and accurately place their trust in others, restoring authenticity, realism and credibility in human interactions.

How can we build digital resilience?; Organisations should look to incorporate ‘security by design’ approach as a default mindset; They should integrate automation, machine learning and analytics to increase the efficiency of their security threat detection capability. Gov Insider

iVS launches in-stream video ads marketplace in SEA; It provides advertisers with a single point of access to in-stream video inventory across premium publishers in the region, whereas publishers get a platform with hosting, transcoding and streaming capabilities; In March 2019, iVS raised US$4.5M from Kickstart, SGInnovate, Monk’s Hill etc. e27

Bukalapak launches new fintech unit Buka Investasi Bersama (BII); It aims to turn 500,000 of its users into mutual funds investors by 2021; BII is an extension of the financial services Bukalapak has been providing since 2016; It already runs BukaReksa, which also provides mutual funds services. e27

3 Singapore startups on the list of 10 selected for Accenture’s fintech mentorship programme 2020; They are Symbo, Staple and UVAS; The programme is based on five themes: data & analytics, digital bank solutions, emerging tech, health insurance, and intelligent automation; The 2020 programme formally kicks off this week and culminates in December. e27

How these 6 Asian startups use the digital revolution for social good; The R Collective, Freedom Cups, Impact Terra, Lumitics, BukuWarung, iHandal Energy are impacting millions of people in Southeast Asia. e27

Malaysian government mulling review of existing fintech policies; This includes policies to address the tech gap between generations, SMEs’ readiness to adopt digital financial services, as well as developing the halal economy via the digital platforms. The Malaysia Reserve

Deliveroo partners with barePack to curb single-use packaging waste from food deliveries in S’pore; Customers can elect to use reusable containers for delivery and pick-up orders from over 50 restaurants; barePack’s boxes are made from food-grade silicone and come with BPA-free polypropylene lids, while cups are made from stainless steel. RetailNewsAsia

Revolut Singapore ties up with NTUC Income to offer lifestyle-based insurance; Bite-sized premiums of $0.30, $0.50 and $0.70 will be linked to daily lifestyle activities such as dining, taking public transport, spending using Revolut Visa debit card as well as clocking steps on Fitbit. Fintech News

Shopee, Lazada, Qoo10, Amazon are hiring in Singapore: Which is the best to work for?; Currently, Amazon is hiring for over 200 jobs based in Singapore; Lazada and Qoo10 are hiring actively, from data science to strategy to product management; Based on the overall e-commerce traffic in Singapore, the top five e-commerce players that emerged are Shopee, Lazada, Qoo10, Amazon, and EZBuy. Vulcan Post

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Tesla in talks for investment in Indonesia; Vietnam’s podcast startup Waves shuts down; Lanturn raises US$3M appeared first on e27.

Malaysia-based startup Nikahsatu has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from 500 Startups, according to Utusan Malaysia.

“The funding will help us increase the average transaction value over the next 12 months by providing full wedding categories on a single platform to as many cities and towns,” Rushdi Razif, co-founder of Nikahsatu, said.

Founded in 2017, Nikahsatu is an all-in-one wedding solutions platform which also provides marriage financing solutions, and is particularly focussed in the Malaysian and Singapore market. The goal of the company is to provide quality and affordable solutions to underserved segments.

Recently the company launched a digital card through which guests can send cash gifts to the bride and groom.

Also Read: Tokopedia buys wedding directory BrideStory and children activity platform ParentStory

The company claims to have recorded a seven-figure annualised revenue in dollars terms and says that it has grown 2.4 times in February (pre-lockdown) despite the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down wedding industries.

That being said, the company definitely has plenty of competition in the Malaysian market from companies such as Bridalgram.

What makes Nikahsatu different is its mission of providing high-quality wedding services digitally to smaller town brides with below 40 per cent of income.

500 Startups Managing Partner Khailee Ng said that he did not see Nikahsatu as a wedding business, but rather as “a captive e-commerce and fintech business that has in-built viral user acquisition.”

“The cost of scaling and the margins they can retain is impressive. They don’t need much venture capital to get to US$100 million revenues at all,” he added.

–

Image Credit:  Drew Coffman

 

The post Nikahsatu raises seed capital from 500 Startups to bring affordable wedding solutions appeared first on e27.

The Digital Revolution is upon us. It’s changing everything, and it starts with data. It’s changing the world’s economy and bringing new leaders into the light, influencing international relations on a global scale, and creating disputes over data rights. A shift in power and thinking has arrived.

With new data comes new opportunity. When done correctly, this newly-available information architecture can help some of our generation’s brightest minds make an impact that could last lifetimes. That is what is happening in Southeast Asia.

Solve a problem and fix it. In the simplest sense, that’s what it comes down to. When brilliant minds sit around a table, talk on the phone, or ideate a business idea from across the globe, the inevitable beginning includes one straightforward question: What’s the problem in my neighbourhood, city, or country, and how can I fix it?

Make money, and you’ve answered the question correctly. Make money and improve your neighbourhood, city, country, or planet while you do it, and you’re using the Digital Revolution to change your world for the better.

Here are six Asian startups that are doing it right.

The R Collective, Hong Kong

Born from Redress, a charity founded in Hong Kong in 2007 to battle waste in the fashion industry, The R Collective employs sustainability-minded producers, designers, and marketers to create fresh clothing and fashion designs using end-of-life upcycled materials.

The R Collective rescues fabric and other materials close to destruction, reuses even the smallest scraps that don’t make it into specific designs in other projects, and reimagines fashion processes to give its clientele a new outlook on the industry with creativity and innovation.

The result is a 15 per cent decrease in fabric cutting waste when compared to traditional practices.

Also Read: How social good can target business challenges

The fashion and textile industry is the second-largest polluter globally and produced 2.1 million tons of CO2 in 2018, approximately four per cent of the planet’s emissions.

By pursuing a dedicated and driven approach to waste reduction in the fashion industry, The R Collective is doing its part to drive the industry as a whole toward circular fashion, a bold initiative championed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Design Strategies.

Freedom Cups, Singapore

There are 1.2 billion women worldwide who do not have access to or cannot afford necessary feminine hygiene products. Freedom Cups, a revolutionary company founded by three sisters, seeks to end the period problem worldwide by selling Freedom Cups to women who can afford them and giving them to women who can’t.

The business model is simple: for every one Freedom Cup purchased, one is donated to a person in need.

In addition to providing a humanitarian solution to a global problem, Freedom Cups also make a sizable difference in waste reduction. The cups are reusable, can be used for up to 12 hours at a time, last up to 10 years, are relatively inexpensive, and consist of medical-grade silicone. One Freedom Cup equals approximately 5,000 regular pads or tampons per woman. That’s a lot of saved waste.

Freedom Cups are available in single cups or a package of three. The company also offers a variety of other cleansing products, such as liquid soap and wipes.

Freedom Cups have partnered with women organisations around Africa and Asia to give back to low-income communities.

Impact Terra, Myanmar

Founded in 2016 by Erwin Sikma, Impact Terra provides data-based services to Myanmar’s farmers in a way never done before.

Also Read: Southeast Asia is in plastic waste crisis, and these 16 sustainable startups strive to turn things around

Over 70 per cent of Myanmar’s population is directly or indirectly affected by the agriculture industry. Now, with Impact Terra’s Golden Paddy Platform, farmers can get customised and real-time updates about weather patterns and local crop prices, as well as access to favourable and formal financing opportunities at reasonable rates.

Based on where a user lives, Golden Paddy will give actionable suggestions about market changes, updated farming best practices, and tips on overcoming climate change in the region.

Impact Terra’s mission is to digitally empower smallholder farmers worldwide by offering their data services to all corners of the country. Approximately 80 per cent of Burmese farmers have an internet connection on their phones, giving them up-to-the-minute status updates.

Impact Terra’s impact goes deeper than merely giving information to farmers. The benefits are far-reaching and wide-ranging in a country that saw nearly 25 per cent of its population living at or below the poverty line as recently as 2017. The Golden Paddy Platform lifts people out of poverty by reducing crop and food waste with its information architecture and availability.

It eliminates hunger by increasing food availability and informing about sustainable food production. It empowers thousands of women by allowing them access to the same information as men farmers. It creates climate awareness through its market research, financing opportunities, crop recommendations, and weather updates.

Lumitics, Singapore

Lumitics aims to reduce food waste by up to 30 per cent, cut yearly food costs up to eight per cent, and drastically lower users’ environmental footprint with its seamless food waste solution: Insight.

Intended for restaurants, hotels, casinos, cruise ships, and airliners, Insight offers data analysis with the push of a button to optimise production, preserve yield rates, engineer menus and provide a complete outline for smarter purchasing.

Also Read: Taipei to host global entrepreneurs’ conference exploring use of AI, IoT for social good

It’s simple: attach Insight to any rubbish bin in the kitchen, toss leftover food inside, press the button, and Insight tracks, identifies, measures, and quantifies the amount and type of food waste.

Co-founder and CEO Rayner Loi said the team has partnered with some of the world’s largest hotel chains and hopes to expand its reach quickly to maximise food waste reduction.

Over 1.6 billion tons of food is wasted each year globally, including just over 763,000 tons in Singapore alone. That equals to approximately six per cent of all emitted greenhouses gases during a calendar year.

More data gives business owners and corporations the tools necessary to make environmentally-friendly and cost-effective food waste decisions.

BukuWarung – Indonesia

BukuWarung gives the power back to the people. For the estimated 60 million micro-merchants dotting Indonesian cities, towns, and villages, BukuWarung allows small businesses to use digital and straightforward bookkeeping services.

Because many small business owners throughout Indonesia use low-end smartphones and flip phones, the app is ultra-lightweight to allow online and offline ledger editing.

Also Read: 6 social enterprises that want to change the world

Since BukuWarung’s initial launch, co-founders Chinmay Chauhan and Abhinay Peddisetty say the business has more than 200,000 active monthly users.

But BukuWarung has loftier goals set for the near future, including a full suite of financial services. As COVID-19 ravages the world, Indonesian consumers continue to demand contactless payments and instant payouts to optimise comfort during financial transactions. Investors believe BukuWarung fills this financial service need for the country.

On September 29, the company secured an investment round led by several prominent angel investors such as Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen and Uber CPO Scott Belsky.

BukuWarung hopes that it will reach all 60 million businesses across the country and become an all-in-one solution for business financial needs in time. So far, the company has 600,000 registered merchants across 750 cities, towns, and villages.

iHandal Energy Solutions, Malaysia

iHandal CEO Aaron Patel came up with the idea for his energy solutions business when he found the potential to save over 90 per cent of thermal emissions as a 15-year-old boy in high school. The idea came out of necessity after his dad suffered a stroke, and the boy had to help make money for the family.

iHandal offers arecyclable energy solution that takes wasted energy from businesses, hotels, and corporations and turns it into sustainable heating and cooling.

Also Read: For social enterprise, how to balance social good with the realities of business?</a>

iHandal captures excess energy and wasted heat, compresses it with its heat fuse technology, and channels it back into the building to different processes, saving money and reducing emissions.

The Malaysian-based company will first complete an energy audit for potential clients for free and offer a guaranteed amount of savings. The system will then run until it reaches the agreed-upon thermal energy cost savings.

iHandal’s vision is to develop innovative solutions to create a better environment for future generations. It aims to save 200 million tons of emissions by 2030, the rough equivalent of 42 million passenger vehicles per year.

The company has partnered with the Ritz Carlton Millenia in Singapore, the Tune Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, and the Equatorial Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, among others. The company has a 60 per cent market share in Malaysia and has contracts in Australia, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and the US.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image Credit: Matias Malka on Unsplash

The post How these 6 Asian startups use the digital revolution for social good appeared first on e27.

As a leading pregnancy and babycare site and app in Southeast Asia (SEA), theAsianparent regularly spends hours in their product team meetings, analysing user behaviour. One time, the team noticed an “odd pattern” where heavy users would suddenly stop using the pregnancy tracker feature on the app.

Initially, they attributed the change to usual stuff such as mothers getting too busy with birth preparations to update the app. But then they uncovered the truth.

“We dug deeper and uncovered the painful truth that it was because they had experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth. And with horror, we realised that we were sending them push notifications about the upcoming arrival of their child when they were already grieving,” explains Roshni Mahtani Cheung, Founder & Group CEO of theAsianparent, in an email to e27.

The findings had led theAsianparent to start Project Sidekicks, a new initiative that aims to tackle the issue of high stillbirth rate in SEA. With the goal to reduce stillbirth rates in the region by 10 per cent over the next three years, there are three directions that the company is taking with its platform:

1. Content
The company aims to raise awareness of stillbirth risks and prevention through articles, videos, and infographics across its platform and partner media.

2. Community
It also provides support to parents who have experienced stillbirth and assist through their recovery process.

3. Tech
And finally, the company launches new functions to help reduce stillbirth: Kick Counter, Professional Advice, and Timely Notifications.

Saving lives

In Southeast Asia, stillbirth rates remain high with countries such as Indonesia having the highest rate. According to statistics, 13 out of 1,000 births in the country are stillbirth.

Also Read: theAsianparent onboards ex-Mumbrella Asia GM Dean Carroll to drive offline initiatives for brands, communities

But the good news is that, according to the WHO, about one-third of these cases are actually preventable. For example, in the third trimester, parents are encouraged to track their child’s movements and seek medical help when they notice anything unusual.

In the platform developed by theAsianparent, this effort is represented through the Kick Counter feature on their app which helps mothers count fetal kicks in a gamified manner.

Other ways to help prevent stillbirths is by having mothers to sleep on their side which theAsianparent encourages through social media campaigns such as #SleeponSide.

The team is also aware that stillbirth is a sensitive topic for discussion.

“theAsianparent approach to tackling any topic, from the most benign to the most taboo, is one that is non-judgemental. We focus on providing information, letting our readers decide what perspective they take,” Cheung explains.

“For this campaign, it was vital that we had medical experts to help us with that information. Mums and dads were able to access them too, through our webinars these past few months, covering topics like mental health during pregnancy and the importance of kick counting,” she continues.

Members of its community also take part by sharing their experiences.

“The project name SideKicks also expresses how theAsianparent is right there with mums and dads in this journey and throughout their parenthood. And the amazing part always is that we create these campaigns for the community, but they’re the ones who grow it and drive it. That really is the beauty of what theAsianparent has become and stands for,” Cheung says.

Also Read: Tickled media’s theAsianparent closes a seven-figure Series C funding to expand its baby products business

What is next

Project Sidekicks was launched in July and theAsianparent continues to work with different partners to promote it.

“With our mission to help 100 million families have healthy pregnancies and families, we find Project Sidekicks at the core of what we’ve set out to do,” Cheung says.

In 2021, at the next phase of the project, the company plans to expand their coverage to include miscarriages and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

“I know that baby loss is such a tough, heavy topic to bring to light and discuss openly. That only means that there are so many questions unasked, stories never told, support never given, advice never heard,” Cheung stresses.

“So we are committing to this cause, with the hope that it makes a difference. Just one life saved through Project Sidekicks will make every second and cent that has gone into the campaign, worth it millions and billions of times over,” she closes.

 

The post How theAsianparent aims to help reduce stillbirth rates in Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.