The deal includes two Vietnam-based online platforms centred around parenting Marrybaby.vn and weddings Marry.vn

Singapore-based Hello Health Group, which runs various health content information sites in Asia, has announced the acquisition of Marry Network from global media company Ringier Vietnam.

The deal includes two Vietnam-based online platforms centred around parenting (Marrybaby.vn) and weddings (Marry.vn).

“Our company’s mission to democratise access to healthcare by taking the world’s healthcare information and making it universally accessible and useful matches perfectly with the Marry Network ́s approach. We are happy to include the Marry Network into our Hello Health Group platforms that inform, educate and engage over 32 million unique users each month. With our digital expertise, we will help the Marry Network to reach their target audience in the best possible way,” said James Miles-Lambert, CEO of Hello Health Group.

Founded in 2015, Hello Health Group is focusing on the development of healthcare platforms across emerging countries in Asia. The group helps healthcare brands connect to the audience via its eight different platforms — Hello Bacsi (Vietnam), Hello Sehat (Indonesia), Hello Sayarwon (Myanmar), Hello Doktor (Malaysia), Hello Khunmor (Thailand), Hello Krupet (Cambodia), Hello Yishi (Taiwan), and Hello Swasthya (India).

Also Read: ‘We aim to transform car ownership through our 360-degree approach’: Carro Founder Aaron Tan

With over 32 million monthly users in the region, including over 7.5 million in Vietnam, the group is also now investing beyond the media sector to develop new health tech ventures. This includes the recently-launched medical travel platform Go.care, as well as plans to enter digital insurance.

Founded in 1833, Ringier is a diversified media company with about 7,300 employees across 19 countries. Ringier manages many brands in print, TV, radio, online and mobile media. Ringier is a Swiss family-owned business with head offices in Zurich.

Ringier Vietnam is headquartered in HCMC and has office in Hanoi. Ringier Vietnam has developed a diversified multi-media operation, publishing brands such as Elle, Elle Man, Elle Decoration and Muabannhadat.vn, an online marketplace for buying and selling property.

 

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Arcor Capital will work with Helicap Investments to raise US$180 million in capital from accredited investors

Singapore-based fintech platform that specialises in alternative lending in Southeast Asia, Helicap, today announced its acquisition of securities firm Arcor Capital for an undisclosed sum.

As a newly acquired company, Arcor Capital will work together with sister company Helicap Investments (under the Helicap Group) to raise S$250 million (US$180 million) in capital from accredited investors.

Helicap Investments itself has obtained Registered Fund Management Company status in April. It aims to connect underserved consumer and corporate credit market in Southeast Asia by using its proprietary, data-driven analytics platform.

Having invested in eight Asian alternative lending platforms, Helicap Investments will launch its first fund with a target AUM of S$200 million (US$144 million).

Following the acquisition, Arcor Capital co-founders and managing partners Patrick Hong and Rahul Khemka will remain in their senior management roles.

Also Read: The case for alternative lending

Arcor Capital co-founder Simon Ong will also remain in his role as Senior Advisor to the company.

In a press statement, Helicap Co-Founder and CEO David Z. Wang named the acquisition as a “landmark moment” for the 18-month startup.

“The acquisition, together with Helicap Investments successfully obtaining registered fund management company status, enhances the Group’s leading position in the alternative lending market and enables us to immediately ramp up our engagement with sophisticated investors via debt securities fundraising and credit fund management,” he said.

“We are delighted to welcome stellar finance professionals – Patrick and Rahul – to the Helicap family and
leverage their decades of experience to further add to Helicap’s reputation of backing sound and reputable companies,” he continued.

Arcor Capital specialises in private debt securities and growth capital for early stage and mid-market enterprises in Asia.

It holds a Capital Markets Services (CMS) licence for dealing in securities from the Monetary Authority
of Singapore (MAS).

Also Read: Helicap raises US$1.5M seed funding round led by Singapore’s ex-minister of state Teo Ser Luck

As for Helicap, the company facilitates loans to business owners and individuals who are unable to access loans provided by traditional financial institutions such as banks.

Founded in 2017, it raised a US$5 million Pre-Series A funding round led by East Ventures and real estate conglomerate Soilbuild Group Holdings in September 2018.

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Image Credit: Helicap

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Circles.Life and its plans on dominating the telco market

 

In this day and age, where the world is connected through digital services with millennials being constantly glued to their phones, it can be a disaster to suffer from bad reception or slow customer service.

It seems that Singapore-based telco company Circles.Life has figured out just how to take telecommunications to the next level by introducing a handful of new features, along with an OS (operating system) for telcos.

This has not just allowed consumers to gain flexibility and control but has also managed to cut operational costs by a whopping amount of 95 per cent. 

“The actual problems of standing in queues or your bill being wrong, those real problems cannot be solved just by cutting the price,” says Gupta.

In this interview with e27, Gupta discusses the local telecom industry, competition, price wars, Circle.Life’s diversification plans and expansion strategies.

Circles Life is growing so fast. But as a co-founder, what is the one thing that drives you and gets you going?

A.G: I would say that the biggest thing is the global potential of what we are trying to do.

What we have done in Singapore is to give power back to consumers, which manifests itself when you look at the net promoter scores towards customer satisfaction between us and the rest of the telcos.

We are trying to solve a global problem that needs to be addressed in not just Singapore, but around the world. 

People always say that we have millions of subscribers, but I reply saying that the path from there is to get to a billion subscribers one day. 

There’s a long way ahead, but that is what gets us most excited. 

Circles.Life has not just been growing, but also expanding at a substantial rate. Besides Taiwan and Australia, what are some other expansion plans for the company in the Asia Pacific -or even beyond?

A.G: If you look in the next two-to-three-year horizon, we are looking to expand to pretty much every country that you can think of in Asia. 

So that will be every country … in Asia because we believe that customers in the immediate vicinity of Singapore should all get these digital services. 

What we have planned outside of Taiwan and Australia is to hit up Indonesia, which is a market where we would be launching this year. Most probably in the last quarter of this year. 

We have a few conversations going around, and at the right stage, we will be very happy to share.

Speaking of which, what are some strategies that you will be using to gain success in these new markets that you have been entering so rapidly?

A.G: While we are expanding, we are not expanding fast, if I may be frank. The reason is that we believe expanding indiscriminately is not the answer. 

It has to be very strategic and has to be thought through because it is an essential service. It is like banking.

You know telcos are an essential service.

You really cannot get that flow wrong, and you do not want to trouble customers because we are all about giving power back to the customers. 

So in that sense, I do not think two countries are too much if you’re looking at startups who are looking at fifteen countries in six months.

We are not those types.

In terms of strategy, the biggest thing that helps us is that we built the world’s first operating system for telcos. 

This is an essential point because just as we have an operating system for computers like Windows and operating system for phones like Android and iOS. 

There has never been an operating system for telcos, and that is just what we have created. 

Just having that operating system that allows us to go from country A to B to C without having to flex our technological muscles every time, to do things that have been done before. 

We can launch in a much shorter time. We can use the same power that we have provided to customers here to customers elsewhere very, very quickly. That I would say is the core of our strategy. 

I notice that there have been added features in your app, such as booking movies and checking showtimes. Is it safe to say that Circles.Life is aiming to become a super app, similar to Grab?

A.G: I would say being a super app … is not the centre point of our strategy. 

The most important thing is innovation. That may –or may not– mean that we are trying to be a super app.

We are launching many services, but those services are trying to address the same kind of pain points that customers had for telcos. 

For example, in the case of booking a movie, the process is painful. For a user to see the booking platform, the movie playing, how many tickets are there etc is painful, it’s a different issue that a lot of people don’t watch movies in theatres these days. 

So we want to change that and make it easy for people to go through the whole process.

You could say that we are going off to many services and that they are essentially divided between two or three major angles. 

One of them would be financial services, another one is around entertainment and its discovery, and the third one would be around travel. 

So there are specific things that you want to expand on.

A.G: That’s right, and there are things that people just like about us. 

There is a polling game where people gets to decide which question goes to everybody. For example, is there anything tastier than Hainanese chicken rice?

It’s a fun thing, you know. 

One of the things that intrigue me about Circles.Life is its bold marketing campaigns, which includes the vandalism of SG mobile and S$20 unlimited data. That was very bold.  In your earlier years, have there been experiences where you did something bold and unexpected? 

A.G:  I think I have been adventurous in my life. I have tried different things. 

When I came to Singapore with the choice between joining an English school and a Chinese choice, I picked the Chinese one despite being from a Non-Chinese background. So I went to Hwa Chong, a Chinese Junior College. 

Most people told me that I had gone crazy and that I was not going to survive. But I think I had a blast and a really good time.

Apart from that, I have also tried learning eight different languages and failed five times.

Failing five times sounds like the life of an entrepreneur. Apart from that, there has always been growing tension in Singapore markets with the entry of numerous telco operators. While Circles.Life has remained undeterred, managing to secure five per cent of the market share. However, do you see price drops as a threat to the telco industry?

A.G: Firstly, we are of the view that customers like a better experience. The segment that we are after is solidly behind services that priorities better quality over just price cuts. 

And we believe, in the long run, that it is the answer. 

The actual problem for standing in long queues or your bill being charged wrongly … those real problems cannot be solved by just cutting the price. 

Companies can keep cutting prices for telco services but only to a certain limit because beyond that they will not be comfortable. It will not have any return on the capital. 

So we expect this to end at some point. 

And up until now, we are unfazed by this because customers come to us despite the fact that our pricing is not the cheapest.

We pride ourselves in great services, and that is what we will continue to do.

What about countries such as Singapore, where things are moving relatively fast, and customer service is not a major factor in the success of a service?

A.G: I would say it is big enough that while we have not been the cheapest for the longest time, we continue to be the fastest-growing. 

We are not for every segment. Like, young students who are trying to save every dollar that they can. We might not even be for retirees. 

However, we are great for people who are working or are digitally savvy, who want to solve a telco-related issue with a click of a button, instead of “click 1 for this and click 2 for that.

People love the ease of the process, therefore we have not faced that challenge yet.

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Image Credit: Circles.Life

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Burnout is a silent startup killer

Don’t let the ping-pong table fool you, startup life is a full-time, often over-time job. Founders typically go 24/7, team members wear many hats, and even the intern needs an intern to help him out.

Many startup journeys are fuelled by purpose and passion. It’s good to love your job, just don’t marry it.

Team players, for all their admirable selflessness, may justify the early symptoms of burnout with a delusional brand of self-motivation.

Losing your motivation? Wake up, honeymoon’s over.

Taking your work home again? Now that’s dedication.

Always tired and stressed? What you need is a coffee.

Slipping performance at work? Work harder.

A growing dependency on alcohol, smoking or junk food? Hey, whatever’s your fuel.

Now your relationships are falling apart? They don’t understand your work.

Always feeling frustrated, negative and depressed? What you need is a coffee!

Acknowledging the toll your job is inflicting on your mental and emotional well-being is the key to averting burnout

This may be harder for those who pride themselves as team players. They can take on stress with the flawed resolve of a heavyweight boxer who doesn’t know when to throw the towel, even when he’s taking a complete beatdown.

To these team-first individuals, admitting to burning out not only shows they’re weak, it shows they are the weak link.

Timely intervention is critical to divert a collision course with burnout. The team-player in you may resist the idea of slowing down or taking a timeout, but burning out doesn’t have to mean copping out. Here are seven guilt-free strategies to manage burnout.

Also read: 6 ways to identify burnout before it seriously impacts your business

1. Tune out

The “always-on” startup mindset can prevent you from resting and recharging. Start by unplugging from the ecosystem during rest time. Remove yourself electronically from emails and instant messages. Detach yourself mentally from thoughts of deadlines.

If it’s unrealistic to disconnect for the evening or over the weekend, allocate specific check-in times that allow you to respond to emails and messages. This allows you to be fully present in your non-work life while being available on your terms.

You could let other team members know your tune-out times, and encourage them to set up theirs too. Everyone will appreciate this.

2. Block out

When we’re disorganised, we’re not only less productive, we’re also more stressed by the chaos around us. We worry more about our uncompleted tasks and feel the anxiety of not being in control of our situation.

Distractions like social media and personal instant messages steal our precious focus at work. Block out distractions while at work, or schedule specific times to check in on them. You’ll be more focused and productive, and your team will appreciate the difference.

3. Sieve out

We feel overwhelmed when we try to do too much with too little. Filter out the unnecessary and give your time and energy to the truly important.

Do you need to reply to every group chat just to “be heard”? Should you be at every meeting, including the one to select the wackiest photos from the Christmas party? Instead of trying to be omnipresent, choose to be fully present and engaged on the things that truly add value to your team and organisation.

Also read: How to embrace mental wellness in startup culture

4. Chill out

This one sounds simple: Work on having a life outside of work.

Get back to spending time on your favourite hobbies. They take your mind off work stress while refreshing and energising it. Your passions remind you of who you are and can help restore balance.

Invite your colleagues to a weekend barbecue. Set up Wednesday yoga classes or Friday night bowling. These are some great ways to calm frayed nerves and connect as a team outside the office.

5. Step out

The office is the physical epicentre of work stress. Whenever possible, step outside without compromising your productivity.

Forget the takeaway sandwich at the desk. Make lunch time a designated timeout by exploring new places to grab a bite with co-workers. Have the less formal meetings at a nearby café. Take your laptop to the open breakout area.

Arrange to work from home on certain days. Be there for your team without being there.

6. Cut out and Work out

Like your mind, your body takes a beating from burnout. Listen to what it’s trying to tell you, from headaches to numbing sensations. Loading up on junk food and caffeine puts more stress on your beleaguered body and can only exacerbate the burnout.

Exercise can do wonders to help the brain manage stress. Hit a nearby gym during lunchtime. Organise evening team runs with your co-workers. Get your body moving and your mind moves better, too!

7. Speak out

Before you’re completely burnt out, talk to someone — don’t suffer in silence.

Speak with your partners or other stakeholders about your unsustainable work situation. This is not a sign of weakness but a show of accountability. Clearly express what you need in terms of resources and ask for the necessary support to achieve your targets.

This is also the time to count on your support network of family and friends. Talk to them and lean on them. If you need professional help, it’s always better to seek out an executive coach or mentor before a meltdown.

The takeaway

Burnout is a silent startup-killer. Losing your motivation, self-confidence  or personal well-being— all important assets  in your startup journey— can deal a severe blow to team success. True team players understand this and take responsible steps to fight burnout before it hits.

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This article was first published on e27, on September 13, 2018.

e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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In today’s fast-paced world, do corporations have sufficient time to make a digital transformation?

The post Businesses are learning to code without coding appeared first on e27.

Solutions to data privacy are not going to be easy since how flawed current anonymisation practices are.

A paper published last month raises deep concerns about the way that user data is currently anonymised, and suggests that no complex dataset can be successfully anonymised using standard techniques.

The research has some pretty terrifying consequences.

It suggests that the data held by hospitals, credit agencies, and tech firms can never be protected sufficiently.

Even new technologies like AI and Blockchain rely on effective anonymisation in order to be secure, and this supposed anonymity is one of the factors driving Blockchain adoption in Asia.

Also Read: Implications and solutions for Big Data in insurance

Anonymity and identification

Anonymised datasets are supposed to allow researchers to work with data without being able to uniquely identify individuals.

A hospital, for instance, might remove names and dates of birth from patient data, and then release this to health researchers. 

The problem is that if this data contains enough data points, it can be reverse-engineered in order to identify individuals.

A number of high-profile examples of this have occurred in the past few years. 

In 2008, for instance, a publicly available Netflix dataset of film ratings was de-anonymized by comparing the ratings with public scores on the IMDb film website in 2014.

The home addresses of New York taxi drivers were revealed in a similar way, and in Australia, even health records were identified by comparing basic facts about patients. 

The recent research was carried out by Belgium’s Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and Imperial College London and aims to work out how many data sets like this can be re-identified.

Their conclusions are striking: a dataset that contains 15 demographic attributes, for instance, “would render 99.98 per cent of people in Massachusetts unique”. 

The problem gets even worse when the set of data is smaller. 

If town-level location data is included, for instance, “it would not take much to reidentify people living in Harwich Port, Massachusetts, a city of fewer than 2,000 inhabitants”.

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

The scale of the problem

These might seem like abstract concerns, but they are not.

The problem is that plenty of companies release ‘anonymous’ data sets as a core part of their business.

In many cases, in fact, selling this data provides the core income for these companies, and the larger the amount of data on each individual, the more the data sells for.

This gives companies an incentive to release huge, detailed data sets that can easily be de-anonymised.

The researchers of the recent report highlight a few examples of this.

They draw particular attention, for instance, to one set of data sold to the computer software firm Alteryx, which contained 248 attributes per household for 120 million Americans.

The concerns raised by this research will affect companies and consumers differently.

Many companies work with a ‘anonymise, release, and forget’ attitude. The research suggests that this practice might have to change because it proves that supposedly secure data sets are anything but.

It also raises a question about whether anonymisation is enough for companies to comply with relevant legislation like the GDPR. 

For consumers, this research merely confirms a long-term concern about how private data is used by companies.

In many cases, users have given their permission for their data to be released by accident, because the relevant clause is hidden so deep in terms of use policy that it is not read by the average user. 

Even where users do not give explicit permission, plenty of companies release supposedly anonymous data by accident.

Gary Stevens, CISO at the community research group, HostingCanada, org, is one of a growing number of voices that have repeatedly raised concerns about the logging policies of supposedly secure VPN and email providers.

Stevens points out that even VPNs can leak data – and they often do – meaning that privacy applications which are supposed to protect us actually do the opposite. 

The solutions

Novel solutions to the problems raised by the research are in development, and several large companies have already taken measures to reduce the risk of re-identification.

Differential privacy is one such approach and is used by companies such as Apple and Uber.

Both of these companies release data sets from time to time, and these sets contain huge numbers of data points for each (anonymous) individual.

To avoid the risk of re-identification, though, differential privacy deliberately makes each data point ‘fuzzy’: each point is expressed as a range rather than a definite number.

These ranges are calculated in such a way that they average out over the whole data set, defeating attempts to uniquely identify each user.

Another approach is homomorphic encryption, which allows data to remain encrypted but still is manipulated by researchers. In the near future, it is also likely that AIs will provide a more exotic solution to the problem.

AI’s can be trained to work with large data sets, and then produce anonymous data that is statistically identical but contains different values. 

Protect yourself

Users, however, are unlikely to wait for these technologies to be implemented.

In fact, data from recent years suggests that users are more concerned than ever about their online privacy, and are increasingly turning to privacy tools to protect themselves against data leaks.

Whilst these tools might provide an extra level of defence against accidental releases of information, they do not protect consumers against the kind of releases covered in recent research.

Also Read: What role does big data play in the insurance industry?

In these cases, users had (knowingly or not) given consent for ‘anonymous’ data to be released. They – and the companies who released this information – were simply unaware that it could be re-identified.

Solutions to this issue are not going to be easy but rely on increased consciousness, both among users and tech companies themselves, about just how flawed current anonymisation practices are. 

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Image Credit: Guillermo Latorre

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The pace is changing in the marketplace, so entrepreneurs have to improve their ability to deal with change

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers.

Maybe it’s time to look harder at the mantra of a new breed of gurus and successful entrepreneurs, including Steve Blank and Eric Ries, called “nail it then scale it” (NISI).

You can review all the specifics of this approach in the classic book by Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom, appropriately titled “Nail It Then Scale It: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating and Managing Breakthrough Innovation,” but I will net it out here.

I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups:

Also Read: How to work with the right technology to tackle organisation problems for your business

• Nail the pain. Great companies begin with a customer problem that has a significant and monetizable pain point. Avoid the three big mistakes. Guessing but not testing the problem on customers, selecting a low customer problem, or selecting a problem only a small number of customers are willing to pay).
• Nail the solution. Neither breakthrough technology nor maximum features will assure that “if we build it, they will come.” NISI recommends starting with the minimum focused set of features and technology that will drive a customer purchase. Success demands to test the solution early and quickly in the market, then iterating to get it right.
• Nail the go-to-market strategy. In parallel with nailing the solution, you need an in-depth understanding of your target customer’s buying process, the job they are trying to get done, the market infrastructure, and a stable of serious pilot customers. Do real tests with real pricing to see if customers will pay you, without being pushed.
• Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. Don’t forget a viable financial model of costs, margins, customer acquisition, and break-even.
• Scale it. Don’t attempt to scale it until you have a proven, repeatable business model that predictably generates revenue. Only then is it time to focus on the get-big-fast strategy, and the transformation of three critical areas from startup to a managed growth company. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

These pragmatics and points of focus can effectively counter three core myths which trap too many enterprising and capable entrepreneurs today:

• Hero myth: Why believing in your product leads to failure. All too often, founders fall in love with their products or technology, ignore negative feedback from customers, and spend years building a product based on a vision that no one else shares.
• Process myth: Why building a product leads to failure. Conventional wisdom is that after a great idea, the next steps are raising some money, build a product, then sell the product. This doesn’t work when attacking unknown problems with untested solutions.
• Money myth: Why having too much money leads to failure. The old saying that “it takes money to make money” isn’t so simple. Money allows entrepreneurs to execute a flawed business plan far too long, rather than stay focused on the market and adapt.

At the heart of it, to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be customer-centric, and learn to change and adapt as fast as the market.

Also Read: 7 strategies for beating startup burnout

At the same time, more entrepreneurs are jumping into the fray, and less money is available from investors.

It’s time for a new startup model. In my view, savvy “super angel” investors such as Mike Maples, Jr., and leading incubators such as Y Combinator, are already on this one.

How far behind is your startup?

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It may seem trivial, but to reap the maximum benefits of your fundraising round, making a public announcement on it requires some strategy

I’ve noticed a trend in Southeast Asia: As soon as the founders sign the term sheet with their investors, they run off to the media, eager to announce their funding news to the world. Their excitement is not without reason: with a simple press release about their raise, their startup can get front and centre with millions of tech readers, including potential customers, employees, partners, co-founders, and even future investors.

In the age of TechCrunch and VentureBeat, successful fundraising is as much about communications as it is about capital: it can legitimize you – fairly or not – with key stakeholders in your startup and tech ecosystem. Announce a large enough deal in a niche vertical of tech and you can even dissuade investors from backing current or future competitors. In the tech world – perhaps more than anywhere else – money talks.

Fundraising, like every strategic decision in a startup, beginning from what you call your company and who you hire all the way down to where you chose to locate your office, has to have an element of external communications.

In this era where every business move is a potential signal, I would like to advise founders in Southeast Asia to think about their venture capital-related comms more strategically, as I myself had to learn. Late last month, we finally announced our first fundraising for our Manila-based, HR-tech company, Sprout Solutions.

Over the course of a few hours on an April afternoon, publication after publication shared that we had raised a “US$1.6 million in seed funding” or a “US$1.6 million seed round,” but the particulars of this announcement were months in the making. Most would assume that we went back and forth on sharing the amount we raised, as many startups are increasingly opting for a poker-style, close-to-the-vest “undisclosed” when pressed for numbers.

In our case, however, we were undecided on what to even call the round. Since there are no official guidelines for what constitutes a seed round versus a Series A, we could have fairly called it one or the other.

The relative fluidity between round categories made me realize that we at Sprout – and indeed other founders in Southeast Asia – need to view funding news much more strategically. To tackle this problem, I assembled Sprout co-founder Alex Gentry, our head of digital marketing (and social media guru) Nix Eniego, and marketing communications executive Lisanne Tumang. We agreed that the implications were significant either way.

Also Read: 3 ways the Startup Stack is powering up entrepreneurship in Singapore

If we called our US$1.6 million fundraise a “seed round”, we would typecast Sprout with the average seed stage venture in Southeast Asia. This average venture would likely still be figuring out product-market fit, have a handful of customers and some revenue, and look to scale only much further down the line.

Against this profile, Sprout was a round peg in a square hole: We had more than 200 paying clients, including some from the Fortune 100, had achieved profitability, and were optimizing processes to scale in the enterprise market in the short-term.

Sprout did not fit perfectly into the “Series A” profile either. The average Series A venture in Southeast Asia would have a product-market fit and a substantial amount of clients, significant revenue, and be in the process of scaling. While Sprout checked off all those boxes, the US$1.6 million would put us on the lower end of a Series A’s in the region. And if this is our Series A, it would exert enormous pressure on our next round, a Series B.

After careful consideration and a few discussions with our mentors, our investors, and our team members, we ultimately decided on calling it a seed round on the strength of a simple reason: It was better to be an ahead-of-the-curve seed-stage startup than an undersized Series A company. With the former, you were positioning yourself to lead, while with the latter, you were forcing yourself to recover ground.

Were we over-thinking the semantics of our fundraise? Sometimes even we felt that way, up until a week after local and regional outlets covered our “seed round.” As the coverage died down, inquiries from both HR heads and managing directors picked up. Most had legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) products from international companies, but they were eager to see how our newly-launched solutions – Sprout Insight and Sprout Recruit – could leverage artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to solve their attrition and recruitment issues.

One particularly enthusiastic HR manager even asked us who is at risk from leaving his company, referring to Insight’s stated ability to predict employees who may resign in the next three months through a combination of different metrics, such as demographics, compensation and attendance patterns.

When we asked them why they felt comfortable approaching us with their HR concerns, nearly all mentioned both our track record and our potential: we had not only achieved substantial traction as a startup but were also poised to innovate in our space even further.

Also Read: 3 ways the Startup Stack is powering up entrepreneurship in SingaporeThe org chart is broken, and we need to hack away at corporate hierarchy

Clearly, then, our focus on our fundraising terminology paid off, and I think the same will apply to other founders in Southeast Asia. Your fundraising news is – at its heart – a story, and you need to think about how each element will impact your audience of potential customers, users, partners, investors, and everyone in between. In other words, while money may indeed talk, you really need to do your due diligence on what you want it to say.
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This article was first published on e27 on August 1, 2018

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All you need to know about Litecoin the fifth-largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of more than US$12 billion dollars

What is Litecoin? Litecoin is a blockchain-based decentralized digital cryptocurrency same as Bitcoin. Lіtесоіn is an Open source global payment network and рееr-tо-рееr сrурtосurrеnсу software project released under MIT/X11 lісеnѕеѕ which allows non-zero-cost payments in a globe.

Litecoin is similar to Bitcoin having the same encryption technology to create and transfer funds to authorize the transaction.

In Litecoin, ledgers store all information and once its transaction is confirmed, it can’t be deleted or even modified.

People who are interested in cryptocurrency investment other than Bitcoin and Ethereum, Litecoin will be a popular choice.

Due to availability and lesser price, it is called as “Silver” cryptocurrency and Bitcoin is “Gold” cryptocurrency.

“If Bitcoin is Gold then Litecoin is Silver”

Also Read: What Is Bitcoin And How It Works

Birth of Litecoin

Bitcoin is created by an Ex-Google employee Charlie Lee on October 7, 2011, and was launched in a network on October 13, 2011, with the vision of creating a lighter version of Bitcoin.

Charlie Lee is one of the top active people on different social media’s and blogs.

Benefits of Litecoin

Litecoin has fast processing speed likely every block is processed in 2.5 minutes means 4x faster than bitcoin and this is the main goal, to reduce the timing of block confirmation so that more transactions can take place.

It clearly means that in a single day 14, 400 Litecoins are being mined. Its algorithm is difficult to crack.

Litecoin is having huge market growth. On December 18, 2017, Litecoin touched too high and it was almost US$360.93.

As compared to the price in the year 2016, it was US$4.40 it means almost 8200 per cent growth in one year.

The Scrypt Algorithm used by Litecoin is difficult to crack due to its proof-of-work model. It confirms a secure and faster transaction.

Litecoin is a digital cryptocurrency if we compared the processing fees of Litecoin that is lesser than other bank transfer and credit card.

Also Read: Singapore a honeypot for cryptocurrency and blockchain projects, data shows

Litecoin works on Blockchain Technology, so it records all the information and stores it permanently and also confirms the information is distributed to all peers in the network.

Litecoin works in p2p connections as a result of no need of middle person or server due to this it reduces the cost of the transaction. The transaction speed of Litecoin is faster as compared to Bitcoin.

As a result, a transaction takes lesser time and is secure that is why transaction fees are less and cheaper.

The difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin

Algorithm:

Both Bitcoin and Litecoin work on the proof-of-work algorithm.

The difference is, Bitcoin uses the SHA256 algorithm whereas Litecoin works on a newer Scrypt Hashing algorithm.

The number of Coins each cryptocurrency can produce:

In Bitcoin, one transaction added in the ledger takes 10 minutes where Litecoin, having the fastest speed to confirm one transaction in 2.5 minutes.

A total of 84 million Litecoins will be created and presently 61 million Litecoin is created in Litecoin’s Algorithm and it has a 4-times max capacity than Bitcoin.

Due to the faster speed, Litecoin produces max coins as compared to Bitcoin.

A Bitcoin network will exceed a maximum of 21 million coins, whereas Litecoin can billet up to 84 million coins.

The real-world importance of these algorithms is impacted by the process of mining new coins.

Both cryptocurrencies need substantial computing power to confirm transactions. SHA-256 is usually reflected to be a complex algorithm than Scrypt, while at the same time allowing a greater degree of parallel processing.

Market Capital:

Bitcoin’s market capitalization is more than US$67 billion, whereas Litecoin’s market capitalization is below US$3 billion.

Future of Litecoin in the crypto market:

Litecoin is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of more than US$12 billion dollars.

The price of Litecoin was always higher in the crypto market

The value of Litecoin saw a committed and increasing dangerous run at the start of 2019.

The market capital of Litecoin in the year 2019 originated with 200 per cent higher and that also in only 6 months.

Investors who want to trade for longterm in cryptocurrency are having a choice of Litecoin with the goal to acquire max profit.

Litecoin’s price was US$4 in March 2017 to a high of US$320 in less than a year, providing 80x returns to its investors.

Also Read: The correlation between Bitcoin, social networks and “sense of community”

How to Buy or Purchase LTC:

Step 1: Create an account (From any official Website)

Step 2: Verify your identity

Step 3: Get a Litecoin wallet

Step 4: Find an exchange that sells Litecoin

Step 5: Deposit money and make the trade

Step 6: Withdraw the Litecoins to your wallet

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By offshoring QA testing you can make sure your team will follow the procedures you set out for it ahead of time

Quality assurance (QA) testing allows companies to analyse their code over time and make sure the processes are in place for a successful product.

Companies need to make sure that the product is heading in the right direction during development.

Thus, having proper documentation and processes in place can alleviate headaches later.

It gives a fresh set of eyes on procedures already in place and allows critical assessment of product development.

Also Read: 3 experts share challenges and opportunities in offshoring tech development in Vietnam

Effective QA testing includes being able to check for security issues the software may have to make sure user data is safeguarded.

It also includes making sure the product is compatible across various devices, operating systems and browsers so that the experience is the same for all users.

Stress and speed tests for performance are also necessary.

By outsourcing such testing, companies can focus on their strengths rather than have to continually fine-tune operations and development to meet market needs.

They can focus on marketing and actual product development, rather than all the nuances involved with testing.

A global market, a global workforce

The nice thing about today’s market is that it is a global one.

Thus, companies can hire remote teams with offshore or nearshore modalities, to outsource various operations they have no time for in-house.

QA testing is a perfect example.

Imagine the efficiency gains of having your developers wake up in the morning and realize debugging or stress tests were completed the previous night by a remote team with suggested changes ready for implementation.

Such coordination is possible.

By hiring nearshore QA testing groups, companies can also benefit from collaboration and often a non-existent language barrier: think of a California-based company working with QA testers in South America.

Even offshoring just some of the QA testing operations is worthwhile for the simple fact alone that it will open up your product design to a fresh set of eyes.

Also Read: Is cryptocurrency trading still a financial wild west?

These testers can give suggestions on how products are designed and offer suggestions for processes that may work better for you. It also means that the product has a higher chance of success once it is released globally.

A fresh set of eyes helps

There are many different product development cultures worldwide, and by offering a multinational force of testers, your development project can gain great insight.

However, it all comes down to efficiency productivity.

The more testers you have at your disposal, the more varied tests you can run periodically.

This also improves your chances of predicting errors before they occur.

A larger pool of testers also ensures greater productivity and obtaining a higher quality end product.

Buggy product launch equals bad PR & lost sales

You do not want to be panicking in the end because of a broken software or glitches caused last-minute as the product is shipping.

This does happen. Gaming is an industry that is ripe with such product launches.

Many gaming software houses still fail with buggy releases. 

This is an example of a highly competitive industry that relies on getting software into the market as soon as possible.

However, gaming isn’t the only industry suffering from bad releases and buggy code at launch.

Nowadays, we can run software updates to alleviate such problems, but the bad PR will still be there at product launch causing you lost customers.

Also Read: Heres why millennial female consumers will dominate the e-commerce market

You would not want to make promises and not follow suit with them, such as operating system compatibility or moderate system requirements.

Consider outsourcing some of your QA testing processes to make the best software product you can in the end.

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