The FIT plans on solidifying its position as the wellness ecosystem leader with the acquisition

The FIT Company, Indonesia-based startup that focusses on an active and healthy lifestyle, announced that it has acquired three local startups to further develop the wellness ecosystem in the country. The three startups are Slim Gourmet, Wellnez Indonesia, and FITCO.

“This expansion is our way to continue our vision to have a wellness ecosystem in Indonesia, to create a healthier public,” said Jeff Budiman, CEO dan Co-founder The FIT Company.

Slim Gourmet is a healthy catering service by five different chefs with different specialties, advised by professional dietitian and based on factors such as allergies, medical history, and dietary needs of each customer. It was acquired in April 2019.

The second acquisition done is Wellnez Indonesia, a company that has 50 database coaches across the country. The FIT Company hopes to spark further collaboration with Wellnez Indonesia to create a more positive ecosystem for coaches and members alike.

The third company acquired is FITCO, an app that gives incentives to streetwalkers. The service is designed to record numbers of steps and achievements of each user to reward them as appreciation and motivation to walk more.

Also Read: Thai corporate innovation firm RISE expands AI accelerator program to Singapore

The acquisition of FITCO will see the platforms integrated with one another, making FITCO’s features available in The FIT.

There are several wellness arms that The FIT carries, from sports, nutritious food, to daily products.

In the third quarter this year, The FIT Company said that it plans to launch an integrated wellness service under one application. Through the application, users can choose coaches as well as choosing healthy menu according to their needs.
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Image Credit: The FIT Company

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Agritech startups in the country offer services that range from IoT to crowdfunding platforms

As it is widely known, the agriculture sector plays a crucial role in the Philippine economy. According to data by FAO, the sector involves about 40 per cent of Filipino workers, as it contributes to an average of 20 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

However, the report also pointed out that in the last two decades, the sector has been pacing several challenges that include a decrease in productivity and high production costs.

Just like in Singapore and Indonesia, startups in the Philippines are also looking for ways to innovate in the sector. The services that they offer range from building a crowdfunding platform to help farmers fund their harvest, to creating an IoT platform that can directly help to improve yield.

The following is a list of agritech startups in the Philippines as taken from the e27 startup database.

While our data does not record the funding rounds that these startups have completed, it can give us a big picture of what is going on the field. Pun intended.

Also Read: Indonesian agritech startup TaniGroup raises US$10M in Series A funding round

CloudFarm Innovations

 

CloudFarm Innovations, Inc is an agritech startup that builds sustainable farm solutions using IoT and big data analytics. It aims to help farmers maximise crop yields and improve food security in the region.

Their first product is a Heat Stress Analyzer, an IOT farming technology that protects agricultural crops against Crop Heat Stress. The platform also provides data analysis for improved harvest.

Cropital

 

Cropital is a crowdfunding platform that aims to help farmers raise funds to support their harvest.

Founder and CTO Rachel De Villa was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2016 for the Finance & Venture Capital category.

 

DELTHA

 

Founded in 2018, DELTHA (Decentralized Ecosystem for Long-term Transformation via Human Action) is a social impact startup supporting sustainable agriculture innovations using blockchain technology, particularly Ethereum.

Each member in the DELTHA communities will be given digital identities and be trained about entrepreneurship by the startup and our key partners.

The company has a special focus on the country’s rural areas.

Also Read: Meet the 10 agritech, foodtech startups pitching for Future Food Asia’s US$100K grand prize

e-Magsasaka

 

e-Magsasaka is an agri-trading company that aims to shorten the fresh fruits and vegetable supply chain by forecasting the harvest of farmers on a weekly basis and marketing their product prior to picking.

The company is currently working with farmer groups to test out the prototype of its offline platform.

FarmOn

 

Just like Cropital, FarmOn.ph is a crowdfunding platform for users to help farmers with their financial needs, while gaining rewards for their contributions at the same time.

The platform was developed by Manila-based web publishing company Sproads.

FarmOn.ph owns 96 hectares of farmland property that is managed by its partners and local farmers in Isabela and Quirino Province.

 

Tagani.ph

 

Tagani.ph is an agribusiness e-commerce platform that aims to connect businesses to farmers directly through direct bulk transactions and contract farming. The name Tagani itself means “harvest time” in Tagalog.

Founded in August 2018, the startup had also qualified for TOP100 at Echelon Asia Summit 2019 in Singapore.

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e27 calls upon Southeast Asian startups to update their profile on our startup database.

Image Credit: Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

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Describing itself as “Xiaohongshu with a twist”, The Shonet closed a seed funding round by Maloekoe Ventures in March this year

Earlier this year, Indonesian social media platform The Shonet closed an undisclosed seed funding round by Maloekoe Ventures.

But in an interview with e27 at the company’s office in South Jakarta, The Shonet CEO & Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Kurniawan reveals that it is currently raising for a new funding round.

“Since our growth had surpassed our projection, we are now raising to keep up with our growth,” she says.

Launched in May 2017, The Shonet is a social networking platform that is aimed for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle (FBL) experts –from vloggers, bloggers, to practitioners such as makeup artists and fashion stylists.

For a start, users can curate and share FBL products that they are recommending (“mix-and-match”), based on the inventory that is available on the platform –just like in Pinterest.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, February: Fashion e-commerce platform Zilingo

But once they have stepped up to the next level –becoming “insiders”– they will unlock the ability to produce their own content, in the form of articles. These insiders are also allowed to share their portfolio, enabling them to gain a wider audience for their works.

“We are basically a product search platform. Instead of going to five different e-commerce sites to look for a product, users can search for the trending product on The Shonet,” Kurniawan says.

“Fashion and beauty are defined by people. We give power for them to connect, create, and share their inspirations. That’s the future we are looking at,” she stresses.

Kurniawan says that The Shonet currently has over 7.5 million visitors with four to five million monthly active users.

The platform has recently introduced a new category for men’s FBL products, and according to Kurniawan, it has helped widen their audience and attributed to the company’s growth.

“We launched a men’s segment because we see a gap in the market. Since its launch, our visitors increased by two million in a month,” she says.

Also Read: Fashion and music take centre stage at Jakarta’s TOP100 announcement

Having been bootstrapped for two years, The Shonet monetises through advertisement on the platform.

In the future, the platform aims to add an e-commerce element by enabling insiders to sell services –such as makeup artists or fashion stylists– on the platform.

“We grow based on [the spirit of] community and we have a content-based approach … so users are acquired through word-of-mouth,” Kurniawan explains.

“Take the example of makeup artists and stylists, back in the days, magazines were considered as a home for them. But time has changed and with The Shonet, they can display all our their portfolio there, give tips for users … It is like Facebook or LinkedIn but for FBL,” she continues.

For these insiders, the startup also routinely hosts offline training programme on various topics such as SEO and content writing.

“We are just like Xiaohongshu but with a twist. The twist is in the social network and community element,” Kurniawan points out.

Also Read: Indonesian fashion e-commerce site Sale Stock changes its name to Sorabel

Growing fast

 

Kurniawan is an example of startup founders who started out their career in other field but tech.

She pursued her career as a fashion buyer in the US before returning to Indonesia to work in retail, also as a buyer.

Her introduction to the Indonesian startup ecosystem happened when she was working at IDN Media –an online media company that has recently made its foray to e-sports with the acquisition of GGWP.ID.

During her time at IDN Media, Kurniawan helped build FBL news platform POPBELA from scratch.

“That’s when I saw the opportunity to build something with digital media. In the old days, people used to look up to the media to discover lifestyle trends. But today we are looking up to individuals,” she says.

“If we want to build trust among Millennial and Gen-Z, we need to create a social network,” she adds.

Also Read: Thai fashion e-tailer Pomelo officially launches in Malaysia

Run by a team of 35, The Shonet is currently expanding its tech team, with the goal to grow the company into a 50-person team.

When asked about their targets for the fundraising, Kurniawan was not able to disclose the figures. But she says that the company’s plan is to dominate the Indonesian market for FBL platforms –and eventually, Southeast Asia.

“What keeps me awake at night? [The thought] that we are not growing fast enough,” she stresses.

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Image Credit: The Shonet

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Some products or services get more demand when you charge a fee

For the last year, we’ve been running a program called CTOTalk from our Chennai office. It’s been a big success for us, and a great way to connect with some of the best technology minds from product companies in India. We’ve heard from the CTOs of Flipkart, Naukri, Swiggy, Snapdeal, Big Basket, and more.

When we started the program, we wanted to keep it as a free event to allow as many people as possible to come. We promoted the event on many different channels and usually had an average of 175 free registrations.

Given the types of speakers we were getting, we knew the content would be exceptional, but we also knew that not all the people who registered would come. The best we did was get 45% of those who registered to attend, and once it was as low as 31%.

We really wanted these events to be a big success, which meant increasing the quality of the turnout. So, as an experiment, we introduced a little bit of friction to the process. Instead of registering for free, we charged Rs. 200 at the time of registering. We knew this would bring down the signups, but we thought it would lead to a better conversion of the people who actually came and wanted to engage. It was a calculated risk.

But we were floored when we saw the results.

Instead of the registrations dropping, we saw a slight increase from our average number of registrations! It was shocking to us that we would get even more people while asking them to pay.

But the real surprise came the night of the first paid event. To our delight, 69% of people who registered came to the event, making it the best attended one we’ve done yet, both in terms of number of people attending, and in the attendee to registration percentage.

We expected lower registrations, a higher conversion, and roughly the same number of people to come.

We got more registrations, a dramatic increase in conversions, and more people to come.

Also read: 7 tips for even the most timid entrepreneurs to succeed at networking events

When we looked back at the data, we wondered if many of these people were the same ones who came to earlier events, but found that only 30-40% of the people who came had ever attended a CTOTalk event before.

As we look back on why this happened, two major ideas emerged.

1. By charging a fee, we found people who were interested in serious events. When an event is marketed as free, some people perceive it as just a gimmick to fill a room and not something where actual great content will be discussed. What we thought was an element of friction turned out to be a signal to validate quality. So, there were many people who registered and came precisely because it was paid.
2. The price indicated a deal. Getting to hear the likes of the CTOs of Snapdeal and Swiggy is a great opportunity. In fact, we could easily price the event at Rs. 2,000 or more and most people would find that to be reasonable. Pricing it at Rs. 200 was obviously undervaluing it, which everyone recognized. Therefore, Rs. 200 seemed like a great deal–something people were more anxious to grab. This was a surprise understanding for us.
3. Pre-paid registration gave people an additional reason to come. The night of an event like this, many things happen for those planning to attend. Work will go late, or another event will come up. If you registered for free, you are more likely to skip the event because it didn’t cost you anything in the first place. But since people already paid Rs. 200, they felt some buy-in and it was an additional reason not to miss.

As we plan for more upcoming events, we’ll keep tinkering with this system to find the best way to promote and get people to attend these amazing talks on technology.

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This article was first published on e27 on November 30, 2018.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

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Near says its platform has a large data-set of people’s behaviour that is aimed at brands, enterprises, and publishers

Singapore-based AI-powered platform Near has landed a US$100 million in its latest round of Series D funding from private equity firm Greater Pacific Capital (GPC).

This brings the company’s total investment raised to date to US$134 million. Its earlier investors included Sequoia Capital and JP Morgan.

Anil Mathews, Founder & CEO, Near, said: “With the new funds, we will be launching a suite of new data products, powered by our core platform. These funds will help us strengthen our position in existing markets and expand our presence in key strategic markets.”

Near claims its platform has the largest data-set of people’s behaviour in the real-world that is aimed at brands, enterprises, and publishers. Databases of location, transaction, and other unique real-world signals can help with data enrichment and marketing, in a privacy-led environment.

Near’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product, Allspark, enables end-to-end marketing automation for clients and partners across over 20 countries.

Ketan Patel, CEO, GPC, commented, “Near provides insights into human behaviour by analysing where people are, and combining that with a multitude of data points to predict and influence behaviour. Given it does this across the globe in a privacy-protected manner, it is well-positioned to create an exciting new space that delivers value to both people, and those that wish to build relationships with them.”

Also Read: [Exclusive] Raising a new funding round, The Shonet aims to push for greater growth

Near is present across Asia-Pacific, the US, and Europe with client portfolios such as News Corp, MetLife, Mastercard, and WeWork.
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The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) will help create more job opportunities for professionals who specialise in the field of data protection

The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) of Singapore has announced the launch of its new Data Protection Officer  Competency Framework and Training Roadmap, which is designed to help Data Protection Officers’ (DPO) perform their jobs more effectively.

DPO’s are key to the country’s data protection framework as they support the responsible use of data and help to drive data innovation.

The commission also appointed Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) as Singapore’s Accountability Agent (AA) for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Cross Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) and Privacy Recognition for Processors (PRP) Systems certifications.

What this combination of acronyms translates to essentially is that IMDA will help facilitate cross-border data flow between countries under APEC.

PDPC, supported by National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), and NTUC LearningHub, will be launching a 12-month pilot programme to train and upskill DPOs.

Also Read: How an energytech firm is improving energy efficiency in Singapore

These data protection-related courses will be available from the fourth quarter of 2019, and expected to benefit at least 500 DPOs in the first year.

Gilbert Tan, CEO of NTUC’s e2i said, “Data is an increasingly vital resource needed for timely business decisions. e2i, together with NTUC, will help to operationalise the new Framework by reaching out to working professionals, whose job function includes data protection, and equipping them with relevant skill sets to manage, protect and govern data.”

Also Read: Singapore’s AI-based data startup Near raises US$100M from Greater Pacific Capital

Singapore is the third economy after the US and Japan to operationalise the system, and certifications are now open for applications by all companies.

To encourage more organisations to apply for CPBR and PRP certifications, IMDA will waive the APEC CBPR and PRP Systems application fees for SMEs until 30 June 2020. Enterprise Singapore will also support Singapore-based organisations in adopting the certifications by defraying assessment and consultancy costs.

The APEC CBPR and PRP certifications will complement the IMDA’s Data Protection Trustmark certification. Organisations interested in applying for both certifications can do so via an integrated application process.

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Also, wealthtech from Thailand expands to Singapore, and honestbee’s VP of Marketing Christina Lim left the company

Women’s health app Nyra launches Bahasa Malaysia version [Press Release]

Vivant, the digital health technology startup, announces the launch of ‘Nyra’ in Bahasa Malaysia to help women of all ages track their feminine health, fertility, and fitness. Vivant claimed that Nyra is designed as a one-stop solution for women of all ages juggling multiple health and wellness goals to accurately track their period, fertility, ovulation, as well as physical activity, symptoms, and diet.

From information entered into the app, Nyra provides personalised health and fertility insights, giving women full control over the entire feminine health journey – from preconception to pregnancy and post-pregnancy. It also has an in-app chat feature that allows women to connect directly with a doctor for private one-to-one conversations on health matters including fertility, contraception, sexual health, and everything in between.

Adrit Raha, Chief Executive Officer, Vivant said, “Women’s health can be a sensitive subject in Malaysia and Nyra aims to empower women to break through existing barriers and take full control of every aspect of their feminine health and wellbeing, informed by accurate and personalised health insights.”

Nyra is the first product launched by Vivant under its Nyra women’s health brand, which expects to see an expanded range of products in the region across the women’s health spectrum including pregnancy, post-pregnancy care and re-entering the workplace.

Thai wealthtech Jitta forays into Singapore and India [Nikkei Asian Review]

Thai wealth technology startup Jitta has announced its plan to expand its services to Singapore and India following the US$6.5 million raised from Beacon Venture Capital, the venture capital arm of Kasikornbank in the first half of 2019.

Jitta was founded in 2014 offering a free asset analysis platform that analyses public information, such as earnings, and ranks stocks on their valuation from stock markets in the U.S., Thailand, Japan, and other parts of Asia.

Also Read: Singapore’s data protection framework gets a boost with new appointment, initiative

Jitta is launching a fund that uses its analysis service to help investors manage their investments. Customers will be charged a 0.5 per cent management fee, and Jitta will take 10% of their yearly profits.

Oyo sets foothold in co-working space acquiring Innov8 [Techcrunch]

India’s budget hotel startup Oyo announced that it has acquired co-working space Innov8 for US$30 million, as reported by Techcrunch. The co-living spaces segment is its new business to target, the report said.

The Gurgaon-headquartered firm on Tuesday announced Oyo Workspaces, which is already operational across 10 cities in India with more than 20 centers. It currently has the capacity to serve more than 15,000 people, with more than 6,000 employees from firms such as Swiggy, Paytm, Pepsi, Nykaa, OLX, and Lenskart have already signed up for the service.

Innov8 is one of the three in-house brands that are part of Oyo Workspaces. The other two brands — Workflo and Powerstation — are aimed at people who are looking for the economical offering. A user could access one of these co-working spaces for as low as Rs 6,999 (US$102) a month.

honestbee’s VP of Marketing left the company [Vulcan Post]

After a whirlwind of negative press surrounding its “temporary pause” in operations and partnerships due to an alleged cash crash issue and multiple layoffs, it is now reported that Christina Lim, the company’s Vice President of Marketing has exited the company.

Lim’s move followed suit the resignations of co-founder Isaac Tay and Joel Sng, and managing director Chris Urban.

Also Read: Digitised cross-border trade platform dltledgers raises Pre-Series A funding

Lim was previously responsible for the marketing team to drive brand awareness and loyalty across all its business verticals and has been with the firm for a year.

Lim has revealed to the press that she will be focused on consulting work for companies.

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The platform Jupiter Chain enables data analytics use with maintained privacy

Singapore-based blockchain startup JEDTrade today announced the launch of Jupiter Chain, a consent-able data exchange platform that enables the use of data analytics without compromising on privacy.

According to a press note, Jupiter Chain allows blockchain technology to be put in the healthcare services ecosystem, where data privacy and security is crucial. It does so by encrypting users’ data and requiring consent before other parties can access the necessary information to conduct big data analytics projects.

JEDTrade’s vision is to have customised healthcare plans from the aggregated medical data, while the data remains secure and private to them. Healthcare business owners will also no longer have to be custodians to user data, avoiding hiccups in securing sensitive data.

The whole objective is to eliminate the risks of data sharing and increases the benefits to consumers and researchers.

“With Jupiter Chain, JEDTrade hopes to fundamentally change the way we handle data. From day-to-day interactions to large-scale processes, enterprise blockchain technology will change the way we live, with new industries hungry for solutions,” said Dr. Ernie Teo, CTO of JEDTrade.

Also Read: Japan’s startup ecosystem has yet to fully mature, says Cool Japan Fund’s Shinnosuke Watanabe

Last month, JEDTrade also announced Jupiter Chain’s partnership with Genecare, a genetics testing company based in Southeast Asia. Genecare allows clients to understand their health risks based on whole-genome sequencing. With this partnership, service providers can only access assessment results and will not see specific genetic data, ensuring the privacy of users while allowing them access to tailored healthcare and services.

JED is a technology company that builds business solutions powered by blockchain technology focussing on three domains: data, supply chain and financial services. Jupiter Chain is aligned with global data laws such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and related data governance.

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How Taiwan is advancing towards becoming Southeast Asia’s leading AI talent hub

In the past two years, Taiwan has rapidly been catching up to the global AI wave and is quickly becoming the region’s defacto AI talent hub.

In order to inject greater momentum into Taiwan’s industries, the government has rolled out the AI Taiwan Action Plan in 2018, a comprehensive industrial plan to accelerate innovation and development.

The four-year action plan will be jointly implemented by the ministries of economic affairs, education, labor, science and technology with a total budget of over US$1 billion poured into the project.

During the same time the Asia Silicon Valley Development Plan was also launched in order to incorporate AI into areas like transportation, healthcare, telecommunications, logistics, and other smart city initiatives.

Over the past two years, technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM have announced the establishment of their largest Asian R&D centers to be based in Taiwan.

For example, Google, following the acquisition of HTC’s handset division in January 2018, received a total of 2,000 engineers, designers, and professionals, along with the launch of “Intelligent Taiwan” just three months later.

The first phase of this initiative was announced to recruit over 300 AI engineers and to train 5,000 AI talents in Taiwan. The second and third phases were to empower more locals to participate in the digital economy by offering free training courses thus, aiming to cultivate a future-ready workforce. Microsoft and IBM have also since announced the recruitment of  AI engineers from Taiwan.

Also Read: Is Taiwan ready to become a global innovation hub?

Compared to other Southeast Asian countries, Taiwan has two advantages: AI talents and industrial environment.

In terms of talent, Taiwan produces more than 10,000 graduates of computer-science degrees and 25,000 electrical engineers every year. A relatively sizeable talent pool that, if properly upskilled, can provide incredible value to the AI community.

According to OECD statistics, Taiwanese students have topped the global rankings in fourth place for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

In addition, over the past 30 years, Taiwan has accumulated an unparalleled foundation in hardware manufacturing, leaving ample opportunities for companies to capitalize on the growing integration of hardware and software, especially when it comes to 5G, IoT, big data, and industry 4.0.

New opportunities abound as digital marketing and e-commerce mature

According to AppWorks’ newly released 2019 Taiwan AI Ecosystem Map, Taiwan has been shaping up well with 28 startups & 12 habitat providers.

Taiwan’s earliest investment in the AI field can be traced back to Tagtoo, which was established in 2010 and specializes in marketing tech. In addition to capturing the Taiwan market, Tagtoo has also actively expanded into a Greater Southeast Asian regionalcompany.

In 2018, it won the Best Brand Award in Indonesia by CMO Asia. Tagtoo currently aggregates all their data and has a full-time AI team dedicated to train models to more effectively optimize marketing campaign decisions for their clients.

Also Read: AI is set to revolutionise content marketing

Behind the rapid rise of Tagtoo, Taiwan’s digital marketing and e-commerce development has moved into the AI era, and has spawned a number of new innovations in the field of digital marketing and advertising.

For example, Appier, which provides AI-driven data analytics and marketing solutions, recently closed their Series C round, having  received more than US$82 million in total funding.

Other well-known marketing-related startups in Taiwan include Rosetta.ai, which provides e-commerce personalization modules, and Akohub, which develops retargeting chatbots.

AI technology startups converge with Taiwan to create synergy

Notably, we have also witnessed the increasing integration of hardware and software, specifically as it relates to marrying Taiwan’s traditional manufacturing prowess with its growing AI capabilities.

Established in 2014, Umbo CV (Umbo Computer Vision) a model of this innovation and has successfully entered the European and American markets with loyal enterprise clients in over 30 countries.

Umbo CV specializes in intelligent security monitoring and develops image recognition technology with self-learning and analytic capabilities.

The software platform can be used to learn and identify objects, cars, animals, and plants, as well as monitor for intruders and special events like fires.

By combining AI technology with their own proprietary cameras, Umbo CV helps automate what has traditionally been a very labor-intensive industry riddled with false alarms, saving invaluable time and resources for surveillance and monitoring companies.

Other startups that utilize the integration of software and hardware, development of AI applications, big data from cameras, and WiFi measurement include SkyREC, Cubo, Lucid and NUWA Robotics.

With more and more AI innovations, Taiwan is also booming in terms of startup accelerators, education, and research.

The Taiwan AI Academy and Taiwan AI Labs are Taiwan’s representative institutions in the field of AI for education and research respectively.

Looking into the future for AI innovation, we believe that there are three opportunities related to startups.

The first is the automation of routine and repetitive work in labor-intensive industries such as law, accounting, and healthcare.

The second is the use of AI to facilitate tasks that would otherwise be impossible or highly inefficient for humans to do such as processing large amounts of data for personalized recommendations en masse.

The third is the development of enabling tools to help users capitalize on the growing ubiquity of AI without any prior technical foundation.

Also Read: Asian insurtech on the rise: An overview of the main players

Disclosure: AppWorks is a fully independent venture capital fund/startup accelerator and is only affiliated with the listed startups, which have previously gone through  equity-free accelerator, and Umbo CV, which we have invested in.

The map will be updated every half year to adequately capture the sheer pace at which the industry is evolving. We made our best effort to include everyone but if you feel you have been missed out, let us know.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Louis Cheng

 

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Also, there’s a new co-working space set to open in Jakarta’s Domestic airport, and CredoLab is expanding to Africa

Indonesia is drafting rules to apply VAT on digital goods and services

Indonesia is drafting value added tax (VAT) rules that will be applied on digital goods and services provided by offshore companies, according to a report by Reuters.

John Hutagaol, an official who heads the international department at the tax office, said that the country would need new “implementation rules to decide on the mechanism” for digital goods and services as they have no time or space restrictions, unlike physical goods.

Hutagaol added that the new VAT rules would be applicable to “e-commerce, content providers, startups and other internet-based economic activities”.

A study by Google and Temasek Holdings last year pegged Indonesia’s internet economy at US$27 billion and predicted that it will grow to US$100 billion by 2025.

Singapore-based fintech startup CredoLab to expand to Africa

Singapore-based fintech startup CredoLab has announced its expansion to the Sub-Saharan African fintech, bringing on three new clients in the region — two banks and a leading airtime credit provider.

The expansion comes on the back of the  African Development Bank’s new Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI, an initiative designed to bring financial inclusion to 332 million Africans who remain underserved and excluded from the traditional banking sector.

Also Read: 3 fintech startups win the chance to pilot project with UNCDF

CredoLab’s digital credit scoring solution uses anonymous, non-personal, consented smartphone
metadata to predict the creditworthiness of users. With smartphone penetration in sub-Saharan Africa steadily increasing and predicted to double by 2025, the company expects to be able to capture a large part of this market.

“The growing penetration of Android smartphones and KaiOS smart-feature-phones currently outpaces the penetration of bank accounts in the continent,” said Peter Barcak, co-founder and CEO of CredoLab, in an official press statement.

“This presents an immense opportunity for fintechs like CredoLab to tap into behavioural data to assess the creditworthiness of any user and enable them to receive loans at fair terms, even in the absence of credit history,” he added.

CredoLab’s entry point into Africa was South Africa and the company expects to launch in Ghana, and Nigeria and Kenya in early 2020.

To date, CredoLab claims to have assessed over US$1 billion in loans issued by more than 50 lenders across 15 countries.

UnionSPACE set to opens in Jakarta’s domestic airport

Indonesia-based co-working space UnionSPACE has announced that it will set up a co-working space in Terminal 3, Soekarno Hatta Airport, which is Jakarta’s domestic airport. The venture was made possible through a partnership with Angkasa Pura Solusi, a foreign investment company that has ventures in areas such as airport consultation.

The new co-working space will be called APSpace.

UnionSPACE currently has seven locations in Jakarta and five locations across Southeast Asia, including Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. It is set to open locations in Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia and China.

SaltyCustoms partners with StarNgage

Influencer marketing platform StarNgage by Hashmeta has announced today it has signed an MOU with Southeast Asia-based apparel branding platform YEEFU by SaltyCustoms.

The partnership will see the two companies jointly design youth-oriented apparel by leveraging the star power of more than half a million active personalities on Instagram — essentially producing licensed apparel.

Using YEEFU, creators can crowdfund merchandising projects. If they are able to hit a minimum pre-order quantity, Yeefu will manage the design, inventory, manufacturing process and last-mile delivery, while the creators will receive the earnings.

Also Read: Why the traditional story arc is obsolete for brands

“As the world changes and moves into the digital age, brands have more opportunities for fan engagement and conversation. Here at YEEFU, we exist to spread positivity and inspiration to the next generation,” said King Quah, Co-Founder of YEEFU. Their first line of merchandise will be announced on starngage.com and released for sale on yeefu.store in August later this year.

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Image Credit : amadeustx

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