Author: Ruthc

Finance

e-Commerce ecosystem startup Commerce.Asia invests in Malaysian rural social commerce platform BizApp

Commerce.Asia announced that it has made an investment in BizApp, Malaysian rural social commerce platform, with the aim to “overcome the disparity between urban and rural entrepreneurs through social commerce”.

BizApp was founded in 2017 by Hasnol Mizam Hashim and Mohd Taib Pardi who recognised the need for a systematic, technological solution to serve agent-based businesses in Malaysia. The platform allows users to manage their daily business operations including order and fulfilment management, facilitating users from the suburban and rural areas to engage in e-commerce.

BizApp currently has over 200,000 agents with a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of over MYR600 million (US$144 million) transacted in 2019. With the investment, the startup will complement with Commerce.Asia’s ecosystem to better bridge the urban-rural entrepreneurial divide in Malaysia.

Business

gojek buys 4.3 per cent stake at local taxi operator Blue Bird for US$30M

Ride-hailing and food delivery unicorn gojek confirms that it has bought 4.3 per cent stake at Blue Bird, the notable Indonesian taxi operator for US$30 million, Bloomberg has reported. An earlier report which was published in December 2019 has circulated the now-confirmed news that gojek is buying a minority stake in the company.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: gojek’s accelerator program introduces 3rd batch of retail startups

Blue Bird’s parent company PT Pusaka Citra Djokosoetono announced in a stock exchange filing on February 14 that it sold more than 108 million shares at IDR3,800 (US$0.27) apiece to an unidentified buyer.

When gojek rose to fame, it was met with protests by taxi drivers who believed that the service threatened their livelihood. But since March 2017, gojek and Blue Bird partnered to have the Blue Bird taxi service available on the gojek platform.

Retail analytics unicorn Trax acquires AI-based in-store tech provider Qopius, to further digitise physical retail

Trax, Singapore-based retail computer vision and analytics startup, announces that it has bought Europe-based Qopius, a provider of AI-based in-store technology solutions.

The acquisition will allow Trax to realise real-time store monitoring and autonomous inventory management into mainstream adoption. With the combined platforms, Trax intends to better serve grocery retailers by offering them a holistic, closed-loop approach to improving store operations efficiency through always-on shelf monitoring.

Trax’s in-store execution and retail analytics seek to better manage on-shelf availability and optimise merchandising powered by proprietary image recognition algorithms that convert photos of retail shelves into a granular, actionable shelf, and store-level insights.

On the other hand, Qopius’ hardware-agnostic computer vision platform helps retailers monitor in real-time on-shelf inventory. It leverages on data integration and analytics to empower store managers and staff to take the right action, at the right time for streamlined store operations and higher sales.

Also Read: Opinion: Should Singaporeans celebrate its newly minted startup unicorn, Trax?

Trax CEO and co-founder Joel Bar-El said, “The key to retail success in the new decade is using technology to support employees. This means capturing critical shelf data in real-time to enable employees to fix merchandising and availability issues faster than ever before. Qopius’ proven expertise in digitizing supermarket shelves across Europe and phenomenal talent make it a strategic fit for Trax.”

People

Malaysian actor, former 500 Startups Venture Partner Ashraf Sinclair passes away, aged 40

Malaysian actor and former Venture Partner at 500 Startups Ashraf Sinclair had passed away in Jakarta at 4AM local time, various media reported. The actor and investor was 40 years old.

According to a report by Kompas, the cause of death was a heart attack.

Sinclair has built a successful acting career in Malaysia and Indonesia that spans for more than a decade before joining 500 Startups in 2017.

Prior to joining 500 Startups, Sinclair took part in a pre-seed investment in concert crowdfunding platform Konsaato together with his wife, singer Bunga Citra Lestari, in a round led by Jakarta-based Grupara Inc.

Sinclair had also invested in restaurant chain TGIF Indonesia and has started restaurants, gyms, content, and production agencies. He had also produced a sold-out solo concert for his wife, which is said to have been attended by 35,000 people.

Growth-stage accelerator ScaleUp Malaysia welcomes Xelia Tong as Managing Partner

​ScaleUp Malaysia has announced the appointment of Xelia Tong as Managing Partner today. Tong will join ScaleUp Malaysia’s partner team of Managing Partners Tay Shan Li and Andre Sequerah; Senior Partners Dr. V. Sivapalan and Renuka Sena; as well as General Partner Aaron Sarma.

Tong will be responsible for heading up investor relations for ScaleUp Malaysia and will focus on helping companies in the cohort secure investments and strategic partnerships. She will also develop and execute commercial strategies for ScaleUp Malaysia and its cohort of companies.

Also Read: ScaleUp Malaysia kickstarts 3-month programme with 20 companies in first cohort

For the last five years, Tong has served as Vice President, Investment and Head of Angel Tax Incentive for Cradle Fund, viewing more than 4,000 pitches and facilitated the funding of 185 entrepreneurs.

Prior to that, she served as Vice President at Bank Simpanan National to oversee the Creative Industry Fund. She has also been a part of Malaysian Debt Ventures and KPMG.

“I truly love the vision of ScaleUp Malaysia in how it aims to find and develop outstanding ‘pegasus’ companies. I’m really excited to have the opportunity to be a part of the ScaleUp Malaysia team and to work with some truly remarkable entrepreneurs,” said Tong.

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There are hundreds of women entrepreneurs out there, who broke gender stereotype and fought all the odds with great pains to build successful companies and secure a place in what is arguably a male-dominated industry.

Anu Shah — a 32-year-old serial entrepreneur with two successful business exits, who also served as CEO of Rocket Internet (Southeast Asia) — is a good example for this high fighting spirit.

Leaving home

Shah, a teenager, left her home in 2005 with US$40 for a call centre job in Mumbai, India, for a meagre monthly salary of US$100. She later switched the job and joined a consumer products firm as its sales representative. Her hard work was recognised and the company promoted as a Brand Manager.

A few years later, she went to the University of Leeds (UK) for an MBA on a full scholarship. Shah has since worked in M&A, strategy consulting, private equity and as a tech entrepreneur across Singapore, Dubai, London, and New York.

Also Read: gojek purchases US$30M stake in Indonesian taxi operator giant Blue Bird

Later she went to Harvard for post-graduate studies. In 2016, she dropped out to pursue entrepreneurship.

In Rwanda

In 2016, she went on a business trip to Rwanda as the Associate Vice President of Acorn Capital, where she met the CEO of an all-women-run local craft brewery, which was looking to raise funds. The business sourced ingredients locally, providing livelihood to many, thus empowering women in her community. However, due to her lack of experience in building business, Acorn didn’t invest in the firm.

Shah, anyway, decided to help her on a pro bono basis and connected her to the owner of a Toronto-based craft brewery and investee of Acorn. This firm decided to send on-ground support to train the CEO. However, lack of funds turned out to be the biggest bottleneck for the Rwandan company.

“So we all joined hands to launch a crowd-sourcing campaign. As a result, the Rwandan brewery firm raised about US$110,000 through crowdfunding. This incident remained with me,” Shah recalls.

“When I came to my Harvard in 2016-17, I was awestruck by the network effect of Silicon Valley (SV) and the support system that existed for the entrepreneurs and business owners. I was tickled by the idea of replicating the SV-like infrastructure for entrepreneurs in emerging and frontier markets. Harvard gave me the much-needed support and mentors from my classmates and professors to create my vision and launch it on a larger scale through EFI Hub,” Shah tells e27 as she recounts her startup journey.

EFI Hub is a startup incubator whose objective is to empower startups in emerging and frontier markets of Asia and Africa. Acorn Capital later acquired the firm.

Shah also built another company which she later sold to a Middle Eastern firm. Shah also served as the CEO of Rocket Internet (Southeast Asia) in between.

Now, with two successful exits of over US$10 million and an experience working with a global startup builder, Shah has decided to take a break and dedicated her focus to work in the social impact space.

Working for a noble cause

A champion of refugee causes and a strong proponent of gender equality in the startup space, Shah donated US$7 million to support UNHCR’s refugee rehabilitation programmes focused on the advancement of Congolese and Burundi Women and Children residing in the refugee camps in Rwanda.

As part of this initiative, she spent four months with UN Assistant Secretary General’s office, working with the core team of UN Women to design a programme to establish gender parity and equality through entrepreneurship and innovation.

In her view, the first step to gender parity is by achieving financial independence. “In war nations of Africa and Central Asia, 49 per cent of the girls drop out of school at the age of 13-14. This is mainly because of the lack of educational infrastructure.”

Civil and political unrest leave young girls more vulnerable to sexual crimes. These teenagers are then married off and become a young mother at the age of 16-17.

There is no hope for them to come back to get higher education or become fully financially independent because of the lack of development of proper skill sets to be in the workforce. These women continue to be economically dependent on the men in the family and are never able to command equal rights at home or in society.

“This UN programme is designed to explore the possibility of establishing gender parity through entrepreneurship. The idea is to create independent business models — such as co-operative bakeries, milk federations or businesses in the cottage industry — supported and funded by the UN and local governments. These will make more opportunities and room for women with no formal education in the low skill space to become financially independent,” she explains.

This programme has been shortlisted for funding, and Shah will be presenting this it the team in Geneva to finalise the deliverables and do the pilot launch in Mali. The implementation of this programme is expected to affect three million women in Africa and Asia.

Gender discrimination in Southeast Asia

According to Shah, women entrepreneurs in Asia are facing several challenges. Human and social capital constraints include lack of access to formal education, entrepreneurial skills training and business networks, as well as lack of confidence.

“In Southeast Asia, women entrepreneurs have 7 per cent less access than men to business networks — a crucial source of know-how and contacts for entrepreneurs looking to develop their business. Discrimination in day-to-day business activity is also a problem,” she gets candid. “In Malaysia, for instance, male suppliers and customers prefer to deal with male business owners, thus pushing women owners to let male family members take over.”

She also reveals that women tend to be at a disadvantage in accessing financial resources for their business, notably in accessing the full range of debt and equity alternatives. They may be disproportionately confronted with corruption.

“Research shows that women business owners and managers are more likely to receive requests to pay bribes when obtaining an operating license in economies that have a greater number of laws discriminating against women,” she argues. “Societal and cultural expectations that women will manage work and family responsibilities also limit their ability to expand their business.”

Also Read: Actor, startup investor Ashraf Sinclair passes away, aged 40

Institutional and regulatory challenges are the other major roadblocks that limit women’s capacity to scale up. In various countries, cumbersome business licensing requirements are likely to be associated with a lower proportion of firms run by female entrepreneurs. Small and medium enterprises owned by women tend to be disproportionately affected by these regulations, given their smaller size and lower access to resources, she maintains.

“In some countries, women have limited or no access to property rights, hindering access to capital markets because of lack of collateral against which to obtain credit. These challenges hinder their capacity to grow,” she adds.

She also argues that startup founders give little attention to self-care in their quest to building a successful entrepreneurial career. Everyone participating in the startup ecosystem contributes to the problem of poor founder health.

“The all-encompassing nature of a startup often causes founders to spend less time with family and friends, and many are required to relocate away from these support networks for funding or strategic reasons,” she says.

As stress at a company builds, founders are more inclined to double down at work. This tendency only further burdens the founder by muting their supportive relationships and reduces their ability to cope with company pressures.

“I have yet to meet a founder who has a budgeted line item for self-care or who takes guilt-free vacations. Investors, founders and poorly-trained middle managers all perpetuate a myth in the startup ecosystem that the only way to be successful is to grind yourself inexorably to the bone,” Shah speaks out.

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Gojek Xcelerate’s 3rd edition selects 9 local retail startups to growth-hack

gojek’s accelerator programme Gojek Xcelerate has entered its third season with the appointment of nine retail startups to receive training in growth-hack in collaboration with Digitaraya and others. gojek said that the focus of the programme will be to apply daily consumer innovation and to reach product-market fit.

Among the nine selected startups are baby needs and toys rental marketplace Gigel.id, personalised skin treatments startup Callista, as well as daily smart gadgets provider startup Sugar Technology.

Launched just in September last year, Gojek Xcelerate is said to be gojek’s way to share knowledge as the first decacorn in Indonesia and Asia Pacific through curriculum-based training. It is developed together with other global partners such as McKinsey & Co, UBS Bank, dan Google Developers Launchpad. Its first batch focussed on machine learning startups with five Indonesian startups graduates, followed by a second one focussed on women founders with nine Asia Pacific startups graduates.

Also Read: gojek, Digitaraya launch accelerator programme Gojek Xcelerate

The demo day wrapped up on February 14 with contestants presenting their business models in front of potential investors, VCs, and other partners. The startups also fight for a chance to be integrated into gojek’s platform and ecosystem.

Hong Kong’s crypto trading startup Amber raises US$28M investment from Coinbase, others

Amber, Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency firm that offers services such as providing loans, electronic market trading, financial management, OTC trading, and more to all institutional investors, announced a US$28 million in investment from Coinbase, Pantera Capital, Polychain, Paradigm, and Fenbushi Capital.

As reported by Tron Weekly, Amber started off as Amber AI, a startup built by four Morgan Stanley traders and one Bloomberg engineer in 2015 to trade Chinese Stocks and securities before focussing on only crypto trading in 2017 after finding an arbitrage opportunity. Now, the company has eliminated the element of AI completely.

Unlike the US government, the Hong Kong government does not count cryptocurrency as a security asset, resulting in Amber’s clients’ abilities to trade more than 700 coins on up to 30 crypto exchanges as compared to 30 digital assets in the US.

Amber now has 105 employees in Hong Kong and is in the same leagues as top crypto companies such as Binance of Singapore, Huobi of Beijing, and Bitmex of Hong Kong.

Binance CEO announces company’s application for Singapore’s Crypto Licence

Cryptocurrency trading startup Binance Holdings Ltd., reportedly has applied for an operating license in Singapore under the government’s new payments legislation, as reported by The Edge Markets.

“We submitted the application pretty fast. Binance’s Singapore entity has been in close touch with the local regulators, and they have always been open-minded,” said Binance co-founder and CEO “CZ” Zhao Changpengz.

The Payment Services Act just came into fruition last month as the first regulation for companies handling activities ranging from digital payments to the trading of tokens such as Bitcoin and Ether. The law will also supervisor rights for cybersecurity risks and controls on money laundering and terrorist financing to the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Also Read: Crypto exchange Binance hacked, loses US$41 million in bitcoin

Tokyo-based crypto exchange operator Liquid Group Inc. and London-based Luno also revealed plans to apply.

Binance also operates in Singapore and is backed by Singapore-based Temasek Holdings Pte.’s VC arm Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd.

Vietnam will be home to two new ride-hailing apps

Vietnam will soon have two new options of local ride-hailing officially operating in the country following the launching preparation of Unicar and ZuumViet, as reported by VN Express.

Unicar is a startup that is based in Vietnam’s central Nghe An province and currently is testing its services in the province’s capital, Vinh Town. Unicar offers car ride-hailing, motorbike ride-hailing, express delivery service, logistics service, and self-drive car rental through its app.

ZuumViet, another ride-hailing startup, offers motorbikes, four-seater and seven-seater cars, and luxury cars.

Right now, Vietnam’s market is dominated by Singapore-based ride-hailing giant Grab. It recently introduced an advance booking service in Hanoi, allowing Grab customers to book rides at least seven days in advance.

Vietnam’s ride-hailing market was the fourth largest in Southeast Asia last year behind Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, according to a report by Google, Singaporean state-owned holding company Temasek and US management consultancy Bain.

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Image Credit: Gojek Xcelerate

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The tourism sector has today grown to be an integral part of the world’s economy. Tourism currently represents 10 per cent of the world’s GDP and is a substantial global job provider.

There is a big room for growth in Southeast Asia’s tourism, however. Recent statistics predict that the tourism and travel sector in the region will rake in US$222.8 billion by the year 2027 — 5.3 per cent of the total GDP. This means there are a lot of opportunities that could be tapped into. 

A window of opportunity

China has emerged as a high-growth economy not only in the region but the entire world, and it has a substantial share in contributing to the region’s tourism sector growth. As incomes grow, travel and tourism in China are also on the rise, with 166 million individuals travelling to other countries in 2019 alone, and growing at least 11 per cent year-on-year. 

Southeast Asian countries, particularly Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, are among the top list of destinations by Chinese travellers, contributing to a steady outflow of tourists, as well as revenues for destination countries.

According to a recent report by the Pacific Asia Travel Association, Southeast Asia destinations expect to see collective receipts from tourism increase from more than US$432 billion in 2018, to around US$670 billion by 2023. Data from Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports indicate that China is the top country by tourist origin, at 8.52 million Chinese visitors in the first three quarters of 2019 alone, contributing at least THB427 million (US$13.68 million) in that period.

However, even amidst the growing number of travellers within the region to other destinations within Southeast Asia, it is important to note that a substantial part of the population has no adequate access to payment or bank facilities.

Also Read: [Updated] Thai travel tech startup Tourkrub to raise US$5M in Series B funding to support regional expansion plan

Recent statistics show that only 104 million adults of the 400 million are fully banked or have access to financial services, while 198 million of them do not own a bank account at all. 

This largely implies that most transactions are conducted in cash payments, which are obviously costly in terms of forex conversions. In addition, having to travel to multiple destinations with lots of cash in hand comes with the risk of losing money in transit.

Digital payment solutions for travellers

Fintech solutions such as digital payments allow individuals to transact online without having to make direct cash transactions. Solutions such as these are crucial to further growth in the tourism sector in Southeast Asia, and many players in the region have done efforts to integrate digital payments into their platforms.

This includes, for example, hotels, airlines, and travel agencies, which benefit from being able to offer ease-of-payment to customers.

According to a joint study by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Co., digital payments in Asia will reach over US$1 trillion by 2025 — a 500 per cent growth from 2019.

This clearly indicates a shift towards digital transformation in the payments ecosystem, which is geared towards addressing the challenges of the huge unbanked population in the region.

Travel and tourism can be a big use case for such technologies. “The tourism industry is a perfect use case for digital cash and payments in general, as it is very much an international business that involves many different currencies,” says Felix Mago, Co-Founder of Dash NEXT and  Dash Thailand. 

Also Read: Report: Indonesian startups took 70 per cent of travel tech funding in 2019

He adds, “For example, a customer books a trip to Thailand and pays in US Dollars. But the hotel in Thailand receives Thai Baht. Of course, someone has to change the USD to THB and these conversions increase the cost and time for settlements in the background.

By using Dash’s digital payment solutions, money can be transferred within seconds with almost zero fees. So businesses can profit from lower costs and give that advantage to their customers. But this is not all. As tourism is a very competitive industry and not many platforms are accepting digital currency payments yet, businesses can also easily attract new customer segments and, therefore, gain a competitive advantage.”

Travel companies from China can benefit from incorporating digital payments infrastructure, having the most outbound travellers in Asia–especially with apps integrated with blockchain technology. “The Chinese market provides a great opportunity, as the number of digital cash holders and users is constantly increasing,” says Mago.

While there are few other digital payments platforms such as WePay, Dash does not require any middlemen such as banks, which charge high fees (for instance with international transfers). 

For smoother and seamless travels for tourists out of China and within Asia, the importance of facilitating easier payment systems cannot be overemphasised.

Digital payments can be one factor that will transform the sector holistically by catering to the unbanked population and giving them access to financial services that would otherwise have been difficult to obtain.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: Hong Kong’s TravelFlan raises US$7M in Series A funding round

Kenny Au, Founder, Elevate Ventures and Advisory, also shares in the belief that digital payments hold the key to transformation in the tourism and travel sector, “Southeast Asia has a US$1 trillion dollar opportunity in the traveltech space, and innovative fintech solutions can disrupt the entire industry because of the huge benefits it provides especially for tourists from China.” 

According to a Nielsen study, over 60 per cent of Chinese tourists made payments via mobile worldwide, including popular Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand. “With digital payments, related industries can tap into this market to add value to the travel sector, such as loyalty awards, integration with other tech-driven services, and more,” adds Au.

There is a big opportunity for travel businesses to increase their market share and attract new customers by integrating digital payment solutions. “As a travel business, all you have to do essentially is plug in this new payment solution and you are ready to attract a new group of customers,” says Mago. 

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MealPal changes existing business model, expands operations in Singapore

After making its debut in Singapore in July last year, US-based food subscription startup MealPal decided to expand its operations to approximately 50 hawker stalls on the platform, according to The Vulcan Post. Its newest additions include stalls at Market Street Interim Food Centre, Tanjong Pagar Plaza Market and Timbre+.

The startup will also be shifting its business model to adopt a flexible credit plan like ClassPass, where meals will be available for a range of credit prices instead of having one fixed price.

The company said that “it wants locals to maintain the culture of visiting a hawker centre”.

Currently, MealPal’s services are available across Buona Vista, CBD, Novena and Orchard. It is most prominent across the business hubs making the feature of skipping the queue, valuable for working professionals.

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Cyber-threat analytics platform CYFIRMA secures Series A funding from Z3Partners

Nepalese food delivery platform Foodmandu secures Series B funding

Foodmandu, a Nepalese food delivery platform, has managed to score an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series B round led by Team Ventures, a private investment fund based in Nepal. Team Ventures will have a 20 per cent stake in the startup, according to the company’s press statement.

Founded by Manohar Adhikari in 2010, Foodmandu delivers food from 500 plus restaurants across three cities of Kathmandu Valley through a pool of 200 riders. Unlike popular food delivery apps such as UberEats and Grab, it also delivers fresh vegetables, beverages and cakes from farmers’ markets, wholesalers and leading hotels to consumers.

“We are happy to have this opportunity to invest in a homegrown, new-economy business like Foodmandu and be a part of its future growth,” said Tenzin Gonsar, Founder & CEO of Team Ventures.

Team Ventures have also invested in a number of real estate development projects, a licensed merchant banking company, stock market and also operates its own trading company.

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Image Credit :  Ke Vin

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Malaysian actor and former Venture Partner at 500 Startups Ashraf Sinclair had passed away in Jakarta at 4AM local time, various media reported.

The actor and investor was 40 years old.

According to a Kompas report, the cause of death was heart attack.

Following a successful acting career in Malaysia and Indonesia that began in 2004, Sinclair joined 500 Startups in 2017.

Also Read: Glee Trees raises funding from 500 Startups to take its robotic process automation tech to Indonesia, Vietnam

The appointment was not his first foray into startup investment. In May 2016, together with his wife, singer Bunga Citra Lestari, he took part in a pre-seed investment in concert crowdfunding platform Konsaato. The round was led by Jakarta-based Grupara Inc.

Sinclair had also invested in restaurant chain TGIF Indonesia, and has started restaurants, gyms, content, and production agencies. He had also produced a sold-out solo concert for his wife, which is said to attended by 35,000 people.

More on this story as it develops.

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Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek has purchased a 4.3 per cent stake at local taxi operator Blue Bird for US$30 million, Bloomberg confirmed.

Citing people with knowledge of the matter, the report confirmed an earlier report which was published in December 2019 that gojek is buying a minority stake in the company.

In a stock exchange filing on February 14, Blue Bird’s parent company PT Pusaka Citra Djokosoetono said that it sold more than 108 million shares at IDR3,800 (US$0.27) apiece. The filing did not identify the buyer.

A representative of gojek and Blue Bird President Director Noni Purnomo declined to comment on the matter.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: gojek’s accelerator program introduces 3rd batch of retail startups

gojek and Blue Bird has an ongoing partnership that makes the Blue Bird taxi service available on the gojek platform.

Their partnership came with a long history of competition and reconciliation.

When gojek first took its claim to fame in the Indonesian market, it was met with protests by taxi drivers who believe that the service threatened their livelihood.

But in March 2017, the two companies announced the partnership that would see Blue Bird service being available on the gojek platform.

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The technology space in Malaysia is widely perceived to be male-dominated. For years, the gender gap has been quite apparent in the number of female entrepreneurs active in the Malaysian scene. Despite the Malaysian government’s initiatives to address the lack of female participation in the industry, the current situation has not changed much, with only 23 per cent of startup founders in Malaysia being women.

However, some women are beating all odds and standing out in Malaysia’s tech startup scene. At AdEasy, an adtech startup looking to disrupt offline advertising, we are trying to make strides as a women-led tech company in Malaysia.

We started AdEasy in 2017 after spotting a gap in the offline advertising space. We aim to simplify the offline advertising process using the power of online marketplace technology. 

But before we can get into our story, let us have a look at some of the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in Malaysia and around the world.

Gender-based stereotypes and biases

Being an entrepreneur comes with its own set of challenges, irrespective of gender and other factors. However, women face an additional challenge in surmounting gender-based biases, that pigeonhole female-founders into a gendered subset of fields.

In the UK, according to reports, startups started by women in gender-neutral industries such as advertising and wearables get around 54 per cent less funding than female-founded businesses that cater to women.

In fact, female-founded “gendered” businesses, such as makeup, retail, and fashion get almost 110 per cent of the funding. 

The funding gap

Last year, AdEasy managed to raise US$200,000 from angel investors. We were fortunate to find supportive investors in a challenging market, but we understand that funding can be one of the core obstacles for a female-led startup.

Also Read: Women in tech: A global evaluation

Funding for female founders stalled at 2.2 per cent of VC capital in 2018. The issue deepens in Asia, where women typically receive less financing than men.

Yet, it may not be just that investors are unwilling to fund female-founded startups. Based on a report by the British Business Bank, the proportion of female-led startups that received investment (four per cent) was roughly the same as those who asked for it (five per cent).

The problem, the findings suggest, is not that women are being overlooked for investment — it is that not enough women are coming forward with their ideas. So, why aren’t women asking for funding? After all, it seems that when they do, they do well.

Why do women hesitate to come forward?

From cultural conditioning to conservative life approach, there can be many reasons as to why women hesitate to come forward. In general, there is a tendency for young women to be raised to be overly reluctant to pursue risky ventures.

Furthermore, we tend to be more conservative in our approach to product development. We spend more time developing a business case and prototypes to ensure there is enough or valid reason to expend development resources, as opposed to the traditionally male-oriented, agile “fail fast” methodology that involves developing MVP, releasing it as quickly as possible, then moving on to the next thing.

Another place where the hesitation comes from is the fact that we tend to humanise our investors. We see investments as a sign of trust and honour, and feel responsible to ensure our investors get “paid back”. Eventually, we end up asking for less. 

Lack of role models 

At AdEasy, we believe that another challenge faced by women in tech here is the sheer lack of role models for women. As female influence in tech is relatively new, career blueprints are not as well defined, but things are changing slowly.

Young women now have the likes of Tan Hooi Ling, the co-founder of ride-sharing goliath Grab; Melanie Perkins, CEO and co-founder of Canva; and Ankiti Bose of Zilingo that they can look up to and learn from in the tech space.

Changing times

Despite these challenges, women are starting to thrive in the tech scene here, and their performance is staggering. In top-tier leadership roles, women have shown to perform better than their male counterparts. Last year, Malaysian entrepreneurs Sarah Chen and Joolin Chua made it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list. 

On the other hand, in the Dell Technologies’ 2019 Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index that ranks 50 global cities on their ability to foster growth for women entrepreneurs, Kuala Lumpur was listed on the 44th position. 

Also read: Women self-promote way less than men. But why?

Finding your feet in a male-dominated industry is never going to be an easy task. But with more women at the forefront of the tech industry, the tide is starting to change. As the barriers to entry continue to diminish, 2020 is becoming an exciting prospect for female entrepreneurs.

We started AdEasy back in 2017 when the female influence in tech was significantly lower. Now, the makeup of the tech industry in Malaysia is beginning to change. 

The Malaysian government is lending a helping hand with initiatives to address gender inequality. They have provided a portal to share best practices and techniques to help working women.

These are significant strides forward in supporting female entrepreneurs. Now, as attitudes change and funding is set to increase, more and more women are coming forward to work in the tech scene. It is safe to say that we are moving in a progressive direction.

While there is still a long way to go, the possibilities for female-led companies in 2020 are endless. 

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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: Brianna Santellan on Unsplash

 

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Angel investment is one of the more popular routes that startups are taking to secure their first external funding, as they come with many advantages.

However, pitching to an angel investor requires its own set of preparation. What are the things you should keep in mind to craft the perfect pitch? What are angel investors looking for?

In order to answer these burning questions for the startup community, e27 sits down with Eddie Ler.

A former World Bank consultant and angel investor, Ler has invested in pre-seed and seed stages of an enterprise and consumer tech startups. In his experience as an angel investor, his portfolio ranges from micro-mobility, sharing economy, SaaS platform, data analytics, and fintech. His investees have subsequently received backing from G7 sovereign wealth fund, listed investments firms, early-stage VCs, and family offices.

He explains the nature of angel investing –and why it can be tough.

Think big but start small

From the perspective of Ler, angel investing is more about backing the founder rather than the business idea. While he looks at the market risk and technical risks, it ultimately boils down to the ability of the founders to think big but start small.

Founders who move fast and demonstrate early traction with a path towards inflexion point will be interesting.

Market risks are all about how the product will fit in the market in the present and the future. Technical risks answer the question of whether the idea can be developed while founder fit refers to whether the founder fits well with the idea.

After making a holistic judgement based on the three risks, the next step is usually taken.

Spotting the “wannabe” entrepreneurs

In Ler’s opinion, a part of angel investing is also about finding the right startup founder. According to him, entrepreneurship is seen as a trend, a “cool thing to do.” What can be more impressive than having the title of founder or co-founder on your business card?

This makes it even more important for angels to distinguish the wannabes from the real deal.

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“Personally I look at how passionate this individual is, and whether or not he or she has a chip on their shoulder. Or in other words, if they are looking for something to prove. If entrepreneurs chase money, they won’t be successful,” he says.

Other than that, Ler also takes note of a founder’s energy level. This means that it is not the amount of experience that he is looking for in a founder, but rather the curiosity and the wit to enable them to get ahead of competition and trends.

“A 20-year experience does not matter. Tech moves fast,” he asserts.

When asked if the startup team would be an important factor to consider while seeking funding, he replies saying that the team “is never a perfect team during an angel phase.”

Unfair advantage

Eagle-eyed angels are quick to notice whether the founders have an unfair advantage. This means, apart from a great idea and a passionate founder, a startup also needs another factor that can put it ahead of the game.

This unfair advantage is usually in the form of a strong network of connections.

“A lot of times, you can’t put things on a pitch deck. To know about unfair advantages, I usually like to have a conversation with the founder,” Ler continues.

In order to put things into more perspective, he gives us the example of the infamous novel-turned-movie The Lord of the Rings.

“While the wizards, archers and warriors had powerful skills of their own, they could not solve problems all by themselves due to historical reasons. It turned out the small hobbits had the unfair advantage of being neutral, nimble and stealthy which was the missing link. They were uniquely qualified to kick off their epic journey with helpful characters in the story.”

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While Ler makes a clear point that different angels think differently, this is generally how an angel investor would decide if you are the perfect fit for their portfolio.

“You never marry the first person you meet. Just like dating, when you complement each other, you’ll know it,” he ends with a joke.

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Image Credit:  Jonathan Borba

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Skymind Global Ventures (SGV), an Artificial Intelligence-focused startup fund-cum-accelerator based in London, is planning to expand to Malaysia and Indonesia in Southeast Asia.

This is part of Skymind’s global expansion plans to focus on training and investment in new AI technologies.

In January, Skymind launched a US$800 million fund to back promising new AI companies and academic research across the UK and globally.

The fund is led by Founder and CEO Shawn Tan. Joining Tan is Skymind Co-founder and Eclipse Deeplearning4j creator, Adam Gibson, as Vice President. Gibson will manage Skymind’s software division Konduit, which delivers and supports Eclipse Deeplearning4j to clients, as well as offers training development.

Also Read: What you need to know about Artificial Intelligence and its compliments to data science

Skymind plans to train up to 200 AI professionals for its operations in London and Europe and eventually expand the programme into Southeast Asia.

The use of AI and industry acceptance has been growing steadily internationally, particularly in Southeast Asia. The region has been identified as one of the target markets for the investment fund, with a significant portion of the US$800 million to be made available to growing the region’s ecosystem.

“SGV sees strong potential in Malaysia and the Southeast Asian region to build a thriving AI ecosystem. From talent to incubating innovative startups, this region requires the tools and expertise to become a global AI hub,” Tan said.

Shawn also believes that Malaysia has a lot of untapped potentials to build AI talent and the ecosystem in terms of partnerships and implementing solutions. SGV will use its London base to back research and development and generate business opportunities across Europe and Asia.

SGV is a dedicated AI ecosystem builder, enabling companies and organisations to launch their AI applications and bring their business cases to life. It provides clients with supported access to Eclipse Deeplearning4j and other open-source tools as well as global capital funding and talent development.

 

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