COVID-19 has affected all aspects of society. With respect to the dimensions of development, what we are experiencing is a paradigm shift in the evolution of humanity. The core aspects of our identities, as well as how we work, learn, and engage with society is advancing.

According to MaGIC’s recent survey: less than three per cent of the startups in Southeast Asia (SEA) think they would survive over 12 months if COVID-19 persists. The current situation is deeply unsettling for the ecosystem, more so for every entrepreneur’s fear of staying afloat. Times are hard when founders are trapped in this uncertain space without access to the necessary resources to help them survive.

Therefore, I would like to shed some light on why virtual accelerators could be a silver-lining for founders who can strategically benefit from it during these unprecedented times. How can they make the most of their virtual experiences, leverage resources, and the community at scale?

Ecosystem players can only provide as much value to startups as they take from them.

Organisations such as Y-Combinator’s startup school, Udemy, and Online University courses have pathed the way of e-learning in the past and provided the educational means for participants to access modules virtually at their convenience.

As for accelerator programmes, traditionally, founders are required to be physically present to take full advantage of the physical benefits of relocation, such as gaining direct market access. Although the duration for accelerators tends to be longer (over three months, HBR), physical involvement in activities and the community element drives the success of the programme and startups’ ability to accelerate.

Also Read: Why corporate accelerators are dying and what they should do to thrive

After experimenting with HyperSpark’s first pre-accelerator turned virtual cohort mid-way, I have to admit, it has been enjoyable and I noticed there has been a significant shift and value-add for taking our programme virtually.

I’ll be highlighting considerations and covering the following areas in which startups can benefit the most from virtual accelerators :

• Value add for the Startups
• Making the most out of your Virtual Accelerator Chapter

Community support

Entrepreneurship is a tough ride, entrepreneurs are required to have a support system in an educational, mental and social state. Even without physical meetups, virtual interactive sessions via classes and live stream conversations can help keep the community engaged.

Having a support system during your entrepreneurial journey can set in motion some hard conversations into the struggles you face collectively, especially during COVID-19 as humans tend to connect deeper when we suffer collectively. The emotional realities are also valid when it comes to relationships between business and consumers.

I strongly encourage the community to stay active by (1) creating a safe space for founders to open up about their struggles and openly talk about what has been helping them stay safe and sane. (2) organising virtual social activities (quiz night, virtual games, etcetera),  peer-to-peer learnings can be an opportunity for founders to practice solidarity.

Larger visibility on demo day

Demo day traditionally will be shared online after the event, and exclusively granted access to VC’s, media and programme partners, it has now given the opportunity for founders to present at a greater scale. Potentially onboarding viewers as their users, partners. Without venue size constraints, we were able to open up the registrations to the ecosystem.

Also Read: Why corporate accelerators are dying and what they should do to thrive

During Hyperspark’s demo day, our registrations hit over 600 sign-ups. Marketing and community outreach played a huge role as the attendance was double the amount of a physical demo day.

Leveraging on the global network

Startups can now easily get connected to a larger network of potential partners, mentors, investors and advisors as the new norm to work from home has bonded society to be more open towards virtual connections. You are no longer limited to physical meetups.

The opportunities are endless, two of our startups had an opportunity to pitch to GGV’s and several VCs via a Facebook live stream session.

In addition, mentors are open to committing to accelerators globally knowing that they are no longer limited to physical presence.

Shared infrastructure

A single place to collaborate, track, and evolve, together regardless of timezone. Entrepreneurs are resourceful, and very much in tune with creating innovative processes. For instance, during HS our teams created a shared excel sheet to add on to their collective resources.

Examples that have been done in the ecosystem include e27’s shared list of resources and Seriously AWEsome list, where some community mechanisms were built to encourage the startup community to build on sharing existing resources collaboratively.

Also Read: In brief: eBay launches e-commerce accelerator in Singapore; Circles.Life introduces eSIMs

Opportunity for optimising meetings

Physical interaction doesn’t guarantee optimum results, in fact, the pandemic has taught us the true nature of engagement, compassion and collaboration: that people lead to a deeper appreciation on prioritising time.

With online communication, mentors and founders are given a more detailed, personalised feedback session which encourages both parties to optimise their time and articulation of messages more efficiently. Calendly is probably a timesaver once you integrate it into your calendars.

Considerations for making the most out of your virtual accelerator chapter: 

• Align with the relevance of the theme and subject-matter expertise
• Timing and readiness are factors to consider when joining a programme to ensure your plans are aligned with your accelerator’s commitment and timeline.
• Optimise check-in’s (progress reports and concerns/challenges)
• Planning your schedule in advance and integrating platforms/resources that can ease your process is crucial for longevity
• Never skip orientation, because you do miss out, everything begins from the day your cohort begins!
• Facilitate connections among cohort members
• Aim to constantly apply learnings from mentors
• Give & receive feedback (User experience and customer journey are introspections which leads to success)
• Challenge the status quo
• Set expectations for your team and your account manager
• Leverage on the accelerator branding as your edge for Marketing / PR

Surely this list is non-exhaustive and more benefits can be generated as we improve our activities, gather more findings and learnings to add value to our entrepreneurs.

I personally believe the pandemic has become a driving force and fuel for the next wave of innovation. Eventually, the startup ecosystem will come out on the other side of this pandemic with a greater sense of personal empowerment and increased connection to community – all of which will be beneficial for the society in the future.

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Register for our next webinar: Meet the VC: Vertex Ventures

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.

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In Asia Pacific, it’s not often that tech companies would establish operations or service areas in provinces. Even more so for tech businesses in the Philippines as the country’s provinces are more focused on agriculture and other traditional industries, such as mining, fishing, and textile-making.

There’s also the perception that some provinces are harder to tap into because many Filipinos there still have a conservative mindset and distrust in technology.

Many local communities are still unfamiliar with technology because there aren’t enough opportunities for them to explore it. This highlights the importance of tech companies serving the provinces and lending their products and services to untapped areas.

One of the few tech companies in the Philippines that has expanded to areas outside Metro Manila is the professional services company Accenture. Aside from its offices in the cities of Manila, Makati, and Quezon, Accenture has a three-story building in Ilocos Norte between Laoag and Batac.

The province’s telecommunications infrastructure, accessibility to the Laoag International Airport, special economic zones, education centres and broad pool of talents was what prompted the company to establish an office in Ilocos Norte. Accenture has also expanded to some of Cebu’s business districts.

Another tech company that’s doing this is on-demand services provider MyKuya. Essentially, the MyKuya app allows users to book a personal assistant —called Kuya or Ate— to help with their errands such as buying groceries, picking up packages, paying bills, and more.

Also Read: Grab launches new card to encourage cashless payments in the Philippines

As part of its mission to provide helpful and meaningful services and create one millions jobs for Filipinos by 2022, MyKuya is launching a franchise program in Metro Manila and different cities in North and South Luzon: Dagupan City in Pangasinan; Subic and Olongapo City in Zambales; Cavite City, Dasmariñas, and General Trias in Cavite; and Lucena City in Quezon.

The company is providing its tech platform to manpower agencies, small businesses, non-profit organisations, and other groups looking to grow their operations and business, as well as maximise the efficiency of their staff. MyKuya has not only improved its customer-centric business but also provided meaningful work to those who need it, which is crucial today since the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic led to many Filipinos losing their jobs.

Time for nationwide modernisation is now

By encouraging many organisations in the provinces to take advantage of technology to speed up their systems, this could be a way for more Filipinos to explore the digital world and integrate it into their daily lives as well.

It goes without saying that technology has helped improve the lives of many all over the world, so it’s only a matter of time for the rest of the Philippines to shift from traditional to digital systems as well.

One of the reasons why technology is still novel in many regions in the country is because of the lack of enough science and technology professionals there. A report by the Department of Science and Technology showed that many S&T professionals are concentrated in the National Capital Region, Region IV-A (Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, and Rizal) and Region III (Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, and Zambales).

The shortage of STEM professionals is also deeply rooted in the economic and educational standing of the Philippines. The country still faces many issues with its education systems such as the lack of budget, poor quality education, and a high rate of drop out or out-of-school youth. It also goes without saying that the social divide among Filipinos is still prevalent. Though public schools in rural areas are free, some Filipino families still can’t send their children to school for various reasons.

Also Read: News Roundup: Hello Health launches in the Philippines as Hello Doctor

However, this doesn’t mean that progress in the country is impossible. When tech companies start expanding and serving the provinces, like what MyKuya and Accenture are doing, this can spur technological innovation among those in the government and encourage young Filipinos to take up STEM courses as well.

This, in turn, could also encourage the education sector in the country to improve its system and open up more opportunities for people in rural areas to take up STEM subjects.

Aside from this matter on education, tech companies can also reap benefits from expanding to provinces —-Bryce Maddock, CEO of IT service management company TaskUs, can attest to this. He said that expanding outside the metro cities enables businesses in general to experience low attrition, as well as help their employees save on commute time since traffic occurs seldomly in provinces. Companies won’t find much competition in the provinces as well because most are focused on operating in urban areas.

Setting up branches in the provinces also reduces the “brain drain” of Filipino professionals to other nations. Meaning, people won’t have to go abroad because they’ll already find meaningful work in their area.

DBA Global Shared Services, the Philippine arm of Australia-based tech and outsourcing firm DBA Advisory, has also expanded in other provinces due to local talent. The company has more than 200 employees in its offices in Subic, Clark, Bataan, and Tarlac.

When asked why the firm expanded to other provinces in Central Luzon, DBA president, and CEO Darlow Parazo said that Filipinos in those areas are highly skilled in accounting, law, and IT, making them important assets in DBA.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Digital payments platform InstaReM launches cash payout option in the Philippines

By bringing jobs to these local talents, the company is able to expand its services and work with various multi-disciplinary and multi-industry professionals.

There’s no other perfect time for tech companies to expand to provinces than today. The Philippines is rich in culture, history, and natural resources, but as the world and technology evolve to address pressing matters, it’s only appropriate for the entire country to keep up.

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Register for our next webinar: Meet the VC: Vertex Ventures

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.

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Compared to other edutech startups in Indonesia, which have been aggressively expanding their business, GREDU has been relatively under-the-radar, despite being founded in 2016. After receiving its Pre-Series A funding back in January from Vertex Ventures, we have started to hear more about the company and what it has to offer.

e27 talks to the four friends behind GREDU to understand how it differs from the rest, and how it represents a shareholder in the education ecosystem that is often overlooked –the parents.

Digitalisation is about mindset

The GREDU platform seeks to answer ongoing problems often found in conventional school settings, where schools are in need of a platform to connect and facilitate students better.

While existing edutech startups are more focussed on enabling students to learn remotely through content and platform, GREDU aims to take it further by working with every stakeholder in the education system.

“Pre-pandemic, the challenge lies in converting conventional, outdated mindset about how learnings should be conducted –and whether digitalisation is really necessary. Especially in local schools and parents, where they viewed online migration as more troublesome than helpful, and that the conventional is the best way. The pandemic forced them outside of their comfort zone as physical teaching becomes impossible,” explains Ricky Putra, Chief Creative & Operation of GREDU.

“But to fully embrace the online learning environment really takes time. In fact, because it’s all coming at a fast rate to these conventional parents, they tend to use all available online resources thinking that they should,” Arya Budi Nugraha, Chief Onboarding & Growth of GREDU, adds.

Also Read: Riding the tailwind: How COVID-19 accelerated the growth of edutech startups in Singapore

So it becomes their mission to declutter the mess caused by overload in information about edutech options in Indonesia.

“We want customers to be able to use GREDU as one platform, one solution for all stakeholders,” Nugraha adds.

The history of GREDU

Back in 2016, GREDU co-founders were working in different tech companies before they finally decided to take this side project more seriously.

“At that time, we were all still working on our own projects and in other tech companies. I was with Grab, Arya was with gojek, Ricky was having his own digital agency, and Kiki (Mohammad Rizky Anies, CEO of GREDU) was also developing his own startup,” Mohammad Fachri, Chief Technology Officer of GREDU, recalls.

“We wanted to be involved in the country’s education system, seeing how it still needed a lot of work to do. So we began with a research to the parents, students, and teachers to find out what they need, what is missing from the education system,” Fachri adds.

It took them a whole year of visiting schools before they could finally conclude that schools in Indonesia are in need of a convenient, all-purpose platform.

“What’s missing was the collaboration ecosystem that allows every shareholder to operate … with a common goal to further the education for the students,” Fachri continues.

Right now, the two-way conversation that GREDU envisioned at the start of the company has even grown to be a three-way conversation, as Nugraha emphasises.

Also Read: These Indonesian edutech startups are helping students cope and thrive during the COVID-19 crisis

“We have multiple stakeholders represented in GREDU, that’s how multiple-way communication can happen,” he concludes.

The GREDU platform is available for each stakeholder in the form of a mobile app and a web app.

To start using GREDU, interested schools can fill an online form available on the website. The GREDU team will get in touch with the school, follow up with training on how to use the software. After that, the school, teachers, students, and parents can start using the apps designated for them.

Apart from aiming to cater to all stakeholders, GREDU also aims to bring “the whole school” online, from its library to school counselling services.

“What we aim is to have all activities normally conducted in physical school to be available digitally. In this hard time, where students won’t see their teachers or schools, the sense of normalcy can be achieved in the digital ecosystem provided by GREDU. They don’t lose their school at all,” Fachri stresses.

What comes next

Taking a part in the big migration from physical to online learning due to COVID-19 pandemic, Nugraha says that GREDU experienced a 25 per cent increase in usage after releasing their services for free in March.

“Now, what we see is the need to refocus … to address the buying power of the schools we targeted, also of the parents. The demand is there because online learning is the way to go now, but the purchasing power is yet to catch up,” Nugraha says.

Also Read: Thai edutech startups Conicle, Vonder receive funding from Stormbreaker Venture

GREDU expects to achieve that by adjusting to post-pandemic purchase power and educating the market on its platform’s capabilities. It can potentially fulfil their initial goal of having 600 schools on board, including less-fortunate schools in small cities.

“So far, we’re already active in 85 schools across the country, with 249 schools in the activation stage … With COVID-19 in the picture, it takes longer than expected, but we strive ahead,” says Nugraha.

Their newest product, that is launched as part of their COVID-19 mitigation strategy, is described as an interactive class where teachers and students can discuss lessons based on particular topics.

The competitive value of Indonesian education system

Mohammad Rizky Anies, CEO of GREDU, further emphasises the need for all edutech companies to band together.

“We view other edutech startups as partners, not competitors. Because, in the end, we serve the same goal to fix the education system in this country,” Anies says.

Anies add, “Unfortunately, many of us still focus on content and content delivery, while there are other elements that need extra attention … such as teaching skills and feedback-based learning. But with tech, we’re optimistic that Indonesia holds the potential to compete at the global stage.”

GREDU envisions how more schools can adopt technology, and to use it evenly among all stakeholders despite economic background.

“We tried to research how schools that are less fortunate … can also use GREDU, as long as they’re under internet coverage. We are moving towards transforming our apps to cover minimum internet quota that can be afforded by students and parents that aren’t in big cities,” Putra adds.

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Image Credit: GREDU

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Last week, Sorabel joined the list of the startups that have had to shut down as the new coronavirus disease ravaged hundreds of thousands of human lives and businesses around the globe.

The sudden demise of Sorabel, a popular fashion e-commerce platform in Indonesia backed by prominent names in the venture capital industry, shook the tech startup industry in Southeast Asia, with many wondering whether the management failed to see the obvious as COVID-19 spread rapidly.

In an interview with us, Sorabel’s Co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Yuwono said that as the pandemic hit, the company’s cash reserves were already depleted although it had procured several investment offers. But these potential foreign investors were unable to travel to Indonesia to verify the e-commerce startup’s physical operations.

“Thus, COVID-19 struck during the most vulnerable point in our funding strategy and devastated our core customer base,” Yuwono told us. 

Also Read: Could Sorabel have been saved? Co-founder Jeffrey Yuwono speaks out

Shannon Kalayanamitr, Partner (Investor Relations) at Gobi Partners, one of Sorabel’s key investors, also validated this. “The team (Sorabel) planned to fundraise, and as investors we had assisted with the gearing-up, recommending them a financial advisor and then was struck by COVID19 right after term-sheets were issued, thus leading to a revoking of the term sheets.” 

Market data, however, paints a different picture that there had been some miscalculations on the part of Sorabel, which might have led to the current situation.

“Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is a vital metric for every e-commerce business. Unsustainable CAC will ruin the business since e-commerce companies have to constantly spend huge amounts of cash to acquire both new and returning customers,” according to Sergei Filippov.

“We’ve seen a dramatic rise of CAC for e-commerce in Indonesia during the past three years, which forced projects to fine-tune their online advertising strategy,” added Filippov, Managing Partner at Morphosis Capital Partners, an early-stage investor with operations in the US, the EU and Southeast Asia.

Citing a November 2019 interview of Sorabel CEO Yuwono, Filippov said that the fashion e-commerce firm’s business strategy heavily relied on offline presence as a source of traffic for online. In that interview to Asian Nikkei Review, Yuwono had said that the company looked at offline as a relatively cheaper way of acquiring customers and that it was planning to open 15 physical shops by the end of 2020, mostly in small provincial cities in Indonesia.

“We have reasons to believe that there have been significant expenses planned for even bigger offline expansion than was stated,” Filippov reasoned.

As a matter of fact, the strategy and operating cashflows control weren’t strong enough for Sorabel to convince investors. Thus, when the startup ran out of cash, there was simply not enough time for it to pivot the strategy towards a better profit margin.

The missteps

As per some reports, Sorabel achieved break-even in 2018 and was on its way to be profitable. While Yuwono dismissed the break-even reports, he told us that the business was, in fact, going strong until the onset of COVID-19.

“From the rebrand in February 2019 (Sorabel was earlier known as Sale Stock), our  revenue grew 2.5x by December but it took until the end of Q3 2019 to build that momentum. In Q4, the revenue was growing between 10 per cent and 20 per cent monthly, and the company was generating positive margins after marketing costs,” he shared.

Then what caught it unawares?

“A combination of factors,” explained Filippov. “One, an offline-based customer acquisition business strategy that led to expense bloat and high cash burn rate. This strategy was simply impossible to execute during COVID-19. As of July 27, the situation in Indonesia continued to worsen with a constant rise of daily infections every week. Thus, every offline based CAC strategy will remain extremely risky and impossible to fully execute.”

This coupled with a weak online advertising presence also contributed to this situation. As per a Similarweb data, Sorabel had 5x less social presence than Pomelo Fashion and had a non-existent (0.7%) paid search traffic compared to Pomelo’s 41.4 per cent.

“During COVID-19, many VCs opted for putting more cash into their best-performing startups and cut off those who didn’t have a strong business model and enough cash flow for the next six months,” Filipov shared.

For instance, Openspace Ventures, one of Sorabel key backers, injected more cash into gojek and its video streaming venture. This required a significant amount of money since gojek already was in its F investment round and claimed to receive US$3 billion investments up to date in total.

Similarly, Sorabel — which had raised debt financing from InnoVen Capital in August 2019 — saw its debt ratio situation worsen later in the times of crisis.

All this lead to a precarious position, resulting in Sorabel’s ceasing of operations, said Filippov.

Fashion industry v/s COVID-19 

As expected, the fashion industry took a severe beating during the pandemic. As per a SimilarWeb data, Pomelo’s (another leading fashion e-commerce firm in Indonesia), there was a 40 per cent dip in monthly visits during the February-April period from January numbers and a further 32 per cent dip in the May-June period (580,000 monthly visits) from April’s (850,000 monthly visits).

Also Read: Traveloka confirms US$250M fundraise, admits historic drop in biz activity due to COVID-19

Indeed, Sorabel managed to grow 22 per cent in February-March as opposed to January 2020 numbers, but then it suffered a severe 65 per cent drop in visits in the April-June period, down to 410,000 from 1150,000 visits per month.

According to Kalayanamitr, there are industrial winners and losers in times of a crisis but unfortunately, the fashion industry, similar to travel, is not a beneficiary of the pandemic.

With the global economy suffering, people prioritise spending on necessities and consumer demand falls for everything else. In Yuwono’s view, fashion is not an essential item, particularly when everybody is in lockdown. In fashion, the impact ranged generally between a 50 per cent and 70 per cent drop in revenue (particularly devastating as it occurred during the Ramadan sales season), with only those companies more focused on the upper end of the market spared.

“In my personal view, there was a much lower incentive for consumers to buy fashion goods if they can’t go out to see and be seen, either due to the government directives or fear of infection. Amazon and Shopify have succeeded (immensely) as their core business model isn’t just built on fashion,” according to Saif Farooqui, Mentor at Facebook Accelerator.

How fashion e-commerce can survive

“E-commerce startup should keep a close eye on its operating and growth strategy: monthly cash burn rate and ways to improve the operating cash flow, CAC, inventory turnover rates v/s its most successful competitors and profit margins,” advises Filippov.

Unfortunately, more often than not e-commerce startups rely on the unrealistically bloated lifetime value of the customer (LTV) or diminished CAC to impress investors and sacrifice profit margin to a point of no return.

“My advice will be a reminder of the classic 1985 Home Depot case when the company had US$12 million in monthly cash burn rate with only three weeks of operating cash left. By focusing on improving their operating cash flows (careful inventory management, focus on profit margin increase, etc), Home Depot switched to US$ 4 million per month cash generation rate just a year after. The company is still doing strong and ranked #28 in Fortune’s 500 list,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: 123rf.com

 

The post Did the growing customer acquisition cost in Indonesia lead to Sorabel shutdown? Experts speak appeared first on e27.

Plagued in the past by SARS, some of Asia’s top innovation capitals —-such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan— have fought previous health battles, prompting governments and businesses to put in place stringent measures ensuring the continuation of business operations.

Lauded for their swift reaction to the current COVID-19 pandemic, governments have ensured companies remain running despite the ongoing disruption by enacting business continuity plans. With the current economic turmoil, it is increasingly imperative to know how to navigate through today’s uncertain economy.

From one entrepreneur to another, here are some tips that have proven to be successful in maintaining strong entrepreneurial prowess through unfavourable economic conditions.

People come first: Unity in the face of adversity

Now, more than ever, building stronger relationships with employees and business partners should take precedence over aggressive competitive behaviour. Strengthening ties with employees build a united team which is important in maintaining the efficiency and resilience of the business.

As employees are at the heart of the business operations, ensuring their positive wellbeing and boosting morale amidst the grim economic outlook can be the fuel that keeps the business running smoothly. Yet, with the uncertain impact of the virus and indefinite working structures, employees may struggle with anxiety and lack of motivation, aggravating what is already a sluggish output.

As such, creating unity through virtual social gatherings or checking in with one another when working from home can relieve the added pressures on the business.

Also Read: Leadership in times of crisis – how to lead efficiently when the pot is boiling

Besides stronger employee relations, building robust connections with other industry leaders is an opportunistic way of forming beneficial ties and potential business partnerships. While corporate events and trade shows are on halt, it does not necessarily mean that networking has to cease.

Instead, networking can evolve alongside the changing business environment by keeping it strictly virtual. Connecting with other industry professionals can keep you in the know of new trends, placing you and your business at the forefront of new innovations for when the economy recovers.

Stay curious -—this was how you became an entrepreneur in the first place

More often than not, most businesses are often preoccupied with the productivity and execution of work while the economy is healthy, giving little to no thought for reflecting and planning. When we are overwhelmed by speed and efficiency, our approach to solving a problem is often clouded by merely a solution-oriented approach which may not be the best and most effective formula in the long run.

However, with the slowed economy and free time on our hands, there is more opportunity to reflect on the triumphs and stumbles of the company and source for more innovative ways to improve the problem. Taking stock of what has been done thus far and how operations can be improved is a simple measure that goes a long way.

As entrepreneurs, we have already learned the importance of being nimble and resourceful and today’s uncertainty will put what we have learned to the test, challenging us to rethink our business decisions and innovate further. Besides, curiosity was the determining factor that launched businesses in hopes of improving services and resolving problems.

Minimising costs does not mean skimping on every penny

When it comes to minimising costs, most would choose to reduce expenditure by cutting production costs and possibly considering retrenchment. However, lowering costs does not have to always be at the expense of employee’s job security but could be at the betterment of the business through streamlining productivity and improving efficiency.

Also Read: SMU’s Protégé Ventures as a catalyst for entrepreneurial education

Additionally, keeping costs to a minimum can be done with the support of government stimulus packages which can give much needed monetary relief especially when the budget is tight. Currently, trillions will be pumped across various countries to bolster industries and sustain economies hit by the economic slowdown.

For a tiny nation, Singapore has already committed SG$59.9 billion (US$43 billion) to combat the pandemic and to curtail the economic impact on SMEs.

With the recently launched Jobs Support Scheme, the Singapore government has also made it a point to ensure job security and refrain employees from going on no-pay leaves or face retrenchment. Whereas Taiwan’s stimulus measures totals at over NT$1 trillion (US$34 billion) and Hong Kong’s initiative under the SME Financial Guarantee Scheme of HK$20 billion (US$2.5 billion) will support the operational burden for SMEs.

No doubt the developing pandemic is still marred with uncertainty and unknowns, however, adversities can build the strength and resilience of businesses, positively challenging entrepreneurs to broaden horizons and grow an innovative entrepreneurial spark with the resistance to weather through any storm.

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Register for our next webinar: Meet the VC: Vertex Ventures

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

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The post Entrepreneurship in a pandemic: Seeking success through economic turmoil appeared first on e27.

For decades, Taiwan has been synonymous with hardware, being home to computer brands like MSI and Asus or chipmakers like TSMC and Foxconn.

In the past few years, however, there has been a strong push to pivot Taiwanese tech players towards software, using the country’s strong hardware base and tech-savvy 23.5 million population as a jumping point.

In addition to having some of the savviest consumers in the globe when it comes to smartphone use and Internet access, almost half of online transactions are done on mobile now. This is set to hit 61% in just two years.

Due to the country’s hardware background, Taiwanese citizens have often been the first adopters of key technologies — making the local population a hotbed for innovation and disruption where new startups and ideas flourish.

Add to that the fastest broadband speed in the world at 85.02Mbps and ranking within the top-20 in the world in terms of intellectual property protection, its local startups have a solid pool of resources to access in their quest to grow.

Working in tandem

Over the last decade, there has been a concerted effort across both the public and private sectors to encourage Taiwanese technopreneurs to not just innovate in their own market but also tap the 1.2 billion China consumer market, with an eye on global reach.

In 2015, Alibaba set aside TWD 10 billion (US$332 million) for its Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund to help local startups crack the China market and grow the nascent tech community.

In 2017, the Taiwanese government earmarked a US$3.3 billion startup fund, tax credits, and new laws to build a tech talent pipeline. A new fintech sandbox law was approved the same year to help technopreneurs test ideas with the typically strictly-regulated financial sector.

On artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, the government again led the way with a Government Information Open Platform which allows anyone — including AI and IoT players in Taiwan — to access government data across 27,000 categories.

Tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Google quickly followed suit. All set up AI or IoT development centres in Taipei, while Google announced a plan to train 5,000 Taiwanese students in AI programming in 2018.

Envisioning future Taiwan tech

Recognising that Taiwan’s small consumer market is only the stepping stone to global reach, in 2017, the Science & Technology Policy Research and Information Center (STPI) launched its Vision Programme to give high-potential tech startups a global boost.

Backed by Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology, this year marks the 4th edition of the Vision Programme. For 2020, the global partner is 500 Startups, the most active early-stage investor in the world.

From a large pool of applicants that underwent a month-long intensive training under the programme, the number of tech teams in the 2020 cohort was narrowed down to 25. These startups moved forward to a four-day boot camp that happened in June.

Also read: STPI’s Vision Programme: Bridging Taiwan startups with the world

During the bootcamp, these 25 teams immersed in a sophisticated learning model headed by eight mentors, six guest speakers, and underwent eight workshops where they were exposed to practical training and mentorship sessions on pitch deck structure, storytelling, and shifts in the entrepreneurial mindset, among many others.

This year’s cohort runs the gamut of industries from social enterprises to dental tech, proving that Taiwanese innovation remains at the forefront, even when it comes to software.

Health tech to the forefront

Given the increase in global consumer spending and aging populations, healthtech is well represented in the 2020 Vision Programme cohort.

SingularWings Medical offers real-time telehealth care, backed by AI and machine learning technologies. Utilising hardware such as straps, patches and smart clothing, SingularWings allows clients to remotely monitor patients.

General manager David Lee said, “Our tech can be applied even outside the healthcare sector. We see the Vision Programme as an avenue towards creating strategic partnerships with channel partners, distributors, and agents that have a better understanding of Southeast Asian markets.”

Meanwhile, Dent X combines both hardware and software solutions to improve the dental x-ray process in terms of patient comfort and imaging accuracy for diagnosis. The company is in the midst of clinical trials and filing for patents.

Due to the highly-regulated nature and complexity of individual countries’ dental healthcare systems, Dent X is looking to connect with life sciences institutes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other members of the dental community.

Social, environmental concerns

Rising awareness among consumers of both social and environmental concerns have led to more scrutiny in product labelling and more accountability demanded from producers. Several cohort members of the 2020 Vision Programme have sought to embrace this change.

Social enterprise Impct started off with a B2B model that sold socially and environmentally-conscious food products to offices and then reinvesting the proceeds in social causes.

As customers have become more aware of the products they buy, Impact is developing a B2C approach and looked to Vision Programme to raise its fundraising profile, said chief operating officer Jessi Fu.

Another member of the 2020 cohort is Kiwi New Energy, which allows individual consumers to directly purchase “green” electricity with a single click on its app.

Backed by blockchain technology and AI analysis as well as hardware to monitor solar panel productivity, Kiwi digresses from the traditional model of centralised electricity supply.

Helping traditional sectors innovate

One startup is helping Taiwan’s entrenched manufacturing sector embrace digital transformation and Industry 4.0. GoodLinker’s cloud-based technology utilises sensors to integrate machinery and increase productivity on the factory floor without large infrastructure spending.

“Through the Vision Programme, we are looking for channel partners that can guide us in our expansion strategies, and to better understand ecosystems outside of Taiwan,” said business development manager Bruce King.

Another cohort member is Turing Chain, which utilises blockchain to verify and validate certificates and resumes.The company is creating a centralised database where individuals’ certifications are consolidated.

Founder Jeff Hu said, “We aim to bring in more stakeholders into our ecosystem, including educational institutions, professional certifying bodies, as well as recruiters of organisations.”

From the 25 teams that participated in the June bootcamp, STPI will select 10 finalists. Of these, five will head to Singapore to work with e27, while the other five will fly to Silicon Valley to gain more global exposure to the tech ecosystem.

In addition to tapping STPI’s vast linkages with educational institutions, investors, and advisors within Taiwan, the Vision Programme cohort members also gain key entrepreneurial skills that can translate their businesses and scale their tech for a global audience.

In turn, the success of these tech teams will hopefully breed a more vibrant tech ecosystem in Taiwan and encourage more Taiwanese youth to join the local tech talent pipeline as the country’s software pivot continues.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
STPI.

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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After letting go of numerous employees in April, Indonesian travel-tech giant Traveloka has confirmed to have raised US$250 million in a new funding round from a host of investors, including East Ventures.

The confirmation comes three weeks after Bloomberg reported that the Indonesian firm was in advanced talks with investors, including Siam Commercial Bank, FWD Group, GIC, and East Ventures, to raise US$250 million at about US$2.75 billion valuation — roughly 17 per cent less than its most recent fundraising.

The new capital is expected to further strengthen the Indonesian firm’s  balance sheet and boost its efforts to deepen its offerings in select priority areas, Traveloka said in a statement.

The plans will include building a more robust and integrated travel & lifestyle portfolio in key markets, as well as expanding its financial services solutions to better support ecosystem partners.

Ferry Unardi, Co-founder and CEO of Traveloka said in a statement: “I am happy to share that on the business front, we are seeing encouraging recovery across all of our key markets. Our business in Vietnam is approaching steady pre-COVID-19 levels and Thailand business is on its way to surpassing 50 per cent.”

“Indonesia and Malaysia are still in the early stage, but they continue to demonstrate promising momentum with strong week-to-week improvement, especially in accommodation with the emergence of shorter distance staycation behaviour. We acknowledge that the sector may go through further turbulence as it navigates new waves, but we feel we are prepared to take on the challenge and emerge on the right side of it,” he added.

Also Read: Innovate and go: How Traveloka revamps its services to comply with changing travel behaviour 

According to the company, the COVID-19 crisis has put the travel sector in an unprecedented challenging state. Since the pandemic broke, the restrictions on travel and many other activities to curb the spread of the virus around the globe inevitably created a potent combination of stricken demand and travel disruption.

Traveloka also witnessed a historic drop in business activity to levels never seen before. Its partners across transport, accommodation, activities, and dining also experienced significant disruption to their business — there was feeble demand for transportation with the contrasting escalation of refund requests; hotels saw the lowest occupancy ever; several domestic and regional activities and dining partners chose to shut their doors temporarily due to high uncertainty.

“Without a doubt, Traveloka has been profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have experienced the lowest business rate that we have ever seen since our inception. However, we always believed that the company will prevail by rapidly adjusting our strategy, working with our industry and ecosystem partners, as well as continuing to innovate for our users, our ultimate focus,” Unardi added.

Traveloka has reportedly implemented necessary business optimisation measures to conserve capital and refocused its effort to prepare for effective action in the new normal.

For example, in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, the firm has seen a resurgence of domestic, short-distance travel and activities bookings as the population learn to live responsibly with the pandemic.

Also Read: KiotViet gets US$6M Series A funding from Jungle Ventures, Traveloka, eyeing expansion

In an interview with e27, Andhini Putri, Head of Marketing, Transport, Traveloka says that despite the impact caused by the virus, it is always important to identify customer pain points and try to solve them.

Domestic travel in Indonesia has already resumed and the company’s goal is to seize this opportunity even further –by providing ease and convenience of access to the mandatory travel requirements set by the government.

Some initiatives launched to cater to shifting demands included COVID-19 test bundle with flights, a flexible open-dated voucher for hotels in Buy Now Stay Later, and Traveloka Clean campaign, allowing users additional peace of mind when booking via Traveloka.

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E-commerce tops VC investments in SEA in Q2

The story: Southeast Asia has seen an increase in startup investments in the Q2 2020 despite COVID-19, which has mainly been led by e-commerce and fintech companies, according to Vietnam Plus.

Also Read: Meet the first batch of e27 Pro Perks partners

The rise is attributed to the pandemic which is causing consumer habits to shift and causing some sectors to potentially benefit.

Industry breakdown: E-commerce emerged at the top raising US$691M in total, followed by logistics (US$360M) and fintech (US$496M).

Top startup fundraises: Tokopedia  (US$500M), gojek (US$300M), Ninja Van (US$279M).

GreenPro makes strategic investment for 15% stake in Ata Plus

The story: Hong Kong-based investment company Green Pro has bought a 15 per cent stake in Malaysia’s equity crowdfunding platform Ata Plus.

The benefits: 

• By leveraging on GreenPro’s considerable regional financial assets and global presence, Ata Plus will be able to fast track its focus on becoming a regional fundraising platform (in the short-to-mid term) and a global one (in the longer term).
• The aim is to immediately create a ‘10+1’ market reach potential comprising the 10 member states in ASEAN plus China, where GreenPro has access via their Hong Kong presence.
• This strategic acquisition also enables Ata Plus to utilise the digital assets and technology recently acquired by GreenPro via their investment in First Bullion Holdings, Philippines.

Swiggy cuts 350 more staff

The story: India’s food delivery unicorn company Swiggy has said that it is laying off 350 executives as part of its restructuring exercise, according to Entrackr.

The company has said that all of the laid-off employees will receive at least three months of salary along with health insurance and accelerated stock vesting until December.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

The post In brief: Investments in SEA startups double in Q2 despite pandemic; GreenPro invests in Ata Plus appeared first on e27.

Before 2019 ended, the global events industry was expected to reach US$2,330 billion by 2026. Companies like PouchNATION seem to be looking at continuous growth for the next half a decade at least.

PouchNATION has successfully sold millions of wearables across different industries in events like conferences, concerts, festivals, sports events, and more. With six physical offices across Southeast Asia, the company has successfully established itself as the market leader in the space.

Then the pandemic happened.

Events started to cancel — first, one by one, then seemingly all at once. Huge losses were seen, and the future of the industry turned somewhat hazy.

It was either sink or swim.

For PouchNATION, it was a swim and step up. They have recently launched their latest project that integrated a Body Temperature Sensor into their wearable technology to allow all businesses and households to do health screening checks.

Launched as PouchPASS, the vision for this project is to promote a safe and healthy environment both at home and at business locations powered by the latest state of the art contactless IoT technology.

In an email correspondence with PouchNATION CEO, Ilya Kravtsov, he talked about this exciting new milestone, why the company saw a pivot in the health tech space, and the company’s decision to explore opportunities with e27 Pro.

The birth of PouchPASS

PouchNATION has always been at the forefront of new guest technologies. RFID enabled cashless payments, geolocation, ticketing, POS development — all these are part of the company’s suite of traditional tech tools that provide detailed analytics and patron behaviour reports.

“Over a 5-year period, we have launched and built our business to be Southeast Asia’s leader in wearable technologies for mass participation events and venues. We were handling hundreds of events every year and our technology was managing millions of guests across the region, providing insights to consumer behaviour, ticketing, and crowd management,” explained Kravstov, highlighting PouchNation’s extensive experience in crowd management technology over the past few years.

“Then all of a sudden, COVID-19 happened — the largest event of our lifetime,” Kravtsov said, “understanding immediately the gravity of the situation, we decided to redirect our knowledge and resources to something that we knew would help in protecting lives and establishing the fundamentals for a better tomorrow. I am extremely proud of the result that the team managed to achieve in this short period of time.”

Also read: Event tech platform PouchNATION raises Series B round from Traveloka and SPH Ventures

The PouchPASS wearable technology utilises sensors to provide high-accuracy body temperature data every minute and, coupled with the PouchPASS application, allows the users to monitor body temperature continuously, remotely, and without interpersonal or physical contact.

All data synchronised real-time in the PouchPASS online dashboard are stored on the cloud and treated with extremely high privacy standards. They may only be viewed with the consent of the users. The PouchBAND is also comfortable to wear, dust and water-resistant, and requires no charging.

Using solutions of tomorrow to address the problems of today

For those who know PouchNation for its “can do” spirit, it is no surprise that they have now turned years of guest, organiser, venue, and event management experience into one brand new product — all with their hallmark data analytics, practical applications, and insights.

“The World Health Organisation studies completed in China and Europe indicate that 89.1% of the COVID-19 patients had fever as the major symptom, so adding a temperature monitor to our wristbands adds a layer of reassurance for guests and organisers alike when activity and businesses resume,” said Kravtsov.

He added, “the scenarios where this technology can be used are endless: sports, venues, events, factories, schools, hospitals, prisons, public transport, and so on. We also wanted to make sure this product would be available to the masses, so the price point has been a very important consideration for us in the launch of PouchPASS.”

Such initiatives in the health technology space are not only crucial in helping curb the spread of viruses and the ballooning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it may also redefine our new normal. This is why it’s important to bolster and embolden access to these technologies and bring them as far and wide as possible.

The company also secured an experienced Board of Investors & Advisors with a background in selling electronic products globally in order to counter foreseeable challenges. Kravtsov explained that it is never easy to roll out a new product, especially globally. As such, he predicts that there will be challenges in logistics and distribution, but nothing that they believe the company is unable to overcome.

Taking PouchNation to a whole new level

With today’s precarious global market, bringing new products to consumers is quite a daunting task. In order to push initiatives like PouchPASS further and help benefit businesses and households that stand to gain from their contactless IoT technology, the company needs to supercharge its efforts with the right tools and insights.

Access to different networks of global investors, getting the latest news about the tech ecosystem, and gaining visibility for your business — these are only some of the necessary tools they need in order to penetrate markets on a larger scale.

Also read: Disaster Tech innovation is key in mitigating the impact of natural disasters


As such, among the series of exciting new developments in the company, PouchNation also recently signed up for an e27 Pro membership.

One of the key challenges they faced was meeting investors and partners at a time when opportunities are limited. Through e27 Pro’s Connect programme, they were able to meet as many investors and partners as possible in a short time without the need to go anywhere.

“I love the virtual investors matching, I had a lot of great calls all from my bedroom,” remarked Kravtsov.

With e27 Pro, PouchNATION was able to connect with numerous investors and build new business relationships, helping fuel their goal of bringing their new tech to the world.

With the goal of supporting businesses across the world transition to the new normal, PouchNation is more than ready to take on the challenges of today using the solutions of tomorrow.

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Disclosure: PouchNATION is a member of e27 Pro. Find out more about what e27 Pro here.

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After seven years of helping more than 200 Singapore early stage tech startups with their tech product development, our team has seen lots of issues that can trigger Oh-Sh*t moments.

Below are the most common struggles that many early stage tech startups face with their new tech product development.

While these struggles are most commonly seen among early stage tech startups, they sometimes (can still) happen in more mature startups. If your startup is developing or planning to develop a tech product, watch out for the three most common mistakes early stage tech startups make below.

Over-development

Often, founders, especially first-timers, spend too much time perfecting their products: they want to have all the great features in the first release, no bugs, and every design to be aesthetically perfect. However, what you think your customers need is likely to differ from what they really need. Worse, your customers often do not know what they really need until they actually have their hands on your product.

All these factors make the usefulness of all your white-board scrabbles and customer surveys very limited. So why bother wasting all your money and time developing what your customers do not need? For most startups, the cost of under-development is usually much lower than of over-development. Instead, you should:

• Develop only essential functions
• Release to the market as soon as possible to test the market
• Iterate according to actual user behaviours

Once you have launched your product to the market, you will have the best insights into what your customers really need and how much they are willing to pay. If we can point to a single most important factor that our successful clients have in common, it is speed.

Also Read: A multi-disciplinary approach to product development requires collaboration

Communication friction between business and tech

Expectations are the root of all heartache. Most tech people are not experts in communication and thus expectation management. This is not a big issue for more mature startups that can afford to hire product managers.

However, for early stage tech startups, to save money, CEOs tend to play the role of Product Managers as well.

Also Read: A multi-disciplinary approach to product development requires collaboration

Sales-driven, these CEOs often have unrealistic deadlines for tech people. Without any formal document to record all the specification and agreement, the writing of which is usually a job every business or tech person abhors, friction usually occurs when a feature is not as per the CEO “says” or deadlines are missed. Even if deadlines are met, software engineers may be forced to go for shortcuts, sacrificing the code quality that may backfire later on, hard.

Software engineers do it all

If you hung around job portals as much as we do, you would be unsurprised to see job posts that essentially go like this: looking for a software engineer who can design, code, test, write architecture documents, swim, dance, climb mountains, etcetera.

If we follow the 80:20 rule, 80 per cent of the time of software engineers should be spent on coding. But in reality, software engineers are usually forced to support customers, attend sales meetings, test their products, etcetera.

But wait, are software engineers supposed to test their products? Trust me, they will test but if you are really serious about getting a quality product, you should get dedicated testers and technical leads because if software engineers saw issues in their codes, they already fixed those issues, right?

So founders, please repeat this mantra three times so that we will not commit this sin again: “Software engineers are supposed to code only. Software engineers are supposed to code only. Software engineers are supposed to code only.”

In a nutshell

Many may find the above issues laughing stocks and other people’s problems. However, those issues are probably closer to home than many may think. Even more mature startups who are aware of the above issues tend to overlook them until it is too late.

Resonate with the above struggles? Share your story so that other founders can learn from your stories, too.

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