Pang Xue Kai, Founder and CEO, Untukmu.AI
Untukmu.AI, a Singapore-incorporated startup providing AI solutions for the gifting industry, recently bagged an undisclosed amount in a seed round from 1982 Ventures and angels to scale the business across its home market in Indonesia.
The platform offers tools, such as a gift tracker, budgeting tool, and events calendar to provide a smooth user experience. In addition, its AI-powered dashboard allows merchants to manage and increase sales, provide valuable insights into customer preferences, optimise their product offerings, and personalise shopping experience.
e27 spoke with Untukmu Founder and CEO Pang Xue Kai, a serial entrepreneur who earlier built Tokocrypto, a leading crypto exchange in Indonesia, to learn more about the business.
Edited excerpts:
What inspired you to start Untukmu.AI, and what gap in the market do you aim to fill with your AI solutions for the gifting industry?
My co-founder, Pang Xue Cong, and I recognised how time-consuming and challenging online gift-giving can become, which leads to missed opportunities to celebrate important moments. We launched Untukmu.AI to address this by harnessing artificial intelligence to simplify and enrich selecting gifts.
The platform is designed to deeply understand the preferences and interests of recipients, making gift-giving a thoughtful, personalised, and efficient experience.
Can you provide insights into the gift tracker, budgeting tool, and events calendar on the platform?
The gift tracker is designed to help users keep track of the gifts they’ve sent and the reactions they’ve received. It ensures that users can maintain a personal touch with their gifting, remembering past gifts to avoid repetition and making future gift choices more informed and personal.
The budgeting tool helps users manage their gifting expenses effectively. This tool will allow users to set budgets for different occasions and receive suggestions that fit within their specified price range, ensuring that gifting remains joyful and stress-free.
The events calendar ensures users never miss a momentous occasion again. By integrating personal, cultural, and widely celebrated events into a single, easy-to-use interface, this tool will prompt users about upcoming dates that might require a gift. This proactive approach helps users plan and purchase gifts in advance, making last-minute rushes a thing of the past.
How does the AI-powered dashboard assist merchants in managing and increasing sales?
The dashboard provides deep insights into customer preferences and behaviour. It analyses customer interaction and purchasing patterns to identify trends in gift preferences, timing, and budgets, enabling merchants to tailor their offerings and marketing efforts more effectively.
The dashboard aims to increase sales and foster meaningful connections between businesses and their clients by aligning gifts with company values and customer expectations.
Additionally, Untukmu.AI is developing an omnichannel platform to help Indonesian merchants reach a global audience, further boosting their sales and market presence.
A press release mentions you are exploring leveraging blockchain and crypto tokens to reward users. How do you envision implementing this technology within the Untukmu.AI platform?
Rewarding participation: Users can earn tokens for various forms of engagement, such as contributing reviews, recommending products, and sharing their experiences. This not only encourages a more active community but also enhances the data quality that feeds into our AI, improving the personalisation and accuracy of gift recommendations.
Decentralised trust: We aim to introduce a decentralised trust mechanism into the platform. This will ensure transparency in transactions and interactions, building a more reliable and secure environment for both users and merchants.
Enhanced user experience: Crypto tokens can be used within the Untukmu.AI ecosystem for purchasing gifts, accessing premium features, or availing of special discounts. This utility adds a layer of value to the tokens, making participation in the platform more rewarding.
Therefore, this integration emphasises the 3Cs — consent, compensation, and credit — to ensure ethical data use and community engagement:
Consent: Prioritising voluntary participation and informed decision-making, ensuring contributors are aware of how their data is used and the associated benefits and risks.
Compensation: Offering fair rewards and possibly implementing a licensing model for the use of cultural and linguistic data, ensuring contributors are equitably compensated.
Credit: Properly acknowledge contributions, whether data for AI or cultural expressions and work to preserve and promote cultural heritage and languages.
This approach not only aims to revolutionise the gifting industry but also ensures the platform is built on a foundation of trust, equity, and respect for cultural significance, setting new standards in e-commerce and AI landscapes.
How does Untukmu.AI plan to collaborate with small businesses, corporations, and self-employed professionals to cater to their diverse gifting needs and preferences?
For small businesses and self-employed professionals, we are exploring partnership programmes that allow them to showcase their products on our platform. This not only provides them with a broader audience but also enriches the variety of gifts available to our users, making it easier to find unique and meaningful options.
For corporations, Untukmu.AI intends to develop dedicated Corporate dashboards that enable HR departments and managers to manage their gifting needs efficiently. This could include employee recognition, client outreach, and other corporate events, with features to track spending, preferences, and feedback.
We are also looking to integrate Untukmu.AI with Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) to streamline the process of employee recognition. This will allow companies to effortlessly reward their employees with personalised gifts directly through the HRIS interface they are already familiar with.
Engaging with the business community for feedback and insights is crucial. We plan to hold regular sessions with small businesses, corporations, and professionals to understand their needs better and adapt our platform accordingly.
We also want to offer resources and support to help businesses and professionals navigate the platform, aiming to be a versatile platform that not only meets the diverse gifting needs of various business entities and professionals but also supports small businesses in gaining visibility and growth.
What learnings do you bring from Tokocrypto? Do you foresee a partnership with Tokocrypto, moving forward?
One of the most critical aspects I learned is the power of community. Engaging with and listening to your user base is crucial for growth and improvement. This is something we’re keenly integrating into Untukmu.AI, fostering a community that feels valued and heard.
Operating in the crypto space taught me the importance of navigating regulatory landscapes adeptly. This understanding is vital as we explore integrating blockchain technology within Untukmu.AI, ensuring we comply with laws and regulations while innovating.
Also Read: Tokocrypto-BRI Ventures accelerator invests US$40M in participating startups
In the crypto world, security is paramount. This has ingrained in me the importance of building robust security measures and maintaining user trust, principles that are foundational to Untukmu.AI.
The fast-paced nature of the blockchain industry highlighted the need for constant innovation and adaptability.
Regarding a partnership with Tokocrypto, there are several synergies that could benefit both platforms. For instance, leveraging Tokocrypto’s blockchain expertise could enhance the security and efficiency of transactions on Untukmu.AI. Additionally, a collaboration could open up new avenues for token utility and rewards, enriching the user experience on both platforms.
The possibility of partnering with Tokocrypto is an exciting prospect. Such a collaboration would not only signify a convergence of my past and present ventures but also potentially pave the way for innovative solutions at the intersection of AI, e-commerce, and blockchain technology.
Why was the company incorporated in Singapore? Is it for ease of doing business? How is Indonesia evolving as a startup nation?
We chose Singapore for Untukmu.AI’s incorporation due to its favourable business ecosystem, robust regulatory framework, and accessibility to investors, leveraging our deep understanding as Singaporeans.
While Indonesia offers a large, growing market and a supportive startup ecosystem, its regulatory challenges prompted our initial choice of Singapore.
Also Read: Tokocrypto, BRI Ventures launch blockchain accelerator programme
However, we’re optimistic about Indonesia’s future for startups, especially with recent governmental changes aiming to enhance the digital economy and startup environment.
We look forward to potential reforms that could streamline operations and attract foreign investment, further energising Indonesia’s startup landscape.
What are your expectations from the new government and President of Indonesia?
Our expectation from the new government and President is to continue focusing on digital economy growth, with measures to foster innovation, support startups, and create a more favourable business environment. This could include simplifying the regulatory framework, offering incentives for startups, and investing in digital infrastructure, collectively boosting Indonesia’s startup ecosystem.
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