In the dynamic world of global innovation, Japan emerges as an alluring hub for startups, particularly within the energetic city of Tokyo. Japan’s economic strength and substantial government investment in the startup ecosystem positions it as a strategic destination for those seeking opportunities.

Why Japan now? Exploring market opportunities

Japan stands out as an enticing choice for startups, driven by several compelling factors. Economically, Japan is the world’s fourth-largest economy by GDP. This not only signifies a robust economy but also translates to a vast market, capable of catering to diverse consumer needs and preferences.

Also read: Empowering innovators: Prudence Foundation tackles disaster challenges

Underlining its commitment to innovation, the Japanese government has pledged substantial support, allocating a total of ¥1.5 trillion to startup initiatives. This financial commitment underscores the country’s dedicated effort to foster entrepreneurial growth.

The Japanese government’s strategic “Five-Year Startup Development Plan” aims to elevate annual startup investments to ¥10 trillion by FY2027, envisioning the creation of 100 unicorns and 100,000 startups. The plan focuses on crucial aspects such as building human resources, strengthening funding avenues, diversifying exit strategies, and promoting open innovation.

Startups: Why Tokyo?

Tokyo, as a startup destination, offers distinct advantages for entrepreneurs:

• Hub for Advanced Technology: Tokyo ranks as the world’s third-leading city in research and development, making it a hub for cutting-edge technologies and innovation.
• Corporate Powerhouse: Hosting a concentration of major corporations, Tokyo provides startups with ample collaboration and partnership opportunities.
• An upswing of VC Investments: Tokyo is witnessing a positive trend in venture capital investments, showing a thriving startup ecosystem.
• Urban Sustainability Opportunities: Tokyo Bay ESG, a project aiming to create “the world’s first ESG city” by 2050, presents huge opportunities for climate tech startups. In the future, Tokyo plans to meet all energy needs through renewable sources and achieve zero emissions in buildings and transport systems.
• Government Support: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government extensively supports market entry, offering assistance with procedures, funds, and subsidies.
• Quality of Life: Beyond business, Tokyo provides an excellent quality of life and a diverse culinary culture, making it a prime destination for entrepreneurs.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government support

Tokyo aims to become the world’s most startup-friendly city, with plans to grow the number of unicorns and new businesses launched in the capital by 10 times over the next five years. This vision, known as the ’10×10×10 Innovation Vision’ aims for a tenfold increase in the number of unicorns, startups, and collaborative projects within the specified timeframe. Governor Yuriko Koike highlighted four key elements:

• Global: Creating global startups
• Growth: Supporting the growth of young people willing to take on challenges
• Collaboration: Creating collaboration between startups and established institutions
• Connect: Establishing a platform to connect everyone in the startup ecosystem

Aligned with this vision, the “Tokyo Innovation Base” (TIB) was established, aiming to create a hub for global innovation, where startups and supporters can connect and collaborate.

Also read: Application to PepsiCo’s Greenhouse Accelerator 2024 is extended!

Tokyo Innovation Base: A hub for startups

Tokyo Innovation Base (TIB) is a new startup campus and business networking hub in the heart of Tokyo, accelerating the local startup scene and positioning Tokyo as a global hub for innovation. TIB offers:

• Concierge Services: Personalised support tailored for startups, encompassing guidance on various aspects of business development. TIB’s concierge services extend access to over 50 experts across diverse industries for one-on-one consultations. These services cater to early-stage startups, later-stage startups seeking a foothold in Japan, and aspiring founders exploring business opportunities in the country.
• Mentorship: Mentorship at TIB extends beyond industry-focused advice; it also includes general assistance such as pitch training sessions, business ideation, and the facilitation of partnerships with Japanese corporations.
• Events and Training Programs: More than just a physical space, TIB stands as a beacon for aspiring entrepreneurs, visionaries, and innovators worldwide. The hub organises a variety of events designed to foster networking opportunities among startups, creating a dynamic environment for collaboration and idea exchange.
• Corporate-Startup Collaboration: TIB actively facilitates partnerships and collaboration between startups and established companies. With over 140 corporate partners having established ties with TIB, the hub aims to foster ecosystem collaboration. This involves connecting startup ecosystem builders and investors with key stakeholders in Tokyo and Japan, creating a robust network for mutual growth.

SusHi Tech Tokyo

SusHi Tech, short for Sustainable High City Tech, stands as one of Asia’s leading startup conferences, dedicated to addressing global urban challenges through technology happening on May 15th and 16th, 2024, at Tokyo Big Sight!

Take the first step towards global opportunities! For more details, visit Sushi Tech Tokyo 2024

Also read: 9Unicorns to facilitate $110M funding for 20 startups at DDAY 5 with 1500+ investors

Learn more about TIB

Explore Tokyo’s vibrant startup ecosystem, driving innovation and entrepreneurship! For more details about Tokyo Innovation Base, visit their website or follow them on the accounts below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyoinnovationbase/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TIBTokyo 

Come by anytime if you’re around Tokyo – TIB is looking forward to collaborating and growing together!

– –

This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Tokyo Innovation Base

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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In the ever-evolving retail landscape, retailers are grappling with mounting pressure to meet customer demand for discounted deals and swift delivery, particularly during sales seasons. Despite this, a notable decline in holiday season sales in late 2023 prompted certain retailers to question whether shopping seasons have passed their prime.

In Singapore, it was reported that some retailers along Orchard Road have noticed a quieter year-end, with thinner crowds and the traditional holiday season spending splurge missing in action. Half of the sales representatives reported a decrease in December sales compared to the previous year.

Furthermore, while labour shortages are becoming less common, they still remain a persistent problem for many retailers in Asia-Pacific (APAC). In Singapore, an overwhelming nine in 10 retail employees expressed concerns about a shortage of labour, with 48 per cent ‘somewhat agreeing’ and 45 per cent ‘strongly agreeing’ to the issue.

Retailers today must navigate the challenge of accomplishing more with limited resources. This includes efficiently managing returns, providing top-notch customer service, and optimizing available inventory.

Meanwhile, a new era of omnichannel commerce challenges retailers to seamlessly manage multiple fulfillment channels to keep up with consumer expectations. Shoppers increasingly combine online and offline shopping, blurring the lines between online and offline retail. While omnichannel shopping causes challenges for retailers, most shoppers prefer options.

According to Zebra’s 16th Annual Global Shopper Study, nearly eight in 10 shoppers globally and in APAC favour a blend of online and in-store shopping, while 75 per cent of global and 72 per cent of APAC shoppers choose to shop with online retailers that have a brick-and-mortar location.

Other surveys also show that around 48 per cent of shoppers browse in physical stores before buying online, while around 49 per cent browse online before buying in a physical shop.

In tandem with this evolving retail landscape, consumer expectations have also ascended to new heights. Today’s shoppers expect a seamless omnichannel experience where they get to enjoy the convenience of easy returns and self-checkouts no matter where or how they shop.

Also Read: How Pomelo tackles the problem of high product return with its O2O retail experience

To overcome headwinds such as labour challenges and shifting consumer expectations, it is key for retailers to invest in cutting-edge technologies to help sustain profitability while providing positive shopper and associate experiences.

Surpassing shopper expectations: Navigating the omnichannel experience

Shoppers today seek a seamless experience in-store — this includes favouring digital payment and checkout options for convenience. The COVID-19 pandemic and a national drive for a cashless society have accelerated the adoption of electronic payments in Singapore — a growing majority of consumers are opting to pay for goods and services using their cards or mobile phones.

According to the same Zebra study, 28 per cent of APAC shoppers prefer pay/checkout anywhere, and 74 per cent of APAC shoppers say that self-checkouts help improve their experience.

Managing online and in-store returns adds another level of complexity. As omnichannel shopping continues to grow, the volume of returns increases along with it. Around seven in 10 global and APAC retailers surveyed in Zebra’s study say the pressure is mounting to improve the efficiency and expense of managing online orders, returns, and the fulfilment process.

With technology, retailers across all categories can monitor sales trends to better prepare for surges in consumer demand and cope with returns. Prescriptive analytics, real-time inventory visibility, and workforce management tools are vital to retail operations, helping stores and warehouses ensure they have the right people and inventory in the right places at the right time to offset the impacts of uncontrollable industry disruptions, such as the current omnichannel squeeze that retailers are facing.

Also Read: The canary in Singapore’s retail coal mine is ‘kiasu’

Keeping up with retail

The speed of change in the retail landscape is not slowing down anytime soon, but the technology available to retailers is also quickly advancing. As retailers add more digital channels that require fulfilment from store shelves, such as buy online and pick up in-store (BOPIS), having an accurate inventory count becomes imperative.

By strategically investing in the right mobile devices and software, stores can complete smart cycle counting on a more regular cadence without increasing headcount or diverting associates from delivering exceptional customer service.

A growing trend among retailers involves deploying technology once reserved for the warehouse or back of the store to the front of the store. For instance, Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been gaining popularity among apparel, sporting goods, and electronics retailers. Employing RFID tagging, helps streamline inventory management for weekly or even daily counts and can also help facilitate faster returns processing and inventory reshelving.

In order to enhance store productivity, it is crucial for intelligent inventory and workforce management solutions to work together. This visibility into sales data and the movement of goods across the supply chain allows retailers to leverage data to assign tasks to the right associates at the right time.

Ultimately, these solutions help merchants make better procurement and labour scheduling decisions to ensure they can always keep up with consumer demand, whether shopping online or in-store.

—

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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Image credit: Canva

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It is a hard truth that nine out of 10 startups fail. You may have a great product and a huge customer base, but it does not stop your startup from failing.

The following video is discussing 1o things that contribute to the failure of startups. You may take inspiration from this video and avoid any possible missteps, and eventually lead your venture to a a huge success.  

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This article was first published on August 10, 2017.

The post 10 reasons why startups fail appeared first on e27.

According to a recent survey of 2,000 UK-based workers by HR firm Robert Half U.K., employees start hating their jobs when they turn 35. In fact, workers over the age of 35 are twice likely to be as unhappy as workers aged between 18 to 34. That’s a very sombre statistic.

So how can bosses or managers reverse that trend? Well, they can check out this useful employee management slideshare by HR firm Hppy, and apply the recommended advice. Enjoy!

 

 

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Image Credit: hemeroskopion / 123RF Stock Photo

This article was first published on August 25, 2017

The post Employees start hating their jobs when they turn 35; here’s how bosses can prevent that appeared first on e27.

It will be almost impossible to talk about Indonesian e-commerce scene without mentioning Bukalapak at some point.

With the market’s status as a mobile-first market, it is not surprising that 70 to 80 per cent of the platform’s transaction is contributed by its mobile app.

As one of the leading online marketplaces in the country, the Bukalapak mobile app has secured 13 million total installs with two million daily active users for Android, with 700,000 total installs and 300,000 daily active users for iOS.

Both customers and sellers are using a single mobile app to shop and manage their business. This is a decision that the company made after a period of research in its users’ behaviour; it has previously considered launching two different apps for sellers and customers.

Apart from preparing the launch of its train ticket booking service in the mobile app, Bukalapak is getting ready to include its newly launched fintech features (such as a marketplace for mutual funds and gold) in the mobile app.

“When it comes to developing new features, we try to not take it easily. Let’s say that there is a new feature on our desktop [platform], you might notice that it will be a while until it shows up on [mobile] app. This is because we would like to maintain the quality of the app,” explains Bukalapak VP Engineering Ibrahim Arief.

Also Read: Alibaba reportedly in partnership talks with Emtek Group, opens possibility of Bukalapak investment

Out of the startup’s 800 employees, 200 are working in its engineering team, which are being divided into seven division: back-end, front-end, system engineer, mobile developer, site reliability engineer (SRE), quality assurance (QA) engineer, and data engineer.

The mobile development team is the biggest with almost 40 developers on board.

Mobile Apps Product Manager Bayu Surya revealed that within the last quarter, almost 10,000 engineers applied to join the company, but only 35 applicants were accepted.

To search for talents, Bukalapak also hosts hackathon events, with many participants ending up showing their interests in joining the company.

So what are the secrets to building and maintaining a team of high-performing mobile app developer?

Let Arief and Surya take you through the journey:

Sharing is caring

For the Bukalapak engineering team, knowledge sharing process plays an important role in helping the company produces a high-performance mobile app.

When asked about the criteria that the company is looking for in potential candidates, apart from technical skills, a Bukalapak engineers also need to be eager to learn, share knowledge, and help their peers.

“Senior level engineers at Bukalapak are defined not only through their skills, but also through how they share their knowledge to less-experienced engineers … It’s part of the responsibilities we set up for senior-level engineers,” Arief says.

“We are looking for engineers with a passion to help their peers grow,” he adds.

Apart from a bi-weekly internal event, the startup also regularly hosts talk shows for fellow industry players, to share the best practices in mobile development that it has acquired.

Also Read: Indonesian e-commerce startup Bukalapak offers scholarship for students

No punishments for mistakes

For many startups, making a mistake is seen as a crucial part of learning and experimentation, and Bukalapak is not exempted.

The company stresses that it does not believe in penalising mistakes made by its engineers; this is the reason why they put emphasis in having the passion to learn for their engineers.

“Mistakes happen, but we consider that as a learning experience, even though the journey might be difficult. We try not to finger-point at people,” Arief says.

Work with the flow

Bukalapak likens the process of introducing new features into the mobile app to adding a new passenger carriage in a railway train; in fact, the process itself is aptly named “release train.”

“We can compare the app to a moving railway train that keeps on moving as it is adding new passenger carriages. Let’s just say that the new carriage is a new idea. Once the new carriage is ready to be deployed, you just have to add it into the train,” Arief says.

When developing a new feature, Bukalapak is going to assign a small team to research and build a new idea. The idea will only be implemented into the mobile app when it is fully ready.

Before it is being released, a new feature needs to go through different stages of automated testings with over hundreds of test case. Once it passes all the tests, the feature will then be rolled out gradually to some users.

The team will then look forward to any report about bugs; once all the reported bugs are fixed, the feature will then be launched to all users of Bukalapak app.

“Within the mobile app development team itself, we have a core team for research and development. These are the best people working in the company, and they are the one determining how the best practices should be like,” Arief says.

Also Read: Bukalapak CEO receives prestigious award from Indonesian President Joko Widodo

Ready when it is

While many startups live by the principle of “Don’t ask for permission but ask for forgiveness,” Bukalapak believes that a product or feature is ready to be released — when it is ready.

As briefly explained in the previous point, there is no such thing as an arbitrary deadline which dictates when a product has to be launched, whether it is ready or not.

“Feature development might take a longer time, but when it is finally released, the result is as expected. It is much better than being in a hurry to release it, but it ends up having many bugs and disappointing our users, which will cost us a lot,” Arief says.

Battle preparation

The high season for online shopping in Indonesia tends to happen during religious holidays such as Ramadan or shopping holidays such as Harbolnas.

To anticipate a sharp increase of traffic and its possible impact to the mobile app’s performance, Bukalapak team starts its preparation months before the actual event.

Apart from intensifying testing on both mobile app and back-end, the team will also perform deployment froze, which is the decision to not launch any new features around Harbolnas to ensure the stability of the system.

“We will focus only on bug fixing … and this method has been proven to help maintain stability during Harbolnas,” Surya says.

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Image Credit: Bukalapak

This article was first published on August 15, 2017

The post Bukalapak spills the secrets on building a high-performing mobile development team appeared first on e27.

In the sharing economy, the challenges faced by owners of marketplaces are more complicated than that of traditional e-commerce businesses. Given that an online marketplace is a platform service, owners need to acquire users from both supply and demand sides. A classic chicken-and-egg problem surfaces in this scenario: since one cannot exist without the other, which do you seek to acquire first – customers or service suppliers?

Ideally, companies will wish to focus as possible on both. However, this is an unwise decision since many  startups and small companies are working with limited resources at hand. The most important thing for you to do at the initial phases of creating your marketplace is hence to focus on growing your supply base, by getting merchants to list their products on your marketplace.

In order for a marketplace to function, there must be sufficient suppliers offering the goods or services before the platform can be opened to customers. It is essential for you to strategize how to acquire suppliers in order to ensure that they are the right ones that you are looking for.

Tap into existing platforms

Where do you start from when sourcing for suppliers? One way is to tap into existing platforms where your target users – both suppliers and buyers – are likely to be active in. This can include offline and online destinations, such as Facebook groups or online forums, where people sharing similar interests congregate. These platforms facilitate discussions which allows potential suppliers to promote their products, and for buyers to share information on reliable places to acquire that particular type of goods and services. Such information are useful resources you can utilize when sourcing for your marketplace suppliers.

Etsy and Airbnb are examples of companies which benefited greatly from pursuing such strategies in their early growth period. Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, adopted an offline approach as the founders started off by visiting craft fairs across the country, sifting out potential craft vendors to set up an online store on their site.

On the other hand, Airbnb recruited property-owners to list on their property-rental site by poaching suppliers from Craigslist and capitalizing on its massive user base. The founders created a software to hack the classifieds site and access the contact information of property owners, pitching to them to list on Airbnb as well. This strategy provided Airbnb with a ready supply of homes.

Also read: Marketplaces bring transparency, choice, wisdom of crowds, and efficient reach, says Zoomcar CPO Rajesh Bysani

How then do you convince these suppliers to list their services on your marketplace? You must be ready to prove that you can offer them something better than the existing market options, as with the case of Airbnb. Upon seizing the contacts of suppliers, the founders created a system which allowed people to list their properties on both Craigslist and Airbnb at the same time, and distinguished themselves as a better alternative to the scam-prone, more impersonal platform.

The improved user experience hence served as an incentive for property owners to switch to Airbnb, despite Craigslist being a more established leader in short term property-rentals.

It’s okay to utilize non-scalable strategies at the initial stages

While the ultimate goal of your marketplace is to achieve a scalable business model, it is crucial for new businesses to understand that relying on the word-of-mouth and adopting non-scalable strategies may be essential for their earlier stages of growth. Emphasis must be placed on creating a great experience for your initial customers, even if it means adopting measures that are not scalable in the long-run.

When ridesharing app Uber was first launched, they did not immediately allow drivers to use their own cars. Instead, the company prioritized customer experience by starting out with black cars driven by professional drivers, and rely upon customers to do the marketing for the company by spreading news of their great experience to their peers.

Airbnb too utilized a non-scalable solution to their initial problem of slow growth. The founders noticed a similar pattern across their unpopular listings –  whereby the property owners were posting subpar photos of their listings, which paled in comparison to glamorized hotel room shots. Their solution to the problem was non-technical but extremely effective: rent a $5,000 camera, travel to the listings and replace the amateur photography with beautiful high-resolution pictures. The result was instantaneous as a week later, their weekly revenue had doubled, and eventually this led to the development of Airbnb’s professional photography service.

One of Airbnb’s top Wish Listed destinations and properties around the world.
Photo credit: Airbnb.

The right time to launch

During your marketplace launch, be sure to make use of timing and sequencing to maximise the success and impact of your service. When strategizing for your marketplace launch, trying to attract as many customers as possible should not be your only priority. Your strategy should also revolve around how to acquire the right type of customers and how to provide them with the best experience.

Before launching your services, it helps to have an already engaged audience or community that is aware of and interested in your marketplace. This can be achieved via interacting with your target buyers through simple content marketing, such as actively contributing on blogs and niche forums or creating email lists to garner subscriptions. The founders of Etsy had in fact made use of such online platforms to understand the crafting community and build their online presence upon launching their marketplace. Such moves can also help you better grasp the habits and preferences of your potential marketplace users.

Also read: Running an online marketplace? Here are nine must-read books to step up your game

Many successful start-up stories utilized the formula of launching in situations of high demand and low supply for their services, which showed us the importance of sequencing when determining how your marketplace should expand. Uber was able to acquire large groups of customers at one go by launching at the right venues and timings – they started off in cities where there was high demand but low supply of taxis, and held promotions during events that drew big crowds, which translates to a high demand for rides.

Similarly, Airbnb launched their rental services amidst a local hotel shortage in Denver, which was accommodating 80,000 convention goers of the 2008 Democratic Convention.  This strategy guided their following moves of expanding into cities hosting major events and conventions.

There are additional benefits associated with launching in situations of high demand and low supply. Such scenarios draw in customers who resorted to using your service as a last resort, and hence possess lower expectations and are more forgiving towards the new service. In addition, existing suppliers are unlikely to see you as a threat and take retaliatory actions, due to their lack of capacity to accommodate the surplus in demand. This is when your marketplace should seize the chance to strengthen your foothold in the market.

—

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

This article was first published on August 22, 2017

The post How to attract the first thousand users to your marketplace appeared first on e27.

VCs face hundreds of startup pitches on a regular basis, so they don’t have time for bullshit.  For startup founders who wish to impress the VCs, it’s important to get their pitch decks up to scratch. They need to do their homework and include any pertinent facts and figures.

The following slideshare by J.Skyler Fernades perfectly encapsulates what any VC would look for in a pitch deck. Enjoy!

Image Credit: dolgachov / 123RF Stock Photo

This article was first published on September 26, 2017

The post A guide to creating the ultimate investor pitch deck appeared first on e27.

Dear reader,

In recent months, Southeast Asian tech startups have faced significant challenges, leading to a wave of layoffs across the region. The latest company to downsize its workforce is ShopBack, a leading shopping rewards platform.

ShopBack’s decision to downsize its workforce by 24% — 195 employees –reflects a strategic shift towards sustainability and efficiency in the wake of rapid expansion.

According to CEO Henry Chan, ShopBack aggressively focused on expansion over sustainability in 2021 and early 2022 by scaling the team from 550 to over 900 when the economic situation was favourable. However, from Q2 2022, when market sentiments shifted and aggressive growth became unsustainable, its focus turned to cost efficiency. This led to the last resort.

CEO Henry Chan’s candid message underscores the gravity of the decision and his personal accountability for pursuing overly ambitious growth strategies.

Chan’s emphasis on minimising future layoffs by implementing more substantial reductions underscores the company’s long-term vision for stability and resilience.

As businesses worldwide navigate economic uncertainties, ShopBack’s strategic realignment offers valuable lessons in adaptability and prudent decision-making for sustainable growth.

Sainul,
Editor.

—–

NEWS

ShopBack lays off 195 employees to become ‘self-sustainable’
A leaner and more agile team, significantly different from ShopBack’s current organisational structure today, is needed to succeed, says CEO Henry Chan.

Philippine startups raised US$956M in 2023 amidst funding winter
While this is a relatively modest dip (14%) year-on-year, the number of deals increased by 16 per cent to 96 in 2023; Fintech (22 deals), B2B SaaS (14), and e-commerce (13) were the top 3 funded verticals in 2023.

Kaya Founders looks to back 30-40 startups in SEA with new funds
The VC firm has invested in 44 companies, spanning e-commerce, SaaS, healthcare, financial services, and agriculture; Kaya invests in pre-seed to Series A, with the cheque size ranging between US$100K and US$500K.

EFishery acquihires Indonesian AI-powered IoT startup DycodeX
The deal will let eFishery expand its AI plans, which include an upcoming brand called eFishery.ai; Currently, eFishery has one AI-powered product called eFeeder, which allows its clients to enable automatic feeding for fish and shrimp cultivation.

AnyMind Group sets foot in Malaysia by acquiring e-commerce enabler Arche Digital
Arche Digital’s operational expertise in e-commerce will be combined with AnyMind’s proprietary software for e-commerce and marketing to strengthen its BPaaS capabilities for enterprises in Malaysia.

B Capital closes US$750M Opportunities Fund II
Opportunities Fund II will make primary and secondary investments in later-stage companies across the VC firm’s core sectors of technology, healthcare and climate tech, with a focus on North America and Asia.

Verifiable digital identity startup Accredify raises strategic funding
The investor is Okta Ventures; Accredify uses blockchain technology to ensure the authenticity of a shared or received document, protecting against fraud and forgery.

NUS Enterprise commits US$15M to help university grads, alumni turn deeptech entrepreneurs
It will provide US$155K pre-seed funding each to successful teams under the NUS Graduate Research Innovation Programme; It aims to boost the translation of cutting-edge research and innovation by NUS faculty and researchers into impactful solutions.

GoTo Group logs adjusted profit for Q4, plans to buy back US$200M worth of shares
In Q4 2023, the company’s adjusted EBITDA improved to US$4.9M, recovering from US$197M in adjusted losses in the same period the year before; GoTo expects to hit group-level adjusted EBITDA breakeven for the full 2024 financial year.

GoTo, TikTok to launch BNPL service in Indonesia
In an earnings call upon the release of GoTo’s Q4 2023 results on March 19, GoTo Financial head Thomas Husted said BNPL has shown promising growth prospects; Financial services is expected to be a significant driver of the group’s growth.

Ex-Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang joins Chinese VC firm Firstred Capital
He brings 16 years of experience to Firstred; He led the transition of Tmall from a purely PC offering into a mobile app and spearheaded the idea of “Singles Day” in the platform.

SCB 10X backs rendering tool for interior designers Spacely AI
Spacely AI is expanding its global footprint, serving users from Thailand, the US, Portugal, and several other countries; Spacely offers 12+ innovative features, 100+ interior curated premium styles, and supports more than 100+ space types.

Indonesian edutech platform PINTAR raises US$3M in pre-Series A funding
PINTAR offers various online education programmes for college and university levels, enterprise training programmes for employees, boot camp certification and masterclasses.

Binance founder unveils new project amid legal woes
The platform Giggle Academy provides education for grades one to 12 learners, according to its concept paper; It is also a zero-revenue platform that uses AI and automation and is fully online.

Crypto exchange OKX ceases services in India
The move follows Apple and Google pulling the eponymous app of OKX in the country after an Indian government agency said many crypto exchanges were operating illegally in the South Asian market.

FEATURES

AirX Carbon turns coffee grounds, rice and coconut husks into bioplastic
Its biodegradable products are used as shoe soles and in electronic devices, household appliances, and furniture; AirX has set up a production facility in Long An Province in Vietnam with a production capacity of 100 tons per month.

Forte Biotech: Helping farmers with early detection of prawn diseases in Vietnam
The timely identification of disease outbreaks allows for targeted treatment strategies, reducing the need for costly interventions; Forte Biotech was one of the three winners of the Net Zero Challenge 2023 in Vietnam.

Book Excerpt: How entrepreneurs can implement visual thinking to achieve success
In their latest book, esteemed academic lecturers Sherrie Low and Goh Ai Yat reveal the transformative potential of pictures.

KodeGo allows Filipino workers access digital skill development programmes
It implements a flexible payment scheme that includes a study-now-pay-later format while providing end-to-end career assistance and support for its students post-training; Each curriculum takes between two and 22 weeks to complete.

MiyaHealth reveals details of its expansion plan to Indonesia, the Philippines
MiyaHealth builds digital infrastructure to power healthcare. It serves all facets of healthcare by enhancing interoperability.

CONTRIBUTORY ARTICLES

From peak scrolling to personalised communities: The Gen AI solution
As AI drives change, creators aiming to build a Gen AI app must reassess data flows to craft a magical, creative Gen-AI experience with meaningful data.

Bold moves: Capitalising on market dips in edutech
The examples of Memeland and Animoca Brands highlight the potential for businesses to achieve significant leverage by strategically “buying the dip” in overlooked or undervalued sectors.

The future of AI-driven tech solutions in enhancing business infrastructure
Embracing AI-driven tech solutions offers businesses more than an edge; it provides a telescope into the future of innovation.

Multifaceted effects on Vietnam’s e-commerce: A near-term potential to break through in the Asian market
Forecasts suggest Vietnam’s e-commerce will continue growing, with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City remaining competitive markets.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Want to build a sustainable startup? Solve a problem for your customers
It often happens that when you aim to solve a particular problem that affects a significant chunk of humanity, you end up solving a whole bunch of related and similar problems.

Ask yourself, are you building a cathedral with your startup ideas?
The whole concept that a business idea has to be absolutely unique and world-changing is quite irrelevant; And questions like ‘what is your competitive advantage and where will you be in 5 years?’ don’t have any meaning.

What you should –and should not– say when fundraising for a crowdfunding project
New research revealed that claiming your product to be both “novel and useful” may actually ruin your chance to reach the crowdfunding goal.

4 key growth metrics startups should watch closely
In order for a startup to gain the traction it needs to propel forward, its marketing strategies must be better than average for its industry; Gauging metrics and ROI is quite a challenge during the initial phases.

How to keep your remote employees’ networks more secure
As remote working becomes more commonplace, here are some steps you can take to ensure your IT security is not compromised.

How to use podcasts to enhance your brand visibility and reach
So almost all the power of podcasting lies in your own voice; The key is to make it recognizable above all the others that the audience hears on a daily basis.

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Despite progress, there continue to be challenges in ensuring a level playing field for people of all genders in the startup ecosystem.

“While evening out the playing field via representation numbers is a helpful indicator of progress, this isn’t the all-encompassing practice to promote gender equality. The core of closing the gender gap stems from fostering the right support system and environment to retain and nurture bright talent, while our leadership models the type of values we expect from each of our employees,” says Veronika Folkova, Director, People Business Partners in APAC, Confluent.

Silicon Valley-based data streaming platform Confluent has implemented initiatives to ensure equal opportunities for employees of all genders. However, with the rising popularity of AI technology, as the technology becomes more widely used, most of us would start to ask questions: Is there any risk related to gender equality in this phenomenon?

How will the rising popularity of AI affect gender equality in the workplace, particularly in the tech industry? How can startups play a more active role in promoting the responsible use of technology? In this email interview with e27, Folkova discusses the issue.

The following is an edited excerpt of the interview.

Can you share with us how gender bias can show up in AI? What potential/existing harms can it cause?

Gender bias within AI is quite a complex topic in and of itself. As AI pulls information by ingesting large amounts of training data, analysing it for correlations and patterns, and using these patterns to make predictions for the future, its input and output impact people across different backgrounds, industries, and socioeconomic levels.

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The truth is that women in many countries have limited access to training and education, even more so in the field of R&D, which may result in unconscious biases. Fundamentally, most content and research on AI are typically written in a language that automatically assumes the reader’s perspective as a man.

This forms the foundational bias for words used and embedded into algorithms, which leads to misinformed algorithms and ultimately breeds gender discrimination and exclusion of qualified individuals.

One real-life example is the Generative AI art generation application Midjourney. When asked to create images of people in specialised professions, it showed both younger and older people, but the older people were always men, reinforcing the age-old bias against working women.

What are your proposed solutions?

To be honest, there isn’t a one-stop solution to gender bias in AI. From my capacity as Senior Director, People Business Partners for Global Legal Organisation and APAC, we are seeing trends where AI may play a significant role in the future of sourcing candidates and coordination of recruitment processes.

As such, it goes back to laying the groundwork to provide equal opportunities to the right people, doing our own thorough research to uplift the right talent, and improving the training and development of our own people to identify the limitations of AI and better use its strengths.

How can the government take a proactive role in this?

In the recent Budget 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced that Singapore will invest S$1 billion over the next five years into AI computing capacity, talent and industry development.

This will support Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0, which was launched in December last year.
These investments are in the right direction, coupled with the growing awareness of AI’s shortcomings, such as biased data and hallucinations, i.e. AI model learning incorrect patterns that lead to incorrect predictions.

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To combat this, I appreciate that the Singapore government has set up a Generative AI framework that outlines a “systematic and balanced approach” for Generative AI concerns while facilitating innovation. We need to keep working together, educating each other, and pooling resources to keep up with the advancements in technology and understand how it can be used for good for the wider population.

What role can tech startups play in ensuring responsible use of AI?

While they might be smaller in size, startups have the ability to move the needle in the industry and influence change in their area of expertise.

Some ways that they can ensure the responsible use of AI include:

– Diverse and inclusive teams for bias mitigation: Startups should prioritise building diverse and inclusive teams that bring together individuals with different backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise. This will ensure teams can create AI systems that account for diverse needs and backgrounds and identify and mitigate biases in AI outputs.

– Transparency and explainability: Startups can promote transparency and explainability in AI systems by clearly documenting how their algorithms work, including data sources, training processes, and decision-making criteria.

– Collaboration and knowledge sharing: Startups can contribute to the responsible use of AI by actively participating in industry collaborations and sharing best practices as they test and run new ways of doing things.

As a business, do you have any initiative to prevent the harmful use of AI?

As Confluent drives data streaming with real-time data, we ensure our customers can tap into continuously enriched trustworthy data streams to quickly scale and build real-time AI applications for maximum value.

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Data streaming is quickly becoming the data backbone for modern AI. Our solutions can consolidate an organisation’s operational and analytical data from disparate sources to construct a unified source of real-time truth of all their data. This not only empowers them to excel in model building and training, driving unparalleled levels of sophistication and accuracy across various applications but also helps identify any signs of abuse as soon as possible.

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Image Credit: Confluent

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