With digital trade further accelerating in Southeast Asia, Singapore’s geographical advantage primes it to be the region’s e-commerce hub. The country’s revenue in the e-commerce market is projected to reach over US$7 billion this year, and the number of users is expected to amount to 4.1 million by 2022 as well, according to Deloitte.

On top of this, simplified COVID-19 measures and major easing rules have also contributed to brick-and-mortar sales. Retail sales increased 12.1 per cent in April year on year, largely attributable to higher tourist spending, and this positive trend is expected to continue as Singapore moves closer to normalcy.

As local retail industries, both online and offline, experience exponential growth, the storage sector must also evolve to support this trend. Beyond conventional storage spaces, there is much potential for the industry to cater to these growing businesses through capitalising on shared synergies between storage and retail.

The need for end-to-end storage solutions

As Singapore’s retail markets grow, so too do the demands of such businesses. Larger stock inventories would require more space, and busy entrepreneurs are seeking holistic, end-to-end solutions that cater to their logistics needs.

These demands largely lie in order fulfilment, where business owners discover inadequacies in last-mile delivery services, especially with the surge in demand. From their warehouses and storage spaces, these businesses often have to source a separate supply chain logistics provider to handle their delivery.

A third-party provider may sometimes cause more problems than it solves, due to inflexibility, service quality, logistical hassle and more. Furthermore, it adds another layer of cost and administrative work.

Additionally, e-commerce businesses find themselves without a conducive all-in-one space for daily storage cum logistical operations. Such tasks include packing, dispatching/receiving, stock-taking, and even photo-taking or live streaming for sales and marketing purposes.

Also Read: VFlowTech lands US$3M to scale low-cost, long-duration energy storage solutions beyond Singapore

Renting a separate studio or workspace eventually incurs additional cost and more travel time, challenges that busy entrepreneurs face as they establish their business.

What a one-stop storage solution looks like

Noting these pain points, there is the need for industry players within each part of the supply chain to successfully identify gaps which they can plug. With storage playing a huge role in end-to-end logistics, particularly for businesses within the retail industry, storage providers should look to introduce value-added services that can help make daily work processes even more seamless for businesses.

These can come in the form of onsite facilities that complement and optimise their customers’ operations, such as order fulfilment areas for packing, invoicing and stock taking, pick-up and return points for goods, and breakout areas for work discussions, photography and live streaming studios, and more.

Once they have established the support that they can provide to businesses for necessary day-to-day operations, storage providers should also look to extend in-house delivery services or collaborate with a delivery partner to achieve a suite of end-to-end offerings.

Another example of such services would be warehouse logistics, where businesses can outsource their logistics management responsibilities to the storage space. Business owners need not worry about warehouse storage and manpower issues, as the end-to-end warehouse management service would be handled externally, be it receiving of shipment, warehouse management, order processing, packing of orders or delivery dispatch.

This is particularly helpful for businesses when stock volume increases, and order numbers get overwhelming. These entrepreneurs can then concentrate on generating sales while leaving the time-consuming tasks of warehouse management to the storage provider.

Through these holistic, value-added facilities and services, the aim is for storage spaces to play an even more integral role in the supply chain and effectively morph into a one-stop integrated solution not only for storage but for overall business and extended operational needs.

The larger role of storage in supporting Singapore’s booming retail economy

E-commerce will continue to increase in popularity even after the pandemic. As many have discovered the slew of benefits that the digital economy brings, consumer behaviour and expectations have changed. As such, the market must constantly answer and anticipate these evolving needs.

Also Read: Why Singapore’s local supermarket– Melvados swears by old-fashioned business sense

While physical retailers are currently experiencing a bounce-back in sale figures, many have also seen the advantages of e-commerce and increasingly embraced it. In fact, many have switched to a fully digital presence.

With modernisation setting the perfect environment for business growth, the number of e-retail businesses in Singapore is set to rise, and they will need even more cost-effective options to store goods and fulfil orders as they pit themselves against their competitors.

In meeting these industry trends, the self-storage industry is set to flourish at an even quicker pace, projected at a 6.3 per cent CAGR for the forecast period of 2021 to 2026. Currently, there are more than 30 operators across 80 facilities island-wide, up from less than 10 operators just five years ago.

The self-storage market must continue pivoting and adapting its services to meet these changing needs, such as the implementation of holistic services while integrating more technology within their facilities to provide users with increased efficiencies.

With the industry growing alongside the e-commerce market share, the need for a physical space for storage, along with the full suite of value-added services will become a norm. In the future, storage spaces will eventually evolve into dispatch centres.

With Singapore’s plans to become a leading e-commerce hub in Asia, buoyed by government incentives and policies, the environment for e-commerce is ripe and set to thrive, with innovative storage solutions as its catalyst.

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Singapore-based early-stage VC firm Insignia Ventures Partners has announced the final close of its latest funds, totalling US$516 million.

According to a statement, this included US$388 million for the main fund IVPF III, US$28 million for an entrepreneurs’ pool that invests alongside the main fund, and US$100 million for Annex Fund I. These funds will focus on early-stage technology investments in Southeast Asia.

Investors in the new fund include unnamed sovereign wealth funds, foundations, university endowments, and renowned family offices from Asia, Europe, and North America.

“We could have raised a much higher amount, but we have learned that smaller, tighter funds do better,” Founding Managing Partner Yinglan Tan said.

“We see a once-in-a-decade opportunity to capture outlier returns, as the winners become very obvious when the tide goes out,” he went on. “At the same time, winners cannot just be defined by valuations and scale but are ultimately companies with sustainable unit economics and concrete value creation. A fine balance between speed and endurance defines our search for outlier returns.”

Also Read: (Exclusive) Sequoia Capital’s Venture Partner Yinglan Tan quits, launching a new VC fund

Launched in 2017, Insignia Ventures backs companies in the consumer, cryptocurrency, enterprise, education, fintech, gaming, healthcare, logistics, marketplace, and proptech sectors. It has invested in more than 50 companies, including unicorns such as auto retail platform Carro, Indonesian digital investment platform Ajaib, AI for business intelligence company Appier (listed in Japan last year), and GoTo (listed in Indonesia this year).

Insignia Ventures’s other investments are fintech firm Payfazz (now Fazz Financial), Indonesian commerce enabler Shipper, the Philippines’ first fully digital bank Tonik, mental health tech company Intellect, conversational AI market leader WIZ.AI, and open banking platform Brankas.

The VC firm aims to be more aggressive in “next-decade sunrise sectors” like web3, climate tech, healthcare and agriculture.

The press release mentioned that Insignia Ventures’s enterprise value is over US$46 billion on US$304.9 million of invested capital, with a loss ratio of less than 2 per cent. Its portfolio companies have also attracted US$7.7 billion in follow-on funding.

“The impact made by the biggest companies out of Southeast Asia in the past decade will be surface-level compared to the impact market makers of the next decade will be making. There is understated but critical alignment between the solutions coming out of these areas and long-standing problems in the region from end-to-end food sustainability to trust with institutions,” Tan added.

“The solutions to these problems cannot be solved by technology startups alone, and these sectors may still be early. However, the right founders matched to the right problems can move the needle, and that is precisely why we cannot waste a minute in this “golden hour” to back them.”

Insignia Ventures announced its maiden US$120 million fund in 2017 and launched its second fund worth US$200 million in 2019.

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Hiring offshore developers in Vietnam is a common strategy for businesses to scale up their tech operations without getting hindered by the limitation of local tech talent. It enables companies to save cost and time while also diversifying their manpower.

However, recruiting and securing tech talent overseas is anything but simple. It also requires a significant up-front investment to successfully build and grow a tech team in Vietnam. So we always recommend our clients consider these crucial aspects before deciding on hiring offshore developers.

The ideal place to hire offshore developers in ASEAN is Vietnam

The primary reason why many organisations prefer offshore tech teams over local hires is their cost-effectiveness. For a developed country like Singapore, hiring a full-time local software developer with five years of experience can be extremely expensive with an average cost of US$3,220.

On the other hand, a Vietnamese developer with the same experience and skill set only costs US$2,300 monthly or 40 per cent lower. Meaning firms can easily double the headcount with the same budget by building their own offshore tech team.

Apart from the cost factor, it is unquestionable that Vietnam possesses a fast-growth tech talent pool. A total of 400,000 local developers currently working coupled with 50.000 new tech talents join the workforce each year.

This is dues to the Vietnamese government’s prioritised investment in the IT industry and education, ensuring the country becomes the regional tech hub for tech firms and startups across the globe.

What businesses need to know before recruiting offshore developers

• The structure of offshore tech teams

Before starting searching for candidates, it is imperative that firms identify the optimal tech team structure. The answer often depends on the complexity and specifics of the projects which vary case by case. However, the common ground is it should satisfy the company’s particular needs within the given timeframe budget.

Also Read: 5 research-based tips to effectively manage your remote software engineers

For Tech JDI clients, the ideal member composition is often divided based on the expected headcount and their role responsibilities:

Very small tech team (one-three offshore developers)

Small tech team (three-five offshore developers)

Mid-size tech team (five-10 offshore developers)

Large tech team (10-50 offshore developers)

• Cost Of Recruiting Offshore Developers In Vietnam

Budget is the blood vessel that fuels your remote tech team expansion, thus, it is important to keep your budgeting right, clear out any hidden costs, and always expect future expenses when the team grows. Let’s take a car as an example, it requires fuel to run.

Similarly, hiring a developer and building your offshore tech team requires a clear budget to ensure it can scale and grow efficiently.

In other words, taking into account the developer’s salary is only one part of the picture. Firms will have to consider other recruiting expenses and hidden costs such as office space, benefits, compensations, and more.

Based on our experience, the average hiring cost for an offshore Vietnamese developer with five years of experience will include:

Hiring expenses	Offshore hiring
Age of the candidate (years)	31
Average working experience (years)	5
Headcount cost + admin cost
Monthly basic salary	US$2,574.00
Monthly SIHIUI (Vietnam) / CPF (Singapore)	US$604.89
Monthly gross salary	US$3,178.89
Monthly admin overheads	US$572.20
Monthly office expense	US$180.00
Headcount and admin annual cost subtotal	US$47,173.08

 

Leave benefits (accrued costings)   * Accrued Costings: The amount below is part of salary and admin annual cost subtotal
Medical and hospitalisation leave (30 days – Vietnam)	(-US$4,401.54)
Medical and hospitalisation Leave (14+46 days – Singapore)	N.A
Medical leave annual cost subtotal	*(-US$4,401.54)
*Vietnam medical and hospitalisation leave is a cost reduction when taken.

 

Welfare – bonuses
Annual wage supplement (13th month)	US$3,178.89
Performance bonus (paid in Q1)	US$3,178.89
Welfare – bonus annual cost subtotal	US$6,357.78

 

Mandatory welfare
Outpatient benefits cost	US$180.00
Group hospital insurance
Annual medical checkup cost	US$58.00
Mandatory welfare annual cost subtotal	US$238.00

 

Optional welfare
Company trip	US$240.00
Team building event	US$60.00
Company dinner	US$60.00
CNY / TET red packet	US$30.00
Public holiday x three days (VN) / 11 (SG)	US$90.00
International woman’s day	US$30.00
Birthday red packet	US$60.00
Marriage incentive	US$60.00
Baby incentive	US$60.00
International children day	US$18.00
Bereavement gift (funeral)	US$60.00
Optional welfare annual cost subtotal	US$768.00

Having a proper budgeting strategy allows you to choose appropriate offshore developers and the correct team size for growth and scalability. It is true that companies get to save hundreds and thousands of dollars when building their own offshore tech team in Vietnam.

Also Read: ‘Vietnam can be an excellent launchpad for regional, global startups’: says Eddie Thai

However, the misallocation of funds can also result in unproductivity. Set a budget and be determined in complying with the budget you set for your company.

• Hiring season in Vietnam

Hiring season can significantly affect your recruitment results. By understanding the nature of this recruitment season, firms can prepare for it in terms of budget planning, project planning, and resource planning. Thus, maximising their recruitment success and securing suitable candidates much faster.

Starting from March and lasting until the end of May is the so-called “golden period” when developers are more likely to switch jobs and look for new career opportunities. In contrast, recruiting them from October to January will become increasingly more difficult as this is the low hiring season.

During this period, developers are patiently waiting for the salary review, 13th-month, and Tet bonuses before they decide whether to stay or jump to a new place. Companies are advised to up their offers and benefits packages for a better chance to attract developers while competing against other competitors.

Final thoughts

When hiring Vietnamese developers for your remote tech team, there are many different factors that need to be considered, including the team structure, recruitment budget, and the current stage of the hiring season. Only those that can plan and execute accordingly will have a better chance of securing the best candidate.

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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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In recent years the development of autonomous driving cars has come in leaps and bounds. Contributing to this leap is in part the advancement of technology such as computer vision, but also its rapid adoption. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the global market for autonomous vehicles is still on track to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 53.6 per cent from 2022 to 2030.

With this resulting popularisation of Level 2+ autonomous driving technology and the proliferation of electrical vehicles, the demand for advanced driver monitoring systems (DMS) is on the rise to prevent dangerous driving behaviours and improve driving safety.

As more technologically enabled vehicle models are rolled out, the integration and availability of such technologies have become an important consideration for new car customers.

According to Gaogong AI Research, China’s leading research institute for smart automobiles, over 560 thousand new cars sold in China in 2021 alone are equipped with pre-installed DMS systems.

Euro NCAP, the European New Car Assessment Programme has also published relevant policies which give further impetus to the adoption of DMS in Europe. Key features of a DMS include drowsiness, gaze zone, distraction, and dangerous driving detection.

The rise of the new generation of smart applications

Now a new generation of smart applications is emerging that goes beyond the present capabilities of DMS. While DMS systems are solely focused on the driver, the safety, comfort, and convenience of passengers are often lacking.

The Occupant Monitoring System (OMS) is being gradually rolled out to provide an advanced and more comprehensive sensing solution for passengers in a vehicle. Current analyst reports suggest that the global occupancy detection system market size was valued at US$42.5 million in 2020, and is projected to reach US$225.5 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 19.1 per cent from 2021 to 2030.

We are also beginning to see novel applications launched in the Chinese market such as those that monitor a driver’s health indicators, including heart rate and respiratory rate.

Also Read: Exploring the future of connected vehicle technology and transportation industry trends with Geotab CEO Neil Cawse

Enabled by augmented reality (AR) technology, virtual driving assistants with customisable looks have also been incorporated in many cars to interact with the driver and provide timely warnings of hazards ahead or if dangerous driving behaviours are detected. Proactivity and humanisation are the key objectives here.

While pin codes and contactless keycards are making their way into cars in place of the keys in our pockets, we are also seeing the deployment of facial verification as a way to unlock a vehicle. In a similar manner to face unlock on your smartphone, the function offers enhanced vehicle security as well as driving settings that can be adapted to the driver.

When it comes to passengers, children are often the priority to be considered. The child presence detection function is becoming a key criterion for family users, which can alert the driver or parents if they are left unattended in the vehicle.

The Euro NCAP also announced that it will also begin scoring child presence detection in 2023. Other features include pet detection to ensure the welfare of animals on board, as well as left item detection to address those everyday inconveniences.

While the smart cabin is a relatively new field, applications are already reaching the latest vehicle models. As the world’s largest automotive manufacturing country and automotive market since 2009, China is at the forefront of smart cabin development, witnessing the wide deployment of smart cabin applications by leading automakers such as Chery, NIO, Great Wall, and BYD, etc.

Now those innovative features are also on the road to becoming mainstream in other parts of the world as the accelerated development of artificial intelligence reshapes people’s lifestyles.

The growth of the smart cabin category is part of a virtuous cycle, where greater adoption will in turn lead to greater technological advancements, thus the development of more applications. The possibilities are seemingly endless. With the proliferation of smart cabin technology, we can expect a safer, more enjoyable, and human-centric driving experience.

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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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Mysty Rusk is the Executive Director of the Free Enterprise Institute at the University of San Diego School of Business, and the founder of the San Diego Angel Conference, which seeks to activate new angel investors at a local level while committing to investing a specific amount within a specific time frame to ensure great startups get the money they need to move to the next level.

What you will learn in this episode:
– What is angel investing?
– What made you interested in becoming an angel investor?
– How do you identify the right person to become an angel investor?
– What should potential angel investors be learning to become successful?
– What are angel investors looking for when reviewing a pitch deck?
– What are angel investors listening for during a live pitch?
– Why you should tell a story with a path to success?
– What you should prepare for the due diligence process?
– Why you should never ask investors to sign an NDA at first sight?
– Why the terms of the deal can make or break the investment?
– What can stop the investment at this point?

Also Read: Hacking your way into angel impact investing with just US$10K

Talk with other entrepreneurs here.

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The content was first published by We Live To Build.

Image Credit: inspirestock, 123RF Free Images

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Indian startup fundraising falls for third quarter to US$7.6B in Q2
The funding dropped almost 38% sequentially in Q2, from US$12B in Q1 2022; At 383, the deal volume was also the lowest since Q3 2021; The April-June period also saw massive layoffs at Byju’s, Ola, Unacademy, Vedantu, and Cars24.

Singapore’s 99 Group raises US$37M in first close of Series C
The lead investor is Gaw Capital Partners; The online property platform will raise an additional US$15M for the round in the coming months; Once completed, the deal will push 99 Group’s total funding to date to US$80M+.

How KKday saved for a rainy day when many travel startups called it a day during COVID-19
‘KKday reduced the marketing spend while acquiring new customers by developing new products, significantly lowering acquisition costs and more efficient customer engagement’.

IFC, French firm Proparco back impact investor Circulate Capital’s ocean fund
This brings Circulate Capital Ocean Fund I-B’s total commitments to US$53M and comes 7+ months after its US$25M second close; CCOF I-B invests in companies across the plastic recycling and waste-management value chains.

Carousell buys Indonesian recommerce firm Laku6 for US$25M
The deal was supported by the Singapore-based firm’s investor Heliconia Capital; The acquisition aims to serve the rapidly growing market for preowned phones and support sustainability in electronics.

Thai financial marketplace Rabbit Care raises Series C
Investors include Winter Capital and local media conglomerate VGI; The Bangkok-based fintech firm is a marketplace for insurance products, covering motor, health, life, travel, and corporate insurance.

Biofourmis raises US$20M from Intel Capital
This is the healthtech unicorn’s Series D round announced in April when it raised US$300M led by General Atlantic; The Singapore-founded company enables remote disease management using medical-grade wearables.

SuperAtom raises US$22M to expand its consumer financing platform to LatAm
The lead investor is Nue 3 Capital; SuperAtom has developed UangMe, a credit platform providing access to low-cost financing in Indonesia; In addition, SuperAtom also offers a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) feature.

East Ventures-backed Qapita buys Indian ESOP management firm
The combined entity will also manage more than US$12 billion in employee stock option plans; Its customer base in India and Southeast Asia will grow to more than 1,200 customers.

Dash Living buys Japanese proptech firm intheHood Hospitality
As part of the deal, which is a share-swap-based M&A agreement, Dash Living will manage over 100 units of co-living spaces in Tokyo; The firm will have a total of over 1,800 units in Asia Pacific.

AirAsia to explore air taxis in Malaysia with UK’s Skyports
Initial assessments will prioritize Kuala Lumpur; While AirAsia brings its aviation expertise to the table, Skyports has extensive experience creating electric vertical takeoff and landing gear for aircraft.

EDB earmarks US$14.5M for corporate venture programme
Dubbed Corporate Venture Launchpad 2.0, the programme aims to support large corporations to expand into new ventures such as those in sustainability, agritech, fintech, senior living, and the metaverse over the next two years.

Stripe, Saison Capital to launch SEA-focused insights programme
Singapore-based Saison Capital will directly connect founders and operators from its company portfolio with engineering, product, public policy, recruiting, and sales leaders at Stripe.

Nas Academy nets US$12M in fresh funding
Investors include Pitango, BECO Capital, FTX, and HOF Capital; Nas Academy said it caters to students from over 110 countries; In 2021, it announced that it will expand its team to 1,000 people in the next five years.

Singapore’s Mighty Bear Games raises US$10M funding
Investors include Framework Ventures, Mirana, and Polygon; Mighty Bear will be using its fresh funds to launch its blockchain arm, which will develop triple-A Web3 games.

Filipino mobile ERP firm Packworks nets US$2M seed funding
Lead investors are Fast Group and CVC Capital Partners; Packworks aims to digitalise sari-sari stores by offering inventory, accounts, and data management services.

AC Ventures, Alpha JWC co-lead US$3.8M round of Indonesia’s Ideal
Ideal is a digital mortgage platform that helps people apply for property mortgages at different banks; It takes commissions from banks and property developers for every successful loan application.

Omni HR raises US$2.4M in pre-seed money to digitise employee management in SEA
Lead investors are Alpha JWC Ventures and Picus Capital; Omni HR enables firms to digitise employee records, automate administrative tasks, and interact employee data across different systems.

Robinsons Retail co-leads Filipino Q-commerce startup DART’s US$1.3M round
DART, which currently serves Makati and Mandaluyong, will use the funds to expand to new cities in the Philippines; The Q-commerce firm has also entered into an operational and supply partnership with Robinsons Supermarket.

Chope invests US$720K in F&B digital payments provider Getz Group
The Getz deal comes after local hawker SaaS and delivery vendor WhyQ raised US$360K from Chope as part of its Series A2 in November last year; The deal comes after local hawker SaaS and delivery vendor WhyQ raised US$360K from Chope.

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The autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) industry has grown in the past decade, driven by e-commerce. Companies in the sector has adopted AMRs to support the rapid movement of products within warehouses and around the world. This has helped them keep up with the competition, enhance productivity and increase efficiency.

Four Singapore-based robotics enthusiasts sensed an opportunity in this space early on and started Botsync, a heavy-duty, intelligent, industrial AMR startup. The startup envisions becoming the go-to automation solution provider for internal logistics movement in the APAC market.

Botsync was founded in 2017 by Nikhil Venkatesh (CTO), Prashant Trivedi (Chief Commercial Officer), Singaram Venkatachalam (COO), and Nambiar (CEO) — all graduates of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University — to turn their passion into an industrial breakthrough.

Its flagship product is MAG, a deep learning engine-powered AMR that can autonomously navigate the operating site to transfer loads of up to 1,500 kg, utilising the base map and multiple integrated sensors. The product comes in two variants: MAG300 and MAG1000.

Also Read: Why robotics is just entering its prime phase

Botsync has also developed Volta, a compact indoor mobile robot for ROS (robot operating system) learning, teaching and research, and Copernicus, an all-terrain mobile robot for outdoor robotics research or solution prototype.

Wong Fong Engineering’s strategic investment

Last week, Botsync announced a pre-Series A funding round from Wong Fong Engineering, SEEDS Capital, Angel Central, VentureCatalysts, Amit Pachisia, ZB Capital, Iterative, Locus Ventures, Funderbeam, Nalin Advani and Roger Crook to support the “growing demand”.

The strategic investment by Wong Fong Engineering, a leading Singapore-based industrial machinery maker, is particularly crucial.

“Wong Fong Engineering has been a strategically aligned investor since our seed round,” says Nambiar. “Our strength as a company lies in our ability to design and develop intelligent systems. However, providing heavy-duty solutions requires an equally strong background and capabilities in engineering to provide high-quality solutions to our users. In this respect, Wong Fong has been a great partner to us, providing the collective engineering and production capability to improve the technical quality of our offerings,” he adds.

With offices in Singapore and Bangalore, Botsync plans to deploy MAG AMRs across Asia over the next two years. In addition to expanding to these two markets, it also aims to build a network of partners with local offices to drive commercial expansion in countries like Malaysia and Thailand. These plans are already underway in Thailand, and the firm looks to do the same in Malaysia moving forward.

Besides deploying its flagship product, Botsync will enhance syncOS. This no-code interface allows site managers with no formal or technical background in robotics to build customised and complex workflows. This removes the necessity of recruiting and building an expensive in-house robotics task force.

“Our AMRs are versatile as they do not require infrastructural elements to navigate. Users can explore and fully design solutions with the syncOS platform simply by dragging and connecting building blocks on the interface,” explains Nambiar.

AMRs becoming prevalent

In Nambiar’s opinion, with the increasing supply chain challenges, the usage of AMRs to drive productivity in intralogistics has become prevalent, especially in the manufacturing and hospitality industry.

Three factors drive this usage: Firstly, the use of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to support production lines has been phasing out. Companies in the automotive and electronics sectors now prefer to transit to AMR technology to drive their lines.

Secondly, there has been a greater push for digitalisation and visibility across the supply chain down to the manufacturing floor to improve companies’ response to supply chain shocks. A well-designed AMR solution integrated with the right tools can enhance this visibility on the production floor for users, giving them a greater understanding of where and how their inventory is used.

Lastly, the limited availability of forklift drivers has increasingly pushed companies to rely on AMRs. For operations that involve the movement of heavy materials that weigh close to one ton, forklifts continue to be the primary means to drive the intralogistics processes. With the greater availability of gig economy-driven jobs, companies now find it challenging to attract and then train and certify forklift drivers in shorter intervals due to higher retrenchment rates.

With the decreasing sensor costs and greater computing power, unit costs of robots have come down over the past decade. This has opened new opportunities for the sector to capitalise on and build better, more autonomous, flexible and cost-efficient robotic solutions.

“Having said that, lower costs and a cost reduction-based value proposition alone will not suffice to drive the adoption of AMRs.
Greater interoperability between the different robotics solutions for easier integrations and the ability to operate in more challenging environments will be instrumental for developments like low-code or no-code systems. This will allow users to derive more significant value from robotics, like overall process improvement and supply chain visibility, to justify their investment in robotics. Such initiatives can and will help drive the robotics density in the region to higher levels,” Nambiar explains.

Also Read: Southeast Asia paves the way for new value in robotics

Nonetheless, the AMR industry has yet to see significant growth. Several vital challenges prevent the growth.

“One significant challenge is that investment in robots is often justified by how much can be saved in labour costs. For example, lower labour costs in India remain a key factor in ensuring sufficient throughput is delivered while maintaining reasonable ROI timelines,” he remarks.

“However, in Singapore and Thailand, the adoption of robotics is higher than wage levels predict. While labour cost is one factor, the adoption of robotics differs based on the industry and national goals or plans around robotic development and adoption,” the CEO adds.

Another key challenge is the quality of the infrastructure and processes within a facility. Currently, many facilities in Asia run manual operations without a clear breakdown of processes. This impedes robotics implementation as there is no repeatable process to automate, especially in intralogistics and material handling.

“Additionally, the building infrastructure is crucial to support the logistics and operational service of AMRs, for instance, the flooring condition. Firms that cannot meet these quality standards may miss out on the opportunity to adopt robotic solutions,” he elaborates.

Pinning hope on India

For Botsync, AMRs’ adoption by e-commerce companies in India presents great opportunities. They use the systems to reduce operational costs and improve their overall delivery time.

“It has been amazing to see the traction in other sectors, particularly within the manufacturing space. More active conversations on AMR installations have started in companies of automotive and electronics sectors and sectors of other machines with greater importance placed on improving overall process standards, operating conditions and inventory visibility, driving increased adoption,” Nambiar notes.

The AMR market is still in its infancy, with less than 4 per cent of total potential sites globally today with an AMR implementation, thus presenting a huge growth potential within this sector. Intralogistics in the manufacturing sector, particularly within the automotive, electronics and machine component space, will be one of Botsync’s primary targets in this region. The third-party logistics space will be equally attractive in the future for us as we expand our product portfolio and system capabilities.

Over the past 18 months, the company grew from 15 employees to 30. During that period, it also expanded its business in India and moved to a 15,000-square feet office facility in Bangalore to support product manufacturing and testing and set up a dedicated sales and project team.

Nambiar admits that challenges such as relying on manual operations with constant retrenchment, associated training challenges, and the need for higher supply chain visibility are here to stay, regardless of the current economic situation. This is prevalent in Asia, where corporations have only recently started driving this initiative after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the various recent supply chain challenges.

“However, we expect that customer expectations from the same investment will increase. This requires products capable of delivering high levels of throughput with minimal downtime. This has always been a prime focus for our engineering work at Botsync, and with our syncOS developments, we are well positioned to deliver on this,” Nambiar concludes.

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Recently Coinbase released a great memo on operating efficiently at scale.

I greatly respect Coinbase because they operate in perhaps the most unpredictable sector. One year they are growing 200 per cent YoY. Then a crypto winter arrives, and they need to shrink the business considerably. It’s very hard to adapt to such conditions at scale.

So I find their internal memos as some of the best written in the tech sector.

Here go my top five takeaways, alongside quotes from Brian Armstrong, CEO and Co-Founder of Coinbase:

Products are run as independent startups

The larger the company becomes, the more bureaucracy starts creeping in. It’s not easy to maintain a culture of innovation and frugality when that happens.

“We believe the right way to compete is to incentivise our product leaders to also run their product more like a standalone company. Companies must achieve profitable growth on some reasonable time horizon.”

Organise teams into small pods

Building on the previous point, the smaller the team, the more effective it is. There is no room for politics in small groups of people. Also, it’s clear to see who truly delivers on their targets.

“Within each product, we will be defining pods of <10 people working on a specific feature or area. If a pod grows to be more than 10 people, it will be time to split it in two and assign each one a more specific goal or focus.”

Ship products, not slide decks

It’s easy to get into a never-ending cycle of preparing proposals and fancy decks instead of shipping products or features. If you truly want to have a culture of execution, then you need to make it clear to each team what kind of output is rewarded.

Also Read: Funding Roundup: EventX bags additional US$8M; Coinbase, Grab execs join Ethlas’s US$2M round

“We’re experimenting with banning slide decks in product and engineering reviews. Instead of a slide deck, you can show:

• A dashboard with your metrics, hopefully, your team is looking at this at least weekly anyway
• Figma mockups
• But most importantly, show the product itself and use it live!”

APIs instead of meetings

The larger the organisation, the more people waste time on internal meetings. A simple solution is to have a process that forces each product and engineering team to publish APIs. In turn, that unlocks instant collaboration between different units.

“We need to move to a model where all product and engineering teams (not just shared services) publish APIs so that other teams can benefit from what they’re building without ever needing to schedule a meeting.”

Maintain an insurgent mindset

Armstrong said it best, it all comes down to having a founder mentality. A culture of ownership and accountability.

“Ultimately, a lot of this comes down to retaining the founder mentality inside the company and acting like owners. Most companies start off by being anti-establishment, seeking to right some wrong in the world. But as they grow bigger and more successful, they start to become the new establishment. They get complacent, feeling that they’ve won, and bureaucracy sets in.”

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Image credit: Coinbase

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Packworks, a Filipino mobile ERP (enterprise resource planning) platform for sari-sari store owners, has received US$2 million in a seed investment round.

Led by Fast Group and global PE firm CVC Capital Partners, the round also has been joined by ADB Ventures, Arise, Techstars, and IdeaSpace Foundation.

Packworks will use the funds to develop The Pack: SuperStore App, increase the breadth of offerings and improve its user journey.

It also plans to build a department that directly engages the sari-sari stores, provide additional services with partners, and build an open platform for financial institutions and brands to connect directly with store owners.

“We bootstrapped our way to helping 150,000 sari-sari stores. We’re helping communities all over the Philippines to grow and become more resilient. Imagine how many more we can help with all these awesome partners. Our vision is now global,” said Co-Founder and CMO Ibba Bernardo.

Also Read: GrowSari announces a US$77.5M Series C funding round, brings total funding to US$110M

Packworks started in 2018 as a solution for multinational companies in the Philippines to connect with neighbourhood stores. The company enables store owners to process their business inventory, bookkeeping, and data collection through The Pack: SuperStore App. They can also avail themselves of financial products and order supplies for a lower price without the hassle of coordinating and purchasing new stocks.

By 2019, Packworks rolled out nationwide with 220 stores and a gross merchandise value (GMV) of US$400,000. After a year, it gathered 27,828 stores with US$30 million GMV, reaching 130,000 stores with US$139 million GMV in 2021.

It targets to onboard 220,000 stores by the end of 2022 and 500,000 by the end of 2023.

“We think of ourselves as the railway or expressway infrastructure and not as the gas station or fast food shop operator. We expand partnerships to provide these services to our stores, such as inventory financing, e-payments, and micro-insurance,” Bernardo said.

It also aims to reduce the interest cost and handle money through access to e-payments.

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Malaysia’s TNG Digital raises US$168.3M led by Lazada
The funding round also included a follow-on investment by Touch ‘n Go, which is a TNG Digital shareholder and the firm’s parent company; This brings the total funding raised by the firm over the last 18 months to US$220M+.

1982 Ventures eyes over US$30M for Fund II
It looks to ramp up investments in early-stage fintech startups across SEA, Pakistan, and Bangladesh; The VC firm has so far garnered US$5M commitment from LPs; The fund is expected to be launched in Q4 this year or early next year.

Seedstars secures US$20M for second seed-stage fund
Investors are IFC, Visa Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Symbiotics; The fund aims to invest in 100 pre-seed and seed-stage companies across Asia, Africa, LatAm, and the MENA region over the next three years.

Cryptocurrency regulations should evolve: Mistletoe Singapore MD Atsushi Taira
If smaller countries like Singapore and Estonia can change the crypto regulatory framework, it can be a good starting point; Regulators need to be savvy enough to understand the technology and then accept new types of KYC.

Thai authorities investigating possible losses for Zipmex users
The Thai SEC is calling for affected users of the crypto exchange to submit information on how they were affected by the withdrawal suspension via a public forum; Zipmex announced the temporary withdrawal suspension on July 20th.

Binance names 27 projects in latest blockchain incubator cohort
The Most Valuable Builder programme aims to empower projects and founders building DApps on BNB Chain; The incubation phase will last for six to eight weeks, where selected projects will join coaching sessions and workshops.

Philippines not eyeing crypto ban, says central bank exec
Felipe Medalla’s liberal yet cautious outlook comes as Asian countries seek better ways to manage cryptocurrencies; Cryptocurrencies are fairly popular in the Philippines.

Singapore rubber trading platform HeveaConnect bags US$7.1M
Lead investors are Provident Capital Partners and DeClout Ventures; HeveaConnect provides a digital trading platform that connects producers, traders, and buyers. It has facilitated transactions of 600K+ MT of rubber since 2019.

Indonesia-focused fintech firm raises US$4.8M in Vertex-led round
Other investors are ADB, Accion Venture Lab, and Lippo Group; Fairbanc’s platform enables SMEs to take out short-term credit to buy fast-moving consumer goods from large consumer brands.

Alibaba shutters online retail platform Tmall in HK
The Chinese ecommerce giant gave no clear reason for the shutdown, except for “business strategy adjustments”; However, Alibaba said it will continue to provide payment and delivery services in HK via its C2C arm Taobao Marketplace.

SG maritime platform Smart Ship Hub nets US$2.5M in pre-Series A money
Lead investors are Ideaspring Capital and StartupXseed Ventures; Smart Ship Hub offers fleet management SaaS for ship owners and operators, charter parties, maritime insurers, and port authorities.

Alpha JWC, Picus Capital lead US$2.4M round of SG SaaS firm Omni HR
Omni HR’s main offering is an employee management system that helps companies execute human resource processes such as employee onboarding and leaves and document management.

Indonesian e-grocery firm KedaiSayur bags Series A
Investors include Kejora-SBI Orbit and Triputra Group; KedaiSayur has three business lines: an e-groceries app, B2B groceries ordering platform, and farmers management service; The firm claims to have served 100K+ customers and businesses.

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