The concept of sustainability has been growing in importance for businesses. A business that is sustainable is one that functions in the best interest of the environment, promoting awareness amongst both the local and global partners with the practice of responsible production.

According to the Paris Climate Accord, businesses can impact up to 60 per cent of emission cuts by 2030, and now is the time for business owners to take part in the sustainable movement to promote a more liveable planet for all.  

As we move to the future, companies with practices and technologies to promote sustainable development and carbon neutrality are more likely to attract sustainable investments and long-term growth.  

The FinLab is a keen supporter of sustainability and has launched The Greentech Accelerator to grow and nurture more Greentech solutions for industry partnerships and adoption.

About The Greentech Accelerator

The Greentech Accelerator by UOB’s The FinLab is a three months programme that welcomes regional and global Greentech solution providers focusing on energy efficiency,  zero-waste supply chain, and carbon management and reporting to join forces in the sustainability transformation movement.

The three areas of focus are tailored with close alignment with the sustainable development goals and they are examples of how the participating Greentech solutions can get more involved in the sustainable movement in business operations. 

Energy efficiency

Efficiency is a measure of how we can reduce waste and in this case, is to reduce the amount of energy consumed by the industry of focus. Low-energy infrastructure, IoTs that help to monitor energy consumption, electric vehicles, and solar and energy deployment are examples of innovations that improve the efficiency of energy usage, hence minimising energy waste that pollutes the environment. 

Zero-waste supply chain 

Supply chain efficiency is important in business operation which includes minimising logistic costs while maximising profits. However, how can we achieve the same results while reducing electronic, food, plastic, and water wastage?

Also Read: As the demand for energy soars, climate tech is here to save the day

Examples of potential innovation can include waste collection or upcycling systems, waste processing, resource management to increase efficiency, and industry symbiosis to encourage energy re-channelling. 

Carbon management and reporting 

Technologies in carbon management can include the analysis of the releases of greenhouse gases and the optimisation of carbon emissions. Methods that improve the process of carbon capture, carbon credits, monitoring, and reporting of scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions are the areas that would enable better management of sustainable actions.

What do I need to participate in?

In order to participate and stand out from the participating Greentech solutions, candidates should have a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6  and above, meaning a ready prototype demonstration. Companies would also be assessed for their scalability, traction, and readiness for deployment. 10 shortlisted Greentech solutions will be selected for the three months programme from August to November 2022.

How do you benefit from the programme?

• Sustainability and Business Masterclasses: Design with expertise from the bank and the industry, the masterclasses cover topics such as management, sustainability, commercialisation, and international market expansion. 
• Mentorships and Partnerships: Be mentored by our pool of domain experts and tap on the extensive network of governments, corporates, SMEs, researchers, and tech providers to expedite the development of solutions.
• Pilots and test-bedding: Tackle actual sustainability-related challenges from corporates and SMEs to pilot and test-bed solutions.

How to join the programme?

Interested startups can apply to the programme here and embark on building a sustainable ecosystem for future generations and the planet. Applications close on Tuesday, 12 July 2022.

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Singapore-based digital health service provider Naluri has secured a US$7 million in pre-Series B round of funding, led by Thailand’s leading real estate development group Pruksa Group.

Bertelsmann Investments from Germany and Striders Corporation from Japan also joined, alongside several returning investors, including M Venture Partners, Palm Drive Capital, and INP Capital.

The new funding is earmarked for Naluri’s strategic expansion in Thailand and will further bolster its operations in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

Naluri was co-founded in 2017 by Azran Osman-Rani (CEO), former chief of iflix Malaysia and AirAsia, with Dr Jeremy Ting and Dr. Hariyati Shahrima. The startup offers human-led and AI-augmented digital health coaching that aims to transform the lives of people who are at risk of, or managing, chronic and mental health conditions.

Premised on the fundamental understanding that physical and mental health are inextricably interconnected, the company provides structured multi-disciplinary support to those affected by diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, anxiety and depression, as well as advanced chronic conditions such as renal disease and cancer.

Also Read: Naluri secures US$5M Series A to support people with chronic health, mental conditions in SEA

The firm also combines an organisation’s historical claims data with organisation-wide health screenings to understand and forecast future healthcare demands and costs. Then, coupling the health risk data with regular health monitoring, Naluri delivers proactive early interventions that prevent the onset of additional medical complications that often lead to escalating costs.

“We must do more to not only manage chronic health and mental health conditions, but we must also prevent them. We must do so quickly and effectively. Global markets have tightened, but this investment affirms Naluri’s mission and fast-tracks our efforts to deliver support to more deserving people in the region,” says Naluri Co-Founder and CEO Azran Osman-Rani.

Naluri claims it serves over 75 of the region’s leading employers in industries, including financial services, oil and gas, property development, telecommunications, tertiary education and aviation. It offers healthcare payors effective corporate wellness solutions across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, with imminent plans for expansion into the Philippines, Hong Kong and Australia.

In 2021, Naluri closed a US$5 million funding round, led by Singaporean VC firm Integra Partners. Previously, Naluri had raised US$1.5 million in an oversubscribed pre-Series A round of funding, led by Global Founders Capital, in 2019.

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Indonesia-based social commerce enabler Desty has raised a new round of undisclosed funding led by Square Peg.

This round comes less than a year after it secured US$5 million in pre-Series A financing from East Ventures, Jungle Ventures, 5Y Capital, and others.

The startup plans to use the new funding for product optimisation, team expansion and user acquisition.

Desty provides a suite of digital tools that helps merchants- from online sellers to F&B firms- operate their businesses through a unified platform. It claims to have reached almost one million users with 33x year-on-year growth.

It has four core products:

1. Desty Page (landing pages creator optimised for link-in-bios with 15 free features and integrated hyperlocal payments in just minutes for free),
2. Desty Menu (helps F&B establishments to simplify the ordering process without a waiter or cashier for dine-in or delivery orders),
3. Desty Store (an online web store builder with no coding skill needed, fully integrated with hyperlocal payments and logistics options, free from subscription),
4. Desty Omni (product management, chat management, promotion management, inventory control, and order processing across marketplaces within a single platform).

“Indonesia has a unique digital economy with notable fragmentation across merchant traffic, sales channels, payments and logistics. We strongly believe that our full-stack approach to empowering merchants with our suite of enablement tools will solve their pain points most effectively,” said Desty Co-Founder and CEO Mulyono Xu.

Also Read: Xiaomi backer 5Y leads ex-BAce Capital managing partner’s social commerce startup Desty’s US$3.2M round

Over the last few months, Desty has rolled out new features that have improved merchants’ capacity to handle transactions. The startup claims to have seen an average 250 per cent month-on-month growth of GMV over the last quarter.

Its notable merchants include celebrity-owned Luna Habit and NAMA Beauty by Luna Maya, Purnama Beauty by singer Lesti Kejora, Farrah Quinn, DAMN I Love Indonesia of Daniel Mananta, Janji Jiwa, Fore Coffee, Dore by Letao, iBox, Electronic City, Nacific, Old Chang Kee, Omija, Samjin Amook, Vilo Gelato, BudsOrganic, Titan Tyra, Nasi Kulit Syuurga, and Kopi Nako.

Square Peg is a global technology investment firm managing more than US$1 billion in committed capital. Over the last few years, it has actively deployed over US$200 million in Southeast Asia into companies such as PropertyGuru, FinAccel, Pluang, and Doctor Anywhere.

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Need to make a rational decision today? Chances are your subtle (or not so subtle) bias, will hinder the objectivity. 

Cognitive bias is defined as a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment.

There are over 180 such biases documented and, of course, these both knowingly or unknowingly find their way into our regular life decision, from hiring your next team member to enrolling yourself in rigorous physical activity.

Human biases

Decisions made by cognitive systems are based on prior knowledge and experience and their extrapolation to the present and future. Us humans are no different. Several conscious and subconscious biases plague every decision we make.

Either the existence of prior knowledge or its absence can create various forms of bias in a decision-making process through informed or uninformed assumptions, respectively. Sometimes, the presence of these biases is not of grave consequences.

However, in several cases, especially when making decisions that will affect the lives of several individuals, these biases need to be examined and, if necessary, rooted out.

Also Read: The real world bias issues of AI

Recruitment is an area of decision-making where biases are rampant and affect a significant fraction of society. While there has been considerable social and legal innuendoes and aspersions building pressure to make this process fair and equitable, we are far from any utopic realm of unbiased recruitment.

The problem is deep and complex since the biases are not only deep-seated in the decision-making process and individuals or entities involved but also historically nuanced based on the fragment of the society under consideration. 

The voices that have advocated automated decision-making through an algorithmic support system have used the argument of removing humans from the decision-making process precisely so that these conscious or subconscious biases do not come into play.

However, often this does not lead to the complete removal of biases from the decision-making process, as is evident from the flaws of criminal risk assessment algorithms determining parole for the convicted based on predicted future threats to the society.

Algorithmic biases

“Data-driven algorithmic inference” can be generally described as human logic augmented by learning from data; automated in a manner that machines can be used for automating the process, thus increasing process efficiency or reducing the degree of human oversight necessary or both. 

These algorithmic inferences can help when the detailed working of a system or a use case is partially or completely unknown. 

For instance, when a loan officer decides whether to approve a loan, they usually go by:

• A set of rules (logic) set out by the bank, 
• Their own interpretation of the rules on a case-to-case basis, and 
• Their former experience with issuing loans. 

To replace the loan officer with an algorithm, the latter needs to learn:

• The predefined rules
• How the rules can vary on a case-to-case basis
• What the officer knows from their prior professional “experience” of issuing loans.

While the first necessity is predefined, the other two can be learned from historical data. This is where algorithmic biases can creep in from the data; such as:

• Any recorded data will have encoded any historical biases that the human decision-makers had. For example, if the loan officers were historically biased against the minorities, the algorithm will imbibe the biases.

Also Read: These Artificial Intelligence startups are proving to be industry game-changers

• One can claim that these biases can be removed by not using race or gender as a variable in the decision-making process, thus masking the racial or gender identity of the applicant. However, it is known that racial identity is correlated with other variables like geographic location, educational qualification, generic age when a specific action is performed, credit histories etc. These correlations will indirectly bias the algorithms when this data is used for learning. 
• The data itself might not contain a significant pool of lesser-represented classes; hence, the decision-making for those classes can be seriously flawed. This is the case with many clinical trials where it is challenging to have a representative sample of the minorities; hence, essential areas such as drug development and disease analysis suffer from this.

Similar biases can creep in when algorithms are used for hiring, either from the flawed design of the algorithm or from the unmonitored use of data.

The problem is heightened because many such decision-making algorithms are very complex and black boxes. Because either they cannot be explained, or the institutions building these algorithms keep the inner working extremely secret and closed from any audit.

Can cognitive bias be completely avoided?

Unlikely. Our minds seek efficiency. This translates into us conducting our daily decision-making on automatic processing. 

But we can always, train ourselves to recognize the situations in which our biases are likely to trigger and take steps to uncover and correct them.

Explainable artificial intelligence (AI)

According to the  EU AI Act, “AI systems used in employment, notably for the recruitment and selection of persons … should also be classified as high-risk, since those systems may appreciably impact future career prospects and livelihoods of these persons.”

To make the decision-making process transparent and open to scrutiny, algorithms designed to make decisions must be made explainable or interpretable. This is the goal of explainable AI, where decision-making algorithms that learn from data are explained post hoc to understand better why the algorithms make certain decisions. 

The reasons behind algorithmic decision-making can be analyzed by humans and verified for being unbiased and making the right decisions for the right reasons. More and more methods for explanations of AI algorithms are being built now that the community realized the importance of removing algorithmic biases from automated decision-making using AI. 

However, awareness of the necessity of explainability is still lacking amongst the end-users of these algorithms often leading to requirements for explainability not being imposed.

The world has to turn around and understand that if we make humans accountable for their decisions, we should also make algorithms accountable for automated decisions. AI is being increasingly used to determine who fits into a certain job description and several companies are trying to make this process unbiased. 

Nevertheless, a lot more remains to be implemented and a paradigm shift is necessary amongst the employers to understand that algorithmic biases can affect the performance of their own workforce and more attention needs to be paid before recruitment can reap the benefits of AI systems.

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Three Arrows Capital (3AC), which incurred massive losses thanks to a broad market selloff in digital assets following the TerraUSD and Luna collapse in mid-May, is exploring options, including asset sales and a rescue by another firm.

As per a Wall Street Journal report, the Singaporean crypto hedge fund is in talks with its credited to buy more time to work out a plan.

Also Read: UST, Luna crashes: Can regulation alone restore investors’ confidence in cryptocurrencies?

Three Arrows Capital, launched in 2012 by Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, had about US$3 billion in assets under management just before the sudden plummeting of the values of TerraUSD and Luna. To explain the collapse in simple terms, the UST stable coin — pegged against the US dollar — was trading at US$80 a coin, but it tanked to 35 cents following a massive selloff. Its sister currency Luna also dropped and became almost worthless.

Earlier this year, Three Arrows Capital invested US$200 million in Luna, but it was effectively wiped out following the collapse of TerraUSD and Luna. Both were among the 10 largest digital currencies before the collapse resulting in the loss of US$60 billion in their market capitalisation.

Davies admitted to WSJ that the collapse caught the founders off guard but they were confident that Three Arrows Capital would be able to withstand the losses. However, the subsequent events in the crypto industry, such as the collapse of bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies, dashed their hopes.

Also Read: What lessons can crypto investors draw from the Luna, UST episode?

A few days ago, crypto trading platform 8 Blocks Capital accused Three Arrows Capital of using its funds of US$1 million to repay lenders and counterparties. 8 Blocks’s CEO Danny Yuan said the crypto hedge fund did not honour an agreement that 8 Blocks Capital would be allowed to withdraw funds any time.

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The COVID-19 pandemic that swept across the globe left vulnerable communities facing enormous challenges, among them loss of income and job opportunities. The Philippines was no exception, with the economy going into a slump amid disruptions to business operations and movement restrictions.

To support economic recovery efforts, the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte introduced the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act as part of the government’s COVID-19 pandemic response, the second package of the President’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP), in March 2021.

CREATE accelerated a five-ten per cent Corporate Income Tax (CIT) cut, and redesigned the country’s fiscal incentives system to attract investments and create more, and better jobs.

Boost in business confidence despite COVID-19 uncertainty

There is no doubt that governments need to further equip their countries with the right fiscal policy tools to provide tailor-fit incentives for investors and prospective businesses, both local and foreign, to increase their global competitiveness.

The Duterte administration marked its final full year with an all-time high record of foreign direct investments (FDI) amounting to US$10.5 billion in 2021. This was 54.2 per cent higher than the 2020 level and 21 per cent more than the pre-pandemic level.

The increase in FDI is indicative of the enhanced confidence of foreign firms to invest and expand their business in the Philippines, further highlighting how CREATE made the country’s tax rates competitive with those in the region. More importantly, CREATE addressed the concern of investors regarding the unpredictability of the country’s corporate taxation system.

Given the hefty tax reductions, CREATE, in effect, will give out some US$2 billion worth of tax relief annually to the corporate sector and enable them to preserve employment, expand their businesses, or invest in new ones.

Apart from the provision of unparalleled business stimulus packages, nations should aim to spur stronger economic growth through increased investments as a top priority, which in turn will create much-needed employment at this time of COVID-19-induced job losses.

Pro-business and pro-worker

A strong workforce in the private sector is crucial to sustaining the domestic economy’s recovery from the unprecedented global crisis. Thus, the government’s stimulus packages for businesses aim to mitigate job losses in the short term, while its long-term goal is to create high-value or quality jobs for Filipino workers in the new normal.

Additionally, the grant of incentives will depend greatly on the job opportunities the proposed investment will generate, the advancement of workers through training, and the use of local supply.

The need for cutting-edge S&T skills

To revitalise growth and boost production, businesses should reinvest their tax savings into various aspects of innovation. In the Philippines, this includes the additional 100 per cent deduction on Research and Development (R&D) expenses for businesses to incentivise the creation of new knowledge and products.

Also Read: How can businesses double their revenue in a post-COVID-19 world

This would hopefully nurture a culture of R&D and innovation among Filipino enterprises and lead to the rise of more competitive companies in the years ahead.

The world has been moving towards a global economy where knowledge and digital technologies drive growth. As such, the country needs to ensure that workers are equipped with cutting-edge science and technology (S&T) skills and know-how to keep the economy driven and highly competitive.

Sharpening global competitiveness

The previously higher CIT rate of 30 per cent made it difficult for enterprises to grow in the Philippines, thus affecting the country’s competitiveness within the Asia-Pacific region.

With new initiatives undertaken by the Philippine government, such as CREATE which immediately reduced the corporate income tax to 25 per cent and will steadily decline to 20 per cent in 2027, the country’s appeal to foreign enterprises has increased, with fiscal and non-fiscal incentives provided to businesses seeking to penetrate the Asian market.

A year after CREATE’s enactment, the reconstituted Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) approved and granted incentives such as tax breaks for 11 big-ticket projects with a combined cost of US$7.38 billion.

These projects involve cement manufacturing activities, construction of mass housing units, rail operations of a subway, and development of telecommunication towers, most of which are located outside the National Capital Region (NCR) and thereby boosting development in rural areas.

As economies pivot from the pandemic towards the new normal, a challenge for leaders is to introduce programs and create incentives that will help their economy recover from the pandemic through inbound investments, and ensure sustainable and inclusive growth for generations to come by creating opportunities for highly skilled technology-driven jobs of the future.

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The promise of Web3, a vision of the internet built on blockchain, has reinvigorated an entirely new generation of investors and consumers. It is the next internet revolution where every platform, organisation and digital economy is being decentralised.

However, as with many other industries presently, the Web3 universe is dominated by men and investments in female founders are still bleak. According to a recent report from cryptocurrency marketplace Gemini, women make up just 26 per cent of Web3 investors. Additionally, as evidenced by ownership of bitcoin (BTC-USD), the premier digital currency, women make up less than 15 per cent of Bitcoin investors. In crypto, the landscape is even worse, with only five per cent of crypto companies being led by women, according to a recent estimate.

Angela Walch, research associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies shares with Reuters, “As crypto becomes more mainstream, it is important to have diverse perspectives in creating and running the systems so that better decisions can be made.”

This systematic way and imbalance in the Web3 sector is a missed opportunity for investors since women-led startups come with a high stake in betting on good change. At e27, we are giving the spotlight to some inspirational female founders and influencers who are going against odds and breaking the bias in the world of crypto, NFTs and the metaverse.

Also Read: Breaking the bro code: How women are taking over the Web3 world in Asia

Krista Kim

Contemporary artist and founder of the Techism movement, Krista Kim’s work explores the concept of digital consciousness. Kim’s working process is described as creating “metaverse realms that uplift humanity”. She views the metaverse as a development to create new environments with a progressive culture beyond real-world divisions of race, gender, religion, politics and geography.

Kim wants more female leaders in the evolution of Web3. “The more empowered women are in Web3, the more evolved and peaceful the world will become as a whole as women will create alternate worlds in the metaverse that changes world culture, co-creation, collaboration and decentralisation.”

Wan Wei Soh

As an advocate of open-source movements, Wan Wei Soh founded IKIGUIDE Metaverse Collective (IMC), an open metaverse with a mission to empower promising individuals and groups to become leaders in new digital spaces and believes that NFTs are the key building blocks to the open metaverse. Soh is also one of the founding team members of the dWeb Southeast Asian node.

Maddy Bergen

“The funding gap between male and female-led ventures worldwide is still far from close to being equal. While women have proven their ability to become successful in business, they are still forced to face hurdles such as societal expectations and lack of representation, capital, and support, resulting in fewer entry points for women to break through into strong business networking opportunities.”

Being a VC Analyst, Maddy Bergen realised the underrepresentation of female entrepreneurs and felt inspired to do something about it, which is how Angel Alliance was formed. Angel Alliance is a Web3 initiative empowering female entrepreneurs by providing them with grants, exclusive access to resources to scale their businesses, and connecting female founders. Bergen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Angel Alliance.

Faye Yang

In the last couple of years, the influx of attention and investment in the NFT space has proven there is vast interest not just in digital art, but specifically in the unique value proposition of digital scarcity and verifiable ownership.

Also Read: The 27 Web3 startups in Singapore that show crypto is more than Terra Luna and stablecoins

Faye Yang, the Founder of Unschul and Artworks.vc is a passionate advocate for the conduit between art and technology. “So how do we get the masses involved with art and truly democratise the industry? It likely isn’t with NFT, as crypto is hardly a mass-market product. But from NFT, we learned that more people would be excited about art as an investment product. Money speaks louder, fact of life. Penny stocks have their places too.”

Iris ten Teije

Co-Founder and CEO of Koia, Iris ten Teije is excited about the prospect of communities joining together and democratising access to capital. Linking NFTs to real-world assets, her start-up is a platform for people to buy, trade and collect fractions of iconic assets.

Teije tells Yahoo! Finance UK that “as trillions of dollars of value will be created in Web3 over the next decade, I want women to benefit from that as much as men to get closer to true gender equality.”

Priscilla Koukoui

Priscilla Koukoui is deeply involved in Web3 and XR technologies. Koukoui is the Co-Founder of the NFT Factory, a unique space to discover NFTs, connect with the ecosystem and build projects in the Web3 for entrepreneurs, artists, corporates, investors and the general public.

Koukoui is also the Co-Founder of Power Women NFT, a women-led fully doxxed initiative to empower business women in Web3. A community to connect, educate and learn, match with opportunities and jobs.

She lives for her next big exploration and is a big enthusiast for ensuring the use of tech for good. “Technologies are just a tool. They can be used for good or bad, like any tool. The ‘Why’ is important and needs to stay in mind when we decide to download a new app or create one.”

Cecily Mak

Cecily is the Chief Operating Officer at Blockdaemon, a leading independent blockchain infrastructure provider. A deeply experienced operator, investor, and advisor to a number of start-ups and organisations across tech, blockchain, media, and wellbeing, her background in strategic partnerships, fundraising, revenue generation, adaptive planning, and talent optimisation provides companies insights on ways to excel in dynamic contexts.

Cecily is a hands-on advisor to a select set of phenomenal start-ups and organisations working to make the world a better place. Known for helping leaders realize their potential, she has played a key role in the raising of hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital, multiple successful mergers and acquisitions, and the building of several household-named companies, often behind the scenes, all while keeping the big picture in mind.

Also Read: Gobi Partners, Ozora Yatrapaktaja launch US$10M seed fund for women-led Indonesian startups

Katie Mitchell

Katie Mitchell is the Global Head of Policy and Engagement at Crypto.com, the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency platform where she is building and leading the diplomatic and advocacy corps to ultimately shape Web3 policies across the globe. Mitchell’s career has been guided by a passion for channelling the power of technology to drive social impact and change.

“We are at a crucial moment in ensuring governments around the world craft policies and regulatory frameworks that capture the promising potential of Web3, while ensuring sustainable, inclusive, and equitable economic growth. Crypto.com believes in democratising access to financial services, data, and identity – and I’m thrilled to build a team that partners with the public sector globally to unlock more economic opportunity through cryptocurrency, ” said Mitchell.

Janine Yorio

Janine Yorio is the Chief Executive Officer of Everyrealm, the gateway to the metaverse with a background in private equity and in real estate. Everyrealm is a metaverse holding company with holdings in 27 metaverse platforms, over 4,000 NFTs, an e-sports gaming guild and an esports league. Everyrealm also operates Realm Academy, the premier online educational campus in the metaverse.

Yorio’s “superpower is her ability to turn wildly creative visions into financially-feasible realities.” She says one of the most important things to understand about developing in the metaverse and making NFTs is that these products need communities.

Nat Wittayatanaseth

Nat Wittayatanaseth’s life centres on democratising access to tools to help people improve their growth potential. She deeply believes that financial access and literacy are some of the best tools and leverage to improve one’s life.

After having ended her career as a venture capitalist to embark on a startup journey by joining an early-stage crypto company, Wittayayanaseth is now the Head of Strategy at Alpha Venture DAO, a community of daring individuals who aspire to shape the future of Web3 by reinventing how dApps are built, contributed, and owned.

“At the end of the day, what keeps you going is your inkling of possibilities, an inkling that this may actually work, and you’re super excited about what could happen if it works.”

Also Read: Breaking the bro code: How women are taking over the Web3 world in Asia

Outside of work, Wittayantanaseth is an active angel investor in fintech and crypto startups and has built Frontier Fintech Podcast to serve as a platform for founders to share stories and inspire next-generation founders.

Natalie Johnson

Natalie Johnson is the Founder and CEO of Neuno, a marketplace showcasing digital fashion and is hoping to change the way luxury brands do business.

Her mission is to harness the full potential of fashion technology while paving the way towards sustainability in fashion through sartorial innovation, moving the industry towards better and more circular models of distribution.

Jaime Schmidt

Jaime Schmidt is the Co-Founder of BFF. The decentralised organisation is an emerging community that supports women and non-binary people in receiving their share of knowledge, opportunity and financial rewards in Web3.

In just about a month, the community grew to 14,000 members. The group has 70 founding members including Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyra Banks, Julia Hartz and Mila Kunis.

Schmidt states there is a need for more diverse voices at the forefront of Web3 as it is “critical for innovation, mass adoption and social good”.

Emily Yang

Emily Yang is one of the world’s biggest NFT artists and a member of the prolific investment group PleasrDAO, a collective of DeFi leaders, digital artists and early NFT collectors.

Yang famously created the ‘Crypto vs Wall St’ Fortune Magazine cover and has collaborated with Steve Aoki and Sotheby’s to launch a fund in supporting upcoming female artists. The 27-year-old also made the list of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for Art and Style in 2022. For Taiwan-born Yang, the Web3 community is still very inclusive and the platform serves as an important change for females in having an equal space and voice.

Katherine Ng

Katherine Ng is the Head of APAC Marketing for TZ APAC, the leading Asia-based blockchain adoption entity supporting the Tezos ecosystem. Previously, Katherine was the Global Marketing Head for Liquid.com, the world’s first global cryptocurrency platform regulated in Japan, that provides high-performance trading and exchange services for digital currencies. She currently sits on the Board of the Association of Cryptocurrency Enterprises and Start-ups Singapore (ACCESS).

Also Read: Women in tech: It’s time to reframe the conversation

“For mainstream adoption to soar, creators and enterprises alike will certainly do well to localise crypto offerings in the notoriously fragmented market of Asia. The exponential growth that the crypto ecosystem is experiencing in Asia, along with the developments the industry has seen since Bitcoin’s emergence 13 years ago, are certainly causes for celebration as we enter a new year. As we look ahead, we can expect to see boundless iterations of novel use cases and blockchain continuing to shape our world in a multitude of innovative ways.”

Ida Mok

Ida Mok is the Co-Founder and President of Women in Blockchain Asia (WIBA), where she is building, raising and empowering a generation of Asian women builders, thought leaders and policy drivers in the blockchain space through active and supported participation in projects, education and funding opportunities.

Allyson Downey

Allyson Downey is the Co-Founder of Meta Angels, an NFT community that “harnesses metaverse relationships to unlock real-life opportunities”.

“We wanted to build out something that brought everybody to the table, regardless of their life experience to date, as long as they share the same core values of generosity of spirit, transparency and a belief in getting other people into the room.”

Downey believes there is still an opportunity to set a foundation for equitable gender representation within Web3. She adds that investing in developing an ecosystem that includes more female founders is an economically clever move.

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ROSS Digital, a Singaporean firm focusing on food & beverage robotics and automation, has secured fresh Series A+ funding of SGD4.2 (US$3) million led by F&B firm Fraser and Neave, Limited (F&N).

Existing investors Frasers Property and zVentures also joined the round, bringing its total funds raised since its inception in 2017 to SGD21.2 (US$15.3) million.

ROSS Digital will use the money to accelerate product enhancements, expand into Thailand and Malaysia, and scale the team.

The startup will partner with F&N to implement and distribute its suite of robotic, automation, digital and AI solutions in Southeast Asia, including its latest 5th-wave coffee robotic barista.

Also Read: SEA’s F&B tech startups raised a record US$461M funding across 49 deals in 2021: report

F&N owns and distributes well-known brands, such as 100PLUS, F&N, F&N ICE MOUNTAIN, F&N SEASONS, F&N MAGNOLIA and F&N NUTRISOY. It claims it also runs one of the largest vending machine networks across Singapore and Malaysia.

Gavin Pathross, CEO and Founder of ROSS Digital, said: “Through this investment and strategic partnership, we believe that we will be able to leverage each other’s strengths to deliver phenomenal new market offerings for the more discerning GenZ consumers.”

Ross Digital is a food automation startup. The firm continues to expand, setting its footprints across Singapore. It also has clients in China.

In March 2022, ROSS Digital teamed up with Tiong Hoe Speciality Coffee, a leading speciality coffee chain in Singapore, to launch gastrobar with its latest 5th wave coffee robotic barista – The Super Manual (TSM) in Singapore. TSM aims to emulate the coffee-making skills of a veteran barista, including perfectly crafted latte art.

ROSS Digital has deployed 15 robotic arms in Southeast Asia, counting Martell, Timber+, Coffee & Toast, RazerCafe and a leading Singapore-based telco as its customers. ROSS Digital also targets to deploy another 40 robotic arms into the market.

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Shopee set for mass layoffs
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Krungsri Finnovate looks to step into metaverse, Web3 with new US$52M fund
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Coinbase to pour money into SG digital asset exchange Zipmex
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Three Arrows Capital joins US$20M round of crypto firm
Orderly Network’s on-chain order book exchange is a platform for modular decentralized applications that enables them to use financial instruments, such as spot trading, margin trading, perpetual swaps, lending, and borrowing.

Mighty Jaxx acquires statue digital collectible firms Kinetiquettes, PLAYe for “multi-million dollars”
Kinetiquettes is a statue collectible firm, whereas PLAYe is a specialised DTC platform of consoles, video games, collectibles, and action figures; The deals will allow all the three companies to collaboratively evolve, develop better technical expertise, and increase product offerings.

True Global joins US$42.5M round of French crypto firm Coinhouse
Coinhouse will use the funds to develop more crypto asset management products and accelerate its international expansion to tap external growth opportunities; Coinhouse provides retail and corporate crypto-asset investment services.

Huobi Global unveils investment arm for blockchain ecosystem
Ivy Blocks is an investment unit focused on DeFi and the Web3 blockchain ecosystem; While Huobi did not disclose the fund size of Ivy Blocks, it has a “multibillion-dollar war chest”.

Zilingo board approves US$40M loan repayment
This could further pressure the financial position of the startup, which is already struggling with cash burn and lack of fresh investments; In May, Zilingo fired its CEO, Ankiti Bose, on alleged charges of financial irregularities.

Rocket Internet-backed Flash Coffee raises US$32.8M Series B1
Investors include White Star Capital, Conny & Co, and DX Ventures; Flash Coffee allows users to order and pay for their coffee via the Flash Coffee app and pick up their orders from its stores or get it home-delivered.

Indonesian Shariah bank launches VC firm with US$21M fund
Called BTPN Syariah Ventura, it will focus on Indonesian startups in Series A to pre-Series B stages; It has made its first investment by leading the US$6.6M pre-series B round of social commerce firm Dagangan.

Vietnam’s proptech firm Propzy lays off over 50% of staff
This comes amidst the SoftBank Ventures Asia-backed company is scaling down due to the pandemic and preparing to shift the business model; The layoffs are understood to have taken place in September.

Indonesian logistics firm Biteship raises seed funding
Investors include East Ventures and Beenext; Biteship helps SMEs and large companies deliver products to their customers. It creates an API that can connect users to third-party logistics and warehouse providers.

Pakistani startup 24Seven raises US$1M from Betatron Venture Group
24Seven started out as a D2C grocery store; It developed its B2B channel amid the Covid-19 lockdowns; Betatron is an early-stage tech investor based in Hong Kong and Singapore; It typically invests US$500K-US$2M in seed to series A rounds.

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Foreign domestic workers (FDWs) have been an integral part of Singapore’s socio-economic framework. In fact, in less than a decade, the number of FDWs in Singapore has spiked by about 27 per cent, from about 201,000 in 2010 to 255,800 as of June 2020.

According to a study, FDWs contributed more than US$8 billion in 2018 to the Singapore economy, this was 2.4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. In addition to their contribution to the economy, they also provide irreplaceable support to the local communities. A more recent report found that foreign workers will continue to contribute to job growth in 2022.

However, the industry is plagued with several challenges. Based on MOM statistics, two in three maids do not complete their two-year contracts, with 250 employers changing maids five or more times within a year in 2018. 

A TODAY article reported that while at first glance, the figures seemed to suggest that the employers here are too picky. But interviews with several employers who had changed maids several times within a short span present a different story- some maids were caught lying on sofas applying face masks while ignoring tasks and some were caught ignoring babies they were asked to babysit. 

On the other side of the table, studies have found that the three most common issues for FDWs are being overworked, suffering verbal abuse, and salary disputes. Indeed there have been an unsettling number of cases recently of employers abusing.

MOH: Bridging the gap between employers and helpers

Clearly, there is a gap somewhere. In an effort to address some of these challenges, the Singapore-based Ministry of Helpers (MOH) has emerged with an innovative and comprehensive solution that aims to make the process easier and more efficient for the parties involved.

Launched earlier this year, the Ministry of Helpers is a dynamic, inclusive, one-stop e-platform developed to better serve the needs of both employers and foreign domestic helpers. Having found that close to 50 per cent of helper/employer matches did not survive past one year, the founders behind the Ministry of Helpers realised the need to overhaul the sector and its processes to weed out the inefficiencies and non-transparency.

Also Read: How the global growth of fintech defies age and gender

I had the chance to speak with MOH’s Dirk van Motman to understand the technology behind the platform, its goals and future plans.

Leveraging the latest technologies for a holistic solution

MOH describes itself as a Home Management Solution which combines fintech, HR tech, and service tech to provide an entry point for domestic workers and allow household owners to resolve pain points. 

Explaining the three aspects of technology and how they are leveraging these solutions to bring the platform together, Motman explains “The fintech aspect of our platform enables us to provide financial services, such as insurance, managing household expenditure and helper debit cards, enabling convenience, choice and freedom.”

“We act as an HRtech platform as we not just prive matching services but enable the whole hiring process with chat/video interview functions, contract engine, management of documents and connecting it with things like salary payments (debit cards), scheduling of Medical ERTC, etc. Furthermore, training with close to 150 videos that include quizzes to be taken afterwards through our partner StepUp is another form of HR Tech,” he adds.

And, finally, the platform’s service tech aspect enables users to leverage the household/task scheduler which integrates with their calendars and grocery lists.

Not an agency, much more than that

MOH is not just another maid agency. They are much more than that. Motman explains that MOH is not focused on just placing people but on making connections that work because they believe ‘Better Connections make Better Homes’. 

“We, therefore, don’t operate as an agency and don’t charge fees accordingly, but rather a subscription that allows access to the total suite of services,” he says.

In fact, MOH has an elaborate training programme for helpers, for which they have partnered with StepUp which has built an extensive library through their years of doing this. “On our site, we are featuring a selection of ten programmes that shows the cross-section of available materials. We will be continuing to work on the topics based upon feedback from our members for instance the blog that we also run on our site and consultation with other related industry partners,” shares Motman.

Quickly emerging as one of the top startups helping domestic workers in Singapore, MOH had seen over two thousand sign-ups as of April (soft launch period) despite having done minimal or almost no marketing efforts. “We expect to see an acceleration as we are starting our campaigns now. We have been very focused on the launch and are continuously improving the experience, adds Motman.

Also Read: 6 fintech startups you should keep an eye out for

Amidst the pandemic, there was a lot of pressure on both employers and helpers. Both sides had limited flexibility to be mobile and choiceful. It was especially challenging for helpers who were cut off from being able to see their families and for employers, the struggle was the limited opportunity to bring in new helpers.

However, MOH doesn’t believe in setting course to going back to pre-pandemic days. Instead, they believe in providing progress for all and that would entail more transparency, equality, empowerment, and choice, considering that our homes have become more than ever a multi-functional hub where you live, work, play, and learn.

It would be interesting to see how MOH is able to change the FDW landscape and address crucial pain points in the post-pandemic future.

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Image credit: Ministry of Helpers

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