DeFi, or decentralised finance, is the future of banking and gaining mainstream adoption.

DeFi enables users to make deposits, earn interest, lend, and borrow. But what makes DeFi unique is that it is much faster and no paperwork/third party required. All thanks to blockchain.

Singapore-headquartered Matrixport is a DeFi company offering crypto investment products. It provides a suite of cryptocurrency financial services, including institutional custody, trading, lending, fixed income, spot OTC, structured products and asset management to institutional and retail clients.

Its mission? To make crypto easy for everyone.

“Our name Matrixport reflects its vision to make crypto easy for everyone. ‘Matrix’ represents a future empowered by digital assets, and ‘port’ means a gateway where you can get more from your crypto,” Ross Gan, Head of Public Relations at Matrixport, told e27.

The fintech venture was established in 2019 by Bitmain’s billionaire founder Wu Jihan.

Also Read: What is the next big step in DeFi?

Matrixport provides a gateway to invest directly into DeFi within several taps on its app “with full transparency” on yields. It provides one-stop crypto financial services to meet the emerging needs of generating long-term wealth in digital assets. The services include Cactus Custody, spot OTC, fixed income, structured products, lending, and asset management.

Institutions, corporates and high net worth segments in Asia represent a majority of Matrixport’s customers.

Thus far, Matrixport has raised US$129 million in multiple funding rounds. It included a US$100 million Series C round from DST Global, C Ventures and K3 Ventures, among others, in 2021, making it a unicorn. Its other backers include Qiming Venture Partners, IDG Capital and Dragonfly Capital.

The company holds licenses in Hong Kong and Switzerland, besides Singapore.

According to Gan, the number of investors using its app increased 427 per cent in 2021 over the previous year. “In 2021, NFTs witnessed tremendous growth in volume, reach, and new users and their applications. NFTs have grown across industries, such as art and collectibles, games, entertainment and fashion, with use cases for community engagement, content monetisation and social interaction.”

He believes that with the rise of Web3 virtual content consumption, another wave of crypto adoption will be via gaming and NFTs besides crypto financial services.

“The rapid development and ambitious roadmaps published by NFT brands, games and metaverse have exposed bottlenecks in the current NFT technology stack. We’ve kept a close eye on the space as the need for a financial layer of NFTs becomes increasingly apparent to support the accelerated growth of the NFT industry,” he explained.

Matrixport has also set up a venture arm to forge strategic collaborations with early-stage Web3 innovators, helping them build, grow and scale. An example of this is its strategic investments into players in the NFT space, such as BendDAO, Stakes and Polemos.

In Gan’s opinion, blockchain technologies and digital assets will eventually disrupt and enhance nearly every industry and sector of modern society. Matrixport believes in its potential to complement and improve the existing global financial services infrastructure through innovations, such as DeFi.

“As adoption widens, we believe user needs will transition primarily from trading and mature into asset management. Matrixport’s mission is to provide one-stop digital asset financial services to meet this emerging desire to generate long term wealth.”

The future of cryptocurrency

The valuation of digital assets is on the rise, and according to Gan, there are two fundamental countervailing factors driving this.

The first is the global adoption of digital assets. This adds liquidity to the overall market capitalisation of digital assets. Demand for exposure to them will continue to grow, supported by the development of new use cases, such as DeFi, with continued VC investments.

These innovations will impact a larger footprint of stakeholders by enhancing efficiencies, lowering costs and filling market gaps not well served by the existing financial services infrastructure.

The second is the overall macro-economic sentiment and outlook. The current inflationary environment and the expected rise of central bank interest rates, particularly the US Federal Reserve, will dampen valuations across all asset classes, including digital assets.

The future of finance

The nature of blockchain technology is that it empowers localised interest groups, regardless of scale, with tools to build and financialise their own assets and currency within their communities, including NFTs and governance tokens. This has catalysed a new wave of fintech innovation that will see Bitcoin’s dominance continue to wane as more tokens are introduced, where those with strong use cases and robust utility will become popular and widely used.

Also Read: The unrealised importance of DeFi in fixed-income securities investments

While there are liquidity benefits of having a “global cryptocurrency”, its associated natural monopolistic tendencies will mean it will be less relevant in the immediate future.

He also spoke about the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In his opinion, CBDCs could significantly reduce the layers of intermediaries involved in domestic and international remittance. There are several projects in the region at various stages of research and development to study how CBDCs could be applied to their financial systems.

“A major motivation for many national banks in launching CBDCs includes building a more efficient and inclusive payment system. These cost savings could consequently be passed on to businesses and individuals. Once CBDCs are widely launched, there is a possibility that they will be competing with privately issued stable coins, as these digital currencies would bear digital identity features and compliance with the issuing authority,” he said.

“Overall, we can expect a diminishing role of stable coins, as their use case would be reduced if the CBDCs can be used across regulated and unregulated spaces,” he concluded.

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A business that does not invest in marketing and client acquisition is like a country that does not build water plants. A country without water plants has no predictable and consistent source of water and will have to constantly hope and pray for rain.

Some months they’re comfortable and have sufficient water, some months they go without water. Customers to a business are what water is to a country, and every business should have its own ‘water plant’.

Prior to engaging GENIA, Michael Lin, Managing Director of Auston Institute of Management was concerned about a consistent flow of lead generations. He was worried that without leads, there will not be a future for his business.

To generate leads, he invested in content syndication and various forms of paid advertisements across Facebook, Instagram and Google. However, he soon found that the quality of leads varied according to the costs associated with the different seasons. Additionally, if he did not pay for these advertisements, he would not get any leads and the conversion rate was relatively low.

Michael shared that his lead flow previously was akin to, “praying for rain. Every day you go out there and do your dance, burn your fire, slaughter the lamb, drink its blood, and you hope that it drops. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn’t.”

Building a ‘water plant’ for Auston

Auston Institute of Management competes in an extremely competitive space against schools with huge marketing budgets such as Kaplan, Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) and Singapore Institute of Management (SIM).

Due to the competitive space that Auston Institute of Management operates in and Google getting more advanced in recent years, traditional SEO such as identifying easy keywords, keyword stuffing and spammy link building to manipulate search engine results would not work.

As such, we had to build a ‘water plant’ (Semantic SEO) for Auston Institute of Management. In order to attract the traffic and the right target audience from Google, GENIA provided a detailed review of the business, technical and content flaws that were holding Auston Institute of Management back from being on the first page of Google.

Michael was given tips to revamp his lacklustre website into one that is truly informative, user-friendly and trustworthy. Auston Institute of Management’s website now functions as their 24/7 salesperson where Michael can seamlessly present accurate information in many different ways and choose how he would like to present it.

Prospective students can also easily search and obtain all the engineering information they need in one place, at any time of the day.

Also Read: 3 stages of marketing for your startup that can drive effective results

The Semantic SEO process involves identifying highly searched, relevant keywords to the business (for e.g: engineering degree Singapore, etc.) providing a Semantic Gap Analysis of competing education pages, and providing an analysis of the type of copywriting that Auston Institute of Management should be producing to ensure that they reach the top spot on Google, providing on-page and technical optimisation, as well as editorial link building.

These are 100 per cent actionable information that business owners can take to scale their business right away.

Reaping the rewards

As a result, Auston went from having just 916 traffic and 6 leads at the start,

to 1150 traffic and 36 leads in four months,

and 2300 traffic and 72 leads in nine months,

generating six figures in monthly revenue from SEO alone.

‘Water plant’ for your business, a consistent source of leads and customers

Every business needs a ‘water plant’ that will consistently churn out new leads and customers or they will never be able to consistently grow. The business owner will not have peace of mind but instead be worried about keeping the business afloat.

Every day, there are thousands of people out there who will need what your business offers. Business owners just need to identify the right marketing strategies in order for their business to be seen and actively sought after.

–

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Japan-based entertainment company Akatsuki today announced the establishment of Emoote, a US$20 million fund that is focused on Web3 investment.

Based in Singapore, Emoote aims to invest in Asia which is considered as an important market for Web3 companies. However, the firm stated that it will continue to maintain a “global mindset.” It is also looking for Web3 companies that are able to collaborate with Japanese entertainment and media companies.

“We focus on early stage investing that includes seed capital, mainly in Asia (50 per cent) and the US (40 per cent), with the remainder in other regions (10 per cent),” the company stated.

Since September 2021, Emoote has invested in more than 20 projects that including STEPN (a move-to-earn lifestyle app that was one of the most-watched projects in 2022 with a fully diluted valuation of US$20 billion in April) and BreederDAO (a GameFi NFT factory that creates and sells NFTs to game guilds. It has counted Andreessen Horowitz and Delphi Digital as co-lead investors).

There are three focus areas that the firm is aiming for: Web3 applications of tokens, Web3 IP creation as well as NFT and digital fashion.

“We believe that digital fashion is likely to surpass physical fashion as a business as people increasingly spend more time in the virtual world – not only with entertainment that includes games, but also with other digital activities such as social media and metaverses – where physical constraints are removed,” it said.

Also Read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

Akatsuki is a maker of popular smartphone games based in Japan and Taiwan. With an emphasis on characters and stories, the company has developed games and other media such as comics and anime.

The establishment of Emoote was not the firm’s first foray into Web3. Through the AET Fund and Heart Driven Fund, it has invested in startups in the US, India, and Japan.

“An important keyword in Web3 is the incentive economy. This refers to an ecosystem that rewards contributors, as exemplified by the play-to-earn concept where users are contributors that earn by playing games,” it stated.

“We believe that NFT consumption, based on ’emotional values’ such as ‘likes’ and ’empathy,’ is a very important mechanism that will provide the motivation upon which tokenomics can grow soundly in order to achieve sustainable growth of the token-centered economic zone. Further, we believe that Web3 will lead to even greater growth of Entertainment and Creator, which has created characters and media works that are loved around the world.”

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Image Credit: Akatsuki

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In Southeast Asia, opportunities continue to grow for startups. Fostering innovation is instrumental to the growth of businesses and the broader startup ecosystem. Gaining access to local knowledge, regulatory know-how, and building relationships with local partners to efficiently scale are potential gains that can be achieved by being part of a startup hub.

The shift from business transactions to building communities

It is crucial for startups, enablers, and venture capitalists to be plugged into a community that allows them to thrive in the long run. This was why JTC, a government agency in charge of Singapore’s industrial development, started LaunchPad. The goal? To provide a space that encourages collaboration and partnerships between like-minded businesses in their various growth stages.

Located at one-north and Jurong Innovation District, LaunchPad offers a total of 60,000sqm of modular units of varying sizes to suit the requirements of startups. This includes those from industries like advanced manufacturing and engineering, agri-food technology, biomedical sciences, infocomm technology and media, and urban solutions.

Also read: Top 5G Startups in 2022 Announced

Besides reliable infrastructure, LaunchPad seeks to foster an atmosphere of vibrancy and community. There are multiple opportunities for partnerships, programming support through learning and networking events both offline and online, and various shared facilities.

“We not only aimed to develop hard infrastructure but also curate an ecosystem where startups can flourish,” explains Sophia Ng, Director of Infocomm Media and Startup Cluster at JTC. “Overall, our journey has evolved from providing space and a playground for ideas to creating purposeful connections.”

A strong track record of housing innovators

Prolific names such as Carousell, a leading second-hand goods marketplace, and ShopBack, a shopping and rewards platform, are some of the startups that got their start at LaunchPad.

Other startups that currently reside in LaunchPad @ one-north include Motional (previously known as nuTonomy), a game-changer in self-driving technology; and Igloocompany, a startup offering smart locks that work offline through unique PIN codes or Bluetooth.

But there’s space for more. “LaunchPad has the potential to house a wider variety of industries and ecosystem stakeholders going forward. Bigger VCs and startups may want to land in LaunchPad. This will promote more deal flows and better ideas with stronger collaborations between the relevant parties,” said James Tan, Chairman of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), a trade association advocating startups’ interests and bridging communications between startups and the Singapore government.

Strengthening partnerships for startup support

Esco Aster, the first agri-tech and biotech accelerator in the country with a wet lab space, is one of the enablers at LaunchPad. It aims to help startups and SMEs in the region link up with partners that understand and fulfil their needs to scale up.

“The Southeast Asian ecosystem, in alignment with our Asian heritage, values relationships greatly in the conduct of business. The ecosystem is kept alive by the constant referral and networking of key players ranging from accelerators to early-stage angels, pre-seed and seed investors,” observes Xiangliang Lin, the founder, President and CEO of Esco Aster.

Also read: SAP expands innovation initiatives in Southeast Asia

He adds: “LaunchPad has done wondrously in building up a vibrant environment in this area, bringing tangibility to the ecosystem by housing startups and enablers in one location, making it an ideal place for investors to scout out their next unicorn.”

With market forces remaining fluid, agility and speed are of the essence for startups looking to capture opportunities. “Esco Aster would be in a perfect position to support these given our in-house expertise in process development… for us, proximity to the right startups is always welcome as collaboration is best when it can be done in a timely, face-to-face manner,” says Lin.

Paying it forward

Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading super app, is also part of the LaunchPad network.

The company, which has become ubiquitous with ride-hailing, food delivery, digital payment and financial services in Singapore and the region, is headquartered in one-north. “This is where many of the high-growth startups and companies are based. We are very much a part of this community that’s constantly growing and innovating,” says Shawn Heng, Managing Director of Business Development at Grab.

Kaizen, a Japanese term that refers to the spirit of adaptability and continuous improvement, is an important part of Grab’s culture and has influenced how it innovates. “We recognise that we have a lot to learn from other startups. Being a part of the ecosystem ensures we stay plugged into the latest developments and trends, and we can inspire new thinking and partnerships. We have always believed in taking a partnership approach as opposed to doing everything on our own,” notes Heng.

Also read: How to build a business with scalability in Asia’s vibrant economy?

This explains why Grab is one of eight industry players throwing their weight behind LaunchPad Investor Network (LINK), a JTC-led initiative that connects LaunchPad’s startups with key corporate strategic partners, enabling opportunities for investment as well as regional and global expansion.

Heng adds: “Grab has benefitted from the startup ecosystem in Singapore and Southeast Asia. We want to contribute what we have learnt over the years back to the community. Being in one-north gives us easy access to startups in the LaunchPad community. Being part of the LINK programme formalises our intention to engage the community.”

If you are a startup, incubator, accelerator, or VC that wants to be part of a vibrant startup hub like LaunchPad, learn more here.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by JTC LaunchPad

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

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Six months from now, world leaders will gather to evaluate whether they can make good on their promises to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Following the Glasgow Climate Change Conference (COP26), the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report in February, asking businesses and regulators alike to act now or limit global heating to 1.5 degrees celsius will soon be both unattainable and impossible.

While politicians delay existing ways to solve the current crisis, the situation worsens. However, from the private sector, a new tool in the armoury could revolutionise the way we conceptualise, track, and mitigate carbon emissions across the globe.

Through blockchain technology, we have an opportunity to bring integrity to the carbon markets, align incentives across industries and countries, and enable unified action.

The (unequal) race to zero

Achieving meaningful emissions reductions has been painfully slow and difficult, necessitating a significant overhaul in the energy sector. The transition to renewables is a focus for many countries but far from straightforward.

Singapore’s Energy Market Authority points out that we have “no hydro resources, our wind speeds and mean tidal range are low, and geothermal energy is not economically viable”.

While solar energy is the most viable option, as the city-state sees an average annual solar irradiance of 1,580 kWh/m2/year, it still isn’t commercially viable for widespread use.

To mitigate this, Singapore has introduced a carbon taxation scheme to target high emitters and incentivise reduction, making it the first in Southeast Asia.

This year’s budget also noted that the tax would be progressively increased to hit SG$45 per tonne by 2026 to enable Singapore to reach its net-zero target by or around 2050.

Beyond renewables, what other solutions can such economies turn to? Carbon credits, of course. That being said, carbon credits are far from perfect, with criticisms arising around their viability and enablers for bad behaviour.

What mechanisms can be introduced to ensure their integrity while encouraging verifiably real climate action to challenge these claims?

From NFTs to NFDTs

Ask the average person on the street what a non-fungible token (NFT) is, and today, they’ll probably be able to define it. An NFT is a unique, hence non-fungible, digital certificate stored on a blockchain to produce an immutable, digital record of its ownership and provenance.

Think about how NFTs are being used in the traditional art world. NFTs can add a layer of certainty in proving the authenticity of a painting, that it belonged to a specific collector and was painted by a specific artist.

As a digital representation, this also introduces further opportunities for tokenisation, effectively enabling investors to take ownership of an asset, no matter how big or small.

Also Read: Why the Carbon tax is just a step forward and not a solution

How does this relate to carbon credits?

One type of carbon credit is Voluntary Emission Reduction (VER) which can be tied to sustainable or climate action projects and is sold on the voluntary carbon market (VCM). As of November 2021, the value of the VCM stood at US$1 billion, pointing to a growing appetite from businesses as they strengthen their ESG commitments.

By diverting capital to such initiatives, VERs can also drive greater optimisation and innovation, eventually lowering the costs of climate technologies. As you can imagine, an NFT tied to a VER would effectively assure a buyer or an investor that their VER is tied to a legitimate project.

At the same time, tokenisation could make investing in these projects much more accessible for even a retail audience interested in green finance opportunities.

However, as a technology, NFTs are fundamentally limited critically: They’re dead.

NFTs can only represent “non-living” assets. Let’s take the example of a building equipped with smart technologies to ensure its energy efficiency.

Throughout a given day, the amount of electricity that the building expends may differ depending on the internal temperature, the intensity of sunlight, and foot traffic. These can impact the amount of energy and, thus, carbon that a building has expended.

For a business, having a real-time, continuously updated representation of such an asset is critical to measuring its energy expenditure over time. Therefore, when used to represent the carbon credits produced by green projects (which are ever-changing over time), NFTs fall short.

Hence, we at Metaverse Green Exchange had to develop a patent-pending technology known as the Non-Fungible Digital Twin (NFDT). NFDTs combines the transparency, provenance, and auditability allowed for by NFTs with digital twin technologies.

Supported by the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, a digital twin is a virtual model that reflects a real-world physical object or process and changes within that system over time. When combined with NFTs, you can see how this addresses key challenges in today’s voluntary carbon credit market.

Why carbon has a ‘nationality’

When the Paris Agreement came into force in 2016, Nationally-Determined Contributions (NDCs) were at the cornerstone of the accord. Each signatory pledged to reduce its national carbon footprint to limit global warming to preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.

This emphasis on nationality effectively makes it such that the carbon liability belongs to the country it originated. Countries are faced with a dilemma: open up their sustainable projects and, by extension, the corresponding carbon credits, to foreign or external investors, or create barriers to protect accurate reporting and reduce the threat of double-counting?

When taken in aggregate, what MVGX offers is its Green Earth MetaVerse. This digital world holds digital representations of carbon assets and liabilities, effectively bridging the real world to the metaverse.

Backed by its proprietary, patent-pending NFDT^TM technology, each digital representation comes in the form of our Carbon Neutrality Token (CNT^TM), which is then listed on our digital asset exchange.

Through MVGX’s licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), these digital assets have integrity both in the metaverse and within existing carbon markets. These tokens are thus asset-backed securities regulated by MAS, which institutional and accredited investors can buy into.

Each CNT^TM is tied to an avatar backed by our NFDT^TM technology which assures the provenance, traceability, and quality of the associated VER.

In taking this approach, our carbon registry is designed first to represent the real-world carbon assets in the metaverse, as an NFDT or avatar, before the carbon credit or the VER is even issued. By listing this token on our licenced exchange, buyers are assured that the integrity of the asset is safeguarded, all the while being backed by a regulated entity.

Also Read: What COVID-19 taught us about sustainable choices and climate change

In the end, what you have is a system that bridges real-world carbon exchanges with virtual ones, and MVGX can ensure that businesses and governments ultimately gain a robust and universal understanding of how carbon is being emitted and mitigated in a transparent, verifiable way.

Making greener gains

Last year, Asia was the fastest-growing market for ESG debt issuance, tripling to US$346.5 billion compared to the year before.

Climate-aligned investing is growing in popularity. After all, the financial risks are significantly more pronounced in a region set to bear the brunt of a worsening climate. With this in mind, having the right technologies to ensure the integrity of such investments is key.

As the race to reach net-zero intensifies, traditional financial players have a key role in levelling the financial playing field for projects striving to do good.

With NFTs and blockchain now so firmly entrenched in mainstream consciousness, it’s clear that the technologies to enable meaningful, verifiable climate action at scale are already here. We all need to take the first step.

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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.

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

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Protecting and restoring biodiversity is the greatest challenge of our lifetimes. And it represents an incredible opportunity globally, including in Southeast Asia.

However, biodiversity receives little attention or funding.

A Singapore-based family office is on a mission to protect and restore biodiversity, starting with Southeast Asia. It has launched a biodiversity accelerator to support startups tackling the crisis. And the service is pro bono.

Also Read: ‘We hope to see more material science, heavy industry firms coming out of SEA to address climate change’

“Society has made big strides towards a ‘net-zero’ mindset, but we would love to see us collectively take one step further towards a nature-positive one,” said Kelvin Chiu, Founder and Principal at Silverstrand Capital. Biodiversity is a more holistic indicator of well-functioning ecosystems, whereas using carbon as a particular sustainability metric may not reflect nature’s inherent and inspiring complexity.”

The Biodiversity Accelerator+, launched late last month, is a three-month online programme. It consists of extensive group sessions and discussions with its core coaches, tailored one-on-one coaching, and fireside chats with entrepreneurs and industry experts — all offered for no fee or equity.

The accelerator aims to support businesses with market-based solutions in conservation and restoration, or what it calls “biodiversity-positive” companies.

They are:

• Regenerative agriculture/aquaculture opportunities across the value chain: Examples include companies selling sustainable agri-inputs (biodiverse seeds, seaweed-based bio fertilisers) or value-added products (food, textiles, cosmetics, medicine) from unconventional crops
• Ecosystem restoration technologies for forests, mangroves, and coral reefs: Examples include seed planting drones and reef tiles (software management systems for managing the cash flows of forest restoration against the success of replanting efforts)
• Measurement technologies for biodiversity or ecosystem health: Environmental DNA, acoustic- or hyperspectral-based IoT sensors, or remote sensing algorithms.
• Sustainable travel-related companies (eco-lodge operators or travel booking platforms)
• Enforcement technologies for conservation areas (technologies that can detect illegal logging or forest fires in real-time).

The Biodiversity Accelerator+ targets eight companies for the first cohort. Preference will be given to companies based/with operations in Southeast Asia or interested in expanding to the region. “Southeast Asia is a biocultural hotspot with an enormous variety of beautiful, natural habitats. I feel it is our duty and responsibility to protect what is left and restore what was once there,” he said.

At the end of the programme, participants can unlock investments of up to US$250,000 each and access a vast network of impact investors.

“We want to build the stack of ‘biodiversity-positive’ investible opportunities for ourselves and other investors. We have met with many passionate and talented entrepreneurs who we feel could benefit from a holistic and comprehensive programme covering their businesses’ financial, social, and environmental aspects. We want to help these founders upskill and help their early-stage companies become more investment-ready,” he elaborated.

Also Read: 5 reasons why impact investing is becoming mainstream investing

The partners of Biodiversity Accelerator+ are Temasek Foundation, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Mandai Nature, UBS Optimus Foundation, Conservation International Ventures, Wavemaker Impact, REAPRA, NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions, the Meloy Fund, Be The Earth Foundation, Systemiq, Beanstalk, Cell VC, Shook Lin & Bok, and Kindrik Partners.

These partners will help the accelerator with shortlisting and selecting the companies, leading group sessions, and being mentors to the founders of companies. They would potentially be co-investing with Silverstrand at the end.

The selection of finalists will be conducted jointly by the Silverstrand investment committee and the external experts on its shortlisting committee, including Kavita Prakash-Mani, CEO of Mandai Nature, and Peter Kennedy, Partner at the Meloy Fund.

Silverstrand has a network of experienced coaches and speakers from different backgrounds to help the startups with traditional accelerator aspects (fundraising, financial modelling and branding) and impact aspects (understanding the science of biodiversity and how to work with local communities).

“We want our participating companies to use the knowledge gained to guide better their business and financial planning and their approach to the ecosystems and communities in which they operate. Ultimately, we want our companies to achieve a ‘triple bottom line’ of financial, social and environmental returns,” Chiu remarked.

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Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a seemingly simple but consequential health problem that our community is dealing with –that can actually be prevented with a simple diet or lifestyle change. However, there is not enough attention given to these issues, according to OSbiome Co-Founder & CEO Ian Chong.

“Every year, about 25 million people die globally due to chronic conditions that are preventable with simple diet or lifestyle changes. That’s every year. For context, COVID-19 amounted to about six million deaths cumulative. Why aren’t we handling lifestyle-related deaths with the same urgency?” he asks in an email interview with e27.

Through his interaction with customers at OSbiome and his previous company, Chong discovered that this abandonment seems to be fuelled by two reasons.

“We have a conflicted relationship between having good health and money. Health often comes with a higher price tag with salads being more expensive than fast food, or requires sacrifice for us to be more ‘successful’ by working overtime [and implementing] the #hustlelife, sacrificing sleep,” he says.

In addition to that, he adds that customers are “overloaded with overly generic information of what is healthy” by chasing the next superfood or getting on the next hyped fitness class.

This is why OSbiome provides customers with bespoke lifestyle and diet recommendations generated from highly complex algorithms, into a form of fun, gamified & bite-sized ‘quests’ that they can easily integrate into their daily lives. These tasks are generated by normalising data points from thousands of peer-reviewed clinical trials, layering them with localised population references and making them highly personalised.

The company’s solution included the provision of a gut health test kit that helps customers easily learn about the diet and lifestyle changes that they need to perform. With this, OSbiome aims to create a five per cent impact globally and complete a mission to help save 1.5 million lives every year.

Also Read: A beginner’s guide into the world of NFTs

“Since we started, we have been able to acquire our initial group of customers who have been amazing in helping us shape the product and our bio-AI. Through machine learning, discovered proprietary bio-signatures within the local population on what a healthy profile is as a benchmark,” Chong says.

It has also achieved other milestones such as building out and upgrading its application to allow customers to track a wide myriad of wellness activities such as sleep and water intake. But one of the most exciting milestones that the company is achieving is its foray into the Web3 space.

Introducing health-to-earn

In discovering how the addition of Web3 elements in their service can make a difference, OSbiome learns that its value lies within its ability to encourage users through rewards. For Chong, this means they can finally re-align the direction of health and money –the challenge that he has mentioned as the background of the problem that OSbiome is trying to solve.

“Web3 is the perfect platform for bringing our vision to fruition. The ability to reward the members within the ecosystem for participating will finally re-align the directions of health and money. Users can now be rewarded for completing tasks such as recording their habits and completing their health quests,” he says.

“Tangible incentives are now completely aligned with their health and wellness [goals]. The healthier you are, the more incentives you can receive. We firmly believe that this dynamic will complete reimagine our relationship with health and bring adoption of our platform into hypergrowth. Other recent projects similar to our health-to-earn model had shown real potential in impacting positive change in people’s lifestyles.”

OSbiome launches its first 3D NFT collection Ome | Pioneer Generation in May, made of 8,888 unique Omes. The characters will have “cute traits that are hand-sculpted” by up-and-coming Singaporean 3D artist @ningthebun.

“The purpose of this collection is to gather like-minded people within the ecosystem who believe in our vision and would want to help us actualise it. We’re mainly getting exposure through grassroots thought leaders in the blockchain space, influencers and communities for now and the interest has been really positive. What’s unique about this collection is that the utility is deep. Owners of these Omes can unlock special earning rates for completing quests, rent them to other players, receive future airdrops for tokens and be the first to access the newest features,” Chong elaborates.

Also Read: Matrixport betting big on NFTs, blockchain gaming to expand its cryptocurrency financial services

Towards the future

The story of OSbiome began when Chong and Dr Corlianò met in the venture accelerator programme Entrepreneur First. The co-founders had very different backgrounds that seemed to complement well with their work at OSbiome.

“Maria left academia in the pursuit of utilising her award-winning expertise in the field of gut microbiology on creating solutions to help people. I had recently exited a real foods e-commerce business jumping overnight from baking in a kitchen to building our bio-AI,” Chong explains.

“We met other potential partners during the programme, but instantly knew we needed to start something together when we realised our vision for the future is eerily similar –a world where health is personalised and accessible to all. Since then, we’ve progressed from running the company from her apartment to now our office with a rockstar team who are deeply passionate about their craft and invested in our vision as well,” he continues.

The company is currently run by a remote team of 10 people that are based in SEA, Europe, and India. It has also raised pre-seed funding from different institutions and angel investors alike.

“We have been very fortunate to have received the trust from both institutions such as Entrepreneur First and Next Humanity Ventures and angel investors alike. Fun fact, our angels were our customers as well!” Chong says.

With the support of its team and investors, OSbiome is ready to run the next parts of its plan. In addition to running its Ome NFT projects and bringing its health-to-earn model to life, it is also looking forward to partnering with national healthcare initiatives in the region to promote healthy living and chronic illness prevention.

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Fintech innovations have developed significantly in Southeast Asia, allowing for the enhancement of Web3 to dawn upon the adaptable region. And these days, the hype on this side of the world is not about surfing the internet but about creating content and monetising it.

Web3 is the next phase of the internet, which is more decentralised through artificial intelligence, blockchain, smart contracts, metaverse and machine learning technology. With decentralisation being the word of the decade and Southeast Asia being a resilient nation, it is no wonder that the latest web sensation is accelerating in the region.

With many being put under ‘unbanked’ within the conventional financial system and many not on board yet with modern-day finance innovations, Southeast Asia still proves to be a large niche market for innovations, with an average of 440 million total online population.

As a whole, it boasts one of the youngest, most digitally active cohorts globally. Moreover, Southeast Asia’s internet economy is to peak at US$1 trillion by 2030 as the region witnessed an additional 60 million new users at the beginning of the pandemic.

Southeast Asia embraces Web3

Governments in the region and globally have acknowledged this growth and are supporting the digitisation of economies by means of monetary support, servicing and simplifying traditional processes.

For example, the ICA in Singapore has announced the issuing of digital birth certificates as part of their ongoing efforts to streamline and digitalise services for Singaporeans.

Also Read: These 21 Web3 startups prove why Vietnam is the world’s most surprising crypto hotspot

Opportunities such as this will continue to speak for themselves in the region as Web3 was built with the promise of offering users utility, value and empowerment, and we’ve already seen this play out in Southeast Asia. 

New economies and structures have been created in the region through the deployment of Web3. Play-to-earn games, for instance, have boomed in the Philippines and have helped keep many afloat during the pandemic.

Play-to-earn is a business model that works on blockchain technology, allowing players to play and earn cryptocurrency. Axie Infinity, one such game in the Philippines, followed this concept of allowing players to earn non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which bridged the financial inclusion gap in the country, mainly during the pandemic. 

Similarly, cryptocurrency has opened doors to financial inclusion in Indonesia, with seven million users in the country and 21 million across the region. We’ve seen how cryptocurrency has helped address common financial challenges such as the inability to reach far-flung areas, the lack of access to secure financial services, and the high cost of digital transactions.

Governments are taking crypto seriously and are working to find a balance in regulating these for a Web3 Future. Also monitored by the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (CFTC) under the Ministry of Commerce of Indonesia, CFTC plans to present a crypto exchange to encourage a better ecosystem.

Jerry Sambuaga, Vice Minister of Commerce, stated that “The potential of crypto assets as a commodity is huge given a large amount of trade value. There will be changes in the behaviour of investors and traders in the near future, especially among young people who are starting to see crypto as a promising new space.”

Southeast Asia is also home to the highest NFT adopters globally, with many Asian artists gaining popularity and embracing the freedom to create through Web3. Compared to digital artwork, artists find blockchain a more convenient way of creating, selling and distributing NFTs.

There is no need for special treatment to store their artwork, and digital storage helps mitigate the problems that come with physical storage spaces. The use of blockchain technology has also helped artists reclaim ownership of their work.

The big challenge for Web3

Despite the many use cases discussed above, it is still early days for Web3 in the region. Experts often cite hype as a reason for Web3’s growing success. This advancement also requires investing in new technologies and infrastructure, something companies in less developed countries in the region may struggle with.

Also Read: Meet the 22 Web3 investors that are ready to rock the future with your startup

Without funding, companies won’t be able to take their technologies to the next level – they won’t be able to grow their business, hire the right talent, and expand into new markets. If these factors are not considered in great detail, Web3 will see short-term growth and remain ‘a fad’ as experts say.

Funding to us was one of the biggest hindrances in the continuous growth of Southeast Asia’s Web3 space. This is why as the domain expert, we teamed up with Finch Asia and Indogen Capital to launch the Cydonia Fund.

The fund focuses solely on emerging Southeast Asia Web3 projects in their pre-seed and series B stage. Through the fund, we hope to discover new and emerging technologies and support the development of more innovative and disruptive Web3 focused projects and companies in Southeast Asia.

Thriving in a Web3 future

To ensure that Web3’s bright future remains long-term, it is essential to strengthen and internalise university students, communities and enthusiasts with the knowledge of Web3.

As the next generation to nurture and optimise Web3 adoption, initiating a public-private partnership between universities and the blockchain industry for us is key.

Identify your resources and reach out to the right people for Web3 startups looking to make a name for yourselves in Southeast Asia.

Seeking out the right funding and partnering with the right organisations is also crucial in setting up your business for success. 

Networking with experts is another great tool to abide by to enhance your industry knowledge and build a strong community. Not only will they advocate for your products and services, but they will also provide you with a 360 feedback approach to thrive in the business landscape.

While it’s still early days for Web3, we’ve seen the power its technologies hold, and we’re excited to see the change it’ll bring about in Southeast Asia.

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Eurazeo, a leading global investment company based in Paris, has launched a EUR 200 million (US$213 million) insurtech fund as it expands its presence in Southeast Asia.

The VC firm has named Albert Shyy as Managing Director (Venture), who will lead the fund from its Singapore office. Shyy previously held various key roles at Burda Principal, STRIVE (formerly GREE Ventures), and Lazada Group.

In Southeast Asia, Eurazeo invests in Series B and Series C stage companies. It recently led a US$65 million Series B round of Qoala.

The VC fund also has offices in New York, London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Milan, Madrid, Luxembourg, Shanghai, Seoul, and Sao Paulo.

e27 had a quick chat with Shyy about the VC fund’s plans in Southeast Asia.

Excerpts:

Why did Eurazeo decide to expand to Southeast Asia, although the EU region presents excellent opportunities and remains largely untapped?

Eurazeo has a long track record across Europe and will continue to invest in that market across multiple stages and asset classes.

However, the firm is also seeking to internationalise, particularly in the US and Asia, to double AUM to US$60 billion in the next five to seven years.

Southeast Asia has seen tremendous growth over the past few years, and we are excited to look for more investment opportunities in this region as the market expands.

There are already a few investors focusing on the insurtech vertical in the region. Why does it need another fund? What opportunities does it present to Eurazeo?

I think we can complement many of the existing funds that are active in this sector, which tend to be more focused on the earlier stages. We see more insurtech companies in this region grow beyond Series A, which feeds into our target as growth investors.

It can also bring broader access to international markets from having our base in Europe and potentially additional pools of capital from within the Eurazeo platform down the road.

Also Read: Why Asia’s insurance industry is poised for collaborative disruption

Also, this fund will have a greater focus on the insurance sector than most funds, which tend to have broader mandates. It will also let us build deeper connections within the industry, including our Limited Partner, a global insurer interested in this region.

I believe there will undoubtedly be opportunities for more commercial or strategic partnerships with industry players through this fund.

Can you share more details about the fund — the philosophy, number of investments planned, the average ticket size, etc. Have you identified any startups for investments yet?

We are looking at growth stage opportunities (Series B and C), with a typical cheque size of US$10-20 million+. We have the flexibility to lead or co-invest. We have made the first investment into Qoala, where we led its Series B round.

Does the regional fund plan to invest in startups across APAC or SEA?

The fund can invest across APAC, but the primary focus is on SEA. Ideally, about two-thirds of the investments would be made in this region

How is the overall insurtech industry growing in SEA? Where is it headed?

While the sector is already sizeable (over US$100 billion gross written premium), insurance penetration rates are still low across most of this region, especially Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam (less than 3 per cent in each market, as per a report by BCG and ZA Tech last year).

At the same time, we are seeing digitalisation accelerate growth/adoption as in many industries (more data to inform risk/pricing/product creation, ability to access more consumers faster and more efficiently, including within more rural areas, etc.). The latest Temasek-Google-Bain report predicts the digital insurance market to reach US$9 billion by 2025 from US$3 billion currently, so we see rapid market expansion in the digital/tech segment as well.

There are multiple insurtech models in the region. Do you see a bright future for any models here? Why?

It’s a bit early for me to say as I would like to dig deeper into each segment. However, since penetration and awareness are still so low in most markets here, I think products that can build awareness/trial (such as micro-insurance) or those make the whole customer journey much easier (D2C, agents, embedded models) can make a significant impact.

Do you foresee potential applications for crypto/blockchain/web3 in the insurtech vertical?

It is tricky because of the high volatility and limited oversight/regulation. But I think the demand is certainly there, and companies will figure out smarter ways to price and cover risk in this space.

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The concept of consumer credit at point-of-sale has existed for many years. What started out as merchant loans, originally to farmers,  later evolved into bank lending and credit cards.

In recent years there have been further evolutions to how consumer credit is offered and structured, transformed mainly by the advent of big data, digital identities and smartphones.

Technology like this enables fintech companies to easily gather customer profiles and user behaviour, allowing them to approve loans in just a few seconds. The result is that non-bank credit providers have become more competitive than ever, giving traditional banks a run for their money.

Buy now, pay later, or BNPL is a short-term finance solution that enables consumers to pay for goods and services in (usually) interest-free instalments.

With BNPL players like Klarna marketing to young people, with a little help from Snoop Dogg, the service has quickly become commonplace amongst millennials and Gen Zs to keep up with peers and quickly access the latest trends in an instant.

In Southeast Asia alone, US$92 billion in transactions are expected to be reached by 2025, and in Singapore specifically, the Government has recognised the growth of BNPL in neighbouring markets. A working group has been launched to develop a code of conduct for all BNPL providers.

This signifies burgeoning regulatory attention towards BNPL and the potential of the payment method gaining even further ground.

Changing consumer spending and purchasing habits

Following Klarna’s success footsteps, more and more fintech companies and merchants are expanding. Onboarding this instalment financing onto their payment mix, with BNPL now being a popular payment method globally with Atome, hoolah,  Rely, and now Grab, getting in on the act with Grab PayLater being one of the most popular players in Singapore.

It is no secret that the onset of the pandemic saw a decline in consumer spending across the globe. Still, even before then, BNPL served as a budgeting tool for consumers, allowing them to delay payments and spread costs, gratifying their needs and wishes almost instantaneously.

The massive shift of commerce to e-commerce then created the perfect environment for BNPL to thrive online.

Also Read: Why the Buy Now Pay Later concept makes sense for the Southeast Asian market

BNPL offers a gateway to materialise big-ticket items or necessary purchases over staggered payments for millennials who are just kickstarting their career or have less spending power. Millennials also prefer this “no-strings convenience” and feeling of control that BNPL offers, unlike traditional credit, which is often accompanied by high-interest rates and fees. If Snoop Dogg endorses it, why not try it!

An experience-driven economy and a sense of agency

This has led to innovation in the sector. What started as a method for online payments has evolved into an option at in-store checkouts, not just in clothing and physical goods retailers but also in bars, restaurants, cafés and even healthcare providers like dentists and wellness services.

Buy now, pay later has evolved into live now, pay later (LNPL),  a way to unlock more intangible services like experiences and modes of self-improvement – letting people live now and worry about the cost later.

This evolution is no accident. To appeal to this generation, tech players have gone to great lengths to understand what makes young people tick.

With the last two years keeping most of the world’s population at home during the pandemic, now more than ever, there is a notable shift in consumer behaviour whereby the youth of today value experiences over material possessions, especially as global travel resumes.

Meanwhile, having a sense of control and agency over key aspects of their lives is highly important to this demographic, and financial independence is essential.

LNPL enables young people to have the freedom to purchase desired experiences and items while downplaying the concerns of not having enough funds upfront, out of sight, out of mind.

LNPL becomes the enabler of living in the moment and casting financial worries aside; perhaps this is something the regulators noticed. Hence the current attention is focused on the industry.

Is live now, pay later here to stay?

Where healthcare services in many parts of the world are deemed unaffordable and out of reach, LNPL could enable consumers to access the healthcare they need by paying in instalments, such as accessing dental treatments when required or even when required therapy or more specialist treatments.

Also Read: The rising era of buy now, pay later in APAC

It could also be extended to educational or vocational courses to help young people improve their career prospects or upskill. This is beneficial to consumers, but it also enables merchants to open up to new consumer audiences for the first time, including those just starting in their careers.

It is worth noting that BNPL has, over recent years, received a lot of criticism from those who think it is encouraging young people to spend beyond their means, shop impulsively, and sign up for payments at a later date that they cannot keep up with, resulting in debt and poor credit ratings.

But its latest evolution, LNPL, has great utility in being a force for good amongst wellness-conscious and experience-driven consumers. For the large part, LNPL and BNPL fintech have taken on the responsibility to ensure their consumers do not overburden themselves with debt.

However, more regulation may be required to ensure a standardised approach to this new form of lending, but that is a discussion for another time.

In summary, buy now, pay later and its cousin,  live now, pay later, bring endless opportunities for consumers and merchants alike, continuing to transform how we prefer to pay for things and who can experience them, and when these experiences can happen.

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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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