Friz, a neobank for freelancers, has announced the completion of its oversubscribed seed funding round of US$1 million from a host of investors, including Indonesia’s Amand Ventures, Iterative Ventures, and Y Combinator.

An Ivy League University Endowment Fund, founders and CEOs of unnamed Indian e-commerce startups, and early Qonto and Funding Societies employees also joined the round.

This deal follows a pre-seed round from investors, including Y Combinator, 500 Durians, 500 TukTuks, and Iterative in April this year.

According to The Online Labour Index, the freelancer economy has almost doubled since 2016, with 70 per cent of the global freelancing talent coming from Asia.

Workers are embracing project-based work increasingly due to trends in remote work and growth in freelancing platforms. However, most non-salaried, contract freelancers face difficulty accessing basic banking products like tailored debit cards, credit cards, or invoicing.

Also Read: Friz raises seed funding from YC, 500 Durians to help freelancers manage their finances better

A considerable part of the problem is that traditional consumer banking is built for salaried employees, and most freelancers cannot open a business bank account without business entities.

Friz wants to solve this issue by providing a neobank in partnership with Matchmove, Mastercard and Funding Societies.

Launched in April 2020, Friz leverages data insights to provide financial products including credit cards, personal loans, insurance, savings and investment products for freelancers. With Friz, freelancers can manage their incomes, expenses, savings and borrowings, all under one roof.

Since its inception, Friz claims to have registered 500 per cent growth month on month.

“70 per cent of our customers are very unhappy with mass-market banking and want a personalised financial tool that solves their problems. Our users are tired of broken financial solutions and being excluded from basic financial services,” Nirali Zaveri, CEO and co-founder of Friz, said.

Since its launch in Singapore, Friz has seen organic traction amongst digital marketers, content creators, programmers, accountants, lawyers and many more knowledge economy freelancers who cannot wait to experience financial freedom.

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Image Credit: Friz

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Japan’s heavy manufacturing conglomerate Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., through its Precision Machinery Business Division, has partnered with the Intellectual Capital Management Group (ICMG) Co., Ltd. to hold the Co-Creation Challenge, a competition that calls upon innovators to collaborate on solving four pressing sustainability challenges faced by the world today.

Selected entities such as startups and research institutions will gain the opportunity to leverage KHI’s assets and expertise to co-create innovative solutions. This opportunity includes conducting PoC and scalable projects in collaboration with the KHI Precision Machinery Division team. The location of PoC is to be determined as it depends on the entities selected. Those interested in this Challenge are highly encouraged to sign up through the website.

Since its establishment in 1896, Kawasaki has positioned innovation front and foremost, captured by its “Global Kawasaki” value centred on advocating for environmental sustainability in creating a brighter future for generations to come. This value carries over to the Precision Machinery Business Division, Kawasaki’s hydraulic components and systems maker founded in 1968 that has adhered to its principal creeds of “consideration for the global environment” and “safety and security”.

ICMG, as a partner in the competition, shares the same spirit of leveraging Asia’s innovation ecosystem to address social issues, with the aim of “creating purposeful and impactful innovation to the world”.

The DNA of innovation

Through the competition, Kawasaki and ICMG call upon innovators, or co-creators, who are also pursuing “the DNA of Innovation” to put their best ideas related to four distinct challenges on the table, with the end mission of delivering “abundance” and an “enjoyable daily life” to those coming into contact with the resulting products.

The theme of the first challenge is creating a sustainable housing development ecosystem, which falls under the Challenge Statement for Housing. This challenge correlates to providing a safe, secure, and comfortable living environment for the global population, estimated by the United Nations to hit 9.7 billion, of which 72% will live in urban areas, by 2050. Here, Kawasaki looks forward to collaborating with co-creators to reduce the negative environmental impact of housing developments by optimising construction processes as well as utilising sustainable natural materials and manufacturing equipment.

Moreover, Kawasaki aims to boost the energy efficiency of the construction process to attain carbon neutrality from upstream to downstream, with smart construction as one of the potential solutions. Given the focus on sustainable construction, co-creators that KHI seek include those with the expertise to develop new housing development materials, especially natural, and technologies as well as those that have automation, mechanisation, and digitalisation solutions for the safety and security of construction sites. To facilitate co-creators, Kawasaki will provide working assets, from hydraulic technology to teams of experts knowledgeable in mechanical technology.

Also read: Industrial IoT startup Sophic Automation set to scale up Industry 4.0 projects in the region

The second challenge adopts the theme of creating a sustainable energy ecosystem with hydrogen energy as it is linked to the Challenge Statement for Energy. The challenge is a response to escalating climate issues and the falling behind of sustainability goals outlined in the Paris Agreement by the United Nations. Kawasaki intends to accelerate the implementation of sustainability measures by promoting decarbonisation through the heightened use of hydrogen-related technologies for producing, transporting, and utilising hydrogen which is a clean and readily available source of energy.

Therefore, co-creators that KHI seek include those that intend to leverage hydrogen, including using hydrogen to replace fossil-fuel-powered equipment, to forge a sustainable energy society. Co-creators will have at their disposal Kawasaki’s invaluable assets, such as high-precision control technology for hydrogen gas and wave power generation systems producing clean energy, to design and deploy the solutions.

The third challenge marked by Kawasaki is creating sustainable smart ports, which slips under the Challenge Statement for Logistics. As the world economy becomes more enmeshed with one another through the global division of labour, cargo volume has shot upwards as local producers spread across continents export their products. Kawasaki observes the need for marine logistics to maintain agile supply chains, especially at a time when COVID-19 has forced ports to curtail their activities. Congruently, the exposure of port workers towards risks, including physical injuries due to their heavy nature of work, requires significant reductions for the safety of all. Here, technology can offer breakthroughs via sophisticated port operating systems embedded with Internet of Things (IoT) and digital transformations (DX) that enable the realisation of sustainable “smart ports”.

These technologies must also enhance workplace safety and operational efficiency, allowing ports to run smoothly even when human resources are deficient. Communities surrounding the port need to feel the positive impact for these technologies as well, considering that a win-win solution contributes positively to the working environment. The considerable focus on logistics necessitates co-creators to be fluent with smart port systems and technologies, encompassing freight management, port equipment manufacturing, and automation solution providers. Co-creators have the freedom to access Kawasaki’s assets, which also comprises software and IoT-compatible control technologies, besides the company’s worldwide production and sales bases.

The last challenge has direct implications for daily life since it borrows the Challenge Statement for Food Security, which is creating a sustainable ecosystem promoting food circulation. The first challenge has already raised the issue related to the global population explosion, which will potentially trigger a food crisis due to various causes, notably climate change and the decreasing number of workers in primary industry. All this raises the world’s susceptibility to food crises induced by inadequate food production. Kawasaki sees the urgency in tackling this issue by advancing sustainable food production via sensing technologies, digitalisation, and robotics.

Also read: Protégé Ventures as a gateway for VCs to invest in the future

These innovations will digitally transform agriculture, producing machinery and systems that can withstand harsh environments, maintain yields amid labour shortages, and ensure safety for the present workers. More than possessing a deep understanding of food production and consumption, co-creators must have the know-how of inserting technology such as software into food production machines.

Co-creators with the capacity of designing technologies to transform waste into valuable consumption will be at an advantage as well. These co-creators will gain access to Kawasaki’s range of agricultural assets, also comprised of Hydro Static Transmission (HTS) systems that can act as human limbs and Camera Stabiliser that will benefit automation to reduce workload and promote workplace safety.

Submit your entries today

Co-creators keen to spell out their solutions to the above challenges can submit their entries up to the deadline of 15 October 2021.

Upon the receiving of proposals, Kawasaki will announce on 12 November the selected applicants who will move to the next stage, namely the Co-Creation Session which will be held up to 27 January 2022 to further delve into the business opportunities of the solution with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. Precision Machinery Business Division and ICMG.

Kawasaki’s internal panel will finally organise the judgement for the continuation of the next steps as a co-creation partner on 28 January 2022. Interested co-creators can check out further details and send in their entry here.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by ICMG

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DutyCast, the creator of a browser extension that helps consumers buy online globally with ease, has scored undisclosed funding from Vietnam-based VinaCapital Ventures.

It is not clear how DutyCast is going to utilise the capital. We are contacting the startup for more details and will update this news story accordingly.

Founded in 2020 by four Vietnamese, DutyCast aims to improve the cross-border e-commerce experience for shoppers by providing transparency and security around final prices, duties, taxes, and related logistics expenses.

As stated on the company’s website, the startup ensures “no hidden fees or surprise charges” for customers.

After adding DutyCast extension to the browser, users can then shop and put products of multiple stores in one single Dutycast cart, checkout once, and pay in local currency with a credit/debit card, bank transfer or cash on delivery (COD).

Also read: 3 reasons why SEA’s e-commerce sector is set to explode 

“Anyone living here or in other countries knows how difficult and sometimes frustrating it can be to order from online retailers based overseas. Dutycast provides a straightforward solution to that,” said Trung Hoang, partner at VinaCapital Ventures. 

He believes that the DutyCast solution can scale beyond Vietnam and said that the VC would assist DutyCast in realising this international ambition.

DutyCast supports customers to shop at several sites, including Amazon, iHerb, Sephora, ASOS and Ulta Beauty. The startup claims it is expanding its global partner network to more than 1,000 stores with the likes of Victoria’s Secret, Nike, and Bath&Body Works.

In 2020, Vietnam’s e-commerce market reached US$11.8 billion, which accounted for 5.5 per cent of the total retail sales in the country, as per a report released by Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency, Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

According to Facebook and Bain & Company’s annual Southeast Asia report, Vietnam’s e-commerce sales is forecast to upsurge from an estimated US$12 billion in 2021 to US$56 billion in 2026, ranking only after Indonesia.

This growth rides on the tailwinds of the young and digital-savvy population and a widening middle class of the country.

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Banks are about to be hit by the same sucker punch that e-commerce landed on brick and mortar stores and how Netflix landed on cable TV.

Banks need to start adopting digital asset services solutions in this digital era, just like how every retailer needs e-commerce to be a part of their core business to avoid being left behind.

The financial industry has adopted digital solutions on a piecemeal basis with a disjointed assortment of systems and integrations as a result, with fintech companies building sleek UX and top-layer solutions on top of a complete mess.

Emergency loans in the US, for example, are a lot quicker with fintech through traditional banks, Small Business Administration loans or virtual banks in HK.

Fintech was a false dawn for internet-based money and innovations that banks have mainly co-opted and the industry, serving up better user experiences but very little else. Existing fintech is classified as the old guard of TradFi, with a fancy frontend on the same banking technology that existed 20 years ago. 

DeFi represents a step-change in providing more than just digitisation. It creates an all-encompassing base layer, always-on and does not have a central point of weakness. We have already seen crypto trading take off in a big way and believe that lending protocols will change how money works. 

TradFi has yet to decide how it feels about crypto

Traditional finance (TradFi) is not ready to go entirely into the crypto industry, just like Walmart has only half-heartedly embraced early e-commerce. Some legacy institutions like JP Morgan are co-opting with crypto and, at the same time, occasionally dismissing it. 

Banks need to stay on top of how DeFi can change the modern financial system, similar to how e-commerce has disrupted industries. With banks trying to adopt DeFi, fintech will become increasingly meaningless. 

The promise of DeFi is a lot bigger than fintech, and we are building an efficient lending protocol with greater transparency where investors can continuously monitor loan payments, spread their risks geographically and by sector without risks of system failure.

Also Read: All you need to know about the fintech boom in Vietnam

Will TradFi be as forgotten as brick and mortar?

Blockchains are exciting places to build new infrastructure, especially for financial services. Crypto has already shown that you can swiftly launch and attract funding for new ventures. In addition, public blockchains such as Ethereum provide the rails for building new financial tools in an efficient way.

The crypto lenders have grown immensely by attracting liquidity and providing a beautifully simple way to deposit assets and earn interest through them or even borrow assets. Soon, crypto native and DeFi will become by-words for the e-commerce world.

To keep up, banks and finance companies will need to embrace crypto as part of an “omnichannel” offering, in the same way, Walmart and IKEA have Click & Collect.

Otherwise, TradFi will be classified as the same negative frame of reference as “Brick and Mortar”.

Momentum is building now

DeFi is still in its early stages, but the ecosystem will continue to mature with more experienced TradFi players joining the front. Not only mirroring TradFi but also improving for better options.

Initially, we were focused on servicing borrowers who struggle to attract debt financing from traditional channels and where over-collateralisation is not an option. 

However, we quickly see a future where companies with global business opportunities will unlock economic potential through connection to redefined capital markets. We are already seeing banks starting to serve cryptocurrency and traditional institutional investors getting excited by DeFi, not just for the attractive yields on offer but because of the transparency, security, and ease of use through web apps. 

We believe that DeFi represents the e-commerce moment for finance. If you are building a new financial service, you either make it on legacy systems with massive operational risk and liabilities, or you build it on a public blockchain at lightning speed. 

Public blockchains like Ethereum will be a natural choice for building financial services and businesses in the future. Investors are already allocating funds to DeFi as they agree that this is the future. However, banks moving into crypto are trying to square a circle and have introduced further liabilities by building on top of their legacy systems.

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Singapore-based ‘The Incubation Network’ has partnered with ECCA Family Foundation to launch an initiative to support early-stage startups focusing on Thailand’s emerging plastic waste economy.

The Incubation Network is an impact-driven initiative that sources, supports and scales holistic, innovative solutions to combat plastic pollution through strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems with a diverse network of key partners.

As part of the initiative, ECCA Family has committed US$2 million of strategic funding to spearhead the effort.

As per a press statement, The Incubation Network will bring to the table strategic relationships across both public and private sectors, including the world’s largest FMCG companies, government bodies across North America and the Asia Pacific, VC firms, global development networks, industry experts and more.

Its three significant partners, including Seedstars, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, and STEAM Platform, will launch incubators, accelerators and knowledge-sharing platforms for entrepreneurs. These will strategically tackle bottlenecks founders in Thailand face throughout a startup’s life cycle, focusing on the regional plastic waste value chain.

“Together with our partners, the Federation of Thai Industries and Thailand PPP Plastics, the Alliance is rolling out projects in Bangkok and Rayong with unique models for collecting and segregating plastic waste. 

Also read: How the upcycling movement can help build a true circular food economy

“The Thailand Plastics Circularity Accelerator programme complements this effort by supporting ventures in developing and deploying solutions to create value from the plastic waste captured in the communities we are serving,” said Nicholas Kolesch, VP (Projects), Alliance to End Plastic Waste.

The Incubation Network is also set to onboard as a member of the Thai Government’s public-private partnership for plastic and waste management, which aims to cut down over 50 per cent of marine plastic debris by 2027.

According to the World Bank report, Thailand is ranked sixth in the top 10 sources of global ocean plastic, contributing approximately 322,000 of the 8-10 million tonnes entering the seas each year.

In Thailand, an estimated 87 per cent of the value of recyclable materials — close to US$4 billion annually — goes untapped. Inefficiencies in plastic management have resulted in much of the country’s waste being incinerated, dumped in unsanitary landfills or leaked into the environment, primarily via waterways. This not only results in animals and people ingesting microplastics but damages water and air quality and accelerates climate change.

Established in 2019, The Incubation Network is a partnership between non-profit organisation “The Circulate Initiative” and impact innovation company SecondMuse.

The organisation has helped to scale over 75 startups to date, of which at least 29 per cent has female leadership. This is done via incubator-like programmes with a local lens on specific plastic issues, such as why flexible packaging has low recycling value in Southeast Asia and how to introduce circular economy foundations to startups.

Christian Algot Enevoldsen, founder and chairman of ECCA Family Foundation, said: “Thailand is already making bold efforts to address its plastic waste challenges. Organisations like The Incubation Network can provide the country’s innovation ecosystem and entrepreneurs with technical support, connections and funding that will help them accelerate their development of commercially viable solutions.”

ECCA Family Foundation was established in 2020 to support and inspire transformative change with a strong focus on preserving our global ecosystems, especially the oceans and forests, and protecting biodiversity for future generations.

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Image Credit: The Incubation Network

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Aspire lands US$158M Series B to scale its ‘all-in-one finance OS’ for SMEs across SEA
Investors include undisclosed global growth equity firm, DST Global, CE Innovation Fund, B Capital and Fasanara Capital; Aspire serves a new generation of internet businesses with a mobile-first digital account across Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

Ascend Money becomes Thailand’s first fintech unicorn following US$150M funding
Investors are Bow Wave Capital Management, Charoen Pokphand Group and Ant Group; Ascend Money operates the digital payment and financial service platform TrueMoney; It has already made inroads into Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.

Investible targets new US$72M early-stage climate tech fund
While the fund will predominantly focus on Australian businesses, it will also invest up to 30% internationally; It will invest in companies that assist in reducing emissions across six sectors– energy, transport, industry, buildings and cities, food and agriculture, and forests and land use.

New Singapore VC fund to invest US$75M into crypto, blockchain firms
Launched as a variable capital company, the fund will focus on pre-series A and series A companies working on blockchain-based or DLT infrastructure, DeFi solutions, and regulatory tech tools; The fund was formed by SBI Group, Sygnum, and Azimut Group.

Vertex Ventures eyes raising US$400M in new SEA, India fund
Vertex aims to kickstart the process of raising its fifth fund for SEA and India by Q2 2022; The VC firm is looking to invest with its fifth fund in 2023, after wrapping up its fourth fund by the end of 2022; While India, Singapore and Indonesia have been the focus for the VC firm, it is now also hunting for investments in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

PolicyStreet aims to advance embedded insurance in SEA with its US$6M Series A financing
Lead investors are Altara Ventures, Auspac and Gobi Partners; The insurtech startup aims to expand into new markets in SEA; The company is working with AirAsia Money and Carro in Malaysia in the auto insurance segment.

Enterprise SaaS startup Quincus raises Series B at US$100M+ valuation
Investors are by US-based UP.Partners (lead) and GGV Capital; Quincus is an enterprise SaaS platform that helps solve logistics problems for logistics providers, e-commerce, airlines, freight, and household brands worldwide.

Merkle Science nets US$5.75M Series A to help detect, investigate, prevent illegal crypto activities
Investors include Darrow Holdings, Kraken Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Fenbushi Capital; The Merkle Science platform takes a behaviour-based approach to transaction risk management for more proactive and effective crime monitoring and investigations.

Lippo Group invests US$3.3M in fintech startup Moolahgo’s pre-series A round
Singaporean Moolahgo’s eWallet app allows users to send money and make payments to 40 countries and has a network of over 1,000 banks and agents; Moolahgo will use the fresh funds to drive the startup’s expansion into the retail digital payments segment, which will be spearheaded by eWallet.

YC-backed Verihubs bags US$2.8M to provide ID and data verification solutions to banks, fintechs
Investors include Insignia Ventures (lead), Central Capital Ventura, Amand Ventures, and angels; Verihubs assists Indonesian digital enterprises in authenticating their clients’ identities, verifying their histories, and gaining access to their financial data.

Wavemaker joins US$2.6M financing round of B’desh OTA startup Go Zayaan
Other backers are 1982 Ventures, Iterative, Airbnb China CEO Kum Hong Siew, ex-Airbnb APAC managing director JJ Chai, and five former Priceline executives; Go Zayaan works with local airlines, inter-city bus firms, hotels and tour operators to bring more travel services online.

Indonesia’s D2C beauty and wellness startup Base bags pre-Series A
Investors are Skystar Capital, East Ventures, Antler, iSeed SEA, Pegasus Tech Ventures, and XA Network; Base offers organic, vegan, and halal staple skincare products — from cleansers to sunscreen — primarily targeting the Gen-Z and millennial consumers.

Indonesian investment app Makmur scores seed funding
Investors include Beenext, Kinesys Group, Trihill Capital, and angels; Makmur enables Indonesians to plan their financial goals (emergency fund, retirement fund, and children’s education fund) on a single app.

How cloud kitchen startup COOKHOUSE, started amidst COVID-19, managed to win 35 F&B clients in Malaysia within a year
Started in 2020 at the peak of the pandemic crisis, the company quickly grew to four locations, with another two in the pipeline.

Forge Ventures closes US$22M debut fund targeting seed-stage startups in Indonesia, Singapore
Forge Ventures has already invested in three firms and aims to invest in a total of 15 over the next three years in SEA; The average cheque size is US$750K.

Ex-Grab Indonesia exec lands funding for his soon-to-be-launched personal finance app PINA
Investors are 1982 Ventures, iSeed Asia, PT Prasetia Dwidharma, and Oberyn Capital; PINA provides automated money management and investment solutions, besides personalised expert advice to its users, on a single app.

Touchstone Partners launches ‘no-frills’ incubation programme in Vietnam
Touchstone will invest between US$50K and US$100K in convertible notes with “straightforward and founders-friendly” terms for startups; Construction B2B marketplace Debion and no-code automation SaaS Autotable are the first two startups receiving fundings from the programme.

Ease Healthcare nets US$1.3M
Investors are Insignia Ventures and high-profile members from XA Network; Ease is women-focused healthcare services startup; It will use the funds to launch its own line of products focused on preventing or improving women’s health conditions, including vaginal infections, PMS, and urinary tract issues.

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Image Credit: Ascend Money

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Singapore-based Quincus, which provides an enterprise SaaS platform for the supply chain industry, has closed an undisclosed Series B fundraise at over US$100 million valuation.

Led by US-based electrification and mobility fund UP.Partners, the round saw existing investor GGV Capital’s participation.

Quincus will invest the new capital for market expansion and technology development. It will enhance its multi-mile offerings by strengthening its real-time visibility and machine learning optimisation platforms. This will allow carriers, airlines, and supply chain operators to optimise and transport their shipments across multi-modal networks throughout the first, mid, and last mile.

Also Read: Teleoperation: It’s here to revolutionise the logistics and supply chain industry

The new round follows nine months after Quincus closed its Series A round in January 2021, led by GGV Capital, Masik Enterprises and Aletra Capital Partners.

Quincus was founded in 2014 by Jonathan E. Savoir and Katherina-Olivia Lacey. It has worked closely with several household e-commerce, logistics and airline brands to solve their supply chain problems.

Since the beginning of 2021, Quincus claims to have seen a 600 per cent growth in shipments across 48 countries. The company transacts over 70 million shipments per month while analysing over 1.4 quadrillion data points.

Co-founder and CEO Jonathan E. Savoir said, “Companies are seeing the urgency to provide better and faster services to satisfy both consumers and businesses today while ensuring their operations are kept cost-efficient. Moreover, there is also a need for a greener supply chain as many today face environmental, social, and corporate governance. Quincus is well-positioned to provide the relevant solutions to achieve customers’ supply chain and logistics goals with our simple plug-and-play technology applications.”

Headquartered in Singapore, Qunicus has a presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Taiwan, Vietnam, UAE, the US, and the UK. It plans to grow its team to over 400 people to support its operations in its newly launched offices in Canada and the Middle East by the end-2021.

The company also looks to expand into new markets across the Americas, South Korea, and Japan by 2022.

Katherina-Olivia Lacey, CPO and co-founder at Quincus, added: “We believe that Quincus’ approach to supply chain technology innovation could reshape the movement of goods and commerce around the world and eventually, grow economies. With Quincus’ data lake, where data is consolidated, analysed, and fed into a single dashboard, customers will have the opportunity to make better decisions in a complex situation, such as applying mitigation measures to minimise environmental impact. We are honoured to have the support of investors who believe in what we can offer. We hope to tap on their expertise to create technology inclusivity within regions that might not have access to them.”

Also Read: How tech startups can transform the supply chain in Southeast Asia

Ally Warson, Principal at UP.Partners, added, “UP.Partners believes that international supply chains are ripe for disruption and that Quincus holds the key to unlock enormous efficiencies for the logistics industry. The economic effects of covid have forced global logistics players to rethink how they operate their business fundamentally. The digitisation imperative has accelerated faster than ever. Quincus’s solution solves strategic pain points across the entire logistics chain.”

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Image Credit: Quincus

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Early this month, Malaysian car-sharing platform SOCAR announced a US$55 million Series B fundraise from South Korean VC EastBridge Partners and Malaysian multinational Sime Darby. The fund is intended at introducing clean mobility initiatives and further developing its people-to-people car sharing marketplace TREVO.

According to SOCAR, it has 2,200 cars on its platform in 36 different models in over 1,000 locations in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor, Ipoh and Melaka. It currently has close to 6,400 car listings in major cities in Malaysia and Indonesia onboard its TREVO platform. The company has some grant plans to capture Southeast Asia’s sizzling car-sharing market.

e27 spoke to its CEO Leon Foong to know SOCAR’s products, plans, and its new initiatives in the pipeline.

Edited excerpts:

SOCAR has just raised US$55M in new funding. Why does the company need such a massive amount of investment?

We will use the Series B funding to expand our multiflex mobility footprint in Southeast Asia. We want to grow our Malaysian and Indonesian businesses and launch in at least one new country in the next 12 to 24 months.

The investment will also be channelled towards continuous technological enhancements, investing in further trust and safety measures.

We will also be using our fleet expertise to introduce clean mobility to the masses. We will be leveraging our peer-to-peer marketplace expertise to further empower fleet and private car communities across Southeast Asia via the TREVO platform.

Once we achieve our targeted liquidity level for our platform, we can then work with partners to offer users other ancillary services that car owners and drivers need, such as insurance coverage.

Could you share more details about TREVO?

TREVO is a people-to-people car sharing marketplace that enables drivers (guests) to book any car that fits their needs and wants from car owners (hosts) in the TREVO community. One of the key goals of this business model is to add value to the multiflex ecosystem by empowering a new segment of users to earn money from sharing their cars when they are not using them. In the process, we aim to alleviate the financial burden of servicing hefty monthly auto loan instalments.

Also Read: SOCAR raises US$55M in Series B funding round from new investors EastBridge Partners, Sime Darby

Across Southeast Asia, we are currently seeing a huge trend in terms of a “consumption upgrade”, people wanting to upgrade from 2-wheelers to 4-wheelers as a status symbol. This leads to an increase in demand for people to access cars to transport their families around and also leads to an increase in personal car ownership and thus underutilised personal cars.

Ultimately, TREVO is about driving people forward towards achieving their financial and lifestyle goals. We saw that the sharing economy has been embraced in Malaysia as a new business model during the last three years and wanted to seize this opportunity especially when there are so many underutilised vehicles in Malaysia.

What is your synergy with EastBridge and Sime Darby? Is Sime Darby’s a strategic investment?

EastBridge’s investment in us aligns with its Korea+ core investment strategy that leverages EastBridge’s Korea and pan-Asia network, whereby investments are focused on companies with solid fundamentals, high growth potential and global expansion prospects.

As for Sime Darby (a global trading and logistics player), we see them as a strategic partner in the mobility ecosystem. In the future, we aim to further our collaboration in new/used car sales, aftersales, fleet management, logistics and finance/insurance.

We will build on our existing partnership with Sime Darby’s motors division. Aside from the funding, we also have the ‘Fund Your Drive’ programme that seeks to make car ownership more affordable and accessible. The programme offers a guaranteed resale price at the end of a 12-month period for buyers of Sime Darby Auto Selection cars and guaranteed minimum income from car-sharing on TREVO when the car owners use the platform to generate income from their vehicles.

What are the five key things that you did right to win the hearts of the consumers in Malaysia?

I am passionate about the industry and growing the mobility ecosystem in Malaysia. From my personal experience in the mobility space, I’ve learned that mobility is hyperlocal.

For example, in Indonesia, Gojek is one of the local giants, and it has adopted the hyperlocal strategy well, so never underestimate the importance of localised features.

Hyperlocalisation in terms of products and service offerings can push consumers to continue using the product or service. This is something that I’ve learned. We will continue to apply this for SOCAR and TREVO within Southeast Asia. In any market we are in, we love to partner with the local conglomerates and strategic partners.

Understanding the local environment is critical. Hot sunny days, coupled with frequent showers and high humidity, means that Malaysian drivers and car-sharing users might not want to walk long distances as part of their journey. With that in mind, we launched SOCAR-2-U, where you can get a car delivered right to your doorstep and have it picked up after.

The “pre-paid” mindset. Unlike most developed countries where consumers have established credit scores and prefer post-paid accounts, Malaysia is still predominantly a pre-paid country. With that in mind, we were clear on rolling out upfront pricing where our members would know what they are paying upfront for the service chosen.

Flexibility. We allow members to extend reservations while the reservation is live, in small increments such as 10 minutes.

Not all cities are built equal. We approach Penang differently from the way we operate our SOCAR and TREVO business in the Klang Valley. Penang is an island, and the majority of longer-distance trips would involve crossing the bridge.

With that in mind, we could offer new product offerings, such as floating car-sharing bookings within Penang Island. Here, SOCAR members could pick up the car from any public parking space and drop it off at any other Penang Island City Council (MBPP) parking lot.

Also Read: South Korea’s car-sharing startup SoCar drives into Malaysia

One of our popular product offerings within the Klang Valley is our ‘one-way’ airport booking (especially pre-lockdown), where people could pick up the car from anywhere and drive to the airport and end their booking there.

Hire people who care and understand the market. I’m lucky to have a team who not only believes in building up a solid multi-flex car-sharing community but are also part of the community themselves. When you use the product regularly, you naturally see the gaps that can make the experience better. You are constantly seeking to build a better product, as you as a consumer will also benefit. We acknowledge that we are far from perfect, but we strive to use this investment to improve the areas we’ve highlighted as crucial areas for making car-sharing more seamless.

Car-sharing is a highly capital-intensive business. How do you manage to run it without bleeding much? Do you own the fleet?

In the last couple of years, residents of the Klang Valley have enjoyed greater access to public transit, with more MRT and LRT stations opening. However, much of the country is still dependent on private vehicles to move around.

For areas that do not have the best accessibility via public transport, we see a business model like ours filling the gaps between the limitations of public transport and the choice of not owning private vehicles.

We strive to complement the existing public transportation sector by providing more options with our fleet of cars for travel needs. Moving forward, we foresee the dependence on private cars and motorbikes decreasing, as those who would like to enjoy the benefits of utilising a car without owning one will have a greater array of choices, such as opting for a SOCAR or TREVO vehicle.

For SOCAR, we own the fleet. Currently, we have 2,200 cars in 36 different models in over 1,000 locations in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor, Ipoh, Melaka and Seremban on our SOCAR app.

Meanwhile, for TREVO, we have car owners and car rental companies listing their cars on our platform. TREVO currently has close to 10,000 car listings in major cities on its app-based P2P car-sharing marketplace in Malaysia and Indonesia.

What opportunities do you see in the market? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on your business?

Due to the pandemic, those who do not own cars may be concerned about being near other commuters in crowded public transportation daily and perhaps worry about touching surfaces in crowded public areas, thus exposing themselves and their family to possible infection. SOCAR is an option for them to have a private vehicle for commuting or longer trips temporarily.

Given the current unemployment rate resulting from the pandemic, some Malaysians planning to buy a car may have to shelve their plans due to income uncertainty.

Here, the sharing economy is primed to fill the gap, whether by temporarily offering access to private cars through car-sharing services like SOCAR or a P2P car sharing marketplace like TREVO. It also empowers Malaysians to defray the cost of car ownership by earning income as a TREVO Host.

Malaysians who own underutilised cars sitting in parking lots and outside homes across the nation — including those who are doing less commuting after opting to work from home in the ‘new normal’ — can also take advantage of the P2P car-sharing model to earn extra income.

Logistics for SMEs has also seen a solid shift to e-commerce and contactless deliveries. In response to the needs of businesses suffering from a surge in third-party delivery costs or could not quickly scale up their delivery services, we launched the SOCAR Business Mobility plan during the first MCO.

As the economy reopens and interstate travel resumes, we will see a massive rebound in domestic tourism coupled with an increase in demand for land transport. More people will want to drive to a destination of their choice and enjoy the freedom of having their own vehicle for the journey. SOCAR and TREVO will be primed to serve this increase in demand.

If the numbers in the US are any indicator, we are preparing ourselves for a rapid spike in demand. We are currently working on building up a reliable supply base when both Malaysia and Indonesia reopen for interstate travel.

What are your expansion plans? Do you plan to take the business out of Malaysia to Singapore/Korea?

In late 2020, we introduced TREVO to the Indonesian market for several reasons, such as the emergence of Indonesia’s middle-income class and the government’s initiatives to reduce carbon emissions over the next ten years. Due to this, we foresee that the adoption of car-sharing will continuously grow in the Indonesian market.

As mentioned earlier, we want to grow our Malaysian and Indonesian businesses and start business operations in at least one new country in the next 12 to 24 months.

Also, we hope to expand our service offerings to more cities and states in Malaysia to make vehicles more accessible to all to complement the mobility ecosystem.

Any country that has underutilised vehicles will be a market that we will be interested in expanding to. We hate to see cars lying around in parking lots not being used. Our technology is built to facilitate car-sharing to ensure that the owners of these underutilised assets can make more money by fulfilling a renter’s wish to drive a car that they might otherwise not have access to.

Who are the other major car-sharing companies in Malaysia? How tough is the competition?

There are a few major car-sharing companies in Malaysia, but our competitive edge against other industry players is our variety, accessibility, affordability, and convenience compared to other industry players. We are also the only full-stack player that offers both B2C keyless car-sharing with our owned assets as well as peer-to-peer car-sharing.

With SOCAR, we offer our users the option of 36 different car models ranging from hatchbacks to SUVs at an affordable price. We are also more accessible than others because of our presence in more than 1,000 zones across Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor, Ipoh, Melaka and Seremban. We are more convenient because bookings can be completed in just a couple of taps via our app. At the same time, our SOCAR-2-YOU door-to-door car delivery service – which we are continuously expanding, further increases access to our vehicles.

EVs are gaining momentum the world over, including SEA. What are your plans to tap into this opportunity?

We are looking to speed up the adoption of EVs in Malaysia. At SOCAR, we aim to expand our fleet in Malaysia by up to hundreds of EVs in the next two to three years. This includes rolling out up to 50 EV zones in Malaysia by the end of 2022.

To accelerate EV adoption in Malaysia, we recently signed an MoU with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), the largest electricity utility in Malaysia. The MoU outlines TNB’s plans to leverage SOCAR’s data on vehicle usage and travel behaviour to identify strategic locations along key travel routes for the installation of EV charging infrastructure. The demand data shared would determine the location, number and type of chargers for installation, including direct current (DC) fast chargers.

As a mobility provider, we are committed to driving the adoption of sustainable mobility. Car-sharing is already playing a fundamental role in taking cars off the road as one car is shared between multiple users on a monthly basis.

To take a step further, we want to use our platform and resources to enable our community of drivers to experience the benefits of driving an EV, showing them how fun and convenient it is to adopt the EV lifestyle where tailpipe carbon emissions become a thing of the past.

What are your future plans?

Moving forward, we want to continue maintaining close contact with the government and stakeholders to enable more Malaysians to embrace the idea of going carless and help more individuals from the B40 segment to benefit from our service offerings. We are confident that our business will bounce back in due time, as we offer added value to the multiflex community.

We also target to continue growing and strengthening SOCAR’s foothold in Malaysia, especially with the new offerings in the pipeline. With the upcoming offerings, we expect to see more Malaysians enjoying seamless multiflex mobility.

Lastly, given the growth that we have had in Indonesia, we need to start building more car-sharing communities across Southeast Asia. Personal mobility should not be restricted to those who can afford a car or get a loan. We believe that our peer-to-peer TREVO model will play a huge role in allowing more people in South East Asia to drive a car of their own choice without owning one.

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Image Credit: SOCAR

The post ‘The car-sharing biz has taught me that mobility is hyperlocal’: SOCAR CEO Leon Foong appeared first on e27.

The e-commerce landscape in Southeast Asia is heating up. With a vast population primed and ready to access digital commerce services, this movement has been supercharged by the pandemic.

Sellers are no longer constricted by geography. Instead, the globalisation effect we’ve seen over the past 18 months has opened up an opportunity to operate in a truly regionalised and globalised economy.

The time is ripe for local e-commerce sellers to look beyond their borders and expand into the Southeast Asian market, which is supercharged by a new wave of buyers and recent cultural and technological changes.

But how should they go about it?

A market of opportunity for e-commerce

Since the pandemic’s start, the potential for opportunities within e-commerce has skyrocketed– initially due to region-wide lockdowns and safe distancing measures.

Now, this shift in purchasing behaviour is likely to become a permanent fixture as the market recognises the value and convenience of online purchases and the infinite range of goods that are no longer locked to a single economy.

Buyers understand the value of moving beyond local goods and services, and sellers need to be there to fill that need.

A massive change in purchasing behaviour has been driven by the battle of the super apps in SEA. Players such as Grab and GoTo now command market share across a broad set of e-commerce industry verticals. The latter, a merger between Gojek and Tokopedia, which combines Gojek’s customer experience, geographic reach and payment choice with Tokopedia’s pricing, product selection and logistical support, is a perfect example of the many potential extensions of the traditional e-commerce model.

Also Read: Capturing the next frontier opportunities in the Indonesian e-commerce landscape

Super apps such as this can compete in more markets, offer robust logistics infrastructure and a loyal customer base that can be quickly tapped into by savvy e-commerce sellers looking to piggyback on this regionalised approach.

Southeast Asia’s saturated mobile penetration rate (more than 100 per cent) is also a key driver for the continued growth of e-commerce in the region.

The rise of mobile availability and increased usage is opening doors to e-commerce and mobile commerce in Southeast Asia, with businesses able to serve consumers digitally, even in the most remote areas.

This high mobile phone penetration has also allowed fintech companies to serve underbanked businesses and micro businesses by delivering solutions, such as e-wallets, to the region. Such solutions are closing the technology gap between Southeast Asia’s underserviced sellers and those with more advanced solutions.

Battling the barriers

Reaching out into regional (and often crowded) marketplaces across Southeast Asia is not without its challenges.

Firstly, with no centralised currency, operating across borders becomes pricey. In Europe, the Euro reigns supreme – in Southeast Asia, there is no single or dominant currency, meaning that e-commerce sellers operating in the region must accommodate local currencies.

In doing so, they are losing hefty sums in transfer and conversion fees while exposing themselves to currency risk. Bridging the gap between the consumer and the international marketplace seller becomes key.

Logistics are also inevitably more complex when you’re dealing with multiple territories. Sellers must navigate between local postal systems and commercial carriers while juggling different handoffs, learning about the diverse shipping regulations in other countries as they go.

To deal with these new challenges, it’s essential to build a robust infrastructure so you can set up a standardised approach to deliveries that have been stress tested to withstand peak sales periods.

There is also a risk for online purchasing behaviours to regress to some degree. We saw an unprecedented pace of change in purchasing behaviours over the past 18 months, and in some cases, the shift was equivalent to changes that previously took a decade.

Although purchasing behaviours will likely never go back to what they once were, there is a chance that consumer preferences can pivot back toward physical commerce for specific products as part of the physical retail opening.

With many consumers making large purchases in early 2020 (such as investing in gym equipment, home renovations), some sellers have also noticed a decrease in this purchasing behaviour as the pandemic wears on.

Also read: Bring in customers, not fraudsters this holiday season

Prudent sellers will evolve, focussing on products that will remain resilient even as the region slowly reopens. Meeting a broader set of consumer demands will ultimately mean they are better suited to a post-COVID world.

Capture the opportunity

Localisation is a significant factor in regional expansion to effectively capitalise on this market of opportunity, regardless of your target market.

The key to capturing the opportunity in Southeast Asia is adopting and recognising local customs and practices: marketing and promoting during the proper peak seasons, accepting local currencies and ensuring your product offering is aligned with local demand.

It is also important to partner with the right payment provider. For those looking to break down borders and tap the vast pool of Southeast Asian buyers, employing a powerful cross-border payments solution with a robust infrastructure to allow for multiple payment methods is crucial.

Finding a payment solution with an established network will also minimise dependence on a single provider to secure a continued flow of payments – even in times of turmoil or unrest.

Aligning your strategy and outreach with the new, borderless world of e-commerce will open you up to a unique set of challenges, but the benefits are unmistakable. Achieving success will mean understanding the markets you’re selling to and leveraging recent shifts in consumer behaviour, technology and payments infrastructure.

Those who can reconcile the challenges of expanding into the Southeast Asian market will tap into an opportunity that transcends the traditional notions of localised commerce, giving sellers access to a more prominent buyers’ market than ever before.

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Image Credit: korarkar

The post Looking abroad: Capturing the e-commerce opportunity in SEA appeared first on e27.