The startup arm at Intellectual Ventures formed a joint venture with NTU’s innovation and enterprise company NTUitive

ISF Incubator announced that it has formed a joint venture with NTUitive, the innovation and enterprise company of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore to form a new 3D printing startup called Secur3DP+.

Secur3DP+ is a startup that brings additive manufacturing to global companies by providing a supply chain hub for 3D printing. The system is built on a blockchain solution.

Secur3DP+ will be initially funded by a contribution of seed capital from ISF Incubator. It also has partnered with NAMIC (the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster led by NTUitive) to tap into the country’s thriving startup and 3D printing ecosystem.

Secur3DP+ claimed that it has acquired certain patents and patent applications related to 3D printing and it has access to NTU’s expertise in 3D printing and blockchain. With Secur3DP+, additive manufacturing is intended to be a viable option for more companies through the creation of a global 3D printing network that will connect companies with vetted service providers.

Secur3DP+ allows secure workflow solutions through validation and authorisation of all projects, ensuring the right products are created and delivered in the most cost-effective way, and it enables startups and multi-national corporations to protect and track their IP assets.

Also Read: Indonesia’s Startup Legal Clinic, a helping hand for startups’ legal woes

“Our partnership with NTU gives us access to one of the region’s top technology institutions,” said Jerome Hewlett, vice president and head of Asia business development for ISF. “We will continue to look for strong local entrepreneurs to lead other companies throughout the region.”

“Our company is filling a critical gap in the mass adoption of 3D printing,” said Eng Kiat Low, CEO of Secur3DP+. “By creating a global ecosystem of trusted partners, we hope to accelerate the adoption of 3D printing and allow businesses all over the world to get the products they need and do so securely, anytime, anywhere.”
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The saturated and tricky Asian e-commerce space raises many doubts but little room for error

Thanks to the stunning rates of tech adoption, the increase of open trade across Asian borders and the rise of discretionary income, e-commerce has become the newest young-hot-thing.

The potential for growth is high as ever. Asia-Pacific (APAC), for instance, is currently home to over 60 per cent of the global population – and the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Given that the online economy of Southeast Asia (SEA) alone is expected to hit US$240 billion by 2025, global players are keen to participate in the space despite the challenges they have to face.

To start, they have to compete with homegrown ventures that already have a pool of loyal local customer bases. This is perhaps best exemplified by Amazon’s recent retreat from China due to its struggle to compete with the likes of Alibaba and JD.

Still, the relative newness of the space means that there are opportunities for established companies with global experience to offer value to the region’s various e-commerce stakeholders. Texas-based e-commerce platform BigCommerce, for example, announced on February that the company had opened an office in Singapore in an effort to expand its reach in the region.

BigCommerce Director of Asia, Dene Schonknecht, recently agreed to share his thoughts on the challenges and strategies involved with expanding an e-commerce presence through a partner ecosystem in the APAC region, in this article.

The APAC e-commerce opportunity

Despite rapid developments in Asian e-commerce infrastructure and fintech, barriers to launching an e-commerce business still exist.

Many Southeast Asian merchants simply choose to set up shop on marketplaces like Lazada, Tokopedia and Shopee, opting to trade sales percentages and pay fees for an easier way to establish their online presences.

Smaller sellers even continue to rely on free online classifieds and Facebook Marketplace due to the capital and technical expertise needed to create an e-commerce app or site. These businesses miss out on the benefits that having their own e-commerce channel brings, such as better branding, customized experiences, and omnichannel opportunities.

“We’re still seeing a gap in the platform market, so we believe in the opportunity available to us in APAC – and believe that we can add value to merchants in the region,” Shonknecht explained. “We spend a lot of time telling our story, educating merchants and partners on how we are unique relative to the established competition.”

Also Read: E-scooter startup Beam sets up operations in Malaysia

By entering the arena, BigCommerce is banking on continued growth in regional demand for e-commerce tech solutions, which in turn, is contingent on continued e-commerce shopping growth in the region.

While it already has existing customers in Asia including brands like Isetan, Resmed and Suntec, the company believes that the wider community of Asian entrepreneurs is still under-served.

The challenges of being a challenger

Schonknecht says that he sees two key challenges to his company’s Asian penetration efforts. First is market prioritisation. They need to ensure that their team is focused on markets where there is the best combination of merchant demand, product fit and partner competency.

Second is branding and education. As a new entrant in the space, the company needs to be able to communicate its distinct identity as well as its global credibility.

To overcome these challenges, it’s critical for them to establish a partner ecosystem consisting of agencies and developers, to encourage merchants to adopt the solution.

“As anyone who has done business in APAC will know, there is no monolithic market known as ‘Asia,’” Schonknecht asserted. “In order to be able to serve this region effectively, we need local agencies and developers that operate close to merchants and understand the intricacies of the local or regional e-commerce markets they operate in.

They will ultimately be the ones working with merchants to bring all parts of the ecosystem together – including localized solutions for payments, shipping, tax and marketplaces,” he said.

The region’s diversity is both a boon and bane for e-commerce players. While the variety of niches and locales can provide them with fresh opportunities, this also means that platforms need to support integrations with hundreds of locally favoured services.

How to win as an outsider

Other platforms like Magento and Shopify have already made some headway in the region, establishing regional offices in 2017 and 2018, respectively. A Magento veteran himself, Schonknecht is aware of the strategies needed to make a splash in the Asian market.

Each of these American e-commerce giants have attacked Asia with their own distinct strategy.

“Shopify’s approach seems to be more focused on serving smaller startup businesses with a closed ecosystem of Shopify services like payments and point-of-sale,” Schonknecht said.

“Magento, on the other hand, is trying to push more into the enterprise segment of the market following the Adobe acquisition and subsequent price increases for its Commerce Cloud. So while our strategies may be similar in terms of market entry in Asia, we believe the BigCommerce value proposition of ‘open SaaS’ will serve a significant segment of Asian markets.”

Indeed, the platform’s customisability and available integrations will also be key. The specific needs of e-commerce stakeholders in a market like Asia may not be supported out-of-the-box by platforms that were initially designed for use in the West.

For example, due to the large population of unbanked customers, cash-on-delivery (COD) remains to be a preferred payment method in the region. For a platform to be of value to merchants, it must be able to work smoothly with the various logistics providers that can handle COD.

“It’s early, and the market feedback has been validating our approach. That said, we are making tweaks – for example, around which agency or technology partners we work with – in order to have the most impact in the markets we prioritise,” Schonknecht shared.

“For example, we often provide product roadmap feedback and development requests to our teams in Austin or Sydney to accommodate a local requirement like a specific payment gateway, logistics solution or the like.”

New players are (somewhat) welcome

Considering that its formal foray in the APAC scene is just a few months old, BigCommerce’s efforts in building a partner network is already showing promise.

“On the agency partner side, during Q1, we have signed up 50 per cent of the target agencies we intend to work within 2019, so interest in partnering with BigCommerce is strong,” said Schonknecht.

Also Read: Are you the solution to Asia’s content crisis?

“The partners are already driving the incremental net new pipeline of business that we simply would not have been in consideration for until we had established our presence here.”

It will be interesting to see how well the platform fares in the year ahead. E-commerce stakeholders in the region definitely stand to benefit from the presence of another platform, especially one that offers support, active development and a growing ecosystem.

But nothing is a sure bet anymore, particularly given how saturated and tricky the Asian e-commerce space is. And with increasing signs of global and regional economic uncertainty, Schonknecht and team have their work cut out for them.

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e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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The Singapore personal mobility startup started off operation with about 200 vehicles in Kuala Lumpur

E-scooter service Beam announced that it has set up operations in Malaysia, as reported by Asia One.

Its corporate affairs vice president Christopher Hilton said that the e-scooters will be available at various designated parking areas in Bukit Bintang, Lot 10 mall, and Mont Kiara township because of its high foot traffic, wide walking paths, and convenience to public transport.

With the service made available in mentioned areas, Hilton said that the users won’t need to park the e-scooters anywhere specific. “We believe the most natural way is for people to stop the ride where they choose,” he said.

During the launch, the company expressed that it welcomes businesses and shop owners that wish to have more traffic to offer parking spaces for Beam’s e-scooter.

By downloading the app, customers can use e-scooter connecting to Bluetooth and mobile data, and entering their credit/debit card details.

The rides start at S$0.80 and cost an additional 30 cent for each extra minute with facilities such as general liability and personal insurance while using the service.

The e-scooters can travel a distance of 45km to 50km or about four to five trips before it needs to be recharged. The vehicles are tracked on the app using the rider’s smartphone and an IoT (Internet of Things) device on the e-scooter.

Also Read: Sustainable and healthy food startup Boxgreen raises funding

The e-scooter has a 20kph speed and helmets are not mandatory although encouraged. It’s also looking at providing a helmet with the vehicle and parking responsibly will get the customers a discount on the next ride.

As for maintenance plan, a geofence is in place to make sure riders don’t park the e-shooter beyond the designated area with a fine at RM5 as a few “pick up” fee. The company claims that the vehicles are checked regularly by marshals for safety and will be brought in for maintenance after every 300 rides.

So far, Hilton claimed that the service has clocked over 15,000 rides, and the app has been downloaded 10,000 times.
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The funding for Singapore-based Performance Rotors marks the she1k’s first investment ever

Singapore drone startup, Performance Rotors, raises funding from she1k, who was joined by other undisclosed institutional and angel investors.

she1K is a women’s corporate executive network that champions, funds, and boards startups. In its first-ever investment, she1K said that it’s syndicating angel investments from its members.

Performance Rotors is a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) solutions company focussing on confined spaces inspection. she1K decided to invest in the startup after selecting it during the first she1K private pitch to its members and co-investing partners that are held every 2 months, both in-person in Singapore and Hong Kong and via Zoom calls globally.

Also Read: Yummy Corp acquires Berrykitchen, aims to become the largest online catering service

Around 10 startups are regularly selected to pitch to she1K members, angel investors, and VCs. Two or three will be shortlisted for further examination and within two months an investment decision would be made by syndicating investments from members and co-investing partners.

“Performance Rotors was chosen because they have a highly qualified team, acquired some significant reputable customers, and are already revenue generating. Furthermore, they were recently accelerated at PortXL, the world’s first maritime tech accelerator, which opened doors to large maritime, oil and gas and plantation conglomerates – which can use their drones to conduct inspections in confined spaces,” said Christina Teo, Chief Builder of she1K.

“By using Performance Rotors’ drones, companies can reduce manpower and completely eliminate significant human hazards in toxic and flammable confined spaces.”

Performance Rotors’ drone confined space solutions have already made inroads into oil & gas and brewery storage tanks and will be moving into mining, agriculture, aerospace, underground tunnels further down the road.

“As a true homegrown startup, our technology is completely developed in Singapore. Raven is the smallest smart inspection drone which can operate in non-GPS assisted and dark environment. With Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement and AI (artificial intelligence) analysis platform integrated, we provide proactive and more effective detection of surface structural defects,” said Keith Ng, CEO, and Co-Founder of Performance Rotors, explaining the product.
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Whilst more women are breaking into the industry, the pay gap still persists

It is almost always men who appear in the news, often as innovative technological pioneers and thought leaders.

Upon thinking about the big names and personalities who inspire the tech industry, it isn’t Susan Wojcicki, Meg Whitman, or Sheryl Sandberg who spring to mind.

More often than not, its Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Jassy. It is no secret that men dominate the industry, and the only time we really hear about female CEO’s is upon their appointment.

However, female tech positions are growing 238 per cent faster than their male counterparts, and 20 per cent of all tech startups across the world are funded by women.

Do not be mistaken. This is not a new wave of female interest in the industry. In fact, the first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, a British mathematician became known for her pioneering work in technology long before any man in the 19th Century.

Also Read: Being the apex of the APAC is no menial feat for an outsider, says BigCommerce Director of Asia

During WW2, tech jobs were filled by women. Computers were expensive, but using women to advertise them inferred that jobs involving computers were easy and can be done with a cheap labour force.

But what does the women labour force in the tech industry look like today? And how does the gender pay gap measure up to that of the past? What external influences should be considered when determining the best location that meets the needs of women in tech? Which of these locations best closes the gap between men and women in the industry?

To begin with, there are a clear set of tech positions that are currently dominated by women. Project managers, business analysts, QA testers and technical recruiters within the industry are predominantly filled occupations by women.

These workforce and working environment considerations can all be addressed by carefully measuring and manipulating the variables in the 2018 Women in Tech Index. This index measures over 20 workforce and industry variables across over 40 different countries.

For example, in the United States, the tech workforce is made up of 6049.11 employees. The percentage of which are women sits at 24 per cent. This is relatively high compared to the percentage of women in the tech workforce of Turkey, Croatia and Spain, which are 9.9 per cent, 13.19 per cent and 15.39 per cent respectively.

The average pay for women in tech in the U.S. is US$86.608, making the gender pay gap in the industry a surprisingly high 11.86 per cent. If the world hegemonic power that claims to be leading in civil rights and equality are still facing challenges in the pay gap between the genders, what can we expect from the rest of the world, in particular, the LDC’s of the developing world.

Bulgaria is the poorest member state in the EU, and yet is an oddity in this discussion as it has the highest percentage of women in ICT positions in the entire bloc, at 30.28 per cent.

One possible explanation is the country’s communist history. There were fewer separations between men and women, both had to work and this notion has spilt over into today’s workforce.

Unfortunately, the gender pay gap in the tech industry is amongst the mid-higher percentages at 19.20 per cent. The impressive statistics when it comes to the relative percentage of women in the sector, are neutralised when it comes to light that there are three men for every woman in the industry.

Still, as Europe’s growing and leading tech hub, the “bro-culture” in Bulgaria is not that common.

Further hope for tech in Eastern Europe could be found in emerging technological areas like Augmented Reality and Remote AR, and the progressive organisations, like Watty and MedicHome that such developments support.

The difference in the tech environment for women between the UK and Ireland are astonishing. By crossing the 60 minute Irish Sea, women can find themselves in a far more accommodating environment. The average pay for women in tech in the United Kingdom is US$49,201, women in Ireland are earning on average US$60,558 in the tech industry.

If salary is any indication of the value placed on the workforce, the industry in Ireland appears to be more ‘pro’ woman in tech. At first glance. Further considerations into the gender pay gap, provides grounds to infer that perhaps there is still room to improve.

The gender pay gap in the UK is 16.80 per cent. In Ireland, 17.30 per cent.

If it is true that salary indicates some level of value, this might suggest that men still dominate the preferences of tech companies, as they are still paid relentlessly higher salaries. This is not exclusive to the UK and Ireland.

In fact, every country measured in the index has, to some degree, a pay gap that favours the bank accounts of men.

The lowest account being 8.42 per cent in Turkey, which has only 0.80 per cent of their entire working population currently employed in tech.

The significance of the percentage of women in tech, per country, can be resultant of accessibility and inclusivity of the industry. Yet, many of the countries with a higher number of women in their workforce, have a generally higher gender pay gap.

These figures show that whilst more women are breaking into the industry, the pay gap persists. Relative to other industries, the gap is slim.

For example, the financial sector can carry a gender pay gap of up to 70 per cent. Despite these relative industry differences, the ageing tech industry is seeing more women entering into it, with fewer advancements.

Also Read: 3 promising fintech verticals in Southeast Asia

Eastern European countries appear to have the highest number of female employees in the industry. The gender pay gap in these countries may emerge from their former Soviet Bloc status. A time where the rejection of feminism was tied to an idealised national past, where the roles of women were as wives and mothers.

Today, the rights of women in Eastern Europe are picking up momentum. This combined with its leading number of women in tech, may well lead to it overtaking the West.

The history of women in technology has been curious. Whilst it is great to see an increase in the number of women entering into tech, their efforts are proving to be less fruitful than their male counterparts.

As technology evolves at impressive speeds, it’s rather saddening to see its values seemingly stuck in the past.

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e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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For people who are in the very early stages of their startup journey, a pre-accelerator can be great

Unlike accelerator programmes that jump straight into accelerating a startup with a confirmed business idea, pre-accelerator programmes are like a marketing strategy phase.

Dedicated to early-stage founders, pre-accelerators help to give an indication of where your idea stands in the market and how well it will appeal to your potential customers. In a sentence, it is a high-growth results-driven startup programme designed for early-stage founders.

As Robin Wauters from tech.eu said about pre-accelerators,

“Pre-accelerator programmes essentially cater to people with ideas (or not even that yet) who are gearing up to join a ‘proper’ startup accelerator such as Y Combinator or Techstars, or for an early product launch – but aren’t quite ready yet.”

Applying to a pre-accelerator requires work; though catered to early-stage startups there is still expectations to meet for companies hoping to get into the programme. The fact is that pre-accelerator programmes typically have low acceptance rates.

This year, we kick-started The Start, our inaugural pre-accelerator programme powered by StartupX, and selected 10 teams to be part of the programme. The selection process required our team at StartupX to be objective, smart and rational about the decisions we made.

Here are some tips early-stage founders can follow to get a spot in our next pre-accelerator programme.

Be transparent about your startup

It can be enticing to exaggerate about the achievements made by your startup to put you at a better position when applying for such programmes.

However, all companies appreciate honesty, especially from the startups that they are going to partner with. We want to be able to understand you completely, including your past mistakes and current struggles. Being transparent about your company will allow us to provide you with the relevant resources needed to achieve the most efficient results during the pre-accelerator journey.

In essence, we only want what is best for you. So, be honest and transparent, and we will try to help you with the best of our abilities.

Do your prior research on the people you are trying to impress

Take some time to learn about the programme you are applying for, the company running the programme, and the team behind it! Ensure that the programme is the right fit for your company and that their values are aligned with yours.

It is important to have trust and confidence in the programme that you are participating in, because it encourages you to give your hundred percent throughout the course of it.

Also Read: Yummy Corp acquires Berrykitchen, aims to become the largest online catering service

Besides, companies are usually impressed when applicants are able to point out how the programme is able to help them grow and achieve specific goals that they have set for themselves.

Highlight your experiences and achievements

Unlike normal accelerators, pre-accelerators do not place a focus on traction or numbers. We understand that at such an early stage, ideas are still being built and founders are still searching for funding.

Therefore, being able to showcase your other achievements can increase your chances of being noticed by the pre-accelerator.

Come with a good attitude

Apart from funding, the highlight of a pre-accelerator programme is the mentoring sessions specially planned out for participants.

A good pre-accelerator programme usually brings together the best mentors in the industry to help its startups in specific areas they require help with; they are dedicated to supporting and coaching participants in the programme.

These mentors are more than willing to spend their time and effort on participants, however, they like to see their efforts being reciprocated.

Therefore, pre-accelerators have to consider the attitude of the founders applying for the programme as one of the criteria of a successful application. It is important to select founders who properly deserve a spot in the programme, especially since there is a limit to the number of teams a pre-accelerator programme is able to support per cohort.

Have a solid team

At StartupX, we value companies with a strong and solid team of co-founders and employees.

At such an early stage for companies, we put a strong emphasis on the quality of teams because we believe that the team plays a crucial role in driving the success of a startup. Your team will always be your most valuable asset in a startup, hence we take into account the makeup of your team and the chemistry between all co-founders and employees.

Fortunately for early-stage founders, pre-accelerator programmes do not look at how good your traction is. In fact, pre-accelerator programmes are there to help you get your first paying customers; to validate your idea.

Also Read: 3 promising fintech verticals in Southeast Asia

If you think The Start Pre-Accelerator could be just the programme for you, start your journey with us. We’ll be sure to notify you when applications are open for our next cohort of early-stage founders in Singapore. We want to watch you grow and begin an exciting entrepreneurial journey!

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Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

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The Berrykitchen team will be placed on Yummy Corp to manage retail customers

Yummy Corp has officially acquired Indonesian online catering service pioneer Berrykitchen for an undisclosed sum. The whole Berrykitchen team will be joining Yummybox, one of Yummy Corp’s business units. Their apps have also been merged, and is now available for both Android and iOS devices.

“The Berrykitchen team is operating the Yummybox division under Yummy Corp. In terms of services, there are many things that are improved in ours, because we want customers to have a more seamless experience in ordering Yummybox,” Yummy Corp CEO Mario Sentanu said on Wednesday, May 29.

According to him, the decision to acquire Berrykitchen was based on a discussion between the two parties, which revealed a similarity on their vision. Berrykitchen also happened to have the same target market as Yummybox: Office employees with greater awareness of the health and taste aspects of the food they ate.

Through the acquisition, Sentanu expected Yummy Corp to become a forefront player in the field of online catering, as the company is now able to reach out to all segments.

According to the information that DailySocial has received, Berrykitchen founder Cynthia Tenggara has exited the company.

“This acquisition is the early step we took to strengthen our positioning the market while presenting a new experience of ordering the best quality food for office workers,” he said.

Also Read: What’s brewing at Berrykitchen’s new kitchen?

In total, Yummy Corp operates four business units: Food Service Management, which manages employees’ catering on daily basis; White Label Outlets which can be adjusted to client restaurants or cafes’ needs; Yummybox for practical daily luncboxes or meetings; and Yummy Kitchen, where Yummy Corp builds its own brands of fast food or work with other parties to sell them through digital channels.

The company operates two central kitchen in Tangerang and Central Jakarta to accommodate all orders. The Central Jakarta kitchen focussed more on finishing works and starting point for food delivery.

The kitchen is able to work on 12,000 to 15,000 portions of meal each day. Yummy Corp claimed that it is currently processing 4,000 to 5,000 portions each day, with services that reach Jakarta and Tangerang.

Sentanu said that Yummy Corp has more than 50 corporate partners with various needs, from catering service for events, employees, or clients. Some of these partners include Unilever and Wings.

New features on Yummybox

Since its merge with Berrykitchen, the company has performed several feature updates in their app, in order to attract more customers. Take example of Food Playlist, which aims to help customers make their daily meal choices. In just one click, the feature will prepare lunch menu for five or 10 working days.

The Food Playlist can also be adjusted according to user’s needs. There are options of budget menu, premium, healthy, international, and special themed meals such as Ramadan or Jakarta Anniversary. The prices ranged from IDR25,000 to IDR50,000 per portion.

Also Read: Indonesia’s culinary startup BerryKitchen raises US$1.25M in Series A

Other features include Skip, which was developed for customers with high mobility. If the customers had to have a meeting outside of the office, all they have to do is activate this feature before 10AM on delivery day. Yummybox then will not deliver the food to prevent it being wasted.

The Cancel feature is also available with the exact same requirement as Skip. Customers’ money will be fully refunded by Yummybox.

“Yummybox pays great attention to customer experience in every part of customer journey, from booking, cooking, to delivery. We even have our own R&D team to ensure that we provide a different menu each day,” said Yummybox Marketing Director Raetedy Refanatha.

Yummybox has been around since 2017. Yummy Corp itself is a startegic partner of Ismaya Group, an F&B lifestyle giant with more than 15 years of experience in Indonesian culinary scene.

Berrykitchen itself has been around since 2012. It has served hundreds of thousands of customers; mostly consisted of professionals in Greater Jakarta Area. The company has raised a Series A funding round from Sovereign’s Capital in 2015.

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The article Yummy Corp Resmi Akuisisi Berrykitchen, Berambisi Jadi Layanan Katering Online Terbesar was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Marsya Nabila for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

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Depending on where you are in the world, the term ‘fintech’ can conjure up lots of different mental images

This story originally appeared on MDI Ventures’ blog, Island Cap.

While tech companies in Silicon Valley are focusing on sophisticated technology like AI-powered robo-traders for the stock market or mobile apps to make wealth management easier, startups in Southeast Asia are focused on something far more fundamental.

Fintech in Southeast Asia may one day soon mirror that of the West. But before that can even start to happen, local tech founders and funders need to get the region’s gargantuan unbanked population off the bench and into the game. The name of that game is basic financial inclusion. Let’s take a look from 30,000 feet.

Back in 2016, global auditing giant KPMG claimed that only 27 per cent of people in Southeast Asia had a bank account. This meant there was an absolutely mammoth gap when it came to financial inclusion, with about 438 million unbanked humans in the region. When the data came out, in places like Cambodia the number was crazy low (around five per cent).

In 2019, observable progress has been made. Some experts claim that the region’s banked population now sits at 47 per cent  — likely as a result of new tech and innovations coupled with government support. But still, that means we’re not even halfway there yet.

In all of Asia Pacific, Indonesia is seen by many as the most valuable untapped market for digital finance. In terms of population, the archipelago represents around 40 per cent of Southeast Asia. In 2019, 66 per cent of the country’s more than 260 million population remains unbanked.

Different investors have different theories about what fintech verticals to focus on. There are three that my firm is taking deadly serious.

Remittances

The word ‘remittance’ is often used to say sending money overseas to a friend or loved one. In the past, there was no fast or inexpensive way to do this, but today, there are multiple digital platforms cropping up that put wire transfers to shame.

The Asia Pacific digital remittance market size was valued at US$31.2 billion in 2016, and is projected to clock in at nearly US$216 billion by 2025, growing at a compound annual rate of 24.2 per cent over the next six years.

Also Read: E-scooter startup Beam sets up operations in Malaysia

As a time capsule frame of reference, we like to look at the Indian market, which today is already pulling in more than US$80 billion in annual remittances. The same thing will soon happen here in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia as ground zero.

The archipelago is already beginning to show signs of a sprouting market. That’s why we invested in a Singapore-based fintech company called InstaReM  — a cutting-edge remittance-focused firm that aims to make Indonesia its focal point.

This is something that really resonated with us because Indonesia has a massive base of migrant workers living abroad who routinely send money back home. A recent World Bank study found that more than nine million Indonesians work abroad, which is roughly seven per cent of the country’s total labour force.

Overseas Indonesians are currently on track to be sending more than US$9 billion back to the archipelago annually. These workers are among the country’s top foreign exchange earners and their contributions account for roughly one per cent of the nation’s GDP.

In the past, Southeast Asia’s unbanked population would have needed to find some way to collect remittances in cash. The amount that a bank would charge the friend or loved one to send payments via overseas wire transfers also  —  paradoxically  — acted as a weird little perverse incentive to remain unbanked (e.g. “Bank fees are too much. Why bother? Just send cash…”).

Now, with companies like InstaReM, people in Indonesia can get their remittances instantly via mobile phone. There are no hidden charges and users get mid-market rates with no margins added. Money can be pulled out directly from one’s local bank account.

Suddenly, the unbanked have a decent incentive to open a checking account.

Digital credit

In developed markets like the US, we can start to see a paradigm shift from plastic credit cards to mobile digital ones. But in emerging Southeast Asian markets like Indonesia, it looks like bank-issued physical credit cards will just never be a thing.

A laughable three per cent of the population uses them despite a bona fide e-commerce boom. Instead, the market is more likely just going to leapfrog straight into mobile digital payments, inclusive of credit or ‘pay later’ options.

After seeking to understand how Indonesian e-shoppers have behaved over the past decade, we invested in a company called FinAccel, with its flagship service Kredivo  — a digital offering which the media succinctly referred to as “essentially the combination of a digital credit card and PayPal.”

In short, Kredivo turns the user’s phone number into a digital credit card and provides a dedicated checkout area on local e-commerce sites (think Tokopedia, Lazada, and Traveloka). Kredivo offers the buyer a 30-day payback option, but also longer-term options of three, six, and 12-month payback windows. The 30-day option doesn’t incur any interest, but other plans do.

The bottom line, when it comes to the prospect of purchasing stuff online and paying for it later, is that cash-on-delivery is no longer applicable. This means consumers in Indonesia would need to open a bank account if they want to have this great credit payment option available to them.

To date, FinAccel is our largest portfolio company, having raised a US$30 million series B funding round toward the end of 2018.

Branchless banking

While easy remittances and digital credit may be excellent carrots to get people to join the formal financial sector in Southeast Asian emerging markets, in the end, we are not leaving this up to chance. We understand that convenience is the single most important ingredient for getting consumers into the banking system.

The problem in places like Indonesia is that it’s not at all convenient.

Also Read: Being the apex of the APAC is no menial feat for an outsider, says BigCommerce Director of Asia

The nation is a sprawling archipelago with more than 17,000 islands. The majority of its population lives in rural areas, where bank branches are scarce. The ones that do exist are filled to the brim day-in and day-out. Basic infrastructure and geography obstacles also make long-distance travel to the nearest bank a legitimately painful undertaking for those who have traditionally lived on cash.

This is why MDI Ventures invested in Payfazz, the first Indonesian startup to be accepted into Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator program. The platform coordinates with banks to build out a distributed network of bank agents that can operate anywhere, independent of a brick-and-mortar branch.

A Payfazz agent gets a balance from a bank and then acts as the middleman between a potential customer and said bank. The endgame is to have a distributed network of banking touch-points dispersed throughout rural and under-served communities in Indonesia.

Want to open a bank account in rural Madura? No problem. Just go visit your neighbour.

As you can see, in the end, it all comes down to banking the unbanked. In order to do it, we need to provide real incentives for consumers, while also making it painless to open an account. We routinely help smart global backers get in on Southeast Asia’s budding fintech game.

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Island Cap is MDI Venture’s blog, and a place for one-of-a-kind insights, analysis, theories, and key perspectives on Indonesia’s venture capital game as we know it.

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Incubated in the US-based blockchain incubator ‘Science’, SpringRole has raised money from from Bloomberg Beta and angels like Gil Penchina and Mike Jones

For Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, users are their key assets. Without users, no social networks can thrive in the market. It is actually users like you and I, who drive business to these sites.

But despite our valuable contributions, do we get adequate monetary benefits from these firms?

The answer is an emphatic ‘no’.

It is true that social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn provide us with a free platform to interact and share content with others, but it is still a bit unfair for them to not reward us — people who spend considerable time curating profile and adding valuable content. It is our data on which these businesses are built. More importantly, it is logical for networks like LinkedIn, which deal with the professional profiles of enterprises and individuals, to incentivise users as it increases the value of the business and ultimately the platform.

But rewarding the end user is highly unlikely to be in agenda of these behemoths in the near future.

The advent of blockchain, however, is changing things for the better. And one startup from India is already experimenting with the ‘user reward’ concept, but with a great spin.

Also Read: TradeFinex aims to minimise global infra investment deficit using its blockchain-powered P2P financing platform

“We are building SpringRole from the ground up, keeping all stakeholders in mind,” Founder and CEO, Kartik Mandaville, told e27. “Our users are fairly incentivised with crypto tokens for attesting and endorsing other users, ultimately providing a highly useful and validated resource for recruiters and prospective employers, partners and others. In fact, users are the central focus of our efforts.”

Weeding out fake profiles and credentials

SpringRole was started in 2014 by Mandaville, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in the US and an expert in machine learning and blockchain. A serial entrepreneur, he has earlier developed AutoBudder, a software that automatically wishes friends on their birthdays. In the past, he has also served as CTO of LetMeKnow.com, an online portal delivering internships, scholarships, conferences etc to college students in India. He is also a Kairos Global Fellow (2012).

Bangalore- and US-based SpringRole is a recruiting startup, which essentially provides verified resumes/profiles using the blockchain technology and a system of incentives.

“Resumes are usually the first point of contact that potential future employees have with candidates. They contain the key facets that we would like to showcase about our professional profiles,” Mandaville said. “However, these days it has become common to have falsified or incorrect information on resumes. The onus is on the employer to comb through resumes and use background verification and reference checks to make sure everything is valid.”

As per a study, Mandaville shared, about 53 per cent of resumes posted on various social networks contain some forms of factual inaccuracy. Thus, validation is important in hiring a new candidate. If the documents or claims are not genuine, they can become a major concern for employers and can eventually lead to rejection of the candidate. Plus, the existing attestation system is fraught with a lot of problems.

“There are many flaws in the current attestation system. They are time-consuming and expensive. There are very few practical methods for assessing the quality or the reliability of such claims apart from manual verification and engagement of third-party services. The current system is also inadequate while dealing with forged or inaccurate credentials. This can involve a lot of middlemen and is susceptible to fraud,” Mandaville said.

This is where blockchain comes into play. This centralised technology enables recruitment platform to develop an integrable and scalable solution, where everyone can have an immutable and synchronised digital ledger. “We feel this is the right time to build a protocol that allows people to have verified resumes and recommendations powered by blockchain. With this tech, it is now possible to cryptographically verify the information as and when you needed,” he added.

In his opinion, effective reference checking can prevent companies from making bad hires and weed out candidates who make false claims. Most reference checks involve checking attestations first made long ago, and these checks are repeated by many subsequent reviewers. “On SpringRole, people can view, get and share attestations on their professional profile, thereby creating a verified resume that they can share and use.”

Essentially, a user’s professional profile contains three parts: 1) educational qualifications, 2) work experience, and 3) skillsets. Each of these three will have their own flows to get attested. Once they are verified, SpringRole writes them to the blockchain. Claims related to educational and employment history will be verified by the respective organisations and can often be resolved with ‘True’ or ‘False’ attestation.

“Having said that, verifying the claim of being well-versed in a particular skillset is often harder. Other platforms have increasingly been incorporating tests and challenges to provide proficiency. While this does make it more objective, these exams can be gamed and must be maintained and standardised by a central authority. They also suffer from narrow scope — they are only able to capture the facets of skillsets that are objective in nature. Moreover, skillsets are not an exact science and there are varying degrees of proficiency in particular skillsets,” Mandaville elaborated.

Also Read: 3 startups are using blockchain tech to improve the lives of millions

“We tackle this problem by crowdsourcing a user’s reputation on a particular skill. People in the user’s network endorse his/her proficiency in a skill independently or at the user’s request. The number of people endorsing it and their individual scores in the particular skill that they are endorsing lets us compute a score for each user per skill and is a way to assess the skill level of a person,” he added.

The SpringRole will have two key facets: one, crowdcourcing the user’s reputation in a particular skill via endorsements, and two, verifying and validating your professional details via organisational attestations.

How it works

When you sign up on SpringRole, you import or add your profile to the platform. This generally includes your work experience, educational experience and your skill sets. Each of these claims once listed on the platform is verified by the concerned people or organizations.

For work experience and educational qualifications, the universities and companies concerned verify details and attest the claim with the protocol on the blockchain. This is a one-time verification and can be used whenever needed.

On SpringRole, your skill reputation is crowdsourced and depends on the people who endorse you on your skillsets. Skill endorsements are weighted according to the skill level of the person endorsing you and endorsements need to be accepted by the sender and the receiver before it counts.

Whenever people in your network earn rewards on SpringRole, you also gain a percentage of it along with the other users and organisations who have attested for that person.

SpringRole Tokens (SRT)

The startup incentivises attesters (it can be a person, companies, universities, course provider or examination provider) with SpringRole Tokens for referring somebody/company, or based on the weight of endorsements. Each action in linked to SRT and can be used for various transactions on the platform. The tokens will be deposited in the attesters’ blockchain wallet.

Incubated and seed-funded by US-based blockchain incubator ‘Science‘, SpringRole has also raised money from investors, including Bloomberg Beta and high-profile angels like Gil Penchina and Mike Jones.

But isn’t easy for sites like LinkedIn, which have billions of dollars in cash, to easily integrate blockchain into its platform and cannibalise your business?

“Of course, LinkedIn can do it, but they will not. Their revenues come mainly from recruiting and that’s their bread and butter, so it isn’t logical for them to focus on blockchain-based verifications. More importantly, of late LinkedIn has been focussing on newsfeed rather than user profiles. So they don’t seem to be adopting blockchain in the near future. If they do it, then it is very good for the world, and we can think of ways to work to with them,” Mandaville concluded.

According to Nitin Sharma, Advisor to SpringRole and a few other blockchain ventures, and ex-founding Principal at Lightbox Ventures, recruitment and verification are giant, broken markets that can naturally benefit from key facets of blockchain — reliability and immutability of the data, decentralisation and new ways of incentivising participants.

“Both credentials and attestations can mean so much more when cryptographically verified and backed by clever, weightage algorithms. That’s why Springrole is pursuing a very interesting problem,” Sharma said.

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He earlier founded Kashmi, a P2P payments and digital banking platform with operations in Sri Lanka and Singapore

Alibaba-owned South Asian e-commerce company Daraz has announced the appointment of Rakhil Fernando as Managing Director for Sri Lanka, effective 1 June 2019.

In his role, Fernando will oversee the business strategy and operations of the Daraz in the island country.

“The team has accomplished a lot since Daraz launched in this market, with much of its growth in no small part due to the acquisition by Alibaba last year; within the last 12 months, Daraz has accelerated to the number one position in domestic e-commerce in Sri Lanka. My hope is to maintain this great trajectory, making e-commerce more accessible to all Sri Lankans,” said Fernando.

Also Read: Rocket’s Daraz a hit not just in Pakistan, but in Bangladesh and Myanmar too

A veteran of the startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia, Fernando was previously Director of Innovation for MetLife;s innovation in Asia, called LumenLab. Before that, he spent many years in the Singapore startup ecosystem, where his last role was founder and CEO of Kashmi, a peer to peer payments and digital first banking platform. Through his career, Fernando has also worked at Credit Suisse, Coutts & Co Bank, Batey Advertising in various roles.

Daraz is a leading online marketplace with operations in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and provides 10 million products in more than 100-plus categories. The company has built its own logistics company specifically designed for e-commerce operations, called Daraz Express.

In 2018, Daraz was acquired by Alibaba Group from Rocket Internet. As part of the Alibaba ecosystem, Daraz is leveraging Alibaba’s global leadership and experience in technology, online commerce, mobile payments, and logistics to drive growth in its markets.

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