Here’s why these 5 Thai startups will make a strong impact in the local industry and beyond

Entrepreneurs in Thailand’s startup ecosystem have much to cheer for as the industry is on a strong growth trajectory. Through the work of various government-backed initiatives and agencies such as the National Innovation Agency (NIA) and True Digital Park, tech innovation and investment has become the cornerstone of the Thai government’s efforts to transform the country into a digital economy.

Such favourable conditions have led to healthy investor interest in the country’s burgeoning startups. Indeed, in the past years, we have seen the likes of Chinese giants, such as JD.com and Alibaba, pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy to bolster the tech industry. According to a report by Techsauce, the number of deals grew from 13 in 2013 to 35 in 2018 (though the deal value (although the deal value saw a drop from two years before).

Yes, while there are still chinks to be ironed out, such as introducing more business-friendly regulations, the fact remains that stakeholders in Thailand’s ecosystem can be optimistic about its future.

To illustrate, here are five growth-stage startups (Series B and above) that have become shining examples of what the Thai ecosystem can produce, with the right backing (and the right teams, of course).

Eatigo

The restaurant booking app Eatigo became a hot item on the startup press when it was revealed that it raised a Series B funding from global travel information giant TripAdvisor through its global restaurant reservation brand, TheFork. What was significant about this news was that it was TripAdvisor’s first investment in a Southeast Asia-based startup.

TripAdvisor remained confident in Eatigo’s business model and operational abilities, putting additional capital into the company two years later in a pre-Series C round, giving the company a total of US$25.5 million in funding raised.

The strategic investment allowed Eatigo to expand aggressively into various markets in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and India.

Also Read: Thai government to endorse e-sports a new industry focus

Today, Eatigo, now six years in business, is a household name not only among entrepreneurs but also consumers, who use them to grab cheap meal deals during off-peak hours. The model is a win-win for both diners and restaurants as it helps the former maximise their capacity and the latter to eat at discounted prices.

The company was last reported to have over four million users, and partners with over 4,000 eateries including luxury hotels and restaurants.

Wongnai

Like Eatigo, Wongnai operates in the restaurant service vertical, although, instead of providing restaurant booking services, its primary offering is restaurant reviews — similar to Yelp.

The company operates only in Thailand, allowing its users to peruse information and photos of restaurants in the country.

Wongnai clinched a Series B from InVent, the VC arm of InTouch Holdings, in 2016. And in 2018, the company made its own investment, putting US$1 million in restaurant POS startup FoodStory.

This move enabled Wongnai to build its own restaurant management system, which allows owners to streamline the process of managing delivery orders or menu updates on a single digital platform. The system also allows diners to pay for their orders using QR codes.

Today, Wongnai claims to have over eight million users and 250,000 restaurants across nine cities in its inventory.

Eko

Founded by Korawad Chearavanont, the heir to one of Thailand’s wealthiest business empire, Eko is designed as an all-in-one communication and task management platform that is built for the smartphone, which Chearavanont says goes beyond its rivals such as Slack and Facebook’s Workplace.

Some of the Eko app features include hierarchical approval system, digital signature, and even auditing facilities. It can be deployed in several industries ranging from hospitality, retail, corporation, construction, to healthcare.

The founder, who is now 25 years old, secured US$5.7 million in funding in 2015, and, three years later, clinched a US$20 million Series B funding round led by Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV), with participation from other investors such as RedBeat Ventures (an investment unit of AirAsia), East Ventures, and Gobi Partners.

Chearavanont has set his sights beyond Thailand and plans to expand the business to regions like the US and Europe.

Pomelo

Fashion marketplace Pomelo has a lot of competition in Southeast Asia, but it has not stopped the company from raising US$19 million in a Series B round led by JD.com and Provident Capital Partners, together with Lombard Investments, in 2017.

The company has raised a total of US$31.5 million to date. Its success can perhaps be partly attributed to Co-founder David Jou’s extensive experience launching Lazada in Thailand and the company’s focus on fast, trendy fashion at affordable prices.

While primarily an online store, Pomelo has also started into the offline space. Just two weeks ago, it launched its offline store, in the heart of Singapore’s shopping district — demonstrating, also, the company’s strong regional presence.

Pomelo is also mulling developing new technology that will help eliminate traditional check-out lines.

Check out e27‘s in-photos feature on the store in this link.

Omise

E-payments company Omise was but one of the companies that managed to catch the ICO wave was still riding high, clinching US$25 million in the process. Like Pomelo, it also has to face a slew of international competitors, such as Stripe, for example.

But that has not dulled prospects for Omise. Just after the ICO, the company raised an undisclosed investment led by the corporate venture arm Krungsri Finnovate, a subsidiary of the Krungsri bank.

Also Read: Thailand’s KBank introduces KATALYST project to support startup funding

The funding enabled Omise to build out its vision of an Ethereum-based p2p open payments and value exchange (OmiseGO network) and its blockchain e-wallet.

In 2018, OmiseGO raised an undisclosed amount in funding, led by Japanese VC firm Global Brain. Together, they are working on foundational projects including the Ethereum Community Fund (ECF) and blockchain focused co-working space, Neutrino.

Earlier this year, Omise lit the headlines when a report claimed it was acquired by CP Group, one of Thailand’s largest and oldest conglomerate; Omise later refuted the report in an official statement.

While it remains to be seen whether Omise’s blockchain and crypto initiatives will see widescale adoption, it is no doubt that the company is not afraid of pushing ahead with cutting edge innovation.

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magicpin gives rewards and cashback to consumers, who can use these points to get discounts on their next purchase

Our obsession with selfies has prompted many leading smartphone brands to improve the front camera, which they claim will help us capture our very best looks. But what else can we do with our selfies? We may post it to our Facebook or Instagram accounts, make it our profile picture, and get some ‘likes’ and ‘comments’. Can our selfie do something more constructive to improve our lives, or earn some rewards/cash-backs at the very least?

Here is a social discovery startup that may help us earn our next meal just by clicking our selfie and posting it to the app. magicpin, as the name goes, is the new “selfie expert” in town.

“The way the access economy is shaping up in India is that consumers value experiences more than ownership. They are increasingly spending time and energy on living rather than having,” said magicpin Co-founder and CEO Anshoo Sharma. 

Also Read: Create a video selfie to hit songs & share it online using #VelFie

“This is the exactly the concept we are working on. magicpin is basically a social network for local experiences that acts as extended senses for consumers to experience the best out of a locale. It is also new-age guide that lets consumers find the best places around an area for food, fashion and beauty,” Sharma adds.

The startup was launched in 2015 by venture capital experts Sharma and Brij Bhushan. 

Sharma has over 13 years of professional experience in investing, consulting, and tech roles across India and the US. Before magicpin, he worked at VC firm Lightspeed India. He is a graduate from IIM Ahmedabad.

Bhushan has spent  a large part of his professional life closely involved in the startup ecosystem with Nexus Venture Partners as an investor. An IIM Bangalore alumnus, he has earlier worked at Bain & Co. in India. 

How magicpin works

magicpin calls itself the foursquare of India for its similarity to the US-based local discovery app’s business model. In fact, magicpin has added the selfie element to the business model to make it more appealing to selfie-obsessed Indian consumers.

Pin a location on the map, and magicpin will show you the best local experiences that people in the neighbourhood are having — from the hippest cafés to the yummiest dimsums, the trendiest fashion boutique, or luxurious spas.

“Our user community, known as magicians, is up and about in their city’s neighbourhoods sharing their experiences across food, beauty and fashion categories in picture stories that inspire other users to have the same experiences,” Sharma said. “As soon as the customer leaves the shop, he/she gets an instant message to come back to the place, creating more awareness about the upcoming offers and discounts at the merchant. For their each spending, they get rewarded in ‘magicpin points’ that can be used to buy more services and experiences at our partner merchants,” Sharma elaborates.

For the consumer, magicpin is a destination to share visual stories of their local experiences, find out the buzz in their vicinity, and discover interesting, like-minded people to connect with and events and merchants to go to. Whereas, for partner brands and merchants, magicpin is a place to engage, drive discovery, reward loyal customers, and share updates about new events or services. On the app, a partner’s customers create content that goes on to social media to more relevant users, increasing new and repeat business to the partner.

Gurgaon-headquartered magicpin is operational across Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai and is planning to expand to other cities as well.

How the idea took birth

Over the past decade, China has taken a giant leap in technological and infrastructural development. The Asian giant’s tremendous growth has inspired many an entrepreneur. Sharma also struck magicpin’s idea during one of his visits to China.

“During my visit, we happened to see a novel business model, wherein if anyone is drunk at a restaurant or street market, the management or the association will make sure the person gets a cab and it drops him/her safely at his/her destination. In the process, the person gets some cash-backs/rewards, prompting him to come back. Keeping that in mind, we though of combining both online and offline retail services through an app, where people can get the best discounts by posting their selfies,” Sharma elaborated.

According to Sharma, magicpin is at the centre of both user and merchant. In most cases, the merchant doesn’t have access to customers. Once the customer leaves his shop there is very little chance for him/her to come back. “Our aim is to fill this gap. We give better access to the merchants using magicpin. We created this hyper market app where we make sure merchants and customers do come together,” he said.

Unlike many other startups that use digital media and other modes of marketing platform to reach out to the masses, magicpin relies purely on its referral network. The moment a customer tries the app, it will show his/her who are on the app. He will also find the call-to-action as soon as a friend comes on board.

The company charges the merchants a commission on each sale based on the size of the business.

Sharma claims magicpin’s revenues are growing fast and is currently driving INR 30 crore (US$5 million) business monthly. The tremendous growth has landed the startup a couple of funding rounds. The latest investment of US$7 million came in May this from Lightspeed India Partners, Waterbridge Ventures and two unnamed global family offices. Bain & Co Indian Chairman Srivatsan Rajan and Delhivery CEO Sahil Barua also contributed to the round.

As of now, imagicpin is employing 190-odd people.

The startup was part of Google Launchpad program 2015.

In India, offline retail is estimated to be a US$1 trillion market by 2020. This is 100x the size of e-commerce and constitutes many large brands and millions of merchants across categories like restaurants, fashion, spa, beauty, yoga, sports, gym, and more. With the penetration of smartphones, the way we discover and transact these local experiences is changing, and magicpin aims to be a catalyst of this change.

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Featured image credit: ryanking999 / 123RF Stock Photo

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Collaborating with Digitaraya, PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA) launches the fintech-focussed accelerator

PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA), one of Indonesia’s largest private banks, announced that it has partnered with Digitaraya, to launch ​SYNRGY Accelerator.

The accelerator programme is open for any startup with ideas and innovations to improve fintech industry in the country.

SYNRGY Accelerator also announced eight selected startups that will join its accelerator programme.

“SYNRGY Accelerator will be dedicated to accommodating startups needs to grow and to contribute to the tech ecosystem in Indonesia. SYNRGY Accelerator will continue accepting fintech startups with innovative ideas and shared vision,” said Vice President of BCA Armand W. Hartono.

The eight selected startups are:

• Crowde, a P2P lending platform to help funding Indonesian farmers.
• IndoGold, a buy-and-sell platform for gold that promotes gold investment.
• Amalan, a startup that focusses on supporting people who can’t pay off credit card, collateral-free debts, and home ownership debts.
• AgenKan, P2P lending apps that allows the customer to apply for loans using ID card.
• Bizhare, a platform that allows users to invest in a big business with a small share.
• Kendi, an app that supports digital financial recording for SMEs.
• Bamms, a mobile and web app for tenants to communicate with tenant relations officer, and building management
• Jari, an SaaS-based app to bill and to support an overall billing needs.

Also Read: 5 growth stage startups that are leaders in Thailand’s ecosystem

The next step of the program will be a three-month bootcamp starting on June 24, 2019, and followed by Demo Day in September.
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You might want to remember the names of these growth stage startups

The Indonesian tech industry is rife with potential –but I guess you know this already.

By 2019, the country has become home to four out of the 10 unicorn startups in the Southeast Asian region –Go-Jek, Tokopedia, Traveloka, and Bukalapak. In addition to raising billions of dollars, these startups have also become a top-of-mind brand in their respective industries.

But these four big names are not just the only ones leaving their mark in the market. Defining growth stage startups as those who had raised Series B funding rounds and beyond, e27 presents five of the most exciting growth stage startups in Indonesia.

CoHive

As the Indonesian startup ecosystem grows, so is the demand for affordable office spaces that also enables tenants to build network and collaborate. With 31 locations across four cities in Indonesia, CoHive is easily one of the biggest names in this sector.

Previously known as EV Hive, CoHive started out as a project by Southeast Asian early stage venture capital firm East Ventures. The company has recently made headline as it made the first close of its US$20 million Series B funding round at US$13.5 million. Led by Stonebridge Ventures, the funding round also included Kolon Investment, Stassets Investment, a local property developer as well as existing investors from the company’s Series A funding round such as H&CK Partners.

In addition to coworking spaces, CoHive has also launched products in the coliving and coretails sectors. It had even launched its own 18-story building CoHive 101, which included all of its offerings in one location.

Also Read: 5 growth stage startups that are leaders in Thailand’s ecosystem

WarungPintar

One of the most noticeable things about tech industry in Indonesia is that innovations tend to focus on grass root level. Like Go-Jek, who have been working with informal motorbike taxi drivers (ojek), Warung Pintar is an example of Indonesian startup who aim to digitise a cash-heavy business sector in the country.

The company works with “warungs” (mom-and-pop stores) to help embrace the digital era by implementing cashless payments and digitised supply chain. It has recently raised a US$27.5 million Series B funding round from existing investors SMDV, Vertex Ventures, Pavilion Capital, LINE Ventures, Digital Garage, Agaeti, Triputra, Jerry Ng, and EV Growth. The funding round also included Lippo Group-backed cashless payment platform OVO.

Starting out with only two kiosks in January 2018, Warung Pintar has grown into more than 1,300 kiosks.

Ruangguru

In the edutech sector, Indonesia has Ruangguru, which started out as online marketplace for private tutors. The startup has since branched out to offer other services such as Learning Management System for formal education system, integrated learning video subscription service, on-demand tutoring service, and a social learning education solution for group-based distance learning.

Ruangguru raised an undisclosed Series B funding round led by UOB Venture Management in July 2017. In addition to venture capital funding, the startup has also received grants such as one from the MIT SOLVE programme.

Ruangguru co-founders Iman Usman and Adamas Belva have been named in the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia 2017, for the consumer tech category.

Also Read: There’s still a big funding gap in Malaysia’s growth-stage startup space: RHL Ventures’s Raja Hamzah

HaloDoc

The healthtech sector is one of the most promising in the Indonesian tech industry, and one particular name stood up: HaloDoc. Offering a telemedicine service, the startup this year has raised a US$65 million Series B funding round from UOB Venture Management. In addition to existing investors, the funding round included new investors such as Singtel Innov8, Korea Investment Partners, and WuXi AppTec.

The startup has previously raised a funding round that included Indonesian ride-hailing giant Go-Jek, which allowed HaloDoc’s medicine delivery service to be included in the Go-Jek platform as Go-Med.

HappyFresh

This year was proven to be a challenging one for online grocery services in Indonesia, with Honestbee shutting down its operations in the country.

HappyFresh announced in April that they have closed US$20 million in Series C round of funding, led by South Korean VC firm Mirae Asset-Naver Growth Fund.

It had also previously announced an investment round from GrabVentures, which led to its service to be integrated into the Grab platform, as part of its ‘super app’ ambition.

For HappyFresh, their journey was not without challenges and setbacks. In 2016, the startup pulled out of two markets in Asia and also replaced its then CEO Markus Bihler with incumbent Guillem Segarra.

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Image Credit: Fikri Rasyid on Unsplash

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Sifting through our e27 archives? If you’re looking for a good read, here are a few suggestions

Throughout the history of e27, contributors have always found themselves at the heart of what e27 brings to the tech community of Asia-Pacific and beyond.

We believe in preserving a healthy marketplace of ideas where thought leaders and entrepreneurs can exchange insights regarding the tech ecosystem. Because of this, we’ve decided to curate this special section featuring some of our best contributed articles from the past few months.

Without further ado, here’s our pick for the 10 contributor articles you should check out!

1.) 5 ways Augmented Reality is redefining the gaming industry by Nitin Garg

In this write up by BR Softech CEO and co-founder, Nitin Garg, he chronicles how augmented reality is creating immersive experiences that allow users to feel that they can interact personally with their digital environment.

2.) What I learned about procrastination while scaling my startup to 4.2M users by Aytekin Tank

JotForm founder and CEO Aytekin Tank writes, “Once I reconnect with my goals and remind myself of the potential outcomes, I’m back on track. Obviously, there is no ‘right way’ to deal with procrastination” as he talks about a problem that can be detrimental to your business, yet is often left undiscussed.

3.) Hidden reasons why VCs reject your startup for investment by Christopher Quek

In this think-piece that talks about the decision-making calculus of VCs, TRIVE managing partner Christopher Quek likens acquiring funding from VCs to getting rejected on Tinder: sometimes it’s not you, it’s them.

4.) 8 productivity hacks to streamline your work-life by Bjorn Lee

Here’s an article by MindFi.co founder Bjorn Lee that discusses the different ways one can slither through the busy life of being a young professional, highlighting the demarcation between what it’s like to be ‘busy’ and what it’s like to be actually productive.

5.) How listening to our 4.1 million users inspired a new product idea by Aytekin Tank

An article contributed by JotForm CEO and founder Aytekin Tank where he delineates “the product” versus the feelings we ascribe to that product (or in simpler terms, how that product makes us feel) as he attempts to interrogate the purchasing habits of the everyday consumer.

6.) What I learned from reading 50 books in a year by Edric Subut

“I certainly will carry the momentum and leverage my expanded inner confidence from this challenge to stretch myself further. I don’t know where exactly life will take me or what my next challenge will be. But one thing is certain, I will never stop growing,” writes Google App Growth Manager for Southeast Asia, Edric Subut, as he talks about channeling inner growth gained from expanding knowledge as a means to harness outward growth.

7.) Hire slowly, grow slowly: how we grew from 1 to 100 employees by Aytekin Tank

Once again, JotForm CEO and founder Aytekin Tank dazzles us with his insights. Here, he talks about how patience is indeed a virtue when growing your employment pool, and how it took him and his growing team 12 years to bring JotForm to where it is today.

8.) Fantastic tech co-founders and where to find them by Jackie Tan Yen

Here, self-proclaimed blockchain enthusiast and current PhD candidate at NTU, Singapore, Jackie Tan Yen uses a quirky Harry Potter reference to shed light on the critical act of finding the right partner to get your company off the ground.

9.) There’s hope for markets in 2019 despite 2018’s crypto winter, here’s why by Kenny Au

To all crypto enthusiasts out there and the like, here’s an article by LUXSENS co-founder Kenny Au detailing why the market isn’t an entirely bleak space to explore in 2019 in spite of crypto’s performance in the year prior — 2018.

10.) 7 traits of successful startups by Jamie Cheng

Is there really a common thread that binds successful startups together? Find out in this adeptly written article by Digital Alpha Agency co-founder Jamie Cheng, where she discusses common traits observed among successful startup founders.

Also read: e27 is a platform for exchanging ideas, here is a quick guide to contribute an article for the community

Submissions

Want to read more? You’re in luck since e27 houses tons of articles containing meaningful insights revolving the tech ecosystem and beyond.

If you’re interested to be part of e27’s growing pool of contributors, sign up for an e27 account today and submit your articles here. All contributions will be reviewed by our editors.

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Qualgro makes its first foray into Europe with an investment in French robotic food tech company Pazzi

Singapore-based investment fund Qualgro has entered Europe via a US$11,2 million Series A funding in Pazzi, a France-based robotic food tech startup. Joining the investment round are French fund Eutopia, Partech and daphni, as well as American and Swiss entrepreneurs from the retail and food sector.

The funding will be used to accelerate the development of Pazzi’s technology by strengthening its R&D teams and industrial partnerships for the manufacture of the next robots.

Pazzi will also use part of the new capital to open the first fully autonomous pilot restaurant with robots cooking in the Paris region in September at the Val d’Europe shopping centre (owned by the Klépierre group), one of the leading shopping centres in France.

Pazzi is a new player in the emerging robotic food tech sector, following the success of Zume or Spyce, the American companies in the sector which fundraised in 2018. Pazzi is said to be the pioneer in the sector in Europe.

According to a report by Meticulous Research, food robotics market is set to hit US$3.1 billion by 2025.

Pazzi was founded by two young French inventors, Sébastien Roverso and Cyrill Hamon, both engineers who are passionate about robotics and electronics. Together, they met with Philippe Goldman, a former director L’Oréal and now CEO of Pazzi. The company’s R&D efforts resulted in five patents obtained.

Pazzi now has a 15-person team. The company has been working with chef Thierry Graffagnino, a three-time world champion of pizza-making, since 2017. Graffagnino creates the dough and recipes for pizzas and helps the engineers teach robots to replicate how pizzaiolo (pizza makers) move. The end goal is to make the pizza-making process look more authentic and unique.

Also Read: Alpha JWC Ventures welcomes NS Solutions to its second fund

Pazzi founders’ mission is to fight junk food and to “use their skills to change the way fast food chains operate by increasing speed and freshness and operates with much more efficiency”.

Combining robots, vision, and data learning, Pazzi has been able to implement high-quality sourcing and recipes thanks to Graffagnino. The ingredients are based on organic vegetables from Italy, clean label hams, French PDO cheeses, sustainable fish, and flour from Ile-de-France mills, with a combination of over five million recipes.

The platform also opens the possibility for 24/7 open catering and is able to make 100 pizzas per hour; allowing Pazzi to be an optimal turnkey restaurant solution for operators of flow areas: stations, airports, main streets, shopping centres, department stores or campuses.

“Pazzi means ‘crazy’ in Italian. It is in the image of our team and the crazy bet invested in research for 6 years, concretised in particular by five patents. Pazzi’s mission is to put technology and robotics at the service of taste and healthier food,” said Philippe Goldman, CEO de PAZZI.

“The autonomous restaurant concept offered by Pazzi is meeting a growing demand from consumers across the world for fast, qualitative, and affordable food options. Its user-friendly digital tools and exciting robotics add to the overall great consumer experience,” said Heang Chhor, founder of Qualgro VC.
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Photo by Willian West on Unsplash

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Prosa.ai focusses on Natural Language Processing and Speech in Indonesian language

Indonesia-based Prosa.ai, an AI-powered startup that provides Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Speech in the country’s local language, announced that it has received a Series A investment from GDP Venture.

Prosa.ai was built in 2018 as a result of the research conducted by its co-founders: Dr. Ayu Purwarianti and Dessi Puji Lestari, PhD, who are both locally-known experts in NLP and Speech alongside Teguh Eko Budiarto, an IT entrepreneur veteran.

Now the company has over 20 Data Scientists, 16 Data Annotators for its NLP Speech products, data, and services that are sourced from IT sectors, government, and academics.

“Indonesia has seen emerging startups with potentials in AI industry and Prosa.ai’s technology is one that we actually need to support other industries,” said Martin Hartono, CEO of GDP Venture, commenting on the strategic investment.

Also Read: Singapore’s Qualgro lands in Europe with a US$11.2M Series A in Pazzi

GDP Venture also participated in Prosa.ai’s seed funding round.

Teguh Eko Budiarto, CEO of Prosa.ai said that the company plans to use the funding to improve its products and data, especially their Prosa Hoax Intel, NLP Toolkit API, Concept-Sentiment, Chatbot NLP Processing, Text Data Sets, Voice Biometrics, Speech Datasets, Speech-to-Text, Text-to-Speech, Conversational Analytics. and Meeting Analytics for Bahasa Indonesia.

Recently, Prosa.ai collaborates with Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Informatics to launch Chatbot AntiHoaks (anti-hoax chatbot) in Telegram that can be accessed through [at]chatbotantihoaks account. The chatbot is intended to help to check on the credibility of news, articles, or links shared by the public through chatroom.

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Image Credit: Prosa.ai

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It enables kids to earn KID coins for chores, reaching new learning goals in reading/math, and buy stuff on online stores

Last summer, Kaede Takenaka was having lunch with her mom and her friends in a restaurant. They were talking about adult stuff and mentioned cryptocurrency, blockchain and different projects and how to solve problems. An enthusiastic Takenaka asked them where all these coins came from and if she can have her own coin.

“And I got my own coin,” Takenaka tells e27.  “We created a coin on the NEM blockchain. The very next year, I taught how to do it to Master’s students.”

A Grade IV student at AKIS International School in Bangkok, Takenaka is the Co-founder and CEO of KIDLetCoin, a blockchain platform for kids to learn all about blockchain and fiscal management. She believes kids taking control of their own financial education and learning about disruptive technologies early are the keys to their success.

KIDLetCoin was started by Takenaka as a hobby because she had not much time to invest as she was busy with academics. So she did things in her spare time with the help of mother.

“KIDLetCoin was started as a way to make kids learn about cryptocurrencies by doing chores and getting coins in return. In the beginning it was designed as a system wherein parents could take coins back or not release them if the kids were not doing their chores or for being naughty. But we gave up on that idea later,” continues Takenaka. “In the current form, KidLetCoin enables kids to earn KID coins for chores, or reaching new learning goals in reading/math, etc. Kids can use their KID in an online store to buy stuff.”

The startup’s ultimate goal is to create a global network of kids, who will work together on blockchain projects and educational products.

Despite her achievements at this very young age, Takenaka doesn’t consider herself a prodigy. She says she learned all about crypto and blockchain from her mom, who is working for a blockchain firm. Takenaka goes to all blockchain events along with her mom. Besides, she watches a lot of YouTube videos about this technology.

Also Read: 16-year-old Indian prodigy has developed a drone that can detect and destroy landmines

“I’m just a normal kid. I love to read and always have books around. I also love Minecraft (a sandbox video game) and finding ways to do Minecraft mods and building a Piper laptop kit. This is how I got interested in tech,” he clarifies.

KIDLetCoin also has a few people on the team, but since it was her own brain map and idea, Takenaka took on the role of the CEO. “My mom helped and so did some of her blockchain friends, but they don’t want publicity. As the head of the company, my roles are to go out and tell people about the project, invite kids to help and learn, and try to learn more coding.”

The inspiration to start the project came from the class room. “We use the International Baccalaureate system and this year we did UOI (unit of inquiry) about entrepreneurship. Everyone in class had to make a business,” he shares. “This was started as a passion project.”

Takenaka has a lot of plans with this project but she doesn’t want to talk about just yet. She has however made it clear that the company will not do an ICO, ever. “I will do my best with KIDLetCoin, and hopefully make it successful.”

In her spare time, Kaede likes to read books, watch gaming YouTube videos, write short stories, and play sports. She also dances and plays music. In future, she also wants to be a doctor.

As for funding, initially it was all her mom and her friends who funded everything and still fund things. Takenaka also has a few more private investors helping with the minimum viable product.

What are the major challenges you are facing? “Well, it can be difficult to be taken seriously as a kid. I also get tired of school. But I think its a big opportunity to help kids learn about blockchain, and I want kids to join me and learn too,” she concludes.

Takenaka spoke about blockchain and cryptocurrencies at Techsauce Global Summit, which was concluded on Thursday.

The post Meet Kaede Takenaka, the 10-year-old CEO of Thai blockchain startup KIDLetCoin appeared first on e27.

The company says it has no assets to clear its accounts with creditors and users

Ofo can’t pay its debts, but says it is confident of a comeback [KrAsia]

After abandoning its overseas operations, Ofo just refuses to die.

After a Tianjin court ruled that Ofo is unable to repay RMB 250 million (US$36 million) in debt to a bike manufacturer, revealing that the company has “no assets” to clear its accounts with creditors and users, the company told local newspaper Beijing Business Today that it respects the ruling and that it is still going all out to generate revenue and return users’ deposits.

This means that Ofo, which was once valued at north of US$2 billion, has no property or land usage rights, no investments that can be liquidated, and no vehicles. The court added that Ofo’s bank accounts were either already frozen by other courts or didn’t have a positive balance.

MDEC launches comeback career programme for more women to join cybersecurity sector [The Star]

The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) wants more women to become a part of the cybersecurity workforce, by encouraging them to apply for the new Empowering Women in Cyber Risk Management Programme.

MDEC chief executive officer Surina Shukri described the pioneer programme as an important step towards building a highly-valued workforce with critical skills.

“This programme will empower women to develop the skills needed for jobs with high-demand in the era of Industry 4.0,” she said.

Women, Family and Community Development deputy minister Hannah Yeoh at the launch said the programme is “timely”.

AI mental health startup Wysa raises Rs 15 crores in pre-Series A round of funding led by pi Ventures [press release]

Wysa, an AI conversational agent which aims to help improve mental health, announced that it has raised about US$2M in a pre-Series A round of funding led by pi Ventures, with participation from Kae Capital and other investors.

Wysa has raised an earlier round of US$1.3 million in seed funding from Kae Capital and angel investors in 2017.

The company plans to use fresh funding to further strengthen their technology and for expansion.

Founded by Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati three years ago, Wysa is an AI-based ‘emotionally intelligent’ bot, a virtual coach that combines empathetic listening with evidence-based therapeutic techniques like CBT, meditation and motivational interviewing, to make mental health accessible at scale.

Wysa has helped over 1.2 million people from 30-plus countries.

Oculo and plano partner to protect children’s eyesight [press release]

Oculo and plano have announced a new partnership designed to combat the growing global myopia epidemic.

The plano app provides a suite of child safety functions, while using science-based features to help modify behaviour in children to reduce myopia related risk factors and empower healthier device usage. plano users (families with children aged 2 to 16 years) will have access to the extensive Oculo network to make the process of finding and booking optometry appointments easy.

“plano empowers parents to work with their children to develop healthy screen habits – and this includes regular and timely comprehensive eye check-ups. As part of plano’s inbuilt eye referral system, users will get reminders when their children are due for an optometry review and can seamlessly find an optometrist in the Oculo network for care,” said plano Founder and CEO, Dr Mo Dirani.

The post Top tech news, June 20: Ofo can’t pay its debts, but says it is confident of a comeback appeared first on e27.

Here’s how to keep distractions at bay

Whenever you search online for ways to increase productivity at work, you get millions of results. That’s because it’s the core issue for leaders and managers worldwide.

It doesn’t help that a lot the writers covering the topic seem to repeat the same generic advice. So, we’ll take a different approach and view productivity from the perspective of performance and engagement. Here are the 7 ways to increase productivity at work.

You cannot multitask

According to neuroscientist and MIT professor, Earl Miller’s report named “Multitasking. Why Your Brain Can’t Do It and What You Should Do About It“, people can’t multitask very well and whoever believes they can “are deluding themselves”. His research has shown that our brain is highly capable at tricking itself into believing what it wants.

Also Read: The real reasons why startups fail: no, it’s not the idea

Also, according to Miller, people shift their focus at tremendous speed from one task to another but it doesn’t mean that they pay attention to multiple things at the same time. He also shows that similar tasks which involve using the same skill, such as communication, compete at sharing the same portion of the brain. So, for example, because of task interference and conflict between writing an email and talking on the phone, you can’t properly focus on either at the same time.

Split long-term goals into independent goals

Long-term goals often seem overwhelming and leads to fatigue and risk of quitting or being proactive. So, by breaking them down into smaller and independent goals, you can bypass that risk and feel a sense of achievement.

As underlined by Ryder Caroll who is a best-selling author and creator of the Bullet Journal, when you divide your long-term goal into Sprints rather than phases you get a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction which motivates you to keep going.

Olenski’s 2-Minute Rule

Entrepreneur Steve Olenski recommends implementing the 2-minute rule to take advantage of short open-windows of time.

So, whenever you have free time and you identify a task which you can get done in less than 2-minutes you should do it on the spot. Olenski emphasizes that it will take less time than reverting to it later. Also, thanks to this rule he’s become one of the top online content strategists.

Draft your To-Do list the night before

Your to-do list can make or break your productivity for the day, it keeps you organized and helps you focus. Whenever you’ve checked off one of the items on your list you immediately feel satisfaction for the accomplishment.

However, it’s important that you prepare your next day to do list on the night before so you don’t waste precious time at the beginning of your workday. You can also increase your productivity by simply talking through your to-do-list with someone. According to Leo Wildrich, author of What Multitasking Does to Your Brain, this technique forces you to think about each task and you’ll feel like you have done half the work already.

Turn off any distractions

Your phone can easily become your number one productivity killer. It only takes one second to shift your attention when your phone lights up notifications from social media or WhatsApp. It’s best to completely shut off your phone and any email notifications so you can maintain 100% focus on the task which you’re working on.

Nobody can resist checking an email or text notification, so by switching your phone off you eliminate the risk of being interrupted. It also helps you remain proactive on your work rather than reactive to external stimuli.

Get the right office tools

Automation is the name of the game these days and having the proper tools in your office helps you stop wasting time. Whenever small tasks can be done with office equipment, your best approach is to purchase the right tools. But, before you buy office equipment make a comparison between brands which have a good reputation. Look for increased reliability, high levels of efficiency and low maintenance costs. After-sales support is also important to ensure that your business runs smoothly.

A positive attitude does wonders for productivity

According to studies carried out at the University of Warwick, happy employees have a 12 per cent higher productivity level than those who aren’t. Also the Maastricht University studied the link between performance and optimism to discover that in call centres, optimists had a higher level of sales.

Also Read: What makes your readers click: Writing tips to improve conversions

So, negative and stressful conditions at work will only yield in low productivity. When employees work under constant pressure they’re less engaged and they lose motivation. But, if you show appreciation and gratitude for their achievements, they’ll do their best at work.
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Image Credit: William Iven on Unsplash

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