Singaporean accelerator Iterative debuts eight startups in its first cohort

Singapore-based startup accelerator Iterative has unveiled eight startups in its first cohort, according to TechInAsia. The accelerator programme provides each startup with US$150,000 in exchange for 15 per cent equity.

This year’s portfolio includes eight companies from a variety of sectors, including logistics, healthcare, clothing, food delivery and finance.

Become
Offers affordable invisible braces at the customer’s doorstep

Bungkus
Provides exclusive halal food items to merchants

Haulio
Tech platform which connects hauliers and shippers to speed up cargo process

PropSeller

A platform that connects real estate agents in Southeast Asia with property owners or sellers

Also Read: DrinkPrime tackles India’s drinking water crisis with its subscription-based IoT smart purifiers

Sendhelper

A home services app that connects Singaporeans with blue-collar and non-executive workers to aid in daily chores

Starboard

Allows businesses to import paper filings and data into a cloud-based platform

Tendopay

A financial services platform that enables Filipinos to make online shopping purchases in instalments

Outside Voice

Builds data collection layer “on top of WhatsApp in the form of video surveys.”

Oppo, T-Hub partner to bolster India’s digital startup ecosystem

China-headquartered smart device brand Oppo has partnered with India’s innovation ecosystem T-Hub to support the startup ecosystem in India, according to a press statement.

Through the partnership, selected companies will receive incubation support from OPPO along with technical mentorship and access to new markets.

Startups will be selected based on their prototypes and strategic fitment with OPPO products.

“The cutting-edge startups and their technologies will be the driver of competitive advantage and creative disruption in the telecom industry. To fuel this growth, T-Hub is collaborating with OPPO India in multiple ways to nurture and support their solutions and bolster the startup and innovation ecosystem,” said Ravi Narayan, CEO of T-Hub.

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Image Credit: Mario Gogh

 

 

 

 

 

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Turochas “T” Fuad, Managing Director at WeWork Southeast Asia & Korea, announced in a LinkedIn post on Monday night that he is leaving the company.

He cited the desire to pursue entrepreneurship again as the reason for his departure.

In details, he wrote:

“It has been an amazing ride for the past four years at Spacemob and WeWork. From WeWork’s acquisition of Spacemob, personally interviewing the first 150 employees who joined us, scaling our business from three to 34 locations across Southeast Asia to spearheading our business transformation across South Korea.

It was so important to me that we have the right culture, and tribal mindset to achieve what we set out to do. With that foundation and an amazing team, I have decided to put my attention back on my next entrepreneurial path.

Also Read: Singapore Budget 2020 and what it means for the tech ecosystem this year

It is something I’ve mulled about for a while now and I can feel my entrepreneurial spirit calling again. I will be forever grateful for the lifetime memories, amazing friends I’ve come to know and the difference we’ve made. It is now time for my next adventure.”

e27 is reaching out to WeWork to find out more details about the company’s plan after Fuad’s departure.

Throughout his career, Fuad had founded three startups and all of them had met its exits.

In August 2017, coworking space giant WeWork acquired Spacemob, the coworking space chain he founded and have it rebranded to WeWork.

In January, Fuad spoke to Channel News Asia about the company’s plan to continue on expanding in the Southeast Asian region despite the challenges that its parent company had faced in the previous year, where it saw its valuation fell from US$50 billion to US$8 billion. This had led to a roadblock for their IPO plan, followed by other controversies.

In addition to their operations in Singapore, Fuad was quoted saying that WeWork’s businesses in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila, are “definitely on the right track.”

“… We expect them to hit the same kind of trajectory as in Singapore,” he said.

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Its been two months and I have (like most of you all) have not stepped out as much as I would have liked. From restricting mobility to transforming businesses and deteriorating economies, the pandemic still rules the top of our minds.

Thanks to our amazing contributors from the Southeast Asian (SEA) ecosystem, we were able to reimagine the future and use their views and tips to better equip ourselves to fight the impact of the pandemic on our lives.

Dealing with the crisis

The one thing we cannot underestimate right now is the power of the community. While our agility and speed are essential to the way we work and has given birth to lots of great online content and new ways of interacting with our communities virtually, this blog post by Techstars’ Oko Davaasuren is about (the often slower process of) recovery — it is about re-investing in us, and our communities.

By now, most of us are settled in this new, “not-so-normal” phase, where all our worlds have merged into one space and all we have is a window of talking heads on a screen as our communication to reach the outside world and our different spheres of life. Antler’s Puja Bharwani shares the four main areas for a leader to consider as a CEO or founder during times of crisis.

Much has been said that technology companies are the true winners, but the question is: who are the winners and losers in the new world order driven by COVID-19? Ranise Teo spills the beans…

However tempting it may be to jump at short-term fixes, stopping there would be dangerous, warns innovation strategist, Philipp Kristian Diekhöner. If we are to return to normal anytime soon and prevent such in time to come, it is in our hands to be the change we ought to see, globally. Here’s how we can do that.

Also Read: AMA with e27 and Cocoon Capital

Preparing for the post-pandemic world

Advisor, entrepreneur, and investor; Paul Meyers is positive about “impact investing”. It is everywhere these days – outside of COVID-19, it has become this year’s must-have investment strategy, he adds. Unleashing the power of money for good has suddenly become the rage. Read on to capitalise on this wave.

With various innovations taking place across the globe, many are wondering who is leading the cryptocurrency revolution: East or the West? As it stands, Asian economies appear to lead the crypto race, although the West is showing that it has no plans on being left behind. The crypto asset space is a fast-moving one and only time will tell who will truly win this race, but one thing is for sure – crypto assets are here to stay, says MD of eToro, Jasper Lee.

Will VC funding dry up? What are the top verticals? Is this a good time to expand a startup? As an entrepreneur and angel investor, William Klippgen has invested in more than 24 companies, including PropertyGuru, Tickled Media, and ReferralCandy. Today, as the Managing Partner and co-founder of Cocoon Capital, he shared some words of wisdom on what to expect ahead.

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Register for our next webinar: Meet the VC: Qualgro Partners

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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Founded by ex-Google and Splunk executives, Indonesian data management startup Delman has secured US$1.6 million in a seed funding round led by Indonesia-focussed VC firm Intudo Ventures, according to a press statement.

Other backers who participated in the round include early stage tech startup investor Prasetia Dwidharma Ventures and smart cities company Qlue Performa Indonesia.

The company has said that will use the newly raised capital to establish an R&D centre in Surabaya and make fresh hires, specifically earmarking Indonesians who are currently working as data scientists in Silicon Valley.

Delman is a big data management and analytics, providing startup that leverages in-house developed solutions to simplify, validate, and automate the data management process to help businesses make more accurate business insights.

According to the co-founder of the company, Surya Halim, an average company in Indonesia sends 70 per cent of its time and around US$200,000 on cleaning enterprise data. This creates inefficiency in both cost and process.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Data management company Cohesity raises US$250M in Series E funding led by DFJ Growth, others

“The most typical data quality-related issues in Indonesia have been related to unstructured or unmatched data, either traditionally managed or handled by inexperienced teams,” Halim added.

The two-year-old startup claimed to be able to expedite data integration and management from multiple sources up to 30 times faster, using artificial intelligence and machine learning for data cleansing and warehousing.

Its backer believes that big data solutions us still a growing market in Indonesia and is yet to be taken to the next level.

Qlue founder Rama Raditya said that in the middle of the pandemic, the company actively invests in startups with great potentials such as Delman.

“As the market for big data in Indonesia continues to grow, the demand for big data solutions is shifting to local providers who better understand Indonesia’s unique circumstances,” he said.

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Image Credit: Arga Aditya

 

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LongHash Ventures, a global blockchain accelerator and venture capital fund headquartered in Singapore, has officially announced the launch of its fourth batch of startups under LongHash Hatch, an accelerator programme designed for blockchain startups.

LongHash Hatch is a 12-week programme that includes modules in strategy formulation, go-to-market execution, and subject matter guidance across technology, marketing, and fundraising.

Some of the industry leaders who will be participating in the programme include Fenbushi Capital, HashKey Capital, Kenetic Capital, and Dragonfly Capital, with Ethereum Foundation, Maker, Synthetix, and InstaDApp.

The accelerator has raised over US$16 million in funding for its portfolio to date, with projects including AID: Tech, AlphaWallet, Keyless and Xanpool.

“The growth of the blockchain ecosystem needs to be an undertaking that is both directed and purposeful. LongHash Ventures has demonstrated its unparalleled sourcing network and hands-on venture building capability in the past two years,” said Deng Chao, Managing Director at HashKey Capital.

Also Read: Going big? Then Go e27 Pro.

Here are the seven startups in the programme:

CredMark
A digital asset credit bureau that equips financial institutions with non-traditional credit data based on blockchain financial history and private data

Hashtacs
A white-label solutions platform which helps financial institutions with efficient records consolidation and easier transactions via blockchain

Pravica
An email and communications software which provides privacy and security blockchain,  also enables payments via email

Puma Browser
A mobile browser which is private by default, and able to stream micropayments to websites via blockchain

StaTwig
A SaaS startup for efficient tracking of vaccines and food supply chain using blockchain and IoT

Viewbase
A blockchain analytics platform for cryptocurrency traders, with data models including Exchange Deposit Tracker, Inflation Tracker, and Crypto Sector Indices

Xend
An African end-to-end merchant solution including inventory management, payments and business intelligence

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As an entrepreneur and angel investor, I have invested in more than 24 companies, including PropertyGuru, Tickled Media, and ReferralCandy. Today, I am the Managing Partner and co-founder of Cocoon Capital.

Thank you to all those who attended this month’s AMA with e27 and Cocoon Capital. Due to time constraints, we were not able to address all the questions. Here are my views on the additional questions asked during the webinar:

What are the requirements and criteria for companies to prove their worth and business investment attractiveness further, especially in this current era?

The most important criterion is still the strength of the founding team. Where cash is now king, founders should ensure that the expectations of what they are able to raise, and at what valuations are aligned with the current market. 

Additionally, a clearly identified problem, a well-defined go-to-market strategy, and a big enough market opportunity are three areas that are clearly required. Furthermore, if founders have shown flexibility in onboarding clients to build up their future pipeline and revenue potential, it would make them stand out. 

What trends will we see with VCs saving dry capital for existing portfolio companies and struggling with capital calls from LPs, and corporations cutting down on cash outflow?

We see four key trends: Firstly, investment rounds are becoming smaller as VCs reserve funds for their current portfolio companies. Secondly, we believe deals will take longer to complete due to the inability to travel and meet founders. Lower risk appetite will also result in longer due-diligence processes.

Also Read: Meet the VC: Philippines’s Kickstart Ventures on becoming the country’s gatekeeper for startup ecosystem scale-up

Thirdly, we see a fall in valuations across the board. Lastly, we believe investors will put a higher emphasis on reaching profitability within a defined time frame. Previously, startups could raise money to buy the market share for the future, but we think investors will be much more focused on the present and how to create positive cash flow.

Singapore is such a small market. Is it viable to conquer the home market first to prove your company before you expand regionally and globally?

For most businesses, it would make sense to prove product-market-fit in their own markets first and expand to other markets after based on where the best opportunities lie, whether regional or global. As Singapore is a developed market, the next logical market is often on the global level, rather than regional. 

For companies that focus on events and travel experiences (which is pretty much non-existent now), how will you advise them in this period? Pivot out of their core, double down for the future, or maybe to hibernate?

Instead of focusing on revenue generation, think about where your sector will be in the next few months. When businesses and countries begin to open up again it will be a new world. Identify core problems to solve and keep building your product to match your vision of how that new world will look. 

We typically advise companies against hibernation as it will be difficult to regain any traction or rebuild the team. However, if that is the only option due to the lack of funds, then companies may go into hibernation.

While stressful, founders can also possibly take on other jobs to make sure their business can keep running and pay salaries to key staff.

Also Read: In conversation with Will Klippgen and Michael Blakey of Cocoon Capital

We expect this crisis to move into one of the worst recessions the world has experienced. How would the monetary and fiscal policy changes affect the risk appetite for the investors?

As long as there is uncertainty in the market, investors will take a more cautious approach to invest, bringing us back to our point around longer due diligence processes and smaller rounds.

Many large venture capital funds have closed billions of dollars over the last few years meaning there is still ample capital to deploy. But they will be more selective and take longer to do deals. Also do note that most of the capital is tied up in Series A and later stage funds.

What are the three most common denominators between the companies you have already invested in?

They are all mostly B2B, tech-enabled companies that are able to scale regionally or globally in markets where they have a good chance to build significant barriers to entry.

How would you assess early-stage startups now at this juncture given the pandemic and the budget worries?

We will assess startups the same way we normally do. We would, however, place more emphasis on capital conservation and prudence in spending. We are spending more time on doing due diligence on each investment and we need to see that 

What are the requirements for companies to apply for funding with Cocoon Capital?

We welcome all seed-stage, enterprise and deep tech companies to apply to Cocoon Capital for investment. Companies may apply for funding at cocooncap.com/apply. 

Also Read: News Roundup: FoodRazor snags US$900K seed funding led by Cocoon Capital

Is there a singular most important trait that Cocoon is looking for when hiring new team members for the fund?

Not really, but we require a passion for entrepreneurship and for solving meaningful problems.

Is there an age limit on founders/co-founders applying for investment with Cocoon Capital?

None. We are open to all ages, and we are also actively encouraging women to apply to us. We also encourage founders to create both age and gender diversity in their teams!

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Register for our next webinar: Fireside chat with Paul Meyers and Jussi Salovaara

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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In May, we noted 28 early stage funding announcements made by startups in the Southeast Asia startup ecosystem.

One of the notable trends during the month is investments into big data, which was prevalent in markets such as Indonesia. Throughout the years, the market is known to attract more investments in the fintech and e-commerce sectors, but investments into Delman and Bonza indicate the wide variety of verticals operating in the market.

These funding rounds also saw the participation of fellow startups such as Qlue, in addition to angel investors and VC firms.

Vietnam also continued to attract investors’ attention with at least six early stage investments announced in May.

But perhaps the most interesting one is the investment into Bobobox, which happened at the peak of a pandemic that has threatened the travel and tourism industries.

GudangAda

Funding: US$25.4M in Series A
Investor(s): Sequoia India, Alpha JWC, Wavemaker Partners

This round brings the company’s total fundraising to date to US$36 million.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Tigerhall, Growthwell Group raise funding rounds

FoodHub

Funding: “Hundreds of thousands in US Dollar” Seed
Investor(s): MP Solution

The funds will be used to scale FoodHub’s business with a focus on Vietnam’s Northern market and to further promote its supply chain growth.

JobHopin

Funding: US$2.45M in Series A
Investor(s): SEMA Translink, KK Fund, Mynavi Corporation, NKC Asia, Canaan Capital, angel investors

JobHopin has previously raised US$710,000, which brings its total fundraise to over US$3 million since inception.

Klikdaily

Funding: Undisclosed Series A
Investor(s): Global Founders Capital

The fresh funds will be used by Klikdaily to focus on developing technology and infrastructure “to expedite its mission to empower the development of mom n pop stores across the country”.

Entropica Labs

Funding: US$1.8M in Seed
Investor(s): SGInnovate, Wavemaker Partners, TIS Inc, Entrepreneur First, Lim Teck Lee Group, V1 Capital, Rigetti Computing

Entropica plans to use the funding to expand its technical team and continue the development of its proprietary software architectures as well as gaining greater access to a growing number of quantum computing systems.

Flow (AsiaCollect)

Funding: US$6M in Series A
Investor(s): DEG, Dymon Asia Ventures, SIG Asia, SCB10X

The company said that it will use the capital for expansion as well as acquire loan portfolios.

IUIGA

Funding: US$10M in Series A
Investor(s): Konimex Technologies

The fresh money will be invested across IUIGA’s Singaporean and Indonesian operations, with Indonesia being the key focus for 2020.

Also Read: Roundup: ShuttleOne raises US$500K seed funding round led by Sirius Venture

Dathena

Funding: US$12M in Series A
Investor(s): Jungle Ventures, Caphorn, SEEDS Capital

Dathena will use the capital for R&D and hire staff across sales, marketing, and customer success functions in New York City.

FoodRazor

Funding: US$900K in Seed
Investor(s): Cocoon Capital, Found.Ventures, angel investors

Niles Toh, CEO, and Founder of FoodRazor, said that the company will use the fund to support FoodRazor’s expansion into new markets and to support other invoice-heavy industries such as accounting, manufacturing, and logistics.

BravoHR

Funding: Undisclosed in Seed
Investor(s): Zone Startups Vietnam, 1005 Ventures

Involved in the round is 1005 Ventures, the investment fund founded by former executives of Google, Alibaba, and BCG to support startups, especially in the fields of transportation, medical, and human resource management.

JobsGo, WindSoft, EcomEasy

Funding: US$200,000-500,000 in Seed
Investor(s): Viet Valley Ventures

Viet Valley Ventures is a newly-established homegrown venture capital firm that was founded in 2019 by senior tech executives working in Silicon Valley. The three investments were announced on the same occasion.

Pintek

Funding: Undisclosed Seed
Investor(s): Accion Venture Lab

The new capital will be utilised to enhance Pintek’s platform to meet the needs of underserved students and schools during COVID-19.

LeadIQ

Funding: US$10M in Series A
Investor(s): Eight Roads Ventures, Tim Draper, LAUNCH Fund

The fresh capital will be used by the company to invest in R&D, and for market expansion and hiring talent.

Also Read: Property tech startup Hoozing raises pre-Series A funding round from SmileGate Investment

GoodWork

Funding: US$1.6M in Seed
Investor(s): Chaac Ventures, Elysium Ventures, Kairos K50, angel investors

Andrew Koger, co-founder and CEO of GoodWork, said that GoodWork plans to expand into Vietnam and Thailand by the end of this year or early 2021.

Holmusk

Funding: US$21.5M in Series A
Investor(s): Optum Ventures, Health Catalyst Capital, Heritas Capital, angel investors

The new funding round allows Holmusk to expand its US operations in New York City.

Bizzi

Funding: Undisclosed Seed
Investor(s): 500 Startups, angel investors

The company is focused on helping accountants automate financial processes like pay bill, approvals, receipt scanning, compliance, and book-keeping using its RPA (robotic process automation) technology.

Shipper

Funding: US$20M in Series A
Investor(s): Naspers, AC Ventures, Insignia Ventures Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Shipper was part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch.

TADA

Funding: Undisclosed Series A
Investor(s): Shinhan Bank, Samkee Automotive, iloom

The funding round followed a US$5 million Series A investment announced in December 2019.

Hoozing

Funding: Undisclosed Pre-Series A
Investor(s): SmileGate Investment

The investment, according to Hoozing CEO and co-founder Hai Le, will be used to make sure the business is ready to assist the needs of landlords and customers in the middle of  COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: Roundup: Filipino startup Advance raises seed funding; SoftBank Vision Fund to cut staff

ShuttleOne

Funding: US$500,000 in Seed
Investor(s): Sirius Venture Capital, Andromeda GmbH, private investors

ShuttleOne CEO Lim Hong Zhuang stated that the company will use the fresh funding to expand the company’s operations in Malaysia and Indonesia and to launch its services in Thailand and the Philippines.

Bobobox

Funding: US$11.5M in Series A
Investor(s): Horizons Ventures, Alpha JWC Ventures, Kakao Investments, Sequoia Surge, Mallorca Investments

The Bandung-headquartered startup will use the money to accelerate its product improvement and location expansion. It wants to enhance ‘Pods’ features and overall experience by growing its tech team and strengthening its manufacturing and operating models.

Delman

Funding: US$1.6M in Seed
Investor(s): Intudo Ventures, Prasetia Dwidharma Ventures, Qlue

The company said that will use the newly raised capital to establish an R&D centre in Surabaya and make fresh hires, specifically earmarking Indonesians who are currently working as data scientists in Silicon Valley.

Bonza

Funding: Undisclosed Seed
Investor(s): East Ventures

The company’s new funding will be used to scale up its new operations and focus on product development.

GoBear

Funding: US$17M
Investor(s): Walvis Participaties, Aegon N.V.

The company said that the latest round of capital will be utilised for continued expansion across three growth pillars: An online financial supermarket, digital insurance brokerage, and digital lending, “all built on a strong foundation of alternative data”.

Sentient.io

Funding: Undisclosed Series A
Investor(s): Digital Garage Group, ABC Dream Ventures, Leave a Nest Group

The company said it intends to use the new fund to scale the platform to the global market, especially to fulfil the surging demand for the Digital Transformation from Japanese corporations.

Also Read: AI-empowered data platform Sentient.io secures Series A funding led by Digital Garage Group

Advance

Funding: Undisclosed Seed
Investor(s): Next Billion Ventures, Dymon Asia Ventures, Accion Venture Lab

The latest round of capital will be used to improve Advance’s current technology and operations, as well as to explore different products and new markets.

Wiz.ai

Funding: US$6M in Pre-Series A
Investor(s): GGV Capital, Wavemaker Partners, ZWC partner, Insignia Ventures, and Orion Fund

The money will be used to expand Wiz.ai’s product offerings and grow its team in Southeast Asia. It also plans to expand its geographical coverage globally.

Voiz FM

Funding: Undisclosed Seed Funding
Investor(s): 500 Startups Vietnam

The Vietnamese startup will spend the money on product development and market expansion.

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The post Here are the early stage funding rounds announced by SEA startups in May appeared first on e27.

The most notable fact about later stage funding rounds in May is that there are more funding announcements being made compared to the previous months. While we saw eight funding announcements in this stage in April, this month we saw 11 later stage funding announcements.

One of the most notable funding announcements was the Series D funding round made by Ninja Van, one of the more prominent names in the logistics tech scene.

Fintech also continued to dominate with investments announced by companies such as Nium, Validus, Digio, CXA Group, and KoinWorks.

Kopi Kenangan, which had attracted the attention of prominent global investors, returned with another announcement of its Series B.

Ninja Van

Funding: US$279M in Series D
Investor(s): Geopost, B Capital Group, Carmenta Capital, Zamrud Sovereign Wealth Fund, Bangkok Bank, Intouch, Grab, Monk’s Hill Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures

This funding round followed Series C round in January 2018, led by international parcel delivery firm DPD Group.

RWDC Industries

Funding: US$133M “two-stage” Series B
Investor(s): Vickers Venture Partners, Flint Hills Resources, CPV/CAP Pensionskasse Coop, International SA, Eversource Retirement Plan Master Trust, WI Harper Group

This comes exactly a year after RWDC raised US$22 million in a Series A round, led Vickers and US-based Eversource Retirement Plan Master Trust.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Tigerhall, Growthwell Group raise funding rounds

Nium

Funding: Undisclosed Series C
Investor(s): BRI Ventures, VISA

A part of the money raised will also be used to “tuck-in acquisitions” and growth in markets such as Europe, India, the UK and the US.

Validus

Funding: US$20M in ongoing Series B
Investor(s): Vertex Growth Fund, K3 Venture Partners, FMO, Vertex Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Siam Cement Group, VinaCapital Ventures

The new capital will be used by the company to invest in technology and data capabilities to further improve the use of its AI and machine learning as well as to establish a strong presence in the ASEAN market. It has also revealed plans to fund its new upcoming venture in Thailand which has been slated for Q4 2020.

Digio

Funding: US$4M in Series B
Investor(s): Beacon Venture Capital, PCC, Private Equity Trust for SME Growing Together 2

Digio said that the funding will enable it to expand capacity to provide innovative payment technology for financial institutions and strengthen Thailand’s digital payment infrastructure.

Kopi Kenangan

Funding: US$109M in Series B
Investor(s): Sequoia Capital, B Capital, Horizons Ventures, Verlinvest, Kunlun, Sofina, Alpha JWC Ventures

The company plans on using this round of funding to strengthen its operations in Indonesia, launch new products, invest in technology to better serve its customers, and protect employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

CXA Group

Funding: Undisclosed
Investor(s): Humanica, HSBC Life

Humanica has doubled its investment in CXA as a continuation of last year’s convertible note bridge financing.

Dekoruma

Funding: Undisclosed Pre-Series C
Investor(s): InterVest Star SEA Growth Fund 1

Co-founder Dimas Harry Priawan said Dekoruma will use the funding to develop its interior design and project management app SOMA.

Also Read: Vietnam’s podcast platform Voiz FM snags seed funding from 500 Startups

Spark Systems

Funding: US$15M in Series B
Investor(s): Citi, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, OSK Ventures, Vickers Ventures, Dymon Asia Ventures, Dymon Asia Capital, Jubilee Capital, FengHe

The company said that the funding would be used to enhance its current platform, develop analytics, advance its team training and build rapid modules that can onboard clients quickly.

KoinWorks

Funding: US$10M
Investor(s): Lendable

This round comes just over a month after KoinWorks raised US$20 million in  debt and equity investment from Quona Capital.

Endofotonics

Funding: US$12M in Series B
Investor(s): Singapore Medical Group (SMG), Tony Tan Choon Keat, Dr Beng Teck Liang

Endofotonics will use the funding to commercialise its early gastric cancer detection system within Asia and grow its cancer detection technology coverage to other organs. It also plans to launch its system in Europe in 2021.

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The post Meet the most notable later stage funding rounds announced in May appeared first on e27.

Bitcoin came into existence a little over a decade ago and financial markets, as we know them, have changed drastically since. Today, we find ourselves amidst an interesting intersection in time where money belonging to the people, governments, and corporations are going head to head.

During a large part of Bitcoin’s decade-long existence, it was traded mostly by tech enthusiasts, gamers, and early adopters. All that changed in 2016 when initial coin offerings (ICOs) became the primary way to fund crypto projects. The ICO rally not only resulted in the disruption of many industries, but it also paved the way for retail and corporate investments as well as mainstream blockchain adoption.

While 2020 brings a new set of challenges for crypto asset adoption, we now are witnessing new levels of maturity in the crypto asset space, one that involves active engagement from governments and large corporates.

Financial powerhouses such as JP Morgan got its foot in the door with its own internal stable coin JPM Coin, and tech giants such as Facebook announced its crypto project Libra last year, which includes a consortium of companies such as Uber and Spotify. Governments have gotten in on the action too with many announcing they are looking into Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) projects.

Also Read: 2 ways cryptocurrencies are disrupting the stock market

With various innovations taking place across the globe, many are wondering who is leading the cryptocurrency revolution: East or the West?

Regulation – hindrance or incubator? 

A key component to examine is the regulatory environment and policies of the Eastern and Western world. As crypto assets are relatively new, governments around the world are still trying to fully comprehend its capabilities and use case.

While some countries have whole-heartedly embraced crypto assets, others have taken a more wait-and-see approach, with a number even banning it.

Several crypto asset projects have popped up all over the world, giving the illusion of a truly global crypto asset revolution. However, if we take a closer look, these companies are usually registered in one of a handful of countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, Malta, and regions like the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar.

Why these specific few? Put simply, it comes down to either of two reasons; these countries and regions have a clear regulatory environment that allows crypto or blockchain companies to operate, or they allow these companies to register without any questions asked.

Though the US is home to some of the biggest companies and capital globally, and the country is a big market for crypto assets, this does not mean it is leading the world in blockchain development.

Also Read: The call of crypto: why bitcoin points to need for investment startups in Asia Pacific

Hester Peirce, Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, believes that Asia holds an upper hand over America in crypto assets. This stems from what she claims is a clear policy framework in Asian economies. Japan has made a name for itself as a major centre for crypto asset trading after handing out 22 licenses to exchanges since 2017.

Earlier this year, Singapore made global headlines when the island-nation introduced new payments legislation, the Payment Services Act, offering global crypto firms a chance to expand their operations by applying for operating licenses in Singapore.

In the past five years, the crypto space has gradually shifted from being Western-dominated to one that sees significant participation and innovation from Asia.

Eight of the top 10 mining pools in the world come from Asia, more specifically China, making the region the lead in staking – a method of earning interest from cryptocurrency by holding it for a period in your wallet. From the total number of exchanges to the total number of ICOs and IEOs issued, Asian companies greatly outperform their Western rivals.

Government-backed projects in the East

Another key difference between Asia and the West is government proactiveness in understanding, implementing, or even leading blockchain-tech initiatives. Even though crypto assets and blockchain are some of the most debated topics in China, towards the end of last year President Xi endorsed blockchain development in China.

Shortly after, the country announced its ambition to digitize the renminbi, also known as the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP). Many believe that the launch of a digital Yuan could challenge the dominance of the US dollar.

Also Read: XanPool launches platform to enable P2P transactions from local currency to cryptocurrency in SEA

The digital currency is currently being tested in Suzhou and the country’s Xiong’an new district with 19 popular merchants, including McDonald’s, Starbucks, and JD supermarkets. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has also announced that further testing will be conducted during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

In addition to its digital currency, China’s nationwide blockchain network, the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) officially launched on April 25. The BSN is a global infrastructure to help blockchain projects create and run new blockchain applications at a lower cost, thus accelerating the development of a digital economy.

The substantial progress China has displayed in actively bringing wider blockchain adoption is no doubt a key factor in its advanced technological development.

While both businesses’ and governments face unprecedented strain due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the race towards crypto adoption shows no signs of slowing for many Eastern countries. The Chinese Government is actively working to see how blockchain technology can be used to aid social governance, while South Korea’s biggest bank is set to launch a crypto custody service.

Even as Singapore works to contain the virus, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently announced regulatory relief for Digital Asset Exchanges in the city-state. In Japan, the country’s new crypto asset regulations have also come into effect on the May 1, protecting crypto investors involved in exchanges, as well as custodians and their assets.

Also read: Why Bitcoin is set to boom in a post-COVID-19 era

This continued acceleration towards a regulated, decentralised solution shows us that the East has a desire to stay ahead of the curve, maybe even more so as it becomes apparent that we might continue facing an economic crisis.

US presidential election: a turning point for crypto?

We’re seeing a mixed picture in the US. The Trump administration recently released the 2021 budget proposal and while many had hoped to see a positive attitude towards crypto, this was not the case.

In fact, the White House announced a need to tighten measures against financial crime, which crypto is a part of. For the US government, crypto is clearly still a threat.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in a letter to federal lawmakers last November that it is exploring the development of digital currency in the US.

Andrew Yang, a former US presidential candidate in the current race, was known as the “Cryptocurrency Candidate”. He advocated for a comprehensive national approach to blockchain and crypto and publicly endorsed blockchain after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin labelled bitcoin a national security issue.

However, when the former political hopeful dropped out of the race in early February, many lost hope of having a crypto ally in government.

Nevertheless, some see hope in democrat Joe Biden. While he has yet to comment directly on crypto assets, a political action committee (PAC) that was campaigning for Biden to run for the presidency in 2016 began accepting donations in BTC. The former Vice President is known to be progressive when it comes to technological advancement and a pro-crypto asset President might not be too far-fetched for the United States. 

Whilst there are some positive developments in the West, it still lags behind the East when it comes to crypto adoption and regulation, especially as the East maintains regulatory momentum and China returns to work while most of the Western world remains in strict lock-down.

As it stands, Asian economies appear to lead the crypto race, although the West is showing that it has no plans on being left behind. The crypto asset space is a fast-moving one and only time will tell who will truly win this race, but one thing is for sure – crypto assets are here to stay.

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I recalled how that session at Echelon Asia Summit 2019 was ‘paranoia at first sight’ for me.

Co-founders Dexter Ng and Andy Prakash, armed with only some basic info commonly found on anyone’s business card, proceeded to demonstrate how easy it was for hackers to scam potential victims.

I wasn’t the only one shaken after the event, it seems. One of my e27 colleagues revealed that since then, she would set a regular notification on her calendar to remind herself to change all of her passwords.

Fast forward to 2020. We greeted the new business normal with much trepidation. While I’m aware that there seems to be an increase in fraudulent activity as a result of the evolving digital landscape, it wasn’t until I caught up with Ng again that I grasped the severity of the situation.

He painted the picture by recounting as many horror stories as he could in the limited time we had.

“In this era, where businesses are going digital, information is king and we have seen too many instances of data breaches leading to illicit data mining,” Ng began his narrative.

“No one wants their data to be publicly disclosed inciting identity fraud or harassment. We discovered that a significant number of businesses don’t have a Data Protection Officer appointed or even know what the mandatory PDPA obligations are.”

Also Read: AI-empowered data platform Sentient.io secures Series A funding led by Digital Garage Group

According to Ng, this gap in the market was what led Andy Prakash to start Privacy Ninja, a tech startup that aims to empower companies to protect their data, trust, and loyalty by improving their people, process, and policies.

To be spoofed is to believe

Because I had to see for myself what Ng was talking about, I volunteered as a tribute. In under three minutes, Ng had spoofed my work email account to make it look like I was attempting to borrow money from him. By the looks of it, the entire thing looks legit, from my name down to my email signature.

Imagine this business email spoofing scenario playing out multiple times across the globe, and taking different forms: a request from your boss to release payment, a request for sensitive data from a stakeholder, and the list go on.

Authorities caution that scammers are likely to take advantage of the circuit breaker period by attempting to trick more people since the working arrangements can lead to less oversight. In fact, Ng shares on their homepage blog that for the past week, a group of blackhats has been selling a steady stream of user databases from alleged data breaches.

The various levels of online creepy

If business email spoofing is terrifying, then prepare to be even more petrified. Hackers can easily check out previous passwords of your email accounts, so if your current one is too weak or follows the same pattern as your previous ones, you’re setting yourself up for future headaches.

Also Read: Data management startup Delman secures US$1.6M seed funding from Intudo Ventures, others

In his demo with me, Ng only needed about a minute to pull up the string of old passwords of my personal email account.

The final demo for the day was what Ng dubbed as ‘call spoofing’. Call spoofing happens when the caller ID is changed to any number other than the calling number. In my case, I didn’t inform Ng whose number I gave him, but by the screenshot of his phone below, he knew as soon as he spoofed the number to call me.

For employees, knowledge is power

Profit loss, identity theft, and stolen bank information are only some of the possible issues individuals may face in the wake of a data breach. Here, Ng shares some nuggets on how employees can better secure themselves especially in these uncertain times:

• When in doubt, call up the person in question. It only takes a few minutes to verify if you’ve indeed received a legitimate message.
• Don’t use the same passwords across all accounts because if data gets leaked, you’re in big trouble. You don’t want your life’s worth of data to end up at the hands of virtual thieves.
• No user account registration means no data can be lost. Be mindful of where you agree to sign up and what data that site can collect from you.
• Don’t use the same browser for everything you do. For example, you may use Chrome for Gmail, Google Meet, or Facebook, then use Firefox or Brave browser for online shopping or personal banking. It’s an open secret that Google and Facebook track and continue to monitor your browsing activity even when you close their tabs or logout. 

As such, education and awareness is key to securing your data privacy, and data protection training is the first step in any organisation’s data protection journey. In fact, during this work-from-home period due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Privacy Ninja has conducted live webinar training for employees from various companies for its PDPA Compliance & Awareness course.

Also Read: Between data and gut feeling, which one do Singaporean customers trust to make decisions?

“Employees gearing up to take on the Data Protection Officer role in their company or staff handling personal data would greatly benefit from training, and learn not only the PDPA obligations for compliance, but also best data protection and cyber hygiene practices,” Ng explained.

For businesses, being safe than sorry can’t be more true

“The last time when companies only needed to focus on protecting the office, it was already difficult for them. Now they have multiple endpoints (laptop and mobile devices) accessing their company files from different locations all over.”

“Company data has become more challenging for SMEs to protect, especially those who don’t even have an IT team or an IT personnel in the company,” he added.

One way to solve this is through data protection softwares. For Privacy Ninja, they’ve made it easier and more affordable for SMEs to keep their sensitive data private with their Privacy Data Protection endpoint software, and for home users, they recommend Bitdefender software and a company called BitCyber is the appointed distributor in Singapore.

“We can identify sensitive documents via keywords or regular expressions,” Dexter revealed. “Once sensitive files are identified, employees working from home won’t be able to share those sensitive files on platforms such as Facebook, WeChat, Telegram, or WhatsApp. From whatever platform the company chooses to restrict company documents, we are able to configure for them.”

Getting a PDPA check-up: one small step for SMEs, one giant step for business empowerment

It’s not only company data that businesses should be looking after. With Singapore proposing to tighten the data protection laws, companies must also be at the forefront of PDPA knowledge and compliance. As PDPA laws and stiffer penalties for info leaks are in place, learning about these and complying to the terms are not even an option, but a fiduciary duty among businesses.

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Bukalapak denies reports of user data breach

“This is why Privacy Ninja is also offering a complimentary PDPA compliance checkup where in a matter of minutes, businesses will be able to tell their level of compliance,” Dexter asserted.

With work from home now part of the new reality, the chances of fraud among businesses and even employees surge exponentially. Now that you know this much, it’s high time that you step up and fight tooth and nail to protect your company data privacy and yours.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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

Image credit: 123rf.com / ID 60342843

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