The partnership aims to provide entrepreneurs with a global launchpad for success

Our mission at e27 is all about empowering entrepreneurs on their way to success. Thus, we work closely with other teams and organisations that share this goal. We are proud to announce our partnership with Enterprise Singapore for the Echelon Roadshow and TOP100.

The TOP100 programme was created by e27 to empower insights, connections, talent, and funding opportunities for early-stage tech in Asia Pacific.

Enterprise Singapore aims to highlight Singapore’s vibrant startup ecosystem and anchor promising tech startups in Singapore to access the Asia-Pacific region.

One of its flagship events is the annual SLINGSHOT international startup pitching competition, which provides opportunities for both local and international startups to gain early exposure to investors, corporates, industry leaders, mentors, media and tech-savvy early adopters.

Participants can receive valuable feedback from industry specialists and find partners through the competition. This is in line with e27‘s own goal to bring together different stakeholders in Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem.

Beyond providing exposure and opportunities to startups, SLINGSHOT’s value proposition extends to other players in the startup ecosystem.

• Investors are provided with an aggregation of high potential startups for investment;
• Corporate partners’ innovation efforts are supported; and,
• Potential customers are provided an opportunity to obtain products at the forefront of technology.

A continuing partnership

e27 had a successful partnership with Enterprise Singapore during SLINGSHOT 2018, which strengthened Singapore’s reputation as a leading global startup hub and springboard to the Asian market. Our roadshows around the region helped to amplify international and local awareness of the Startup SG brand as well as the SLINGSHOT 2018 competition through publicity and marketing efforts.

Also read: Enterprise Singapore sponsors S$100,000 worth of prizes for TOP100!

Two finalists of e27‘s TOP100 2018 were also awarded Startup SG grants and fast-tracked to the SLINGSHOT 2018 qualifying round.

Startup SG provides entrepreneurs with access to local support initiatives and a launchpad to the global stage. This includes funding and financing opportunities, a wide and diverse talent and mentor pool, and access to customised infrastructure such as co-working spaces in Singapore.

This year, e27 and Enterprise Singapore will once again work together to provide a platform for startups to grow, scale, and springboard into Asia. The Echelon Roadshow is part of a series of international stops leading up to the annual Echelon Asia Summit happening in May.

The Echelon Roadshow hit Singapore earlier this week, and our next stops will be in Phnom Penh (March 14), Bangkok (March 19), and Manila (March 21). RSVP to the Roadshow is free, so if you want to score insights on Southeast Asian tech and more, grab your tickets now!

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Photo by Bill Jelen on Unsplash

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Whether it is highlighting quality companies or discussing macro-trends, these 10 articles will catch you up on Southeast Asia’s blockchain ecosystem

The e27 contributor programme has become a source of fantastic articles about the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem.

In this article, we wanted to highlight the stories focussed on blockchain. Some articles get into specific companies, others talk about policies and a few discuss problems (and solutions) within the community. This is a great resource for catching up with the blockchain industry!

If you would like to be a contributor, do not hesitate to submit an article here.

7 Singapore-based blockchain projects that are having global impact

As the headline suggests, this article breaks down seven blockchain companies that are making an impact in the real world. Written by Christopher Quek, this article features MVL, Indorse, Whatshalal, Enjin, Digix, Rate3 and Bluzelle.

Without explicitly stating it, this article points out that blockchain startups are tackling a diverse set of problems.

What is an ICO, STO and TSO?

Author Anson Zeall is a startup veteran and the co-founder and CEO of CoinPip, a blockchain-based payments company. When it comes to an in-depth understanding of blockchain, it is difficult to beat the knowledge of Zeall.

In the article, he explains the difference between an ICO, STO and TSO. Here is a quick definition of each.

ICO: Initial Coin Offering. The process of selling tokens that can be used for a service (or sold) as a form of financing the company.

STO: Securitised Token Offering. It’s essentially an ICO with an underwriting mechanism. Companies can sell tangible assets (including revenue) that is attached to these tokens.

TSO: Tokenised Security Offering. This is process of tokenising “things” and it is still a cutting edge fundraising model.

Why the fall of bitcoin will accelerate the development of distributed ledger technology

2018 was the year the cryptocurrency market collapsed and Edgar Seah argues that for distributed ledger technologies to grow, it will by crucial to move beyond cryptocurrencies.

Seah says, “We, as a community, cannot allow the ‘crypto winter’ to distract from the task of rebuilding confidence in the technology and that begins by changing the narrative to one of continuous development and enabling mass adoption.”

Walking the walk: Three Asian crypto companies gaining real-world traction

One of the core criticisms of the blockchain industry is that a significant amount of the companies don’t have a viable product. This is why Mike Gelacio wanted to highlight three companies that can be used right this instance.

The startups are QTUM (a smart-contracts company), Pundi X (a POS system) and Bitmain (a mining company).

A quick guide to digital marketing a blockchain project

Blockchain startups have to market their companies just like any other startup, but they also have a unique community that requires different strategies. Norm Bond walks readers through the strategies that stand out in the blockchain community.

Some of them include manufacturing cool, courting controversy and pursuing airdrops for tokens.

How stable are stablecoins?

Stablecoins are often promoted as a safe alternative in the highly volatile cryptocurrency market. Essentially, they are pegged to real-world assets (typically a fiat currency) and their price fluctuates according to the peg, rather than, say, the price of Bitcoin.

However, stablecoins are far from perfect and Luke Fitzpatrick breaks down some of the very legitimate faced by the technology.

Want to make blockchain mainstream? Then speak the mainstream language

One of the problems with the blockchain industry is that it feels unapproachable to regular people. The technology actually isn’t overly complicated, but the discussions get so wrapped up in jargon they can often feel like it requires a phd just to participate.

Natalia Tokar points out that, “Help people understand why you care. Explain what exactly your solution will change, but in their language.”

10 ways blockchain can help overcome the biggest challenges in commercial leasing

To understand how blockchain can change the world, sometimes it is wise to get into specific industries and how it impacts their sector. Entrepreneur Ivan Lim breaks down how the technology is impacting his world — the commercial leasing process.

Blockchain largely helps eliminate the painful documentation process, with knock-on benefits like privacy improvements, decreasing the environmental impact, lowering intermediary costs and decreasing the turnaround time.

Blockchain is paving the way for something new: Smart Companies

Companies often take up blockchain as a means to reward their customers, but in doing so have helped improve their own internal structures. Whether it is trying to understand what customers want, navigating the necessary KYC processes or complying with government regulations, the blockchain has resulted in a lot of companies becoming smarter companies.

James Nguyen writes, “Simply put, Smart Companies are globally-connected and blockchain-compatible companies with their own legal identity.”

Singapore a honeypot for cryptocurrency and blockchain projects, data shows

At the time of publishing, Singapore was home to 634 companies that were tangentially related to the blockchain industry. This article by Spencer Yang dove into the public records and found that Singapore saw a huge boom in incorporations towards the end of 2017 that levelled-off (but did not dip) in 2018.

Singapore (along with Thailand and the Philippines) are positioning themselves as supportive governments for the blockchain, and this article suggests companies are noticing.

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Photo by Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash

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The startup Kalpha enables individuals to discover, connect and meet up to learn and share skills, experiences, and knowledge on a 1-to-1 basis

After finishing his schooling, Singapore-born Jack Soh enrolled in the University of Melbourne for a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce. During his stay in the Australian city, he opened a Chinese restaurant where he got an opportunity to meet numerous mentors by chance, and they shared valuable knowledge with him to manage his business better and became friends with him.

Unfortunately, he had to sell the restaurant two years later and return to Singapore as his visa expired.

Back home, he was thinking about his meetings with different mentors at his Melbourne restaurant, and this sparked a business idea in him.

“There are many people in the world who are in need of knowledge and information but don’t know how to or whom to reach out to,” Soh tells me. “They are in search for mentors and coaches, preferably friends, who can share knowledge in a systematic and efficient manner. I realised an online platform that connects learners to sharers will be effective, and that is the most organic way to learn.”

And that was the beginning of Kalpha.

Founded in 2018 by Soh and his college mate Jaden Teo (a graduate in Business Management from Singapore Management University), Kalpha is a mobile app that enables individuals to discover, connect and meet up to learn and share skills, experiences, and knowledge on a 1-to-1 basis. The app was launched in January 2019.

Kalpha is the abbreviation of ‘knowledge’ and  ‘Alpha’. Alpha is a term used for a superior strategy or performance in the finance parlance. Also, it is the first letter of the Greek alphabet that signifies the beginning of a journey. “Hence, the name Kalpha — where sharers often incorporate personal experiences and life stories into their sharing sessions which often are invaluable to learners,” says Soh, describing the story behind the brand name.

Here is how the Kalpha app works: Sharers (of skills, knowledge and experiences) can register themselves on the Kalpha app to share what they are willing to impart, their availability, as well as their preferred location. Interested learners can then contact the sharers in-app to arrange for a convenient time and date to meet up. Both sharers and learners can view each other’s profile before commencing further. When the sharing session concludes, both parties can acknowledge their attendance through the app to enable reviews and testimonials.

“Kalpha encourages users to share what they know at no cost to willing learners. However, sharers are free to charge up to a maximum of S$80 (US$59) for their session. The idea behind the price cap is to ensure that sessions always stay affordable,” says his business partner Teo.

Also Read: Knowledge sharing platform Tigerhall secures US$1.8M seed funding

A free-to-use platform, Kalpha can be used by anyone in any part of the world as learning is an evergreen industry. However, it primarily targets people in the age group of 16 to 45 years. “You can tap on the connectivity of Kalpha as a social platform to share your stories of success or woes to inspire others, while at the same time increasing her self-confidence. Sharing could also hone your ability to teach and educate others,” adds Teo.

“You could also potentially earn a stream of income by interacting with others. In addition, you can also utilise the app to understand an industry before switching jobs. There are many practical applications you can use on Kalpha,” Teo continues.

By converging social elements with learning, Kalpha aspires to become the next social media giant — a go-to platform to enable one to learn and share any skills, knowledge and experience in a personalised manner.

Rejections from everywhere

The beginning of the company was agonisingly painful for the pair. Their friends and even family members outrightly rejected their idea, made fun of them, and questioned its viability. Many even persuaded the duo to discontinue the idea.

“Our pitching sessions for funding with government agencies and private investors were the most difficult part. We were even insulted by funding agencies, when we were actively seeking funding, who said our idea would never work. However, our understanding of the market and the ability to manage risks pushed us to making Kalpha into a reality,” Soh says, narrating his bitter experience.

“But to tell you, our foundation is built on pure grit, brute toiling, indomitable spirit and endless hours of hustling. Perhaps, with massive leaps of faith as well for the founding team,” Soh says.

Other challenges

Kalpha started without a technical founder, and it was extremely challenging. “Starting Kalpha without a technical founder was an enormous hurdle to overcome. Exploring for technical expertise and talent was a tedious and excruciating process, as many joined us and left immediately. I believe incompetence and the tough nature in a startup environment are the reasons for their departure,” reveals Teo.

As for competition, home-grown Tigerhall is another app in the knowledge-sharing segment but it is slightly different from Kalpha’s business model. This app enables people to achieve their career, business and lifestyle goals by learning actionable skills from Asia’s most successful people, through original Power Reads, Podcasts and Events from experts with real-world experience.

A few days ago, the Tigerhall raised US$1.8 million in seed funding from investors like US-based strategic learning firm WDHB Inc, Singapore-based asset management firm Paladigm Capital, and a private individual.

Geographical expansion on the anvil

With a 11-member team currently, Kalpha is looking to proliferate throughout Southeast Asia by 2023 — staring with Vietnam and Myanmar during the second half of 2019.

A few days ago, Kalpha secured an undisclosed sum in investment from Nest Tech, a Vietnamese VC fund focusing on seed-stage technology startups.

How did this Nest Tech deal come about?

“Our marketing strategy to onboard users is to participate in as many events and conferences as possible. And whilst exhibiting in Marina Bay Sands, we met numerous VCs who were keen to invest in Kalpha. However, Nest Tech was one of the many VCs that we found to have better synergy with us, as their goal for us is to venture out to other bigger markets where learning is generally considered a privilege. After multiple rounds of meetings and email correspondences, we signed a deal with them in February,” says Soh.

Lessons learnt

Kalpha also taught the co-founders a few basic startup lessons. Both learnt the value of being prudent, as very often cash flow is a common issue faced by most startups. They also learnt that leadership and people management skills are essential to the success of any organisation.

“Lastly, the ability to negotiate and persuade relevant parties to collaborate and form a synergy with a young startup is the most crucial skill a founding team should embody to materialise an idea to reality,” Soh shares.

For the duo, the startup journey has been exceptionally fruitful intrinsically. Despite experiencing multiple emotional setbacks and living minimally due the lack of financial resources, the team is zealous and driven to take Kalpha to the next level.

“The biggest takeaway from our journey so far is to always stay resilient. Whatever happens, stay logical and continue to press towards your ambitions,” Soh signs off.

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Image Credit: Kalpha

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Apart from Uber and Pinterest, we also have updates from JD, Facebook, and Morningside Technology Ventures

Uber, Pinterest reportedly eyeing NYSE for listing – Reuters

Tech giants Uber and Pinterest have picked the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as the venue for their stock listings, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The report also stated that in the recent years, NYSE has become the “exchange of choice” for big tech companies after NASDAQ “famously bumbled” the Facebook IPO with tech errors.

However, NASDAQ did score the IPO of Uber’s competitor Lyft, which is expected to reach or exceed US$23 billion when it prices its shares March 28.

The companies and the NYSE have declined to comment.

JD offers social credits, AI-powered tools for local govts in China – SCMP

Chinese e-commerce giant JD has launched a big-data-powered service to give social credit scores to individuals, businesses and potential investors for local governments in China, South China Morning Post reported.

As part of the company’s effort to expand to the smart city vertical, it launched new brand JD iCity with the goal to double down on the intelligent city business by providing big data and artificial intelligence-powered tools to local governments.

The services can be used to build social credit databases, AI-powered traffic infrastructure and other smart transport services.

The company’s move comes amid Beijing’s call for deeper integration between AI and the real economy.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, March 15: Uber plans to kick off IPO in April

Facebook admits it stores account passwords in plaintext – TechCrunch

Social media giant Facebook on Thursday confirmed in a blog post that it stored “hundreds of millions” of account passwords in plaintext for years, TechCrunch wrote.

The confirmation was prompted by a report by cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs, which stated that the logs were accessible to some 2,000 engineers and developers.

Facebook explained that the discovery was made in January as part of a routine security review. It also stated that none of the passwords were visible to anyone outside of the company.

Morningside leads US$11M Series A funding for staff marketplace Jitjatjo – Dealstreet Asia

Hong Kong investment firm Morningside Technology Ventures, a sub-organisation of Morningside Group, has led a US$11 million Series A funding round for New York-based mobile staffing marketplace Jitjatjo, Dealstreet Asia wrote.

Launched in 2016, Jitjatjo leverades AI to build a two-sided marketplace that enables businesses in the service and hospitality sector to book workers from one hour’s notice to several months in advance.

It had previously raised pre-seed and seed funding rounds totalling US$6.9 million.

The funding will support the company’s effort in continuing the growth in the current two markets (New York and Chicago), expanding to other cities in the US, advancing its machine learning capabilities to support the launch of the company’s enterprise technology offering, and establishing an experiential headquarters in New York.

As part of the deal, Mick Sawka from Morningside Technology Advisory will join the company’s board of director.

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Image Credit: Aditya Vyas on Unsplash

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Calling all corporates! We want to introduce you to the best startups in Southeast Asia

If you are serious about your corporate Innovation journey, reach out to e27 to participate in this exciting opportunity and we will answer any queries you might have.–One of the well-reported trends in Southeast Asia is that startups have begun to look beyond venture capitalists for financing.

There have been numerous cases recently of startups raising funds from high-net-worth-individuals, family offices or private equity firms.

The other major source of financing are large corporations, and while there are a lot of benefits to the strategy, it can be incredibly difficult to make a deal.

Often, it is difficult for entrepreneurs to meet the correct people within corporations; then the decision-making process can take ages.

This is where e27 can help. Our mission is, “To empower entrepreneurs with the tools to build and grow their companies” and we believe we are uniquely positioned to help startups meet corporates (and vis versa).

This is why we are excited to bring its FORGE programme to Echelon Asia Summit 2019!

FORGE is a programme designed to accelerate any corporate innovation agenda by facilitating business matching with tech startups across Southeast Asia. Our great strength as a company is a large network of relevant startups in the region and we think this can be of immense value to regional corporations.

Also Read: Ladies, tell us about your startup and win 5 FREE Echelon Asia Summit 2019 tickets!

FORGE will address the following objectives:

• Adopt technology to digitalise a business unit/workflow/system
• Develop new revenue streams, reduce inefficiencies and improve scale
• Strategic partnership opportunities for business integration/growth
• Creating quality deal flow for investment and M&A opportunities

Corporate innovation is a buzzword across the region, but actionable impact requires commitment to building relationships with startups. We hope that by making introductions, facilitating agreements and promoting exciting announcements, FORGE can drive meaningful impact and tangible outcomes for both corporations and startups.

The programme will curate startups according to regional relevance, industry verticals, business maturity and counting metrics (like revenue, users, growth rate). We are also open to customising requests according to the needs of a corporation.

Also Read: Hanoi TOP100 winner shows the best Vietnam has to offer

The intertwining of corporations and startups an inevitable part of the future of Southeast Asia, making it crucial to begin the process as soon as possible.

FORGE is an ideal platform to get the best and brightest startups into a corporate ecosystem.

We hope it can be the first step towards a a long and fruitful relationship.

If you’re serious about your corporate Innovation journey, reach out to e27 to participate in this exciting opportunity and we will answer any queries you might have.

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Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

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The Singapore-headquartered startup that targets off-grid households in Myanmar raises follow-on equity funding from the existing Singaporean investment company

SolarHome, a solar energy startup that focusses on serving households in Myanmar, has announced that it has secured another US$1 million for equity from Trirec, an investment company that supports energy tech companies. Trirec is an existing investor in SolarHome, which makes this funding a follow-on financing that’s a part of SolarHome’s Series A round, as reported by Deal Street Asia.

Also Read: Indonesian logistics startup Kargo raises US$7.6M in seed funding round

Trirec was joined by Insitor Impact Asia, Beenext, and a group of Singapore-based family offices early last year when it invested US$4.2 million in SolarHome on a convertible note.

SolarHome was launched in 2017 seeded by fintech venture builder FORUM. With core operation in Myanmar, the company says that it has installed over 30,000 solar home systems in the country.

SolarHome is known for its Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) solar installation for off-grid homes in Southeast Asia.

Just a few days prior to funding announcement, SolarHome announced the appointment of Greg Krasnov, the chairman and founder of SolarHome, and CEO of FORUM as the company’s CEO, succeeding Ted Martynov. It also appointed Geert-Jan ten Hoonte, a senior adviser, board member, and angel investor in SolarHome as president and COO of the company.

Just in December last year, SolarHome raised an additional US$10 million debt financing from investors including Japan-based cross border crowdfunding platform Trine.

Also Read: Indonesian auto platform Mobilkamu raises Series A funding round

The company said it aims to reach up to 100,000 home installations by the end of 2019.
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Photo by Jason Blackeye on Unsplash

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Dana Cita will launch in the Philippines under localised moniker Bukas

Indonesia-based student loan platform Dana Cita announced that it has officially operated in the Philippines, as told by Tech In Asia. Dana Cita will launch in the country

Indonesian fintech startup Dana Cita has expanded to the Philippines. It will launch in the country under a localised brand name, Bukas, a Filipino-word that can mean “open” and “tomorrow”.

Also Read: Solar energy startup SolarHome secures additional US$1M from Trirec

Dana Cita is an online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform for students to get loans to fund their university degrees to short vocational courses studies. It was the third Indonesian startup to graduate from Y Combinator’s Silicon Valley accelerator program.

“Our platform’s loan default rate is at around 6 per cent, and we expect it to decrease as our portfolio grows,” said co-founder of Dana Cita, Naga Tan.

In the past, Dana Cita has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Spotify backer, GE32 Capital in January 2018. Just this January, the company reportedly secured funding from San Francisco-based Patamar Capital.

Also Read: Indonesian logistics startup Kargo raises US$7.6M in seed funding round

To date, Dana Cita claims to have borrowers from over 150 educational institutions across 18 of Indonesia’s provinces. Dana Cita, along with two other P2P lenders Aktivaku and Findaya, has formed a partnership with ride-hailing company Go-Jek last Septmeber.
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Image credit: Richard Lee / Flickr

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The lending space hasn’t been immune to the digital revolution

Twenty years ago, only the big banks had the resources and infrastructure to run a full-fledged lending operation. Now, there’s no need to open a bunch of brick-and-mortar branches or develop your own secure automation solution from scratch.

In fact, all it takes is sorting out documents with your local authorities, getting reliable software to run your business and taking care of the marketing side of things.

This type of environment has nurtured alternative lending into what it is today. Things like peer-to-peer lending, small to mid-sized loans and in-house financing all fall under the umbrella of digital and alternative lending.

And it’s taking the financial world by storm.

The reason why alternative lending is such a big deal — other than the fact that it makes the lives of regular borrowers easier and credit products more accessible — is that it can compete with the banks.

As of 2019, there are still 2.45 billion underbanked and unbanked people in the world. The more innovative lending companies there are, the faster this market will be covered and served.

As customer acquisition prices in developed countries continue to increase and technology becomes more and more accessible and affordable, global financial inclusion becomes a more realistic future scenario.

Due to today’s ease of starting a company, lending startups appear every day. The craze isn’t as all-consuming as ICOs in 2016-2018, but still, there are dozens of new companies fighting for big bank clientele.

But, not all of them are good.

That’s why I’ve decided to draw up a shortlist of lending startups worth paying attention to. Those that have proven their legitimacy, raised significant investments, moved the lending tech forward and offer an original concept.

These companies have shown that lending and investments have evolved to be effortless and stressless.

1. October EU

October.eu (formerly Lendix) is an innovative, easy-to-use, and intuitive peer-to-peer platform for lending and investing. With October, the process of getting a loan consists of three steps:

• Submit an application to see how much money you’re eligible for.
• Get a confirmation from October’s in-house analyst within 48 hours.
• Get money from an investor on your bank account within a week.

The company offers a great balance between the security of funds for lenders and the simple process for borrowers, which is reflected in reviews on Trustpilot. The peer-to-peer business model has already led the company to become one of the biggest SME lending marketplaces in Europe with more than EUR258 million (US$294 million) disbursed in funding.

2. Dharma

The Dharma team works on a platform that lets businesses build lending products on the Ethereum blockchain. Even though the crypto-hype is cooling down, there are still many potentially awesome applications for the distributed ledgers.

The goal of Dharma is to tokenize dept instruments which can have unlimited lending regardless of fiat currencies. Lenders can use the technology in a wide spectrum of ways, from peer-to-peer lending to corporate bonds or microloans.

There are several roles users can have within the system: debtors (people who need money), creditors (who look for attractive investment opportunities), underwriters (who help evaluate risks of a loan) and relayers (who help creditors find good opportunities).

Of course, blockchain-based lending isn’t for everyone. It suits specific use cases, where the distributed database addresses the needs of the system best.

3. Kabbage

The governing idea of Kabbage is that funding shouldn’t be complicated for businesses. So, the company makes an effort to provide entrepreneurs with up to US$250,000 in loans for which you can allegedly qualify for in just 10 minutes or at most, a day.

Also Read: How Echelon plans to FORGE corporate-startup relationships

That’s a big differentiator Kabbage has from many modern alternative lenders.

The company’s well-being was supported by a huge influx of US$250 million from SoftBank Group which is reasonable given Kabbage’s 115,000 customers and US$3.5 billion in loans.

The company really does offer great services and products which are reflected in their customer’s loyalty. Reportedly, an average customer uses Kabbage’s loans 20 times over three to four years compared to the industry average of 2.2 years.

4. TurnKey Lender

Founded in 2014, TurnKey Lender has already become the market’s leading intelligent all-in-one lending automation platform. It has probably already outgrown the term ‘startup’, but the company still functions as one.

The goal of the team (which I’m a proud member of) is to achieve fair and accessible lending on a global scale. The company uses AI and big data to automate and streamline all the elements of a lending process. Everything from origination to underwriting, to servicing and collection, is done by the easy-to-use system.

The company offers boxed and enterprise-based solutions for cloud lending, retail, payday loans, microfinance, lease finance, medical and dental, telecom. These solutions are suited for the alternative, SME, peer-to-peer and direct lenders, auto financing, mortgage, community banks and credit unions.

5. SoFi

The name SoFi comes from social finance and it’s another great example of a successful peer-to-peer lending operation.

Founded in 2011, the company is already a huge market player with US$30 billion worth of funded loans and 600 thousand members. The key to SoFi’s success lies in its efficiency and digitalisation. They make it possible for the company to make money while growing by keeping low rates and granting bigger savings to the clients.

Other than saving on brick-and-mortar branches and other operating expenses of an old-school lender, what makes this company special is their selective approach to borrowers. In their own decision-making process, the team takes into consideration some of the more unorthodox factors like estimated cash flow, career, and education.

As a result of smart risk mitigation, way more borrowers pay them back. And due to that, SoFi can reduce interest, grow a reliable and loyal customer base, and still — make money.

6. Affirm

Affirm goes a different route than most alternative lenders. The idea behind it is enabling in-house financing for retail businesses. So, the store’s customers get an instant loan with zero to 30 per cent interest rates.

It works like this: Affirm processes businesses orders, gives money to the seller, and then deals with the borrowers on their own. The idea has proven to work quite effectively with tons of retailers jumping on board.

7. Lendio

With quite a unique approach, Lendio offers small business an opportunity to get services and credit products from lenders with the best conditions. It’s a marketplace with more than 75 lenders on board. The system helps you work with any and all of them to make sure your business gets the best treatment.

Also Read: PropertyGuru goes beta with nifty augmented reality feature

The company strives to make the whole process of getting a loan as easy as possible, boiling it down to just 15 minutes. Lendio mainly focuses on small business owners which have led them to serve more than 40,000 loans to date.

The next big goal for a company is to help businesses get at least US$1 billion in loans each year.

Final thoughts

Of course, the end-users still have to be very careful in choosing the company they are going to be in debt with, but getting a safe low-interest loan has never been that easy.

Some say that these startups can become the new financial market moguls who control the rates and set their own monopolistic rules. But it’s very unlikely to happen due to the fact that the industry’s entry barrier has gotten a lot lower.

Rather, they are examples of how the whole economic system is moving in the right direction. More people have a chance to start a lending business, become an investor or get a loan on attractive terms.

There will be bumps on the road, but the trend we’re seeing with alternative lenders and lending platforms is a good one, both for communities and for the more general well-being of the society.

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Image Credits: golubovy

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

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Blockchain tech redefines the loyalty program ecosystem by providing a platform that interconnects different brands’ and organisations’ loyalty programs

As much as profitability is a paramount to businesses and marketers, securing customer loyalty is a very vital aspect that must never be ignored. Getting customers to purchase your products or patronise your brand once isn’t good enough, the goal is to ensure that they remain loyal to your brand, evident in repeat purchases. A customer once loyal to a brand has the potential to attract other potential customers to the brand.

In order to maintain customer loyalty, marketers employ several promotional strategies one of which is the development of loyalty programs and rewards. With this system customers get cards and earn loyalty points with which they can use to get incentives or rewards from the same brand. This reward system is being practiced globally by thousands of brands in an effort to maintain loyalty of customers to their brands.

Whilst creating loyalty programs are essential for brands as part of gaining competitive edge, one must not also overlook amount of resources these brands put into these programs. The important question here then becomes a question of effectiveness and efficiency. Do these loyalty programs generate the leads they were meant to generate? How profitable are these programs to the organisation? Do they really stimulate loyalty to justify the amount of resources expended?

Effectiveness of Loyalty Programs

A recent survey carried out in the US showed that average consumers are only active in 6 out of 13 loyalty programs they sign up. This in essence means the rest of the programs they sign up with end up being dormant and not effective in stimulating their loyalty. This is mirrored round the world as various brands and organisations have developed thousands of loyalty programs with lots of consumers signing up for these programs and only using up about half of them.

When loyalty programs are signed up for and not used, that only signifies one thing — ineffectiveness. This in other words, show there’s something missing that needs to be addressed. Customers need to go along with what these programs were designed for.

Within Canada and US alone, there’s over $100 billion worth of loyalty points that have remained unused. This shouldn’t sound strange as it’s no news how customers don’t engage most of these loyalty programs. A coupling fact is also the issue loyalty cards given to the customers. Each brand has its own specific loyalty card which in turn piles up in the hands or wallet of the customer. This makes it even more difficult for customers to keep track of what card they have and how much point they’ve earned.

It’s also worthy to note that most of these programs, if not all are exclusive to each brand. This implies, each loyalty program is specific to the brand and cannot be used across other brands to obtain rewards. Points earned on one brand are not transferable to other programs hence, the consumer is not fully motivated or stimulated to make use of them especially when most of the points are not enough to claim any reward of some good value.

The effectiveness of loyalty programs can only be enhanced if measures are adequately taken to stimulate consumer engagement with the programs and also create the possibility of universal usage of loyalty points.

Also read: The art of customer loyalty

A Blockchain Window

Since the advent of blockchain, there has been a myriad of applications and developments leveraging on the technology in many different fields and sectors. The loyalty sector however, is not being left out as blockchain company Appsolutely has developed ways leveraging blockchain technology to redefine the loyalty program ecosystem. The framework not just only ensures consumer engagement with loyalty programs but also a platform that makes room for interconnectivity across different brands’ and organisations’ loyalty programs.

The company recently created a universal mobile app that enables users earn and redeem points anywhere, anytime — LoyalWallet. Their aim is to create the world’s largest loyalty network where points from thousands of different brands are interchangeable.

This will in a greater way stimulate more consumer engagement with these programs and a better incentive to use up loyalty points. When consumers know they can use points across different brands, they remain motivated to keep track of points and also use them up.

This technology has opened opportunities for business collaborations with companies in multiple industries, as well as international recognition. The company, based in the Philippines, became the trusted loyalty system provider for the country’s biggest brands.

With the platform, all consumers need to do is download the universal customer loyalty app for free. Users can earn credits when they transact with participating merchants. Instead of traditional loyalty points, they will get credits that will also accepted at other brands within the network. The credits can also be used to purchase discounted vouchers and coupons worldwide. Users can use their LCredits to purchase miles and vouchers from global brands like Walmart, Amazon, Starbucks and several others.

The development of this framework is indeed laudable as marketers and brands will have full knowledge of the effectiveness of loyalty programs whilst consumers will be more inclined to increase their level of engagement with the loyalty programs, thus accessing rewards. With blockchain as the backbone for this framework, transparency, security and interoperability are some of the features rest assured will be fully guaranteed.

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Photo by Thirteen .J on Unsplash

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Lens allows people to point-and-shoot at physical buildings and learn more about the listings inside the complex

One of my most enjoyable/depressing pastimes is to look around neighbourhoods I enjoy and imagine living in various apartments in the area.

Typically, I convince myself the apartments are unaffordable, sigh deeply, and go back to my avocado toast and kombucha.

Normal people search for apartments is by combing through the internet. They try and find a place that fits both budget and lifestyle. One reality of this search strategy is that it will inevitably require a tour of the flat with the property owner or agent.

This can be a burden for people in the early stages of finding a place to live. The process will involve a full-tour of the complex, even if the person knows almost immediately the place won’t work. Plus, if you get a bad agent…oofta…enjoy zoning-out during the 2-hour sales pitch.

For people still in this ‘hunting’ part of the process, PropertyGuru has introduced a new product that helps people mix the online and offline.

For Hari V. Krishnan, the CEO of PropertyGuru, it came down to a theory that most of our technology is filtered through our cameras. While smartphones are great, it is the cameras that transformed smartphones from a tech-upgrade to a fundamentally life-altering tool.

So, as the boss of PropertyGuru, it would make sense that his company also looked towards the camera.

“Why wouldn’t you use a camera as a discovery-maker as well? Wouldn’t it be great to take out our camera, point it at a building that you are interested in and discover the listings that are inside?” he asked during the demo.

Also Read: This Filipino startup turns your traffic stress into money

Called ‘Lens’, the product is an augmented reality feature that allows people to move their phone camera around a given area and see what apartments are available.

e27 took the tool for a spin (it is in beta mode) and the word that came to mind was “nifty”. I can’t call Lens an app (because it is a feature within the PropertyGuru app), but it is minimal and functional, unobtrusive and playful, specific in its use but weirdly addicting.

It is remarkably fun to stand on a street corner in Singapore and started moving the phone around, checking out the gossip of what properties are vacant and which require a waiting list.

As I hovered over buildings that looked particularly intriguing, a little home would appear that would show the number of units that were available (some buildings had a shockingly hight amount of vacancies). Then, if I clicked the home, I could get more details about the specific units, like the asking price.

Here is the PropertyGuru advertisement video to help visualise the product:

 

 

The hope of Lens is to minimise or eliminate a common process:

1. Person visits friend’s apartment.
2. Person asks about pricing, neighbourhood and amenities.
3. Person then goes online and types in various search terms to pinpoint the property.
4. Person then sees if they can afford a place.

With Lens, a person can just point their phone camera at a building they like and see if they want to pursue it further.

Going Beta

PropertyGuru Lens is currently in an invite-only beta launch phase. The plan is launching to the Singapore public in the near future.

While Lens showed a lot of potential, it was definitely a beta product. The tech was a bit clunky at times and the loading process was not instant. Occasionally it felt as if Lens was, “bumping into bugs” while I was using it.

During the demo, PropertyGuru was aware that Lens was not perfect, and released it to a bunch of journalists anyways.

Krishnan actually made the beta-phase a talking-point for a good chunk of the demo.

The logic was to encourage a culture whereby Southeast Asian tech companies start releasing beta products fairly often. By launching beta versions of features, it allows users to stress test the product, test load management and discover unforeseen bugs.

It also facilitates a corporate culture and customer expectation that experimentation is part of what happens in a given company. If nothing gets released before it is “perfect”, bugs will get hyper-criticised by the user-base. But, if a company consistently releases beta products, customers will understand it is a tool to play with and will be a lot better 6 months after the beta.

Plus, it is just fun to play around with a product that is not fully actualised. It is a nice change of pace.

According to a PropertyGuru spokesperson, PropertyGuru has received positive feedback from Lens and “is learning so much more”, which is point of the launch strategy.

The final imperfection that has to be mentioned is that the AR does not show the specific location of the flat (aka the floor). This won’t change in the future as privacy concerns outweigh convenience in this instance.

Overall, the bugs never overwhelmed what is a delightful product. Lens won’t alter the trajectory of PropertyGuru, but it will bring smiles to the faces of its customers.

Also Read: Bangkok TOP100 champion is bringing smiles across Thailand

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