The Digital Revolution is upon us. It’s changing everything, and it starts with data. It’s changing the world’s economy and bringing new leaders into the light, influencing international relations on a global scale, and creating disputes over data rights. A shift in power and thinking has arrived.
With new data comes new opportunity. When done correctly, this newly-available information architecture can help some of our generation’s brightest minds make an impact that could last lifetimes. That is what is happening in Southeast Asia.
Solve a problem and fix it. In the simplest sense, that’s what it comes down to. When brilliant minds sit around a table, talk on the phone, or ideate a business idea from across the globe, the inevitable beginning includes one straightforward question: What’s the problem in my neighbourhood, city, or country, and how can I fix it?
Make money, and you’ve answered the question correctly. Make money and improve your neighbourhood, city, country, or planet while you do it, and you’re using the Digital Revolution to change your world for the better.
Here are six Asian startups that are doing it right.
The R Collective, Hong Kong
Born from Redress, a charity founded in Hong Kong in 2007 to battle waste in the fashion industry, The R Collective employs sustainability-minded producers, designers, and marketers to create fresh clothing and fashion designs using end-of-life upcycled materials.
The R Collective rescues fabric and other materials close to destruction, reuses even the smallest scraps that don’t make it into specific designs in other projects, and reimagines fashion processes to give its clientele a new outlook on the industry with creativity and innovation.
The result is a 15 per cent decrease in fabric cutting waste when compared to traditional practices.
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The fashion and textile industry is the second-largest polluter globally and produced 2.1 million tons of CO2 in 2018, approximately four per cent of the planet’s emissions.
By pursuing a dedicated and driven approach to waste reduction in the fashion industry, The R Collective is doing its part to drive the industry as a whole toward circular fashion, a bold initiative championed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Design Strategies.
Freedom Cups, Singapore
There are 1.2 billion women worldwide who do not have access to or cannot afford necessary feminine hygiene products. Freedom Cups, a revolutionary company founded by three sisters, seeks to end the period problem worldwide by selling Freedom Cups to women who can afford them and giving them to women who can’t.
The business model is simple: for every one Freedom Cup purchased, one is donated to a person in need.
In addition to providing a humanitarian solution to a global problem, Freedom Cups also make a sizable difference in waste reduction. The cups are reusable, can be used for up to 12 hours at a time, last up to 10 years, are relatively inexpensive, and consist of medical-grade silicone. One Freedom Cup equals approximately 5,000 regular pads or tampons per woman. That’s a lot of saved waste.
Freedom Cups are available in single cups or a package of three. The company also offers a variety of other cleansing products, such as liquid soap and wipes.
Freedom Cups have partnered with women organisations around Africa and Asia to give back to low-income communities.
Impact Terra, Myanmar
Founded in 2016 by Erwin Sikma, Impact Terra provides data-based services to Myanmar’s farmers in a way never done before.
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Over 70 per cent of Myanmar’s population is directly or indirectly affected by the agriculture industry. Now, with Impact Terra’s Golden Paddy Platform, farmers can get customised and real-time updates about weather patterns and local crop prices, as well as access to favourable and formal financing opportunities at reasonable rates.
Based on where a user lives, Golden Paddy will give actionable suggestions about market changes, updated farming best practices, and tips on overcoming climate change in the region.
Impact Terra’s mission is to digitally empower smallholder farmers worldwide by offering their data services to all corners of the country. Approximately 80 per cent of Burmese farmers have an internet connection on their phones, giving them up-to-the-minute status updates.
Impact Terra’s impact goes deeper than merely giving information to farmers. The benefits are far-reaching and wide-ranging in a country that saw nearly 25 per cent of its population living at or below the poverty line as recently as 2017. The Golden Paddy Platform lifts people out of poverty by reducing crop and food waste with its information architecture and availability.
It eliminates hunger by increasing food availability and informing about sustainable food production. It empowers thousands of women by allowing them access to the same information as men farmers. It creates climate awareness through its market research, financing opportunities, crop recommendations, and weather updates.
Lumitics, Singapore
Lumitics aims to reduce food waste by up to 30 per cent, cut yearly food costs up to eight per cent, and drastically lower users’ environmental footprint with its seamless food waste solution: Insight.
Intended for restaurants, hotels, casinos, cruise ships, and airliners, Insight offers data analysis with the push of a button to optimise production, preserve yield rates, engineer menus and provide a complete outline for smarter purchasing.
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It’s simple: attach Insight to any rubbish bin in the kitchen, toss leftover food inside, press the button, and Insight tracks, identifies, measures, and quantifies the amount and type of food waste.
Co-founder and CEO Rayner Loi said the team has partnered with some of the world’s largest hotel chains and hopes to expand its reach quickly to maximise food waste reduction.
Over 1.6 billion tons of food is wasted each year globally, including just over 763,000 tons in Singapore alone. That equals to approximately six per cent of all emitted greenhouses gases during a calendar year.
More data gives business owners and corporations the tools necessary to make environmentally-friendly and cost-effective food waste decisions.
BukuWarung – Indonesia
BukuWarung gives the power back to the people. For the estimated 60 million micro-merchants dotting Indonesian cities, towns, and villages, BukuWarung allows small businesses to use digital and straightforward bookkeeping services.
Because many small business owners throughout Indonesia use low-end smartphones and flip phones, the app is ultra-lightweight to allow online and offline ledger editing.
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Since BukuWarung’s initial launch, co-founders Chinmay Chauhan and Abhinay Peddisetty say the business has more than 200,000 active monthly users.
But BukuWarung has loftier goals set for the near future, including a full suite of financial services. As COVID-19 ravages the world, Indonesian consumers continue to demand contactless payments and instant payouts to optimise comfort during financial transactions. Investors believe BukuWarung fills this financial service need for the country.
On September 29, the company secured an investment round led by several prominent angel investors such as Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen and Uber CPO Scott Belsky.
BukuWarung hopes that it will reach all 60 million businesses across the country and become an all-in-one solution for business financial needs in time. So far, the company has 600,000 registered merchants across 750 cities, towns, and villages.
iHandal Energy Solutions, Malaysia
iHandal CEO Aaron Patel came up with the idea for his energy solutions business when he found the potential to save over 90 per cent of thermal emissions as a 15-year-old boy in high school. The idea came out of necessity after his dad suffered a stroke, and the boy had to help make money for the family.
iHandal offers arecyclable energy solution that takes wasted energy from businesses, hotels, and corporations and turns it into sustainable heating and cooling.
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iHandal captures excess energy and wasted heat, compresses it with its heat fuse technology, and channels it back into the building to different processes, saving money and reducing emissions.
The Malaysian-based company will first complete an energy audit for potential clients for free and offer a guaranteed amount of savings. The system will then run until it reaches the agreed-upon thermal energy cost savings.
iHandal’s vision is to develop innovative solutions to create a better environment for future generations. It aims to save 200 million tons of emissions by 2030, the rough equivalent of 42 million passenger vehicles per year.
The company has partnered with the Ritz Carlton Millenia in Singapore, the Tune Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, and the Equatorial Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, among others. The company has a 60 per cent market share in Malaysia and has contracts in Australia, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and the US.
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