It is absolutely essential that you create an effective web traffic strategy that funnels in consumers from the very beginning

Launching a startup comes with a long list of challenges and obstacles. Finances and resources are often tight and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish everything that needs to be done.

However, none of these issues can be solved unless the business is bringing in enough revenue to fund new ideas and hire more employees to get the work done.

One of the biggest startup mistakes that many entrepreneurs are guilty of is assuming that their web traffic will naturally increase over time.

According to statistical analysis, the leading cause of startup failure is incompetence and the inability to correctly implement essential strategies that support a growing business.

This is why it is so important that your startup has a concrete plan in place to support web traffic.

While some customers may come across your website through organic search, you cannot rely on this small segment to support your startup.

Let’s discuss four smart strategies startups can use to begin increasing those traffic numbers.

1. Post customer reviews everywhere

Customer reviews are not just a good sales tool to build confidence with customers; they can actually have a significant impact on your site’s searchability and keyword optimisation.

According to recent research from Moz, the presence and quantity of customer reviews make up over 15 per cent of the ranking signals that Google uses to determine SERP ranking.

Customer reviews are often rich in long-tail keywords that are going to be commonly searched by customers. Most search queries include descriptive words that are also used by customers to describe their experiences.

For example, a common search may include phrases like, “best deal” or “cheapest option” or “high quality, low price.” Customer reviews tend to contain phrases like these, which can help to boost your site’s ranking by matching up to query keywords.

Listing reviews on your own website are clearly important, but it’s also smart to include customer reviews on third-party sites as well.

For example, the reviews of Trustpilot are published on additional third-party sites to increase the brand’s searchability. Each third-party site also includes links directly to Trustpilot’s homepage to help drive in additional traffic, specifically from comparison shoppers who are weighing their options with competing products.

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2. Build a hefty external link strategy

According to the previously mentioned Moz studyLink, signals made up the second largest portion of Google ranking signals — which is why it is so critical for startups to get their name and links published on multiple sites.

Also Read: Hong Kong crypto exchange Gatecoin ordered to close by courts

Google also bases some of the credibility of your website on the number of external links, particularly if they are coming from high-ranking sites, so getting product features on websites or writing content for other blogs can drive traffic and improve rankings.

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However, it is imperative to address the importance of link relevancy.

Gaining high-quality backlinks from sites closely related to your content needs to be a top focus.

The days of “All links are good links” are well behind us, so just scattering links across the internet and seeing what sticks is simply not a smart strategy.

First and foremost, it is important that your startup is able to clearly define the brand and its target audience. What are the key areas of focus, what industry(s) are you speaking directly to, and what types of customers are interested in what your business has to offer?

From there, you can start to seek out other websites that speak to your audience and whose content is also in alignment with your brand.

Be sure that you are in-the-know with your brand mentions and links within these sites to ensure that they are natural and effective, not overly promotional.

3. Be smart with social media

Many startups make social media a key component of their marketing strategy, and wisely so.

However, there’s more to it than just consistent posting.

Be sure that you are also following accounts that hit your target audience, such as the right influencers, related products, and blogs/accounts that are followed by your targeted audience.

This will help to establish brand associations that will lead to curiosity from other consumers to check out your brand’s account.

Of course, brand awareness can also be grown organically by generating content based on your customers. User Generated Content (UGC) is highly influential and engaging because it is unfiltered and authentic.

When the baby fashion brand Freshly Picked was just a new startup, it kept its focus on building trust with their customers (primarily new moms) by sharing customer stories from the very beginning. Nearly half of their Instagram posts are pictures shared by customers through branded hashtags.

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This is a great way to establish meaningful connections with your current audience and connect the brand with new audiences through meaningful and shareable content.

4. Prioritise personal branding

Putting your brand’s name or CEO’s name out there as a thought leader or expert in the field can build brand recognition, which will lead to more interest in your startup/website.

Also Read: Introducing our 12 most-read contributors so far in 2019

This is done through smart personal branding, which can be established through methods like featured interviews on industry podcasts, writing e-books and selling online courses, participating in webinars or conferences as a speaker, and so on.

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As a startup leader, it is important that you are getting validation from industry experts.

Having credible people or organisations recognise your expertise in the field can do wonders for your brand’s reputation.

It can also impact your startup’s E-A-T score, a subject to one of Google’s recent algorithm changes to help determine a site’s content quality and relevancy.

By getting other high-authority figures to vouch for your brand, it can influence this score and boost your site’s ranking on the SERPs.

Conclusion

A strong, steady stream of website traffic is something that must be built over time.

There is no magical formula that can guarantee instant results, but these strategies that have an influence on ranking factors with Google and establishing brand recognition can certainly help to lay the foundation.

Be sure that you take this goal to heart from the very beginning and stay focused on attracting customers through meaningful content, strategic placement, and trustworthy influence in the industry.

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Image Credits: artens123

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

 

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It is the proverbial million-dollar question: “what does the customer want?”

Every brand has gone to great lengths to understand their customers’ behaviours. A business may have a great product or service, but the challenge lies in understanding how it meets their needs better than any other options available to them.

Today, the experience a brand gives its customers during the purchasing journey is often what matters most. Instead of brands telling customers what they ought to be buying, today the customer tells the brand what their preferences are.

Customers today are in an always-on world; the way we live, consume and play has undergone a tidal wave of change.

As a Forrester study shows, mobile subscriptions are set to cross 5.5 billion by 2022. The proliferation of smartphones, combined with the fact that almost 70 per cent of all digital media is consumed on a mobile device, means the customer of today is used to having information at their fingertips.

For example, entertainment is no longer limited to the television in the living room. An eMarketer forecast says that as the year comes to a close, “nearly 55 per cent of internet users will be active on chat apps. Watching and sharing videos is a major feature on chat apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and WeChat…”

The impact of social media

For those born after the early 80s, known as digital-natives including the millennials and Gen Z, living in an always-on world is the new normal.

Digital immigrants are also quickly changing their lifestyles and preferences given the ease of access to internet and smart devices.

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

Digital native brands like Amazon, Walmart, Uber and Airbnb have led the way in changing customer behaviour. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and a multitude of sharing and social apps have transformed customer perspectives and behaviours.

They have taught the customer that brands can reach them anywhere anytime. Customers now expect the same kind of efficiency and seamlessness that digital brands have offered them.

Accenture research, titled Customer 2020: Are You Future-Ready or Reliving the Past, points out that consumers “seek quicker resolution and fewer hassles — and if companies don’t move faster, they’ll move on.”

The omnichannel experience

Conventionally, a customer used to go through a journey of discovery, consideration, evaluation, buying, using and (hopefully) loyalty in the past.

This path is now replaced by a model where the journey is more dynamic and free-flowing.

There are multiple touch points for the customer to engage with. They could be using traditional channels for discovery and then shifting to digital for purchase.

This is where it becomes imperative for brands to provide an omnichannel customer experience.

Customers can abandon one channel and continue their journey on another and now expect a seamless connection and ease of use across those channels.

Often, a key pain point for customers is a poor user interface, and lack of speed in delivering information. A customer expects a company to not just deliver information but deliver it in real-time, anytime.

The other common pain points for customers include not having enough information, and a lack of personalisation. It shows that the brand does not care enough and has not listened to the customer and anticipated their needs.

Customers expect brands to identify how they interact and engage in a digital environment and provide the right channel and technology to connect.

The role of technology

Customers and brands are now acclimatising themselves with artificial intelligence to enhance their purchasing journeys.

Chatbots and voice assistants come into the picture, among an array of technological conveniences. An Aspect Software Research report said that 44 per cent of consumers prefer interacting with chatbots over human agents.

Chatbots deliver speedy solutions to the customer while helping agents boost their productivity.

Also Read: How to rev up & ramp up the traffic at your startup’s site

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is particularly useful for customers who believe in self-service. Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) can also help in intuiting and solving a customer’s problems at a crucial point in the buying funnel.

The use of Virtual Reality (VR), Application Programming Interface (APIs) and Internet of Things (IoT) will also go a long way in improving the customer experience.

Customer trust – a benchmark

Despite the major technological shifts, customers still need to know that the brand’s values they choose to purchase from align with their own.

They instinctively understand what the brand stands for and whether they deliver on promises made, as they move through the various stages of customer experience.

Customer-brand relationship cannot be highlighted enough.

The recently released Zendesk Benchmark Guide for Enterprise 2018 offers insights on both digital native and digital transformations (ie traditional enterprises).

The age of a company is irrelevant to the approach it takes towards providing an enhanced customer experience.

The brands that emerge on top are those who use technology to give agents the information to move fast and maintain consistency and context over channels at the same time. In turn, this is what helps build customer trust.

No matter what stage of the journey a customer is at, it is important to look at their experience through their eyes, and not through the brand’s.

In a future silo-free digital ecosystem, the reins are always in the customer’s hands.

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Image Credits: puhhha

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

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Maideasy claims to have cleaned over 70K houses in Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley and manage thousands of houses monthly

On a fine day in 2015, techie Azrul Rahim found out that miscreants attempted a break-in at his house in Cyberjaya. Investigations led the police to an illegal and part-time foreign house maid that he had employed a few months ago.

This was shocking to him.

“These are the guys whose phone numbers you can see on the roadside across Malaysia,” Azrul tells me. “I am not saying all of them are bad, but there is no way to verify their credentials and background. After this incident, I have never picked up a single phone number from the roadside for a house maid ever.”

As Azrul explained, booking a trustworthy house maid is quite a cumbersome task in Malaysia. You need to make multiple calls to the service provider to check the availability of house maids and compare their prices. “On top of that, you still have no idea who is coming to our house and whether he had  dubious past etc. This is really annoying,” he adds.

This bitter experience took the best out of him, and he together with his wife Meriza Anna and friend Brian Wee launched an online platform to book trained and trustworthy housemaids in Malaysia.

The trio started Maideasy in late 2015 after a period of brainstorming and experimentation. It started off as a marketplace. Days passed and they realised that a marketplace model would not allow them to fine-tune the services the way they wanted.

Also Read: This startup could spoil the holiday you obtained by submitting fake medical certificate

That’s when they decided to start recruiting their own cleaners.

“Maideasy now follows a managed marketplace model for house maids and cleaners. All the cleaners listed on our platform are recruited after a rigorous interviewing, filtering and training process. They are fully trained on various equipment and technique to give your house the best treatment possible,” he claims.

How it works

Download the Maideasy app, enter your address and select the exact date and hour that you need the service, and the cleaning service professional will come to to your house on the day. The services are available seven days a week, and you can choose the cleaning time between 9AM to 8PM.

Using the app, you can track the progress of the booking, and whether the crew is on their way or has already arrived, etc. You can also chat with them in real time and match their photos as well.

Maideasy offers three types of services — basic home cleaning, move-in/out cleaning (when you move into/ out of a house), and spring cleaning (annual cleaning). You are free to choose between one-time cleaning or weekly cleaning services. If for any reason you are not satisfied with the service, you can give a call to Maideasy’s customer service. It also offers a few other home services such as cloth ironing, kitchen and events help, as well as packing/unpacking services.

Maideasy covers almost all areas in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Azrul claims that its professionals have already cleaned over 70,000 houses of various sizes in Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley, and it manages thousands of houses every single month.

The basic service starts at RM25 per hour. This can stretch up to RM760 per hour depending on various factors such as the session, size of the house/apartment, and the type of cleaning. Azrul says that while there are some last-minute booking charges, the company doesn’t charge additional money for weekend bookings.

Maideasy also recently introduced an Elite Membership plan at RM88 per year. This allows loyal customers to make a booking at a discounted price, with zero surcharges. Rahim says the take-up has been encouraging with hundreds of signups so far.

Similar to Grab

In a way, Maideasy is similar to Grab, claims Azrul. Once a customer makes the booking, the system will work find the right cleaning crew for him/her. However, unlike the ride-hailing platform, a service like Maideasy needs a more personalised touch to make sure we find the right crew for you. Once you found your match, you can schedule a weekly session with them or book them on an ad-hoc basis, depending on their availability, Azrul shares.

In his opinion, Malaysia’s dependency on domestic helps is on the rise. As of now, over 700,000 foreign and domestic workers are employed in the country and are collectively drawing over RM1 billion on a monthly basis.

“While this number doesn’t translate directly into the part-time helper model, we have seen solid demand for the service. As concerns over cost, privacy and security grew, we expect more customer to consider part-timers instead of hiring a full-time foreign maids,” Azrul says.

“On the supply side, we also recognise that doing cleaning work is a job that provides a decent pay. With overflowing foreign workers, this is actually a great part-time option for those willing to roll up their sleeves,” he adds.

The challenges

The beginning was not easy for the co-founders, admits Azrul. Convincing Malaysians to take up the cleaning job was hard. Malaysians, he observes, view cleaning as the job of foreigners. It took a lot of hard work for the founders to change this perception.

Talking about the current major challenges, he says: “Balancing demand and supply is another tricky issue for a platform like ours. It is too easy to have too many customers and too little cleaners or have too many cleaners and not enough job for them. Neither is a good situation to be in as it frustrates everyone.”

Kaodim and ServisHero are other players in this domain in Malaysia. Azrul says while these two firms are often considered competitors to Maideasy, they can also be a great partners, serving and educating the market. He also says Maideasy offers a different experience than other platforms that cover a multitude of services.

When it comes to offline, the company is competing with black market and foreign workers.

A self-funded startup, Maideasy raised a small round of investment from Axiata Digital Innovation Fund in 2017. The venture is currently on the lookout for long-term, strategic partners and investors.

“We believe we have an edge over our rivals when it comes to understanding the market requirements, as well as having the operational excellence to scale. On top of that, as one of our key missions is to provide employment to the community, Maideasy is a great opportunity for investors looking to make a real and meaningful impact on the society,” he shares.

1RM=US$0.24

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If Singapore is truly going to embrace a culture of failure, then bike-sharing should be remembered fondly

Due to a host of factors, I live in a neighbourhood that is about as far away from the Singapore city center as is functionally reasonable. A quick check of Google Maps suggests I live closer to JB Sentral than SG Central.

I bring this up because, as you start to get out of the main part of Singapore, the remains of the city-state’s failed bike-sharing experiment are still visible.

A walk in the park will still reveal the rusted-out skeletons of MoBike, ofo and the rare oBike. Even if a Good Samaritan wanted to clean them up, the bikes are so decomposed that it would require proper safety gear to avoid getting infected.

In some ways, these skeletons are a perfect metaphor for the bike-sharing industry as a whole: While most of the city can sweep away the problem and move on, there will still be a few stray reminders of the failed experiment.

Bike-sharing is now a “white whale” economy. It is ann idea that theoretically could transform a city (and make the Founder fabulously rich). It SHOULD work right? And yet, time and time again, it has failed.

In the US, bike-sharing has failed multiple times, but American car culture is so strong that it does not inherently doom the global industry.

For the past few years, it seemed like the Chinese ecosystem had figured it out. Even better, they had managed to outsource the service abroad. Sure, the companies were losing a lot of money, but ride-hailing companies also lose a lot money and they seem stable(ish).

Then it crashed, hard and fast.

Justin Hall, a Partner at Golden Gate Ventures, told Singapore Business Review, “I would say the poor unit economics, combined with high burn and tricky cash-flow issues, plus an uncertain, often oppressive, regulatory environment made the model untenable in Singapore.”

Also Read: Bike-sharing startup Ofo terminates staffs over the phone without compensation

Now, the issue is whether Singapore will over-learn its lesson for the future. Will it embrace the death of bike-sharing as an example of the failure that we so often promote in the media? Or, is failing still unacceptable?

Bike-sharing was essentially a city-wide experiment, and, like all experiments, it was imperfect. Most obviously, it took public litter to another level. For tree-huggers like myself, the sheer volume of bikes being produced (and discarded) was disheartening.

But, overall, the results of the experiment was still a net-positive. To exemplify, let’s take a very broad tour of the history:

The launch of bike-sharing in the city was like a flash flood; one moment everyone was just zooming around on their US$500 electric scooters, the next, they were dodging people who were clearly riding a bicycle for the first time in years. The first few months were a bit overwhelming, but they were not necessarily bad.

At its peak, bike-sharing was everywhere, and, in my opinion, had a net-positive effect in Singapore. Yes, the system received legitimate criticism about wastefulness, civic responsibility and general selfishness, but it also allowed groups of friends (oftentimes teenagers) to bike around the city, it helped people exercise more and the bicycles presented an alternative to using cars.

Most interestingly, bike-sharing companies became a legitimate last-mile logistics service providers. Delivery people could save themselves the upfront cost of purchasing a scooter or a bicycle and use bike-sharing to speed up their service.

The end of bike-sharing was an unmitigated disaster. Who knows if the Founders of oBike will ever be allowed back into Singapore and ofo was forced to fire their entire island-wide operations (they  handled it terribly). MoBike exited the city with its reputation in tact, but they still left.

The end of bike-sharing in Singapore was a bit like a relationship; even if the breakup was ugly, it does not mean the entire love story was ugly.

When founders, investors and media talk about embracing failure, this is what it looks like. It looks like broken bicycles, fired employees and, in the worst example, shady business practices.

If we are serious about being more tolerant of failure, then we need to give bike-sharing a pass. It needs to be remembered fondly as a quirky moment in local history that sort-of, kind-of, but probably-actually-did-not succeed.

Plus, what if it had worked? What if the original flood had died-down to reveal a sustainable river? What if the Singaporean culture began to rely on these bikes in the same way it does ride-hailing? Then, assuming that happened, what if it helped fix the city’s diabetes problem? Or lower its emissions output? That would probably be worth the risk, right?

Also Read: Introducing our 12 most-read contributors so far in 2019

Moving forward, we are in a nice little learning moment for future experiments.

Maybe this impossible burger thing will explode (although it is really expensive). Maybe bike-sharing was just the first step towards scooter-sharing (let’s pray not). Most likely, nobody actually knows what will hit because it is practically impossible to predict.

Whatever it is, when the next popular trend is forced upon us civilians, let’s just let it go for awhile.

I would guess we would discover that the end result is not that bad.

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Saphron aims to make viable financial protection and assistance accessible by helping clients to develop technologies that transform consumer experiences

Saphron, a Philippines-based insurance technology company, has secured SGD1.35 million (US$1 million) in seed funding from Sage, a VC fund that targets fintech startups, and Talino Labs, a venture lab that supports companies engaged in digital transformation.

As per a press note, Saphron, which is incorporated in Singapore, aims to make viable financial protection and assistance accessible by helping clients to develop technologies that transform consumer experiences.

Talino Labs Venture Director Micaela Beltran, said: “There are still large parts of the Southeast Asian population that are unprepared financially — be it in terms of savings or insurance. Filling this ‘protection and financial gap’ will help the ASEAN achieve its goals for financial inclusion and mobility, as both finance and insurance play complementary roles in national and regional economies.”

Also Read: Vertex Ventures SE Asia, India led US$10M funding for insurtech startup Sunday

“There is a lot of growth potential in Southeast Asia, but for industries to leapfrog and become even more relevant to today’s consumers, it’s important to combine the latest technology with in-depth industry expertise. We are excited to have Saphron launch transformative platforms that solve real needs, by way of intelligent, cutting-edge tech in partnership with established companies in the region,” she added.

Insurance penetration in the ASEAN is just at 3.4 per cent of GDP versus the global average of 6.3 per cent. This gap means that millions of families still do not have any form of protection or financial assistance, leaving them vulnerable against life and health risks as well as natural disasters pervasive in different countries in the region.

According to one of the world’s leading reinsurers, Swiss Re, families in the ASEAN “bear 35 per cent to 75 per cent of their total medical expenses” with the exception of Brunei (6 per cent) and Thailand (12 per cent), versus families in Japan, the UK, or the US, which bear only 11 to 15 per cent of their total medical expenses.

“There is a serious need to make insurance radically accessible around the region by helping address the risks that set back millions of vulnerable families and drive them further into debt,” said Saphron Founder and CTO Francisco “Kiko” Reyes, Jr. “We built Saphron to help companies drive financial inclusion and change the current reality in the region, by using robust technology to bring to the market financial protection and assistance that’s accessible, ultra-convenient, easy to purchase, and simple to claim.”

According to Reyes, the company’s dream is to create a digital experience for the end users, from searching for a suitable cover, to convenience in payments, to simplicity in claims processing. The platform will be optimised with Artificial Intelligence and real-time data analytics for underwriting and customer service.

Also Read: Fintech startup AND Systems gets US$2.8M to grow in the Philippines, Myanmar

“It will have a multi-platform payment gateway that can accept payments from mobile payment platforms, which is now the payment method of choice in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. And we will build a blockchain-based know your consumer system with biometric identity verification for secure payments processing,” Reyes added.

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The 200-seat co-working space is located in Blk 71 Launchpad at One-North

Innovation House Finland, which provides a soft-landing hub for Finnish startups in Asia and a gateway for Asian entrepreneurs in Finland, in partnership with Singapore-based VC firm Mercatus Capital, has opened a co-working space in the city-state.

Singapore’s is Innovation House’s third facility globally. The 200-seat co-working space is located in Blk 71 Launchpad @One-North. Membership options include the use of co-working facilities with services, such as inclusion in the local networks, social media marketing and being part of a collaborative community.

Members can also avail Eight Mercatus‘s (a startup platform launched recently by the VC firm) services such as searching for financial channels and partnerships, marketing and branding, recruitment, legal and patent affairs in the Asian market.

Innovation House was founded by Petra Erätuli-Kola and Katja Aalto. Its first facility opened in Otaniemi, Espoo in 2017, followed by another in Kallio, Helsinki in September 2018. The company hosts a community of more than 100 companies and over 600 members across all its facilities. Co-founder Erätuli-Kola said: “Innovation House’s long-term vision is to create a new culture of mutual collaboration and assistance between startups and corporations.”

Also Read: The co-working experience is not just about space but more about community

Launched in 2006, Mercatus Capital is an accelerator and incubator specialising in seed and startup investments, with the aim to enable and propel early-stage companies to grow beyond their local markets. It has funded 50 businesses in APAC.

Eight Mercatus is a startup platform that provides the key elements startups need for growth, including connectivity, funding, recruitment and crucial mentorship from well-established business leaders, and important entrepreneurship training. It also provides startups with access to an extensive network of connections and its business know-how.

Innovations House Singapore’s CEO Pete Karumo said: “The most pressing need for companies who come to Singapore are contacts and local business know-how. Innovation House, together with Eight Mercatus, is able to provide the services to help entrepreneurs get a strong start in Singapore because of Mercatus Capital’s local knowledge and strong network in Asia Pacific.”

“He further explained that because of the team’s strong entrepreneurial backgrounds, they are able to understand the issues their clients face and introduce innovative solutions to overcome them. The combination of their services, local expertise and investment backing makes their concept unique, distinguishing themselves from other established operators,” Karumo added.

Singapore has become increasingly successful at creating an environment conducive for startups to thrive, leading it to be well-known as a leading startup hub in not only Southeast Asia, but the world.

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The contributor programme is a core part of the e27 mission, and we wanted to highlight our most active users

One of the core parts of the e27 platform is our contributor programme. Over the years, we have published thought leadership pieces from government representatives, regional investors and, of course, entrepreneurs across Asia.

The team values content that is written with intellectual honesty and is meant to help educate the ecosystem. We also value opinions, learnings from your experience and insights into the Asian tech scene.

If this sounds like you, we would love to have you write fore e27! Feel free to submit an article here and we will have a look on our backend.

Now, for some motivation, let’s take a look at our 12 most well-read contributors from the first 10 weeks of 2019!

The dazzling dozen

Aytekin Tank

Aytekin Tank holds the top spot as the most well-read contributor on e27. He has published three articles that are among the top-5 most read stories this year. They are:

• What I learned about procrastination while scaling my startup to 4.2M users
• Why the world needs deep generalists, not specialists
• How Google is slowing innovation

Tank has contributed regularly in 2019, seeing 8 articles published so far this year.

Bhupendra Sharma

A long time contributor to e27, Bhupendra Sharma recently wrote an article about self-driving vehicles and whether or not they will replace the global transportation system.

Sharma wrote his first article for e27 all the back in March of 2017.

Bjorn Lee

As the Founder and CEO of MindFi, is an expert on all things mindfulness. His app helps busy professionals find the time to take a moment and reflect on the world around me.

Lee Bjorn Lee“>wrote an article about balancing work-life balance for startup Founders that has been quite well read.

Kenny Au

Also a regular contributor, Kenny Au contributes articles about blockchain. The article that landed Au on this list is an essay arguing why the industry can be hopeful in 2019, despite the terrible year in 2018.

Au has been writing about the blockchain for e27 since February 2018.

Hari

Hari is the CEO of soCash.sg, a company that allows people to withdraw cash from shops in an emergency. As a Founder, he broke down the important steps for getting your first 1,000 loyal users. This can be the hardest part for any startup and its a common question asked by young founders.

Akarsh Dhaiya

Every startup wants to grab the attention of investors but often they don’t really know how to go about doing it.

Some people use the spray-and-pray approach, others hope to build more meaningful relationships. Akarsh Dhaiya gives some less conventional tips (you’ll have to read the article) and based on our traffic numbers, it seems like people found them useful.

Jeremy Chew

iPrice Group is fairly consistent about producing informative analysis about Asia’s e-commerce industry. The company breaks down public data to paint a nice picture of the macro-ecosystem in certain markets. In this article, Jeremy Chew breaks down the situation in Malaysia, and whether or not Shopee has overtaken Lazada.

Jackie Tan Yen

Ah Telegram, everyone’s white whale that nobody has fully figured out. Its design has resulted in a product that is fantastic for group chats and community building. Unfortunately, it can also be hijacked by a few bad actors who dissuade others from participating.

Jackie Tan Yen, the Co-founder of fundMyLife, wrote an excellent piece about how he was able to pinpoint the accounts that had hijacked the Telegram channel.

Christopher Quek

There is a theme of our most read authors — they tend to have had multiple article published over a decent period of time. Christopher Quek is no exception. The Managing Director of Trive has been writing for e27 since April, 2018 and does a fantastic job of diving into the details of startup life.

In 2019, an article breaking down the deep-tech ambitions of startups in Singapore was well-read by the e27 community.

Amal Agung Cahyadi

Most articles on e27 are about people giving up their traditional jobs to pursue a life in startups. However, Amal Agung Cahyadi writes a candid piece about his journey from the tech world to wood working. Along the way, he discovered 11 life lessons about finding passion, understanding the basics and the complexity of simplicity.

It is a nice reminder about finding joy in work.

Khrisha Shah

The Co-founder of Dysco, Khrisha Shah wrote about the big challenge facing entrepreneurs across the world: Finding happiness in a tough industry. A lot of the advice boils down to be humble, and knowing what you don’t know, but when broken down into more micro-focusses it helps provide focus.

One good little tidbit? Worrying about copycats is a waste of time.

Julian Lim

AI is a major topic in tech for two reasons. First, it seems like an inevitable part of our future, and thus is important for people to understand. Second, there are legitimate concerns about the impact it will have on society. In his article, Julian Lim broke down how AI is becoming more humanised, and how we should move forward.

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The post Introducing our 12 most-read contributors so far in 2019 appeared first on e27.

In yet another breaking story, Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall is said to be very close to scaling down its B2C consumer business in India

SoftBank, Toyota in talks to invest US$1B in Uber’s self-driving unit: sources [Reuters]

A group of investors led by SoftBank Group Corp and Toyota Motor Corp is in talks to invest $1 billion or more into Uber Technologies’s self-driving vehicle unit, which would value the unit at US$5 billion to US$10 billion, said two people familiar with the talks.

The investment would provide a cash injection for Uber’s self-driving program that is costing the money-losing startup hundreds of millions of dollars without generating revenue.

It could also help underscore Uber’s value as the ride-hailing firm prepares for a stock market debut in which its value could top US$100 billion.

Bruised by cashbacks, Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall takes a call to scale down; shifting focus on B2B [Entrackr]

It seems like cashbacks won’t be the flavour of 2019 after all. Paytm’s e-commerce play Paytm Mall powered massively by cashbacks so far, is very close to scaling down its B2C consumer business.

After a series of internal brainstorming meets and recent discussion between the board members, the company has taken a call to focus on B2B business, said three sources aware of the development.

“Paytm Mall has been failing to find volumes as well as unit economics in the consumer-facing e-commerce segment. Ultimately, its key backers, Alibaba and SoftBank have realised that cashback driven commerce is going nowhere. Now they find no merit in concentrating effort and capital on it,” said two sources on the condition of anonymity.

SC Malaysia reviews 60 proposals for US$245M pooled VC fund [DealStreetAsia]

The Securities Commission (SC) of Malaysia has reviewed about 60 proposals from local and foreign venture capital managers for the RM1 billion ($245 million) venture capital pooled fund that was allocated by state in the 2018 Budget.

“The GLICs (government-linked investment companies) are still reviewing [these proposals]. So, at this stage, we’re still not able to share how much allocation has been done,” said SC Malaysia deputy chief executive Zainal Izlan Zainal Abidin at the launch of SC’s annual report 2018 today at Kuala Lumpur.

Mswipe raises US$32M from existing investors [The Economic Times]

Mumbai-based mobile point-of-sales (PoS) company Mswipe has raised around INR 220 crore (US$32M) in a new round of funding from existing investors — US-based hedge fund Falcon Edge, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin-promoted B Capital Asia, technology investment firm Epiq Capital and DSG Consumer Partners — according to filings with the Registrar of Companies.

This round came after the company’s Series-D round of funding in 2017, when Ratan Tata promoted UC-RNT infused around INR 200 crore into the company along with participation from its existing investors. Mswipe founder Manish Patel could not be reached for comment.

As per the filing, B Capital Asia and Epiq Capital pumped in around INR 70 crore while Falcon Edge put in nearly 57 crore and DSG Consumer Partners invested Rs 21 crore. The company is in the business of deploying PoS terminals at merchant outlets and processing card transactions for all major card schemes, including Visa, Mastercard, and RuPay.

Adtech startup Scibids opens APAC headquarters in Singapore [press release]

Adtech startup Scibids has opened its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, its first international office. This follows the company’s raising of SGD 3.3 million Series A funding last September.

Rahul Vasudev, former Managing Director of MediaMath (Asia Pacific) and the APAC Head of Digital at MediaCom, will head Scibid’s APAC expansion.

Based in Paris, Scibids has developed an AI-based intelligence layer, which acts as a virtual trader on top of demand-side platforms (DSPs) such as Google’s DV360, The Trade Desk, MediaMath and AppNexus. It sorts through as many as 22 million variables such as geography, gender, site placements and third party data to automatically build thousands of highly granular buying strategies in the DSP.

With these epiphanies at hand, media agencies and marketers who have in-housed programmatic buying can improve their return on ad spend by targeting the right contexts more accurately and optimise towards their own custom business metrics.

The post Today’s top tech news, March 14: SoftBank, Toyota in talks to invest US$1B in Uber’s self-driving unit appeared first on e27.

At the Echelon Asia Summit 2019, you just might find the right corporations to help your startup grow

When it comes to Asia’s startup ecosystem, VCs and CVCs are no longer the only key players helping the community grow. As we move forward, we see that corporates have an increasingly critical role to play in the growth of the ecosystem.

One of the key features of the Echelon Asia Summit 2019 that truly sets it apart is its business matching model. By purchasing a Premier ticket, you automatically qualify for the FORGE Corporate-Startup Business Matching.

In a nutshell, the FORGE Corporate-Startup Business Matching system allows emerging startups to partner with established institutions and large companies in order to achieve optimum growth.

On one end, large companies get to tap young, energetic startups who can help them innovate through digital adoption and harnessing the power of tech, while on the flip side, emerging startups can strike strategic partnership opportunities and access resources that can help them accelerate, and even scale.

This means more than a celebration of ideas, the Echelon Asia Summit 2019 is a platform that bridges startup founders with large companies—in an effort to forge partnerships that are beneficial to both parties.

As such, we are offering an exclusive deal for all interested startups out there: from 14 – 20 March, you can get your Premier ticket at 30% OFF. Simply share this article on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin with the hashtag #Echelon2019 and add a one-liner description of your company. Don’t forget to set your post to Public so we’ll be able to track your post.

The Echelon Asia Summit 2019 is happening on 23 – 24 May, at Hall 3A, Singapore Expo, Singapore. Don’t miss the chance to strike important partnerships and take your startup to greater heights!

The post Match made in (startup) heaven? We’ve got you covered appeared first on e27.

CXA Group uses predictive data to help corporates improve their health and wellness offerings for employees

CXA Group, a Singaporean healthtech company, announced today it has raised US$25 million from a host of new strategic investors.

The money will be used to fuel expansion across APAC.

The strategic investors were HSBC, Singtel Innov8, Telkom Indonesia MDI Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Muang Thai Fuchsia Ventures, Humanica and Heritas Venture Fund.

According to TechCrunch, there are other strategic investors that are not listed.

CXA is a healthcare company that uses big data to help companies provide personalised health and wellness services to their employees. It has also grown into one of Singapore’s startup success stories, having raised US$25 million from B Capital and EDBI back in February 2017.

It claims to have over 600 enterprise clients that allows them to serve over 400,000 employees in 20 countries.

The choice of targetting investors was not an accident. The hope is that this partnership can be leveraged to integrate CXA services into the B2B offerings for these companies.

“CXA is today the leading health ecosystem platform that enables individuals across Asia to make better choices for healthier living, starting from the workplace, thereby empowering a shift in spend from treatment to prevention. We have seen overwhelming interest from global strategic investors who are excited to work with us to advance our business and vision,” said CEO Rosaline Chow Koo in a statement.

Also Read: Introducing the e27 Telegram Group and Channel!

The company highlighted a statistic that chronic disease hits Asians 10 years earlier than people in the West. Because of that, a one-size-fits-all approach to corporate healthcare is inadequate.

Three separate quotes from Singtel Innov8, HSBC and Heritas all pointed to a platform that allows employers improve their internal healthcare policies as the reason for their investment.

The current round brings CXA’s total fundraising to US$58 million.

Also Read: ‘I feel naked without my phone’ should be a good thing

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