Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hits the world hard this year, the coworking space industries have been making headlines in global media, thanks to companies such as WeWork. Their IPO failure had led the public to question the future of the industry.

According to Yuanzheng Lee, founder of A Space Between, the future lies in industry-specific coworking spaces, which is going to see growth in demand.

“An observable example of innovation with regard to a central kitchen model for the F&B industry – a specific shared facility that caters to a particular vertical (i.e., bakery, desserts, hot kitchen) coupled with a business’ operational needs to manage the supply chain, versus a generic shared central kitchen that simply provides a kitchen with shared equipment,” she explains, likening the typical coworking spaces to shared central kitchen model.

“While it is industry-specific to tech startups and entrepreneurs, the primary focus caters to those reliant on desk-bound duties and traditional interactions for collaboration. I believe that there is incredible value to the sharing economy; that will evolve to provide a more customised approach to serving each vertical within the different industries,” she points out.

Understanding this insight, as a newcomer in the Singapore coworking space scene, A Space Between aims to make that differentiation by offering spaces for a specific kind of tenant: Mental health professionals.

Also Read: Holmusk closes US$21.5M Series A to build real-world evidence platform for mental health

A safe space to practice

Launched in Q2 2019, A Space Between is a coworking space that specifically targets mental health professionals –from psychotherapists to coaches to counsellors– as its tenants.

“In essence, A Space Between provides a conducive environment to conduct mental health therapy sessions with a minimal commitment on the part of the practitioner,” Lee explains in an email interview with e27.

As a space that will be used by therapists to work with their clients, there are several details that A Space Between needs to pay attention to.

“On the most basic level, it should make one feel safe, comfortable and be easily accessible. We spared no expense looking over the tiniest of details, from the size of the rooms, to the colours used, even to the layout of the furniture. All of these have been critically considered to optimise the experience for a therapy session,” Lee further elaborates.

“We are community-driven and what that means is that we are constantly working with our members to identify areas of improvement, so we can adjust according to their needs and enhance the overall experience for our members and their clients,” she continues.

Currently home to 20 therapists, the company is aiming to grow to 200 by 2022.

Also Read: Why Khailee Ng puts mental healthcare support as key to successful founders-investors relationship

“We acquire our users largely through digital marketing, social media outreach and traditional word-of-mouth referral programmes,” Lee says.

A safe space during the pandemic

It is no longer a surprise that the recent global health crisis has shaken up the global coworking space industry, or even the office space in general. In an article, Vox even detailed on how the COVID-19 pandemic will “likely change the way office looks and works.”

Interestingly, Lee says that the COVID-19 pandemic and the Circuit Breaker Measures as implemented by the Singapore government did not impact the company’s business “too severely.”

Instead, she even believes that the measures will impact the business positively.

“I believe the circuit breaker measures and its impact on the way we work and communicate, will steer practitioners towards a plug-and-play sharing model like ours, where one is empowered to be self-employed yet unencumbered by lofty rental deposits and renovation costs,” she points out.

As the public struggle with having to stay and work from home in the greater part of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought greater attention to mental health issues in various countries, including Singapore. As an example, Straits Times reported that the National Care Hotline in the country saw more than 6,600 calls within just one month since its launch in April.

Also Read: Leaders, it’s time to talk about mental health

“I would say that the pandemic has brought attention to what basic healthcare services are and prioritised the need for easier access to mental health support services. We have seen an uptick in the demand for our shared space, primarily from those who traditionally have been working out of a shared clinic or office space,” says Lee, citing various reasons behind the uptick.

A safe space to expand

The history of A Space Between began when Lee’s friends –a group of psychotherapists and counsellors– moved into private practice and were looking for a suitable space to conduct their sessions.

“We discussed the issues they faced in setting up their private practice. Traditional coworking solutions such as WeWork and JustCo were not conducive and appropriate to conduct mental health therapy sessions as they are essentially an office space built around an energetic startup environment that is neither discrete nor soundproof,” Lee elaborates.

There were also other technical considerations such as lease and renovations, and the idea that traditional mental health service setups tend to be clinical and rigid.

To tackle this, Lee taps into her formal education background in strategic design management, which she describes as giving her “the ability to synthesise a business solution with a design thinking process.”

Also Read: Photographers, food loss, and mental health: Meet the winners of Startup Weekend Jakarta 2019

The company is currently self-funded but Lee says it is open to external funding opportunities.

“We are refining our current business practices and looking to secure our next few locations to provide better accessibility for our members. Regionalisation and internationalisation are part of our pipeline,” she closes.

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Image Credit: A Space Between

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Fengru Lin, a passionate cheesemaker, was working with Google Singapore as a Territory Account Manager when she met her future co-founder Max Rye, an expert in the stem cells-based alternative food.

Lin, who was looking for unadulterated and pure milk to make her dream cheese but to no avail, wondered if the same stem cells-based technology can be applied to make lab-produced milk — which is richer in nutritional value and offers the same taste as those produced by real mammals.

This research ended up with the duo starting TurtleTree Labs in 2019.

What does TurtleTree do?

Singapore-based TurtleTree offers patent-protected technology as a solution to make full-composition, full-functionality, full-flavour milk referencing humanely selected dairy cow cells, then mimicking the natural process of milk production in the lab.

This is done with the efficient use of natural resources (land, water and energy) and without pollution, pathogen and disease risks. The result is the product will be 95 per cent less resource consumptive.

In other words, the biotech startup seeks to challenge the value gap created by an insufficient and unsustainable animal-based dairy industry. The firm does so by using cell-based methods used to make ‘clean milk’ and cultured milk products.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, January: Singapore-based biotech startup TurtleTree

TurtleTree acellular technology works by culturing mammary cells in-vitro and inducing their natural ability to produce all components of milk. Cellular agriculture is entirely safe and widely used in the market today.

The first step involves obtaining stem cells from sources such as milk. They are then transferred into an environment where they convert into mammary gland cells.

The mammary gland cells interact with a special formula which causes the cells to lactate. The end product is the milk is obtained through a filtration process.

The human breast milk the company is trying to recreate is to mimic the richness of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), which are the third most abundant solid component in human milk after lactose and fat.

According to an article posted by TurtleTree Lab, the research increasingly demonstrates that much of breast milk’s value lies within these components.

Furthermore, HMOs have prebiotic properties and are incredibly complex to replicate. Previous studies have underscored the value of HMOs in infant prenatal and postnatal development.

“We are able to produce the complete biomatch of the nutritional content of human breast milk. All HMOs, proteins and fats are replicated with our technology. A few areas that are unique to the mother are antibodies (coming from the mother’s blood) and the microbiota (coming from the mother’s gut),” highlights Rye.

According to Harith Behren, who heads Business Development at TurtleTree, “For human breast milk, we’re in no way trying to replace mothers from breastfeeding their babies, but as we all know, not every mother has the ability to breastfeed due to medical conditions or other situation, and then forced to turn into a formula feeding.”

Infant formula in the market today lacks the bioactive component found in breast milk. That’s what prompted TurtleTree Lab to recreate this bioactive component in the lab, to come up with a more improved and better milk in nutritional values for mothers and babies with no access to breast milk.

TurtleTree is trying to address the US$716 billion global dairy market and environmental crisis with what they called ‘clean milk’. It is optimistic that it can transform the US$45 billion infant nutrition market, which is set to grow to US$103 billion by 2026.

Seed funding

A couple of weeks ago, the startup secured US$3.2 million in seed funding to march ahead with its plan to produce lab-produced cow milk and human breast milk from stem cells. Investors include Green Monday Ventures, the renowned Prince Khaled’s KBW Ventures, CPT Capital, Artesian, and New Luna Ventures. All they were involved in TurtleTree’s pre-seed round.

According to Behren, the returning of its previous investors despite expected delays due to pandemic is a form of reaffirmation of their trust in the company and its team.

“We’re at the scale-up stage with plans to commercialise the products according to our timeline,” says Behren.

Also Read: Singaporean biotech startup TurtleTree secures pre-seed from Saudi entrepreneur Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed

Government support

Thanks to the support from the government agency Enterprise Singapore and the firm’s investors who provided resources, the biotech startup made good progress. TurtleTree’s ability to move forward despite the heavy pandemic has a lot to do with the government’s direct support.

Besides, the company also benefitted from the support from other government agencies such as Singapore Food Agency (SFA) and the national research institute A*STAR. It is aligned with the country’s goals to produce 30 per cent of its own nutritional needs by 2030.

“We think the government is doing a good job on food security emphasis as an urgent matter. It certainly helps boost the investors’ confidence that their money is going into an established, mature ecosystem of future food security,” says Behren.

An in-country-operated biotechnology company like TurtleTree Lab seeks to modify the way people consume certain foods with heavy carbon prints, and it certainly a cause that the country should rally behind.

Commercialisation stage

Contrary to popular assumption, when tech businesses were mainly forced to adjust and manage operations, TurtleTree managed to keep up with the research and development work it was doing.

“We didn’t slow down our progress. We are committed to still having a small team coming in and taking turns week by week, carrying on despite the pandemic with strict protocol in place,” says Behren.

Right now, the company seeks to first address a propitious market opportunity in Asia, then move into other promising market areas similarly driven by increasing populations seeking better nourishment or encumbered by poor dairy infrastructure and declining environmental quality.

To be able to get on the wagon, the company said that once finalised, it will offer licensing technology to powerful local processors and distributors.

TurtleTree will own the technologies that make the milk, leveraging and enabling its IP across global regions, and manufacturers.

The company’s principal revenue streams include licensing, enablement consulting, and royalties. Additional revenue may include branded consumer products distributed regionally by global dairy companies.

“Now we are laser-focussing on the technology design and creating pilot plan activity to make sure we can bring the cost down on price point, as well as working on the regulation side. We’re hoping to work with SFA closely so they can develop a regulation on this sort of novel food,” says Behren.

With the country’s economy slowly opening up, Turtletree Labs continued its strike by winning US$1 million from Temasek Foundation, plus US$100,000 in investment funding and a spot on Antler’s accelerator programme from Planet Rise.

With that being said, the company is on track of providing accessible nourishment while staving off the threats of food, economic, and socio-political insecurities, which also include cow’s and other mammals’ milk as variety.

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Image Credit: TurtleTree Labs

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Last 19 to 24 June 2020, The Science & Technology Policy Research and Information Center (STPI), in partnership with 500 Startups, held the 2020 Vision Programme that gathered 25 tech teams in a rigorous boot camp that spanned four days. With 8 mentors, 6 guest speakers, and 8 workshops, the teams were exposed to practical training and mentorship sessions on pitch deck structure, storytelling, and shifts in the entrepreneurial mindset, among many others.

With a unique focus on navigating American laws, finance, marketing strategies, and a wide array of other related topics, the programme sought to gather startups that are equipped with stellar technical capabilities.

With the right set of teams undergoing rigorous training, the role of the Vision Programme is to ultimately help them garner new insights about working with different regions and prepare them to build connections globally.

The teams behind Vision Programme

STPI was created specifically as a support system for the Taiwan government’s technology-based policies. It is their mandate to help Taiwan address the growing demands of globalisation and the emerging knowledge economy.

In a nutshell, it functions as the main government think-tank for science and technology policy and the major platforms for incorporating Taiwan’s research communities whose primary mission is to empower Taiwan’s digital economy.

On the other hand, 500 Startups holds the reputation of being one of the most active global venture capital firms whose mission is to back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs and build thriving ecosystems worldwide.

As such, it is only fitting that the collaboration between the two institutions would result in what the Vision Programme attendees enthusiastically described to be “the best accelerator in Taiwan”.

What went down

“Taiwan does not have another programme like this. While others have classroom-style teaching formats that are theory-based, 500 Startups’ structure is very practical, hands-on, and fun,” shared the participating startups about their experience with the programme.

From a large pool of applicants that underwent a month-long intensive training under the programme, the number of tech teams was narrowed down to 25. These teams moved forward to the 4-day boot camp that happened in June.

From the 25, the programme selected 10 finalists from the pool of participants, 5 of which will be going to Singapore to work with e27, while the other 5 are flying to Silicon Valley to garner more global exposure.

The programme also boasts a stellar line up of speakers and mentors that included Co-founder and CEO of Smarter Me, Ee Ling, Entrepreneur in Residence at 500 Startups, Kenneth Low, and APAC Head of Innovation and Partnerships for 500 Startups, Thomas Jeng.

Also read: What a time to be in Taiwan!

Not only were the teams exposed to learning sessions spearheaded by industry experts, they were also engaged in one-on-one mentoring sessions. Moreover, the programme’s interactive and engaging forward allowed the budding tech teams to practice with each other and share constructive feedback from other teams.

This is a crucial element of the Vision Programme format: what ultimately sets it apart from other programmes in Taiwan is its practical and hands-on approach to learning, allowing participants to get a real-world taste of what it’s like to engage with global networks and tap markets beyond the familiarity of Taiwan.

At least year’s programme, STPI Director General, Dr. Yuh-Jzer Joung, explained that “research commercialisation refers to the process through which ideas or research are transformed into marketable products, capital gains, income from licenses and/or revenue from the sale of a new product.”

Operating under the same core vision, this year’s Vision Programme focused on teaching young startups how to translate their entrepreneurial ideas into actual commercial viability that transcends across global markets. With this, the project aims to promote a healthier and globally competitive startup ecosystem for Taiwan, and by extension, to support the country’s digital economy.

The 2020 STPI Vision Programme is currently in its fourth year.

Key learnings from the programme

With topics ranging from “The Art of Pitching” where teams are taught how to craft compelling narratives and communicating effectively when it comes to selling their ideas, to “Winning Pitch Decks” that allow teams to take a closer look at how successful pitches are rendered visually through a persuasive deck, the participating startups were able to enjoy a learning experience that struck a balance between practical approaches and theorisation.

“[We] have attended Berkeley’s Skydeck / Techstars / Plug and Play’s accelerator. and 500 Startups’ programme has been the most valuable because it is the closest to actually solving our business needs using very practical and specific guidance,” remarked the programme participants, calcifying Vision Programme’s commitment to helping young startups achieve their goals through experience-based, pragmatic learnings.

One participant earnestly shared, “even if I do not get selected in the Pitch Practice, I feel like I have learned something valuable in the short 4 days that I can use in the future.”

With STPI leveraging on leading researches and partnerships with universities to support local startups by promoting an ecosystem that welcomes enterprises, international startups, and investors, STPI and 500 Startups hope that the participating teams will be able to take the value of their learnings from the Vision Programme and bring it to a larger global audience while being able to contribute to Taiwan’s vibrant tech ecosystem.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by STPI.

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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MyanCare raises funding

The story: Myanmar based healthtech company MyanCare has secured US$600,000 investment.

Investors: The SPARX Group (lead), Japanese tech company Scala, Japanese pharmacy dispensing chain AIN Holdings.

Plans with the money:

• It aims to boost its “market-leading position in the telemedicine industry” of Myanmar.
• It plans to further expand locally.

What does MyanCare do?: Started in 2018, MyanCare is a telemedicine company. It has two core businesses — MyanCare healthcare app and YinThway paediatric medical call centre service.

MyanCare healthcare app features online appointment with the general practitioners and specialists as well as voice, video, or chatting consultation directly with the doctors via the app. More than 200 doctors and 26 different medical specialties so far are connected with the MyanCare platform.

YinThway provides 24×7 voice consultation directly with the paediatricians via different telecom operators, handling more than 2,000 consultations weekly during COVID-19 pandemic.

Indonesia, Lazada to help digitise 2M SMEs

The story: The government is partnering with Alibaba-backed e-commerce company Lazada to help two million SMEs to speed up digitisation in Indonesia.

How: They aim to do so by using Lazada’s sellers. They intend to recruit the most successful sellers on Lazada Indonesia’s platform into the scheme as tutors, known as kakak asuh.

With 100 such tutors on board, they will work with SMEs in Indonesia to hone their online business skills, tapping into the knowledge and wisdom of those experienced at selling on one of Southeast Asia’s powerhouses of e-commerce.

More details: The tutors will be responsible for the education of around two or three businesses each, ensuring that time can be spent with each company individually. As they are working with small numbers, they can also give additional help to those who need more attention.

Qualcomm investment in Jio

The story: Indian telco startup Jio Platforms is set to receive US$97 million from Qualcomm Ventures in exchange for a 0.15% stake.

This follows Intel Capital’s investment of US$253 million this month and previous investment from Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, TPG Capital, L Catterton, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Plans with the money: The fresh funds will go toward supporting Jio to roll out 5G infrastructure and services in India.

What is Jio?: With nearly 400 million subscribers, Jio aims to digitise India’s 1.3 billion people and businesses, including small merchants, micro-businesses, and farmers.

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Image Credit: MyanCare

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Social media giant Facebook has selected 13 participants across the Asia Pacific region to join its six-month-long Community Accelerator programme in Asia.

The accelerator is part of Facebook’s Community Leadership programme, a global initiative which is focused on investing in leaders that drive change in the world through community building, empowerment, and encouragement.

“We received hundreds of applications across four countries in APAC – Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. In the end, it boiled down to communities that are already driving positive, lasting change, but need help to scale their efforts and grow in size,” said Grace Clapham, Head of Community Partnerships APAC, Facebook in a statement.

“We’re excited to welcome a diverse group of community leaders and look forward to working with them to meet their goals and create a further impact on their communities,” she continued.

Leaders enrolled in the accelerator programme will receive up to US$30,000 in capital along with mentorship and training from experts and coaches. They will also get a customised curriculum that will aid their community growth.

Also Read: Book Excerpt: What Google, Facebook did to grow from zero to 1,000

Here are the selected participants:

Skye Riggs (Ripple GI): Connects young Australians to career opportunities by matching them to purpose-driven careers and training for community-building.

Nur Yana Yirah (MotherHope Indonesia): Promotes perinatal mental health literacy to help support mothers and families who are affected by anxiety disorders and perinatal mood.

Yohana Habsari (Indonesian Babywearers): Community that empowers parents by promoting positive learning habits and ethics in everyday life through events.

Sepri Andi (Social Connect): Online platform for mental health survivors to share their stories and receive help through online classes and consultations.

Yves Miel Zuniga (Mental3thPH): Community that promotes awareness on mental health in the Philippines through various social media channels.

Maria Korina Bertulfo (Filipina Homebased Moms): Community that helps mothers obtain financial security and personal growth by matching them with home-based livelihood opportunities.

Also Read: gojek names Facebook, PayPal as new investors in latest funding round

Josh Mahinay (BEAGIVER): A social enterprise that develops engagement opportunities for people or organisations who want to create an impact on different communities by giving.

Ayesha Vera Yu (ARK -Advancement for Rural Kids): Partners with farmers and fisherfolk to feed children, keep them in school, and empowers rural communities to invest in themselves.

Chitsanupong Nithiwana (Young Pride Club): Community that provides safe learning space for young people interested in gender equality and the LGBT+ community.

Chatchai Aphibanpoonpon (LearnNaiDee): Program that aims to improve education for people with disabilities.

Thanakorn Phromyos (YOUNGHAPPY): An app for seniors that helps them maintain an active lifestyle to support their mental wellbeing.

Somsak Boonkam (Local Alike): Platform that develops, empowers and connects Thai tourism communities to the world.

Kanpassorn Surivasangpetch (Ooca): Helps people get through the stigma of mental health by connecting people to psychiatrists anonymously via an online video call platform.

Find out more about the Facebook Community Accelerator programme and selected participants here.

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Image Credit: Ian Schneider on Unsplash

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As of today, the economic implications of COVID-19 are felt very palpably all over the world. While China maintains an optimistic position, business confidence in many other Asia Pacific countries has declined. US firms are some of the hardest-hit despite signs of state lockdowns ending soon, while buyer intent is also slightly down in Europe despite market indicators being mostly stable.

With businesses reeling from the pressures of the pandemic, austerity measures are being applied by many companies that have resulted in a dramatic decline in IT spending in 2020. Such decline is happening globally in spite of the growing need to adopt digital solutions to address present business problems. More than ever, business leaders need to rethink their current IT strategy — to put their focus on building up resiliency and digital capabilities to meet the new norm of operating and working.

As such, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in partnership with Intel, held a webinar with e27 aptly titled, “Transforming IT Strategy to Drive Profitable Growth for cloud-native Companies”. The event’s goal is to help impart crucial information regarding technology-led priorities for 2020 and 2021 where the right mix of hybrid cloud adoption is seen as a key catalyst.

Avneesh Saxena, IDC Group Vice President for Domain Research Group APAC, mentioned in his keynote speech that “cloud was always important, but COVID-19 has kind of spiraled into this platform where everybody is looking at cloud as the biggest factor in how they can get on with some of their applications and migration plans faster into cloud.”

An important note Saxena also pointed out is that when it comes to choosing cloud, the choice is not between public or private. Enterprises will buy the best cloud for their workload, which means an enterprise will likely choose to use a hybrid combination of both. It is through this amalgamation that enterprises can interconnect between different applications, access more customers, and ultimately create more synergy.

According to IDC’s COVID-19 data on the behavior of enterprises, the primary drivers for cloud migration are improved performance, enhanced security, lower costs, and improved availability, among others.

When it comes to leveraging technology to transition to the next normal, Saxena explained that the goal is to flatten the curve for APAC companies to persevere through various economic blows brought about by recessions, economic slowdowns, and global health crises such as the case with COVID-19 —to ultimately return to growth and allow a seamless transition to the next normal.

Reverse migration to on-premise private cloud

In an audio recording, Rob Clark of HPE discussed the Dropbox model that saw a reverse migration to an on-premise private cloud after many years of using a public cloud environment. Clark explained that one of the challenges Dropbox encountered while sitting on a public cloud was explosive growth. In a matter of eight years, the amount of users using their platform grew three folds, ballooning to over 600 million users.

As they grew, the public cloud model became increasingly confined. This rendered Dropbox to become extremely dependent on their public cloud provider, forcing them to contend with an unfeasibly high-cost structure. Because the company was aiming to capture more B2B customers, they needed a robust new IT hardware infrastructure with greater scalability and flexibility.

Such a transition not only meant capturing a larger B2B audience, but also keeping the existing B2C users. To do this, Dropbox needed to build a cloud environment that supported both personal and enterprise use cases.

By migrating to an on-premise private cloud environment through HPE, Dropbox was able to meet these objectives. Furthermore, they were able to retain flexibility, accelerate enterprise-level security and scalability, drive down costs, render those costs more predictable, and reduce the cost per gigabyte to support higher ROI.

These benefits were earned through a complex combination of advanced engineering where enterprises can customise their build to meet their application needs, access a global supply chain, and global support from HPE.

Government regulations as a factor in cloud strategy

During the fireside chat, the distinguished experts shared insights about strategising one’s IT infrastructure to accommodate certain shifts in the market, innovate one’s

system without sacrificing compliance regulations, and ultimately respond to different challenges.

Norman Sasono, CTO of DANA Indonesia, explained that due to their specific business model, the company is governed by the Central Bank (Bank of Indonesia) which means there are very strict government regulations in how they operate, including in the IT space. As such, the company is strictly mandated to use only an on-premise system designed to accommodate their data centers.

DANA Indonesia is a tech startup working in the fintech space founded three years ago. The company boasts more than 40 million users in Indonesia alone and records as much as 3 million transactions per day. With the user base constantly expanding, much of DANA’s business model relies largely on its IT infrastructure.

This means it is also particularly challenging for them to adjust to spikes in their system workload when their operations are confined exclusively to an on-premise system.

“The strategy is to continue with the hybrid cloud, to always maintain the high-performance security and scalability to really deliver the best user experience for our users,” said Sasono as he explained what strategy DANA Indonesia is gearing towards as the company seeks to grow their number of users to 100 million in the future.

He added that for core payments, the IT infrastructure and workload still needs to be hosted on-premise, and that what they’re looking to explore, are ways to be more efficient in terms of running operations and managing their own infrastructures.

The IT strategy playbook

Across the spectrum, the IT strategies being deployed in the startup ecosystem are dynamic and continuously evolving. Moreover, they continue to evolve along the life cycle of the companies. Sandeep Kapoor, Senior Director and GM of HPE’s Hybrid IT Compute, discussed that in the context of what’s happening right now from the perspective of a pandemic, the IT strategy playbook has morphed into something very different.

“If you asked me a question three months ago, the answers would be a lot different. The most fundamental change in the equation is in addition to the speed, the scale, the latency, and the availability, the one aspect that COVID-19 has put on the discussion table is how investors look at startup companies and wonder how they can get profitable returns,” Kapoor remarked, adding that “this was not the situation three to four months ago where the investment community was investing to build scale and build size.”

He furthered this statement by saying, “our experience tells us that the world is going to be ‘hybrid’ and that cloud is going to be a journey, not a destination.” By this, the next decade is going to be more anchored on how they provide an experience for users to move seamlessly between different clouds.

There are three elements that play critical roles in building the right hybrid cloud model:

1.) Technology — making sure that the provider or the partner of that space is able to have the best technology that encompasses cutting edge hardware and software capabilities, and all the building blocks needed for the right infrastructure.
2.) Economics — how one delivers the right economics so they’re not just wasting a lot of money, given how the IT infrastructure is utilised during the surges and dips of a company’s profit (e.g. to be able to provision capacities when they’re needed, and to not have to spend so much for those capacities when workloads are low).
3.) People — you can have the best class of products and services, and even develop the most sophisticated charging mechanisms, but if your workforce is not equipped with the right set of skills that match the rest of the business infrastructure, the company’s objectives will still be difficult to meet.

HPE has the capability to provide these elements through their proven solutions and team of experts.

The best of both worlds

Simranjit Aujla, Distinguished Technologist of HPE’s Pointnext Advisory Services, explained that enterprises need hybrid cloud to deliver agile and efficient foundation for their digital program. To achieve this, companies need to make a complete assessment of their applications portfolio, to understand their customers and what kind of performance to provide them, and of course, to understand the economic aspects.

Aujla said that enterprises need to ask themselves the question, “what does it cost for me to run what workload, and on what environment?”

He also stressed out the need to think about security, how important it is, and the kind of control a business wants to have over the system. With all of these factors put together as a company grows and scales, they ultimately help businesses decide how to move to cloud.

Some of the benefits that come with a hybrid cloud solution are visibility, security, and control across clouds. Moreover, this kind of IT infrastructure allows real-time tracking, metering, and usage. The flexibility of this environment also means it’s more automated, programmable, and consumable, and allows companies to adapt to economic shifts due to its pay-per-use consumption on-premise, allowing companies the freedom to create, iterate, flex, and scale at speed with the controls in place.

HPE GreenLake

In order to understand a company’s IT strategy, we have to contextualise the pros and cons of cloud models. Today, companies who subscribe to public cloud enjoy the element of on-demand pricing, yet they are compromising their controls, and to a certain extent, their security.

HPE GreenLake provides an on-demand capacity in its pricing model which caters to a cloud-like experience. Most companies are stranded in a loop of overspending for their capacity provisions, or having to wait three months or longer in order to enjoy new capacities buffered by their growing workload.

HPE addresses this by providing a certain base-level capacity as well as a threshold which will ensure that a company’s cloud spending will operate on a pay-per-use basis. During the webinar’s fireside chat, Aujla explained that “HPE ensures that you are able to provision extra compute and storage while at the same time, you only pay for what you use.”

HPE GreenLake is the mechanics to which HPE provides this consumption-based approach to ensure that companies can enjoy the economics of a public cloud in a private environment, and also help companies plan their journey in terms of their workloads, security, performance, as well as the scalability that they require to run their businesses effectively.

Based on where a company is in their cloud journey and on their area of interest, HPE can come in to help them create a plan for the present and a roadmap for the future where the migration strategy will come into the picture.

Moving forward

It makes the most sense for some workloads to be on-premise, while other workloads that are non-critical can be hosted on a public cloud. The decision to get there, however, is a scientific process that HPE has the advisory capabilities to provide.

In many cases, this decision is derived based on a company’s cloud maturity cycle especially when they scale not only in terms of accommodating more customers, but also capturing customers beyond their current demographic. Much of the decision to adopt an IT strategy or to migrate to a new one can be addressed by what is called a “Proof of Concept” where companies can diagnose and identify where they are in their business journeys. HPE can step in and help companies go through this and provide a step-by-step guide on how the IT requirements should take shape.

The question then becomes: are my costs going to spike? Will I have to pay three or four times more for my workload when my business scales up?

Kapoor said that the answer is a resounding no. “You basically have with HPE GreenLake what [Simranjit Aujla] describes as a ‘consumption model’ which basically means you’re charging IT costs based on what you consume. It’s comparable to when you pay for electricity or water as you consume. You are paying for some amount for a fixed commitment and the rest could be variable.”

Kapoor encourages startups to engage HPE GreenLake and see for themselves how the company can help them build something meaningful together. To find out more, the fireside chat section of the live webinar is available on the HPE website.

If you’re interested in taking part in an HPE workshop, you may take this quick survey to let us know. The first 20 respondents stand to win exciting token premiums from HPE.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
HPE.

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When the WHO announced the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus as a pandemic, no one thought that it would reveal the weakness of the conventional order of the society. But here we are anyway.

With everything closed, people having to stay at home, and the supply chain majorly disruptive, there are many questions being asked. The first and foremost of them being- how can any industry recover from the damages done by the pandemic?

There are other questions being asked as well, such as how to prepare for another disruption such as this pandemic, how to cut down extra costs till the business has finally recovered, etc. And not so strangely enough, the answer to all these questions is – digital business transformation.

At this point, it is actually a no-brainer. The speed with which technology is evolving and newer solutions being invented every day, digital transformation can and will be the only chance of survival for any industry. And just as COVID-19 pandemic is exposing the weakness in the traditional system, it is also supporting the industries to embrace digital transformation at a faster rate.

Its the time for action, not debate

The matter of digital transformation in different industries has been the topic of debate for a long time. And just like any debate, there have been many back and forth between the two groups about the effectivity of digital transformation and whether it will actually help. But this pandemic has finally shown us that right now, is the time of action.

Instead of talking and planning about transforming the industry digitally, it is time to implement those plans. The main reason for the delay in digitally transforming industries is not just a problem with legacy systems or a lack of skilled people.

It is also the sheer size of the project. The transformation of major organisations is going to take a long time. But if the pandemic has exposed anything, then it is the need to transform the industry “T minus ten minutes” from now.

Also Read: Humanising customer experience is the best way to build loyalty in a post-COVID-19 world

Different industries and their digital future- what can happen?

After discussing the urgency of the digital business transformation it’s time to look at a few major industries and what can happen when they finally finish transforming into digital.

Manufacturing and supply-chain: first ones in line for digital transformation

Undoubtedly, the manufacturing and supply-chain industry need a technological revolution more than any other industry.

Despite the warp speed of digital advancements, the manufacturing and the supply-chain industry is still stuck with its legacy systems and old traditional ways of doing things. And this will soon become the downfall of the industry. The pandemic has revealed the weakness of the industry and its traditional workflow. Now it’s just a matter of time to recognise the faultlines and start mending them with Digital transformation.

However, the slowdown of the digital transformation is not without reason. The sheer size of the project can be daunting. And for a complete transformation, the technology has to be more accessible than it was a few years ago. But hopefully, in the post-COVID-19 scenario, the supply-chain industry, and manufacturing will have better chances of speeding up the process of digital transformation.

Healthcare will move forward by going digital

Healthcare has already embraced digital transformation and the benefits come with it. In fact, it is one of the prime examples of how digitalisation transforms industries. And in the post-COVID-19 scenario, it is expected of this specific industry to go farther in the digital landscape than any other industry.

Scientists and doctors are already using digital solutions to diagnose and treat patients, research medicines, and provide telehealth services to those with ordinary ailments. But in the future, we can expect these practices to go farther. Through AI imaging medical professionals can supply a perfect diagnosis for chronic diseases, and save thousands of lives. There is however one little catch.

Whatever the effects of technological transformation we are seeing in the healthcare industry are severely limited. Many areas do not even have the equipment, training, or structure in place to actually benefit from these ‘Digital transformation’ fixes. And that’s why in the new norm where we might have to start living with COVID-19 till a vaccination is invented, these digital transformation solutions need to be spread out wide into the more remote areas in the world.

Also Read: Why is Vietnam going to emerge the strongest post-COVID-19?

Education will soon go ‘officially’ digital

While digital transformation in this industry has been happening slowly, not one took it seriously. Sure having an online learning management system was a neat little addition to the industry, but it was not that important, till the pandemic hit. And now, every educational industry is leaning towards the technological transformation that is no doubt going to revolutionise education.

Imagine a world where true education is accessible by anyone from anywhere! A free world of education where even people with familial obligation can access the kind of education they want easily. That is the world we will be living in once the education industry goes ‘officially digital’ in the post-pandemic time. The digital classroom will create a more independent campus for both students and teachers to communicate without any fuss, eventually leading to a better education industry once the pandemic is over.

Are we looking towards a digital future?

As a matter of fact, we are. Soon enough we are going to be entering a future where every business-related question can be answered with digital transformation. Now a lot of people might argue that the digital transformation across various industries might be the death of originality and imagination.

And it is, in fact, a valid point. This is why the digital transformation we need has to balance between machine intelligence and human imagination. In a post-COVID-19 era, survival will be only possible through the complete balanced digital transformation.

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Where does the future of payments lie for SEA?; COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst for digitalisation, helping accelerate adoption of digital payments across the region; Central bank digital currency is an exciting development; Security and fraud risks arising from emerging payments methods are some concerns. More here

Transcelestial raises US$9.6M Series A to ‘deliver a step-change in internet connectivity globally’; EDBI, Wavemaker led the round; Airbus Ventures also invested marking its entry into SEA and it is opening an office in S’pore; In 2018, Transcelestial raised US$1.8 million in seed funding. More here

Jon Sheppard steps down as CTO of gojek’s financial arm; He has joined Pakistani fintech firm SadaPay in the same position; Under his leadership, Go-Finance launched PayLater; Recently, gojek group CTO Ajey Gore quit. More here

Sunway partners with Gobi Partners to launch Super Accelerator in Malaysia; It will provide selected startups up to US$23K seed funding and assist them in getting follow-up funding; The 4-month programme is for early-stage startups working in Smart Cities, edutech, digital health, food and agritech and e-commerce. More here

Taihecap Managing Partner on what SEA startups can learn from China and how to tide through COVID-19; Startups should invest more in technology than in user acquisition, says Wallace Guo; They should stop trying new strategies that will burn a lot of money; As per a Taihecap survey, the slowing down in the investment space is mainly caused by the restriction on travel as well inability to do onsite due diligence. More here

Grab, partner face US$3M fine in Indonesia for unfair driver treatment; The ride-hailing giant gave a favourable allotment of priority orders to drivers of its affiliate car-rental firm TPI; In late 2019, the company also landed in hot water in Malaysia for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the country. More here

Closing Asia’s digital divide should be a post-COVID priority; More than 2B people in Asia still are not online at all, including 207M women in S Asia alone who do not own mobiles; Investment in telecom infrastructure and cheaper phones and data will help bring more people online — but those steps alone are not enough. More here

Behind the creative minds of “Circles.Life’s” cheeky content; Find out how the digital telco generates fresh content that is loved by the digital savvy masses; The firm also recently launched an Entrepreneur-In-Residence programme where employees get an opportunity to become co-founders of their respective departments. More here

Singapore’s Robocash is raising US$5M to launch Philippines digibank; This move is in preparation for an IPO on ASX in Dec 2020; This is despite that the Philippines Securities Commission revoked its license for operating several branches of its lending business without the requisite clearance. More here

Cisco launches a 0% financing programme for Singapore SMEs; Hardware, software solutions as well as services can be purchased under this scheme; SMEs employ 65% of the city-state’s workforce and contribute nearly 50% of its economic output. More here

NTU Singpore students set up divestment group, pressure university to quit fossil fuels; NTU Divest asks the university to disclose their dirty energy investments and to reinvest these funds in sustainable technologies; It follows similar campaign moves from students at the NUS and Yale-NUS in the previous years. More here

Vietnam police summon Leflair CEO Loic Gautier; The e-commerce firm owe suppliers some US$280K for goods; Leflair shut down its Vietnamese and Philippine offices in February and started bankruptcy proceedings in May. More here

Cross-border trade digitisation platform dltledgers in advanced talks to raise US$9M Series A; The blockchain firm is close to raising US$5M already and plans to close the round by September; Last July, it raised US$2.5M in pre-A from Walden; It claims to have executed US$3B-worth of physical trade transactions so far. More here

Beyond COVID-19: A new era for deeptech startups; For startups that are pivoting to areas that are experiencing a growth surge, biz diversification through entering new sectors can yield high returns; For some startups, the pandemic has created a renewed urgency to look for new pastures abroad, despite added complexities due to international travel restrictions. More here

Pandemic forces Singaporeans to embrace digital services and financial planning; A survey finds 70% in Singapore have used online banking frequently since the outbreak; 87% of respondents agree the pandemic has reoriented them to adopt a lower consumption and higher savings habit. More here

What tech founders need to know before entering the public sector; They may know a thing or two about how to navigate the ups and downs of the tech market, but it’s clear that politics require a lot of different strategies. More here

Amar Bank launches digital-only bank using Google Cloud; The collaboration is supported by FIS Cloud and Infofabrica; This will enable the bank to utilise data analytics intelligence and ML so as to provide a more efficient personalised customer experience. More here

Singapore’s data aggregation fintech startup Canopy closes funding round; Investors are Dymon Asia, Credit Suisse, SEEDS; Canopy operates an anonymous account aggregation and analytics platform for financial institutions, wealth management professionals, HNWIs. More here

MDEC announces #SMART Automation Grant (SAG) to support SMEs making the digital leap;It’s an outcome-based grant whereby projects must achieve specific digitalisation benefits, such as increased revenue, savings in business costs, and reductions in the process life cycle and man-hours. More here

Thailand accelerator SPACE-F is looking for emerging foodtech startups in SEA; Each will receive a US$4.8K-12.6K grant and can apply for its CVC fund; Applications will be open until 12 July. More here

Philippines launches Digital Cities 2025 initiative; It’s expected to determine the industry-readiness of new centres by creating and developing ICT hubs in identified locations; 25 cities have been identified; The hubs will serve as biz and innovation centres to draw in investments. More here

Global digital health investments stayed the course in Q2 2020; The quarter saw 89 deals totalling US$2.44B, a slight increase in volume but decline in value when compared to both Q2 2019 (81 deals, US$2.45B) and Q1 2020 (82 deals, US$2.9B). More here

Examining FMCG marketplace GudangAda’s unprecedented numbers; It claims to have processed US$1B in transactions in the past 12 months; It has potential annual revenue of US$20M; The firm has so far acquired 80K big retailers, nearly 20K FMCG wholesalers in Indonesia; It recently raised US$25.4M Series A. More here

Ride-hailing and delivery service Get to be rebranded as gojek Thailand; Get has 50K+ drivers and serves some 30K merchants, more than 80% of which are MSMEs; Get saw 2.2M downloads as of Feb 2020 and achieved 20M bookings as of June. More here

Why Indonesia is the hottest payments apps battleground in SEA; With 17K islands, the country’s payment landscape is notoriously fragmented; Its 273.5M population offers huge potential for growth with the rapid adoption of digital payments set to continue;The recent Ovo-Dana merger could help merchants streamline the payment methods they offer to customers. More here

How tech and healthcare can work together in a post-pandemic world; COVID-19 won’t be the world’s last pandemic, so this conceivable not-so distant-future situation could only be the beginning; There’s a wide assortment of advanced innovations turning out far and wide to help check the spread of the novel coronavirus. More here

5G creates opportunities for Vietnam’s economic sectors; It is one of the first countries to commercialise 5G; Due to low latency, 5G will provide new services that 4G cannot yet implement, such as smart health, self-driving cars, smart cities. More here

How tech is shaping the future of public sector audits; Modern tech has turned complex analytics previously accessible only to data specialists into tools that are available to all auditors; Data analytics can provide auditors with a helicopter view of the process, allowing them to find patterns in data and identify high risk areas for audits. More here

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After the engaging discussions with the community at the e27 Webinar: The future of investing, I wanted to share some more guidance to startup founders on how to manage the crisis.

Who is the winner?

Early stage companies have more adaptability and can easily make changes compared to larger companies. While there are advantages being in the early-stage category, as you are able to manoeuvre and adapt your product, during these current times, you have to really take into consideration the sector you are in.

Some sectors such as hospitality and travel have been severely affected and need to think of a complete rehaul and reassessment of their business and business models. Others such as B2B SaaS, healthtech, e-commerce have seen a rise in demand.

As things change, it boils down to the survival of the strongest teams that can work together to come up with the customer and product-led business models and growth. When defining what goes into the making of a strong team, there is no difference between pre-COVID-19, COVID-19, and the new normal.

A strong team is a strong team and some of their key characteristics are experience, expertise, execution capability, and an obsession with the problem they’re solving. There is a strong differentiating factor between someone who is just opportunistic vs someone who is obsessed with their business.

Also Read: Is your startup in need of funding? Let the e27 Pro Fundraising Highlight do the trick!

Overall, the drive, adaptability, and a great product-market and founder-market fit within the team are crucial.

If a strong team is at a point of determining where to start, there is a lot to consider- If you are starting something in a popular vertical, there’s always going to be much more competition. There are also opportunities that can be found in less popular verticals and less crowded spaces. One must look at both sides to balance between competition and intensity.

Fundraising during the crisis

I am cautiously optimistic about the early-stage startup scene as funding rounds are still taking place and I firmly believe strong teams will get funded. Mediocre teams with rigid business models that have not been well thought out may have been able to get funding during normal times– but now, that is not going to be the case.

The most important thing for the early-stage funding scene is LP capital, which is largely speaking still in the market. While angel investors and family offices are naturally being more cautious, VCs are still investing. Southeast Asia-focused venture capital funds US$1.3 billion in additional dry powder in the first three months of 2020.

While the appetite for risk has decreased significantly over the last few months, people still need to develop a COVID and crisis-proof plan and conserve cash to have a longer runway. This would mean a normal time cash runway (18-24 months), plus another six to twelve months.

If there is anything positive that comes out of a crisis, it’s new ideas and ways of doing things to adapt to circumstances. Think of this as a time of opportunity, especially in the area of business model creation-innovative business model structures are critical for this foundation of any startup.

Also Read: Unlike in the west, layoffs are only the last option for Asian firms during a crisis: TranSwap’s Benjamin Wong

The path of profitability matters in the real world, not as much the plan. While it is important, a financial plan in the seed stage doesn’t mean everything as it is largely a test of logic and a test of understanding your business. What matters most is unit economics and having a clear line of sight to making money down the line- the sooner that is, the better. Venture Capital exists for the purpose of getting you thereby fuelling your growth.

In terms of reaching out to investors, there are various ways to connect. Warm introductions are always more powerful and usually help get your first meeting or call. It will be harder to get funding from people you’ve never met, so start with the people you’ve previously met face-to-face.

I would still say, don’t underestimate the power of cold reach outs, persistency, and pure hustle. I also strongly advise founders to research and do their homework on the macro and micro aspects, background of the investors, and VCs and reach out to people to get a sense of the sentiment.

Listen to things like podcasts from experts and it doesn’t really matter if you’re a first-time founder, just go for it!

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Register for our next webinar: How to pivot your growth strategy post COVID-19

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In his annual post, Mark Zuckerberg claimed that virtual reality would transform our relationship with technology in the 2020s. The web dominated the 2000s and the mobile apps 2010s; now, virtual reality is going to make groundbreaking innovations this decade.

If what Facebook supremo says is true, then we will witness a whole new era of how we perceive technology and its aspects in our day-to-day life.

Well, VR isn’t new to the marketers. We’ve already witnessed an example of virtual reality technology back in 2015 when Nike promoted their product with a 90-second video. Another remarkable example is the Dubai frame, where the Fernando Donis of DONIS Architects have used emerging technology to show Dubai’s architecture, economy, and infrastructure. They literally transport tourists to the bygone era to give them an experience of Dubai’s legacy.

Hence, VR has the potential to transform how we create marketing strategies. It is encouraging marketers to get more creative and think out of the box. In the beginning, it would give some stress to your pocket to create a virtual reality set up, but there’s a lot of potentials to generate leads if you use it in the right way.

Even though VR is still in its infancy, but many brands are leveraging the technology to expand its user base. Here’s what you can learn from them.

Also Read: Singapore’s VR-based proptech startup Foyr raises US$4.2M to expand to US

Let your customers have a feel of your products

To have a good start, you must learn from the pros. IKEA and Carnival cruise enable their customers to feel their products, hence equipping them to make more informed decisions.

IKEA gives a virtual kitchen remodelling experience to its customers. The customers can interact with the set up as if they’re standing in it. They can also change the kitchen’s colours and styles to gauge what their kitchen would look like after remodelling.

Similarly, Carnival Cruise takes its customers to an instant Caribbean vacation by giving them a virtual tour of their cruise.

By satiating the needs of their customers, they create the right hook for them and make them brand loyalists.

Transcend people to their favourite place

The god of fantasy drama series Game of Thrones (GOT) embraced virtual reality to transcend their fans to the land of Westeros. Imagine the excitement and adrenaline level GOT fans who got to experience the actual set up! Now imagine the bond they fostered with their fans!

What can you learn from them?

The virtual experience is more than asking your audience to put on a virtual headset. It’s a fully immersive event that gives your audience the control to make a better purchase decision.

Also Read: Cambodia-based Aniwaa expands business with the launch of VR/AR headset comparison tool

Create a niche for yourself

New York University (NYU) is using this technology for recruitment. You’d be amused to know that the students were given VR devices and asked to download an app that would take them on a virtual tour of Mars. The colours and the designs of the images were sourced directly from NASA.

Hence, NYU stood apart from other schools by using virtual reality. On one hand, it enabled teachers to choose the best out of the lot; on the other, it helps students to gauge their learning in the NYU.

Are you experimenting with virtual reality?

In the coming years, VR would grow many folds. More and more brands would incorporate this technology into their marketing strategies. It’ll help brands to give a virtual-real-virtual experience of their products. You can be the next big name in your industry. How? By being an early adopter and leveraging VR for your marketing and advertising activities.

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Register for our next webinar: How to pivot your growth strategy post COVID-19

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

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