The company also hired former LendingClub COO John Donovan to its Board of Directors

Tima, a Vietnamese fintech company with a large P2P lending network, announced today it is beginning the process of raising a Series C investment round.

Upon completion, this late-stage round would be a big deal for the Vietnamese ecosystem. It would mark another successful late-stage investment after Topica raised a US$50 million Series D in November.

Tima raised a US$3 million Series B round in October that valued the startup at around US$20 million.

In 2016 it raised a Series A round from Dunearn Singapore Fund and G Capital.

Also Read: Vietnam-based restaurant tech startup KAMEREO raises US$500K

The company also announced it has appointed John Donovan, the former COO of LendingClub, to its Board of Advisors. LendingClub is an American P2P lending company that has facilitated US$46 billion worth of transactions since its inception in 2006.

“As consumers go online around the world, they look to access financial services in a more efficient and fair way. I look forward to working on the Board of Tima to help this happen in Vietnam” said Donovan in an official statement.

Also Read: Southeast Asia-based VC ATM Capital makes first close of new US$200M fund

Tima claims to have over 30,000 lenders on its platform and nearly 2.8 million borrowers.

For lenders, Tima uses bank accounts at Nam A Bank to hold and manage the money they are willing to lend. Borrowers use this avenue to pay off their debts.

A partnership with VietinBank helps Tima manage financial risk on its platform. VietinBank uses its insurance service help borrowers pay off loans if they run into unforeseen financial trouble.

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The company helps businesses to build an interconnected data sensing environment

Singapore-based IoT startup Overdrive has completed its US$2.9 million Series A round, which was solely funded by Southeast Asia B2B-focussed VC Tin Men Capital.

Founded in 2015 by CEO Aston Chia and COO Zen Chin,  who were university schoolmates in Australia, the company has developed an IoT platform that enables businesses to build an interconnected data sensing environment, extracting data from different sources such as goods or vehicles and machinery.

The platform is then configured to optimally deliver business objectives such as real-time tracking and monitoring, exception alerting and command centre visualization.

Overdrive has implemented its platform in large companies and institutions such as Nanyang Technological University, Fedex, Ascendas, and Ministry of Manpower in Singapore, as well as  Volkswagen and Mazda in Malaysia via its local partner.

The company said its tech is unique because it features both an open architecture to ingest both in-house and partnered intelligence modules as well as an ability to tweak device-level firmware and connectivity — making the platform highly robust and scalable.

“Overdrive has built a powerful and dynamic platform in allowing any devices and sensors to communicate with each other and with data and video capabilities,” said Chia, in an official press statement.

Also Read: Vietnamese financial marketplace Tima launches Series C effort

“In order to keep our current and potential customers invested in our vision, we continue to upgrade our platform aggressively to stay ahead,” he added.

Chia said the newly-raised financing will help Overdrive to scale up its industrial asset tracking tech for the supply chain, construction and facilities management sectors, with a focus on delivering solutions in the Singapore and Malaysia markets.

“We are scaling up our R&D bandwidth as we speak and have already embarked on a few industrial level implementations with customers in Singapore and Malaysia, with more markets and sectors, being targeted over the next 18 months,” added Chin.

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Image Credit: Overdrive

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The investment is led by Mirai Creation Fund II a fund from Toyota Motor Corporation and SPARX

Pricebook, the gadget discovery platform from Indonesia, shared today that it has secured its fourth round of funding led by Mirai Creation Fund II (two), a fund invested by Toyota Motor Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and SPARX.

Joining the round is existing investor KLab Venture Partners Co., Ltd.

The amount raised was not disclosed.

Pricebook plans to use the fund to further accelerate the O2O integration with its offline sellers through the website and social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram. It also plans on staying on top of its gadgets and electronics coverage.

Also Read: ClassPass buys top Asia competitor GuavaPass

Pricebook collects product information like reviews, specifications, and online articles, and availability in both online and offline stores through their channels, allowing shoppers to make decisions only after getting all the necessary information.

To date, the company claims to have millions of users each month accessing the information shared on Pricebook’s website and social media.

Besides becoming the platform for gadget information, Pricebook also offers marketing solutions for manufacturing brands and financial companies.

The company’s official statement reads as such:

“Pricebook’s strength lies in the adaptation of Indonesian behavior online and offline. Over the years of operation, Pricebook has realized that, though Indonesia’s internet population and the e-commerce market is rapidly growing, the gap between heavy online shoppers and those not remains to be wide.”

“Heavy online shoppers made purchases based on pricing data, while many others preferred to see the product and the seller before purchase, a big market full of inefficiency, hence the O2O shopping discovery platform,” it continued.
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Also Read: Vietnam-based restaurant tech startup KAMEREO raises US$500K

Image Credit: Pricebook

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Also, True Digital Park inks four partnership deals and Tokyo Century increases Grab stake

Tesla breaks ground on first China factory — [Financial Times]

Elon Musk today announced plans to build Tesla’s first China factory by the end of the summer with the goal producing its first Model 3 vehicles by the end of 2019.

According to the Financial Times, the plant will be called Gigafactory 3 and is expected to have the capacity to produce 500,000 cars a year.

The goal of the plant is to produce only Model 3 vehicles meant for the China market. Model 3s built for the global consumer will be built in the US and more high-scale vehicles (which will also be sold in China) will also be built in America.

Shanghai Giga will produce affordable versions of 3/Y for greater China. All Model S/X & higher cost versions of Model 3/Y will still be built in US for WW market, incl China.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2019

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The Tesla stock price has risen 5.77 per cent today.

Bangkok’s True Digital Park inks partnership with four tech giants — [Press Release]

True Digital Park, the large-scale startup-focussed infrastructure project in Bangkok, announced today it has partnered with tech giants Cisco, Microsoft, Epson and Ricoh to help build a “state-of-the-art work environment”.

Examples of some of the technology being implemented are heat maps, facial recognition technology, smart office appliances, AI products and an ‘innovation experience center’.

The breakdown (copied directly from the press release) is as follows:

• Cisco: Cisco will incorporate Heat Map that collects data on space utilization within True Digital
  Park for further analysis, management and effective communication with the users; and Smart
  Lighting that operates power control at the office and meeting rooms to ensure Smart Office
  and Smart Building.
• Microsoft: To enhance the security standards at True Digital Park, Microsoft would introduce
  an AI-driven face detection and facial recognition system to automatically monitor incoming
  and outgoing foot traffic instead of relying traditional card-based alternatives. This new system
  is powered by Cognitive Services on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
• Epson: Epson’s innovative “Laser Projector” delivers better resolution and longer service life
  than those of conventional projectors. Epson will also provide interactive projectors at board
  rooms and high-contrast projectors at large conference rooms. All projectors support wireless
  connection to ensure efficient and engaging meetings.
• Ricoh: Ricoh’s multifunctional printers will be installed to support activities handled by start-
  ups and users at the convention centers inside True Digital Park. Ricoh Experience Center
  will also be established as a platform to ignite creativity under the concept of open innovation.

ClassPass buys top Asia competitor GuavaPass — [e27]

ClassPass, a product that allows people to book gym classes at various locations, has bought its top Asian competitor GuavaPass.

Both companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. It is expected to be finalised by the end of January.

ClassPass will bring onboard about half of the GuavaPass staff and use the acquisition to facilitate rapid expansion across Asia and the Middle East.

The specific locations are Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Mumbai, Shanghai and Singapore. GuavaPass will cease operations in these cities. The brand will be used in other markets but will still be under the ClassPass umbrella.

Tokyo Century boosts investment in Grab — [Press Release]

Tokyo Century, a Japanese financial services company, has boosted its investment in Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Grab, raising its total investment to US$175 million.

According to a press release, part of the investment is going towards Grab Rentals, which rents private-hire vehicles for people to use in Singapore.

The goal of this is to help facilitate more flexible driver arrangements as well as finance the upcoming launch of a fleet of electric vehicles.

Overdrive raises US$2.9 million — [e27]

Singapore-based IoT startup Overdrive has completed its US$2.9 million Series A round, which was solely funded by Southeast Asia B2B-focussed VC Tin Men Capital.

Founded in 2015 by CEO Aston Chia and COO Zen Chin, who were university schoolmates in Australia, the company has developed an IoT platform that enables businesses to build an interconnected data sensing environment, extracting data from different sources such as goods or vehicles and machinery.

The platform is then configured to optimally deliver business objectives such as real-time tracking and monitoring, exception alerting and command centre visualisation.

—

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Quona Capital is the international venture capital firm that focuses on fintech with a financial-inclusivity mission

Indonesian Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, KoinWorks, just announced its latest Series A funding raised from the international fintech-focussed venture capital firm Quona Capital.

KoinWorks made for Quona Capital’s first fintech investment in Indonesia, inking the deal just after the startup reached a total of 100,000 investors.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Quona as its mission is to back fintechs that truly works to make differences in society and to achieve inclusivity in finance,” said Benedicto Haryono, CEO dan Co-Founder KoinWorks.

Also Read: Southeast Asia-based VC ATM Capital makes first close of new US$200M fund

Quona Capital and KoinWorks are forming a joint collaboration, sharing the same mission of championing technology as a means to improve the quality, access, and reach of financial services for those overlooked by traditional banks.

So far, Quona Capital has backed financial inclusivity focussed startups in Latin America, Africa, the UK, and Asia.

According to the 2017 Global Findex database, Indonesia accounts for 33 per cent of the underserved population in terms of financial services. As shared in the Wave 3 Report FII Tracker Survey — conducted by InterMedia and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — only 26 per cent of Indonesians meet the global financial services standard.

KoinWorks’ recent innovation includes a RoboLending feature that allows investors to fund companies without having to shadow and to choose which business they want to support. RoboLending does the work of deciding based on portfolio and investment returns.

Also Read: Singapore IoT startup Overdrive raises US$2.9M Series A from Tin Men Capital

Before this fresh funding, KoinWorks has been backed by Mandiri Capital Indonesia, Gunung Sewu, and Convergence Capital, all in 2018.
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Image Credit: KoinWorks

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The company plans to use the funding for the development of the machine learning in its chat bot

Singapore-based GrabJobs, entry to mid-level focussed job platform, has announced a total of US$930k seed funding just in 2018, bringing total funding to over SGD$2.5 million (US$1.8 million).

The company said that it will focus on product development and platform improvements, including the integration of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning technologies into their signature interview chat bot. The latter is a project run in partnership with Mr. Erik Cambria, Associate Professor in Artificial Intelligence at NTU.

Also Read: Home vacation rentals startup Luxstay secures US$3M bridge round funding

Some new features that the company has introduced:

• An omni-channel web-based interview chat bot, in addition to an in-app chat bot

• Automated multi-channel job posting

• Automated Interview Scheduling and Interview Reminders to improve applicant show-up rates

• In-store interview kiosks

• A web-based version of the job portal

In addition to these features, GrabJobs plans to launch a product feature that will support job seekers for high-volume recruitment jobs, such as retail and F&B services with no-CV application feature. GrabJobs believe that it allows users to apply for jobs quickly, without the need to create and craft a CV, supported by chat bot that will expedite the interview and screening process.

About the plan, CEO and Co-Founder Mr. Emmanuel Crouy said, “In 2019, we will be expanding outside of our current markets in Southeast Asia by partnering with regional job sites to provide our services to recruiters in the region.”

Also Read: Grab ordered to pay US$208K to Vietnamese taxi firm Vinasun in lawsuit

GrabJobs claimed to be the cost-effective recruitment solution that automates the traditional toll of sourcing, screening and interviewing candidates.
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Besides the basic functionality, there’re also a lot of features that make it easy to form communities on Telegram

Telegram is amazing. More and more people use this instant messaging app every day, and there’s no stopping to its increasing adoption.

Besides the basic functionality, i.e. chatting, there’re also a lot of features that make it easy to form communities on Telegram. For example, you can pin important messages, and the maximum number of members you can have, at this time of writing, is 75,000!

Currently, there are all kinds of Telegram groups catering to different audiences, be it a small group project, interest groups, or even crypto communities. However, growing a group from scratch and ensuring that your group continues to thrive is a challenging affair.

Also Read: Empowering the community: A look back on what e27 has been up to in 2018

We get it, since we’ve grown our very own Telegram meme group to 13,000 members in the short span of four months. In this article, we share several tips to help your Telegram group thrive.

1- Understand why people join your group

For our group, the reason why members were in our group in the first place was a simple one — they simply wanted to enjoy memes.

In general, it’s important to understand why your members are in the group, as it will help you tailor your message. Not understanding this, your group will lead to slow growth at best, and people leave your group at worst.

Take some time to understand the needs of your members, and the types of content that they want to see in your group.

2- Set ground rules

When our group first started, there were no rules as members were already friends and had mutual understanding. However, as the group scaled, it was important to set ground rules. In the early days of the meme group, there were three main problems:

1. Unacceptable photos were shared — this included gore and material of adult nature
2. Long stretches of messages without any memes shared
3. Members receiving unsolicited messages from other members in the group

Members began leaving as these things did not align with what they wanted — to simply enjoy memes. To address this, the admin team set ground rules to curb these behaviour.

For example, admins regularly reminded members that they should be “more memes less talk”. Those who broke rule-3 were named and shamed, followed by expulsion from the group.

The ground rules reduced incidents of the three issues and subsequently reduced attrition rate. Publicising the admins’ decision was helpful as it sent a signal to members that we were serious about our rules. Other than keeping the channel as friendly as possible, it also served to deter future offenders.

3-Have an effective team

We were fortunate to assemble a team of passionate admins who were invested in growing the meme group. Our campaigns ran smoothly because the admins are aligned and ensured that things were executed.

Ensuring that admins were available at all times to monitor group activity is important as well, to avoid members breaking rules.

4- Communicate, communicate, communicate

Broadly speaking, communication is absolutely important in maintaining and growing a thriving community. Since your members are the biggest stakeholders in your community, their opinions do matter. As such, listening to your community can also prove to be valuable. One effective way is to take in relevant feedback and adapt their words into your strategies.

Firstly, there is communication to get a community’s opinion. This involves interacting with the community as a whole. It ranges from a simple message in the group to more sophisticated ways like using a bot to conduct polls.

Secondly, there is communication to get feedback. In contrast with communicating with the entire community, there’s also engaging individual members for feedback. We reach out to group leavers regularly to understand why they left. This allowed the admin to tweak our rules and messaging in the group.

Also Read: A quick look at the state of Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem in 2018

In addition, reaching out to leavers has an unexpected effect — there are those who come back after being individually engaged. Is it scalable? Not immediately, but it’s nonetheless important as reconverted members are stronger supporters than before.

It is also important to communicate your decisions to the entire group, be it in the event when community rules are flouted or thought-processes behind the admins’ actions.

5- Use analytics

Telegram is an amazing messaging app not just because it supports large groups, but the team also built a suite of application programme interface (APIs) that allow us to draw data to perform analytics. We developed in-house analytics capabilities to monitor our group growth.

Utilising analytics also helped us in identifying our key target audience and keeping content relevant to this age group. It was also easier to set goals for upcoming campaigns.

Over time, community managers or admins can intuit who are strong supporters in the group. They are individuals who consistently and frequently active, and are usually the first to engage the admins over issues.

In our case, we identified key members who were consistently contributing to the group using analytics. Engaging them helped maintain consistent levels of user-generated content in the group while encouraging new members to contribute.

6- Incentivise key members

From time to time, our group also organised contests to engage the community. These contests ranged from spurring members to create their own memes, to encouraging them to invite as many friends as possible to join the group.

Top contributors will then be rewarded for their efforts in helping to strengthen community bonds. Incentivising our members will help to foster a sense of loyalty in the community and engaging with the community as a whole. This is also a way to show gratitude to members for reaching and exceeding goals – be it membership, or simply strengthening community bonds.

In our case, recognition given by admins to members is also key in spurring more user-generated content from our members. Admins would then choose their favourite original meme in a bid to commend our members for their effort.

Recognition as an incentive helps us to retain our members by making them feel cared for. Productivity also increases, i.e improving the quality and quantity of memes posted.

A game of patience, love and strategy

Growing a Telegram community is a long-term effort, involving a lot of investment in time and communication. While growing a group into a thriving one might be daunting to begin with, the rewards are amazing when your efforts strengthen the community and members are aligned and have the same levels of passion for the subject.

Your community needs to grow at a manageable pace and in an organic way. As community members interact around shared values, community cultures will begin to form and that is when a group starts to thrive.

—

To Si Ling is Co-founder of MnD Analytics.

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

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

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The Vietnamese startup nabs the round called bridge round from CyberAgent, Y1 Venture, and others

Vietnam-based rental sharing startup Luxstay has raised US$3 million in a bridge round from Japan-based CyberAgent Ventures (CAV), Y1 Ventures and some other investors. This round made for CAV’s second investment after it added an undisclosed amount to the US$2.5 million pre-Series A round led by Genesia Ventures in early 2018.

CAV is said to be a key player in guiding Luxstay as a startup company to structure itself internally and raise investment in this round of funding.

Also Read: Pre-seed accelerator Founder Institute invites applications for Kuala Lumpur 2019 programme

Luxstay describes its service as an online platform that connects owners of accommodations such as apartments, vacation villas, homestay looking for short-term rentals with tourists or business travelers. Luxstay has specified its network serving the mid-end to high-end segment.

It was founded in 2016 by Nguyen Van Dung and claims to have a network of 10,000 homes in the country to date.

Taking sharing economy that will affect the tourism and real estate markets into account, the statement by CyberAgent Ventures’ investment director for Vietnam and Thailand Dzung Nguyen expresses its support to Luxstay’s business model.

“We believe that this business model, like Luxstay, is working as intended and can be a game-changer in its market in the near future. It brings a great source of income to homeowners, and also takes advantage of the available properties,” said the statement.

Also Read: Singapore’s e-scooter startup EuroSports secures US$1.5M from its parent ESG

The most recent collaboration Luxstay has embarked on was with Japan’s Rakuten LIFULL STAY. The partnership resulted in Rakuten LIFULL STAY providing its inventory of the Japanese vacation rental properties listed on its site under ‘Vacation STAY’ to Luxstay, and vice versa.
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Quikspaces currently has more than 1,200 listings on its platform

Philippines-based flexible office spaces online marketplace FlySpaces has today announced that it has acquired its competitor Hong Kong-based Quikspaces.

Following the acquisition, the company’s founders and team will join FlySpaces
and its Hong Kong operations.

Through this deal, FlySpaces will gain 1,200 additional office listings to its marketplace. The platform allows customers to search, book and pay for over 3,000 office listings in Southeast Asia online.

“We are excited to join Southeast Asia’s largest platform for flexible office space and join its team while bringing to the table our local expertise and extensive network in Hong Kong,” said Eunice, CEO of Quikspaces, in an official press release.

“This was a natural fit since Quikspaces will benefit from the large-scale operations and technology that FlySpaces provides, helping accelerate our growth within Hong Kong.”

Mario Berta, CEO of FlySpaces, observed that the ecosystem has been witnessing a consolidation of co-working spaces since a year ago. This trend, in turn, has “inevitably” impacted flexible office spaces aggregators as well, he said.

Also Read: This co-working space tackles the number one problem working moms face: Guilt

“Customers looking for flexible workspaces across Southeast Asia can benefit from the increased scale that one platform can provide,” said Berta.

FlySpaces is currently developing a suite of tools for office space operators to manage all aspects of their co-working business, from space management to end-to-end booking software.

Quikspaces is FlySpaces second acquisition since its founding three years ago. It previously acquired Malaysia’s 8Spaces in 2016.

FlySpaces offers flexible office spaces in Singapore, Manila, Cebu, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Jakarta, and Macau. Among its notable users are Uber, Google, Heineken, AstraZeneca, and Nestle.

In 2017, the company raised a US$2.1 million a pre-Series A round from a group of investors, led by The Net Group Co-president Raymond Rufino.

—

Image Credit: FlySpaces

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Helmad offers an innovative way for brands to advertise products on helmets, while rewarding two-wheeler riders for every kilometre they cover

Michael Hendriks was touring to Jakarta in 2015 when he decided to lock himself one night in the brainstorm room of a co-working space, with nothing more than a whiteboard and some music. He was working on a concept that could possibly change the lives of millions of people of Indonesia, a country he was deeply in love with.

He invited a friend to share his feedback on the product, or rather the prototype. After hours of discussions and iteration, he ended up wiping clean the whiteboard and drawing a helmet and an advertisement next to each other.

And an innovative product, Helmad, took shape.

“Hailing from Holland, I arrived in Jakarta early 2015 after many visits as a tourist. I saw the possibilities offered by this country, a land of nearly 300 million people and a fast-growing economy,” Hendriks tells me. “On a personal level, Jakarta has always felt like home to me; the culture, the busy city, the people, the vibes, and even the traffic.”

After years of painstaking research, Hendriks started Helmad in 2018. His product offers an innovative way for brands to advertise products on helmets, while rewarding two-wheeler riders for every kilometre they cover.

In other words, Helmad turns a safety tool people are obliged to wear in traffic into a moving billboard.

“I couldn’t imagine that almost four years after I arrived here, I would turn the traffic jams into a new marketing machine, but it feels only right to contribute to a better, safer and more booming environment,” he shares.

Also Read: One startup in Indonesia seeks to transform the way people deal with food excess

According to him, Helmad is partly a new marketing channel and partly a social impact generator. “Along with providing a platform for brands to spread their message around town, Helmad allows students to earn some cash and receive other incentives along with it.”

“As for the quirky brand name, we simply smashed the words ‘helmet’ and ‘ads’ together. It’s so simple that it’s effective, and is weird enough. A weird name works; some people like it, some people don’t. It makes people start talking about it,” he laughs.

How does it work?

Drivers can sign up and get assigned to a certain client ad campaign, after which they will receive a helmet with a built-in GPS tracker (to persuade students to sign up as drivers, Helmad offers free helmets with 12-month basic insurance, in addition to rewards).

The helmets are designed in partnership with the clients in order to ensure the marketing message remains on the headgear throughout the campaign.

Throughout the campaign, Helmad provides live updates on its progress and offers continuous support to its client, who may want to change their game plans along the way. At the end of each campaign, the helmet will be renewed or exchanged and the drivers will get brand new ones.

The drivers (students) will keep track of their covered distance as well as their earnings through Helmad’s app. Moving forward, Helmad will actively turn the app into a financial platform, where drivers will be guided on how to save and manage money.

“Whether the driver gets assigned to a campaign of one month or three months, he or she receives the insurance for 12 months upfront, allowing everybody to get acquainted with insurance coverage. For the insurance, we are working together with a partner, who offers a very affordable life insurance with lots of features and benefits, and most of all, an easy-to-use app, allowing users to upgrade or downgrade certain policies,” he reveals.

With the current structure, Helmad focuses on bigger brands, for their marketing budget fits with its business model. “We have been pitching Helmad to some of the key players active in Indonesia, and especially in Jakarta. We can offer them tailor-made campaigns varying in length, number of drivers and of course budget. More than half of the prospected clients are interested to start a campaign in 2019.”

However, Helmad doesn’t restrict itself to big brands. “The beauty of this system, however, is that we can easily scale it down, and it will be interesting and affordable for smaller businesses also,” Hendriks adds. “Think about an artist who releases a new album, or movies that will be in the cinemas soon, or even events. We also see huge opportunities in the country’s politics. The project I am most proud of has to be the upcoming presidential elections in Indonesia. I am expecting to make a huge social impact with that, although I cannot disclose too much information about that at the moment.”

Also Read: 6 ways to grow a thriving Telegram group

As per market research portal Statista findings, the total advertising spending in Indonesia came to US$2.36 billion in 2015 and is projected to grow to US$3.23 billion in 2019. This includes online advertising streams such as desktop/laptop, mobile and other internet-connected devices as well as offline advertising mediums such as directories, magazines, newspapers, out-of-home, radio and TV).

The projected market share for Out Of Home (OOH) advertising is around 29 to 30 per cent of the total ad spending market, which translates to US$93.3 million. “The growth of OOH advertising is showing the same amount of annual growth, and we at Helmad believe that we can trigger certain markets to opt for OOH even more and less for online,” he shares.

While Indonesia has always been Hendriks’s target market, he is not averse to exploring neighbouring markets. “We have already sat down with a party from Vietnam to discover the opportunities there, since it has a booming economy. Soon after, more countries like the Philippines can and should follow. It will be another dream come true, but for now, we need to deliver in Indonesia first.”

In the starting stage, Helmad faced many challenges. One mistake he made, Hendriks says, was coming up with client pricing and drivers’ wage calculations before comparing them with the country’s minimum wages.

Long before starting Helmad, Hendriks ran a business in Holland, and most recently in Indonesia.

“However, there was no social drive and it was solely focused on profit. It took me over 15 years to finally find a way to and make people happy and make a living out of it,” he signs off.

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