The ride-hailing startup is said to be the first ridesharing startup from Vietnam to expand to other country

As a part of Southeast Asia expansion plan, Vietnam-based ride-hailing startup FastGo has officially started operation in Myanmar since December 28, 2018, as reported by VN Express. The expansion is also a result of the company’s joint venture with Burmese conglomerate Asia Sun Group.

“Myanmar is a promising market with the e-commerce, travel, and retail sectors in the country growing rapidly. We target the population of 50 million people in Myanmar with the on-demand transport model,” said CEO Nguyen Huu Tuat.

Also Read: Mobile-focussed recruitment platform GrabJobs raises US$930K

Currently, FastGo focusses on major cities and provinces. Bringing the same business model it has applied in Vietnam, the company expects to hit two million users sign up and 100,000 drivers.

For Myanmar, FastGo claims to only take a fixed service cost from drivers and not commissions on each ride and guarantee them higher fares during rush hour and bad weather.

Also Read: Carmen Automotive’s predictive tech prevents unexpected vehicle breakdowns; raises US$730K

FastGo was launched in Vietnam last June and it hopes to make its service available in 20 cities in Vietnam and five other Southeast Asian markets, including the Philippines, Cambodia and Thailand, by the end of 2019.
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Image Credit: FastGo

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Just as you set up an infrastructure for capturing client leads, you must also build the right channels to attract investors

There are thousands of resources that give advice to entrepreneurs on how to successfully pitch to investors. This breadth of material, encompassing everything from Medium blogs to thousand-dollar conferences, reflects one of the most deeply-held beliefs in the startup community that ‘entrepreneurs should pursue investors’.

The idea that entrepreneurs can get investors to approach them is still so foreign that most founders look at me in disbelief when I tell them that it is possible, but it is indeed true: you can have investors  — even the top ones — lining up on your proverbial doorstep, eager for a meeting.

In much the same way that tech startups can generate inbound leads for clients, so, too, can they achieve the same with investors. Just as you set up an infrastructure for capturing client leads, such as by pairing an SEO-optimised blog with an inquiry form, you must also build the right channels to attract investors. Developing these channels will ensure that your startup has a steady pipeline of investors interested in joining your next round.

1- Speaking engagements

Many founders tend to ignore invitations to speaking engagements, assuming they are a distraction from the overall business. Committing to these, after all, would require many hours of preparation for what may be a fifteen or thirty minute talk at the most. But a talk is never just a talk.

For every reputable speaking engagement, there are marketing collaterals made to promote the guest speakers on social media. There are also journalists who will cover the event and will likely quote and refer to the presentations. There will most likely be a recording of your talk captured for YouTube, too.

Also Read: 6 ways to grow a thriving Telegram group

All of these will add up to what you are trying to build: a digital footprint. You want investors to not only be able to find you online, but to also like what the narrative they see: your startup is gaining traction as a market leader in this particular space. You should thus strive to make your presentation stand out from your peers: An effective strategy is to check what they’ll be presenting in advance, so you can ensure the content of your talk captivates.

Speaking engagements are also useful for the in-person connections you’ll make. On occasions, some investors will approach you after your talk. Use this opportunity to set up a time to chat in greater depth, hopefully this time with their entire investment committee.

2- Thought leadership

Too many founders rely on traditional media relations to get the word out about their company. This approach leaves them at the mercy of journalists — if no writer is interested in featuring their startup, then they will not get any coverage. This fate is a corporate death: no one will know your company exists.

A far more sustainable media strategy is thought leadership: rather than praying that journalists are captivated by your company, you as the founder will actively contribute your thoughts on the business landscape, your space, and even entrepreneurship in general to top tech and business publications.

Some founders are wary of writing from their own perspective, but they must realise they are in good company. Nearly all of the top tech founders in the world, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who just released a book called Hit Refresh, have a thought leadership strategy. This channel is even more important for smaller companies, who can use it as a means of getting into the publications that investors read.

According to a LinkedIn report about thought leadership, over 75 per cent of buyers short-listed a brand for a contract due to their thought leadership. If business leaders are influenced by thought leadership for enterprise purchases, just imagine how important it becomes as a reference point when investors are thinking of putting money into your company. You must strive to do what you’ve always done: make an impression.  

3- Data providers

When announcing their fundraising, some founders choose not to disclose exactly how much they raised. While I understand where they are coming from — most are paranoid about tipping their hat to the company’s valuation, even though no reader would ever know how much equity was given in exchange for the capital — this approach is misguided.

Founders should strive for transparency, particularly with data providers like Crunchbase Insights, PitchBook, or DealRoom. Since your startup’s key performance indicators — such as number of users, revenue — will be private, investors must use a proxy for gauging whether you are gaining traction.

So if investors search your company online and find that you have already raised money from other top venture capitalists, tripled or quadrupled your headcount over the last year, and earned positive reviews from customers, they’ll correctly surmise that your company is doing well and reach out to you. That’s why it’s important for every founder to develop these positive signals that excite investors.

And the investors are there in droves. Over 1.5 million visitors come to Crunchbase alone per month, many of whom are the venture capitalists and angel investors that every entrepreneur would be eager to pitch to. If you maintain an active, attractive profile on these sites, in other words, the investors will come calling.

The impact of building a digital footprint

As a founder, you do not have the luxury of choosing to be behind-the-scenes. You must sing your company’s praises at events, in the press, and on data providers. While creating and maintaining this kind of visibility can be tiring, the results will be well worth it.

I’ve seen many founders in the Asia Pacific who managed to attract a ton of investor interest in large part because of how aggressive they were in pursuing publicity, making it easier to fundraise and giving them a selection of their preferred venture capitalists. From this view, the term ‘digital footprint’ may be especially appropriate: You’ve shown that you’ve already come a long way, and that together you can scale to even greater heights.

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The author Akarsh Dhaiya is a venture capitalist who works with VentureBuilders.nl and serves as Managing Partner at Rocket Equities, an M&A advisory firm based in the Philippines.

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

Photo by Melissa Walker Horn on Unsplash

The post Want investors to come to you? Do these 3 things appeared first on e27.

On a fine day, a large number of your Telegram group members found themselves added to another group without their consent, what should you do?

When a ‘Hi, Jack’ becomes a ‘hijack’

Managing a Telegram group sure is tough. While my team and I have the basics down to handle the largest Telegram meme group in Singapore, we are nonetheless constantly plagued by trouble. More specifically, external parties were messing with members of my group.

Over a period of time, a large percentage of the 13,500 members in my group found themselves added – without their consent – into another Telegram group called sgDoctors. Yours truly, along with the other members of the admin team (lovingly named Admemes), were added in as well.

This practice is not uncommon. On a related note, blockchain companies often hire people to — for a lack of a better verb — hijack members of other blockchain communities to quickly build up their own communities. It is a cheap, quick, and readily doable solution, if you know how to. It also helps that the interests align, i.e. making a buck out of a company’s ICO.

This practice is still ethically grey, and apart from the minor annoyances it creates, it is effective as people stay due to inertia. I often found myself added in randomly to groups; sometimes I stayed out of curiosity and sometimes I clicked ‘Report Spam and Leave’.

Also Read: 6 ways to grow a thriving Telegram group

Typically, the hijacker has to be a part of a group (Group A) first to obtain the list of usernames in that group so that he/she can add them into another group (Group B). If you can figure out who the hijacker is, you can ban him/her to plug the leakage of usernames.

How intuition helps

However, before I tell you about how I used analytics to perform figurative surgery on my group to remove the cancerous hijacker, I must start with a little context. In the recent months, I found myself being added to various groups that not only had the same descriptions in the bio, but also the same set of recurring active members.

From my personal correspondence with these forcibly added members, they also experienced the same repeated cycles as well. These members come from a variety of places, from my own meme group to a defunct Telegram group, which we will call SDSA. The groups my community members were added in were very similar.

Check out the copy in their descriptions.

A coincidence or a severe lack of creativity? I’ll leave you to be the judge of that. sgDoctors had the same modus operandi of adding people in randomly, which made me think:

What if I could use data analytics to ferret out the person hijacking my own group and adding them to other groups?

The challenge

Looking for the individual or individuals was the proverbial search for a needle in the haystack. After all, there were over 30,000 users in total to look through and there was no way to pinpoint who it is. The hijacker, or hijackers could just be lurkers.

However, solving this challenge is simpler than you’d think. In fact, you would have learned about this concept in secondary school!

The solution

Introducing…the Venn diagram!

You might be wondering – how does drawing two circles help in catching a culprit? Venn diagrams are figures that chart groups of objects. A circle represents one group of objects, and in the area where two circles overlap are objects that both groups share.

Remember what we mentioned about hijackers needing to be in groups in order to obtain a list of usernames to add into other groups? If we’re able to obtain the intersection between these different groups, we’d be able to finally pinpoint individuals that are suspiciously in all the groups.

If we expanded the Venn diagram to involve five Telegram groups, this is what we’re expecting:

A total of five Telegram groups were chosen for analysis. Group (A) was the meme group ‘Memes n Dreams’. Out of the four groups with similar modus operandi, I picked three (B, C, D) for analysis and left 1 to check my hypothesis after pinpointing a possible suspect. The last group was the one whose members I see in other groups, i.e. A-D.

The individuals of interest will be located in ABCDE, the area where all of the circles overlap. I will spare you the nerdy stuff and share that out of a total of over 30,000 usernames, I identified 11 usernames in ABCDE.

Bingo!

In the final list of 11 suspects, one was myself and the another one a popular and friendly individual who participates in numerous groups. Of the nine, we narrowed further the list by cross-referencing the last Telegram group out of the four which adopted the same modus operandi and a suspiciously similar bio. Then again, you – the reader – should be the judge of that.

The only individuals who spanned across the same group of Telegram groups which adopted the same modus operandi were myself and another account. Upon checking the number of common groups, I found that not only were we in the same group of Telegram groups, we were also in the same blockchain group.

With this, the member of my group was swiftly removed.

Conclusion

In less than an hour, I was able to sift through over a total of 32,500 people and figure out the culprit involved. Since the removal, members of my group were no longer added randomly to any other groups. I won’t reveal who the culprit is, of course.

So, what’s next? Unless a new law similar to PDPA appears to take hijackers to task, we will continue seeing such acts being perpetrated.

Undoubtedly, it won’t be the last time someone hijacks members of our group – the only way to ensure that my group members are protected is through constant vigilance. With the power of data analytics, I strongly believe that it is a possibility.

—

The author Jackie Tan Yen 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 Renee Fisher on Unsplash

The post How I used data analytics to weed cancer out of my Telegram group appeared first on e27.

Early applicants are eligible for a variety of scholarships, including the Female Founder Fellowship, which is offered to the best overall female applicant

The Founder Institute has announced the launch of the advanced version of its pre-seed accelerator programme for its Kuala Lumpur 2019 cohort.

The Kuala Lumpur 2019 cohort will include the Founder Institute’s newest company-building programme, which it claims is suitable to address the needs of advanced founders in MVP (minimum viable product) stage, as well as aspiring new entrepreneurs at the idea stage. This is a project that has just been launched in 2018 in collaboration with hundreds of startup leaders across the globe.

The Kuala Lumpur Chapter will be led by local startup leaders Heislyc Loh (Founder & CEO, Devs Asia), SaiKit Ng (Chief Executive, Captii Ventures), and Navin Danapal (SOSV SEA Director). They will be partnering with both regional and local ecosystem players such as MOX, Captii Ventures, Cradle, MaGIC, as well as the Malaysian Government’s Digital Hub co-working locations like Co. Bangsar to promote the programme.

Aspiring entrepreneurs or teams interested in building a company with some of Kuala Lumpur’s top startup mentors are invited to apply to the Kuala Lumpur 2019 Founder Institute, or attend a free startup event hosted by the Kuala Lumpur Founder Institute.

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

Applicants who submit by the early application deadline (2019-02-24) are eligible for a variety of scholarships, including the Female Founder Fellowship, which is offered to the best overall female applicant.

Mentors who have expressed interest in helping Kuala Lumpur Founder Institute participants include Ashwin Jeyapalasingam, Co-founder and COO, CatchThatBus; Benson Chang, Founder, TableApp; Chen Chow Yeoh, Co-Founder, Fave; Cheng Leong Foong, Owner, Foong Cheng Leong & Co; Dash Dhakshinamoorthy, Founder of StartupMalaysia.org: Douglas Khoo, Co-founder, Qunar.com; Edwin Wang, Founder, SignatureSnack.com; Feng Lim, Co-founder, At20s; Ganesh Kumar Bangah, Founder & Executive Chairman, Commerce.Asia; Henry Ng, Director, Mansec; Ian Chua, Co-founder & CEO, Hermo; Jasmine Hor, Founder & Creative Director, LogoDesignCreation.com; Jeffrey Paine, Founding Partner, Golden Gate Ventures; Johnson Goh, Partner, Cause Effect; Juliana Jan, Chief Investment Officer, Cradle Fund; Kar Khoon Khoo, Board member, Media Chinese International; Khailee Ng, Managing Partner, 500 Startups; Kwee Bee Chok, Managing Partner, Teak Capital; Luqman Adris, Co-founder, Avana; Nadhir Ashafiq, Co-founder & Executive Director, TheLorry; Peter Yoong, Co-founder of CtrlShift, Pulsifi and InvolveAsia; Ron Ramanan, Founder & CEO, GoQuo; Roy Ng, CTO, Director, iSentric; Sasha Tan, Founder & CEO, Favful; Thomas Yip, Founder & CEO, Radica Software; Tzu Ming Chu, Founder & CEO, Persuasion Technologies; Victor Chua, Managing Partner, Vynn Capital; Wai Hong Fong, Co founder, StoreHub; and Zhen Hui Low, Associate Director, Captii Ventures.

The Founder Institute was founded in 2009 by Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 150 cities and 60 countries, the Founder Institute’s mission is to ‘globalise Silicon Valley’ and empower talented and motivated entrepreneurs to build companies that will create one million new jobs.

Leaders of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used the Founder Institute to raise funding, get into seed accelerators, generate traction, recruit teams, build products, transition from employee to entrepreneur, and more. Founder Institute graduate companies include fast-rising startups across six continents like Udemy, Realty Mogul, Travelcar, goplaceit, and Appota.

Since its launch in Kuala Lumpur in 2013, and subsequently Penang (2016-2017) and Johor Bahru (2018), a total of 54 technology companies  — like Poladrone, Royal Tenant, SimplrHub, and Cidekick — have graduated within Malaysia from Founder Institute programme.

The post Pre-seed accelerator Founder Institute invites applications for Kuala Lumpur 2019 programme appeared first on e27.

As 2018 rolls to an end, we recap what made it a great year for e27 and our community

First, a quick infographic:

 

One thing is for certain: we can do great things as a community. True to our mission, 2018 has been all about empowering the community with the tools and resources they need. Here are the highlights of our year:

Shining a spotlight on APAC

Last June, we made regional stories and diversity the focal points of Echelon Asia Summit. Enough looking to the West – the Southeast Asian startup story is pivotal, relevant, and adds great value to the ecosystem. And in a region as naturally diverse as Asia Pacific, there is no lack of stories.

Over 100 speakers from across Asia Pacific took to the stage (all 4 of them) to dispense advice, discuss trends, and share insights during the two days of Echelon. Singapore Expo was packed by the e27 Community who are not just there to network but who are also genuinely excited to learn about new initiatives and engage with other members of the ecosystem.

Also read: Why we will make diversity and regional stories central to Echelon Asia Summit

It also thrilled us that a substantial part of the more than 200 companies and organisations who showcased at the exhibition are from emerging markets like Myanmar, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. We wanted to turn the limelight toward our homegrown startups and we are happy to have been the platform wherein startups of various stages are able to get the insight, connections, talent, and funding that they need.

We began reaching out to our community across the region months before Echelon. Our Programs team went to 14 different countries in Asia Pacific to meet with the local startup communities in search for the TOP100 startups. Each leg of the TOP100 roadshow featured at least 10 startups pitching, where we met some truly amazing founders and discovered more about the local startup communities.

Over 100 startups battled it out at the TOP100 stage during Echelon, and one emerged victorious. Treedots, an online outlet mall providing end-to-end solution to eliminate food wastage in Singapore, took home the belt.

We are currently getting ready for Echelon Asia Summit 2019. If you’re keen on being a partner, an exhibitor, or an attendee, just click those links and we’ll reach out to you for updates and early promos.

 

Going back to basics

The e27 mission has always been our guide and the projects we undertook in 2018 is no exception. This year, we launched the e27 Academy.

e27 Academy is two-pronged; online, with articles written and curated by our amazing Content team, and offline, which is a three-day learning programme that happened in Batam, Indonesia.

The idea is to go back to the basics. We know that for years now, we have been your go-to source for news about the Southeast Asia startup scene. But we want to do more than that: we want to fulfil our mission. So, we went on to build an online resource for entrepreneurs to get the the information that they need. We are talking about articles that provide step-by-step instructions on how to do things like registering your business in Indonesia, or articles listing important things you need to know like which documents are needed by Singapore-based startups.

Yes, feature articles that inspire are important. But we understand that practical and technical articles that help solve problems are crucial as well.

Since we launched e27 Academy online last October 1st, we have published over 200 articles written by both our Content team and our contributors. You can read them all here.

On the e27 Academy article writing process: Why writing an Academy piece is like going back to school

While reading is always a good idea, we also believe in the effectiveness of focussed learning. In a nutshell, e27 Academy took startup founders out of their busy daily operations, dropped them off on an island for three days with mentors, and watched what happens…if “watched what happens” means creating a programme with 27 masterclasses, 16 roundtable discussions, and more than 20 opportunities for one-to-one consultations.

The idea is to provide early-stage startup founders and aspiring entrepreneurs with the opportunity to be mentored by founders who have been there, and come out of the three-day programme with clear, actionable solutions to their problems and raring to go back and apply the things they learned.

A slice of what was shared during e27 Academy: Top questions asked by entrepreneurs around the world

Of course, e27 Academy Batam would not have been the success it was if not for the enthusiastic participation of the over 150 founders who attended, and the 31 mentors who sincerely and genuinely gave the time and effort to help them out.

 

Helping build the community

This year is all about going back to our roots by staying true to our mission of empowering entrepreneurs. We were able to do that by partnering with groups and organisations whose goals intersect with our own.

For Echelon Asia Summit, TOP100, and Academy, we have over 100 sponsors, strategic partners, and community partners working with us to make sure that startups all over the region get the chance to access the insights shared in our events.

It did not end there, though. We also co-organised the Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology, as well as partner with different groups to hold small community events like panel discussions, demo days, and trivia nights.

More details on what we achieved this year: To ECHELON and beyond, here’s what this ecosystem builder achieved in 2018 to support the tech and startup industry

From small community events, cross-country roadshows, and online campaigns, we leveraged our platform to ensure that support – be it in the form of acceleration or incubation programmes, pitching competitions, or startup challenges – reaches the startup community.

We can only build the community if we do it together, after all.

 

A part of your day

Beyond conferences, learning programmes, and community events, we are happy that you have made us a part of your day.

We start early every day; over 6,000 of you include reading the e27 Daily Digest in your morning routine. We are honoured and we strive to be able to give inspiration, motivation, ideas, and maybe even a bit of a laugh every morning.

Your responses, messages, and shoutouts about the Daily Digest are all greatly appreciated and we’re glad that we’re able to deliver to you the latest updates and our newest articles every morning.

Not yet subscribed? Subscribe now

The articles we publish and share include news, features, and op-ed pieces. We published approximately 3,000 articles in 2018, including article contributions from the e27 community. But the e27 online platform is not only for articles — we envision it to be the go-to platform for entrepreneur and startups to get what they need. News about startups? Startup events around the region? Talent requirements? The e27 online platform have all that.

You, the e27 community, engage with us through e27.co, our social media pages, and our emails throughout the day. From news to features, local to international events, and even jobs, we are happy to be part of the daily lives of the growing e27 community.

 

Telling your stories

In e27, we not only keep you updated on the region’s latest startup ecosystem news. More than a running commentary and announcements on launches, fundings, and whatnot, what we really aim to do is to tell your story.

The most read feature article written in 2018 is the story of Nay Min Thu, founder of Myanmar-based multi-million dollar realty tech startup iMyanmarHouse. The article dove deep into his journey from his childhood helping his father repair watches to the different ventures he attempted through the years.

Also read: We look back to the 10 most-inspiring features from the ecosystem

But it’s not just us telling stories. You, the e27 community, also used our platform to tell your own story, to share insight, dole out tips, and generally engage with each other. Articles contributed by the e27 community are reader favourites. In fact, the overall most read article of 2018 is the one written by LUXSENS co-founder Kenny Au (read it here).

Keen on sharing you story? Start here.

Apart from the stories of startups and innovation that we publish, we also wanted to give everyone an overview of the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem story. We took a deep dive into our data, crunched some numbers, and looked back on what happened this year to bring you the e27 Southeast Asia Ecosystem Report 2018.

It’s slated to be published on 15th January 2019 so watch out for it.

We had a lot going on in 2018. We are thrilled and grateful that you had been along for the ride. Onward to 2019!

The post Empowering the community: A look back on what e27 has been up to in 2018 appeared first on e27.

We extracted data from our database to bring you our first Southeast Asia ecosystem report, which will focus on 2018

2018 was a year of continued growth and new breakthroughs for Southeast Asia’s tech startup ecosystem. In the blink of an eye, a year has passed and we’ve reached the season of year-in-reviews and new year resolutions.

As e27 continues to be an active catalyst of this growth and movement, we want to help all stakeholders to get a solid grasp and make sense of the current state of the regional ecosystem and gear up for 2019’s Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs).

To that end, we are compiling in-depth report on Southeast Asia’s tech startup ecosystem based on e27’s data. But first, here’s a teaser for you.

A 30,000 ft overview

We tracked 5,828 startups currently active across the six ASEAN countries; these are companies who either created a new profile and/or updated their existing ones on e27’s media platform in 2018.

Although Singapore led in terms of total amount of startup funding recorded this year, Indonesia’s average deal sizes overtook that of Singapore. This is because the country had far fewer deals and the huge investment deals raised by its two unicorns –  GOJEK and Tokopedia – managed to skew the average deal size per startup to a whopping US$220 million.

Of course, the 327 deals recorded in Singapore were 3.5 times that of Indonesia’s 93, which also affected the calculation of the above.

To add context to those figures, here’s a one-liner for each of the ASEAN-6 to sum up each their narrative in 2018.

• Singapore: The government continues to ramp up deep tech innovations as part of its Smart Nation drive, giving rise to the new ABCDs in tech- Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, cybersecurity, data science.
• Malaysia: Major political changes and high profile movements within MDEC and MaGIC, two influential agencies driving Malaysia’s innovation movement.
• Indonesia: The country is finally embracing cashless payment, with competition among Go-Pay, Tcash, OVO, and Dana.
• Thailand: The government approved the use of seven key cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether, for various commercial and retail applications.
• Vietnam: The only country with 2 equally vibrant startup hubs — Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City — has moved beyond frontier Market status and is firmly a growth market.
• Philippines: The Philippines ecosystem has been quick to adopt blockchain technology; expect to see more blockchain innovations in the country.

Tier 2 Cities

While the bulk of the startup activity takes place mostly in capital cities, we are seeing a growth in new ventures opening up in secondary and fringe cities. For example, did you know that Siem Reap has given rise to notable startups including Kopernik and Apulus, attracted global startup events like Techstars’ Startup Weekend to be hosted there?

Wait a minute, are you kidding me?

If you’ve read this far, you must have either been mind-blown (because you were too busy hustling to notice 2018’s growth in Southeast Asia), or noticed that there are still a lot of details and context missing to get a full and accurate picture.

Fret not, for this is just a teaser, and we’re reserving more figures and analyses for the actual publication titled e27 Startup Ecosystem Report 2018, which we expect to launch on the 15th of January.

But first, a caveat: the statistics in the full report will give you a clearer idea of the regional ecosystem but we do not claim the figures are completely accurate, as it is reliant on inbound participation and we are fully aware there are startups who do not have any engagement with e27.

Nevertheless, the year 2018 saw the birth of this new initiative and we have great plans to be the Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends and roll it out annually.

This is not a one-off, but a continuous effort to improve visibility and transparency in Southeast Asia’s tech startup ecosystem, and we are speaking to key stakeholders and various governments and in the region for strategic partnerships. But this is also a plea to the #e27community to continue engaging our platform proactively, as we continue serving our mission- to empower entrepreneurs to build & grow their business.

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Get first access to the e27 Southeast Asia Startup Ecosystem Report 2018. Get report here.

The post A quick look at the state of Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem in 2018 appeared first on e27.

Carl Urzo is one of the two geeks from Southeast Asia to make it to Pioneer, a programme run by Daniel Gross and funded by Marc Andreessen

Clark Urzo grew up in a not-so-good neighbourhood in a Philippines village. And his childhood was filled mostly with bad memories that he wants to forget in life.

The first major shocking event occurred when he was just four or five years; one of his neighbours was brutally killed in a shootout in front of his house. But it was just a beginning. When Urzo turned eight, he and his mother had to move to a police camp, as his father was bad with money management. However, he fought all odds to achieve something that many of his peers couldn’t really conquer.

“Statistically speaking, I shouldn’t be here,” Urzo tells me. “Don’t get me wrong: the Philippines is not as lawless and hopeless a land as is usually portrayed in the media. After all, I was able to go to a decent school and eat three square meals a day until I was old enough to forgo buying lunch to fatten up my piggy banks. But it wasn’t the most ideal setup, I guess, and I thank the lucky collusion of coincidences and opportunities that allowed me to survive to this day.”

Urzo, now 23, is one of the two entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia to win the Pioneer tournament —  a programme launched by Daniel Gross (whose startup Cue was acquired by Apple in 2013) and funded by Marc Andreessen and Stripe to discover the “lost Einsteins” of the world.

Also Read: How a lazy student who caught and sold spiders transformed himself into a successful founder

Urzo was selected for creating a new programming language, which enables anyone who can code to contribute to serious physics research (for example, simulations of gravitating systems). This opens up the field to the wondrous forces of Open Source and promotes open and accountable science along the way.

The “itch” inside

From a very young age, Urzo was compulsively curious; he would see something and tinker with it until it yielded to “kid logic”, or otherwise he would be off reading books about topics that were frankly a bit over his head.

“We had this stack of encyclopaedias at home about magnetism, dinosaurs and star charts, and I read them all as best as I could. I also played pretend-scientist a lot when I was a kid, and I’m lucky I didn’t burn my entire neighbourhood down in all the times I toyed with fire and flammable substances,” he laughs.

Urzo learnt about computers while toying with gaming consoles. When he was about six, his older brother taught him how to use the ‘memory card’ of a PlayStation I, and from there he started doing all sorts of weird things to all the computers he could find.

“I got hooked especially on ‘cheat codes’ and I remember getting absolutely stumped as to why entering random hexes into the hulking machines translated into infinite money for my role-playing game characters. It was a pretty interesting (and oftentimes frustrating) ride, going from computer experimentalist to technician and the graveyard of PCs I’ve bricked is testament to that journey,” Urzo walks me through his early life.

“Eventually I learnt to code in Python when I was 12 and rediscovered my love for the sciences one year later, when I couldn’t advance in Algebra I. I had trouble grokking the concept of plotting equations when I first encountered them, so in response I discovered BetterExplained.com and found one of his really intuitive explanations of how you can get areas of figures by dividing them up into rings or bars (which is really Riemann summation in disguise),” he goes on.

In the ninth grade, he moved to a new school to curb some of his hyperactivity problems. It was a single-sex school which simultaneously operated as a seminary. “My mum couldn’t really afford to send me to a school abroad, so I opted to stay here. I decided to major in Physics instead of Computer Science (my university doesn’t allow double degrees). In the freshman year, I got wind of the whole Oculus Kickstarter and ordered from one of the first post-Kickstarter batches. Eventually, this led me to the folks over at VR Philippines, whose founding members roped me into starting a company with them.

Thus Urzo co-founded his fist company when he was just 19.

Applying for Pioneer

Urzo’s startup applied to 2018’s Y Combinator’s Startup School. Around this period, he encountered a headline ‘Lost Einsteins’ when he was looking for success stories (It was the American economist Raj Chetty, who first used this term, which refers to geniuses who would have been able to do great things had they been exposed to opportunities in the right way).

“‘Lost Einsteins’ was an interesting observation. Given the sheer abundance of talent in the world, where are all the geniuses — the groundbreaking scientists, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs?,” Urzo wonders.

“There was a paper I read way back, that looked at the variation in mathematical talent across countries as measured by performance on the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). I realised two things : 1) IMO scores reflected the underlying distribution of mathematical talent in the country, not a mere success-begets-success dynamic, and b) there was a pernicious disparity between the intellectual productivity of high-income countries vs middle-to-low income countries,” he says.

Urzo figured that it is part of a really telling pattern of absence in the modern world, like, given other plausible socioeconomic forces like the fact that high-performing people tend to clump together (in universities and other institutions where problem-solving and/or ability to compete for prestige is highly valuable), and the fact that there are very serious winner-take-all effects in various industries, like how Silicon Valley is literally three times bigger in terms of available venture capital than the next startup hub which is New York —all of these effects should lead to cities full of these Einsteins. “But we see none. And as the data suggests, it’s largely a structural problem.”

Also Read: How the son of a humble watch repairer became the owner of a multi-million dollar realty tech startup

This is when he heard about Pioneer, which is on a mission to discover the lost Einsteins of the world.

What is Pioneer?

Pioneer was started early this year. According to Founder Gross, the Pioneer programme was created to tackle the uneven distribution of wealth and opportunity around the world; using software and internet scalability to reach high-potential outsiders no matter where they may be.

“I started Pioneer in an attempt to build a community for people who feel the way I do about the world. It’s an attempt to find the most brilliant people in the world, wherever they are, and to identify cheap and scalable interventions that might help them achieve their goals. I want to provide some of the non-intuitive benefits of Silicon Valley to many more people,” says Gross.

Pioneer has been intentionally designed without strict application criteria. People all over the world can submit an idea (across any discipline) and compete in a four-week tournament to rapidly advance their startup/research/project/idea. Pioneers share weekly updates detailing the progress of their projects, allowing the community to upvote the projects that move on to the next round.

“Those at the top of the leaderboard get a final ranking from a panel of mentors—including people like Marc Andreessen (Andreessen-Horowitz), Patrick Collison (Stripe), and Balaji Srinivasan (Coinbase)—and the highest-scoring applicants become Pioneers. The selected cohort of Pioneers receive a grant of US$5,000 (with the option of receiving a US$100,000 investment), an additional US$6,000 in Stellar lumens, as well as a round-trip ticket to San Francisco to connect with one another and relevant mentors. A new tournament starts every four weeks. For the December Tournament, winners will also receive US$100,000 in Google Cloud credits and a cash grant of US$1,000,” he explains the process.

Pioneer’s first tournament attracted applicants from more than 100 countries, ranging from 12 to 87 years old, claims Gross. “We believe the world has thousands — maybe millions — of ambitious people who have the talent and creativity and just need a nudge of support to unlock their potential. Our mission is to scalably identify and nurture the creative outsiders of the world.”

In Gross’s opinion, traditional institutions like the Ivy League try to solve this problem by relying on a small set of individuals to screen thousands of applications. This doesn’t scale, he claims. And it leaves many geniuses (especially those from non-traditional backgrounds) undiscovered.

Also Read: Infightings, quitting of key people didn’t deter this entrepreneur from realising his dream

“We’re trying something radically different. We’re trying to find these “Lost Einsteins” by building an online game — Fortnite, for productivity. Players are rewarded based on the progress they make on their project. Every month, we fund the best with a cash grant, return-ticket to Silicon Valley, and up to US$100,000 in follow-on investment,” Gross continues.

Long-term benefits

“The biggest help would be the financial security from the US$5,000 grant,” Urzo says. “My country has been hit by the worst inflation crisis in recent memory and all my bills have skyrocketed as a result. With US$5,000 in the bank I wouldn’t have to worry about going without food on some days and getting my internet cut off.”

“That said, the network of Pioneers has also served as an avenue to meet interesting people. Interacting with others doing ambitious stuff, getting constructive criticism on your projects, occasionally hearing about sudden low-hanging fruits like conferences, all of these have network effects that will only scale as the number of Pioneers grow. And of course, the success of Pioneer will also help us people from low-income countries to have a shot at improving our quality of life significantly and permanently, allowing us to pursue more ambitious projects in service of humanity,” Urzo concludes.

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Spearheaded by Alipay-NUS Enterprise, the challenge grants S$140,000 reward for top innovation tech startups delivering social impact in Southeast Asia

A rising number of emerging startups are placing social impact at the heart of their entrepreneurial pursuits, finding ways not only to balance financial sustainability between tech investments and providing, say, tangible humanitarian aid—but actually utilising tech in order to amplify the impact and reach of that aid.

In more traditional enterprises like agriculture, returns can be amplified through establishing efficient and easy access between goods and consumers through farm-to-market roads. The same line of logic applies to other pre-existing industries.

Tech can be used not only to enrich products and services in creating impact, but also to streamline systems and deliver results faster to the right people.

Trends among social impact startups in Southeast Asia

Tech startups premised largely on social impact are cropping up in different places all over Southeast Asia.

A recent example is Singapore-headquartered startup, Positive Energy, which is a blockchain-based renewable energy finance platform, seeking to revolutionise the energy-funding process by streamlining the deployment of renewable energy assets around the world.

With Positive Energy’s initiative, green investments are made faster, more liquid, and more economically viable for all relevant stakeholders.

Another one is Warung Pintar, an Indonesia based social venture that provides micro and small businesses easy access to digital tools powered by IoT and data analytics.

Warung Pintar is built around the vision of eradicating massive income gaps through providing equal entrepreneurship opportunities to those who belong in the fringes of society. In the span of less than a year, Warung Pintar has digitised 1,000 kiosks across the greater parts of Jakarta.

Also read: Disobedience as a necessity for success, especially for social innovation

These are mere examples of how tech startups across Southeast Asia with social impact at the center of their businesses have been performing in recent history, overcoming obstacles like sustainability issues that often surround social impact startups.

More than providing grants and other forms of financial support, what budding social impact startups can gain in order to really drive their mission across is a spectrum of help ranging from mentorship, financial aid, key insights on business sustainability, and other similarly important components.

Initiatives that nourish tech startups to create social impact

All support when combined, will not only allow startups to execute their ideas, but also to rigorously polish and streamline those ideas.

This is what ultimately led to the creation of the Alipay-NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenge, a partnership between Alipay, the world’s largest mobile and online payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group (Ant Financial), and NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore (NUS).

With examples such as expansive educational opportunities for low-income children, housing development in underprivileged communities, and even care programmes for the elderly and the disabled, the Alipay-NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenge aims to identify and support startups in Southeast Asia—particularly Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia—that use digital technology to foster a more inclusive society.

“We understand that we can’t do it all by ourselves,” said Geoff Jiang, Ant Financial VP and General Manager of Technology and Business Innovation Group, “because the impact of one company may be limited, but when we build an ecosystem of partners with a shared vision, we will be able to achieve much more.”

Also read: Can social impact be growth hacked?

As part of the Challenge, Ant Financial and Alipay have been facilitating the sharing of ideas and experience on leveraging digital technology for social impact, organising roadshows in various cities in the region.

During the Indonesian roadshow, Keith Zhai, Ant Financial’s Head of Corporate Development for Southeast & South Asia, shared the story of Ant Forest, one of the company’s CSR platforms. By May 2018, Ant Forest had encouraged more than 350 million users to lead a low-carbon lifestyle, planting over 55 million trees in China’s arid regions and reducing more than 2.8 million tons of carbon emission.

In the Malaysian roadshow, Alipay’s Senior Algorithm Engineer Xin Guo explained to social entrepreneurs how he and his team developed the idea of using AI to help insurance companies reduce their costs of claims handling by over RMB 1 billion.

This initiative saved claim adjusters 750,000 hours of time through the automation of the claims process, and most importantly, reduce car owners’ average waiting time of claims handling from 30 minutes to just a few seconds.

 

Singapore and Indonesia as breeding grounds for social impact startups

Now exactly what makes these countries the best places to start? We have seen a number of Southeast Asian startups from Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia show promising ideas that fit precisely what the Alipay-NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenge is looking for.

Singapore is currently home to Hapticus, which has created a virtual transportation hub for sectors with special needs (similar to an “Uber” service especially for those with disabilities). Hapticus is already operating domestically and is in the process of expanding regionally.

In Malaysia, a social enterprise called Soara Industries uses technology to drive social change by providing access to safe drinking water through the use of a compact water purification design, and basic solar lighting in rural and marginalised communities.

Also read: Startups should focus on creating social impact, plus insights on fundraising, unicorns, and traffic from Scoutedby CEO

Meanwhile in Indonesia, Endapo is a travel platform that fosters environmental consciousness through their “green urban lifestyle” system, operating as a form of green technology with their paperless processes. They also provide reusable bags as a means to endorse the green lifestyle.

These are only some of the existing social impact startups that use cutting-edge technology not only to foster societal inclusivity that ultimately impacts the world, but have proven that sustainability is the best path to take for social entrepreneurship.

 

Opportunities for tech startups that focus on social impact

“NUS Enterprise helps innovators scale their efforts and maximise social impact, through our strong support ecosystem and extensive entrepreneurial networks, which include mentors, impact investors, corporate CSR teams, capacity builders, and community partners,” said Professor Wong Poh Kam, NUS Enterprise’s Senior Director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre.

With a chance to win S$140,000 in cash prize, the Alipay-NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenge also offers important business insights, plus the unique opportunity of obtaining training, mentorship, and support for growth anchored on financial sustainability while achieving massive social impact.

This means more than just the cash reward, social impact startups will stand to gain commitments from both NUS and Ant Financial to fully realise their visions.

Together, NUS and Ant Financial challenges you to partner with them in creating lasting and sustainable social impact for Southeast Asia and the world.

Have an innovative idea that harnesses digital technology for social impact? Sign up for a chance to receive funding and support to bring your idea to the next level.

 

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Disclosure: This article is produced by the e27 content marketing team, sponsored by Alipay-NUS Enterprise

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It’s clear that the cross-border e-commerce industry in China is becoming more and more complex

The article Top 10 predictions for China cross-border e-commerce in 2019 was written by Don Zhao for TechNode.

TechNode Editor’s note: A version of this article originally appeared on Azoya Consulting’s website.

It has been a great year for the cross-border e-commerce industry in China. It’s clear that the cross-border e-commerce industry in China is becoming more and more complex. Brands and retailers will have to choose an appropriate market entry model, and be more targeted in their marketing efforts. This means narrowing down what kinds of customers they want to reach, as well as what kind of brand image they want to convey to them.

However, the government’s support for the cross-border e-commerce industry remains strong and policies are likely to be further relaxed. All in all, we remain positive on the outlook for the industry and think that 2019 will be a year in which many new opportunities will arise. Brands and retailers who remain flexible and open-minded will be best positioned to succeed.

That being said, the competition is heating up and brands and retailers are finding it increasingly difficult to differentiate themselves in a crowded market.

Here is Azoya Consulting’s Top 10 predictions for the industry in 2019:

1. Chinese government will continue to lower tariffs and restrictions on cross-border e-commerce 
What’s going on: China is expanding the scope for cross-border e-commerce because cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) can be better tracked and taxed, when compared to gray-market daigou purchases. It also makes it easier to protect consumers from fake/shoddy goods. The recent limits on CBEC purchases have been expanded to RMB5,000 (around US$75) per transaction and RMB 26,000 (US$3,800) per year, up from RMB2,000 (US$291) and RMB20,000 (US$2,900), respectively. In November, taxes on inbound postal shipments for the top two tax brackets were reduced to 25 per cent and 50 per cent from 30 per cent and 60 per cent, respectively.

Implications: Expect the government to relax more restrictions on the industry and expand its scope.

2. The ‘consumption upgrade’ trend in China will continue to power cross-border e-commerce growth
What’s going on: Despite concerns over the slowing economy, young professionals in Tier 1-2 cities will continue to spend on higher-quality imported products, specifically those that can enhance one’s health and aesthetics. AliResearch showed that average spending on Tmall Global was more than RMB550 (US$80) for Tier 1 cities, up from RMB400 (US$58) in 2014. Cosmetics and skin care take up almost 40 per cent of total sales on Tmall Global, up from less than 25 per cent in 2014, according to figures from consultancy Deloitte. Similarly, Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) also expects the health food market in China to grow to RMB300 billion (US$43 billion) by 2021 from RMB237.6 billion (US$34 billion) in 2017.

Implications: Demand for cross-border e-commerce imports will remain strong. Brands marketing healthy, natural products will continue to be in demand.

Also Read: Alibaba to facilitate cross-border e-commerce trade between Malaysia and China

3. Niche-focused categories will continue to emerge as Chinese consumers become more sophisticated 
What’s going on: In the past, Chinese consumers have flocked to the same well-known brands that everyone else buys. Now, as consumers become more sophisticated they are beginning to consider long-tail products that do a better job of catering to a specific need or function. Examples include Chinese women adding more steps and products to their makeup routines, and more niche sub-categories such as probiotics emerging within the health & nutrition category.

Implications: It might be more beneficial for foreign brands to start focusing on smaller niches where there may be less competition.

4. New and creative marketing tactics will continue to emerge
What’s going on: To differentiate oneself in a competitive market, brands have to come up with unique ways to connect with customers and build their loyalty. Brands are mixing e-commerce with games, live streaming, short videos, and more to stand out from the crowd. Some recent examples include L’Oreal livestreaming Chinese influencers at the Cannes Film Festival on its WeChat mini-program, and Dior designing a Tetris game to promote its lipstick products.

Implications: Brands should think more carefully about how to make themselves stand out from competitors.

5. Daigou will split into two groups and some will exit the market completely
What’s going on: China’s new e-commerce law is forcing individual sellers on WeChat and Taobao to obtain business licenses and file tax returns. This includes daigou agents using personal accounts to sell online. Other smaller daigou may forego selling and become micro-influencers, helping larger daigou organisations market products on WeChat, getting a commission in the process. Many daigou may exit the market completely.

Implications: All in all, expect the quality of daigou agents to improve, the supply of goods to shrink, and more consumers to purchase from official cross-border e-commerce channels.

Also Read: Indonesian cross-border e-commerce portal WeShop raises 7-digit funding from NextTech and Haspro

6. More retailers may leave large marketplaces like Tmall Global and consider other alternatives
What’s going on: Large e-commerce platforms such as Tmall Global, JD Worldwide, and Netease Kaola are procuring their own inventory directly from brands, and stocking them in bonded warehouses closer to China. This means that Tmall Global can provide lower prices, faster logistics, and stronger customer experience. Third-party retailers selling the same brands on these platforms will find it difficult to compete on price and logistics and may launch their own independent websites instead. Macy’s is one retailer that has left the China market after closing down its Tmall store and official China website.

Implications: Expect more retailers to leave Tmall Global, JD Worldwide, etc.,  and launch their own platforms.

7. Customers’ expectations for faster shipping times will become higher and higher
What’s going on: The large cross-border e-commerce platforms are purchasing more inventory directly and stocking them in bonded warehouses in China and Hong Kong. JD.com has pledged to purchase RMB 100 billion (US$14.5 billion) in imported goods, and Kaola announced its plans to spend three billion Euros on European goods last year. Because they are stocking more inventory in warehouses closer to China, shipping times are being reduced drastically, raising customer expectations.

Implications: There will be more pressure on other brands and retailers to ship packages quickly. Those with clear, predictable demand should stock more inventory in Hong Kong or Chinese free trade zones to keep up.

8. Smaller e-commerce platforms will continue to fall into Alibaba’s and JD’s orbit
What’s going on: E-commerce is becoming more competitive as Alibaba and JD can provide lower prices, wider product selections, and faster shipping when compared to smaller competitors.
Smaller players are partnering with Alibaba and JD because they have stronger operational capabilities (logistics). Alibaba and JD are partnering with smaller platforms because they are niche-focused and do a better job at marketing to certain audiences. Examples include Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) contributing product reviews to Taobao and Farfetch partnering with JD.com.

Implications: Expect Alibaba and JD.com to make more investments in the e-commerce space as growth slows and they look for additional channels to drive traffic.

Also Read: Cross-border e-commerce: Delivering beauty from Korea

9. Marketplace platforms such as Tmall Global, JD Worldwide, and Netease Kaola will set up more offline cross-border e-commerce stores
What’s going on: Offline retail is good for driving brand awareness amongst potential customers who may not normally purchase cross-border e-commerce products. JD’s latest experience center in Chongqing is one offline cross-border e-commerce store that’s opened in recent months. Customers can browse and test out products at the store, and the products are shipped from bonded warehouses within the same day.

Implications: Expect more of these stores to open up as the big players seek to expand their reach. However, these stores are likely to be limited to well-known brands, as opposed to emerging ones.

10. Cross-border WeChat shops built on mini-programmes will grow in popularity
What’s going on: For small brands, WeChat stores are a cost-effective way to build a China e-commerce presence without paying large upfront fees for marketplace platforms or setting up an official Chinese website. For big brands, they can be used for different functions such as launching limited collections, livestreaming makeup tutorials, or designing creative games.

Implications: Smaller brands based overseas will enter the China e-commerce market through WeChat mini-programmes, though traffic will still be hard to drive. Expect bigger brands to design more creative marketing campaigns and mini-programs to differentiate themselves from the pack.

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The article Top 10 predictions for China cross-border e-commerce in 2019 first appeared on TechNode.

Image Credit: h heyerlein on Unsplash

The post Top 10 predictions for China cross-border e-commerce in 2019 appeared first on e27.

The funds will be used to accelerate the development of its model EST-X, a fully-electric and intelligent motorcycle

Singapore-based EuroSports Technologies (EST), a developer of next generation electric motorcycles, announced today it has received S$2 million (US$1.5 million) in seed capital from its parent company EuroSports Global (ESG), with a commitment of another S$3 million subject to certain milestones.

The funds will be used to accelerate the development of its model EST-X, a fully-electric and intelligent motorcycle. It is initially slated to launch in Southeast Asia, which represents a massive initial target market for the startup, with 200 million motorcycles and regional sales of 15 million units per year right on our doorstep.

After its successful launch in this region, the company will follow up with an international debut

“By launching this new electric motorcycle, EST aims not only to deliver a dramatically better mobility experience for end users but also help alleviate the world’s air pollution problem,” said Joel Chang, COO of EST, which has just come out of stealth mode.

Also Read: ClickClinic lets you check crowd and queue at clinics online, receive text notifications

According to the World Health Organisation, air pollution is the number one cause of premature deaths in low-and middle-income Asian countries, accounting for 88 per cent of these fatalities. Globally, air pollution is estimated to kill a shocking seven million people per year. Vehicle emissions are a major cause of this, including those from scooters and motorcycles which remain mostly gasoline powered and highly polluting.

“Air pollution is clearly a health crisis globally. By encouraging societies to switch to electric motorcycles, we can help alleviate the problem. Electric motorcycles are cleaner, easier to maintain given fewer moving components, and cheaper to use over their lifetime compared to gasoline motorcycles,” added Chang.

ESG is Singapore’s distributor of ultra-luxury automobiles and is the exclusive distributor for Lamborghini.

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