Finance

Indonesian e-procurement platform Mbiz raises US$20M in Series B funding

Indonesia-based B2B-targeted e-procurement platform Mbiz has raised US$20 million in Series B funding.

This follows a Series A investment from Tokyo Century Corporation in 2017.

According to a DailySocial report, the funding will be used to focus on in-country expansion for the next two years to increase e-procurement awareness in Indonesia, as well as for platform improvement and team hiring.

The Series B funding, according to Mbiz CEO Rizal Paramarta, is still ongoing and is open for more investors. Specifically, Paramarta said that the company hopes to collaborate with fellow e-commerce ecosystem providers or with brands with a high awareness level.

Mbiz provides a B2B Commerce service with an e-procurement digitalisation system, automating a time-consuming process like tax cut reports, bookkeeping, and others.

In Indonesia, Mbiz’s head-to-head competitions are Bhinneka Bisnis and Bizzy, along with Bukalapak that has begun to address B2B segments by providing e-procurement BukaPengadaan.

Vietnam’s HR platform Sieu Viet to get US$34M funding from Singapore’s private equity firm Affirma Capital

Affirma Capital, a Singapore-headquartered private equity firm targeting the emerging markets, plans to invest US$34 million in Vietnamese online recruitment firm Transcendental Human Resources JSC, or locally known as Sieu Viet.

Also Read: Meet 9 CEOs steering through Vietnam startup ecosystem

According to a report by DealStreetAsia, the investment is still subject to regulatory approval. It will be used to help Sieu Viet strengthen its value proposition in its core segment and launch more value-added services across its platform.

In the past, Sieu Viet acquired local HR website MyWork.com.vn with the intention to bring its network to a total of four job portals that caters to both small and medium businesses as well as large corporates.

Affirma Capital is owned and operated by the former senior leadership of Standard Chartered Private Equity. Sieu Viet becomes Affirma Capital’s fifth investment in Vietnam since 2014.

Video editing platform InVideo secures US$2.5M funding led by Sequoia’s Surge

San Francisco- and Mumbai-based video production and editing platform InVideo
raises US$2.5 million in funding led by Surge, an accelerator programme run by global venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.

According to a VCCircle report, Surge joins investors in the company such as angel investors Anand Chandrasekaran and Gokul Rajaram in total funding of a little over US$3.2 million raised.

The startup plans to use the funding to grow its global audience, invest in its community, and expand its product pipeline.

InVideo aims to democratise access to professional video software using AI to automate the entire video-making process. Operated by Abstrakt Video, InVideo suggests real-time improvements with the help of an autocorrect assistant that include font and animation choices, and colour palettes.

InVideo was part of Surge’s second cohort of 20 startups from across Southeast Asia and India.

Business

honestbee continues to suspend habitat’s operation, stating concerns over Covid-19 virus outbreak

Online grocery shopping platform honestbee has suspended its tech-enabled offline operation of habitat supermarket until February 29, stating concerns over the Covid-19 virus outbreak in Singapore. Besides the outbreak, the slowdown in the retail and food and beverage sector also influenced the decision.

Also Read: [Updated] Honestbee describes CEO Joel Sng departure as resignation, names replacement

According to a report by The Business Times, habitat has halted operation since February 10 with the initial plan to resume operation on February 23. The company said the decision to remain closed will be an opportunity to improve its technology infrastructure to enhance the customer experience.

Singapore’s government raised the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition to Orange — the second-highest level — for the virus early this month.

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Photo by Afif Kusuma on Unsplash

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Finance

JD.id to confirm unicorn status after closing funding from gojek

After a rumoured funding from gojek since last year, today Indonesia-based e-commerce company JD.id announced today that it has received an undisclosed amount of funding from gojek, DailySocial has reported.

This round takes the company’s total valuation to over US$1 billion, making it the sixth unicorn in the country after gojek, Tokopedia, Traveloka, Bukalapak, and OVO.

At the beginning of last year, JD.id announced a joint venture with gojek and logistics company JX.

JD.id is the Indonesian arm of the strategic collaboration between Chinese e-commerce behemoth JD.com and private equity firm Provident Capital. The latter is also gojek’s backer.

Indonesian e-commerce has reached US$21 billion in valuation according to
e-Conomy SEA report in 2019 and is well on its way to growing to US$82 million in valuation in 2025. JD.id has said that its strategy is to focus on logistics, especially the same-day delivery features.

Sequoia leads US$32M Series C in Indian tech startup Whatfix

Sequoia Capital India, along with existing investors Eight Roads Ventures and Cisco Investments, has invested a US$32 million in Series C funding in digital adoption solutions provider Whatfix.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Indonesian e-procurement startup Mbiz raises a US$20M Series B funding

The company reveals that it plans to use the funds to drive product development that unifies the employee experience, improves digital journey across desktop, mobile and web applications, simplifies enterprise-wide search across fragmented content repositories and increases user productivity via workflow automation, personalisation, and BOT-based data entry. It also plans to accelerate expansion into markets such as Europe and Australia.

Whatfix was founded in 2014 by Khadim Batti, CEO, and Vara Kumar, CTO. It seeks to provide a digital adoption platform for enterprises to help drive digital adoption, realise user productivity, and elevate user experience across enterprise applications.

Online food ordering platform Swiggy snags US$113M funding led by Naspers

Online food ordering platform Swiggy has raised a US$113 million funding led by existing investor South African internet giant Naspers. According to a report by ETtech, the new fund is part of a larger US$150 million funding round, bringing the latest capital raising values the company has at nearly US$3.6 billion.

Other existing investors, Hadley Harbour Master Investments and Chinese local services platform Meituan, also participated in the round.

Naspers is its largest investor with around 40.6 per cent stake while Meituan holds 6.35 per cent in Swiggy.

Sriharsha Majety, CEO and Co-founder of Swiggy, said that the company has recently started a grocery delivery service Swiggy Stores, concierge service Swiggy Go as well as scaled-up SuperDaily, an everyday micro-delivery service.

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Picture Credit: JD.id

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I am Aulia Halimatussadiah, the co-founder and CMO of Storial.co.

Writing is my go-to sanctuary and with over 30 published books under my kitty, I now run Indonesia’s only, online self-publishing platform with 150,000 writers Storial.co. It is a social storytelling platform that allows writers to do direct publishing digitally, get direct feedback from readers and directly monetise their book per chapter.

I am also a marketing pro and the Co-Managing Director for Girls in Tech Indonesia. I have been a mentor for young mentees in entrepreneurship.

If you are wondering how I juggle it all, here are my daily productivity hacks. Worth a steal!

I wake up at 5.30 am and start my day with the intention of having a better day than yesterday.

I listen to a guided meditation by Dr Joe Dispenza for 20 minutes.

I sit at my home office and start writing the things that I’m grateful for in my gratitude journal. (I’ve been doing this practice since 2014 and it has helped me a lot to keep myself optimistic).

I am a checklist person, so I start making my to-do list of the day on my paper notebook. I start checking emails that are mostly related to approving something (press releases, storyboards, campaign ideas, etcetra) and make connections with potential partners.

Also Read: 5 simple yet effective ways to enhance remote team productivity

I have signed up for automatic email reports on the things that I want to measure like the number of newly registered users, active readers, and writers, number of chapters written and bought. I study the data and find out ways to optimise traffic sources and make new strategies.

I prepare for a morning meeting, two hours before it starts.

I listen to an audiobook at Audible while I shower and eat. The latest book that I listen to titled, This Could Be Our Future by Yancey Strickler, Co-Founder of Kickstarter. I like this book for it is offering a concept to build a society that looks beyond money and toward maximising the values that make life worth living.

I read a book on Kindle through the cab ride. This time, it is a spiritual book by a Russian quantum physicist Vadim Zeland. I like to have a strong positive start in the morning with good books.

At the office, I meet with my team, update the status of current marketing campaigns and review the success as well as planning for our next campaigns. We are in the business of supporting our writers to get exposure to more readers. We believe that everyone should have a chance to express themselves in writing and be rewarded for the effort they make in creating their stories.

I prefer lunch meetings with investors and mentors. I update him about our three times growth in revenue this month, our partnerships line ups and our plans for 2020. As a good mentor as he always been, he never throws us any compliments, just an ‘almost compliment’ such as, “Not bad, la!”

Also Read: Indonesia’s Storial, the startup that will fuel your literary ambition

I use calls with foreign investors to reevaluate our direction. They give us great feedback on what the industry needs and expects from us. My CEO and I usually can execute one or two initiatives after these calls.

I like to use the afternoons to go to the gym using the brand new MRT in Indonesia. I enjoy my time pondering while walking at Jakarta’s sidewalks and grateful for new developments in Jakarta. While I’m on the treadmill, I continue listening to my Audiobook and make a little progress, as I never run more than 10 minutes.

I support a cause related to youth, women, and refugees in Indonesia. I visited refugee learning centres in Jakarta to see how can I help more in their facility. Refugees in Indonesia cannot work and cannot go to school. They need more volunteers to teach refugees kids some math, English, Bahasa Indonesia and basic skill to use a computer.

I catch up with my best friends over dinner and they are all mostly entrepreneurs themselves. Our conversation topics would be around fundraising, growth strategy, reaching KPIs, managing team, juggling personal life and staying sane in the process.

I try my best to sleep around 10.30PM, while reevaluating my day, what and how I can do better that day, I listen to any random guided meditation on Youtube and fell asleep.

I guess a day in the life of a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) sounds like a normal day in the life of another person. It’s just sprinkled with tons of empathy, curiosity, patience, excel sheets, PowerPoint presentations, and a mess of data on her plate.

Bon Appétit!

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page and sign up for our upcoming webinar on how to manage founder’s burnout. 

Image credit: Matt Ragland on Unsplash

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Things have changed in the dynamic B2B commerce world.

Frost & Sullivan predicts that the global B2B e-commerce sales will reach over US$6.6 trillion by 2020, surpassing business-to-consumer (B2C) valued at US$3.2 trillion by 2020.

In Asia, Forrester haspredicted a growth of 12.1 per cent per annum in B2B e-commerce with B2B marketplace being the prevalent mode of business. The adoption of B2B marketplace is booming especially in Southeast Asia, China and India.

With names such as Ralali, Global Sources, and Zilingo, B2B is booming with reasons to borrow from their success path.

So what are the common underlying key success factors of these B2B marketplaces?

The chief criteria underlying the success these B2B marketplaces were transparency, market visibility, and a plethora of business solutions to their buyers and sellers. Here are four success factors which we believe has made them successful.

Adoption of an omni-channel strategy 

These B2B e-commerce sites and marketplaces also have self-servicing functioning that offered its customers an omnichannel experience to easily access any information about the products they wish to purchase on any platform. Moreover, both buyers and sellers are assured to make safe payment transactions via a systematic and secure payment method.

Embed customer-centric processes 

Many customers come into the B2B marketplace scene with prior experience of convenient omnichannel B2C e-commerce sites. With this preceding expectation, they alter their processes to readily meet the needs and expectations of incoming buyers and sellers.

Also Read: Standard Chartered, Assembly Payments form JV to bring payment solutions for global e-commerce industry

Easy to use platform with great user experience 

Ease of use is a table stake to reach marketplace users but not an easy feat in B2B. Unlike B2C shoppers, B2B shoppers have a slightly different buying experience as they are compensated as part of their job to do so.

They prefer not to spend hours browsing through websites and catalogue to find what is needed, especially if it is a recurring purchase. Often, they are on a budget that could be subjected to a pre-approval limit or require request approval before purchase could be made.

Therefore, today’s B2B marketplaces make a specific impact on such features as requests for quotes, bulk ordering, custom pricing, as well as personalisation features to create an almost self-servicing B2B user experience.

For example, India’s JimTrade’s simple registration process ensures certain platform features to be streamlined easily in order to improve user experience, while IndiaMART has been investing in a lead management system since 2017 to help the suppliers better manage the leads generated.

Augment platform with solutions to create strong ecosystem delivery 

Successful B2B marketplaces collaborate with other platforms or solutions to develop new offerings, manage customer experiences or filling gaps in existing business and supply chain processes.

For example, Zilingo announced last October that part of its US$100 million investment will leverage smart technology-led solutions to offer financial services solutions including unlocked credit, working capital financing and insurance to its ecosystem users.   A second example would be smart warehousing.

Smart warehousing is warehouses that are manned by drones and robots to help sort, scan and move goods. By seamlessly integrating new technologies with warehouse systems, smart warehousing help to boost efficiency, productivity and cut costs.

OfficeMate invested over US$33 million in 2019 to develop smart warehouse capabilities with a clear objective to upgrade service quality and deliver a better user experience.

Also Read: A beginner’s guide to the B2B e-commerce business

No matter which industries these B2B marketplaces service, there is an underlying baseline for success: Offer an easy to use and optimised platform, recruit wide-ranging suppliers to offer a wide range of products and services, and as well, to further accentuate the perks of your marketplace.

It is also important to take into consideration an optimal commercial fee that is suitable for your market landscape to best monetise your e-commerce platform. All these attributes add as building blocks to the success of your e-commerce marketplace.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page and sign up for our upcoming webinar on how to manage founder’s burnout. 

Image credit: Ramon Cordeiro on Unsplash

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Finance

Grab nabs US$700M from Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group to bring financial services to users

Singapore-based ride-hailing startup Grab has announced that it has raised more than US$700 million from Japan’s bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, as reported by Bloomberg. In total, Grab now has about US$9.8 billion in its dispense.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group intends to integrate its financial services to Grab’s users.

Grab last raised an extensive Series H round in 2018 and 2019, worth US$1.5 billion investment from SoftBank Vision Fund. It was then followed by a US$300 million funding led by Invesco.

Facebook participates in Indian edutech startup Unacademy’s US$110M Series E funding

Unacademy, a Bengaluru-based edutech startup, has onboarded Facebook as one of its latest investors in its Series E round of US$110 million funding. Inc42 reports that General Atlantic also joined the Series E round, along with Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, Blume Ventures, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart, and Sujeet Kumar, cofounder, Udaan.

Unacademy has said that it plans to use the funds to launch more exam categories, test preparation categories, acquire top educators, and create more learning experiences for the learners through its content and product. In addition to raising the funding, Unacademy also provided exits to some of the angel investors.

Founded in 2010 by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, and Hemesh Singh, Unacademy first began with a free YouTube tutorial to teach students. In 2015, the company began offering free learning in lessons on every possible topic in multiple languages.

Also Read: Unacademy raises US$4.5M, now educators to create free online courses

India clocked a staggering US$2 billion in the edutech industry, with Datalabs by Inc42 recorded around 4450 edutech startups in India with most capital injected into the test preparation and online certification segments.

Business

Singapore’s biotech Life3 Biotech to introduce an agri-food pilot facility

Supported by Singapore Land Authority and Singapore Food Agency, the city-state will have its first plant-based alternative protein production facility to enhance food security developed by biotech startup Life3 Biotech.

Based in Singapore, the startup synergises knowledge in urban agriculture, biotechnology, and food science to develop sustainable functional food and beverages, and it will set up an integrated agri-food pilot facility located at Paya Lebar. The facility will be used to kick-start the production of Veego, Singapore’s first plant-based alternative protein source.

The pilot facility is a testament to ongoing progress in the local alternative protein scene. Life3 Biotech aims to promote health and wellness and reduce the occurrence of chronic diseases through alternative protein food production. The facility will also serve as a showcase that integrates the farm-to-table concept for intensified local production of sustainable alternative protein sources, as well as does test-bed innovative concepts and conduct deep research to achieve eco-circularity and sustainability.

Founded in 2015 by Ricky Lin, their flagship product is a proprietary plant-based protein (Veego) that aims to meet the rising demand for environmentally-friendly and healthy alternatives to meat.

Talent-focussed investor Entrepreneur First shares its newest deep techs cohorts

Entrepreneur First reveals its sixth cohort of 19 deep tech startups coming from Singapore, Bangalore, and Hong Kong. The cohort comprises startups from technologies such as using platforms to monitor the performance of electric-vehicle batteries, and others, according to a report by The Business Times.

Also Read: Foodtech in Singapore through the eyes of startups

However, because of the Covid-19 outbreak, the supposed investor day that was scheduled on February 13 had to be cancelled. The startups were instead pitching to investors directly.

Entrepreneur First’s method is matching individuals with deep expertise in various fields to each other to form a founding team. Each startup formed then pitches to investors at the end of the programme for venture-capital funding.

The new cohort has four companies that are graduates of a joint programme between Entrepreneur First and startup accelerator HAX that focuses on hardware development. Nine startups in the sixth cohort are from Singapore including Quantship, a price-prediction technology startup for freight and charter rates for bulk shipping companies, and TeOra, a startup that programs smart microbes to replace synthetic materials with natural and sustainable products.

Alchemy enters the trial phase in Singapore, integrating Binance into payment service

The CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao has announced on a Twitter post that its payment service has been integrated into the blockchain startup Alchemy’s system following a trial phase in Singapore, The Coin Republic reported.

Alchemy states the need for a strong infrastructure to enable the utility provided by cryptocurrencies. Alchemy seeks to solve the need for a base system to allow cryptocurrency transactions, smart contracts, apps, and such in the corporate sector that can be easily integrated within existing businesses.

Alchemy’s backers include Coinbase; Alphabet, Inc. Chairman, John Henessy; Samsung; Linkedin co-founder, Reid Hoffman; Yahoo’s co-founder, Jerry Yang; Chris Kelly, former legal chief at Facebook; and Stanford University.

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Picture Credit: Life3 Biotech

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Agriculture, the third-largest contributor to Indonesia’s economy, provides livelihood to millions of its people. As per a 2018 survey, nearly 33.5 million farmers from across the country are engaged in agricultural activities, of whom eight million are females. Nearly 4.5 million of them are connected to the internet, with 725,000 being females.

In 2018, Indonesia spent IDR30.1 trillion (US$2.18 billion) for the development of agriculture. This suggests the government is serious about the growth of the industry.

The advent of technology in agriculture

The strong growth of the agri sector has opened a plethora of opportunities for innovators and tech companies. The beginning of the last decade saw the emergence of several startups, which promised to address the inefficiencies in the sector and increase the yield for farmers using hardware and software solutions. Although they failed to make a mark in the beginning, continuous awareness campaigns by the private sector and government clicked. As a result, the industry saw a gradual adoption of technological solutions by small farmers.

A nation-wide programme, called “Hackathon Merdeka”, was held in 2015, which raised the issue of food and agriculture in Indonesia.

Also Read: Singapore Budget 2020 and what it means for the tech ecosystem this year

The event was supported by the Office of President of Indonesia, Kemenkominfo, Kemendag, Kemenkopolhukham, and was organised by the developer community Code4nation in partnership with East Ventures. This also worked in favour of the startups operating in the space.

Opportunities

The opportunities for agritech startups in Indonesia are aplenty. A large growing population, with a fast-expanding middle-class, is any startup’s dream market. As the domestic market grows, it will have a higher domestic consumption of food. This is what startups are attempting to leverage.

According to Pamitra Wineka, Co-founder of TaniHub, an e-commerce platform that connects farmers with the consumers, Indonesia needs to make food security a priority since it is now a net importer of agricultural products. Hence, there is an opportunity for agritech to help increase yield and productivity.

In addition, a majority of the food crop imports are for animal feed. Hence there is a room for domestic production of alternative animal feed as well.

Melisa Irene, Partner at East Ventures, says there exist massive opportunities in the retail/consumer segment to increase the efficiency between supply and demand.

Which are the most active agritech startups?

As per our research, the list of the most active agritech startups in the country include 8villages, Aruna, Crowde, Eden Farm, eFishery, Eragano, HARA, iGrow, Jala, Kedai Sayur, MSMB, Minapoli, Sayurbox, TaniHub.

Among these, TaniHub, Kedai Sayur, eFishery, Eden Farm, and Crowde are top-funded.

500 Startups and East Ventures, with three investments each, are the most active VCs. Other notable investors are Golden Gate Ventures, Insignia Ventures Partners, Intudo Ventures, among others.

e27 has prepared a well-researched and in-depth report on Indonesia’s agritech industry and it has many other details and insights and comments from multiple industry leaders. The report will be released next week.

Stay tuned.

Photo by Jan Kaluza on Unsplash

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SOCAR raises US$18 million to expand car-sharing platform

SOCAR, the platform which provides car-sharing services in Malaysia, has raised US$18 million in a Series A funding round from Eugene Private Equity and KH Energy.

Based in South Korea, the startup aims to use the fresh funds to enhance its platform, grow within Malaysia, and expand into new countries by Q4 2020.

“The extra capital will also be used to improve its app’s user experience, add new modes of car sharing, support more payment options, and expedite the onboarding and processing of license approvals for new users,” said Socar Malaysia CEO Leon Foong.

The company is currently operating its 27 different models in over 1,000 locations in the Klang Valley, Johor Bahru, Penang, and most recently, Ipoh.

UangTeman closes US$10M in series B round led by ACA Investments

UangTeman, an online lending platform which lends money to borrowers with no credit history, reportedly raised US$10 million in the second part of its Series B funding round, according to Tech in Asia. The round was led by Singaporean private equity firm ACA Investments with participation from Pegasus Tech Ventures and Japan’s Spiral Ventures.

The first part of the company’s Series B funding round was led by Draper Associates and Japan’s KDDI Open Innovation Fund.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, August: UangTeman, an online lending platform in Indonesia

“Whilst headline growth rate is sexy and will fetch high valuations, I believe that at the core of viability of every business – startup or otherwise – is its economic fundamentals and sustainability for the long term,” says Aidil Zulkifli, the founder and CEO of UangTeman, who expresses his desire to build loan products that are less risky and more sustainable in the market.

e27 to reveal Indonesia’s most active agritech startups in an in-depth industry report 

e27 is set to launch a report that aims to provide an in-depth analysis of Indonesia’s agritech industry along with insights and comments from multiple industry leaders.

Set to be launched next week, the report will reveal the most active and top-funded startups in the region.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Singapore’s Life3 Biotech to have its first plant-based alternative protein production facility

It will also reveal the most active VC firms in the agritech sector in the region.

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Image Credit:  Luke Ow

 

 

 

 

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Skymind Global Ventures (SGV), an Artificial Intelligence-focused startup fund-cum-accelerator based in London, recently announced that it plans to expand into Malaysia and Indonesia. This precedes the launch of a US$800-million fund to back promising new AI companies and academic research across the UK and globally.

SGV was founded by Shawn Tan and Dr Goh Shu Wei to provide supported access to the market for open-source AI platforms and to invest in the AI ecosystem building.

In an interview with e27, CEO Shawn Tan talks about the fund, AI industry and the Southeast Asian market.

Edited excerpts:

Is SGV a corporate VC or a traditional VC fund?

SGV is a corporate VC fund. It is the only dedicated AI ecosystem builder focused on ecosystem growth. We are also an AI education launchpad for open-source tools, including Eclipse Deeplearning4j.

We provide hands-on training to help companies support their existing engineering teams and provide training to help new talent acquire the skills to master Eclipse Deeplearning4J and other open-source tools.

Also Read: How AI will revolutionise the boardroom through these 3 breakthroughs

Finally, we are passionate about helping enterprises, promising new startups and world-class researchers to achieve their AI destiny through venture capital funding.

Skymind launched the investment fund in 2020 to support the advancement of the AI ecosystem. The fund comes from the revenue generated through the Skymind ecosystem.

The fund will back global startups specialising in AI at seed and Series A stage. It will also support independent research and university programmes focused on artificial intelligence.

SGV aims to make its portfolio of venture-backed companies profitable and to nurture the development of AI innovation around the world. Investment decisions for the fund will be made by the executive team based in Skymind’s London headquarters.

How many startups in Southeast Asia (SEA) do you plan to invest from this fund? Have you already identified any startups for potential investments?

Skymind’s priority in SEA is building the ecosystem and developing the tech talent pool. But if we see a potential startup with good proprietary AI technology, we will invest in it.

Skymind has identified three startups through the Skymind Launchpad programme. We saw great talents from Singapore, China, Japan and Australia and what’s interesting is they are all ready to move and incubate their startups in Malaysia.

With the programmes that we are currently conducting, we hope to see more locals in the region benefitting from the foreign experts we are bringing in. With this, we hope to see more AI products or local IPs built in either Malaysia, Indonesia or the region.

Can you share details about your SEA expansion plans?

Right now, we are looking at key markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia, which we see as high-value growth markets. Our primary focus is to create a talent hub in Southeast Asia for AI talent, which is in very high demand at the moment.

We are also looking at investing in the region to enable promising and innovative companies that have potential.

Why an emphasis on these two markets in Southeast Asia and why not other markets like Singapore and Thailand? What specific potentials do you see in Indonesia and Malaysia?

Both markets have a lot of potential in terms of talent, infrastructure and partners that are keen to work with us to grow the AI ecosystem.

Indonesia and Malaysia have a large talent pool and just require the expertise and infrastructure that Skymind can provide for them to realise their potential as active AI-ready markets.

We are looking at other markets as well, and if the opportunity does present itself, we will explore the potential in those markets.

By any standards, Singapore is the most advanced market where AI is growing fast, with many industries like banking planning to integrate AI with their products. Why is this market excluded from your expansion plans?

This is a long-term plan for Skymind to build a robust AI ecosystem and at the moment are not ruling out any market. However, to ensure a planned and measured approach, we have identified markets and industries where Skymind’s involvement will have the most significant positive impact and want to focus our attention, before expanding into other markets.

Markets such as Singapore, Thailand and other countries in the region are part of our long-term vision to foster and grow a healthy AI ecosystem.

You aim to grow and boost the AI ecosystem in Southeast Asia. How do you plan to achieve this goal?

By focusing on talent in the region. We strongly believe that Southeast Asia has the necessary talents to make it a hub for the global AI industry.

Also Read: 9 digital marketing trends you can no longer ignore in 2020

By fostering and developing a scalable method to train and provide employment for AI talent in the region, we know that this will help the industry grow faster.

How do you look at the overall growth for AI in SEA? Do you foresee a massive growth for this tech across industries, particularly banking and cybersecurity, etc.?

Most definitely, we see growth in those industries. Still, overall we see significant adoption across all sectors as we work to improve the talent pool in the region while educating the market about the potential of AI.

The benefit of building an ecosystem is that it fosters growth across multiple industries through multiple stakeholders. This allows faster growth as there is more access to talent, infrastructure and technical expertise.

Which other sectors do you think can AI disrupt?

Every industry in the world from manufacturing to e-commerce can benefit from AI solutions. Most sectors already employ at least some form of AI solutions, mostly through machine learning and basic automation, but at the moment, they are barely scratching the surface.

We see a future where AI is part of every single industry, improving efficiency and quality in all aspects of the business. The opportunities are endless but require a robust ecosystem around it to nurture growth and innovation.

The post ‘Southeast Asia has the talents to make it a global AI hub’: Skymind Founder Shawn Tan appeared first on e27.

Finance

Vietnamese IT recruiting platform TopDev raises investment from Korean recruiting company SaraminHR

Vietnam-based IT recruiting startup TopDev announced that it has closed a seven-digit deal investment from Korean recruiting company SaraminHR.

Nguyen Huu Binh, TopDev CEO and Founder, said: “With this new funding, we will continue to improve TopDev’s services quality and develop new values for our customers, while still continuing to enhance others goals besides the recruitment functions such as increasing the developers’ supply for the market through training, developing IT career programmes for young people, students, and freshers.”

TopDev is an IT recruitment platform which claims to possess 300,000 developer profiles, with the customers mostly are technology companies in Vietnam and the region.

Vietnam’s startup movement with digital transformation has made the demand for recruiting programming personnel has increased 1.5 times each year, along with the participation of companies in the region coming to Vietnam in search of tech talent.

Cambodian logistics tech ShopRunBack raises US$900K in pre-Series A funding from OBOR Capital

ShopRunBack, a French-Cambodian logistics tech startup announced that it has closed US$900,000 in pre-Series A funding led by OBOR Capital, a venture capital fund in Cambodia. Joining the round are other investors including Negocia Ventures, a Singapore-based VC firm founded by serial entrepreneur, Thierry Tea.

ShopRunBack is a reverse logistics company that was founded in 2014 with the aim to transform the returns experience for both customers and merchants, combining international logistics network with a new generation of plug & play software.

Also Read: This Hong Kong logistics startup supports the logistics of, well, startups

ShopRunBack has already counted retailers and marketplaces in Europe such as Etam and Mango in its portfolio. It recently signed a strategic partnership with Shenzhen’s 4PX Express (Alibaba Group) to propose the use of its reverse logistics platform to 4PX’s database that includes more than 300,000 merchants and to increase adoption of logistics and e-commerce best practices in the Mekong region.

Indonesian AI-powered software startup Eureka AI nabs US$20M in Series B round from host of investors

AI enterprise software company Eureka AI has raised US$20 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Apis Partners, Gobi Partners, the Riyad Taqnia Fund, and MEC Ventures, Tech In Asia has learned.

The Softbank-backed startup also welcomes SG Innovate, GDP Ventures, Pacific Bridge, and Cianna Capital into the round, joining existing investors in the company that includes SoftBank, PPF Home Credit, and East Ventures.

The company said that the funding will be used to support its expansion plans in Europe and the US, as well as develop its product portfolio.

Eureka AI was founded in 2017 in Indonesia, offering a proprietary AI enterprise software platform Spectrum, that helps organise mobile data to deliver actionable intelligence at scale for mobile operators and enterprises in fields such as banking, insurance, transportation, fast-moving consumer goods, and telecommunications. It helps these companies in making decisions, serving their customers, and acquiring new clients.

SoftBank reportedly funnels US$2.5B to the second Vision Fund

Japan’s SoftBank Group is said to have funneled US$2.5 billion cash into new investments since October to its Vision Fund, DealStreetAsia reported. There was also a report that the Japanese tech conglomerate also considers adding another US$2.5 billion of its own money.

SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said that the company may spend up to two years investing its own money in a bridge fund, to give investors enough confidence to participate in a second Vision Fund by bettering its portfolio.

Also Read: Taiwan AI tech startups to stand out for Global Recognition at CES Eureka Park 2020

For the second Vision Fund, SoftBank targeted a US$108 billion fundraise. It had committed US$38 billion of its own money toward that goal but faced delay due to investor “concerns” about the performance of the first US$100 billion Vision Fund.

The first Vision Fund spent over US$80 billion after its first major fundraising close in May 2017 backing a number of technology startups, such as office space-sharing company WeWork and ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N). However, it was faced with a loss with SoftBank forced to save WeWork from bankruptcy last year in a roughly US$10 billion financing deal.

Business

BCA partners GK – Plug and Play to launch its second edition of SYNRGY Accelerator

After the 2019 edition of SYNRGY Accelerator, PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA) continues the accelerator programme partnering global accelerator GK – Plug and Play focussing on Augmented reality (AR)/Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML).

The startups joining this batch are:

• Ai Sensum, big-data analytics & AI customer engagement platform
• Assemblr, a mobile and desktop platform to access and create AR content
• Cubeacon, a platform to build hardware dan Mobile Insight for IoT (Internet of Things) device.
• Delman IO, an end to end big data solutions focussing on data cleansing and data warehousing.
• DyCodeX, an end to end AI, IoT-based solutions. SMARTernak is a platform to support cow farming management, developed by DyCodeX.
• KYCK!, a KYC (Know Your Customer) platform that can be used to verify blockchain-based startups identity.
• Octagon Studio, a tech company specialises in AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality) dan MR (Mixed Reality) products.
• Qomodo, a market research company serving SMEs in doing automated market research and data analysis.
• Shinta VR, a software developer, and VR/AR/MR content company that focusses on training and edutech sector.
• Verihubs, a platform that provides automated verification using AI.
• Zero One, a service-based company that helps companies innovate with data optimisation

There will be two batches of SYNRGY Accelerator this year for three months each where startups will get access to investors, one-on-one mentoring, chance to collaborate with BCA, connection with the regulator, and media coverage.
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Image Credit: TopDev Vietnam

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The recent Coronavirus epidemic has no doubt greatly affected the business and financing of some of our venture building projects. Our entrepreneurs have worked tirelessly to get results but with little or no success.

In the face of these setbacks, calmness, wise judgement and even maintaining a positive attitude is a test of the minds for many entrepreneurs.

While being self-quarantined after my business trip to China, I took the time to read some books on Stoicism and discovered that this ancient school of Greek philosophy can give us, entrepreneurs, the ability to shed light on our inner minds and improve our personal goals.

It is fascinating! Today, let me share with you some knowledge on this important Western school of thought.

Stoicism is one of the four major and most popular, philosophical schools in Ancient Greece. From Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome to Later Europe, many of us are familiar with the famous philosophers, writers, and politicians of the Stoic school including more famous figures like Roman General Scipio Aemilianos and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Presently, many of Silicon Valley’s technopreneurs are also practitioners of stoicism.

Also Read: In video, how fear setting can help you take action and thrive in high stress environments

What is the Stoic’s philosophy of life?

The school of Stoicism teaches that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge. The wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune, pleasure and pain; to realise one’s control and tame (rather than eliminate) instinctive desire and passion with reasoning to achieve “stoic calmness and tranquillity”.

Stoicism has many unique thoughts in philosophy, politics and psychology. One of the very basic ways of thinking is called “negative visualisation” i.e. always imagining the worst situation.

Assuming that everything has been taken away by fate, what should I do?

Stoicism suggests for us to imagine the things we value to be taken away by fate –  such as the loss of jobs, the loss of wealth, the death of loved ones, and even consider our own death, and then re-examine what we have and what we are doing.

Seneca, the great ancient philosopher of Stoicism, said, “We should love all of our dear ones …, but always with the thought that we have no promise that we may keep them forever—nay, no promise even that we may keep them for long.”

Seneca takes things even further than this, adding on that, “We should live as if this very moment were our last. ” This is the most important Stoic psychological technique for “all things everywhere are perishable.”

By practising negative visualisation, we will be able to embrace whatever life we are living and love it with every bit of delight we can extract from it.

Also Read: The Jay Kim Show: Ryan Holiday and ego as the enemy

It also prepares us for events that will deprive us of the things that bring up happiness. In other words, it teaches us to embrace our life and endeavour without clinging to the pain and pleasures of vicissitudes.

Such ideas can also be found in modern thought. For example, the writer Rowland said, “There is only one heroism in the world: to see the world as it is, and to love it.” By contemplating the impermanence of everything, we will not only gain the primary benefit of Stoicism, namely  “a boundless joy that is firm and unalterable,” but also to pursue our endeavour with a significance and intensity that would otherwise be absent.

This is the life philosophy of the strong.

Philosophy is a sentence or two of life mottos that makes sense. Philosophy is the product of speculation. But you must have a concrete logic that can withstand scrutiny and debate.

Similarly, the formation of the philosophy of life and ideological concepts requires a lot of active practice: daily, in self-reflection and when faced with adversity.

Especially for entrepreneurs who face all kinds of opportunities and adversity every day, many mental methods of Stoic philosophy may help us to see clearly the goals of life and entrepreneurship, face all uncertainties rationally and calmly, and still persist with enthusiasm!

The content of Stoic’s philosophy is definitely rich and intriguing. For friends who are interested, I highly recommend reading A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine.

Startup life is full of surprise and setbacks, Keep calm, our fellow entrepreneurs.

Acknowledgement: The author would like to thank Stephanie Winata for her contribution to this article

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