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Ecosystem Roundup: Anchanto raises US$12M; MAS earmarks US$182M more to boost fintech innovation; How Tiki manages to keep employee churn rate healthy

Anchanto raises US$12M from MDI Ventures, European shipping firm Asendia, claims profitability; Ascendia is the 4th customer to turn into Singapore-based Anchanto’s shareholder; As of 2019, the B2B SaaS firm claims to have served 12K+ business and sellers consisting of over 300 global enterprises. e27

Singapore’s tech firms put up lists of retrenched workers to help them find new jobs; A local initiative called FreshlyBaked.io, which is collating these lists, said that there are more than 550 professionals, managers, executives and technicians in the nation on these lists; Skyscanner is one of the latest firms to start its own directory which it is promoting on multiple channels. Malay Mail

How Vietnam’s e-commerce firm Tiki manages to keep employee churn rate healthy; Chief People Officer Sakshi Jawa discusses the various HR challenges faced by Tiki, which employs nearly 3,000 people across Vietnam. e27

How bad is the retrenchment situation in Singapore, and how much worse it will get?; Unemployment and retrenchments on the island continued to rise in Q2, especially in the aviation, hospitality, F&B sectors; Retrenchments rose by 108% to 6,700 between April and June, compared with 3,220 in the first 3 months of the year. Malay Mail

Asia bets on blockchain to battle online theft during pandemic; The global blockchain market is expected to hit US$15.88B in 2023 despite retreating 7.27% to US$2.27B in 2020; Blockchain has emerged as a solution for fighting digital counterfeits, pushing businesses to adopt the technology. Nikkei Asia Review

New Singapore live-stream technology aims to recreate theatre experience at home; On their screens, audiences can hang out in the theatre foyer reading virtual information about the play, chat with the front-of-house manager and even sneak a peek at the actors getting ready in their dressing rooms. SGSME

MAS earmarks additional US$182M to boost fintech innovation; The Singapore’s central bank will commit the amount over the next 3 yrs under the enhanced Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Scheme (FSTI 2.0); The budget is 11% higher than the US$164M spread over 5 years that was injected under the first FTSI scheme, which was launched in 2015. DealStreetAsia

Startups urged to unlock value of Malaysia Digital Hubs with launch of special deal; The hubs are an extension of the MSC Malaysia Cybercentre that was created for startups and digitally-powered businesses; It’s designed as hotbeds for innovation, digital co-working spaces and incubators using digital tech in their respective fields of specialisation. Digital News Asia

APAC SMEs responding well to pandemic, but face challenges in digital transformation, says poll; Among the APAC SMEs that responded to the section on COVID-19 impact, 77% said they had adjusted remote work arrangements for employees; The areas that S’pore SMEs cited the most often as significantly impacted by the pandemic were the abilities to meet customer demand, win new business, operate at full capacity. SGSME

Why the Avengers would make a bad startup team; A set of highly talented people coming together to attain a mission could often end up failing if they don’t get a time-travel redo; Talent does facilitate performance, but only up to a point, after which it becomes detrimental as intra-team coordination suffers. e27

Temasek, Mirae Asset return to invest in Impossible Foods’s US$200M Series G round; Impossible Foods has so far raised close to US$1.5B in total funding since launch in 2011; COVID-19 appears to have had a positive impact, at least in part, on the burgeoning alt-protein industry. AgFunderNews

Launching a whole-plant ‘pork’ made from jackfruit in Singapore is next for Karana, say co-founders; In the future, it also plans to launch products using other regional ingredients that will enable us to expand beyond pork; Karana recently closed US$1.7M seed funding for its jackfruit alternative meat. AgriFoodInnovation

How working from anywhere (WFA) is defining the next normal; WFH is not going to be the silver bullet that rebuilds the world’s economies; Instead, a hybrid workforce that incorporates the ability to WFA is what will define this Next Normal. e27

MDEC urges SMEs to register with Digital Xccelerator (DX) platform; The DX platform is designed to help SMEs gain access to available programmes, incentives and tech solutions that best match their specific digitalisation needs; It’s a free-of-charge initiative launched during the MDEC inaugural SME Digital Summit. Malay Mail

Korea’s US$2B Unicorn Toss Join forces with CIMB Bank Vietnam for in-app banking solution; Since launching in Feb 2015, Toss garnered over 48M app downloads and processed over US$10B in P2P payment in Korea, and started to expand its biz to Vietnam since 2019; In an emerging market like Vietnam, the unicorn had a different strategy to win over the young generation. Fintech News

China to expand testing of digital currency; The digital currency pilot programme will cover much of the country’s most prosperous regions; China’s central bank has said that the digital currency shares features with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra, but it will be designed to handle transactions more quickly, making it feasible for wider adoption in China.WSJ

Robots in, buffets out: Asia hotels try socially distant hospitality; Establishments that pride themselves on “personal service” with a “human touch” are now forced to keep employees away from customers as much as possible, while also rethinking a host of other amenities guests used to take for granted. Nikkei Asia Review

Developing an IoT system for Thailand; Experts propose an IoT ecosystem that requires a combination of key players such as tech service providers and the government to jointly facilitate factories connecting their machines, making them “speak” to one another and having them work automatically with a minimal amount of human involvement. Open Gov

Championing the spirit of entrepreneurial resilience; Businesses in the F&B industry have taken to offering food delivery services, while those in education have switched to online classes; In this difficult period, it has become more important to rally businesses to champion the values of resilience, tenacity and importantly, innovation in their daily operations. SGSME

Telecom speakers advise digital readiness; Thailand is first in ASEAN to embark on 5G frequency allocation as it aims to become a digital hub; The nation needs to embrace new digital tech such as robotics, AI, drones, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, AR/VR, and 3D printing, which are all seen as a tech disruptors. Bangkok Post

Amid contactless boom, S. Korea steps into cashless society; Concerned about COVID-19, people are increasingly using mobile services to order food and other necessities online instead of dining out or buying their clothes at physical stores; People in their 40s and 50s have become a crucial customer base. The Inquirer

eBay rolls out an e-commerce export programme for Filipino SMEs; ‘Global 24/7’ is specifically designed to help local SMEs leverage eBay’s platform for global export; Aside from Philippines, the programme is extended to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam. NewsBytes

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