How Sea is surfing Southeast Asia’s digital wave; Sea, which operates online gaming, e-commerce and digital financial services, is among the biggest beneficiaries of the COVID-19 pandemic; Its market capitalisation has more than quadrupled since the beginning of this year to over US$70B. Nikkei Asia Review
Singapore’s banking-as-a-service startup RootAnt raises US$1.46M from Linear Capital, KZM & Company; It will use the money for expansion in SEA, Japan; RootAnt specialises in embedded financing for enterprises and connects enterprises and financial institutions with new digital financial products for faster financing services. e27
German firm LikeMeat’s founder launches plant-based meat startup Next Gen in Singapore with US$2.2M seed funding; Next Gen produces and commercialises plant-based meat products; The startup is preparing to raise its Series A in 2021 to drive its global expansion into China, the US and Europe. e27
Esports entertainment firm Ampverse secures pre-Series A funding; Investors include Robert Gilby (ex-MD at Disney Southeast Asia), Axel Wehr (Partner at Firestartr and formerly of Bain Capital), Matt Sutton and David Ng; Ampverse will use the capital to drive further regional expansion across SEA. Tech Coffee House
Singapore’s workflow automation startup Augmenteed in talks for US$450K funding; The firm helps companies optimise and automate their processes, guide technicians in real-time with remote experts, and train technicians efficiently with AR solutions; Augmenteed is looking to expand to other countries and currently are in discussions with potential clients in Korea, HK, Japan, Germany. e27
SEA’s PE firms start to attract money from Europe; Despite SEA’s emergence as a high-growth region, European investor activity has remained slow; Of all PE and VC investors who have invested in ASEAN fund managers and are tracked by Preqin, 56% were from North America, 21% from Asia and 18% from Europe. Nikkei Asia Review
Survival or revival: Realigning process and vision for organisations in the post-COVID-19 world; Businesses that focus just on short-term survival might get through the initial situation; However, they’ll be in a far worse position to compete when things settle down than those businesses that see the pandemic as an opportunity for revival and reinvention. e27
How to bring the smartphone revolution to your small business; Many small business owners are adopting new digital habits in their personal lives, but often they aren’t as quick to adopt the same digital mindset when it comes to running their business; They assume digitising their sales channels and back-office involves massive investments in infra and personnel. e27
How to know if your startup is ready for growth; If your business inherently international in nature, has enough resources to support the expansion, and there’s compelling demand for your products in the global market, then your startup is ready to grow international. e27
The co-foundery model: A different way to build a startup; Two of the most common reasons for startup failure are hiring poorly and choosing the wrong co-founder; The co-foundery approach negates these by providing a proven and experienced startup team and co-founder from day one, without founders having to find or employ anyone. e27
Vietnam seeks investment from Japanese IT firms, says Deputy Minister of Information and Communications; The government has been completing its models, mechanisms, and policies for the breakthrough development of concentrated IT and high-tech areas in Vietnam’s major economic hubs. Viet Nam News
Amazon to take office space from Citigroup in Singapore; It will lease three floors covering about 90K sqft at Asia Square Tower 1 in the heart of the financial district; Citigroup is trimming its office space to better use its real estate as its 10-year lease is due to expire soon. Bloomberg
Which neobanks will rise or fall?; Neobanks have led the charge of the US$3.6B in VC funding for consumer fintech startups this year; The space is also becoming more crowded and it will only accelerate with fintech eating the world and creating greater infra that enables any company to include a bank account as a product extension. TechCrunch
Visa, Mastercard working with affected Wirecard clients in Singapore to limit disruption to transactions; Mastercard referred merchants to a list of acquirers on its website; MAS had earlier this week directed the troubled German firm to stop payment services and to return all customers’ funds by Oct 14. Channel News Asia
Coffee break? Check out Singapore’s first robot barista outlet; Crown Coffee said the outlet was launched in an effort to push automation and reduce physical interaction in the light of Covid; The robot, Ella, is able to make up to 200 cups of coffee an hour. The Straits Times
Emerging markets achieve US$834B e-commerce sales, says Euromonitor; A COVID-19 Survey says 60% of business professionals in developing countries believe that consumers will increase online shopping and reduce in-store shopping in the mid-term or permanently. The Malaysian Reserve
Sea Group commits to hiring 500 Singaporeans in tie-up with IMDA; The group will hire and train 500 people, comprising 400 entry-level and 100 mid-career job seekers; Under the tie-up, Sea will receive subsidies for monthly salaries, training course fees and any overseas attachment costs. Channel News Asia
New 10-year road map to promote tech adoption in Singapore’s legal industry; The Legal Industry Technology and Innovation Roadmap was launched by Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong; Law firms seeking to use AI in their operations will be able to rely on an upcoming guide by IMDA and the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities. The Straits Times
How to perfect your fintech story and close your next funding round; If you’re looking to broaden your reach, you have to pinpoint how your products and features appeal to the everyday person; Identifying the USPs of the startup will give your story legs and help the media understand where in the ecosystem you fit in and why they should write about you. The Next Web
Why B2B fintechs are ready for prime time; Looking at current fintech funding trends, it’s apparent that a shift from consumer fintech to B2B fintech is happening; According to an analysis, 21% of all fintech funding of the past year has gone towards firms B2B fintech firms. Fintech News
Filinvest launches programme to aid digital transformation of companies in Philippines; With the Filinvent.io, companies can tap startups, emerging technologies and innovations to solve business challenges; The group is also investing in its digital infra and green technologies and incubating new tech-driven ventures with its f(dev) unit. ABS-CBN
Visa, Shopee ink agreement to spur MSMEs into digital economy; The agreement will include incentivising MSMEs to digitalise their business on Shopee and adopt digital payments through Visa, and provide MSMEs with marketing and campaign support to drive awareness, traffic and sales to online stores. Bernama
One size doesn’t fit all: The rise of customer personalisation and why startups should care; More and more companies have adapted to the use of AI and Machine Learning to help them directly target the demographic most likely to buy their products by essentially getting into the consumer’s head and giving them exactly what they want. Tech Collective
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