ZEN Rooms, a franchise of economy and mid-range hotels in Southeast Asia, just received a shot in the arm in the form of an investment from Korea’s billion-dollar travel group Yanolja. The Yanolja-ZEN alliance is expected to intensify the competition in the market, which is currently dominated by local player RedDoorz and India-based OYO Rooms. 

According to Nathan Boublil, Co-founder and CEO of ZEN Rooms, these companies don’t pose any threat. “OYO suffers from poor inventory quality and average ratings, and so does RedDoorz,” he says.

In this interview with e27, Boublil talks about the market, competition, and challenges faced by budget hotels companies in Southeast Asia.

Is this an acquisition? After this deal, how much stake does Yanolija hold in ZEN Rooms?

Nathan Boublil: Yanolja is doubling down on its earlier investment by making an additional investment, buying our of early investors’ stakes, and forming a full strategic alliance on technology and distribution with its backers Booking Holdings.

So the transaction is a partial exit with a path for more to come.

The budget hotels segment in Southeast Asia is heating up, with leading players such as OYO and RedDoorz raising massive fundings. Does this indicate the industry has become mature and is ripe for consolidation?

NB: The budget hotel industry is still far from being mature; the penetration of franchised hotels in Southeast Asia (SEA) still remains low at less than 20 per cent (including ZEN Rooms, OYO, Reddoorz and all other legacy hotel chains). Mature markets such as the EU, the US and China have more than 50 per cent of franchised hotels.

Also, SEA is the world’s fastest-growing travel market, so a lot of supply will naturally come onto the market.

RedDoorz is a local player, and OYO is a company with deep pockets. How is the ZEN-Yanolja alliance planning to hold these bulls by their horns?

NB: Both RedDoorz and OYO make crucial mistakes in customer centricity and sustainability. They focus on the number of rooms rather than customer satisfaction and margins. They use too many short-sighted tactics to artificially pump vanity metrics, to the detriment of building a long-term value-adding hospitality brand.

There are no shortcuts in hospitality. A hospitality franchise is not its room count but is the quality of its inventory (guest ratings) and its economics!

Since day one, our focus has been more on inventory quality and customer ratings, more than room count. Room count is not a KPI at ZEN. For two years in a row, ZEN has the highest guest rating on Booking.com of all budget franchises at 8.1. 

OYO suffers from poor inventory quality and average ratings and so does RedDoorz, with average rating on Booking.com in the low 7s. 

Of course, this is a very unsustainable model, which cannot last for long. The market ends up catching up with you and investors will, too.

So we are different from OYO and RedDoorz in the following ways:

1. We do not focus on room count but prefer to focus on inventory quality and customer ratings: Unlike Reddoorz and OYO, we pro-actively reject inventory and are as focused as much on customer ratings as other metrics. That is why our avg rating on Booking.com is 8.1 and our last 12 months NPS score is 55. The Reddoorz and OYO inventories are of inferior quality, which is senseless. The ‘raison d’etre’ of a hospitality franchise is to serve customers better than independent hotels. If you have thousands of properties but don’t do a good job serving customers, you are just a bigger lousy thing!
2. Focus on unit economics/margins: the unit economics of OYO and RedDoorz don’t look good presently with a lot of loss-making inventory. Adding more losses doesn’t make earlier losses disappear. As Scott Galloway puts it, “WeWork part Deux”.
3. Much more hands-on: we started leasing and fully operating properties three years ago, now representing 30 per cent of our overall portfolio. We love being hands-on and highly operational and can fully operationalise a property to 8.5 guest rating within four weeks. OYO Southeast Asia doesn’t, and RedDoorz is only just starting lease and operate.

The strategic alliance with Yanolja and its backers Booking Holdings grants ZEN a huge and above all, unique competitive advantages in both hotel technology and sales distribution, which cannot be replicated by any other actor. 

Having Booking Holdings as a de facto investor in ZEN is unique.

We always behave with integrity to our hotel partners. We don’t and never will use shady tactics with our hotel clients.

So just like any healthy hospitality business should, we have never and will never favour vanity metrics like scale/revenue over guest ratings and margins. Our philosophy, values and focus points are different, and we would instead not be associated with either OYO or RedDoorz.

That’s why we are the first to go through a strategic investment last year and now partial exit already to a leading, sustainable player like Yanolja.

Yanolja said it plans to leverage new-age tech such as IoT, AI, AR and VT etc. Can you shed more light on this?

NB: Yanolja is heavily investing in hospitality R&D to build the budget hotel of the future. This is being done by automating more and more functions within hotels (self check-ins, robotics, voice controls, sensors etc.) and improving cost efficiency through smart connections between hotel software and hardware (electric system, etc.). 

ZEN and Yanolja are planning to introduce these new technologies into ZEN’s locations starting Q1 2020, enhancing customer experience and optimising operating costs, thus allowing value-for-money improvements.

Yanolja also recently acquired eZee, the #2 hotel PMS provider globally and #1 in Southeast Asia. ZEN, eZee and Yanolja teams are currently working hand in hand to build the hotel operating system of the future. Yanolja is announcing the global launch of its new hotel automation solution at the ITB Asia conference this week.

What are the current trends in the budget hotels space?

NB: Hotel franchising in the region will keep growing for the next decade, following the US and China paths. Budget hotel space in SEA has long been a sub-performing industry due to its high level of fragmentation and lack of training and efficiency.

Travellers become more demanding to the quality of essential services, while online reviews play a significant role in customer choice. Hotel owners struggle to compete for demand with ever-growing operating costs. In the last four years, ZEN has been working hard on solving these pain points through franchising, bringing transparency and efficiency to the market.

Does the overall slowdown in the real-estate space affect this industry?

NB: No, as no matter what, SEA remains a fast-growing travel market and is far from reaching its potential. The growing middle class and economy airlines across the developing markets of the region fuel the exponential domestic and regional demand for short-term accommodation. The fundamentals of economy tourism in SEA are strong irrespective of the economic climate.

Franchising is a good option for real-estate asset owners as it allows to turn a property into a working business and generate stable returns coming from this growing travel industry.

What are the major challenges facing the budget hotels space in SEA?

NB: Improve itself to cope with fast-growing demand: hygiene, safety, value for money. 

Adapt their offer to new sources of tourists: Chinese, Europeans, Southeast Asians etc.

Sustainable growth of hotels supply: with the lack of regulation, what tends to happen is uncontrolled overinvestment in trendy destinations, resulting in oversupply of hotels in the long term: Bali, Phuket and many other destinations in Thailand have suffered from this already. 

Once a gold mine, Bali has now become a nightmare for many of the 10,000 hotel owners there, experiencing average occupancy below 50 per cent throughout the year and struggling to make ends meet.

The post ‘RedDoorz, OYO use too many short-sighted tactics to artificially pump vanity metrics’: ZEN Rooms CEO Nathan Boublil appeared first on e27.

It’s not common for a country in developing regions like Southeast Asia to have full government support for its tech ecosystem, and Malaysia is one of them.

According to Export Gov, Malaysia’s e-commerce sector benefits from the implementation of programs under the National e-commerce Strategic Roadmap’s (NeSR) with the National e-commerce Council (NeCC) on the driver seat.

It comprises of various ministries and agencies with a mission to double Malaysia’s e-commerce growth rate to reach a GDP contribution of US$53 billion by 2020.

With a dynamic economy and ready infrastructure for digital technologies, Malaysia recorded 25 million social media users, 40.24 million mobile subscriptions, and 24 million use social media on their mobile devices per January 2019.

The high numbers directly resulted in Malaysia boasting 16.53 million online shoppers (account for 50 per cent of the population) and 62 per cent of mobile users using their devices to shop online.

Gov further concludes that Malaysian online shoppers are motivated by price advantages, product range, and the availability of reviews. They look for free shipping, convenience, and exclusive deals offered by online stores.

Also Read: These 7 homegrown e-commerces are on track to put Thailand on global map

With that being said, Lazada.com.my and Shopee.com.my come in strong with zero per cent commission and free shipping module and zero per cent transaction fees respectively, which instantly put both on top for online shopping choices among Malaysians.

However, when it comes to local e-commerce startups, these 9 names offer Malaysians a different take on online shopping with their better understanding of the market.

GoShop

GoShop sets different precedence for e-commerce in Malaysia by offering premium and trusted products from categories like beauty, health and wellness, home appliances and kitchenware, living, sports and leisure, digital, and many more.

The startup is based in East Malaysia, with Sabah and Sarawak-concentrated customers. CEO Grace Lee said that the startup has a dedicated warehouse established in East Malaysia since December 2017, as reported in The Borneo Post.

Go Shop, established in 2014, is operated by Astro GS Shop Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between Malaysia’s integrated consumer media group, Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (60 per cent) and GS Home Shopping Inc (40 per cent). It describes itself as Malaysia’s 24-hour lifestyle shopping destination where products and services are demonstrated, sold on multiple platforms including TV, Astro Go, online e-commerce, and mobile commerce to offer an anytime-anywhere retail experience.

Go Shop believes that its live product demonstration on TV allows for a three-dimensional experience of their products. “Our customers can relate better with the products and how these products suit their lifestyles,” said Lee

Mudah.com

Mudah.com, which means “easy” in Malay, was founded in 2007 as a buy and sell online platform.

Mudah offers a range of diverse categories – from cars, electronics, properties, jobs, sports, collectibles, toys, books, and computers, amongst many others.

Recently, under the leadership of CEO Gaurav Bhasin, Mudah entered into a partnership with Lendela, a Singapore-based loan comparison company, allowing the latter to offer their services on the Mudah’s platform. According to Fintech News Malaysia, the partnership allows Mudah’s customers to apply for loans directly on Mudah and to bring more transparency and ease-of-use to borrowers while reducing risk and cost for lenders.

Lelong

Lelong has been around since 1998, making it one of the few firsts that spotted the e-commerce potential in Malaysia. It is a C2C platform that allows users to sell and purchase second-hand items.

Founded by Tan and Kwok Wei and headquartered in Selangor, it offers products from gadgets to fashion and accessories in an online auction marketplace approach. Lelong, alongside Lmall.my, is operating under its parent company Interbase Resources, which also manages online marketplace Superbuy.my and e-payment platform Netpay.my.

Just last year, Lelong announced that it has acquired digital marketing agency Mataris Agency for an undisclosed sum.

i-Pmart

Founded in 2001, i-Pmart belongs to the i-Pmart Group of Companies. It focusses mainly on the international market since 2005, selling mobile phones and electronic parts online.

It is the holder of ‘MSC status’ in Malaysia, which makes it a part of the country’s ‘Multimedia Super Corridor’ initiative to promote Malaysia as a regional center for world-class technology businesses.

Also Read: Key challenges and opportunities in Malaysia’s e-commerce scene

i-Pmart was founded by its CEO Mart Tang, and it just recently added bitcoin to the list of accepted payment methods to provide the option for its worldwide shipping to China and US, Coindesk has learned.

i-Pmart is also a big seller of litecoin mining equipment, selling GPU-based rigs both to advanced users to self-assemble with the ‘Savvy Pack’, and a ‘Newbie Pack’ for beginners that includes the option to have i-Pmart assemble, host, and even operate the hardware for them.

Zilzar

With the online halal (permissible, lawful for Muslims) industry on the rise with an estimated US$1.6 trillion worth in 2018 and Malaysia with one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, an e-commerce that ensures this is poised to succeed.

Zilzar was founded by the Malaysian prime minister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, at the World Islamic Economic Forum. The name means an earthquake in Arabic, as shown in an article by The Guardian.

Zilzar offers a platform for businesses and consumers to sell halal products and services to each other with entrepreneurs as its core market.

Consumers on Zilzar are allowed to trade products from prayer beads and electronic Qurans to hijabs and films. All its sellers and products are verified by certification bodies around the world.
Its chief executive Rushdi Siddiqui said that Zilzar is going after Alibaba’s suppliers.

“Technology is a great equaliser. Aid has not helped Muslims in emerging markets and Zilzar was trying to feed them; now it’s time to teach them to fish,” said Siddiqui.

Halal products should not contain alcohol or pork traces or promote gambling.

FashionValet

Online fashion and beauty retailer FashionValet emerges as a frontrunner when it comes to the local success story.

FashionValet carries over 200 brands and 10,000 products from fashion designers and celebrity brands in Southeast Asia.

The company was founded in 2010 by local celebrity Vivy Yusof and Fadzarudin Shah Anuar, offering a wide range of ready-to-wear garments for women, accessories, and handbags. It works by offering a simplified shopping experience and a customer service team to assist online shoppers.

In 2016, FashionValet raised Series B round financing from Start Today Co., owner of Japan’s leading online fashion mall ZOZOTOWN.

Hermo

Focussing on selling Korean cosmetics online for Malaysia consumers, Hermo was founded in 2012 by Ian Chua and PS Chong, who is the VP of Merchandise, before adding Ian Mok a year later as its current COO. The company is based in Johor Bahru.

Inspired by the hassle women around them have to go through to pick out beauty products, Hermo was born.

The first funding Hermo raised was a seed and angel financing from Singaporean investment firm Crystal Horse Investments and Malaysian angel investor Tan Swee Yeong. In 2015, it secured a US$2 million Series A round led by Gobi Partners.

Also Read: 6 Singapore-bred e-commerces that tread ahead among fierce competitions

However, in 2017, Gobi Partners announced that it has sold its stake in Hermo to Tokyo-listed istyle inc, a market design company that operates the Japanese cosmetics e-commerce site Cosme.com.

Gobi said it sold its stake because of istyle’s ability to build international companies and its positioning in North Asia, something that Hermo wants to do.

HiShop

Also offering health and beauty products, HiShop is Hermo’s local competition. The company stated on its official site that it guarantees direct sourcing from the official brand distributors.

HiShop works with beauty advisors, seeking to give access to customers’ beauty choices and decisions. It also has built a beauty community that offers privileges such as rewards and exclusive beauty events invite.

Poplook

Another local online fashion startup is Poplook, modest wear-focussed e-commerce. It offers workwear, maternity, plus-size, children wear and, more.

Poplook was founded in 2009 as an online-only fashion label but has since expanded into the brick-and-mortar market with two physical stores in the Klang Valley.

According to Star2, Poplook, which recently showed its collection at the 2019 Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week, believes that what they offer is also a way to embrace the Malaysian culture of helping others and growing together.

Nine local players, multifaceted product categories offered. Although Lazada and Shopee remain monopolising the market, the presence of the local players excites the monotone market.

It’s sure still a long way before the local startups can catch up to be in the same caliber of the international e-commerce players, but the journey to get there is a learning curve on its own for the watching eyes, especially after an ambitious mission for investing more in tech by Malaysia’s Oil and gas company Petronas setting up a US$350 million venture capital fund to invest in technology startups around the world.
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The post Malaysia’s on the fast track with government’s backing, and these 9 local e-commerce startups startups are in for the ride appeared first on e27.

 

Thanks to the internet, everyone is expected to be able to keep a step ahead of the curve and make use of the latest marketing techniques.

But it’s not always easy to ensure that you’re getting the absolute maximum out of your online marketing strategies. That’s why we’re going to give you a quick rundown of a few great strategies that can bring about maximum change with minimum difficulty.

1. Don’t push your promotions for longer than is necessary

It’s easy to lose track of what you’ve got going on at any one time. However, if you don’t get round to taking your promotions down, people are going to start to lose faith in your approach.

By definition, promotions should only last for a limited time, otherwise, they won’t function as effective marketing.

Keep an eye on how they progress, make the most of them, but make sure that you wrap them up once they’ve run their course.

2. It’s essential that you have a level of clarity in your promotions, and that they get across in a concise manner exactly what the customer can expect

Vague promotions or overly complicated ones aren’t going to do anything for your business.

On the other hand, a straightforward one that makes it absolutely apparent what the customer stands to benefit can make a massive difference in the amount of revenue you create.

Also read: Shoot for the moon: Identifying your target audience and developing a superb marketing plan

3. Don’t go into a promotion without a good idea of what you expect from it

If you’re unsure of your own expectations, you’ll have no way of measuring the degree of success you enjoy from them.

On the other hand, if you set clear goals beforehand, you’ll know exactly how much you gained from a promotion.

4. Make sure that you keep an eye on tomorrow when preparing today’s promotions

If you have a fair idea of what stock and services you want to push, you’ll have a much better chance of putting together a comprehensive campaign strategy, where each one builds on the last.

You will also be able to achieve smaller goals and set them up as a firm foundation for bigger ones as your business develops.

5. Find out what works for your business

You’re going to need some kind of definite system on hand to make sense of whether or not a promotion is a success. Maybe you want to bring in more customers or get rid of some unnecessary stock while it’s still a viable purchase.

Whatever your reason for running a promotion, you’re going to need to determine what aspect of your business it is supposed to be boosting. That way you can accurately measure the success, and determine whether or not it’s worth running again.

6. Try and shop around when you look at putting a promotion together

While it’s great to have an ongoing relationship with advertisers or marketing companies, if they aren’t bringing in the returns there’s no reason to stick with them.

If you can make your money go as far as possible, the returns from the promotion are going to be even better. Just because you’ve been sticking with one tactic for a long time, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t diversify and find out the other options.

7. Keep a clear boundary between your promotions and other campaigns or messages that your client base receives

If you treat every correspondence as a promotional message and write in a similar style, you’ll confuse your customers as to what is actually on offer.

Keep other messages written in the right style, and save any promotional ideas for an appropriate time to enjoy the biggest possible response.

Also read: Augmented Reality is creating an enormous opportunity for retail businesses, and here are 5 ways online and offline platforms can benefit

8. Diversify, and you’ll be able to learn from trial and error

If you try out a wide range of different approaches to your marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to work out which systems work the best.

There are tons of different marketing campaign options available, and some will work far better than others depending on what you’re aiming for.

9. Be careful with who you trust

While there are certain ways that piggyback marketing and combining forces with other businesses can work well, it often turns out to be an uneven deal.

Don’t go in on any combined marketing campaigns with other businesses unless you’re certain you’ll benefit. They could simply be looking for an easy way to steal your revenue.

These are a few of the best ways you can market your retail business. The key is to try different methods, and find out what works best for your own company. From there, you should have no problem reaping benefits.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit:  Keagan Henman

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RoomMe, Indonesia-based co-living startup that helps manage and market the properties for homeowners on its platform for co-living lifestyle and flexible stay duration, announces that it has secured Series A funding from BAce Capital, an early-stage venture capital, backed by Ant Financial, as reported by DealStreetAsia.

BAce confirmed Vertex’s participation in the round, along with that of the existing backer KK Fund.

In May, RoomMe had received Series A funding from Singapore’s Vertex Ventures.

RoomMe was established in 2017 with the mission of helping tenants finding co-living spaces in flexible stay durations in-home boarding industry.

RoomMe helps space owners to market the properties on its platform in return for a cut of the rental income. Its services are currently largely focused on Jakarta.

Also Read: Smart retail startup Blue Mobile raises Series C funding from Ant Financial

BAce said the decision behind the investment is based on its prediction that Indonesia’s co-living industry is well-positioned for development, given its economic growth and rapid urbanisation.

RoomMe competes with YukStay, an urban apartment rental marketplace, which reportedly has raised a US$1-million funding round from Singapore’s Insignia Ventures just recently. RoomMe also competes with Indian hotel chain major OYO, which last week launched a new co-living business line in Indonesia.

The investment in RoomMe marks BAce’s first known funding in Indonesia. The firm is led by veterans from Alibaba and Ant Financial, with Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal on its advisory board

In April, BAce announced that it plans to raise to US$150 million for its first early-stage India and Southeast Asia fund, targeting Series A to B opportunities with ticket sizes ranging from US$500,000 to US$15 million, with Indonesia and India set to be its biggest target markets.
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Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu on Unsplash

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Crimson Education raises US$20M Series C funding to fuel expansion [Press Release]

Crimson Education, a global edtech startup that offers personalised courses to help students get a spot in coveted universities worldwide, announces that it has raised a total of US$20 million in Series C funding, led by US$10 million investment from Hong Kong-based CTF (Chow Tai Fook) Education Group. Participating in the round is Korean-based Solborn Investment, chipping in US$5 million.

Crimson has also secured an additional US$5 million from strategic investors, including New Zealand’s K1W1, closing up the total investment at US$20 million.

The company noted that the new round of funding will fuel the company’s online, full-suite personalised education offerings and expand the company’s presence in other countries. Crimson’s total funding to date sits at US$57 million

Hong Kong’s space booking platform BOOQED secures US$1.68M in seed funding [Press Release]
Hong Kong-based start-up BOOQED has raised US$1.68 million in seed funding from investors including Colliers, Techstars, and Lazard Korea to drive its product roll-out, marketing, and hiring.

BOOQED, a Techstars alumni company, is a digital marketplace that allows individuals and corporates to access and book a flexible meeting, work, and event spaces.

Also Read: 5 ways coworking can give your business a much-needed boost

With Hong Kong filled with over 1,600 real estate listings and more added everyday, making BOOQED a suitable platform for clients to reserve and pay for on-demand business space whether for meetings, hot-desking, training, offices, or events to help landlords and space operators with an easy and trusted method to let out empty or underutilised space.

The BOOQED platform was started in late 2016 and is already launched in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shenzhen.

Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital India invests US$35M into AI-based customer lifecycle platform CleverTap [Press Release]

CleverTap, the AI-powered customer lifecycle, and user retention platform, announced that it has completed its Series C investment round at US$35 million led by existing investors Tiger Global Management and Sequoia India.

The investment will allow further acceleration ss mobile marketing app and to support CleverTap’s intention to use the funds to build out its new US-based engineering hub, add enhanced predictive capabilities to its market-leading platform, and fuel an aggressive global go-to-market expansion strategy.

Also Read: Vietnam’s Foody snags Series C funding from Tiger Global; goes to Indonesia

This new funding increases CleverTap’s outside investment to US$61 million since the beginning of 2019 doubling its valuation to more than double to US$385 million from US$150 million.

CleverTap’s customer lifecycle and user retention platform leverage machine learning to offer a robust engagement suite that enables brands to convert, engage, retain, and grow their mobile user base.

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Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

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When bicycle-sharing caught the frenzy in China around 2017, Kelvin Ng and Justin Seow sensed a similar opportunity in their home country Singapore. So, in 2017, the pair launched an e-scooter-sharing business Popscoot.

“Together, we sought to revolutionise first and last mobility while firmly aware of the obstacles in our way. Our years of experience in brand-building helped us create a platform that was gaining an enthusiastic following. However, in the end, restrictive legislation along with its associated cost almost did us in,” says Kelvin.

According to Seow, Popscoot was founded based on a trail to test out the market and gather feedback for travelling patterns and various other requirements.

“From the very beginning, we wanted to learn more and collect more information from riders and commuters. We singled out gaming and rewards as the most sought-after interest in our commuters. Moreover, it also aligned with our interests in creating a gamification add-on not just for Popscoot but also on other mobility platforms,” Seow adds. “This paved the way for the birth of FOUND,” adds Seow.

What is FOUND

FOUND, a morph of Popscoot, positions itself as a provider of mobility-related solutions for commuters as well as brands. FOUND is essentially an app that gamifies your daily commute and rewards you for it. On the flip side, it unlocks the opportunity for brands to engage and interact with commuters.

“In a nutshell, commuters pick tasks or quests to complete along their journey. Available tasks are triggered based on commuters’ proximity to certain locations. Upon completion, users can claim their rewards in the form of coupons, offers, FOUND coins,” explains Kelvin, who developed the product, along with Seow and Wee Kong.

“For brands, it is an opportunity to develop task storylines and content that match commuters’ ‘I-want-to-know and I-want-to-buy’ moments along their journey,” says Kelvin.

“Think Pokemon GO + rewards + mobile ad campaigns. This is what we are,” Kelvin adds.

Once rolled out, FOUND can be integrated with various mobility players such as Neuron Mobility, Bird, Lime, SMRT, etc.

A massive opportunity

According to Kelvin, traditional out-of-home (OOH) advertising provides poor interaction and return on investment (ROI) despite its reach to the extremely-high throughput of shoppers and commuters daily. Besides, it is relatively expensive and out of reach of smaller brands and businesses.

“This is where FOUND fits in. This app provides an avenue for brands to interact with commuters in an affordable and engaging way,” claims Kelvin. “We see opportunities in partnering with brands, retail and tourism to develop content that is relevant to commuters along their trips.”

In Singapore, digital ads marketing spend is projected to reach US$500 million in 2022. FOUND is targetting this market.

Partnership with Enterprise SG

FOUND is all set to showcase at Intelligent Transport System World Congress (ITSWC) which will be held in Singapore from October 21-25. The event is organised by Enterprise SG (ESG).

“Our association with ESG started when we were still developing PopScoot. We sought their help with marketing opportunities for Popscoot,” continues Kelvin.

“This was when they introduced us to EZ-Link, which identified synergy in the FOUND platform we were developing. Together with Viatick, our Bluetooth-solutions strategic partner, we applied for a grant from ESG,” Kelvin shares.

FOUND, still in the beta stages, will intially be launched in Singapore, and then will expand to other parts of Asia in partnership with EZ-Link.

Founders’ background

Both Kelvin and Justin are hardened entrepreneurs, albeit in the more traditional vein. Both their fathers founded and led their own companies, perhaps that was where they derived their entrepreneurial streak.

“We ourselves founded Creative Agencies, helping to position, design and activate brands for SMEs and global market leaders for over a decade. Justin cut his teeth in a global branding agency before embarking on a stint at his family business in Suzhou, managing a team of over 100. I am a Certified Management Consultant, who graduated from NUS Business School, successfully launched a retail concept at a public listed company, before going back to Design School. This is where I met Justin and joined him at the branding agency. The rest, as they say, is history,” Kelvin says.

Their business partner Keong has eight years of experience in Singapore and Vietnam and has previously founded and managed Interactive Media Maven.

The post This Singaporean startup gamifies your daily commute and rewards you for it appeared first on e27.

Indonesian healthtech startup Alodokter has closed a US$33 million Series C funding round led by Sequis Life which included the participation of Philips, Heritas Capital, Hera Capital, and Dayli Partners, among the few.

Existing investors such as Softbank Ventures Asia and Golden Gate Ventures also participated in the funding round.

“The Indonesian healthcare system has undergone significant changes in the past 10 years; it is also more open to digital innovation compared to systems in the more developed countries. Indonesia has become the leading nation in digital healthcare system adoption. This is one of the factors that has helped Alodokter to grow rapidly since its launch,” Alodokter CEO Nathanael Faibis explained.

Alodokter claimed to have secured 20 million monthly active users and has worked with 20,000 doctors and 1,000 hospitals and clinics. Some of its leading services include doctors appointment and chats, healthcare information, and health insurance management.

Also Read: Lazada taught me that no objective is too big: Alodokter Founder Nathanael Faibis

The fresh funding will be used to expand the company’s network with hospitals and to develop an insurance service. In 2018, Alodokter has introduced its first health insurance product Proteksi Alodokter that enables users to subscribe, pay, and process claims through Alodokter’s app.

The startup plans to build what it calls a “21st-century insurance product” that goes beyond giving financial product; it should also guide patients in their medical journey by giving the right medical solutions.

Meanwhile, for Sequis Life CEO Tatang Wijaya, Alodokter is an ideal investment due to its massive user base and strong vision and mission. This enables the startup to reach out to greater market segment in Indonesia.

“In addition to its massive user base, we are also impressed by the startup’s strong and clear vision in providing medical accuracy in every service needed by the patient. We see this as the DNA of Alodokter. Alodokter will become a foundation in Indonesian healthcare services and we are proud to become part of their journey. Together we are closer in achieving our goal in building new technology and methods as well as reaching out to untapped markets in Indonesia,” Wijaya said.

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The article Alodokter Dapatkan Pendanaan Seri C Sebesar 468 Miliar was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Prayogo Ryza for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

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How Kdan Mobile’s DottedSign changes the way we do e-documents

Back when the idea of an electronic scheme was merely a theory, signing documents was not without hiccups. First, it usually meant a longer turnaround time, especially when there were multiple signatories. More than that, the geographical zone differences of these signatories could also add to the delay.

Second, the possibility of human error — such as placing your signature on the wrong section, or missing a signature altogether — could mean having to repeat the process all over again. This is especially difficult when dealing with sensitive documents that aren’t easy to replicate.

Third, the security of documents may be compromised since paper documents could be easily tampered with.

Thankfully, an abundance of digital solutions available in the market today have stepped up to help solve these challenges. The evolution of signing has gone from paper to paperless, and now to cloud-based signature service. These services ushered in a new way of doing document signing by helping in the following areas:

● reduce courier costs
● expedite turnaround time
● increase productivity, and
● upgrade a document’s security and legality.

The number of e-sign services is on the rise, but one particular player is making a name for itself

The convenience of electronic documents has made digital signing a fundamental part of the modern-day workflow. The progress of technology, the rise of the gig economy, and the advent of employing remote workers all contributed to this phenomenon.

In recent years, we’ve also seen how the digital signing landscape has been influenced by the growth of both mobile workers and mobile users. With telecommuting and remote working is increasingly gaining popularity among both startups and traditional businesses, employees and constituents may be working in various locations at any given time. Additionally, as of 2019, smartphone users in the Asia Pacific region are at 1,483.4 million.

These scenarios reveal the need for a secure, accessible, and mobile-friendly digital signing solution. To this end, several e-sign services currently out in the market have been adapting to these swift changes. Adobe Sign, for instance, recently made digital signing available directly from Dropbox. DocuSign, another player, boasts of a product that matches the needs of its consumers.

Despite the surge in e-sign services, there’s room for one more player. Enter DottedSign, a smart e-signature solution launched earlier this year. Aimed at providing solutions for mobile workers, the service was built on mobile-friendly UI that helps mobile workers finish their work with just a few simple taps. It was also designed to support multiple languages, so all users can use with ease.

Although a new player in the field, DottedSign has already proven its reliability in important negotiations. During the Echelon Asia Summit 2019, e27 and AsiaIOA electronically signed a Memorandum of Understanding through DottedSign’s reliable partner.

This wasn’t the only notable signing engagement where DottedSign’s services became an instrumental component to. During two events in Tokyo — the Venture Cafe Tokyo and Tokyo Startup Station — the e-sign service was also used, ultimately attracting various parties.

DottedSign — not just another e-sign service

Recently, e27 sat with Kdan Mobile’s CEO Kenny Su to talk more about DottedSign and why his company decided to offer an e-sign service. The foray, says Su, was but a natural response given the company’s history of having started as a PDF application developing technique.

Before its launch of DottedSign, Kdan Mobile has been building mobile software applications and online services since 2009. Their solutions empower the world to create, distribute, and conjoin projects through the use of mainstream digital devices.

Throughout the years, their services have been used by 5 million members across 167 countries worldwide and received a total of 150 million downloads. This serves as proof of their solid reputation is their market presence not only in Taiwan where they are headquartered, but also across China, the U.S., and Japan.

One major reason why Kdan Mobile’s apps have been the go-to app for consumers is because of its flexibility and user-friendly interface. Their services are available for download on desktop, Android, and iOS, and have been carefully built with the consumers in mind. In addition, Kdan Mobile’s push for cloud-based applications means that their services are easily accessible anywhere, anytime.

Their extensive experience as a SaaS provider is why DottedSign is not just another e-sign service. In conceptualising DottedSign, their solid background in SaaS due to their experiences in developing apps in the past years has proven beneficial for providing solutions to mobile workers. Furthermore, he adds that “today’s contracts are a little more complex than they used to be. There’s often a freelancer involved on one end (e.g. a programmer) who sends the contract, a small business that hires the freelancer, and a client that you’re working with. Thus, we’ve been working on a new, complete e-signature to optimise your business’s workflow that will change the way you sign documents, forms, contracts, and agreements forever.”

At a glance, DottedSign exhibits the following features:

● Mobile-friendly user interface – DottedSign boasts of a friendly UI for people who rely on smart devices and travel a lot.
● Visual signing task management flow – The visual progress bar makes it easy to monitor and track signing tasks by checking signers’ statuses. Meanwhile, a search tool makes it easy to find specific documents in the pile.
● Security and legality warranty – Sign legally-enforceable, paperless document. Digital audit trails record every change made to the document, such as when it’s created, sent, viewed, signed, etc. One-Time Password (OTP) verification adds stronger authentication and better protection to personal identity and data.

DottedSign also lets you boost efficiency by multitasking documents at once. That is, it gathers all signing tasks in one place, including those that are completed, waiting for you to sign, and waiting on others’ signatures. What’s more, it simplifies the process of remote business by automating your document delivery. This means you can track progress by checking each signer’s status. You’re assured that nobody incorrectly places or misses a signature.

And it doesn’t stop there. Kdan Mobile continues to update more features that will be used in enterprise solutions in the near future, such as admin console for enterprises to manage their signing documents and open API for the integration to CRM system.

A two-week free access to DottedSign’s Pro features

For a limited time, DottedSign offers a 14-day trial so users could check out for themselves the features and benefits of using this e-sign service. What’s great about this offer is that it allows you to access its advanced Pro features, such as: creating multiple signature tasks, unlocking special input fields, or offering in-person signing. Enterprise users can learn about special pricing options by contacting the sales team through the website for more details. Ready to check it out? Click here to sign up for free and begin your two-week free access.

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Researchers have found that millennials are more inclined towards starting their own business rather than doing a 9 to 5 job. The reason behind this could be that there is a growing trend of people wanting to build things from scratch. This gives them a sense of ownership and creativity.

Product designing, marketing, investment, and profit calculations, etc.; require hard work, but these can easily lead to stress and depression.

In this article, we have discussed some of the ways using which you can deal with your startup stress.

Work on the causes of stress

It’s not the whole process that leads to stress, rather certain areas in a startup that are responsible for it.

What you need to do is adopt a positive attitude and find out the reasons which lead to stress. Once you have figured out the causes of stress, you can easily work on them; eradicate them or mould them.

Also Read: 5 research-backed stress-busters that can help you improve work-life balance

For instance, if fewer sales are a reason why you are having stress then you can certainly work on the ways with which you can increase your sales; introducing new marketing tactics or investing in PR. Therefore it is important to figure out the main cause of stress in your startup and work on it.

Increase your reading habits

Most of the successful businessmen you see on the esteemed cover of Forbes magazine are all avid readers; Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, etc.

There are two main reasons why you need to read while engaging in a startup; the first one is that it draws your attention from the tensions your daily routine and helps you relax, whereas the other reason is that it gives you the ideas and inspirations which you can apply to your problems.

For example, if you are reading about a successful business that faced issues at the start of his entrepreneurship journey then you can certainly find some reference to your problems in his story and apply the remedies which he used back in time. So, read the biographies of successful people regularly to keep you inspired.

Exercise and meditation

A healthy body keeps a healthy mind.

Mental stress is automatically dealt with if you engage yourself in exercise and meditation.

A simple exercise like running helps you to focus on yourself which is extremely helpful when it comes to dealing with stress. Moreover, when you break a sweat in a gym or a jogging track, vision and dedication are increased which helps you fighting with work-related stress too. 

Secondly, meditation is also found to be fruitful in mitigating startup related stress. With meditation, you attain an inner peace that helps with self-evaluation. This process of introspection and self-evaluation helps deals with startup stress.

Get yourself a Mentor

No matter where you are on the success ladder and whatever you do, you always need someone to show you the right direction and tell you that everything is going to be alright. Get yourself a mentor and seek his help when you find yourself in a startup bottleneck. 

Talk about your problems, seek advice and implement. But remember, this is a never-ending process. Your mentor would show you light from his personal experience.

Also Read: Stressed at work? Here are 11 best meditation apps to help you relax

So, if one piece of advice doesn’t work out, do not lose hope. Rather, discuss again and seek new advice. This will not only remove the startup related stress but give you the ideas using which you can ensure tremendous growth for your business.

Focus on activity and not the outcome

There is no denying the fact that profit maximization is the ultimate aim of every startup. But you need to show patience with such outcomes.

In a startup, your main focus should be the activity and the process whereas the outcome and the profit should be given secondary importance. This will help you reduce a great deal of startup related stress.

Keeping these simple things in mind, you can get rid of the stress that hinders the growth of a startup.

These steps will not only minimize your stress but it will ensure your grooming and mental development as well which is important to become a successful businessman.

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Image Credit:  José Martín Ramírez C

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gojek reveals five startups selected into its Xcelerate’s first cohort [Tech In Asia]

Indonesia’s gojek announced five startups from the first cohort of its accelerator programme in partnership with Digitaraya, gojek Xcelerate. They are a decentralised warehouse services provider Crewdible; mobile concierge platform IZY; mobile platform of pet care solutions PETO; smart city ecosystem enabler Qlue; and, sharing accommodation platform Travelio.

The five shortlisted startups will receive mentorship from McKinsey & Co, Google Launchpad Developer, and UBS Bank. According to Digitaraya’s Managing Director Nicole Yap, the startups will also have an opportunity to be incorporated under gojek’s ecosystem.

Malaysia prolongs VCs, angel investors’ tax incentives until 2023 [DealStreetAsia]

The Malaysian government reportedly decided to extend tax incentives given to venture capital (VC) and angel investors until 2023, which aims to encourage startup funding and attract more foreign investment in the country.

The extension is one of the latest moves by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng in his Budget 2020 proposal. The budget also seeks to boost private equity (PE) investments in the country, with the government seeking to provide a 1 billion ringgit (US$239 million) 1:5 matching guarantee for PE funds to invest in Malaysian consortia.

Also Read: Malaysia’s Petronas sets up US$350M VC fund to invest in tech startups around the world

There were 105 registered VC firms in Malaysia at the end of 2018 and these firms had invested a total of 613.3 million ringgit (US$150.1 million) in the entire year.

Budget 2020 promises to support and encourage new financing options such as Equity CrowdFunding (ECF) and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platforms. Both platforms had collectively raised more than 430 million ringgit (US$102.8 million) as of June 2019.

The Malaysian government is allocating 297 billion ringgit (US$71 billion) for Budget 2020, an increase of 19.5 billion ringgit (US$4.7 billion) compared to 2019.

Dental 3D printing startup Structo secures funding [e27]

Singapore-based dental 3D printing startup Structo announces that it has secured a new round of venture funding from several Asian investors. According to the company’s statement, the investors joining the round include the Singapore Economic Development Board’s investment arm (EDBI), GGV Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and Temasek-backed, Pavilion Capital.

Structo plans to use the latest round of funding to further develop its digital additive manufacturing solutions, and launch new products that leverage automation to enable the mass production of custom patient-specific products.

Structo was founded in 2014 as a project from the National University of Singapore (NUS). It develops 3D printers and solutions for the dental industry.

Also Read: 5 Singapore startups that could be the next industry darling

Huub van Esbroeck, co-founder and CEO of Structo added that it has installed its printers across five continents and produces hundreds of thousands of dental appliances per month. Apart from its Singapore-based headquarters, Structo also operates from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK).

AI-powered edutech startup Mathpresso receives US$14.5 Million in Series B funding, focussing on driving growth [Press Release]

Mathpresso, an AI-powered education startup from South Korea, announces that it has secured US$14.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Legend Capital with participation from new investors InterVest and NP Investments as well as existing investor Mirae Asset Venture Investment, bringing its total funding to US$21.2 million.

Founded in 2015, Mathpresso is an ed-tech company that offers ‘QANDA’, a mobile app that enables students to search solutions to math problems just by taking a photo and ask 1-on-1 questions to top-school tutors.

“Our mission is to provide equal opportunities to education through technology,” said Jongheun Lee, co-founder, and CEO at Mathpresso. “With the new investment, we plan to bolster our presence in the Asian market beyond Korea and Japan which will bring us closer to achieving our mission.”
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