Gaspack, a Web3 technology startup in Southeast Asia, has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-seed funding round led by eMerge (the angel investor network of MDI Ventures) and Arise.

500 Global and Tokoin also participated.

The startup will use the money to strengthen its capabilities to empower creators and brands in the Web3 economy through Kometh, a Web3 digital comic publishing platform. It will also look to acquire world-class creators to democratise decentralised intellectual property (IP) development.

Also Read: ‘The SVB collapse almost damaged the trust level in Silicon Valley’

Gaspack’s Web3 comic store Kometh is built on blockchain and allows users to purchase the rights to read the comic and own, collect, trade, sell, and gift comics. Users who wish to purchase comics on Kometh can use their non-custodial wallet to buy True Digital Comics (TDC) on the platform with ETH.

Kometh allows NFT holders to access comics from NFT projects they support to gain benefits and discounts for future comic releases. Users can also subscribe to their favourite comics and receive new content updates directly from the creator.

Kometh leverages Web3 technologies, particularly NFTs, to protect intellectual property, establish ownership over work, and build a loyal community of fans.

Gaspack supports eight creators in launching NFT projects, generating a total Gross Transaction Volume (GTV) of US$12 million in just a year. The startup has also launched its first comic titled “Garden Point” on Kometh, with nearly 17,000 digital copies sold within 1.5 hours.

Also Read: Wonderful world of Web3: What is next for this groundbreaking industry?

“Garden Point” features characters from the blue-chip NFT project Azuki, harnessing the potential of decentralised IP development. Written by Eisner Awards winner Paul Jenkins, this original comic captivates readers with its thrilling storyline and vibrant artwork.

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Echelon Asia Summit 2023 brings together APAC’s leading startups, corporates, policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to Singapore this June 14-15. Learn more and get tickets here. Echelon also features the TOP100 stage, where startups can pitch to 5000+ delegates, among other benefits like connecting with investors, visibility through the e27platform, and other prizes. Join TOP100 here.

The post Gaspack raises pre-seed funding to launch Web3 comic store Kometh appeared first on e27.

Singapore-headquartered global early-stage VC firm Antler has committed to invest in more than 30 startups in Indonesia in 2023.

Since the firm’s expansion into Indonesia in 2022, Antler has financed 25 startups. Its portfolio consists of companies from 16 different industries, including healthtech (CareNow and Healthpro), edutech (Academix and Eduku), and fintech (Brick).

Antler is also launching a founder residency programme for Indonesian startups in Jakarta, beginning in June 2023.

The VC firm invites applications from aspiring founders in the pre-idea and pre-seed stages. During the 10-week programme, founders will have access to a vibrant community of business leaders, experienced operators and tech builders, allowing them to connect with potential co-founders.

Antler has received more than 4,000 applicants for its inaugural Indonesian programme, showing a high interest in growth from local founders.

Blue Bird Indonesia CEO Noni Purnomo, Sociolla co-founder Christopher Madiam, and Good Doctor Indonesia CEO Danu Wicaksana are among the mentors who share their expertise and industry best practices at Antler.

“Our companies scale faster thanks to our mentoring, truly global community of founders, advisors and investors, as well as our local presence in 25+ markets we operate in,” said Markus Bruderer, Partner at Antler Indonesia.

BASE, a direct-to-consumer beauty and wellness startup that originated from the Antler programme, recently raised US$6 million in a Series A funding round.

According to Startup Ranking, Indonesia has the highest number of startups in Southeast Asia and sixth globally at 2,500 companies in February 2023.

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Echelon Asia Summit 2023 brings together APAC’s leading startups, corporates, policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to Singapore this June 14-15. Learn more and get tickets here. Echelon also features the TOP100 stage, where startups can pitch to 5000+ delegates, among other benefits like a chance to connect with investors, visibility through e27 platform, and other prizes. Join TOP100 here.

The post Antler to invest in 30+ companies, launch founder residency programme in Indonesia appeared first on e27.

They say good bosses don’t micromanage. I can’t wholeheartedly agree.

Micromanagement is a taboo word that gets managers torn between these two extremes. Be too “hands-on”, it stifles the work and creativity of the team. Be too “hands-off”, the company suffers.

We definitely don’t want managers who refuse to delegate and empower, monitor unimportant details excessively, and constantly criticise their subordinates’ work. You can find out how to identify a micromanager here.

Although I don’t check on what time my team clocks in or out or text after work hours on their personal devices, I tell new joiners upfront: “I will micromanage.” *Cue scary music!*

Trust based performance

I’m a firm believer in empowering the team with trust and freedom to develop the road maps towards agreed outcomes.

Researchers found that when managers step into a challenging situation and offer assistance when needed, not to take over or judge anyone, employees find constructive intervention to be valuable. The question then is not of why but how and when.

Also Read: Insights from a Singaporean founder’s journey to Silicon Valley

My role is not to get them to do things the way I want, or worse, take over when we hit roadblocks (the real micromanaging). But to identify gaps and recalibrate regularly towards our goals (my kinda micromanaging).

The O in OKR

It is easy to fall into the busyness trap. Here’s where the Objectives and Key Results or OKRs guide us. Are we doing the right things (effective) and doing things right (efficient)?

If it’s not in the company’s OKRs, we shouldn’t be spending time doing it. We don’t want to be running on treadmills.

Let me share two case studies:

Case study one

We wanted to save cost by reducing wastage in our floral cuttings —  that’s the Objective. So we started several interesting initiatives to relocate waste bins, segregate and store waste, and move racks and palettes. There were a lot of exciting movements!

But no results.

Turns out, we did not have a discipline of tracking and measuring the actual waste and its sources.

Where are the numbers? Why are we busy? And is our busyness contributing towards the Objective?

Case study two

Delivery partners bring our freshest blooms to recipients daily. At one point, a delivery rider had to wait 12 minutes on average to pick up the bouquets at our office.

I wanted to reduce it to one minute or less. This round, we kept a close record of the waiting time by recording it in our dashboard on a daily basis to observe the pattern. We’ve noticed that the waiting time is generally longer during lunch hour when everyone in the team goes out for lunch at the same time. We then tweak our rest hour schedule to a rotation mode so that there will always be someone at the station to attend to the delivery partners. With constant communication and reiterating our process, the waiting time was reduced to less than two minutes.

Through this micromanaging, we were able to add value not only to our clients, but our partners and team benefitted too.

Setting goal posts

Selectively, I hold my team accountable in three main areas:

Progress updates on our dashboard

My team knows I’m very particular about daily and weekly progress reports. Just numbers. No slides and no email reports are needed.

As we work as a fast-paced e-commerce florist, being data-driven is imperative. We run five-ten minutes Scrum meetings to align objectives daily and a weekly meeting under 60 minutes. If the goals are not met, then we zoom into the micro view.

Also Read: Leveraging OKRs in the face of Malaysia’s ‘Great Resignation’

Without tracking the data and milestones, we don’t even know why we succeeded or failed.

Communication on deadlines

I love using trackers. Status updates line up on our Kanban board: to do, pending, in review, completed. I use task management tools like ClickUp and Notion.

I use ClickUp to assign tasks, track progress and collaborate with my team. I’m using the time tracking feature to monitor how much time is being spent on each task and project, which helps me identify the areas for improvement and increase productivity.

On the other hand, I use Notion for note-taking and knowledge management. Notion is my go-to software because it helps me to keep abreast of the team’s information and project goals.

Simply because one outcome delayed snowballs and affects the next team. When we communicate deadline hiccups, we help each other plan ahead and accomplish the goals smoothly.

Exceptional public-facing image

Be it a social media article or a team member representing the company for a meeting, I hold high standards for everything client-facing.

I enjoy complimenting my team when they dress well. When you dress for success, you feel confident, and it shines through. Never underestimate the power of dressing well in business. (Plus, it’s fun!)

Selective micromanaging is serious stuff. It helps us to give greater value to our clients and stakeholders. Besides, it makes work easier for the team by knowing what really matters and is worth paying attention to.

So nope, I don’t want to know how long they went for lunch or to be CC-ed in every email. We’re good.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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Business agility has become a trending concept in the past decade as a response to the changing business landscape thanks to digital transformation and globalisation.

Business agility refers to business competence to recognise and make fast adjustments to new market conditions and continuously create and promote new values for their stakeholders. Businesses with high levels of agility are believed to be capable of coming up with an effective strategy to deal with changes and gain a competitive advantage over their rivals.

There are several ways for businesses to develop their agility. For example, they can brainstorm and invent new strategies from the inside out using their internal inputs and assets. Additionally, they can also bring about agility using outside processes, gathering and leveraging insights and knowledge from external sources to add new values to their existing products or services.

Eventually, customers are the one who decides the values of the products. Maintaining a clear understanding of customers and their desire and capturing new developments in consumer needs are key to disrupting the current market. In fact, the world’s most innovative companies, such as P&G and Lego, have utilised open innovation to drive their creativity competence.

Expanding to the realm of marketing, marketing agility is considered the extent to which an organisation quickly grasp new changes in the market to adapt their marketing decisions to allow the business to respond effectively to new developments.

Also Read: What companies can do to stay agile in the future of work

Within this process, the most important stage is sensemaking, during which the organisation navigates through the muddy landscape and uncertainties, connecting the dots and identifying the implications of the new trends in order to establish an understanding and create a strong foundation for further actions. Another pillar of marketing agility is iteration which refers to the circular loop to go back and forth throughout the whole process to learn, unlearn, and relearn the situation and make changes as necessary to the marketing plan.

The linkage between marketing agility and disruptive innovation

Marketing agility is applied to all stages of the marketing process, from consumer surveys, product and service development to the final launch of the promotional campaign and feedback collection to revisit and improve the whole process as needed.

As a result, marketing agility enables the organisation to become more proactive and attentive to customer demands, even in this era of fast-changing customer needs and wants.

Considering its fundamental pillars, marketing agility is often linked to disruptive innovation, which enables firms to bring up new products and services that disrupt the market, significantly improving customer experience, lowering costs, and having the potential to drive out uncompetitive firms and existing incumbents. Disruptive innovation also leverages inside out and outside in the brainstorming process, utilises radical and new technologies, and captures newly emerged trends in the market.

Challenges faced by brands in the age of marketing agility

Nevertheless, some researchers have become concerned about the impact of marketing agility on brand consistency. Specifically, some brands might be strongly associated with certain brand images, and marketing agility, with its emphasis on constant changes and adaptation, might threaten the integrity and consistency of the brand, changing their identity and core values to cater to short-lived consumption trends.

Also Read: How to inject agility into your fundraising

In fact, leading marketers made the case that by jumping fast on the bandwagon, companies might make the mistake of sacrificing long-term benefits for short-term gains. Consequently, it is crucial to retain the core brand values which are unique to the brand and are what keep customers coming back.

In other words, marketing agility presents a paradox to brand managers. While it helps to drive revenue and growth, at least in the short term, it may damage the brand from a long-term perspective.

Additionally, another difficulty in achieving marketing agility is the high dependence on certain powerful partners and other third-party associations who are not willing to change. For example, if a company’s product is distributed through a third party’s distribution network, the company might depend on the partner’s willingness to accommodate its product changes/modifications to continue the cooperative relationship.

Finally, due to the high interest in marketing agility, which has become one of the hottest buzzwords of the time, many companies are faced with the question of whether they truly adopted the essence of marketing agility or only implemented the concept superficially. When this happens, the changes occurring in the organisation and its associated product and services are not substantiated in the long run, resulting in a waste of organisational resources.

Hence, to effectively lead a truly agile marketing department, the organisation needs to hire the right marketing leaders who possess both soft skills, technical skills, and long-term visions to pursue the right agile strategy.

In sum, within this fast-changing business landscape, remaining agile is crucial to business survival and enhancing innovation capacity. Nonetheless, businesses must consider the shortcomings of being agile for an effective response strategy.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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Singapore-based financial services group DBS and Heritas Capital have announced the first close of its newly launched Asia Impact First Fund (AIFF) at over US$20 million.

The anchor investor DBS committed US$10 million, with participation from several like-minded impact-focused family offices, foundations, and corporates. Several high-net-worth individuals, including Tsao Family Office, IMC Group, Ishk Tolaram Foundation, ANF Family Office, Pang Sze Khai (Chairman of Octava Foundation and Octava Pte Ltd), also invested.

The Asia Impact First Fund, launched in August 2022, seeks to support innovative and high-growth social enterprises in Asia.

Also Read: Balancing revenue, impact remains the top challenges faced by social impact startups

The AIFF has a target fund size of US$50 million and expects to provide catalytic growth capital to ten to 15 social enterprises in Asia. These social enterprises would have demonstrated social and/or environmental impact in the fund’s impact themes – improving lives and livelihoods and protecting the environment — as well as viable business growth plans to scale their double bottom line of impact and profitability.

The AIFF is managed by Singapore-based impact investment platform Heritas Capital, and is availed to accredited investors. It aims to achieve capital preservation and/or appreciation with a target internal rate of return of five to ten per cent.

DBS Foundation serves as Asia Impact First Fund’s knowledge partner, providing in-depth expertise, a strong track record, and deep networks in its capacity as a leading champion in Asia’s social entrepreneurship scene.

DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia with a presence in 19 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS is in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Heritas Capital is a private equity and venture capital investment firm building a multi-fund impact investment platform that invests in companies across the healthcare, education, environment, and technology sectors.

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Echelon Asia Summit 2023 brings together APAC’s leading startups, corporates, policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to Singapore this June 14-15. Learn more and get tickets here. Echelon also features the TOP100 stage, where startups can pitch to 5000+ delegates, among other benefits like a chance to connect with investors, visibility through e27 platform, and other prizes. Join TOP100 here.

The post DBS, Heritas Capital hit US$20M first close of Asia Impact First Fund appeared first on e27.

Registration for TOP100 is now open and we are looking forward to seeing your startup on the list!

TOP100 Program gives you the one golden chance to connect with hundreds of investors, showcase your startup at Echelon, pitch on the TOP100 stage, and access special programs. Find out what’s new in TOP100 and join here: https://bit.ly/TOP100_2023

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Echelon Asia Summit 2023 is happening on June 14-15 at Singapore EXPO and we’re looking forward to seeing you there! 

As one of the most highly anticipated events in the tech industry, this year’s Echelon is expecting over 5,000 delegates to attend – now is your chance to connect with the region’s leading entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, and technology enthusiasts.

Join our sponsors

Echelon Asia Summit is made possible by the generous support of its sponsors. These companies play a crucial role in the success of the event and help to ensure that attendees have access to the latest technology and innovation.

Here are some of the sponsors that are helping us make our vision for the 2023 Echelon Asia Summit a reality!

Sendbird

Sendbird believes conversations are at the heart of building relationships and getting things done. The company’s global conversations platform powers over 7 Billion mobile messages and interactions every month. Industry leaders like Paymaya, Traveloka, Carousell, AirAsia, Reddit, and Paytm build with Sendbird chat, voice, video, and live stream APIs to create a differentiated user experience that improves customer retention, conversion, and satisfaction.

Headquartered in California, Sendbird is venture-backed by ICONIQ Growth, STEADFAST Capital Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Meritech Capital, Emergence Capital, Shasta Ventures, August Capital, Funders Club, World Innovation Lab, and Y Combinator. We are delighted to once again work with Sendbird, who has been an Echelon sponsor and partner since 2019.

Also read: These 15 startups might just be part of this year’s TOP100

Prudence Foundation

Prudence Foundation is the community investment arm of Prudential in Asia and Africa. Its mission is to secure the future of communities by enhancing education, health and safety. The Foundation runs regional programmes as well as local programmes in partnership with NGOs, governments and the private sector to maximise the impact of its efforts. Prudence Foundation leverages Prudential’s long-term mindset and geographical scale to make communities safer, more secure and more resilient. The Foundation is a Hong Kong-registered charitable entity.

We are once again working with Prudence Foundation on SAFE STEPS D-Tech Awards, to put the spotlight on tech solutions that save lives.

Digital Ocean

DigitalOcean simplifies cloud computing so developers and businesses can spend more time building software that changes the world. With its mission-critical infrastructure and fully managed offerings, DigitalOcean helps developers, startups and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) rapidly build, deploy and scale applications to accelerate innovation and increase productivity and agility. DigitalOcean combines the power of simplicity, community, open source, and customer support, so customers can spend less time managing their infrastructure and more time building innovative applications that drive business growth.

A growing line-up of speakers

Echelon Asia Summit will feature a wide range of speakers who are experts in their respective fields. These speakers will be sharing their insights and experiences with attendees, and offering valuable advice on how to drive innovation and growth in the industry.

Andre Menezes is the Co-Founder and CEO of Next Gen Foods. Next Gen Foods created the “Ridiculously Good” plant-based chicken called TiNDLE, which is taking the world by storm. In the past two years, Next Gen Foods raised $130 million and launched TiNDLE chicken in 8 different countries.

Wai Mun Lim is the Founder and CEO of Doctor Anywhere, a tech-led health and wellness company on a mission to improve healthcare delivery through innovation and technology.

Alan Jiang is the Co-Founder and CEO at Beam, Asia’s fastest-growing micro-mobility startup focussed on solving short-distance transport needs within cities. Starting with e-scooter sharing, Beam aims to let urban residents move efficiently, reduce their environmental footprint, and have fun as they go from here to there.

Dayu Dara Permata is the Founder and CEO of Pinhome, a property tech and real estate fintech platform that makes property and home search and financing more accessible. Before Pinhome, Dayu Dara was a Senior Vice-President of GO-JEK and the Head of its Lifestyle and Commerce Product Group.

Gavin Chua is the Head of Digital Engagement for APAC at tech and social community giant Meta. He is also a Vice-Chair at SGTech, co-chairing its sustainability drive. 

Speakers from Carousell Group, Glints, and more will be announced soon.

Meet these companies at Echelon

Hundreds of delegates have already secured their tickets to Echelon! Here are some of the companies they represent:

Get your tickets to Echelon and get the chance to meet and connect with them there.

TOP100 Startups are heading to Echelon

We’re getting closer to revealing which startups are taking to the stage at Echelon in June! We have recently announced some of the frontrunners, and we’re looking forward to announcing the semi-finalists.

Here are some of the frontrunners of the TOP100 Program:

The deadline for application to join TOP100 has been extended! Interested startups can still sign up to join until March 17. The TOP100 Program gives startups the one golden chance to connect with hundreds of investors, showcase their startups at Echelon, pitch on the TOP100 stage, and access special programs. Find out what’s new in TOP100 and join here: https://bit.ly/TOP100_2023

More announcements are coming soon! Learn more about Echelon Asia Summit 2023 and get your tickets here.

The post Industry giants helping make Echelon Asia Summit 2023 possible appeared first on e27.

The return of in-person events in Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries are a welcome change, however, one must not forget the environmental impact that it may cause.

In an email interview with e27, Gevme CEO Veemal Gungadin explains how the events industry becomes one of the largest contributors to global carbon emissions, accounting for 10 per cent with multiple contributors tallying up to a rather hefty carbon footprint.

The contributing factors here vary from transportation used to attend the events themselves to energy use and waste generation. To clarify, travel-induced carbon footprint for international conferences resulting in more than 2,000 tonnes of greenhouse gasses and the average participant producing between 500 and 1,500 kg CO2e per conference round-trip, according to a recent study.

Does this mean hosting virtual events is a better alternative? Not really. A study showed a one-day virtual conference (on Zoom) with around 200 participants resulted in 1,324 kg of CO2 emissions, roughly equivalent to burning around 680 kg of coal.

“Thus, whether organisers are planning to run physical, virtual or even hybrid events, it’s increasingly imperative that they decarbonise and rethink how they organise their events, adopting greener strategies throughout every step of the event planning process,” Gungadin stresses.

Also Read: ‘There’s a lack of urgency among companies in achieving net zero targets’: Unravel Carbon’s Grace Sai

This is where Gevme comes in. According to Gungadin, there are already platforms that aims to help event organisers reduce carbon footprints. But the problem is that they often consist of different tools that may not integrate well with each other.

“Event organisers are also typically short on time and, coupled with manpower crunches, often unable to spend the time and effort to implement all these various sustainable recommendations,” he says.

“At Gevme, we provide organisers on our platform with an integrated platform that helps them to reduce their carbon footprint in many ways by doing away with some of the classically physical aspects of their events. For example: Reduce waste (paper, collaterals and materials) through our digital tools and collaterals such as digital tickets, badges, name cards, swag bags, brochures and signage for the event agenda,” the CEO further explains.

It also provide tools such as a digital event help centre, the use of digital forms and survey submissions, gamification (including spin the wheel and treasure hunt mechanics) as well as a virtual venue for attendees to engage with.

“Ultimately, we provide event organisers with a comprehensive and integrated platform that allows them to decarbonise their events through omnichannel strategies without sacrificing the event experience for attendees,” Gungadin says.

Gevme acquires its users through partnerships with both event venues and event planners themselves, such as Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore Expo.

“Through these partnerships, they’re able to offer our services to brands looking to run their events sustainably or those looking to inject a digital touch into their events while ensuring a stable infrastructure that works well with other integrations that enhances the event attendee experience,” Gungadin explains.

Also Read: SG Budget 2023: Greater push towards net zero provides opportunities for startups

The next big event

As the company prepares for its next big plan in 2023, Gungadin shares that last year, it had over one million digital attendees for the events on its platform. It saves over 40,000 tonnes in CO2 emissions, equivalent to 1.2 million trees as they did not have to travel to attend the event.

“We also had over two million attendees registering for events using our platform, providing organisers with the ability to impact each attendee,” he continued.

With that secured, in 2023, Gevme plans to align with Singapore’s MICE Sustainability Roadmap–part of the goal to become Asia Pacific’s Leading Sustainable MICE Destination by 2030.

“We will be tracking our own emissions this year, with the goal to become carbon neutral by 2025 and achieve net zero by 2030. We will also be rolling out key features to encourage greater sustainability efforts for the organisers and brands on our platform while enabling them to keep track of their own emissions as well,” Gungadin closes.

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Echelon Asia Summit 2023 is bringing together APAC’s leading startups, corporates, policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to Singapore this June 14-15. Learn more and get tickets here. Echelon also features the TOP100 stage, where startups get the chance to pitch to 5000+ delegates, among other benefits like a chance to connect with investors, visibility through e27 platform, and other prizes. Join TOP100 here.

Image Credit: Gevme

The post How Gevme aims to help event organisers reduce their carbon footprint appeared first on e27.

Through a fortunate conversation with an investor, I was able to understand what a startup truly is.

I had the opportunity to drive the founder of a global accelerator (an early-stage investment company for startups) to an event one day. On our drive, he was very busy communicating with venture capitalists, corporate executives, and startup founders on three separate cell phones. I was worried I might not get the time to ask the one question I was really curious about. Luckily, I got that chance when he hung up.

I told him there was a startup which had participated in my startup incubation program whose annual sales had already reached US$400,000 in two years. I had given some advice to the CEO of the startup about aggressively expanding the business, but he didn’t seem to listen to my opinion, so I wanted to ask the founder how I could encourage the CEO to take my advice.

The definition

He answered firmly, “An accelerator like mine would never call such a company a ‘startup’.”

I was surprised. This company had ever-increasing sales at home and abroad. I could not understand why he would feel this way, but he continued.

“Only a company which is growing at a rate of 30 per cent or more per year is called a ‘startup’. We only invest in companies with this potential.”

Also Read: The digital decade in SEA: How the UK plans to embrace it with the local startup ecosystem

My incubation company holds weekly IR pitching sessions to discover startups, and we support more than 100 companies per year through various programs. Even though I was already supporting dozens of startups each year and I worked with startups regularly, I could not come to terms with this simple concept. If it was true, only a few early-stage companies could be called a ‘startup’.

Only a company that will be able to exit (realise profits by selling stocks as an investment) through increasing its corporate value due to rapid growth is a startup. In fact, the term startup was conceptualised by investors who took big risks in a company’s very early stages to create high returns through corporate investments.

Secrets of fast-growing startups

I’d also like to share another conversation that I had with an investor that changed my understanding of startups. I had arranged an investor meeting to introduce a famous accelerator in South Korea to the founder of a promising startup, who had founded his company on his experience as an engineer at a large IT company.

The meeting seemed to go smoothly, but after the meeting, the investor decided not to invest. She simply said: “It’s undoubtedly an impressive company, but the size of the CEO’s vision and goals simply aren’t ambitious enough for us.”

The CEO’s ambition and targets fuel the rapid growth of any startup. Investors meet with many startups every day to identify those with the biggest dreams. However, not many startups have this vision for rapid growth.

According to the ‘2020 Single-Person Startup Company Status Survey’ published by the Ministry of SMEs in South Korea, it takes an average of 2.5 months for a company to generate its first sale. And according to the ‘business operation plan within the next one year’ survey conducted on the same enterprises, 88 per cent of companies said they would maintain their current business operations, and only 6.3 per cent of companies plan need to expand their business.

Also Read: These 15 startups might just be part of this year’s TOP100

Based on my six years of experience, most startups don’t keep breaking the status quo once they reach a certain level; they don’t continue to set bigger and more ambitious goals. If the initial goal was not that high, there is rarely any reason for further expansion. Instead, they prefer a conservative attitude that maintains the current operating profit. Not enough companies reach big enough goals.

As you probably expect, it is companies among this 6.3 per cent that are most likely to become unicorns (enterprises valued over US$1 billion among startups in less than 10 years). I hope you now understand why most startups lack the ambition that is necessary to succeed and why the articles about the investors who discovered these unicorn companies are causing such a buzz.

What size goals was the CEO thinking that you met today? It could result in very different profits from my investment.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: Canva Pro

The post Decoding the definition of a startup from an investor’s point of view appeared first on e27.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the way we approach lending. One particular area where AI is poised to make a significant impact is the area of embedded lending. When combined with generative AI, this type of lending can create more personalised lending experiences for borrowers while providing lenders with more accurate risk assessments.

The age of hyper-personalisation

One significant advantage of generative AI in embedded lending is its ability to create highly personalised lending experiences. By analysing vast amounts of user data and contextual information, generative AI can develop credit solutions tailored to each borrower’s unique financial situation, preferences, and needs.

Imagine an experience that is the same as talking to ChatGPT through which you’ll submit the necessary information, and you’ll get exactly the credit product you need — one that you might’ve not known about even before! This benefits not only borrowers who get more personalised credit options but also lenders who can better manage risk and improve their lending portfolio’s quality.

With the current technology available, it’s probably already possible. Why it’s not is because the truly talented AI specialists aim to work in leading AI tech companies like OpenAI. And ones that also understand the intricacies of lending and risk are even rarer.

Also Read: How embedded lending will drive healthy growth in credit in Indonesia

But to effectively integrate AI technologies into lending services, we need professionals who can navigate the nuances of risk management. So it might be a case that the resources that can execute still for a long time will be occupied with solving problems in other fields.

Another significant benefit of generative AI in embedded lending is its ability to integrate unique platform data into credit models. With the vast amount of platform data available from social media, e-commerce, and ride-sharing platforms, generative AI can analyse and develop credit models tailored to specific platform data.

This leads to more accurate risk assessments, improved risk management, and higher customer satisfaction. This has been already happening for the past few years and is not getting advanced latest developments in generative AI, rather just good old statistics (which is cooler to call AI lately).

Generative AI in embedded lending can also help address issues of bias and discrimination in lending. Traditional lending models have been criticised for being biased towards certain demographics, such as race or gender, resulting in unfair lending practices. By using generative AI to analyse a broader range of data points and factors, lenders can create more accurate and fairer credit models.

Furthermore, generative AI can help identify any patterns of bias in lending data, allowing lenders to adjust their models accordingly and ensure fairness in their lending practices. As AI technology continues to advance, we can expect to see even more innovative ways of using it to create a more equitable lending landscape for everyone.

Final thoughts

The latest developments in generative AI will bring some significant developments to the lending industry. It holds the potential to make embedded lending especially even more personalised than it already is. Some improvements have already been happening, some will come later, for us all it’ll be a great show of what’s possible.

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Jeffrey Liu is Co-Founder of Jenfi, a fintech company that helps digital native businesses in Asia accelerate their sales velocity through revenue-based financing.

With a solid operational and financial background, he previously co-founded and served as the CEO of GuavaPass and headed corporate development at BeachMint, where he spearheaded its merger with Lucky Magazine.

Before that, he worked in finance as an investment associate at a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund in Chicago and as an investment banking analyst at Lehman Brothers.

Liu holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BS in Industrial Engineering and Economics from Northwestern University.

He regularly contributes articles for e27 (you can read his thought leadership articles here).

In this candid interview, Liu talks about his personal and professional life.

How would you explain what you do to a five-year-old?

We help online businesses save and grow money as a piggy bank does for you. Sometimes, a company needs more money to do new things, like buying more toys or hiring more people to help them make toys.

That’s where we come in. At Jenfi, we give them the money they need to do these things, and they can pay us back later when they have more money.

What has been the biggest highlight/challenge of your career so far?

I have had the opportunity to create two very distinct businesses from scratch.

The first was GuavaPass, which helped people find and enjoy fitness classes. We scaled the business across 12 markets and eventually sold the company to another fitness company called ClassPass.

Now, I’m working on a new business. Jenfi helps digital companies grow by giving them money to help their business grow faster. Our type of service is called revenue-based financing, and we are one of the first companies in Southeast Asia to offer this.

Also Read: We can always earn money, but we can never bring back our youth: Justin Chin of e27

One of the most complex parts of my job at Jenfi is convincing others that our ideas are great. We need to convince new customers to work with us, investors to give us money, and job candidates to join our team. 

But the most important person I need to sell to is myself. I remind myself every day to work hard and do my best.

How do you envision the next five years at Jenfi?

I am excited for the journey that lies ahead in the next five years. While we have made significant progress in building Jenfi, there is still much potential to explore and uncover. 

With the right team in place, I am confident we can continue expanding into new markets and strengthening our presence in existing ones, like Singapore and Vietnam.

We aim to impact various companies, including e-commerce, SaaS, marketplace sellers, and consumer-tech startups. I am dedicated to nurturing our team’s talents and capabilities, which will be crucial to our success as we move forward.

What are some of your favourite work tools?

Slack has always been one of my favourites because of its versatility. With Slack, I can have serious discussions and casual chats with my team, share files seamlessly and even have quick video or voice calls when needed. It’s an all-in-one platform that makes collaborating and staying connected with my team effortless.

What’s something about you or your job that would surprise us?

What might surprise you is that I have lived in five different countries! I have spent time in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and the US.

Moving around so much has allowed me to see and experience different cultures and learn more about how people live their lives. It’s helped me become more open-minded and better understand how people see the world around us.

Do you prefer WFH or WFO, or hybrid?

I prefer a hybrid approach to work, meaning I get to spend some days in the office and other days working from home. 

There are benefits to both arrangements.

Working from home can be great because you have more flexibility and can spend more time with your family. But being in the office can help you collaborate with colleagues, get things done quickly, and feel like you are part of a team.

At the same time, I also believe it’s essential to have some non-work-related social events where everyone can get together and have fun. This can help boost morale and strengthen the relationships between team members, which is essential no matter how much time we spend in the office or at home.

What would you tell your younger self?

If I could go back and talk to my younger self, I would give two pieces of advice.

Also Read: The journey is as enjoyable as the destination: Adrian Chng of Fintonia Group

First, I would tell myself not to be too hard on myself. Everyone makes mistakes, and it’s essential to learn from them and keep moving forward. Being self-critical can be counterproductive and cause unnecessary stress.

Second, I would encourage myself to make work-life balance a priority. When you’re young and starting your career, it’s easy to get caught up in work and put everything else on hold. But it’s important to take care of yourself and make time for the things that matter most, like family, friends, and hobbies. It’s all about finding a healthy balance that allows you to pursue your goals while enjoying life outside of work.

Can you describe yourself in three words?

Adaptable, curious, and proactive.

Adaptable because I can quickly adjust to new situations and challenges, and I’m always looking for ways to improve and learn from my experiences.

Curious because I love to ask questions, explore new ideas, and gain a deeper understanding of the world around me.

And finally, proactive because I take the initiative and strive to make things happen rather than waiting for opportunities to come to me.

What are you most likely to be doing if not working?

You will probably find me working out and trying to stay active.

My younger self constantly reminds me that I’m not as fit as I used to be! Exercise is a great way to relieve stress and stay focused. Whether I’m at the gym, going for a run, or playing sports, I always feel more energised and refreshed after a good workout. Plus, it helps me stay disciplined and focused in other areas of my life.

What are you currently reading/listening to/ watching?

I recently pre-ordered the book What’s Our Problem? by one of my favourite writers, known for creating thought-provoking content on Wait But Why.

He recently re-emerged after many years and released this book this month, which I’m excited to dive into. He has a unique talent for breaking down complex ideas into simple, bite-sized thought pieces, and I’m always amazed by the insights he offers.

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The post The most important person I need to sell to is myself: Jeffrey Liu of Jenfi appeared first on e27.