Sim Wong Hoo, Singapore’s technology pioneer and Chairman and CEO of Creative Technology, passed away on Wednesday.

He was 67.

Wong Hoo founded Creative in 1981 and has played crucial role in developing the business.

Creative started with the vision that multimedia would revolutionise how people interact with their PCs. It is now famous for its Sound Blaster sound cards. It drives digital entertainment with cutting-edge audio solutions, premium wireless speakers, high-performance earphone products and portable media devices.

Since launching Sound Blaster, Creative has leveraged its leading-edge audio technology, a huge user base of 400 million, and strong brand name to expand into the exciting lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment (PDE) market.

Today, Creative sells Sound BlasterAxx audio enhancement devices and solutions, Creative D5xm Signature Series of modular Bluetooth wireless speakers, Aurvana premium headsets, Sound Blaster wireless gaming headsets, and cross-platform Sound Blaster Recon3D for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC or Mac.

Creative’s global corporate headquarters is located in Singapore, and it has business units in the US (Milpitas, California), Europe (Dublin, Ireland) and Asia (Singapore).

In 1992, Creative became the first Singaporean company to list shares on the Nasdaq. Two years later, the firm listed its shares on the main board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Six years, Wong Hoo became the city-state’s youngest billionaire.

In 2006, he sued Apple for patent infringements over the iPod. The US tech giant later settled the lawsuit by paying him US$100 million and licensing his patent.

Following Wong Hoo’s demise, the Creative Technology board has appointed Song Siow Hui, President of the Creative Labs Business Unit, as interim CEO.

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The Asia Pacific is home to a bustling business landscape. They say that a rising tide lifts all ships; however, because of its vibrant ecosystem and strong pool of diverse and competitive businesses, startups from the region may have a hard time staying relevant amidst cutthroat competition.

This challenge is even more pertinent for the burgeoning e-commerce industry. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a dramatic increase in e-commerce engagement across the globe. There is a catch, though. Because of the industry’s success, the number of competitors has also ballooned drastically. As of 2022, there are reportedly 51,300 e-commerce sites in Vietnam, 41,200 in Malaysia, and 29,500 in Singapore — the most it has ever been.

With such an oversaturated market, customer retention is becoming more crucial than ever for business survival and scalability. But how do companies stand out in cutthroat environments where thousands of sellers are fighting for customer attention?

One company which has pioneered ways to boost customer retention among Southeast Asian startups is CleverTap, a customer engagement and retention platform that provides the functionality to integrate app analytics and marketing. CleverTap, in collaboration with e27, is spearheading a six-month long roadshow titled ‘The Big Leap’. For the  Singapore leg of the roadshow, the partnership brought together a panel of industry leaders to discuss Retention Playbook: Bringing retention best practices across SEA, where they explored the importance of monetisation for startups and ways to achieve that by utilising opportunities in the post-pandemic digital environment with a keen focus on customer retention.

CleverTap has six regional offices all around the globe and a solid presence in APAC. The company helps build amazing user experiences for the world’s leading digital-first brands with their smart, all-in-one platform that combines the best analytics, segmentation, and engagement tools so that businesses can build valuable, long-term relationships with their customers. This makes CleverTap the perfect institution to pioneer efforts anchored on helping businesses retain customers.

Also Read: Success is a moving target: CleverTap Co-founder Anand Jain

How CleverTap makes a difference

With the volatile state of the pandemic, the global economy is not entirely crisis-free. The future looks uncertain and risky due to disrupted supply chains caused by wars, political unrest across different nations, trade conflicts, inflation, and an impending recession. As such, there has been a dramatic decline in global funding, reaching US$74.5 billion in the third quarter of 2022, hitting a nine-quarter low. In order to weather such economic blows, businesses must come up with creative ways not only to capture customer attention, but to retain them.

This is the onus behind The Big Leap’s Singapore leg: To help digital-first brands in the region stand out, capture customer attention, and engage and retain them. Trusted by 10,000+ mobile businesses, CleverTap has proven to be a global leader in helping organisations engage and retain clients.

The Panellists included key stakeholders from diverse industries: Achint Setia, Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer at Zalora; Igor Mostovoy, VP of Product at 99.co; Sistla Sumanth, Director for Digital Technology APAC at RBI; David Setiawan, Head of Marketing at JobStreet; Baptiste Le Gal, CRO APAC at Vestiaire Collective; and Avantika Jain, General Manager at Fave.

Through the event, CleverTap managed to bring together over 100 growth leaders in Southeast Asia to create a platform for sharing insights on how to develop engaging experiences to grow customer retention, increase customer lifetime value, and spark massive scalable growth with customers at the forefront.

Executing lessons learnt during the pandemic for a better future

One of the most pertinent lessons from the recent pandemic is how businesses must focus on executing strategic plans for a more resilient future.

Also Read: Looking back at 2022: A year of digitalisation, adaptability, and collaboration through the lens of the innovate team

Jain kickstarted the panel discussion by sharing how Fave, a rewards app that relied heavily on redemptions at physical stores, was hit badly when the pandemic came. “The offline aspect almost vanished, and we were forced to switch to online. Interestingly, we’re seeing that consumers are not returning to physical stores even after the pandemic is seemingly over. If anything, the online behaviour is ramping up,” she shared.

Fave plans on leveraging this trend and this development is so pivotal for the rewards app that currently, they are planning to roll out a cashback scheme in partnership with online merchants as part of their business model. For Vestiaire Collective, things were slightly different when COVID came. As a mobile-first platform, they saw a lot of users come in. On the other hand, Baptiste shared that when many users come in, it becomes a task to keep them engaged and retain them.

Setiawan from JobStreet shared that for them, there was a slowdown during the first year of the pandemic, but in the second year, they saw a jump. “We launched a big campaign back then to tap into the evolved talent pool, specifically looking at working from home. We ran a lot of articles trying to educate users on how to start going to interviews in this new candidate-first landscape, and that worked for us,” he added.

Sumanth talked about the importance of collaborations, highlighting how RBI’s partnerships with AliPay and Grab helped the company survive when F&B was probably one of the worst-hit sectors.

For 99.co, the struggle was that online traffic remained high owing to the boom in real estate due to factors like surging rent prices and people looking for bigger homes as work-from-home prevailed. Enquiries, however, stopped because people couldn’t visit the actual properties. In order to address this challenge, 99.co’s groundbreaking solution was to revolutionise customer experience by replicating their services in a digitalised environment, conducting their open houses online, and training their agents to operate through their digital platform.

Also Read: The Big Leap roadshow kickstarts in Jakarta with a panel on the Gen Z market

Taking The Big Leap for customer retention could boost your startup amid market woes

“Go where your customers are,” highlighted Sumanth from RBI. The first step towards engaging customers is having a presence on a platform of their preference. One of the emerging trends in 2022 is the dramatic shift towards mobile, which is expected to ramp up in 2023 and beyond. In 2022, there will be 326.3 million smartphone users in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia and Vietnam leading the way. These users will make up 88.0 per cent of the region’s internet users.

“It is established that people are moving towards mobile more,” shared Setiawan. “We look a lot into the lifetime value of our customers, and we run many retaining campaigns. In fact, we have tripled our retention budget since the pandemic,” Setiawan added.

Retaining customers is more expensive than acquiring customers. Sumanth shared that while running campaigns is crucial, it is even more critical to track the success of those campaigns. “What’s working, what is driving more conversions: looking at the results and quickly adapting based on feedback from these campaigns is a must,” he said.

Mostovoy also stated that if you are keen on seeing results next year, you should’ve started your retention campaigns last year! “To feed information in your apps, you need to run campaigns that are relevant to the users, and have a keen focus on keeping them coming back,” he added, emphasising the importance of competition analysis and being innovative and dynamic to stay ahead.

To learn more insights and engage with industry leaders from your country, register here and check out upcoming The Big Leap events. You may also visit https://clevertap.com to learn more about how CleverTap is helping customers like Gojek, ShopX, Canon, Electronic Arts, TED, English Premier League, TD Bank, AirAsia, Papa John’s, Tesco Kotak Mahindra Bank, SonyLiv, Swiggy, PharmEasy, and Dream11 retain customers.

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Southeast Asia (ASEAN) has experienced rapid economic growth. With a projected GDP growth rate of six-ten per cent per year compared to the global average of three-four per cent over the next five years, the region is on track to become the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2030.

With a literate population of 600 million and an even larger young working population (40 per cent of whom are under the age of 30), the digital economic boom, which is being sustained by emerging digital businesses and the digitalisation of traditional industries, indicates a significant increase in demand for skilled and qualified digital talent.

Even with the challenges in the market, the predicted ICT market growth rate of 1.4x – 1.8x will increase the demand for digital talent that must be met in order for the region to thrive.

While this is a great opportunity, it can also be a challenge for many companies in the region. According to a survey of 600 startup employees and 40 startup leaders from six ASEAN countries, nine out of 10 startups face difficulties in recruiting tech talent, and 91 per cent of employees are open to leaving their current positions, making the challenge of developing a sustainable recruitment strategy and scaling their teams ever-present.

GRIT Search, a technology recruiting platform, created a playbook based on the survey in collaboration with Southeast Asian venture capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures and global consultancy firm Kearney to help companies compete for the best and brightest.

Employees need and want a strong company culture

Aside from monetary rewards (78 per cent) and employee benefits (68 per cent), employees rank the firm’s culture as the third most important aspect of their job (57 per cent). Getting the culture right also helps companies address the second driving factor for talent exits – misalignment with company vision and culture (25 per cent), which is also the most commonly chosen reason for talent leaving their companies in Singapore and Indonesia.

While culture is highly intangible, it has very tangible effects, such as improved financial performance and customer satisfaction due to increased productivity and firm margins, as well as higher dedication to customers due to more motivated and committed employees. As a result of the increased employee engagement, job satisfaction and turnover rates have decreased.

Also Read: ‘In Web3, talent is hard to find and expensive’

Open communication, such as encouraging one-on-one conversations between employees and formal mentors/senior executives, leaders empowering their team members to offer their ideas and speak their minds, as well as having a company-wide discussion around big conversations, all contribute to creating a culture in which employees feel welcome, accepted, and respected.

Leadership, in particular, bears the primary responsibility of shaping a company’s culture and establishing a positive tone for the organisation. Middle management is critical to creating team cultures, executing firm values, and communicating employee feedback to upper management, who are then able to translate the collated feedback into actionable suggestions for improvement.

Having frequent open-feedback cycles with employees and within teams keeps everyone on the same page, working for the betterment of the company while also ensuring employees’ needs are met.

No surprise, employees want fair compensation

Unsurprisingly, 78 per cent of employees rank compensation as the most important aspect of their job, and it is the primary reason for 32 per cent of employees seeking new opportunities. Employers are expected to provide desirable and appealing benefits packages in order to attract and retain top talent.

Competitive, merit-based compensation principles that encourage long-term loyalty are ideal. Companies can leverage different compensation structures by having regular salary benchmarks and variable pay incentives as a reward for good performance, especially for early-stage startups that may not have the luxury of offering generous salaries to their talents, such as equity or employee benefits.

Employee benefits were ranked as the second most important aspect of a job by 68 per cent of those polled. These benefits range from HR-related benefits such as medical coverage, as well as personalised rewards for birthdays and work anniversaries that recognise each employee’s uniqueness, to employee development benefits such as consistent upskilling and development opportunities, mentoring, and career flexibility.

Furthermore, with a lack of growth opportunities being cited as the third primary driver of talent exit, it has become even more critical to provide ample opportunities for talent to grow and enhance their skills. Companies can maintain their competitiveness by providing an avenue for their talent to flourish and consistently develop their abilities, whether by investing in tailored learning and development programmes or simply allowing them time off to pursue such courses.

However, rather than simply providing such benefits, organisations must be able to communicate the details and value of their compensation packages, as many employees may be unaware of their worth.

From offer letters and long-term incentive plan documents to employee onboarding handbooks, effective communication of the rewards packages provides clearer visibility, understanding, and transparency of the package value while increasing employee motivation.

Your recruitment strategy should reflect the stage of your business

Employers will undoubtedly have to modify their hiring strategies depending on the company’s current stage. For example, during the early stages of product validation, the company’s hiring priorities would frequently be to build their product & technology, marketing, and business development teams in order to gain traction among their target audience.

Also Read: Managing talent in an economic downturn

Once they have a dedicated user base and consistent revenue streams, the focus shifts to market-share dominance, diversifying their revenue and profitability, as a result, they would seek stronger C-level hires while expanding their data analytics teams to drive expanded business and market opportunities.

Furthermore, the key challenges for companies differ according to the stage, with early-stage firms facing a greater problem with compensation and later-stage firms and corporates facing a greater problem with perceived corporate branding.

Notably, when it comes to talent retention, the top reasons for employees to consider new opportunities are competitive rewards and compensation (32 per cent), misalignment with the company and vision (25 per cent), and a lack of growth opportunities (23 per cent), with companies in each country choosing a different reason.

Employees are more likely to leave early-stage organisations for new opportunities due to misalignment with the company and vision, whereas late-stage startups are more likely to lose their talent due to competitive rewards and compensation. As a result, the first step toward developing a successful recruitment strategy is to understand your current situation and tailor your strategies to your hiring requirements.

How to stay ahead of the competition

Finally, the art of developing one’s recruitment strategies can be perplexing and intimidating due to the numerous moving parts to keep track of. In order to succeed and effectively grow and scale teams in the new workforce era, companies must tailor their recruitment strategies to their employees.

Organisations are at a tipping point where they can still make effective changes to attract, retain, and engage tech talent, from compensation and employee benefits, to adapting their company culture to create cohesive employee branding.

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Northstar Group, an Indonesia-focused private equity firm, has announced the first close of its early-stage fund with US$90 million in committed capital.

A statement said that Northstar Ventures I (NSV I) received strong backing from a diverse group of global investors, including sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, family offices and high-net-worth individuals.

NS I targets to hit the final close at US$150 million. The second close is expected in Q1 2023 at around US$120 million, and the final close in mid-2023.

Also Read: Sayurbox raises US$ 120M+ in Series C funding led by Northstar, Alpha JWC

Northstar Ventures I will make early-stage investments, primarily in entities headquartered (or with significant operations) in Indonesia and, to a lesser extent, in other countries in Southeast Asia.

The fund’s core focus will be consumer internet, fintech, and enterprise software.

NSV I’s portfolio already includes investments in Makmurtech, Bunker Technologies, Growth Technologies SEA (Flex), Kendaraan Listrik Nusantara Holdings (Maka), Wahyoo Holdings, UTown Singapore Technology (Jagat), and 1BStories.

Patrick Walujo, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Northstar Group, said, “The successful fundraising of our first venture capital fund during a challenging second half of 2022 underpins the strength of our firm and the trust in our capabilities. We look forward to supporting more promising entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia to drive their business growth through our capital and expertise.”

Also Read: Northstar leads US$22M Series A of Indonesia’s multi-vertical audio platform NOICE

Founded in 2003 by Patrick Walujo and Glenn Sugita, Northstar Group comprises over 25 professionals based in Singapore and Jakarta. The group manages US$2.6 billion in committed capital and has led or co-led over US$4 billion in investments in more than 50 companies across Southeast Asia.

In December 2021, Northstar Group closed its fifth PE fund with US$590 million of capital commitments to invest in mature growth companies in the region.

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Indonesian creative and digital media startup Bingkai Karya announced that it had secured a “hundred million Rupiah” in pre-seed funding round. The investors participating in the funding round were undisclosed; they were described as a local corporation and a non-government organisation. Both organisations are drawn to the “progressive” milestones the company has made.

The funding will be used to develop media property (MP) products and intellectual property (IP) as a whole before transitioning into the Web3 space. It plans to also develop its human resource by recruiting the best talents.

“This [plan] is in line with our plan in 2022 to be able to expand beyond Indonesia. The next in line is to work with Europe for our IP and MP development strategies. This is why we try to improve the quality of our content, especially our English content,” said Bingkai Karya CEO Rizal Rosyadi in a press statement on Monday, January 2.

The journey of Bingkai Karya

Founded in 2018, the startup started off as a design graphic and illustration services for MSMEs social media platform in the city of Malang, East Java. By the end of 2018, it began to expand its offerings to podcast production. As the vertical grew, Bingkai Karya ended up transforming to become a podcast network and online news portal for the younger audience.

Also Read: Fonos raises US$1.8M in funding to expand into podcasting

The company has developed six podcast channels: Bingkai Suara (2018), Enpacking Podcast (2019), Chromatica Podcast (2020), Before and at 30’s (2020), Bingkai Gadis (2020), and Bingkai Sains (2021). Bingkai Karya has the vision to become an entertaining, educational, and accessible podcast platform for its listeners.

Bingkai Karya’s network of podcasts has been trusted by several local and international brands and local celebrities to do promotional activities. “We have been planning to focus on the Southeast Asian market. In terms of branding, commercial treatment, and curation, we have adjusted ourselves to the standard of the international media market.”

In its fourth year, Bingkai Karya published content in two languages (Indonesian and English) on its website and social media platforms. The platforms cover news on climate change and the environment that is relevant for Asian audiences, to be later published on their Instagram handle.

The company is also expanding to the world of edutech by launching an audio-based learning app called Pernahdengar. It is one of the platforms that help to improve the quality of education in Indonesia during the pandemic; it claims to help listeners with self-growth by eight times in various aspects of their life.

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The article was written by Marsya Nabila in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

Image Credit: Bingkai Karya

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Born in China, Sheji Ho grew up in the Netherlands and worked in the US, China, and Southeast Asia. During his years of stay in these countries/regions, he, as a patient, experienced first-hand their different healthcare systems and models.

“In the Netherlands, I would go to the same family doctor for many years. On the other hand in Beijing, I had to wake up at 5 am to queue up at a hospital and wait half a day to get my health checkup done. While Singapore offered a similar experience to the Netherlands, Bangkok was almost like China,” Ho tells e27.

“These personal experiences, combined with the founding team’s professional experience at aCommerce trying to enable e-commerce for brands in Southeast Asia, led our team to build HD,” he says.

Headquartered in Bangkok, HD operates online healthcare and surgery marketplaces called HDmall in Thailand and Indonesia. The platform connects patients to hospitals, clinics, operating rooms, and surgeons while offering healthcare financing solutions to increase access to affordable care and surgeries. 

The healthtech startup claims it powers over 1,500 healthcare providers, including some of the biggest hospitals in these two countries. Over 250,000 patients have benefited from more accessible and affordable healthcare and surgeries through its platform.

The firm also runs HDcare, a service that enables healthcare providers — many already on the HDmall platform — to increase the utilisation of hospitals’ and clinics’ operating room capacities. HD took inspiration from JD Health in China and Pristyn Care in India to build a hybrid platform. In other words, HD is Booking.com for healthcare on the demand side and Airbnb for Surgeons on the supply side.

“We are the ‘Airbnb for surgeries’ that addresses the low utilisation rates across private hospital infrastructure,” he says.

COVID-19 a blessing in disguise

HD was co-founded in 2019 by Ho, Aditya Jamaludin, Raya Chantaramungkorn (all former top executives at Thailand’s leading e-commerce enabler aCommerce), and Frankie Shum (formerly with Ardent Capital).

Also Read: HD, the Airbnb for surgeries in SEA, secures US$6M funding

The healthtech venture was launched a year before COVID-19 struck. During the first few months into the pandemic, there was pressure on the founders to pivot and double down on telehealth (or food delivery) because, back then, people thought HD would be locked down for years.

“However, the team spent the first few months of the lockdown trying to sign up more healthcare providers while ignoring demand, betting on a recovery to normality sooner rather than later. “Fortunately, thanks to the long stretches of normal life in Thailand and Indonesia (the two markets it started with) allowed us to continue growing our business without many interruptions,” Ho reflects.

As the pandemic peaked, hospitals in Thailand (a popular medical tourism hub) saw their medical tourism demand evaporate overnight. This drove them to look for domestic patient acquisition, which led them to HD, allowing it to grow its supply rapidly.

“During the lockdown stretches, we focused on signing up for COVID-19 testing and vaccine supply, which led us to become the largest online testing and vaccine platform in Thailand,” he explains. “Looking back, we feel the pandemic was a blessing in disguise as we ultimately ended up benefiting from the global crisis.”

The pandemic also exposed pure-play telehealth as an unsustainable business model for emerging markets such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

“During the lockdowns and work-from-home periods, we noticed an increase in elective surgeries, which could be explained by people taking the liberty to rest and recover at home. This led to what is today HDcare, our private-label elective surgery product that leverages excess room space in hospitals,” he continues.

A diverse healthcare system

According to Ho, the healthcare system in SEA is as diverse as the region itself. For historical reasons, Singapore and, to a lesser extent, Malaysia followed a ‘western’ healthcare system. For example, residents of these countries go to family doctors for primary care instead of straight to hospitals and enjoy a mix of insurance and employer coverage versus out-of-pocket pay.

On the other hand, emerging markets, such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, have very different healthcare ecosystems and value-chain. The private health insurance penetration is low in these countries, and the workplace wellness movement is nascent and, therefore, has less employer coverage. On average, 40 per cent of people pay in cash for healthcare services.

Besides, the populations are relatively younger (therefore, fewer chronic diseases) in these three countries, and people mainly go straight to hospitals due to the absence of the private family physician practice concept.

Additionally, local regulations allow community pharmacies to dispense most medications without a doctor’s prescription (thus cancelling out one of the key reasons why people use telehealth in Western markets – to get a quick prescription and then fulfil it at your local Walgreens). ‘Dual practice’ is common with physicians and surgeons operating across multiple healthcare providers.

“These unique traits make it more difficult for something like telehealth to continue its rapid growth post-COVID-19 in its original form. More hospitals are adopting telehealth technologies directly but more to support existing patients (hence CRM) instead of using telemedicine as a patient acquisition channel. In response, many telehealth startups are trying to vertically integrate downstream, often into their own (built or bought) clinics,” Ho explains.

As for competition, Ho says he believes there’s room for multiple healthcare business models as the region is so diverse. Moreover, healthcare is complex and has a lot of unaddressed challenges that require more startups to work on it. “That said, we are tackling unique local challenges in emerging SEA markets like Thailand and Indonesia with a unique business model. Also, our team is distinct in that we’re the only founding team with e-commerce experience building a healthcare and surgery marketplace in SEA.”

An Amazon for healthcare

For emerging SEA markets, which are similar to a hybrid between mainland China (ex., Hong Kong and Macau) and India, the post-COVID-19 opportunity primarily lies in building a consumer healthcare marketplace.

“If you want to buy just about anything, there’s a good chance you head to Amazon to search for the product, consider options from around the globe by comparing prices and trusted reviews, and then complete the purchase. This magical experience does not exist in healthcare,” he explains.

For instance, a person who needs to find a doctor or book a medical procedure has many subpar options, ranging from Google searching “allergist near me” to facing their insurance company’s overwhelming provider directory. However, they don’t provide insights into the cost or quality. The experience of finding the cheapest option for your medication or the best health insurance is the same.

Also Read: ‘Current macroeconomic headwinds weigh heavily on healthcare sector’: Doctor Anywhere CEO

“That is why we need an Amazon of healthcare — the universal go-to place for people to shop for healthcare services, insurance, and drugs with trusted reviews, quality metrics, and price transparency,” he says. “We at HD consider ourselves fortunate to be in a position to build a healthcare and surgery marketplace to address unique healthcare accessibility and affordability challenges for emerging SEA.”

On Wednesday, HD announced US$6 million in financing from Partech Partners, M Venture Partners, AC Ventures, iSeed, and Orvel Ventures. The company will use the money to expand its team and develop its technology to serve over 5,000 healthcare providers and 300 operating rooms and facilitate thousands of surgeries by 2024.

“Given the current macroeconomic situation, we strongly believe in a move towards ‘back to fundamentals’. In healthcare, this means getting back to offering affordable and accessible care and focusing on the ‘nuts and bolts’,” he says.

“For HD, this means getting more healthcare providers on our platform, expanding our catalogue of outpatient and inpatient procedures, and accelerating the growth of HDcare, our private-label elective surgery product. Our ultimate objective is to build an Amazon for healthcare products in SEA,” he concludes.

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Singapore-based direct-to-consumer brand Evo Commerce has announced the completion of its pre-series A funding round of US$2 million.

GSR Ventures led this round which also saw participation from 33 Capital, Rainforest CEO and Co-Founder JJ Chai, Wallex Co-Founder Hiro Kiga, and BrideStory Co-Founder Emile Etienne.

Returning investor East Ventures also joined.

The fresh funds will be used for global expansion and strengthening its e-commerce and online channels, besides scaling its manufacturing and R&D capabilities of new product categories.

Evo Commerce secured US$600,000 in seed funding in October 2022, led by East Ventures, with notable angel investors Aaron Tan from Carro, Joel Leong from ShopBack, Mohandass from Spenmo, and Jonathan Tan from Prism+.

Formerly known as Evolut Holdings, Evo Commerce delivers research-backed consumer products at affordable prices, with over eight products under its belt.

Its flagship product, BounceBack, is an anti-hangover solution now available and operating in ten markets globally. The company also delivers all-natural anti-hair loss solutions under MANTOU and beauty and hair care products under the Stryv brand.

“Evo Commerce will continue to double down on our efforts in bringing the best quality products at affordable prices to the market with improved customer experience. We hope to continue to grow ten times over in 2023 while maintaining our profitability with expectations to launch multiple products in the coming year,” said Roy Ang, Co-Founder and CEO of Evo Commerce.

The startup claims it serves over 20,000 customers across ten markets.

“Since the early days, we have witnessed the agility of Roy and his team in catering to the different needs of customers in the health and wellness industry. We believe there is a big untapped opportunity in the space, and Evo Commerce is leading the way in revolutionising consumer access to the best quality products in the region,” said Devina Halim, Principal at East Ventures

In 2022, the company saw a 12-fold increase in topline revenue and has raised US$2.5 million to date, amping up its R&D, prototyping and testing, and brand-building efforts.

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When it comes to innovation, good collaboration between startups and corporations is key. Startups have the speed and flexibility to develop new solutions while corporations lend their resources, network, deep knowledge, and trusted brands.

e27 dives deep into one program actively pushing for collaborative innovation: The Visa Accelerator Program. This program aims to help startups unlock growth potential and scale across the Asia Pacific region by developing joint solutions that address the biggest opportunities in the payments industry.

Creating partnerships to solve real-world problems in the payments space

At the Visa Accelerator Program, Kunal Chatterjee, Head of Innovation at Visa, Asia Pacific believes it is imperative not only for collaborations to be mutually beneficial to both stakeholders but also to embolden the ecosystem and serve the community. Both parties must align their goals and come up with meaningful solutions that address tangible, real-world challenges.

This is the onus of the Visa Accelerator Program: to come up with innovative ways to help boost the capabilities of the fintech startups so emerging problems brought about by the increasingly digitalised payments ecosystem can be addressed effectively.

Startups in the Visa Accelerator Program get to work with Visa’s payment networks, product architects, and business development teams to jointly develop a proof of concept and a business case pitch. By the end of the program, real-world solutions are launched, implemented by Visa and its clients and partners in Asia Pacific.

Driving growth and scale through Visa’s trusted brand, network, and infrastructure

“The Visa Accelerator Program isn’t developed in a silo. It is a combined effort across many business teams in Asia Pacific to determine where we focus our attention and resources to address some of the biggest opportunities in payments today and create products and solutions that better reflect the needs of our clients in Asia Pacific. On our end, Visa brings to the table our trusted brand, scale of business, and wider connectivity to the payments ecosystem to help the startups fast-track their growth. This is a win-win situation for both Visa and the partner startups,” said Chatterjee.

This is evidenced by the successful partnerships in previous cohorts, such as with Moneytree, a Japan-based startup that joined the program to empower financial institutions with access to wealth, data, and insights. “Collaborating with Visa’s product, design, and sales experts, we jointly solutioned a Minimum Viable Product and rapidly validated market fit utilising Minimal Viable Testing, all within a short span of six months,” explained Paul Chapman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Moneytree.

Another notable partnership Visa built is with TallyKhata, a Bangladesh-based fintech whose goal is to provide small business financing through their merchant platform and data. “The partnership with Visa was very impactful, from the structured approach towards solutioning to client engagement. In six months, we went from a proof-of-concept to a commercially tested product. The access to Visa leadership and product expertise along with client relationships for joint go-to-market helped us establish strong credibility,“ shared Shahadat Khan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TallyKhata.

Spanning across the Asia Pacific, Visa has also partnered with Cymonz, a New Zealand-based startup poised to simplify international payments by facilitating a centralised end-to-end payment service platform. “Overall, the program has been fantastic. The team at Visa has been very committed and instrumental in making the partnership a success and many doors have been opened by Visa, which created commercial opportunities to help us grow our company in the region,” elaborated Simon Lynch, Founder of Cymonz.

Commercial opportunities, funding, and implementation

The Visa Accelerator Program sets startups up for long-term success well beyond the span of the program.

Chatterjee explained, “In the last two cohorts, we secured nine commercial deals with Visa clients and partners in Asia Pacific. We also entered into six partnerships and commercial agreements. This reflects the value that startups bring into the larger payments ecosystem.”

Visa also enabled the growth of startups by investing into open finance solutions, such as with Brankas and Open.

“There are many other ways that Visa engages with startups throughout the journey and the end point doesn’t necessarily have to be a commercial agreement or investment. After six months, the startups have the option of entering into a post-program engagement model, depending on a range of factors including the outcome of its proof of concept test, as well as business requirements at the time,” added Chatterjee.

One such option is the Visa Fintech Fast Track program, which is designed specifically to get fintechs up and running on the network and making payments at speed and to scale into new markets leveraging the company’s expertise and reach.

Key challenges Visa is looking to address in 2023

In the spirit of fostering stronger corporate-startup partnerships to co-develop solutions for emerging challenges in Asia Pacific, Visa is looking for collaborations with fintech startups to address five key areas: Web 3.0, global money movement, embedded finance, merchant and small business enablers, and open banking.

Chatterjee concluded, “We have seen encouraging early successes and expectations are high as we recruit for the third cohort. We want to continue bringing the best startups across the region into Visa’s payments network and partner up to tackle the most promising opportunities facing digital payments today.”

Visa is looking for partnerships to fully realise the program’s commercial focus and benefits: to co-develop, test, iterate solutions, and validate them against a variety of commercial opportunities that Visa has with its partners from across the region, as well as uncover new potential opportunities.

Applications for the Visa Accelerator Program close on 10 January 2023. Learn more about the program and how to register here: https://www.visa.com.sg/apaccelerator

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Photo by Mikhail Nilov via Pexels

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This article is produced by the e27 team, in partnership with Visa.

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Sara Faatz is Director (Developer Relations) at Progress. She has spent most of her career in the developer space, building community, producing events, creating marketing programs and more.

With more than 20 years of experience leading corporate and product marketing and community building for organisations that target the developer audience primarily, Faatz has a proven track record of conceptualising and orchestrating campaigns that evolve the brand and positively impact the company’s image and revenue.

Over the years, she has run marketing departments (both large and small), built community programmes from the ground up, created partner programmes, and acted as a brand ambassador and spokesperson for various organisations.

When she’s not working, she likes diving with sharks, running, and watching hockey.

She is a regular contributor of articles for e27 (you can read her thought leadership articles here).

In this candid interview, Faatz talks about her personal and professional life.

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

Explaining Developer Relations to a five-year-old would be challenging; even adults often struggle to wrap their heads around it.

In a nutshell, my team is responsible for so much — content creation (blogs, videos, live-streaming, webinars, etc.), social media, events (producing them as well as speaking at and sponsoring them), community and influencer outreach, as well as being an advocate for the technology, community and product. 

I would break my work down into two areas. First, my company makes tools for people to build all kinds of apps; for a five-year-old, I would liken them to the ones they play with on their phone or computer. 

And the people who work on my team are storytellers and teachers who help people use our tools. They write stories about building cool websites and applications for your computer, phone or table. They make Youtube videos to teach people how to use the tools to make their work easier and faster. They teach classes online and in person so that people building those sites know how to use the tools and how to build the applications and websites best.

Then I would tell them that my team also spends considerable time with people. They have the equivalent of playdates in groups of all sizes with people who also like the same technology. And they are explorers and learners themselves — learning about the technology we use and helping the people building our products and using our products have the best experience.

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

When the pandemic hit, my team had to pivot quickly and completely modify how they engaged with the community. Before COVID-19, the team spent most time engaging in person. Many of my team members were on the road for 30-50 per cent of their time. Without skipping a beat, we came together to create CodeItLive, our twitch channel.

Also Read: Dream loud, dream big and dream now: Surbhi Agarwal of Yellow.ai

In the first nine months, we live-streamed almost 500 hours of content to more than 25,000 unique viewers and exchanged more than 31,000 chat messages during those streams. Everyone on the team had to learn a new skill. We fostered a spirit of experimentation, fun, creativity, and collaboration that has continued as we enter this new post-pandemic world.

I am incredibly grateful for the people I work with and am always in awe of their expertise, ability and resiliency. The team and the creation of the live-streaming channel and strategy are a highlight of my career so far.

How do you envision the next five years of your career?

I think about this question often.

At Progress, we focus quite a bit on career path planning for ourselves and the people on our teams. What I love about how we think here is that career progression is not like climbing a ladder; rather, it should be more like climbing a wall.

There are many different paths to make you feel the most accomplished. Growth and evolution do not have to mean upward mobility. They can mean learning and mastering a new skill, exploring a new career, or more.

When I think about what that means, I think about what makes me happy and satisfied in my current role. I love the people I work with, my work, and the opportunity to be creative, experiment, and learn.

In five years, I would love to be able to say the same thing about my role. Regardless of the title or what I am responsible for, I will be thrilled if I can continue to say that I am still learning, experimenting and being creative with amazing people.

What are some of your favourite work tools?

StreamYard is one of my favourites; we use it to stream on our Twitch and YouTube channels, but it is also super easy to record videos to share.

I am on video calls most of the day, so a good camera, mic and headset are key. I have a Logitech 920 camera, a Yeti microphone, and a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones.

And then this tool might surprise you the most — a notepad and pen. I love to take notes by hand and make lists. Lots of lists. There is something therapeutic about it.

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

You might be surprised to know that I am a technical diver. The deepest I’ve gone is 220 ft (~67 meters). It is a hobby my husband and I share, and we have loved exploring deeper wrecks worldwide. Our daughter is also a diver, although she is too young to dive to those depths. As a family, we have been able to spend time in the water, and we love seeing sharks of all kinds.

Do you prefer WFH or WFO, or hybrid?

My answer is that it depends on the scenario and what you are trying to achieve.

Flexibility in today’s work environment is key. I have been a remote employee for more than 20 years. Even as a remote team member, I often travel to meet with people in person. Remote or WFH is different today than it was pre-pandemic. It is far more complex than it used to be because there are so many different ways people meet and interact.

That said, some of the general guidelines still hold true. Sometimes, being in person is the best option – long, all-day planning meetings, working sessions, team building, and creative brainstorming sessions. But there are other times when remote meetings are more than sufficient. So I am a proponent of the scenario that will net the best result.

What would you tell your younger self?

So many things. I would first tell my younger self not to try to boil the ocean. This is something I have to remind myself of, even today. Think big and then simplify – break a project or idea down into phases. The more complex a project or idea is, the more difficult it is to execute. You don’t have to do everything at once.

Also Read: What ST Chua is looking forward to at his stint in Ikano Insight

I think I would also tell myself that work-life balance is a dynamic state. It is not always an even split. There will be times when your personal life takes the most of your attention and vice versa. The key is to know when to make that switch.

And I would tell myself that the people I work with and the company I work for are the most important thing in my career. When you think of the benefits of your workplace, the biggest advantage is how you are treated and who you collaborate with daily.

Can you describe yourself in three words?

• Loyal: To the people I love, my friends, family, team, and colleagues.
• Problem-solver: Instead of focusing on the problem, I always look for a solution. They always exist if you look hard enough.
• Optimistic: In my heart, I believe that everything happens for a reason, even if we don’t understand it, and I believe everything will work out in the end.

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

If I am not working, you will find me in one of two places — on the water or at an ice rink somewhere around the US. I live in Southwest Florida, and we spend a lot of time at the beach, on the water and outside. I love warm weather and sunshine.

I also have a teenage daughter who plays travel ice hockey. While ice hockey is strong and growing in Florida, there aren’t many girls in the southeast who play it. To find any real competition, we travel for tournaments and showcases across the northeastern and mid-western parts of the United States. She is incredibly passionate about and dedicated to the sport. I feel incredibly fortunate to spend so much time with her before she heads off to university in a few years.

What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?

The last two books I read were The Culture Playbook by Daniel Coyle and The Resilience Factor by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté. Both were easy reads and interesting.

I have two fiction books I plan to read – Sara Ackerman’s The Codebreaker’s Secret and Megan Miranda’s Such a Quiet Place. I have been saving those as a reward to myself. Reading is my guilty pleasure.

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I am a woman and a mother – I never thought I’d actually be able to build my career in tech and love every second of it.

It’s never too late to follow your dream

I’ve always loved tech and product design but always doubted that it could be an actual career path for me. As the saying goes, those who can’t do it, teach. So, in 2009, I started my 12-year journey as a tertiary educator in Singapore.

Although I enjoy mentoring new talent and lecturing on what I am passionate about, I couldn’t ignore my gut feeling that I should pursue my dream of being a product and user experience designer, one in which I would be able to influence both physical and digital products while ensuring synergy between all the relevant touchpoints.

To make the career change, I knew I had to go back to school to sharpen my skills, which was something that I was not only willing to do but also excited about!

When you’re a woman with a family and two children to care for, it’s not always easy to make a sudden change like that without endless worry and consideration. After all, what happens if you decide to leave your job and pursue something new, only to find out that it doesn’t work out?

The biggest challenge of my career and the biggest highlight of my life

After a lot of soul-searching and with the support of my family, I decided to go for it. It took me two years to convince myself to leave a comfortable, stable job and pursue something I am passionate about. I finally leapt and made the career switch. 

Also Read: Women in Tech: Female leaders shaking up insurtech in Asia

I put my all into it, and the teacher finally became the student. I went back to school to sharpen my UX skills after over a decade of being a lecturer. While losing financial freedom was tough initially, reskilling was definitely a worthwhile investment.

Five tips for growing your career as a woman in tech

I’ve been working as a UX designer for over three years now, and I’d like to share some tips with other women who are considering pursuing and growing their own careers in tech:

Never be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone to unlearn and relearn

Reskilling and upskilling require humility and determination. In fact, when I decided to pursue a career in UX, I faced rejection many times. It was emotionally painful to go through, but I had to persist in the face of self-doubt.

I kept reminding myself of my end goal: To grow my own career as a UX designer. Following your dream is not an easy journey, but it is definitely worth it when you’re able to do what you love every day. Therefore I have to constantly remind myself to be adaptable to our ever-changing industry needs.

My learning process is ongoing to this day. Currently, I am working on uncovering the data space to immerse myself in more data-driven projects. It is wonderful to work in Thoughtworks because we can attend training sessions run by fellow Thoughtworkers who are experts in various fields. Hence, the learnings we learn from it become more relevant and valuable.

Find a balance between professional growth and personal happiness

I have recently grown my family and am a very proud mother of three amazing children. I am so thankful that I was able to pursue my dream while also finding time to grow my personal happiness. To that, work-life balance is key.

Also Read: Unstoppable pioneers of Web3: 16 women spearheading the change

With hybrid working and great work culture, I am able to approach work differently depending on the nature of my tasks (e.g. team brainstorming vs planning and writing), so I split my time between the office and home.

Your biggest insecurity might just be your biggest advantage

I grew up in an environment where I was a minority. When following my passion in tech, I found myself in classes where I was the only woman or where I was the only one wearing a hijab – but that did not stop me from topping it.

Being a minority has never stopped me from excelling or pursuing what I have always wanted to do. On top of that, it gave me that added energy and rigour that I always brought throughout my journey. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Inspire and mentor others

I still enjoy mentoring. I am still lecturing part-time, which keeps me engaged with the youth and able to continue nurturing them to become bright prospects who are equipped with industry-relevant skills. I’m always happy to share what I have learned throughout my journey and career and impart my knowledge to the curious and eager minds of our future generations.

Learning in this instance is mutual, as I have learnt a great deal working with these great young minds who are very digitally savvy and resourceful, like how they are very adept at harnessing the power of social media to get their work done efficiently, for example.

Champion causes that matter to you

Women in tech face challenges that are quite unique to us – from having the confidence and resources to step into the industry to navigating and growing our careers within this male-dominated playing field.

Therefore, as a woman in tech myself, I get it, and I would do anything I can to uplift and support fellow like-minded and strong women. I am humbled to have been able to share my journey into tech and the importance of adaptability to technology’s ever-changing industry needs. 

The most important work you do is the work you do on yourself. With that, I champion continual and lifelong learning and strongly believe that women can and should follow their dreams. Additionally, I am privileged to have worked on social sector projects in Thoughtworks.

I believe we can greatly leverage data and tech to shape more predictive initiatives and policy decisions to help identify potential issues before they become entangled in larger social issues that require more attention and resolution. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, ‘an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure’.

Today is the day to define your own success story

I used to think that success was just showing up and doing your job well. But what I’ve learned over the years is that success is not just about being good at what you do — it’s also about being able to find happiness while doing it.

The best part of this job is that I get to do something that not only makes me happy every day but also very meaningful — and to me, that is the most important aspect of my career in tech and UX. 

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