Flexitarianism is becoming the new buzzword, globally.

The world is undergoing a food revolution. Many consumers are consciously cutting down on meat consumption and are turning ‘flexitarians’.

Sustainable food products such as plant/cell-based meat, egg, milk and fish are now increasingly finding a place in consumers’ food menus.

The primary reasons for this are the growing sense of sustainability, awareness about unhealthy dietary habits, climate crisis, unsustainable farming and agriculture methods, and a new awakening to clean label foods.

What makes alternative protein substitutes even more attractive is that they offer the same taste and texture as meat products.

With about a 15-17 per cent growth rate, Asia is the fastest-growing alternative food market in the world. Its global market share is projected to grow by 10 per cent by 2029.

Of the US$3.1 billion capital invested to date into the alt food industry globally, about US$230 million went into Asian startups.

In Asia, Southeast Asia has been leading this food revolution. The region has one of the highest economic growth rates in the world, with a very high animal protein consumption. This is where sustainable food companies sniff a tremendous opportunity.

The region indeed is already home to numerous sustainable food startups. 

But why is Southeast Asia witnessing great growth? What is attracting global alt food startups and investors into this region?

Let’s start with Singapore.

Singapore

Of all the countries in SEA, Singapore is witnessing the fastest growth. There are already over a dozen big and small alternative food companies, besides a couple of VCs and accelerators. 

The names include renowned foreign brands like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, and Quorn; homegrown ones such as Shiok Meats, TurtleTree Labs, Next Gen, Float Foods, OmniMeat, Karana, and Tindle; and accelerator Big Idea Ventures

Also Read: Shiok Meats wants to bring cruelty-free shrimp products to your dining table with its US$12.6M Series A

“Singapore has long been known as a unique global business hub, and it is now becoming more relevant in the foodtech space, too,” says Andre Menezes, co-founder and COO of Next Gen, a plant-based meat startup.

“In setting up in Singapore, we were attracted by the strong infrastructure to support food technology innovations, especially plant-based foods. We have established our research and development (R&D) centre here. We have access to high-profile investors, multinational partners, and world-class chefs, which enable us to serve the multicultural palates here in Asia and around the globe,” adds Menezes, who started the company in October 2020, along with fellow German Timo Recker. 

In February this year, Next Gen closed a US$10 million seed round from a clutch of investors, including Temasek and K3 Ventures.

As he rightly points out, food security, government support for innovative technologies, and highly skilled human resources are some of the major factors drawing alt food startups into the island state.

From a food security standpoint, Singapore’s “30 by 30 goal” highlights the government’s focus on food security and self-sufficiency. The ultimate goal is to produce 30 percent of local nutritional needs locally by 2030.

As for government support, agencies such as the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) and A*STAR have been actively promoting R&D in sustainable food production and future foods.

In 2020, the government launched the Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI) research institute to facilitate R&D and food safety in alternative proteins. It also committed S$144 (US$107) million to invest in alternative protein investment.

“Singapore’s highly skilled human resources and R&D centres help lighten the burden of big capex investment and innovation cost,” says Fengru Lin, co-founder and CEO of TurtleTree Labs. A biotech startup producing milk using cell-based technology, TurtleTree in 2020 raised US$6.2 million from the likes of Green Monday Ventures, Eat Beyond Global, KBW Ventures, and Verso Capital.

The onset of COVID-19 pandemic has also resulted in a major shift in the way we eat.

“Recent and frequent spikes in animal disease transmission have shown that these are no longer one-off occurrences. Current global animal and poultry farming practices are not sustainable. I believe this wave of consciousness for a better solution will drive the industry forward to bigger, brighter outcomes,” according to Vinita Choolani, CEO and founder of Float Foods. A plant-based egg venture, Float Foods last week scored US$1.7 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round, led by Insignia Ventures Partners and DSG Consumer Partners.

“Alternative protein companies will play an important role in Singapore and wider global pursuit for food security, as these novel food solutions are projected to be less resource-consumptive than traditional protein production,”  TurtleTree’s Lin goes on.

Thailand

Thailand, a food manufacturing country, has seen an uptick in terms of alternative food products in the recent past. 

According to Smith Taweelerdniti, founder of Bangkok-based Let’s Plant Meat, the adoption of plant-based meat products is primarily driven by a belief among Thais that refraining from harming animals is a boon for this life and hereafter.

Also Read: No animals were harmed in the making of this ‘meat’ burger

Let’s Plant Meat offers alternative meat products made out of four plants: soy, rice, coconut and beetroot. The company, founded in 2020, is already selling its products in more than 120 outlets of a major supermarket in the country. This signals a growing demand for alt food products in the local market.

According to Krungthai Research (in Siamese), Thailand’s plant-based food market will grow from THB28 billion (US$880 million) in 2019 to about THB45 billion (US$1.4 billion) in 2024. This growth will primarily be driven by major companies like CPF, Thai Union, Nestle, Unilever, which have already entered the market with a lot of fanfare.

Having said that, the industry needs to overcome several challenges to further accelerate growth. Prices of plant-based meat are higher compared to traditional animal meat. Retailers charge a high margin for plant-based meat. They, however, charge almost nothing to sell animal meat because of the government price control.

“More price reduction from big companies will make plant-based meat products more affordable and easy to find. CPF launched the brand called Meat Zero and offers its ready-to-eat, no-meat burger with bun for THB35 at 7-Eleven stores,” he adds.

Alongside plant-based meat products, seed-based milk products are also gaining traction in Thailand. Sesamilk, which offers an alternative to dairy milk, is already a hit. The product is available in about 500 stores (online and offline) across Thailand. The product is also exported to Japan, Macau, Hongkong and Vietnam.

“The domestic market is interesting. People are more concerned about health than ever before. With the growth of social media and small influencers, people are now more open to accepting better options that make sense for them,” Taweelerdniti notes.

Indonesia

Indonesia’s alt protein industry is still in its infancy. The archipelago is far behind Singapore where 39 per cent of the population are flexitarians and most people are aware of the environmental costs of animal-based meat production.

In Indonesia, the intake of animal-based meat products is still on the rise. There is little awareness about the alt food industry in the country. The environmental awareness and related actions mainly revolve around the harms of plastic usage.

“In weddings with 200-plus attendees, there are usually only three vegans (myself and my husband, and another person). The mainstream crowd cannot even tell the difference between vegans, vegetarians, and pescatarians,” says Helga Angelina, co-founder of Burgreens, a plant-based eatery chain.

“We need aggressive market education to create awareness that animal-based meat consumption is neither healthy nor sustainable and that consumers can still enjoy the sensory pleasure of eating meat with alternative/plant-based proteins,” adds Angelina, whose startup raised US$2 million from Teja Ventures and Unovis Asset Management early this year.

Other than Burgreens, there are no alt food companies in Indonesia. This is mainly due to poor infrastructure. “We don’t have the infrastructure in place to support startups in the alt protein industry. Investments in this area mostly come from abroad,” she says.

The future indeed is bright. But the players need to invest in significant market education, she remarks. “We should collaborate to enlarge the market pie and accelerate plant-based eating adoption; not compete with each other but together disrupt the conventional meat industry,” Angelina shares.

Rest of Southeast Asia

Other economies like Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam are also slowly waking up to the reality that sustainable food is the way forward. Consumers in these markets have started showing interests in safe, organic- and plant-based foods in recent years.

Also Read: Why Sesamilk thinks plant-based milk is healthier than cow milk and has a bright future

According to global data and consulting company Kantar Worldpanel, consumers in Vietnam are eating and drinking plant-based alternatives that are perceived to be natural and healthier. 

There are several companies such as Phuture Foods (Malaysia), WTH Foods (Philippines), and Bewina Company (Vietnam) operating in these economies. They are slowly gaining traction in their respective markets.

However, regulatory hurdles, inadequate infrastructure, and the lack of awareness among consumers are some of the major issues these companies need to tackle in order to tap this lucrative market.

The future

Overall, the outlook for Southeast Asia’s alt food industry is more optimistic than ever. In 2020, Euromonitor reported 226.900 tonnes in meat substitute was consumed in Southeast Asia, demonstrating a growing appetite and demand for plant-based meat within the region.

According to ADM’s consumer research study, this surge could be due to a variety of factors, including the potential health benefits derived from a meat-free diet, consumers’ conscious intent to reduce their impact on the planet, as well as the good taste of plant protein sources.

“What we can say from this point is that, as consumers become more conscious of their dietary intake and impact on the environment, the industry will continue to grow rapidly,” says Next Gen’s Menezes.

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Lead image credit: Burgreens

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Singapore-based climate-tech fund Circulate Capital today announced a US$14 million first close of its new VC fund, called Circulate Capital Disrupt (CCD).

CCD, a companion strategy to the US$106 million Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF-I), will invest in targeted innovations in materials and deep technology solutions to combat plastic waste and advance the circular economy.

In addition, CCD will participate in select, high-growth investment opportunities across the waste management and recycling value chain in South and Southeast Asia, alongside CCOF I that prevent plastic pollution by the tons and have a climate impact.

Circulate Capital Disrupt will benefit from the pipeline, diligence, and portfolio management systems of the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund – including impact measurement and inclusion of a gender lens. It will announce its inaugural investments later this summer.

“It’s time for Circulate Capital to strengthen our strategy to fight ocean plastic by also investing upstream to capture a range of exciting investment opportunities at the nexus of climate-tech and plastics that can help us take recycling into the next century,” said Rob Kaplan, CEO and founder of Circulate Capital.

Also Read: Lack of visibility, track record deter VCs from investing in firms combating plastic pollution: Rob Kaplan of Circulate Capital

“The new fund leverages our partnerships with leading corporations and the existing Asia-based portfolio to invest and scale disruptive technologies that have the potential to deliver outsized financial and impact returns. Applying climate-tech innovations to the plastics crisis may be the key to finally stemming the tide, and presents climate-focused investors with the potential for meaningful financial and impact outcomes,” he added.

Circulate Capital is an investment management firm financing high-growth opportunities at the nexus of climate-tech and plastics, recycling and the circular economy. It aims to deploy catalytic capital in partnership with leading corporations and investors to scale solutions that advance the circular economy and prevent the flow of plastic waste into the ocean in South and Southeast Asia.

By broadening the scope of its investment focus with the new fund, Circulate Capital will accelerate its mission of developing a circular economy for plastic.

Its four unique investment theses are:

1- Innovative materials: Reduce carbon footprints by rethinking the materials a product is made from and at the same time improve circular outcomes. For example, bio-based solutions for conventional plastic packaging or textile fibers.

Also Read: Sustainability: the new business reality

2- Delivery Models: Reimagine how a product can be consumed or delivered. For example, think of a next generation bottle of laundry detergent where you can get a refill from a vending machine, and it comes in a design that can be reused multiple times.

3- Advanced recycling tech for fully circular recycling at the molecular level: This is all about recycling technologies at the end of use of plastics by breaking the waste back down to its original inputs.

For example, circulatecapital.comrecycling your mixed textiles (e.g. cotton-poly blend t-shirts) back down into cotton and the building blocks of polyester for new clothes.

4- Deep technologies that apply big data and artificial intelligence to expand circular supply chains. Examples are an AI image recognition and recycling sorting technology company or one that is digitising logistics to improve efficiency and circularity at a global scale. The more efficient these value chains, the less waste and the lower their carbon intensity.

Announced in October 2018, the impact VC firm formed Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF) with US$106 million raised from several large corporate partners and Limited Partners, including PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Danone, Dow, Procter & Gamble and Unilever, and backed by USAID.

In under three years, the CCOF invested about US$40 million in seven companies across the region.

In an interview with e27 in February, Kaplan said that companies combating plastic pollution/other environmental issues don’t get due attention from the VC community.

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Image Credit: Circulate Capital

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Many of us do entrepreneurship as though it’s merely a series of challenges that either need to be faced or swept under the rug! Even when we feel like we’re addressing them, we often worry about them much more than necessary.

Problems appear to persist because we go looking for them, even when they are not right in front of us. We filter our experiences based on the belief that we have a particular problem, and we unconsciously censor anything that doesn’t support this belief, including the fact that the problem is not actually right here in front of our face.

You might have seen this happen with someone you know. This person talks about their problem often but every time you see them, there is no indication the problem is even there. They are only telling you about it, not experiencing it directly.

On the few occasions when the problem actually does occur, they say things like “I always make a mess of things,” Or, “I never know what to do.”

Ironically, when we use words like “I never” or “I always,” we tend to grossly exaggerate the frequency of something occurring because of our emotional attachment. By doing so, we simply reinforce our problems which cause us to suffer.

Now, what if all our problems are just memories?

Most of us believe that thinking about our problems and wanting to change them will bring change, so we keep on doing it. But if you examine your own experience, I think you’ll find that positive change most often comes when you let go of all your thinking and wanting.

Also Read: Pharma entrepreneur Thomas Miklavec shares his journey on expanding his startup across SEA

The personality trait “grit” denotes the disposition to pursue long-term goals with sustained effort, zeal, and interest over time, or in short: effortful persistence.

Grittier individuals work more strenuously to achieve their long-term goals; they persist in the face of setbacks or plateaus in progress, and they maintain their focus on these goals without being easily distracted by other, more short-term, or less important goals.

For this reason, people with high grit are more successful in achieving their goals and in attaining excellence in competitive environments.

The problem arises when we need to pivot our startup strategy. Are we agile enough to let go of our “grit” and change direction, as and when the twists and turns of entrepreneurship call for it?

Letting go is not a mere decision, failure or defeat. It is not submission or punishment, neither is it resignation or the decision to be comfortable with our status quo, or forgetfulness.  Nor is it an ending or a bad thing, nor a state we can will ourselves into.

Rather,

• Yielding and letting go is a high-level capacity in psychological development.
• We could say that letting go is an emptying of oneself, toward a state of inner non-acquisition. We could say that letting go is not a strategy; it is the profound absence of strategies. We could say that it is waking up to realise that all strategies are ineffective– we don’t know how to do it and we don’t know the way. More effort, more doing or more planning might be counter-productive.
• When we truly let go, we don’t know if what’s to come will be better or worse. We accept that we cannot think or see our way through where we are.
• When we let go, we give up trying to control the situation. We all want predictability and control, even though they are impossible to attain. Without them, we experience fear. By letting go, we give up the illusion of control.
• Inevitably, we are sometimes cheated or disappointed by business partners or stakeholders, which stirs negative emotions in us.  We have to find ways to let go. Nelson Mandela said that “Not forgiving someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” Letting go offers a neural path for forgiveness and thereby a remission from the suffering of holding on.
• In letting go, there is clarity. When our efforts are no longer aimed at controlling the future or producing a certain result, we can experience the present moment directly, in a new and fresh way. We accept that the present is the only thing we have any real say about; we might as well pay attention to it. At this point, we enter into a new level of awareness and capacity.

The “how” of letting go is so counter to ego consciousness that it has to be directly taught, and it can only be taught by those who are familiar with the obstacles and have experienced surrender as the path to overcoming them.

The entrepreneurial journey is not subject to a mere passing on of objective information. It must be practised and learned, just like playing the guitar or mastering taekwondo.

Also Read: 5 lessons from 5 years as a millennial entrepreneur

Making the transition from job to entrepreneurship is an exercise in letting go. Traditional career and life paths are beginning to disappear for younger generations.

People are less able to plan, and by default, must live more in the present. They must learn to be more flexible to change and more open to opportunity.

• Job is defined as an activity or task performed by an individual for earning salary or wages. Entrepreneurship is a calling that is carried on by a person for his entire life.
• Job is a trip, but entrepreneurship is a journey.
• In a job, you invest your time to earn money, but in entrepreneurship, you invest your time to pursue your lifelong ambition or dreams.
• Job is held for a short term while entrepreneurship is an individual’s long-term goal.
• Job requires education and skills. Entrepreneurship involves lifelong learning or continuous deepening and broadening of specialisation.
• Job is when you work for a finite time for regular and secure income. Entrepreneurship is about innovation and boundary-less learning. Sometimes you don’t know whether it is morning or afternoon or night— you sleep late at night and wake up early just to learn and explore more.
• When seeking a job, you brand yourself as a commodity. But in pursuing entrepreneurship, you are your own brand.
• Job is a means to fulfil the needs of life ie. efficiency, but entrepreneurship is an end in itself — what a person endeavours until he retires ie. human worth.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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

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The interest in day trading among retail investors has been on the rise. Drawn in by easy-to-use, commission-free trading platforms, millions of young and inexperienced investors began piling into financial markets.

In January alone, rolling net inflows from retail traders in public equity markets was over 10x that of the same period last year, according to VandaTrack. Not only that, trading volumes in derivatives, which tend to be riskier than stocks, had also jumped in the past 18 to 24 months as it became easier for retail traders to trade such complex instruments.

Early last year, when the pandemic brought economies to a standstill, major stock market indices around the world experienced their sharpest falls since the 2008 financial crisis.

As confidence in the markets recovered, the S&P and Nasdaq returned a staggering 80 per cent and 100 per cent respectively from their March 2020 lows. The strength of this recovery was felt most strongly in several distinct areas of equity markets, such as in technology, e-commerce, and work-from-home related stocks.

Suddenly, equities have become a somewhat predictable source of investment returns, and news of this source of ‘easy money’ began flooding chat rooms and social media popular among young retail traders, with many sharing strategies and coordinating buying sprees into some of the most crowded individual trades on the market.

Also Read: Thai startup StockRadars raises round to democratise stock trading

All hell broke loose when a week of frenzied options trading activity led to a rapid short squeeze which sent share prices of underperforming companies like GameStop, BlackBerry, and AMC skyrocketing. Several institutional fund managers which had succumbed to massive losses from betting against these companies in a spectacular fashion were forced to seek bailouts from other funds.

At first, early gains won during the initial surprise attack on Wall Street led many retail investors to rejoice in a “successful” ‘retail rebellion’. But soon, the establishment quickly reasserted its influence over markets and retail trading platforms were forced to halt buying on their apps.

Such limitations quickly curtailed momentum and sent prices down in a spiral. Many retail investors who bought in at massively elevated prices during the short squeeze were forced to ride the share prices back to baseline, suffering heavy losses.

The debacle, dubbed ‘GameStop Saga’ by many, brought into focus the debate for and against commoditising stocks and derivatives trading. In many aspects, a surge in retail enthusiasm for the stock market is a good thing.

For one, long-term investments in the stock market have tended to be a wealth generator, not just for institutions but also for the average middle class investor. Not only that, the success of Corporate America has also been a prime example of how deep and liquid equity capital markets have helped companies build new businesses, spend on research and development, hire workers, and drive a country’s economy.

There are, however, obvious downsides. As Mohamed El-Erian of the Financial Times pointed out, retail investors represent a ‘leaderless and fragmented group that often lacks staying power’. Institutional investors can and will capitalise on the structural disadvantages inherent to retail investors’ strategy.

Such disadvantages are especially prevalent in markets of penny stocks, derivatives, and certain illiquid, less transparent assets, where information and staying power asymmetry represent significant arbitrage opportunities in favour of larger institutions.

Already, regulators are beginning to take notice. However, they face difficulty in balancing competing issues.

Retail trading now accounts for 15-20 per cent of trading volumes on an average day and has given rise to unusual market dynamics that add to market volatility and systemic risk.

Also Read: App trading — Bridging app markets across Asia

On the other hand, lawmakers, including the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are questioning if Wall Street is to be granted exclusive rights to a market misdemeanour.

In many ways, the rise of retail trading as a force to be reckoned in financial markets was akin to a political uprising that demands inclusion and participation. The democratisation of trading has made it easier than ever for the young and average to join in the game, for better or worse.

Regardless, there may be the place for some friction in the form of tighter checks and balances at both ends of the investor spectrum.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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

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Meet the 3 SEA startups attending MedTech Innovator’s programme

The story: MedTech Innovator, an accelerator of medical device companies, in partnership with Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (APACMed), today announced the 20 companies selected to participate in its Asia Pacific Accelerator programme.

Who are they?:

Active Needle – Abingdon, UK
Adiuvo Diagnostics – Chennai, India
Biorithm – Singapore
BrainSightAI – Bangalore, India
Huinno – Seoul, South Korea
MedCorp Technologies – Hawthorn, Australia
Miraqules – Bhubaneswar, India
Navi Medical Technologies – Melbourne, Australia
Nayam Innovations – Mumbai, India
Nitium Technology – Selangor, Malaysia
Oncophenomics – Hyderabad, India
Opharmic Technology – Hong Kong
PB & B – Lausanne, Switzerland
PLIMES – Tsukuba, Japan
Pluss Advanced Technologies – Gurugram, India
Sonic Incytes Medical – Vancouver, Canada
SpineGuide Technologies – Shoreview, Minn. US
UpperMed – Singapore
VPIX Medical – Daejeon, South Korea
ZuoYuan Medical – Hangzhou, China

Each of the chosen companies will receive high-profile visibility to healthcare investors, stakeholders and decision-makers, as well as customised mentorship through one-on-one matching with corporate partners to help with commercialisation throughout Asia Pacific.

New incubation programme for SEA’s plastic waste startups launched

The story: Entrepreneurial support organisations across South and Southeast Asia are rolling out PXCC (Plastics X Circularity Curriculum), a programme in the region designed to fast-track startups that apply a circular economy approach to plastic waste management.

Also Read: The art of letting go and how it makes you an even better entrepreneur

Developed by The Incubation Network, The Circulate Initiative, and Sagana, it is the first-ever curriculum on circular plastic waste management for pre-seed and seed-stage startups in South and Southeast Asia.

15 entrepreneurial support organisations across South and Southeast Asia have committed to pilot PXCC, exploring opportunities to roll it out in their programs.

To support the implementation of PXCC, organisations will receive tools such as a fundraising guide, sample pitch deck, and lesson plans, to turn learning into action.

There are 31 sub-modules across  nine learning domains that can be delivered with mentorship and cross-learning from industry experts within The Incubation Network, as bite-sized on-demand learning, or in personalised lessons where entrepreneurs can focus on topics that align with their solutions.

The curriculum content and supporting materials were developed with input from entrepreneurial support organizations SocialAlpha and StartUpX, and have already been piloted by five entrepreneurs under the guidance of The Incubation Network.

Golden Gate Ventures makes Angela Toy a partner for portfolio growth

The story: Golden Gate Ventures, a venture capital fund in Southeast Asia founded by Silicon Valley natives, has announced the appointment of Angela Toy as Partner for Portfolio Growth.

The new role: In the new role, Toy will focus on Golden Gate’s platform strategy, working closely with its portfolio companies to sharpen their growth strategy, especially in the areas of talent, business development and fund-raising – three critical areas that will help entrepreneurs scale quickly and maintain their growth.

Who is Toy?: At Golden Gate, Toy started as employee number two and has been instrumental in guiding portfolio companies and the firm’s global network to help founders get the right mix of support and helping founders eliminate roadblocks in their growth path. She now builds on this track record to develop the Golden Gate Ventures’ Portfolio Growth strategy powered by a decade’s worth of data and insights from the firm.

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Image Credit: PXCC

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Almost seven months after raising US$100 million in debt facility from the alternative investmentVictory Park Capital Advisors, Indonesian digital credit platform for retail borrowers Kredivo has raised additional US$100 million from the US-based firm.

The capital will be used to fund consumer loans for Kredivo’s borrowers in Indonesia.

“The large capital pool made available via this facility increase will enable the business to scale further in 2021 and beyond and get us closer to our goal of serving up to 10 million customers in Indonesia over the next few years,” said Kredivo CEO Umang Rustagi.

Also Read: Kredivo bags US$100M from US investor to provide instant credit financing to 10M new users in Indonesia

As per a press release, it marks one of the largest asset-backed securities transactions for unsecured lending in Indonesia.

Founded in 2016 and operated by Singapore-based FinAccel, Kredivo Indonesia is a digital credit card payment platform of FinAccel that offers various payment methods to help customers to break large payments into affordable and safer payments.

It provides an option for its users to buy now pay later while doing online shopping.

Its parent FinAccel is backed by Mirae Asset, Naver, Square Peg Capital, MDI Ventures, Jungle Ventures, as well as several other investors.

Given that credit card penetration remains at three per cent in Indonesia due to limitations of conventional financial institutions in distributing unsecured credit, Kredivo claims its services are able to bridge the credit gap within the archipelago.

“The company presents a unique combination of growth, scale, risk management, and financial inclusion in one of the most exciting emerging markets in the world,” Gordon Watson, partner at VPC, said.

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Image Credit: Kredivo

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Justika, an Indonesia-based legal services marketplace, announced today that it has secured an undisclosed sum in seed funding round led by East Ventures, with participation from early-stage VC firm Skystar Capital.

The company intends to use the money for product development, marketing, and hiring, as well as to expand its public access platform to legal services in Indonesia.

According to the research report on Access to Justice in Indonesia, 71 per cent of Indonesians who face legal issues back out from fighting the case due to a lack of knowledge of accessing information.

Founded in 2016, Justika aims to solve this by connecting people who need legal services to lawyers and other supporting services, such as company formation agents and translators.

The way it works is that it matches clients to curated lawyers based on specialties. Once matched, clients can consult with the relevant lawyer and receive replies within a few minutes.

Depending on the necessities, lawyers can offer subsequent services, such as document review, drafting, phone consultation, aided negotiation, and court advocacy.

Also Read: Meet the 2 SEA startups joining Allens’s legaltech accelerator

Currently, it focuses on three legal areas that most people often encounter in their daily lives: family law, laws involving small and medium enterprises, and property law.

“The key is to educate the public in order to democratise access to lawyers and resolve legal issues. Justika seeks to alleviate this problem, by allowing people to get immediate and affordable legal service. Our tech innovation allows clients and lawyers to utilise technology to access legal services in a novel way and also streamlining the way lawyers work by, for example, providing document templates and inheritance calculator for Muslim clients,” Melvin Sumapung, co-founder of Justika, said.

“Low access to legal justice is a pivotal concern in Indonesia. It happens due to the complicated procedures that people have to face and the lack of information on legal access. Justika has built a platform that gathers lawyers and clients, benefiting them with various useful features. We believe that Justika will democratize legal access and help millions of Indonesian people to understand rule of law easier,” added Willson Cuaca, co-founder of East Ventures.

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Image Credit: Justika

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Have you ever felt a connection so deep, that your energy levels vibrate on the same wavelength? Your chemistry, values, and passion converge, yet your skill sets complement each other.

Sounds dreamy? Well, that’s when you know that you have found your co-founder also known as your startup soulmate, your perfect match.

“The Yin and Yang, maker and seller, dreamer and pragmatist — call it what you will. After the fact, people may recognise one founder as the innovator, but it takes a team to make a new venture work.”  – Guy Kawasaki

Finding your better half guarantees great team dynamics, which in turn leads to a higher chance of entrepreneurial success. Successful companies often start and become successful with the contributions of at least two people, and choosing who you’ll go to battle with is, quite possibly, the most important decision you will ever have to make.

And frankly speaking, soulmates aren’t meant to last forever either, but that’s a whole other topic and for the sake of this article I’ll be focusing on a duo-founder partnership.

The most common challenges faced by founders during the initial stages of company building is their inability to acquire all the skills needed, interests and capacity to manage their workload, hence the right answer is to find that key person that can help strike your balance of complementing and compromising. And how do you do so without settling for less?

After crossing paths with founders of all forms, characters, and baggage from my experiences at The Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC), Entrepreneur First, and Singapore-Deep Tech Alliance, I’ve decided to highlight a few consideration points on what an ideal startup soulmate comprises.

Also Read: Turochas Fuad’s BNPL startup Pace receives debt financing, inks partnership with Valiram

What co-founders should match

• Compatibility and chemistry: Your interests and characteristics may differ, but the real key is to find someone with who you share core values and a connection. No doubt opposites attract, you need the right amount of familiarity, and we tend to gravitate towards people that are similar to us, which can help us find clarity when we come together. Nothing will stop you from powering towards achieving your goals once you find that compatible mate.
• Vision: I’ve seen co-founders get engrossed in the development process, later realising they had such diverging views on how to achieve the desired outcome. You’re possibly building a future, and legacy together, hence, your vision should be seen as a compass and not just a road map, you must be moving in the same direction.
• Alignment and expectations: Alignment starts with shared values and motivation towards achieving desirable outcomes while taking into account your personal and professional goals and agenda. One of the most important conversations I’ve seen founders have revolved around their personal agenda, and the need to sacrifice these agendas for the good of the startup.
• Financial compatibility: It’s important for co-founders to find financial compatibility. I’ve seen co-founders fight over differences in spending habits, and the inability to find a common ground can affect the timeline and overall company expenses. In many ways, it’s similar to high-stakes financial decisions in relationship decisions.
• Related interests in the founding team: A big part of the founding team’s success will be shaped based on the founding team’s ideology, background relevance, and insights. One major lesson I’ve learned is that related expertise and specialised understanding and fluency in a specific field give the partnership an unfair advantage. You’ll start feeling excited and enthusiastic about things because you just get each other. It feels ridiculously inspiring to be with someone who will help your ideas start flowing creatively.
• Never settle for less: Finding the perfect co-founder is as tough as finding the right life partner. Your partner could be your greatest asset or liability. Therefore, it should involve a lot of thought and introspection. Take the time, effort, and perseverance to make sure you find a match. Attribute your partner’s must-haves, yes, building a checklist is important to strategically identify what you need!
• Culture: Eighty per cent of your culture is defined by your core leaders, according to First Round review. Hence, core mission, values, and upbringing does cultivate your startup’s identity, wellbeing, and performance dedication.
• Proximity: Long-distance relationships are more difficult to nurture, they tend to survive less. You have enough obstacles to fight when starting a company. Why add an easily avoidable border to the problem? Getting a partner within reach is more efficient, dependable and promotes readiness for communication.
• Commitment: Having a partner who is not fully committed will build up feelings of bitterness and demotivation. It’s common for companies to take three to six months to hire an executive, even a year for some to define – the -relationship, so why shouldn’t you take the same amount of time and effort to find a co-founder? Spending the time to test the depths of the relationship makes sense.
• Passion: Passion is a quality that can’t be manufactured, without passion it’s easy to lose sight and motivation of your goals. You need a partner who rides with you, shares your mission, someone who cares, understands, and wants it as much as you do.
• Equity share of the greater equity pie: Equity conversations create tension if not discussed early on, the truth is the vast majority of your company’s life is in the future, so you should be on as equal a plane as possible. Hence, when joining a startup as a co-founder, knowing where you stand as far as equity is concerned will make a big difference for the long-term health of your relationship.

Sadly, co-founder dynamics causes two-thirds of high-potential startups to fail. Given how many things could go wrong, even in a co-founder soulmate match, there are a few mandatory things to do to maintain a healthy, strong, and productive co-founder partnership.

Also Read: Consider these five questions before appointing your co-founder

After all, relationships have their fair share of compromising, such as :

• Agreeing on roles: The reality is that, co-founders are required to be assigned roles that best fit their skills, and profiles, but never deprive yourself of the opportunity to learn and compromise on skills to pick up on a broader range of skills to manage the demands of your startup.
• Managing communication & trust: Communication is powerful and the foundation for a solid partnership. Open, proactive communication and transparency empower partners to voice concerns, reduces relationship debt – a negative sentiment that’s accumulated from unresolved feelings. Building trust and vulnerability from the start is important to uncover healthy conflict. Sweeping issues will lead to serious red flags, therefore, partners should have hard and deep conversations.
• Zero-ego clash: Honeymoon phases don’t last forever, eventually you’ll end up fighting.  There will be times where you’d end up going against your own ego, anger, and fear. Thus, when a fight occurs, stay humble and dare to recognise your own mistakes to avoid emotional residues. In a fixed mindset – you’re focusing on proving yourself, whereas, with a growth mindset, you try to improve yourself. Aim to have a growth mindset, and healthy ego.
• Working hours: Mostly under looked by founders. According to a new research, the happiest couples go to bed at the same time. Are you an early bird or a night owl? Because this will affect the synchronisation of your ability to collaborate.
• Emotional support: Data shows entrepreneurs are more likely to fall into depression. Rightfully, a pillar of support is needed to overcome the tough challenges ahead, as a team, you’re always going to be each other’s cheerleader and support system.

Having a co-founder who is a polar opposite isn’t the goal, neither is a co-founder who is a clone of yourself, the reality still falls with shared values – not to mention, similar work ethic as you’re going to be spending the majority of your work hours together. There are desirable differences that are essential.

What co-founders should be different at (also known as desirable differences)

• Expertise: Apple couldn’t have existed without both Steves. Every company needs Steve Jobs (Seller) and Steve Wozniak (Builder). It is wiser to get someone from a different background, this allows you to amplify your strength to its advantage.
• Perspective: Yin and Yang is one of the fundamental theories that can help you make a balanced decision. Different mindsets such as; Right vs Left brain, Creative vs Rational, Business vs Tech can optimise to achieve equilibrium. Thus, having a broader and diversity of perspectives brings in fresh ideas, this involves having intellectual and creative differences that can drive towards stronger strategic making choices.

Also Read: Can Biden administration erase the ‘original sin’ of Chinese startups?

Summary of consideration points when finding a soulmate

• Think about your core values
• Know your deal breakers
• Take into account: Emotional, Intellectual, Spiritual, Financial & Educational elements
• Stay open-minded about straying away from your checklist
• Timing, readiness & stability
• Exposure and familiarity with upbringing
• Personality and character
• Proximity
• Source for finding a co-founder (Accelerators, Incubators, Hackathons, founder dating apps, startup forums and events, FB groups, others)

Not all partners create magic together either, but those who do find their co-founder (aka startup soulmate), are a rare fated match made in heaven. And as I highlighted earlier, at times, your first co-founder isn’t meant to last forever, and finding your perfect match doesn’t necessarily always guarantee your startup success, sometimes, you’re fated with multiple co-founders, for some, they end up solo.

So no matter who you choose to become your co-founder, you need to make sure that it’s someone whom you trust, like, and feel like you can conquer the world with. Skills and the best network in the world will not save your business if you simply can’t get rid of ego, your co-founder is your partner in life, who’s meant to care about going through the journey with you and reaching the end goal as a team.

Your co-founder really is your better half. The winner is ultimately decided by a subjective internal process and a whole lot of chemistry.
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Aerodyne in talks to raise US$100M Series C, may enter Unicorn club; They include CVCs and PEs; The round could also include a significant amount from a Middle Eastern conglomerate; In May, Aerodyne received a strategic investment from a consortium of Japanese investors, comprising Real Tech Fund, Kobashi Holdings and ACSL.

Gorilla Mobile, Singapore’s latest telco, aims to shake up crowded market with novel offering; It will be offering a proprietary feature known as SwitchBack; Using blockchain technology, this allows customers to turn their unused mobile data into digital tokens, known as Gorilla Go Tokens.

Telio founder ordered to transfer his shares in the firm to OnOnPay investors of OOPA; The S’pore High Court put an end to a 2-yr dispute between Sy Phong Bui and OOPA’s backers, Captii Ventures and Gobi Partners, who accused Bui of setting up Telio without their consent and usurping their biz opportunity and rights of Telio; OOPA is the holding company of Bui’s previous venture OnOnPay.

Vietnamese fintech MFast raises US$1.5M pre-Series A; Investors are Do Ventures and JAFCO Asia; MFast enables users to access, use and introduce financial and insurance service packages among other product segments; MFast claims to have helped nearly 600K Vietnamese access financial and insurance services from reputable institutions.

Singapore’s wealthcare app Hugo raises US$2M funding; Investors include 1982 Ventures, angels and family offices; Hugo helps users develop healthy saving and investing habits that make financial security accessible to everyone in an easy and intuitive way; Hugo recently launched its Gold Vault which makes investing in gold easy and accessible to all, with increments as small as S$0.01.

Accelerating Asia to launch Fund II in H2, ups investment size to US$250K; In an earlier interaction with e27, Accelerating Asia said it planned to launch an ‘up to US$50M’ fund in Q1 2021; Since 2019, the VC has accelerated 36 pre-Series A startups in Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and India; Its portfolio companies have collectively raised US$27M.

Singapore biotech firm Nuevocor raises US$24M in Series A; Backers include EVX Ventures and Boehringer Intelheim Venture Fund (co-leads), EDBI and SEEDS Capital; The startup will use the money to accelerate the preclinical development of its lead programme, a gene therapy for cardio-myopathies.

BoomGrow has converted old containers to ‘machine farms’ to grow pesticide-free vegetables in Malaysia; It grows fresh, clean, hyperlocal produce such as butterhead, romaine, kale, Swiss chard, basil, and mint; BoomGrow is backed by SME Corp, PlaTCOM Ventures and MDEC, and is now in the middle of raising its Series A funding.

BRI Agro CEO Kaspar Situmorang: Why tapping into the ecosystem is key to a digital bank’s success; Kaspar Situmorang says global funds are now looking into SEA for investments in digital banking; The branch-centric banking model of the past has become obsolete even in 2020.

Indonesia’s Jala Tech selected for Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific programme; Other selected startups hail from India, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia; Launched in partnership with Unreasonable and Barclays, the programme aims to scale high-growth ventures that address global challenges.

SEA looks to Israeli tech to improve farming techniques; Israeli agritech innovations have increasingly made their way into the farming communities in SEA through bilateral agricultural programmes; Israel has some 600 agritech and foodtech companies, with scores of them able to fine-tune solutions to suit farming conditions outside the country.

UPS set to expand retail presence in Malaysia amid e-commerce boom, partners with ParcelHub; UPS claims it’s seen e-commerce, parcel delivery and logistics management booming in the last 12 months and the demand is at an all-time high; US-based UPS firm is ready to capitalise on these trends and leverage ParcelHub’s 200 outlets.

Philippine firms can expand in EU via Estonia’s e-Residency programme; The programme recognises a lot of entrepreneurial mindset in SEA; There are many potential investors based in the region who can use e-Residency to expand or do business in the EU; By incorporating in Estonia, one can get access to the EU single market, or can easily co-manage an EU-based business across borders with partners from around the world.

Malaysian digital-first pet insurance startup Oyen raises US$420k seed funding; Investors are Hustle Fund and angels who are former and current executives from Airbnb, Facebook, and Rocket Internet; The company is driving towards having 100K pets insured in SEA within the next three years.

5 emerging HRtech startups in Indonesia; They are Urbanhire, Gadjian, Rekruta, Jobplanet, and Sleekr; The HRtech innovations created by these startups employ automation and digitisation to complete various time-consuming tasks, including filing, talent acquisition and management, benefits administration, and performance and compensation management.

Vietnam’s digital economy presents chances for investors, startups; Backed by a stable political climate, progressive economic policies, and sustained growth, a lucrative opportunity exists for both local players and investors alike to tap into the country’s potential for economic greatness.

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Image Credit: Gorilla Mobile

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In April 2021, we marked five years of operations. This journey has its own fair share of ups and downs, but as of today, we have expanded into 17 offices across 13 markets, a headcount of over 800 people, made seven acquisitions across Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan and India, and raised a total funding of US$62.3 million.

For the year 2020, even though we had been in operation for less than five years, we grew our revenue to over US$100 million for the year.

As a founder, my journey into entrepreneurship started when I was 29 years old, and over the years there have been many challenges and lessons learned as we scaled the business. I’ll share four here that I hope can provide insights and inspiration for other founders.

Communicate with your employees as you did on day one

As businesses grow, it’s common for founders to get caught up in the daily grind, high-level decision making, investor and shareholder meetings, and finding new ways to bring greater growth to the business.

However, I feel that it is highly important for founders to still have conversations directly with employees. I’m not referring to the frequency of such communications, but more about having direct lines into the pulse of your business just like how it was in the early days, including casual lunch chats and just making yourself open to anyone in the company.

Ultimately, this brings a range of benefits including increasing employee motivation and connection with the business, obtaining insights, and identifying new opportunities to grow the business. Founders set company culture, and having more casual conversations with employees ensures that they are closely aligned with the expectations and direction of the business.

Constantly find new ways to add vertical and horizontal value to customers

I believe that to be highly successful, a company needs to constantly invest and build new innovations around its customer base. This ensures that a business is always providing new value to its customers.

Also Read: 3 ways a holistic cloud system powers business agility

Just take a look at successful Asian startups such as Grab, Alibaba and Tencent, they have multiple offerings built around their core customers and are constantly bringing added value to them.

For example, we started in the ad tech space, but within our first two years, moved quickly into technology for influencer marketing and publisher monetisation.

In the past year, we launched offerings in the direct-to-consumer space including cloud manufacturing, e-commerce enablement and logistics, and we are still looking at even more ways to develop new technology and business models for our customers.

This means that our customer base now has a wealth of solutions for their needs including marketing, e-commerce and even logistics.

For us, this comes in the form of building technology in the brand enablement space, constantly expanding our products vertically and horizontally within the brand enablement space to better help our customers, be it marketers, influencers, online publishers and business owners, to grow their brands even more.

This enables businesses to tap on the same salesforce to cross-sell new products that add value to the same customer or business.

Hyper-localisation is key for Asia

In a diverse market like Asia, it is a challenge to provide the same solution for customers across the entire region and expect success. For tech startups, this means not just having offerings in a market’s local language, but also tweaking solutions to match what the market needs including having feet on the ground to understand market nuances, trends and needs, building features and integrations for each local market.

It is ironic, but I feel that successful international expansion cannot happen without localisation.

It is important for businesses to build technology that can be used globally, but it is even more important to localise implementation and use of such technology. Look at high-profile tech startups in the region, they have localised their platforms, operations and even marketing activities to local markets.

In my own company, this is the approach we embarked on five years ago, and it has been successful in getting us to where we are today.

Ultimately, taking a global approach to building technology can get you to a certain point, but what takes you several points further is to have an overall business philosophy of localisation.

Also Read: Lessons learnt: 5 reasons why founding a startup is like earning a graduate business degree

Embrace growing pains

It is normal to experience growing pains as your business, headcount, or product(s) scales. For us, this journey was accelerated as we grew all three aspects quickly. These growing pains can come in any form: company policies, business operations, human resourcing issues, culture, along areas that are out of your direct control.

The key here is not in anticipating a growing pain or creating the perfect structure that scales as your business grows. It is all about how you handle them. We’re lucky in the sense that we have very supportive investors who have guided us over the years, and a strong leadership team made up of entrepreneurs, vertical experts, and employees who have been with us since our early days. With this collective experience, we are able to navigate challenges and move quickly as a company.

My best advice for this when facing growing pains is simply to be humble and don’t give up. No company is perfect and things can always be improved on.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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

Image Credit: Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

The post 4 things I learned in growing a business in Asia from zero to US$100M revenue in five years appeared first on e27.