What is weakness?

Everyone has at least one or two weaknesses that afflict them. Even people you look up to and admire are still human inside, and they still have problems to deal with.

My biggest weakness is sugar, and it’s why I slowly gained 50 pounds (25ish kilos) over the last decade without realising it, leading me to now have to eat very carefully and workout six days a week with a trainer to get the weight off. But weaknesses can be more than just excess fat or atrophied muscles. It can also be a lack of knowledge or experience in an area of life/work, or a fear that prevents you from making a decision. What matters most is how you think about and handle weakness. Every entrepreneur has their own attitude towards their weaknesses, and that mindset will determine future failure or success.

Avoiding weaknesses is the first step towards failure

Some entrepreneurs avoid their weaknesses because, for them, it’s easier to pretend they don’t exist, and ignoring them may feel like the fastest, safest bet to make them go away. While this may work in some instances, like being afraid of snakes, in other instances, it can be catastrophic, like not knowing how to manage your finances.

In this situation, a weak financial foundation can be why she never grew a business beyond just herself working like a mad dog for years before burning out, since she didn’t take the time to arm herself with the knowledge to manage the accounting and correctly deploy capital to hire employees to offload tasks so she could focus on business development. Her company fell apart because she avoided making a crucial decision early on about getting rid of her fear of understanding her numbers.

Another example of avoiding weakness could be when he tried to develop an application without a technical leader and didn’t spend time learning to fill that gap personally since he was afraid he was too dumb to develop technical skills, or he just felt inundated by the process, and instead outsourced the development of his baby to a team somewhere else in the world and the team completely screwed up the development and wasted all of his capital. His company fell apart because he avoided making a crucial decision early on to find someone he could trust and empowered them to help manage the technical development who would also be passionate about the company’s future. I think you get the point.

Also Read: Malaysia as springboard to the ASEAN: A tech pass for global entrepreneurs

Acknowledging weaknesses is the first step towards success

Now let’s look at another personality type, the entrepreneur who acknowledges their weaknesses, and works intelligently to resolve them. Those who acknowledge their weakness are more self-aware than those who avoid them, which leads them to be more capable of understanding why they have this weakness, and then decide the best course of action.

One example of an entrepreneur who acknowledged their weaknesses was a non-technical founder with no co-founder who hired an amazing technical employee to guide him through the process of becoming knowledgeable. Then, the founder was able to make better decisions about what languages to code with, how to hire the best developers and give them the tools they need to develop the MVP smoothly. He could have tried to learn how to become a CTO on his own, and he may have found success, but he certainly would have spent a long time and the team would have suffered until he found his footing, so by trusting someone to give him advice, he found a way to learn over the long-term while minimizing the negative effect on the company at large.

The second example of an entrepreneur who acknowledged their weaknesses was someone who was great at the product and leading a team to develop it but had no idea how to market it. Instead of spending the time to learn about marketing, she found someone who was an expert in marketing and empowered them to develop a marketing strategy, and the product launched successfully. If she had tried to learn and do it herself, she may have found success, but it would have taken time away from her larger responsibility of managing the product and developing the business. See the differences between these examples? Those who dealt with their weaknesses through learning or trusting others to handle them, they found success, but those who avoided their weaknesses failed miserably.

How to turn your weakness into a strength?

Is it really possible to deal with weakness though? The answer is of course, yes! But only YOU can take the first step on this long journey. So how do we do this? As mentioned above, there are essentially two paths you can follow to turn a weakness into a strength, and it depends on your personality which path you take.

The first path is to learn the skills yourself and take on the responsibility and develop the systems so that when you inevitably hire someone to take over for those tasks, you know you can trust them because you understand deeply what you need to expect of them to perform at a high level.

Also Read: Lightspeed launches Extreme Entrepreneurs 3.0 for high potential startups in SEA, India

The second path is to find someone you can trust who already has the skills, and work with them to do what is necessary, and give them the tools they need to get it done and empower and encourage them to develop the systems so they can automate and hire people to run them so they can manage those people.

Tackle each weakness separately for the best results

Before you decide which path to take, remember that it’s dangerous to take one path for all of your weaknesses. This is because if you learn every skill for yourself, you may never have the time to develop the systems to then hire people, and your company could fail because you lack the energy to focus on the most important thing, which is getting and serving customers. If you find someone to handle every task without knowing anything about those parts of the business before you find them, you may be hiring the wrong people without realizing it, and they could damage your company long-term because it would take you a long time to figure out who is doing the damage, what the damage is, and how to fix it. So based on your current situation and your personality, take all of this to heart when deciding how to handle each of your weaknesses.

Your brain is a muscle

If you are afraid of the path where you learn a skill first, develop the systems, then hire someone to take over, consider that every part of your body is a muscle. When you do a push-up, you are targeting your chest, back, and shoulder muscles. Every time you do a push-up, your chest gets bigger and stronger. The more times you do it, the greater the results will be, but remember it will always take TIME to see those results because nothing is immediate.

Learning a new skill is the same thing: the more you read about it, the more you apply what you’ve learned, the more likely you’ll be to get better at it and eventually be able to teach your team how to do it, why? Because your brain is a giant muscle. So, consider that any weakness in your mind is something that can be “exercised,” the more you exercise it, the higher chance is that it will become a strong muscle. Makes sense, right? But before you can exercise your weakness, you must first understand how to exercise it and why.

Foot in the door theory

There is an idea in psychology called “foot in the door.” What this means is if you want to do something big, you should first try something small. If you succeed, then you will feel more confident in trying something bigger. Instead of looking at how some people are masters at this new skill, you are working towards learning, look at ways to just get started.

Also Read: How youth entrepreneurship and social innovation can overcome the COVID-19 hurdle

Let’s use fear of water as an example. Imagine you were thrown into the deep end of a pool as a kid, but because no one taught you how to swim and you almost drowned, you avoided going into the water again for fear of dying. Now as an adult, you have kids and want them to enjoy the water, so to be a good role model, you decide to deal with your fear.

The first natural step you would take is to put your toe in the water. Doing that didn’t kill you, did it? If it did, please tell your family, I’m sorry. I’m going to assume you didn’t die, so let’s move on. The next step would be to put your ankle in the water and walk around, then your knee and continue to walk around. You are slowly becoming comfortable with the water, and realizing that you did not need to fear it. Before you know it, you’ll be learning how to swim, and possibly even scuba diving to see what’s underneath the water, causing your friends to be jealous of your confidence and strength!

Takeaways

Use the “Foot in the Door theory” to help you quickly break down the different parts needed to learn how to become skilled with whatever it is you are interested in. If you decide to go down the second path, you should ask for people you trust to recommend someone they trust with the skills you need. Interview them, get to know them, see if they will be a good fit for the culture you are establishing, and test their hard skills in a way that proves they know what they are talking about. From there, we can only hope they thrive! And remember, entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint.

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This article was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: Michal Czyz on Unsplash

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There’s no understating COVID-19’s impact on businesses across Asia. As economies across Asia start to emerge from lockdown, business leaders are reassessing their plans and projections to accommodate the ‘new normal,’ and creating opportunities for startups.

Many startups already possess one of the qualities that could prove most beneficial in the post-pandemic world – business agility. But being agile and moving fast is just the beginning. Startups also have to look for opportunities to pull unnecessary costs out of their business, forge new links to partners and customers, and ensure their employees are continually developing new skills. With this focus, startups can lay the groundwork to survive and thrive in the new normal.

The urgent need for digital transformation

During these challenging times, we are seeing companies of every size, including startups, express their desire to transform more quickly into the cloud as a way of breaking free of the legacy on-premises infrastructure that holds them back from trying new ideas.

According to Daphne Chung, a research director at IDC, the pandemic has underscored the importance of digital transformation across all industries. Cloud continues to be the underpinning platform for all digital transformation initiatives and has therefore seen an acceleration in demand in the wake of the pandemic.

In Singapore, the public cloud services market is expected to grow by 13 per cent from 2019 to 2020. All that cloud promises when it comes to elastic consumption, agile development, and global reach are in demand, and the value is being realised across Southeast Asia.

The education and health sectors have embraced digital solutions in an unprecedented way.

An example of healthtech responding to changing business conditions, is Japanese telemedicine startup, MICIN, a company that offers a free app for virtual doctor appointments, and other features like medical questionnaires and billing. MICIN experienced a substantial surge in demand for their telemedicine app, Curon, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: How Salesforce attained its clout in cloud computing in Southeast Asia

Running on the cloud, they were able to sustain a near ten-time increase in new patient registrations from January to April. Curon runs on services including Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), AWS Lambda, and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), which many startup customers rely on to scale quickly and accommodate unpredictable growth or demand.

As consumers continue to embrace digital services, their behaviour change creates opportunities for agile startups that quickly innovate with cloud technology to deliver great experiences online.

At AWS, we are helping startups rise to meet this opportunity. One example is the Indian health and fitness startup, Cure.fit. When COVID-19 hit, the company had to shut its physical gyms, but quickly saw they could stay connected with customers by running virtual workout classes, and creating personalised online programs.

The success of this new offering led to a sudden spike in traffic to Cure.fit’s website, which they were able to manage by leveraging Amazon CloudFront, a fast content distribution service that securely delivers data, videos, and applications to customers globally.

Saving money

Running a startup can be a stressful experience at the best of times, and one of the most critical factors underpinning their success is how well they manage their cash. And that means making sure they are only spending money on things they absolutely need.

AWS offers several ways for startups to save money on their cloud expenses. We work with startup customers to make sure they are using the most cost-effective pricing models and are not using more AWS services than they actually need.

The AWS Trusted Advisor online tool helps startup customers reduce costs, increase performance, and improve security by checking their use of AWS services, and making suggestions to help optimise performance.

In Singapore, we worked with fintech, MoneySmart to help reduce their cloud spend by more than 28 per cent per month through cost optimisation exercises. As an example, Spot Instance usage enabled the personal finance portal to achieve a near 50 per cent savings compared to On-Demand usage.

Also Read: From Archives: How startups can get a big boost from cloud computing services

Attracting customers

One of the hardest tasks of bringing a new idea to market is simply making people aware of it, and by identifying platforms to facilitate these introductions. At AWS, we work hard to forge connections between startups and potential customers and partners.

We regularly connect executives from large organisations with startups to hear about new solutions that might be of interest. These connections often involve ‘reverse pitches,’ where large organisations discuss their challenges and startups propose solutions.

And finally, while we know that startups rarely have spare time on their hands, it is important to never stop learning. Keeping up to date with the latest products and developing the skills to use them is more critical now than ever.

There is a variety of free online education and live-streamed or on-demand training events for startups across Asia at every growth stage, including AWSome Days and the AWS Builders Online Series for early-stage founders new to the cloud. AWS Innovate conferences are for startups looking to accelerate their cloud skills.

The natural agility of startups gives them the capacity to adapt quickly to market changes and presents a chance to win new customers. By using this time to take stock of their business and the opportunities available to them, startups can move forward with confidence into 2021 and beyond.

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In 2016, Nam Dang, a farmer hailing from a countryside in Vietnam, chanced upon a report, titled Edible Insects: A Solution for Food and Feed Security by United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The report documented how cricket, an insect, could play a key role in addressing food security, climate change and rural development as an efficient and environmentally-friendly food source.

“I was stunned by one finding of the report that to produce one kilogram of crickets, only two litres of water is required, whereas to make a single pound of beef, it costs about 10,000 litres of water,” says Dang.

Himself a farmer, he knew the importance of saving water, and he used water from a well to irrigate his crops.

“Back in the 2000s, a ten meter-deep well could provide enough water for a hectare of agriculture. But nowadays, even we drill down 100 metres below the surface, finding water is hard,” he adds.

When he learned that a tropical country like Vietnam would be suitable for farming crickets, he decided to try his luck.

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

And Cricket One (C1) was born.

Established in 2017 by Dang and Bicky Nguyen and located in Binh Phuoc Province, C1 is a startup that cultivates and processes cricket, which is rich in protein and minerals, as an alternative source of food.

Cricket eggs hatch after a 7-day incubation period. From hatching to harvesting, it takes a total of 32-35 days. The company then processes crickets into products such as protein powder, high omega oil, soluble protein and meat analogue products and food ingredients.

Artificial Intelligence plays a vital role in the production and processing of crickets. The tech is used to improve the yield and enhance the process, thereby rising the economic base of farmers and ensuring the productive use of agricultural lands.

Currently, C1 claims it processes more than 100 million crickets a month. Its signature product Cricket One — cricket powder consisting of 60-70 per cent protein and seven per cent fibre — is exported into many markets around the world.

The startup has shipped the product to over 15 countries, globally. Dang said its products are used by bakeries and chip manufacturers in the EU, the US and Asia.

Aligning with UN goals

C1 aims to achieve three key Social Development Goals of the UN — namely zero hunger, climate action and no poverty.

“We use crickets as a solution to address malnutrition and global food insecurity. As an efficient protein and mineral-rich food source, crickets have the potential to sustainably feed to the bottom of the pyramid of the society,” he shares.

When it comes to climate action, livestock production is responsible for the 45 per cent of the global land use, 23 per cent of the global freshwater usage and 25 per cent of the greenhouse gas emission.

Compared with the production of beef, pigs and chicken, crickets requires just a fraction of land, water and feed, and it produces little greenhouse gases.

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

“Another fact is that modern farming ignores smallholder farmers. With crickets farming, we believe this community has what it needs to build a sustainable competitive advantage. We help them build their capability and improve their livelihood through training, supporting, and buying from them,” elaborates Dang, who leads a 20-member team at C1, who works in farming technology, food-tech and production.

The market size

A report by Barclays Investment Bank finds that the global edible insect market will reach US$8 billion by 2030 with a 24 per cent CAGR.

As per another report by UBS, the alternative protein market grew to about US$5 billion in 2018. It expects the industry to grow exponentially to US$85 billion within the next decade.

While it holds massive potential, the alternative protein segment, however, is still in its early phase. In the edible insects market, Thailand, Canada and Europe are ahead.

The market has not progressed to a stage where there is fierce competition.

Adds Dang: “When one player makes some noise, the whole industry reaps the benefits. I guess what we all are trying to do is drive consumers to conscious consumption and educate about its health and environmental benefits.”

In the alternative protein segment, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have outstripped smaller players and have found a place for themselves around the world.

However, Dang feels that food production is a vast market where there is still more than enough room for new players. The concept of winner-take-all cannot apply here.

“So we never know whether we are competing with plant-based meat players. Nevertheless, we both promote environmentally-friendly food and have our own unique selling points,” Dang observes.

In his opinion, although edible insects have always been part of the human diet, there are certain prejudices and misconceptions in some parts of the world when it comes to its consumption.

“Our mission is to make this earth-friendly food part of our daily diets. When we built the roadmap for crickets to go mainstream, we thought it had to come in a familiar form — a meaty texture. We developed a meat analogue technology for this reason — to bring crickets to a wider audience. The burger patty is just one of them,” he shares.

Also Read: Thailand’s plant-based meat startup battle intensifies as the annual Vegetarian Festival kicks in

COVID-19 has been a boon for many alternative protein companies. However, for Dang and team, the crisis has been a dampener; the pandemic hit his business in the initial months as logistics were disrupted, air freight cost went through the roof, and sea transport became almost standstill.

“Demand was also disrupted in some countries. However, in other countries, the demand was growing rapidly during the peak time. Since the start of Q4, we could sense everything is getting better.

Funding

In October last year, C1 received an undisclosed amount of funding in a round co-led by 500 Startups and Singapore-based Masik Enterprises. The startup has also secured another round of funding, which will be announced in the coming weeks.

What are your future plans? “Well, keep up with what we are doing, always find innovative ways to bring our crickets to consumers, be loyal to our social and environmental mission,” he concludes.

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Image Credit: Cricket One

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We are nearing the end of 2020 and we can now say for sure that WFH is here to stay.

While it saves commute time, WFH comes with a series of its own issues. We want to take this time to reflect on the struggles of working from home and try to resolve some of them, so we invited Yuying Deng, Founder and CEO of Esevel, to help us out at a recent e27 webinar.

Deng launched her company during Singapore’s circuit breaker because she saw that COVID-19 has accelerated the trend to work remotely. Her passion lies in empowering people to work from anywhere and still be capable of achieving their best work possible.

Her startup, Esevel, is a Singapore-based company that offers premium home office furniture to help you work from home comfortably and boost your productivity. From actual furniture to virtual ergonomic assessments, and packages for individuals and businesses, Esevel aims to be an end-to-end remote work platform that helps companies reduce the complexity of managing a dispersed workforce.

At the webinar, not only did she share some insights on how this trend is evolving and some legal angles to keep in mind for both employees and employers but also demonstrated ergonomic positions one can easily create with everyday items at home.

Also Read: The future of startup financing in the WFH age

Key takeaways

• Avoid bright and bad light. Sit away from a window.
• 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 mins looks away to something 20 feet away for 20 minutes.
• Screen has to be at eye level. Use an inexpensive laptop riser if you need.
• Switch hands ever so often while using the mouse.
• A good chair must be stable have a hand rest, and adjustable height and not more than 5 cm gap between seat band and back of knees
• You can add a monitor screen for a laptop at least 23 inches and above for better viewing.
• If you are working at a cafe, make sure your lower back is supported.
• Most importantly, keep it dynamic and don’t be in any posture for too long.
• Standing desks are a good investment. Follow the 1/3rd: 2/3rd standing: sitting rule
• At an average you can stand for 20 minutes or 30 minutes and then take a break

Resources

Watch the live demo and check out the full video for a special discount on Esevel services:

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Image credit: Andrew Neel from Pexels

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The changing dynamics of startup investment impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed investors and business to pivot their business.

But exit strategies that eye on mutually-beneficial remain critical for both investors and startup firms to discuss from early on.    

As exit discussions can be seen as negative, the dynamics and challenges from an exit strategy should be seen as positive.

An exit is essentially the first step of a potentially long business journey. When it comes to exits, there is either a true exit (where a company is acquired out right), or a partial exit (where all the funds and capital get released as a result of that).

Also Read: Stakeholders often prioritise glitzy exits, not the long-term longevity of the firm

There are three key things that both investors and founders need to hash out from the start. They are:

• Good investment returns (paybacks) always need an exit strategy.
• Investors will shy away from startups that have no exit plans.
• Preference by entrepreneurs for startup roles that avoid the big-company roles.  

As a corporate venture capital investor, UMG IdeaLab sees an exit as one of the means to provide funding — when and if needed — and as a stepping stone to invest in different startups.

If we combine startup entities in an M&A, we need to consider how they can synergise and the potential financial benefit from the merger.

An M&A should also take into account the shared visions and objectives of the startups that we try to grow that contribute to users.  

As for partial exit — or a complete exit — it requires a lot of preparation. It is important that all shareholder agreements and data room are properly sorted in advance to ensure proper and responsible data display. 

These are all important steps to ensure that the startup you have invested in is clean and remains attractive for other investors to potentially step in.

Also Read: Busting the 5 popular myths surrounding startup exits

The process of listing a company should be considered as a capital strategy to achieve the next business milestone.

Other options that can be taken into consideration as exit strategy — but not recommended due to possible negative perceptions — are asset liquidation and cash out investors. 

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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Malaysian VC firm Xeraya Capital is among the investors who have participated in the US$34 million Series B financing round of InterVenn Biosciences, a US-based precision medicine firm.

US-based Anzu Partners led the oversubscribed round. Genoa Ventures, Amplify Partners, True Ventures, and the Ojjeh Family, are the other participants.

InterVenn will use the funds to commercialise the diagnostic tool for ovarian cancer, increase partnerships and to accelerate development efforts for the company’s immuno-oncology treatment response and colorectal cancer indications.

According to Crunchbase, InterVenn has raised a total of US$43 million to date, which also included its US$9.4 million Series A in 2018.

The San Francisco-based company utilises Artificial Intelligence and mass spectrometry to develop precision medicine capabilities. Utilising these capabilities, it aims to formulate treatments for ovarian, pancreatic, liver, prostate and kidney cancers. 

Also Read: Roundup: Malaysi’ss Xeraya Capital joins US firm Greenlight Biosciences’s US$17M funding

“InterVenn enables a powerful new class of cancer diagnostics based on glycobiology. Advances in computation and chemistry will enable its unique, high throughput platform to have a dramatic positive impact on human health,” said Michael in a written statement.

In the coming months, the company will be finalising its diagnostic tool to go into the clinic next year after identifying both U.S. and overseas clinics that are interested, as well as continue investing in the platform. 

Also Read: This Machine Learning startup helps breast cancer patients customise treatment, predicts risk of recurrence

“We are just speeding up what they have been doing,” InterVenn CEO Aldo Carrascoso told Crunchbase News. “We already have over 2,000 indications.” 

Despite InterVenn only launching in 2017, the science behind their innovation was discovered decades ago. The company claims its goal is to match people with drugs in a way that not only finds the best one but also reduces the cost of the therapy, which can exceed thousands per dose. 

Xeraya is a global investor in the life sciences sector with offices in Kuala Lumpur and Boston.

In May this year, Xeraya invested in Greenlight Biosciences, another US firm that focuses on the sustainable production of chemicals and fuels, along with Baird Capital and Flu Lab.

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Image Credit: Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

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Sea’s Q3 2020 revenue doubles but loss widens; Net loss was US$425M in Q3 v/s US$206M a year ago as it heavily invested in SEA market expansion drive amid growing demand for digital services; The GMV for the e-commerce unit was US$9.3B, more than double that of the year-earlier quarter. Nikkei Asia Review

Telkomsel invests US$150M in gojek; This strategic investment takes place about six months after gojek received funding from Facebook, PayPal; The two giants will also collaborate on growing Indonesia’s digital lifestyle sector and increasing the advertising technology solutions available to merchants of all sizes. e27

Seven reasons for Alibaba’s success; The main objectives of Alibaba innovation is to allow disadvantaged cities and persons to create, implement and develop business through the Alibaba platform; Especially the western China which is still undeveloped compared to the west. Digital Commerce 360

KOL Speak
Startup exits: Stakeholders often prioritise glitzy exits, not the long-term longevity of the firm; According to Jasmine Ng (ex-CEO of Razer Fintech), while those who make a quick buck off the exit may still profit, it ultimately hurts consumers and those genuinely interested in building the next big business. e27

Outside world
How Gaza’s only accelerator nurtures tech startups amid political unrest; This is the story of Gaza Sky Geeks (GSG), the only startup incubator in the city that provides opportunities for young Palestinian entrepreneurs to kickstart their own startups, and how they build companies amid airstrikes and rocket launches. e27

What China’s fintech market can teach the world; It’s certainly the world’s largest market for fintech; Even though in the payments space things look pretty saturated between Ant and WeChat, there are so many areas that they’re expanding into like credit and insurance, where there’s still a lot of room for growth. TechCrunch

Employee health benefit startup Mednefits raises US$5.95M Series A led by BLoyalty; B Infinite (BLoyalty’s digital engagement platform) will work with Mednefits to enhance and automate medical benefits for its clients’ employees across Singapore and Malaysia; The startup claims its platform has connected over 50K employees from 500 companies to over 2K healthcare providers. e27

Malaysia’s cloud-based F&B management platform Food Market Hub (FMH) lands US$4M Series A; The round was co-led by Go-Ventures and SIG; It plans to expand into Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam; FMH supports over 2K F&B outlets across Malaysia, Singapore, HK, Taiwan. It processes ~US$200M in purchase orders on an annual basis. e27

Indian content management startup Quintype bags US$3.4M to expand to SEA; The startup aims to provide fully-integrated software systems to enable media professionals to distribute their content online without the need for technical skills such as programming. e27

Delving into Singapore’s smart-city startups and the funds flowing into the sector; Funding to startups in IoT, digital payments and cleantech rose from just US$84.8M in 2015 to US$276.7M in 2020 so far; Most smart-city startups in these areas are in the early stages of their funding journey; This indicates the relative newness of smart city solutions as an area of interest for investors. TechInAsia

Krosslinker raises US$1.25M to develop thermal insulating nano-material for pharma industry; Investors include 500 Startups (lead), Seedscapital, Entrepreneur First; Krosslinker has developed a tech to manufacture aerogels and conduct pilot trials with their customers. e27

Filipino social e-commerce platform Resellee raises US$1M; Mintech Enterprises and Hofan Capital are among its backers; The app allows any Filipinos to buy and sell products to his/her network of friends on social media without having to buy products or inventory. e27

17LIVE founder joins crypto asset management startup Steaker’s US$1M seed round; The platform mainly caters to the needs of younger and less knowledgeable investors; A majority of investors on its platform are retail accounting for 70% of total AUM. e27

Magorium wins Singapore’s waste-tech startup competition WASTE 20/20; Indian startup Ishitva Robotic Systems and UK-based data and analytics startup Topolytics shared the second place; Founded last year, Magorium converts plastic into polymers, which are then used to produce high-quality bitumen used for road construction. e27

BeeX wins Singapore’s Smart Port Challenge 2020 for its innovative autonomous maritime solutions; The second and third places were bagged by FUELSAVE and Vulcan AI, respectively; The three firms also won a prize money of approximately US$7.5K, US$3.7K and US$2.3K, respectively. e27

Swedish MNCs team up with Singapore SMEs in partnership programme; It includes an ad campaign sponsored by the MNCs to promote the local SMEs, and regular partner meetings dubbed Fika4Good; The one dozen participating SMEs, ranging from hawkers to tailors, were selected in cooperation with ESG and the NEA. e27

Thailand’s growing appetite for plant-based food products; As per a research, 79% of individuals would prefer healthier options to standard meat-based products; 76% of the respondents agree that plant-based proteins are as nutritious as animal products, and 55% felt that they taste better than the meat options. Tech Collective

COVID-19 impact accelerates IoT projects in Singapore; A survey says 86% of businesses that have already adopted IoT in Singapore are accelerating some IoT projects because of the pandemic; Among APAC companies that have reduced costs thanks to IoT, almost three quarters (73%) reported savings of at least 30%. Tech Coffee House

Southeast Asia’s often overlooked tech and innovation hub; One very overlooked country is Vietnam; Its digital economy is estimated to hit US$33B in value by 2025; In addition to large technology companies such as Samsung and Nokia moving some operations to the country, Vietnam’s start-up sector is also booming. Tech Collective

What will the next wave of VC investment in HR tech look like?; HR tech is considered white-hot, because companies operating in talent-constrained environments seek to invest in tools to help them better recruit, develop, and support their workforces; A record amount of capital has gone into AI solutions for talent recruitment. e27

What developers need to know about tomorrow’s tech today; As the software stakes get higher and product managers continue to set software development goals, it makes sense that developers will end up embedded on business teams rather than tech teams; Software is critical to success so should be located with the biz rather than in the IT department. e27

Future of femtech and technology: an emerging innovative crossroads; Several aspects have helped propel the agenda of femtech; More women are taking up tech roles that were traditionally held by men; As this representation grows, awareness of health issues that primarily affect women is increased. HIT Consultant

How cloud computing is helping startups navigate the new normal; In Singapore, the public cloud services market is expected to grow by 13 per cent from 2019 to 2020; All that cloud promises when it comes to elastic consumption, agile development, and global reach are in demand, and the value is being realised across the region. e27

Why it is imperative to invest in digitalising the supply chain; Most enterprises don’t have nearly as much visibility into their supply chains as is ideally required to address key areas such as revenue and costs; Digitisation drives end-to-end transparency across the supply chain; In doing so, it generates valuable data to optimise and enable strategic decision making. e27

Vietnam launches akaBot platform to digitally transform businesses; akaBot is a RPA solution for businesses with virtual assistants capable of simulating human manipulation, helping perform repetitive tasks in large numbers; It’s capable of integrating AI and optical character recognition tech to build non-invasive automation solutions, which can interact with all business software. Open Gov

Grab ties up with Lazada in Vietnam; The two will enhance services across various sectors that offer more sophisticated digital experiences to consumers; They will cater to consumers’ increased digital needs, support social commerce and micro-entrepreneurs and provide more income opportunities for our delivery partners. Vietnam News

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Image Credit: Sea Group

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Philippine Startup Week (PHSW20) is back for its second edition on November 23-27 with the aim to highlight the Filipino entrepreneurial spirit.

Taking on the theme of “Filipino Startups Powering Up the New Normal,” the event will showcase the nation’s thriving startups and focus on stakeholders contributing to the growth of the local startup ecosystem.

One of Philippines largest startup conferences, the event is jointly organised by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), QBO Innovation Hub, and various private organizations and community partners.

The five-day virtual conference will be held via an online platform that aims to allow attendees to learn, interact, network, and collaborate remotely.

Also Read: Why it is important for tech companies to expand outside metro cities in the Philippines

DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez underscored the agency’s support for Philippine startups during and beyond the current health crisis, especially as it would also help the country’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) while also creating more jobs for Filipinos.

“Globalising the Philippine startup ecosystem remains our goal, and our desire to do so has intensified amidst the pandemic. In these trying times, DTI is committed to empowering innovative Filipino startups that foster the digitalization of our MSMEs,  enhance their productivity, and promote their resilience,” according to Lopez.

“Philippine Startup Week continues to be an amazing opportunity for innovative startup founders to connect, collaborate, and gain exposure to investors, sponsors, and fellow founders,” said DOST Secretary Fortunato T. De La Peña.

“As the government remains true to its commitment of elevating the country’s startup ecosystem, PHSW20 aims not only to celebrate entrepreneurship, particularly technopreneurship, but also to increase access to it by continuously fostering an engaged community and by providing opportunities to push the boundaries of technology and innovation,” he added.

“As a community-focused conference, Philippine Startup Week showcases the bustling startup scene and brings together the Philippines’ dreamers, thinkers, change-makers, innovators, and entrepreneurs,” said DICT Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II.

PHSW20 features five tracks — Discover, Develop, Collaborate, Invest, and Showcase. It will include three main events by the co-organisers and community events hosted by partner organisations and supported by AWS, Microsoft and Google.

The event is also set to feature startups from different programs, including the Emerge X Regional Pitching Competition led by Microsoft, the Top 100 Startups by QBO, and Seedstars Manila Competition.

Startup topics such as bouncing back from the pandemic, incubators emerging during the pandemic and opportunities for collaboration amidst the adversity, will also be discussed by a panel of seasoned entrepreneurs and industry experts.

Also Read: 3 startups thriving amidst COVID-19 lockdown in the Philippines

QBO Innovation Hub, the country’s first public-private initiative for startups and one of the main organizers of PHSW, will oversee overall operations throughout the conference.

“The PHSW20 this year is dedicated to celebrating significant strides in building a more dynamic startup scene while showcasing achievements of the Philippine entrepreneurial community in powering up the new normal,” said QBO Innovation Hub President Rene Meily.

“This will further position the Philippines as an innovation powerhouse that will ultimately define the future of tech and innovation across Southeast Asia. Just holding this conference in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis is a victory,” added Meily.

For more information, visit the Philippine Startup Week website here or register here to join the event.

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Image Credit: PHSW20

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In 2014, Singapore launched its Smart Nation initiative: a national-level digitalisation and automation master plan that seeks to maximise the country’s digital potential. Through this, Singapore hopes to foster growth and bolster its digital economy.

When it comes to the complex needs of building a Smart Nation, what digital transformation the Singapore government imbues upon its systems and processes must be, to some extent, matched by the private sector’s digital capabilities in order for the country’s collective digital potential to be maximised.

To support this smart nation initiative, network infrastructure must not only be robust and secure, but must also have inbuilt intelligence and reliability to support digitalisation efforts.

One way to deliver such a connectivity solution is software-defined networking (SDN) with Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV).

Digitalisation and automation powered by SDN

The SDN completely changes the game in this space: since it is primarily a software technology, it doesn’t have to yield to the limitations of hardware tech. Its emergence has redefined what it means to implement large-scale computing infrastructure in a completely virtual environment. Through the cloud, what typically takes weeks can now be pushed to the customer at an accelerated rate.

Ushering SDN’s latest technology into the Singapore market is SPTel, a joint venture company of ST Engineering and SP Group. The company is also known for its unique and diverse fibre pathways that combine leased SP Group infrastructure and owned fibre pipes, laid alongside the power network cables, providing enterprises with true network diversity.

SPTel terms this as their business class digital network and through it delivers ICT solutions on an “everything-as-a-service” model. By integrating this with a front-end customer portal and automated backend processes, SPTel has effectively gone digital in their solution offering. This allows customers to receive instant quotations without manual processes to minimize the risk of human errors.

Also read: Amidst uncertainty, digitalisation requires reliable connectivity

With network functions being deployed virtually, additional service requests or upgrades can be completed within minutes instead of days. This increased agility improves the speed at which organisations can react to changing network requirements with on-demand services such as additional bandwidth or cybersecurity.

This also allows for an improved total cost of ownership for the network, with services provisioned on an “as-needed” basis. This allows users to only pay for the bandwidth and services used according to their operational needs, as opposed to spending on oversizing to anticipate occasional peaks.

Susan Loh, VP, Sales, Marketing and Business Development, shares more, “ Our cutting edge digital solutions change the way you think about and plan for your network. By introducing innovative and sustainable commercial models such as dynamic resource allocation, customers can have greater control and clarity over their network expenditure and even optimize their performance as needed to ensure the best digital experience for their customers.”

SPTel’s Business Class Digital Network also provides an added layer of security for its users. This clean pipe network comes with inbuilt DDoS attack detection to alert users of threats on their network. Mitigation can then be done on the fly to minimize the business impact. This is part of a full suite of cyber-solutions that can be provisioned on-demand, including: Virtual Firewall, Virtual Web Application, and Virtual Secure Email Protection.

Holistic digital transformation

To support businesses that are currently operating with segregated teams or work from home arrangements and are struggling to find a solution to extend the secure corporate network environment to the home, SPTel has integrated an SDWAN solution with their Business Class Digital Network. This removes the need for additional VPNs and improving the productivity of segregated teams. IT managers can now monitor network utility, manage network traffic and configurations, and securely connect employees working on their home networks.

This provides users with a one-stop management dashboard that allows them full control over their ICT applications, streamlining security, network traffic, and other controls in one convenient virtual platform.

SPTel’s commitment to digitalisation

SPTel recently partnered up with the Connectech Asia 2020 conference for the inaugural Virtual Connectech Event. The three-day event featured an exciting line-up of speakers and engagement opportunities with players from all across the industry. There, SPTel unveiled their business class digital network, opening doors for organisations and enterprises across Singapore to accelerate their efforts towards digital transformation.

Also read: Malaysia as springboard to the ASEAN: A tech pass for global entrepreneurs

To see their solution in action for yourself, SPTel would like to invite you to request for an Innovation Hub Tour. This tour will provide an exclusive look at their new digital services and network capabilities. Request for a tour here.

At their core, SPTel provides reliable connectivity services as an alternate network provider in Singapore with unique fibre pathways. The digital services provider offers 2-tier network structure that enables data to travel through fewer hops for ultra-low latency performance of less than 1 millisecond island-wide between SPTel’s exchanges. Coupled with their pervasive hubs for edge computing and award-winning IoT-a-a-S platform, SPTel is well poised to be the digital services partner of choice for Singapore.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
SPTel.

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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You’re probably well aware of the effects on ASEAN’s economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but how do you look past the horizon?

For any startup, forging and adapting your long-term vision is imperative to drive success. Even for investors and corporates, understanding how this pandemic’s long-term impact is crucial to making their respective managerial and investment decisions. 

As part of our three-day Vietnam Venture Summit, we gathered industry veterans and policy influencers to get their take on what’s ahead. The summit’s first panel (video) was moderated by Bruce Delteil, Partner at McKinsey in Vietnam with over two decades of international experience.

Panelists included: Dong Jun Im (CEO of Hanwha Life Vietnam), Bernard Thiam Hee Ng (Senior Economist at Asian Development Bank), Steve Okun (CEO of APAC Advisors and ASEAN Rep. to EMPEA), Nam Thieu (General Director of Qualcomm Vietnam), and Jeffrey Joe (Founding Partner Alpha of JWC Ventures).

Disruptions, solutions, and revolutions

Every region was disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak. But while the virus has affected every nation, its timing, degree of shock, and countries’ responses have varied significantly. 

Here are a few key takeaways: Firstly, the pandemic’s economic hysteresis may spur ASEAN’s investment in sustainable infrastructure. Steven Okun had particularly astute observations in this area: fintech wave is moving trends in sustainable initiatives that have been a long time coming in financial inclusion, renewable energy and agritech.

On the same note, Bernard Thiam called for ASEAN to shift policy focus from financial support to transforming the economy with investments in basic, sustainable infrastructure. This yields a smoother transition to near-term job creation and future sustainable growth. 

For instance, although ASEAN’s internet penetration is rising, Indonesia’s 38 per cent of people still don’t have access – that’s over 100 million Indonesians. In a post-pandemic world, we’ll witness accelerated internet penetration as a result of considerable government investments in such areas.

With regards to the green energy facet, the market is largely untapped because ASEAN economies’ renewable power capacity is on average ten per cent lower than that of the Asian average of 34 per cent (Garrett-Peltier, 2017).

Economies in the ASEAN could invest in such infrastructure to support startups and corporations’ ethics-driven business models alike.

Next, a post-COVID world will invariably demand the continuous shift towards digital technologies as a cornerstone of business strategy – no longer making technology a strategic move, but an essential element to growth.

Also read: COMEUP 2020: Ushering the post-pandemic future with startups at the helm

Not only is the success underlined in the e-commerce channels, but also the accommodation of remote workers. In the long term, consumers and businesses will be unprecedentedly reliant on technology for expenditure and day-to-day operations, respectively. 

 Thirdly, emerging ASEAN countries may become an epicentre of labour-intensive manufacturing work. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak during this past March, trade was already regionalising in ASEAN.

Given the increasing geopolitical tensions between today’s gigantic manufacturing hubs and developed economies’ businesses, Nam Thieu can attest to global firms inclined to diversify their sourcing to ASEAN countries– a main motivator for Qualcomm’s recent talent initiatives in the region.

This enticement could be the ASEAN countries’ impetus to the development of labor-intensive manufacturing plants. Case in point, Vietnam has famously become a key manufacturer for Google’s and LG’s globally shipped smartphones. 

Penultimately, the post-COVID age presents a paradigm shift around its digital transformation and political tension between trade and protectionism. Akin to the G10 economies, ASEAN countries will experience increased demand for skilled workers in information technology fields. Vietnam is perfectly placed with its strong pipeline of tech talent, fostered by years of education and retraining by the government.

Jefrey Joe and Steven Okun also commented on the often contradictory factions within the region’s ruling parties: rising nationalist tendencies coexisting with the interest in opening up to trade deals and international competition.  

The catalyst for organisational change

As a startup founder, it’s imperative to reflect on the panelist’s insights within the meaning of your business: the context of your customer’s evolved needs and wants, your startup’s value proposition, and its overall resource-constrained capabilities.

Will your customer’s spending patterns change after the pandemic? Do new delivery channels need to be considered (e.g., switching from physical retail to e-commerce)? Do you need to take safety precautions even after the pandemic, particularly if you offer services that must be performed face-to-face? 

In a future of a technologically adept workforce, it’s important to strategise how you differentiate your product(s) digitally, notably in the light of the user experience and user interface. Supply chain and production capacities will be at the forefront of your mind – especially for resource-intensive startups – since cross-border supply chains will have been disrupted.

Ultimately, it’s crucial to assess where your startup’s business model lies within the aforementioned considerations upon hearing the panelist’s insights on the macroeconomic status of the ASEAN economy.

The learning doesn’t end here

The Vietnam Venture Summit is the (semi-virtual) place to be if you’re yearning for answers about how to navigate your startup beyond these turbulent times. You’ll have the opportunity to hear from ASEAN’s top CEOs, investors, and Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister.

With contributions from Timo Fukar

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