India’s business communities are afraid of speaking out against state-sponsored violence because they are afraid they will be targetted by fringe elements

Dear startups and entrepreneurs in India,

Let me tell this to your face: your silence on the increasing lynching incidents in India is DEAFENING and extremely WORRYING.

I have often wondered — and felt disappointed — that how you people, who have navigated choppy waters in life and silenced your critics to become a brand on your own, cannot speak out against “state-sponsored” violences, which have been on the rise in the past few years? How can you be a mute spectator to the brutal and barbaric killings of our fellow human beings in the name of religion and ideology and for the crimes they have not committed? Why don’t you speak out against those who take law into their hands?

Is it that you are afraid that your business will be targeted by right-wing elements in our society? Or are you scared that you will be called anti-national and asked to go to Pakistan (which is perceived as our enemy) if you call out the complicity of the current dispensation, led by an authoritarian and ultra-nationalist prime minister?

If the answer is ‘yes’, let me tell you that you are a coward, or I would say you are no different from those who perpetrate attacks on innocent people.

Also Read: 8 common legal mistakes made by entrepreneurs

Tabrez Ansari, a 24-year-old from our neighbouring State, was very much like you and me with many dreams. He was recently married and was in the city of Ranchi to visit one of his relatives. He is no more with us. He was lynched by a few goons on the suspicions of theft. As per multiple reports, Ansari was tied to an electric post and brutally thrashed with sticks by a mob in the Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharsawan district last Wednesday. He succumbed to injuries on Saturday. A video footage shows he was forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman” before being murdered — the very Gods that we invoke and pray to every day. And what is more disgusting is that the state machinery, which was supposed to protect him, did NOTHING to save his life.

And he left this world. He definitely is a victim of our hypocrisy.

Ansari’s was not the first incident, nor is it going to be the last. You may remember dairy farmer Pehlu Khan, who was beaten to death by a group of 200 cow vigilantes affiliated with right-wing Hindutva groups in Alwar in Rajasthan in 2017. You may also recollect Mohammed Akhlaq, a 52-year-old man who was killed by a violent mob for suspicion of slaughtering a cow in 2015. You may also not have forgotten the numerous incidents in which Dalits (those living in the lower stratum of the society) were killed by violent mobs in the recent years in the name of cow smuggling in the last five years.

Whenever I hear or read about such incidents, my head hangs in shame. And I cannot keep my mouth shut when people get killed for no reasons. Be it a terror attack or a mob attack, violence has no place in a civilised society.

I know it is tough to take a stand especially when an authoritarian government is always preying on us. I know that you and your business may be targetted for voicing out your opinion and calling out the government’s response to such issues, or lack of it. I also know you may be trolled and abused by right-wing or extremist elements for speaking against them. Worse, the government itself could abuse its power to target you, like what Snapdeal had to go through when its brand ambassador Aamir Khan spoke about increasing intolerance in the country (people boycotted and uninstalled the e-commerce app en masse and a Union Minister was seen boasting about this incident).

But, still, you need to take a stand. We cannot be cowards and bury our heads in the sand. To take a strong stand requires a lot of character and boldness.

It doesn’t mean, however, you should express your views on anything and everything that doesn’t really concern you, but lest we forget — that as a responsible citizen, it is our responsibility to question the government when it goes wrong or when it fails its people.

Maybe, your individual voice may not be heard but you can do a lot as a community. You should at the very least issue a press statement condemning such incidents. You have a lot of influential figures among you. Your condemnation will move them at least a few of them.

Once again, violence has no place in a civilised society. And being silent is amount to being complicit.

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Photo by Alejo Reinoso on Unsplash

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Tokopedia highlights the importance of research validation and working with local partners for its localisation strategy

As a nation, Indonesia is so diverse that it is often said that expanding to Indonesia is equal to expanding to 34 different markets at the same time, as each province possesses its own unique nature and challenges.

Several Southeast Asian startups that had been aiming for Indonesia in their expansion plan have had to retreat and reconsider their strategy once they realised how big this market actually is.

Localisation itself has always been championed as a crucial part of a company’s expansion plan — and what better ways to learn about localisation strategy, particularly in marketing, than those who had done it well?

Enter Tokopedia, one of Indonesia’s four unicorns and the country’s leading e-commerce, fintech, and digital products platform.

By November 2018, the platform had secured over 90 million monthly active users and reached out to 93 per cent of districts in the archipelago.

As it enters its first decade, Tokopedia is being run by 2,800 employees, with over 100 million products listed on their platform. It is being used by four million merchants to facilitate promotions, sales, and transactions.

To get a better understanding of how the company builds its localisation strategy,  e27 sits down with VP of Brand and Marketing Andi Djoewarsa, who explains the idea and process behind their moves.

Also Read: Tokopedia reportedly raises fresh US$1 billion funding

Embracing changes

Djoewarsa begins our conversation by pointing out how the term artis ibukota — glamorous celebrity from the capital city of Jakarta — does not appear so often anymore in daily conversations among Indonesians.

“This is because every person, every city [in Indonesia] has their very own unique identities. Jakarta used to be the centre of fashion and entertainment, but nowadays youths in Bandung or Jogjakarta do not wish to be compared to Jakarta anymore. Even in Cirebon, [businesses] are selling different products than those in Jakarta. Their radio stations are playing the different Top 40 hits,” he said.

“Their preference has experienced an evolution, and it is thanks to the internet,” he stressed.

This is why, in building its localisation strategy, first and foremost Tokopedia puts an emphasis in identifying these changes, before the company can finally get to start developing a plan.

“Everybody is now connected to each other; what we thought we knew about people and their stereotypes has become a blur. You may not know who your next-door neighbour is, but you may know someone in Celebes who likes photography as much as you do. These changes make everything more complex and personalised, and it all happened because of technology,” Djoewarsa said.

Online and offline

Tokopedia’s localisation strategy is being divided into two fronts: the online through the platform, and offline through the initiatives that the company is making to reach out to its (potential) users.

Djoewarsa explains that the platform itself has already been able to localise on an individual level by implementing deep learning, and understanding the tastes and preferences of each users through their searches on their platform.

Also Read: Happened in Indonesia: Tokopedia launches new app, Sikumis raises follow-on funding

“When the platform is smart enough … marketing will be all about justifying why we are operating in Indonesia,” he says.

On the offline side, Tokopedia has been running MAKERFEST, a curated marketplace and exhibition of products and ideas by small businesses in eight cities in Indonesia.

Having received applications from 1,500 small businesses, Tokopedia then shortlisted them into 24 finalists, with three businesses representing each city. The event is set to peak on December 15-16, when Tokopedia is going to name the three winners. The first prize winner will receive an IDR1 billion (US$70,000) cash prize; all finalists will also receive a mentoring on everything that they need to know about starting a business — from marketing to products photography.

“We designed MAKERFEST in such a way that it is able to represent regions outside of Jakarta, enabling merchants to gain greater exposure,” Djoewarsa describes.

In running MAKERFEST, Tokopedia is working together with various local partners. Apart from local event organising companies, which helped Tokopedia identify local trends in running a successful event, the company also works with TopCommunity, a community of merchants who are selling their products on its platform.

“TopCommunity helps us by encouraging their friends to become part of Tokopedia. Two days before every MAKERFEST, we arrange a meeting with them to have a two-way dialogue about how to run a business better,” Djoewarsa says.

The DNA

So what are the processes that Tokopedia had to go through before coming up with initiatives such as MAKERFEST?

Djoewarsa explains that there are three points that are being considered as part of the company’s DNA: Consumer-centrism; make it happen and make it better; and growth mindset.

Also Read: Tokopedia, OVO team up to offer the payment service on the e-commerce platform

“Before we think about revenue, we need to think about which part of consumers’ pain points that we have managed to solve? The more problem we solve, the stronger our economy is, as we do not only care for our platforms,” he says.

“Localisation is aimed to solve this problem,” he adds.

He further explains the four points that startup founders need to consider before building their strategy.

1. Your positioning as a brand

“What are the things that you have promised to give to the society?”

2. Your differentiation

“What kind of differentiation do we need in order to build that positioning?”

3. Your competitor(s)

“What are the things that they offer that we have not managed to offer yet? How can we close this gap, in order to fulfill our customers’ needs?”

4. Your customers’ needs

“There are internal factors that we can get hold of, and external factors that we have no control of. Here are the things that are within our control: Our technology, marketing, distribution, our DNA. While the things that are beyond our control are the macroeconomy, political sentiments, competitors’ movement. You need to be able to look at these two things before coming up with a plan.”

Research is certainly a crucial part in building a company’s localisation strategy. Coming in both qualitative and quantitative forms, Djoewarsa warns against being too dependent on what is written on paper.

“It is still very important to get on the fields to validate the data,” he says.

“We are often being trapped in a system where we were led to believe that we know it all, just by looking at the numbers of PowerPoint,” he elaborates.

Also Read: Tokopedia expands fintech offering with the launch of gold trading service

Growing pains

When asked about the greatest challenge that the company has faced in building their localisation strategy, Djoewarsa says that the hardest part is actually in executing the plan itself.

“You can build strategy based on the things that you have done before, especially since we have been running for almost 10 years now. We already have all the data, as we happen to be an e-commerce company,” he says.

In building its localisation strategy, and running the business in general, Djoewarsa pointed out that there are three things that startup founders need to avoid: Getting tired to easily, having lack of grit, and discontinuing their own learning process.

“Realistically, if they have never made any mistake, then it would be impossible for them to make progress. It is all about how to learn from these mistakes,” he closes.

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This article was first published on e27 on December 12, 2018.

Image Credit: Tokopedia

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The investment will be focussed on GrabFood and Grab Financial Services

Invesco, an American investment management company, has plunged an additional US$300 million into Grab. The additional investment brings their total stake in the Southeast Asian ride hailing firm to US$703 million.

The money will be used to “accelerate expansion” in Southeast Asia. In particular, the investment will focus on GrabFood and Grab Financial Group (the financial services product under Grab).

Grab is focussed on these two services because they are relatively new but showed positive traction metrics. Thus, according to a spokesperson, Grab is doubling down on the two products in order to take advantage of the current growth momentum.

The original US$403 million was actually invested by a New York City financial managment company named OppenheimerFunds. Invesco acquired the company — and the Grab stake — back in July 2018.

““We are very excited to increase our stake in Grab and support their endeavour of bringing more everyday services, greater accessibility and convenience to users in Southeast Asia,” said Invesco Team Leader and Senior Portfolio Manager Justin Leverenz in a statement.

Also Read: Grab invests in UK-based Splyt, enabling worldwide ride-hailing service

This week has seen a lot of movement on the Grab investment front.

The company invested in its British counterpart Splyt. As part of the deal, in the coming year Grab users will be able to book rides beyond Southeast Asia via Splyt’s partner network.

Additionally, Apple confirmed this week that it has acquired Drive.ai, a struggling autonomous vehicle technology company. Grab Ventures had invested in Drive.ai.

Also Read: Go-Jek investor Warburg Pincus sets up new US$4.25B fund for China, Southeast Asia

In the past week, Invesco went through a major restructuring as 12 Portfolio Managers left the firm. It was related to the final close of the OpeenheimerFunds acquisition mentioned above.

Invesco is the sixth largest American retail investment manager and has US$1.2 trillion assets under management.

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Avoid these common mistakes that might sink your startup early or cripple its growth

When you start a business venture or a startup, there are 101 things that could go wrong. There is no denying to the fact that how much good the prospects of business is, there is always a chance that things might go south.

One of the most common methods of that happening is to get involved in legal matters that may be out of bounds for you. Most of the entrepreneurs are not very aware of the various legal proceedings and may need counsel to navigate through any such complications.

Having a lawyer is naturally the best method to negate any such issues as their experience in this particular matter is unparalleled. However, due to budget constraints, it might always not be possible to do so.

Alternatively, there are courses offered to entrepreneurs that can help them guide through the basic legal matters mainly by creating awareness about ways to negate it. Here are some common legal mistakes that entrepreneurs tend to make, especially early in their career.

• Postpone legal dealings– First and foremost, in case you get an inkling that something is amiss legally, you should address the matter immediately. Do not keep it for consideration for sometime later as it might escalate quickly beyond your control and you will be left licking your wounds. Thus, don’t delay it unnecessarily.

• Not incorporating early – Sometimes a business is founded by more than one partner and they disappear immediately after the foundations are laid. Later, when the venture takes off, they come back with an inflated view of their contributions and ask for equity of the same value. Avoid this problem by making sure that incorporation is done early and shares are divided among the founders which can be subjected to vesting.

• Not issuing shares for vesting – To add on to the previous point, if the founders are assigned shares and not subjected to vesting, the earlier situation might again creep up and they may stake a claim at the equity again. So, not only issuing the shares but also taking the next necessary step of vesting completes the legal procedure entirely.

• Hiring an inexperienced lawyer – in case you can afford a lawyer, be smart in hiring one. If you make the mistake of hiring a lawyer who is inexperienced to deal with startup matters, you are basically shooting yourself on the feet. There is one more angle to it. Some investors tend to put money into your organizations only after checking who is going to take care of the legal matters. Thus, investments get indirectly affected by hiring one of less repute.

Also Read: 3 legal problems online marketers could run into

• Negotiating investments based on valuations – The valuation of a company is not the only thing that can bring capitalists to it. There are many other attached ways to compensate them in case they are paying an inflated price for the shares. The cumulative dividends and the redemption rights are also good compensatory tools, so it should be brought to the picture as smartly as possible.

• Unnecessarily waiting for property protection internationally – Every country has different patent and trademark laws. For example, in the US, if you disclose your business plan, you still have a year to file a patent, while in Japan, if you disclose similarly but a patent has not been filed previously, it loses its ability to be patented. Thus, be aware of the laws in your country and stick to it religiously.

• Not making people sign a nondisclosure agreement before disclosing a project – This has the potential to spell doom for your business as your idea can go to a potential competitor even before you start working on it. It is especially applicable for cases where protection through the patent is unavailable. Thus, ensure that a nondisclosure agreement is duly signed.

Also Read: The biggest legal traps startups fall into

• Making things easier for competitors – In case you start your business while being an employee of a company that can be your direct competitor or hiring someone from a competitor company are the two ways of making it easy for your competitors to bring you down. Being careful is a potent way of avoidance here.

All these tips are invaluable while dealing with legal matters as an entrepreneur. Follow them and you will not have to face any legal complications anytime.

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

Image Credit : dolgachov

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Per the ride-hailing company’s statement, the appointment of Kotwal signals its commitment to business intelligence and data science capabilities

Mobile on-demand service and payments platform Go-Jek today announced the appointment of Gautam Kotwal as Group Chief Data Officer. Kotwal will be based in Singapore and report to Kevin Aluwi, Co-Founder at Go-Jek.

In his new role, Kotwal will bring aboard more than 20 years of Silicon Valley experience of leadership roles in engineering, data analytics, and machine learning. He will be responsible for managing Go-Jek’s overall data strategy and teams across business intelligence, data engineering, data science, and fraud.

In addition to that, Kotwal will provide an integrated oversight for all data-related functions at Go-Jek, an area that is deemed central to key business decision-making and unlocking new opportunities for the platform and its stakeholders.

Kevin Aluwi, GOJEK Co-Founder, said: “Kotwal will play a key role in expanding GOJEK’s data capabilities. We believe that data, in combination with creative thinking and analysis, has the power to create solutions to problems faced by our users, partners, and economies. It’s a high time for us to capitalise on our exponential growth in the region and ramp up our efforts with more sophisticated data capabilities.”

Before joining the unicorn, Kotwal was the Chief Analytics Data Officer at Albertsons, he also held data, analytics, and engineering leadership positions at Kohl’s and Netflix. In fact, Kotwal was one of the early engineers on the Netflix Streaming team.

Also Read: Neuron Mobility expands to Australia, to operate 600 e-scooters in Brisbane

“Go-Jek is using technology to solve some of the most impactful consumer challenges in Southeast Asia, something which is aligned with my passion for scaling complex systems efficiently,” said Kotwal.

Currently, Indonesia-based Go-Jek said that it has 3,000 employees in its data function spanning technology, operational, and administrative roles.
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The winners will receive a trip to Beijing, participate in a week-long boot camp, and secure a spot to pitch on the international stage

She Loves Tech, a global women- and technology-focused competition, is back in the Philippines for a second run on August 3, 2019 at QBO Innovation Hub.

Any women-led or women-impact businesses can join the competition. Deadline for applications is on July 1, 2019.

The criteria to participate in this competition are: 1) startups which are seeking angel, seed or Series A round funding (under US$5M funding raised) with, at minimum, a viable product past its conceptual stage; 2) any entrepreneur, male or female, who is using technology to impact women positively, or at least one female entrepreneur must be part of the founding team who is using technology to solve a problem; and 3) startups which use science and innovation to invent useful things to solve problems, particularly in fintech, AI & Big Data, Internet of Things, medtech, clean energy, agritech, edtech, and consumer tech.

Also Read: Grab adds US$300M to warchest with Invesco funding

The winners of the Philippine round will receive a trip to Beijing, China where they will attend the She Loves Tech 2019 International Conference, participate in a week-long boot camp, secure a spot to pitch on the international stage, and gain networking opportunities with China’s leading tech ecosystem players.

They will also get investment opportunities from She Loves Tech’s official venture partner Teja Ventures and other affiliate funds.

The Philippines is lauded for having one of the narrowest gender-gaps in the world, but the same can’t be said for the tech industry. The local startup ecosystem remains male dominated with women accounting for only 18 per cent of startup founders. Closing this gap could prove to have considerable economic benefits — with some studies showing that female-founded startups outperform their all-male counterparts in terms of revenue, ringing in as much as US$68,000 more over a five-year period.

Also Read: Go-Jek investor Warburg Pincus sets up new US$4.25B fund for China, Southeast Asia

“We’ve been vigilant in our efforts to improve the participation of female founders in the startup ecosystem through our Startup Pinay program, and we’re happy to be furthering this push by continuing our support for She Loves Tech,” said Katrina Chan, Director of QBO Innovation Hub. “Last year’s winner, Olivia, with the support of DOST did the Philippines proud in the global competition. I’m looking forward to meeting the startups who will vie for the prize this year and seeing more lady bosses take the stage.”

She Loves Tech is an initiative showcasing the convergence of the latest trends in technology, entrepreneurship, innovation and the opportunities it creates for women. The program is designed to give the world’s most promising women tech entrepreneurs and women impact startups an opportunity to showcase their businesses to a global audience of investors and influencers.

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Singapore will pick a telco to be the first to mass-market 5G networks by the end of the first quarter of next year, the first step in a broader rollout

Singapore to invest US$30M in 5G tests ahead of 2020 rollout [Reuters]

Singapore on Thursday launched a S$40 million (US$29.5 million) initiative to test applications for 5G networks, the next generation of mobile communications, ahead of a planned rollout next year.

The project, unveiled by Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran, will test the network in areas such as port management, manufacturing and consumer applications as the city-state looks to be “a global front-runner in impactful 5G use cases”.

Also Read: The 5G bandwagon: legal and regulatory implications

Singapore will pick a telecoms company to be the first to mass-market 5G networks by the end of the first quarter of next year, the first step in a broader rollout, Iswaran told journalists after the announcement.

Fave strengthens appoints Jason Tan as CFO, Jake Abdullah as MD (Malaysia) [press release]

Fave, an online loyalty and payments platform, has appointed Jason Tan has as its new Chief Financial Officer and Jake Abdullah as new Managing Director for Malaysia.

The appointments of both Tan and Abdullah come during a period of accelerated growth for Fave in the areas of growth, merchant acquisition, and new services expansion. In 2018, the loyalty and payments platform raised US$20 million in Series B funding led by investors Sequoia Capital, Venturra Capital and SIG. This was then followed by the acquiring and acqui-hiring of F&B startups, WAAVE, CutQ and FoodTime in Singapore and Malaysia in May 2019.

Fintech startup Recko raises US$1M from Prime Venture Partners [press release]

Recko, a fintech startup that enables AI-powered reconciliation of digital transactions, has raised US$1 million in seed funding from Prime Venture Partners.

The fintech startup has built a SaaS-based reconciliation product that keeps track of the complete transaction lifecycle and commercial contracts for organisations. Emerging out of stealth, Recko also announced that it is at a run rate of reconciling a quarter billion transactions annually.

In the first 12 months since launch, Recko has reconciled transactions worth US$2B and is looking to scale this by 10x in the next year.

Indonesia’s Alami comes in second in the Taqwatech Pitch Pit [DigitalNewsAsia]

Alami Fintek Sharia (Alami) came in as the runner-up position in the TaqwaTech Pitch Pit organised by Gobi Partners Venture Capital.

The competition, which began in May 2019, targeted startups from various Muslim-based industries.

Three companies from Indonesia qualified for the top ten, namely Alami, as well as two marketplace startups for pilgrimage services PergiUmroh.com and Umroh.com.

TaqwaTech is a startup competition that offers products and services for Muslim consumers (B2C), businesses (B2B), or communities around the world. As part of Malaysia Tech Week, this competition presented funding opportunities of up to US$1 million (RM4.14 million) to winning startups.

eziPOD announces partnership with Shoe Mo [press release]

eziPOD, the 24/7 smart locker laundry service, has announced a partnership with shoe and sneaker care Shoe Mo to expand its service to shoe cleaning under one app to offer convenience to Malaysians.

Also Read: eziPOD’s smart laundry locker doubles as your courier delivery point and personal storage

With eziPOD’s recent partnership with Shoe Mo, users can drop their dirty shoes off at the eziPOD smart lockers, where the company would pick them up and deliver them to ShoeMo for processing. eziPOD will then pick the cleaned shoes up and deliver them back to the smart lockers, ready to be picked up by the user.

On top of that, eziPOD is aiming to launch a parcel feature where users can collect their parcels from the eziPOD locker, after courier services drop them off.

 

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Nandoo aims to redefine the wellness to fit into the modern routine of millennials and turn this experience into an actual lifestyle and community

Millennials prefer jobs that help boost their personal and professional skills. But when their work doesn’t allow that, it makes them dissatisfied and leads to stress.

A study by health insurance firm Cigna TKK reveals that nearly 95 per cent of Indian millennials admitted to being stressed primarily due to work. After logging long working hours, they find it hard to juggle work and personal life, finds this study.

“I have two sisters-in-law, one a professional and the other a student. They have no time to take care of their health or well-being when they get home,” says Mihir Shinde. “Their examples triggered me to think of developing a product that could help millennials enhance their mind and soul. This is when my friends and I decided to leverage our combined experiences and expertise in mobile app development and partnerships to create a unique wellness-based app.”

Nandoo, as the app is named, was launched in 2018 by Shinde and Yashika Shah, along with US citizens Han Lin and Jaime Cajamarca. With offices in New York and Mumbai, Nandoo helps Indian professionals enhance their mind, body and soul.

Also Read: Why sexual wellness is the next frontier for entrepreneurs

“All of us have at least once felt left out in a small talk conversation at work or had this like crazy passive aggressive enmity with that one colleague and we want do everything in power to stand out. We decided to create Nandoo to help you beat all such enemies. We help our users in developing an uber-enhanced mind, body and soul in terms of wellness,” says Shinde.

This is how the app works. The Mind Wellness feature on the app gives you a breakdown of what’s going on in the world with a fresh, fun take to strengthen the mind. Articles covered in the past include “Why you can’t listen to Cardi Ben & Bruno bhai on Spotify India” or “Why Norway is the cleanest & dirtiest country in the world”.

On the other hand, Soul Wellness helps in controlling and steadying your breathing to manage stress and strengthen the soul. It is a relaxing feature that helps you guide your breathing in a simplified format.

Body Wellness means you consistently walk for 10 minutes every day and compete against other users on leaderboards. The app has small rewards associated to keep the motivation up.

“We are redefining wellness to fit into the modern routine of our Nandoo-ers and turn this experience into an actual lifestyle and community,” he says

But there are quite a few life coaches and motivators around the world. How would you find a space among the crowd?

“Well, we have several features that help us stand out. One is localisation. This means the app is catered to make a typical Indian millennial feel he/she is speaking with a friend. The way we write and present things on our app, it is all in Hinglish (Hindi + English). Our name is extremely Indian. Our competitors are so focused on coming across as a global brand that they lose their Indian essence and thus, connection with the Indian millennial diaspora,” he elaborates.

“Secondly we keep an extremely chill approach and vibe to wellness and health. This can be seen in everything we do — from our UI, UX, voice to even our name. On the other hand, our competitors are focused on the tactic of using shame to making members stick around and use their apps,” he adds.

Nandoo’s goal is to utilise the power of a mobile phone to motivate people to further enhance themselves. “While in the future we are looking into incorporating interesting coaches, right now we want you to get hooked to the idea of it is okay (& not self-indulgent) to think about your wellness first before anything else. This is a tough nut to crack because we have grown up with the mindset of “I will work till I am super tired and rest when I retire”. Well, guess what, if you don’t take care of yourself right now, you are most certainly not going to enjoy life – forget about retirement! If you think about it, we are using the YOLO model but for the good,” he Shinde says.

The app is targeting only individual professionals and has no plans to cater to corporates, he adds. “This is because we have a counter culture persona – as in, we are cutting through the crap to tell you the real deal and motivate you in the same way to become the best you. Partnering and working with corporates dilutes our messaging. This is of course a longer process to get Nandoo-ers hooked, but we are in this for the long run so we are more than happy & patient to play the long game.”

Also Read: Meet Kaede Takenaka, the 10-year-old CEO of Thai blockchain startup KIDLetCoin

According to Shinde, if Nandoo can reach the 50 per cent of the stressed out millennials — which is around 200 million –that itself is a huge market. At the moment, Nandoo has 283,000 users, of which 82 per cent came through word of mouth, he claims.

Self-funded so far, Nandoo will start looking for VC funding once it has hit the internal metrics that it has set internally.

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Electric scooters are not only cheaper but they also are a more environmentally-friendly means of commuting

So you’ve made it in Southeast Asia! Your family is wealthy after years of economic growth and rising incomes! Sitting in your Mercedes S Class, you snap selfies dressed in designer clothes while listening to music on Spotify from your iPhone… life couldn’t be better? But wait, actually there are two big problems. Firstly, your Mercedes is stuck in gridlocked traffic. Secondly, you’re inhaling carcinogenic chemicals daily from polluted city air.

Such an experience represents the unfortunate irony of Southeast Asia’s economic success. While the region’s GDP and income levels have risen dramatically thanks to rapid economic development, it now suffers from crippling traffic congestion and cancer-causing air pollution even the wealthy can’t avoid.

The key culprit? Gasoline-powered transport. As family incomes rise, we all first buy motorcycles which we later upgrade to cars as we become even wealthier. Did you know that most of the Japanese motorcycles sold in Southeast Asia would never be allowed for sale in Europe, the US, or even Japan for that matter? They are too polluting; we get the dirtier motorcycles because emissions standards are much lower in most Southeast Asian countries for motorcycles (except Singapore).

Also, given Southeast Asia’s tendency to develop megacities with high population density, the transport lifestyle that works in less densely populated parts of Europe or the USA just don’t work out here. Everybody can’t own a car in Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, or Ho Chi Minh without creating snarling traffic and horrendous pollution.

As shown in the tables below, residents of Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, and Hanoi waste about an hour or more in traffic every day. Even Singaporeans waste 30 minutes per day in traffic. Just searching for parking wastes another 20 minutes or more for most Southeast Asian city dwellers.

 

What’s the point of economic wealth if you have to breathe dirty air and waste hours a day stuck in traffic? It’s a disaster.

Thankfully, a confluence of two technology trends, electric vehicles (EV) and “micromobility”, is emerging to save the day.

Micromobility, a term coined by Apple analyst Horace Dedi, refers to travel of less than eight kilometres. As Uber’s CEO said recently, “During rush hour, it is very inefficient for a one-ton hulk of metal to take one person 10 blocks”. We don’t need to be driving cars designed for high-speed road trips through the Alps every day, because usually we just need to travel short distances to and from work, school, or shopping malls.

According to research by CB Insights, 60 per cent of trips in the USA. are less than five miles in distance and can be replaced by micromobility solutions such as electric bikes and scooters. Within Southeast Asia’s dense megacities, we imagine that this percentage is much higher.

Also Read: Grab launches GrabTukTuk Electric in Chiang Mai for greener transportation

This is why, while electric cars and AI-powered self-driven vehicles make for sexy headlines, it’s actually the humble electric scooter that will create the most meaningful impact for Southeast Asia within the next few years.

Electric scooters are inexpensive and can be easily charged at any electrical socket, or with cheap removable batteries. Falling battery costs and improved charging efficiency means that soon there won’t be any excuse why we can’t replace most gasoline motorcycles with EV, and even replace many of our car trips with an EV 2-wheeler alternative.

Micromobility solutions are magnitudes more efficient than their larger or gas-powered counterparts. Analysis by Wired found that one-kilowatt hour of energy can only get a traditional gas automobile 1.3 kilometres while electric automobiles can achieve a better 6.6 kilometres. E-scooters, however, can travel 133 kilometres on the same amount of energy – approximately 20x more efficient than electric cars and 102x better than traditional gas-powered cars. They also reduce traffic congestion due to their smaller form factor.

According to a recent study by Mckinsey, an electric scooter can make its cost back in just four months and represents the most cost-effective form of transport for short distances.

Micromobility solutions are rapidly being adopted globally. According to Lime public data from the US, 30 per cent of their riders recently replaced an automobile trip with an e-scooter ride, while 27 per cent of their riders in urban cities used an e-scooter to connect to public transportation on their most recent trip.

Countries in Asia are experiencing similar adoption trends. Shared bikes are now the third most popular mode of public transportation in China, while other countries in Asia like Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea have also seen strong traction, according to CB Insights.

Southeast Asia won’t be excluded from the global EV micromobility trend. We met with China’s Niu Technologies, a NASDAQ-listed producer of electric scooters, a couple of weeks ago to discuss their international ambitions and Southeast Asia in particular. According to data presented by Niu, Southeast Asia’s EV 2-wheeler market is indeed on the cusp of a massive expansion thanks to the factors outlined above. The company expects Southeast Asia’s EV 2-wheeler market size to expand by over 400% from 2017 to US$2.5 billion of annual revenue in 2022.

EV 2-wheelers thus represent a multi-billion dollar new market for Southeast Asian tech companies, and interestingly it’s a unicorn-sized near term revenue opportunity that does not yet have any established players.

Japanese incumbent motorcycle producers are way behind in EV and won’t be ready with anything significant in the next couple years, while Chinese producers have yet to establish a major foothold in the region and are yet to produce a 2-wheeler designed for Southeast Asia’s particular requirements (As compared to China, Southeast Asian consumers need higher speed and range, plus the ability for their vehicle to manage hot climates).

Hence EV micromobility not only represents a solution to Southeast Asia’s traffic congestion and air pollution but also represents a multi-billion dollar revenue opportunity for innovative new companies. In addition to Chinese companies, regional players such as Vinfast in Vietnam, Viar in Indonesia, and Scorpio Electric in Singapore (who we work closely with as an advisor) are all moving full speed to capture this massive revenue opportunity.

Also Read: Dyson confirms to develop electric vehicle in Singapore-based production facility

According to Joel Chang, COO of Scorpio Electric, “Electric two-wheelers in Southeast Asia represent a multi-billion dollar opportunity where EV companies such as ours can not only do good for society but also do well as a business. With our Singapore-made motorcycle designed specifically for Southeast Asia, we aim to be one of the early-movers converting the region towards mobility that’s not only cleaner and greener, but also tech-enabled, fun, and sexy like a Tesla.”

No matter which companies manage to win and capture Southeast Asia’s EV micromobility revolution, their success will not only create new tech unicorns for investors but also cleaner air and less traffic for us all. We see truly healthy profits ahead for the industry.

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Image Credit : Andrew Poplavsky

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The newly minted unicorn from Singapore continues to expand its retail portfolio with this latest addition

Singapore-based unicorn Trax has added another retail company to its portfolio with the acquisition of Shopkick, a California-based shopping rewards app. The value spent on the buyout is not disclosed, Bloomberg reported.

Shopkick will continue to operate as an independent unit.

Shopkick allows its users to shop and earn rewards and gift cards by browsing online offers, watching videos, walking into stores or scanning product barcodes on shelves.

Shopkick is owned by SK Telecom Co. after it acquired the company for US$200 million in 2014.

With its approach, Shopkick provides data and insights into customer behaviour and loyalty for clients such as EBay Inc., General Electric Co., Lego, and Unilever in what the company called “bringing together shelf and shopper data.”

“It will deliver new insights to consumer-packaged-goods brands and retailers,” said Trax CEO Joel Bar-El.

Also Read: P2P lending platform KoinWorks raises US$16.5M in Series B funding round

Trax has just finalised an additional US$100 million at a pre-money valuation of about US$1.1 billion, aiming it at financing acquisitions, including Beijing-based computer vision startup LenzTech Co.

Besides that, Trax is reportedly also in talks to buy a European competitor.

Trax has shared that it plans an initial public offering in 18 to 24 months to come as it is in talks with Singapore Exchange Ltd. for a potential dual listing after the local bourse approached the company.

Co-founded in Singapore by Bar-El and partner Dror Feldheim in 2010, Trax currently operates in more than 50 countries and has shareholders such as private equity firm Warburg Pincus, Chinese private equity firm Boyu Capital, and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte.

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