Flourishing in the “same same but different” continent

Between the Asian and Western (US and Europe) markets, the latter was once considered the more lucrative option of the two whereas the former was dubbed as slow-paced and laggard.

But this concept has changed dramatically over the past decade.

More and more international giants have steadily set foot on the Asian soil and are continuing to do so.

Asia now holds many profitable business prospects given its changing economic scenario — the steady progression of its countries are now leading more people to embrace technology.

Hence, there is a huge untapped potential in the developing Asian markets due to the surplus of mobile devices, internet accessibility, and cloud technology.

That being said, the big commercial ventures that have been successful in the Western markets have not yet been able to obtain a stronghold in Asian markets.

In fact, many businesses have tasted failure when they set foot there.

Why? That is because they have failed to alter themselves to better suit the Asian market.

See, Asia is a diverse community where preferences change every mile.

The local customs and traditions are so varied that businesses need to make a complete change in their marketing strategy or partner with local businesses in order to secure a place in the Asian markets.

Let’s see what challenges business ventures face when they decide to enter the Asian markets.

1. Which country?

First, know that each country in Asia is different.

India, China, Indonesia, and Japan — all these countries share very little in common from the language spoken to the food consumed.

In Asia, businesses have to use a step-by-step approach; taking one country at a time.

Once they familiarise themselves with one country, making a business mark on the second would be more easy and comfortable.

2. Similar yet so diverse

As pointed out before, Asian countries seem similar to outsiders but are in fact vastly different. Thus, businesses will have to sort out or alter their plans for each country based on local preferences.

Take McDonald’s for example. The fast-food giant famous for its non-vegetarian menus had to insert vegetarian meals when it entered India.

In a similar vein, Subway segregated its vegetarian menu from the non-vegetarian menu to avoid offending Indian sentiments.

Culture is the defining point of making a good entry into the Asian markets.

Imagine McDonald’s entering the Indian market with a completely non-vegetarian menu. Would it have been able to taste success with such a strategy?

So it is simple.

What works for the US and European markets might not necessarily work for the Asian markets.

3. Local competition

If you want to succeed in the Asian market you will have to deal with the stiff local competition.

Local businesses have flourished in their markets because they have a better understanding of the local preferences.

An Uber would not work in a country like Indonesia simply because locals prefer the two-wheeler ride here. That is because it is cheaper and easier to commute in the traffic snarls than hitch a four-wheeler ride on the roads.

This is where local businesses come into play.

They understand the local challenges better and design their businesses around it.

4. Payment options

Asia is a place that uses cash as its main mode of payment. And because of that, many businesses have failed to take off in Asian countries.

Therefore, the wise thing to do is to start accepting payments in cash. Remember that the card-only mode of payment would never work in Asia.

Another challenge is that of online shopping.

Also Read: Why brands fail on e-commerce and what they can do about it

Till businesses start to accept cash on delivery as a mode of payment, it will certainly find few takers in the Asian market.

5. Political challenges

The governments in Asia are very finicky when it comes to foreign investments.

Recently, many countries have tweaked their rules and regulations to be more inviting, of which cyber and encryption laws are included.

With the many cases of cyber data misuse, the Asian governments demand that the customer databases be maintained in their respective countries only.

These new laws on data protection have to be adhered to.

Also Read: On Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics: How Group-IB is Reshaping What We Know

The fake news issue on our social media platforms is another grave challenge that businesses have to resolve before entering the Asian markets.

This, in turn, requires sharing the customer database with the local authorities so that they have full control to monitor content closely.

6. Local mobilisation

For effective business strategy, it is wise for international businesses to align their interests with the local partners.

This will help them initially to gain ground and lay a strong foundation.

The local recruitments and the sourcing of raw materials also become easy once they partner with a local team which will help take care of rules and regulations.

The fragmentation found in Asian countries has definitely been a challenge that any business would face when trying to gain entry there.

Thus, this has to be rectified by finding trustworthy local partners.

Conclusion

Setting foray into Asian markets is easier said than done.

It is beyond the obligatory handshakes and the bows.

Many-a-times, you will need to micro-manage things to resolve disputes at the initial stages itself before it gets into a full-fledged problem.

Asia is every businessman’s dream. It is developing much faster than any other European or American nations.

Just get your priorities and risk recognition in check and seize this golden time to penetrate the Asian markets!

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Image credit: www.pexels.com

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

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Remind yourself of the inner 10-year-old boy or girl and the sense of possibility that exists in their young brains

In 2019, the biggest challenge the global community faces is not climate change, frustrating politics or income inequality. It is the sense of creeping cynicism, a propensity to see the worst in humanity and a “we are doomed” mentality.

This is a big problem because it makes it impossible to actually solve climate change, get involved in the political system or propose an economic idea for wealth inequality.

Being cynical can be helpful in analysing situations to avoid getting taken for a ride, but it is fairly useless when actually trying to make the world a better place.

That is why the image released yesterday by NASA, taken by the now-retired Kepler telescope, is a timely reminder. It should be inspiration to think beyond what is possible. It is an admonition of humanity’s tendency towards narrow thinking.

In our hyper-modern, hyper-speed and hyper-hustle cosmopolitan culture, the day-to-day grind it is easy to get stuck in a “this is the way things work,” mindset.

Then, NASA releases a picture that drives home how obnoxiously tiny this planet earth truly is; and it should prompt people to stop and think, “oh wait, maybe I don’t really know ‘how it is’.’”

The sheer amount of possibilities presented on one photo is a reminder of the many diverging paths any situation can take.

Plus, the history of Kepler itself should make people feel more hopeful about what is possible.

The telescope was originally designed to operate for three-and-a-half years. Assuming the possibility of things going wrong, NASA took precautions to make sure it had enough operations for six years. As the date approached, the team realised the weight of the spacecraft was significantly less than had been anticipated.

This allowed them to fill the spacecraft with enough fuel to operate for 10 years. Plus, in a celebration of physics, the Kepler instruments are powered by solar energy and the fuel is only meant for course correction. NASA leveraged the sun’s gravitational pull for most of the flight.

Imagine telling a cynic in 1969 that human beings would operate a space telescope for 10 years whereby a significant amount of the mission leveraged energy (solar, gravity) from by the sun. They probably would have said, “but that’s not feasible”.

Then there is the sheer childhood glee that comes from the results produced by Kepler.

Kepler discovered 2,600 planets beyond our solar system, proved that the galaxy has more worlds than stars and collected so much data that scientists expect to mine it for years.

“The “last light” image taken on Sept. 25 represents the final page of the final chapter ofKepler’s remarkable journey of data collection. It bookends the moment of intense excitement nine and a half years earlier when the spacecraft first opened its eye to the skies and captured its “first light” image,” wrote Alison Hawkes of the Ames Research Center in Kepler’s obituary.

Also Read: e27 Ask Me Anything: OVO Chief Product Officer Albert Lucius answers your questions!

Space has a unique ability to spark wonder. It makes us imagine the impossible, dream of the unachievable and work against the insurmountable.

Sure, we may not actually achieve our ultimate goals, but the place where we have landed is much further than anyone could ever have anticipated.

Kepler provides a useful example. The final photo has a lot of missing pixels. Why? Because the camera has broken multiple times along its journey. Was the final picture a beautiful tour de force of space exploration? No, not really. But it was really cool, and while today’s scientists may have hoped for a better picture, 10 years ago they never would have imagined even taking a photo.

Whether it is starting a company, saving the environment or helping the less fortunate, the first step is to approach the challenge with optimism. There will be a lot of bumps along the way, so if the mindset is wrong in the beginning, it will be impossible to succeed.

Also Read: We revisit Vietnam’s TOP100 from 2018 to see what they’re up to now

Remind yourself of the inner 10-year-old boy or girl and the sense of possibility that exists in their young brains. Try to emulate the children in our world and approach life with the same enthusiasm. Instead of thinking about ‘what is’, focus on ‘what could be’.

The retirement of Kepler, and the final photograph sent back to earth, should inspire optimism and, to quote Tom Hardy in the movie Inception,

“You musn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”

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Photo by Logan Lambert on Unsplash

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From ICOs to regional expansion to local achievements, here’s a look at the latest from finalists at last year’s TOP100 Vietnam Qualifiers 

More than a pitching event, the Echelon TOP100 Qualifiers are a platform that fosters insights, connections, talent, and funding opportunities for early-stage startups across Southeast Asia. e27 kicked off TOP100 with a bang this year, and we’re all set to visit 17 countries around the region in search for the most promising early-stage startups out there.

Let’s take some time to revisit some of the TOP100 startup participants from 2018 and see where they are and what they have achieved so far since then. In particular, let’s take a look at Vietnam, which is unique for its two startup hubs and which is currently experiencing an influx of foreign-born, ethnically Vietnamese people returning to the country. The country’s startup ecosystem is also doing well as 2019 kicked off, with Vietnam ranking well in terms of deal flow and size, at least in January.

Also read: Vietnam stars in January as e27 data tracks US$1.5B in deals

Eleven startups vied for TOP100 in Vietnam in 2018, and here’s what’s up with them lately:

689Cloud

Selected as the Judges’ Choice in last year’s Vietnam Qualifier, 689Cloud is a private cloud platform that simplifies secure file-sharing and collaboration for enterprises. The company has since gained recognition for its contribution to Ho Chi Minh City’s smart city initiatives.

Also read: 689Cloud secures your files on cloud and beyond

Aversafe

Aversafe is a blockchain-backed credential issuance and verification network. Aversafe’s verifiable digital credentials protect individuals, employers and certificate issuers from credential fraud. Prior to its participation in TOP100 Vietnam Qualifiers in 2018, Aversafe was part of Cofound.it’s initial group of blockchain startups provided with seed funding prior to their initial coin offerings.

CyFeer

CyFeer is a technology solutions provider that focuses in improving the rental ecosystem in its target markets. With seed funding from VIISA, CyFeer’s primary product is CyHome, which provides a platform for property and rental management. In October 2018, CyFeer participated as a finalist in Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks’ annual elevator pitch competition. In December, the company also pitched at VIISA Investment Day #4 as an alumni of the accelerator’s 2nd cohort.

Contractium

Contractium is a platform that helps users deploy smart contract and issue tokens on blockchains easily without technical knowledge and skills. The blockchain company’s ICO is currently live and has raised 860,220,371 “CTU” tokens, which at the ICO price is equivalent to around 57,348 ETH or US$5.93 million.

FINIZZ

FINIZZ aims to address the basic problems in healthcare delivery, including lack of information and access to healthcare profesionnals. The company provides a booking system, database of doctors, and community reviews.

Hand Free

Hand Free is a marketplace for local services, which include household service providers such as plumbers and electricians, as well as other professionals or creatives.

HiKaMi Digital

HiKaMi Digital specializes in designing, developing and producing IoT devices that interact directly with consumers and their favorite products, with a key focus on the packaged goods industries. Its first product is BOx, a connected bottle opener that automatically updates friends when one opens a beer bottle — with the hopes of bringing friends together for drinks. The product raised CHF 19,630 on Kickstarter (around US$19,500). Its next product is the WeCheer, which is a connected bottle opener that provides a gamified experience for the bar culture and bartending business.

Also read: 15 more awesome startups that will be apart of TOP100 APAC 2019

International Alumni Job Network (IAJN)

IAJN is a job market network for the international education sector that is student data-driven and student employment outcome-focused. The platform connects students, alumni, educators and employers, with the aim of enriching the world through shared educational experiences, greater understanding between people and cultures and meaningful careers. In November, IAJN launched its IAJN Connections Professional Network Event, an exclusive event for international student gradautes and alumni to meet one another and develop their professional networks in Vietnam.

Meete

Meete is a platform that allows diners to get discounts with partner F&B outlets with successful campaigns such as “Happy Day” under its belt.

WinCorp

WinMe by WinCorp offers e-commerce users an opportunity to win products they desire but are too expensive for their reach. The company partners with brands in getting more visibility for their products by entering these in as prizes.

WisePass

WisePass WisePass is a lifestyle subscription service platform that allows its members to redeem a set meal, bottle service, Starbucks coffee, VIP access to special events in town and more every single day, all for around $250 subscription per month. The service currently has expanded its offering to over 200 venues in HCMC, Hanoi, Bangkok, Manila and soon Jakarta.

Be part of TOP100

Want to be part of TOP100? Here’s everything you need to know to take your first step toward accelerating your company across Southeast Asia.

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Photo by Lukasz Saczek on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

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My startup Sleek accomplished its important goals, but the path taken was unexpected

The article was written by Julien Labruyere, a serial entrepreneur based in Singapore. If you would like to contribute an article, follow this link.

Whether it is January 1st or Chinese New Year, this time of year always invites reflection about the year that is wrapping up.

Since growing a startup makes you feel like you’re moving in hyperdrive, I’m amazed when I think back about what I wanted to do back in Jan/Feb 2018 with my startup, Sleek.

It’s funny – did we end up getting to where we wanted to? Yes, almost to the dollar, revenue-wise.  Did it look anything like we expected?

Not at all.

We planned one roadmap of where we wanted to go, then wound up at the same destination but from a very different route.

When my cofounders and I sat down to make a business plan for this year, that plan contained assumptions that were fairly wrong compared to what we know now.

To illustrate – here’s three resolutions I made as a startup founder at the beginning of 2018 that didn’t turn out anything like I planned.

Grow our tech team

Sleek helps entrepreneurs and investors with their company secretary and accounting needs, all online. Central to our services is an cloud-based platform that means people based in Singapore (and overseas) can incorporate their company from wherever they are. We wanted to create an easy, intuitive interface (don’t we all!) and so we needed a solid technology/development arm of our business.

This is a tricky one. In December, our technology/platform team was seven strong, up from four at the start of 2018.

What’s unexpected is that no one from our core tech team from the beginning of 2018 is still with us. We’ve had 100 per cent turnover of our development team.

Some have left for larger companies, some were interns that finished up their time with us, some we exited on good terms. The plan was to have a great team — and I think that we do — it just wasn’t smooth and incremental.

The current team has been rebuilt from the ground up and I would say it’s stronger than ever now – I just wasn’t expecting it to look like this.

Also Read: Top 10 mobile app development companies in Singapore

We have also brought in two senior guys, who are just in a different league to our initial team members. I’ve learned this year that having talented developers isn’t the whole game. Having some great product managers, designers and veterans with the skills to manage a team goes a long way in keeping the dev team focused, engaged, and supported, so that they have everything they need to get their best work done.

To me it also shows just how strong the tech scene in Singapore is right now. Tech talent is scarce and everyone is scrambling to hire devs. This means that resources are in demand, which can sometimes lead to friction, big egos and expectations, and occasionally complacency.

Build a flourishing marketplace of accountants in Singapore

When we began in 2017, our core offering was online company secretary services to disrupt the conservative paper-based industry. But we quickly found that once people had incorporated, they were also on the hunt for an accountant.

We didn’t have the capacity in-house and wanted to focus on doing one thing really, really well – and so our solution in 2018 was to build a marketplace of accountants that we could connect customers to, and take a margin off the services rendered. We thought, let’s get a range of different accountants – from startups through to ex-Top 4 CPAs, something to match every type of business.

Our goal was to get to 100 accounting clients? Did we get there? Yes – but we completely ditched the marketplace model along the way.  The classic startup pivot!

We had the demand, but in the end we realised that although we were passing the work onto the accountants, we were still accountable for the quality since it was sold under Sleek, and because of that accountability, we were still very much involved… way more than we should have been given the margins we were making.

Since the accountants offered came with Sleek branding, we knew we needed to deliver on our brand promise of quality; the price, commitment, and level of engagement that we had made us think, ‘this is not going to scale’.

So we took a different route and took it all in-house. Now we can control the quality of our output. And since then it has been crazy.

In less than five months, we have a team of eight, 100 clients and, thanks to the great work of our Accounting & Tax Practice, we have been consistently delivering great work, with great commitment. There’s a great synergy between the corp secretary team and the accounting team, and the result has been great customer service to our clients.

Daily one-on-ones with my employees

When I became CEO I instituted daily 1-on-1s with different staff of the company every day. I’d first heard about it on a podcast, and I thought it would be a good way to spend more time with my staff. I wanted to prioritise getting feedback from the team, since they’re the people on the front lines, growing the company.

So I thought ok, let’s do it. At the same time every day, I’d be catching up with someone – taking a meeting room, or have coffee in the sofa area, not with any precise agenda, just catching up and hearing what they had been working on and what was on their plate.

But I noticed after about two months – that was about two cycles through everyone in our company – that my time was getting too fragmented, and I felt like it was harder getting into the ‘flow state’.  Yes I was getting more feedback, but it also made my agenda feel hectic.

Overall I thought, “I’m not doing better as a CEO because of this”. I knew I needed to retune things.

I dropped the one-on-ones. Instead I’ve moved to weekly Friday lunches with small huddles of 4-5 people from across the organisation. I’ve made it clear to the team that they always have my time, if they need it. If there’s a topic, put a time in my calendar, but if there’s no topic – skip it and let’s save it for lunch.

Also Read: 15 more awesome startups that will be apart of TOP100 APAC 2019

I still get ideas and feedback from the ground – and I’ve noticed that there’s also the benefit that colleagues have the opportunity to catch up with people they mightn’t necessarily get to talk to every day, so there’s a lot of cross-company team building.

People don’t know as much about each other as I expected, we need to do more to encourage the team to talk to each other — especially in a place like Sleek with massive diversity of jobs, nationalities and cultures. I’ve found that when they know each other, they like each other, and work better together.

In terms of feedback I feel like we’ve gone from nothing (no structured feedback) to something that didn’t really work well, to something that I feel works.

It’s progress.

The road to success is non-linear, but I’m proud of where we are now. Do I have resolutions for 2019? Definitely… but that’s a topic for another time.

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It is absolutely crucial to get into customer’s phones, and these are the best companies to get that done

We’ve marched into the mobile age — there’s no doubt about it. One area that’s continuing to grow, especially for business goals, is app development. According to Google, 91 per cent mobile users turn to their smartphones for ideas in the middle of a task and 82 per cent of them consult their mobiles before buying anything in a shop. If this doesn’t persuade you, nothing will.

Nowadays mobile app development is a particularly demanded service for every business. Entrepreneurs couldn’t adapt their business fast enough to the emerging market and, hence, specialized mobile app development companies became of monumental importance.

So, after long hours of profile-hunting on Clutch, LinkedIn, and pretty much all the resources, we took the liberty of providing business owners with a concise, updated, actual list of the top 10 mobile app development companies in Singapore in 2018.

Vinova

Vinova is among the Top 10 Mobile Applications Development Companies in Singapore according to Yahoo Finance. Vinova has been providing world-class mobile and web development services for enterprises, SMEs & start-ups since 2010.

The company started entering the app development market providing services for small businesses and schools. Nowadays, it has become one of the most recognized mobile app development companies in Singapore.

Swag Soft

Swag Soft was reviewed by AppFutura as one of Top App Developers in Singapore 2018. It services a wide range of clients spanning from startups to big brands such as BMW, Toyota, Caltex, and government agencies like the MDA and Singapore Air Force.

They provide a comprehensive suite of mobile app development services, including Android and iOS app development, virtual and augmented reality development, game development, and iBeacon technology.

HokuApps

HokuApps was featured by Clutch as one of Top Mobile App Development Companies. It’s a technology agency specializing in digital transformation, rapid application development platform (RAD), low code, business process management, and mobile application development platform (MADP).

Also Read: IOT-based bike-sharing service GOWES launched in Semarang, Indonesia

The last one empowers enterprises to develop mobile and web applications customized to their unique ecosystem in a radically short time frame. It has powerful inbuilt tools — granular user access, powerful reporting, unified communication platform, reliable security model — your ideas can get implemented within weeks.

Rainmaker Labs

Rainmaker Labs, acquired by KPMG this year, is a mobile app development company delivering services for both retail businesses and enterprises. Rainmaker Labs developed its own beacon management system and was supplying location-based marketing campaigns with Apple certified BLEep iBeacons couple years ago. That’s how the app development company got into the business of enterprise solutions.

They aim at connecting businesses with their customers, empowering employees, and driving revenue growth using mobile technologies.

Buuuk

Buuuk has started as an experimental app and turned into a fully fledged client servicing studio over the past decade. They focus on developing apps for both iOS and Android.

Every project at Buuuk is led by a focus on design. In addition to developing a mobile app, a mobile project demands a stable and scalable server backend. Having the extensive experience, Buuuk team is deploying robust servers and integrating with existing setups.

Codigo

Codigo is a digital agency with a strong in-house UI/UX and development team. They craft high-quality mobile apps, websites, games and backend systems. Having launched over 300 successful apps, Codigo has won its title among the best Android and iOS app developers in Singapore.

Codigo has also co-incubated 7 startups and runs a UI/UX school. They create smart technology behind-the-scenes to keep the customer experience simple, beautiful and usable.

Square Fresco

Square Fresco team has been providing custom mobile app development services in Singapore for enterprises and startups since 2011. Having deep industry and functional expertise they will definitely help you bring your ideas to reality in the form of impressive mobile apps.

Massive Infinity

Massive Infinity was formed in 2011 by a team of interactive media producers and developers. Its team boasts years of experience in the field of mobile app development in Singapore and has the right skill set to craft a fully-functional, valuable and cost-efficient mobile app.

The company offers complete end-to-end solutions such as web design, VR/AR development, game development, e-Commerce, and Blockchain solutions. They create quality products as per the latest industry standards, client requirements and target audience.

Robust Tech House

Robust Tech House is an affordable strategic e-Commerce, Mobile-Commerce and FinTech technology company founded in 2014. They provide a wide range of services such as mobile app development, chatbot development, blockchain development, and web development.

Robust Tech House will add the substantial value to your product offering mobile applications that enable businesses to cope with the constantly changing business patterns.

Oasis Web Asia

Oasis Web Asia is focusing on web design, website development, app development, e-Commerce and content management system (CMS) solution and hosting services for all businesses. They build innovative, aesthetically appealing applications for iOS and Android apps that offer a superior user experience.

Conclusions

It’s increasingly important for small businesses and enterprises to be present in each moment of the customer journey, especially, when the consumers reach their mobile devices. Choosing the app development company able to help you beat the competition with the excellent app is the uber-important step for every business.

Also Read: 15 more awesome startups that will be apart of TOP100 APAC 2019

We hope to have provided the necessary clarity on the issue of hiring the best app development company creating this list of the most recognized companies in the Singaporean mobile app development market, according to our research. Choosing the right app development company requires a particularly individual approach and doesn’t necessarily require working with companies from the list.

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Photo by Rob Hampson on Unsplash

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While there are a lot of potential benefits from blockchain, the industry’s branding is a real anchor to growth

The stratospheric rise of Bitcoin and accompanying cryptocurrencies like Ethereum has certainly helped garner a significant amount of attention for blockchain, the technology that underpins such mediums.

Blockchain – an open source, peer-to-peer, and distributed ledger which is virtually unhackable and theoretically has the power to do away with intermediary bodies like central banks and regulatory agencies – is predicted to have a profound impact on the way ordinary humans go about their everyday lives. Applications of the technology range from fintech to agriculture with even the media and music businesses predicted to benefit.

Futurists are excited about a world of blockchain as it could iron out many of the trust deficiencies we have with the internet and other legacy institutions. But why are we not seeing a more rapid dissemination of the tech and why are consumers growing increasingly wary of companies building products on the blockchain?

Cryptocurrency gold rush

The introduction of initial coin offerings (ICOs) — the process where companies choose to crowdfund upcoming projects by issuing their own tokens on the blockchain — was meant to democratize access to potential riches. No longer would hungry venture capitalists have their pick of a slice in up-and-coming companies; members of the public could buy tokens and see the value of their investments rise over time.

This utopian vision fit in directly with the wider ideals of blockchain: to facilitate the growth of a true peer-to-peer economy and cut out intermediaries who often had access to more opportunities than others.

Unfortunately, the absence of a robust regulatory mechanism has contributed to the dampening attitudes around both cryptocurrencies and ICOs.

Scams are rife. Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges have constantly been targeted by hackers, with a recent heist causing about $60 million worth of losses. A Finnish bitcoin millionaire lost $35 million to scammers in Thailand and a brief search on the topic will reveal dozens more. It’s a similar story with ICOs with many just vanishing into thin air after duping small-scale investors of their hard-earned cash.

Such events have prompted a wave of criticism from some of the world’s most renowned academics in business and trade. Nouriel Roubini, professor of business at New York University and former economist at the World Bank, likens Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to the ‘mother of all bubbles’.

Also Read: Three startup resolutions I made that did not work out the way I expected

Governments have followed suit. China completely prohibits the trade of cryptocurrencies and others, like South Korea, restrict it to a high degree. The United States has preferred to take a ‘wait-and-see’ approach, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) examining an approach to view tokens in the same lens as securities.

Are blockchain projects dying a slow death?

Despite a dampening outlook, it’s clear that blockchain is here to stay. Companies looking to circumvent traditional methods of funding need to learn how to distinguish their ICO projects in order to build trust and credibility with the public.

Any company can cobble together a landing page for their ICO and spend some money driving traffic towards it. But does that engender trust? A carefully orchestrated public relations campaign requires a lot more effort and rapport but it brings legitimacy to the table, a trait that new companies woefully lack.

The fact of the matter is that the current climate around blockchain automatically conjures up images of manipulative hackers and sordid cybercriminals. That’s not the fault of well-intentioned founders, who might be sitting on an idea that could radically transform the way humanity functions. Unfortunately, unless they adopt the right approach this idea could very well end up castigated to the annals of history.

Planning for a better future

A hurried approach towards ICO planning and marketing reeks of a short-term approach. If founders don’t actively try to bring clarity to their vision and elucidate the problem they’re trying to solve, then it’s impractical to expect the public to warm up. After all, almost everyone thinking about investing in an ICO is carefully monitoring the space and is aware of the rampant scams that exist. Why should they trust you, a complete stranger

That’s where brand building comes into the equation. Earned media is infinitely stronger than simple advertising; that’s because consumers have a certain degree of trust and affinity with the newspapers or publications they choose to read. A nuanced description of a forthcoming ICO can do much more in inculcating positive brand image than a fancy landing page outlining the background of the founding team.

A well-defined communications strategy is the bedrock of any young company looking to break out by launching their own ICO. That’s why it’s referred to as ‘earned’ media; by earning the trust of a publication you’ve automatically earned the trust of its readership. Yes, this is difficult and requires time. Be prepared for tough questions about your business plan and why you’re confident about the product. Why should people invest in you when things could fall by the wayside?

Also Read: 15 more awesome startups that will be apart of TOP100 APAC 2019

But nothing worth having comes easy. To set yourself up for long-term success it’s important to break through all the noise and invest the time and money that it will take to position yourself as different to the crowd.

Credibility and trust may be intangible metrics, but they are invaluable in ensuring the long-term viability of your company. That’s the foundation you should aim to build upon.

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Gramener augments human intelligence by extracting insights from heterogeneous data sources and converting them into memorable stories for decision making

Recent reports have highlighted the alarming rate at which species are being categorised as endangered. India has high-profile cases of endangered species like the Bengal tiger, Asiatic lion or the red panda. This environmental crisis requires cutting-edge solutions that can track and help combat the loss of biodiversity.

New-age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have the potential to find solutions to problems such as these.

Data science company Gramener could probably help in this regard.

This Singapore- and US-based firm has created a deep learning AI application that, for example, can track salmon and fish populations over time in order to detect changes in the habits and decline of the salmon species — making what used to be a labour-intensive effort into an automated tool.

“Our purpose is to augment human intelligence by extracting insights from heterogeneous data sources and converting them into memorable stories for decision making,” Gramener Co-founder S. Anand tells e27. “We help organisations and clients analyse data and consume insights. We build custom Big Data analytics and visualisations on our platform and bring expertise to data, design and business.”

Gramener was founded in 2010 by Anand (CEO), Naveen Gattu (COO), Mayank Kapur ( CDO) and Ganes Kesari (SVP– Analytics & AI Labs).

“Data generation and analytics are not sufficient for making decisions. Automated insights and narrative stories not only help you consume data easily and consistently, but also help cross the analytics chasm. Humans don’t  understand data or models innately. Design principles derived from an understanding of human perception help visualise these and absorb their implications subliminally,” Anand observes.

Also Read: Is data science still among the sexiest jobs of the 21st century?

In addition to helping organisations and government agencies to address pressing environmental issues, Gramener’s products are also used by companies across various other sectors for various purposes, including:

Financial services: Offers a suite of data visualisation and analytics solutions for retail banks, corporate banks, investment banks, asset management, insurance and regulatory bodies.

Retail and consumer goods: Offers retailers, malls, consumer goods and product companies visual analytics for in-store insights, product and channel performance, as well as optimizing supply chain performance.

Healthcare: Helps pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers visualise sales performance, improve the service operations, and communicate better with customers and channels.

Agriculture: Helps agricultural, commodity and food organisations analyse and visualise data on their purchases, identify factors driving productivity, and forecast prices for improved inventory management.

Marketing: Helps marketing teams understand customer behaviour, uses this to segment customers based on their actions, and recommends product, pricing, or promotions for each closely defined segment

HR: Offers solutions for corporates to improve their talent recruitment, performance improvement and attrition defense – using text analysis, Machine Learning, data visualisation and narratives.

Media: Partners with various media organisations for digital content and data journalism, data-driven market research, communication through infographics and consumer insights via advanced analytics and visualisation (In the Assembly elections in India in 2018, the company worked with a leading TV news channel for election analytics).

“A leading print media organisation approached us for a solution that could automatically tag the three million images it hosts with the people (faces), objects and texts present in the images. We worked with them, and now it has a scalable web service that lets users upload images and accurately recognise people, objects and texts in the images within seconds,” he shares.

The company has also worked with ‘Microsoft AI for Earth’ and ‘Nisqually River Foundation’ to automate identification of fish species. Gramener’s solution processed the video feed from the cameras, extracted images, and classified the type of fish based on a pre-trained neutral algorithm. The interface allows  biologists and non-technical users to interact with ease.

“Our products are deployed in critical business functions in Fortune 500 enterprises, government and non-profit organisations across the world to solve complex business problems and enable business users towards data-driven leadership,” shares Anand, himself a data scientist and a Gold Medalist from IIM Bangalore.

Anand reads three key trends in the market — data visualisation, cognitive research and business-driven analytics. “Data visualisation is no longer in the realm of pure numbers. Text analysis is relatively mature and is being applied routinely to various problems. Even a pure text corpus like The Mahabharata (Hindu mythology) can be visualised. Images, audio and video are rapidly becoming analysable and visual sable.

Secondly, cognitive research. What we know of the human eye and brain is increasingly making its way into practical visualisations. For example, most men can name only 11 colours (women can name about 15), but can differentiate between over a million colours when placed next to each other. So, while a heatmap that places regions adjacently can be coloured with millions of shades, a bubble chart should have 11 colours at most. Such rules of thumb and now baked into the software people build for data visualization these days.

Thirdly, business-driven analytics. Analytics is shifting more towards business users or consumer driven, this has been the evolution,” he explains.

But data science business is a challenging industry. Visual analytics requires a combination of statistics, programming and design. Finding good people with one of these talents is hard. The combination is near impossible.

“Another challenge is the longer sales cycle. Almost every person on the business side understands the value of analytics instantly. Once we hit the next stage of sales closure, however, there is the learning curve around how to classify Analytics (software? service? consulting?) and how to price it (by number of users? reports? templates? rows of data?). We spend a fair bit of time educating our enterprise customers and evolving our commercial models,” he adds.

Although bootstrapped, Gramener has been operationally profitable from the third year of its inception. “We have proven ourselves in the enterprise market with various customer accolades, analyst recommendations. We have devised value driven engagements models, GTM strategies scalable with partners and stickiness with our clients.”

Gramener is now looking to raise growth capital, and is having conversation with a few chosen partners, who can “enable our growth plans and be part of our growth story”.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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The new batch focuses on boosting growth with the support of US$25,000 investment from the accelerator

Myanmar-based Phandeeyar Accelerator just announced the acceptance of five tech startups to join its third batch in its innovation lab. Each business will receive up to US$25,000 in investment as well as six-months-long mentorship, training, coaching, access to a network of venture capital investors and services from strategic partners including Amazon Web Services and Facebook. Plus office space.

Entering the third batch, the program focuses on companies with technology that it believes can change and develop Myanmar. These companies are mostly helmed by early-stage founders and they provide new digital products and services, contribute to social and economic progress in the country.

Also Read: IOT-based bike-sharing service GOWES launched in Semarang, Indonesia

The businesses in this third batch are varied from art, agriculture, construction, real estate to fashion. Here they are:

Asia Art Connect

Asia Art Connect is a marketplace site to sell local artists’ works from Asia to the international market. It seeks to support Myanmar Art industry with tech support while also selling and renting paintings and other art-related services.

Hivephing

It is a company that’s aimed to help blue-collar workers in the construction industry by connecting projects with masons, carpenters, painters, small labor groups, and professionals through an online marketplace.

Hydro Plant

The company is offering hydroponic and aquaponic farming technology to farmers in all levels. The company also supports those who want to grow vegetables in affordable price, efficient technology, and accessible place.

Nay Yar

It is a site that provides accessible housing options for rental with monthly affordable payments, targeting people who have low or middle income by avoiding the market practice of paying large fees in advance.

One Sett

It is an online tailoring marketplace sourced by Burmese tailors who cannot afford to open their own shops. It also includes people who lack marketing knowledge or a large network to help them gain a better income stream.

Also Read: Top 10 mobile app development companies in Singapore

According to João Dutra (Kyaw Aung), Accelerator Director at Phandeeyar, this year’s diversity of sectors shows the transformation of tech startups in Myanmar. “Every year, there is a new generation of startups changing the way many economic sectors work in Myanmar. Many people are already using their services, and thousands of people in Myanmar and abroad will benefit from them as well,” he added.

The first batch ever of Phandeeyar Accelerator was launched in 2016. Since then, eleven tech startups have graduated and four of them have already received follow-on funding from local and international investors.

Most notable alumni are Chate Sat, Ezstay, GoP, MMTutors, NextCode, and Shwe Bite.
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Photo by Maria Bolgiani on Unsplash

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SEAF Women’s Opportunity Fund (SWOF) is joined by CyberAgent Capital and other investors in funding e-learning solutions KYNA

KYNA, an all-age e-learning solution, has announced its second investment from CyberAgent Capital, who was joined by SEAF Women’s Opportunity Fund. Previously, KYNA receives the first round of investment in April 2016 from Cyberagent Capital.

KYNA has shared that it will use the new funding for growing Kynaforkids.vn. The startup claims to have attracted more than 150,000 parents paying for its Math and English programs.

Also Read: 16-year-old Indian prodigy has developed a drone that can detect and destroy landmines

“This funding will help KYNA fostering new product development, upgrading technology infrastructure, learning experiences, and gaining new market share,” said Tram Ho, Co-founder and Managing Director of KYNA.

In five years, KYNA claimed to have attracted more than 600,000 users in all age ranges. Its products include Kyna.vn, an online short courses in different topics for adults and Kynaforkids, an online courses for children from age 5 to 12 years old.

Adding to its products option, KYNA also has become an e-learning contractor for large corporates in Vietnam.

“This investment will support KYNA’s growth plan, deliver significant social impact through skills training for adults and effective education service for children,” said Jennifer Buckley, Senior Managing Director of SEAF Women’s Opportunity Fund.

Previously known as CyberAgent Ventures, CyberAgent Capital is a Japanese venture capital firm that has been focussing its investment portfolios in Internet startups with founding teams who show potential. In Vietnam, CyberAgent Capital has backed around 30 startups like Foody, NCT Corp, VNG, Tiki, Topica, and Luxstay.

Also Read: Sam Tsai: The pivotal figure behind Taiwanese e-commerce giant PChome’s entry into Thailand’s e-commerce market

SEAF is an emerging markets private equity fund manager that provides capital, capacity building, and a global network to support small and medium-sized business expansion. The firm is particularly focused on women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. It also pursues companies in health and education, clean energy and smart solutions, sustainability in agribusiness, financial and technological inclusion, and displaced and migrant peoples investing.

The Women’s Opportunity Fund is investing up to US$2 million per investment in growth-oriented, women-led businesses in Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
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Harshwardhansinh Zala, who claims he has received many offers from abroad, wishes to help the armed forces through his technology

What were you doing when you were 14 years old?  At this age, I was still struggling with Maths and Science in the 9th grade.

But this wonder kid from the Indian State of Gujarat was already working on a revolutionary drone when he was this age. Now 16 years old, he has fully developed the drone, EAGLE A7, which can detect and destroy landmines, minimising  the risk of losing human lives.

Harshwardhansinh Zala, Founder and CEO of Aerobotics 7, the company behind EAGLE A7, claims that this drone can go from, say the Indian army base station, to the path where it has to go and detect the landmines. After detecting the landmines, the drone will send the information back to the base station. The landmines can be viewed real-time and destroyed real-time without human risk, he told in an interview to The Quint .

“We have developed the entire technology using raw materials and multi-spectral landmine detection technology. It is now under the process of international patent registration. We can detect landmines through different wavelengths,” he said to the publication, adding that this technology is not available anywhere else.

The model is currently under the process of international patents registration.

Also Read: Drones will revolutionise these 3 industries, so watch out

Aerobotics 7 was founded by Zala when he was 14 years. The startup’s mission is to make the “most innovative and advanced products for a better life”. Its main focus is designing and developing life-saving drones.

Zala, who claims he has received many offers from abroad, wishes to help the armed forces through his technology. He said he has got partnership offers from South Korea, the US, France, Dubai and Thailand.

“We have got offers to establish our company there. We have been ensured funding as well. But, given the number of jawans (soldiers) being martyred (due to landmines) in our motherland, if I can develop this technology to serve the Indian Army and the CRPF, I will be glad,” he said.

The child prodigy is also the winner of the “International Peace Award” (Billion Acts Hero Award 2017).

Zala had sealed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in 2017, and bagged a deal worth INR 5 crore (USD4700,000) for the production of his self-designed drone.

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