We asked Echelon’s insider and previous TOP100 finalists, and they answered

Counting weeks to Echelon Asia Summit 2019 this coming May, you may have heard about our TOP100 startup pitching competition (of course), the culmination of our two days event where new and promising startups get center stage. This year, it could be your ideas and your business that experience its own TOP100 journey, as e27’s mission of empowering startups in Southeast Asia gives you the chance of a lifetime.

As e27 always support aspiring startups in whatever stage they are in, this one should give you -the hopefuls- a sense of control. This one would be the cheat sheet of how you can increase your chances to make it into TOP100 Echelon this year.

The first one is from Ashleigh, one of our own and the person who belongs to the team that makes Echelon happens. So you can count on his tips to get the attention of the investors that will open the door for you.

Startups should prepare their pitch decks for a 3-minute pitch and prepare questions that investors would typically ask

There will be about five minutes long Q&A after presentation so you better come lock and loaded with any possible questions that would be raised. From inspiration, business model, revenue stream, margins, technical issues, to founders background, anything is possible. Leave no blind spots.

Be able to show what makes you THE startup above your competitors and bring your industry knowledge as well as your salesman skills

Two skills highlighted here by Ash. Your knowledge of the industry must include how many people will be using your solution and what pain points does it solve. Who are the competitors and how are you different from them. Sell it in a convincing way backed by numbers and tested markets.

Ash’s wise reminder: It’s not of the startup/founder that matters, it’s how much passion you have and how you are able to convince others that yours is a business worth investing in. If you don’t make it, ask why from the investors and learn from it. And if needed, pivot. Pivot fast.

Also Read: We are on the way to the first 8 cities of Echelon Roadshow 2019

Next, we also spoke to the previous TOP100 of last year’s Echelon, William Suryawan, Co-founder of MyClinicalPro, a health tech startup based in Indonesia. William gave his side of the experience and what he and his startup did in order to secure a seat at TOP100.

Startups need to prepare a clear and visionary purpose of why they built their startup

William shared that once he was asked about his purpose in building MyClinicalPro and he couldn’t answer him well. Since the encounter, he got to think through his real purpose of building his startups, and it involves the solving element that brings value and tackles an ongoing problem that will have a significant impact to the nations.

“Well, long story short, after figuring out what the big purpose in building my startup was, I defined the long-term vision that was not only from one specific problem, but also from what we want to see how digital technology could improve the health, beauty, and wellness of Indonesia people,” he added.

Now ask yourself the same question and begin with a kickass why.

Bring a clear business model and uniqueness to the stage

“For me at that time, I needed to be able to breakdown the purpose of my startup with a clear statement of what problems I wanted to solve, how would I solve it, and the impact it has brought so far,” William recalled.

Also Read: Meet 15 of the top-notch investors who will be judging TOP100!

There’s a connection between a clear purpose of why you want to develop your startup and how will you improve your startup in the future that needs to be presented. This should be the basis of your business model.

In regards to uniqueness, William emphasised the importance of delivering the unique element of your company as your startup will be compared with others that offer similar products or services. “By the end of your explanation, the investors should be able to think that your startup is bringing something different and valuable enough for them to want to know more,” said William.

William’s wise reminder: You may have a long answer to each question because you are the founder and you know inside out about your startup. But aim to make your answers concise and clear to avoid distraction and undelivered message. You need to ensure the investors can discern your message precisely within the limited time provided by Echelon.

William then shared the questions he prepared to answer for the Q&A stage during his TOP100 moment:

• What problems are you trying to solve?
• What is your solution to the problems?
• What is the impact you have made so far?
• What is your business growth or traction so far?
• What is your revenue structure?
• What is your plan for your startup?
• How will you execute?
• Who will execute?
• What do you expect from the one who listens to you at this moment?

“Crucial thing to do during Q&A is to bring your partner to stage. You might not understand everything in detail and you never expect what question will be asked and how detailed it can get. Good teamwork also plays a role here,” said William.

Now with both sides have given their tips, it could really be your year!

William further added, “The good thing about TOP100 is that it can open your startup to new opportunities because the one who listens to you might be potential investors, strategic partners, or even big customers.”

This year’s TOP100 will be played differently as the pitching sessions will be private, meaning that the only audience is the investors.

The startups will also need to stick around (or come back) for the event in the evening called ‘Echelon Roadshow’ as that’s where the announcement of the startups that qualify for TOP100 at Echelon Asia Summit 2019 will be made.

If you haven’t registered, please do your startup a favor here.
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The post How does my startup make it into Echelon’s TOP100 this year? appeared first on e27.

Fenox plans to introduce and invest in top startup businesses for Sojitz through this fund

Fenox Venture Capital, a Silicon Valley fund with significant investments in Southeast Asia, has announced a partnership with Japanese trading company Sojitz Corporation to launch a US$30 million fund, which will be managed by the VC firm.

“We are very happy to announce that top Japanese trading company Sojitz just opened a US$30 million fund that will be managed by our Fenox VC team,” Fenox’s Founding Partner and CEO Anis Uzzaman announced in a Facebook post.

Sojitz’s goal is to target and invest in startups using Fenox’s global network. With seven direct branches and employees/partners in more than 40 countries today, Fenox plans to introduce and invest in top startup businesses for Sojitz through this fund. “This will hopefully help accelerate Sojitz’s business as well. Fenox team is fully committed to work with the Sojitz team,” he added.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Fenox VC enters Vietnam with investment in mobile wallet startup OnOnPay

Based in Tokyo, the Sojitz Group consists of approximately 400 subsidiaries and affiliates located in Japan and throughout the world, developing wide-ranging general trading company operations in a multitude of countries and regions. It is engaged in a wide range of businesses globally, including buying, selling, importing, and exporting goods, manufacturing and selling products, providing services, and planning and coordinating projects, in Japan and overseas.

The group also invests in various sectors and conducts financing activities. The broad range of sectors in which Sojitz operates includes those related to automobiles, plants, energy, mineral resources, chemicals, foodstuff resources, agricultural and forestry resources, consumer goods, and industrial parks.

Started in 2011, Fenox works with emerging technology companies across the world. Its 60-plus person team operates out of offices across eight different countries, including Japan, Indonesia, and South Korea, and offers a wide range of domain expertise. It invests between US$250,000 and US$10 million in companies across segments.

Fenox currently manages 18 funds across these markets, and has several multi-million dollar funds under management.

To date, Fenox has invested in close to 120 companies, including 99.co, TechInAsia, Alodokter, Ahlijasa, and Hijup.com, Pomelo Fashion and Moka POS.

The post Fenox VC joins hands with Japan’s Sojitz to launch a US$30M startup fund appeared first on e27.

The city is set for a major O2O event, and same-day e-commerce is right around the corner (maybe)

2018 was a whirlwind year for the e-commerce scene in Singapore, many startups expanded across SEA seamlessly and Alibaba continued its takeover of Lazada.

This week marks the start of a new Lunar Year, one that should continue the remarkable growth within the industry over the next few years. After all, Singapore has one of the highest internet penetration rate in Southeast Asia with 4.83 million online users. Its overseas purchase rate is second highest in Asia-Pacific.  

Whether it is retailers, manufacturers or consumers, if to stay ahead of the pack they need to be vigilant of these predicted trends for the rest of the year.

Online-offline shopping mall is the new omni-channel

Omni-channel retail — a type of experience that integrates shopping experiences across online and offline — seems to be an ongoing trend. The big event in Singapore will be Funan taking it up a notch by introducing an online-and-offline shopping mall, a first of its kind in Singapore. It will feature a true omni-channel experience that combines online, offline, data, and logistics.  

This trend will be beneficial for many e-tailers, as it does not only allow them to do more business but also increase consumer touch points. Funan aims to leverage e-commerce players through their omnichannel retail infrastructure empowered by their newest technology.   

Solution for same-day shipping is via crowdsourced delivery

From GrabFood to Honestbee, everyone has seen the food delivery scooters swerving through traffic to get to their destination as quickly as possible. Over the years, Singaporeans have learnt to embrace online food deliveries as it is not only convenient but also efficient.   

Although food deliveries can be easily delivered on the same day, e-commerce offering same-day shipping can be costly and might not work in the long run for small e-tailers. However, the future of same-day shipping will not be so bleak if crowdsourced delivery takes off, especially with the recent launch of Go-Jek.  

Just last September, various companies have taken steps to improve the efficiency of same-day delivery through a dedicated smartphone app that offers AI-driven recommendations to its delivery partners.

Mr. Toshiya Sato, VP of Co-Creation Business Group of Fujitsu Limited said,

“In light of the drastic expansion of sharing economy business models and the ongoing growth of e-commerce in recent years, we see crowdsourced delivery as a new business opportunity that will spread all over the world. In this field trial, we are very excited to collaborate with UrbanFox, which is one of the pioneers of crowdsourced delivery, and advanced research & development institute A Star and SMU. We anticipate that in the future Fujitsu will make significant contributions to logistics industry by improving productivity of crowdsourced delivery.” 

Deployment of enterprises from overseas

Singapore is an ideal country for e-commerce to flourish as it has one of the best data centre hubs in Asia Pacific. It is a gateway that connects Southeast Asia and Asia to the rest of the world and at the same time attracting oversea consumers and enterprises.  

Dan Thompson from 451 Research said, “Singapore’s ever-increasing undersea bandwidth and diversity of providers means that there are good options available to get just about anywhere an enterprise would need to reach via network communications, at decent rates.” 

Due to its competitive pricing, Thompson also added that there will be possible deployment of data centres in Singapore that will operate both workloads from Southeast Asia and China.  

Embracing niche markets

To continuously improve consumer’s experience, it is important for the e-commerce businesses to embrace niche markets. Currently, the biggest niche market in Singapore is the government sector. Nevertheless, this online marketplace should be improved in terms of usability and flexibility in terms of procurement processes.

Other than B2G, the e-commerce industry in Singapore should explore other niche markets to become more feasible commercially. One example would be United Nations initiative of selecting Arcadier as a marketplace for their non-communicable disease medicine and supplies that will be accessible to over 100 countries.

In the final year of the Lunar cycle, use these trends to drive strategy and stay ahead of the game.

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Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash

The post E-commerce Trends in Singapore to look forward to in the Year of the Pig appeared first on e27.

Worry less on funds and focus on your business, with CVC’s help

The number of active Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) units in Southeast Asia (SEA) has increased by a considerable amount within the past few years.

Additionally, the new CVC units are more active which allows more deals to be made under its involvement.

This is in line with a global trend where big companies actively engage with startups as a strategy to stay competitive.

As the pace of innovation increases and industries face the struggle of keeping up, this strategy becomes more and more relevant.

For regional startups, this means that CVC is becoming an increasingly available source of capital.

Thus, any startup currently fundraising should take this into consideration.

Given that the growth of CVC in SEA is a relatively new phenomenon, many times there is often a lack of experience on both sides of the table — which could lead to misunderstandings.

In order to be prepared and increase the likelihood of success, here are five CVC must-knows for all startups.

Understanding the motivation of Corporate Venture units

Financial VC’s motivation for investing in startups is pretty straightforward – they are looking for a financial return.

Negotiating with financial VCs can be challenging, but when startups know their objective it becomes easier to find compromises and drive negotiations forward.

With CVC identifying their objective, it can be a bit more demanding.

On one end you have CV units that operate almost entirely as financial VC’s and have financial returns as their main goal.

On the other end, you have CVC units that aim to produce strategic value for the parent company. Their measure of success is how well their investments help to improve business in the parent company.

Most CVC funds have a mandate that incorporates both financial and strategic goals but it may be tricky to identify just how much weight they place on each of these goals.

To make things even trickier, a CVC unit can have a portfolio consisting of both strategic and financial investments.

For instance, an investment can even start out as a strategic investment but shift to a financial investment if it turns out the fit with the parent company is not as good as initially anticipated.

This can make it challenging for startups to know exactly what objectives the CVC unit has.

Hence, it is important to spend some time learning about the CVC unit’s position prior to investing and garner approval and opinions from the parent company.

Financial vs strategic investors

A financial investor has no desire to run the companies they invest in.

Sure, they might sit on the board and help with strategic decisions or even offer help with things like recruitment or accounting. However, the day-to-day running of the company is left to the founder(s).

This is different for strategic investors.

They invest in companies where they see synergies with their parent company. So, they may want a say in how to develop the product, which customers to pursue, which geographies to target, etcetera.

Some entrepreneurs may get surprised and suspicious when a potential investor has very specific opinions about things like this.

However, they should keep in mind that a strategic investor does this in order to make it easier for the startup to be integrated with the parent company through a partnership or acquisition later.

In other words: they are guiding the startup to build the product or service that has the most value to their parent company.

There is nothing wrong with this. But, the startup has to manage this relationship carefully so that they listen to the input while avoiding building something that is so specialized there is only one potential acquirer.

If the startup manages to balance the requests from the CVC with their overall strategies, this will be a win-win for both parties.

Aligning business collaboration goals

In addition to funding, many CVCs provide their investments with the opportunity to partner with their parent company.

The parent company could become a pilot customer or they could enter into a partnership on sales or marketing — basically any form of collaboration.

Partnering with a large company is a big validation for the startup which makes it a major part of their consideration when taking an investment from a CVC.

Misalignment of expectations around how quickly and how comprehensive a partnership will be is one of the most frequent issues that surface in the relationship between startups, CVCs and their parent company.

Many startups make the assumption that because the CVC is willing to invest a lot of money into their company then surely they will also provide the other help with the startup needs.

Also Read: Why e-commerce companies should go hybrid

It is also natural to leave most of this discussion until after the parties have agreed on the investment.

As a result, both parties might have contrasting expectations on how the business partnership should play out when they agree on the investment.

Startups are used to getting things done really quickly.

In fact, a lot of startups subscribe to the popular idea of a lean startup.

Simply put, this idea states that you should get your product in front of customers as early as possible so that you can learn what customers think and start improving.

For a startup, this approach makes sense given limited funds and having to quickly make as much of an impact as they can in order to raise the next round of funding.

Failing to do so means they go out of business.

Basically, a startup has everything to gain and very little to lose by launching early.

A big company has a different approach to this since they already have customers and revenues. Launching new products or services too early will almost certainly result in frustrated customers and complaints.

Because of this, big companies usually require rigorous testing and planning before anything new is introduced to their customers.

This is almost the exact opposite approach to what startups have.

In order to bridge this gap and give the partnership the best possible chances of success, both sides should come together to outline their shared expectations.

This should happen in tandem with investment discussions.

Understanding the CVCs investment process

Ideally, the investment process for a CVC should not take more time than a financial VC.

Given that CVCs compete with financial VCs for deals, they cannot afford to linger on important things.

CVC units often rely on the parent company for support in various non-core areas like legal or finance.

Unfortunately, this sometimes means that things take more time.

Also Read: “General awareness about entrepreneurship in Malaysia needs to go beyond selling food at stalls”

For example, the CVCs finances could be handled by the parent company’s finance department. These are the people that have a 60-90 days processing time on a regular invoice.

An investment is a non-standard transfer of a significant amount which might even trigger additional safety procedures like the personal signature of the finance manager or CEO (who happens to be on a two week holiday when your investment is being processed).

These kinds of delay can cause a lot of frustration with startups that are in a hurry to complete the investment and can’t understand why things are taking so long.

To avoid it, or at least prepare for it, startups should ask the CVC about their investment process.

They should clarify the internal steps the CVC needs to take in order to decide on the investment, complete the paperwork and transfer funds.

If any one of these steps seems to take an unnecessarily long time, startups should raise the issue early and ask if there is any way the CVC can expedite this.

End game scenarios

Say a CVC invested in your startup because it had strategic value for the parent company.

The intentions on both sides were for the parent company to acquire your startup when the product and market mature in a couple of years’ time.

Everything looked good. But then something changed.

Perhaps your product didn’t perform as well as they had hoped.

Perhaps the parent company changed their focus and is no longer interested in the market your startup serve.

For some reason, the acquisition is not happening. Now what?

For a CVC with a financial focus, one potential acquirer falling away should just be a bump in the road, even if it happens to be their parent company.

They would still want to assist you in finding other potential acquirers in order to maximize their return.

For a strategic CVC, it might be a little different.

If their overarching goal is to provide value for the parent company and your company no longer does that, then your startup would fail to achieve their goal.

So where does that leave you?

Ideally, they should be able to give you examples of investments where the collaboration did not go as planned, but how they helped the startup to find a good solution anyway.

Final thoughts

When reading this, it may be easy to think that raising funds from a CVC unit is a lot more of a hassle than a financial VC.

It is true that you have to put in more effort during the negotiation phase to get to know your CVC investor but it is only because a CVC might bring a lot more value to the table than a financial VC.

So to wrap this up, I would just like to mention five short reasons why you might want to invest that extra time to get a CVC investor:

1. They understand your business and its industry better than any financial VC.
2. They can offer access to network and resources that can be more valuable than the investment itself.
3. They might see fewer risks and more value in your company if it aligns with the interests of the parent company, leading to a higher valuation.
4. They are usually more patient than financial VCs because they do not have LP and a fixed fund life.
5. They can offer a route to acquisition so that founders have to worry less about fundraising and can focus more on building their business.

The advantages CVCs offer makes it patently clear that its recent emergence in SEA beckons exciting new opportunities for regional startups.

CVC might not be the right path for all startups, but for many, it is definitely something to consider.

Founders who understand how CVCs operate will be much more likely to identify the right CVC partner and have a successful collaboration.

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This article was first published at www.cvcinsight.com

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

The post 5 things startups should know about Corporate Venture Capital appeared first on e27.

The launch also kickstarts the plan to expand regionally in Southeast Asia

HiDoc, telehealth and video conferencing service that gives specialists access to patient health records, has been launched with the support by SGX-listed Singapore Medical Group. With its launch, HiDoc plans to introduce AI-based features that will increase the quality of follow-up healthcare and second opinion consultation.

HiDoc also plans to expand the network of 15 specialists into local GPS and to countries like Vietnam and Indonesia soon after completing the funding the company said it will raise in the second quarter.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, Jan 30: OYO to expand to Philippines; gini raises US$1.6M

“We want to provide greater value where for example, a diabetic patient who has regular follow-ups with his or her endocrinologist can receive better and continuous management of care by using this platform. We believe continuous care reduces many medical complications, which is one of the reasons why we wanted to launch HiDoc. The platform will be a bridge between patients and specialists,” explained Dr. Christina Low, CEO, and Co-Founder of HiDoc.

HiDoc aims to deliver the diagnosis within 24 hours or instantly through video conferencing – seeking to improve the quality and efficiency of follow-up healthcare via its app on both iOS and Android mobile devices.

Using HiDoc, patients will be able to upload their health records and have access to healthcare services, especially for overseas patients who are considering treatment in Singapore.

Also Read: These 20 startups are joining the 4th batch of Plug and Play Indonesia

As a further service on behalf of patient’s convenience, HiDoc has partnered with DBS to allow patients to use DBS PayLah! for a more convenient payment process.

The firm has also secured the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) Compliant and 256-bit SSL encryption.

HiDoc is said to be in the process of raising fresh round of funds.
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Image Credit: HiDoc

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Entrepreneurs in APAC, are you up for a challenge?

TOP100 APAC 2019 is a programme organised by e27 that empowers insights, connections, talent, and funding opportunities for early-stage tech startups in Asia. This year, the programme has shifted to a private pitching competition and applications will close on 28 February 2019.

Meet 15 awesome startups who will be taking their first step to TOP100 APAC 2019 to get a chance to pitch at Echelon Asia Summit 2019:

REVSMART WEARABLE HK CO LTD – Hong Kong

Revsmart is developing a smart communication wearable and experience platform to help riders access communication, navigation, and music effectively using vibro-sound technology. Looking to solve the most pressing problems for bike riders, REVSMART is launching their Wearable helmet smart device “Heads Up” this year.

Pipeep – Bangladesh

Introducing the flexible-transit concept for a better transport environment to urban commuters. Pipeep’s mobile platform allows passengers to request shared on-demand shuttle bus service that travels from point-to-point between selected zones. Operates in morning and evening time to serve work purpose commuters. A solution that solves the city’s core problem caused by traffic congestion.

Unreal AI – India

The Vizor ID, created by Unreal AI, is a security device that uses face recognition, powered by art deep learning models, to authenticate employees with fast authentication and high accuracy. Highlighting its Multiple Authentication feature that allows up to 7 face recognition simultaneously and Built-in Visitor Management feature that able to keep track of unknown individuals and notifying the administrator, Vizor ID is recommended to be used at locations such as offices and schools.

iMoney – Kazakhstan

iMoney is a Biometric lender (ATM) that aims to tackle problems like lack of direct access to cash, human factors for requesting a loan and the long process of loan approval.

12Go – Thailand

12Go is a multimodal Online Travel Agency platform with coverage across 15 countries in Asia for purchasing tickets for trains, ferries, buses, flights, transfers, hotels, tours and insurances using Cloud-based real-time ticket booking and seat selection engine.

Horlu – Vietnam

Horlu helps you to create your website instantly by analysing your Facebook page content with an AI algorithm. Its content-first design approach intelligently creates sites built for your content with less time consuming and at a more affordable cost.

Bee Bush – Cambodia

Bee Bush is a fresh and unique social media platform which offers innovative and advanced features to enable users to search, connect, learn, having fun, and make revenue at the same time. It combines unique features such as profile feed, business page, and local business reviews with its user-friendly content searching filter system to help to enhance the visibility of its online business users.

Flexible Pass – Burma

Flexible Pass is a health and fitness App in Myanmar that can be used at over 100 gyms, fitness centers, and hotels in Yangon. Flexible Pass allows its users to access multiple gyms or fitness centers with one pass to tackle not just the lack of flexibility membership plan at the individual gym but also the wastage of membership fee on days you don’t go to the gym.

AgUnity – Australia

AgUnity’s solution automatically collects the most essential data about your product, starting on-farm and continuing through to the end consumer. We create a unique, detailed ‘track’ for every pallet; now your product has a story. This unprecedented visibility of your supply chain allows areas of waste & inefficiency to be automatically identified so you can understand the key issues to target.

Generalized Intelligence – China

Generalized Intelligence is an AI adoption accelerator who enables enterprises to unleash new efficiencies, productivity, agility, and competitiveness. Applying AI in drone tech, Generalized Intelligence also offers an end-to-end drone platform for developers to develop level 5 autonomous drones.

UniChat – Malaysia

UniChat initiated an App based student platform for students to meet and approach other students just by clicking a ‘Discover’ button. Individuals who are geographically close-by with similar interests would be paired up automatically, allowing them to start interacting instantly. UniChat brags many features such as UniDiscover, UniTime, and UniEat which helps make students’ life easier.

MEGPlay – Malaysia

MEGPlay is a gaming-focused platform in Malaysia (aiming to expand across SEA) for mobile gamers. Through MEGPlay, gamers can chat, join mobile gaming communities, and find team members. MEGPlay also allows users to join mobile gaming events and competitions, to purchase mobile gaming merchandise, and to get insights into gaming news.

Also Read: The culture of Echelon is the biggest draw for both speakers and participants alike

Positive Energy Ltd. – Singapore

Positive Energy Ltd. offers a renewable energy finance platform for smarter sourcing, funding, and trading clean energy assets. Using its blockchain based asset financing, trading, and management platform, Positive Energy Ltd. aims to solve the market issues by digitalizing the transaction workflow making green investments fast, liquid and economically viable for all parties involved.

Ssivix Lab – Singapore

SSIVIX LAB is the leading innovative technology and services company that is pioneered in bringing the products and ideas into Mobile Space with high quality together with providing cutting-edge services to the client. Launched its Medtech focused product MyCLNQ, a one-stop shop to take care of all medical appointments booking, last year, SSIVIX LAB is working toward innovation to provide a cost-effective solution in the healthcare sector to benefit the community and citizens.

Smarter Me Pte Ltd – Singapore

Smarter Me Pte Ltd is a live online school that offers classes in critical knowledge and skills for the future to children who aims to bridge the mismatch in what our children are learning in schools today and the skills required in the future economy. Smarter Me Pte Ltd is also working to build a community of students, educators, entrepreneurs, and future employers across APAC for the education ecosystem.

So what are you waiting for? These guys didn’t! Sign up for our TOP100 APAC programme at this link.

Just got your pitch deck ready? Drop it here.

Not a startup but keen to meet the e27 team while we tour APAC? We’re running a series of Echelon Roadshows (Founders Confession content session, networking opportunities and F&B provided), RSVP at our Eventbrite page.

The post Here are 15 awesome startups that will pitch at TOP100 APAC 2019! appeared first on e27.

Malaysia’s homegrown innovators Katsana, Hostel Hunting, Swingvy, and CXS are cultivating a more human side of tech 

With the advent of tech, the race to innovate within the tech spectrum is largely focused on coming up with the “new.” From smarter algorithms, to artificial intelligence (AI), and even to augmented reality (AR) — the goal has always been to disrupt.

But more than disruption and awe, today’s tech innovators are constantly coming up with ways to improve human experience. By this, we don’t just mean using tech to promote greater convenience and ease in people’s daily lives. We mean solutions that impact the very nature of people.

These are solutions that help inculcate road safety discipline, democratise HR platforms for small and medium companies (SMEs), provide cheap lodging options for young people, and even ones that power human development through skills training.

True, some of the most interesting and most inspiring solutions out there are ones that are anchored on cultivating a better quality of life. These are solutions that transcend the common notions of convenience that saturate the market.

Because of this, we spoke to four of Malaysia’s tech startups to see what innovations they’ve come up with and how those innovations are hinged on helping improve human lives.

Safety first for drivers and passengers alike

According to Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport, a total of 7,152 recorded deaths up to 2016 are due to road accidents. This data places Malaysia on the 18th spot when it comes to the road fatalities index in the world.

With a total number of registered vehicles accumulating to 27.6 million, how do you fully inculcate road safety to such a significant population of drivers?

Katsana, a tech startup that pioneered the next generation GPS tracking and fleet management system, came up with a solution that helps train drivers to become more safe on the road: DriveMark.

A mobile telematics app, DriveMark scores the way you drive using mobile phone sensors to spotlight risky driving patterns and behaviour. By introducing a gamification and rewards approach, drivers are encouraged to reach a higher level of safely on the road.

Drivers may also enroll into monthly contests that come with free personal accident insurance and rewards from their partners as a further incentive for further protection.

With the Katsana Advanced Telematics, the team has gained significant experience from its initial launch in 2013 especially in understanding driver behaviour patterns derived from sophisticated telematics data from vehicles, which has allowed them to precisely score driving risks.

Katsana came up with DriveMark as a way to democratise this unique information and apply their technical know-how on a mobile app in the hopes of helping as many people as possible—all through data analytics and impactful engagement.

“When we look into conversations surrounding safe driving, it’s predominantly a discussion of deterrence through penalization and tend to be reactive instead of being proactive,” said Syed Ahmad Fuqaha, CEO and co-founder of Katsana. He added, “with DriveMark, we associate safe driving with positive cues which comes in various forms; acknowledgement that you are driving safe, rewards, prizes, rebates, discounts and social recognition.”

Katsana wants DriveMark users to also be part of their mission — to be ambassadors of safe driving. They believe that having clusters of people who are truly passionate about safe driving helps them grow and spread the word to like-minded people; and hopefully, to have that passion spill over to larger part of the community.

By 2017, Katsana had analysed 460 million kilometers worth of travel data, collecting approximately 1.2 to 1.4 million kilometers of data on a daily basis.

Also read: MaGIC or no MaGIC, Malaysia’s startup ecosystem is bound to flourish!

Creating livable spaces for the Millennial generation

The comparison between the Millennial and Baby Boomers generation includes the premise that while one generation could afford housing at a comparatively younger age, another could not even even manage long-term rentals for spaces with proper living conditions.

However, this debate ignores the contextual differences between in the two very different socioeconomic realities happening in at different times in history. Baby Boomers sometimes point to Millennials’ inability to sustain proper living spaces without realising that today’s world demands different priorities.

Meaningful innovative solutions often arise from necessity. One such innovation grounded on helping young people find affordable and professionally managed long-term spaces is Hostel Hunting.

Hostel Hunting started as a student rental marketplace. The idea was simple: to get landlords to list with them and provide the supply, and then connect them to the potential tenants who make the booking.

In 20118, they introduced HH+ Rooms – affordable rooms that are professionally managed by Hostel Hunting from renovation and furnishing to daily community management, home maintenance, and tenant living experience.

Widening their market beyond catering to University students, Hostel Hunting now provides rooms to accommodate both the youth market and young adults. HH+ is a full stack proptech and propserv solution.

In the B2B sector, Hostel Hunting helps companies to provide housing needs for interns, foreign students, and outstation staff.

“More people are looking to rent rather than owning a place of their own. Despite that, tenants are still required to do the nitty gritty such as buying their own furniture, DIY, or hire cleaning services to maintain their homes. We want to provide and shape a better living experience for our tenants,” said Wen Khai, CEO and co-founder of Hostel Hunting.

In addition, for the tenant side, he said, “We guarantee [owners] a higher rental yield, hassle-free operation, and the HH+ living experience.”

Hostel Hunting believes the trust and support won both from their customers and the quality of their investors, has positioned the business well —especially with offering and shaping an improved living experience in the home rental landscape.

Also read: HostelHunting raises Series A, aims to “aggressively” drive further regional growth

An HR solution for all 

One of the most visible indicators of performance gap in industries is a company’s capacity to digitalise its data. While most large corporations have the resources to implement Enterprise Relationship Planning (ERP) solutions, the majority of SMEs in this region are stuck with past manual HR practices involving tons of papers. Often, the companies turn to regular spreadsheets, or outsourced payroll agents.

In many instances, the simple process of managing pay slip distributions and leave applications are paper-based —open to the possibility of human error, and unnecessary costs.

This challenge to a company’s limited resources often leaves companies stranded in that predicament. To address this, digital HR system provider Swingvy decided to help fill in the gaps. By seamlessly connecting HR information, Swingvy automates all administrative work — employee onboarding, core HR, leave application, payroll, and benefits administration — in an efficient manner.

The tech evolution of HR systems is not new, having started more than a decade ago. What differentiates Swingvy is its “freemium” business model, which allows users to register and use the solution for free and without any time lock.

Also read: Swingvy, an online HR platform for SMEs in Southeast Asia, raises funding from Aviva

Swingvy democratises its HR system in two ways: first, the platform runs on the Web without the need to pay for any licenses, hardware, or maintenance fees—making it perfectly accessible to both large enterprises and small businesses. Secondly, it allows everyone in a company to use the software in a instead of just HR admins.

The only time the product is monetised is when satisfied customers choose to add on to the range of services they want from Swingvy, and can then decide to unlock premium features.

Since Swingvy is an all-in-on HR platform, the premium package integrates the payroll and the benefits platform, promoting full transparency for both admin and employees.

In addition to helping SMEs cut costs and save time, Swingvy administers its HR system to global standard user experience. To fully compute a company-wide payroll system, the automation takes about 10 minutes to produce results.

“It doesn’t make sense for companies to go through the unnecessary challenge of building their own HR software. Our HR platform, besides managing admin and employees’ HR related information, also integrates and automates with the country’s statutory and banking files,” said Jin Choeh, CEO and co-founder of Swingvy.

In 2017, Swingvy was the first Malaysian startup to win the Arena Battle in Tech in Asia and become a part of e27’s Top 100. It is one of the youngest companies to be awarded “Malaysia HR Technology Entrepreneurial Company of the Year” by Frost and Sullivan, and is set to appear as one of the 10 finalists in Asia to pitch in the first Google Asia Demo Day in Shanghai.

Lifelong learning and human development through tech

With the impact of advanced industrialization trickling down to the grassroots, it is important to ask the right questions on exactly what changes the workforce has to make.

“How will working be different? How will the way we understand ‘employability’ shift? How will ‘gig economies’ change the way small and large companies hire? How is it possible to close the gaps between education and employability? How do we bring valuable talent data out of the silos in which it typically resides to construct meaningful pictures of future workforces? How do we help individuals become self-driven lifelong learners?”

These are all critical questions raised by Malaysia-based tech startup CXS.

CXS is a learning analytics company with the capability to manage talent development from education to employability with a focus on preparing national workforces for the ever-changing demands of what is known as the 4^th Industrial Revolution.

Essentially, CXS provides a suite of products, services, and solutions augmented with technology to power human development and promote lifelong learning.

With their analytics system, CXS helps clients with a range of issues including the implementation of improved recruitment and hiring solutions, talent management, and executing large-scale upskilling and reskilling programs.

Also read: Malaysia hosts Create@Alibaba Cloud Startup Contest, enables 15 ASEAN startups to go global

“Talent acquisition and talent supply is now a major macro-economic factor affecting all industries to differing degrees. We help our clients get data out of silos and put it to work to solve problems. Good examples of the kinds of problems we typically help solve are: locating top talent to drive the growth of emerging industries, or helping find the local talent to secure direct foreign investment in key industry sectors,” said Jan Lambrechts, CEO and founder of CXS.

In addition to what the talent pool looks like currently, clients need to know where the to find potential talent. CXS believes that the best way to answer problems posed by advanced industrialization is through better hiring, smarter learning, and evidence-based outcomes.

While CXS is maintaining a strong focused on the ASEAN region, it is rapidly expanding to other parts of the world such as the Middle East and Latin America.

Malaysia is becoming a hub for tech innovators 

Among Malaysia’s strengths is that it is operating as a microcosm for the Southeast Asian ecosystem. Hostel Hunting believes that localisation in the region is effective because the fundamentals of putting up a tech startup is established in Malaysia, making it a suitable platform to scale up into different territories.

While Hostel Hunting is a beneficiary of government support and guidance though MDEC, Cradle, and Magic, itt is also noteworthy that Malaysia’s startup ecosystem in Malaysia is very supportive of each player.

Swingvy is also contributing back to the startup community with the launch of a programme offering 90% discount for the use of its product for startups in Malaysia and Singapore.

Funding also poses an important role for many players. “Being a tech startup involves heaving in machine learning and predictions. We would not be here without a government grant early in our days,” said Fuqaha of Katsana who credits much of their success to state-sponsored financial support.

Meanwhile, CXS believes there is no doubt its early and rapid growth was made possible by the invaluable support received from agencies such as MDEC and TalentCorp. CXS highlights that the private sector has been equally amazing, demonstrating their willingness to collaborate and innovate. This is important because it sets an example for other countries in the region—truly a case of “Malaysia Boleh!” or “Malaysia can!”

How to take this to the next level

When asked what Malaysia could do better in terms of supporting startups and innovation as a whole, DriveMark creators suggested, “Allowing budding entrepreneurs to experiment with technology and innovation right after secondary school by funding innovative ideas. Start with a fund as small as RM2000-5000 with no expectation of return. If any of the ideas grow, then nurture it with bigger fund or assistance to help it go to market.”

Swingvy creators echoed this sentiment, saying that education plays a major role. Support should start from education, especially since Malaysia has always had the talent potential as well as the resources.

They believe that it’s always best to have innovation and entrepreneurial thought nurtured from a young age. This means, the government should acknowledge that the previous educational system has not addressed this this area, and that private institutions should create and invest more funds to build a stronger startup ecosystem.

On the other hand, Hostel Hunting believes that Malaysia could benefit from better public awareness and understanding of the ecosystem landscape.

All the four startups—Katsana, Hostel Hunting, Swingvy, and CXS—believe that to holistically enhance the growth and impact of tech innovators requires adequate funding, sufficient support to nurture creativity, and educating both the players in the startup ecosystem as well as the general public. This will nurture better tech innovation and continued enhancement of human experience.

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Featured Image: 123RF

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Sometimes it’s not you, it’s them

Asking for funding from Venture Capital (VC) investors is likened to the same statistics of getting rejections from Tinder.

Okay. That’s not a good analogy, but you get the point — fundraising for your startup is tough.

I wrote in Aug 2016 on “How to think like a VC before asking for funding” which explained the official questions that VCs would be thinking.

Even though you may have a great pitch and a great proposition, VCs still reject investing in your startup.

During the conversations, they showed their support and financial commitments to you.

But, why then did they reject at the last minute? What gives?

When I was fundraising for my e-commerce startup 14 years back, I met 30 investors, but only three agreed to invest and I only raised 15 per cent of my target.

It became a lingering thought in my mind as to why I was unable to fundraise more despite my startup having great traction with the right ingredients.

Now, as a VC helping my startups get follow-on funding, I found myself in the shoes of an investor and came to understand the hidden reasons why VCs reject a potential investment.

These are reasons which are never mentioned officially, fueling your frustration as you wonder if you have done something incorrectly.

The truth is: it’s not you, but the VC.

So read on if you want to know what exactly goes on behind-the-scenes.

All capital is committed to existing investments

Startup founders have an impression that VCs have endless pots of gold ready to invest in startups at any one time.

That’s far from the truth.

VCs may have already committed fully to their funds, usually within the first three to five years (also known as the necessary investment period).

If you have requested for investments but have gone past that timeframe, there is no way an investment can be made.

Sometimes, they have already completed investing in their first capital call and could be waiting for a second call much later.

The investment period and capital call periods are usually well-kept secrets within the VC firm.

Despite no further funding allowed, VCs do not want to admit that they ‘ran out of money’.

Instead, they would want to show that they are still active in the game.

They would be willing to meet you to get updated with the latest technology trends or to obtain potential deal stories for their pitches to future Limited Partners for their next fundraising.

Difficulty in justifying to the investment committee

A VC firm is made up of partners, who will generally review and decide whether they should invest in a startup.

Some VC firms require unanimous approval, while some may have ‘silver bullet’ approval or majority approval.

How individual VC firms work is also a well-kept secret.

If you did not work directly with the Partners, it will be the job of the Principal, Associates or Analysts who will justify and fight for your startup to be invested to the committee.

If the VC is part of a corporate grouping, it may have even more clearance checks and approvals from other divisions or even higher management.

In every organisation, people always want to look good with their colleagues.

If the person supporting your startup finds it difficult to justify to the investment committee, he will look bad and loses his credibility.

It can be harder if the VC needs to get a unanimous decision.

Losing credibility could mean even more difficulty in getting investment approvals in future or even a promotion.

So, rather than taking the risk, that VC might just reject it outrightly.

The lack of trust in a founder

In Asia especially, trust is a very important trait that needs to be cultivated.

VCs don’t just give money for investment and walk away. They seek relationships.

They have to be working closely with the startup founder for a long time.

What’s more, it is about putting money into the hands of the founder and trusting the founder makes the right decisions and calls in spending that investment.

If there is no trust, the deal to invest will likely fall through.

After speaking to fellow VCs, I deduced that many startup founders in Singapore tend to be too transactional and Western-styled.

This is ironic as Asians are more focused on guanxi, the Chinese word for relationships.

Maybe it is due to the Singaporean meritocratic belief that one can work hard and be rewarded.

But, we forget that relationships are the ones that bind partnerships between investor and entrepreneur.

In my personal experiences, I found entrepreneurs tending to treat VCs like ATM machines.

Many entrepreneurs fail to be sincere and keen on developing a proper relationship.

There seems to be an urgent rush to get investments in without properly ‘investing’ in the relationship.

To me, it delivers a ‘one-night stand’ turned thoughtless-shotgun-marriage vibe.

At TRIVE, we take an average of four to six months in building friendships before considering any investment.

It is only after establishing trust when we can start being real to each other and this helps to mitigate any potential conflicts due to misunderstanding and mistrust in the future.

So until trust is built, it could be a probable reason why you got rejected for investment.

The VC had to choose between you and another startup

It sucks, but you were outshined by others.

VCs get many decks being submitted for review for investment.

TRIVE gets an average of 200 decks via online each month.

We barely have time to call not more than 10 per month for a meeting. Plus, we only invested in 3 last year, a 0.125 per cent chance of success.

I heard of other VCs averaging 1000 decks or more while their investment rates are considerably lower by a lot.

At every round of investment meeting, there will be unofficial quotas being set.

A list of investments is presented before the committee and they have to filter candidates, due to the limited deployment of capital.

Also Read: 5 things startups should know about Corporate Venture Capital

I recalled one startup seeking Series A which was a really good decent traction and scalable model.

Discussions were optimistic and the VC was confident in the investment committee’s approval.

Sadly, the startup got rejected for investments and upon some further prodding, I learnt that the committee could only choose one for that day, among the six that were presented.

Your startup doesn’t seem right somehow

VC investment is more of an art rather than a science, especially in early-stage investments.

There is not much financial data available, especially from a young company.

For professional VCs, prudent and detailed due diligence (DD) is done on the industry, market, background checks and competitor analysis.

But, even the best DD does not guarantee the full assurance of an investment.

VCs will then have to rely on their own gut feeling and intuition.

Despite how amazing a startup may be, sometimes there is an inexplicable lingering feeling that there is off.

Also Read: Here are 15 awesome startups that will pitch at TOP100 APAC 2019!

And once there is an iota of doubt, the deal does not go through.

I am too polite to tell you that your startup isn’t good

One interesting value of Asian culture is to be polite and adopt discretion when rejecting.

I have come across instances where a founder told me about his rejection from a VC with no reasons given.

It is only in privacy when my fellow VCs admit to each other why the startup is lacking.

When I asked why the VC declined to share the cause of rejection with the startup, the VC revealed his fear of coming across rudely.

Rather than providing constructive feedback, they just felt rejecting without reason would end the discussion cleaner and faster.

Concluding thoughts

When I ask entrepreneurs how they receive successful funding, they usually shrug and say, “I got lucky.”

There’s some level of truth in that statement.

While we can always say the startup has promising prospects, the hidden reasons why VCs would say no to an investment are variables one is unable to easily predict.

My advice is to accept these variables as part of fundraising and to keep persevering until you get the right investor on board.

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Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

This article is part of the “Startup Advisories” series, where I provide SEA startup founders articles on challenges my startup mentees go through. Discussions in this article were based on feedback from mentees, VCs and my own personal experiences.

Christopher Quek is a startup advisor and mentor to Singaporean entrepreneurs. His full range of SEA articles are found on christopherquek.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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GOJEK’s ongoing Series F funding round confirmed its first closing from the three behemoths, accompanied by investment from Mitsubishi Corporation and Provident Capital among other investors

Ride-hailing unicorn-turned-on-demand service and payment platform GOJEK has confirmed the first closing of the ongoing Series F fundraising, with Google, JD.com, and Tencent leading the round. Joining the three are Mitsubishi Corporation and Provident Capital, among other investors.

The company said that the proceeds will be used to enhance GOJEK’s market leadership in Indonesia across transport, food delivery, logistics, mobile payments, and merchant services. Plus, it will be used to drive continued expansion across other markets in Southeast Asia. Its regional footprint includes the recent introduction of GOJEK in Singapore, GO-VIET in Vietnam, and GET in Thailand.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, January: Vietnamese e-wallet service MoMo

Leading the market with its digital payment GO-PAY and food delivery GO-FOOD, it is reported that GOJEK’s current gross transaction value (GTV) across all markets amounting to more than US$9 billion with transaction volumes of two billion at the end of 2018.

“By focusing on solving problems for our users and partners, GOJEK has introduced the multi-sided platform model where millions of people can consume services that address their most frequent daily needs and where businesses and entrepreneurs can access those consumers, grow their incomes and at the same time gain access to crucial financial services,” said Nadiem Makarim, GOJEK Group CEO.

With the investment from JD.com, GOJEK has cemented its strategic partnership with JD.com’s Indonesia e-commerce joint venture, JD.id and its last mile delivery logistics joint venture, J-Express (JX) to enhance end-to-end logistical capabilities and e-commerce services in Indonesia.

“With a dedicated JD.id entry point on GOJEK’s mobile app, 27 million monthly active GOJEK users will have direct access to JD.id’s high-quality e-commerce offering. As JD.com expands its presence in the region, we look forward to working together with GOJEK to deliver innovative retail, logistics and consumer solutions across the region,” said Jon Liao, JD.com Chief Strategy Officer.

Also Read: AI-predictive maintenance startup Avanseus secures US$1.3m funding from TNB Aura

“Our investment in GOJEK is an important milestone for Tencent in Southeast Asia. GOJEK has maintained leading market share and high growth in its core businesses, while making meaningful progress in new verticals. This additional investment will strengthen our alliance with GOJEK in fast-growing Southeast Asia and enable Tencent to broaden its partner cooperation more globally,” said Martin Lau, President of Tencent on Tencent’s investment.
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Singapore, the perfect starting point to tap into Asian Travel & Mobility tech ecosystem

Joined by over 100 distinguished guests from the Asian Travel & Mobility tech (T&MT) ecosystem, international media representatives, and top executives from the Lufthansa Group (LG), the Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH) opened its first foreign office in Singapore on Monday, January 28.

The expansion of the aviation group’s innovation unit is a strategic response to the growing importance of Asia’s T&MT sector.

It aims to expand LG’s footprint along the travel chain to systematically create and capture value beyond flying.

While the speed of innovation is accelerating on a global scale, Asia emerged as the most VC-funded T&MT market in the world, capturing 59 per cent of global deal flow in 2018, according to LIH.

Furthermore, 17 out of 34 unicorns in global Travel & Mobility Tech are based in Asia.

Singapore is LIH’s chosen location to settle in.

The initial focus here would be on an in-depth exploration of specific market developments in digitalization of travel and mobility plus establishing a network of relevant tech players forming the first strategic partners on site.

The local team is currently being set up in Singapore, and LIH’s three strategic 2019 goals are:

1. Understanding the specifics of Asian T&MT ecosystem by systematically focussing on trend & market research.
2. Exploring concrete opportunities and validating first projects in Asia with local partners.
3. Leveraging expertise of local Lufthansa Group colleagues in the digital context.

Investing in Asia through strategic partnerships

While the LIH headquarters in Berlin are focused on digitizing the core business through building their own ventures, the LIH Singapore office will be focused on partnerships and investments as key activities to leverage on existing footprint.

In other words, its main aim is to understand the market and source for investment opportunities.

LIH has already begun screening Asian deal flows prior to their official set up in Singapore.

The move to Asia with a focus on new, digital business models is part of the LG’s digital strategy: envisioning a decisive expansion of digital activities along the travel and mobility chain and building a sustainable network with leading technology players.

Also Read: Grab partners with micro retail tech startup Warung Pintar to champion digital inclusion

Dr Christian Langer, vice president of Digital Strategy Lufthansa Group and managing director at Lufthansa Innovation Hub, echoed:

“More than ever, Asian startups, but also digital enterprises, are the driving force behind fundamental changes along the travel chain. With the expansion of the Lufthansa Innovation Hub, we want to become a serious part of this emerging ecosystem.”

In an effort to understand Asia’s T&MT ecosystem through systematic research, an alliance with INSEAD has already been launched on the topic: “The Future of Work” and its explicit relevance for the transformation of business travel.

The aim is to publish key findings in a whitepaper and to implement them a test project, which will be validated in conjunction with LG’s real-world conditions.

In this context, LIH is in discussions with WeWork, Singapore’s Changi Airport and also the Munich Airport.

According to Gleb Tritus, managing director of LIH:

“We look forward to exploiting the unparalleled dynamism of the Asian technology ecosystem even more consistently in the future and to leveraging the established position of the Lufthansa Group. Singapore is clearly a pioneer of mobility innovation and our first collaboration with INSEAD and other players strongly attests to how eager established local players are to experiment and explore,”.

The opening of an additional office in Shanghai, China is planned over the course of the year.

About The Lufthansa Innovation Hub

The Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH) was established in Berlin at the end of 2014 in response to the rapid development of the global T&MT scene.

Thousands of startups along the travel chain have subsequently emerged over the last few years. Furthermore, the volume of venture capital invested in the T&MT context globally reached a record high of US$43.89 billion in 2018.

In short, the entire travel chain is undergoing a fundamental process charge.

Also Read: How apps help seniors with better mobility, safety, and quality of life

To keep up with these developments, a team consisting of serial founders, startup experts and long-term Lufthansa employees was established in Berlin to act as the interface between LG and the global startup ecosystem.

Focus Areas:

1. Discover – The LIH’s Trend & Market Intelligence specialist systematically research and analyze developments in the global T&MT ecosystem, to identify interesting opportunities for the Lufthansa group.
2. Build – The LIH uses its own entrepreneurial mindset and methodological competence to develop and validate business model innovations, using prototype developed in-house.
3. Partner – The LIH initiates partnerships between the Lufthansa Group and startups, whose technological solutions have the potential to make travelling with Lufthansa even more convenient.
4. Invest – The LIH supports the Lufthansa Group by strategically investing in tech players in the global startup scene.

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