Garda Pangan aims to raise awareness around the issue of food waste, which has been gaining little to no attention in Indonesia

From the second largest city in Indonesia, that has been an emerging player in the disruptive startup business, Garda Pangan surely has the potential to steal attention.

e27 talks to Eva Bachtiar, one of three co-founders of the Surabaya-based startup, about the food waste management startup that has been creating buzz in the past year with its social and environmental causes. Focussing on things that we are all guilty of taking advantage of: Food.

How it all started

“People don’t really know that our country is actually the second largest food waste producers in the world,” Bachtiar says on the phone.

“This is especially ironic since a total of staggering 19.4 million people in Indonesia still live in hunger,” she continues.

Bachtiar explains the initial mission of Garda Pangan that she built along with two other co-founders –a husband and wife and catering business owners.

“We want to facilitate those who have food excess and food scarcity problem so the excess can be distributed rightly to those who need it,” she says.

The concept of a foodbank is nothing new, but it is relatively rare in Indonesia. “We want to make Garda Pangan a foodbank that aims to support particularly hospitality and culinary business, because both sectors consistently have food waste. This way we don’t need to educate them one-by-one because they experience the excess firsthand,” Bachtiar stresses.

Garda Pangan’s mission directly jabs at the economic loss and environment hazard that are caused by the food excess and food waste issue.

Also Read: Malaysia’s fresh food e-tailer Fresh At Heart secures US$275K in crowdfunding via Ata Plus

Challenges in raising awareness

One of the challenges in food waste management, besides the familiarity, is the concerns many hospitality companies have.

“Unfamiliarity with food bank concept is another thing that we can overcome. It’s harder to face the challenge of these companies’ concerns of being sued if something happens to the recipients of the food they donate,” Bachtiar mentions.

Bachtiar says that many companies feel reluctant to donate food excess because it is easier and less risky to just dump the food. “They worry that they are at a position of being sued if, for example, somebody got poisoned after eating the food that they donate. The possibility of having their donated food being resold is also something they want to avoid,” she further elaborated.

To accommodate these concerns, Garda Pangan makes sure their partners can rely on them about these issues. Once the food has been donated, the responsibility is fully rested on Garda Pangan as the distribution.

Putting dignity in food excess

Garda Pangan now serves three restaurants, one organic market, one fruit distributor, one food caterer, three bakeries, and two wedding organisers.

“These few partners that we have believe in our vision to not waste food and to give it to people who need it. They also like that it helps them to become greener and that it’s a good PR,” Bachtiar says.

Some people refer to “food excess” as leftovers, which Eva quickly corrected. “It has a negative connotation attached to the word ‘leftovers’ while the food that we distribute is strictly untouched, still clean, and unsold yet by the restaurants and hotels,” she stresses.

Bachtiar further emphasises on the importance of distributing the food the way it is, which is without any added processing. “The only case we will process the food donated to us is if it’s overripe fruits like bananas, that look bruised but still in a good condition, or just to add on so we can distribute a full set of meal instead of just rice and veggies that sometimes happens,” Bachtiar says.

“We simply want to put dignity in distributing the food. It may be an excess to someone, but to somebody else it could be the first proper meal they have in God knows how long,” she points out.

From social to scaling up

Being a social- and environmental-focussed startup does not mean Garda Pangan will operate solely based on donations.

“Yes, that’s really what we aim for: to better our business model. Many people perceive us as a social movement, a cause, not a business. We did start by bootstrapping, but we’re fully aware the only way to grow is to have a working business model. We want to run sustainably and eventually must have a business line,” explains Bachtiar when asked about Garda Pangan’s monetisation method.

“Right now, we can’t expect people to pay since it’s really new to them. No partners would want to pay for their food waste management because why should they pay if they can just dump the food for free, right?” she continues.

Garda Pangan aims to raise awareness of the importance and benefit of food waste management for businesses through its social media campaign and Food Heroes volunteering programme.

Also Read: Indian food delivery startup Swiggy raises US$1B investment led by Naspers

Garda Pangan’s next move for 2019 will be proving that the business model they have formulated will really work.

“Our plan is to introduce the people -starting from Surabaya- to our sustainable and responsible food waste management and provide them with a social impact report. It will be a paid service that serves our clients with a better return since they will got information, such as a complete beneficiary report, to know who have received their food excess. This type of report can be a token to claim the company’s social responsibility (CSR) slot. Companies can allocate their CSR budget to use our service,” Bachtiar elaborates.

Besides the social impact report, Garda Pangan also plans to have an environmental impact report, in which partners who choose to collaborate with Garda Pangan will be given report on how much carbon footprint they have reduced by simply donate their food excess.

Another report on the pipeline is a waste analysis data that will allow companies to have knowledge about the food composition and type of food that have been managed by Garda Pangan.

“This approach has already helped one of our partners, a bakery that used to have 100-200 portion excess in its daily production. The bakery got our report and it was an eye opener for them how much portion they throw away everyday. Now they are able to fix their production number and save cost, reducing to 20-30 portion excess per day since it’s impossible to not have excess in food industry,” Eva shares.

Society-beloved

With the increasing trend of going green and zero waste lifestyle, Garda Pangan surely has the upper hand in scaling up around this time.

Having recently won the first place in Go Startup Indonesia Championship by the government’s creative industry agency BEKRAF, the company said that everyday they would receive direct messages on Instagram, its most active social media platform, from people in other cities asking for their volunteering programme to be held outside Surabaya.

“Today, we have 30 in-house volunteers and around 200-300 public volunteers daily. In the future, this volunteering operation is something we would like to keep as it is a good platform to promote food waste awareness,” Bachtiar says.

“Right now, we are looking to hire professionals for jobs like designers and will also expand our core team with full time employments,” she adds.

Also Read: Singapore Foodie channel’s Malaysian parent raises funding for expansion

Whether or not they will be open for investors, Eva shared that they are now in the stage of proving their business model and improving their infrastructure.

“I just resigned from my previous job to focus on Garda Pangan two months ago. Right now what we have is an angel investor who believes in our vision and will walk alongside us for the next year,” Bachtiar says.

A firm believer of the importance of having food bank in each city, the woman who has mining engineering background was moved by the fact that urban poverty is a real problem. People in the big cities are struggling harder to eat, compared to people living communally in the village.

“I believe in our capability to provide solution to this often overlooked, but urgent problem,” Bachtiar closes.

 

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China appears to be pursuing more low-profile strategies rather than eye-popping, state-led partnership initiatives

The article China looks to private capital, open source technology for global tech game advantage was written by Runhua Zhao for TechNode.

China is racing against time to establish its own technological intellectual property, particularly in the semiconductor industry. The moves come amid growing pressure on Chinese tech companies overseas, underscored by the recent arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou and punitive measures by the US on Huawei rival ZTE.

This time around, China appears to be taking a more discreet approach, pursuing more low-profile strategies rather than eye-popping, state-led partnership initiatives such as the National Integrated Circuit (IC) Industry Investment Fund, which was set up in 2014 and raised RMB138.7 billion (US$20.1 billion) in its initial phase.

“Sino-US tensions are pushing China into a corner,” the head of an integrated circuit trading company told TechNode, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. As a result, he said, there’s been a shift in policies at both national and local levels where greater emphasis is being placed on investing in the semiconductor industry. “We are seeing increasing integration of government budget and private money in good projects,” he added.

“China will increase support to the semiconductor industry, while target projects and allocation of capital will see more subtle shifts,” said Kyna Wong, head of Credit Suisse’s China Technology team.

Wong pointed to the recently announced Shanghai-based tech board plan as a sign of new efforts to bring in individual investors and developing companies into the world of tech investment.

Also Read: China issues standards for cutting delivery waste amid e-commerce boom

For semiconductor and other projects requiring long-term capital injection in research and investment, and fixed assets such as factories and labs, a stock exchange allowing flexible capital exit could benefit private investment.

In contrast to listed A-share stocks which should report earnings before IPO filling, the registration-based tech board will have no profit requirement for IPO candidates. This is likely to encourage R&D driven projects characterised by high investment risks but also high returns.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government is extending material support to early stage semiconductor projects developed by students and educational institutions.

Earlier this month, for example, during the final of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ global innovation competition, the top prize for early stage projects was awarded to a project that focuses on chip security, while the prize for the growth-stage projects was given to a team that is developing non-civil communication chips. Both winners will be given access to an undisclosed amount of private capital.

Chinese semiconductor companies also are aggressively investing in open source projects. One example is instruction set architecture (ISA) RISC-V. ISA works between hardware and software, and defines how a computer is programmed.

In April, Ni Guangnan, a member at the Chinese Academy of Engineering Science, said that Chinese companies should pour the whole country’s resources into chip-making. He drew parallels to the mission of those who dedicated their lives to develop significant national projects such as developing China’s own nuclear weapons.

Also Read: VC Edith Yeung: The upshot of China’s ICO rules

In November, during China’s Wuzhen Internet Conference, Ni was assigned as the general director of China’s own RISC-V alliance. At another technology forum held in the same month in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Ni mentioned that Intel and ISA ARM are dominating the core chip-making technology. “If we could work together on RISC-V, under the current situation, we can be the third major power,” Ni was cited in Chinese media as saying.

“The government is very interested in the technology,” Fang Zhixi, former global vice president at Intel and now the chairman of RISC-V Foundation’s consultancy committee in China, told TechNode prior to the Wuzhen Internet Conference. “I have been getting in touch with high government bodies including the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). We see no problem organising talks or having both Chinese and international researchers and universities working together.”

Fang explained that the Chinese government’s interest in RISC-V is due to an open-source technology’s “natural advantages.” Tech companies may build their own applications on the “open and free” fundamental tech standards, and produce commercial projects with no extra-legal pressure such as patent disputes imposed by external parties.

“Open-source [solutions and communities], in fact, can be a way to avoid tensions in the tech sector,” Fang added.

Rick O’Connor, executive director at RISC-V Foundation, the official non-profit organisation of ISA RISC-V, told TechNode in the same interview as Fang’s that IoT and AI, two major Chinese national strategic industries, were also eagerly looking for open source solutions.

Nevertheless, Wong believes China still has a long way to go.

Also Read: MyTaiwanTour raises US$1.5M from Sanpu Group to expand to Japan, China

“From the perspective of policy, support to open source technologies can be easily done. However, one concern is communication across standards. China still has to tackle challenges when racing with players leading mainstream tech games in many fields.”

Wong believes China’s intention is to establish its own intellectual properties in mainstream tech games. If it were not for the purpose, China could always pay for US patents’ use right and projects built on open source platforms, as the US tech entrepreneurial ecosystem is highly commercial.

“[Therefore] open source is not always enough, though it will produce positive outcomes,” Wong added.

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The article China looks to private capital, open source technology for global tech game advantage first appeared on TechNode.

Image Credit: h heyerlein on Unsplash

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The startup will use the funds to expand its offline presence in urban areas and increase marketing efforts

Fresh At Heart, an online fresh food retailer in Malaysia, has secured RM1,149,580 (US$275,000) from 22 individual investors through online equity crowdfunding (ECF) platform Ata Plus, overshooting its target by 143 per cent.

The company said in a statement that it will use the funds to expand its offline presence in urban areas and increase marketing efforts, as it sets out to expand nationwide.

“This investment will help fuel our ambition to deepen our reach to users, particularly to Malaysia’s major cities where consumers do not necessarily have direct access to the freshest produce,” said Joel Chong, Co-founder and COO of Fresh At Heart. “We’re used to having digital services simplify other aspects of our lives, and consumers are now turning to Fresh At Heart as their go-to solution for eating safely and healthily.”

Also Read: Malaysia’s clinical communication app MedPlanner raises US$240K in equity crowdfunding

Founded in 2016 by Chong and Eddie Goh, Fresh At Heart aims to become the go-to stop for fresh, naturally-sourced food. By eliminating the supply chain between fresh food producers and end-consumers and working directly with local producers, the company provides a channel for urban consumers to receive fresh food direct from the producers.

Its online store offers the fresh catch of the day from the Johor coastal district — cleaned and delivered to the customer’s doorstep or to be picked up in-store from its 16 locations across Malaysia’s major cities.

Since launch, the venture has grown its online following to 30,000 and has seen steady growth in sales, hitting RM200,000 in monthly sales last quarter, it claims.

“Through our crowdfunding campaign, we are welcoming 22 new backers who can spread the word about our business and help us make strategic connections as we expand nationwide. By building a wide base of investors, we have gone beyond just acquiring capital and gained a crowd of loyal Fresh At Heart ambassadors across Malaysia and Singapore,” said CEO Goh.

Fresh At Heart’s fully subscribed fundraising round marks the third successful ECF campaign on Ata Plus’s platform in one week.

“Following successful funding rounds by VendPays and MedPlanner, we’re delighted to facilitate a fruitful crowdfunding campaign for Fresh At Heart. The fresh food industry is about to see exponential growth as the new funding takes Fresh At Heart through the next stage of its development,” said Elain Lockman, Co-founder and Director of Ata Plus.

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Workplay stays true to its name by providing facilities for mothers to work and their children to play, keeping the two together

Motherhood is often something that’s perceived as challenging and full of sacrifice by society. This is an idea that unavoidably puts women under pressure, and men who are fathers underestimated.

Women are demanded to have the can-do attitude, expected to juggle multiple hats. This is especially true for mothers who choose to continue their career; an option that is still being frowned upon by the society, particularly in Indonesia.

But one co-working space begs to differ. Located at the heart of South Jakarta, the busy capital of Indonesia, the co-working space says that women can have their career and raise their kids at the same time.

Audira Amanda chats with e27 about how her own experience with motherhood led her to open Workplay, a shelter for parents, mothers especially, to come and meet other mothers and take few hours of the day to work uninterrupted, leaving their children in a capable hand.

Becoming working-from-home mothers

“I never thought of opening a co-working place before I was married. And then I became a mother, and I knew in my heart I wanted to be with my child all the way. So I decided to become a full time mom,” Amanda opens up.

She gave up her career for a year to be fully present with her now-toddler son, only to find that she felt stuck right when her kid reached toddler age.

Also Read: Workplace flexibility should be gender-inclusive, not just a benefit for working mothers

“I didn’t feel productive. I want to go back, but the guilt of having to leave my child if I go back to work was making me uncomfortable,” she says.

She was sure that she could not possibly be the only one feeling the so-called mom-guilt, and it has inspired her to build the co-working space.

“I believe that women want to stay productive while taking care of their child. Many women start a business from home or become a freelancer working from home, and even this choice still does not help them with productivity,” Amanda says.

Based on experience, working from home for mothers will always be full of distraction. “Basically, it is impossible for mothers to be able to focus on one thing. As a result, we couldn’t focus on either delivering our work or simply playing with our kids,” she points out.

The idea of support system

More than anything, mothers need support system. Mothers who are working in an office will need someone they trust to take care of their children.

“But what about mothers who are working from home? They also need a support system because being at home will confuse their children as to ‘why Mommy can’t be with me while she’s at home’,” Amanda explains.

Families are simply unavailable to watch for your children, deadlines are approaching, while hiring nannies is not an affordable option — these are all normal challenges working mothers face daily.

Also Read: I am a full time Mom working remotely in a startup, here is how I survive

“It occurred to me that working moms often only need at least two uninterrupted hours to wrap up their work with laser focus. But two hours of uninterrupted focus are something of a luxury for them,” Amanda says.

“I was thinking of a solution, and why don’t just make it into a place for working-from-home parents or freelancers to work and still be around their kids at the same time,” she recalls her first a-ha moment with Workplay.

Workplay’s facilities

“The funny thing is, parents often mistake us as a childcare facility,” Amanda says about the place that would turn three-months-old this end of year.

“We’re not there yet,” she adds.

Workplay offers membership for parents to choose. The available options are Work, Workplay, or Play.

Work is for working while bringing your child over, Workplay is for working and giving your child access to the play area facility, and Play is for using the play area facility only.

Parents can fill out online form on their website or come directly to the place to register or just use the facility without becoming a member.

For daily pass, parents can choose between three-day pass, 20-hour pass to flexibly and efficiently choose the hours they want to work within a day, or one day pass for 30 days validity.

Also Read: Alpha Startups Indonesia’s first batch winners: Moms, renters, and new graduates take center stage

“We understand that sometimes parents may only need to work for three days, sometimes even just a few hours a day. So we give options that will cater to that need of time flexibility,” explains Amanda.

As for the kids, parents who come to Workplay can be at ease knowing that their kids are in good hands.

Workplay’s child play area is supervised by a professional child supervisor and Montessori consultants that will not only take care of the children in the play area, but also will offer children different activities daily to encourage learning.

“We offer art and craft and sensory play that are varied everyday, aimed at two- to five-year-old children for now,” Amanda elaborates.

The following are Workplay’s facilities:

Also Read: Philippines’ big e-commerce players highlight 3 gender diversity trends in top management

 

 

Workplay also provides free-flow coffee, child-friendly bathrooms, function rooms, and event space available for rent.

Balancing parenthood

Amanda says that there are still not many spaces that facilitate parents, especially mothers. “I believe Workplay can be a place where mothers meet each other as support system and to get the support to be productive and close with their kid still,” she adds.

Also Read: How do we overcome the low representation of women in leadership roles?

Workplay often hosts events for mothers that are not work-related. “Sometimes fathers would come along to use the work facility, while mothers would join seminars and kids play in our play area. Everyone gets their portion here,” says Amanda.

As a mother, Audira knows the difficulty in working with kids and the constant worry of looking for someone reliable to supervise their kids. This continues even until the kids are old enough to go to school, where parents have to commute to get their kids.

“Some mothers approached me saying thank you for the place, because they feel like this is an answer for their guilt of leaving their kids for work,” says Amanda.

The future for Workplay

When asked whether or not the company is open for future investment, Audira was enthusiastic but realistic about the possibility.

“We just open for public on September 4 this year. We don’t want to rush it. I think funding can wait for two to three years,” she says.

Workplay plans to turn its play area into a child care. The company believes by doing so, they can even better facilitate working parents.

“With a child care setting, the kids will be taken care of for things like meal time and learning time. This will greatly eliminate working distraction for parents,” Amanda elaborates.

Towards the end of the conversation, Audira admits that Workplay exists out of her concern about the unfriendliness of working space for  mothers.

Also Read: 4 reasons why startups should recruit more women than ever

“Women who are working a full time job and are moms only need one thing: Being understood. For example, for something as simple as pumping your breast milk in the office. A lot of nursing moms still have to go to bathroom to do this around the clock, only to be left out in the dark about how to store them so it won’t go to waste if they aren’t equipped with cooler box. It’s their children’s needs, and still women are doing it on their own with the lack of support,” she explains.

Amanda thinks corporations should really pay attention by giving the proper support and facilities.

“I think the least they can do is provide the place to store the breast milk so women won’t have to worry anymore about it,” she opines.

“If the company wishes to retain their employees then this is what they should do: Start supporting mothers,” she stresses.

Leaving their children is a great sacrifice for mothers. On this matter, Amanda believes that working mothers should be given the flexibility of working from home.

“Indonesia’s companies still value showing up five days a week as a standard employment requirement. This actually causes fear for many women to get pregnant because it may cause them their job,” she points out.

“Supporting women, supporting mothers may actually be the key of eliminating high turnover rate,” Amanda closes.

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Image Credit: Workplay

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Pickupp, which has a presence in Malaysia and Singapore, will use the funds to expand into Ho Chi Minh City in early 2019

​​​​​​​Pickupp, a logistics technology startup based out of Hong Kong, today announced it has secured an undisclosed sum in pre-Series A round of financing, led by Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, with participation from local VC firm Spark Ventures and existing investor Axis Capital.

The new funds will be used for engineering resources to handle API integration with e-commerce marketplace and multinational 3PL couriers; marketing efforts to further penetrate omni-channel sales for retailers; and expansion to other locations in Southeast Asia (Ho Chi Minh city planned for early 2019).

“With the access to new capital, strategic guidance and technical know-how, we look forward to participating in the Alibaba ecosystem in Asia while broadening our product offerings to better serve merchants of all sizes and needs,” said Crystal Pang, Co-founder and CEO of Pickupp.

Also Read: Pickupp focusses on optimisation to help lower delivery service cost

Pickupp was founded in December 2016 by Pang, Eric San, and Paco Chan. It is a logistics optimisation platform offering low cost solutions for merchants with delivery needs in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. The firm provides tailored last-mile service for both bulk and ad-hoc deliveries.

Pickupp claims it provides 4-hour, same day or scheduled door-to-door delivery service with a diverse supply network.

Vincent Law, Founder and MD of Spark Ventures, said: “Pickupp is a logistics technology platform that utilises their proprietary optimisation technology to provide low cost delivery solutions for express and same day deliveries in a two-sided marketplace. With its advanced optimisation batching technology and validated data analytics model, Pickupp provides an excellent platform for both merchants and customers to enjoy a cost effective and efficient delivery experience.”

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Singapore, as noted by Google, was among the many countries that have had a significant year, judged by the top searches on the platform

It is that time of the year again when Google released a list of the most popular searches of the year in each country it operates in, including Singapore.

The result revealed that Singaporean users are greatly invested in current affairs, with interests ranging from politics, sports, to Marvel superheroes.

1. Politics

Google noted that in 2018 Singaporeans were particularly excited about its neighbour Malaysia’s fierce elections, as reflected in it became number two Trending Searches and Trending International News.

It was followed by the search for former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak on number four Trending Searches and Trending International News. The beloved Razak made history leading the power shift from Barisan Nasional (BN) to Pakatan Harapan (PH) for the first time in 60 years of Malaysia’s history.

Sitting on number eight of Trending Searches and simultaneously number one on Trending Singapore News is the Trump-Kim Summit, the first-ever meeting between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader in the ASEAN Summit 2018.

The event ASEAN Summit 2018 itself made number nine of Trending Singapore News in the country.

If Royal Wedding can be categorised as political affair, then it did made an impression when the now-expecting Meghan Markle married Prince Harry and landed on number nine of Trending Searches and number eight of Trending International News.

Also Read: Google Temasek Report: Southeast Asia’s internet economy to hit US$240B by 2025

2. Sports

Interest in football had a spike in the country, marked with the FIFA World Cup 2018 taking the number one spot on the Top Trending Search list this year.

Other sporting occasion that stole Singaporeans’ attentions was the Australian Open 2018, sitting at number three of the Trending Searches and number two of Trending Sporting News.

The Commonwealth Games rode on number nine Trending Sporting News, and the Asian Games was on number three of Trending Sporting News, showing supports towards the Singapore that claimed competing both games and taking home a total of nine and 22 medals respectively.

3. Gadgets

Apple Watch 4 stole the spotlight by emerging on number seven of the Trending Gadgets list, and iPad Pro on number 10.

Sitting on number one Trending Gadgets search list was the Apple’s smartphone iPhone XS, followed by Samsung Note 9 on number two. The latest Google Pixel 3 was a black horse that came on number 6 of Trending Gadgets list.

With the introduction of quite a number of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-related features in software and hardware, these gadgets have offered many revolutionary experiences based on voice, motion and touch.

4. Tech events

Singapore is the gateway to Southeast Asia’s growing tech, and this year showed exactly why Singapore is the main entrance.

This year, the Singapore Comex 2018 has become the number one Trending Events in Singapore for the first time. Showing up at number two in the same search category was the IT Show 2018, climbing up from its success in the 2017.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, Nov 9: Google revises sexual harassment reporting policies

5. Entertainments

A special love for Marvel superhero characters was dominating the search list with four spots on Trending Movies with Black Panther at number one, Avengers: Infinity War at number two, Deadpool 2 at number three, and Venom at number five.

Still in the same universe, the Marvel effect was on full-fledge with number three Trending Viral News turned out to be a fan-created website Did Thanos kill me? that determine if they were a casualty of the deadliest showdown against the supervillain, Thanos.

Stan Lee, who was the real hero behind the universe, passed away this year and sat at number five Trending Searches.

Moving further away from Marvel universe, the entertainment-related search in the country also saw Chinese entertainment overtakes Korean hallyu.

The popular Chinese hit drama Story of Yanxi Palace was at number one Trending TV Shows, just a spot above Korean drama What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim and Meteor Garden 2018 at number three, Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace (如 懿 传) at number four, and Legend of Fuyao 扶摇 at number nine.

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Image Credit: Benjamin Dada on Unsplash

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From a heartfelt realisation of a freelance designer to a spider-seller turned startup founder

Throughout the year, e27 has published contents about startups and the people who are behind it –and these stories are often deeply personal.

By digging into their soul, these authors are able to remind their readers about things that mattered. More importantly, they have also encouraged them to do something about it.

Our year-in-review piece this time is an homage to ten most inspiring and curiosity-tickling features published on our platform.

1. Gig workers are often under-represented and under-recognised, and we need to change that

This piece was written by ShengJie Teh, our community contributor who is also the founder of 3Clicks, a freelance service marketplace. Teh wrote in the feature that it is frustrating how under appreciated freelancers are, and took it upon himself to create the company.

This piece helps readers to see from the standpoint of a freelancer-turned-startup-founder that seeks to solve the problems he used to encounter. Teh found out that the problem these gig workers face mainly has to do with the limited access to more opportunities, against the traditional methods of “word of mouth” and matching agencies.

Without being overly promotional on the writer’s product, the article provides readers with the outlook of freelance work and ties it with how the platform he founded could help. It is a truly refreshing read and a great reminder of how potential the gig-working market is.

2. This company is on a mission to make Myanmar more economically inclusive

In this article, we got an insider look to Myanmar, a young startup ecosystem on the rise. The company being featured is Get with its two products Get Digital Store, which helps users to become micro-entrepreneurs with its point-of-sale (POS) machine, and Get Ride, a commission-free community-based ride-hailing network launched just within this month.

Also Read: The 10 most-read e27 Community articles of 2018

The article features Nyein Chan Soe Win, who has a vision for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as the backbone of his country. In this feature, Win spoke a lot about how Myanmar can rise in Southeast Asia’s startup scene, and one of the ways is by championing community and striving for inclusivity.

3. I tried out JDVirtual for grocery shopping. Fun and convenient, but is it worth the price?

Indonesian operation of Chinese e-commerce company JD launched its New Retail platform JDVirtual at Commuter Line train stations in Greater Jakarta Area, and Anisa Menur, our Senior Correspondent tried it out and wrote about it.

The service would enable Commuter Line passengers to buy grocery products, from toothpaste to soy sauce, by scanning QR codes on a type of board installed at the train stations. It was launched following the opening of its unmanned store JD.ID X at a shopping mall in North Jakarta.

In this feature, readers are taken along the journey of testing the concept of virtual store in the busy, metropolitan city of Jakarta by the writer. The writer then found out that the convenience of scanning QR code was not worth the shipping cost and waiting time for items that can be bought in the nearest convenient store directly.

4. Why “I’ll walk you out” was the most famous phrase in our early startup

The intriguing title won us over. This one was written by Sprout founder Patrick Gentry, who contributed this community article as a reminder for readers to not be a robot in a heavily-automated startup game, especially in the human relationship.

To do so, the writer highlighted the importance of building a culture that will truly distinguish a startup instead of offering perks. Gentry emphasised on the need in startup to have a direct, honest, personal [live!] communication.

So Gentry began to walk employees out at the end of the day, and everyone in Sprout followed suit. Employees would use these opportunities to get to know someone they didn’t directly work with, or deepen their friendship with someone they did.

Gentry said that this simple ritual helped his team build trust, share vision, and uncover issues in those critical early days of the company, something our reader can definitely learn from.

5. How a lazy student who caught and sold spiders transformed himself into a successful founder

The feature is not just another story of a school dropout finding startup glory. It is one of a young entrepreneur who caught an opportunity in a meticulous and appealing slide presentation he made as a student.

The story revolves around Eugene Cheng, who co-founded HighSpark, a strategic presentation consultancy and presentation training company, alongside his co-founder Kai Xin. This one is a celebration of a young, brilliant mind that will show the readers how opportunities are always around the corner if we dare enough to take the turn.

6. My startup journey: I would rather fail than regret

Kelvin Ang, founder of carreviwsncare.com or CarRC, contributed this piece and we loved it! Directly quoting Ang on this:

While my colleagues and friends were enjoying every weekend watching movies, hanging out, and getting drunk, I stayed at my house to work for my goals. There were countless times where I had grown tired and wanted to give up, but the desire to get out of becoming an employee was so strong and eventually pushed me to continue.

Ang was candid about taking a lonelier path to get to the desired lifestyle of having his own startup since 2012. He worked day job only to get home to his auto website business that’s now become CarRC, an all-car needs platform and has lived the life he’s always fought for.

7. How one woman is disrupting the entire manufacturing process in India

This is the one feature story that will grow wings on little girls’ back, or at least their parents who read the piece. Our Editor, Sainul Abudheen, interviewed Sonam Motwani, the founder of Rolling Cube, a custom manufacturing startup that would enable anyone to build customised personalised products at the ease of their desktop.

Motwani started off dreaming to become astronaut but found herself designing and building serious hardware products such as electric race cars in the college. She became passionate about hardware, and upon graduating in 2013, joined Procter & Gamble in its technology division, and later, joining a manufacturer sanitary napkins.

Seeing how manufacturing works up and close, Motwani began considering starting her own business in manufacturing industry that will address issues such as difficulty in accessing resources, lack of cost transparency, and underutilised capacity at manufacturers. Thus, Rolling Cube was born.

8. Stripe CTO David Singleton on what makes an effective developer team

One person who believes users should drive product development decisions is David Singleton, CTO at global e-payments infrastructure company Stripe. In his interview with Yon Heong Tung, our Senior Writer, Singleton said that it is important for developers to adopt and maintain a ‘user-first’ mindset.

This philosophy is enshrined in Stripe’s vision. From the very beginning, Stripe’s pitch to businesses is that it makes it easy for them to implement a payments infrastructure, by simply adding a few lines of code.

Also Read: Why e27 Academy is helping early stage startups build the right foundation through content, community, and connections

Being able to have a closer look at how one of the fastest growing fintech in the ecosystem run its company was the reason this one has to be on our top 10 list.

9. The extraordinary tale of a Filipino geek who swam against the odds in life

This one tells the story of Clark Urzo, one of the two entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia to win the Pioneer tournament —  a programme launched by Daniel Gross (whose startup Cue was acquired by Apple in 2013) and funded by Marc Andreessen and Stripe to discover the “lost Einsteins” of the world.

Talking with Urzo, who is now 23-year-old, readers would not expect how dark his childhood was. Urzo was selected for creating a new programming language, which enables anyone who can code to contribute to serious physics research (for example, simulations of gravitating systems). This opens up the field to the wondrous forces of Open Source and promotes open and accountable science along the way.

10. On this online dating platform, your looks don’t matter but your money does

If there is one irresistible thing about a story, it is when it combines romance and money into one piece. This features tells us about Malaysia-based Sugarbook, a platform where the members are sugar daddies/mommies, who are financially capable to support sugar babies financially and willing to share their wide influential network of friends and experiences.

In sugar dating, people of all genders form a relationship with a mutual understanding that all relationships are negotiable and that finances play a major role. This features helps us see sugar dating as just another form of business opportunity, which calls for a solution to solve customers’ pain points.

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The post We look back to the 10 most-inspiring features from the ecosystem appeared first on e27.

e27 had a conversation with the co-founder of GoWabi, Samir Cherro, about how beauty and health industry can be adjusted to market needs

When it comes to concept, GoWabi certainly does not offer a new approach to online beauty and health service. But when it comes to expertise, GoWabi has got it covered.

“It’s about value that we offer to both the merchants and the customers. Our platform lets customers get the best deals from spa, salon, and even dental clinics around Thailand, and we give our merchants assistance to determine the deals that customers actually want,” said Samir Cherro, the company’s co-founder.

GoWabi brands itself as a one-stop destination for beauty needs, that will discover and book beauty and wellness services around the user.

GoWabi works by letting customers easily search for service by location and category, compare prices depending on the booking hour, read reviews and ratings by other customers, and receive cashbacks after each booking made on the platform

Personal pain

Cherro admitted that he sort of stumbled into the whole thing with GoWabi. “I was looking for barbers around me when I lived in Singapore, Jakarta, Manila, but with no luck. It was so difficult finding quality hairdressers at reasonable prices,” Cherro recalled.

From a mere idea, Cherro and other co-founders then launched the first platform that made salons, specifically barber services, available for people to book and make reservation. “From there, we saw a bigger problem and decided to expand. Two years ago we launched, and we moved more into beauty and spa service, and we were no longer niched only for barber service,” said Cherro.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Thai fintech startup Masii.com acquires events ticketing platform One Place

The co-founders later realized that, after Groupon and Ensogo shut down in Southeast Asia, there was an opportunity to fulfill the need of merchants who want to get more customers.

“We combined the two aspects and found the balance of providing ‘smarter discounts’ where we introduced offpeak pricing. That way customers can still enjoy discounts and merchants would get more customers filling their empty capacity, while receiving full prices on peak hours,” said Cherro

With the co-founders’ background at Ensogo and Lazada, the approach would be a sensible one to make.

Thailand is the beauty hub

Not only an attraction because of its white sandy beaches and international-famed gastronomy, Cherro reminded us why Thailand is an irresistible destination for tourists. “It’s where all the beauty and health sources are based in Southeast Asia, especially with spa and massage,” said Cherro.

It’s also one of the reasons why GoWabi is based in Thailand, because tourists actually came to Thailand for its spa treatment. “We have tourists from around the world coming to our platform and using our application to get deals on spa. Our inbound customers are the overseas tourists flocking to the country,” said Cherro.

Controls on customers

GoWabi’s customers are able to select date and time based on the real-time availability and pay online or cash using credit card, Alipay, or installment options.

GoWabi’s customers also can buy deals from e-commerces in Thailand such as Lazada or Shopee.

After that, once the booking and payment process is done, the customers can go to the shop and simply show their reservation email. The service provider will already have the booking information in their system.

By giving customers controls over when, where, and what treatment they can choose, GoWabi is able to curate a variety of promotions to offer its customers.

“It depends on certain hours when customers may get, for example, 30 per cent discount during lunch hours, and at peak hours, they must pay full price. It really plays on the various offers that customers can look into and choose from,” said Cherro.

So in this sense, their merchants also reap the benefits of giving only valuable things that customers are going to want to redeem.

“We try to find balance between discounts and capacity management” said Cherro, “From day one, we focused on providing value for our merchants, understanding their pain points and how we can help their business grow, to later be able to provide value to our users. In that way we have managed to keep our merchants on our platform (and keep them happy) rather than them seeing us as a quick customer acquisition channel for short time.”

“We offer a way for merchants to market their service in affordable ways and to ensure the message is delivered to the users. In the end everyone wants customers, and everyone is able to give discounts, we only need to be smarter in giving out discounts,” Cherro added.

Every booking made using GoWabi also will be rewarded with cashback to keep the customers engaged and coming back on using its service.

“Cashbacks that the customers collect can be redeemed for cash discount on any other 1,000 partners on our platform,” said Cherro.

On bringing expertises on board

When asked what differentiates GoWabi from other platforms offering similar services, Cherro began sharing about his and his co-founders collective background in the industry, especially in online marketplaces and e-commerce.

“Our team has strong background from various ecommerce and marketplace verticals in SEA, my co-founders previously worked at Ensogo Singapore and Zalora Thailand, I started early on in Lazada Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. I strongly believe our background and expertise in this industry has helped us bring GoWabi to where it is today,” said Cherro.

GoWabi announced their recent round of investment. In total they have managed to raised seven digits in USD. Their investors include Kasper Kragelund, 500 Tuktuks, and dtac, as claimed by Cherro.

“We believe this has made us the highest invested startup in beauty and salon booking space origined from SEA,” Cherro added, while highlighting their monthly growth.

In the upcoming quarters, just after securing the funding GoWabi has shared with us, the company plans to add more categories and to replicate the business model in new markets. “We want to improve our products for our merchants, basically providing a them more values and benefits by using our platform,” said Cherro.

Also Read: The state of European tech startup industry –and what Asia can learn from it

To date, GoWabi has expanded its footprint to nine major cities in Thailand and is now working with more than 1,000 beauty and wellness salons and boutiques, including internationally known brands and hotels such as: Benefit Cosmetics, Yves Rocher, Anastasia Beverly Hills, and Shangri-la.
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Image Credit: GoWabi

The post How this startup makes health and beauty bookings thrive in Thailand appeared first on e27.

A look back at 2018, the changes the year brought us, and some steps we plan for the coming year

It’s that time of the year, yes, Christmas Time!

While in some countries snowflakes are falling down and in other sun is shining in the sky, it is the perfect timing to wait for Santa, right?

Right, if you have been a good kid.

While this time of the year is a good moment to celebrate, share gifts, meet your loved ones and spend quality time together, at the same time it is a perfect moment to analyse 2018 and see how much change this year brought for you and plan next steps for 2019 personally and professionally.

For us, 2018 was a year of growth, and I am sure it was the same for you. Regardless of what has happened, change occurred. Inevitably, when change occurs, growth happens.

Now take a pen and write your 2019 resolutions, take time to think what would you like to accomplish in this new year? If you had the slightest idea to build a startup why postponing and not acting now?

Also read: e27 Academy gives you the personalised advice you need to build your startup

e27 is a good place to start with either by following our online content or by attending our tech events customized for early stage entrepreneurs.

This year marked the first edition of e27 Academy, a three-day learning programme designed to help aspiring and early-stage start-up founders build their companies and navigate the ecosystem., based on mentorship sessions, workshops and roundtable discussions created specially for them. We would like to focus on this event as the starting point for the “startup journey”. Following an intense bootcamp where the entrepreneurs will absorb a lot of new information, we would like to start the next year with Echelon Roadshow which is actually a pitching competition we organise across Asia, where the founders can put into practice what they have learned about the new market/setting up their own business.

Everything should have a finality during Echelon Asia Summit 2019, when worldwide recognised investors are coming together with VC firms, corporations or government representatives to meet the newest business ideas to invest in.

This is what we are planning for the next future and we would be delighted to have you as a new member into our community, to help you with the right tools to build your dream and to learn from your experience.

If you are based in Southeast Asia, even better, come meet us at our offices in Singapore or write us an email at engage@27.co to learn more about our own or our partner’s programs.

Happy New Year!

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Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

The post 2018 was a good year for e27, and we look forward to bigger things in store for 2019 appeared first on e27.

It helped me lose weight, save money and go on daily walks, but the plastic issue might be a killer

When MealPal first landed in Singapore, it was impossible to ignore. Startup enthusiast or not, the sheer volume of people handing out flyers, wearing signboards and performing office visits was remarkable.

For a grumpy hedgehog like myself, the natural reaction is always to reject a service that gets so aggressive with its marketing tactics.

However, I got into a lengthy conversation with a friend of mine and she convinced me to give it a go.

I gotta say, I love it.

It forces me to go on little lunchtime walks, I consistently discover new restaurants and it has helped me lose weight. Plus, it is a serious money-saver and picking food for the next day is fun.

I will break down these positive features of MealPal later in this article, but there is a gigantic elephant in the room that legitimately puts in question my willingness to renew the subscription:

During my one-month experiment with the platform, my plastic consumption significantly increased.

Part of this is living in Singapore, a country that consumes an enormous amount of plastic. Nearly ever takeaway food purchase is accompanied by a plastic carrier unless “no bag” is specifically requested.

I recently had a discussion with a local friend who was lamenting that the traditional bakeries create a culture clash. Typically, the bakery employee will wrap each piece of of food in a separate plastic bag, then put all of these in another larger bag meant for carrying. Also, most of the bread-based goodies include a small plastic covering meant to keep your hands clean while eating on the go.

So imagine, if you order a half-dozen items for the family, you have suddenly generated 13 individual plastic “bags”. Then multiply this by millions across Singapore, then remember that Singapore is a tiny, tiny country and suddenly it becomes obvious why the world has a plastic crisis.

The culture clash for her is that these workers mean no harm, and the good ones take pride in offering delicious, clean food full of great flavors.

I’ve asked them not to use the plastic and it just lead to a confusing back-and-forth whereby I was probably given a longer leash for “strange foreigner quirks”. My friend is Singaporean, and these bakeries becomes a push-pull between trying to use less plastic while being respectful to people who are not inherently doing anything wrong.

I bring up this story because it is how I feel when I use MealPal.

The selling point of the service is that you skip the lunch queue and, assuming a willingness to walk to the location, get on-demand food upon arrival.

Typically, restaurants cannot handle the MealPal group + their normal customers at the same time. So, they prepare the MealPal in the morning (which is one reason why users who cancel after 10:30am are still charged for the meal).

This is also why the only option is ‘takeaway’. No reasonable establishment could handle this much on-demand orders in one shot.

In Singapore, this means the food is delivered in a plastic container. Even if I want to bring my own bento box, the restaurant would just dump the food in my “sustainable alternative” and throw the plastic away.

I brought up the issue in a Telegram group and was given a few reasonable work-arounds:

• Call ahead and tell them you have a lunchbox.
• If they start preparing upon arrival, tell them you’d rather eat-in.
• If a restaurant prepares a non-plastic takeaway, make that a go-to restaurant for eating.

However, the best option is to stop using the service and go to the same places with the intention of eating in. Most places will give out washable cutlery which makes a big difference.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Thai fintech startup Masii.com acquires events ticketing platform One Place

Before publishing this article, I reached out to MealPal to get their advice about lowering plastic consumption while still enjoying the platform. I have not heard back.

Now, all of this being said, MealPal in a vacuum is awesome, and here is why.

Why MealPal rocks

It forces lunchtime walks

This perk comes first because, to me, it seems like the most unique feature of MealPal.

In the evening before ordering, it is the dish that is the star. That means the user is choosing food over location. There is a map to make sure you don’t accidentally walk 10 kilometres, but it also makes 4-5 blocks in either direction seem reasonable.

This is fantastic because the office life can lead to cabin fever and sometimes a short walk can help clarify problems/solutions.

It is great for weight loss (and, ironically, sustainability)

Yes, you read that right. The plastic is an issue, but MealPal has been transformational in my attempt to eat only vegetarian from Monday-Friday. So while my plastic consumption jumped, I have significantly cut down on the amount of meat I eat — which, they say, is very important for the planet.

MealPal has an assortment of filters. They range from meal size to cuisine preferences. During my month, I was able to choose only vegetarian foods, which can be remarkably difficult to find without direction.

This helped me avoid meat and shed a few KGs along the way.

It is more affordable

Typically, meals cost about S$7.50 (US$5.50) a pop. Yes, there is more affordable food in Singapore, but once you step outside of the hawker centers it becomes nearly impossible at that price point.

I found myself eating meals that normally cost S$12-$15 (US$8.75 – US$11) for about a five dollar discount.

But, besides that, it was the consistency of price that saved money. Rather than fluctuating between five dollars one day and 20 the other, I was able to stay at the same $7.50 every single day.
It’s fun!
As bizarre as it might sound, it is remarkably fun to pick out tomorrow’s meal. To be fair, I love food. I watch an absurd amount of cooking shows. I am pretty sure if media doesn’t work out for me I will go to culinary school and I tend to spend the majority of my exercise time brainstorming which restaurant to visit after the workout.

So, while I am probably the ideal target market, I am convinced other people will find it enjoyable. It’s like picking out a little mid-day treat.

Also Read: How founders in Asia can be students of the world

Overall, MealPal has been a pleasant surprise, and for anyone who has a solution to the plastic problem, feel free to comment below.

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The post MealPal is great, but it uses A LOT of plastic appeared first on e27.