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Known to be Singapore’s largest shipping company, Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS), has announced a partnership with early-stage investor and accelerator Techstars to launch the dedicated global maritime accelerator called the Eastern Pacific Accelerator powered by Techstars.

Eastern Pacific Accelerator powered by Techstars also announces its first class of nine startups, selected from hundreds of worldwide applicants. The class of startups was selected with consideration and input from EPS’ Operations, Marine Technical, Commercial, IT, Fleet Personnel, and Management teams, all who would work closely with each startup to test their technologies and accelerate their businesses.

The Eastern Pacific Accelerator powered by Techstars aims to bring digital, technology-led solutions to problems faced by the shipping and maritime industry. From November 2019, the nine startups will go through a three-month programme of research and development, mentorship, and collaboration at EPS headquarters in Singapore.

The nine startups are from Singapore, Denmark, the UK, and the US. One of the startups, C-Log has recently moved its global headquarters to Singapore, while US-based Volteo has spun-off Volteo Maritime as a Singapore company.

Nautilus Labs is also establishing a permanent office in Singapore while keeping its headquarters in New York City.

Also Read: Seed-stage accelerator Techstars raises US$42M funding; plans Southeast Asia expansion

Gil Ofer, the Head of Open Innovation at Eastern Pacific Shipping said, “We see a need for technology to propel the maritime industry forward, especially with a rapidly digitalising society and an increase in global trade. That means the shipping industry needs to innovate to solve problems such as fuel consumption, operational efficiency, fleet performance, and improving life-at-sea for seafarers – and we are doing just that with the Eastern Pacific Accelerator powered by Techstars.”

“EPS can provide access to a deep network of industry players, real-world data, and operational insights from our experienced maritime experts that will accelerate the development of their products,” Ofer continued.

The world’s shipping and maritime sector continue to grow, accounting for around 90 per cent of all goods moved globally, spanning over 50,000 vessels and over a million seafarers, according to the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS). The United Nations Conference of Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD), meanwhile, estimates that volumes of global seaborne trade will grow by 3.8 per cent between 2018 and 2023.

Despite the predicted growth, the industry remains challenged with a number of critical issues that can be solved with crucially-proven innovation to sustain its competitiveness and growth.

Claus Nehmzow, Chief Innovation Officer at Eastern Pacific Shipping commented, “Issues such as sustainability, reducing emissions, and seafarer’s mental and physical wellbeing can no longer take a wait-and-see approach. The goal is to address these issues in the maritime sector today through the accelerator and to inspire the industry to take a technology-first approach to solve problems.”

Also Read: Maritime tech startup Claritecs raised US$600K pre-Series A funding from INNOPORT

During the three-month programme, the startups will receive hands-on mentorship from industry experts, access to EPS’ operational data, and the opportunity to deploy their technology on EPS’s diverse fleet of over 150 vessels. The programme will also provide the founders with access to Techstars’ network of mentors, investors, and partners.

In February 2020, the accelerator will culminate in a Demo Day where the founders will pitch to an audience of top investors, multinationals, government partners and other ecosystem players.
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Mastercard today revealed the third edition of its Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, celebrating the markets where women entrepreneurs are most likely to thrive while sounding the alarm that there are still significant inequalities that hold us all back. New Zealand emerged as the top-ranked market in the Asia Pacific region, and second in the world behind only the United States, for its conduciveness to women’s entrepreneurship.

Based on publicly available data from international organizations including the International Labor Organization, UNESCO and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the global Index tracks the progress and achievement of women entrepreneurs and business owners in 58 societies (representing nearly 80% of the world’s female labor force) across three components: (i) Women’s Advancement Outcomes, (ii) Knowledge Assets & Financial Access, and (iii) Supporting Entrepreneurial Factors. The results reaffirmed that women are able to make further business inroads and have higher labor force participation rates in open and vibrant markets like New Zealand, Singapore, and Australia, where the support for SMEs and ease of doing business are high.

Women are also able to draw from enabling resources, including access to capital, financial services, and academic programs. Typically, these markets are also driven by social norms that deeply encourage and promote innovation,
creativity, risk‐taking, and success through personal perseverance, and grant women fair opportunities to rise as business leaders, gain tertiary education and to be perceived and accepted as successful entrepreneurs. Out of the 20 highest-ranking markets globally, 80% are high-income economies.

While US, New Zealand and Canada rule the top slots in most favourable markets for women entrepreneurs, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Hong Kong are not too far behind in the top 20. Of the 58 markets included in the Index, eight moved up by more than five ranks year-on-year. Asia Pacific’s fast-rising markets included Indonesia (+13), Taiwan (China) (+9) and Thailand (+5) all saw significant jumps in their rankings.

On the other end of the spectrum, for markets at the lower end of the Index, women tend to be held back by lack of opportunities to assume higher-level economic roles, are marginalized by poor support for SMEs, low financial inclusion, poor opportunities for tertiary education and often restrictive and underdeveloped business and financial systems that make doing business difficult.

Also read: 8 things female entrepreneurs in Asia need to know according to Forbes 30 under 30 Michelle Yuan

Importantly, societal and cultural norms also discourage them from working, being ambitious, or assuming
leadership roles. “What is clear through this research is that gender inequality continues to persist across the world, although it manifests in different ways. It isn’t a developed or developing world problem alone. Even in markets with the most promising entrepreneurial conditions, women’s business ownership hasn’t reached its full potential. This marginalization hinders the empowerment of women socially, professionally, economically and politically – to the detriment of society as a whole,” said
Julienne Loh, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Partnerships, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.

Mastercard says it is committed to helping pave the way for the progress and prosperity of businesses owned by women
around the world. In Asia Pacific, Mastercard is cultivating entrepreneurs through programs like Start Path and Fintech Express. The company has provided financial literacy training to nearly 200,000 women across Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam, and offers grants to women to grow their businesses through the Mastercard Impact Fund.

In September 2019, Mastercard announced that it is working with the apparel industry to financially empower tens
of millions of garment factory workers around the world by digitizing wages. Furthermore, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth has helped to bring to life more than 750 financial inclusion programs across more than 80 countries to tackle income inequality challenges. Download the full Mastercard Index for Women Entrepreneurs 2019 report and infographic.

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Want to learn more about fintech in Malaysia? Read the e27 Malaysia Fintech Ecosystem Report 2019.

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A great leader doesn’t have to do everything. Go back and read that again. You can read it again if you need to, but don’t keep going until you really get the fact that as the leader, it is not your responsibility to do everything in the workplace.

It’s hard to give up control but you’ll quickly find that delegating certain tasks out to others not only frees you up to be more productive on more important tasks, it’s also good for your mental health.

Here are some good ways to start delegating tasks out to free yourself up more.

1. The power of priorities

Wouldn’t it be amazing to only have to focus on one project at work? Most of us can only dream of such a scenario, so it’s vital that you learn to prioritize.

Get an idea of what tasks are most important down to the least pressing ones, then break each one down into the steps that will be required to get them done. You’ll find that there are a lot of small steps involved that you could delegate to someone else and allow you, as the leader, to focus more on the big picture.

2. Leaders know who follows them

The worst thing a leader can do is to put somebody in charge of a task that is the total opposite of their skill set. If you have a member of your team that isn’t great at talking to people on the phone, don’t give him or her a list of phone calls that need to be made.

Also Read: Singapore to send delegation of 11 startups to TiEcon 2017 to strengthen ties with Silicon Valley

If you’ve got somebody who struggles with grammar, maybe they shouldn’t handle all the electronic communication on a project. Know who is following you and assign tasks based on what they do well. Great leaders set their people up to succeed.

3. Follow up to follow through

As the leader of any team, ultimately the results are your responsibility. The people who lead you aren’t interested in what the people you’ve delegated tasks to didn’t get done; they’re going to ask you why they’re not complete. You can delegate tasks out but it’s important to stay informed and be prepared to help during the process.

You don’t have to do it all in the workplace. Find a happy medium between producing results and overworking yourself.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

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“Building a global bank account is our number one value proposition. Even if you have local apps, for local payments, it does not allow you to use them globally,” says Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky during an interview with e27 when asked about competition from local payment apps in Singapore.

On October 24, Revolut the UK headquartered fintech company — which offers fee-free currency exchange, commission-free stock trading, cryptocurrency exchange and peer-to-peer payments– made its official entry into the Asian waters by launching into the Singaporean market.

According to the CEO, the firm aims to become a one-stop solution for financial services, starting with its ongoing plans to kick start commission-free trading for stocks via its platform in Singapore which is currently not available in the region but has already been seen as a feature in the UK.

While local companies such as Nium offer services like instant money transfers and have been in the Asian market for longer, Storonsky stresses that even though they do it, they do not do it for free, which come across as a valid argument and could be one of the reasons why Revolut’s perks could be more attractive to the mass.

The relatively young fintech company has already managed to acquire over seven million accounts and an average of 3.7 million active users each month. Along with more than 30,000 customers in Singapore after only a year of beta testing in Singapore, the company is confident that local users will see a unique value in its vision of moving money freely around the world -“as easy as sending an SMS”.

“One of the reasons why we picked Singapore as a base for the Asian expansion is because of the rather transparent regulations to get licenses. However, in the majority of the countries, regulations are more or less the same for crypto or remittance offerings. Certain local laws might be different, but overall, the infrastructure to implement these regulations is very similar in every single country,” explains Storonsky on how different country regulations might affect Revolut’s remittance and crypto offerings.

However, despite its ambition, various reports stated that Revolut has withdrawn from the digital banking licensing race, along with Nium and Transferwise due to high capital requirement.

Also Read: Revolut arrives in Singapore after a year of beta testing, providing more overseas money transfer option

Big plans for Asia

For foreign companies entering a new, culturally oriented market such as Asia, marketing is often seen as one of the greatest challenges.

When being asked if Revolut has any plan to localise its awareness campaigns, Storonsky mentions that the company is more positioned towards building a strong local leadership team and products teams in different locations, that will allow it to tweak and localise the product. The principle, however, will remain the same: To build a powerful platform that makes it easy to move money around the world in a seamless manner.

Storonsky also admits that one of the key challenges for the company has been “hiring”. To which Jakub Zakrzewski, Head of APAC at Revolut, added that “We see that Singapore has a great pool of local talent. However, in Singapore, at the beginning of their career, many people want to go into banking, consulting, or work for big companies because it offers a lower risk and is considered as a safer option. However, we see that the trend is shifting. More and more people are getting into the tech industry, knowing that this is the industry of the future. While it is not simply about having a big name on the CV, Revolut has already managed to build a reputation for itself, and it is already a brand that can compete with all the other bigger prestigious brands.”

Even though hiring might have been a challenge for the company, the team has already multiplied considerably from 50 people from two years ago in the London office to 500 and 1,500 globally.

Being currently present in the Asian frontier, Storonsky also said that Revolut aims to be in almost every country in Asia within five years.

That being said, the company plans to launch in Japan early next year, with Hong Kong and New Zealand subsequently. It is also looking to execute live beta testing plans in Australia.

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Image Credit: Revolut

 

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Creating a website is not easy and takes lots of time, efforts and strategic planning.

However, if you are still not getting the desired flow of having continuous visitors, it is obvious to feel disheartened.

As a business owner, nothing could be worse than losing your visitors due to factors you can control. So, what are those reasons that make people leave your website? 

Do not be surprised if it is happening on your new website. Most people do not get it right for the first time that is bothering your visitors. As a business owner, our ultimate goal is to have a website that attracts more and more visitors and make them retain to our site. Once we have visitors, it is up to us how to retain them.  

Therefore here we have listed a few reasons why people are leaving your website. Let’s have a look:

1. Poor website design: This is the most common but foremost reason that makes people leave our website. The poor design will not only damage the quality of our site but also reflects our unprofessionalism towards our customers.

So, keep in mind that the design of the website should match our business message and capable enough to provide desired information in an eye-pleasing way.

2. Slow-loading website: Online visitors generally do not have to wait for loading our website to get the necessary information. If our website loads slowly, they would leave our website instead of waiting and search for another. The most common reasons for heavy websites are using heavy graphics and low bandwidth. So, make sure it loads faster.

3. Auto-playing videos: You often notice a sudden sound of a video playing automatically on a page when you are on a site. Your first reaction is to close the page immediately as you do not want to watch it.

As per Ph.D. assignment help, most users have the same reaction when they are forced to watch a video instead of providing the information they are looking for. So, you should be careful about these auto-playing videos.

4. Too many pop-ups: Though pop-ups are the great ways for conversions, it does not mean that you put them everywhere on your site. They annoy and irritate the visitors so use them merely as much as possible. Otherwise, the readers are likely to move away and never want to come again.  

5. Irrelevant content: Most of the visitors get on your sites by searching a keyword on Google and when they do not find necessary and desired information after landing your site, they just close the tab and move on.

The better idea is to post relevant and informative content on your site including the right keywords.

Wrapping up

Websites are the first face of your company and obviously, we do not want to lose them. So, pay attention to these reasons and start working on them immediately.

It is only through websites through which we can reach our maximum users and tell users more about you as a company effectively. 

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

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Igor Miske

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Banks in Malaysia are keeping up with some of the most popular global trends in fintech, with compliance and lending being the two components that they are looking to tap into, according to Alvin Gan, Executive Director of Management Consulting for IT-enabled Transformation at KPMG in Malaysia.

In addition to those two sectors, regulation tech (regtech) is also gaining popularity among banks.

However, the technology that gained popularity among banks varied depending on the functionalities that the bank wants to focus on.

” … In the lending space, some banks are hoping to use Artificial Intelligence for quicker search functions. Alternative data scoring is also something financial players are looking at,” Gan explained as cited in the e27 Malaysia Fintech Report 2019.

Between 2015 and 2016, banks in Malaysia began its efforts to tap into the fintech community by running incubation programmes or hosting hackathons.

Also Read: Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD Bank) holds the 3rd Global Fintech Competition in Singapore, stating a favorable fintech ecosystem

However, the report stated that as the fintech industry grew, banks “started worrying.”

“Regulatory uncertainty, pressure on margins, loss of market share and increased customer churn rate, and information security and privacy risks were some of their major concerns,” it detailed.

The report further explained that banks gradually realised that fintech can be a source of advantage and opportunity if played right. They started adopting various financial technologies to enhance their products and customer experience to the point where, today, all leading banks in Malaysia have embraced fintech.

Some of the most notable collaborations between banks and fintech startups in the country included Maybank and Grab, HongLeong Bank and WeChat as well as Kuwait Finance House and MoneyMatch.

To learn more details about fintech in Malaysia, including its history and leading companies, feel free to check out the e27 Malaysia Fintech Report 2019.

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Image Credit: Izuddin Helmi Adnan on Unsplash

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We’ve known and used Spotify, Apple Music, Tencent-owned JOOX, and its fellow music services like Deezer and others. For music enthusiasts, Shazam -the app that also allows listeners to quickly find out what song is being played and add it into their playlist- may even come to play.

Just recently, we welcome YouTube Music from the giant video streaming to dedicate the platform for the music universe. Albeit being hailed as one of the hardest industries to break into, technology instantly paves out new ways for artists and music listeners to be involved in the sector.

According to We Be Social and Hootsuite 2018 digital report, consumers worldwide spent US$11.2 billion on digital music streaming in 2017.

In an article by The Asean Post, it is stated that the region has seen diverse music streaming apps due to the higher Internet penetration in Southeast Asia.

The same We Be Social and Hootsuite digital report shows that 81 per cent of Southeast Asia’s population uses a broadband mobile connection. Along with the increase in disposable income, people can pay more for entertainment which has also led to the growth of streaming services.

According to the 2016’s McKinsey report, JOOX accounts for more than 50 percent of all music streaming app downloads in Asian markets with over 50 million downloads. The article by The Asean Post further noted that JOOX’s localised content approach may play out well for Southeast Asian listeners, with its music curation based on its users and their locations.

When it comes to understanding its local players and listeners in the national music scene, these startups can offer something that’s more local-centric than the behemoths that try to penetrate the region.

Musiio, Singapore

Musiio is a music tech startup that uses AI to “classify any music track according to its features and patterns, which makes it easier to discover new tracks”.

With how Musiio works, new music tracks by different artists can get an equal opportunity to be heard. In an article published by KrAsia, the Entrepreneur First (EF) graduate claims that it offers a more efficient and timely tech-driven approach to be able to reduce the time required to plow through 100,000 music tracks to 5 seconds.

Also Read: Paktor’s parent M17 Group acquires MeMe Live, to expand its footprint in live-streaming space in Asia

In the past, Musiio has raised US$1 million in a seed funding round, with Wavemaker Partners and Exponential Creativity Ventures among the investors in the round. TechCrunch said it is the first venture capital-backed music AI startup in Southeast Asia.

Musiio’s co-founder Hazel Savage said that the company’s first big client is a Creative Commons-like free music site, Free Music Archive. Musiio helps to surface tracks that might otherwise remain undiscovered.

Fungjai, Thailand

According to The Asean Post’s article mentioning the Thai startup, Fungjai tries to fill in the gap that’s left open by how Spotify and Apple Music’s algorithms mainly target mainstream and international artists, dismissing local undiscovered artists.

In an article by KrAsia, Fungjai started off with the founder’s interest in small bands that can only go so far in digital media and bug music streaming platforms. The founder, Sarun Pinyarat, said to BK Asia City publication that Fungjai is trying to build a music community through facilitating things like Hed-Sod concerts and seminars.

Seeing how streaming service can become a solution for small artists, Fungjai was born with the very purpose.

“We are sure that others would see the value of being able to stream quality Thai music, so we kept at it,” said Pinyarat.

As of now, Fungjai is 100 per cent free of charge. Fungjai states that in the future, it might help with crowdfunding for rising artists.

KHhits, Cambodia

KHhits is a Cambodian startup with little to no elaborate presence online, but it has made names in startup community.

First, it was among the startups competing locally in Cambodia to represent the country regionally in TOP100 Echelon Asia Summit last year.

Second, it was the runner up in co-working space network Outpost’s startup sponsorship competition. It won a prize in a free co-working space for three months.

According to Geeks in Cambodia’s article, the startup consists of 6 people that aims to establish a ranking chart for Cambodian music using data mining technology. The company plans to launch a platform for fans to enjoy the music from major music corporations with the intent of collecting valuable information about fans’ opinions, music trends, demographics, and other kinds of data for the Cambodian market.

Me-Lody, Indonesia

Indonesian startup Me-Lody tries to leverage on the cover songs business and help cover artists to get a place in the music industry.

The app-based startup gambles on providing a launchpad for cover artists to help them get discovered by music labels and producers. Producers can cut the need to hold an off-air audition using the app.

As of now, the app is only available for Android.

NhacCuaTui (NCT), Vietnam

Self-described as the largest music site in Vietnam, NhacCuaTui which means “my music”, already amassed around 10 million monthly users. The startup is headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, headed by Nhan The Luan as president and CEO.

In 2012, Tech In Asia reported that the company received an investment with undisclosed terms from CyberAgent Ventures. It also claimed to have signed a profit-sharing agreement with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment to allow them to stream to users’ copyrighted audio and video content from both labels.

Pleng, Cambodia

Pleng offers online and offline access to more than 1 million Cambodian and international songs using technology from Hungama, India’s leading digital entertainment company. Pleng is known to be the revamped version of Smart Axiata’s Smart Music app.

Also Read: Public, private-owned Cool Japan Fund invests US$50M in gojek, keep going despite reported loss

Smart Axiata claimed to be the first to launch a music streaming app in the Kingdom, promoting local artists and organising many international concerts, as Thomas Hundt, Chief Executive Officer of Smart Axiata told Geeks in Cambodia.

Using Pleng, Cambodian artists will receive royalties for their songs.

Volup, Indonesia

Indonesia, along with Thailand, is among the top three of the most active music streamers in the region. Riding on the trend, Indonesian local streaming service Volup tries to offer internet radio, on-demand music, full track download, and video channel for music enthusiasts.

Volup’s mastermind is Reza Ario Bimo, who’s a co-founder of the company and is known to be a drummer of a notable local band, as Selular.id’s 2015’s article reported.

According to Bimo, Volup differs from the other streaming service because it ensures that every digital music on its app coming from the correct sources, allowing both the creators and consumers getting quality music.

“We have a transparent, real-time, online reporting system where the music rights owner gets access to monitor how many times their works are being streamed, rented, or purchased,” said Bimo.

As far as the industry goes into the region, Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, and other giants remain reigning. An opinion piece published in e27 shared that piracy and lack of awareness create a society that is still yet to see the importance of paying for the music they listen to.

On the other hand, the reach of technology has made the video and music platforms a breeding ground for aspiring musicians hoping to break into the industry. The Asean Post noted that with how indie and underground bands rarely expand outside their borders, the market is wide open for regional and local music streaming platforms to onboard more users and present them with more audiences.

In the meantime, there’s no absolute answer for how these local music startups’ battle plan will keep them afloat against the big names, other than for their knowledge of the local scene.

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Want to learn more about fintech in Malaysia? Get the e27 Malaysia Fintech Ecosystem Report 2019 here.

Image Credit: Omar Prestwich on Unsplash

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Coda Payments raises more than US$20 million – Press Release

Singapore-headquartered fintech company Coda Payments today announced that it has raised a more than US$20 million funding round led by Apis Partners, a private equity asset manager that backs growth-stage financial services and financial infrastructure businesses in Asia and Africa.

As part of this transaction, Apis and one of Coda’s existing angel investors Toivo Annus acquired shares from several of Coda’s seed-stage investors.

“We are delighted to partner with the Apis team, whose deep knowledge of the payments landscape in emerging markets will be invaluable as we grow our geographic footprint and product range to better meet the needs of our clients,” Coda Payments CEO Philippe Limes said in a press statement.

Since it began processing transactions in 2013, Coda said that it has tripled the total value of payments that it processes every year on average; customers now initiate up to 3.6 million transactions/day on Coda’s platform.

The company helps Tencent, Garena, Netflix, and other publishers monetise games and other digital content in more than twenty emerging markets.

Hong Kong-based Volt14 raises US$955K – Press Release

Hong Kong-based battery nanomaterial startup Volt14 today announced an S$1.3 million (US$955,000) seed funding round led by 500 Startups, HKSTP Ventures and Entrepreneur First.

The startup develops a novel material to replace existing graphite in Li-ion batteries, which aims to increase the energy stored in the cells by up to 70 per cent.

Since Li-ion batteries are used in phones, laptops and electric cars, the startup said that it effectively results in cars or smartphones having 60-80 per cent additional power stored after every full charge.

Volt14 plans to use the funding to further refine their material for consistent mass-production, and to support the production trials they have with battery cell manufacturers in the pipeline.

Also Read: Coda Payments announces new round of funding from IMJ Investment Partners and others

Uber’s chief product officer steps down – TechCrunch

Uber Chief Product Officer Manik Gupta announced that he is leaving the company, with his last day being December 13, TechCrunch reported.

His resignation was announced in a note to the company’s product team.

Gupta later spoke to TechCrunch that he felt “now is a good time” for him to take a break to be with his family before embarking on a new plan.

NIUM expands to Brazil with new partnership – Press Release

NIUM, the digital cross-border payments platform formerly known as InstaREM, today announced a partnership with Brazillian foreign exchange broker Frente Corretora de Câmbio that marks its entry to the Latin American market.

To start with, NIUM will conduct outbound money transfers to the US for Frente’s clients and will extend its services to other countries including Japan, Australia, and Canada soon.

Initially, the partnership will serve retail customers, and the service will be extended to the corporate and SME customers in the near future.

“Brazil is an important market for NIUM, and with Frente partnership, we are looking to expand our presence in Latin America,” said Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO of NIUM.

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Want to learn more about fintech in Malaysia? Get the e27 Malaysia Fintech Ecosystem Report 2019 here.

 

Image Credit: Swapnil Bapat on Unsplash

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“I don’t have a degree in IT,” admits Vincent Quah, a regional head at Amazon Web Services. During his tenure at university, he studied microbiology. 

Today, he works for one of the world’s top cloud computing companies. So how did he make the jump?

This event’s attendees are not only invested in tech – they’re invested in employment in general, to the effect of packing a convention hall on a Saturday afternoon to figure out how to get ahead at LIT ASEAN Careers, an event co-organised by Young NTUC and Temasek Foundation. The event is designed to help professionals, some still in school, to look beyond their borders to the region at a time when the world shifts more and more toward globalization.

Singapore has a reputation for being an advantageous place to do business is nothing new. However, as globalization continues to shift the way that the workforce operates, how can job seekers maximize their opportunities and knowledge? 

The answer poses several voices at the event, lies with an exchange – sending Singapore’s already-strong talent pool overseas to work in diverse environments to contribute to the growth of the region. The hope is that they’ll come back with stories and newfound experiences on cultures and economies to inspire others.

Also Read: The case of e-wallets: which e-payment apps do Singaporeans use the most?

But even as a broad range of ASEAN-related career topics arise – infrastructure and coal in Indonesia, textiles in Thailand, and machinery in Vietnam – the conversation returns to tech: how fresh graduates can break into it, how to grow a career in it, and how to work specifically within the ASEAN region, where successful tech companies tend to be able to both hyper-localize and execute business plans on a regional level.

The good news is that stories like Vincent’s aren’t uncommon in the tech world, which changes so quickly that employees often pick up skills on the job, rather than in the classroom. 

For Lien Choong Luen, general manager of Go-Jek Singapore, his position as country head at the regional unicorn followed a career in the army that took him on different missions around the world.  

“It requires you to work hard and try new things,” he says. At the end of the day, that would be enough translatable experience to propel him into the tech world.

Here, Choong Luen shares his experience from an interview he had in China for an internship, where he had to answer three questions: 

1. Why should I choose you instead of someone else?

2. What is your industry or market expertise?

3. What is your long-term commitment? 

It’s not that the job required exact answers for these questions, Choong Luen details, but it’s a useful framework around which to craft your approach to job hunting and interviews.

The industry needs people of all backgrounds in these areas that Lien Choong names as the areas where talent can make the most impact right now.

1. Data science

As globalization pushes companies to compete on larger and larger playing fields, being able to draw out stories and actionable insights from giant sets of data – customer data, lifestyle data, etc – has become a necessity. 

While data science degrees are available from universities, the world of data requires those working in it to keep on their toes and continue learning, as the field develops new applications every few months that stretch even into traditional industries like accounting. The field is growing rapidly within tech, and it requires talent globally.

Also Read:  6 effortless ways to grow your small business through social media

Data science is a field that can require its employees to have skillsets ranging from higher mathematics, Python coding, or the ability to tell stories with numbers.

2. Cybersecurity, trust, and safety

Depending on the company, gaining users’ trust on an app can look like stellar customer service skills or legal know-how when it comes to dealing with law compliance across Southeast Asian countries with slightly different regulations around national safety and a developing regional approach to privacy. 

Building customers’ trust with a brand, especially one that handles sensitive information like their credit card numbers, requires more than just developers. It requires marketers who know what tools to use to find their audiences and programmers who know how to work with teams – from customer service to lawyers.

That means that this is a field that has a wide range of opportunities. Those looking to break into cybersecurity teams can look to hone their developer skills for systems design or protection. 

However, this is also a field that requires communication – within companies, with customers, and with company policymakers – to help communicate that trust and move tech companies forward.

3. Leadership

Not every leader in tech has a background as adventurous as Choong Luen’s, or one that involves a pivot like Vincent’s. However, their careers are testaments to the number of different experiences needed to take tech companies to the next level. 

Also Read:  Great business leaders challenge their employees all the time, and on-the-job experiences can be a powerful way to master new things

But how does that translate into leadership? When one needs to lead a cross-discipline team where talent may span from product development to testing to developing, what kind of experience does that manager need to bring to the table?

Tech leadership is a field where several different backgrounds can apply – just be ready to talk about how and why your certain skills and experience apply to management in the interview.

Finding the right path is up to you

Many roads lead to tech, but it’s up to job seekers to steer themselves moving forward. When in doubt, take the harder choice, which often results in more growth. 

“Seek the path of most resistance as you are learning, and assume the greatest risk that is possible for you, given that you are young. There is no sort of perfect market opportunity. Within each market, find one that you love, and go for it,” Choong Luen concludes.

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Image Credit:  Kiyun Lee

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HarukaEDU, Indonesia-based edtech startup, announces that it has raised Series C funding led by SIG, a US-based global trading firm, with participation from AppWorks, GDP Venture, and Gunung Sewu Kencana, DealStreetAsia has learned. Samator Education also came back to join in the new round after joining Japan’s CyberAgent Ventures and VC arm of global education company Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF) in HarukaEDU’s Series B round in 2016.

The company said that it will use the fresh funds from the new round to support the expansion into B2B services through its corporate online training platform as well as backing up its lifelong learning platform, www.Pintaria.com, aimed at helping Indonesian working adults to upskill and reskill.

HarukaEdu provides an end-to-end solution to empower higher education institutions to go online to facilitate their student capacity and improving the quality and efficiency of the learning experience.

This year HarukaEDU. The program leverages the company’s deep experience in pedagogy, technology, and working with institutions, in a bid to help clients into a blended, micro-learning program.

HarukaEDU said that it has entered the corporate training market this year with CorporateEDU.

Also Read: HarukaEdu raises US$2.2M to help working Indonesians access higher education

The programme, the company said, helps clients transform their offline employee training program into a tailored online/blended learning degree programs that are more cost-efficient than the regular offline programs. It hopes to allow more working adults to affordably access to quality higher education with more flexible study schedules.

“With this approach, we aim to achieve the same learning outcome compared to regular offline training, yet reducing the number of working hours spent on training by 50 per cent, offering companies potential savings of millions US$ per year,” said HarukaEDU CEO Novistiar Rustandi.

Next year, HarukaEDU plans to focus on vocational training programs through its educational portal, Pintaria.com. The company has stated that it’s committed to up-skilling and re-skilling Indonesian millennials as they prepare for the Industry 4.0 era.

Indonesia has been optimistic about having the country’s next unicorn to be an edtech startup. At the moment, HarukaEDU is one of three larger companies in the country in terms of secured funding, along with Ruangguru, which has just raised its Series B funding round from East Ventures and UOB Venture Management in 2017.

Also Read: HarukaEdu offers affordable, accessible and social online education

Last month, Singapore-headquartered private-equity firm Northstar was reported to be in talks with Zenius Education to lead a US$20 million funding in the company.

The company said it works with more than 15 higher education institution partners in Indonesia, offering over 20 accredited online and blended learning degree programs.

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