This week saw a surge of activity in the Southeast Asian startup scene, as several pioneering ventures secured significant funding and announced strategic partnerships to fuel their growth and expansion initiatives.

From digital banking and fintech platforms to AI-driven fraud detection and sustainable coffee substitutes, these startups are reshaping industries and pushing the boundaries of innovation.

Let’s delve into the highlights of PriyoShop’s transformative retail marketplace, Transparently.AI’s advanced accounting fraud detection technology, Xalts’ acquisition of Contour Network, UNOAsia’s credit-led digital bank, Prefer’s bean-free coffee revolution, and Dolbomdream’s therapeutic IoT-powered hugging vests.

Additionally, strategic partnerships like Helicap’s collaboration with Bank Danamon Indonesia and cross-border drone delivery services by Aerodyne and DroneDash are poised to redefine logistics and financing landscapes across the region.

These developments underscore Southeast Asia’s position as a hotbed for entrepreneurial talent and disruptive innovation, promising exciting prospects for the future of business in the region.

PriyoShop

PriyoShop, a B2B retail marketplace for MSMEs in Bangladesh, made the headlines this week with the closing of its US$5 million pre-Series A round of financing led by Century Oak Ventures. Evolution Ventures, Iterative, SOSV (Orbit Startups), GFR Fund, BonBillo, Accelerating Asia, South Asia Tech Partners, and Voltity also participated.

Also Read: The first 27 key innovation leaders who will speak at Echelon X

Launched in July 2021 by Khan and Dipty Mandal (CMO), PriyoShop works with small retail shops and major brands to transform and modernise the retail supply chain industry. Through its asset-light marketplace model, PriyoShop helps small businesses efficiently source goods, access consistent and competitive prices, and rapidly receive goods through next-day delivery. This helps MSMEs increase their business margins.

Through the company’s partnership with the digital financing platform LankaBangla Financing, PriyoShop can help MSMEs scale up their businesses further through tailored credit facilities and access to supply chain financing options.

Lapasar and Bateriku

Both these startups hit the headlines when they received funding from Malaysia’s pension fund Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) [KWAP]

KWAP invested a total of RM100 million (US$21 million) in Lapasar and Bateriku and VC firms Antler and Vynn Capital.

Bateriku is an automotive service provider with a network of partners nationwide, providing job opportunities and increasing financial inclusion. Lapasar, on the other hand, is an online wholesale marketplace that focuses on meeting the needs of the FMCG industry, accelerating the adoption of digitalisation throughout the economy.

Transparently.AI

Global asset manager Franklin Templeton invested an undisclosed amount in Singapore-based artificial intelligence startup Transparently.AI, as part of its fintech incubation programme. This investment is part of the AI-based accounting fraud detector’s US$3 million pre-Series A funding round.

Move Asset Management also co-invested in Transparently.

Transparently.AI uses machine learning to identify accounting manipulation and fraud in company reporting far in advance of public discovery. It has developed a unique AI-based system for the automated detection of accounting manipulation and fraud in companies globally. Transparently.AI provides a cloud-hosted SaaS solution that explicitly measures the probability of accounting manipulation in listed companies.

Xalts

Xalts, a Singapore-based fintech platform for financial institutions and businesses to build and manage digital finance applications, acquired Contour Network, which connects global banks with global businesses.

Contour was started in 2017 as a pilot by eight global banks, including HSBC, Standard Chartered and BNP, focusing on digitising trade. Over 22 banks, including HSBC, BNP, Citi, DBS, and ING, and 100 international businesses like Tata Group and Rio Tinto, use Contour for digital trade finance solutions.

Xalts was founded in 2022 by Ashutosh Goel and Supreet Kaur, former senior executives at HSBC and Meta. Backed by Accel Partners and Citi Ventures, Xalts is used by institutions to build multi-party applications for digitisation and tokenisation.

UNOAsia

UNOAsia, the company behind UNO Digital Bank in the Philippines, raised US$32.1 million in a pre-Series B investment round comprising equity and debt. The investors include Gateway Partners, Creador Private Equity, and Nextinfinity Management.

Also Read: Exploring emerging tech at the Future Stage in Echelon X

Founded in 2020 by Manish Bhai, Puneet Gupta, and Kalidas Ghose, UNO Digital Bank is a full-spectrum credit-led digital bank licensed under the Digital Banking License framework promulgated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in the Philippines. Filipinos can use the app to save, borrow, transact, invest, and protect money.

Aerodyne and DroneDash

Aerodyne Group, a drone-based enterprise solutions provider headquartered in Malaysia, has signed an agreement with Singapore-based air mobility company DroneDash Technologies to introduce cross-border drone delivery services between the two countries.

This aims to boost logistics efficiency between the two countries and advance the region’s delivery and supply chain capabilities.

The two firms will work to obtain all necessary permits to commence shore-to-shore drone operations along the Malaysia-Singapore corridor.

Healint

US-based software-as-a-medical device (SaMD) company Aptar Digital Health, a unit of NYSE-listed AptarGroup, Inc., acquired Singapore-based Healint, a health tech company known for its virtual clinical studies, real-world evidence, and patient registry.

The details of the deal remain undisclosed.

Per a statement, the acquisition aligns with Aptar Digital’s strategy to broaden its portfolio in neurology and strengthen its global footprint for digital health deployment. The expanded capabilities include patient community management, patient activation, artificial intelligence-based data collection and analysis, and digital diagnostics to facilitate patient screening and identification.

Furthermore, Healint’s ability to conduct clinical studies at a global scale complements Aptar Digital Health’s existing solutions to provide additional value to pharmaceutical customers.

Prefer

Prefer, a bean-free coffee startup in Singapore, secured US$2 million in seed funding led by Forge Ventures. 500 Global, A*ccelerate, Better Bite Ventures, Sopoong Ventures, SEEDS Capital, Entrepreneur First, and Pickup Coffee also participated in the round.

The capital allows Prefer to make significant investments in growing the capacity of its production facility, expanding its ground coffee and ready-to-drink bottled beverages across Asia Pacific, starting with Singapore and the Philippines.

Co-founded in 2022 by Jake Berber (CEO) and Tan Ding Jie (CTO), Prefer makes coffee without coffee beans to ensure coffee is delicious, affordable, and sustainable. The company’s proprietary fermentation technology upcycles surplus bread, soy pulp, and spent grain to create a coffee substitute that offers the same aroma, taste, and brewing experience as traditional coffee.

Helicap

Singapore-based fintech group Helicap, which connects global investors to private debt opportunities in Southeast Asia, formed a strategic partnership with Bank Danamon Indonesia to support the archipelago’s fintech and alternative lending industry.

This collaboration aims to position the duo as a one-stop solution for non-dilutive growth capital targeting fintech, alternative lending firms and MSMEs across diverse segments, including supply chain, leasing, and e-commerce.

Beyond capital infusion, the deal envisions a supportive and innovative funding ecosystem catering to the debt financing needs of non-bank firms at every stage of their growth journey, from seed funding to IPO.

Dolbomdream

South Korean startup Dolbomdream, which develops IoT-powered hugging vests, secured undisclosed seed funding from Quest Ventures.

The company will use the funds for Southeast Asia expansion.

DolbomDream develops smart HUGgy vests that incorporate research-backed Deep Touch Pressure technology to simulate the effect of hugs on wearers to provide psychological comfort to its wearers. The vests analyse wearers’ biometric data to give caregivers real-time analysis of their psychological status through an app, which can also activate the vest.

The target customers include special needs individuals, seniors, sleep disorder patients, and anyone who might benefit from the therapeutic power of a hug.

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In early February, Qritive announced a partnership with three diagnostic centres and hospitals in India: Metropolis Healthcare, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, and CŌRE Diagnostics. These institutions are set to use the Pantheon image management system (IMS) and Qritive’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) products.

According to a press statement, integrating Qritive’s AI technology into these institutions’ diagnostic processes represents a significant leap forward in modernising pathology practices. They are expected to enhance diagnostic accuracy, improve operational efficiency, and eventually, advance patient care.

“We have been operating in India since 2019 and signed our first major commercial contract there with a healthcare institution in 2021. In the early phase of the go-to-market, we relied primarily on direct engagement with pathologists, educating the market on the value of AI-powered solutions for diagnostics,” explains Qritive in an email to e27.

“Along the way, we also won several awards from NASSCOM and Sweden Innovation. Recently, considering the novelty of the technology in the healthcare system, we decided to run a programme providing an opportunity for pathologists to experience the benefits of AI in their workflow. Our ‘Experience Program’ was well received, creating the momentum needed to deploy in three major hospitals and lab chains.”

With their AI solutions, Qritive targets pathologists working in private or public laboratories and hospitals and pharmaceutical and biotech companies as their primary users.

“Our current focus has been primarily on Asia and the Middle East. We acquire clients through direct sales, strategic partnerships, and distributors,” the company says.

Also Read:How data can be used to empower mental healthcare in Asia

“For this purpose, we have forged strong partnerships with key ecosystem players. Among others, we partner with slide scanner manufacturers such as Motic, infrastructure providers such as Dell and NTT, and digital pathology image management system players such as Corista.”

Headquartered in Singapore, with operations in the US and India, Qritive is an AI solution developer that aims to advance digital pathology for cancer diagnosis and improve health outcomes with the assistance of AI-based solutions.

Run by 15 full-time employees across Singapore and India, the company has raised US$7.5 million in a Series A round announced in 2023.

Qritive co-founders first crossed paths at the startup incubator Entrepreneur First (EF), previously operating in Singapore. Dr Kaveh Taghipour, who holds a PhD in Deep Learning, was matched with Dr Aneesh Sathe, who specialises in mechano-biology. Both were PhD graduates from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and took the challenge to change cancer diagnostics with AI.

While exploring several areas in healthcare, including radiology, ophthalmology, and infectious diseases, the co-founders realised the “serious challenges” pathology faced.

“These problems include a severe global shortage of pathologists, manual and error prone processes in cancer diagnosis, and long turnaround times for patients. Having lost close family members to cancer, Kaveh and Aneesh decided to build AI-powered solutions for pathologists to enable effective and affordable treatment for cancer detection. This led to the establishment of Qritive in 2017,” the company says.

In addition to its partnerships in India, Qritive has also made several milestones, including being selected in the inaugural batch of JLABS Singapore, a collaboration between Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Singapore Economic Development Board; receiving conditional approval from the Abu Dhabi Department of Health for clinical deployment in UAE, and having an extended network to more than 300 pathologists, providing research and clinical studies to healthcare institutions.

Regarding its R&D, the company has released two prostate AI and lymph node metastasis modules.

“In our development pipeline, we have a few modules dedicated to breast cancer and ovarian cancer detection, and several other critical areas of healthcare,” the company says of its major plan in 2024.

“Our strategic focus entails the expansion into key markets, with a particular emphasis on Asia and the Middle East, where we can observe a strong commitment to adopt digital pathology to deal with the growing flow of cancer cases. In parallel, we pursue regulatory certifications in key geographies.”

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Image Credit: Qritive

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According to Parsons New School, 75 per cent of organisations self-report that they are engaged in design thinking while 71 per cent of organizations that practice design thinking report that it has improved their working culture on a team level. 

Also, as per the Design Management Institute, design-driven companies have outperformed the S&P Index by 219 per cent over 10 years. 

So what is design thinking? And how can you apply it?

Today, we will run you through the definition of design thinking and help you understand how to apply it.

Understanding design thinking

Design thinking is a problem-solving framework that uses empathetic, creative, and analytical skills to solve problems. It is a human-centered approach to innovation.

The method is based on the book, The Sciences of the Artificial, by Herbert A. Simon, written in 1969. However, design thinking has undergone several changes. Currently, the most commonly used methodology is derived from the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford.

Usually, the design thinking method solves problems for businesses that are looking for an idea to create a new product or service. It is also useful for technology-based companies that are in need of a user-friendly design for one of their gadgets to meet a consumer need. Design thinking is often used by UX designers to tackle big, complex, or even largely unknown problems in product development. 

Principles of design thinking

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There are 5 core design thinking principles:

1. Empathizing with users: Designers research and walk in the user’s shoes as soon as they start a new project.

2. Defining the problem: Using the method, designers map difficulties, interpret, plan, and strategize.

3. Ideating solutions: It involves brainstorming, visualizing, thinking, and reflecting on possible outcomes.

4. Prototyping: Designers sketch, visualize, apply, and create wireframes and beta versions.

5. Testing: It includes reviewing, getting feedback, fixing, clearing out, and revising.

How to use design thinking?

1. Empathise

As a designer, before you proceed to do anything else, you need to understand your client’s needs. And when you begin the design process, you should walk in the user’s shoes.

Who is going to use your digital product? What makes the target audience exclusive? What are your users’ habits? What is their online behavior like? What are the users’ needs that have to be addressed? Where are the pain-points? Having an answer to all these questions will help you begin smoothly.

Focus on your user’s experiences, particularly emotional ones. You can use the so-called ‘empathy map,’ which is a tool used for articulating what you know about a particular type of user. 

It can define a rough user persona and characterize your target users in order to make effective design decisions. 

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It will help you gain an insight into the user’s perspective regarding the tasks related to the product. For every type of user, you can use a new empathy map.

2. Define

Next, you should focus on the actual problem your design will solve. What steps do the users need to make to successfully use a website, a progressive web application, an online shop?

Also Read: Design thinking: A superpower for the challenges of modern businesses

Leverage the knowledge you have about the user and identify the problems. But when you define the issue, you shouldn’t forget the human side of your product. While doing so, keep the user in focus at all times. 

You may have to come back here repeatedly when you start testing your product. Don’t hesitate to make changes. This is your product’s core function, the main reason why people will get it in. If you don’t get the problem right, your product will fail.

3. Ideate

The next step is to come up with as much relevant, fresh, and innovative ideas. It is an exciting phase where you can imagine the unimaginable and turn it into reality.

Remember to set a time limit, don’t deviate from the topic, be visual, and build on each other’s ideas. And be ready to brainstorm.

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The process of ideation can help you come up with the right questions; think out of the box; discover unexpected possibilities of your product, and come up with innovative solutions. Remember, even a bad idea that strikes your mind is worth consideration.

4. Prototype

Here, you will be creating prototypes for demonstrating and authenticating your basic designs based on the best concepts from your ideation exercises. To accurately assess a design concept, you’ll want to prototype it in the same environment and context in which it will ultimately function.

Design thinking focuses on human-centered design and thus offers solutions for fulfilling a particular human need. To do that, you must know what the pain points are so as to find solutions.

When creating a UI or UX design, focus on trying out diverse solutions and designing an interface that will offer a great user experience.

Start to visualize solutions and define possible mistakes by drawing a website sketch and creating a digital wireframe.

Once you are done with defining the problem, try out various alternative solutions and simulations prior to settling on the final solution.

If you are dealing with complex design issues, creating a working model will help. Consider optimizing the beta version of a website and making it available to the public. You will get the most valuable feedback from real users.

5. Test

The last stage is testing the prototype’s functions, usability, and usefulness for target users.

You may end up creating a faultless design on your first attempt, but more likely, there will be some errors to fix. Making errors during a UI/UX design is inevitable, but you must identify them while there is still time to fix them. 

You can make use of web development online testing tools to evaluate your work and the functionality of your solutions. Webflow, Vectr, and Marvel are some great tools.

Winding-up

Are you struggling to come up with an idea to create a new product or service? Or do you need a user-friendly design for your gadgets to meet your consumers’ needs? 

It promotes user-centricity, innovation, creativity, and makes you think out of the box. Design thinking has transformed big names like Airbnb from a failing startup to a billion-dollar business. 

Many businesses are incorporating it to grow their business.  And you can be next. 

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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:  James Pond

This post was first published on November 14, 2019

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The e-commerce landscape has shown steady growth over the past few years. In 2019, the total value of global online retail sales has been over USD$3.45 T. Moreover, by 2014, almost all purchases are expected to be made online. 

Still, many online brands are struggling with poor conversion rates. They focus on improving the checkout process and shopping carts. But, what about the majority of customers that don’t even get to that point? Many online shoppers will decide to leave your store after landing on a poorly optimized product page. 

Here are a few actionable steps that will help you level up your product page optimization.

1. Analyse your pages

Before you start optimizing your page, you need to pay attention to your site’s overall performance.

For starters, use a web crawler tool to find all pages in a website and analyze them thoroughly from different SEO aspects.

Your goal is to observe how fast the page loads, whether there are any faulty links or buttons, how your pages look on different devices. Most importantly, you need to ensure that the page is user-friendly and that it provides enough information to help customers make buying decisions.

2. Use high-quality visuals

Would you buy from an online store that either has low-quality product photos or doesn’t have them at all? 

Product photos should be the first thing a customer sees when landing on your product page. It should help them form their initial impressions about the product and evaluate its quality. 

An online customer cannot touch, try, or feel your product. This is why you need to represent your product in the right way. Invest in professional product photography and talk to a photographer about using the colours, filters, and layouts consistently. For each product, provide several photos taken from multiple angles. 

Also read: 6 simple tips for branding your website

To build trust with a customer and engage them, you can even implement a 360-degree shot of your product or even make a short video that would emphasize the best features of the product and show how it’s used. 

To emphasize the photo or the video of a product, leave lots of negative space and choose eye-pleasing and bright colours (preferably white).

3. Write thorough product content descriptions

Many brands make a big mistake when creating their product content, focusing on optimising it for the right keywords to help their page rank high

er. However, they don’t think about the impact of such keyword-heavy content on user experiences. When visiting your page, a customer wants to get as much information about your content as possible. Stats back me up on that, showing that almost 90 per cent of online buyers consider product content an extremely important part of their buying journey. 

High-quality product page content should include: 

1. A straightforward and informative product page title

2. An accurate price of the product

3. The material of the product

4. The dimensions or capacity of the product

5. The information about the brand

6. The colour of the product

7. The availability of the product

When writing product descriptions, make sure they’re engaging. Use personal, polite, and professional touch and, at the same time, try to connect with your potential customers on a more personal level.

They should be concise and clear – add headings and bulletins to make them easier to follow. Sure, adding a keyword is recommended, but always make sure that you insert it logically and organically. 

4. Write a clear call to action

When creating your online store, the idea is to guide a customer down the sales funnel, from the awareness stage to converting. This is where a strong call to action plays an immensely important role. 

Instead of the generic “Add to cart,” choose something more creative. Use your CTA button to tell a customer why to buy from you and where to do so. You don’t need to use fancy, lengthy phrases. Try to be as direct and concise as possible. 

Also read: Why your website design should be completely different in China

Also, pay attention to the colour, size, and the shape of the CTA button. Always choose ones that will make your call to action easily visible from all parts of the page, but make sure they’re visually appealing. 

5. Make your product page responsive

The number of mobile users is constantly growing and is expected to reach 7.26 billion by 2020.  Therefore, failing to optimize your product pages for mobile, you’re missing out on an amazing opportunity to grow your reach and increase conversion rates.

Your goal is to create a responsive website that will look and feel amazing on all devices. Unlike the traditional mobile-friendly website, a responsive website is flexible and adaptable to a user’s device.

For starters, improve your site’s speed, declutter your layout and eliminate all unnecessary elements on the product pages, and ensure that all links and buttons are easier to click. Later, as your store keeps growing, you can even build an online shopping mobile app and boost your conversions.

6. Build trust with online reviews

Today’s customers expect brands to be fully transparent and honest. And, one of the most effective ways to build trust with them is to enable product reviews and ratings. Namely, 85 per cent of your customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. 

Positive reviews will help your customers get rid of any doubts they may have about your product and encourage them to make a buying decision. Still, this doesn’t mean you should ignore or be afraid of negative comments.

Namely, they are also an amazing opportunity to see what bothers your customers most, provide timely feedback, and improve your products/services in the long run. After all, if you cater to the dissatisfied customers’ needs and help them solve specific problems, you can ask them to edit the comment.

Additionally, you can even encourage customers to review you. For example, you could send them a post-purchase survey via email, ask loyal customers to write testimonials or display users’ comments on social networks. To boost user engagement, consider building a social media contest and encourage customers to share user-generated content you would later share on your product pages. 

7. Boost FOMO

One of the most effective sales tactics is to create urgency around your product. Your idea is to evoke customers fear of missing out (FOMO) and get them to think that may miss out on an amazing opportunity to buy your product.

There are numerous ways to do so. For example, create and announce time-sensitive sales and deals, limit free shipping, offer one-shot deals, etc.

You can also insert the quality of products in stock or add a clock to your product page to make visitors look at how much time they’re left until the sale is over. 

Conclusion

If the conversion rates from your product pages are low, it’s time to test their functionality and optimise them. By adding the features mentioned above, you will not only increase your sales, but also boost user experiences, gain lots of recommendations, and retain loyal customers.

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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

This post was first published on November 13, 2019

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The worst leaders are remembered for what they did to their people, the best for what they did for their people. It’s as simple, and as tricky, as that.