In the previous two editions of this three-part series, I’ve outlined the climate actions that businesses can take right now to decarbonise and identified some ways to develop/increase the adoption of existing solutions to aid industry transitions toward net zero.

In this final part, I’ll propose actions that can be taken to instigate a systematic shift on a larger scale.

Collaborating at scale

It’s generally recognised that no single player can solve a challenge this big on their own. We need more than just cleaner solutions or alternatives – we need to change entire supply chains and economic systems so that we can continue to pursue progress and enable human development (which consumes energy and materials) while respecting planetary boundaries.

To arrive at the technical, political, economic, behavioural, and natural solutions required, collaboration is absolutely key.

What does meaningful collaboration look like, though, beyond signing industry-wide commitments and joining consortiums? Who should play what role, so we make the most of everyone’s unique strengths without wasting effort or resources? And is this even something to consider if you’re not an influential player?

Also Read: Climate conferences won’t save us: How to start taking action all year round (Part 1)

Spoiler alert: Everyone can and should play a part. Both multi-billion dollar businesses and small enterprises, CEOs and employees, policymakers from large and small nations alike – there is a unique and valuable part each one can play in advancing the climate fight.

• Solutions that reduce emissions need to move beyond just selling themselves towards building or being part of total solutions. Your product alone rarely covers the full picture for your client; understand the bigger problem you help your customer solve, and partner with other solutions that make this easier, which will increase your conversion rates and set a model for others to follow because it increases industry adoption/transformation. For example, we helped one waste management company double its revenue and access corporate offtake agreements by partnering with a traceability solution. We paired up two solutions – one incentivising households to better clean and sort their waste, the other separating multi-layer packaging into its separate components for easier recycling – which strengthened recycling feedstock far better together than they did working separately.

• Large corporations have the purchasing power to influence suppliers, normalise higher environmental and social standards, and therefore drive switches to a sustainable supply chain at a scale that many smaller businesses cannot. As early adopters, they must send demand signals and be the tide that lifts all ships across their industry; it’s time to break from a CSR lens and integrate sustainability into the core business. For many parts of the process, there is no need to reinvent the wheel – reducing waste, weeding out inefficiencies, and embracing circular practices in the supply chain make a triple win for the environment, productivity, and the bottom line. 

• Small and medium enterprises with lower budgets or buy-in for green solutions can still make their needs (e.g. price thresholds, operational constraints) known and aggregate demand amongst similar peers. Though one business alone may be too small to be designed for, engaging green solutions as the archetype of SMEs in your sector can bring down the green premium and enable adoption amongst the smaller businesses which make up the majority of any industry.

• The public sector can create an enabling environment for innovation and investment by reducing uncertainty, ring-fencing risk, being inclusive by design, and knowing what role they play in the bigger picture. Laying out clear priorities, targets, and prices (on carbon, plastic, and other environmental externalities that need to be properly costed); funding and encouraging timeboxed experimentation in areas where opportunity is clear but little is known about the right path forward; de-risking nimble policy choices by involving the relevant stakeholders from design to delivery, getting the most informed inputs to maximise chances of success and community integration – all of these are relatively inexpensive, politically safe ways for governments to speed up instead of slow down change. Singapore excels at incentivising and de-risking innovation via Enterprise Singapore and EDB’s many funding schemes. At the same time, the small population generally prevents it from influencing world decisions with market volume, and it can lead the way through forward-thinking, flexible policymaking.

Also Read: Preference for green jobs is the “most exciting” climate tech development: Lightspeed

These are just some of the many ways different types of organisations can contribute to making an outsize impact on driving us to our goal. To lean into making these changes, we need more meaningful and intentional collaboration across the board that encourages learning and action taken on those lessons.

Projects may be started in siloes and decided in small groups to get momentum going, but as these take shape and begin to see results, we need to fight the urge to share only our successes. We must be open and share learnings about our failures, too; only when we look at the tasks ahead as a global drawing board, not a leaderboard, can we iterate effectively, deploy new investments into the right places, and truly progress toward our goals.

How do we move forward together?

The scale of the climate crisis can be overwhelming, and it might seem that any action short of becoming a climate startup is futile. Instead of looking for a silver bullet solution (which doesn’t exist), we need to embrace a portfolio approach that leverages each one’s strengths and helps one another bridge weaknesses.

There is plenty that we can do, individually and as entrepreneurs, to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals beyond the confines of the COP summit.

There are no more excuses to delay taking action. We know the goals, the tools are at hand, and there are enough energetic advocates to kickstart the process. The “why” is also clear: besides our moral and survival imperative, there are multiple advantages to becoming the sustainability leader in your respective industry, like becoming preferred suppliers to large organisations with climate commitments, accessing cheaper financing products, attracting better talent, and increasing consumer interest in responsible businesses.

So while governments decide on big-picture programmes to enable a global green transition, businesses and individuals in Southeast Asia do not need to wait for their go-ahead. We can do something immediately.

The only hurdle is our own willingness to translate our hopes for the future into actions today.

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In November 2022, the crypto asset exchange FTX collapsed in just five days due to mounting turmoil, causing many investors to lose vast assets.

The impact of the collapse of the world’s second-largest exchange was so significant that major crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum crashed across the board, and projects that had relied on FTX collapsed in a chain reaction. Including indirect ones, it is safe to assume that more than tens of billions of dollars are needed to cover the damage.

This collapse was as inevitable as Enron’s FTX cheated investors with massive accounting fraud (window dressing), engaged in insider trading, and faked the failure of many investments. The two companies also share the same shrewdness in donating money to the Republican and Democratic parties and suppressing the political side. The fact that both companies’ headquarters collapsed shortly after they entered the Japanese market is also oddly synchronised.

This type of incident is not unique to crypto assets. Still, it is based on traditional fraud techniques: accounting manipulation, improperly inflating corporate value, misappropriation of customer funds, etc., a combination of fraudulent activities before crypto assets.

How to prevent a recurrence

However, there are also circumstances specific to the crypto asset industry that led to the collapse of FTX. The regulation of crypto assets still needs to mature. Therefore, unlike the financial sector, which is heavily regulated, there is room for various circumvention measures and fraud.

Also Read: Light at the end of the crypto tunnel? How to come out stronger

For example, few countries have fully regulated insider trading of crypto assets. Since combined with the high degree of anonymity due to its technical nature, fraud is straightforward. Although it cannot be proven, insider trading has likely occurred on a significant number (or almost all) of crypto asset exchanges.

Insider trading does not damage the assets of the exchange but rather enhances them, except when it is an appropriation of customer assets; a major cause of the FTX collapse was the dramatic reduction in the capital due to the misappropriation of customer assets and the ensuing run on them. The core of preventing a recurrence is regulation related to the protection of client assets.

Notable Japanese regulations

In this respect, Japanese regulation is progressive. Japan has learned well from the typical failures in the crypto asset industry, such as the Mt.

First, as with securities and FX, customers’ crypto assets are supposed to be segregated and managed separately. CPAs regularly audit the segregation to ensure it is done correctly. In doing so, they also examine whether cold wallets and multisig are appropriately used. The segregated crypto assets will be used to refund investors in the event of an exchange failure (i.e., 100 per cent of the deposited funds are guaranteed to be returned).

In addition to this, Japan is also trying to lead the world in systematically regulating stablecoins. Although there is a common criticism in Japan that “Japan is too strictly regulated, making it difficult to launch a crypto-asset related business,” there is an opinion that this strict regulation and monitoring system has been learned from the past and that it has prevented significant incidents from occurring after the FTX bankruptcy.

The need for global regulation

However, even in Japan, the crypto assets of FTX JP’s customers remain frozen. Since FTX JP’s assets (as well as those of the bankrupt FTX and its affiliates) will be used to repay the FTX Group’s creditors (including its customers), it is not clear whether they will be returned to investors after the bankruptcy, even though they are segregated and managed separately.

Also Read: The future of blockchain technology goes beyond just cryptocurrency and NFTs

It is said that the reason for this is that FTX JP’s customers cannot be given priority for repayment. In other words, if the parent company is located outside of Japan, the assets of the Japanese subsidiary’s clients would not necessarily be protected in the event of the parent company’s bankruptcy.

Thus, there is a limit to considering only one country when considering regulation. FTX made a breakthrough because it operated in the Bahamas, with virtually no regulations. In the Bahamas, taxes are meagre, and there is no need to submit bookkeeping records to the authorities.

This scheme of setting up headquarters in a tax haven and establishing a company in the US or Japan as a subsidiary is often used in the crypto asset industry (as in other sectors). The subsidiary is subject to strict regulations in this case, but the parent company is not.

Therefore, no matter how much regulation is enforced in the country where the subsidiary is located, the risk of the parent company failing due to misuse of customer assets, as with FTX, cannot be eliminated.

To fundamentally solve this problem, it is imperative to create a global standard for regulation. Although many experts have pointed this out, the road to realisation is exceptionally long, as it takes work to reach a worldwide consensus.

However, without international emphasis and the establishment of reasonable and consistent international rules, customers’ assets cannot be protected, and the crypto asset industry cannot be further developed.

It is not that the blockchain side is not responding to anything either; there are already blockchains like Concordium, which performs full KYC and can identify individuals in case of illegal activities while typically remaining anonymous; Concordium has stated that it will be improved in response to regulations.

The idea is to change the blockchain following international regulatory trends (many are willing to hard fork and many nodes understand this).

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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Where are we heading next year? And most importantly, will the money follow us?

2022 is seen as a pivotal year as it kickstarted the re-opening of the world after a period of border closures due to the implementation of safety measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant that cross-border business activities resumed to an almost typical level of activities, pushing us to catch up with incoming opportunities (and challenges).

In the Southeast Asian (SEA) tech startup ecosystem, this meant the return of notable startup events, including our very own Echelon 2022. This meant the ability to network with potential collaborators in neighbouring countries. But not all things are well in the ecosystem. We witnessed layoffs happening to even the most notable tech giants in the industry, creating an atmosphere of anxiety about what the future might bring.

Previously, we have looked at how startups in the SEA startup ecosystem view 2023 and how they aim to brave new challenges in the new year. This time, we would like to hear from the investors’ side.

For this piece, e27 reached out to active investors in the SEA startup ecosystem to get their insights about notable trends in 2023. Their profile ranges from early to growth stage investors, from sector-agnostic to sector-specific investors.

Some of their answers might surprise you. Some of them are as expected. But if winning 2023 is part of your plan, you might not want to miss this revelation.

Offline is cool again

As a direct consequence of the reopening of borders, Dave Ng, General Partner at Altara Ventures, believes that being offline will be “cool again.”

“The world will put the pandemic in the past,” he stresses.

“This means more travel, interaction and touch points in person. Welcome back to the office! The beauty is that we are now much more adept and comfortable using online tools to augment our activities.”

Even greater urgency for climate and sustainability

According to Ysabel Chua, Associate at Forge Ventures, in addition to seeing a wave of sustainability-focused startups from a range of sectors, the region will witness more companies considering how to embed sustainable practices and adjacent solutions to their core product.

“It’s about time,” she stresses.

To seize opportunities in this field, Forge Ventures intends to stay close to founders and operators that are “building with genuine intentions and heart.”

“As an operator-led fund, we’ve always stayed close to other operators … despite being on the investment side now. This has allowed us to get a unique view and peek into what the next-generation founders are building, even while they’re just at the ideation stage,” she explains.

Robin Teurlings, General Partner at Zero Emissions Fund shared a similar opinion.

“A lot of knowledge on building a low carbon economy in SEA has been gathered in the past years, and more feasible startup ideas are starting to spring from this. When you add this to sky-high energy costs and an investor focus on business fundamentals, you get a great cocktail for this sector to boom,” he says.

The Zero Emissions Fund has supported decarbonisation startups since November 2021 through its free online acceleration programme. Next year, it plans to organise more opportunities for these startups to connect to potential collaborators in the corporate sectors. It is also looking forward to making its first direct investments.

When it comes to discussion about sustainability, food security and agriculture are the two sectors that are strongly related to it. Jefrey Joe, Co-Founder and General Partner at Alpha JWC Ventures, sees a rising interest in agriculture and aquaculture sectors in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia.

“There are many issues across their supply chain that can be addressed through the use of technology, from farm management to distribution. In 2022, we onboarded some of the most innovative agri/aquaculture startups like AgriAku, Beleaf, Pitik, and Sayurbox. These companies have shown great trajectories … we believe this trend will continue, and more investors will be looking at these two sectors,” he explains.

Bracing yet another crisis

Despite the promises, we know that next year is not going to be an easy one. As we move out from another crisis to the next, there remains an urgency to stay vigilant and make the right decisions.

Debneel Mukherjee, Founder and Managing Partner at Decacorn Capital, says, “We are following some macro indicators such as how the inflation and likely recession in the US, coupled with the labour shortage, will continue to make technology the safe haven amidst disruption from every side.”

He continues, “We continue to look out for rare gems pursuing large problems with a strong technology moat, run by resourceful founders –as it is about the jockey on the horse at the end of the day.”

Mukherjee also dubbed the US as “the cleanest among the dirty shirts” –meaning that its startup ecosystem continues to develop and grow ideas. Whenever possible, founders from around the world “can and should go to gain the escape velocity as the largest market and best place by far for valuations and exits.”

Dave Ng, General Partner at Altara Ventures, also echoed the need to remain agile and lean next year.

“We are inevitably entering a recession. Staying agile and lean is the best way to brave 2023 and beyond. Finally, the bar is much higher for any business to exist. This applies to all – startups, private unicorns and public tech companies,” he stresses.

It’s all about the consumers

Even as Web3 continues to gain popularity, the Web2 sector remains relevant in most parts of SEA with its tried-and-true qualities. Investors have revealed to e27 the verticals that they believe will rock 2023, and there is an emphasis on consumer-facing businesses.

Elise Tan, Director of Communications and Community at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, lists down the sectors that are set to be popular. This includes cost-effective consumer solutions, a new wave of products and services empowering the creator economy, and digital finance deepening their services for the underbanked.

For Willson Cuaca, Founding Partner at East Ventures, “We believe the trend will not only be concentrated in e-commerce; we see there will be more innovations in other sectors, such as D2C, agriculture, and climate solutions in the near future.”

“While the global economy will be challenging in 2023, we believe that Indonesia and SEA have many great talents that can drive the economy in great directions. This further supports how digital infrastructure and adoption are moving towards its golden era. We will continue working with relevant stakeholders in the industry to seize opportunities and boost the development of the countries.”

Jussi Salovaara, Co-Founder and Managing Partner Asia of Antler, pointed out that as the fintech sector continues to grow, competition has become a key challenge for B2C brands.

“There is still good potential on the B2B side, especially with regards to unbundling of services, i.e. solutions built for specific verticals,” he says.

In the past few years, health and medtech have become more popular due to the pandemic, especially services that enable telehealth features and a more personalised approach to healthcare.

“… Personalised medicine and genomics is yet another technology platform that we believe is the next frontier of data analytics,” Mukherjee said.

A similar sentiment was shared by Salovaara.

“On a similar note but for AI, it’ll be interesting to see its use-case in a sector like healthtech, which has seen various tech solutions improving automation and savings, but not quite yet for improving accuracy via predictive modelling and such.”

The bar that is set higher

Related to the previous trend of responding to the global crisis, in 2023, investors believe that the bars will be set higher for startups.

According to Atin Batra, General Partner at 27V, two things will happen: Consolidation and explosion.

“Given the tight capital markets, companies running out of cash will look for acquisitions as a favourable outcome for their investors; and companies that are comfortable with their cash positions will attempt to buy accretive revenue,” he elaborates.

“In times of recession, smart individuals realise they have very little to lose by starting up. Working for big companies, who have laid off staff at one point or another, no longer carries the same cache for multiple reasons: underwater stock grants, low employee morale, and battered employer brands.”

Vinnie Lauria, Founding Partner at Golden Gate Ventures, predicts a return to “lean and mean”.

“The layoffs among tech startups in the region signal a return to fundamentals. This is a necessary course correction, resulting in leaner, meaner startups in 2023,” he says.

“For perspective, the cycle of expansion and contraction that we see in the tech startups now is no different from what we would typically see in other traditional large companies. But tech startups pack decades of growth into a short time, so the cycles of expansion and contraction are more obvious and closer together,” he continues.

Recognition of the long-term value of SEA

Despite hardships here and there, investors are convinced that next year SEA will continue to become a valuable destination for investments –if not more. One particular market stands out amongst the rest.

“Vietnam is going to shine against the backdrop of global economic challenges,” says Lauria.

“With global tech giants investing in sophisticated tech manufacturing in Vietnam, the domestic market is expanding phenomenally with a projected GDP of 6.2 per cent … turning Vietnam into a huge magnet for top tech talent. This will, in turn, spawn the next generation of tech startups that will dominate across SEA,” he continues.

He also notes a potential shift in the type of investments coming to the region.

“SEA used to attract high volumes of investment among specific investor communities familiar with the region. We’re going to see a shift to more conservative investments, but across a much wider pool of investors who are now looking for long-term value in SEA.”

Web3 is here to stay

Next year, investors predicted Web3 would continue dominating the startup ecosystem conversation. According to Terence Hooi, Co-Founder & CEO at Singular Capital, DeFi is going to continue on disrupting Traditional Finance (TradFi).

“Today, DeFi users top two million users and it is now worth US$170 billion, but that is still relatively small compared to TradFi at 22.5 trillion,” he said.

The company plans on seizing opportunities in the field by launching the next version of the Singular app on iOS and Android.

“While much of the initial protocol has been dedicated to technical topics such as stability and consistency so that stablecoins can function as a global unit-of-account and medium-of-exchange that is stable, almost no attention in comparison has been paid to improving the UI & UX of DeFi apps,” he continued.

To disrupt the existing system, the implementation of Web3 technology in banking and financial services needs to hit the right target audience. For Brian Lu, Founding Partner of Infinity Ventures Crypto, this means targeting the unbanked population in the SEA region.

“With more than 70 per cent of the region’s population being unbanked, as well as high levels of digital proficiency, SEA has great potential to lead the world in mainstream blockchain adoption, especially through crypto banking platforms,” he says.

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Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

Image Credit: Antler, Golden Gate Ventures, 27V, Alpha JWC Ventures, Forge Ventures, Singular Capital

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Hyperlounge, a real-time data analysis and management insights SaaS platform for small and medium-sized (SME) business executives, announced that it had raised US$8 million in Series A investment.

The funding round is led by Altara Ventures, together with FuturePlay, StoneBridge, BA Partners, RyuKyung PSG, and Nextrans.

South Korean software reseller UClick joined the funding round as a strategic investor.

In a press statement, Hyperlounge said that it plans to grow beyond being a business analytics platform to establishing itself as an essential partner in digital transformation for global businesses through utilising extensive management data to maximise companies’ competitiveness.

Hyperlounge CEO and co-founder Jungin Kim mentioned that the successful completion of Series A, despite the impending market downturn, validates the platform’s potential.

Also Read: “Consolidation and explosion”: SEA startup investors reveal 2023 trends they are keeping close watch of

Founded in 2020, Hyperlounge is a SaaS platform that provides real-time business data analysis and management insights for SMEs. It integrates management consulting know-how with advanced data collection, automation, analysis, and visualisation, enabling business executives to access and view key real-time data and analyses on their businesses.

The service is also available as a mobile app.

Since its market launch in February, Hyperlounge said it has rapidly secured over 20 customers across various industries such as consumer goods, manufacturing, industrial and B2B.

Hyperlounge CEO Kim is a seasoned business veteran with experience as a Partner at McKinsey, Head of Hyundai Card, and Global Operations Head at Affinity Equity Partners.

Dave Ng, General Partner at Altara Ventures, said, “We are excited with Hyperlounge’s vision. The enterprise software market, especially in Asia, is ready for a technology cycle refresh – where businesses, big and small alike, will need to move from offline on-premise solutions to online cloud-based SaaS. We look forward to partnering and supporting Hyperlounge’s expansion in Southeast Asia and beyond.”

Also Read: Altara Ventures hits the final close of inaugural fund oversubscribed at US$130M

FuturePlay Director Jaiwoong Choi commented, “As a leading tech investor, we predicted that SMEs’ demand for Digital Transformation would increase and decided to invest based on CEO Jungin Kim and his team’s execution ability, experience and HyperLounge’s unrivalled technologies.”

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Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

Image Credit: Hyperlounge

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Singapore-headquartered Casa Mia Coliving has announced the completion of its US$1.3 million seed funding led by undisclosed real estate and private equity veterans. 

The funds raised will be used to expand its local and regional footprint and enhance the functionality of ColivHQ, Asia’s first dedicated property management software for the coliving industry.

Founded in 2019, Casa Mia Coliving provides coliving property management services intended to offer private bedrooms in shared homes with a convenient search process. It currently has an average stay of 15.5 months per member, the highest in Singapore.

The company uses an analytics tool designed by psychologists to screen potential members and recommend suitable homes based on their profiles. It also organises community “rituals” and activities to encourage networking and friendships, helping members to adjust to life in Singapore.

All this has led to the creation of a highly engaged members’ community, who have continually returned a high housemate satisfaction score when surveyed. 

Also Read: Singapore VC Iterative closes US$55M Fund II to double down on seed-stage founders

“With this fresh injection of funds, Casa Mia Coliving has added a new set of investors with deep experience in real estate and private equity, including several of the early investors in a leading European coliving operator,” said Casa Mia Coliving Co-Founder Ahmed Nizar.

Coliving is a low-margin, high-volume business that requires as much automation as possible to scale profitably. Since its beginning, Casa Mia Coliving has leveraged technology from ColivHQ, a property management software platform, to integrate and automate its operations.

With this round, Casa Mia completes the acquisition of ColivHQ, enabling Casa Mia to further enhance the app functionality.

“Given our deep experience in the technology sector, we’ve always recognised the power of technology to drive operational efficiencies. ColivHQ is one of the key factors that contributed to our profitable growth. As we scale up the business with more rooms across more locations, it is an opportune time to embed ColivHQ’s know-how into our growth plans, so we can continue to deliver a superior experience through the coliving customer journey,” said Casa Mia Coliving, CEO and Co-Founder Eugenio Ferrante.

Casa Mia Coliving has raised US$2 million to date and is well-positioned to accelerate its growth in Singapore and beyond in response to the unmet demand for quality accommodation at affordable prices in Asia, added Nizar.

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One of the greatest challenges in raising capital for an early-stage venture capital fund, regardless of the theme, is the mindset that venture capital is one big roll of the dice.

Synonymous with a spray-and-pray strategy, some terrible historical data sets like – “nine out of 10 startups fail” and “the average return on every US$1 invested in venture capital globally is 90 cents” – have suppressed appetite and allocations. 

Of course, the conventional venture capital model is fraught with risks, but in order to be successful as a VC fund manager, it is crucial that de-risking remains at the heart of investment decisions.

So, how have we, as a venture capital fund manager, disrupted the historical strategies and delivered a more de-risked investment opportunity for our Limited Partners (LPs)? 

Build a focused portfolio

At Mandalay, we focus on deploying capital into three to four investments per year. Over our five-year capital deployment time horizon, this may equate to 15-20 portfolio companies, which is very compact in the overall scheme of things.

Also Read: Why venture capital is going big with cloud mining

Concentrating on quality over quantity, and never accepting failure as a by-product of venture capital, are two hugely important mindsets. People often ask me how many of my portfolio companies I expect to fail, and my answer to them is, quite simply…zero.

Buy well

I love this strategy that my friend, Ainsley Lee, Head of Investments for NRMA and an LP in Mandalay, has used to build a hugely successful career. Venture capital investing requires rigour and discipline, avoiding investing in companies with overly aggressive multiples (especially on revenue) and not getting caught up in hype or emotions, as they have a tendency to cloud judgements. And needless to say, in early-stage startups, you are never short on hype and emotions.

My points in relation to building a focused portfolio and buying well may seem relatively obvious or generic, but I assure you, in the world of VC funds, they are not. That said, the next two strategies are very much Mandalay’s “sizzle” in the marketplace, and this is how we have found ourselves managing money on behalf of some world-class names.

Founded by founders for founders

I believe that founders and entrepreneurs with business and financial acumen make exceptional early-stage VC portfolios and fund managers.

They have been through a personal founder and startup journey, giving them a unique lens on what it takes to succeed. They can pick up on qualitative markers that other investors miss. Moreover, they speak the same language and relate to the founding team on a personal level, building rapport and mutual respect. 

Mandalay was the brainchild of its four founding partners: Mark Gustowski, Philippe Ceulen, Timothy Hui, and myself, Al Fullerton. Coming from diverse educational and career backgrounds, we each bring specific skills and expertise when it comes to company growth, ensuring all aspects of the business are strategically managed by the partners.

As Managing Director, Gustowski boasts a long history of working at the C-suite executive level. He has partnered with and advised many fast-growth companies over the last 20 years. He also brings tech expertise, having previously worked with the Australian government to develop regional innovation programmes to support farm tech.

Ceulen is the Head of Strategy and leads our Innovation Platform, which encompasses programming, venture building, and community engagement globally, each of which is within Mandalay’s portfolio and across the entrepreneurial ecosystem. He also brings a great deal of experience in community and ecosystem building. 

Huiis the Head of Operations and focuses on growing startups, as well as leading fund operations and governance, and managing all areas of financial and legislative compliance.

And then, finally, there’s me. As managing partner, I have vast experience across agrifood technologies, renewable energy, and sustainability venture capital. I lead investor relations, global technology scouting, and portfolio distribution.

Also Read: The right way of interpreting the corporate venture capital road

Mandalay was founded by founders for founders, and our founder DNA is the ultimate in our risk mitigation and alpha generation tool, which we call “sleeves-up capital”.

Sleeves-up capital

Sleeves up capital mean rolling your sleeves up and helping drive the growth of your portfolio companies, providing so much more than just capital.

At Mandalay, we know what it takes to truly build a venture from the ground up, as we have personally gone through this journey as founders. What we can do now is impart our wisdom and learnings, not in a macro whiteboard quarterly catch-up type of way, but by really jumping into the trenches with the founders and helping accelerate the growth profile of the company, smoothing out that non-linear startup journey curve.

And by buying well and having a focused portfolio, the scalability of this model across the portfolio and the ability to truly add value to each individual investee company is well and truly there.

Venture Capital plays a critical role in the startup ecosystem. Without VC, the companies you and I take for granted each day – innovations that save lives or tech that feeds the masses – quite simply would not exist.

At Mandalay, we drive returns on investment through our sleeves-up capital approach, generating alpha while simultaneously mitigating early-stage risk for our investors. And we do this, all the while helping to ease the burden and smoothing out the daily challenges for investee companies and their founders.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: Canva Pro

The post The secret sauce of de-risking early-stage venture capital appeared first on e27.

“Consolidation and explosion”: SEA startup investors reveal 2023 trends they are keeping close watch of
Some 2022 trends will remain relevant, but there are different ways that SEA startup investors want to seize these opportunities

Casa Mia Coliving secures US$1.3M seed funding to expand its local and regional footprint
The funds raised will be used to accelerate expansion and enhance proprietary property management software

Hyperlounge raises US$8M in Series A to grow beyond being a business analytics platform
Hyperlounge aims to establishing itself as an essential partner in digital transformation for global businesses

Eratani closes US$3.8M in seed funding to grow platform-based ecosystem for farmers
Since its 2021 launch, Eratani said that it has managed to onboard more than 10,000 fostered farmers across the island of Java

Handprint raises additional funding from Singtel Innov8, launches Handprint for Impact Partners
Handprint for Impact empowers NGOs to manage and report the impact they create, providing assurance to the businesses that back them

DEA raises US$10M from LDA Capital to accelerate NFT gaming platform PlayMining
DEA is a global Web3 entertainment company launched in 2018. It manages IP monetisation for creators and operates the PlayMining platform

Following up their Series C funding round, Privy to execute Australia expansion plan
The expansion was made possible due to Privy’s partnership with the IA-CEPA ECP Katalis

Validus banks first tranche of Series C round
The company previously said that its series C funding will be used to launch neobanking products in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Payoneer secures approval to expand payment offerings in Singapore
MAS has recently handed out the major payment institution license to a number of companies, most recently to Singapore-based crypto firm MetaComp and buy now, pay later major Atome.

Hong Kong rolls out Asia’s first crypto ETFs
HKEX said that ETFs are one of the fastest-growing segments in its product suite

How the three faces theory explains identity issues and the rise of bots
Eliminating the unbearable bots on social platforms has become a painful but critical objective for all social platforms

How Folklory leverages technology to create close-knit cultures in remote teams
Through the power of storytelling, Folklory aims to help people preserve memories and establish a close-knit team culture

6 NFT mistakes to avoid for newbies
An NFT or non-fungible token is a unique digital identifier that is recorded in a blockchain and used to certify authenticity and ownership

Navigating the payment regulations in Singapore
A strong regulatory framework in a highly respectable financial industry, Singapore has positioned itself as the hub for payment and crypto companies

How the app sharing economy is keeping up with the current trends
Heavy apps that would take a lot of time to download from the internet could be quickly transferred, enabling growth in the app economy

The secret sauce of de-risking early-stage venture capital
The conventional venture capital model is fraught with risks, but in order to be successful, it is crucial that de-risking remains at the heart of investment decisions

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Dealing with uncertainty is a huge part of being a startup leader and can be incredibly difficult. It’s been for me. If you are part of a fast-growing company, you deal with daily uncertainty. It’s already a huge part of our lives, and your journey at a startup is no different.

Repeated exposure to high levels of uncertainty can throw entrepreneurs on an emotional rollercoaster, potentially impacting their mental and physical health. Research has shown that uncertainty is constant in entrepreneurship, and as leaders changing the industry, our capacity to tolerate and handle it will significantly contribute to company success. 

This year, company valuations dropped 80 to 90 per cent from their all-time high. Business leaders must manage risks and uncertainties, but risks can be managed with the right mindset and preparation. The silver lining is that, as startups, we get better at handling uncertainty and can come out on the other end stronger warriors.

Capital uncertainty

Uncertainty may create a “no-go” zone around the new market, which allows the startup to create for a while without competition. However, venture funding was down by 53 per cent in Q3, almost US$90 billion. Leaders must aggressively explore and negotiate with different investors, understanding that the conventional venture-backed model is not a one size fits all approach.

This year, leaders we spoke with responded to increased uncertainty by adapting the time and way they raise money and the focus on profitability. Startups frequently operate in a state of financial uncertainty, even if the economy is stable, because they have not solidified their business models. Pandemics are not common; businesses have always had to manage some degree of uncertainty, particularly startups. 

Startups in these examples have taken different approaches to navigate uncertainty, with some focused on maintaining cash flow, some expanding to new markets, and others completely pivoting. Being undeniably fundable (or “default alive”) has been the default in this bearish environment, reducing customer acquisition cost, increasing gross margins, balancing burn multiples, etc.

Product uncertainty

Not reaching product-market fit is perhaps the biggest risk for early-stage companies starting companies at a higher risk. The market size for your product is (mostly) out of your control.

Also Read: Cultivating an honest culture: Why leaders should be transparent

Still, one of the biggest risk-avoidance risks I see teams taking is starting companies with potential markets that are too small to make them economically viable. Instead, business leaders should look into aggressive growth industries, such as Web3, so it gives them a sandbox to keep building.

If you understand where market risks come from, you will be better equipped as a team to make early decisions about whether or not you want to launch your startup in a given market category.

Vietnam’s e-commerce market grew 16 per cent last year from 2020 to US$13 billion, putting them in the top three Southeast Asian countries with the highest online retail sales growth. Startups that will flourish over the coming years will have an unrelenting product focus, both in terms of who they serve and how they serve them.

Customer uncertainty

Many startups learn late that their products have a small to no market. During times of uncertainty, closing the gap between customers’ expectations and your products or services reality can mean the difference between success and failure.

Companies can raise over US$100 million but still be exposed to overnight shutdowns. A core tenet of startups is to confirm the market’s needs before offering a customer-centric product or service to avoid having a business idea with no sustainable path.

Startups may discover new markets or create valuable new products through innovation. Still, if those new markets are ripe for disruption or a new product is likely to be copied by other companies, the chances for success are much lower. 

Final thoughts

Entrepreneurs are at the greatest risk of being broken by the twists and turns of rapidly changing business environments. Because of that, it is only natural that one can become frustrated with the constant failures and complete setbacks that are inevitable parts of an early-stage startup’s journey. 

You should not let that translate into irrational behaviours, as investing time and energy intelligently during your initial startup phase is essential to your startup’s success.

Celebrate risk, celebrate uncertainty, and move forward.

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Singapore-based digital health-science company Aktivolabs has secured US$10 million in a Series A round of investment led by Mitsui & Co, Adaptive Capital Partners, and SEEDS Capital.

HH Investments and Govin Capital also participated.

The funds will be utilised to grow Aktivolabs’s data science capability, strengthen the team and portfolio of products, and broaden its footprint in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US.

The company will develop the existing algorithm and data-analytics programme to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of predicting, preventing and self-managing chronic disease using digital biomarkers.

“This investment will enable us to deliver an integrated platform to exacting standards, strengthen our customer-servicing capability, and help populations better understand and manage their risk of chronic diseases through individualising digital health journeys,” said Gourab Mukherjee, Co-Founder and CEO of Aktivolabs.

Also Read: How Malaysia is championing regenerative medicine technology

Aktivolabs was co-founded in 2017 by the late Professor David Lai Gourab Mukherjee and Dr Meng-Han Kuok. It provides accessible, affordable, evidence-based, and individualised digital health solutions that help populations understand and manage their risk of chronic diseases.

The platform harnesses real-time digital health data elements in a low-touch, cost-effective manner with measurable actuarial and actionable value to life and health insurers.

It functions as a real-time action decision engine to drive hyper-personalised financial and insurance product development, generates pay-as-you-live insurance products and provides deeper customer experience tailored to client engagement through its proprietary experiential technology.

The current product portfolio includes the Aktivo Score, Aktivo Mind, Glucolife and Goodbiome.

Aktivolabs currently operates in Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Australia, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Macau and the UAE and is growing worldwide.

“It’s commonly known that the early onset of chronic diseases compromises our financial and mental well-being, and the fast-rising cost of healthcare poses major challenges for populations, governments, insurers and employers worldwide. At the intersection of healthcare, science and data, Aktivolabs’s evidence-based solution deploys its full suite of accessible, affordable, scalable data-scientific solutions through digital biomarkers and individualised health journeys,” says Takeshi Akutsu, CTO (Wellness Business Unit) at Mitsui.

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You know that blockchain is truly becoming mainstream when Starbucks has embraced Web3 by launching Starbucks Odyssey, which it claims will revolutionise the coffee experience.

“As one of the first companies to integrate Web3 technology and NFTs with an industry-leading loyalty programme at scale and to ground the experience in coffee, connection, and community, Starbucks is entering the Web3 space differently than any other brand. Starbucks Odyssey is an experience surrounded by a digital community where members can come together, interact, and share their love of coffee.

“Starbucks is using meaningful elements of Web3 technology to reward members in innovative ways, including ownable digital collectable Stamps (NFTs) that serve as an access pass to the alluring world of coffee and unique experiences with Starbucks,” Starbucks said on its site.

Starbucks, of course, is not the only major brand to jump on the Web3 bandwagon. Notable companies that have embraced NFTs (which are also increasingly being referred to by brands and mainstream media as digital collectibles) in recent months include Reddit, Meta via its Facebook and Instagram services, and Nike.

This wave of mainstream adoption has resulted in many users being onboarded to the blockchain space for the first time. Professionals and experts from different industries now want to transition to Web3.

Also Read: How Dubai is competing with Singapore in the Web3 race

And, of course, disruption and friction come with mainstream adoption and transition.

One of the debates you might stumble upon if you spend some time on crypto and NFT twitter is quite interesting: Web2 vs Web3 people.

When the internet was ‘just a fad’

As someone old enough to have lived through the days when Bill Gates and other supposed experts thought the internet was just a fad. As one of the pioneering online journalists who spun off the biggest Philippine print newspaper into the most visited Philippine news site, this kind of generational clash is all too familiar. And I’m not even talking about the actual age of the people involved, but rather the mindset. 

The fact is that many people in the status quo will try to resist Web3 or, failing that, attempt to tailor it to their needs. Instead of something revolutionary, they will co-opt it as just incremental change, with no need to replace business models and marketing strategies.

Think Microsoft claiming to “embrace and extend” Java once upon a time, or traditional publications only seeing blogging platforms as just a content management system, and bloggers as inferior to journalists.

The funny thing is that yesterday’s revolutionaries and pioneers might now be the ones trying to resist Web3 and decentralisation. 

Apparently, you either die a digital evangelist, or you live long enough to see yourself become the new dinosaur. 

Web3 is the revolution

As someone who has been a storyteller and digital champion throughout my career, from Web1 to Web2 and now Web3, I have reinvented myself several times. And I’m firmly in the camp of the Web3 revolutionaries. 

All of us are migrating from Web2 to Web3, but it is important to acknowledge the contributions of those who embraced blockchain earlier and made the road easier for those who followed. 

This is why one of the sessions I truly appreciated at the Philippine Web3 Festival was Yield Guild Games Global COO Colin Goltra’s “A Brief History of #CryptoPH“. It was an important reminder of how the pioneers of the crypto community in the Philippines collaborated in those early days and helped spread the word in a world where almost no one had heard of blockchain technology.

It’s a reminder that the spirit of Web3 is decentralisation and collaboration. That in Web3, a community is a grassroots movement built from the ground up rather than top-down by fiat by personalities and experts.

Also Read: In photos: SCB 10X’s 10,000 sqft web3 collaborative space DISTRICTX in Bangkok

Oh, and a reminder that builders don’t wear suits.

Fixing what’s broken

After all, as Ethereum Co-Founder Gavin Wood, who coined the term Web3, puts it: 

“Technology often mirrors its past. It acts in line with the previous paradigm, only faster, harder, better, or stronger than before. As the global economy went online, we replicated the same social structures that we had before. We have the web to thank for the modern divides between rich and poor, powerful and impotent, and enlightened and under-informed.

“The internet today is broken by design. We see wealth, power and influence placed in the hands of the greedy, the megalomaniacs, or the plain malicious. Markets, institutions, and trust relationships have been transposed to this new platform, with the density, power, and incumbents changed but with the same old dynamics.”

Don’t get me wrong. I acknowledge that we can learn from the experience and expertise of people who have succeeded in the Web1 and Web2 eras. But they should embrace Web3 with humility, respect for Web3 culture, and a willingness to listen to and learn from the community.

Because in Web3, no one cares what you did before, your title, or where you worked. What matters is what you’re doing now in Web3 and what you’re contributing to the community.

Dreamers and doers

At the end of the day, the conflict between so-called “Web2 people” and “Web3 people” will be based on two extreme views, both of which are wrong.

On the one hand, it’s the mistaken belief of Web2 people that they can waltz in and succeed in Web3. And on the other hand, it’s the misconception of Web3 people that they have nothing to learn from Web2 people.

I don’t think this conflict can be avoided any more than it was back when the internet was new. But I believe that more people will adopt a Web3 mindset and prepare for a decentralised future.

You might say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

We are dreamers and doers. Bull or bear, we are builders.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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