The Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) x Techstars Startup City Acceleration Program will showcase a diverse selection of startups that focus on educational technology, new style of social media, web 3 and block chain development, environmental and agricultural carbon-dioxide solutions, and more with a Pitch Day on 12 January 2023.

Since 2021, JETRO and Techstars have partnered to launch four cohorts of the Founders Catalyst Program as part of JETRO’s Startup City Acceleration Program. Through this project, cohort startups undergo a series of masterclasses and cohort-building sessions that help participating founders build and grow their businesses. Moreover, they will be able to access the necessary tools that will help them navigate the challenges within their own startups.

Also read: Is “teleporting” between workspaces truly possible?

Each startup will be able to connect with Techstars’ global network of entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate partners. This platform offers chances for startups to seek professional business advice and may even lead to potential partnerships and connections between founders and mentors.

Past Techstars Founder Catalyst programs have contributed to hundreds of business and investor connections and seeded countless relationships between participants and mentors. The insights, and strategies, and other perks that Techstars created are helping innovative startups grow, become stronger, and catch the attention of global networks.

Here’s a peek at the 20 startups of the JETRO x Techstars Startup City Acceleration Pitch Day

1. AndLaw Inc.
Solving blockchain interoperability. Their product Futaba is an infrastructure service that specialises in cross-chain data acquisition where developers can easily deploy nodes and send chain data securely.

2. Artics
Building an app called “artics”, a social media platform that allows you to find and collect music, movies, art paintings, novels, comics, and any book you love. Users can also upload their own artworks.

3. Audiostock Inc.
Audiostock is a service that allows users to buy and sell licenses to use their music for projects. The company is revolutionising music distribution to create a world where the sound you create reaches the people you want to share with, and everyone can use the music with peace of mind.

4. Soundol (Bivio)
Soundol helps audio content creators (musicians and podcasters) earn money. Soundol is a platform similar to Spotify but removes the middleman, enabling musicians and podcasters to earn directly from their fans via monthly subscription plans.

5. Blue Farm Inc.
Blue Farm Co. is a company that is engaged in the double cropping of organic green tea and carbon credits by DXing tea plantations in mountainous areas. Through the provision of their services, they aim to contribute to the realisation of a sustainable society by helping companies become ESG and carbon neutral, as well as solving the problems of aging farmers and abandoned farmland.

6. CULTA Inc.
CULTA Inc. will become the global market leader in Speed Breeding Technologies for horticultural crops. They are presently the only company in Japan using AI/ Machine Learning, Genomics, and Phenomics, all for the betterment of Agriculture. They will produce high-quality cultivars and develop the Seed to Table Model to improve productivity and profitability for farmers.

7. Equmenopolis Inc.
Equmenopolis Inc. creates LANGX, a language learning experience platform to help people learn and speak English using highly interactive conversational AI technology.

Also read: All that you need to know about the term sheet for approaching investors

8. FRESS
FRESS started off as a mental health platform that truly believes in people’s health inside out. The company aims to change the Japanese snack industry through its variety of products, particularly plant-based and additive-free snacks such as granola bars. Their products also include hemp, to benefit mental and physical health from them.

9. Global Stage Inc.
At InterEd, they focus on empowering students to take action on global issues through STEAM, global competence, and entrepreneurship. Their program challenges students to understand complex problems and work collaboratively to address them through innovative technologies while learning critical content and skills.

10. Goldfinch LLC
Goldfinch’s product, LingoTV, is Language learning version of Netflix that helps people learn languages from watching anime and videos.

11. KAUCHE, Inc.
Cowche is a share-buying app that allows you to enjoy shopping at a great price by group-buying with “share-buying companions” such as friends, family, or someone on SNS. KAUCHE Inc. creates an exciting shopping experience for both customers who shop and partners who want to sell products.

12. KJ COMMONS
KJ COMMONS is an ikigai Tech company that creates services and contributes to the evolution of the system (maximisation of ikigai). They work at the crossroads of business, art, and technology.

13. MatchHat
MatchHat is a web app that helps creators find collaborators for their passion projects from any city in the world. They have built MatchHat for global creators, artists, and filmmakers. Collaboration for creative projects can take place remotely where, for example, a filmmaker in London is collaborating with a researcher in Tokyo on an AI robot companionship film project.

14. Omotete, Inc.
Omotete is developing unfre., a service that makes menstrual pads retrievable in bathroom stalls everywhere, and aims to be THE provider of lifestyle solutions to consumers. unfre. is a BtoBtoC service, with their core customers being the end-users, facility owners, and advertisers/marketers.

15. PaylessGate Co., Ltd.
PaylessGate provides a set of authentication technologies using Bluetooth for the real world. With their App installed, users can register any type of service for authentication including tickets, IDs, smart keys, payments, etc.

16. Pit-Step, Inc.
Blockchain Novel is an NFT marketplace for collaborative fiction writing. Users create stories and Illustration covers and sell/buy them as NFTs.

17. PITTAN, Inc.
PITTAN lets people to analyse health conditions through onsite, easy, sweat amino-acid analysis methodology, and people can take personalised healthcare services. Their machine is so small, that it could be used also in space in the future.

Also read: The Big Leap roadshow kickstarts in Jakarta with a panel on the Gen Z market

18. Progummy Inc.
Progummy is an educational programming application for children that can be operated intuitively. It is the first visual programming application to have a collaborative editing function. This makes it possible to conduct group work in which multiple people work on a single program at the same time, which was previously difficult. Furthermore, teachers can easily monitor the progress of their students, which has been a challenge in online instruction. Currently, it is being used by several domestic programming schools for a fee.

19. Specialist Doctors Inc.
Specialist Doctors Inc., designs and develops web3 games to help middle and high school students achieve their first dream, such as a system that encourages gratitude and altruistic behavior and raises self-esteem, an AR function that allows people to talk to their minds and find their true selves when they are disturbed by anxiety, and a system to motivate people to see their future selves through AR, among others.

20. ZUU IFA. Co. Ltd.
Japan has big individual assets of about US 2 Trillion but does not have enough financial products to invest. ZUU IFA tries to connect the opportunities to invest US VC, PE and other unique asset class.

The team behind the JETRO x Techstars Startup City Acceleration Program – Global Scale

The Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO’s “Startup City Acceleration Program” is an online program in partnership with the Cabinet Office of Japan. In this program, JETRO collaborates with six major accelerators to cultivate overall growth across the Japanese startup ecosystem, serving as an entry for some of the best Japanese startups to take on the global market. Through the program, startups will receive first-hand mentorship, matching opportunities with foreign investors, and new business partnerships, among many other exciting opportunities.

The Techstars worldwide network helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founded in 2006, Techstars began with three simple ideas—entrepreneurs create a better future for everyone, collaboration drives innovation, and great ideas can come from anywhere. Now, they are on a mission to enable every person on the planet to contribute to, and benefit from, the success of entrepreneurs. In addition to operating accelerator programs and venture capital funds, they do this by connecting startups, investors, corporations, and cities to help build thriving startup communities. Techstars has invested in more than 3,100 companies with a combined market cap of more than $150B.

To join the pitch day, RSVP here.

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In September, global funds network Calastone opened its office in Singapore. According to Ross Fox, Managing Director and Head of APAC, in an email interview with e27, this office will serve as a new regional headquarter for Asia Pacific –it will also reaffirm the company’s commitment to Singapore and the region.

“With 70 per cent of fund flows in Singapore already managed by Calastone’s network, we are well-positioned to enhance the city-state’s unrivalled status as a pan-Asian asset management hub,” he said.

Judging from the numbers alone, Calastone is not a new player in the field. It has worked with over 3,500 fund managers, asset servicers, and fund distributors spanning 54 countries and territories and processes over GBP250 billion (US$299 billion) monthly investment value.

In helping the industry, the company’s Distributed Market Infrastructure (DMI) combines the connectivity of its global network with technologies, such as distributed ledger technology (DLT) and cloud.

If we look at the finance industry’s future and the role of new technologies such as tokens, how exactly does tokenisation help fund managers? Most importantly, what is the prospect of Asia Pacific when it comes to this matter? How can Web3 companies embrace this new opportunity?

Barriers to token adoption

Before understanding how tokenisation can help the works of fund managers, first, we need to understand the common pain points faced by players in the fund management ecosystem. Fox lists at least four points with a lack of resources and capabilities to get better actionable insights around their clients and difficulty in freeing themselves from legacy technology as the top struggles.

Also Read: ‘Tis the season to be giving! 4 ways Web3 is transforming the fundraising sector

Apart from that, there is also the pressure to be more transparent and fierce competition from big tech and challenger banks. This is where Calastone steps in with their DMI to help fund managers.

“Our DMI is a next-gen infrastructure powered by the very latest technologies, including DLT and cloud. It can through the power of these technologies, enable participants to distribute and trade tokenised assets,” Fox explains.

“We are directly tokenising collectives of assets for distribution to the mass market. End-investors invest in digital tokens representing customised exposure to baskets of underlying assets managed by asset managers. Calastone’s tokenisation model meets both the demands of investors and asset managers for a product that is more personalised, cost-effective, flexible and aligned with the service levels modern customers receive from other natively digital services such as e-commerce and streaming media solutions.”

What is the most common barrier of entry for fund managers to adopt tokens? How can we eliminate this barrier? According to Fox, adoption is a key challenge for tokenised investments.

“Having the existing ecosystem is therefore key. At Calastone, for example, we’re already connected to the world’s leading financial organisations, so they can adopt new investment models such as tokenisation at a pace that suits them. Where other companies are building new products in isolation, we can use all our existing connectivity and infrastructure to enable asset managers to distribute new, token-based collective investment products globally from day one,” Fox elaborates.

“Regulatory considerations will be also key. Our model for tokenized collective investments is being developed with these considerations in mind, and we are bullish on the prospects of regulators around the world being open to it.”

Also Read: The Philippines can be ‘Korea of Web3’, says Axie Infinity Co-Founder

Why Asia Pacific is the future

When it comes to its readiness to embrace tokenisation, how does the Asia Pacific market fare?

According to Fox, the potential application of tokenisation in asset management has come a long way in the region. Aside from funds, the enterprise adoption of DLT has continued to progress. He gave examples of companies such as Unilever, and SAP that are teaming up to explore adoption of tokenisation in supply chains or Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)’s 40 blockchain applications.

This provides exciting progress, especially since the regulator aspect is also catching up in the Asia Pacific.

Fox also shares how fund managers in the region differs from the rest.

“Modern investors want more personalised, low-cost investing, and desire access to bigger pools of assets, with a user experience that could parallel the lifestyle apps that we are familiar with. An optimised, modern user experience looks like this – instant purchases, ability to invest in real-time, access to fair prices and a broad range of investment assets tailored to their objectives and circumstances,” he says.

Calastone is currently working with several major global asset managers in building its tokenisation model, and it is currently being presented to regulators.

“In 2023, we expect the first stages of this new model becoming a reality as our work with asset managers crystalises. As the model evolves further and regulatory frameworks are established, the opportunities will grow exponentially, as accessibility increases,” Fox closes.

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Image Credit: Calastone

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Global investment and education company Seedstars has launched Seedstars Capital, an investment platform for emerging VC fund managers, with the support of Swiss-based investment holding company xMultiplied.  

The platform provides emerging and diverse managers with local expertise and unique strategies with the necessary resources to launch new funds and develop their investment firms. 

Additionally, it provides investors with a diversified allocation solution to the asset class within emerging markets.

With the platform, Seedstars expects to drive over US$500 million of new funding into emerging and diverse managers, who will create more than 10,000 new jobs and generate over US$20 billion of additional GDP across emerging markets in the next ten years. 

Despite the exponential growth of the VC industry across emerging markets in recent years, most early-stage VC funds raised are small in size (i.e. below US$50 million assets under management). These funds were raised by an increasing number of new and diverse teams with limited track records and resources, reducing the amount of capital LPs can deploy to these skilful and highly talented managers.

Also Read: 5 lessons from 5 years in venture capital

Seedstars seeks to bridge those market inefficiencies by working alongside new and diverse managers in developing their strategies, providing the resources of its large community of limited partners, mentors, experts, physical locations and the tech and administrative infrastructure. 

Benjamin Langer, Partner of Seedstars Capital, said: “We believe the VC industry needs to be more open and inclusive, and we find highly talented managers across emerging markets. Unfortunately, most lack the scale and resources to attract institutional LPs and depend on local funding to deploy their strategies and create the impact they long for. For LPs, the growing number of new managers makes it difficult to identify the best-performing and most impactful strategies. By pooling their assets and bringing them under our community, we can accelerate the growth of rising managers while offering limited partners the visibility and investment vehicles they need to increase their allocation to the asset class.”

The first fund launched by Seedstars is Seedstars International Ventures, an industry-agnostic pre-seed and seed-stage emerging and frontier market fund. Recently, the fund announced its first close, garnering support and commitments from notable LPs such as IFC, Visa Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Symbiotics. 

The platform also works with Seedstars Africa Ventures, a regional-focused fund to back companies in the African continent. The fund has partnered with French private equity and asset manager LBO France to address the investment gap existing in the region.

Moreover, Seedstars is currently working towards launching funds focused on edutech, supply chain, climate tech and other impact sectors with outstanding rising managers in emerging markets to be announced soon.

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The term sheet, sometimes referred to as the letter of intent or memorandum of understanding, is a preliminary document containing a summary of key terms agreed between parties to be used as a basis for preparing definitive agreements.

In the context of equity financing, the unassuming yet impactful term sheet can either make or break negotiations in a funding round.

In this article, we shed some light on the term sheet for Singapore startups looking to secure equity financing from external investors.

The big picture

Here is how the term sheet fits into the big picture and why it matters.

While the term sheet is usually drawn up at the start of talks with investors and is intended to be only preliminary to kickstart the funding process, it records the parties’ starting positions on key terms, which sets the tone for negotiations on the definitive agreements.

This is the case even if the term sheet is not legally binding as it is meant to signify the parties’ good faith in seeing the transaction through, much like a gentlemen’s agreement. In the course of the funding process, the term sheet will often be cited as a reference point, and a sharp deviation from its terms may risk rocking the boat.

Also Read: While traditional funding penalises a biz at its worst time, Jenfi gives them more leeway

As such, the term sheet should not be taken lightly, especially if it is legally binding, as it may end up being the only contract that parties can rely on if they fail to reach a consensus on the definitive agreements.

The use of the term sheet does not usually come into the picture until the company is ready to raise significant funds from external investors, where each funding round is typically demarked as series A, B, C and so forth.

This is because venture capitalists and other sophisticated investors coming in at such rounds with higher stakes often demand a greater level of assurance upfront through the term sheet compared to earlier investors at pre-series funding rounds.

It is common for the lead investor in a series funding round to dictate the form of the term sheet based on the lead investor’s preferred template or the previous term sheet used by the company in its last funding round (which goes to show the lasting effect of a term sheet in setting precedent for future funding rounds).

The life of the term sheet is intended to be a short one, surviving until such time the definitive agreements are executed to supersede and replace the term sheet. The main definitive agreements based on the term sheet for a series funding round will usually be the share subscription agreement and the shareholders’ agreement, from which other transaction documents may follow.

Binding or non-binding?

The term sheet can be legally binding or non-binding on the parties, the company and the incoming investors. While a legally binding term sheet may seem attractive to the company to secure the investors’ financial commitment as early as possible, the company should be wary of agreeing too soon to terms that it has yet to discuss with its key shareholders, especially if such terms adversely affect their rights.

The company ultimately needs to perform a balancing act to negotiate the terms with the investors whilst ensuring that such shareholders will be on board with such terms. If a longer runway is required for this, a non-binding term sheet may be more appropriate to give the company the flexibility it needs to adjust the terms down the line.

It should be noted that a non-binding term sheet can still contain certain binding terms, such as confidentiality provisions to keep the details of the proposed investment confidential (including any information disclosed for the purposes of the investors’ due diligence on the company) and exclusivity provisions often requested by investors to restrict the company from concurrently entertaining third-party offers for a limited period of time.

The key terms

The key terms in the term sheet typically revolve around three areas:

Also Read: With a looming recession, is office space really a wise investment?

• the deal economics (e.g. the investment amount, the class and number of shares to be issued and the ownership percentage they represent, and the valuation of the company used to calculate the share price);
• the rights attached to the class of shares to be issued (e.g. any dividend preference, liquidation preference, conversion right, redemption right, or anti-dilution protection); and
• specific investor rights and requirements (e.g. any board seat, inclusion in the quorum for meetings, reserved matters, information rights, pre-emption rights, right of first refusal, right of the first offer, tag-along right, drag-along right, founder liability, or founder restrictions).

Below are general tips on how start-ups and their founders can navigate some of the more contentious key terms. The information in this article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice which should be sought on a case-by-case basis.

Valuation

Ensure parties are negotiating with the same valuation metrics in mind (whether pre-money, post-money, or on a fully diluted basis) and look out for provisions which allow investors to adjust the share price in their favour or otherwise be compensated for any changes to the pre-agreed valuation of the company.

Dividend preference

Investors may ask for an annual dividend rate, a percentage of the share price, on a cumulative / non-cumulative basis and a compounding / non-compounding basis in priority to any earlier class of shares.

Also Read: Term sheet negotiation: 3 ways you can win investors

Consider negotiating for a non-cumulative basis (whereby dividends are declared and paid for any profitable year and do not accrue for non-profitable years) and a non-compounding basis (whereby the dividend rate will only apply to the share price and not together with any accrued dividends) in favour of the company.

Liquidation preference

The liquidation preference determines how the investors will cash out of the company upon the occurrence of a liquidity event, which the investors may try to define as broadly as possible to include not only the winding up of the company but also a trade sale or even a change in control of the company.

The liquidation preference is usually set to a multiplier (e.g. 1x or 2x) of each investor’s initial investment amount in priority to any earlier class of shares and can be participating (giving the investor upside benefits via a double dip to receive the multiplier amount and participate in remaining proceeds of the liquidity event in proportion to its ownership percentage on an as-converted basis) or non-participating (giving the investor downside protection via a single dip to receive either the multiplier amount or convert its preference shares to ordinary shares to receive its pro-rata share in the total proceeds of the liquidity event).

As the liquidation preference can set a precedent for future series funding rounds and eventually affect the exit strategy of the founders, who are usually at the bottom of the liquidation waterfall, consider keeping the liquidation preference minimal at a 1x multiplier on a non-participating basis.

Anti-dilution protection

Where the company issues preference shares to investors with a right to convert such preference shares to ordinary shares (whether at the investors’ option or upon the occurrence of certain events such as an initial public offering of the company), the investors may ask for anti-dilution protection so as to be compensated in a down-round where the company subsequently issues new shares at a price lower than the conversion price offered to the investors.

This is achieved by adjusting such conversion price downward based on any of the following formulae (ranked from least to most company-friendly):

• full ratchet (where such conversion price is adjusted to the lower price in the down-round);
• narrow-based weighted average (where such conversion price is adjusted by considering only outstanding ordinary shares in issue and/or issuable upon conversion of the investors’ preference shares); or
• broad-based weighted average (where such conversion price is adjusted by considering all outstanding ordinary shares calculated on a fully diluted basis).

The broad-based weighted average formula is most commonly used by companies as it results in fewer ordinary shares being issued to the investors upon conversion of their preference shares and consequently less dilution of ownership percentage of the founders and other shareholders with no anti-dilution protection.

Consider introducing exceptions to the anti-dilution protection, such as share issuances pursuant to the company’s employee share option scheme or the exercise of any options, warrants or convertible securities.

Reserved matters

Investors receiving only a minority stake in the company will often request reserved matters to allow them to veto and hence control certain matters relating to the company (whether at the board or shareholder level) despite having no general voting power over such matters as a minority shareholder.

Ensure the reserved matters are not likely to impede the founders’ ability to operate the company’s business. In particular, consider setting less rigid reserved matter consent thresholds by tying them to shareholding percentages rather than particular investors and qualifying any reserved matters to exclude low-risk recurring activities of the company.

If the founders lose board or shareholding control over time (which is inevitable the more investors the company onboards), reserved matters can similarly be used by the founders to retain some control over the company by adjusting the reserved matter consent thresholds in their favour.

Drag-along right

A drag-along right benefit specifies majority shareholders looking to sell their shares to a third-party buyer by compelling the remaining shareholders to participate in such a sale on the same terms, thus increasing the marketability of the company’s business for a trade sale.

Consider aligning the triggering conditions for the drag-along right with the founders’ exit strategy to allow the founders to cash out on such conditions, e.g. by prescribing a minimum sale price or determining whether the drag-along sale should cover all and not only some shares or extending to an asset sale.

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At e27, we have kickstarted a new articles series called work-life balance to learn more about tech enablers and executives and their lives beyond working hours.

As the Marketing and Content Manager, Sheryl Chen leads marketing, content strategy, partnerships, and community programmes at at Qualgro. Previously, she was a Programme Manager at Google Cloud for Startups, covering events, programmes and partnerships across JAPAC.

Chen holds a Bachelor’s in Sociology and a Minor in Entrepreneurship from Nanyang Technological University.

She is a regular contributor of articles for e27 (you can read her thought leadership articles here). 

In this candid interview, Chen talks about her personal and professional life.

How would you explain what you do to a 5-year-old?

This is tough! I still struggle to tell my relatives what I do during Lunar New Year gatherings, but I recently had a crash course on Baby Shark, so let me try.

Baby Shark wants to create a company that solves some of the world’s most significant problems, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. His solution knows no bounds. Baby Shark needs seashells to start his company to expand from his Sea Hometown to the Global Oceans.

Baby Shark seeks help from a V.Sea, a school of fish, which gives him seashells, dishes out advice, and helps him meet other sea creatures to help him in his quest.

The V.Sea, a school of fish, has many different roles, all of which are important. Some of them give out seashells, some advise the other sea creatures on where to look for the best food, and some make sure that the school of fishes are in the best shape to perform their roles.

My role at the V.Sea is to help Baby Shark look good when he is ready to put his best fin forward, so the world will know of the fantastic work that he has done! Baby Shark also has friends who have big dreams to change the world, and I hope to help them.

PS: Pinkfong, please hit me up if you want to do a series on popular but unconventional careers (e.g., data scientists, project managers) so we can tell the wee ones that there is more to life than being a doctor or lawyer.

What has been the biggest highlight/challenge of your career so far?

My biggest challenge was to pick myself up after being displaced thrice.

My heart is in pain with the current spate of layoffs. I am not a stranger to them. I’ve experienced my restructuring and was made redundant three consecutive times. This is something that I wish nobody had ever experienced, and each time I see news of mass layoffs, my heart breaks for the affected individuals.

I hold no grudge against the organisations I worked for and still keep them in high regard. They were all business decisions, and I tried my best in each role.

I spent a lot of time grieving each role and the future I thought I had, and each time felt like a kick in the gut. I didn’t know who I was outside of work and struggled to find meaning and value in life. I had days where I was unable to pull myself out of bed. I regret not reaching out to industry friends to ask for help or introductions earlier.

Also Read: Blockchain promises to be as foundational and indispensable as the internet: Amit Ghosh of R3

I started going to therapy, and we worked on building a sense of self outside of work and reframing my self-talk to be kinder to myself. Most importantly, how I shouldn’t let these setbacks define my career.

It took me a few years to be ready to share what happened to me, and only when I started sharing my vulnerabilities did I learn that it was more common than I thought and LinkedIn feeds (primarily) only show the glitzy side of peoples’ lives.

To anyone who is struggling and needs a listening ear, I’m here if you want to talk. Take all the time you need to grieve and heal. When you’re ready, pick yourself up, knowing that you have people around to support you. Know that what happened to you didn’t come from lack but was a factor of market conditions and business decisions.

How do you envision the next five years of your career?

I still see myself connecting people to people, people to ideas, and people to resources. It’s what sparks joy in me.

What are some of your favourite work tools?

Notion, EverNote, Trello, and Notability for iPad for time boxing (or old-school pen and paper work too).

What’s something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I unintentionally went viral twice.

The first time was because I stood up to a racist commuter on the bus. The second time was on TikTok when I filmed two cats at the right place at the right time.

Do you prefer WFH, WFO, or hybrid?

Hybrid. I still appreciate WFO because of the productivity, sharing, and cross-pollination of ideas. However, WFH is still better for me when I need to be creative and ideate.

What would you tell her if you could reach out to your younger self?

Your identity shouldn’t just be limited to what you do at work.

A friend once sent me this HBR article: What Happens When Your Career Becomes Your Whole Identity.

The article asks the reader five questions:

• How much do you think about your job outside of the office? Is your mind frequently consumed with work-related thoughts? Is it challenging to participate in conversations with others that are not about your work?
• How do you describe yourself? How much is this description tied to your job, title, or company? Are there any other ways you would describe yourself? How quickly do you tell people you’ve just met about your job?
• Where do you spend most of your time? Has anyone ever complained that you are in the office too much?
• Do you have hobbies outside work that do not directly involve your work-related skills and abilities? Are you able to consistently spend your time exercising other parts of your brain?
• How would you feel if you could no longer continue in your profession? How distressing would this be to you?

If we take a step back, we should also see that having a job is one of the many roles you play in your life. You can be a manager at work, but you are a daughter, wife, girlfriend, or mother.

I want to challenge you not to limit your identity to your roles. Sure, these are essential aspects, but what’s more important is the traits that make you who you are.

Also Read: Try to look at the world through a beginner’s eyes: Joey Alarilla of Playfix.io

So instead of How is Sheryl like? She’s a super hard worker, and she tries her best in everything she does. She’s executed xx conferences, worked with xx speakers, and put together xx minutes of stage content which achieved xx NPS score and xx audience turnout.

I would reframe it to Sheryl is exceptionally empathic, and I know she will always have my back. She’s also super compassionate, and she even gave herself a crash course on caring for neonatal kittens so that she could foster a two-day-old kitten. She’s also a great cook, and her memes are impeccable.

Can you describe yourself in three words?

Empathic, compassionate, resilient.

What are you most likely to be doing if not working?

Find me where the animals are!

After my third layoff, I started volunteering at a local no-kill shelter. They are home to over 100 dogs, 300 cats, and a couple of terrapins.

I upkeep my animal TikTok account, taking advantage of the following I gained from my one-hit wonder to educate the public to adopt and not shop. But content creators know how tiring churning out content is hence the word ‘try.’

What are you currently reading/listening to/ watching?

Unfortunately, I have a very short attention span for non-fiction books, so I toggle between a few books.

During a recent event we hosted, my portfolio company founders recommended a few books they keep returning to. I immediately carted the books out. 

They are: 

• High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
• The Great CEO Within by Matt Mochary

I’m reading ‘You’re About to Make a Terrible Mistake’ by Olivier Sibony, a Senior Advisor at Qualgro. He talks about why organisations make terrible mistakes due to cognitive biases and how to create processes and environments to make better decisions.

I read fiction books like candy, and my all-time favourite author is Jeanette Winterson because she makes me feel all my emotions.

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Join the e27 contributor community of thought leaders and share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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Singapore-headquartered insurtech startup Igloo announced an additional US$27 million to close its Series B round at US$46 million.

The InsuResilience Investment Fund II, initiated by German development bank KfW and managed by impact investor BlueOrchard Finance led the capital extension, along with WAM, Finnfund, La Maison, and Series B lead investor Cathay Innovation.

The Series B raise was started with US$19 million in funding in March this year.

The additional funds will provide Igloo with a comfortable multi-year runway. With 50 per cent of Igloo’s team committed to R&D, the company plans to double down on attracting the best engineering, product, design and data talent across all geographies.

Igloo is also in the process of identifying and closing on various M&A opportunities.

Also Read: ‘Microinsurance will play a pivotal role in accelerating financial inclusion in SEA’: Raunak Mehta of Igloo

Incorporated in 2016 by Wei Zhu (ex-CTO of Grab), Igloo leverages big data, real-time risk assessment, and end-to-end automated claims management to create B2B2C insurance solutions for platforms and insurance companies.

It primarily targets the gig economy segment by providing “comprehensive and competitively-priced” insurance for delivery riders, through its Foodpanda partnerships in Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines, as well as Lozi and Ahamove in Vietnam.

Recently, Igloo launched a Weather Index Insurance product in Vietnam – one of the top five rice-exporting countries. The product utilises blockchain-based smart contracts to automate claims payouts calculated using pre-assigned values for losses due to weather events or natural calamities.

In 2020, Igloo raised an undisclosed Series A-plus funding round, led by InVent. It also counts ACA and Openspace Ventures among its investors.

“Women are a major contributor to the economic activity in SE Asia and Igloo’s technology-led impactful model plays a critical role in securing their financial resilience by making insurance accessible to the most vulnerable and underserved segments,” said Rajat Arora, Head of Asia at WWB Asset Management.

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Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings has written off its entire investment in cryptocurrency exchange FTX irrespective of the outcome of the US-based company’s bankruptcy protection filing.

Temasek invested US$275 million in FTX International and FTX US across two funding rounds from October 2021 to January 2022. This comprises US$210 million for 1 per cent in FTX International and US$65 million for 1.5 per cent in FTX US. 

In an updated statement issued on November 26, the VC firm said the write-down would not impact its overall performance as it is just 0.09 per cent of its net portfolio value of SG$403 (US$293) billion as of March 31 2022.

“Similar to all investments, we conducted an extensive due diligence process on FTX, which took approximately 8 months from February to October 2021. During this time, we reviewed FTX’s audited financial statement, which showed it to be profitable,” it said. 

Also Read: Our main competition in SG is the idle cash lying in banks: Kristal.AI CEO Asheesh Chanda

The due diligence efforts focused on the associated regulatory risk with crypto financial market service providers, particularly licensing and regulatory compliance — i.e. financial regulations, licensing, anti-money laundering/know your customer, sanctions, and cybersecurity.

“Reports have since surfaced that customer assets were mishandled and misused in FTX. If these statements are true, then this amounts to serious misconduct or fraud at FTX. All of this is currently being investigated by the regulators,” Temsek said.

Temasek also clarified that its investment in FTX was not an investment in cryptocurrencies and currently has no direct exposure to cryptocurrencies.

“The thesis for our investment in FTX was to invest in a leading digital asset exchange providing us with protocol agnostic and market neutral exposure to crypto markets with a fee income model and no trading or balance sheet risk,” it said.

Temasek’s announcement comes a few days after Sequoia Capital decided to write down the full value of its US$214 million bet on FTX. SoftBank, another high-profile FTX backer, said it anticipates an investment loss of around US$100 million. FTX’s other investors include BlackRock, Tiger Global, Insight Partners and Paradigm.

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Work-life has drastically changed since the pandemic began, and while the hybrid workforce has become the ‘new normal’, there is increasing conversation globally on how organisations can potentially adopt a four-day work week.

In fact, some countries such as Australia and the UK have already implemented trials of this new working style. Although Australia had only started running the trials recently, a spokesperson has already mentioned that the study looks “very encouraging”, and additionally, the UK trials saw no loss in productivity.

However, it was noted by the chief executive at 4 Day Week Global, a non-profit organisation in New Zealand, that there were some “understandable hurdles” for businesses whose cultures “date back well into the last century” during their trial.

Also Read: How to tackle cybersecurity threats during the holidays

Closer to home, a survey conducted by Indeed found that 88 per cent of Singaporean employees advocated for a four-day workweek with the same pay.

In spite of the findings, Singapore would need a nationwide shift in mindset from its dominant work culture; the country has been ranked the most overworked country in APAC by The Instant Group.

As interest in flexible working grows, there is still a large swathe of people within organisations who hold roles that cannot be “switched off”.  In particular, we are talking about cybersecurity professionals responsible for managing the explosion of endpoints as remote workforces expand and the frequency of cyberattacks increases.

Staying safe has no holiday

Between July and September alone, BlackBerry’s Threat researchers reported that they had prevented 1,129 cyber-attacks within its customer base in Singapore. These days, there are rarely any days off and uninterrupted holidays for cybersecurity professionals.

In fact, the REvil ransomware gang took advantage of the US’s largest holiday, the fourth of July, as a distraction while they commenced their attacks.

Additionally, the pandemic has put underlying pressure on cyber skills and resources. When organisations expanded their roster of connected services and devices to adapt to the challenges posed by remote working, more security vulnerabilities arose for attackers to gain entry and cripple businesses.

That said, it is not impossible for cybersecurity professionals to adopt a four-day workweek. Modern cybersecurity tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) make it possible to keep up with modern threats, such as malware and ransomware.

For example, a leading express delivery service provider in Malaysia and other markets in Southeast Asia wanted to put intelligent cybersecurity at the forefront of its digital transformation. Hence, they adopted BlackBerry’s automated AI/ML cybersecurity software to prevent malware infections and potential data breaches.

Benefits of AI and ML

The use of AI and ML solutions offers several benefits to organisations. Firstly, AI-driven security reduces human error and can ensure security policies are promptly updated to prevent hackers from worming their way into workers’ devices and networks to steal their identities and passwords.

Also Read: Best cybersecurity practices for startups to stay ahead of the curve

These ‘smart’ tools are also proactive, helping workers locate and solve problems that may appear as network systems are updated, modified, or replaced.

Secondly, AL and ML help to reduce threat alert fatigue and stress on cybersecurity professionals. Eliminating manual processing of security alerts is not only practical, given the volume and velocity of daily threats, but gives cybersecurity teams the bandwidth to determine what more urgently needs their attention.

Smarter security, powered by AI, allows IT teams to manage these threats in a practical and manageable way with automated labelling, even as the machine learning algorithm solves some threats on its own.

Lastly, AI and ML-based cybersecurity solutions can significantly reduce threat response time, which is one of the most pivotal metrics for measuring a cybersecurity team’s efficiency. While human responses may lag, AI/ML-assisted security never does, as these solutions can pull data from an attack to be immediately regrouped and prepared for analysis.

Taking it one step further, automated security also provides reports with recommendations and insights to prevent future attacks.

Final thoughts

Although a hybrid workplace has existed in some form for several years, it is now clearly here to stay. Whether cybersecurity professionals adopt a four-day workweek, they would have to continue evolving their solutions to fit this new configuration of work.

Ultimately, organisations need to consider implementing AI/ML in their cybersecurity models to aid their employees in the fight against the barrage of cyber threats they must deal with on a daily basis. Not only will this reduce burnout among cybersecurity professionals, but it also keeps the organisation safe from cyber threats 24×7.

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Food sustainability has long been a hot-button topic for Singapore, and there has been a greater push for Singapore to inch toward self-sustainability.

As a Farm Manager in Archisen, a local urban agritech farm, we’ve seen the changes in Singapore’s agriculture landscape firsthand. We’ve had to experiment with many new ideas and concepts, build teams, optimise yield productivity, and implement new innovations – all to keep up with the increasing importance of food security in Singapore.

The current agricultural landscape

Agriculture has been a crucible of evolutionary change over the years. Despite being ranked the most food-secure country in the world, The Singapore Food Agency reports that the country imports over 90 per cent of its domestic food consumption.

Also Read: Can agritech solve the world’s growing food security problem?

As a result, this leaves the bulk of our food supply dependent on unpredictable factors such as climate change, political unrest or economic shifts.

In the current agriculture landscape in Singapore, I feel that urban farms have their own set of unique challenges, and we do have a fair share of implications from these price hikes, such as rising costs of raw materials and energy.

The confluence of technology, engineering, design, and farming has set the stage for a transformation in urban farming. Amidst growing realisation that food security is an existential issue to contend with, SFA unveiled their ‘30 by 30 vision’ in early 2020, which aims to locally produce 30 per cent of the country’s nutritional needs by 2030.

Leading the Farm Operations at Archisen, it is my responsibility to ensure that Archisen is actively developing new technologies and solutions to optimise how Urban Farms are operating and to change people’s perceptions towards them.

The Singapore government has enhanced the Agriculture Productivity Fund and pushed out the 30×30 Express Grant to support producers looking to use technology to grow more with less. These recently introduced policies reflect the government’s interest in moving Singapore towards becoming a more self-reliant and food-secure society.

With support from the government, Archisen is playing its part in spearheading the Singapore Green Plan 2030 along with all other local farms.

Despite the government’s efforts to move towards self-sustenance, the lack of popular demand for local products presents a pressing issue today. Without sufficient consumers ‘buying local’, there could be a surplus in production and, subsequently, more food wastage.

Consumers do not tend to actively source locally produced food, especially if it is not certified as ‘locally grown’ or ‘organic’ and placed at eye level on supermarket shelves. Local producers not knowing the right kinds of vegetables consumed by the bulk of the people might also be a contributing factor to the issue of low demand.

Apart from that, one major problem we face in this industry is the lack of manpower. This industry requires a passion for farming which often demands a lot of hard work, and this sometimes demotivates potential applicants.

Also Read: From working on a family farm to driving growth for the world’s fastest growing foodtech company

On the whole, it is technically difficult to grow popular local varieties at competitive rates, and many farms may choose to specialise in less popular leafy greens. Hence, it is crucial that we balance local vegetable supply with an array of different options which can help to reduce waste.

What the future of Singapore’s agricultural landscape looks like

There are still areas that we do not know well enough in the field. In many situations, ready solutions are unavailable, and we must attempt to innovate to solve our problems. However, this also provides many opportunities for development and collaboration.

In 2021, a US$60 million Agricultural Food Transformation Fund was announced, aimed at increasing production efficiency, boosting yield, enhancing productivity and sustainability, and improving circularity of resource use while reducing the reliance on manpower. Such initiatives could help propel the industry towards integrated growth systems, automation and robotics to solve some of their growing problems.

I can envision the continuous development of CEA to efficiently produce more crops that are difficult to flourish in harsh external environments and provide more varieties and cheaper prices for consumers in Singapore.

Apart from greater varieties, There would also be 10 to 15 times more vegetables and fish produced, growing up to half a million kilograms of fresh vegetables each year, mitigating the problem of food insecurity.

To date, there are 238 local urban farms selling produce in supermarkets around Singapore. And this number will grow in the years to come. With a growing supply, an exponential increase in demand for local produce should be expected.

Fortunately, with Singaporeans becoming more environmentally conscious, this shift in mindset will hopefully spur Singaporeans to put sustainability needs over their money-mindedness and support local agriculture.

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Ruangguru lays off hundreds of employees
The company cites the drastically worsening global market situation for the job cuts; Ruangguru has raised a total of US$205M in funding to date; In July, it acquired education startups Schoters and Kalananti.

Startups in HK and Singapore sidestep local bourses for US SPACs
Info from financial data provider Refinitiv shows that at least nine SG and HK firm this year have announced plans to go public with SPACs listed in the US, despite the cities offering many shell companies since Q1.

GoTo’s Q3 losses drop a tad, revenues triple on cost-cutting efforts
The losses in the quarter came in lower at US$432M compared with US$483M in Q3 2021; The firm reported US$286M in net revenue in the July-Sept quarter, a significant rise from US$91.5M last year.

Binance was soliciting SG users without license, MAS says
In a letter, the MAS said that while both crypto exchanges were not licensed to operate in Singapore, only Binance had been soliciting users in the city-state; Binance also supported listings in SGD and payment methods specific to the city-state.

PropertyGuru’s Q3 revenue soars 47%, net loss narrows
Net revenue rose to US$25M for the quarter on the back of strong marketplace revenues, especially in Singapore and Malaysia; The net loss dropped to US$5.4M in the quarter from US$7M in the same period last year.

Recession Run: Australia’s Mandalay Venture to invest 20% of new fund in SEA
Partner Philippe Ceulen says the VC firm is raising a US$25M fund, meant for startups in the agritech and food technology space; The check sizes are likely to be between US$100K and US$804K.

Lightspeed eyes investments in climate tech startups in SEA, India
Electric mobility is one of the biggest areas to invest in; SaaS-based carbon accounting and offsetting solutions is the other areas of interest; Both SEA and India are poised for innovation in the EV and other climate tech space.

Better Bite rolls out new fund for idea-stage alt-protein firms
‘First Bite’ will select “several new alt protein founders in APAC” and invest US$50K into each; Founders working on new ideas in plant-based, fermentation, molecular farming, and cultivated meat spaces qualify for funding.

Indonesia’s Hangry posts 2.5x revenue jump in 2022
According to the culinary startup’s filing with ACRA, it generated US$12.2M in revenue in 2021; With that figure, its total revenue for the first 10 months of 2022 would be around US$30M.

Ayurveda tech startup NirogStreet raises US$12M to strengthen supply chain
The investors include Jungle Ventures, Spiral Ventures, and ICMG Co-Creation Fund; NirogStreet offers integrated doctor-led prescription e-commerce enablement, P2P learning for Ayurvedic doctors, and health record management.

Singapore’s wealth-tech firm Kristal.AI banks US$10M
The investors include Chiratae Ventures, Stride Ventures, and the Desai Family Office; The company has 50K+ individuals across over 20 countries on its platform, handling upwards of US$1B in AUM.

Sorabel, Magpie founders join Monk’s Hill as venture partners
Lingga Madu and Huong Tran will be in charge of sourcing and executing deals in Indonesia and Vietnam, respectively, and working closely with the VC firm’s portfolio companies.

FTX crypto exchange owes biggest creditors US$3.1B
The embattled firm, which filed for bankruptcy in the US last week, says it owes about US$1.45B to its top 10 creditors; Filings revealed more than 1M people and businesses could be owed money following its collapse.

World’s largest crypto fund swept into FTX storm
The shares of the theUS$10.5B Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which owns 3.5% of the world’s bitcoin, has plummeted to a 39% discount to the value of its underlying assets as investors have embarked on an increasingly desperately scramble to exit.

HK’s Genesis Block to shut down following FTX crash
Genesis Block operates a portal that lets users trade cryptocurrencies by opening up an account and getting support from an account manager; December 10 will be the last day of the OTC platform.

Korea, SG, Japan suffered most from FTX’s collapse: study
SimilarWeb data from Jan-Oct 2022 shows that Korea had the highest traffic share of 6.1%, representing 297,229 monthly users; Singapore made up 5% of global traffic with 241,675 monthly users.

Will digital banks take off in the Philippines?
Millions in the Philippines live in remote areas with no access to a branch and, therefore, no way to open a traditional account, presenting a huge pool of untapped opportunities for digital banks to expand into.

Why defining work-life harmony is key to navigating uncertain waters in 2023
Our ways of working have changed forever over the last two and a half years, and it’s important to maintain a work-life harmony for success.

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