The Philippines is, in many ways, a promising market for the growth of digital banks. As of today, six digital banking licenses have been issued.

The question is, can these new players become profitable and hold their own against incumbent banks

Challenges and opportunities for digital banks

According to figures from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), over 70 per cent of the Philippines’ adult population is unbanked as of 2019, which presents a large unaddressed potential customer base. World Bank data showed that 41 per cent of Filipinos have borrowed from family and friends, showing a high demand for credit and a lending gap that digital banks can help plug.

Many traditional bank accounts have costs or minimum balance requirements that many people cannot afford. Documentation, or lack of it, is also a common issue, as millions of Filipinos do not have any formal identification.

Millions of people in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7000 islands, also 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.

Today, fintech solutions used by digital-only challenger banks have made it possible and cost-effective for banks to provide digital bank accounts for people who cannot get to a branch; non-bank fintech has made digital payments increasingly widespread, and alternative lenders can now use a range of methods to assess creditworthiness and grant SMEs access to vital finance.

Indeed, a study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) found that digital financial solutions can address around 40 per cent of the unmet demand for payment services and about 20 per cent of the credit requirements of poor households and small businesses in Asia.

A key challenge for digital banks is differentiation because they are targeting the same customer base, offering similar products and services and trying to build a similar elevated digital experience. It will be hard for consumers to find significant differentiating factors between them, so they will be drawn in by two main factors, rates and trust.

Whilst the digital-only banks, with their lower startup and operational costs, will look to attract customers with loss-leading rates, they will not be able to compete with the trust and brand recognition enjoyed by digital spin-offs from existing banks.

State of play in the Philippines

With the Philippines’ final digital bank license issued in September last year, it was notable that the BSP decided to cap the number of licenses at six instead of the original seven, as well as imposing a three-year moratorium on digital banks.

Also Read: Looking to expand your business? Head down to the Philippines!

This development is significant for both incumbent banks and traditional banks. For traditional banks, this can mean more time to adjust and adapt to the emergence of challenger banks. The additional time window to implement upgrades and revamp their digital offerings would no doubt be welcomed.

If traditional banks can evolve successfully to meet the customer’s needs, they can leverage their relatively larger customer bases, well-established infrastructure and offerings, combined with strategic investments into digitalisation, to gain an advantage.

However, digital banks also stand to benefit from the BSP’s decision. Under the BSP’s digital banking framework, scalability has been identified as a key criterion for a license, and the three-year moratorium can help new licensees secure first-mover status in the industry to attract a critical mass of customers.

Additionally, a cap on the number of digital bank licenses, along with the three-year moratorium, instils certainty on the level of competition, meaning the licensed digital banks can focus on developing innovative financial products that best serve the needs of Filipinos in a sustainable and scalable manner.

Need of digital banks to do to succeed in a competitive environment

In the Philippines, there are several technologies and infrastructure drivers that will play in favour of virtual banks over the coming years. These include the rapidly rising adoption of mobile and e-payments, expansion of the country’s credit data infrastructure and increasingly open access to relevant digital information via APIs.

Digital banks will also likely benefit from lower technology costs by being built on cloud infrastructure. Instead of investing in their own expensive hardware, digital banks can dedicate more of their funding and revenue to attracting new customers and eroding incumbents’ market share by focusing on customer experience, something the established banks have traditionally not done well.

Also Read: How digital banking is driving financial inclusion in SEA

Just as incorporating cloud capabilities can help reduce hardware costs, neobanks can also harness the potential of Open Banking and leverage the expertise of fintech instead of spending much-needed resources to develop solutions themselves.

A ‘plug and play’ Open Banking model will enable them to build a technology stack tailored to suit their specific needs and objectives, with proven fintech solutions that are cutting edge, substantially reducing the time to market.

Banking as a Service (BaaS) also offers opportunities for digital banks. BaaS is the provision of retail or wholesale banking products and services, in context, as a service using an existing licensed institution’s secure, regulated infrastructure with modern API-driven platforms.

BaaS simultaneously creates the opportunity to reach more customers whilst lowering the acquisition cost per customer significantly. In short, BaaS makes it simple, fast and cost-effective to integrate regulated products into the customer journey.

Another opportunity for digital banks is the rise of cashless services like Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). The adoption of such services has been accelerated by COVID, and BNPL is now the fastest-growing in the Philippines.

To take advantage of this additional revenue channel, digital banks collaborate with e-commerce players to embed banking products, such as unsecured loans, in merchants’ point-of-sale processes.

BNPL options often do not require an interest payment or minimum monthly payment, which can make it more attractive to customers than borrowing on a credit card whilst also exposing banks to a new segment of consumers who don’t have access to credit cards.

Final thoughts

The Philippines is on the cusp of a digital banking revolution. While concerns about the viability of digital banks are certainly not unfounded, the technology is now turning the Philippines unbanked and underbanked populations into a viable demographic with enormous potential for financial institutions.

By choosing the right technology and the right strategies, digital banks can be profitable and make a significant contribution to solving financial inclusion in the country.

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NirogStreet, an Ayurveda tech startup based in Delhi, India, has received US$12 million in a Series B round of funding led by Jungle Ventures.

Existing investors Spiral Ventures, ICMG Co-Creation Fund (managed by ICMG Partners), DoorDash’s Gokul Rajaram, SMBC APAC co-head Rajeev Kannan also participated. Besides, the family office of Anthony Weldon also co-invested.

“This new fundraise will help us strengthen our supply chain, service offerings and tech that will help us realise the vision we are working to achieve,” Ram N Kumar, Founder and CEO of NirogStreet, said.

With technology-based interventions, NirogStreet enables doctors by giving technology to run their clinic, access to quality medicines inventory in real-time, and avenues to learn and earn while also closely working with the government, regulators, and research organisations.

Also Read: How these five startups are changing the game in health and well-being

It has over 50,000 Ayurvedic doctors in the community and encourages them to create and publish case studies and research reports to bring evidence-based treatment similar to modern medicine.

In addition, NirogStreet has built an end-to-end supply chain infrastructure for Ayurvedic medicines. The company has created a verified marketplace of Ayurvedic medicines from which doctors can directly order and fill prescriptions while staying on the platform. NirogStreet manages the fulfilment direct to the customer door.

In December last year, NirogStreet secured US$4 million in funding led by CE-Ventures.

As per government estimates, there are over one million AYUSH doctors in India, of which the majority are Ayurveda practitioners. Over 600 AYUSH medical colleges introduce over 30000 new medical graduates every year. The industry has grown significantly over the years, and as per government of India releases, it is a massive 18 billion category, primarily led by practising and prescribing doctors. The recent pandemic has also increased the awareness of preventive healthcare, and there is an evident underlying shift in consumers’ attitudes toward Ayurveda and natural healing.

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Kristal.AI, a private wealth management platform, has secured over US$10 million in its pre-series B round of investment.

The investors participating in the round are Chiratae Ventures, the Sanadhya family, Desai Family Office, Stride Ventures and unnamed high net-worth individuals (HNWIs), besides Kristal.AI founders.

This brings the startup’s total funding to more than US$27 million. This round is incremental to its US$6.3 million funding raised in March 2021.

Also Read: Kristal.AI expands to ESOP liquidity offerings

Kristal.AI will use the new capital for expansion into new markets and driving product and platform innovation.

Asheesh Chanda, Founder and CEO of Kristal.AI, said. “The mass affluent and emerging high-net-worth individual (HNWI) investor class in Asia continues to grow exponentially, with total financial assets in the continent set to hit US$68 trillion by 20251. This funding round will be crucial in helping us continue to innovate, digitalise, and tailor our solutions for current and prospective clients.”

Established in 2016, Kristal is a digital-first private wealth advisory and fund management group serving mass-affluent clients globally. It specialises in advising clients on highly personalised investment portfolios. It has investment product suites comprising over 200 premium funds, such as private equity/venture capital funds and structured notes.

The difficult-to-access products, such as pre-IPO deals, are also available.

Other offerings by the group include a discretionary mandate, a digital family office, a variable capital company, and robo-advisor portfolios.

Kristal.AI has over 180 employees across Singapore, Hong Kong, India and the UAE.

It operates in Singapore under a Capital Markets Services license regulated by the MAS. It is also licensed and operational in Hong Kong and India.

The firm claims it tripled its assets under management (AUM) to cross the US$1 billion mark in August 2022 and grew its user base year-on-year by over 50 per cent.

Also Read: Wealthech startup Kristal AI looks to democratise private banking

Alongside this funding announcement, Kristal.AI also announced its application for an ADGM license for expansion into the UAE. The license is subject to approval by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA).

Gaurav Rustagi, Chief Growth Officer at Kristal.AI, commented. “The Middle East region has at least US$35 billion AUM and is home to a large population of mass affluent and HNWIs. Over the years, the UAE has steadily built its reputation as a wealth management hub bolstered by factors like an open economy, strict compliance and governance, progressive regulatory environment, a welcoming environment for businesses and an abundance of talent.”

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AI Communis, an automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language processing (NLP) startup based in Singapore, has raised US$1.3 million in seed funding.

Todai IPC (the VC arm of the University of Tokyo) led the round, which also saw participation from multiple Japanese VC funds and angel investors from Singapore.

AI Communis was founded in 2020 by Nobuhiko Suzuki (former Director at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ) and Ian Lane (Associate Professor in NLP at the University of California, Santa Cruz). The firm offers Auris AI, a web-based platform that automatically generates transcripts and subtitles from audio and video files. It also translates between English and other languages, particularly Asian languages like Japanese, Bahasa Indonesia, and Hindi.

Using its ASR technology, Auris AI can specialise in Asian languages and drive down operating costs, making it more affordable for users.

Also Read: These Artificial Intelligence startups are proving to be industry game-changers

Since its beta launch in December 2021, it claims to have garnered over 90,000 users (content creators, media companies and freelancers) across 200 countries.

The firm will use the capital to solidify Auris AI’s product offerings and scale operations in Asia. Operationally, Auris AI will strengthen outreach to global content creators and multi-channel networks to help them reach a wider audience.

At the same time, it will promote the full-scale expansion of the service to freelance and full-time content creators in Southeast Asia.

According to a report published by Google, Temasek and Bain, 60 million new internet users have come online in Southeast Asia since 2020 with the onset of COVID-19, bringing Internet penetration in the region to 75 per cent. The creator economy is also growing and is estimated to be around US$13.8 billion, according to Statista. Even with an increased demand to make content more accessible, no other company is working on scalable software to transcribe and translate Asian languages.

Nobuhiko Suzuki, Co-Founder and CEO of AI Communis, said: “There is a growing demand for people to enjoy foreign videos and to share their content with audiences overseas. In terms of transcribing, translating and subtitling content to make Asian content accessible to the world and foreign content accessible to Asians, we can fill a large gap. With Auris AI, we are creating a platform that allows people to do just that.”

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With the ongoing news of global tech startups laying off thousands of employees, such as Stripe last week, markets are recalibrating what makes an organisation valuable. At NewCampus, we’ve studied, partnered and worked with companies over the past eight years. We are continually observing how mature their talent management strategies are.

My two cents? The best-developed talent management strategies are often companies that are going through a horrible economy or bad business cycle. With maximum attrition and an economic recession crashing into each other, companies can have trouble assessing how they can balance their talent needs.

HR leaders need to balance the competing realities of the Great Resignation and an economic slowdown, which could necessitate furloughs and cost-saving measures, that would impact employees. Rather than hiring before the demand, leaders looking for future employment must balance current needs against the talent available, while trying to avoid overcorrection in an environment in which a talent shortfall continues to threaten operations.

Also Read: Why a recession is a good time to start hiring globally

As such, they keep hiring focused on critical skills and jobs. Today’s job seekers know that companies are struggling to hire and retain employees, believe that they have a chance to show off their qualifications, and they expect more dedication than ever before in terms of personal well-being and career advancement.

Different strokes for different industries

Leaders looking for the future are understanding and taking into account the ways that the downturn will affect their industries, customers, and employees, including implications for sales, manufacturing, distribution, and hiring.

Crypto and fintech companies scaled quickly in the bull market; now it seems education and health care are thriving in the bear. Every company and organisation is different and should react with a variety of strategies to a recession.

If the general economic decline is impacting your customers, it is important that you know about it early on so that you can adjust your company’s operations in different directions. Consider the downturn of your company as an opportunity to focus on your core competencies, reinforce your talent programmes, uncover weaknesses, and reimagine your business.

The good news is there are strategies, tested and proven, that can help an organisation cope with the economic realities of the recession, maintain its employer brand, and respond to the skilled workforce shortage.

Those employers who had one before the downturn struck would be much better placed to tackle the challenges of managing talent. The future of talent management will depend on being able to be more tactical about downsizing and be more selective about hiring.

With the looming downturn, the technology talent market could go from crazy to rolling, but this is no time to retreat from best practices firms have built up to build more adaptable organisations to the demands of the business.

Downturn mindset

To maintain their talent strategies intact in the face of economic slowdowns (or even perceived ones), hiring organisations need the right technologies.

In times of economic upheaval, effective recruitment and retention strategies will make companies much more attractive to candidates than their competitors and will ensure they have the necessary human capital to sustain a high-performance level during future upheavals and recessions.

Companies will want to have optimised, fair, transparent hiring processes that instil trust in candidates and accurately forecast future performance. Indeed, although it is increasingly difficult to recruit quality employees, demand continues to grow, and this is particularly true in the tech sector.

More importantly, companies are now in a position to recruit those engineers and computer science professionals that have been laid off by the technology industry because they are starting to seek stable job opportunities.

While it is true we are still in a labour shortage, we are starting to see large-scale layoffs across tech sectors. While we are seeing some companies experiencing layoffs and hiring freezes, this does not necessarily mean the talent shortage is going to go away right away.

In fact, it is not like startups, and tech companies are going to completely stop hiring in this period. They will have to be extra careful about hiring the right candidates for the right roles.

More importantly, startups and technology companies will not throw money and unlimited benefits at candidates, nor can they afford to retain poor candidates whose mediocrity goes undetected during times of economic success.

Back to fundamentals

Leading tech organisations will instead be putting high-skilled technical talent to work, with an emphasis on creating differentiated value for customers and shareholders. What is critical here is that companies must not be less invested in developing their critical core talent.

Such tools would allow companies to recruit the best technical talent on predetermined timelines or for particular projects, meaning companies could affordably ramp up, then back down, when needed in times of economic uncertainty.

Also Read: Hiring made easy: How to survive the talent war against tech behemoths? 

These tools include complex assessments of employees, guidelines requiring hiring managers to look in-house before going outwards in search of talent, and opportunities to perform retraining/upskilling specific to the position.

Again, leading employers are showing us the way toward these new kinds of mindsets, embedding a series of key strategies at the heart of their talent management functions. Increasingly, top companies around the globe, the ones who have managed to retain strong employer brands irrespective of economic conditions, have begun demonstrating an entirely different, future-oriented strategy to manage the economic downturn.

Final thoughts

One thing’s for sure; while talent strategy is a perennial theme, deliberate, strong human resources initiatives are frequently pushed to the back burner during times of economic upheaval. In HR, uncertainty seems to be one of the biggest challenges sapping our judgements in the area of talent management: recruiting, succession, etc.

Having a plan tied to the needs of your business, revising that plan, and working from a plan is the best way HR leaders can make sure that they are recruiting, using, and retaining top talent that will help them weather economic storms.

Leaders, HR, line managers, and talent managers must lead their people leaders with eyes toward the future, ensuring they have the skillsets the organisation needs tomorrow, protecting the intellectual capital, keeping its key talent, and developing them to meet the aspirational needs as soon as the economic downturn ends.

While protecting your organisation from the unknown is essential, you must also fill the ranks of your staff with bright minds who will sustain your business during the economic instability.

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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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At the Grand Finale of X-PITCH 2022, held on November 10, fifteen finalists selected from more than 4,000 startups in 51 countries showcased their business in front of hundreds of guests in the Metaverse powered by Venu. 

10 startups emerged as award winners, and the top three startups will receive US$1 million investment in total. Here’s the winner’s list:

• Startup of the Year – Gold Award: Docosan (Vietnam)
• Startup of the Year – Silver Award: Pantheon Lab (Hong Kong)
• Startup of the Year – Bronze Award: Cookie Langs (United States), TG0 (United Kingdom)
• Best Public Service/Healthcare Startup: PPMI (South Korea)
• Best Industrial/Supply Chain Startup: PJP Eye (Japan)
• Best Consumer Lifestyle Startup: Raputa (Singapore)
• Best Mobility/Transportation Startup: ITC (Israel)
• Best Banking/Commerce Startup: Turing Certs (Taiwan)
• Number Pitch – Champion: startup oi (Singapore), Docosan (Vietnam)
• Number Pitch – People’s Choice: ALPHACIRCLE (South Korea)

See the full winner list here.

Also read: X-PITCH 2022 top 150 announced, e27’s Pro Connect to facilitate investor matching

Pitching in the Metaverse

“As the X Games for Startups, we try something new and exciting every year. In past competitions, we’ve done it in high-speed elevators and self-driving cars. This year, the local semi-finals were played on the Kaohsiung Light Rail. In today’s finals, we came to the Metaverse. This is an unprecedented experience for all of us.” said Kevin Yu, Founder of TA, the organiser of X-PITCH 2022. 

X-PITCH 2022 is the first large-scale startup contest in Asia held in the Metaverse. The virtual venue includes a grand auditorium, an EXPO zone, and networking areas, just like the real world.  “We create premium metaverse conference experiences. Venu is proud to be chosen to deliver an unparalleled metaverse experience for X-PITCH, a prestigious startup and investor network. Ready to wow your audience and brand yourselves on the cutting edge? Demo Venu and contact us today at venu3d.com,” said Jeremy Lam, Founder & CEO of Venu.

X-PITCH Investor Matching Program

Last October 20, over 60 startups from the semi-finalists and 10 investors from the investment partners joined X-PITCH Investor Matching Program.

Since the start of the program, the startups have sent over 2700 connection requests to investors, including investors outside the official X-PITCH Investment Partners. The program will continue throughout the year, and the participants will move with conversations from pitch to in-person meetings and hopefully close their funding rounds. e27 will continue to monitor the progress of the X-PITCH startups and work with X-PITCH to further assist startups in the process.

e27 Pro Connect is the official investor relations partner for this program, and the startups who participated in the investor matching have received complimentary access for 30 days. 

Pro Connect is one of the e27 Pro membership plans that gives its members access to 400+ active and verified investors and tools to assist startups in discovering and connecting with the right investors for their fundraising goals.

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A bottom-up approach to any organisational structure is refreshing as technology giants gain significant power share over all aspects of our lives. A new way to give everyone a voice has massive appeal, especially across the Web3 ecosystem, where communities enjoy autonomy and self-direction.

From platforms for freelance workers to decision-making around the most advanced DeFi protocols, DAOs have given us a way to put decision-making in the hands of everyday members and users.

The rules for a DAO are most often encoded into the blockchain code, removing intermediaries and allowing for the design of a transparent, truest environment. This effectively allowed groups of individuals with similar values or complementary skill sets to organise themselves. 

Now that DAOs have started creeping into wider company governance conversations, let’s look at what you may not know about DAOs. 

The largest decentralised exchange in the world is a DAO

Uniswap, one of the most widely used and admired projects in the world of Web3, is the biggest DAO in the world. Using the UNI token, holders govern the community voting, protocol fees, and proposals. Uniswap announced US$165 million Series B funding in October and has a market capitalisation of US$3.6 billion. 

DAOs are a playground for social experiments

Decentralised social media tools provide a way for DAOs to offer their members new ways of interacting, new voting mechanisms and create ever-evolving organisations, rather than the static social media platforms that groups engage with today.

How can we build better social tools to cut through the noise and clutter within our social forums today? Many Web3 projects, especially, are hyper-aware of what their members want. 

Also Read: ‘DAOs aren’t different from community-building efforts seen in Web2’

“We’re working with a number of Web3 projects innovating for their DAO communities. They are establishing trust through new tools like verified credentials, open-source community forums and comments within their own DAO applications. It’s all about providing open and accountable communications,” says Orbis Protocol Co-Founder Baptiste Greve.

You can govern virtual planets

Just last week, the leading blockchain game, Alien World, announced the introduction of DAO planets. In what they have called Planet Syndicates, players can battle for the planetary rule using their NFTs. Not only can players collect and trade NFTs, but they can also compete to earn Trilium, the in-game currency. The community can then use these governance tokens to vote on different aspects of the game.

You can rally support even to buy the most sacred documents

In November 2021, a very unique DAO began to make the headlines as a group of individuals came together under the umbrella of Constitution DAO to raise US$40 million in cryptocurrency to bid on one of only thirteen copies of the official US constitution. There were 17,000 individuals with a mean donation of just over US$200 each. 

Ultimately they lost out to hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, who swooped in with a winning bid of US$43.2 million. The bids were refunded to the group, with fewer gas fees, which put a bit of a damper on overall proceedings.

The world of DAOs can be dangerous

Maker DAO, the largest decentralised financial protocol, came into the news for the wrong reasons when co-founder Nikolai Mushegian was found dead in Puerto Rico last week. The co-founder had been vocal in his anti-government views and even posted a prediction that he would be killed three days prior to his drowning. 

There is no further news at this stage, with MakerDAO refusing to comment out of respect for his family.

Even DAOs are trying to save the planet from a climate disaster

DAOs are funding the future of regenerative projects. As with many Web3 organiSations, there are plenty of individuals who want to see a brighter future and believe that blockchain provides the infrastructure that can allow us to create a more transparent, sustainable path.

Also Read: Zignaly’s DAO aims to remove boundaries from your crypto investment portfolio

Kimbal Musk, the brother of Elon, has jumped into this market with The Big Green DAO. With this DAO it is hoped that nonprofits can take power into their own hands to distribute grants to relevant green food and tech industries.

You can make music with some of your favourite artists

The world of music continues to be disrupted with new Web3 business models as musicians take a more hands-on approach to managing their music, rights to their music and revenue from music-affiliated activities.

StemsDAO encourages music collaboration through gamified music experiences and creating new social environments for music producers, songwriters and fans. Within this new DAO, members can collaborate to create music, purchase music, collect NFTs and own a piece of a song. 

UkraineDAO, for fast fundraising

UkraineDAO was set up by the founder of the band Pussy Riot Nadya Tolokonnikova, and UK-based activist Alona Shevchenko, and raised almost US$7 million in ETH to support Ukraine’s war effort. The funds were raised through the sale of NFTs of Ukraine’s flag.

DAOs are at their best when they harness crypto people around a legitimate cause, and that’s what Ukraine DAO did: it raised money quickly and then sent it to the cause quickly. Shevchenko told Decrypt: “This is exactly what DAOs are for, making change offline in the real world harnessing the power of blockchain.”

BitDAO, access to the largest treasuries in the world

Designed to support the growth of decentralised finance, BitDAO shares capital from its treasury to support long-term projects, technology, education and events. The treasury has been growing at an enormous speed, reaching roughly $2 million per day earlier this year. 

DAOs act as exciting new business structures for teams discovering the world of Web3. Operating on a transparent voting mechanism with access to funds has the potential to help fund the future of many creative industries today. DAOs focused on film production, startup ecosystems, art, and recruitment are rapidly changing the way decisions are made in creator-led economies.

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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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Investments plateau across SEA in 2022 as recession looms
While the year started slowly in terms of funding activity, data from November 2021 through November 1, 2022, showed that the investment landscape was at its busiest in March, which saw US$3.9B in deals in the region.

Indonesian agritech firm TaniHub slashes more jobs
A source told Tech in Asia that a significant number of staff across almost all departments have been told they’re being let go by the company; This is the second publicly known wave of layoffs carried out by TaniHub this year.

GoTo may cut 1,000 jobs amid economic slowdown
The reduction will see staff from all functions affected and represents about 10% of GoTo’s workforce; Sources say the announcement of the layoffs to employees may happen in the coming weeks.

Vietnam’s F88 secures US$60M loan, eyes IPO by 2024
US$50M came from Lending Ark, while the additional US$10 million was provided by Lendable; The firm currently offers vehicle title loans, distribution of life and non-life insurance, bills payment, mobile money, and e-wallet top-ups.

Indonesian digital KYC firm Privy raise US$48M
Investors are KKR, MDI Ventures, GGV Capital, and Telkomsel Mitra Inovasi; Customers use Privy to open bank accounts, apply for insurance products, and secure loans without physically signing papers.

SG’s Spenmo said to be negotiating down round with investors
This comes less than a year after the spend management company closed its US$85.35M Series B led by Tiger Global; The move to negotiate a down round takes place against the backdrop of a major correction for many of Spenmo’s fintech peers.

Vickers Venture’s SPAC merges with Scilex
Scilex is focused on acquiring, developing and commercialising non-opioid pain management products for treating acute and chronic pain; The combined entity operates as Scilex Holding Company on November 11.

Singapore’s audio, video transcription app Auris AI raises US$1.3M
Tokyo university’s VC arm led the round; Since its beta launch in Dec 2021, Auris AI claims to have garnered over 90K users (content creators, media companies and freelancers) across 200 countries.

Education-focused fintech firm Rootopia secures US$1M pre-seed capital
The investors are Genesia Ventures, ThinkZone Venture, and BK Fund; Rootopia helps students to address their tuition and fees needs; It connects angel investors with parents who need funds for their children’s school fees.

ASEAN central banks sign MOU to boost cross-border payments
The central banks of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines have inked an agreement to bolster regional payment connectivity; The cooperation will include initiatives centred around QR codes and fast payments.

Japan’s Line messaging service launches Web3 game platform Game Dosi
Game Dosi is an all-in-one Web3 gaming platform that lets game companies launch NFTs; It aims to provide engaging games that users can enjoy intuitively and solutions to enable game developers to create their games more easily.

US Justice Department asks Binance for information on FTX
The department is pressing Binance for details on its recent discussions with beleaguered crypto exchange peer FTX; Binance has also been contacted by European regulators.

3 ways DeFi can improve how businesses operate and grow
Identity verification and know-your-customer processes become more efficient because of the transparent nature of the blockchain technologies that smart contracts are built on.

How Ringkas replaces paper-based mortgage application process in Indonesia with digital tools
Ringkas allows a customer to fill in just one application form digitally and submit it directly to as many banks as she wants; Ringkas is backed by 500 Global, Iterative Capital, Creative Gorilla Capital, Teja Ventures, and Init-6.

Do ride-sharing apps exacerbate digital exclusion?
The sharing economy has helped millions of people worldwide with new income opportunities where resources are not easily accessible.

Reimagining tuition: How tutors can stay ahead of an evolving learning system
All in all, like any other industry that has been around for a long time, tuition centres must be proactive in embracing and initiating change to remain competitive.

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UOB The FinLab has announced 12 startups selected for its inaugural The Greentech Accelerator, which includes pre-seed and seed startups across five countries in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India and Singapore – with seven of them based in Singapore.

The first cohort of startups was shortlisted from over 150 applicants across 45 countries, with a total funding support of US$105,00 (SG$150,000) to tackle real-world challenge statements in the areas of energy efficiency, zero-waste supply chain and carbon management and reporting.

The accelerator programme was launched in May 2022 and culminated in a Showcase Day at this year’s Singapore Fintech Festival Labcrawl last October 31, 2022.

Meet the 12 startups from the inaugural cohort

The 12 selected startups were put through a three-month Greentech Accelerator Programme between August to October 2022, focused on scaling their greentech solutions by offering curated masterclasses, business matching, mentorship and partnership opportunities with UOB’s network. 

The 12 startups are:

Alterpacks uses organic waste to create biodegradable and compostable material to combat plastic packaging.

CO2 Connect (CO2X) Pte Ltd is founded by three innovative multi-award-winning Singapore-based companies with a shared passion for technology for sustainability.

HydroNeo is a smart farm management system that optimises aquaculture production by providing state-of-the-art technology and tailor-made solutions.

Jejak.in is a climate tech company with the sole objective of accelerating climate action by leveraging the power of technology – carbon calculator, trees and carbon monitoring, and carbon exchange.

KrossLinker is a deeptech advanced material company that designs and develops advanced energy-efficient material, ‘aerogel’, for thermal insulation applications.

Pantas provides customised end-to-end solutions to help companies calculate, manage and disclose their carbon emissions as well as access climate-themed investments and financing.

Accacia is a carbon reporting system to track Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions at asset, portfolio and entity levels Al-enabled carbon management platform for the Real Estate sector, including Scope 3 and embodied carbon measurement.

Red Dot Analytics (RDA) is an Al-powered technology solutions provider that aims to bring research-backed Al and digital twin solutions to help organisations digitalise and optimise their data centre solutions.

Resync owns Al-driven Intelligent Energy Efficiency for Smart Buildings and Offices solutions using in-house developed ML models that enable plug & play integration, real-time control, energy savings and carbon footprint reduction.

TAVA supplies bioplastic products, cups/lids/straws made from cornstarch.

T-RECs.ai offers a full suite of services to manage Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for enterprises by providing comprehensive and cost-effective green solutions for companies’ Sustainability Journey.

Upcyde transforms or upcycles agricultural waste by designing usable products by being able to control and manage the supply chain, both upstream to downstream, and processing the vast volume of agricultural waste.

Also read: Meet the 10 winning X-PITCH 2022 startups who were announced in the Metaverse

The inaugural UOB The FinLab Greentech Accelerator

The Greentech Accelerator fast-tracks the development of sustainable technology solutions by providing access to masterclasses, industry networks and world-class mentors.

The programme helps solution providers tackle real-world pain points from SMEs and corporate partners to co-create solutions for partnerships and pilot projects, helping them kick-start their journey to a more sustainable business model.

“According to the 2022 ASEAN SME Transformation Study by UOB, Accenture and Dun & Bradstreet, 65 per cent of SMEs within ASEAN have indicated sustainability to be an area of importance and concern due to increasing pressure from consumers. The Greentech Accelerator has responded to this challenge and demonstrated the power of cross-border collaboration and co-learning.

“For the past three months, these innovative greentech startups have benefited immensely from the fresh perspectives, knowledge and guidance of well-established companies. They are well on their way to being key supply drivers of sustainable technology to help businesses, big or small, adopt eco-friendly practices, technology, and green financing. The FinLab is proud to have provided these startups mentorship and opportunities to tailor and scale unique solutions to meet the ESG needs of local and international businesses,” said Shannon Lung, Head of The FinLab

UOB The FinLab and e27 Pro Connect Partnership

Earlier this year, e27 and UOB The FinLab partnered together to provide its startups access to e27’s platform providing access to relevant tools, insights, and connections to boost their visibility and growth. The FinLab startups will receive complimentary 30 days of access to Pro Connect and a one-time 40 per cent discount after that. 

Pro Connect is one of the e27 Pro membership plans that gives its members access to 500+ active and verified investors and tools to assist startups in discovering and connecting with the right investors for their fundraising goals.

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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.

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Every day, people will visit various websites, and we never know whether the websites are secure or not. A report stated that websites experience around 94 attacks per day, and this attack can turn a credible website into a harmful one. The one that is designed to steal information from users. 

This attack can happen to any kind of organisation or business. But, small businesses are at the greatest risk for cyberattacks because of their limited budget for protection and recovery, plus most of them assume that they won’t get attacked. Actually, malicious websites not only attack businesses directly, but they can also slip through your employees and steal your data.

With the current economic situation, business owners will think carefully about what they spend their money on. And if they work in the technology industry, they should consider the malicious attacks that might come to them.

Here, we want to share some impacts of malicious websites for businesses and the best practices to overcome them.

Malicious attacks impact on business

Disruption of the company’s operations

Malicious software infections can disrupt critical business processes. The opportunity cost of this abrupt shutdown can range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars.

Also Read: Why firms need a multi-layered approach to cybersecurity

Once fraudsters have gained access to your company’s network, they can take over the system and prohibit you from serving consumers. They can also alter critical data, wreaking havoc on your system. Hackers can also obtain information about your proprietary processes and sell it. Worse, they can take R&D data and delete it from your system, rendering it unrecoverable.

Client dissatisfaction

All businesses keep their clients’ information on their computer system, from contact information and purchase history to credit card and bank details. During an assault, all of these pieces of information are compromised.

Hackers can exploit stolen information from your customers to steal from them, subject them to attacks, or commit crimes using their identities. Clients will lose faith in you if investigations reveal that your system was responsible for the leak. This will result in contract cancellations, significant financial losses, and potential legal ramifications.

Permanent damage to your reputation

You have worked tirelessly to develop your company’s reputation since its inception. You made it a point to provide your clientele with high-quality products and services in order to make them happy. However, if your network gets hacked, all of your efforts will be forwarded.

Failure to protect your customers’ data will reflect poorly on you. You will not only lose your current clientele, but you will also lose their future business. Furthermore, this occurrence may deter potential consumers who are afraid of having their data stolen and exposed.

Legal action against your business

When you gather data from your customers, you must inform them that their information will be stored and that this information will be protected. 

You are correct in your assumption that cyber litigation is primarily focused on prosecuting cybercriminals. In Australia, on the other hand, people have the right to sue you if you violate the Privacy Act 1988 or the Australian Consumer Law. They may even sue you for breach of contract and negligence. Furthermore, if the breach is substantial or you have been repeatedly compromised, the government may impose penalties and punishment.

Best practices to keep your websites safe

A report discovered that roughly half believed their hosting providers’ incorporated security safeguards. In truth, it is your job to secure your website. Fortunately, taking simple security precautions does not have to break the bank. Begin by following the guidelines below to safeguard your website against viruses.

Also Read: Strengthening cybersecurity measures in the face of Web 3.0

Be thoughtful about which plug-ins you use

Do you really need that plug-in that counts the number of visitors to your site? Maybe—or maybe not. Stick to the plug-ins you need to build out your website, and splurge on one or two premium ones if they’re vital to it. Plugins aren’t inherently bad or to be avoided; just don’t go overboard. The more you use, the more you need to update.

Keep your CMS, plug-ins, and themes updated

One of the most fundamental protection steps you can do to boost website security is to keep your CMS up to date because CMS will also update its security system, which will also prevent malware-infected WordPress.

Ensure submission forms include a CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA can save you from going through hundreds of spam submissions and also block bots looking for vulnerabilities or entry points into your site. All it takes is an unprotected contact form for a bot to inject code that allows hackers to access your customer information or even hijack your website entirely.

Use a website malware scanner

Website malware scanners aid in the detection and removal of harmful software as well as the patching of vulnerabilities.

They will defend your website from malware by scanning for and eliminating risks, ensuring that your visitors aren’t disrupted by a crashing site, poor speeds, or an unsettling warning from Google informing them that the site is contaminated and banned.

Install an SSL certificate

Sites having an SSL certificate can be identified by a lock logo followed by “https.” These certificates do not provide website security in and of themselves, but they encrypt data passed from the website to the server.

Use a website security

Website security is just as important as a website malware scanner. But this will help you easily manage your business websites and employees because you can check whether your employee is entering malicious websites or not.

For small businesses that don’t have an IT team, subscribing to website security that already includes the security service will be beneficial to them. Let’s protect this tech environment from malicious attacks!

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