The Asia Pacific is home to 450 million smallholder farmers who account for more than 80 per cent of the region’s food production.

Despite being the key to addressing food security, smallholders are underserved and lack access to basic tools that can unlock the full potential and value of their farms. Most commonly, smallholder farmers struggle to access suitable farming inputs, better farming practices to produce better yield and quality, and connections with the right buyers for the right prices.

It does not help that the current agricultural value chain is highly inefficient – with layers of intermediaries standing between smallholders and consumers. This means more hands vying for their slice of the pie and lesser profits for farmers.

For example, returns from small-scale rice farming are only between US$2 – US$6 a day per farm. It is not surprising that many choose to leave the land, putting more pressure on a system at its breaking point.

To make farming a profitable profession, we need to ensure that the people growing the crops are rewarded fairly for their work. And that starts by placing the farmer at the centre of an ecosystem of integrated solutions.

Introducing the ecosystem concept

Many are familiar with the success of Apple’s ecosystem and the value that it brings to its users.

While any individual Apple product is good on its own merits, the Apple ecosystem is not about a single product. It is about a whole array of technology and offers, from Apple or external partners, that, when used together, is more than the sum of its individual parts.

Similarly, a farmer-centric ecosystem in agriculture involves an interconnected and interdependent network of diverse providers that address various farmer needs throughout their farming journey.

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

This is a concerted effort across the value chain, from suppliers of farm input and agronomic expertise to providers of farm services, financial and insurance services, tools for smart agriculture, and linkage to the offtake market, food processing companies and consumers.

Furthermore, just as Apple led the orchestration of their ecosystem, an ecosystem in agriculture requires a trusted party to convene partners that share a similar vision of continuously creating new value for farmers and the whole community.

Syngenta has taken the lead in catalysing this unique Farming Ecosystem, whereby the benefit to farmers is not merely derived from individual transactions but elevated overall through new value architecture and customer experience.

Technology is a key enabler of the farming ecosystem

Many services in an ecosystem rely on various technologies to complete a holistic offering. This does not refer only to the big, transformative technologies. Even the simplest of technologies can make a huge difference in emerging markets.

Soil testing, for instance, can determine the current fertility and health of soils so that farmers can apply the right amount of fertilizer. This helps manage the use of inputs compared to the current norm of blanket application and greatly reduces the overall cost to the farmer. Some examples of emerging technologies in this area include devices that provide real-time analysis and results.

Another example is using AI-assisted recognition of high-resolution images to identify pests or diseases affecting different crops. Through this, farmers can obtain an accurate and immediate diagnosis, followed by advice on solutions such as optimal pesticide use.

Equally, digital platforms can provide farmers with live access to the latest knowledge to support better crop decisions and respond quickly to challenges. It is a powerful tool to connect farmers, suppliers, retailers and consumers at scale and facilitate communication and transactions among them. During this process, valuable data is also generated and shared, building trust between each stage of the production chain.

Partnerships are key to the ecosystem’s success

As a leading Ag company, Syngenta is pioneering and convening CENTRIGO Farming Ecosystem alongside partners to develop a scalable combination of physical and digital (also known as ‘phygital’) solutions that will empower farmers to overcome inefficiencies, improve livelihoods and ensure the resilience of food security in the Asia Pacific.

The quality and reliability of partnerships within such an ecosystem will determine its strength and success. If you are a technology provider or an investor, now is the time to get involved.

Meeting the food demands of consumers will require connecting millions of farmers through innovative technologies, an opportunity you don’t want to miss.

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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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Entrepreneurs have been living in a world run by the rise-and-grind mentality, working themselves to exhaustion with their cash-burning and growth-at-all-costs business models. But, unfortunately, times are changing, and the hustle culture will not cut it in today’s startup landscape.

 The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken markets across the globe, making it dangerous for startup founders to rely heavily on venture capital (VC). So while the startup ecosystem remains filled with opportunities, the question remains: how can founders build a path to profitability now that cash burning and accelerated growth are losing their effect?

Also read: Echelon 2022: The search for alternative funding options for VCs

Shaping a new culture

Capital efficiency is becoming the culture more than speed and amount of growth. Growth remains essential, of course, but it should no longer be the only goal. Working on growth and profitability is a balancing act that startup founders may want to master to avoid crashing down. Resiliency in models and a long-term outlook will help them find their footing in a COVID-hit fundraising ground.

Developing a new founder’s mindset

The post-pandemic era requires a fresh perspective to navigate. Capital constraint, instead of cash burning, helps a new business to harness its ability to operate efficiently and to develop creative and logical ways to invest since too much capital comes with risks of bad investment choices and waste of resources.

Also read: The evolution of early-stage investing and fundraising in SEA

Learning about sustainable growth

Startups must learn how companies evolve and pivot to profitability and sustainable growth in today’s climate. This is one of the topics that will be tackled at the Echelon Asia Summit 2022. Experts will hold a panel discussion about “Breaking away from the cash-burning model and focusing on achieving sustainable growth.” Jeremy Au, Chief of Staff at Monk’s Hill Ventures, will moderate the discussion among Toh Ting Feng (GetGo), Ahmad Rizqi Meydiarso (Feedloop), Wilson Yanaprasetya (Dagangan), and Zheng Wei Quah (Accredify). In addition, they will attempt to answer the questions that startup founders should ask to survive the current environment, such as:

• What actions are startups asking to get to profitability?
• Google’s Sundar Pichai recently said that fun shouldn’t be equated to money. Is that a problem for startups these days, especially in all the large fundraising rounds in the past few years?
• How has the culture changed as your startups moved to the profitability model?
• Do more profits equal more bonuses and benefits?
• Are founders thinking of bridge rounds to close the financial sustainability gap?

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Echelon Asia Summit 2022 (October 27-28) returns after a three-year hiatus. It aims to gather the most influential decision-makers and industry leaders from the Southeast Asia tech and startup ecosystem.

Register for Echelon Asia Summit 2022 now!

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Photo by Pixabay via Pexels

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English teachers of public schools in rural Thailand are not so fluent in the language. Private classes are available, but they are expensive for parents. This creates a hurdle in the career growth of rural students.

Takarn Ananthothai, former President of the non-profit AIESEC Thailand, believed there must be a better way to help local people learn English.

With this goal in mind, he asked his friend and ex-management trainee at Uniqlo Thailand, Juice Chuencheewan (who later married him), to start an edutech startup and onboard globally certified part-time teachers to address this problem.

That was the genesis of Globish.

Globish, which stands for Global English, provides online English and Chinese communication courses to professionals, kids, corporates, and schools in Thailand. It uses a simplified version of English used by non-native speakers consisting of the most common words and phrases.

Also Read: BrightCHAMPS acquires SEA-focused edutech startup Schola for US$15M

The core curricula focus on building communication confidence using post-method pedagogy combined with local contexts matching learners’ behaviours.

“At Globish, students can attend one-on-one and one-on-five discussion classes, one-on-ten instructor-led classes, AI pronunciation practices, and offline workshops using real-time updated e-learning content. They get all this in one course,” Ananthothai explains. “The variety of class sizes, teachers’ nationalities, peak time slots management and teacher incentives allow us to control the quality. Besides, we have in-house video calls and a teacher rating system.”

Students can attend live classes daily, book anytime, and speak a new language practically within six months at less cost.

In 2021, the firm expanded into Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. It hired local management and set up a subsidiary. It will focus only on business English courses in the country. The curricula and packages have been customised accordingly.

Globish’s target customer base is working professionals aged ~30 years (70 per cent) and industrial and tech companies and kids aged eight to 15 (30 per cent).

The startup employs 175 people (130 in Thailand and 45 in Vietnam).

The language learning market growth in Thailand and Vietnam is estimated to be at 5 per cent CAGR. Thailand’s market size is around US$100 million, and Vietnam’s is about US$300 million.

While many edutech players exist in Thailand, such as Skilllane, Conicle, FutureSKill, and Caribre, Globish doesn’t compete with anyone in the adult education market. However, in Vietnam, it competes with Topica Native. In the kids’ segment, Globish’s main rivals are LingoAce, PalFish, and Scholar.

Global ambitions

Globish plans to penetrate new domestic and international markets, such as the UAE, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. It will hire native coach teams of more than 400 individuals from various countries, such as the UK, the US, South Africa, Egypt, India, Ukraine, and the Philippines. The plan is to increase to 1,000 coaches to support the market expansion and achieve 500,000 classes by the end of 2022.

It has set an ambitious target of generating an income of US$35 million by 2025. “We have started expanding to one new country. We plan to add three more and reach 100 schools in a few years,” he adds.

Last week, Globish announced a US$2.5 million Series A raise from the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), Premier, N-VEST Venture, Top Itthipat, ECG Research, 500 Tuktuks, and Stormbreaker Venture. The fund will be used to upgrade the organisation to become the edutech leader of ASEAN. The capital will help it extend its platform beyond languages to other skills.

In a limbo

The lack of trust in online education for parents and schools has been a severe issue in Thailand. During the pandemic, parents were fed up with seeing their kids in front of the laptop for six hours a day learning in a one-way classroom at school. Because of this, online extra-curricular classes were perceived as boring and ineffective.

It is also challenging and requires lots of money to set up a concurrent classroom management system and prepare a pool of teachers and a tech platform. Raising venture capital is tough compared to the Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore markets. So it is tough to compete with global business by being local.

The government slowly realises the potential of edutech. “DEPA puts a lot of emphasis on education, and our funding is proof. We are the first government-funded startup in the history of Thailand. However, the government needs to do more to promote the edutech sector,” Ananthothai signs off.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon. 

Here’s the full list of the speakers for the 2022 edition, which will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

The post How Globish helps children and working professionals in Thailand and Vietnam master English appeared first on e27.

In a digital world where millions of data are coming in from millions of sources, there is no excuse for not making data-driven business decisions. But most companies are oftentimes left wondering where to start.

There are many considerations that companies have to look into when they go down the path of making data-driven decisions for their growth. This includes platform, costs, and challenges of setup and maintenance considerations, outside of the actual operations.

Enter open-source databases.

Also read: Echelon 2022: The rise of a new startup profitability culture

In a nutshell, an open source database is a database application wherein the code is free for everyone to view, download, modify, re-use and distribute, allowing users to create a system based on their own unique requirements. This allows companies to analyse massive data from a continuously growing number of sources at a lower cost.

But how can companies get started on utilising open-source databases? And is it the right path for them? 

Open-source database as a managed service? Industry leaders will weigh in

Echelon 2022 invites industry leaders to join the discussion on the current trends and future possibilities of open-source databases.

We are gathering together Southeast Asia’s industry leaders to talk about their experiences, insights, and tips on working with data for operations and growth.

The aim of this roundtable discussion is to tap on the collective experiences and expertise of the participants and share it with the community for the greater benefit of the SEA tech startup ecosystem. After the event, participant profiles and discussion insights will be published and shared with the e27 community.

Also read: The Big Leap: Bringing retention best practices across SEA

Participants will get the opportunity to discuss about:

• Context on how they measure their growth and performance
• Challenges they face in their company growth
• Experiences, best practices, and challenges in dealing with data in operations and growth strategy
• Actionable insights they could implement in their own companies

As industry leaders, roundtable participants will also be asked to share best practices and future trends they foresee on open source data platforms.

This roundtable discussion is co-hosted by e27 and Aiven, Echelon 2022’s Preferred Cloud Database Partner.

If you’re interested in joining the discussion, let us know.

 

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Photo by Christina Morillo via Pexels

The post How the future of growth through data-driven decisions would start appeared first on e27.

Did you guess technology? Well, I would agree to some extent.

But let’s keep it to a human level.

Have an inspiring leader. I’m not sure if you saw that coming.

Now you wonder! How can a leader keep remote workers engaged, committed, and performing at their best?

This may sound like a tall order for someone who’s leading a team that isn’t in the same room, but it’s not impossible.

The Return of the Jedi

Each year, startups are created in droves, with millions and millions of dollars invested in each one. When it comes to startup jobs, most of these companies are only hiring full-time employees who work from an office.

However, there is a new generation of startups that hire remote workers. Remote startups offer freedom to work from anywhere — from a study room in Singapore to a co-working space in Paris.

Also Read: Addressing Singapore’s talent crunch with remote work

Companies like Buffer, Zapier, and Automattic offer work-from-anywhere opportunities to their employees.

Startup jobs have grown to encompass more than just traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. Remote working started in the late 70s, picked up steam in the 80s and rose like a Jedi, following the pandemic.

The ability to work remotely has been a game-changer for some. Employees can plan their commute more easily, which means less time commuting and more quality time with family.

We’re all in search of fulfilling and rewarding careers.

Riding the wave of automation and globalisation, companies are increasingly turning to remote working. It’s a trend that’s been growing steadily in recent years.

Y Combinator, the influential startup accelerator, quietly launched its Work at a Startup (WaaS) platform back in 2018 to help companies hire the right people.

Is this me?

Coming from a traditional corporate environment, working from nine to six was the mainstream. The typical white-collar worker. Bouncing off ideas with colleagues offline, hanging out at the pantry to discover new gossip. Meeting friends and clients at the coffee shop.

Pandemic hit. Most of us learned about telecommuting, working from home and virtual calls.

Fast forward, I wouldn’t have imagined that I would be a remote worker for CINNOX, a software company in Hong Kong. Our technology ecosystem has best-in-class features that empower staff to work together and help businesses unify every touchpoint of a customer journey.

I’m happy to have the best tools available to contribute when, where, and how I need to boost team synergy.

What’s the real deal about inspiring leaders?

They are value-driven, from a deep sense of purpose. Having a responsibility to create a positive change in the team and the company.

A defining characteristic of them is they are passionate about their cause. The ability to transform lives by engaging in the process of change, both inside and outside themselves.

We are not always lucky to see these attributes. It takes time. If you do recognise them, hold on to them. Or else pull the plug.

Signs of a good remote work culture

What better way to start

I can’t say this enough. Send them regular updates on the projects. Let them know what’s going on and how their work fits into the larger picture. Reach out to them from time to time to check in, not just about how things are going but also about their morale.

Hey! Set clear horizons

It’s important for everyone involved in a project, including remote workers, to know what’s expected at each stage of development. Otherwise, there can be gaps or misunderstandings down the road. Set targets and clear milestones.

Let’s bring on those secured channels

Make sure that all communication is documented in a central location so that everyone can access it. This will help ensure that everyone knows what’s going on and how their work fits into the larger picture, whether they’re inside or outside your company.

Also Read: How smart video integration can improve your remote working environment

Can’t do without success, right?

Outline what success looks like for each project and task so everyone knows what they’re working towards. This will help you identify if there are any problems or issues along the way and give you a way to measure whether remote workers are meeting your expectations.

Turn on the visibility mode

When working in an office, it’s easy to delegate tasks and follow up with co-workers about their progress. But remote workers don’t have the same level of visibility into what everyone else is doing, so it’s important to set up processes that make sure everyone knows what they need to do, and when they should be finished by.

Point them to the friendly people

Define who owns each project or task. Let them know who has the final say on decisions and directions for the business. If you have a clear chain of command in place, then everyone will know who to go to with questions or concerns.

Stay tight, folks!

It can be tempting for remote workers to go dark for days at a time, especially if they don’t have anyone sitting across from them who can tell when something isn’t quite right.

Communication is crucial. Have safe channels and collaborative workspaces to discuss.

Celebrate success through an inspiring leader

Working remotely is not a trend anymore. It’s the future of work.

A truly inspiring leader who binds the communication of global remote team members shows value to an organisation. Team members will be supportive and empowered to drive the brand vision passionately.

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

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

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The post What is the one thing you need in a remote work culture? appeared first on e27.

Australian logistics tech platform Shippit today announced that it had acquired its Southeast Asian (SEA) counterpart Luwjistik, the company behind the unified API that allows freight forwarders, couriers and third-party logistics companies to connect into network partners globally.

The deal is worth AU$18 million (US$11.2 million) and will see Shippit Co-Founder and Co-CEO William On relocate to Singapore to head up the SEA operation and a team of 50.

This deal is Shippit’s second acquisition in 2022, after announcing the acquisition of leading Australian last mile technology firm Premonition in March.

In May, Shippit completed an AU$65 million (US$48 million) Series B2 capital to support its growth, particularly in the Southeast Asian Market.

Shippit has been operating in SEA since 2020. Through the acquisition, it plans to double down on growth in the region, including in its enterprise customers, by leveraging Luwjistik’s technology, local relationships and expertise.

Also Read: Get to know these movers and shakers in India’s logistics industry

Luwjistik has agreements with 100+ network partners across 18 countries with a deep focus on Southeast Asia.

“Today is an incredibly exciting day for Shippit and the realisation of a vision we have held since starting out in 2014. Adding Luwjistik to the Shippit group bolsters our team with Co-Founders who possess significant industry knowledge and relationships that will transform our go-to-market strategy in the region,” On said in a press statement.

“Ali, Yingming and the entire Luwjistik team share the same vision for e-commerce and bringing retailers, carriers and customers closer together. This strategic move will expand our growing and scaling business through product localisation and new market entry beyond Singapore. By offering multi-partner shipping from Luwjistik’s carrier partners, it’ll also enable us to diversify our offering, enabling small-to-medium-sized logistics providers to expand their reach by accessing Luwjistik network partners. It’ll also enable us to explore and execute key partnerships in the region,” he further explains.

Luwjistik counts carriers such as Ninja Van, J&T Express, and JNE Express as network partners on its platform and provides solutions for major logistics players in the region, including POS Malaysia, Lion Parcel and Gushcloud’s social commerce arm, Summer International.

Luwjistik has won several startup awards in the region, including Alibaba Cloud Demo Day 2022 (Malaysia), Startup Wheel International Track 2022 (Vietnam), Promising Startup Champion, LogiSYM (Singapore) as well as a finalist at the Cradle MYStartup Pre-Accelerator Program 2022 (Malaysia) and Mranti Global Accelerator Program 2022 (Malaysia).

Shippit said that over 3,500 retailers of all sizes use the Shippit platform to power their deliveries. In FY22 over 40 million deliveries were booked through the Shippit platform, with US$5.5 billion worth of e-commerce fulfilled through the platform since Shippit’s launch in 2014.

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

Image Credit Barrett Ward on Unsplash

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Climate change is happening at a faster pace than predicted by early climate models. If the current trajectory continues, we will likely experience climate catastrophe, said Steve Melhuish, Partner of Wavemaker Impact.

“Climate change is not hypothetical; the effects are already being felt. Over the last three decades, registered severe weather events have tripled. In the previous two decades, the increase in sea levels has doubled, and the pace of ice loss has also tripled,” he said in an interview with e27.

Also Read: ‘There’s a lack of urgency among companies in achieving net zero targets’: Unravel Carbon’s Grace Sai

This year, record heatwaves swept across Europe, North America, and Australia and recorded rainfall in India, Pakistan, China and America, causing devastating floods. If the temperatures rise beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius within the next ten years, we can expect increasingly intense summer heat, extreme drought, and devastating floods. He also warned that we will see reduced crop yields and food supplies, higher incidents of diseases, rapidly melting ice sheets and surging sea levels.

Melhuish, also the founder of the region’s proptech giant PropertyGuru, believes that many parts of the world will become less hospitable for human habitation, forcing hundreds of millions of people to migrate by 2050.

“We all have a role to play in raising awareness: governments, enterprises, consumers (investors, voters and employees) and, of course, investors. At Wavemaker Impact, we have a responsibility to help raise awareness and educate investors/corporates as well as build solutions to accelerate the transition, especially for SMEs that are, in many cases, ill-equipped to do so,” shared Melhuish, adding that eight of the ten governments in ASEAN have now committed to net zero, with over 85 per cent of the world’s GDP under a net zero commitment.

We continue to see growth in global population levels, urbanisation and middle classes, leading to accelerating emissions — especially in emerging markets like ASEAN. However, to stand any chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 and come down about 45 per cent by 2030 relative to 2019 levels.

“Thankfully, we have all the technology we need to reduce emissions by 50 per cent in the next decade. We believe that successful climate tech companies need to solve real business problems that generate real RoI business benefits, leading to rapid adoption/scaling and reducing emissions,” he opined.

He also busted the popular myth that the amount of money being poured into climate tech is low. “Climatetech startups raised US$50 billion from VC/PE in 2021 and already US$30 billion in H1 22. Silicon Valley Bank also recently reported 104 climate exits valued at US$114 billion in 2021,” he said. “In Southeast Asia, US$545 million VC/PE investments were poured into this sector in 2021. There is still a long way to go, but this was a 3x increase over the year before, with 30+ active investors in the climate space. We would expect this trajectory to continue to grow exponentially.”

Also Read: There’s a mismatch of investment and entrepreneur focus in SEA’s climate tech: Steve Melhuish

Increased climate change impacts will also need more investments into adaptation technologies to help the least equipped deal with the effects, for example, microfinance for climate-threatened smallholder farmers. It will also lead to investments in extreme weather protection, e.g. improvements to cities and buildings to protect from more regular and excessive rainfall, floods and high winds.

“There is no bigger problem than tackling climate change and no bigger opportunity,” he said. The investments to decarbonise Southeast Asia will require over US$2 trillion. A recent report highlighted a US$20 billion opportunity in ASEAN in nature-based solutions, US$40 billion in the built environment and US$30 billion in farming. “We are now seeing the transformation in greentech we saw with digitisation over the last 20 years. The next generation of unicorns will be from greentech.”

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Melhuish will speak about climate change at Echelon Asia 2022, which aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. 

e27 has curated and invited key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon. Here’s the full list of the speakers for the 2022 edition, which will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

The post ‘The next generation of unicorns will be from greentech’: Wavemaker Impact’s Steve Melhuish appeared first on e27.

For many startups, venture capital (VC) is a desirable funding source if they want to scale big quickly. VC firms set aside considerable amounts to finance startups intending to get high returns.

Why would any new business refuse such investments, which they don’t have to pay back like a loan? Venture capitalists dangle business and institutional knowledge and a vast network of employees and other investors in front of startups striving to get through the first few years in a field where limited funds could mean failure. The offer is just too hard to pass.

Too good to be true

While you don’t have to pay back what capital VCs give you, VC firms are still likely to expect a return on their investment, usually in the form of an acquisition or an IPO.

Also read: The evolution of early-stage investing and fundraising in SEA

VCs may want equity in your startup, which means you will have to give up part of the ownership. In some cases, venture capitalists eventually take up more shares than the founder, meaning they have greater control over the business they didn’t even start. VC is a potential fundraising option, but it’s not for everyone, particularly for founders who are not planning to exit their companies no matter what.

Funding options to choose from

The good news is that Singapore’s robust startup ecosystem provides founders with many fundraising options other than VCs. The rise of syndicates, venture debts, and marketplaces could free founders from the risks of leaving their businesses in the hands of venture capitalists.

Also read: Echelon: A founder’s approach to fundraising at different stages

Questions might snowball on you as we discuss other means than traditional VC funding; only experts can help you understand the answers.

Expert insights on alternative funding

At Echelon Asia Summit 2022, a panel discussion will be held about “Alternatives to fundraising from VCs – The growth of syndicates, venture debt, and marketplaces.” Moderated by Vanessa Ho, Co-Founder and Head Director of Relations at NUS Alumni Ventures, the session will feature Milan Reinartz (Ascend Angels), Martin Tang (Genesis Alternative Ventures), and Daanyal Shah (Fundnel). They will answer essential questions that founders should ponder to secure the best funding source.

• Why raising funds from VCs might not be the best option?
• How do syndicates and venture debt work?
• How should founders assess when to use alternative funding means?
• What are the available alternatives, and what are their advantages?
• How can alternative funding sources complement your VC round?
• How have other companies successfully raised funds from alternative sources?

The risk of failure for startups is high during the first few years, but understanding the answers to these vital questions will help you avoid the traps and retain control of your business.

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Echelon Asia Summit 2022 (October 27-28) returns after a three-year hiatus. It aims to gather the most influential decision-makers and industry leaders from the Southeast Asia tech and startup ecosystem.

Register for Echelon Asia Summit 2022 now!

The post Echelon 2022: The search for alternative funding options for VCs appeared first on e27.

Global payments and banking platform Airwallex has closed its Series E extension round with US$100 million in funding.

The investors in this round are Square Peg, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital China, Lone Pine Capital, Hermitage Capital, 1835i Ventures and Tencent.

Australian industry superannuation fund HostPlus and an unnamed North American pension fund also participated.

This brings Airwallex’s total funding to more than US$900 million and its valuation to US$5.5 billion.

Founded in Melbourne in 2015, Airwallex provides integrated solutions for business and personal cross-border transactions. It facilitates international money transfers through payment collection, foreign exchange, remittance and security settlement.

Also Read: Airwallex and MongoDB partner with e27 to meet the up-and-coming companies in the region

The company accelerated its international expansion in 2021, extending its reach across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. It serves three of the largest e-commerce markets in the world: China, the US, and the UK.

Airwallex said its customer base more than doubled and revenue increased by 184 per cent YOY. Multiple new products and services are also being planned in its 2022-23 roadmap, including improvements to its expense management platform and a credit solution.

Jack Zhang, Co-Funder and CEO at Airwallex, said: “The market environment remains challenging in the foreseeable future, and while we remain well capitalised, this additional runway allows us to continue our growth plans, product expansion, and hire some of the best talents in the world. By strengthening the breadth of our global reach and product offering, we can better empower our customers to unlock new market opportunities.”

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The post Global payments firm Airwallex closes Series E round with US$100M new investment appeared first on e27.

Today’s consumers have evolved over the last few years; they have higher expectations, look for more meaningful conversations with brands, and seek instant gratification.

In fact, meeting customer demands on their preferred channels and at their preferred times is now considered the bare minimum by them. Instead, they look for the ‘X-factor’ in their interactions with brands; they are quick to appreciate them on social media but quicker to publicly express their disappointment with them.

A whopping 84 per cent of Southeast Asian consumers expect brands to respond to their queries within 24 hours, and 87 per cent expect them to solve their problems in less than three interactions without having to repeat themselves. Their mantra: “Say it quickly but say it well.”

This behavioural shift certainly keeps brands on their toes, with Customer Experience (CX) becoming the top C-Suite priority.

Brands are not oblivious to the challenges they face in their mission to deliver optimal CX to their customers, as they’re increasingly turning to technologies to navigate these challenges and improve their CX.

With the increased adoption of CX automation, voice has emerged as an important channel for engaging with customers. Even customers are gravitating towards the convenience, accessibility, and personalisation offered by voice AI.  In fact, we’ve also observed an astronomical jump of 300 per cent in the number of voice AI agents on our platform. 

Voice AI agents are seeing increased deployment in industries such as BFSI, healthcare, retail, and quick service restaurants (QSR) as brands aim to build a “hyper-personalised” relationship with prospective and existing customers. 

What is the primary factor behind this increased adoption? Voice is native to how humans interact.

As such, it appeals to the emotions, instincts, and intentions of the customer, thereby giving them the sense that the voice AI agents, powered by Conversational AI, understand their query, bringing in the “human” element of having a “voice” to interact with them. Also, in certain situations, customers feel more comfortable interacting with voice AI agents about their mental health challenges or other intimate matters.

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This is because while they deliver an experience akin to talking to a human, at the same time, they facilitate a judgement-free environment that helps eliminate customers’ inhibitions.

From zero-wait times to increased self-serve, voice AI agents enable it all

Currently, brands are adopting both an inbound and outbound voice-first strategy to effortlessly implement customer-centric activities, including ordering, payments, query resolutions, information gathering, feedback surveys, etc., to meet increasing demands efficiently.

With round-the-clock instant responses and accurate query resolution, brands can leverage voice AI to deliver a true, hands-free and convenient experience to their customers. Also, voice AI enables the next level of hyper-personalisation when it comes to engaging with customers in their preferred languages, from Mandarin to English to Malay.

In addition to benefits like having more calls answered, increased first call resolution, and room for more complex issues to be dealt with through brands’ customer service agents, self-service customer support via voice AI agents is also more scalable and customer-centric.

When implemented correctly through the deployment of automotive multimodal customer support systems, the self-service model drives significant value in terms of ROI and customer satisfaction for the business.

In fact, at Yellow.ai, we’ve seen up to 60 per cent call deflection with automated responses to repetitive queries, thereby freeing the customer service agents’ bandwidth to focus on more complex and high-value conversations.

Delivering highly targeted and hyper-personalised consumer campaigns

Voice technology enables brands to run highly-targeted multilingual, hyper-personalised campaigns that drive better leads and conversions. Through leveraging smart insights on customers’ persona profiles, voice AI agents are capable of speeding up the process of qualifying leads.

In addition, qualified leads can be obtained by setting up a specified set of questions as a gateway, utilising voice AI. For instance, a voice AI agent for an insurance brand can be leveraged to proactively reach out to a customer whose car insurance is about to expire: “Hello, I’m Tay calling from insurance company X. I’ve noticed that your car insurance will end in two weeks. Would you like to extend it?”

According to the response, the voice AI agent can tailor the response and choose the next course of action. Not only that, voice AI agents enable the full automation of communication for the entire sales cycle, from awareness to delight, as these agents are capable of assisting customers with prompts throughout their journey.

Marketers and sales representatives also benefit from this automation, as voice AI agents can streamline interactions by automatically scheduling meetings with qualified leads and instantly pushing them down the sales funnel. With these features, brands can gain an edge over their competitors by delighting customers with a zero-effort conversion process.

The utilisation of voice tech to transcribe text also enables brands to gather increasingly accurate data and analysis, which then provides insights that can be utilised to further optimise operations and CX, even to the point of anticipating customers’ needs and the best time to contact them.

Bringing scalability, reduced operational costs and increased productivity

Deploying voice AI agents can help brands save costs in multiple ways. Firstly, the number of queries resolved by a voice AI agent is much higher at a very low cost. Secondly, the passive effects of their deployment include higher customer satisfaction, which saves the cost of acquiring new customers.

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Furthermore, they save customer service teams a lot of working hours that are usually devoted to doing mundane, repetitive tasks. Voice AI agents increase the team’s productivity by taking care of all repetitive queries and enabling them to focus on critical queries, saving a lot of time and money for the business.

In fact, with our customers, we have recorded up to a 70 per cent reduction in operational costs due to deploying voice AI agents as part of their CX automation strategies.

Next in voice tech for CX elevation

Today, advanced voice tech features such as interruption handling, configuring pre-post speech pause duration, recording pause-resume feature for customer-sensitive information, and custom models for decoding alphanumerics accurately enable voice AI agents to deliver more human-like experiences to customers.

In particular, the ability to create branded voice AI agents in a specific language or even dialects, accents, pitch, and tone is opening up new and unimagined avenues for hyper-personalisation. So much so that, going forward, customers would not need to select their preferred language. The voice AI agent will automatically identify and respond in the language that they are speaking.  

In order to remain competitive and relevant in an increasingly digital world, it is necessary for brands to stay abreast and open to the immense potential of voice technology.

Consumer expectations will only continue to rise and change dynamically, so brands will quickly need to acknowledge that relying solely on call centres and customer service agents will not be enough to provide the best experience for their customers.

Essentially, it’s not about human or voice AI technology but about the collaboration between human experts and voice AI agents to achieve the end goal of serving the customer better and supercharging their experience.

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