Fintech company SYNQA today announced that it has rebranded to Opn altogether with the announcement of their US$120 million Series C+ funding round.

The funding round included the participation of JIC Venture Growth Investments, MUFG Bank, and Mars Growth Capital. It brings the total capital raised to over US$222 million to date.

In a press statement, the company said that it will utilise the funding to continue scaling its business and expanding into new geographies.

The rebranding itself was introduced to support the company’s expanded strategic vision and global aspirations. It aims to “better reflect the company’s strategic vision and bold purpose of enabling access to the digital economy for everyone.”

The company also stated that the new name underscores its commitment to making payment seamless and borderless for both people and businesses.

Also Read: Pocket power: 27 personal finance startups in SEA to help you manage money

“We are extremely excited and proud to bring on board this high-quality investment, allowing us to accelerate the development of our core payment solutions, while also expanding into new territories within our core markets of Southeast Asia and Japan and beyond,” said Jun Hasegawa, CEO and Founder of Opn.

“As we approach 10 years since we started as a payment gateway company, and now customised fintech solutions to help businesses grow, we have continued to obsess over how to make payment ever more seamless for both businesses and the people they serve. Through our fintech solutions, we are realising our vision of enabling access to the digital economy for everyone.”

Founded in 2013, Opn specialises in online payment, blockchain technology for fintech applications and digital transformation solutions for Southeast Asia and Japan markets.

The Opn platform is powered by its payment infrastructure sister company Omise Payment Holdings which provides one-stop online payment solutions.

Opn’s parent company SYNQA is one of the first companies to receive certification for its business plan from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) through a ministerial program that started in August 2021, guarantees private-sector loans for deep-tech venture companies.

Also Read: Resolution Ventures makes first close of US$20M fintech fund, targets early stage startups

Under this programme, companies that have had their business plans approved by METI are able to receive loans from private financial institutions approved by the METI. The loans are backed by the ministry’s Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation of Japan (SMRJ).

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Image Credit: Opn

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Indonesia-focused VC firm East Ventures announced today it has raised a total of US$550 million in the final close of its latest fund.

The firm will allocate US$150 million for early-stage deals and US$400 million for growth-stage deals, according to Willson Cuaca, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of East Ventures.

“We have been transforming ourselves from a seed-stage investor into a multi-stage investor and becoming an efficient and robust platform to support entrepreneurship,” he added.

“Digitalisation in Indonesia has become more robust, with a 73.7 per cent internet penetration rate in 2021 and equal digital competitiveness across the regions shown by the increased EV-DCI score from 2020 to 2022. We also saw the IPOs of some of Indonesia’s largest tech companies in recent times, a significant milestone in paving the way for other startups in the country to follow suit. We believe the strong initiatives made by the relevant stakeholders, such as the government, in promoting digitalisation through G20 Presidency, will further elevate the tech ecosystem and create even greater investment opportunities in Indonesia. At East Ventures, we will continue to double down our investments in Indonesia,” said East Ventures Managing Partner Roderick Purwana.

Also Read: East Ventures forms new US$88M seed fund for startups weathering COVID-19, announces first close

Founded in 2009, Singapore-headquartered East Ventures is a multi-stage investor that has backed over 200 seed- and growth-stage companies in Southeast Asia. It is the first investor of unicorns Tokopedia and Traveloka. Other notable companies in the portfolio include Ruangguru, SIRCLO, Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by Gojek), Tech in Asia, Xendit, IDN Media, MokaPOS (acquired by Gojek), ShopBack, KoinWorks, Waresix, and Sociolla.

East Ventures claims that it has experienced significant growth, with more than 200 portfolio companies graduating from seed to growth stages. The firm, which manages over U$1billion in AUM, has attracted US$6.7 billion in follow-on funding for its portfolio companies.

The VC firm also said it recorded more than US$86 billion of annualised GMV in aggregate by its portfolio. The firm will also incorporate sustainability aspects in every practice and usage of the funds.

East Ventures has launched many strategic initiatives in supporting the overall progress and development of Indonesia. They include supporting the digital transformation through its annual East Ventures and ensuring the sustainable investment and practices by signing the Principle of Responsible Investment (PRI), a UN-supported network of investors.

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Imagine you’re a founder at a hot-shot early-stage startup that’s just raised a ton of money. You hire your first high profile Vice President of Engineering (VPE) after months of searching, someone who you carefully vetted and came highly recommended by credible people. And, your VPE quits after less than 24 hours on the job.

Sounds crazy? Well, it happened with a fintech startup called Clinkle, in 2013. Founded by a then-22-year old Lucas Duplan, Clinkle raised US$25 million in June, in what was then the largest seed round ever announced in Silicon Valley history. They closed on a seasoned ex-Yahoo engineering leader, Chi-Chao Chang as their first VPE in December.

Clinkle was a secretive company, and wouldn’t divulge the true state of its product and strategic road map to an outsider. The founder was only willing to let someone go under the hood after signing.

Chang on his first day found out the company was planning a round of layoffs while hiring in a bunch of new senior folks, and the product and marketing strategy were in much poorer shape than he imagined. He wasn’t scared by hard work or a product that needed serious reworking. But fundamental disagreements over where the company was headed were not something that could be fixed.

The Clinkle story serves as a cautionary tale and doesn’t apply to the vast majority of searches I’ve worked on in the USA and Asia, though I’ve seen many situations where a hire gets dragged out.

A VPE is one of the most critical (and expensive) hires that an early-stage startup can make, and getting it right can save founders a lot of heartaches and stress down the road. The talent pool for technical leaders is also smaller and more untested in Southeast Asia, which makes it more challenging.

So let’s highlight some key Dos and Don’ts when hiring your first VPE.

Let’s hear the do’s

Do be very clear on what you need from this hire:

As a founder, ask yourself, what pain points should this hire solve? What projects are stuck on the back-burner until you fill this role? Those two questions will take you a long way toward writing an effective job description.

Being clear on the specific deliverables will allow you to figure out what are hard requirements, vs nice-to-haves. I like to use the following table:

Breaking down requirements into discrete categories forces you to drill down on the critical areas. This will help in writing a more thoughtful job description to circulate to your network and recruiters.

At the same time, be realistic as to what a VPE can do. A VPE’s main job should be to focus on the people and processes to build a scalable, productive and happy engineering organisation.

Depending on the stage, this person could be given a Head or Director of Engineering title. This is different from a CTO. who’s usually someone in the founding team with a strong technical background that’s able to get the initial architecture and product off the ground and set that roadmap.

Do have your pitch down for a technical leader:

For candidates who are in high demand, you have one shot to make a first impression. For series A/B companies, the founder/CEO should always take the first meeting. This lets you put your best foot forward in articulating the company mission and how important this role is. It also allows you to learn and calibrate the best fit for your company.

For technical leaders, be prepared to talk about why what you’re building is technically challenging and interesting. One of the key duties of a VPE is to help you hire and retain engineers. They need to feel confident they can go out there and sell that.

Also Read: 5 productivity tools for busy startup founders to stay focused in 2022

It’s all well and good to highlight what a collaborative culture you have and how you provide free lunches, but what most talented engineers really want is to work on something complex they can dig into.

Do go hard after the folks you want:

For high-quality candidates, i.e. folks that people you trust refer to you (whether it’s a recruiter, VC or someone in your network),  go after them! This is not the time to sit back and think “Oh if they’re interested, they will come back to me”. Reach out directly, and quickly.

When we were hiring Uber’s first CTO, founder Travis Kalanick took it upon himself to relentlessly seek out strong candidates. The candidate lives in Seattle and couldn’t find time to come to San Francisco in the next few weeks? No problem, Travis would get on a plane the next day and fly to meet them in person. You may not be able to convince or close the candidate  but you would have left a strong impression, built a relationship, and that person may refer someone else to you.

Once you feel you’ve found the right person, go all out to close them, being flexible on compensation as needed, getting their family’s buy-in, etc.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and call in favours, ask your VC, recruiters or board members to talk to the people you are targeting. Busy candidates can often be more responsive to an email from a known VC versus an unknown founder.

Founders in our portfolio often ask me how to interview people more senior to them; I can then connect them to seasoned VPEs to help them prepare for such interviews. People can be remarkably generous and often flattered to be asked for help.

Now, onto the don’ts

Don’t hide (all) the bad stuff, be transparent and honest:

Tying this back to the Clinkle debacle, don’t try to hoodwink candidates and tell them you’re further along than you are, have more funding than you have secured, or that you don’t have any technical debt. The truth will come out  and you want a candidate to be aware of what they’re getting into before signing on the dotted line.

Sometimes founders feel like they need to only show the good stuff and hide the stuff they are really worried about, for fear of scaring away candidates. Trust me, any experienced leader will have seen their fair share of crazy, chaotic, screwed up situations. And you can build trust early if you can embrace these and make them part of solving the problems.

Don’t rule out people who aren’t from your tribe:

Cultural fit and chemistry are extremely important. Ultimately this is someone you will be working with closely and there needs to be a ton of mutual trust and respect. But sometimes “not a cultural fit” becomes code for “this person doesn’t look, act or feel like me, therefore they must not be qualified”.

Also Read: How companies can nurture the next generation of tech talent today

Wanting people from your tribe, eg: same school, same background, same sex   is natural but can be dangerous when hiring your first external senior hires and getting to a diverse team. I am encouraged that I see this issue less in Southeast Asia, by virtue of there being so much richness in diversity and the rise of remote teams.

I once worked with an early stage fintech firm with a pretty cookie-cutter, the non-diverse engineering team of 20, looking to hire their first VPE. They were callous and in my view, disrespectful when meeting with some (qualified) candidates.

The CEO would show up late for meetings and sometimes cut the meeting short after 15 minutes when he felt the “chemistry wasn’t there”. When pressed what exactly that meant, it seemed to come down to whether the candidate was someone he would want to grab a beer with, and didn’t speak English with an accent.

It’s not wrong to rely on instinct. Our gut often tells us things that can’t be rationalised. But also be aware (especially if you are a young founder) that the things you look for and are comfortable with may lead you to exclude people who could actually be great for the job but just aren’t the “type” you are used to.

And whether you are discriminating against and ruling out people due to your unconscious biases. Take a beat to think about why some candidates resonated with you and not.

Don’t hold out for the Unicorn aka Purple Squirrel:

Back in the 2010s in Silicon Valley, we would refer to a candidate who ticked EVERY SINGLE BOX that a founder wanted as a unicorn,  elusive and mythical. Nowadays the term unicorn is used more to describe companies with billion-dollar valuations, so I’ll revert to another lesser-known term, the Purple Squirrel: this is used to describe sought-after candidates with the perfect, but often impossible, a combination of skills for a given job.

I once worked on a search for a very attractive Series D company where it took us over two years to find the right VPE candidate. During that time I went on maternity leave twice!

Did they end up with a great candidate? Yes, but the process was so long because we had a very long list of target “reach” candidates (every single VP at Google and Facebook) and there were too many people involved in the decision making, which made it easy to find something wrong with every candidate.

For founders in Southeast Asia, where the market is less developed and there aren’t as many folks who have successfully scaled multiple startups, don’t get overly focused on specific brand names, paper qualifications and pedigrees.

Google, Apple, etc were once startups but now are massive public companies. Hiring an ex-Googler does not guarantee quality and might not deliver the skillset your startup needs. Hiring someone who is very good at managing a team of 100+ engineers may not be the right person to manage a team of 25 engineers.

Also Read: Singapore faces talent crunch for engineering and product manager roles: Report

So, let go of the idea of the perfect candidate and focus more on applicable skills for the role — this will be in terms of actual hands-on qualifications and also in personality and approach.

Do you need a scrappy problem-solver, an agile team player, or a deadline-driven technician? Think about how “knows how to mentor and make people feel heard” may be more of a draw for a VPE role in your organisation than “is the best coder the world has ever seen.”

Final thoughts

In summation, a great VPE that is right for your organisation can make the difference between success and failure at the early stage. So, look beyond just technical skills and reflect on the quality of their character, and always do your reference checks and backchannels!

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The onset of the pandemic blindsided many businesses in Singapore and inadvertently placed social media at the heart of a company’s outreach strategy. It no longer became an option to have a social media presence. It was the place to see and be seen, helping brands to remain relevant and continue to engage better with their audiences.

In Singapore, there were 4.7 million social media users in 2020 (out of a total population of almost six million people), and close to 90 per cent of the population used the internet. This number is expected to grow more than 93 per cent by 2025, according to Statista, showing no signs of the digital network slowing down in the Lion City.  

Most brands jumped onto the social media bandwagon to ensure survivability, making the space crowded and noisy and easy for a company’s reach to be hampered. What’s more is today’s audience is constantly distracted and interrupted, with customer attention spans drastically dropping. 

Despite these setbacks, businesses can still organically reach and engage with communities to navigate business growth through the web, successfully. What does it take to do that?

What is organic reach?

Organic reach is a social media marketing metric measuring the number of unique accounts that have seen a post on a social media platform.  In short, it measures how many people have seen the post once.

Most importantly, organic reach excludes any reach resulting from paid promotion, and it specifically measures the natural or ‘organic’ reach of the post.

Sometimes paid promotions and ad boosts are not accessible to all, leaving businesses wondering what they can do to increase their organic reach and make sure they are interacting with the right audience. 

Here are six ways businesses can increase organic reach:

Eyeing the prize

The golden rule for businesses to engage better is to concentrate their efforts on a few platforms core to their business, as opposed to sharing content across multiple social media channels in the name of ‘spreading the word’.  

Also Read: 5 video marketing trends that marketers can leverage in 2022

There are many factors to take into account when picking and choosing the right social media platform. Where is the audience spending most of their time? What is working for the brand’s competitors? These are questions businesses should be thinking about. 

Also considering those different demographics spend different amounts of time across different platforms, while YouTube and WhatsApp are the most popular social media channels in Singapore, Facebook is currently losing interest in the eyes of the younger generation who are flocking to Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. 

Optimising social media platforms

Social media algorithms, much like search engines, are designed to find pages matching a user’s criteria and deliver them in the feed. This implies that brands should optimise social media content in the same way as a website.

Brands want to be remembered, easy to find and give their customers a smooth experience to follow through on their journey with their business. Usernames have to be readable, short and easy to remember, and photos/logos need to be recognisable to the brand.

A professional-looking social media account is more likely to ensure customers engage with the brand online. The company’s ‘about’ section and website are also key to making customers follow through with the brand from the social media platform; they need to be keyword-rich and trackable.

Trendjacking as a way to boost marketing efforts

I’ve talked about the noise already existing and cluttering the social media space. Trendjacking content provides useful information to a brand’s social media audience in a timely and relevant fashion, allowing the material to ‘work smarter’ and increase interaction rates, while retaining good sentiment. Ultimately, this benefits the brand by improving awareness.

Showcasing the brand’s social listening skills helps them build better recall and will best serve the online community, placing trust in the brand’s ability to share with their audience only what is relevant to them.  

Noting down what trends to ride, along with choosing the right content format and platform, gives businesses the ability to move quickly on the opportunities that come their way. 

Post evergreen content to social media channels

Although audience attention spans are limited, it doesn’t mean brands should give up on evergreen content. Evergreen content will be relevant and discoverable to the brand’s audience indefinitely.  Popular hashtags are a good way to make sure material can be found again. 

Also Read: Former Airbnb marketing head on building a global community through international expansion

Quality over quantity

To break through the social chatter online, brands should focus on getting their posts tailored and relevant. At times, less is more. Posting quality and relevant content than worrying about frequency and volume of content will help improve engagement. 

Target hours and social media spend

A myth that still exists is that posting during peak online periods is the greatest play, but it means brands are also publishing content when everyone else is. When waiting till non-peak hours to post, businesses will have a better chance of being heard among the noise of other postings online. 

Using an AI-powered marketing platform allows suggestions based on audience engagement so look into using tech that helps brands pinpoint the right time to post. It can also provide insights that allow brands to learn from the online interactions an audience is having with their content.

If a particular piece of content performs well organically, it will benefit from extra momentum created through ad spending and paid boosts, making the content work harder.

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Atma, a community-powered social job platform in Indonesia, has announced US$5 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round of funding led by AC Ventures with participation from Global Founders Capital.

The founders and executives of GoTo Group, Advance Intelligence Group, Ula, Lummo, Kopi Kenangan, Sampoerna Strategic, MMS Group and Xiaomi also joined.

The startup plans to use the money to enhance its product, execute a go-to-market strategy, and expand the team.

Atma was founded in 2022 by Edy Tan (ex-Chief of Driver at Gojek), Chris Gunawan (Co-Founder of RestoDepot and Product Executive at Vara), Susan Suhargo (ex-Strategic Initiatives at Tencent and Regional Marketing at Gojek), Tim Young (ex-investor at Atlas Asset Management and Fixed Income Trader at HSBC; and Monica Oudang (Chairperson of YABB – GoTo Foundation).

Also Read: Why cross-skilling is critical for jobs of the future (Part 2)

The venture focuses on solving pain points within the lower and middle-income job segment and intends to build an end-to-end ecosystem that includes a job marketplace, an upskilling institute and a community-based support system.

According to Atma, the current job marketplace in Indonesia has pervasive inefficiency. Companies experience several weeks of lead time from the moment they post an open position until it receives any qualified candidates. Poor recruitment processes from generating leads, screening CVs, and conducting interviews result in candidates having extremely negative experiences or no responses.

The same job search and candidate search experiences have not benefited from effective innovation. Atma sees a massive opportunity for product solutions at scale to redefine the existing job search and candidate search experiences.

“Job seekers in the lower and middle-income segment describe their job search experience as emotionally traumatising, while companies often describe their candidate search experience as a random walk. In Atma, we are building a product to redefine these experiences by overhauling existing dated systems with a first-principle approach. Simplicity, interactivity, sociability, personalisation, and gamification will be the core elements of our product,” said Atma CEO Edy Tan.

“Over 100 million active workers in the lower to intermediate level income bracket face significant inefficiencies in searching for the right job that matches their skillsets and preferences. Atma is going to help workers find the right jobs more easily and provide them with career advancement opportunities by taking additional certifications or training. They also help employers screen for applicants with more relevant qualifications. Atma will redefine the job-seeking experience and help candidates increase their potential,” said Michael Soerijadji, Founder and Managing Partner of AC Ventures.

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Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

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You’ve decided to live and work in Taiwan and begin mapping out your path to launching a business in Taiwan. But before you go any further, here are some things to think about.

Knowing if your business is a good match for Taiwan

As a hardware manufacturing hub, Taiwan is an obvious choice for multinationals like Apple, Google, and HP looking for partners and suppliers.

But zero-to-one companies may have a harder time identifying the best ways to leverage Taiwan’s capabilities. Since Taiwan’s strengths lie mostly in tech manufacturing, an SME that produces physical products, say, electric bicycles or 3D printers would have the greatest chance of success.

On the other hand, enterprises that are consumer-facing or predicated on a scale, e.g. selling a new elixir (kombucha or handcrafted beer) to Taiwan may need to rethink their plans or businesses that hope to use Taiwan as a stepping-stone to China may encounter more challenges.

Acquiring a government grant in Taiwan

Taiwan has done a great job advertising government support for start-ups. We have encountered many entrepreneurs upon their face visit to Taiwan inquiring about government grants for their startups.

It is important to understand that government grants are awarded not to individuals but to companies registered in Taiwan, so if you’re a foreign entrepreneur with a foreign company, then you need to establish a Taiwanese entity to qualify for a government grant.

Branch offices and representative offices are not eligible for grants. And while foreign workers with Taiwanese residency (ARC) are allowed to receive such subsidies, remote workers located outside Taiwan aren’t eligible. We cover this in greater detail on the process of applying for a government grant in Taiwan here.

Understanding accounting practices in Taiwan

It’s easy to assume that accounting practices are the same at home and abroad, but some aspects of Taiwan’s accounting procedures may come as a surprise.

Also Read: How remote work has changed the salary scale in Taiwan

Take business expenses as an example. In the US, business accounting operates within an “innocent-until-proven-guilty” framework, which means you can write off a business expense on your tax return with a receipt, even if it is written on a paper napkin.

But Taiwan’s business accounting framework is the opposite: you’re guilty until proven innocent. So to claim a business expense, you need to receive a Fa-Piao (發票) or a Uniform Invoice, but in order for it to be an expense deduction, you need to give the vendor your tax ID number, which needs to be typed or written on the official receipt you obtain from them.

Elsewhere, particularly in the context of start-ups, this accounting framework means that a payment you’ve made to a company registered outside Taiwan for a SaaS subscription or to a freelancer in Chiang Mai won’t be recognised by the Taiwanese government as a valid business expense. These are only two examples of how accounting practices in Taiwan can be completely different from other places.

Navigating the regulatory environment in Taiwan

Startups today are built for a digital, cross-border world, but managing cross-country jurisdictions can be a real huge headache from an administrative standpoint. Taiwan may be a liberal and open country, but when it comes to business practices it’s still relatively conservative.

Also Read: 5G tech? All eyes on Taiwan

The government in Taiwan oversees much of daily business. Taiwanese labour law, for example, takes precedence over any agreement that may be signed between a company and its employees, so employers and employees can’t enter into any private agreements as they would be able to, say, in the US.

And since the Taiwanese government plays a big role in business, foreign business owners will likely find themselves having to talk to multiple agencies to get answers to their business questions. This is where a service like 11th Fleet can help simplify the process.

11th Fleet’s outsourced CFO/COO solution can help avoid many missteps for entrepreneurs and companies that are new to Taiwan. Most importantly, 11th Fleet can help stave off trouble by helping its clients anticipate any problems that may arise along the way, saving its clients valuable time and money by avoiding detours.

Overcoming the language barrier in Taiwan

Taiwan is closer to Japan and South Korea in terms of English fluency than it is to Singapore or Hong Kong, where English is spoken as an official language.

Although the Taiwanese government is committed to making the country bilingual by 2030, business in Taiwan is still largely conducted in Mandarin, and business contracts and documents are written in Chinese.

This means foreign investors who aren’t fluent in the local language must take the extra step to have their official documents and contracts translated when registering their businesses in Taiwan.

Moreover, when you are ready for business, you should have someone on your team who can help you navigate the language and cultural barriers.

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A recent study by Accenture and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) showed that consumers want more courses of action that enable a circular economy by ensuring longer shelf life and reuse of products in a bid to tackle the impact of climate change. This includes better packaging design and recycling of waste. In fact, over 30 per cent of consumers ranked sustainable ingredients and packaging as top factors in choosing sustainable disposal options in everyday shopping.

This demand is understandable considering the fact that the environmental impact of food packaging is enormous. While modern food packaging provides a way to make food safe, reliable, shelf-stable and clean, unfortunately, most of them are designed to be single-use. This means they are typically thrown away rather than reused or recycled, especially in places with substandard waste management.

This is why barePack and &Repeat are calling for more collective efforts to sustain the planet.

To put an end to single-use packaging in the restaurant business, these two players have come together to offer a more complete and unique circular economy solution for the food industry in Europe and Asia. &Repeat is an app that financially rewards people when they recycle their food packaging while barePack is a reuse network in Southeast Asia and France.

In Singapore, barePack and &Repeat function as a reuse ecosystem where people can order their food as usual. However, instead of receiving it in single-use containers, they will receive their meal in beautiful reusable boxes. After their meal, the user can drop off the containers anywhere in the network, at any partner restaurant.

Also Read: Why GoImpact believes that education is the key to promoting ESG investment

Recently &Repeat has completed the acquisition of barePack as part of their effort to rapidly scale towards greener choices.

In an exclusive interview with e27, &Repeat CEO and Co-Founder Tor Espen shares about the acquisition of the company. “With the acquisition comes the ambition for an even bigger impact. We want to move the industry and society toward more sustainable practices and behaviours, whether it is recycling or reuse. To support this transformation we are aligning the two brands and barePack will probably become &Repeat in the long run when we merge the two user journeys (recycling and reuse).”

He further says, “More than 9,000 single-use packagings are thrown away every second. We all know it causes water pollution in Asia and everywhere in the world. We need to reduce drastically the number of single-use items and we decided to launch &Repeat in order to create an ecosystem where restaurants and users go together to battle these challenges.”

As part of their mission, the two companies have been allocating resources to train and educate the clients of their partner restaurants on the matters of waste reduction, recycling and reuse.

&Repeat and barePack are now operating in Singapore, Sweden and France with more than 70,000 users on board, aiming to make a change and apply zero waste concepts to their everyday life. Besides they are also preparing the launch the service in at least one other European country by the end of 2022.

Espen further elaborates, “We are already the leader in circular packaging solutions for food in Europe and Asia, but we picture &Repeat to be a much broader movement with a significant impact on waste reduction. We need to onboard the people who already are making a change in their daily life and those who are not there yet.”

Also Read: How consumers are prioritising sustainability beyond the single lens of eco-friendly products

Looking back at their important milestones and future plans, Espen says, “The acquisition of barePack, reaching 50,000 users and launching to new countries is pretty amazing milestones and it’s only the beginning!”

&Repeat itself raised EUR3 million in 2021 and is preparing new fundraising for 2022 to support its goals promote the circular economy in the market it is operating.

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Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

Image Credit: barePack

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If COVID-19 has taught the world one thing, it is that the only certainty in life is that nothing is certain. As the pandemic gripped the planet for almost two years, workers used the global slowdown and shifting dynamics to take stock of their careers, assessing what, with all this newfound unpredictability, they really wanted from their jobs.

It has become starkly apparent that mundane, repetitive tasks, “working like a machine”, in other words, are no longer of interest to employees. In many cases, this has resulted in the Great Resignation, impacting companies of all sizes across the world. Today’s workers yearn for roles that have purpose and meaning, which stimulates and makes them pleased to come to the office each day.

Businesses that solve this challenge can benefit significantly. Happy workers don’t just bring improved well-being and reduce staff turnover; they boost the business’s bottom line. In fact, according to researchers at the University of Oxford, workers were found to be 13 per cent more productive when happy.

Forward-thinking businesses need to invest in technology and digital tools to make their staff empowered, productive and successful at work. And the name of the secret sauce? Intelligent Automation.

Using AI-powered automation will improve an employee’s satisfaction in the workplace by automating repetitive, low-value tasks. It frees up employees to focus on other, more appealing and engaging undertakings that draw on their core competencies and human creativity.

And by making it easier to optimise employees’ working hours and focus on higher-value tasks, companies save time and money. But increased productivity isn’t the only gain. The technology can deliver broader operational efficiencies, faster and more data-driven business decisions, and smooth the way to successful scaling.

Let’s look into how Intelligent Automation can elevate core business processes.

Streamlining expense management and human resources functions

As we’ve discussed, Intelligent Automation can play a critical role in helping employees find meaning in their work by removing the humdrum aspect of their daily tasks, raising their satisfaction in the workplace and making them less likely to leave.

Areas within the workplace primed for AI-powered solutions include expense management, the second most controllable budget in a company after wages, and human resources. These are departments where data capture and analysis, accuracy, and the need for repetition are implicit.

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

Manual data input and tracking are incredibly fiddly and prone to simple human errors from incorrect keystrokes or placing numbers in the wrong field on a spreadsheet, especially when vast troves of information are involved.

The automation of expense management prevents mistakes in the compilation and computing of data and dismisses the need for time-consuming manual intervention to rectify computational errors.

Intelligent Automation can also track expenses to identify anomalies in expenses and flag potential fraud, either intentional or unintentional, or abuse of company policies that control and monitor expenses.

As an environmental plus, Intelligent Automation can streamline expenses by forgoing paperwork and its manual submission, by taking photos of receipts that can be directly loaded onto an app for immediate reimbursement, for instance, improving efficiency and cutting time and cost for employees and employers.

Ultimately, when expense management processes flow smoothly, business managers gain accurate insights into their organisation’s financial health, helping them identify cost-saving opportunities and potential risks.

Intelligent Automation brings similarly far-reaching benefits to human resources. The data collected by AI can be instrumental in analysis, prediction, and diagnosis that let human resources teams make better decisions, from recruitment of new hires all the way through an employee’s life cycle.

For instance, onboarding is a critical yet time-consuming step where an inefficient, poorly organised process can impact the long-term retention of fresh talent. New recruits often have many questions that can be answered more quickly and accurately by an AI-powered human resources solution than a human worker doing the task manually.

Human resources can integrate Intelligent Automation to harness multiple data points on an employee to proactively see if they are due for a salary increase based on performance and market rates.

It can also determine if staff have attained the necessary skills for a promotion, are on track to meet that month’s targets, or are likely to seek employment elsewhere due to unhappiness in the workplace.

Conventional methods of discovering these by HR are far from scientific, and riddled with gaps in information, often resulting in ill-informed or contentious outcomes.

The beauty of AI-powered automation is that what might take months of flawed investigation and deduction can be done in minutes and with a result that is clear, objective, accurate, and grounded in facts. And nobody can argue with that.

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Resolution Ventures makes first close of US$20M fintech fund, targets early stage startups
Aiming to invest in 25 companies, Resolution Ventures seeks startups that are building solutions with local and international applications; The fund is backed by an international community of fintech-interested institutions, family offices, experienced finance executives, and successful entrepreneurs.

Why GoImpact believes that education is the key to promoting ESG investment
Investing in climate tech has become increasingly popular; GoImpact believes in the importance of making informed decisions. The company raised a Series A funding round that brought its valuation to US$22 million.

LottieFiles raises US$37M in Series B funding to launch new solutions for global users
LottieFiles builds a JSON animation file format that enables designers to ship animations on any platform as easily as shipping static assets. In February last year, LottieFiles announced the acquisition of India-based design asset marketplace Iconscout.

Searching for gold in the silver economy: A venture capital perspective
A huge pot of gold can be found in the silver economy globally and in Asia, this article by Michelle Ng of Quest Ventures aims to identify the key opportunities for venture capitals.

Axie Infinity hack reminds us about the vulnerabilities in crypto markets: Advance.AI’s Ravi Madavaram
Businesses should conduct KYB and KYT verifications on top of eKYC to prevent crypto hacks and fraud, he says in an interview with e27. Such incidents will affect users’ trust and confidence in P2E games, but recovery is possible if businesses invest in security measures and are transparent about these to their users.

Female entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia raised over 17 per cent of all private funding in 2021
Despite the encouraging growth in funding, some efforts to funnel more money into female-run companies through Gender Lens Investing (GLI) projects are being met with “pinkwashing” accusations. This negativity is causing reluctance from some venture capitalists (VCs) to back female entrepreneurs, according to the report.

Tech giants expand support for ‘a passwordless world’
Apple, Google and Microsoft plan to implement capabilities that will allow users to sign in to websites and applications without a password. As noted in a joint press release, password-only authentication can create security issues that span industries – leading to account takeovers, data breaches and disrupted services.

Unusual Ventures just closed a US$485M fund by promising hands-on (full-time) help
Unusual invests in only 12 or so companies each year, writing initial checks of between US$2 million and US$10 million initially at the seed or pre-seed stage where the firm can be the first institutional money a startup raises. One “opportunistic” investment it made was a check into the security operations company Artic Wolf Networks, which has filed confidentially for an IPO.

MoneyMatch an equity partner in KAF Investment-led digital bank consortium, targets US$10M Series B raise
Consortium aims to target underserved MSME segments neglected by incumbents. It is ramping up investments in tech, upgraded financial infrastructure and business development.

‘Bored Ape’ unicorn raises US$320M by selling virtual land in its metaverse
The virtual real estate buying frenzy over the weekend reportedly was so intense that it crashed the Ethereum network and sent fees on the blockchain system soaring.
The land sale offered buyers the chance to buy a plot in the Otherside metaverse for around $5,800, plus transaction fees.

Insurtech startup Turtlemint bags US$120M as valuation tops US$900M
Insurtech startup Turtlemint has raised US$120 million led by Amansa Capital, Jungle Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners, the company said on Friday. The online platform for buying insurance has closed the current financing round at a US$900-950 million valuation, said a person in the know.

Blockchain game Apeiron raises US$10M in Hashed-led funding round
Developed by Foonie Magus, the game has now raised over US$17 million at the close of their seed round for the new play-and-earn NFT god game Apeiron. The company received US$3 million from pre-seed investment, US$10 million from seed investment, and US$4.5 million from NFT sales, putting them at over US$17.5 million in total.

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Thanks to the growing acceptance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the mainstream, professional investors are now fully cognisant of the upsides of investing in crypto.

Meanwhile, institutional-grade investment products such as the Fintonia Bitcoin Physical Fund have made cryptocurrency safer and more efficient than ever before. We’re seeing an unprecedented number of professional investors buying into the crypto space.

Apart from investing in crypto tokens directly or through a fund, there is another way for investors to profit within the fast-moving cryptocurrency ecosystem. We’re talking about finding yield, or passive income, through crypto.

Yield farming in the crypto ecosystem

Given that cryptocurrency is a notoriously volatile field, how is it possible to generate a stable income?

Collectively known as yield farming, the below strategies focus on generating consistent yield from your crypto holdings.

• Lending: If you’re on a crypto exchange, you can lend your holdings to other users. This method is similar to how traditional fiat banking works. Others borrow your Bitcoin to make transactions, and, as the lender, you earn interest from them.
• Staking: It is possible to stake your crypto holdings on a blockchain and get rewarded when ledger transactions are confirmed. However, this only applies to proof-of-stake blockchains like Ethereum, Solana and Cardano, not proof-of-work ones like Bitcoin.
• DeFi protocols: Some decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols allow users to swap pairs of cryptocurrencies. If you can provide these token pairs, you can earn a cut of the fees.

However, all three methods have risks. Being laCryptoes and DeFi protocols could be largely unregulated and average investors susceptible to scams, hacking, and theft.

While professional investors can practice yield farming methods, we believe the possibility of major security breaches is a risk too high for many professional investors to make them worthwhile.

Also Read: 13 years on since the birth of Bitcoin, it’s now blockchain’s time to shine

On top of that, investing on unregulated platforms leaves you open to a slew of additional risks and hidden costs, especially if you’re managing larger amounts of cryptocurrency.

A safer solution for professional investors

Generating consistent income from cryptocurrency is a top priority for professional investors, but the crypto ecosystem’s lack of security and safety is a significant obstacle.

Given the difficulties in moving fiat currency in and out of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the 1,000+ exchanges and overall cryptocurrency market inefficiencies, there is the opportunity to provide collateralised loans at higher risk-adjusted rates to ecosystem players who are profiting from these market inefficiencies.

That’s why Fintonia Group created the Fintonia Secured Yield Fund, an over-collateralised traditional private credit fund, as a solution to help professional investors solve this issue.

There is a great opportunity for professional investors (via the Fintonia Secured Yield Fund) to lend fiat money to cryptocurrency players, such as miners and crypto hedge funds, and earn interest from these borrowers.

At the same time, the borrowers’ Bitcoin is held as collateral so that the risk of default is kept minimal, and margin calls are made when the cryptocurrency price drops to pre-determined levels.

Essentially, fiat loans secured by borrowers’ Bitcoin holdings allow investors to generate an attractive, stable income at low risk amid a volatile cryptocurrency environment.

The crypto ecosystem’s need for fiat

Savvy investors would have noticed that this opportunity is like a bond or bank deposit, where investors earn interest from borrowers. But the difference is in who’s borrowing and why.

In the case of traditional financial products, borrowers use the funds to run businesses or purchase consumer goods like houses or cars.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency ecosystem players like Bitcoin traders, miners, and corporates are willing to pay much higher interest on fiat loans than traditional borrowers.

We’ll explain why:

• Arbitrage traders: Arbitrage traders and hedge funds profit hugely off the inefficient crypto market by taking advantage of price differences across exchanges and assets. However, they need a large amount of fiat to settle their trades. As a result, they’re willing to pay high interest on fiat loans.
• Crypto miners: Considering that each completed hash on the blockchain can generate a reward in the six figures, Bitcoin mining remains a lucrative industry. But miners need immense working capital to keep their operations running and would instead borrow fiat than sell their Bitcoin to pay operating expenses. Bitcoin returns have averaged 100 per cent+ IRR over the last decade. Mining expenses such as electricity bills and hardware purchases are largely settled in fiat.
• Corporates: More and more companies are holding Bitcoin in their portfolios, but they may still need cash for their requirements (e.g. purchasing property, cars or equipment). We come in to supply fiat, secured by their Bitcoin holdings.

In summary, cryptocurrency ecosystem players are making significant profits, but fiat is still needed to grease the wheels. At the same time, some players lack access to traditional borrowing options such as banks, which further strengthens the demand for fiat.

The Fintonia Secured Yield Fund allows investors to find much higher yields than that of traditional investment products.

Collateralised loans using Bitcoin: a star in today’s low-yield environment

Consistently high risk-adjusted returns of between six per cent and 18 per cent per annum through collateralised loans secured against cryptocurrencies stand out in today’s low-yield environment. Today, it can generate four to ten times as much annual income as a mainstream corporate bond.

Historically, high returns went hand-in-hand with high risk, but collateralised private loans secured against Bitcoin provide a much higher risk-adjusted return given the cryptocurrency market inefficiencies.

Also Read: How to find a good investment with new crypto tokens

In addition, Bitcoin is a great form of collateral as it is highly liquid, easy to value, transfer and verify and is seen as a store of value. The volatility of Bitcoin can be managed by setting an appropriate loan to value (“LTV”) ratio (typically 50 per cent LTV) and margin call ratios (typically at 70 per cent, 80 per cent and 85 per cent).

Typically for every fiat dollar borrowed, collateral twice as much of the value of the loan is deposited in the form of the borrower’s Bitcoin. Should the value of their Bitcoin fall below a safe ratio due to price fluctuations, the borrower is obliged to top up within hours. Otherwise, the Bitcoin collateral can be automatically liquidated to repay the loan.

Bitcoin collateral is deposited with a licenced, insured custodian, and typically held securely in an offline cold wallet.

As a MAS-regulated fund manager that complies with Singapore’s strict practices, Fintonia Group uses best-in-class risk management techniques in our institutional-grade funds.

These funds, designed especially for professional investors, help manage the security, legal, and financial risks around cryptocurrency investing. That’s how we can deliver high but consistent yields within the fast-growing crypto ecosystem, all without compromising the integrity of your investment.

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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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