Perched on the benches of various academic institutions across the globe, with an eagerness to learn and grateful for the opportunities that came with the lessons, I have often wondered how independent ‘leading’ and ‘learning’ were from one another.

Whenever time and experience allowed me the discretion to, I also caught myself pondering about how different learning could be under the right kind of leadership and how I could contribute to that equation.

Determined to unravel the equation of adequate coaching techniques for budding professionals and entrepreneurs, I began to observe various professional leaders and realised that there was a common theme – successful leaders never stopped working on themselves to become qualified for their jobs and were always upskilling themselves, thus, reinforcing my decision to create a holistic platform – SpeakIn –  for professionals to easily access global thought leaders.

Equipped with the gumption to close the prevalent gap between leadership and learning, and to democratise opportunities for the keen professionals, SpeakIn was born. Created with the vision to revolutionise professional development, SpeakIn is the brainchild of a keen learner who aspires for professionals to be able to tap on the experience of thought leaders worldwide.

Now, more than ever before, is it important for professionals regardless of their experience or industry, to embrace professional development. On a micro level, SpeakIn strives to appeal to individuals’ growing importance of wanting to do more and better.

On a macro level, SpeakIn has the potential to be the catalyst for a tectonic shift in different workplaces, completely independent from varying business models.

I have always believed that nothing comes out of nothing, and being a leader is not merely restricted to what I, as an individual, can do but also transcends into how I can facilitate others through synergising ideas and thoughts. The biggest lesson that I have learnt on this journey of empowering other like-minded professionals, is that leadership isn’t at all mutually exclusive from learning.

Also Read: Edutech is surging, but here are the 3 issues it is facing

Amongst others, and perhaps equally as important, are the pursuit of a bigger purpose and embracing agility in all forms.

Through this article, I’d like to share the key lessons I have learnt in my lifetime of leadership and how these help me with achieving my goals through continued learning.

Pursuing a greater cause

An element of vital importance is one’s ability to understand what their purpose is, and to be able to comprehensively justify that purpose. On your professional journey, generic statements about hypotheticals are just not going to cut it. You have to envision the impact that you will create on the world, and embrace it wholeheartedly.

While pragmatism often loses out to idealism, making it virtually impossible for any of us to completely live into our purpose all day, careful planning and hard work make it easier to achieve our goals consciously and effectively.

In the earlier stages of my career, traditional development plans often led me to think I could not have outside interests and commitments in the name of staying focused on a ‘traditional’ career path.

However, over the years, I have understood that taking a holistic view of professional opportunities, coupled with meaningful and purposeful-led learning, has helped me become a stronger leader.

Once the greater cause is understood, it is much easier to work backwards from there to set smaller, specific goals. With the help of learning tools that can be incorporated into your professional career regime, continued learning and skill set accomplishments are no longer a thing of the past.

Using my own purpose as an example, with SpeakIn, we hope to take one step forward to equip different individuals with personalised opportunities to learn from top thought leaders in various industries and revolutionise learning and leadership, with the use of technology.

It is of paramount importance to us that we assimilate learning and innovation through our platform and make continuous learning happen without the effects of geographical barriers.

The purpose is not a list of the education, the background you come from or even the skills that one has accumulated over the years. The purpose is also not a professional title, limited to your current job or organisation. Confusing your career with your purpose-led ideations makes effective leadership difficult to accomplish.

The purpose is also not some feel-good mantra like ‘empowering our clients to achieve stellar results, while fulfilling our commitment to the professionals of society’.

The purpose is not virtuous and not what you think society expects of you. The purpose is natural. It is the willingness to provide without the need for remuneration or incentive.

Purpose is what makes you intrinsically and exclusively you, an understanding of which makes achieving your goals that much more impactful.

Also Read: Edutech is opening up opportunities, but we need to get it right

Articulating a clear vision

While your leadership purpose is who you are and what makes you distinctive, it is also important to have a vision. Regardless of the professional stage, you are in, it is equally crucial to identify how you do your job and why— the direction you want to achieve as a leader should also be aligned to a greater vision that is shared by the organisation you represent.

Over the course of my career, I have come to realise that many leaders from various industries and professions have a poor sense of individual direction. This makes it extremely difficult to distil their purpose into a concrete statement that can be shared with colleagues and team members.

They may be able to clearly articulate their organisation’s motto to appease stakeholders, but falling back on nebulous statements makes it problematic when it comes to translating your vision and purpose into action.

Consequently, professionals and to a large extent, even organisations, limit their aspirations and often fall short of achieving their most ambitious professional goals. As a business leader myself, I have always found it extremely useful to speak with other C -suite individuals, who would give me a fresh perspective on certain business scenarios.

When you are able to provide insights into your vision, you increase the probability of finding someone who is in pursuit of the same goals. After all, no man is an island and we can all learn from one another through effective communication.

SpeakIn was also set up with the vision of giving global thought leaders from various industries a platform to share their experience and mentor other like-minded professionals, who can articulate their vision to help other professionals develop themselves.

By going online and eliminating geographical barriers that otherwise made cross-border mentorship and education impossible, we hope that this vision is emulated in different territories, and we can increase the pool of global thought leaders from whom many professionals can benefit.

Had I not been able to articulate my vision of reconstructing experiential learning, I would have done myself and may others a disservice, as I would not have been able to effectively aligned with my team, who have together made it possible to create an easily accessible and versatile platform that SpeakIn is today.

Today, organisations and professionals can learn seamlessly via our platform with supporting content such as videos, blogs, podcasts and even 1-1 personal learning sessions.

Knowing that people are the key to success

Lastly, it is incredibly important to know the value of the people you work with. I have always believed that an efficient way to effectively create waves within an organisation, is to focus on leadership development and continuous upskilling.

There is almost no limit to the potential of an organisation that recruits people whose core beliefs are aligned with yours, and who are willing to engage in constant upskilling practices, for the betterment of the organisation.

Whether we like it or not, we all come from different upbringings, have different values and have been educated through different institutions. If organisations could acknowledge the differences and optimise the effects of our differences, then the outcome can be significantly positive.

Working with several other organisations and over 18,000 thought leaders since starting SpeakIn, we’ve helped more than 350 clients through the upskilling process. It is also humbling to see when we track and review their progress over the past years.

With the use of SpeakIn, professionals have seen two-step promotions and sustained improvement in business results. Professionals are now more than ever, innately equipped with the ability to develop more capabilities to thrive in even the most challenging times.

Also Read: 3 lessons from a founder who scaled his startup to 13 markets in five years

With the leadership idea of continued learning and upskilling, organisations can look forward to a multi-skilled, driven and high achieving workforce that will remain a key asset to the success of the company.

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SGHoldCo, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thai oil company OR, and early-stage investor 500 TukTuks (now 500 Global), have jointly launched a US$50-million fund to invest in startups in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

ORZON Ventures will focus on both OR-related technologies and new businesses in the Series A-B stages under the theme of mobility and lifestyle.

In other words, the fund will invest in startups that meet the needs of future mobility solutions or those that respond to the new changing needs of the modern lifestyle, such as F&B startups, travel, health, wellness, and other digital lifestyles solutions.

The setting up of ORZON Ventures will enable OR to gain greater access to startups in the early stages in Thailand and Southeast Asia. With this, the oil company aims to strengthen and expand its businesses.

SGHoldCo will make an initial investment of US$25 million into ORZON with the option to increase the size to US$50 million in the future.

Also Read: Flash Express secures US$200M Series D to expand its e-commerce logistics service in SEA

According to OR’s president and CEO Jiraphon Kawswat, one of its growth strategies is to seek new business opportunities to develop beyond the horizons of the oil business amid a fast-changing environment. OR looks for cooperation with large companies as well as smaller and more nimble organisations. The partnerships can be in the form of business alliances of investment in SMEs or startups that OR believes have the strength and advantage in technology, speed, and agility to adapt to changes.

However, smaller businesses are facing many challenges, such as lack of human resources, funds, access to customer and ecosystem support. ‘OR’ believes that it can help fulfil and support startups by investing, providing access to customers/OR’s large ecosystem, and other fundamental business support from relevant experts.

Recently, OR recently led the US$200 million Series D round of Flash Express, the first unicorn in Thailand.

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Image Credit: ORZON Ventures

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For my first post, I wanted something impactful. Something that gave me this so-called “Oh s***, I have to write about this” reaction to fuel me for a first (hopefully not last) short article. And guess what, I found that fuel — and time!

Earlier this year, WiredUK shared an insightful article about Netflix’s carbon emissions. As I have been investigating IT sustainability for some time now, I struggle to find data to estimate online activities’ carbon emissions.

Most enterprises showed strong stances; this is true, but finding data…? Not that easy. And yep, it did not say “relevant” or “accurate”, just data.

I like the article for different reasons because it shows that:

• A new major pure player is on the green move
• It takes more than a mere estimation to understand the whole extent of online habits
• It reminds me that we are at the very beginning of online practices maturity and regulations (I like to call it the Stone Age of the Internet)

Thus, first, it did provide some data I could use (delivered by an organisation called DIMPACT, partially industry-funded though, so let’s be cautious). Primarily, it shows VOD/streaming big boys are finally on their way to a more sustainable mindset.

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook have announced over the last couple of years big moves (most of them promised to be carbon neutral by 2030, for instance), but the silence of VOD pure players has been, in my opinion, quite loud.

YouTube made some (lukewarm?) statement as WiredUK already wrote about here, but I always found it awkward that pure players kept silent on such things as carbon footprint. Remember that internet traffic represents around four per cent of global GHG emissions (equal to pre-COVID-19 aviation traffic).

This article also stresses that it is hard to debunk one online action’s actual carbon footprint impact. Today, tracking the carbon footprint of a specific “online action” such as purchasing a t-shirt or watching a video is a tremendously complex task.

It depends on so many parameters (location, devices, infrastructures, etc.), and ultimately this is not easy to take all the chain of actions into account.

On top of that, most companies do not wish to share such data publicly, so finding reliable numbers is not always easy. But that’s for another day …

Also Read: Streaming wars: Why are streaming giants spending big bucks on acquiring content

In the article, Netflix claims that one hour of streaming on its platform in 2020 used less than 100gCO2e (a hundred grams of carbon dioxide equivalent)— that’s less than driving an average car a quarter of a mile.

I am pretty sceptical about this figure, but that’s not the point in the end. Netflix stating they are thinking about “weighing their carbon footprint” is already excellent news and should be followed by better estimations from now on.

Most of you probably did not see that last year, but The Shift Project (a French think tank for sustainability) shared a rough estimation of Netflix’s impact on the environment. Carbon Brief replied— fiercely — to re-estimate the numbers on this paper.

The Shift Project made a couple of mistakes; Carbon Brief helped them pointing them out. And now, the discussion is on, and things are on the table. Aside from some errors, they use two mindsets for their reckoning, and this is the exciting part because it does require arguments to agree on something, right finally?

Speaking of the Devil, Carbon Brief is supposed to publish white papers by the end of summer (I am writing this in May) to investigate in-depth Netflix’s carbon emissions. I am super hyped to read it because it should deliver a consistent set of data for future endeavours.

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Earlier this week, Malaysia’s Aerodyne clinched the #1 spot globally for drone companies. In entrenching itself as a firm leader in this rapidly expanding market and by fostering the rise of more drone companies, Malaysia has ramped up several “live” drone test sites through the National Technology & Innovation Sandbox (NTIS).

Against a backdrop of a drone market revenue that is expected to double to US$17.9 billion in 2025 in Asia alone, as well as a global drone market forecast to achieve US$41.3 billion in 2026, it is clear that drone technology has captured a steadily rising audience.

Considered an emerging technology sector just a couple of years prior, momentum in drone technology is exciting as Malaysian players ready themselves to take on opportunities across the world. Such opportunities are exciting not only for the low-touch, high-tech development work involved but also for the jobs they create and the value they add to the economy.

Already, Malaysia has a few bright sparks in the drone industry. 

The world’s top-seeded drone-based solutions provider in 2021, Aerodyne, for example, develops smart cities through drone technology innovation in surveillance and security, infrastructure development, and more.  

The task at hand is to create a basket of such companies and expand the ecosystem so that we elevate the rewards and returns from such ventures.

Sandboxes for the skies?

In gaining a fast-mover advantage, Technology Park Malaysia, through the  National Technology and Innovation Sandbox (NTIS), has taken proactive measures to foster the growth of the drone technology and robotics industry. 

Today, several drone development areas in FELDA Mempaga, Pahang, Drone and Robotic Iskandar (DRZ Iskandar), and Urban Drone Delivery in Cyberjaya are in motion. Pilot projects here are aligned with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) 10-10 Science, Technology, Innovation, and Economy Framework (MySTIE 10-10), aimed at transforming Malaysia into a high-tech and high-income nation through innovation-based solutions.

Also read: Facebook Community Accelerator Program introduces the 19 communities of the 2021 APAC cohort

In the first year since its launch, the NTIS attracted more than 25 Malaysian companies developing drone technology, reaching out for regulatory, commercialisation, and funding support. The sandboxes provide a range of live sites where the drones can be tested for a variety of specific applications, on different terrains, for different ranges and more.

Ultimately, the value of drone services lies in how they are applied in various sectors such as e-commerce, logistics, or mobilisation of pertinent resources or medicine to rural, remote areas, or those affected by natural disasters. It also offers important value in infrastructure management and security surveillance in smart building maintenance, maritime surveillance, urban agriculture, and more. And this is where it gets exciting for the rakyat.

For this reason, Area 57 at Technology Park Malaysia was recently launched as the fourth drone-centred NTIS site. With an extensive 5 acres of land, Area 57 aims to provide an integrated ecosystem for key facilities and services which include research, development, testing, certification, manufacturing, commercialisation, and maintenance of drone technology and solutions in order to benefit the drone community of users and producers. 

Area 57 will be equipped with a 100-meter drone runway, 300 square meters confined netted drone testing area, a mock-up site, drone application testing, hangar, laboratory, manufacturing equipment, training facilities, and prototype testing area, an operations office, as well as service and maintenance workshop for operators. It is currently the only legitimate fly-free drone area within Klang Valley. It is expected to unpack various opportunities through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for data operations, analysis, and large-scale optimisation (Drone Tech, Data Tech & Digital Transformation).

Bright lights, smart cities

The current world population of nearly 8 billion is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100 — sustainable smart cities are no longer just “nice-to-haves”. They are a necessity. 

For example, the Drone & Robotics Zone (DRZ) at Iskandar, Johor, was formed to realise the vision of an integrated sustainable living area.

Here, technology and data are purposefully designed to make better decisions and deliver a better quality of life; from the air we breathe to how safe we feel when we walk along the streets at night.

Also read: ScaleUp Malaysia and e27: a partnership that could turn the tide for startups in the region

In order to accelerate the growth of IR4.0 in Malaysia, Iskandar NEXT (New Economic Experience & Talent), a flagship initiative by Iskandar Investment Berhad (IIB), has given rise to the DRZ Iskandar where there will be efforts to upskill local talents and to move them higher up the technology value chain, thus creating significant socio-economic impact, such as:

• Over RM351 million investments targeted by 2025. 
• Up to 1000 high-value jobs created in drones and robotics by 2025. 
• Over 70 technology companies set up business in Medini, creating highly skilled jobs and knowledge-sharing opportunities. 

Already equipped with world-class ready-built infrastructure, IIB will further enhance Medini with advanced digital infrastructure to attract more tech-related companies to establish their footprint here.

At the core of it, our shared prosperity is the goal, and smart cities and drone technology are the means to that end. We want to utilise technology to optimise the infrastructure, resources, and spaces we share. 

Better crops, support from the skies

The sandbox in FELDA Mempaga presents drone players an opportunity to advance agriculture technology in plantations for fertilisation, land monitoring, and weather monitoring.  Here, drone technology is also assessed for its viability to support soil and field analysis, terrain mapping, crop spraying and planting, as well as plant health assessment and monitoring of yield. 

Five high-technology companies — Poladrone, Aerodyne, Braintree Technologies, OFO Tech, and Nanoezinn — were selected to stress-test various drone and robotic solutions to improve aspects of harvesting, maintenance, and fertilisation of palm oil plantations at the 25-hectare site. 

Recent discussions between drone service providers and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAAM) expedited the publishing of the Civil Aviation Directive 6011 part (II) Agriculture, which in turn opened doors for opportunities beyond these test sites. 

With this unlocked, Poladrone, for example, is now currently providing spraying services for Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, Sime Darby Plantations Berhad, Felda, Genting Plantations, and others. They’ve also doubled the company headcount and are on track to achieve revenue targets.

On a similar note, globally-acclaimed drone solutions provider, Aerodyne, has provided immense support in providing farmers with precision agriculture through drone technology and Artificial Intelligence to aid in increasing crop yields and profitability.  

Though still in its early days, the use of drones and robotics in agriculture could potentially reduce up to 50 per cent in the labour force, generating up to 30 per cent in productivity improvement. At the same time, the application of drones in agriculture could set out career prospects for the younger generation in agriculture, whilst potentially improving the socio-economic outcomes for more than 200,000 ageing settlers working and living on Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) land, with their families.

Smart logistics

Then, there is the Urban Delivery Drone Sandbox in Cyberjaya, where drones are being tested for delivery of packages, with the aim to use drones for the delivery of crucial medicines, essential supplies, and more to rural and remote areas, or those affected by natural disasters in the future. 

Such delivery services could positively impact healthcare services, as 24 per cent of the country’s population lives in rural areas. With delivery drones, medicines, vaccines and necessary supplies can be transported to hard to reach areas quickly and efficiently.

Also read: Kawasaki Heavy Industries invites innovators to co-create solutions to global challenges

Earlier this year, NTIS partnered with AirAsia Digital’s logistics arm, Teleport, to test delivery services in urban areas using automated drones through a six-month phased approach. This approach tested the capability, experience, approval process, deployment readiness, and service expansion of the drone operators, as well as the long-term feasibility of delivery drones. 

The urban delivery drones are estimated to make a contributing impact surpassing USD70 billion in the global smart mobility market size by 2027 and generate up to USD7.4 billion in global market size that is specific to drone package delivery by 2027. 

Fly-tech: Challenges to overcome

In order for the industry to rise, there are some obstacles it needs to weather. Public safety guidelines being one.

As such, drone companies will need to abide by strict certification and compliance for drone operations, which may result in long periods for permits, limited guidelines for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights, and multi-agency approvals.  

We laud the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) which has been actively engaging with drone operators to ensure public safety as a high priority in addition to facilitating technological advances. 

Here, NTIS facilitates startup companies operating in regulated industries and vertical technologies such as healthcare, drone operations, agriculture, communications, mobility, etc. that face obstacles and challenges in terms of regulatory or innovation to accelerate such multi-agency discussions. 

Without a doubt, drone technology development efforts must be intensified and we have set our sights on things above to take us on the path towards recovery, rising above the present-day challenges, and into a future of unlimited possibilities. 

With better case studies and adaptive rules that drive innovation, we believe that TPM is poised to help Malaysia achieve its goal of becoming a major leader in the drone technology industry. 

The game is afoot accelerating our STI journey and transforming our nations’ technology landscape. Be part of the revolution. Let’s take flight together.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by MaGIC

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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The answer is short: regulators globally are still trying to decide what to do about crypto. Several companies have applied to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve their crypto ETFs only to get rejected.

Several ETFs track companies that are active in the crypto space. But none of these ETFs are currently holding cryptocurrencies.

Can we move out of this status quo, and what is the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s stance in this?

Discussions have been ongoing since at least 2019, but the MAS has relatively few regulations for crypto in place and does not (entirely) recognise cryptocurrencies as legal tender. Regulations such as the payment services act are forward-looking but still mainly focused on KYC/AML.

Singapore has a clear opportunity to be the first, but MAS seems to follow a wait-and-see approach. However, this appears to be changing as DBS has recently gotten an in-principal approval to provide crypto services.

Once licensed, DBSV, as a member of DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx), will directly support asset managers and companies to trade in digital payment tokens through DDEx.

Anyway, that’s not an ETF yet, but definitely, a giant leap forward as this could bring the trading of crypto into the mainstream with a trusted institution.

The above is an exciting move from MAS, given the recent crackdown on other ‘new’ exchanges such as Binance.

Why do we want a crypto ETF? An ETF is a basket of securities, shares of which are sold on an exchange. They combine features and potential benefits similar to those of stocks, mutual funds, or bonds.

Ease of investing

If you are bullish on the crypto and blockchain industry and you want to get exposure without going down the technical rabbit hole, an ETF would be ideal. Such an ETF could hold the five to 10 coins with the largest market cap, rebalance from time to time, and an investor could apply a buy-and-hold strategy.

Also Read: Are CBDCs better than Bitcoins? Here’s why Asia should bank on them

Diversification

Cryptocurrencies are volatile, and no one knows which projects (Bitcoin, Ethereum or one of the 6,500 others) will win in the long term. By buying a group of cryptocurrencies, investors can achieve a healthy level of diversification.

Platform risks

Cryptocurrencies are traded through various platforms, each having its owns risks and challenges. An ETF could (partly) mitigate these risks.

Passively managed and low fees.

Investors could already work with licensed fund management companies (typically only available for accredited investors) to maintain a portfolio of cryptocurrencies. Still, they would be exposed to high management fees as the manager will ‘actively’ manage the portfolio and sometimes charge as high as five per cent per year.

As an ETF is passive management, a manager typically charges only 0.2–0.8 per cent per year.

So what’s stopping the MAS?

Custody or not?

A traditional company licensed as a fund manager typically takes custody of funds of her investors and invests those funds according to the scope of the mandate given to them.

The challenge with crypto is that a new generation of companies such as the exchange Binance could claim that they never take custody due to the decentralised nature of cryptocurrencies on the blockchain. Hence, they are just facilitating the transaction on the blockchain.

MAS is, however, actually quite clear on what kind of services should be licensed: Buying or selling DPT (“digital payment token”) or providing a platform to allow persons to exchange DPT in Singapore.

And with that statement, the discussion on custody is pretty much closed as almost every company providing services in the crypto industry will fall under this scope.

Security or commodity?

Singapore laid out the licensing rules for Capital Market Services (stock, bonds, funds etc.) in the Securities and Futures act.

In this same act, securities are classified as: shares, units in a business trust or any instrument conferring or representing a legal or beneficial ownership interest in a corporation, partnership or limited liability partnership.

Also Read: Blockchain and Bitcoin for business 101 with Justin Renken

Cryptocurrencies probably don’t fit the bill here, and so it seems that the Securities and Futures act does not apply to companies dealing with cryptocurrencies.

The question arises, though, how the MAS views an ETF purely holding gold or other commodities?

There seems to be room for exceptions to the previous definition: any other product or class of products prescribed.

It is not clear how and if this exception has was in the past.

SEC in the United States

The SEC in the US claims that cryptocurrencies are supposed to be classified as securities and not as a commodity like gold. Given the status of the SEC in the world, whatever they end up deciding will likely impact Singapore as well.

But, if we assume for now that (in Singapore) crypto is not a security, will it then be recognised as a commodity or currency?

Currency or not?

The Payment Services Act broadly covers the ‘fintech’ industry: Technology is transforming the world of payments and has opened up opportunities for transactions to be more convenient, faster and cheaper.

MAS has made some comments and seems to recognise stablecoins as a new form of ‘money because these coins’ value is stable.

With that, MAS also seems to think that ‘other’ non-stable cryptocurrencies are not to be recognised as a ‘new form of money and it even classifies stablecoins as ‘next-generation crypto: Stablecoins have emerged as a new class of cryptocurrencies intended to be relatively stable in value to address concerns over excessive price volatility of the first generation of cryptocurrencies.

And then on the definition of money, MAS states:

“People also need to trust that the value of the money they hold will remain broadly stable over time, so that they are able to use it as a store of value and as a medium of exchange in the future.”

With the Payment Services Act, Singapore is light-years ahead of the US (and most other countries, for that matter). SEC in the US treats crypto as securities (even with all sorts of complicated implications). Singapore has the forward-looking Payment Services Act which allows for cryptocurrencies’ entry into society.

Conclusion

It seems clear that the approval and launch of a crypto ETF in Singapore is a matter of time given the discussed advantages such as diversification and ease of investing for investors.

Also Read: Tesla is now accepting bitcoin. Are crypto payments the future of business?

MAS seems to have a lot of room to provide approvals within existing regulations under the Payment Services as Securities and Futures act. It appears that MAS favours viewing cryptocurrencies as a form of payment for now rather than a security.

Should MAS decide to move forward and give approval for an ETF, this will likely provide a massive boost to the SGX and ‘crypto-friendly’ ecosystem in Singapore.

It seems that the advantages outweigh the risks.

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Singapore-based Qapita, a fintech startup focused on employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) and cap table management, has received US$15 million in a Series A round of investment.

East Ventures (Growth Fund) and Vulcan Capital co-led the round, with participation from NYCA and other existing investors MassMutual Ventures and Endiya Partners.

Several existing angel investors, including Alto Partners; partners of the Northstar Group, K3 Ventures, and Mission Holdings; Anjali Bansal (founder of Avaana Capital); and Sujeet Kumar (co-founder of Udaan), also co-invested.

Also Read: Qapita banks US$5M pre-Series A to enable companies to digitally manage their ESOPs and cap table

Qapita intends to utilise the money to add more products to its platform to provide solutions for private companies, startups, investors, shareholders and employees. It also plans to facilitate liquidity solutions via a digital marketplace, enabling transactions for companies between investors and employee stakeholders.

A part of the capital raised will amplify Qapita’s client base across Singapore, Indonesia and India.

The new round comes less than six months after Qapita bagged US$5 million in pre-Series A. Before that, it attracted US$1.8 million in seed funding in September 2020.

Qapita was founded in September 2019 by Ravi Ravulaparthi (CEO), Lakshman Gupta (COO) and Vamsee Mohan (CTO). Its SaaS platform helps private companies and startups record and manage their cap tables and ESOPs. It also aims to digitise the issuance of equity awards and shares.

In other words, it solves the pain points relating to HR (ESOP), finance and fundraising for private companies, investors, shareholders and employees. The firm’s marketplace will enable secondary transactions for these stakeholders.

Qapita estimates that more than US$150 billion of equity will need liquidity solutions. The startup expects the value of private securities in this region to exceed US$1-1.5 trillion (with 200-250 unicorns) in the next few years. So scalable digital solutions will be critical for such an ecosystem to thrive.

Currently, Qapita employs 65 people across Singapore and India. It plans to scale up talent across India, Indonesia and Singapore shortly.

Also Read: Future Flow’s cap table helps founders easily monitor the evolution of their stake, equity dilution

CEO Ravulaparthi said: “We are in some of the fastest-growing private markets in the world. It is an incredible time to build an operating system and transaction rails for private company ownership in this region. This is about leveraging tech to enhance transparency, access, efficiency and liquidity in private markets.”

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Image Credit: Qapita

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VFlowTech, an energy storage solutions provider in Singapore, today announced the raising of US$3 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Wavemaker Partners. 

 SEEDS Capital, Sing Fuels and other angels also participated.

VFlowTech will use the funds to expand its operations and scale up the production of its “redox flow battery energy storage solutions”.

The startup was established in 2018 by Dr Avishek Kumar (CEO) and Dr Arjun Bhattarai (CTO), in collaboration with Entrepreneur First. It also received generous support from SG Innovate and the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Also Read: VFlowTech’s recyclable energy solution with an expected lifespan of 25 yrs seeks to replace Li Ion batteries

VFlowTech has developed a low cost, reliable, and long-duration energy storage solution, called vanadium redox flow (VRF) battery. This battery works through the continuous reduction and oxidation reaction between the vanadium redox couples with no detrimental issues and with the cross-mixing of the redox couples. Due to this unique setup, and the battery provides stable performance over 20 years.

The firm’s vision is to achieve diesel-free status in remote and rural areas by providing communities there with low-cost, reliable cleantech solutions.

So far, VFlowTech has built and deployed energy storage systems in Singapore, Australia, and Japan to support various applications, with a pipeline of large-scale infrastructure projects in key markets like Australia and Africa.

VFlowTech also plans to collaborate with strategic partners in other countries to develop and install self-reliant green charging stations for the burgeoning electronic vehicle (EV) industry. Its latest project is to develop an intelligent electric car fast-charging station concept for existing gas stations in South Korea.

“The energy storage market is growing exponentially and plays an important role in the cleantech transition across the globe,” said CEO Kumar. “We are on a mission to reinvent the energy storage solution with our modular vanadium redox flow batteries to enable a 24/7 shift to renewables.”

The company has developed three main modular products, namely 5 kW/30 kWh, 10 kW/100 kWh, and 100 kW/500 kWh systems.

According to a press statement, its 10kW-100kWH system can provide up to two days of energy autonomy on average for most small households and remote communities in the region. It also solves the concerns of performance degradation, thermal runaway, and product safety of current battery systems.

Also read: 13 cleantech startups to watch in Asia

Unlike lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries, flow battery systems can scale their storage power (kW) and energy (kWh) independently, with power and energy deployments varying depending on the size of the battery stack and the volume of electrolyte contained in the tanks.

As stated by the International Energy Agency’s latest market update, worldwide renewable energy capacity increased by 45 per cent in 2020, the greatest year-on-year growth rate in the last two decades. The “Battery Energy Storage Market, 2021-2028” reported that the sector is slated to be worth US$26.81 billion in 2028, up from US$7.81 billion in 2020.

The development of cheaper long-duration storage than lithium-ion batteries also draws attention from worldwide investors, including tech celebrities Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson.

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Image Credit: VFlowTech

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Komunidad, a provider of environmental intelligence services in the Philippines, has attracted US$1 million in a seed financing round.

Wavemaker Partners led this round, which also saw participation from ADB Ventures.

As per a press statement, this transaction will pave the way for Komunidad’s further expansion in the Philippines and the rest of Asia.

“Our expansion in Asia will focus on the Philippines, India and other emerging and developing countries where the risk index is higher. The investment will be used to grow our collection of weather and environmental intelligence datasets and to develop a more robust and intelligent platform to be released by Q1 2022,” said founder Felix Ayque.

Founded in 2019 and located in Singapore and the Philippines, Komunidad started as a tropical cyclone email service. It later evolved into a web-based environmental intelligence platform.

A SaaS company, Komunidad aims to help businesses and communities adapt to the consequences of climate change. It focuses on weather and environmental intelligence information services, with a team of meteorologists, data scientists, software developers and business development managers spread across Southeast Asia and India.

Also Read: Need of the hour: How agritech platforms can protect farmers from climate change

The startup’s proprietary platform helps environment-critical industries make informed decisions regarding safety, operational efficiency, business continuity, and natural disaster preparedness. It allows relevant weather and environmental data “to be quickly organised” into visualisations, reports and alerts that users can access via a dashboard and use to build the most suitable decision-making tools to support their operations.

Komunidad currently provides services for clients in the utilities, agriculture, mining, education, business process outsourcing, and local government sectors in Southeast Asia and India.

“The Philippines, because of its geographic circumstances, is highly prone to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tropical cyclones, and floods, making it one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world,” Ayque said.

“I grew up in the southern part of the Philippines, where all these events happen annually. I have seen their impact on people’s lives and businesses. On top of that, the world around us is changing. Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying, according to the latest studies. It will impact the way we live, work, and do business in the future, and many countries in Asia will be most affected,” Ayque explained.

Before closing the seed round, Komunidad won contracts with local governments and companies in the utilities/energy, agriculture, mining, and business process outsourcing industries. Most recently, Komunidad won a contract in an Indian State for its impact-based weather monitoring and forecasting system.

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Image Credit: Komunidad

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Decentralised finance (DeFi) is gaining increasing attention thanks to mainstream interest in crypto, such as Bitcoin. With billions of dollars flowing into DeFi protocols, offering alternative financial solutions, it’s giving people a way of earning money with the aid of innovative contract technology.

Although this industry is slowly growing in popularity across the globe, it has a much stronger appeal in the Southeast Asia (SEA) region mainly because of its potential to solve one of the region’s biggest challenges– equal financial opportunities for all.

A large chunk of the population in Asia is mainly unbanked, and one of the main reasons is steep barriers to entry. For example, banks require a minimum deposit fee or upfront charges to start their bank account. Other reasons include high transaction fees.

According to a report from the World Bank, ASEAN is home to an unbanked population of about 290 million, with only 18 per cent having access to credit, financial services, or investment products, leaving a large part of the population underbanked.

DeFi’s core technology can eliminate intermediaries, thus making transaction costs much cheaper and faster than any other digital banking service, making it a much more appealing alternative.

But then why hasn’t mass adoption of DeFi in the region still take place?

One of the key reasons is that many people still do not understand the concept of DeFi because of its rather complex nature. Even Mark Cuban, a billionaire investor well known from Shark Tank, who has been experimenting with DeFi, shared with the Defiant that it takes a lot of time to understand how to use DeFi protocols.

As a storyteller and communicator working closely with DeFi companies, I can impart a few insights into the promise of this industry to give context to it and offer tips on how to keep up.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Aspire lands US$158M funding; SG gets new US$75M crypto, blockchain fund; Ascend Money is now unicorn

A new financial system without centralised banks

As institutional investment into bitcoin and cryptocurrencies flow into the market signalled by Tesla, Square, PayPal, Mastercard, among others, it’s time for the world to start paying attention to the financial mechanisms DeFi has enabled.

DeFi platforms or protocols such as Compound (lending and borrowing), CREAM Finance (lending), and Uniswap (decentralised exchange) are enabling users to invest, borrow, lend, trade, and transact peer to peer using cryptocurrencies or digital assets.

They achieve this without needing to go through a bank or a centralised platform. This can all happen thanks to innovative contract technology created by Ethereum.

Digital lending and borrowing are not new; blockchain technology allows faster and cheaper transactions by cutting down intermediaries.

Beyond value transfers, the main growth driver of the DeFi sector is “yield farming”. Yield farming is the practice of lending crypto assets to generate high returns in the form of cryptocurrencies.

This is similar to locking money in a fixed deposit account to generate interest after a set amount of time, whereas the “financial” work is done automatically via protocols.

Though it’s highly risky, the DeFi rewards are much higher than the 3 per cent interest one might earn from a bank, and the dividends get paid out daily.

One thing that might take new users to get used to is that most of these protocols are “web3.0 native” and fully decentralised, meaning that they are run by decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) that have inbuilt governance systems.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether you trust a centralised organisation run by a central authority or a decentralised organisation where no single party can control the network.

We are now also seeing the first signs of these yield-bearing technologies being embedded into everyday applications such as offline map provider MAPS.ME.

As startups in this space grow, they are also receiving more attention from crypto investors and mainstream institutions, like Thailand’s oldest and largest bank Siam Commercial Bank (SCB).

Early this year, SCB launched a US$50 million fund via its investment arm SCB 10X to invest in early and growth-stage blockchain, digital assets, and DeFi startups. Calling it a “disruption”, the firm said that “it is preparing for the potential day that DeFi upends traditional banking”.

Expanding the fintech horizon

The fintech industry now needs to expand its horizon to consider DeFi, and CeFi (centralised finance) systems, as both ecosystems will play an essential role in shaping the future of finance. CeFi refers to centralised systems that bridge legacy finance platforms with the new digital asset industry. These include exchanges like Coinbase or crypto lenders such as Nexo.

The current sentiment in the market is that DeFi is multiplying and will eventually “eat” CeFi. While we will see the gap between DeFi and CeFi narrow, the natural next bridge is to the fintech industry.

Also Read: Taiwan’s blockchain ecosystem’s moment towards mass adoption

The fintech industry has come a long way with an ecosystem of challenger banks that have consumer-friendly applications and widely used products.

All it will take is one fintech to enable DeFi features on its platform to see the domino effect of fintech products and DeFi offerings collide. Fintechs should start learning about the benefits of DeFi and start integrating with projects today to stay ahead.

Keeping up with DeFi

The DeFi industry is growing fast.  In January 2020, it had a US$500 million market value. As of September 2021, its market size is nearly US$166.45 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL). Keeping up is a job on its own, which is why education is key to everything.

Allow me to share some newsletters and platforms you can start with to watch this lighting speed innovation.

Firstly newsletters like Defiant and Bankless help a lot with learning about what is upcoming. To track the activity of the growth of Defi, there are wallet platforms such as DeBank that has a good analysis tracking site; there’s also Defi Llama and DeFi pulse with variable data.

CoinGecko, the go-to crypto price and analysis tracker, is another source to consider. The top leading exchanges are Uniswap and SushiSwap, which have the most volume.

A typical inside joke in the industry is that the amount of knowledge we absorb in one month in crypto is equivalent to one human year. Cryptocurrency’s promise is to make money and payments universally accessible to anyone, no matter where they are in the world.

To see cryptocurrency fulfil this promise starts with people getting educated about industries like DeFi, holding cryptocurrency, and eventually using it in our day-to-day lives.

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Sky Mavis, the creator of the popular NFT-based game Axie Infinity, has attracted US$152 million in a Series B financing round led by US-based VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Accel Partners and Paradigm also joined this round.

The Vietnamese startup will use the money to build a global team, scale infrastructure, and build its distribution platform to support game developers in creating blockchain-enabled games.

The new deal follows a US$7.5 million Series A funding in May. Led by Libertus Capital, the round also saw participation from investors, including Collab + Currency, Blocktower Capital, Mark Cuban, Alexis Ohanian.

Also Read: Metaverse is around the corner and you should play a role in it

Axie Infinity was founded in early 2018 by Aleksander Leonard Larsen, Nguyễn Thành Trung, Đoàn Minh Tú, Hồ Sỹ Việt Anh and Jeffrey Samuel Kim Zirlin.

Sky Mavis invented the play-to-earn (P2E) concept for people to play, live, work and earn within virtual worlds. Its first P2E game is Axie Infinity, where players breed, battle, and trade digital pets called Axie.

NFT-based P2E games are decentralised, meaning that the players own the in-game assets that they purchase and can generate real-world rewards for their in-game activities.

Axie Infinity says it has helped create income-generating opportunities for underserved people worldwide; 25 per cent of players are unbanked, and 50 per cent have not previously used cryptocurrencies.

Axie Infinity has amassed players worldwide, with more than 1.8 million daily active users logging into the platform in August. It claims to have achieved US$33 million in everyday transactions, for a total volume of over US$2 billion.

The Mavis Hub distributes games on both PCs and Macs and will connect to Sky Mavis’s proprietary Ronin Blockchain. In addition to supporting Axie Infinity, The Mavis Hub will help game developers build and distribute blockchain-enabled games.

Also Read: Vietnam’s Sky Mavis receives US$7.5M Series A to grow its blockchain game Axie Infinity

Arianna Simpson, the general partner at a16z, said. “The Axie team has unlocked a new way to build and play games that are already completely redefining this category. The game’s growth is a remarkable testament to how deeply this model resonates with people around the world. The Axie team has triggered an earthquake in gaming, and the industry is now forever changed.”

“We are on a mission to create economic freedom for gamers. We are making this happen by turning players into owners of in-game assets unlike the traditional model where publishers, distribution platforms and game developers retain control and benefit the most,” noted Trung Nguyen, Sky Mavis CEO.

Previously, Sky Mavis raised US$1.5 million from several backers such as Animoca Brands, Hashed, Pangea Blockchain Fund, Consensys, and 500 Startups Vietnam.

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