Remote workforces are now a reality for thousands of startups around the globe. Startups are now much more likely to hire international teams to leverage a wider pool of talents and optimise resources.

As a startup founder, the people you hire depend on your business needs and available funding. However, managing a remote team is easier said than done and, while there are a lot of advantages, there are also a lot of challenges especially when managing a team with diverse backgrounds.

In the recent webinar “Scaling your startup across borders: How to effectively manage your remote team”, organised by e27 in partnership with Deel, we talked about challenges and best practices of managing remote international teams. Deel is a payroll and compliance software that helps startups recruit talent and work with remote employees across the globe. 

The panel featured Ilya Kravtsov, Founder and CEO of PouchNATION, a SaaS-based platform with NFC wearable technology and a one-stop guest management solution operating in 7 countries in Asia; Jonathan Hall, Senior Director of Business Development at Rapyd, a global payments solution provider; and Abhinav Krishna, Head of Expansion APAC at Deel.

The webinar was moderated by Meltem Kuran, Head of Growth at Deel. Kuran kicked off the discussion by remarking that as Deel experiences rapid growth to their current strength of over 275 people spread across 46 countries, they continue to operate without an HR team, and onboard employees using their software platform. 

Why build remote teams?

The panellists kicked off the discussion by outlining the various factors that push companies to build remotely, knowing the challenges and risks associated with building remote teams. 

Krishna started by pointing out that COVID-19 has accelerated the existing trend towards remote teams. He explained the four main barriers to going remote which are encapsulated as “HTTP”: Hiring (the right people), tracking (productivity and metrics), trust (culture and team building), and payroll (wages, benefits, and incentives). 

These four areas represent the biggest challenges to hiring remotely, says Krishna. COVID-19 has been the catalyst to innovation in the remote hiring world so startups can start trusting in remote teams. New technologies are solving many of these challenges so startups can create a remote working culture, build trust, and confidently make the leap into the unknown, and hire remote teams across borders.

Also read: Leveraging digital-first CX for customer delight and business growth

The challenges are around visibility and alignment — making sure that people are focused on the objectives set for the team. Knowledge sharing is critical in fast-growing startups, he said. From a growth perspective, market penetration and reach are important so it becomes critical to have people on the ground. Product localisation and local knowledge as well as the flexibility to hire a single person in a key new market are important drivers to international hiring. Lastly, access to talent around the world as globalisation spreads is another reason why startups are looking to hire internationally. 

Kravtsov added that the key to hiring international teams is transforming your organisation from being an input-driven to an output-driven company. Working regular hours is not as important in reality, he feels and thinks it is better to focus instead on output-driven goals. PouchNATION made a conscious decision not to measure hours worked: “We are focused on making it output driven and making people aware of that.”

How to ensure remote team members stay engaged

Continuing from the issue of tracking remote workers, Kuran took the discussion deeper to ask how companies make sure that work gets done and keep their teams engaged. When it comes to hiring remote employees and tracking their work, in Hall’s experience, more senior candidates tend to fit the profile of a remote worker much better. “They have the resilience and potentially perseverance to overcome the barriers that come with distance. I certainly have a preference towards experience when it comes to remote working,” shared Hall.

Ways to measure success in remote working revolves around methodologies and tools. At Rapyd, the methodology is centred on short frequent contact, making an active effort to ensure communication is not transactional. Having conversations that are not related to work is important. “Focus on highlighting achievement and milestones and saying thank you is important because it gives visibility into work and makes sure people know they are appreciated,” explained Hall. From a tools perspective, anything that enhances collaboration, sharing, and visibility is a win.

Kravtsov added that keeping people engaged remotely is a challenge because of the difficulty in ensuring that engagement is natural and not forced. “Engagement over coffee is naturally created in an office environment. Creating that engagement over a Zoom call is a little bit forced and I am a big advocate of creating a culture of engagement and I think creating that engagement should be about doing it spontaneously.”

Also read: How to foster mental wellness in the workplace and boost performance

He said that at PouchNation they try to create that by having a huddle session every morning with the management team. “Cameras are a must — seeing everyone every morning creates engagement, We try to push these daily routines and make it less forced and more casual. It’s about not just contacting people when you need it so you don’t feel detached from your colleagues.”

Krishna feels the challenge is actually about two things: engagement and productivity.

When hiring a remote worker it’s very important to have clarity on personal and professional milestones. This could be as simple as knowing what family goals each team member has as well as their professional goals. While Deel does utilise tools to track productivity metrics and build efficient processes, “tracking comes from trust”, said Krishna. “If you cannot have trust, those tools are not going to be of any use.” Transparency in metrics helps teams at Deel to create a straightforward way to have every employee engaged and productive, he explained. 

Transparency is built from a data perspective with transparency around performance metrics shared with everyone, and also from a people perspective by sharing direct and honest communication. It is very easy to misunderstand things when working remotely so direct communication is key, he pointed out.

Kravtsov added that in his company, even a simple activity like writing sales targets on a whiteboard is replicated remotely to build more engagement.

How to build culture in a remote setting

Kuran moved the discussion to building team culture, saying: “we discuss a lot around communication but culture is a separate thing.” Building on these points, the discussion was taken deeper into the issue of building an organisational culture in remote teams.

Kravtsov described his experience of building culture in teams that do not have physical interaction: “Before COVID, our operation teams were working on live events and that created a real culture because they were practically living together on weekends etc. during the events. We were doing 20-30 events a month and then it went down to 0.”

He thinks the challenge of how to build that culture digitally can be tackled by having proper feedback loops, having an engaged multicultural team to make sure that there is always alignment even if people come from different countries/cultures, and building trust. This is so that even if colleagues give their frank opinion, the person will take it constructively. He added that this can be done only if you go beyond transactional interaction and engage in non-work related activities or interests.

PouchNation has used chat meetings to gather 5-6 team members to chat with one rule: don’t talk about work. They also hold an online dance challenge among team members who each have to make their TikTok dance videos. “That breaks barriers between teams and these things help build a great culture,” says Kravtsov.

Krishna feels that culture building is not something that can be passed on by a CEO or HR team.  “At Deel we don’t have an HR team so how do we manage? Firstly, it is about the CEO defining a very clear and simple vision: A vision that is so simply defined for everyone that we automatically understand the culture to be built in our teams. Second, we define the role, responsibility, and metric well for each person.” 

Hall added that culture is an active effort and that building camaraderie doesn’t always mean spending money. “No one wants to get on a team call on a Friday night, so it’s about finding an engaging event that breaks down barriers.” 

Kuran concluded the discussion by saying that stating what the culture is and making it personal is very important: “Just knowing what are the things you want to be part of your culture and stating them makes a big difference.”

Also read: Finding product-market fit with the power of product analytics

The panellist then moved to discuss their favourite tools which facilitate a great remote work culture, apart from collaborative work products used in most companies such as Slack and Zoom. Krishna said that they of course use Deel for payroll activities and that his personal favourite tool is Notion, which has helped him a lot and played a crucial role to help him as he manages working with team members across time zones. 

Kravtsov added that their startup holds a fun tournament which they call the “Pouch Olympics” by gathering together on Zoom for games to play around words etc. Another way they build remote team culture is by organising Whatsapp groups across the company “where we encourage to share stuff that is not work-related.”

Hall said the tools that have worked best for Rapyd to encourage remote team behaviour is the concept of shadowing. Taking a peer from a different team so they can understand your challenges and suggest new ways of thinking. For example, getting product people on sales calls or tech team members on sales calls. This also helps with building empathy, Hall feels. 

Do certain cultures adapt to remote working better than others?

Hall feels that culture and personality are different things and personality plays a bigger role in determining the ability to work remotely. He said that people in some cultures may be shyer and some are more direct and don’t take offence if someone gets direct or steps over the line. “Personality is a clear driver,” says Hall.  

Krishna thinks that company personality is an equally important factor. For example, remote workers working for a client who is not local are considered freelancers, and in some countries, that term has a bad perception. Freelance workers are not considered as important and often do not get paid on time. It is up to companies who hire remotely to say: “We will trust our people and build a great culture and we will go for people who will be responsible.”

So it also matters to look at the hiring company to see if they are creating the right environment to treat remote workers equally. 

How to incentivise remote workers

On the topic of employee benefits and incentives, the panellists shared their viewpoints on how to motivate remote workers. 

Financially, the incentives don’t change too much since ideally, the output should not change

Kravtsov says that beyond that frequent small gestures help in motivation. “If you can’t be in office and you have kids, craft incentives around flexibility around a personal situation. It’s about understanding the situation. Healthcare incentives are particularly important now during covid and recognising these things makes remote workers feel valued. 

Krishna added that in today’s age companies are hiring internationally to find the best talent and not to save costs. He added that in some cultures people place more important benefits like insurance and time flexibility to be able to do side projects and follow their personal interests.

Kravtsov thinks this is important to allow people to pursue secondary education such as getting another degree while working. They allow employees to have side projects outside the company and satisfy their needs and they find that these people are still committed to the company and still stay with you.

Kuran agreed that remote employees want flexibility and control over their own lives and giving that increases loyalty.

Why diversity works

To conclude the webinar, Krishna emphasised that it is important to remember that today startups are hiring internationally “for better teams, more diversity and faster growth.” 

“If you believe in these things go ahead and start creating your remote team. Labour laws and payment laws are boundaries that companies like Deel are breaking with their technology. So people just need to take the leap.”

Kravtsov added: “Diversity works — it can be done. There is nothing to fear about hiring international teams. We are living in a globalised world and there is so much to learn, so go for it!”

To watch the webinar, click here. Deel also has a special promotion for members of the e27 community. For more information, visit Deel’s official page.

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Photo by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels

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

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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Singapore-based e-logistics startup Luwjistik raised a US$1.1 million (IDR15.8 billion) seed funding round led by East Ventures with the participation of Arise, a fund that is the result of a collaboration between MDI Ventures-Finch, and Global Founders Capital. The company plans to use the funding to grow its local and regional teams in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia; develop its platform; and expand its reach.

Luwjistik is a relatively young company, having been founded in July by logistics and e-commerce veterans Syed Ali Ridha Madihid and Wong Yingming. Their vision is to develop a logistics infrastructure with an instantaneous regional reach through a network of global partners, enabling clients to benefit from a standardised workflow of ease and transparency.

According to Luwjistik Co-Founder & CEO Syed Ali Ridha Madihid, the solution is built to respond to the rise of e-commerce popularity as triggered by the pandemic, which has forced logistical companies to expand their operations. “Many people are unable to travel to build their network and connections on the ground. Many are also still relying on the old ways of doing things, and are unable to transform themselves digitally to keep up with the demands,” he said on Thursday.

Through the Luwjistik platform, clients only have to integrate a single API to connect themselves to selected partners and go through the transaction process all the way to the end. A network of almost 30 partners in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand is now connected through the Luwjistik platform. Some of the companies included Ninja Van, J&T Express, and JNE Express. DHL eCommerce and YCH Group Pte Ltd are examples of clients that have used the platform.

Madihid said that there are key main values that the company offers. First, in terms of ease, clients will be able to access a network of potential partners in Southeast Asia that offer deliveries of imported goods in domestic or regional markets. They can pick the service provider that suits their needs.

Also Read: iStore iSend bags 7-figure USD to expand its logistics and supply chain biz to Thailand, Vietnam

Second, with its standardisation, clients can navigate cross-border documentation, workflow, and fee transparency matters more easily. Lastly, with its single API, the platform enables easy and fast data management, direct booking, contract signing, document signing, and payment processing in just one platform.

According to Madihid, what the company is trying to achieve here is to combine the technology and knowledge that the co-founders have built after working in the sector to connect the different points of the supply chain. In the end, they aim to help clients navigate the challenges of cross-border shipping, especially in a developing region –where it can be fragmented.

“In the end, as there is an urgency to accelerate the digitalisation of the logistics sector to meet the demands of the market, Luwjistik provides a fast, efficient, and safe tech solution to help companies grow,” he said.

Another one for the logistics sector

Prior to announcing this funding round for Luwjistik, East Ventures had also announced an investment into another e-logistics startup –McEasy. This segment has been experiencing an increase in popularity during the pandemic due to its crucial role in supporting the growth of the e-commerce industry.

From early 2019 to July 2021, the DailySocial research team noted that there are around 16 funding announcements involving a tech-based logistics company, totalling the investment to US$586 million. Of all these companies, there are at least four startups that have more than US$100 million in valuation: SiCepat, Waresix, Shipper, and GudangAda.

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The article East Ventures Suntik Pendanaan Tahap Awal 15,8 Miliar Rupiah untuk Luwjistik was written by Marsya Nabila in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

Image Credit: Luwjistik

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As any HR professional will realise, the pandemic has triggered a number of organisational trends.

One particular note has been the democratisation of the crisis management function. Simply put, COVID-19 demonstrated that crisis management is no longer the remit of just a select number of senior employees or subject matter experts.

Instead, it is now a task dealt with horizontally across an organisation, an agnostic practice to serve for the good of all.

Global crises impact organisations globally, so employees at all levels have had to roll up their sleeves in this respect. Necessity has meant they need to have a part in crisis management.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in HR teams. As HR professionals are now becoming more influential regarding the shape and execution of their company’s crisis management strategy and plans.

Findings from International SOS’ APAC Trends Watch survey highlight this, as 79 per cent of relevant experts predict that HR professionals will now have an essential role on crisis management teams, particularly as we work towards an endemic COVID-19 in Singapore.

As business leaders and the authorities map out strategies to return to travel, facilitate a larger proportion of employees in the office, and return to business as usual, crisis response scenarios need to ensure a level of agility and adaptability to survive and thrive. This requires establishing framework conditions conducive to the proper conduct of the practice.

As HR is regularly responsible for the skills and development of individuals within a company, it can play a vital role in the acquisition and/or integration of these key elements into crisis management planning in the near future.

Also Read: Education is not a content business but a human one: Nas Academy’s Nuseir Yassin

Why is this trend accelerating?

HR should always have been an integral part of crisis management. Very often the lack of HR integration is due to either a poor structure by the design of the crisis team or to a silo approach that compartmentalises crisis management to a single entity.

No matter what the scenario, crises are intrinsically linked to people, thus to HR.

HR teams are gaining more responsibility for many different functions out of necessity. In contrast to many previous crises, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a significant cause of disruption for a long period of time – it is a marathon, not a sprint.

It is this dynamic that’s causing more personnel, including HR professionals, to become involved with crisis management, as the impacts on employees are different to a “normal” business crisis.

Notably, the impact on mental health has been significant. Given mental health policies often fall into the domain of the HR function, it is understandable that HR professionals are now becoming more involved in crisis management and response, particularly as we move into the recovery phase of the crisis.

But there has now been an increased level of positive integration of HR in supporting the staffing of crisis management teams in situations of exhaustion or burnout.

HR, for example, played a decisive role in identifying replacements or in providing organisational support for staff engagement; valuable support to business leaders.

How can HR teams respond to this new dynamic?

With HR professionals now becoming more involved in crisis management, the need for agile responses before, during and after a crisis and then proactive planning for the recovery phase is more important than ever.

In preparation for a crisis, HR teams should try, through regular simulation, scenario planning and benchmarking, to identify where they have gaps in knowledge and capabilities, and then proactively find partners who can provide specialist support in these areas.

Looking at COVID-19 specifically, the need for medical knowledge is clear, and many HR professionals have been looking for insight from experts and doctors into how to manage the situation and their duty of care responsibilities.

Also read: Report: Communications roadmap is key to successful startup fundraising in time of crisis

“Plans are nothing, planning is everything.” President Eisenhower was right, and that is why it is key for crisis management teams to be able to train in immersive, dynamic scenarios to test their responses, processes and teamwork.

Regular simulation and crisis planning sessions organised by HR, and to which HR will proactively participate (through their representative or as observers), can therefore be a game-changer when making decisions in the pressure cooker environment of a crisis.

Recovery phase

With regards to the recovery phase of crisis management, HR professionals should work closely with their crisis management colleagues and/or key stakeholders that were involved to provide effective employee communications.

Openness and transparency in this area are vital. Crisis management plans and strategies must be shared at different levels in order to foster a collective dynamic and proactive (re)actions.

Furthermore, clarity is key, as confusion is likely to cause further stress for employees. Specifically, regarding COVID-19, employees are likely to be anxious about various issues. Fear over catching the virus, uncertainty about any planned return to the office as well as feeling under strain from the blurring of work and home lives due to work from home experiences.

In this situation, the response of HR professionals in managing crisis recovery can be key. Not only can actions be taken to improve staff morale affected by the pandemic, but also processes can be improved to account for the changing working environment.

It’s almost inevitable that the working environment that organisations and employees face post-pandemic is going to be different to the one that preceded it.

However, while the challenges that the HR function faces might now differ, it’s clear that the crisis management lessons that should have been learnt during the pandemic (through an After Action Review or a global Gap analysis) need to be remembered.

By embracing the responsibilities of supporting and being a key part of the crisis management team, HR professionals remain at the heart of the battle and can ensure that their organisation’s recovery is an effective one, improving both business outcomes and the productivity and morale of their workforce.

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Go Zayaan, an online travel agency (OTA) startup in Bangladesh, has raised US$2.6 million in a seed round led by Wavemaker Partners.

The round saw participation from other SEA-focused VCs, including 1982 Ventures and Iterative, and angels such as Airbnb China CEO Kum Hong Siew, former Airbnb APAC managing director JJ Chai, and five former Priceline executives.

Liechtenstein-based private investment company Century Oak Capital also joined.

Focusing primarily on the Bangladesh market, Go Zayaan plans to use the fresh capital to improve user experience, attracting new talents, and expand its customer base and travel service network.

Also read: From the contributor community: The future of travel, user retention strategies, and more

Founded in 2017 by digital marketing-savvy entrepreneur Ridwan Hafiz, Go Zayaan works with local airlines, inter-city bus firms, hotels and tour operators to bring more travel services online.

The startup aims to bridge the gap between offline and online travel services by creating a holistic travel booking infrastructure, including financing, transport modes and lodging options, and integrations with the country’s mobile financial services industry.

While OTAs only take up about 4-6 per cent of the total travel market in Bangladesh, travel suppliers are catching on fast with digital technology adoption in recent years.

During the pandemic, as tourism face headwinds, Go Zayaan decided to focus on domestic tourism and boasts of achieving a 5X growth rate in the past 12 months.

The startup also claims to have clocked over 500,000 monthly active users and 40 per cent returning customers to date.

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Image Credit: Go Zayaan

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Vietnam’s fintech has emerged as a rising star in the ASEAN region lately. Why should you choose the fintech market, and how to start a fintech business here? Let’s explore.

Within the context of a robust digital transformation wave covering every aspect of the economy, fintech is definitely on the top list of potential and high-return investments. CSIRO (2019) has considered Vietnam one of the rising stars in the global fintech industry.

The fintech ecosystem in the country grew from 44 startups in 2017 to over 130 companies in 2021, as cited by the Vietnam Fintech Report 2020, a remarkable growth rate of 173 per cent within three years. The revenue of the industry was estimated to be US$7.8 billion in 2020 (Vietnam Briefing), fueled by the rising adoption of digital transactions, a growing e-commerce sector, and the support of the government in promoting fintech as part of the bigger national plan on pursuing a digital economy by 2030 (Fintech News).

Most investors in Vietnamese fintech startups are foreign investors, including financial institutions and venture capital funds. For example, Momo’s latest series D funding round was co-led by Warburg Pincus and Goodwater Capital at over US$100 million.

In recent years, fintech has grown to a multi-disciplinary industry that includes e-wallet payment services, financial literacy, fundraising and crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, wealth management services, mobile money, and even the trending sub-sector of cryptocurrencies.

Among the 130+ fintech startups, the top five most active sectors are digital payments solutions (31 per cent), P2P lending (17 per cent), blockchain (13 per cent), and wealth management and POS services tying at 7.5 per cent.

In terms of payment methods providers such as digital wallets, Vietnam ranked high in terms of usage density owing to a young demographic, the rising smartphone users, and the upward development of e-commerce sites, according to EY’s ASEAN Fintech Census 2018.

Along with the increasing trend of digital payments, the total transaction value of this sector is expected to reach nearly 30 million dollars in 2025. Listed in the top fintech companies in Vietnam are Momo, Nextpay, Zalopay, VayMuon, and Kilimo Finance, among others, specialised in various fields.

Also Read: Touchstone Partners launches ‘no-frills’ incubation programme in Vietnam

Consistent with Fintech Singapore’s report on the Vietnam fintech market, B2C sub-sectors dominated in terms of quantity and investment amount, B2B sub-sectors such as SMEs financing, digital banking, and data/credit/scoring management only amounted to an insignificant number.

This helps predict the likely fintech trends shortly, with new startups perhaps filling in the gap.

However, the past years have also witnessed positive expansions of the digital banking system, signifying cooperation between fintech businesses and traditional commercial banks.

As noted by the Digital Banking in Vietnam by Austrade (2020), the banking sector in Vietnam is driven by trends of digital transformation as the Vietnamese government is initiating a solid push towards a digital economy.

Innovations in mobile banking, QR code payment, and cooperation with other e-wallet enterprises have been applied by many banks such as MBBank, BIDV, and Techcombank, which have become even more critical in the context of COVID-19.

The most recent prominent case is the partnership between Shinhan Financial Group and Grab to develop new payment applications.

Opportunities for FDI investors in the Vietnam fintech industry

As one of the fastest-growing industries, fintech has been an attractive destination for many investors. According to CB Insights, one out of every five dollars invested in venture capital so far is in fintech.

Looking at Vietnam’s foreign investment market, between 2019 and 2020, the Vietnamese fintech market attracted US$435 million in funding, which was the second-highest in the ASEAN region. The increase in e-payment and online commerce due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought confidence to investors in the fintech industry in Vietnam.

Undoubtedly, this sector has been the topmost attractive investment sector since the beginning of 2021 to now.

Fintech regulations in Vietnam

Vietnamese laws currently provide neither a definition of fintech nor a single comprehensive regulatory framework for fintech activities, which is a bottleneck for the ecosystem. Current regulations are mainly concerned with fintech activities in the payment industry.

Fintech products in Intermediary Payment Service Provider (IPS) are governed by Decree 101 on non-cash payments and Circular 39 on IPS. IPS includes financial switching services, electronic clearing services, payment gateway services, supporting services for money collection and payment, supporting services for electronic money transfer, and e-wallet services.

Also Read: Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the most attractive fintech hubs in SEA

Following this Decree, IPS providers must be locally established enterprises that have obtained a license to provide IPS (“IPS License”) from the SBV. Therefore, foreign investors can invest in fintech in Vietnam through a legal entity. Currently, the government is drafting a new decree that will replace Decree 101 on non-cash payments.

One of the new policies mentioned in the Draft Decree amending and replacing Decree 101 is the proposed regulation of IPS agent activities assigned by banks to fintech businesses. If this Decree is passed, the market will be fiercely competitive in service quality and fees.

Regarding the future development of fintech, the government has issued many programs and projects. Among them is the legal framework for virtual assets such as cryptocurrencies. This sector bears a massive potential to the future payment services and the finance industry as a whole and a regulatory sandbox for the fintech sector.

As the government had newly issued a draft decree on regulatory sandbox for the banking sector in 2020, it will provide fintech businesses with a rigorous legal environment to test their services and products.

Key legal issues when setting up a fintech business

When thinking about establishing a fintech business, here are some fundamental legal issues that you should pay attention to:

• Entity formation and registration
• Licensing and sublicensing, as some fintech activities require a special license, for example, the IPS license – Intermediary Payment Services or a Non-Bank Credit Institution – NBCI.
• Registration of appropriate business line
• Special ownership arrangements: stock options, preferred shares, team member stock options, etc.
• Technology contract
• Intellectual property protection and cybersecurity issues

Market access and operational conditions for foreign investors

As stated above, regarding the regulations focused on electronic payment gateway services, here are some market access and operational conditions for foreign investors to keep in mind. The most popular form of investment for foreign investors in Vietnam fintech is to license authorities to perform intermediary payment services under their approved business lines.

The 6499 VSIC code, interpreted as “Other financial service activities not elsewhere classified (except for insurance and social insurance”, has been the most common for companies providing Payment Intermediary Service at the time being. Additionally, non-bank institutions can only be allowed to undertake the payment intermediary service after attaining a Provision of Payment Intermediary Services (“License “) from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).

The prime condition for attaining this License is a minimum charter capital of at least 50 billion VND. In addition, the company must satisfy the following criteria: a comprehensive business scheme, a legal representative and technical infrastructure, and IT systems appropriate to the requirements of intermediary payment services.

As of October 2020, there are 41 licensed service providers in Vietnam approved by the SBV, including Napas, Viettel Pay, and FPT.

Also Read: Deconstructing digital banking: How it can cater to the underserved in Malaysia

However, peer-to-peer lending is a case when it is not included as “Banking Services and Other Financial Services” under WTO commitments between Vietnam and other members. P2P Lending companies, in fact, unlike companies in the financial services business, provide a digital technology platform instead of giving money/loans.

An Official Letter No. 5228/NHNN/CSTT dated 8 July 2019 of the SBV stated: “In Vietnam, some companies have registered their business lines as financial advisory, financial brokerage, and self-introduction as P2P Lending companies providing services to connect investors and borrowers; however, the current Vietnamese law is yet to have regulations on P2P Lending activities”.

Hence, at present, there is no specific business line for P2P Lending Companies to register under the Vietnamese laws, and foreign investors have to apply for investment approval from the relevant Ministries and follow the process to obtain the investment license to start a P2P lending business in Vietnam.

Entry strategy for foreign investors in Vietnam’s fintech market

The potential of the Vietnam fintech industry is undeniable and foreign investors could choose from a wide array of market entry modes. Here are some of the most notable cases with success entering the Vietnam market.

In August 2021, Vietnam’s fintech ecosystem welcomed an Indonesia-based fintech startup – Kredivo, through a joint venture deal. The startup offers “buy now, pay later” solutions and has partnered with Phoenix Holdings, a diversified portfolio of financial services, to establish Kerdivo Vietnam JSC.

“The launch of Kredivo in Vietnam, our first market outside Indonesia, is another key achievement and milestone for the business this year,” said its COO Valery Crottaz. This is because the country has low penetration of credit cards and a rapidly growing middle class, together with the booming e-commerce market, he added.

In terms of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals, activities are becoming more robust as a massive number of large deals were made in the last few years, according to Vietnam Fintech Report 2020. For example:

• In September 2018, Grab acquired a Moca – a Vietnamese mobile payment startup
• In December 2019, Ant Financial acquired a substantial stake in e-wallet eMonkey, and in November 2019, Lazada Vietnam integrated eMonkey into its platform.
• September 2020, Indonesia’s Gojek has acquired a controlling interest in WePay.

In conclusion, there are inevitable opportunities for the fintech ecosystem in Vietnam and other fundraising organisations and investors in the world. The growth of this sector is also well-aligned with government direction towards a digitalised economy and society shortly.

Although the fintech sector in Vietnam remains a significant challenge related to a holistic regulatory framework, a well-trained human resource, and the rapid development of advanced technologies, the Vietnam fintech market is expected to take huge leaps in the future.

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

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Investible, a seed investment group in Australia, today announced the launch of a new US$72 million climate tech fund. 

This comes close on the heels of the first close of Investible’s second US$38.8-million sector-agnostic fund in June. 

The new climate tech fund will back seed-stage global startups, with the cheque sizes ranging from US$500,000 to US$800,000.

Half of the fund will be used to participate in follow-on rounds.

The fund’s six sectors of interest are energy, transportation, industry, buildings and cities, food and agriculture, and forest and land use. These are selected by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) as the most important for achieving a low-carbon, more resilient future.

According to a press statement, while the fund will primarily focus on Australian businesses, it will earmark up to 30 per cent of its capital for other international markets.

Launched in 2014 by entrepreneurs-turned-angel investors Creel Price and Trevor Folsom, Investible combines instinct and insights to back the next generation of game-changers. The firm has de-risked portfolios by distilling the complexities of early-stage investing into a thorough and consistent process. 

Also read: Circulate Capital hits US$14M first close of new climate-tech fund

Its prominent portfolio startups are graphic design platform Canva, online beauty site Ipsy, Singaporean Parcel Perform, and Indonesia’s Eden Farm.

“The numbers show a large and diverse portfolio approach is key to generating stronger returns. Over the last decade, Investible has built a proven screening and investment methodology to both sources high-quality deal flow and offer a compelling proposition to highly sought-after early-stage companies,” said CEO Rod Bristow.

Investible has built a climate-focused investment team managed by Tom Kline, CEO of New Energy Solar, and Patrick Sieb, who has 22-year experience in infrastructure and technology investment banking. 

Climate emergency and global regulatory tailwinds in the sector have provided a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity for technology investors. Investible is said to double down on its efforts to expedite that growth.

“The size and urgency of the problem mean that businesses that help solve it will be precious,” said Kline. “The scale of climate action required is so significant that it will require a transformation across almost every industry and country.”

Kline believes that climate techs provide an unparalleled opportunity for entrepreneurs as they develop profitable firms while addressing one of humanity’s most pressing issues.

UNEP’s emissions gap report echoed this viewpoint. It underlined that faster adoption of technologies plays a critical role in allowing large-scale improvements in global emission to achieve the 1.5°C temperature goal by 2030 as stated in the Paris Agreement. 

In August, with funding from the City of Sydney, Investible launched Greenhouse, a growth hub dedicated to enabling climate tech startups to scale in the late of next year.  

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Image Credit: Investible

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We live in a world where things are bought with just a click of a button— easy, fast, and so very tempting. The pandemic bolstered this, with consumers moving dramatically to online channels for shopping and retailers responding in return with advanced digital strategies to better interact with their customers.

The shift has been significant, with McKinsey identifying that COVID-19 has prompted the rapid digitisation of customer interactions.

APAC is leading the pack with an adoption acceleration rate of four years when it comes to digital transformation. 

Interestingly, despite the region accounting for three-fourth of all global retail growth, Southeast Asia has the lowest regional e-commerce market share globally. Such statistics may come as a surprise, especially with Shopee, Lazada, and Zalora dominating the restricted e-commerce space. Still, it does indicate that there are significantly ample opportunities to scale.

SYNC expects the value of Southeast Asia’s e-commerce to nearly double in five years, up from a US$132 billion sales forecast in 2021. 

Such momentum has a two-fold effect: setting the bar high for many retailers competing in the highly saturated retail space while placing pressure on those trying to pivot from traditional to digital but may not necessarily have the capabilities to support the move.

Resultantly, it comes as no surprise that many are scrambling to find intelligent solutions to stay ahead in the digital race. 

E-commerce: The data battlefield

For small businesses and retail startups to make a name for themselves, they need to compete with leading e-commerce marketplaces— or at least have access to tools that can better level the playing field.

For one, e-commerce marketplace Shopee handles an average of 2.8 million transactions per day across nine countries, with a deluge of sale events on a near-monthly basis.

The advantage? A huge base of data points to be utilised to enhance their business and customer engagement strategies. Online brands should have the same data at their fingertips, but the fact is, not all can benefit from the same access and value from their data.

Also Read: How the tech-enabled second-hand fashion resale market is growing in Asia

Hence, the battle ensues— the ongoing race to transform data into actionable insights. 

Without data, brands and retailers lack the validation and visibility of their current market position. The repercussions for this can be considered, including a higher risk of misinformed business decisions— be it inventory stock-outs, over discounting, or ineffective marketing campaigns, to name a few.

This, in turn, has a knock-on effect on a brand’s competitive position with significant financial implications in the form of wasted retail dollars and loss of critical market share. But the challenge doesn’t end there.

For those who have looked to tech infrastructures such as retail SaaS solutions, the lack of interoperability across these systems has made it more difficult for brands to understand what their data is saying.

The average retail company of 50 employees will deploy anywhere from 70 to 83 retail SaaS solutions in 2025— an alarming number that points to the risks of a siloed set-up.

With so many SaaS solutions, consolidating insights is too tedious, time-consuming, and resource-intensive— especially for small businesses— to serve as the foundation for real-time implementation.

In today’s market, this effectively equates to missed opportunities. 

Survival of the fittest

To better make sense of their data, artificial intelligence can go a long way, transforming the entirety of the data collection process: from creating self-enhancing models that can accurately filter through the data to the consolidation of the data to provide visualised insights.

That being said, maximising cost efficiencies should be the top priority when evaluating retail tech investments, and sometimes, less is more.

A single synergistic AI solution can be sufficient and effective in serving decision-makers through all aspects of the retail value chain. Here’s how: 

Foresight in designing and merchandising 

Retailers worldwide lose over US$1.1 trillion every year due to out-of-stocks and overstocks alone. Individually, this could account for up to 11.7 per cent of lost revenue. AI can address such inefficiencies by offering insights into assortment planning and stock allocation.

Through scraping, analysing and synthesising the data made available online, an AI-based tech stack can provide an end-to-end view of consumer preferences across multiple platforms and, as a result, allow them to reflect actual market demand and optimise inventory flow. 

Agility in sales 

Pricing is always a tricky game to play, especially with your biggest rivals breathing down your neck. Accenture indicated that companies risk losing up to 20 per cent of revenue growth without digital operating models that support agility at speed.

Sophisticated AI algorithms such as Omnilytics’ Product Match can mitigate this. Taxonomies (structured naming conventions) are applied to the product data once the data is scraped from all retailers and marketplaces in the market; taxonomies (structured naming conventions) are used to the product data.

Text, image, and feature models are then used to filter out a sample of matching competitor products. With this, brands can see how their products are performing against competitors and on different retail platforms and subsequently plan effective pricing strategies to maximise revenue from all their product offerings.

Curation in management

Synthesising and visualising all data points, AI systems can provide hyper-accurate trend forecast reports that can help brands fine tune their business strategies and react before the market to increase profitability and hit their growth milestones for the year.

Also Read: Looking past the pandemic: The future of fashion retail in Southeast Asia

Ultimately, an all-encompassing AI solution can grant a 360 view of market demand, enabling management to make effective data-driven decisions based on actionable data intelligence. With such technology, a single key is all you need.

Conquering the high street

Indeed, transforming data into intelligence is the only way for retailers to mark their territory in the e-commerce arena. Brands, no matter how established or new, have to evolve their digital on-ramp strategies to include more robust tech capabilities that can withstand the harshest of seasons and enable them to establish dominance in the retail space. 

Building the future blueprint of retail intelligence involves its adoption in the immediate present, and brands are stepping up their game.

With a plethora of solutions now on the market, a holistic retail tech stack will soon become an essential arm of the retail system.

Retail data has already disrupted the way retailers do business. Now, retail intelligence is here to propel them further — the opportunities are endless, and it’s only just the beginning. 

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Singapore-based Accredify, a company that allows organisations to create and issue verifiable documents, today announced the closing of a US$2-million financing round led by VC firm Qualgro.

Pavilion Capital, Endeavour Ventures, and K2 Global also participated.

Accredify was founded in 2019 to provide a solution to combat a rise in fraudulent education degree certificates in the higher education sector. It assists Asia’s top universities in the creation and issuance of digital tamper-proof graduation certificates and transcripts.

To verify documents, users can drag and drop the digital document into an online verifier portal. The results are instantaneous.

The company says all digital documents issued by Accredify’s cloud-based system are tamper-proof and traceable back to the source of issuance.

The startup is currently expanding its services to enable universities to create modular learning programmes for students. This initiative allows students to customise their degrees based on individual courses they apply for.

Also Read: Accredify, SGInnovate partner to launch Digital Health Passport that will accelerate travel post-COVID-19

In addition, Accredify offers a suite of APIs and options for systems-to-systems integration. Organisations can create and prepare individualised tamper-proof digital credentials in large batches at the single click of a button.

The firm works with more than 900 clients in Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, and the UAE. It claims it has verified more than seven million documents so far.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Accredify expanded its offerings and entered Singapore’s healthcare industry by pioneering the issuance of verifiable COVID-19 swab results following a rise in cases of forged COVID-19 negative test results. Accredify also co-developed HealthCerts, an internationally recognisable standard for COVID-19 test results. The test results issued by Accredify are recognised in 82 countries and by 70 airlines.

Accredify co-founder and CEO Quah Zheng Wei said, “Over the decades, there has been a transition from physical to digital documents, and we believe the next phase is an evolution towards verifiable digital records. Our goal is to be the leader in Asia in digital document verification.”

In September 2020, Accredify announced a partnership with SGInnovate to launch a digital health passport that would help accelerate the re-opening of travel borders. The passport allows individuals to store their medical information, including COVID-19 testing and vaccination reports digitally signed by accredited bodies, on the app. By using blockchain technology, medical records in the app can be traced back to the source.

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Image Credit: Accredify

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Friz, a neobank for freelancers, has announced the completion of its oversubscribed seed funding round of US$1 million from a host of investors, including Indonesia’s Amand Ventures, Iterative Ventures, and Y Combinator.

An Ivy League University Endowment Fund, founders and CEOs of unnamed Indian e-commerce startups, and early Qonto and Funding Societies employees also joined the round.

This deal follows a pre-seed round from investors, including Y Combinator, 500 Durians, 500 TukTuks, and Iterative in April this year.

According to The Online Labour Index, the freelancer economy has almost doubled since 2016, with 70 per cent of the global freelancing talent coming from Asia.

Workers are embracing project-based work increasingly due to trends in remote work and growth in freelancing platforms. However, most non-salaried, contract freelancers face difficulty accessing basic banking products like tailored debit cards, credit cards, or invoicing.

Also Read: Friz raises seed funding from YC, 500 Durians to help freelancers manage their finances better

A considerable part of the problem is that traditional consumer banking is built for salaried employees, and most freelancers cannot open a business bank account without business entities.

Friz wants to solve this issue by providing a neobank in partnership with Matchmove, Mastercard and Funding Societies.

Launched in April 2020, Friz leverages data insights to provide financial products including credit cards, personal loans, insurance, savings and investment products for freelancers. With Friz, freelancers can manage their incomes, expenses, savings and borrowings, all under one roof.

Since its inception, Friz claims to have registered 500 per cent growth month on month.

“70 per cent of our customers are very unhappy with mass-market banking and want a personalised financial tool that solves their problems. Our users are tired of broken financial solutions and being excluded from basic financial services,” Nirali Zaveri, CEO and co-founder of Friz, said.

Since its launch in Singapore, Friz has seen organic traction amongst digital marketers, content creators, programmers, accountants, lawyers and many more knowledge economy freelancers who cannot wait to experience financial freedom.

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Image Credit: Friz

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Japan’s heavy manufacturing conglomerate Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., through its Precision Machinery Business Division, has partnered with the Intellectual Capital Management Group (ICMG) Co., Ltd. to hold the Co-Creation Challenge, a competition that calls upon innovators to collaborate on solving four pressing sustainability challenges faced by the world today.

Selected entities such as startups and research institutions will gain the opportunity to leverage KHI’s assets and expertise to co-create innovative solutions. This opportunity includes conducting PoC and scalable projects in collaboration with the KHI Precision Machinery Division team. The location of PoC is to be determined as it depends on the entities selected. Those interested in this Challenge are highly encouraged to sign up through the website.

Since its establishment in 1896, Kawasaki has positioned innovation front and foremost, captured by its “Global Kawasaki” value centred on advocating for environmental sustainability in creating a brighter future for generations to come. This value carries over to the Precision Machinery Business Division, Kawasaki’s hydraulic components and systems maker founded in 1968 that has adhered to its principal creeds of “consideration for the global environment” and “safety and security”.

ICMG, as a partner in the competition, shares the same spirit of leveraging Asia’s innovation ecosystem to address social issues, with the aim of “creating purposeful and impactful innovation to the world”.

The DNA of innovation

Through the competition, Kawasaki and ICMG call upon innovators, or co-creators, who are also pursuing “the DNA of Innovation” to put their best ideas related to four distinct challenges on the table, with the end mission of delivering “abundance” and an “enjoyable daily life” to those coming into contact with the resulting products.

The theme of the first challenge is creating a sustainable housing development ecosystem, which falls under the Challenge Statement for Housing. This challenge correlates to providing a safe, secure, and comfortable living environment for the global population, estimated by the United Nations to hit 9.7 billion, of which 72% will live in urban areas, by 2050. Here, Kawasaki looks forward to collaborating with co-creators to reduce the negative environmental impact of housing developments by optimising construction processes as well as utilising sustainable natural materials and manufacturing equipment.

Moreover, Kawasaki aims to boost the energy efficiency of the construction process to attain carbon neutrality from upstream to downstream, with smart construction as one of the potential solutions. Given the focus on sustainable construction, co-creators that KHI seek include those with the expertise to develop new housing development materials, especially natural, and technologies as well as those that have automation, mechanisation, and digitalisation solutions for the safety and security of construction sites. To facilitate co-creators, Kawasaki will provide working assets, from hydraulic technology to teams of experts knowledgeable in mechanical technology.

Also read: Industrial IoT startup Sophic Automation set to scale up Industry 4.0 projects in the region

The second challenge adopts the theme of creating a sustainable energy ecosystem with hydrogen energy as it is linked to the Challenge Statement for Energy. The challenge is a response to escalating climate issues and the falling behind of sustainability goals outlined in the Paris Agreement by the United Nations. Kawasaki intends to accelerate the implementation of sustainability measures by promoting decarbonisation through the heightened use of hydrogen-related technologies for producing, transporting, and utilising hydrogen which is a clean and readily available source of energy.

Therefore, co-creators that KHI seek include those that intend to leverage hydrogen, including using hydrogen to replace fossil-fuel-powered equipment, to forge a sustainable energy society. Co-creators will have at their disposal Kawasaki’s invaluable assets, such as high-precision control technology for hydrogen gas and wave power generation systems producing clean energy, to design and deploy the solutions.

The third challenge marked by Kawasaki is creating sustainable smart ports, which slips under the Challenge Statement for Logistics. As the world economy becomes more enmeshed with one another through the global division of labour, cargo volume has shot upwards as local producers spread across continents export their products. Kawasaki observes the need for marine logistics to maintain agile supply chains, especially at a time when COVID-19 has forced ports to curtail their activities. Congruently, the exposure of port workers towards risks, including physical injuries due to their heavy nature of work, requires significant reductions for the safety of all. Here, technology can offer breakthroughs via sophisticated port operating systems embedded with Internet of Things (IoT) and digital transformations (DX) that enable the realisation of sustainable “smart ports”.

These technologies must also enhance workplace safety and operational efficiency, allowing ports to run smoothly even when human resources are deficient. Communities surrounding the port need to feel the positive impact for these technologies as well, considering that a win-win solution contributes positively to the working environment. The considerable focus on logistics necessitates co-creators to be fluent with smart port systems and technologies, encompassing freight management, port equipment manufacturing, and automation solution providers. Co-creators have the freedom to access Kawasaki’s assets, which also comprises software and IoT-compatible control technologies, besides the company’s worldwide production and sales bases.

The last challenge has direct implications for daily life since it borrows the Challenge Statement for Food Security, which is creating a sustainable ecosystem promoting food circulation. The first challenge has already raised the issue related to the global population explosion, which will potentially trigger a food crisis due to various causes, notably climate change and the decreasing number of workers in primary industry. All this raises the world’s susceptibility to food crises induced by inadequate food production. Kawasaki sees the urgency in tackling this issue by advancing sustainable food production via sensing technologies, digitalisation, and robotics.

Also read: Protégé Ventures as a gateway for VCs to invest in the future

These innovations will digitally transform agriculture, producing machinery and systems that can withstand harsh environments, maintain yields amid labour shortages, and ensure safety for the present workers. More than possessing a deep understanding of food production and consumption, co-creators must have the know-how of inserting technology such as software into food production machines.

Co-creators with the capacity of designing technologies to transform waste into valuable consumption will be at an advantage as well. These co-creators will gain access to Kawasaki’s range of agricultural assets, also comprised of Hydro Static Transmission (HTS) systems that can act as human limbs and Camera Stabiliser that will benefit automation to reduce workload and promote workplace safety.

Submit your entries today

Co-creators keen to spell out their solutions to the above challenges can submit their entries up to the deadline of 15 October 2021.

Upon the receiving of proposals, Kawasaki will announce on 12 November the selected applicants who will move to the next stage, namely the Co-Creation Session which will be held up to 27 January 2022 to further delve into the business opportunities of the solution with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. Precision Machinery Business Division and ICMG.

Kawasaki’s internal panel will finally organise the judgement for the continuation of the next steps as a co-creation partner on 28 January 2022. Interested co-creators can check out further details and send in their entry here.

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

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