There have been many exciting updates from Warung Pintar, an Indonesia-based new retail startup backed by the likes of East Ventures and Vertex Ventures. As recent as last week, the company announced the launch of its corporate group Warung Pintar Group.

Ever since its debut in 2018, Warung Pintar has gained the attention of investors and the general public with its unique solutions. The company builds a set of technology platforms to help local mom-and-pop stores (“warung“) digitalise the different aspects of their operations –from payments to warehousing.

Working to empower warungs in the digital era seems to be a major trend in the archipelago this year, as we began to see more startups launching their products and raising funding to support their works in the segment. But as one of the earlier players in the field, we are curious about how the company works to develop the right solutions for their users: warung owners, distributors, and FMCG brands.

In this interview, e27 speaks to Warung Pintar co-founders Agung Bezharie and Harya Putra to understand the product development process in their company.

Users as the centre of our universe

The co-founders begin the interview by stressing that Warung Pintar implements a user-centric approach in developing its products.

“We can either go with designing a sophisticated, highly-detailed product with the longer production process or go with making smaller chunks that we can immediately launch to the customers. There will certainly be a number of trials and errors, but these [errors] will produce insights. We prefer to use this approach,” says Putra.

Also Read: Warung Pintar reportedly raises US$6M in new funding round

The co-founders also state that this principle is implemented not only in their product development process but also in the company’s operations in general. It is also a concept that keeps on growing and developing, supported by continuous experiments.

“When we just got started, we did not pay much attention to the complexity of the whole infrastructure and the relationship between each service. But now it has become an obligation,” Bezharie explains. “This also affects how we design and how the organisation operates … If you get back to us next year, there will certainly be changes in how we operate.”

In the recent years, the company has also acquired notable names in the Indonesian startup ecosystem such as Limakilo and Bizzy Digital to further expand its offerings.

When being asked about how these acquisitions impacted their company structure, Bezharie says that there are certain changes and adjustments that they have to make.

He further explains that the company grouped their team members based on the problems that they aim to solve, instead of the solutions that they intend to build.

“Because they can be a variety of solutions to a problem,” he says.

Eureka moments

Once the principles have been settled, the co-founders move on to explain the process that they go through to develop a product, starting with the ideation process. According to them, their products are inspired by many different things from customers feedback, trends in the market, or even existing products.

One thing that Warung Pintar would like to stress about this process is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to every product –and things can get “chaotic” in the process.

“Sometimes we may have a product that we thought was ready to scale, but then the circumstances changed. In the end, we may have to kill or change the direction of the product. So, the product development process does not always go towards one direction,” Bezharie says.

“There is no one system that is applicable for all products. As we scale and grow our business, the complexity also grows, and the challenges also become greater,” he adds.

Also Read: In brief: Warung Pintar, BukuWarung partner to digitalise Indonesian MSMEs; Openlogi, Jumbotail secure funding

Bezharie further states that the company stresses the importance of speed in this matter. For example, how soon can the team validate an idea? This aspect is crucial as it determines when the team can evaluate and, eventually, grow the product.

“Even if we do something wrongly, [speed] enables us to move on quicker. The most challenging part is our readiness to move on as we cannot get too emotionally attached to an idea,” he elaborates.

Success stories

When asked about the projects that the company has managed to complete, Bezharie and Putra give the example of their wholesale platform –launched at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an example of a product that was developed through a fast-paced ideation and validation process.

“We built this one because we were wondering how to scale faster and bring wholesalers into our ecosystem,” Bezharie says. “Many warung owners preferred to shop from wholesalers as they tend to be more affordable, despite the fact that purchasing from Warung Pintar’s network is already affordable enough. But working with wholesalers is in line with our mission and can help us acquire more warung owner users.”

The team only had five weeks to build the platform. So, Warung Pintar rented an apartment in Surabaya for its team of five members. Within the expected time frame, they managed to complete version 1.0 of the platform.

Bezharie and Putra also tell us about their distribution platform, which is an example of a product that is developed in a longer, more complicated process.

“To design this platform, we collaborate with our distributors. The process involves a few months of discussions to create a blueprint of products that we will work on for the next two years. There are indeed products that are created through this kind of process which involves plenty of high-level discussions and formal expectations,” Putra says.

Warung Pintar also tries to involve the users as early as possible in their testing process.

“We are accustomed to open our laptops [to work] at warungs. [Having users involved in the development process] gives them a strong sense of ownership of the product. They would even show it off to their peers,” Putra points out.

Also Read: Warung Pintar buys Bizzy Digital for US$45M to create full-stack supply chain platform for Indonesia’s mom-and-pop stores

The challenges we all face

The Warung Pintar co-founders close the discussion by pointing a challenge that is faced not only by the company, but also the Indonesian startup ecosystem in general: talent acquisition.

Bezharie stresses that at the moment, there is no clear definition of what a product manager even is in the market.

“We have seen product managers who were once an analyst; there are even those who are fresh graduates. And not all of them are able to code. There is no clear formulation in the market as the roles of product managers vary between startups,” he explains.

“This is why talent building is the hardest aspect of the business. For example, if I were looking for a sales manager, I just have to open LinkedIn and I will have potential candidates with a similar background. They would all have a solid background as there is already an unwritten standard in the industry,” he further elaborates.

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Image Credit: Warung Pintar

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Southeast Asia’s leading digital property marketplace group PropertyGuru has announced that it will merge with Bridgetown 2 Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) formed by Pacific Century Group and Peter Thiel’s Thiel Capital, to go public in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The combined entity will have an enterprise valuation of approximately US$1.35 billion and an equity value of approximately US$1.78 billion at closing, according to a statement.

The transaction is expected to deliver up to US$431 million of gross proceeds through the contribution of up to US$299 million of cash held in Bridgetown 2’s trust account, a concurrent US$100 million private placement (PIPE) of common stock anchored by Baillie Gifford, Naya, REA Group, Akaris Global Partners, and one of Malaysia’s largest asset managers, priced at US$10.00 per share.

Also Read: PropertyGuru acquires REA Group’s Malaysian, Thai proptech units

REA Group has also committed to an additional US$32 million investment. KKR, TPG Group, and REA Group will roll 100 per cent of their equity into the combined company.

The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2021 or Q1 2022, subject to regulatory and stockholder approvals, and other customary closing conditions.

PropertyGuru’s management team — led by CEO and MD Hari V. Krishnan and CFO Joe Dische — will continue to lead the public company after the completion of the transaction.

Founded in 2007, PropertyGuru provides digital property marketplaces to match buyers and tenants with sellers and landlords; digital marketing services for property agents and developers; SaaS-based sales process automation for property developers; a digital mortgage marketplace and brokerage; and property data consultancy services for banks, valuers and property developers.

The company claims it currently hosts more than 2.8 million monthly real-estate listings and serves 37 million monthly property seekers and 49,000 active property agents across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Also Read: The world of proptech and its fate in a post-pandemic world

PropertyGuru’s growth business delivered average annual revenue growth of approximately 25 per cent in the four years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, and its pro-forma revenue is expected to have a compounded annual growth rate of 29 per cent between CY20A and CY25F.

“We have a story to be told and found the right partner to help us tell it to public market investors. This process of becoming a public company will provide us with greater financial resources to do what we do best — helping people find, finance, and own their homes in an efficient and transparent manner. We believe the strategic, proactive steps that we have taken over the past 18 months will enable us to stay ahead of the market’s evolving needs, which are increasingly being shaped by the growth of affluent and digitally-enabled populations living in cities across Southeast Asia,” said Hari V. Krishnan.

According to Matt Danzeisen, Chairman of Bridgetown 2: “We evaluated a number of very impressive companies across Southeast Asia and PropertyGuru is the perfect fit for us. We believe PropertyGuru is just scratching the surface of what it can deliver as Southeast Asia’s property market continues to accelerate, and we are excited to work with Hari and his talented team to capture the incredible opportunities that lie ahead.”

Peter Thiel, President, Thiel Capital, said: “The market for property is probably the oldest market in the world, and only now is it beginning to change rapidly. As PropertyGuru spearheads that change in Southeast Asia, Bridgetown 2 will provide capital and expertise to accelerate it even further.”

Also Read: Can SEA’s proptech come back to its pre-COVID-19 glory? Experts speak

Richard Li, Founder and Chairman, Pacific Century Group, said: “Southeast Asia is a unique market in that it has very high economic growth but lacks quality services in many sectors. Fast-growing middle-class, increased urbanisation, and technological disruption create a unique combination. We recognise the transformational impact of these long-term trends and are focused on operating our own core business and investing in local champions that are successfully leveraging technology to reshape the region’s economy and how people carry out their everyday lives.”

In May, PropertyGuru signed an agreement to fully acquire REA Group’s operating entities in Malaysia and Thailand.

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Image Credit: PropertyGuru

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The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a fast-growing trend — especially with the demand for connectivity, as people get more physically distanced during the current global pandemic.

According to IDC projections, IoT spending in the Asia Pacific will rebound in 2021 to reach US$288.6 billion and will grow at an average yearly rate of 11.7 per cent from 2020 to 2024.

The commercial and industrial application possibilities for IoT are endless. Technology has especially played a significant role in manufacturing and industrial settings — connecting machines to machines, and machines to online systems. IoT has also been widely adopted in industries like transportation, energy and healthcare.

The benefits of IoT for businesses, naturally, are abundant, ranging from increased cost savings to enhanced productivity. It has also become vital for automation and robotics in many logistic hubs and factory floors.

Among the big four technologies of today — artificial intelligence (AI), cloud infrastructure and big data and analytics — IoT is expected to have the biggest impact on the Industry 4.0 revolution worldwide, according to Statista.

Cybersecurity risks and IoT

Nonetheless, IoT adoption does come with its fair share of challenges. Chief among them is increased cybersecurity risks. The more connected devices in a network mean a larger surface area for cyber threat actors to launch their attacks.

Perhaps the most infamous IoT hacking incident was the Mirai Botnet attack, which took down parts of Amazon Web Services and its clients, including GitHub, Netflix, and Twitter.

Also Read: In brief: Revere VC, Property Flow raise funding; Jim Rogers joins Life3 Biotech’s board of investors

More recently, hackers have also breached security-camera data collected by Silicon Valley startup Verkada — gaining access to footage from hospitals, police departments, prisons, schools, as well as companies such as Tesla.

Cybersecurity requirements are best addressed as a whole. Businesses require a secure network infrastructure that supports all aspects of their operation, and these include IoT connectivity, policy management for users and devices, applications such as communication and collaboration, and workflow automation.

A robust cybersecurity strategy also reduces risks across Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, IoT, shadow IT and more.

New network technologies

Network performance is another key consideration in IoT planning. The hype in recent years is on 5G and Wi-Fi 6. 5G LTE is the latest mobile network technology— capable of carrying more information than ever before. It can also support communications in ultra-dense deployments due to higher and faster frequencies.

Wi-Fi 6, meanwhile, is the next-generation Wi-Fi standard known as 802.11ax. It is packed with newer technologies that allow connectivity to the Internet to be faster and more efficient.

Generally, 5G is ideal for large, outdoor environments that require longer-range connectivity. In smart transport IoT applications for instance, this can mean vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-road connectivity.

Wi-Fi 6 on the other hand, brings benefits like a lower cost for deployment and maintenance. Being a Wi-Fi network, it is also very scalable. This makes it optimised for most IoT strategies and means that it will continue to be the predominant technology for most campus and office environments.

Also Read: Why Malaysia is quickly becoming a cybersecurity hub for the rest of the world

However, both 5G and Wi-Fi 6 developments are relatively new. Many cities and facility owners across the region are currently still putting in place the necessary infrastructure to support these technologies. Also, many businesses are operating in fast-changing environments that require operations to be agile and flexible.

One good example is the quick pivot many businesses had to undertake in transitioning office- and factory-based workers to a largely distributed work-from-home workforce. Selecting the right network for a business IoT setup may not always be as straightforward as it seems.

Many devices, much to consider

Business and IT leaders need to have a clear idea of how their IoT devices will bring value to the overall operations in the first place, especially considering the investment and expertise required.

This means finding out what success would look like. Consider questions like: which processes should it cut down (or eliminate)? How often will the devices be used? Which features will be used the most? What will the cost of upkeep look like?

That is not all. Leaders still need to consider what deployment would look like, while factoring in the need for security and reliability.

As mentioned, businesses must take a holistic view of cybersecurity. Mainly, they ought to ensure that the entire network is not compromised in the event of one cyber attack incident. This means virtually segmenting all infrastructure and networks so devices can only access certain services and are blocked from communicating with all other micro-segments of the network.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, for instance, has laid out a five-phase micro-segmentation strategy that can onboard IoT devices and keep them in their dedicated containers — helping to minimise security risks, without wreaking havoc on current processes.

Additionally, as businesses add more devices to their networks, they need to ensure that they have bandwidth and capacity ready to keep up with the demand.

Leaders must therefore look into robust network solutions that can address varied IoT deployment scenarios to simultaneously support multiple devices, sometimes of different makes and models, at once.

Connecting the dots

According to a McKinsey survey, the pandemic has brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions do business — accelerating their digitisation at a pace never seen before. This may just be the beginning, however.

Also Read: Mind the trust gap: How does a company develop consumer trust through data stewardship?

Ultimately, change is the only constant, and businesses need to be agile and nimble enough to embrace new technologies to build up resilience.

In essence, there is no denying that businesses will stand to benefit tremendously from adopting IoT. However, a great deal of thought and planning is required to ensure a smooth and secure transition.

A sound IoT strategy that is agile enough to allow for the businesses to pivot when required must be in place early in the process. Only then, will they be able to thrive in an efficient, safe, and secure connected environment.

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Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) are currently the red hot topic in town, but why has NFT rocketed in publicity in recent years? It will be more meaningful to discuss what value NFT actually creates and what achievements it unlocks.

The essential problem is that no matter what kind of business model, it will still be choked by various digital and social platforms. When people post on social media, upload photos, music, and even videos every day, they also copy these files to platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.

When copying and pasting, they also transfer the ownership of the content to the platform. When the social platform uses this content to realise and earn huge wealth, creators did not earn any rewards or incomes.

Moreover, today Instagram blocked your account, or the App Store removed your app, or even Facebook reduced its reach. You can report it to the platform but it does not mean your problem can be resolved, so the final decision is not in your hands.

A game player bought a virtual treasure in a certain game. This object appears to belong to the game player, but he cannot let the game player decide whether it can be used on other platforms. The reason is that the ownership of these digital assets does not belong to the individual creator or purchaser, but is dominated by various platforms.

However, NFT is a solution that allows the ownership to really return to the creator’s hands when creators can really decide whether to put their creativity on the platform or not.

Also Read: NFT minting platform Mintable nets US$13M from Ripple, ex-advisor to Bill Clinton, others

We started FomosArt a year ago when the founders recognised fundamental issues with the NFT infrastructure that could impact future widespread use.

Realising that many NFTs were being stored on centralised servers with no secure path to ownership, FomosArt identified a key solution to an industry-wide problem.

Using the power of blockchain technology, FomosArt validates and verifies copyright ownership as part of the NFT-minting process and supports all creative work including music, video, visual art, photographs, written works and more, revamping an outdated system and offering creators a faster, more effective, modern solution to a copyright system unable to keep up with the changing modern world.

However, there are many challenges for creators and collectors:

• Most people still have doubts about crypto currency. There are many negative news
• The entry barrier is high, artists not only need to understand NFT, but also need to understand cryptocurrency and blockchain as same as collectors
• Artists don’t know how to create NFT how to display their NFT creations
• Collectors don’t know how to buy NFT and find favourite crypto art and how to display their NFT creations
• People still don’t understand and hesitate about NFT as much as cryptocurrency

So we assist artists in establishing their NFTs and displaying them on our platform so that collectors can see these works and even collect them. We want to enable young creators to understand NFT and hope they can understand and join this evolution.

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Has the pandemic inspired your desire to embrace entrepreneurship? You’re not the only one. More are becoming their own boss, with the number of companies incorporated in Singapore increasing by seven per cent from 2020 to 2021 – that’s more than two times from the year before.

Of all the sectors, the retail trade industry saw the most significant growth, with a 71 per cent increase in company formation year-on-year, largely driven by more consumer shopping during the period. Even the beleaguered food and beverage sector, which was repeatedly hit by restrictions, saw a 37 per cent increase in the number of companies formed. What gives?

One likely factor is the billions of dollars in government support via grants and special funds for businesses. As part of its support of startups, the Singapore government channelled S$150 million into the Startup SG Founder programme, which aims to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation by providing mentorship and capital grants.

Earlier, the government allocated S$8.3 billion to support Singapore’s Transformation and Growth Strategy, which included S$300 million for the Startup SG Equity co-investment scheme.

A strong appetite for entrepreneurship is encouraging and essential as it drives innovation and creates new opportunities for Singapore’s economic recovery.

But with so many startups unable to survive past the first year, building lasting success is easier said than done. Here are three best practices to bear in mind.

Also Read: In brief: NUS partners Indonesian universities to foster entrepreneurship, OYO raises US$660M

Be hyper-focused on your mission and delegate the rest

Entrepreneurs are hyper-focused on building their business and bringing their ideas to fruition—and they should be—leaving the non-mission critical,  tedious, time consuming administrative tasks to professional and experienced advisers, secretaries and accountants.

Working through all the complicated and costly administrative hurdles to register your company? Keeping up with mandatory tax and regulatory compliance? Tracking finances and payroll? Not all entrepreneurs are equipped with the knowledge and training to handle these matters, and they don’t need to be, especially with professional services that can do the job for them.

In the process, entrepreneurs can focus on using their time efficiently and effectively to go out and hustle!

Hire the right people to fill the gaps

Business success depends on many people, including customers, investors, and team members. And, businesses need people who truly believe in their mission and vision, and are willing to hustle to achieve it.

However, one common mistake that entrepreneurs make is hiring generalists to build the team. Businesses need specialised talents to fill the gaps that entrepreneurs can’t.

For example, if you’re building a tech startup, it is crucial to hire engineers and designers to take the company to the next level, instead of relying on amateur skills self-taught from YouTube.

To ensure they build the dream team, entrepreneurs need to be honest about what skills and experience they currently lack and need in their new hires. Make sure to think long term and predict what expertise the company needs to grow and scale in the future.

To avoid high turnover rates common in startups, entrepreneurs also need to ensure that new hires are ultimately a good fit for the company. This includes being transparent about the company vision and growth and sharing expectations, responsibilities and objectives of the role.

Also Read: Emotional leadership in a post-COVID-19 business world

Invest in the right infrastructure and systems to support entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs often feel compelled to go at it alone. But if there’s anything we’ve learnt in the last 18 months it is that businesses must have the right systems and processes in place to pivot and scale.

Having the right infrastructure and systems helps to offset the marginal cost of acquiring and serving new clients. For example, investing in a customer relationship management system to organise customer data and chase leads, while leveraging digital marketing channels allows a startup to drive awareness and leads.

As paperwork piles up, entrepreneurs should invest in an online platform and dashboard that can help create, edit, transfer and organise documentation into one place, making administrative matters more streamlined and convenient.

For example, using Sleek’s platform to manage financials, governance and compliance, has helped businesses save up to three hours per week and per employee.

Adopting e-signatures can also afford greater convenience and reduce unnecessary barriers such as printing and scanning, and losing your physical documents.

While the entrepreneurship journey may be fraught with challenges and difficulties, by strategically tapping on the right people, resources and systems, business success won’t be out of reach.

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Any successful, fast-growing startup founder in Asia can attest to this: To stay on top in today’s climate, it is important to constantly evolve and expand the business, be it in technology or business models offered to customers. 

This is a convergence of multiple forces that have shaped how businesses can excel in Asia:

• The region is developing rapidly but at a different pace in each market
• We are competing with a host of other companies from the West 
• For every successful business venture in a new space, tens of local competitors will emerge

The pandemic has also accelerated the need for businesses to go digital. As a result of this, customer needs are different in each market and also always evolving. 

The benefits are multifold. Apart from obvious things such as diversifying risk and revenue streams to your business, your customers will also benefit from constant innovation and value add, and your employees have new projects to work on and can constantly learn and grow.

As a company, we started in the advertising industry, but shortly after, expanded into influencer marketing and publisher ad monetisation.

In the past year, we expanded into the direct-to-consumer (D2C) space with products for cloud manufacturing, e-commerce enablement, and logistics management. We started with one product, but have expanded that to seven.

All this happened within a period of five years whilst scaling our operations from one market then to 13 markets today. 

Throughout this time, there were various learnings for us, let me share three of them. 

Also Read: How Thai food supply chain startup Freshket weathered through the pandemic

From the get-go

Recently, I came across a slide from our very first all-hands meeting back in mid-2016, which showed our expansion plans. Even though we started the company in the advertising industry because of our experience in that space, what we really wanted to do was to empower the digital economy in Asia.

That’s also why we expanded the company into AnyMind Group back in 2018, as we knew it was the right time for us to expand into new ventures. 

What this meant was that we had the right tech and business team in place, positioned and optimised the leadership team’s responsibilities for an expanded business, a strong base of customers that we can add new value to, and the right overall market conditions to start expanding our tech and business models. 

At the same time, it’s very important to set clear responsibilities within your leadership team during such expansions. Part of the leadership team can focus on new ventures; whilst the other part maintains and grows existing ventures, and both sides need to constantly communicate to provide alignment and transparency. 

Ensure employees are closely aligned with the progress

Since we started the business, we have had monthly virtual meetings where all staff dial in, and we did it for five years without missing a single one.

This is crucial especially in a fast-growing startup with operations across many markets, so that everyone knows what’s happening, are closely aligned with the rationale behind the moves, and can then convey it with customers.

Before the pandemic, we would also hold in-person all-hands meetings multiple times a year, where we share our short-term and long-term roadmap. The key benefit for this is that employees can have face-to-face interactions with their colleagues from other countries, since most of the collaboration is done virtually.

Also Read: How did MoneySmart grow its revenue by 25 per cent amidst a pandemic?

This has since been converted into online all-hands meetings, but all employees are still being kept updated about what we plan to do as a company. 

Customers are the core of your expansion plans

It might be obvious, but it is still something that cannot be repeated enough, customers need to be at the core of your expansion plans. If we take a look at super apps, they look to expand their services around their customers by providing parallel offerings like ride-hailing, food delivery, online shopping and more.

For B2B startups, it is not too far-fetched as well. 

For a startup like us, our core customer segments are businesses or “brands”, online publishers and influencers. When we first started the company, our products (in the marketing space) were catered for businesses.

This then expanded into providing tools for online publishers (the “supply” side of digital marketing) and tools for influencers (the “supply” side of influencer marketing). 

Today, we can provide a one-stop solution for brands, creators and publishers – something like a super app for business – where we can cater to the various needs of running a business, including manufacturing, e-commerce, marketing and logistics. Brands are the obvious beneficiary from this move, but online publishers and influencers can also tap on the tools to add revenue streams.

For example, a niche publisher covering wellness can launch their own line of exercise products, or a beauty influencer can launch their own line of beauty products. 

Ultimately, these moves were made around our core customer segments, instead of branching out into an unrelated field.

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As of today, there are over 3,000 edutech companies in Asia, over two dozen of which are unicorns.

Many of these companies popped out or attracted attention only recently because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The disruption that the pandemic caused to classroom/offline learning/teaching led new entrepreneurs to jump the edutech bandwagon and become a part of the remote learning revolution.

But the moot question is: are these companies really accomplishing their stated goals? If so, why are the dropout rates so ridiculously high?

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, remote courses have an astronomical dropout rate of about 96 per cent on average. The key reason is “lack of engagement”.

One of the reasons for this is the increased amount of distractions present in a virtual environment and the fact that most of the learning materials provided by these companies are already available online and can be accessed for free on sites like YouTube.

In addition to this, the attention span in individuals has been shrinking significantly at an extremely quick pace thanks to today’s fast-paced world. A study shows that Gen Z has an average attention span of 8 seconds!

Also Read: Edutech will be a hot commodity going forward: GREDU co-founder Rizky Anies

This is a big problem facing the education industry — and this is exactly what Nas Academy aims to address.

Founded by Nuseir Yassin, a video blogger with over 40 million followers across social media platforms, Nas Academy is an online platform that helps people learn from their favorite creators. Since its launch in February this year, the edutech startup claims to have hosted 250 batches (with each batch comprising an average of 80 students) on subjects ranging from storytelling and ideating a business idea, to confidence building.

The company is on a mission to revolutionise not just how learners learn but also how teachers teach.

Mastering engagement

One of the primary goals of Nas Academy is to keep students engaged. It does this by creating a community where students can make new friends and learn at the same time.

“Popular learning platforms like Unacademy, Byju’s, and Masterclass create education that is content- and video-based. But we realise that education is not just a content business but a human business,” Yassin said in an interview with e27.

“Nas means humans. Humans love ‘community’ so we’re all about community,” he said. “When they are with their classmates, students are much less likely to drop out. So for every 100 students who join Nas Academy, we put them in a group together. This way, they not only learn but also see each other, talk about what they’ve learned, and engage among themselves.”

Yassin claimed that this practice has enabled Nas to achieve a 4x higher completion rate than other learning platforms.

But that’s not enough.

Concentrating for a long time is still difficult for many students which is why Nas provides its teachers with tools like quirky music, practical workshops, free merchandise, and memes to connect and engage with students. “Universities don’t have the same energy in their classes as we do. Every class at Nas has music. We build tools to enable creators to teach in fun and engaging ways,” he explained.

By incorporating fun elements throughout the learning process, Nas Academy has a reputation for keeping its students hooked.

Disrupting boring professors

As a popular video blogger himself, Yassin strongly believes that creators have more potential to become better teachers, simply because they are masters in audience engagement.

Also Read: Nas Academy raises US$11M to help creators make a sustainable living

“I’ve been to Harvard and seen what world-class education looks like. And honestly, being part of it is not that impressive. Even in the middle of Harvard, there are five professors from who everybody wants to learn and there are 500 others who are not that popular. And that’s when we realised that the power of education lies in the individual and not the institution,” he went on.

Unlike other platforms that give teachers control over just the monetary aspects of teaching, Nas gives its teachers full authority over their audience and distribution and helps them build their own curriculum from scratch. Moving forward, control is far more important for creators, Yassin believes.

As of now, Nas follows a strict “invite-only” policy for teachers, and those who have signed up can earn 75 per cent of the revenues generated, while the academy keeps only 25 per cent.

Building the “Nas” Culture

It’s not hard to imagine how the workplace of Nas would be like, and Yassin confirms it calling an extremely fun environment to be in.

He further tells his employees to never work for a company with “daily” in its last name (referring to the name of his own company ‘Nas Daily’) because if they work for such companies, they need to work hard. Working extremely hard every day is also part of the Nas culture, Yassin added.

With an ambition to become the biggest learning platform, Nas is fast scaling the team with an aim to add 1,000 people to its roster over the next five years across different roles.

“Are you excited about building a culture where people can work, live and make money from the most remote area in the world? That’s the kind of future we want to build and onboard people who believe in the same thing. We are looking for people who are looking to put life second and mission first,” he said.

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Image Credit: Nas Daily

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Andalin, an Indonesian startup providing cross-border shipping solutions, is in talks to raise US$3 million in a new round of funding from both financial and strategic investors, including existing ones, CEO Rifki Pratomo told e27.

The company plans to use the money to be raised to expand its core freight business. “The money will be used to grow our trading business, scale our trade financing offerings, and introduce our SaaS-based freight management system,” he said.

Pratomo expects to close the round before year-end.

Also Read: Teleoperation: It’s here to revolutionise the logistics and supply chain industry

In March this year, Andalin secured an undisclosed sum in a Series A funding round, led by Sembrani Nusantara Fund (SNF), a fund operated by Indonesian corporate VC firm BRI Ventures. A few months prior to this, it bagged an undisclosed “seven-digit investment” in pre-Series A round from Beenext (lead), ATM Capital, and Access Ventures, in October 2020.

Started in 2016, Andalin provides digital cross-border shipping solutions in Indonesia to help local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) simplify their import-export processes — from freight arrangements to customs clearance and everything in between.

Despite the economic impacts of COVID-19, Andalin claims it saw demand for its services spike in 2020, with shipment volume increasing by roughly 5x and average revenue per client rising by 450 per cent year on year. From 2019 to June 2021, Andalin says it has facilitated the export and import of goods in Southeast Asia with a total value of US$50 million.

So far, the logistics startup claims to have served more than 300 clients from various types of industries, from SMEs to large corporations, such as Rentokil Initial, Hitachi, to Electrolux.

Recently, Andalin launched the ‘Andalin Go’ to improve export and import efficiency, where clients can set delivery schedules, get instant price quotes, and consult directly with the company’s expert team through a single app.

According to ASEAN Stats data, the value of international trade in the Southeast Asia region, both between member countries and from/to other areas, was valued at US$2.8 trillion in 2019 and is predicted to continue to rise in the next few years. The sector has proven its role as one of the backbones of the Southeast Asian economy. But it is still considered underdeveloped and overlooked, with the total value of collective investments in several local startups amounting to less than US$40 million.

“We believe that international trade is one of the key pillars that support economic growth in Southeast Asia. For this reason, we strive to be a reliable partner for international trade players to sustain this increasingly high growth demand. Andalin, as a local player in the Southeast Asia region, is committed to providing comprehensive solutions through our digital technology platform,” explained Pratomo.

Also Read: Andalin raises Series A funding to connect Indonesia’s MSMEs with freight forwarders online

In recent years, the rapid development of technology companies in Southeast Asia has raised the interests of both local and global investors. Indonesia shows great proof of being able to generate the first wave of unicorn companies founded by local entrepreneurs. The potential for the second wave of technological disruption in Southeast Asia is still wide open in various sectors such as health, education, logistics, finance and so on.

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Image Credit: Andalin

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Malaysia-based full-stack fintech solutions provider Jirnexu has signed strategic partnerships with more than five consortia in their bids for a digital banking license.

The details of the partnerships remain undisclosed.

This news was first reported by Fintechnews Malaysia.

Jirnexu was launched in 2012 to help banks and insurance companies manage the different stages of the customer journey, from marketing to retention, by using a data-driven platform named XpressApply.

The company owns and operates financial comparison sites KreditPlus and RinggitPlus.com in Malaysia, and KreditGoGo in Indonesia.

According to the publication, Jirnexu has reportedly facilitated 1.28 million credit card transactions and is part of the region’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) regulatory Sandbox.

Also Read: Experian leads US$10M funding in Malaysian fintech firm Jirnexu

“What Jirnexu brings to the table is the digital know-how to help traditional banking players digitise and optimise their operations. Meanwhile, our strong customer base puts us in a unique position in this emerging digital banking ecosystem, as we have insights into customer behaviours, demands, and also creditworthiness. With our capabilities combined, we are confident that we can elevate the digital banking space and create a holistic model with our partners to cater to the needs of the people, especially the B40 and M40 groups,” said Siew Yuen Tuck, co-founder of Jirnexu.

The race for digital banking licenses has intensified ever since BNM received 29 applications for only five licenses. The applicants include a combination of major platform companies, airlines, conglomerates, and state governments. Incumbent lenders, private-equity firms, and fintechs have also applied.

Winners from Singapore’s digital banking race, Grab-Singtel consortium, are also among the region’s contenders which have a good chance of gaining another license after its victory in the city-state.

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Image Credit: Jirnexu

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DragonPay, a payments processing company in the Philippines, has received an undisclosed amount in strategic investment from Indonesian payment infrastructure startup Xendit, Tech In Asia has reported, citing its founder Robertson Chiang.

According to the publication, the deal was mentioned in a passing statement by Chiang during the fintech event, Digital Pilipinas, on Thursday. 

Xendit managing director Yang Yang Zhang has confirmed the development to Tech In Asia.

It is not immediately clear how DragonPay plans to use the newly raised funds. We have contacted the firm for details. This article will be updated as and when we hear from them. 

This deal comes fresh off Xendit’s collaboration with DragonPay and other e-commerce firms to launch an instalment payment scheme.

Also Read: Xendit bags US$64.6M Series B led by Accel to scale its digital payments service across Southeast Asia

Founded in 2010, DragonPay enables local customers to complete transactions using their selected online, over-the-counter, or non-bank methods. As of today, Dragonpay claims to have carried out close to 100 million transactions and attracted over 14 million unique users.

Originally launched in 2014 as a P2P lending platform, Y Combinator-backed Xendit evolved into a payments infrastructure company that enables businesses to accept digital payments without the need to implement integrations with individual providers. It has since expanded its services to include services such as fraud detection, lending, and tax management.

Xendit claims it processes more than 65 million transactions, amounting to US$6.5 billion in payment value annually. The company counts companies such as Grab and Traveloka among its clients.

In March this year, Jakarta-based Xendit raised US$64.6 million in a Series B round led by Accel Partners, bringing the total amount raised by the firm to US$88 million. 

Xendit is considering expanding digital payment infrastructure in Southeast Asia countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, according to Wijaya. Traveloka, Transferwise, Wish, and Grab are some of its high-profile clients.

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Image Credit: DragonPay

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