With recent investments from Google, Facebook, and Microsoft making headlines, Indonesia’s tech scene has exploded onto the world stage in 2020. Meanwhile, the country’s digital economy is taking off with 40 million new internet users last year alone, leading many — including us — to predict that international attraction to Southeast Asia’s largest economy is only just getting started.

Whether or not the rumours of an US$18B Gojek and Tokopedia merger become reality, we believe 2021 is the year that more US investors “discover” what is happening in Southeast Asia’s digital economy — and particularly in Indonesia.

Following in the footsteps of SEA Group — currently the only Southeast Asian tech company listed on a US exchange — we predict at least two to three Indonesian tech companies will seek to go public in the US within the next 12 months, including the first dual-listing IPOs between the US and Indonesia.

That “something big” is underway in Indonesia’s tech ecosystem is not surprising, but it is a remarkably different reality than only ten years ago.

One entrepreneur who has been there every step of Indonesia’s tech transformation is Aldi Haryopratomo, who was among the first Endeavor entrepreneurs in Indonesia.

Haryopratomo built his first startup Mapan in 2009. In 2017, Mapan was acquired by Gojek, where he became the CEO of GoPay, and built Indonesia’s leading fintech unicorn.

Aldi left GoPay earlier this year, and is now on sabbatical mentoring a new breed of entrepreneurs. We had a chance to talk to him about his experiences.

“Unlike today, venture capital was non-existent in Indonesia in 2009,” says Haryopratomo, founder and CEO of GoPay, and a serial entrepreneur in Indonesia. “Trying to get advice on how to build a startup was impossible.” It makes sense — only seven per cent of the population in Indonesia was online in 2009, compared to the 70 per cent internet penetration today. This 10 times growth has opened up a world of possibilities for hopeful entrepreneurs and technology investors alike.

Also Read: GOPAY becomes payment option in Google Play in Indonesia, reaching underserved market

Entrepreneur in the making

Despite Indonesia’s nascent entrepreneurship ecosystem at the time, Haryopratomo’s is a success story. His first venture, Mapan, focused on providing lower-income communities better access to valuable products and services through technology and the power of networks.

We first met Haryopratomo in 2009, the same year he founded Mapan when he cold-emailed Endeavor’s expansion team to inquire about opening an office in Indonesia — looking for support.

As a graduate student at Harvard, he had read a case study about Endeavor’s success in Latin America, where entrepreneurs such as Wences Casares, Marcos Galperin, and others had spurred the growth of an entrepreneurial ecosystem beginning to rival that of Silicon Valley.

“My curiosity spiked,” said Haryopratomo. “I was jealous of the startup support system my fellow founders had in San Francisco. I assumed that most founders in Nigeria, Argentina, or Brazil faced a similar problem.”

Haryopratomo graduated with a degree in computer engineering in 2004 from Purdue University, and worked two years as an IT security consultant for Ernst & Young in San Francisco before joining the star micro-finance organisation, Kiva. He left Kiva to work at BCG where he had an opportunity to create the initial design for a mobile banking system in Pakistan, ultimately realising the vast commercial potential of enabling a network of rural shopkeepers with the ability to accept mobile payments.

In late 2008, inspired by this revelation, Haryopratomo created the pilot project that would ultimately become Mapan. Mapan was founded on the belief that in any village or community, there is a natural community leader, who is best positioned to provide goods and services for his or her neighbours.

The company started by offering prepaid cell phone minutes and bill payment services. Since then, Mapan’s main product line has evolved to be Arisan Mapan (mapan means financially self-sufficient in Bahasa Indonesia), which utilises the traditional rotation-based savings and loan model at the village level to offer affordable goods — ranging from clothing to refrigerators — to its members. Mapan has helped over three million families finance goods using the arisan model.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Fulldive partners gojek’s digital payment arm GoPay, launching its browser in Indonesia

When asked about his greatest role models over the years, Haryopratomo mentioned his father, who built roads and bridges all through Indonesia and often took his children to work with him. This exposure motivated Haryopratomo to pursue building companies that gave access to basic services to those who need them the most.

As Mapan scaled, Haryopratomo looked for mentors in the ecosystem who could give him advice. He continued to email Endeavor, asking when an office in Indonesia might open. “I would call every month or so just to check-in,” Haryopratomo said.

In 2012, to his excitement, Endeavor Indonesia launched and began a proactive search for potential Endeavor Entrepreneurs. Haryopratomo immediately put his name in the ring and became the first Indonesian entrepreneur to go through Endeavor’s selection process.

“I stumbled through the local selection panel,” he recounted. “The panellists were people who I had only seen in magazines. They grilled me for hours about my revenue, team, and growth.”

But he passed unanimously and soon after boarded a plane to Dubai for an International Selection Panel (ISP), the final step in Endeavor’s selection process. The ISP was equally as challenging — and exhilarating. Stakes were high since, if selected, he would become Indonesia’s first Endeavor Entrepreneur.

“The grilling continued in Dubai. Panellists paired together to assault me with questions and shower me with wisdom. I walked out of the three sessions exhausted,” he said. But, when it came time for the decision, Haryopratomo was ultimately rejected. He was crushed.

The following year, Sati Rasuanto, the managing director of Endeavor Indonesia, invited him to go through the process again. This time, it was Rasuanto’s turn to be persistent. Despite initial hesitation, he agreed to attend another ISP, and this time he was selected.

A chance endeavour

Once in the Endeavor network, Haryopratomo had access to the mentorship and guidance he had only dreamed of years prior. One of his early mentors was Husodo, the founding Chairman of Endeavor Indonesia, and a well-respected entrepreneur in the country.

Husodo helped Haryopratomo navigate doing business in Jakarta, and became an early investor in Mapan. Another important mentor for Haryopratomo was the Argentinian serial entrepreneur Wences Casares, who was part of his first selection panel.

“I made a point to meet Wences every time I travelled to California,” said Haryopratomo. “I sought his counsel on every career-changing moment I had.”

Also Read: Why frictionless payments is the key to merchant success in the modern world

In addition to his cherished mentors, Haryopratomo forged strong relationships with Endeavor’s staff. Over the years, he felt immensely supported by Allen Taylor who oversaw Endeavor Catalyst, Endeavor’s investment fund. He recalls Taylor guiding him through the “obscure terms and pitfalls he had seen many entrepreneurs face.” In 2014, Endeavor Catalyst joined Mapan’s Series B financing round alongside Omidyar Network.

Two years later, Mapan, along with two other Indonesian fintech companies, was acquired by gojek, an Indonesian ride hailing unicorn. gojek was on its way to becoming a super app and wanted to build a payments and financial services arm. As part of the acquisition, Haryopratomo became CEO of GoPay.

“When we started, GoPay was mainly known as a payment method for gojek; there were only a few thousand transactions happening outside of Gojek each day. We launched our QR payments offline, and within less than a year, we were processing over a million transactions per day,” Haryopratomo shared.

Under Haryopratomo’s leadership, GoPay continued to grow exponentially. In 2019, GoPay was reported to have processed US$6.3 billion dollars of transactions and expanded from a purely domestic business to establishing a regional presence.

GoPay’s rise helped attract strategic investments from global tech companies into gojek including Paypal, Facebook, Google, and Tencent.

“I feel privileged to have had a team that, in such a short time, was able to change how millions of people accessed payments and financial services. We learned so many lessons along the way, and I wanted to find ways to share them with other entrepreneurs in the region,” Haryopratomo recalled.

He embodied the Endeavor spirit of “paying it forward” and began mentoring entrepreneurs himself, devoting much of his time to cultivating the ecosystem he didn’t have as an aspiring entrepreneur. For years, Haryopratomo has served as a mentor to Gibran Huzaifah, founder of eFishery, where he has recently been appointed to the board.

Haryopratomo recounts, “When it was about fish, Gibran was the teacher, and I was the student. Learning about fish, my favourite protein, was a reprieve from the world of fintech.” Aldi further noted, “Often, I learned more from mentoring other entrepreneurs than when I was a mentee. Gibran was one such example.”

After informally advising the company for six years, he also formally joined the board of HaloDoc, a fast-growing health technology company in Indonesia. Kitabisa, Indonesia’s largest donations app, also counts him as one of its board members.

As internet penetration grows, and capital and geography continue to decouple, the once nearly insurmountable barriers to entrepreneurship in places like Indonesia are beginning to come down.

Also Read: After Grab, gojek joins LinkAja’s US$100M+ Series B financing round

It has been over a decade since Haryopratomo first learned of Endeavor as a graduate student and aspiring entrepreneur in Indonesia. In many ways, his journey as an entrepreneur parallels that of the Indonesia ecosystem itself. What began as an aspiring entrepreneur in a fledgling entrepreneurial ecosystem, became an entrepreneur to aspire to in a thriving one. And we think Indonesia is a market to watch.

Organisations such as Endeavor are helping to establish the support systems globally that he craved back in 2009. Today, Haryopratomo encourages every entrepreneur he meets to join Endeavor — “if only for the friendships you will make along the journey,” he says.

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Starting yet another quarter on an exciting note, are we? We just wrapped our quarterly OKRs and we are increasingly going to focus on highlighting the unsung heroes of the tech and business ecosystem. While founders and investors receive their due media attention, startup employees and professionals are often forgotten.

We are expanding our Contributor Programme to include diverse voices from across the organisation hierarchy and to emerging markets like Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, etc. This month we will also be supporting the Earth Day theme and run a number of clean tech and sustainability articles.

Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post. And for some much-needed inspiration catch up on all the contributor community action from last week!

A better way to make impact: Why we decided to start a social impact network by Lucy Bennett Baggs, CEO and founder of Force For Good

“How many times have you made a donation this year? Yet I imagine you have no idea of your cumulative impact, where the money has gone or how you’ve helped to make the world a better place?

With an ever-growing spotlight on social media and its role and influence on the world, I’ve become increasingly driven to create a social network that is simply for good. No negativities, no bullying, no filters, no irrelevant adverts.

Based in Singapore, Force for Good is a soon-to-launch, angel-funded platform. We’re always looking for interesting advisors and investors to join us on the journey.

I — as the founder and CEO of Force for Good — and our Head of Impact Partnerships Christine Amour-Levar I, would like to share our motivations in creating the world’s first social impact network.”

Why women are better leaders

Two women entrepreneurs on why hard work and diversity are the keys to their companies’ success by Phung B, Febe Ventures

“The Founder on Founder Podcast series uncovers stories from outstanding entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia on their journey, insights and advice on running a tech company. The first one in the series is Hang Do, the COO of SCommerce, a Vietnamese logistics provider and Fanny Moizant, co-founder and president of Vestiaire Collective, a luxury retail platform startup founded in 2009.

They offer insights on what it’s like to be women in leadership positions within two different tech industries, by sharing their experiences and thoughts on how to create greater impact by empowering and leveraging women at all levels of the workplace.”

Levelling the playing field: How to build a home for women in tech by Jessie Xia, Managing Director, ThoughtWorks SEA

“While I have faced my fair share of challenges as a woman working in tech for two decades, it has been encouraging to see the rise of diversity and inclusion as boardroom priorities for many organisations, not just in technology, but also across various sectors in Southeast Asia.

This is indicative of real, positive change being driven by generations of female tech trailblazers who have ignited conversations and lobbied for equality. It is now up to us, the contemporaries in technology, to honour and build upon these efforts in creating an even more equitable and inclusive future for the sector.”

Why fintech sector is booming

From startup to scale-up: How fintech startups can get on the front foot by Tim Fu, of PayPal East Asia

“Recently I had the honour to become a judge of a fintech startup pitching competition. This was a good chance to reflect on where the emerging opportunities are and what are the traits of successful startups.

Let’s take the payments space as an example. The move to online shopping was already a trend prior to 2019 but the pandemic has accelerated this. This has created new challenges, and therefore new opportunities for startups to address.

One such challenge is the increasing complexity and choice in payment options. Hong Kong is unique in that it has a very diverse range of payment options, ranging from stored value card to digital wallets and QR payment codes.

With even more payment methods expected to come into the market, there remains a need for a solution to integrate these payment methods and manage the increasing complexity across the payment ecosystem to provide consumers an enhanced user experience.”

What is Open Finance and how can it help Indonesia’s unbanked? by Diego Rojas, founder and CEO at Finantier

“With over 360 registered fintech companies within Indonesia, the growth of the industry is well documented. However, the financial data of their customers is often stored in silos and not exchanged.

This creates a significant problem for both companies and consumers, as the former lack the necessary information to confidently offer loans and other financial products for the latter. As consumers are unable to access the right financial products to help improve their financial wellbeing, a financial divide is created.

With ‘Open Finance‘, such an issue could be easily solved.”

Notes for founders

Lesson learned: Conviction is most essential virtue while building a startup during a pandemic by Earl Martin Valencia, cofounder of Plentina

“As I write this article today, only one word comes to mind that probably exhibits the spirit of many of my peers who are starting or pushing through building companies that try to solve large difficult system problems during a time where their personal and professional job securities are at risk daily, it would be the word conviction.

For entrepreneurs, conviction is often seen as the will to move forward despite overwhelming odds. I am sure that most of us know the story of David vs. Goliath, or the battle of the 300 Spartans, or maybe Frodo in The Lord of the Rings.

Conviction for most startup entrepreneurs is deeply rooted in achieving a world-changing idea because we fundamentally believe that if we are successful, the world will be better with this technology being utilised.”

Dinner date with data: How F&B retailers can use retail data to drive sales in a post-pandemic world by Vernon Chua

“Going digital makes collecting data easier than ever — and the collection and use of consumer data is a key part to the success of the new trends we’ve seen emerge during the pandemic.

Besides food delivery services, another trend that has seen a surge amidst the pandemic are cloud and ghost kitchens: food production and delivery services that are entirely online, with no physical store presence whatsoever. An idea that is more than a decade old and originally conceived as a solution to increasing property rentals, the cloud kitchen’s catapult into prominence came amidst the pandemic, when social distancing norms and quarantines kept people out of physical restaurants.”

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Otsaw Digital, a Singapore-based startup focusing on developing robotics technologies, has developed a robot to autonomously fulfil home deliveries, Reuters reported.

Named Camello, the robots are currently undergoing a one-year trial with their services offered to 700 households.

According to the report, users can book delivery slots for groceries including milk and eggs, and they will be notified through an app when the robot is near a pick-up point, such as the lobby of an apartment building.

Camello is installed with 3D sensors, a camera and two loading compartments which individually can carry up to 20kg of goods.

These robots are able to complete up to five deliveries daily on weekdays and remain on call for half a day on Saturdays.

The robots are currently accompanied by Otsaw’s staff to ensure no hiccups occur during deliveries.

Also Read: This made-in-Singapore robotic coffee barista will receive you at Japan’s train stations ahead of Olympics

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Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) are one of the most important developments in the digital currency space and the future of finance. As they are backed by the central banks of their respective countries, they will have much more credibility than existing stable coins, increasing the likelihood of digital currencies reaching mass adoption. Central banks around the world are now working on piloting and developing their CBDCs.

There are a number of reasons why CBDCs are being regarded as a top priority for central banks. Firstly, privately-issued currencies such Bitcoin, Doge, Tether have been capturing a large amount of market share over the past year, and so if central banks don’t keep up with digital currencies, they will be left behind in the race.

Secondly, carrying paper currency is becoming extremely inconvenient in this day and age, especially in view of the ongoing global pandemic, where cash can contribute to the spread of coronavirus. Cash is also slow to send via traditional borders, thus giving it limited interoperability. 

Thirdly, another huge benefit of digital currencies is that they can help banks propagate monetary policy, as well as mitigate money laundering and tax evasion.

However, several infrastructure systems will be required to prevent money laundering, such as the ability to track funds and identify users that perform these transactions (KYC infrastructure), privacy protection (a balance must be struck in terms of how much access governments have to citizen information). Only the most advanced countries have the data centres and processors to perform this at this current time.

China leads the pack

While more than 80 per cent of central banks are looking into CBDCs, China and Sweden are at the forefront of this movement as they have already launched their digital currency projects. China, without a doubt, is the major leading economy in the CBDC race.

It is clear that it wants to be a global blockchain superpower and is taking steps towards this. The People’s Bank of China has been leading the development of the digital yuan. It aims to be an effective way to digitise the cash in circulation, and it is currently operating as a retail CBDC.

Recently, a region in China, Shenzhen, launched the “iShenzhen” lottery, through which the government distributed 20 million digital yuans between 100,000 CBDC wallet holders. If the account holders don’t use their digital yuan within a few weeks, it disappears. A similar lottery was held in Suzhou, one of China’s major special economic zones (SEZs).

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

As a region, Suzhou has already been involved with various blockchain projects to enhance the local government’s understanding of decentralised technology, smart contracts, and the general education that citizens need to have about blockchain technology.

China has taken it a step further and even started engaging in trials with major e-commerce platforms within the country. It began with JD.com — the country’s second-largest online retailer — which distributed 20 million yuan in a lottery launched by its fintech arm. The users who receive digital yuan through this lottery can spend it on JD.com’s online e-commerce platform as a part of a real-world CBDC trial.

Additionally, it has been reported that there are now vending machines in the Shanghai subway that allow users to transact in the digital yuan for any products held in the machine.

Despite initial speculations that China is launching its CBDC project to disrupt the digital payment duopoly that AntGroup’s Alipay and Tencent’s WePay hold in China’s digital payment market, they have enlisted both of the banks owned by these companies in their CBDC project.

Together, both of these payment platforms have more than 93 per cent of China’s booming digital payment market. Ant Group’s MyBank and Tencent’s WeBank are enlisted to participate in the digital yuan trials. Upon enlisting, MyBank and WeBank customers will access their accounts to transact through a PBOC-run digital yuan wallet application.

Further, thePeople’s Bank of China (PBOC) is engaged in an ongoing initiative based in Hong Kong called ‘Project Inthanon-LionRock.’ This project takes forward the work done by the Bank of Thailand (BoT) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to research and study the operation of CBDCs for cross-border payments. This involvement is highly indicative of the fact that the PBOC understands how critical interoperability is for the success of their CBDC.

Interoperability is key to CBDC success

China’s surging digital currency adoption is an initiative that could make Chinese goods and services more accessible in the global marketplace. Even Citigroup is of the opinion that the digitisation of fiat currencies is inevitable and a natural consequence of distributed ledger technology.

Businesses and governments alike have been gearing up to indulge in this upcoming technology, ensuring that they have the first-mover advantage that is so invaluable in a space like this.

Smaller countries will have an easier time implementing CBDCs due to the lesser size of their economy and the higher degree of autonomy that their governments have, especially when compared to more populous countries like China and the United States.

The Bahamas has recently introduced their Bahaman Sand Dollar, making it the world’s first CBDC, although its currency operations and penetrations don’t seem to be as interjecting as China’s trials.

Cambodia recently launched its Bakong along with an inter-banking platform that runs on blockchain technology. Even the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) is now conducting tests for a CBDC with the results yet to be announced. In collaboration with legacy financial institutions, the Fed focuses on a wholesale CBDC rather than a retail one like the digital yuan.

Also Read: How bright is the future of cryptocurrency?

Meanwhile, the Fed is also working on improving its own systems and innovating in the payments space. Giving the Fed another reason to push their CBDC project, the US central bank’s system was down for hours on 24th February, highlighting the increasing need for the Fed to enhance its existing payment systems by implementing CBDCs.

Acting as a catalyst to all the global CBDC initiatives, the Bank of International Settlements’ Innovation Hub (BISIH) has stated that CBDC research is a top priority for 2021. The BISIH plans to evaluate the feasibility of faster, cheaper cross-border payments across the major economies.

It was also announced that the BISIH, in collaboration with G20, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank, will work together to “formalise” the use of CBDCs in the financial systems.

IMF research states that interoperability is key to the success of CBDCs as many politicians and economic experts feel as though they could be used as a form of economic weapon. Once countries like the United States and China launch their CBDCs, the tokens will begin to have an additional use apart from transacting within a nation’s borders.

Currencies from these countries will begin to show up in the digital wallets of consumers based in other countries like India or Sri Lanka, who can then use this currency to purchase products in the international market. This will open up international trade scenarios contributing to usage in the retail markets and increasing the adoption of currencies that allow users more liquidity and convenience. 

Along with the proliferation of certain currencies changing the global trade dynamics, it will be important for public and private players to work in a collaborative manner to facilitate the mass adoption of CBDCs. It is increasingly evident that for a CBDC to be successful, it must also be able to interoperate with other payment systems and digital assets, as well as other CBDCs.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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

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Dat Bike, a Vietnamese electric motorbike startup, has raised US$2.6 million in pre-Series A funding led by Jungle Ventures.

Wavemaker Partners, Hustle Fund and iSeed Ventures also participated.

The fresh funds will bankroll Dat Bike’s plans to scale its team, R&D and customer-facing operations.

These expansion plans come after what the company claims is a 35 per cent month-on-month (MoM) growth in demand for its bikes.

Launched in 2018 after founder Son Nguyen left a cushy job in Silicon Valley, Dat Bike provides electric motorbikes that are on par with their gasoline counterparts.

The company claims its flagship Weaver model (which retails at US$1,700) can rival gas bikes in power and range and is powered with a 5000W motor that helps the bike accelerate from 0 to 50kmph within three seconds.

Dat Bike added the charging time for its motorbikes is also the fastest in the industry at just under three hours and its brake mechanism is also tailored to the notoriously hectic traffic situation in Vietnam.

Also Read: How electric scooters will revolutionise Southeast Asia’s congested cities

The company claims it ships out hundreds of bikes monthly and launched its first physical store in Ho Chi Minh City last December.

“We want to transform the 250 million gasoline bikes in Southeast Asia to electric vehicles. We believe that if given a choice, everyone would pick electric over gas. It is just that the current electric motorbikes in the market lag behind in power and range, making it difficult for people to make the switch,” Son shared.

“There are three big motorcycle markets in the world: China, India and Southeast Asia. While both China and India already have dominant local bike manufacturers, Southeast Asia has no local motorcycle brand and the market is dominated by Japanese players. We want to change that, to become the motorcycle company of Southeast Asia. And electric is our way,” he added.

“This investment into Dat Bike marks our first investment in the mobility sector which is rapidly getting transformed by technology. The US$25 billion two-wheeler industry in Southeast Asia, in particular, is ripe for reaping benefits of new developments in electric vehicles and automation,” opined Amit Anand, founding partner of Jungle Ventures.

“We believe that Dat Bike will lead this charge and create a new benchmark not just in the region but potentially globally for what the next generation of 2-wheeler electric vehicles will look and perform like,” he further remarked.

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Image Credit: Dat Bike

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Singaporean startup fintech firm Friz lands six-figure funding; Investors are Y Combinator, Iterative VC, 500 Durians, and 500 TukTuks; Friz is a financial platform for freelancers in SEA that leverages data insights to provide credit cards, personal loans, insurance, savings, and investments in a timely and affordable manner. More here

How Sustenir Group makes sustainable farming possible in the island nation; The indoor farm uses methods like controlled environment agriculture, vertical farming, and hydroponics to grow kale, strawberries and more; The indoor farming facility has sensors operating 24 hours to provide the company with data on the health and status of all its plants. The parameters used include humidity, temperature, and light. More here

Digital art NFTs are all the rage — but they’re horrible for Mother Earth; Because they depend on a blockchain, NFTs use a lot of energy; Most creators still use Ethereum; This involves an energy-intensive computer function called mining; Specialist mining computers take turns guessing the combination to a digital lock (a long string of random digits). More here

Bank of Thailand gearing up for digital currency tests; The central bank says it will begin testing use of its retail digital currency for the general public in Q2 2022, before fully implementing it over the next three to five years; A retail CBDC is a digital form of money issued by a central bank comparable to physical banknotes; It can be used in financial transactions both online and offline. More here

Thai edutech startup Conicle bags US$3mn Series A; Investors are InVent, 500TuksTuks, Stormbreaker Venture and Stundi; Conical’s learning management platform help organisations enhance employee capabilities and efficiency; Its ConicleX offers a “cloud university” where employees can learn skills including business acumen, data analysis and personnel management. More here

MDEC grants US$2.5mn to 50 SMEs and enterprises in Malaysia; Through MDEC, the government has been actively offering grants to spur innovation, support creation of new intellectual property, and increase adoption of business automation to positively contribute towards growing Malaysia’s digital economy. More here

CEO of Indonesian P2P lending startup is in police custody over gun-related incident; In a video, Restock CEO Muhammad Farid Andika was seen aiming a gun from his car at women who were standing in the middle of a road; Restock issues working capital loans to MSMEs; In 2020, it raised US$1mn from Tunas Nusantara Kapital, Silverbacks Ventures, others. More here

Taiwan’s Appier aims to follow Tokyo IPO with global growth; Appier went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Tuesday after raising US$130mn in an IPO; As a public company, Appier faces the difficult task of meeting high growth expectations and achieving profitability. On Tuesday, it said it expects to generate US$105mn in revenue this year, up from US$84mn in 2020, while operating losses will slightly widen to US$14.9mn. More here

Grab Financial Group (GFC) has sold 100mn+ insurance policies across SEA since the service was launched; In the last six months, GFG has launched multiple financial services products for consumers, such as micro-investment, third-party loans and buy-now-pay-later products; This includes its first micro-investment solution, AutoInvest – offered by GrabInvest — a solution that allows users to invest small sums of money while spending in Grab’s ecosystem. More here

Why customer education plays an important role in Wise’s international expansion plan; The company aims to solve the problems of high fees and currency mark-ups on foreign exchange transaction by building a platform that provides “instant, convenient, transparent and eventually free” international remittance. More here

How to optimise email deliverability for a digital-first world; Your email deliverability rate decides whether you can send at scale without being marked as spam; A few key criteria influence the rate: your reputation as a sender, email engagement, content quality, and infrastructure. More here

OpenSys launches digital payment solution X-Kiosk for underserved; X-Kiosk allows customers to conduct payment services for themselves (or behalf of other users) as the kiosk can be used for prepaid reloads, e-wallet top-ups, SIM card replacement, SIM card purchasing, bill payments and loan repayments. More here

Hanoi, Vietnam unveils AI centre; In the long term, the AI Centre will serve as the place to connect domestic and international AI operators to deploy basic research and to create “Made in Vietnam” core technologies; The aim is to accelerate digital transformation and boost the 4.0 industrial revolution in the country. More here

Singapore-based researchers develop daylight harvesting smart device; Authorities are looking at the feasibility of digging deeper underground to create new space for infra, storage, and utilities; Demand for round-the-clock underground lighting is therefore expected to rise in the future. More here

MSMEs empowered by cloud-based kitchens in Indonesia; Local companies are quickly embracing cloud technology to cut their cost of operations; The government is at the forefront of the development of cloud data centres and virtualisation technology in the country; They aim to deploy consolidated, distributed data infrastructure with strong disaster recovery capabilities. More here

Knowing when your startup should go all-in on business development; BD is rarely, if ever, the solution to succeeding in a crowded industry, differentiating an offering or delivering a truly exceptional customer experience; But standing up an effective BD operation that brings in sustainable revenue and helps validate product-market fit can be the difference between survival and failure for a startup. More here

Don’t hide behind ‘best practices’ for business success — experiment!; Relying on best practices does not guarantee success; As we saw in 2020, what used to be best practice in 2019 was pretty irrelevant; And this year is another new story yet again when it comes to customer behaviour. More here

Australia funds innovation in Vietnam; Aus4Innovation is a 4-year collaboration between the two countries; In 2018-22, they are together exploring emerging areas of technology and digital transformation, trialling new models for partnerships between public and private sector institutions, and strengthening Vietnamese capability in digital foresight, scenario planning, commercialisation, and innovation policies. More here

Mobile money good, but carries potential risks: Vietnamese economist; If we don’t manage them well, there will be a situation of the telecom network operator abusing people’s accounts, says Dr. Cấn Văn Lực, chief economist of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam; The second risk is related to technical and IT infra; If the infrastructure is unstable, it can make mobile money users feel insecure, while technical errors can even cause loss of money. More here

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Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash

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Wrapping up the financial year is always tiring. Welcome to a brand new financial year which our contributors have opened with a lot of hope in the fintech sector.

From the future of digital currency to when will SEA fully accept crypto; from marketing tips from former Gojek CMO to brand building via storytelling– we had a packed week.

Catch up on some of the interesting contributions from our community. If this inspires you to share your views, join the gang and submit a post.

Can fintech partnerships solve the challenges of micro and small businesses? by Sirish Kumar, cofounder of Telr

“For decades, these small-medium enterprises or warungs in Indonesia have been forced to exist outside formal financial systems that were never designed to be inclusive. While many small business owners do not want to be recognised to avoid declaring income or paying taxes.

For the vast majority, however, it is the absence of a meaningful financial infrastructure that prevents these cash-based businesses from participating. Avoiding it, however, poses certain challenges; challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and challenges that outweigh the perceived savings.”

To market, to market

How SMEs can get their digital ducks in a row for 2021 and beyond by David Fairfull, CEO and cofounder, Metigy

“SMEs have the opportunity to diversify and digitise their brick and mortar businesses by uncovering a new way to reach local customers. In signing up for the package, SMEs can tap into any of the four online partnered marketplaces to sell their products while also gaining access to services offered by the platforms. This includes content development, product listing, channel management, fulfilment services and advertising.

Beyond providing financial assistance, this package can help SMEs understand and apply digital marketing as well as improve proficiency in implementing effective digital campaigns. These skills enable SMEs to build long-term capabilities and generate greater consumer awareness of their brands and products.”

Ex-gojek CMO Piotr Jakubowski reveals the 3 things that marketers should stop doing today by Enricko Lukman, cofounder of ContentGrow

“Jakubowski is a familiar name among marketing veterans in Southeast Asia. He was the CMO of super app gojek from 2016 to 2018, where he helped build the brand into a household name. During his two and a half year stint at the now decacorn, gojek saw staggering business growth from five million monthly orders to more than 100 million.

Jakubowski shares three common content marketing pitfalls that practitioners today should try to avoid.”

Let your brand be a storyteller, not a seller: 6 marketing storytelling tips by Dana Kanchan, Digital marketing consultant and author

“Many companies struggle to tell good stories and build meaningful connections with consumers. To tell a story is not much of a challenge. To tell a great story is the art you must master well to make an impact.

After assisting many companies in the US and the Asia Pacific in marketing storytelling, I understood one key thing – great stories are only told by brands that do care about the people they create their products for. The common good must be a basis. Otherwise, the story will lack a “soul” and cannot make an influence.”

Paying with digital money

Tesla is now accepting bitcoin. Are crypto payments the future of business? by freelance journalist, Luke Fitzpatrick

“Cryptocurrency has become wildly popular, with bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, having its value skyrocket in the first few weeks of 2021 and being bought by companies like Tesla. Despite all of this, it is not overly common for businesses to accept bitcoin payments for their products and services, but why?

For many, there are concerns about setting up the payment infrastructure to accept cryptocurrency. Business owners are usually aware of how to set up debit cards and PayPal payments on their websites, but no idea how to set up bitcoin payment options. This is because bitcoin and other cryptos are stored in a different way than fiat currency and many do not know where to start.”

How e-KYC aggregators are the future players in the data supplier market by Nouamane Cherkaoui

“The existence of data governance, a strong internal process, and specific tools to serve a single vision of third party data –used on the client onboarding and during the KYC reviews– must go through the construction of an industrial and centralised approach to digital data processing.

Indeed, offers from data providers are still highly segmented. Banks are forced to use several solutions to cover the regulatory requirements and meet the needs of their business lines. Consequently, the huge number of utility providers and market solutions may result in higher costs for banks processing, rather than reducing them.”

Will Southeast Asia become a dominant force in the digital currency space? by fintech enthusiast, Kay Banzon

“In contrast to the US situation, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies did not immediately get a warm welcome in Southeast Asia. In 2017, Singapore issued a warning and expressed uneasiness with the rise of Bitcoin. In the same year, Vietnam banned the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as methods of payment. Also in 2017, Indonesia declared Bitcoin payment as illegal.

Things have changed over the years, though. Many countries in the ASEAN bloc have already enacted policies and legislation that somehow legitimise the use of digital currencies. Most countries still do not consider Bitcoin and crypto as legal tender, but they have adopted rules that legalise digital currency in other forms of financial transactions.”

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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Over the past quarter of 2021, the e27 Memberships team has been working tirelessly to bring onboard a prestigious list of Experts onto the platform. These Experts come from varying areas of expertise from different industries and verticals.

The goal of the e27 Experts Program is to create a platform for mentors and coaches to share knowledge with their fellow peers and members within our e27 ecosystem through private one-on-one sessions.

We hope to equip every aspiring individual with relevant mentorship, useful feedback, and open up more partnership opportunities for everyone to up-skill themselves and attain their individual goals. Experts bring important skills, experiences, lessons learned, and partnerships that have a massive impact on the growth and success of every individual, and therefore, the entire ecosystem itself.

How does it work?

1. Interested users will need to create an e27 profile with basic information, send a “Request to Connect” to their preferred Expert, and add the reasons why they want to get connected with the Expert
2. Experts can then decide whether to accept the connection request (Experts can view all pending requests via the e27 Connect Dashboard here)
3. Upon approval, e27’s main role will be to facilitate the first connection with an introductory email between both parties to begin conversations from there
4. e27 will not be present to moderate in any of the sessions but will be more than happy to assist if there are any other queries or issues faced during the entire process.

*Note that the format for communication does not have to be via an online call or physical meet-up and can be done via a text message or email depending on the Expert’s preference and User’s particular needs

How to get started?

Simply sign up for an e27 PRO membership or try it for free by registering for our trial membership here to access an unlimited number of requests for connections!

If you’re an aspiring Expert looking to position yourself as a thought leader to thousands of companies and hundreds of thousands of users and build key relationships with our ecosystem leaders and partners, sign up here now.

Happy connecting,
e27 Memberships Team

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Image Credit: Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

The post Keen to learn from Experts? Then the e27 Experts Program might be for you appeared first on e27.

Over the past quarter, the e27 Memberships team has been working tirelessly to bring onboard a prestigious list of Experts onto the e27 platform. These Experts come from varying areas of expertise from different industries and verticals.

The goal of the e27 Experts Program is to create a platform for mentors and coaches to share knowledge with their fellow peers and members within our e27 ecosystem through private 1:1 sessions.

We hope to equip every aspiring individual with relevant fundraising mentorship, useful feedback and open up more partnership opportunities for everyone to up-skill themselves and attain their individual goals. Experts bring important skills, experiences, lessons learned, and partnerships that have a massive impact on the growth and success of every individual, and therefore, the entire ecosystem itself.

Check out these 5 verified Experts that you can request to connect with for advice, mentorship, and other partnership opportunities:

Anil Joshi
Managing Partner at Unicorn India Ventures
Business development | Start-up funding | Strategy
Anil is the Founder and Managing Partner at Unicorn India Ventures, a leading Venture Capital Fund focusing on early-stage investments in tech-focused companies. He has been one of the pioneers of angel investments in India as head of operations and President at Mumbai Angels, leading Angel Investment forums in India. Anil’s experience includes corporate management functions in medium and large organisations, early-stage investment in start-ups, project management, joint ventures and business development.

Anil has helped close over 100 venture-financing deals. He serves on the Board of 5 companies and is involved with various incubation centres as a mentor in India as well as internationally. He is very well respected and valued in the start-up fraternity and is drawn upon by entrepreneurs for advice and strategic direction. Mentoring start-ups is his passion and he advises Governmental and industrial bodies on the same. Apart from investments, Anil is a very active participant in start-up events as a speaker or panellist, both in domestic and international circuits.

Sign up here and Connect with him

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Benjamin Wong
Co-founder & CEO at Kinobi Asia
Growth Strategy | Marketing | Private Equity
Benjamin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kinobi, a career platform for Asia’s 200 million young people to job explore, job prep and job switch (https://kinobi.asia). Previously, he was in investments, covering private equity, debt and real estate across Asia, Europe and US in a global boutique multi-family office and an Asian megafund. He believes in building companies with robust enterprise valuations that create an impact for the communities it serves. Throughout his life, he has built several communities around his passions – in mentoring (The Mentoring Circle), horology (Atomos Watch Club) and academia (Cogito Collective). He can be seen interacting with the young gentlemen at Singapore Boys Home, which he makes it a point to prioritise.

Sign up here and Connect with him

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Ellen Goel
Head of Entrepreneurship Programme at Singapore University of Social Sciences
Entrepreneurship Education | Lean Startup Methodology | Venture Building
Ellen has 7+ years of experience as an entrepreneur and enabler. She had her own company in the events industry and joined the Singapore University of Social Sciences in 2017 where she became the Head of the Entrepreneurship Programme. Having launched an Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, called Impact Startup Challenge, an incubator in partnership with Alibaba Cloud, a Venture Builder in partnership with Enterprise Singapore and a series of startup events and workshops, Ellen is passionate to groom the next generation of impact entrepreneurs.

Sign up here and Connect with her

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Karun Arya
VP Group Corporate Affairs at Oriente
Angel Investing | Communications and Policy | Fintech
Karun is currently Vice President of Group Corporate Affairs at Oriente where he leads the design and implementation of all corporate brand strategy, public policy, and stakeholder engagement efforts for the group and its companies globally.

Karun’s also an avid angel investor and startup advisor and has a keen interest in sustainability. Previously he’s worked at Discovery Networks International, Uber, and Rolls-Royce. He has a BSc in Communications and Business from Boston University.

Sign up here and Connect with him

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Michael Lints
Partner at Golden Gate Ventures
Fundraising in SEA | Cap Tables | SEA Exit Landscape
Michael’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked in when he started an IT managed services startup with 2 friends. The startup got acquired by a data and telecom company in The Netherlands. After his entrepreneurial journey, Michael wanted to spend more time giving back to the community. He was asked to join the Economic Development Board Rotterdam as a vice chairman and chairman of the Young Economic Development Board. Apart from working with great young minds it also helped Michael build an extensive national and international political and corporate network.

In 2007, Michael founded his own venture fund focused on Dutch’s small and medium-sized enterprises to help them with capital financing, development, and relevant support and strategy. In 2013 Michael got acquainted with Golden Gate Ventures and moved his family to Singapore to join Golden Gate Ventures. Initially as a Venture Partner in 2013 to help with fundraising, strategic partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions. Michael has helped raise over $60M USD for Golden Gate Ventures and its portfolio companies and is now a Partner at Golden Gate Ventures. In 2018 Michael joined the Kauffman Fellowship program in the US, which focuses on up and coming leadership in the venture capital industry.

Sign up here and Connect with him

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Happy connecting,
e27 Memberships Team

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Photo by fauxels from Pexels

The post Meet these 5 verified Experts that are ready to connect with you appeared first on e27.

One hundred and thirty million.

That is the number of adults within Indonesia who do not use traditional bank accounts to access financial services such as loans and credit cards. Instead, they utilise fintech services such as digital wallets and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending to fulfil their financial needs.

With over 360 registered fintech companies within Indonesia, the growth of the industry is well documented. However, the financial data of their customers is often stored in silos and not exchanged.

This creates a significant problem for both companies and consumers, as the former lack the necessary information to confidently offer loans and other financial products for the latter. As consumers are unable to access the right financial products to help improve their financial wellbeing, a financial divide is created.

With ‘Open Finance‘, such an issue could be easily solved.

Open Finance is the unbundling of financial data and services to allow companies and consumers to securely leverage their data and obtain a clearer picture of an individual’s financial footprint.

This creates a mutually beneficial relationship for both consumers and fintech companies, as the consequent unlocking of access to more suitable financial products help accelerate financial inclusion and narrow the divide.

Welcomed by consumers

With an open exchange of information, fintech companies can better gauge a consumer’s current financial situation by analysing his/her credit and income data. 

Also Read: How startups can aid Southeast Asia’s Open Banking landscape

This allows companies to offer hyper-personalised solutions that are tailored to the financial needs of consumers. Crucially, this grants the unbanked population access to financial products that they would previously have had no access to without Open Finance.

Besides, the concept of Open Finance promotes fairer pricing. With increased transparency between financial products such as insurance premiums and credit loans, it is easier for consumers to compare prices and features of similar products.

This will help them get more value from their providers and combat scenarios where they are unaware that they are overpaying for a poor product. The increased competition would lead to better products at more competitive prices, with the ultimate winner being consumers themselves.

Open Finance also drives increased financial inclusion by encouraging better financial management. Consumers can have full access to their digital financial footprint, gaining a better understanding of their overall financial position — from spending habits to monthly payments for insurance premiums. 

By being constantly aware of their digital finances, consumers can improve their financial wellbeing, accelerating financial inclusion.

A case in point of how Open Finance can benefit everyday individuals can be found within the gig economy. With gig workers accounting for 56 per cent of Indonesia’s labour force, they represent a sizeable portion of the local workforce.

However, CB Insights had reported that gig workers without a regular income stream often face difficulties obtaining loan approvals or other banking services through traditional financial institutions such as banks. 

This stems from the fact that gig platforms store the financial data of their workers on their platform by embedding them within native digital wallets.

Previously, this data was not exchanged with external financial institutions, hindering them in assessing the suitability of gig workers for loans and other financial products.

However, with Open Finance, financial data from gig platforms are securely aggregated from different financial platforms to assist companies in better identifying gig workers and providing them with suitable financial products.

Benefits for fintech platforms

With open finance platforms like Finantier facilitating the open exchange of financial data, companies can offer an individualised pre-filled signup process for each prospective customer. This reduces the friction needed to onboard and provides an improved customer experience.

Besides, it helps fintech companies minimise operational costs and risks. By accessing financial data such as the income level and credit history of users, companies can better understand the financial position of their clients and generate better credit scores.

Also Read: Finantier secures funding from Y Combinator for its Open Finance platform

This results in higher approvals and lower defaults, helping companies reduce costs while increasing revenue. Open Finance also enables e-KYC (electronic know your customer). With e-KYC, fintech companies can digitally identify their customers to streamline verification processes and reduce fraud. 

Companies can also leverage increased access to user data to develop data-driven processes and offer tailored solutions for consumers. For example, insurtech companies can make use of Open Finance to gain visibility of the historical financial data of customers, allowing them to generate a more accurate risk profile and offer appropriate risk-adjusted premiums. 

Furthermore, it enables the removal of intermediaries as various services, including payments and claims, are seamlessly embedded into the platform, resulting in better engagement and lesser drop-offs.

Financial equaliser

Ultimately, Open Finance democratises access to financial services, benefitting both consumers and fintech companies. It levels the playing field for consumers and helps drive financial inclusion within the country. 

Access to equal financial services should be a right, not a privilege. Open Finance is making this statement a reality.

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This post was originally published on Finantier’s blog.

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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

Image credit: anthoni askaria on Unsplash

The post What is Open Finance and how can it help Indonesia’s unbanked? appeared first on e27.