Sampingan, an online platform for on-demand independent workers in Indonesia, announced today it has closed a Series A round of US$5 million led by Altara Ventures.

Golden Gate Ventures, Antler, Access Ventures, XA Network and iSeed SEA also joined the round.

“This funding will be allocated to the improvement of products for both the workers and businesses and reach more customers with our suite of business offerings,” said Wisnu Nugrahadi, CEO and co-founder of Sampingan.

Launched in January 2019, Sampingan (which directly translates to side-job in Bahasa) aims to empower independent blue-collar workers by giving them equal access to jobs and opportunities.

Also Read: iSeed SEA launches micro-fund targeting Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand

The platform aims to make it easier for companies to find and manage their workers while providing equal opportunities for workers in Indonesia.

It mainly has three offerings: Sampingan Manpower, a service where companies can hire workers for various positions from more than 850,000 workers, while Sampingan handles the administrative process, including the staffing and the payroll.

Sampingan Solutions is a service where Sampingan manages various business process activities from project planning to the final report. These activities range from field force management, crowdsourcing, and market research.

Sampingan Systems provides various SaaS for companies to source or manage their workforce. Companies can source their workers through Sampingan Systems Bursa Kerja, a job listing platform, and manage workers through Sampingan Systems Kerjaan, a workforce management software with performance trackers, attendance sheets, and customizable data dashboard.

Currently, Sampingan has more than 850,000 workers in 80 cities connected through the platform, called Kawan Sampingan, serving over 100 Indonesian enterprises.

“Sampingan is defining the future of work in Southeast Asia. The 2010s unleashed the on-demand ‘gig economy’ on consumer services, and the 2020s will expand this into the realm of businesses. Sampingan has matched thousands of Indonesian freelancers with jobs in areas like logistics, supply chain, and local services using their technology platform,” said Gavin Teo, General Partner of Altara Ventures.

The need for Sampingan’s workforce solution has accelerated amidst the pandemic.

Also Read: Sampingan raises US$1.5M funding

According to the Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (Badan Pusat Statistik), there are 29.12 million people that have been affected by the pandemic, both due to dismissals and reduction of working hours and wages. Sampingan has become an alternative to seeking full-time employment as well as an avenue to obtain additional income.

The company claims it saw a substantial increase in the number of partners joined its platform from March to December 2020, and the number of downloads for the mobile app has grown four times since the pandemic.

As of December 2020, the app has seen more than one million downloads.

In October 2019, Sampingan secured US$1.5 million in pre-Series A round of financing, led by Golden Gate Ventures.

Sampingan was part of Antler’s Singapore 2019 programme.

—

Image Credit: Sampingan

The post Sampingan lands US$5M Series A to connect independent blue-collar workers with enterprises in Indonesia appeared first on e27.

Zipmex, a Singapore-based digital assets exchange, announced today it has raised US$6 million in fresh funding, led by US-based VC firm Jump Capital.

The total amount raised in this round exceeded its initial target of US$4 million, the firm said in a statement.

This follows Zipmex’s US$3 million pre-Series A round raised in September 2019 and a US$1.9 million seed round in January that year.

With plans to become the largest digital asset exchange in Asia Pacific, the fresh funding will be used to further diversify Zipmex’s product offerings, including the expansion of its interest-bearing product ZipUp and its new native token ZMT.

Launched in late 2019, Zipmex allows investors to trade digital assets including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Trading fees start from 0.2 per cent per transaction. The firm has partnered with BitGo to provide a digital wallet insurance policy worth up to US$100 million.

Also Read: Inside the changing landscape of Asian cryptocurrency exchanges

The exchange claims that it has since transacted over US$650 million in gross transaction volume and has over 100,000 users on its digital assets exchange.

“Zipmex is providing the Asia Pacific region with a trusted, regulated and innovative digital asset exchange. We believe in the company’s mission and the future of digital asset investing in Asia,” said Peter Johnson, Partner at Jump Capital.

The raise comes at a time when digital asset investing is soaring. This month, Bitcoin set a record all-time high of US$41,941, while more than US$20 billion has been locked into decentralised finance protocols.

To capitalise on this trend, Zipmex recently completed the launch of its savings product ZipUp and exchange token ZMT.

Since its launch three months ago, Zipmex claims ZipUp has accrued over US$40 million in deposits from retail investors.

“ZipUp and ZMT have come about due to recent changes in the industry and growing investor demand for higher yields on their assets. We see a big opportunity for digital assets to grow, particularly with the technological innovations of decentralised finance protocols and solutions,” added Marcus Lim, CEO of Zipmex.

This investment is part of Jump Capital’s latest US$200 million fund. The Chicago-based firm has invested in over 60 companies across the fintech, IT and data infrastructure, B2B SaaS and media sectors. Notable portfolio companies include digital asset platform BitGo and trading social network TradingView.

—

Image Credit: Zipmex

The post Zipmex snags US$6M in an oversubscribed funding round to expand its digital assets exchange appeared first on e27.

Titik Pintar, a startup that aims to improve learning outcomes for Indonesian elementary school children via its online tools, announced today that it has closed an undisclosed sum in its first institutional investment from Indonesia Women Empowerment Fund (IWEF).

The financing will allow the edutech startup to continue on its growth path, improving its service for children, parents and teachers. It also looks to grow its collection of interactive lessons and educational videos via its SahabatPintar.id website.

Also Read: How edutech startups can accelerate active learning

“With the support of IWEF, Titik Pintar is able to build even better products for elementary school children in Indonesia. We believe we can help kids have fun while learning,” said Robbert Deusing, CEO and Founder of Titik Pitar.

“We were very humbled to see the strong traction of Titik Pintar last year, we got a lot of good feedback from students, parents and teachers. 2020 was difficult for everyone, and we worked hard to deliver fun educational content to Indonesian kids nationwide. We are confident to grow our user base in 2021 to 250,000 with the support of our strategic partners,” Deusing added.

Titik Pintar provides an ecosystem for edutainment. Tailored for every elementary school child in the archipelago, it offers gamified self-paced learning and remote micro lessons prepared by teachers, all aligned with the government curricula (Kurtilas).

All content is created in Bahasa Indonesia and English, so children can access and interact with the multimedia materials the way they prefer.

The lessons and videos are created on the website by teachers themselves, who can earn extra income from their contributions, while children and parents can self-pace their learning experience and find the best content for their needs.

Titik Pintar claims it has more than 15,000 users across Indonesia.

Also Read: Why edutech is becoming an investor favourite this season

The startup has previously secured a grant from the Dutch Government and investments from Indonesian and international angel investors.

IWEF is an impact fund addressing barriers to women’s economic empowerment by investing in disruptive tech solutions. The fund is jointly managed by Moonshot Ventures and YCAB Ventures, which is part of the YCAB Social Enterprise Group, a leading advocate for women and youth in Indonesia. IWEF is supported by the Australian Government as its lead sponsor and investor.

Tom Schmittzehe, co-founder of Moonshot Ventures, said: “Most teachers in Indonesia are women, whom IWEF seeks to promote, and through Titik Pintar, they will be able to earn a secondary income, while focusing on what they love most — teaching.”

Moonshot Ventures addresses development challenges faced by emerging economies in Southeast Asia. It invests in disruptive innovations and mission-driven entrepreneurs, in order to achieve large-scale impact.

Also Read: How the Coronavirus is teaching edutech startups a much-needed lesson

YCAB Ventures is part of YCAB Social Enterprise Group that invests in economic empowerment activities to end poverty and reduce inequality. Through its funding activities, YCAB Ventures has financed over 185,000 women owned businesses through 600,000 productive loans as well as has supported other likeminded social enterprises.

—

Image Credit: Titik Pintar

The post Titik Pintar raises funding to offer gamified learning and remote micro lessons to Indonesian students appeared first on e27.

microLEAP, an Islamic and conventional P2P microfinancing platform, announced today it has raised a total of US$3.26 million (RM13.25M) in equity and other modes of financing from Malaysian investment holding company MAA Group.

The round comprises RM1.25 million in equity and RM2 million advance, besides a separate RM10 million, which will be invested across all of microLEAP’s available Islamic and Conventional Investment Notes.

microLEAP will use the funds for advertising, promotions, hiring staff and tech enhancements.

The Malaysia-based fintech company serves micro-enterprises that may find it difficult to borrow money via traditional means.

Also Read:  How Islamic finance can work with fintech to promote financial inclusion in Malaysia

What makes the company unique is that it provides borrowers access to micro-financing through both shariah-compliant means as well as conventional funding.

A largely Muslim-populated nation, Malaysia is seeing a steady growth for Shariah-compliant financing, which refers to funds that adhere to Islamic teachings with resolutions issued by the Shariah Advisory Council of the Securities Commission of Malaysia (SACSC).

This is evident from the growth of its Islamic Investment Notes/Islamic Financing offering, which it claims to have grown more than 1,000 per cent within just five months of its launch in April 2020.

According to the founder, the reason for this success is because microLEAP does not charge additional rates for Islamic funds in comparison to conventional funds, as it absorbs the Commodity Murabahah brokerage fees.

“On microLEAP’s platform, where we are the first platform to be able to do both Islamic and conventional P2P financing, Islamic is more popular. In fact, our Islamic financing is 92 per cent vs eight per cent for conventional financing,” CEO Tunku Danny Nasaifuddin Mudzaffar told Salaamgateway.

One can borrow between RM1,000 (US$250) and RM50,000 (~US$12,300), with free basic debt management, accounting, online training and complimentary personal accident insurance being provided.

It also requires a business to be in operation for only six months for it to be evaluated, and absorbs the Islamic Commodity Brokerage fee, which eases the burden for micro-businesses while donating the late payment fees to charity.

Also Read: Malaysia’s P2P financing startup Fundaztic to raise US$722K through ECF platform pitchIN

Tunku Yaacob Khyra, Executive Chairman of MAA Group, said that there is an unattended need for many small businesses to remain afloat which is why the company will be focussed towards providing added benefits that can be accessed easily by MSMEs.

In 2021, the company is set to launch two new products: the Islamic Car Dealer Financing and Islamic Invoice Financing.

Last year, microLEAP raised US$492,029 (RM2 million) seed funding from the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation.

—

Image Credit: microLEAP

The post microLEAP raises US$3.3M to help small businesses raise funds via Shariah-compliant means in Malaysia appeared first on e27.

With the unpredictable economic climate, constantly shifting market, and new trends in commerce sprouting up, businesses are hot on their heels with not only trying to adapt and survive but more importantly, to grow and expand. Rapidly changing consumer behaviour, online and offline shopping patterns, as well as dynamic product-market fits, are only some of the key factors that are rewriting the business world as we know it amidst the pandemic. With all the changes and challenges, businesses have to maximise every opportunity to innovate and scale.

With the right approach, agility, and, most importantly, a skilled workforce, companies can look beyond surviving this crisis and into exploring non-conventional markets. To succeed, businesses need a diverse and innovative workforce that thinks globally to navigate the challenges and identify opportunities.

At the onset of the decade, Forbes launched its “Global Diversity And Inclusion” study, conducted with over 300 executive representatives from an array of companies across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, with participating companies raking in revenues of at least $500 million to $20 billion. One of the key findings was that diversity is a key driver of innovation and is a critical component of being successful on a global scale. The report also suggested that a diverse and inclusive workforce is crucial for companies that are keen and committed to attracting and retaining top talent. It helps broaden the pool of talent a company can recruit from, while also establishing an inclusive company image. “If you want to attract the best talent, you need to be reflective of the talent in that market,” said Eileen Taylor, Deutsche Bank’s global head of diversity.

As such, SMU offers Global Innovation Immersion (GII) internship programme, organised by Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) where GII interns provide that much-needed diversity in terms of age, nationality, as well as the social and academic background to businesses.

Fostering innovation through diversity is the key to global success

A global company cannot be built and sustained with a local mindset. Only a diverse team that brings a wide variety of experiences, understanding, and knowledge, can richly contribute and innovate to attain that.

It is also important for companies to understand that the fundamental meaning of diversity is rapidly evolving and is no longer limited to simply creating a heterogeneous workforce. Today, having a diverse workforce entails leveraging on innovative talents with complex web differences, ranging across backgrounds to academic disciplines, and experiences to skillsets– a talent pool equipped with boldness, a healthy skepticism towards failure and capabilities to iterate innovative products, services, and business practices. As companies compete on a global scale in these uncertain times, the concepts of diversity and inclusion in a high-performing team must also keep up.

Also read: Titik Pintar raises funding to offer gamified learning and remote micro lessons to Indonesian students

This is where young, forward-thinking interns can help break the often uniform and monolithic company culture by bringing in fresh perspectives and insights particularly of the company’s changing customers. A pool of interns with innovation and entrepreneurship at their core can contribute towards differentiating a company, strengthen its competitive advantage and take the business forward.

A win-win arrangement between SMU and businesses to imbue the global perspective

In line with the current business climate and the dire need for innovative ideas, SMU’s Global Innovation Immersion (GII), a three-month overseas internship programme, was first started to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within the SMU community and beyond. Tailored to create a robust and agile talent pool suited for the fast-paced startup-environment, this programme was specifically designed for students who possess an entrepreneurial mindset and are passionate about innovation as well as digital transformation — two of the most important elements needed for success in a post-pandemic world. With rapidly growing interest from students and companies alike, the programme had gained steady momentum over the years.

“The company tasked me to compare and analyze their business processes and proposed and implemented improvements. The main bulk of my time was devoted to the company’s financial modelling for pitching to investors during the company’s Series A fundraising,” shared Razzaq Reyal who joined Health at Home as a Business Analyst Intern during his time at GII Thailand in 2019.

Also read: microLEAP raises US$3.3M to help small businesses raise funds via Shariah-compliant means in Malaysia

Another factor that makes this internship programme stand out is its mutually-beneficial arrangement: leading companies can sleep soundly knowing that GII interns undergo a rigorous recruitment process while these young and energetic GII interns get an opportunity of their lifetimes to work at some of the most promising co-working spaces and startups worldwide. These invaluable experiences that interns had gained under SMU’s GII programme ready the next generation for the real world, at times, even bagging their dream jobs.

“GII allow[ed]s me to formally enter the Venture Capital (VC) field and this experience indeed help[ed]s me get my subsequent 2 VC internships. The experience of working in Indonesia plus my bi-cultural background of Singapore and China differentiates me from other candidates,” explained Zhao Yunyi who joined Kejora Ventures as an Investment Analyst Intern as part of GII Indonesia in 2019.

A shifting global market brings in opportunities for scalability and growth

Singapore is the technology hub of the region, which means opportunities abound for startups in the island-nation to explore innovations. GII hires can help startups by marrying up-to-date research and perspectives with open mindsets, helping companies come up with new ways of looking at business problems. Given the robust pre-internship training that the students attend, GII hires will bring in coveted skills in fields such as digital transformation, online marketing, business development, and data analytics, allowing them to make significant contributions to companies. Where relevant, they also attend language classes like Mandarin, Bahasa, Thai, Vietnamese, and Tagalog among others.

Also read: Zipmex snags US$6M in an oversubscribed funding round to expand its digital assets exchange

Founders and business leaders are well aware of the unique opportunities that the pandemic has brought despite its struggles and challenges — opportunities such as growth and scaling.

It is important for startups to take this chance and build a team that helps them emerge successful on a regional and even global level. And for that, they can rely on well-trained GII interns.

If you are looking for talented interns to help you build a diverse and innovative team for your global business dreams, just fill this form or contact the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) at iie-gii@smu.edu.sg.

– –

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels

– –

This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by the Singapore Management University

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

The post How businesses can rely on entrepreneurial interns to innovate and go global appeared first on e27.

Ajaib Group, an Indonesian online investment platform targeting millennials and first-time investors, has secured US$25 million in Series A funding, led by Horizons Ventures, the VC firm founded by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, and Alpha JWC.

Existing investors SoftBank Ventures Asia, Insignia Ventures and Y Combinator also participated in the round, which was closed in two tranches.

The new round brings the total amount of capital raised by the fintech startup to US$27 million.

As per a TechCrunch report, the money will be used to expand Ajaib’s tech infrastructure and products as well as scale its engineering team. In addition, the firm will also work with the government to educate millennials on investing and financial planning.

Founded in 2019 by Anderson Sumarli (CEO) and Yada Piyajomkwan (COO), Ajaib claims it runs the fifth-largest stock brokerage in the archipelago by the volume of trades, with one million monthly users on its platform.

Following the blueprint set out by Robinhood in the US, Ajaib leverages on the high smartphone penetration rate in Indonesia by operating as a mobile-first stock trading platform. By incorporating a simple user interface and investment education features, Ajaib is able to appeal to novice investors and millennials with elementary financial literacy.

Furthermore, it requires no minimum sum to open a brokerage account — further attracting cash-strapped millennials into investing.

Despite its large population, Indonesia has a low penetration rate for stock investments. There are only 1.6 million capital market investors in the country, which is less than 1 per cent of its population of 273 million.

This has led to growing interest from VCs in investment platforms targeting millennials and first-time investors.

Last week, Bibit, a robo-advisor platform, announced a US$30 million funding round from investors including Sequoia Capital India and East Ventures.

Also Read: Bibit snags US$30M to expand its robo-advisory platform in Indonesia

While Ajaib has long-term plans to expand regionally, its focus for the near future would be capturing the Indonesian market, where it sees “plenty of opportunities”.

—

Image Credit: Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

The post Ajaib raises US$25M to expand its mobile-first investment platform for millennials in Indonesia appeared first on e27.

Happy New Year! Did you have a good break, yeah? Mine was pretty good and long but by the end of it I could not wait to come back to my desk and all the action.

Thanks to gojek, getting back work was far more exciting than I imagined. While we cannot think beyond the impending Gojek-Tokopedia merger (after the long ordeal of possible Gojek-Grab merger), the last week of 2020 and the first week of 2021 was actually very productive for the e27 Contributor Community.

From fintech predictions to productivity to customer engagement, our contributors flooded us with what to expect in 2021. Catch up on the missed action, including tips from COO of Zendesk and more.

2021: Predicting another bumper (un)predictable year for payments by Tristan Chiappini, VP, APAC at PPRO

“The year 2020 has been a year of momentous change for the payments industry not just in APAC but also across the world.

Trends that were identified this time last year as emerging have been hugely accelerated as a result of the pandemic. Rapid growth was predicted, but it was unpredictable on the scale that has happened.”

Top 5 fintech predictions that will take over the world in 2021 by Victor Fredung CEO at Shufti Pro

“The majority of the businesses faced a downfall when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Only a few of them were smart enough that somehow successfully showed an upward trend and out of them, one was the fintech industry.

Both businesses and customers start utilising contactless payment methods to avoid physical contact with each other. According to a study, there was 72 per cent of evident usage of fintech apps in Europe, especially since the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following are the top 5 predictions that will take over the world especially in 2021 and later upcoming years.”

Keeping customers happy

What customers really want from brands and businesses in the post-pandemic world by Wendy Johnstone is the Chief Operating Officer for Zendesk APAC

“In this ‘new normal’ we keep talking about, digital strategies and data capabilities drive the customer experience. Increasingly, customers expect quick, simple and accessible support that can instantly provide the answers they need.

Whether this comes in the form of a self-help knowledge base, a reliable AI chatbot, or a quick message to a support agent, the key is being wherever your customers are, whenever they start asking a question.”

How startups can improve customer engagement and grow LTV ratio by journalist Luke Fitzpatrick

“Customer engagement is an essential part of any successful business’ growth formula.

An engaged customer buys from you, recommends you to their friends, and has a higher average order value. There are tons of benefits but how do you create an active and engaged customer base?

That’s a good question. There are many strategies but the linchpin is a deep understanding of who your customers are and what problem they come to have solved. Here are some proven tactics to increase customer engagement and, by extension, customer lifetime value.”

From the founder’s mouth

Lessons from experience: Scaling your startup with a remote team by cofounder at SOTA Partners, Neal Taparia

“As Bob Dylan once sang: ‘The Times They Are A Changin’.’

When you are running a startup, you no longer need all your team members in one place. You can have them scattered across the globe and still manage to scale your operations. Thanks to countless communication and collaboration software, managing a remote team is a cake walk for startup founders.

You can have a developer from Japan, a UX designer from Ukraine, a QA tester from India, and a project manager from the US.

However, there is a catch. Managing a remote team is not the same as managing an in-house team. You need to approach remote team management from a different angle to keep teams motivated, productive, and also to scale your startup.”

Lockdown learnings: How I became a half-decent product manager in 2020 by Gijs Verheijke, founder and CEO of Ox Street

“When Ox Street started, I had a co-founder for about a month — a talented and experienced product manager, who was going to take care of the tech side of things.

Unfortunately, he got an ‘offer he couldn’t refuse’ from his employer and didn’t follow through. That left me as the sole founder, in charge of finding engineers and leading the development of our product.

No problem! I thought my experience with project management and team management in general, as well as my obsession with structure and clear communication, left me well prepared. I was squarely at the peak of ‘Mt. Stupid’.”

e27 2020 Year in Review: A transformative year with lots of reflection, change and appreciation by Mohan Belani, CEO at e27 and Head of Product

“What a year this has been. 2020 forced us to think differently and allowed us to experiment with a lot of the ideas that have been on the back burner. It forced us to rethink our role in the regional tech ecosystem, and here are some of the details to how we changed how we worked during 2020.”

Working with governments

What the Tech.Pass scheme means for startups and the rise of Singapore as a thriving centre of innovation by Charles H. Ferguson, General Manager, Asia Pacific

“It is no secret that Singapore has been vying to become Asia’s tech capital for years. With the mounting US-China trade rivalry and the shifting global technology chain, Singapore has become a rather ideal, neutral choice as a launchpad for any company that wants to seize opportunities in Southeast Asia.

Tech.Pass supports Singapore’s positioning as a regional tech hub. With the scheme, Singapore aims to develop top-notch talent that ensures Singapore stays ahead of the game in today’s fiercely competitive digital world while contributing to the growth of the regional start-up ecosystem.”

Data will help public-private partnerships build future resilience in SEA. Here’s how by Gautam Kotwal, Chief Data Officer, Gojek

“Across the globe, the monitoring and analysing of big data for actionable insights is being put to use, giving rise to initiatives such as contact tracing, movement control in highly-affected areas, or the distribution of financial aid to people in need. But state-sanctioned measures or corporate-led campaigns can only go so far. To make a real impact, the public and private sectors must work together, sharing information and combining resources.

In Southeast Asia, with infrastructure development and public funding so varied between nations, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are even more vital to ensure timely and beneficial solutions to socio-economic challenges.”

A wave of change: What sets impact investing apart from traditional investing by Bowen Khong, Impact Investing Advocate

“Governments, businesses, and most important of all, billions of people around the world realise the need for a change in the status quo. And millennials and the younger generations, whose future is at stake, are starting to demand more action.

This change in attitude is also reflected in the realm of investing – there are many “buzzwords” in the mainstream media to reflect this zeitgeist of ‘do good’ investing. They include terms such as impact investing, ESG investing, and SRI/ethical investing.”

Staying productive

SMEs, here’s how you can do more with less by Joey Lim, Vice President of Commercial – Asia, Lark

“Having lived through the biggest remote working experiment in history, many companies are now well-equipped to accommodate telecommuting arrangements.

However, as the number of COVID-19 community cases continues to remain at zero in Singapore, we see safety measures being relaxed and more people allowed back into the office. This poses yet another challenge for companies as they now need to adapt to a hybrid workforce, where only half of employees are working in the office, while the other half work from home.

For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), these frequent changes can dampen their productivity and efficiency. Compared to their larger multinational counterparts, SMEs have fewer resources, and oftentimes, employees need to wear multiple hats.”

–

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, or like the e27 Facebook page

The post From our community: Fintech predictions, customer engagement tips, remote team management and more… appeared first on e27.

Crown Technologies, a Singapore-based startup that has developed an autonomous robotic coffee barista, has secured a strategic, cross-border investment from JR East Business Development SEA, a subsidiary of East Japan Railway Company.

The investment will accelerate the rollout of ELLA, the Artificial Intelligence-powered robotic barista designed for unmanned and contactless retail operations in high-volume environments.

ELLA will be deployed across East Japan Railway’s network of 1,657 train stations that serve an average of 17 million passengers daily, with completion slated to meet the increased demands of the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

“Japan has long been known to embrace innovation and be at the forefront of using AI and robotics to solve social issues and achieve economic growth. By placing their bet on our technology that we’ve built in Singapore to serve the exact purpose, it not only puts us on the map, but is also the strongest testament to the vision that my team and I have worked tirelessly to build upon in the last two years,” said Keith Tan, CEO and Founder of Crown Technologies.

Also Read: Will China lead the Artificial Intelligence game by 2030?

ELLA is powered by an ecosystem comprising patented proprietary Internet of Things (IoT)-connected software and external hardware that the startup claims will upgrade the coffee experience with speed, convenience, quality and consistency.

Each kiosk is capable of producing 200 cups of barista-quality coffee per hour, operating 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

ELLA’s modular set-up allows its offerings to be localised for Japan market.

Immersive and innovative digital touchpoints, such as an interactive transparent OLED screen and mobile app ordering system with its own payment gateway and e-wallet, allows JR East to tap into a myriad of engagement possibilities such as advertisements and notifications targeted directly to the end user.

On the backend, computer vision powered by AI is monitoring the kiosk 24×7 for any abnormalities that may affect ELLA’s operations.

Meanwhile, a fulfilment module, powered by its own mobile app, uses predictive analytics to forecast demand and digitise the supply chain management, allowing JR East to support the replenishment and servicing of the kiosk with only a lean fulfilment team with the power of Big Data.

“ELLA is transformational with the use of AI-powered collaborative robots. ELLA ensures safety in the post COVID-19 landscape as she operates in a sealed chamber and is contactless,” said Toshio Omiyama, Managing Director of JR East Business Development SEA.

Following this strategic round of financing, Crown will be launching its Series A round shortly, as well as the deployment 30 additional commercial units of ELLA across Singapore. It launched the first commercial unit in October 2020.

—

Image Credit: Crown Technologies.

The post Crown Technologies secures financing to deploy its AI-powered robotic barista across East Japan’s train stations appeared first on e27.

Indonesia-based online B2B FMGG marketplace GudangAda announced today that it has appointed Huan Yang, former Head of Engineering at Grab Singapore, as its first CTO.

The news comes shortly after GudangAda successfully raised over US$30 million in a seed funding round, led by early-stage VC firms Alpha JWC Ventures and Wavemaker Partners.

In his new role, Yang will be responsible for managing technology for the platform and further growing its platform.

With an impressive career track record, Yang has spent over 13 years working with tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Uber and Grab as their software and engineering manager.

Yang joins GudangAda from Grab Singapore, where he was previously heading its Engineering teams in Singapore, Jakarta and Beijing to develop solutions to the company’s critical food delivery challenges.

Also Read: How two-year-old GudangAda managed to keep VCs interest ‘intact’ despite COVID-19

GudangAda believes Yang’s global exposure of having worked in different countries including Singapore, Shanghai, London and San Francisco will bring in a fresh perspective for the company.

“…we have already experienced significant growth in 2020 and I am looking forward to Yang’s contribution to help advance our platform and accelerate our growth moving forward,” Steven Sang, CEO of GudangAda said.

Huan’s appointment will be key to the company’s expansion plans, as it seeks to aggressively expand to more cities in the archipelago, further develop its warehousing and logistics offerings, and move into new product categories beyond the FMCG industry.

Founded in 2019, GudangAda connects small mom-and-pop retailers with wholesalers. The platform empowers the FMCG supply chain by enabling traders to become both a seller and buyer while facilitating bulk transactions between traders.

It claims to have established a presence in more than 500 locations in Indonesia with over 300,000 merchants.

Its technology solutions are mainly aimed at helping SMEs by providing a full suite of services starting from sourcing the product, managing sales and purchases, offering logistics transportation, and handling payments.

Also Read: Indonesian B2B marketplace for FMCG gudangada secures seed funding led by Alpha JWC, Wavemaker

Yang said: “Many traditional business players in Indonesia face constant challenges due to inefficient operations, low productivity or higher costs, and have difficulty adopting the technology. Working with GudangAda to deliver fast, cost-efficient and seamless solutions to benefit stakeholders is something I am truly passionate about.”

–

Image Credit: GudangAda

The post GudangAda names former Grab Engineering Head Huan Yang as CTO appeared first on e27.

“If you’re not paying for it, you become the product”.

It is a common phrase used to describe how large and profitable tech companies make money through “free services”. Whatsapp’s latest privacy policy update lends credence to this euphemism.

When I — like the rest of the two billion users — received a WhatsApp notification about the recent policy terms update, I was curious to know what it was.

After reading the terms, it became clear to me that the app is simply trying to ask for permission to share my data with its parent company Facebook, effective Feb 8, 2021.

While end-to-end private chats continue to remain encrypted, here are the kinds of data WhatsApp will share with Facebook and Instagram: phone numbers, status updates, group details, profile pictures, about info, payments, transactions, time zone and IP address.

This essentially means Whatsapp has taken a 360-degree in terms of its privacy policy.

Also Read: What you need to know about data privacy in China

The company’s 2019 privacy policy terms says: “Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA. Since we started WhatsApp, we’ve aspired to build our Services with a set of strong privacy principles in mind.”

This line has since been completely scraped off in the 2021 policy.

If you’re one among those who feel creeped out in the past wondering why you have been receiving ads of sports shoes after just having a private conversation with a friend, prepare to get even more surprised.

The new privacy means Whatsapp will now be able to monitor the kinds of links of products/other things that you send your friends and families and use them to send it to other ads companies/brands.

In other words, Facebook now has total access to your data.

That’s not all the user data will be available not just to the businesses you are transacting with, but will also be available to other third parties that are working with these businesses.

Still hard to digest? Then look at the Cambridge Analytica Scandal of 2019, which clearly showed how Facebook in the past let third-party app developers access our personal data, who in turn sold it to companies which used it for different exploitative and illegal purposes.

What Whatsapp had to say

While these can be regarded as just opinions from a user, it will be unfair to bash Whatsapp without hearing the company out.

Will Cathcart, Head of Whatsapp, said, “We’ve updated our policy to be transparent and to better describe optional people-to-business features. We wrote about it in October — this includes commerce on WhatsApp and the ability for people to message a business.”

He added that businesses want tools to respond quickly to the messages sent to them and features such as Shops and Pay can help people buy things they want from businesses on WhatsApp much more easily.

While this justification sounds valid, it still cannot be denied that Facebook is now too big and wields immense power over our choices and compulsive needs. Not to forget the company’s long list of user data-related sins in the past year.

Big names, including Elon Musk, have also come out in the open to urge people to find alternative messaging channels, such as Signal and Telegram.

While being okay with the new policy is really a choice that each one has, it is important to understand fully what the terms are before you click on the dangerous green “I agree” button.

—

Image Credit: Unsplash

The post WhatsApp takes a U-turn in its data privacy. Is it time to switch to alternative platforms? appeared first on e27.