Singapore-headquartered TurtleTree Labs, a biotech startup producing milk using cell-based technology, announced today it has closed an US$6.2 million in an oversubscribed pre-Series A round of funding.

Both existing and new investors, including Green Monday Ventures, Eat Beyond Global, KBW Ventures, and Verso Capital, joined the round.

As per a press note, the startup will use the funds to accelerate research and production of functional, bioactive proteins and complex sugars found in human milk. These high-value components have potential benefits in gut and brain health, which can be applied to both infant and senior nutrition.

The company has also announced that Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, a prominent global investor in the alternative protein sector through KBW Ventures, will join TurtleTree as an Advisor.

In this role, Prince Khaled will shape new market growth plans, lend his expertise in the alternative protein and food tech spheres, and liaise closely with the founding team on other areas of the business.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, January: Singapore-based biotech startup TurtleTree

Founded in 2019, TurtleTree, which also has an office in San Francisco, uses its proprietary technology to produce full milk in clean production facilities from mammary cells.

“The vision of TurtleTree Labs is to create a truly sustainable and cruelty-free food system,” said Max Rye, Chief Strategist of TurtleTree Labs.

“TurtleTree’s technology is able to significantly reduce our carbon footprint and address food resilience in the long term. This is a win-win for our planet and for communities,” said Lim Hock Chuan, CEO, Temasek Foundation Ecosperity.

The funding news comes fresh off TurtleTree’s win at the Entrepreneurship World Cup, where it secured US$500,000 in cash prize.

Earlier this year, the startup had raised pre-seed funding round from investors such as KBW Ventures, Lever VC and K2 Global.

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Image Credit: TurtleTree Labs

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When the circuit-breaker rolled out in April of 2020, most of us were focused on short-term response and course correction. Since then, the global economy has witnessed several changes, and employers adapted in tandem.

However, the lessons from the pandemic remain as pertinent as ever, informing the way forward for years to come. It has changed what an employee expects from the workplace, also rejigging the definition of “good” performance and productivity. In this climate, it is clear that we cannot take employee engagement for granted.

In 2021, could we expect a swift return to BAU? Or, should HR practitioners treat the pandemic as a watershed period, completely reshaping the future of work? Industry experts suggest that the answer – without a doubt – is the latter. Here are five ways the changes brought on by COVID-19 will determine the future of work.

Hybrid workplaces will continue to soar, not stall, in 2021

Remote working was already beginning to be a popular working model prior to the pandemic. Now, it is the default for any desk job. UOB had already announced instituting a two-day work-from-home policy post-COVID 19. Singapore’s largest bank will give its 29,000 employees the option to work remotely up to 40 per cent of the time.

A few months ago, EngageRocket held a digital summit titled PeopleFirst 2020, and every expert highlighted hybrid workplace as a priority for HR next year. “Whether it is the rise of the gig economy, or choosing to work from home, there will continue to be a new version of culture and collaboration, because we are just not in the same place, all the time, together,” said Chin Yin Ong, Head of People at Grab. 

We have now opened our minds to the possibilities of flexible work arrangements, opening the door to a more diverse workforce by redesigning jobs and introducing new practices. Multiple biases will be diminished in favour of a more diverse workforce, enabling previously untapped talent to contribute to the economy.

Also Read: Work from home risks every employer needs to be aware of

That’s why HR will need to support structured processes that allow employees freedom to navigate a complex environment. The key to this freedom lies in three elements: leadership, technology, and clarity. Managers must be flexible enough to support productivity as per the timelines and locations of tier preference.

Technology can complement this by enabling synchronous and asynchronous communication between teams. Finally, setting clear and achievable milestones, such as deadlines or targets, will give remote staff the information they need to manage their performance effectively. 

A sense of purpose must cut through labour force disillusionment

Purpose and a shared vision are essential, even in the best of times, to bind a team together and keep team members motivated. As companies reacted to the circuit-breaker and scrambled to restructure their people management processes, it was easy to lose sight of this core “purpose.”

Several companies made the mistake of prioritising hour-based productivity and traditional targets instead of providing inspiration during these complex times. This has left a significant portion of the labour force feeling disillusioned and un-empowered. 

In 2021, progressive employers must leverage purpose to their advantage by attaching meaning to every activity beyond just making up the numbers. To achieve this, it is first necessary to train managers to act as mentors and help them develop a strong sense of empathy.

Purpose applies to internal and external communication equally. In 2021, HR should consider job descriptions that present an attractive and meaningful work experience. Organisations will have to think about the emotional outcome for employees and help them feel more engaged.

Prepare to enable work-life integration (vs balance)

The endless days of WFH have forced us to find our individualised work-life dynamics, which didn’t necessarily mean drawing concrete lines between the two. Some employees might prefer work-life integration as opposed to work-life balance, and managers must adapt accordingly. 

Also Read: 5 inevitable changes to the workplace that are here to stay

This integration will also require special support for those most likely to face work-life stress, such as parents with young children, team leaders, new employees, etc. 

To address this, HR can take a variety of steps, from special benefits to targeted resources. Special benefits include four-day workweeks, flexible time off, etc., to help employees plan around their personal obligations. 

Underneath all of this, must lie a culture of anti-presenteeism – actively encouraged by HR – that prioritises outcomes, not an employee’s availability.

HR will influence business decisions even after the pandemic

Several functions that were previously seen as ancillary, such as IT, customer service, and HR, got a seat at the C-table during the pandemic. Business leaders recognised how critical HR is to market outcomes. HR will continue to retain its role in decision-making even after the pandemic, signalling a new era of employee centricity. 

Importantly, this indicates specific upskilling requirements for HR. Being able to speak the language of business is such a critical skill for HR, even in the past and it’s going to be even more critical as the demands on the role of HR increases over time. 

This has two implications. First, HR practitioners must be able to see the “big picture” of where a business is heading, the threats and opportunities on the way, and how its workforce plays a role. Second, HR must leverage analytics to quantify people management issues and potentials, even if they have a “gut feeling” or informed intuition.

We will rethink what it means to “compensate” for work

Finally, our compensation models require a comprehensive overhaul, moving away from outmoded systems that are based on work hours, non-vocational degrees, subjective opinion, and other inaccurate indicators. The crisis highlighted that employee contribution can make a difference in unexpected ways – from a manager who takes time on weekends to hear what an employee has to say, to a new employee who comes up with a disruptive idea completely unrelated to their job role. 

Also Read: Ethical dilemmas at the workplace: what to do?

Companies must ask themselves one critical question: is my compensation model agile enough for this new future of work? 

Companies industry-wide and region-wide need to improve recognition and sense of fairness of rewards. This can manifest itself in a number of changes that are predicted in compensation models. 

Non-monetary tactics like immediate recognition from managers or an informal pat-on-the-back by a peer will become more popular. Regular performance management with nimble goals will replace cyclical, rigid structures, that leave very little room for flexibility.

The organisational performance management system could also transform on similar lines, gathering performance feedback from an employee’s 360-degree network instead of the traditional single rater system.  The result is a workplace that listens to and acts on the voice of the employee, offering reassurance and driving confidence.

These five trends will characterise work-life and the HR landscape in 2021. The forces that sparked off this year will take root in new and surprising ways, shaping a more inclusive and human-driven workplace.

Companies that embrace – and not only adapt to – this new normal, armed with accurate analytics insights to make decisions, will stand to gain a competitive advantage. 

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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, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image Credit: Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

The post Looking beyond the crisis: Top 5 trends that will characterise work-life in 2021 appeared first on e27.

Comparing yourself to others is dangerous in many ways, so in this episode we talk about:

• Why it’s dangerous to compare yourself to others
• How it affects you
• (and) What you should do instead

If you don’t see the Apple player above, click on a link below to listen directly!

 

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This article was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: Michal Czyz on Unsplash

The post Entrepreneurs, comparing yourself to others will only lead to a path of destruction appeared first on e27.

Gone were the days where deliveries took days to fulfil. Today, speed is of the essence with advancements in technology to streamline delivery processes.

Enter quick commerce (q-commerce), the third evolution of e-commerce.

Delivery giant foodpanda is one of the first in Southeast Asia to implement q-commerce, which aims to reduce delivery times to minutes, and the brains behind this is CTO Benjamin Mann.

In the first part of the interview with e27, Mann shares his experience in dealing with the multiple challenges thrown at his tech teams during the pandemic, how he sets them up to deal with them and the importance of balancing customer feedback and data.

Edited excerpts:

How has foodpanda responded to changes brought about by the pandemic from a tech perspective?

Food delivery platforms are incredibly tech-intensive and a lot goes on behind the scenes — from placing your order to receiving it. If you look at the volume of steps that need to be taken in perfect sequence for someone to get food delivered within 25 to 30 minutes on a global scale as we operate, it’s a beautiful and elegant puzzle.

What we did prior to the pandemic which we are doing more now is that we’re constantly running many A/B tests to aid us in adjusting our tech solutions to the constant micro-changes in user behaviour.

Also Read: Asia’s food delivery potential is set to unlock post-COVID-19. Here’s why

With the volatile situation of the pandemic, it often requires us to make micro-adjustments in a particular vertical, framework or country. So we run numerous tests and evaluate the metrics that come out of it.

We are also trying to see how we can take an idea which was successful in country A to implement in country B by conducting small controlled tests on the local population.

Has the pandemic presented any new challenges for the tech team to deal with?

The pandemic has certainly thrown us numerous curveballs. For example, more customers are preferring contactless payments due to hygiene concerns triggered by the pandemic. Therefore, COVID-19 has certainly accelerated trends like that and we were forced to quickly adapt.

Other issues involved are the onboarding of merchants onto our platform virtually and ensuring this remained a smooth process for them. We have dedicated a whole team to work on making the process as seamless as possible by exploring how we can introduce certain features to reduce the steps required.

Our riders were also facing issues. Overnight, places were getting shut down and curfews were imposed. The remote working trend has resulted in certain areas having a higher demand now as they have become residential areas. On the other hand, office areas are seeing a drop in demand.

How do you set up your teams to deal with the large magnitude of changes?

Food delivery is a complex business consisting of many moving parts that are often out of your control. For example, if it’s raining in Singapore or there is a parade somewhere in Thailand that blocks all the roads of the restaurant that you want to order, how does the rider make an on-time delivery in such circumstances?

Therefore, even before the pandemic, we had operated in a volatile and constantly changing environment. What the pandemic has done is that it has put some of these changes on steroids!

Also Read: It is all about survival of the most adaptable, says PatSnap’s Jeffrey Tiong

As a team, we are set out in a way that allows us to quickly move people from one focus area to another. From a technical point of view, what we needed to do is quickly adjust certain parts of our systems to deal with the increased demand.

For example, you would be seeing things like high spikes in demand right before the curfew starts because everyone wants their food delivered before riders can no longer go out. I often refer to such spikes as “micro-seasonality”, which had existed before the pandemic however they are greater now.

How has the multitude of changes altered how your teams operate?

It required our engineering and product teams to rethink how can we scale up and down quickly to cope with the increase and fall in demand. It has also forced us to fundamentally rethink how we are building our architecture.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to overhaul our architecture overnight or do rewrites as we were fast to adapt to the changing demands as our teams operate in a relatively autonomous way and changes are responded to quickly.

Our engineering and product teams have the liberty to erase their road map and prioritise what they feel is more important. This way, we can stay agile and make small changes and adapt instead making delayed decisions that would have necessitated an overhaul of our systems.

How do you balance data and customer feedback when building a product?

At foodpanda, we are extremely obsessed with metrics. We have dozens of dashboards in real-time or near real-time where teams can see the impact of smallest changes to the customer behaviour of a certain segment.

Therefore, customers sharing their feedback manually through our channels means we are too late in identifying their concerns. Instead, we should observe these metrics and identify changes in customer behaviour and decide on how we should respond.

If the metrics are moving in the right direction, it signals that we are doing the right thing and should continue. However, if it’s moving in the wrong direction, that’s when we need to analyse the data, run tests within control groups to identify the root cause of the issue and resolve it.

Also Read: Treat your customers like humans, not data

We try to focus more on data instead of relying purely on customer feedback. Feedback remains important because it does come from areas where we don’t have the right metrics to measure them. This is the space where we would value feedback instead.

In areas where we have the right metrics, we want to know that something is negatively impacting the customer before they tell us.

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Image Credit: Foodpanda

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Info Edge Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund backed by India online classifieds company Info Edge, has raised US$50 million from Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings.

This brings the total corpus of Info Edge Ventures to US$100 million, according to a press release.

Also Read: Scalability lessons from Indian tech startups for enterprises in SEA

Launched in January 2020, Info Edge Ventures focuses on India-based early-stage tech startups with the potential to scale into a large and sustainable business.

Since its establishment, the fund has already invested in nine startups in e-commerce, digital media, fintech, edutech, healthtech, gaming and SaaS. These companies are DotPe, Bulbul, Qyuki, Fanclash, Truemeds, Rusk Media, FirstHive, Polymerize, and Udayy.

“With Info Edge and Temasek as limited partners (LPs), we have patient capital and a global network to back tech entrepreneurs who are building innovative businesses. We look forward to leveraging their decades of experience in building large technology companies that have fundamentally changed industries,” said Kitty Agarwal, Partner at Info Edge Ventures.

“This decade shall be an exciting time for startups as the pace of technology adoption increases dramatically in India,” added Amit Behl, Partner at Info Edge Ventures.

In addition to backing market leaders like Zomato and Policybazaar as the first institutional investor, the Info Edge Ventures team in its earlier avatar had also invested in category companies, including Shopkirana, Bijnis, Shipsy, Ustraa, Gramophone, and Adda247.

Also Read: How can India leapfrog into the league of the most innovative countries within the next five years?

This follows recent investments by Temasek in China foodtech fund Bits x Bites and EV Growth’s US$250 million Indonesian-focused fund last year.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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gojek announced today that it has invested in Bank Jago, an Indonesia-listed tech-based bank, as part of a strategic partnership that aims to accelerate financial inclusion in Indonesia.

As per the deal, gojek will hold 22 per cent of Bank Jago. Other details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The deal however doesn’t alter the control of Jago, as Metamorfosis Ekosistem Indonesia and Wealth Track Technology (WTT) will continue to hold a combined 51 per cent in the tech giant.

“Our partnership with Jago marks the latest milestone in our drive to reduce daily friction for users and improve their lives through technology. It is a key part of our strategy and will underpin the growth and sustainability of our business in the long term. Jago’s tech-based banking solutions will supercharge gojek’s ecosystem offerings and facilitate access to banking services for the mass market, thereby supporting our common vision to accelerate financial inclusion in Indonesia,” said gojek co-CEO Andre Soelistyo.

Also Read: gojek, Warung Pintar investors buy a local bank. This is why we are excited

Founded in 1992, PT Bank Jago Tbk — previously known as PT Bank Artos Indonesia — is an innovative technology-based bank that delivers digital banking services for the SME, consumer and mass-market segments in Indonesia.

In 2019, Bank Jago made headlines when gojek investor Patrick Walujo invested in the bank through WTT. The investment has led to speculation that gojek was going to invest in Bank Jago, which was then denied by the company.

“We believe that this strategic collaboration between a tech-based bank like Bank Jago and a super app like gojek is the first of its kind in Indonesia and Southeast Asia and represents a new way to spur growth in digital economies. As a bank designed with an open API, we will go on to work with multiple digital ecosystems to reach a wider audience and drive our aspiration to enhance the finances of millions of people through digital financial solutions,” said Bank Jago’s President Director, Kharim Siregar.

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Image Credit: gojek

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Philippine Startup Week (PHSW20) has announced the winners of its second edition of the competition, which was held from November 23-27.

One of the country’s largest startup conferences, PHSW20 was jointly organised by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), QBO Innovation Hub, and various private organisations and community partners.

Taking on the theme of “Filipino Startups Powering Up the New Normal”, the event showcased the nation’s thriving startups and focussed on stakeholders contributing to the growth of the local startup ecosystem.

Also Read: Why it is important for tech companies to expand outside metro cities in the Philippines

The five-day virtual conference was held via an online platform that aimed to allow attendees to learn, interact, network, and collaborate remotely.

PHSW20 featured three competitions: ‘ARISE Startup Pitch Competition’, ‘MICROSOFT: Emerge X Regional Pitching Competition’, and ‘Seedstars Manila Competition’.

Below is the list of the winners of each of the competitions:

ARISE Startup Challenge

A national pitching competition organised by StartUp Village, the event aims to fund, nurture, and support innovative and groundbreaking startups that possess promising ideas that are both bankable and sustainable.

ARISE also aims to help level the playing field by giving each startup a chance to be discovered and showcased to a group of potential investors, partners, and clients.

The pitching competition featured a mix of startups coming from all over the Philippines while also being a platform to display the brilliance and capabilities of Filipino startups.

The winners of this completion are:

MedHyve (first place): a startup which aims to provide an interconnected platform for medical communities across ASEAN to acquire their medical needs.

NextPay (second place): an all-digital banking suite for small businesses which allows them to receive payments, manage company money, and pay their employees and suppliers in batches, all in one platform, to any bank or e-wallet.

Zagana (third place): an online platform for fresh vegetables and fruits direct from local farmers.

MICROSOFT: Emerge X Regional Pitching Competition

During PHSW20, Microsoft hosted its Highway to a 100 Unicorns programme, with the aim to discover, nurture and engage with high potential technology startups from 16 countries in APAC, to help them achieve their scaling goals in a bid to enable them to become truly global enterprises in the future.

The programme included a competition called Emerge X, where Microsoft for Startups selected the top 5-10 startups from each of the 16 countries to be onboarded for a deep year long mentorship program.

The top startups from each country also got to pitch their solution at Philippines Startup Week. Their pitches were judged by a panel of prominent VCs and investors who identified the top-3 startups in the whole region.

Four startups from Vietnam, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Singapore won the inaugural Emerge X Regional Pitching Competition in Asia Pacific.

The winners are:

Abivin (Vietnam): an AI-powered platform that optimises supply chains across multiple sectors by solving the vehicle routing problem.

Lifetrack Medical Systems (Philippines and Singapore): a cloud-based platform that provides affordable access to medical imaging in emerging markets.

Agrithmics (Sri Lanka): a cloud-based solution that enriches the agri-industry by digitizing the farm to factory supply chain and connecting farmers and buyers.

Also Read: 3 startups thriving amidst COVID-19 lockdown in the Philippines

Milky Way AI (Singapore): An AI-powered smart retail solution leveraging image recognition technology to help retailers manage shelf inventory and maximise sales.

Seedstars Manila Competition

Seedstars World featured the best startups from the Philippines to pitch online in front of an investment panel and compete to be crowned the most promising seed-stage startup of Seedstars Manila 2020.

The winning startup’ won prizes, including an opportunity to be the part of the global Seedstars Family, access to the Seedstars Regional Competition at the end of the year, and to compete for a US$500,000 in equity investment.

MedHyve was adjudged the winner and is set to represent the Philippines during the regional round, competing against other startups from Asia to get into the finals.

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Image Credit: PHSW20

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We have come to the last (for now) batch of new investors to join e27 Pro Connect, and we’re excited for you to start connecting with them for fundraising opportunities, mentorship, or advice.

There were four more announcements before this (see them here, here, here, and here). Go and check out who these investors are and start connecting!

Access Ventures
Stages: Seed, Series A
Verticals: Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Big Data, Finance, Platform, Virtual Reality
Investment range: Not specified
Straight from Access Ventures: Access Ventures is a venture capital firm focusing on early-stage tech companies in Vietnam, Indonesia, and South Korea. We provide strategic expertise and access to our unique network of executives and technology professionals.
Connect with them

Arthit Capital
Stages: Seed, Pre-Series A/Bridge, Series A, Series B
Verticals: Agritech, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Cleantech, Education, Food & Beverage, Healthtech, Internet of Things, Virtual Reality
Investment range: USD 100K to USD 1M
Straight from Arthit Capital: At Arthit Capital, we understand that private equity is a long-term play. Our values guide our interactions with our stakeholders: investors, portfolio companies, employees, vendors and our local communities. The investment objective is to provide superior, long-term capital growth on its investments by investing globally. We are sector agnostic with a focus to deploy strategies for growth as well as special situation investment.
Connect with them

Investigate VC
Stages: Series A
Verticals: All
Investment range: USD 50K to USD 500K
Straight from Investigate VC: As of July 2020 we have invested in 12 startups which we proudly call our portfolio companies. They all have the Network Orchestrator business model in common. A unique investment theme focusing on a particular business model – Network Orchestrators. Investigate’s investment theme makes us find the companies that are positioned to take the greatest advantage of the possibilities the world of connectivity and big data allows. We also help our investees to develop according to this business model.
Connect with them

Also read: MDEC spearheads alternative funding to help Malaysian startups thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic

Growth & Innovation Lab
Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, and above
Verticals: Enterprise Solution, Biotech, Blockchain, ICT, Education, Energy, Healthtech, Medtech, and various other
Investment range: USD 10K to USD 5M
Straight from Growth & Innovation Lab: G&I LAB is a model of innovative consultancy offering a comprehensive solution to entrepreneurs and companies in the early phase for access to strategic sources of capitalization. The fund provides an exclusive “local area lab” (idea’s fund supplier), looking for distinctive innovative & potentially profitable projects, due to a self-developed methodology that identifies & quantifies potential areas of growth & innovation.
Connect with them

PICUS Capital
Stages: Seed, Series A
Verticals: Architecture & Constructions, Cleantech, Energy, Healthtech, Human Resources, Real Estate, and various other
Investment range: Not specified
Straight from PICUS Capital: Enabling entrepreneurs to reimagine the way we live and work. Picus works together with promising technology companies challenging the status quo and shaping tomorrow. We follow a very long-term investment approach investing significant amounts throughout the lifecycle of the companies.
Connect with them

Ripples Asia Venture
Stages: Seed
Verticals: E-Commerce
Investment range: USD 50K to USD 200K
Straight from Ripples Asia Venture: Ripples is an independent B2B online marketplace focusing on home entertainment software, peripherals, gadgets, and toys.
Ripples’ web-based information system empowers buyers and sellers to communicate and transact efficiently in the gaming industry.
Connect with them

Also read: Ecosystem Roundup: Peter Thiel-backed SPAC weighs up to US$10B Tokopedia deal; Ant’s chairman breaks silence after halt in largest IPO

Tin Men Capital
Stages: Seed, Series A
Verticals: Enterprise Solution
Investment range: Not specified
Straight from Tin Men Capital: We are a family & friends office based in Bangkok, looking at early stage investments. We will invest, advise and connect promising startups, particularly those involved in Thailand & South East Asia.
Connect with them

WeHealth Digital Medicine
Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, and above
Verticals: Healthtech, Medtech
Investment range: Not specified
Straight from WeHealth Digital Medicine: WeHealth Digital Medicine is the eHealth department of the Servier Group. In an open innovative approach, we identify the most promising start-ups in e-health to co-develop solutions. In this way, WeHealth Digital Medicine contributes to the creation of an ecosystem of partners to facilitate and accelerate the development, industrialization and distribution of innovations and to render them accessible to the greatest number.
Connect with them

XCEL NEXT VC
Stages: Angel/Pre-Seed, Seed, Pre-Series A/Bridge, Series A
Verticals: All
Investment range: Not specified
Straight from XCEL NEXT VC: XCEL NEXT is an accelerator venture fund based in Taiwan, focusing on pan-Asia digitalisation and digital transformation technologies and services in the New Normal. The X-Tech Fund will identify and invest in these technology-driven opportunities that have the “X-Factor” to tackle the challenges in the New Normal, and to make meaningful social impacts for the public good.
Connect with them

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Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

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Singapore’s Decacorn Capital announced today it has joined the US$1.9 million seed round of Estonian Artificial Intelligence startup Fyma.

This marks the cross-border VC firm’s second investment in Europe this year.

Other investors who participated in the round include Estonia’s Change Ventures, Lemonade Stand, Superangel and UK based 7 Percent.

Fyma will use the fresh money for hiring as well as to fund its latest pilot programme that it says will help the company evaluate where it can make the biggest impact.

Also Read:  Singapore’s cross-border VC firm Decacorn Capital enters Europe with an investment in Estonian startup GridIO

Started in 2019, Fyma aims to enable businesses and institutions to make better strategic planning decisions by turning conventional cameras into smart sensors. The company extracts and analyses valuable data from thousands of hours of footage, enabling businesses to understand and contextualise the patterns in which individuals (like shoppers) shop and objects (like vehicles and machinery) move.

Use cases include finding and correcting floor plan flaws in retail shops, reducing traffic in congested areas and optimising the work of private parking lots

Fyma’s solution is asset light. It does not require clients to install any proprietary hardware in the exisiting CCTV network. Its computer vision algorithms can make sense of footage recorded by both new and legacy outdoor and CCTV cameras.

What distinguishes Fyma from many other computer vision startups is its privacy-by-design approach, which anonymises facial recognition.

Some of its successful pilot projects include helping the Dubai Road and Transport Authority gather insights on the movement of pedestrians and other traffic participants and assisting the shopping centre in the Baltics understand how COVID-19 related restrictions impact footfall.

Debneel Mukherjee, Founder and Managing Partner at Decacorn Capital, said: “We liked Fyma’s founding team and their idea of democratising CCTV footage for commercial and business analytics by mining big data using AI and Computer Vision.”

Also Read: (Exclusive) Decacorn Capital invests in Qupital to fuel expansion of B2B fintech e-commerce platform in China

Prior to this, Decacorn has joined Chinese fintech startup Qupital’s Series A+ round, which demonstrated its robust cross-border curation capabilities and ambitions of growing its global footprint.

Decacorn Capital’s other recent investments include Estonian energy tech startup GridIO, Israeli cybersecurity startup BioCatch, Perception Point and Sixgill.

The VC firm has also invested across geographies such as Israel, India, the US, China and Estonia, and is known as an investor in Snap that had exited through IPO.

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Image Credit:  Nathy dog

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In 2018, Piotr Jakubowski noticed that the air quality in his birth city Jakarta had deteriorated over years. This prompted him to conduct a research to understand the gravity of the problem, and the findings were just astonishing.

“Air pollution causes about 8.8 million deaths a year, US$2.9 trillion in economic loss and 1.8 billion days of sick leave,” said Jakubowski, who previously held the role of CMO gojek. “This is a staggering loss of health and productivity.”

So, in 2019, Jakubowski reconnected with his school friend and founder of wearables startup Zulu, Nathan Roestandy, who also shared the same concern about impact of the deteriorating air quality in the archipelago and beyond.

“Together we decided to create an ecosystem and raise awareness, and nafas was born,” he said.

Also Read: uHoo raises fresh funding led by Wavemaker to ‘meet the increased demand’ for its indoor air quality sensors

nafas — which means “breath” in Bahasa — was launched in September 2020 with the vision of bringing air quality data and knowledge to the people of Jabodetabek (the Jakarta metropolitan area).

The key component of the nafas ecosystem is a network of about 65 on-ground air quality sensors, which have been deployed in areas such as Jakarta, Tangerang, South Tangerang, Bekasi, Bogor and Depok.

The sensors were developed by Airly, an EU startup whose outdoor sensors were listed as one of the best by Airparif, a French organisation focused on air quality topics, in 2019.

The sensors — which have collected over 10 million data points over the last six months — send the data to the nafas mobile app which displays and updates air quality data every 20 minutes.

The app also allows users to save their most important locations in one place, so they can take a quick glance at the current status of air quality in their location before conducting any outdoor activity. 

Users can also set alerts to receive air quality notifications.

It also has ‘Air Quality 101’, a learning material which is available in both English and Bahasa Indonesia.

Busting the myths around air pollution

According to Jakubowski, there are many popular myths around air pollution and air quality. These include misconceptions such as ‘I live in an area with a lot of trees, so I’m safe’, ‘the worst pollution is during peak traffic on the roads’, and ‘there are no cars where I live, so it can’t be polluted!’

“Air pollution is a problem you generally can’t see; it is an ‘invisible killer‘,” he warned. “By bringing outdoor air quality data to your neighbourhood, we ensure that you are aware that living in a green, residential part of the city doesn’t mean you are not affected.”

Starting with Greater Jakarta

Of the top 10 capital cities in the world with the worst air pollution, eight are in Asia which have a combined population of over 100 million. This population breathes air that is 3-5x above the limits set by the World Health Organisation.

Jakarta is on this list, where lifetime exposure to the 2019 air quality levels corresponded to a predicted 4.8 years reduction in life expectancy, according to the Air Quality Life Index published by the University of Chicago.

(In 2010 alone, there was over US$4 billion in economic loss in the city due to the over 5.5 million cases of air pollution-related illnesses.)

Recently, Berkley Earth developed a scale comparing air pollution levels to the number of cigarettes smoked. According to this scale, just breathing outdoor air in Jakarta in August 2020 was the equivalent of smoking 84 cigarettes.

“Contrary to popular belief, our data show that the worst time for air quality in Greater Jakarta is between 4 am to 9 am,” he shared. “This is when many of the residents do their morning exercise.

“Since heavy exercise increases breathing volume, many people who thought they were getting healthy when exercising in the morning were actually putting themselves at risk by conducting outdoor activities when air pollution was high,” he warned.

nafas has also created a report, called ‘Does exercising in Jakarta’s air pollution impact our health?’. Based on the findings of the report, the startup has added a special feature on the app for athletes, which alerts them to reduce exercise when air quality levels increase risks of health issues.

“In highly polluted cities like Jakarta, prolonged exposure to bad outdoor air quality increases health risk. This is why we have added the ‘Trainer’ feature to the app,” he said.

“In Greater Jakarta, we are focusing on building communities of people who, by learning about the air quality problem, become advocates of our brand,” he remarked.

Also Read: This IoT device monitors air quality using laser tech that counts each individual air particle

The app (available on iOS and Android) is and will always be free for consumers, so more people understand the gravity of the problem.

On being asked about monetisation, Jakubowski revealed: “The possibilities for monetisation are rooted in data — there is simply no other source of on-ground air quality data at the density and size of nafas. Our mission is to grow nafas into the most robust and most respected air quality data source.”

Leveraging the gojek experience

Jakubowski, who headed the marketing department at gojek from January 2016 to August 2018, said that his more-than-two-years of experience at the tech giant has ingrained two things in his mind: the importance of prioritisation and the power of communities.

“For any business”, he opined, “it is incredibly important at the beginning to narrow down and really understand your core users; those who gain the highest value from your product/service and who have the highest potential of becoming evangelists. By focusing and prioritising on this beachhead, you have the opportunity to build an incredibly strong community that will be key to driving future growth.”

Bootstrapped until recently, nafas now has several angels backing it.

“Air pollution is not just a climate problem, it is an enormous health problem. We are glad to have conversations with VC firms that are looking to contribute in this global battle,” Jakubowski signed off.

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Image Credit: nafas

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