Consumers in Southeast Asia are now increasingly comfortable with online shopping, with consumption habits reportedly being more digital and home-centric, as they adjust to the impact of lockdowns and social distancing measures.

While consumers are still seen to be shopping, experts however have observed that they are now more cautious with their spending.

A recent report by Facebook and Bain & Company said there has been a shift to value-for-money purchasing across Southeast Asian markets amidst the current climate.

In the region, 57 per cent have cited “value” as one of their top three purchasing considerations, while approximately 70 per cent of consumers in Singapore and Thailand have placed it at the top of their list.

With a good enough 11.11 and 12.12 coming up, how can e-commerce players continue to win over the region’s cautious online shoppers?

Experts are now positing that e-commerce firms can generate a much bigger impact if more time was set aside to promote shopping campaigns. According to a Facebook meta-analysis of 2019 mega-sale days in Asia Pacific, brands get clear advantages by extending their marketing campaigns by another three to four weeks.

Zalora is one company which has been actively carrying out marketing campaigns to gain an edge over others, and it was recently shortlisted as one of the finalists in Marketing’s Mob-Ex Awards 2020.

e27 recently had a chat with Zalora’s CMO Jo Bjordal to learn more on how e-commerce players are making the most out of major shopping events by leveraging campaigns and marketing strategies.

He has been with Zalora since 2015, leading a team of over 100 people and used his steadfastness to navigate changing consumer habits in the new normal.

How did ZALORA fare on 11.11? How does it compare to pre-COVID-19 years?

Year on year, Singles’ Day keeps growing for most shopping websites, and we too had a strong performance this year.

In fact, to date, it has been our biggest sales day in Zalora history — with significant improvements in profitability, marketing efficiency and growth in our customer base.

We have also observed interesting shifts and trends in this year’s 11.11 across categories, with standout growth in beauty and luxury, which constituted almost one-third of our sales, taking a bite from the traditionally strong apparel category.

We also saw changes in shopping behaviour, where we observed more scattered peaks within the day compared to well-established peaks during pre-COVID-19 days. This included spikes during the first and last hour of the sales and during lunch time.

As more people are working from home, the lunch spike has flattened, and it contributed to a more distributed sales during the daytime.

What did you do differently this year?

This year, we looked at the data and took note of the growing interest in our new categories — beauty, lifestyle (including home and living), luxury, and kids, and focused on growing these categories during the major sales season including 11.11.

We have rolled out a few consumer-friendly initiatives that continue to make us a platform of choice for online shoppers. One of these initiatives is our cashback programme, which was introduced in July this year and has helped us improve on shopping frequency and customer reactivation.

With a hyper focus on value, most consumers find this new feature exciting. We have also launched new payment methods in the region, such as OVO in Indonesia, a few days before 11.11, making it easier for shoppers to purchase their favourite items and brands on our app/website.

We have also relooked at how we traditionally roll out marketing initiatives across our markets and significantly expanded both our digital and offline reach by diversifying our marketing media mix with new channels, embracing a more holistic 360-degree approach.

Finally, we invested in implementing and applying a new best-in-class marketing technology stack which not only improves the deliverability, cross-channel orchestration and timeliness of customer communication, but it has also enabled new personalisation capabilities that allows us to better segment and relate to our users.

As e-commerce grows in a COVID-19-struck world, how is Zalora fighting competition to stay on top of consumers’ mind?

We are committed to continuously improving our customer experience and our offerings to maintain our strong position as the top-of-mind fashion and lifestyle destination in Southeast Asia.

As an e-commerce player with a strong regional presence, it is important for us to be agile and to respond to changes in customer trends and preferences swiftly.

To date, we have done this by using data to track where these movements are, then tweaking our strategies and strengthening categories that were anticipated to grow in demand because of the pandemic.

Also read: Infographic: 21 e-commerce marketing tips to consider before starting

For example, we noticed that consumers were purchasing more leisurewear and sportswear, as they were spending more time at home.

We also saw an increase in consumer searches for daily essentials and personal hygiene products, such as food, hand wash and masks, which also led us to introduce an ‘essentials’ category on our platform.

We have made significant progress this year in introducing new categories, including ‘home and living’ and our ‘Earth Edit’ for sustainable shopping — a first of its kind for a major Southeast Asian online retailer.

We are also constantly rolling out exciting new features and experiences to ensure we offer fans and customers a more seamless shopping experience.

One of our recent launches is the ‘Get The Look’ feature, which in brief connects the Zalora app with fresh looks from local influencers and celebrities from Instagram so our customers can shop the look of their favourite influencers straight from the app.

This complements our earlier visual-based features, such as ‘Complete the Look’ shopping and our visual search on the app, making it easier for fashion shoppers to achieve their gram-friendly outfits and looks.

We are also now rolling out a community influencer programme, which allows literally everyone to become a Zalora influencer and earn a commission for every successful sale they refer through their social media accounts.

Is there a shift in your marketing strategies in the new normal? What are the major changes?

COVID-19 has pushed a lot of people — and more importantly, communications — online. Being connected to the internet has, as a result, become quite noisy, and breaking through that noise as a brand has become much harder.

Customers are not triggered as easily by each individual customer relationship management (CRM) communication, so we as marketers are required to think more creatively and be more clever and interesting in our messaging to attract the users’ attention to avoid spamming customers with too many interactions. We focus on the quality of interactions.

Media asset prices have also fluctuated a lot because of advertisers reducing spend primarily offline and moving more digital. We are constantly optimising our media investments by efficient KPIs and as a result, we have been very active in reallocating spend to the most lucrative channels.

COVID-19 has also contributed to the surge of new online users and new e-commerce customers, which required us to explore new channels to ensure we can reach these users.

In summary, the need to be more creative and dynamic in our approach remains to be our main strategy.

Is it any different for the marketing for new users?

Yes, we engage them differently. Thanks to the time and budget invested in rebuilding our marketing technology stack, we have unlocked far better capabilities in identifying new users and tailoring their on boarding journey with more relevant communication and offers.

Our performance marketing campaigns are intuitively also segmented by customer activity levels, ensuring optimised engagement with our users.

What are the various online channels used and which ones worked well for you in Southeast Asia?

We continue to diversify our media mix to avoid high dependency on any specific platform. This allows us to be early adopters of new channels and we set aside a budget for experimentation every month for us to test the efficacy of these new channels.

It is difficult to say which ones work best since each channel usually has very specific characteristics which make them strong in either customer acquisition, such as Facebook and app installs like Google Universal App Campaigns (UAC), or Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) such as Google Shopping.

How has social media marketing changed in the light of the pandemic?

Social media has certainly become more important during the pandemic as users have used the platform to stay connected, express themselves and be entertained.

The emergence of new social media phenomena has unlikely ever been faster than during the last eight months, with adoption rates soaring and content from across age groups increasing significantly.

Social media has given normal people an opportunity to build their own brand through stimulating content and engagement. These new influencers are more relatable than traditional celebrities. About 71 per cent of consumers are more likely to make a product or service purchase online based on social media referrals.

Understanding the role of social media in capturing attention and engaging with our audience, we rolled out our Get the Look feature together with our partner influencers. We are also introducing our Community Influencers initiative soon to create communities of social media ambassadors for the brand.

Staying ahead of the curve on these trends are important to remain relevant to our audience. Online users also expect brands to communicate more emphatically and be sensitive to what is happening around us.

And what about livestream e-commerce? Is it here to stay?

Yes, I believe social commerce, including livestream e-commerce, will continue to become a more important sales channel in Southeast Asia as the markets mature. SEA is a mobile-first region, with most countries ranking high in mobile phone ownership ratio and use of mobile in their communications.

Also read: The 6 Cs of e-commerce marketing

As much as 63 per cent of the region’s population are invested in social media; it is no wonder why Southeast Asians are considered “the most engaged mobile internet users in the world”.

This thriving melting pot of digital activity also creates myriad opportunities for retailers to not only reach online shoppers but also entice offline shoppers at the same time.

China is a prime example of where the phenomenon has been around for a while already and it continues to grow in adoption.

So is there any value in outdoor advertising and others now that we are all socially distancing?

Currently, with the multiple movement restrictions in place, there are less people outdoors in most countries, so the number of impressions captured by the same placement has decreased for most assets.

However, the asset prices offline seem to have decreased at a higher rate as more traditional offline retailers and businesses who were historically heavy on offline marketing have reduced spending.

This created opportunities for some players to invest more in offline or outdoor advertising, and diversify their advertising mix. I do think there is still merit in doing so, but the challenge for brand marketers is to create impactful offline ads that captures attention and encourages interaction with the brand.

What are the other shopping events you are working on this year?

For all our six markets, the remaining key shopping events are Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and 12.12, which is still the biggest sales event of the year in markets like Indonesia.

We would then have the festive season of Christmas, which is largely celebrated in the Philippines, before we enter the Chinese New Year sales season – an event that is traditionally strong for markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

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Image credit: Karolina Grabowska from Pexels and Zalora

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JM Newton Energy, a Malaysian green-tech services provider specialising in energy management, announced today it has raised MYR2.9 million (US$711,000) through equity crowdfunding (ECF) platform Ata Plus.

As many as 11 investors (of which three are female) participated in the campaign, which, as per a press statement, was oversubscribed by 954 per cent.

Approximately 60 per cent of the funds raised will be invested in JM Newton’s working capital to accommodate the increasing demand for its products and services. The remainder will be channelled towards furthering R&D to strengthen product efficiency and expand the team. 

Also Read: Digital green economy: How technology can help save the planet

JM Newton started its operations in 2019 as a one-stop integrated total energy management solutions provider, focused on the development of energy efficiency enhancement technology using green technology applications.

JM Newton provides turn-key technological solutions for shopping malls and hypermarkets, aimed at promoting energy savings without additional cost or risks.

It claims its eco-friendly and green-qualified patented systems and solutions have been applied to a range of shopping centres and hypermarket chains in the country. It will continue to apply the solutions through the energy management contracts which it has secured over the next five to 10 years. 

“We took special care in designing the investment offering to ensure that the terms are fair and favourable to the investors. The high oversubscription shows the level of confidence the investors have in our business,” said Nicole J Szeto, Executive Director of JM Newton.

“Our unique solutions and our zero CAPEX business model should reach out to most business owners during these times. Moving ahead, we look forward to taking the step in realising our company’s growth potential,” she added. 

Also Read: How the tech industry can become friendlier for women

“It is heartening to see more women coming together to support women-led businesses. Moving forward, Ata Plus would like to encourage more female investors to participate in our campaigns. Currently, only 26 per cent of the investors who have participated in the ECF campaigns on our platform have been women,” said Kyri Andreou, Co-founder and Director of Ata Plus.

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Image Credit: Photo by RawFilm on Unsplash

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Environmental and social sustainability are coming of age in the APAC region and around the globe and are quickly becoming integral aspects of successful businesses. According to a global survey conducted by GlobalScan earlier this year, around half of the world’s consumers prefer products and services that are better for both people and the environment. A 2020 research report by Kantar suggests that over 90% of consumers in the APAC region want brands to stand for something. In Singapore alone, six in ten consumers prefer eco-friendly brands.

Worsening typhoons and tsunamis, as well as increasing air and water pollution, are more pronounced in the APAC, and the impact of failing to take sustainability into account is evident. Because businesses are traditionally driven by their bottom line — the consumers — there is an increasing need to support businesses that are not just commercially viable and profitable, but also have real and meaningful social impact. A 2019 study suggests that more than 50% of private equity deals back business models that contribute to environmental and social progress in Southeast Asia.

Also read:

With VCs and consumers backing sustainable businesses, startups are realising why it is important to build a socially responsible business. However, to be able to do so, they need a collaborative environment where they are encouraged and nurtured from the idea stage.

This is where spaces like The Greenhouse at SMU Connexion — an innovation facility that supports the SMU Business Innovations Generator (BIG) incubation programme, can step in to provide founders with the right kind of collaborative environment they need, coupled with that mentorship and training that the programme provides.

Started in 2009, BIG is a world-class university incubation programme managed by the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) at the Singapore Management University (SMU). It is designed to help early-stage founders validate their product and get ready for seed investment.

Putting sustainability at the heart of businesses

Having accepted over 263 SMU-affiliated and non-SMU affiliated startups as of November 2020, BIG is an industry-agnostic incubator, and therefore is open to applications for startups from diverse spheres.

Sustainability, therefore, takes on two fundamental roles: as a core value that promotes ethical ventures, and as a key mentorship focus geared towards nurturing sustainable, successful business models.

The SMU Connexion is the newly built addition to the SMU campus, a five-storey zero-energy building in the heart of the city, designed to support the University’s innovative pedagogy, as well as cultivate innovation and entrepreneurship. In February 2020, they launched The Greenhouse, a 700sqm downtown innovation facility, that has quickly become a seeding ground for innovative ideas and entrepreneurial leadership. Housed over two floors in an iconic sky bridge connecting SMU School of Law and SMU Connexion, The Greenhouse offers a conducive space to learn, network, and grow for BIG’s startups, faculty and student entrepreneurs.

Also read: 500 Startups, Monk’s Hill, others join forces to form Vietnam Venture Capital Alliance

A true marker of this endeavour is how many social impact startups have been a part of the BIG incubation Programme. One such startup is TurtleTree Labs. Dedicated to bringing clean milk with their proprietary cell-based processes that completely bypass environmental degradation and animal welfare issues of industrial dairy, TurtleTree Labs is focused on building the circular economy while reducing environmental, social, and economic stressors.

Launched in 2017, TreeDots is yet another such startup funded by the BIG incubator. TreeDots is a food supplies redistributor with a core goal of reducing food wastage. Other sustainable businesses that have been a part of the BIG cohort include UglyGood, a startup that harvests fruit waste and transforms it into valuable resources through waste valorisation; Alterpacks, a company that upcycles food waste to create products of value with zero waste solutions; and Anzene — a company that works towards standardising smart IOT & recyclable battery packs to power e-mobility & electronics on/off-grid sustainably with renewable energy.

Recently, TurtleTree Labs and Alterpacks were awarded at the Liveability Challenge — a global platform, which calls for companies to create innovative ideas for sustainability in South East Asian cities. TurtleTree Labs brought home the top prize and Alterpacks bagged a spot in the TXG Sustainability Business Accelerator Programme and a mentorship with Closed Loop Partners through a collaboration with Nanyang Technological University.

As part of SMU’s efforts to reinforce the importance of sustainability, the Lee Kuan Yew Business Plan Competition (LKYGBPC) Changemakers Conversation: Urban Sustainability will be held on 9 Dec 2020. Panellists include start-up founders who are developing innovative sustainable solutions: our very own Lin Fengru, CEO of TurtleTree Labs; Nick Halla, SVP International of Impossible Foods; and Paul Gabie, CEO of ecoSPIRITS.

Together with two extremely dynamic moderators, Prof Winston Chow (Associate Professor, SMU School of Social Sciences) and Paul Santos (Managing Partner, Wavemaker Partners), participants can expect a down-to-earth discussion about sustainable food innovations, the green revolution and the circular economy. It will be an invaluable session for the entrepreneurship community to learn from the panellists experiences and pull back the curtain on the realities of building a sustainable future.

Nurturing leaders of tomorrow

SMU has partnered with corporates that are aligned on the vision of sustainability.  For example, in 2019 and 2020, HSBC offered the HSBC-SMU Sustainability & Innovation Grant to support sustainability-related startups from SMU with seed funding and masterclasses that will empower these founders to create an impact in the sustainability space.

“The HSBC grant has helped us to continue to develop our products further for market validation. Running a sustainability-based startup focused on building products for a circular economy can be challenging and requires a level of research and development. The HSBC grant has been hugely beneficial in this area as it allowed us to successfully bring our products to market,” shared Jeremy Lee from UglyGood who was a recipient.

Also read: Where is the investment scene in Hong Kong and the APAC headed?

Apart from supporting startups financially to build their sustainable business, IIE also spearheads educational initiatives in sustainability. The Institute’s flagship programme, Protege Ventures, will be incorporating impact investing as a component in its curriculum. Case studies on related startups are currently being developed for this purpose. The Institute also organizes several masterclasses with sustainability focus throughout the year and targets entrepreneurial-minded students as well as startups founders.  Between the years 2016 and 2019, BIG startups have collectively raised more than S$129.4 million (excluding grants), with 2019 alone accounting for more than S$54 million. BIG startups like Tech In Asia, Homage and Moovaz have garnered massive commercial success.

This intensive, four-month equity-free programme offers early-stage startups and student founders the opportunity to validate their business plans and refine their product. The programme offers a comprehensive support system so that founders can focus on what matters: building and scaling a great product.

How to apply

BIG is open to ALL, startups can be SMU affiliated or non-SMU affiliated. Growth-oriented founders with a validated idea/MVP are given preference. This is a highly selective programme with an acceptance rate of around 15%.

With the current economic climate and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the BIG incubation programme application comes at the right time bringing an opportunity for early-stage startup founders to get access to mentorship and training from industry leaders as well as funding for the growth of their businesses.

Startups in the early stage that are interested in the programme can apply now to join the Jan ’21 cohort before 13 December 2020 or reach out to the team at BIG at incubation@smu.edu.sg for queries.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
the SMU Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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

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Desty, an Indonesia-based company that provides a single platform for individuals to sell their products in,  announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from East Ventures.

The company said that it will use the fresh capital to accelerate its product development and user acquisition, targeting 100,000 users in the first half of 2021.

Founded by ex-Alibaba executive Bill Wang and Eric Nataneal, Desty helps creators, influencers, and merchants sell their products easily through the online platform.

The company currently offers two products, Desty Page and Desty Store. Desty Page is a service that creates landing pages optimized for link in bio at social media accounts, while Desty Store allows users to easily create an e-commerce store complimentary to marketplaces.

Also Read: Social commerce startup Evermos brings Halal products into Indonesia, grabs US$8.25M Series A

“Not only sellers, there are many other types of users actively engaging their followers through Desty. We also provide our users the best tools from customisable templates to comprehensive analytics,” Wang said.

“Having an online presence is not an option anymore, now it is the only way. Desty comes as the local, simple, and free solution for independent online businesses to create landing pages and build their own branded online store in just minutes,”  he added.

Some of Desty’s clients include online brands such as Alowalo, Babycare, Notbad, content creators such as Mindblowon Studio or Tahilalat, as well as influencers from food, travel, lifestyle, and fashion industries.

With the growing popularity of social apps such as Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest more and more people are hopping on board on the social commerce trend.

This model has been widely popular in countries like China where live streaming models have been applied to e-commerce.

In a recent interview with e27, Frank Di, Director of International Corporate Affairs for Pinduoduo, stressed on the importance of creating an interactive experience in reaching out to the audience.

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Image Credit: Desty

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An entrepreneur has the same 24-hour day as anyone else. But, within those few hours, there are millions of decisions to be made, questions to be answered and mind-boggling calculations to be made. When there is so much going on around you, staying focused can prove to be difficult. As a result, productivity will go for a toss. 

Is it possible to stay productive as an entrepreneur even if one’s plate is filled to the brim?

There are three questions that can help with that. These are three questions that every entrepreneur must ask themselves every day to maximise their productivity.

Will this bring growth to my business?

For any entrepreneur, growth should be the primary focus and purpose. As an entrepreneur, you are solely responsible for charting the future growth story of the business. There are vital decisions to be taken as to how the business can enter and establish a presence in new markets, how the existing product line can be expanded to serve customers better, and also to bring in more revenue. 

In other words, every single action of the entrepreneur should be geared towards bringing growth to the business. That calls for great decision-making skills. Taking a tough business decision is no mean task. You need a process, a framework, a structure to create great decisions. 

Also Read: How to use ergonomics to enhance your productivity while working from home

To give you an idea, here is the six-step process that Elon Musk uses to make business decisions. 

• Begin with the question
• Gather as much evidence as possible about it
• Develop axioms and assign a probability to each of them
• Draw a conclusion based on: Are these axioms correct, are they relevant, do they necessarily lead to this conclusion, and with what probability?
• Argue for and against the conclusion. Seek refutation from others to get counter arguments
• If nobody can invalidate your conclusion, then you’re probably right, but you’re not certainly right.

Although this might seem overly complicated, the basic idea is to run your thought through multiple perspectives to arrive at the right decision.

Can I delegate this to someone?

Jack Welch, America’s best-known CEO, who took the company General Electric to its zenith of success writes about delegation in his biography. According to Jack’s biography, he always started with the question, “What needs to be done now?” 

He will make a list of five top priorities. Out of the five, he will pick two to three tasks that he was best suited to handle. He will delegate the rest to his subordinates or other leaders who are best suited to do it. 

To run a business successfully, you must know not only about the insides of the business but also about managing your time well. As an entrepreneur, your time cannot be dedicated to every single activity. You must find specialists who have dedicated expertise in it. They will bring about efficiency and save time in the process. 

It’s not the only specialist, but you should delegate grunt work too. I spoke with Neal Taparia, who runs word finding site Unscrambled Words, allows his team to delegate any data gathering work to outsourcing platforms like Upwork so they can focus on more important tasks.

Lastly, delegating tasks saves your time and energy for other priorities, mainly strategising the future of the business, growing the revenues, strengthening leadership, and so on.

If I don’t do this what will I lose?

Like mentioned earlier, you cannot be doing every single activity on your plate. You will have to delegate some part of your work to others, or even delete some parts of the task. Now deleting tasks comes with a cost. Probably, these are tasks that could not be delegated, either because you have no one to do it or simply it is not the time to do it. 

You have to ask yourself, what is the opportunity cost of not doing something?

Also Read: Founders of Fabelio, Gadjian, and eFishery reveal their top productivity hacks to start the day

In other words, you have to do a mental cost-benefit analysis of all the pros and cons to find the best path forward. If the gains outweigh, or if there are more pros than cons, then you know what to prioritise.

Serial entrepreneur Darshan Somashekar, who has sold two businesses to public companies and recently founded brain training company Solitaired, talks about the importance of saying no: “As an entrepreneur, there are hundreds of things you can do in your business that you’re excited about. You have to say no, even to promising opportunities, so you can focus and execute on the right ones. I could have built dozens of brain training games, but I said no to building them to focus on a few and get them right.”

Similarly, you must have come across the concept of the time value of money (TVM) in finance. It can be applied to time as well. You can assign a monetary value to the time you have. 

Peter Drucker writes in his book The Effective Executive, “The supply of time is totally inelastic.  No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up.  There is no price for it and no marginal utility curve for it.  Moreover, time is totally perishable and cannot be stored.”

So, while deciding to do or not do a task, you can try to determine what you will possibly lose by not doing it. If you have everything to gain and nothing to lose, you should be doing it. 

The productivity of makers and doers can be measured with the number of tasks they tick off on a given day. But, for an entrepreneur, it is largely dependent on the priorities that decide upon and the tasks that they decide to do in a day. 

Needless to say, every entrepreneur will be swarmed with a long list of priorities. It is difficult to drill down and fix a few ones that really deserve their time and attention. The three questions discussed above can help get a handle on that. 

Also Read: Top contributions this week: Views from Foodpanda APAC CEO, productivity tips and more

It can help an entrepreneur to decide what tasks they must be working on, how they should go about doing it, and also decide how it will affect them if they choose not to do it.

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Pintek, a fintech platform providing credit to students, their families and education institutions in Indonesia, has secured an undisclosed amount in a fresh financing round led by Finch Capital.

Accion Venture Lab and several unnamed angel investors also joined the round.

As per a press note, the proceeds will be used for the expansion of Pintek’s product and tech team, as well as to educate the domestic market on education loans.

Also Read: Education-targeted fintech platform Pintek secures pre-Series A funding led by GFC, diving further to education-based finance sector

The latest deal brings the total money raised by Pintek to nearly US$5 million.

Started in 2018, Pintek aims to improve the access to investments in education in the archipelago by providing financial access to all communities and educational institutions and their suppliers.

To date, it claims to have partnered with more than 190 institutions in the K-12, vocational, higher education and non-formal segments, and has distributed credit to customers across more than 26 provinces in the country.

Pintek, owned and operated by SoCap, looks to grow ventures that facilitate cooperation, exchange and innovation for social impact in the region.

“During the pandemic, Pintek has seen strong growth, with revenues increasing 12x from January through September 2020 v/s the same period last year. Our significant growth validates our value proposition to be an enabler of the entire education ecosystem, financing students, education institutions and their suppliers,” said Ioann Fainsilber, CEO of SoCap.

“We have adapted our product portfolio to the needs of the sector during the pandemic by for example helping schools to finance investments needed to digitise and run effective online learning environments. We want to be one of the key enablers for the education sector in Indonesia and support the Indonesian government mission towards education 4.0,” he shared.

Also Read: How fintech is making credit more accessible for Southeast Asian SMEs

Hans De Back, Managing Partner of Finch Capital, said: “We expect Pintek to be the end-to-end solution for educational needs due to its business model for students, education institutions and their suppliers.”

Paolo Limcaoco, Southeast Asia Investment Officer at Accion Venture Lab, said, “Inclusive financial services are critical to ensuring that schools can provide high-quality education and students can access the education they need.”

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Image Credit: Pintek

 

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iMedia, a Malaysia-based integrated digital media group, announced today it has acquired a controlling stake in Moretify, a Chinese language portal in the country.

The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

As per a press release, iMedia would be a major shareholder of Moretify, and its social media assets will be fully integrated into iMedia’s ecosystem.

This acquisition also positions the iMedia Chinese network as one of the largest in the country for Chinese speaking millennials.

This marks the company’s fifth acquisition within 100 days as it seeks to position itself as the leading integrated digital media group in Malaysia.

iMedia has previously acquired OhMedia, Ittify, Goody25 and BeautifulNara in the recent past.

Also Read: iMedia acquires BeautifulNara to expand its digital media footprint within Malaysia

Launched in 2017, Moretify is a Chinese language social media and content website that primarily focuses on the latest news within the local entertainment and lifestyle scene. The site claims to have grown into a prominent brand and source for many visitors from Malaysia and across the region.

Also Read: Are you leveraging social media platforms to increase your sales?

Based on Google Analytics’s data from January to October, the platform recorded an average of 3.1 million page views and over 800,000 monthly users in that period.

Voon Tze Khay, CEO and Co-founder of iMedia, said: “This acquisition will further strengthen the company’s dominant position in the Chinese language content network in Malaysia and our reach to the overall Chinese urban youth speaking online community.”

“The newly combined Chinese network (with Goody25) reaches out to approximately 3.5 million monthly users with close to 14 million pageviews each month,” he added.

iMedia is a Malaysian digital media company focussing on content, technology, and social influencer marketing. It claims its network of managed websites now reaches over 15 million Malaysians monthly.

The firm claims it is looking to complete its IPO on Bursa Malaysia via its own acquisition by Rev Asia, currently listed on Bursa Malaysia for approximately MYR40 million (US$9.81 million).

Upon approval by regulators and shareholders, the Moretify acquisition will be part of iMedia’s move to Bursa Malaysia.

Recently, iMedia announced it has signed an exclusive representation agreement to take over Iluminasi’s advertising sales, with a primary focus on accelerating revenue across branded content, video and display advertising.

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Image Credit: iMedia

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N-Squared Ecommerce Group, an e-commerce distributor and solutions provider in Thailand, has received an undisclosed amount in Series A funding from a clutch of investors, including KKP Capital, Siam Alpha Equity (SAE), Chanwanich Group, AHMP and ECG-Research.

The funds will be used to strengthen its core technology and services and expand its footprint across Southeast Asia.

“According to Statista, the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia is expected to grow by more than 402 per cent from 2019 to 2025. Following this growth opportunity, we are scaling our international businesses across Southeast Asia to countries including Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam,” said Nuttapon Boonpinon, Managing Partner at N-Squared Ecommerce.

Started in 2016, N-Squared provides e-commerce services including logistics and operation management, omnichannel management, customer service, web and tech, online marketing, data analytics, and consulting.

It owns several online direct-to-consumer brands and an e-commerce distributor for over 130 brands in six countries across Southeast Asia.

The startup’s clients include Tefal, L’Oreal, Huawei, and Hewlett-Packard.

Also Read: Desty raises seed funding to help individuals build an online presence easily

In 2019, the group generated a total of 1,192 million baht (US$39 million) in revenues, with a compounded annual growth rate of 125 per cent since inception, it said in the statement.

The startup expects to more than double its revenue for 2020.

According to data acquired by N-Squared, the average spending in Thailand has increased by 23 per cent after the onset of COVID-19. The data also showed that FMCG products, which consumers had tended to purchase offline, also gained online traction and strong growth, compared to other product categories.

“2020 has been another challenging year, but also full of opportunities for online businesses. We have seen a rapid change in consumers’ online shopping behaviours. This year, our house brands, HomeHuk and XtivePro, have been sold to over one million customers via online channels only,” Boonpinon added.

“The growth of the opportunity of direct-to-customer brands is huge in this region. Therefore, we plan to continuously invest in these brands and build them into the No.1 brand in the home & living category and sports goods in Southeast Asia. Also, we look forward to building more direct-to-consumer brands across more categories and markets, while we will expand our operation across Southeast Asia,” he shared.

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Image Credit: N-Squared

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In the sphere of global education, Asia has been widely recognised as the top student with its solid grades and outstanding performance in almost every international assessment and ranking. On the other hand, the fellow emerging region of Latin America has been demonstrating huge potential for improvement but continues to struggle playing catch up.

This dynamic has played out in global assessments such as the PISA 2018 worldwide ranking, where seven out of the top 10 highest average scorers came from East Asia and Pacific while all the Latin American countries fell below the OECD average score, and in rankings such as the QS World University Rankings, where 25 of the top 100 universities come from Asia and only one comes from Latin America.

Quality education in Asia and Latin America prove to be on vastly different levels, and this is a reflection of the differing levels of technology incorporation into the sector and the vibrance of the edutech scene.

As Asia is moving full steam ahead with technological innovations in the sector, the region could benefit from looking outward and lending a hand to those who are falling behind so that they may also improve and scale in the process.

Latin America, on the other hand, could stand to take some notes and capitalise on its potential for improvement by embracing Asia’s tried and tested solutions for emerging markets. This is especially relevant in light of COVID-19, which has forced more than 1.4 billion students worldwide to stay home. For students and education systems to stay relevant and competitive in these times, it is thus essential to capitalise on the benefits of technology.

Also Read: How edutech startup Snapask is filling the gap for personalised learning in a post-COVID-19 world

The education gap: Asia vs Latin America

In examining the educational gap between the two regions, the drivers of Latin America’s relative underperformance do not present themselves prominently at first glance. Education in the developing regions of Asia and Latin America share many similarities.

Both regions present similar statistics in terms of primary and secondary enrolment (a difference of barely two per cent), and tertiary enrolment in Latin America is even higher than that of Asia (51.8 per cent compared to 45.8 per cent).

Both regions also allocate significant amounts of resources to education – Latin America spends over five per cent of their GDP on education, compared to 4.15 per cent in East Asia and Pacific. However, the vast difference in the performance of Asian schools and students relative to Latin America suggest that there are deeper underlying problems related to the quality of education.

In terms of educational content, teaching methods, and the incorporation of technology into the education sector, Asia comes out on top. The edutech space in the region is flourishing, with startups such as Ruangguru, Unacademy, and Topica Education Group receiving close to a combined total of US$250 million in funding across their Series C-D rounds.

In Asia, edutech is the second-largest market in the industry, with a potential to reach a valuation of US$5 trillion, and all 12 of the top edutech unicorns in 2019 were from Asia. In contrast, Latin America continues to lack the digital infrastructure, skills, and financing for wide scale tech adoption in the industry, and 74 per cent of the region even had to resort to the low-tech solution of delivering education via radio and television during the government-imposed lockdowns of COVID-19.

Ultimately, the quality of education is reflected in the ability to embrace and incorporate technology into the content and delivery, and Latin America is displaying a huge potential for Asian edutech solutions to scale.

Also Read: In brief: Indian edutech startup Teachmint raises US$3.5M seed funding round

Latin America: The next frontier for global edutech

Despite the region’s lacklustre performance in global assessments and rankings, Latin America displays a huge potential for transformative improvement and is prime to be the next frontier for global edutech. The region’s e-learning market is projected to value at US$3 billion by 2023, making it the fourth largest edutech market in the world.

In addition, more than 12 million adults in Latin America are participating in online education. Large segments of the region’s population are also underserved and struggle to gain access to basic educational services. UNICEF reports around 14 million children and adolescents in Latin America that remain outside of the education system.

This presents a wealth of untapped opportunities in the region’s education market for innovative edutech companies.

According to Stefan Krautwald, Managing Director of Colombia-based venture capital studio Latin Leap, “One of the biggest problems holding back Latin American society is the weak education infrastructure, and the edutech scene is not robust enough to overcome this gap. However, this presents many opportunities for Asian edutech solutions to establish themselves in the market and scale.”

Asia: The star student

In terms of global performance in education, Asia is a shining star. Apart from the region’s performance in the PISA assessment and QS World University Rankings, the top five performing countries of the TIMSS International Mathematics Achievement come from Asia as well.

Literacy rates in East and Southeast Asia are also one of the highest in the world, standing at close to 100 per cent. In terms of the edutech scene, Asia is also leading the way with the money to back it up. China and India comprise 70 per cent of global edutech venture capital, housing nine out of 10 global edutech unicorns. With such a dynamic scene, Asia has much to share and benefit from spreading their knowledge and scaling their solutions to other emerging regions.

Sharing notes and spreading knowledge

As Asia continues to rise up the ranks of global education and continually try to outdo itself, the region could benefit from lending a helping hand to those who are struggling. By engaging in knowledge sharing and spreading their educational solutions and technological know-how to other markets, Asia could learn from the process of cultural and business exchange to further improve on their solutions while capitalising on untapped opportunities to scale their edutech businesses. Latin America, in particular, proves to be an extremely suitable partner.

Also Read: How edutech startups can accelerate active learning

Latin America and Asia may appear to be unlikely partners at first glance, being vastly different regions separated by geography, language, and culture. However, both emerging markets actually share more similarities than meets the eye.

Both regions have similar population sizes of close to 650 million, rapidly growing internet penetration rates that are close to 70 per cent, and shared economic realities and cultural practices characteristic of emerging markets such as relatively low per capita income and a top-down approach in business procedures.

According to Francisco Rios, Regional Group Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at Enterprise Singapore, “Latin America with its high levels of mobile digital connectivity and nascent digital market, is an attractive region for Asian tech companies and start-ups.  As the demand for improved access to quality education grows in the region, there are immense opportunities for Asian edtech companies to collaborate with in-market partners to co-develop innovative solutions to support remote learning. ”

Both regions have much to gain from deeper cooperation, particularly in the edutech space. Asia possesses the technological capabilities and knowledge that Latin America is ready to embrace, and Latin America presents itself as a huge untapped market with a young and knowledge-hungry population for Asian edtech solutions to take root in and grow. By sharing notes and spreading knowledge, both regions can mutually flourish and grow.

Soft-landing for edutech business expansion

When embarking on the path of expansion, businesses have to consider the host of risk factors and obstacles that come with entering distant and untapped markets. These include language barriers, cultural differences, unaccustomed local business practices, unpredictable regulatory and political environments, valuation challenges, and ever-changing tax regimes.

In understanding how to manage these risks, soft-landing proves itself as a viable business concept for Asian edutech scale-ups looking to enter Latin America. Soft-landing aims to support business expansion through a controlled launch in the new market with limited resources and connecting the company to a network of local stakeholders. The soft-landing process is best led by soft-landing facilitators, whose role is to help companies scale in far-flung and foreign markets.

Some of the benefits of soft-landing for edutech ventures include:

Cost reduction: When entering a new market, the cost of entry can be significant and many times it can exceed business budgets. According to the World Bank no Latin American economy ranks among the top 50 best places globally to do business, and this is in part due to high costs of entry that include paperwork, establishment fees, cultural barriers, and legal procedures among others.  Therefore, having reliable information and the support of a local partner can help avoid cost overrun.

Cultural adaptation: The cultural and business practices in each market determine the way of doing business. Informality is one aspect of conducting business in Latin America that needs to be overcome. Language, communication peculiarities and specific local knowledge within each country are keys for a successful landing into a new ecosystem.

Time to market: The time it takes for each company to position itself within a new market will depend on the level of preparation it has and the knowledge of the entry barriers into the new market. The soft-landing facilitator has local resources that accelerate the operational, commercial and legal establishment, providing access to strategic information, decision- maker contact networks, and talent.

Deployment and reputation: Having a well-reputed local facilitator vouching for the new entrant in the education sector is crucial when it comes to accessing institutions, local businesses and potential customers. This is why having local professional teams becomes critical for business development and facilitates integration from the beginning.

Peer to peer exchange: Facilitating the direct discussion between edtech companies looking to expand to Latin America and potential local business and government partners is a crucial part of the soft-landing facilitator’s role.

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According to the 2019 Indonesia Millenial Report, 65 per cent of millennials do not own a house. The reason? Property prices outpace the purchasing power of these first-time buyers.

In a country where over 60 per cent of the population are millennials, this was too big a problem to miss out for Sarah Soewatdy. Along with three other co-founders, she created quality and affordable co-living spaces to solve this pressing problem.

“Our first offer to the market was quality co-living, where tenants can live in a community with a perfect balance between private and shared space,” shares Soewatdy in an interview with e27.

Targetting millennials living in urban areas, the Sequoia Surge-backed startup seeks to offer them a convenient, communal and comfortable living space. The company also assists landlords in transforming their properties into higher-yielding assets while providing affordable co-living options for tenants.

It was no surprise the concept of co-living was well received. According to a report, Indonesians are more open to sharing economy services, with 87 per cent likely to use such services, compared to the global average of 66 per cent.

A certain Black Swan event this year has also generated tailwinds in the co-living industry.

Also Read: From co-working to co-living, these 7 brands in Southeast Asia have got you covered

Increased growth

Amidst the tightening of purse strings and flourishing work-from-home trend brought about by the pandemic, Rukita has thrived. Weakening purchasing power due to the sluggish state of the Indonesian economy has seen a shift in trends within the residential sector. Millennials have postponed their home-buying plans and are opting for renting a property instead. This has led to a boom in the co-living business.

The proptech startup reported good business performance amid the pandemic. Rukita claims it recorded a 20 per cent month-on-month occupancy growth rate in the third quarter of 2020. Additionally, the new tenant registration grew nearly 2.5 times in the same period.

Soewatdy remarks that the pandemic has brought a wave of uncertainties, making people more cost-conscious and meticulous in financial management.

“Hence, we are confident to be able to present a real solution and give economic as well as psychological assurance to landlords. We offer them the opportunities to transform their properties into higher-yielding assets, thus they can have peace of mind while enjoying passive income without hassle,” she adds.

Currently, Rukita operates more than 3,500 rooms in the Jakarta metropolitan area. “We are breaking the misconception of affordable living projects that often heavily focus on affordability and overlook other key factors,” Soewatdy says.

Adapting to the new normal

Rukita has been continually releasing new initiatives to adapt to the new normal brought about by the pandemic. It recently introduced Rukita Workpod, where employees can work and live together with supporting facilities to facilitate a more conducive and efficient working environment.

The startup has also introduced virtual property visits, where potential tenants can explore units safely without a direct visit. With this set of initiatives, Rukita aims to provide sustainable earnings and peace of mind for partners in uncertain times.

“We continue adapting and being agile so we can stay relevant to the changing needs through our set of new normal initiatives,” Soewatdy remarks, adding that new initiatives will be rolled out to further improve the well-being of tenants and landlords.

Also Read: Why mixed-use is the future of real estate in a socially distanced world

She remains coy on fundraising plans, but shares that the expansion of its business will remain aligned to Rukita’s mission to create quality co-living experiences for both tenants and landlords.

Looking into the future, Soewatdy believes that changing consumer behaviour brought about by millennials will result in co-living having a prominent role to play within the real estate industry.

“Millennials are seeking the finer pleasures of life and are looking for better-looking rooms with a complete suite of facilities and services for their convenience,” she closed.

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Image Credit: Rukita

 

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