More and more businesses are waking up to the grim, post-COVID-19 economic reality. The current downturn is a black swan event, but it’s most certainly not unprecedented. Economies of almost all countries have declined; India’s shrunk by about 23.9 per cent, the UK by 21.7 per cent, and the US by 9.1 per cent.

Economies globally have seen downturns earlier too, but how does history remember them, the Great Depression in the US, India’s 1990 balance of payment crisis, or the 1997 Asian financial crisis?

During the Great Depression, the US economy shrank by 50 per cent between 1929 and 1933, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis setback economic growth in a number of ASEAN countries by nearly a decade. What are the lessons we can learn from the past are how can we mitigate the long-term economic impact of the current downturn?

It is evidently clear and well-documented that all financial crises result in large-scale human suffering, affecting both the rich and poor. Unemployment rate shoots up, businesses shutter, while vital sectors such as construction, retail, and agriculture suffer adversely.

Eventually, almost all economies recover,  major sectors get back on their feet. However, this doesn’t mean all companies within those sectors make it. Some organisations survive, some rediscover themselves, and a few new ones spring up to capture a big share of their sector or create a niche.

Whatever the future is, organisations reach there not merely by luck but through perseverance and in-depth planning. But one thing that precedes both is the mindset of its leaders which in turn decides the fate of the organisation. The two common paths during this crisis are survival or revival.

Also Read: Accredify, SGInnovate partner to launch Digital Health Passport that will accelerate travel post-COVID-19

Let’s take a look at these two options and explore why the current downturn could foster structural changes in the way businesses work. Great leaders often have a knack of reviving their organisation from the worst possible crisis, let’s look at their mindset and unique decision-making process.

Restructure or re-engineer? Adapting processes for efficiency

Businesses that merely try to survive see the economic downturn as an additional cost imposition. When work volumes come down, the easy, survival-oriented option is to restructure: cut the workforce, reduce hours, or to drop output levels. While this can help to offset the cost of the downturn in the short-term, the loss of capability profoundly impacts long-term business sustainability.

Process re-engineering provides businesses with an alternative approach that transforms the downturn into an opportunity. Rather than cutting output to keep costs down, businesses need to find more efficient and cost-effective ways to create products or to deliver services. Existing supply chains, especially those originating in East Asia, might be broken at present.

This creates an opportunity to tap into domestic lines of supply. Service-oriented businesses need to look at video and audio calling solutions to deliver value to customers in a cheaper and more flexible way than before.

Implementing a work-from-home policy will also enable continuity, particularly for businesses in the digital sector.

Vision and culture: where do you see these changes going?

COVID-19 and the economic downturn are also key inflexion points forcing businesses to do some serious thinking about who they are, in terms of business culture and vision. In the longterm, survival-oriented strategies only serve to highlight systematic issues with culture and vision.

Braver organisations willing to grapple with these questions will be able to align their continuity plans with a broader vision of who they are and what they’re doing. This can mean embracing digital solutions, not as stopgaps, but as core aspects of processes to follow post-COVID-19.

Also Read: Fintech company Achiko wants to help tackle COVID-19 with its new healthtech projects

It can also mean committing to social responsibility, taking care of the workforce and the local community at a time when help is needed.

Survival or revival? The choice is yours

All businesses have been substantially impacted by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. When it comes to long-term resilience and sustainability, the question of survival versus revival becomes key. Businesses that focus just on short-term survival might get through the initial situation.

However, they’ll be in a far worse position to compete when things settle down than those businesses that see the pandemic as an opportunity for revival and reinvention. The entire Asian economy, on the whole, has been facing headwinds well before the pandemic started.

This could well be a key inflexion point dependent on how businesses across the country choose to respond.

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An incredible amount of innovation has taken place in the palm of our hands. We now rely on smartphones for so many things; from tracking our fitness to saving memories and buying daily essentials. In fact, the ever-growing range of features and capabilities found on our smartphones has in many ways led the digital shift taking place across the world. 

Recent events have only served to further amplify this effect, with a recent study from Bain & Company finding that 30 per cent of consumers in Southeast Asia have increased their online spending in the last few months and contactless payment platforms have seen significant growth both in users and transaction volumes.

The study also found that consumers have been exploring what more they can do with their smartphones, with 77 per cent of respondents saying that they had tried a new app that they plan to continue using post-pandemic. 

While many small business owners are readily adopting these new digital habits in their personal lives, often they aren’t as quick to adopt the same digital mindset when it comes to running their business.

They assume that digitising their sales channels and back-office involves massive investments in infrastructure and personnel when in fact, it may be as simple as turning to their smartphones. 

Here are some quick and easy ways for business owners to bring their businesses into the digital era: 

Set shop online

Research from Blue Corona found that 90 per cent of consumers will check a business’s website before calling or emailing. Yet, many small businesses often don’t go beyond setting up a Facebook page for their business. 

While website development may seem daunting, many e-commerce apps have simplified the process of getting set up online. These services offer professional website templates that can be customised and set up in less than an hour. Some require as little as choosing a colour theme and layout and filling a number of information fields on the business. That information can be easily updated as it changes over time.

Also Read: How PI.EXCHANGE helps freelancers and small businesses have easier access to AI solutions

Connect with your customers

While print and out-of-home advertising can still be impactful, the cost of investing in those channels may be prohibitive for many small businesses. This is where social media plays an important role. 

To ensure success on popular channels such as Facebook and Instagram, make sure you have a steady stream of interesting visual content. You don’t need an expensive camera for this –your trusty smartphone is likely to offer great image quality for social media posts with much less fuss.

Manage your costs

Business technology gets a bad reputation for involving costly equipment and implementation. In fact, many cloud applications for business charge monthly subscriptions at different price points allowing business owners to pay as they go and add on services as required. A business is able to optimise its investment by tailoring its add ons for its specific requirements. 

Get paid faster

It may not seem like much when one small invoice is late, but many small invoices can add up to be a big problem for a small business, particularly a business that’s already operating on thin margins. Thankfully, technology such as automation and machine learning is being deployed to support small businesses in managing their invoices and to send out automatic payment reminders. Integrations with online payment providers also makes it easy for customers to pay.

Stay on top of business, anywhere

While many of us will not return to the office for some time, that doesn’t mean we can’t stay on top of business and consult with our employees and financial advisers with accurate and up-to-date data in front of us. Platforms such as Xero – which has integrations with an entire marketplace of apps – can provide real-time information.

Members of the team in different locations can input data that syncs automatically and everyone in the business can refer to that information through intuitive dashboards, even on a smartphone. 

In summary, the shift to digital communications and consumption in our personal lives should be mirrored in the way we run our businesses. Small business owners can start out by tapping on the one digital tool they already know and have: their smartphones.

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

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The traditional way of building a startup is the ‘garage’ way. In a nutshell, two or three friends go to a garage and start building a prototype sometimes with money from family and friends, and then later with the support of incubators and accelerators. Once the prototype has some traction and the startup has some clients and revenue,angels will be open to investing.

Further down the road, the startup may also be able to attract venture capital. There are certainly many different pathways for startups and angels, but this is the archetypical way.

However, this archetype is far from perfect. As I said in my earlier article, 92 per cent of startups fail in their first three years. The motivation to reduce this failure rate has spurred us at Nova to create something completely unique. Something that’s been designed to specifically address and nullify the biggest reasons for startup failure.

An unexpected challenge in creating a unique startup model, however, is that it can sometimes be difficult to articulate to potential partners (co-founders).

“Are you an incubator?” Erm. not really. “Ah, okay, so you’re an Accelerator.” Again, not quite, no. “An investment fund? Mentorship programme!?” Well, sort of, yes, but not exactly.

Whilst all of the previously mentioned programmes are widely used and understood by those in the tech startup space, we believe that those alone do not negate the risks for startup founders. So, not wanting to totally align ourselves with any of these terms, we created what we’re calling a co-foundery startup model.

Also Read: BukuWarung raises funding from Tinder co-founder, others as part of its Y-Combinator demo day

Something that combines elements of all of those, plus some additional features, in a manner that reduces the risk for both founder and investor.

The key differences that we’ve built into the co-foundery model to reduce startup risk are as follows:

Start early

In the co-foundery model, we specifically look to partner with startups at an early stage, often when founders have not much more than a good idea and a strong understanding of the problem their startup is trying to solve. This is because startups at this stage offer us the opportunity to mentor and build relationships with founders from their inception.

Here we can impart proven processes and methodologies early enough in their formation to avoid the common mistakes that lead to failure.

Our process always starts with mentorship from our experienced startup mentor team. This is completely free and is specifically geared toward developing startups by clarifying their business model, their unique value proposition, gaining a deeper understanding of the problem they’re attempting to solve.

We ensure that founders and their startups are ‘venture ready’ before putting them forward to pitch for their first investment.

No financial investment from founders

Typical investors don’t like to invest in startups early as it’s too risky. They want to know that you have a product, that you have a team and that you have customers. This can prove a catch-22 as founders don’t have any money to achieve these things.

Traditionally, most then resort to loans, personal savings, bootstrapping and generally incurring a lot of personal risk (and the associated stress) themselves.

Also Read: Meet Mentor For Hope, the startup mentorship programme that will donate 50K meals for those in need

If you are ‘lucky enough’ to get investment early from a traditional source (i.e. angels), they’ll be wanting you to put some of your own cash in and work full time on it to ensure they’re getting a return as quickly as possible. In the early stages of a startup’s life, this adds unnecessary pressure that negatively affects key decision making.

This is why in the co-foundery model we ask for zero financial input from founders. We believe that if founders have the motivation to start a startup to change their life and display the qualities and traits of a successful founder, this is enough. Furthermore, our previous investments prove this motivation is enough to make it work.

Experienced startup team

Two of the most common reasons for startup failure are hiring poorly and choosing the wrong cofounder. The co-foundery approach negates these by providing a proven and experienced startup team and co-founder from day one, without founders having to find or employ anyone.

The co-foundery teams are built specific to the startup, from a pool of 150+ employees covering marketing, sales, finance, designers, developers, consultants and so much more. They bring with them a vast depth of experience working on tech startups ready to be deployed on yours.

Additional benefits of having a team that works on tech startups day in day out are:

• The team doesn’t make the same mistakes that typical startups would
• Having a team with a track record of startup success makes it easier to access investment as and when required

Shared risk

This is not an agency for hire approach, there are tons of tech and software development businesses who will work on your startup, build the product and as long as they’re getting paid, they’re not particularly vested in whether what they’re building fails or succeeds.

Also Read: How e27 is going to lend a helping hand for the startup ecosystem during the COVID-19 crisis

This is set up differently, we don’t just want to build the idea and walk away. Instead, we partner with and are co-founders of our startups (hence the name co-foundery). We take equity rather than a standard rate per day for our services, this means that we’re as motivated as the founders for the startup to succeed, this is our startup too.

So, do all of these unique characteristics make the cofoundery model more effective? Our startup success rate is showing that starting a startup with this model your startup is over five times as likely to succeed.

At Nova, we are currently expanding the successful co-foundery model to Asia. We are looking for working professionals in Southeast Asia to co-found startups with us. If you are interested in our venture building philosophy, and the co-foundery approach sounds appealing, please apply to our Southeast Asia programme.

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

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Mediaload, a Cambodia-based digital media company, has secured an undisclosed sum in Series A funding round from True Digital Group (TDG), a digital arm of Thai telco True Corporation.

The startup, which also has operations in Myanmar, will use the funding to enhance its content offering on its platform and expand into new regions.

Also Read: Tech investment in September: Baby unicorn, vertical gardening, and an alternative path for liquidity and exits

“With this strategic investment, we will be able to leverage our content offerings in our existing markets and expand to other markets in the region,” said Vichet In, CEO of Mediaload.

Founded by siblings Vichet, Vichea and Visal In, Mediaload runs Khmerload in Cambodia and Myanmarload in Myanmar. It offers millennial-focused content on a wide range of topics, including entertainment and sports, and claims to have eight million unique users per month with 20 million social media followers.

The startup has previously received US$200,000 in seed funding from 500 Startups.

Also Read: iMedia buys controlling stake in Goody25’s Malaysian parent

Mediaload’s parent Groupin operates e-commerce startup Little Digital in Cambodia, which in 2019 raised US$5 million in Series A from PE firm Belt Road Capital Management.

Also Read: Malaysian digital media group REV Asia to acquire iMEDIA for US$9.6M

TDG currently operates in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam with a roadmap to expand further across South Asia, leveraging the economies of scale of digital platforms.

According to Statista, the value of the online media market in Southeast Asia in 2019 was US$14.3 billion. Indonesia had the highest online media market value from selected countries, of which the online media market value was US$3.5 billion.

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Image Credit: Mediaload

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Every month, the team at e27 runs a monthly Startup of the Month poll where we pick the most outstanding startup to give it the extra attention that it deserves. Three startups are selected internally by taking into account idea, team, funding and founders. After which the e27 content team picks the winner.

The winner for October is none other than Bangkok-based agritech startup Freshket which aims to enrich the lives of farmers by helping them sell their produce at a premium rate to restaurants and consumers.

Bangkok’s farmer distress

While most Southeast Asian countries are largely agricultural, Thailand is one of the countries where agriculture is given great importance. This is why it is popularly referred to as the “country’s backbone”.

Founder and CEO of Freshket, Ponglada Paniangwet, tells e27 in an interview that farmers make up one-third of the population in Thailand. While they are good at farming, they need extra help in logistics, packing and selling.

Because of this lack of knowledge, farmers usually have to go through middlemen who tend to propose a price which gives them little profits. These middlemen mark up the margin cost of the logistics and product and then deliver the produce to the market.

Paniangwet observed all these problems first hand while she was working as a fresh food supplier at a wholesale fresh market. She says that she experienced their plight while working with both farmers and buyers.

Also Read: Fertile ground for partnership: How agritech boom in SEA holds a promise for Latin America

“I learned that the whole supply chain process was very tedious and inefficient. So from that day on, I wanted to solve this problem and streamline the whole process of the fresh food supply chain.”

How Freshket solves the problem

To solve this problem, Freshket pulls together processing centres and suppliers by connecting them directly to farmers, who tend to rely on middlemen.

Since the operating costs of perishable goods are high, Freshket utilises a cluster model which means that they deliver multiple orders together at one go.

It also takes care of processing and logistics for farmers. The company has its warehouse centre where it cuts, trims and packs before sorting the orders and then delivers it to the restaurants. This is how the company takes care of logistics for the farmers.

Currently, Freshket has 30 farmers on its platform but Paniangwet has expressed that their goal is to upstream and go from 30 farmers to 150 farmers by the end of 2020.

Recently, the company also managed to raise US$3 million in a Series A funding round which was led by Singaporean VC Openspace Ventures, with participation from Thai PE firm ECG-Research and public-private joint venture Innospace.

Also Read: Freshket nets US$3M to bring together farmers and food processors to supply fresh produce in Thailand

Pivot, pivot and pivot

When Freshket launched in 2017, it was only meant to be a marketplace where suppliers and farmers could connect.

In the first model, suppliers were allowed to set their rates and make the delivery themselves. However, they noticed that this led to a problem in pricing and on-time delivery.

Just after a few months of the company’s launch, the team learned that their value proposition did not serve the customers because the ones most valued at that point were farmers.

Because there was so much control given to the farmers in terms of setting their price and making the delivery, this created a clash between the values of the buyer and the seller.

Paniangwet also stresses that this was one of the valuable lessons that she learnt in her early days of validating the product-market fit.

The team then pivoted the platform to not just be a marketplace but to become a full supply chain platform, where logistics and delivery were taken care of by the company.

The COVID-19 effect

But soon again in 2020, the company had to pivot again. The onset of COVID-19 has led many companies to revisit their business models and make necessary changes in their work process, and Freshket was not spared.

Also Read: COVID-19 triggers supply chain and logistics transformation, but there are gaps to fill: Marc Dragon of Reefknot Investments

On March 22, when the Thai government announced a lockdown, all restaurants temporarily shut down which created a problem since Freshket until then was B2B-focussed.

“So on March 23, we decided to open the platform to consumers and pivoted the model within 24 hours. We planned ahead in terms of the product and created smaller pack sizes for the consumer. And for the payment method, we usually give our restaurants credit terms but for the customer, we can’t. So we adjusted that on our programme,” she shares.

But the quick pivot came with its own set of challenges. “We faced some challenges, especially in customer service. Normally, we serve only restaurants and our team speaks the business language. But for the consumer, it’s more emotional, right?. And we received an overwhelming amount of calls,” she quips.

After the lockdown, the company says that the logistics costs have come down due to an increase in the average order value and the demand for Freshket has grown.

In the end, the company eventually managed to make a successful pivot despite the few hurdles. It will stick selling orders to consumers and will apply its cluster model to people’s villages or condominiums.

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Image Credit: Freshket

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Singapore-based Augmenteed, which provides an online process management platform to industrial companies to “quickly” deploy automated and optimised procedures, is in discussions to raise US$450,000 in its first external investment.

“We are currently in talks with seed-stage VC firms, angels and family offices based primarily in Southeast Asia,” Augmenteed Co-founder Patni told e27. “We are targeting seed-stage investors focusing on B2B enterprise SaaS and industrial tech.”

The capital will be raised via convertible notes.

Augmenteed expects to close this round in the next couple of months.

Also Read: Is now the time to start investing in augmented and virtual reality?

Patni said that capital being raised will be deployed to hire developers in Singapore. “Our second area of the capital deployment is business development. Although this is somewhat constrained by COVID-19 as most trade shows have been cancelled or made virtual, we know a well-defined and aggressive sales pipeline will help us attain the targeted growth.”

Augmenteed was founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Erwan Bodescot (Founder and CEO) and Patni (Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer).

Bodescot is former entrepreneur at Antler and has earlier founded Pixel Patrol, an app development studio. Patni has previously co-founded Naturma and has in the past held the role of Singapore Country Manager at RISE.

Started in April 2019, Augmenteed has developed a solution that can digitise workflows and up-skill local technicians with remote assistance and Augmented Reality (AR) capabilities.

The platform is based on the proprietary Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) App Builder that allows workflow digitisation without coding.

“We help companies optimise and automate their processes, guide technicians in real-time with remote experts, and train technicians more efficiently with AR solutions,” Patni explained.

Also Read: Move over VR: XR in sports is the future

A SaaS company, Augmenteed allows companies sign up, choose a template, select the features they need and pay on a per user per month basis. “If required, we can also bundle the hardware as often, our clients are new to the technology and require guidance in choosing the right smart device for their use case,” he said.

Augmenteed already has a paying client in Singapore. It is now looking to expand to other countries and currently are in discussions with potential clients in South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and Germany.

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Image Credit: Augmenteed

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Local experiences marketplace KKday raises US$75M Series C; Investors are Cool Japan Fund, National Development Fund, Monk’s Hill, MindWorks Capital; KKday will also continue to expand its team and operations in Japan, Korea, SEA; Currently, it offers more than 30K unique experiences in over 550 cities and 92 countries, and claims to have 5M users and 10 offices across Asia. e27

Shiok Meats raises US$12.6M Series A led by Aqua-Spark; The Singapore startup aims to build a commercial pilot plant from which it plans to launch its minced shrimp product in 2022; It also plans to launch shrimp flavouring paste and powder, fully-formed 3D shrimp, and cell-based lobster and crab products in the coming years. e27

E-scooter rental startup Neuron Mobility raises US$12M to take its Series A round to US$30.5M; Lead investors are Square Peg Capital, GSR Ventures; It plans to expand further in New Zealand and Australia, as well as the UK; It operates a fleet of 4K e-scooters in Australia and New Zealand. e27

Data breach: ShopBack, RedDoorz say sensitive consumer data not compromised; Cyber incidents rank as the most serious business risk globally, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer 2020; They are becoming more damaging, increasingly targeting large companies with sophisticated attacks and hefty extortion demand. e27

How can Singapore step up cybersecurity?; Cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated as perpetrators evolve with technology; According to a report, the top 3 sectors in Singapore that saw evidence of malicious cyber-attack activity were travel and transport (75%), F&B (73%), professional services (61%). Vulcan Post

Filipino digital payments startup PayMongo nets US$12M Series A led by Stripe; A year ago, the YC startup secured US$2.7M from Founders Fund, Peter Thiel, Stripe; The fintech startup has so far secured ~US$15M so far; Philippines’s digital transactions surged by 42% in value between January and April 2020. e27

iMedia buys controlling stake in Goody25’s Malaysian parent; Goody25 is a Chinese language portal that recorded an average of 10.8M page views and 2.65M users per month in 2020; Early this month, iMedia was acquired by Rev Asia for US$9.6M and is currently listed on Bursa Malaysia. e27

Malaysia’s HealthMetrics raises US$5M Series A; Japanese VC ACA Investments led the round; HealthMetrics helps corporates simplify and manage the tedious manual paperwork related to employee healthcare plans by automating the entire process; It has 3K+ partners throughout Malaysia. e27

KOL speak
Why a crisis is the best time to hone your leadership skills; Times of crisis often require a thorough review of your business strategy to determine if it can weather the storm, says PatSnap’s Jeffrey Tiong; Some might say it’s too risky to make such sharp pivots during a crisis, but often a crisis is the best opportunity to revamp, redesign and innovate your business. e27

Zilingo CFO Perry resigns to return to Citigroup for tech deals; Perry had served as MD and Head (Tech Investment Banking) for Citi in APAC; Zilingo has been battered by fallout from COVID-19, trimming jobs this year and streamlining businesses to rein in costs. Bloomberg

Tech investment in Vietnam drops 22% from US$284M to US$222M in H1 2020. A Do Ventures report says US$861M was invested across 123 deals in 2019, more than double the number in 2018; In H1 2020, the number of active investors was nearly the same as the previous year, but only a very limited number of new investors entered the Vietnam market. e27

Gobi Partners appoints former Digital Ventures MD Paul Ark as Advisor; He will advise on, design and implement various startup and innovation initiatives including environmental social and corporate governance, sustainability; He was recently a Venture Partner at Seedstars. e27

Taiwanese smart thermometer startup iWEECARE raised US$2.4M; Investors include TransLink Capital (lead), Taiwan’s National Development Fund, Verge HealthTech Fund, Darwin Venture; The funds will be used to accelerate marketing activities to address the demand for remote patient monitoring technologies in the US and China. e27

Plant-based meat startup Next Gen launches in Singapore with US$2.2M; Next Gen was co-founded by Timo Recker who previously founded LikeMeat in Germany (which was acquired by LiveKINDLY Collective earlier this year; Investments in plant-based meat startups rose to US$1.5B+ in 2020 from US$534M in 2019; Asia’s plant-based protein segment is expected to reach US$12.75B by 2030.  DealStreetAsia

Indonesia’s BukuWarung raises funding from Tinder co-founder; The YC startup makes it easier for Indonesian micro-businesses to manage cash and credit transactions; BukuWarung has more than 1.2M merchants on its platform across 750 cities and towns in Indonesia. e27

Banking-as-a-service startup RootAnt secures US$1.46M from Linear Capital, KZM Group; It will use the capital for expansion in Singapore, the rest of SEA and Japan; RootAnt connects enterprises and financial institutions with new digital financial products for for faster financing services.

MAS directs Wirecard to cease payment services in Singapore, return customers’ funds; MAS has been monitoring the impact of its insolvent German business on its ability to continue providing payment services in the city-state; Wirecard collapsed in June after its auditor EY refused to sign off on its 2019 accounts because it couldn’t verify US$2.2B supposedly held abroad in escrow by 3rd party partners. Channel News Asia

Meet the 14 startups presenting at Facebook accelerator’s pitch day; For this edition, startups were required to demonstrate the use of Facebook tools and trends, such as AR, VR, Messenger, social commerce; All these startups will join Facebook’s startup alumni programme that will continue to connect them to a global network of startups. e27

How a virtual CFO can help your biz score the funding it needs; CFO’s role is to maximise a company’s value and establish a sound reporting system that is crucial when communicating and pitching to investors; Tapping into the experience of a CFO during the pre-funding stage will allow business owners to gain long-term insight into their business needs and priorities. e27

How startups are building tomorrow’s food systems by solving yesterday’s problems; Large corporations can leverage the work of startups to achieve their strategic and sustainability goals; The pandemic presents investment opportunities by validating the problems that farmers are facing and creating urgency to shift to more innovative and digital solutions. e27

Book Excerpt
Why successful fundraising begins with understanding your company’s needs; Gizmodo editor-in-chief John Biggs and communications professional Eric Villines say whether you are starting Fitbit for Dogs or a hot dog cart or the first company to mine gold from asteroids, your ultimate goal should be to grow outside of your little corner of the globe and expand. e27

Digital skills won’t be sufficient in future: EDB chief Chng Kai Fong; He says soft skills — the ability to tell a story, to have empathy, and create connections with others — will help people to stand out and differentiate themselves; Students should pursue their “obsessions and side hustles”, which will help them to build confidence and find meaning. The Straits Times

Thailand’s True Group leads Series A round in Cambodian media startup Mediaload; It’s a digital news portal that offers entertainment and tabloid news in Myanmar and Cambodia; The site is dubbed as “the Buzzfeed of Cambodia”. KrAsia

What will the post-pandemic workspaces look like?; By building resiliency into physical workspaces, organisations can create an agile workplace strategy that allows us to continuously learn, prepare, and adapt for the future; Time working remotely has highlighted how unplanned, organic social interactions in the office can be fundamental drivers for collaboration, creativity and culture. e27

Enterprise Singapore, Innovation Norway sign MoU to strengthen innovation between the countries; Singapore enterprises will benefit from market opportunities arising from co-innovation projects with Norwegian corporates; Norwegian companies seeking to grow in Asia can tap Singapore’s business infra, financing and vibrant business network to springboard to the region. Open Gov

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Photo by Sam McGheeon Unsplash

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Being part of the gig economy has never been easier. Whether you’re a Generation X-er seeking a healthier work-life balance or a boomer headed to retirement looking to make some sporadic, easy money, joining the gig economy is as simple as going online.

Asia, in particular, has taken to this shift in the workplace with a gung-ho attitude. All across the East, the gig economy has spread like wildfire in the recent years due to the high demand for gig services (as much as 65 per cent hiring managers consider it a normal workflow). With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of freelancers just increased manifolds. 

Asia and the freelancers

Even before the pandemic Asia has been the major frontrunner in the gig economy. As of 2019, countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines have taken the lead in the top five capitals of freelance workers in the world followed by Russia and Serbia. The US breaks the eastern trend sitting between them in third place.

According to a Payoner study, the percentage of the world’s gig economy year-on-year growth through Asian freelancers are distributed as under:

• Pakistan: 47 per cent
• Philippines: 35 per cent
• India: Just under 29 per cent
• Bangladesh: 27 per cent

And the market continues to grow in countries such as Vietnam by 56.9 per cent in self employment; Indonesia 50.9 per cent; and Malaysia by 25 per cent. 

Also Read: Is the gig economy taking over?

There seems to be a never-ending list of benefits that come with taking the freelance approach to work. Of course the most notable is the ability to be your own boss and working as much or as little as you might like. 

Other benefits include:

• The ability to work from anywhere, anytime, as long as you have access to the internet
• Having to report to no one
• Creating your own hours to suit your lifestyle
• No participation in regular company culture that often causes anxiety or additional stress
• Pay the bills on the side while pursuing real passions the rest of the time
• No money or time being spent on commuting to and from work
• Opportunities to travel more frequently

It is largely believed that the most notable benefit of switching to freelance work is the improvement in one’s quality of life. This is reported by 79 per cent of freelancers, who believe they live with more time for the things they enjoy since making the change.

This is probably why this culture has spread as rapidly as it has. It seems that millennials and now Gen-Z are willing to do whatever it takes to avoid the seemingly downward spiral that the baby boomers left behind.

And if it’s working, who are we to stand in their way? In fact, why not join the party too! One of the best benefits to the freelance world is that it does not discriminate on age, gender, race or religion. If you are capable of the work, you are welcome to do it.

The key to the gig economy’s success

Software development, web development and technologies generally dominate the freelance sector. This is mostly because of the wealth of online resources that are available to global freelancers these days: 

• Graphic designers have access to a plethora of tools by which to create their work such as logo makers, website builders, vector graphics, font foundries, etc.
• For freelance writers use grammar checker and plagiarism checker tools to take their abilities from average to sought after.
• Freelance platforms such as Freelancer, Upwork, PeoplePerHour, etc. have become easy gateways to reaching new clients for bitcoin, blockchain, web development, app development and more. 

The services these freelancers provide are vital to businesses’ success in the modern market. Key concepts such as having a website, designing a company logo or doing SEO (search engine optimisation) are non-negotiable for any company.

Also Read: The rise of gig economy and how it affects fintech

Many freelancers benefit from the fact that there’s a continuous request for these services and all they need to perform the work is be available online.

It’s not all hunky dory

Of course, the freelance world isn’t void of challenges. There are certain elements that make up a big part of the gig economy that make it a bit less carefree:

• Cash flow can be inconsistent and come in at unusual intervals
• Little to no job security
• No health benefits
• No paid sick days or vacation time
• Discipline is required to get work done on time

The same freelancers who reported having more time to enjoy the finer things in life, also reported that their stress levels didn’t necessarily decrease, but simply shift.

Moreover, it’s difficult to juggle multiple projects with different deadlines which can backfire freelancers who are looking to earn big bucks in a short amount of time. 

What we can deduce from this is that the freelance world is not void of the natural trials and errors that come with every workplace. Managing one’s stress level will still need tending to — it’s all about finding balance.

That’s not all. With the increased number of freelancers entering the Asian gig economy due to the pandemic, the same can’t be said of client growth. According to a report freelancers in Singapore and the Philippines are facing a setback due to the cancellation of gigs or stalled projects by clients in the past six months or so. 

So will the gig economy sustain?

The fastest-growing skill base within the gig economy is the areas involving blockchain and bitcoin. Artificial intelligence and robotics join these sectors and all topped the official fastest growing list in 2017.

Also Read: How Kwork is making a splash in the gig economy by advocating a new way to freelance

Other skills and resources seeing continuous growth in this industry include:

• Blogging and blog content creators
• Web design and development
• Photography and filmmaking
• Clothing and design
• Sharing of skills: teaching English, tutoring math etc.
• Social media management

As technology advances, so will the list of skills and resources that the gig economy sees demand of. Just a few years ago no one would have even imagined something called bitcoins that would have millions of people in new jobs almost overnight. Now we can’t imagine a world without it!

The foreseeable future

Instead of accepting mediocre pay in exchange for unhealthy hours, the working class took things into their own hands and found solutions where problems once lay through gigs. 

And so far so good; overall work performance has improved for this working class. Until the coronavirus pandemic, the gig economy has been considered to be a sustainable model of making a living. Now, however, experts estimate that the gig economy is among the most hard hit due to the pandemic as millions of gig workers are facing unemployment.

No doubt this is simply a downturn of the gig economy, or perhaps it is the beginning of the shift back to conventional nine to five jobs, only time will tell.

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RootAnt, a banking-as-a-service startup based in Singapore, has closed a seed round of US$1.46 million with lead investor Linear Capital with participation from KZM & Company Group.

The fintech startup will use the money for expansion in Singapore, the rest of Southeast Asia and Japan.

RootAnt specialises in embedded financing for enterprises. It connects enterprises and financial institutions with new digital financial products for faster financing services.

Also Read: 5 reasons why 2020 is the right time to invest in fintech

This empowers banks and non-bank financial institutions to integrate more digital banking capabilities, including embedded financing to provide better customer experience.

This effort is also in line with the Singapore government’s aim for digital-only banks. As COVID-19 has caused many SMEs to face harsher challenges in making payments while ensuring healthy liquidity, the push toward more innovative and relevant digital banking solutions has become a priority.

“The current economic climate requires innovation and customer-focused digital solutions that truly make a difference for a more sustainable economy. Through our digital and open banking technological capabilities for transaction banking, we aim to become a key player in this industry to continue supporting businesses with their financing demands as they recover from the impact of COVID-19,” RootAnt Founder and CEO Lincoln Yin said.

With branches in China and Japan, RootAnt now aims to provide both anchor corporates and SMEs with new and enhanced solutions on its platform. This includes R&D for further development of BANCO Engine (banking as a service) and the multi-tier financing platform, to support businesses within supply chain ecosystems.

Also Read: Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam the most attractive fintech hubs in SEA: Study

This year, RootAnt is also planning to launch several other financial solutions covering verticals such as SME Finance, Green Finance, Islamic Finance, and BANCO Chain (a trusted blockchain network for supply chain finance).

Established in 2014 by Facebook’s second Chinese engineer and first R&D manager Harry Wang, Linear Capital is an early-stage venture based in Shanghai.

KZM is an international business creator with solid expertise in finance, IP management, and global expansion, with its presence in the US, Hong Kong, and Japan.
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Photo by Ales Nesetrilon Unsplash

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Next Gen, a startup offering plant-based meat products, has launched in Singapore.

Next Gen was co-founded by Timo Recker (CEO) and Andre Menezes (COO).

Recker, who infused a seed funding of US$2.2 million into Next Gen, previously founded plant-based meat company LikeMeat. The German company’s products are sold in 10 European countries through 15,000 supermarkets.

Also Read: No animals were harmed in the making of this ‘meat’ burger

Earlier this year, LikeMeat was acquired by global plant-based food company LiveKINDLY Collective.

Menezes was previously General Manager of Country Foods Singapore, where he was involved in making Impossible Foods.

Next Gen produces and commercialises plant-based meat products. Recker claims their products are 100 per cent plant-based, with the taste, texture and satisfaction of meat.

The startup has a manufacturing capacity of over 5,000 tons per year in place. Based on current average consumption, Recker expects to serve 9,000 restaurants. “We target to launch the consumer brand within the next six months.”

The startup is preparing to raise its Series A financing in 2021 to drive its global expansion, technology and R&D. “We anticipate expansion into China, the US and Europe over the next three years,” Recker said.

Why Singapore?

Next Gen has established its headquarters, leadership team and R&D centre in Singapore, from where it aims to build a global consumer brand, with China, the US and Europe as targeted strategic markets. The city-state was chosen for its innovation ecosystem and its centrality to Asia. It also offers a strong infrastructure to support food technology innovations like alternative protein.

Also Read: Shiok Meats wants to bring cruelty-free shrimp products to your dining table with its US$12.6M Series A

To become more self-sufficient and reduce its dependence on food imports, Singapore introduced its “30 by 30” vision in 2019 to locally produce 30 per cent of Singapore’s nutritional needs by 2030.

Singapore’s investment firm Temasek has invested about US$5 billion in the agri-foodtech sector in the past few years.

Global plant-based protein industry

The global plant-based protein segment is expected to reach US$85 billion by 2030, according to UBS. Asia will see significant growth, which is projected to reach an estimated market value of US$12.75 billion by 2030.

Plant-based meat consumer demand is fuelled by health concerns, environmental awareness, along with the improving taste and quality of plant-based products.

The two big brands – Impossible and Beyond Meat – have a combined market value of more than US$12 billion.

“The demand for plant-based meat products has exploded in the last few years, with over US$1.5 billion invested in the first seven months of 2020, more than double 2019’s investment of US$534 million,” said Recker.

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Image Credit: Next Gen

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