2020 was supposed to be an exciting year for Southeast Asia’s thriving startup ecosystem. With strong economic growth, rising affluence, and growth capital strengthened, startups were entering into the region’s golden age.

But all that changed when the novel strain of coronavirus, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) coined as COVID-19, came into this world. And before you know it, face masks and toilet paper were sold out, oil prices went subzero, and the world continues to debate on whether barbers and bubble tea are considered essential services to continue operating in this current pandemic. Welcome to the new normal!

Most startups should be agile enough to adapt to all the “who moved my cheese” moments in what was destined to be a wicked roller coaster ride anyway. But this is an unprecedented global crisis where even the large corporations are taking a beating from. So here are four tips out of the playbook that might be useful for startups to rewire their culture, brave through this pandemic and emerge stronger than ever.

The ability to recruit exceptional tech talent

A bold vision must be accompanied by technology, as the key enabler for disruptive innovation, and the catalyst required for startups to grow and scale. It is an integral part of your internal operations, external communications, cross-border business activities, and the very foundation of the product/solution that would eventually be shipped to your customers.

Given the ever-rising expectations in today’s world, there is little or no room for a buggy UX and any half-decked features, even for the early adopters. That means no more cutting corners with your tech stack, and/or compromising on the quality of your tech team.

Also Read: ‘Our main barrier to growth is the status quo in retail sector’: KiotViet’s Deputy GM Tri Cao

The tech talent shortage is a global phenomenon, so it is even more pressing that founders and companies must now have the ability to attract tech talent and foster a healthy engineering culture within the firm.

Instead of competing with the FAANGs, the banks, and other large companies to vie for local hires, startups might be better served by tapping on overseas talent pools. Companies such as Sea Group, V-key, CXA, and Lazada, have done so by venturing offshore to build their software engineering teams and tech hubs in Vietnam.

Offshoring is the new market expansion

As a startup based in an ASEAN city, you almost always have to think regional from day one in order to reach a bigger market to grow the business. That usually means hiring across all teams and expanding into new markets once your startup achieves product-market fit and raised external funding.

There’s just one problem – the funds have to be shared amongst other forms of necessary spending in an effort to achieve the next set of milestones, and you probably don’t have enough cash to cover all the expenses of going abroad while focusing on the product at the same time.

Since you need to grow your tech capabilities and expand the business simultaneously, why not kill two birds with one stone by building your offshore tech team in the very geography that’s next on your hit list? This would act as a soft-landing for the business to gain initial exposure and establish an initial presence in the new market, before diving in deeper.

But don’t be a hero and do it all on your own. It is always recommended to work with a trusted partner to navigate the operational risks and administrative speed bumps along the way so that you can continue to focus on moving fast and breaking things.

At Tech JDI, we’ve worked with companies like ShopBack, Aspire, Oddle, and Minterest, to facilitate their market expansion into Vietnam.

Also Read: Can tech prevent the end of civilisation?

The consensus from the ecosystem now is for founders to re-strategise for a strong rebound in H2 2020, and this could be an approach for your startup moving forward.

Time to embrace remote working

In the tech startup world, where everyone ships code and claims to embrace the future of work, it still had to take a global crisis like this for us to get comfortable and embrace the likes of Zoom and Google Meet, amongst other digital tools to help facilitate communications and do our jobs better.

It’s not that we’re not tech-savvy enough or digitally ready yet. It was always about trust and execution. So maybe it’s a good thing that most of us were forced into lockdowns and work-from-home regulations with no time to think nor react. Founders now realise that:

(1) employees are able to get shit done remotely given the rights measures and policies in place to support this practice,

(2) there is a significant amount of time and monies saved from the reduced need for office rental and transport.

In the new normal, telecommuting will no longer be frowned upon as a last resort, and startups will have a newfound confidence and expertise to hire and manage teams remotely, even across geographical borders.

Also Read: How travel tech startup Travelhorse survives the pandemic by branching into new territory

Given this context, founders should now have a new perspective on Southeast Asia – not just as the promised land with a market of 655 million people, but also as an opportunity to also pursue a distributed team strategy to diversify cost and culture within the organisation.

Now, all we have to do is to keep our fingers crossed that COVID-19 is not just the MVP that forced the digital transformation of your company, but for your home’s wifi broadband and your local city’s digital infrastructure too.

Balancing growth, cost, and quality all at the same time

When tech startups became the modern-day kool-aid in this part of the world est. 2010, founders (and VCs) spent the better half of the decade in pursuit of a growth trajectory that was supposed to look like the first letter of Jesus’ name. More recently, the ecosystem realised that unicorn-ification in its initial form was not sustainable, and unit economics became the new holy grail.

Think of it as a hybrid between a unicorn and a cockroach, and that’s the beast mode that your startup has to escalate to. Moving fast and breaking things is still the name of the game, but no longer is it performed recklessly “at all costs”. Like the race to find a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2, the startup which manages to figure this out the fastest will find salvation.

It takes an ecosystem to raise a startup

More than ever before, the ecosystem must band together for all stakeholders involved to win the war against the invisible enemy.

At Tech JDI, we believe in global innovation for a better world. We understand startups and scaling, having started three years ago as a venture support services arm under TNF Ventures to help our own portfolio companies cross the chasm. Since then, we’ve supported more than 30 companies across southeast Asia to build-up their tech teams and establish a business presence in Vietnam.

If you’re keen to learn about how we can help you to expand your tech team and build a market presence in Vietnam, get in touch with us.

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On-demand video streaming platform under Indonesia’s gojek, GoPlay, has raised an undisclosed amount of capital in an independent funding round led by ZWC Partners and Golden Gate Ventures.

Other investors included Openspace Ventures, Ideosource Entertainment, and Redbadge Pacific.

The streaming service plans to use the cash to enhance its technology to help Indonesian filmmakers introduce and distribute their work to a larger audience, positioning itself as a medium of high quality locally produced movies and series.

Although American global streaming platforms have snowballed, the space has become more competitive in the past with addition from several new rivals.

However, taking the example of the liquidation streaming service Hooq, as well as Malaysia’s iflix, video streaming has always struggled to make an impact in local markets.

Edy Sulistyo, CEO of GoPlay, on the contrary, believes that Gojek massive regional footprint will give it an added advantage compared to the rest to come up with great local content to support and grow Indonesia’s creative industry.

Also Read: gojek names Facebook, PayPal as new investors in latest funding round

“GoPlay was launched to meet the fast-growing needs of Indonesia’s entertainment industry. Indonesia’s local pool of content creators needs more avenues to showcase their talent, while our growing pool of mobile consumers wants access to more local content at their fingertips,” he commented.

“By combining the resources and expertise of these partners with Gojek’s footprint in Indonesia, we are well-positioned to support and grow Indonesia’s creative industry, while continuing to reach more consumers with quality local content.”

Regionally speaking, even as Netflix and Amazon continue to dominate Hollywood content, there is still a lot of potentials when it comes to local content.

In a recent article by Kr-Asia, Iflix CEO Cam Walker said that because the target audience for local content providers is Indonesia’s middle-to-low income group, there is still a huge possibility of growth.

This class makes up a significant percentage of the country and increasingly turns towards the television to watch local dramas.

“Looking at the current growth and demand for content streaming, we believe that the Indonesian content market has the potential to reach US$1 billion within the next three years,” said Andi Boediman, CEO of Ideosource Entertainment.

“Hence, GoPlay plays a strategic role within the gojek ecosystem, in acquiring new users, increasing user engagement and retaining existing users through its quality on-demand content,” he added.

This news follows gojek’s recent funding news from high-profile technology firms including Google, Tencent and PayPal.

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Tiki, a Vietnam-based e-commerce startup, reportedly has received US$130 million in a new funding round led by Singapore-headquartered private equity firm Northstar Group.

e27 reached out to Tiki for the news but the representative declined to give any comment.

According to DealStreetAsia, the funding round may still continue until it raises up to US$150 million in funding.

Some names involved as investors on Tiki’s cap table include Vietnamese unicorn VNG, Japanese firms CyberAgent Capital and Sumitomo Corporation, Chinese retailer JD, Singapore’s EDBI, as well as South Korean funds SparkLabs Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, and STIC Investments.

Also Read: How Vietnam’s e-commerce firm Tiki is tiding over COVID-19 crisis

Tiki was founded in 2010 as a bookselling platform before growing into an online marketplace, fulfillment centres, and logistics network composed into one e-commerce platform.

When the company announced its Series C funding round in 2018, Chinese online retailed JD was said to be one of its largest shareholders. The company’s investment into Tiki is part of its strategy to enter the lucrative Southeast Asian market, after securing a presence in Indonesia and Thailand.

In 2019, as part of its effort to expand its vertical and become a one-stop platform, Tiki bought event ticketing startup Ticketbox for an undisclosed sum.

Just recently, it has been reported that Tiki and local rival Sendo have attempted to merge their businesses. DealStreetAsia reported that the two e-commerce players had reached an agreement on the merger with no updates on whether the transaction has been approved by the National Competition Committee.

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Image Credit: Tiki

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Singapore’s metal printing startup 3DInfra raises pre-Series A from SEEDS, M Venture

Singapore-based metal additive design and printing startup 3DInfra has raised an undisclosed sum in pre-Series A funding from MAS-licensed M Venture Partners and Enterprise Singapore’s investment arm SEEDS Capital.

The company said that the funding will be directed into driving 3D Metalforge’s technology development, establishing an Additive Manufacturing Center in Houston, Texas, and team development.

The company claimed that its Additive Manufacturing Center in Singapore is ISO-certified and is one of only 7 manufacturers globally certified by Lloyds Register to print marine parts.

According to Mena FN, the company is currently serving clients in the oil & gas, marine, and defense sectors, 3D Metalforge focusses on large format, high-value specialist metals for industry application. It leverages proprietary design processes and metal printer technologies that produce specialist parts faster, cheaper, and of higher quality than traditional manufacturing.

“3DInfra’s Additive Manufacturing solutions enable them to manufacture high-value parts with improved performance while reducing costs and production time. Such solutions strengthen our advanced manufacturing capabilities and encourage disruptive innovations in traditional sectors like the Marine, and Oil & Gas industry,” said Geoffrey Yeo, General Manager of SEEDS Capital.

Singapore earmarks US$285M fund for innovative startups

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said that Singapore would allocate US$285 million to help startups sustain innovation and entrepreneurship activities and gain access to credit, and bridge the financing gap they face amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by The Straits Times.

The Special Situation Fund for Start-ups (SSFS) will be administered by the EDBI, the corporate investment arm of the Economic Development Board, and SEEDS Capital.

EDBI and SEEDS Capital will invest in selected startups with private sector co-investors in a one-to-one ratio and those that were incorporated as private limited companies with their headquarters and key value-added activities in Singapore.

Also Read: Singapore Budget 2020 and what it means for the tech ecosystem this year

The scheme will end when the funds are fully committed or by October 31, 2021. Involving the private sector, co-investors are said to plan to double the deployable capital, and the SSFS will enable these companies to continue their early product development and innovations to build a strong foundation for growth.

Interested early-stage start-ups can apply for the funding via ssfs@enterprisesg.gov.sg, while late-stage start-ups can apply via ssfs@edbi.com

OVO’s P2P lending arm Taralite gets licence from Indonesia Financial Services Authority

Taralite, Indonesian digital wallet OVO’s P2P lending arm, has attained a business license from the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) as an IT-based Lending Provider.

With this license, OVO and Taralite plan to continue to support the government’s efforts to implement Indonesia’s digital vision and mission, particularly bringing people, especially in the MSMEs sector, closer to digital financial services.

OVO’s CEO Jason Thompson said that through these financial service innovations, users and MSMEs players will have expanded access to untapped services, including consumer and business lending. ​

Along with OVO, towards the beginning of 2020, Taralite has introduced OVO DanaTara as a cash flow management and additional business capital solution for Indonesian MSMEs. Also, Taralite provides online MSMEs access to financing of up to IDR 500 million (US$35,000) with the approval process around 1-3 working days and tenor up to 12 months.

To date, Taralite services are available for MSMEs who are members of prominent e-commerce platforms in Indonesia such as Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, and Bukalapak.

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Co-founder and Chief Culture Officer Miguel McKelvey quits WeWork

Miguel McKelvey, Co-founder and longtime Chief Culture Officer of WeWork, has announced that he is leaving the company by the end of this month.

McKelvey is also one of the last executives remaining at the global co-working space giant, after the recent departure of CTO Shiva Rajaraman, Head of Real Estate Aaron Ellison, and four other board members.

“After ten years, I’ve made one of the most difficult decisions of my life — one that I’m not even sure has sunk in just yet. But at the end of this month, I’ll be leaving WeWork. While it’s hard to leave, and I know there is a lot more work to be done, I could only make this decision knowing this company and our people are in good hands,” McKelvey wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Grab launches initiative to help SEA companies grow during COVID-19

Ride-hailing giant Grab has launched Small Business Booster Programme to help small businesses in Southeast Asia to grow during COVID-19, according to a statement.

The initiative will help companies pivot from offline to online and help build their visibility via the Grab app.

“COVID-19 has accelerated change. We have seen dependency on online services grow exponentially almost overnight. This is spurring innovation in Southeast Asia but also putting us at risk of widening the digital divide,” said Hooi Ling Tan, Co-founder of Grab.

“Small businesses make up the backbone of Southeast Asia’s economy, but the vast majority of these businesses are offline. They will need to embrace technology and digitalise or risk falling further behind.  Through our Small Business Booster Programme, we hope to help small businesses navigate this new normal. We will draw on our technology and reach to find new ways of doing business that can inclusively support everyone,” Tan commented.

India’s intercity bus travel startup YoloBus raises US$3.3M

Yolobus, an India-based startup, has raised US$3.3 million in funding led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from India Quotient.

This brings Yolobus’s total funds raised to date to US$4.1 million.

Bus travel has been one of the most common modes of transport in India. However, it has also suffered from the issue of hygiene, safety and congestion. Yolobus managed to identify this problem much before the wake of COVID-19, where hygiene is being majorly stressed upon.

“Bus transport in India has been a gruelling, unsafe, unhygienic, untimely experience for travellers. Apart from addressing all these issues, Yolobus will resume its operations with extensive precautionary measures for every trip,” said Founder Shailesh Gupta.

“Every passenger will be checked with infra-red temperature measuring guns before onboarding. Customers will be able to pre-order essential PPE kits and know the temperature of the bus crew members before boarding the bus,” he added.

Yolobus’s goal is to provide “airline-level services”-like bus captains, high-speed Wi-Fi, washrooms, food and beverages, device charging points, etc for buses. 

Singapore’s DocDoc partners with Kaitaiming to expand its services into China

Singapore’s DocDoc has announced a partnership with Kaitaiming Technology (KTM) today to strategically expand its services to China, according to a press statement.

Through this, DocDoc will add its doctor-discovery services to China’s insurance companies on the KTM platform and provide the latter’s insurance partners with access to medically trained concierge team.

Also Read: Tiki reportedly raises US$130M in funding led by Northstar Group

“China is the world’s most exciting insurance market,” said Cole Sirucek, Co-founder of DocDoc.

“DocDoc’s AI-powered doctor discovery service is ideally suited to serve China’s massive unmet need for consumers looking for high-quality, affordable care,” he added.

Tenopy partners with AMKFSC to provide underprivileged students with free online classes

Singaporean edutech company Tenopy has partnered with local charity organisation AMKFSC to provide underprivileged students with free online classes, according to a press statement.

This initiative will offer live online classes and personalised learning experiences to students from Primary three to Secondary two levels, along with free recorded lessons and homework materials to AMKFSC volunteer tutors.

“Our vision is to make the highest quality classes and learning accessible to the many students,” said Tenopy Founder Soh Chong Kian.

“This partnership with AMKFSC takes us further in realising this vision. We are offering free classes and content to students who need them the most in this difficult time,” Kian added.

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Having seen and heard over 2,000 pitches in the last year alone, we dare say that 90 per cent of startup founders struggle to clearly define their problem statement.

Deceptively simple, a well-defined problem will not only capture an investor’s (limited) attention but keep it throughout your presentation.

Fifty per cent of the success of your first pitch is in your problem statement. Why? It sets the tone of the pitch and helps us understand the market size, the need for the solution, and who’s paying.

In this blog post, we shed light first on how founders can avoid the common pitfalls of crafting a problem statement then of course, on what investors look out for in one.

If you’re from a B2B (enterprise) or deep tech startup, this article is for you. For B2C startups, while important, the problem statement is trumped by your vision statement and identifying a need with consumers.

Also Read: 3 legal problems online marketers could run into

Common pitfalls

Focusing on the solution, not the problem

We understand your enthusiasm when it comes to your solution, in fact, we love it! However, the most common mistake a startup can make in its early stages is to fall in love with their product and not the problem.

If there’s one thing we are sure of, is that the solution will change as it evolves for product-market fit, growth and scale. A well-defined problem isn’t just for investors, it will act as a guiding principle as the company grows later on as well.

Take one of Cocoon’s portfolio companies, Hapz for example. The problem: Events organisers are not able to monetise events and have low margins. When we first invested in the company, their solution was to sell extra tickets for events.

However, they quickly realised that just selling tickets was only a small part of the event organisers’ problem. By providing a single events management platform to organisers, Hapz is now able to use the data to improve the efficiency of running the entire event, of which one part is improving ticket sales.

Thus by pivoting the solution to better solve the problem they achieved product-market fit. Had they focused on their first solution and not the problem, the opportunity for something much bigger would have been missed.

Also Read: Hidden reasons why VCs reject your startup for investment

Multiple problems

We at Cocoon are constantly on the lookout for founders who dare to change the world. Being a startup founder is tough enough, so let’s focus on solving one problem at a time, especially at the seed stage.

The classic example is defining the problem statement for a marketplace. The usual pitch focuses on both sides of the marketplace, usually with a statement similar to “customers want to have access to all alternatives, merchants want to reach consumers cheaply” – win-win for all, right? Maybe eventually.

However, as a startup it’s important to understand who will be paying for your service; that is who your problem statement should be focused on. Will the consumers be paying for the service with a fee for everything that they are buying? Or will the merchants pay to be onboarded?

Buzzwords don’t get us excited

This mistake is often closely related to the first mistake. The problem statement should never include phrases like “artificial intelligence”, “net neutrality”, “actionable analytics”, “data mining”, you get what we mean.

Buzzwords are often related to the solution which will change and adapt over time. When this happens, you may find yourself with a really awesome product or solution that is searching for a problem.

Also Read: Using design sprints to solve COVID-19 business problems

Creating a problem

Which brings us to the next point – is your product a need, or a nice to have? Businesses are presented with a multitude of options, but with a limited share of wallet. Think about it this way – in times of a downturn, would your solution be the first or last to go? If it’s the latter, the problem you’re solving is not mission-critical and should be revisited.

A well-defined problem isn’t rocket science.

Solve one problem

Solutions can cater to multiple beneficiaries but focus on the one stakeholder that you are solving the problem for. This is your immediate market size and go-to-market strategy, which will vary from institution to merchant to conglomerate, the stakeholder paying for your product.

Once you focus on who’s paying, it’ll be easier to identify what the problem is for them. They will be the ones driving your revenue.

Pain points

This is a big one. You have to identify the biggest pain points of the people who have the problem and where the problem is rooted. Who controls the budget for the solution to the problem? The pain point has to be so significant that the stakeholders are willing to part with their limited budget to purchase your solution.

Keep it short

The problem statement should not be longer than two sentences. It should easily fit on one pitch deck slide.

Also Read: Dealing with fundraising problems? These three startups may have the answer

Defining a problem is not a problem

Now that you’ve crafted your problem statement, think about the following questions: Does this problem keep directors and executives up at night? Is this problem a topic of board meeting discussions? If you took away your solution, would the problem still exist?

If the answers are a confident yes, yes and yes, then you’re on the right track. If not, don’t be afraid to recreate and reiterate until you get it right.

With a good problem statement in tow, investors can now clearly understand and get excited about the opportunity the problem presents, with a strategic overview of your company and how we can value-add to accelerate your growth.

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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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Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek today named Facebook and PayPal as new investors in its latest funding round.

Existing investors Google and Tencent, who first made investments in the company in 2018, also made a comeback in this undisclosed funding round.

In a press statement, gojek stated that the participation of these global companies in their funding round is meant to support the company’s mission in supporting the growth of digital economy in Southeast Asia, particularly in payments and financial services.

It also stated that gojek is the first Indonesian company to raise an investment from Facebook. This investment is in line with the social media giant’s goal to “create opportunities” for businesses in Indonesia, particularly through its WhatsApp platform.

The investment will also see the integration of PayPal service onto the gojek platform. It will also enable access for GoPay users –gojek’s digital wallet service– to PayPal’s network of 25 million global merchants.

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

“This is great validation that the world’s most innovative tech companies recognise the positive impact Gojek is making in Indonesia and the whole of Southeast Asia. By working together, we have the opportunity to achieve something truly unique as we aim to help more businesses to digitise and ensure that many millions more consumers are enjoying the benefits that the digital economy can bring,” said gojek Co-CEO Andre Soelistyo.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated issues have served as a tough reminder that if our economies are to be more resilient, they must be underpinned by digital infrastructure that diversifies the ways in which people can live and transact. We see our role as a convener of global tech expertise, facilitating collaboration that will ultimately lead to a better future for everyone in our region,” he continued.

Prior to this announcement, Bloomberg reported that gojek raised US$1.2 billion to support the company in its effort to compete with fellow Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab.

Starting off as a motorbike-based ride-hailing service, the company has branched into different services from different verticals within less than a decade.

It has also begun expanding beyond Indonesia in the recent years.

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The Travelhorse team

The travel and tourism industries experienced the hardest hit during the COVID-19 outbreak. As countries closed their border and airlines cut down on routes, the number of travellers drastically dropped, directly affecting businesses of various sizes in the sector.

In the past few months, e27 has covered startups in the travel and tourism sectors and how they are dealing with this difficult time. We have published about Vietnam-based tour packages platform Triip who introduced StayHome Heroes campaign.

We have also named capsule hotel platform Bobobox as Startup of The Month for their ability to secure a US$11.5 million funding round and survived through enforced quarantine measures in the country.

This time, we are looking into how Travelhorse, a Singapore-based startup, deals with the challenge at the very early days of its operations.

Incorporated in January, the team at Travelhorse was developing a platform to connect travellers with local shops and businesses to store their luggage, when COVID-19 was discovered in Singapore.

Also Read: [Updated] Thai travel tech startup Tourkrub to raise US$5M in Series B funding to support regional expansion plan

The outbreak continued to threaten, forcing the government to introduce a circuit breaker (CB) measure to handle the situation, which was implemented in April.

At this rate, travellers and tourists –the potential customers that they originally wanted to target– were barely existing in the country.

“Before the CB was announced, we already have a network of 35 jockeys across Singapore and Southeast Asia. We saw this COVID-19 situation in Singapore worsen in the sense of numbers, and also the direction of the government policy. So we thought about how we can create value by rallying up local initiatives through our jockeys and our network,” Travelhorse Founder & CEO Scott Koh explains to e27 over a call.

So the startup introduced an F&B Dash and logistics delivery service, which had begun operating by the time the CB officially started.

“The decision was strategic in many senses. [We aim] to create added value for existing jockeys, and to onboard more jockeys into our network,” Koh says.

Collaboration matters

The change seemed to work for the startup, especially since they were not alone in their work to support local F&B businesses.

Also Read: Roundup: Singapore ranks 16 in global startup ecosystems; Anthill invests in Indian travel-tech firm QuaQua

“When circuit breaker was introduced, Enterprise Singapore made an open call for F&B merchants [as they aim] to fund their delivery costs via partnership with three delivery giants: GrabFood, Deliveroo, and Foodpanda. They also made an open call for third party logistics to come and support this effort,” Koh says.

Travelhorse’s application for this programme was then approved.

Ever since then, the company has also expanded its logistic services to include packing and storage for students, professionals, or small business owners who have been displaced by the outbreak.

What is next?

The story of Travelhorse began when Koh struggled to find a convenient place to store his luggage when he arrived in Hong Kong in 2018 for a hackathon event. After dropping his luggage at a student hostel, he had to spend 4.5 hours to reach his destination as he had to take a reroute.

The luggage storage platform was then developed to help travellers reduce their travelling load, enabling them to explore the destination with ease and convenience.

When the interview happened, the company was still in wait-and-see mode regarding the future. But when asked specifically about the fate of the luggage storage service, Koh says that they intend to continue on developing it.

“In fact, we are still working on the development effort to create that platform. Moving forward, it will be our main business model,” he says.

When asked about how the startup deals with uncertainties and arising challenges, Koh stresses the importance of open communications and being responsive to changes.

“We are a team of five members and we aim to be very open in communications, and [to make decisions] based on the current situation,” he says.

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In recent months we have seen healthcare systems in many parts of the developing world coming under immense pressure as they struggle to control the spread of COVID-19.

However, even before the current novel coronavirus pandemic, existing brick-and-mortar healthcare systems in much of Asia were struggling to cope with demand from ageing and increasingly health-conscious populations.

As we look ahead into the new decade, we can confidently predict that new digital technologies will transform the healthcare industry-disrupting traditional business models, enabling a more preventative approach and bridging the infrastructure gap by enabling people to see their doctor from the relative comfort of their own home.

Digital technology in healthcare

In most parts of Asia, digital technology is shaping the region’s healthcare industry through – what can best be described as – a digital revolution. It’s a revolution because it is being led not by large companies or government, but from the bottom up, by the region’s entrepreneurs who have founded a wave of innovative digital health startups.

In Singapore, the government’s commitment to digital innovation and adoption, coupled with strong internet connectivity and high mobile and smartphone penetration has given our digital entrepreneurs a significant headstart in comparison to those from other parts of Asia.

In January 2020, Singapore Parliament passed the Healthcare Services Bill giving authorities the ability to license, and therefore implement, new models of healthcare such as telemedicine. This follows other pioneering initiatives such as the Ministry of Health’s creation of a “regulatory sandbox” – the Licensing Experimentation and Adaptation Programme – and a strong framework of supporting guidelines such as the National Telemedicine Guidelines and Singapore Medical Council’s Ethical Code and Ethical Guidelines within which innovation has been allowed to thrive.

Also Read: This startup wants to bridge the ‘missing link’ in Indonesian health tech scene

Singapore is ASEAN’s sandbox for digital innovation

Singapore is estimated to be home to around nine per cent of Asia’s healthtech startups, the largest number after China and India. The growth of the sector in Singapore has also been impressive with the number of startups rising from 45 in 2012 to 174 in 2018, and the proportion of those raising Series A and B funding rounds increasing steadily as the sector has matured.

Furthermore, Singapore’s start-ups are among the most innovative in the region and are often developing healthcare solutions that address the unique needs of Asian people.

From using blockchain to improve the certification of halal products, to applying artificial intelligence to diagnose and manage diabetes, or digital platforms, apps and wearable devices using local languages to help people in traditionally underserved rural communities manage their health and wellbeing.

However, no matter how innovative an entrepreneur is, they are unlikely to successfully commercialise their product without money. Raising investment is extremely hard for any start-up and this can be compounded by the complexity of the healthcare sector.

Yet for experienced and skilful investors willing to consider smaller deal sizes, early-stage digital health companies can offer the potential for high-multiples and this has been recognised by Singapore’s investment community.

In 2018, Singapore attracted US$105 million into its health-tech startups, or 24 per cent of total investment, excluding China and India. Big names such as Sequoia Capital, MassMutual Ventures SEA, Heritas Venture Fund, Venturecraft, and Wavemaker Partners have all begun to make significant plays.

Also Read: Beyond the hospital: Challenges and opportunities in Indonesian healthtech scene

Singapore’s public healthcare system has also stepped-up and is pioneering the use of innovative patient-centric digital solutions through partnerships with the private sector. For example, the Singapore startup Holmusk recently announced a partnership with National Heart Centre Singapore to use its machine learning and data analytics technologies to improve care for patients with coronary artery disease.

Over the last 12-months many of Singapore’s largest public health groups, such as SingHealth and National Health Group, have been involved in similar private-sector collaborations.

To complete Singapore’s digital health ecosystem, our large healthcare companies need to be willing to take risks and act more like the tech giants of Silicon-Valley by supporting digital entrepreneurs through partnerships, licensing deals, and even seed investments.

Some large multinationals, such as Johnson & Johnson and Novartis, have been quick to recognise the innovation emerging from Singapore and inked partnership deals with our leading health-tech startups, such as Bioformis – the developer of software-based therapeutics to treat heart and lung diseases – and Ark Bio Holding – the medtech enterprise focused on early cancer detection.

But challenges remain…

Yet even in Singapore challenges remain, and entrepreneurs must carefully consider the best commercialisation pathway to bring their new digital healthcare product or service to market.

Firstly, they must devise a viable revenue model that answers the key questions of ‘who will pay’ and ‘how will they pay’, not just in their home territory of Singapore, but across the region’s different healthcare systems if they are to scale. These revenue models can be broadly categorised as B2C or B2B.

Also Read: The Story of You with Homage Co-founder and CEO Gillian Tee

Startups such as Homage – the developer of a digital platform that matches caregivers with those needing home-care support – provides its product directly to the elderly and their families. While others, like Bioformis, offer their innovation to pharmaceutical companies or healthcare providers that apply the technology and use it with their own customers or patients.

Secondly, each healthcare market in Asia is at a different stage of development, each with its own regulatory systems governing data privacy and cybersecurity. For a Singapore startup, navigating this complex web of rules and regulation requires a significant investment of money and time and is enough to give an entrepreneur a headache, one that needs its own healthcare innovation to cure.

In early 2019, Homage raised a double-digit Series B equity financing round led by EV Growth to fund the expansion of its caregiving service into other parts of Southeast Asia. Homage has expanded successfully and today offers a network of more than 1,000 professional caregivers in Singapore and Malaysia.

Other companies, typically those applying a B2B model, have chosen to partner with a local player or a large multinational already familiar with the eccentricities of different Asian markets to ease their expansion. For example, in November 2019 Bioformis announced a partnership with Novartis to apply its digital therapeutics to treat patients recovering from heart failure in six countries across Southeast Asia, rapidly scaling the start-up’s exposure to patients across the region.

Collaboration is key

Singapore is home to a vibrant and talented community of entrepreneurs building successful and innovative digital healthcare businesses that are among the best in the business. Their innovations offer the potential to transform Asia’s brick and mortar healthcare systems and in so doing improve the health of thousands of Singaporeans and millions across Asia.

Also Read: Same same, but different: How local foodtech startups are driving Singapore’s public health goals

However, for these businesses to thrive, Singapore must support its start-ups by fostering a symbiotic digital healthcare ecosystem.

It is now time for all industry stakeholders – including large healthcare companies, investors and the public healthcare system, to get behind Singapore’s digital entrepreneurs and, in so doing, help to ensure the country retains its position at the forefront Asia’s health-tech transformation.

The views expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, Inc., its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals.

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Launching e27 Pro a few months ago, we wanted to achieve one particular goal: to empower the startup ecosystem by helping companies solve the challenges that keep them from reaching their goals.

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Also Read: How e27 Pro helps startups remain in view of APAC key investors

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