Tag: Screen Printing

RISE raises US$8M seed round after posting rapid growth since its inception

RISE, a tech-enabled corporate innovation platform, has announced the closing of a US$8M seed financing round, led by Metro Company Limited, D2C Inc. (Japan), and Chanwanich Company, among others.

Additionally, RISE has announced plans to scale its services beyond Thailand to Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

“For us, speed is the winning key in the game of innovation. With the global network of RISE, we strongly trust that RISE is able to connect best-in-class tech startups via its Global Accelerator programme to collaborate with our internal team in order to accelerate our innovation,” said Keibun Go, Global Business Alliance Head of D2C.

Founded in 2016, RISE has been growing rapidly and claims to have now hit USD 1 billion in impact through its platform across Thailand. Currently, the company has a network of more than 400 corporations, 2,000 startups, and over 20,000 corporate innovators globally.

Investree raises US$23.5M to support SMEs in Indonesia

Investree, a B2B marketplace for financial lending in Indonesia, has secured US$23.5 million in a Series C funding round, co-led by MUIP, the venture arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and BRI Ventures.

With the new funds, Investree plans to further develop its services to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia and to expand activities in the Philippines and Thailand.

“Southeast Asia has significant potential in terms of SME lending, and we see that Investree already has a proven strategy and management expertise that really makes it the standout player in the fintech lending industry in Indonesia and wider Southeast Asia as it grows overseas,” said Nobutake Suzuki, President and CEO of MUIP.

Singaporeans spend more on entertainment products during COVID-19 crisis: Revolut report

As much as 55 per cent of Singaporeans spend on entertainment-focused products during the COVID-19 crisis, says a Fintech super app Revolut, with most users ending up buying digital goods, specifically video games, with Steam Games (+104 per cent) and Nintendo (+82 per cent) seeing the highest increase.

The report is based on data gathered between February 2 and March 31, 2020.

There were also more purchases seen in apps and software as more working professionals begin work from home. Some of these include Zoom (+200 per cent), VPN subscriptions (+20 per cent), Skype (+18 per cent) and LinkedIn subscriptions (+22 per cent).

Although foreign in-store transactions saw a decrease of 34 per cent, local in-store and e-commerce saw a spike of growth (30 per cent and 35 per cent respectively).

WeWork sues SoftBank for pulling out of US$3B deal

Commercial real estate company WeWork has sued SoftBank for pulling out of a US$3 billion deal on the ground of ‘pending criminal and civil investigations’ surrounding the company and its co-founder Adam Neumann, say a CNBC report.

According to the deal drafted in November 2019, Softbank would buy US$3 billion in shares from existing shareholders, and SoftBank jointly agreed with the co-working company to set performance milestones that would be met in exchange for the secondary liquidity

Softbank retaliated saying that several of the milestones agreed in the contract was not met by WeWork.

“Nothing in the Special Committee’s filing today credibly refutes SoftBank’s decision to terminate the tender offer. Several of the conditions the Special Committee, WeWork, Adam Neumann, SoftBank and SoftBank Vision Fund agreed to last October as requirements for completing the tender were not met as of April 1, 2020,” said a SoftBank spokesperson.

“Their filing today is a desperate and misguided attempt now to rewrite that agreement and to rewrite the history of the past six months,” the person added.

Also Read: News Roundup: Indonesian online trucking startup Webtrace secures seed funding led by Prasetia Dwidharma

WeWork’s Special Board Committee said that it “regrets the fact that SoftBank continues to put its own interests ahead of those of WeWork’s minority stockholders,” according to a press statement.

BRI Remittance joins hands with Everest to enable Europe-Indonesia money exchange

Decentralised digital payments SaaS provider Everest has announced a partnership with BRI Remittance, a subsidiary of Bank Rakyat Indonesia, to execute money exchange across Europe-Indonesia borders.

Everest aims to stop the neglect that those unidentified individuals face when banks and financial systems don’t provide services due to the lack of identification. The company’s device-free solution can identify people and transfer value, covering 196 countries and 4,000 different IDs.

“BRI Remittance’s vision is to be the leading global money service provider. To accomplish this mission, we established joint co-operation with Everest, the leading solution combining KYC, AML, compliance, and digital money movement, all through an integrated blockchain platform,” said BRI Remittance Executive Director Gigieh Perkasa.

This strategic partnership is also expected to increase business relations within the Indonesia-Europe corridor.

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Image Credit – RISE, Revolut,  Eloise Ambursley

The post Afternoon News Roundup: Indonesia’s Investree nets US$23.5M; Thailand’s RISE raises US$8M appeared first on e27.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an unprecedented shutdown of economies and borders across the globe, causing a standstill in growth and nationalism at its best.

Fitch had revised the forecast for global growth to 1.3 per cent from 2.5 per cent in December 2019. Meanwhile, the World Bank is anticipating the Malaysian economy to be contracting 0.1 per cent, assuming COVID-19 to be under control and growth to accelerate in the fourth quarter.

In light of this, Malaysia has introduced stimulus packages to provide a buffer to its citizens.

Coined the PRIHATIN package, an additional MYR230 billion (US$52 billion) on top of the MYR20 billion (US$4.6 billion ) package that was previously announced, Malaysia unveils another package that is equivalent to 15.6 per cent of its GDP. How does this compare to our global peers?

The consistent theme across Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and the US’ economic relief bill include one-time payments to individuals, strengthened unemployment insurance, additional health care funding and loans, and grants to businesses to deter layoffs.

However, even as the US touted a US$2 trillion package, we have seen 500,000 furloughs in the US in the past month just in the retail space.

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Lifetrack Medical Systems partners Philippines government to identity COVID-19 patients

At the onset, Malaysia’s stimulus is among the highest around the world. Malaysia’s RM250 billion package is focused on two main groups: the bottom 40 per cent and the SMEs.

Households are getting one-off payments ranging from MYR500 (US$115) to MYR1,600 (US$368), special allowances, electricity discounts, and free internet. SMEs meanwhile has increased the size of the Special Relief Facility to MYR5 billion (US$1.1 billion) and loan moratorium.

However, it is essential to note that only RM25 billion (US$5.8 billion)  are in the form of direct fiscal injection, 10 per cent of the package.

While headline numbers this time are significantly larger both in terms of quantum and percentage to GDP from the previous GFC stimulus package, our view is that this stimulus’ impact will mostly be muted.

Malaysia and Southeast Asia were largely insulated from the GFC in 2008 as the problems were domiciled mainly in developed countries where the US subprime crisis occurred.

The looming recession in Malaysia is unavoidable given that businesses, indiscriminate of sectors are forced to shut down due to MCO (Movement Control Order).

Also Read: {Updated} Indonesian founder develops CE-approved rapid self-test kit priced at US$10 for COVID-19

Sectors such as retail, tourism, and aviation have seen revenues down 70-90 per cent quarter on the quarter where other essential services such as F&B, manufacturing, and e-commerce have barely broken even as consumers tighten their belts.

Another poison pill is the confluence of reduced oil consumption and a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, resulting in oil prices decline 61 per cent this year.

Oil is currently hovering at an 18 year low of US$20. While consumers may benefit from lower prices, Malaysia as an oil-producing country that is highly leveraged to the commodity will see its reserves dry up and at the same time see significant losses in the oil and gas sector which accounts for 20 per cent of the Malaysian economy.

There’s no doubt that the ability of government and central banks’ massive cash injection might make things a little better in the short run. Still, the growth outlook for Malaysia and the rest of the world continues to look bleak as economies contract at record speed.

Keynesian economics will dictate that the lack of aggregate demand caused by panic and fear induced by inconsistent government measures and social isolation will cause a decline in consumption. This may result in businesses closing and unemployment to spike to double digits percentages as companies begin employees lay off.

Governments of the world need to use fiscal policy, effectively increasing deficits to pay for payroll and put a moratorium on rental and interest payments, putting the world into hibernation.

Unfortunately, unprecedented uncertainty and the absence of historical guidance on how we handle a pandemic dictates the risk of failure of any potential fiscal and monetary measures. When we wake up after a coma, will we see a world that has a standstill or a world that has slipped away from us?

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Register for our next webinar: Best practices for communications during the COVID-19 crisis

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page.

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As modern technology barrels on through the 4th Industrial Revolution, the landscape of our industries, labour markets and overall lifestyles are transforming faster than ever. By 2030, up to 375 million workers across the global workforce — 14 per cent of all workers — may need to change occupations and learn new skills by 2030.

There is plenty of talk about what jobs will and won’t exist by the next decade, but one thing is certain: in order to prepare themselves for the jobs of tomorrow, the workforce of today must become lifelong learners. 

Yet, there is little consensus on what lifelong learning is; for all the buzz around the term, it is vague at best, and obfuscating at worst. For there to be practical solutions, we need to move the debate beyond questions about ‘what is’ to questions of ‘how to’.

That’s why, at D2L, we believe that the future will demand a “Learning-Integrated Life” — making the key question: ‘How do we live a learning-integrated life?’ 

What do we need to live a learning-integrated life

In a learning-integrated life, individuals are always in a learning mindset. Where traditional systems currently break life down into distinct stages of classroom learning, work, then retirement, in a learning-integrated life, learning is a continual journey that extends past compulsory education, into the individual’s working career, and beyond.

The learner is self-motivated, choosing to engage in intentional learning, upskilling, and retraining for both their professional development and personal enrichment. 

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Lifetrack Medical Systems partners Philippines government to identity COVID-19 patients

Yet, while it is important that the learner takes the initiative in seeking out and seizing learning opportunities, the onus does not rest solely on the individual.

For that continual journey to be possible, they must be exposed to ongoing and intensive opportunities for learning and skills development throughout their lives.

And, that would require the establishment of a system that places the motivated learner at its core, supporting the learning individual throughout all stages of their life.  

This, unfortunately, is far from a common system in today’s global society. For many, learning stops when schooling ends. Meanwhile, those who actively seek learning opportunities while in the workforce, find themselves stumbling their way through a complex and fragmented system, enrolling themselves in courses that are time-consuming, expensive, and — where their credentials are not recognised — with no clear return on investment.

And, employers who do try to support their employees’ enrichment are limited by the capacity of their human resources team, and often restrict the training available to skills that are most needed by the employer or compliance training, rather than new skills or development.

Building an educational ecosystem that supports a learning-integrated life

The current COVID-19 crisis has revealed the tremendous need for reform in our educational systems. Worldwide, school and university closures have affected more than 776.7 million students worldwide.

With lessons forced out of the classroom, educators are seeing a breakdown in the traditional systems of learning — many find themselves having to quickly adapt to online, remote methods of teaching and learning.

Also Read: Good vibes only: Sailing through COVID-19 crisis with mindfulness meditation

Yet, this digital imperative has also cast into view inequities in the education space, as not every student has access to the tools needed for online learning. Education can be a great equalizer if inclusive, but in its current state, it widens gaps instead.

For a learning-integrated life to be possible for everyone, there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way we — that is to say, individuals, education systems, employers and governments — view learning.

To create a system where individuals have the opportunity to access valuable learning that enables their enrichment and employability throughout their life. We have to move away from traditional classroom learning that grants credentials based on seat time. We need to establish a new norm that acknowledges and values non-traditional systems.

We must look towards more flexible, affordable and accessible pedagogical models, with entry and exit points based on skills, experience, and abilities. This can include short-term or modular programs; stackable credentials; skills validation for experience picked up on the job; and greater use of self-directed and online learning — and these only just scratch the surface. 

These are big changes, involving policies and value systems, but every big change must start somewhere small. For those looking to reform the system and create an educational ecosystem that supports a learning integrated life — from educators to edtech innovators, to governments — there are a number of practical principles that can guide their direction.

Also Read: Why there is no better time to upskill than this COVID-19 crisis

To understand and create that path, we must seek answers to the following questions:

1. Is this system you’ve envisioned affordable and accessible for all learners?
2. There is no “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to an individual’s learning pathway. Is this system high-quality, personalised and flexible?
3. Does it incentivise learning, motivating learners and promoting a “continual learning culture”?
4. Does it use data to help learners chart their unique pathway, by keeping them informed about which options are most appropriate to their community and have value in the job market?
5. Does it use new and scalable digital tools to enhance learning — with educator and learner analytics, personalisation at scale, improved success rates and greater cost-effectiveness?
6. Is it consistently assessed against learning outcomes — learner progress and skills development — rather than seat times?
7. Is it responsive, with the ability to adapt to the evolution of learner demands, employer needs, and workforce trends?

We all have a stake in increasing the availability and access to quality opportunities for learning. If you’re looking to learn more about the future of work and learning in 2020 and beyond, download our whitepaper here.  

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Register for our next webinar: Best practices for communications during the COVID-19 crisis

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

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page.

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Two weeks ago, e27 made a decision to help as many startups in the ecosystem as possible, and today, we have come across over 400 companies offering discounts on their products and services.

And the list keeps growing.

We aim to publish these deals on our website eventually. In the meantime, we have created a temporary sheet to showcase the deals that we have received, which we will be populating until our site is fully developed.

In case you missed our previous article and would like to submit your product for a showcase, you can fill up the form here.

To kickstart this, here are five such companies, which are providing services that could be useful for the current widespread work-from-home arrangements:

Lark Technologies

What is the product: Lark is an all-in-one platform that addresses businesses’ collaboration needs, allowing everyone to work remotely and effortlessly. 

To support fellow businesses, Lark is giving away free three-year subscriptions.

Click here for more details.

Use Case: With remote working becoming the norm, companies have turned to various online tools and software in a bid to become more productive with the arrangement. 

However, with numerous tools and software like chat, video conferencing and project management, employees might find themselves struggling to keep up.

Ever find yourself spending unnecessary time trying to explain something to a colleague over a message? Jump on a five-minute call, instead! Not only does Lark have various chat features to facilitate conversations, it also offers unlimited audio and video conferencing for users to hop on a call anytime. 

With 200GB of cloud storage, users would be able to store their documents and files online for others to have easy reference and retrieval, too.

Interestingly, Lark also has an Integrated Health Tracker that allows employees to update their health statuses daily.

This would especially be relevant to the current COVID-19 outbreak.

Managers would be able to keep track of their employees’ health and well-being and take immediate action when any red flags pop out.

EngageRocket

What is the product: EngageRocket is a cloud-based software that helps organisations make better people decisions through employee life-cycle surveys, 360 feedbacks, and continuous performance management.

To help companies ensure that their employees are adjusting well and performing effectively with the current remote working environment, the firm has made its service available for free until May 31, 2020 for all companies. 

Click here to view more details.

Use Case: For companies that have recently adopted the work-from-home arrangement, many employees often struggle to adjust to it. Coupled with the personal concerns and issues that employees might have, their well-being, productivity and performance levels would be adversely affected.

Thus, it could be useful for companies to make use of EngageRocket to get continuous feedback from the employees. This could be related to the overall effectiveness of working from home, or any general issues they are facing, allowing companies to enact changes fast with the real-time data provided. 

There are many other productivity tools out there that are also offering discounts to aid businesses in making effective use of remote working. You can check out the full-list here. 

Toasty 

What is the product: Toasty is an audience engagement platform for virtual meetups, workshops, and team meetings that facilitates highly interactive experiences and real human connections.

To help recreate in-person experiences online during the COVID-19 period, Toasty has lowered its price to US$39 (from US$59), which includes a one-month free trial.

Click here to view more details.

Use Case: With the outbreak of COVID-19, many events and company activities around the world have little choice but to be postponed or cancelled. Some companies are, instead, looking to bring things online and provide attendees with a different experience, while delivering the same results.

Toasty is not the platform for online conferences, webinars or 1-to-1 meetings, but it can be a good choice for companies looking for a more interactive platform that’s for team discussion, team building, and workshops & training.

With the various features it has to keep the participants active and engaged, external virtual events and meetups could now be a viable option in place of the physical ones. Internally, you can also keep team meetings organized with seamless breakout rooms that allow for smaller, more focused discussions.

Pigeonhole

What is the product: Pigeonhole is a platform for live Q&As, polls, quizzes, and surveys, and a perfect companion in driving more engagement at your virtual meetings. 

To help companies hold more effective and interactive meetings amid the current situation, PigeonLab is upgrading the free plan to support video conferencing and live-streaming tools until June 30, 2020. 

Click here to view more details.

Use Case: With most companies adopting the work-from-home arrangement, video conferencing is now the go-to, whether it is for internal meetings or external workshops. 

However, unlike physical meetings where interactions have easily facilitated both ways, online sessions present a new set of challenges. It is not easy to have the same level of engagement in online meetings.

With all the integrations and features linked to video conferencing and live-streaming tools now available with the free version of Pigeonhole, companies can tap on this for more interactive and productive meetings.

There are other similar services in the market that help complement video conferencing in businesses. Check out the full list here.

JANDI

What is the product: JANDI is a collaboration tool for effective teamwork and smoother workflows. It aims to provide users with convenient communication, file sharing and quick feedback without the need for emails — all on a single platform. 

To support fellow businesses to improve their efficiency of remote working in these difficult times, JANDI is offering a free enterprise version for one year to all businesses.

Click here to view more details.

Use Case: Communication is crucial in companies to ensure that everyone is on the same page and is kept abreast of each other’s progress and tasks at hand. The physical environment of working together allows for short huddles for quick communication and decision making. 

In contrast, employees have to rely on chats and emails to communicate with one another during remote work, causing important conversations and files to disappear in the everyday noise. 

With constant communication happening among employees, different topics often get mixed up, and essential files often get buried under the stack of documents sent around. JANDI’s features, including the Chat Rooms and File Search, allow users to keep track of vital conversations and materials in an organised way while being able to access them at their convenience.

These are currently five out of the many companies, which have stepped forward to offer a helping hand to other businesses in the community.

To view the other discounts and offerings by other companies to help support the ecosystem, click here.

Have an offering/discount for the community? Fill up this form. 

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Indonesia-based accounting app BukuWarung raises seed funding led by East Ventures

BukuWarung, an Indonesia-based accounting app for MSMEs to digitise their bookkeeping, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding in a round led by East Ventures.

AC Ventures (previously Agaeti Ventures & Convergence Ventures), Golden Gate Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Indonesian billionaire Michael Sampoerna joined the round, with strategic angel investment from Grab, Gojek, Flipkart, PayPal, Xendit, Rapyd, Alterra, ZEN Rooms, and others.

The company will use the funds to strengthen its market leadership and expand its team to grow across engineering, product, design, growth, and partnerships based out of Jakarta.

BukuWarung was founded in late 2019 by Abhinay Peddisetty and Chinmay Chauhan — both previously worked together at Carousell.

The app enables customers (merchants), who are mainly from tier II and III cities, to receive credit repayments three times faster than the traditional method, claims the company. This helps them improve cash-flow due to automated payment reminders sent by the app.

PLDT, KKR, Tencent, others invest up to US$120M in Philippines’s Voyager Innovations

Voyager Innovations, a tech company based in the Philippines, has secured US$120 million in funding commitments from tech and investment grants, such as PLDT, the Philippines’s leading telco and digital services provider.

Other investors are KKR, Tencent, IFC, and the IFC Emerging Asia Fund, a fund managed by IFC Asset Management Company.

Also Read: Tencent invests in the Philippines’ fintech firm Voyager, aims to battle Alibaba

The investment is part of a broader fundraise for Voyager and is intended to support its fintech product PayMaya’s growth, as it pursues its mission to accelerate digital and financial inclusion in the Philippines and enable the wider Filipino population to participate in the digital economy.

In 2018, KKR, Tencent, IFC, and IFC Emerging Asia Fund made initial investments totalling US$215 million into Voyager. In doing so, they showcased their supports of Voyager and its strategy to provide access to digital financial services across the Philippines through PayMaya.

PayMaya a digital payments ecosystem enabler offering platforms and services cutting across consumers, merchants, and government. Aside from providing the acceptance of the payment for the largest e-commerce, food, retail and gas merchants in the Philippines, PayMaya also enables national and social services agencies as well as local government units with digital payments and disbursement services.

Wing Bank’s parent company to make investment in online ticket booking platform CamboTicket

Inter Logistics (Cambodia), the parent of Wing Limited Specialised Bank, has expressed its intention to invest in CamboTicket.

According to Khmer Times, the investment is aimed at scaling up online tickets and holiday bookings in Cambodia.

Operated by Sea Venture, CamboTicket offers online ticket booking and holiday planning experience in the country through Wing App and CamboTicket.com.

Established in early 2015, the startup expanded its presence into Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos covering the route to and from the major destinations of the region such as Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Kep, Kampot, Battambang, Pakse, and others.

The deal is subject to approval from the authorities, and both partners will provide strategic support on key functions.

Singapore-based edutech startup KooBits launches home-based learning, live tutoring

Singapore-based edutech startup KooBits has announced the launch of two new products — ‘Home-Based Learning’, an online mathematics learning platform, and ‘Live Tutoring’, an AI-enabled online live tutoring service — both with accompanying apps for parents to track learning progress.

This makes the first official launch of KooBits e-learning products to the consumer market, catering to parents and kids across households in Singapore and beyond.

Also Read: These Indonesian edutech startups are helping students cope and thrive during the COVID-19 crisis

The KooBits platform uses personalisation technology and gamification to support students to learn on their own; and at the same time, uses AI and big data to generate learning insights and make them visible to parents and teachers.

Through a short pre-class assignment that is part of every session, the platform automatically identifies each child’s weaknesses and gaps in learning and automatically groups them, so tutors can personalise their lesson and address relevant issues for the students during each class.

The platform also enables assignment of homework to follow up on the concepts that require reinforcement, to ensure that understanding has been achieved. Parents can also monitor what milestones their children have reached in relation to the national syllabus, and can also benchmark their child’s progress against their peers.

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Image Credit: BukuWarung

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Singapore Press Holdings, Snapask partner to offer students support for online learning

SPH, a media organisation based in Singapore has partnered with online learning website Snapask to offer students support for online learning.

Snapask will be providing over 10,000 free subscriptions for Singaporean students of all levels, while SPH is offering students 14 days online access to all news content by its flagship publication The Straits Times.

Snapask has offered similar services in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Indonesia amid the virus outbreak.

“Education is a vital part of our society, and we are honoured to collaborate with SPH to contribute via this subscription pledge,” said Timothy Yu, founder and CEO of Snapask.

Indian food delivery startup Swiggy raises US$43M from Tencent

Bengaluru, India’s food delivery startup Swiggy has raised US$43 million in new funding led by Tencent, according to TechCrunch. Ark Impact, Samsung Ventures, Korea Investment Partners and Mirae Asset Capital Markets, also joined the investment for this round. This round reportedly brings the company’s valuation to US$3.6 billion.

The new capital will be used for Swiggy’s expansion into grocery delivery services in select parts of the region.

“As we continue to strengthen and expand our services that offer unparalleled convenience to our consumers, we are humbled by the faith shown by our investors year-on-year and welcome the new investors on board. Our focus remains to execute on our vision while building a sustainable path to profitability,” said Rahul Bothra, CFO at Swiggy in a statement.

Agritech platform DeHaat bags US$12M in a Series A growth round

The Indian agritech platform DeHaat has raised US$12 million in a Series A round according to YourStory. The round was led by Sequoia Capital with participation from FMO, and existing investors Omnivore and AgFunder.

With the added capital the company aims to automate its supply chain and develop its data analytics further to increase supply chain efficiency.

Founded in 2012 by Shashank Kumar, Amrendra Singh, Adarsh Srivastav, Shyam Sundar Singh, and Abhishek Dokania, the AI-enabled platform provides end-to-end solutions and services to the farming community in India.

Also Read:  News Roundup: RaRa Delivery raises over US$800K funding; Nusantics completes COVID-19 test kit prototype

These include distribution of high-quality Agri inputs, farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling produce.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

 

 

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Agaeti Ventures and Convergence Ventures, two active venture capital firms in Indonesia, has announced their merger this morning. AC Ventures (ACV), as the new entity is known, will continue to make early-stage investments.

The merger has been in the works since the third quarter of last year. According to Adrian Li, one of the Partners of ACV, the objective is to consolidate the resources of both firms “to create a platform of exponential value that can provide significant support to our portfolio founders as they build and scale successful businesses across Indonesia, the largest market in Southeast Asia”.

In this interview with e27, Li talks about ACV’s plans, the COVID-19 crisis, and more.

Edited excerpts:

What was the primary motive for the merger? Where do you see a ‘convergence’ of interests for both? Does it have anything to do with the current COVID-19 crisis?

Our primary motive was to combine the experience, network and teams of both platforms to form a stronger overall venture firm. Our prior firms both had similar strategies — our focus on Indonesia, early-stage technology, as well as we believe in being strong operating partners of founders.

Also Read: Indonesian VC firms Convergence and Agaeti merge to form AC Ventures

It has nothing to do with the current crisis as the merger has been in the works since Q3 2019.

What is the total size of ACV?

We are currently in the process of working on the new fund. Given the present macro environment, we do not have the total size confirmed.

The press release says ACV will continue to make early-stage investments in Indonesia. Do you expect to cut bigger cheques, given the rapidly-changing market dynamics?

Our plan for ACV is to invest in early-stage companies from a few hundred thousand to a few million US dollars.

Does ACV have special focus on any particular vertical? Also have you made any investment from ACV yet? Can you share the names?

The investment thesis of the new fund continues their prior funds’ respective successful investment strategies of investing in Indonesia-focused, early-stage, technology opportunities.

In particular, the teams are seeking investment opportunities into areas of e-commerce, digital content enabled services, financial technologies and MSME enabling technology.

We have made investments in several ventures to date. We will be announcing them in due course.

The COVID-19 is ravaging industries. Do you think the crisis will alter the startup landscape for ever if the situation persists longer than expected?

COVID-19 crisis is different compared to previous financial recessions; in this situation, there are serious health considerations. Quarantines and lockdowns are forcing people to change behaviours and driving faster adoption to technology such as online education, health consultation, digital entertainment and e-commerce.

Also Read: The global financial crisis gave birth to fintech. What will COVID-19 recession bring?

Like all crises, economies and societies will recover. This time, technology- enabled businesses will be better positioned than ever to serve consumers and businesses.

How can startups come out of this crisis?

The COVID-19 crisis affects startups asymmetrically. Some are experiencing a surge in demand such as online education and e-commerce and delivery. Others, such as travel and hospitality, have seen revenue go to zero.

In all cases, startup ventures, which are dependent on investor funding and are still burning cash, will need to focus on conserving cash and ensuring their survival during this period. Once the market recovers, those who are best capitalised will be best positioned to gain market share and grow.

What are the trends in the early-stage VC investment space in Indonesia?

Increasingly funds are seeking out opportunities that focus on the MSME space and moving on from pure consumer-focused opportunities. The 60 million MSMEs drive half of Indonesia’s economy but the vast majority do not use any technology-enabled services or applications. This is a huge opportunity for efficiency and value and it is drawing strong investor interest.

I recently read in an interview that Indonesia is facing an early-stage investment fatigue. What is your view?

I don’t think so. We believe there is still plenty of opportunities for early-stage investment and the market is ripe for further disruption by technology-enabled companies with better talent, consumer/SME adoption and capital available for entrepreneurs than ever before.

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Same-day delivery service startup RaRa raises over US$800K in seed funding from 500 Startups

RaRa Delivery, a last-mile, same-day delivery service for e-commerce businesses in Southeast Asia, has secured US$834,000 in a seed funding round, led by 500 Startups, with angel investment from Angel Central led by Der Shing Lim.

Other investors in the round are GK-Plug n Play; Royston Tay, Co-founder and former CEO at Zopim (acquired by Zendesk); Yang Bin Kwok, Co-Founder and ex-CTO at Zopim; Vidit Agarwal, Head of BD at Stripe; Neelesh Suryavanshee, VP Marketing, Unilever Indonesia; and Vishal Gupta, VP Digital Transformation, Unilever.

Also Read: Indonesia is ripe for further disruption by tech-enabled firms: Adrian Li of AC Ventures

Karan Bhardwaj, Founder and CEO of RaRa Delivery, said that the funds will be used to acquire talent in Business Development, Operations, and Technology to further expand RaRa’s business in Indonesia.

With e-commerce GMV in Indonesia expected to reach around US$97 billion by 2025, consumers are now looking for faster and convenient delivery options, preferably a one-day delivery.

E-commerce giants such as Lazada, Shopee, and Bukalapak have already leveraged RaRa’s express same-day delivery services. RaRa is a graduate of GK-Play and Play Indonesia Batch 4 in April 2019.

Indonesian genomic startup Nusantics completes a COVID-19 qPCR test kit design prototype

Nusantics, an East Ventures-backed genomic startup, has finished a design prototype of qPCR diagnostic that can specifically detect SARS-CoV-2 virus on Friday.

The design process and laboratory testing of the test kit, named NUSANTARA TFRIC-19, was carried out by Nusantics as a member of COVID-19 Research and Technology Innovation Task Force (TFRIC19) formed by Indonesia Technology Assessment and Application Agency (BPPT).

CTO of Nusantics Revata Utama explained that Nusantics designed the NUSANTARA TFRIC-19 using genomic data from the SARS-CoV-2 Asia strain. Nusantics conducted a bioinformatics analysis of aligning the genetic sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 strains to specify target genes.

Based on the result, Nusantics decided to target two SARS-CoV-2 genes called as RDRP gene (that the virus uses to self-replicate after infecting a human cell) and N gene (which protects its nucleus).

It then tested the sensitivity and specificity of the prototype using RNA isolates acquired from abroad. Isolates from other countries are used to accelerate development while waiting for local RNA isolates to be available.

The test showed that NUSANTARA TFRIC-19 can specifically detect the SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, and not sensitive to the genome of SARS-CoV-1 or other Coronaviruses.

Also Read: BIT, parent of Myanmar’s e-book store Wun Zinn, nets “7-figure USD” Series B funding

As the next step, Nusantics will validate the kit using samples from local COVID-19 cases. The BPPT Task Force for COVID-19 is currently still waiting for samples from the Indonesia Agency of Health Research and Development (Litbangkes). After the local sample is available, the validation process will take two to three days.

Indian omnichannel beauty retailer Nykaa raises US$13M funding from Steadview Capital

India-based online beauty and skincare retailer Nykaa has raised US$13 million in funding from Steadview Capital, just a year after it closed a Series E financing round led by TPG Growth.

According to EconomicTimes, the company was founded in 2012 by former merchant banker Falguni Nayar. So far, it has expanded into newer categories such as the men’s grooming segment, and launching Nykaa Pro, and also stepped into an offline retail business.

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Image Credit: Nusantics

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Updates: The article has been updated on how users will be contacted 

Singapore-headquartered Madison Technologies has launched an independent contact-tracing website, called CovCT, to control and limit the spread of the virus globally.

The platform requires users to scan a QR code at different locations or visit the URL on the browser, where they can check in with their details. This will allow them to remember the places they have been to and help local authorities trace and isolate cases of the virus with the information.

Building management, business owners and community leaders can get the QR Code poster by registering their venue on the CovCT website. After this, a CovCT kit will be provided along with instructions.

If a positive case has been detected at a location, it will be highlighted in the user’s history. Authorities can request for the data and choose to notify the users in the event of an outbreak in certain locations.

According to the company CovCT will never reach out to users with the personal details collected.

Also Read: [Updated] Singapore develops contact tracing app to limit COVID-19 spread

While governments around the world have directed for a lockdown, there is still some room for the virus to spread as asymptomatic carriers come into contact with others when they go out to buy essential items.

“Currently, our platform requires users to scan a QR code or visit a URL on a browser. However, we are working on solutions where this can be rolled out in a “kiosk mode” where visitors can check in the absence of a smartphone or working internet connectivity,” an employee of the company told e27.

According to the firm, this is not a money-generating project but is an initiative that aims to contribute to the collective war against COVID-19. ” CovCT was built to provide authorities from different countries a solution to gather information on the movement and spread of the virus,” said CEO Praburaajan Selvarajan.

Many people worldwide have expressed their concern about data privacy when using contact tracing apps. However, CovCT ensures that data remains anonymous for users, claims the CEO.

“The CovCT platform will protect all personal data. The data collected will be stored privately and anonymised on the platform and will not be shared with any individuals, businesses or the locations where the users have checked in. Instead, the data will be held in trust until requested by relevant local authorities who will, with their respective contact tracing protocols, choose to contact these users,” he added.

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Image Credit: CovCT

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I have been having really dramatic dreams lately that including falling, crying and waking up with regrets. But when I read a similar NYT article on how this is not uncommon, I felt comforted.

The COVID-19 pandemic has promulgated a sense of uncertainty amongst all of us that is not letting us sleep very peacefully on most nights.

From work to eating and especially to social interaction; all aspects of your lives are undergoing a massive shift. While the hope is that the situation will improve soon, and we all will go back to ‘life as usual’, managing the ensuing anxiety and stress are necessary.

Instagram influencers, hustlers, VCs, and governments cannot stress enough on the need to remain calm and focus on the positive. In India, PM Modi even organised a nation-wide ‘light a candle’ movement to reinforce a sense of unity and calm in the mind of the billions in India struggling with the lockdown.

But how can one do it at an individual level? MindFi founder, Bjorn Lee said it only takes 100 seconds for our mind and body to calm down. I almost didn’t believe it until the e27 webinar last week.

Not only did Lee, share his 100-second mindfulness technique, but he also helped us all experience a sweet sense of calm in the middle of a busy day and week for most of us.

From calming our nerves to checking in with every part of our body (even the often ignored wiggly toes), he guided us to shirk off any stress hidden anywhere inside our body, such that our minds could feel lighter.

If you missed it, here’s the session recap. Find a quiet spot, sit in a comfortable position and slowly follow his lead. I bet you will feel refreshed.

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Register for our next webinar: Best practices for communications during the COVID-19 crisis

Image credit: Victor Garcia on Unsplash

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