Not long ago, a real estate agent in Singapore pocketed US$132,800 of a client’s money and used it to renovate his own home. He was caught and jailed for it, but such cases have, unfortunately, occurred more than once in the city-state’s property landscape.

This is obviously a cause of concern with genuine homebuyers. If one wishes to transact through an agent, how would clients find a trustworthy broker?

This is where proptech comes into play.

Digital brokerage models such as Redfin (United States), Lianjia (China), and Bluenest (Singapore) bring greater efficiency and transparency to their respective property markets. These platforms blend technology with the expertise of local real estate agents to organise workflows and reduce information asymmetry.

How proptech bridges the information gap in the market

For example, US-based Redfin displays data on their agents’ property transactions as well as customer reviews. This way, clients need not rely solely on the word of friends or family to gauge whether an agent would be a good fit for them.

Redfin also pioneered map-based property searches in the US, allowing buyers to view key data points about each property and even compare shortlisted units side by side.

Also Read: gojek-backer Samsung Ventures invests in Indonesian proptech startup Travelio, to focus more in Southeast Asian startups

Closer to home, Bluenest uses an AI platform to generate indicative price estimates for properties, giving buyers and sellers more accurate information to begin their transaction journeys. The agency has also come up with a commission model that pegs agent compensation to customer satisfaction, incentivising agents to work in their clients’ best interest.

What else does it bring?

At this point, property agents are independent contractors who have to handle the entire transaction process from start to finish. But up to 80 per cent of their time can be spent driving to different viewings, marketing properties, and sourcing for leads.

This is an inefficient process – and the costs are generally passed on to the end-users.

Proptech resolves this in a few ways:

Better data and control

By aggregating property listings on just a few platforms, digital real estate brokerages can provide more detailed metrics about the performance of property listings. Clients have easy access to this data, which grants them more control over the transaction process.

Also Read: Thailand’s proptech FazWaz secures pre-Series A funding from undisclosed Singaporean group

More choices

Instead of relying primarily on information passed on from their agents, clients have the freedom to browse through and shortlist property listings on their own.

Less time spent travelling

Virtual listings and 360° online tours enable users to view properties from the comfort of their own homes. This eliminates one of the major headaches in the house-hunting process: being stuck in traffic. Traffic congestion is a real problem in Southeast Asia, with one study finding that the average Filipino loses 16 days a year to it.

Greater exposure targeted marketing: By outsourcing marketing to the digital agency’s operations team, property agents can help their clients list their properties on all the major portals quickly and effectively. Agents can then focus on advisory, leading to a higher-than-average closing rate for their clients.

The end result? Agents help their customer’s close deals faster, and clients save a significant amount of commission.

Also Read: Proptech is changing the face of real estate in Asia Pacific

Such technology will take precedence over the traditional ways of doing things in the coming years. Internet penetration in Southeast Asia may only be at 65 per cent today, but we are expecting double-digit growth year-on-year.

New adopters will quickly adapt to existing tech in the property market, further leveraging on it to resolve issues such as:

• The fragmented real estate market (i.e. inaccurate or simply a lack of information). Good governance and support are required for a successful transformation to take place. Back at home, the Singapore government launched the Smart Nation Initiative, which includes a “Real Estate Industry Transformation Map.” This map established a workgroup to focus on creating and streamlining standardised processes by 2020, including the implementation of digitalised contract templates and checklists.
• Lengthy transaction times and inconsistent user experiences. Today, we can easily shop online and check out with a single click. In the same vein, we should expect the convergence of proptech so that customers can purchase their ideal homes with a few clicks.

With technology already revolutionising fields such as transportation, commerce, agriculture, and even construction, it was only a matter of time before the property scene caught up.

And it is sorely needed, too – consumers are becoming more and more discerning and will demand no less.

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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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When I meet with new startup founders, the one question I get asked about is ‘raising money’. This is smart of them as fundraising is an essential core competence of any startup. As much as I enjoy talking about funding, I rarely –almost never– heard from these entrepreneurs on ‘what does it take to get funded?’

Hence, I want to spend some time talking about a subject that has the greatest importance in what is called the “pitch deck” and what it should comprise of.

So, let’s start with the fundamentals!

What is a pitch deck and/or investor pitch?

The reason I want to talk about pitch decks is simple: I see too many that are simply not good or has missing information.

An investor pitch is a presentation of your business model that shows the potential for growth and viability. It is a summary of your business in 15-25 slides containing key information of your business idea.

Raising capital from investors is difficult and time consuming. It is key for a startup to get the  investor pitch deck close to perfection as possible by not forgetting to articulate a compelling and interesting story!

In this article, as an investor I am providing important advice for creating a strong, thorough, and engaging investor pitch deck, along with guidance on presenting to private equity and venture capital investors.

Also Read: Do farmers need pitch decks? The case for capital in agri-tech

Important Do’s and don’ts for investor pitch decks

Too many startups make a number of avoidable mistakes when creating their investor pitch decks. Here is a list of preliminary do’s and don’ts to keep in mind:

Pitch Deck Do’s

• Do catch the audience from the beginning, for example with a catchy slogan or intro.
• Be enthusiastic, be yourself. You have all information in your hands.
• Keep it short and concise (15-20 slides) and keep to the time-limit given for your presentation
• Take the time given and if possible, use less time than allowed, leaving room for questions and comments.
• Anticipate questions and prepare potential answers.
• Do practice your pitch and improve content and presentation style ongoing.
• Practice your pitch in front of a friend you can trust for rehearsal and who can – and will criticise you. And practice again and again and again.
• Dress up if the audience requires a more formal presentation.
• If helpful prepare a checklist what to bring along with you in order not to forget anything.
• Be well-prepared and double-check if you have everything ready for the presentation in advance.
• With all this, stay relaxed and be confident with your enterprise.

Pitch Deck Don’ts

• Don’t be anxious and do mind your body language (practice in front of a mirror, if needed).
• Don’t talk too much about obvious things.
• Don’t have too many wordy slides.
• Don’t rush through the slides.
• Don’t read your slides but speak freely and tell a story.
• Don’t provide excessive financial details, as that can be provided in a follow-up.
• Don’t have a poor layout, bad graphics, or a low-quality “look and feel.”
• Don’t try to cover everything in the pitch deck

Also Read: The perfect pitch deck

What are the key slides you want in your investor pitch deck?

You want your investor pitch deck to cover the following topics, roughly in the order set forth here and with titles along the lines of the following:

• Company Overview
• Mission/Vision of the Company
• The Problem
• The Solution
• Market Validation
• Market Size
• Competition
• Competitive Advantages
• Business Model
• Customer Acquisition
• Management Team
• Financial Projection
• Current Status/Milestones
• Ask
• Use of Funds

1. Company Overview
It is an overview of the most important points about your company. You can summarise it in several bullet points.

For example, here is what your “Company Overview” page could contain: A quick and easy way to understand your business, its products and services towards a potential investor.

2. Mission/Vision
A good Mission/Vision statement is a useful tool for a well-run business. It is the “why” of business strategy.

• It defines what the company does for its customers
• It defines what the company does for its employees
• It defines what the company does for its owners

The more concrete the story, the better. And keep that in mind for the actual mission statement wording: “The more concrete, the better.”

3. The Problem
The problem slide of your investor pitch deck or presentation is a key section of your investor deck the reason is that you really don’t have a business if you are not solving a problem. This slide gives you the opportunity to state the problem that exists.

It is always a great idea to make it as simple as possible.

One of the things you want to avoid, is having a wordy pitch deck, investors do not have the time to read every line, so you want to state the problem in one or two sentences.

And when you have several problems to state, it is best to use icons or text boxes to separate the different problems you are stating.

Also Read: Pro pitch deck tips for beginners

4. The Solution
In your investor pitch deck, having stated the problems that exist, the next slide gives you a perfect sequence to state the solution you are offering.

After stating the problem, it is advisable to use the same formula you used in stating the Problem, which is, to keep it short and simple using one or two sentences to state your main Solution point and if your Solution has different parts, make use of icons or text boxes to separate your Solution points if your Solution cannot be captured in one or two sentences.

Why now: The “Why now?” slide needs to focus on what is going on in your industry and society at large that makes the timing of your business so prescient. Try to include the “Answer” to “why now” on this section of your pitch deck.

5. Market Validation
When you look at AirBnB’s Investor Pitch Deck or Startup Pitch Deck, you would see that they have a market validation slide, while this slide is not a must-have, it is a good idea to have it in your startup pitch presentation or investor deck.

The market validation is where you put key market information to validate that your business solution really has a “market” or that it is viable.

This could be stating the number of products you have sold so far, or even putting profitable statistics of your competitors such as their annual revenue, products sold, etc.

6. Market Size
As a global standard, when stating your market size you want to have the previous performance and future expectation or projection of your market captured.

This would help the venture capitalist or angel investor that is going through your startup pitch deck; see the growth opportunity in your market.

7. Competition
Sometimes, there are entrepreneurs who do not like to admit that they have competitors; this is not a very good idea.

As a matter of fact, when you say you do not have competitors in your market, it shows two things:

• The business is not lucrative that is why others are not interested.
• The entrepreneur doesn’t know is market enough to know the competition.
• See, every business has competition; it could be direct or indirect. See more on the direct and indirect competition.

So, ensure you state your competition.

Also Read: An investor’s guide to creating a great pitch deck

8. Competitive Advantages
After establishing the competition, the next thing is for you to state in your investor pitch deck is your unique advantages over the competition.

• Is your delivery time faster?
• Are you offering a better service at a lower price?
• Do you have better technology?
• You want to be very clear in stating the things that make your solution better than what already exists in the market.

9. Business Model
A key slide that startup investors pay attention to is your business model slide. This is because; this is the slide in your investor pitch deck, where they expect to see how you make money. So, use this slide to state your revenue model:

• Are you operating a subscription model or one-off payment?
• If you are selling a product, what is the unit selling price and how many quantities do you project to sell per month, year, etcetera?

Make sure that your business model slide will not leave a startup investor or venture capitalist wondering how you make money.

Don’t mix up business model with business plan.

10. Customer Acquisition
Think about it, if you have a good product, and you do not have customers or people buying your product, that would result in zero sales!

In this slide, you want to show in your investor pitch deck or presentation, how you would acquire customers or clients, what strategies do you intend to employ?

State it! Ensure that your customer acquisition plan is actionable; it doesn’t help to state strategies that you cannot execute.

11. Management Team
Interestingly, most investors would tell you that investors invest in people first before they invest in ideas!

So, if you have a solid team behind your business, be quick to state it, and more importantly, you want to show their credibility; why they are a good fit for your business.

This could be by stating their previous roles, and key achievements.

But one thing you do not want to do is to use long sentences in stating why they are credible, it is better to use bullet points in stating the different achievements for each team member.

This makes it easy for one to see the highlights of their achievements.

Also Read: Save yourselves and stop making these pitch deck mistakes

12. Financial Projection
Okay! So how much do you project to make?

Well, the financial projections slide is where you want to give your projections.

As a standard, a three- or five-years projection is ideal! instead of stating you would make some big bucks overnight, state your financial projections in a way that it accommodates your business growth.

So, it is expected that your total revenue for Year 2 should be greater than the revenue for Year 1.

Do not forget to state your revenue, expenses, and profit/loss in this section.

Obviously, there is an art to presenting all of this information in a way that shows your business as the most compelling money-spawning creation.

13. Current Status/Milestones
This is yet another very important slide investors want to see when you are pitching your idea or business to them. Through the years, I have seen businesses fail to raise funds because they could not state their traction, either while presenting it physically or on their deck.

If you have already made some progress with your business, this is the slide to state; it is simply answering questions such as:

• Where are you currently?
• What have you achieved so far?

So, let’s say you have your prototype, active customers, you are already making a profit, and things like that, this is the slide you want to state it!

14. Ask
So, after stating all these amazing points in your slides and you have captured your reader’s attention, this slide gives you the opportunity to state what you want.

If you are seeking equity investment, how much is it and what is the percentage equity that you are offering in return?

Make it very clear in your investor pitch deck what you want. Now is the time to state what you want in your investor pitch deck or startup pitch deck and you know what? State it!

15. Use of Funds
It is important you note that the Use of Fund’s slide of your investor pitch deck can be merged with your ASK slide.

In this slide, you will want to articulate why investors should invest with you, how much investment you are seeking, and what you plan on using this investment.

Here are some of the questions you will want to answer in this slide:

• How much capital are you requesting in order to get your product to the next level?
• What is the breakdown of how you are planning to use this capital? (What are you going to spend it on?)
• Why is this a good investment for your potential investors?

Conclusion
Now that you have all the essential pieces to a great investor pitch deck, the last and final piece of the puzzle is being able to convey it in an easy narrative that anyone can understand. And the best way to do this is to create a story around your pitch.

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The article was first published on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: Campaign Creators on Unsplash

The post How to create a great investor pitch deck appeared first on e27.

Most startups will try to fashion their employee hiring programmes after big-name companies. After all, the reason they got so big is that they use tried and tested hiring techniques, right?

However, what works for established multinational organisations that have been existing for some time will not necessarily apply to a business entity that is just finding its legs. In Resumeble’s experience, it is a common pitfall of all startup founders to think like a big company from the get-go, especially when it comes to their hiring practices.

Most unfortunate of all, this mismatch of talent, demand, and understanding of what kind of employee a startup needs to look for to thrive, is one of the primary reasons why so many great ideas fail.

Numbers from the year 2014 from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that of all the small businesses started that year, only 80 per cent made it to the second year, and the numbers only got worse as the years progressed, with merely 56 per cent surviving to year five.

And though a lot of factors play into why many startups find success elusive, one stands out from the rest —a recent study published by CB Insight says that the inability to find the right talent is the reason for 23 per cent of small businesses’ failure to launch.

This reason is made all the more glaring by the fact that it is entirely avoidable and easily solvable. Evidently, these failed startups chose the wrong candidates.

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

At the early stages of business, founders need to have a vision for the company and find the talent who has what it takes to realise that vision.

But how does one find the right person for the job? It all starts with knowing what to look for in your applicant’s resume.

Startup experience

When looking at an applicant’s job experience, many founders will favour those who have worked for big companies over those employed by startups in the past, for the obvious reason that big names have bigger, more widely known reputations than small ones. However, opting for the latter can be even more rewarding for those just launching their business ventures.

Generally speaking, work in large organisations is traditional, rigid and tightly controlled. At the same time, startups often require their people to be flexible with their hours and be willing to put in extra work frequently.

Reportedly, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey had to put in 100 weekly hours at work at the beginning of his ventures, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk supposedly worked 120 hours a week early on.

Only someone who has worked at a startup before will understand that long hours are part of the job. Like an infant, your new business needs more nurture, care, and attention than usual. You need to know that the people you hire have got the character and tenacity to carry you through your company’s growing pains.

Also Read: Why working at a startup is a better way to launch your career

Provable tangible results

A results-driven applicant—one who will provide real, tangible value to the business—is a must for any startup, more so than any other business. You simply cannot afford someone who will just be ‘going through the motions’ day in and day out.

Thus, when looking at a candidate’s resume, you need to look at work achievements that are both measurable and unique to their position. Keep in mind that accomplishments are different from duties and responsibilities.

Resume accomplishments tell you that the applicant has the drive to go above and beyond the expected job requirements.

• Did the applicant help the company make or save money? How much?
• Did the applicant help the company reach its goals? How fast?
• Did the applicant exceed the company’s goals set for them? To what degree?

High quality work accomplishments are measurable, observable, and provable. Look at the specifics of how your applicant did what they claim to have done.

Culture fit

Statistics show that a company’s culture has a direct impact on employee turnover. According to a Gallup poll, 20.2 per cent of employees quit because of poor organisational fit.

You will want to make sure your new-hire is fitting in with your team, both now and in the future. Find someone who can share your vision and who understands that they have a massive role in making the company better. Investigate their passions, hobbies, and interests, and see if they align with yours or your existing team’s.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Malaysian food delivery startup Dahmakan raises US$18M in Series B

You also need to look beyond their resume and scope their online and social media profiles to get a sense of their personalities. During the job interview, discuss and ask thoughtful questions about their passions outside of work.

‘In it for the long haul’

Too many employees leave startups for big brands, which can devastate the entire enterprise. You certainly do not want to hire someone who will get up and go the moment a better opportunity presents itself.

While it’s hard to compete with the career advancement and promotional opportunities offered by other companies, find someone who respects the startup business model and shows that they want to grow with the company. Find the signs in your applicant’s resume that demonstrate they will be a good long-term asset.

While researching their employment history, verify how they work and who they are as a colleague. On that note, it’s best to avoid hiring employees who are still deciding on a career path.

Their cover letter should also contain statements that say they are willing to invest in the company’s growth. It should say something along the lines of “I’m willing to take on responsibilities that aren’t part of the job description.”

In closing

As a founder, the way you go about choosing your hires can make or break your newfound business. Though the ideal candidate will be someone who has all the qualities listed above, that’s not likely to happen.

The key is not to give up too fast, rush into closing the position, or hire someone just because they use buzzwords and famous names on their resume.

Also Read: Why you should never intern at a startup (especially e27)

Take your time, meet candidates both in a formal setting and invite them out for lunch, talk about things outside work and, most importantly, trust your gut.

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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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You have built a tech startup to provide an outstanding solution, but your audience might not understand it in the beginning. 

Yeah, it happens. Sometimes, your target audience is not fully aware of how brilliant your idea is. And the task to explain the concept of your startup is on your shoulders. 

Whether you deal in AI chatbots, provide an e-commerce platform to farmers or run a P2P gadget rental service, you should leave no stone unturned to make people aware of it.

In this article, I am going to share six tips to help you build awareness for your tech startup.

Create tons of useful content

Creating content that benefits your prospects is the first step towards building awareness. Write articles, make videos, and design infographics regularly to make your prospects well-informed.

Use the tactics of content marketing artfully to get leads simultaneously. Tech startups such as Asana, HubSpot and many others built their base by focusing on content marketing.

When people see your content regularly, they will follow you and gradually understand how you and your startup can help them.

Also Read: The A, B, and C of startup branding

Address your target audience’s pain points through your content and educate them about the purpose of your startup. Show people what you do.

Explore opportunities for being interviewed

Appearing in various interviews can provide a significant boost to brand awareness of your startup.

By talking about the latest trends, bringing insights about your industry and showing yourself as a problem solver, you can create a buzz around your startup.

So, reach out to magazines, local radio channels or podcast hosts who invite guests for interviews. Many online publications too, interview budding startups. You can pitch in to check if they are looking for guests.

Keep an eye open for opportunities. And when you grab one, show your authority.

Start a podcast to help the community

Podcasts are popular, and they are perfect to explain your startup idea in an easy way. Pack your podcast with relevant information and content, which will help the community.

You can talk about what you do, answer the frequently asked questions of your target audience and provide actionable tips to get them through their struggles. 

Also Read: The podcast fever: why are listeners tuning in more frequently than ever?

The better you are in engaging your listeners, the higher are the chances of getting people interested in your startup.

Launch a podcast to offer relevant solutions. And your startup will soon be a household name among your audience. 

Choose the right platform to spread the word

It will not be fruitful if your target audience is hanging out on YouTube, and you are trying to entice them on Facebook. Knowing where your audience hangs out is the key to boosting brand awareness.

So, find if they are on Reddit, Twitter or looking out for solutions on a niche tech forum. And be there; listening to them and helping them with appropriate solutions.

Get into the right platform, enter the discussions and spread the word out about your startup.

Adopt a freemium model if you can

People love free products and a freemium model for your tech startup can create plenty of awareness. It will attract many eyeballs to your services.

Even if you cannot go for a freemium service model, you can offer free trials.

Getting helpful features for free will pull in many prospects to use your product. You can also offer incentives or unlock paid services to encourage people to refer to others.

So, adopt a freemium model if you can and promote your offers to your target audience.

Write guest posts

Contributing valuable guest articles to niche sites and renowned blogs in your industry can also help you in creating some awareness for your tech solution startup.

Through guest posting, you make a name for yourself and your newly founded startup.

Along with spreading awareness, guest writing on popular websites would portray you as a thought leader and boost your startup’s branding too.

You should create practical articles to share on the websites known among your target audience. 

Write guest posts that are unique and memorable, and which help you share the idea and the vision of your startup among the readers.

Final words

Popularising your tech startup and getting it the recognition it deserves is not an easy task. But being out in front of your audience, supporting them and marketing your startup alongside will bring the benefits for sure.

So, broadcast your expertise to those who matter and make them aware of your solutions. Suit up and work on your strategy.

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

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

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Singaporean VC firm Reapra backs Thai edutech startup Quest

Quest, a Thailand-based coding education platform, has just received backing from a Singapore-based VC firm Reapra and angel investors, according to TechInAsia. The amount raised is a six-digit undisclosed seed amount.

The newly-added capital will be used to further enhance its platform to create a full-stack automated teaching curriculum which will be using blockchain.

The startup has already had a history of receiving US$80,000 in grants from Depa and TED funds for its app.

Quest is looking to raise more funds from Reapra, Depa, and another investor by Q4 2020.

Indian on-demand mobility startup Vogo raises US$20 million for regional expansion

Vogo, an on-demand mobility startup announced today that it has raised US$20 million from Matrix Partners India, Kalaari Capital and Stellaris Venture Partners according to Economic Times.

The fresh funds will be used by the startup to expand regionally and strengthen its IoT technology. The company which provides on-demand scooter rentals claims to have more than 2.5 million users across India.

Also Read: How agritech is transforming life of Indonesian farmers

“There is a large opportunity to disrupt the market with the right offering and a sustainable model. Our growth has been on the back of our unique strengths of having a dock-based model… using IoT tech,” said Anand Ayyadurai, CEO of Vogo.

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Image Credit:  Aaron Burden

 

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Isla Lipana & Co./PwC Philippines (PwC) has conducted its second collaboration with QBO, the country’s first public-private initiative for startups, and IdeaSpace, a non-profit that supports early-stage technology entrepreneurship, resulting in the 2020 Philippine Startup Survey.

According to the survey, which covers questions directed to startup founders and investors about their current status as well as their plans, 77 per cent of the founders say that capital requirements are their biggest challenge. Regulatory and business concerns also exist.

Seventy-three per cent of the investors plan to invest up to US$5 million in the Philippines’s startups in the next three years.

The survey further reveals that the country’s startup ecosystem has changed over the last three years. However, challenges are to be expected, despite recent developments.

Diane Eustaquio, IdeaSpace Executive Director, shared: “The 2020 Startup Survey brings to fore the issues we need to address to strengthen and bring the ecosystem towards maturity. I’m glad to know that fewer founders mention that funding is an issue, it shows they are understanding how to address constraints and lessen risks.”

PwC Philippines’s Chairman and Senior Partner, Atty. Alexander Cabrera, is optimistic as the number of growing startups is on the rise. “This year, it is comforting that the majority of the founders are scaling up with them (founders) want to do business, and stay in business.”

Also Read: Why disruption is no longer a buzzword in the Philippines

The survey also features the participation of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) members, a 70-year-old management organisation whose over 1,000 members represent a cross-section of CEOs, COOs and other top management practitioners from the largest local and multinational companies operating in the Philippines. It encourages investors to support the ideas of the startups and help deepen the bench for future business leaders.

“While we need more investors to help fund our startups, we also need the private sector to help by becoming the customers of our startups. We all need to work together to build sustainable businesses that will provide opportunities for the Filipinos,” Cabrera said.

Changes and improvements in the scene

The survey notes that the Philippines’s startup ecosystem has changed over the last three years. The 2019 signing of the implementing rules and regulations for the Innovative Startup Act or Republic Act 11337 as well as the Revised Corporation Code allowing the incorporation of one person corporations show the government’s support in promoting entrepreneurship.

The recent investments from global investors poured into local startups from the likes of KKR, Tencent, and Ant Financial prove that the Philippines has a promising and stronger startup ecosystem.

According to the founders, the majority of them are scaling up. Majority of the founders are also very confident about the prospects for revenue growth, and almost all are planning to enter new territories in the succeeding years.

Similarly, startup investors are confident about the growth prospects of the Filipino startups. According to investors, fintech, e-commerce, and medical and healthcare technology are the top sectors that will be successful.

The year of scaling up

The investors also said that their top investment considerations for startups are the founding members, business model, and scalability.

This year, the majority of the startups are scaling up with the improved products and businesses, and only 5 per cent are in the ideating stage compared to when the Philippine Startup Survey first launched in 2017.

Back in 2017, regulatory requirements and the general economic/business situation were among the founders’ top challenges. This year, founders are more concerned with market readiness and talent acquisition as they wish to create sustainable businesses.

Also Read: Fintech in the Philippines: opportunities, challenges and why global participation is critical

The startups’ focus on business is also evident in the needed skills that the founders have identified. In 2017, the founders ranked software development as the top skill of its founding members. This year, however, entrepreneurship ranked first followed by project management and sales.

Fundraising climate

While fundraising is among the key priorities of the founders, 48 per cent admit to having walked away from a potential partnership or investment or terminated an existing partnership.

When asked why the founders identified not sharing the same vision as the top reason, the mismatch of personalities with the management team, weak management team, and lack of traction as major reasons for walking away. Surprisingly, having a low valuation only ranked fifth.

In 2019, there were over 20 disclosed deals, which include the US$72 million investment of gojek in Coins.ph as well as the US$175 million investment of KKR and Tencent in Voyager Innovations.

According to the investors who participated in this survey, 65 per cent have invested in Filipino startups, with a significant number saying they’ve invested between US$1 million and US$5 million.

What’s next

While startup dealmaking in the Philippines still lags behind the other Southeast Asian countries, a growing number of domestic and foreign investors are showing interest in deploying capital to the country. The Philippines’s young population, rising middle class, higher smartphone penetration, and ongoing reforms are among the factors that help drive the investors to the local startup ecosystem.

What’s noteworthy this time is more local corporations have started to formally establish their own venture capital vehicles. In 2019, top conglomerates such as Ayala Corporation, JG Summit, and Aboitiz Equity Ventures launched their corporate VC arms with the vision of investing in local and foreign startups.

Also Read: Are Philippines’s traditional conglomerates finally embracing corporate investing?

The investors agree that local startups should enter new markets in the next five years. While the founders have identified other areas in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia as priority markets, the investors, however, think that startups should prioritise Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore.

When asked about innovation, the investors identified technology, products and services, and business model as the top areas that the startups should focus on. With the growing number of startups in the Philippines and abroad, the investors are looking for target investees with distinct and competitive products and solutions.
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Picture Credit: 2020 Philippine Startup Survey

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In 2008, Ryan Chin, a Singaporean, and Reggie Yam, who hails from Hong Kong, founded a B2B cybersecurity company Nexusguard in Taiwan.

In 2017, with so many cloud incidents, such as website outages due to cloud failure, including the AWS outage, Chin saw a huge opportunity and decided to start a new venture to tackle this.

Chin immediately stepped down as Nexusguard CEO and invited Yam to start a venture, with the funding support from an angel investor.

An AI solution

Headquartered in Taipei, mlytics is an online platform/marketplace, on which businesses can subscribe to multiple top-tier CDNs or content delivery networks (a solution to boost website performance for their website). mlytics’s Machine Learning-trained Artificial Intelligent solution will monitor the internet and automatically route the website traffic to the best-performing CDN. This can boost the performance of a website and avoid outages.

“It would be hard to overstate the importance of avoiding downtime. Every minute your website is inaccessible represents both a financial and customer relations hit. The cumulative effect can lead to catastrophic consequences for e-commerce sites, in particular,” says Chin, CEO at mlytics. “We are trying to address this using our SaaS product.”

Also Read: 6 tried-and-tested branding tips for your startup

In other words, mlytics enables enterprises to buy and install CDN for their website, as opposed to signing up for an account individually via a different portal. All the user has to do is add his or her website to the platform. Similar to Google Tag Manager, once an initial installation is done, they can install any CDNs on their website without having to go through the technical hassle again.

“Traditionally, if you are using only one CDN and if it is underperforming or malfunctioning, your website will stop working,” Chin explains. “But with multi CDNs, along with our AI Load Balancing feature, the system can auto-detect such situation and redirect all the traffic to another CDN.”

For example, if a news portal is using Cloudflare, and suddenly Cloudflare is down without notice, the whole site goes down. Now, if the site has Cloudflare, CloudFront, and Alibaba Cloud CDNs installed, even if Cloudflare is down, the mlytics system can redirect all the traffic to CloudFront or Alibaba Cloud depending on which performs the best.

If simplified further using an analogy, let’s say you’re an e-commerce company located in the US, with customers from around the world. If a US customer places an order, the shipping won’t take too long since it’s domestic. Now, if a customer from Japan places an order, shipping will take longer since you’re shipping to Japan.

To overcome this, hiring a shipping company and using its shipping centre to preload products in Asia can vastly decrease the time of shipping.

“This is how CDN works. You have CDN PoPs (point of presence) at some of the essential locations acting as a shipping centre to deliver the website at a faster speed,” he explained.

Now, let’s say the company you hired for shipping isn’t working for the day without notice, and if a second shipping company isn’t planned, it will delay the whole shipping schedule.

“This is what happens when you use just one CDN and it fails without proper failover planning. If you have a second shipping company (CDN) ready, you can switch the operation over to assure uninterrupted operations. mlytics is this company that helps you hire multiple shipping companies (CDN) and helps you decide which shipping company to use depending on where your customer is located in,” Chin elucidated.

The firm works with multiple top-tier CDN companies, including Alibaba Cloud, Akamai, CDNetworks, Cloudflare, CloudFront (AWS), Imperva, and TencendCloud.

Expanding to Europe

Chin claims mlytics has been “doing pretty well” lately in the Southeast Asia region, and it now aims to expand to Europe in 2020. Its potential customers are medium-sized businesses in the e-commerce, multi-media (video, streaming, news), finance, and gaming.

The company has already bagged some clients — Aurora, an Asian IT solution company; DaAi, an Asian Buddhist TV station company; CloudMile, a Taiwanese firm focusing on AI solution.

The SaaS model means clients can subscribe to the service by paying a monthly fee, and cancel whenever they like without contract and restrictions. The firm also has an enterprise-grade solution, which is customised depending on the customer’s requirements.

mlytics has a staff strength of 50 people, mostly located in Taipei.

Also Read: Ready to spread your wings? 4 ways to tell your startup should

The entrepreneur-duo has extensive experience in building a company and had clear innovative visions, goals, and execution plans on how to address the existing CDN market pain point and weaknesses. As such, they planned to need very minimum capital to get the business off the ground, and manage to get mlytics off the ground (ROI and profitable) from a single angel investor.

Chin started his career as a network engineer. He had worked in some of the biggest network/telecom companies such as Siemens and AT&T. Yam started his career as an IT and network security specialist in Hong Kong and worked his way up to CIO in Nexusguard in seven years.

Lack of trust a challenge

In Chin’s opinion, B2B companies have been constrained by a lack of innovative solutions for the modern world internet delivery requirement. CDNs came into existence in the late 1990s as a means for alleviating the performance bottlenecks of the internet, and nothing much has changed since then.

“The challenge is how to disrupt an industry that has been the same for two decades, and convince businesses to make the shift,” he said. “We’re overcoming it with the right product, but we’re missing that extra punch due to the lack of credibility, social proof, and trust, which is extremely important for a SaaS business model especially in Europe and the US.”

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Image Credit: mlytics

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Business

Grab launches accelerator programme Grab Ventures Ignite in Vietnam

Grab announced that it has officially launched an accelerator programme, Grab Ventures Ignite, for early-stage startups in Vietnam as part of the ‘Grab for Good’ development roadmap.

“Grab Ventures Ignite will nurture and support promising Vietnamese startups in their journey to become national champions in Vietnam’s tech startup ecosystem, in line with the government’s national strategy to create 10 technology unicorns by 2030,” Grab said in a statement, as reported in DealStreetAsia.

The six-month programme has welcomed a partnership with Vietnam’s National Innovation Center, an entity under the local investment ministry, to execute the initiative together. GVI also collaborated with Gobi Partners, Vietnam-based Toong Coworking Space, law firm YKVN, and Amazon Web Services to provide support to startups.

According to Grab, participating startups will benefit from a curated immersion programme hosted in Singapore by Infocomm Media Development Authority and cross-border sharing with the startups in the Lion City. Up to five selected winners will be offered up to US$150,000 in investments and in-kind benefits.

The application process is open until April 10, 2020. The target sectors are not limited, but GVI said it welcomes startups focussing on mobility, food, payments, financial services, logistics, e-commerce, or artificial intelligence.

LINE-owned digital currency exchange BITFRONT expands to the US

As part of the continuing expansion of the LINE token economy, LINE Corporation has launched BITFRONT, a global digital currency exchange based in the US. Operated by LVC USA, a subsidiary of LVC Corporation, BITFRONT provides a fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto market for the US dollar.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Singapore’s VC firm Reapra backs Thai edutech startup Quest

BITFRONT will become the main digital currency exchange platform for LINE’s token economy. Previously, LINE operated the global digital asset exchange BITBOX, a crypto-to-crypto exchange based in Singapore.

However, LINE has decided to expand its services and become a full-fledged exchange that includes fiat-to-crypto markets, aiming to spur the usage of blockchain by lowering the barriers to cryptocurrency adoption.

By linking other exchanges and order books, BITFRONT provides deep liquidity and users will be able to trade in U.S. dollars by linking their bank account. BITFRONT supports five major cryptocurrencies, including LINE’s digital currency LINK, Bitcoin, Etherium, Bitcoin Cash and Tether, in 15 languages.

Finance

Indonesia’s Telkom seeks to raise up to US$500M to invest in startups

Indonesia government-controlled telco, Telkom, is raising up to US$500 million in funds for startup investments in line with the company’s plan to find a new source of growth, Reuters has reported.

The fundraising is the second fund the company has raised with a goal to invest in startups. Budi Gunadi Sadikin, the deputy minister of state-owned enterprises, said the fund is set to launch soon and is targeted to be around US$300 million to US$500 million in size.

“This is important because Telkom is an industry with very high capital expenditure with declining EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) and flattening revenue,” Sadikin said. “We have to move on from only digital infrastructure to digital platform and digital sources.”

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Picture Credit: Grab

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Finance

Malaysian food delivery startup Dahmakan raises US$18 million series B funding round

Dahmakan, Malaysia-based direct-to-consumer delivery-only food startup, just closed a US$18 million Series B funding round from new investors Rakuten Capital, White Star Capital, JAFCO Asia, and the GEC-KIP Fund. Other investors include Korean food delivery unicorn Woowa Brothers, the former CEO of Nestlé Germany, and follow-on by existing investors, Partech Partners and Y Combinator.

Dahmakan said that the proceeds will be used to continue building their end-to-end operating system which powers the entire value chain from product development to last-mile delivery from a network of “satellite” distribution kitchens.

The company claims to be the first Malaysian startup funded by Y Combinator.

Dahmakan soft-launched more than 40 new dishes monthly from a growing database of more than 2,000 tested dishes. It relies on customer feedback, market insights, and other data to fuel Dahmakan’s product development approach to create a weekly changing menu of customer favourites, best-sellers, and Dahmakan-exclusive creations.

Business

EY poll: Lack of transparency, uncertainty contribute to AI trust crisis, needing risk-optimisation approach

Artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated disruptive tech and will continue to transform lives and businesses despite uncertainty of the process, according to a poll conducted by EY during a webinar. This uncertainty plays a role in many Asia Pacific (APAC) organisations holding back their adoption of AI, followed by mistrust, potential bias, and a lack of transparency and explainability.

Also Read: YC-backed dahmakan raises US$5M to roll out its chef-cooked food delivery in Thailand, Malaysia

These key factors were identified by over 70 per cent of participants in a said poll, particularly in Australia.

Estimates indicate US$2.9 trillion of business value will be created through AI globally in 2021, and APAC countries stand out in AI patent filing, with China holding 46.4 per cent, Japan holding 9.5 per cent, and the Republic of Korea holding 6.3 per cent of patents filed worldwide in 2018.

Despite the clear trend and gradually increased usage, the EY poll also shows that almost half of the polling participants (41 per cent) are interested in exploring AI, but not sure where to start.

The poll results also show that many believe process automation (52.3 per cent) and generating new revenue potential through new products and processes (18.8 per cent), will be the two main benefits of AI. With the correct context, AI can be used to not only add value to businesses, but also solve many issues in multiple sectors.

“APAC organisations need to view an AI implementation through a human lens rather than treat it as a strictly technological effort. To do this, leaders have to embed risk management into enablers and monitoring mechanisms for AI by demonstrating their commitment to being accountable for AI systems predictions, decisions, and behaviours,” suggested Gavin Seewooruttun, EY Asia-Pacific Advisory Leader for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Analytics.

Filipino motorcycle-hailing service JoyRide to commence food delivery service

JoyRide, the newest addition to the Philippines’s ride-hailing sector focussing on motorcycle ride, announced its plans to foray into the food delivery space. Currently, according to an article by DealStreetAsia, the market is dominated by foreign players such as GrabFood, Honestbee, and Foodpanda.

The motorcycle-taxi startup just held its pilot testing in December last year.

“Food delivery is a natural extension of our transport offerings. Since we have an overwhelming pool of bikers, it is really inevitable to venture into this business, especially with the possibility of motorcycle taxis service not being legalised,” said JoyRide Vice President for Corporate Affairs Noli Eala, talking about the motorcycle ride-hailing service pilot study lapses in March.

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Image Credit: Dahmakan

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10 entrepreneurs offer advice for how to run a smooth company with a positive vibe

Question: What components should a founder incorporate into a business continuity plan, and why?

Constant testing — Robby Hill of HillSouth

“Being an IT professional, I speak to business owners about disaster recovery often. The challenge being a startup founder that is you lack time. When planning for a disaster you have to take your plan and implement it a few times. Imagining that the first time you do it will probably fail you. Go ahead and make tweaks until you have a working plan. Then test that plan every six months at the least.”

A list of Most Valuable Contacts updated quarterly — Manpreet Singh of TalkLocal

“We manage our networking efforts using Streak and pretty much have case files on everyone we meet. Relationship development is key to our growth strategy, so restoring our connections when we lose a point of contact has to be a part of our growth continuity plan. Keep an updated list of the top 50 contacts and keep notes on pertinent details so that the successor can reach out ASAP.”

Backups — Vik Patel of Future Hosting

“Many businesses would cease to be viable if customer and product data were lost. Data protection should be the No. 1 business continuity concern. If data doesn’t exist in at least two (and preferably three) physical locations, then it might as well not exist at all. Catastrophic data losses regularly cost millions of dollars and many businesses simply don’t recover from the damage.”

Local regulations —Matt Doyle of Excel Builders

“You have to consider the economy, the local government and other facets outside of your business that could affect its growth and development. Even the little things such as the weather can be a factor. Consider every angle.”

A credit line when things are going great — Duran Inci of Optimum7

“Founders tend to begin searching for a credit line when things are going bad. Actually, the best time to get a credit line is when things are going great. Every business will have its up and downs.”

Also Read: Australia bans Huawei from supplying 5G network equipment over security fears

“When things get rough, the most essential thing should not be survival, but innovation. You cannot innovate with an empty bank account and without the talent that you just had to let go.”

Delegation of responsibilities —Miles Jennings of VocaWorks

“Within a business continuity plan, you need to set up a chain of command between team members that will be put into action just in case an emergency arises. This way, your managers and employees won’t be questioning (or fighting over) who has what powers and what actions each member of the team needs to take. This needs to be set into place ahead of time so that all individuals are prepared.”

Your bottom line — Abby Ross of ThinkCERCA

“For us, our perpetual KPI is “student growth and outcomes.” It’s our bottom line. From guiding our product roadmap to operationalizing our customer support, we focus on operating in a way that brings the best instruction to students with ThinkCERCA. Making decisions that could compromise that would be deviate from our business plan continuity.”

Community Disaster Response — Eric Matthews of Start Co.

“Business owners should answer: “In the event our neighborhood or city faces a disaster we can/will contribute the following to assist in recovery.” Because disruptions in the community will impact employees, resources, etc. of the business, the sooner the community recovers, the sooner normal business operations can resume. Businesses can contribute employee time, money, materials, scrap etc.”

SWOT Analysis — Kristopher Jones of LSEO.com

“Nobody is in a better position to accurately access and document the “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats” of a business than its founder.”

Also Read: The Jay Kim Show with Monk’s Hill Managing Partner Peng T. Ong

“That’s why I think a SWOT analysis is by far the most important document a founder must incorporate into a business continuity plan. The founder should also visually and verbally go over the SWOT analysis with all key employees and answer questions.”

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Photo by Michał Kubalczyk on Unsplash

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organisation comprising the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship programme that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

This post was published on August 23, 2018.

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