The fourth batch of Plug and Play Indonesia accelerator programme includes seven startups from outside of the country

The Indonesian chapter of US-based accelerator programme Plug and Play has announced the 20 startups that have been shortlisted for its fourth batch.

In addition to startups that are based in Indonesia, the current also included seven startups from Singapore, India, and the Philippines.

These startups are set to join a three-month programme that will end with a demo day.

The startups are:

Instamoney
The startup build payment infrastructure that enables users to transfer money “quickly and effectively” at scale.

Emvazo
The startup provides “economical and convenient” cross-border online money transfer solutions.

CoinHako
Based in Singapore, cryptocurrency wallet CoinHako has operations across Southeast Asia and hosts a portfolio of multiple cryptocurrencies paired with local currencies.

Also Read: Plug and Play Indonesia brings in 17 startups into its 3rd batch

PayOK
The startup aims to simplify personal finance by offering consumer behaviour insights. In addition to monitoring and visualising their spending habits, users can also get relevant promotions at merchants.

Magpie
Philippines-based Magpie is a digital payments platform that enables financial institutions to create experiences from mobile-based invoice collection to text message-based payments using their APIs.

Bizhare
Bizhare is an equity crowdfunding platform that enables users to start investing in franchise businesses from US$400. It also distributes financial statements and monthly profit distribution through its e-wallet feature.

BFarm.id
The startup aims to improve livestock farmer welfare by providing end-to-end solution on market access, insight, funding as well as promotions of sustainable agricultural practices and humane animal care.

Bandingin
Bandingin is a price comparison platform for various insurance products.

Vymo
Bangalore-based Vymo is a Gartner-recognised Personal Sales Assistant with the ability to predict, detect, learn, and coach sales representatives to get the best outcomes.

Also Read: 11 startups graduate from Plug and Play Indonesia as the accelerator opens third batch registration

PAL Network
The Singapore-based startup builds dual-layered protocol for financial assets, enabling insurance and finance solution designs in smart contract within minutes. It helps partners to cross-sell relevant insurance products at points-of-demands.

Intello Labs
Gurgaon-based Intello Labs said it has pioneered a “first-in-the-world” app and equipment to test, grade, and analyse the visual quality parameters of agricultural commodities.

ATM Sehat
Anjungan Telehealth Masyarakat (ATM) Sehat is an all-in-one device that for public health promotion, monitoring, and prevention. Users can perform health checks and screening, do live consultation, buy health products, and even call an ambulance using a panic button with just one device.

Intelitaap
India-based Intelitaap provides indoor consumer behaviour analytics platform using sensors, enabling businesses to optimise in-store experience.

RaRa Delivery
A last-mile delivery service for e-commerce businesses that aims to make same-day delivery scalable with asset-light operational model and AI-enabled real-time optimisation technology.

Lacak.io
The platform helps logistics companies track their fleets or drivers’ location, measure each delivery’s performance, and evaluate drivers’ driving behaviour.

Also Read: Plug and Play’s Christian Knipfer describes Taiwan’s strengths in building a startup ecosystem

LogicNesia
A distribution optimisation software for manufacturers and logistics to maximise vehicle drop-in locations, reduce delivery cost, and vehicle utilisation.

Piniship
The startup helps export-oriented companies with cargo delivery scheduling, price comparison, documents procession, and payment transactions.

Aquifi, Inc.
The startup automates repetitive, time-sensitive tasks such as end-of-line and order inspection with proprietary 3D sensors and deep neural networks.

Madhang
Madhang supports small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the culinary sector by providing sales and marketing tools as well as points-of-sales (POS) system.

Redkendi
Redkendi is an online marketplace for meal catering services.

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Mobile Legends e-sports will be the first government-supported e-sports competition in Indonesia

Indonesia’s government launched the country’s first government-backed e-sports competition with Mobile Legends as its main sport, as CNN Indonesia reported.

“This would be the very first e-sports tournament that’s fully supported by the government,” said Giring Ganesha, chairman of the championship, who’s also a local celebrity, in a press conference yesterday.

Also Read: OYO to put US$100M more in Indonesia market

The qualification round of the tournament will be held in eight cities; Bekasi, Solo, Pontianak, Denpasar, Makassar, Palembang, Manado, and Surabaya. Those who go through in the qualification round will be coming to the final round in Istora Senayan, Jakarta, on March 30-31, 2019.

This event is backed by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, Creative Economy Agency (BEKRAF), and Ministry of Youth and Sports.

“The government fully supports this type of competition as it can also boost our economy as a country and to realise digital economy by 2020. We also aim to support the potentials our gamers have to compete in international arena,” said Moeldoko, the Head of the Presidential Staff Office.

Also Read: Dynamic content in the era of machine learning

Indonesia Esports Premier League (IESPL) has recorded a total of 50 million gamers in Indonesia this year alone, with 60 per cent of them calling themselves e-sports enthusiasts.
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Image Credit: IESPL

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The future of global transportation is bright, but it is also a long way’s off

The future of the transportation network looks phenomenal. Think about it. We have Elon Musk talking about tunnels that could transport vehicles hundreds of miles away at a lightning fast speed. We have cars that do not need people behind the steering wheel. The only question is how long it will take to live this future?

Even if we sideline the time it is going to take, the next big question that pops up is whether the autonomous driving will completely replace the traditional transportation system or create a hybrid transportation system where both machines and humans can coexist.

Before we get into answering these questions, let’s first discuss why self-driving cars will eventually become as popular as their predecessors.

Rising Number of Car Accidents

South East Asia experiences approximately 316,000 deaths due to road accidents every year. In the United States, this number amounted to 37,133 deaths in 2017.

Other countries with the most number of deaths due to road accidents per year include Namibia, Iran, Sudan, Swaziland, Venezuela, Congo, Malawi, Iraq, and the Central African Republic.

Regardless of the situation, the primary cause of these accidents is the mistake made by drivers. One wrong decision like over-speeding, sudden breaks or anything else costs them their lives. No matter  if the accident is the fault of the driver or the other vehicle, the consequences are going to be severe.

Also Read: “General awareness about entrepreneurship in Malaysia needs to go beyond selling food at stalls”

Self-driving cars, on the other hand, can act quickly based on the real-time data and make a move that is good enough avoid a traffic collision. It is about the kind of technology being used in the car and how efficient it is in the real-life traffic scenario.

Self Driving Cars & Their Viability

Over the last few years, leading automotive and tech companies like Tesla, Google, Audi, BMW, Ford, etc. have run multiple tests to check the viability of their self-driving cars.

Tesla being the market leader stepped up its game and went on to announce a couple of years ago that its Model S and X would be equipped with the essential features needed for a self-driving car. It has introduced many technology upgrades in its existing models to improve the performance.

However, the one area where Tesla and other auto manufacturers haven’t been able to reassure investors and buyers is the integration of maps of those roads that are beyond city boundaries.

Most companies run tests on self-driving cars in cities and install 3D maps of lanes, streets, signs, curbs, etc. accordingly. These dense 3D maps allow self-driving vehicles to analyse their exact location and what to do in case any obstacle like other cars or pedestrians show up. So, if they don’t have 3D maps of any area already installed, it’s almost next to impossible for them to operate there.

Also Read: The e27 Southeast Asia Startup Ecosystem Report 2018 is here

To fix this problem, a team of scientists at MIT has developed a framework called MapLite that allows self-driving cars to safely drive on those unmapped roads. However, the proper integration of this technology might take some time. Until then, self-driving cars cannot be called a viable solution for the current transportation system.

How long is too long:

Given the pace at which the technological development across the globe is happening, there is no doubt that self-driving cars will eventually become a part of the transportation system. But to think that they will completely replace the traditional vehicles in the near future is nothing more than a figment of imagination.

It will take a lot to replace human drivers with software-driven commands, and it’s not happening for at least the next couple of decades.

Is this too long? Will investors be able to endure the financial pain for the future rewards? We will have to wait and see.

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Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

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One major point is a move beyond the tier-1 markets

In the midst of the new year settling in, we can take some time to reflect on 2018 and anticipate what 2019 might bring. After a month of observation, I am sharing what we might expect to see from this exciting industry, in an equally thrilling and promising region.

E-commerce in Southeast Asia – a global growth bright spot

Broad-based economic growth may become a scarce commodity in 2019, owing to near term macro-factors such as global trade tensions and rising interest rate environment. But in a potentially challenging year ahead, Southeast Asia’s digital economy is likely to become one of the globe’s bright spots.

A number of structural drivers and strong fundamentals contribute to this optimism.

E-commerce in the region has grown by more than 62 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) over the past 3 years, according to the Google-Temasek e-Conomy SEA 2018 report. The report also estimates that e-commerce will exceed US$100 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) by 2025, from US$23 billion in 2018.

Despite such astonishing numbers, online commerce remains hugely unchanged, at around 2 -3 per cent of total retail sales. This pales in comparison to around 20 and 10 per cent in China and US respectively.

As such, we expect that the digital economy – and e-commerce in particular – will continue to shine in 2019.

The emergence of experiential e-commerce – discovery, entertainment and social engagement

At a time when consumers are spoilt for shopping choices, both offline and online, experiences are the new currency. Consumers want more than just to shop for what they need – they want to discover new products, be entertained, and even engage with the online community.

As a result, online shopping in Southeast Asia is becoming an increasingly social and immersive experience.

A rising number of e-commerce apps in our region have evolved from in-and-out transactional platforms for consumers. Consumers may dip into the app without a prior desire to buy specific items and instead simply browse through products and deals curated by e-commerce platforms.

Consumers may also want to chat with sellers to learn more about different products, or catch up on the social feeds of their friends or family.

They may even come to e-commerce apps to consume content. For example, one of Shopee’s most popular new features is an interactive in-app quiz that you can play with family and friends, hosted by celebrities.

As the boundaries between shopping, socialising and entertainment fade, time spent on apps and the ability to retain users attention will likely become more important performance metrics for e-commerce platforms.

Offline retailers and e-commerce platforms build non-zero sum partnerships

Some observers have long assumed that offline retailers and e-commerce platforms are locked in a zero-sum rivalry – for one to succeed, they must take a consumer away from the other.

2019 will see that paradigm challenged more than ever before, as more offline retailers engage e-commerce platforms as trusted partners… even the brands who already have an online presence.

Beyond just transacting online (listing and selling, processing payments and arranging necessary logistics, etc.), more and more traditional brick-and-mortar stores are looking towards e-commerce platforms to manage their overall online strategy and offline logistics needs.

This signals a shift in the role e-commerce platforms play towards becoming trusted e-commerce partners.

Also Read: The e27 Southeast Asia Startup Ecosystem Report 2018 is here

Stores coming online and placing their trust in e-commerce platforms could potentially reap the many benefits that the partnership offers, from data utilisation and predictive technology, to more effective advertising and promotion and fulfilment services

In other words, the offline-online retail industry is not a zero-sum game; offline stores and large online platforms have become complementary players. We are already witnessing a rising number of large retail chains and consumer goods company partnering with e-commerce platforms in the region (Miniso in Singapore, Nestle in Malaysia, and BigC in Thailand) and we expect this trend to continue in 2019.

Unlocking hidden assets in Southeast Asia

As a digital platform, e-commerce marketplaces empower entrepreneurs and brands of all sizes to reach beyond their local markets and beyond the well-penetrated Tier 1 cities.

In places like Indonesia, the growth of the mobile generation of middle class consumers and rapidly improving smartphone penetration indicate that the importance of consumers outside the capital regions is constantly rising.

This group accounts for approximately 90 per cent of the total population of Indonesia, yet has traditionally been an afterthought in many brands’ retail strategies.

This afterthought might soon be the centre of focus for many bands this year.

Also Read: “General awareness about entrepreneurship in Malaysia needs to go beyond selling food at stalls”

But this isn’t a one-way flow of goods. In fact, budding entrepreneurs and SMEs from beyond the Tier 1 areas are also finding that e-commerce enables them to tap onto new market opportunities.

Take the example of Ibu Vina from Bali in Indonesia. She produces high-quality, false eyelashes and began with a small store. But selling offline was difficult given her harsh living expenses and relying on foot traffic and door-to-door neighbourhood salons for scaling quantities. At first, she only sold 100 pairs of eyelashes per month.

However, in April 2017, Ibu made the decision to shift her business online. By opening an online store with her husband, she immediately accessed a huge market for her high-quality but affordable products far beyond her home province of Bali.

They can now sell up to 10,000 pairs of eyelashes per month, a 100-fold increase. Today, her little online business venture has more than 50 employees working with them to process all the orders.

2019 will be a promising year of change and growth for the e-commerce industry; from the emergence of new ways to experience commerce to platforms playing a central role for brands coming online.

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Photo by mahda doglek on Unsplash

 

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In a heartfelt post on LinkedIn, Neal Cross said goodbye to DBS Bank, and welcomes new adventure

After almost five years heading DBS Bank’s innovation initiatives, Neal Cross has announced his departure from the bank. Cross mentioned that saying goodbye to his team has been the hardest part.

Cross announced the promotion of Bidyut Dumra as the new Chief Innovation Officer, followed by Mark Evans to run the experience strategy team.

Also Read: Southeast Asia e-commerce themes to look out for in 2019

Cross is known for his candidness in sharing his journey in articles and talks. He also shared his leadership journey and gave his two cents about what he has learned during his time with DBS. He prides himself on setting ambitious goals and working towards accomplishing the tasks. He also believes innovation is about creating innovators instead of things.

“If you can create, inspire and educate the entire workforce to do their career’s best work and to constantly strive to create the amazing then the company is unstoppable,” quoted Cross.

He continued adding that being unreasonable is necessary. “I am not a big believer in the mantra of “Don’t change the world, change yourself”. This world was created by people and people can change it again, highly relevant for these disruptive times,” said Cross.

Finally, he reminded his avid followers to focus on needs, not desires. “Try to focus on what the company needs rather than what the company wants and put the company’s future above your own career or bonus expectations. That’s not to say you never do what is expected but sometimes the company just knows what they want next and your role as an innovator is to think two or three steps ahead,” he said, emphasising fellow innovators.

After stepping down from DBS, Cross now is the Chairman of Perth-based fintech Picture Wealth, the neo-wealth startup that Cross and his partner David Pettit started in Australia several years ago. He also shared that he plans on continuing to work on his passion for Orangutans and conservation through his two hotels in Indonesia, Hotel Orangutan, and Pulau Weh Paradise,

People can also expect Cross’ book about building Hotel Orangutan and the philosophies he learned from the jungle and how this was applied to his corporate innovation journey. He managed to merge the seemingly two worlds apart passion for jungle and corporate innovation, all to be seen on his YouTube talk.

Also Read: Indonesian government chooses Mobile Legends for country’s first e-sports tournament

“Everything I have learned while at DBS is not only valuable but also transportable to completely different industries,” said Cross.

Cross’ final word in his note is a firm belief that DBS will continue to be an innovation powerhouse.
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The Fit Company focuses on active and healthy lifestyle products, including healthy restaurants and even micro gyms

East Ventures announces today the investment into The Fit Company, a holding company that focuses on active and healthy lifestyle products. The amount invested is not disclosed.

The Fit Company plans to use the seed funding to accelerate its mission to build a technology-enabled ecosystem consisting of wellness-oriented products and services to promote a more active and health-conscious lifestyle.

Also Read: DBS Bank’s Neal Cross steps down

“We are really excited to receive the support from East Ventures, who is known for growing and expanding a company and we cannot wait to start,” said Jeff Budiman, CEO of The Fit Company in a press conference at Fitstop Kuningan.

Willson Cuaca, East Ventures’ Managing Partner shared that young consumers below 30-years-old are the main target of The Fit Company. “Indonesia has big potential through its young consumer population – close to 60% is below 30 years old, and they increasingly spend on discretionary items. This new consumption behavior presents a huge opportunity for a new ecosystem, especially in the health and wellness category,” explained Cuaca.

The lifestyle is further supported by the recent rise of on-demand and O2O platforms in the country.

The Fit Company captures the holistic products and services market; offering activities, tools and equipment and ready to eat F&B.

“People today demand everything to be fast and instant, but at the same time, the awareness of health investment is increasing too. We realise that the whole pipeline of the so-called ‘wellness economy’ is there for the taking,” Budiman added.

The company that was started in 2014 by Budiman, Prianka Bukit, and Bambang Bukit. It has 5 business lines consisting of Kredoaum (Fitness tech distributor), 20Fit (MicroGym), Fitstop (Gym), Fit Lokal (healthy food), and Fitmee (Healthy Instant Noodles made from konjac).

Also Read: OYO to put US$100M more in Indonesia market

The Indonesian public knows The Fit Company best from its viral, personalized training method using Electro Muscle Stimulation (EMS) technology called 20Fit, that’s able to cut training time down to only 20 minutes with the same impact as 3 hours conventional gym session.

To date, The Fit Company claimed that it managed to open its restaurant’s arm Fit Lokal in three locations. It just opened its first conventional gym, Fitstop, last year.
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Image Credit: The Fit Company

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Coming home after a study abroad, Thiha Nyunt found himself struggling to find appropriate classes with the right timing and location in Myanmar

How often do you find yourself having difficulties in accessing language learning that works with your schedule? It’s hard to believe that in this digital, on-demand era this situation can still occur.

Thiha Nyunt, a Co-founder of MyanLearn, had a friend experience this problem when he was simply looking for suitable classes of Mandarin course in his area in Yangon, Myanmar.

“We experienced first-hand how difficult it was to find appropriate classes in Yangon. My friend, who’s now one of the co-founders, actually gave up learning Mandarin because he was not able to find the class with the suitable timing and location,” Thiha explained.

Also Read: Aiming to add 4 new startups, Mandiri Capital Indonesia targets insurtech, investment management sectors

Thiha, along with his two co-founders, then created MyanLearn app. “It was born out of our frustrating experience in finding appropriate classes. We believe finding the right class for education shouldn’t be this difficult in the modern world,” said Thiha.

Education in Myanmar

According to The Myanmar Times, Myanmar’s basic education curriculum is about 30 years old, with the last amendment made in 1985. Widely considered to be out-of-date, Myanmar’s education system is left behind compared with the international community.

Simply put, education in the country no longer fits in with this age of technology.

It was only in 2012 when the Department of Education Research Bureau started drawing up a new curriculum that is in accordance with the National Education Law. A new syllabus was introduced just two years ago for its academic year.

A teacher named Kyaw Wai Phyo was recorded in the article saying that the current education system in Myanmar needs lots of work. The fact that it takes 13 years to change the system if the curricula is changed gradually, year after year, reflects that the education in the country is still lacking access and efficiency.

How to use Myanlearn

“Myanlearn app was born with the intention of tackling disorganized information of fragmented private education market in Myanmar. We want to make learning simple, easy and accessible,” Thiha added.

Thiha then continued, “I would say that it is a classified platform for private education market.” He explained about the private tutor practice that we all have known and certainly have benefitted from with the change of technology.

With Myanlearn, students are able to search and discover classes from nine categories. In each category, they can find detailed information of all classes, accessible though Myanlearn’s app.

Besides options for private classes, students are free to utilise the app to facilitate learnings. The app also provides articles related to a student’s field of interest.

Tackling a specific management issue

As a platform for schools as much as it is for students, schools are able to update and make changes to class information in real time.

“We think it is very important as changes of class timing is a common thing in Myanmar,” said Thiha.

Another localised feature made available given the current class management in the country is the review system.

“Myanlearn has review systems for these classes. From them, students can make a more informed decision before choosing a suitable class tailored to their needs to avoid unnecessary and costly schedule changing that often become a nuisance of a set daily schedule,” he explained.

The same management issues are also faced by students from rural areas, and it is even more challenging for them.

“Finding classes information easily for students living in the rural areas are not easy. With Myanlearn, we hope these students can use it so they’re encouraged to make the trip to study in big cities. They are no longer hindered by information scarcity,” said Thiha.

Thiha highlighted that for students in the rural area, Myanlearn’s transparency is especially helpful. “They know exactly how much a class will cost using Myanlearn, and how long will a class take so that they are able to plan their trip accordingly,” said Thiha.

“It is really heartwarming to hear stories from our students that have benefited from using Myanlearn,” he added.

A fight for education

For Thiha, education has always been a critical tool to help people in Myanmar and in the rest of Southeast Asia to improve their living standard.

“We’ve seen the boom of startup innovations in e-commerce and service industries for the past decade. Now, I think it is edu startup’s turn to innovate and disrupt education sector in Myanmar. It is definitely a good trend to have,” Thiha shared.

He added that with the emerging trend for edu startup, the whole country will start to pick up technology as an enabler for education.

“We are optimistic that Myanmar will definitely catch up and even leapfrog, if possible, in some areas of education with the help of technology,” said Thiha.

As for Myanlearn, being a new edu app in the market, the next immediate plan would be improving the information organisation for the private education market and expanding to all major cities in Myanmar.

“We’re at the stage of releasing one additional feature at a time. At the same time, we are striving to make our current features more efficient and effective for our users,” said Thiha about the focus.

Myanlearn’s students’ app was first launched three months ago with the intention to understand how our early users would adopt.

All three of its founders are graduates of Singapore Management University and two of them majored in Information Systems Management while the other majored in Finance and Economic.

Also Read: Singapore’s GBCI Ventures launches US$100M fund for Smart City development

“All three of us believe that education is the most important tool to bring Myanmar people to prosperity. We were lucky enough to be educated abroad. We returned to our home country to give back to the community and when we looked at where to start, we thought of our belief and decided to tackle information scarcity for a start,” Thiha continued.

“We sure hope that we can bring meaningful impact to Myanmar people using technology, closing the gap in education.”
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Image Credit: Myanlearn

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CyberAgent (CA) Capital is joined by Korean VC Ncore for TheBank.vn’s first round of funding

TheBank.vn, the Vietnam-based fintech from SAMO company, has announced the completion its first round of funding from CyberAgent Capital and Ncore. The amount of the investment is undisclosed.

With this investment capital, TheBank.vn plans to improve customer experiences. This means launching registration forms for each loan service, improving the card opening process, helping people with insurance and selecting of financial products closest to their current needs. The company also seeks to improve the system to become a full stack solution provider of bid data, eKYC, chatbots, and credit scoring.

Also Read: Aiming to add 4 new startups, Mandiri Capital Indonesia targets insurtech, investment management sectors

TheBank.vn is a financial comparison app that was established in 2014, and it claimed to own the largest number of traffic, partners and consultants in the country. Using the platform, customers can compare and evaluate products such as credit cards, unsecured loans, mortgage loans, savings interest rates and insurance products.

The company also provides advice, connections, and a package of financial product distribution packages for banks and insurance companies using its technology.

Four years into operation, TheBank.vn claimed to have served more than 1 million customers. It says it has 1,300 financial products and 24,000 active financial experts registered on the website to interact with customers.

“We strive to understand the nature of customers to achieve the effectiveness of the service, so a quality connection is critical,” said SAMO’s General Director Nguyen Dat.

With 41 per cent of Vietnamese adults not yet using banking services and only 8 per cent of the population participating in life insurance, TheBank.vn is hoping to serve this emerging middle class; not only in Vietnam’s main cities but also in the key provinces.

Also Read: Singapore’s GBCI Ventures launches US$100M fund for Smart City development

Dzung Nguyen, Head of Vietnam and Thailand Office of CyberAgent Capital highlighted the untapped potentials. “With the spread of consumer behavior based on technology and interest in experiential consumption in recent years, potentials of services in fintech companies are enormous. The key now is an extensive investment and right implementation,” said Dzung.
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Image Credit: CA Capital

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GCash and Qwikwire want to work together to bring the payments process into the digital age

Philippine-based mobile wallet GCash has announced that it has signed a deal with Qwikwire,  a Philippines’ cross-border payments platform to innovate the local real estate payments transaction process.

Also Read: Google, Tencent, JD.com to inject more than US$900M in Go-Jek

In the Philippines, there has been a boom in the real estate industry over the last 5 years, but the problem is that people still pay their real estate dues through the traditional Post-dated checks (PDCs), Bank Deposits and over the counter payments directly to property developers or to their brokers.

The time-consuming methods also impose risks of fraud because of the lack of security in the payment.

With GCash, users can leverage on a mobile money service from the smartphones. The partnership has brought aboard clients of property developers — including DMCI, Century Properties, Double Dragon, Revolution Precrafted and more.

“In the next 2-3 years, I firmly believe that there will be a significant change in how we do payments here in the Philippines. In the same way that most Filipinos skipped having a landline in their households and went straight to owning mobile phones, I think we can go from a society where most doesn’t have a bank account to turn their smartphones into a mobile wallet,” said Ray Refundo, CEO of Qwikwire.

The partnership will also let transactions from Qwikwire’s clients to be handled and processed by GCash. For the first month, the facility is available only for association dues but later will be adding with the handling of reservation fees and payments for the monthly repayment process of the loan principal.

GCash is owned by corporate giants Globa, Ant Financial, and Ayala Corp. Qwikwire is a Philippines-based cross-border billing and invoicing startup for enterprises. Back in February last year, it secured funding from local VC firm First Asia Venture Capital and incubator Cerebro Labs.

Also Read: CyberAgent Capital invests in Vietnam fintech TheBank.vn

A signing ceremony was held at the Mynt office in Taguig last December 6, 2018 with Mynt’s VP of Merchant Solutions, JM Ajuero, and Head for Online Acquisition, Ferdie Perez, and Ray Refundo, CEO of Qwikwire, along with the rest of the Qwikwire team to officially launch the partnership.
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Plus, Didi makes electric vehicle push and TheBank.vn raises fresh funding

Singapore ride-hailing drivers may soon need licenses — [Land Transport Authority]

The Singapore government wants Grab and Go-Jek drivers to be licensed under a separate entity than traditional taxis, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has proposed.

The proposal would split taxis into a street-hail license while ride hailing drivers would be under a Ride-Hail Service Operator Licence. Theoretically, it would allow the LTA to be more nimble in updating licensing rules for companies like Grab and Go-Jek.

Part of the motivation for the move may have something to do with rider safety. A couple of weeks ago, Yoolim Lee of Bloomberg published a long essay describing the time she almost died in a Grab-ride accident. It drew a lot of attention to the fact that there is not a ton of oversight over who can become a Grab or Go-Jek driver.

On the flip side, forcing people to get licenses may reduce the supply of drivers and make it more challenging for users to book a ride.

Vietnamese fintech nabs funding from CyberAgent Capital — [e27]

TheBank.vn, the Vietnam-based fintech from SAMO company, has announced the completion its first round of funding from CyberAgent Capital and Ncore. The amount of the investment is undisclosed.

With this investment capital, TheBank.vn plans to improve customer experiences. This means launching registration forms for each loan service, improving the card opening process, helping people with insurance and selecting of financial products closest to their current needs. The company also seeks to improve the system to become a full stack solution provider of bid data, eKYC, chatbots, and credit scoring.

Didi Chuxing continues electric vehicle push — [TechCrunch]

Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing giant, has partnered with BAIC, a state-owned car maker, to pursue electric vehicles in China, according to TechCrunch.

The deal is meant to develop a “next generation” fleet of vehicles, but it was a vague announcement so further details are pending.

Both companies have placed a lot of priority on becoming environmentally friendly so the partnership makes sense.

GCash and Qwikwire partner to innovate real estate industry payment process — [e27]

Philippine-based mobile wallet GCash has announced that it has signed a deal with Qwikwire, a Philippines’ cross-border payments platform to innovate the local real estate payments transaction process.

In the Philippines, there has been a boom in the real estate industry over the last 5 years, but the problem is that people still pay their real estate dues through the traditional Post-dated checks (PDCs), Bank Deposits and over the counter payments directly to property developers or to their brokers.

The time-consuming methods also impose risks of fraud because of the lack of security in the payment.

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