Mistakes will be made; but learning how to get back on your feet  will be more crucial

While I was reading through most of the success stories that were published on IndieHackers.com, it occurred to me that my project GetData.IO really took longer than most others to gain significant traction, a full 5 years actually.

The beginning

I first stumbled upon this project back in December 2012 when I was trying to solve two other problems of my own.

In my first problem, I was trying to identify the best stocks to buy on the Singapore Stock Exchange. While browsing through the stocks listed on their website, I soon realize that most stock exchanges as well as other financial websites gear their data presentation towards quick buy and sell behaviours.

If you were looking to get data for granular analysis based on historical company performance as opposed to stock price movements, it is like pulling teeth. Even then, important financial data I needed for decision-making purposes were spread across multiple websites. This first problem lead me to write 2 web-scrappers, one for SGX.com and the other for Yahoo Finance, to extract data-sets which I later combined to help me with my investment decision-making process.

Once I happily parked my cash, I went back to working on my side project then. It was a travel portal which aggregates all the travel packages from tour agencies located in Southeast Asia. It was not long before I encountered my second problem… I had to write a bunch of web-scrapers again to pull data from vendor sites which do not have the APIs! Being forced to write my 3rd, 4th and maybe 5th web-scraper within a single week lead me to put on hold all work and step back to look at the bigger picture.

The insight

Being a web developer, and understanding how other web developers think, it quickly occurred to me the patterns that repeat themselves across webpage listings as well as nested web pages. This is especially true for naming conventions when it came to CSS styling. Developers tend to name their CSS classes the way they would actual physical objects in the world.

I figured if there existed a Semantic Query Language that is program independent, it would provide the benefit of querying web pages as if they were database tables while providing for clean abstraction of schema from the underlying technology. These two insights still prove true today after 6 years into the project.

The trough of sorrow

While the first 5 years depicted in the trend line above seem peaceful due to a lack of activity, it felt anything but peaceful. During this time, I was privately struggling with a bunch of challenges.

Team management mistakes and pre-mature scaling

First and foremost was team management. During the inception of the project, my ex-schoolmate from years ago approached me to ask if there was any project that he could get involved in. Since I was working on this project, it was natural that I would have invited him to join the project. We soon got ourselves into an incubator in Singapore called JFDI.

In hindsight, while the experience provided us with general knowledge and friends, it really felt like going through a whirlwind. The most important piece of knowledge I came across during the incubation period was this book recommendation — The Founder’s dilemma. I wished I read the book before I made all of the mistakes I did.

There was a lot of hype (see the blip in mid-2013), tension and stress during the period between me and my ex-schoolmate. We went our separate ways due to differences in our vision of how the project should proceed shortly after JDFI Demo Day. It was not long before I grew the team to a size of 6 and had it disbanded, realizing it was naive to scale in size before figuring out the monetization model.

Investor management mistakes

During this period of time, I also managed to commit a bunch of grave mistakes which I vow never to repeat again.

Mistake #1 was being too liberal with the stock allocation. When we incorporated the company, I was naive to believe the team would stay intact in its then configuration all the way through to the end. The cliff before vesting were to begin was only 3 months with full vesting occurring in 2 years.

When my ex-schoolmate departed, the cap table was in a total mess with a huge chunk owned by a non-operator and none left for future employees without significant dilution of existing folks. This was the first serious red-flag when it came to fundraising.

Mistake #2 was giving away too much of the company for too little, too early in the project before achieving critical milestones. This was the second serious red-flag that really turned off follow up would-be investors.

Mistake #3 was not realizing the mindset difference of investors in Asia versus Silicon Valley, and thereafter picking the wrong geographical location (a.k.a network) to incubate the project. Incubating the project in the wrong network can be really detrimental to its future growth.

Asian investors are inclined towards investing in applications that have a clear path to monetization while Silicon Valley investors are open towards investing in deep technology of which the path to monetization is yet apparent. During the subsequent period, I saw two similar projects incubated and successfully launched via Ycombinator.

The way I managed to fix the three problems above was to acquire funds I didn’t yet have by taking up a day job while relocating the project back to the Valley’s network. I count my blessings for having friends who lend a helping hand when I was in a crunch.

Self-doubt

I remembered having the conversation with the head of the incubator two years into the project during my visit back to Singapore when he tried to convince me the project was going nowhere and I should just throw in the towel. I managed to convince him and more importantly myself to give it go for another 6 months till the end of the year.

Also Read: Rethinking content marketing: 3 new ways to catapult your startup’s revenue

I remember the evenings and weekends alone in my room while not working on my day job. In between spurts of coding, I would browse through the web or sit staring at the wall trying to envision how product/market fit would look like. As what Steve Jobs mentioned once in his lecture, it felt like pushing against a wall with no signs of progress or movement whatever so. If anything, it was a lot of frustration, self-doubt and dejection.

A few times, I felt like throwing in the towel and just giving up. For a period of 6 months in 2014, I actually stopped touching the code in total exasperation and just left the project running on auto-pilot, swearing to never look at it again.

The hiatus was not to last long though. A calling is just like the siren, even if somewhat faint sometimes, it calls out to you in the depths of the night or when just strolling along on the serene beaches of California. It was not long before I was back on my MacBook ploughing through the project again with renewed vigour.

First signs of life

It was mid-2015, the project was still not showing signs of any form of traction. I had by then stockpiled some cash from my day job and was starting to get interested in acquiring a piece of real estate with the hope of generating some cash flow to bootstrap the project while freeing up my own time. It was during this period of time that I got introduced to my friend’s roommate who also happened to be interested in real estate.

We started meeting on weekends and utilizing GetData.IO to gather real estate data for our real estate investment purposes. We were gonna perform machine learning for real estate. The scope of the project was really demanding. It was during this period of dog fooding that I started understanding how users would use GetData.IO.

It was also then when I realized how shitty and unsuited the infrastructure was for the kind and scale of data harvesting required for projects like ours. It catalyzed a full rewrite of the infrastructure over the course of the next two years as well as brought the semantic query language to maturity.

Technical challenges

Similar to what Max Levchin mentioned in the book Founder’s at work, during this period of time there was always this fear in the back of my mind that I would encounter technical challenges which would be unsolvable.

The site would occasionally go down as we started scaling the volume of daily crawls. I would spend hours on the weekends digging through the logs to attempt at reproducing the error so as to understand the root cause. The operations were like a (data) pipeline, scaling one section of the pipeline without addressing further down sections would inevitably cause fissures and breakage. Some form of manual calculus in the head would always need to be performed to figure out the best configuration to balance the volume and the costs.

The number 1 hardest problem I had to tackle during this period of time was the problem of caching and storage. As the volume of data increase, storage cost increase and so did wait time required before data could be downloaded. This problem brought down the central database a few times.

After procrastinating for a while as the problem festered in mid-2016, I decided that it was to be the number 1 priority to be solved. I spend a good 4 months going to big data and artificial intelligence meet-ups in the Bay Area to check out the types of solutions available for the problem faced. While no suitable solutions were found, the 4 months helped elicit corner cases to the problem which I did not previously think of. I ended up building my own in-house solution.

Traction and Growth

An unforeseen side effect of solving the storage and caching problem was its effect on SEO. The effects on SEO would not be visible until mid-2017 when I started seeing an increased volume of organic traffic to the site. As load times got reduced from more than a minute in some cases to less than 400 milliseconds seconds, the volume of pages indexed by bots would increase, accompanied by an increase in the volume of visitors and reduction in bounce rates.

Continued education

It was in early-2016 that I came across an article expounding the benefits of reading widely and deeply by Paul Graham which prompted me to pick up my hobby of reading again. A self-hack demonstrated to me by the same friend, who helped relocated me here to the Bay Area, which I pursued vehemently got me reading up to 1.5 books a week.

These are books which I summarized on my personal blog for later reference. All the learnings developed my mental model of the world and greatly aided in the way I tackled the project.

Also Read: 5 strategies for effective social media listening

Edmodo’s VP of engineering hammered in the importance of not boiling the ocean when attempting to solve a technical problem, of always being judicious with the use of resource during my time working as a tech-lead under his wing. Another key lesson learned from him is that in some circumstances being liked and being effective do not go hand in hand. As the key decision maker, it is important to steadfastly practice the discipline of being effective.

Head of Design, Tim and Lukas helped me appreciate the significance of UX during my time working with them and how it ties to user psychology.

Edmodo’s CEO introduced us to mindfulness meditation late-2016 to help us weather through the turbulent times that was happening within the company then. It was rough. The practice which I have adopted till to date has helped keep my mind balanced while navigating the uncertainties of the path I am treading.

Edmodo’s VP of product sent me for a course late-2017 which helped consolidate all the knowledge I have acquired till then into a coherent whole. The knowledge gained has helped greatly accelerated the progress of GetData.IO. During the same period, I was also introduced by him the Vipasanna meditation practice which coincidentally a large percentage of the management team practices.

One very significant paradigm shift I observed in myself during this period of continued education is the observed relationship between myself and the project. It has changed from an attitude of urgently needing to succeed at all cost to an attitude of open curiosity and fascination as one would an open-ended science project.

Moving forward

To date, I have started working full time on the project again. GetData.IO has the support of more than 1,500 community members worldwide. Our mission is to turn the Web into the fully functional Giant Graph Database of Human Knowledge. Financially, with the help of our community members, the project is now self-sustaining. I feel grateful for all the support and lessons gained during this 6-year journey. I look forward to the journey ahead as I continue along my path.

While I was reading through most of the success stories that were published on IndieHackers.com, it occurred to me that my project GetData.IO really took longer than most others to gain significant traction, a full 5 years actually.

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This post first appeared on Medium.

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Tokopedia believes that the spirit of customer service should not be limited to only the members of its customer care team

Customer relations management (CRM) is one of those factors that will determine whether your customers will stay or go. Major tech companies are investing heavily in it, including Indonesia’s own e-commerce and fintech giant Tokopedia.

In an interview with e27, VP Operations Rudy Dalimunthe explains why CRM is considered “super important” for the company.

“If there is a white space for differentiation to make Tokopedia stands out amongst the [existing] e-commerce players, it is through CRM, since all other promos are typical and can be copied by anyone in a short time,” he says.

Customer interactions –and their expectations of what they can get from Tokopedia– escalate as the company grows bigger, pushing them to continuously evolve in how they deal with customers.

Starting off with a simple, basic CRM system, Tokopedia then moved on to use tools such as Zendesk and eventually Salesforce, which the company’s product and engineering team has customised to suit their needs.

It also runs its own in-house online dispute resolution system, which includes the use of bot for simple and basic interactions. The bot has been integrated to the platform’s back-end, from chatrooms to emails.

Also Read: Tokopedia appoints former Indonesia Finance Minister as its President Commissioner

However, Tokopedia still gives space for human interaction, especially when the situation demands more than what the chatbots are capable of.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) and bot investments are driven by our need to increase both efficiency and customer intimacy – a deeper understanding of customer needs leading to customised and personalised solutions. But building human sensitivity into algorithms is not an easy thing,” Dalimunthe says.

“Hence, I would say it will never replace human touch experience by human CR officers. There are situations where human presence is still required, even at some point you are required to come and meet them directly in person. Those are the moments we build emotional connection between our brand and our customers,” he stresses.

Exclusively for e27 Academy, Dalimunthe explains what founders need to know about CRM –and how to get it right.

The basics

 

Dalimunthe begins by explaining the five key principles of CRM, which should include:

1. The ability to uncover hidden customer needs

“This is the key ingredients for surprise effect in your CRM. Good CRM should think beyond hygiene factors and cater end-to-end customer journey; if it is only to cater customer complaints reactively then it is an outdated CRM version. We know move to CXM that enables us to see what customer doesn’t see since the early stage of their journey, and proactively engage with it.”

2. The ability to capture all interaction details in real time

This includes a 360 degrees customer profile in single view, real-time insight flow, and time-stamp for SLA capture.

“In short it is about ‘who, what, when, and how the interactions [happen]’ which covers both inside-out data (historical user profile including social media profile) and outside-in data capture (customer voice and survey results on their feedbacks and how they perceive us).”

Also Read: After raising US$1.1B, Tokopedia will remain focussed on Indonesian market

3. Being easily customisable

“Every business and every customer are unique, there’s no one-size-fits-all.”

4. User-friendliness

“Even your non-CS staffs should be able to use it and get the best of it in very short time.”

5. Integrity

“… Business is about trust and transparency, so we must act in a very professional, personal, open and transparent to engage with the customers. We should avoid at very most the impression that your people, process, and system can not be trusted and unable to present transparency on what happened. Even if it happens, service recovery process must be done in a very fast, precise, and most personal way. That’s CRM.”

The last point led to a very important question: How about in times of crisis?

Dalimunthe says that when he joined the company in 2017, to set up a crisis management plan was one of the key deliverables prioritised for immediate completion.

By the time, it could take two to three weeks for a crisis situation to get back to normal, leading to lower key customer metrics and trust from customers. It even led to a public relations crisis for the company.

“We are talking about multiple times increase in users traffic in every big campaign, where any small glitch will impact million of users. That eventually will flow big numbers of negative comments in social media and support channels,” Dalimunthe points out.

To handle a crisis situation, the company needs good preparation, collaboration, and the obsession to “always put customers at the centre of business.”

Also Read: How Tokopedia uses localisation strategy to reach out to Indonesia’s uniquely diverse society

“Good preparation means you actually know what will happened. Good, proactive communications before the fire gets bigger is key, so we’re talking about speed and communications accuracy,” Dalimunthe says.

“It requires good collaborations with product or tech team way before product launch, at least two weeks before, so you know exactly every single details of the campaign and how to deal with any issues when things get worse. And all of the CS staffs should be well-prepared, most importantly in closely monitoring on the crisis level. The team at the front must actively inform if this is a minor, major, or even a crisis level situation where corporate communication involvement is required to release a holding or stand-by statement,” he continues.

The principles of customer relations crisis management plan according to Dalimunthe are:

1. Understand clearly the scope and magnitude of the issues –minor, major, or crisis– since every level requires different treatment and communications. The team should also create clear and quick internal communications line.

2. Become a trusted voice in crisis. Avoid lies and one-shot statements; communicate regularly until the situation gets back to normal.

3. Give the crisis situation your full attention, even up to management level. Give fair compensation to your customers; do not just disappear and expect they will go and forget.

4. Monitor all social and traditional media closely. In addition to using social listening tools, companies need to know influencers and their level of reach. While holding statement is required when the situation has reached crisis level, companies need to know when to handle a situation using personal approach. They also need to carefully consider the words that they are choosing.

5. Take every problem seriously. Never repeat the same mistakes and blame other parties.

6. Last but not least, be responsible and take all the bullets.

Also Read: Tokopedia reportedly raises fresh US$1 billion funding

Case study

As a company, Tokopedia is run with these principles that the company considered as its DNA:

1. Focus on customer
2. Growth mindset
3. Make it happen, make it better

These principles are expected to be implemented not only by its employees, but also the partners that the company is working with.

Dalimunthe mentions one instance that he considers as one of the greatest challenges Tokopedia has faced in terms of providing the best service for their customers.

In Q3 2017, the company was going through the process of appointing a new party to manage its process when it faced integration and alignment issues. They had to synchronise with three organisation at one shot, involving 500 people in the process, and this is something that Dalimunthe’s team had never done before.

“They were directly facing and dealing with key person in partners’ side … to negotiate business terms, OKR, and strategy alignment in a very short time. At the same time, Tokopedia’s programmes and businesses keep running fast, with more and more new products set to launch in Q3-Q4. I have to minimise the impact of these changes to Tokopedia users,” he explains.

But the company was able to survive through the process by living its DNA, and onboarding its partners to ensure that they are able to implement it through their works.

“In fact, we’re expecting to book almost US$4 million of savings from this improvement, while the quality of the delivery is at even higher number compared to last year,” he adds.

Also Read: [Updated] Tokopedia, OVO team up to offer the payment service on the e-commerce platform

Advice for startup founders

 

At the end of the interview, Dalimunthe says a study has revealed the high rate of failure in CRM strategy execution to be the result of over-dependence in “cutting edge” CRM system.

“[If you spend] too much focus on the CRM technologies and not enough time to build a team that is armed and able to handle the gun, all will be for nothing. ‘It’s all about the man behind the gun’,” he explains.

He then shares the secret recipe of building the best CRM team:

1. Get a clear CRM direction and strategy available for all team as a blue print will help them to prioritise every steps and think creatively to support the strategy.

2. Identify and set up a strong group of people with Analytics, CX, and customer journey (process) skill as a thinker and designer. This should be followed by setting up another group with strong people skills to execute the system designed by the “thinker” team, and another group to oversee the process.

3. Identify and build leaders from the smaller level of the team.

4. Have a strong mindset to always put ourselves in customer shoes, the bravery to take direct decision on customer’s behalf, and the knowledge on when to drive the business and tech team to take actions related to CRM (instead of the other way around).

5. Have a company-wide understanding about the importance to put customer at the centre of every decision. CRM goes beyond the responsibility of a particular team; it is actually a mindset that every employees need to have regardless of their job description and division.

A simple check-list that founders can go through include questions such as: Do you involve your customer care team in product launch preparation? Do your product and business units have all customer metrics in their score card? And finally, is everyone ready and brave enough to see customer complaint reports every day and work upon it?

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Images Credit: Tokopedia

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Wavemaker startups lean heavily towards B2B but range from agriculture to IoT security

With over 100 companies in its portfolio and over US$70 million assets under management, one would imagine Wavemaker Partners to be a large firm with dozens of employees running across Southeast Asia.

In reality, the company stays lean, having only 18 people. Pretty impressive for a firm that has seen exits from Pie, Luxola, Caarly and Gushcloud.

Wavemaker is heavily focussed on B2B companies — with 80 per cent of its investments coming in that space. 28 per cent of the portfolio is in deep tech or AI. 

Finally, the Founders they back tend to lean on the older side of entrepreneurship. 88 per cent of their companies have Founders over the age of 30 and 39 per cent are over 40.

Yesterday, Wavemaker hosted an event whereby 19 companies pitched in front of an audience of around 300 people.

Before we meet the companies, here is a list of the startups that announced they are currently raising funds (and their ask).

• Omnistreet: Raising a Series A
• Sprout solutions: Raising a Series A
• RateIt: Raising a Series A
• GizTix: Raising a US$10 million Series B
• Neebo: Raising a US$2.3 million Series A
• Savonix: Raising US$2.5 million to close a US$10 million Series A
• Kiddo: Closing a US$15 million Series A
• Yulu: Raising US$15 million in equity and US$7 million in debt
• Securezapp: Just closed a seed round

Let’s meet the companies!

Jumper.ai:

Jumper.ai converts social media posts into shoppable links that allow people to shop directly without being redirected to a website. It leverages hashtags and chatbots to facilitate transactions within the given platform.

With this technology, Jumper can also allow for automated customer service.

The team estimates they are working in a US$400 billion social commerce market and partners include Unilever, Toyota, Disney, Johnson and Johnson and Killiney.

Nugit

Creating data storytellers is the ethos of Nugit. They believe the problem of the Big Data industry is “why is it still so hard to share?” . The big data industry healthy, but for the average user, it is often overly complicated to analyse. Companies are not able to get the data they need.

Nugit’s customers are people who are not analysts and helps them use data with their story building and sharing.

The company is launching a a new product next Friday called datalab by Nugit.

Omnistreet

Omnistreet helps retailers use data create actionable results when it comes to assortment (goods on shelves). The problem is that, for most retailers, 80 per cent of products introduced are no longer on shelves in a year.

Omnistreet combines a bunch of data — including statistics like changing population density — and combines it with internal data. It combines this information to provide automated suggestions on whether a retailer should keep or trash a product like toothpaste.

The interesting part of Omnistreet is their decision to pursue a hyper-basic UI. It looks like an excel sheet with some basic product information and then a “keep/trash” decision provided by Omnistreet.

The startup is raising a Series A.

Sprout Solutions

Sprouts Solutions is working to transform the human resources process in the Philippines. Coming from his previous experience as an entrepreneur in the country, Patrick Gentry found that HR and payroll management is painful in the Philippines.

The product is an all-in-one digital HR solution and the company has moved beyond SMEs/Startups and is now also targetting corporate clients. 

Also Read: Surina Shukri appointed CEO of MDEC

Products include everything from hiring and on-boarding to payroll and attendance.

Sprout is currently raising a Series A.

RateIt

RateIt wants to provide live customer experience feedback so companies can adjust their customer service. The story used to explain RateIt is a fairly common experience for people:

You are at a retail store hoping to buy a shirt. You are probably a very easy sale, coming into the store with the hopes of walking out with some goods. But then the customer service is so bad that you just leave. It’s not worth picking a fight, but it’s definitely not supporting the company. In these cases, the business may not even be aware it was the customer service that ruined the sale.

This is what RateIt wants to solve. It bundles an app with a device for real-time user feedback and uses machine learning to ask the correct question at the right time.

RateIt is raising Series A.

Novade

Novade is creating an all-in-one solution to help digitalise the construction industry — which is particularly analog despite its massive size (contributing 13 per cent of the global GDP).

The goal of Novade is to help construction sites “manage basically anything on site”. This includes quality, activity, logistics and productivity. Novade has 200 clients in 16 countries. One of its most famous projects was the construction of Changi Airport Terminal 4.

The startup has just closed a Series A.

eFishery

eFishery is out to target the main problem plaguing the industry — feeding. Right now, feeding is often just a farmer dumping a bunch of product into the water, which can pollute the water, kill the fish and even spill into the greater environment.

eFishery has built a piece of hardware that feeds the fish automatically. Farmers put it on the side of the pond and connect it to a sensor that adjusts to the fish’s behaviour. For example, if they are being aggressive, it is probably a sign they are hungry.

Now, the startup is starting to get into the world of financing. It gathers data and if the information suggests the farmer is good at their job, eFishery hopes it can use this to make it easier for them to get loans.

Ricult

Built with both a social mission and profitability plans, Ricult is trying to help farmers break the debt cycle that traps them in poverty – specifically in Pakistan. 

In Pakistan, there is usually a gap where farmers have not received payment for their harvest but also need to purchase goods to kickstart the next cycle. The farmer needs to take out a loan just to keep their farm moving forward but doing so traps them in a debt cycle.

Ricult is trying to speed up the payment process so Pakistani farmers can buy seeds, fertilizer and tools with their own money. It also has built a platform to help provide farmers access to information so they can educate themselves.

GIZTIX,

GIZTIX, an Echelon Top100 finalist from Thailand, is a transport management system. The product helps fleet owners and drivers manage their drivers digitally. It also gathers data on supply, demand and consumption. 

Its main set of customers are companies that produce medium-to-high-value goods. The company has grown to employ about 40 people. 

It is currently raising a US$10 million Series B after nabbing a Series A round in November, 2017. 

Portcast

A graduate of Entrepreneur First in Singapore, Portcast helps shipping companies accurately predict supply and demand of cargo. 

At the moment, a lot of shipping companies use historical data and market averages to predict supply/demand. This can be problematic if trade between two countries falls or rises sharply. Portcast uses machine learning to find live patterns within the industry and make forcasts. 

It claims to have a 90-95 per cent accuracy rate. 

Neebo

Neebo is building an all-in-one monitoring device for babies. This includes traditional sleep monitoring, but also services like vitals, health trends and other safety metrics. 

The company is raising a US$2.3 million Series A.

Savonix

Savonix is a product to help analyse, diagnose and prevent the various types of dementia. It’s mains selling point is that it makes classifications more specific. 

Not all tyes of dementia are the same. Some, like Alzheimers, affect memory. Others impact emotional impulse control, the ability to express thoughts or visual learning. Savonix provides a test that helps people understand their unique risk factors.

Furthermore, it can deploy tests for between US$2 and US$5 dollars, which makes it accessible to people who would normally never be able to afford personalised dementia treatment.

The company is raising US$2.5 million to close a US$10 million Series A.

Kiddo

Kiddo is an IoT device that generates analytics to make healthcare for kids cheaper and more effective. A lot of pediatric healthcare options (especially insurance) are not tailored to the kid’s specific needs. So, by providing data, Kiddo hopes it can provide real-time analytics to help parents more accurately treat their children.

The startup leverages a subscription model with a tiered pricing structure. It is targetting healthcare clinics, insurance companies, schools, the research industry and even commercial brands.

Kiddo is nearing its close on a US$15million Series A.

Yulu

Yulu is an urban micro mobility startup that uses small bikes and scooters to get people to/from to public transportation for their longer journey. 

It hesitates to call itself a bike-sharing service because the vehicles are not meant for free-for-all use. Rather, the goal is to reduce traffic congestion by providing vehicles that can take people the 1-5km between their home and the train station. It leverages a QR-code operating system (like bike-sharing) but cannot be dropped anywhere. Yulu forces people to take it between parkting stations (but tries to build 700-800 locations in each city). 

It is currently raising US$15 million in equity and US$7 million in debt.

Involt

Another alumni of Entrepreneur First, Involt is developing a next generation battery for electric vehicles and grid-level storage. The battery can charge 10x faster than other batteries on the market without degrading after usage.

The metaphor used during the pitch was, “If lithium batteries are long-distance runners, we are building a sprinter”. The batteries should reduce the strain on electric vehicles while simultaneously increasing the distances between charges. 

Transcellestial

Transcelestial is a Singaporean company that wants to provide commercial-grade internet speed to the whole world. The startup leverages lasers and nano-satellites to build a Space Laser Network that would greatly improve internet connections to even the most remote of areas.

Currently, our internet is moved around via transcontinental high bandwidth undersea cables, which are extremely expensive. A Google-built cable between the US and Japan in 2016 cost about US$300 million to complete.

Also Read: This Singapore startup thinks it can revolutionise internet infrastructure

“We started Transcelestial because we saw an exciting future for humanity in the next 100 years but no action plan to build a scalable, underlying infrastructure needed, either on the planet or in deep space, to support that,” said Rohit Jha, the CEO and co-founder of Transcelestial in a previous e27 article.

Microsec

Microsec is building IoT cybersecurity products for enterprise clients. The startup provided the statistic that between January and June of 2018 there were 900 IoT cyber breaches across the globe.  

The company currently boasts projects that work on smart lamp posts, smart homes, industry control systems, utilities, and automotives.

Cyber Intelligence House

Cyber Intelligence House is an internet intelligence company that specialises in the dark web. They scour the Tor network for clients to discover if information has been leaked, credentials exposed or if the company is being targetted by hackers, among other things. 

A lot of companies can figure out their cyber exposure on the standard internet, but have a more difficult time finding this information on the dark web. Cyber Intelligence House is in the business of providing clarity on this information.

One major client are local police forces and Cyber Intelligence House says police have used its platform to arrest 89 people.

Securezapp

The problem: There is a lack of visibility as data moves across the enterprise security perimeter.

In today’s corporate environment, a massive amount of data is built on third-party infrastructure. This means data needs to be transmitted across platforms. Usually, this transfer process is obscure which makes security a secondary focus. 

Securzapp wants to make sure companies can track and manage risk as they transfer their data built on third-party infrastructure. 

The startup has just closed a seed round.  

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Photo by Christian Becker on Unsplash

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With the new funding round, Bukalapak aims to continue on innovating for small businesses in Indonesia

Indonesian e-commerce and fintech startup Bukalapak today announced an undisclosed funding round by Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, a joint venture between Seoul-based Mirae Financial Group and Naver, the company behind LINE Messenger service.

The announcement confirmed a report by DailySocial on January 10, which stated that the company is set to reveal a new funding round that includes the participation of Naver Corp, following its ninth anniversary.

In a press statement, Jikwang Chung, Head of New Growth Investment Mirae Asset Capital, said that the company will support the growth of Bukalapak through a series of strategic collaboration.

Also Read: Bukalapak allows payment installment for customers via BukaCicilan

“We hope that this support will help accelerate our steps in creating tech innovation that will help elevate small businesses in Indonesia,” said Bukalapak President and Co-Founder Fajrin Rasyid.

Starting off as an online marketplace, the company has expanded into various fintech verticals such as gold and mutual funds trade.

Bukalapak claimed to have more than two million transaction happening daily on their platform, and the company expected this number to continue on increasing.

The company has worked with four million small businesses in Indonesia.

It has named EMTEK, Ant Financial, and GIC (Government of Singapore Investment Corporation) as its investors.

In December last year, Bukalapak’s competitor Tokopedia announced a US$1.1 billion funding round.

Like many Indonesian online marketplaces, it plans to remain focussed on local market instead of expanding internationally.

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Image Credit: Bukalapak

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Also, Indonesia’s government promises new e-commerce tax won’t burden, and Softbanks invests in South Korea’s car-sharing SoCar

Job seeking platform Glasdoor begins operation in Singapore [Press Release]

The job seeking platform that champions transparency by utilising employee reviews, ratings, with salaries information Glasdoor has announced its entry into Singapore.

In the country. Glassdoor aims to give job seekers a competitive search advantage with its real employees review system. Using Glassdoor, users can customise online job search to discover jobs and take a peek of what it’s really like to work at potential employers.

Glassdoor claimed to be the job platform that combines the latest open jobs with deeper detail into specific jobs at specific companies.

Also Read: Surina Shukri appointed CEO of MDEC

“With increased focus on Singapore, we are looking to make the Glassdoor experience for people and businesses in these locations even more valuable,” said John Lamphiere, Vice President and Managing Director of Glassdoor International.

Wealthtech Singapore Life raises US$13M from Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) [Press Release]

Wealthtech company Singapore Life has announced an amount of US$13 million additional investment in its Series B funding round from the Aberdeen Standard Investment (ASI), that joins in the recent Aflac Investment of US$20m and brings the total capital raised to date to US$97 million.

Singapore Life shared that this funding has set it to begin its expansion plans across Southeast Asia and scale into new business technology ventures over the coming year.

“Singapore Life exemplifies an innovator in providing customers with better financial solutions through advanced technology – and it is an exciting opportunity for us to expand our strategic relationship with this digital life insurance provider and be part of its growth journey,” said Martin Gilbert, Co-Chief Executive, Aberdeen Standard Investments.

Singapore Life is believed to be the fastest growing life insurer in Singapore. It enables experiences that allow for clients to enroll themselves conveniently and securely without the hassle of paperwork.

SoftBank invests U$44M in South Korea’s car-sharing startup SoCar [Deal Street Asia]

Car-sharing startup based in South Korea, SoCar, manages to secure US$44 million (50 billion won) in a new round of funding from Altos Ventures, KB Investment, Stonebridge Ventures, and SoftBank Ventures.

SoCar plans to use the funding to invest in research and development to offer better mobility services through its platform, said a source. The funding is the latest one the company raised after it previously received an investment of US$57 million from local private equity firm IMM Private Equity in April 2018.

SoCar was funded in 2012 and it offers services via website and mobile app. Just in 2018, SoCar launched its services in Malaysia by establishing 120 zones with 240 cars in the country.

Freelancer platform Sampingan secures US$500K seed funding from Golden Gate Ventures [Deal Street Asia]

Indonesia-based freelancer platform Sampingan has reportedly raised US$500,000 from Golden Gate Ventures.

Sampingan, means ‘side-job’ in Indonesian, is a platform that connects businesses with selected and trained freelance agents for easily doable task-based jobs. It plans to use the funding to scale up operations and expand its agent network across Indonesia.

In its pre-seed round, the company raised US$100,000 from startup generator Antler back in September. The available task-based jobs in the platform range from partner and SME acquisitions and real-time data collection to simple commission-based sales jobs.

Indonesian government promises friendly e-commerce tax policy [The Jakarta Post]

Indonesian government releases a statement that ensures all e-commerce businesses to face a friendly new tax regulation.

As of now, online traders are required to report their transactions and tax credentials in a move to improve tax compliance in the country. This policy has sparked criticism from e-commerce players of the Indonesian E-Commerce Association (IdEA), who claimed it might cause small businesses to back out from trading via online platforms, consequently defeating its intended purpose.

Finance Ministry spokesman Nufransa Wira Sakti said that the ministry’s bodies, which is the Fiscal Policy Agency, the Taxation Directorate General and the Customs and Excise Office—had already met with IdEA management and agreed to revise the regulation.

Also Read: Indonesia’s online bill payments Sepulsa rebrands into Alterra

“It is now not mandatory for merchants to show a taxpayer number [NPWP] when they register with an online marketplace,” Nufransa wrote in a statement.
With that being said, trader could simply show their identity card number upon registration.

The new policy is stipulated in Finance Ministery Regulation No. 210/2018, signed by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, effective on December 31 last year. It was initially scheduled to take effect on April 1, but was only communicated to the public last week.
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Photo by Muhammad Haikal Sjukri on Unsplash

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The goal of the transformation is for the company to cater to bigger segments in the country

Indonesia-based Sepulsa, an online bill payments that were among the firsts in the country officially announces that it’s turned into Alterra. The reason behind the change, the company shared, is to serve bigger chunk of Indonesia’s population with the end goal of leveraging Alterra’s ecosystem for the country’s digital infrastructure.

Sepulsa commenced operation in 2015 selling mobile phone credit through website and app, which translates into “pulsa” in Indonesian. The company itself has evolved and added several other business lines like a business-to-business (B2B) bill payment aggregator and distribution channel network.

Also Read: Bukalapak confirms new funding round by Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund

Before changing its name into Alterra, Sepulsa has managed to connect and license with all telco providers in Indonesia, and claimed to process more than 5 million transactions per month.

Besides mobile phone credit, Sepulsa also became a go-to platform for electricity and water utility payment, game vouchers, installments, and multifinances.

“In general we will retain our existing brands (Sepulsa.com and Alpha Tech Academy): they will continue to operate independently, and Alterra as the holding will seek to realize our bigger vision of building Indonesia’s digital infrastructure,” says Ananto Wibisono, CEO & Co-Founder of Alterra.

Sepulsa has worked closely with local top marketplaces, travel aggregators, and fintech companies that the company said to be an effective way for customer acquisition and retention.

Also Read: Meet the 19 companies that pitched a the Wavemaker annual portfolio showcase

On the side, Sepulsa is also known for its tech talent incubator Alpha Tech Academy (ATA), also will be rebranded into Alterra Academy in the future. It offers participants three months of training to learn everything they need to know to be an engineer and hired by a tech company, from web development to UI/UX design.
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They may all be blockchain-based, but they are structured differently

There has been a lot of talk about the difference between the three, whether it’s between the blockchain community, or between the regulators. With respect to technology, they basically are very similar. It’s the characteristics that make them different.

Context and history

In 2015, co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin announced that when you use Ethereum as your blockchain, you can write the code for bitcoin is just five lines of code. This changed the world. Some may see it as “ok sure, what’s the big deal?”, for me, I saw it as “wow, think of the applications for that, and having new cryptocurrencies compatible with the native cryptocurrency ether. But that didn’t spark any interest yet.

In 2018, Singapore was the third largest ICO hub in the world that but was no accident (Second note: But even today, I refuse to call ICO as fundraising as will explain it below, although the context looks very similar).

The blockchain community here was blooming, lead by the efforts of the blockchain association, ACCESS (access-sg.org), here as well as many influential blockchain evangelists. However many of the projects experienced similar pains, and that is to raise sufficient funding from venture capital firms. What I mean by sufficient, is even just enough to make ends meet, cushioned by a bit of savings.

Many of the venture capital firms here had four main objections to blockchain companies (going all the way back to 2013):

1. We don’t understand cryptocurrencies and blockchain enough to invest.
2. Regulations are not clear hence we will not touch this space.
3. The market is not big enough.
4. The main one (not exactly like this but the gist is similar): “Your product is very new and hasn’t shown any precedent overseas that it’ll be a success.”

Point 4 was basically what caused the problem. VCs’ incentive is to make money for their LPs, and it makes perfect sense to invest in clones, i.e. ones that have shown precedent that it works well overseas, may work well here.

Many of the blockchain projects had the idea of decentralization as the core ideology behind their products, which is definitely a very new concept for everyone. But because of this, raising funds was definitely very challenging.

Also Read: Nanu Berks on how blockchain merges art with activism

But obviously things are different now, now that venture capital firms here are starting to understand the space much more after the crypto spring happened in November 2017 (and now we’re in crypto winter as of January 14, 2019).

ERC20 — the catalyst to permissionless token creation

ERC stands for Ethereum Request for Comments. ERC-20 was a significant milestone as it standardized the way how tokens are to be created and the functions that go along with it. When people talk about “ERC-20 tokens”, basically the tokens created are compliant with the ERC-20 requirements. Since then, anyone that knows how to code in solidity can easily create a token, and as of November 19 2018, there are more than 142,200 ERC-20 token contracts.

What is an ICO?

ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering. Relative to other countries, Singapore has quite a progressive stance on it which is very welcomed by the community.

In the traditional sense, when you fundraise, it’s in the form of security, be it equity, note, bonds or some sort of convertibles. All this leads to a “right” in some form of control in one way or another. When you buy bitcoin or ether, you don’t have a right to a share of Bitcoin, or have some sort of control.

You are just buying because you see the value of Bitcoin’s utility, i.e. as a payment system or store of value. You buy ethers (mostly) because you need it to write smart contracts. People say bitcoin is bought for speculation. Yes definitely, so does anything that doesn’t have stability. But the point is this, when you buy a coin or token, you don’t have a say in it whatsoever.

Not only do you not have control, if you want to earn bitcoins, you need to work for it. In this case, you need to mine it where the rewards are distributed via the protocol, proof of work. You don’t have a claim or right to it immediately.

Since you don’t have any right or potential control to it, then how is it fundraising? If this is fundraising, so is Kickstarter. Tokens that provide utility and give no claims and rights, is no different to Kickstarter products that are asking for support.

But because it’s not a security, it does not mean that you don’t need to follow rules. According to the March 2014 announcement by MAS, all virtual currencies are subject to KYC and AML/CFT measures. Hence when you execute your ICO, you need to do all the necessary checks and verifications of the token supporter.

ICOs can have different structures such as:

· Pre-set funding goals and static supply of tokens;
· Dynamic funding goals and static supply of tokens; and
· Dynamic token supply depending on the funding received

What is an STO?

STO stands for Securitized Token Offering. The key difference for an STO (compared to an ICO) is the backing of the offering by something tangible like assets, profits, or revenue of a company. When an STO happens, you are selling some form of right or potential control of the company.

You can also add utility characteristics into it, but as long there is a right, claim or potential control, it falls under the securities and futures act of Singapore (SFA), or that similar in other jurisdictions. And because it falls under SFA, all your activities will need to comply with the rules set by your country (and the countries you’ll be marketing the token in).

In the blockchain community today, there is a lot of discussions in the blockchain space. It’s not actually following the rules to comply with the laws that is the problem, it’s actually trying to list the tokens as the marketplaces and exchanges must have a license before they are allowed to list security tokens.

Not only that, for normal stock listing campaigns, you will usually be doing roadshows around the world. And because the token will be a security token, you’ll need to comply with the local security regulations of each country as well. One word — costly.

Also Read: A quick guide to digital marketing a blockchain project

To cite an example, Securitize recently launched a successful STO for SPiCE VC, a tokenized VC fund where token holders are entitled to the full net revenues of future exits.

My biggest question today for STO issuers, is that from an entrepreneurship angle, if you’re doing this, how different is this from listing on an exchange, in terms of cost? I’m not skeptical (positive in fact), but I’m still studying (personally) the viability of STOs.

The popularity of STO would really depend on how the cost of issuance can be brought down. Currently, the costs are as high and perhaps comparable to an IPO. Besides, STO requires issuers to undertake the issuance process themselves as the financial intermediary is eliminated. This means the issue will have to underwrite the deal themselves through third-party audits as well as to solicit the interest of investors themselves, prepare marketing materials and ensure regulatory and security compliance.

What is a TSO?

TSO is not something new, but now becoming the new talk of the town. TSO stands for Tokenized Security Offering.

TSO stands for Tokenized Security Offering. Tokenization is basically digitalization of existing security or “anything” that may not be under the current definition of security. TSOs are tokenizing “things”, rather than making the token that has the characteristics of a security i.e. STOs. In simple terms, storage and management of an asset are digitally represented by tokens, i.e. TSO is changing the way in which the ownership of the asset is managed.

A lot more regulatory discussions are needed but I am very optimistic about TSOs, relative to TSOs. In terms of progress in the space, TSO makes a lot more sense, as there are many assets in the world that can’t be securitized by mainstream finance, especially in many of the frontier and emerging markets such as Cambodia, Myanmar, many parts of Africa, have a lot of assets that banks will not securitize. This is where TSOs will be useful.

To illustrate how a TSO would function, consider an asset worth US$100,000. If the owner requires US$20,000 quickly, using this asset as collateral to raise funds would take a lot of time and processes. Instead, he can tokenize the asset and transform it into 100,000 tokens and issue this onto a platform that supports smart contracts. This would ensure that the tokens can be traded freely.

The same can be done in the case of livestock (e.g. cow or goat) that has lesser liquidity. Some investors who wish to take exposure to help the farmer where the livestock is valued at US$300, can do so easily if the cow was tokenized and thereby trade in the tokens on an exchange.

Also Read: 10 ways blockchain can help overcome the biggest challenges in commercial leasing

Unlike STOs, TSOs mirrors that of the security, but it does not have the same rights and claims like an STO. TSO can be a great way for fundraising or to raise capital for a company that wants to expand. Moreover, currently, a lot of real estate deals and financial transactions happen between two people. If the asset is tokenized, the underlying asset can be traded on a platform thereby ensuring liquidity for the issuer. For investors and traders, this opens up a gamut of instruments that can be traded on.

In conclusion

ICO is not dead, and STOs have not taken over ICOs. It’s just a very different thing after all, and the intent is different. I hope this article will help you understand the differences between the three. In the Medium article, I have written out a table to tabulate the differences.

Note: This is entrepreneurial opinion and in no sense constitutes as legal advice. Legal advice is important but what is missing in legal advice is understanding the context of why these came about.

I hope this post can demystify some of the opinions and/or facts, or even trigger more debate. I’m not a lawyer, but I have tried to make it as understandable as possible, and possibly some details may not be correct. Whatever it is, please do seek legal advice for your endeavours.

Disclaimer: I’m speaking in the perspective of Singapore, and not of other countries.

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This post first appeared on Medium

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Image Credit: Łukasz Stefański

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The Singapore-grown startup raises the additional fund for the seed funding round led by East Ventures

Singapore’s Eatsy, the app platform that lets diners order-ahead, pay, and pick-up orders at local eateries and coffee shops, announced today an additional US$550,000 raised in their seed fund led by East Ventures.

East Ventures is joined by angel investors including Goh Yiping, the seasoned startup veteran who was behind MatahariMall and AllDealsAsia.

Eatsy has shared that they will use the investment to accelerate the mobile ordering and payment tech system. The goal is to create a ‘new way of life’ when dining out.

“With the access to new capital, we look forward to further development in technology, product expansion, and acquisition of new talents in 2019. We plan to lead the mobile order-ahead and pick-up space in Singapore” said Shaun Heng, co-founder and CEO of Eatsy.

Also Read: Indonesian tech startup Automo offers not just bike and car rentals, but private jets and Yacht too

Willson Cuaca, Managing Partner of East Ventures, shared his thought on how omni-channel has become an important strategy for SMEs to thrive in the digital era.

“F&B is a market of US$100 billion with annual growth of 2.65 per cent in Southeast Asia, and its potential can expand through the capacity to seamlessly process orders both from walk-in and digital. Eatsy team is best positioned to bring innovation to crack this market,” Cuaca added.

Eatsy was founded with the idea to leverage on existing technology infrastructure to leapfrog the ordering and payment challenges faced by many of SMEs. Eatsy’s technology cuts through all the hassles in ordering, queuing, and processing payment for food.

“Singaporeans are not exactly known for time off, they want to get as much done with what they have got, and mobile order-ahead apps like Eatsy does help diners save more time for more important things in life. Orders are taken and placed before they are on-site, payment is done, and all that’s left is to pick it up within the stipulated timing,” said Heng.

Eatsy has gained momentum in part because mobile order-ahead apps are getting investments left and right.

Heng believes that leveraging online data is the future of F&B business, which is why Eatsy supported their merchants with a streamlined checkout process to enable them to process more customers compared to waiting in line.

Also Read: For food delivery, machines won’t replace humans any time soon

Back in 2017, Eatsy was one of the first companies backed by Enterprise Singapore under the Startup SG Founder grant. It officially launched in January 2018 and has since grown to partner with over 200 merchants and raised a total of US$1 million in funding.

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Sale Stock is set to officially launch its new identity on February 6, 2019

Indonesian fashion e-commerce service began the year 2019 by changing its name to Sorabel, as it entered the fifth year of its operations.

According to an official statement by the company on its blog, the name Sorabel was taken from Soraya and the French word for beauty —belle. The rebranding was meant to strengthen the company’s mission to provide fashion products for its female-majority customers, who are nicknamed “sista.”

The rebranding will soon be followed up by changes in the company’s website and app, including the name and logo on its social media presence. At the moment, users visiting the Sale Stock websites are going to be redirected to Sorabel. Its app on Play Store has also been changed to Sorabel.

Also Read: Entering its third year, Sale Stock is set to reach break-even and make profit

DailySocial has reached out to the Sale Stock team to ask further details about the rebranding. The team stated that the new identity is currently on soft-launching stage, and all team members are working to ensure a smooth transition process.

This new identity will be officially launched on February 6, 2019. The company also stated that during the event, Sorabel will announce its new vision under the new brand identity as well innovation strategy to face a tightening competition among local e-commerce players.

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The article Sale Stock Ganti Nama Menjadi Sorabel was written by Randi Eka Yonida in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

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Hailed as Asian pioneer in online travel agency, Zuji was launched back in 2002 and now has gone out of business

Zuji, one of the first names to take a plunge in online travel agency business, has ceased operation. It is reported by Skift that Zuji failed to pay debt to airlines and missed out on renewing travel agency licenses in Singapore and Hong Kong, leading to its doom.

Zuji translates to “footprints” in Mandarin, and was in business since 2002. Singapore Tourism Board’s record shows that the company’s license has ceased since January 1, and January 9 according to the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau.

Also Read: Indonesian fashion e-commerce site Sale Stock changes its name to Sorabel

Earlier, it is reported, Zuji’s websites in both markets showed “New site coming soon” message all December. Now, it has returned error message.

There’s no report on the amount the company owed to airlines. A source from the Travel Industry Council in Hong Kong reported that it had received a total of US$32,000 worth of refunds case.

Zuji was a product of 16 Asia Pacific airlines that collaborate to create an online travel agency. The airlines include All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Airlines, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, Japan Air System, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Qantas Airways, Royal Brunei Airlines, SilkAir, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines – and Travelocity who was owned by Sabre Corporation.

All 16 airlines are said to have invested from US$50 million to US$100 million (2001 figures). At that time, online travel was a boom in Asia and China, and these top airlines tried to find ways to cut distribution costs and bypass travel agencies.

At that time Zuji’s product development plans included what it said to be the “roll-out of a state-of-the-art” air booking engine and tours and packages capability. Scott Blume was the first CEO of the company in January 2003, and was optimistic about Zuji’s chance of leading the industry.

Also Read: Mobile-based food order-ahead startup Eatsy secures US$550K from East Ventures

However, the company ended up being acquired by Travelocity in 2006, sold to Webjet in 2013, who then sold it to Uriel Aviation Holdings in 2016.

The International Air Transport Association gave a confirmation that Zuji has been terminated from its billing and settlement plan, the clearing house for payments between travel agencies and airlines.
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