Among the many impacts brought about by a very unexpected year, 2020 saw unprecedented growth for online merchants across Asia Pacific.

Take e-commerce, for example: last year, Bain & Company and Facebook expected Southeast Asia to have 310 million people shopping online by 2025. Instead, that milestone was achieved at the end of 2020.

This growth is undeniably great news for merchants across Asia, as well as those looking to expand across the region and further west.

At Payoneer, we’ve seen this rapid growth firsthand – with 260 per cent year-on-year (YoY) volume growth in Singapore from 2019 to 2020. Figures across the region tell the same story – India saw 170 per cent YoY growth, 90 per cent for The Philippines and 70 per cent for Malaysia.

However, with this growth comes lightening-fast development across merchants’ platforms. Whether it’s keeping up with new consumer trends, bringing onboard new sellers, or expanding into new markets, it can be easy for merchants to focus on the new and overlook the importance of their payment setup and its impact on customer experience.

Think about it from your experience as a consumer: we know the feeling of irritation that accompanies a less-than-smooth payment encounter with a merchant. The reality is, the bigger the merchant grows, the more that payment complexity can (and will) snowball.

Ensuring that the consumer experience is as streamlined as possible is vital to merchants’ success. Building and maintaining hard-earned customers’ trust, while maximising business growth, means investing in a seamless payment experience and removing unnecessary roadblocks for customers.

The case for payment orchestration

As they are getting up and running, many merchants will choose a single payment services provider (PSP) that combines just enough payment methods and risk management tools to meet their needs. This might work well initially for merchants, but can be limiting in the longer-term.

Also Read: Xendit bags US$64.6M Series B led by Accel to scale its digital payments service across Southeast Asia

What if your PSP stops supporting the exact payment method that is popular with your customers? What if, during the peak hours, your PSP suffers a system outage resulting in serious revenue loss for your business? Can you actually control your payments? Will they cover the regions where you plan to expand?

To overcome the limitation of a single PSP, merchants then often try to integrate multiple PSPs by themselves. And at a high level, this is a good idea. However, building payment connections in-house risks businesses ending up with a disintegrated, fractured payment setup.

Unfortunately, it not only results in a flawed customer experience and decreased payment acceptance, but also high transaction costs and increased demand for internal resources alongside risk and security issues.

This is where a payments headache starts to creep in, and it’s made even tougher by the fact that there is no single solution to solve the problem. Instead, the answer for merchants lies in the ability to bring on board a payment orchestration tool or provider that combines these payment processes on a single platform, and future-proofs their business to ensure a customisable, integrated and seamless payments experience.

Let the POP take the weight

Moving away from a single payment provider, and/or a DIY multi-provider system, and towards a payment orchestration platform (POP) has many strategic benefits.

Firstly, using a POP, merchants can seek out independent guidance – driven by data and analytics – on what works best for their specific business case and then integrate a bespoke payment setup for the markets in which they operate.

Payment methods and preferences vary from region to region, so merchants selling and expanding on a regional or global scale can take advantage of a POP that allows them to be able to cater to their customers’ payment preferences.

Think about the range of payment types across Asian markets as an example: we can choose Alipay, GrabPay, GoPay, PayLah!, WhatsApp or PayNow (just to name a few), or pay directly by credit card at checkout.

The routing capabilities provided by POPs also help merchants direct their transactions through the most beneficial payment providers. This eliminates declines associated with provider failures or outages and optimises the front-end checkout experience.

By helping merchants to boost their payment acceptance rates by routing transactions through regional payment processing providers in appropriate markets, a POP can improve the likelihood that transactions are accepted, making the process quicker and more successful for customers.

Also Read: 4 ways digital payments are helping businesses thrive amid a global recession

Business shouldn’t be risky

A frictionless payment experience at both the front and back end is far from the only positive aspect of opting to use a POP. Having a robust, yet flexible, POP means merchants can protect themselves and their customers with embedded risk management tools – without sacrificing convenience and ease-of-use.

More than ever, many customers are now shopping or using services online out of necessity, so the security of the purchasing experience is of continued importance. Merchants must be sure they can identify fraud without making purchasing so friction-filled that they block out legitimate customers.

At the same time, it’s crucial to ensure that returning customers who have registered payment details aren’t falling victim to fraudsters who seize access to their accounts. As you can imagine, getting this balance right is crucial.

This is why POPs enable a merchant to embed top of the line risk management tools into their platform – to help alleviate the responsibility, pressure and cost associated with security-proofing merchants’ businesses and to ultimately mitigate the detrimental effects of these situations when they do happen.

A seamless experience

The merchant landscape across and beyond APAC is more alive than ever before and using a holistic payment infrastructure with connections to a wide range of global and local payment providers, tools and risk management systems, comes with a host of benefits for merchants.

The bottom line is that the best possible frictionless and localised payment experience for customers in any country and sector is absolutely crucial for success. Your payment set-up should empower you as a merchant and enable freedom, choice and the ability to go beyond borders and capabilities.

With this in place, the alignment between frictionless payments and merchant success will continue to drive growth for those who choose to accept the current pace of change.

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Humans are inherently social. So much so that longitudinal studies have shown that happiness is largely determined by the quality of our relationships. From the playground to the office, people seek to fit in and belong.

Much has been written about how diversity and inclusion at the workplace drive productivity, efficiency, and creativity. More recently, studies have also shown that engendering a sense of belonging amongst employees directly translates to them feeling more invested in their jobs, which reduces turnover and sick days and increases overall performance. For large companies, this translates to millions in annual savings.

Unsurprisingly, companies are increasingly trying to make sense of corporate belonging. In February this year, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIBs) advocate Maya Toussaint shared with Microsoft key differences between the three concepts.

“Diversity is quite simply, representation,” said Toussaint. This means having diverse ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations represented at workplaces. Inclusion then builds on diversity and focuses on granting equal access to development and career opportunities, and ensuring employees feel welcome and respected.

Toussaint also quoted DIBs expert Verna Myers who explained that “diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance”.

A company that is diverse and inclusive then helps foster a sense of belonging. “It’s a feeling of being able to be my true self,” said Toussaint. “I was once told I shouldn’t laugh at work. I quit the following week. I clearly didn’t belong there.”

Toussaint now works at a company where she is told her laugh is missed when she is on sick leave, and where her ideas and expertise are constantly tapped on. She feels included, and also appreciated and celebrated for the skills and quirks she brings to the table.

Also Read: Why it is now essential to encourage diversity and empower women in fintech

While diversity is a fact and inclusion a behaviour, belonging is very much a feeling. Before COVID- 19 made working from home a global norm, a key feature of belonging was being able to feel and be your authentic self at the office.

But when home becomes office, does belonging become less salient? Do measures of isolation, exclusion, and alienation change when meetings (work and play) can only take place virtually? Back when belonging was tied to the physical space of the office, creating environments that cultivated a sense of belonging amongst employees was arguably more straightforward.

In 2019, entrepreneur and author Rebekah Bastian opined that company norms such as “appearances and even the ways people have fun and unwind” were crucial factors in fostering or inhibiting a sense of belonging amongst employees. It was as much about formal DIBs policies as it was about everyday interactions that enabled one to “develop a deeper connection with others by sharing (their) authentic self and receiving acceptance in return”.

Before the new normal, weekdays consisted of lunches with colleagues, bonding over shared experiences during idle pockets of time in the pantry, and going for the occasional drink together. These were the human spaces where belonging (or a lack of) was most felt. But what happens when these spaces are erased?

Companies and employees that once enjoyed diversity, inclusion and belonging will now have to grapple with translating this culture online. Employers need to be aware of how new employees might feel alienated in their own homes during Google Hangouts with colleagues they have never met.

Or how things might now get awkward when existing employees try to get their usual lunch buddies together over Zoom (when everyone’s families are there with them in the flesh).

Some employees might struggle with figuring out the culture of the places they will be spending the next few years at. While the context of corporate belonging has changed, the right culture remains the most important factor in cultivating a sense of belonging.

At home, idle time during work hours can now be spent doing a hundred other things (read: nap, play mobile games, tend to children, chores, the list goes on). Employees might not feel left out when everyone is forced to stay home, but they might feel increasingly disconnected, which might impact personal job investment and performance. How then, can companies carve out the time and space for relationships and a sense of belonging to organically grow again?

Also Read: Is your new work-from-home culture stressing your employees?

Some companies are trying their darnedest. There are companies that organise team lunches by delivering restaurant takeaway to their employees’ homes and eating together via Zoom. There are some that host team gaming sessions on HouseParty.

Others hire yoga instructors to conduct group online workouts. Some companies even manage to bring employees from all over the world together via Zoom by sending lunch to employees in Singapore, wine to employees in Australia, and dinner to employees in the US.

Many companies are also extra committed to listening to their employees during this challenging time. They have company-wide addresses by upper management, one-on-one check-ins between managers and employees, and conduct candid AMAs (Ask Me Anything) where CEOs address questions on the ground.

These are all laudable attempts at creating opportunities for bonding online, which is the cornerstone of belonging. Yet, perhaps the biggest challenge facing any organisation is their own employees’ attitudes towards these initiatives.

In the comfort of homes, there are many things people could or would rather be doing. But if we are serious about belonging, we need to carve out the time and space to invest in the relationships at work, from home.

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The founders of Indonesian coffee chain startup Kopi Kenangan have launched an angel investment fund targeting early-stage Indonesian companies, DealStreetAsia has reported.

Coined ‘Kenangan Fund’, its average ticket size ranges from US$10,000 to US$150,000 per investment and is sector-agnostic.

Besides an investment into logistics startup Dropezy last week, the fund has also backed other local startups including fintech platform Bukukas, podcast company Noice, and automotive firm Otoklix.

Launched in May 2020 by Edward Tirtanata, James Prananto, and Cynthia Chaerunnisa, the co-founders of Kopi Kenangan, the investment vehicle is also understood to have received commitments from the trio’s unnamed friends.

Also Read: Caffeinated expansion: How Kopi Kenangan achieves its goal of opening one new store per day

“The founders believe that investing in startups is an opportunity that cannot be missed, given the trajectory of the internet economy within Southeast Asia. However, financial returns are not the only reason they are pursuing this, it is a personal passion too. Investments will be opportunistic and agnostic in nature,” a Kopi Kenangan spokesperson told e27.

Due to the nature of the fund, it doesn’t have a formal general partner, limited partner, or any other commitment to a third party.

Though the fund bears the name of the coffee chain startup, Tirtanata clarified in the report that the investments made under the fund are not linked to Kopi Kenangan’s business and operations.

Started in 2017, Kopi Kenangan has experienced rapid growth and has raised a total of US$237 million in funding from over 14 investors including Sequoia Capital, Alpha JWC and B Capital. Last year, the company raised US$109 million in a Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital.

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Image Credit: Kopi Kenangan

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This past Monday marks International Women’s Day, where globally we have been celebrating women’s achievements in a push for equality. With the theme this year being ‘Choose to Challenge,’ it is an apt reminder to encourage people to come together and celebrate outstanding work by women, especially in a challenging business climate.

While women try to rise above everyday challenges thrown their way, 2020 serves as a lesson to the inequality that we as women can face at home and the workplace. With that, 2021 is the year for taking what we’ve learned, continuing that journey and living the values of this year’s theme – ‘choose to challenge’.

As COVID-19 continues to rattle Singapore’s economy, research reveals that nearly 82 per cent of women surveyed said their lives have been adversely affected, citing negative impacts on mental and physical well-being and work/life balance. Additionally, 60 per cent question whether they want to progress at all when considering what they believe it will take to move up in their organisation.

With the tech industry often categorised as a highly competitive and high-stress environment that is mostly dominated by males, how can women continue to thrive despite the perpetuation of traditional gender roles? The pressures experienced, along with living up to the expectations of a woman in the tech scene, shouldn’t be an impediment or threat to career progression.

Rather, this is a wakeup call for organisations to create an inclusive and safe environment that empowers women to choose to challenge status quo and enable progression, be it in the tech industry or anywhere else.

With this in mind – and as a working mother of two young girls leading the marketing team in a global tech company, here are three key learnings I’ve taken over the last year for how we can support women in the workplace and contribute to a more equal COVID-19 world:

Embracing flexible work to close the gender gap

It’s no surprise that the pandemic has created paradigm shifts in workplace flexibility and working from home arrangements. While many women have enjoyed the eased time pressures without having to rush for work and doing school drop-off, research indicates that women are more likely to continue carrying out domestic responsibilities while working flexibly.

Also Read: Why it is now essential to encourage diversity and empower women in fintech

Men, on the other hand, are more likely to put the time to prioritise their career. While it’s tempting to think that flexible work options will be an equaliser for women, women should not feel like they need to choose between work and family responsibilities.

This is where leading by example can help. Working for a business such as DocuSign that embraces equality and has actively created benefits like the ‘DocuSign Cares’ package, which can pay for childcare during mandated ‘work from home’, gives me the confidence that other businesses can support women in navigating the challenges of the COVID-19 world in a similar way.

Drawing boundaries in an era of hyper-connectivity

As a woman in tech, it’s inspiring to see how digital platforms have transformed our working models. It’s almost a year since the implementation of the Circuit Breaker in Singapore, we continue to find ourselves being constantly connected to work, staying online almost 24//7.

With technology permeating all boundaries of personal and professional life, women must step up through setting boundaries beginning with the gadgets and tools they use.

According to a recent study, 65 per cent of Singapore employers consider flexible working to be a key factor of work-life balance. Hence by drawing the necessary boundaries between work and personal spheres, engagement and disconnectivity, women can better manage their time, remain productive and perform at work all while maintaining work-life harmony to rise above glass ceilings.

Unlocking woman leadership opportunities

Leadership is a powerful tool that could make or break your organisation. By supporting women to take leadership positions, we can challenge gender stereotypes and drive equality in the workplace. COVID-19 has shed the spotlight on the need for upskilling, and it’s up to businesses to ensure that female workers are actively encouraged to participate in such programs.

For example, in APAC, half of our teams at DocuSign are managed by female leaders, who are constantly encouraged to build on their current skill set. With a diverse workforce, any business will be better positioned to build well-rounded ideas and a richer culture.

According to research from McKinsey Global Institute, increasing gender equality and championing women empowerment in Singapore’s workforce could add S$26 billion to the country’s GDP by 2025.

Now is the time to think about how we continue to deliver messages of positivity to women, as it’s clear that COVID-19 has prompted us all to think about how we can champion change in the workplace.

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

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Meet Hugo Garcia-Cotte, who helps companies protect their goods from being faked.

Today, he shares how he went up against the Chinese mafia and won!

We discuss:

• His family’s influence on him
• Why moving to China was the best decision he’s ever made
• How being in China made him realise his unique advantage
• How he set up his company and struggled through fundraising
• One very important thing he recently realised which changed his business
• The story of how he came to take down the Chinese mafia
• And more!

If you don’t see the player above, click on the link below to listen directly!

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If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!

For show notes and past guests, please visit our site.

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This article was first published on We Live To Build.

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Singapore is testing the use of autonomous robots in providing on-demand courier deliveries.

The one-year trial, which is expected to pave the way for wider use of autonomous robot couriers, is led by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), in partnership with Housing & Development Board (HDB), Land Transport Authority (LTA), Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), logistics service provider CM Logistics, supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice, and technology provider OTSAW.

Autonomous robots will allow consumers to choose when they want their items delivered, instead of adhering to a fixed delivery schedule.

Also Read: This made-in-Singapore robotic coffee barista will receive you at Japan’s train stations ahead of Olympics

For instance, after buying groceries such as rice or diapers at a supermarket, a consumer can drop off the purchases at a concierge counter to continue shopping or dining and have them delivered to their HDB block at a time the consumer chooses.

Other items that could be delivered through these robot couriers include perishables such as food or flowers, and even controlled items such as medicine.

The trial will see two OTSAW robots delivering parcels and groceries to the lift lobbies of seven Waterway Woodcress HDB blocks. This is intended at assessing technologies such as AI for autonomous navigation, obstacle detection and avoidance; infrastructure such as communications systems and road networks (including connectivity and slopes); and business models for commercial viability.

To ensure public safety, both autonomous robots have passed the LTA’s safety assessment for the supervised use of autonomous vehicles on public paths. The speed for each robot, which weighs 80 kg (unloaded), is further capped at walking speeds (about 5 kmh). Each robot is also accompanied by a safety officer during the trial period.

Through a mobile app, consumers will be notified when the robot is en route to its destination and will receive a confirmation notification that the robot has arrived.

The robot will also provide a QR code for recipients to scan at the collection point via their mobile phones, thus ensuring that only the authorised person will be able to access to the assigned compartment and its contents.

“With the growth of e-commerce, consumers have grown accustomed to expecting food, products and groceries to be delivered to their home in increasingly shorter periods of time. Autonomous delivery robots can play an important role in augmenting existing delivery infrastructure to enhance the consumer experience and drive productivity gains,” said Kiren Kumar, Deputy Chief Executive, IMDA.

Also Read: Goldbell looking to foray into autonomous mobility space, says Future Mobility unit MD Kelvin Tay

“We continually seek new opportunities to better serve our residents and shoppers, including leveraging innovative technologies such as the last-mile delivery by autonomous robots. By supporting this initiative at our first new-generation Neighbourhood Centre, Oasis Terraces, we hope this will provide for greater convenience and enhance the retail experience for about 700 residential households at Waterway Woodcress,” said Kee Lay Cheng, Group Director for Properties and Land, HDB.

“Urban logistics keep the city going by delivering goods to people and businesses efficiently. Employing technology to explore alternate and innovative modes of delivery is one way Singapore builds a world-class urban logistics system that also enhances land and labour productivity. This enables our city to become more liveable, sustainable and connected,” said Chiu Wen Tung, Group Director (Research & Development), URA.

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Image Credit: IMDA

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The e-commerce industry in the six largest Southeast Asian (SEA) markets is set to continue growing as it will likely reach US$172 billion in value in 2025, according to a report by Google, Temasek, and Bain company.

iPrice Group, an e-commerce aggregator, collaborated with SimilarWeb and AppsFlyer to discover the impact of COVID-19 in their Map of E-commerce Yearend Report 2020.

The report uncovered three major changes such as:

1. Which e-commerce sites gained their web visits?
2. SEA customers’ average spending increased by 19 per cent
3. What drives SEA customers to install & uninstall shopping apps?

Specifically, changes in online shopping behaviour in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Which e-commerce sites gained their web visits?

2020 has signified strong customer confidence in e-commerce retail despite mobility restrictions and mounting concerns over the global pandemic.

The report reveals that the overall website traffic of online shopping platforms increased positively across all countries year-over-year. This can be seen most in Singapore, which experienced a surge of 35 per cent compared to 2019, followed by the Philippines (21 per cent), Vietnam (19 per cent), Malaysia (17 per cent), Thailand (15 per cent), and Indonesia (six per cent).

Data also showed that online department stores’ web traffic experienced a 52 per cent average increase from Q1 of 2020. This could be a tell-tale sign that most countries in the region flocked to online department stores instead of physical stores due to social distancing.

Also Read: The holiday edit: Zalora CMO on how to tap social media to induce consumer shopping behaviour

Nonetheless, some e-commerce sites’ web traffic has taken a beating due to the pandemic. For instance, platforms that offer cosmetic products showed an average web traffic decrease of 35 per cent from Q1 to Q4 2020. Meanwhile, fashion and electronics sites also experienced a slight decrease of 14 per cent in traffic in the six aforementioned countries.

Whilst demand for essential goods is necessary, COVID-19 has broadened the online demand of Southeast Asian consumers for non-essential items such as fashion, electronics, health & beauty, and sports & outdoors that were seen through online spending instead.

Southeast Asians’ average spending increased by 19 per cent

Although fashion and electronics sites saw a slight decrease in web traffic, the average basket size for these categories significantly increased. Sports & outdoor products met the same fate as well.

iPrice Group’s platform found that consumers in SEA spent an overall average of US$32 per order in 2020, which was 19 per cent higher than 2019. Singapore and Malaysia saw the highest average basket size of US$61 and US$41 respectively in 2020.

These unprecedented shifts have presented a sign of digital acceleration in online retail despite the global pandemic that affecting consumers in SEA.

What drives SEA customers to install & uninstall shopping apps?

As most people were embracing technology in response to a volatile and uncertain situation, there is a prime opportunity for mobile shopping apps to continuously engage with SEA consumers.

That said, AppsFlyer & iPrice analysed over 12.4 million installs and found that there was a two per cent average increase of organic installs on iOS & Android’s shopping applications from January to June.

Among many things that led to users installing shopping applications were lockdown periods and online sales.

For instance, with lockdown measures were imposed in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, people embarked to install and tried different shopping apps between March until April. This also coincided with various online sales events such as Ramadhan, while people were being trapped indoors.

Also Read: How shopping sites performed during COVID-19 in Singapore

Meanwhile, the Lunar New Year and Songkran Festival also showed a surge of installations in Vietnam and Thailand from January to February.

Major e-commerce companies across the region have also rolled out other marketing campaigns that drew customers through gamified features on the app, free shipping, and discounts. For instance, superstars such as K-pop group Blackpink, actor Lee Min-ho, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, and Singapore’s e-commerce ambassador Phua Chu Kang.

The success of organic installs has not gone unnoticed as the study also recognised six out of 10 SEA users are still using mobile shopping apps as their primary channel.

However, data reported that there was an increasing rate of uninstallation in five countries. The highest average uninstallation was led by Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore with an increase of 49 per cent, 47 per cent, 41 per cent, 37 per cent, and 36 per cent respectively.

This proves Southeast Asian users are more selective of shopping apps by uninstalling apps they don’t use as the pandemic continues.

The COVID-19 pandemic will provide further impetus for growth as shopping behaviour will continually shift. It remains imperative for most e-commerce companies to strengthen their relationship with consumers through relevant campaigns.

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

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Vietnamese internet giant VNG Corporation has invested US$6 million into B2B gifting services company Got It in exchange for a 25 per cent stake.

According to a press note, this gives Got It a post-investment valuation of US$25 million.

The fresh funds will go towards improving the startup’s P2P gifting services in Vietnam.

Established in 2015, Got It also offers loyalty programmes and reward vouchers. The company claims its clients consist of over 500 of the largest multinational and national companies across Vietnam.

Got It and VNG will join hands to launch a premium instant P2P gifting solution with about 160 brand partners, covering over 12,000 locations nationwide. VNG will assist Got It in expanding its gifting services, B2B channels and merchant network, with a focus on users Zalo and ZaloPay, which are owned by VNG.

Also Read: Just in time for Christmas: How Gratify plans to make gift-giving more efficient and sustainable

“Since mid-2020, VNG has been pushing its strategy of finding potential startups for long-term investment and companionship,” said Le Hong Minh, Co-founder and CEO of VNG.

This is the second investment in a local startup by VNG. Last December, it invested VND 100 billion (US$4.4 million) in logistics firm EcoTruck for a 20 per cent stake. The internet giant is also an early investor in e-commerce platform Tiki, owning 22 per cent of the company.

VNG is Vietnam’s first tech unicorn, with a valuation estimated to be about US$2.2 billion. Having started out as a gaming business in 2004, the company has since expanded into digital content, e-commerce, digital payments and recently cloud services. Notable investors include Singapore state-backed investment firm Temasek and Goldman Sachs.

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Image Credit: VNG

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Openspace Ventures, a Singapore-based VC firm backed by state investor Temasek Holdings, has closed its third Southeast Asian fund at US$200 million, Bloomberg has reported.

The firm’s total committed capital under management now stands at US$425 million spread across its three funds, the report stated, quoting co-founders Shane Chesson and Hian Goh in an interview.

Investors joining the latest fund include Germany’s DEG, Norway’s Norfund AS, Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group and US-based asset management firm 57 Stars LLC.

Launched in 2014, Openspace was an early investor in unicorns including Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek and Singapore-based healthtech company Biofourmis.

Boasting 33 companies from across 12 countries, the firm’s portfolio includes Filipino media platform Kumu, Indonesian healthtech startup Halodoc and TaniHub, an Indonesian agritech startup.

Also Read: Zilliqa Capital debuts with the goal to invest in decentralised and fintech solutions in SEA, India

“Our peers may do more deals, but our hit rate has been high,” noted Chesson in the Bloomberg interview. It was reported Openspace’s debut US$90 million fund returned 35.3 per cent.

In January 2021, the firm was among a group of new investors who took part in a pre-Series B funding round in Zenius, an Indonesian edutech company that focuses on developing critical thinking and scientific reasoning.

The news of Openspace’s latest fund comes amid a flurry of venture activity in the region. Last month, Taiwan-based accelerator AppWorks announced it raised US$114 million for its third fund, which will invest into Series A and B startups in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Last week, B Capital Group, which counts Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin among its leadership team, launched its US$126 million Ascent Fund II targeting seed and Series A startups in the region.

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Image Credit: Openspace Ventures

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When it comes to trends that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures implemented in many Southeast Asian countries, we have identified several notable ones such as the rise of digital payments and telemedicine. But there is one particular trend that is not widely discussed: The rise of startups in Singapore that is working to promote sexual health and wellness.

In a coverage published in October last year, e27 noted that in Singapore, there are at least three companies launched in the second half of 2020 that are working in this sector.

But the fact that we do not talk about this trend so often might be related to the very nature of the problems that these startups want to solve: The taboo surrounding the topic of sexual health and wellness.

Jingjin Liu, CEO & Co-Founder of ZaZaZu, agrees that the sexual wellness industry in Singapore has been growing in recent years –and that the startups working in the sector are on a mission to normalise sexual wellness.

“Due to this growing perception, many startups have sought to leverage this opportunity to realise their mission and business objectives. With a global market size of over US$120 billion and growth of over 12 per cent CAGR, the business opportunity in this sector in Asia is huge,” she writes in an email to e27.

As a platform, ZaZaZu focusses its work on promoting female sexual pleasure, the discussion surrounding the topic, and giving users access to relevant products and services.

“Our intimacy survey may suggest that while couples have not increased their frequency of sex during the pandemic, many still seek more intimacy and pleasure. This is exactly why ZaZaZu was birthed ― to drive a social movement that transforms one of the biggest taboos into a positive conversation. We aim to do so by building an engaged female community, empowering them to own their pleasure and create a safe space to discuss, learn and explore all aspects of sexuality and intimacy,” Liu explains.

Also Read: Why sexual health is the next frontier for entrepreneurs

“Additionally, female pleasure is often overlooked. In 2019, Woman’s Weekly conducted a survey of Singaporean women and revealed that only 20 per cent of respondents were happy with their sex lives, and only 15.6 per cent of respondents have tried introducing sex toys in the bedroom,” she continues.

In addition to offering an e-commerce platform for curated products that include sex toys, ZaZaZu also offers educational content, consultations with experts from sexologist to a hypnotherapist, and a membership programme that offers perks such as offers from restaurants selling aphrodisiac.

“Through our ZaZaZu Club, we focus on building an engaged female community, empowering women to love themselves and to feel good, and not through pushing our products. I believe that once you build your loyal tribe, the sales will come without aggressively pushing,” Liu says.

Empowerment through liberation

As an entrepreneur, Liu says that her passion and calling have always been to build a business that helps women to establish intrinsic confidence.

Prior to founding ZaZaZu, she had spent more than 10 years in the entrepreneurial and automotive industry in Germany, China, and Singapore. She is also the co-founder of ASBO Drives Technology Components GmBH (which was acquired by China Machinery Engineering Corporation in 2019) and the first and the youngest woman to become Global Marketing Director at WABCO.

Liu moved to Singapore in 2018 to pursue an EMBA at INSEAD, and when she considered the company that she would like to start, she noticed that many companies that focus on women empowerment tend to focus on the line of career advice or meditation workshops. Meanwhile, there is a need to get to the root of the problem.

“I believe that if women are comfortable with their sexuality, and build confidence from within, then there is little need to harness the power of attraction to tell the universe what you want. Sexuality informs identity, and this is my belief. When you are secure in your identity, that builds innate confidence. Confidence is what empowers people to ask for what they want, to stop doubting themselves and ultimately go out to change the world,” she elaborates.

The co-founder had her own experiences to attribute to this. Growing up in China, sexual education was basically non-existent — Liu even described sex as “a mystery”.

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“When I was 16, I moved to Germany and was fortunate to experience how schools and society openly approached sex-related topics to young adults. In my twenties, as I gained more security in my sexuality, I grew the confidence to study and work in male-dominated industries,” she says.

Women running the business

Liu met co-founder Cassandra Poon during the final phase of an Antler incubation programme at the end of March 2020. While Antler ended up not investing in the co-founders, they decided to keep on pursuing their startup idea.

As a startup, ZaZaZu has raised pre-seed funding round from angel investors and Loyal VC. When asked about the secret to successful fundraising as an early stage company, Liu says that the key is to build a connection even before the business itself.

“The secret is to make friends, always! When I decided to raise funds, I had a large network to reach out to. The beauty of a controversial business is that while we can have a thousand detractors, we also have a hundred strong supporters,” she elaborates.

For 2021, ZaZaZu wants to focus on proving and improving its concept for the Singapore market before eventually expanding to Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and China.

“We ultimately aim to create a safe space where sex is healthy, pleasure is positive and education gaps are sealed. My long-term goal for ZaZaZu is to become the go-to place in Asia for all sexual wellness-related topics and challenges, to foster meaningful discussion and build a strong community,” Liu closes.

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Image Credit: ZaZaZu

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