The government has recently revealed its plans to further boost the Electric Vehicle (EV) ecosystem by installing a total of 60,000 charging points by 2030 across Singapore.

However, a few key questions still remain: Is the republic’s existing infrastructure adequate enough to support the government grant plans? Who will provide the additional power capacity required for the uninterrupted running of the charging points?

We posed this question to Geoffrey Chan, Principle Advisor at Delight Innovative Technologies, a company that is developing a ‘power system neutral EV charging (PSN-EVC), which he claims to have successfully implemented in his home city, Hong Kong.

In this interview, he discusses PSN-EVC in detail:

What are the major flaws of existing EV charging points in Singapore or elsewhere?

Existing EV charging stations have several drawbacks. Firstly, these chargers require additional power capacity. What it means is that utility companies need to increase the power capacity to the locations and premises, where the charging points are installed, to upgrade the switchboard.

Also Read: ‘Singapore isn’t ready for mass adoption of EVs yet; hybrid may be better for the present’

In most cases, EV chargers come with 100 per cent power allocation to allow them to deliver to its full capacity. However, in practice, this results in great waste in the utilisation of this added capacity. Based on some reports, the utilisation is below five percent on average and 10 per cent at best.

Hence, it is a lose-lose situation — while it ends up in a loss for the utility company by wasted investment in added capacity, the user will also incur loss as he/she will have to shoulder the cost to utility.

True, governments around the world have put in extra subsidy and efforts to build the EV charging capacity. For instance, the Hong Kong government pumped US$25 million into EV charging at home subsidy in 2020. Singapore has also initiated a nation-wide EV charging infrastructure tender in 2021 to provide around four EV charge points per carpark. However, all these are dependent on the existing network capacity.

Secondly, purpose-built charging stations or street charging points are installed to provide paid/free charging to EV owners. They need to book a time-slot and drive to the nearest station to get charged, where fast or super-fast chargers are installed to quickly charge the vehicle within an hour.

But there is a problem: fast charging shortens the battery life by about 10 per cent. However, this concern is disregarded at present as there is no alternative solution existing in the market.

Home and workplaces are the best locations to set up charging points. It is the most user-and environmentally-friendly option. However, the issue is that it will overload the existing power system, as EV charging could be occurring at a time when other electronic appliances are running.

But who can get the limited spare capacity at each location/district initially? Surely, carpark managements may be reluctant to install any charging points and utility companies are unwilling to approve the request to increase the capacity.

All these pose challenges for the governments and private sector.

How can these challenges be tackled? You claim to have developed an alternative solution, called PSN-EVC? How does it help?

PSN-EVC stands for ‘power system-neutral EV charging’, which uses our proprietary NALA system. It is a revolutionary concept based on the principle that EV charging should not require upgrade of an existing power system. This concept has been implemented successfully and put into service in Hong Kong.

The PSN-EVC uses the ‘shadow charging’ method — meaning the difference of annual maximum building load minus the actual load will be used to charge EV. The net result is that the annual maximum building load will not increase due to EV charging.

It has been proven that ‘shadow capacity’ is sufficient to replenish EVs parked in a workplace or at home.

I can explain the working model through an example.

Let’s assume, there are 12 parking spaces in a domestic building, and each space is provided with a PSN-EVC charger. Let’s say the annual maximum load of the building is 600A and the peak consumption occurs at around 10 pm.

Now, when the building is drawing 600A, all EVs that are plugged to the chargers will be put to a standby mode as no shadow power is available. When the building load drops, for instance to 400A, at 1 am, the shadow power available is 200A.

PSN-EVC will then allocate 16A each to the 12 EVs to replenish the battery. Even if every EV is charged, the total power consumption would always be less than 600A.

Now, if some of the parking spaces are empty, or a plugged-in EV is fully charged, the unused part of the shadow capacity will be distributed orderly to other EVs to charge them up faster. In the morning, most of the EV should be fully charged.

When an EV is driven to the workplace or a supermarket carpark, PSN-EVC there will recharge the EV based on the shadow power available at that premises for the period the vehicle is parked there.

How can PSN-EVC bridge the gaps in and address the issues faced by existing charging stations?

Existing charging stations are an interim but a costly and wasteful solution. Here, the driver needs to move the vehicle to a station and remove it immediately after the charging is done.

Due to this, the station must increase capacity to run the station, but it takes time and money.

Also Read: Goldbell acquires BlueSG, to invest US$52.3M in the e-car sharing firm over the next 5 years

PSN-EVC is the solution for the quick installation of EV charger (in office parking and home parking) with a minimum cost. When more chargers are installed with chargers adopting PSN-EVC, shadow charging will be available everywhere and there is no need to find charging point anymore.

The key benefits of PSN-EVC are: 1) no waiting time before commencing installation, 2) optimal usage for the utility (optimising the utility usage and reducing cost for everybody), and 3) peaceful co-ordination between normal electricity use and charging can be harmonised.

Under present power grid rules (without PSN-EVC), the requirement to increase the grid source (generators, cable and transformers) are huge and are not readily achievable.

When more parking spaces are installed with PSN-EVC, it can be more tolerant to non-EV parked at a EV charge point. The effort to allocate the usage of EV charging points can be eliminated. This way, every vehicle user, EV or non-EV, will be happy.

The lack of charger is hindered by the simple-minded policy to provide for additional power. PSN-EVC can help overcome that hurdle.

Government policy to stop selling ICE can be immediately achievable if EV itself is economic enough. Both Hong Kong and Singapore are ideal places for 100 per cent EV conversion as the vehicle mileage is lower. Both cities have sufficient capable power system engineers to apply and master PSN-EVC.

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Image Credit: PSN-EVC

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Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX), an SOSV accelerator for mobile-first markets in South and Southeast Asia, has announced the seven graduates of its tenth cohort.

Each startup has received around US$150,000 in investment, in addition to a six-month intensive accelerator programme, which includes cross-border market entry, sales, and customer development and fundraising readiness.

The selected startups from MOX operate in social commerce, live video content, and the financial structure sector.

“As an investor, we’re seeing huge opportunities in social commerce, video content, entertainment, and hyperlocal services,” William Bao Bean, General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director of Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX) said.

Also Read: Meet the 7 graduates of SOSV-backed MOX’s 9th cohort

“Companies that launched and thrived during the pandemic are the most resilient ones, and the MOX 10 cohort has been the proof of that,” he added.

Here are the seven startups graduating from MOX:

24SEVEN.pk (Pakistan)

An e-commerce platform for groceries.

Betagged (Singapore)

An influencer marketing platform with deep analytics, delivering higher ROI for brands in Indonesia.

BistroChat (Hong Kong)

A restaurant booking app where users can search and book for restaurants directly within the app.

Dastgyr (Pakistan)

A B2B marketplace that connects small-scale retailers with manufacturers and suppliers.

Kiko TV (India)

An interactive entertainment video app.

Stack Finance (India)

An app to track and manage money.

Wallet Engine (Singapore)

Embedded finance platform for cross-border apps.

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Image Credit: MOX

 

 

 

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According to the International Labour Organisation, in 2020, 8.8 per cent of global working hours were lost relative to the fourth quarter of 2019 –the equivalent to 255 million full-time jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a great number of people losing their jobs, forcing them to get creative and seek opportunities in a new field.

In Indonesia, that new field includes voice-over talents and background music creation.

“The voice-over market in Indonesia is still wide open. The trend of people involved in it has only started and was realised in 2015. The trend of becoming a voice-over talent has been enhanced by the pandemic when many people have lost their jobs,” Jatmiko Kresnatama, co-founder of Inavoice, explains to e27.

“Such rapid development leaves many holes in this industry. Uneven recording quality standards, voice-over talent quality, as well as audio output quality that must be done through professional audio mastering techniques, now seem to be neglected. Seeing that hole, the potential to make the voice-over industry in Indonesia better is quite large,” he stresses.

From its base in Jogjakarta, the startup provides a B2B service in the form of an audio marketplace and a digital voice over agency. In addition to building a platform for voice-over talents which the startup began with, it has also expanded to include background music.

“We use a system called ‘iVoice Algorithm’. This system will generate voice-over talents and music contributors’ profiles randomly where each of them will have the opportunity to appear alternately as clients come to visit the page,” Kresnatama says.

Also Read: Is voice the next revolution in FinTech?

Bracing through the storm

Inavoice is a relative newcomer in the Indonesian startup scene. In fact, the platform was launched in September 2020 –right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Inavoice was created with the idea of how a better voice over and the audio marketplace could work. In this industry, we have been working as consultants, marketers, and content producers. We frequently get asked by voice-over talents and music contributors about how they should keep on moving in this industry. Therefore, we come up with an answer –Inavoice,” Kresnatama explains.

Founding a company in the middle of a global health crisis definitely comes with its own challenges as companies are cutting budgets for voice over productions. But Kresnatama sees that there are also plenty of unique opportunities.

“We see that this pandemic is a natural selection process, where our voice over service users are more segmented. Amidst this pandemic, we serve many companies that have sufficient capital power to deal with this pandemic … We also see the potential for the market to create authentic and more valuable content,” Kresnatama begins.

“Starting from the Google algorithm update at the end of last year and the many changes to the social media algorithm that emphasised added value. With this … content creators’ awareness of using licensed music is getting higher, so we receive positive responses from both music contributors or content creators who buy music from the Inavoice Audio Marketplace platform,” he continues.

As a response to these changes, Inavoice decides to maximise its SEA strategy and run a campaign called “You Deserve Better.”

“We are very aware that building a company is like an infinite game, yes, you know, this is what Simon Sinek said. We try to improve and be responsible for the people who work at our company so that they are willing to work according to their abilities. After that, we try to educate both clients and talents through the You Deserve Better campaign,” Kresnatama says.

Also Read: 3 ways voice assistants is going to change the game for e-commerce

Standing on my own

Currently run by 20 employees, Inavoice says that it is working with clients, talents, and music contributors in more than 30 countries. Its client list includes leading brands and institutions such as Bank Indonesia, Shopee, Specs, Telkomsel, and Wismilak.

Apart from Kresnatama, the startup’s co-founders include Fajar Risna Rosedra, Indar Adhi Kusuma, and Henry Yunan Lennon.

In addition to having backgrounds in business administration and computer science, the Inavoice co-founders also have previous experiences in sound engineering and voice directing as well as running local art projects in Jogjakarta.

When e27 asks Kresnatama about the company’s fundraising plan, he states that Inavoice is not looking for any external funding.

“What we are working on is to maximise our distribution channel to increase the amount of traffic and maximise the possibility of converting through it,” he explains their decision.

But he will not deny that this is not going to be a very easy path to take.

“Given that we are a self-funded startup [and a] digital voice-over agency, the economic conditions that are currently unfavourable due to this pandemic have caused the bootstrapping process to run a little slower,” Kresntama admits. “But that’s okay, I hope all goes well soon.”

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Image Credit: Inavoice

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Despite counting tech giants such as Google and Microsoft among his partners, it was far from smooth sailing for Ender Jiang as the founder and CEO of Hiverlab.

The Singaporean startup, which specialises in providing immersive technologies, hit rock bottom four years ago. It was left with only US$600 in its bank account and Jiang had to sacrifice his salary to ensure he could pay the wages of his staff.

“I was transparent with the team and told them about the situation we were facing. Despite knowing that, they voluntarily worked doubly hard to secure and deliver projects,” Jiang said as he recounted his story for e27.

Determined to find alternative sources of income to support his daily needs, he took his harmonica and went busking in the local train stations in the evenings.

“While it might sound silly, this taught me an important lesson about resilience and allowed me to earn enough money for food: if you really want something, you should be prepared to do anything to achieve it,” he reflected.

Drawing inspiration from Elon Musk, who claims he only spends US$1 daily on food, Jiang was determined to persevere in his pursuit of making Hiverlab a success.

Despite cheekily admitting that busking on the streets allowed him to master the harmonica, he noted the real value lay in the fact that he learnt he was willing to humble himself and get down on the streets to achieve his dreams as a founder.

The tides turned when the company secured a project to provide an interactive installation for a major media channel in Singapore, he recalled.

The period thereafter also coincided with an increased appetite from the market for immersive technologies, leading to an uptick in business demand.

“We were also saved by the eventual rise in demand for our technology. Simply put, the time was right,” he added.

Bringing immersive technologies to the masses

Today, Hiverlab is a thriving company that offers a suite of products that leverage emerging immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR).

VR refers to the fully immersive digital experience, while AR overlays digital objects on physical objects (think Pokémon GO). MR combines the physical and digital world, letting users interact with both.

The company’s StoryHive platform enables users to create immersive content in a no-code environment, while its RealityCast offering allows companies to create AR-powered presentations.

Meanwhile, its TheHub is a collaborative remote workplace where users can visualise and work with data, paving way for the creation of next-generation smart cities

Realising that immersive technologies remained a nascent sector among Singaporeans, Jiang went one step further to launch Hiverlab’s Academy initiative.

“We strongly believe that technology should be made accessible and transparent to the general public. Therefore, our Academy works with local communities to cultivate young next-generation leaders with trans-disciplinary insights across technology, business, and society,” he explained.

The Academy seeks to achieve that through organising workshops with schools, businesses and government organisations. It has since launched initiatives across Southeast Asia and expanded to host workshops in the US, Australia and Japan.

Building a decentralised business

With a wide variety of products across a spectrum of use cases, Hiverlab adopts a hybrid SaaS model for monetisation.

However, fascinated by the hivemind concept (the best innovation stems from collaboration) by WIRED Executive Director Kevin Kelly, Jiang plans to build Hiverlab into a company with a decentralised structure, whereby network concepts allow for the adding of additional nodes to expand capabilities.

“My hope remains that building an organisation like a hive will release individual passions and abilities, rather than trying to control everything in a very centralised structure,” he added.

By placing an increased emphasis on digital marketing to raise awareness of its immersive technology products and acquire new customers, Jiang shared Hiverlab is on track to double its revenue growth y-o-y. The company has also doubled its team size and opened offices in India and Vietnam.

Given the highly technical nature of immersive technologies found in Hiverlab’s products, can the company meet the increased demand without overstretching its employees and resources?

Also Read: The danger of expanding too quickly and how you can keep your tech team artificially small

Jiang was quick to dispel the myth and shared Hiverlab’s engineering teams have put in place practices to ensure the scalability of its products.

“In a nutshell, we leverage highly modular development processes to ensure the re-usability of all our code. Using this product-first approach enables common features to be developed and deployed across all our clients and partners,” he explained.

Outlook on immersive technologies

With the global consumer market for immersive technologies projected to double from its current figure of US$6.3 billion by 2023, Jiang is bullish on growth prospects for VR, mobile-based AR and MR headsets.

“AR and VR have been developing slowly over decades and we expect to see more substantial pushes in the technology from some of the major global technology companies over the next few years, which will further raise awareness of the segment in both the enterprise and consumer segments,” he noted.

True to his prediction, Microsoft recently released its Mesh platform, where long-distance co-workers can collaborate as if they are in the same room, using augmented reality glasses and cloud computing power.

Also Read: How cloud computing is helping startups navigate the new normal

Besides having an impact on the tech sector, Jiang also sees immersive technologies improving workforce productivity in sectors including logistics and engineering.

“The ability for more technical industries like engineering to combine creative ways of visualising projects will bolster productivity, while also ensuring that graduates entering the workforce are able to work with the latest technologies,” he remarked.

Future plans

Having bootstrapped Hiverlab since its inception in 2014, Jiang lives by the mantra of being financially prudent and stresses the importance of balancing profitability and growth. As part of efforts to expand in the region, the company received an undisclosed amount in funding from local investor Optimal Investments in 2018.

Despite its comfortable position today, the company is not resting on its laurels. With plans to establish themselves as Asia’s leading immersive technology platform, Hiverlab is eyeing an entry into the Middle East markets, on top of the establishment of offices in India and Vietnam.

“We know that tech companies such as Apple are looking to develop AR and immersive technology products, and we want to be part of that trend or multi-year “supercycle” in this emerging category. The time now is ripe for AR, VR, and MR, given the global move to 5G,” Jiang signed off.

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Image Credit: Hiverlab

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Green Li-ion, a greentech startup in Singapore specialising in sustainable industrial solutions for battery rejuvenation, announced today that it has raised US$3.45 million in seed funding.

US-based cleantech company LiNiCo Corporation led the round, which also saw participation from TES (IT lifecycle services ), HAX SOSV (hard tech VC), and Entrepreneur First (EF).

The news comes after the startup banked US$400,000 in a pre-seed funding round from EF’s Singapore cohort in 2020.

The newly-raised capital will be channeled towards further hardware development, including tier-1 engineering and specialist manufacturing support.

A portion of the funds will also be used as a development runaway as it works towards securing US$1 billion in sales by 2025, the company said in a press statement.

Present-day battery recycling programmes are equipped to process only certain types of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, which results in 95 per cent of the batteries being improperly disposed into landfills.

Green Li-ion aims to combat this issue with its patented multi-cathode processor that recycles all types of Li-ion batteries into 99.9 per cent pure cathodes. This, according to the company, speeds up current recycling processes by up to 10 times and improves profits by more than four times.

Also Read: Cleantech company Sunseap raises US$4.8M Series C round, now valued over US$143M

The one-year-old company has developed an operational prototype in Singapore and inked deals with TES and LiNiCo to pre-sell five machines in Singapore and the United States.

“Having Green Li-ion’s technology in our facility enhances our battery recycling offering and enables our supply chain to access high-purity recovered commodities,” said Gary Steele, CEO of TES. “We are looking forward to a continued partnership to keep offering innovative circular outcomes to clients all over the world.”

“One of the world’s biggest challenges is how we can maintain sustainable growth while preserving natural resources. Forecasts predict that we will be using 30 per cent more energy in 2040 than we already are. With Green Li-ion, we are committed to introducing the next generation of battery rejuvenation and closing the loop,” Leon Farrant, co-founder and CEO of Green Li-ion said.

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Image Credit: Green Li-ion

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Asia Partners, a Singapore-based growth equity investment firm, has made the final close of its inaugural fund at US$384 million in commitments.

The Limited Partners in the fund include institutional investors, family offices, corporations, and individual investors across six continents. The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) from Germany are among its LPs.

Also Read: Sea Group’s venture fund to invest US$1B in tech startups

The VC firm has already invested more than US$90 million across its first three investments, which collectively have operations across every major economy in Southeast Asia.

Asia Partners has six co-founders, namely Jill Cheong Hsi Min, Pitra Ciputra Harun, Nicholas Avinash Nash, Oliver Minho Rippel, Kien Nguyen, and Vorapol Supanusonti.

We have reached out to Nash for more details. This article will be updated as soon we hear from him.

The inaugural fund is focused on the intersection of three key themes:

1- The long-term growth potential of Southeast Asia, a region with almost 10 per cent of the world’s population.

2- The rapid growth of innovative technology and technology-enabled businesses in the region, many of which are platforms with pan-regional or global aspirations.

3-The scarcity of growth equity capital for these companies, particularly in the US$20 million to US$100 million investment size range, often described as the ‘Series C/D gap’ between early-stage VC and the public capital markets.

“At Asia Partners, we believe deeply in the potential for growth equity to accelerate economic growth throughout Southeast Asia,” said Rippel, a Partner of the firm and a member of the Investment Committee. “We believe the decade ahead will be a golden age of entrepreneurship and innovation for Southeast Asia, and we are deeply focused on accelerating that progress.”

Also Read: Meet these 5 verified investors that are ready to connect with you today

The Asia Partners Advisory Board is chaired by Hsieh Fu Hua, former CEO of the Singapore Exchange. He now chairs a number of organisations including the Grab-SingTel digital bank that is being launched.

“Southeast Asia is an increasingly strategic region for global investors, driven both by rising affluence and by the increasing digitisation of daily life,” said Hsieh. “Almost every sector of our economies has the potential to be transformed by technology.”

“Asia Partners is deeply committed to supporting the growth of Southeast Asia’s next generation of entrepreneurs,” said Nash, Managing Partner and a member of the Investment Committee. “We look forward to continuing our investment program and to applying our co-founding team’s and Advisory Board’s collective experience to helping our companies grow, both geographically and strategically.”

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Photo by Stephanie Yeh on Unsplash

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Symbo Platform Holdings, a Singapore-based insurtech platform, has raised US$9.4 million in a Series A funding round, led by CreditEase fintech investment fund.

The round also saw participation from San Francisco-based investment firm Think Investments, along with follow-on investment from existing investors and VC firms Integra Partners, Insignia Ventures, and AJ Capital.

The company said in a statement that it will use the fresh funds to bolster its core technology and hire for roles across tech, product and leadership in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

A large proportion of the money has also been earmarked for investment into Symbo’s Indian affiliate, with the intention of acquiring complete ownership of the business.

Additionally, the startup has also announced the acquisition of Vivant, a digital health platform based in Singapore, to deepen its client base by adding healthcare services into its platform.

Founded in 2017, Symbo supports agents, third-party administrators, brokers, corporates and insurers in the purchase, distribution and administration of insurance across India and Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Sunday raises US$9M to grow its AI-powered insurance business in Thailand, Indonesia

Symbo claims to have empowered over 80,000 agents and 45 technology licensing partners, supporting over US$100 million in annual GWP across India, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

“Digital-driven insurance and healthcare markets have huge potential, especially in India and Southeast Asia where customers are largely underserved, struggling to manage their insurance policies or ending up being sold generic and irrelevant products,” said Dennis Cong, Managing Partner of CreditEase fintech investment fund.

“Symbo is well-positioned to bring corporate and individual customers brand new experiences by providing customised products in a more accessible and convenient way. Insurtech and healthtech are key areas we are focusing on and expect Symbo to help more people get better protected,” he added.

“The deep knowledge of our investors in Asia will play a pivotal role in Symbo’s continued growth. With this significant investment, we will rapidly scale our leading technology platform to improve the delivery of insurance to millions of underinsured individuals and families across India and Southeast Asia,” Symbo co-founder Adrit Raha said.

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Image Credit: Symbo

 

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Neuron Mobility expands e-scooter service to Korea

The story: Neuron Mobility has announced it is launching a fleet of 2,000 e-scooters in the South Korean capital, Seoul. The company claims the move will create over 100 jobs in Korea and an additional 30 roles in their Singapore headquarters.

The scooters will be fitted with an app-controlled helmet lock – a critical differentiator in the Korean market where recently-updated laws require all riders to wear a helmet.

About Neuron Mobility: Founded in 2016, the Singapore-based operates its e-scooter business across ten cities in Australia and New Zealand. As part of its international plans, the company expanded its business to the United Kingdom last year.

In September 2020, the company announced it received an additional US$12 million in Series A funding co-led by Square Peg and GSR Ventures, bringing their total funding for the round to USD$30.5 million.

Vietcetera Media bags seed funding to expand media platform

Investors: The investment round was led by Genesia Ventures with participation​ from US-based VC firm Hustle Fund and a group of Vietnam and Hong Kong-based angel investors including Linh Thai, the former CEO of Vingroup Ventures, and Calvin Lam, the Co-founder of Infina.

Also Read: How startups can work the media to their advantage

What will the funding be used for:  To grow Vietcetera’s data science, engineering and product teams.

The company is also planning a Series A round this year.

About Vietcetera: Since its launch in 2016, Vietcetera Media is a media company targeting millennials and Gen-Zs. It is one of Vietnam’s few online channels that serves both Vietnamese and English content.

Xebia partners with DigibankASIA to launch digital bank in the Philippines

The story: Xebia, a global digital services consulting firm, announced it has partnered with Singapore-based fintech company DigibankASIA to launch UNObank — a full-service digital bank, which is working with the regulators for a pilot launch in the Philippines.

Also Read: McKinsey on Asia’s digital-only banks: ‘Consortia present challenges but they offer a path to scaling relatively quickly’

About UNObank: UNO is DigibankASIA’s neo banking brand. DigitbankASIA claims UNO has an AI-first approach to banking. It’s Cognito platform uses machine vision and learning models for services such as customer onboarding, transaction authorizations, and alternate data-based credit scoring, among others.

Digital wallets thrive in Singapore as e-commerce surges, new FIS report finds

Key Trends:

• The Singapore e-commerce market reached US$7 billion in 2020, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The market is expected to grow by 40 per cent over the next four years, driven by mobile shopping.
• Credit cards (45 per cent), digital wallets (20 per cent) and bank transfers (12 per cent) were the most popular online payment methods in 2020. Digital wallets are forecasted to overtake credit cards as the most popular online payment method by 2024, accounting for almost a third (27 per cent) of the market.
• Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment methods are also gaining in popularity. Currently only accounting for 3 per cent of the market, it is on track to increase to 13 per cent by 2024.

 

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Image Credit: Neuron Mobility

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Sea Group’s venture fund to invest US$1bn in tech startups; Sea Capital will be headed by Chief Investment Officer David Ma; Ma is founder of Composite Capital Management, a Hong Kong-based global investment management firm which has recently been fully acquired by the group. More here

SEA-focused VC firm Asia Partners’s maiden fund hits US$384mn final close; Its LPs include the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Germany’s DEG; It has already invested US$90mn+ across its first 3 investments, which collectively have operations across every major economy in SEA. More here

AirAsia rides into Singapore’s food delivery scene; According to a report, AirAsia Food will initially feature about 80 restaurants, including popular outlets like No Signboard Seafood, The Shepherd’s Pie; About 300 other restaurants are set to join the platform; At least 50% of Singaporeans eat out every day, with the country seeing a staggering 2.7mn active online food delivery users in 2020. More here

AppWorks raises US$114mn for fund III to back Series A and B startups in SEA, Taiwan; The new fund, with a target corpus of US$150mn, will seek to invest in AI, IoT, blockchain and decentralised finance; To date, AppWorks has invested in 395 startups. More here

Indonesian payments infra startup Xendit raises US$64.6mn in Accel-led Series B; Xendit is the first Indonesian company to go through Y Combinator’s accelerator programme; Xendit works with businesses of all sizes, processing more than 65mn transactions with US$6.5bn in payment value annually. More here

Indonesia’s Payfazz invests US$30mn into Singapore’s payments infra company Xfers; Both firms will be part of a newly-formed financial entity Fazz Financial Group (FFG); With this investment, Xfers will serve as the B2B arm of FFG — focussed on connecting external merchants to the payment infrastructure and user network amassed by the group. More here

Symbo secures US$9.4mn Series A, acquires digital health platform Vivant; Investors include CreditEase fintech investment fund (lead), Think Investments, Insignia Ventures, and AJ Capital; Symbo supports agents, third-party administrators, brokers, corporates and insurers in the purchase, distribution and administration of insurance across India and SEA. More here

Manabie secures US$3mn funding to bring Japan’s “high-quality” education to Vietnam; Investors are Do Ventures, Genesia Ventures and Chiba Dojo; This follows a US$4.8mn in April last year from Genesia Ventures (lead) and angels including professional soccer player Keisuke Honda; Besides a mobile app, Manabie also runs 5 learning centres in HCMC for students to receive guidance from individual counsellors. More here

Indonesian SaaS supply chain solutions startup Advotics raises US$2.75mn; Lead investor is East Ventures; Advotics provides end-to-end integrated supply chain solutions to a variety of clients ranging from SMEs to international companies; It has 9 SaaS products that provide solutions across production, warehousing, and distribution. More here

MyMy joins forces with Sukaniaga to bid for Malaysia digital banking license; This comes fresh off MyMy’s raising of US$2.4mn from Koperasi Tentera in Sep. 2020; As per BNM’s digital banking framework, 40 parties are reportedly eyeing the five licenses that will be issued by Q1, 2022. More here

Vietnamese online real estate startup Citics raises US$1mn; Investors are Vulpes Investment, Nextrans and TheVentures; Its first product is a Data-as-a-Service offer that banks use to validate the value of real estate employed as collateral for loans; Previously, the startup has raised US$700K in angel funding. More here

AI foodtech startup Easy Eat raises funding from ex-Uber CPO, Silicon Valley veterans; The money will be used to ramp up its operations in Malaysia, where it sees ‘great adoption and engagement’ for its products among F&B outlets; Easy Eat digitises all customer-facing interactions in restaurants — from browsing menu, ordering and tracking to payments. More here

Indonesia’s next-day grocery delivery startup Dropezy bags pre-seed funding; Investors include Taurus Ventures and Kopi Kenangan; Dropezy will also introduce a ‘pay later’ feature for its customers, as part of a company-wide strategy to scale up its business. More here

‘More conglomerates are embracing digital disruptions as they’re undergoing transitions between generations’: Emtek’s Andya Daniswara; Although Indonesia is constrained by fiscal limitation, the government has worked quickly to facilitate and regulate digital innovation happening in the country. More here

Autonomous drones developer for maritime logistics F-drones raises funding; Investors include Eastern Pacific Shipping (lead), Schulte Group, SEEDS Capital, EF; The firm’s mission to provide 24×7 commercial Beyond-Vision-Line-Of-Sight drone deliveries to ships; It is also developing a fully-electric and autonomous proprietary drone, capable of delivering 100kg payloads over 100km. More here

InVent invests in Datafarm, Swift Dynamics to accelerate growth of 5G in Thailand; Both the companies will play a crucial role in supporting corporates to strongly step into the fully-digitised 5G era; Datafarm is a cyber security company whereas Swift Dynamics is an IoT management provider which connects multiple devices of clients to the cloud. More here

Indonesia’s Eden Farm raises pre-Series A; Investors include Investible (lead), AC Ventures and Corin Capital; Eden Farm focuses connects farmers and communities upstream with F&B businesses, including restaurants, street food vendors and central markets; The capital will be used to expand operations to Java and Sumatra. More here

Neuron Mobility expands operations to Seoul; The Singapore-based e-scooter rental operator will deploy 2K Korean-spec e-scooters, which are fitted with the world’s first app-controlled helmet lock, which electronically secures a safety helmet for every e-scooter. More here

Digital wallets to overtake credit cards by 2024 amid e-commerce boom: report; Digital wallets such as GrabPay and DBS PayLah! are expected to account for 27% of the Singapore market by 2024, in line with global trends, said the report by Worldpay from FIS; BNPL is on track to grow to 13% of the online payment market in 2024, from just 3% currently. More here

Sea’s 2020 gross profit doubles on e-commerce, gaming boom; Total adjusted EBITDA stood at US$107mn, compared with a loss of US$178.6mn in 2019; Net loss, though, widened from US$1.46bn in 2019 to US$1.62bn in 2020; E-commerce proved to be the major growth propeller, with GAAP revenues for the unit grew 159.8% to US$2.2bn from last year. More here

Sea Group eyes LatAm e-commerce in potential battle royale against incumbents; Banking on the success of its hit game Free Fire, the group has seemingly set its sights on conquering LatAm’s e-commerce, beginning with Brazil and Mexico; Just over a week ago, Shopee launched with an app in Mexico. More here

Ant group boss tries to quell employee discontent with promise of eventual IPO; In a post on Ant’s internal website, Executive Chairman Eric Jing said the management is reviewing its remuneration and incentive policy and working on a “short-term liquidity solution” for employees that would take effect in April. More here

Ho Chi Minh City zeroes in on becoming regional AI hub; The city has set a target of concluding projects on building digital infrastructure and AI-related policies and establishing centres for AI research, technology transfer, and human resources between 2021 and 2025. More here

Indonesia’s e-commerce scene could change forever with the gojek-Tokopedia real; The e-commerce market has witnessed accelerated growth ever since pandemic restrictions charged up the demand for e-services; Indonesia has the fastest-growing internet economy in SEA, a region with nearly 650mn people and an expected internet economy revenue of US$300bn by 2025. More here

Amazon, Google vie for piece of India’s digital payments market; The companies are part of four consortia preparing to apply for licenses to operate retail payments and settlement systems in the country; The contest is fierce as regulator Reserve Bank of India is expected to give just one or two licenses. More here

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Photo by Quinton Coetzee on Unsplash

The post Ecosystem Roundup: SEA gets new US$1B startup fund, AirAsia eyes a slice of SG’s food delivery pie appeared first on e27.

For this month, we launched a feature called Connect Summary dashboard to help Pro members view and manage their connection better and we also spent the rest of the month dedicated in improving the experience of our platform for all users.

Connect summary dashboard

Connect summary is a part of the Connect Dashboard where Pro members could easily view connection status and the Investors that they connected with. Currently, it’s still in the beta version, if you faced any issue or bugs, do let us know by submitting the report from the box on the bottom left.

Credit card detail removal

We noticed that a lot of you wanted to try out our Pro features but were not sure if you wanted to commit or felt comfortable sharing your credit card details, so we removed the need to add the credit card details for trial period. Enjoy the free trial and up your game!

Bug fixes and system improvement

Our platform was built many years ago and technology moves far faster than that. We realised they were a few bugs that slowed down performance. Starting this month we dedicated ourselves to improve our system and spray dead most of the bugs we can find, so you’ll have a better experience using our platform.

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The post February update: Connect summary dashboard for Pro, Credit card detail removal, and more… appeared first on e27.