In early March 2020, Indonesia announced its first confirmed case of COVID-19. Since then, there have been rapid shifts in consumers’ lifestyles, purchase patterns, and consumer behaviour as they are starting to recalibrate their budget.

One of the observed shreds of evidence is that consumers are becoming more price-conscious, which affects their channel preference. These facts are a wake-up call for businesses to adapt and reiterate their ways of interacting and engaging with their customers by reducing interactions (i.e. physical distancing, work-from-home policy, etcetera.).

During these unprecedented times, experience and trust are determinant factors for businesses to make or break.

Nielsen’s study on the COVID-19 outbreak shows what we have witnessed in Indonesia, as well as in Tokopedia, on how consumers shift their purchase and selling behaviour.

During March-April, “panic buying” was observed among consumers as people anticipated more disastrous days to come from the spread of COVID-19. Suddenly, healthcare products have a surge in sales. This phenomenon was seen by numerous irresponsible sellers as an opportunity to maximise profits.

To avoid further price discrepancy, Tokopedia took significant action by shutting down thousands of shops profiteering from COVID-19.

In early May-June, customers’ ‘new normal’ behaviours became more consistent. We started to witness higher dependency on e-commerce or digital platforms to support remote working and personal hygiene.

According to Nielsen, 30 per cent of customers plan to shop online more frequently, with more than 35 per cent of them planning to visit malls less frequently. Another research published by McKinsey indicates that Indonesian consumers have shifted their purchase of household essentials to online channels (previously purchased offline and online mostly for secondary needs products only).

Hence the shifting to online will potentially become a new normal as consumers expect to reduce in-person activities for a more extended period.

Tokopedia evolved to adapt to the big shift in consumer behaviour

Given the facts, Tokopedia plays a vital role in these times of adversity by providing an easy and convenient way for all users to fulfil their needs online. Things that were previously purchased offline are now available on online platforms with plenty of shop options, regularly updated stock and supply, and sold at transparent prices.

Also Read: 3 much needed mindset shifts to thrive in a post-COVID-19 world

To maintain economic and business sustainability, all the businesses that previously only operated offline and are heavily impacted by COVID-19, have been provided with an easy way to onboard on our online platform. Businesses that choose to open up a shop on Tokopedia will be exposed to 90+ million monthly active users all over Indonesia in only a matter of minutes, and with zero set-up costs required.

The infographic below shows the impact made by changing the way we engage with our users, and most importantly, how we endorse local brands to further secure the Indonesian economy.

Adapting to the new customer engagement strategy

As part of the changes, we have to ensure that Tokopedia keeps their promises to serve customers and can be contacted 24/7 regarding any situation. We’re all aware that more customers depend on us right now, like the end-users staying at home, either for work or school, and need to get all the essentials delivered to a home, or even new merchants with financial instability whose off-line store closed due to this pandemic.

Hence, the big shifts in strategies and prioritisation have been made to win our customers’ and employees’ hearts.

1. The big shift from channel-based to service-based customer management
The shifting to service-based management has been started since the end of 2019 as the response of the projection of the increase in customer interactions (that have not considered the pandemic condition). But then, the number of interactions increases faster than expected. There is a 40 per cent increase during the pandemic, but we’re ready to face it because the change has started earlier.

The service-based centre is beneficial for our front-liners as they are able to have more profound and accurate product knowledge.

As a result, the transformation enables us to increase productivity, improve quality, respond faster, and improve customer satisfaction, which in turn increases more than five p.p. thereafter.

2. The unthinkable success of Work From Home for the Customer Operations team

WFH was not an easy task for the operations team, where the accuracy of workforce placement and productivity target mainly requires physical presence and direct floor management. Yet, we were able to successfully deliver it in three cities within only one week of the deployment.

Being the first Indonesian technology company to implement digital customer service, we are able to run a fully work-from-home operation without sacrificing the quality of our services to our customers.

3. Automation to cater to what customers need

We implemented three-layer automation to identify and solve customers’ challenges:

• Self-Service: Users can immediately get answers to their inquiries before they ask CS. This can deflect more than 90 per cent of the shipment issues.
• Chatbot: An Artificial Intelligence that consists of 3I: Interface (having a messaging interface that makes it easy to use), Intelligence (the capability for solving issues, not only inquiries), and Integration (with the system by API). It can deflect more than 60 per cent of chat sessions.
• Gandalf (API-Integrated Email Response): System that replies users’ tickets based on a set of condition rules and gives suggestions or actions. This is rear protection and still able to deflect 30 per cent of email tickets.

These become important due to the new normal of the traffic while the increase reaches 400 per cent during a big promo period. Minor alteration on the system was done to adjust to the pandemic situation.

4. ‘Proactive and Protective’ customer engagement and education
Beside proactive engagement to educate users and reduce the number of customer complaints, protective actions are taken by sweeping the platform for sellers who are setting the price of a product way over the market price — which frequently happened during the COVID-19 pandemic — as the demand for masks and hand sanitisers surged.

Also Read: The new communications playbook for the new normal

Nevertheless, this protective action is done regularly, from sweeping the platform for prohibited goods to taking down items that do not comply with the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency’s (BPOM) regulations.

5. Liven up the voice of customer monitoring through customer engagement hub
Customer Engagement Hub is a one-stop command center to monitor the voice of customers, operations performance, and transaction status in real-time. Tokopedia realized that what we see in the channels is just the tip of the iceberg.

Around 80 per cent of issues faced are not submitted to the channels and, in most cases, they criticize the brand to others through social media or to their friends/families.

To tackle this issue, Tokopedia strives to stay one step ahead to see things from the social universe. Hence, we can make informed decisions and take mindful actions to arrive at the most appropriate solutions.

In conclusion, COVID-19 has ignited new lifestyles and new behaviors that carry tremendous challenges and learnings in the area of customer engagement and experience.

Adaptability and agility are certainly at the core of businesses facing unexpected circumstances such as a pandemic.

We must learn to learn faster, change more quickly, and understand the new normal to continue winning customers’ hearts.

In a business of trust such as Tokopedia, especially in times of adversity, the role of Customer Excellence as the company’s front-guard, and the closest to the customers, is now more essential than ever.

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Company transparency can seem like a scary thing for entrepreneurs, especially if they’re trying to get their startup off the ground and making a profit. What if investors get cold feet and pull out? Maybe employees will become worried that the money is running out and jump ship?

Divulging a company’s weaknesses might seem like it could hinder success, but the opposite is true. After all, if the people in your company are left in the dark, then they can’t very well contribute to their fullest extent in making the business run better, can they?

In today’s competitive startup market, it’s not just a good business practice for emerging (and established) companies to embrace transparency, but a critical one.

Social media has made people more transparent with their lives more now than ever, and at this point, it’s expected for businesses to follow that trend.  

The benefits of being transparent far outweigh any worries about the negative. 

Employees shouldn’t be kept in the dark

Matthew Bellows, founder and CEO of Yesware, Inc. made waves in a 2014 New York Times article titled A Leader Struggles To Sell Software Meant To Aid Sales. Bellows’ transparency and the conversations with his team later led to Yesware meeting 96 per cent of its revenue goal. 

Also Read: Why trust and transparency are the answer to concerns about digital assets

If your company’s leadership team handles every decision in a boardroom with the door closed and the blinds drawn, it’s a safe bet that your employees will be nervous. “The things people make up about what’s going on are always worse than what is actually going on,” Bellows said.

When people are kept abreast of how a startup is performing and the changes that are being considered, they’ll feel that they’re part of the team and have the motivation to keep working forward.

Buffer, a social media engagement company, lists “default to transparency” right at the top of its core values on the company’s website. Buffer’s co-founder Joel Gascoigne, said that embracing transparency has “increased the level of trust” with his employees. 

Transparency fosters investor support

While a startup’s investors might not be rolling into the office each day to actively put the work in, they have put their money in and deserve to know what’s going on.

If a company gives its investors incomplete information, they’re shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to the chances of success. 

Forward-thinking entrepreneurs don’t look at transparency as a bad thing that reveals a startup’s struggles to investors, but as a way to build a stronger business.

Also Read: Trusted leaders practice transparency in these 5 ways

If you want your investors to get behind your decisions in a scalable way, then it’s imperative you provide them with all the available information.

A company culture of secrecy won’t bring in new investors and it certainly won’t help keep investors for the long-term. If a start-up can provide a detailed report of the challenges ahead and how it plans to overcome them, then it will be more likely to have continued support. 

Build upon customer loyalty

Just as a company needs to have strong trust with its employees, the same goes for its customers. Keeping customers in the loop with multiple aspects of a startup’s operations from emerging industry trends to important issues that may affect goods or services helps to maintain loyalty and trust.

It also provides some peace of mind that customers are getting a good return on their money.

PPC Pro, an AdWords management firm, boasts that it provides a “100 per cent truly transparent” experience for its customers with a minute by minute log of how their employee’s time is spent on a particular project.

This practice unquestionably helps in establishing trust between the brand and its customer base and reassures them that adequate attention is being given to the task at hand.

Furthermore, businesses that embrace a model of transparency will find that customers are more likely to stick with them when they’re upfront with bad news.

Also Read: Why trust and transparency are the answer to concerns about digital assets

After all, nobody likes handing over their money to a business when they have feelings of suspicion or anxiety. 

Transparency in practice

As for putting a culture of transparency into practice with a startup, entrepreneurs should remember that it starts at the top. This means having leaders who are willing to be vulnerable and honest, not just about the wins, but the challenges. 

One way of promoting company transparency is by disclosing company financials. This doesn’t mean sharing raw numbers and leaving employees, investors, and customers to decipher what numbers or data mean.

Leaders should provide context, as transparency without the right information could do more harm than good. It’s key that company leaders provide the background for any financial information — good or bad — and how it relates to the current state and future. 

Other companies take an even more transparent approach and share employee salaries. While employee salaries may seem like sensitive information to share, it could also help eliminate such issues as a gender pay gap and even incentivise employees to work harder.

We live in a time where transparency is mainstream than ever before, and the startups that embrace it will have a greater chance at long-term success than those that stay in the dark.

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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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My fascination with social startups began while on a volunteering trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, back in 2017.

We had embarked on this trip with the intention to educate youths there on the understanding of basic financial concepts and explore how the principles that underpinned a healthy relationship with money could be translated to meet the needs of their community –and positively impact their lives.

Volunteer experience

The 10 days spent teaching those youths would turn out to be the most insightful week in my 12 years of formal education.

As a fresh-faced college student in his late teens living in the urban concrete jungle that is Singapore, each day spent teaching these youths opened my world up to the privileged society I had lived in with great governmental and financial systems in place to support and grow our wealth.

Unfortunately, that was not the case in Cambodia.

Unbeknownst to them, I learned way more from them than they did from me. While I was educating them on the basic financial terms and resources such as interest rates and deposit accounts in banks, they were teaching me so much more about the power of dreams and responsibilities placed on them at their age.

Also Read: Lessons from a student entrepreneur on building a successful startup

The mere fact that they could attend the village school meant they represented the hope of their family. They were expected to be the future breadwinners for their siblings, parents, and even their extended family.

However, they were not weighed down by those responsibilities. Instead, the pressure placed on them motivated them to work even harder and strive to do their best in spite of the difficulties presented. There was a genuine desire to learn and increase their knowledge.

This was most evident when they constantly tried to ask me questions using their elementary command of English. They were not deterred by the fear of being embarrassed and even sought ways to solve the language barrier by asking their local teachers to assist in translations.

This burning quest to learn only served to increase my desire to help them as I sought to explore different ways, such as through illustrations or role play, to explain the relatively difficult financial concepts to them.

Over lunch with the students in the classroom introduced yet another new perspective for me. The power of dreams. Back in Singapore, college students like myself all have similar materialistic dreams along the lines of getting a top degree and earning big bucks in a corporate job.

However, through chatting with the students, I realised how seemingly small dreams are equal, if not larger, than the big dream of making big bucks. For many of my students, their dream was simple. It was to own a motorbike.

They reasoned it would make their commute to school shorter and thus maximise their time in school. To put things into context, the village school served numerous villages in the vicinity, and commuting to school could take up to 45 minutes of walking per direction. This really opened me up to the things in life we take for granted back home.

Also Read: How do you raise VC funding as a student entrepreneur? Find out the answers here

The age gap between us dwarfed in comparison to the difference in our daily lives and privileges. The evidence provided paint a chilling prospect. Research by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has shown that Cambodia is home to one of the lowest financial literacy rates in the world.

A land of opportunity

On the flight back to Singapore, I thought about how a future startup could solve this problem that has plagued Cambodia for generations and these were the few solutions I could conceive.

Adopting a bottom-up approach to solve this problem, we would start at the root cause, the mind-set that the youths have towards finance and the lack of financial education in the education system in Cambodia.

Educational startups promoting financial literacy could enter the education framework in Cambodia with the intention to build up the basic financial literacy of youths.

Their aim should be to equip them with sufficient financial knowledge to effectively utilised the financial tools and resources that will be available to them in the future when they transit to adulthood and earn an income.

Research by KPMG in 2017 showed that Cambodia is home to the lowest banking penetration in the region at just five per cent. This is where fintech startups could enter the scene and provide sustainable digital financial solutions for these youths to apply their financial knowledge garnered during their educational years.

Also Read: How do you raise VC funding as a student entrepreneur? Find out the answers here

These startups should utilise the uptake in technology to reach out to the youths living in rural areas, where conventional banks are unable to provide mainstream banking infrastructure such as setting up a physical bank branch.

Utilising technology will be the most effective means of bridging this geographical challenge and the tech-savviness of the youths should aid in connecting them to financial solutions that will better protect and grow their income.

While the above solutions involve full-scale startups with significant resources and full-time entrepreneurs leading them, students and youths of today have a role to play too.

Student entrepreneurs form an important part of the startup ecosystem in raising awareness of societal issues. With the power of social media today and the presence of young digital influencers, youth have widespread access to issues on the ground that would have previously gone unheard of. Upon learning of these issues, they can utilise social media to champion for action to solve the problem.

Therefore, they would form the link between the problem and future start-ups that are on the look for future problems by being the voice for these issues and championing the cause for budding start-ups to enter.

Therefore, startups should look for these young entrepreneurs as a sense of what issues the community faces and connect with them to find the relevant solutions for the problem.

In essence, student entrepreneurs should form the first level of a startup ecosystem as they represent the first touchpoint between the issues in the community and the startup industry.

Also Read: Why should universities teach blockchain to students?

It is my goal as a student entrepreneur to get involved in social fintech startups that aim to reduce economic disparity and disempowerment in the region.

Startups play a very important role in the business ecosystem in that they aim to disrupt the societal norms and in the process, solve problems that bring about value for people in the community.

My trip to Cambodia certainly opened my eyes up to the issues faced by youths in the Cambodian community. By raising awareness of this problem and sharing my opinion of the potential solutions to solve it, I hope startups with adequate resources can enter and tackle the problems.

Ultimately, they can positively impact the lives of Cambodian youths and give them the chance to lead more financially comfortable lives filled with opportunities for them to succeed.

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Register for our next webinar: Is your startup ready for the new normal?

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

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

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Jendela360, which seeks to connect clients, landlords and property agents under one platform in Indonesia, has secured US$1 million in a funding round led by Beenext.

Prasetia Dwidharma, Everhaus and several unnamed strategic investors also co-invested.

With the money, the company is looking to “provide a more efficient and effective way to approach property transactions from start to finish”.

“We will also use the funding for recruiting more talents, creating an academy or training system that can create a professional and standardised real estate agent for overall brand awareness and good customer experience,” said Kiki Guzali, Co-founder of Jendela360.

The startup was founded three years ago by Guzali (COO), Ade Indra (CFO), and Daniel Rannu (CEO). It was the first to introduce 360 virtual tours in the Indonesian proptech scene.

Also Read: Here are the new services launched by startups in Indonesia this week

Jendela360 will now focus on its O2O (online to offline) strategy in the property scene. “We need to look at the user experience, not only to strengthen our online presence but also to answer the need for the offline, physical and human relation side of the whole process,” added Guzali.

Indra believes there’s little innovation made in the property industry in Indonesia.

In 2018, Jendela360 made news when it collaborated with Blibli to launch an apartment rental channel. This enables users to search for apartments on the platform, contact property agents for appointments, and do transactions using Blibli InStore app.
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Picture Credit: Jendela360

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Hospitality startup K Hotel raises S$2m in seed funding

K Hotel, a Singapore-based hospitality firm, has raised S$2 million (US$1.4 million) in seed funding led by private investor Noel Neo, according to an SGSME report.

Several other individuals with a background in the real estate industry also co-invested.

He has also joined the startup as its CFO.

The seed funds raised will be used to acquire new hospitality projects (including hotels and hostels) on master lease terms for two to six years, as well as capital expenditure for such properties.

Also Read: How student entrepreneurs can tap into the fintech ecosystem in Cambodia

The company also plans to secure S$5 million in Series A.

Thailand’s central bank announces digital currency prototype

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has announced the project to develop the prototype of the payment system for businesses using Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which will build upon knowledge from Project Inthanon.

According to a Fintechnews report, the project scope will include conducting a feasibility study and developing a process to integrate CBDC with the business’ innovative platform.

The BOT recognises and supports the important roles of financial innovation and technology in enhancing the competitiveness and readiness of the business sector entering the digital age.

In recent years Thailand’s central bank has been displaying leadership in driving the adoption of distributed ledger technologies and CBDCs.

Milk Mantra secures US$10M US firm

Milk Mantra, an Indian startup that procures, packages, sells and delivers milk and other dairy products, has raised US$10 million in a new debt financing round, says a TechCrunch report.

U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has committed a US$10 million loan to Milk Mantra.

In total, the firm has raised about US$35 million in equity funding to date.

Headquartered in the state of Odisha, Milk Mantra has built the entire value chain for servicing dairy products, said Srikumar Misra, founder and chief executive of the startup, in an interview with TechCrunch.

MedTech Innovator to select 20 startups to participate in its APAC Showcase programme

Align Technology has partnered with MedTech Innovator, a nonprofit startup accelerator in the medical technology industry, says a report

The Los-Angeles based MedTech Innovator matches healthcare industry leaders with innovative medtech startups for mentorship and support.

Also Read: Indonesian proptech startup Jendela360 secures US$1M led by Beenext

This year, MedTech Innovator will select 20 startups to participate in its Asia Pacific Showcase programme and will award over US$300,000 in cash prizes, scholarships and in-kind services to its participants.

Align will work with MedTech Innovator Asia Pacific to mentor and foster the growth of promising early to mid-stage companies selected for the 2020 Showcase programme and provide financial support to the accelerator.

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Grab CEO announces layoffs of 360 people (5% of employees); Anthony Tan said COVID-19 will likely result in a prolonged recession and Grab has to prepare for a long recovery period; The firm is doubling down on its delivery verticals, has redeployed staff to meet the increased customer demand for deliveries. More here

COVID-19 hits fintech funding; The amount of VC poured into APAC fell 58.5% to US$1.3B in Q1, as per a S&P survey; Payment firms top-funded fintech segment with US$403M across 22 transactions; Mobile payment apps saw larger funding rounds and accounted for 3 of the 10 largest transactions in Q1. More here

Indonesian furniture e-tailer Fabelio makes US$9M first close of Series C led by AppWorks; Total funding so far is US$20M+; It has 20 showrooms, 430 staffers, 1K B2B projects; The country’s home furniture market is US$6.7B in size. More here

Singapore-China Smart City Initiative (SCI) to accelerate and further digitisation; SCI is centred around 3 pillars — digital connectivity, innovation & entrepreneurship, and tech talent exchange & development; A new Asian SME Hub will be set up to facilitate access to a larger ecosystem of buyers, sellers, logistics service providers, financing, and digital solution providers. More here

Smart karaoke platform Popsical raises US$5M Series A from Quest Ventures, Enterprise SG; The Singapore startup delivers compact size portable boxes that can be controlled by an app; The global karaoke market is US$4.2B in 2020, projected to touch US$4.6B by end-2026. More here

Does your startup really need to be externally funded?; There’re 2 ways to build a biz — The Thiel way and The Rabois way; Companies that are reliant on external capital will lack the resilience necessary to survive an exogenous shock that could cause a rise in funding costs. More here

Setting new rules for the food delivery industry in a post-pandemic world; Customers’ behaviour has changed, forcing startups to adopt rapid changes; China-based Ele.me’s and Meituan’s ingredients or full recipes deliveries can be replicated in SEA; Contactless collection points should also be widespread. More here

4 tips for SEA startups in the ‘new normal‘; Startups sacrificed infra, biz sense, basic economic principles to chase growth; They’re now paying for that in the form of lost equity and slowed growth; This is due to a biz model that was too reliant on investor money to grow. More here

How do you raise VC funding as a student entrepreneur?; Golden Gate, 500 Startups sit down with us to answer 9 burning questions; They warn to expect fundraising to be more difficult, so the more a student entrepreneur can execute without dependence on outside capital, the more options you’ll have. More here

Digital upskilling tops training agenda for Singapore firms, says a survey; 58% of employers are training their workforce in tech-related skills; The survey respondents identified digital marketing (44%), project management skills (43%), data analysis (40%) as key competencies for their firms. More here

What should the post lock-down legal industry look like?; The crisis is an opportunity to shift to a truly digital model of business; Recognise the importance of proper cyber security; Firms should continue steady investments in up-skilling their lawyers. More here

Beenext launches US$110M fund for early-stage startups in SEA, India; Beenext Emerging Asia Fund aims to invest in e-commerce, fintech, healthtech, agritech, edutech, AI/data-driven tech; Out of its 180 investees, 45 are in SEA; Zilingo, Sendo, Ralali, Amartha are among them. More here

Singapore’s mixed martial arts broadcasting platform One Championship secures US$70M funding; Cuts 20% of headcount; The firm was founded by ex-martial arts champion Chatri Sityodtong, has a global broadcast reach of 2.7B potential viewers across 150+ countries; In 2018, it raised US$166M from Sequoia, Temasek, Greenoaks; In 2018, the startup’s net loss widened to US$59M from US$24.7M. More here

Tonik Financial lands US$21M Series A led by Sequoia, Point72 Ventures; The fund will be used to launch a digital bank for SEA in Q3; Tonik was developed by fintech venture builder Forum, which was founded by Greg Krasnov. More here

Indonesia teams up with Lazada for training programme to push SMEs online; The government targets to digitise 2M of them in 2020; The e-commerce firm to recruit 100 tutors from sellers to oversee 2-3 SMEs each; There’re 60M SMEs in the country. More here

How startups can consistently acquire new customers post-COVID-19; Create content with a more personal touch, leverage social media, increase engagement, and optimise website; Reports indicate 41% of startups globally have little cash to survive more than 3 months. More here

Here’s why Qualgro aims to focus more on Vietnam in 2021; Investment Manager Wanying Zhang says the VC firm is interested in exploring ‘what will be still in demand in the next 5-10 years; The firm is also open to looking at B2C opportunities strategically in Indonesia and Vietnam. More here

Pre-owned electronic goods marketplace Reebelo raises seed funding; Investors are June Fund, Antler; The Singapore startup is a second-hand goods dealer and offers an extended warranty on its e-commerce platform. More here

iPrice appoints former COO Paul Brown-Kenyon as new CEO; Co-founder and former CEO David Chmelař will assume the role of executive vice-chairman; iPrice’s websites had a 60% increase in traffic within the past two months; In March, the startup raised US$10M Series B led by ACA Investments; Total funding raised so far is US$20M. More here

COVID-19 is a game changer for digital transformation in Malaysia, says EY survey; The movement control order has revealed that businesses are insufficiently equipped to go digital; Close to 30% of businesses have invested in WFH hardware and software. More here

China’s central bank digital currency (DCEP) may cause little disruption in the country’s present financial system; Over 96% of all small retail transactions in China are processed by AliPay or WeChatPay; Analysts wonder where DCEP would fit into the average person’s financials, with popular digital payment options already in place. More here

Gaze.ai snags US$830K led by Anchorless Bangladesh; The Singaporean startup offers an API for spoof-proof face recognition, product recognition, and multilingual OCR; It has 23 staffers across Canada, Singapore, Bangladesh. More here

New MDEC chief pushes for Malaysia 5.0 concept; Rais Hussin says the narrative will posit the country as an innovation economy that can compete in a disruptive tech world, can serve as a bridge between Asia, ME, Africa. More here

Malaysian bank-to-bank payments startup Curlec raises funding from 500 Startups; It will use the money to grow its Malaysian ops, expand in SEA; Curlec allows businesses to utilise its platform via a simple API that automates the entire collection workflow. More here

Three ways data is changing government research; Data is changing research in healthcare, crime, financial services; Insights from data will allow governments to drive policies to execution in a way never imagined before. More here

Positives views of tech signify opportunities for IT firms in Myanmar. Survey says 61% of people believe the growth of tech creates more biz opportunities; 81%, however, believe some people use tech for evil and criminal behaviour. More here

Singapore’s DCI fills access gap in e-commerce data; The AI startup has built a solution that collects and consolidates commercial data from various sources and processes them to fit customer needs; It had raised US$1M led by Velocity Partners last April; It will soon launch its first service dedicated to shoppers. More here

Philippines’s Kwik.insure to launch insurance marketplace in Q4; The company will let Filipinos avail of insurance products from different providers; Philippines’s insurance penetration is 1.67%; It also wants to expand into other countries in SEA. More here

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As countries become more financially uncertain during the pandemic, venture debt and revenue-based financing are slowly turning out to become the go-to option.

Genesis Alternative Ventures is one such private venture debt fund in Singapore which has experienced the escalation in requests from startups seeking this mode of investment. The venture fund backed by Malaysia’s CIMB bank and Sassoon family office also recently managed to secure investment from American global investment fund Capria.

With a strong philosophy of investing in high growth companies in emerging markets, Genesis’s main focus is to help Series B and above companies grow.

In this interview with e27, co-founders Ben J. Benjamin and Martin Tang discuss impact investment, spotting “impact washers”, venture debt and growing competition in Southeast Asia (SEA).

Impact investment is a broad term, different people have different meanings to it. What does impact investing mean to you?

Benjamin: We have been looking at this space for more than 12 to 18 months, and it is a term that needs some work because it really can mean differently for different people. On the one hand, there’s the environmental and social angle to it, and on the other, there’s the governmental side of it, which is all about reputation management.

For Genesis, we believe in profit-making companies who are looking to achieve some kind of positive impact within their business models.

Also Read: Why family offices can be another facet of venture capital, and how they can impact startup investments in Asia

As a company scales, so will the impact which is why our recent partner Capria likes to call it, “impact at scale”. So this is where we play in the impact space and the entire ecosystem.

A lot of VCs are investing capital into impact companies; for example, there has been a trend of growing interest in fintech companies that support financial inclusion. But this also leads to a saturation in the space. What is your strategy to locate winning companies in this kind of situation?

Benjamin: I think we would agree there are quite a few fintech impact companies in the space and the reason I believe they exist is because basic access to good financial infrastructure is such an important theme.

So I believe that there is a very noble aim in that and countries such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam can be well placed to benefit from it.

It’s important to see many players in the process, while some champions will emerge, others will have gone through battles and emerge with battle scars that will fine-tune their model to allow them to be successful in the future.

So we as a VC firm openly welcome the competition.

Tang: There has also been a lot of bad press on “impact washing”, the so-called startups that position themselves as an impactful company without having any real impact. But we have been kind of trained to see through the smoke and mirrors.

So when we engage with our VC partners, first and foremost, we are looking for profitable companies with a really good and sustainable business model.

Also Read: Would you like a seed investment with your coworking space? Singapore’s Impact Hub is where to go

In that case, what advice would you give startup founders who would want to approach a venture debt firm like yours? What are some qualities you are seeking out in a company?

Tang: My advice for any entrepreneur looking for a capital provider and not just Genesis would be, to be honest. Come to us and be as real and transparent as you can because we have seen so many times when founders hide things that we find out later and for us to find out and decide not to do the deal is a waste of everyone’s time.

So we prefer to engage with founders early on, and we don’t mind if they have questions about things. We are here to help and figure out the unknowns together. So I’d say if I look back at all the deals and the founders, the ones we like and have grown close to are the really sincere and honest ones.

There are opportunities in SEA in terms of population, market base, and resources. The space has also been developing significantly. What do you think has sparked that change in recent times?

Tang: From my point of view, the first wave happened when I was in my previous job. Back then a company had to fill up ESG (environmental social and governance) checklists to see if they were compliant, even though there wasn’t any impact at all. Later there came a wave of social enterprises, where more impact started coming in.

However, a lot of investors were wary of it because they believed social enterprises were backed by foundations and a lot of times they were not profit-driven, so the question was how does one invest in these companies and still make money?

But obviously, with more global investors coming in and as more NGOs started providing awareness, the landscape began to shift. However, profit-first philosophy still prevails.

SEA countries are at vastly different stages in terms of development and infrastructure readiness; startup ecosystems also having different maturity levels. How does this affect your decision to invest in these regions?

Benjamin: Everything is indeed in a bit of a flux in this region. But one of the critical things about SEA companies that we like is that leaders can look at their business opportunities across the region and even though they might not be able to cover the whole of ASEAN, they cover a few of these countries.

And, for any founder or any business that wants to grow,  it will try to target some of the more significant economies such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines.

Also Read: Why is impact investing suddenly so hot?

So when we look at our portfolio at the companies, we have invested in and the incoming investments that we’re looking at, we see a nice mix of geographies across different countries.

In terms of impact, however, if you talk to an investor about investing in a company that’s operating in Singapore or Hong Kong minimal impact can be done at scale. This is because they are rich countries and more mature in their life cycles.

So a lot of the focus we find from investors in this space is really in the emerging markets where our “impact at scale” thesis can work.

Venture debt can be viewed as “intimidating” by some founders. Are there myths around it that you would like to bust?

Benjamin: Venture debt is no different from any other debt. We take debt in every single part of our life, for example, buying a car, house etc. So one’s got to know where you are in your situation to be able to decide whether it is right for you.

For example, if a founder is trying to raise money to buy depreciating assets such as servers or equipment, they certainly wouldn’t want to let go of personal equity for that. That’s a painful thing to do. So there are situations that call for debt rather than equity, like in the SME world.

It also trains companies to be more financially disciplined, and when investors look at a successful venture debt history, it shines a positive light on the startup.

The other thing is its also a misconception that we are there simply to provide financial transactions. But that is not true, we are growth investors and support companies in our portfolio through their mid and long term grooming stages.

We do this through networks, leads and also through balance sheets because that balance sheets you a lot of the story. Things like monetisation strategies and if you are paying your suppliers too fast, a simple analysis that can help improve the cash flow of the company can be extremely helpful in the long run.

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Image Credit: Genesis

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Shipper, Indonesia-based logistics tech platform, announced today that it has raised Series A funding round led by Prosus Ventures, formerly known as Naspers Ventures.

Existing investors including Lightspeed, Floodgate, Y Combinator, Insignia Ventures, and AC Ventures also participated in the round.

The undisclosed amount of funding will be used to recruit more talents into their team while readying up to improve its logistic capabilities. It also has plans to expand its reach to other cities and new regions in Indonesia to accommodate the needs of consumers.

Established in 2017 by co-founders Budi Handoko and Phil Opamuratawongse, Shipper offers one-stop logistics solution such as a multi-courier shipping platform to distributed warehousing & fulfilment networks in more than 30 locations.

It offers a dashboard to help sellers on e-commerce platforms manage delivery to their customers. The dashboard allows sellers to get recommendations on the most efficient logistic services, including for courier pickup and integrated reports.

It also provides a multi-carrier API that allows sellers to manage orders, print shipping labels, and get tracking information from multiple providers on their phones.

Also Read: E-commerce logistics Shipper secures US$5M from Lightspeed Ventures, Floodgate Ventures, Insignia Ventures Partners, Y Combinator

”Despite the size of the market, logistics in Indonesia is extremely inefficient. In tier two and tier three cities, shipping costs can often add up to 40 per cent of e-commerce basket sizes, serving as a major barrier to mass e-commerce adoption in the country. Shipper aims to solve three major problems in Indonesia’s logistics aspects, including a confusing plethora of different warehousing and shipping options, lack of price transparency, and below-average track-ability,” said Handoko.

Currently, Shipper is working with more than 100 express couriers.

Prosus Ventures is a global consumer internet group that operates and invests in markets with long-term growth potential. It focusses on building businesses in the online classifieds, payments and fintech, and food delivery sectors in markets including India, Russia, and Brazil.

The company is majority-owned by Naspers.

In September 2019, Shipper closed US$5 million in funding from Lightspeed, Floodgate Ventures, Insignia, Convergence Ventures, and Y Combinator.

Shipper was part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 batch.

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Image Credit: Robson Hatsukami Morgan on Unsplash

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On Sunday, June 7, Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong mentioned in his speech about the country’s plan to diversify its sources of food as a measure to tackle the challenges that might rise up in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world.

Even before the global health crisis, as a land-scarce country, Singapore is highly dependent on foreign produce with 90 per cent of consumed food being imported, according to a Channel News Asia report. As part of an effort to tackle this challenge, Singapore Food Agency has laid plans to have 30 per cent of food to be produced locally by 2030.

This is certainly the kind of challenge that we expect to see local startups to rise and tackle —and ACE-Fish Market is one of those companies.

Founded by CEO Leow Ban Tat, The Aquaculture Centre of Excellence (ACE) offers two products: A floating containment fish farm called Eco-Ark, and a B2C e-commerce site to distribute the fishes from the farm.

Through these products, in addition to helping the country self-produced its own food supply, ACE also aims to do it a more eco-friendly manner.

The company is a recipient of a grant from the Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF), which is run by the SFA.

Also Read: Today’s top tech stories, March 28: Digital tech, food security among key areas to get more R&D funding in Singapore

From the farm to your table

The Eco-Ark’s eco-friendliness principle works in several directions: From the lack of chemicals that it is using to treat the fish stock, the quality of water being discharged, to the use of solar energy to power its facility off the coasts of Pulau Ubin.

A press statement by the company detailed that farming fish in ozonated water greatly reduces the mortality rates of fish stock.

“We took an approach to make sure that the water is clean so that the fish can grow healthily without interference … [It is] different than what most farmers are used to in Singapore and the rest of the world,” Leow explains to e27 in a phone interview.

“The growing-more-on-less-and-faster approach that people tend to use when talking about food security will be meaningless if they don’t have the tech to achieve it,” he continues.

ACE projected the total harvest for 2020 to come to 166 tonnes, which is claimed to be 20 times more than the average minimum production level of coastal farms.

Once the fishes are being harvested, it is distributed through ACE Fishmarket, the e-commerce site runs by the company.

The site plays a crucial part in the company’s farm-to-fork approach, which covers every step from production to processing to delivery. While its launch was planned before the pandemic hit Singapore, the circuit breaker has provided the platform with momentum as more customers went online to get their groceries needs.

Also Read: Same same, but different: How local foodtech startups are driving Singapore’s public health goals

“But obviously the corona has given us a little bit more practice in being able to get a subscriber and getting notice from the market … The circuit breaker is indeed a blessing for us,” Leow says.

The past and the future

When asked about how food security in Singapore is going to be treated after the pandemic, Leow says that COVID-19 has taught the country “a great lesson” on the importance of innovation in ensuring food security.

“We aim to reach 30 per cent of local food production by 2030 … that is only 10 years from today,” he says.

Since the beginning, to help increase local food production has always been Leow’s ambition, the one that led him to create the Eco-Ark technology. To achieve that, in the near future, he aims to build a new hatchery for his fish farm.

Using the skills that he attained from his previous experience in the oil and gas industry, Leow aims to design the hatchery on a lift dock, built on a stable surface on the sea floor.

“If I can have a centralised hatchery, warehouse, and processing in just one spot … then I think I will be able to help Singapore achieve the true reality of 30 by 30,” he closes.

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Image Credit: ACE

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5 digital full bank, 9 wholesale bank contenders to move to next round

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s central bank Monetary Authority of Singapore has shortlisted 14 applicants for up to five digital bank licences on offer.

The shortlist, out of the 21 applications received, comprises five digital full bank applicants and nine digital wholesale bank applicants who will now move to the next round of the selection process.

The MAS will then make another evaluation based on the applicants’ business model, contributions to the island nation’s financial centre, growth prospects and its ability to manage a “sustainable digital banking business”.

As the COVID-19 pandemic impacts macroeconomic and business conditions, the MAS has asked all eligible applicants to review the business plans and assumptions underpinning their financial projections.

The results for the next round is expected to be announced by the end of 2020.

Fintech startup iLex raises seed funding

iLex, a Singapore-based fintech startup, announced today it has raised an undisclosed seed funding round from investors based in France, Hong Kong and the US, besides local investors.

It has also signed an MoU with IHS Markit to connect its platform with IHS’s suite of solutions.

The startup is creating a multilateral e-market platform that will augment the network, deal flow and liquidity opportunities for loan market participants.

Carro to allow contactless purchase of pre-owned cars

Singapore-based automotive marketplace Carro has launched a contactless purchase feature for customers to buy pre-owned vehicles with no face-to-face interaction.

This is in response to changes in the customer behaviour caused by COVID-19.

Aaron Tan, CEO and Founder of Carro, said that in order to address any buyers’ remorse due to the lack of test drives, Carro offers a three-day return policy, allowing for returns if they are not satisfied with the purchase.

Zomato’s co-founder launches new meditation startup

Pankaj Chaddah, Founder of India’s restaurant aggregator Zomato, has launched an online meditation platform, called Mindhouse, according to The Economic Times.

Mindhouse started as an offline business and later became an online platform after the outbreak of the pandemic.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: One Championship raises US$70M; Grab CEO announces layoffs of 360 people; Beenexts new US$110M fund for SEA, India

“COVID-19 has put mental health to the forefront, accelerating things by a few years. We see this as an offline plus online opportunity,” Chaddah said.

“We were planning to launch our online service in a major way by the end of this year, but we flipped that, and now we are focusing only on online as we don’t see offline coming back to normalcy for a long time now,” he added.

Mindhouse is a mobile app that provides meditation and yoga services through a combination of live classes and an on-demand library of audio and video content to help urban Indians cope with stress.

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Image credit: Unsplash

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