These 10 startups are making a positive impact on the deprived and marginalised people amongst us

The key objective of any startup is to turn profitable and make it to the “Unicorn club”, and possibly launch an IPO. Their contribution to the global economy is significant, and they create millions of jobs, thus becoming part of a social change.

But there are a few startups whose ultimate objective is NOT to make profit or get a “billion dollar” exit. Instead, they want to make a positive impact on the society. Such startups are rare but are there in almost every sector, and they change the lives of millions of the marginalised and deprived in the society.

In this article, we have picked a few ventures who are making a positive impact on the society in Southeast Asia.

TreeDots

Food waste is one of the most pressing problems the world is facing. As per a study, roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted. Food losses and waste amounts to roughly US$680 billion in industrialised countries and US$310 billion in developing countries.

Singapore-based startup TreeDots has developed a solution to this problem. Started by Nicholas Lim, Tylor Jong, and Jiacai Lou, TreeDots’s mission is to minimise the amount of food waste through a self-sustaining ecosystem via its aggregation of F&B businesses on different points of the value chain within the startup. It recently collaborated with National Environment Agency (NEA) in their food wastage reduction (FWR) outreach programme.

ThreeDots is also the winner of Echelon 2018.

EcoZen

Farmers across the world are a deprived lot. They often lack adequate support to keep their produce safe even after a good harvest. The problem is serve in developing and under-developed countries of Asia and Africa.

Probably, this agritech startup could bring in a change. Ecozen — based in Kerala, India but targeting the markets in Southeast Asia and Africa — has aims to improve farm-to-fork movement of perishable goods by providing solar-based cold rooms at the farm level. The startup has already implemented its solutions in Southeast Asian region, including in Indonesia and Vietnam with the help of high-tech polymer manufacturer Covestro. It is looking forward to expand its business further into Southeast Asia and Africa.

EcoZen is the winner of the inaugural Rabobank Food Loss Challenge Asia.

SolarHome

Most households in the developing countries in Southeast Asia are still living in the dark, as electricity is still a dream for most of them. Green energy solutions have been out of their reach. But not any more. Singapore-based SolarHome is finding a way out for them.

Founded by FORUM, a Singapore-based fintech venture builder, SolarHome brings pay-as-you-go solar solutions into off-grid households in Southeast Asia. It offers off-grid households a solar lighting system at a low-cost 24-month subscription plan, with an initial US$10 down payment, followed by daily, weekly, or monthly repayments through scratch cards or mobile money.

The company plans to bring “reliable, affordable and clean energy to more than 40,000 homes in rural Myanmar by the end of 2018″. The firm also intends to increase distribution throughout Myanmar, advance its mobile money platform, as well as expand its product range to more premium products, including systems with bundled television sets. Technology built into the system ensures that it won’t function if a payment is not made, giving lenders the confidence that they will be able to recover their investment.

The firm recently secured US$10M in debt financing from a consortium of international investors,

MyCash Online

Being migrants themselves, the duo knows the major challenges faced by the massive 40 million migrant population in Malaysia — one being the inability to access various financial services, as most of them are unbanked. The duo’s urge to solve this problem drove them to start MyCash Online, an online financial marketplace for the underbanked migrant population in Southeast Asia.

Incorporated in 2015 and headquartered in Singapore, MyCash provides a tailor-made platform for the unbanked migrant population, where they can purchase products and services online without using any bank account, credit cards, or prepaid cards. Users can reload phone credit, pay bills, and buy bus tickets through MyCash.

Also Read: Malaysian fintech startup MyCash in talks to raise US$2M for expansion into Australia, Europe

It offers many services, including local and international mobile recharge, utility bill payments, cross- border money transfer, wallet transfer, bus and air ticket, e-commerce voucher, dry foods and other products, PA insurance and many more. Migrant worker can fulfil all most all their needs through our platform.

Ark

The number of cancer patients is growing at an alarming rate across the globe. Cancer is a genetic disease—that is, it is caused by changes to genes that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide. Doctors and experts in the healthcare industry claim that early detection can prevent the disease to be aggravated.

Ark, a Singapore-based company, is harnessing advanced data science and proprietary microRNA detection technology to develop non-invasive and cost-effective blood tests to detect early stage cancers before clinical symptoms appear.

Established as a result of a merger between MiRXES (a microRNA diagnostic test developer) and Venturecraft, Ark has kicked off by launching a blood test for early detection of stomach cancer in Asia. The firm plans to develop and launch new blood tests for early detection of other high prevalence cancers such as lung, breast and colon cancer.

Ark has research collaborations with top medical research institutions globally. Having recently completed a 5,000-patient gastric cancer trial in Singapore, Ark is planning to launch Asia’s largest clinical studies targeting at least 50,000 participants through partnerships with local governments and medical institutions.

Ruma

Low-income communities in Indonesia often have limited access to products and services that could improve their lives. The goods available are at a higher price than similar products sold in department stores.

Ruma provides financial and information services in the country through a trained agent network. The company aims to increase access to such services in a country with only 3,600 bank branches that serve a population of 245 million across a sprawling island archipelago.

Ruma recruits agents from Indonesia’s two million independently owned ‘mom and pop’ stores and provides them with technology, training, and support. These shops can then provide local consumers with a range of services, such as pre-paid airtime top up, utility and loan payments, mobile money services, and insurance.

Based in Jakarta, Ruma has served millions of customers through thousands of agents across Indonesia.

Enablecode

People with disability are often looked at with derision. There are quite a few NGOs and organisations working for the upliftment of dibbled people, the attitude of the society towards these people hasn’t changed much.

This is where Vietnamese software company Enablecode makes a difference. With a goal to transform the Vietnamese perception of people with disabilities, Enablecode employs computing experts who are not as physically able as the majority of society. Established in 2014, this startup blossomed from a team of freelancers who have been working together on a variety of web projects in Ho Chi Minh City since 2010. Their goal is to use technology to deliver services and run a strong business as a means to raise awareness of those living in a disabled condition.

Based in Ho Chi Minh City, the company specialises in complex custom web application development, and offers all aspects of innovative, creative, complex web design, including graphic layout, custom coding, advanced functionality and SEO.

Happi

Market research should benefit the clients who pay for it, the people who participate in it, and the groups, causes and communities those participants care about. Singapore startup Happi was started with this intention.

The Happi mobile app rewards users for responding to 5-question surveys with chances to win prizes they select, donations to the charity group or cause they select, and, possibly, connections to career opportunities — all free. Clients pay Happi for the responses and a portion of this money goes to pay for the prizes people win and a portion goes to the donations to the partner groups.

Clients get fast, easy, and cost-effective insights from and engagement with consumers. Everyone wins.

Impact Terra

Farmers account for more than 40 per cent of Myanmar’s GDP and 60 per cent of the workforce. But they often don’t get adequate attention from the government or the tech community, despite the growth and penetration of smartphones and internet.

Erwin Sikma saw an opportunity here. He saw a huge potential to improve the livelihoods of rural smallholder farmers through the use of digital solutions such as smartphone apps by providing them with real-time agricultural information, access to markets, and proper access to financing options. This leads to the birth of Impact Terra.

The company has come up with a platform, Golden Paddy, for farmers which offers real-time, personalised information about local crop prices, weather-based advice like flood or drought warnings, and pest risks.

The platform also collects data on farmers, such as their location and details about crops, which helps financial service providers deliver financial products that meet their needs and correspond to their specific risks. This enables these farmers to get the capital they need to improve or expand their farms at accessible rates.

billionBricks

There are one billion people in the world without a home. The lack of adequate housing continues to be a problem to which we cannot find a solution. Housing is a human right and the first step of empowerment towards emerging out of poverty.

Also Read: How these two school girls are helping Rohingyan refugees find a good shelter in Bangladesh

billionBricks was founded by a team of architects, designers, engineers and urban planners committed to solving the global housing problem. A non-profit, billionBricks used design and technology as its tools to innovate shelter and infrastructure solutions for the homeless and vulnerable. Its approach empowers communities to replicate its solutions on their own.

Last year, billionBricks created WeatherHYDE (a reversible, light-weight, all-season tents) to help the Rohingyan refugees find a good shelter in Bangladesh.

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

The post 10 social impact startups in Southeast Asia that caught our attention in 2018 appeared first on e27.

Another exciting year has passed. How is it going to impact the Indonesian tech scene in the next year?

As players in the Indonesian tech scene, we ended the year 2018 with a sense of relief for all the achievements that we have made this year.

As we prepare to welcome the new year, we also begin to formulate how 2019 is going to be better –and how the foundation that we have set up in 2018 can help us get there.

Moved by this belief, e27 has compiled a list of stories that has happened to Indonesian tech scene (and the market in general) that will affect the course of things in the year 2019.

Revisit this article in December 2019 to see what we have predicted correctly (and wrongly).

1. Go-Pay is available for offline merchants transaction

For many years, the woes that e-commerce and fintech industry players faced in Indonesia is the market’s reluctance to embrace cashless payment methods. But 2018 saw a chance when Indonesian ride-hailing unicorn Go-Jek announced that it is enabling transactions using its e-wallet feature Go-Pay in offline merchants, from bubble tea chain to supermarkets to street food stalls.

The move has led to the rising popularity of Go-Pay, followed by competitors OVO (which is now the official e-wallet feature of Tokopedia), Tcash (by state-owned mobile operator Telkomsel), and DANA (the result of a joint venture between EMTEK Group and Ant Financial).

Indonesia’s cashless revolution was also led by the government’s move to oblige all toll road users to pay using e-money cards released by major banks in the country.

How is it going to impact the market next year? Basically competitions between major players will be tougher. Customers might  see promotional efforts that will lead to “price battle” between major players; they will also see more offline and online merchants including the existing e-wallet players as payment method options.

We will also see more foreign and local players introducing e-wallet services to the Indonesian market.

Also Read: 10 social impact startups in Southeast Asia that caught our attention in 2018

2. Government crackdown on illegal fintech services

On December 12, CNN Indonesia reported that the financial services authority has shut down 404 illegal fintech services, with the majority of these companies hailing from China.

The story was the latest update in the Indonesian government’s move to crackdown illegal fintech operations in the country, which are mostly offering peer-to-peer (P2P) lending services. Apart from harming customers’ data privacy, the potential harms that these companies have include money laundering, tax evasion, and terrorism financing.

Next year we will continue to see these moves by the Indonesian government as customer protection is one of the points that the government aim to pursue in the e-commerce roadmap.

We will also see the government making more strict requirements for financial services license, particularly in the lending sector. Customers will also be more aware of the risks of using online lending services; businesses will have to go the extra miles to convince potential customers that their products and services are safe to use.

3. Tokopedia raises another US$1.1 billion

Tokopedia ended 2018 with a high note as it confirmed a US$1.1 billion funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund and Alibaba Group, which has been reported to push its valuation to US$7 billion.

Fellow Indonesian unicorn Go-Jek has also been reported to be in a fundraising spree.

Next year, we will definitely see the results of these fundraising efforts, which may come in the form of new products and features, or market expansions.

These funding rounds may also impact startup investment trend in general. In 2017, as the four unicorns –Go-Jek, Tokopedia, Traveloka, and Bukalapak– secured their massive funding rounds and unicorn status, the market saw a shift in investors’ attention to late-stage startup investment, leaving a gaping hole in early stage startup investment.

For 2019, the trend can go either way: Investors will continue focussing on late-stage investments, or reconsider early stage investments.

Also Read: The 10 most-read e27 Community articles of 2018

4. Go-Jek expands to Southeast Asia

After being laser-focussed on the Indonesian market for years, Go-Jek has finally begun its international expansion move by launching services in Vietnam (as Go-Viet), Thailand (as GET), and Singapore (as GOJEK).

This may not have that big of an impact for fellow unicorns such as Tokopedia and Bukalapak, which have been focussing heavily on local market.

But Go-Jek’s expansion move may create an impact for other early stage startups: it has the possibility to make them more attractive for investors due to their ability (and willingness) to expand beyond Indonesia and enter the regional market.

5. Indonesian general election on April 17

Indonesia is set to have a general election on April 17; an election which has been dubbed by local media such as The Jakarta Post as “haunted” by identity politics.

As with previous elections and transitional period in the nation’s history, there is always the possibility of security threats during elections. This kind of situation has been known to impact business and the economy in general, not excluding the tech industry.

Foreign investors might be a bit cautious about investing in the market leading up to election dates; Indonesia might also see several startup community event being rescheduled to adjust to the date.

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Image Credit: Elijah O’Donnell on Unsplash

The post These 5 stories will impact the Indonesian tech scene in 2019 appeared first on e27.

Group-IB talks about cybersecurity trends, launching a new HQ in Singapore, and why preemption is a key element in protecting institutions

As we gear towards a more data-driven world, we find that information and security are inextricably linked to each other. With the world’s technological advancement growing rapidly, we see the same rapid growth in the risks surrounding tech—ones involving data privacy infringement, online fraud, and other high-tech crimes.

Finding themselves at the frontlines of this tumultuous war against cyber security threats is Group-IB, a global leader in preventing and investigating cybercrimes.

Having been in the business since 2003, the company has been active in the field of computer forensics and information security, protecting the largest international companies against financial losses and reputation risks.

What ultimately prompted the creation of Group-IB was its founder and CEO, Ilya Sachkov’s first-level education in information security while based in Moscow. He said it was mere coincidence that he read an American book on cybercrime investigation as a business written by Kevin Mandia.

Intrigued by the prospects of mounting a company based on digital forensics, a point of curiosity for him was how despite the number of cybersecurity companies in Russia, nobody at the time offered the specific service of cybercrime investigation.

From day one, Group-IB team has been relentlessly gathering and analyzing information about cyber criminals and their activity, as well as developing threat data collection tools. These technologies formed the basis of adversary-centric security solutions.

Also read: From Moscow to Singapore: How a global leader in cyber security found its way to Southeast Asia

In late 2013, GIB Threat Intelligence service came out of stealth mode. Later, the company introduced TDS (Threat Detection System) – intelligence driven network security solutions for proactive threat hunting and response, and Secure Bank – advanced fraud defense and user authentication technology, currently protecting over 70 million clients of online banking platforms.

Fast forward to 2018, Group-IB is now recognized as one of the leading threat intelligence vendors by Gartner, Forrester, and IDC for providing unique insights into cyber threats. More importantly, Group-IB has helped prosecute hundreds of cybercrime organized groups across many countries.

As of today, Group-IB has announced expanding its work in Asia-Pacific, moving its headquarters to Singapore with Ilya Sachkov himself leading the ship in the region.

Navigating the tech side of Group-IB’s digital forensic service

An important starting point for digital forensics is tracking the digital footprint of a cyber criminal. The general idea is that prior to the act of hacking itself, a cybercriminal undergoes a series of preparations.

The key is to detect attacks in their early stages by predicting a threat based on preparation patterns. Sachkov parallels this to physical threats where, for example in the instance of a bombing, it is best to preempt the attack as it is being planned out versus when the bomb is already approaching its target.

Group-IB also houses sophisticated data on the infrastructure of cybercriminals spanning fifteen years of digital footprint—providing patterns and changes on how cybercrimes are carried out, making it easier for them to predict attacks.

Why expand to Singapore?

The company entered the APAC market 3 years ago. Group-IB’s portfolio of clients in Asia includes banks, financial and government organizations in Singapore, Thailand and other countries. Southeast Asia accounts for more than 30% of the company’s international revenue. Those are not the only reasons why Group-IB has decided to open its Global HQ in Singapore.

According to Group-IB’s annual Hi-Tech Crime Trends report findings, Asia is one of the most actively attacked regions in the world. Over the past year, 21 state-sponsored groups were detected in the area, which is exceeds Europe and the US combined.

Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, and many other financial powerhouses in Asia are likely to become primary targets of financially motivated hacker groups in the near future. Group-IB aims to empower local companies and government organizations with the knowledge and tools to better prepare for rapidly evolving cyber threats targeting the region.

For Sachkov, it is important to bring Group-IB to Singapore because he recognizes and trusts the grasp of the Singaporean cybersecurity ecosystem on the matter. He highlights that it is crucial to develop synergy between the Group-IB experts and specialists originating from Singapore because of their level of understanding of local threats. Group-IB already partners with the INTERPOL Digital Crime Centre located in Singapore

Singapore’s rapid economic growth has ramped up the interest of financially motivated hackers and state-sponsored hacker groups. He argues further that what Group-IB can bring to the table is to share more technical information to the local atmosphere, highlighting that work is still needed in terms of achieving difficult technical levels in certain cybersecurity professions like malware researchers.

Also read: Singapore’s financial sector cyber security guidelines have received praise

In order for Group-IB to further establish itself as a global independent entity, it has to establish itself as a structure in different countries.

Good intellectual property protection, good government institutions, and zero corruption were some of the basis Group-IB decided on in choosing Singapore as a new home for its headquarters where the company will manage and keep developing its global threat-hunting infrastructure aimed at adversary-centric detection and proactive threat hunting. “A lot of Michelin restaurants,” Sachkov jokes is an important personal factor.

By 2019, Group-IB is planning to launch CyberCrimeCon in Singapore and Moscow, with the Singapore leg being its largest.

The post On Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics: How Group-IB is Reshaping What We Know appeared first on e27.

Through this acquisition, the financial products comparison startup aims to further boost its credit card business

Masii.com, a financial products comparison platform in Thailand, has acquired 100 per cent shares of One Place, an events discovery and ticketing platform in the country, for an undisclosed amount.

Through this acquisition, Bangkok-headquartered Masii aims to further boost its credit card business. Masii’s Co-founder and CEO Maxwell Meyer told e27 that their aspiration is to make One Place the leading ticketing site for cultural events in Bangkok and all Thailand.

One Place will join the Masii.com family and will move its office to the fintech firm’s headquarters. As per the deal, One Place Co-founder and CEO Eliot Delunas will stay on board in 2019 to transition the company and customer relationships.

Also Read: Thai customers are much smarter than the websites out there

“Events and promotions surrounding ticket booking are among the most high conversion points of sale for a new credit card,” Meyer said. “Our banking partners are eager to design unique promotions to attract more customers. With One Place, Masii.com and our partners will be able to offer better pricing, better seating, and unique experiences (backstage with the performers or curators) to users who also apply for new credit cards, or make bookings with our existing banking partners.”

One Place was started in 2011 by four entrepreneurs —  Delunas, Adam Selley, Liam Cooper, and Andy Jones. It is the exclusive online ticket agent for many of the artistic venues and shows around Bangkok, including the Bangkok Comedy Club.

“Masii.com is the top result on Google Thailand for nearly every credit card-related search. There are lots of promotional synergies where we can promote special credit card deals to ticket buyers, especially group ticket buyers. We immediately add on partnerships together with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, Thai Polo, and other companies to ticket exclusive events,” Meyer stated. “We don’t plan to focus on rock concerts, etc, but rather comedy shows, community theatre, museums, Thai traditional arts, classical music and others.”

The fintech company will invest by dedicating full time teams for content, business development, and marketing, as well as integrating One Place’s website with Masii.com for greater transaction security, and to offer special deals through its partner network of 10-plus banks in Thailand.

Also Read: The extraordinary tale of a Filipino geek who swam against the odds in life

“We have worked hard to create a great event discovery resource combined with ticketing and other event organiser tools. The site has experienced strong growth over the past years, and we are confident Masii.com is well posotioned to continue building on that,” Delunas commented.

Founded by Meyer (a US native), Matthias Jürgens (German) and Tom Kiatcheeranun (Thai), Masii.com enables users to compare financial products such as credit cards, insurance and personal loans. The company claims that nearly 75,000 customers apply for financial products on Masii.com each month.

In February this year, Masii.com secured 77 million baht (US$2.43 million) in Series A funding led by B.Grimm, a 138-year-old multi-billion dollar Thai conglomerate, and European Venture Capital fund.

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One company pops up fairly frequently. No prizes for guessing which

This year has been marked by a hive of activity across the Southeast Asia tech ecosystem, which is great because it means that the industry is growing at a healthy pace.

While the biggest newsmakers were naturally unicorns such as Grab, which acquired Uber’s operations in the region and expanded its services in its bid to become an all-encompassing WeChat-esque platform, far smaller companies in frontier markets like Myanmar also started to feature more frequently on our site.

Today, we will present to you the 10 most-read articles written by our reporters. Have a look!

Note: the articles are arranged in no particular order.

1. Grab acquires Uber’s assets in Southeast Asia

Ride-hailing giant Grab’s move to buy Uber’s transport and food delivery operations in Southeast Asia was arguably the most watched acquisition in the regional tech ecosystem this year.

Uber received 27.5 per cent stake in Grab as part of the deal, allowing it to focus on its core markets in the US and prepare for an IPO, which it expects to file next year.

2. Tik Tok’s parent company buys Musical.ly

Chinese-based internet company Bytedance grabbed headlines when it announced it would acquire US-based video social network Musical.ly and merge with a similar app of its own, Tik Tok.

This is a fairly significant development for the Southeast Asia internet market as Bytedance has pursued an aggressive expansion strategy to attract more users in the region.

Indonesia is its biggest market in Southeast Asia (although it was temporarily banned). It is building partnerships with local media companies such as Ismaya Live, RCTI, Warner Music Indonesia, Universal Indonesia, Sony Music Indonesia, and Indosat Ooredoo.

Outside of Indonesia, the platform has also helped grow internet celebrities such as Thailand’s YouTube star, Kaykai Salaider. Using Tik Tok, she was able to add at least 1.9 million more fans.

3. Grab acquiring Uber’s data trove is a major red flag

This is an opinion piece by our editor Kevin McSpadden. In it he highlights why Uber users should have the option to opt out of having their personal data transferred to Grab’s platform post-acquisition.

“Some folks may decide they want to change their lifestyle and start using public transportation and street hailing more often,” he said.

He also said that as Grab moves deeper into the financial services space (and other verticals), the utility of this data will naturally move beyond just transportation.

For these users, they are inevitably drawn into a more complex relationship with the company — and without their input; what if this data is one day used to determine their credit worthiness? Can Grab guaranteed that its algorithms won’t be bias?

Also read: The 10 most-read e27 Community articles of 2018

4. How the son of a humble watch repairer became the owner of a multi-million dollar realty tech startup

This is a classic rags-to-riches story. Nay Min Thu is the son of a modest watch repair shop owner in a small town in Myanmar.

Being one of seven siblings, the family’s finances were naturally stretched. So Thu went to Singapore to study while juggling a multitude of odd jobs to support himself.

Today, he’s doing pretty well running a realty tech startup.

Do check out the link above, it’s a great and uninspiring read. If you are an entrepreneur who has fallen into a funk, this story will uplift you — I promise.

5. Grab CEO’s courier stunt is disheartening

Another opinion piece on Grab by our editor Kevin McSpadden — this was pretty controversial.

For context, in October, Anthony Tan, the CEO and Co-founder of Grab, worked as a GrabFood delivery driver for a couple of weeks to better understand the system and its pain points.

While the CEO was able to understand some of the system’s inefficiencies, our editor felt that he had missed the bigger picture: the “huge financial burden” that the contract workers faced.

“Grab treated ‘courier-partners’ as if they are enthusiastic employees working to build a great company. In reality, they are more often a person who really needs money and view companies like Grab as band-aid solution to pay next month’s rent,” he said.

6. Snapcart, an app that gives cashback for receipts, launches in Singapore

Jakarta-based startup Snapcart operates a platform that allows users to receive cashback by scanning their shopping receipts into the app, and this year, it made its debut in Singapore.

Snapcart covers groceries, medicine and cosmetics receipts, and is also available in the Philippines.

I’m guessing this app is probably gaining some decent traction in Singapore if the article is attracting so much views. Maybe it’s because everyone uses smartphones in the country and grocery shopping, like in all countries, is a big part of our everyday lives.

The company raised US$10 million in Series A round of funding last year, led by existing investor Vickers Venture Partners.

7. A gym with a view of the bay: Check out Grab’s awesome new R&D office at Marina One

Grab gave us a little tour of their new office at Marina One. It’s a pretty cool office and being situated near the sea, the views are spectacular. Check out the photos here.

During the tour, the Grab team told us that CEO Anthony Tan is a huge exercise buff and actually does planks while conducting conference calls. Upon hearing that, I ruefully left the office with a deep guilt over my life choices (just kidding, I tore into a high calorie meal afterwards).

Also read: 2018 was a good year for e27, and we look forward to bigger things in store for 2019

8. Southeast Asia is setting itself up for disappointment with Go-Jek entrance

Go-Jek has just soft launched in Singapore, and so far, most people are pretty happy with their low prices (as compared with Grab). But it only offers its Go-Car ride-hailing option and nothing else.

This is a far cry from its Indonesian version, which offers a whole plethora of peripheral services such as manicure, food delivery and massages.

Back in April when rumours were still swirling on when the Go-Jek would arrive in Singapore, our editor argued that the company is facing a tough market, mainly because it will be bleeding money giving out subsidies to entice drivers to use its platform over Grab.

He also argued that if Go-Jek wants to make a serious logistics play like it did in its home base, it will come up against well-established incumbents such as Ninja Van and SingPost.

9. Singapore’s StashAway raises US$5.3M Series A funding round, will launch in new markets

In March, Singapore-based robo advisor platform StashAway raised a cool S$7 million (US$5.3 million) from a group of family offices and individual investors.

The company has raised a total of US$8.4 million. It said will focus on enhancing the platform’s AI tech (which should lead to better automatic investment decisions).

In April 2017, StashAway became the first robo-adviser to receive retail license in Singapore.

On why this article received such widespread attention, my guess is that robo advisors are a burgeoning service in the fintech arena, and that StashAway is one of the first few consumer-facing robo advisors to operate in Southeast Asia.

StashAway is also fairly active in promoting its services; it conducts regular finance workshops to coach users on best financial practices and frequently updates them on the state of the financial markets.

(Disclosure: I’m a StashAway user).

10. Looking under the hood: How Grab’s data science team optimises a fleet of 2.4 million drivers

Grab is a massive company and it manages thousands of drivers and riders across Southeast Asia daily —  which is over 10 terabytes of information everyday.

In this article, we spoke to Kong-wei Lye, Grab’s Head of Data Science, to understand how the company optimises its data analytics so that its operations can run smoothly.

“We have automated models that are trained, simulated and optimized to process all data from the Grab app’s users and their environment,” he said. Click on the above link to find out more.

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Image Credit: Marcel De Grijs

The post The 10 most-read e27 articles written by our content team appeared first on e27.

Garda Pangan aims to raise awareness around the issue of food waste, which has been gaining little to no attention in Indonesia

From the second largest city in Indonesia, that has been an emerging player in the disruptive startup business, Garda Pangan surely has the potential to steal attention.

e27 talks to Eva Bachtiar, one of three co-founders of the Surabaya-based startup, about the food waste management startup that has been creating buzz in the past year with its social and environmental causes. Focussing on things that we are all guilty of taking advantage of: Food.

How it all started

“People don’t really know that our country is actually the second largest food waste producers in the world,” Bachtiar says on the phone.

“This is especially ironic since a total of staggering 19.4 million people in Indonesia still live in hunger,” she continues.

Bachtiar explains the initial mission of Garda Pangan that she built along with two other co-founders –a husband and wife and catering business owners.

“We want to facilitate those who have food excess and food scarcity problem so the excess can be distributed rightly to those who need it,” she says.

The concept of a foodbank is nothing new, but it is relatively rare in Indonesia. “We want to make Garda Pangan a foodbank that aims to support particularly hospitality and culinary business, because both sectors consistently have food waste. This way we don’t need to educate them one-by-one because they experience the excess firsthand,” Bachtiar stresses.

Garda Pangan’s mission directly jabs at the economic loss and environment hazard that are caused by the food excess and food waste issue.

Also Read: Malaysia’s fresh food e-tailer Fresh At Heart secures US$275K in crowdfunding via Ata Plus

Challenges in raising awareness

One of the challenges in food waste management, besides the familiarity, is the concerns many hospitality companies have.

“Unfamiliarity with food bank concept is another thing that we can overcome. It’s harder to face the challenge of these companies’ concerns of being sued if something happens to the recipients of the food they donate,” Bachtiar mentions.

Bachtiar says that many companies feel reluctant to donate food excess because it is easier and less risky to just dump the food. “They worry that they are at a position of being sued if, for example, somebody got poisoned after eating the food that they donate. The possibility of having their donated food being resold is also something they want to avoid,” she further elaborated.

To accommodate these concerns, Garda Pangan makes sure their partners can rely on them about these issues. Once the food has been donated, the responsibility is fully rested on Garda Pangan as the distribution.

Putting dignity in food excess

Garda Pangan now serves three restaurants, one organic market, one fruit distributor, one food caterer, three bakeries, and two wedding organisers.

“These few partners that we have believe in our vision to not waste food and to give it to people who need it. They also like that it helps them to become greener and that it’s a good PR,” Bachtiar says.

Some people refer to “food excess” as leftovers, which Eva quickly corrected. “It has a negative connotation attached to the word ‘leftovers’ while the food that we distribute is strictly untouched, still clean, and unsold yet by the restaurants and hotels,” she stresses.

Bachtiar further emphasises on the importance of distributing the food the way it is, which is without any added processing. “The only case we will process the food donated to us is if it’s overripe fruits like bananas, that look bruised but still in a good condition, or just to add on so we can distribute a full set of meal instead of just rice and veggies that sometimes happens,” Bachtiar says.

“We simply want to put dignity in distributing the food. It may be an excess to someone, but to somebody else it could be the first proper meal they have in God knows how long,” she points out.

From social to scaling up

Being a social- and environmental-focussed startup does not mean Garda Pangan will operate solely based on donations.

“Yes, that’s really what we aim for: to better our business model. Many people perceive us as a social movement, a cause, not a business. We did start by bootstrapping, but we’re fully aware the only way to grow is to have a working business model. We want to run sustainably and eventually must have a business line,” explains Bachtiar when asked about Garda Pangan’s monetisation method.

“Right now, we can’t expect people to pay since it’s really new to them. No partners would want to pay for their food waste management because why should they pay if they can just dump the food for free, right?” she continues.

Garda Pangan aims to raise awareness of the importance and benefit of food waste management for businesses through its social media campaign and Food Heroes volunteering programme.

Also Read: Indian food delivery startup Swiggy raises US$1B investment led by Naspers

Garda Pangan’s next move for 2019 will be proving that the business model they have formulated will really work.

“Our plan is to introduce the people -starting from Surabaya- to our sustainable and responsible food waste management and provide them with a social impact report. It will be a paid service that serves our clients with a better return since they will got information, such as a complete beneficiary report, to know who have received their food excess. This type of report can be a token to claim the company’s social responsibility (CSR) slot. Companies can allocate their CSR budget to use our service,” Bachtiar elaborates.

Besides the social impact report, Garda Pangan also plans to have an environmental impact report, in which partners who choose to collaborate with Garda Pangan will be given report on how much carbon footprint they have reduced by simply donate their food excess.

Another report on the pipeline is a waste analysis data that will allow companies to have knowledge about the food composition and type of food that have been managed by Garda Pangan.

“This approach has already helped one of our partners, a bakery that used to have 100-200 portion excess in its daily production. The bakery got our report and it was an eye opener for them how much portion they throw away everyday. Now they are able to fix their production number and save cost, reducing to 20-30 portion excess per day since it’s impossible to not have excess in food industry,” Eva shares.

Society-beloved

With the increasing trend of going green and zero waste lifestyle, Garda Pangan surely has the upper hand in scaling up around this time.

Having recently won the first place in Go Startup Indonesia Championship by the government’s creative industry agency BEKRAF, the company said that everyday they would receive direct messages on Instagram, its most active social media platform, from people in other cities asking for their volunteering programme to be held outside Surabaya.

“Today, we have 30 in-house volunteers and around 200-300 public volunteers daily. In the future, this volunteering operation is something we would like to keep as it is a good platform to promote food waste awareness,” Bachtiar says.

“Right now, we are looking to hire professionals for jobs like designers and will also expand our core team with full time employments,” she adds.

Also Read: Singapore Foodie channel’s Malaysian parent raises funding for expansion

Whether or not they will be open for investors, Eva shared that they are now in the stage of proving their business model and improving their infrastructure.

“I just resigned from my previous job to focus on Garda Pangan two months ago. Right now what we have is an angel investor who believes in our vision and will walk alongside us for the next year,” Bachtiar says.

A firm believer of the importance of having food bank in each city, the woman who has mining engineering background was moved by the fact that urban poverty is a real problem. People in the big cities are struggling harder to eat, compared to people living communally in the village.

“I believe in our capability to provide solution to this often overlooked, but urgent problem,” Bachtiar closes.

 

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China appears to be pursuing more low-profile strategies rather than eye-popping, state-led partnership initiatives

The article China looks to private capital, open source technology for global tech game advantage was written by Runhua Zhao for TechNode.

China is racing against time to establish its own technological intellectual property, particularly in the semiconductor industry. The moves come amid growing pressure on Chinese tech companies overseas, underscored by the recent arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou and punitive measures by the US on Huawei rival ZTE.

This time around, China appears to be taking a more discreet approach, pursuing more low-profile strategies rather than eye-popping, state-led partnership initiatives such as the National Integrated Circuit (IC) Industry Investment Fund, which was set up in 2014 and raised RMB138.7 billion (US$20.1 billion) in its initial phase.

“Sino-US tensions are pushing China into a corner,” the head of an integrated circuit trading company told TechNode, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. As a result, he said, there’s been a shift in policies at both national and local levels where greater emphasis is being placed on investing in the semiconductor industry. “We are seeing increasing integration of government budget and private money in good projects,” he added.

“China will increase support to the semiconductor industry, while target projects and allocation of capital will see more subtle shifts,” said Kyna Wong, head of Credit Suisse’s China Technology team.

Wong pointed to the recently announced Shanghai-based tech board plan as a sign of new efforts to bring in individual investors and developing companies into the world of tech investment.

Also Read: China issues standards for cutting delivery waste amid e-commerce boom

For semiconductor and other projects requiring long-term capital injection in research and investment, and fixed assets such as factories and labs, a stock exchange allowing flexible capital exit could benefit private investment.

In contrast to listed A-share stocks which should report earnings before IPO filling, the registration-based tech board will have no profit requirement for IPO candidates. This is likely to encourage R&D driven projects characterised by high investment risks but also high returns.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government is extending material support to early stage semiconductor projects developed by students and educational institutions.

Earlier this month, for example, during the final of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ global innovation competition, the top prize for early stage projects was awarded to a project that focuses on chip security, while the prize for the growth-stage projects was given to a team that is developing non-civil communication chips. Both winners will be given access to an undisclosed amount of private capital.

Chinese semiconductor companies also are aggressively investing in open source projects. One example is instruction set architecture (ISA) RISC-V. ISA works between hardware and software, and defines how a computer is programmed.

In April, Ni Guangnan, a member at the Chinese Academy of Engineering Science, said that Chinese companies should pour the whole country’s resources into chip-making. He drew parallels to the mission of those who dedicated their lives to develop significant national projects such as developing China’s own nuclear weapons.

Also Read: VC Edith Yeung: The upshot of China’s ICO rules

In November, during China’s Wuzhen Internet Conference, Ni was assigned as the general director of China’s own RISC-V alliance. At another technology forum held in the same month in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Ni mentioned that Intel and ISA ARM are dominating the core chip-making technology. “If we could work together on RISC-V, under the current situation, we can be the third major power,” Ni was cited in Chinese media as saying.

“The government is very interested in the technology,” Fang Zhixi, former global vice president at Intel and now the chairman of RISC-V Foundation’s consultancy committee in China, told TechNode prior to the Wuzhen Internet Conference. “I have been getting in touch with high government bodies including the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). We see no problem organising talks or having both Chinese and international researchers and universities working together.”

Fang explained that the Chinese government’s interest in RISC-V is due to an open-source technology’s “natural advantages.” Tech companies may build their own applications on the “open and free” fundamental tech standards, and produce commercial projects with no extra-legal pressure such as patent disputes imposed by external parties.

“Open-source [solutions and communities], in fact, can be a way to avoid tensions in the tech sector,” Fang added.

Rick O’Connor, executive director at RISC-V Foundation, the official non-profit organisation of ISA RISC-V, told TechNode in the same interview as Fang’s that IoT and AI, two major Chinese national strategic industries, were also eagerly looking for open source solutions.

Nevertheless, Wong believes China still has a long way to go.

Also Read: MyTaiwanTour raises US$1.5M from Sanpu Group to expand to Japan, China

“From the perspective of policy, support to open source technologies can be easily done. However, one concern is communication across standards. China still has to tackle challenges when racing with players leading mainstream tech games in many fields.”

Wong believes China’s intention is to establish its own intellectual properties in mainstream tech games. If it were not for the purpose, China could always pay for US patents’ use right and projects built on open source platforms, as the US tech entrepreneurial ecosystem is highly commercial.

“[Therefore] open source is not always enough, though it will produce positive outcomes,” Wong added.

—

The article China looks to private capital, open source technology for global tech game advantage first appeared on TechNode.

Image Credit: h heyerlein on Unsplash

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The startup will use the funds to expand its offline presence in urban areas and increase marketing efforts

Fresh At Heart, an online fresh food retailer in Malaysia, has secured RM1,149,580 (US$275,000) from 22 individual investors through online equity crowdfunding (ECF) platform Ata Plus, overshooting its target by 143 per cent.

The company said in a statement that it will use the funds to expand its offline presence in urban areas and increase marketing efforts, as it sets out to expand nationwide.

“This investment will help fuel our ambition to deepen our reach to users, particularly to Malaysia’s major cities where consumers do not necessarily have direct access to the freshest produce,” said Joel Chong, Co-founder and COO of Fresh At Heart. “We’re used to having digital services simplify other aspects of our lives, and consumers are now turning to Fresh At Heart as their go-to solution for eating safely and healthily.”

Also Read: Malaysia’s clinical communication app MedPlanner raises US$240K in equity crowdfunding

Founded in 2016 by Chong and Eddie Goh, Fresh At Heart aims to become the go-to stop for fresh, naturally-sourced food. By eliminating the supply chain between fresh food producers and end-consumers and working directly with local producers, the company provides a channel for urban consumers to receive fresh food direct from the producers.

Its online store offers the fresh catch of the day from the Johor coastal district — cleaned and delivered to the customer’s doorstep or to be picked up in-store from its 16 locations across Malaysia’s major cities.

Since launch, the venture has grown its online following to 30,000 and has seen steady growth in sales, hitting RM200,000 in monthly sales last quarter, it claims.

“Through our crowdfunding campaign, we are welcoming 22 new backers who can spread the word about our business and help us make strategic connections as we expand nationwide. By building a wide base of investors, we have gone beyond just acquiring capital and gained a crowd of loyal Fresh At Heart ambassadors across Malaysia and Singapore,” said CEO Goh.

Fresh At Heart’s fully subscribed fundraising round marks the third successful ECF campaign on Ata Plus’s platform in one week.

“Following successful funding rounds by VendPays and MedPlanner, we’re delighted to facilitate a fruitful crowdfunding campaign for Fresh At Heart. The fresh food industry is about to see exponential growth as the new funding takes Fresh At Heart through the next stage of its development,” said Elain Lockman, Co-founder and Director of Ata Plus.

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Workplay stays true to its name by providing facilities for mothers to work and their children to play, keeping the two together

Motherhood is often something that’s perceived as challenging and full of sacrifice by society. This is an idea that unavoidably puts women under pressure, and men who are fathers underestimated.

Women are demanded to have the can-do attitude, expected to juggle multiple hats. This is especially true for mothers who choose to continue their career; an option that is still being frowned upon by the society, particularly in Indonesia.

But one co-working space begs to differ. Located at the heart of South Jakarta, the busy capital of Indonesia, the co-working space says that women can have their career and raise their kids at the same time.

Audira Amanda chats with e27 about how her own experience with motherhood led her to open Workplay, a shelter for parents, mothers especially, to come and meet other mothers and take few hours of the day to work uninterrupted, leaving their children in a capable hand.

Becoming working-from-home mothers

“I never thought of opening a co-working place before I was married. And then I became a mother, and I knew in my heart I wanted to be with my child all the way. So I decided to become a full time mom,” Amanda opens up.

She gave up her career for a year to be fully present with her now-toddler son, only to find that she felt stuck right when her kid reached toddler age.

Also Read: Workplace flexibility should be gender-inclusive, not just a benefit for working mothers

“I didn’t feel productive. I want to go back, but the guilt of having to leave my child if I go back to work was making me uncomfortable,” she says.

She was sure that she could not possibly be the only one feeling the so-called mom-guilt, and it has inspired her to build the co-working space.

“I believe that women want to stay productive while taking care of their child. Many women start a business from home or become a freelancer working from home, and even this choice still does not help them with productivity,” Amanda says.

Based on experience, working from home for mothers will always be full of distraction. “Basically, it is impossible for mothers to be able to focus on one thing. As a result, we couldn’t focus on either delivering our work or simply playing with our kids,” she points out.

The idea of support system

More than anything, mothers need support system. Mothers who are working in an office will need someone they trust to take care of their children.

“But what about mothers who are working from home? They also need a support system because being at home will confuse their children as to ‘why Mommy can’t be with me while she’s at home’,” Amanda explains.

Families are simply unavailable to watch for your children, deadlines are approaching, while hiring nannies is not an affordable option — these are all normal challenges working mothers face daily.

Also Read: I am a full time Mom working remotely in a startup, here is how I survive

“It occurred to me that working moms often only need at least two uninterrupted hours to wrap up their work with laser focus. But two hours of uninterrupted focus are something of a luxury for them,” Amanda says.

“I was thinking of a solution, and why don’t just make it into a place for working-from-home parents or freelancers to work and still be around their kids at the same time,” she recalls her first a-ha moment with Workplay.

Workplay’s facilities

“The funny thing is, parents often mistake us as a childcare facility,” Amanda says about the place that would turn three-months-old this end of year.

“We’re not there yet,” she adds.

Workplay offers membership for parents to choose. The available options are Work, Workplay, or Play.

Work is for working while bringing your child over, Workplay is for working and giving your child access to the play area facility, and Play is for using the play area facility only.

Parents can fill out online form on their website or come directly to the place to register or just use the facility without becoming a member.

For daily pass, parents can choose between three-day pass, 20-hour pass to flexibly and efficiently choose the hours they want to work within a day, or one day pass for 30 days validity.

Also Read: Alpha Startups Indonesia’s first batch winners: Moms, renters, and new graduates take center stage

“We understand that sometimes parents may only need to work for three days, sometimes even just a few hours a day. So we give options that will cater to that need of time flexibility,” explains Amanda.

As for the kids, parents who come to Workplay can be at ease knowing that their kids are in good hands.

Workplay’s child play area is supervised by a professional child supervisor and Montessori consultants that will not only take care of the children in the play area, but also will offer children different activities daily to encourage learning.

“We offer art and craft and sensory play that are varied everyday, aimed at two- to five-year-old children for now,” Amanda elaborates.

The following are Workplay’s facilities:

Also Read: Philippines’ big e-commerce players highlight 3 gender diversity trends in top management

 

 

Workplay also provides free-flow coffee, child-friendly bathrooms, function rooms, and event space available for rent.

Balancing parenthood

Amanda says that there are still not many spaces that facilitate parents, especially mothers. “I believe Workplay can be a place where mothers meet each other as support system and to get the support to be productive and close with their kid still,” she adds.

Also Read: How do we overcome the low representation of women in leadership roles?

Workplay often hosts events for mothers that are not work-related. “Sometimes fathers would come along to use the work facility, while mothers would join seminars and kids play in our play area. Everyone gets their portion here,” says Amanda.

As a mother, Audira knows the difficulty in working with kids and the constant worry of looking for someone reliable to supervise their kids. This continues even until the kids are old enough to go to school, where parents have to commute to get their kids.

“Some mothers approached me saying thank you for the place, because they feel like this is an answer for their guilt of leaving their kids for work,” says Amanda.

The future for Workplay

When asked whether or not the company is open for future investment, Audira was enthusiastic but realistic about the possibility.

“We just open for public on September 4 this year. We don’t want to rush it. I think funding can wait for two to three years,” she says.

Workplay plans to turn its play area into a child care. The company believes by doing so, they can even better facilitate working parents.

“With a child care setting, the kids will be taken care of for things like meal time and learning time. This will greatly eliminate working distraction for parents,” Amanda elaborates.

Towards the end of the conversation, Audira admits that Workplay exists out of her concern about the unfriendliness of working space for  mothers.

Also Read: 4 reasons why startups should recruit more women than ever

“Women who are working a full time job and are moms only need one thing: Being understood. For example, for something as simple as pumping your breast milk in the office. A lot of nursing moms still have to go to bathroom to do this around the clock, only to be left out in the dark about how to store them so it won’t go to waste if they aren’t equipped with cooler box. It’s their children’s needs, and still women are doing it on their own with the lack of support,” she explains.

Amanda thinks corporations should really pay attention by giving the proper support and facilities.

“I think the least they can do is provide the place to store the breast milk so women won’t have to worry anymore about it,” she opines.

“If the company wishes to retain their employees then this is what they should do: Start supporting mothers,” she stresses.

Leaving their children is a great sacrifice for mothers. On this matter, Amanda believes that working mothers should be given the flexibility of working from home.

“Indonesia’s companies still value showing up five days a week as a standard employment requirement. This actually causes fear for many women to get pregnant because it may cause them their job,” she points out.

“Supporting women, supporting mothers may actually be the key of eliminating high turnover rate,” Amanda closes.

—

Image Credit: Workplay

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Pickupp, which has a presence in Malaysia and Singapore, will use the funds to expand into Ho Chi Minh City in early 2019

​​​​​​​Pickupp, a logistics technology startup based out of Hong Kong, today announced it has secured an undisclosed sum in pre-Series A round of financing, led by Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, with participation from local VC firm Spark Ventures and existing investor Axis Capital.

The new funds will be used for engineering resources to handle API integration with e-commerce marketplace and multinational 3PL couriers; marketing efforts to further penetrate omni-channel sales for retailers; and expansion to other locations in Southeast Asia (Ho Chi Minh city planned for early 2019).

“With the access to new capital, strategic guidance and technical know-how, we look forward to participating in the Alibaba ecosystem in Asia while broadening our product offerings to better serve merchants of all sizes and needs,” said Crystal Pang, Co-founder and CEO of Pickupp.

Also Read: Pickupp focusses on optimisation to help lower delivery service cost

Pickupp was founded in December 2016 by Pang, Eric San, and Paco Chan. It is a logistics optimisation platform offering low cost solutions for merchants with delivery needs in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. The firm provides tailored last-mile service for both bulk and ad-hoc deliveries.

Pickupp claims it provides 4-hour, same day or scheduled door-to-door delivery service with a diverse supply network.

Vincent Law, Founder and MD of Spark Ventures, said: “Pickupp is a logistics technology platform that utilises their proprietary optimisation technology to provide low cost delivery solutions for express and same day deliveries in a two-sided marketplace. With its advanced optimisation batching technology and validated data analytics model, Pickupp provides an excellent platform for both merchants and customers to enjoy a cost effective and efficient delivery experience.”

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