Startup research and advisory firm Startup Genome and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation have announced a partnership to boost the growth of the country’s startup ecosystem, starting with Kuala Lumpur.

An official statement said that Startup Genome will perform its startup ecosystem assessment to identify policies and initiatives to support the potential of Malaysia’s startups and the wider innovation ecosystem as part of the partnership.

Startup Genome will engage the country’s startup founders along with investors, policy leaders, and other key stakeholders for inputs.

JF Gauthier, Founder, and CEO of Startup Genome. “We look forward to working closely with the startup community to bring the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to the Malaysian startup economy. Malaysia certainly has the potential to be a regional and world leader in multiple startup sub-sectors.”

Also Read: MDEC partners 9 Digital Transformation Lab for tech enabling support

Startup Genome is the research and policy advisory organization for governments with a commitment to accelerating startup ecosystems in a country. It claims to have more than 100 clients across five continents in 38 countries.

Malaysia’s ecosystem reported a digital economy that contributed to 18.5 per cent of GDP in 2018. Its internet economy was valued at US$8 billion with growth rates at an average of 19 per cent between 2015 to 2018.

Malaysia’s numbers are reflective of ASEAN’s internet economy hitting US$100 billion in 2019 and expected to grow to US$300 billion by 2025.

“Malaysia is an ideal place to testbed and launch tech startups due to its cultural and demographic diversity as well as its business-friendly environment. The government also continues to play an active role in supporting startups and entrepreneurs,” said Surina Shukri, CEO of MDEC.

“This partnership between our two organisations will build on the momentum established by MDEC. We are confident that Startup Genome’s insights and track record in space will help us to realise our startups’ potential and firmly establish Malaysia as the Heart of Digital ASEAN,” she added.
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Photo by Omar Elsharawy on Unsplash

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As a followup to the previous article in this series, today we are conversing with another two startups from the latest batch of startup generator Antler’s Singapore programme.

Selected out of 3,000 applicants, Antler brought together 100 qualified individuals from 30 nationalities, with an average of eight years working experience, to set up an “ideal” team. This arrangement leads to the founding of 14 companies.

While the previous article dug deeper into the work of EvrCare and Nectico, today we are looking into the works and inspiration behind Appboxo and Playy World.

The following is the edited excerpts of the interviews:

Appboxo

Very much like its predecessors in China, various tech companies in the Southeast Asian region are jumping on the trend of offering third-party services on their platform. Often dubbed as the “super app” concept, the goal is to generate additional revenues from the traffic they send.

In China, they do it through a special development framework called mini programmes.

Also Read: Following new global funds launch, Antler invests US$1.4M into 14 startups in latest Singapore batch

“So the problem is that most companies might miss technology like mini programmes in China, which can enable easy integration of beautiful mobile experiences without spending a lot of time and money on each integration,” explains Appboxo CEO Kaniyet Rayev.

To solve that problem, Appboxo provides a super app platform that aims to enable any app to become a super app.

“We identified this problem during the development of our previous product called mitty, which was supposed to become an all-in-one travel app. We basically wanted to integrate all essential travel services into one app, but API integration with each service is super costly and takes a lot of time,” Rayev says.

“So after thinking a bit about it, we actually realised that we can create a solution that can help, not only us, but any other app that wants to offer third party services,” the CEO continues.

The company already has travel tech and fashion tech companies such as SkyScanner, Agoda, and Zalora agreeing to use its platform. It is also currently in talks with “the largest consumer app in Southeast Asia” to roll out the pilot.

For the year 2020, Appboxo wants to focus on building its technology and growing its network.

“Our goal is to cover key use cases in travel, e-commerce, and finance verticals,” Rayev says.

Also Read: New Antler-NUS initiative to nurture deeptech talents, to invest in 30 startups annually

The company was founded by Rayev and CTO Nursultan Keneshbekov. Both co-founder originated from the Kyrgyz Republic and met during their studies in the UK.

PlayyWorld

PlayyWorld, an e-playground for trading card game enthusiasts, is an example of startups participating in the Antler programme that has a strong offline element in their business.

“The trading card game market is primitive and outdated. In a world of e-commerce and online content, game cards purchase process is outdated; it is conducted offline and unsecured. There is also a lack of a global social community for players to gather, compete, and trade,” says PlayyWorld CEO Mark Thong.

In addition to publishing and generating content, PlayyWorld also invites expert players to share knowledge and experience. It also enables players to compete against each other through online tabletop play.

“We don’t want to be another e-commerce site that is all about finding the cheapest stuff and getting rewarded for it. We want to build value and share with the community,” says Thong.

Understanding the negative image that card games can have in the eyes of some parties, PlayyWorld is working on an outreach programme with universities to prove that card games are not a taboo. It can even help promote analytical skills, as has been proven by academic research.

As expected, the startup was founded by a card game enthusiasts.

“While working in the same team for one of the hackathons, we got to know each other better, and our similar interest in trading card games came up. We decided to build Playy World and the rest is history,” Thong spoke of his introduction to co-founder Alvin Tjhie.

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Image Credit: Antler

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Think globalisation, and it is difficult not to think of remote workers, international assignments and increases access to foreign knowledge – critical factors in bringing about organisation advancements.

If you own a business in this day and age, you will agree that strengthening presence on the global map despite being locally rooted is something everyone strives for. It is the high global internet penetration rate that has made that possible.

Today, technology has enabled businesses to scout talented professionals from all over the world, to work for them – whether by relocating or remotely.

But when people from different cultures come together to work, there are bound to be gaps in communication.

Case in point, an Indian employee, working for a German company was told by his German manager that a report, which took him a week to prepare, was not good enough.

Consequently, the employee felt compelled to resign from his job because he felt unappreciated for his efforts and believed that his efforts behind the task were not noticed. The situation blew out of proportion.

The German manager certainly didn’t mean for that to happen. However, the lack of cultural preparedness on both sides is what causes such scenarios at work.

To assuage such difficulties, businesses with global teams need something called cross-cultural training. Such programs are designed to help employees, imbibe, and understand the cultural norms and practices of the host country.

Such type of training helps expats in preparing them for a new lifestyle and helps them adjust to the changes in their environment.

Also Read: Company culture is more than just a foosball table

Multiple studies have shown that expats who were provided cross-cultural training before relocating to the host country were able to adapt faster to the changes than those who weren’t trained.

It is obvious – if you are comfortable with the people you work with and in the environment, you work in, you will prove to be more productive.

In this article, I attempt to examine three reasons why businesses, with multicultural staff, should focus on cross-cultural training programmes:

Drive cross-cultural awareness

Acclimatising to a team from a different country takes time, patience, and cultural awareness. Let me share an example. Work-life in the UK is mostly governed by strict deadlines and minimal tolerance for delay. Whereas in India, life moves at a comparatively slower pace, regardless of the hustle seen in the big cities.

Such cultural differences may give way for misapprehensions between two parties, especially in a business scenario. The Indian counterpart may delay a meeting by arriving late, which could offend the UK counterpart and give them a wrong perception about Indians.

When one is culturally aware, there is an understanding and acceptance that enables them to work in harmony.

Tip: Finalise a culture statement or catchphrase – one that all your employees can resonate with. Then, hang it on the wall for constant reaffirmation. Try to practice what you preach and incorporate the same in your company’s principles.

Ease the cross-country transition

To succeed in the global corporate scenario, professionals must understand, appreciate, and accept diverse cultures and practices in different countries. Relocating to and living in another country can sometimes be overwhelming.

Often, there are cultural differences between one’s home country and the host country. For instance, India has a different societal organisation when compared to other parts of the world.

In India, joint families where more than six family members live together in one home is typical. Besides, visitors can drop by without prior notice. Often, such differences in cultural norms are unknown to expats.

To simplify this transition, businesses must provide cross-cultural training to expats. 

Tip: Create a series of videos highlighting the differences in communication, lifestyle, work ethics between professionals from various countries.

Facilitate productive communication

A professional, engaged with a multicultural team, would have to interact with numerous kinds of people, including peers, customers, project shareholders, vendors, as a part of their job. Being able to interact with a diverse group of people from another country requires a certain amount of confidence and skill. 

Also Read: How do understand and adapt to different working cultures

For instance, Indians have a few non-verbal cues in their style of communication, such as putting palms together and bowing down slightly to welcome someone. Italians, on the other hand, “talk” with their hands which could come across as aggressive.

This may seem puzzling to a person who may not know this kind of communication. Cross-cultural training provides expats with the confidence and behavioural skills required for effective communication.

Tip: Arrange for some team-building games – that can happen in-house or online – that enable your employees to mingle with each other, apart from work.

Summing it up

In the business world, professionals from different parts of the world interact with one another, and achieve targets and make business decisions as a team. Cross-cultural training teaches the multicultural staff about both the cultural differences and similarities.

As a business owner, it is your responsibility to ensure inclusive work practices, and enable your teams to desensitize and become more accepting of one another’s cultures.

By acknowledging the differences and similarities, they can become more comfortable in their respective dispositions and do better at work.

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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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At Ohmyhome, we recently launched a new iOS application for our DIY users to buy, sell and rent their properties.

Now, this new app isn’t just a patch update but a complete overhaul of our iOS app.

It features graphical updates like a new landing page with our top services on display and, more importantly, a new robust engineering framework that allows us to scale the application easily.

Ohmyhome is constantly looking for ways to simplify property transactions for our users. We were also gearing up for regional expansion making easy scalability a priority. However, that meant moving away from some of our app’s architecture and software.

With those goals in mind, we discussed, deliberated, and debated, before finally deciding to take a built-from-scratch approach.

It was a difficult decision but ultimately, we went with what would not only result in a better app for our users but also give our developers an opportunity to design a clean coding architecture.

Also Read: Singapore’s proptech marketplace Ohmyhome raises US$2.9M to expand into Malaysia, Thailand

The overhaul was a herculean task. It was painful to have to throw away everything familiar about the app and re-build it from ground-zero. But we succeeded in our endeavours and gained precious experience on how to revamp our app. 

Here are some of the key learnings that I would like to share with the community.

Break it down 

We categorised the essential features of our app and then broke those features down into further smaller sets. We then prioritised working on the features our users found most useful based on analytic data collected from the existing app.

For example, a single listing on our app represents a node in a complex network of interconnected features and sub-features. By cataloguing all the features and sub-features that engage a particular node, we are then able to zoom in on discrete sub-features, such as location and more readily identify areas of improvement. 

Create multiple mock-ups

Some of you might be tempted to jump right into coding. Don’t do that. You might end up wasting hours building something utterly different from what your team envisions. 

Instead, take the time to create different mock-ups of the new app to see which feels better. Designers at Ohmyhome went back to the drawing board and churned out multiple versions of landing tabs, empty state illustrations, and icons for all the different sections in the app.

Also Read: Importance of UI/UX design interaction and why it will matter for your business

This helped us explore what looks and feels best, which is important for a seamless UI and enhances the overall UX. It also allowed us to see what we want the final product to be even before we begin redevelopment. 

Once we settled on the final mock-up, we began our code sprints and never looked back. 

Consistency is key

From an engineering standpoint, one of the main reasons for an overhaul was that the app was in urgent need of fine-tuning as it had passed through different developers across multiple phases.

Being a lean team in a fast-paced startup environment, we had to make a lot of inelegant hacks to get our features ready in the fastest way possible for our users, which led us to a stage where our code was a haphazard mix of UIKit and Texture written in different styles.

This hindered our ability to scale the app quickly. Furthermore, some of our codes followed Android-driven UI/UX which takes longer to write. 

When we began rebuilding the application, we decided to stick with only Texture for all UI across the app along with a framework built by the amazing team at Instagram called IGListKit.

Later, Apple proved that our decision was a step in the right direction when they launched SwiftUI at DubDub-DC (or WWDC for those not familiar with nerd-speak), which follows code-driven, stack-based semantics. We also stayed away from Storyboards.

Also Read: From Cantopop to commissions: Ohmyhome wants to change Singapore’s public housing game

Maintaining a consistent programming language for our app greatly enhanced our ability to identify and fix problems and at the same time allows for scalability and the flexibility to adapt to changes in the future. 

Iterate, iterate, iterate

All of our engineering efforts went through multiple designs, programming, and product iterations in parallel to rigorous Quality Analysis (QA) and internal testing before we make new features available to our users.

We also consulted our customer service team, who are the most familiar with users’ wants and needs, on how to refine and tweak the product.

Our team of techies seized every opportunity to gain insight into our user’s concerns and thought processes, especially when it came to simplifying the user experience. We leveraged existing resources within Ohmyhome, for instance when our colleagues hosted seminars educating our users in Singapore about property transactions, we made sure to collect data on what users wanted in our app.

Also Read: 8 things to consider when choosing a mobile app development platform

We were also fortunate that our product owners welcomed feedback on our existing app and interactive mock-ups, which helped our design team to constantly refine the UX based on how our users were using the app.

The organisational structure of Ohmyhome was conducive to the process of iterating on the app design and it emphasised how important it was to identify and facilitate avenues of feedback and incorporating that into our process of iteration.

After many tribulations, the new app is now ready to take in changes and challenges that come with global expansion. 

One aspect we are particularly proud of is the improvement of app performance.  Not all countries have the same internet speed as Singapore and it was a challenge to make the app robust enough to adapt to a wide range of connection speeds.

Now that we have crossed the finish line, we are incredibly happy to share our labour of love with all our users in Malaysia and Singapore.

For those of you curious about how the final app looks like: 

  

To sum up, I’ll leave you with a quote that encapsulated our ethos as we built the new app.

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.”  —  Richard Branson

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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.

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

Image credit:

 

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iFarmer, an online platform that connects small-scale farmers with retail investors in Bangladesh, is in discussion with investors to raise US$500,000 investment.

The Dhaka-based startup looks to close the round in April this year, its Co-founder Fahad Ifaz told e27.

“iFarmer is currently in talks with a number of Singapore-and Indonesia-based angel investors and are also in discussion with a number of VCs. But we cannot disclose further details at this stage,” said Ifaz.

iFarmer has previously received S$100,000 (US$73,000) in investment from the Accelerating Asia VC fund as part of its startup programme. The agritech venture also has the backing of Startup Bangladesh of the Ministry of ICT and the UNCDF Fintech Innovation Fund.

Established in mid-2018 by friends Ifaz (CEO) and Jamil Akbar (COO), iFarmer enables anyone to sponsor farmers and invest in livestock easily.

How it works

You can create an account on the iFarmer mobile app or website and transfer funds into it. Once done, iFarmer will start sending you purchasing opportunities for new assets like cattle as they become available.

The farm selection involves going through the available farms (currently, it offers cattle and livestock farms) and picking the farm you want to invest in. When you click on a farm you want to invest in, the details such as the investment/contract period, expected RoI, the harvest period, available units to be sponsored, etc. will be available.

After successfully making payments to invest in a farm, iFarmer deploys the funds to verified and trained partner farmers. iFarmer facilitates the availability of quality farm inputs, technical support, training, farm and farm produce insurance, marketing assistance and logistics.

Also Read: Through super apps and card games, these Antler startups are solving the region’s most unique challenges

You can then start monitoring your virtual farm on iFarmer’s online dashboard and receive reports on your assets’ value and performance. When the assets reach maturity and are sold, the proceeds are deposited in your account. You can either withdraw it, hold it, or reinvest in new opportunities.

“We also work with farms to increase their production capacity and grow their products through its technical field experts, who guide farmers,” Co-founder Ifaz said.

Targetting 20M farming households and 30M middle-income population

About the 20-million farming households in Bangladesh are iFarmer’s targets. Most of these people are unbanked and rely on informal moneylenders and microfinance for capital.

To date, iFarmer, which is also the winner of Seedstars Bangaldesh 2019, claims to have worked with 1,000 farmers.

iFarmer targets the growing middle-income population as investors. Currently, Bangladesh has close to 30 million people falling in this space, and the number is likely to grow. A majority of them do not have access to a wide range of retail investment opportunities.

“They usually keep their money in the bank or invest in bonds; most of them are shying away from stock markets or do not get into it because they don’t understand how it works. So by investing in farms through iFarmer, they can have an annualised return of 16-40 per cent from their farm investments, which is higher than the return from bank deposits and other retail opportunities.

The farming and agriculture industry in Bangladesh — a country with roughly the size of New York but with well over 20x its population — is at an inflexion point. While the sector has so far done a great job of feeding its 170 million people, a growing population coupled with falling agri land and profitability is a cause for worry for the government and farmers.

“The population of Bangladesh continues to grow and is estimated to reach 230 million by 2050. The agriculture land is, however, disappearing and profitability is falling. Plus, farmers are finding it difficult to invest in new technology. Unless there is a technological innovation, the sector will suffer,” Ifaz said.

Ifaz and Akbar embarked on their startup journey with a mission to address this problem.

Before starting iFarmer, Ifaz worked in agriculture development and financial inclusion space for almost ten years in several countries in South Asia. He worked with organisations such as Swisscontact, World Bank, CARE Australia to design and manage projects to improve the economic conditions of smallholder farmers.

Akbar has experience and expertise in technology and technology-based project management.

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Every month the team at e27 runs a monthly “startup of the month poll” where we pick the best startup to give it some extra coverage and attention that it deserves. Five startups are selected internally by taking into account idea, team, funding and founders. Three eventually make it to the final round, where we take in votes from our Telegram community.

The winner for January is none other than Singapore’s biotech startup TurtleTree which uses cell-based technology to create milk without requiring animals.

Reducing carbon footprint

At a time when climate change concern is drawing more and more attention –not just from the public but also the governments and businesses– Turtletree aims to make a difference by reducing carbon footprint from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the dairy sector.

Co-founded in 2019 by Fengru Lin, Rabail Toor and Max Rye, the startup claims to be the “world’s first cell-based milk company that utilises biotechnology to manufacture milk products without any animal needed.”

While the big question remains as to how an industry can balance between reducing its environmental impact and society’s demands for dairy products, the biotech startup aims to make a leap by replicating the full nutritional content of milk using cell-based technology.

The founders also said that they “have been able to replicate the exact full composition of dairy milk,” which erases the concerns of sticking to dairy products due to its high protein content.

Also Read: The raging Amazon forest fires: Why businesses need to step up for climate change

As demand for dairy grows, so does its impact on the environment. Even though dairy is not the number one factor for GHG emissions, it unarguably has a significant impact on the environment.

Not limited to simply milk and milk-based products, the company has targeted to apply their methods into recreating human breast milk, targeting to disrupt the infant milk formula industry that is currently valued at nearly US$45 billion.

The backers

The startup has already attracted global investors to forward its mission and vision which include KBW Ventures, owned by Saudi Prince  Khaled bin Alwaleed.

Also joining the pre-seed funding round was US-Hong Kong venture capital fund which specialised in protein investments Lever VC, and Silicon Valley-based K2 Global. The amount of investment for this round is undisclosed.

“This is long-term investment; we’re not in this for the quick win,” HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud told Entrepreneur, expressing that “investing in the development of alternative protein sources that use less natural resources by biotech startups is one way to play a role in solving what is truly the most pressing issue of our times: the climate crisis.”

Nick Cooney, founder and managing partner at Lever VC also commented on the startup saying that the technology could be a “serious disrupter in the global dairy industry,”.

“They are the first company in the world producing real, whole milk from cell cultivation — which opens the door for safer, healthier and customised dairy products that can be produced with far fewer natural resources,” he continued. 

The fresh capital will be used by the company to make more hires and create additional fresh prototypes.

As it plans to debut its product in Spring this year, whether the company will radically change how milk is recreated, only time will tell.

Also Read: Singaporean biotech startup TurtleTree secures pre-seed from Saudi entrepreneur Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed

The runner-up

In addition to TurtleTree, the e27 community also voted for Lumitics and Gredu as the runner-up for the Startup of the Month title.

Lumitics is a company that tracks the food wasted by Singapore’s F&B outlets and restaurants and Gredu is an edutech startup that enables parents to track their children’s progress.

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Image Credit: Waldemar Brandt

 

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US- and Singapore-based digital identity provider GTRIIP announces today it has secured an undisclosed amount in Series B round of funding from Japanese VC firm GlobalBrain through its KDDI Open Innovation Fund-III (KOIF).

Kepventure, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s Keppel Corporation, and Japan’s Accord Ventures also joined the round.

GTRIIP will use the capital for expansion in both hospitality and other commercial properties in the Asia Pacific markets with ageing populations, waning workforces, and high labour costs.

The company believes that technological innovations such as Artificial Intelligence can enable hotels to work around limitations by reducing repetitive, high-volume tasks via automating check-ins and identify verifications, leading to increased productivity.

“The investment aligns with our vision to grow further in the Asia Pacific. It is an ideal opportunity to showcase the value in seamlessly checking in a large number of travelers using their own smartphones,” said Maxim Tint, Founder and CEO of GTRIIP.

Also Read: Following new funding round, PrivyID will integrate its service into Telkomsel’s platform

GTRIIP was founded in 2014 and currently has a 20-staff team. It claims to have completed installations for over 13,000 rooms and access points and facilitated over one million digital identity check-ins.

In Singapore, GTRIIP’s customer hotels are enabled with the E-Visitor Authentication (EVA) system, which the company said to help reducing guest check-in time at the front desk by 70 per cent.

“GTRIIP’s product requires no additional hardware which makes it inherently more scalable and sustainable for properties, allowing them to enjoy the full benefits of automated check-ins without incurring the extra capital expenditure. It also produces less carbon footprint and is more environmentally friendly than physical identity solutions, such as plastic ID and access cards, or hardware kiosks,” Tint added.

The firm is currently looking to diversify its product lines into new verticals beyond hospitality by launching specialised products for other commercial properties, such as tenant access and visitor access.

GTRIIP previously raised US$1 million in Series A funding from connectivity solutions provider M1. The money was used to scale its first product to serve hospitality customers in Singapore and Macau, including the likes of Park Hotel Group, Amara Hotel Group, and other major casino resort brands.

Also Read: 3 companies leveraging the power of blockchain technology in security

KDDI manages the investment portfolios of major Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI Corporation. KOIF’s Singapore office was established in June last year, but the global fund’s investment has been investing in Singapore and Indonesia-based startups since 2018.

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Picture Credit: GTRIIP

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The newly added capital will be used by Mortgage Master to drive expansion, specifically product development

Mortgage Master, a one-stop mortgage brokering platform for homeowners, has raised US$522,500 in a seed funding round via crowdfunding platform FundedHere. The participants in this round include former President of Westpac International and Founder of S Cube Capital Bala Swaminathan and Chairman of Tembusu Partners Andy Lim.

The company managed to close their funding in eight days via the FundedHere platform, according to co-founder David Baey in an interview with e27. The newly added capital will be used by the startup to drive expansion, specifically product development, in order to scale the platform better.

“Mortgage Master is effectively looking to overhaul the way homeowners in Asia make the most expensive purchase of their lives, by being the neutral party that offers personalised advice, alongside a faster and more affordable mortgage process,” said Swaminathan, one of the lead investors of the entity.

As a mortgage brokerage company, the startup deeply roots itself in the value it creates for its customers by partnering with banks who give their rates to the company.  It aims to provide the best option taking into consideration individual needs.

Also Read: If you’re thinking about being an entrepreneur, these 6 words had better be true

“Most Singaporeans do not like the jargon, they can put in the effort to filter to understand it, but wouldn’t it be better if someone came in to explain to them in layman terms?” Baey said.

“A homeowner typically conducts 10 hours of research, assesses 15 banks – with each touting the ‘best’ offering, and then spends two hours on paperwork, but often still ends up with buyer’s remorse. A home is the most meaningful purchase you will make in your lifetime, and we believe the process of financing it with a mortgage must be better. Having observed this broken system first-hand, we started Mortgage Master to empower banks to behave the way they should – in homeowners’ best interests,” he continued.

While there are other players in the market, Baey believes that the difference in values is what sets Mortgage Master apart from its competitors.

“While Redbrick Mortgage has been around longer for a longer time, their business model is actually different from us,” says the banker-turned-entrepreneur. According to him, the company focuses on fastest fingers first and hires employees as freelancers, while Mortgage Masters prefers to have fulltime employees to maintain quality control.

Housing is a big market in Singapore, and the region’s homeownership rate is estimated to be around 91 per cent with continual expectations to rise, making owning a home one of the top local millennials aspirations.

Also Read: How do I create a memorable promotional brand or product video?

“This differentiated model, a team with deep industry know-how, and impressive first-year revenue momentum is a sign of even better things to come. I am thrilled to come on board as Mortgage Master continues its journey toward becoming the preferred platform for all Singaporeans buying or refinancing a home,” said another investor of the startup, Andy Lim, Chairman of Tembusu Partners.

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Image Credit:  Brandon Griggs

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With the acquisition, Bento is set to rebrand itself to GrabInvest, with the product targeted to kick off in the first half of the year

Singapore-based ride-hailing giant Grab announced today that it has acquired local robo-advisory startup Bento to offer retail wealth management solutions to users via the Grab app. The amount for the acquisition was undisclosed.

With the acquisition, Bento is set to rebrand itself to GrabInvest, with the product targeted to kick off in the first half of the year. It will be led by Bento founder and CEO Chandrima Das.

The new product will allow Southeast Asian users to save and invest in “financial products traditionally limited to affluent individuals and institutional investors”, according to the company statement.

GrabInvest has also promised full transparency with their users by having “full disclosures on fees with zero hidden elements.” It has also assured users that it would be adhering to the consumer protection standards outlined by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Capital Markets Services (CMS) license.

“In Southeast Asia, there is a lack of accessibility to affordable wealth management products and retirement planning solutions for most people. As we face an increasingly volatile and uncertain economic environment, it is imperative for Southeast Asians to acquire the tools and knowledge to protect their future by sustainably building wealth for themselves and their families,” said Reuben Lai, Senior Managing Director of Grab Financial Group, on the lack of awareness of wealth management products for SEA consumers.

Also Read: Grab, Hyundai launches their first electric vehicle service in Indonesia

“The launch of GrabInvest brings us a step closer to democratising access to affordable financial solutions that will help them achieve the financial stability they need well into their retirement years,” he noted.

GrabInvest will also be the fifth vertical under Grab’s financial services arm. Further verticals include payments (GrabPay), rewards (GrabRewards), lending (GrabFinance), and insurance (GrabInsure).

Bento’s platform has been known as a digital wealth platform that includes client onboarding, portfolio construction, and risk management capabilities. The technology also powers banks, wealth managers, brokers and insurance companies to launch digital wealth solutions.

Grab is also one of the contenders for the Singapore digital banking race, as it partners with Singtel at a stake of 60 per cent.

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Image Credit: Afif Kusuma

 

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Myanmar-based e-commerce startup Get All Myanmar has acquired Burmese fintech firm Daung Capital in a mission to come up with a unified solution provider for micro-entrepreneurs in the country, says a DealStreetAsia report.

The acquisition covers all of the fintech firm’s assets, including employees and business contracts.

Other financial details were not disclosed.

Moving forward, the combined entity will operate under the ‘Get’ brand, with Daung Capital providing credit solutions to Myanmar’s working class and small businesses. The solutions include education loans, rent-to-own agreements, and cash advance programmes for businesses.

With this acquisition, Get’s services will expand to over 100 businesses and 19,000 mom-and-pop shops across Myanmar.

Last year, Daung Capital raised an undisclosed amount in its Series A round from investors such as Myanmar’s BOD Tech Ventures led by Mike Than Tun Win, that has also invested in Get and Singapore-based early-stage VC firm Majuven.

Also Read: This company is on a mission to make Myanmar more economically inclusive

With the acquisition, Than Tun Win will join Get as Executive Chairman. “Financial exclusion remains a key reason for income inequality in Myanmar. We want financially excluded Burmese to embrace opportunities through technological innovation,” Tun Win commented.

Leon Qiu, Founder of Daung Capital and CEO-designate of Get, said: “Daung Capital offers an exciting opportunity for Get to strengthen and expand its digital service offerings, bridging the divide between rich and poor.”

Get’s services include ticketing, travel booking, online shopping, and financial services, as well as a ride-hailing service called Get Ride, which was launched in 2018 after securing nearly eight-digit US dollars in investment.

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Picture Credit: Daung Capital

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