Bölümler
-
No-code platforms. DAOs. Malaysia's startup ecosystem. Just some of the topics we cover in this call with Jason Chew, founder of Southeast Asia no-code accelerator Codeless, on this Insignia Ventures Academy episode, as the Cohort 2 alumnus shares the intersections of his work in these areas as a startup founder and operator. Check out Jason's latest (ad)ventures in Web3 as Founder of KopiDAO on Twitter.
Transcript
Timestamps
(00:48) Paulo introduces Jason Chew;
(02:36) No-Code Perspective on Driving Web3 Adoption;
(09:16) Democratizing Digital Creation through No Code;
(13:21) Implications of No Code for End-Users and Investors;
(19:25) Increasing Visibility into Malaysia’s Startup Ecosystem;
(24:16) Out of the Comfort Zone with Insignia Ventures Academy;
(26:51) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Jason Chew is a serial entrepreneur and he is the founder of Codeless, a Southeast Asia-focused no-code accelerator. With extensive experience as a startup ecosystem builder, he is building no-code and Web3 communities that are focused on creating opportunities for founders. Jason’s latest venture is KopiDAO, a learning community DAO accelerating Web3 adoption.
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
What happens when you take the chicken out of the egg? Find out on this call with Vinita Choolani, CEO and founder of Float Foods, the Singapore-based foodtech company that just commercially launched this Earth Day the OnlyEg brand, Asia’s first, award-winning, plant-based whole egg (white + yolk) and the brand’s first product: OnlyEg Shreds. We talk about unlocking the unmatched ecosystem support in Singapore, what makes OnlyEg the “egg for all”, going global, and leadership at a fast-growing deep tech startup.
Transcript
Timestamps
(01:20) Paulo introduces Vinita;
(02:00) Genesis of Float Foods;
(04:39) 2020 Plant-Based Landscape in Singapore and Float Food’s opportunity;
(06:09) Leveraging Singapore’s unmatched resources;
(07:51) How Vinita met Yinglan;
(08:58) What is it about OnlyEg?;
(10:03) Optimizing the experimentation process;
(11:29) Biggest misconception about plant-based consumer adoption;
(12:34) The importance of reaching price parity for eggs;
(13:22) Navigating global supply chain challenges to scale;
(14:35) Branding OnlyEg as the “egg for all”;
(15:40) Teambuilding at Float Foods;
(17:10) Leadership learnings from scaling a biotech company to seven markets in two years;
(18:00) OnlyEg white winning global awards;
(19:29) Rise of plug-and-play set-ups for foodtech startups;
(21:07) Profitability in foodtech;
(22:48) Float Foods in the next five years;
(23:25) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guestVinita Choolani is the Founder and CEO of Float Foods. She is also the Director of FINEX Holdings, a majority shareholder in INEX Innovate, a leading women's healthcare company based in Singapore. Vinita helped build INEX Innovate from the ground up to become one of Asia's leading women's innovation healthcare companies. Vinita has had more than a decade experience and specializes in establishing distribution networks and commercialization for products across, not just Asia, but globally as well. Vinita is also the co-founder and board member of Project Smile, which is a not-for-profit initiative offering financial assistance to women in Singapore.
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
Eksik bölüm mü var?
-
In a startup landscape where AI is often hyped up as a product moat, it pays to have the ability to “AI-bend” or not only innovate how it’s used but the very technology itself to make the end-products more developer-friendly, scalable, and applicable to a wide range of applications.
That’s what Indonesian all-in-one verification platform Verihubs CTO and co-founder Williem Williem brings to the table. He talks about that and more in this call, along with (1) his approach to building tech teams, (2) his PhD research that unlocked Verihubs’ liveness detection advantage, and (3) how AI is driving not only Verihubs’ product, but also the company’s scale and profitability trajectory.
Join Williem at Verihubs
Transcript
Timestamps
(01:30) Paulo introduces Williem Williem;
(01:48) Mindset shift from academe to startup;
(02:54) Applying PhD research into scalable startup products;
(04:13) Verihubs’ origins from Williem’s perspective;
(05:29) From improving technology to making it useful;
(06:41) Focusing on simplicity for client user and developer experience;
(07:51) The role of AI in product-market fit, scale and profitability for Verihubs;
(10:39) Building generic solutions that still meet a diverse array of use cases;
(12:43) Williem’s Key Learning from Y Combinator;
(14:06) Williem’s Approach to Hiring and Retaining Tech Talent in indonesia;
(16:47) Biggest gap in Indonesia’s tech talent capabilities;
(18:06) Future of Verification Tech in the next five years;
(19:43) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Williem Williem is the CTO and co-founder of Verihubs. Prior to Verihubs, he was an artificial intelligence and computer vision researcher. He received his PhD focused on Information and Communication Engineering from Inha University, where his research topics covered computer vision, computational photography, and image processing. He has been published in top journals and conferences in computer vision, and has done several industry projects including mobile augmented reality for SKT Telecom, image quality enhancement for smartphones and parallel processing for linear algebra algorithms at Samsung Electronics.
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
Indonesia's fashion industry has one of the strongest manufacturing hubs in the world with a long history, but an opaque and fragmented supply chain has disconnected the booming upstream from the local downstream merchants and brands. On this call, Indonesia's pioneering B2B textile trading platform Wifkain co-founder and CEO Sara Sofyan shares how her team is weaving this disjointed supply chain together. She also talks about her experience as one of the alumni of the inaugural cohort of Insignia Ventures Academy.
Join the Wifkain team
Transcript
Timestamps
(00:14) Paulo introduces Sara;
(02:02) Transitioning from HSBC to entrepreneur and Wifkain’s origins in B2C;
(05:25) Indonesia’s textile and fashion industry 101;
(06:56) Finding their CTO co-founder and their approach to digitalization;
(09:12) Where is Wifkain now;
(09:48) Why does the textile industry need its own digital enablers like Wifkain;
(11:50) Supporting textile merchants’ business and access to credit;
(13:38) Building Wifkain’s company culture and learnings on leadership from HSBC;
(15:39) Why an ex-banker and serial entrepreneur joined Insignia Ventures Academy (IVA);
(17:10) The highlight of Sara’s IVA experience;
(18:11) Advice for current and future IVA venture fellows;
(18:50) Data-first Playbook to Drive Digitalization in Indonesia’s Fashion Industry;
(21:24) Looking to Baidu for What’s Beyond Textiles;
(22:32) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Sara Sofyan is the CEO and co-founder of Wifkain, a pioneering Indonesian B2B marketplace platform for the country’s fashion supply chain. Prior to Wifkain, she was a B2C fashion entrepreneur through which she found the inefficiencies in Indonesia’s textile supply chain. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Sara spent nearly five years at HSBC where she became AVP for Global Banking and Markets. She received her Bachelors in Business Management from King’s College London.
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
Meet some of these leaders in this special episode compiling the first four features of our spinoff, social media series "A Leader A Minute."
Transcript
About our guests
See openings: Sourabh Gupta is VP of Product Management at Flip. With more than 14 years supporting the growth of very large organizations and bootstrapped startups across Product Management, Consulting, and Engineering roles, he brings to Flip his expertise in leading cross-functional teams consisting of product managers, analysts, and engineers across India and Southeast Asia as he leads Flip’s product and design functions. He was previously Head of Product International Expansion and then VP of Payments Platform at Gojek before joining Flip. (Full Interview)
See openings: Lius Widjaja is a business leader with more than a decade of experience spanning growth marketing, business development, venture capital, country management and operations. Prior to joining Brankas, he had co-founded and grew several pioneering ventures from lifestyle and tourism companies to B2B tech solutions and the Indonesian Blockchain Network. (Full Interview)
See openings: Eelen Lim is a financial services professional with more than a decade of experience. She grew her career at OCBC leading teams in various functions before transitioning to the world of fintech at Aspire where she now leads partnerships.(Full Interview)
See openings: Oliver Suendermann is a UK-trained Clinical Psychologist, Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, educator, supervisor and researcher. He was a Scientific Advisor to Intellect before joining full-time as Clinical Director. Prior to joining Intellect, he was Deputy Director of the NUS Masters Program in Psychology. (Full Interview)
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
Insignia Ventures Academy (IVA) kicked off its third Cohort this month, and on the podcast, we're also kicking off this season's special episodes with alumni and mentors from Asia's first venture capital accelerator. First up is Cohort 2 alumnus, angel investor, and current Gojek head of the business merchants, Hoang-Ky Vu, who shares stories of accidentally ending up in Indonesia, how friends got him into angel investing, leading a post-merger integration completely remotely, winning Demo Day on IVA, and more.
Transcript
Timestamps
(00:39) Paulo introduces Hoang Ky Vu;
(01:43) What excites Ky about Southeast Asia as an angel investor;
(02:40) Joining Rocket Internet;
(03:55) The Move to Indonesia and Acclimatizing to the Country;
(06:32) Lessons from Driving SME Digitalization in Indonesia;
(10:30) Behind the scenes of an acquisition;
(13:17) Becoming an angel;
(15:04) Value-add as an operator angel;
(18:17) Most common piece of advice given to founders;
(19:20) Getting the Pitch from IVA;
(20:09) Making the Most out of IVA;
(21:49) How IVA impacted Ky’s angel investing;
(22:35) Biggest gaps in Indonesia’s tech ecosystem today;
(23:45) Advice for operators looking to foray into angel investing;
(25:15) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Hoang-Ky Vu is an alumnus from Cohort 2 of Insignia Ventures Academy, and a mentor for Cohort 3. Currently, he's head of business merchants at Gojek. Prior to that, he held leadership positions at several startups, including Moka, which was acquired by Gojek. He was also an early member of Rocket Internet as well, coming from Germany apart from being in Go-Jek. He's also a pretty active angel investor, focusing especially on SaaS, commerce, and fintech in Southeast Asia.
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
With Indonesia's SMEs sector getting wave after wave of digital solutions, it's important to have focus and direction, and disruption isn't always the answer. Gabriel Frans, the CEO and co-founder of Credibook, goes on call to answer: why enablement through software for financial and operational management, why digital bookkeeping as the go-to-market product, why the focus on wholesale retailer SMEs, why build the Faire for Indonesia through Credimart, why Y Combinator, among many other why's.
Transcript
Timestamps
(00:59) Paulo introduces Gabriel;
(01:41) Credibook’s origins;
(02:58) Why bookkeeping?;
(04:11) How has bookkeeping as an entry point built up Credibook’s momentum?;
(05:02) Why did Credibook venture into B2B wholesale solutions through Credimart?;
(06:56) How does Credimart impact Credibook’s product trajectory and growth?;
(07:43) Why the YC admission process is already valuable for founders and Gabriel’s biggest learning from the program;
(09:19) Gabriel’s advice for founders looking to get into YC;
(10:04) What is Credibook’s impact on the Indonesian economy?;
(12:03) How Credibook stands apart from other Indonesian SME enablers;
(13:15) How and why Credibook works with Fazz Financial;
(14:24) Credimart as the Faire of Indonesia;
(15:30) What makes an effective leader at Credibook;
(16:34) What are the biggest gaps for wholesaler SMEs that have yet to be filled?;
(17:58) Credibook’s role in driving Indonesian SMEs into the future;
(19:12) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Gabriel Frans is CEO and co-founder of Credibook (YC W22). He built his career in product management in tech companies including Traveloka and Kudo, leading multifunctional teams, managing entire product line life cycles, and driving product expansion. He received his Bachelors in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from ITB.
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
A digital banking license, an app launch, US$130M in consumer deposits, and a US$131M Series B round since our first conversation in July 2020, Greg Krasnov, the CEO and founder of the Philippines’ first fully digital bank Tonik, returns on call with us.
Transcript
Timestamps
(00:13) Paulo recaps Greg’s last call;
(02:38) Paulo re-introduces Greg;
(03:27) The latest on Tonik’s growth story;
(05:34) The 4Ps that drove Tonik’s record breaking deposit growth and user acquisition;
(09:48) What Tonik’s deposit records mean globally;
(12:29) What neobanks from other markets can learn from Tonik;
(14:35) Redefining scalability for consumer loans;
(18:39) How Tonik is able to learn from global comps;
(20:50) The future of bank fintech partnerships;
(23:14) The Fifth P;
(26:51) The Sixth P;
(29:07) Thoughts on crypto and DeFi;
(30:40) The future of consumer banking in the Philippines;
(32:12) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guestGreg Krasnov is a serial fintech entrepreneur with a storied career in the financial services space spanning Europe and Southeast Asia. Prior to founding Tonik, he co-founded and chaired four other successful fintech startups in Asia, including Credolab and AsiaKredit. Before coming to Southeast Asia, he was the founder and CEO of one of the top private equity-backed success stories in consumer lending in Eastern Europe, Platinum Bank in Ukraine, which exited in 2013 for US$150 million. Before blazing a trail of fintech success stories, he spent 10 years in private equity at Bank of America in London and Innova Capital in Warsaw.
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
Fazz Financial Group Deputy CEO and Xfers CEO and co-founder Tianwei Liu, an engineer by training, founder by experience, and angel on the side, goes on call to share how gifting Kindles and a LinkedIn search led him to return to Southeast Asia to pioneer fintech infrastructure through Xfers, how a Slack message from fellow Y Combinator alum Hendra Kwik led to the formation of regional fintech group Fazz Financial, and how being early adopters of crypto led Xfers to building Singapore's first stablecoin.
Transcript
Timestamps
(00:12) Paulo recaps the Fazz Financial Group evolution through the podcast;
(02:53) Paulo introduces Tianwei;
(03:57) What excites Tianwei about Southeast Asia;
(05:46) How Tianwei decided to return from Silicon Valley to start Xfers in 2015, 2016;
(10:05) Driving the evolution of fintech in Southeast Asia through payment infrastructure;
(13:49) Three reasons why Xfers joined forces with Payfazz to form Fazz Financial Group;
(18:13) How the evolution into Fazz Financial has shaped Tianwei as a leader;
(20:08) How Xfers works to support Payfazz agents and users;
(21:35) Why Xfers ventured into developing Singapore’s first stablecoin through StraitsX;
(24:45) The value of localized ventures in crypto;
(27:13) What the future of crypto and payments infrastructure is in Southeast Asia;
(29:20) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Tianwei Liu is the CEO and Co-founder of Xfers, and Deputy CEO of Fazz Financial Group. Along with the management of Xfers in Singapore, he is currently driving Xfers’ expansion into Indonesia and engages closely with Xfers‘ banking and merchant partners to accelerate the growth of fintech and digital businesses in the region. After his receiving his Bachelors in Computer Engineering in 2011 from the National University of Singapore, Tianwei returned to Silicon Valley (having studied at Stanford University under the NUS Overseas College (NOC) Programme) as a Software Engineer working on developer tools at WIMM Labs, a start-up that built the world’s first Android-based smartwatches. His team at WIMM Labs laid the foundation for Google’s WearOs™ that powers its smartwatches (WIMM Labs was acquired by Google in late 2012). After WIMM Labs’ acquisition, Tianwei worked at Amazon Lab126 from May 2012 to June 2015, when he and his team built the big data ingestion infrastructure that allows for real-time processing and analytics of the health status of all Kindles devices used daily by Amazon’s customers.
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
What happens when an Indonesian pediatrician having her first kid in the midst of a pandemic and her Tokopedia alum, seasoned product and growth leader husband join forces to build a startup? Find out on our call with Tentang Anak founders Dr. Mesty Ariotedjo and Garri Juanda.
Transcript
Timestamps
(01:11) Why should you know Mesty Ariotedjo and Garri Juanda?
(01:57) How did Mesty and Garri meet Insignia?
(03:20) How did they start Tentang Anak?
(06:08) Why did they start Tentang Anak?
(08:58) How has Mesty’s background as a doctor influenced her approach to Tentang Anak?
(10:17) Why pediatricians and child care experts are attracted to Tentang Anak’s platform?
(13:27) What's in the Tentang Anak app?
(14:56) How is Tentang Anak flipping the script on scaling commerce platforms?
(17:02) How has Garri’s background as a tech leader influenced his approach to Tentang Anak?
(19:05) What attracts talent to join Tentang Anak?
(20:33) How does raising a family together impact their synergy as co-founders and vice-versa?
(22:57) What drives Tentang Anak’s product roadmap?
(25:21) Tentang Anak’s focus in the next five years;
(27:23) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Tentang Anak, which translates to “About Children”, was founded in 2020 by pediatrician Dr. Mesty Ariotedjo and Tokopedia alum Garri Juanda. Mesty is currently a graduate student at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the recipient of Harvard T.H. Chan Fellowship Award. She was also included in Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 and a member of the World Economic Forum. While Mesty brings her medical expertise and network to Tentang Anak and Garri brings his 11 years of tech experience in product, growth, and M&A to the table. He previously oversaw Tokopedia’s marketplace, adtech, and logistics business verticals; and was one of Rakuten Japan’s first non-Japanese product managers. Garri earned his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology, finance, fintech
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
On Call with Insignia is back with a new season of conversations with founders, investors, and operators leading the development of Southeast Asia's innovation landscape and digital economy, or as we like to call, ASEANnovation.
What better way to kick off our season four than with Brankas, Southeast Asia's leading and pioneering open finance tech company. We've just welcomed them to the Insignia family officially at the start of 2022 with the announcement of a 20 million series B round which we had the privilege of leading.
To talk about, not just Brankas, but also this whole wave of demand for more robust and scalable fintech infrastructure, we have really an open finance pioneer and an expert here to talk about all of that, none other than the CEO and co-founder of Brankas, Todd Schweitzer.
Join Brankas's remote-first team by checking out open roles on the company’s career page and LinkedIn.
Transcript
Timestamps
(00:28) Paulo introduces Brankas and Todd;
(02:24) Todd talks about how he connected with Insignia;
(03:04) Going from management consulting in the US to starting Brankas in Southeast Asia;
(08:33) Why open finance is compelling and exciting for emerging markets;
(12:25) How Brankas’s API menu approach stands out;
(15:22) Working with regulators and institutions in Southeast Asia;
(19:42) Four use cases for open finance;
(24:18) Approach to regional expansion;
(25:37) How building out a remote-first team has led to finding great engineering talent;
(28:09) Open Finance for DeFi;
(31:09) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Todd Schweitzer is co-founder and CEO at Brankas, the leading Open Banking technology provider in Southeast Asia. Todd has held senior roles in private equity and management consulting, spanning technology, the public sector, and financial services. Todd and co-founder Kenneth Shaw launched Brankas in 2016 to address the technology gaps that hindered fintech-bank partnerships. Launching first in Indonesia, Brankas provides Open Banking technology to banks, insurers, mobile wallets, alternative lenders, and other suppliers and users of financial services APIs. He holds dual Bachelor's degrees with honors in Economics and International Studies from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government with a focus on economic development policy.
Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology, finance, fintech
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
Something new we tried for Season 3 of On Call with Insignia Ventures in 2021 was to go on call with more startup and venture investors, from angels to the Southeast Asia investment leads of global investment firms to the founding partners of VC firms in other emerging markets.
Throughout these conversations, we not only got to see the perspectives of these investors on various markets and sectors, but also got a peek into their mindsets and approach when it comes to investing in startup founders and fast-growing tech companies.
In this podcast episode, we compiled their answers to two questions: “What are the top three traits / skills of a great VC / angel investor?” and “What’s your advice for aspiring VCs / angel investors?” and just like our compilation of founders’ fundraising advice, piece apart 5 key themes across their shared insights.
Timestamps
(01:42) (1) Good investors invest in companies, but great investors work with and learn from founders.
(06:12) (2) It’s not just about finding the best company but being the right investor for a company.
(07:29) (3) There’s no one path, but the best paths build startup and founder exposure.
(10:28) (4) Investing is an education in itself; it requires constantly opening up to what’s new.
(13:37) (5) Great investors are grounded and driven by a clear understanding of motivation -- why do you invest?
Are you looking to build a career backing unstoppable founders and building great companies in Southeast Asia? Send us an email to join the team at Insignia Ventures.
On the other hand, if you're looking to learn the ropes, grow your network and gain a track record of investing in Southeast Asia, Cohort 3 of Asia's first experiential venture capital accelerator, Insignia Academy, is still accepting applications!
Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic, Cool Upbeat Background Music For Sports and Workout Videos by MorningLightMusic, Upbeat Hip Hop Background Music For Videos (Free For Non-Commercial Videos) by Elysium Audio Labs
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
2021 was a record year of fundraising for startups in Southeast Asia, and even on our podcast, we made sure to ask our founder-CEO guests, all of whom have raised at least one institutional round where Insignia Ventures participated, about how they approached fundraising and their advice for fellow founders who are just about to raise for the first time.
2022 is expected to be an even greater year for startup investing in the region. With more emerging venture backable verticals, there will be more founders looking to raise venture capital, and so we compiled a list of all their fundraising advice: 18 in all.
From what they’ve shared we’ve also identified a few common themes:
Fundraising is a two-way street. It’s not just about getting capital or value-add from investors, but also investors looking at how they can win with your company’s growth. Investors invest in people who do and the stories that come out of what they do. Do you know what you are selling? It’s important to know the ins and outs around the market, business metrics, as well as motivations of customers and employees. Find the right partners who understand your vision, align with what you want to build, and have the capability to support you throughout the ups and downs. It may be the first round, but there are long-term implications.If you’d like us to join your next round of funding, let us know what you’re building on our website. We also have tools on our website to help founders and investors with funding:
Captable Calculator SAFE Note Generator Term Sheet GeneratorMusic: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic, Cool Upbeat Background Music For Sports and Workout Videos by MorningLightMusic, Upbeat Hip Hop Background Music For Videos (Free For Non-Commercial Videos) by Elysium Audio Labs
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
In this episode, we're back with a returning guest, Flip CEO and co-founder Rafi Putra Arriyan. Fresh from announcing their US$48M Series B round, co-led by Insight Partners, Insignia Ventures, and also Sequoia Capital, Rafi, or Ari as he is called, goes on call to catch us up on what has happened since last year, give us some updates on how Flip has grown their ecosystem since then that has led to this last round. As a leader of one of Indonesia’s earliest fintechs, Ari also shares his views on the evolution of fintech user behavior, infrastructure, and regulation over the past few years.
They serve over 7 million users across Indonesia with their money transfer app, and their business solutions cater to hundreds of companies from SMEs to much larger businesses, across disbursement, payroll, supplier payments, etc. They have been recently ramping up their hiring with new initiatives in the pipeline, from business operations to product and engineering roles. Check out Flip's career page and LinkedIn for open positions.
Transcript
Timestamps
(00:28) Paulo introduces Flip and Rafi Putra Arriyan (Ari);
(02:38) Expanding interoperability of Flip’s money movement platform over the past year;
(03:45) The culture of money transfer in Indonesia;
(05:22) Listening to users and maturing fintech infrastructure;
(06:41) How Flip and Rafi gain insight into their 7M+ users;
(08:12) Evolution of fintech-bank partnerships in Indonesia;
(10:03) Evolution of fintech regulation in Indonesia;
(11:27) Evolution of fintech infrastructure in Indonesia;
(13:58) How Flip is leveraging its latest round of funding;
(15:04) Culture of fairness and remote working;
(17:56) Best practices on remote working;
(21:12) Attracting unicorn and top tech talents;
(21:53) Rafi’s biggest lesson from leading Flip in the last five years;
(23:53) Biggest gap in Indonesia’s fintech landscape;
(25:25) Next five years for Flip;
(26:36) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Rafi Putra Arriyan started Flip after he and his co-founders spotted an inefficiency in the interbank fund transfers segment in Indonesia. Ari holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Universitas Indonesia (UI), one of the most prestigious universities in Indonesia.
Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
We're back with another episode in partnership with Insignia Ventures Academy (IVA), Asia's first experiential VC accelerator! We went on call with Andy Hwang, former Google and Facebook go-to-market leader, now angel investor and startup advisor in Southeast Asia. He’s also an alumnus of IVA, and more recently has been a mentor for the second cohort of the program. We talk not just about the program with him in this episode, but also learn more about his career transition into becoming a full-time angel investor after many years in various big tech companies, and also get his thoughts on some of these emerging technologies from working with founders. Join him and other seasoned investors and operators in Insignia Ventures Academy's growing community and apply for Cohort 3 coming this Feb 2022!
We're also happy to share with our listeners a promo package from Aspire, the all-in-one finance operating system built for fast-growing startups. They're offering the Insignia community an exclusive welcome offer for a limited period of 31st December, 2021. Startups will get a $250 cash reward when they open a new business account and make their first card purchase with qualifying merchants with the Aspire card, minimum of $5. Redeem the offer here.
Transcript
Timestamps
(00:51) Paulo introduces Andy Hwang;
(01:45) What wakes Andy up in the morning;
(02:45) How growing up in the Valley’s tech optimism drew Andy to Southeast Asia;
(05:03) Going international at Google and Facebook;
(06:29) Go-To-Market learnings from "mistakes" made at Facebook;
(11:05) Becoming an angel investor and spending a year at Stripe;
(13:58) Positioning oneself as an angel investor in Southeast Asia;
(15:34) Day in the life of Andy Hwang the angel investor;
(16:54) Finding product-market fit as an angel investor;
(19:32) Common pitfalls of early-stage startups;
(22:15) Developing investment rigor and discipline at Insignia Ventures Academy;
(26:58) Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Andy Hwang is a full-time angel investor and startup advisor, but prior to that, he spent a decade in Facebook, doing a lot of go-to-market in APAC, leading Facebook's entry and into east Asia, especially, and then prior to that, he was at Google doing a lot of, marketing work there as well in some of these emerging markets like Latin America. He took his MBA at Wharton and was a graduate of UC Berkeley.
Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
In this episode we went on call with Chang Zi Qian, the CEO and co-founder of Intelllex, a legaltech startup that specializes in organizing legal and regulatory information using proprietary algorithms and platforms. Chang comes on call to talk about their recent launch of the legal knowledge platform called finreg.sg. So it's a platform for anybody who wants to explore the regulations in Singapore when it comes to fintech, especially payments and crypto, as well as for fund managers who are looking to set up shop in Singapore and learn more about the regulations when it comes to fund management. We deep dive into the platform itself, the trends that influenced its creation, and how it can evolve in the next few years.
Transcript
Timestamps
00:16 Paulo introduces Chang Zi Qian;
01:56 Trends and tailwinds that led to the creation of finreg.sg;
03:13 How finreg.sg builds upon Intelllex’s existing products for legal knowledge management;
04:43 Use cases and user journey for finreg.sg;
06:32 Chang’s thoughts on the evolution of Singapore’s fintech regulation;
08:10 The struggle to legally define new innovations and technologies;
09:55 Chang’s perspective on how legal definitions of virtual assets will arise;
10:55 Chang’s thoughts on family office influx in Singapore and pressure for VC funds to go from early-stage to IPO;
12:45 finreg.sg as a targeted distribution platform for lawyers’ thought leadership;
14:38 Future plans for finreg.sg;
17:33 finreg.sg as a platform matching regtechs / KYC, AML fintechs with customers;
19:19 Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Chang Zi Qian is an entrepreneur with years of law experience. He previously worked in the Singapore Prime Minister's office and law firm Rajah and Tann. From there, he saw a lot of pain points as a lawyer and decided to start his own legal tech startup Intelllex. He is also a member of the Singapore Committee for Future Economy. He was named twice as one of the 100 Leaders of Tomorrow at the St. Gallen’s Symposium, and once as the Dragon 100 Young Leaders in Hong Kong.
Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
We're back with another episode in partnership with Insignia Ventures Academy. We went on call with another mentor who not only has been helping out with the program, but has also been a participant of the first cohort: startup advisor, angel investor, ex-Bukalapak and Amazon engineering leader Mohammed Alabsi. We talk about his journey from Seattle driving cloud services and microservices for AWS in the late 2010s to leading engineering at Bukalapak and now angel investing. He shares highlights from his experience at Insignia Ventures Academy, advice for aspiring angel investors, and his views on tech due diligence and hot tech topics including AI, cybersecurity, no-code platforms, and DeFi.
Transcript
Timestamps
00:27 Paulo introduces Mohammed Alabsi;
01:21 The multiple hats of Mohammed;
02:27 How the emergence of cloud and microservices led him to AWS’s early days in Seattle and then Bukalapak in Indonesia;
05:34 Biggest challenges and contributions as VP of Engineering at Bukalapak;
07:41 Becoming a full-time startup advisor and angel investor;
09:07 A day in the life of Mohammed as angel investor;
10:07 Mohammed value-add as an angel investor;
11:36 Most common pitfall of early-stage startup teams from a tech POV;
12:54 Highlights of Mohammed’s experience in Insignia Ventures Academy;
14:32 How the Academy influenced Mohammed’s investing;
15:17 Sneak peek into Mohammed’s Tech DD session;
17:19 What Mohammed is excited for 2022 Southeast Asia tech;
18:08 Mohammed’s thoughts on AI adoption in Southeast Asia;
19:26 Cybersecurity for early-stage startups;
21:47 Advice for engineers and tech operators becoming angel investors;
22:52 Investing in Dishserve;
23:59 Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Mohammed Alabsi is a technology leader and angel investor active across both sides of the Pacific, based out of both the East Coast and Jakarta, an advisor to several startups here in Southeast Asia, and part of the XA Network. Previously he was Senior VP of Engineering at Bukalapak, and a Senior Software Development Manager at Amazon in Seattle. He is an alumnus of Insignia Ventures Academy’s first cohort and also helps the program as a mentor.
Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
In this episode, we're going to do a deep dive back into the edtech or education scene in Indonesia, and to guide us on that journey we have with us returning guest Syarif Rousyan Fikri, who is the CEO and co-founder of Pahamify. So to our longtime listeners, you may remember from our episode back in season one last year, where he had a chat with Yinglan on introducing Pahamify, talking about how they're changing K-12 education for Indonesian students and especially when it comes to test preparation.
In this episode, we're going to catch up with him, learn more about how the education scene has developed, especially, with the pandemic and the lockdowns and how things have progressed over in Indonesia, and also learn more about how they've grown their company from a culture perspective and also a product perspective as well.
Transcript
Timestamps
00:13 Paulo introduces Fikri;
02:02 Catching up on Pahamify;
02:30 How edtechs can sustain growth post-pandemic;
04:05 Where live streaming fits into Pahamify’s user experience;
06:03 The philosophy and cultural nuance behind live streaming;
08:11 Dealing with impact of pandemic-induced learning loss on schools and teachers;
10:12 Long-term effects of social media engagements;
11:48 How Pahamify changed the life of Fariq;
13:51 The role of customer service for Pahamify;
15:30 Pahamify’s culture;
17:35 How Pahamify’s culture has impacted their product;
19:10 How Pahamify’s culture has evolved with Indonesia’s edtech landscape;
20:40 The next five years for Pahamify and Indonesia edtech;
22:14 Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Prior to Pahamify, Syarif Rousyan Fikri was the writer and host of an award-winning Indonesian educational video series on YouTube which now has over 373,000 subscribers. The series received the YouTube Next Up 2017 award from YouTube and collaborated with Google to produce Learning How to Learn Course—the book version of this course was just published recently with a top publisher in Indonesia. Syarif graduated with a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), one of Indonesia’s top universities, at only 19 years old and was also a former PhD candidate at the Electrical and Electronics Engineering department of Nanyang Technological University.
Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
Over this season, apart from our portfolio founders, we've been able to talk to a couple of interesting venture capitalists from different parts of the world like Brazil and Canada and hear their thoughts about Southeast Asia. In this episode, we're back with another venture capitalist, and now doing this in conjunction with Insignia Ventures Academy, Asia’s first experiential VC accelerator. You can expect to have more episodes with mentors and alumni from the 12 week-program as well.
One of them is Mark Sng, Vice President of Gentree Fund, the venture capital fund of the Sy family office, the family behind one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines. He talks about his career going from private equity to corporate development to venture capitalist as well as the evolution of the Philippines’ startup ecosystem and what’s exciting in the market these days.
Transcript
Timestamps
00:46 Paulo introduces Mark Sng, VP of Investments at Gentree;
01:44 Philippines’ Startup Ecosystem Rising;
02:57 Mark’s Career Part 1: TAEL Partners (PE Fund);
04:58 Mark’s Career Part 2: Gojek Corporate Development;
06:34 Mark’s Career Part 3: Go-Ventures;
08:24 Mark’s Career Part 4: Gentree Fund;
11:20 Impact of more family offices and corporates setting up funds in Southeast Asia;
14:30 Comparing PE, Corp Dev, and VC from skill sets POV;
17:04 Value of regulatory clarity in attracting investors;
19:45 Thinking beyond the Philippines for market;
20:47 Rise of elephants and unicorns in the Philippines;
22:41 Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
Mark Sng is the Vice President of Gentree Fund, the venture capital fund of the Sy family office, the family behind one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines. Mark previously spearheaded the Singapore office launch for Go-Ventures and supported the ventures team as Head of Singapore and Vietnam Coverage. Before Go-Ventures, he was with Gojek’s Corporate Development Team, where he was part of the team that led the acquisition of Coins.ph in the Philippines. He also supported growth equity transactions into family-run businesses at TAEL Partners: a SEA growth equity fund with a focus on the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia markets.
Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
-
We've seen how ecommerce has taken over the region in the last few years, and now we have companies emerging in this space that are enabling a lot more brands and a lot more entrepreneurs to be able to dive in and take advantage of this whole ecommerce boom in the region and in greater Asia. One of them is ecommerce brand aggregator Rainforest and in this episode, CEO and co-founder JJ Chai joins us on call to talk about why now is the best time for solo/micro-entrepreneurs to build their own ecommerce consumer brands, how Rainforest supports them towards successful business exits and beyond with the skill sets and empathy needed to engage with ecommerce entrepreneurs, and the company's ultimate goal of building a digital-first house of consumer brands in Asia.
Transcript
Timestamps
00:13 Paulo introduces JJ Chai;
01:35 Biggest learning since launching Rainforest in May 2021;
03:02 The well-thought out process behind Rainforest’s founding;
05:39 The fundamental denominator for brands the Rainforest acquires;
07:34 Impact of supply chain diversification in Asia on ecommerce brand explosion;
09:12 Rainforest’s end-to-end process working with brands and entrepreneurs and the importance of understanding motivation;
11:43 JJ’s advice for ecommerce brands to get from 0 to 1;
15:02 Acquisition scenarios for Rainforest;
16:20 Hiring leadership in Rainforest and building a team that understands ecommerce sellers;
18:38 Ecommerce aggregators impact on ecommerce growth in Southeast Asia;
19:44 Ecommerce aggregators impact on consumers in Southeast Asia;
20:58 Building a digital-first house of ecommerce brands in Asia;
22:15 Rapid Fire Round;
About our guest
JJ Chai is the co-founder and CEO of Rainforest, Asia’s leading ecommerce brand aggregator. Rainforest acquires consumer ecommerce brands, providing entrepreneurs a healthy exit, and invests into the acquired brands to grow them globally. Prior to founding Rainforest, JJ advised startups founders in the scale-up stage, as xto10x’s SE-Asia’s Chief Executive. He previously worked with the founders at Carousell to scale up from a pre-revenue startup to become SE-Asia’s largest online classifieds platform. At Carousell he led up various portfolios across international expansion, revenue, growth and strategy. Before joining Carousell, JJ was the SE-Asia Managing Director for Airbnb. JJ joined as the first Airbnb employee in Southeast Asia and helped chart Airbnb’s rapid growth in Asia. JJ was also a former junior partner at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic
Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology
The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.
- Daha fazla göster
