The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced today (September 15) that the government will be injecting an additional S$112 million in financial assistance for taxi operators and private-hire firms.

LTA said in a post on Facebook that the funds will help point-to-point (P2P) drivers and operators “tide over this difficult period”.

This is on top of a a $77 million package announced in February and a second package of S120 million rolled out in March.

The Special Relief Fund (SRF) for P2P drivers will also be extended to March 2021.

Under the fund, drivers can receive S$10 per day per vehicle, or S$300 per vehicle per month.

Taxi operators have also pledged to continue providing matching rental rebates worth an additional S$29 million to their hirers.

On the other hand, P2P operators will receive a special relief of S$2,200 per unhired vehicle to defray the cost of their unhired fleet.

Changes To Private Hire Car Driver’s Vocational Licence (PDVL)

The LTA has also made changes to the PDVL criteria to align it with requirements for a Taxi Driver’s Vocational Licence.

With immediate effect, all new PDVL applicants must be Singapore citizens who are at least 30 years old.

“Although the demand for taxis and private hire cars has risen with the start of Phase Two, ridership is not expected to return to pre-COVID levels anytime soon,” said the LTA.

Featured Image Credit: Dollars and Sense

South Korean tech giant, Naver, just led a US$80 million (S$108 million) investment round into Carousell, the online marketplace startup announced in a press release earlier today (15 September).

Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund and NH Investment & Securities are the two other investors included in the consortium.

The latest funding round brings Carousell’s total valuation to US$900 million (S$1.22 billion), following acquisitions in 2019 to accelerate growth in Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

“Naver’s investment in Carousell is a vote of confidence,” says Quek Siu Rui, co-founder and CEO of Carousell.

One Of The Fastest-Growing Marketplaces In APAC

Launched in 2012, Carousell is now one of the world’s largest and fastest marketplaces in eight countries across Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Currently, Carousell is backed by Telenor Group, Rakuten Ventures, Naver,
Sequoia Capital, and Naspers. The startup made headlines last year when it merged with 701search, a classifieds firm owned by Telenor.

Carousell’s net loss reportedly swelled by 60 per cent to over US$40 million (S$54.4 million) due to rising operating costs, as its revenue doubled to US$15.7 million (S$21.4 million).

What Does Naver’s Investment Mean For Carousell?

Naver’s investments into Carousell may help the online marketplace fuel its revenue streams and recoup the losses from its 2019 expansion.

Naver, who owns Line, South Korea’s largest search portal has been gradually pivoting towards Singapore to escape the US-China rivalry in Hong Kong.

In July this year, Naver announced that it will be shifting its data centre from Hong Kong to Singapore, following other tech giants retracting from the troubled city-state amidst the implementation of new security laws.

Featured Image Credit: The Korea Herald / Tech Crunch

During an Apple event yesterday (September 15), Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Singapore will be the first country to leverage the capabilities of the Apple Watch by offering incentives for people to use it to stay healthy.

The tech giant and the Health Promotion Board (HPB) are jointly developing a new free app exclusive for Apple Watches.

Called LumiHealth, it will set reminders for users to go for health screenings or immunisations. The app also helps users set fitness and healthy eating goals by drawing behavioural insights from their habits.

How To Earn S$380 In E-Vouchers

LumiHealth gamifies fitness goals. NPCs will guide users through worlds and tasks, which include weekly activity goals that are personalised according to your age, gender and height.

Users can also take part in wellness challenges to improve their sleep and eating habits.

Those who complete the tasks and challenges during the two-year span of HPB’s LumiHealth Programme are eligible to earn S$380 in e-vouchers. They’re redeemable at stores like FairPrice, Sheng Siong and Tangs.

LumiHealth will be launched in late October, and will be made available to Singapore residents above 17 years old with a SingPass account.

The app can be used on iPhones running iOS 13 or later and Apple Watches with at least watchOS 6.

The data and health insights gathered by the new app will shape future health initiatives for Singapore, but sharing of health data will require user’s consent.

Collection of personal identifiable data is minimised and will be used to only administer the programme such as using email-addresses to award the right recipients.

Tech Giants Race To Roll Out MedTech Solutions

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, tech giants have been racing to roll out medtech in collaboration with local governments.

For example, Apple’s latest series 6 Apple Watch allows users to measure their blood oxygen level, take an ECG to measure heart rate, and track their fitness metrics on the retina display.

In April, Apple and Google also announced a partnership on contact tracing technology.

In an official statement on Apple’s site, both companies announced the release of APIs in May that enabled interoperability between Android and iOS devices.

Apple and Google are also working on Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform.

For HPB, it has already released the Healthy 365 app and Fitbit is offering free watches for Singaporeans enrolling in Live Healthy SG.

These initiatives are all part of HPB’s drive to roll out technologies that promote healthier lifestyles among Singaporeans.

Featured Image Credit: Sky News / Apple

Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced that S$320 million will be set aside for tourism credits.

Called SingapoRediscovers Vouchers, they aim to boost the ailing local tourism industry.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) shared today (16 September) that Singaporeans aged 18 and above this year will each receive S$100 in digital vouchers.

These vouchers are exclusive to Singaporeans; Permanent Residents are not eligible to receive it.

The SingapoRediscovers Vouchers will come in denominations of $10, and can be used at all licensed hotels, leisure attractions and for local tours by operators that have received approval from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to reopen or resume.

These include Singapore’s four wildlife parks, a number of activities and hotels on Sentosa and guided tours of Pulau Ubin.

These vouchers will be accessible via SingPass from December and can be used to offset ticket purchases and hotel stays through the end of June next year.

Part Of Measures To Boost S’pore’s Economy

According to Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing, the duration of the voucher programme is timed to coincide with the June and December holidays and spreading out demand in between.

“This is an economic scheme to help our tourist attractions preserve their capabilities that have been built up over their years while they consolidate the capacity in the interim,” he added.

The vouchers complement the $45 million SingapoRediscovers marketing campaign, launched in July to encourage locals to holiday at home and support local businesses.

A S$10 subsidy will also be provided for children and youth tickets for attractions and tours. Each person can purchase up to six children or youth tickets at subsidised prices. 

More than 200 deals and packages have been launched so far, and the vouchers will give locals more incentive to rediscover their backyard, according to STB.

It added that specific details on how vouchers can be redeemed will be announced in November.

Featured Image Credit: JW Marriot Hotel Singapore South Beach

In August, security researcher Volodymyr Diachenko discovered a data leak by gaming giant Razer.

The product of a misconfigured server, the data leak was estimated to affect around 100,000 users, based on the number of e-mail addresses exposed.

Their user data was exposed to the public and indexed by public search engines.

The leak exposed records of customer orders, including information such as their full names, internal IDs, e-mails, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers, order numbers and order details.

Razer fixed the data leak on 9 September, and no sensitive data, such as credit card numbers or passwords, were exposed, the firm confirmed on Friday (11 September) last week.

In an official statement, Razer apologized for the lapse. “We…have taken all necessary steps to fix the issue as well as conduct a thorough review of our IT security and systems. “

Volodymyr had reported the leak to Razer but he said that his message was processed for more than three weeks until the data was secured from public access.

Diachenko stated that the leaked customer records can be used to launch targeted phishing attacks, and could put customers at risk of fraud.

A spokesperson for Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Commission stated on Tuesday that the data breach is being investigated.

Razer is currently shortlisted for a digital bank license in Singapore, which will enable users to conduct transactions seamlessly on Razer Pay and other financial applications. The data breach may jeopardise its standing.

Last Thursday, Grab was fined S$10,000 for failing to secure its drivers’ and passengers’ personal details on its mobile app, the fourth time in two years the superapp has breached data protection laws.

Featured Image Credit: The South African / CNBC

According to homegrown lifestyle brand IUIGA, they found it a “dilemma” when they shop for home products.

They often had to choose between premium brands that were exorbitantly priced or mass-market brands that were ubiquitous in quality and design.

As consumers themselves, they were frustrated with the lack of a middle ground and were floored by the excessive markups. They wanted an alternative where they can have quality at an affordable price, but couldn’t find one that met their expectations.

They decided to take things into their hands and came up with IUIGA — “thoughtfully-designed and premium quality everyday goods at completely transparent prices.”

Why IUIGA Products Are So Affordable

IUIGA is built on this one simple question: “why pay so much for quality?”

It focuses on producing quality goods at a lower cost, and is the first e-commerce brand in Singapore and the region that operates on a unique ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) business model.

Basically, all IUIGA products are manufactured by the same factories that produce for big brands such as Sephora, Samsonite and WMF.

It previously included Muji in the list of big brands, but this claim had landed them in hot soup.

In March last year, the Japanese retailer sued IUIGA for “trademark infringement”. IUIGA later backed down, agreeing to “remove and cease” Muji’s trademark in its marketing and promotional material.

While IUIGA does not wish to comment further on this lawsuit, it strongly stands by their ODM model.

By partnering directly with ODMs and selling directly to consumers, they are able to offer “exceptional products at a lower cost compared to other premium retailers,” said Jaslyn Chua, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of IUIGA.

In traditional retail, a product is marked up eight to 15 times by the time it reaches you. The product goes through a long process of at least 10 to 20 layers from manufacturers to distribution and finally to the end consumer.

Factoring in profits at every layer of distribution and rental costs, traditional mark-ups make up a good two-thirds of the final product price that you see in stores.

– Jaslyn Chua, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of IUIGA

Product labels are also removed to eliminate potential added value from branding. This conveys a strong message to consumers that you are paying for the quality, not the brand.

Another one of their key unique propositions is transparent pricing, where they openly share their mark-ups with consumers to show them exactly where their money went.

According to Jaslyn, each product has a different percentage of costs since they are made in different factories using different methods.

As such, we share the true cost of quality through the transparent breakdown of costs and our markups under every item on our website and app.

Traditional retailers cannot be this transparent as they have many layers of middlemen costs to consider. By building an end-to-end supply chain, we are able to lower our margins and pass on these cost savings directly to the end consumer.

– Jaslyn Chua, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of IUIGA

Going From Online To Offline

When IUIGA first launched in 2017, it started off as a purely online model, but it soon evolved into a hybrid model as they started establishing both online and offline presence.

They launched their first pop-up store at SingPost Centre in May 2018, followed by their first permanent retail store at Causeway Point in November that year.

According to Jaslyn, the pop-up store allowed customers to touch and feel their products in person before they buy.

Data also revealed that online penetration rates in Southeast Asia is less than five per cent compared to an average of 25 to 30 per cent in bigger markets like China and US.

This translates to 95 per cent (of) conversions happening offline (and) gave us a sound reason to consider going online.

I was also very excited to experiment with offline retail as Singapore is a satellite city with a shopping mall at almost every station. If this strategy works, it will mean a huge increase in brand exposure for us too.

– Jaslyn Chua, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of IUIGA

Additionally, while going online has helped eliminate brick-and-mortar expenses, there were some pain points that they couldn’t address such as the process of exchange and returns.

Although IUIGA provides a free 30-day exchange/return policy, it was costly for customers to return a bulky item such as pots and pons.

With retail stores however, customers can now buy online and exchange a product in store without paying a hefty shipping fee. This made a lot of sense to them as they want customers to be able to make a purchase with confidence.

Today, IUIGA has grown to 10 retail outlets across Singapore in just three years.

From Diamond Rings To Mooncakes To Furnitures

Although IUIGA started off selling everyday home products, they have since branched out beyond that.

Last year, IUIGA launched one-carat solitaire diamond rings at the “true cost” of S$1,799.

A quick check on their website however, showed that a one-carat diamond ring in 18K white gold is priced from S$2,499.

With industry mark-ups, the traditional retail price of a one-carat diamond ring costs an average of S$5,174, according to IUIGA.

When asked about the traction so far, Jaslyn said that sales have been encouraging with about 10 customers per month.

IUIGA also delved into F&B last year with an inaugural mooncake launch to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This year, it released a collection of lava mooncakes since the circuit breaker period with interesting flavours like Durian Lava, Matcha Lava, Purple Sweet Potato Lava and Lava Custard.

Another breakthrough for IUIGA is its recent foray into the furniture and furnishing market as it launched its first-ever furniture showroom located at TripleOne Somerset.

According to Jaslyn, furniture was a “highly requested” vertical from customers and as IUIGA continues to cement itself as a home and living brand, expanding to include furniture was a natural progression.

She added that the furniture range at launch focuses on contemporary designs with minimalist aesthetics, and are ethically sourced with no questionable origins.

A majority of the furniture range will be “around S$1,000 or less” as there are no middlemen markups involved — they are sourced directly from manufacturers and sold directly to consumers.

The store also provides complimentary layout design services that include 3D rendering so customers can visualise how they can frame the IUIGA pieces in their home.

They Raised US$10M Funding Amid COVID-19

Earlier in May, IUIGA raised US$10 million in a Series A funding led by Konimex Technologies, a subsidiary of Indonesian conglomerate Konimex Group.

This fresh funding will be used to invest across IUIGA’s operations in Singapore and Indonesia, with the latter being the key focus for 2020.

IUIGA recently launched in Indonesia in August, marking it as their first overseas market.

“IUIGA chose the Indonesian market because of its burgeoning tech-savvy demographics as well as its immense economic potential,” explained Jaslyn.

“The combination of a mobile-app driven consumer culture and foreign investments made Indonesia a clear choice for IUIGA’s next stage of expansion.”

The funding will also be used for product development and technology investment. It is investing in big data and artificial intelligence to deepen e-commerce personalisation.

When asked if IUIGA faced any fundraising challenges, especially since it took place in the middle of a pandemic, Jaslyn stressed that fundraising in any environment is challenging.

The fact that they are able to meet the confidence of investors during this time shows that IUIGA is an “agile and responsive business,” she added.

While COVID-19 didn’t really affect their fundraising, it has badly impacted their retail business.

Shopper traffic has been on the decline since the outbreak, and footfall has dropped by an average of 30 per cent across all 10 retail stores islandwide with consumers avoiding crowded areas.

However, online sales have been doing very well, we are seeing an increase of three times the revenue online compared to retail. Overall, the effect of the virus was not that pronounced on revenue because our online channels (website and app) have helped to cushion our figures very well.

– Jaslyn Chua, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of IUIGA

Jaslyn also observed the increase in self-collection for online orders, which has indirectly helped to direct online traffic to stores.

On her thoughts on the retail landscape in Singapore, Jaslyn said that countering traditional retail by simply slashing prices will likely be a “losing battle”.

Retailers must find creative ways to offer value to consumers that online-only stores cannot, or embrace the showroom concept by integrating their web and in-store experiences. For retailers who operate in both channels, this could present new opportunities to create value.

IUIGA is a great example of this. Consumers can get the best of both worlds — the convenience of online shopping and the ability to see the product in person pre-purchase. The future of retail may be more of a convergence of the two rather than a war between them.

– Jaslyn Chua, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of IUIGA

IUIGA Is Now A “Seven-Figure” Omnichannel Business

IUIGA took off from the get-go, grossing half a million revenue in just 100 days.

It has since grown strength-to-strength as a “seven-figure omnichannel business” with 10 retail stores islandwide.

Despite the success it has accumulated so far, IUIGA is still fraught with business challenges.

Their heavy operating model is laden with risks in supply chain management and a high demand for cash flow. Another problem that they face is how to effectively increase stock-keeping units (SKUs) and expand in scale.

I will reframe the proposition this way: having retail stores alleviate this challenge as retail stores double up as extra inventory space, other than being a showroom and an additional marketing channel.

For instance, if I am going to stock all my items in a warehouse, why not stock it somewhere customers have easy access to?

– Jaslyn Chua, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of IUIGA

This is why IUIGA is working on opening a few more retail stores in Singapore this year and expanding into Hong Kong and Macau by end of the year.

“My goal is to be known as Southeast Asia’s pioneer direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand,” said Jaslyn.

To achieve this, IUIGA is focused on continually improving their products.

“I think it is very important to create something important which is not money. A lot of entrepreneurs want to generate fast money, which leads to attracting the wrong kind of investors and employees and the company perishes prematurely.”

Featured Image Credit: IUIGA

As businesses continue to face economic uncertainties in the wake of the global pandemic, Facebook Singapore launched today (16 September) a Small Business Grant programme.

Approximately S$4.75 million in grants will be used to support over 800 local small businesses.

Each grant amounts to S$5,500, which includes S$3,500 in cash and S$2,000 in optional ad credits.

Applications for the grant are open from 16 to 22 September 2020. Businesses do not need to have a Facebook presence in order to apply.

To be eligible, the business must have between two and 50 employees, been in business for more than one year and experienced challenges due to the pandemic. 

Cash Flow Concerns

According to the State of Small Business Report, an ongoing study by the World Bank, OECD and Facebook into small businesses, more than half (58 per cent) of SMBs surveyed in Singapore said they are concerned about cash flow in the coming months. 

“Small businesses are the heart of our communities and the backbone of our economy. They have also been some of the hardest hit by COVID-19, impacting lives and livelihoods for so many Singaporeans — and it is more important than ever for us to move forward together through these challenging times,” said Damian Kim, Country Director of Facebook Singapore. 

“We’ve pulled together these resources to support small businesses here, as we look to play our part in supporting economic recovery and work to emerge stronger from the pandemic.”

Featured Image Credit: Reuters

In 2018, three brothers — Kenny Chan, 35, Johnathan Chan, 32 and Kayson Chan, 29 — saw an opportunity to bring in sophisticated gourmet food inspired by Italian culture into Singapore.

The trio realised that consumers are getting more and more sophisticated with their choices of food.

They then started experimenting with bold flavours and incorporating them into potato chips to add a modern twist to the conventional snack.

They particularly used truffles, which are a highly coveted type of mushroom in Italian cuisine, and are widely known as the “The Mozart of Mushrooms”.

Marrying Truffles With Potato Chips

After testing out different combinations, the brothers successfully created truffle-flavoured chips that come with generous bits of real Italian Black Summer Truffles.

Johnathan used to be an award-winning sous chef under Celebrity Chef Heman of Jack’s Place. With his knowledge and expertise in western cuisine, he came up with the winning recipe.

With that, made-in-Singapore brand Aroma Truffle was conceptualised in 2018. The Black Summer Truffles that go into each packet are sourced from the farms of Spoleto, Italy.

According to the Truffle Hunter, Black Summer Truffles come with “an incredible flavouring consisting of garlic, wild mushroom and earthy hazelnut undertones”.

Each packet of our truffle chips contains real, precious truffles. We have to keep the proportion of the Italian truffles controlled — not too much and not too little, with a right balance.

Together with the use of other fine seasonings like parsley, sea salt and olive oil, we managed to create a synergistic enhancement to its overall appearance, fragrance and flavour.

– Kayson Chan, co-founder and Business Development & Marketing Director of Aroma Truffle

They are the only truffle chips brand made in Singapore and they proudly call themselves the “World’s Strongest Truffle Chips”.

The claim actually came from one of their customers.

Subsequently, they kept receiving similar feedback and decided to use that as their tagline, which was in line with their vision — to create the strongest and the best truffle snack in the market.

By placing this claim in our tagline, it keeps us in check and to make sure that every batch of products is of quality and supports our claim, which is to be the strongest truffle snack brand.

I doubt you will find any other retail truffle chips in the market that has a stronger aromatic experience than ours… for the time being.

– Kayson Chan, co-founder and Business Development & Marketing Director of Aroma Truffle

Since its soft launch in July 2018, the trio have sold more than 100,000 kilograms of their signature wavy-cut truffle chips.

In early April 2019, Aroma Truffle opened its first flagship store at Chinatown Point Mall, followed by four other outlets within a year.

Why Aroma Truffle Prices Its Chips At S$10 A Bag

A bag of Aroma Truffle chips — whether Original, Honey Dijon or Parmesan Cheese flavour — costs just S$10.

It made me wonder how they manage to keep their truffle chips at such low price points — considering that truffles are the rarest and most expensive fungi in the world.

Truffles can sell as much as thousands of dollars per pound because it is painstakingly difficult to find and grow them.

Our truffles are sourced directly in bulk quantities from a truffle farm based in Spoleto Italy, via direct import without going through a third-party distributor.

Hence, we are able to price our snacks much more competitively than other gourmet snacks in the market.

– Kayson Chan, co-founder and Business Development & Marketing Director of Aroma Truffle

This is why they are able to keep their cost prices much lower than other gourmet snack manufacturers and pass on the value to their customers.

Keeping “Copycats” At Bay

One of the challenges faced by many leading food retailers is the threat posed by ‘copycats’ in the market.

Due to the high food cost involved in our unique recipes, the feasibility of mimicking and retailing a product at the same retail price with similar quality is seemingly unfeasible.

– Kayson Chan, co-founder and Business Development & Marketing Director of Aroma Truffle

Furthermore, Aroma Truffle’s secret infusion techniques that go into creating their signature products help to fend off competition.

“The source, cost and quality of the truffle ingredients itself play a key factor in knocking out our competitors,” he said.

Competing With Salted Egg Fish Skin Snacks

The Chan brothers had started Aroma Truffle with just S$30,000 from their own savings, with S$10,000 borrowed from their parents, which was subsequently returned after the business kicked off.

On challenges, Kayson shared that they had also kept their full-time jobs while working on Aroma Truffle as a side hustle. As a result, they were very overwhelmed with cooking and fulfilling orders.

Kayson was in a business development role in A*STAR prior to setting up Aroma Truffle, while Kenny used to be in the marine industry.

Johnathan, as mentioned earlier, was a sous chef who won first place at Epicurean Star Award Singapore 2015.

They also had a hard time negotiating with truffle and potato suppliers for lower cost prices as their initial production was too small.

As a result, they had to absorb most of the costs and retail their products at paper-thin profit margins.

Additionally, it was a tough competition within the gourmet snack industry as most consumers were obsessed with then-popular snacks like salted egg fish skin.

“Our products are tasty and good, but our presence was little known to the public as we merely left them on the shelves in the supermarkets,” said Kayson.

They could have built a stronger brand in the early stage of their business instead of “leaving all the retail work to their distributor”.

Their truffle chips only became more well-known in late 2018 when they opened up their first retail kiosk at Raffles Xchange.

Looking back, the reactions from the corporate buyers made us really proud of our products. The “aroma” spread quickly through the CBD district. In a short time, we started seeing and “smelling” Aroma Truffle in many office pantries.

– Kayson Chan, co-founder and Business Development & Marketing Director of Aroma Truffle

On the annual revenue they rake in, Kayson revealed that it is a “7-figure sum”.

Since inception, they have sold more than a million packets of truffle chips.

How Aroma Truffle Disrupted The Snack Industry

“We are lucky enough to be able to identify this market gap early on and fill this gap which is the lack of affordable truffle products within Asia,” said Kayson.

Besides their website, their products are also available at leading supermarkets Cold Storage and FairPrice.

“We wanted to make a premium ingredient like truffle accessible to more people,” he added.

According to a report by Nielsen, it shows that despite the tough competition and fast-changing global trends, one of the promising FMCG categories is snack foods.

The snacks business grew US$3.4 billion (S$4.6 billion) globally in 2017 and many emerging markets rose to the top of those with an increased appetite for snacks.

As a result, there is a need to embrace and drive innovation in the F&B industry to capture the demand and stay relevant in the market.

At Aroma Truffle, their R&D team, led by Johnathan and consisting of trained chefs, are always experimenting and coming up with new products.

One of their latest creations is the first-ever truffle mooncakes that were launched in August 2019, sold out completely and was one of the top 25 brands at the Takashimaya mooncake fair.

They are hoping to take the world by storm with their truffle chips.

They have since expanded to Brunei, China (Tmall.com), Malaysia, The Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand via a physical or e-commerce model.

They are also “sniffing” out other developed (such as UAE, Japan, Australia, Canada and USA) and emerging markets (such as Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia).

Featured Image Credit: chewy-jas.blogspot.com / Aroma Truffle

Stepping into Frankie Yeo’s workspace is almost like entering a whole different world.

Located in a nondescript industrial area in MacPherson, the Mascots and Puppets Specialists office is jam-packed floor to ceiling with mascots and puppets.

They consist of all sorts of shapes and sizes, and are born from years of hard work of Frankie and his three-man team.

Most of the mascots created by Frankie are well-recognised by generations of Singaporeans.

After all, Frankie has breathed life into mascots the likes of Sharity Elephant, Bag-Down Benny and Hush-Hush Hannah.

Sharity is the cuddly pink elephant that inspired local schoolchildren to be caring, while we typically see the latter printed on public transport posters.

Unlikely Beginnings For S’pore’s Only Commercial Puppet Producer

Frankie started creating puppets as a hobby after a seven-year stint in the Air Force.

The 57-year-old said that he had wanted to become a magician when he was younger, but magicians are “a dime a dozen in Singapore”.

Instead of fighting for “a slice of the same pie”, he decided to venture into something novel. He realised that no one was doing puppetry at that time, and decided to go into the space.

He began experimenting with puppetry in the 1980s, but it was only in the 1990s did he start to pour his heart into the craft.

Frankie roped in his wife — who is the business co-owner, as well as two other friends — to work on these projects together.

Still, Frankie said that he “never intended it to become a business at that time”, and was mainly using the puppets during mission trips as a form of communication.

Occasionally, the team created and put up puppet shows for birthday parties, but nothing more.

Frankie achieved his big break when a producer spotted them one day and asked if they could do a 30-minute show. Even though they were ill-equipped, they agreed and created everything for the show in a week.

“From there, it kind of snowballed and became a business,” Frankie mused.

That was back in 2000. Since then, Frankie has built a strong brand for himself, his puppets and the company.

According to the puppeteer, Mascots and Puppets Specialist is the only commercial puppet producer in Singapore.

His “Babies” Have Won Awards And Accolades

Frankie speaks of his puppets, marionettes and mascots with deep passion. He calls them his “babies”, and rightly so.

The artisan has crafted most of them by hand, and breathed life into them through performances and acts.

“It’s so difficult to choose,” Frankie remarked when asked to pick a favourite puppet.

He settled on the red clown with a balloon, as it was one of the puppets from his first batch of successful ones.

I created him because I wanted a puppet that blows a balloon. I started sculpting, and it took me two years to get him to this state.

The clown wishes to fly, which is why he blows up the balloon. But after floating in the air for awhile, the balloon pops and his dreams are dashed. This story actually touches a lot of people, from children to adults.

Frankie Yeo, Co-founder of Mascots and Puppets Specialists

According to Frankie, when the clown finally hit the stage, members of the audience would cry after watching his act.

Over the years, Frankie’s puppets have been used in numerous productions, from a Chinese television show, to Little Shop of Horrors (a theatre production), and a Hong Kong movie.

Once, his puppet was nominated for an award of Best Supporting Actor, which was the first time in history that a puppet was chosen.

Frankie’s puppets have indeed won many awards an accolades, so much so that he has a shelf filled with them.

His mascots have also made appearances in theme parks, and he shared that he has done various shows for Universal Studios Singapore’s annual Halloween Horror Night.

Leaving A Legacy: More Than Just Inanimate Objects

Frankie’s aim is to bring joy and impart knowledge to his audience, and he has managed to do so through his shows over the years.

There have been many instances where people come up to me and they say ,’Hey I remember you! You came to my school when I was a kid,’ and recounted to me the characters that we performed.

People actually remember… It’s amazing. I am glad that our shows have been imprinted in the minds and hearts of people.

Frankie Yeo, Co-founder of Mascots and Puppets Specialists

One of Frankie’s goals is to set up a permanent puppet theatre and museum, where he can continue to impart his skills, knowledge and experiences to the next generation.

The craftsman shared with Vulcan Post that his puppets are so much more than just a tool for entertainment.

For example, he has worked with A*STAR to develop puppets with inbuilt sensors for medical purposes. He has also created puppets to take on the role of surrogate parents for animals close to extinction.

However, times are tough for the puppeteer.

It was recently reported that Frankie is selling some of his puppets to pay the bills as live shows remain impossible during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite that, he remains optimistic. Besides puppets and mascots, the team has also recently been working on installations for attractions such as Gardens By The Bay.

“There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, we can use our past to be better equipped for the future,” Frankie told Vulcan Post.

“We either innovate or evaporate.”

Featured Image Credit: Vulcan Post, Mascots and Puppets Specialists

Mark Lim, 34 and Timothy Khor, 28, noticed that railing-hailing prices tend to fluctuate erratically.

Rates were also different across multiple apps ranging from private-hire app Grab to taxi operator ComfortDelGro.

For example, the quoted rate on one app could be S$2 to S$3 lower on another app for the same destination.

“That couple of dollars per trip can add up to a lot, and that is the power of accumulation,” said Mark, co-founder and CEO of ride-hailing price comparison app SPUR.

A Fascination With Data Spurred Them To Create An App

The both of them have always been fascinated by data, and how it can be used to empower consumers. 

They decided to look at building an aggregator business model around the ride-hailing industry.

In April this year, they launched SPUR, an app which aggregates and lists fare ranges from three main ride-hailing providers in Singapore: ComfortDelGro, Grab and Gojek.

“SPUR was born out of COVID-19, a time where we thought to ourselves how we can help commuters save money,” said Mark.

The name — SPUR — means to move forward, to encourage and to provide incentive.

SPUR uses the Land Transport Authority’s open APIs (application programming interface), which allows two applications to talk to each other.

Both co-founders have had experience building startups and software.

Mark, an aerospace engineer by trade, had spent eight years building Singapore’s first 3D printing business called 3D Matters. It has since been sold, and is currently valued at a seven-figure sum.

Prior to starting SPUR, he served as a co-founder and COO in an automotive tech startup from 2019.

On the other hand, Timothy is an accountant by trade. He had spent two years building an aggregated all-in-one tourism app that was incubated and accelerated by both SPRING SG and NTUitive.

He also has four years of experience in building Big Data Analytics for OCBC Bank and ThermoFisher Scientific, and brought S$5 million of productivity savings per year.

He currently serves as co-founder and CTO of SPUR.

How Accurate Is The App?

The SPUR app showed that a ride from Orchard MRT Station to Northpoint City costs S$16.18 to S$18.18 on ComfortDelGro and Gojek, and S$18 to S$20 on Grab.

A quick check on the respective apps showed S$16.20 for Gojek and S$19 for Grab, which were fairly accurate.

However, it showed S$18.30 (excluding ERP charges) on ComfortDelGro, which was slightly off. With ERP charges included, it was more than S$20 on the ComfortDelGro app.

“Currently we have no contact with Grab and Gojek as our algorithms are independent of them and we make use of data that is available publicly,” said Mark.

This is why they used the transactions of around 600 end-users to come up with its fare ranges.

Some of the app reviews mentioned that SPUR does not take into account peak surcharges for Grab and Gojek, and seems to show the default range pricing at any time.

It does not consider ERP charges for taxis either.

Mark said that he is heartened by comments and reviews he has received so far, and will “continue to improve the application to serve them better.”

May Include SMRT, Tada, Plans To Work With Transport Rental Firms

SPUR currently has more than 4,000 app downloads and see close to five users every minute on a daily average. This translates to about 4,300 events taking place a day on the app.

It is currently looking at approaching other ride-hailing firms such as SMRT and Tada, to be included on the app.

In terms of other future plans, Mark shared that they are planning to enter the logistical last mile delivery space, and venture into fleet/route optimisation for B2B transport companies.

“We also intend to connect with SMEs who run rental fleets, smaller taxi and limo firms to name a few, and have them as options that are available on our app interface.

“We hope to be able to give our users as many options as possible, while remaining agnostic to the larger platforms,” he added.

He also did not rule out overseas expansion.

Expanding to either Indonesia, Thailand or Myanmar — some of the top ride-hailing Southeast Asian markets — is also something they are currently considering.

Featured Image Credit: SPUR

It sounds crazy, but people have paid up to S$13,000 for a single miniature ornamental shrimp, according to Derrick Toh, the owner of local aquatic shop Shrimps Affair.

Located on French Road, Shrimps Affair specialises in the sale of ornamental shrimps, which make up 60 to 70 per cent of their total revenue.

Ornamental shrimps are bred purely to be kept as pets and are not edible.

A tiny shrimp is about an inch long, but they can cost anywhere from S$1 to a whopping S$1,000 at Derrick’s retail outlet. He keeps the more valuable shrimp “in the back.”

While keeping fishes as aquatic pets used to be the norm, the ornamental shrimp trend has proliferated across the world, hitting even American and European markets.

But Derrick is no simple businessman. This Singaporean shares a 20-year long love affair with ornamental shrimps that has eventually snowballed into the full-fledged aquatic business it is today.

20-Year Long Obsession With Ornamental Shrimps

The 39-year-old first got into the ornamental shrimp craze over 20 years ago, when he was still serving his national service.

Derrick found out about ornamental shrimps online and began sourcing for them through a Taiwanese importer. Eventually, he began flying to Taiwan to buy ornamental shrimps himself.

Back then, not a lot of people knew how to keep shrimp (in Singapore). I wasted around S$30,000 to S$40,000 in the beginning.

– Derrick Toh, founder of Shrimps Affair

Shrimp are easy to maintain so long if you have the right water parameters, Derrick explains. However, keeping ornamental shrimps require high initial investments.

A tank costs easily S$1,000, he adds. On top of that, hobbyists also need to buy chillers, canisters, and filtration systems.

Regardless, the payoff is worthwhile for some.

“It’s nice to see (the shrimp) grow and wander around the tank, and they come in all colours: yellow, orange, red and blue,” says Derrick.

“You can easily hold 500 to 800 shrimp in a 60cm tank.”

Building A Full-Fledged Business

The shrimp “farmer” decided to quit his position as a manager at a logistics company and turn his ornamental shrimp hobby into a business in 2018.

Shrimps Affair started off with S$45,000 seed investment, drawn from Derrick’s and his partners’ personal savings.

They went on to set up a retail outlet in a 400-square feet shop, with Derrick overseeing the operations.

“For other people, they would have had to spend at least an additional S$100,000 to set up an ornamental shrimp business,” says Derrick.

However, the trio already had extensive ornamental shrimp collections, and simply needed a license to start selling off their excess livestock.

In a stroke of bad luck, Shrimps Affair had to move barely a year later because their landlord had gone bankrupt.

The team had to shift all their equipment and livestock to a new space, and reinvest their funds. Business soon bounced back, and they’re now housed in a larger 1000-square feet shop.

The Shrimps Affair founder has since spent a few hundreds of thousands of dollars on aquatic livestock and equipment.

Business seem to be booming too. Shrimps Affair receives around 700 receipts per month at minimum.

On top of selling to consumers, Shrimps Affair also sells ornamental shrimp to wholesalers, usually in the thousands per sale. Each sale can generate S$16 to several thousands of dollars, says Derrick.

A Risky Investment: Shrimp Breeding

However, the ornamental shrimp business is a delicate and risky affair.

Derrick rents four breeding sites and personally flies to Taiwan to spend up to S$40,000 buying purebred, high-quality shrimp for breeding purposes.

“Can you imagine? S$30,000 to S$40,000 in one small plastic bag,” Derrick says. “It’s a nerve-wracking experience.”

There are over a few hundred unique species of ornamental shrimp. Since all shrimps are hybrids, it’s difficult to breed offspring that are pure.

Due to mixed genetics, shrimp larvae tend to have appearances that differ from their parents. As a result, breeders undergo a process of culling to increase the percentage of purebred offspring.

To date, there have only been two strains of ornamental shrimp that can be bred purely: pure red and pure black shrimps.

To assess the value of an ornamental shrimp, its quality also has to be taken into consideration. This involves the assessment of their shell, legs, and colouration.

Purebred low-quality shrimp can cost as little as S$7.

Its high-quality counterpart is very rare and valuable. They are usually sold for breeding, and typically cost between S$4,000 and S$5,000 for one, says Derrick.

On top of that, breeders have to stay on top of the newest shrimp species. The value of shrimp depreciates over time, with shrimps valued at S$70 years ago dropping to S$12 today.

“The demand always outweighs the supply,” Derrick surmises.

Queues For Shrimp After The Circuit Breaker

The ornamental shrimp industry is a small community, says Derrick.

“So trust me when I say that there were queues outside all the aquatic shops (after the circuit breaker).”

During the two-month period, Singapore had enacted a blanket ban on the sale of livestock, including both retail and online purchases. Shrimps Affair subsisted on its sale of equipment during that period.

The demand for ornamental shrimp post-circuit breaker came as the product of peoples’ tanks lying dormant for months before they could inject life into their aquariums.

Crowds have since died down as “people’s spending power is tighter,” Derrick reasons.

However, Shrimps Affair has thousands of returning customers. In fact, Derrick had just made a sale of several thousand shrimps the morning before our interview.

Despite the obstacles ahead, the shrimp farmer seems happy with the business he has built and calls it a “dream” of every hobbyist to own such a business.

Featured Image Credit: Ryo Watanabe Youtube / Photography Life

The Mid-Autumn Festival typically falls on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. This year, it falls on October 1.

Marking the end of the autumn harvest, the Mid-Autumn Festival is traditionally a time to give thanks to the gods.

It is also the time of year when the moon is at its brightest, which is why lunar legends have always been attached to the celebration.

This is also the reason why mooncakes are the main highlight of the festival, which is a symbol of reunion and happiness.

Today, you’ll find mooncakes in many varieties, from traditional flavours with lotus seed paste and egg yolk, to snowskin versions filled with everything from chocolate to champagne truffle.

For homegrown brand Golden Moments, it pioneered durian mooncake in Singapore.

From Three To One Founder

Established in 2017, Golden Moments was founded by three friends — Josiah Jeremy, Leon Chan and Samuel Ow.

However due to a “conflict in business perspectives”, the latter two co-founders have sold their shares and decided to part ways.

Leon in particular, has went ahead to start up his own durian mooncake brand called Chng Kae.

In an interview with Vulcan Post, founder Josiah shared that it was “disheartening” to see his business partner turning into his competitor, though he stressed that they are still good friends.

There are always ups and downs in the corporate world and the differences in business perspectives led to the split.

Competition is inevitable and (even) if Chng Kae (was not) our competitor, it would probably be someone else. Nevertheless, we take this as a learning experience and wish him all the best in running his new brand.

Josiah Jeremy, co-founder of Golden Moments

He added that since the founding team started out as a group of friends, boundaries often got blurred and disputes occured.

They had to lay out proper and clear SOPs and business frameworks for corporate governance to help them build a strong foundation for growth and sustainability.

Customers Are Valuable And Deserve ‘Gold’

Recounting the early days, he shared that Golden Moments was simply built upon the idea of bringing together families and loved ones through the love of durians.

That was also how their brand name came about: they wanted to advocate the brand essence of “treasuring ‘golden moments’ and celebrating relationships.”

At its core, Golden Moments aims to serve customers with the best durian experience.

“We value our customers because they deserve the best and deserve gold,” said Josiah.

This gold that he refers to comes in the form of the golden yellow flesh from the King of Fruit. In fact, all the Mao Shan Wang durians that they use in their mooncakes are of “unparalleled AAA grade”.

We work closely with our durian plantation partner in Malaysia so that we can source the best durians. Ultimately, we can guarantee that every bite of our mooncakes is pure durian luxury of the finest quality.

Josiah Jeremy, co-founder of Golden Moments

Most Expensive Mooncake In S’pore

With such high quality, it’s no surprise why Golden Moments charge such high prices for their mooncakes.

The price of Golden Moments mooncakes start from S$88.80 for a box of four.

This year, it partnered homegrown goldsmith jewellery brand SK Jewellery to launch a limited edition 24K Truffle Mao Shan Wang snowskin mooncake that costs a whopping $888.

Each set comes with a 24K gold bar, which serves as an impressive gift for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

According to their marketing research, this limited edition set is indeed the “most expensive mooncake in Singapore and probably in Asia.”

While Golden Moments specialise in durian mooncakes, it never failed to innovate and have come up with new, unique flavours such as Docello Hazelnut Chocolate Mao Shan Wang and Lychee Martini.

For these new flavours, Golden Moments conducted surveys and market research to find out what “excites the palates of Singaporeans”.

They then spent eight months of intensive R&D to get the recipe right and manufacture it.

As a relatively new startup, innovation is wired into our DNA and we aim to be vibrant and trendy. Also, the food industry in Singapore is extremely fast-paced with consumers having short attention span.

Hence, we seek to constantly innovate to produce artisanal durian treats that aren’t fad foods, but constant craves. 

Josiah Jeremy, co-founder of Golden Moments

It’s clear that they are always pushing creative boundaries in their pursuit to produce the best product and customer experience.

Josiah added he envisions Golden Moments as the “next durian revolution”.

“We are constantly at the forefront of product innovation, and aim to set the benchmark of creative and high-quality durian treats.”

Besides mooncake, some of their other durian offerings include Mao Shan Wang durian puffs, dehusked Mao Shan Wang durians, Mao Shan Wang ice cream and Mao Shan Wang macaron.

S$1.5M Sales Revenue In A Month

Golden Moments’ initial funding amount is a six-figure digit, and it took them only three months to break even.

Since its inception, their sales revenue has tripled over just three years.

The COVID-19 crisis does not seem to be posing a threat to its business, although Mid-Autumn Festivals have had to take a backseat and forced to move online.

In previous years, we had 20 to 30 booths, but now we have a mere five and (have had to) pivot to focus on online sales strategies.

However, the positive spin on this is that our operating costs have been greatly reduced so we see a higher profit margin. We (have also) collaborated with many partners, and this has bolstered our overall sales to be higher than last year’s.

Josiah Jeremy, co-founder of Golden Moments

That said, being an online-only brand with a strong social media presence have helped them thrive during this pandemic as they don’t have to bear the sunk costs of retail outlets.

During the circuit breaker period, they pivoted their operations to provide same-day delivery within three hours, and had an average of 300 to 400 deliveries per day.

At its peak, they had 600 deliveries per day.

For this year’s mooncake launch, they have hit a sales revenue of S$1.5 million in just a month.

“This puts us on track to hit our sales target of S$3 million revenue for the Mid-Autumn Festival season,” said Josiah.

Growing The Business

According to Josiah, the biggest business challenge for him is bringing Golden Moments to greater heights — and this “requires the right people with the right ambition and vision.”

With the fallout of his fellow co-founders, Josiah has had to do a company reorganisation at the start of the year to reset the working culture and foundation of the company.

Initially, I overtook all aspects of the business from marketing to production, logistics and operations, customer service, inventory and business development.

I personally conducted over 70 interviews with 10 interviews a day consecutively for a week to hire the right people for the team. It was very taxing and I felt burnt out.

Josiah Jeremy, co-founder of Golden Moments

His saving grace was his faith in God and his mentor Ivan Lee, who is also the founder of the Thai Express group of restaurants.

“Thanks to his guidance, I managed to stay positive and pull through this difficult time. We managed to streamline and improve the business, increasing daily revenue from four-digit to six-digit sales,” he said.

Besides being his mentor, Ivan is also his investor. Back in August 2018, Golden Moments secured a S$1 million seed funding from him.

With the then-fresh funding, Golden Moments planned to expand to Indonesia, Thailand, China and Hong Kong following the rising demand from these markets.

When asked about the current status on these expansion plans, Josiah said that they have already executed the plans but have had to put them on hold due to the pandemic.

Likewise, other “exciting plans” in the pipeline have also had to come to a standstill, but he hopes to resume them once the COVID-19 situation improves.

Featured Image Credit: Golden Moments

Some of you may have come across their pop-up showrooms around locations in Selangor. 

In those, you’d find a bunch of elderly folks sitting in chairs, paying close attention to young and cheery showpeople in colourful afro wigs beating on drums to celebrate the healing miracles from chronic body pains.

If you thought a lot was already going on in that sentence, the real thing might leave you even more bewildered.

What I’m talking about is the ongoing fad for Cosmo Dr. amongst the elderly in Malaysia.

It claims to be a form of physiotherapy using “high-voltage electrotherapeutic devices” to alleviate headaches, shoulder stiffness, insomnia, and constipation.

However, younger relatives of these targeted elderly have voiced their doubtful thoughts on this operation.

A Scam-Like Operation, Relatives Claim

“This is a scam operation that targets clueless elderly,” described a Redditor on the thread r/malaysia.

The Redditor went on to describe how the operation worked and his worry about how his older relatives were falling for the claims of the salespeople.

Since the second half of 2019, Cosmo Dr. has been operating in Malaysia, which functions by running pop-up showrooms around the country.

In these showrooms are chairs with mats that supposedly conduct electricity after being hooked up to a central machine that produces the currents.

These currents are what the brand claims help to alleviate a bunch of health problems that the elderly are prone to face.

To make the experience even more attrative to these old folks, the service is completely free and open for them to try every day.

However, there are several catches, of course.

Too Good To Be True

Firstly, Cosmo Dr. is still a brand promoting its own products, which can cost up to over RM12,000.

During sessions, people have been shown photo claims of illnesses being cured by the machine, ranging from cancer, stroke, diabetes, and even skin burns.

All this is to “prove” that their devices work and close sales from those who have been practically brainwashed to believe it.

Secondly, the troupe never lingers around the same area for longer than 3 months.

They move from area to area, and some fans will follow to keep attending the free sessions.

Those who are sceptical of Cosmo Dr. have concluded that this is a tactic used to create a sense of urgency to buy their products.

Some time before they actually move, the salespeople carry out psychologically manipulative tactics too.

Skeptics have highlighted the following claims by Cosmo Dr.’s salespeople as just being a few examples of their manipulative tactics:

• Lamenting that rental cost in the current area is too high, so they need to move or sell more products;
• Saying they aren’t able to sell enough products to sustain the free sessions anymore; or,
• Claiming that they’re selling so many products that the few they have left are now on discount while they’re still in the area.

As someone who’s actually been to several of these sessions in Seksyen Seventeen, Petaling Jaya, at the insistence of a close relative, I can vouch for many of these claims and reports by sceptics being true.

And as someone who personally is dealing with major health issues and getting them monitored by actual health experts, I’m a sceptic too.

What Happens There?

For more insight on how absurd the operation comes off as, let me share more details about my own experience.

The service operates from 10AM to 7.30PM, and that’s why the room is often filled mostly with old people.

Throughout the 15-minute “therapy” session, you’re instructed not to talk, sleep, or use your phone because the “radiation” will affect the therapy’s effectiveness. 

The showpeople claim that those machines “massage the blood vessels” and boost your “natural healing powers” by recharging electrons in your body.

This then “purifies dirty blood” to cure many attendees of a whole lot of diseases, even cancer. 

After, there would be a testimony sharing session where they’d go around the room to stamp our attendance cards and ask if we’ve felt any improvements from their therapy.

After collecting some stories, the showpeople would pick up a small Chinese drum to beat a rhythm while announcing the participants’ good news.

Together, they would lead everyone into raising their thumbs up and shout, “very good” in unison.

Electrotherapy Is Real, But…

Like the aforementioned younger relatives, I too have many concerns about Cosmo Dr.

There are claims that Cosmo Dr. is overselling the ability of their products, but I also couldn’t find a proper expert opinion on whether these devices work or not.

All that’s confirmed at the moment is that Cosmo Dr. has been around (especially in Singapore) for a while, at least since 2007.

Despite that, its machines are still not acknowledged by Singapore and Malaysia’s respective MOH.

Electrotherapy is a real form of therapy. It’s a gentle and non-invasive modality that works by stimulating nerves and muscles through the surface of the skin.

“We physiotherapists use electrotherapy to treat chronic pain, musculoskeletal injuries, muscle wasting and nerve pain by using targeted and controlled electrical stimulation.”

That was said by June Ho, a member of the Malaysian Physiotherapy Association (MPA) who’s been practising for 5 years in pain relief management, stroke rehabilitation and sports injuries. 

As electrotherapy varies on the device being used, she shared that it’s thought to work in a few ways:

• Sending out electrical impulses that block or interfere with the body’s pain signals, leading to reduced pain,
• Releasing endorphins that naturally decrease pain in the body,
• Stimulating muscle tissue to correct muscle atrophy,
• Creating a heating effect within the body which improves blood circulation and stimulates healing,
• Stimulating cells which reduce inflammation, promote collagen production, and inhibit pain.

However, the difference between the electrotherapy done by expert practitioners versus Cosmo Dr. is that the former’s is targetted, and the latter’s isn’t.

Electrotherapy works because it’s applied to specific areas of the body that need help.

Sitting on a mat that’s conducting electricity through your butt probably isn’t going to do much for ailments above or below that region then.

While it’s fair for us to have our doubts, I can’t confidently claim that Cosmo Dr. doesn’t work, at least until a study or research proves so.

What we can take issue with, however, is how it’s being marketed to the elderly with no study or research that claims it actually works too.

The Real Value Of Cosmo Dr.

There’s no denying it. Old people love the service. They’re happy to be there, and to come back for free every day.

As long as the machines aren’t harming their bodies in the long run, I don’t see anything wrong with them enjoying the free company and service.

But old people who are ill are also desperate for treatment.

Cosmo Dr. first lures them in with this free service which makes the elderly dependent on it.

When they move away, the elderly who want to continue enjoying the treatment can opt to follow it to the next location, or buy their machines.

They’re never forced to buy the machines, but the desperation of never getting the treatment again can create enough urgency that the elderly will take out their life savings for a purchase.

Why the urgency? Because you won’t be able to see any improvements if you don’t do it every day. 

And that’s the main issue that I, and many other relatives of those who are ensnared in Cosmo Dr.’s operations, have.

The sense of urgency that Cosmo Dr. creates later on is inarguably unethical, especially towards desperate, ill old people.

That aside, the fact that the service gets old people out of their homes to meet new friends, and get pampered by the showpeople and the machines isn’t a bad thing.

It could be argued that the “improvements” many of the elderly experience after each session could simply be the result of interacting with others and having fun doing so.

Usually, this group tends to mope about miserably at home alone, and one’s mental condition can affect the physical body negatively too.

Therefore, Cosmo Dr.’s real value to me is how it’s placing the elderly in an external environment and showering them with attention and companions.

Get Expert Help, Not A Chair Mat

With regards to actual healing through electrotherapy, June had some advice for us to share with our older relatives.

“I would recommend that these elderly groups of people actually seek professional medical advice instead of sitting on a chair where there is no proper scientific approval or without knowing how the machine’s electricity is transmitted into our bodies,” she said.

“I personally do not approve of it as I have not heard of any physiotherapy using this machine yet, nor is it approved by the Ministry of Health.”

She added that we must ensure that the currents going into our bodies don’t harm us either, which is worrying because of the lack of studies and research on Cosmo Dr.’s machines and their effectiveness.

There is no shortcut in healing your body because effort is needed to create results. Get a proper diagnosis and treatment from real and certified physiotherapists who can design a specific and correct treatment plan for your body and your health.

June Ho, an MPA-certified physiotherapist

Featured Image Credit: Cosmo Goodness Malaysia Sdn Bhd

Chilli is typically dubbed as a staple spice in Singapore.

From chilli crab to Hainanese chicken rice, chilli always seems to make an appearance, whether as the star or an accompaniment.

Singaporeans who have lived abroad for some time often fondly remember bringing along with them bottles of the red hot condiment to douse their meals in.

Not surprisingly, that is exactly what founders of MOFO Chili — Monica Josephine and Steffi Elvira (Foi) — did when they went to university overseas.

According to Monica, the duo used to fry their own chilli, and would lug at least 5kg of this fried chilli with them to the United Kingdom.

Their chilli became very well-known and loved by their friends. 

Upon relocating back to Singapore, they continued producing chilli for their friends, who cajoled them into selling it to the mass market.

The Spicy Sisters

The name MOFO was derived from fusing the first two letters from the names (Monica and Foi) together, which also led them to be referred to as the ‘Chilli Sisters’.

Monica told Vulcan Post that they originated from Manado, a city in Indonesia well-known for it spicy dishes and heavy use of chilli.

When in Singapore, Foi began cooking fried chilli inspired by those they could find in their hometown, and perfected the recipe for MOFO Chili.

Prior to starting MOFO Chili, Monica was working in corporate sales whilst Foi had a hospitality background.

Vegan, Halal, And Keto-Friendly Chilli

The sisters started off by buying raw ingredients from a wet market near their home and cooked the chillis by themselves.

Monica told Vulcan Post that their first batch of their homemade chilli was sold at the Pasar Bella Farmer’s Market back in 2013, where the response was amazing.

They later moved on to cooking at central kitchens and partnering with companies to produce the chillis for them.

Today, they have their own production kitchen, and even a plantation in Indonesia from which they harvest their own raw ingredients for chilli production.

According to Monica, MOFO Chili is versatile, suitable for cooking, marinating and dipping — all without changing the taste of each dish.

Even though Singaporeans are familiar with sambal belachan, it is in fact not vegetarian friendly. On the other hand, MOFO Chili is vegan, halal and keto-friendly.

There are also no preservatives, stabilisers or additives inside the chillies. What consumers get is purely a mixture of chillies, onion, oil and salt.

When asked about the process of creating these fiery concoctions, Monica said that the “secret is in the control of the fire and the ratio of ingredients in the chili”.

A quick perusal of the MOFO Chili online store shows that their chillis come in various spice levels, from the level five Dodge The Bullet to level ten Final Destination.

In recent years, the sisters have also been invited by the Singapore Youth Council to organise a spicy-eating competition, as well as hosted various events like the MOFO Omakase Pop-Up.

The duo sells hundreds of bottles of chilli each month.

An Even Spicier ‘Final Destination’

The Final Destination is currently the spiciest of the MOFO Chili product range.

However, Monica said that the Chilli Sisters plan to launch an even spicier version of the Final Destination, along with other product lines such as instant noodles and garlic chillis.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the sisters also revamped the MOFO Chili website to allow people all over the world to purchase their chillis.

Thus, this product line that was proudly “born and bred” in Singapore is making its way around the world.

Reaching out to international customers is also something the sisters plan to do, as well as expanding their plantation to support the growth of their product lines.

MOFO Chili has also established business-to-business partnerships with restaurants to allow more Singaporeans to get a taste of the fiery hot chilli.

Featured Image Credit: MOFO Chili, The Honeycombers

Every year, the James Dyson Award (JDA), an international design award, rounds up young innovators (consisting of current and recent design engineering students) from 27 countries and regions to find a champion design.

2020’s national winner in Malaysia has just been announced, and the recipient is Kuno, a sustainable cooler fridge that requires zero electrical power to run.

The young innovators behind it are Kuan Weiking and Theodore Garvindeo Seah from Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology, and they will be awarded RM10,000 for their winning design.

Their inspiration for Kuno came from realising that 16% of the world’s population (an estimated 1.2 billion people) still lack access to electricity.

Without electricity, lots of things that we take for granted wouldn’t be able to function. Take for example, a fridge to keep our food fresh for longer, especially in our humid climate.

However, even in urban areas, electrical power cuts or outages could still happen suddenly.

Rather than trying to go down the solar route, the two young men looked to practices from another era of civilisation for inspiration.

How Kuno Works

Centuries ago, Labu Sayong, a traditional water pitcher moulded from earth clay, was used to cool down water naturally.

This is the concept that Weiking and Theodore wanted to use for Kuno, as it required only natural resources that were in abundance and could reduce carbon footprint at the same time.

The duo uses the technique of double-wall potting and filling the passage in between the clay walls with sand. Water will then be poured in to soak the sand.

“With the help of the porous outer clay wall and evaporative cooling principle, the evaporation of the water will then draw the heat from the inner chamber by releasing it through the natural quality of the porous clay,” Weiking and Theodore described.

The natural phenomenon brings down the temperature in the chamber and cools the food that’s stored in the inner core for an extended time.

What I find cool is how they’ve made it practically impossible for you to forget to water the sand.

On top of the main fridge, they’ve created a crater for a plant bowl that you could grow an edible plant in.

The plant bowl is lined with holes, so each time you routinely water the plant, the water will travel through the holes and down into the sand.

Weiking and Theodore began the design process by first mind-mapping to identify current issues with poverty and how those living in it are affected by having no access to electricity.

“Brainstorming and research were done to incorporate the elements of sustainable materials and the study of natural renewable energy sources to make the whole idea possible,” the duo shared.

Then came the ideation sketches and the sketches of the development stages.

“Temperature testing results were also being referred and put into consideration to determine which suitable choice of materials should be used,” Weiking and Theodore described.

A Handmade Product With Potentially Vast Impact

They’ve now got a working prototype, and see a lot of opportunity for Kuno’s growth in the cottage industry.

Dictionary Time: The cottage industry is a small-scale, decentralised manufacturing business often operated out of a home rather than a purpose-built facility. They often focus on the production of labour intensive goods but face a significant disadvantage when competing with factory based manufacturers that mass-produce goods.

Investopedia

The duo predict that Kuno’s production style can help those in the stagnant cottage industry revitalise their income and generate more job opportunities to sustain livelihoods.

“Next planning is in allocating a fund into further material research, prototyping with various sizes, testing under different weather conditions and regions, collaboration with local pottery makers in creating small scale production for market testing and then to be delivered to suitable regions to fully kickstart the use of Kuno,” Weiking and Theodore said.

Big, big plans, and I wish them success.

However, I still have questions about Kuno’s overall effectiveness in keeping food fresh, such as how a user would know that the sand has been soaked enough, where Kuno should be placed, and how it keeps pesky bugs out.

Therefore, I’ve since reached out both Weiking and Theodore through Dyson and will be updating the article with their responses once I get them.

As for their ongoing race to be the international winner, the duo will now compete internationally to be shortlisted in the top 20.

• Read about JDA 2019’s national winner in Malaysia, Sarah Moi’s Eat. Easy here.
• You can learn more about KUNO here.

Featured Image Credit: Kuan Weiking and Theodore Garvindeo Seah, national winners of Malaysia for the James Dyson Award 2020.

Anyone who has thrown a house party before would probably have received countless bottles of wine as gifts.

Despite soya sauce being a staple in Singapore, few would consider it a “gift-worthy” product.

Ken Koh, the director of homegrown brand Nanyang Sauce, has managed to successfully turn that narrative around in the past three years.

Under his leadership, the 60-year-old company has embarked on a Blue Ocean Strategy — a pursuit of differentiation — and is on an upward trajectory of innovation.

Transforming A 60-Year-Old Business

Nanyang Sauce was founded by Ken’s grandfather, Tan Tiong How, who arrived in Singapore from Fujian in 1942.

He started fermenting his own soya sauce using his grandmother’s recipe to add flavour to the plain porridge that he often ate while working as a coolie.

His soya sauce soon become popular among his friends, and the late Tan started selling it door-to-door in 1951.

After years of toiling, he set up the Nanyang Sauce Factory in 1959, which has been running till this day.

The 37-year-old Ken is also quite the entrepreneur himself — he founded a startup in 2005, whilst studying in the Singapore Management University.

After 13 years of running the startup, Ken decided to return to the family business to help out in 2018.

My grandfather was the main driver of the business. After he left us in 1996, the business stopped innovating and was at the status quo for a long time.

I saw how the business stagnated, and I always wanted to come back to help. When you don’t innovate, you lose out.

Ken Koh, Director of Nanyang Sauce

Even though his mother was reluctant for him to join the business as she deemed it a “sunset industry”, he was set on reinvigorating the brand.

A Sauce Good Enough To Gift — A First In The Industry

“In the last three years since 2018, we have grown the business and broken new ground with things not done before with sauces,” said Ken.

After going on visits to more than 13 soya sauce breweries around the region, Ken realised that the way Nanyang Sauce produced their sauces was extremely different from other brands out there.

Nanyang Sauce utilises a traditional method of brewing passed down from Ken’s grandfather, and one bottle of sauce takes a whopping nine months to create.

When Ken visited the factories, he was “shocked” that they no longer made soya sauce the same way.

Most factories make use of chemical hydrolysis, and the sauce can be produced in less than a week. Sometimes, it only takes a day.

“We decided there was a key differentiating factor between our sauce and mass produced sauce, and embarked the strategy of gifting,” Ken told Vulcan Post.

Ken said that although other sauce companies are following suit with gifting, Nanyang Sauce was the first to promote the idea that a commodity like soya sauce could be used as a gift.

Though paying S$12 to S$88 for a bottle of sauce might be mind-boggling to some, Ken assures that they are a product of “a labour of love”.

Besides, they are made with only 100 per cent natural non-genetically modified soya beans, and are thus healthier, tastier and of higher quality.

Today, Nanyang Sauce has its own boutique store at South Beach Road and some of its stockists include Sinpopo Grocer, FairPrice Finest, Unpackt, and RedMart.

The Soya Sauce Academy

According to Ken, customers are always surprised that Nanyang Sauce uses such a traditional method to brew its sauces.

Thus, Ken created the Sauce Academy in 2018, where he hosts workshops to educate customers on sauce-making and appreciation.

The workshops available range from sauce appreciation, to sauce pairing and sauce making.

The third-generation family business has even secured partnerships with Klook, Airbnb and the Singapore Tourism Board to spread the knowledge about its artisanal sauces.

It is tedious, not easy work, but we are doing our part to make sure that this vanishing craft is not lost.

Just like any craftsman, if we don’t share this knowledge with the next generation, it will all be lost one day.

Ken Koh, Director of Nanyang Sauce

In fact, Ken is all about the customer experience.

To allow customers to have a taste of the sauce before buying them, the restaurant Nanyang Chicken was set up.

Nanyang Chicken sells various local favourites, all cooked with Nanyang Sauce.

According to Ken, the various chicken dishes are well received, and he is looking to franchise the brand and grow it into shopping malls.

Building Upon The Legacy Of His Ancestors

Ken’s grandfather’s vision was to make the best soya sauce in Singapore, and Ken thinks Nanyang Sauce has achieved that.

Seeing his customers enjoying the sauce and appreciating it keeps Ken motivated. However, success to him is also being able to pass down the craft of sauce making.

When his kids grow up — they are aged one and a half, and four respectively — he hopes that they will still be able to see soya sauce being made traditionally.

Now, he has big dreams to build upon his grandfather’s legacy, and create the best soya sauce in the world.

Featured Image Credit: Hao Xin Choo and Nanyang Sauce via Facebook

As entrepreneurs will know, startup funding is necessary when it comes to building the company.

Startup funding pays for incorporation, business licenses, insurance, facilities, equipment, marketing collateral and the hiring of necessary talent.

It also funds the manufacture of products, marketing and distribution of services, as well as overseas expansion.

Sea, Grab and Ninja Van are some of the widely-known startups which have been heavily invested by top investors. With that, we have compiled a list of the 13 top-funded startups and companies in Singapore:

Grab – US$10.1 Billion

Founded in 2012, Singapore-based ride-hailing startup and Southeast Asia’s first decacorn Grab has raised a total of US$10.1 billion (S$13.7 billion) in funding over 31 rounds. 

Their latest funding was raised on 3 August 2020 where it acquired another US$200 million from Seoul-based private equity firm Stic Investments.

The venture round came just six months after it secured more than US$700 million from Japan’s largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

Grab had also raised US$9.9 billion in known funding across 29 reported rounds going back to 2013, according to Crunchbase.

In 2019, it raised US$1.5 billion in a Series H round with SoftBank Vision Fund as the lead investor, followed by US$300 million with Invesco as part of the Series H round.

Recently, it was said that Alibaba is reportedly in talks with Grab to invest US$3 billion (S$4.1 billion).

The e-commerce giant could be acquiring a percentage of the Grab stock held by Uber technologies.

This could give Alibaba access to data on millions of users in eight countries, an extensive delivery fleet, and e-wallet and financial services.

Lazada – US$4.2 Billion

Lazada is the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, and has presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The unicorn company raised a total of US$4.2 billion in funding over nine rounds. Their latest funding of US$2 billion was raised on 19 March 2018 from a Secondary Market round led by Alibaba Group.

In 2017, Alibaba also invested US$1 billion into the fast-growing e-commerce company.

SEA – US$2.6 Billion

Founded in 2009 and previously known as online game developer and publisher Garena, the Singapore-based Sea Limited has raised a total of US$2.6 billion in funding over eight rounds. 

Sea Limited is the parent company of e-commerce marketplace Shopee. Besides Shopee and Garena, Sea runs SeaMoney, a digital financial services network in Southeast Asia.

In 2017, Sea listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and has a market capitalisation of more than S$25 billion as of 31 December 2019.

Their latest funding of US$1.4 billion was raised on 6 March 2019 from a post-IPO Equity round with Tencent Holdings as the lead investor.

In 2017, they raised a Series E round of US$550 million with undisclosed investors.

AirTrunk – US$1.3 Billion

Data centre platform platform and unicorn AirTrunk has raised a total of US$1.3 billion in funding over three rounds with the latest funding raised in April 2019 from a Debt Financing round.

The Debt Financing round raised US$332 million (S$450 million) to fund its expansion across Asia, including the launch of its hyperscale data centre in Singapore.

The debt financing was undertaken with three global financial institutions, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Natixis, with additional equity capital from its founder and CEO Robin Khuda, and shareholders, Goldman Sachs and TPG Sixth Street Partners (TSSP).

Previously, in another Debt Financing round in 2018 and Private Equity round in 2017, Goldman Sachs was also the lead investor.

PropertyGuru – US$740 Million

Founded in 2007, PropertyGuru is the leading property classified business in Southeast Asia, operating in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The Group has raised a total of S$740 million in funding over six rounds. It is funded by nine investors, with global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and TPG as the most recent investors.

In 2018, its series D funding round clinched US$200 million led by KKR.

Their latest funding of S$300 million was raised on 2 September 2020 from its existing investors KKR and TPG Capital.

PropertyGuru is touted as the next unicorn in 2021, as we think that with the latest funding round it will bring them on its way to a US$1 billion valuation.

Ninja Van – US$396.5 Million

Singapore-based last-mile logistics player Ninja Van was set up in 2014.

In April 2020, Ninja Van raised US$279 million in its latest Series D funding round, with investors including Grab and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Savarin’s B Capital Group.

With the latest funding round, it took the company’s total funding to US$400 million and valuation to around US$750 million, which could put it on course to become the next Southeast Asia’s US$1 billion unicorn.

Trax – US$386.9 Million

Founded in 2010, Trax is a Singapore-based technology company that provides computer vision solutions for retail.

Trax has raised a total of US$386.9 million in funding over nine rounds.

Its latest Series D round was held on 23 July 2019, where it raised US$100 million, with Chinese private equity investment firm HOPU Investment Management Company as the lead investor.

With that round, it joined Singapore’s unicorn stable – startups valued at more than US$1 billion.

In 2018, it raised US$125 million in a round of funding led by Chinese investment firm Boyu Capital.

One Championship – US$336 Million

Founded in 2011, Singapore-based mixed martial arts promotion ONE Championship has raised a total of US$336 million in funding over three rounds. 

Their latest funding of US$70 million was raised on 15 June 2020, with undisclosed investors.

In 2018, it held a Series D round led by Sequoia Capital and raised US$166 million while in 2017, it raised US$100 million after a series C investment led by Sequoia Capital India and Mission Holdings.

It hit unicorn status in 2018 when its valuation surpassed US$1 billion.

Zilingo – US$307.9 Million

Online shopping site Zilingo was founded in 2015 to help Southeast Asia’s independent retailers sell their products online.

To date, Zilingo has raised a total of US$307.9 million in funding over six rounds. Their latest funding was raised on 5 December 2019 for an undisclosed amount.

In February 2019, the Singapore headquartered startup raised a US$226 million Series D led by Sequoia Capital India.

Zilingo is touted to be the next unicorn in 2021 with its current valuation of US$970 Million.

Kacific – US$307.3 Million

Founded in 2013, Kacific is a Singapore-based broadband satellite operator that provides affordable high-speed broadband to Asia Pacific.

Kacific has raised a total of US$307.3 million in funding over three rounds. 

Their latest funding of US$160 million was raised on 6 December 2019 from a Debt Financing round led by Asian Development Bank and GuarantCo.

BIGO – US$272 Million

Founded in 2014, BIGO is a fast-growing Singapore technology company specialising in AI technology with presence in over 150 countries and over 400 million monthly active users.

The startup is behind popular live-streaming app Bigo Live, video-sharing app Like, and gamecasting platform Cube TV.

In early 2019, one of China’s top live-streaming companies, YY acquired Bigo in a deal worth US$1.45 billion.

YY was the lead investor in Bigo’s US$272 million fundraising round in June 2018, acquiring a 31.7 per cent stake.

Carousell – US$262.8 Million

Founded in 2012, Carousell is a consumer marketplace for buying and selling new and secondhand goods.

Carousell has raised a total of US$262.8 million in funding over 12 rounds with their latest funding raised on 15 September 2020.

On 15 September, Carousell announced that it had raised US$80 million from South Korean internet giant Naver.

In 2019, it raised US$56 million in a corporate round with Pobts as the lead investor.

Carousell is touted to be the next unicorn in 2021 with its current valuation at over US$900 million — pushing it closer to a US$1 billion valuation or unicorn status following the Naver deal.

RWDC Industries – US$168 Million

Founded in 2015, RWDC Industries develops sustainable biodegradable solutions, with a focus on biodegradable, water-based coatings for paper-based packaging.

The company has raised a total of US$168 million in funding over three rounds. 

Their latest funding was raised on 5 May 2020 from a Series B round of US$133 million led by CPV / CAP Pension Fund Coop., Flint Hills Resources, International SA and Vickers Venture Partners.

How To Get Funding In S’pore?

Funding usually begins with an initial pre-seed and/or seed round, which then progresses from Series A to B, C and beyond.

Funds are typically injected by investors, usually angel investors or venture capital firms, which then receive a stake in the startup.

Singapore is lauded as one of the best places to start a business, and the good thing is, there are many available government schemes here to help new businesses with funding.

Recently, Facebook announced that it will award S$4.75 million in grants to support over 800 local small businesses.

Just last month, as part of enhanced measures to boost the local jobs and startups scene, Startup SG Founder Programme is awarding first-time entrepreneurs a higher start-up capital grant of S$50,000, up from S$30,000.

So keep your eyes open — there are definitely plenty of funds and resources available that can help to give your business that financial jumpstart.

Featured Image Credit: Grab / Ninja Van / Carousell / The Lowdown – Momentum Works / ONE Championship

When Roland Tee retired as an auditor in 2009, he realised from reading newspapers that there needed to be a more environmentally friendly way to dispose of our country’s waste.

“The more I read, the more I realised that there is so much news related to waste management issues, weaknesses and conundrums, which aren’t met with effective solutions,” he said. 

“Technologies that have been constructed are often high in cost in terms of investment, operating expenses, and maintenance. They frequently break down and often end up left idle and not operated.”

So, he met up with a few friends who were university professors to find out if there was a way to burn garbage without using diesel. 

That became his baseline to create a machine that virtually left no carbon footprint behind.

“I was in my early 60s in 2010 when I came up with the first prototype. I went through numerous trial and errors, part by part, section by section of the ASHER before putting all the pieces together as a workable unit,” Roland shared.

Putting The Invention To Use

The ASHER is essentially a tiny trash incinerator that’s 6 metres tall and can reduce most solid waste materials (except glass and metals) into ash.

It uses built-in solar panels to continuously operate once just a small fire is lit in it, which means it can burn nonstop and is self-sustainable, as long as trash is being fed to it.

The longer the machine is in continuous operation, the higher its internal temperature grows.

In it is also a filtration system that filters out any toxic compounds and gases from the burning, and what leaves the machine is claimed to simply be lukewarm steam.

To make sure his invention was safe and environmentally friendly, Roland put it through extensive tests.

Some of the laboratory agencies he went to were SGS and MYCO2, which are inspection and certification companies for industrial and chemical products. 

“The results proved that the ASHER could comply with both compliance and environmental aspects. For example, the discharge coming out from the ASHER is substantiated and backed up by the tests that I have conducted,” he said.

It cost Roland over RM3 million to create the current machine being used today. It’s also gone through 3 generations since its prototype in 2010.

Initially promoting his invention through a small network of friends, Roland eventually approached Pamarai Sdn Bhd for a potential partnership to expand and grow the ASHER.

“I decided to form a long term working relationship with Pamarai as they’re experienced in the waste industry, making them a very suitable partner to help me to get the ASHER out there more effectively,” he said.

Pamarai’s executive director Pang Swee Lei and chairman Datuk Mohamed Razeek were impressed by the invention too.

“The moment we had a deep understanding of its simple principles combined with applied technologies, we realised it is destined to be a game-changer,” they said.

Now, the ASHER is exclusively distributed and registered under Pamarai and costs around half a million ringgit per unit.

As of today, 75 units of it have been deployed to 13 countries including Singapore, China, India, Nigeria, Australia, and the Philippines, to name a few.

Turning Waste Into New Revenue Streams

Because the machine is so small, we were reminded of community recycle bins placed around neighbourhoods for the public to dump old clothes, electronics and other recyclables.

But the team told us that this is not the case for the ASHER. Although the machine is safe and easy to use, it can still be a hazard if handled improperly. 

“Ideally, the ASHER should be manned and operated by a trained and designated personnel, whilst the accessibility to the public shall be limited until the point of dropping off at the temporary storage containers, before loading into the ASHER,” said Datuk Mohamed Razeek.

However, there are currently two ASHERs that are accessible to the Malaysian public. 

“One is in Taman Sejahtera Rakyat Sg. Toh Pawang, Kedah which is being operated, maintained and managed by the kampung folks themselves,” Pang said. 

“The other is at the recycling centre in Seksyen U2 TTDI Jaya, Shah Alam which is owned by the local council, Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam.”

Apart from these publicly accessible ones, Pang told us that most of the ASHER units are used by private companies to manage their own waste within their premises.

Ash from the machine can be repurposed as soil conditioner. By adding a simple mixture of soils and animal dung, it can be suitably categorised as fertiliser. 

“Compared with the lowest grade and cheapest fertiliser, those produced from the ASHER can be cheaper by up to 40%,” said Pang. 

“The ASHER’s users are reprocessing the ash and selling it, while reusing their waste within their own premise for general landscaping.”

A Small Machine Aiming To Solve A Global Problem

In the Philippines, the local municipal in Marikina set up an incentive programme where residents would be rewarded by bringing in waste generated from their homes or those cleaned up off the streets to the ASHER.

Thus, it was able to reduce the cost of waste collection by 75% per tonne.

Its resulting ash is mixed with sawdust and sold as fertiliser to farmers, allowing a new income stream for the district.

However, the team told us that some materials burnt in the machine like diapers and plastics can’t be turned into fertiliser. 

“It can still be used for multiple purposes such as general landscaping and conversion into building materials.”

“A temple in India turns ash into sand bricks, which are used to repair the temple, build more benches, and create pavements around the grounds,” Datuk Mohamed Razeek said.

Government agencies have expressed interest in collaborating with Pamarai to market and introduce the ASHER overseas through a government-to-government programme.

They are currently in the final stage to obtain a MyHijau certification mark for the ASHER.

It’s a green label given out by the Malaysian Green Technology Corporation, an agency under the purview of the Ministry of Environment.

“The ASHER ultimately can help the government to save a large amount of cost spent in waste management annually,” he said.

“Evolving from there, the government can utilise the ability of the ASHER to provide service to other countries to assist in waste disposal issue, especially the issue of illegal and non-recyclable plastics.”

• You can learn more about the ASHER here.
• You can read more about Malaysian Startups here.

Featured Image Credit: Roland Tee, inventor of the ASHER

As Singapore transitions into the fourth quarter of the year, it has become apparent that the retail sector’s recovery is likely to be slow and lengthy.

Within the first few months of 2020, Singapore saw various brands leaving its shores and opting to move online instead.

It was announced that Singapore’s retail sales in May fell 52.1 per cent – its largest drop since record-keeping began in 1986.

Associate Professor Lawrence Loh of the National University of Singapore Business School was quoted saying that it was probably “just the beginning, and not the end, of sales bottoming.”

More recently, Singapore’s beloved local bookstore BooksActually, and British fashion brand Topshop and Topman also announced their closures, and plans to move online.

However, even as brands are expanding their presence online, simply being online might not boost their sales significantly — consumer sentiment is still low, and many are tightening their purse strings.

Will Singapore’s many ‘buy now, pay later’ services solve this burgeoning problem in the retail sector?

What Is ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’?

‘Buy now, pay later’ (BNPL), is exactly what it sounds like —  services that allow consumers to break up payments on items into installments.

These services have already made their way into Singapore, and are typically available as an option when shopping online.

For example, Rely Installment allows customers to break up a purchase into three interest-free monthly payments. It is available in stores such as Secret Lab, Qoo10 and Omnidesk.

Another service, Atome, also provides similar services.

This September, Singapore startup hoolah launched a first-of-its-kind in-store Buy Now Pay Later solution.

To purchase an item at the store using hoolah, consumers can simply scan a QR code using the hoolah mobile app. They then enter the total order amount, which will be divided into three monthly payments and automatically deducted.

Since August, hoolah’s solutions have already been implemented at over 150 retail outlets islandwide.

Even Singapore’s ride-hailing giant Grab has hopped onto the bandwagon with “PayLater Instalments”.

Reducing The Rate Of Abandoned Baskets

How many times have you filled up a shopping cart online, only to leave your items sitting in it for weeks on end?

According to Singtel MyBusiness, 25 per cent of consumers who abandoned their shopping carts did so because of high prices. Another 41 per cent were “not ready to purchase”.

This problem was also one of the defining factors that led to the founding of hoolah in 2018.

According to Stuart Thornton, co-founder and CEO of hoolah, up to 75 per cent of e-commerce consumers would abandon their online shopping carts after looking and adding items to them.

“This is a massive missed opportunity for retailers,” he said.

With the introduction of BNPL services in online stores, customers are able to get the items they require instantly, without having to pay the full cost upfront.

Since most BNPL solutions keep interest rates at 0 per cent, customers do not feel the pinch of having to pay extra for the same product, and are more likely to make the purchase.

According to a media statement by hoolah, its website visitors increased by 500 per cent over the past six months, with a sevenfold increase in total transactions made via the platform.

Furthermore, at the time of its launch, Atome already managed to partner with 500 merchants.

These numbers are a testament that BNPL solutions are well-received by customers, and possibly welcome as another lifeline for retail stores.

Improved conversion rates of shopping carts also show that these solutions are indeed showing results.

Hoolah said that it had managed to deliver a 20 to 40 per cent increase in conversion and basket size, while Atome saw a 230 per cent growth in online transactions during the circuit breaker period.

Taking Online Solutions Offline

A study conducted by Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and payments technology company Visa found that local brands were losing out to online alternatives.

As retail brands scramble to carry out their digital transformation efforts, implementing in-store solutions can act as a temporary buffer to boost sales.

It is even more critical to innovate around traditional practices, in order to help all businesses survive.

– Stuart Thornton, co-founder and CEO of hoolah, in an interview with The Startup Growth

Hoolah aims to “be at the forefront of driving the economy’s recovery” with its new physical in-store solutions.

According to Paulino Moreno, the Regional Managing Director of fashion lingerie and apparel retailer 6IXTY8IGHT, making BNPL solutions available in their online and offline stores enables the brand to reach out to its target market more effectively.

‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Cannot Solve All Problems

The BNPL service has been common in Western markets for a long time, and some even posit that it’s what is keeping some retailers alive.

As BNPL services are typically targeted at millennials, there are concerns that this group of customers will end up incurring more debt in the long run.

Furthermore, Singapore has long promoted financial discipline and prudence as the way to go for both the government and consumers.

In a thread about BNPL services on financial community Seedly, most contributors said that they would prefer to pay upfront when they had the means to, rather than paying in installments.

Many also recommended not making the purchase if one did not have the means to pay for it in full.

This shines a light on the consumer sentiment behind BNPL services.

Even though the service might have taken off and become popular among select groups of people, it is unlikely that it will be come the holy grail for retailers to boost their sales.

Featured Image Credit: hoolah

Entrepreneur Samuel Chua takes the concept of “multi-tasking” to a whole new level.

The Singaporean co-founded Singapore’s first ‘happy hour’ app while holding down a full-time job and running another tech startup.

Named ULO, the new ‘happy hour’ app is a booking platform that offers up to 70 per cent off beauty and lifestyle services during off-peak hours.

The time-based discounts are a new spin on conventional promotions in deal apps like Fave, Burpple, and ShopBack.

Time To Get Your Money’s Worth

On ULO, you can instantly reserve appointments at specific timeslots which are heavily discounted.

To illustrate, a merchant on ULO can offer a 70 per cent discount for a 2pm slot on a Monday.

Subsequently, they can decrease the discount rates by 10 per cent every hour until it hits a 40 per cent discount for a 5pm booking.

In-app, all discounts are direct discounts. That means there’s no need to redeem e-vouchers or claim cashback.

The discounts listed on the app also apply to all services of the shop, unless otherwise stated.

To discover a service, you can browse through merchants listed across seven different beauty and lifestyle categories.

ULO also allows you to filter your searches by time and service, which makes it ideal for last-minute bookings.

ULO: A Virtual Standee

Samuel first hit upon the idea for ULO in 2018 when he was going for a haircut at his barber.

He realised that he was always being asked to come in during regular business hours (between 9am and 6pm) because shops experienced low footfall while everyone was away at work.

Retail shops tend to empty out during off-peak hours so to boost business, Samuel’s barber had a standee outside their shop offering a 30 per cent discount between 2 and 4pm.

“(But) it made no sense,” says Samuel. “The shop was located on the second floor at a corner, so the standee would miss the regular crowd since it would only be seen by people who walked past your shop.”

Time-based services like barber shops never had this problem addressed. So ULO was launched in response to a “virtual standee”, with far greater reach potential.

It’s now dubbed as Singapore’s first “time-based management platform.”

The project was piloted in late 2019 and has slowly amassed a growing user base — over 1,800 bookings have been made in-app.

Today, it has over 2,100 active monthly users and 293 merchants onboard.

You Can’t Multitask Without The Right Partner

On top of developing ULO, Samuel wears multiple hats running a tech startup, Coconut Lab, while holding down a full-time job at a local coworking startup.

Samuel also accredits his work to the faith he has in his right-hand man and co-founder, Chuen Lum Loh (CL).

The two first met in 2015. At that time, Samuel was pursuing an eight-year career in JLL as a regional real estate consultant.

He hired CL to help with a pet project building a real estate website and was impressed by his work.

“He’s reliable, precise and able to translate business to tech very easily.”

Dissatisfied with his corporate job, Samuel left his real estate career in 2017 “to try something new” and proposed kickstarting a business to CL.

“Young people don’t waste time,” Samuel explains. “We wanted to go, so let’s just go.”

The two launched Coconut Lab in 2018, an app and web development company. The company serves clients across the Asia Pacific and employs a lean team of 15 across Singapore and Indonesia.

The startup is responsible for ULO’s in-house app development, though the two remain separate entities. Coconut Lab has also developed SwapSwipe, another eco-friendly exchange platform.

In 2019, Samuel joined a local coworking startup in their enterprise sales department to drive regional strategy and business development.

“I wanted to learn from the big boys,” he explains.

Despite the immense effort it must take to run three gigs at once, Samuel is remarkably laid back about his accomplishments.

“It’s really just time management,” he explains.

He also counted on his strong partnership with CL, who he trusted to run Coconut Labs concurrently.

“We complement each other,” he surmises.

Growing ULO

Covid-19 has impacted the growth of the app, though it has since bounced back.

ULO received over 3,000 monthly average users pre-Covid, which dropped to 500 at the height of the circuit breaker and bounced back to 2,000 to 2,500 users last month.

More shops have been coming forward asking for inclusion on the platform, says Samuel, adding that off-peak hours will always be a universal problem for retail.

Despite the hurdles they face, ULO will be actively expanding.

If all goes as planned, ULO will be revamping its user experience and expanding its suite of merchants to include fitness brands and activities.

ULO 2.0 is designed for released in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Where others might balk at his workload, Samuel is living the dream.

“I wanted to build something…(entrepreneurship and IT is) what I really enjoyed.”

Featured Image Credit: ULO