[This article is a paid feature on Malaysia Airports.]

Author’s Blurb: “One of the most exciting parts of travelling internationally is the chance to shop at duty-free zones to buy snacks, gifts and toys for cheap. And as a smart shopper this new e-commerce site should entice you with their deals.”

Sadly, the current condition has made it impossible for us to travel abroad and shop for duty-free goodies to bring back to our families as souvenirs or something to indulge ourselves in. I’m guilty of buying Disney-themed keychains for my family whenever I travel abroad.

And if you’re like me and you like to shop for friends and families on a bargain, or miss the experience of travel shopping for goodies at airport prices, then you’re in luck.

Malaysia Airports recently launched shopMYairports, their very own new e-commerce site for duty-absorbed goods. To add icing on the cake, the goods can even be delivered right to your home, without you needing to travel internationally.

Did you know: There are differences between duty-free and duty-absorbed goods. 

• Duty-free: Goods purchased that are free from tax/duty.
• Duty-absorbed: Goods purchased that have their tax/duty absorbed by the airport retailers.

A Diverse Choice Of Tax-Absorbed Goodies

In terms of retailers, you can find products from shops you should be familiar with from the airport such as Eraman, Karyaneka, Retail One and Sprint-Cass.

Example: I did a quick search for fragrances on the site and the Burberry Touch EDT 100ML caught my eye. It is originally priced at RM349 on Burberry Malaysia’s official site. But on shopMYairports, you can get it for just RM296.65.

But if fragrances aren’t your thing, you can still opt to shop around for electronics. One of my favourite in-ear earphones, the Sony WF-1000XM3, is priced at RM799 on the site.

Admittedly, you can potentially get a cheaper price from other e-commerce platforms, but you can’t be 100% sure that they are genuine products. Because shopMYairports only works with their own retailers, you can expect it to be authentic.

The team is also hard at work to add more products onto the site. They are confident in the platform’s ability to help out their retail partners as they view it as a more sustainable initiative in the long run. 

They also informed us that they’ll be running a few enticing deals on the platform:

1. If you spend RM250 on the platform, you’ll get a RM50 voucher to be used on the platform (limited to the first 1,000 customers).
2. With every RM200 spent in a single receipt and paid with a Maybank card, you can get RM10 cashback.
3. Discounts of up to 40% on the platform.
4. Get free shipping with RM300 spent on a single receipt.

Dato’ Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh, the Group CEO of Malaysia Airports, said this is simply the first phase of shopMYairports.

They are also looking to add new on-ground services such as ‘Click and Collect’ enabling travellers to shop online and then collecting their purchase at counters when they arrive. And if you’re feeling fancy, they plan to have concierge services that’ll deliver the goods directly to your gate or to your seat mid-flight.

Working Exclusively With Brick And Mortar Shops

Representatives from Malaysia Airports said this is also the first travel-retail e-commerce platform in Malaysia that only works with airport retailers, specifically their brick and mortar shops.

With lower foot traffic at the airports due to the pandemic, retailers had struggled to make sales, so Malaysia Airports devised this sustainable new sales platform to help them expand their market beyond the airport. 

But, this doesn’t mean that the products listed will be more expensive. 

“The launch of shopMYairports is an important step in our journey to make our airports future-ready. As Malaysia’s main airport operator, we have to ensure that we remain agile and relevant while navigating within a fast-changing consumer landscape,” said Dato’ Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh, the Group CEO of Malaysia Airports.

He believes the e-commerce market in Malaysia will grow this year and it is the perfect chance for Malaysia Airports to capitalise on it. 

Helping Businesses Recover And Grow

Malaysia Airports have put in place a few programmes such as a relief package which sees 650 retail tenants enjoying a rental reduction of up to 50% for six months in 2020.

They also unveiled a new airport retail rental model where the retailers can get up to 30% reduction in rental starting from 2021.

Dato’ Mohd Shukrie hopes shopMYairports will contribute to at least 10% of the annual airport retail sales in the next several years.

And if you’re someone who has itchy shopping fingers from the MCO period, the launch of shopMYairports should entice you to do some bargain shopping for upcoming birthdays or Christmas (which is just four months away).

Bottom Line: “I’m personally still interested to see if they’ll be adding new gadgets or potentially games onto their platform so I can enjoy some duty-absorbed shopping.”

• Shop now from shopMYairports here.
• For the FAQs of shopMYairports, click here.
• Follow @shopMYairports on Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates.

Featured Image Credit: Malaysia Airports

Malaysia is known for its rich rubber plantations because of its ideal climate, soil for rubber, and land space.

Overshadowed by latex gloves, a lesser-known export of the country’s rubber products are condoms.

During an economic crash and the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, two brothers with an entrepreneurial mindset turned their father’s rubber plantation into a condom factory.

Today, we know this this company as Karex Berhad.

The World’s Largest Condom Manufacturer

Karex is the world’s largest condom manufacturer, churning out more than 5 billion condoms a year and exporting them to over 140 countries. 

The company supplies condoms to the world’s best-known brands.

Some examples are Durex and ONE condoms, the latter of which made the controversial rendang and durian flavoured condoms.

In addition to being a supplier, the company also sells condoms directly to customers through its own brand, Carex. 

Beyond the consumer market, they supply condoms in bulk to groups like the United Nations and the World Health Organization for use in the prevention of the spread of HIV.

The manufacturing company was founded 30 years ago by brothers, Goh Siang and Goh Leng Kian. Since then, it has been a family business run by two generations over 3 decades. 

Their grandnephew, Goh Miah Kiat, has taken over the role of CEO at Karex today.

Homegrown Rubber Plantation

Karex traces its history to a rubber tree farm and rubber factory owned by Goh Huang Chiat in Muar, Johor. 

Part of a wave of Chinese migrants who came to Southeast Asia in the late 1800s, he was in search of better economic opportunities. 

“He didn’t want to be a rubber tapper or own estates. He actually went on to buy rubber, process them, and sold it to people,” said Goh Miah Kiat.

According to Forbes, he opened a small sundry shop on a rubber estate to barter rice, sugar, and other daily necessities for rubber sheets.

The Chinese immigrant eventually became wealthy enough to send his sons to study overseas.

Soon after came the global commodities crash in the mid-1980s.

Malaysia’s rubber producers had to find new ways to sustain their businesses. Hence, they turned to making rubber products like gloves and condoms instead.

Two of Goh’s UK-educated sons, Goh Siang and Goh Leng Kian, founded the condom factory in 1988.

With their backgrounds in chemical and mechanical engineering respectively, they built and designed condom machines from scratch. 

And it was a perfect time to do so too. The HIV/AIDS crisis was spreading and public health organisations were promoting the use of condoms to the public. 

The family lost everything from their previous business and even sold their home to pool money into the factory, where they eventually moved into as well.

“Everyone in the family chipped in. I had aunties who worked 3 jobs. They had to take personal loans and as they were teachers, they did extra tuition to pump money into Karex,” Miah Kiat said in an interview with The Malaysian Insight.

Machines were also limited and slow. With no money to back them up, the whole family would gather around the TV to pack condoms together every night.

Rapid Expansion Through The Fight Against HIV

By 1999, the company had grown to 60 employees, with an annual revenue of US$1.9 million as of 2016.

Goh Miah Kiat returned from studying economics and management at the University of Sydney to take over sales and marketing.

He signed with large high-volume customers like the UN and World Health Organization who were leading the global fight against HIV/AIDS. This move helped Karex to expand rapidly. 

The company has also completed several international acquisitions of companies like UK brand Pasante, US brand ONE condoms, and a UK bespoke condom-maker called TheyFit.

Its own brand, Carex, is a bestseller in the Middle East.

It was listed on Bursa Malaysia in 2013 and became the world’s biggest condom-maker where Goh Miah Kiat was chief executive.

As of 2016, the Goh family retains a 56% stake in the business.

In 2016, Goh Siang made it to the Forbes’ Malaysia’s 50 Richest list at No. 48 with a total net worth of US$205 million (RM864.5 million).

This year, COVID-19 forced the factory to operate at 50% capacity, which sparked worrying reports of a global condom shortage.

However, that didn’t stop them from reaching a higher net profit this year.

The Edge Markets reported that Karex’s net profits for the fourth quarter which ended June 30, 2020, stood at RM1.43 million.

This was in comparison to a net loss at RM1.01 million a year earlier.

In addition to condoms, Karex also produces personal lubricants and sterile latex protective equipment for medical procedures.

For example, ultrasound probe covers and lubricating jelly. However, Forbes reported that it only makes up 4% and 3% of sales. Condoms remain prevalent at 93%.

To date, Karex is the global leader in condom and lubricant manufacturing with operations across the US, UK, Malaysia and Thailand. 

We’re lucky in a way that condoms are a product that is not defined by fashion, or race or religion, or whatever it is. It’s one size that fits pretty much all.

Goh Miah Kiat, CEO of Karex.

• You can learn more about Karex Berhad here.
• You can read more about other Malaysian startups here.

Featured Image Credit: Karex Berhad

The Monday of August 3, 2020 would’ve been any other regular workday for most of us.

But as for June Wee, a Senior Community Manager at Colony, a luxury coworking space in Malaysia, her Monday morning started rather alarmingly when she received a text message on her way to work.

It was from her guest (what Colony calls their members), asking a rather odd question.

“What’s the shipping duration like if I was to send something to Langkawi?” June recalled the question asked by her guest.

It turns out that her guest’s boss urgently needed his spare laptop in Colony shipped to Langkawi by Wednesday. His current laptop broke and he had a crucial meeting to attend on Thursday.

Thinking Of Solutions Outside Of The Box

After a few calls, June found that most courier services would not be able to deliver it by Wednesday. For example, DHL could only make the delivery by next Monday, and on Friday for UPS.

And those two were the fastest couriers out of the eight she contacted. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, courier services had to adhere to new and lengthier procedures for deliveries across states.

The clock was ticking, so June and her guest needed a solution and quick. Then, they struck gold.

“To our surprise, flying over to Langkawi was one of the cheapest options. My guest decided that they would assign someone from their team, or anyone else they knew, to go.” June had another suggestion: someone from Colony’s team could personally deliver the laptop too.

However, no one was available for the trip, so June stepped up. 

Although the guests were happy to pay, we found out from June that Colony has actually absorbed the costs instead.

A Whole Fund Dedicated To Guest Happiness

It’s easy to say that this sounds really out of Colony’s job scope or offerings. 

After all, what’s a coworking space doing, sending a team member all the way across state borders to deliver 1 laptop and in this current situation? And this is what Colony meant when they want to bring more to the table when it comes to their notion of hospitality.

To start with, they have a Guest Happiness Fund that Community Managers are given full liberty to spend on guests, capped at RM100 per day for each guest.

It’s usually used for surprising guests if they’re having a bad day or in need of a little pick-me-up during work. For example, buying an extra mouse for a guest to keep in her Colony office, as she would often forget to pack hers from home.

Since the flight was well above their RM100 allowance, June explained her guest’s predicament to her General Manager, Nitaya, and got the green light. 

That’s how she found herself on a flight to Langkawi with the spare laptop on Wednesday morning.

Upon her arrival, her guest’s boss was shocked to see June instead of a random Colony team member. He even brought her to her favourite beach in Langkawi as a show of gratitude, before she got on the same-day flight back to KL.

June’s journey is just one of many instances where Colony went above and beyond with their hospitality services to guests.

Constantly Building On Their Trademark Hospitality

And to Colony, June’s instance of surpassing the daily Guest Happiness Fund isn’t the first time it has happened.

Alan Woo, another Senior Community Manager at Colony told us, “It’s not uncommon for a Community Manager to do a ‘wow’ moment for our guest which surpasses the fund we’ve placed every now and then.”

One such moment was when one of their guests (Software Q), upgraded their office in Colony to take up the biggest private suite at their KLCC, Vipod Residence branch.

As a sign of warm welcome and congratulations, the Colony team custom ordered acrylic signage for the guest, complete with their company logo. The signage was then placed in the corridor of the hallway leading to their suite.

“We disguised our intent by asking for their logo under the pretext of updating our directory that we had,” Alan shared.

“The signage got completed and installed in under a week which was timely as our guests shared with us that they were also in the midst of getting a signange done for their office too. . Needless to say, the owner was shocked and really touched by our efforts when he came over after the long weekend.”

Providing Hospitality To Guests During COVID-19

During MCO when fewer guests were at Colony, the team didn’t limit their hospitality to just within those four walls.

Instead, they extended it to reach out to each and every one of their guests for a virtual check-in.

When they found out some of their guests had to return to their home countries due to COVID-19, Colony’s team packed a special care package containing all the travel essentials they may need. 

These included face masks which came with a plastic holder, hand sanitisers and other COVID-19 prevention necessities.

To help businesses counter the effects of COVID-19, Colony has also rolled out a new Business Encouragement Initiative, giving out 3 months of free rental and 50% off on their meeting room and event spaces in KL Sentral. 

You can also find June there as she is one of the Community Managers in KL Sentral.

Having experienced Colony’s hospitality firsthand myself (and so have my colleagues, multiple times in the past), we can say it really is on a different level.

You can request one thing and they’ll deliver it in a way that’s better than expected, and sometimes they do it before you even think about requesting for it.

Being a higher-end coworking space (with matching membership fees), I would say that I would expect this much from them though if I were a member myself. Even despite that, they’ll still find ways to surprise you.

• You can find out more about Colony coworking space here.
• You can read more of what we’ve written on Colony here.

Featured Image Credit: Colony 

After graduating from junior college in 2011, John Chung embarked on a solo backpacking trip across Southeast Asia to raise funds and help orphanages in the region.

When crossing the border between Thailand and Laos, he came across a huge wholesale market that sells second-hand shoes.

Albeit in “terrible condition”, the shoes looked great and it triggered John to sell them in Singapore.

He ended up buying a huge number of shoes and lugged them back here to sell.

“I had to learn how to clean and polish the shoes in order to fetch a higher sale price. While cleaning and polishing the shoes, I began to be fascinated by the fact that some of these leather shoes could really withstand the test of time,” said the 28-year-old.

“After polishing, the shoes looked as good as new. I started to fall deeply in love with the craft of polishing shoes, and started to nosedive into the industry, learning all I can about the trade.”

First Stint In The Shoe Industry

John went on to sell the shoes at local weekend flea markets.

On other days, he took on a shoe retail job, working at Takashimaya for Nine West as a sales assistant for several months.

At his flea booth, many customers would ask him on the best ways to clean and maintain leather shoes. The incessant queries led him to cleaning shoes for his customers on a regular basis.

“It then dawned on me that nobody else was providing such services in Singapore. People were actually looking for quality shoe shine and shoe repair services,” said John.

It quickly turned into a full-fledged business. Right after he completed his national service, the Victoria Junior College alumnus started up Mason and Smith as a one-man operation in 2013.

He had earned a place at Nanyang Technological University’s Art, Design and Media course, but chose to ditch his degree and start the business at the tender age of 21.

His parents were quite apprehensive in his career choice as they wanted him to pursue a degree instead, which is seen as a “safety net” and a building block to help pave the way for a corporate career.

“Many of my friends and relatives were reserved and had realistic concerns about how much I can make … (but) I’m glad that I chose this path instead as it forced me to ‘grow up’ faster than my peers,” shared John.

S’pore’s First Artisanal Shoe Shine And Repair Store

Mason and Smith is Singapore’s first and only artisanal shoe shine and shoe repair store. It provides premium shoe shine and repair services, and also retail welted imported footwear and shoe care accessories.

In contrast, many other stores are “mostly either a repair store or a shoe retail store,” said John.

He added that Mason and Smith undertakes many unique restorative projects for shoes, bags, belts, wallets and even furniture.

(We take) pains to repair and restore each and every item meticulously. This is something that is quite hard to find because many of the other cobblers do not possess the right knowledge and technicality to deal with antiques, vintages and special projects (such as) sneakers (and) boots.

As such, we are able to repair many other items that the normal stores may not be able to.

– John Chung, founder of Mason and Smith

A full comprehensive shoe shine costs anywhere between S$65 and S$120, depending on the condition of the shoe, while shoe repair and recolouring starts from S$150.

Restorative works for furniture and larger items, on the other hand, starts from S$400.

Majority of the repairs are all done by hand, which takes two or three times longer to complete.

“I am reluctant to shorten the lead time for immediate collection because of the sheer amount of hours we have to dedicate in order to provide for a quality we are happy and satisfied with,” he explained.

Mason and Smith also works with many global shoemakers for bespoke commissions and client events.

They have worked with many renowned shoemakers such as Yohei Fukuda and TYE Shoemaker, as well as shoe brands like Joseph Cheaney in the past two years, according to John.

He added that before COVID-19 took place, the team makes regular trips to UK and Japan to visit shoe factories, shoemakers and shoe shine stores or any other shoe-related shop.

“Through these trips, we exchange, learn and apply what is relevant to us. We are also able to establish relationships with a larger network of shoemakers and brands from around the world, and use this to provide advice and connect these clients to the respective brands.”

He Is The World Shoe-Shining Champion In 2018

John said that he has been “lucky” enough to be able to have apprenticeships with several renowned shoemakers in Japan and around the region, who have imparted a tremendous amount of knowledge to him.

In 2017, he wanted to join the World Shoe-Shining Championship but he was unable to participate as he was stationed in Hong Kong for a shoe-making apprenticeship.

He promised himself to join a year later, and that’s exactly what he did.

The Championship is an annual event organised by the leading authorities on classic shoes for men, Shoegazing and The Shoe Snob. It was held at The London Super Trunk Show, where brands from all over the world gather to promote their craft.

“I wanted to see where I stand on an international level,” explained John.

“To ensure that I can achieve the best results for the competition, I practiced and worked hard as everything was self-funded such as the flights and accommodations to the UK.”

He spent many hours honing the craft of shoe-shining and perfecting the technique of achieving the best shine.

As the saying goes, hard work and practice pays off. He emerged as the world champion, beating two other finalists.

I actually did not expect to win the championship back in the day. Shoe shining was hardly recognised in Singapore and I had no one else to consult.

Those who also entered the competition were already professional shoe- shiners in their home countries and I thought they were way more experienced than I was. I was really glad to win the competition as it shows that my hard work really paid off.

– John Chung, founder of Mason and Smith

Starting Up With S$700

Recounting his business journey, John lamented that the first few years of running Mason and Smith was a “struggle”.

Selling at flea markets was simply a means to clear his inventory of second-hand shoes and earn some cash.

At the flea markets, I wasn’t making much and had to get my ex-girlfriend to buy me lunch sometimes. If I didn’t sell any shoes, I wouldn’t have any money to spend.

I barely went out because I’ve emptied my bank account on the shoes. On many occasions, (my) bank (account) was left with less than a dollar in it.

– John Chung, founder of Mason and Smith

Moreover, he was a “lowly-paid conscript” back in National Service, so he didn’t have much savings to fall back on.

He started the company buying and selling second shoes with only S$700 without any external funding.

“I had to plough my profits back into the business for many years before we were able to open our own physical space in 2018. (Before that), we were only a shop-in-shop concept,” said John.

Having to grow the business organically was one of the biggest struggles because he had to be resourceful and be really careful with every single penny spent.

“There wasn’t a big marketing budget to blow on advertisements to generate leads — word of mouth was the only thing we relied on, so I worked hard to make sure every single customer was satisfied.”

With a tight cash flow, he wasn’t able to hire a big team to get things done so he had to leverage on technology and streamline all the process online so that he could handle the operations seamlessly.

He couldn’t hire a graphic or web designer to help build an e-commerce store — “that was way out of the budget,” said John.

He also couldn’t hire a photographer to take pictures, or afford to pay someone to do search engine optimisation.

As a result, I had to learn to do all of these things myself. I started building my own WordPress and tested it endlessly. I started to learn more about photography and videos, and learnt to do editing myself.

I (also) learnt to do a little bit of graphic design and template designing, scouring through all the Adobe programmes and YouTube tutorials, learning day by day and getting by with what we have. If I couldn’t pay someone to do it, I had to learn it myself.

– John Chung, founder of Mason and Smith

Moreover, there wasn’t a “benchmark” or “standard” in Singapore that he could follow because shoe-shining was a fresh and new concept.

“There weren’t any other stores here providing similar services and products that I could reference to. As such, I had to chart a path that’s completely new with trial and error, which took a lot of time.”

When he first started, he also made it a point to change the perception and stereotype about old cobblers and the shoe industry.

“Many people think that cobblers are old … and lowly-paid unskilled workers. It took a look time to slowly remove this preconceived notion and earn the respect of clients who believe and trust in our work.”

Accelerating The Ambition Of A New-Age Cobbler

When asked how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted his business, he revealed that they were unable to generate any kind of sale during the circuit breaker.

But as the circuit breaker ended, business started picking up again as they received many queries and orders.

Since the inception of the brand in 2013, they have achieved at least 20 per cent growth year on year and are projected to continue doing so in the next few years.

We have managed to explore many different aspects of the industry since the inception, from buying and selling second hand shoes, to a shoe shine stand at Marina By Sands, to shoe repair and now retailing fine dress shoes.

The idea is to tie the entire ecosystem together in a cohesive manner. We have plans to enter into the distribution business of shoe care products or shoes in the near future.

– John Chung, founder of Mason and Smith

The next immediate plan is to continue to build their presence within Singapore and hopefully be able to further digitalise the entire shoe repair and shoe shine experience seamlessly with the introduction of a mobile app, on-demand contactless delivery and pick up, and even YouTube video tutorials.

John shared that they have already started delivery and pick up services for quite some time now so people can get their shoes polished or repaired at the comforts of their own home with the click of a button.

Additionally, they have started making some progress with mockup of the apps but have yet to develop them to a point where it’s released for commercial use.

“We also want to provide a place where people can come together and learn more about shoe making, shoe shining and shoe repair. This may mean for an academy of sorts where people can learn the right skills and knowledge for trade, whether physically or digitally,” said John.

“In efforts to educate more people about shoe shine, we have already begun to release shoe shine tutorials on YouTube for free so they can also practice the habit of shining their own shoes at the comforts of their home and help to grow and preserve this art.”

Featured Image Credit: Mason and Smith

[This is a paid article with HSBC.]

You probably have seen Rentokil Initial Malaysia’s vans around the city centre before and would easily recognise it as a pest control business and hygiene service provider.

But what you probably don’t know is that Rentokil Initial Malaysia is the same pest control company that treated the soil around Petronas Twin Towers back in 1994. At the time, the landmark was still the tallest building in the world and Rentokil’s services kept it termite-free.

Rentokil Initial was founded in 1925 by Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, a professor of entomology (a study of insects) in the UK. It started operating in Malaysia since 1967 and grew into a regional hub for the Asia Pacific with a workforce of 1,400 employees.

The Money Challenges That Come With Growth 

Traditionally, Rentokil Initial Malaysia had customers pay for its services via cash or cheque. 

Because of this antique and manual payment process, the company struggled with collecting payments from the customers. Even after collecting payment, there are risks involved with cash fraud and basic human error.

Did You Know: Fraud can happen when malicious employees pocket the money themselves or when a customer files for a false refund, citing job not done or provide the business with a cheque that bounces.

As the business continued to grow exponentially, the issue of cash collection became more apparent as they tried to keep up with the increasing amount of payers from their different services.

To solve its problems, Rentokil Initial Malaysia created a new digital financial ecosystem with HSBC in 2017 to improve the company’s processes.

Banking Solutions To Keep Up And Avoid Mess Ups

With the help of HSBC’s Virtual Account, Rentokil Initial Malaysia was able to identify all their payers accurately without the hassle of matching them manually. This finance solution allowed the company to track all their business collections from different payment channels so there are minimal leakages. 

HSBC’s Virtual Account has significantly reduced the turnaround time for their collection cycle too, and provided greater visibility of its overall cash position. With that, Rentokil Initial Malaysia has successfully streamlined its entire cash collection process across the different markets in the Asia Pacific.

“Speed is key. With digitalisation, we have converted a large part of our collections from cheque to virtual account solution by HSBC. Through this, it saves us a lot of time on closing. With that, our business collection is reduced from 4 days to only 1 day today.”

Soon Mei Fong, Finance Director of Rentokil Initial Malaysia

With most of its finance operations centralised in Malaysia, Rentokil Initial Malaysia can utilise HSBCnet, HSBC’s digital banking platform to approve payments to their suppliers within the Asia markets easily.

This is a simpler, effective and cost-saving solution for the company, as compared to having different approvals in multiple countries using different banks. 

Going Contactless In The New Normal

With COVID-19 still present, many companies are looking to keep their buildings as safe as possible for employees and customers. So, Rentokil Initial Malaysia stepped up to the challenge and diversified to offer disinfection and surface cleaning services to both commercial and residential customers.

Given how contagious COVID-19 is, many people have started to opt for cashless payment, which is safer compared to physical cash.

Thus, the partnership between the company and HSBC continues in the realm of digital payments.

Utilising HSBC’s Mobile Collection, Rentokil Initial Malaysia’s customers can now make contactless payments via e-wallets or DuitNow QR. This is to ensure safety first for their customers as we embrace the new normal that practices good hygiene.

Rentokil Initial Malaysia’s story highlights the many benefits that digitalisation can bring to any regional or global hubs. HSBC’s digital solutions can also help your company improve business productivity and provide you with new ways to grow your business.

“We are proud to be Rentokil’s regional partner in its digital journey. With HSBC’s Receivable Management solution available across multiple locations, Rentokil can identify their payers accurately thereby improving operational efficiency for its regional hub in Malaysia. It also provides greater visibility of its overall cash position across the region. This partnership highlights how HSBC’s digital solutions can support in the digital transformation of regional and international companies.” 

Vishal Karanwal, Country Head, International Subsidiary Banking, HSBC Malaysia

• Equip your business the right tools for expansion via HSBC here.

Featured Image Credit: Rentokil Initial Malaysia

Relocation-tech platform Moovaz announced today (21 September) that it has acquired van-hailing startup GetVan.

Following the acquisition, GetVan founder and CEO James Neo will be joining Moovaz as its Head of Supply Chain Operations.

Additionally, the acquisition allows Moovaz to bolster its end-to-end relocation ecosystem with GetVan’s technological offering and strong driver-partner network.

The group will integrate their cross-functional data capabilities and leverage on shared regional distribution networks.

In an official statement, James expressed that he was impressed by the strong commitment to protecting partner earnings and experience within the Moovaz platform.

“I believe in the vision of the Moovaz team, and I look forward to my new calling of delivering innovative experiences for the modern, mobile citizen.”

Founded in 2018, Moovaz’s digital platform provides a full suite of relocation services through a global network of over 2,000 certified partners.

In April 2020, Moovaz raised US$7 million (S$9.48 million) in a Series A round, led by Quest Ventures, YCH Group and government-owned deep-tech investor SGInnovate.

On the other hand, GetVan is a Singapore-based on-demand 24/7 van hailing business founded in 2016. It offers intra-city logistics solutions for businesses and individuals.

Prior to joining Moovaz, James served in the Singapore Armed Forces and acquired a background working in startups like Indonesian ride-hailing unicorn Gojek.

Featured Image Credit: DealStreetAsia

A Singaporean superfoods company has made it to the Financial Times’ list of high-growth firms in the Asia Pacific.

In Singapore, it is also listed in Singapore’s top 100 fastest-growing firms.

Called Nature’s Superfoods, it is predominantly an online business, selling everything from quinoa to chia seeds, and exporting them to overseas markets like Cambodia and Hong Kong.

The brand doubled its absolute revenue in 2020, hitting 107.8 per cent in absolute growth despite the realities of a global pandemic.

Nature’s Superfoods also achieved a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.6 per cent with only 19 employees.

Additionally, it raked in US$1.32 million in 2020. However, the business isn’t about the numbers but the desire to bring better, healthier food alternatives to Asia.

“We don’t sell everything under the sun, even though it takes longer,” says Serene Cha, one of Nature’s Superfoods three co-founders. “We’re sticking to our mission: to deliver clean superfoods.”

A Chance Encounter In Peru

The beginnings of Nature’s Superfoods sprouted in Peru, where Serene and her co-founders, Julian Lee and Quek Ai Lay, travelled to in the early 2000s.

Between 2003 and 2009, the trio who was in their late 20s then, worked at international schools on the weekdays and volunteered at NGOs on the weekends, teaching English to underprivileged youth in shantytowns.

In 2005, they launched a translation service named Actspand after they realised freelance translation jobs were one of the most “portable industries,” relying on their translation jobs as a form of basic income.

It was while they were visiting a girls’ home that the trio were first introduced to Peruvian superfoods. They were served quinoa with chicken, and their host explained the benefits of the dish to them.

“Our interest began there … and we started to explore the possibility of bringing Peruvian superfoods to Singapore,” Serene recounts.

The trio returned to Singapore for good in 2009, taking their translation business with them. By then, Actspand was growing steadily and its founders had acquired a list of superfood wholesalers’ contacts in Peru.

It didn’t take long for them to launch a new superfood vertical. By 2011, Nature’s Superfoods was launched and they began importing superfood to Singapore as one of the first to pioneer superfoods in Southeast Asia.

“Clean”, Not “Trendy” Superfood

“Nature’s Superfoods started as a very small business,” says Serene. “We had a slow beginning, with very few products. (Things like) quinoa and chia seeds was still unfamiliar to Singaporeans, even in 2011.”

Despite the slow traction, Nature’s Superfoods refused to import “trendy” superfoods and focused on importing “clean”, albeit relatively unknown superfoods.

That includes everything from yacon root, sacha inchi seeds, to raw cacao.

Superfoods have a variety of health benefits, which range from promoting cardiovascular health, aiding weight loss, and even reversing the effects of ageing.

The brand is big on ‘clean’ superfood: products that are organic, plant-based, gluten-free, non-GMO, with no preservatives, additives, refined sugars, and a low glycemic index.

The focus on “clean” superfoods meant that Nature’s Superfoods got off to a late start, but the effort taken to educate their customers about the health benefits of their product led to the growth of a small and loyal fanbase.

The key, says Serene, is to cater to the Asian palette. Nature’s Superfoods’ social media and website is populated with recipes that adapt superfoods to Asian tastes.

Customers would call in or walk into their office to buy directly from the brand, despite Nature’s Superfoods being entirely web-based, with no retail outlet.

“A brand takes time to build for a niche market,” Serene explains.”It takes time for people to get acquainted with superfood.”

Early Movers On RedMart

Despite the late start, Nature’s Superfood’s growth began accelerating exponentially by 2015.

Serene estimates that revenue jumped by 25 to 50 per cent between 2014 and 2015.

The secret to this success is Nature Superfood’s expansion into e-commerce platforms. To date, e-commerce direct-to-consumer sales account for approximately 50 per cent of Nature Superfood’s total revenue.

Nature’s Superfoods greatest e-commerce champion is RedMart. While Nature’s Superfoods is available on Shopee and Qoo10, RedMart remains the largest source of revenue for the business’s e-commerce sales.

The e-superfood business joined Red Mart between 2013 and 2014 as one of the platform’s first-movers, prior to its acquisition by e-commerce giant Lazada in 2016.

The shift to e-commerce paid off. Currently, RedMart has over 173,000 products available on the platform, and attracts over 65 million active consumers across six different markets via Lazada

In addition, Southeast Asia’s online grocery market is expected to be worth US$309 billion by 2021, a growth set to accelerate with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The online-based nature of Nature’s Superfoods also meant that it was one of the few businesses to profit off the circuit breaker.

Serene estimates revenue grew by at least four times, mirroring Lazada’s reports that RedMart’s daily active uses increased 11 times during the lockdown.

Since the 2015 burst in growth, Nature’s Superfoods has diversified its revenue channels, selling to major supermarkets like FairPrice, specialty shops, healthcare pharmacies and restaurants.

The brand is also exporting its product to overseas markets, such as Cambodia and Hong Kong.

The Right Place, The Right Time

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the need to implement healthy eating habits in their lifestyle, driving the growth of the superfood industry worldwide.

The Asia Pacific is expected to see the highest growth rates within the superfoods industry, with a CAGR of 7.4 per cent between 2020 to 2027.

According to a survey by Ingredion, 80 per cent of consumers in the region are concerned about the long-term impact of artificial ingredients on their health, and 70 per cent are fully aware of the composition of their food.

Currently, the superfoods market remains highly fragmented, dominated by regional and small players like Nature’s Superfoods.

The goal, says Serene, is to make superfoods accessible to everyone — not just consumers with abundant disposable income.

“We have a passion for superfoods, not just for growing a trendy business,” Serene surmises. “We believe strongly in superfoods’ benefits for long term health, and want to communicate that in all possible ways to our customers.”

Featured Image Credit: Nature’s Superfoods

Singapore’s unemployment rate is the highest it has ever been in 10 years.

According to data from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), unemployment rose from 2.4 per cent in the first quarter to 2.9 per cent in the second quarter this year.

Of the total unemployment numbers, over 90,500 residents were registered as unemployed, of whom 79,600 were Singaporean citizens.

Companies from Singapore’s national carrier Singapore Airlines to startups like GoBear have carried out retrenchment exercises to cut costs and keep their businesses afloat.

In other words, there is currently a lack of jobs on the market.

More recently, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has also raised the minimum salaries for hiring foreigners on work passes.

The baseline salary for newly hired Employment Pass holders was raised from 1 September to S$4,500, from the initial S$3,900, while the qualifying salary for new S Pass holders will be increased from S$2,400 to S$2,500 from 1 October.

This has led to a slew of problems for international fresh graduates in Singapore, shining a light on the issue of job security and bond breaking for this group of individuals.

Obligated To Work In Singapore, But There Are No Jobs Available

Foreign students in Singapore who received a Tuition Grant from the Ministry of Education (MOE) have to serve a three-year bond in a Singaporean firm after graduation.

The Tuition Grant Scheme was introduced by the Government in 1980 to help subsidise the cost of tertiary education for students enrolled in full-time diploma or undergraduate courses.

However, as even local fresh graduates struggle to secure full-time jobs, foreign graduates are facing a mounting problem.

Unlike scholarships, the Tuition Grant Scheme does not guarantee its recipients a job in the civil service.

The graduates are expected to secure employment on their own after graduation, and have to do so within a year.

However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and depressed job market, many have spent months on a fruitless search for jobs.

Now, these foreign graduates worry about having to pay back the liquidated damage.

Liquidated damages are calculated based on the total grant amount the student received, plus a 10 per cent interest each year, compounded at the end of each academic year.

The final amount can range from S$80,000 to more than S$100,000.

Furthermore, many are finding that their savings are being quickly depleted after having to account for daily living expenses and rent, without having any stream of income.

MOE ‘Actively Monitoring’ The Situation

According to The Straits Times, MOE said that international students should approach their universities for help, should they have problems fulfilling their bond requirements.

The MOE is cognisant that international students have to fulfill their tuition grant obligations, and we work with the institutes of higher learning and other public agencies to help facilitate their application for the necessary work pass arrangements while keeping to the Fair Consideration Framework.

– A spokesman from the Ministry of Education in an interview with The Straits Times

The Ministry also declined to reveal the number of foreign students under the scheme currently.

It is also unclear what will happen to the students should they be unable to find a job after repeated attempts.

Traditionally, if international graduates are unable to find employment after a year, they are required to inform MOE and provide evidence of their job search.

A 24-year-old graduate from the National University of Singapore who only wanted to be known as Sarah, told Vulcan Post that she had been sending out job applications since May, a month before graduation.

By now, she has already submitted close to a hundred applications, without a favourable response.

Furthermore, the SGUnited Traineeship Programme for fresh graduates states that trainees have to be Singaporean Citizens or Permanent Residents.

Many employers have converted their entry-level jobs to traineeships, which closes another window of opportunity for foreign students.

Since the government co-funds 80 per cent of a local trainee’s allowance, this makes it even less likely for employers to hire a foreign student.

The science graduate said she is becoming “more desperate” each day, and her other international friends feel the same way too.

Even though she has begun taking up freelance work to make ends meet and stretch her dollars, she is worried about what the outcome would be if she is unable to find a job within a year.

However, she also understands that the situation she is in is unprecedented, and that the pandemic has made jobs even harder to come by.

“Of course, none of us could have predicted that this would be the economic situation four years back when I began university in Singapore. Right now all I can do is continue to apply for jobs,” she said.

A Rise In Anti-Foreigner Sentiments In Singapore

Sarah also shared that she understands that some Singaporeans are resentful towards foreign students or talent like herself.

The Straits Times spoke to 10 foreign students, most of which denied to be named for fear of creating more anti-foreigner sentiments.

In the same report, a Vietnamese architecture graduate shared that she “has heard some of her Singaporean friends blame foreigners when they do not get their first choice of job.”

Indeed, a quick scroll through the Facebook comments on TodayOnline’s article about the topic reveals a myriad of negative comments directed at foreign students.

Why Does Singapore Need Foreign Students Anyway?

Last year, the then Minister of Education Ong Ye Kung revealed that about S$108 million is spent on international students’ tuition grants each year.

However, this spending is not for naught, as foreign students do bring benefits to Singaporean students.

Diversity is important, especially with the highly globalised nature of Singapore.

When classes have a mix of both local and international students, Singaporean students are exposed to new insights and understandings of the world.

This is also exactly why throngs of Singaporean students head overseas for a semester of study whilst in university.

Luo Jiali and David Jamieson-Drake of Duke University conducted a study in 2013, which proved that students who had high levels of interaction with international counterparts “reported significantly higher levels of development”.

Furthermore, with countries being so connected, local students’ ties with international ones is likely to open doors to job opportunities and business connections abroad.

After their studies in Singapore, international students might also be more likely to invest or set up their businesses in Singapore, resulting in more jobs and greater economic growth on the whole.

In fact, the co-founders of some of Singapore’s highly funded and homegrown startups are born abroad.

Not A Zero-Sum Game

Ultimately, having international university students in Singapore is not a zero-sum game, and does not mean that locals do not get a shot at the same opportunities.

In 2019, then Minister of Education Ong Ye Kung said that no Singaporean student will ever be displaced from an institute of higher learning because of a foreign student.

If we send back all our international students, what we will lose are the opportunities for Singaporean students to build bonds and bridges with students from other countries, and expand their network of friends. This is an increasingly important aspect of education because we are working in a globalised, multicultural world.

– Then Education Minister Ong Ye Kung speaking in Parliament in 2019

Minister Ong also pointed out that the best universities around the world — Oxford, Yale and the likes — all have a diverse and international student body.

With Singapore’s prominent role in the global education network and the benefits that foreign students can bring to the island, it hardly means that Singaporeans are getting the short end of the stick.

Featured Image Credit: NUS Class of 2017, NUS News

ByteDance, parent company of viral video-sharing app TikTok, is planning to make Singapore its springboard to the rest of Asia as part of its global expansion, according to private sources.

The sources also revealed that the Beijing-based company has plans to spend billions of dollars and add hundreds of jobs here over the next three years.

The Chinese technology startup is currently the most valuable startup in the world at US$140 billion, and is also behind popular platforms Toutiao and TikTok’s Chinese version Douyin.

The move comes at a time when tensions have risen to an all-time high as Bytedance is forced to sell TikTok operations in the US under pressure from the Trump administration. They are currently in talks with cloud infrastructure platform Oracle for the deal.

The UK government is also under pressure from the US to end Bytedance’s presence in the UK.

Previously, India has banned over 50 Chinese apps including popular messaging app WeChat and TikTok, on the grounds of national security and privacy issues.

Following the setbacks in the US, UK and India, it seems that Bytedance wants to turn its focus to Asia, and is planning to make Singapore its gateway to this part of the world.

Bytedance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming has long eyed Southeast Asia’s 650 million increasingly smartphone-savvy population, but why Singapore and what does this move mean for us?

S’pore A Popular Location For Investors

Singapore is highly attractive to investors because of our developed infrastructure, political stability, open business policies, a skilled workforce, the use of English as the main working language and respect for intellectual property rights.

Last year, it retained its position as the second best place to do business in a World Bank ranking.

We came ahead of Hong Kong, Denmark and Korea, with the US, Georgia, UK, Norway, and Sweden rounding out the top 10 spots. The top spot went to New Zealand.

Singapore, which also has a robust startup scene, is currently home to at least five unicorns – Grab, Lazada, Razer, Trax and Sea (before it went public).

Politically, S’pore Has A Neutral Stand

It makes sense for Bytedance to make Singapore its beachhead in order to expand to other parts of Asia as Singapore is a “neutral” country.

In 2019, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had said that Singapore would resolutely stick to its policy of maintaining good ties with the US and China even as the two major powers remained at loggerheads.

Singapore has strong security ties with the US as Singapore purchases advanced equipment from the US, and the Singapore Armed Forces train with their American counterparts.

At the same time, Singapore also has deep economic ties with China – with the two countries joining hands in three major joint projects in China.

With pressures from both sides to take a stand, Singapore will continue not to take sides between US and China to avoid misunderstandings.

With that, we can say that it is relatively safe for a Chinese company to set up their base here.

Bytedance Set Up A “Satellite” Base In S’pore About 2 Years Ago

ByteDance already has a presence here in Singapore as they had set up their Singapore team in a WeWork coworking office in December 2018.

A year later, it was speculated that ByteDance would be leasing a whopping 60,000 sq ft space in One Raffles Quay, a Grade A office building located in the central business district (CBD).

Wall Street Journal also confirmed with real estate consultancy Savills Singapore that the firm has indeed already taken up two floors in the prime location.

Moreover, they have been actively hiring in Singapore on ByteDance and TikTok’s careers pages for a range of positions.

It is safe to say that they have “tested the waters” here and probably find Singapore a viable location to continue doing business.

What Does Bytedance’s Move Mean?

Taking Their Social Media Services Deeper Into Asia

Following setbacks in India, the UK and US, Bytedance will make use of this move to take their social media services deeper into Asia and expand beyond TikTok, Singapore-headquartered business messaging service Lark and music streaming service Resso.

Southeast Asia’s 650 million increasingly smartphone-savvy population offers many opportunities for Bytedance to grow a stronger presence for their other content platforms here.

It was reported in August that TikTok is piloting in Southeast Asia, the live-streaming commercial initiatives pioneered in China.

Chinese Competition Will Be Intensified In Asia

Competitors Alibaba Group Holdings and Tencent Holdings are also making inroads into Asia.

Tencent Holdings, the parent company of WeChat, is reported to be setting up its regional hub here.

Alibaba’s possible US$3 billion investment in ride-hailing giant Grab also suggests that it is looking to access Grab’s millions of customers in eight countries, a growing delivery fleet as well as a stake in digital wallet and financial services.

The Chinese competition is likely to intensify against the likes of Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon here, but much still has to be done as these US companies have a strong presence in Singapore.

Moreover, online payment platforms AliPay and WeChat Pay are not that adopted here in Singapore.

Instead, the market is dominated by e-payment options such as credit cards, NETS, ez-link cards, peer-to-peer funds transfer service PayNow, e-wallet DBS PayLah! and SGQR payment codes.

With the impending increased competition, will we see the same in adoption rate of Chinese apps in Singapore? That’s a possibility.

Bytedance Could Invest In SEA Startups

In a bid to accelerate growth, Bytedance may look into increasing its investment into Southeast Asian startups.

Bytedance has a string of acquisitions in its portfolio including News Republic and Flipagram.

In 2017, Cheetah Mobile sold global news app News Republic to Bytedance for US$86.60 million (S$118 million), in a bid to leverage on the AI technology of Toutiao.

With Toutiao as China’s largest AI–powered information network, the acquisition of News Republic helped broadened its reach into more overseas markets and provide users with more diverse and relevant content.

In the same year, ByteDance acquired Los Angeles start-up Flipagram for an undisclosed amount. Flipagram is an app that allows users to turn their photos into slideshows and videos.

With the acquisition, Toutiao can help Flipagram videos find the right audience even without a social component by integrating Flipagram videos into personalised content feeds while Flipagram, in turn, gave Toutiao a line to the US market.

Applying For A Digital Bank Licence Here

Bytedance is planning to venture into digital banking here, which means it is planning to gain a foothold in fintech here.

The firm has applied for a wholesale digital banking license in Singapore. If granted, it would allow the company to serve corporate clients including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In their job ads for tech positions, ByteDance indicated that it is building a Singapore-based global payment system to offer cross-border payment solutions for its products and services.

With Singapore’s position as a regional finance hub for Southeast Asia, a digital wholesale bank license could support ByteDance’s wider regional expansion plans.

Create Hundreds Of Jobs In S’pore

A quick check on their jobs portal shows that Bytedance currently has more than 200 job openings in Singapore, for positions ranging from payments to e-commerce and data privacy.

The company already has 400 employees working on technology, sales and marketing in the city-state, one of the people said.

The private sources also reveal that Bytedance is looking to establish a data centre here as well.

It is estimated that with Bytedance’s plans in Singapore, it will lead to more demand for digital marketing, social media marketing, data science, fintech, etc, roles.

Hundreds of Bytedance jobs are expected to be added over the next three years here.

Featured Image Credit: Chenpe.com

Durians are pretty much a love-or-hate affair.

While some think that the smell of the tropical fruit is pungent, there is also a group of others who think that its creamy, bittersweet taste is heavenly.

For these four Singaporeans — Emily Tan, Vivian Khor, Fion Wang and Gina Chee — they are all die-hard durian lovers.

This bunch of 30-year-old friends have known each other since secondary school, and have bonded over their common love for durians.

They would often gather for ‘durian parties’ and would continually explore different durian stalls in a bid to find the best in Singapore.

Going Ahead With Zero Experience

“When we were younger, we could only afford to share one box of durian from the supermarket,” recounted Emily.

“As we grew older and had more spending power, we would always hunt for good durians to eat but most of the durian stalls are located really far from where we stay, so we thought we should open a store central to our homes.”

They didn’t blindly nosedive into the durian-selling business though.

They would sit at various cafes for four to five hours each time, discussing and analysing if they should even embark on this venture.

All four of them had zero experience in running a business, and hail from different corporate backgrounds.

Vivian is a real estate agent, Gina is a wealth manager, while Fion is a personal assistant in a logistics company.

Emily on the other hand, is the only one out of the four who took the leap to quit her job — a five-figure job in the finance sector — to run The Durian Gang full-time.

“(I’m) the person most of our customers will see daily!” she quipped.

On Being Female Durian Sellers

It’s definitely a rare sight to see women selling durians since it’s such a male-dominated industry, and it’s not surprising to know that they faced doubt and criticism along the way.

It has definitely been a steep learning experience working in a male-dominated industry, where most sellers are older uncles. When we were initially prepping for our shop, many of the contractors disregarded us and would only seek out other males in the shop, despite them not being the bosses.

A lot of contractors thought they could cut corners because they were dealing with “little girls”. Our customers also viewed us as “part-timer cashiers” and did not take us seriously. Overtime, we were able to convince them that we know what we are doing and we are serious about our business.

– Emily Tan, co-founder of The Durian Gang

Gender discrimination aside, the four said that they have received tremendous support from their family and friends, who would place orders from them and recommend their business to their social network.

When asked how their stall is different from other durian stalls, Emily said that they want to establish it as the “new-age durian stall”.

“As women in a male-dominated industry, we understand how intimidating it can be for ladies, or even the younger generations like us, to walk into a durian shop and the fear of prices being jacked up just because durian sellers think women are easily fooled.”

“We hope The Durian Gang can be the first of many to break this stereotype. Customer satisfaction is our top priority.”

COVID-19 Took Place In Its Infancy Stages

The four women opened The Durian Gang at Jalan Jurong Kechil in December last year.

Three months after their store opening, COVID-19 happened.

“Our business was badly affected because of COVID-19 as we didn’t have enough time to build on our reputation and customer base yet,” lamented Emily.

They made up for it by ramping up their social media presence. They actively posted promotions and even started weekly Facebook Live sessions to help boost sales.

But in this competitive durian industry, word of mouth is still the strongest, noted Emily.

During circuit breaker, they had to unfortunately close their newly-opened shop as part of the government’s safety regulations to curb the spread of COVID-19.

They had started the business with an initial capital of S$150,000 but due to circuit breaker, they “blew through S$100,000 in three months”.

“We had to change strategy and focus on online orders — that’s how we managed to turn the business around. Right now, we (sell an average) of around four to seven baskets of durians per day.”

Following their pivot to sell dehusked durians in boxes to cater to delivery orders, they also had to step up their efforts to assure customers of their durian quality.

According to Emily, there have been complaints that other sellers in the market sent our frozen durians, or did not even send out any durians when customers order online — this has made customers wary about ordering delivery from them.

What we did to counter this issue was that we had to make extra efforts in doing strict quality checks for our durians and also give better customer service.

We actually have a very strict quality control system in place. There was once we threw away more than 20kg worth of durian flesh as we didn’t feel it was up to our standards. We sincerely only want to provide the best possible durians for our customers.

– Emily Tan, co-founder of The Durian Gang

Currently, The Durian Gang is looking to “fully stabilise” the business before they embark on other ventures.

However, Emily shared that they are looking to offer durian-related products like mochi, ice cream and pastries next.

When asked to impart a piece of business advice, she said that it is better to be “over-prepared” before starting a business rather than be under-prepared.

It is extremely important to do as much research as possible. With that being said, we also learnt most about the business as we were doing it.

There will be a lot of trials and errors, and that’s the fact about starting a business as newbies — you learn as you go.

– Emily Tan, co-founder of The Durian Gang

Featured Image Credit: The Durian Gang

One common pain point faced by most credit card users is remembering to pay our dues at the end of the month.

It gets more frustrating when you have multiple credit cards with different deadlines to keep track of. Missing a deadline means getting hit with late payment fees.

Kee is someone who has 5 credit cards that he actively uses for different purposes, which means he has 5 due dates to track. Not an easy task.

So, he wanted a consolidated place where he could view all his transactions, credit card statements, and be reminded of each due date every month.

He later came across an app in China called 51 Credit Card that could remind users to pay their bills on time and show the details of their statements too.

They’re able to do so by having its users link their cards to the respective bank accounts.

However, this model was one that he felt Malaysians weren’t quite ready to accept, but more on that later.

Using 51 Credit Card as an outline, he then built a version that he believes Malaysians would be more comfortable with using.

See All your Statements In One Place

The result was Finory, a credit card management app that allows you to oversee all your credit cards in a single app.

When you sign up, all you have to do is add your cards and forward your credit card statements to an email generated by Finory.

It will then parse your information and remind you to pay up a total of 3 times before your due date.

Previously, Kee would keep PDF files of his credit card statements on his desktop, naming each one after its due date and amount for easy reference. 

“I know some people would recommend setting up a mobile reminder, but the issue is not always about the time, it is also checking the amount and transactions that were made,” he said.

So, he made this accessible on the app too.

When you click on a card you’ve added, you can view the statements that were linked and analyse your monthly spendings with the app’s transaction report. 

I think the app’s reminder feature is helpful in ensuring that you never miss a deadline in paying your debts.

It’s also nice to be able to crosscheck the amounts with transactions made from your statements. 

The catch is, you would still need to forward your credit card statements to their email every month as they don’t have access to your online banking transactions.

The lack of automation here can be a put-off, but Kee told us that it’s part of their security assurance.

Security Assurance Was Their Biggest Challenge

Where Finory differs from China’s 51 Credit Card app is in how they don’t require users to link their bank accounts via open banking API.

Dictionary time: Open banking is a banking practice that provides third-party financial service providers open access to consumer banking, transaction, and other financial data from banks and non-bank financial institutions through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs).

Investopedia

Kee stated that this is because the open banking environment hasn’t matured enough in Malaysia to support this approach. 

Personally, I’m not comfortable linking my bank accounts to third-party apps either, especially when they’ve yet to establish a name for themselves.

To assure users of their privacy, Finory will not go through any sensitive and Personally Identifiable Information (PPI).

These include your CVC code, expiry date, full name, address, and 16-digit card number. 

“We purely parse the credit card statement for account summary and transaction data. Then, it will present the result to users on our app,” Kee said.

After a successful inspection, each PDF statement is permanently deleted from Finory’s system. Their system is also fully automated and doesn’t require any human involvement.

“We took inspiration from 51 Credit Card in China, but built it in a way that every Malaysian will feel comfortable using,” he said.

They’ve Gained 500 Users In 3 Months

E-commerce is growing due to the pandemic combined with the nature of Malaysian buying behaviours, and therefore so is credit card usage. 

Kee wanted to ensure that the problems he was trying to solve through his app were ones that every credit card holder faces, and not biased from his own struggles.

“We started to talk to some friends from various aspects of the financial spectrum. We did a small survey in a public Facebook group to understand more about the problems,” he said.

They asked various questions that included how many cards people had, what banks they’re from, and what common pain points they had. 

“All our doubts evaporated in the last 3 months when we officially launched and started to see people joining, sending their statements, providing happy feedback, and reusing it the following month.”

“This cemented our belief that these are the common problems faced by most credit card users,” he said.

Since launching in June, Finory has over 500 unique users and has processed more than 3,000 credit card statements. 

Currently, they’re mainly acquiring customers via Facebook and Adwords marketing.

Dictionary time: Google AdWords is a marketplace where companies pay to have their website ranked right with the top organic search results, based on keywords.

Tutorials Point

They’re also trying to score a potential user base from the younger market by advertising through TikTok.

As one of Finory’s missions is to help users increase financial literacy, they aim to launch a personal finance management and budgeting app in the future.

• You can find out more about Finory here.
• You can read more about other Malaysian startups here.

Featured Image Credit: Kee, founder and CEO of Finory

The Covid-19 pandemic has ravaged the world for almost the whole of 2020.

Even though it has only been about eight months since the outbreak began, data from the World Health Organisation shows that over 169 vaccines are under development, with 26 of these in the human trial phase.

Where then, does Singapore stand in its progress of developing these tools to combat the pandemic?

The Made-In-Singapore Robot Swabber

The SwabBot is a robot that carries out nasal swabbing to diagnose Covid-19.

SwabBot was developed by clinicians from the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and Duke-NUS Medical School, in collaboration with medical robotics company Biobot Surgical.

It is the first in the world that allows patients to fully control the swab process to ensure higher levels of comfort, and the patient can activate or terminate the process at will.

The swabbing process will only happen after the patient activates it when he or she is fully ready.

“When patients are empowered and fully in control of the swabbing process, they are mentally prepared and experience subjectively less pain,” said principal investigator Rena Dharmawan, associate consultant, head and neck surgery, at NCCS and SGH’s Division of Surgery and Surgical Oncology.

The whole process takes about 20 seconds, half the time of a manual swab test.

In a typical swab test, a nasal swab is taken from a patient by a medical worker, who will stick a swab the patient’s nose.

According to the team behind the robot, the SwabBot reduces the exposure of medical staff to Covid-19, standardises the consistency of the swabs taken, and increases the efficiency.

Widespread Saliva Testing For Covid-19

In June, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that it was studying the feasibility of incorporating saliva-based tests into its testing regime.

The use of widespread saliva testing is currently undergoing field tests in Singapore, as the health authorities assess if it can be scaled for widespread use.

Recently, Singapore-based medical company Veredus Laboratories launched a saliva test kit, which is still pending approval from the Health Sciences Authority (HSA).

Known as the ZeroPrep Saliva Collection Kit, it can reduce the time taken to determine if a person has Covid-19 by up to 40 minutes.

If approved, it will be the first saliva-based test kit in Singapore that eliminates an “extraction process”, which allows the virus to be detected in about an hour.

In a typical swab test, ribonucleic acid (RNA), which stores the genetic information of the virus, has to be extracted and put through another test known as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.

The ZeroPrep Saliva Collection Kit is also one of the few in the world that eliminates the extraction process.

The Search For A Vaccine

Everyone is eagerly awaiting the vaccine for the dreaded coronavirus.

A vaccine helps one’s immune system learn to recognise a specific virus, like the one that causes Covid-19. The body then produce antibodies without having to suffer a real infection.

However, Professor Ooi Eng Eong, deputy director of the Duke-NUS Medical School’s emerging infectious diseases programme, said that the soonest the vaccine can be available is around June next year.

Nevertheless, it seems that Singapore is making good progress in its quest for a vaccine. The nation is currently involved in developing a few vaccines.

Last month, human clinical trials began as volunteers got dosed with a vaccine called Lunar-Cov19. It is jointly developed by Duke-NUS Medical School and United States pharmaceutical company Arcturus Therapeutics.

Should the vaccine be successful, the Singapore government will own the rights to the vaccine within the country, with Arcturus free to market it abroad.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Monash University in Australia are also in the midst of developing a Covid-19 vaccine.

The vaccine is modified from a cancer drug and is known as Clec9A-RBD. It could be ready for clinical trials by the end of this year.

Despite the extremely rapid pace at which Covid-19 vaccines are being developed, more time is needed to identify the most promising candidates.

Many experts predict that it will only be in mid-2021 before a vaccine is available. Furthermore, problems such as large-scale production and dissemination might occur.

Though the search for a vaccine looks promising, we might have to contend with tools that will facilitate the Covid-19 process from diagnosis to recovery in the meantime.

Featured Image Credit: NST

If you’re a foodie that’s addicted to Instagram, you may have come across one Malaysian account that has been growing fast, amassing a following of almost 16,000 users in just under 4 months.

Last I checked her account (which was about a week ago), she was at 14,800 followers. That’s about a 7.5% increment in just a week.

But you’d be wrong to think that it’s just another regular food review account.

No, what’s unique about Anne Luxury Eats (ALE) is the fact that she solely reviews fine dining experiences.

Not much else is known about her apart from the fact that she eats rather lavishly almost daily, and that her reviews stick to 3 U’s: Unbiased, Unsponsored, Unfiltered.

So, who is this mystery woman behind the account?

Her Love For Luxury Leads Her Lifestyle

“Anne is my real name, you can address me by Anne,” she told Vulcan Post in an interview, after we asked just to be sure.

She’d only started posting on ALE’s Instagram account on May 29, 2020, but she began exploring fine food 3 to 4 years ago.

Her love for fine things started even earlier, and led her into the business of trading luxury goods.

This career provides her with a sustainable income to fund and maintain her expenses for ALE’s unsponsored reviews, some of which can cost up to RM2,000 per pax, or higher.

She doesn’t really set aside a budget specially for ALE’s reviews and enjoys both fine-dining and fine-casual dining almost on a daily basis, as that’s normally her choice of dining anyway.

Before she goes to a fine-dining restaurant, she would search for reviews or ratings of it.

However, she later realised that most of the reviews she found either weren’t reliable or didn’t meet her expectations.

“Hence, I decided to create ALE not only for my own reference, but also to share my experience with everyone as a customer who’s paying for every single meal, based on my own standards.”

In Anne’s eyes, fine dining requires a different level of appreciation for food.

“It is an art piece created by the chefs, with a combination of taste, texture, techniques, presentation, culinary background, and many more.”

“More than often, people would like to pick a fine place to celebrate a special occasion, but they don’t know where to start.”

Thus, ALE gives these people an idea of what to expect from their dining experience in a particular restaurant that Anne has reviewed.

Not Letting The Glamour Blind Her

While ALE’s pictures typically feature Anne alone with her fine dining dishes, she usually has a team of 2-4 with her.

“They are my photographers and also my second opinion/taste buds. If something goes wrong with a particular dish, and more than one person shares the same opinion/critique, then the decision is final,” Anne shared.

To select which fine dining establishments to review, she said that she chooses according to what she feels like having, but also tries to include a larger variety of cuisines.

Some restaurants come from the requests or recommendations of her followers, but regardless, there are several rules ALE sticks to.

Firstly, it doesn’t write about casual dining, and secondly, it doesn’t do promotions or deals with the restaurant unless Anne and her team genuinely like it and previously gave it a good rating.

But with Anne being brutally honest even in her unfavourable reviews of a place, we wondered if any establishments have retaliated in defence of their brand image.

“As of now, we were only invited to revisit (some of which we accepted and some we rejected), and offered complimentary meals (which we reject 100%),” she replied.

“If we ever revisit a restaurant, it will be fully paid for by ALE, and the experience will be written accordingly.”

People Love It Real And Raw

Beyond simply providing people with references and reviews, Anne aims to educate the masses on fine dining as well.

A lot of people have different expectations when they go for fine dining. For example, a person pays RM500 and expects RM2,000 quality. It simply does not work that way. You get what you pay for, and I think people need to be educated about it.

Anne of Anne Luxury Eats

As Anne continues to build ALE’s Instagram and website of the same name to strengthen its presence as a brand, she’s looking into monetising it too. 

The common monetisation model in the food review industry is content marketing, whereby food review brands are sponsored by establishments for the reviews.

Another common model would be affiliated marketing, where the media may get a certain percentage of each sale or conversion.

Either would be tricky for ALE, whose niche lies in fine dining food, a luxury that not all Malaysians can easily afford.

On the other hand, Malaysian Foodie, for example, reviews food that is generally more affordable to the Malaysian public.

It would be easier for them to convince their sponsors that they’re able to convert readers into buyers, something which ALE might struggle with for the aforementioned reason.

However, Anne has made it clear that the monetisation model that she has in mind will be unconventional.

She further assured, “It will not change our core principle of being ‘Unbiased, Unsponsored, and Unfiltered’.”

Besides fine dining, Anne also teased that she might look into expanding her reviews to cover luxury goods, hotels, and other aspects of the lifestyle.

It’ll be interesting to see what she has up her sleeve for monetisation, since she’ll have to play a balancing act between convincing her clients that she can convert her readers into paying customers while keeping her reviews unsponsored and credible.

This is something that is worth hanging around to see, as it could mark the birth of a revolutionary monetisation model in the review industry (in general) if Anne pulls it off.

• You can learn more about ALE on Instagram here, or its website here.
• You can read more F&B related content here.

Featured Image Credit: Anne Luxury Eats

Nippon Paint Holdings, the world’s fourth largest paint manufacturer, has struck a S$16.7 billion deal with Goh Cheng Liang’s Wuthelam Holdings in a bid to build the largest paints and coatings company in Asia.

Wuthelam will be buying majority stakes in Nippon Paint, which will use the capital to buy out their joint ventures in the Asia Pacific. Nippon Paint will also be taking over Wuthelam’s Indonesian business for S$2.7 billion.

Goh, who derives his fortune from a majority stake in Nippon Paint holdings will see his stake rise to 58.7 per cent in the Japanese firm, from 39 per cent. This is reportedly one of the biggest transactions in Asia for 2020.

The billionaire built his fortune in the early years of Singapore’s independence when he became the main distributor for Nippon Paint in 1962.

Goh Has A Net Worth Of US$18.7B

Currently, Goh remains Singapore’s third-richest man, with a total net worth of US$18.7 billion.

He is the founder of Nippon Paint Southeast Asia (NIPSEA), which has a market value of US$11.8 billion and operates across 16 countries and regions.

The company is a joint venture between Wuthelam, the Goh family’s investment company and Nippon Paint.

To date, the Goh family’s total fortune has reportedly jumped from US$9.5 billion in 2019 to US$14.8 billion in 2020.

The growth may be a product of Nippon Paint’s massive expansion in 2019, when it acquired DuluxGroup, Australia’s largest paint manufacturer, for US$2.7 billion and Turkey’s Betek Boya for US$247 million.

Nippon Paint Holdings has been “shopping for large acquisitions” since 2019, in a bid to expand outside japan as the largest coatings makers race to consolidate their businesses in a bid to take over the market.

Featured Image Credit: billionairemonitor / reuters

It’s never easy living in your parent’s shadow, but the scions of these Singaporean billionaires probably don’t have much else to complain about.

These wealthy Singaporeans are slated to take over the reins of their family business, handling billion-dollar projects of their own.

While some publications have expressed doubt over the ability of next-gen billionaires to curate their family’s fortune, these billionaire heirs seem to be doing just fine.

From sons of banking magnates to daughters of hoteliers, here are eight Singaporeans who are next in line for the succession to billion-dollar fortunes.

Goh Hup Jin

Hup Jin is the sole heir to the fortune of the third richest man in Singapore: Goh Cheng Liang.

The business magnate derives the bulk of his US$18.7 billion fortune from a stake in Nippon Paint, the fourth largest paint manufacturer in the world.

Since 2018, Hup Jin has been following in his father’s footsteps, serving as the chairman of Nippon Paint and head of the Nippon Paint Southeast Asia Group.

He also acts as the group executive director of Wuthelam Holdings, a paint and coatings maker owned by the Goh family that has a 60 per cent stake in Nippon Paint Holdings.

Daryl Ng

The eldest son of Robert Ng, Daryl is the heir apparent to the Far East Organization fortune, the fifth largest in Singapore.

Brothers Robert and Philip Ng has a combined net worth of US$13.2 billion and control Far East Organization, Singapore’s largest private landlord and property developer.

Currently, Daryl helps his father run Far East’s Hong Kong arm, the Sino Group. On top of managing the Sino Group, Daryl is also the chairman of Singaporean beverage company Yeo’s.

Daryl has Singaporean nationality but was born and based in Hong Kong. Currently, Daryl serves as a board member on Singapore’s National Heritage Board and Hong Kong’s M+ Board. He’s also a member of Hong Kong’s election committee.

Sherman Kwek

The eldest son of Kwek Leng Beng, Sherman Kwek, is the heir apparent to the sixth largest fortune in Singapore, standing at US$8.8 billion.

The Kwek family owns Hong Leong Group and City Developments, the second-largest property developer in Singapore.

Since 2018, Sherman has served as group CEO and executive director of City Developments Limited (CDL). He also serves as the executive chairman of its China branch.

Sherman has been spearheading CDL’s expansion into China, Japan and Australia for close to a decade, and broadening the Group’s presence in Singapore and the UK.

Evan Kwee

Representing the third generation of the Kwee family, Evan is the heir apparent to the US$5.5 billion fortune owned by the ninth richest family in Singapore.

The four Kwee brothers control Pontiac Land, a real estate developer owning luxury hotels and offices across Singapore.

The only son of Pontiac chairman Kwee Liong Tek, Evan was reportedly conscripted into the family business immediately upon graduating. He currently serves as executive director of the Capella Hotel Group Asia, which the Kwees acquired in 2017 for an undisclosed sum.

Evan also serves in a directorial position at Pontiac, as Head of Design and Hospitality. He’s married to Claudia Sondakh, daughter of Peter Sondakh, the eight-richest man in Indonesia, with whom they share a son with.

Wee Ee Cheong

Ee Cheong is the heir apparent to the US$5.3 billion fortune of the tenth richest man in Singapore, Wee Cho Yaw.

Wee Cho Yaw remains the chairman emeritus of the United Overseas Bank (UOB) Singapore’s third-largest bank by assets.

After his father retired as chairman in 2013 and director in 2018, a position held for over sixty years, Ee Cheong has stepped into his shoes.

The new banking magnate has been working at UOB since 1979, and was appointed deputy chairman and president in 2000, acquiring the role of CEO in 2007.

Ee Cheong also serves in multiple financial organisations, including The Association of Banks in Singapore, The Institute of Banking & Finance.

He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Singapore-China Foundation, Indonesia-Singapore Business Council, and an Honorary Council Member of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Carolyn Choo

The second daughter of one of the newest additions to the Forbes’ top 50 richest list, Carolyn is the heir apparent to Choo Chong Ngen’s US$2.5 billion fortune, the fourteenth richest person in Singapore.

The self-made billionaire is famous for his budget Hotel 81 chain in Singapore. Choo has since diversified his portfolio under the Worldwide Hotels group, launching five new hotel brands since 2009.

Carolyn has been helping her father run 38 hotels worldwide, with properties in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia, and more in the pipeline.

She currently serves as the managing director of Worldwide Hotels.

Bobby Hiranandani

The son of Asok Kumar Hiranandani, Bobby is the heir apparent to the Royal Group, a property conglomerate based in Singapore.

Asok has a net worth of US$1.6 billion and weighs in at the twentieth richest person in Singapore.

Bobby currently serves as the co-chairman of Royal group, in partnership with his father. The duo is famously developing the villa-only Raffles Sentosa Resort & Spa Singapore with Accor, slated to open in 2022.

Since his rise to the position of co-chairman, Bobby has embarked on some of the company’s most ambitious projects, including transforming the TAS building into a hotel under the Sofitel SO label, a S$130 million project.

Sean Tang

The eldest son of Tang Wee Kit, Sean is the heir apparent to a US$1.4 billion fortune.

Tang Wee Kit chairs Tang Holdings, a private investment and property firm that owns estates like Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel and the Tangs department store.

In 2006, a “family succession plan” was launched, which saw Tang Wee Kit take over his elder brother Tang Wee Sung’s position as chairman of C.K Tang, the owner of the Tangs department store.

In 2017, Sean was reinstated as Tang Holdings’ CEO, a role he has held since 2017. Sean has already sat on the board of Tang holdings prior to his appointment.

Spinning The Wheel Of Fortune

While most heirs have disappeared into the family business, others have also struck out to build empires of their own.

In their place, the siblings of more entrepreneurial scions are stepping up to defend the gold mines their parents are leaving behind.

While some of them were roped into the family business the moment they left graduation, others returned to the nest after decades spent acquiring experiences in other industries.

Sure, they’re born with silver spoons, but it isn’t easy running a billion-dollar empire — that takes guts and ability.

Whether these children will be able to maintain their family’s top spot on the Forbes 50 list will be down to their own talent and ingenuity.

Featured Image Credit: Forbes / Tatler / edgeprop / Linkedin / Bloomberg / generation t / Vulcan Post

Lil Miquela (@lilmiquela) is 19, and has 2.7 million followers on Instagram. She has worked with fashion labels the likes of Prada, and has been on the covers of magazines.

This does not seem unusual, especially with the rise in popularity of influencers and influencer marketing.

However, the piece of information that might come as shocking is this — she is not real. She was in fact created in 2016 by a startup based in Los Angeles.

The influencers we know of have a pulse and are human, unlike Lil Miquela, who is made of pixels and is a computer-generated imagery (CGI).

She represents a new wave of social media marketers, also known as virtual influencers, who have recently risen in popularity.

From Silicon Valley To Singapore

A few years back, virtual influencers like Lil Miquela were few and far between, and uncommon in Singapore.

There has since been a rise of virtual influencers in Singapore as of late, as more Singaporean-based marketing campaigns start featuring them.

In February this year, PUMA inked a partnership with Maya (@mayaaa.gram), Southeast Asia’s first ever virtual model.

Maya got to be an “official PUMA gal”, fronting the campaign alongside Singaporean actor Tosh Zhang.

On the other hand, homegrown retail company BHG has established a partnership with local virtual influencer Ava Lee-Graham (@avagram.ai) to promote its new in-house labels.

As part of the partnership, Ava will be taking over BHG’s Instagram account to promote the designs.

Ava is created by Reyme Husaini, a 27-year-old Lasalle College of the Arts senior. The 22-year-old influencer is part of his Fashion Media and Industries final project.

“There are brands that are thinking of collaborating, so I’m actually thinking of expanding even further than just a school project,” Reyme told Coconuts.co in an interview.

A Human Element That Can Be Tweaked To Each Company’s Liking

Besides its novelty, other reasons for the rising popularity of virtual influencers include lower costs and increased ease-of-use of the graphics technology behind them.

It is also easy to give these virtual influencers a backstory and personality that makes them easily relatable.

Take Maya for example: she “eats” kaya butter toast and “drinks” kopi for breakfast, “plays” Animal Crossing and has extremely down-to-earth captions on her Instagram.

Ava, on the other hand, is a strong advocate of LGBT and charitable causes — like Reyme designed her to be.

“I would want to make her an advocate for social issues, meshing fashion with controversial issues,” said Reyme.

Both these personalities have their merits to the target audience they try to attract, and are easily crafted by the human behind them.

Besides, virtual influencers can literally work all day without rest, and are efficient as well — there is no need for makeup retouches or re-shoots when things do not go as planned.

Should Human Influencers Be Worried?

With more than a billion people all over the world, and around 4.6 million people in Singapore on social media, it is tough to stand out from the crowd.

The number of virtual influencers on the market is likely still in its double digits, but they have already begun competing with human influencers for partnerships with brands.

However, there is a silver lining for human influencers, Singaporeans do not seem to have much trust in their virtual counterparts.

In a survey conducted by YouGov with 1,111 Singaporeans, 60 per cent stated that virtual influencers did not have an influence on them at all.

On the other hand, 64 per cent felt that human influencers had some level of influence over them.

However, advertising is constantly evolving.

Just a decade ago, the notion of paying individuals with a high follower count on social media to post a picture was probably deemed as ridiculous as virtual influencers.

As the influencer industry becomes more diversified, the ways that brands advertise to its consumers are likely to evolve.

Whilst some audiences might prefer genuine human connections, others might be fonder of the digital influencers.

Hence, it is likely to end up becoming an issue of costs and benefits, and the personalities that emerge triumphant has to meet the expectations of both brands and consumers.

Featured Image Credit: Maya via Instagram and BHG

The government has rolled out various initiatives to help Singaporeans tide over this difficult period.

For those who have lost their jobs or suffered significant income due to the pandemic, they can tap on the COVID-19 Support Grant (CSG), which disburses up to S$800 a month for three months for those eligible.

It supports Singaporean and permanent resident full or part-time employees who lost their jobs, were placed on involuntary no-pay leave, or sustained significant salary loss because of COVID-19.

This grant will be extended to 31 December 2020, but with revised eligibility criteria.

From 1 October, those applying for the CSG should also not own more than one property. This is to ensure that the support is given to those with less means, explained the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).

All those who are unemployed and are applying for the CSG must also demonstrate job search or training efforts to qualify for the help, added the MSF in a media statement.

The ministry said the Government’s SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package helps workers affected by the economic impact of the pandemic acquire job-related skills and capabilities and access expanded employment opportunities.

“In line with these efforts, all CSG applicants, whether first- or second-time applicants, who are unemployed must demonstrate job search or training efforts to qualify for CSG support,” said the MSF.

How To Apply

The CSG started in May, and applications for the grant were initially due to close after 30 September.

However, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat announced in August that the grant would be extended until the end of the year.

At that point, more than S$90 million had been disbursed to over 60,000 residents under the CSG.

“First-time applicants who meet the current eligibility criteria may continue to apply for CSG until 6pm on Sept 30,” said MSF.

“The revised eligibility criteria will take effect from 9am on Oct 1,” it added.

Those who have already received the full CSG grant, or are in the final month of assistance, may apply for an additional three months of support from 1 October.

Individuals can apply online here.

Featured Image Credit: Sam Kang via Bloomberg

[Article has been updated on 23 September 2020, 5:57pm]

This year has been a rather rocky one with economies heading south and businesses, especially startups, struggling to stay afloat.

Startups found themselves having to pivot their business models quickly or become irrelevant.

LinkedIn has recently identified 10 startups that have remained resilient during this tumultuous time, as they continue to attract investment, employees and attention.

The list uses a combination of proprietary platform data and editorial expertise, and measures four core areas: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent, using platform data from January to July 2020.

Here’s a look at the 10 startups in Singapore that have risen above the pandemic:

GoBear

Founded in 2014, financial services and data platform GoBear managed to raise US$17 million (S$23 million) in May — in the middle of Covid-19 — from existing investors.

The funding brings GoBear’s total funding to US$97 million, and will be used to expand its consumer financial services platform in Southeast Asia.

They also brought on three new executives, including a new CFO.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and a declining interest in travel insurance, founder and CEO Adrian Chng said that they still saw growth in GoBear’s other insurance and loan products.

Furthermore, despite a 22-employee layoff this month, they expanded partnerships with companies such as Union Bank, Mambu and CredoLab to focus on lending services in Asia.

ShopBack

Founded in 2014, cashback rewards startup ShopBack has been seeing a boom, thanks to consumers sussing out cost savings more than ever due to Covid-19.

They saw a surge in demand for products in categories like fitness and electronics, both of which saw around a fourfold increase in orders comparing data from January to April year-on-year.

Orders in the internet services category — including top brands like NordVPN, Udemy and Symantec — increased by around 70 times during the same period.

ShopBack entered Korea in April this year, through the acquisition of Ebates Korea, the nation’s largest online cashback platform.

They even made their official debut in Vietnam last month, after seeing consistent month-on-month growth of over 150 per cent in sales and orders this year since its end-2019 beta launch.

Secretlab

Founded in 2015, gaming chair brand Secretlab saw demand for its chairs grow as people work from home. More people across the world have also turned to video games and e-sports while they are stuck at home.

They even hired 30 over more staff during the circuit breaker period from early April to June to cope with what it described as a “multifold” increase in global orders.

Despite the pandemic affecting its vendors and slowed down the overall pace of production, the increase in sales was enough to keep the business afloat.

Glints

Founded in 2013, recruitment and career development platform Glints had raised US$6.8 million in a Series B funding round last year to expand to Vietnam and Hong Kong and to grow its product and engineering teams.

Besides matching candidates with jobs, Glints is now evolving into a skills and career development platform with online classes and career training, and off-shore talent outsourcing hubs.

In response to the pandemic, Glints launched a free outplacement initiative for companies which helped match impacted employees with new career opportunities. 

ADVANCE.AI

Founded in 2016, big data and AI company ADVANCE.AI announced in March that it is expanding to India with offices in Bengaluru and Delhi.

The startup helps enterprises digitise and transform their businesses, with its consumer subsidiary Atome helping many retailers forced online during the pandemic.

Atome has seen rising demand from younger shoppers in taking up instalment plans for online retail spending.

Atome, launched a “buy now, pay later” solution, to support the recovery of Singapore’s retail sector during Covid-19.

In the first three months since its soft launch, Atome saw a 11 times growth in gross transaction volume. Millennials between the ages of 20 and 40 make up 70 per cent of their customers.

ADVANCE.AI is also part of a consortium applying for Singapore’s digital wholesale banking license.

Homage

Founded in 2016, Homage is a home health care service that matches seniors with about 2,000 professional caregivers and nurses for on-demand eldercare.

With more elderly people staying at home during the pandemic, demand for care-giving services rose.

In response to the pandemic, Homage launched a new service arm called Homage Health, which offers home medical services such as mobile medicine, telehealth consultation and medicine delivery.

The healthcare company saw a spike in enquiries on medical teleconsultations and home medical services as families increasingly look for options to minimise infection risk.

While Homage Health was already in the works before Covid-19, its launch was accelerated due to the increasing demand.

Zenyum

Founded in 2018, invisible braces startup Zenyum offers clear aligners 70 per cent cheaper than its counterparts on the market.

Their co-founder Julian Artopé estimated that they have expanded the Clear Aligner market by about 40 per cent of the total market size, thanks to their accessibility and affordability.

Their mix of teledentistry – or remote dental care – and orthodontist visits is especially important during Covid-19 where face-to-face consultations are reduced.

The company also raised US$13.6 million in a Series A funding round in 2019 to fuel its expansion to additional markets.

StashAway

Founded in 2016, wealth management and personal finance app, StashAway helps users invest money in stocks and bonds and it has had quite a year so far.

In July, it raised a US$16 million Series C fundraising round bringing their paid-up capital to S$50.7 million. 

The funds will help accelerate product development in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as support new market entry.

Furthermore, assets under StashAway’s management had more than quadrupled in the 12 months leading up to July.

Grain

Founded in 2013, food delivery startup Grain is a “full-stack” delivery platform, renting out cloud kitchens and offering a rotating menu of dishes with its own team of chefs and delivery fleet.

The company raised US$10 million in a 2019 seed round led by Thailand’s Singha Ventures and expanded into Thailand this year.

The proceeds will also ramp up growth in Singapore and build infrastructure to support revenue of US$100 million.

During the circuit breaker, standalone bubble tea shops were forced to close. Grain jumped onto the opportunity to partner with popular bubble tea chain Koi to sell food-and-drink combinations, and as a result, fans could still get their bubble tea fix.

Hmlet

Founded in 2016, Hmlet is the biggest co-living operator in Singapore with 1,000 homes, and another 1,000 in Hong Kong, Australia and Japan.

Amid its “asset-light” shift, it had laid off 10 per cent of its employees earlier this year to improve operational efficiency.

It has since hired and increased headcount for technology and new product offerings which includes a property listing and management platform for landlords.

It has continued to expand during the pandemic, adding properties in Tokyo and Singapore, and also launched a furniture subscription and online design service.

They Are Still Hiring

Despite seeing an unexpected turn of events during the pandemic, these startups have leveraged their online presence to meet increasing demand for online services, which saw a spike during the circuit breaker.

They have also pivoted their business models and/or search for new opportunities and revenue streams.

As their expand their business, some of the startups — such as ShopBack, Glints and Zenyum — continue to hire for roles ranging from software engineering to backend developing and performance marketing.

With the government’s continued support, and these startups’ constant adaptation to the current climate, it looks like they are determined to thrive, and grow in the era of Covid-19.

Featured Image Credit: ShopBack / Secretlab / Homage / Glints / GoBear

Budgeting and tracking my daily expenses was something I started doing once I earned my first salary. 

I wanted to allocate my funds in a way that wasn’t too splurgy or overly cheap, yet enough for me to treat myself every now and then.

It’s been a little over a year since then, and tracking my daily expenses has become a habit for me. It was only recently that I became more aware of whether or not I’m even sticking to my budgets.

So I tested out 5 budgeting apps that were top-rated in the Google Play store for a week to see if I’ve actually stuck to the budget I planned out a year ago.

1. iSaveMoney

iSaveMoney is made specifically to track your budgets and shows you how diligent you are at keeping to it. 

You can set customised budget periods for how long you want to allocate these spending limits for.

Unlike most apps that only let you choose between weekly, monthly, and annual budgets, iSaveMoney lets you set it down to specific dates.

When your budget period is about to end, the main page will show a reminder at the top asking if you’d like to set it for the next month.

Your balances in each budget category can be viewed very clearly. It has a progress bar to show you how far or close you are to your limit and tells you how much you have left to spend.

Transactions like income and expenses can be added and viewed when you click on each budget category.

What it lacks for me though, are daily notifications to remind me to add my transactions.

I see iSaveMoney most useful for keeping track of expenses over vacations, as I would usually give myself an allocated amount to spend on the planned days.

It would even come in handy for planning events or spending on home improvements, as most would already have set a budget for such things.

The app is only available on the Google Play Store.

2. Wallet

When you first set up the Wallet app, a bank syncing feature is the first action probed.

I wasn’t comfortable with linking my bank account to third-party apps, so I skipped this action to manually put in my balances from my spending accounts.

You have a few options for setting budget periods, which are one-time, weekly, monthly, or yearly budgets. For weekly budgets, you won’t have the flexibility to set the dates yourselves.

You will set your budgets based on the categories listed by the app. What I find disappointing is how its categories aren’t editable.

Meaning, if you’d prefer to list your “Groceries” under “Housing” instead of “Food”, there’s no option to change that.

As for viewing your budget records from previous weeks, only the premium version permits that. 

A reminder to record your transactions can be set. You’ll also be able to separate your accounts between banks, cash, and plenty more. 

Wallet was actually my least favourite app as its interface wasn’t very intuitive or informative as the others.

On its dashboard, there are meters for your balance, cash flow, spendings, and others. But where the meter points to is vague, simply telling you whether you’re in the green, yellow or red.

It also doesn’t automatically calculate how much you have left to spend from your budget. Then again, you could do the maths yourself to find that figure.

Wallet is available on Google Play and the App Store.

3. Fast Budget

We’ve listed Fast Budget as one of 11 apps entrepreneurs should use for their business, as recommended by M’sian entrepreneurs.

Bank syncing is also available and its interface is clear in showing you your spending habits.

Custom budget periods can be set weekly, monthly, and yearly, amongst other timelines. You can customise what the first day of the week or month is.

I can see this function being useful, especially for businesses who have different start days for their individual fiscal years and months.

Where it lacks is in its transaction recording. Although you’ll see how much you’ve spent in a specific category, you won’t be able to clearly know what it was spent on.

I usually record what I’d bought as the name of transactions. The only way to know this exact information is if you added it as a note, but even then you’d have to go into each record to view it. 

Daily reminders to record your transactions can be set, and you’ll also be able to separate your accounts between banks, cash, and many more.

Fast Budget has my favourite interface as its main page has all the widgets I needed to see. It shows all the necessities in one glance, including your transaction history, balances in accounts, and within each budget category.

It also has a progress bar to show how far or close you are to your budgeted amount so you don’t exceed the limit.

You can download it on Google Play, the App Store, or use its Web App.

4. BlueCoins

BlueCoins is the most technical app amongst the rest.

It shows a highly thorough balance sheet of your assets, liabilities, mortgages, and others. That is, if you even bother filling in all the details for each group. 

You can customise your budget period to be daily, weekly, quarterly, annually, and everything in between. But you won’t be able to choose specific dates. 

To see your balances for each budget, you’d have to swipe left a few times to the Budget Summary tab.

It will then show you a clear breakdown from every category with its remaining balances and progress bar to illustrate that. 

BlueCoins can send you daily reminders to log your expenses like most of the others.

Enabling its premium version lets you set due date reminders for paying off credit cards bills and other instalments.

You can also set up distinct accounts for credit cards, savings, banks, and cash.

Despite how much BlueCoins has to offer, I find it too detailed for my liking and personal use.

It may be better suited to SMEs first starting out and needing to keep track of every transaction that goes in and out of their accounts, including the assets and liabilities they have.

The app is only available on Google Play.

5. Money Manager Expense & Budget

Money Manager Expense & Budget comes in 2 versions. 

• Money Manager: Expense Tracker, Free Budgeting App (Yellow) – a more simplified lightweight version;
• Money Manager Expense & Budget (Red) – the one I’ve been using for a year now to track my expenses, and will be used for comparison in this piece.

The app doesn’t allow you to set specific budget periods. Its default is set for monthly ones.

As for checking your balances, the Accounts tab will show how much is left in your bank, cash, savings, and other accounts you’ve added. 

Budget tracking, however, isn’t as obvious as the other apps above. You’d have to look for it in the Total tab of the Transactions page.

There, you will find progress bars to show you how much you’ve used up, and what you have left to spend for the month.

Honestly, because budgets are so hidden, I’d forgotten it even had a budget feature for the whole year I’ve been using it.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the reminder feature to notify you to record your daily expenses. I specifically keep the Yellow app just for that purpose.

You can find the app on Google Play and the App Store.

-//-

After a week of using these 5 apps, I feel like I’ve been missing out on a huge part of keeping track of my spending habits.

Personally, my favourites were iSaveMoney and Fast Budget mostly because of their vibrant and simplified interfaces, ease of use, and ability to satisfy my most important criteria.

Both these apps show the necessities in their main pages, so you can see an overview of your balances and budgets in a glance.

As for whether or not I’ll be switching from the current Money Manager Expense & Budget app, it’d be a no. But that’s only because starting fresh would be a hassle now. Plus, we have so much history together!

In fact, now that I’m enlightened by its budget feature, I’ll be using it even more from now on.

• You can read more about what we’ve written on other apps here.

The travel, tourism and hospitality industry has arguably been the hardest hit during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Countries all over the world have shut their borders, air travel has halted to a standstill, and the number of international travellers dropped drastically.

Even well-established startups such as Klook and YouTrip have had to scramble to pivot during the pandemic, with the former moving into home-based experiences and the latter e-commerce.

Some new travel startups like Trutrip even had to pivot to a completely different business model before launching.

On the other hand, other startup founders have acknowledged that consumers have new needs that arose from the Covid-19 pandemic, and sought to address them.

Building A Startup In Travel And Hospitality During A Pandemic

Trutrip was conceived as a one-stop travel platform for business travellers to book, manage and approve their business travels.

Hugh Bartley, the CEO and co-founder of Trutrip, shared that back in February, the startup had not yet launched their initial product, but were a few months away from doing so.

“As the situation progressed, we could see travel would be taking a prolonged absence from people’s plans,” Hugh said.

Indeed, shortly after, Singapore went into lockdown, following a spate of lockdowns all around the world.

At that time, it was of common perception that the travel industry had been “destroyed”.

Hugh and his co-founder Pinky Tham had to make a decision: “mothballing the project, looking for a non-travel related model or using the time to prepare for the future needs of the SME market.”

They went with the decision to strengthen the startup to ensure that they could produce a solution that would really help the SME market in a “post-Covid world”.

TruTrip thus had a very simple plan moving forward — staying within their budget, and focusing on engaging users, delivering a product road map and building awareness.

Another startup that was built during the pandemic is Stayr. It allows users to book hotel accommodations and other spaces by the hour.

The Stayr application is set to be launched in October.

When asked what was the biggest challenge that the Stayr team faced due to Covid-19, co-founder Toby Shu shared that the trend in which tourism shifted was one of the “most impactful challenges”.

He explained to Vulcan Post that “consumers have also developed higher price sensitivity due to their limited spending power.”

However, the startup hopes that it can provide solutions to problems caused by the pandemic to both its corporate partners and customers.

Solving Problems Made Prominent By The Pandemic

Toby said that Stayr aims to “maximise the value of under-utilised assets such as hotel rooms, meeting lounges and office spaces, by securing on-demand hourly bookings on the go.”

As foreign visitor arrivals in Singapore have dried up, establishments like hotels have started to turn to locals to fill their rooms.

Besides staycations, some hotels have also started to open up “work-from-hotel” deals, where patrons can book spaces for a few hours.

Hence, Stayr’s solutions, despite being highly related to hospitality, are still very much relevant during the pandemic.

The startup has already partnered with hotels like Marriott Tang Plaza, Sofitel and capsule pod hotel Galaxy Pods.

The app was also developed to bring consumers flexibility and affordability, which has become particularly important as many seek solace from working-from-home.

TruTrip has also embarked on some Covid-specific projects; a notable one being Covid Entry Check.

The platform gives clients accessible, clear and consistent route level information to help make booking decisions during the Covid-19 period, especially when information is changing all the time.

In just 10 days after its launch, the platform had close to 30,000 visitors, from nearly 150 different countries.

People Will Start To Travel Again

Even though travel has taken a prolonged hiatus from people’s plans, it is unlikely that travel, especially business travel, will disappear forever.

Singapore is already in the talks with other countries to open reciprocal green lanes for business and essential travel.

Hugh is of the belief that now is the time the world is starting to see a shift in travel patterns. Therefore, now is “a great time to build something if you see a specific addressable need,” he added.

Like Hugh, Toby believes that people will definitely start to travel again.

“What’s most crucial now is the speed in which a startup can penetrate the market and prepare itself for the post-pandemic change,” he said.

After all, some of the most successful startups such as Slack, Uber and Airbnb were born out of the 2009 recession.

“I believe there will always be the next batch of iconic companies that arise from hardship like this, turning risks into opportunities,” said Toby.

Featured Image Credit: Hugh Bartley (left), Toby Shu (right)