Startup Magazine of Hong Kong: Jumpstart Issue 21 (May/June 2018)

Issue 21 | i

ii | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

EDITOR’S NOTE FINTECH IT’S ABOUT MORE THAN MONEY

By Glen Watson

W

ORKING AS A journalist in Hong Kong for more than 20 years, I constantly meet and/or interview people who work (or worked) in finance. If there’s one thing they all seem to have in common (other than ‘work hard, play hard’) it’s that they reach a certain point where having lots of money isn’t enough. They want more out of life, they want to do something meaningful… they want a purpose, to do some good before their time is up.

Not surprisingly, while putting this issue together the Jumpstart team began to notice a similar feeling among the people working in FinTech. Take our cover person, CZ from Binance – a hugely popular cryptocurrency trading platform.

While chatting with him, it became clear that making money isn’t his main motivation. It’s a means to an end, which is making the world better. To him, this involves freedom.

“Now, we don’t do things for making money. We do things to help make the community better, help the customers, promote the freedom of investments, promote the freedom of assets. It’s the freedom we want to promote now. We believe that crypto is better for the human race,” CZ says.

I recently ran into John Wood at a talk he gave at Metta in Hong Kong. We met 11 years ago, when I interviewed him for a luxury magazine. The former senior Microsoft executive set up a charity called Room to Read, with a mission to help children by building schools and libraries. His organization has made life better for over 12.5 million children in 15 countries since it began 17 years ago. He’s an interesting guy, to be sure.

In the Lifestyle section, we preview his latest book “Purpose, Incorporated”, which is based on over 100 interviews with entrepreneurs, executives and front-line staff. In the preface, Wood writes about going to Nepal with his father and, with the help of six rented donkeys, delivering thousands of books to eager children.

“And on that day, at the age of thirty-five – thinking about my job at Microsoft and my desire to have an impact on something other than my bank account – I made the rather insane decision to leave a lucrative career and start a nonprofit to bring books and literacy to children across the poorest parts of the world.”

There’s definitely a feel-good factor, but Wood and co-author Amalia McGibbon provide examples of many companies that are using purpose as a competitive advantage and a way to improve the world. “I hope this book can be a clarion call to encourage people at all levels of their companies to create their own unique marriage between cause and capitalism,” Wood writes. “… There’s a new land of opportunity, and – luckily for all – its streets are paved with purpose.”

In FinTech, some Founders and companies are driven to make things like personal financial management easier and simpler to understand, while others want to help people save on remittance fees when they send money overseas to help their families, or make buying and selling services, goods and even properties easier while reducing things like fees, middlemen and delays.

These are just a few examples, there are many more.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue about what some FinTech entrepreneurs and their companies are doing in Asia, and around the world. It’s an interesting time to be involved in finance and related services, and the financial rewards are there, to be sure. But as CZ says, “We’re not trying to overthrow anybody, we’re not against any country, company, or bank, or person. We’re just doing a little bit at a time to promote this. We’re not revolutionary, we’re evolutionary.”

Things can always be better, and it’s great to see that there are many people involved in FinTech who aren’t just there to make money.

Glen Watson glen@jumpstartmag.com Photos: Room to Read | www.roomtoread.org Cover image: Sean Baylis @ www.hongkongphotographer.hk Cover design: Joyce Ngo Issue 21 | 1

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GUEST EDITOR’S NOTE FINTECH COMES OF AGE IN ASIA

By Iain Reed

W

HEN I LEFT MY investment banking job in 2003 to found EFA, many people thought I was a little crazy.

I had been working in the banking industry for 10 years and I could see clearly that much of what was going on was inefficient and could be greatly improved through better technology.

I did not have a computer science degree but I had been coding on and off since the mid-80s, mainly to make my own life more efficient. Thus was born an early FinTech mover in Hong Kong, EFA, which I started with another ex-analyst.

Like many entrepreneurs, we were probably too early but, as readers will learn in this issue of Jumpstart, we have now been vindicated because FinTech is certainly now coming of age in Asia.

In this issue we hear from startups in the insurance, property, currency exchange, online banking, money services and cryptocurrencies spaces from Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and Taiwan.

The cover story this month features Changpeng Zhao, the Founder of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange that has become one of the most liquid trading venues in recent times. Like many early adopters of cryptocurrencies, he is now reportedly a billionaire in his own right as a result of the burgeoning prices for cryptocurrencies in the past few years.

Another result of this trend is a plethora of new coin issues (ICOs) to supplement the original Bitcoin (BTC), which started on January 3, 2009 with its first transaction by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto.

In fact, blockchains were invented some 18 years prior to that

by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta when they put forward a viable way of time stamping documents and making them immutable using “hash” encryption.

What BTC did first was solve the double spending problem, using a proof of work algorithm that slows down the transactions to 10 minutes per block. Unfortunately this solution is inherently unscalable, and we are beginning to see the results of this in our feature on Bitspark.

This Hong Kong-based peer-to-peer money transfer company – a pioneer in the crypto space – recently moved its medium of exchange away from Bitcoin in favor of Bitshares.

Bitspark Co-Founder and COO Maxine Ryan cites transaction congestion created by the latest cryptocurrency bubble last year for the sharp rise in BTC transaction costs that rendered it impractical as a medium of exchange for the company, whose mission is to enable small remittances from Hong Kong to Indonesia and the Philippines.

FinTech is not only about cryptocurrencies and blockchain, and it doesn’t always have to replace traditional financial services companies. We see this in Vietnam with Timo, which is providing a superior consumer experience backed by a VPBank account; and 4xLabs, which is providing a technology platform for traditional money services businesses.

Likewise, Soho A=pp in Australia has taken the route of enabling existing property agents to move online rather than trying to replace them.

Finance is a highly regulated industry and has only become more so since the global financial crisis. BTC and its children have disrupted this equation and the regulators are struggling to catch up. Japan, Gibraltar and Malta are embracing change.

China, one of the fastest-moving FinTech markets in the world, has slammed on the brakes in an effort to gain some control while other markets are still deciding which way they will move.

What is clear, though, is that Satoshi has opened the box, the incumbents have woken from their slumber and now the innovators have been set free to change the world for the better.

Make sure you all keep watching this space.

ABOUT IAIN REED Originally from the UK and a graduate of Cambridge University, Iain has lived in Asia since 1989 and is the Co-founder of EFA, a leading software solutions company providing market leading products – the EFA Platform and EFAdrin – and related consulting services to finance professionals, family offices and the broader investment community worldwide. He is also the Founder and Chairman of the HK chapter of the global nonprofit organization TiE that fosters entrepreneurship, and a member of the British Chamber of Commerce in HK – sitting on its Financial Markets, IT and SME committees and is Vicechairman of its Angel Committee that connects entrepreneurs with angel investors. www.efa.biz Issue 21 | 3

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CONTENTS JUMPSTART magazine MAY/JUNE 2018 1 EDITOR’S NOTE 3 GUEST EDITOR’S NOTE GUEST COLUMNS 7 Alipay VS WeChat Pay 8 Booster Rocket 9 Connectivity Changes Everything 10 Shaping The Future 11 The Democratization Of Creativity And Success 12 Unleashing Mobility 13 People Power 14 Excite, Not Complicate 15 NEWS 18 LIFESTYLE | PRODUCTS 20 LIFESTYLE | BOOKS FEATURES 22 Technologically Sound

24

COVER STORY

THE FREEDOM OF WEALTH

Binance Crypto Exchange Platform Is Pushing Boundaries, And Succeeding Brilliantly

By Glen Watson, Editor-in-Chief of Jumpstart

FEATURE

BITCOIN VS BITSHARES

Blockchain Remittances At Higher Volume, Faster Transactions And Lower Fees

By Maxine Ryan, Co-founder and COO of Bitspark

28

30 FEATURE

DIGITALIZATION IN THE MONEY SERVICES INDUSTRY

FEATURE

THE FUTURE OF FINTECH INNOVATION IN SINGAPORE

By Scott Bales, Managing Director of Innovation Labs Asia

Bridging The Divide Between Modern And Traditional Financial Institutions

By Angela Cheong, Chief Marketing Officer of 4xLabs

36

FEATURE

EARLY DAYS

32

Celebrations And Concerns Part Of Growing Pains For PropTech In Australia

By Shona Yang, Journalist In Residence of Jumpstart

34 Untapped 38 When InsurTech Meets Travel 39 Cats On The Blockchain

40 Loose Change 41 Online Banking In Vietnam 42 EVENTS

Issue 21 May/June 2018 Managing Director James Kwan Editor-in-Chief Glen Watson Guest Editor Iain Reed Associate Director of Content Development Chloe Wong Associate Director of Content Operations Tiffany Wong Director of Community Engagement Anita Chan Director of Product Development Maggie Lau Community Evangelist (Silicon Valley) Li Xing Chang Founder/Advisor Yana Robbins

Joseph Chow

Advisors Shitiz Jain Leo Ku

Journalists in Residence Faridah Wu Tieza Mica Santos Quách Toàn Long Shona Yang Priscilla Tan Nelson Ng Sabrina Wang Peyton Ong

Scott Bales Kristy Castleton Eddie Chang Angela Cheong Keina Chiu

Sean Baylis

Winnie Kong

Contributors Edmon Chung Page Deng Ashley Galina Dudarenok Jared King Bay McLaughlin Maxine Ryan Special Thanks Joyce Ngo Rahat Raza

Derek Kwik

Kelly Cho Yoyo Shek

Interns Huey Wong Jessie Yang

Divya Samtani Lynette Seah Cameron Warden Andrew Work Raymond Wyand

Changpeng Zhao

Jumpstart is available at over 1,500 locations in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, China, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila, Sydney and Melbourne.

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Copyright © 2018 Jumpstart Media Ltd. The contents of the magazine are fully protected by copyright and nothing may be reprinted without permission. The publisher and editors accept no responsibility in respect to any products, goods or services that may be advertised or referred to in this issue or for any errors, omissions, or mistakes in any such advertisements or references. The mention of any specific companies or products in articles or advertisements does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by this magazine or its publisher in preference to others of a similar nature which are not mentioned or advertised. Published articles do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Jumpstart magazine.

GUEST COLUMN

ALIPAY VS WECHAT PAY MOBILE PAYMENT GIANTS DRIVING CHINA’S CASHLESS TRANSFORMATION

By Ashley Galina Dudarenok

C

HINA IS LEADING the globe’s cashless trend with its ubiquitous mobile payments. According to Xinhua, the mobile payment market reached RMB 81 trillion (US$12.77 trillion) as of October 2017. Tencent’s WeChat Pay and Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial’s Alipay account for 90% of the industry. These two giants are driving the transformation with their approaches to expanding the market.

Initial Development

Born in 2004, Alipay was launched as a secure transaction service for Taobao. There were lots of transaction failures due to lack of trust, so Alipay was introduced to temporarily keep money paid by the buyer, and release it to the seller only if the buyer was satisfied. After proving itself, Alipay saw tremendous growth and expanded beyond Alibaba’s ecosystem.

WeChat Pay was released 9 years later as a payment service for WeChat, the largest social media app in China.

It was created for peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers and in-app purchases. However, as mobile commerce emerged and reshaped lifestyles, WeChat Pay expanded beyond its original parameters and started competing with Alipay in many areas.

Head-to-head Competition

Although WeChat Pay came a decade later, it has captured significant market share. In Q1 2017, Alipay’s market share dropped to 54 percent, with WeChat Pay claiming 40 percent.

The two compete fiercely in areas like online-to-offline (O2O) services, retail and financial services.

Both entities now pursue exclusive partnerships. For instance, food delivery app Meituan Waimai no longer accepts Alipay and Alibaba’s travel agency app, Fliggy, has stopped offering WeChat Pay as an option. Walmart has rejected Alipay in many of its southwest China outlets recently because of its partnership with WeChat.

Alipay and WeChat also compete in the financial services arena. Alipay’s parent Ant Financial is a full-scale financial services company, so Alipay has a wide variety of financial services integrated, such as money market investing (Yu’e Bao), insurance services (ZhongAn), credit rating services (Sesame Credit), personal credit lines (Ant Micro Loan), and online banking (MYbank).

WeChat Pay has made up ground by leveraging its online bank (WeBank) and introducing LingQianTong, which allows users to earn daily interest on their balance, as a competitor to Yu’e Bao.

Going Global

Due to the purchasing power of Chinese outbound tourists, the two payment rivals have become widely accepted in popular travel destinations. Alipay is accepted in 26 countries across Europe, North America, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. WeChat Pay can handle payments in 12 currencies in 15 countries and regions.

They are also trying to break into new markets. Since 2015, Ant Financial has invested in a series of e-wallets for Asia including Paytm (India), Kakao Pay (South Korea) and HelloPay (Singapore). Tencent is also expanding into South Africa and Australia. Both have a presence in the United States through partnerships with local providers like First Data and CITCON. At this stage, it’s still hard to say who will win in the end, but it’s safe to say that they’ll continue to innovate mobile payment systems and propel the cashless trend in China and the rest of the world. alipay.com pay.wechat.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ashley Galina Dudarenok is the Founder of Alarice and ChoZan, agencies with expertise on marketing in China. Her YouTube channel – AshleyTalksChina – is the world’s largest vlog about China’s market, consumers and social media. Her Amazon bestseller “Unlocking the World’s Largest E-Market: A Guide to Selling on Chinese Social Media” is now available at www.amazon.com/dp/B079KNTXMS. ashley@chozan.co

Issue 21 | 7

GUEST COLUMN

BOOSTER ROCKET BLOCKCHAIN IS WAY PAST BITCOIN AND HONG KONG IS BLASTING THROUGH TO NEXT BIG THING

By Andrew Work

T

HERE WERE THOSE who thought computers would be a niche product for elite research only, and the Internet nothing more than chatrooms for socially maladjusted geeks. And so it is with blockchain.

People focused on Bitcoin’s rollercoaster valuation ride are completely missing the point. It’s like discussing the merits of Wilbur and Orville Wright’s marvellous flying machine when jet fighters are blasting through the sound barrier.

HK Blockchain

Hong Kong is ground zero for the global movement to use this technology. Worldly nomads with no fixed address move from event to event and research lab to coworking space developing contacts, technology and people.

Hong Kong is, in many ways, the perfect place for a corporate HQ for this movement. The same free-market, lowtax business environment and central position in Asia work for these businesses like all others with low fixed assets. However, Hong Kong’s blockchain ecosystem puts it out in front of other development centres.

As always, finance is a big part of why Hong Kong works for both traditional and ICO style fundraising. Asia’s financial capital is seeing more and more blockchain focussed funds being created at all levels. Young heads of family offices understand the technology and are choosing to invest in both companies directly and through ICOs. Big 4 firms like PwC China are working with traditional companies so they can raise funds using ICOs, like Kodak did in January. VCs and PE firms abound and are gearing up to invest in blockchain projects and cryptoassets alike.

If companies want to go the ICO route, Hong Kong is an option. Regulators have taken the position that if an ICO is structured like a security, it needs to comply with the Securities and Futures Commission. There is a huge market for ICOs and cryptocurrencies in next door China, but its exchanges have been shut down and ICOs banned.

Hong Kong, as always, is China’s financial window to the world for those in the market. “Hong Kong is by default benefiting from China’s ban on ICOs and cryptocurrencies,” says Juwan Lee, NexChange CEO and Co-founder of the Blockchain Centre of Hong Kong.

Lee is one of the three Founders of the new Blockchain Centre of Hong Kong. It aims to be an industrial sandbox for blockchain, a technological space for developers to experiment and collaborate in a safe environment before solutions are turned loose on the Internet and the public. It is part of the bigger ecosystem that includes major business technology centres like Cyberport and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park that drive cooperative innovation.

Players gather at events like the upcoming Block O2O Blockchain Summit being held at PMQ on May 8 in Hong Kong to expand their understanding of the sector, meet with the best in the world and forge alliances with like-minded deal makers.

The organizer, ‘ecosystem as a service’ provider NexChange, is gathering technological and business pioneers.

Many are developing solutions to specific consumer needs (like The Bee Token’s next gen AirBnB on blockchain), and creating the infrastructure needed to develop the sector.

Others, like Nick Spanos, are developing tools for others to build blockchain solutions using the software components needed to develop smart contracts and decentralized apps (called Dapps). He founded the Bitcoin Center in New York in 2013, but his company now is like a blockchain software Taobao, Amazon and eBay all in one.

As investors and inventors move forward to the next (and next and next) generation of blockchain, they will build out the technology that will allow the promise of AI and the Internet of Things to be delivered. If Bitcoin was the beginning, business in Hong Kong is blasting through to a blockchain future at supersonic speeds.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Andrew Work is the Head Content Strategist, Asia Pacific at NexChange – the innovation ecosystem as a service, specialising in FinTech, InsurTech, blockchain, AI and HealthTech. Andrew directs NexChange’s Asia-Pacific journalists and crafts the content for events like the upcoming Block O2O Blockchain Summit and FinTech O2O Global Summit 2018. www.nexchange.com

8 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

GUEST COLUMN

CONNECTIVITY CHANGES EVERYTHING

Brinc’s Hong Kong Spring 2018 Cohort

BRINC IS INVESTING IN STARTUPS THAT UNLOCK DATA AND IMPROVE LIVES

By Bay McLaughlin

B

RINC INVESTS IN and helps to build connected hardware companies from around the world. Best known for our accelerator programs, we look for Founders who want to solve problems that pertain to How We Feel, Where We Live, What We Eat, and How We Move.

The future of the world needs help and we believe that by connecting the world, we can solve our most pressing issues. You’ll see that our investments are both diverse in their geographic origin, as well as the areas of our lives that they address.

We are excited to also bring these new investments to Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area to ensure they get the world’s best resources to build their IoT and Drone businesses quickly. This Spring 2018 cohort adds 10 new investments to our growing family of founders and we are committed to bringing more than 30 more in the next year to the region.

Brinc is more than an accelerator, offering education, community, and tools to early-stage IoT and Hardware Founders from around the world, as well as a customized support service for anyone who wants to make their physical products in China. We simply believe that physical innovation should be easier and will continue to connect, accelerate, make, and grow new companies in the years to come.

Please reach out if you believe in our mission!

Empirical Automation

Industrial robots powered by artificial intelligence to increase affordability of physical automation in research and manufacturing.

EmotAI

Bio-signal tracking and training platform that increases focus and critical thinking skills for eGamers to help them perform better.

HUDlog

Watr

Augmented reality, heads-up display technologies to increase awareness of critical attention points on the road, ultimately saving lifes and decreasing maintenance and fuel costs for any delivery vehicle fleets.

An environmental sensing platform for continuous water quality monitoring to help make the most of the water that we have left on Earth, even where no Internet is available.

Revsmart

Smart communications wearable that helps motorcyclists access communication, navigation and music safely using bone conduction technology.

DroneEntry

Online social platform for drone pilots to manage their profiles, missions flown and skills achieved that pairs with a marketplace for people needing a drone pilot for hire.

GeoMeo

Brinc By The Numbers

• Total investments = 40 • Teams from 70 countries apply for Brinc investment, and 6 continents and 22 countries are represented in the portfolio • Portfolio major industry break down: 33% Health/MedTech 26% Drones, 13% AgTech 8% AutoTech • Capital Raised by teams post program: US$22 million • Brinc products ship to 40+ countries around the world • Brinc offices: Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Barcelona, Bahrain, Tel Aviv (more coming in 2018)

Mesh enabled, wireless nodes that connect the unconnected in remote villages and power healthcare, education and security with modular software and services.

Korma Vision

Handheld, affordable hybrid spectrometer powered by AI that generates a unique fingerprint for every material you scan.

Habibi Garden

Precision agriculture devices for farmers that process environmental and local data and optimize fertilizer and water schedules to optimize crop yields.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bay McLaughlin, aka BetaBay, is Cofounder and COO of Brinc. Bay is an active investor with 50+ portfolio companies, sits on the board of four companies, writes a weekly column for Forbes called This Week in China Tech, and is a professional speaker and KOL for Huawei and Insta360.

Sky Browse

Autonomous drone platform that investigates car accidents by providing live aerial data and 3D models to protect police and first responders lives and decrease traffic globally.

bay@brinc.io | www.brinc.io

Issue 21 | 9

GUEST COLUMN

SHAPING THE FUTURE ENTREPRENEURS MUST BUILD BUSINESS SOLUTIONS THAT CREATE SOCIAL CHANGE

W

By Jared King

E LIVE IN A TIME of enormous technological innovation. Almost every business process is being re-invented. In the future, cars will drive themselves, robots will serve us meals, and we will be evermore connected.

And yet, almost 800 million people still live in extreme poverty. This means they survive on less than US$2 per day.

That’s 10% of the entire global population.

I believe a defining question of our time is: what does rapid technological innovation mean for the distribution of wealth across the world? Decades from now, will the world be a more fair and equal place, or will it be divided and unequal?

Entrepreneurs must actively shape the future. The entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow should build companies that solve the problems of inequality. We are entering a new era of entrepreneurial thinking. Instead of engaging in debates, entrepreneurs must act and build business solutions that create social change.

Topics like artificial intelligence are vigorously debated.

Will it destroy jobs? Can we retrain workers fast enough?

What will it mean for our economy? These are all important questions. The best entrepreneurs will stop talking and start building companies that provide solutions to these questions.

For example, the traditional global banking system excludes 2 billion people. That’s more than 25% of the population. Our current system is not designed to serve the needs of low-income people.

But this status quo is on the verge of radical change.

FinTech experimentation is transforming everything. With new technologies come new possibilities in savings, lending, payments, and investing. The key question is whether these technologies will simply help the rich get richer. Is that the future we all want?

People tend to get distracted by shiny new technology.

There is so much brilliant brain power in FinTech, we must never lose sight of the most important thing: human beings.

Technology is just the means by which we can change people’s lives for the better.

The best entrepreneurs of the future will have the brains of a businessperson and the heart of a development worker. They will focus on profit, but also on purpose. They will be capitalist, but with a touch of compassion. And by doing so, they will build companies that will make the world better for everyone.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jared King is the CEO of Lender Friend, a FinTech company providing ethical low-interest loans to domestic workers.

Lender Friend’s mission is to save domestic workers HK$100 million by reducing their interest payments. www.lenderfriend.loan

10 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

GUEST COLUMN

THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF CREATIVITY AND SUCCESS

A

T 21, HONG KONG-BASED Jane Lippencott embodies “entrepreneur extraordinaire”.

Best known as Co-founder of ZenCash – a principles-first, community-based movement working to build an encrypted system for money, messaging, and media – she is also launching an education platform to empower developing communities, serves as Director of Eden – a platform for blockchain consulting and advisory – and is Co-Director of a new blockchain incubator in Thailand. In addition, she’s a private investor, professional speaker, and advisor to a number of successful start-ups. All of this, and she hasn’t even graduated yet.

With a story like that, I couldn’t help but wonder – what’s her secret? So here they are: Jane’s Top 3 learnings on growth, creativity, and success.

1. Create A Life Thesis

“I don’t believe in singular specialization. I prefer to have a series of life theses, based on my beliefs regarding how the world should work, optimally, and how I’m best equipped

By Divya Samtani

to contribute. Right now I’m building at the convergence of decentralized governance, democratization, and, of course, value-oriented community development. Too often communities are characterized by superficial connections, so using blockchain to catalyze communities based on a core sets of principles that underlie all interactions is vital.”

2. It’s All In The Mind

“One of my ‘secrets’ lies in state changes. I intentionally get myself psyched about tasks I may not find intellectually or otherwise stimulating.

I started doing this during a period of hardship; without it I don’t think I would have survived. I didn’t value myself and I didn’t have strong relationships.

So I chose to be good to others and to myself, to view opportunities as gifts and exciting challenges. Maybe that’s my ultimate habit.

3. The Meaning Of Success

“I often feel very exposed and vulnerable, like I’m putting too much of myself ‘out there’. I think modern society baselessly encourages us to

present diluted versions of ourselves and to groupthink. For me, success is aligning with my values, controlling my energy, and reacting as infrequently as possible. We should intend to be present and available for the people around us and to live our purpose.

Success is in the little moments when we show humility, respectfully contradict, empathise, and forgive.” www.zencash.com ABOUT THE AUTHOR Divya Samtani is a programmer, storyteller, and communications specialist who has worked with some of the world’s largest financial and tech organizations, helping them to define their digital media and marketing strategies. www.metta.co

Issue 21 | 11

GUEST COLUMN

UNLEASHING MOBILITY OPEN OCTOPUS PLATFORM CAN CATAPULT HK’S FINTECH INDUSTRY

By Edmon Chung

H

ONG KONG’S free port and laissez-faire governance approach is a textbook success for economic development. Hong Kong’s Octopus card, integrated with the MTR metro system, is a textbook success in ecommerce innovation. Octopus’ stranglehold on Hong Kong’s digital payment system is fast becoming a textbook case of the pitfalls of a natural monopoly. That need not be so.

The story is about mobility. When it comes to FinTech in Asia, with the shining success of the Octopus, Hong Kong has long prided itself as one of the pioneers in e-payment. Octopus sparked the adoption of contactless payment systems around the world, and to this day remains an indispensable part of the “Hong Kong experience” for locals and tourists alike.

Ironically, that revolutionary robustness and efficiency inadvertently hurt subsequent innovations. The Octopus system has barely changed, and today, it has become a dominant and immobile force threatening to suffocate FinTech innovations.

In the recently launched Youth Mobility Index (YMI.Asia), Hong Kong ranked #1 in Startup Momentum and Entrepreneurship Mobility, but lost out in the overall YMI rankings to rival Singapore. The YMI 2018 findings reconcile well with Hong Kong’s favorable legal and financial conditions to be a strong hub for FinTech entrepreneurs.

However, several aspects loom as potential problems, the sustainability of information freedom and its impact on social tolerance and openness will have lasting impact on the attractiveness 12 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

of Hong Kong as a FinTech and entrepreneurship hub in general.

As far as FinTech entrepreneurs are concerned, there have been broad strokes from the highest levels of government policy to boost FinTech with low-rent working space and other wellmeaning resources. At the consumer level, Hong Kong’s economy presents a rich and malleable sandbox.

Originally enabled by its high population density and now by highrolling tourism, Hong Kong features a vibrant retail space, even though skyhigh rents have made it hard for SMEs to keep up. This is reflected in the YMI. Asia Cost-Happiness efficiency score, where Hong Kong fell miserably to the bottom spot.

The story remains about mobility.

Octopus’ success was built on the mobility it supported. To transform this world-leading platform in today’s Internet-driven world would require Octopus to take the bold move of opening up its platform to let in constructive FinTech competition.

Imagine a blockchain-driven Octopus platform that allows multiple providers to offer MTR compatible contactless payment throughout the retail payment system.

Of course there are many other technical possibilities, but the key point – taking a page from Hong Kong’s success as a free port – is that an open platform is Hong Kong’s time-honored advantage. Just as forging open the then-Hong Kong Telecom’s data network for ISPs to blossom ushered in the most speedy and cost-effective Internet connectivity in Asia (Hong Kong is #1

in Internet Speed-Cost Performance, according to the YMI 2018 rankings).

The classical laissez-faire approach facilitates capital mobility. A neolaissez-faire approach that sees the visible hand supporting the invisible hand becomes increasingly important not to regulate innovation, but to remove market barriers by ensuring an open marketplace that unleashes mobility for upstarts.

This echoes resoundingly with a key finding from the YMI study that Youth Mobility is the new competitive advantage of cities and nations. Young people increasingly seek life experiences through mobility rather than the amassment of properties as a symbol of status.

Hong Kong stands on the precipice of becoming a regional hub for FinTech, backed by government policies and aligned with plentiful public and private investment. Hong Kong’s might as an Asian financial hub is an obvious opportunity where the most lucrative utilisation of FinTech lies.

FinTech is poised to instigate a paradigm shift in the financial world.

For Hong Kong to maintain its position as a world premiere financial centre, FinTech must be a centrepiece in policy consideration. Protection and subsidy is not the Hong Kong way. Forging open our prized Octopus platform to innovation and constructive competition will undoubtedly catapult Hong Kong to the forefront of FinTech world, by jumpstarting a wave of FinTech startups to thrive in Hong Kong.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Edmon Chung is the CEO of DotAsia Organisation, heads the secretariat for Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) and participates extensively in Internet governance, especially supporting youth participation. Edmon is an inventor of patents for internationalized domain names and email addresses, won the Most Innovative Award in the CCEA in 2001 and was selected by The Globe and Mail newspaper in 2000 as one of the Young Canadian Leaders. www.dot.asia | www.aprigf.asia | www.YMI.asia

GUEST COLUMN

COMMON PITFALLS TO AVOID IN DESIGN THINKING PROCESS

By Lynette Seah

D

ESIGN THINKING IS NOT a particularly new concept, yet many people still struggle to understand and implement it effectively. At the heart of it, design thinking is about considering human needs first and then identifying solutions to complex problems in a hands-on and dynamic way.

Whether you’re just beginning or have already started to use design thinking as part of your organisation’s digital transformation strategy, understanding these potential pitfalls can make all the difference to your success.

Design Thinking Stages

Before we delve into the right and wrong ways to approach design thinking, let’s first briefly define the process. Although various iterations exist, this five-stage approach contains all the necessary elements without over-complicating the process:

1 2 3 4 5

Avoiding Common Mistakes

Empathise This stage is what really sets design thinking apart from other methodologies. It brings out the human side of your organisation’s problems by listening to customers and understanding their needs and desires. By immersing yourself at a human level you can gain useful insights that feed into all other stages of the process.

Define During this stage you should take a problem your company is facing and re-frame it from a customer’s perspective. Defining problems in a human-centric way helps you make sure the solutions you develop later on are addressing customer needs.

Ideate Ideation is about creating a multitude of ideas as potential solutions to the problem(s) you have identified.

This often begins with a brainstorming session to generate as many ideas as possible then refine your ideas before moving to the next stage.

Prototype In this stage, the aim is to create rough drafts of the solutions with which you want to proceed. Prototyping should be an experimental, hands-on process that may just focus on particular elements of a new product to keep things quick and economical.

Test This is where a complete solution is produced from the knowledge gained in the previous stages. It’s then tested with customers to see whether it addresses the needs and problems initially identified.

Now that we’re clear on the stages of the process, let’s look at how to avoid some common mistakes that occur during implementation.

1

Making it a rigid linear process – Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that these stages are not necessarily sequential.

You may apply two or more steps simultaneously or revisit previous steps iteratively. The design thinking process should be fluid, with each stage contributing to the project in whatever order makes most sense. In particular, insight gained in later stages can feed back into earlier stages, which are then repeated with more fruitful results.

2

3

Being afraid to fail – The dynamic nature of this process means that there is room for failure, learning, and re-assessment. In fact, if you don’t experience failure at some point along the way, you’re probably being too cautious in your approach.

Thinking it’s only for the C-suite – Part of the beauty of design thinking is that it can bring together a diverse group of people from different professions and levels within the company, and they can all contribute something valuable.

GUEST COLUMN

PEOPLE POWER

4

Trying to solve every single problem with design thinking – Design thinking is a wonderful tool. It is just as important to know how to implement as it is to know when not to use it. It can be very helpful to identify new markets and create new offerings, but it’s not so useful for problems that are already clearly defined or where another technique, such as process improvement, would be more suitable.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

To Conclude

For the design thinking process to work properly, it must be implemented in the right way for the right types of problems. Get a diverse group of people involved, give them space to create and fail, and don’t forget to make it a dynamic, iterative process.

Lynette Seah is an Australian Chartered Accountant with over 28 years of experience in MNCs such as PWC and J.D Edwards, including 8 years as VP of Finance & Strategy at Salesforce.com.

Lynette is the Founder and Owner of Alpha7, a company named one of the top 25 Most Promising Technology Startups in 2016 by APAC CIO Outlook. The business dashboard A7 IoB launched in Aug 2017.

13 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

www.alpha7.co | a7iob.com

Issue 21 | 13

GUEST COLUMN

EXCITE, NOT COMPLICATE THE IMPORTANCE OF ADDING A HUMAN TOUCH TO EVENT TECHNOLOGY

By Kristy Castleton

H

OLOGRAMS, VIRTUAL REALITY, artificial intelligence, wearables, gesture control, the list seems endless. Event technology has developed at an incredible pace over the last decade, offering a veritable smorgasbord of options when planning an event.

While it may be tempting to incorporate multiple elements and wow participants with new technology, it’s essential to remember a fundamental design principle: form follows function. We should never use technology for the sake of it. Rather, it should fulfil a need and facilitate the execution of highly impactful and memorable events. Equally, if not more importantly, is the use of technology to enhance, rather than replace the human touch, a key differentiating factor in an era where technology rules the masses.

Targeted Marketing

Event technology can be used to simplify existing processes and add a human touch through personalisation. Wearables can also expedite and simplify the registration process as they can be tagged to specific individuals. This would serve a further practical purpose by allowing marketers to gather data, conduct further research, tailor future events, and increase sales conversion rates.

To further enhance the human element, rechnology could also be used to reward participants. For example, customised playlists could be sent to music festival attendees based on the bands they viewed at the event.

Telling A Story Through Music

Speaking of playlists, music is a beautiful medium to activate the senses and tell a memorable story. When a client engaged us for their annual gala dinner, we set out to make it memorable by engaging the guests’ sense of hearing. By incorporating a conductive ink pressure sensor into the table setting, we told a story through music.

Throughout the first course, musical notes filled the air as guests picked up their cocktail glasses. We complemented this experience by working with a symphony orchestra to compose a unique piece of music to pair with each course.

Adding Personas

While event technology can be used to streamline existing processes like event registration, the human element may be incorporated through the creation of digital avatars. These days, most chatbots have distinct personas, ranging from Singapore Land Transport Authority’s Bus Uncle, who speaks Singlish and cracks jokes with a local flavour, to the award-winning Mitsuku, who will stand her ground if you start an argument!

These features add a human touch and give the illusion that participants are speaking to a real person, rather than a programmed robot.

Making Mini-golf Easy

Event technology can also be used to create a money-can’t-buy experience. During a recent golfing event, we created a Beat the Pros competition using cutting-edge augmented reality technology to train the amateurs. The tech was so good that one of our guests did in fact, beat the pro! The pros were so impressed that they are now using the technology to train.

Although technology will continue to evolve at a fast pace, it’s the application that’s important. The aim is to improve, not overwhelm. Excite, not complicate. Through personalisation and storytelling, technology can help to make an event highly impactful and memorable, leaving a lasting positive impression.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kristy Castleton is the Founder and MD of Rebel and Soul, a socially conscious business in Singapore that produces highly memorable events for global brands across Asia Pacific. Her passion for neuroscience and technology — teamed with a love for parties and new experiences — drove her to set up an agency that does things a little differently and works with brands like Heineken, HSBC, Chanel and MINI, as well as agencies such as Dentsu and Saatchi & Saatchi. www.rebelandsoul.com

14 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

CSI ALLIANCE AIMS TO ACCELERATE HONG KONG’S FINTECH GROWTH

The American company WeWork is buying Chinese coworking startup naked Hub as part of a continued expansion in the mainland market, according to Bloomberg and other media outlets.

“We do not consider it an acquisition, we consider it a merger … they are now going to be our partners for a very long time,” WeWork Co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann tells the SCMP in Shanghai during the China launch in April of “Powered by We”, a programme that will deliver tailor-made design and operational services to big corporate clients in their own office space. The programme is already available globally.

According to Bloomberg and SCMP, the acquisition could be worth US$400 million and adds co-working spaces in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Australia and London to WeWork’s portfolio. www.wework.com | www.nakedhub.com

WEWORK ‘MERGES’ WITH NAKED HUB

Issue 21 | 15

NEWS

The recently formed CSI Alliance aims to support Hong Kong FinTech startups and entrepreneurs.

With Cyberport, the Smart City Consortium and IBM China/Hong Kong as its core members, the alliance will connect and foster collaboration between technology, academic and commercial stakeholders to address issues faced by FinTech startups and help accelerate their growth.

A recent survey by InvestHK shows HK’s startup ecosystem has been expanding rapidly, with the number of companies increasing by 24% and staff by 41% year-on-year.

“This platform will benefit our FinTech community of over 250 startups and companies, as well as raise market awareness of the importance of FinTech in transforming Hong Kong’s economy,” says Cyberport Chairman Dr Lee George Lam. With over 1,000 technology companies and startups in Hong Kong, Cyberport provides full-range entrepreneurial support and valueadded services for startups, while also partnering with regulators and financial institutions for building a strong FinTech ecosystem.

Under IBM’s Global Entrepreneur Program (GEP), credit of up to US$120,000 gives startups instant access to cloud-based tools and infrastructure needed to quickly launch their businesses and it also connects them into IBM’s enterprise client base.

SCC has developed an international business matching platform under the theme of smart city, called LinkedSmart. www.cyberport.hk | www.ibm.com/hk | www.smartcity.org.hk | www.linkedsmart.org

NEWS GOLDEN CANADIAN SPEED SKATER FIRST OLYMPIAN SPONSORED BY CRYPTO There were almost 3,000 athletes competing at the recent PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea, but only one was paid in cryptocurrency, according to a CNN report.

Canadian Ted-Jan Bloemen – who took gold in the men’s 10,000m long-track speed skating and silver in 5,000m – became the first Olympic athlete to be paid in virtual money when he struck a one-year sponsorship deal with ONG Social, a decentralized social network and crypto community, and CEEK VR, a developer of virtual reality experiences.

It’s often not easy being a Winter Olympian, particularly in securing financial support to fund the pursuit of sport success. Bloemen is exploring a whole new frontier, his agent says.

According to Kgazette.com, ONG Social has mined 300 million coins, worth a total of US$138.69 million. The Waves and Ethereum blockchain cryptocurrency was founded in June.

It’s not known how many coins Bloemen stands to receive. The deal was “a minimum amount in cash, but most in cryptocurrencies,” he told Canada’s National Post newspaper. “For me, the real risk of not getting anything is not there, because I got a little [cash] out of it already.”

“And that combination makes this sponsorship really fun, right.

Because we’re going to help each other. I’m trying to get them a little more exposure to make them succeed, and that would help all of us, right.” olympic.ca/team-canada/ted-jan-bloemen/ www.facebook.com/tjbloemen/ ONG.social | CEEK.io

SENSETIME RAISES US$600m IN SERIES C FUNDING SenseTime, China’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, announced in early April that it raised US$600 million in its Series C round of funding.

Alibaba Group is taking the lead role for this round of funding and other participants include Temasek and Suning. SenseTime sets a record by raising US$410 million in its series B round of funding last July, and once again sets a new record for venture capital funding in the AI sector. The capital injection will support the buildout of SenseTime’s AI platform, advancing the company’s technological innovation and opening up new business opportunities. | www.sensetime.com

TENCENT, AVIVA TEAM UP IN HK TO OFFER ONLINE INSURANCE

UK insurance giant Aviva and its partners Chinese Internet major Tencent Holdings and private equity fund Hillhouse Capital have received regulatory approval to launch a digital insurer, according to the companies. Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority approved the joint venture in February, and it is expected to begin operating in Q2 2018. www.aviva.com | www.tencent.com | www.hillhousecap.com 16 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

METRORESIDENCES ENTERS HK MARKET Singapore-based corporate accommodations startup MetroResidences has begun offering business travellers and expats in Hong Kong a more local and guest-centric way to stay.

Operating in the sharing economy, MetroResidences curates apartments from property owners and fully manages them as serviced apartments for monthly stays. This business model allows MetroResidences to price the listings lower than traditional luxury hotels and serviced apartments.

The current home listings are located in Wanchai, Tin Hau, Causeway Bay, Quarry Bay and Central.

MetroResidences launched in Singapore in 2014 and expanded to Tokyo in 2017. The startup raised funding of US$2.8 million in 2017 from Rakuten, a Japanese electronic commerce and Internet company, and is accelerating its expansion in Asia.

Each MetroResidences apartment is curated, taking into account the location, price, quality and amenities. The company has housed executives from over 2,000 companies. | metroresidences.com/hk

CHINA’S OFO MULLS GOBEE BIKE TAKEOVER Beijing-based dockless bicycle-rental company Ofo plans to take over the operations of Hong Kong-based GoBee Bike, according to an SCMP report in mid-April that cites people familiar with the matter. Neither Ofo nor GoBee Bike confirmed the reported takeover.

Both companies are backed by Alibaba.

“Under the proposed plan, Ofo will take over the running of GoBee Bike’s operations and keep its brand unchanged for the near future, said the sources, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. The talks are preliminary and a final agreement may not be reached, the sources said, without disclosing any financial details,” the SCMP reported.

This development follows GoBee Bike’s recent decision to retreat from Europe after incurring mass thefts and vandalism in France and Brussels, and closing its operation in Italy, according to a report by Techcrunch.

With Gobee Bike’s exit, there are three remaining Asian bike sharing operators in France: Singapore’s oBike and China’s Ofo and Mobike. www.ofo.com | Gobee.bike

NEWS

ALIBABA, SINGAPORE’S NTU SET UP AI RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Alibaba has set up its first joint research institute outside China to delve into AI by partnering with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The Alibaba-NTU Singapore Joint Research Institute partnership is for an initial five years and will start with a pool of 50 researchers from both organisations, according to a joint statement.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has launched Abacus – an The institute will combine NTU’s human-centered AI technology with English-language news brand and product covering the China Alibaba’s research on natural language processing, machine learning, tech industry. Abacus is led by Ravi Hiranand, who joined SCMP’s cloud computing and more. editorial leadership from CNN, and offers an insider’s look at the Students and academics from NTU will have the opportunity of an China tech revolution – highlighting the key players, emerging exchange with Alibaba as they work on the AI research, and vice versa. companies, hottest gadgets, and more through editorial and multimedia storytelling. Abacus is also launching a robust US social The AI solutions they develop will be tested on the NTU campus before media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and rolling out in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Alibaba has pledged to will offer readers a “Best of Abacus” newsletter that highlights the spend more than HK$15 billion on R&D over three years. www.alibaba.com | www.ntu.edu.sg top stories of the week. | www.abacusnews.com

SCMP LAUNCHES ABACUS TO COVER CHINA TECH NEWS

AI SINGAPORE INKS DEAL WITH HK SMART CITY CONSORTIUM A letter of intent to collaborate (LIC) was signed on March 21 between AI Singapore and HK Smart City Consortium where both parties will cooperate in the field of smart cities and urban solutions. In attendance were representatives from AISG (Koo Seng Meng, Deputy Director, Strategic Alliance & Laurence Liew, Director, Industry Innovation) and HKSCC (Jason Ngan, Chairman of Investment Committee, HKSCC & John Huen, Vice-President, HKSCC), along1 with their members HK Flyer.pdf 4/5/18 12:05 PM from Koding Kingdom and Aiiiland. | www.aisingapore.org | smartcity.org.hk

The World’s Premier Startup Launch Program is now accepting applications in your city! apply now: fi.co/join 2,200+ Companies Launched | 15,000+ Jobs Created Globally | $12BN+ Estimated Portfolio Value Flexibility | Expert Training & Feedback | Teamwork | Global Network Issue 21 | 17

LIFESTYLE | PRODUCTS

ENJOY SNACKS, WORRY NO MORE

SNAP AND SEARCH FOR FASHION ITEMS

Goxip is a social commerce platform on web and mobile app for searching, discovering and purchasing any fashion and beauty products you ever desire. Called the Fashion Google and Shoppable Instagram, Goxip combines fashion and beauty products from over 500 international online retailers, more than 36,000 luxury brands and 5 million SKU’s. You can simply search with images or text to find your ideal items, discover trends and share your own styles with the Goxip community. www.goxip.com

Made Real is a modern-day health food brand started by two energetic female Founders. Borne of personal struggles with eating disorders and body image, they counter health fads by promoting a sustainable, balanced lifestyle. With their range of 100+ wholesome, delicious snacks, they aim to help you build a wholesome relationship with food where excitement, balance and fulfillment come together. A la carte orders are available, and there’s the option to gift a box to friends or family members at no additional cost. Healthy eating is now fuss-free! madereal.sg

SUSTAINABLE MUSIC

Edited By Tiffany Wong & Jessie Yang

SolarSoundSystem uses the power of music to raise the public awareness about eco-responsibility. Supported by the Foundation Schneider Electric, the organization SolarSoundSystem offers sound systems powered by the sun and the public at events and festivals. Thanks to the design of their booth, the public can enjoy music powered by renewable energy. People then start realizing what energy really is and can discuss its impact on society and the future challenges around it. Created in France in 1999, its international network includes Paris, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Basque Country, Lausanne, and the newly founded antenna in Hong Kong. hongkong.solarsoundsystem.org facebook.com/hongkong.solarsoundsystem

AN EXTRA PAIR OF HANDS

Launched in Singapore last year, Want Things Done is a platform that matches qualified freelance experts with businesses needing help in strategy, marketing, sales and operations. The startup provides two cost-effective services: concierge and a selfexploring option. Its concierge service handpicks one or more experts to deliver projects, either a one-time or retainer basis upon a comprehensive needs analysis. Its value is to seamlessly bridge the gaps of expertise and resource in any organization with experts who are passionate and committed at what they do. wantthingsdone.com

GETTING INSURANCE CLAIMS OFF YOUR CHEST

DINING ABROAD REDEFINED

BonAppetour is a community marketplace that connects people to unique food experiences around the world. In over 60 cities, BonAppetour works with a carefully selected host community to gift you with an unforgettable experience wherever you go. From a paella-making workshop on a terrace in Barcelona, to an exquisite Italian feast with a professional chef and sommelier in Rome, to a local Thai market and cooking class in Bangkok and the world’s cheapest Michelin food tour in Singapore, there’s bound to be something for everyone. www.bonappetour.com 18 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

The stress with dealing with insurance claims after her mother’s cancer diagnosis and father’s death inspired PolicyPal Founder and CEO Val Yap to leave a cushy banking career and create PolicyPal. Today, PolicyPal Singapore is the first graduate from the Monetary of Singapore’s Fintech Regulatory Sandbox. It is also the first insurance platform that allows users to automatically digitize insurance policies using optical character recognition technology. Users can easily buy, manage and optimise their insurance policies on the go! www.policypal.com

LIFESTYLE | PRODUCTS

KNEAD

Sandwiches and salads freshly made for you with the ingredients that you pick!

HEALTHY ADVANTAGE FIVE WAYS ENTREPRENEURS USE FITNESS TO SUCCEED IN TODAY’S FAST-PACED entrepreneurial world, keeping on top of your physical, mental and emotional game equally can often seem impossible. Your family complains about how little they’ve seen you in the last 6-12 months. You can’t remember the last time you sat down for a full meal, let alone made it to the gym. Your health and fitness may not be a priority at the moment, but should be.

PICNIC

10% Discount

In our shops. Mention you found us in Jumpstart Magazine*.

Remain Competitive As an entrepreneur, it’s vital not to just keep up the pace, but to maintain an edge over your competitors. Joining a sports team brings out that natural competitive streak, while joining a gym or studio encourages you to compete against yourself and get into the habit of constantly improving – one of the best qualities of a business owner.

Improve Mental Clarity Exercise improves overall cognitive function, but a study by Harvard Men’s Health Watch revealed that exercise stimulates memory function, releasing a chemical brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that “rewires memory circuits so they work better” and can only be produced via regular exercise.

Maintain Work-life Balance While you may believe camping out all day and night in front of your computer helps your business grow faster, it is counterproductive. Studies show that daily exercise helps to reduce stress as adrenaline and cortisol levels are reduced, while endorphins are released to elevate your mood.

15% Discount

On your first catering order.

Mention that you found us on Jumpstart Magazine*.

JUNK

NO.

EVENT

Expand Your Network Exercising is largely a community activity – whether at a yoga class or at the gym, you’ll be surrounded with likeminded people. Conversations are also easier to start in a casual setting, so you’ll be able to build new connections and strengthen existing ones.

Boost Creativity Breaking a sweat is associated with increased hippocampal activity, the part of your brain where creativity is focused. The hippocampus is not just the hub for memory, but also seems to be tied closely to imagination, clarity and focus.

About GuavaPass GuavaPass is the fastest-growing community of fitness providers and healthy living experts in Asia and the Middle East. Memberships include unlimited access to hundreds of classes a day at boutique fitness studios, across 11 cities and counting. GuavaPass gives you access to a range of workout types unattainable from a single gym membership, exclusive GuavaPerks discounts for healthy living products and, most importantly, lifelong support from a global community of health-focused members and wellness providers. www.guavapass.com

OFFICE

- Breakfast - Lunch - Dinner - Catering KNEAD SHEUNG WAN G/F, 28 Jervois Street

KNEAD QUARRY BAY G/F, 18 Hoi Kwong Street

DINE IN

e: info@kneadhk.com t: 2851 7778 | www.kneadhk.com fb: kneadhk | ig: kneadhk *Valid until 31 July 2018 Issue 21 | 19

LIFESTYLE | BOOKS

PURPOSE, INCORPORATED: TURNING CAUSE INTO YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

By John Wood Based on data, surveys, case studies, and interviews with over 100 global thought leaders and executives at companies including Atlassian, BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Google, Salesforce, Starbucks, Tatcha and more, this revolutionary book by the Founder of the Room To Read charity explores how an “ill-advised falsehood” is to believe in Friedman’s theory that as profit is the sole purpose of a business, it does not need a purpose. The key to success is that one dared to talk about having a bigger mission, focused on social change, made attempts to fix long standing problems, and provided uplift for the world’s poorest people. “They saw purpose not as a nice thing to do but a must-do.” It illuminates how companies are using purpose to build a bond with customers, win the talents, motivate employees, increase social media influence, and attract the best investors, all while inspiring and shaping a generation of future business leaders. The book offers vital insights into the conditions in which purpose can be harnessed as a key competitive advantage to enhance enterprise value. amzn.to/2HrOrgs

UNLOCKING THE WORLD’S LARGEST E-MARKET

By Ashley Galina Dudarenok It is of great importance to understand that since China is developing a cashless retail ecosystem, “social media is not an option in this market. It is a requirement.” Before going deep into social media, you first need to understand the mindset of those who are using them… your potential customers. The book has done a great job in drawing details from historical background to analyze consumer behavior over the past 30-40 years. For instance, how did Chinese consumers transform from conformity to willingly trying different styles and types of products? The analysis covers consumers of different age groups, city tiers, education backgrounds and more to give a more vivid picture of what is happening.

The book then raises interesting questions and offers practical solutions about what and how they are buying, as well as how to enter the market. Afterwards it goes into great detail to elaborate the two biggest social media platforms, WeChat and Weibo, including the functions, working model, marketing strategy, mini programs, and some next steps you could take.

Though there are no one-size-fits-all situations when one talks about China, the book is an essential and insightful guide if you are planning to sell in first and second tier cities. amzn.to/2Gwl2kL

Edited By Chloe Wong & Kelly Cho

BORN TO BE THE BOSS

By Janet Middlemiss and Bianca Zee-Geissler This collection of meaningful conversations recounts the startup journeys of six extraordinary entrepreneurs in Hong Kong – including Sir Hudson International, the Johanna Ho Label, Hong Kong Matchmakers, AsiaXPAT, TREE and CHI Residences. You would certainly enjoy reading the personal tips, wisdom and insights shared by these achievers, as well as the stories of how they have all successfully realized the dream of running their own business, and turned enterprising ideas into profitable reality.

“Born to be the Boss” is a source of encouragement for individuals who are considering to start or are already starting a business, because it also explores the private struggles, pressures, anxieties and self-doubt that often arise when one starts a business. These are valuable lessons that address common startup concerns.

“The book’s content is timely since we are no longer living in a society where people believe in lifetime employment,” says JEM Group CEO and Co-author Janet Middlemiss. “Quite the opposite, changing attitudes are encouraging more people to seriously consider entrepreneurship as a career and to launch their own startups.” amzn.to/2JBSwzl 20 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

Issue 21 | 20

THIS SUPER YUMMY sandwich/salad recipe that is easy and ready in minutes is from Knead Founders Joosje Hardus and Mina Ingram, who not only enjoy eating sandwiches but also know the key to making the best ones.

Joosje has a tuna addiction because not only is tuna delicious, it is also a very healthy ingredient. Tuna is low in saturated fat and calories but it is of high quality protein, iron, and omega-3 – an important dietary source needed for good heart health. Tuna also has a wealth of vitamin B12 that can increase energy level, boost metabolism, brain function, normal growth and development.

Tuna Salad 1 tin tuna 1 tbsp cup diced capers 1 tbsp finely diced red onion 1 tbsp lemon juice 1/3 cup mayonnaise or greek yoghurt for a healthier option 1. Stir in all ingredients and make sure tuna is moist enough.

2. Mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Honey Mustard Dressing 1/2 cup mayonnaise or greek yoghurt for a healthier option 2 tbsp mustard 1.5 tbsp honey 1 tbsp lemon juice 1/4 cup olive oil

Sandwich 1. Spread the tuna salad thickly on bread of your choice.

2. Layer it with some slices of red pepper, mixed lettuce, cucumber and gherkins.

LIFESTYLE

PERFECT TUNA SALAD

Salad 1. Whisk all honey mustard dressing together.

2. Put slices of red pepper, cucumber, gherkins and mixed lettuce in a bowl.

3. Stir in tuna salad.

4. Pour honey mustard dressing over salad, and toss.

About Knead Known for its artisan bread and luscious salads served with a wide range of fresh ingredients, Knead was started by two female sandwichpreneurs – Joosje Hardus and Mina Ingram. Hong Kong’s popular homegrown sandwich and salad restaurant opened its first neighborhood store in Sheung Wan in 2016 and then expanded to Quarry Bay. At Knead, you create your own sandwich or salad exactly to your taste, or pick one from the ever-changing menu full of super-satisfying choices. Knead also offers healthy and delicious catering packages for a work function, party or junk trip. www.kneadhk.com

Issue 21 | 21

FEATURE

TECHNOLOGICALLY SOUND SÓNAR+D IN HK IS A FIESTA FOR THE OPEN-MINDED

By Kelly Cho

Image credit © Sónar Festival

S

ÓNAR HAS LONG BEEN respected for its pioneering electronic music program and cutting-edge format, and connecting music to creativity and technology is precisely what makes it unique. This summer in Barcelona, Sónar marks its 25th anniversary. The second Hong Kong edition took place in March, and part of the festival in both places includes groundbreaking technological innovations presented in the Sónar+D series.

Sónar plays a vital role in promoting digital culture and visual arts through the Sónar+D series, and SónarHK offered an inspiring and insightful journey with the latest music and technology intertwined.

Inside this stunning and dreamy environment, the robotic agents are talking, inventing language and culture in real time in response to us… the human invaders. It raises the question of how we should respond to machines and artificial intelligence. Art and technology, humans and robots are made to communicate, and we are encouraged to reflect on their interesting relationships.

The Languages Of Robots

In Hong Kong, my Sónar+D journey starts with an intriguing talk, “Can robots create their own language?” by Michael Spranger, a researcher from Sony Computer Science Laboratories. In their recent research, robots were allowed to develop meaning and communication systems that shared similar features with human language systems.

The way robots learn and create their expressions is almost the same as infants and children. They learn from each other, compete and choose the appropriate word.

The linguistic systems they developed even have different patterns in various nations. Robots are therefore able to undergo mental development and build a cultural identity.

To better facilitate our understanding, one of their advanced projects – Das Fremde – was brought to SónarHK. Designed by Hong Kong artist Pauline Yau, the intricate scenography creates a striking artificial forest full of lasercut paper flowers and plants accompanied by beautiful forest sounds.

Image 1 credit Somerley Ha

22 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

FEATURE

Controlling Music In The Air

On the same floor is Market Lab with an array of mindblowing products. The Immersive Sound Stage designed by 3DSND takes it one step further by allowing the audience to experience 3D surround sound, and interact with it. With mere hand movements, the audience controls the volume and spatialization of different instruments.

No prior knowledge is required, and it helps us to understand the complexity of music composition in an intuitive and engaging way.

Image 2 3DSND

Automatic Music Machines

Nowadays it’s common to compose music with MIDI instruments and computers, but The Automat by dadamachines brings back the real instruments and turn them into machines to play music automatically with a controller.

There are mallet and percussion accessories made tiny, along with innovative sounds created by hitting a cup, shaking a box of pins, and more. Together they form a unique soundproducing system that gives us an amazing and experimental live experience.

Image 3 dadamachine

Other Highlights

Ableton and Novation showcase their new innovative tools like Push 2 and Launchpad, which are amazing workstations for music makers to produce and perform.

MTRL HK by Loftwork Ltd brings some 3D-printed craftwork to promote its digital design technology and invite open collaboration.

Some other interesting activities are going on simultaneously, like the conference featuring the humanoid Sophia robot, the virtual reality (VR) gallery, workshops to build synthesisers, talks, and more. sonarhongkong.com/en/2018/what-is-sonar-d

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kelly Cho is an intern with Jumpstart. She is a Year 2 student at the University of Hong Kong who is passionate about music and the related technologies. kelly@jumpstartmag.com

meetmozaic.com.hk Issue 21 | 23

THE FREEDOM OF WEALTH BINANCE CRYPTO EXCHANGE PLATFORM IS PUSHING BOUNDARIES, AND SUCCEEDING BRILLIANTLY Text By Glen Watson Photos of CZ By Sean Baylis

W

ELL, IT’S HARD TO KNOW where to begin when it comes to Binance – a startup cryptocurrency exchange platform launched in 2017 that found itself in unicorn territory very quickly. So let’s pick Malta, where Binance is being welcomed with open arms after attempts to set up offices elsewhere were thwarted basically by financial regulators issuing warnings, the slow pace of receiving official permission to operate in those countries, or being outright banned as in China.

“Welcome to #Malta @binance,” Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat tweeted in late March with a link to a Bloomberg article about the plan to set up the office in Malta.

“We aim to be the global trailblazers in the regulation of blockchain-based businesses.”

This tweet was a pleasant surprise to Binance Founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ. When we meet in Hong Kong for this interview in early April, he strolls into photographer Sean Baylis’ studio in Sheung Wan without any handlers or assistants. He’s wearing his trademark Binance black hoodie, black trousers and bright blue sneakers (he ran 6km that morning, and after the interview he took the MTR to Causeway Bay for lunch with a friend).

“Malta gives peace of mind to our users. Being in a very crypto-friendly place helps,” CZ says.

24 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

Early Days

CZ is very amiable, quite chatty, and clearly very bright. Born in Jiangsu, his English is great thanks to living in Vancouver, Canada from the age of 12 and later attending McGill University in Montreal where he studied computer science and learned to code. An internship with “a sub-contractor of a subcontractor” to the Tokyo Stock Exchange brought him to Japan, and introduced him to the world of finance.

His CV is impressive, and includes Head of Technology of Bloomberg Tradebook Futures, as well moving to Shanghai to set up Fusion Systems, which made high-frequency trading systems for brokers. When these systems ran into regulatory concerns in China, CZ moved on briefly to Blockchain.info and then OKCoin, where he worked with Binance Co-founder He Yi (she was OKCoin’s head of branding and marketing).

Heeeeeere’s Binance

“Despite being less than a year old, Binance is now the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in the world based on traded value,” according to a March 31 article on Blockonomi.com. “Such has been the rapid rise that Binance has experienced that its quarterly profits have increased from US$7.5 million to US$200 million. This is an astonishing increase of more than 2,700 percent and it is unprecedented in the history of the financial market. Binance is also reputed to be the fastest-growing FinTech unicorn in the world.”

Keep It Simple

CZ is proud of Binance and what it has achieved, so far, but says all this talk about becoming the world’s fastest self-made billionaire isn’t really for him. He points out that Binance’s trading platform took more than 2.5 years to build from scratch, debug and crank up to handle the blazing speeds and huge volumes. He also doesn’t splash out on the expensive luxuries in life. He still wears an Apple Watch 2.

“I’m not a collector of Michelin stars,” he says, listing things like burgers and street food as his preferred menu options. He doesn’t seem to live in any one place, either. And when he flies, which is a lot these days, he only takes along a carry-on suitcase.

He’d rather talk at length about freedom, in finance and in life, and admits that not only has he been lucky, but he’s a big believer in luck and also making the world a better place. It helps to have a lot of money, though.

“Nobody knows about entrepreneurship in total.

Everybody got lucky. I got very lucky and it kinda grew very quickly. If you asked me to do it all over again, I’m not sure we’d get the same result to be honest. Right time, right place.

Luck is a huge part of it,” he says. “I don’t argue with luck.”

COVER STORY

When Binance held the ICO for Binance Coin (BNB) in July, it raised about US$15 million (or 10 cents per coin). In early April, BNB was trading above US$12 and the company is planning to launch a decentralized exchange this year.

“On the decentralized exchange we’ll have less control,” CZ says in a recent interview with Bloomberg. “More likely anybody can list any coin. That’s the philosophy of the decentralized exchange, it’s freedom of choice, freedom of investments. But with freedom there will be people who are scammers. That’s not something we can control.”

Also out of his control is the BNB price. He can go for days or weeks without checking. “I don’t know what the Binance coin price is,” he says. “Basically if there’s a significant change in price or event, someone internally will tell me in our chat group first and I’ll check the news.

“We don’t use WeChat anymore. We use everything else, though. Telegram, WhatsApp, Wire, Telegraph, Signal and there’s a couple of self-hosted ones like Rumble. It has very strong encryption.”

The Forbes Effect

CZ, 41, recently made the cover of Forbes magazine, which he admits was a bit of a lucky break that has benefitted Binance.

“People no longer worry about whether we have money or not,” he says. “Now we don’t go out and find partnerships – all the guys want to talk to us and become partners with Binance, help us in some way, work with the government, give us some license, give us a bank account…

“So that made everybody come to us and now we have a lot to choose from. Before every time we talked with people, they didn’t know Binance or how big we are. So that helped with our credibility. It also came with a few negatives. A lot of articles say CZ went from zero to like one billion dollars in six months he made all the money. In China, there’s actually a lot of negative press. But I think everybody in the crypto space likes us.

“It also put us very high profile from a regulatory point of view. So suddenly a bunch of regulators are looking at us and we’re taking more pressure on that side.

“But overall, I think it’s very positive. Now we have access to a lot more partnerships and a lot more people are talking to us. For me personally, there’s also a little bit of a psychological change. Before I knew the team is kind of financially free, but it wasn’t clear how rich we were to be honest.

“But after getting on the cover of Forbes, we no longer worry about money at all. Your mentality is, ‘we are actually really rich’.”

Issue 21 | 25

COVER STORY

Spreading The Freedom

Knocking Out Mayweather

Besides the hundreds of thousands of users flocking to the Binance platform (more than 240,000 signed up in a one-hour period this year), there are also hundreds of companies with coins and tokens that want to be traded but must first pass through Binance’s strict listing process.

Even the ones already on the platform are reviewed, as is the case recently with the Centra Tech token (CTR) – promoted by celebrities such as Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled – that Binance is delisting after the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) charged the Owners of Centra Tech with fraud.

“After proactively reaching out to the Centra Tech team to address our concerns and conducting thorough reviews of our findings, we have decided to delist the CTR token and the CTR/BTC, CTR/ETH trading pairs from the Binance exchange,” Binance said in a statement in early April.

Binance removed all CTR pairings from its platform on April 8, but says it will continue to support withdrawals until May 5.

A few months prior, a phishing attempt was detected and Binance earned a lot of respect for its handling of the situation (that included offering a US$250,000 reward).

Working With Regulators

Some might think that Binance is running from regulators, but in fact the opposite is true. CZ is very keen for the company to be transparent, and works with regulators in many countries to help them form rules that will protect customers and punish scammers.

For example, he and the Binance team worked with the Maltese government on a proposed bill about crypto businesses – which, luckily, led to Binance being welcomed to set up on the island when Japan’s regulators issued their warning in March.

CZ’s travel plans in April included Taiwan and then West Africa, where he’s hoping to land a deal similar to the Malta one. He doesn’t seem disappointed with Hong Kong’s relationship so far with Binance, but he’s not impressed either.

“Hong Kong is a test bed, a sandbox for China,” he says.

Making The World Better

Even before the wealth, CZ wanted to help make the world a better place and encourages the company’s nearly 170 employees spread out around the globe to do the same.

26 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

Binance is beginning to invest in startups that share a similar philosophy, with US$20 million earmarked to be split with about 10-20 companies under the strict condition that they must not announce the investment from Binance until their products are ready to go on the market.

“Now, we don’t do things for making money. We do things to help the community better, help the customers, promote the freedom of investments, promote the freedom of assets. It’s the freedom we want to promote now.

“We believe that crypto is better for the human race. Just by spreading that, we’re helping everybody else. By doing that, we will continue to make a lot of money. Because if you’re doing something that helps everybody, and everybody agrees, you actually make more money than just trying to make more money.

“I never had a really luxurious lifestyle. I still don’t have it. My team doesn’t have it. But it was the realization that, I think for me, I was always trying to do something meaningful. Now my team gets it as well. It was the realization that we’re pretty rich, let’s do something that’s really meaningful. That makes them work really hard.”

“It’s very simple,” CZ says. “We want to do everything that promotes the freedom of assets. Crypto has that freedom. Once we have this mission, do we want to do margins and futures?

That doesn’t really help our mission.

It doesn’t spread the freedom around.

Initially we want to do that first, but now, we want to do DEX first.”

There are other things, like selecting good coins to list on Binance. “That’s very important. That helps spread the good coins around. Once you have that kind of mission, what you do falls in place. It becomes very clear. Once my team understands that, I don’t have to make all the decisions – they make the decisions. I don’t get involved in listing, my team lists the ones they want to list.”

Evolutionary

“In the human race, the freedom of slavery – that’s physical freedom. That made the human race much better.

Freedom of speech, press, data, the Internet… all of these things make human life better. We strongly believe the freedom of assets and investments will make the world a lot better,” CZ says.

“We’re not trying to overthrow anybody, we’re not against any country, company, or bank, or person. We’re just doing a little bit at a time to promote this. We’re not revolutionary, we’re evolutionary. We’re doing a lot of small things. We help one user at a time.”

Charity Fund

Binance is starting up a charitable side to the company and has just hired someone to run it. CZ explains that it will by crypto-financed with Binance covering all of the admin costs so that 100% goes to the beneficiary. Binance is putting aside US$10 million to test it out, probably in one of the African countries first.

Advertising Bans

Many social media sites and others around the world have banned cryptocurrency ads, particularly for ICOs. “I think it’s a good thing,” CZ says. “Crypto shouldn’t need advertising to work. We don’t do any paid advertising. It’s all word of mouth.

With the ads removed, fewer people are getting scammed.

COVER STORY

“There are too many ICO projects.

People need to find the good ones, which will have followers, etc. Without all the advertising, the good projects will rise to the top. I don’t like them intervening, but short term the effects are very positive. I’m not worried about it at all.”

Doesn’t Do Much Coding Any More

With Binance’s rapid growth and wealth, CZ is globe-trotting, the company is in hiring mode and there are plenty of people offering to join the team.

“There are some exchanges that don’t operate well, or can do bad stuff.

We do everything properly, and we are very transparent among the team. Once you do that, you don’t have to tell them to work. What else are you going to do?

Everything else is less interesting. It’s part of your life.

“Binance Angels, those guys work really hard watching over Binance and protecting our community. They’re volunteers. They don’t get paid, but they’re early ICO investors so they’ve made a lot of money. We have a bunch of financially free, wealthy people doing volunteer work for us and nothing else.”

Prime Job Candidates

“Number one, we look for somebody who believes in our mission, who believes in cryptocurrency or blockchain,” CZ says.

“Number two, we look for people who are not too greedy or purely motivated about money. Then we look at technical and other skills. They also need to have a lot of integrity. The community is self-

auditing, self-regulating. Luckily now, those people come to us. We attract them.

“We have a lot of interns and are getting more. The platform is much bigger, and there are a lot of little things they can do.”

Binance Labs

The company’s blockchain technology incubator, Binance Labs, has done 3-4 projects. CZ just brought someone on from Google and Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) who just finished her MBA and will be the head of Binance Labs. It will make crypto investments, mostly in BNB. “As soon as Binance backs a project, they’ll never have to worry about money again. If they want to do an ICO, we have an ICO platform. Every ICO we’ve done has raised US$20 million in less than 2 minutes. All of them, and that’s when our platform was much smaller.”

CZ believes the fund initially will invest US$1-2 million in 10-20 companies, and Binance will become limited partners in other funds. “Many funds out there wants to invest in Binance,” he says.

blockchains, easier integrated payment systems. We want to lay the cables for this industry. We have the power, so we must take the responsibility to do that.

“We also want to establish healthy relationships with regulators, so I’m spending a lot of time talking to them around the world. As an industry, we still need a healthy relationship. I don’t believe any sort of conflicting relationship will be good. Luckily, there are countries that are very favorable to us, that want to have that dialogue.

That’s very promising. In the next few years, we want to shape the very healthy regulatory framework.

“There’s a lot of luck involved. But we are in a very fastgrowing industry. We are definitely riding the wave,” CZ says.

“But we are also providing a lot of value. We do our core stuff.”

Looking Ahead

CZ wants to expand Binance to be more of a platform, instead of just an exchange. “The fund is important to us,” he says. “We will invest in other worthwhile projects. We’ll invest in blockchain and AI, blockchain infrastructure, better wallets, faster

ABOUT CHANGPENG ZHAO Better known as CZ, the Founder and CEO of Binance was born in Jiangsu, China and moved to Canada at the age of 12. He studied computer science at McGill University in Montreal. CZ launched Binance in July 2017. www.binance.com

Issue 21 | 27

FEATURE

BITCOIN VS BITSHARES BLOCKCHAIN REMITTANCES AT HIGHER VOLUME, FASTER TRANSACTIONS AND LOWER FEES

By Maxine Ryan

E

VEN WITH BITCOIN’S popularity, the cryptocurrency is being replaced or not considered at all by payment businesses seeking to use blockchain technology. My company Bitspark – a cash-in, cash-out blockchain remittance platform – announced its surprising switch to next-generation blockchain Bitshares late last year after experiencing high fees and transaction congestion on the Bitcoin blockchain.

The switch came after Bitcoin no longer gave the company its competitive edge as a cheaper and faster way to send money internationally. Bitspark looked to Bitshares as a replacement for several reasons – including access to decentralized smart asset creation, giving the company the ability to create 180+ fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, as well as faster transactions at the fraction of the cost of Bitcoin transactions.

Why Bitcoin Is Being Rejected

The focus on Bitcoin’s price, which hit an all-time high last year, shadowed its original intention as a financial equalizer that promised quick and cheap peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers, and perhaps for good reason.

Questions about Bitcoin’s scalability soon cropped up as an uptick of Bitcoin transactions from recent market adoption formed a bottleneck, and transaction execution began to slow down or be rejected completely due to the size limit of the blocks – the component that cryptographically conceals transactions in ‘blocks’ every 10 minutes forming the Bitcoin blockchain.

The effects of transaction congestion inevitably were higher fees as transactors had to bid for their place in line, raising the network fee to unprecedented heights. While the intention of the 1Mb block size limit was to prevent system attacks, the system’s reaction highlighted Bitcoin’s weaknesses as an alternative payment system for large volume use – especially when considering it for a US$600 billion remittance market as Bitspark did.

28 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

The Bitshare Alternative

So what’s the alternative to Bitcoin for businesses? Well, the answer lies in the reason a business needs a blockchain. Since Bitcoin’s inception, it has paved the way for a new industry of blockchains with 1,000+ cryptocurrencies built on top of them all with unique use cases ranging from privacy, governance, finance and data transaction.

With this, startups and organizations began researching, developing and implementing its use case (some in practice and others in testing) with particular focus on cryptocurrencies as a means to transfer transactions internationally for a fraction of existing prices.

Put simply, as cryptocurrencies possess the qualities of money with better specifications such as fungibility (interchangeable units), divisibility and transactability on a quick and secure data infrastructure as the blockchain, it changes how value is transacted between parties. If a blockchain is built to support heavy transaction load for low cost, opportunities open wide for the future of payment technology and better services.

Many Advantages

Bitshares is superior to Bitcoin for payments due to what is needed in cracking the remittance industry with blockchain.

Besides having an expansive cash-in, cash-out network, predictability of fees, fast transfer speeds and access to liquid exotic currencies outside of major FX pairs is not something that Bitcoin can provide.

The landscape for exotic currency remittances are expensive and the reason is due to the architecture needed past the main 30 currency pairs. First, difficulty resides in the need for bank accounts to be opened in each country – however, the connectivity between them is incompatible and unreliable.

Additionally for exotic currencies, buy demand is often imbalanced – making liquidity hard to generate for lesspopular currencies, all in all making cashing out cheaply near impossible. The common solution for this is remittance companies to connect to gateways that hold monopoly over regions, however as usual with monopolies, high costs apply.

Lowering Remittance Costs

Take for instance remittances from Australia (AUD) to Papua New Guinea (PGK), one of the most expensive remittance corridors in the world where according to the World Bank the cost of sending A$200 is A$40, a large sum for migrants seeking to send money home. This is because remittance companies either have several layers of banking to transfer the funds, or have opted to connect to a gateway. Both are cumbersome solutions that contribute to the high costs of remittance today.

This also proves true for inter-continent transfers. In Africa, which holds the record for the highest remittance fees in the world, sending $200 worth of CFA from Tanzania to Kenya the costs are in the $48-$50 range.

There are similarities with traditional remittances and Bitcoin, especially when speaking of accessing currencies outside of the top 30 and the expenses incurred. There is just not enough Bitcoin liquidity in exotic currencies that can support the remittance industry.

Besides Bitcoin’s scalability issues from block size limits and high network fees, Bitcoin remittance providers need to either settle in another currency or go through traditional channels – taking remittances to back to square one.

With Bitshares, a remittance company isn’t limited to major FX pairs such as the USD, EUR or top 30, but can create oneto-one pegged fiat currencies such as BitPGK or BitCFA. This means the ability to provide 180+ fiat pegged cryptocurrencies to customers with those currency transfer requirements.

Other Benefits

Bitshares removes remittance providers’ reliance on banks or expensive liquidity providers such as OTC, brokers or exchanges for access to currencies with its smart asset creation functionality. Furthermore, with its built-in decentralized exchange, direct currency trading of exotic currencies is made possible without hedging USD making trades for exotic currencies cheaper with direct native currency trading.

Smart asset creation is not the only benefit. It’s the speed and cost of the Bitshares blockchain, too. Bitcoin is 9,090 times slower than Bitshares, which can process 100,000 transactions per second (tx/ps) making it capable of supporting large remittance volumes. Even Visa, which can process around 200 tx/ps, is no match for Bitshares.

The network fee is negligible, making it one of the cheapest blockchains out there with transactions costing under a cent. Imagine, sending A$200 to PGK for under a cent instead of $40. This is why Bitshares will be the killer blockchain for remittances.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Maxine Ryan is the Co-founder and COO of Bitspark, the world’s first cash-in, cash-out blockchain remittance platform built in 2014.

Recently named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Asia, Maxine is considered a cryptocurrency expert and is a frequent speaker on TV and at events concerning cryptocurrency and payments. Maxine is passionate about unbanking the banked with decentralised blockchains and has worked with several organisations such as the UNDP to mobilise bankless transfers. To date, Bitspark products and services reach eight markets predominantly in Asia and Africa. bitspark.io

Issue 21 | 29

THE FUTURE OF FINTECH INNOVATION IN SINGAPORE

By Scott Bales

S

INGAPORE HAS established itself as a financial hub and its strong reputation for tech innovation is not far behind. In fact, Singapore was ranked the sixth most innovative country in the world in a 2016 joint study

by Cornell University, Insead and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

But are we doing enough to bring these two competencies together to develop a cuttingedge FinTech industry?

Singapore has the potential to become a global FinTech pioneer, but needs to react quickly to claim this position in the finance innovation market.

30 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

The Impact Of FinTech

Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), recognises that FinTech needs to be at the heart of Singapore’s vision.

“If Singapore is to maintain its position as one of the top financial centers in the world, it must embrace fintech – maximizing its benefits, minimizing its risks,” he says at the Singapore FinTech Festival in November. The festival, the largest of its kind in the world, brings together members of the global financial community from organisations of all sizes.

This followed an announcement in September that MAS was creating a FinTech regulatory sandbox to provide financial organisations with a controlled environment for experimenting with innovative products and services. The Authority has also committed S$225 million towards FinTech development over the next five years.

Singaporeans are already benefiting from financial innovation with services like peer-to-peer fund transfers via PayNow; personalized health and life insurance packages with the help of FitSense; and the growth of AI in the sector through startups like Active.AI. Even wealth management and investment services are being re-imagined through FinTech.

Big banks are still in the running, but both they and startups have their struggles. For established organizations, the difficulty is in getting innovation to penetrate a company that’s set in its ways. For startups, the regulatory landscape poses problems when it comes to scaling up business operations.

FEATURE

The 2018 Budget

The Singapore Budget 2018 highlighted three major shifts that will impact Singapore’s future, one of them being: “The emergence of new technologies which will change the way we work, live and play.”

The budget included a Productivity Solutions Grant of up to 70% and a virtual crowd-sourcing platform that will help companies facing difficulties find ICT firms that can help them.

Other initiatives are being launched to support SMEs and startups who want to adopt or research new technology.

These include an Enterprise Development Grant for product development and innovation and a Go Digital programme.

But the Singapore budget didn’t go as far as that of Hong Kong, announced around the same time, which pledged investment of HK$50 billion (S$8.4 billion) for the technology sector focusing on biotechnology, AI and FinTech innovation.

Future Of Financial Innovation

There are many exciting projects and initiatives already underway to keep Singapore at the forefront of innovation in finance.

For instance, fund transfer tool PayNow is soon to be expanded to allow B2B and B2C transactions. There are also plans to link it to the equivalent platform in Thailand, PromptPay, to facilitate cross-border transactions. Menon says Southeast Asia needs more such links – an attitude which could eventually bring about a single capital market in the region.

Blockchain, the technology used to store and record Bitcoin transactions, will undoubtedly play a part in Singapore’s financial future. The MAS has completed a study to examine how blockchain could be used for cross-border financial transactions without the need for an intermediary.

Many startups rely on their lower operating costs to give them a competitive advantage over the big banks. If blockchain is successfully implemented, however, it could reduce many financial activity costs to near-zero, evening out the playing field.

Are the tides of disruption about to turn?

I believe we will also see great tech innovation in the insurance sector. AI-based underwriting and deeper data analysis will both help insurance companies make better and more efficient decisions. Preparing the industry to shift from risk control, to risk mitigation. I also see the industry branching out into preventative healthcare products, which will ultimately extend the lives of their customers and increase their revenue.

Small But Agile

Singapore may be small as a nation, but this makes us highly agile and able to respond faster than, say, Thailand and Malaysia. Right now we have a window of opportunity to push for financial innovation and become a global leader rather than just a global player. Key to the shift will be allowing greater flexibility in the non-bank financial institution (NBFI) space, which gives new companies more freedom to challenge the incumbents.

There are no limits to what fintech can achieve, given the right support.

What businesses or technology are you most excited about in FinTech?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Scott Bales is an innovation and digital transformation evangelist, a global futurist, a strategist in digital innovation, and a serial entrepreneur. He is the Managing Director of Innovation Labs Asia, a keynote speaker at TEDx, and has an upcoming book titled ‘Innovation Wars’. www.scottebales.com

Issue 21 | 31

DIGITALIZATION IN THE MONEY SERVICES INDUSTRY BRIDGING THE DIVIDE BETWEEN MODERN AND TRADITIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

By Angela Cheong

W

HILE TECHNOLOGY, including FinTech, has transformed many aspects of the way we live, there are industries that have not seen the same rapid pace of change. One example is the money services industry, a legal term used by financial regulators to describe businesses that transmit or exchange currencies, which largely operates as it did decades ago.

While the industry has known some consolidation, it is still dominated by thousands of small family-run brick-andmortar companies, with only a single place of business. In the emerging markets especially, many of these businesses run their entire operations using paper-based record keeping and handwritten rate boards, and have no online presence.

These businesses lack the scale or knowledge to invest in technology to keep up with the changing times. Increasingly, they will have a hard time staying afloat, let alone competing with the efficient and streamlined operations of the larger and more technologically sophisticated players.

Globally, money services businesses are coming under the spotlight for compliance risk management. Regulators, who in the past focused on financial institutions that presented the highest systemic risk, have now turned their attention to smaller players.

Increasingly, stricter new requirements when conducting customer due diligence have been put in place to deal with money laundering and terrorist financing. Small businesses that cannot afford to set up a separate compliance department will have difficulty adhering to these myriad new laws.

Finally, the world is trending towards e-wallets and digital payments, as the percentage of electronic versus cash payments goes up. The digital disruption caused by new online services and FinTech will be a threat for businesses that are unable to support new modes of payment their customers demand.

The money services industry is now at a crossroads – businesses can continue with their traditional way of doing business manually, or opt for a brighter future with digitized business operations that can serve as a gateway to better efficiency, compliance and relevance. One path may lead to financial ruin, and the other, new opportunities and growth.

32 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

Short-term Solutions, Future Innovations

At 4xLabs, we develop business and technological innovations for money services businesses through a SaaS platform called Biz4x that serves as a delivery mechanism for a whole gamut of services to help our customers become more efficient, compliant and relevant.

Biz4x provides reliable market data, state-of-the-art tools to cope with ever-increasing compliance requirements, a fully audited transaction management system, and customer acquisition features. This is made available in one central console for greater convenience, ease of use, and accessibility.

Biz4x - the operating system for money services businesses

Efficiency

Biz4x enables the digital transformation of traditional money services businesses by streamlining their daily operations through an integrated system that increases efficiency. It provides greater control and oversight over all aspects of their business with management reports such as profit and loss to monitor the health of the business.

A single sign-on allows users to conveniently access consolidated online services such as a compliance database and live market data, to make better business and pricing decisions. Often these are only available elsewhere in disparate systems. As a single point of input for rates, customer details, stock and transactions, Biz4x ensures consistency, standardizes processes and reduces errors.

Biz4x Marketplace - The world’s first wholesale trading platform for banknotes

Compliance

Biz4x automates many of the compliance checks needed for customer due diligence that are required by regulators. The flexible system is created with best practices and a global audience in mind so it can be customised according to local regulations.

Money services businesses can set a minimum amount for triggering record keeping requirements, export regulatory reports and store customer or corporate identification documents for easy reference in a document repository.

With the compliance module, running Know Your Customer (KYC) checks on suspicious individuals or high value deals can be mandated through a process that is fully integrated into the transaction management system. The search history of these checks is automatically saved for convenient submission to the authorities.

Being on Biz4x allows money services businesses to not only keep up, but often stay ahead of the frequently changing laws of a regulatory landscape that has to adapt quickly to the challenges of new technology, such as FinTech.

The latest innovation 4xLabs is bringing to the money services industry is the world’s first wholesale marketplace for physical banknotes. Today, the vast majority of wholesale trades are performed over the telephone. The current method being used is over three decades behind the state-of-the-art technology in electronic trading markets.

The Biz4x Marketplace replaces the traditional telephone system with an electronic multi-party request-for-quote trading platform, which streamlines the process, provides transparency and eliminates inefficiencies. Individual money services businesses are able to reach a larger number of market participants hence lowering their average cost of stock.

Wholesalers – typically regional banks or large money services businesses – can service their customers at lower cost, hence improving their bottom line. Finally, all trading activity is logged in the system so regulators have a clear view of the market and reports are readily available in the event of an audit.

FEATURE

Online Marketplace

What The Future Holds

Ultimately, 4xLabs’ vision for the money services businesses is to democratize and bring to our larger global community access to opportunities and technological innovations that traditionally have been possible only for larger enterprises.

We will continue to develop our platform with best practices and the latest regulations in mind, so these money services businesses need only be on our platform to be compliant, and access the latest technology for greater efficiency and relevance.

While FinTech is often used to create new online communities, it can also be used to ensure traditional industries that support global economies can effectively adjust to changes in society that are wrought by technological innovation. There continues to be enormous investment in FinTech globally, however some industry sectors receive more focus and attention than others.

The fragmented money services business industry is one Relevance Many money services businesses do not have a website. Through clear example of an often overlooked sector. However, it is clear that the traditional businesses that are threatened by Biz4x, they can acquire customers globally by displaying their FinTech, can be saved by FinTech. buy/sell rates online. As we continue to develop new features Through FinTech, 4xLabs is connecting the average money for these businesses, we are helping them to prepare for a more services business to the greater global online community, digital, and potentially cashless future.

One benefit to our cloud-based solution is the fact that we and breathing new life into these age-old cornerstones of our travel and business economy. This levels the playing field for are able to roll out updates regularly. Once money changers smaller money services businesses to compete globally and are on the Biz4x platform, it serves as a gateway for them to leverage innovations to ensure their future sustainability. access new innovations. In the near future, Biz4x will allow 4xlabs.co businesses to deal in cryptocurrencies and other forms of digital payments with pay in/out solutions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Angela Cheong is the Chief Marketing Officer of 4xLabs, a FinTech based in Singapore with regional offices that develops technology and services to bring together communities of money service businesses and travellers. She has a decade of marketing experience in content, social, digital, product, corporate communications and public relations. Angela has broad international experience working with cross-functional teams in Silicon Valley, UK and the Asia-Pacific region in technology companies. She graduated with a Masters in Digital Marketing from Hult International Business School.

Issue 21 | 33

UNTAPPED PERSONAL FINANCE APP MARKET IN ASIA HAS MASSIVE POTENTIAL

By Raymond Wyand

A

BOUT 10 YEARS AGO, the US personal financial management (PFM) App Mint was an instant hit. Mint came out of nowhere and made boring but crucial things like managing personal finance, budgeting and money tracking kind of fun. And most importantly, it was free.

Mint was a sensation among consumers, hitting 1.5 million users within two years before being acquired by data aggregator Intuit for US$170 million. The founding team left shortly after, and many went on to become famous in their own right. This included Dave Mcclure, founder of 500 Startups, and Noah Kagan (the original Digital Guerrilla marketer).

USA, The Mature Market

When Mint was acquired, Intuit was a $10 billion company.

Today it is worth 4x that amount, with Mint estimated to be at least 25% of the valuation. But with the founding team gone, Mint has turned from the exciting consumer champion into exactly what it was trying to disrupt. With its heavy emphasis on budgeting Mint has become kind of boring…

Disruptor Becomes The Disrupted

When Clarity Money launched, founder Adam Dell claimed that he “...started Clarity Money because I was frustrated by how little you can do with Mint”. He was clearly not alone, within 5 months they scored 100,000 users and landed US$11 million of Series B funding.

It’s not the only startup taking the fight to Mint’s backyard – Personal Capital, Toshl Finance, and MoneyLion are also joining the battle to topple Mint.

With an overall financial service shift towards customercentricity, this new breed of PFM Apps is getting popular among millennials, who are tired of being stuck with the poor user experience often associated with banking apps.

34 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

Europe, Far Ahead In Open Banking

In Europe, consumers are beginning to take a more active role in how their financial lives are run. The new European Directive on Payment Services (PSD2) has helped to usher in a segment of FinTech startups that have begun eating into the market share of traditional banks.

App-only service providers like Monzo, Revolut and Starling Bank have all had significant levels of success in reinventing the banking experience, offering spending trackers, budgeting, instant money transfer and minimal bank fees.

Asia, Young And Dynamic Market

In Asia, where local markets are diverse and in some cases limited by size, it is not only hard to find a dominant or leading PFM App – in many cases there are no PFM apps at all. Wellestablished financial systems like Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are dominated by the traditional banks.

For these markets, FinTech has referred largely to B2B businesses that exclusively pitch products to banks – and very few of these ever reach the consumers. But this is all about to change… at least in Hong Kong.

FEATURE

Hong Kong, A Fresh Ground Market

“The upgrading of our banking system to a new and higher level of Smart Banking is not just something nice-tohave but a must,” says Hong Kong Monetary Authority Chief Executive Norman Chan – and this turned out not to be a soundbite.

The new Open API initiative shows that regulators have embraced action over conversation, and the influx of new technologies, high smartphone penetration rate and increasingly tech-savvy millennials look set to propel HK into a leading position in FinTech.

At gini, we strongly believe in putting control of personal finances back in users’ hands, giving them the ability to track their money and make prudent financial decisions.

For too long, finance in HK has been conducted in the shadows – dominated by a few players who benefit little from transparency. HK deserves a company that is built around the consumer, that addresses their needs, and is an advocate for transparency and financial literacy. We hope to make gini that company.We’re building our product from the ground up, based on the feedback from our amazing beta community that has grown to over 5,000 in less than a week. With the prevailing trends of Opening Banking and Open APIs in different regions, there will be tremendous opportunities for fintech startups who want to help consumers with advanced technology and reshape banking services and products to expand their footprints in Hong Kong, as well as Asia.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Raymond Wyand is the CEO and Co-founder of gini, the first personal financial management app powered by bank-level security in Hong Kong. Prior to this, Ray was a Vice President at Citibank, part of the Global Credit Trading Business based in Hong Kong.

His areas of expertise included Regulatory Capital Optimization, CLO Syndication, Securitization and Credit Derivatives. www.gini.co

Issue 21 | 35

EARLY DAYS CELEBRATIONS AND CONCERNS PART OF GROWING PAINS FOR PROPTECH IN AUSTRALIA

By Shona Yang

I

N THE ERA of digital disruption, new technologies are pitched as a solution to our everyday problems. In Australia, emerging PropTech startups aim to disrupt the typically slow and costly process of buying a first home or selling a property.

Much like the rest of the region, startups utilising virtual reality software and artificial intelligence are creating operational and transactional efficiencies across the value chain, but PropTech startups in Australia still face growing pains.

Not Slowing Down

Property technology or ‘PropTech’ streamlines the way we buy, sell, manage and finance commercial or residential properties.

From brokerage to leasing, PropTech across Asia Pacific is growing fast.

In Australia and New Zealand, an estimated US$54 million has been invested into 19 PropTech startup deals since 2012, and according to commercial powerhouse JLL, growth is not slowing down with regional investment predicted to be worth US$4.5 billion by 2020.

Aidan Coleman is Chief Technology Officer of Charter Hall, one of Australia’s leading property groups. He says Australia’s PropTech industry is vibrant, with plenty of entrepreneurs that are seeing opportunities in the real estate space.

To stay at the forefront of Australia’s commercial property market, Charter Hall recognises the importance of investing in PropTech startups that can benefit the company’s A$19.8 billion (about US$15.21 billion) property portfolio.

“There has been a fundamental transformation and appreciation of the impact of technology in the industry in the last three years. The marketplace in Australia’s commercial real estate space is still relatively untapped and small,” says Coleman.

36 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

The Charter Hall accelerator program, in collaboration with Collective Campus, is the first accelerator in the region dedicated to mentoring PropTech startups as they face the challenge of attracting buy-in from traditional players in the real estate industry.

“The reality is that the industry has been slow moving…

There is no shortage of capital available, but investment hasn’t really flown on as much as one may have thought. Scale and size is a challenge here,” says Coleman.

Despite the challenges, Coleman says PropTech in Australia is still in its early days with a lot of expectation and opportunities to grow.

“The game has changed forever. The PropTech sector is a viable and vibrant investment opportunity that will continue to get stronger,” Coleman says.

Rippling Concern Across Industry

Justin Liang, Co-Founder & CEO of Inspace XR leads one of the startups recently selected to participate in a 13-week incubation period at Charter Hall. Liang’s virtual reality software helps architects visualise a project in 3D, leading to better design outcomes, reduced iteration times and easier discussions with engineers and project developers.

“The majority of the top 10 architecture firms already have VR headsets and younger architects who know it’s the future of the profession, are a lot more active and receptive in picking up the tools. It’s moving in the architecture space, but I’m not sure if we’ll see the same kind of adoption rates across the rest of the industry,” says Liang.

With the upcoming launch of his software to market, Liang recognises a mindset challenge in Australia in comparison to the tech hubs of the world.

“Most of the venture money here is still in Series A, and some of the investors may not have tried on a VR headset before. There’s not enough ‘risk-taking capital’,” he says.

“People are resistant to change... They will only change if the technology enables something that’s 10 times better, or when jobs demand them to learn the tools to make their work more efficient,” he explains.

A 2017 KPMG survey to assess attitudes to PropTech in 33 countries found that 86 percent of respondents in the real-estate sector see digital and technological innovation as an opportunity, but only 24 percent have an enterprise-wide strategy to enable technological change.

Real Estate Institute of Australia President Malcolm Gunning says there is a climate of concern in the industry as technology is disrupting the traditional job description of a real estate agent as the custodian of the market.

“It’s not about the agent, it’s about the industry and what the market wants. We’re not here to destroy anyone’s business, we’re trying to enable the A$6.9 trillion of properties that really should be online in 2018. We’re seeing lots of agents signing up in Australia. We’re still far from where we want to be, but we’re going in that direction,” says Lui. The property industry in Australia is next in line to be disrupted by technology. With more PropTech entrants expected on the horizon, the real estate industry as we know it will need to keep up with the changing technology.

Charterhallaccelerator.cc Inspacexr.com Sohoapp.com

FEATURE

“What’s taking place now is a disruption in that the services provided by real estate agents are also available to the public.

Information and marketing is freely available… anyone can research and workout the current market value of their property,” he says.

The rise of agent services and lead gen tools, coupled with a lower operational fee, is changing the workplace dynamics and defined roles of the real estate industry in Australia.

Gunning says new technology has been met with some resistance in the multi-billion dollar business, and residential agents are struggling to remain relevant.

“PropTech provides services to the public, which erodes the broader agency business. The modern real estate agent has to be tech-savvy and multi-faceted. Unless you evolve, you’re not going to exist in the near future because the competition will beat you,” he says.

Stronger Need For Online Tools

The Asia-Pacific region is home to a third of the world’s commercial real estate and attracts 61 percent of PropTech investment in the world.

Soho App Founder and CEO Jonathan Lui recognises the regional differences in the real estate industry across Asia Pacific.

The former Co-founder of Airtasker recently secured A$1.65 million to expand its Singapore-based team.

“Australia’s market has definitely matured and investment has definitely picked up and property is starting to get more attention. There is more awareness in the industry about the role technology can play in the future, whether that’s good or bad,” Lui says.

The ubiquity of online marketplaces and delivery portals has strengthened the need for online tools that directly connects landlords with retailers. Soho App enables communication between buyers and sellers well before a property is listed on the market. Investors and homeowners can utilise the app to manage a portfolio of properties, as well as agents that can access a suite of tools to grow their networks.

Soho has received positive uptake from property owners, which surprised Lui. He says most real estate agents are looking for a better alternative to incumbent portals such as Domain. com.au and Realestate.com.au, but most PropTech startups have typically positioned themselves against agents, which he thinks is a mistake.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shona Yang is a freelance writer and blogger based in Sydney, Australia. In addition to being Jumpstart’s Journalist In Residence (JIR) there, she writes for startups, enjoys travelling and is passionate about human rights in Southeast Asia. See what she’s up to at shonasays.com or email her at shona@jumpstartmag.com

Issue 21 | 37

FEATURE

WHEN INSURTECH MEETS TRAVEL

ENERGIZING THE INDUSTRY WITH MORE CONVENIENT, FRIENDLIER AND SMARTER SOLUTIONS

T

By Eddie Chang

HE TRAVEL MARKET has held huge potential ever since the Wright brothers flew their first plane. Working in the InsurTech market, I ask myself the same question every day: How can creators persuade customers that they will satisfy their needs when those customers cannot even articulate them? A tough sell, but once adopted, it can change the world.

Forms, time-consuming waits and complicated terms have always been the norm with insurance. By merging elements like insurance, technology and travel, an innovative and gamechanging idea can be created.

Think of it this way: compared to the traditional credit card payment you make in the grocery store, mobile payments now save you from all the waiting, minimum transaction limits and rolling eyes in the checkout queues.

These are pain points the consumers are not even aware of – yet once they are solved, you cannot go back to the traditional solutions at all.

It’s the same with travel insurance products. Why limit your trip duration and schedule because ABOUT THE AUTHOR Eddie Chang is the Founder and CEO of Wesurance, a Hong Kongbased FinTech company providing advanced InsurTech solutions to users. In November 2017, Wesurance launched a digital InsurTech solution platform incorporating features never seen before in the local insurance market such as eKYC and a customer-centric personal assistant powered by AI technology that is tailored to individual needs. www.wesurance.com.hk

38 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

of the insurance you purchased? Energizing insurance with technology brings us a more convenient, friendlier and smarter solution.

Wesurance is going to provide you with ‘Non-scheduled Travel Insurance On-the-go’. All you need to do is enable the location service in your phone. Imagine you are going on a vacation. Once you arrive at the departure airport, a message will pop up reminding you to activate travel insurance before taking off. Just tap the button to get insured.

During the trip, you may decide to extend your holiday a little bit longer. Since you are connected with the app, your policy will be extended automatically. All by one app, one button.

Unfortunately, just before you are supposed to return, the Weather Channel reports that a tropical storm is churning towards your vacation spot. The plane gets delayed for over six hours. But once you are back and the trip is finished, your policy will be deactivated automatically.

Since a delay over six hours meets the requirement of claiming a cash benefit for travel delay, just upload your boarding pass and AI/big data technology will be used to confirm your flight delay. Once approved, the claim amount will be transferred immediately into your e-wallet.

Sounds fancy, right? It’s more than just insurance. It’s always been bigger than that. We aim to bring society more insurance products, and invigorate the industry through the technology revolution. The future is not that far away, and with all the innovative developments, Wesurance is rebuilding the insurance industry.

FEATURE

CATS ON THE BLOCKCHAIN

By Keina Chiu

W

E’RE NOT kitten around when we say you can now collect, breed, and trade cats via blockchain. Powered by the Ethereum network, CryptoKitties is the ultimate 3-in-1 combo of crypto, gaming, and art for anyone who’s looking to deploy blockchain technology for rearing and trading virtual cats.

In March, the Vancouver-based developer of the game, Axiom Zen, raised US$12 million in Series A funding from investors including Y Combinator expert Avichal Garg, and Venture Capitalist Andreesen Horowitz – one of the early backers of Facebook, Twitter, and Airbnb.

Cats on CryptoKitties possess unique genetics, just like every other living and breathing cat. This makes cracking the genetic code one of the most intriguing features of the virtual pet game. After all, it’s a 256-bit genome, which equates to about 4 billion variations of extremely unique and purr-ty kitty genetics.

“Gamers see this as a challenge.

They want to be able to breed a specific kitty with new ‘cattributes’, or be able to crack the codes to predict what the next kitty will be like,” says CryptoKitties Cofounder Benny Giang, who affectionately identifies himself as the company’s “Fortune Cat”.

The kitties also make for valuable digital assets that you can keep forever.

Yes, you heard it. The kitties can live forever. Comparing the cats to paintings

by Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, Giang explains that the scarcity factor is what’s getting users hooked.

“If Pokemon or Blizzard go out of business, you lose everything. You don’t get to keep anything. And if you find an item on these games, it’s not really rare because they could just go into the server and generate another item. For CryptoKitties, we cannot do that. So that’s a very big difference,” Giang says.

He also sees CryptoKitties as the epitomic heirloom of the 21st Century.

“When you have family, and have kids and grandkids you could give them a nice pair of earrings, or you could give them a Metamask, the key to all these kitties that are worth just as much as a digital asset,” he explains.

With just 50,000 Gen 0 kitties, cryptocollectors speculate the long-term growth potential of each kitty’s value.

So far, the most expensive cat having sold is one that was traded for 253.33 ETH (US$110,707.16) in December.

Over the course of four months, said cat appreciated in value to US$299,444.07.

With a network of more than 250,000 collectors, CryptoKitties has made over 270,000 transactions, equivalent to more than US$19.35 million in sales. The global sensation constituted nearly a third of all Ether trading, and gridlocked the Ethereum network at one point.

The Vancouver-based developer of the game, Axiom Zen, is relying on brand partnerships to achieve global expansion.

Last month, CryptoKitties debuted in China under the name of “迷戀貓” (Mi Lian Mao), which translates to “Cat Obsession”. The first two characters of the term “迷戀” is also a play on word for “密鏈”, meaning “blockchain”.

Despite their formidable track record, the launch hasn’t entirely been hiccup free due to cryptocurrency exchange bans in China.

“Regulatory issues are one of the reasons why we are partnering with local brands, it’s because they are the market experts,” Giang says about China’s crackdown on cryptos.

While only cats are available at the moment, Giang doesn’t rule out the possibility of introducing other animals to the game in future. “I don’t know if we are working on anything right now, but we are exploring horizontally and vertically what is possible within the space,” he says. www.cryptokitties.co

ABOUT BENNY GIANG Benny Giang is the Co-founder of CryptoKitties and a Product Manager at Axiom Zen. He has a background in psychology, user experience design, and product growth. Benny has worked on a wide range of startups from industrial Internet of Things, knowledge management platforms, and assisted AI for sales reps. He spent the early part of 2017 working on Toby, a Chrome extension that won awards from Product Hunt and the Chrome Web Store. It was also accepted into Y Combinator Startup School and was one of the top startups in the cohort. Benny has been fascinated by cryptocurrencies since early 2016 and was an early supporter of Ethereum. Currently, he is leading the charge in expanding the imagination of digital assets on the blockchain in Asia. www.axiomzen.co

Issue 21 | 39

FEATURE

LOOSE CHANGE TAIWAN’S ADDWEUP WANTS TO EASE THE BURDEN ON TRAVELERS

By Page Deng

Through service webs, we provide three solutions for these remaining currency. Users can deposit money into their online payment account such as Alipay, Wechat Pay, Paypal; convert their money to mileage points, Gash points or bitcoin; donate to any charity in their preference. Apart from that, users can go to our collaborating stores and hand the currency to a cashier, which only takes 30 seconds and the customers are good to go.

Unlike other web-based companies, UChange2’s target users are foreign travelers. That is, when we first started operating in Taiwan, we provided services for foreigners at airports. After we expand to Southeast Asia by the end of the year, we expect there to be more than two million Taiwanese travelers using our services and transferring foreign currencies into their e-wallets.

Since e-wallets are not prevalent in Taiwan, we will also focus on services involving travel pass, airline miles, and shopping credits by collaborating with some companies.

We understand that different banks have their own e-payment systems, and different countries have their own regulations regarding the usage of online currency. Therefore, we have developed several application programming interfaces (APIs) to link different countries and unify the online currency platforms, establishing a system that can benefit users all over the world.

Taiwan’s Startup Ecosystem

T

ROUBLED BY unusable foreign currencies remaining after every trip, my friend Eason Kuo and I decided to launch Addweup in 2016. The vision of Addweup is to provide financial services to help users around the world change cash into digital currency.

Upon seeing the importance of FinTech in the current business landscape, we have launched a service called “UChange2” to help foreign travelers solve the problem of leftover foreign currency.

Different from other FinTech startups, in the first two years of business we did not have any person with relevant experience in our team. We have faced doubts from many financial experts regarding our vision. Whether they are regulations, foreign-exchange reserves, operating expenses or foreign exchange exposure, there are many challenges ahead for our company that others are not optimistic about.

However, it is also the reason why we persevere and dedicate more time than others to expand our financial knowledge. Our team consulted different professionals in the financial sectors. After two years, I am confident finally to say that Addweup is on its way to success.

There are several advantages for startup entrepreneurs in Taiwan. The main attractions are the low cost of living and highly skilled talents. Increasingly, more young people in Taiwan are becoming devoted into startup markets because the rental expenditure, utility bills, and even personnel expense are much lower than other developed countries.

A few official organizations are now distributing resources to assist potential startups. For instance, Taiwan Startup Stadium by the National Development Council offers plenty of support for startups to expand their businesses to Southeast Asia, the US, and China.

Compared to other countries, the Taiwanese market is relatively small, so many entrepreneurs would rather go to other regions to develop their startups. Besides, the FinTech market in Taiwan is rather conservative, which hinders some companies to invest in relevant industries.

However, early this year, the government passed a FinTech Innovation Act to drive an industrial shift in economy, which I have Hve hope that it will bring more opportunities to FinTech startups.

How UChange2 Works

So far, the travelers who have used our services are satisfied by the convenience and user-friendly instructions. To improve the customers’ experience, we have designed two main platforms for them to transfer money online. They can do it by either entering basic information and showing their passports, or operating the service on their smartphones. Either way, the users can easily deposit money without spending time downloading apps or registering accounts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Page Deng founded Addweup Ltd with friends Eason Kuo and Ani Hsieh in March 2016 and served as CEO of the company. He graduated from National Taipei University of Technology, Creative Design. He studies in the Graduate School of Innovative Design of NTUT and designs diverse projects ranging from Industrial, products, animation, multimedia, graphics, public facilities and package designs. In 2012, “Add Up” won the Red Dot Design Concept Award 2012 – Best of the Best, and he is the youngest nominee in Red Dot’s history.

His project has also won several international awards. uchange2.com

40 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

FEATURE

ONLINE BANKING IN VIETNAM REMOVING HASSLES IS JUST ONE OF TIMO’S BENEFITS

By Jessie Yang

I

N TODAY’S digital world, bank customers prefer to chat, email or call rather than walk into a traditional branch, take a ticket and wait for the next available person – who may not even be in the right position to answer their questions.

Launched in 2015, Vietnam’s pioneering online and mobile bank Timo – the name stands for ‘time + money’ – is very different from the traditional banks because rather than focus on opening hundreds of branches across the country, it puts customer needs first and doesn’t charge any fees.

“We make sure our online banking has multiple channels of communication available to customers with a stellar response rate to address any of their needs,” says Timo CEO Cameron Warden.

The Timo Care team is composed of professional callcenter agents who attend to incoming calls and can make outgoing calls to KYC, emails and chats through social channels that can offer immediate assistance.

Faster, Safer, and Better

With convenience, no transaction fees, and secure services, Timo is making people’s lives much more manageable.

“This is possible with our first innovation – the lack of multiple branches – which allows us to keep overheads low,” says Warden. “By partnering with the local, forward thinking and well-established VPBank, Timo customers’ accounts are essentially a VPBank account and hence their money is safe.

Plus, every customer convenience we provide is approached with a security-first mindset.”

Timo mainly generates revenue from its partners.

Besides VPBank, it collaborates with Sun Life Insurance, VinaCapital, Gotadi.com and from Card partners such as NAPAS and MasterCard. Timo customers can also use PayPal via the partnership with VPBank.

“In order to bypass formal branches, we invite customers to our ‘Hangouts’, which are hybrid coffee shops/banking centers.

The inspiration came from Founder Don Lam and his vision to deliver a completely new banking experience to customers that eliminates the pains of traditional banking,” Warden says.

At the first Hangout in Ho Chi Minh City, Timo customers and non-customers can enjoy the coffee shop on the ground floor. Those wanting to open an account can meet with a Timo Customer Representative (TCR) and sign-up in about 15 minutes. Above this Hangout are Timo’s development headquarters, so getting customer feedback about new features is as simple as going to the Hangout and asking.

Aiming For Steady Growth

As the first bank of its kind in Vietnam, creating Timo has not gone off without a hitch. Not having a branch network caused a problem in the early stages. But by partnering with VPBank and the NAPAS switch network, there are more than 16,000+ ATMs at Timo customers’ disposal, with no extra fees. It is also expanding the services offered at the bank machines.

“As our locations are currently restricted to the top four cities – where the population is composed of young and techsavvy professionals 25-40 years old – we have to make sure that customers in these regions will continue to use our service,” says Warden, referring to Hanoi, Danang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Can Tho. “We actively listen to customer feedback, making it the best credibility we have. Besides, referrals bring around 50% of new customers so we will retain such an advantage by regularly introducing features and products that our customers request.”

Timo has high hopes for Vietnam’s FinTech ecosystem, which has been steadily rising, fueled by a surge in investor interest and the government’s recent policy to boost FinTech development. With representatives from State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) spearheading initiatives, some of Timo’s unique service innovations can be accelerated.

Other Features

Besides the retail banking services Timo offers, it wants to benefit customers with lifestyle and wealth platforms. In addition to offering banking products, customers are able to pay for utility bills easily, top up their mobile credit, purchase airline tickets, and more with a few quick swipes.

Without the hassle of entering card details, only two key pieces of information are required for customers to direct debit their Timo Spend Account. By doing so, it is able to remain competitive and improve services.

Future Plans

While Timo focuses primarily on current and savings accounts in Vietnam, it is preparing to innovate and expand to other markets in the near future. For instance, offering microloans in the Philippines might be the key to gaining initial traction.

For each new market in the region, Timo will do thorough research to understand which offerings will be most relevant in different locations. Applying a one-sizefits-all approach is what has left many banks falling behind or struggling to compete digitally, and Timo intends to learn from their mistakes. timo.vn

ABOUT CAMERON WARDEN Cameron Warden joined Timo in 2016 as Chief Product Officer and soon transitioned to the role of CEO. His experience in developing digital products for international brands with Global Advertising Agencies positioned him well to lead the charge in reinventing the way consumers interact with banking and financial products in SEA.

Issue 21 | 41

EVENTS | REVIEW Edited By Chloe Wong

The annual Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) and International ICT Expo were held concurrently from April 13 to 16 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Both fairs served as a platform for around 3,500 exhibitors to showcase their latest electronics products and cutting-edge ICT solutions to more than 90,000 buyers from 130+ countries and regions.

42 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

ICT Expo was held under the theme of “Smart City: The Way of the Future”. It gathered a wide range of related ICT solutions to develop an efficient and sustainable urban planning and management. A Smart City zone was launched to present Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint, mapping out development plans for the next five years and showcasing various solutions and applications for smart city development.

EVENTS | REVIEW

ICT EXPO UNDER THE “SMART CITY” THEME

STARTUP ZONE POWERED BY HSBC

Launched at the Spring Electronics Fair and ICT Expo for the first time in 2017, the Startup Zone featured the latest innovations across different categories such as Apps, IoT, Consumer Tech, eHealth, Robotics and Digital Business.

This year, the Startup Zone was powered by HSBC and it continued to serve as a hotbed for startups to showcase their innovation and connect with potential investors.

A series of themed events were held, including pitching sessions, mentoring sessions, “Startup, Smart Launch” and sharing sessions etc.

STARTUP ZONE, ELECTRONICS FAIR AND ICT EXPO April 13-16 Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, Hong Kong

“The HKTDC has done a great job in supporting startups in Hong Kong. The Startup Zone provides a cost-effective platform for us to launch this new product, to collect feedback from international buyers and to look for co-operation opportunities. During the first two days of the fair, we have made more than 100 new contacts and found potential investors and buyers from many places such as the Chinese mainland, Japan, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan and the UK.” - Stephen Lam, Founder & CEO, Digital Oasis Limited, Hong Kong “It’s a good crowd here and very diverse so it’s interesting. We want to see how the general end users and mass market react to this idea. There are buyers here that are totally not in our industry and we would like to get their feedback on whether this could be something they could use in their own business. We are already trying to build something that everyone can use, not just another cryptocurrency.”

- Roger Haenni, Co-Founder & CEO, Datum Network Ltd., Hong Kong

Startup Zone also housed the Jumpstart Jumpstart Pavilion Exhibitiors: Pavilion featuring 10 startups involved ∙ SnapPop in Travel Tech, FinTech, Marketing and · OMyCar more. Selected teams also participated · P-Sense in a 30-minute “Jumpstart Presents: · ASA Startup, Smart Launch” on April 13 to · Peacify deliver their ideas, products or services · Zegal to the audience. Six of the 10 teams · FundPark are from Eureka Nova, an incubation · FoodsMenu program backed by New World · Chekk Limited Development that provides support to · HyperAir innovative startups.

Issue 21 | 43

EVENTS | PREVIEW

INNOVFEST UNBOUND MYRIAD 2018

May 16-18 Royal International Convention Centre, Fortitude Valley In this three-day event Down Under, more than 300 influential and creative minds from all over the world will gather in Queensland to talk about global innovation and cultural exchange. With this year’s topic of connecting the dots, Myriad will offer a premier experience for entrepreneurs to connect with investors, enterprise and government. By fostering dialogues between international communities across different industries, Myriad provides a platform for the new generation to share, collaborate, and together inspire the world. www.myriad.live

June 5-6 Marina Bay Sands, Singapore As the largest innovation festival in Southeast Asia, Innovfest Unbound will bring together 12,000 entrepreneurs, brands, corporates, investors and tech startups from over 100 countries.

Specifically designed to connect brands and corporations with cuttingedge technology from startups, Innovfest Unbound also provides the opportunities for organizations to develop key audience and meet individuals crucial for their success. In the highly competitive business industries, the week-long series of event will prepare businesses for digital transformation challenges and celebrate digital disruption. unbound.live/innovfest-unbound-2018

Edited By Tiffany Wong & Jessie Yang

IoT FESTIVAL BLOCKCHAIN FOR FINANCE June 4-5 CONFERENCE, APAC Melbourne Park Function Centre, Melbourne

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an industrial revolution for the 21st Century – by 2020, more than 20 billion devices will be connected to the Internet. The IoT Festival will take place in Melbourne, Australia this year with renowned speakers from KPMG, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM… just to name a few. For people keen to discover the latest developments in different industries, the festival is the place to meet experts from food and agriculture, healthcare, smart cities, manufacturing, retail, energy & mining across Australia and Asia Pacific. Besides the largest IoT Conference, the Australian IoT Awards and Interactive Field Trips and workshops will be presented as well. iotfestival.io

8TH ANNUAL AVCJ SINGAPORE FORUM July 18-19 The Westin, Singapore

44 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

June 20-21 Hilton Hotel, Singapore Featuring more than 20 hours of in-depth research discussions with pioneering individuals and organizations in blockchain industry, BFC APAC is driving a change in financial services.

Offering more than knowledge exchange, the conference will provide practical case discussions along with a wide range of business applications of blockchain technology. Speakers from top financial institutions and global tech companies will examine the latest financial use of blockchain projects to scale up projects and exchange knowledge of blockchain intelligence within financial services. blockchainapac.fintecnet.com

For over eight years, AVCJ Singapore Forum has been the hub for the leaders in investments industry in Southeast Asia. More than 350 professionals from private equity funds, institutional investors, leading corporations and startups will gather in Singapore for a cutting-edge industry debate on ASEAN markets. This year, more than 130 institutional investors are looking to meet fund managers from around the globe. The premier venture conference will explore different ideas and provide valuable networking opportunity in the ecosystem. www.avcjforum.com/singapore

June 25-26 Adam Khoo Learning Centre, Singapore Be prepared for the digital future! Aspire Alpha is equipping students with knowledge and skills of data science for them to seize opportunities in the digital world. As long as you’re a student aged 15-22 from the Southeast Asia region and passionate in computer science, you will have the chance to learn from industry professionals and participate in a hackathon with other aspiring youth. No experience is required in the two-day boot camp. Sign up now to get an early-bird offer for the program. aspire-alpha.codegakko.com

RUNNING REMOTE 2018

EVENTS | PREVIEW

ASPIRE ALPHA: 2-DAY DATA SCIENCE COURSE

June 23-24 Ubud, Bali If you have considered running a remote team and scaling up your business, Running Remote 2018 is the right conference for you. With leading CEOs, Founders and Project Managers, entrepreneurs will be exposed to panel discussions and useful talks about managing a remote business. Organized in the legendary co-working space situated in Bali, Running Remote offers a great networking opportunity for team members and industry experts.

Want to attend the Running Remote Conference in tropical Bali for free? Join the social media contest and win a pass worth US$999.

Runningremote.com FintechO2O Global Summit aims at uniting the brightest minds and FinTech’s leading lights from around the world. A joint venture between Cyberport and NexChange, this one-day gathering will attract over 8,000 high-level professionals, and will be a great occasion to connect with startup leaders, investors, regulators, accelerators and more. Understand the broader ecosystem through learning, sharing and connecting with those who will shape the future of FinTech in Hong Kong. www.fintecho2o.com

FINTECH O2O GLOBAL SUMMIT 2018 May 9 PMQ, Central, Hong Kong

Issue 21 | 45

EVENTS | REVIEW

Asia’s largest hardware trade show, Startup Launchpad (SULP18) at AsiaWorld Expo facilitates global distribution between startups and renowned online and offline retailers. The event brought together 200 startups from 14 countries and regions to showcase their products to an audience of 35,000 retailers, 250 investors and 6,000 manufacturers.

Thousands of top executives and startups gathered to connect and gain insights from leading industry thought leaders. This year’s speakers included the Founder & CEO of TechNode Dr Gang Lu, Intel Director of Innovation Kapil Kane, Microsoft Technical Evangelist Delon Yau, and many more.

Highlights of SULP18 included the Startup Investors Forum, where regulators and policymakers shared insights on investing in startups and connecting capital with investment opportunities.

The Startup Launchpad Pitch Competition also attracted a lot of attention – and the final result was decided by a margin of one vote. The winner Yomee Yogurt, an automatic yogurt maker, took the US$40,000 cash award and other great prizes. The other finalists were MovieMask, which provides a full-resolution cinema experience, and Dreamlight, a smart sleep mask embedded with light technology.

This year, attendees could download the free Startup Launchpad app on Android and iOS to get the latest news, updates and schedules, as well as set up one-on-one business meetings. www.launchpad.hk

Global Sources Startup Launchpad April 11-14: Consumer Electronics April 18-21: Mobile Electronics AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong

46 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

EVENTS | REVIEW

SÓNAR HONG KONG 2018

March 17 Science Park, Shatin Widely recognized as the world’s most respected electronic music and arts festival, SonarHK returned for its second edition with the finest and most innovative electronic music. The music programming is diverse, from house and techno to hip-hop, breakbeat and experimental – with a legendary lineup including Squarepusher, Floating Points, Laurent Garnier, Mouse on the Keys and more. Through a series of Sónar+D workshops, prototype demonstrations and interactive virtual reality experiences, it also celebrated cutting-edge technology and allowed participants to explore creativity in an inspiring environment. sonarhongkong.com | See Sónar+D feature p.22

MONEY20/20 ASIA

March 13-15 The Sands Expo And Convention Center, Singapore Innovation is a necessity when it comes to molding the future of money. This Asian edition of the global series gathered FinTech leaders and enthusiasts from 50 countries, including GO-JEK Founder and CEO Nadiem Makarim from Indonesia, Stripe CFO Will Gaybrick and PayPal EVP Chief Business Affairs & Legal Officer Louise Pentland, who shared their insights on topics ranging from financial inclusion to breaking away from the status quo.

Full Review: www.jumpstartmag.com/money2020-asia-2018

March 14-15 Indonesian Convention Exhibition, Tangerang Purwadhika Techwave successfully brought together startup communities, high-tech leaders and experts to share their experiences in the digital age. The conference was an excellent occasion to introduce the cutting-edge trends in AI, IoT, Blockchain, and VR, and how they are applied to the startup ecosystem. Renowned speakers facilitated discussions and debates on the transformation of digital technology and its implication to society. maubelajarapa.com/purwadhikatechwave2018

March 20-21 Kerry Hotel, Hong Kong As the largest digital asset event in Asia, TOKEN 2049 didn’t fail to inspire us with insights into the growing crypto markets.

The pioneers in the most exciting crypto projects and leading digital asset funds gathered in this booming city to share their knowledge and stories. Over 1,000 participants made this event an exceptional opportunity to take a glimpse of what the future holds for the crypto ecosystem, and how people can make use of this opportunity to shape the future. www.token2049.com

OCEAN PARK DRINK’N MUSIC FEST 2018 March 10-April 2 Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Ocean Park’s second night fiesta, Drink’N Music Fest 2018, was a hub to chill and enjoy amazing live music. Featuring wellloved local pop singers and bands – including ToNick, Justin Lo, Dear Jane, KOLOR, RubberBand, Phil Lam, Chochukmo, Jason Chan and more – over 20 spectacular music performances spanning genres from rock & roll to pop were held in four consecutive weekend evenings. Since great food always goes along with great music, the fiesta showcased more than 200 food and beverage items, with award-winning beers, exclusive drinks, gourmet street food and snacks from around the world. www.oceanpark.com.hk

Issue 21 | 47

Edited By Jessie Yang & Kelly Cho

PURWADHIKA TECHWAVE 2018

TOKEN 2049

EVENTS | REVIEW

STARTUP WEEKEND KUALA LUMPUR TECH LOGISTICS

April 6-8 Fahrenheit Office Tower, Kuala Lumpur Centered around action, innovation, and education, this was a 54-hour event dedicated to technical and non-technical entrepreneurs. With the aim of providing superior experiential education, it allowed participants to build a startup from scratch: starting with continuous brainstorming, they went through business plan development, prototype creation, meanwhile attended talks and received feedback from industry leaders, and finally rounded off by demos and presentations. This intense and intriguing event was an ideal environment to test ideas and take the first steps towards launching one’s own startup. communities.techstars.com/malaysia/kuala-lumpur/startupweekend/12641

FOSSASIA SUMMIT

Edited By Jessie Yang & Kelly Cho

March 22-25 Life-Long Learning Center, Singapore

FOSSASIA Summit 2018 was Asia’s premier open technology event held in Singapore. Over 200 speakers and more than 50 exhibitors gathered – from prominent tech companies like Daimler/Mercedes, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, JP Morgan, KPMG, and Fujitsu – along with many startups to discuss the latest tech developments in software, hardware, science and machine learning.

The Cloud Training Day, UNESCO Hackathon and Young Developers Day were some of the highlights of this diverse and inspirational summit that even allows journalists and students to partake.

2018.fossasia.org

THE GREAT FESTIVAL OF INNOVATION

SME WORLD SUMMIT

April 17 Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai SME World Summit 2018 – one of the largest entrepreneurship conferences of Dubai – celebrated innovative minds, leaders who aim to rise, and investors willing to take risks to create value. Over 3,000 attendees were drawn to the summit for quality SME service providers, talented artists, powerful keynotes, engaging panel discussions, strategic workshops and speed networking sessions. Hosted by The Intelligent SME magazine, it was the sixth edition of this annual gathering of start-up owners, business leaders, investors, government figures, banking professionals and experts. www.smeworld.ae

VIETNAM BLOCKCHAIN WEEK

Marchv 7-8 Riverside Palace, Ho Chi Minh City Being Vietnam’s first major blockchain conference, this two-day event featured 60+ topics and 15 case studies, inviting senior executives, policymakers, and key opinion leaders to discuss the future of blockchain, how the technology can contribute breakthrough solutions to business, and how to create legal frameworks for this development. Startups are now using blockchain to win back trust from customers of the online review and rating industry, and to renovate compliance services, reducing costs for firms while offering a secure solution for finance customers.

Full Review: www.jumpstartmag.com/vietnam-blockchain-week

March 21-24 The Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Admiralty, Hong Kong With the aim of building stronger ties between the UK and Asia, the UK Government brought speakers to Hong Kong from renowned companies such as HSBC, Bloomberg, Huawei and Nissan, and students and professors from seven of the best universities in the UK to share their innovative thoughts and creations centering the themes work, live, learn and play. Students demonstrated vertical living and vertical farming, and even a simulated hack on Hong Kong’s water system. www.events.trade.gov.uk/the-great-festival-of-innovation-hong-kong-2018 48 | JUMPSTART MAY/JUNE 2018

“WELCOME HOME. OOPS, WE MEANT WELCOME TO WORK.”

An inspiring, high-end work environment where ideas develop, businesses build, and relationships evolve.

A place where you can get down to business, check emails and hold meetings, all this while you can enjoy a great cup of coffee and a healthy lunch.

Call us on +852 5806 1431 or visit www.spacesworks.com/hong-kong

Offices, Memberships, Meeting Rooms.

COMING SOON — Sun House, Central — Lee Garden Three, Causeway Bay — Wai Yip Street, Kwun Tong — AXA Southside, Wong Chuk Hang