Open For Business

Remember that old saying “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”? Well turns out, scientifically it is even more true than we thought. Reports have indicated that your breakfast choices not only have an impact on your day but even have a lasting impact on your long-term health.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Between the accelerated digitalization from the pandemic, the continued growth and evolution of e-commerce, and government pushes for cashless payments, digital payments have boomed. And while e-wallets, online bank transfers, and NFC paywave are typically how we interact with this, like the Autobots, there’s a lot more here than meets the eye.

One big element of digital payments is the magic of recurring payments. A tech stack that enables you to set it and forget when it comes to your monthly investment deposits, regular insurance premium payments, and most importantly, your monthly subscriptions to services like Netflix and Spotify.

Today on the show, we’re speaking to a homemade recurring payments solution that has recently graduated to full stack payment gateway following a majority stake acquisition by Indian payment gateway provider Razorpay in early 2022.

With more than 700 clients including Tune Protect, CTOS, and Mary Kay, we speak to Curlec Founder and CEO Zac Liew about Curlec’s journey from founding in 2018, working with Razorpay, and the pathway and strategy to RM10 billion Gross Transaction Value (GTV) in Malaysia by end-2025.

Between the accelerated digitalization from the pandemic, the continued growth and evolution of e-commerce, and government pushes for cashless payments, digital payments have boomed. And while e-wallets, online bank transfers, and NFC paywave are typically how we interact with this, like the Autobots, there’s a lot more here than meets the eye.

One big element of digital payments is the magic of recurring payments. A tech stack that enables you to set it and forget when it comes to your monthly investment deposits, regular insurance premium payments, and most importantly, your monthly subscriptions to services like Netflix and Spotify.

Today on the show, we’re speaking to a homemade recurring payments solution that has recently graduated to full stack payment gateway following a majority stake acquisition by Indian payment gateway provider Razorpay in early 2022.

With more than 700 clients including Tune Protect, CTOS, and Mary Kay, we speak to Curlec Founder and CEO Zac Liew about Curlec’s journey from founding in 2018, working with Razorpay, and the pathway and strategy to RM10 billion Gross Transaction Value (GTV) in Malaysia by end-2025.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A month ago, EPF CEO Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said that as of May 2023 only 18% of total members met the basic savings by age, which will enable them to have at least RM1,000 a month over a 20-year retirement period from age 55.

There are many reasons for these concerning numbers, including stagnant incomes, but the areas that today’s guests are addressing is financial literacy and financial planning.

Through their digital financial planning app CashKu, Advisonomics founders Raevendren Ramachandran and Asgari Stephens want to improve financial literacy among Malaysians by creating awareness and accessibility to resources and products around savings, retirement planning and financial literacy.

Today on the show, the founders of Advisonomics get into, among other things, how much a digital platform can move the needle to address our concerning retirement statistics, the business model that drives this business, and the role that CashKu plays in the financial services space.

A month ago, EPF CEO Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said that as of May 2023 only 18% of total members met the basic savings by age, which will enable them to have at least RM1,000 a month over a 20-year retirement period from age 55.

There are many reasons for these concerning numbers, including stagnant incomes, but the areas that today’s guests are addressing is financial literacy and financial planning.

Through their digital financial planning app CashKu, Advisonomics founders Raevendren Ramachandran and Asgari Stephens want to improve financial literacy among Malaysians by creating awareness and accessibility to resources and products around savings, retirement planning and financial literacy.

Today on the show, the founders of Advisonomics get into, among other things, how much a digital platform can move the needle to address our concerning retirement statistics, the business model that drives this business, and the role that CashKu plays in the financial services space.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rebecca and Jared Chuah's Nateskin, born out of grooming challenges, established itself as a trusted provider of simple, sustainable, and inclusive solutions. Nateskin's commitment to design excellence resulted in products that empowered personal grooming with confidence. Their first product, a unique hair trimmer, aimed to destigmatise body grooming discussions. Battling against societal taboos, Nateskin created innovative grooming products and saw impressive sales growth, hitting RM500k per month by June 2023.

Rebecca and Jared Chuah's Nateskin, born out of grooming challenges, established itself as a trusted provider of simple, sustainable, and inclusive solutions. Nateskin's commitment to design excellence resulted in products that empowered personal grooming with confidence. Their first product, a unique hair trimmer, aimed to destigmatise body grooming discussions. Battling against societal taboos, Nateskin created innovative grooming products and saw impressive sales growth, hitting RM500k per month by June 2023.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you know that Saharan ants inspired the development of an electricity-free cooling technology?

Tapping on scientific research findings of their supervisor, Dr Edwin Tso Chi-yan from the City University of Hong Kong’s School of Energy and Environment (SEE), research assistant Shirley Du and PhD student Martin Zhu, set up “i2Cool” to develop and promote zero-energy, low-cost, highly-efficient passive radiative cooling paint to save energy and reduce carbon emissions in cooling buildings.

One of the product’s they developed is a radiative paint, that when applied to the exterior wall of a building, can simultaneously reflect sunlight and dissipate the building's heat into space, resulting in a drop in the building's indoor temperature.

On this episode of Open for Business, we speak with Dr Martin Zhu, CEO and Co-founder of i2Cool Limited, about how ants inspired the tech behind this paint, why 2 academics jumped into the startup world, and what lies ahead for i2cool. I2Cool Limited is a start-up technology company, incubated by HK TECH 300 in the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Hong Kong Science and Technology Park

Did you know that Saharan ants inspired the development of an electricity-free cooling technology?

Tapping on scientific research findings of their supervisor, Dr Edwin Tso Chi-yan from the City University of Hong Kong’s School of Energy and Environment (SEE), research assistant Shirley Du and PhD student Martin Zhu, set up “i2Cool” to develop and promote zero-energy, low-cost, highly-efficient passive radiative cooling paint to save energy and reduce carbon emissions in cooling buildings.

One of the product’s they developed is a radiative paint, that when applied to the exterior wall of a building, can simultaneously reflect sunlight and dissipate the building's heat into space, resulting in a drop in the building's indoor temperature.

On this episode of Open for Business, we speak with Dr Martin Zhu, CEO and Co-founder of i2Cool Limited, about how ants inspired the tech behind this paint, why 2 academics jumped into the startup world, and what lies ahead for i2cool. I2Cool Limited is a start-up technology company, incubated by HK TECH 300 in the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Hong Kong Science and Technology Park

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Electric Vehicle (EV) space has been heating up here in Malaysia. Last year we saw some 2,631 EVs sold in Malaysia through official distribution channels last year, representing a 860% gain from 2021 which saw 274 sold.

Now, selling EVs is one thing, but we need to ensure we’re building the infrastructure to support the ability to use these vehicles and that means building a charging network that is wide enough to support this boom.

While big players like Tesla and Gentari are trying to address this, there are also other players that are working on this. Powered by RISE is one such player. Founded in 2019, the local tech startup wanted to address a critical issue in the Electric Vehicle scene, the lack of accessible charging infrastructure.

Today the company isn’t just installing charging points, it has developed its own chargers and apps so that it doesn’t have to rely on other companies to succeed, but is this enough to defend against well funded competition that’s coming into the space?

We speak to Kray Chong, Founder and CEO of Powered by RISE, to get a better understanding of their role in the EV ecosystem, how they built their own technology, and whether they see moves by Gentari and Tesla as threats or opportunities to their long term story.