We're back with an Insignia Ventures Academy Afterthoughts episode, where we're joined by either the alumni and mentors of Southeast Asia’s first venture capital accelerator program. For this particular IVA Afterthoughts, we have with us an alumnus from the third cohort, of our program, Fannie Soubiele, currently Head of Startup Success at Google Cloud JAPAC and an active angel investor. Fannie has had a career in entrepreneurship and enabling entrepreneurs that has lined up with the evolution of Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystems, learnings from which we cover in this call plus her own experience at Insignia Academy.

Timestamps 

(00:28) Introducing Fannie; 

(01:39) Evolving with Southeast Asia’s Startup Ecosystem; 

(07:26) Cloud as an Accelerator for Startup Building; 

(11:46) How the Capital Pool Has Widened Over the Years; 

(14:21) Widening the Hiring Pool to Build a Sustainable Company; 

(18:30) Serendipity of Connections in Insignia Academy; 

(24:13) Rapid Fire Round; 

About our guest

Fannie Soubiele is currently Head of Startup Success at Google Cloud JAPAC. She has had more than a decade career as an entrepreneur, enabler for entrepreneurs, and more recently angel investor with Epic Angels. Her involvement in Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystems goes back to becoming GM then COO of startup incubator and venture builder JFDI Asia, then BD at AWS before moving to Google Cloud. She is an alumni of Insignia Ventures Academy’s VC Accelerator Program Cohort 3. 

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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

Over 2022, Insignia Ventures has had the privilege of partnering with entrepreneurs for the first time from a diverse array of industries, and we’ve had the privilege of going On Call with some of these entrepreneurs on the podcast.

What ties the work of many of these companies Insignia has welcomed this year to its growing community of founders is a focus on sustainability -- and while the environment comes to mind, as well as climate tech and green technologies, when it comes to the word “sustainability,” what we’re referring to encompasses a far wider definition. 

From enabling the sustainable development of new digital technologies and enterprise digitalization through open finance API “supermarkets”, Web2.5 and Web3 infrastructure platforms, and workflow automation solutions, to unlocking long-term labor sustainability in traditional industries in Indonesia like fisheries and textiles, and even filling in gaps in population sustainability through parenting and early childcare platforms…

And on this On Call with Insignia podcast episode, there are some key patterns we can pick up in terms of where Southeast Asia’s digital economy is headed by revisiting some of these conversations with this context of sustainability.

Timestamps

(01:30) Building infrastructure for operational sustainability of emerging digital ventures meeting demands of open finance, automation, and Web3 revolutions;

(22:20) Building tools and platforms for labor sustainability of traditional Indonesian industries;

(29:08) Building the partner for Indonesian parents to improve the country's human capital/population sustainability;

(32:17) Building a sustainable business;

About our guests

Brankas CEO Todd Schweitzer;

Bluesheets CEO Christian Schneider and COO Clare Leighton;

TripleA CEO Eric Barbier;

Headquarters CEO Sharon Lourdes Paul;

FishLog CEO Bayu Anggara;

Wifkain CEO Sara Sofyan;

Tentang Anak Founders Dr Mesty Ariotedjo and Garri Juanda;

Konvy CEO QingGui Huang;

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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

In this episode, join us in a new series on our show as we recap fireside chats held at our fifth-year anniversary summit where we featured several thought leaders and founders across industries sharing their insights on various sectors and trends shaping the future of ASEANnovation. And this second part of our series, we're covering the future of Web3 mass adoption in a panel featuring Chin Tah Ang, General Manager of Singapore at Crypto.com and Sharon Lourdes Paul, CEO and Co-Founder of Headquarters (hq.xyz) building the finance dashboard for Web3 teams. This panel was moderated by Jaeson Ma, Co-CEO of NFT platform OP3N, serial entrepreneur, artist & media executive.

This conversation took place on September 23, 2022, and both the episode and transcript have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Timestamps (Transcript)

(03:09) Chin Tah’s and Sharon’s Journeys into Web3;

(08:03) Challenges to Web3 Mass Adoption;

(11:24) Building the Foundations of Compliant and Financially Disciplined Web3 Business Infrastructure;

(14:22) NFTs Beyond the Profile Pictures;

(16:11) Talent Key to Driving Web3 Mass Adoption;

About our guests

Sharon Lourdes Paul is the CEO and Co-founder of Headquarters (hq.xyz), a finance dashboard for Web3 teams to manage financial operations (also referred to as ‘treasury flows’) and reporting for more responsible accounting practices industry-wide. Its mission is to groom a generation of responsible Web3 operators by giving teams the tools they need for better visibility and control over their internal finances. A serial founder and operator with more than a decade in tech, Sharon was most recently the Head of Payments at Fazz.com and was part of StraitsX’s founding team, the leading payments infrastructure for digital assets in Southeast Asia who is the creator of $XSGD, Singapore’s first compliant SGD stablecoin. She is also an angel investor in seed-stage companies.

Chin Tah Ang is General Manager, Singapore at Crypto.com. He was previously Executive Director and Head of Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), and before that Infocommunications and Media Director at Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB). He received his Masters' in Philosophy, Bioscience Enterprise from Cambridge University and Bachelors' in Economics, Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California Berkeley.

Jaeson Ma is a serial entrepreneur, artist & media executive. He is the founder and partner of multiple companies focused on accessing the Asian market through entertainment, media, and technology, including Stampede Ventures, 88rising, and East West Ventures (EWV). Currently, Mr. Ma is a Senior Advisor to KKFarm Fund. He is also a senior advisor to private equity funds advised by Courage Capital Management, LLC that invest in music rights. Mr. Ma is also a venture partner with GoodWater Capital, a consumer tech-focused venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. 

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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

In this episode, join us in a new series on our show as we recap fireside chats held at our fifth-year anniversary summit where we featured several thought leaders and founders across industries sharing their insights on various sectors and trends shaping the future of ASEANnovation. We’re starting things off with our Women in Tech panel featuring two growth-stage CEOs, WIZ.AI’s Jennifer Zhang in the AI enterprise space and Pinhome’s Dayu Dara Permata in the Indonesian proptech and fintech space. The panel was moderated by Trang Bui from the investments team at Insignia Ventures Partners.

Timestamps

(01:04) Panel and Panelist Introduction;

(04:21) Jennifer's and Dara's Entrepreneurial Journeys;

(09:02) Jennifer's view on evolving opportunities for Women in Tech across borders;

(12:14) Dara's view on Indonesia's unicorn cycle creating opportunities for Women in Tech;

(17:30) One thing Jennifer and Dara would tell their younger selves before they started on their entrepreneurial journeys;

About our guests

Jennifer Zhang is the CEO and co-founder of WIZ.AI. Prior to WIZ.AI, she has been a VC across both sides of the Pacific, as Managing Partner of GCC Capital in Beijing and General Partner of Cybernaut Zfounder Ventures. Before that she covered cross-border entrepreneurship resources and content. She received her Masters in Public Policy from the University of Southern California.

Prior to Pinhome, Dayu Dara Permata was a Senior Vice President at Go-Jek where she led Gojek expansion to 100+ cities as SVP Regional Growth, co-founded and scaled Go-Life from concept into 15M users in 80+ cities in Indonesia & was responsible for Commerce Product Group in Gojek like Gomart & Goshop. She was also formerly a consultant at McKinsey before joining Go-Jek. Dara graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the Bandung Institute of Technology, and was an honor student and full scholar.

Trang Bui is a senior investment analyst at Insignia Ventures Partners. Trang was previously an investment associate at Vietnam private equity firm Mekong Capital where she was involved in investments into consumer businesses including Pizza 4Ps and Marou Chocolate. She graduated from Bucknell University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration.

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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

In this episode, join us on our call with Qing Gui Huang, CEO and co-founder of Thailand's leading ecommerce platform for beauty brands Konvy. With 1,000+ brands representing an SKU selection of more than 20,000 on its platform, with the likes L’Oréal, Shiseido, Sulwhasoo, Eucerin, La Roche-Posay and many more on their portfolio, we pick the brains of Qing Gui on the evolution of Thailand's ecommerce and beauty spaces, the role of omnichannel innovation in ecommerce, internationalization, as well as developing adaptability as a Chinese entrepreneur building a capital-efficient technology business in Thailand over the past 10 years -- he also shares his skincare routine.

Konvy is hiring! Check out open roles here. 

Timestamps

(01:42) Perks of Being a First Mover in a Foreign Land;

(06:59) What Innovation Means to the Preferred Partner for Beauty Brands in Thailand;

(15:36) Enabling Beauty Brands to Expand, from Thailand to the Rest of the World;

(19:48) Unlocking Omnichannel and its Ties to Cost-Efficiency;

(24:54) What Adaptability Means for Leadership;

(30:38) Rapid Fire Round;

About our guests

Qing Gui Huang is CEO and co-founder of Thailand ecommerce beauty brand platform Konvy. He is a US-educated Chinese serial entrepreneur who, after building online fashion businesses in Beijing, in 2011 he moved to Thailand spotting the opportunity to start an ecommerce platform for beauty brands which he did in 2012 with his co-founders through Konvy. He received his Bachelors’ in Management and International Business from Purdue University.

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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

In August 2022, Fazz Financial, the Southeast Asia group formed out of the merger of rural Indonesia fintech Payfazz and payments infrastructure fintech Xfers back in 2019, rebranded to Fazz, bringing together access to their ecosystem's various entities into one business account offering, and later announced raising US$100 million in Series C to build on this next step for the fintech group. We go on call with Fazz Business heads Zack Yap (Singapore) and Hendoko Kwik (Indonesia) to talk about this evolution, what it means for their customers across Singapore and Indonesia, how this fits into the emerging wave of fintech stacks for businesses in a challenging market for financial management, as well as how they have evolved as leaders having been founding team members of Xfers and Modal Rakyat (P2P lending) respectively. 

Check out our previous calls with other Fazz leaders, and find out how you can join their growing team.

Transcript

Timestamps

(02:13) Joining and Growing in the Fazz Family;

(06:10) Fazz on the Fast Lane: Implications of a “House of Fintech”s Rebranding Under One Focus;

(14:31) Singapore and Indonesia Parallels on the Fintech for Business Landscape;

(19:03) From Founding Team to Growth Stage Management: Professional Growth in Hypergrowth Venture-Backed Companies;

(22:29) Future of Financial Services for Businesses;

(26:48) Rapid Fire Round; 

About our guests

Zack Yap is an experienced product manager and engineer with more than a decade's career in tech companies. He was Xfers' first product manager then eventually became Head Product Manager and now leads Fazz Business in Singapore. 

Hendoko Kwik has a decade of experience in SME banking in various Indonesia banks before co-founding P2P lending business Modal Rakyat. He became CEO of Modal Rakyat and now also leads Fazz Business in Indonesia. He is also a co-founder and commissioner at Verihubs. 

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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

A Southeast Asia pioneer in building a full-stack, closed-loop property transaction platform for first-time home buyers and Indonesia's largest in the market, Pinhome, makes its second comeback with CEO Dara Dayu Permata and CTO Ahmed Aljunied returning on call with us. This time we break down highlights of Pinhome's growth in the past year, as they expanded data-driven automated valuation capabilities, covered more of the mortgage supply chain, and continued to build up the property agent tech stack. We also get views on Indonesia's property market, the role of relentless prioritization to balancing scale and profitability, and learnings for the growth-stage tech leader. 

Check out our first call with the Pinhome founders and our second one as well! Join the Pinhome team.

Transcript

Timestamps

(01:19) Elements of a Southeast Asia Pioneer for a Full-Stack, Closed-Loop Property Transaction Platform for First Time Home Buyers: Data, FinTech, Agents;

(12:00) Scale for a Property Platform Amidst Global Market Uncertainty and Indonesia’s Economic Resilience;

(16:33) Learnings for Growth-Stage Scale-up Management;

(21:24) Keeping the North Star With Relentless Prioritization and Extreme Cash Preservation;

(25:14) Rapid Fire Round;

About our guests

Prior to Pinhome, Dara was a Senior Vice President at Go-Jek where she led Gojek expansion to 100+ cities as SVP Regional Growth, co-founded and scaled Go-Life from concept into 15M users in 80+ cities in Indonesia & was responsible for Commerce Product Group in Gojek like Gomart & Goshop. She was also formerly a consultant at McKinsey before joining Go-Jek. Dara graduated with a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from the Bandung Institute of Technology, and was an honor student and full scholar.

Ahmed is a veteran CTO with over 14 years of technical experience. He is well-versed in product development and building systems, and was previously VP of Engineering and Product at Go-Jek before starting Pinhome. He has also led engineering and product teams at startups like Jualo (acquired by Carro) and started a couple of startups in Singapore and Jakarta. Ahmed is a graduate of Computer Engineering at NUS and received his Masters degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.

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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

Built to Last. Unlocking Economic Impact. Inspiration Innovation. Leading Opportunity Creation. Dedication to Growth. And amidst today’s turbulent times, now is the time to build great companies. We believe there are many more opportunities for unstoppable founders to emerge in Southeast Asia. And we certainly hope to be their partner of choice in building great companies the Insignia Way.

We're resuming our weekly programming celebrating 100 episodes and Insignia Ventures' 5th Year Anniversary with this podcast essay on the "Insignia Way" featuring snippets from calls with Carro's Aaron Tan, Ajaib's Yada Piyajomkwan, Shipper's Budi Handoko, Super's Steven Wongsoredjo, Rainforest's JJ Chai, Flip's Rafi Putra Arriyan, Finhay's Huy Nghiem, Tonik's Greg Krasnov, Intellect's Theodoric Chew, Fazz's Tianwei Liu, WIZ.AI's Jennifer Zhang, Brankas's Todd Schweitzer, Pinhome's Dara Dayu Permata and Ahmed Aljunied, FishLog's Bayu Anggara, Medici's Duc Anh Ngo, Wifkain's Dayu Dara Permata, AwanTunai's Dino Setiawan, and Tentang Anak's Garri Juanda, all of which you can find full versions of in this show!

Stay tuned for the video version!

Music

ROYALTY FREE Epic Instrumental Music / Dramatic Music Royalty Free by MUSIC4VIDEO

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One Day (From "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"/Score) by Hans Zimmer

Mako & Ray Chen - Awaken [Official Clear Instrumental] by LEAGUERA

The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

Since we first introduced Singapore-based femtech startup Ease Healthcare and founders Guadalupe Lazaro and Rio Hoe back in this Season 3 episode last year, they have grown in more ways than one on their mission to democratize women's healthcare: launching private label products, expanding to the Philippines, evolving their app experience, and driving adoption through enterprise. They talk about all this and more on today's call, recorded 17 August 2022.

Full Transcript

Timestamps

(00:57) Paulo’s re-intro to Ease Healthcare and founders Guada and Rio’s update on Ease;

(03:08) Rolling out Private Label Products and their Role in Ease’s Business;

(06:32) Expanding into the Philippines;

(09:51) Evolving App Experience, Driving Adoption through Enterprise, and the Reality of Women’s Health Issues;

(13:59) Developing Ease Healthcare’s Leadership and Future Impact;

(17:13) Rapid Fire Round;

About our guests

Guadalupe Lazaro is a co-founder of Ease Healthcare. She is a serial entrepreneur and sexual and reproductive health rights advocate. Prior to Ease Guada worked in business development and consulting from the UK to Singapore. She grew up working for women’s health and women’s rights, being involved with the likes of Red Cross and Amnesty International, and now she’s married her passion for women’s health and skills in UX/UI design, marketing, and brand strategy at Ease.

Rio Hoe is a co-founder of Ease Healthcare. He is a lawyer-turned-founder, holding a law degree from the University of Oxford and graduated as the university’s top student in Medical Law. Prior to Ease he had co-founded a socio-political media outlet in Singapore and worked at leading global law firm Clifford Chance. His entrepreneurship and law genes now come into play at Ease where he manages its finance and operations.

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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

On Call with us this episode is Jennifer Zhang, CEO and co-founder of WIZ.AI, a conversational voice AI solutions company that has been leading its adoption across use cases and markets starting from Southeast Asia. Beyond WIZ.AI's growth over the pandemic, we also talk about how WIZ.AI has been pioneering voice AI in this field (e.g. voice interface design) with their team of experts and slew of patents. Jennifer also shares her learnings growing and leading a cross-border company, going from VC to founder, and thinking about the future of voice AI applications. What's more is that we have don't just have Jennifer on the show -- catch WIZ.AI's talkbot at the end of the call!

Full Transcript

Timestamps

(01:12) Paulo introduces Jennifer; 

(01:53) Driving Conversational AI Adoption Across Southeast Asia and Beyond;

(13:22) Pioneering Conversational AI Development at Scale

(21:23) Leadership Approach Behind WIZ.AI’s Global Growth;

(28:58) Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Jennifer Zhang is the CEO and co-founder of WIZ.AI. Prior to WIZ.AI, she has been a VC across both sides of the Pacific, as Managing Partner of GCC Capital in Beijing and General Partner of Cybernaut Zfounder Ventures. Before that she covered cross-border entrepreneurship resources and content. She received her Masters in Public Policy from the University of Southern California. 

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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.