In this episode we are deep-diving into the Vietnam startup ecosystem and specifically the healthcare and insurance market in Vietnam with Duc Anh Ngo, the CEO and Founder of Medici, which is a digital healthtech and insurtech startup with footprints and more than 30 provinces in Vietnam. Most recently, they became the first healthtech company in Vietnam to secure an insurance brokerage license from the Ministry of Finance, a new addition to the ecosystem they are building around digital health access for Vietnamese people, which includes telemedicine, health screenings, and a marketplace for drugs and supplements.

Transcript

Timestamps

00:28 Paulo introduces Duc Anh;

01:42 Opportunity in Vietnam’s healthtech landscape and the origins of Medici; 

04:23 Vietnam healthcare issues in doctor-to-patient ratio, self-medication, fragmented market data, and insurance under-penetration;

08:18 Medici’s B2B2C2F model and the story of a Vietnamese employee;

10:53 Building trust is the key to scaling in healthcare;

13:57 Behind Medici’s first-mover entry into the insurance space as a healthtech company;

16:08 Value proposition for Medici’s corporate and insurance partners;

18:16 The role of technology and data in Medici’s ecosystem;

20:01 Advantages and challenges of being a local Vietnam founder; 

22:11 How Anh brought together a management team of former tech unicorn execs and corporate leaders;

23:36 Vietnam’s healthcare industry and Medici in the next five years;

25:34 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Duc Anh Ngo is the CEO and Founder of Medici, a Vietnamese digital health startup with footprints in more than 30 provinces in Vietnam. Prior to Medici, Duc Anh co-founded and ran his own media company - one of the leading creative media companies in Vietnam. Before that, he had worked closely with drivers and transportation companies on the ground at Grab Vietnam. He completed his MBA at George Washington University under Fulbright Scholarship, granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United States of America.

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Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

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, we deep dive into the exciting developments of Southeast Asia B2B sales tech company Nektar.ai, which recently raised their second seed round, bringing their total seed capital to US$8.1M in one of the largest seed rounds raised from a SaaS in Asia. Their co-founder and CEO Abhijeet Vijayvergiya comes on the show to share with us the inner workings of a next-generation sales tech coming from Southeast Asia with plans to expand to the US as they launch their product in 2022. In the meantime, they’re in closed beta but you can also sign up for their waitlist here. 

He’s also an advisor for SaaS startups and a thought leader in the SaaS space in Asia, regularly sharing his thoughts on Linkedin and Clubhouse, so he also shares his thoughts on the evolution of sales tech from the customer, business, and technology standpoints. 

Transcript

Timestamps

00:27 Paulo introduces Abhijeet;

02:00 How Abhi and Aravind came together to start Nektar.ai to improve sales processes for B2B sales teams;

05:06 Why the pandemic was the perfect time to start Nektar;

08:24 The impact of inefficient and unproductive sales playbooks;

11:57 Building sales tools for the user rather than the buyer;

14:00 UI-less user experience for more productive execution of playbooks and sales operations;

16:18 Where Nektar’s US$8.1M seed round is going;

18:09 Opportunity in the US B2B SaaS market;

20:19 The Decade of SalesTech;

24:55 Abhi’s advice for SaaS companies in Southeast Asia; ​​

26:36 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Abhijeet Vijayvergiya, co-founder and CEO of B2B sales tech startup Nektar.ai, has more than a decade of experience in the SaaS industry. With venture-backed SaaS company Capillary Technologies, Abhijeet started in customer success, transitioned into account executive, and grew into a sales leader before venturing to set up his own SaaS company to solve the pain points he faced in his work at scale. He’s also an advisor to several B2B SaaS startups in Asia and an angel investor as well. 

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Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

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, we have Garret Jeremy Koeswandi, the Vice President for Finance and Operations of social commerce company Super. In our last season, we got to talk to Steven Wongsoredjo, the co-founder and CEO of Super who gave us the whole narrative about how they are building a social commerce company and the things that they're learning from the likes of Pinduoduo and what it's like to build in rural Indonesia.

Following this whole theme of inviting not just the CEOs and the founders, but also some of the company executives who have been with these companies since day one, seeing it go from zero to one and leading the different aspects of making these companies, we’ve now also invited Garret to give us a more on-the-ground perspective on what it takes to build hyperlocal logistics for social commerce in Indonesia.

Transcript

Timestamps

00:28 Paulo introduces Garret, VP FinOps of Super;

02:02 Garret shares how ran an angel-backed startup at 16 with his mentor Rendy (co-founder of Nusantara Technology), and how Rendy brought Garret back to Super after his studies in the Netherlands;

07:02 Garret on balancing the finance and operations perspective in decision making at his job;

10:21 Super’s logistics backbone approach to social commerce;

13:47 How go-to-market approach and customer retention varies across different cities in Indonesia;

16:52 The value proposition of Super’s hyper-localized supply chain for FMCGs and the role data plays in social commerce;

21:37 Impact of pandemic lockdowns on Super’s sales, logistics, and team; 

24:46 How Super stays lean with its finances by leveraging existing infrastructure for the short-term; 

30:41 What Garret is excited about for Super in the next five years; 

31:35 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Garret Jeremy Koeswandi is the vice president for finance and operations of Super. He joined Super as CEO Steven’s Chief of Staff back in 2019 and began leading finance and operations of Super that same year. Prior to that, he was also doing consulting for tech companies, and at the age of 16 co-founded a venture-backed startup with Michael Rendy, co-founder and CPO of Super. He took up his bachelor's and MBA in the Netherlands.

Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic

Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

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, we have another special guest as we continue our series of inviting over venture capitalists on the show to document the increasing global interest in Southeast Asia. Sanjay Zimmermann, Principal at White Star Capital, comes on the show to share his insights on Southeast Asia having co-led the firm’s expansion into APAC, learnings from business models in North America and Europe across fintech, commerce, and SaaS, and his own experiences as a career venture capitalist.

Transcript

Timestamps

00:27 Paulo introduces Sanjay;

02:49 Sanjay introduces White Star Capital and how they decided to deploy capital into Southeast Asia;

07:15 Value-adds of a global investment firm like White Star Capital;

10:10 Nailing unit economics and the demographic shift for fintechs; 

13:12 Future of consumer e-commerce with enablers, D2C, and non-dilutive financing; 

15:50 Future of Work through SaaS solutions; 

18:53 Uber as the Grab for North America and what the West is learning from Asia;

21:20 Thoughts on more SEA companies going global from day one;

23:23 Exit landscape in Southeast Asia: IPOs, M&As, SPACs, and secondaries; 

26:29 Learnings from the “Defining Entrepreneurship Around the World” project with Babson College;

28:49 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Sanjay Zimmerman is a Principal at White Star Capital, where he focuses on Canadian and Southeast Asian opportunities for the fund. Prior to joining White Star Capital in 2017, he spent a few years working in Investment Banking at Rothschild & Co in London working on cross-border M&A with the TMT team. Prior to banking, he produced a video series called ‘Defining Entrepreneurship’ in which he interviewed over 60 entrepreneurs across the world.

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Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

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, we have Rajive Keshup, Investment Director at Cathay Innovation, a multi-stage venture capital platform affiliated to Cathay Capital, a US$4.5 billion global investment firm. He comes on our show to talk about the golden age of Southeast Asia startup and venture capital, Cathay Innovation’s approach to this gold rush as a global investment firm, and his own experience and learnings as a venture capitalist, board member on several insurtech and SaaS companies, and startup operator in Southeast Asia. Our call was recorded on 7 July 2021. 

Transcript

Timestamps

00:27 Introducing Cathay Innovation and what Rajive is excited about as a VC in Southeast Asia; 

04:17 How startups can go global from Southeast Asia; 

08:02 How Rajive ended up in Cathay Innovation;

09:56 How Rajive’s operator and banking experience as influenced his VC approach; 

11:05 Opportunities in Southeast Asia’s insurtech landscape;

13:50 The emerging dichotomy of SaaS companies from Southeast Asia;

17:06 Deploying capital in Southeast Asia as a global investment firm;

18:55 Future of exits in Southeast Asia; 

20:27 The Golden Age of Southeast Asia and Cathay Innovation’s approach to the gold rush;

22:45 Learnings from running “Unpacking the VC” Clubhouse series;

24:15 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Rajive is an Investment Director at Cathay Innovation, based out of the Singapore office. Prior to joining Cathay, Rajive played instrumental roles in scaling a number of Southeast Asian startups. Before moving to Singapore, Rajive was a Managing Director at PwC Strategy (formerly Booz & Co.) in New York City where he led the TMT sector for the firm’s Private Equity practice. Rajive started his career at AT&T doing corporate strategy & development in Dallas, Texas. He is also a former founder having built, scaled, and successfully exited a US-based startup in the pet services space. Rajive earned an MBA from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and a Bachelor of Science from Bentley University in Waltham, MA.

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Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

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.

Latin America is several time zones and an ocean away from Southeast Asia, but there’s a lot more to learn from this similarly exciting emerging market than one might expect. In this episode, Yinglan talks about all that and more with none other than the prolific venture capitalist Eric Acher, founder and managing general partner of Brazil’s first homegrown venture capital firm monashees. Through monashees, Eric has led investments in many of Latin America’s top tech startups, including 99 (LatAm's first unicorn, acquired by Didi for US$1B), Meliuz (first VC-backed tech IPO in Brazil), Rappi, Loft, and Madeira Madeira. He does not only share his experiences leading the development of Latin America’s tech ecosystem as a VC, but also the parallels and synergies with Southeast Asia as well.

Transcript

Timestamps

00:27 Eric introduces himself and monashees;

03:34 Brief history of Latin America’s tech ecosystem from the dotcom bubble to today;

07:27 99, Latin America’s first venture-backed tech unicorn and monashees’ first exit;

10:42 Fintech trends in Latin America and Meliuz, Brazil’s first venture-backed tech IPO;

13:22 LatAm companies inspired by China and US models and uniquely LatAm companies;

17:35 Influence of the US and China tech capital on Latin America;

20:38 The entry of Sea (Shopee) into Latin America and synergies between Southeast Asia companies and Latin American companies;

22:55 The two “Indonesias” of Latin America;

26:28 Challenges of being a tech entrepreneur in Latin America;

29:18 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Eric Acher is the founder and managing general partner of monashees, Brazil’s first homegrown venture capital firm. Eric has always believed that the power of entrepreneurship, technology, and venture capital, together, can change Brazil. In 2005, alongside Fabio Igel, he created monashees, the first Brazilian Venture Capital platform inspired by the best funds in Silicon Valley. Today he leads the investment strategy and is responsible for portfolio management. Prior to monashees, he worked with Venture Capital at General Atlantic and with Strategic Consulting at McKinsey. Eric holds an MBA from Kellogg and a degree in Communications from ESPM, with a specialization in Administration from FGV. 

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Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

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 we have on-call Daniel Hazman, the CEO and co-founder of Nimbly Technologies a SaaS company developing mobile solutions for automating and improving operational efficiency for enterprise. We’ve invited him on to talk about building a SaaS company in Southeast Asia and driving digitalization for frontline operations or last-mile execution of enterprise.

Transcript

Timestamps

00:27 Paulo introduces Daniel; 

01:39 How Daniel met his co-founder Jonathan and started Nimbly; 

04:16 How Daniel zero-ed in on process automation as go-to-market for Nimbly; 

06:26 How Nimbly got its first customer and expanded into a hundred more; 

08:38 What enterprise has been looking for with digitalization post-COVID; 

10:53 Changing of the old guard for conglomerates in emerging markets and the impact on SaaS adoption; 

11:59 Defining SaaS through Nimbly and how customer success accounts for nuances across customer segments;

13:00 Nimbly’s three core value propositions; 

14:30 Case study of how Nimbly impacts operational efficiency and end consumers; 

16:38 The role of data in Nimbly’s product growth; 

17:53 Aligning marketing, sales, and CS to drive SaaS adoption;

19:23 Daniel on competition posed by conglomerate IT teams; 

20:32 What Daniel brings into Nimbly from his past experience at Fortune 500 companies;

21:53 Daniel’s next five years for Nimbly; 

22:20 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guests

Daniel Hazman is the CEO and co-founder of Nimbly Technologies, a SaaS company developing mobile solutions for automating and improving operational efficiency for enterprises. A seasoned executive, he's had over 20 years of experience in retail, supply chain management and sustainability, FMCGs, and tech startups across 30 countries, including Walmart and General Mills. He established the Indonesia country office for Clinton's Global Health Initiative and is a Fulbright MBA scholar.

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Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

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, instead of our usual lineup of founder-CEOs, we are back with an interesting set of guests -- Jasper Yap, CTO and co-founder as well as Shawn Seet, the chief commercial officer of Eezee, a B2B marketplace based in Singapore supporting the digitalization of procurement for government, corporates, and SMEs not just in Singapore, but across the region as well. The beauty of having both the CTO and CCO on this episode is that we don't only get to see other dimensions of building a tech company, but also the synergies between tech and sales in driving digital adoption for enterprise and building a strong team across functions. 

Transcript

Timestamps

01:00 Paulo introduces Jasper and Shawn from Eezee;

02:09 How CTO Jasper and CCO Shawn found Eezee;

05:34 How Shawn’s first role in Eezee managing HR and culture helps him in his current role as CCO;

06:23 Eezee’s latest initiatives with the Singapore government;

07:30 What enterprise companies look for in software applications;

10:21 How the enterprise approach to digitalization has shifted in 2020 to 2021;

14:01 Jasper explains Eezee's ecosystem from tech perspective;

16:42 Shawn’s advice for MNCs on digitalization;

19:08 Leadership approaches of Eezee’s CTO and CCO;

21:52 How Jasper builds and develops Eezee’s tech team;

23:46 Eezee’s CTO and CCO on the next five years of the company;

25:32 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guests

Jasper Yap is the CTO and co-founder at Eezee. Prior to Eezee, he was developing and engineering products for SMEs, through fintech and aerospace applications. He's also part of the Forbes 30 under 30 retail and e-commerce category alongside his co-founder Terrence. Reach out Jasper at [email protected]. 

Shawn Seet is currently the chief commercial officer of Eezee. Prior to Eezee, he had built his career around management consulting, more than six years supporting enterprises across various industries in APAC, helping businesses go digital and improving consumer experiences. In Eezee, he joined as head of strategy and towards the end of last year, he took on his new role as chief commercial officer. Reach out Shawn at [email protected]. 

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Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

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, we have back on the show, Anthony Chow, CEO, and co-founder of igloocompany. In his last episode with us, igloocompany (then igloohome) was just celebrating its five-year anniversary, and holding its first distributor conference, iglooCon, remotely. He shared with Yinglan the company's journey in the past five years, how they expanded into enterprise solutions through iglooworks, and exciting prospects amidst the impact of the pandemic. Ten months later, he's back to share how igloocompany has refocused its energies on developed markets, interesting new use cases of their smart access solutions (from durians to vaccines!), and how they're leveraging their Singapore advantage as they deepen their global expansion. 

Transcript

Timestamps

01:20 Anthony brings us up to speed on igloocompany's past 10-12 months;

03:39 Underlying factors behind igloocompany's focus on the US market;

05:26 Why developed markets over developing markets for smart access solutions;

07:11 The edge of being a global company based in Singapore;

09:55 Advice for founders looking to go global from day one;

12:01 Interesting new use cases of iglooworks across markets;

15:12 Building and sustaining a global distribution network for igloocompany;

17:58 igloocompany's advantage and how it has developed over the past five years;

20:53 The next five years for igloocompany;

23:39 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Prior to co-founding igloocompany, Anthony Chow led data science teams in developing proprietary personalization engines for Singtel's Group Digital Life unit. This extensive data science experience and expertise has been critical to Igloohome’s engineering and data-driven approach to growth across 100 countries globally.

Anthony holds an Electrical and Electronics Engineering degree from Imperial College London and a Master's in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. He was also an Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore scholar.

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Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

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, we have Rishabh Singhi, the CEO and co-founder of Indonesian ghost-kitchen network Dishserve. In this episode, he shares how he and his co-founders came together in the midst of the pandemic to rethink F&B distribution, what makes Dishserve different from the traditional cloud kitchens, and how their asset-light model creates a win-win situation for Dishserve, home kitchens, and F&B brands.

Transcript

Timestamps

00:31 Introduction of Rishabh

01:19 How Rishabh met Yinglan and Insignia;

02:09 How Rishabh came to starting Dishserve in the midst of the pandemic;

05:59 How Rishabh gathered his co-founders;

09:59 Cloud kitchen space in Indonesia and where Dishserve fits into the picture;

14:09 Coming up with the Dishserve model;

15:01 How Dishserve recruits and onboards home kitchens to their ghost kitchen network;

16:23 Ensuring QA of Dishserve's home kitchens;

18:31 Creating a win-win scenario for F&B brands and home kitchens;

20:10 Scaling Dishserve model beyond Jakarta;

22:22 How Rishabh sees cloud kitchen and Dishserve models evolving moving forward;

24:11 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Prior to co-founding and becoming CEO of Dishserve, Rishabh Singhi was previously COO and Head of Products at Reddoorz. And prior to that, he had already been working for the past five years in a couple of different technology-enabled and based companies, across India and APAC, and in various industries from education to financial services and career development.

Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic

Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

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.