Kicking off Tech in Asia’s Startup Arena Pitch Battle

This article is a collaboration between Betty Chum and Ainun Nadhifah

On September 22, Tech in Asia and Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up program, held the Startup Arena Pitch Battle semifinals for Singapore.

It was a very different experience compared to the Arena Pitch Battle from last year’s Tech in Asia Conference – Semifinalists had to pitch to the judges virtually. That said, the participants delivered and managed to impress the hundreds of online viewers as well as the contest’s three judges: Pieter Kemps from Sequoia Capital India, Rameez Ansar from Circles Life, and Jussi Salovaara from Antler.

Overall, the startups were assessed based on their clarity of pitch, idea, business model, and investment worthiness. At the end of the event, digital credit startup OctiFi emerged as the winner for the Singapore semifinals while personalized veterinary care company ZumVet was the runner-up.

OctiFi will move on to the finals on October 21 to 22 to compete with nine other startups in the region. The top three firms in the finale will receive a total prize of US$27,000 and meaningful benefits from Freshworks, Hubspot, and Amazon Web Services.

Here’s an overview of the startups that participated in the semifinals:

OctiFi (winner)

According to a 2016 study, millennial shoppers are increasingly turning to installment payments when purchasing online. For instance, more than 50% of them would take installment payment options over promotions like free delivery or a 10% discount.

However, ecommerce players in Southeast Asia often face challenges when setting up such “buy now, pay later” payment processes, as many people in the region do not own credit cards.

OctiFi hopes to make it easy for merchants to get in touch with the new generation and make shopping easier for people by utilizing credit without interest. The company, which was launched only two and a half months ago, created a platform that combines interactive engagement between merchants and consumers along with a pay later payment process.

Since its inception, the startup has already conducted more than a hundred transactions with over 52 merchants mostly through livestreaming and referral marketing partnerships.

As a way to address credit risk, OctiFi CEO Ed Chin said that consumers who don’t have a long credit history or those with a riskier history would be asked to pay more upfront.

ZumVet (runner-up)

Having a pet is a joy, but caring for them is a challenge that most owners face. With more and more people keeping the company of their own fur friends, there has been a worsening shortage in pet clinics, along with a lack of pet care education. The result: Most owners fail to bring their pets to the vet when the need arises.

To solve this problem, ZumVet wants to simplify pet care through its platform, which allows users to book a video call or house visit from veterinarians, order medication online, and access digital medical records.

Currently, ZumVet has 1,500 registered users on its platform, with 75% of them being paid users who have either booked a consultation or ordered medication online. The startup aims to reach 4,000 registered users by the end of this year.

Unlike other companies, ZumVet is not doing any type of direct marketing. Instead, it partners with 30 different veterinary clinics, pet service providers, and insurers – including PolicyPal and AON – to reach its target audience.

Merkle Science

As cryptocurrency adoption rises, it’s important for financial institutions to monitor crimes in the space.

Merkle Science is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that provides blockchain transaction monitoring and intelligence for digital asset service providers, financial institutions, and law enforcement agencies. Founded in 2018, its product helps detect, investigate, and prevent the illicit use of cryptocurrencies.

The startup, which is headquartered in Singapore, has offices in Bangalore, Seoul, London, and Tokyo and is now working with cryptocurrency exchanges and law enforcement agencies across Asia.

Benefit X

Scaling a business is tough, but it’s even more challenging when you can’t meet the bank’s requirements for loans that could have helped to solve some of your headaches.

Benefit X wants to help small businesses and startups minimize those challenges by making it easier for them to receive digital loans and manage their day-to-day operations. Besides business financing, the platform also offers a corporate card where businesses can track expenses and a human resource management solution to assist with employee administration, claims, and leaves.

The startup is currently at week 20 of its operations and has already received S$150,000 worth of deposits. In terms of customer acquisition methods, Benefit X CEO Kenneth Tan explained that the company mainly attracts users through Facebook ads, Facebook groups, and content marketing.

360F

There are many robo-advisors that provide automated and data-driven financial planning for investments, but there aren’t many that offer advice on insurance.

As more people become concerned about their personal finances, financial advisors also need to look out for solutions that can protect their clients’ future.

This is where 360F steps in. The platform offers insurance and wealth management recommendations by providing autopilot-like advisory that helps users achieve their optimal financial well-being.

The startup’s revenue has grown from S$700,000 in 2019 to S$4 million this year, with most of it coming from financial organizations like Zurich, Singapore Life, and Aviva. Besides this business-to-business model, the platform also offers business-to-consumer subscription for direct financial advisors.

SoMin

More advertisers are turning to digital media platforms like Facebook to grow their audience. And as such advertising methods get increasingly more popular, media spend has become significantly more expensive while reach and performance have fallen.

On top of the inefficiency of these campaigns, optimizing them can also be a tricky and manual process, consuming a company’s precious time and manpower.

This is where the use of artificial intelligence and big data could be beneficial. Adtech firm SoMin, for one, offers a SaaS platform that predicts audience psychographics based on their social media feeds and runs automated Facebook and Google campaigns to reduce cost and increase sales.

The startup currently works with around 30 B2C brands and agencies. One of them is McDonald’s, who SoMin helped to drive drown media spend by 85% and boost reach to 16 million from 2.8 million.

Don’t miss the biggest pitch battle in SEA

OctiFi will join other regional winners Papaya (Vietnam), Dropezy (Indonesia) and Curlec (the rest of Southeast Asia) at the grand finale of the Startup Arena Pitch Battle 2020, which will be held on October 21 and 22 at the Tech in Asia Conference Virtual 2020. Each regional winner wins US$2,500 and credits from Freshworks, Hubspot, and Amazon Web Services.

Catch the thrilling finale of the Startup Arena Pitch Battle 2020 at this year’s Tech in Asia Conference. You can register here to watch this ultimate showdown live.

If you’d like to gain more insights into the startup and tech scene in Southeast Asia, join us at our biggest conference Tech in Asia Conference Virtual 2020, happening on October 19 to 22. Don’t miss your chance to learn more about Asia’s Golden Age!