Tag: SME

New Zealand – For the first months of 2021, small and medium enterprises in New Zealand have reported a decline in their profitability with 36% stating a downturn, according to the latest business monitor by professional services MYOB. 

The statistics reflect the three months prior to March 2021, with 12% of those surveyed admitting profits had reduced by ‘a lot’, while still a significant percent – 20% – have reported that profitability has also improved since the start of 2021.

Despite this, SMEs in the region are showing quite the optimism with over one in five or 22% expecting an improvement in profitability onto the coming quarter. This is in line with New Zealand SMEs having a similar sentiment on revenues. 

The same report showed that more than a quarter or 27% of SMEs in the country are forecasting a slight increase in revenue over the next 12 months despite the unpredictable year when the pandemic first emerged. 

After a number of lockdowns, SMEs based in Auckland have seen the most significant impact on their bottom line over a 12-month period to March 2021, with 44% of SME operators in the country’s largest center reporting a fall in revenue. In comparison, businesses in Christchurch fared better than the national average, with 35% reporting reduced revenue over this time, while nearly half or 48% of Wellington-based SMEs said their revenue had remained the same and 38% saw income fall.

Meanwhile, a big percentage of those surveyed – 41% – expect to generate the same level of revenue across the next 12 months, while 25% expect their income to fall.

Current statistics are an increase in positive sentiment where in last year’s report, 40% of SME operators expected their revenue to be down in 12 months’ time, with 21% predicting their revenue would increase.

MYOB SME Senior Sales Manager Krissy Sadler-Bridge said that overall, findings are a solid turnaround for “hard-working” SMEs. Considering the past 12 months when the SMEs had to endure the pandemic blow, Sadler-Bridge believes local business owners should be congratulated for not just hanging on but also finding hard-won opportunities amid some of the most challenging trading conditions the times have seen. 

On profitability meanwhile, she commented, “When a business makes a profit, they may have the funds to develop their business further, hire more employees or increase employee benefits, or for some SME-owners, pay themselves a solid wage – making profitability a key measure of progress for the sector.”

Manila, Philippines – NextPay, a Philippine-based fintech startup, has secured a US$125K investment funding from startup accelerator Y Combinator, which will be used to expand NextPay’s services further and address the growing problem of financially-underserved businesses in the Philippines. 

Through the investment, NextPay founders aim to leverage their previous experience working in ‘unicorn’ companies to expand their line of digital banking services. Their plans include new digital solutions for payments, credit, and personal cash management.

“Our goal is to empower smaller businesses with a spectrum of banking services that were previously unavailable to them because of the steep requirements and high fees that are typically aimed at larger, more developed companies that can afford them. This funding round from Y Combinator allows us to scale even faster to bring digital financial services closer to MSMEs,” said Don Pansacola, CEO and co-founder at NextPay.

The platform allows small businesses to have the same financial capabilities as large banks, which gives growing companies access to affordable financial services such as digital invoicing, cash management, and batch payments to any bank or e-wallet in the Philippines.

Furthermore, the startup has positioned itself to enable more businesses, entrepreneurs, and freelancers to centralize all their financial requirements through one easy-to-use, affordable, and inclusive platform. 

“We plan to introduce more payment acceptance methods, virtual credit cards, and other digital solutions that enable businesses to manage their cash flow and alleviate the bottlenecks of the Philippine financial landscape. We will also partner with human resource and accounting software companies to further streamline the financial operations of a growing company,” Pansacola added.

According to Aldrich Tan, co-founder and chief experience officer at NextPay, the platform aims to give a wider opportunity among small businesses through accessible digital financial services.

“Through our platform, MSMEs can conduct their transactions seamlessly and allow business owners to free up resources and focus on their operations. This optimization and focus are vital in supporting and strengthening the country’s efforts towards economic recovery,” Tan stated.

Since its launch in 2020, NextPay has processed over US$2.5M (₱120M) in digital transactions for more than 100 businesses. Customers of NextPay can enjoy reduced processing times from as much as 3 days to just 30 minutes. 

“NextPay wants to help the Philippines bounce back. We want to enable growing enterprises to maximize their capital, reach more customers, and generate more jobs and opportunities. This then stimulates economic transactions and creates demand for stronger partnerships. It’s a domino effect, but it starts from having a digital platform like NextPay who empowers MSMEs to thrive and do more,” Pansacola concluded.

NextPay is the fifth Filipino startup to have received funding from Y Combinator, with companies including job searching platform Kalibrr, payment platform PayMongo, edtech Avion School, and laboratory software company Dashlabs.ai.

Manila, Philippines – MoveUp.app, a local startup dedicated in creating an online platform for team training and onboarding, has won under the category ‘BEST New StartUp’ during the ASEAN StartUp Awards this month.

The startup, which has bested over 20 other startup finalists in Southeast Asia, aims to create a conducive work environment in a remote and virtual set-up, a direct response to the difficulty of welcoming new hires online, continuously training them, and connecting with internal teams.

Founded by Filipino entrepreneur Paul Espinas, MoveUp.app aims to make learning among online teams in the long run, accessible, fun, and effective.

“It is crucial for me that what we are doing is, first and foremost, accessible because I know first-hand how difficult access to education is,” Espinas stated.

Currently based in Vietnam, Espinas also added that the platform’s vision is rooted from “a way of giving back and enabling young professionals to continuously ‘move up’ through accessible and relevant training content.”

The award-giving body which is under the Global StartUp Awards, is an annual spotlight in technology, entrepreneurship, and startup industries, recognizing the industry’s greatest development over the last year based on growth, innovation, and impact.

Singapore – Mobile-first commerce solutions for businesses, KADDRA, has announced the completion of its integration with accounting software XERO to provide a fully automated sales-to-accounting flow for SMEs to improve their productivity and have the right tools to scale.

KADDRA provides mobile-first e-commerce and marketing solutions by connecting businesses with their customers through a white label end-to-end platform. It operates under the premise of improving sales processes, marketing reach, and customer service through a subscription based model for native mobile technology catered to SMEs venturing into digitizing their operations. 

According to Quentin Chiarugi, executive chairman and CEO of KADDRA, the integration is part of a larger roadmap the company has slated for software integrations this year.

“It is a crucial step, and it will provide a huge advantage to companies using both our solutions to run their operations. With minimal cost, productivity will dramatically improve from sales to accounting,” Chiarugi stated.

Meanwhile, Will Beattie, CTO & COO of KADDRA, said, “Xero, like KADDRA, is an easy-to-use, plug-and-play solution used by forward-thinking businesses. Their rapid global expansion is proof that back-office operations want to streamline and evolve. With this integration, sales orders can seamlessly be created as invoices in Xero, reducing manual work, data-entry errors and ultimately saving time for the whole operation.” 

Last month, KADDRA has also integrated e-commerce service Shopify in its platform to amplify its stance for business support for SMEs.

Hong Kong – Nexstgo, a Hong Kong-based technology services provider, is enhancing the product lineup of NEXSTMALL BIZ, the provider’s business solution catered to client small and medium enterprises.

Some of the services include one-stop professional IT services, remote conferencing and VPN security systems, together with a wide range of mobile computing products including branded services from tech companies VAIO and AVITA. 

Furthermore, Nexstgo ensures enterprises of any size and industry can find the most suitable software and hardware solutions on NEXSTMALL BIZ, helping businesses maintain the strongest performance under the continuously transforming business environment during the new year.

“Stepping into the new year, the ‘new normal’ commercial environment continues to affect business IT purchasing decisions. In order to help SMEs be successful in their digital transformation and adapt to the new reality of remote working, Nexstgo has enhanced its business solutions available through the NEXSTMALL BIZ platform to provide a more comprehensive technology application strategy focusing on the business and commercial field,” the company explained in a press release.

One of the aspects Nexstgo focuses among these releases is network security among customers and IT consulting services. Nexstgo has launched technological solutions specifically for network security management, including the installation of bank-level encryption software by Norton VPN for customers in business areas that require remote-work with a high level of integrated protection. Some include Targus Docking Station, which supports multiple USB interfaces and screen configurations; Targus Privacy Screen Filter, designed to protect high-value information; and Targus Security Cable Lock that locks the connection end of the transmission line to protect valuable resources on the device.

“As a strategic partner to SMEs, Nexstgo’s elite team also provides customers with professional IT support and technology operation consulting services, helping companies confidently achieve digital transformation and adapt to the ‘new normal’. These supporting services undertaken by the professional specialist team handle inquiries regarding computer products and software systems, and provide product management and technical support,” Nexstgo further stated.

Lastly, Nexstgo provides online and video conference software and hardware, such as NEXSTGO laptop products with dedicated functionality for online meetings equipped with a high-quality Dolby voice system, and artificial intelligence camera lens Huddly-IQ designed for remote video conferencing, and other related activities. 

“The package helps companies of all sizes to deliver excellent customer service, and to keep pace with fast-changing business environments. By taking advantage of these solutions and transforming into an e-commerce business – with the realities of the ‘new normal’ replacing traditional face-to-face service – companies can greatly increase their revenues, productivity and cost management performance,” said Nexstgo. 

Melbourne, Australia – Thrive, an AI-powered fintech aimed at small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has announced the initial stages of its crowdfunding, targeting A$3M, on the equity crowdfunding platform Birchal.

The crowdfunding comes after the platform’s interest in launching the Thrive app for its SME waitlist, which has numbered over 7,500 businesses.

According to Thrive’s data, financial admin has been the most disliked activity in running a business and that business owners waste over 42 days a year in managing their financial affairs. This is something that the platform aims to solve by automating banking, accounting tasks, and lending for SMEs. 

Furthermore, Thrive combines a smart business account with value-added services like receipt scanning, invoicing, tax forecasting, payroll, and more. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), these tools are designed to run on autopilot, winning back time for busy business owners and making it easy for them to stay in control of their financial destiny.

“We have been running a number of focus groups with small business owners as we put the finishing touches on our product. After we kept getting asked about investment, we decided that we couldn’t think of anything better than to allow our potential customers to become investors in the business as well,” said Michael Nuciforo, co-founder & CEO of Thrive.

Meanwhile, Thrive Co-founder and COO Ben Winford added, “We were really impressed with the Birchal team and platform. We can’t wait to launch our campaign and to get our members behind us. Crowdfunding presents an exciting opportunity to build our brand, grow our member base and build further advocacy for our business.” 

Singapore – Funding Societies, a Southeast Asia-centric digital financing platform for regional SMEs, is expanding its operations to Thailand, marking its fourth market since the platform’s establishment six years ago. Currently, the platform operates in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

With the market expansion, Funding Societies will be addressing the US$250B SME credit gap that exists in ASEAN’s biggest economies – Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Funding Societies has disbursed over US$1.4B in financing across more than 65,000 SMEs throughout the region and is prepared to provide Thai SMEs with full access to its short-term customizable financing solutions, which are funded by retail and institutional investors.

The platform will also operate closely under the debt-crowdfunding license given by Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission. This expansion comes after more than one year of working with Thai regulators and planning for market entry.

Co-founder and group CEO of Funding Societies, Kelvin Teo (left), said, “Funding Societies’ vision has always been to financially enable growth for SMEs, while growing wealth for investors. Having built a market-leading presence in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, we’re excited to bring our vision to Thailand and launch today. We’ll also be able to better support Singapore companies expanding into Thailand and vice versa.”

Meanwhile, Varun Bhandari, country head of Funding Societies for Thailand (right), commented, “By leveraging technology, Funding Societies offers SMEs a new avenue of accessing business financing that is fast, affordable, and convenient. The crowdfunding landscape in the country is growing steadily and we see a lot of potential here. We look forward to driving financial inclusion in Thailand and helping to uplift the country’s economy.”

Sydney, Australia – Online design company DesignCrowd, headquartered in Australia, has just announced a fundraise of A$10M to help drive the growth of its new product BrandCrowd. The round is pre-IPO fundraising, taking the company’s total capital raised to over A$22m.

DesignCrowd, which was founded in 2007, helps businesses crowdsource graphic, logo, and web design from designers around the world. Its new platform BrandCrowd is a foray into the DIY design market, enabling entrepreneurs and small business owners create their needed logo designs and other related designs, such as business cards and social media materials. 

The new capital will primarily be used to invest in product development and marketing of both of the platforms, and to expand both of its teams.

Alec Lynch, founder and CEO of DesignCrowd, said that online DIY design is a large, global, and fast-growing market, and the BrandCrowd platform has allowed it to successfully expand to the market. 

“Over the last 2 years, BrandCrowd has driven significant revenue growth for us which continued last year despite the global pandemic. BrandCrowd has also allowed us to develop a subscription business model for the first time to sit alongside our existing DesignCrowd marketplace business,” said Lynch.

Manila, Philippines – The National Association of Data Protection Officers of the Philippines, or NADPOP, an organization in the country for data privacy and protection, has announced a training and certification program for Filipino micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) on data privacy and protection fundamentals to help them manage the privacy of their customers online and offline.

The program, which equates to ₱3.8M in total value, is specifically targeted to members of BounceBack PH (BBPH), a movement that started on Facebook and was created during the onset of the pandemic to help entrepreneurs, front-liners, and disadvantaged communities in their recovery from the crisis. Currently, it has more than 70,000 members with industry verticals communities and regional and city-based groups.

NADPOP, which is a non-profit organization that serves and protects Data Protection Officers (DPO) in the Philippines, will work together with BBPH to identify a total of 100 recipients of the program and will make the announcement in the coming weeks. Each of the scholarships is worth at least ₱38,000 based on commercial rates. 

NADPOP together with BBPH partner, Bluepoint Foundation, a non-profit open-source education & development center, will be providing the eLearning infrastructure for the program.

According to Sam Jacoba, NADPOP’s founding president, most MSMEs have less than five full-time employees, making the training program a top necessity for businesses’ online transformation journey.

“The shift of businesses online has exponentially increased the reach of MSMEs which brought a lot of opportunities, but at the same time, this increased the risk of their customer databases being breached by hackers,” said Jacoba. 

NADPOP will be conducting four classes with 25 participants each. Primarily, the scholarships will be given to active members of BBPH and its communities. Those that are deemed qualified for the program are those that have an ongoing business, are currently financially-challenged, are diligent with their business requirements, and are ultimately those that are seen to implement what they will learn from the course. 

Once participants have finished the course, they will have to take a certification exam, and once passed, will gain a Data Privacy Specialist certification valid for two years.

“We welcome this generous support to our MSME members from NADPOP as now more than ever, protecting the personal information of customers should be top of mind of all entrepreneurs going online,” commented Jason Dela Rosa, founder of BBPH. 

“We also welcome the scholarships that NADPOP is going to provide to our members who will not be able to afford the training especially during this time of the pandemic. We thank NADPOP for responding to the call of the Digital Bayanihan Initiative of BBPH, which aims to help our members be better than ever and shine through the pandemic,” added Dela Rosa. 

BBPH members who won’t be selected for the 100 scholarship grants can still avail of NADPOP’s Data Privacy training and certification program which will be afforded on a competitive rate exclusive to active members of the community. All participants of the program will then be part of a ‘Community of Practice’ of data privacy and protection practitioners, whom they can consult with as they continue with their online transformation efforts. 

Singapore – ‘Start Digital’, a digital initiative started by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Enterprise Singapore for SME support, is refreshing their existing digital solutions in order to provide newly incorporated SMEs or those that have yet to digitize with foundational and easy-to-deploy digital solutions.

Initially launched in January 2019, the Start Digital program has helped more than 30,000 SMEs to adopt various digital transformation strategies for their businesses, known collectively as the ‘Start Digital Pack’. These solutions are offered across six partners, namely financial institutions DBS, Maybank, OCBC, and UOB, as well as telco Singtel and M1.

Start Digital is offering three new and enhanced categories:

  • Digital Collaboration – These enable employees to work from home or any other convenient locations. Examples include Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
  • Digital Marketing – Tools that provide SMEs with templates to create social media ads and manage their digital ad buys and placements on a single platform. This allows SMEs to easily manage targeted digital marketing campaigns and reach out to consumers on social media.
  • Digital Transactions – InvoiceNow-linked solutions offered by bank partners are integrated with e-payment including PayNow Corporate to enable SMEs to generate/receive e-invoices through InvoiceNow and receive/make e-payments seamlessly. These solutions help SMEs improve transaction accuracy and administrative productivity. Both e-invoicing and e-payments are part of digital utilities which IMDA is putting in place as baseline infrastructure for the digital economy. Similar to their physical counterparts, digital utilities provide common standards and ease of transactions for businesses. 

Start Digital initially included accounting, human resource management system and payroll, digital marketing, digital transactions and cybersecurity solutions. 

“Based on feedback from SMEs and Start Digital partners, IMDA and Enterprise Singapore are enhancing Start Digital to include new solutions that will enable SMEs to collaborate seamlessly with internal and external parties, and gain new customers,” according to a factsheet released by IMDA and Enterprise Singapore.

Both institutions have been proactive in driving support for SMEs and startups based on digital transformation strategies. Earlier this year, Enterprise Singapore supported the launch of the PlanetSpark Innovation Centre to focus on tech startups seeking to deploy artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) to the market.