About Startup365

Chaque jour nous vous présenterons une nouvelle Startup française ! Notre pays regorge de talents et d'entrepreneurs brillants ! Alors partons à la découverte des meilleures startup françaises ! Certaines d'entre elles sont dans une étape essentielle dans la vie d'une startup : la recherche de financement, notamment par le financement participatif (ou crowdfunding en anglais). Alors participez à cette grande aventure en leur faisant une petite donation ! Les startups françaises ont besoin de vous !

#Asia Thai classifieds platform Kaidee launches new car marketplace, in response to high growth

//

Kaidee claims that there are over 70,000 cars on sale on its platform today

Kaidee

Tiwa York, Chief Executive Officer/Head Coach of Kaidee

Thai online classifieds platform Kaidee has launched a new and improved dedicated car marketplace called RodKaidee.

The channel will be monitored by Kaidee customer representatives, who will answer enquiries via phone calls or text messages. Users will be able to search for cars via their make, car type, model, year, and engine type, and price range. RodKaidee will be available on desktop and mobile.

Currently, there are already over 70,000 cars on sale in at Kaidee. According to an official press release, over 16,000 cars are sold on the marketplace per month, at a total average value of THB 4 million (US$115,000).

Also Read: Tencent bets on online flea market with US$200M investment in Zhuan Zhuan

“RodKaidee aims to become the best marketplace for vehicles in Thailand as we plan to add more services including auto parts, motorcycle, etc. RodKaidee will be everyone’s one-stop-online-shop for everything automotive,” said Tiwa York, Chief Executive Officer/Head Coach of Kaidee.

Last year, York told the Bangkok Post that he aims to increase Kaidee’s sellers to two million. In 2015, the platform logged an average of 650,000 visitors per month. A total of 8.6 million listings were posted in the whole of 2015.

Kaidee hawks a range of wares including smartphones, amulets, vehicles, and even properties. In 2015, the highest-valued item sold on Kaidee was a piece of land worth THB 14 million (US$430,000).

Image Credit: Kaidee

 

The post Thai classifieds platform Kaidee launches new car marketplace, in response to high growth appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/2q9lMpw

#Africa Nigeria’s FINT set to connect lenders with borrowers

//

Nigerian fintech startup FINT will this month launch a debt financing platform that matches investors looking for competitive returns with creditworthy borrowers.

The goal of FINT is to drive down the cost of credit and provide an alternative way for investors to earn healthy returns.

“As a result of our model, we have created a unified risk scoring system that allows us to assess borrowers across the credit spectrum. This allows us to gather data that would increase our understanding of the credit market in Nigeria and beyond,” FINT co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Chiwete John-Njokanma told Disrupt Africa.

FINT has its origins when John-Njokanma and his team were working on a payments platform, which eventually failed. After researching other opportunities in the fintech space, they began to focus on peer-to-peer (P2P) lending.

“Growing up in Nigeria, it was common knowledge that it was almost impossible to get an affordable loan from a bank,” said John-Njokanma.

“You could have a stable job paying a comparatively decent sum, but if the collateral requirements didn’t kill you, then the interest rate would. My childhood was full of stories about people who were unable to do the things they wanted because they had no support.”

John-Njokanma began working on FINT in February 2016, and the platform is now set to launch.

“We managed to put together eight incredible people who could really have got jobs anywhere in the world and with anyone. Some of them were offered six figure dollar salaries, and eight figure naira salaries, but they all turned those opportunities down,” he said.

“That’s because they believe in what we are trying to do, and with that belief comes an astonishing level of passion and commitment. I do not think that I could ask for better, be it in terms of intelligence or work ethic.”

According to him, FINT is the first such company in Nigeria, with the startup now in discussions with strategic partners such as insurance companies and banks.

“On the platform side, we are seeing weekly growth numbers of about 20 per cent in signups indicating interest to borrow and invest,” said John-Njokanma.

FINT has plans down the line to extend operations to Uganda, Kenya and Ghana, with John-Njokanma saying the problems related to credit in the consumer and SME space transcended Nigeria.

“We have a straightforward revenue model  with varied earning capacities. Our goal is to satisfy our customers then earn revenue after,” he said.

The post Nigeria’s FINT set to connect lenders with borrowers appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

from Disrupt Africa http://ift.tt/2r6UfT0

#Asia Playing percussion helped me in forming my digital strategy, it is about balancing creativity with methodology

//

Balance art with science — the same rings true with both music and your digital strategy

I started teaching myself how to play percussion in 2007, when I was a member of my school’s Angklung ensemble. I then took drum lessons for two years in 2010, before I started playing at open mics and in bands that formed with friends in college. Nowadays, I still bust out the Cajon or get behind the kit every now and then. Percussion is a part of who I am.

Now let’s talk about digital strategy. Be it marketing, building your personal brand or digital selling, being clear about your objectives is one thing, adopting a digital strategy to deliver results is a whole other multi-billion dollar ball game.

At present, my goal is to better engage with my clients digitally. I aim to be able to harness all the tools available to me and the knowledge I gather to refine my engagements with clients. I want to help them identify their pain points faster and more accurately, so that they can make the most out of Bluemix.

Also read: This is how a startup-collaborated music performance looks like

As I continue to learn and grow, I wanted to share how my personal experience playing percussion informs my digital strategy day to day.

Be authentic and bring that energy – your clients can tell the difference!

When I play the drums, it’s very important that I put my attention and energy towards feeling the music and maintaining my energy levels. This is especially crucial for performances and long rehearsals, when morale is low because everyone is tired.

At the end of the day, we perform because we love doing it. No matter how tired we are nearing the end of rehearsal, if one person starts grooving, the other band members tend to follow along. Even during casual jam sessions, nobody wants to jam with a mannequin – the best jam sessions are when everyone’s feeling it.

Your clients can feel it too. Every email, every phone call and every text message is your time to shine. I like to make sure I communicate my enthusiasm and commitment to working with a client at every touch point. This may sound silly, but no matter how long the day’s been or how tired I am, before I answer the phone or begin to start typing that email, I take a breath and quickly psych myself up – just like I do before a show.

Just like body language is important in face to face client meetings; tone, language and your eagerness to work with them needs to be communicated digitally. If you’re tired, sleep deprived or restless from the day, there’s a chance your client might pick up on it. Don’t send that email right away, go get yourself that cup of coffee or take a short walk. Come back refreshed and send your client some good vibes.

Balance creativity with methodology – tried-and-tested can go a long way

Drumming is both an art and a science. Sometimes, you’re trying to work on a mash up of two songs or you’re figuring out a new arrangement to the song your band is covering and you get the drummer’s equivalent of writer’s block. You can’t seem to figure out a fill in you like or maybe the beat you originally thought of is no longer working out. Fortunately, there are some basic grooves and fills you can play around with to make it work and the next thing you know your whole band’s bobbing their heads to the beat.

Also read: Developing a good brand strategy can help your business achieve strong mindshare and market position

When we do digital outreach, we want to try and be as creative and unconventional as possible to catch our client’s attention. However sometimes, we end up overdoing it. Sometimes it’s better to just go back to the basics. Playing around with a/b testing to see what works is probably going to be more reliable than a shot in the dark. At times when you’re struggling to come up with a strategy to better engage your clients, it’s important to fall back on crafting clear objectives. Are you looking to acquire, convert or engage them? Setting the right objective will help craft the right strategy.

Watch that tempo! There’s an optimum frequency for everything

As a drummer, you’re the band’s backbone. You hold the tempo and control the pace. If your lead singer or guitarists go off tempo in the heat of the moment, it’s on you to maintain a steady tempo so that they can catch themselves and fall back in sync. Timing is fundamental to any musician’s foundation. Knowing when to play and when not to can make the difference between an awkward hiccup during the song and a very dynamic performance with a captive audience.

The same is true for your digital strategy. There are studies and reports that tell us when the best time to send an email is. At a high level, the optimal time to send an email seems to be 10 am of the recipient’s time zone on a weekday. However, this starts to vary depending on the topic of the email and the target audience.

There are also guides on the optimum frequency for client outreach and the best medium depending on the context. We want to keep our clients engaged and interested and we also need to manage our resources. It’s important to time each campaign and outreach effort so that both you and the client get the most out of it.

I’d love to hear from you!

How have your own personal experiences shaped your digital strategy? Leave a comment below!

—-

This article was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse.

Want to be part of the ecosystem?

Register for your Echelon Asia Summit access pass now! Enjoy +10% off Echelon Asia Summit Startup, Investor and Corporate passes just for being our favourite e27 reader.

The views expressed here are of the author’s, and e27 may not necessarily subscribe to them. e27 invites members from Asia’s tech industry and startup community to share their honest opinions and expert knowledge with our readers. If you are interested in sharing your point of view, submit your post here.

The post Playing percussion helped me in forming my digital strategy, it is about balancing creativity with methodology appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/2q89H3Z

#Asia Singapore universities NUS and NTU hit by “carefully planned” cyber attacks

//

The hackers’ objective may have been to steal government or research information

Two of Singapore’s government universities, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS), were hit by sophisticated cyber attacks last month, according to a report released by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA).

The breaches were discovered when NTU and NUS ran checks on their IT systems in mid-April. The universities then contacted the CSA to run forensic investigations into the attacks.

CSA said that “both of the attacks were the work of Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors.” The attacks were “carefully planned” and may have been carried out to steal government or research information.

CSA added that no student information or data were targetted. Critical university operational systems that run student admissions or examination databases were not affected.

Also Read: Digital natives, much? Millennials are not as cyber-safe as they are cyber-savvy

No further details were provided on the extent of the breach. And investigations are still on-going.

NUS and NTU have since replaced the affected IT workstations and desktops. They have also stepped up measures to bolster their cybersecurity frameworks.

Earlier this year, the Singapore Ministry of Defence also experienced a cyber attack. The personal data of 850 servicemen and staff were stolen from the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) system, as a result.

However, no classified information was compromised as they are stored on a separate secure system not connected to the internet.

The post Singapore universities NUS and NTU hit by “carefully planned” cyber attacks appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/2qz3j7f

#Asia e27 Discussion, My 27-year-old friend wants to get an MBA, is this a good decision?

//

This person has an entrepreneurial attitude but feels an MBA will help in being prepared when it comes time to start a company

I have a friend who is full of ideas and eventually dreams of starting a business. The person is convinced that an MBA is key to the company’s future success.

I however, think a teach yourself approach is far more effective. Sure, an MBA can teach the value of EBITA or trade credit, but really, can’t an afternoon of research lead to the same results?

Plus, won’t the EBITA lesson sink in better when I realise I am operating in the red and need to turn that around?

Finally, MBAs are EXPENSIVE. Is it worth the investment?

Also Read: Is Singapore tech ecosystem sustainable? Report shows half of startups operating at loss

My friend thinks I am devaluing higher education and the expertise of people smarter than myself. Plus, if the company goes under, it is nice to have the MBA and be able to jump into another job if necessary.

e27 community, what do you think? MBA or the ‘just go for it’ model?


Copyright: andrewgenn / 123RF Stock Photo

The post e27 Discussion, My 27-year-old friend wants to get an MBA, is this a good decision? appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/2q9mnYg

#Africa SA’s Karri partners Nedbank for school payments app

//

South African mobile payments startup Karri has partnered with Nedbank for the launch of its app, which facilitates payments for school activities and events.

The Karri app is directed at parents, teachers and schools, and aims to alleviate the  inconveniences of paying for all types of school activities, such as civvies days, school trips and other fundraising activities.

Parents can send money securely to their child’s school at the click of a button, while Karri also has built-in reminder, calendar and transaction history functionalities. Through the app parents can keep up-to-date with events that a child needs to take part in and pay accordingly.

For schools, using Karri will help eliminate collecting, counting and banking cash. It reduces time spent on administrative tasks by teachers, and allows for an overview of all monies being transacted for events throughout the year.

“At Nedbank we encourage people to see money differently by taking advantage of new innovations such as the Karri App that free up valuable teaching time and will take away the hassle of paying for those urgent payments,” says Thomas Muller, Nedbank business banking head of digital innovation.

“This in line with Nedbank’s commitment to ensuring ease of banking anywhere, anytime, and making safer money transactions possible, and ultimately delivering convenience for the benefit of our clients.”

Karri app is available for download from the iStore or Google Play Store.

The post SA’s Karri partners Nedbank for school payments app appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

from Disrupt Africa http://ift.tt/2r0yzeV

#Asia A thriving digital economy on display; find these exhibitors at Echelon Thailand 2017

//

Curious about Echelon Thailand 2017 exhibitors? Here’s a quick list.

 exhibitors echelon thailand

We’re excited about the exhibitors of Echelon Thailand 2017. These guys will be at the conference this May 15-16 in Bangkok, and you can also find them on Echelon Thailand’s digital platform. Check out their booths, know their story, and create possible partnership opportunities. Here are 8 of the many exhibitors you can expect next week:

 

1. AngelHack

A female-owned, female-majority company and is the world’s largest and most diverse developer ecosystem. Their aim is to help drive open innovation of tech products, platforms and brands with extraordinary smarts, scale and speed. Pioneers of global hackathons for more than five years, AngelHack’s 125,000+ developers, designers, and entrepreneurs around the world compete to build, test, and launch new solutions over the course of a weekend. Their HACKcelerator program and other education initiatives connect ambitious developers with thought leaders and experienced entrepreneurs to help them become more versatile, entrepreneurial and successful as change-makers.

 

2. Bowr

A curated furniture e-tailer focussing on providing high quality, locally designed, and competitively priced furniture for SEA.

 

3. Dream Office

A startup community platform aimed towards building a strong entrepreneurial community by opening new opportunities and enhancing capability for ASEAN startups. Under these goals, Dream Office launched several activities such as Hump Day, Dream Pitch, Startup GO and Datathon, to strengthen startups in the region, preparing them for global growth and competitiveness.

 

4. Fiveloop

A technology recruitment engine specialising in Technology-related positions that range from entry level software engineers to CTOs. Fiveloop has a pool of over 30,000 developers across Southeast Asia, in which they recruit the top 10 per cent as evaluated by a panel of developers and tech experts.

 

5. Frank.co.th

An online platform for insurance with full underwriter integration with Bangkok Insurance. The platform also features chatbot sales and service software and mobile-first design, to make the insurance process easier, simpler, and customisable to customer preference.

 

6. Investorz

A social finance mobile app built to help hundreds of thousands of individual investors and traders to overcome frustrations of the fast changing world of finance, and stay on top of the global stock markets.

 

7. Knowlarity

Knowlarity is the pioneer and leading provider of cloud based communications solutions to businesses in the emerging markets.

 

8. SKYBIT

​Early-stage startup based in Myanmar. Blockchain payment processor and exchange, bridg​ing Myanmar with global e-commerce and aid without the international banking system.

 

 

Echelon Thailand 2017 is a tech conference (May 15-16, Bangkok) and year-long digital platform attracting international speakers, founders, investors and professionals.

Register for your Echelon Thailand access pass now.

New in 2017 is Echelon Thailand’s digital platform. Get immediate access to exclusive insights, participate in discussions and engage with the speakers and fellow attendees directly on Echelon’s digital platform, the moment you register (accessible from the Ecosystem page). What’s more, the digital platform will be accessible all-year even after the conference, so kickstart your Echelon experience today and embark on a year-long journey of discovery.


Feature image credit: peus / 123RF Stock Photo

The post A thriving digital economy on display; find these exhibitors at Echelon Thailand 2017 appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/2r6QIUG