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Learn about fintech trends and technologies from around the globe

In the recent times, we have seen a trend of new technologies in the fintech space. To keep up with these, various fintech events are being organized across the globe in 2017 from Asia to America, and Europe to Australia.

Let’s take a look at some of the top fintech events around the world that we have handpicked for you:

Paris Fintech Forum – Paris, France

• When:  25-26 January 2017
• Where: Palais Brongniart Paris Center

One of the largest conferences of Europe organised with 60 international partners, the Paris Fintech Forum will bring together 2,000 participants from across the globe. 200 worldwide CEOs from industries like banking, insurance, regulators, fintech and telco will present their ideas and thoughts on digital finance and also on fintech.

Key Points:

• This event will be attended by many Finance professionals from the French Ministry, Economy and Industry & Digital Affairs.
• 120 fintech companies from Europe, USA, Africa and Asia will pitch on one stage.
• More than 50 fintech booths will be displaying at the exhibition hall.
• “Altéir Fintech Selection Book” – the new edition will be launched with 100 fintechs displayed on it.

Registration is available for both 1 day as well as 2 days:

• 1 day:  525 Euros (US$566) + VAT
• 2 days:  800 Euros (US$863) + VAT

Loan Origination Excellence 2017 – Sydney, Australia

• When: 13-15 February 2017
• Where: Rydges Sydney Central, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Australia Loan Origination Excellence will bring in over 16 experts from lending industry. These experts are from Singapore, India, and Australia from the background of technologies and strategies for the modern loan systems. The focus will be on:

Optimizing

• Loan Processes
• Technology
• Customer Centric Experience

Maximising

• Market Share
• Improve Acquisition and Retention
• Reduce Cost, Streamline Processes & Increase Efficiency

Registration Passes (excluding 10 per cent AT GST):

• Two-day conference: A$ 3,599 (US$2,750)
• Conference+1 day Workshop: A$4,199 (US$3,207)
• Conference +2 days Workshop: A$4,599 (US$3,512)
• Conference + 3 days Workshop: A$4,949 (US$3,780)
• Conference + 4 days Workshop: A$5,249 (US$4,009)

The Blockchain Africa Conference 2017

• When: 01-03 March 2017
• Where: Focus Rooms, Johannesburg, South Africa

The Blockchain Africa Conference 2017 is bringing together a range of professionals and experts with the exciting opportunities, possibilities and challenges in innovation, as well as disruption which can be utilised in Africa.

Some of the largest corporations across the globe will be participating in this blockchain conference since this technology can help them improve services, products and systems for their organisation.

LendIt USA 2017 – New York, USA

• When: 6-7 March 2017
• Where: Jacob Javits Center, New York City

LendIt USA is one of the biggest events in lending as well as fintech, and this year it will be held in New York.

This will be a platform expecting over 5,000 attendees, 2,400 companies, 1,000 investors, 350 leaders from over 40 plus countries to share ideas in the lending as well as fintech.

Registration:

The registration for the conference session is with access to Lendit’s Exhibition hall, coffee breaks and lunch. For bookings done between

• 17 December 2016 and 10 February 2017, the cost will be US$2,495
•  11 February and 7 March 2017, the cost will be US$2,995

Ignition UK – Future of Fintech – London, UK

• When: 15 March 2017
• Where: King’s Place, London

Anyone from banking, insurance, wealth management or payments background will find this event very useful as this is focused on technological advancements in the financial industry and deep insights into the money world, disruption areas and highlights on new organisations.

Ignition UK will bring in over 300 investors, finance executives, entrepreneurs and speakers from across the globe on one stage.

Ticket Costs:

• The Startup ticket:  418 Euros (US$450)
• The Complete Event: 2,394 Euros (US$2,582)
• Startup Sponsorship: 3,000 Euros (US$3,235)

Note: The tickets to this event are not refundable.

The Future of Digital Banking: Asia Pacific 2017, Singapore

• When: 21 -22 March 2017
• Where: Suntec, Singapore

The Future of Digital Banking event will bring in over 150 banking professionals from Asia Pacific and other areas. Entrepreneurs, startups and key leaders will understand the recent technological developments in the industry and how it can affect their organisation’s future with insights on digital banking and modern innovations.

Ticket Costs:

• Standard Ticket: S$1,795 (US$1,271) + VAT
• Special offers
  • S$1495 (US$1,059) + VAT until 3 March 2017
  • S$1195 (US$846) + VAT until 20 Jan 2017

Temenos Innovation Jam 2017 – London, UK

• 22 March 2017, London
• 28 March 2017, Geneva

Innovation Jam a London and Geneva are both full day events providing great opportunities to network for Startups from fintech. Held on different Whens, it gives a chance to the participants to attend both.

Participants get a chance to display technology to other 1200 members from Temenos Market Place (2,000 banks & more than 500 million global banking customers) through demos.

Self-Service Banking Asia 2017 – Manila, Philippines

The only ATM and Self Service Conference of over 300 Banks, Self-Service Banking Asia 2017 is being held in Manila in 2017. Independent Deployers, ATM Hardware as well as Software Vendors, Processors, and CIT companies will be present at one place, one time.

The event will showcase latest solutions and products for banking industry through case studies.

Innovate Finance Global Summit 2017, Singapore

• When: 10 -11 April 2017
• Where: Suntec, Singapore

The IFGS 2017 is a very big financial technology event spread out over two days in London expecting  over 2000 attendees, 20 global fintech representatives and over 300 start ups and entrepreneurs.

This event is aimed at providing a platform for startups, investors and policy makers to provide ideas and share solutions for the challenges faced by the organizations from the financial services background.

General Admission cost for this event will be GBP1,395 (US$1,767).

Seamless Asia 2017, Singapore

• When: 19 -20 April 2017
• Where: Suntec Exhibition & Convention Center, Singapore

Seamless Asia is a great place to meet for those who believe in a new way of commerce. Over 8,000 attendees will be present during this event to create new connections for business and opportunities.

An event built over 20 years of experience, Seamless is a dynamic platform for large exhibitions and brings together e-commerce, payments, as well as retail world to showcase their future.

Empire Startups Fintech Conference New York City – New York, USA

• When: 25 April 2017
• Where: Websters Hall, New York City

Just like San Francisco and Toronto events, this event will also benefit from participation of over 200 different fintech companies from across world. The event is focused on displaying key information on Silicon Alley Fintech.

Participating companies will be from the areas of Venture Capital, Financial Services and Startups. You can look forward to insights on payments, lending, insurance tech, blockchain and robo-advisors during this conference.

The general cost of registration for the event will be US$545.

Singapore FinTech Consortium – BlockOn Conference, Singapore

• When: 25-26 April 2017
• Where: Lattice 80, 80 Robinson Road, 068898 Singapore

The two day Singapore FinTech Consortium conference will have round tables and keynotes along with demos to and from block chain professionals from varied backgrounds, innovators, entrepreneurs and investors.

This event will showcase live discussions & inspirational conferences with opportunities to collaborate, network, and learn about competition, regulations as well as Blockchain culture.

IFINTEC – Istanbul, Turkey

• When: 9-10 May 2017
• Where: Istanbul, Turkey

The IFINTEC Financial Technologies Conference & Exhibition will be one of the largest and most important events of 2017 in the banking and financial domain in the EMEA.

Over 15 countries will represent 40 different speakers. Over 850 participants are expected to attend this conference.

This Finance Technology Conference & Exhibition is dedicated to the Banking Technology, Mobile Banking, Retail Banking, Universal, Core banking and Digital Banking.

The Payments Canada Summit – Toronto, Canada

• When: 24 -26 May 2017
• Where: Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto, ON

The Payments Canada Summit is one of the premier conferences on payments where Canada’s prime payments entities connect to discuss, share and ideate on all areas of payments.

There will be Keynotes, exhibits and break-out sessions for over 1500 participants who can be payment service providers, users, financial organisations, government, corporations as well as regulators.  The Summit is a great Where to network for those who want to have one-to-one meetings.

ATM & Cash Innovation Europe 2017 – London, UK

• When: 13-14 June 2017
• Where: London

ATM & Cash Innovation is the flagship ATMIA industry conference attracting 600 financial professionals from 70 different countries.

Offering the best speakers from across the world from international banking organisations, service providers and technology companies, this event will be highlighting innovation in the areas of ATM, self service, cash, customer service for multi channels, and branch transformation.

This is one event you surely don’t want to miss!

Money 20/20 Europe – Copenhagen, Denmark

• When: 26-28 June 2017
• Where: Copenhagen

A great catalyst for payments and the financial services industry, Money 20/20 Europe not just an event but a ground to experience world class innovators and senior visionaries.

This event will bring together the stakeholders of commercial revolution, payments as well as financial services providers, marketing services, data companies, non-banks, banks, mobile, retail industry, investors, advisory firms and government bodies.

Copenhagen will be a host for 3,725 participants, 500 CEOs of 1,500 companies from over 70 countries. The show will feature 422 speakers, 200 sponsors and almost 100 media partners. So it is definitely not an event to be missed.

Empire Startups Fintech Conference Toronto – Toronto, Canada

• When: 27 June 2017
• Where: The Great Hall, 1087 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M6J1H3, Canada

Empire Startups Fintech Conference is planned for one full day and will bring together the best of Toronto Fintech as well as Fintech leaders from across the globe.

There will be demos, panels and keynotes from the best Fintech startup companies of the world which will be very useful for the participants attending this conference.

The general registrations for the Toronto conference will be priced at C$600 (US$461).

Lang Di Fintech 2017 – Shanghai, China

• When: 15-16 July 2017
• Where: The Kerry Hotel, Pudong Shanghai

It is one of the biggest shows in China on fintech expecting over 2000 attendees, over 500 companies, 250 investors, and 200 leaders from across 20 plus countries.

Some of the hot topics covered during this event will be Insurtech, Financial Inclusion, Bank Partnerships, Blockchain and Wealth Management. The attendees will also get opportunities during these sessions to network with one another.

• Full Price Registration between the time period of July 1-15 will be US$570.
• Discounted Registrations: US$370 between Jan 10-Mar 19
• Early Bird Discount: US$425 between Mar 20-May 1
• Summer Discount: US$480 between May 2-June 30

London Fintech Week – London, UK

• When: 7-14 July 2017
• Where: Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, London

The London Fintech week is a platform where bright financial services talent comes together through conferences, exhibitions and workshops. There will be at least three to five thousand participants during this week.

This forum will also provide enough time for networking amongst these professionals.

• The Standard registration cost is 2,160 pounds (US$2,735 inclusive of VAT).
• Registrations for 2 for price of 1 : US$479.40 (incl VAT)
• Full Conference Registration for 1 : US$958.80 (incl VAT)

ATM & Cyber Security 2017 – London, UK

• When: 10-11 October 2017
• Where: London

The ATM & Cyber Security will have over 340 attendees from 140 organisations from over 40 countries.

The main areas focused during this event are physical ATM security, new cyber threats concerning cyber and also logical areas.  The event will have speakers from retail banking, hardware, software service providers, and law enforcement authorities, and it will also have exhibitions on vendor technology.

Fintech Evolution Berlin – Berlin, Germany

• When: November 2017
• Where: Berlin
• Silver Pass : 200 Euros (US$216) + VAT
• Gold Pass : 275 Euros (US$297) + VAT

The Fintech Evolution will encourage development of the finance industry and its growth through learning systems involving over 25 prestigious speakers, over 300 leaders coming from over 100 companies across the globe.

An event focused on the overview of the finance industry, corporates as well as start-ups can benefit from the presentations, workshops, discussions, debates and networking opportunities.

This event is still under production and hence you can benefit by registering early.

Customer Experience Exchange Europe 2017

One of the leading events in the arena of Customer Experience, Marketing as well as ecommerce, this event will be bringing together over 80 C-level & VPs/Directors from Fortune 500 companies to get together, discuss and provide best practices insights through interactive sessions for improving the future relating to Customer Experience in the Finance sector.

A great Where to meet with the best of the customer service thinkers and experienced solution delivery professionals.

Empire Startups Fintech Conference – San Francisco, USA

• When: 7 November 2017
• Where: The Regency Ballroom, 1300, Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco

This event will showcase a full day of conference where the best of fintech from the Silicon Valley will be present along with over 200 financial services, venture capital and start-up companies.

This conference will also provide an opportunity for the participants to benefit from listening to the investors as well as service partners who can assist the start ups.

EBINTEC Banking Technologies Conference and Exhibition – Istanbul, Turkey

• When: 7-8 November 2017
• Where: Istanbul, Turkey

Focused on banking technology and solutions for banking industry, Ebintec is a specialised conference platform for software services, hardware services and system service providers to provide insights in to their solutions.

Being an important conference in the EMEA area, it is expected to attract a large participation from not only Europe but the rest of the world as well.

IFINSEC Financial Sector IT Security Conference and Exhibition – Istanbul, Turkey

• When: 14-15 November 2017
• Where: Istanbul, Turkey

IFINSEC is a specialized conference for the IT Security, Cyber Security and Information Security technology and solutions for the financial industry companies.

As this is one of the most important conferences for the EMEA area in the area of Cyber security technology as well as solutions, a huge participation is anticipated from across the globe.

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This article was orginally published at HabileTechnologies.com.

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.

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Cermati team.

Indonesian startup Cermati has raised “seven-digit USD” in funding from Orange Growth Capital.

Cermati helps customers find and get financial products, such as credit cards, auto loans, personal loans, and mortgages. The site aggregates these from banks and multi-finance institutions.

In a statement released today, Cermati said this investment is an extension of its series A round from last September. It’s Orange Growth’s first in Asia. The venture capital firm specializes in fintech and most of its investments are Europe-based.

The startup wants to use the additional funds to expand all aspects of its business in order to become “the clear market leader in Indonesia.”

Going beyond just leads

Cermati was co-founded by Andhy Koesnandar and Oby Sumampouw in December 2014. The duo previously worked as software engineers in the US before returning to Indonesia.

At first, the company was a financial product comparison site that would let credit seekers apply online. These forms were then handed over to banks as “leads.”

The model has since evolved to the point where Cermati handles the entire customer onboarding process on behalf of its partners. This includes meeting customers in person to sign the necessary documents and hand them back to the banks.

That’s why Cermati no longer calls itself a financial comparison site and uses the term “financial ecommerce” instead.

“Usually financial comparison is digital, it’s lead generation where everything happens over the wire,” Andhy explains.

Cermati’s business now dives deep into operations. It has a team of about 50 people tasked with meeting customers, usually at their workplace. For now, the startup operates mostly in Jakarta but considers expanding to cities like Surabaya and Bandung this year.

“Financial ecommerce” appears to be emerging as a new category of startups that have achieved a deeper integration with banks beyond lead generation.

This self-description is also used by CekAja, a similar startup. It claims to be the first to have introduced this model in Indonesia.

CekAja also operates in the Philippines under the name EcompareMo, and is backed by Telstra Ventures.

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The name GuitarClub is most likely to be associated with music, gigs, and rock concerts. But don’t judge the book by its cover. This startup has ambitions to beat restaurant-finder Zomato, in terms of pulling footfalls for hoteliers and restaurant owners.

Founders of GuitarClub describe the eight-month-old startup as a platform that seeks to connect upcoming indie artists with real estate spaces like cafes, restaurants, and hotels. It conducts ticketed events that can be bought on their website, just like BookMyShow.

Another event coordinator? Not exactly. GuitarClub has developed proprietary software to automate event management. From record keeping, pricing analysis for each artist, to demand ratings, to venue management, GuitarClub’s software suite aims to help both artists and hoteliers.

Getting past failure

Started in January 2016 as a music discovery platform, much like Gaana and Saavn, GuitarClub was soon butted out by these bigger competitors. The bootstrapped startup did not have the resources to battle the marketing spend of well-funded companies. It drew the co-founders – Pawan Kumar, Siddharth Gandhi, and Aditi Aggarwal – back to the drawing board.

GuitarClub was created to be sturdy after founders suffered a failure in a previous venture.

“We couldn’t have survived against Gaana and Saavn. So we had to shut it down. But we were determined to do something with music and creatives,” Pawan says. That’s when the team turned to the offline channel.

Having lived the pop-gig culture played in numerous cafes and restaurants in the US, Pawan wanted to facilitate it back home. The team ran a survey spanning Bangalore, Pune, and Mumbai to ascertain what users want.

“The conclusion was simple: artists need a stage and audience, and we have a plethora of real estate available in cafes and restaurants,” Pawan offers to explain. “Plus [the] eating out experience now needs to evolve and look for the next differentiator.”

There are venues in Bangalore such as Humming Tree and BFlat that have brought food and music together. Now, GuitarClub aims to create a stage in every cool cafe or restaurant around you. In the last six months, it has conducted 600 gigs across Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune.

The kickstart was their first gig last year with Hard Rock Cafe in Bangalore. They created a branded event – Unplugged Sunday – to pull footfalls on a typically slow day. The number of footfalls in six weeks more than doubled from a meager 40. That was six months ago.

“The quality and network of artists is varied,” says Kunal Joshi, regional general manager of JMS Corp, the company which runs Hard Rock Cafe.

GuitarClub now works with about 4,000 artists and has tie ups with over 40 cafes in Bangalore, including HRC, Bangalore Brew Works, Black Rabbit, and Big Pitcher. The startup has also done a pilot run for coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day.

Venue owners have seen higher footfalls generated from GuitarClub than Zomato.

For venue owners it is a way to increase footfalls, and the amount of time spent by you and me in the cafe, which in turn will have positive bearings on sales. Cafe Coffee Day, for instance, sold at least one cup of coffee more than usual to each person during the pilot run.

Vignesh, manager of Big Pitcher in Bangalore, has gone as far as comparing GuitarClub to Zomato. “GuitarClub gives us more footfalls than Zomato,” he says. Pawan rushes to clarify that Zomato, “although a fantastic discovery platform,” doesn’t facilitate repeat customers. “Discovery is their model of business, but we wanted to go deeper to create personal engagement with venues,” Pawan says.

Creating a branded event held periodically can help restaurant owners create a new crowd-puller every week. Plus, if you attend more than one show at a venue in your neighborhood, it is more likely to become your go-to place.

But GuitarClub’s network of artists is not the only pull for venue owners. Its software is also a draw.

GuitarClub founders (from left) Aditi Aggarwal, Pawan Kumar, and Siddharth Gandhi. Photo credit: GuitarClub.

Backed by technology

Built in-house, the software uses machine learning and data analytics to identify the right genre and artist to perform at a particular venue. It will tell you at what ticket price a particular artist will be most profitable. It will warn you, if the same artist is performing in the same week in a different location.

GuitarClub charges a margin on the amount spent by a venue owner on a particular event. The calculation is cumulative. It retains 5-15 percent in margin, depending on the event size.

It also charges a percentage of sales in excess of the target, or profits. About 70 percent goes to the artist, while GuitarClub sets aside 30 percent for itself. This multiple tier of calculating fees and costs is also taken care of by the software.

It also determines the fee a particular artist can demand from a venue. This is primarily based on a rating system for venues as well as of the artist overall. For instance, a venue may be willing to pay US$150 on a new music band. If the demand for that artist increases and they score a high rating in a few consecutive shows, the system will automatically jack-up the artist’s worth.

“Here is an incentive for artists to increase their demand by routing their other performances through our platform. This will increase traffic on our website, and we will be able to cover all the events,” Pawan says. On the other hand, venue owners get a transparent, machine-backed computation of event costs, fees, logistics management, et al.

GuitarClub plans to make its events management software an open platform for hoteliers.

Pawan and his co-founders will soon look at monetizing the software. They plan to pitch it to restaurant owners and hoteliers, who can then tweak it as they please to automate their daily management.

But first, the system needs to learn and experience. The team feeds the machine with about 1 terabyte of information every day. That’s why it can now determine why a particular artist’s rating at one venue dropped, while it went up in all others. It will exclude the anomaly when calculating the artist’s value.

Going ahead, GuitarClub wants a national presence. Currently, it is conducting about 20 gigs per month in Hyderabad, and 30 in Pune and Mumbai respectively. But the majority of the 600 gigs it did in the last six months were in Bangalore.

If GuitarClub ties up with a chain of restaurants such as HRC and CCD, creating a national presence may be feasible within this year. However, GuitarClub manages everything from artist discovery to logistics for every gig, which may be cost-heavy.

The team is aware of the challenge, but it wants to take it easy on pitching to investors. “First, we want to grow to a certain level and only then look for funding. Till then, we have a ticket and fee-based model, which can take care of the current size of our venture,” Pawan says.

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Cermati’s seven-digit extension will help the company hire, add products and improve technology

Cermati, an Indonesian startup that allows users to research and purchase financial products, announced today it has raised ‘seven-digits’ from Orange Growth Capital.

The deal is an extension of its Series A round announced in September, in which the company raised US$1.9 million.

The money will be used for hiring, expanding product offerings and improving technology.

Cermati is basically an e-commerce marketplace specifically targetting financial products. People can browse, compare and buy credit cards, auto loans, mortgages and personal loans, among other products.

The company claims to have had 3.2 million visits in December 2016 and facilitated IDR100 billion (US$7.5 million) of consumer loans in 2016.

Also Read: Indonesian crowdfunding platform Wujudkan to shut down in March

“We’re excited to use this new funding to improve our state of the art technology, data science and analytical tools. We’re hiring more tech talents to join our world class tech team this year,” said Oby Sumampouw, the CTO of Cermati in a statement.

Cermati was launched in 2015 with the goal of making the process of buying financial services more convenient and affordable for the average Indonesian. It partners with financial institutions and negotiates a lower price by offering a stream of customers through the platform.

Also Read: Financial e-commerce platform Cermati raises US$1.9M Series A round led by East Ventures

As for Orange Growth Capital, the VC is a Fintech-focussed firm that operates out of London, Amsterdam and Singapore. Founded in 2013, the company invests in Europe and Southeast Asia. Its strategy is to make significant minority investments in the fintech sector.

The September Series A for Cermati was led by East Ventures.

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Silicon Valley culture is borderless and inclusive to those who adopt risk-taking, open-minded, and big-picture attitudes

“What’s the secret sauce for Silicon Valley’s startup success?”

As advisors to Asian entrepreneurs and startup founders, we are often asked this question when we meet entrepreneurs, corporate execs, or government officials visiting Silicon Valley. Similar to Silicon Valley, Asian startup communities draw from a talent pool from nearby universities or corporations. Funding is plentiful from private investors, venture capitalists, corporate funds, or government programs. Infrastructure and operational support are provided through co-working spaces, accelerators, and a network of well-connected mentors.

Startup communities in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and elsewhere in Asia, have produced successful startups that are changing their region. However, most Asian startups do not penetrate global markets to truly ‘change the world’.

“Yes, yes. But you still haven’t told me about Silicon Valley’s secret sauce?”

That missing secret sauce ingredient is … culture! In other words, adopting the “Silicon Valley Culture” results in a competitive attitude that helps Asian entrepreneurs not only optimise their startup’s success in local markets, but also prepare them on their path to global success. We believe that, unlike American or Asian culture, Silicon Valley culture can be ‘borderless’ and represents an attitude taken by successful entrepreneurs who have moved to the Valley from all over the world.

Also Read: What Southeast Asia can learn from excess capital in China and Silicon Valley

Below are 3 Silicon Valley culture tips that are important for any Asian entrepreneur to adopt:

1. Be open-minded

It is a cultural trait across all of Asia to respect one’s elders and teachers. However, many of the elders and teachers advising today’s Asian entrepreneurs do not have the experience and insights relevant in the startup world. Silicon Valley’s culture boasts to “disrupt tradition, break moulds.” To disrupt, we need open-minded, entrepreneurial cultures that break traditional business models. In fact, these are traditional business models that many elders may be afraid to see change.

By being open in sharing your ideas, you will gain much more than you disclose as you incorporate diverse perspectives into your company vision. For example, when you talk with other startup founders or investors in Silicon Valley, most times you will not be asked to sign legal non-disclosure agreements. Instead, you will find entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley actively networking and connecting throughout all constituencies of the knowledge ecosystem — from technologists, business strategists, developers, venture capitalists, academics to government officials. The open-minded approach found in Silicon Valley encourages collaboration with everyone, while inspiring friendly competition that drives constant innovation.

2. Take risks

Most college graduates in Asia are under cultural pressure by their loved ones to choose a stable career path with a major corporation to bring pride to their family — in other words, graduates are encouraged to become a salaryman or salarywoman. Thus, choosing to become an Asian entrepreneur can be perceived as dishonourable to parents due to the monetary and emotional investments that they have made in their kids. In Asia, failure can be branded permanently on a person — now, that’s a big cultural risk.

But, in the United States, taking risks is a cultural trait to be celebrated! And in Silicon Valley, taking risks is an attitude, not a learned behaviour. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, summarizes it best: “The biggest risk is not taking any risk.” You will find this credo in every successful Silicon Valley founders’ DNA.

3. Think big, think different

In the last 25 years (a single generation!) we have seen technology profoundly change human behaviour. In 1992, there was no Google, Apple iPhone, Amazon, Facebook, Skype, or Uber. A common trait for these early founders is that they were all thinking big. They were looking to change the world and solve real world pain points. No problem is too challenging when you adopt a mindset of fearless, bold thinking.

Also Read: What Silicon Valley can learn from China: Interview with Jason Costa

Fear constrains an entrepreneur to be cautious, to think small. Fearless entrepreneurs, on the other hand, think big. In Silicon Valley, this culture of thinking big is exemplified by the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. “When you grow up, you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your job is just to live your life inside the world,” Jobs said in an interview in 1994. “That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover […] you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.”

Adopting Silicon Valley culture

Unlike local Asian cultures, Silicon Valley culture is borderless and inclusive to those who adopt risk-taking, open-minded, and big-picture attitudes. Whether in Silicon Valley or in Asia, creating a successful startup is hard enough. As an Asian entrepreneur, if you apply Silicon valley culture to your startup, you will differentiate yourself from your peers and increase your startup’s likelihood for global success.

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Poppyseed Advisors helps Asian entrepreneurs enter the United States market. We are an experienced team that provides business connections, marketing and sales support, and operational expertise to Asian startups. Consider us to be your very own, local U.S. team. Contact us at: hello@poppyseed.co.

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.

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Pocketin raised a seed round of US$150,000 from Hong Kong-based VC firm Swastika in February 2016

OneLoyalCard.com, a Delhi-based restaurant reservation and deals platform, has acqui-hired Pocketin, a year-old startup operating in the same space.

With this deal, the entire team at Pocketin, along with its founders, will join OneLoyalCard.

This move will help strengthen OneLoyalCard’s technology and quicken its expansion plans across major markets in India. “Both the companies are already moving aggressively and together. I believe we will consolidate our position in India’s booming restaurant deals market, and this move will help us compete with bigger players like Dineout and EazyDiner in Southeast Asia,”  Pocketin Co-founder Aniruddha Mondal said.

OneLoyalcard was started in July 2015 by Arpit Aggarwal, Vaibhav Garg and Sahil Mendiratta — all Chartered Accountants, with a vision to enhance diners’ experience and to provide a marketing solution to restaurants. Currently, OneLoyalCard provides 2,000-plus deals at over 500 restaurants in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad. Customers can use OneLoyalCard’s website or app to explore restaurants, book table, buy deals or organise parties.

Also Read: Once VCs’ favourite dish, has Indian foodtech bitten off more than it can chew?

The restaurant industry today is worth over INR 114 billion (US$17 billion) and is growing at a tremendous pace amid renewed interest, especially from multinational chains. Particularly, in the last six months the metro cities have seen a huge surge in new restaurants being opened. New restaurants are initially able to attract customers but they eventually see decline in footfalls due to lack of customer retention and retargeting mechanisms.

OneLoyalCard plugs this loophole by providing the restaurants a ready-to-use loyalty programme. Every time diners book their table with OneLoyalCard’s website or app, they are entitled to discounts of up to 35 per cent on the bill. Additionally, diners accumulate loyalty points for exclusive use at the restaurant. Loyalty points enable diners to unlock exclusive rewards and offers at the restaurants.

OneLoyalCard is planning to be operational in six cities by the end of this year.

OneLoyalCard has recently added prepaid deals and party booking features on its website and apps. Furthermore, it plans to add event ticketing for restaurants and expansion into wellness vertical.

Pocketin was founded in 2015 by Kshitij Mehra and Mondal. It is a table reservation-cum-deals aggregation platform for restaurants with a real-time pricing engine working on a proprietary algorithm. It raised a seed round of US$150,000 from Hong Kong based VC firm, Swastika, in February 2016.

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Samsung Pay Mini will launch in South Korea in the first quarter of this year

Samsung has announced it will roll out its mobile online payment service for non-galaxy Android smartphones in South Korea, according to a report by Reuters. The app, Samsung Pay Mini, is expected to be available in the first quarter of this year.

Samsung did not disclose when, if ever, Samsung Pay Mini will be launched in other markets.

The stripped-down version of Samsung Pay – which can be used for both online and offline payments, but only for Galaxy phones – was first announced in May last year. It supports a host of South Korean credit cards including Samsung Card, Hana Card, and Lotte Card. Users can secure the app with a fingerprint or a password.

As of August 2016, Samsung Pay has logged nearly 100 million transactions globally, a quarter of which were online payments. The launch of Samsung Pay Mini is expected to help increase take up of Samsung’s services, and boost its online presence and brand awareness, which has taken a hit in the wake of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 debacle.

Samsung had also previously approached Apple to launch Samsung Pay Mini on the App store, but was subsequently rejected.

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Image Credit: Samsung

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Time was when Indian techies in the US were much in demand in the marriage market. We’re not sure if it will be the same after Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigrant workers – including a reversal on allowing spouses to join H-1B visa holders.

But the United States has over 4 million people who have their roots in India. They like to stay connected with their motherland. And that includes online dating across borders, especially for those on the hunt for spouses from back home.

Our goal has always been to promote freedom of choice when it comes to dating.

This is the hypothesis behind popular Indian dating app Woo’s acquisition of Dus, a dating app for the South Asian community in the US. “While originally designed for India alone, we quickly realized that our platform had a global appeal for Indians internationally to form a connect back to their homeland,” says Sumesh Menon, co-founder of Woo.

Dus CEO Shawn Sheikh concurs. “Our goal has always been to promote freedom of choice when it comes to dating, along with generally helping Desis meet each other. The Woo acquisition will provide us with the resources to continue to do just that.” (‘Des’ means country in Hindi, and ‘desi’ refers to people or things of Indian origin.)

Indian-Canadian comedian Jus Reign, one of the co-founders of Dus, calls it “the brown Tinder.” Apart from being a catchphrase, it suggests an affinity with the cultural sensibilities of the South Asian community, where dating is a stigma. Privacy and safety have therefore been priorities of Dus, which was started in 2015.

See: 4 of India’s dating apps that aren’t Tinder (and when to use them)

Photo credit: HD Wallpapers.

Woo, born in 2014, has a similar orientation, aimed at giving women in particular the opportunity to make connections outside the construct of “arranged marriages” or marriage-oriented, objectified portals such as Shaadi (which means marriage in Hindi).

Dating apps were slow to gain traction in India, despite generating a buzz. India’s first Tinder-like app, DateIITians, shut down after a five-year run. But several others that came in its wake, like TrulyMadly, Dil Mil, Frivil, and Woo have been riding on the growing popularity of mobile dating, with the boom in affordable smartphones over the last couple of years. Tinder itself has found love in India.

See: Another shutdown. This time, it’s India’s first Tinder, after a 5-year run

But challenges remain in bridging the gender gap in India. New data shows, for instance, that less than a quarter of Facebook users in India are female. Gender imbalance on the internet makes online dating harder.

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After five years of operation, Wujudkan cited inability to generate income as the reason of their shut down

Indonesian crowdfunding platform for creative projects Wujudkan announced yesterday that is going to shut down its business, according to an official statement on the platform’s blog.

Citing March 31 as the last day of the plaform’s operation, Wujudkan Founder and CEO Mandy Marahimin wrote that the company’s inability to generate income through the campaigns that it successfully funded is the main reason why they decided to end it.

“… We need to face the reality that in the past five years, the number of Creation [campaigns] that have successfully secured their funding never reached more than 12 per cent. This is a number that, for us, is too small,” she said.

“This number becomes important because Wujudkan is not a funding agency. Wujudkan is a business entity. The number becomes important because the operational costs are too much to bear,” she added.

The startup will gradually shut down its platform by not accepting new campaigns starting February 1, when the announcement was made.

Also Read: Deeper into China: CoAssets invests US$145K in a Chinese product crowdfunding platform

Wujudkan also stated that it is going to send a static page to every campaigners on its site on March 31, so that the campaigner can post it on their own blog or server. It will also move the Wujudkan blog into a WordPress site so that users can continue to access articles on crowdfunding tips.

Despite the end, Marahimin stated that the team continues to believe that crowdfunding is one of the best solutions to fund projects in the creative industry, though Wujudkan “has to be realistic.”

“We hope that you will never stop to crowdfund. At the moment there are many crowdfunding platforms operating that can accommodate your needs,” she said.

Wujudkan is one of the oldest crowdfunding platforms in Indonesia, alongside KitaBisa.

In an interview with e27, KitaBisa CEO Alfatih Timur stated that in their early days, KitaBisa used to accommodate a greater portion of crowdfunding campaigns for creative industry projects. But the startup learned that charity projects tend to be more popular with the Indonesian public.

“At first we forbade users to campaign for personal causes, such as fundraising for a sick friend. We wanted to put emphasis on innovative projects. But, then it turned out that personal causes are the fastest to reach its target,” Timur said.

Creative industry projects now account for only a portion of KitaBisa’s listed campaigns.

There is also WeCare.id which focusses on healthcare projects.

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Image Credit: tomsickova / 123RF Stock Photo

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