Insignia Ventures Partners

The three bridges that startup CXOs are needed to build and why CEOs need to ensure they are upskilling / promoting / hiring the right people for these roles: (1) Bridge to a skills gap (e.g., tech, HR, finance, marketing, etc.). One example here is Alibaba's first CFO Joe Tsai, who Alibaba gain significant exposure to the global capital markets, among other contributions (2) Bridge to take a startup from one to 100 and beyond (i.e., tackling scaling challenges) One example here is OpenAI's Sarah Friar, who was brought on to the company to scale operations, with her prior experience doing the same for several tech companies like Nextdoor and Square (3) Bridge between the CEO and organization, managing CEO strategy and translating this into goals and tasks for their respective function/geography/team One example here is Carro's Ernest Chew, who joined the used car platform amidst the pandemic and translated Aaron Tan's focus on charting a path to profitability from day one into concrete company results and more efficient people operations over past four years Learn what it takes to build these bridges from leaders who have built and continue to build these for their companies. Check out Insignia Ventures Academy's StartCXO program: https://lnkd.in/gySxrQYM or reach out to program lead Jiaway Koh 📸 Joe Tsai photo from Bloomberg, Sarah Friar photo from Reuters, and Ernest Chew photo from Carsifu

Yesterday Carro announced record FY2024 numbers with 11x year-on-year EBITDA growth, this FY being their fourth year of positive EBITDA. They also announced a strategic investment from Woori Venture Partners as well. See the full release here: https://lnkd.in/gq6kHE4p At the heart of this performance is a global, tech-enabled system that combines, to quote the release, “strong marketplace margin expansion, ecosystem-led ancillary income growth, and productivity optimisation”. And their growing ecosystem of partnerships continues to deepen the strengths of this system, including their latest strategic partner. As CFO Ernest Chew shares on this partnership in the official release: "The strategic investment from Woori Venture Partners also means we’ll be growing deeper into our ancillary arms in our Southeast Asian markets, especially in Indonesia where Woori has a strong presence in." 📸 In the documentary Against All Odds, Chief Scientist and Indonesia CEO Bryan Tan, PhD best encapsulates what this has meant for Carro Indonesia in the snippet below 👇: "The system powering Carro Indonesia is tried and tested in many different markets, which is why the value of Carro itself is pretty much in the system that we have built over time by the people who have been loyal and have been enthusiastic about contribution." Watch Bryan’s story with Carro and how it has shaped their Indonesia business within the context of an increasingly global organization: https://lnkd.in/g3vNwdTv

How the network effect of founder stories and communities kickstarted an entire industry in Vietnam Before Huy (Shayne) Nghiem (top in the photo) founded VNSC by Finhay, he had already founded two startups in Australia and was active in founder circles in Sydney It was through these circles that he learned about the likes of Acorns' Jeffrey Cruttenden (bottom left in the photo) and Stockspot's Chris Brycki (bottom right in the photo), and saw the possibilities of making wealth management and investing more accessible through technology. He experienced these possibilities firsthand as a retail investor himself. When he decided to return to Vietnam, he saw the opportunity to build a similar platform for his home country. But it had been a long time -- nearly a decade -- since he had left for Australia. Adjusting to the industry, ecosystem, and culture was a challenge, on top of being a first mover in this wealth tech space, but Huy found support in the existing local founder communities. He made it a point to also get feedback from founders and leverage spaces like TECHFEST VIETNAM to gain exposure for Finhay. It was through putting himself out there that we also were introduced to Huy and Finhay. The rest is history, as documented in this INSEAD case study: https://lnkd.in/evUsTFcg Today VNSC by Finhay has not only pioneered an entire industry in Vietnam but continues to raise the standards for fintechs in this space. #startup #founder #vietnam

We’ve some great news to end off the year: a strategic investment from Woori Venture Partners (우리벤처파트너스) and record FY2024 numbers with 11x year-on-year EBITDA growth. This is our fourth year of positive EBITDA, achieving S$43 million and a 4% EBITDA margin. Meanwhile, FY2024’s Gross Profit Margin expanded to 12%, shored up by a combination of strong marketplace margin expansion, ecosystem-led ancillary income growth, and productivity optimisation. Read the full release here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gq6kHE4p Ernest Chew, Chief Financial Officer of Carro says "We are heartened and proud to have over-delivered on our initial target of a 10x EBITDA growth. Despite a challenging macro-environment, we achieved significantly improved margins across most profitability metrics last year. Our focus on quality of revenues and recurring earnings have resulted in a 92% reduction in reported operating loss and within a striking distance of positive operating profits. The strategic investment from Woori Venture Partners also means we’ll be growing deeper into our ancillary arms in our Southeast Asian markets, especially in Indonesia where Woori has a strong presence in. Alan Ang (洪建伟), Director of Woori Venture Partners says, “Carro is the clear leader in a space that is prime for disruption, with significant room for expansive growth. Their ability to grow profitably at scale is testament to their performance and commitment. Woori Venture Partners continues to be a global venture capital leader by backing outstanding founders and sustainable businesses anywhere in the world with our investment in Carro. We are very pleased to be a strategic partner of Carro and help Carro reach its next stage of growth.” We're grateful to all our partners, investors, and customers who have made this year a profitable one, and we're excited to rev our engines to go full speed ahead towards our larger goals.

Habits of resilient entrepreneurs part 5 The fifth habit is “building the market to grow the product” In the top video screengrab, circa 2004 - 2005, PayPal alum Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim were trying to figure out how to get more people to watch YouTube videos, having launched a website that was initially meant for online dating. They had built a direct embedding feature allowing videos to be played on various online websites at the time. But it took a specific platform called MySpace where users would attach embedded videos to their profiles with the YouTube logo. This laid the groundwork for content virality to take place and an ecosystem of video sharing to emerge. In the middle photo, circa 2018, Pinduoduo goes public on Nasdaq. It’s a big milestone for company that nearly didn’t happen. In 2013, Colin Huang had all but given up on building internet ventures. His frustration stemmed from being unable to crack at the dominance held by Alibaba, JD, and Tencent at the time. Over a year of reflection, he realized that these giants had a gap in social community building. This laid the conceptual groundwork for Pinduoduo, a platform that brought together his experience in gaming and ecommerce. It would introduce a new way of buying online that would influence a lot of other business globally. In the bottom photo, circa 2018, Steven Wongsoredjo and Michael Rendy founded social commerce platform SuperApp (YC W18) from Y Combinator, tackling a gap they saw among ecommerce giants in Indonesia that were not efficient in serving rural Indonesia. Initially they tried to run social media advertising to get people on their app, confident in the country's 80% internet penetration. But this did not work and growth eventually stagnated. After going on the ground and interacting with early users (SuperApp agents) they found that bringing marketing efforts into the communities they wanted to reach was necessary especially in these early days. What ties these startups together across time and geographies is the idea that network effects (and thus the resilience of a product’s adoption) comes less from the features of the product but how the business meets the inherent nature of the market, whether this means making videos available on where users are already making connections, or enabling ecommerce to be done through community group buying, or driving digital adoption through offline community initiatives. These may seem counterintuitive to the product (i.e., why sell on another platform or go offline) but are often necessary in to drive early traction where there is no brand equity or enough of a behavioral shift to make adoption more organic. This habit most applies to companies looking to introduce new forms of behavior — which is often the case for tech products. From this principle of building the market stems a more pragmatic prioritization of product development. Links to the rest of these stories in the first comment 👇

🧑🍼Tentang Anak connects parents in Indonesia with trusted medical experts → g.co/play/weareplay In this story, meet Mesty and Garri from Jakarta, Indonesia. Their app helps parents across the country access expert medical advice.

Habits of resilient entrepreneurs Part 4 of 5 In the book version of Against All Odds, we identify some common traits across the stories of resilience we share, and the fourth habit is “developing structure for leaders.” To expand on the adage, “Necessity gives birth to invention. Structure is what raises it.” In the top photo, Bryan Tan, PhD is giving a tour in a Carro Studio at their Indonesia headquarters where cars are taken in to be assessed using computer vision and listed on their platform. This physical structure, perhaps more so than any other of Carro’s facilities, represents the kind of innovation Bryan developed as Chief Scientist, enabling Carro to more efficiently value and QC the used cars being bought and sold through its platform. In the middle photo, Bryan is opening the townhall for the Carro Indonesia team in Jakarta. The innovation Carro developed under Bryan’s leadership is nothing without the company’s business model and operational playbook enabling its adoption across various markets in Asia. A few years in, the Chief Scientist decided to marry innovation with Carro’s operational structure in his next role as Indonesia CEO, starting from square one (habit number 1). In the bottom photos, Bryan is with his team at Carro Indonesia. Mentorship and macromanagement (habit number 2) are also part of “the structure that raises invention” as it builds up an internal flywheel of talent to reduce the costs and risks of sustaining adoption over time. It is through these structures the startup builds and validates over time that CXOs like Bryan thrive and in turn develop more future CXOs. Watch Bryan’s journey in Against All Odds: https://lnkd.in/g2_dbFwJ 📸 Photos from the documentary

Collating into a single post Insignia Business Review's 5 years of resources (books, case studies, select articles, and interviews) for all startup founders and venture investors, especially those interested in Southeast Asia. Using our Innovation Economy Trifecta framework to list these resources which answers key questions when it comes to building and growing startups: Navigating *Talent Growth* 1️⃣ How do entrepreneurs develop resilience? Against All Odds documentary and book: https://lnkd.in/grY8TDy5 2️⃣ How do leaders drive innovation in Southeast Asia and emerging markets? On Call with Insignia podcast: https://lnkd.in/evFn3EzT 3️⃣ How do people leaders turn startups into global organizations? Cross-Border Hiring Playbook with Deel, Michael Page, and Intellect: https://lnkd.in/eGMyk_dj 4️⃣ How do you level up your startup's finance function? The Startup CFO Playbook with Aspire: https://lnkd.in/ebyYUHd6 5️⃣ How do you develop C-level leaders for your startup? Insignia Ventures Academy's StartCXO Program: https://lnkd.in/gySxrQYM Navigating *Economic Growth* 1️⃣ What makes Southeast Asia innovation challenging and how have entrepreneurs dealt with the region's inherent challenges? The 8As of ASEANnovation and Navigating ASEANnovation book: https://lnkd.in/e2AzeHrG 2️⃣ How do you approach venture capital in Southeast Asia? Backing the Bold: https://lnkd.in/gZvpEgZG 3️⃣ How do you get the top venture capitalists on your board? The Way of the VC: https://lnkd.in/eq6B7rKF 4️⃣ How did Insignia Ventures Partners approach investing in Southeast Asia? (specifically our investments in SuperApp (YC W18) and Shipper) Harvard Business School Publications' case study: https://lnkd.in/gjtwY_4u 5️⃣ How did we approach investing in Vietnam (specifically VNSC by Finhay)? INSEAD Publishing's case study: https://lnkd.in/eteeRgyW 6️⃣ How did Indonesian fintech unicorn Ajaib approach growth and fundraising early on in their journey? Stanford University Graduate School of Business case study: https://lnkd.in/ehuKRu_g 7️⃣ How do you build a platform business in Southeast Asia? The Reservoir Principle: https://lnkd.in/eFY7W8MA Navigating *Digital Adoption* 1️⃣ How do you drive AI Transformation in your organization? The AI Transformation Playbook with fileAI, WIZ.AI, & AWS: https://lnkd.in/envY93Wy 2️⃣ How do you avoid the pitfalls of monetization for tech innovation? Simon-Kucher's Monetizing Innovation playbook: https://lnkd.in/ebyYUHd6 3️⃣ How do you navigate growth post product-market fit? Building Products that Matter Playbook: https://lnkd.in/ew5KN-sG 4️⃣ How is the emergence of Gen AI impacting startup and venture building? AI Notes Series: https://lnkd.in/gQiuHMsW

Habits of resilient entrepreneurs part 3 In the book version of Against All Odds, we identify some common traits across the stories of resilience we share, and the third habit is “keeping the founding story (and spirit) alive.” We call this “day one storytelling”. 1️⃣ In the top row of photos, circa 2016-2017, Payfazz in Indonesia and Xfers in Singapore were tackling the costs, speed, and access to B2C payments, albeit in different approaches. Payfazz was building O2O infrastructure for their network of agents across Indonesia serving as “banks” for their neighborhoods. Xfers was developing API infrastructure for merchants and businesses to more efficiently settle payments. Both startups were born with a lean, nimble culture and founded by self-made entrepreneurs. 2️⃣ The second row of photos captures the difference in the two companies’ services, but the promise in bringing these solutions together. Through a series of encounters and paying-it-forward, the founder-CEOs of Payfazz and Xfers joined forces to become Fazz and continued to develop Fazz Agen (the O2O agent network) and StraitsX (blockchain-powered payments infrastructure). 3️⃣ In the bottom two photos, these two businesses have continued to mature and grow with teams in Jakarta (taken in the Indonesia Independence Day celebrations) and Singapore (from their leadership team’s year-end meet). The promise of cheaper, faster, and more accessible payments remains their goal as Fazz, with the opportunity to marry these two approaches in a solution that is more global in scope than they started out with nearly a decade ago — where families in rural Indonesia can make cross-border remittances by their nearest Fazz agent, a transaction powered in the back end by StraitsX’s technology. Amidst all the changes and challenges Fazz has gone through in the last decade, founders Hendra and Tianwei continue to value the importance of keeping this day one story alive — through their own leadership, the culture they have fostered in their organizations, and the measures they take to ensure the sustainability of their solutions Watch their story: https://lnkd.in/gHPEvsH3 Photos from Hendra, Tianwei, and the Against All Odds documentary

Habits of resilient entrepreneurs part 2 In the book version of Against All Odds, we identify some common traits across the stories of resilience we share, and the second habit is “letting go to grow”. 1️⃣ In the top photo, circa 2019-2020, Dayu Dara and Ahmed, fresh from a successful 4-5 years at GoJek building “a unicorn in a decacorn”, were back in square one (callback to the first habit), trying to prove that they could drive digital transformation for Indonesia’s property sector. The two founders were no strangers to building and scaling tech, but they had to let go of preconceived notions and open themselves to various approaches in finding a foothold this industry. Getting in touch with comparable companies in the US and China, seeking advice from investors and peers (who would then join their team), and forming partnerships with stakeholders like the big banks and developers were all crucial to laying the groundwork for Pinhome. 2️⃣ For Pinhome to also finding its footing amidst the pandemic, the company also had to continuously let go of existing initiatives to prioritize others. The company embraced a focus on the primary market (and the first time homebuyer), as well as launching their own property agent agency (led by their now COO Muhammad Hanif) and their own home services agency (led by their CSO Qurrat Abu Ayub) to de-risk the externalities of being a tech platform. Through this company growth it became increasingly clear to Dara and Ahmed how important it is to “let go” to the right leaders (middle photo). 3️⃣ In the bottom photo, at Pinhome’s midyear townhall this year, it was clear just how much Dara and Ahmed’s leadership has had to evolve over the past four years. No longer are they just leading a team out of a house, but a multi-business company with layers of leadership and accountability. Along the way, they have had to let go of the typical early-stage startup approach of “wearing all hats” and allow themselves to just focus on their own roles in the company, in the process enabling others to grow and develop trust within the organization. It’s best summarized in Pinhome’s own slogan of “masterpiece” — where whole can be greater than the sum of its parts, and precisely because those parts are there. This leadership evolution has been crucial not only for the business, but also the personal lives and health of the founders themselves, as we learn from Dara’s story of motherhood in Against All Odds: https://lnkd.in/eYBYfNtT Want to become a part of this masterpiece in Indonesian proptech? Pinhome is hiring: https://lnkd.in/g5Xw_u26 📸 Photos from Dara and Pinhome