Entrepreneurship runs deep in the Chearavanont family

Thailand's family of billionaires Entrepreneurship runs deep in the Chearavanont family --------------------------------------------------------------- Hello {NAME}  Happy hump day! Ever wonder what kind of startup would catch a billionaire’s eye? Scroll down to find out. 😉 But first... Your quick bytes for today: 🚶‍♂️ Another high-ranking individual has left his post. This time, it’s Mark Porter, [Grab’s CTO]( for its core technologies and transport business. 🎥 Believe us when we say that livestream ecommerce is huge - our explanation for this was in yesterday’s email if you missed it. The industry is so large that China is [going to start regulating]( it. 🍔 In other news on regulations: Thailand will begin [implementing measures to regulate]( the online and food delivery services in the country. 🎤 You can now sing along to Queen’s Don't Stop Me Now, as Spotify has released a [new lyrics feature]( in Southeast Asia and India. 💳 Food delivery startup Swiggy enters the fintech sphere as it launched its own [digital wallet]( Swiggy Money, in partnership with ICICI Bank. 👀 Facebook’s new [Avatars feature]( in India is a customizable sticker creator that looks a lot like Snapchat’s Bitmoji.  --------------------------------------------------------------- The heir to a Thai billionaire family made an acquisition The Chearavanont family are real-life crazy rich asians - they own Thai conglomerate CP Group and are ranked third on Bloomberg’s Asia’s richest family list in 2019. The grandson of the family, Korawad Chearavanont, is a techie at heart. He’s the co-founder of Thai work collaboration app Eko, which recently acquired local AI chatbot firm ConvoLab for an eight-figure sum and [launched a new parent]( company called Amity. Amity is booming Amity (previously known as Eko) is similar to Slack or Microsoft Teams. And like many remote working tools, it’s seeing huge growth during the pandemic. The company’s revenue saw a [200% increase]( in the second quarter of this year as hotels, hospitals, and cleaning firms jumped onboard its platform. Currently, Amity has 5 million active users and has managed to break even for the first time in its eight years of operation. Why chatbot? Founded in 2016, ConvoLab uses natural language processing to help its clients engage with their customers. Amity plans to invest heavily in AI and work automation and believes that chatbots will be one of the main mediums in which AI will be able to assist humans in the workplace. Following the acquisition, Korawad is now the CEO of Amity – which operates in Bangkok, London, Austin, and Milan. In the future, the firm is looking to invest further in its products and growth.  --------------------------------------------------------------- Entrepreneurship runs deep in the Chearavanont family Korawad’s father, Suphachai Chearavanont, has a tech vision for CP Group, a firm that’s almost a century old with over 310,000 employees and US$63 billion in revenue in 2018. It’s a huge firm that runs 14 business units across agriculture, retail, ecommerce, media, real estate, automotive, pharmaceuticals, and financial services. One of its innovations is TrueID, a “[content super app]( (🔒)” that allows users to stream both video and music content. Launched four years ago, it’s a competitor of [Tencent’s Joox]( and [WeTV]( (🔒) services. Synergies run deep within CP Group’s businesses. For instance, its payments platform TrueMoney, a part of CP Group subsidiary Ascend Group, powers payments on the TrueID platform. 7-Eleven outlets in Thailand, which are run by the group’s retail arm – CP All – serve as a convenient touchpoint where customers can access e-payment services as well. It’s OK if you’re still clueless about CP Group. But if you live in Southeast Asia, it’s very likely that you’re using or consuming one of its products, and [this is]( one of my favorites.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  Contactless payment for school fees in Indonesia Don’t be surprised when you see a long line of students at schools’ admin offices during lunchtime in Indonesia: They’re just paying their school fees. The current payment process in most schools in the archipelago is still very manual, cash-based, and paper-based. Indonesian startup InfraDigital wants to help schools by digitizing their student data, automating back-office processes, and facilitating online tuition payments. And the company just raised an [undisclosed amount]( of series A funding from Taiwan-based AppWorks to do so. Back to school Over 300 educational institutions across 12 provinces in Indonesia are using InfraDigital, which serves more than 140,000 students. The company, which counts Gojek, Tokopedia, LinkAja, Alfamart, Ayopop, and Indomaret as partners, claims that its solutions have helped some schools increase their income by up to 16%. In 2018 the startup reported a total transaction value of US$2.1 million. One of its offerings, Jaringan IDN, makes student enrollment, invoicing, and payments collection easier for schools. In the future, InfraDigital plans to use the new capital to develop more school management services and expand into other provinces across Indonesia.  --------------------------------------------------------------- So you want to read news and get paid? Paying users to consume news may seem odd, but it’s actually a common practice in China. US-based BuzzBreak is a good example of this, and it’s already profitable doing so. We’ve unlocked this [premium article]( for you to read in full this week.  --------------------------------------------------------------- Misc Happening - [Tech in Asia x Braze: Humanise Your Customer Engagement for Today's New Normal]( on Tuesday, July 14. - [Effective content marketing in the midst of a pandemic]( on Thursday, July 16. Hiring - [UI/UX Designer]( at KoinWorks (Jakarta, Indonesia) - [Frontend Website Developer]( at SAGA Digital Studio (Jakarta, Indonesia) - [Accounting Senior Manager]( at Evermos (Bandung, Java, Indonesia)  --------------------------------------------------------------- Don't let the midweek slump get you down, share this with your friends and tell them to take a break. And if you have comments about our newsletter revamp, we would love to hear them. Drop us a line [here]( Copyright © 2020 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. Don't want to receive these emails anymore? [Unsubscribe](.