Under The Radar

On our show today is a global family enterprise that could be dated back to a trading partnership formed in Hong Kong back in 1895.  That’s right. Now headquartered in Singapore, our guest Jebsen and Jessen Group has evolved into a diversified industrial conglomerate specialising in engineering, mining and distribution activities through Southeast Asia and beyond. These days, Jebsen & Jessen’s business can be split into seven units, namely: Cable Technology, Industrial Garnet, Ingredients, Life Sciences, Mobility, Industry & Beverage, as well as Packaging and Technology.  The company has a turnover of S$1 billion. Its 3,000-man strong workforce spans across its operating entities in 12 countries. That includes 13 manufacturing facilities.  But why are we talking to Jebsen & Jessen you might ask? Well, we are speaking to Jebsen & Jessen because the firm had said in May 2023 that it was and still is actively in search of acquisition targets particularly in the specialty chemicals and rigid packaging businesses. The firm said then that it is on the lookout for targets in Southeast Asian markets such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. But what was the rationale behind expanding inorganically? What are the opportunities here in Southeast Asia?  And more importantly, how does Jebsen & Jessen intend to create synergies given the diversified nature of a conglomerate? How will it ensure efficiency and reduce overlaps in its business operations as it embarks on more mergers and acquisitions for growth? On Under the Radar, Money Matters’ finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Heinrich Jessen, Chairman of Jebsen & Jessen Group.

Building safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence that could benefit all of humanity and enrich our lives. That’s what we are going to talk about today.  Founded in 2015, our guest for today is AI research and deployment company OpenAI.  The firm is famously known for its flagship AI model or chatbot ChatGPT, which reacts to questions in a conversational way. The chatbot could even admit its mistakes when confronted, and refine its answers for greater accuracy.  Aside from that, OpenAI also boasts other products including Dall-E, which is an AI system that can generate realistic images using text prompts.  OpenAI is an interesting company to talk about because of the limitless potential of generative AI solutions. Most recently, the firm had in October 2024 introduced canvas, an interface that allows ChatGPT to collaborate with human users on a project. It also launched ChatGPT Search later that month. The solution is said to search the web in a much better way than before. It’ll include the links to sources such as news articles for easy referencing.  But how much money can generative AI bring to the table in terms of efficiency?  How exactly do we draw the boundaries to the potential of generative AI? And how far does this compare against current market expectations looking at the AI-led boom in tech stocks for much of this year?  Meanwhile, OpenAI had in October 2024 announced plans to open an office in Singapore, its second in Asia Pacific after Tokyo. It also held its first developer day in the country. But what are the opportunities in Singapore, and how does the firm intend to expand internationally going forward? Also – with media reports circulating that the firm is in talks to transform its non-profit structure into a for-profit structure, what implications would this have on the firm’s direction of research? On Under the Radar, Money Matters’ finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Oliver Jay, Managing Director, International at OpenAI.

Today we’re going to talk about a logistics company that started out of a second hand van a decade ago.  Founded in 2014 by a group of three friends, our guest is e-commerce express logistics company Ninja Van Group. Fast forward to the present, the firm is now a technology enabled logistics organisation backed by marquee investors including GeoPost, Alibaba, and B Capital Group. Just to give you a sense of the firm’s scale, Ninja Van said it has a 100% coverage across Southeast Asia, with established operations and networks in six key markets.  It offers logistics and supply chain products and services for nearly two million shippers, with some two million parcels delivered by its team of over 66,000 people daily.  Ninja Van is a company that we want to look at because the firm had in April 2024 launched a cold chain offering called Ninja Cold, as well as a business-to-business offering Ninja B2B, as part of efforts to diversify beyond e-commerce and search for higher margin businesses.  The move come as the firm’s latest financial filings for the financial year ended June 2023 revealed a loss of S$326.8 million in 2023  versus a loss of S$250.2 million in 2022.  So how does the firm assess its latest financial numbers? What does this say about the opportunities and challenges in operating and expanding within the logistics space?  And how successful has Ninja Cold and Ninja B2B been over half a year after they were launched? On Under the Radar, Money Matters’ finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Lai Chang Wen, CEO, Ninja Van.

It is all about the business of love today as we speak to a leading provider of digital technologies designed to help people make meaningful connections.  Founded 25 years ago, our guest today is Match group, which pioneered the concept of online dating and continues to foster innovation in the dating industry daily.  The firm boasts a portfolio of brands and is more commonly known as the company behind Tinder, Match and Pairs, providing matching services in over 40 languages to users all over the world. Today, Match Group has a footprint in 20 offices worldwide, hiring some 2,000 employees. Here in Asia, it is headquartered in Singapore, with its regional team spread across markets including Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Vietnam and Thailand.  The company recently reported its third quarter financial performance, where its operating income stood at US$211 million, down 14 per cent on the year impacted by impairments of tangibles and other charges relating to its exit from Hakuna and other live streaming services. But what were the reasons behind the exit, and how is its Asia business faring on the whole? Speaking of Match Group’s Asia business, the firm is largely zoomed in on the Japanese market through its dating and marriage app called “Pairs”.  With a total of over 20 million registered users, Pairs is said to have facilitated every one in 10 marriages in Japan. But what are the key learnings from Pair’s operations in Japan, and how far can the operating model in Japan be replicated in other Asian markets with lower marriage rates?   On Under the Radar, Money Matters’ finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Malgosia Green, CEO of Match Group Asia.

Opening new frontiers in information technology and pioneering the future of innovation. That is what we are going to talk about today with our guest from a leading technology services firm in Asia Pacific.  Founded in 1981, NCS is a subsidiary of Singtel Group that provides what it calls differentiated and end-to-end services to clients with its capabilities in core areas such as application, infrastructure, engineering and cybersecurity. The firm partners with governments and enterprises across industries such as hospitality, manufacturing, logistics and even healthcare to advance communities through technology.  Such technologies include the Breeze app, which utilises computer vision and artificial intelligence to help users get around local neighbourhoods such as Tiong Bahru more easily. Why are we speaking to NCS you might ask? Well, we’re speaking to NCS because the firm is currently doubling down on innovation in emerging areas such as digital, data, cloud and platform through its digital services arm NEXT.  That’s after the company had in July 2021 announced a major business transformation to reposition it for growth in the 5G era.  The strategic reset then focused on growing digital services, scaling its government and telco business segment and capturing new growth opportunities in the enterprise sector across key regional markets of Singapore, Australia and Greater China.  But what has been done thus far and how important is NCS NEXT to the firm alongside its other strategic business groups? And what will the rapid adoption of generative AI mean for the firm as it looks to the second half of the decade?  On Under the Radar, Money Matters’ finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Wynthia Goh, Senior Partner, NCS NEXT.

This year’s Singapore Fintech Festival surrounds six major themes that will frame 2025.  One of the themes among industry leaders, in particular, is the need to bridge the financial gap and ensure equitable access and usage of financial services and products to the underserved.  On this note, did you know that 1.4 billion people globally still lack access to bank accounts? Yes, and that is according to an article published on the World Economic Forum in just September this year.  So what can we then do to level the playing field for the underbanked and underserved – both individuals and budding entrepreneurs who are starting out?  Well, the numbers appear to point to fintech as the answer, given increased internet adoption and digitalisation. In this panel discussion on "Bridging the Financial Gap", we talked about the challenges individuals as well as Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises faced in accessing traditional financial services and how the use of digital banking and digital tokens can level the playing field for the underserved.  We also looked at the metrics used to determine progress towards equitable financial outcomes and identify areas for further intervention, and the need to ensure that digital technologies continue to narrow and not widen the wealth gap.  As part of MONEY FM’s on the ground coverage of Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, Money Matters’ Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian spoke with Kai Qiu, Deputy CEO and CTO, ANEXT Bank and Eric Barbier, CEO, Triple-A for more.

We want to give you a quick wrap of some of the announcements made at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, as well as the implications of the developments on the fintech industry. One of the biggest announcements released ahead of SFF 2024 was how the Monetary Authority of Singapore set up the Global Finance & Technology Network or GFTN to further strengthen Singapore as a global FinTech hub and enhance global connectivity for impactful innovation in financial services.  The GFTN will catalyse the growth of the Singapore FinTech ecosystem and drive greater synergies and networks with the global FinTech community.  In particular, the MAS has said that the GFTN will work with the central bank to advance industry and policy dialogues in payments, asset tokenisation, AI as well as quantum technologies. It will also support the MAS’ efforts to grow a vibrant FinTech ecosystem, and scale SFF as the premier global FinTech event. But speaking of driving synergies and advancing dialogues in emerging FinTech trends, we’ve also seen a number of private sector announcements by companies within the industry as well. As part of MONEY FM’s on the ground coverage of Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, Money Matters’ Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian unpacked the developments with Wong Nai Seng, Financial Services Industry Regulatory Strategy Leader, Deloitte Southeast Asia and Grace Ho, Chief Commercial Officer, GoImpact Capital Partners.

In this segment, we want to talk about the people behind a startup’s first few paychecks.  Business management theory would say that the first people who would give startup money to founders are the friends, family and fools, or people who give what they have in their pockets not because they buy into the founder’s idea, but because they genuinely want to help. As the company grows over time, startup founders would then seek to raise money from venture capital firms or institutional investors to scale their businesses.  But between getting money from friends, family and fools and getting money from institutional investors lie a very special group of people. They’re angels who would put their capital in early stage startups based on their experience and subject expertise.  But how do angel investors work, and how do they decide on what to invest?  How far do they negotiate for a larger stake in the startups they invest in, how much say do they have in a startup’s direction for the future, and how do they prevent dilution as startups seek further funding from larger investors? Also – does it make sense for angels to join angel syndicates and which are some of the companies that angels are seeking in the fintech field right now? As part of MONEY FM’s on the ground coverage of Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, Money Matters’ Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Ee Chien Chua, a Fintech Executive & Angel Investor and Vanessa Ho, Co-Founder, Investments, Fintech Nation.

This year’s Singapore Fintech Festival surrounds six major themes that will frame 2025.  At the front and centre of discussions is the Roadmap for AI and Quantum. Of particular focus this year is the boom in generative AI, which uses algorithms to identify patterns within existing data to come up with new content, ranging from text, images, videos and even codes.  The technology is said to hold the potential to radically change the financial services industry, with an EY analysis suggesting that rethinking the financial institution with Gen AI at its core has the potential to create US$200 billion to US$400 billion by 2023, with productivity gains reaching up to 30 per cent by 2028.   In this panel discussion on the Roadmap for AI and Quantum, we looked at where fintech players are at right now when it comes down to generative AI adoption and what the road to achieving an AI-embedded future looks like for them.  We also dived into emerging risks surrounding AI and challenges surrounding the adoption of quantum computing.  Money Matters’ Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian spoke with Lim Him Chuan, Group Head of Strategy, Transformation, Analytics & Research (GSTAR) and Group Executive at DBS, as well as Phoram Mehta, Senior Director and Chief Information and Security Officer, International Markets at Paypal for more, as part of MONEY FM’s on the ground coverage of Singapore Fintech Festival 2024.

Collaborations in the fintech sector are on the cards today, and with the year end holiday season very much in sight, why not talk about maximising your air miles through credit card spend? Specifically, we want to talk about how Heymax, a startup aggregating consumers’ fragmented rewards, worked with digital payments leader Visa in rolling out new products and campaigns to customers throughout the course of the year.  In May this year, Heymax announced a new innovation called Card Maximiser, in partnership with Visa. Powered by the Visa Offers Platform, the feature aims to help consumers seamlessly track their spending and optimise credit card rewards.  More recently, Heymax and Visa in September came up with a sustainable travel campaign to double miles earned from MRT or bus rides using Visa-linked cards over the 9.9 period.  But what are the key learnings from such collaborative initiatives? What are the benefits of getting startups and industry leaders to team up and what made them decide to work together again? How far is collaboration the way to go in the fintech space? As part of MONEY FM’s on the ground coverage of Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, Money Matters’ Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Adeline Kim, Country Manager for Singapore & Brunei at Visa, as well as Joe Lu, Co-founder & CEO of Heymax.