e-commerce for good

• Managing director of Carousell Singapore, Chee Soon Ng, recently shared how the 500-backed startup has been navigating the pandemic and how it is using learnings from this year’s market challenges to continue growing in 2021.

• The startup saw many local businesses struggling in this climate due to a “lack of e-commerce experience”.
• To address the issue, Carousell partnered with Enterprise Singapore (ESG), a government agency that supports enterprise development, offering 1,000 packages to help such businesses go digital. Businesses that signed up received 90% funding support from ESG.
• The package comprised a six-month Carousell for Business (CarouBiz) subscription and access to articles, webinars, as well as a live support chat to help them understand and maximise Carousell’s tools.
• At the same time, the startup saw an outpouring of charity and support for the needy from various groups across the region, and launched ‘Free Ads for Charity’, a support program worth US$1.5 million designed to help these groups raise funds by providing visibility.
• Internally, the startup has seen a shift in consumer interest, with the weekly demand for home services — delivery, renovations, and repairs, to name a few — increasing by 1.5x since 2019.
• In response, Carousell chose to focus on this category for their Singapore, Hong Kong, and Philippines markets. Singaporean users can now browse through a dedicated page for home services, which is accessible via a separate tab on the app. The page aggregates all such services in one place, where users can read articles on how to help them make their selection. The startup is looking to roll this feature out in Hong Kong.
• All these initiatives spoke to Carousell’s goal to become “the e-commerce leader in this region, solve the barriers to secondhand, and accelerate this trend in Southeast Asia.”
• Read the full interview here.

A boost for Australian space

• 500-backed Australian rocket company Gilmour Space has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Northrop Grumman Corporation, a global aerospace and defense technology company.

• As part of the agreement, Northrop Grumman will support Australia in its needs of defence and achieve the Australian Space Agency’s vision. This includes “diversifying the economy, developing national capability in areas of competitive advantage in the space sector, ensuring the safety and security of its sovereign space infrastructure and activities, as well as inspiring and improving the lives of all Australians”.
• “Our approach is consistent with the Australian government’s recently announced Modern Manufacturing Strategy, to make space hardware in Australia while securing sovereign capabilities in priority areas that include defence and space,” said Chris Deeble, chief executive of Northrop Grumman Australia.
• As an “initial task” under the MoU, Northrop Grumman will join Gilmour Space as an industry partner on a previously announced Cooperative Research Centre Project (CRC-P), a grant for short-term, industry-led research collaborations.
• Gilmour Space CEO Adam Gilmour said, “The next five years will be a critical time for Australia to develop a world-class sovereign space industry. With the right support, we will see innovative, well capitalised, and highly capable Australian space companies like Gilmour Space emerge as future Australian space primes. We look forward to working with Northrop Grumman on delivering for our nation as we work to launch our first commercial payloads to orbit in 2022.”

Equalizing employment opportunities

• 500-backed recruitment automation startup Talkpush has partnered with Vervoe to integrate complementary services between the two platforms.

• Vervoe is an AI-driven skills assessment platform that offers potential candidates “customizable assessments for employers to test both technical and soft skills” enabling data-driven decision making.
• With the platform integration, both recruiters and job seekers will be able to experience an “effective, fair and enjoyable” hiring process.
• According to Talkpush, their automated processes result in 70% reduction in candidates’ time to fill out application forms, 3x more hires per recruiter, and an 80% reduction in cost per hire.
• Candidates can apply for a job via their preferred channel, from social media apps to the company’s career page. After the pre-screening process, they will automatically receive a link to complete an assessment. Upon completion, the system will automatically add the assessment score into the candidate profile on Talkpush.
• Benefits of this partnership include:

Real-time viewing of the candidate’s progress in the hiring process

Increased completion rate of the assessments as the system sends out reminders to candidates

Improved candidate experience as candidates receive information via their preferred communication channel

Removing human errors in handling and transferring candidate data

• Multinational retail corporation Walmart is already utilizing these integrated tools. “Integrating the Vervoe scoring system with Talkpush allowed us to get back to candidates immediately with a decision, shortening our time to hire considerably,” said David Castro, Talent Acquisition Manager for Central America at Walmart.
• Read the full announcement here.

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500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. In Southeast Asia, 500 Startups invests through the pioneering 500 Southeast Asia family of funds. The 500 Southeast Asia funds have backed over 240 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed.

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