Raising industry performance with drone tech

• Drone services are becoming increasingly important in multiple industries to improve productivity and reduce a country’s dependence on labor. It’s no wonder that in the past 3 ½ years, 500-backed drone company Aerodyne Group completed 16 foreign merger and acquisition (M&A) activities. And the team is currently closing another one in Brazil!
• To date, the group has over 900 drone professionals, manages more than 560,000 infrastructure assets, and surveys over 380,000km of power infrastructure across 35 countries.
• Now, after establishing a strong presence in the Malaysian and Indonesian agriculture sectors, the company is set to enter India. 
• Founder & CEO Kamarul A Muhamed said, “There is a major push for this technology by the government over there; we have done the market study and some people have already started (providing) it.”
• He added that the company’s agritech division has improved yield for its customers by 30%, and that Aerodyne has an orderbook of about RM400 million in agricultural produce.
• Read the full story here.

Tipping the scales in favor of mom & pops

• “Banks are inflexible,” said Mir Haque, Founder & CEO of 500-backed Fairbanc of his first foray into the fintech space. Realizing that Bangladesh, his home country, was not ready for the tech platform he had to offer, he moved to Indonesia, where his startup took off.
• Fairbanc serves mom-and-pop retailers who are customers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, providing a simple Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solution.
• In Indonesia, small business retailers often struggle to buy inventory, and banks typically reject their requests for loans. “A lot of these issues could be solved through digitization and data science,” Mir said. “There is a huge credit gap in emerging economies. That’s where we had this ‘aha moment’.”
• With  FMCG companies already having existing data on their merchants, such as order and payment history, Fairbanc leveraged this information to open merchants’ access to credit – all without the need to meet or digital literacy.
• Listen to the full interview here.

New look, new ambition

• In more news from 500-backed Indonesian startups, RaRa Delivery announced its rebrand to RARA NOW!
• According to the company, RARA NOW is the first instant delivery service in Southeast Asia that is revolutionizing instant delivery for eCommerce and micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. The company added that it empowers businesses to provide the best customer experience by using its smart technology, which ensures every product is delivered on time at the most affordable price.
• “We’re doing this massive brand revamp so we can be closer to our end customers,” said Karan Bhardwaj, Founder & CEO. 
• With a fresh new look, RARA NOW will be improving its products and services as well as expanding its presence to more online stores across Indonesia.