Under The Radar

Today we’re going to talk about a company whose mission is to increase the GDP of – not a country or city – but the internet.  Founded in 2010, our guest Stripe is a technology company that prides itself on building the economic infrastructure for the internet.  With dual headquarters in San Francisco and Dublin, and offices dotted across major financial hubs such as London, Tokyo and Singapore, the firm assists customers from the world’s largest enterprises to budding startups in accepting payments, growing their revenue and tapping new business opportunities.  That means its suite of products and services cuts across a number of functions, from pricing, billing, checkouts, payment links, revenue recognition, to invoicing and even marketplace solutions.   The firm said over 100 industry leaders process more than US$1 billion on its platform annually, while over US$817 billion in payments were processed by businesses on the platform in 2022. In Singapore specifically, the firm works with some of the fastest growing players including Grab and Carousell. Now, why are we speaking to Stripe you might ask? Well, the internet or the digital economy is an interesting one to look at, with the digital economy in ASEAN alone widely tipped to grow to US$1 trillion by 2030.  But where are the opportunities within the broader APAC region? And more importantly, what are the complexities involved in capturing them given how fragmented the payment landscape is here? Not to throw in the cost of compliance as well? Meanwhile, the Stripe is also seeing a number of developments of late. It had in April raised US$694.2 million in a tender offer, giving the fintech player a 30 per cent higher valuation amid the cooler funding climate. The move is said to allow employees to cash out their share compensation without an IPO. But is the firm ready for an IPO anytime soon?  Meanwhile, Stripe had also in July this year acquired its competitor Lemon Squeezy. But what was the rationale behind the move? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Paul Harapin, Chief Revenue Officer, Asia Pacific & Japan, Stripe.

It is all about helping enterprises extract value through digital transformation as we speak to a company said to be a global leader in the industrial software space.  With over 6,400 employees, 5,000 partners and 5,700 certified developers, our guest is Cambridge headquartered software development firm AVEVA. The firm prides itself on sparking ingenuity to drive the responsible use of the world’s resources. Its industrial cloud platform and applications are said to assist businesses in harnessing the power of information, and better collaborate with stakeholders such as customers, suppliers and partners.  These include providing clients with a Digital Twin for the whole asset lifecycle from Engineering through to Operations and Maintenance across diverse industries. So far, AVEVA serves over 20,000 enterprises across more than 100 countries, helping them deliver life’s essentials such as safe and reliable energy, food, medicines, infrastructure and more. Its valuation – well, above 10 billion British pounds. But why are we talking to AVEVA you might ask, well, the firm had in January 2023 announced the completion of its acquisition by Schneider Electric.  The move was said to help the firm accelerate its transition into a subscription-only business model and become the number one Software-as-a-Service (or SaaS) provider of software and industrial transformation. But how far has that played out in terms of R&D investments and support from Schneider Electric? Meanwhile, AVEVA had in April 2024 unveiled an artificial intelligence powered industrial intelligence platform called CONNECT to form an ecosystem for innovation. But what does that mean in layman terms?  It had also in June 2024 teamed up with IN-CORE Systemes to make Electric Vehicle battery production more efficient. But what can we expect on this front? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Shashank Luthra, Vice President, South East Asia at AVEVA.

If you have been to Osaka, you would probably know who our guest is for today. After all, the company is behind the running man signage overseeing the Dotombori canal and a must-see attraction when visiting the city.  Founded 102 years ago in 1922, Glico Group is best known as a confectionery maker behind brands such as Pocky, Pretz and Pejoy. But did you know that there is a heartwarming story behind how the products came about?  Well, back in the days, the firm’s founder Riichi Ezaki had a son who was unwell. To improve the health of his son, Ezaki tested and confirmed the presence of a significant amount of glycogen in a sample of oyster broth.  That was in the early 1900s so you can imagine that glycogen was a substance that was still relatively unknown. Well, Ezaki fed glycogen to his sickly son, who eventually became healthy.  And it was this desire to use glycogen in confectioneries and enhance human health that lays the foundation for Glico.  Today, the firm’s portfolio has expanded beyond brands like Pocky to look at ice-cream products, baby formula, milk products, desserts, food ingredients, as well as raw materials for cosmetic and health products.  But even as the firm grows over the years, its focus on research and development and focus on health continues to be a key part of its value proposition. But how far has this emphasis on R&D and human health set the firm apart from the competition?  Speaking of which, the firm appears to be setting its sights on using more nuts for its products. For one thing, Glico Manufacturing Indonesia, which is the largest Glico plant and exporter to North America Markets, now produces Pocky Crushed Nuts for ASEAN markets. But how far is the ingredient key for Glico’s future success?  On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Hideaki Nagahisa, Chief Operating Officer, Glico Asia Pacific.

With Singapore’s 59th birthday right around the corner, we want to bring you a National Day special of “Under the Radar” where we speak to a homegrown heritage brand that you’ll come into contact with on a day-to-day basis.   Make a guess – this company is also said to be the oldest Hainanese coffee shop brand in Singapore. Established in late 1919 along the busy streets of Killiney Road, our guest for today is none other than – well — F&B operator Killiney!  But there’s a story behind how Killiney Kopitiam came about. The coffee shop was founded as Kheng Hoe Heng Coffeeshop back in the day, serving well-brewed coffee and tea and charcoal-grilled bread toast.  The traditional breakfast fare stole the heart of one regular customer called Mr Woon, who loved it so much that he finally bought the shop in 1993, renovated it, and called it ‘Killiney Kopitiam’.  But despite major renovations, the new owner believed in upholding the legacy of the previous owner, as well as the traditional working style and influence of the coffee shop. The focus remains on making good kaya, bread toast, coffee and tea, even as the brand scales and modernises.  Today, the Killiney Group has grown to a presence of about 50 outlets worldwide, and even moved into the FMCG merchandise business selling ready-to-cook food paste and instant beverages under the same heritage brand.  Now, we’re talking to Killiney Kopitiam not only because the old-school coffee shops are not only one close to our hearts, but also because the trade is also fading away from modern Singapore.  According to a Business Insider article in January this year citing Singapore’s Housing Development Board, only 776 coffee shops remain, down from the over 2,000 traditional coffee shops back in the 1950s. So what was Killiney Kopitiam’s recipe to thrive over the years, all while retaining a slice of Singapore’s past? Meanwhile, what is the company doing to bring a slice of Singapore abroad to other international markets such as the US? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Henry Oh, General Manager, Killiney International.

Remember the days when the gas delivery man would come to our homes to switch out our gas tanks or gas cylinders?  That’s probably becoming a thing of the past, making today’s “Under The Radar” conversation all the more meaningful.  With over 40 years of operating track record, our guest Union Gas Holdings is an established provider of fuel products in Singapore. The company's key businesses consist of Retail Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Compressed Natural Gas and Diesel.  The SGX mainboard listed company is also said to be one of the leading suppliers of liquefied petroleum gas in Singapore.  It has a fleet of over 200 vehicles serving more than 200,000 domestic households as well as commercial entities such as hawker centres, eating houses, coffee shops and commercial central kitchen.  Assets-wise, the Group owns LPG storage depots as well as two out of four bottling LPG bottling plants in the island, giving it full control of the supply chain from procurement to bottling, storage, distribution, wholesaling and retailing.  Union Gas is an interesting company to look at particularly as households and F&B operators increasingly hop onto the green bandwagon, opting for electric stoves versus using gas stoves.  What does this mean for the firm when it boils down to demand for gas cylinders and cooking gas, and how is it switching up its portfolio offerings to prepare for a cleaner future? Speaking of which, Union Gas Holdings had in April this year expanded its offerings to provide electric vehicle charging services through a partnership with Hong Kong-based charging service provider Deltrix. But what can we expect on this front?  Also – how will moving away from traditional fuel sources also help the firm mitigate volatilities with oil and gas prices given ongoing geopolitical tensions in key supply markets? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Alexis Teo, General Manager, Union Gas.

Using artificial intelligence to overcome language barriers through human-like machine translation. That is what we are going to talk about today.  Founded in 2017, our guest DeepL is a global communications startup powered by Language AI.  Language AI, for context, is a field of artificial intelligence that looks at getting computers to understand and communicate in the human language. Now, back to DeepL, the German company works on human sounding translations and intelligent writing suggestions for enterprises across 32 global languages, and is said to be able to translate with pinpoint accuracy, accounting for industry-specific terminology and situational context.  Since its founding, DeepL has enabled over 100,000 businesses to transform communications, reach new markets and improve productivity.  The company is seen as a competitor to Alphabet’s Google Translate. It is also backed by a number of notable names including a fund from Mark Zuckerberg’s family office and Index Ventures.  Its valuation? A whopping US$2 billion as of May this year.  Aside from the big numbers, DeepL is also seeing a number of exciting developments of late. The company had in late July launched traditional Chinese as a language option as it looks to double down on its presence in Asia.  But why did DeepL choose to offer this rather niche language used mostly in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and how far will this help it compete against major Chinese technology giants  such as Baidu and Tencent which provide translation tools in simplified Chinese? Meanwhile, the firm had also in the same month launched a language model that is said to outperform GPT-4, Google and Microsoft for translation quality. But how will this set the stage for DeepL as it pursues future growth? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Jarek Kutylowski, CEO and Founder, DeepL.

From a single resort in Phuket to becoming one of the world’s leading independent, multi-branded hospitality groups – today we’re going to bring you an inside look into the growth story of Banyan Group.  With its beginnings dated about 30 years back to 1994, Banyan Group was founded as a sanctuary for the senses and now boasts a diversified portfolio of hotels, resorts, spas, galleries, golf and residences centred around 12 major brands, including: Banyan Tree, Angsana, Cassia, Dhawa and Laguana.  The business was built around the core-concept of sustainability, and adopts what it calls an “asset-right” model to maximise value for its stakeholders through a three-pronged approach.  That includes rebalancing asset ownership to focus on key competencies, unlocking land banks to realise development value and growing fee-based segment through strategic industry partnerships. Why are we talking to Banyan Group you might ask? Well, the firm had in January this year shifted its corporate umbrella brand from “Banyan Tree Group” to Banyan Group to reflect its portfolio transformation from a single luxury brand to a multi-brand player. That’s as the firm seeks further expansion with 19 new properties and residences in Cambodia, China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Mexico in the pipeline for this year. So what can we expect on this front, and how far will a new umbrella brand help individual brands under the Group better position for the future?  Meanwhile, the firm’s founder Ho Kwon Ping also told Nikkei Asia in February that the firm plans to split its hotel and property development units to unlock value for the Group. But how effective will this be in shoring up the share prices of the firm? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Ho Kwon Ping, Executive Chairman and Founder, Banyan Group. 

We’re going to bring you an inside look into the air cargo industry today as we speak to the cargo arm of the world’s largest international airline.  Incepted in 1985, our guest Emirates SkyCargo prides itself as a facilitator of global trade, tapping Emirates’ global network of over 140 destinations across 6 continents to transport goods to all corners of the world.  The cargo arm prides itself as having an extensive cool chain capacity, including the world’s largest, EU GDP-certified pharmaceutical hub to transport sensitive cargo quickly, efficiently and reliably. It operates two world-class cargo terminals at its dual-airport hub in Dubai, with a capacity of over 2.3 million tonnes per annum.  In Singapore, operations began in 1990 with direct flights from Dubai to Singapore and Manila. Since then, the airline has increased capacity to 3 freighter flights per week to strengthen trade links between the East and West.  More notably, Emirate SkyCargo transported over 18,600 tonnes of cargo in and out of Singapore in FY 23-24, with key exports from Singapore being ship and aircraft parts, pharmaceuticals, mobile phones and more, and key imports being fresh fruits and foodstuffs. But how important is Singapore’s air hub to Emirates SkyCargo? Meanwhile, data from the International Air Transport Association or IATA released in July showed strong annual growth in demand in global air cargo markets in May. With port congestion remaining an issue for the industry, what will this mean for Emirates SkyCargo in terms of prices and demand for air freight? Is the situation more or less pronounced in Singapore than around the world? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Ravishankar Mirle, Vice President of Cargo Commercial, Far East & Australasia, Emirates SkyCargo.

It’s all about taking your beauty into your hands “because you’re worth it”.  Sounds familiar? You might have by now guessed who we’re speaking to for today’s discussion  – yes, it is indeed personal care and cosmetics giant L’Oreal.  On that note – did you know that the tagline was coined in 1971 by a 23-year-old female copywriter at a Manhattan ad agency McCann.  But taglines and branding aside, L’Oreal positions itself as a leader of the beauty tech world, with the century-old firm boasting a workforce of 86,000 employees across 150 countries,  The company has a portfolio of 36 international brands split into four divisions, namely (1) Luxe, (2) Consumer Products, (3) Dermatological Beauty and (4) Professional Products.  Some of the brands include Kiehl’s Lancome, Ralph Lauren, Biotherm, Shu Uemura, Urban Decay, L’Oreal Paris, Prada Beauty, Garnier and Maybelline New York.  At a global level, L’Oreal had in April this year reported a 9.4 per cent increase in Q1 sales on a like-for-like basis, exceeding analysts’ expectations.  Sales for the quarter came in at 11.24 billion euros or US$11.98 billion for the three months to March, easing concerns over an economic slowdown in the world's two largest economies of the US and China. But how far did Singapore contribute to the numbers? The latest showing also comes as the firm’s mass market range and dermatological products compensated for weakness in the luxury segment. But how far is this the case in Singapore, and what does the current economic uncertainty mean for the firm’s push into the luxury sector? Meanwhile, L’Oreal had announced a number of agreements with institutions in Singapore to develop youth-led innovation. But what can we expect on this front? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Tomas Hruska, Managing Director of L’Oréal Singapore and Malaysia.

We’re going to take you to the skies today, not by using a plane but by getting you to hop on a flying car instead!  Announced in 2021 as an evolution of Hyundai Motor Group’s urban air mobility business, our guest Supernal is on the quest to develop an electric vertical take-off and landing (or eVTOL) vehicle, as well as the accompanying ground-to-air ecosystem to support the emerging industry.  The company prides itself as harnessing world class manufacturing, automation, supply chain and R&D expertise to make what it calls the new and efficient transportation option widely accessible in the coming decades.  What that means to the firm, is that it is focused on building the right product and market fit, more so than rushing to be the first to market.  To this end, the company had in January unveiled its electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle concept at one of the largest technology events globally, the 2024 Consumer Electronics show.  It was also at the sidelines of this event that the company said it would commercialise the S-A2 aircraft by 2028 in South Korea and the US. So when will the vehicles be commercially available in Sunny Singapore?  Speaking of Singapore, Supernal had in February this year inked agreements with the Singapore Economic Development Board and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to further develop advanced air mobility capabilities and expertise in both Singapore and Asia Pacific.  But what can we expect from both sides when it comes to creating regulatory frameworks in the nascent industry and building an ecosystem of support infrastructure for urban air mobility networks? And how important is Singapore as both a demand market and a testbed for Supernal given its population density?  On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Diana Cooper, Chief Partnerships and Policy Officer, Supernal.