Joel Neoh has spent two decades selling things to adults: group-buying deals at Groupon, cashback at Fave, DNA kits and supplements at Prenetics. His new job asks him to build a business on a platform where a large slice of the audience still needs a parent’s permission to buy anything. Roblox has appointed the Malaysian […] The post Roblox hands Fave founder Joel Neoh the keys to SEA. His first job isn’t growth, it’s trust appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 09:15 UTCe27.co

WorldAsia

North Korea’s hiring scam just cost Binance US$6.3B. SEA’s engineers are on the shortlist

For years, Southeast Asia’s crypto regulators have asked exchanges the same set of questions. Where is your licence? Where is your local entity? Where are your cold wallets, and whose name is on them? On October 29, North Korea answered with a question of its own: whose laptop is this? Binance, the world’s largest crypto […] The post North Korea’s hiring scam just cost Binance US$6.3B. SEA’s engineers are on the shortlist appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 09:04 UTCe27.co

World

If Binance says user funds are safe, why did Bitcoin still fall to US$77,037.20?

Bitcoin fell 4.87 per cent to US$77,037.20 in 24 hours and underperformed a broadly weaker crypto sector. A confirmed security incident at Binance on October 29 triggered the drop. That shock arrived against a 65 per cent correlation with the S&P 500. Macro risk aversion had already set a defensive tone. The result was a […] The post If Binance says user funds are safe, why did Bitcoin still fall to US$77,037.20? appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 03:54 UTCe27.co

World

Your SME doesn’t need a chatbot. It needs the work after the chat done

Most small businesses in Southeast Asia already run on WhatsApp. Orders arrive there, suppliers send invoices there, staff send photos of receipts there. So when owners hear “AI”, the first idea is usually a chatbot that answers customers faster. After building AI systems for food, professional services and property businesses in Indonesia and Singapore, I […] The post Your SME doesn’t need a chatbot. It needs the work after the chat done appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 03:30 UTCe27.co

World

The fan vote is broken: Here is what it takes to make people trust it again

I’m the founder of MyStarChain, which runs blockchain-based public voting for awards, pageants and competitions through the MyStarPick platform. In August my team ran the public vote for the 70th Miss Korea pageant. When the count closed, nobody asked us to prove it. The organiser did not need to, the contestants did not need to, […] The post The fan vote is broken: Here is what it takes to make people trust it again appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 03:00 UTCe27.co

The sovereign threshold: Why airtight AI decisions are paralysing executive teams

Picture a leadership meeting that goes like this. The air conditioner in the corner of the 22nd-floor boardroom had a faint, high-pitched metallic whine. Outside the glass, the heat off Robinson Road shimmered against the asphalt, but inside, the air was cold enough to raise goosebumps. David, the CEO, leaned forward and rested his forearms […] The post The sovereign threshold: Why airtight AI decisions are paralysing executive teams appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 02:00 UTCe27.co

WorldIndonesia

HASAN.VC, Moria Ventures bet on Gulf capital to rescue Indonesia’s halal startups

Indonesia has never lacked halal ambition. What it lacks is money willing to back that ambition. Two weeks ago, at the 13th Indonesia Sharia Economic Festival (ISEF) in Jakarta, a coalition of regulators, investors and universities launched the Indonesia Halal Innovation and Venture Ecosystem (I-HIVE). The aim is to fix the second problem. I-HIVE brings […] The post HASAN.VC, Moria Ventures bet on Gulf capital to rescue Indonesia’s halal startups appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 02:00 UTCe27.co

WorldAsia

Amplicity raises US$1M to put Singapore’s sleeping data centre batteries to work

Singapore’s data centres keep roughly 160 MWh of battery capacity on permanent standby, charged and waiting for a blackout that almost never comes. For an island that imports nearly all its fuel and is scrambling for clean power, that is a lot of expensive hardware doing nothing. Amplicity, a Singapore-headquartered energy technology startup, wants to […] The post Amplicity raises US$1M to put Singapore’s sleeping data centre batteries to work appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 01:30 UTCe27.co

WorldIndonesia

The sharia trust premium: Lessons from Indonesia’s first sharia P2P generation

Indonesia’s sharia P2P lending sector looks different in 2026 than it did when Dana Syariah Indonesia and a cohort of sharia-compliant fintechs scaled between 2018 and 2022. The sector that aimed to bring Islamic finance principles into digital lending has consolidated significantly. Several platforms have been through restructuring. Dana Syariah Indonesia, whose OJK license was […] The post The sharia trust premium: Lessons from Indonesia’s first sharia P2P generation appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 01:00 UTCe27.co

WorldIndonesia

Indonesia’s 8 per cent cap cost Gojek US$8.4M in a quarter. GoPay covered the bill

GoTo has now reported a net profit for three quarters in a row. Read past the headline, though, and the numbers show a company run by its payments arm, while its ride-hailing business absorbs the cost of a government-imposed fare squeeze. GoTo reported a third-quarter net profit of Rp441 billion (about US$24.6 million), compared with […] The post Indonesia’s 8 per cent cap cost Gojek US$8.4M in a quarter. GoPay covered the bill appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 01:00 UTCe27.co

World

Powering the green transition: Why the global battery race runs through Hong Kong

As Battery energy storage (BES) investment scales toward US$5 trillion, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) is positioning Hong Kong as Asia’s launchpad for materials, integration, green finance and recycling — a bridge Southeast Asian founders can use to finance, certify and scale. A battery used to be something most people thought about […] The post Powering the green transition: Why the global battery race runs through Hong Kong appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-30 00:00 UTCe27.co

Ant International CEO: Achieving inclusion is critical to re-globalisation, and AI will accelerate it by democratising opportunities

Speaking in Doha on 28 October 2026 at the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum 2026 panel, “Investing in AI for an Inclusive Digital Future”, Ant International CEO Peng Yang called for a new, inclusive “re-globalisation” project that harnesses AI and digital connectivity to give small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) greater access […] The post Ant International CEO: Achieving inclusion is critical to re-globalisation, and AI will accelerate it by democratisin

e27

2026-10-29 15:59 UTCe27.co

World

LKYGBPC returns with a pitch to fix deeptech’s real bottleneck: customers

Ask a deeptech founder in Southeast Asia what keeps them up at night and few will blame the science. The harder problem is finding someone willing to let an unproven technology loose on a real building, a real plantation or a real data centre and then pay for it. That is the gap Singapore Management […] The post LKYGBPC returns with a pitch to fix deeptech’s real bottleneck: customers appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-29 06:00 UTCe27.co

The e27 Contributor Programme: Using AI, submitting, and growing your readership — Part 2

Part one of this guide ended with a draft. This one starts there. A finished draft is a bit like a packed suitcase: the hard decisions are made, but you can still leave without your passport. Plenty of good contributor articles stumble in this last stretch, with an AI edit that sanded away the author’s […] The post The e27 Contributor Programme: Using AI, submitting, and growing your readership — Part 2 appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-29 04:30 UTCe27.co

World

Hong Kong has no gigafactories, but it wants a cut of Asia’s US$5T battery boom

Hong Kong does not make many batteries. It has no lithium mines, no gigafactories, and industrial land prices that would make any cell manufacturer wince. Yet Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) wants the city counted among Asia’s premier energy storage ecosystems, and it has now published a report saying so. The inaugural […] The post Hong Kong has no gigafactories, but it wants a cut of Asia’s US$5T battery boom appeared first on e27.

e27

2026-10-29 04:04 UTCe27.co