Image from Overture Point Overture Point is an investment company based in Singapore made earlier this year. Instead of investing in a company for short-term profits, they take the "time-consuming path," which is where they look at a company's long run. I've had a conversation with their Chief Investor Officer, Dee Senaratnes, on how they look at companies from an investment point of view, so here I am sharing tips from what I learned! 1) As investors, we have to look at who the company's supplier is and the bargaining power of the supplier. Whether it is in contracts, cost, or royalties . In most cases, the company would pay their suppliers in royalties . Royalties  is an investment or business term where the investor or owner of an asset in a company receives a certain percentage of revenue made. People use royalties whenever the investor or supplier owns a patent, trademark, or licensing agreement (usually widespread in companies like Spotify). 2) Investment Consensus  is an investment term where a collective group of analysts create a collective prediction for the company's future earnings, revenue, or other financial aspects. So another investment term that is commonly used together with investment consensus  is called " beat," "met," or "missed"  after seeing the actual results of how the company did. The term "beat" is when their expected results are exceeded primarily in net income. The term " missed" is used when investors see that expected results are unmet and the company's performance decreases. The only term left is "met," which anybody with common sense could understand when expected results are met. Revaluation: 3) Now, with how well the company performed for the whole year, we look at the P/E ratio, which is Market Capitalization (price of company)/net income. So, the more net income increases, the more the integer value of the P/E ratio will decrease, and this is good for investors (assuming that the stock price/market capitalization doesn't change in number)! Vice versa, the situation wouldn't be suitable for investors. If you remember from the last tip, this situation is a miss . With that in mind, whether the performance was beat or met , this adjusts the company's expectations and sets them even higher. More investors are looking to invest because they like or dislike these numbers. So, their adjusted P/E ratio would decrease or increase. Of course, if P/E was " met,"  nothing would be adjusted, and nothing would change. More tips incoming from Overture Point in the future ! Otherwise stay tuned for more information about the Asian economy and business world.

Image from Nūl Ethics is an essential factor in a company's success. Sustainability looks good, especially in every company. Nūl  is an enterprise founded by Raghav M.S. and Malini Kannan that aids companies involved in the fashion industry to see the demand forecast to avoid overproduction. Nūl  was created with the integrated expertise of technology, operations, and scaling businesses and has had successful experiences in the parallel industry. This is a big help, especially for companies that take the Just in Case approach, where they buy in bulk just in case of unexpected big orders. The significant disadvantage to those companies, especially in fashion, is that spare stock not sold or distributed can perish or decay. This would significantly reduce costs and increase profits, as well as contribute to effective procurement and optimize stock. With the use of Nūl , businesses can also see their business performance through supplier-to-order analysis, future planning for buying strategies and markdown optimization, in-season optimization of inventory, and forecast reorders to come just in time. Nūl  would be their renowned AI-driven inventory powerhouse for customers to make smarter decisions, have stronger partnerships, and increase sustainable growth. However, why do they focus on the fashion industry? Well, the fashion industry accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, the fashion industry is one of the most polluting sectors of the business world. That's why buying or producing too much is quite deadly for the planet as many spare stock perishes or decays by a considerable number daily. Although unfinished products are going to waste, it is a significant unsustainable factor already. Producing or buying that many clothes also takes up a lot of water and uses thousands of chemicals. Also, what happens when people discard the use of their clothes because they don't seem fashionable anymore or clothes don't seem to fit them anymore? Their clothes go to waste if not given to charity, and I bet you can tell that this creates an attrition to a sustainable culture in the world. With others seeing the vision for this sustainable business to build a change in the world, they recently received $500K in funding from Wavemaker Impact . Wavemaker Impact is a climate venture builder that aids the sustainable world in giving solutions to sustainability challenges by creating scalable, market-driven solutions.

Image from Bangkok Post Previously, we have focused on how the Asian financial crisis has affected Asia in general and, more specifically, Indonesia. But how did it affect the country from which this historical event stemmed? I remember one day when my dad and his friends were over, and they were nostalgic, talking about the past. That led me to come across this topic and how it has influenced businesses. Furthermore, we will dive into the big financial crisis that hit Thailand in 1998. The Asian financial crisis, also addressed as the "TomYam Kung Crisis," was such a big event that it caused Thailand to go through economic turmoil and restructure its economy even today. These repercussions were deeply felt across all significant areas, especially Bangkok. Following along, the economy was in a recession, leading to many employees being laid off left and right. The statistics that followed this historical event were the unemployment percentage of the country "increased from 1.1% annual rate to 3.4% in 1998" (Financial constraints and entrepreneurship: Evidence from the Thai financial crisis, pg.3). While not only was large urban areas like Bangkok was affected, but as well as rural areas had experienced a big hit. They even increased by 5% within those areas, and their real earnings fell by 8%. Imagine what this would do to those uneducated and with skills that aren't transferrable to any other lines of work? This financial catastrophe would make life so much harder for them than it already was. The amount of poverty that appeared in numbers was crazy, ranging from a 3% increase to a 40% increase depending on the area in the country. With these numbers, we could tell that this country was in total recession! Eventually, prices would have risen, and who would have known the country's reaction to this would be? Why did prices even rise during this recession? Citizens' and firms' expectations were a significant factor as they all grew to fear if the economy would do well in the future. This caused Thai currency investors to pull out their money and exchange it for United States dollars (USD). Eventually, the government lost so much money that it was forced to make its currency float . Regarding the term floating in terms of currency, the currency exchange system is determined by the "relative supply and demand of other countries" (Corporate Finance Institute). This was also a learning moment for me because, before this article, I thought the exchange rate was permanently fixed. An example of a fixed exchange system is Hong Kong dollars (HKD) and USD- with 1 USD =7.75-7.78 HKD. So, with the currency  floating,  the baht (the Thai currency) can quickly depreciate or be appreciated (going up or down). This economic disaster is the epitome of what had set economic expectations within a recession in the short and long run! The investors' reaction is a significant factor in a country's economy and citizens. The economic expectation is that a bank run will eventually occur when loads of people keep withdrawing their money or when loans increase due to an increase in aggregate demand. Following this economic prediction in economics, this is what happened in 1998. Since loans had increased, there was an increase in the inflow of bank deposits into commercial banks. This created an imbalance between the private bank balance sheets, and due to the rise in loans, it became a liability for the country (Bank of Thailand). Due to their government budget deficit, they had to engage in an expansionary monetary policy that involved a fixed exchange rate (the floating currency, if you remember). An expansionary monetary policy increases the supply of money in the economy and increases purchasing power for individuals, which risks increased capital outflows for the country. Let's get a first-person account from someone who went through this crisis in 1998. That person is  Supavud Saicheua,  the head of economic research at Phatra Securities. Supavud emphasized how the debt occurred over time across all businesses. He mentioned that the Thai government promised them that 25 baht = 1 USD; however, when the baht had to be doubled to be 1 USD, that's when everyone's debt doubled as their currency was depreciating (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco). This paints out their initial confidence in their currency, which caused a lot of firms and citizens based in Thailand to believe in their exchange rate system's stability. In addition to their belief, they had taken on large amounts of foreign debt due to the floating currency. He explained that "the Thai corporations were borrowing a lot" because they thought they would get a considerable return and equity. Supavud described that during this time, people were finding similar problems within the surrounding countries of Thailand. As citizens asked themselves, "Is our country's economy going to go bad?" the question has spread across Asia. An example of this was the mass riots 1998 in Indonesia because people's confidence in their country's economy decreased. They got angry with their government exponentially for many other reasons. I will discuss this in more depth in my other article  if you want to read about it! This caused the spread of influence of citizens losing confidence in their government and country, so Asia's economy would go downhill in the early 2000s. Nevertheless, after the financial crisis, he has never seen any firm borrow in large numbers again.

Image from MyNews Let's talk about history. One historical catastrophe struck Asia in shock, one that influenced not only one country but those around it as well. In May 1998, many countries like Thailand were affected, but today, we're going to dive into the mass riots within Indonesia. This crisis led many Chinese Indonesians to flee the country during this period of time, and in this article, we're going to find out why. At this time, there was a load of Indonesia's own citizens being in a rage across the whole country. During this time, there were a lot of documented photos containing citizens burning looted goods, a lot of fire, arson, and many more stuff! The Join Fact-Finding team, which was established by President JB Habibe in 2002, mentioned that the riots had 1,200 people whose deaths fell victim to being burned, more than 90 Chinese-Indonesian women were raped+abused, and 8,500 buildings were burned down due to arson! From all of this, I can't even fathom how much trouble there was for the police to at least try to control. But as we know from the present time, the bloodshed and grief that this event had brought onto the country couldn't be controlled even if the government, military, OR police tried to. So, a term I found while researching this financial crisis was "foreign currency floating ."Well, floating in terms of currency means that it is the opposite of being able to exchange currency in a fixed amount, for example, how the Hong Kong dollar (HKD) has been fixed to the United States dollar so the exchange rate would be 1 USD=7.75-7.78 HKD. Instead, floating means a currency conversion is not determined by the country's dollar. Still, it's determined by the supply and demand of it in the market, so the currency can depreciate or be appreciated. My first question in writing this article was: What led all these citizens to go into this outrage across the country? This all originated from the "Asian Financial Crisis" in 1997. Remember the term we just learned, which was floating currency ? According to Indonesia Investments , the Thai baht was at a fixed value in US dollars at first. However, investors lost their confidence in Thailand's economy, so more people started selling their baht for USD. Then, the government ran out of money to keep their currency at a fixed value because the value crashed, so they had to make their currency float . And how does this relate to Indonesia? That was coincidentally the same question I had! No literally. It was. The same situation happened; the influence of questioning the countries' economies was apparent and spread to Indonesia. So it scared people, like, "What is Indonesia's economy as weak as Thailand's?" So the investors yet again SOLD or pulled out their money from Indonesia's rupiah (their currency) for USD. Do you want to guess what happened? The rupiah's value also crashed by 80% as GDP growth in 1998 became a negative value! Literally, the number was "-13.6," and their inflation rate is "65" (Hill, H. (2000). The Indonesian Economy, p. 264 ) ! If GDP's numerical value is negative and inflation is higher than ever at that point, what would be happening to Indonesia's business world? Cyclical employment increased even more as more jobs were lost, basic goods and services became too expensive, and businesses collapsed (The Diplomat, 2023). Even mothers who had to experience the death of their children were set to protest every Thursday outside the Jakarta presidential palace called Merdeka Palace. This came to a name called "Kamisan," with these consistent protests being for as long as 800 Thursdays, it had been recognized to fight for justice for the unjust victims during this time. This shows the determination of how citizens would try to make a difference by persistence no matter what. This shows the good side of determination, but there's another side of Indonesians who turned to looting and arsons to catch the government's attention and do something. Well, this horrid government system was obviously under an authoritarian regime led by Suharto, and his presidential term was from 1967 to 1998 (Britannica). Enough about the history, though; what actually happened to businesses in Indonesia due to this historical event? Well, I heard from first-account sources that they vacated Indonesia at that time, but what about those who decided to stay? What happened to those skills that weren't transferrable to other lines of business? Statistics actually tell us that "[Y-Y growth] output fell by 12-15%, and inflation was increased by 80% (Rand). Well, let's look into one business in general. A business named Apek Cafe, which was located in Medan, Indonesia, experienced this historical event firsthand as it's been established for 80 years. Seyanti is the Chinese-Indonesian business owner of this cafe, and she inherited it from his father. This cafe has seen why Medan was known for its student activism against the Suharto government, as most protests connected about the rising prices and complaining about the price of gas and electricity being too much to afford. Not only were students protesting, but on May 4, 1998, the police were looking to clear off the student protestors. Rumors were heard that the police actually attacked/assaulted the students, and more than 50 people were arrested. In addition to this, ironically, the police station that held the detained people was surrounded and attacked by others. This had obviously escalated the situation in Medan, and students were ransacking buildings and setting them on fire in the streets of Medan. This influence spread from Medan to Jakarta and then to Solo. Along with the reports of more than 160 cases of raped Chinese Indonesians, this is the reason why thousands of Chinese Indonesians vacated the country. Luckily for Apek Cafe, Seyanti's business had to be closed for a few days, and they had experienced nothing wrong with this historical event. Even though she was scared, she mentioned that "everyone I knew in the neighborhood was never nice to me," which led her to be calm (New Naratif). However, this luck  did not fall on all Indonesian businesses. A retired business owner, Osma Halim, is 68 years old but was known for his business being in sauces in 1998. He's one of the actual few who would come to tell his story as most people would want to "not dwell in the past". He shared the unfortunate story of his location in the Jalan Asia district, which is known for its Chinese Indonesian community. He would explain that he was surviving on instant noodles and didn't dare go out to the city during the daytime, making him close his business until all of this was over. The only actual time he went out was when mobs who grappled sticks and rocks would come to the district to try to attack them. The only reason he would go out was to protect Jalan Asia with others who lived there, and he estimates that around 1,000 people had tried to attack the district. Imagine how much fear was struck in him, as a man, to have run all the way home and locked himself in when he heard of the first impending attacks from others outside the district because of something his community hadn't even done any wrong. These mobs would not only try to attack the people but would even storm the businesses and shops! This was thought to be more than a racial issue with Chinese Indonesians but more of a political one to take the spotlight away from the government's authoritarian regime and poor presidential term. This vast historical event struck everybody in Indonesia with grief, anger, and fear. Those who were already in the low-income class in the economy were probably barely surviving because of the fear of being able to go out of their homes for food! This shows how poor a country's state can be with economic instability and how a good government also plays a massive role in the economy. Even though this was over 30 years ago, those who are even reminded of this historical event speak briefly about it so as not to dwell on the past. The country is way better now, and businesses have grown since then. Learning about this historical event in Asia shows how countries can affect one another quickly and affect everybody's lives. If you have read this far, I hope you enjoyed learning this Asian history with me, and I hope you read my other posts!

Image from Nexmedis I bet everyone knows that recently, AI has been covering all types of areas: studying, writing down notes, making someone's own calendar, etc. However, have you ever heard of one that is designated for healthcare? That's why this Indonesian startup is specializing in AI to improve healthcare operations, patient-to-doctor services, and more detailed patient diagnosis! They have over 1 million clients, 10,000 clients, and 400+ health facilities overseas. Clearly, they have globalized by a huge factor since it was founded in 2023  by 3 co-founders, Yehuda Dani Utomo , Matilda Narulita, and Dr. Almer Deta Tarandha . Their commitment to addressing inefficiencies in Indonesia's healthcare situation has even earned them the title of the "GPT of healthcare." This all stemmed from the inner problem of slow diagnoses of patients, fragmented data, and inefficient time in manual administrative tasks. Nexmedis integrates computer science, management consultant skills, and medical expertise to solve the abovementioned problems. They promised customers globally that their AI could be used as a transcription tool to record and summarize conversations between patients and doctors. This makes it easier for information to be easily accessed from digital records. Additionally, it aids in redundant paperwork, streamlines operations, and allows healthcare providers to focus their primary focus on their patients. A disadvantage to this—despite being able to save a lot more time and make healthcare processes more efficient—is that globally, it would be hard to provide more training in remote areas and medical care tools. This hinders the quality of patient care they hoped to solve, so they seek solutions for an effective healthcare outcome. With this fantastic idea to improve healthcare, they recently got funding co-led by East Ventures  and Forge Ventures . Ms. Utomo mentioned, "We are thrilled to have secured this investment, which will be a game-changer as we continue to innovate and bring AI-driven solutions to healthcare. The commitment from East Ventures and Forge Ventures is a testament to their trust in our mission to bridge the healthcare accessibility gap through innovative technology. With their support, we are poised to accelerate our growth and impact to improve patient care and outcomes." Furthermore, Nexmedis has received the "approved by Ministry of Health" status from the Ministry of Republic Health in Indonesia.  In their next steps, they are looking to launch more specialized AI solutions to healthcare problems within Indonesia and reach for more hospitals and health facilities within Indonesia. .

"Cut your electricity bill today" Interested in the solar panel or solar power industry? Let's look into SmartSolar for today. If you want to get into a new area of expertise, you would want to experiment around but with the lowest cost because you don't know if you're really into it, right? You could do that with SmartSolar because of its EASIER and CHEAPER journey for customers who want to install and operate solar panels anywhere. Their big idea is to use solar panels sustainably and, at the same time, reduce costs with green energy. In order to ensure customers have a low price, they could save an insane amount on the electricity bill! Along with that, convenience even comes along without having to pay more at the convenience of their customers. They can even be installed within one day because of their collective expertise in installing solar panels for years! In addition to this convenience, customer service is available 24/7 to ensure satisfaction, with designs optimized and adjusted for various homes. Families and friends can get SmartSolar's services at a monthly fee instead of a considerable investment to ensure low costs. In addition, the energy part of the solar panel will be given with a discount! Their planning goes along for the next 25 years. They want to optimize their client base to be maintained even until then as they promise to be the customer's "friend accompanying [customer's] energy system." They've already even achieved an installed capacity of their energy systems of almost 1MWp for dozens of their customers within Vietnam. SmartSolar's idea is to expand across SEA, and they will achieve it easily since their region is known for being the most significant solar market! Others see the same future vision I do with SmartSolar, they receive funding from Picus Capital  (a startup investment technology firm) and 2degrees (an app for device plans). SmartSolar, in addition, already earned $1.8M seed! In summary, for now, they give customers within Vietnam the ability to reduce their electricity bill with new solar panels at a monthly fee. They also plan to expand this company beyond SEA. Another big goal of theirs is to decarbonate Asia's environment with their green and renewable energy. I hope to see this startup flourish even more than it promises because it helps low-income families or individuals in Vietnam! They have seriously addressed the issue of solar panels being too expensive, which exactly solves that problem.