This Singaporean entrepreneur has founded 3 start-ups and helped one grow into S$20M valuation within the span of 2 years

In one line, what do you do and what is your most significant achievement?

Edmund has over 20 years of experience in Software, Financial Technology (FinTech), and Supply Chain. A serial entrepreneur, he has founded 3 start-ups and helped one grow into S$20m valuation within the span of 2 years.

He is also an unwavering procurement advocate with a mission to combine the best technologies to build the best trade ecosystem with procurement at its core.

On top of being a passionate advocate for digitalisation, he is also a mentor at Tribe, advising and sharing with other start-ups.

Who are you and what business did you start?

Doxa Holdings International (“Doxa”) is a fintech start-up helping connect and digitalise the workflow of buyers, suppliers, and financiers seamlessly through our best-in-class enterprise platform, Doxa Connex. By creating a single source of truth within a secure system architecture, it enables data authenticity, data analytics and helps buyers to trade seamlessly and financiers to assess and qualify financing.

Doxa has built deep and significant partnerships with financial institutions and government agencies, one of which is the Green Trade Financing pilot under the SGTraDex initiative, apart from being integrated with various Embedded Financial Services within the platform.

What's your backstory?

I have spent 2-3 years focusing on Financing. I wanted to make financing easier, quicker, faster, simple and yet lower the cost of funds. Within the span of 2-3 years, I realised that in order to do this, I needed to start with Origination of data. With good data, then we could achieve our initial goals and eventually help SMEs or Micro SMEs to get financial support. With that, we started to handle the end to end workflow to bring in the Source of Truth in the platform.

There is a video link above on YouTube under the SFF Founders Peak in which I speak about my backstory.

What should be the first steps to take to enter your industry?

Do a ground sensing, get some input, decide to go forward and raise the minimum funds needed, build the product for market fit and find your first client.

How did you spend your First 100 Days of launching your business?

We started in Singapore, beginning with partnerships. When you have no track record, you need to leverage thru partners. Our first client was referred to us by our partner. Convincing the first client will be the hardest. They will ask, “who is using your product, what if you exit, what is your track record”, and there are many ‘what if's.) You need to find a significant client but not thru your family or friend. They could help you but they mainly support. You need a real client to scrutinise and give feedback on your product. Then you can improve. No matter how good the product is, if there is no market fit, it is still not a good product.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain partnerships/customers?

There must be a WIN-WIN-WIN for all. The business model must be reasonably sound to all the parties. You need to put yourself in their shoes. Why do they need to use the products? Why do they need to partner with you? What are the business benefits? With Doxa, we have a unique proposition to various personas. For financial institutions, we have a single source of truth. For the user, we optimise the workflow, increase visibility, and increase productivity and efficiency (eg. https//www.straitstimes.com/business/green-trade-finance-goes-digital-to-help-smes-run-efficiently-and-sustainably).

What has taken you from 0 to 100?

Teamwork, and Product

What is one underrated thing in your industry that business owners should start doing/using?

The open mindset to understand about Digitise vs Digitalise. We are moving towards consolidation. Connectivity is everywhere. We need to evolve and give technology a chance to prove its presence to assist in digitalisation.

What was one failure you had to go through that others in your industry should look out for?

Cashflow, teamwork and managing product developments proposition.

Cashflow - Money is always not enough. Make sure you allocate money in the right buckets

Teamwork - Manage politics and ensure harmony

Products - Many things to do, do prioritise them

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

Many. Some examples are Zoho, QuickBooks, Figma, WebFlow, Jira, Asana

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

I believe it is a good year for us. We are streamlining and managing better although challenges are there. We are doing our Series A now. We are getting to see the teamwork improve especially across departments, and seeing returning clients. We are constantly being encouraged and feeling excited. We will continue to press on!