INFINITE Tea: Talking Money While Eating? What's Not to Like! ☕

Blissful Thursday!

Today’s all about food and finance. An F&B startup can grow 14 times by serving 70,000 pax in a day in one sitting? The good news from a fintech startup is we have the biggest Open Finance API in Southeast Asia and it is based in our beautiful country, Indonesia. You won’t believe your ears, so keep on reading!

✨Today we’ve got to spill the tea on:✨

 🥗Culinary

Indonesian B2B catering service Waku bags $1M in seed funding after finishing accelerator program 11th Space Indonesia. The money will be used to expand business, penetrate new markets, R&D on new products, and technology infrastructure. Waku is a provider of catering and F&B solutions intended to focus on daily corporate meal services. It has products ranging from rice boxes, snack boxes, coffee breaks, vegan meals, tumpeng, frozen food, in-home fine dining, BBQ, pantry supplies, and many more. Waku makes sure you have delicious, nutritious, hygienic, and affordable food. Founded in 2017, Waku has served more than 4 million servings in 15 cities across Indonesia. Furthermore, Waku has served over 300 companies, state agencies, foundations, and organizations. Waku’s customers range from public figures to regular people. As the first and most complete F&B solutions provider, Waku has over 60 kitchen partners nationwide and multi-brand F&B products including Kriz Kraz with Rangga Azof and happYCheeks with Yuanita Christiani. By the end of 2019, Waku grew 14 times and served 573 companies and government agencies and made it to be the only F&B provider to serve 70,000 pax in 58 cities in only one day in one sitting.

💰Finance

Financial technology startup AyoConnect has closed a $13 million Series B extension round led by SIG Venture Capital. Previously, AyoConnect had raised a $43 million Series B led by Tiger Global. As the largest Open Finance API platform in Southeast Asia, AyoConnect is working toward more financial inclusion for Indonesian consumers and SMEs. The funding will be used to hire leadership and develop product and technology, including new solutions for payments, data and banking and new APIs for account opening and card issuing. Recently, AyoConnect was awarded a Bank of Indonesia Payment Service Provider Category 1 License and it is obviously the only open finance player in Indonesia to be licensed by the central bank. Founded in 2016, AyoConnect has missions to power the leading companies of today and tech unicorns of tomorrow. Are you ready to move forward with open finance?

👩Founder Highlight

Today we would like to highlight one of our accelerator alumni. Meet Salma Dias Saraswati, CEO Tenang AI.

Salma saw stigma, unavailable after working hours, and shortage of professional help as opportunities. Then, she found the business's ideal niche market for mental health and well-being. So, she combined artificial intelligence and metaverse with psychology to build Tenang AI. Tenang AI is an AI-empowered mental health and wellness application to detect, prevent, and level up teenagers and adults. Founded in February 2022, Tenang AI has many accomplishments including Founder Institute Global Healthtech Graduation, 2nd Winner Astra’s Start-up Competition, and Initial Paying Customers of 200 from Web App.

Salma is a psychology graduate from UII who is passionate about mental health and well-being. She has a wide range of experiences including lecturer and psychologist at UII; clinical psychologist at Halodoc ID, Kariib, and KALM Counseling; and mental health consultant at Psylution. 

She has a mission to unlock human potential by providing accessible and affordable mental health support. Through Tenang AI, she is supporting SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions), and SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals). Her platform also offers individuals and companies sustainable and science-based solutions to enhance mental health and well-being. In sum, she commits to create a happier and healthy environment.

Currently, Tenang AI has three main products, namely self-help, tenang for personal, and tenang for company. She is determined to take mental health to the next level by means of futuristic technology like AI and metaverse. Soon, it will be like Siri or Alexa for mental health. Definitely will Tenang AI be a futuristic mental health application? Time will tell.

🚀Another Tea Spilling

• Neither ghost nor cloud exists! GrabKitchen is set to close its operations.
• It’s neither a peacock nor a seaport. Singapore-based edtech Meraki Academy bagged a $500,000 seed funding round.
• Fit and happy go hand in hand. FitHappy just raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding.

💻Hacks and Tricks

Recovery is the Key to Resilience

I used to think, “The longer I tough it out, the touher I am, as a result, the more successful I will be.” Apparently, success does not work that way. Determination and strong will sometimes are loaded against us. Overwork and working tirelessly to keep going increase health problems like fatigue, depression, and sleep disorders.

Small problems can become magnified when we’re exhausted. Getting enough rest augments mental and physical resources, which in turn improve productivity. Resilience is adapting and responding positively to stress and adversity. To be resilient, you must follow three steps:

• Batch your time to rest

You need to rest your mind when you are working through significant blocks of time. Set up reminders to take a break every 30 minutes of deep work. If you want to breathe fresh air, don’t use your phone for mindless scrolling. Instead, go outside for a walk or chat with your friends in person.

• Avoid overscheduling

Filling all your free time with activities is a recipe for burnout faster. Overscheduling is like on an endless treadmill of projects. Prioritize your mental health by allocating non-negotiable personal time. No matter how busy your day, you will find time to recover.

• Embrace downtime

Everyone wants to be resilient but contrary, they don’t embrace downtime. Downtime is not downward. Blocked-off time is sacred. If you would not book an appointment during an important meeting, the same rules apply to your downtime.

Slack allows you to pause and rest for a while. It does not only rest your body but also your mind in the long run. Quality time off as a measure of success and recovery is a core tenet of sustainable mental health. Learn to balance pursuing your passion with developing personal growth and wellbeing.

Sharing ToGATHER with Friends!💡

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Lots of Tea, INFINITE.