KoneSi is the Judges’ Choice winner of the Myanmar Qualifier of TOP100 APAC.
We, at e27, believe in Asia’s startup ecosystem. As such, we value their insights, put the spotlight on their contributions to their industries, and celebrate the wins that they have.
This spotlight is on KoneSi, logistics solutions provider and Judges’ Choice of TOP100 Myanmar Qualifier. We got the chance to interview co-founder Zar Phyu Tint Lwin about what Kone Si does, the opportunities for logistics services in Myanmar, and what they’re looking forward to about Echelon Asia Summit.
On what KoneSi does
KoneSi an innovative load-shared logistics solution provider for small and medium enterprises. Instead of directly delivering goods to retail outlets by individual SMEs, KoneSi pools the goods from several SMEs, which go to the same outlet, or outlets in the same area, sort and share their loads in the trucks and deliver it within the shortest lead time.
On the problem they are addressing
Logistics and supply chain play a critical role when it comes to operating the business efficiently. As per our market research, logistics cost takes around 25 per cent of SMEs’ sales revenue in Myanmar. [But] SMEs are not well-served by well-established logistics players here in Myanmar.As a consequence, logistics become limitation for SMEs when it comes to growth.
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On what SMEs deal with when it comes to logistics in Myanmar
[Logistics] tech providers usually overlook the SMEs’ problems as most of them are busy serving the big players. So, SMEs have difficulty in scaling up/finding efficiency with technologies in their business. As a result, most of the SMEs are still operating businesses in more traditional ways, which is not only resource consuming, but also lack opportunity for business intelligence that can be provided by technology.
On how KoneSi helps SMEs
By integrating with KoneSi, SMEs save more than 50 per cent of their logistics costs, increase their retail reach, and focuss their resources on other productive tasks. In addition, KoneSi can also take care of last mile delivery if the client operates in omnichannel sales.
On the sharing economy
As operation costs get higher, some businesses in their closed network are attempting to share their resources with each another to save money and time. Although this sharing concept may have been well-established in the emerging markets and developed markets, frontier markets like Myanmar is only recently adopting it.
On the market’s changing behaviour
Local up and coming brands are expanding to other cities in Myanmar – with some even aiming to go beyond Myanmar – and are eager to have strategic competitiveness among the same industry players. And although most of those brands are doing business conventionally, the more they seek competitive advantages, the more they are aware of having business insights and data. Moreover, they are also willing to cut down the unnecessary supply chain process in order to have an efficient business operation.
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On the market’s acceptance of new technology
SMEs now recognise that the old ways of doing business cannot compete with today’s advancements and are therefore willing to adapt new technologies. Having said that, while small businesses are willing to change for better outcomes, it would take some time for them to get used to a technology-friendly business environment.
On what their data is telling them and what they plan to do about it
KoneSi is aiming to do development and deployment of mobile-first supply chain dashboard for SMEs to digitise their forecasting processes in order to manage fragmented and urgent orders, and to gain clear insights into their daily business. Through our load-pooling logistics with SMEs, we learned that SMEs in Myanmar have difficulty in demand forecasting due to lack of clear business insights. With this dashboard, KoneSi is laying solid foundation to bring these SMEs to the next level. Additionally, SMEs will also have huge market reach in a cost efficient manner by our backbone load pooling logistics service.
On what they’re looking forward to in Echelon Asia Summit
To explore more opportunities within this region, pitch and get the chance to meet VCs. We also want to share the customer behaviour of a frontier market, the industry landscape, as well as the startup landscape in Myanmar.
Want to find out more about KoneSi? Meet them at Echelon Asia Summit 2018!
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