On Tuesday, we have visited Ms. Anu Gupta, Director at our PR Partner Asia PR Werkz to understand how the COVID-19 outbreak has affected the industry, as her portfolio consists mostly of start-ups, SMEs and fintech.

To find out more from the fintech’s point of view, we have visited our corporate member Syfe, a digital wealth manager licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore under a Capital Markets Services License for retail fund management.

Be Ready for a Crisis

“As a fintech company, we are set up in a way that we can work remotely,” said Mr. Dhruv Arora, Founder & CEO at Syfe. “But of course we prefer to work together so that communication is easier.”

At Syfe, a fintech start-up, employees are currently not working remotely, unless they have symptoms. However, according to Mr. Sebastian Sieber, Partner at Syfe, the company is ready to implement the BCP measures if the situation escalates.

“We conduct BCP practice every six months. For example, last year in December, we announced all the employees not to come to the office to simulate the actual crisis. So all the activities and tasks had to be completed remotely.”

We Should Never Overlook the Importance of Data Protection

Mr. Dhruv Arora highlighted something that many start-ups may easily overlook while working remotely: data protection.

The importance of data protection has increased as the amount of data created and stored continues to grow at unprecedented rates. But there are times when data privacy clash with convenience especially when the employee works remotely and does not use the server in the office unless the employer sets data protection as a top priority and ensures compliance.

“[At Syfe,] Data protection is already in place. Access is controlled even outside the office,” said Mr. Arora emphasizing that data protection is a key.

When asked whether the outbreak has affected the business, Mr. Arora disagreed. “It has not affected business. It would have been better if there were no outbreaks, but I wouldn’t say a negative impact.

In fact, Syfe recently launched the REIT+ portfolio, a first-of-its-kind initiative that allows anyone in Singapore to participate in risk-managed investing in the nation’s real estate with no minimum investment, together with Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX).

“Our Syfe REIT+ launch were extremely successful; we are seeing good customer traction. “