Why We Invested: Marcelo Ruiz de Olano, The Visionary Behind karpatkey – Redefining Treasury Management in DeFi

Ching is a Principal leading the Web3 Arm at AppWorks. Ching interned at AppWorks when she was in college and returned as an Analyst after earning her B.B.A from National Chengchi University in 2015. Her keystone achievement as an Analyst was helping CHOCO TV’s journey from Series A to an eventual acquisition by LINE. Ching became our Associate in 2019, spearheading our foray into the blockchain industry by recruiting founders active in the space and effectively jumpstarting our web3 ecosystem, which has since grown into a thriving community. She’s also helped AppWorks participate in several prominent investments, including Dapper Labs / Flow, and Animoca Brands. Ching was promoted to Principal in 2022. Off the clock, she likes to experience new things, travel, and play tennis.

We are thrilled to announce our investment in Marcelo Ruiz de Olano, the visionary CEO of karpatkey, who is redefining treasury management in DeFi. By providing non-custodial treasury management solutions and infrastructure,  karpatkey has already garnered the trust of major DeFi protocols like AAVE, Uniswap, and Balancer. Here’s why we decided to back Marcelo and his exceptional team.

Marcelo Ruiz de Olano: A Visionary with a Story of Resilience and Innovation

At AppWorks, we seek founders with the vision, determination, and execution ability to address critical challenges in their fields. Marcelo Ruiz de Olano not only possesses these traits but his deep expertise in both finance and decentralized systems makes him uniquely qualified to revolutionize treasury management in decentralized finance (DeFi). His ability to navigate complex financial environments and his commitment to building transparent, secure solutions have positioned him as a transformative leader in this space.

Marcelo’s journey is a testament to resilience and adaptability. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he often felt like an outsider, fueling his desire to seek new opportunities and a sense of belonging beyond his home country. During college, Marcelo longed to participate in an exchange program to explore life outside Argentina, but his parents refused to support him, dismissing it as a desire to party abroad. Determined, he found a way to finance himself and moved to Spain to fulfill his ambition.

However, the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis made opportunities scarce. Without any financial backing from his family or the government, Marcelo faced tough challenges and was on the verge of proving his parents’ doubts right. Yet, he persevered, supporting himself through the economic downturn and overcoming the cultural differences between Argentina and Spain, despite the shared language 

Upon returning to Argentina, Marcelo joined Chevron, where he refined his decision-making skills and financial modeling on major capital projects exceeding $100 million. This role significantly deepened his understanding of global finance. By the age of 28, Marcelo had mastered the art of arbitraging stocks, bonds, and commodities, generating enough cash flow to achieve financial independence. He left the corporate world to travel and explore new opportunities. His journey eventually led him to cryptocurrency during the 2017 boom. The subsequent ICO bust became a pivotal moment, solidifying his belief in the transformative potential of decentralized finance.

Under Marcelo’s leadership, assets within karpatkey’s DeFi treasury network have skyrocketed from $300 million to over $1.8  billion in less than 3 years. His vision of creating a non-custodial, transparent treasury management system earned the trust of industry giants like Uniswap and AAVE. Marcelo’s personal and professional journey is a testament to his relentless drive to innovate and lead in the world of decentralized finance.

karpatkey: Empowering DeFi with Transparent, Non-Custodial Treasury Management and Advanced Automation Tools.

karpatkey has quickly established itself as a leader in DeFi treasury management, transforming how top organizations manage their financial assets. Originally formed in 2020 to manage the Gnosis treasury, karpatkey has since expanded its services to provide sophisticated financial solutions for renowned DeFi protocols such as AAVE, Balancer, and ENS.

karpatkey is trusted by the DeFi community due to its commitment to transparency and security. The company’s non-custodial approach allows DAOs to retain full control over their assets—a critical feature in today’s trust-driven ecosystem. karpatkey also offers advanced automation tools for risk management, ensuring that clients’ assets are managed with precision and care.

karpatkey: Redefining Finance with Innovative DeFi Solutions and Seamless Institutional Access.

karpatkey’s future vision includes expanding its product suite to serve both the DeFi and traditional finance sectors. One of the upcoming initiatives is the launch of actively managed open-ended funds, designed to give institutional investors access to blue-chip DeFi tokens and yield-generating opportunities.

karpatkey is also preparing to introduce a DeFi Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), providing institutional investors with a secure and regulated gateway to DeFi yields. This marks a significant step toward bridging traditional finance with DeFi, reinforcing karpatkey’s role as a pioneer in decentralized financial management.

Join Us in Shaping the Future of DeFi

If you are a DeFi founder or project looking to collaborate, we invite you to explore potential synergies with karpatkey and the AppWorks community. Together, we can build a stronger, more resilient DeFi ecosystem that is ready to redefine the future of finance.

Why We Invested: Justin, Marcel, Gabriel, the Trio of Gamer, Engineer, and Founder of Clout Kitchen – An AI Coach for Your Favourite Game

By Sophie Chiu, AppWorks Principal

In 2021 there was Axie Infinity built on blockchain from Vietnam, in 2024 we are excited to see Clout Kitchen powered with AI from the Philippines. Gaming often stands at the forefront of new technologies, offering a strong opportunity for startups in Southeast Asia to leapfrog into a blue ocean. This is a piece we talk about why we invested in Clout Kitchen leading their Pre-Seed round back in December 2023 prior to their latest round with a16z SPEEDRUN and Peak XV Partners. In particular, why we decided to back the two co-founders: Justin Banusing, Marcel Feldkamp, and Gabriel Henry Lopez

Justin, the 24 year-old CEO with 9 years entrepreneurial experience

A closed door usually leads to an open window. In the summer of 2011, Justin failed in the first episode of MasterChef Junior in the Philippines. Suddenly, this 12-year-old had an empty summer that he had originally blocked for the show. Partially to regain confidence, Justin began cold calling to intern at various gaming startups and outlets over the next year and a half – most notably  Tier One Entertainment (then called PESO). This was the  beginning of a 12-year journey in the gaming industry. During this period, Justin travelled across the region to cover gaming events for outlets like ESPN and Red Bull and started his boutique agency in 2014. He became a well-known esports journalist. Just before enrolling at the University of Washington in 2018, Justin and two other co-founders started AcadArena, a campus gaming community, which peaked when it raised its Series A in 2022 and were mentored by veteran startup founders like Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and Crunchyroll co-founder Kun Gao.

The challenges of running a startup soon became a reality check. In 2023, Justin once again found himself in a downward spiral as the company he started pivoted, reminiscent of the dark side he had experienced before: a geeky boy who loved gaming and comics but was never the most popular kid in school; a young entrepreneur who was sometimes a rising star but could easily be seen as immature, sitting in a bigger chair than he was ready for. After splitting with his co-founders, he took a six-month break to figure out his next steps and even considered joining the VC side to help founders. While exploring this path with AppWorks, he noticed that VC investors often outnumbered founders at many startup events in Manila. Justin saw a bigger mission than simply proving his worth for his own sake. If everyone agrees that gaming is a huge market in this region, and if everyone sees the untapped potential here, then more founders are needed. With this realisation, Justin decided to resume his role and, in late 2023, started Clout Kitchen with his co-founders, Marcel.

Marcel, the former top eSport athlete that is actually a founder at heart  

Marcel’s stage name is “Dexter,” and one of his legendary teams is “Dexter is Actually Evil.” He grew up in Germany and is among the very first  esports athletes to immigrate to the US due to his exceptional gaming performance. He started his pro-gaming career early, at age 15. Approaching retirement, Marcel also explored gaming journalism and commentating until he started his own gaming talent agency, Press X, at age 24. After the Hollywood-based United Talent Agency acquired Press X in 2018, Marcel established another boutique agency, Proxy, in 2020, and began angel investing – where he wrote one of the first checks into Justin’s previous company

Marcel is always looking for new business models, products, and technologies to empower more creators including gamers. That’s why when Justin proposed the idea of building an AI gaming coach, Marcel undoubtedly joined the team. A pro gamer is never satisfied with the status quo and always seeks new innovations to win bigger games. Catching the right opportunity at the right time is another of their strong suits. These qualities are shared by many successful founders worldwide and they keep Marcel ahead.

Gabriel, the youngest founder funded by VC in Philippines   

Since childhood, Gabriel has been deeply inspired by Mark Zuckerberg, aspiring to become the Philippines’ equivalent of the tech mogul. Rather than entering the highly competitive social media sector, he founded his first startup, MedHyve, at the age of 17 in 2017, focusing on digitalizing the procurement process for hospitals. This entrepreneurial journey led him to drop out of the University of the Philippines, as he found the school curriculum too slow compared to the learning opportunities from real-world startup experience. Gabriel is a passionate and dedicated learner who has self-taught himself to become a full-stack engineer, mastering AI engineering, app development, and other related fields.

MedHyve joined AppWorks Accelerator #22 in 2021 when they grew to half million of annual sales, a good timing to think about scaling. Eventually MedHyve chose to merge with Pulse63, a healthcare venture studio in Southeast Asia. Seeking broader horizons, Gabriel decided to move to the US to gain exposure to a larger and more competitive tech environment. Recognizing the need to learn from top talents, he joined G2, a software review unicorn, as a senior software engineer at the young age of 23, where he led AI software initiatives. 

Later, his long-time friend Justin, another rising young founder from the Philippines, proposed the idea of Clout Kitchen. They saw the advantage of leveraging a Filipino tech team to agilely launch a strong MVP at a fraction of the cost compared to US startups, especially in the rapidly evolving AI sector. This new competitive team, a solid trio of gamer, engineer, and founder, was thus formed to take on the gaming industry.

The next evolution of gaming after Twitch

“Usually there’s something that pushes you into games. There’s some escapism in it,” Marcel commented on why he became a gamer. Gamers often play alone or in small groups. In the early 2000s, my high school friends from the top escalating program in Taiwan would gather every Wednesday in an internet café to play Lineage II and StarCraft, just like many teenagers worldwide at that time. Twitch brought the first wave of disruption to this behaviour. People, including myself, no longer needed to stand and watch friends play games in a café physically. Twitch created a real digital-native community of gamers and their fans. You can watch your favourite gamer play any game at almost any time. In a way, Twitch was born from the community’s calling.

The wave of innovation from live streaming is a decade old now. It has allowed many top gamers and streamers to create multi million dollar net worths, such as the notable PewDiePie and Tyler “Ninja.” We believe the AI evolution now presents another disruptive opportunity. While Scarlett Johansson was not happy with “Her” voice being resembled by OpenAI’s new product during its launch, AI companionship has huge potential for the coaching purpose. People used to rely on watching the best players on Twitch to learn and sharpen their skills. Now the best players can impart their time-honoured knowledge and expertise to an AI model. That’s why Clout Kitchen’s recent beta launch, Backseat AI, received great attention, earning 300,000 views across multiple platforms within a few hours. Backseat AI is a personal AI gaming coach companion. The first persona they onboarded is the notable Tyler1, a top League of Legends gamer with over 10 million followers. 

AI companionship for everything 

We believe there’s a huge opportunity for personalised AI in every vertical. Among the latest AppWorks Accelerator #28, Olli is integrating personalised AI into toys, powered by chips designed by MediaTek, a US$70B market cap IC design house from Taiwan. Olli was founded by Hai Ta, a serial entrepreneur from Vietnam. Meanwhile, our latest investment in Bythen, founded by Kevin Mintaraga, another serial entrepreneur from Indonesia, is building AI personas with NFTs.

Technological advancements allow builders from around the world to create the next great products. This is particularly meaningful for Asia, as it presents a global opportunity that surpasses domestic market limitations. Additionally, the region’s long-established hardware and semiconductor advantages provide founders with a slightly better chance of accessing the latest technology in computation and chip design.

At AppWorks, we have an extensive startup ecosystem of 1,700+ founders in this part of the world. Our corporate network in Taiwan, including top electronic manufacturers, can provide an experimental environment and direct resource support. Our goal is always to help founders stay ahead of their game. We’re very excited to be part of the journey with Justin, Marcel, and Gabriel.

Why We Invested: Daniel Hannum and Daniel Pfeffer, How Two Dans Are Rewriting Blockchain Transactions

We are proud to announce our investment in Daniel Hannum and Daniel Pfeffer, the CEO and CTO of GasHawk. They are tackling one of the fundamental elements of blockchain—transaction efficiencies—including gas fee optimization, fraud detection, and MEV protection. Here’s why we decided to back these two outstanding founders.

Daniel Hannum, A Story of Determination and Execution

We have always placed our faith in founders who exhibit exceptional determination and execution. Daniel Hannum embodies these qualities, making him the ideal leader to position GasHawk for scalable success. 

Dan’s journey is a testament to his resilience and determination. Raised by a single mother in Washington, D.C., Dan’s early life instilled in him a powerful drive for greater attainment. His business acumen became evident at Hawke Media, where he played a crucial role in boosting the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) from US$10K to US$25M. This success continued at ZenLedger, where, as COO, he dedicated himself to the company’s growth, helping it achieve several millions in ARR.

However, Dan consequently faced a major setback at ZenLedger with resume inconsistencies, which led to the loss of years of hard work overnight. Rather than sulking in defeat, Dan took full responsibility for his actions and used the experience as a motivator to restart, do the right thing and truly prove himself.

Dan’s life story includes overcoming significant challenges, including a legal setback as a teenager, and later, public scrutiny after his departure from ZenLedger. Despite these obstacles, Dan continued to demonstrate resilience. His ability to regroup, learn from his mistakes, and correct his mindset caught the attention of the founder of Corpus Ventures, the incubator behind GasHawk, who eventually offered Dan the position of CEO after countless hours of conversations.  

In 15 months, Dan has led GasHawk to onboard nearly 7,000 users, generate US$500K in revenue and grants, and demonstrated solid early traction. Dan’s journey reflects his ability to face challenges, even those of his own making, and turn them into opportunities for growth, success, and redemption.

Daniel Pfeffer, The Data Science PhD Revolutionizing Blockchain Transactions

Daniel Pfeffer brings a diverse and technical background to his role as CTO of GasHawk. From a young age, Daniel was influenced by his father’s handyman skills, which sparked his interest in building and understanding how things work. This early passion led him to pursue a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. Throughout his career, Daniel has worked on data-related projects across various industries, including manufacturing, IoT, and construction. His experience spans embedded systems, data science, and web applications, giving him a well-rounded technical perspective. 

Daniel’s transition into blockchain technology was influenced by his brother, who was involved with Corpus Ventures. This connection led Daniel to apply his data science expertise to optimize blockchain transactions, ultimately resulting in the development of GasHawk’s core technology. Daniel’s combination of academic rigor, hands-on experience in multiple industries, and deep understanding of data science positions him well to drive GasHawk’s technical development and innovation in the blockchain space.

GasHawk’s Vision for a Comprehensive Transaction Layer 

GasHawk is addressing a significant challenge in the blockchain space: high and volatile transaction fees, particularly on turbulent networks like Ethereum. The company offers an innovative solution that can save users, including individuals and institutions, up to 95% on transaction fees by monitoring network activity and predicting optimal times to submit transactions. While recent improvements like EIP-4844 have reduced gas fees, as more Layer 2 networks, app-chains, and rollup-as-a-service platforms launch, there’s potential for significant congestion in Layer 2 transactions, which could lead to surges in blob fees. The team is already developing a blob-based service for enterprise clients, which is set to launch in the second half of 2024.

Looking ahead, GasHawk envisions itself as more than just a gas optimization tool. The company aims to position itself as a transaction layer between users’ wallets and blockchain networks, potentially offering additional services such as security protections, transaction previews, unified management, and even features like rebates or private order flow. By owning this critical transaction layer, GasHawk seeks to add value and leverage for its customers across multiple blockchain ecosystems. 

As investors in GasHawk, we’re excited about their potential to revolutionize blockchain transactions. If you’re a wallet provider, Layer 2 protocol, exchange, DeFi platform, NFT marketplace, DAO, or any blockchain-based enterprise looking to optimize transaction costs and enhance user experience, reach out to the GasHawk team and us!

Why We Invested: Tony Harman and Wyeth Ridgway, the co-founders of Random Games

While we all love to play games, over time, the same game playing style can become less entertaining. This has driven game developers to continuously seek new ways to provide players with whole new gaming experiences. Game designers have often been the first ones to embrace the latest technologies, from personal computers and home entertainment systems to 3D rendering, the internet, mobile platforms, and AR/VR.

While we got a glimpse of what blockchain can offer gamers—such as ownership of digital items and the ability to monetize them—the first iteration of blockchain games, infamous dubbed ‘play-to-earn,’ ultimately failed to find a sustainable model. However, other blockchain properties that could bring more interesting experiences, such as composability and provenance, have so far been largely ignored.

But not anymore! We are excited to support Tony and Wyeth, the co-founders of Random Games, as they focus on bringing the fun parts of blockchain into gaming to create new experiences. Their vision allows players to not only own their digital items and characters but also traverse with their items to different games and realms to forge their own eternal legacy.

Doing something new instead of the old

Tony’s career in the video game industry began in 1989 when he walked through the front doors of Nintendo of America and asked to sweep the floors in exchange for a job. After being tasked with localizing numerous games from Japan and seeing mediocre results, Tony was eager to try his hand at creating a game tailored for the US market as Nintendo competed head-to-head with SEGA for the leading position.

By writing his own manifesto on how to create a hit game to draw the attention of the legendary game creators at Nintendo, Tony persuaded the president of Nintendo Japan to grant him a US$3M budget and the IP for Donkey Kong. This pivotal moment laid the foundation for Nintendo’s success in the US market. Donkey Kong Country stole the show at its CES launch in 1994 and became the #3 highest-grossing SNES game of all time, generating US$400M in revenue and selling over 9 million copies in its first holiday season.

Tony later contributed to many other hit titles such as the original Star Fox, Grand Theft Auto, and Crackdown, and most recently sold nWay, a game company he co-founded, to Animoca Brands in 2019. He attributes his success to a motto he picked up while working alongside some of the best game developers in the world: “If you copy what’s working today, by the time you are done you are yesterday’s news.”

Wyeth, the co-founder and CTO, is also a force to be reckoned with. With an intense interest in technology and gaming, Wyeth co-founded Leviathan Games in 1998 shortly after graduation. He and his team have been the secret weapon in delivering games on the latest generation of gaming platforms for leading IPs, from the iPod to Wii, to the latest PlayStations. They have worked with household-named IPs such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Trek, and many more.

The duo are both based in Denver and would regularly catch up over beers to discuss the latest in gaming. After witnessing multiple web3 games fail spectacularly, Tony and Wyeth believe that most of these web3 games overlooked the fun aspects of blockchain that can elevate gaming. So, they decided to found Random Games Company to bring that vision to life.

Non Fungible Tokens as the base of expansive worlds

Up until the end of 2023, most web3 games have only introduced NFTs mainly as collectibles. Although these collectibles were playable in web-based games, the core experience was limited to individual games.

The Random Games team is leveling up the experience by bringing NFT playable items directly into 3D game environments. The infrastructure build for their “Unioverse” franchise allows users to create their own NFT items within the game and publish them directly on the blockchain, accessible instantly through leading NFT marketplaces such as Opensea.

Leveraging blockchain’s provenance, Unioverse NFTs will also have their own history and battle scars, making them more unique over time. Slaying legendary monsters or completing special quests will add to the item or hero’s rarity, which can be rewarded with in-game bonuses. This design transposes the play-to-earn experience into a play-to-rare experience, allowing for an even more diverse range of uniqueness to items within meaningful context. 

The revenue generated from trading and selling these NFTs will be used to fund additional games within the Unioverse. This will lead to more games implementing existing NFTs and their play-to-rare properties, expanding the storylines and experiences for all players.

“PUSH START” and let the fun begin! 

Tony and Wyeth have both been in the game industry for most of their lives and have dedicated their careers to pushing forward what is possible in the next phase of gaming, both ideologically and technologically. We believe that blockchain can elevate gaming as a whole by breaking down silos traditionally constructed by monetization tied to intellectual properties. By leveraging NFTs and blockchain ledger to streamline monetization, we see a future where a borderless gaming universe can exist with interoperability and composability witnessed in Decentralized Finance.

We are excited to be able to support founders who are forward-looking and dedicated to their mission to push industries forward. We can’t wait to get our hands on the latest games in the Unioverse. Under the leadership of Tony and Wyeth, Unioverse is writing the next chapter in gaming that we’ve all been waiting for.

If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with web3 and AI / IoT, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia. 

Why We Invested in Ting Hsieh, The Founder of DotDot (AW#10)

By Sophie Chiu, AppWorks Principal

AppWorks has known Hsieh Jui-Ting, the founder of DotDot, for a long time, and he is more commonly referred to as Ting. Ting joined AppWorks #10 in 2014, bringing his third entrepreneurial venture, iIoT, to the program. We have walked alongside Ting for 10 years, and this year, we are fortunate to participate and lead the investment in DotDot, his current venture. This article will discuss the overall considerations behind this investment decision, including our long-standing relationship with Ting, the evolution of restaurant technology, and the tough battles DotDot aims to fight.

The Chapter Three for A Serial Entrepreneur

As a serial entrepreneur, Ting’s journey began during his university years. In 1998, he joined the renowned company at the time, pAsia, and contributed to the development of the world’s first Mandarin-based instant messaging software, CICQ, as well as the auction website CoolBid. Through pAsia, they secured investment from Intel, which was one of the legendary stories in Taiwan’s software startup history. However, it came to an end during the dot-com bubble in 2000-2001. (Editor’s note: The image of the founding team of pAsia, who appeared on the cover of a magazine in 1999 with great enthusiasm, was one of the inspirations for AppWorks founder Jamie and his university friends to establish Intumit, now a listed company in Taiwan.)

Ting’s experience at pAsia ignited his entrepreneurial journey. Shortly before graduating with a master’s degree, he came across a business opportunity through friends at the National Chiao Tung University’s CCCA (Campus Computer Communication Association). This opportunity was to build an employee benefits shopping platform for UMC called “UMC Store.” It became Ting’s second entrepreneurial venture, Dottech, in 2000. The platform achieved a GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) of US$7 million and was sold within two years. This marked the first chapter of Ting’s entrepreneurial journey.

After graduating, Ting paused his entrepreneurial plans due to losses in the stock market and joined Quanta as an IC design engineer, where he spent 11 years. This experience in IC and hardware design provided Ting with rich insights—from product design and customer development to leading teams. Ultimately, due to differences in commercial strategy with Quanta’s management, Ting decided to leave the well-compensated position and embark on the second chapter of his entrepreneurial journey.

With his technical expertise in hardware-software integration, Ting founded iIoT in 2014 with his own capital and joined AppWorks Accelerator #10. iIoT primarily provided routers and network services to retail and restaurant businesses, and thanks to its superior technology, it won the Taiwan Lottery contract in partnership with Taiwan Mobile. In 2016, Ting founded GoWiFi to do rental business for pocket WiFi routers. Both businesses achieved a significant market share within 2-3 years. Much like with UMC Store in 2000, Ting has always excelled at 0-to-1 entrepreneurship, building profitable small businesses.

However, Ting was not satisfied with this. From many iIoT clients, he discovered that the needs and pain points of small and medium-sized restaurant businesses were still unmet, and the restaurant market itself had vast potential for greater challenges. In 2019, Ting founded DotDot, specialising in services for small and medium-sized restaurant businesses, leading the QR code ordering trend in Taiwan. In 2024, DotDot Pay was launched, making DotDot the first non-banking institution in Taiwan to introduce SoftPOS (software point-of-sales) technology, officially entering the payments market.

This marks the third chapter of Ting’s entrepreneurial journey. After successfully founding several companies with sub US$10 million in revenue and profitability, he is now taking on the highly competitive payments market, aiming to build a company with hundreds of millions or even billions in revenue. This is no easy feat, especially as Ting will need to continually improve himself. He has excelled in guerrilla tactics and achieving significant success in niche markets, but the payments market is fiercely competitive, dominated by large players, and requires not only upgraded tactics but also greater determination. However, AppWorks colleagues who have known Ting for over a decade are confident in him, as he has never been one to give up easily. No matter how difficult or complex a project may be, Ting has always led his team to overcome challenges one by one. This perseverance stems from his deep understanding of his restaurant clients—so much so that Ting even opened a breakfast shop himself, personally standing at the grill to understand every operational pain point his clients face. He even filmed instructional videos teaching restaurants how to effectively deal with cockroach infestations.

DotDot’s Early Success 

A deep understanding of restaurant clients is a critical factor in setting the right product and pricing strategies. The restaurant tech market is naturally constrained by the local economic conditions. In Taiwan and Southeast Asia, customers’ willingness to pay is much lower compared to developed countries. No matter how many features or how advanced the hardware and software, it’s often difficult to raise subscription prices. For example, the monthly subscription price for POS systems in the U.S. ranges from US$60-250, whereas in Taiwan, the range is US$35-65, and in Southeast Asia (excluding Singapore), it’s US$10-40. Although the cost of engineering talent varies by region, it still takes a significant amount of manpower to build these products, meaning that entrepreneurs in Greater Southeast Asia must be much more cost-conscious.

This was also the first strategy that DotDot adopted when it entered the restaurant tech space in 2019: instead of offering a full suite of high-end technology products, customers may need a simple module that directly solves their most pressing issue. As a result, DotDot first launched a simple receipt printer paired with LINE for QR ordering. Their hardware background meant that the printer was made with Taiwan’s lowest-cost DNA, offering a very affordable price. This hardware integration background also made the printer completely seamless to use—plug it in, and it starts receiving orders. DotDot’s initial strategy swept across small and medium-sized restaurants, and today, they have the support of more than 15,000 customers, with a very low churn.

DotDot’s success in the small and medium-sized restaurant sector highlights an eternal truth: for restaurant businesses, technology products are always considered a cost, and they just want something cheaper. With Taiwan facing the impacts of a labor shortage and high inflation, restaurants are striving to increase efficiency and reduce labor needs. This raises the question: should the entire design, operation, and usage of POS systems be reconsidered, or perhaps even eliminated altogether? I thoroughly enjoy brainstorming and discussing these kinds of ideas with Ting. His strategy is to offer different tiers of products for five main types of restaurant clients, allowing everything to be modular: online ordering, receipt printers, POS checkout systems, central system management for multi-location businesses, CRM management, self-service kiosks, and more. Each type of restaurant can get the product and pricing that best suits them, without being forced into a one-size-fits-all option. This is where Ting’s product design philosophy and strategy differ greatly from most other players in the market.

The Tough Battle for DotDot Pay

As mentioned earlier, the restaurant tech industry is limited by the local market’s economic conditions and scale, which means the potential for growth in Taiwan’s restaurant tech sector may be constrained. With this in mind, integrating fintech seems inevitable. This is the same success model demonstrated by companies like Square and Toast in the U.S. since 2009-11, both of which now have a market cap of tens of billions of dollars.

Before DotDot, Taiwan’s restaurant tech providers didn’t fully replicate the U.S. business model, likely because Taiwan’s banking system, through card machines or existing software payment systems, already covered non-cash payments for the top 30% of large restaurants. Additionally, with the launch of LINE Pay in Taiwan in 2015 and Apple Pay in 2017, restaurant payments had multiple options, making payments not an obvious pain point in need of solving.

While not the biggest pain point for customers, it was still an important business development choice for a restaurant tech startup. From the beginning, DotDot invested in the R&D of SoftPOS technology, which allows various mobile phones and tablet devices to become payment terminals through software. It took several years and nearly a million dollars to obtain certification from international card organizations, and in 2023, DotDot acquired a third-party payment license in Taiwan. Through DotDot Pay, DotDot aims to replicate the success of Toast and Square, becoming a restaurant fintech company.

However, this is undoubtedly a tough battle. LINE Pay made headlines in January this year with its record-breaking debut on the stock market in Taiwan, rising 195% in a single day. This is backed by LINE’s over 90% market share among instant messaging users in Taiwan, driving an annual transaction volume of NT$600 billion. In the restaurant industry, LINE Pay has a penetration rate of around 50-60%, mainly among small and medium-sized restaurants. LINE Pay’s success proves that there is a huge demand for non-cash payments in the SMB restaurant sector. For DotDot Pay, the challenge lies in the fact that the high-end restaurant segment is dominated by bank card machines, the SMB segment is dominated by LINE Pay’s large member base, and other online payment providers like TapPay and Green World are also eager to join the competition. This seemingly red-ocean competitive environment may explain why most restaurant tech providers have opted not to enter the fray.

DotDot Pay’s current advantage is its existing base of 15,000 merchants as its first batch of users, but Ting believes that ultimately, the competition will come back to the core of restaurant technology itself. Even if fintech companies offer products or incentives to restaurant merchants, DotDot can best serve them with its complete, modular product line.

This is a highly uncertain situation, but the one certainty is that we’ve known Ting for a long time, and we know he always finds leverage points, overcomes obstacles, and climbs even bigger mountains. Meanwhile, we are taking stock of the startup community AppWorks has built in Greater Southeast Asia over the past 15 years, which includes nearly 20 restaurant tech companies that can collaborate and move forward together. We often organize entrepreneur roundtables in this region for professionals in specialized fields. The most recent one was a restaurant tech gathering in Kuala Lumpur in August, where DotDot and several Southeast Asian restaurant tech startups met to discuss the possibilities. Collaboration in expanding abroad may be another path, and the AppWorks community is the best support for entrepreneurs.

For Ting, who welcomed a baby girl this year, it seems that good things are happening both personally and professionally. As old friends, we are happy to share in his joy and support him in this new and bigger chapter of his entrepreneurial journey.