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Australia-headquartered Fortescue Future Industries says it will become the U.K.’s largest supplier of green hydrogen.
While there is excitement about the potential of green hydrogen, there are also challenges.
Just last month, the CEO of Siemens Energy told CNBC there was “no commercial case” for it at this moment in time.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and JCB chairman Lord Bamford at the unveiling of a hydrogen powered JCB Loadall telescopic handler in central London, on October 18, 2021.
Stefan Rousseau – PA Images | PA Images | Getty Images

A multibillion-dollar deal related to the supply and distribution of green hydrogen in the U.K. has been struck, in the latest example of how the sector is starting to attract the attention of major firms.
In an announcement over the weekend, Australia-headquartered Fortescue Future Industries said it would become the U.K.’s largest supplier of green hydrogen after signing a memorandum of understanding with construction equipment firm JCB and Ryze Hydrogen. Fortescue described it as a “multi-billion-pound deal” but did not reveal exact figures.

The agreement will see JCB and Ryze buy 10% of FFI’s global green hydrogen output. The British firms will manage distribution alongside the “development of customer demand” in the U.K.
“This is an important step towards getting green hydrogen to the customer,” Anthony Bamford, the chairman of JCB, said in a statement on Sunday.
“It’s fine having an engine powered by green hydrogen, but no good if customers can’t get green hydrogen to fuel their machines,” Bamford said. “This is a major advance on the road towards making green hydrogen a viable solution.”
In October, JCB said it would invest £100 million ($136.5 million) in a project focused on the production of “super-efficient hydrogen engines.” Bamford’s son, Jo Bamford, is founder and executive chairman of Ryze.

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Hydrogen can be produced in a number of ways. One method includes using electrolysis, with an electric current splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.

If the electricity used in this process comes from a renewable source such as wind or solar then some call it green or renewable hydrogen.
FFI, which is a subsidiary of Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group Ltd, anticipates its green hydrogen production will hit 15 million metric tons a year by 2030, before ramping up to 50 million metric tons annually.
While there is excitement about the potential of green hydrogen, there are also challenges.
Just last month, the CEO of Siemens Energy spoke of the issues facing the green hydrogen sector, telling CNBC that there was “no commercial case” for it at this moment in time.
In comments made during a discussion at CNBC’s Sustainable Future Forum, Christian Bruch outlined several areas that would need attention in order for green hydrogen to gain momentum.
“We need to define boundary conditions which make this technology and these cases commercially viable,” Bruch, who was speaking to CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick, said.

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“And we need an environment, obviously, of cheap electricity and in this regard, abundant renewable energy available to do this.” This was not there yet, he argued.
In his remarks, Bruch also stressed the importance of building up an industry to support the commercialization of green hydrogen.
Technical systems and an operational knowledge built up over 10 to 15 years were crucial, he explained, noting that this was what one normally saw in the power industry.    
“This is all still to come to make it … a commercial system,” Bruch said. “So the biggest problem is [that] under the current boundary conditions there is not yet a commercial case for green hydrogen.” More

There have been 5,000,425 Covid-19 related deaths recorded across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University data Monday.
The total number of Covid cases and deaths are increasing around the world, albeit at a slower pace than in previous periods in the pandemic.
It comes as concerns increase in recent months about a rise in infections, hospitalizations and deaths as winter approaches.

Two women walk next to graves of people who passed away due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Parque Taruma cemetery in Manaus, Brazil May 20, 2021.
Bruno Kelly | Reuters

More than 5 million people have died from Covid-19 in less than two years, as the world continues to battle the highly infectious delta strain of the virus and watches for new mutations.
There have been 5,000,425 Covid-19 related deaths recorded across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University data early Monday. In the U.S., 745,836 people have died due to Covid-19, making it the country with the highest number of recorded deaths.

The coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged in China in late 2019, continues to take a deadly toll across the world.
It comes as many countries lift pandemic restrictions and end lockdowns that were imposed, to varying degrees, throughout 2020 in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.
The rapid development of Covid vaccines, which are clinically proven to greatly reduce severe infection, hospitalization and death from the coronavirus, has helped to dramatically reduce the number of people dying from Covid, particularly in Western nations where the vaccination programs are at an advanced stage.
Read more: The delta variant has a mutation that’s worrying experts: Here’s what we know so far
Nonetheless, there have been increasing concerns in recent months about a rise in infections, hospitalizations and deaths as winter approaches not only among the unvaccinated, who are far more at risk of serious complications from Covid, but also among the elderly (who were among the first to be vaccinated) as vaccine immunity wanes over time.

Cases and deaths rising, slowly

The total number of Covid cases and deaths are increasing around the world, albeit at a slower pace than in previous periods in the pandemic.
During the week of Oct. 18-24, the World Health Organization said the number of weekly Covid cases and deaths had increased slightly from the previous week, with over 2.9 million new cases and more than 49,000 new deaths, a 4% and 5% increase respectively.

Europe accounted for more than half (57%) of global new weekly cases and was the only region that reported a higher number of cases than in the previous week.
Other regions reported declines in the number of new cases compared to the week before. The largest decrease in new cases was reported from the African Region (21%), followed by the Western Pacific Region (17%).

The highest numbers of new cases were reported in the U.S. (with 512,956 new cases, although this represented a 12% decrease from the previous week), the U.K. (which reported 330,465 new cases; a 16% increase) and Russia, which reported 248,956 new cases; a 15% increase from the previous week.

Delta plus

The Covid-19 virus has gone through several significant mutations that have caused it to spread faster, sparking new waves of infections in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Two mutations, now named the alpha and delta variants, have gone on to be dominant globally. A new mutation of the delta variant is currently being assessed to see if it could make the virus even more infectious.
Read more: UK doctors call for urgent return of Covid restrictions as experts monitor new mutation
This so-called “delta plus” variant is being reported in an increasing number of countries, including the U.S., U.K. and Australia.
Last week, the WHO said it was closely tracking the delta subvariant, known formally AY.4.2, and that it had been reported in 42 countries so far.
“An increase in AY.4.2 sequence submissions has been observed since July,” the World Health Organization said in its last weekly epidemiological update. The majority of cases stemming from the AY.4.2 variant have been detected in the U.K., and these are increasing in frequency, it said.
“A gradual increase in the proportional contribution of AY.4.2 has been observed [in the U.K.]; accounting for an estimated 5.9% of overall Delta cases reported in the week beginning 3 October 2021,” the WHO said.
Read more: The UK has one of the highest Covid infection rates in the world right now: Here’s why
It said epidemiological and laboratory studies are ongoing to assess if AY.4.2 makes the virus more transmissible or make antibodies against the virus less effective.

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After shutting its international borders for nearly 600 days due to the pandemic, Australia welcomed its first group of foreign visitors on Monday as the country took steps to gradually lift restrictions again.
Fully vaccinated travelers from New Zealand who test negative in pre-departure Covid tests can now enter Australia. They would be allowed to skip quarantine in certain jurisdictions like New South Wales, but those conditions may differ in other states and territories.

The next set of foreign travelers who can visit Australia will be those from Singapore.
Travelers from the city-state who are inoculated against Covid-19 can enter New South Wales and Victoria — Australia’s two most populous states — from Nov. 21 without quarantine. They would also have to test negative in pre-departure Covid tests.
The decision was reportedly finalized on Sunday when Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison met his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, at the G-20 summit in Italy.
“Australia is open. Australians are travelling again,” Morrison said Sunday at a press briefing in Rome. “Australia’s opening up to Singapore, opening up to New Zealand.”

People gather for picnics beside the Harbour Bridge in the suburb of Kirribilli on September 19, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Covid-19 restrictions have eased for people in NSW who are fully vaccinated.
James D. Morgan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Though Morrison did not provide more details at the press briefing, Singapore’s Transport Minister S Iswaran said on social media that Australia would allow visitors from Singapore to enter from Nov. 21.

Singapore last week extended its quarantine-free vaccinated travel lane to include visitors from Australia, in addition to 12 other countries including the U.S. and U.K.
Australian flag carrier Qantas resumed its international operations with flights between Sydney and London and Los Angeles.

‘Ready for take-off’

From Monday, Australian citizens and permanent residents can leave the country without needing an exemption.
Meanwhile, fully vaccinated Australians and their families have been allowed quarantine-free entry into New South Wales and Victoria since Nov. 1.
“A big day for Australia! We’re ready for take-off!” Morrison said in a separate Facebook post. He added that Monday’s easing of restrictions was “an important step towards Australia reopening to the world,” and urged more people to get vaccinated.
Both New South Wales and Victoria have now fully vaccinated 80% of their eligible population.
Australia has had one of the world’s most restrictive coronavirus border policies where only citizens and permanent residents were allowed to enter and had to go through two weeks of mandatory quarantine.
Thousands of Australians had been left stranded abroad as there are fewer flights available and weekly limits were placed on how many people were allowed to enter its major cities.

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Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made his first investment in a Southeast Asian e-commerce start-up last month.
But it’s in not one of the region’s billion-dollar unicorns. It’s in a mom-and-pop shop start-up that’s been around for less than two years.

And its founders? Some of Bezos’ former employees.
“It was incredibly fortunate and a huge fan boy moment for me,” Ula CEO Nipun Mehra, 40, told CNBC Make It.

Business inspired by Bezos

Indonesian e-commerce start-up Ula is a wholesale marketplace aiming to modernize the country’s millions of mom-and-pop kiosks, or warungs, by providing inventory and delivery services as well as financing.
Founded in January 2020 by CEO Mehra, the company has thrived under a pandemic-induced shift to digital, so far raising over $117 million in funding from big names like Tencent and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
One among them is Bezos, whose family office Bezos Expeditions invested an undisclosed sum after one of the start-up’s early backers told him about Ula.

The traditional way of doing e-commerce doesn’t work … So you have to find other ways of doing it.

Nipun Mehra
co-founder and CEO, Ula

Though Mehra has never met the billionaire founder, he worked under him as a software engineer at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters before joining e-commerce giant Flipkart in his native India.
Like Bezos, Mehra yearned to be an entrepreneur. But it wasn’t until years later, while working as an investor at Sequoia India, that he saw an opportunity to adapt the traditional e-commerce model for a new market: small food kiosks in Indonesia. 

Nipun Mehra, co-founder and CEO of Indonesian e-commerce marketplace Ula.
Ula

“The typical Amazon, Flipkart — or here in Southeast Asia we have Shopee, Lazada, Tokopedia and so on — has been more on the non-food side. Food is a very different way of running things,” said Mehra.
“Usually in emerging economies, their income profile is such that they have to buy frequently and in small baskets. The moment you get into that dynamic, the traditional way of doing e-commerce doesn’t work. You can’t deliver a three-, four-, five-dollar basket to somebody’s home and do it profitably … so you have to find other ways of doing it.”

Adapting e-commerce for Indonesia

Indonesia, with its vast population and fast-growing economy, is seen as a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors. 
Central to that are the country’s millions of neighborhood kiosks, which sell fast moving consumer goods, like drinks and packaged food, as well as household items.

Indonesia is home to millions of street stalls, known as warungs, selling daily essentials such as food and household items.
Ula

They’re an integral part of society, especially in the smaller cities and provinces outside the capital Jakarta, accounting for almost three-quarters (72%) of the country’s $47 billion consumer goods sales.
Yet many still rely on traditional means of replenishing their supplies by shuttering their stores when they visit wholesalers to stock up wares. 

They are very limited by the physical footprint that they can access.

Abheek Anand
managing director, Sequoia India

“They are essentially run by one or two people, who act like consumers. They own the business; they need to procure things for themselves to sell,” Abheek Anand, a managing director at Sequoia India, one of Ula’s investors, told CNBC Make It.
“For them to tap into offline supply chains is actually very inefficient. They have to go to the local market, spend hours figuring out what to buy, where to buy it from. By and large, they are very limited by the physical footprint that they can access,” he added.

Drawing on Amazon expertise

Mehra wanted to simplify that process by creating a business-to-business platform that would enable stallholders to order stock at competitive rates and have it delivered to their store for a small fee. 
So, he called on his contacts in the e-commerce space to help him realize the vision. 

Ula co-founders Riky Tenggara, Derry Sakti and Alan Wong.
Ula

His former colleague from Amazon, Alan Wong, Riky Tenggara from Lazada, and Procter & Gamble executive Derry Sakti rounded out the founding team.
“We’ve learned all this stuff in Amazon, we’ve learned all this stuff at business school. How do we bring some of that into this little smartphone and help them both make more money as well as save more money?,” said Mehra.

Powering up in the pandemic

The business got off to a steady start. But within months of launching in January 2020, the pandemic hit, making demand for services like Ula more urgent. 
Lockdowns made it harder for stallholders to source goods from wholesalers, even as customer demand for daily essentials grew. That caused many mom-and-pop shops to pile onto the platform. 

The need in the market just completely switched. In lockdown, your first priority is to get your food, is to get things that you consume.

Nipun Mehra
co-founder and CEO, Ula

“The need in the market just completely switched. In lockdown, your first priority is to get your food, is to get things that you consume,” said Mehra.
The founders responded quickly, onboarding tens of thousands of stallholders and expanding their team of 15 to 400 across Indonesia, Singapore and India. That rapid growth caught the eye of investors, helping them to attract their first round of investment within six months.

Ula onboarded tens of thousands of merchants onto its platform during the height of the pandemic.
Ula

“The most exciting addition to the company is Jeff Bezos, who’s invested, which is obviously nice validation for the business. But there are a number of other really smart people who have joined us along the way,” said Sequoia India’s Anand.

An ambitious growth agenda

In October 2021, Ula closed its Series B round, raising $87 million. Mehra said the cash will go towards expanding its existing marketplace offering, as well as launching a so-called buy now, pay later service to provide stallholders with small loans.
Within the next 18 months, the CEO hopes to quadruple the number of merchants Ula works with from 70,000 today to 300,000. He also hopes to help merchants expand into new categories such as apparel and technology, with the ultimate goal of doubling their income. 

That is what will lead to a new form of retail. Not something which we have seen in the U.S. … It will be an Indonesia-specific, unique solution.

Nipun Mehra
co-founder and CEO, Ula More

Inside E-commerce

In September 2020, the three co-founders of Singapore-based Mdada, a social commerce start-up, did their first Facebook livestream to sell products.
To date, Mdada has garnered more than 5 million livestream views, with more than 28,000 followers. The company has grown to almost 30 employees.
Mdada’s unaudited revenue for the financial year ended Sept. 30 came in at about $15 million Singapore dollars ($11.1 million).

In September 2020, the three co-founders of Singapore-based Mdada, a social commerce start-up, did their first Facebook livestream to sell products. A year on, they can boast 500,000 Singapore dollars ($371,087) in weekly revenue, and they hit total revenue of 3.9 million Singapore dollars ($2.89 million) in just August and September of this year. 
The secret, according to one of its co-founders: “entertainment.”

“You need to plan your show, because this is not just selling, this is info-tainment. Entertainment needs to be high, and that can be very challenging because sometimes even I myself run out of ideas,” CEO and co-founder Pornsak Prajakwit told CNBC’s “Inside E-Commerce.” 
Together with co-founders Michelle Chia and Addy Lee, CEO Pornsak launched the company’s physical livestreaming hub in Singapore in August 2021, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. It boasts 11 livestreaming studios and its own warehouse in the same compound. 
The most expensive product Mdada has sold through a livestream was a Rolex Daytona Green Dial worth $120,000. To date, Mdada has garnered more than 5 million livestream views, with more than 28,000 followers. The company has grown to almost 30 employees.
Mdada declined to specify earnings figures but told CNBC that it’s profitable. The company’s unaudited revenue for the financial year ended Sept. 30 came in at about $15 million Singapore dollars ($11.1 million).

Mdada co-founders (l.-r.) Michelle Chia, Pornsak Prajakwit, and Addy Lee.

Pornsak said the company trains sellers, whom the company calls “key opinion leaders.” 

Those individuals learn “exactly what to sell, when to sell, and who to sell to,” said Pornsak. “It’s all commission-based. So, the harder you work, the more you get.”
Pornsak said the longest he’s livestreamed in front of the camera in one stretch was 12 hours.
Commissions usually are 20-30% of the sale, depending on the product.

Push from the pandemic

Amid the pandemic, more companies have turned to livestreaming to reach customers remotely.
Fiona Lau, co-founder of Shopline, which helps small merchants set up online commerce, told CNBC that its merchant signup numbers increased 46% during the pandemic — with many of them adopting livestreaming in an attempt to replicate “human-to-human interaction.”
Citing the example of Alibaba’s Taobao Live session on Singles’ Day in 2020, which drew in more than $7 billion in transactions in its first 30 minutes, Pornsak said “this is where the future lies.” 
Pornsak spent more than a decade in the regional entertainment industry, and he acknowledged that his familiar face helps business.
“People trust you. When you tell them, ‘This is something that I’m using, and I really believe in it,’ I guess it’s more believable compared to someone who’s not a known face,” he said. 
Mdada ventured into the EU market in October, debuting a Mdada Travelogue series where it conducts livestream sessions as the team travels in Europe and introduces European brands to its platform.

Watch More: How livestreaming is changing the way people shop More