Asean Tech Digest #37
Your tech digest from ASEAN. To receive upcoming issues by e-mail, subscribe here.
Hi technauts!
Let’s talk about: firetech 🔥, urban farms 🌾 and diasporas 🧑🤝🧑
I hope this Covid crisis is over soon. I’m close to running out of backlog on those.
Just funded 💸
🇻🇳 E-commerce startup Tiki has reportedly raised a US$130m financing round from Northstar Group, and is rumored to be preparing a merger with local competitor Sendo.
🇸🇬 E-scooter startup Beam has raised a US$26m Series A from Sequoia India, Hana Ventures, RTP Global, Zhen Partners.
🇻🇳 Real estate platform/“firetech” startup Propzy has raised a US$22m Series A from Gaw Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Next Billion Ventures, RHL Ventures, Breeze, FEBE Ventures, RSquare, Insignia.
🇮🇩 Wholesale marketplace startup Ula has raised a US$10.5m Seed from Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, OSMDV, Quona Capital, Saison Capital, Alter Global.
🇸🇬 Online language learning platform startup LingoAce has raised a US$7m Series A from Shunwei Capital.
🇸🇬 Conversational AI startup Wiz.ai has raised a US$6m Pre-Series A from GGV Capital, Wavemaker Partners, ZWC partner, Insignia Ventures, Orion Fund.
🇸🇬 Construction tech startup Hubble has raised a US$3.6m Series A from Tin Men Capital.
🇸🇬 Legaltech startup INTELLEX has raised a US$2.1m Series A from Quest Ventures, Thomson Reuters, Insignia Ventures, K3 Ventures.
🇲🇾 Insurtech startup PolicyStreet has raised a US$1.8m Series A from KK Fund, Spiral Ventures.
Startups and downs 🚀
🇸🇬 Relocation service startup Moovaz has acquired The Finder, a publication for expats, from Singapore Press Holdings.
🇸🇬 Biotech startup MiRXES has pivoted from gastric cancer detection to produce 500,000 Covid tests/week using the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction method.
🇸🇬 Biotech company Tychan will run the first human trial for Covid treatment next week.
🇸🇬 Electric car-sharing startup Smove is under provisional liquidation.
🇮🇩 The lending arm of payment startup OVO — Pinjam Modal, Danarupiah, Pinjamwinwin, Julo, Indodana, Awantunai, and Alami have obtained a business license from the Indonesia Financial Services Authority.
🇸🇬 Assembling electric motorcyles in Singapore, the story of Scorpio Electric.
🇲🇾 B2B e-commerce marketplace Dropee has partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture of Malaysia to help offline farmers sell their products online in bulk.
🇲🇲 Smart Axiata’s subsidiary SmartLuy and payment company Pi Pay’s merger has been approved by the Burmese authorities.
🌏 Meet the Iterative VC Summer ’20 batch: Become, Bungkus, Haulio, Outside Voice, Propseller, SendHelper, Starboard, and TendoPay.
🌏 How much runway should you have? 4 entrepreneurs share their views.
🇸🇬 Fintech startup Ayannah (Philippines) & payment firm ECAP (India) have merged, and the HQ of the new entity will be Singapore.
🇸🇬 Urban Farming Partners Singapore, a partnership between Singapore & the Netherlands, has been awarded funding support by the Singapore Food Agency.
🌏 AI fintech startup Aizen (South Korea) has announced expansion to Southeast Asia, after a US$4.2m Series B.
The Unicorn Belt 🦄
🌏 Grab has launched its Small Business Booster Programme, aimed at facilitating digitization and online visibility of merchants — F&B can basically set up their business online, set up cashless payment, create and track ads with a creation tool and purchase supplies at wholesale rates.
🌏 On-demand daily essentials delivery service GrabMart has expanded to Cambodia, its 8th country in Southeast Asia, with a total of 8,000 stores in the region.
🌏 The new Grab safety protocols — smaller capacity, mandatory plastic shields, no more cash, ability for drivers to cancel rides if passengers are not wearing masks, etc.
🌏 Grab & MasterCard have launched a digital prepaid card in the Philippines.
🇮🇩 Facebook’s WhatsApp and Paypal have invested in Gojek.
🇮🇩 Gojek’s CTO, Ajey Gore, has resigned. He had joined the company as Head of Engineering in Bengaluru, India, in 2015.
🇮🇩 GoPlay, the video streaming arm of Gojek, has raised an undisclosed amount, some say US$15m, from Golden Gate Ventures, ZWC Partners and existing investor Openspace Ventures.
🇮🇩 The Ecstasy of Gold — GoPlay has launched an in-app gold investment feature in partnership with startup Pluang.
🇮🇩 The four phases of building the GoFood product.
Venture Capitalists 🎢
🇸🇬 May Fortitude be with You — The US$205m Special Situation Fund for Start-ups by EDBI and Seeds Capital, announced with the Fortitude Budget, is now available.
🌏 Kejora Ventures and SBI Holdings have launched a US$30m fund, SBI Kejora Orbit, for US$0.2–3m checks in Indonesian early-stage startups.
🌏 What is La French Tech and how big are they in Southeast Asia?
🌏 XA Networks, formerly known as Xoogler Angels, has invested an undisclosed amount in Vertex Ventures’ Fund IV.
🇸🇬 Blockchain company Algorand has launched an accelerator program of 12 weeks via its foundation, for a batch of 10 companies, with US$15k upfront seed funding, up to US$250k for follow-ons, starting from Oct. ‘20.
🌏 Impact investment firm Capria Ventures (US) has invested in Genesis Alternative Ventures Fund 1.
🇹🇭 Food accelerator program SPACE-F has opened applications.
Corporates 👨💼
🇹🇭 Siam Commercial Bank is launching its food delivery service in July, Robinhood, with an initial budget of ~US$3.2m, and the support of its portfolio startups.
🇸🇬 HP is using AI to encourage social distancing in its factories in Singapore.
🇸🇬 How Lazada/RedMart have adapted to the Covid 19 crisis.
🇲🇾 Sunway Group is building a 50,000 sqf urban farming innovation hub.
🇲🇾 Sunway Construction Group & utility Engie (France) have signed a MOU to develop district cooling solutions for greenfield and brownfield urban projects.
🇸🇬 CapitaLand will deploy disinfection robots and air disinfection systems in malls.
Smart Nations 🏛️
🇹🇭 Thailand has approved a draft bill to tax foreign digital service providers. If you make more than US$57m/year, congratulations, you’re eligible to pay 7% VAT on your sales.
🇸🇬 NUS has raised US$215m with its green bond, to finance green projects.
🇸🇬 The Singaporean Ministry of Trade and Industry has signed an agreement with the French Ministry of Agriuclture to guarantee food supply chain connectivity through the Covid crisis.
🇻🇳 How Vietnam has succeeded in controlling the Covid outbreak.
🇲🇾 How Malaysia is handling — or not — data protection and privacy during the Covid crisis.
🇸🇬 James Tan has been appointed new Chairman of Singapore’s Action Community for Entrepreneurship.
Food for thought 🍜
🌏 Switching from sales-led to product-led growth: will Covid lead to a turning point for startup growth strategies in Southeast Asia? The case of B2B IP intelligence startup Patsnap.
🌏 Ethnic Chinese represent less than 10% of SEA’s population but more than 75% of SEA billionaires.
🇮🇩 Proptech & Covid: what is the outlook?
🌏 Southeast Asia received US$150b foreign direct investment in 2019, slightly less than China (US$200b) but 3x more than India, as the US-China trade war unfolds.
🌏 What’s the impact of Covid on Supply Chains? A report by Reefknot, SG Innovate & NEXST.
The Fountainhead ⛲
China 🇨🇳
○ Tibet : the new heaven for datacenters.
○ Bytedance has ditched its news aggregator app for overseas markets TopBuzz. 36m MAU, that was just too small.
○ Bio of Zhang Yiming, founder of Bytedance.
○ Alibaba and China Merchants Ports, China’s biggest port operator, have struck a deal to co-develop a blockchain-powered platform.
○ Tencent has announced the creation of a 500-acre smart city.
○ Didi’s ridehailing orders are back to normal — up to 30m daily rides. It feels good to be back to normal!
India 🇮🇳
○ OneTouch AppLabs has developed a ‘Remove China Apps’ app that crossed 1m downloads in just 10 days, quickly removed from Google Play.
○ Sovereign fund Mubadala has joined the mega-round of funding of Jio Platforms, buying 1.2% of Reliance for US$1.2b.
○ VC builder Antler is going to launch a program in Bangalore, India, later this year.
Also 🤫
○ Why Venture Capital is like Omakase — in Japanese, to leave something up to a person.
