Asean Tech Digest #42
Hi technauts!
On the menu today:
Tech conglomerate Sea Group doubles topline YoY to US$1.29bn in Q2 🎲, SP Group finances grid innovation with S$30m collaboration with NTU 💡, Hyundai to open an EV manufacturing plant in Singapore 🚘
And a lot of stuff on wet markets 🎣 (is it a summer thing?)
Just funded 💸
🇸🇬 Vertical farming startup Unfold has raised a US$30m financing round from Temasek, Bayer.
🇸🇬 Trading platform startup Incomelend has raised a US$20m financing round from Sequoia India, CMA CGM Group.
🇸🇬 E-commerce SaaS startup Anchanto has raised a US$12m Series C from MDI Ventures, Asendia AG.
🇸🇬 Biotech startup ImmunoScape has raised a US$11m financing round from Anzu Partners, University of Tokyo Edge Capital, NPR Holdings.
🇮🇩 Ledger app startup BukuKas has raised a US$9m Pre-Series A from Surge, Saison Capital, Speedinvest, S7V, January Capital, Cambium Grove Capital.
🇸🇬 Healthtech startup See-Mode Technologies has raised a US$7m Series A from Mass Mutual Ventures, Blackbird Ventures, Cocoon Capital, Entrepreneur First, SGInnovate.
🇮🇩 Agritech startup Aruna has raised a US$5.5m financing round from East Ventures, SMDV, AC Ventures.
🇸🇬 Fintech startup Spenmo has raised a US$2m Seed from YC, Rocket Internet, Iterative Capital, XA Network.
🇹🇭 Agritech startup Ricult has raised a US$2m pre-Series A from Bualuang Ventures, Krungsri Finnovate.
🇮🇩 Edtech startup Doyobi has raised a US$1m financing round from 500 Startups, Xoogler Angels.
🇸🇬 Celebrity video platform startup ACE has raised a US$0.4m pre-Seed from angels.
🇮🇩 Agritech startup eFishery has raised an undisclosed Series B from Go-Ventures, Northstar Group, Aqua-spark, Wavemaker Partners.
Startups and downs 🚀
🇸🇬 Bikesharing is back in Singapore. Applications for license have reopened. Bring back e-scooters too, please.
🇸🇬 Conversation with Manisha Seewal, CMO of car marketplace Carro — it is doing contacless car sales now.
🇸🇬 EV car sharing service BlueSG has reached 1m rentals, and ~80k subscribers at S$8/month.
🇸🇬 Blockchain company TADA has launched an online wet market shopping platform.
🇸🇬 Meet blockchain accelerator Tribe’s new batch.
🇸🇬 QIQ Global has announced the launch of micro, pod-like EVs in 2021 — details here.
🇸🇬 FoodPanda and ST Engineering have partnered to launch PandaFly, a drone food delivery service.
🇸🇬 Logistics startup Shippit (Australia) has expanded to Singapore, establishing a partnership with SingPost.
The Unicorn Belt 🦄
🌏 Grab CEO Anthony Tan expects social distancing to be the norm for the next 12 months, and an acceleration of digitization for SEA SMBs.
🌏 Grab has partnered with Unilever to supply its drivers, merchants and customers (via GrabFood and GrabMart) with sanitary products.
Venture Capitalists 🎢
🇮🇩 Telkom CVC MDI Ventures has announced the launch of a new US$500m fund. And Muhamad Fajrin Rasyid, co-founder of Bukalapak has joined the firm as Chairman of its Board of Commissioners.
🇸🇬 Taronga Ventures (Australia) has announced its expansion to SEA via Singapore.
Corporates 👨💼
🌏 Gaming/E-commerce conglomerate Sea’s revenue has doubled YoY in Q2 to US$1.29bn, and had a profitable quarter at +US$7.7m. Shopee was the main growth driver (+187.7% YoY). 45% of payments on Shopee were executed through Sea’s mobile wallet.
🇸🇬 Carmaker Hyundai has announced the creation of an EV manufacturing plant in Singapore.
🇸🇬 Standard Chartered and labour union/supermarket chain NTUC Enterprise have announced a JV to participate in the digital banking race.
🇸🇬 Utility Singapore Power Group has invested US$22m in a collaboration with NTU, which includes the creation of a joint lab & endowment fund support to improve grid innovations.
🇸🇬 Video conference giant Zoom will open a data center in Singapore.
Smart Nations 🏛️
🇸🇬 In Singapore, GDP contraction for Q2 was at 13.2% YoY, dragging yearly forecast to a contraction of 5–7%.
🇸🇬 The Singaporean government has revealed an additional US$5.8bn fiscal package, including US$109m to Startup SG Founder Programme, whose grant quantum has been increased to US$36k.
Food for thought 🍜
🇻🇳 How do the top 10 companies in Vietnam make cash ? Answers.
The Fountainhead ⛲
China 🇨🇳
○ 996 at home is the new norm.
○ ByteDance is looking at wealth management, filings show. Oh, and it has acquired online medical encyclopedia Baikemy for US$72m.
India 🇮🇳
○ The India ban on TikTok has created an Eldorado — or blood bath — for TikTok clones: Facebook is testing it, ShareChat’s Moj has hit the 50m MAU milestone. Likee was banned along with TikTok earlier this summer, but it has reached 150m MAU.
○ Reliance Retail has bought a 60% stake in online pharmacy Netmeds mother company Vitalic for US$83.2m, following Amazon’s launch of an online pharmacy offering.
○ WhatsApp Business has reached 100m downloads (+50m in a year).
Also 🤫
○ Project X — what post-Covid celebrations — liberation ? — look like in China.
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