Asean Tech Digest #59
Your curated summary of ongoing disruption in Southeast Asian tech. Subscribe here to receive it by email 💌
Hi SEA fans,
Last two weeks, in the news:
🏛 Grab to go public via US$39.6b SPAC merger
🤝 Fave acquired by Pine Labs for US$ 45m
💸 Image recognition startup Trax raises US$640m from Softbank, Blackrock
Just funded 💸
🇸🇬 Image recognition startup Trax has raised a US$642m Series E from SoftBank Group, BlackRock, Big-Tech 50, OMERS Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund — The Edge Singapore
🇮🇩 E-commerce unicorn Bukalapak has raised a US$234m financing round from Microsoft, GIC, Emtek, Naver, SC Ventures, Standard Chartered, Mandiri, BRI Ventures — TechNode Global
🇸🇬 Data Center Provider Princeton Digital Group has raised a US$230m debt financing round from China Merchants Bank — Business Wire
🇮🇩 Logistics startup Shipper has raised a US$63m Series B from DST Global, Sequoia Capital India, AC Ventures, Floodgate Fund, Insignia Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Prosus Ventures, Y Combinator — Deal Street Asia
🇮🇩 Edtech startup Ruangguru has raised a US$55m financing round from Tiger Global Management — Ruangguru
🇸🇬 Urban mobility startup MVL has raised a US$15m Series B from Central, TRIVE — The Business Times
🇮🇩 Coffee startup Flash Coffee has raised a US$15m Series A from White Star Capital, Global Founders Capital, Conny & Co., DX Ventures — e27
🇸🇬 Biotech startup ImmunoScape has raised a US$14m financing round from EDBI, Anzu Partners, The University of Tokyo Edge Capital — BioSpectrum
🇸🇬 Telemedecine startup WhiteCoat has raised a US$8.03m Series A from Asia Resource Corporation, Korea Investment Partners, SGInnovate — SGInnovate
🇸🇬 Equity management startup Qapita has raised a US$5m Pre-Series A from MassMutual Ventures — The Business Times
🇸🇬 Fintech startup STACS has raised a US$3.57m Pre-Series A from Stellar Capital Partners, Tribe Accelerator, Wavemaker Partners — Singapore Business Review
🇻🇳 Electric motorbike startup Dat Bike has raised a US$2.6m Pre-Series A from Jungle Ventures, Hustle Fund, Wavemaker Partners, iSeed Ventures — TechCrunch
🇸🇬 Cross-chain asset bridge and application hub startup ChainSwap has raised a US$2.23m financing round from Alameda Research, CMS Holdings LLC, Continue Capital, Dao Ventures, Mask Network, Metaconstant Ventures, Monday Capital, NGC Ventures, OKEx, Particle, Power Law Capital, Rarestone Capital, Spark Digital Capital, SRC Capital — Coin Telegraph
🇮🇩 P2P mobility marketplace startup Melalie has raised a US$2.2m from a token sale — Itsavirus
🇸🇬 E-Sports startup RSG has raised a US$2m financing round from Tembusu Partners, Gamerforce Ventures — The Business Times
🇵🇭 Buy Now Pay Later startup Plentina has raised a US$1.97m Seed from Unpopular Ventures, DV Collective, JG Digital Equity Ventures, Amino Capital, Canaan Partners Scout Fund, Ignite Impact Fund — TechCrunch
🇵🇭 Cloud Kitchen startup Kraver’s Canteen has raised a US$1.5m from Foxmont Capital — e27
🇸🇬 E-commerce SaaS startup Techsembly has raised a US$1.4m financing round from Superseed Ventures, Her Capital — UK Tech News
🇻🇳 Healthtech startup Docosan has raised a US$1m Seed from AppWorks, David Ma, Huat.Ventures — TechCrunch
🇸🇬 Blockchain credentials startup Accredify has raised a US$0.376m bridge round from K2 Global — Accredify
🇸🇬 AI startup Bifrost has raised a Seed from Wavemaker, Sequoia Capital India, Cap Vista, Lux Capital — LinkedIn
🌏 Blockchain accelerator startup Tribe has raised a financing round from Korea Investment Partners, Mandiri — e27
Startups and downs 🚀
🌏 Loyalty platform Fave has been acquired by payment startup Pine Labs (India) for US$45m — TechCrunch
🌏 Interview with Sophie Jokelson, CMO of Cove, about the potential and resilience of coliving in SEA — Antler
🇸🇬 How StashAway got to $1B AUM in 3.5 years — Spotify
🇸🇬 Fintech company Finder has acquired the GoBear brand — Tech in Asia
🇮🇩 Story of biotech startup Nalagenetics, which provides testing for pharmacogenomics with the goal of designing more impactful drugs for SEA ethnicities — Indo Tekno
🌏 How Carousell scaled its product team — YouTube
🇸🇬 Roboadvisor StashAway has launched in HK — LinkedIn
🇮🇩 Bookkeeping app BukuWarung has partnered with geomapping software company NextBillion.ai to power MSME delivery — Medium
🇲🇾 Online car marketplace myTukar has launched retail experience centers inside malls — ZulYusmar
🇮🇩 e-Wallet Payments usage and trends in Indonesia — Xendit
🇸🇬 Sunseap Group has signed a multi-year virtual power purchase agreement with Facebook for offshore solar farms — Singapore Business Review
🇸🇬 Here is Accelerating Asia’s latest cohort of 11 startups — Tech in Asia
🇲🇾 Trucking startup Ezyhaul has partnered with Shell on fleet management — Business Today
🌏 Plug and Play has revealed its third Smart City batch in Thailand — LinkedIn
🇸🇬 Flash Coffee to open 100 stores in Singapore — Coconuts
The Unicorn Belt 🦄
🌏 Grab has announced a public listing via SPAC merger with Altimeter, at US$39.6b equity valuation — Grab
🌏 Grab’s SPAC documentation — SEC
🌏 Grab will create a US$275m endowment fund for Covid-19 vaccine and community support — Grab
🌏 Behind the scenes of the Grab deal, and Harvard connections — Bloomberg
🇮🇩 Grab has acquired US$274m stake / 4% of media conglomerate Emtek — e27
🌏 Gojek and Tokopedia are reportedly finalizing a US$18b merger, to become Goto, with a 58/42 investor split and Andre Soelistyo at the head of the newly formed entity — Bloomberg
🇮🇩 Traveloka is reportedly in advanced talks with Bridgetown Holdings Ltd for a SPAC that could value the company at US$5b — Yahoo Finance
Venture Capitalists 🎢
🌏 Genesis Alternative Ventures has closed SEA’s first venture debt fund at US$180m — Genesis
🌏 Play Ventures has reached the second close of its US$135m second fund — e27
🇻🇳 Vietnam focused Touchstone Partners’ debut fund has reached its first close at US$50m, to focus on fintech, real estate, healthcare and edutech sectors — e27
🌏 KKR has closed a US$15b fund targeting urbanization in Asia — TechCrunch
Corporates 👨💼
🇲🇾 Telcos Celcom and DiGi have confirmed merger — Vulcan Post
🇸🇬 Food delivery giant Coupang has started hiring in Singapore — Tech in Asia
🌏 ComfortDelGro is now available on Lazada — Tech in Asia
🇸🇬 SP Group is building SEA’s largest underground electric substation — Channel News Asia
🇸🇬 Pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur is planning to invest S$638m to build a vaccine production centre in Singapore — The Straits Times
🇸🇬 Schneider Electric and EDB have revealed NaviX Solutions, a new energy management Joint incubation initiative — LinkedIn
Smart Nations 🏛️
🇸🇬 Singapore is preparing its own SPAC scheme — Bloomberg
Food for thought 🍜
🌏 Total SEA VC investment reached US$8.2b in 2020, -3% YoY — Cento Ventures
🌏 M&A in Southeast Asia…and vacation post-acquisitions — Tech in Asia
🇮🇩 How to prioritize product features, the Tokopedia way — YouTube
🇲🇲 The coup in Myanmar and the following Internet blackout are hitting hard the digital and cashless economy — Rest of World
The Fountainhead ⛲
🇮🇳 Fintech company Razorpay has raised a US$160m Series E at US$3b valuation co-led by GIC and Sequoia Capital India, to launch in two SEA markets by EoY 2021 — TechCrunch
🇨🇳 Alibaba gained US$40b market cap after its US$2.8b fine for anti-monopoly violations — The Low Down Momentum
🇨🇳 Uber for truck Manbang to IPO at US$30b valuation — SupChina
🇮🇳 Edtech decacorn Byju has acquired offline tutoring center chain Aakash for nearly US$1bn — TechCrunch
🇮🇳 Investment platform Groww has raised a U$83m Series D led by Tiger Global — The Hindu Business Line
🇨🇳 Deep dive into the US$97b food delivery industry, its philosphy and dirty practices — Rest of World
🇨🇳 Deep Dive into China’s Smart Cities — LinkedIn
🌏 China puts 21/100 investors on the 2021 Midas List — Forbes
🇨🇳 Beijing now has more billionnaires than any city in the world — 100 — BBC
Also 🤫
🇸🇬 Hunky Man Cleaning Service Facebook ad goes viral — The Straits Times
🇮🇩 The first original short film on TikTok has been released, it’s Indonesian — LinkedIn
🇨🇳 Food delivery x influencers — Douyin
