Asean Tech Digest #61
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:
🤝 Gojek and Tokopedia merge to become GoTo, a US$22b GMV group
👔 Singaporean Shou Zi Chew appointed as global CEO of TikTok
🛒 Alibaba participates in US$400m investment in retail giant Masan Group
Just funded 💸
🇮🇩 Superapp Gojek has raised a US$300m financing round from Telkomsel — Tech in Asia
🇸🇬 Cybersecurity startup Acronis has raised a US$250m financing round from CVC Capital Partners — The Straits Times
🇮🇩 Roboadvisor startup Bibit has raised a US$65m financing round from Sequoia Capital India, Prosus Ventures, Tencent, Harvard Management Company, AC Ventures, East Ventures — e27
🇸🇬 Beauty e-commerce startup Social Bella has raised a US$56m financing round from L Catterton, Indies Capital, East Ventures, Jungle Ventures — e27
🇮🇩 Bookkeeping startup BukuKas has raised a US$50m Series B from undisclosed investors — TechCrunch
🇮🇩 E-commerce startup Sirclo has raised a US$45m Series B3 from Sinar Mas Digital Ventures, East Ventures — Tech in Asia
🇸🇬 E-commerce startup Una Brands has raised a US$40m equity & debt financing round from 468 Capital, 500 Startups, Global Founders Capital, Kingsway Capital, Maximilian Bitner, Presight Capital — TechCrunch
🇸🇬 E-commerce startup SCI Ecommerce has raised a US$38m financing round from Asia Partners — Deal Street Asia
🇸🇬 E-commerce startup Rainforest has raised a US$36m Seed from Nordstar, Insignia Venture Partners — TechCrunch
🇮🇩 P2P lending startup Amartha has raised a US$28m financing round from Women’s World Banking, MDI Ventures, Mandiri Capital, UOB Venture Management — Fintech News
🇮🇩 HRtech startup Mekari has raised a US$18m Series D from Money Forward, EV Growth, MidPlaza Holding — Tech in Asia
🇵🇭 Neobank startup Tonik has raised a US$17m Pre-Series B from iGlobe Partners, Altara Ventures, Baring Vostok Capital Partners, Citius, Insignia Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital India — Tonik
🇸🇬 Fintech startup Finlync has raised a US$16m financing round from Point72 Ventures, Colin Anderson, Nyca Partners, William Hockey — Business Wire
🇸🇬 Beauty social commerce startup Raena has raised a US$9m Series A from Alpha Wave Incubation, Alpha JWC Ventures, AC Ventures, Beenext, Beenos , Strive — TechCrunch
🇻🇳 Gaming startup Sky Mavis has raised a US$7.5m financing round from Animoca Brands, 500 Startups, Alexis Ohanian, Backed VC, BlockTower Capital, Collab+Currency, Consensys Mesh, Hashed, Kevin Lin, Libertus Capital, Mark Cuban, Pangea Blockchain Fund — Tech in Asia
🇻🇳 Hotel Booking startup Go2Joy has raised a US$6.1m Series A+ from SV Investment — Phocus Wire
🇸🇬 HRtech startup Impress.ai has raised a US$3.01m Pre-Series A from Summit 29K, SPRING Seeds Capital — The Business Times
🇻🇳 Flexible Pay startup Nano has raised a US$3m Seed from Golden Gate Ventures, Venturra Capital, Febe Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Openspace Ventures — TechCrunch
🇸🇬 Hashrate tokenization startup HashMix has raised a US$3m financing round from A&T capital, Continue Capital, FBG Capital, Fenbushi Capital, Genesis Block Ventures, HashKey Digital Asset Group, Kenetic Capital, LongHash Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, Qtum, SevenX Ventures — e27
🇸🇬 DeFi lending startup Moma Protocol has raised a US$2.25m financing round from SevenX Ventures, Fundamental Labs, Blocksync Ventures, Building Blocks, Consensus Lab, Dynamic Fintech Group, FBG Capital, Lotus Capital, Mbanq, Moonrock Capital, Moonwhale, Oasis Capital, Spark Digital Capital, Waterdrip Capital, Zee Prime Capital — PR Newswire
🇮🇩 No-code startup Bonza has raised a US$2m financing round from East Ventures, Elev8.VC — East Ventures Blog
🇲🇾 B2B wholesale startup Lapasar has raised a US$1.82m financing round from Nexea, Shopper360 — Digital News Asia
🇸🇬 Online content micropayment startup Fewcents has raised a US$1.6m Seed from M Venture Partners, Francesco Alberti, Hustle Fund, Jeremy Butteriss, Kenneth Bishop, Koh Hwee, Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng, Nitesh Kripalani, Prantik Mazumdar, Saurabh Mittal, Shiv Choudhury — TechCrunch
🇸🇬 Gaming startup X World Games has raised a US$1.2m financing round from AU21 Capital, Binance, BTX Capital, Chain Capital, Consensus Lab, Crasolum Ventures, FBG Capital, Kyros Ventures, Longling Capital, Moonwhale, NGC, PreAngel, SNZ Holding, The Lanlaxy Group, Titans ventures — Globe Newswire
🇹🇭 Digital asset platform startup Atato has raised a US$1m Seed from Zipmex, SOSV , Chinaccelerator — TechNode
🇲🇾 E-commerce startup Kravve.co has raised a US$0.3m equity crowdfunding round from PitchIn — The Star Online
🇮🇩 Fintech startup Cermati has raised a Series C from MDI Ventures, Central Capital Ventura, KB Financial Group — Digital News Asia
🇮🇩 Farmer to consumer startup Sayurbox has raised a Series B from Astra, Syngenta Group Ventures — e27
🇸🇬 Edtech startup ProSpark has raised a Seed from AC Ventures, 500 Startups, Assembly Ventures, Azure Ventures, PT Prasetia Dwidharma — e27
🇵🇭 Buy Now Pay Later startup Tendopay has raised a financing round from Zip Co — LinkedIn
🇮🇩 Earned Wage Access startup GajiGesa has raised a financing round from OCBC NISP Ventura — TechCrunch
Startups and downs 🚀
🇮🇩 Gaming startup Itemku has been acquired by Bukalapak — LinkedIn
🇻🇳 Job application tracking startup Base.vn has been acquired by FPT (Vietnam) — e27
🌏 What are the differences between coliving in Indonesia and in Singapore? Cove CMO Sophie Jokelson provides answers — KR AsiaKR Asia
🇸🇬 Carousell claims highest traffic in Malaysia for its new second car sales business — Vulcan Post
🇮🇩 Interview with Phil Opamuratawongse, CEO and founder of logistics company Shipper — Indo Tekno
🇲🇾 Insurtech PolicyStreet has partnered with automotive assistance platform Carput to provide car insurance services — Digital News Asia
The Unicorn Belt 🦄
🇮🇩 It’s official, Gojek and Tokopedia have merged — TechCrunch
🇮🇩 Gojek pledges to achieve zero emissions by 2030 — Gojek Tech
🇮🇩 Gojek has acquired a 4.76% stake in hypermarket chain Matahari for US$10.1m — Pymnts.com
🇮🇩 How the Driver Income team at Gojek supports its 2.5m drivers — Gojek Tech
🌏 Grab expands luxury and pet offering ridehailing services — Vulcan Post
Venture Capitalists 🎢
🌏 Softbank is the world’s third most profitable company after Apple and Saudi Aramco, having achieved a US$45.8b annual profit after the Coupang IPO — Tech in Asia
🌏 Indies Capital launches US$100m late stage fund — Deal Street Asia
🇸🇬 NGC Ventures has launched a US$20m blockchain fund — e27
🇸🇬 EDB has launched a US$7.5m corporate venturing program — LinkedIn
🇸🇬 Vickers Venture Partners is under supervisory review by MAS in relation to Envy Global Trading’s fraud investigation — The Straits Times
Corporates 👨💼
🇻🇳 Alibaba Group and PE firm Baring Private Equity Asia have invested US$400m in retail giant Masan Group — Tech in Asia
🇲🇾 Softbank invests US$60m in Axiata’s AI arm Ada for a 23% stake — Digital News Asia
🌏 Singaporean and ex DST Global Shou Zi Chew is the new CEO of TikTok — The Straits Times
🇸🇬 Google Pay US users can now send money to India and Singapore — TechCrunch
🌏 Deep dive into Ninja Van’s collection point network strategy — Parcel Monitor
Smart Nations 🏛️
🇹🇭 Thailand and Singapore are now connected in real time for retail payments via PayNow and PromptPay — The Business Times
🇸🇬 New covid rules in Singapore — The Straits Times
🇸🇬 What makes Singapore an exemplary smart city — LinkedIn
🇸🇬 Automated checkin gates are here to make your retail experience even more contactless — The Straits Times
🇲🇲 Satellite dishes banned in Myanmar — the Guardian
🇸🇬 1,000 new open-access lockers to be launched by EoY 2021 — Yahoo
Food for thought 🍜
🌏 More than half of Thailand’s and Vietnam, online retail happens on social media via chat commerce — Bloomberg
🌏 Deep dive into Sea’s market leadership and business models — DJY Research
🇮🇩 The Indonesian F&B Industry, resilient despite Covid — Vertex Holdings
The Fountainhead ⛲
🇮🇳 Ethereum cofounder has donated US$1b to India Covid relief fund — Forbes
🇨🇳 Autonomous driving startup WeRide has raised a Series C led by IDG Capital at US$3.3b valuation — Medium
🇨🇳 EV logistics platform DST has closed a US$100m Series C round led by Ingka Investments (IKEA CVC), with SMRT Ventures participating — PR Newswire
Also 🤫
🇸🇬 This is the way to wed — Mothership
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