The year 2019 belonged to gojek. The Indonesian ride-sharing giant hit headlines for a few good reasons — its Co-founder Nadiem Makarim quit to join the government and become Indonesia’s Minister of Education and Culture. It also raised a significant amount of investments from top VCs and tech behemoths like Google and Tencent.
The year also belonged to several other companies and people. They hit headlines and drew eyeballs for a variety of reasons.
This article discusses the 10 most-read news stories of the year.
honestbee describes CEO Joel Sng departure as resignation
While gojek grabbed headlines for all good reasons, honestbee, another popular startup in Southeast Asia, made it to the first pages of startup portals for wrong reasons.
After a great run until 2018, the company started showing the signs of deterioration when it suspended/shut operations in the Philippines in the early months. This was followed by the shut-down of its operations in Malaysia. This resulted in the firing of its CEO Joel Sng (the company, however, described his departure as resignation).
honestbee’s fall has been spectacular; it has a deep pocket with about US$46 million in funding. But the company burned US$6.5 million per month, which was unacceptable for its stakeholders. It also struggled to pay suppliers and was experiencing payroll delays.
VinaCapital Ventures invests in Vietnam-based UrBox and Wee Digital
In March, VinaCapital Ventures, the VC arm of the asset management company VinaCapital, made an undisclosed amount of investment into digital gifting platform UrBox and AI- and biometric-powered fintech startup Wee Digital.
UrBox has partnered with more than 3,000 retail outlets across Vietnam, as well as e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Tiki, Adayroi, and Grab. It received pre-seed funding from Vietnam-focussed accelerator and seed fund VIISA prior to this funding round.
Wee Digital, which was founded by serial entrepreneur Christian Nguyen, is the first fintech that applies financial biometrics.
This story also drew readers in large numbers.
Consumer credit company Experian invests in Grab’s Series H round
In July, Experian, a global consumer credit company, invested an undisclosed amount in Grab’s latest financing round, making it Experian’s fourth investment in Asia.
The investment also opened a partnership in which the two companies will see the use of technology and data analytics to support Grab’s customised offerings for its users, such as improvement in access to loans for aspiring entrepreneurs in the region.
Until July, Grab had in its kitty US$1.46 billion from Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Vision Fund and added another US$300 million from existing investor Invesco, a US-based investment manager.
Grab introduces 4 new services to its core app in Singapore
In April, Grab announced the introduction of four new services to its core app in Singapore — namely hotels bookings, video on demand, movie ticketing, and trip planner.
The introduction of the new features followed the launch of GrabPlatform in July 2018, which enable partner companies to integrate their services into the Grab app.
Any story about Grab, a popular startup in the region, always grabs eyeballs.
Women-powered organisation she1K invests in drone startup
In June, Singapore drone startup, Performance Rotors, raised undisclosed funding from she1K, a women’s corporate executive network that champions, funds, and boards startups. In its first-ever investment, she1K said that it’s syndicating angel investments from its members.
Performance Rotors is a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) solutions company focussing on confined spaces inspection. she1K invested in the startup after selecting it during the first she1K private pitch to its members and co-investing partners that are held every 2 months, both in-person in Singapore and Hong Kong and via Zoom calls globally.
Indonesian e-wallet company OVO made headlines when Mochtar Riady, Founder of Lippo Group, the major shareholder of OVO, disclosed in November that it sold 70 per cent of the stake in OVO.
The reason? The fintech firm was burning about US$50 million per month and that it cannot afford to inject any more money.
“They continue to burn money, we cannot afford it,” he said. “How are we supposed to be strong?”
OVO, one of the five Unicorns of Indonesia, was launched by Lippo Group, which also has stakes in ride-hailing firm Grab. Ovo is the second-largest digital wallet in Indonesia after Gopay, based on an iPrice Group ranking that looks at monthly active users.
Malaysian salestech startup SalesCandy sets foot in neighbouring regions
In May, Malaysian slaestech startup SalesCandy announced its entry into Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The company struck multiple contracts across Southeast Asia in the first quarter of 2019 and is readying up operation in the said countries.
SalesCandy’s product is SalesCandy LMS that features a mobile app action-based Lead Management System (LMS) with a real-time routing mechanism. This allows a salesperson to respond to enquiries coming from multiple online and offline channels within five minutes.
gojek acquires majority stake in Philippines’s blockchain fintech company Coins.ph
In January, gojek announced that it “is making a substantial acquisition of shares” of Philippines-based blockchain-powered fintech company Coins.ph.
The companies also announced a partnership, under which gojek’s payments platform Go-Pay and Coins.ph will work together to encourage cashless financial transactions in the Philippines by combining Go-Pay’s technological expertise, scalability and experience in Indonesia with the blockchain firm’s deep local knowledge.
honestbee names Ong Lay Ann as new CEO
As it went from bad to worse, honestbee in July announced the appointment of Ong Lay Ann as its new CEO. He replaced interim CEO Brian Koo, who was appointed in May after Joel Sng’s departure.
The company also announced the departure of its CTO and Co-founder Jonathan Low.
gojek CEO Nadiem Makarim resigns to join Cabinet
In October, following long-time growing speculation, gojek Group CEO Nadiem Makarim confirmed his resignation from the company to join President Joko Widodo’s new Cabinet (he was later appointed as the Minister of Education and Culture).
Speaking to the press at Merdeka Palace, Makarim expressed his commitment to serve Indonesia as a mission that he has been pursuing with the founding of gojek.
This story was widely covered by the media across the globe. While he is not the first tech entrepreneur to join politics, his elevation is the first such development in Southeast Asia.
Google, Tencent, JD.com to inject more than US$900M in gojek
Tech behemoths and existing investors Google, Tencent, and JD.com agreed to invest around US$920 million into gjek, the ride-sharing startup from Indonesia. The funding was meant for regional expansion and fintech development.
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