Day: January 6, 2021

Indonesian startup giants gojek and Tokopedia are in advanced merger talks, ahead of a planned dual public listing of the combined entity in the US and Indonesia, according to a Bloomberg report.

gojek is concurrently in merger talks with Grab, but the discussions have hit a roadblock amidst reports that Grab CEO Anthony Tan is unwilling to give up some control in the combined entity and disagreements remain over plans to manage the Indonesian market.

Softbank’s Masayoshi Son is reportedly unhappy with the Tan’s reluctance to cede control and is now supporting a merger between gojek and SoftBank-backed Tokopedia.

Also Read: Will a Grab-gojek merger benefit consumers? Experts are divided

The report added the two Indonesian startups have signed a detailed term-sheet and see potential synergies between them. Both are keen to expedite the merger process and close the deal.

With a combined valuation of more than US$18 billion, the merged entity could mark the creation of an unprecedented “super app”, with services ranging from ride-hailing and payments to online shopping and logistics.

A deal between gojek and Tokopedia is likely to face less regulatory pressure than the Grab-gojek deal as government officials have already expressed reservations over the latter.

The companies are weighing their options for a public offering, with two main possible routes — a traditional dual-listing in Indonesia and the US or a merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).

Also Read: What does Peter Thiel-backed Bridgetown’s IPO mean for SEA’s startup ecosystem?

This development comes in the wake of a report last month that Tokopedia had hired Morgan Stanley and Citi as advisers to accelerate its public listing plans. This came off the back of a report that Peter Thiel-backed SPAC, Bridgetown Holdings, was in discussions for a potential merger with the Jakarta-based firm.

In an official statement dated 17 December, a Tokopedia spokesperson wrote:

“Market adoption is accelerating business growth since the pandemic. We are considering to accelerate our plan to go public and we have appointed Morgan Stanley and Citi to be our advisors. We have not decided yet which market and method, and still considering options.”

“SPAC is a potential option that we could consider but that we have not committed to anything at the moment.”

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Image Credit: gojek

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Singapore-based private equity and VC firm Heritas Capital aims to make the initial close of its second fund in the first half of 2021, as per multiple reports.

Launched in December 2020 with a target fund size of US$30 million, Heritas Venture Fund II (HVF II) plans to invest in up to 15 seed and Series A-stage companies in sectors ranging from foodtech to edtech across Asia.

The development comes at a time when verticals such as online learning and alternative food markets are seeing accelerated growth, thanks to COVID-19.

“We are seeing a strong pipeline of attractive deal flows, which are also impactful in terms of enhancing access to affordable quality healthcare and education, and contributing to sustainable growth,” said Chik Wai Chiew, CEO and Executive Director of Heritas Capital.

Heritas recently led a US$3 million Series A+ funding round in Cakap, an Indonesian online language learning platform. Its other portfolio companies include Indonesian telehealth startup Alodokter and Singapore-based mental health firm Holmusk.

Also Read: Cakap bags US$3M in Series A+ funding to expand its language learning platform in Indonesia

Launched in 2017, Heritas Capital has so far invested in 10 startups, including biotech platform Hummingbird Bioscience and foodtech startup Alchemy Foodtech, which specialises in food innovations to fight diabetes and other chronic diseases.

According to reports, the investment firm has plans to launch another PE fund,  Termed Heritas Growth Fund III, with a corpus of US$150 million.

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Image Credit: Photo by Peter Nguyen on Unsplash

 

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Poptron, a lifestyle social commerce platform in Malaysia, has secured US$1 million in strategic investment from an unnamed NASDAQ-listed company.

These investments will be used to develop the platform’s version 2.0 (expected to be rolled out in January 2021) as well as expand the team and begin operations in Singapore by Q1 2021.

The Kuala Lumpur-headquartered tech startup said in a statement that it is planning to raise an additional US$375,000 via pitchIN, a local equity crowdfunding platform, in Q1 2021.

Launched in September 2019, Poptron is a curated e-commerce platform that connects microbrands — selling high-quality, natural and eco-friendly products or artisanal goods — with like-minded global users.

Also Read: A look at the future of social commerce

The firm helps sellers overcome key pain points in customer acquisition, business management and regional growth by using a single platform to handle everything from enquiries to shipping.

Users will also be able to discover, follow and shop with peace of mind through an intuitive user interface while tracking each delivery straight to their doorstep.

Poptron claims that over 100 microbrands with more than 700 different types of product listings have since come on board, ranging from personal care, fashion items, arts and crafts, to pets necessities and home and living products.

Founder Brian Johnson Lowe said: “Before the Movement Control Order (MCO), I used to frequent local arts bazaars and discovered a lot of interesting, high-quality products from small brands and businesses. Due to the pandemic, bazaars came to a halt, so these brands are depending on online sales, usually gathered from various social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Online demand generation became a critical area of focus, and it became quite evident that securing new customers online isn’t as easy as it seems.”

Globally, there are almost 2.2 million microbrands in 2020, with the total available market of US$7.6 billion.

Also Read: What customers really want from brands and businesses in the post-pandemic world

Out of this, the serviceable available market for Poptron is worth US$3.8 billion, which counts for 1.5 million out of the expected 3.79 million global microbrand market in 2025.  Poptron aims to capture US$1.6 billion of the market share with 600,000 microbrands generating its global revenue in 2025.

“With Poptron, we hope to gather all these brands in one place for consumers to discover, our idea is to prove the value of this unique platform and increase the business returns of our merchants first. Being able to make the strides that we have during the course of this year is a testament to the drive and passion of the team,” he added.

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Image Credit: Poptron

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Despite its huge popularity these days, the e-commerce industry remains a fairly new industry. Having made its entrance into the region at the turn of the millennium, the growth of e-commerce only accelerated in the last decade.

As millennials flock to work in e-commerce companies, we would expect to see an adoption of “Gen Z work ethics”, where gender diversity and job satisfaction are highly valued.

iPrice Group, a regional meta-search website, gathered data and released a report sharing insights into gender diversity and job satisfaction rates of the top three e-commerce companies across Southeast Asia.

Here are the main takeaways:

Gender diversity in top-level roles

Despite increasingly strong rhetoric to have women helm top-level roles within companies, disparity is still present due to inherent bias within the society for females to be family-orientated.

The report found that only 31 per cent of women occupy C-level roles within e-commerce companies in the region. Similarly, 62 per cent of Vice Presidents in Southeast Asia’s top e-commerce companies are men, with only 38 per cent being women.

However, the gap is smaller for Senior Vice President (SVP) roles. Close to half of the top e-commerce SVPs are women while 56 per cent are men.

Also Read: How the tech industry can become friendlier for women

Overall, there is a 60-40 disparity between men and women when it comes to being in positions of power. Given centuries of gender inequality and women taking time off for child-rearing, the disparity isn’t as wide as we may have assumed.

Amongst the surveyed countries, Hong Kong had the highest percentage of women helming top-level positions — where 55 per cent of top-level executives are women. Vietnam and Thailand trail behind Hong Kong at 46 per cent and 44 per cent respectively.

Surprisingly, Singapore has the least women in power in Southeast Asia with only 35 per cent occupying top-level roles.

Job satisfaction in Southeast Asia’s top e-commerce companies

Overall data suggest many enjoy working in the e-commerce industry of Southeast Asia. More than half of employees in e-commerce companies would recommend it as a workplace to their friends, while e-commerce CEOs have high approval ratings ranging from 66 to 97 per cent.

Indonesians are the most satisfied with the e-commerce industry as a workplace. According to iPrice’s data gathered from Glassdoor, Indonesians give e-commerce companies a 4.3-star rating. Ninety per cent  of the surveyed employees would recommend these companies to a friend, with 97 per cent of them approving of their CEOs.

Also Read: Startup founders are responsible for their remote employees. Here’s how to fulfil your duty of care

The next most satisfied employees are the Filipinos. They gave their employers a 3.8-star rating, with 76 per cent recommending their companies to friends, and 87 per cent of them approving of their CEOs. This is despite the Philippines recording one of the lowest monthly salaries at US$588, above Vietnam’s US$394.

Despite having the highest monthly salary among the surveyed countries at US$3,116, Singaporeans seem to be the most unsatisfied with working in the top e-commerce companies.

Singaporean participants of Glassdoor only gave an average rating of 3-stars for their e-commerce employers. Fifty-three per cent would recommend their employers to a friend and only 66 per cent of them approve of the CEO.

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Image Credit: iPrice Group

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Singapore-based financial products comparison platform, GoBear, has announced that it will shut down its operations, joining the list of startups that were forced to end their operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This comes amidst an extended period of decreased demand for its financial products and services, with travel insurance hit badly by the pandemic.

“GoBear has made the difficult decision to close the business. Our purpose was to improve the financial health of people across Asia and I’m proud and grateful for the contributions that all our employees and partners have made towards that mission,” said Adrian Chng, CEO of GoBear.

The company further added that it will have adequate financial resources to honour existing contracts with its customers and employees and will work with relevant authorities to ensure smooth closure of the business.

Founded in 2015 by CTO Ivonne Bojoh and Chief Commercial Officer Marnix Zwart (both left the firm in November 2019), GoBear operates a platform for insurance, banking and lending products in seven markets in Southeast Asia.

GoBear was initially meant to be a metasearch engine, before making a transition into financial services. It claimed in May 2020 that it had over 100 commercial partners, including banks and insurance providers, and its services were used by over 55 million people.

The platform has raised US$97 million in funding to date, the latest being a US$17 million round (led by Dutch VC firm Walvis Participaties and asset management firm Aegon) in May 2020. It had also acquired local digital lending platform AsiaKredit in the same month.

Also Read: GoBear grabs US$17M in funding to accelerate its financial services across Asia

In the statement announcing the funding, Chng had claimed GoBear’s digital insurance brokerage segment had seen a 52 per cent increase in average order value in the last three months. It had also registered a 50 per cent year-on-year revenue growth from loan products.

As of May 2020, GoBear had a presence in seven Asian markets, including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

In the first sign of trouble brewing within the company, GoBear announced in September 2020 that it would cut 22 staff across its operations, product, and technology teams — 11 per cent of its global workforce of 200.

Last year, several companies had ceased operations due to COVID-19, including Indonesian e-commerce platforms Sorabel and Blanja and budget hotel aggregator Airy.

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Image Credit: Gobear

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