The e-commerce industry in the six largest Southeast Asian (SEA) markets is set to continue growing as it will likely reach US$172 billion in value in 2025, according to a report by Google, Temasek, and Bain company.

iPrice Group, an e-commerce aggregator, collaborated with SimilarWeb and AppsFlyer to discover the impact of COVID-19 in their Map of E-commerce Yearend Report 2020.

The report uncovered three major changes such as:

1. Which e-commerce sites gained their web visits?
2. SEA customers’ average spending increased by 19 per cent
3. What drives SEA customers to install & uninstall shopping apps?

Specifically, changes in online shopping behaviour in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Which e-commerce sites gained their web visits?

2020 has signified strong customer confidence in e-commerce retail despite mobility restrictions and mounting concerns over the global pandemic.

The report reveals that the overall website traffic of online shopping platforms increased positively across all countries year-over-year. This can be seen most in Singapore, which experienced a surge of 35 per cent compared to 2019, followed by the Philippines (21 per cent), Vietnam (19 per cent), Malaysia (17 per cent), Thailand (15 per cent), and Indonesia (six per cent).

Data also showed that online department stores’ web traffic experienced a 52 per cent average increase from Q1 of 2020. This could be a tell-tale sign that most countries in the region flocked to online department stores instead of physical stores due to social distancing.

Also Read: The holiday edit: Zalora CMO on how to tap social media to induce consumer shopping behaviour

Nonetheless, some e-commerce sites’ web traffic has taken a beating due to the pandemic. For instance, platforms that offer cosmetic products showed an average web traffic decrease of 35 per cent from Q1 to Q4 2020. Meanwhile, fashion and electronics sites also experienced a slight decrease of 14 per cent in traffic in the six aforementioned countries.

Whilst demand for essential goods is necessary, COVID-19 has broadened the online demand of Southeast Asian consumers for non-essential items such as fashion, electronics, health & beauty, and sports & outdoors that were seen through online spending instead.

Southeast Asians’ average spending increased by 19 per cent

Although fashion and electronics sites saw a slight decrease in web traffic, the average basket size for these categories significantly increased. Sports & outdoor products met the same fate as well.

iPrice Group’s platform found that consumers in SEA spent an overall average of US$32 per order in 2020, which was 19 per cent higher than 2019. Singapore and Malaysia saw the highest average basket size of US$61 and US$41 respectively in 2020.

These unprecedented shifts have presented a sign of digital acceleration in online retail despite the global pandemic that affecting consumers in SEA.

What drives SEA customers to install & uninstall shopping apps?

As most people were embracing technology in response to a volatile and uncertain situation, there is a prime opportunity for mobile shopping apps to continuously engage with SEA consumers.

That said, AppsFlyer & iPrice analysed over 12.4 million installs and found that there was a two per cent average increase of organic installs on iOS & Android’s shopping applications from January to June.

Among many things that led to users installing shopping applications were lockdown periods and online sales.

For instance, with lockdown measures were imposed in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, people embarked to install and tried different shopping apps between March until April. This also coincided with various online sales events such as Ramadhan, while people were being trapped indoors.

Also Read: How shopping sites performed during COVID-19 in Singapore

Meanwhile, the Lunar New Year and Songkran Festival also showed a surge of installations in Vietnam and Thailand from January to February.

Major e-commerce companies across the region have also rolled out other marketing campaigns that drew customers through gamified features on the app, free shipping, and discounts. For instance, superstars such as K-pop group Blackpink, actor Lee Min-ho, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, and Singapore’s e-commerce ambassador Phua Chu Kang.

The success of organic installs has not gone unnoticed as the study also recognised six out of 10 SEA users are still using mobile shopping apps as their primary channel.

However, data reported that there was an increasing rate of uninstallation in five countries. The highest average uninstallation was led by Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore with an increase of 49 per cent, 47 per cent, 41 per cent, 37 per cent, and 36 per cent respectively.

This proves Southeast Asian users are more selective of shopping apps by uninstalling apps they don’t use as the pandemic continues.

The COVID-19 pandemic will provide further impetus for growth as shopping behaviour will continually shift. It remains imperative for most e-commerce companies to strengthen their relationship with consumers through relevant campaigns.

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Singapore is testing the use of autonomous robots in providing on-demand courier deliveries.

The one-year trial, which is expected to pave the way for wider use of autonomous robot couriers, is led by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), in partnership with Housing & Development Board (HDB), Land Transport Authority (LTA), Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), logistics service provider CM Logistics, supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice, and technology provider OTSAW.

Autonomous robots will allow consumers to choose when they want their items delivered, instead of adhering to a fixed delivery schedule.

Also Read: This made-in-Singapore robotic coffee barista will receive you at Japan’s train stations ahead of Olympics

For instance, after buying groceries such as rice or diapers at a supermarket, a consumer can drop off the purchases at a concierge counter to continue shopping or dining and have them delivered to their HDB block at a time the consumer chooses.

Other items that could be delivered through these robot couriers include perishables such as food or flowers, and even controlled items such as medicine.

The trial will see two OTSAW robots delivering parcels and groceries to the lift lobbies of seven Waterway Woodcress HDB blocks. This is intended at assessing technologies such as AI for autonomous navigation, obstacle detection and avoidance; infrastructure such as communications systems and road networks (including connectivity and slopes); and business models for commercial viability.

To ensure public safety, both autonomous robots have passed the LTA’s safety assessment for the supervised use of autonomous vehicles on public paths. The speed for each robot, which weighs 80 kg (unloaded), is further capped at walking speeds (about 5 kmh). Each robot is also accompanied by a safety officer during the trial period.

Through a mobile app, consumers will be notified when the robot is en route to its destination and will receive a confirmation notification that the robot has arrived.

The robot will also provide a QR code for recipients to scan at the collection point via their mobile phones, thus ensuring that only the authorised person will be able to access to the assigned compartment and its contents.

“With the growth of e-commerce, consumers have grown accustomed to expecting food, products and groceries to be delivered to their home in increasingly shorter periods of time. Autonomous delivery robots can play an important role in augmenting existing delivery infrastructure to enhance the consumer experience and drive productivity gains,” said Kiren Kumar, Deputy Chief Executive, IMDA.

Also Read: Goldbell looking to foray into autonomous mobility space, says Future Mobility unit MD Kelvin Tay

“We continually seek new opportunities to better serve our residents and shoppers, including leveraging innovative technologies such as the last-mile delivery by autonomous robots. By supporting this initiative at our first new-generation Neighbourhood Centre, Oasis Terraces, we hope this will provide for greater convenience and enhance the retail experience for about 700 residential households at Waterway Woodcress,” said Kee Lay Cheng, Group Director for Properties and Land, HDB.

“Urban logistics keep the city going by delivering goods to people and businesses efficiently. Employing technology to explore alternate and innovative modes of delivery is one way Singapore builds a world-class urban logistics system that also enhances land and labour productivity. This enables our city to become more liveable, sustainable and connected,” said Chiu Wen Tung, Group Director (Research & Development), URA.

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Image Credit: IMDA

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Vietnamese internet giant VNG Corporation has invested US$6 million into B2B gifting services company Got It in exchange for a 25 per cent stake.

According to a press note, this gives Got It a post-investment valuation of US$25 million.

The fresh funds will go towards improving the startup’s P2P gifting services in Vietnam.

Established in 2015, Got It also offers loyalty programmes and reward vouchers. The company claims its clients consist of over 500 of the largest multinational and national companies across Vietnam.

Got It and VNG will join hands to launch a premium instant P2P gifting solution with about 160 brand partners, covering over 12,000 locations nationwide. VNG will assist Got It in expanding its gifting services, B2B channels and merchant network, with a focus on users Zalo and ZaloPay, which are owned by VNG.

Also Read: Just in time for Christmas: How Gratify plans to make gift-giving more efficient and sustainable

“Since mid-2020, VNG has been pushing its strategy of finding potential startups for long-term investment and companionship,” said Le Hong Minh, Co-founder and CEO of VNG.

This is the second investment in a local startup by VNG. Last December, it invested VND 100 billion (US$4.4 million) in logistics firm EcoTruck for a 20 per cent stake. The internet giant is also an early investor in e-commerce platform Tiki, owning 22 per cent of the company.

VNG is Vietnam’s first tech unicorn, with a valuation estimated to be about US$2.2 billion. Having started out as a gaming business in 2004, the company has since expanded into digital content, e-commerce, digital payments and recently cloud services. Notable investors include Singapore state-backed investment firm Temasek and Goldman Sachs.

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Image Credit: VNG

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When it comes to trends that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures implemented in many Southeast Asian countries, we have identified several notable ones such as the rise of digital payments and telemedicine. But there is one particular trend that is not widely discussed: The rise of startups in Singapore that is working to promote sexual health and wellness.

In a coverage published in October last year, e27 noted that in Singapore, there are at least three companies launched in the second half of 2020 that are working in this sector.

But the fact that we do not talk about this trend so often might be related to the very nature of the problems that these startups want to solve: The taboo surrounding the topic of sexual health and wellness.

Jingjin Liu, CEO & Co-Founder of ZaZaZu, agrees that the sexual wellness industry in Singapore has been growing in recent years –and that the startups working in the sector are on a mission to normalise sexual wellness.

“Due to this growing perception, many startups have sought to leverage this opportunity to realise their mission and business objectives. With a global market size of over US$120 billion and growth of over 12 per cent CAGR, the business opportunity in this sector in Asia is huge,” she writes in an email to e27.

As a platform, ZaZaZu focusses its work on promoting female sexual pleasure, the discussion surrounding the topic, and giving users access to relevant products and services.

“Our intimacy survey may suggest that while couples have not increased their frequency of sex during the pandemic, many still seek more intimacy and pleasure. This is exactly why ZaZaZu was birthed ― to drive a social movement that transforms one of the biggest taboos into a positive conversation. We aim to do so by building an engaged female community, empowering them to own their pleasure and create a safe space to discuss, learn and explore all aspects of sexuality and intimacy,” Liu explains.

Also Read: Why sexual health is the next frontier for entrepreneurs

“Additionally, female pleasure is often overlooked. In 2019, Woman’s Weekly conducted a survey of Singaporean women and revealed that only 20 per cent of respondents were happy with their sex lives, and only 15.6 per cent of respondents have tried introducing sex toys in the bedroom,” she continues.

In addition to offering an e-commerce platform for curated products that include sex toys, ZaZaZu also offers educational content, consultations with experts from sexologist to a hypnotherapist, and a membership programme that offers perks such as offers from restaurants selling aphrodisiac.

“Through our ZaZaZu Club, we focus on building an engaged female community, empowering women to love themselves and to feel good, and not through pushing our products. I believe that once you build your loyal tribe, the sales will come without aggressively pushing,” Liu says.

Empowerment through liberation

As an entrepreneur, Liu says that her passion and calling have always been to build a business that helps women to establish intrinsic confidence.

Prior to founding ZaZaZu, she had spent more than 10 years in the entrepreneurial and automotive industry in Germany, China, and Singapore. She is also the co-founder of ASBO Drives Technology Components GmBH (which was acquired by China Machinery Engineering Corporation in 2019) and the first and the youngest woman to become Global Marketing Director at WABCO.

Liu moved to Singapore in 2018 to pursue an EMBA at INSEAD, and when she considered the company that she would like to start, she noticed that many companies that focus on women empowerment tend to focus on the line of career advice or meditation workshops. Meanwhile, there is a need to get to the root of the problem.

“I believe that if women are comfortable with their sexuality, and build confidence from within, then there is little need to harness the power of attraction to tell the universe what you want. Sexuality informs identity, and this is my belief. When you are secure in your identity, that builds innate confidence. Confidence is what empowers people to ask for what they want, to stop doubting themselves and ultimately go out to change the world,” she elaborates.

The co-founder had her own experiences to attribute to this. Growing up in China, sexual education was basically non-existent — Liu even described sex as “a mystery”.

Also Read: This app helps Indian millennials enhance their mind and soul wellness

“When I was 16, I moved to Germany and was fortunate to experience how schools and society openly approached sex-related topics to young adults. In my twenties, as I gained more security in my sexuality, I grew the confidence to study and work in male-dominated industries,” she says.

Women running the business

Liu met co-founder Cassandra Poon during the final phase of an Antler incubation programme at the end of March 2020. While Antler ended up not investing in the co-founders, they decided to keep on pursuing their startup idea.

As a startup, ZaZaZu has raised pre-seed funding round from angel investors and Loyal VC. When asked about the secret to successful fundraising as an early stage company, Liu says that the key is to build a connection even before the business itself.

“The secret is to make friends, always! When I decided to raise funds, I had a large network to reach out to. The beauty of a controversial business is that while we can have a thousand detractors, we also have a hundred strong supporters,” she elaborates.

For 2021, ZaZaZu wants to focus on proving and improving its concept for the Singapore market before eventually expanding to Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and China.

“We ultimately aim to create a safe space where sex is healthy, pleasure is positive and education gaps are sealed. My long-term goal for ZaZaZu is to become the go-to place in Asia for all sexual wellness-related topics and challenges, to foster meaningful discussion and build a strong community,” Liu closes.

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Image Credit: ZaZaZu

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Openspace Ventures, a Singapore-based VC firm backed by state investor Temasek Holdings, has closed its third Southeast Asian fund at US$200 million, Bloomberg has reported.

The firm’s total committed capital under management now stands at US$425 million spread across its three funds, the report stated, quoting co-founders Shane Chesson and Hian Goh in an interview.

Investors joining the latest fund include Germany’s DEG, Norway’s Norfund AS, Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group and US-based asset management firm 57 Stars LLC.

Launched in 2014, Openspace was an early investor in unicorns including Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek and Singapore-based healthtech company Biofourmis.

Boasting 33 companies from across 12 countries, the firm’s portfolio includes Filipino media platform Kumu, Indonesian healthtech startup Halodoc and TaniHub, an Indonesian agritech startup.

Also Read: Zilliqa Capital debuts with the goal to invest in decentralised and fintech solutions in SEA, India

“Our peers may do more deals, but our hit rate has been high,” noted Chesson in the Bloomberg interview. It was reported Openspace’s debut US$90 million fund returned 35.3 per cent.

In January 2021, the firm was among a group of new investors who took part in a pre-Series B funding round in Zenius, an Indonesian edutech company that focuses on developing critical thinking and scientific reasoning.

The news of Openspace’s latest fund comes amid a flurry of venture activity in the region. Last month, Taiwan-based accelerator AppWorks announced it raised US$114 million for its third fund, which will invest into Series A and B startups in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Last week, B Capital Group, which counts Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin among its leadership team, launched its US$126 million Ascent Fund II targeting seed and Series A startups in the region.

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Image Credit: Openspace Ventures

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Zilliqa Capital today announced its launch as a Singapore-based company that aims to become the “central business and investment hub” for the Zilliqa Research blockchain platform.

In a press statement, Zilliqa Capital explained that it will invest in Ziilliqa’s native utility token ZIL as a strategic asset. It will selectively invest in Zilliqa and relevant non-Zilliqa businesses.

The firm aims for investments across Southeast Asia (SEA) and India, particularly in decentralised and fintech solutions across investing, wealth management, insurance, lending, payments, and remittances, as well as critical infrastructures that will enable Web 3.0.

The firm also announced Michael H. Conn, Co-Founder and former CEO of Ether Capital, as its CEO and Co-Chief Investment Officer. Conn’s past experiences include senior leadership positions at AllianceBernstein, Société Générale, Trust Company of the West, AsiaVest, and Quail Creek Ventures.

Also Read: Uncovering the rise and challenges faced by deep tech startups in Singapore

Zilliqa Research blockchain’s Co-Founder, President, and Chief Scientific Officer Dr Amrit Kumar will also serve as Co-Chief Investment Officer and Director.

In an email to e27, Conn further explained the firm’s investment plans, stating that its involvement can be from the accelerator level, through seed, Series A, and beyond.

“Zilliqa Capital’s strategy will be driven by a strategic holding in the Zilliqa platform while simultaneously nurturing and investing in Web 3.0 projects with high-growth potential across the broader blockchain ecosystem. Our mission is to grow the financial ecosystem across Southeast Asia and India, by investing in financial technology and decentralised applications and use cases in areas such as investments, insurance, lending, payments, and remittances. We are geared towards financial inclusion and helping bring real-world solutions to the unbanked and underbanked in the region,” he wrote.

The Zilliqa Blockchain is being used by fintech companies such as Xfers for its Singapore-Dollar-backed stablecoin and regulated exchange HGX.

Its ecosystem also includes startups such as Unstoppable Domains, Mintable, Switcheo, Xanpool, Transak, Coin Rule, and Elliptic.

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Image Credit: Chris Liverani on Unsplash

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Snyk, a UK-based cybersecurity company, has announced it has raised US$300 million in a Series E funding round from a slew of investors, including Temasek, at a post-money valuation of US$4.7 billion.

The Accel- and Tiger Global-led round also saw participation from existing investors Addition, Boldstart Ventures, Canaan Partners, Coatue, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Salesforce Ventures, Stripes and funds managed by BlackRock.

New investors include Alkeon, Atlassian Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Geodesic Capital and Sands Capital Ventures.

The transaction included both primary and secondary offerings and resulted in US$175 million of new capital pumped into the business.

The company has now total of US$470 million in its kitty.

Snyk said the fresh funds will go towards addressing a “fast-growing” global demand for the company’s cloud application security platform.

The company also announced the hiring of Jeff Yoshimura (Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer), Erica Geil (CIO), Shaun McLagan (Vice President, Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) Sales). Snyk also added two new Board Members, Michael Scarpelli (CFO of Snowflake) and Ping Li (Partner at Accel).

Also Read: Driving profitable growth for cloud native companies

Since starting in 2015, Snyk claims it has enabled 2.2 million developers to build securely, with a vision to empower every modern developer in the world to develop fast and stay secure. It also works with global customers to empower developers to automatically integrate security throughout their existing workflows.

“Our relentless focus on the experience of the 2.2 million developers building applications of all kinds securely with Snyk has resulted in our success to date, and we believe there is an exponential, generational opportunity still in front of us,” said Peter McKay, CEO, Snyk.

“We first met the Snyk team at the start of their journey, as early investors. Throughout our partnership, we’ve witnessed first-hand Snyk’s dedication to developer and security teams and their original vision become a reality,” opined Ping Li, Partner at Accel.

“Salesforce Ventures was an early investor in Snyk and we’re excited to grow our partnership even further, particularly as Snyk is deployed across various development teams at Salesforce,” commented Alex Kayyal, Partner at Salesforce Ventures International.

“As transformation accelerates in this digital-first world, Snyk’s vision to enable companies to embrace security earlier in the development cycle continues to resonate deeply,” he added.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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More drivers, wider range of services on the horizon for gojek users in Singapore, says co-CEO; The firm is prioritising areas such as helping small merchants move online as well as enhancing its payments and financial services offerings; Investing in and growing its markets outside Indonesia is a key priority. More here

‘SEA is lagging behind in the growth of insurtech, financial advisory, embedded finance’; Ganesh Rengaswamy of Quona Capital however says he sees growth in open banking platforms, embedded finance in different value chains like retail, digital banks, insurtech, and relationship-based, digitally-driven banking and financial services. More here

How a great back-end tech helped GrabFood capture half of SEA’s food delivery pie despite being a latecomer; Launched only in 2018, a Momentum Works report has found that GrabFood already amassed an estimated GMV of US$5.9bn in 2020. More here

Grab weighs US IPO through SPAC merger: Bloomberg; Still, a US listing via a traditional IPO is not off the table, the report says citing sources; Merging with a SPAC would allow Grab to accelerate the listing process; Indonesian unicorns such as Traveloka are also considering going public through SPAC. More here

B Capital launches US$126mn Ascent Fund II targeting seed, Series A startups; B Capital has been riding on the rising popularity of SPACs within the region by filing one of its own; According to an SEC filing, it’s looking to raise up to US$300mn for its SPAC. More here

Oyo’s Singapore subsidiary secures US$204mn term loan from SoftBank; This’ll help the budget hotel brand to bolster its ops, which have been hit hard by COVID-19; The development comes at a time when it has started recovering from a very low booking rate during the lockdown last year which continues still in many ways. More here

Singapore’s on-demand bus services firm Swat Mobility considers Japan IPO; Swat uses high-precision route-optimising tech to pool multiple passengers; It sees Japan as a promising market for on-demand bus services in the wake of fatal accidents involving elderly drivers. More here

Goldbell looking to foray into autonomous mobility space, says Future Mobility unit MD Kelvin Tay; The company sees immediate opportunity in the ‘controlled environment autonomy’, wherein autonomous vehicles will be put in a controlled environment to reduce the possibility of accidents. More here

M Capital’s maiden fund hits final close at US$31mn, to invest in 40 early-stage startups; It focuses on technology-enabled B2B or B2B2C companies, with an average initial cheque size of about US$500K; The VC firm has made 11 investments, including ASX-listed 3D Metal Forge, and Naluri. More here

East Ventures appoints Roderick Purwana as Managing Partner as it takes charge of EV Growth; EV Growth was originally formed in 2018 as a JV between East Ventures, SMDV and ZVC; EV Growth’s Fund I (with a corpus of US$250M) has invested in notable growth-stage companies including Ruangguru, Waresix, and Shopback. More here

After Grab, gojek joins LinkAja’s US$100mn+ Series B financing round; LinkAja is focused on digital payments for retail, public services and other daily needs, with 80% of users coming from tier 2 and 3 cities; This integration builds on gojek’s existing partnership with LinkAja, which included payment for transportation and ticket reservation services. More here

S’pore health-tech startup Mesh Bio raises US$1.8mn seed; It offers a solution that helps specialists, general practitioners and doctors lacking specialist training in endocrinology predict diseases before they even occur; It will use the money for SEA and Hong Kong expansion. More here

Ex-Nordic Eye chairman’s new Singapore-based fund to back tech startups solving logistics challenges; Tradeworks.vc has a global focus, targeting early growth startups in seed and Series A stages, and is looking to invest US$100K-US$2mn per deal; The VC firm has raised US$1.5mn at launch; Guernsey-based OracleVC is the anchor investor. More here

Temasek joins Snyk’s US$300mn Series E to help expand its cloud security services to APAC; The round was led by Accel and Tiger Global; The transaction included both primary and secondary offerings and resulted in US$175mn of new capital pumped into the business. More here

1982 Ventures partners with 3 Korean investors to help country’s startups enter SEA; 1982 has signed an MoU with Infobank, C&Venture Partners, and BTC Investment to collaborate in pursuing investments in Korea and SEA; 1982 Ventures focuses on investing in early-stage fintech startups across SEA; Its portfolio companies include Homebase. More here

What will a Grab-Singtel and Sea digital bank look like when it launches in S’pore from 2022?; Both companies are likely to cross-sell services and offer customised experiences, due to the breadth and depth of their customer relationships and data analytics. More here

Ryde plans for IPO on SGX, aims to capture 30% of Singapore’s ride-sharing market; The IPO is slated for 2022 at a US$148mn valuation; Ryde claims its app has facilitated over 16mn bookings to date and been downloaded close to 700K times. More here

Rise of the she-economy: 11 femtech companies and organisations aiming to empower women in SEA; The global femtech industry is poised to grow at over US$3.04bn by 2030; Experts believe femtech sector promises plenty of profitability but for it to truly grow, the investment world and tech developers need to be “more aware and focused” about the opportunities that the industry brings. More here

SEA-focused medtech firm Genetica secures US$2.5mn; Investors include Greylock Partners’ Dave Strohm, Meritech partner and MD Craig Sherman, and Miasnik Ventures CEO Guy Miasnik; Genetica is an AI-enabled genomic testing company that analyses and decodes genes to help with personalised nutrition, sickness prevention, and children’s development planning. More here

Kopi Kenangan’s founders launch angel fund for Indonesian startups; The average ticket size ranges from US$10K to US$150K in investment; Kenangan Fund doesn’t have a preferred sector; So far, it has invested in podcast platform Noice, automotive aftermarket services provider Otoklix, and e-grocery startup Dropezy. More here

Temasek forges US$500mn partnership with LeapFrog Investments; The partnership will see a multi-fund investment strategy by Temasek as it becomes an anchor investor in LeapFrog’s funds; The partnership aims to ramp up its impact investment; LeapFrog has so far received US$2bn+ from global institutional investors since its inception in 2007. More here

MDEC announces new women-led data science and AI department; Based on the AI Readiness Index IDRC and Oxford Insights, Malaysia is ranked 28th with a score of 63.66 involving the readiness to use data science and AI for healthcare, education and transportation sectors, and is ahead of Brunei (49th), Thailand (60th), Indonesia (62nd), Philippines (74th) and Vietnam at (76th) position. More here

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Image Credit: Grab

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Genetica bags US$2.5M pre-Series A from Silicon Valley angels

Investors: Notable Silicon Valley angel investors Dave Strohm (life-long Partner of Greylock Partners), Craig Sherman (early investor of Facebook and Salesforce) and Guy Miasnik (Co-founder of Athoc that was later acquired by BlackBerry in 2015 at the valuation of US$300 million) participated.

What will the funding be used for: The fresh financing will support expansion plans within Southeast Asia. Genetica currently has offices in Singapore and Vietnam (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City).

About Genetica: Based in San Francisco, Genetica provides low-cost gene test solutions that decode genes to provide its users with personalized reports on optimal plans for fitness and diet; children development and critical illness prevention.

Malaysian digital insurance platform Ouch! raises US$365k in pre-seed funding

Investors: Vynn Capital and Temokin joined a number of angel investors in the investment round.

What will the funding be used for: The fresh funds will go towards product and business development efforts. Ouch! added it will improve its platform and service for users by rolling out features and upgrades across the year. The company is also planning to raise pre-Series A funding later this year.

Also Read: Why a robust digital insurance distribution system is the future in APAC

About Ouch!: Launched in 2019, the Malaysian insurtech company focuses on addressing the insurance needs of the younger generation. Ouch! claims its platform can educate users about their coverage and risks, and allow them to purchase and manage digital insurance products.

ConvertCASH launches “We Pay for You First” as a Service platform

The platform: The service allows users to pay monthly car and home instalments up to 45 days without any interest. Launched in November 2020 to help users with cash flow issues in handling their monthly instalments, convertCASH is targeting to reach one million registered car users in Malaysia and 200 million registered car users globally.

About ConvertCASH: Headquartered in Singapore, ConvertCASH claims it is Asia’s first “Installment Payment Extension as a Service” platform. It is present across Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and the ASEAN region, with plans to expand to Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines in the second quarter of the year and to Japan, Korea, China in 2022.

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Budgets hotel network Oyo’s Singapore unit has secured US$204 million loan facility from SB Investment Holdings (UK), a unit of SoftBank, says an Entracker report, citing regulatory filings.

This is aimed at bolstering Oyo’s operations, which have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The transaction was originally planned for 2020.

A Business Insider report said citing sources that a significant part of the money will go into technology and data analytics.

Also Read: ‘RedDoorz, OYO use too many short-sighted tactics to artificially pump vanity metrics’: ZEN Rooms CEO Nathan Boublil

The development comes at a time when the company has started showing signs of recovery from the ongoing crisis. Several reports have said that the company has managed to sustain its gross margin to 100 per cent of pre-COVID-19 levels.

Started in 2013, OYO Hotels & Homes is a leading chain of hotels, homes, and spaces. The firm, which is run by India-based Oravel Stays, operates more than 18,000 franchised and leased hotels in more than 500 cities across 10 countries including India, China, Malaysia, the UK, the UAE and Indonesia.

To date, Oyo has amassed US$32 billion in funding from 23 investors such as Airbnb, Didi, Grab, Sequoia Capital and SoftBank Vision Fund. It has also made seven acquisitions.

In January this year, Oyo raised US$7.4 million in funding from Hindustan Media Ventures.

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Image Credit: Oyo

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