Day: June 14, 2021

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Ecosystem Roundup: Why SEA’s exits market looks bright

Exits in SEA slowed down in 2020 but next years look promising; A Golden Gate Ventures and INSEAD report said there were 107 exits in 2020, down from 115 in 2019 and 124 in 2018; The average M&A deal size in 2020 stood at US$74.7M and Singapore topped the chart with ~3.66B raised; The report forecasts the number of exits in 2020-2022 will total 468.

The Alibaba of SEA? How GoTo is shaking up fintech in the region; The group claims it has a total gross transaction value (GTV) of US$22B and 100M+ MAU, creating a digital ecosystem encompassing 2% of Indonesia’s GDP; The all-encompassing nature of GoTo’s ecosystem makes it a fertile ground for providing digital financial services, as seen from Ant’s success in China.

In a post-COVID-19 world, Vietnam is SEA’s latest hotspot for VC investment; Total value of investments poured into local startups in Q1 2021 reached US$100M+, increasing by about 34% YoY; The country’s startup ecosystem has been transformed from the second-least active to the third-most active among ASEAN countries, trailing only Indonesia and Singapore.

Thai food delivery startup Line Man Wongnai seeks funding, IPO; In July, Line Man, the delivery unit of Japan’s messaging company Line, merged with Thai restaurant aggregator Wongnai, and raised US$110M from BRV Capital; The firm believes its valuation would exceed US$1B and realistic target for IPO is within 2-3 years.

Beryllium secures US$3M to introduce trading systems to fantasy sports; Investors are Bullpen Capital (lead), Genting Ventures and Velo Partners; The Singaporean startup recently launched Sixer, a fantasy game where you can buy and sell fantasy stocks in cricket players.

Flipkart in talks to raise US$700M from SoftBank; Mint said citing sources that the proposed investment from SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 is part of a US$1.2-1.5B round; The transaction is expected to value Flipkart at $28-30B; The deal is expected to close in 3-4 months.

Bukalapak to raise US$300M from domestic IPO; A DealSteetAsia report said citing sources that the amount is likely to increase if the demand from investors is high; According to a Bloomberg report in March, the e-commerce giant is also exploring potential US listing via a SPAC merger at US$4-5B; Bukalapak is understood to be currently valued at US$3.4B.

Fintech SaaS firm Rapyd creates venture arm to invest in early-stage fintech startups; Rapyd Ventures will largely work with startups after their seed round and through Series B funding that have unique market and customer insights and are expanding on existing market traction.

Medtech startup Prixa raises US$3M; Investors are MDI Ventures, Trans-Pacific Technology Fund, and Siloam Hospitals Group; The startup builds an AI-based healthcare management platform that includes basic medical services such as telemedicine; It also includes features to support healthcare services payers, both individuals and corporates.

Vietnam’s HANET bags Series A from G-Group to take its AI camera to global market; The cameras boast of high-speed facial recognition feature that could detect people even when they are on a face mask; G-Group is a leading technology corporations in Vietnam, focusing on investments fintech, media-tech and cybersecurity.

Indonesia’s goKampus raises pre-Series A; Investors are Sovereign’s Capital, SALT Ventures, Azure Ventures and angels; goKampus is an edutech firm providing services that include college programmes enrolment, virtual courses to scholarships and jobs marketplace.

Genesis Alternative Ventures partners Aozora Bank to support Japanese startups expanding into SEA; This follows Genesis’s announcement of the final close of its US$80 venture debt fund in April this year; A private lender to venture- and growth-stage firms, Genesis has backed startups like TaniHub, Hmlet, Horangi Cybersecurity, and Deliveree.

Swiss insurtech startup Riskwolf attracts funding, to launch ‘outage benefit product’ in SEA; Investors are Swiss angel network SICTIC, and unnamed angels and professional investors in Europe, the US and Asia; Riskwolf’s platform is capable of detecting internet outages, modelling the insurance risks, and making payouts in real time.

Digital banking continues to gain traction in Philippines; A research found over 8 in 10 Filipinos are aware and interested (81%) in using digital banking services; Filipinos interested in banking with digital banks are keen to use services such as paying bills (84%), transferring money locally (78%), making deposits and withdrawals (76%), and making payments for purchases at local retail locations (71%).

The next level of e-commerce payment processing; From a merchant’s viewpoint, three levels of optimisation are needed for a seamless checkout experience — improvements to checkout, integration, and issuer responses; Checkout optimization reduces the number of steps a consumer needs to take when paying for goods online; Fewer steps mean less frustration and fewer abandoned baskets.

5 promising agritech startups in Vietnam; They are Demeter, MimosaTEK, Hachi, Zero.ai, and Naturally Vietnam; Statistics show that the Vietnamese agricultural sector accounted for 14.85% of the country’s GDP in 2020; The sector also provides 39.45% of the total employment in the country.

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Photo by Yan Otson Unsplash

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Check out this comprehensive list of 46 startup resources and opportunities for women

opportunities for women

“Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.”

— Anne Sweeney, formerly co-chair of Disney Media

According to PitchBook, female-founded startups continue to gain a greater percentage of venture investment in 2019, with VC dollars committed to US female founders rising by 8.1 times over the last decade. However, the share of VC dollars that flowed into startups founded by a woman or a group of women is only 2.7 per cent of the total investment in 2019.

Will we be able to work towards increasing that percentage in 2021?

With this list of resources, we hope that all women founders, innovators, and change makers can step up to start building their dreams to help create a better world for all.

From competitions and initiatives to accelerators and incubators and female-focused investors, this list has resources catered for female founders at any stage of their startup idea!

Competitions, initiatives and networks

Amplify is a Girls in Tech startup competition for women founders. The competition has helped to provide funding, exposure on a global stage, and a community of investors and change makers committed to supporting women entrepreneurs.

The Cartier Women’s Initiative is an annual international entrepreneurship programme that aims to drive change by empowering women impact entrepreneurs. Founded in 2006, the programme is open to women-run and women-owned businesses from any country and sector that aim to have a strong and sustainable social and/or environmental impact.

H.E.R Entrepreneur is a platform where it inspires, educates, empowers and connects entrepreneurs, leaders, government, and investors across Asia through its online resources, meet-ups, workshops, and conferences.

In June 2015, Intel Capital announced the venture industry’s largest-ever commitment to invest in technology companies led by women and underrepresented minorities (African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans).

All Intel Capital investments cover a broad spectrum of innovative industries, including artificial intelligence, autonomous mobility, data center, and cloud, 5G communications and next-generation computing.

Also Read: Levelling the playing field: How to build a home for women in tech

She Loves Tech is a global platform committed to building an ecosystem for technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation that creates opportunities for women. The company houses a tech startup competition focused on women-led or women-impact businesses.

SoGal is the largest global platform for the education and empowerment of diverse entrepreneurs and investors. Its mission is to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship and venture capital.

SoGal Foundation is bringing the top 150 women & diverse founders to Silicon Valley to participate in the final round of the largest global pitch competition for underrepresented entrepreneurs, as well as participate in a three-day immersive startup bootcamp.

WEConnect International is a global network that connects women-owned businesses to qualified buyers around the world. WEConnect International identifies, educates, registers, and certifies women’s business enterprises based outside of the US that are at least 51 per cent owned, as well as managed and controlled by one or more women, and then connects them with multinational corporate buyers.

WSC’s signature is a yearly startup competition series across Europe with the mission to give early-stage female-founded or female-led startups brand exposure, pitching opportunity, and presenting semi-finalists from each country at a Final Event (London) to a panel of international investors, press, corporate executives and angel investors.

Twice a year, Women Who Tech recruits women founders who are creating innovative tech products to solve big problems to the Women Startup Challenge, an 8-week virtual programme.

Grants and Funds

Amber Grants began in 1998 in honour of Amber Wigdahl, who died before fulfilling her dreams. An Amber Grant of US$4,000 is awarded every month, and one of their 12 monthly recipients receives an additional $25,000 Amber Grant at the end of the year.

Businesses operating in the US or Canada are eligible for the grants.

Also Read: How women in tech can navigate the 2021 business landscape

Global Fund for Women is one of the world’s leading foundations for gender equality, standing up for the human rights of women and girls. It works to advance rights by getting money and support to organisations led by women, girls, and trans people who are fighting for justice in their own communities.

It supports organisations led by historically marginalised groups who are working to build strong, connected movements for gender equality, justice, and human rights

The Tory Burch Foundation Capital Program powered by Bank of America provides women entrepreneurs in the United States the opportunity to access affordable loans through Community Lenders.

At the core of SWEEF’s investment framework is a women-centred strategy focusing on Southeast Asian investments in primarily Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

The Fund will invest in women entrepreneurs as well as businesses operating in sectors where women comprise a large portion of the labor force, those delivering products and services meeting the unique and unmet wants and needs of women and girls, and those where the leadership demonstrates a strong commitment to gender equality and wider diversity.

We-Fi allocated US$249 million over two financing rounds in 2018 and 2019 to implementing partners for work in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The programs aim to benefit 115,000 women-owned SMEs. Projects are implemented in over 50 countries with over half of the funds going to low income (IDA-eligible) countries, including many facing fragile and conflict-affected situations. It has mobilised US$2.6 billion in public and private funds.

Women’s Fund Asia is a regional women’s fund, committed to supporting women and trans people led interventions to enhance and strengthen access to women’s and trans people’s human rights. It envisions a peaceful and egalitarian region in which women’s and trans people’s participation, leadership and enjoyment of all their human rights are ensured and secure.

Geographical Scope:

South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan

Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam

East Asia: Mongolia

Also Read: Women in tech: A global evaluation

Astia was founded in Silicon Valley in 1999 as a non-profit organisation dedicated to identifying and promoting best-in-class, high-growth ventures that include women leaders.

Astia levels the investment playing field by cultivating a trusted global ecosystem of engaged male and female investors and advisors, who offer crucial resources, including capital, networks, and expertise.

Aviatra Accelerators aims to empower female entrepreneurs. It enables women to start and sustain businesses by giving them the resources they need to be successful. Through its expertise in business basics, guidance from mentors and coaches, and access to capital, Aviatra Accelerators continuously encourage its members to move forward, and it embraces them when they return, helping to refuel and reignite their passions.

They currently serve markets in Northeast Ohio & Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky.

CRIB aims to empower women by providing the support they need to achieve their entrepreneurship dreams. This will benefit women as they achieve personal fulfilment; their families, as women gain financial empowerment and work-life balance; and society as a whole, as it creates businesses with a social impact, raise diversity in the workplace, and contribute to positive economic impact.

Founded in 2012 by tech pioneer, Kathryn Finney, Didtechnology, Inc (d.b.a digital undivided), is a social startup with 501 status that merges data and heart to develop innovative programs and initiatives that catalyzes economic growth in Black and Latinx communities.

The Get Sh!t Done Accelerator is an industry-agnostic virtual accelerator for female entrepreneurs who want the power to choose their path to scaling profitable US$1million+ business.

Halo Incubator is a New-York-based incubator founded by two Chicago Booth alumnae. Their core and only focus is helping imaginative, passionate women solidify business plans, shape strategies, and raise capital, while amplifying their voices along the way. It guides founders through every stage from ideas to seed round.

Her Corner runs The Accelerator, the first in-person programme focusing on business growth and scalability specifically for women business owners in New York City, Washington, D.C and Philadelphia.

Headquartered in the United States with locations in Boston, Israel, Mexico, Rhode Island, Switzerland, and Texas, MassChallenge strengthens the global innovation ecosystem by accelerating high-potential startups across all industries, from anywhere in the world for zero-equity taken.

NewME is an entrepreneurship education program, serving early-stage business founders and their teams through mentorship, specialised curriculums, and for those companies chosen — capital investment. Its program enables founders to completely reevaluate product, sales, and marketing strategies, prepare for investment pitches and connect them to its network of partners. As the first underrepresented founder focused program in the United States, NewMe has led founders to more than US$47million in funding.

Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (PWE) was created to advance women-led companies. The Prosper Women Entrepreneurs Startup Accelerator is a for-profit organization focused on increasing women entrepreneurs’ access to growth capital and the number of women investing in early stage capital markets.

Ready Set Raise is an industry-agnostic national startup accelerator, consciously created by and for women and non-binary founders. Their goal is to find, support, and advance high-growth, pre-seed startups across North America.

Also Read: How women in tech can navigate the 2021 business landscape

Simona Ventures is a platform that provides access and opportunities to empower businesses and initiatives that solve gender gap challenges.

In early 2019, Simona Ventures presented its first APAC Women Founders Accelerator. The goals of the programme are not only to support gender equality by showcasing inspirational women leaders but also to build a community of women entrepreneurs across Asia Pacific.

Springboard’s accelerator program serves as the pipeline into its community of world-class entrepreneurs, investors and business development professionals. Springboard hosts programmes annually in industry verticals such as Life Science, Digital Health, Fashion Tech and Digital Media/Technology. It has partnerships with affiliates in Israel and Australia where it also co-produces programs in Life Science and Technology. Each accelerator class includes between 8–12 companies that are recruited, qualified and advised by its world-class expert network.

The Refinery, an early-stage accelerator program designed to assist innovative women-led ventures in becoming scaleable and investable businesses. The Refinery engages local intellectual and financial capital to participate in the growth of new businesses while leveraging community resources.

Women Accelerators, formerly de la Femme, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Massachusetts organisation. It is passionate about promoting the advancement of women and bridging the gender gap. This can be seen in the wage gap and under-representation of women in senior-level positions, and the boardroom and in the government, from Corporate 500 to startups.

Women of Startup Nation (WOSNA) is a four weeks programme, dedicated to accelerating the success of female-founded companies in Israel. The accelerator accepts teams that have at least one female founder.

Women’s Startup Lab is a Silicon Valley-based startup and leadership accelerator for women entrepreneurs globally who have the bold vision to lead the wave of innovation and change that is required for growth and competitiveness in today’s economy.

VC Funding

All Raise is a nonprofit formed by 34 senior female investors and has committed to doubling the number of female partners in the next 10 years.

BBG Ventures is an early-stage fund focused on consumer tech startups with a female founder.

Backstage Capital has directed over US$4million in investments towards underrepresented founders, almost exclusively backing women, people of colour, and LGBT founders.

Also Read: 3 leadership lessons for women in tech

Chloe Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in women. It catalyses solutions to the gender and diversity gap in entrepreneurship by offering investors the opportunity to Do Well by Doing Good. The company recruits women-led technology and tech-enabled companies and uses its national network to drive business after its investments. Chloe Capital is excited to advance the next generation of inspiring leaders as it continues to build a community that supports women entrepreneurs.

Female Founders Fund makes small, supporting investments in companies sourced by its Venture Scouts but operating in sectors or stages that are currently outside of its focus on institutional seed-stage opportunities.

An early-stage investment firm focused on vibrant opportunities for women-led businesses.

Jane VC is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in high-growth female-led startups. It invests globally in visionary founders.

MergeLane is a VC firm that invests in high-potential startups and venture capital funds with at least one female leader.

Next Wave is a movement driving impact, diversity, and inclusion in early-stage investing and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Its global fund has 99 women investors, 25 of them women of color, which is led by an experienced investment committee of ten women.

Startups can pitch to she1K to get connected to a network of corporate executive women, angel investors, and partners. worldwide, from all industries, to empower innovative entrepreneurship with high growth potential. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis so you can apply anytime you want!

The first female-led millennial venture capital fund investing in diverse entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Asia. Powered by the SoGal Ecosystem across 40+ cities around the world, SoGal Ventures is galvanising a brand new demographic — millennial and GenZ women and minorities — to take centre stage in entrepreneurship and creation.

XFactor Ventures is focused on making pre-seed and seed-stage investments in companies with billion-dollar market opportunities that have at least one female founder.

Also Read: Women in tech: Carman Chan’s Click Ventures is one of the most consistent VC funds globally

Kiva is a nonprofit organisation that crowd funds small, zero per cent interest loans for entrepreneurs, often prioritises funding women-led ventures.

IFundWomen is a startup funding platform providing access to capital through crowdfunding and grants, expert business coaching on all the topics entrepreneurs need to know about, and a network of women business owners that sparks confidence, accelerates knowledge, and ignites action.

Women You Should Fund is a rewards-based crowdfunding platform brought to you by Women You Should Know, a leading digital hub of women’s and girls’ empowerment.

Do you know of any other initiatives, funds, investors and/or resources catered for women entrepreneurs?

Let us know in the comments so that we can update this list to empower all females for a gender-equal world even further!

This article first appeared here.

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Naluri secures US$5M Series A to support people with chronic health, mental conditions in SEA

Naluri co-founder and CEO Azran Osman-Rani

Naluri Hidup, a Malaysia-headquartered digital health service provider, has closed a new funding round worth US$5 million, led by Singaporean VC firm Integra Partners.

Existing backers — strategic investors Duopharma Biotech and Pathology Asia, and VC firm M Venture Partners — also participated.

Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia (Japan), Palm Drive Capital (New York), INP Capital (Vancouver), Hibiscus Fund (a VC fund managed by RHL Ventures and Korea’s KB Investment) also joined Naluri’s latest round.

Naluri will use the funds to expand operations in Singapore and Indonesia, as well as launch its service in Thailand and the Philippines.

Also Read: Feeling deflated, defeated and downright tired as a founder? You are not alone

It also plans to deepen its tech and data science capabilities to enhance its product and predictive algorithms including natural language processing and depression detection, as well as device connectivity and patient monitoring.

The startup will also continue to invest in clinical research to strengthen the evidence-base in diabetes, renal, cardiovascular, cancer and mental health therapeutic areas, including launching clinical research in Europe.

Naluri was co-founded in 2017 by Azran Osman-Rani (CEO), former chief of iflix Malaysia and AirAsia, with Dr. Jeremy Ting and Dr. Hariyati Shahrima.

The Kuala Lumpur-headquartered startup offers human-led and AI-augmented digital health coaching that aims to transform the lives of people who are at risk of, or managing, chronic and mental health conditions.

Premised on the fundamental understanding that physical and mental health are inextricably interconnected, the company provides structured multi-disciplinary support to those affected by diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, anxiety and depression, as well as advanced chronic conditions such as renal disease and cancer.

Working with leading corporates in the region, including Reckitt, AXA Affin, and SP Setia, Naluri helps contain rising healthcare expenditure and improves employee productivity and engagement.

In 2019, Naluri had raised US$1.5 million in an oversubscribed pre-Series A round of funding, led by Global Founders Capital.

CEO Osman-Rani said: “With mental health at the fore in light of the pandemic, we are delighted that companies are now taking bolder steps to tackle physical and mental health holistically.”

Also Read: Malaysian healthtech startup Naluri raises US$250K seed funding from 500 Startups, BioMark

“Our work shows that Naluri is taking a differentiated and practical approach to healthcare that really gets at the root of the problems facing healthcare provisioning in Southeast Asia today, with the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases driving unsustainably high medical inflation, and the rise of mental health issues exacerbated by the pressures of Covid-19,” said Jennifer Ho, principal at Integra Partners.

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Image Credit: Naluri

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Stemly saves businesses from high operational costs, lands US$2.5M seed funding

Stemly, a Singapore-based SaaS platform that helps businesses lower their working capital and financing costs, has raised US$2.5 million in a seed financing round.

Backers include Elev8, ING Ventures, EDB New Ventures, and several other undisclosed investors.

With an industry average forecasting error of more than 27 per cent, companies face a massive impact on working capital needs.

As per a McKinsey study, at least one company in 20 has suffered a supply-chain disruption costing at least US$100 million due to global disruptions every year in the past several years.

Stemly was launched in 2018 within ING Labs Singapore (an incubator) to address the gap in decision intelligence that exists in supply chain operations and finance.

For example, it may take three weeks or more to respond to market changes in consumer behavior which results in overstocking and loss of sales.

Also Read: 6 notable accelerators and incubators in Southeast Asia for startups of all sizes

Powered by autonomous Machine Learning technology, Stemly aims to enhance the decision-making capabilities of enterprises by demystifying data science and delivering impactful business outcomes. Its platform also automates forecasting and optimisation of a company’s supply chain and finance processes.

Stemly currently comprises a team of 20 spread across Singapore, India, Indonesia, Ireland, and Australia.

Following the spin-out, the startup will be an independent entity and continue to work closely with ING.

“We are helping businesses save 10 to 40 per cent of their cost of inventory and working capital — the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars in some cases — by embedding automatic machine learning in their forecasting and optimisation applications. We have already signed on several leading MNCs as clients; with this investment boost, we are confident of growing faster,” said co-founder Giuseppe Manai.

“Global supply chains are undergoing a fundamental shift in capacity and in complexity. Stemly’s autonomous machine learning platform for the demand and cash flow forecasting has the potential to meaningfully improve operating efficiencies in enterprises of all sizes. We are excited to support Sanjay and Giuseppe’s vision of an AI-assisted supply chain,” added Elev8’s founder Aditya Mathur.

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Image Credit: Stemly

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The future of mobile: how did mobile apps fare in 2020?

It is often surprising how trends in our digital behaviour can change in such little time. The newest, most cutting-edge technologies of today can seem outdated in just a year. 2020 was a defining year for many mobile app developers precisely because of the global health crisis whose impact changed virtually every aspect of how we work, how we play, and how we live. For some mobile apps, they saw immense growth due to the amount of time people have been forced to spend with their mobile devices. For others, many setbacks and challenges were experienced.

With such an unpredictable and often precarious market, the resilience of industries and verticals is often defined by the choices that each developer makes. Are they able to adapt swiftly and seamlessly to our fast-changing times or will they lag behind? More than simply adapting and staying afloat, will they be able to soar above the challenges of present times and be able to come up with informed strategies using data?

In order to address these questions and help ecosystem players come up with solutions based on hard data, global app marketing analytics platform Adjust recently released their latest Mobile App Growth report. It is a comprehensive study that charts growth and retention trends around the globe covering the tumultuous year of 2020.

Also read: Leading Aichi into the future with collaborations and innovations

“Now more than ever, mobile marketers need a roadmap to identify just the right users, in just the right locales, at just the right points in their journey. Adjust’s data, coupled with Facebook’s insights into user preferences and actions, enables marketers to target and retain their highest-value users,” explained Andrey Kazakov, COO of Adjust.

Their first Mobile App Growth Report, launched in 2019, provided a breakdown of growth potential, aiming to help marketers extend their footprint and scale successfully. In their latest report — released in partnership with Facebook — they want to provide an anatomy of app growth, with an examination of global and vertical trends, and a data-based analysis of some of the assumed wisdom of growth marketing.

Being a leader in the mobile marketing world and championing growth through the power of data, Adjust’s slew of solutions include measurement, fraud prevention, cybersecurity, and automation tools. The company’s mission is to make mobile marketing simpler, smarter, and more secure for the more than 50,000 apps working with Adjust. Their annual report is only one of the many ways that the company intends to help mobile marketers out there who are looking to restrategise and sharpen their insights when it comes to mobile apps.

Highlights from the report

In the brand new report from Adjust, the macro-environment of the app economy has been laid bare, revealing key insights into the health of the industry and the enormous changes rippling through it over the course of 2020. Using data from Adjust’s platform, The Mobile App Growth Report uncovers which markets are growing fastest and identifies the key app verticals that are driving growth.

Despite 2020 being a tumultuous year, the Mobile App Growth Report reveals that many app verticals actually experienced growth, proving that mobile is incredibly shock-resistant as an industry. Those verticals that did experience an initial negative impact at the start of the pandemic such as food & drink or travel rebounded strongly over the summer months. Finally, huge growth in Southeast Asia and South America demonstrates that apps with the right expansion strategy can still prosper and rapidly grow.

Also read: How this Taiwan-based company adds purpose to your purchase

As well as taking a look at the overall health of the app economy, the Mobile App Growth Report provides a data-based analysis of growth marketing trends, zooming in on those verticals and regions that went through the most dynamic change to show app marketers where the highest growth potential can be found. The biggest insights include:

  • Gaming apps continue to win globally, topping the charts as the highest-ranking vertical by Growth Score. This is in no small part due to innovative business models like hypercasual, instantly playable games that are designed to engage with simplistic, satisfying mechanics.
  • India became the fastest growing app market in the world with 700 million unique mobile phone subscribers, comprising 451 million internet users. Entertainment & Business Apps were the fastest-growing verticals, while e-commerce lagged behind.
  • APAC is the big story for e-commerce in 2020, with Korea and Vietnam topping the charts as the two fastest-growing markets in mobile-first commerce. For Vietnam in particular, apps there have massive room to grow, building in untapped markets with eager consumers.
  • The trend to watch in Entertainment apps is the rise of subscriptions. According to research conducted by Adjust, using Apptopia data, some 79% of the top 225 apps in the Google Play Store and 49% of the top 225 apps in the App Store are subscription-based — despite making up less than 1% of apps overall.

Future-proof your strategies for mobile marketing

Looking forward to the rest of 2021, there is cause for cautious optimism, with investment bank Morgan Stanley predicting a 20% increase in online advertising in 2021. Indeed, the growth of mobile in 2020 hastened timelines for the transition to mobile-first for many brands. Meaning marketers will need to face new growth opportunities — as well as challenges — along the way.

“The mobile app is truly a global business. It’s easy to start because of the low barrier of entry, but also easy to fail if you do not understand the markets and users well,” shared Bryan Wang, Adjust’s Director of Marketing Science, Greater China Region & Gaming. He added, “The data and insight in this report can help app advertisers identify their new market entry strategies and enable the winning tactics effectively.”

Also read: Fundraising masterclass for founders with Founders Grindstone

Through this report, Adjust hopes that mobile marketers and app developers will be able to strengthen their products and services while remaining agile to the unpredictability of the future.

For more details on the best tactics for growth in 2021 and more insights into the global app economy, download the Mobile App Growth Report from Adjust.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
Adjust

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