Bangkok Bank (BB) acquires 1 per cent stake in gojek; The Indonesian tech firm now commands US$11-12B valuation; BB is the 2nd bank after SCB to own a stake in gojek; In Thailand, gojek operates under the GET brand. DealStreetAsia
Grab in talks with Prudential, AIA for fintech investment; The tech major is seeking US$300-500M for its financial services unit; Grab aims to reach agreements as early as Oct; Grab Financial Group’s pre-money valuation has been estimated at about US$2B. Reuters
Indonesian logistics-tech firm Waresix closes US$100M Series B; Investors include EV Growth, Jungle, SoftBank, EMTEK group; This round comes six months after it secured US$25.5M Series; Waresix claims it serves 250+ corporate clients, has operates 40K+ trucks and has 375 warehouses in more than 100 cities and towns across Indonesia. e27
Naver, Sea, Vertex invest in Vietnam’s Do Ventures’s US$50M fund I; The early-stage VC firm on an average will invest US$500K-US$5M each in startups; The VC looks to invest 30 startups; It will also help set up an automatic reporting system that empowers founders to understand real-time performance of the biz. e27
SoftBank wants to burn money; As an investor, it has been an enthusiastic proponent of burning cash, spending freely to back its champions in virtually every tech market-share war witnessed in Asia over recent years; The VC firm, however, is now desperate to win; It is struggling after a series of tech bets gone badly, including WeWork and Uber’s underperformed IPO. Nikkei Asia Review
Temasek’s portfolio in China exceeds Singapore home base; Financial services remains the largest sector in its portfolio at 23%, with the fund being an investor in Ant Group; Temasek’s portfolio has its largest weighting in Asia, amounting to 66% of its exposure by underlying assets; China, at 29%, and Singapore, at 24%, are the top two countries by concentration. Nikkei Asia Review
Singapore B2B cross-border payments network Thunes raises US$60M led by African VC Helios Investment; Checkout.com, Future Shape also joined; The money will fuel expansion and growth in Africa, Asia, LatAm; Thunes connects different payment players in more than 100 countries. e27
Edutech firm Edukasyon.ph extends Series A round; Investors include Alternate Ventures, French Partners, Lorinet Foundation; The education marketplace enables students to search, compare and apply to higher education institutions and online courses; Since Dec. 2019, it brought in 700 listed school partners and achieved 500K registered student users. e27
Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam the most attractive fintech hubs in SEA, says study; The combined value of all the fintech startups in SEA has reached US$108B in 2020; Indonesia and Singapore are the most valuable ecosystems, which are worth US$60B and US$35B, respectively; The two countries are also home to 9 unicorn startups each. e27
Qapita secures US$1.8M seed funding to help startups manage their cap tables, ESOPs digitally; Investors include Vulcan Capital, Koh Boon Hwee, K3 Ventures; Qapita has offices in India and Singapore, and will initially serve customers based in Singapore, India and Indonesia before expanding into other markets. e27
Funding Societies appoints GoBear co-founder Frank Stevenaar as CFO, Nihit Nirmal as CPO, Ishan Agrawal as CTO; The SME digital SME lending platform has disbursed over US$1.2B in financing across more than 2.8M loans so far; In April, it raised US$40M Series C; Its investors include Sequoia India, Softbank Ventures Asia. e27
Quest Ventures, ScaleUp Malaysia team up to scale the growth of local startups; The deal brought in US$1M in FDI to develop startups; 24 firms shortlisted from the 2nd cohort’s applications will start the programme in Oct; As part of the partnership, the programme will invest at least US$60,250 in up to 12 of these companies. e27
Accelerating Asia announces cohort-3 startups; Each will receive US$36.5K while top performers will get US$110K; The programme has an acceptance rate of less than 2% with only eight selected from 450 applications; The accelerator-cum-investor is also approaching the final close of its current fund. e27
Why GERO is optimistic about its chance in the race for anti-ageing drug; The Singapore- and Russia-based biotech firm is developing drugs for complex diseases with a focus on anti-ageing and says it successfully demonstrate it on mice; The firm, however, says it is hard to tell what the side effects of the drug yet. e27
How startup founders can protect themselves from getting sued; The smart solution is management liability insurance, commonly referred to as D&O or directors and officers; This is an absolute essential insurance for startup founders that covers a wide array of messy lawsuits. e27
‘There is always an opportunity to be found within a crisis’: Ben Mathias of Vertex Ventures; COVID-19 forced startups to be more efficient and they realised they can still hit their business plans with far less expense, so the path to profitability is quicker. e27
App Annie co-founder Bertrand Schmitt on why he built the leading mobile analytics platform in China; In 2020, starting a tech business in the mobile analytics space in China makes sense; But 10 years ago, the situation was vastly different and it would seem almost ludicrous, given how small the market was. e27
Growing up in coastal villages, Aruna believes in empowering fishermen as the key to prosperity; The startup has established a collaborative effort with the communications and ICT ministry to provide online programme for fishermen; It has also worked with the ministry of rural and disadvantaged regions development to provide financial access to them. e27
Most APAC consumers prefer staying at home, businesses are responding; According to a Digimind study, top on the list were consumers from India (87.8%), followed by Hong Kong (78.2%), Indonesia (77.5%), Singapore (76.6%) Malaysia (71.3%), Philippines (70.3%); The report found that consumers tend to find alternative solutions that allowed them to remain at home while supplementing their past routines and fixes, including shopping, socialising, and seeking entertainment. The Star
Accelerating the demand for proptech in APAC; The pandemic has prompted more real estate companies to consider incorporating proptech into their operations; But real estate companies are still very viscous and slow. UrbanLand
Launcho Ventures sets up startup studio in Singapore; Startups will be created in-house through internal ideation as well as co-created with other founders in the region; It will inject up to US$220K into new companies; Funders will get US$2,560monthly salary. TechInAsia
Singtel unveils 5G services at pop-up retail store UNBOXED; The telco claims it demonstrated speeds of more than 1Gbps using 5G: For instance, a 2-hour HDR movie can be downloaded in just 40 seconds; 5G can also power IoT and AI, enabling real-time intelligent connectivity and analytics in-store. Singapore Business Review
Here’s the most important thing digital leaders get right; It doesn’t matter how sophisticated your tech is; If the user experience isn’t right, the investment you’ve made isn’t going to succeed; If your organisation remains focussed on operating a process rather than delivering an outcome, you’ll struggle. The Next Web
Homegrown Thai foodtech startups race to meet plant-based demand surge; While mainstream restaurant chains expand their plant-based offerings, startups in the country are also emerging to accelerate the dietary shift to more sustainable proteins. GreenQueen
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The post Ecosystem Roundup: Bangkok Bank picks 1% stake in gojek; Grab in talks with AIA, Prudential for US$300-500M funding; Vietnam’s Do Ventures launches US$50M fund appeared first on e27.