Grab CEO announces layoffs of 360 people (5% of employees); Anthony Tan said COVID-19 will likely result in a prolonged recession and Grab has to prepare for a long recovery period; The firm is doubling down on its delivery verticals, has redeployed staff to meet the increased customer demand for deliveries. More here
COVID-19 hits fintech funding; The amount of VC poured into APAC fell 58.5% to US$1.3B in Q1, as per a S&P survey; Payment firms top-funded fintech segment with US$403M across 22 transactions; Mobile payment apps saw larger funding rounds and accounted for 3 of the 10 largest transactions in Q1. More here
Indonesian furniture e-tailer Fabelio makes US$9M first close of Series C led by AppWorks; Total funding so far is US$20M+; It has 20 showrooms, 430 staffers, 1K B2B projects; The country’s home furniture market is US$6.7B in size. More here
Singapore-China Smart City Initiative (SCI) to accelerate and further digitisation; SCI is centred around 3 pillars — digital connectivity, innovation & entrepreneurship, and tech talent exchange & development; A new Asian SME Hub will be set up to facilitate access to a larger ecosystem of buyers, sellers, logistics service providers, financing, and digital solution providers. More here
Smart karaoke platform Popsical raises US$5M Series A from Quest Ventures, Enterprise SG; The Singapore startup delivers compact size portable boxes that can be controlled by an app; The global karaoke market is US$4.2B in 2020, projected to touch US$4.6B by end-2026. More here
Does your startup really need to be externally funded?; There’re 2 ways to build a biz — The Thiel way and The Rabois way; Companies that are reliant on external capital will lack the resilience necessary to survive an exogenous shock that could cause a rise in funding costs. More here
Setting new rules for the food delivery industry in a post-pandemic world; Customers’ behaviour has changed, forcing startups to adopt rapid changes; China-based Ele.me’s and Meituan’s ingredients or full recipes deliveries can be replicated in SEA; Contactless collection points should also be widespread. More here
4 tips for SEA startups in the ‘new normal‘; Startups sacrificed infra, biz sense, basic economic principles to chase growth; They’re now paying for that in the form of lost equity and slowed growth; This is due to a biz model that was too reliant on investor money to grow. More here
How do you raise VC funding as a student entrepreneur?; Golden Gate, 500 Startups sit down with us to answer 9 burning questions; They warn to expect fundraising to be more difficult, so the more a student entrepreneur can execute without dependence on outside capital, the more options you’ll have. More here
Digital upskilling tops training agenda for Singapore firms, says a survey; 58% of employers are training their workforce in tech-related skills; The survey respondents identified digital marketing (44%), project management skills (43%), data analysis (40%) as key competencies for their firms. More here
What should the post lock-down legal industry look like?; The crisis is an opportunity to shift to a truly digital model of business; Recognise the importance of proper cyber security; Firms should continue steady investments in up-skilling their lawyers. More here
Beenext launches US$110M fund for early-stage startups in SEA, India; Beenext Emerging Asia Fund aims to invest in e-commerce, fintech, healthtech, agritech, edutech, AI/data-driven tech; Out of its 180 investees, 45 are in SEA; Zilingo, Sendo, Ralali, Amartha are among them. More here
Singapore’s mixed martial arts broadcasting platform One Championship secures US$70M funding; Cuts 20% of headcount; The firm was founded by ex-martial arts champion Chatri Sityodtong, has a global broadcast reach of 2.7B potential viewers across 150+ countries; In 2018, it raised US$166M from Sequoia, Temasek, Greenoaks; In 2018, the startup’s net loss widened to US$59M from US$24.7M. More here
Tonik Financial lands US$21M Series A led by Sequoia, Point72 Ventures; The fund will be used to launch a digital bank for SEA in Q3; Tonik was developed by fintech venture builder Forum, which was founded by Greg Krasnov. More here
Indonesia teams up with Lazada for training programme to push SMEs online; The government targets to digitise 2M of them in 2020; The e-commerce firm to recruit 100 tutors from sellers to oversee 2-3 SMEs each; There’re 60M SMEs in the country. More here
How startups can consistently acquire new customers post-COVID-19; Create content with a more personal touch, leverage social media, increase engagement, and optimise website; Reports indicate 41% of startups globally have little cash to survive more than 3 months. More here
Here’s why Qualgro aims to focus more on Vietnam in 2021; Investment Manager Wanying Zhang says the VC firm is interested in exploring ‘what will be still in demand in the next 5-10 years; The firm is also open to looking at B2C opportunities strategically in Indonesia and Vietnam. More here
Pre-owned electronic goods marketplace Reebelo raises seed funding; Investors are June Fund, Antler; The Singapore startup is a second-hand goods dealer and offers an extended warranty on its e-commerce platform. More here
iPrice appoints former COO Paul Brown-Kenyon as new CEO; Co-founder and former CEO David Chmelař will assume the role of executive vice-chairman; iPrice’s websites had a 60% increase in traffic within the past two months; In March, the startup raised US$10M Series B led by ACA Investments; Total funding raised so far is US$20M. More here
COVID-19 is a game changer for digital transformation in Malaysia, says EY survey; The movement control order has revealed that businesses are insufficiently equipped to go digital; Close to 30% of businesses have invested in WFH hardware and software. More here
China’s central bank digital currency (DCEP) may cause little disruption in the country’s present financial system; Over 96% of all small retail transactions in China are processed by AliPay or WeChatPay; Analysts wonder where DCEP would fit into the average person’s financials, with popular digital payment options already in place. More here
Gaze.ai snags US$830K led by Anchorless Bangladesh; The Singaporean startup offers an API for spoof-proof face recognition, product recognition, and multilingual OCR; It has 23 staffers across Canada, Singapore, Bangladesh. More here
New MDEC chief pushes for Malaysia 5.0 concept; Rais Hussin says the narrative will posit the country as an innovation economy that can compete in a disruptive tech world, can serve as a bridge between Asia, ME, Africa. More here
Malaysian bank-to-bank payments startup Curlec raises funding from 500 Startups; It will use the money to grow its Malaysian ops, expand in SEA; Curlec allows businesses to utilise its platform via a simple API that automates the entire collection workflow. More here
Three ways data is changing government research; Data is changing research in healthcare, crime, financial services; Insights from data will allow governments to drive policies to execution in a way never imagined before. More here
Positives views of tech signify opportunities for IT firms in Myanmar. Survey says 61% of people believe the growth of tech creates more biz opportunities; 81%, however, believe some people use tech for evil and criminal behaviour. More here
Singapore’s DCI fills access gap in e-commerce data; The AI startup has built a solution that collects and consolidates commercial data from various sources and processes them to fit customer needs; It had raised US$1M led by Velocity Partners last April; It will soon launch its first service dedicated to shoppers. More here
Philippines’s Kwik.insure to launch insurance marketplace in Q4; The company will let Filipinos avail of insurance products from different providers; Philippines’s insurance penetration is 1.67%; It also wants to expand into other countries in SEA. More here
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