Sea’s Q3 2020 revenue doubles but loss widens; Net loss was US$425M in Q3 v/s US$206M a year ago as it heavily invested in SEA market expansion drive amid growing demand for digital services; The GMV for the e-commerce unit was US$9.3B, more than double that of the year-earlier quarter. Nikkei Asia Review
Telkomsel invests US$150M in gojek; This strategic investment takes place about six months after gojek received funding from Facebook, PayPal; The two giants will also collaborate on growing Indonesia’s digital lifestyle sector and increasing the advertising technology solutions available to merchants of all sizes. e27
Seven reasons for Alibaba’s success; The main objectives of Alibaba innovation is to allow disadvantaged cities and persons to create, implement and develop business through the Alibaba platform; Especially the western China which is still undeveloped compared to the west. Digital Commerce 360
KOL Speak
Startup exits: Stakeholders often prioritise glitzy exits, not the long-term longevity of the firm; According to Jasmine Ng (ex-CEO of Razer Fintech), while those who make a quick buck off the exit may still profit, it ultimately hurts consumers and those genuinely interested in building the next big business. e27
Outside world
How Gaza’s only accelerator nurtures tech startups amid political unrest; This is the story of Gaza Sky Geeks (GSG), the only startup incubator in the city that provides opportunities for young Palestinian entrepreneurs to kickstart their own startups, and how they build companies amid airstrikes and rocket launches. e27
What China’s fintech market can teach the world; It’s certainly the world’s largest market for fintech; Even though in the payments space things look pretty saturated between Ant and WeChat, there are so many areas that they’re expanding into like credit and insurance, where there’s still a lot of room for growth. TechCrunch
Employee health benefit startup Mednefits raises US$5.95M Series A led by BLoyalty; B Infinite (BLoyalty’s digital engagement platform) will work with Mednefits to enhance and automate medical benefits for its clients’ employees across Singapore and Malaysia; The startup claims its platform has connected over 50K employees from 500 companies to over 2K healthcare providers. e27
Malaysia’s cloud-based F&B management platform Food Market Hub (FMH) lands US$4M Series A; The round was co-led by Go-Ventures and SIG; It plans to expand into Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam; FMH supports over 2K F&B outlets across Malaysia, Singapore, HK, Taiwan. It processes ~US$200M in purchase orders on an annual basis. e27
Indian content management startup Quintype bags US$3.4M to expand to SEA; The startup aims to provide fully-integrated software systems to enable media professionals to distribute their content online without the need for technical skills such as programming. e27
Delving into Singapore’s smart-city startups and the funds flowing into the sector; Funding to startups in IoT, digital payments and cleantech rose from just US$84.8M in 2015 to US$276.7M in 2020 so far; Most smart-city startups in these areas are in the early stages of their funding journey; This indicates the relative newness of smart city solutions as an area of interest for investors. TechInAsia
Krosslinker raises US$1.25M to develop thermal insulating nano-material for pharma industry; Investors include 500 Startups (lead), Seedscapital, Entrepreneur First; Krosslinker has developed a tech to manufacture aerogels and conduct pilot trials with their customers. e27
Filipino social e-commerce platform Resellee raises US$1M; Mintech Enterprises and Hofan Capital are among its backers; The app allows any Filipinos to buy and sell products to his/her network of friends on social media without having to buy products or inventory. e27
17LIVE founder joins crypto asset management startup Steaker’s US$1M seed round; The platform mainly caters to the needs of younger and less knowledgeable investors; A majority of investors on its platform are retail accounting for 70% of total AUM. e27
Magorium wins Singapore’s waste-tech startup competition WASTE 20/20; Indian startup Ishitva Robotic Systems and UK-based data and analytics startup Topolytics shared the second place; Founded last year, Magorium converts plastic into polymers, which are then used to produce high-quality bitumen used for road construction. e27
BeeX wins Singapore’s Smart Port Challenge 2020 for its innovative autonomous maritime solutions; The second and third places were bagged by FUELSAVE and Vulcan AI, respectively; The three firms also won a prize money of approximately US$7.5K, US$3.7K and US$2.3K, respectively. e27
Swedish MNCs team up with Singapore SMEs in partnership programme; It includes an ad campaign sponsored by the MNCs to promote the local SMEs, and regular partner meetings dubbed Fika4Good; The one dozen participating SMEs, ranging from hawkers to tailors, were selected in cooperation with ESG and the NEA. e27
Thailand’s growing appetite for plant-based food products; As per a research, 79% of individuals would prefer healthier options to standard meat-based products; 76% of the respondents agree that plant-based proteins are as nutritious as animal products, and 55% felt that they taste better than the meat options. Tech Collective
COVID-19 impact accelerates IoT projects in Singapore; A survey says 86% of businesses that have already adopted IoT in Singapore are accelerating some IoT projects because of the pandemic; Among APAC companies that have reduced costs thanks to IoT, almost three quarters (73%) reported savings of at least 30%. Tech Coffee House
Southeast Asia’s often overlooked tech and innovation hub; One very overlooked country is Vietnam; Its digital economy is estimated to hit US$33B in value by 2025; In addition to large technology companies such as Samsung and Nokia moving some operations to the country, Vietnam’s start-up sector is also booming. Tech Collective
What will the next wave of VC investment in HR tech look like?; HR tech is considered white-hot, because companies operating in talent-constrained environments seek to invest in tools to help them better recruit, develop, and support their workforces; A record amount of capital has gone into AI solutions for talent recruitment. e27
What developers need to know about tomorrow’s tech today; As the software stakes get higher and product managers continue to set software development goals, it makes sense that developers will end up embedded on business teams rather than tech teams; Software is critical to success so should be located with the biz rather than in the IT department. e27
Future of femtech and technology: an emerging innovative crossroads; Several aspects have helped propel the agenda of femtech; More women are taking up tech roles that were traditionally held by men; As this representation grows, awareness of health issues that primarily affect women is increased. HIT Consultant
How cloud computing is helping startups navigate the new normal; In Singapore, the public cloud services market is expected to grow by 13 per cent from 2019 to 2020; All that cloud promises when it comes to elastic consumption, agile development, and global reach are in demand, and the value is being realised across the region. e27
Why it is imperative to invest in digitalising the supply chain; Most enterprises don’t have nearly as much visibility into their supply chains as is ideally required to address key areas such as revenue and costs; Digitisation drives end-to-end transparency across the supply chain; In doing so, it generates valuable data to optimise and enable strategic decision making. e27
Vietnam launches akaBot platform to digitally transform businesses; akaBot is a RPA solution for businesses with virtual assistants capable of simulating human manipulation, helping perform repetitive tasks in large numbers; It’s capable of integrating AI and optical character recognition tech to build non-invasive automation solutions, which can interact with all business software. Open Gov
Grab ties up with Lazada in Vietnam; The two will enhance services across various sectors that offer more sophisticated digital experiences to consumers; They will cater to consumers’ increased digital needs, support social commerce and micro-entrepreneurs and provide more income opportunities for our delivery partners. Vietnam News
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Image Credit: Sea Group
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