Indonesia’s Social Bella raises US$58M Series E from Temasek, Pavilion, Jungle; The firm runs online platforms SOCO, Beauty Journal, Sociolla, Lilla by Sociolla; The startup claims it is estimated to serve around 30M users in 2020; Local beauty and personal care market is expected to grow to US$8.5B by 2022. More here
Who is leading your transition to remote working?; If remote working proves not to be the way forward, there is a potential emergence of a third format called ‘Work Near Home’; A challenge for remote workforce is to find the required level of connectivity, collaboration, community and communication to drive a culture of innovation and growth. More here
Indonesia’s Payfazz secures US$53M; Lead investors are B Capital, Insignia; Payfazz is an agency-based platform that can help the underbanked carry out financial transactions and payments digitally; The firm’s total funds raised so far is US$74M. More here
Sequoia raises US$1.35B for new India, SEA-focused funds; Of this, US$825M is or growth fund and US$525M for venture fund; SEA accounts for 20-30% of its investments by value; Its investments in SEA include gojek, Tokopedia, One Championship, Kopi Kenangan, Hmlet, Circles.Life. More here
Disaster-tech innovation is key in mitigating the impact of natural disasters ; Almost half of the world’s natural disasters happen in APAC; China, India, Indonesia, Philippines are top 4 natural disaster-prone countries; Tech can help gov, communities, businesses reduce the impact of these disasters. More here
5G’s balancing act in powering and greening networks; 5G is expected to be about 100X faster than 4G networks; It can also handle a much larger no. of connected devices than current networks to power AI and ML; 5G brings new meaning to smart ambulances or telehealth, air and water quality monitoring and smart security. More here
Innovate and go: How Traveloka revamps its services to comply with changing travel behaviour; The trade unicorn has launched a new feature for users to book and schedule rapid COVID-19 tests; But it doesn’t mean it’s shifting focus to healthcare. More here
Why Taiwan’s AI ecosystem is a fast-emerging opportunity during the pandemic; As Taiwan gradually becomes a major AI centre for the development of Greater SEA, tech companies are starting to pay attention; AI is thriving in digital marketing and medical sector. More here
As Oyo Indonesia furloughed 400 staff, some workers and hotels pushed back; According to Oyo’s country head, the occupancy rate in its hotel chain is around 40%; Oyo has also changed its partnership model with property owners. More here
Fundraising in time of crisis: More advice for startup founders from Antler’s Jussi Salovaara; The most important thing for the early-stage funding scene is LP capital; He says don’t underestimate the power of cold reach-outs, persistency, hustle; If there’s anything +ve that comes out of a crisis, it’s new ideas and ways of doing things to adapt to circumstances. More here
Is VR next big marketing channel?; VR is going to make groundbreaking innovations this decade; The virtual experience is more than asking the audience to put on a virtual headset; It’s a fully immersive event that gives the audience the control to make a better purchase decision. More here
Decentro raises funding from Y Combinator, Plug & Play; It’s an automated API-based platform that enables financial integrations with just a few lines of code; The startup has 3 banks as its clients; Founder Rohit Taneja has earlier founded Mypoolin, which is currently owned by Naspers. More here
Singapore’s gaming-focused Play Ventures to launch Fund II in Q4; DealStreetAsia reports that the VC firm aims to raise US$80-100M; As per DSA sources, Play has already secured US$40M; To date, Play has invested in 22 early-stage startups. More here
Why is Vietnam going to emerge the strongest post-COVID-19?; The innovation ecosystem is attractive to e-commerce, software outsourcing, AI, fintech, healthtech startups; With 3K+ startups, total investment in Vietnam startups increased 6x between 2017 and 2019. More here
Japanese QSR chain Pepper Lunch sold to J-Star investment fund for US$79M; The sale is expected to provide a much-needed cash injection to the debt-ridden Pepper Food business; It also operates the struggling Ikinari Steak brand; Pepper Lunch has a presence in Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand. More here
Indonesia’s Svara in talks for US$8M Series A, eyes Myanmar’s broadcast market; The fund will be used for accelerating growth and to acquire new users and content; It earlier raised pre-Series A from UMG Idealab; The firm currently works with 100+ broadcasters. More here
Will smartphones become the mall of the future?; Research find 90% of shoppers are more likely to purchase a product if it’s visually searchable on smartphone; Consumers today expect their shopping experiences to be enhanced by smart, mobile tech, especially visual search and product recognition. More here
Petronas VC arm invests in renewable SOLS Energy; It is a one-stop solution company that designs, distributes, maintains and installs high-quality solar energy systems at a competitive rate in Malaysia; Last month, Petronas invested in agritech startup Braintree Technologies. More here
US Big Tech builds appetite for startup pie in SEA; The strategic moves by Facebook, Visa, etc. are likely to be fuelled by the rise of the region’s internet economy and favourable demographics for growth; US tech firms appear to have a preference for building or partnering in SEA, rather than acquiring or doing high-profile investments. More here
Indies Capital hits first close of US$100M for third Special Opportunities Fund; Pavilion Capital is one its anchor investors; Fund III will focus on structured credit and PE opportunities in SEA, particularly Indonesia. More here
Openspace Ventures has reportedly hit first close of US$200M third SEA fund; Temasek and Stepstone Group have invested; Openspace invests in early-stage startups across Series A and B stages; gojek, Biofourmis, Finaccel are its investees; Its notable exits include Redmart (acquired by Lazada), Jualo (acquired by Carro). More here
Singapore’s TurtleTree wins US$1m green challenge with cell-based milk; The Temasek Foundation-organised challenge saw 4K+ participants from over 60 countries; The startup leverages cell-based methods to produce full-composition milk by reducing the carbon footprint of milk production by 98%, compared to that of dairy milk. More here
GovTech, Qlik team up to enhance public sector’s data science capabilities; Both will build capabilities within the public sector in data discovery and visual analytics, in line with Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative; The deal will offer public officers access to learning resources and tools to enhance their skillsets in data literacy and visual analytics. More here
Vietnam’s Realstake secures seed funding from 500 Startups; The startup aims to digitise and democratise consumer investment in SEA; The platform claims that its rate of selling a property has increased 200% in less than a year since its launch; It plans to offer a wide range of sophisticated investment products (ETFs, bonds, term deposits). More here
Singapore led ASEAN with US$177M funding for agrifoodtech startups last year; This money was deployed across 37 deals; The largest deal was retail tech provider Trax’s US$100M Series D; One key, unique opportunity in Singapore is the expertise among the ecosystem of corporates here to help startups commercialise and also scale into Asia’s other markets. More here
Smartbite is looking to change catering in Malaysia through tech; The firm is focused on continuously developing a set of easy-to-use tech tools that enable caterers to go online and capitalise this broad and growing demand; In Southeast Asia, the catering market is estima
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The post Ecosystem Roundup: Social Bella, Payfazz raise big funding; Sequoia raises US$1.35B for new India, SEA funds; S’pore led ASEAN in agrifoodtech funding in 2019 appeared first on e27.