Ecosystem Roundup: Startup investments in SEA in 2023 hit a 5-year low | GudangAda denies it is shutting down

NEWS

SEA startups got US$5.5B funding in 2023, lowest since 2018: report
It’s more than a 30% fall from US$8.4 billion in 2022, and is the lowest total capital raised since 2018, according to the January Capital report; SEA’s tech sector made 855 investment deals in 2023.

Startup salaries cool down in 2023, but job security remains intact: Report
The Southeast Asia Startup Talent Trends Report 2024 by Glints and Monk’s Hill revealed that despite layoffs and salaries cooling in Southeast Asia, demand for tech talent remains high across markets amid increased supply.

GudangAda denies report that it may shut down
DealStreetAsia recently reported that the board of the Indonesian B2B e-commerce firm is mulling options that include winding down operations; B2B ecommerce startups have struggled of late.

Drop in Tokopedia’s market share led to TikTok acquisition: GoTo chief
The “very intense” competition in the Indonesian e-commerce space also led to the deal; ‘Our competitors are large foreign companies with significant funding. To grow and survive, Tokopedia requires a very large investment,’ said Patrick Walujo.

PropertyGuru lays off 79 employees amid strategic shift
In a message to employees, CEO Hari V. Krishnan cited changing customer needs and a volatile market in Southeast Asia as the main factors for the strategic shift; PropertyGuru will shut down non-scalable businesses, including two branches in Vietnam.

SCBX acquires consumer finance firm Home Credit Vietnam for US$866M
Home Credit claimed to hold the second-largest market share in the country’s consumer finance, accounting for 14% of total market; The company has nearly 6,000 employees and 15 million customers in Vietnam.

Soft skills, learning ability becoming important for hiring managers
A staggering 88 per cent of employers have observed substantial changes in the skills and qualifications they prioritise in job candidates due to the pervasive impact of AI and automation in their industries, says a LinkedIn report.

Singapore’s cybersecurity startup Silence Lab raises US$4.1M
Investors include Pi Ventures and Kira Studio; Silence Laboratories aims to create a global privacy-compliant collaboration infrastructure, eliminating single points of failure for enterprises.

Achmad Zaky, 500 Global invest in Indonesian e-commerce enabler Komerce
Komerce offers remote team development, shipping aggregators, e-fulfilment, omnichannel SaaS, and CRM; It claims that 25K SMEs are registered and transacting on its platform, with over 2M transactions recorded in 2023.

Bootstrapped baby e-commerce brand KeaBabies hits US$58M in 2023 revenue
It is an increase from US$37M of revenue in 2022; The Singaporean firm continued to be profitable in 2023 with double-digit net profit margins; The firm first turned a profit in its sixth month of operations.

Singapore-based B2B payments firm Fluid bags US$5.2M
Insignia Ventures Partners is the lead investor; The company enables businesses to get paid faster and offers flexible payment options to their customers; By using Fluid, suppliers no longer need to engage with debt providers and undergo credit checks for buyers.

Animoca Brands invests in SG Web3 entertainment startup Imaginary Ones
Imaginary Ones has launched a Web3 gaming series titled Bubble Rider and Bubble Rangers, which it claims has garnered 6 million plays in three weeks; The games were designed in collaboration with international fashion brand Hugo Boss.

Ex-Googlers raise US$1.25M for text-free social app Yolk.fm
Investors include Forge Ventures, Sequoia’s Scout Fund, and investors from DST Global and Temasek; Yolk.fm lets users post images, and then react with AI-generated stickers of their face (or other things).

Farquhar, Korea’s S&S Lab collaborate to support biotech, foodtech startups
S&S Lab and Farquhar will collaborate on exchanging innovation ecosystem insights and mutually supporting each other’s biopharma/foodtech portfolio companies.

Web3 development tools startup BuildBear Labs nets US$1.9M funding
Investors include Superscrypt, Tribe Capital, 1kx, Iterative, Plug-N-Play; BuildBear offers developers the ability to craft customised Private Testnet sandboxes across multiple EVM and EVM-compatible blockchain networks.

Unified contact centre platform K-LINK nets funding for SEA expansion
Investors include Indelible Ventures, A2D Ventures, and Accelerating Asia; The capital will enable K-LINK to accelerate its expansion plans into Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Protégé Ventures backs food order, delivery automation startup ZOLO
ZOLO’s solution integrates WhatsApp order details, transforming unstructured text messages into structured purchase orders and incorporating them into back-office ERP systems.

Ex-Funding Societies CTO launches YC-backed e-commerce AI startup
Branch AI, founded by Ishan Agrawal, is an ecommerce-focused platform that uses large language models and other related tech; Branch AI provides several tools, including those that enhance the quality of tail queries, boost search relevance, and analyse search queries.

FEATURES & INTERVIEWS

A paradigm shift on the Z axis: How Gen Z is shaping the new work culture
Gen Z, armed with digital prowess and a vision for a brighter future, is forging new paths by prioritising personal happiness over tradition.

Toki aims to bring transparency, trust to the collectible e-commerce space
Toki, a social commerce platform for collectibles, encompasses the features of a marketplace and livestream auction and offers 70K authentic items.

NBA star Jeremy Lin-backed BINAR aims to reach profitability through new innovations
BINAR is an edutech company that provides digital skills training through experiential, flipped, project/problem-based and collaborative learning methods; BINAR says it has trained more than 130,000 students and involved more than 850 facilitators.

Prefer develops climate-friendly beanless coffee for the masses
After Singapore, Prefer looks forward to expanding to the Philippines and other Asian coffee markets, including Indonesia, Korea, and Japan. It is also looking forward to exploring other products, including cacao.

CONTRIBUTORY ARTICLES

What are the possible investment strategies after ETH spot approval?
There are various investment avenues in the cryptocurrency post-spot ETF approval to potentially profit from ETH market movements.

Why startup founders should look for sharks as mentors
Mentors could be useful if they are the right ones — they can add real value; The wrong mentor will waste your time.

Driving innovation: How cutting-edge software startups are attracting Asian investors
For startups outside Asia to benefit from the region’s growth, leaders must grasp how to appeal to the desires of Asian financiers.

Will climate change force us to re-imagine travel in the future?
The metaverse offers a taste of a place, a culture, and a set of values that may otherwise be foreign to us; Virtual landscapes exist to be explored but also to be designed.

GB Helios: Empowering SMEs with tailored and innovative financial solutions
How GB Helios empowers Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with tailored financing solutions backed by a legacy of success in Singapore.

CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT

Reinis Simanovskis: Building embedded lending infrastructure for SEA
Explore how Simanovskis is transforming embedded lending in Southeast Asia and shaping the fintech landscape with Finfra.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Dynamic content in the era of machine learning
Each variation is automatically crafted for the individual consumer, and decisions are made based on the consumer’s unique tastes and interests.

8 productivity hacks to streamline your work-life
Bjorn Lee says his main productivity rule is that it’s not about more time, but more attention; his preferred byword for discipline, willpower, focus, and concentration.

What I learned about procrastination while scaling my startup to 4.2M users
The reasons we avoid completing a task are extremely personal; The commonly touted “productivity hacks” don’t always cut it.

Save yourselves and stop making these pitch deck mistakes
Іt’s а cold wоrld оut thеrе, and sometimes you’ll get a little frosty too. So make sure you are prepared. Starting from your pitch deck.

How the UGC economy is shaping the next era of creative game development
As the gaming industry embraces UGC, players become both creators and contributors to the game’s ecosystem.

Neuroscience-backed productivity tips every tech founder should adopt
What if the key to boosting productivity isn’t just working harder, but rather understanding the intricacies of how your brain operates?

Founding a startup: You think you’re ready, but are you really ready?
According to the Lean Startup methodology, many startups fail to take off simply because founders never take the time to speak to their potential customers about their needs, and how the product can help fulfill these needs.

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