2021

Tech in Asia

Indonesia-based consumer insights provider Populix announced it has raised US$1.2 million in its latest round of funding.

More funding details

• Lead investor: Intudo Ventures
• Other investors: Quest Ventures and others
• Stage: Pre-series A

More company updates

• Populix will use the fresh funds to roll out new products, increase hiring in the company, and invest in marketing.
• The company offers a wide range of subscription-based and customized services, including brand health tracking, product launch perception auditing, customer satisfaction indexing, and custom research campaign management.
• Currently, Populix is developing data set products that can periodically track market movements, allowing businesses to follow the changing market dynamics and consumer preferences.
• The consumer insights firm now offers over 250,000 respondents on its proprietary panel across 300 cities in Indonesia.
• In December 2019, Populix raised US$1 million in its seed round of financing led by Intudo Ventures.

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DealStreetAsia

Venture capital investors in Vietnam are betting big on startups enabling digital transformation in small and medium enterprises across various sectors.

Active investors in the region — Do Ventures, Quest Ventures, Genesia, BEENEXT and VI Group — are bullish on backing tech startups that are mounting traditional or physical businesses onto the digital platform.

“Quest is looking for tech companies that will disrupt the agri-food tech sectors, fintech, and smart cities/urban solutions spaces,” said senior associate Michelle Ng.

The challenge could be educating not just the SMEs but even micro-businesses in Vietnam, Ng from Quest Ventures said.

“Micro-businesses and SMEs do not have the capacity for a digital transformation team to map out their plan,” she added.

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Marketing Magazine

After months of speculation, Gojek is reportedly merging with Indonesian eCommerce platform Tokopedia to form GoTo and Gojek’s co-CEO Andre Soelistyo will lead the new entity, Bloomberg reported quoting its sources. Following the merger, Gojek’s shareholders will control 58% of the new holding company while Tokopedia’s owners have the rest, Bloomberg said.

Partner at Quest Ventures Jeffrey Seah said Gojek has always been the surrogate benchmark for Indonesia’s tech ecosystem coming of age. “The narrative on it has always been the alpha lead, from talent, funding, expansion and govt support. Gojek will bring this outsized ‘first and foremost’ mindset to Tokopedia,” he added.

Seah explained that previously, the fight centred around the vertical space – Gojek versus Grab versus Uber. With Makarim’s elevation to the government has an added sense of national duty and Indonesia’s Pancasila state ideology to Gojek’s role in the Indonesian society beyond tech, he added. Pancasila was formulated by former President Sukarno and comprises principles that include the unity of Indonesia and the idea of being governed by wise policies.

“Grab and Gojek’s tense merger dance – and the supposed desire of Grab to acquire – has built up a siege mentality mindset in the Indonesian tech ecosystem. With the merger, how far the merged entity should grow with this siege mentality and the speed to achieve the progress markers might be a source of friction,” Seah said. This will be especially evident in the expansion plans outside of the Indonesian diaspora into the burgeoning Southeast Asia market of which Indonesia is the foremost market. “The new company will eventually go global but it will push through via the Indonesian diaspora and expand,” he added.

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Financial Times

Malaysian internet entrepreneur Anthony Tan is set to dramatically increase his control over his company Grab when the south-east Asian tech group joins Nasdaq later this year.

In a move that would be the envy of his Silicon Valley peers, the Grab chief executive and co-founder will have 60.4 per cent of the voting power in the company while owning a stake of just 2.2 per cent.

This is a feat comparable to that of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and unprecedented for a deal involving a special purpose acquisition company.

The holdings were contained in papers filed last week after the Singapore-based company unveiled a record deal to combine with a New York-listed Spac launched by Altimeter, a Silicon Valley group, valuing the business at almost $40bn.

Jeffrey Seah, a partner at Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures, said: “While he has supervoting rights, he has kept his management team intact. That is a [type of] check and balance.”

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联合早报

新加坡继续是东南亚领先的创投目的地，本地起步公司去年吸引了约55亿元投资额，是五年前的三倍。

总理公署部长兼人力部和贸工部第二部长陈诗龙说，在行业参与者和政府共同努力下，我国起步公司的生态体系在史无前例的冠病危机中继续蓬勃发展及保持韧性。

创业行动社群主席兼求索创投（Quest Ventures）合伙人陈中指出，我国培育了不少潜力巨大的起步公司，包括智慧芽公司（PatSnap）、买卖平台Carousell、油漆品牌制造商Gush，以及员工管理软件设计公司StaffAny等。它们都已向区域扩张，有些更迈向国际，“现在的挑战将是在这些成功基础上继续培育下一代冠军。”

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The New Paper

Start-ups in Singapore raked in $5.5 billion in funding last year, despite the challenges of Covid-19.

This figure, shared by Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng yesterday, is lower than the funding garnered in recent years.

But it demonstrates the resilience of Singapore’s investment landscape and gives the Republic confidence it can do well despite the pandemic, he said, noting as well that the amount is almost three times what was received five years ago.

In comparison, Singapore start-ups drew $8.5 billion in 2019, and $14.3 billion in 2018.

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联合早报

在苏伊士运河搁浅近一周的大型集装箱船长赐号已经脱困，运河下来恢复通航。随着运河堵塞情况缓解，石油价格随之下跌，跌幅一度多达2.5％。

本地船运业公司昨早（3月29日）受访时表示，尽管运河恢复通航未定，交货延误可能长达两三周，但之前大堵塞局面有转机，对运输成本影响预料可受到限制。更重要的是，这消除船运公司面对的不确定因素。

本地船运咨询服务公司船狂（ShipsFocus）创办人蔡财宝接受《联合早报》访问时表示，长赐号传出脱浅消息，对受航道堵塞影响的船运业者，无疑是一个好消息，对船运公司的运输成本影响将进一步减低。

他说：“当初许多集装箱船堵在运河上，情况看似严重，但如果这些船只改道非洲好望角，最多只是增加一个多星期的航程，对运输成本影响是有限的。”

随着堵塞问题开始获得解决，他很高兴这些船运公司将不需要做出等待还是绕道的决定。虽然一些从欧洲运来的货品可能会拖延两三周，他认为船运公司至少避免堵塞问题何时能解决的不确定性。

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DealStreetAsia

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is close to finalising the framework for Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) to list, but stakeholders close to these discussions have voiced concerns over key items in the bourse’s proposal.

SGX, which began a public consultation to study the feasibility of SPAC listings in January, is understood to be setting a minimum SPAC value at $200-300 million, with an eye to allowing listings in the third quarter of this year.

SPACs are blank cheque firms that raise capital solely to acquire private entities with the aim of eventually taking them public.

Two sources disclosed that a consortium of Singaporean investors including GGV Capital’s Jenny Lee, Monk’s Hill Ventures’s Lim Kuo Yi and Quest Ventures’s James Tan had previously engaged in private discussions with Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and other government agencies to find a solution.

One of the proposals presented was the setting up of a separate exchange akin to the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board, or better known as China’s STAR Board, which would be more friendly to Singaporean tech listings. The discussions were first conceived around 2-3 years ago and accelerated in the last 3 months, but one insider source does not think that the SGX will pull this off anytime soon.

Quest Ventures and Monk’s Hill Ventures declined to comment for the story. DealStreetAsia has contacted GGV Capital for a comment.

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Рамблер

ApartХ — это проект для владельцев посуточной арендной недвижимости. С помощью мобильного приложения они могут дистанционно управлять доступом к квартирам при помощи «умных» замков. Такие замки генерируют ограниченные по времени PIN-коды (в зависимости от срока аренды).

Коды передаются арендаторам недвижимости через СМС или мессенджеры. Приложение автоматически синхронизирует заполняемость недвижимости на таких площадках по аренде квартир, как AirBnb и Booking. Стартап представлен в 7 городах: Нур-Султан, Алматы, Шымкент, Павлодар, Актобе, Кокшетау и Москва.

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Rusbase

ApartХ — это проект для владельцев посуточной арендной недвижимости. С помощью мобильного приложения они могут дистанционно управлять доступом к квартирам при помощи «умных» замков. Такие замки генерируют ограниченные по времени PIN-коды (в зависимости от срока аренды).

Коды передаются арендаторам недвижимости через СМС или мессенджеры. Приложение автоматически синхронизирует заполняемость недвижимости на таких площадках по аренде квартир, как AirBnb и Booking. Стартап представлен в 7 городах: Нур-Султан, Алматы, Шымкент, Павлодар, Актобе, Кокшетау и Москва.

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