Nov 2, 2020
Asean Tech Digest #47
Your curated summary of ongoing disruption in Southeast Asian tech. Subscribe here to receive it by email 💌
Hi technauts!
On the menu today:
Nanofilm’s IPO at US$1.25b valuation 💹, NUS spinoff Breathonix has developed a Covid-19 breath detection test 🌡, Grab on a partnership spree: Microsoft for tech upskill, Marriott for food delivery, Shinhan Financial for financial innovation 🤝, Eat Just & Proterra invest US$120m to build a protein factory in SG 🍜
…and many more awesome things 🎊
Just funded 💸
🇸🇬 Regtech startup Silent Eight has raised a US$15m Series B from OTB Ventures, SC Ventures — Fintech News
🇻🇳 Travel startup Vntrip has raised a US$7m Series B from undisclosed investors — Tech in Asia
🇸🇬 Social E-Commerce startup Webuy has raised a US$6m Series A from Wavemaker, Centauri Fund, KB Financial Group, Global Founders Capital — The Business Times
🇸🇬 Electric motorbike startup SWAG EV has raised a US$5m financing round from EESL — Mercom India
🇸🇬 Advanced materials startup gush has raised a US$3.4m Pre-Series A from TNB Aura, Fidelium Group, RSP Architects, SEEDS Capital, TRIREC — e27
🇸🇬 Spacetech startup Zero Error Systems has raised a US$1.84m Seed from Airbus Ventures — Business Wire
🇸🇬 Proptech startup Propseller has raised a US$1.2m Seed from Iterative, Hustle Fund, XA Network, Rapzo Capital — TechCrunch
🇲🇾 Foodtech startup Secai Marche has raised a US$1m financing round from Beyond Next Ventures, Monex Ventures — e27
🇲🇾 Travel startup Tourplus has raised a US$1m Seed from Jin Hui Wong, SOSV , GT-MAX Sdn Bhd — Digital News Asia
Startups and downs 🚀
🇸🇬 NUS spinoff startup Breathonix has developed a Covid breath detection test, which it claims takes less than 1 minute to get the result with an accuracy >90% based on 180 clinical trials — ZDNet
🇹🇭 Real estate platform Dot Property has acquired property listing startup Hipflat for an undisclosed amount — e27
🇸🇬 Parkway Pantai will be the first clinic in Singapore to issue digital Covid-19 swab results to travelers, under its collaboration with blockchain startup Accredify — Accredify Blog
🇸🇬 NCS, the ICT arm of Singtel, has acquired digital services consultancy company 2359 — Tech in Asia
🇻🇳 How foodtech startup Lozi pivoted from advertising to delivery service leveraging hyperlocal capabilities, interview with GM Son Minh Tran — Lozi Blog
🇸🇬 Foodtech startup Eat Just (US) has announced a partnership with Proterra Investment Advisers to build a US$120m protein food factory in Singapore — Tech in Asia
🇮🇩 Bookkeeping app BukuWarung & microretail startup Warung Pintar have announced a partnership to design stock fulfillment solutions — e27
🌏 Algorand Asia Accelerator has selected 10 startups for its 12-week Finance 3.0 focused program, which includes a US$15,000 investment — e27
🇲🇾 Restaurant reservation and table management tools startup TABLEAPP has been acquired by reservation platform FunNow (Taiwan) — New Straits Times
🌏 Hospitality startup RedDoorz has launched SANS, its new trendy, economy lifestyle hotel brand — e27
🇸🇬 Online financial media Seedly has been acquired by CompareAsiaGroup (HK) — Seedly Blog
🇸🇬 Telehealth startup Doctor Anywhere has launched online mental health video consultation service — MobiHealth
🇮🇩 Startup Studio, an accelerator run by the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Informatics of Indonesia, has revealed its new batch of 20 startups — e27
🇸🇬 Electric motorcycle startup OMNi (Costa Rica) has partnered with Gogoro (Taiwan) & BlueSG to offer electric scooter sharing in Singapore, using swappable batteries — CNA
🇹🇭 Video SaaS company Paronym (Japan) has closed a US$6.5m Series B to expand to SEA starting with Thailand — e27
🇻🇳 VIISA (Vietnam Innovative Startups Accelerator) has revealed its 8th batch of 2 startups: Drobebox & Doctor Bear — DealStreetAsia
The Unicorn Belt 🦄
🇮🇩 E-commerce marketplace Tokopedia will reportedly receive US$350m in investment from Google & Temasek — The Business Times
🌏 Grab’s group revenue is reportedly back at 95% of Pre-Covid level, with over 50% made from it food unit — Reuters
🌏 Grab has partnered with hotel chain Marriott, for in-depth integration of Marriott’s 600 restaurants & bars in 6 countries to GrabFood — TechCrunch
🇮🇩 Transaction volumes for Traveloka are back at pre-Covid levels in Vietnam, Thailand; at 70% for hotels in Indonesia — Tech in Asia
🇮🇩 Gojek has launched its multimodal transportation feature, GoTransit, which includes public transit alerts, and first/last mile GoRide booking — Gojek Blog
🇻🇳 Grab has partnered with banking group Shinhan Financial (Korea) to accelerate the creation of new financial & digital services in Vietnam — Vietnam Investment Review
🇸🇬 Grab and Microsoft have partnered to train 5,000 drivers & delivery riders to digital jobs — Microsoft Blog
🌏 The story of Gojek in pictures: from the early days — Gojek Blog
🌏 Restaurant aggregator Zomato has shut down its premium service in Indonesia & the Philippines — Tech in Asia
Venture Capitalists 🎢
🌏 Tax & legal services firm Taxmantra (India) has launched ProfitBoard Ventures, a US$100m fund to invest in SEA & Indian startups — DealStreetAsia
🌏 Genesia Ventures has announced the final closing of its 2nd US$75m fund, with Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Capital, TFHD Open Innovation Program, and Mitsui Leasing as anchor investors — Tech in Asia
🇹🇭 Oil refinering & production company Thaioil has partnered with Plug and Play — Plug and Play blog
Corporates 👨💼
🇸🇬 Advanced materials company Nanofilm Technologies has filed for IPO at US$1.25b valuation — The Straits Times
🇸🇬 SP Group is building a 700ha/42,000 homes smart town called Tengah, powered by solar energy, leveraging EV charging, smart waste management and centralised cooling system — Bloomberg
🇹🇭 LINE & Kasikorn Bank have launched the first social banking app through their JV — KrASIA
🇸🇬 Sea and Capitaland have formed an alliance to explore digitization of offline retailers, starting with a gamification journey to increase offline sales at six malls on Singles day (11/11) — Singapore Business Review
🇸🇬 DBS is building a fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchange — The Block
🇻🇳 Apple is shifting production from China to Vietnam, and it’s creating boomtowns — Bloomberg
🇹🇭 Siam Commercial Bank has launched RobinHood, its food delivery platform — KrASIA
🇸🇬 SP Group & Sembcorp are building a marketplace to trade renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon credits — The Straits Times
🇸🇬 Connectivity service provider Epsilon has acquired development and design agency 7D Digital (UK). — Tech.eu
🇸🇬 Real estate agency ERA has partnered with Matterport to provide virtual tours, exciting — Singapore Business Review
🇸🇬 Impossible Foods’s (US) plant-based meat is now for sale at Fairprice and on RedMart — Today Online
🇸🇬 TikTok is hiring 3,000 engineers in EU, Canada, Singapore — Reuters
Smart Nations 🏛️
🇸🇬 The Singaporean gov’t will dedicate US$36m to research in hydrogen and carbon capture utilisation and storage — CNA
🇮🇩 Indonesia is drafting a regulation to details steps to block social media platforms — KrASIA
Food for thought 🍜
🌏 WhatsApp is Facebook’s super app, and an essential part of the stack of many businesses like Yalochat — East Meets West
🇸🇬 From 50 five years ago to 1,000 today: Singapore is the home of a fintech boom; and 80% are B2B — Nikkei Asian Review
🌏 AI could bring US$1tn in GDP by 2030 to ASEAN, EDBI & Kearney say — The Financial Times
🌏 Opportunities & challenges for a sustainable supply chain in the Covid era — Reefknot Investments
🌏 The upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla shows Ubisoft is a key foundation of the Singaporean video gaming industry — The Business Times
🇸🇬 What are the determining factors for retail electricity prices in Singapore? — Howard Low
🇮🇩 The battle to digitize the 40,000 Jakarta streetside eateries — KrASIA
The Fountainhead ⛲
🇨🇳 Ant is targeting to raise US$34b for its IPO, the world’s biggest offering and it’s been oversubscribed 872 times — CNA
🇨🇳 TikTok is partnering with Shopify, globally, to help merchants roll out marketing videos for their products easily — TechCrunch
🇨🇳 Alibaba is going O2O with its US$3.6b purchase of China’s biggest hypermarket operator, Sun Art — SCMP
🇨🇳 Online tutoring startup Yuanfudao has raised US$2.2b in two rounds, one led by Tencent, the other by DST Global, with GIC & Temasek also joining — The Business Times
Also 🤫
🇹🇭 The Awakening — Foreign tourists are back in Thailand — Reuters
🇸🇬 Singapore will plant 170,000 more trees in industrial estates in the next 10 years — CNA
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