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Grab, gojek close in on terms for merger; They have narrowed their differences of opinion, though some parts of the agreement still need to be negotiated; Under one structure with substantial support, Grab co-founder Anthony Tan would become the CEO of the combined entity, while gojek executives would run the new combined business in Indonesia under the Gojek brand. Bloomberg
Is the future of retail in AI?; Google and Facebook are largely AI machines. On the ad side, both are pushing to give more control to their AI (and out of your hands); Amazon already uses AI to guide their delivery driver routes; And in a world of AI-driven drones and self-driving cars, how far off are we where a customer can get an order in hours without a single human touching it? Inside Retail
The holiday edit: Zalora CMO on how to tap social media to induce consumer shopping behaviour; Jo Bjordal says livestream e-commerce will continue to become a more important sales channel in Southeast Asia as the markets mature; SEA is a mobile-first region, with most countries ranking high in mobile phone ownership ratio and use of mobile in their communications. e27
How Singapore’s Scalo Technologies helps global startups expand into SEA through its unique investment model; More than 500 startups, including companies from the Southeast Asia region, are in Scalo’s funnel and are at different stages of consideration; It has made its maiden investment of US$3M into Russian firm Megarender. e27
N-Squared Ecommerce to expand its footprint across SEA with its Series A; Investors include KKP Capital, Siam Alpha Equity, Chanwanich Group, AHMP and ECG-Research; The Thai firm owns several online D2C brands and an e-commerce distributor for over 130 brands in six countries across the region. e27
Tazapay raises US$3.2M from Sequoia India, Surge, Saison Capital; It is a cloud-based trade management platform for SMEs to safely conduct cross-border commerce; The funds will be used for product development, hiring talent and expansion to new markets in SEA. e27
Otoklix to expand its O2O solutions for automotive aftermarket in Indonesia with US$2M+ financing; Investors include Surge, GK Plug and Play, Founders of Kopi Kenangan; Otoklix is targeting 500 partner workshops, 100K monthly cars serviced, 75% wallet share of partnered workshops total procurement by December 2021. e27
Sembrani Nusantara Fund (SNF) invests US$2M in Indonesia’s made-to-order drinks brand Haus!; Haus! claims it has 100+ outlets across Greater Jakarta and Bandung, and sells 1.5M cups a month; BRI Ventures-backed SNF recently hit the first close at US$10M. e27
Neuroglee bags US$2.3M in pre-seed funding to strengthen fight against Alzheimer’s; Investors include Japan’s Eisai, Biofourmis CEO Kuldeep Singh Rajput; The Singapore startup is building evidence-based, prescription digital therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. e27
Extracurricular activities learning platform Kyt bags US$2.5M; Investors are Surge, Titan Capital, angel investors; Over 1,000 students have taken a course or attended workshops with Kyt; It has 20+ teachers, with plans to increase this to 500 over the next 12 months. e27
How Singapore is cementing its position as SEA’s fintech hub; There are currently 1K+ fintech startups in Singapore, mainly focussing on payment, lending, investment and personal finance; Singapore as a fintech hub has grown thanks to a proactive regulatory framework and policies that promote a sustainable financial services ecosystem. Tech Collective
iMedia acquires Malaysia-based Chinese language portal Moretify; Based on Google Analytics data, from Jan to Oct, Moretify recorded an average of 3.1M page views and acquired over 800K monthly users; Over the past 3+ months, iMedia has acquired OhMedia, Ittify, Goody25 and BeautifulNara. e27
Digital payment firm VNPay becomes Vietnam’s second startup unicorn; VNPay, which manages a network of payment systems using QR codes in major cities, is currently partnering with over 40 banks and 20K companies; It has 15M+ monthly users who access its app to transfer money, pay utility bills and buy bus tickets; Vietnam targets having 5 unicorns by 2025. Retail News Asia
Indonesia’s Pintek secures investment; Investors include Finch Capital (lead), Accion Venture; Pintek provides financial access to all communities and educational institutions and their suppliers; It has partnered with 190+ educational institutions and has distributed credit to customers across more than 26 provinces. e27
Indonesia’s Desty raised seed funding from East Ventures; It provides a single platform for individuals to sell their products; Its Desty Page is a service that creates landing pages optimised for link in bio at social media accounts, while Desty Store allows users to easily create an e-commerce store complimentary to marketplaces. e27
Why SEA desperately needs innovation in HR and how Veremark accelerator is facilitating it; HR Tech has seen investment treble from US$1.8B in 2017 to nearly US$6B in 2019 by VCs globally; However, only a fraction of that comes from SEA as a region despite the fact that exit multiples at 7x sales on average are significantly higher than most marketplaces, content or e-commerce businesses. e27
Addressing the logistics challenges of transporting the COVID-19 vaccines in and out of Asia; To ensure glitch-free vaccine distribution, it is vital to organise all aspects of the process, which is possible with the help of cloud technology and the mobilisation, task management, and people interaction expertise of companies like Salesforce. e27
The 3 questions that will help maximise every entrepreneur’s productivity; For any entrepreneur, growth should be the primary focus and purpose; There are vital decisions to be taken as to how the business can enter and establish a presence in new markets, how the existing product line can be expanded to serve customers better, and also to bring in more revenue. e27
6 ways sentiment analysis is changing the e-commerce experience; How often do you give a thought to the fact that customers love being heard?; You must listen to what they say about your brand; Your customer is not a paid influencer and has got no reason to tell lies; Rather, customers are very objective in their criticisms about a product or service. e27
Grab launches delivery-only supermarket in Malaysia; GrabSupermarket currently services the Klang Valley, delivering over 2,500 products including household goods, pantry essentials, beauty and health essentials, and freshly sourced produce; This new development by the super app comes after the COVID-19 outbreak has fuelled demand for home deliveries. TechInAsia
Eat Just gets regulatory nod to sell lab-grown chicken meat in Singapore; The company said that its new product meets quality validations and was confirmed to be safe and nutritious for human consumption; Eat Just is the US-based company behind egg alternative Just Egg, which is made with turmeric and mung bean protein. TechInAsia
Restaurant industry has yet to tap full potential of technology, say industry players; Restaurateurs are urged to invest in technology so they can collect, protect and integrate data points from all their systems to derive long-term value for the company. SGSME
NOW inks 5G rollout deal with Nokia in Philippines; NOW Group will adopt Nokia’s 5G standalone tech which provides for overall faster broadband, compared to the 5G non-standalone seen in many countries where radio networks are only overlaid on existing 4G networks; The partnership comes at a time when Philippine telcos are urged to provide better services and faster internet connectivity in the new normal. ABS-CBN
Malaysia’s green energy solutions startup JM Newton secures US$700K+ via ECF Ata Plus; 11 investors participated in the campaign which was oversubscribed by 954%; It claims its eco-friendly and green-qualified systems and solutions have been applied to a range of shopping centres and hypermarket chains in the country. e27
Vietnam reports successful 5G pilot tests; State-run Viettel Group’s Viettel High-Tech Industries Corporation and Vingroup’s VinSmart Research and Manufacture JSC in October agreed to develop a 5G gNodeB base station system; 5G speed on Vsmart smartphones using Sub6 band is ~8x higher than 4G. Open Gov
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The post Ecosystem Roundup: Grab, gojek reportedly close in on terms for merger; VNPay becomes Vietnam’s 2nd unicorn appeared first on e27.
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