Although Southeast Asia is usually classified as one homogenous region, the dynamics inside each country within the region are extremely diverse.
According to CB Insights Data, the most recent deals, VCs, investors and technology trends now perfectly define the region.
Extracting the information collected and specializing in the expansion within the number and presence of unicorns and soon-to-be unicorns within the region, here’s how these countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam is what they’re doing at once.
MEGA-ROUNDS AND UNICORNS
Funding numbers in 2017 were boosted by a lot of mega-rounds price over $100 million, a few of that are the largest-ever rounds targeting Southeast Asian technology firms.
Singaporean ride-hailing company Grab raised the most important round within the region to this point: a $2 billion Series G within the third quarter of 2017.
Another ride-hailing company to lift a big sum was Indonesia’s GO-JEK, which raised $1.2 billion in Series C funding from Chinese tech giants Tencent Holdings and JD.com within the second quarter of 2017.
Indonesian travel booking site Tokopedia raised $1.1 billion from Alibaba Group within the third quarter of 2017.
Southeast Asia is currently home to 4 unicorns: two Singaporean firms, passenger transport app Grab and online gaming company Sea, in addition to two Indonesian firms, travel booking site Traveloka and passenger transport app GO-JEK.
EMERGING TRENDS
With the massive increase in smartphone use, social media in Southeast Asia is a serious trend, with Indonesia leading the best way.
The hottest geotagged city on Instagram is Jakarta, Indonesia. In 2012, Jakarta won the title of “Twitter City” for posting essentially the most tweets of any city on the planet.
Earlier this month, Chinese unicorn ByteDance, a startup just like Musical.ly in that it allows users to post short videos, expanded into Indonesia with the launch of local app Tik Tok.
In the second quarter of 2017, Singaporean dating app Paktor merged with Taiwanese startup 17Media so as to add live streaming and content production to its offering.
Another emerging trend is growth payment startups trying to offer most of the same services as banks – including money storage, digital payments and money transfers.
According to the World Bank, only 27% of Southeast Asians have a checking account, and in countries like Cambodia, that number drops to only 5%. Startups operating within the payments space have the potential to supply financial services to a largely underbanked population.
Philippine company Coins.ph runs a bitcoin wallet that focuses on improving the benefit and efficiency of cash transfers sent between countries, while Singapore’s InstaReM says it charges lower money transfer fees than traditional services akin to MoneyGram or Western Union.
In July 2017, the Thai payment solution Omise raised $25 million in an ICO to assist construct Omise Go, an electronic wallet based on cryptocurrencies and cross-border money exchange. Omise also raised $20.4 million in traditional disclosed financing, and backers include 500 Startups and East Ventures.
Another trend is growth area of interest e-commerce sites. Despite the existence of local, well-funded e-commerce sites (akin to Tokopedia) and the entry of market giants into the region (akin to Chinese tech giant Alibaba’s purchase last 12 months of Singaporean e-commerce retailer Lazada), investors continued to finance sites selling specific goods.
In the third quarter of 2017, fashion and lifestyle marketplace Zilingo raised $18 million in a Series B round from Sequoia Capital India and Burda Capital Investments, amongst others. In the identical quarter, Indonesian fashion startup Sale Stock raised $27 million in Series B funding.
Muslim clothing portal Muslimarket raised a Series A from 500 startups, amongst others, investors within the second quarter of 2017, while Qlapa, an Etsy-style marketplace for handmade products, raised a Series A in the primary quarter of 2017 from Aavishkar and KapanLagi Network.
For multi-purpose passenger transport, major Southeast Asian firms like Grab and GO-JEK are operating on multiple fronts. Grab, which initially offered taxis, now also offers two-wheeled vehicles (akin to electric scooters). GO-JEK, which began by offering on-demand two-wheelers, has now partnered with the local taxi company Blue Bird and likewise offers its own private automotive service, GoAutomotive.
Both firms even have dedicated fintech offerings: GO-JEK with the favored Go Pay and Grab with GrabPay. Grab also bought fintech startup Kudo, which allows customers to deposit money at kiosks and put it of their wallet.
GO-JEK, backed by WeChat operator Tencent, can also be moving toward cross-platform capabilities comparable to WeChat. It delivers food with Go Food and even provides massages in some parts of Jakarta with its Go Massage on-demand spa.
Source: CBInsights | https://www.cbinsights.com/research/sutheast-asia-tech-financing-trends-investors/
