Singapore awards its digital banking licenses and Grab-Gojek merger rumours reheat
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Singapore awards its digital banking licenses and Grab-Gojek merger rumours reheat
Asia Tech Review: 7 December 2020
Welcome back,
Somehow we are in December. I’d say time flew but, really, did it?
Southeast Asia takes the limelight this week, with Grab and Gojek’s merger picking up further press speculation albeit without actual details of what might happen. Singapore’s digital bank licenses were awarded, with just one surprise candidate squeezing in, and there’s a worrying report on social media platforms enabling Vietnam to find and arrest its online critics.
Elsewhere, Flipkart’s PhonePe will fly solo and India got a new unicorn. And TikTok might, maybe, get away with not selling its US business.
It was a busy week at The Ken, too. We hired a new reporter and I looked at a bootstrapped and under-the-radar startup, CoinGecko, which developed a crypto analytics and price tracking site that’s close to surpassing its market-leading $400M rival. More stories in the mix below.
See you next time and take care,
Jon
China
It looks like TikTok is off the hook in the US. The US government hasn’t granted another extension to its deadline to divest its US business but, this time, it looks like the Trump administration won’t pursue it. That could mean the Chinese firm can get back to ‘normal’ when the Biden presidency kicks off. But—usual disclaimer—anything could (and likely will) happen.
Any deal would also require approval from China, so… yeah
Meanwhile, incoming new US rules will mean that Chinese companies must disclose more information or risk being delisted from stock exchanges
Meituan reported 29% growth as revenue reached $5.4bn in Q3—its stock is on a run having nearly-tripled this year to give it a market cap of $220B
On/off Alibaba ally and retailer Suning may sell a stake in its e-commerce business to ease financing pressures, it’s seeking a valuation of around $6B
Xiaomi raised a $3.1B placement, a record for Hong Kong, but saw stock drop by 12%—that’s despite its fastest sales growth for two years
China's media regulator has approved a South Korean video game for the first time in nearly four years in what could be a relaxation of economic retaliation
Hikvision and Dahua Technology, China's two leading manufacturers of surveillance cameras, have quickly recovered from a revenue hit caused by U.S. sanctions as demand grows from corporations adopting measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus
India
PhonePe has spun out of Flipkart and raised $700M led by parent company Walmart at a $5.5B valuation. The company is India’s largest payment firm and it claims over 100M users, there have been claims that it could seek an IPO and/or expand overseas, this spinout gives it the potential to chase those opportunities and others too
Ant Group is reportedly considering selling its Paytm stake due to political tension between China and India—would certainly be explosive but Ant is such a huge part of Paytm that it seems unlikely… and unclear who’d buy, too
Netflix plans to double its spending on content in Asia, having seen success with shows like India Matchmaking
Reliance could reportedly be the largest LP of Kalaai capital’s new $100M fund
Tata is close to a deal to buy “as much as 80% of BigBasket in a deal that is likely to value the local online grocer backed by Alibaba at about $1.6 billion”
Cred is now valued at $800M after it raised $80M, that’s up from $450M last year
Talent platform Eightfold AI raised $125M at a $1B valuation. General Catalyst led the round
Wendy’s is expanding in India through a deal with cloud kitchen firm Rebel Foods that’ll expand its current footprint of just 9 stores
Rebel Foods will partner with Sierra Nevada Restaurants to develop and operate approximately 250 Wendy’s cloud kitchens pan-India, with Sierra Nevada starting another 150 Wendy’s brick-and-mortar restaurants here.
Southeast Asia
Singapore’s digital bank licenses have been a major topic of discussion for tech in 2020. That’s not just because it gives success winners a position to wade into financial services in Singapore, but other governments in the region are carefully watching Singapore and likely to follow suit—already Malaysia and the Philippines are taking steps to allow online banks through regulation.
MAS released the names of four winners late on Friday. No huge surprises: Grab-Singtel, Sea and Ant were the favourites who came through. One outlier did win a license though: a consortium led by Chinese real estate developer and state-owned enterprise Greenland Group, via its Greenland Financial arm.
The banks are expected to come online by 2021. Singapore’s bankings are already ready for their digital challengers.
Razer was one of those that missed out. It says it will continue on and bring its banking and financial services to other markets, including Malaysia, Philippines and even Europe and Latin America.
Grab and Gojek, meanwhile, have been in the news over their merger:
Bloomberg reported that a deal is “close” but shared no details (note the byline is from Japan, the land of SoftBank)
The FT then reported much the same… this looks like a ‘where is our Grab-Gojek story?’ response to Bloomberg
And the two companies both leaked internal memos saying they are in a position of power to do deals
From my own reporting it looks like a deal could happen in Q1 2021, that’s a wide window I know. It looks like a number of scenarios are on the table in terms of splitting the companies up (we’ve written about that at The Ken) while some people involved aren’t ruling out a no-deal outcome which sees Gojek (and maybe Grab) raise more money.
Japan will invest $4B in Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund, this follows a reported commitment from the US. The Nusantara Investment Authority, as the fund will be known, is set to start operating in early 2021 and it aims to attract 225 trillion rupiah ($16 billion) from investors
Social media isn’t helping with free speech in Vietnam—a record 170 political prisoners are in jail in the country right now, with some 70 serving terms for online activism on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. A report from Amnesty places significant blame on the US firms:
In Viet Nam, platforms like Facebook and YouTube have become hunting grounds for government censors and state-sponsored trolls.
And the companies aren't just letting it happen: they're increasingly complicit.
Vietnamese state hackers are also now apparently developing malware for crypto mining, according to Microsoft
Philippines streaming service Kumu is thriving in Covid-19 and could offer local resistance to TikTok’s global dominance
Indonesia may still pursue a plan to tax technology companies on the income they generate from the country even if G20 nations and the OECD cannot reach a deal on digital taxes, its finance minister said
The industry of meat alternatives is rapidly increasing in Southeast Asia, but it faces multiple challenges including economic reliance on agriculture, pricing and religious concerns
The head of one of Myanmar’s most successful app development companies explains how it got an early start on competitors like Google
Malaysia’s national post service is struggling to digitise
Singapore’s ambitious plan to lessen its reliance on cash is up against serious challenge in converting street food sellers
Cloud trade management platform Tazapay raised $3.2M
Japan
SoftBank is winding down its options trading efforts after investor backlash
Other parts of Asia
Facebook, Twitter and other global tech companies have threatened to pull out of Pakistan after the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan granted enhanced powers to government media regulators Wednesday
The rap stars breaking out of South East Asia
Construction of new villas in Bali is defying the Covid-19 economic downturn
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