Tough times for Southeast Asia's public market pioneers
Asia Tech Review: 7 March 2022
Welcome back,
It’s been a testing time for two of Southeast Asia’s iconic startups. Grab and Sea have both blazed trails for other young tech companies in the region. Sea was the world’s hottest stock during Covid—it’s rise put Southeast Asia on the map for VCs and tech execs outside of the region—Grab added to that momentum with a world-record SPAC last year.
Those two opened doors, but the walls of the public markets are closing in tightly with both companies’ share prices down badly from the end of last year. Yes, the markets are brutal right now/this year, but Grab and Sea have their own issues to deal with if they are to rebound and regain the confidence of the market.
Elsewhere, India is still the center for edtechs, social commerce pioneer Meesho is eyeing a 2023 IPO and the Philippines could be the next to get a central bank digital currency.
As ever, you can keep up with news as it happens via the ATR Telegram channel, which is absolutely free and here: https://t.me/asiatechbulletin
That’s all for this edition—see you next time,
Jon
China
Sequoia Capital China founder Neil Shen is urging China’s government to invest in tech to fight climate change and build digital infrastructure link
The US is expected to lean on major Chinese companies including SMIC and Lenovo to join sanctions against Russia with the aim of crippling the country’s ability to buy key technologies and components link
ByteDance is testing a new music app called Soda link
Self-driving truck startup Inceptio raises $188 million led by Sequoia China and Lenovo’s Legend Capital link
Video streaming service Bilibili saw its annual losses double to over $1B, that’s down to increased competition (particularly with Douyin/Tiktok) but also a government clamp down on overseas anime and a freezing of new video games. Bilibili went public in Hong Kong one year ago, but it’s share price has fallen 70% since then link
The market for SPACs is struggling but that’s not stopping Perfect—the startup behind a popular make-up and beauty app which is backed by Alibaba—from its own SPAC deal that values it around $1B. As part of the deal, Perfect will raise $335M from the deal, with $50M from strategic investors including as Chanel and Snap link
WeDoctor, one of China’s top online health platforms, is reportedly laying off “a substantial chunk” of staff after a planned IPO was disrupted link
EV startup NIO is skipping fundraising and instead it will be doing a secondary listing in Hong Kong link
Fitness app Keep has filed for a Hong Kong IPO link
In a rare joint move, Chinese tech giants Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent together released new low latency streaming standards to shorten the time lag for streaming link
India
Social commerce company Meesho—which counts Facebook and SoftBank’s Vision Fund among its backers—is reportedly planning an IPO early next year. Meesho was valued at $4.9B when it raised funding last year, and it is said to be studying options in India and the US link
FPL Technologies, the startup behind OneCard, is reportedly set to double its valuation to $1.5B in an upcoming round that’ll be lead by Temasek link
Chinese tech startups, including ByteDance, have reportedly thrown in the towel in India after New Delhi stood firm in blocking apps from companies from the mainland or with associations there link
MPL is pushing its global expansion after it acquired German games studio GameDuell in an undisclosed deal link
Amazon and Future’s messy relationship might be patched up to some extent after the two partners reportedly resolved a legal spat as the US retail giant was reportedly preparing to sue cash-strapped Future for selling assets to rival Reliance link
Accel—one of the early backers of Flipkart among others—has a new $650 million fund to back Indian startups and be more aggressive in Southeast Asia link
Elsewhere, Reliance Industries plans to invest up to $221M in US electronics firm Sanmina to set up a joint venture to expand its electronics manufacturing capabilities link
Things are going from bad to worse for BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover—after leaving the $2.8B fintech company’s board he is now accused of “extensive misappropriation of company funds” and having “siphoned [off] money” along with his family. Grover denies the claims link
Fresh produce supply chain startup Ninjacart has committed to spend $25M investing in new agri-tech startups—Ninjacart itself raised $145M from Flipkart in December at a $700M valuation link
An Indian tax investigation into China's Huawei Technologies has found the telecoms equipment maker manipulated account books to reduce its taxable income in the country, an Indian government source told Reuters on Thursday link
The government is reportedly probing Huawei for allegedly leaving 4B rupees ($52M) in income from the accounts it filed—at least three offices are said to have raided as part of the investigation
India continues to be the centre for edtech startups: live-tutoring platform Filo raised $23M link
Meanwhile, Student loan fintech platform Kuhoo has raised $20 million from WestBridge Capital, as part of its first institutional funding link
Audio streaming platform Pocket FM raised $65M link
Locofast, a supply chain platform for fashion and lifestyle companies, raised $15M link
Southeast Asia
A not-good-very-bad day for Grab which reported a net loss of $1.1B for the last quarter of 2021—nearly double one year previous. Grab’s revenue dropped 44% to $122M on account of incentives offered to users and drivers. Grab went public at a share price of $13.06, today it is just $3.36—and it could get worse. Analysis comparing its valuation with peers suggests that price could fall to as low as $1 link
Sea is also having a tough time right now—the company has lost over $130B from its peak market cap as its shares dropped from over $350 to $97 as of today. Sea’s woes have included India banning its games and investigating pricing on Shopee, while broadly Sea’s growth has weakened but the losses continue link
The Philippines central bank is the latest to delve into a CBDC, central bank digital currency. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is carrying out research with a view to a pilot project but it also ruled out introducing a CBDC in the near future link
AgriAku, a B2B marketplace for farmers, raised $6M led by Gojek’s Go Ventures fund link
Volopay raised a $29M to expand in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa link
Japan
Sony and Honda plan to team up to make electric cars according to a new partnership announced last week link
Toshiba CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa suddenly resigned—a departure that comes after sources said revised restructuring plans sparked opposition within the company in addition to long-standing anger from shareholders link
Rakuten Symphony, a recently-launched telco arm of Rakuten, has bought Robin.io, a startup that offers a Kubernetes platform optimized for storage solutions and complex network applications, in an undisclosed deal link
Korea
Jung-ju Jay Kim, founder of South Korean gaming company Nexon, has passed away at age 54 link
His sudden death came as a big shock to South Korea’s gaming industry that sees Kim as an icon and a pioneer. The company did not disclose a cause of death. According to media reports, Kim had been undergoing treatment for depression, and his condition seemed to have worsened. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
Pressure from Chinese rivals has wiped $20B from the market value of South Korea’s top game companies—Krafton, the developer of global hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has led the slump link
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