VNG, Vietnam’s first tech unicorn, hit with mystery investigation
VNG, Vietnam’s first tech unicorn, hit with mystery investigation
VNG has new CEO, Alibaba to accept WeChat and Malaysian fund responds to ATR
Welcome back,
This week’s most intriguing story comes from Vietnam, where a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the country’s highest-profile startup—VNG—after it was raided by police as part of an unknown investigation into its business, which operates messaging, gaming, streaming and payments businesses.
Elsewhere, we have an upcoming (and previously unthinkable) truce between Alibaba and Tencent. Elsewhere Dunzo, a former poster child for Indian startups, is struggling to stay alive, Malaysia has cancelled a controversial plan to reroute internet traffic through local DNS servers, and hot startups in the EV and delivery space are among the next planning to go public in India.
We’ll be back with another original story this Thursday—have a great start to your week.
Best,
Jon
PS: Follow the Asia Tech Review LinkedIn page for updates on posts published here and interesting things that come our way. If you’re a news junkie, the ATR Telegram news feed has you covered with news as-it-happens or join the community chat here.
News in Focus
Vietnam’s first tech unicorn hit with mystery investigation
There’s mystery and intrigue at VNG, a 20-year-old tech firm that’s Vietnam’s first unicorn, after the company announced it is under investigation from police following a “surprise” raid on its headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City.
VNG is backed by investors like Tencent and GIC. It is best known for running Vietnam’s most popular messaging app, Zalo, its payments business and publishing a string of successful games. The company had planned to go public in the US, following on from EV firm Vinfast’s American IPO, but it withdrew its application to list on the Nasdaq in January of this year with plans to revisit the opportunity in the future. (It is already public in Vietnam, where its share price is down)
Here’s what we know so far:
VNG’s headquarters were raided in what the company called a surprise
It is cooperating with police on an unspecified investigation around VNG and sister companies Zion JSC and Thanh Son Communication
VNG appointed an acting CEO, Kelly Wong, hours after the raid but the fate of CEO Le Hong Minh is unclear
Wong will take on day-to-day operations “to ensure VNG continues to operate smoothly”
News of the investigation appears to have been scrubbed from the internet
VNG stock briefly hit an all-time-low following the news, despite a good year—revenue in H1 2024 climbing 30% to reach $175M
Early concern has focused on the harm that the investigation could have on Vietnam’s overall startup ecosystem. IPOs and exits generally are key to bringing more investment into a country, and enabling ecosystem growth as local investors and former employees enjoy a windfall and reinvest their experience and capital. It’s impossible to say much more until further information about the investigation emerges, hopefully in the coming weeks.
Hell freezes over: Alibaba prepares to accept Tencent’s WeChat Pay
It seemed unthinkable years ago, but Alibaba is clearing the way for sellers on its e-commerce platforms to accept payment via WeChat Pay, the popular mobile wallet used in arch rival Tencent’s WeChat messaging app. It hasn’t happened yet but notices issued to sellers on Taobao and Tmall asking for feedback suggest it is close.
This move isn’t goodwill. It is required. It is one of the effects of China’s market regulator’s antitrust review into the business after it fined Alibaba $2.8 in 2021. WeChat as such a thorn in Alibaba’s side that it even created its own messaging app—DingTalk—and inspired Ant Group to push Alipay hard as a wallet rival with mini apps and more.
Malaysia’s state fund issues non-response response to ATR story
Our story on the fire sale of Malaysian startup FashionValet, once valued at $100M, stirred up plenty of local discussion over its investment from two state-backed funds.
A press release from Khazanah, one of those funds, noted that it would like to address “misconceptions and inaccuracies” within media reports, but it didn’t specify what those were. We take our reporting seriously and our story, and the figures within it, were based on publicly-available filings not conjecture, rumour or hearsay, as anyone who read it would understand.
Khazanah hasn’t been in touch with us, but we’d like to welcome the fund to do so and clarify its comments further.
It has been heartening to see the story generate interest and conversation but it has been disappointing to see a lack of deeper reporting around the topic. Rather than digging into FashionValet’s sale or demise in more detail—including, potential lessons that can be learned—online media have written about the reaction to the news based on comments posted on social networks and, in one case, even a ‘story’ about accessing a filing.
These types of lazy stories riding the wave of popular topics highlight the gap in serious business and tech reporting in Southeast Asia. We hope our original reporting at Asia Tech Review can make the hole a little smaller.
Gojek’s Vietnam exit signals a new chapter in its battle with Grab
Our latest original story looks at Gojek’s exit from Vietnam, including why its ultimately unsuccessful regional expansion was needed, Grab’s Project Jericho assault on Indonesia and more.
China
The US is imposing new export controls on quantum computing and semiconductor technologies to curb advancements in China and other adversarial nations link
It turns out that not only can Chinese firms access US tech but that renting cloud services with Nvidia’s top AI chips is cheaper in China than in the US link
Huawei may have become a key player in China’s AI push, thanks to US export controls, but the Chinese firm’s buggy software, including poor stability and speed. is hampering its efforts to displace Nvidia entirely in China link
Huawei and chip manufacturer SMIC are said to be facing challenges producing chips for the highly anticipated Mate 70 flagship phone due to the ongoing effects of a four-year US ban on supplying equipment to both companies link
ByteDance is reportedly tapping banks for a $9.5B loan that would be the biggest dollar-denominated corporate facility in Asia excluding Japan link
The company also shuffled its board, with businessman Xavier Niel replacing Coatue Management founder Philipe Laffont—and its share price during a recent employee buyback rose to value it at $230B link
China outspent South Korea, Taiwan, and the US combined on chip-making equipment in the first half of 2024, investing a record $25B amid efforts to localise chip supplies and counter Western export restrictions link
AI startup Zhipu is now valued at $2.8B following an investment from state-backed Zhongguancun Science City Innovation Development link
Ant Group, operator of Alipay, launched a standalone AI chatbot for handling tasks like meal orders or taxi bookings link
India
Dunzo, once the darling of local delivery in India that raised nearly $500M from investors like Google and Reliance, laid off 150 staff to leave it with just 50—the firm didn’t expand to quick commerce well and now it is struggling to raise $20M to save its ailing business link
Fresh faced rival Zepto raised $1B from investors over the last 90 days and now reports suggest it is working on a potential IPO within the next year, once it has redomiciled its business to India link
Byju’s is already undergoing insolvency process and now India’s tax authorities are demanding $101M from the struggling business, which was once the country’s highest-valued startup with a $22B valuation link
Meanwhile a second Byju’s auditor has exited in a year as its financial turmoil deepens link
Customers of WazirX, the Indian cryptocurrency exchange that suffered a $234M hack in July, are unlikely to recover their funds in full through the ongoing restructuring process link
Meanwhile, the WazirX hacker moved $6.5M of ETH into Tornado Cash, a platform sanctioned by the US government which obfuscates the pathway of transactions link
Fabless semiconductor startup BigEndian raised $3M Vertex Ventures link
Israel's Tower Semiconductor and Adani Group will invest $10B for a semiconductor project in India's western state of Maharashtra link
OfBusiness, a B2B platform for raw materials backed by SoftBank, is planning an IPO that could raise $1B in the second half of 2025 link
Edtech startup PhysicsWallah is close to finalising a $150M round at a valuation of $2.8B link
Zomato's acquisition of Paytm's entertainment business has cast doubt on KKR's planned $250-300M investment in BookMyShow, India's largest ticket-booking platform—it is now said to be renegotiating the size of valuation of the deal link
EV startup Ather Energy is planning an IPO that could value its business at $2B or more link
Mobility startup Rapido raised $200M at a valuation of $1.1B link
Amazon has said it expects exports from India-based sellers to cross $5B in 2024 link
Southeast Asia
Malaysia has cancelled a controversial plan to reroute internet traffic through local DNS servers, which critics feared could enable censorship and harm the digital economy—on the plus side, the communications minister acknowledged feedback from the public was key to making this decision link
OKX is the latest crypto exchange to become fully licensed in Singapore link
Online shopping service provider SCI Ecommerce is eyeing a mid-2025 IPO in Singapore that could value its business at over $1B link
Malaysia’s homegrown car brands Proton and Perodua aim to compete with Tesla and BYD by focusing on cheaper EV models link
South Korea
The deep fake porn crisis on Telegram is engulfing hundreds of South Korean schools link
South Korea said Telegram has now complied with its request to remove some of the deepfake content on its platform and apologised for its response to the digital sex crimes link
Telegram has also quietly enabled users to report private chats to moderators after its founder’s arrest in France link
Chip startup Rebellions plans to go public as early as the end of 2025, having merged with SK Telecom’s Sapeon Korea earlier this year link
Apple has overcome regulatory hurdles to finally launch its 'Find My' network for finding misplaced or lost devices in South Korea link
South Korean chip executive detained again over alleged technology leak to China link
Japan
Japan aims to regain its global tech leadership, with chip companies securing billions and partnering with foreign firms under new government policies focused on international collaboration. . link
Intel and a research institute are teaming up to build a cutting-edge semiconductor R&D centre in Japan link
China has threatened severe economic retaliation against Japan if it tightens restrictions on chipmaking equipment sales to Chinese firms link
Nvidia invested in a $100M+ funding round for Tokyo startup Sakana AI link
Japanese display makers, once the biggest suppliers of iPhone screens, will no longer be part of the Apple supply chain as they failed to anticipate the company's total switchover to organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays link
Taiwan
GlobalWafers, the world’s third-largest provider of chip wafers, is building out capacity in the EU and Europe as it fears future tariffs from Western markets link
Taiwan accused 8 Chinese tech firms of illegally poaching semiconductor talent link
Rest of Asia
North Korea has stolen an estimated $3B in crypto and companies in the space face ‘difficult to detect’ their social engineering scams, according to the FBI link