Get what you need instantly! Meet Indonesia’s Astro. They promise you’ll get your delivery in less than 15 minutes. The quick commerce startup just raised a $30M Series A, led by Sequoia India and Accel Partners.

• It launched in September and raised a $4.5M seed last month. (They’re quick with fundraising too!)

🧐 How it works

Order on their app and get your items in less than 15 minutes (the fastest in Indonesia!). While its delivery speed may be out of this world, its prices aren’t — get all your items at affordable prices.

• It offers over 1,000 essentials, like groceries, fruits and medicine.
• It’s open 24/7 for your midnight cravings and emergencies.
• It’s currently active in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city.

The secret? It operates dark stores (aka, mini-warehouses) spread out over each city it operates in. Every area has one less than 15 minutes away!

• Instead of relying on other groceries and stores, they have their own inventory.

🌏 A global trend

Order on your way home, and your delivery might even arrive earlier than you. It’s convenient and fast, and the world loves it:

• US quick commerce startup, GoPuff has 550 dark stores and is valued at $15B.
• US food delivery giant, DoorDash launches 10–15 deliveries with DashMart.
• Indian 10-minute delivery startup, Zepto may be nearing unicorn status with its latest $250M fundraise.

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Forget jingle bells. It’s time to ring the IPO bells! aCommerce has just filed for an IPO in its home country, Thailand. If it’s a go, aCommerce will be one of the first Thai startups to go public locally.

• It plans to sell up to 40% of its shares and potentially raise over $200M.
• It has over 173 customers, including Microsoft, L’Oréal, Adidas, Samsung and UNIQLO.
• It is active in Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

🛍 Powering e-commerce

As an e-commerce enabler, it makes it easy for brands big and small to sell online all over Southeast Asia.

Webstore development and operations. They can build your e-commerce website and manage your brand’s shops on Lazada, Shopee, JD.com and more.

• It creates discounts, promotions and campaigns based on data.
• Its studios can shoot images, write copy and post all your products.

Strategy and marketing. Whether it’s SEO, Facebook, email marketing or improving your website — its digital marketing experts have got you.

• Get an expert-backed strategy to launch in SEA with a localized strategy for each country.
• With their data analytics, you’ll understand what’s not working and what to double down on.

Store and deliver products. With its tech, you’ll get the best deals for every delivery. Plus, you’ll get access to its warehouses in SEA and be able to offer COD and delivery tracking.

• Its AI chooses the best rates among SEA’s couriers for your deliveries in real-time.

💰 Back to the IPO

aCommerce may be in for a challenge as it preps to go public. It’s been making losses since 2018, so we’ll have to see if investors will bite.

• In the first nine months of 2021, it’s made a loss of $15M from $188M in revenue.

Zoom out. SEA’s local exchanges have been pushing startups to list locally instead of heading to the US. But, the region’s startups may need more than just stellar debuts (sorry, Bukalapak) and tax incentives before finding more value in listing at home.

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Say hello to Praktis, a data-powered supply chain solutions startup for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. It just raised its Pre-Series A led by East Ventures.

• It helps brands find suppliers and manufacturers, ensures all deliveries are in check and optimizes operations.
• Its monthly revenue grew over 12x YoY in 2021.

😉 It’s good Praktis

Sourcing and production. Get everything you need to bring your product to reality — from production planning and factory sourcing to financial support and quality assurance.

Fulfillment and logistics. Boost your efficiency through their storage facilities, cover more locations through their delivery partners, track order statuses and more.

Order management. Monitor and manage sales inventory to learn which sales channels are best for you.

Partnerships. Get connected to orders from businesses and government entities through Praktis.

👉🏼 Bottom line

Especially for SMEs, all these backend operations are a pain. It’s hard to make these processes efficient without expertise. With their best Praktises (get it?), they can save time and earn more.

• Praktis lets businesses focus on what they’re good at — creating great products and scaling.

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Zooming into Southeast Asia! After riding into Vietnam, the India-based car rental startup Zoomcar is investing $25M to launch in the Philippines.

• It’s committing $100M to expand in SEA over the next 2–3 years.
• It raised a $92M Series E last month and is active in India, Egypt and SEA.

Why it matters. The world’s 35 emerging markets have less than 10% car ownership. (Most have under 5%!) A massive middle class can’t afford their own cars — even if they need one from time to time.

🚀 Launch plan

It’s kicking things off by launching in Metro Manila and will launch in Cebu and Davao by next year. (Manila folks, book a car here!)

• These are the top three largest urban areas of the Philippines.
• It is set to have 1,000 cars for rent by next month and 20,000 by the end of 2022.

⚙️ How it works

Want an SUV for road trips? Forget buying one. Rent a car for a month, week, day or hour. Zoomcar’s got your back for every occasion — it’s got sedans, SUVs, luxury cars and more.

• No driver included! Drive it yourself as if it were your own.
• With its Supermiler subscription, get your car delivered to your home, win discounts and access other perks.
• COVID worries? Get your car sanitized too.

🤫 The secret sauce

To build a fleet of thousands of cars, it partners with individuals who want to share their car as “Zoomcar Hosts” (Airbnb style) when they’re not using it.

• Earn a fixed amount per hour and get paid by the week!
• Fill up a form, get it inspected, and start sharing your car in less than 24 hours.

It also partners with SMEs who own small fleets of cars to add to the thousands of cars for rent on its marketplace.

📅 Save the date

Zoomcar’s hitting the road and expanding to over 20 countries over the next 18 months. It’s also prepping to go public in a US IPO next year.

Extra Scoop: 4 thoughts on Zoomcar’s SEA expansion from co-founder Greg Moran.

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Ever wanted to learn a new language? Check out Cakap, an Indonesian edtech startup that can help you learn languages — and it’s more than just live classes. It just raised a $10M Series B, co-led by Centauri Fund and Heritas Capital.

• Its last funding round was a $3M Series A+ last December.
• It has taught over 1.5M students.
• It teaches 5 languages, including Mandarin, English and Japanese.

📚 Hittin’ the books

Everyone’s got a different learning style. Well, Cakap’s got something for everyone. Apart from 1:1 live online classes and their app, get access to:

Cakap Semi Private. Not into 1:1? Learn in a small group of 3–5 people.

Cakap Chat. With a subscription, get access to chat with your teacher to practice daily.

Cakap Club. Tight schedule? Join Cakap Club and log onto a class whenever you’ve got free time while meeting new friends too.

🤔 Twist of fate?

Edtechs have boomed since COVID began, and Cakap’s been saved by the wave. It was founded way back in 2013, but it got a boost in early 2020. Since then, its student numbers have grown over 10x and have made Cakap profitable for the past two years.

Zoom out. While the pandemic has led to skyrocketing enrollments and tons of $$$ (both revenue and investments), can it last? Funds are still pouring in, but investors have yet to see if these edtechs can scale.

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Sequoia’s got a favorite. Meet Flip, the Indonesian fintech that just raised a $48M Series B, co-led by Sequoia Capital India, Insight Partners and Insignia Ventures Partners.

• It’s the third round Sequoia India has led for Flip.
• It’s New York-based Insight Partners first-ever investment in Indonesia.

⏪ Started from the bottom

Founded in 2015, Flip was started by university students frustrated by slow bank transfers and the tons of fees paid each time. (All the lost $$$!)

• Often, your cash gets stuck, and it’s just a pain to do since interfaces are outdated and complicated.

Lucky strike. Turns out, it was a key problem to solve. Interbank transfer is the top payment method in Indonesia’s digital economy.

• Flip makes transfers low-cost and simple.

😎 Now we’re here

It’s been called Indonesia’s most exciting consumer fintech startup. After bagging a license from Bank of Indonesia in 2016.

• It has grown 10x since the pandemic, with over 7M users in Indonesia.
• It has over 100 local banks in its network.

For Individuals. Flip now allows you to make interbank transfers, international remittances and e-wallet top-ups. Get fee-free bank transfers with its “Flip Regular” plan for individuals. (Just stay below its transfer cap of $350 a day.😉)

For businesses. With Flip’s “Big Flip” enterprise plan, handle the payroll for your team, customer refunds, invoices and payments to suppliers and international transfers.

• Send money to 20,000 accounts in one go.
• It has over 340 customers, including Tiket.com, Grab, Tokopedia and Payfazz.

💰 What’s with the $$$?

Just so much flippin’ growth. It has already expanded its team by 140% to 240 people. Now, it’s looking to grow its Indonesia operations, double down on its tech for higher-quality service and hire (get your CVs ready!).

• It’s focused on growing its product and engineering teams.

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Singapore-based ONE Championship, Asia’s largest global mixed martial arts (MMA) media firm (aka, Asia’s answer to UFC), just hit a $1.2B valuation.

• It’s backed by Sequoia Capital, GIC, Temasek, ICONIQ Capital and more.
• It was founded by ex-hedge fund manager Chatri Sityodong and ex-ESPN Star Sports senior exec Victor Cui.

How did it happen? It just released $174M in shares, with 42% of these shares being convertible notes. (Rumor has it that ONE desperately needed cash.)

🔍 About the biz

ONE Championship broadcasts martial arts and combat sports like Muay Thai, kickboxing and karate in over 150 countries.

Live events. It hosted tournaments and a show called “Live: ONE Championship Mixed Martial Arts,” which featured Asia’s top MMA fighters battling it out.

• It has produced a total of 6 seasons of its live show.
• It hosts live events for MMA, Muay Thai and Kickboxing with their own weight divisions and champions.
• With COVID, it has pivoted to create clips and other media based on archived content.

Entertainment. With the pandemic putting a hold on large live martial arts matches, it has expanded to new content.

• It released an elimination show, The Apprentice, where candidates compete for a spot to work as ONE Championship’s CEO apprentice for a year.

💪🏼 The fight goes on

While some have said that ONE may have difficulty going public, it is currently in talks to list in the US through a SPAC.

• The potential merger is with the $480M Nasdaq-listed Gores Holdings VII.

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Meet the $33B fintech super app Revolut. Just two years after hitting SEA waters with its Singapore launch, it already scooped up over 77,000 users in the country.

• Revolut is a neobank that uses APIs to tap and integrate existing banking and financial services onto its platform.

Instead of going wide into other SEA markets, the London-based fintech is anchoring itself deeper into Singapore by releasing new features.

• Revolut SG currently offers three subscription tiers with features like cards and bank accounts, international transfers and cashback rewards.

🤩 Mom, I got my license!

It just received a Capital Markets Services (CMS) license from Singapore’s monetary authority to release its stock trading feature in the country in 2022 — a model similar to Robinhood.

Talking stonks. Its trading feature will allow users to buy fractional shares commission-free. (We know some stocks like Apple can cost a ton per share, so buy a fraction for less $$$!).

• Standard subscribers (its lowest tier) will be allowed three commission-free trades per month.
• Metal subscribers (its highest tier) will have unlimited commission-free trades per month.

Competition? It won’t be the only one with fractional and commission-free trading in SG. SG-based GoTrade currently has over 100,000 users globally and raised $7M from YC, Pincus Capital and more. Unlike Revolut, it doesn’t charge subscriptions.

• Other competitors include Saxo Bank, interactive brokers and eToro.

🌏 SEA Takeover

Time’s ticking. Revolut SG’s CEO says they’ll have to wait for licenses or find partnerships within SEA because of the different regulatory requirements per country.

• It can’t launch in other countries and roll out all its features without these licenses and partnerships.

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How do you get from university to your dream job? Meet Kinobo. the Singaporean job prep startup just raised a $1M seed round.

• It currently has over 200,000 users and partners with 51 universities in Southeast Asia.

🎓 University blues

Launched in 2020, Kinobi is a college-to-career platform to help Gen Z land their dream jobs and accelerate their careers.

Why it matters. According to Kinobi, Gen Z has “more debt, fewer earnings and higher unemployment.” Yikes!

• While universities help you get a degree, they’re not there to make sure you land the best job for you (or a job at all!) — so Kinobi fills the gap.

🚀 Accelerate your career for free

Free tools and courses. Create a world-class resume with its resume builder (not everyone can master the art of the resume!). Practice interview questions asked by top companies. Get interview guides straight from employees working at companies like Carousell and Shopee.

• Over 10,000 people use Kinobi’s free resume builder weekly.
• Filter for interview questions by industry and company.
• Ask questions from its community and coaches.

Know the real world. Find your dream career. Kinobi has 3–5 hour virtual internship courses. Explore being a VC, startup sales hire, consultant and more.

Coaching. Book 1:1 coaching sessions with any of their 300 coaches who come from top companies all over Asia, including GoTo, Grab, Google, McKinsey and 500 Startups.

• Pay by the hour and get real-world insights and feedback or even a mock interview.

💰 Want more?

If you’re hardcore about your career, Kinobi also has paid plans. Get advanced access to virtual internships, exclusive resume templates and regular coaching sessions for their top coaches.

➡️ What’s next

Kinobi’s focused on landing more university partners across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

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Usually, we talk about companies going public. But gaming giant Razer’s going reverse. After listing on the Hong Kong Exchange in 2017, a group of its execs is offering to buy its remaining shares (worth $1.38B) to take the firm private.

• The deal would value the company at $3.1B.
• Top executives led the group, including CEO Tan Min-Liang and director Kaling Lim, who own 57% of Razer.
• Shares fell almost 8% after the announcement of the privatization offer.

A little history. Razer was founded in the US and Singapore in 2005. It’s every gamer’s favorite company, producing top gaming laptops, PC peripherals, keyboards and other gaming products.

🤫 Private matters

Why go private? The group believes that Razer was undervalued in Hong Kong, and its stocks have had low trading volumes.

• Razer’s stock has dropped over 50% since its peak in February, steadily decreasing its market cap.

Location, location, location. HK didn’t do Razer much good. It’s looking to explore listing in the US after going private. With a ton of interest from US investors and most of its revenue coming from the US, why not?

• With the COVID gaming boom, Razer hit its first annual profit since 2014.
• It raked in $31.3M in net profit in H1 2021, with 42% from the US.

🎮 Not just games

Most of its $$$ comes from selling gaming hardware (like its top-tier mice), but it also dabbles in gaming software and services and fintech.

Can’t win ’em all. Razer shut down its e-wallet and card services in August, and it’ll be shifting from consumer to focus on B2B payments.

Zoom out. Taking companies back private isn’t new. Though, most have been Chinese startups delisting from the US stock markets to head closer home — especially with regulatory pressures from both the US and China. We’ll have to see what happens with Razer.

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