Dear readers,
Paperwork sucks. Many microenterprises in Southeast Asia, however, are satisfied with tracking their cash via pen and paper.
That was the subject of our No. 1 premium story last week, which discussed how a VC-fueled race to become Indonesia’s top digital bookkeeper has begun.
A few local startups believe that microentrepreneurs in the region’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities will adopt apps to manage their businesses.
Photo credit: East Ventures
The question is, are their efforts to effect change financially sustainable?
Forget about subscription fees. Instead, these startups hope that charging payment processing fees is the way to go. But this space is so full of hurdles that Khatabook, a leading digital bookkeeping company in India, quickly shut down its efforts in Indonesia.
Investing or doing a startup in Southeast Asia is hard enough, but the Covid-19 pandemic has made things more difficult.
The rise of VC scouts in Southeast Asia, however, could be a solution.
As the term implies, scouts act as extra eyes and ears for VCs. Scout programs could also offer people a taste of the VC life before deciding if they want to plunge into it.
For VCs, scouts could alleviate the pain of travel restrictions, which make due diligence challenging. It surely doesn’t hurt to have a local sherpa who understands the local scene well and can help judge startups.
After all, nothing is certain in startup life, except death and near-death experiences.
Nazara, a prominent gaming company in India, made countless pivots to ward off its demise, our journalist writes.
We also looked at how one of India’s newest unicorns had to go through a drastic change to survive.
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