What’s behind this Singaporean startup’s US$125m exit?

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Lomotif’s acquisition by US company Zash is one of two Singapore startup exits so far this month (the other is software company Stamped’s).

The deal’s reported US$125 million price tag has raised questions about the pre-revenue value of the short-video app, which is little known in its own country. But even with this skepticism put aside, Lomotif founder Paul Yang’s candid sharing sheds light on the struggles that Singapore’s startups face on the world stage – and also at home.

Yang, an NUS graduate who has dabbled in everything from filmmaking to flying, has walked a path that’s rather atypical of an entrepreneur in Singapore, a market with no lack of homegrown fintech, logistics, and even food delivery businesses. But a locally founded social media app? Lomotif has got to be one of the few.

Yang’s instincts told him likewise. In the early days of the business, he’d thought to create a business-to-business subscription service for filmmakers rather than a full-fledged social media platform that would go up against giants like TikTok. With little support from investors here, Lomotif took most of its fundraising efforts elsewhere: the US and China.

And can anyone blame him? As Yang rightfully points out, it’s challenging to be a certain type of business in Singapore, where verticals like fintech tend to be a more natural fit to the local startup and investor ecosystem.

Whichever camp you’re on, I say the deal is still one worth celebrating. Here’s to Singapore’s intrepid entrepreneurs.

– Melissa Goh, journalist at Tech in Asia

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