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In focus
- Waresix eyes more bang for its buck
- SEA gets more unicorns, but…
- Startup funding dips in 2025
Hello reader,
I wrote a lot of news briefs during my early days at Tech in Asia. It’s been years, yet it feels like just yesterday when I’d constantly write about startups raising fresh capital every minute. (Though, admittedly, I think the Covid-19 pandemic has distorted my sense of time).
It also felt like profits were cast aside back then, and the only thing that mattered was topline growth. But now, the revenue growth party’s over.
Take, for example, Waresix. It’s an Indonesian logistics player that tripled its revenue in 2022 and followed up with a 28% year-on-year growth in 2023. However, the company’s topline growth train crawled to a halt in 2024, growing by just 3.6%.
According to the analysts I’ve spoken to for this edition’s top story, this might be a deliberate move from Waresix to build a more sustainable business. And its filings illustrate this point.
The company cut its loss before tax by 4.4%. Meanwhile, East Ventures said in November 2024 that Waresix had posted an annual growth rate of over 25% while keeping its EBITDA positive in the same year
One of the analysts also shared that if Waresix can maintain its current level of costs and increase the usage rate of warehouses and trucks on its platform more efficiently, we can expect its net loss to narrow “significantly” over the next 12 to 18 months.
If it does, we’ll be sure to let you know.
In other news, Southeast Asia has minted some new unicorns despite the market slump. My colleague Duc has updated Tech in Asia’s story about this, adding new insights.
Miguel Cordon, journalist
Top Stories
1️⃣ Waresix’s growth slows, trims losses in 2024
Photo credit: Waresix
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