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Hello readers,
I don’t know how I’d survive without food delivery. I was on a short break from work last week and spent most of my Friday morning lazing in bed watching videos on TikTok. When lunchtime rolled around, I switched from watching short-form videos to ordering food on my Grab app, where a few quick taps ensured that there would be fish and chips arriving at my doorstep within the hour.
The convenience that food delivery has offered me has been incredible. And the contributions that deliveries have made to Grab’s growth over the last few months has been pretty significant, too.
Today we look at,
- Grab’s latest sales figures
- A Vietnamese e-pharmacy startup
- Other newsy highlights such as Carousell and Xendit’s entry into the unicorn club and Google’s fine in South Korea
PREMIUM SUMMARY
Diving into Grab’s numbers
Regional super app Grab posted adjusted net sales of US$550 million for the three months ended June 30. This represented a 92% increase year on year but was just an 8.5% bump compared to the previous quarter.
- Adjustments have been made: For the full financial year, Grab said it forecasts group-level adjusted net sales to be around US$2.1 billion to US$2.2 billion, which is down from the US$2.3 billion it expected in an investor presentation earlier this year.
- Money makers: Grab’s deliveries segment was the main contributor to its growth, while its mobility arm contributed landed in second placemixed results. Its adjusted net sales from financial services revenue grew 140% year over year to US$26 million and rose about 13% from the previous quarter’s US$23 million.
- The shadow of the pandemic: Grab’s more conservative outlook for 2021 can be attributed to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which has hit Southeast Asia especially hard this year.
Read more: A look at Grab’s sales figures as it cuts full-year outlook
STARTUP SPOTLIGHT
A pharmacy at your fingertips
Being able to get the medicine you need on time is very important, but trying to find the nearest pharmacy can be challenging. That’s where Vietnam’s Medigo wants to make a difference. The e-pharmacy firm just raised US$1 million in seed funding from Touchstone Partners, a venture capital firm in Vietnam.
Helping fintech firms get the ball rolling
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