Chope tempered by the pandemic, ready for the recession

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Hi there,

If I’m not busy meeting startup founders and writing stories about their amazing (or devastating) work lives, most likely you will find me sitting with a Kindle and reading books. My favorite types of books are biographies, particularly those focused on startup founders.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is one of my all-time favorites. The book portrays how Jobs bounced back after being ousted from Apple. It’s like seeing a real-life definition of the idiom “What doesn’t break you makes you stronger.”

This week’s Big Stories depict this perseverance through two firms that have battled Covid-19 headwinds to emerge stronger.

My colleague Collin writes about Singapore-based restaurant management platform Chope’s journey after pandemic restrictions were lifted. The startup posted a 32% growth in gross revenue in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year.

But despite growing concerns of a recession, the company’s founder Arrif Ziaudeen isn’t worried, as his firm survived worse conditions with the pandemic. He compares the impact of Covid-19 as a sledgehammer to the head, and the recession being just a pinch.

The other Big Story, by Budi, spotlights an Indonesia-based healthtech firm called Nusantics that got a boost amid the pandemic.

The biotech firm initially began with a skincare solution. When the pandemic hit, Nusantics realized that its technology could also be used to detect the Covid-19 virus. This pivot resulted in the startup recording a 7x year-on-year revenue growth at the end of 2021.

Now, Nusantics is working to develop other solutions such as disease detection on animals.

While Ziaudeen sees the recession as a smaller challenge than the pandemic for his business, all stakeholders in the region’s startup ecosystem still need to be prepared for the upcoming economic downturn. In this week’s Making Waves, Nikita gets Michelle Ng, head of environmental, social, and governance at Quest Ventures, to share her thoughts on what investors should keep in mind while signing deals.

— Aditya

THE BIG STORIES

1️⃣ Covid-19 a sledgehammer strike, recession just like a pinch, says Chope CEO

Image credit: Timmy Loen

MAKING WAVES

FYI

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