Commentaries: Dishonestbee 🐝, Visa, Rocket and more

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1. Dishonestbee? ❌
It is one thing to not do well in business – it’s normal – but another to owe so much money to third-parties to the point that it feels… irresponsible? DisHonestbee owed at least US$209m to its largest creditors. 😮 Honestly speaking, if you are in such deep debt, isn’t it only responsible to own up and take measures to prevent any hurt to employees and trusted providers? Sure, people could argue that they were fundraising to save the company and therefore had to keep up a front. But let’s be honest, how can any company with such deep liabilities and poor product focus raise enough to save the company?

The decision making at the company has been questionable. It’s the worst possible outcome of putting a CEO with little managerial experience at the helm. Sure, it can work out, but the responsibility lies with the board to pull the plug early if it doesn’t. The rumor is that major shareholder Brian Koo finally had enough of Joel Sng and ousted him at the end. But it’s too little too late.

• Read the inside story
• Read our op-ed

2. The return of Rocket Internet in Southeast Asia 🚀
They are back. Rocket Internet is preparing its next wave of ventures across the Asia Pacific, starting in Indonesia. They are “extremely bullish” about the region. We also learned a fun fact that Rocket has been recruiting founders from Facebook ads. Interesting source, but hey they say it works.

Say what you want about Rocket, they’ve been successful. Their investment in Lazada counts as a major win, and we suppose they made some returns on Zalora as well. Read more

3. Why Visa ❤️Grab and Gojek
Visa missed out on China when WeChat and Alipay dominated the digital payment space. To prevent history from repeating itself and maybe because of FOMO, it injected money into both Gojek and Grab. The super apps provided an angle in the unbanked markets that are dominated by non-credit card users. Given that Visa has data from both Grab and Gojek, it will be interesting to see which company it continues to invest in its follow-up rounds. Read more

4. Alibaba for cars 🚗
US$70 million in revenue and reaching breaking even? That’s a healthy business. CEO and co-founder Aaron Tan wants us to think of Carro as an “Alibaba for cars.” It locks its users into its ecosystem by providing a list of services including car buying-and-selling, financing, insurance, subscription-based rental, workshop services, and roadside assistance. It’s also expanding aggressively, having acquired Indonesian classified site Juolo which claims to have 4M+ users a month and facilitated $1B+ worth of transactions in 2018. Its focus on serving cars owners certainly helped them stay ahead of other general classified/marketplace business. Read more

5. Founders with MBAs = Premium? 🏫
People traditionally think of MBAs as a way to accelerate the climb on the corporate ladder. But now, more and more people are seeing it as a way to kickstart their entrepreneurial careers. The examples are numerous: Grab, Gojek, Traveloka, and more – all founded by MBA holders. We examine whether getting an MBA is worth it. Read more

Companies to watch

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