How Fave’s $45m acquisition is getting split

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Hello readers,

Contactless menus are a norm when you dine out in Singapore these days. Just the other day, I downloaded Fave on my phone for the very first time because I needed it to order my chicken teriyaki rice bowl at a cafe. While I felt a little bummed that I was “forced” to download an app to order food (most contactless menus are web-based), as a marketer, I was pretty impressed with the user acquisition tactic.

That said, its investors and employees might have a different perception of the firm, particularly so after the company’s US$45 million acquisition took the internet by storm last week.

Today we look at,

• What Fave’s acquisition means for its investors and employees
• The secret sauce behind Grab’s super app
• Other newsy highlights such as Jack Ma’s possible exit from Ant Group and a Singapore-based spacetech startup’s partnership with SpaceX

PREMIUM SUMMARY

What Fave’s investors get from its US$45 million acquisition

Southeast Asia startups are on fire this year, starring in a barrage of acquisition news lately. One news that was hot last week was Singapore-based deals discovery and fintech platform Fave’s US$45 million acquisition by Indian merchant platform Pine Labs. The acquisition amount was a significant drop from Fave’s valuation of US$73.8 million in 2018. So was the deal a win for the company’s investors, founders, and employees after all?

• Investors have recouped their initial investment and will all be leaving with cash, said Fave co-founder and CEO Joel Neoh.
• Founders and key employees are getting a mix of cash and stock options, with Neoh himself getting a 50-50 split. Our journalist Collin estimates that there could be at least US$3 million in cash for the founders and key employees to split among themselves.
• Stocks in Pine Labs could thrive in the future, as the India-based company is looking to go public in the US by March 2022 with a target valuation of US$5 billion.

Read more about Fave and why it is selling now: Fave’s investors are getting all their money back, says CEO

PREMIUM SUMMARY

Forget about super strength, Grab’s superpower is its drivers and merchants