Dear readers,

Ride-hailing has upended traditional taxi services. No wonder some of my friends were alarmed when it was reported that Grab and Gojek are in merger talks, as this would mean an end to their cheap rides. While the companies did not confirm the report, Gojek said that news was inaccurate.

Tech in Asia CEO and founder Willis Wee had said in an opinion piece in January that the merger makes sense, assuming it gets regulatory approval. Regulators will probably subject the two companies to more stringent scrutiny, opines Vincent Fernando in his commentary.

Photo credit: Ryde

Indeed, the ride-hailing business in Southeast Asia offers such a huge opportunity that more operators are waiting in the wings. To fuel its ambition, Singapore-based Ryde is raising S$10 million (US$7.16 million) in a funding round led by Octava.

Apart from Ryde, here’s a quick list of other ride-hailing startups in the region:

• Anterin – Based in Indonesia, it claims to operate in 100 cities in the country and have more than 300,000 drivers and 500,000 customers. MNC Group is looking to acquire a majority stake.

• Tada – The Singapore-based player’s parent entity is MVL, which raised US$5 million in a series A round last December. Tada says it has over 50,000 drivers and more than 500,000 users across Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

• Bykea – The Pakistani startup raised US$5.7 million in April 2019 and claims to have over 200,000 motorbike owners on its platform and over 2 million users in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Lahore. It also says that its app sees 1 million bookings per month.

• DriveUp – Launched by the Meal Temple Group just four months ago, the company claims to have the largest pool of drivers in Laos so far, with more than 100 taxis on its platform and plans to deploy tuk-tuks as well.

While some businesses have grown massively, other startups outside of ride-hailing are struggling to scale up.

Grocery delivery startup Honestbee, for instance, continues to try to stay afloat. Similarly, co-living space operator Hmlet has retrenched some of its staff as it restructures its business.

Photo credit: Honestbee

It’s not only the small startups that are facing challenges. Indian unicorn Oyo Hotels & Homes recently reported massive losses for the year ended March 2019, and Tech in Asia’s analysis shows the SoftBank-backed company will remain in the red this year.

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Rising startups

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• Hong Kong-based Snapask was the latest edtech startup to secure funds, as it seeks to enter Vietnam and other new markets
• Among fintech firms, India’s gold-backed online lending platform Rupeek banked US$60 million from Accel Partners, GGV Capital and Sequoia Capital India among others
• The biggest fundraising last week came from Chinese autonomous driving company Pony.ai, which got over US$400 million from Toyota and other investors

Photo credit: Pony.ai

• Malaysian food delivery startup Dahmakan secured US$18 million from investors including Rakuten Capital and plans to use the fresh capital to develop its operating system
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• The numbers behind the growing Asia-Pacific proptech scene

• Tech in Asia’s series A pitch deck

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Speak to you again next week.

Cheers,

Jonathan
Editor-in-Chief