Letter to readers: Why the ex-Grab Philippines head left his high-profile job

Dear readers,

Some startups defy conventional wisdom. Byahe – founded by Brian Cu, the former country head of Grab Philippines – is one of them, as we described in last week’s top story..

Some investors believe that startups should have regional or global ambitions. But Byahe is tackling a uniquely Filippino problem: the outdated jeepney transportation network. That’s not to say it won’t expand abroad at some point, but that’s a distant conversation.

Brian Cu, founder and CEO of Byahe / Photo credit: Brian Cu

Other investors will only consider asset-light startups. Byahe doesn’t belong in this group, either, as it plans to own or rent the jeeps in its network. It also intends to lend from its balance sheet to help operators upgrade their vehicles.

Despite these seeming shortcomings, Cu believes he is staring at a huge opportunity. There’s also the feel-good factor of boosting livelihoods and cutting down air pollution.

Another company that’s going against the grain is Vouch. While other traveltech startups have shrunk recently, a combination of luck and good decisions has helped it to thrive.

Vouch isn’t the only travel startup that’s doing well despite the pandemic. We’re hearing a couple of stories like that, and we’ll be sure to dive into them at some point.

Online groceries is certainly an exploding category these days, as more people are staying home and experimenting in the kitchen. We thought this would be a good chance to map out the key players in Southeast Asia’s online grocery market.

It’s a useful article if you’re tracking this space and would like a cheat sheet of names to remember. Regional giant Sea is certainly set to be an important contender here, though it’s unlikely to venture into the end-to-end model that Lazada favors.

Indeed, it’s hard to avoid Sea in Southeast Asia’s consumer internet industry. Case in point: If Gojek and Tokopedia do merge, the combined entity will risk burning cash in a face-off with Shopee and SeaMoney, Sea’s ecommerce and financial services arm, our analysis indicates.

When done judiciously, spending big money on marketing is a quick way to gain traction.

But for One Championship, which bills itself as the no. 1 mixed martial arts organization in Asia, its advertising budget has yet to translate to a profitable business.

That may not happen for some time, as One Championship has suggested that it would invest another US$1 billion if necessary to fund its expansion efforts. If the company does that, it would be something of a spectacle indeed.