How Sea Group could spawn the next generation of unicorns

Dear readers,

Last week, we unearthed the Sea Group alumni that went on to start their own companies in a visual story. It’s a continuation of our series on “startup mafias.”

We’ve been getting good feedback about the series – everyone loves seeing themselves as part of a visualization, of course. But these articles also illustrate the hidden connections between people and the impact that an alumni network can have on the startup ecosystem.

As Fred Liu of Hayden Capital puts it, when employees of “generation 1” companies go on to launch “generation 2” startups, you have signs of a healthy ecosystem.

Couple that with Sea’s US$1 billion fund, and you might see the genesis of the next wave of unicorns.

Moving on, we discussed the importance of the GrabPay-Stripe partnership, which garnered a lot of attention when it was first announced. In short, we believe this arrangement could serve as the centerpiece of Grab’s ecommerce ambitions while helping Stripe capture the entire Southeast Asian market.

We next asked the question: Where is the “real” Silicon Valley of Indonesia? The country has long tried to recreate the iconic tech center of the West, and its latest attempt is Bukit Algoritma. The project has attracted both substantial funding and doubt, as it’s located in a nondescript city that’s a three-hour drive from Jakarta.

We also wrote about how One Championship’s Temasek-linked directors have resigned. Various media outlets also carried the news, but we were the only ones who cited a source saying that there’s nothing unusual about this – Temasek typically removes itself from the board of companies that are about to list on a stock market.

Finally, to round up the week, we have this story of how one person is making up to US$3,900 a week racing cars on a blockchain game. It’s a fascinating look inside the world of “play-to-earn” games.

And in this visual timeline, we recapped the decade-long journey that Gojek and Tokopedia took to arrive at their merger.

I’ll end today’s missive by highlighting an interesting incident. Two Fridays ago, the chief operating officer of car marketplace Carsome went on Linkedin to highlight how a rival firm Carro had sent a woman to stand under the hot sun at Carsome’s inspection centers to promote her employer’s services.