Southeast Asian startups’ big moment to shine

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Hi readers,

Southeast Asia’s startup scene is getting hotter by the day. Last week, our journalist Aditya Hadi posted about a number of huge funding deals across the region in a single day. To kick off this week, we saw Byju’s US$600 million acquisition of a Singapore-based edtech company yesterday.

The region is seeing explosive growth, and we can’t wait to cover it all. But before we get to that, we’d like to know if either you or someone you know is fundraising. We’d like to help you out by highlighting your startup to our audience of venture capitalists and founders. Just fill up this form here to get featured!

Today we look at,

• Southeast Asia’s startup hubs grew at breakneck speed in the last decade
• This Singapore-based edtech company is in Byju’s good books
• Other newsy highlights such as PropertyGuru and Ninja Van’s plan to go public, and Foodpanda Thailand losing 2 million users

PREMIUM SUMMARY

How much have Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystems grown in the last decade?

We’ve said it before and we’re going to say it again: Southeast Asia is the future for startups, and we’re entering the golden age of tech companies in the region. Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystems have grown immensely over the last decade. So, we charted this rapid growth between 2010 to 2020 for you to take a look.

• More than 12,000 new startups were established in Southeast Asia in the last decade. Among them, companies in Singapore, Bandung, and the Greater Jakarta region in Indonesia received the most funding.
• Ecommerce remains king and has managed to attract the lion’s share of funding in the region every year. Other sectors, like edtech, have seen a spike in recent years, while the travel and tourism segment has taken a nosedive since 2013.
• More than 300 venture capital firms were founded in the region in the last decade, and most of them were based in Singapore. Meanwhile, overseas VCs like American VC firm Andreessen Horowtiz and London-based Social Capital Hedosophia have also set up regional offices in Southeast Asia.

The full read: Visualizing the rapid rise of Southeast Asia’s startup hubs

STARTUP SPOTLIGHT

This Singapore-based edtech company is in Byju’s good books

Let’s hit the books! Indian edtech decacorn Byju’s has acquired Singapore-based Great Learning in a US$600 million cash and stock deal that comes with an earnout component. That’s not all: Byju’s has committed to invest a further US$400 million to accelerate Great Learning’s growth.

Grab, Shopee, PayPal, and Mastercard have all jumped on the BNPL train