Staff salaries tangled up in Octopus’ tentacles

IN FOCUS

In today’s newsletter, we look at:

• Octopus sinking amid unpaid staff wages and stalled acquisition talks
• Why Singapore’s biotech sector is more successful than people think
• Big Tech companies being bearish on climate goals

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Hi there

I’ve been rewatching the first season of The Bear as Season 3 just premiered last week. For those unfamiliar (how can you miss out on one of the best shows on streaming right now?), the show tells the story of a top chef, Carmy, who is trying to rebuild a hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop in Chicago into a full-fledged fine-dining restaurant.

There’s a lot of bickering and screaming in the show, as Carmy deals with the bad business decisions the former owner – his brother Michael – left behind. That includes missing tax payments and letting the shop be in a state of disrepair, for years.

The TV show’s portrayal of mismanagement can be engrossing and truly entertaining. The Bear has repeatedly won the Emmys, after all.

But a business falling out in real life can be heartbreaking to witness as it leads to grave consequences that can affect the lives of many.

That was very much apparent in one of our first Big Story this week. In Octopus sinks amid unpaid staff wages, stalled acquisition talks, my colleague Budi unravels the struggles of the employees of the Indonesia-based waste management startup.

Image credit: Made by Tech in Asia using Midjourney

Octopus has left over 100 blue-collar workers unpaid for almost half a year. The startup’s CEO tried to sell the business to competitors but found no substantial leads.

A deeptech startup vertical that has seen a fair share of struggles is the biotech scene in Singapore, which Melissa reports on for this week’s second Big Story: Singapore’s biotech sector is more successful than people think.

The story charted how biotech firms in the city-state remain optimistic about succeeding despite limited funding – in contrast to those in more mature markets, where the chance of “getting acquired, listing, or commercialization” stands at 20% or less.

Stakeholders argue that the barometer for success is different for biotech firms, as it takes almost a decade for a company to reach the clinical stage – or the part wherein it develops a viable medical solution.

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