Could these startups be future billion-dollar companies?

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Hello readers,

Most tech startups go through this process: Identify an issue, create a solution, and then charge a lot of money for it. But sometimes, finding the wrong problem to fix could ruin the whole business. So today, we’re looking at ones that got it right and made it.

You can find our list of startups that are making waves while solving everyday concerns here or scroll down for a quick read.

In the meantime, here are your quick bytes for today:

1️⃣ Tencent landing in Singapore

The Chinese tech giant is planning to set up a regional hub in the city-state, joining rivals like Alibaba and TikTok parent firm ByteDance. Besides opening a new office in Singapore, Tencent will also recruit people for tech and business development.

2️⃣ Alibaba to invest US$3 billion into Grab

The Jack Ma-founded company is rumored to be in talks to purchase some of the Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant’s stock held by Uber. The potential transaction could go up to US$3 billion, becoming one of Alibaba’s biggest investments in the region.

3️⃣ Carousell closing in on unicorn title

The Singapore-based classifieds marketplace has just raised US$80 million in a funding round led by South Korea’s Naver Corporation. This brings the company’s valuation at over US$900 million.

Carousell seems to be on a roll, merging with 701Search last November. Since then, the company has been valued at more than $850 million. In a recent piece, we reported that Carousell’s revenue more than doubled in 2019.

4️⃣ China’s TikTok gets more popular

While ByteDance’s video-sharing platformTikTok is having trouble in the US and India, its China-only app Douyin surpassed 600 million daily active users in August, a 50% increase from January. Douyin has also helped more than 22 million content creators earn over $6.1 billion in the past year.

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