Thailand’s surprising super app; foodtech rises

Dear readers,

On a routine trip in Thailand, we were struck by the fast rise of TrueID, the country’s very own super app. What’s fascinating is that the app wasn’t developed by some fresh-faced startup, but CP Group, a nearly century-old firm with over 310,000 employees. Are you living in Thailand and using TrueID? we’d love to hear what you think of it.

This week, we also covered a number of startups in the food industry. There’s TurtleTree Labs, a young Singapore company that wants to make cow’s milk – without cows. Basically, it hopes to cultivate milk in a lab, recalling another startup called Shiok Meats, which is doing the same thing but for meat.

I bumped into the TurtleTree Labs folks at the Tech in Asia conference in Jakarta last month and learned some random stuff about milk. Did you know one of the reasons why good cheese is expensive in Southeast Asia is because the production of raw milk – which is ideal for cheesemaking – has been struggling to catch up with demand? Well, I didn’t.

Anyway, we also profiled the folks at Zeemart, a business that aims to streamline the still manual process of food procurement. It’s nice to see how the food and beverage industry is being modernized across the entire supply chain. For individual restaurants and food stalls, online delivery and cloud kitchens could open up untapped demand, and platforms like Zeemart could make restaurant operations more seamless. I’m sure food lovers out there can get behind this.

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Check out the rest of our premium pieces from the past week:

Startup activities

• Helpling banks about $22m to drive growth in new verticals
• Southeast Asia is a ‘good place’ to be as global slowdown hits, say VCs
• Rising startups on Tech in Asia: Major Korean love hotel chain looks at Southeast Asia
• AI startup snags 300 business clients by promising to root out fraudsters
• Meet the 20 top-funded startups and tech companies in Hong Kong

Stuff you may have missed

• After the WeWork IPOcalypse, Southeast Asia’s co-working spaces spot an opening
• 20 unicorns will emerge in Southeast Asia by 2030, predicts Asia Partners’ Nick Nash

Cheers,

Terence
Chief editor