Unearthing the Honestbee story

Dear readers,

Last week, we broke the news about layoffs and resignations at Honestbee – which came about after someone tipped me off about its temporary suspension in the Philippines. A little bit of digging unearthed problems in its operations as a whole.

The story was widely cited, and it was followed by an article on TechCrunch that went into greater detail about the saga.

I first met Honestbee founder Joel Sng back in 2014. At that time, he said the reason he started the company was so that he can help temp workers find jobs.

People I’ve spoken to expressed regret at how things ended up. But the Honestbee story hasn’t really ended yet as it’s attempting to change its course.

It has tough decisions to make in the months ahead, and Tech in Asia will certainly be following all the twists and turns.

Don’t forget to subscribe to us if you’d like to support our efforts.

And do check out the rest of our premium content in the past week:

• Meet the 20 top-funded startups and tech companies in Hong Kong
• Rising startups on Tech In Asia: smart farming, ecommerce in Vietnam, and more
• 22-year-old wins Sequoia backing – and it’s not her first startup
• Indonesian startup that turns mushrooms into leather nabs 6-figure funding
• How a blog for Indonesian millennials became a media company with 50 million readers

Happy reading,

Terence