The upsides of the Grab and Go-Jek funding war

Dear readers,

From the outside looking in, it sure seems like the Grab and Go-Jek funding war has the makings of a bubble – gigantic money chasing after vastly unprofitable businesses.

But we contend that such a view is too cynical and ignores the potential upsides. In fact, we think it’s ultimately good for Southeast Asia’s ecosystem.

Go-Jek is a popular app for hailing motorbike rides in Indonesia’s capital. It has since expanded to offer other on-demand services like food and cleaners. Photo credit: Go-Jek.

Moving along, we also covered how Blacklane, a startup that’s essentially Uber for business travelers, is doubling down on Asia Pacific.

Also, check out our scoop on how Carousell raised US$56 million from Naspers’ classifieds giant OLX.

Finally, we have a subscriber-only meetup coming up in Singapore featuring Rameez Ansar, the co-founder of Circles.Life, which was recently backed by Sequoia India.

If you’d like to support our work, do consider subscribing.

Here are the rest of our subscriber-only pieces from the past week:

• Philippine co-working firm KMC nabs series A funding from Singapore investor
• Why Grab is targeting travel and tourism as its next vertical
• Profitable and growing: Coda Payments’ niche in Southeast Asia’s brutal fintech scene
• Meet the 100 top-funded fintech companies in Asia
• Executive coaching platform Reboot raises seed funding
• Rising startups on Tech in Asia: helicopters, lorries, and more
• The entrepreneurs behind not one, but two popular Indonesian news sites

Happy reading,

Terence
Chief editor