04 | It's the most wonderful time of the year, and a few choice ASEAN facts for 'President' Biden
Kicking off today with a fantastic piece in the Bangkok Post: ASEAN 101: 12 facts for ‘President' Biden.
In advice to the incoming president, the article highlights that by 2050, ASEAN will be the world's 4th largest economy. No surprises there. More surprising (to me anyway!) is that ASEAN is the No.1 destination for US investment and cumulatively receives nearly US$274 billion, more than its combined investment in China, India, Japan and South Korea. This calls for some sort of ‘thanksgiving’. (Sorry).
Anyway, my favourite #fact is this one: “ASEAN is a miniature of the global political system with a myriad of peculiarities and personality traits due to its members' cultural and ethnic diversity. ASEAN comprises full and half-baked democracies, one-party and coalition-party governance, a sultanate and a kingship. The region is also home to the world's major religions including Islam, Christianity and Buddhism. Nearly 65% of its 655 million citizens are young, dynamic and tech-savvy. Take advantage of them.” link
What a brilliant, dynamic and diverse region we have the privilege to live and work in.
Enjoy the newsletter, until next time Growjekkers, Tom
Indonesia
In news it feels like we’ve covered in every single issue of Growjek to date, Indonesian telco Telkomsel has officially confirmed a US$150m investment in Gojek. Finally. link
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No not Christmas, the release of the e-Conomy SEA 2020 Report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company. Now hitting its 5th edition, the report deep dives into the digital economies of Southeast Asia and where the opportunities for the future lie. Incredible FREE insight, and this year it’s broken out into market-level decks (including Indonesia) alongside the overall summary report. A goldmine of data. link
Can Indonesian mobile gaming firms compete with global players? Local companies control less than 1% of Indonesia’s gaming market, with the rest dominated by foreign games. link
Indonesian cloud-kitchen startup Hangry is looking for a US$10m to US$15m round to expand marketing and services to meet COVID-related demand. link
MDI Ventures and Finch Capital join hands to launch new US$40m fund to plug ASEAN's pre-Series A gap. link
The Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) is eyeing up to three startup IPOs in 2021 from its renewed incubator. link
An updated 5G network is expected to be a ‘game-changer’ for Indonesia. If you’ve ever been stuck for 4 hours in a Jakarta traffic jam with patchy mobile reception you’ll agree. link
US$2 billion of investment into the Indonesian sovereign wealth fund will come from the US government (more of the US to ASEAN investment mentioned earlier). The pledge shows Washington's commitment to combating Beijing's influence. link
APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) Indonesia, the private-sector arm of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, has partnered with venture capital firm Mandiri Capital to establish a fund that will focus on investments in start-ups with a social impact. link
Alpha JWC has invested $2m in an F&B startup co-founded by Indonesia president’s sons. Sounds like a decent bet. link
Logiq launches pilot program to provide mobile fintech services in a strategic alliance with Indonesian national cooperative, KMSB. link
Sports prediction app SportsHero says things are going well with its push into the Indonesian market. Last week, the company announced a revenue-sharing partnership with Indonesian media group MolaTV, which has exclusive broadcast rights for top-tier football competitions including the English Premier League. link
[Podcast] Good overview of e-commerce in Indonesia with Phil Opamuratawongse, the co-founder of Shipper. link
Other ASEAN
Unlike Singapore and Indonesia, Thailand has so far failed to produce any national champions in Southeast Asia’s tech startup space. But the Covid-19 pandemic may be providing an unexpected catalyst for the kingdom’s laggard sector. link
Sea Ltd, the gaming and e-commerce unicorn in Southeast Asia has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting its total revenue of US$1.2 billion for the third quarter of 2020, with a 98.7% increase year-on-year. link
How can Southeast Asia nurture more women in technology? Important thoughts on a big topic. link
Investors pledge US$815m for Vietnamese startups through the next five years. link
The Asia-10 region games market will reach 826 million gamers and generate US$42 billion in revenue by 2024. Together China and the Asia-10 represent more than 50% of the world’s mobile games market revenue and more than 60% of the world’s PC game revenue, with India, Indonesia, and Thailand the fastest-growing countries in Asia-10 for gaming. link
Backed by recent investments and surge in traffic, first due to pandemic-led shift to online gaming and more recently due to the IPL season, Bengaluru-based Mobile Premier League (MPL) has earmarked a US$5m fund for Indian game developers and studios to develop games for their Indian and global audience. MPL has over 3.5 million users in Indonesia. link
Over the past years, the Thai fintech ecosystem has grown steadily, now boasting some 96 startups, according to Fintech News’ latest Fintech Thailand Startup Map. link