This is a new attempt for LK, to provide followers weekly summaries of startup news for Southeast Asia, China and India, posted both at the blog site (www.letskopi.com) and FB Closed Group (look for 'Startup Jam').
Fiserv acquired Firstdata for $22 Billion
Clearly Fiserv acquiring Firstdata for $22 billion topped the list. KKR cleverly reduced stakes in Firstdata from 36% to perhaps 16%, offloading at the right time. KKR's share price went up following the announcement.
Akulaku in Indonesia secured $100 funding from Ali
At the home front, Akulaku finally made the official announcement on their recent D series funding from Alibaba for $100 million, exceeding expectations. This is much higher compared to what competitors such as Kredivo, Cekaja, Modalku and KoinWorks raised late last year. The highest was Kredivo at $30 million. Successful Indonesian fintechs are focusing on lending or credit.
Chinese AI firm Megvii is aiming for $1 Billion IPO
7 year old Alibaba backed, Megvii that provides facial recognition system and owns face++ is aiming for $1 Billion IPO this year, probably in Hong Kong. Megvii provides facial recognition system to security, financial services segments and is a well known player for many government related contracts in China. Story goes that competitor "Sensetime" is also planning to raise $2Billion this year.
Philippines fintech, Voyager secured $215 Million Funding
Philippines fintech player Voyager, owner of Paymaya recently raised $215 million from Tencent, KKR and World Bank arm International Finance Corp. This will be the largest deal so far in the country's fintech industry. Together the investors own more than 50% stake in the company.
Last year, Paymaya's main rival, Gcash/Mynt secured funding from Alibaba /Ant Financial Services for 45% stake in Globe Fintech Innovations (GCash owner).
Grab partners with ZhongAn for Insurance Platform
Grab extends into insurance with Chinese partner ZhongAn. Under the agreement, ZhongAn will bring in technology solutions to build an insurance ecosystem that will be launched in Singapore in the first half of 2019. The platform will address pain points of insurance discovery, premiums and payment options through GrabPay or affiliate payment partners.
Apart from food delivery, parcel delivery, grocery delivery, and financial services, Grab also intends to expand into cross-border remittance and online healthcare in the coming year via its Superapp strategy. I would think Grab might even make way into Chinese market with a partner, though no such plans annouced so far.
Razer Pay / Singapore
Razer Pay which was launched in Malaysia in July 2018 is expected to continue expansion in Singapore by 2019. Something we already know since last year. While entry into Malaysia was smooth, this is probably due to Razer’s acquisition of MOLPay which aided in the wallet rolled out across retail outlets like 7-Eleven and Starbucks. We believe Razor has a lot more work to compete effectively along the sides of Grab, Go Jek, WeChat and others.
Thailand issued licenses to Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Four cryptocurrency exchanges were issued licenses by Thai authorities/regulators following their Japanese counterparts to embrace crypto and digital currencies as an unavoidable social and commerce phenomenon. The four cryptocurrency exchanges, are Bx, Bitkub, Coins and Satang Pro, which are granted permission to operate in the country. This is a step forward to legitimising cryptocurrencies in Thailand.
BasisAI, a new AI startup in Singapore
A new venture focusing on AI solutions for businesses. However it's unclear what the solution is really about. We suspect they are in stealth mode and maybe working on something related to explainable AI (XAI).
Zurich Malaysia Partnering Bereev App to Modernise Services
Zurich Malaysia and Bereev, sealed a partnership for launching an online legacy planning platform, to help customers plan various things from wills to insurance policies, possessions, outstanding loans and personalised wishes.
Overall we should expect a few more major fintech fund announcements in the coming weeks mostly fuelled by Chinese, Korean and Japanese investors (#BAT, Softbank, Naver). JVs between these eastern investors with western PE or investors such as KKR should also be expected in major deals.
As fintechs start to fill the financial service gap for consumers and businesses cut off from conventional banking systems, it's only a matter of time, before banks start to struggle in consumer banking and SMB services segment.
I would think in 5 years we'll observe massive downsizing in banks due to lost revenue and there is a good chance that the trend will hit Southeast Asia or Africa first. Similarly we might see fintechs with superapps becoming formidable partners to traditional financial service providers as they learn and discover new data monetisation strategies.
Another key trend to note is the fact that fintechs are distancing themselves from Telco/CSP investors ( e.g. Globe and PLDT in the case of Mynt and Smart Money) and moving closer in alliance with financial services and e-commerce players.
Well it's only week two, let's see how this changes in December 2019 🤓✍
Happy friday everyone!
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