Gearing up for 2021

• 500-backed super app Grab announced it has raised a US$2 billion term loan facility, in what it said was the largest institutional debt in Asia’s technology sector.
• The term loan was upsized from an original principal amount of US$750 million due to keen investor interest.

• Anthony Tan, Group CEO & co-founder of Grab, said, “I am deeply encouraged by the trust placed in us by investors who believe in our mission and recognise the value of our super app platform, as we continue making consistent progress in achieving our growth and sustainability milestones. With their support, we will invest in building a long lasting, multi local services business, so that millions of Southeast Asians can support their families and improve their lives with our everyday services.”
• The term loan facility will allow Grab to strengthen its liquidity and diversify its financing sources.
• Last month, Grab said its total group net revenue jumped by about 70% year-on-year in 2020 and recovered to comfortably above pre-pandemic levels.
• Congratulations to the Grab team!

Where no man has gone before

• 500-backed drone solutions provider Aerodyne Group is increasing its service offerings worldwide thanks to a partnership with Emesent, a drone technology company.
• The partnership first began in September 2019 with Aerodyne Chile and has since expanded to Australia, the United States, India, and Malaysia.
• The partnership offers Emesent’s flagship product, Hovermap, to Aerodyne’s key markets. Hovermap is a smart mobile scanning unit that combines advanced collision avoidance and autonomous flight technologies to map hazardous and GPS-denied environments.

• “Hovermap’s proven versatile and robust LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scanning capabilities supports our drive to provide optimum value proposition for drone services with cutting-edge intelligence and analytics that are second to none,” said Aerodyne Group COO, Rossi Jaafar.
• The partnership is said to benefit the industry and provide huge time and costs savings and improved safety of routine inspections.

Other stories you may have missed:

• eFishery appointed former GoPay CEO Aldi Haryopratomo as commissioner.
• Esports Players League closed a fruitful 2020 with over 19,000 matches played on its platform.

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500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. In Southeast Asia, 500 Startups invests through the pioneering 500 Southeast Asia family of funds. The 500 Southeast Asia funds have backed over 240 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed.

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