• This week, favorite stories centered on interesting trends and insights from 500-backed startups Carsome and Fave. Here’s a recap:

Changing gears

• A survey conducted by used car trading platform Carsome among thousands of consumers revealed Southeast Asians are rethinking their finances, with intentions of buying and selling cars rising amid the pandemic.
• The most common reasons attributed to the car-selling intentions are to dispose of old cars and to get more cash on hand.
• However, most of those who want to buy cars plan to do so only in the next 7–12 months. According to the survey results, the main reasons for waiting are to save up or gain more stability in income to increase their confidence in their purchasing power.
• More insights from the full story here.

The takeaway of eating in

• A little bit of support does indeed go a long way. When many offline restaurants suffered during the first lockdown in Malaysia in March 2020, Fave stepped up to help them go digital.
• The startup also launched ‘Save Our Fave’, a campaign that allows consumers to save their favorite restaurants by buying eCards containing varying amounts of extra credit on top of the original amount paid.
• Serendipitously, the startup’s quest to help others led to a happy ending for itself.
• Read the full story here.

Other stories you may have missed:

• Interest in chocolate grew 74% in 2020, according to iPrice
• ‘Buy now, pay later’ platform Split recorded ~USD2.5 million in transactions within months.
• OhmniLabs’ robots are being deployed in senior care facilities in Australia to keep residents safe.

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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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