Driving the digital economy

• 500-backed super app Grab has raised more than US$300 million for its fintech arm Grab Financial Group, reportedly bringing the subsidiary’s value to US$3 billion.
• The startup plans to offer services in insurance, lending, wealth management, and payments to a regional market of 650 million people.

• In its funding announcement, Grab shared its total revenues grew more than 40% in 2020, compared to 2019. This growth was driven primarily by strong consumer adoption of services like AutoInvest, an investment platform that allows users to invest small amounts of money at a time through the Grab app and insurance products.
• A report published by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company in 2019 stated that usage of banking apps and online payments, remittances, insurance products, and robo-advisor investment platforms grew in 2020. The financial services market in Southeast Asia may reach US$60 billion in revenue by 2025.
• “We are at an inflection point in Southeast Asia, as the pandemic has accelerated the need for digital financial services that help us grow and protect our incomes,” Reuben Lai, senior managing director at Grab Financial Group said in a statement.
• In December, the startup’s venture with Singtel won Singapore’s first digital full bank license.
• Congratulations to the Grab team!

Banking on the digital economy

• 500-backed e-commerce platform Bukalapak announced it has formed a strategic partnership with Standard Chartered to launch financial services in the startup’s app.
• The startup will work with Standard Chartered to enable convenient access to financial services for more than 200 million people in Indonesia.
• This partnership also seeks to boost Indonesia’s financial inclusion, leveraging Bukalapak’s existing base of 100 million users and 13.5 million sellers.

• According to a survey by Standard Chartered, the pandemic acted as a catalyst for online financial activity growth. 56 percent of Indonesian consumers now prefer online purchases and payments — an increase of 16 percent before Covid-19. 80 percent of Indonesians also expect the country to go entirely cashless by 2025.
• Rachmat Kaimuddin, CEO of Bukalapak said, “Our strategic partnership shows the trust and confidence from Standard Chartered on Bukalapak’s mission and commitment to create impact across Indonesia. Commerce and financial services are crucial aspects of the well-being of society, thus, the partnership increases our spirit to create A Fair Economy in Indonesia. With a strong global banking network and prestigious financial service business, Standard Chartered participation in Bukalapak will further strengthen our current strong group of shareholders and strategic partners.”

Hauling for startup support

• A series of interviews revealed the wish lists of entrepreneurs based in Singapore, ahead of the country’s upcoming Budget announcement.
• 500-backed founder of Haulio, Alvin Ea shared his thoughts. Haulio is Singapore’s largest haulage service provider network, using technology to enable businesses to get their containers moved.

• Alvin shared that as an essential service, business has not been too badly impacted, and in fact, the startup has seen an unprecedented boom that even led to congestion in the port.
• Of last year’s Budget allocations, he said, “The biggest gain was the Job Support Scheme (JSS), which significantly helped the truckers by tiding us (over) in terms of cash flow.”
• This year, he hopes to see a further extension of the JSS and a review of the foreign worker quota as the logistics industry relies heavily on foreign labor.
• He also expects the manpower crunch in Singapore to continue for the year ahead. Therefore, he hopes that the government will allocate more funding for training and the driving of digitalization for logistics.
• “The average age of local drivers is at 50 years old. The lack of local drivers is a major factor, and our view is to reposition the role of the container truck driver by empowering them to do more through technology,” he added.
• He also calls for more support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to go digital.
• Read the full interview here.

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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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