Going green globally

• 500-backed food review platform abillionveg harnessed data on its app to develop an interactive dashboard on the cities leading the global plant-based movement in 2020.

• Relying on 400,000 consumer reviews across 650 cities worldwide, it scored cities based on three dimensions: the number and variety of vegan options available, the affordability of plant-based offerings, and the size and engagement of the city’s plant-based community.
• The overall score was then computed as a weighted average of the three factors.
• Using this scoring technique, Madrid came in first place, followed by Singapore and New York. Bali also made the list, at number 18.
• This follows abillionveg’s report in August on the rise of the vegan market globally, particularly in Asia and Africa.
• For more insights, catch founder and CEO Vikas Garg at the 2020 Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit tomorrow, hosting a roundtable discussion on ‘Emerging Consumer Trends in the Global Plant-Based Sector’. Gibran Huzaifah, CEO of another 500-backed company, eFishery, will also be speaking at the event.
• For details, click here.

Stay home and go shopping

• 500-backed price comparison and product aggregating website iPrice Group has published the Southeast Asian Map of E-commerce Report for Q2 / 2020, covering Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines.
• The report was developed in collaboration with SimilarWeb and App Annie, which looked into monthly website visits and mobile app visits respectively.
• iPrice concluded that online shopping habits are changing due to the pandemic, with demands for non-essentials such as fashion, cosmetics, and smartphones slowing down significantly, while demands for essentials such as groceries and health supplements surged.
• The report looked at average order values, with the first half of 2020 seeing a modest increase of only 18% and 11% year-over-year for electronics and fashion, while the health and home & living categories rose by 25% and 26% respectively.
• On mobile devices, the total number of sessions on shopping apps reached 65.1 billion in Q2 — or a significant jump of 39% compared to the previous quarter.
• The Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam clocked in the highest increase in this mobile usage at 53%, 50%, and 43% respectively.
• Despite the pandemic, overall online spending for consumer products continued to rise in the region, with data from iPrice’s e-commerce portals showing that the average basket size increased by 23% year-over-year in the first half of 2020, reaching US$28.5 per order.
• Leading this increase is the Philippines and Singapore, at 57% and 51% respectively.
• Get the full report here.

Enhancing digital experiences

• 500-backed Grab, one of Southeast Asia’s leading super-app, announced a partnership with e-commerce group Lazada to collectively provide a seamless digital experience that aims to benefit users on both platforms in Vietnam.
• As part of the partnership, consumers in Vietnam can access Grab’s on-demand food delivery service GrabFood from the homepages of Lazada’s app and website starting 11th November.
• In turn, Grab users in the country can access Lazada’s platform through links embedded in its campaign banners and widgets.

• “Through the collaboration with Lazada Vietnam, we will be able to catalyze this growing trend to cater to consumers’ increased digital needs, support social commerce and micro-entrepreneurs as well as provide more income opportunities for our delivery partners; hence, creating an outsized impact on Vietnam’s economy in the new normal,” said Nguyen Thai Hai Van, Managing Director of Grab Vietnam.
• Users of both platforms can look forward to cross-platform vouchers and GrabFood’s food review content livestreaming on Lazada’s app. Furthermore, the two companies plan to jointly create marketing campaigns relevant to and personalized for their respective customers.
• The Lazada tie-up comes on the heels of a regional partnership between Grab and Marriott International that will integrate F&B offerings and accommodations from 600 Marriott locations across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand.

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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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