A shift in purchasing habits

• Indonesians are relying on e-grocery companies to procure their daily necessities as fears of the pandemic continue to heighten.
• 500-backed HappyFresh, which partners over 150 supermarkets and speciality stores in the country, is experiencing a spike in daily orders; two to three times more than pre-Covid numbers.
• A personal shopper for the company told Channel NewsAsia she received 10 to 15 orders a day, but amidst the pandemic, the volume of new orders has jumped by two to three times the normal amount.

• And it’s not just the millennials who are getting their groceries done online. HappyFresh has been seeing a surge of new users who are aged 55 and above, proving the e-grocery segment is slowly but certainly expanding its reach into unfamiliar demographics.
• “I don’t think the pandemic has fundamentally changed the future. If anything, it has forwarded it,” said HappyFresh CEO Gullem Seggara.
• A recent survey showed Indonesia’s e-commerce growth trajectory would remain positive with an expected 50% year-on-year growth to reach US$35 billion this year from US$23 billion in 2019.
• Besides Indonesia, HappyFresh also operates in Malaysia and Thailand.

Cloud protection

• 500-backed cybersecurity provider Horangi is bringing its flagship cloud security solution, Warden to Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• With the inclusion of GCP, Horangi is able to help protect more companies against cybersecurity breaches and remove any vulnerabilities in their network.
• “Integration with GCP was an obvious choice for us, given its adoption by startups and enterprises regionally. It’s one of the few cloud platforms with an Indonesian data center, which certain industries in Southeast Asia require to comply with data residency regulations.

• “We have also seen great interest from the financial services industry and Fintech startups based in Singapore that require compliance with the Monetary Authority of Singapore,” said Paul Hadjy, CEO and Co-Founder at Horangi.
• As remote work is normalized in response to the ongoing pandemic, cloud platform protection is paramount. A study by global computer security company McAfee shows the number of cyberattacks on cloud platforms has increased globally by more than six times between January and April 2020.
• Since its inception last year, Warden has completed over 18 million scans regionally, created 200+ cybersecurity rules and supports nine global compliance standards. Go-Jek, NinjaVan, DBS Bank, and BigPay are among the global companies utilizing Warden to safeguard their digital infrastructures.
• Know more about Warden here.

Bouncing back

• 500-backed Grab and RedDoorz are regaining their momentum as both companies reported positive recovery trajectories in growth and operations.
• Grab said that its Q3 revenue has risen to more than 95% of pre-Covid-19 levels.
• “Our business recovery continues steadily, with Q3 group revenues climbing to over 95% of pre-COVID-19 levels,” Ming Maa, president of Grab revealed, as reported by The Edge Markets.

• 50% of its revenue is generated by GrabFood, signifying the demand for food deliveries. “Having laid this foundation, we will focus on expanding our financial services and merchant services business through the rest of the year and beyond,” Ming said.
• On the other hand, RedDoorz, which operates budget hotels across Southeast Asia, is stepping up its offerings with the launch of Sans, a range of 2–2.5 star accommodations, a step up from its roster of 1–2 star hotels in Indonesia. The reason being early RedDoorz users, who are now older and can afford “better experiences”, founder and CEO Amit Saberwal told Nikkei Asian Review.
• The launch was prompted by the surge of hoteliers with higher-accommodation categories reaching out to them, hoping to leverage RedDoorz’s reach and presence in Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines, where it operates over 1,800 accommodations.
• RedDoorz is optimistic, especially with domestic travels resuming, that a full recovery is within reach. Its occupancy rate in Jakarta is hovering at 50%, which is above the industry average and a stark recovery from the April low of 30%.

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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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