🏍️ Gojek Goes Shopping
Chatting with Kyle Lee (VP @ Gojek). Plus: fintech continues to boom, social media crackdown in the US & workplace issues in China.
Wrapped Up Newsletter #9
Today’s Menu
Quick Bits: Changing Social Media and Workplace Habits
Done Deals: Fintech plays, Edtech in India + Silver Lake’s record fundraise
Deep Dive: A Conversation with Kyle Lee
Tweet of the Week
What Else We're Following: 6 articles, from building a consumer empire to mentoring
Jobs - Internships/Full-Time: 13 full-time jobs and internship postings
Quick Bits 🌎
Recap in the West: A New Era for Social Media
Tech companies ban Trump (Jack Dorsey explains and Telegram wins). Affirm and Poshmark pop off in market debut. CES 2021 in a nutshell. Visa calls it quits with Plaid. Beyond Meat's fuego collab with Taco Bell. Apple commits to racial equity, monetizes podcasts and talks with EV startup Canoo. Google and Fitbit are official. Airbnb cancels DC bookings this week. 2020 US investments hit new annual record. Miami, the new Silicon Valley. Musk sends the wrong signal. Snap taps into content chief. Block Party addresses social media harassment. Zoom zeroes in on $1.5bn stock offering. Netflix gets aggressive in 2021. Uber to spin out Postmate's robotics arm. Revolut applies for license in its home country. Former Airbus CEO takes (electric) flight. Auto1 seeks to raise €1bn in IPO.
Recap in the East: China's Tech Sees (More) Limitations
A loss for Ant Group is a win for Tencent. Pinduoduo and Ele.me are emblems of China's tech labor issues. US fintech giant PayPal first ever to acquire a Chinese payment platform. Huawei gets smart on roads. WhatsApp rivals YouTube in India. Nio launches first electric sedan while Faraday Future seeks to solidify its future. Face recognition startup Megvii eyes IPO at home. ByteDance rival Kuaishou wins big in Hong Kong. Fintech gets in on "buy now, pay later" in Singapore. Door-dashing to Japan for food delivery. Singtel's storming the gaming world. World's largest drone maker gets autonomous with self-driving tech. Xiaomi gets unexpected ban from US. Alibaba x Farfetch, a potential dynamic duo in luxury e-comm?
Done Deals ✍🏼
Funding Rounds
UK payments company Checkout.com raises $450m Series C at $15bn valuation
Chinese fitness class provider Keep snags $360m Series F
UK fintech Rapyd bags $300m on a $2.5bn valuation
US brand tech startup You & Mr. Jones raises $260m Series B at $1.36bn valuation
Philippines e-wallet GCash raises $175m, nearing unicorn status
German freight forwarder Sennder raises $160m Series D making it Germany's 14th unicorn
US database startup Cockroach Labs raises $160m Series E on $2bn valuation
UK/Israeli ride-hailing company Gett completes $115m round
German enterprise performance management startup Jedox raises $100m+
Vietnam e-wallet MoMo raises $100m with ambitions to be a superapp
London-based fintech Curve secures $95m Series C
German insuretech Clark scores $85m Series C
Berlin-based fintech Moss picks up $25.5m
German ERP for SME provider Xentral raises $20m Series A (Sequoia Europe's first investment)
Swedish fintech Minna Technologies raises $18.8m Series A
French fintech Pennylane picks up $18m Series A
Acquisitions
Snap acquires US location data startup StreetCred
Medium acquires French social book reading app Glose
Tencent buys audiobook platform Lazy Audio for $417m
India’s largest edtech startup Byju acquires brick-and-mortar test prep leader Aakash for $1bn
New Funds
Silver Lake raises $20bn for tech fund
New York-based Tiger Global Management is raising a new $3.75bn venture fund
Telecom company Orange spins out Orange Ventures with $430m fund
LAUNCHub Ventures completes first closing of $85m fund for SEE startups
Delivery Hero spins off DX Ventures with $60m fund
Deep Dive 🤿
(2 min read)
There's no time to waste in the new year, especially when you got major deals on the line.
We speak with Kyle Lee, Vice President of Corporate Development at Gojek, the Indonesian ride-hailing platform-turned-superapp that supports services from digital payments to food delivery. Prior to Gojek, Kyle worked in private equity, focusing on the APAC region, at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and McKinsey & Company. Kyle is also an INSEAD MBA alumnus, Class of 2018.
Kyle is responsible for everything from supporting M&A to pitching to investors for fundraising to striking alliances with strategic partners. Kyle shares his two cents on his role at Gojek, the overall SEA tech landscape and his takeaways from 2020.
On exits in Southeast Asia
"We haven't seen many IPOs in Southeast Asia yet, but we're nearing an inflection point where there's a need for exits or a need to access public markets. Some will come in a form of a public debut or trade sale, while others, especially those with tight runways, failing to find an exit may unfortunately close shop."
On SPAC
"SPACs have garnered more attention from the West and investors could see it being a viable product due to timing (a quicker time-to-public process). How a de-SPAC would work with local SEAsian companies' corporate structures needs to be figured out and hence, it remains to be seen as a clear and viable alternative exit vehicle."
On B2B
"I'm most excited about B2B enterprises in our region, anything merchant-facing - typically low margin, partly subscription-based, yet highly sticky. Data is the new oil, so understanding data on merchants and SMEs will help drive insights and decision-making processes."
On fintech
"We saw robo-advisers and peer-to-peer lending making headways in SEA even before the issuance of digital banking licenses in Singapore, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are tons of innovation left to go around in this space."
On post-pandemic SEA landscape
"We should be conscious and practical since we're still in the middle of a pandemic. Some trends that are seeing massive growth today won't persist in a post-COVID world and it's important to articulate which will wither away and by how much."
On the importance of stakeholders
"We invest in establishing trust and reliability with consumers and drivers through our tech-enabled platform, and it's shown through investments in fraud detection and monitoring systems to vehicle hygiene and driver temperature checks. [They] will continue to demand safety protocols even after the pandemic, so we need to fluidly adjust our processes and operations according to what consumers want."
You can check out the full interview here (5-min read).
Tweet of the Week 🐣
What Else We're Following 👀
Future implications of government vs. Big Tech (Continuation, The Information)
Don't just ask about culture. First Round Review gives interesting questions to ask in an interview. Plus, a deeper look into why we lie during an interview
AVC's Fred Wilson and Brad Feld get personal on the importance of mentors
"The worst part was that we were working way harder than we were before, but we just couldn’t get anybody to buy anything": a first-time founder's guide to starting up
"Variations in founder alignment allow flexible VCs to specialize in the types of companies they work with": insights into a (relatively) new breed of investors
Interviews: How to build a personal care (Harry's) and e-commerce & media (HODINKEE) empire
Keep an eye on the Asian Financial Forum this week!
Jobs - Internships/Full-Time 👩🏽💼
Entry Level (0-2 Years)
VisVires New Protein - Venture Capital Analyst - Singapore
Goodwater Capital - VC Associate / VC Associate (Early Stage) - Burlingame, CA
LAUNCHub - VC Analyst - Sofia City, Bulgaria
Finch Capital - Business Analyst - Amsterdam
Experienced (2+ Years)
Prime Ventures - Associate - Amsterdam
Newion - Investment Associate - Amsterdam
Samsung Corporate Venture Investments - Investment Director - Boston, MA
Goodwater Capital - VC Vice President / VC Vice President (Early Stage) - Burlingame, CA
Tomahawk VC - Operations Manager - Remote
TheVentury - Innovation Manager - Vienna
Nubank - Senior/Associate Business Analyst - Mexico City
Last Week’s Issue
January 10: Who Wants To Be A Tree-llionaire?
Feedback
Hey there! We are Jeff, Dom and Vas, coming to you live from INSEAD. Thanks for reading Wrapped Up. We'd love to get your feedback - feel free to email us at jeffrey.dong@insead.edu! It will help us to improve the newsletter and deliver the content you want right into your inbox. Thanks!