🎙️ How a 24-Year-Old Law Dropout Became a VC
#31 Plus, a recent study on Southeast Asia's TCG market
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I’ve never considered myself to be an impulse shopper. However, when you spend a lot of aching hours chatting over Zoom, learning new food recipes, or OCD cleaning, you start to question some of your life choices and maybe even create (or break) some habits. For me, one of these newly created habits was buying the things you know you don’t need but figured it’s necessary to have in order to keep your sanity in check.
The high-flying rise of online and social commerce so far in 2021 is emblematic of the post-pandemic consumer behaviors we’re witnessing across the globe. In Southeast Asia, due to a booming online population, these sticky habits have become the primary driver for the region’s $300bn internet sector.
According to a recent study by GfK Market Intelligence, Southeast Asia reported a spike of 43%, or $594m, in online sales of technical consumer goods (TCG) alone during the first quarter of the year, compared to the same period of 2020. Some of the top products purchased? Media tablets, headsets, water filters, deep fryers, and air treatment products.
Other interesting takeaways and breakdowns from the report are as follows:
Indonesia (23%), Singapore (22%) and Thailand (22%) accounted for majority of the share of the overall TCG market value
Productivity and entertainment products (i.e. media tablet) saw sales spike 80% for the first quarter of 2021
Mobile computing devices saw a 35% growth in online sales from Q1 2020
The gaming sector registered $270m in increased sales from Q1 2020
Deep fryers registered a 300% increase, food preparation tools a 30% increase, and water filters a 49% increase in Q1 2021, compared to Q1 2020
51% of air treatment products were bought online and vacuum cleaners accounted for half of the overall sector market sales
Recently, I’ve been pondering over whether or not it’d be wise to get a humidifier, rice cooker or Nintendo Switch for my flat. It’s refreshing to know that I’m not alone.
- Jeff
Quick Bits 🌎
Recap in the West
European startups have raised $60bn so far in 2021, topping 2020 record. Zuckerberg is all game for VR. Spotify launches its own Clubhouse-esque product, Greenroom. Meeting IRL is IRL’s answer to Facebook. Waymo makes headway in self-driving with a $2.5bn injection. A look inside an Amazon Salon and its attempt to disrupt the hairstyling industry. Google goes offline in NYC. A newly appointed, tech skeptic Lina Khan takes the reins as Chair of the FTC. a16z launches their own publication Future with a focus on rational optimism in tech. Amazon makes its Appstore business-friendly for smaller businesses. E-payments startup Wise plans to direct list on LSE. An Apple Watch with better, more enhanced features is in the works. OnlyFans, known for NSFW content, wants a brand makeover and some capital to become a unicorn.
Done Deals ✍🏼
🎤 London-based Harry Stebbings, a 24-year-old podcaster for Twenty Minute VC and investor, raises $140m from MIT, Rothschild-backed RIT Capital Partners and founders and early backers of companies including Spotify, Calm and Atlassian, to back start-ups ranging from early-stage to more established tech companies.
📚 Months after raising $6m during its seed round, BookClub gets $20m (Series A) led by Signal Peak Ventures in preparation for its public rollout in July. The platform gives authors a chance to hold book groups, share exclusive video-based interviews and engage in Q&A sessions with readers. Think “MasterClass meets Goodreads.”
👓 Finland’s Pixieray raises $4.4m (Seed) from investors including Maki.vc, First Fellow, Amazon Alexa Fund, Firstminute capital and Bragiel Brothers to develop what it calls adaptive eyeglasses, which can adjust their lenses to bring into focus anything that you’re looking at.
🏦 Miami-based Novo, a neobank that serves small businesses, closes $40.7m (Series A) led by Valar Ventures to continue growing its business and its platform. It has accumulated 100,000 SMB customers and has seen $1bn in lifetime transactions, with growth accelerating in the last couple of years.
📢 San-Francisco-based twine, a video chat startup that initially tried to be the “Zoom for meeting new people,” shifts its focus to online events and gets $3.3m (Seed) led by Moment Ventures. twine’s events customers includes Microsoft, Amazon, Forrester and others, and the service is on track to do $1m in bookings in 2021.
Recap in the East
It’s a great time to be a live-streamer. ByteDance’s 2020 revenues hit record. While Gojek drivers continue to fight for their rights in Indonesia, the company moves on to cut service fees for its drivers in Singapore. India’s antitrust watchdog keeps a watchful eye over Amazon and Flipkart. China has its own Suez Canal problem. Ant Group plans an exit at a slashed valuation of $120bn. Digital banks are rapidly setting up shop in Indonesia. Baidu unveils a new, cost-efficient robotaxi. Expect a Grab SPAC by year-end. OnePlus further integrates with Oppo to become a smarter alt to bigger smartphone brands. AirAsia enters the hot grocery-delivery market in Singapore. CEO of Meituan lies low after criticizing China - poetically. Didi gets the antitrust treatment ahead of its mega IPO. Thailand doesn’t approve NFTs or meme tokens.
Done Deals ✍🏼
💰 Finantier, an Indonesia-based open finance startup, raises a 7-figure seed round led by Global Founders Capital and East Ventures to scale and enhance its product offerings, continue its expansion in Indonesia and SEA and double the size of its team.
👪 Mumbai-based Convosight raises $9m (Series A) led by Singapore-based VC Qualgro to build out its monetization ecosystem for community creators on platforms like Facebook Groups, Reddit and Discord so that they can partner with brands and monetize their communities.
💳 India-based online payments app FamPay, which focuses on teenage users, gets $38m (Series A) led by Elevation Capital to increase hiring for its leadership team across functions from product and design to marketing, operations and HR. The company has been averaging 100% growth every month in registered users after racing past the 2m mark within 8 months of its launch in 2020.
📱 Chinese tablet-maker Jingling secures $10m in angel financing from investors like Sinovation Ventures and Trustbridge Partners to provide a smoother user experience for Android and PC users with an adaptive layout and open-source operating system. The company’s founders are Liu Chengcheng, who previously founded leading Chinese tech publication 36Kr, and Zhu Rui, who is a veteran of Motorola and Lenovo.
🎮 Philippines-based Yield Guild Games, a startup that specializes in blockchain-powered gaming, bags $4m (Series A) led by Bitkraft Ventures to invest in NFT assets of play-to-earn games and expand its network by acquiring more players globally.
What Else We're Following 👀
Stuart Thornton, CEO of Singapore-based BNPL platform hoolah, talks about vulnerability in the workplace and starting life afresh (KRASIA)
“The most important characteristic of a marketplace is its flywheel.” Alex Taussig of Lightspeed discusses why some marketplaces can drive their flywheels faster (Drinking from the Firehose)
“According to a 2020 Morgan Stanley survey of venture capitalists, 43% said finding opportunities to invest in companies with nonwhite founders was a priority, up 10% from the prior year.” A deeper look into how VCs are proactively seeking out diversity in hopes of elevating Black entrepreneurs (WSJ)
The Hustle’s Alex Garcia highlights 7 frameworks to improve your writing (Twitter)
Forerunner Ventures surveyed 1,000+ consumers aged 25+ to check in on their post-pandemic behaviors and attitudes - check out their consumer report! (Forerunner Ventures)
A comprehensive overview of the VC Tech Stack in 2021 (Miguel Pinho - Medium)
Who’s Hiring 👩🏽💼
For this week’s job postings (internships & full-time), please check out our Notion page here!
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