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Vynn Capital, a new entrant to Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, is gearing up to close its maiden fund after it landed an undisclosed sum from Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd (MAVCAP) as one of its anchor LPs. Founded by former Gobi Ventures VC Victor Chua and Singaporean investor Darren Chua (no relation) one year ago, Kuala Lumpur-based Vynn is targeting a $40 million fund for Southeast Asia. The firm has already made four investments and, on the LP side, gone after traditional businesses and Southeast Asia’s family corporations. Landing MAVCAP — which is Malaysia’s largest investor has backed VC funds including Gobi — is a major coup for a debut fund. “The investment from MAVCAP is a very good validation for Vynn Capital,” said Victor Chua, who is Malaysian. “Personally, having been active in the local and regional ecosystem, I’ve benefited from the growth trajectory of the ecosystem and am now able to launch a new fund that is addressing the need of the traditional businesses to be innovative.” “The thesis of the fund is Southeast Asia, but through our investment we are focused on how it will be invested in Malaysian deals,” MAVCAP’s Shahril Anas told TechCrunch in an interview. “We have some carry and expect returns that we can invest into local entrepreneurs in Malaysia, we are also keen to look at how other countries’ economies interact with startups.” Anas said the approach is to be very hands-off, MAVCAP has various other fund investments, but he reiterated that there may be specific data or insight that the organization looks to glean. Southeast Asia is emerging from the shadows of China and India to become a target market for startups and, by extension, the investors who write the checks to finance them. Beyond a cumulative population of over 600 million people, the region’s ‘digital economy’ is tipped to grow to $240 billion by 2025 from $31 million in 2015, according to a report from Google and Singapore sovereign fund Temasek. Some of the other investors vying for a slice of the opportunity include new funds from Openspace Ventures ($135 million), Indonesia-focused Intudo ($50 million), Qualgro ($100 million) and Golden Gate Ventures ($100 million) and Sequoia India ($695 million). VCs give us their predictions for startups and tech in Southeast Asia in 2019 ... Read More
Uber has said adamantly that it won’t exit India (or any more markets) following a hattrick of retreats from China, Russia and Southeast Asia, but does that include its food delivery business? The answer could well be yes. If media reports are right, Uber is on the cusp of a tactical exit from India’s food delivery industry. India’s Economic Times is reporting that Uber is in the final stages of a deal that would see Swiggy, the food delivery service that recently raised $1 billion and expanded to general deliveries, eat up Uber Eats in India in exchange for giving the U.S. ride-hailing firm a 10 percent share of its business. Swiggy was most recently said to be valued at $3.3 billion following that billion-dollar round, which was led by Naspers including new backers Tencent and Uber investor Coatue. Uber Eats is touted as a major revenue generator for the company, The Information previously reported that it grossed $1.5 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2018 alone, and the company has pushed expansion hard in Asia. Uber Eats landed in India nearly two years ago but it finds itself in the middle of a dogfight between Swiggy, which raised capital three times last year, and Zomato, which is backed by Alibaba. Already, the battle has taken its toll on peripheral players that include FoodPanda, the service acquired by Uber rival Ola in late 2017. Ola is reported to have slashed costs at FoodPanda and shift the focus to a more sustainable cloud kitchen strategy. Yet Zomato and Swiggy continue to be aggressive. Based on that backdrop, and Uber’s upcoming IPO, it would make sense to consolidate costs and yet retain a stake in the market. Uber did exactly that through its exit deal with Grab in Southeast Asia, which saw it hand over its transport and food delivery businesses in exchange for a 27.5 percent stake in Grab . That deal, which I argued was a win not a loss for Uber, got the company out of an expensive subsidies war and gave it a stake in a growing business. It could well be a recipe that Uber repeats for India’s food delivery space. Note: The original version of this article was updated to note that Coatue is an investor in both Uber and Swiggy. ... Read More
Wanting to use solid-state batteries in space is nothing new, but the technology hasn’t gotten off the ground yet here on Earth Continue reading… ... Read More
A mysterious unreleased Google device has cleared the Federal Communications Commission. But unlike the internet (and we) originally thought, it doesn’t look like it’s a new Google Wifi mesh router. As 9to5Google notes, the new device was actually created by a company called Murata Manufacturing Co. under an FCC ID of VPYLB1CQ, with Google applying for a “Change of Identification Request” that would grant a new FCC ID (A4R-1701AA1) for actually marketing and selling the product. But Murata’s 1CQ isn’t a router, nor even the sort of processor you’d find inside one — it’s a (relatively) low-power Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module designed to fit inside smart home devices, among other things. It has slower peak speeds than today’s Google Wi-Fi,... Continue reading… ... Read More
10.6 million players showed up to event, breaking past record by around 2.5 million... Read More
PC Gamer, GamesRadar, others join growing industry push for unionization... Read More
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