Tech Round-Up: November 2019
Welcome to the November Tech Round-Up. We received great feedback to October’s first edition, and hope that you’ll find November’s edition informative. Subscribe here to receive in email format each month.
Fresh thinking from North Ridge Partners:
2019 Southeast Asia Internet Trends Report: This report provides a comprehensive overview of the regional technology market – a ‘one stop’ guide on regional technology strategies, geographies, investors and companies. We give the lowdown on what’s happening, who’s doing what and an insight into the companies to watch (there are plenty on the radar!).
Plenty of action in the ASX tech sector: Its been a lively period for tech stocks on the ASX, with a number of IPO’s put on hold, prominent short attacks, and the emergence of contrasting views on the direction of fintech. North Ridge Partners co-founder, Peter Hynd explores the latest happenings on the ASX.
The software as a service (SaaS) model has become popular with investors globally - so how can you become a SaaS business if you don’t make software? Christin Burns discusses how the subscription model is being applied to a variety of industries.
How the tech sector can take advantage of flygsam: Travel has experienced unbridled growth for decades. What does the threat of flygsam or flight-shaming mean for the travel tech industry?
Southeast Asia Property Classified Heating Up: Michael Gethen examines recent corporate moves by leading players in the real estate classifieds and marketplaces sector in Southeast Asia, and how this is clearly a sector with increasing competitive intensity.
From the scary department:
Has the world gone crazy? Adam Neumann walks away with not just $US1.7bn of shares in the We Company, but a $185m consulting fee from SoftBank. It’s disgraceful. We Move on.
The drones are coming for you! Head for the hills, and hide in your cave.
Where your data flows on the Internet matters, and you have precisely zero control over it. The golden rule is don’t do anything on the web that you wouldn’t want to appear on the front page of the newspaper. Because it could.
Asia news:
China’s online lenders have launched an all-out assault on Southeast Asian consumers. They’re bringing their advanced technology but also some dodgy collection practices with them.
Alibaba smashes all records. With over 268.5 billion yuan in sales (US$38.3bn), Alibaba’s 2019 Singles’ Day online sales smashed all records, up 26% year on year - and it’s also catching on in Southeast Asia’s growing e-commerce market.
Likee takes on Tiktok (who, you might say?) Tiktok is the first Chinese social media app to challenge Facebook and Snap on the global stage. Downloaded more than a billion times, now it’s facing a Chinese challenger of its own, a short-form video-sharing app called Likee.
The U.S. is making it harder to export sensitive U.S. technologies. Export licenses for technologies like encryption software, semiconductors and drones have dropped, rejections have risen and it’s taking longer to win export license approvals. No doubt China is Trump’s target.
In other tech news:
Uniporn. For those of us who think the unicorn craze has long been a bubble, redemption is at hand.
We are the biggest losers. In January 2019, SoftBank agreed to pay $110 per share for new WeWork shares. Now it is recapitalising the business at $11.60 a share. There are some big losers here.
Still a lucrative year for venture funds. Despite 2019’s IPO embarrassments (Uber, Lyft, Peloton, We), a successful crop of IPOs has crystallised over US$200 billion in exit value for VC’s, making it the most lucrative year ever.
Facebook’s Libra project is falling apart before our eyes. In October the fledgling Libra crypto-currency lost partners PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Stripe and eBay. Can Libra survive?
Wearable World Wars are here. Facebook and Google just competed to buy Fitbit. Google won, reputedly at 2x the price.
Uber eats its way to the top of the food delivery chain. With its acquisition of Cornershop, a grocery delivery startup that was previously targeted by Walmart in September 2018 before being blocked by the regulators.
Stuff we’ve been working on:
North Ridge Partners’ client Ascent’s iTrust blockchain platform plans to transact US$100 million in trade financing transactions over the next 12 months. In October North Ridge Partners led a capital raising for Ascent, placing equity with a Development Bank of Japan-backed VC.
North Ridge Partners advised two major payments companies in Vietnam, Vimo and mPOS, on their merger to form NextPay, and is now leading the merged company’s Series B.
North Ridge Partners is advising client Mint Payments, which is taking the travel payments market by storm in Australasia.
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