I refuse to consider that now we have handed the primary month of 2023.
Maybe this has one thing to do with the back-to-back public holidays that we had in January and the truth that we principally spend the month planning and figuring issues out. However I really feel like time strikes at an unnaturally quick pace, and now we have simply woken up after an extended sleep –being made conscious of all of the issues we have to meet up with.
So, how was the Southeast Asian tech startup ecosystem in January?
One notable factor is that we’re nonetheless cautious concerning the state of the world as we speak. Whereas borders have reopened and we’re pushing again ideas concerning the pandemic to the again of our heads, there are particular points that we stay fixated on. One in all them being the funding winter.
There are lots of causes to fret, particularly after final 12 months’s waves of firm layoffs. The string of unhealthy information continues as we witness notable e-commerce corporations similar to China’s JD leaving the Indonesian market.
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However there are causes to stay optimistic.
In January, we noticed how a number of new funds had been being launched for startups in SEA. Nearly all of them are specializing in larger markets in SEA similar to Indonesia, with a collaboration between MUFG and Danamon for a US$100 million fund and a primary shut of the latest fund for Northstar Group. For Singapore, two PEs have partnered to launch a US$700 million tech fund.
Corporations additionally continued to announce their funding, and we seen provide chain and agritech as standard sectors for the month.
Does this imply January is the month once we can really feel barely extra optimistic concerning the future?
Even when it does, there are nonetheless many issues that now we have to do.
In a particular function that e27 revealed, we have a look at the chances of how Chinese language VCs be a “potential wild card” for SEA throughout funding winter.
“China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have long enjoyed close economic ties. According to a Global Times report of last August, the two-way investment between the world’s second-largest economy and the ASEAN was US$340 billion as of July-end 2022,” our editor Sainul Abudheen Okay wrote.
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“The Chinese VCs are turning their focus to the ASEAN because of a slowing economy back on the home turf for many reasons, including a surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths and strict lockdowns … The question is: Is China stepping up its investment activities in the region during the Funding Winter, and how vital is the role of Chinese VCs in SEA?”
SEA traders got here again with varied responses to this. Whereas some consider that China would possibly present an alternate, others similar to Monk’s Hill Ventures’s Founding Companion Peng T. Ong and Tin Males Capital’s Murli Ravi are extra cautious.
“There won’t be any significant rise in activity [in terms of VC investments]. Our investors are basically from our region. So China is unlikely to play a significant role here,” Ong says.
So the place can we discover our beacon of hope on this difficult time? I personally consider that we must always study to be okay with saying that we should not have the reply but and that this can be a second of exploration. We have a look at all the chances and prospects and work on those that appear believable.
Time strikes quick, however with the best perspective, we could have it on our facet.
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Picture Credit score: Redd F on Unsplash
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