Here is your weekly selection of top news, trends and exclusive developments from DealStreetAsia this week. We have crossed the half-year mark of 2020 and the COVID-19 global health crisis continues to persist. Predictably, our news headlines were dominated by companies and investors trying to navigate these challenging times.
First, the big picture stories
Chinese internet giant Tencent’s recent acquisition of the assets of Southeast Asian video-on-demand platform iflix has left a trail of ticked off investors, vendors and employees. The transaction appears to be a done deal and iflix shareholders are expected to formally vote on the deal on July 21.
Singapore state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings is leading the shift away from public market investments among large institutional investors. According to data from DealStreetAsia and Refinitiv, Temasek either directly or through related entities, invested in over 40 companies in the first half of the calendar year 2020.
In Vietnam, venture capital investors are eyeing HR-tech startups with increased interest due to their resilient nature and high-margin potential. The sector has already recorded at least half a dozen deals in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Staying with Vietnam, we also had this feature on how, just in a few years, the country’s population could be transformed from one of the most underbanked in Southeast Asia to one spoilt for choice, when it comes to saving and spending their money. The Vietnamese government is in the process of approving a pilot project for local telecom players to launch mobile money services. Local telcos VNPT, Viettel and MobiFone have indicated an interest in launching these services.
In deal news
South Korea’s food delivery giant Woowa Brothers is looking to invest in more Southeast Asia startups this year, as it awaits the green light for its merger with German peer Delivery Hero. It has already made two investments in Southeast Asia in Vietnam’s VeXeRe and Malaysia’s Dahmakan.
Taiwanese live-streaming platform M17 Entertainment is cautiously seeking mergers and acquisitions and market expansion opportunities this year as it weighs its options for an initial public offering in the near future. M17 had raised a $26.5-million Series D funding led by Vertex Growth Fund in May.
We had this exclusive on Mumbai-based edtech startup Lido Learning‘s ongoing talks to raise $20 million from new investors in an extended Series B funding round. The startup, which offers online tutoring, had raised $7.5 million in Series B funding across two tranches earlier this year.
