??Beam me up Scotty #008

Hey guys, Jake here

Welcome to the?7 new Bare Markets subscribers?that have joined us since Monday! Join?225?smart, curious folks by subscribing to our bi-weekly newsletter.

I have a bunch of New Exciting Tech need for you guys but first, we have to address what’s been happening around the world, which is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.?

If you want to lend a helping hand please visit the websites below to donate:?

• Choose Love
• Rescue UK
• UNICEF

Here's the deal: Since Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Western governments have sought to freeze the?oligarchs' overseas assets along with Putin's, as well as prevent them from traveling. The goal is two-pronged: Sanctions act as both a punishment for Russia's ruling class and a cudgel to try to force Putin to back down.

It's safe to say the sanctions have, at least so far, successfully grabbed some oligarchs' attention.

• Roman Abramovich, a 55-year-old worth an estimated $13.5 billion, on Wednesday announced he is selling his beloved Chelsea Football Club. Even though Abramovich has not yet been named on sanctions lists, UK lawmakers are pressuring leaders to do so. The tycoon is reportedly offloading some of his London properties in anticipation of sanctions.
• Oligarchs are on the move, and we know that in part because of a 19-year-old from Florida who built Twitter bots that track the movements of roughly 40 planes and helicopters linked to Russian oligarchs. (This is the same 19-year-old who made headlines earlier this year for refusing Elon Musk's request that he take down a bot devoted to the Tesla CEO's jet.)
• Earlier this week, at least four superyachts owned by Russian billionaires with ties to Putin were spotted moving toward Montenegro and the Maldives. (The latter may hold extra appeal for as a haven, as it has no extradition treaty with the United States.)?

Now on to the news.

???? Singapore

?? Beam me up Scotty

E-scooters, love em, hate em, they always seem to be around, and VCs always seem to fund them. I’m a huge fan of E-scooters; it’s fun, fast, and a little dangerous. I just wished the roads were more scooter-friendly to integrate them into my daily routine.

?? On Tuesday, APACs largest e-scooter and e-bike secures US$93 million in Series B funding led by PE firm Affirma Capital with participation from the various VC firms below:

• Sequoia Capital India, Hana Ventures, ICT Capital, EDBI, AC Ventures, RTP Global, Momentum Venture Capital, etc.

?? Why the Funding?

1. New Markets to penetrate:

• Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Turkey

1. Quick Deployment of its 5th generation Beam Saturn e-scooter with more safety tech
2. Add an e-moped into its fleet.

?? Why I think they will make it.?As countries continue to go on their ESG world tour, placing it in every initiative they put out, having e-scooter services will be a great fun way for cities to cut emissions on short-distance travels properly. But this will be more successful in the towns with decent roads, whereas cities with harsher road conditions will see its adoption be slightly hampered.

?? Links here - Link

MORE Singaporean Tech News

• ??? Singapore ecommerce enabler bags $4.2m from Sequoia, YC, others
• ?? It ain’t always this Dezy
• ?? Another P2P lender goes south: millions on the line for Capital Match’s investors
• ?????? Volopay raises $29 mn from Winklevoss twins, JAM Fund, and others

???? Indonesia

?? Grocery Startup battle heats up

Allofresh, the newest e-grocery startup, is armed with a war chest worth US$69.7 million from big boys such as Bukalapak and CT Corp Group.

?? Who are the Backers?

• Bukalapak (Owns 35%) - A Unicorn E-commerce platform that empowers small kiosks to bring them online.
• CT Corp Group (Owns 55%) - One of the largest local conglomerates that owns the Carrefour franchise, Allo Bank, Trans Media, Trans Corp, Trans Shopping Mall, and much more.
• Growtheum Capital Partners (Owns 10%) - It is a Private Equity firm.

?? What is Allofresh??I believe that it's Bukalapaks attempt to reach into the quick commerce sector. AlloFresh will allow customers to buy more than 150,000 products from 10,000 suppliers delivered in three hours. It will also offer 30-minute delivery options to compete with the country's rising number of quick commerce startups.

?? Inner Workings...?AlloFresh customers will order groceries through a mobile app and its website by scanning items inside the physical store. The items will be packed and delivered by ride-hailing giant Grab Holdings, a business partner of AlloFresh.

About 10 million mom-and-pop stores that Bukalapak serves will also order groceries from AlloFresh.

?? Linkssss

MORE Indonesian News

• ?? Sinar Mas unit set to invest $200m into Indonesian e-wallet Dana
• ?? AirAsia launches financial marketplace in Indonesia

???? Philippines

?? Ex-Grab Philippines President raises US$10.5M from regional and global investors to drive SariSuki's expansion into quick commerce

Would quick commerce work in the Philippines?

?? That’s the $7.1 million question bet that Investors have put on SariSuki. Added together with the previous funding, the total funding comes up to $10.7 million.

Who are the Investors?

• The deal featured VC firms such as SIG, Global Founders Capital, Saison Capital, JG Digital Equity Ventures, and Foxmont Capital Partners.

A Quick intro on Quick Commerce

• Quick Commerce - A startup vertical that focuses on delivering groceries to your doorstep in 15 minutes or less.
• Business Model - They achieve this speed by setting up dark warehouses. These shop lots have stocks filled to the brim solely to deliver. It’s like a ghost kitchen for groceries. By Setting up efficient dark warehouses, te quick commerce startups can maximize every bit of their floor plan and don't need to sacrifice square footage for browsing aisles

??? Lemme see the traction... Since its inception a mere year ago, SariSuki has already served at least 60,000 consumers with 100 employees and counting. Initially, it was a community group-buying startup, but they decided to pivot into quick-commerce.

The goal was to offer supermarket-quality products at wet market prices — something which we can get behind.

?? A quote from the co-founder Brian Cu (Ex Co-founder of Zalora Philippines & Grab Philippines) stated:

• “Quick commerce is a way for us to expand into serving the segment of our market that seeks hyper-convenience for a hyper-local product mix for their daily needs,”

?? A few thoughts:?Grab is coming in this grocery space as well, and it will be interesting to see how they will go against the giant when Grab eventually expands into the quick commerce model. This observation comes after Grab’s recent acquisition of Jaya Grocer; we will be “watching this space”.

Global Founders Capital seems to be hitting the regional quick commerce bet as it has also funded Astro, a quick commerce startup in Indonesia.

Link to the Full thing

???? Vietnam

Is this the Shopify of Vietnam?

Who wouldn't want to be the Shopify of Southeast Asia. As of date, Shopify currently has a market cap of $81 billion as it’s pumping out nearly 3 billion in revenue yearly.

?? Zoom in to Vietnam... Yet, Shopify is not as mainstream as it is in Vietnam. Despite calling his startup?– which translates to “sales book” in Vietnamese – CEO and co-founder Bui Hai Nam doesn’t want to follow the bookkeeping app model. Nam estimates that Vietnam has about 16 million small businesses, of which the “nano and micro” retailers are particularly underserved.

A view at SoBanHang's interface

?? Why not just Instagram it??“Selling on social media is like putting classified ads. You don’t really have a proper catalog or other tools to manage the orders,” says Nam.

?? How does it work??The SoBanHang app enables retailers to build?an online store, create promotions, manage inventory, and track in-store sales and information about loyal customers. According to the company, its app serves about 170,000 merchants. The app is currently free, but the startup plans to roll out a subscription model soon.

? What’s the difference...?Unlike other B2B e-commerce startups like Telio or VinShop that have to invest heavily in logistics and warehouses, SoBanHang remains mobile-only and asset-light, according to Nam. However, it can support its merchants with inventory or logistics through partnerships with third-party providers, he adds.

?? Click here for the Full thing

?? Regional

Tick-tock, it’s time for TikTok Shops.

TikTok Shop, the e-commerce arm of the social networking giant, has entered Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia,?reported?Pandaily,?citing an?Ebrun?report.

?? How does it work??TikTok Shop allows locally based consumers to buy a wide array of goods while also offering businesses more opportunities to make sales via the app.

?? Zoom Out...?TikTok, one of the fastest-growing social media platforms with over 1 billion users worldwide, also performed?A/B testing?in Indonesia earlier this month.

???? Only Indo...?Currently, companies are only allowed to set operations in Indonesia if registered in the country. Moreover, they are only allowed to serve Indonesian users.

Opportunities...?The company is hiring locally in Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

?? Full Article At - LINK

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