Southeast Asia’s Top 10 Startups

2017 was a bumper year for startups in Southeast Asia. Here are the winners.
Monday 18 June 2018
Photo: Pixabay

10. ZALORA With revenues of US$268 million in the first nine months of 2017, Zalora has a presence in Singapore, Malaysia & Brunei, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and most recently in Taiwan. Its profits have secured its position as the leader of the fastest growing e-commerce segment: the online fashion market.

9. IFLIX The top streaming app in emerging markets across Asia (beating American counterpart Netflix), it raised US$133 million in 2017 to boost production of locally-oriented original content, which is available in 25 countries across Asia and Africa.

8. AIRTRUNK Provides large-scale data centres in super-cooled warehouses across Asia and Australia.

7. TRAVELOKA Expedia paid US$350 million for the privilege of bringing its travel services to Asia via the Indonesian-based Traveloka.

6. GOJEK A uniquely Indonesian motorbike and taxi-hailing app, it now does much more including grocery delivery and massages. It is apparently backed by China’s Tencent.

5. MATAHARI MALL The ubiquitous Lippo-backed shopping malls are now online, to rival Alibaba. It faces stiff competition from other regional e-commerce websites.

4. TOKOPEDIA Looking to increase its presence in the Indonesian archipelago, Alibaba has invested US$1 billion in Indonesia’s e-commerce portal.

3. SEA Originally games platform Garena, Sea has now diversified into digital payments through AirPay and e-commerce with Shopee. SEA is valued at US$4 billion.

2. LAZADA Southeast Asia’s answer to Alibaba, Lazada has grown to become a household name in the region. Jack Ma bought a portion of Lazada at US$2 billion.

1. GRAB The David that defeated Goliath, it now has a monopoly in Malaysia and Singapore with the departure of Uber from the region. It raised US$2 billion in funding in Southeast Asia and is now valued at US$6 billion.

Source: Tech in Asia

Related: Why Southeast Asia is One of the Best Places to be an Entrepreneur

This was first published in the May 2018 issue of UNRESERVED.