AVCJ

Weekly digest - December 08 2021

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  • Rana Tang
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08 December 2021
EXITS: PASS THE PARCEL
COVER STORY
Sponsor-to-sponsor exits are set to reach a record high in Asia this year as private equity firms increase velocity of deployment and some strategics remain in a pandemic-induced funk.
TALKING POINTS
GRABBING THE SPOTLIGHT
A tumultuous NASDAQ debut for ride-hailing platform turned super app Grab has added more questions to a narrative about a maturing exit market in Southeast Asian tech. But even if the event feels anticlimactic, humdrum momentum is still momentum.
Grab’s backdoor listing via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) was bound to raise eyebrows given the potential for misalignment of investor interests in such schemes. In a now familiar pattern, the stock sank 21% in a rocky debut session on December 2 to $8.75 and has warbled below the $9 mark in its first week.
Concerns about how this plays out are all the more pressing given that, in some ways, the stakeholders include the entire regional start-up scene. If the guinea pig in ASEAN’s latest hope for a viable exit pathway flounders, what will be the ramifications on broader sentiment? Will SPAC targets and IPO candidates review their options?
Much of the answer to these questions lies in the idea that the details around how and when Southeast Asia’s unicorns go public is less important than the fact that they are doing so, for better or worse, one by one.
Although it remains early days for Grab and Bukalapak, the Indonesian e-commerce player that raised about $1.5 billion in a domestic IPO in August, there are few expectations that their trajectories will falter disastrously. As the likes of GoTo, Traveloka, PropertyGuru, and Kredivo follow suit, the likelihood of a true bust will increase – but so will the broader market’s resilience to such an anomaly.

In depth:
LP INTERVIEW
SWITZERLAND'S PICTET
SWITZERLAND'S PICTETSwitzerland-headquartered private bank Pictet is adding headcount in Asia – to assess investments as well as woo clients – as the introduction of new strategies increases exposure to the region.
FUND FOCUS
LIGHTSPEED BETS ON GREEN-TECH
LIGHTSPEED BETS ON GREEN-TECHGreen-tech is the latest big idea being championed by Lightspeed China Partners. It has inspired a change in the firm’s name and it will underpin deployment of the new $920 million fund.
FUND FOCUS
AC VENTURES HITS ITS STRIDE EARLY
AC VENTURES HITS ITS STRIDE EARLYAC Ventures has rallied global investors for an Indonesia-heavy Southeast Asia thesis, more than doubling its expected corpus as pandemic disruption changes everything but the plan.
DEAL FOCUS
GAUSSIAN SERVES CHINA'S AGED
GAUSSIAN SERVES CHINA'S AGEDWith its globally competitive technology and low costs, Gaussian Robotics has become a dominant force in the cleaning robot segment. SoftBank Vision Fund is the latest addition to its cap table.
SEEN AND HEARD
SAAS EN MASSE

India’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) boom is now reaching into the seed stages, where companies received an 85% higher valuation this year versus 2019, according to a sector-focused report from Bain & Company.

SEEN AND HEARD
NEW SILK ROAD?

Expanding political cooperation and overlapping economic stories are creating new inroads for private equity in "ascending Asia," a new moniker for the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and India, according to Dubai-based Gulf Capital.
For your calendar
UPCOMING EVENTS

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