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These five entrepreneurs – aged 25 and under – are already building big things.

Transcript:

From deep learning to solar energy, we’ve lined up 5 entrepreneurs 25 and under who prove youth is no barrier to success.

Annabelle Kwok, 24

Annabelle’s university days were filled with hackathons and maker faires. The self-professed hobbyist soon took it more seriously and won a prestigious hackathon in Singapore. Along the way, Annabelle received numerous job offers – including from Microsoft. But the corporate life just wasn’t for her. She went on to work at Garena, but then took time off to join a circus. Yes – a circus. Annabelle started Smartcow to make a kind of Raspberry Pi for AI. The device, Tera, is an alternative to cloud computing, enabling users to store and process large amounts of data on hardware near them. It’s already being used to study rat movement in Singapore’s sewage system, where Tera is loaded with software to recognize and detect rat movements based on thermal images.

Leandro Leviste, 24

Out to solve the problem of pricey electricity in the Philippines, Leandro’s firm, Solar Philippines, develops rooftop solar plants. The Yale graduate was inspired by how companies in the US and Europe were quickly adopting solar power as an alternative energy source. The startup first put itself on the map with a project that turned a Manila mall into the biggest solar-powered mall in the world. These days, he’s shifting his focus to rural areas. Leandro is constructing a four megawatt solar-battery farm, which will become the world’s largest island solar-battery microgrid, bringing 24/7 power to up to 20,000 people at zero cost to the Philippines government and at a lower cost to consumers.

Joshua Kevin, 25

Joshua wants to kill off office paperwork with Talenta, a human resources service that helps streamline mundane processes such as payroll and employee database management. Leaping into Indonesia’s startup scene aged 18, Joshua worked with us at Tech In Asia, then at East Ventures and KakaoTalk before starting Talenta in 2013. His startup counts Go-Jek and Grab among its clients.

Shahab Shabibi, 22

Originally from Iran, Shahab already launched two startups – in music streaming and sports media – before moving to the Philippines. He founded the now defunct HeyKuya, a text messaging concierge service. These days, Shahab taps into his own experience of running businesses with Machine Ventures, an incubator that provides financial support and guidance to enterprises trying to start up in the Philippines.

Yao Song, 24

Little is known about Yao, a former Microsoft intern, except that he co-founded DeePhi Tech just over a year ago. Incorporating deep learning, DeePhi aims to increase the processing speed of AI chips and servers while lowering power usage and costs. The company looks to improve the AI efficiency of drones, surveillance cameras, and data centers. His startup secured two rounds of financing in 2017, counting Samsung and Jack Ma’s Ant Financial as early investors.

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Jean Liu is president of the ride-hailing startup. Photo credit: Didi Chuxing.

Brazil is Uber’s third-largest market, with 17 million regular riders. And Sao Paulo is Uber’s biggest city on the planet in terms of rides.

That’s the prize eyed by China’s Didi, the ride-hailing startup that bought Uber’s China business in a shock 2016 deal.

Didi, which is yet to expand beyond its home country, is now plotting a move into Brazil by acquiring a local ride-hailing app, reported The Information yesterday, citing a person familiar with the talks.

Didi started 2017 by investing in 99, so the Chinese firm already has close alliances with the Brazilian startup it’s said to be buying a majority stake.

Formerly 99Taxi, 99 has 140,000 registered drivers in 550 cities across Brazil.

Not just Brazil

But wait, there’s more…

Didi is now plotting its launch in Taiwan, reported Bloomberg this week. The island’s strict stance on the use of private cars as a service means Didi will have to resort to working with cabbies and professional limo drivers.

Taipei’s scooters. Photo credit: Andrew Haimerl / Unsplash.

Similarly, Uber operates in Taiwan in partnership with livery companies – an unusual situation the startup was forced into after being banned from the island for two months earlier in the year.

Yes, master

Behind all this transcontinental tussling is Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son.

Masayoshi Son at SoftBank World 2016. Photo credit: @SoftBank.

The Softbank supremo has emerged as the puppet master of tech in the past few years, pulling the strings on the numerous startups that his firm, Softbank, has invested in, thanks to its numerous funds – including its latest US$100 billion war chest.

Not coincidentally, Softbank has invested in both Didi and 99, so Son – worth US$22 billion, according to Forbes – has it in his interests to steer the two ride-hailing apps towards a deal.

As the biggest, strongest, and most valuable of the puppets startups linked to Son, Didi stands to benefit the most from consolidation as it will have more power to dictate terms over smaller firms like 99 and Southeast Asia’s Grab.

But the ebullient 60-year-old might be about to complicate the picture by investing in Uber, with Softbank reportedly keen to invest up to US$10 billion – so long as Uber drops its price. In that scenario, it could be Uber that would be strengthened by gobbling up a series of small rivals.

Watch: Meet the two drivers behind China’s ride-hailing giant

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Photo credit: Ion Chiosea / 123RF.

From Amazon’s entry to tech leaders’ market debuts and the region’s biggest investments, here’s the rundown of the top tech news that made a splash in Southeast Asia this year (in no particular order).

1. Dave McClure’s fall

The year saw a wave of sexual harassment stories sweep industries across the world. Before the scandal involving Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein broke out, a flood of women in tech came forward with their experiences at the hands of powerful men. Among them was entrepreneur Cheryl Yeoh, who accused prolific Silicon Valley investor Dave McClure of sexual assault.

Yeoh, the former CEO of Malaysian innovation agency Magic, claimed McClure propositioned her several times, pushed himself against her, and kissed her against her will in her own apartment in 2014.

Yeoh broke her silence on the incident after another woman, who runs a fitness startup in the US, alleged in a New York Times exposé that McClure sexually harassed her.

The accusations led to a reduction of McClure’s responsibilities at 500 Startups, the VC firm he co-founded, and eventually forced him to quit.

2. Back-to-back public debuts

Southeast Asia’s startup community kept a close watch on the initial public offerings of PC gear maker Razer and Tencent-owned games company Sea late this year.

Based both in San Francisco and Singapore, Razer was well received at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) in November, surging on the first day of trading due to bullish outlook on the company’s sales.

The company, backed by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, raised US$530 million, which it would use to expand into new verticals, including mobile devices. It unveiled its first smartphone a week before its market debut.

It doesn’t seem like the company will end on a high note at HKEX this year however, as it currently trades below IPO price.

Razer’s listing quickly followed that of Sea’s, which has been viewed as a test of how public markets treat tech firms that have amassed users but are still waiting to turn profitable.

Sea listed on the New York Stock Exchange in October, raising US$884 million. The stock had a rocky start, falling below its IPO price of US$15. Analysts said investors might be jittery about Sea’s future given heavy losses.

Sea listed on NYSE. Photo credit: NYSE.

Formerly known as Garena, Sea started as an online gaming company in 2009 and then branched out to digital payments (AirPay) and ecommerce (Shopee). It previously declared that Shopee was the number one player in an area it defined as “Greater Southeast Asia”. This didn’t sit well with Alibaba-owned Lazada, which for quite sometime has asserted its claim to the throne.

Sea has seen a dramatic increase in its revenue, thanks to its core games business. Yet losses have also widened as the firm continues to spend to capture market share in ecommerce. Nevertheless, Sea believes that Shopee can become a lucrative business on its own over the long term.

3. Amazon’s grand entrance

Speaking of ecommerce, the sector just got a lot more exciting with US behemoth Amazon now in the picture.

After playing the “will they, won’t they” game for a long time, Amazon finally rolled out its two-hour delivery service Prime Now in Singapore last July. Five months later, it introduced the full Prime membership, offering faster and cheaper shipping of items as well as unlimited free international shipping, among others.

But the online retailer experienced growing pains. Prime Now was having trouble fulfilling orders during the first week of its launch and had to fall back on hiring private taxis at one point.

Nevertheless Prime’s arrival not only ups the stakes in Southeast Asia’s ecommerce market, where Amazon is facing off against Shopee, Lazada and another Alibaba-backed player Tokopedia, plus various smaller portals. It also brings Amazon into direct competition with local content streaming players such as iFlix, Hooq, and Viddsee, and global rivals like Netflix.

Anticipating Amazon’s much-talked-about foray, Lazada launched its own membership program as early as April – in collaboration with its online grocery delivery unit Redmart, and other brands like Netflix and Uber.

Amazon’s Singapore fulfillment center, which opened in July with the launch of Prime Now. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.

4. Alibaba’s shopping spree

Jack Ma’s company continued its big push into Southeast Asia, this time leading a US$1.1 billion investment in Indonesia’s Tokopedia.

Alibaba now holds a minority stake in Tokopedia, which is a version of Taobao – the Chinese behemoth’s consumer-to-consumer marketplace. This marks Alibaba’s first direct investment in an Indonesian startup.

In the meantime, Ma’s firm this year hiked its stake in Lazada to 83 percent for roughly US$1 billion.

While Lazada and Tokopedia are competing in Indonesia, sharing the same investor has fueled rumors of a possible alliance.

5. US giant bets on Indonesia

Another mega deal happened in Indonesia in 2017: online travel startup Traveloka’s US$350 million funding round led by Expedia.

The amount brought Traveloka’s total disclosed funding to US$500 million, which included contributions from investors like East Ventures, Hillhouse Capital Group, Sequoia Capital, and Chinese ecommerce firm JD.

The round reportedly raised Traveloka’s valuation to US$2 billion, according to Bloomberg sources.

6. The first Filipino unicorn

The Philippines hit a huge milestone this year with the birth of its first billion-dollar startup. Revolution Precrafted, a developer of prefabricated designer homes, raised its series B round co-led by Singapore’s K2 VC last October, valuing the company at over US$1 billion, according to two Tech in Asia sources familiar with the deal.

A prefab home designed by David Salle. Photo credit: Revolution Precrafted.

That makes two-year-old Revolution one of, if not the fastest to achieve billion-dollar status in Southeast Asia, said one of the sources – a claim confirmed by Tech in Asia data.

The startup’s new prominent investor K2 was founded by venture capitalist Ozi Amanat, who’s known for his investments in Alibaba and Twitter before their public offerings. K2 counts several unicorns in its portfolio: Spotify, Magic Leap, Paytm, and Palantir.

Revolution sells prefab homes conceived by world-renowned architects and designers such as Zaha Hadid, David Salle, Tom Dixon, and Marcel Wanders. The homes are priced at an average of US$120,000. They can be ordered from the company’s site and shipped anywhere in the globe in at least 90 days. As of March, it had US$110 million in orders.

500 Startups earlier admitted fighting hard to join the company’s first funding round announced in March.

7. Uber’s cunning tactics

2017 has been hell for the US ride-hailing juggernaut. It started in February, when former Uber engineer Susan Fowler wrote a blog post detailing the sexism and harassment she experienced in the workplace. That post set into motion a series of events that ultimately resulted in the ouster of Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick as CEO.

Uber had been accused of stealing trade secrets from Google to speed up its own self-driving car efforts, using possible illicit programs to undermine its competitors, including Singapore-based Grab, paying bribes in Asian markets, covering up a massive data breach that compromised the personal data of millions of its users, and more.

All the bad press supposedly prompted Japanese tech giant Softbank to bid for Uber shares at a steep discount, potentially cutting its valuation by another US$20 billion.

In one of many efforts to revamp the company’s culture, new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi last month outlined new rules for Uber’s staff. Probably the most important among them – “Do the right thing. Period.”

Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo credit: Uber.

8. Uber gets in bed with Singapore’s largest taxi company

Uber signed a deal to sell 51 percent of its car rental unit to ComfortDelgro for US$218 million and form a joint venture with the city-state’s leading taxi firm.

The partnership will allow Uber’s Lion City Rentals to leverage ComfortDelGro’s fleet management and operations capabilities. Uber users will be able to directly book ComfortDelGro cabs via the US company’s app, while the taxi firm’s drivers will be able to accept ride requests through it, giving them an additional source of income.

The transaction appeared to be something of a coup for Uber, which has faced ferocious opposition from licensed taxi providers in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world.

9. Malaysia opens digital free trade zone

In November, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma opened the doors to a free trade zone in Malaysia that’s designed to tap into region’s ecommerce boom.

First announced in March, the Digital Free Trade Zone is now open to trade, with Malaysia’s government anticipating the joint venture with Alibaba to handle US$65 billion worth of goods once in full flow, and create 60,000 jobs by 2025. The goal is for small businesses to make use of the trade hub as easily as larger companies do. It will also be used for non-ecommerce purposes, such as global exports.

The hub will likely benefit Lazada, which has a mix of small merchants and big-name brands.

10. Grab’s massive war chest

The final big story of the year: Grab’s US$2 billion funding round from China’s Didi Chuxing and Masayoshi Son-led Softbank, the single largest financing in the history of Southeast Asia.

The new investment supposedly gave the firm a post-money valuation of over US$6 billion, making it the region’s most valuable startup.

Grab boss Antony Tan is overseeing the startup’s bloody battle against Uber. Photo credit: Grab.

Grab will use the money to tighten its grip on the ride-hailing market in the region and invest in its mobile payments solution, GrabPay.

The company has made GrabPay available to use for payments at hawker center stalls and restaurants in Singapore, marking its biggest move yet outside of the transportation segment.

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Photo credit: llee_wu.

Didi Chuxing, China’s top – and pretty much only – ride-hailing app, today announced yet another big injection of funds.

Didi has pocketed an extra US$4 billion from investors “to support AI capacity-building, international expansion, and new business initiatives, including the development of new energy vehicle service networks,” said the gigantic startup in an announcement this morning.

With 450 million users and 25 million daily rides, Didi last month revealed its plan to build a China-wide network of charging stations for electric cars, which will be accessible to the public as well as its own 21 million signed-up drivers.

While Didi did not specify whether its AI boost will be directed towards its app or self-driving cars, the company already has an AI research and development center devoted to autonomous cars in Mountain View, California, which opened earlier in the year.

The firm this month acquired a startup in order to nab a much-coveted online payments license, meaning it’s now able to launch a mobile wallet service, perhaps challenging China’s ubiquitous Alipay or WeChat. However, an all-out war over phone payments seems unlikely since the creators of China’s top two wallet apps – Alibaba and Tencent – are investors in Didi.

Didi did not disclose who invested in this round. It brings the firm’s total disclosed funding to US$23.3 billion.

Watch: Meet the two drivers behind China’s ride-hailing giant

See more on Didi:

• Didi’s road to domination
• Anti-Uber empire grows as Didi invests in Careem
• Didi, Softbank in $2b Grab funding

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WeWork’s first venue in Singapore is open for business, and the co-working company already has plans for more.

Transcript:

Turochas “T” Fuad:

We are almost full to be honest. We’ve been very lucky, very blessed, knock on wood. I think there’s definitely a good following of WeWork as a brand.

Look, this is the 200th location for WeWork, the 20th country country that WeWork launches. I’m not sure why – it’s just a random alignment, 20 and 200.

But look, I think a lot of folks are very aware of what we’re doing as a company – we are developing a platform, just beyond space, a platform for all types of creators. Different sizes of companies, come together to really work together and collaborate.

Enterprises want to be as agile as a small company, and a smaller company wants to learn a lot from those larger enterprise companies. All of these guys are coming together nicely.

71 Robinson Rd will definitely be launched earlier, towards the early part of next year, and then Funan Center will launch sometime in early 2019. So 71 Robinson Rd will fit about 1,000 members for us, and Funan about 700, around the same as Beach Center here.

It will serve a different mix of potential members. I think Robinson Rd is very classic CBD, where you potentially have banks, folks in financial institutions, but you also have fintech startups that will be interested in the space itself because it’s in that vicinity.

And in Funan, I think you see a lot of tech. You know how the mall and this mixed use space is now being very focused on technology, they have very modern, futuristic things all the way down to the car park, to the 24-hour retail mall, a bunch of other things.

I think we’ll serve very different types of segments there. It could be large enterprises in the tech field or it could one of those startups and freelancers as well.

Over the last few years, the enterprise segment has almost doubled. It now represents close to 20 percent of our global members, around the world. Given that Singapore is such a hub, it’s like a gateway city to Southeast Asia if you think about it, it’s a hub for a lot of financial companies, it’s also a hub for a lot of startups and entrepreneurs right now.

And that’s why Singapore has always been a starting forefront for us to enter the market, the whole Southeast Asian market, from that perspective.

HP wants to be here, I guess it’s an interesting story. They came by here, they looked at it for just, less than a day. They want to be able to be closer to a lot of smaller companies here. They felt that this particular division wanted to be away from what their typical office would be.

A lot of enterprise companies have come to us and said, “Hey WeWork, we really like the culture, the energy, the diversity that you’ve created here, how do we replicate that in our organization?” So that’s where we come in, we provide our hardware, our software, our know-how, and provide that service to companies to enable them to recreate a bit of the WeWork energy and vibe.

We will actually design, manage, build it for them, and now their own employees are able to experience what a WeWork would be at their own location. It really depends on how this enterprise wants to open it up to the public or keep it sort of private to themselves. Those options are made available to them.

Did they show you the secret room? I didn’t realize it was there until the designers kind of highlighted it to me.

“Oh yeah, there’s a little thing, I don’t know if you noticed.”
“Oh yeah, you’re right, there’s a little segment on the blueprint!”

We don’t tell our members exactly where… If you notice, all of our rooms have A and B and C and D, that one has nothing, that one’s just called the secret room. I don’t think our community members tell them where it is. They can book it if they can find it, right – once they find it, they’ll be able to use the room.

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Photo credit: walkingsky / 123RF.

Chinese bike-share startup Mobike today got a boost from Japanese social media giant Line.

Line, maker of a messaging app popular in Japan, has invested in Mobike’s Japan subsidiary, taking a 20 percent stake for an undisclosed sum, the two firms announced this afternoon.

The move comes four months after Mobike rolled out its dockless bikes into select Japanese cities. The service now covers 200 cities around the world.

Line has 71 million users in Japan.

Line boss Takeshi Idezawa (left) with Mobike founder Hu Weiwei. Photo credit: Mobike.

“Line users in cities where Mobike is present will be able to unlock a Mobike simply by scanning the QR code on the bike with their Line app, and pay using their Line Pay account or other payment methods,” said the Japanese firm in a statement.

Mobike is similarly accessible in China inside WeChat, the messaging app with nearly a billion users.

Mobike founder and president Hu Weiwei described Line as the “perfect partner” owing to its huge social media reach.

“Our ambition in Japan is to work with industry-leading Japanese partners like Line, as well as local governments and communities, to bring Mobike to more cities in Japan and to set the global standard for bike-sharing,” she added.

Ofo, Mobike’s archrival, has also expanded to Japan, where its local buddy is telco giant Softbank – though that partnership doesn’t involve financial backing. Ofo is aiming to be in 200 cities globally by the end of the year.

Bike-share battle:

• Shock as $140m bike-share startup on the verge of collapse
• Singapore’s Obike raises $45m
• Ofo widens Southeast Asia footprint

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Photo credit: WeWork

Co-working dynamo WeWork has been hotly anticipated in Southeast Asia. The local ecosystem was jazzed to see the US company acquire Singapore-based Spacemob in August, preempting its arrival in the region as part of a US$500 million investment that also covers its expansion to Korea.

Five months later, Spacemob founder and CEO Turochas “T” Fuad is WeWork’s managing director for Southeast Asia, and the company’s first space is officially open for business in Singapore’s Beach Center. It also has two more confirmed Singapore spaces in the works.

This is the 200th location for the global co-working company, while Singapore is its 20th country – a nice set of round numbers for Beach Center. “I’m not sure why – it’s just a random alignment,” Fuad laughs.

The venue has been taking in tenants since the beginning of December. Now it’s almost at full capacity, Fuad tells Tech in Asia. The mix includes freelancers and individual entrepreneurs (what the company terms “creators”), startups and small businesses, and larger multinationals looking for flexible space and networking opportunities.

See: Co-working unicorn WeWork heading to Singapore, Tokyo next

Singaporean startups like Chope, PolicyPal, and StashAway are already housed at Beach Center, as well as larger companies like Twilio and HP. Freelancers include people working in a range of fields, from accounting and finance to animation.

The location is the first of several planned to open in Singapore as well as Southeast Asia. Fuad doesn’t share more details about WeWork’s regional plans at the moment, but the company has already announced its second and third locations in Singapore.

Early next year, a new space will open at 71 Robinson Road, in the heart of Singapore’s central business district (CBD). It will house around 1,000 people. “I think Robinson Road is very classic CBD,” Fuad says. “You have banks and financial institutions, but you also have fintech startups that are interested in those spaces.”

WeWork’s space in Funan will serve another 700 people.

The price points change slightly between the two initial venues – a private office at Robinson Road starts at US$906 per month and a desk starts from US$438 per month. The starting prices at Beach Road are US$817 and US$408, respectively, according to the website.

Together with Singapore-based real estate firm CapitaLand, WeWork also announced that it’s the first tenant of Funan, the upcoming re-imagined version of a tech-oriented shopping mall well known to Singaporeans.

Funan DigitalLife Mall was established in 1985 and closed down in late 2015. Its replacement will be a sizeable complex with shops, office space, and co-living facilities. True to its techie heritage, it will feature smart parking facilities, office entry through facial recognition, and robot-assisted shopping.

WeWork’s space in Funan will serve another 700 people and focus more on high-tech startups and multinationals, Fuad says.

Artist’s impression of the new Funan complex. Image credit: CapitaLand

Room to breathe

Fuad doesn’t reveal what the ratio is between startups, individuals, and big organizations at Beach Center, or how that impacts the company’s revenue. Globally, around 20 percent of WeWork members are larger businesses (or “enterprises” as WeWork calls them).

“Given that Singapore is a gateway city in Southeast Asia, a hub for a lot of financial companies and startups and entrepreneurs right now, we believe that the enterprise segment in Singapore will be an interesting one for us,” he says.

Enterprises want to be as agile as a small company and small companies want to learn from them.

For example, HP decided really quickly they wanted office space at Beach Center. “They came by here, looked at it for less than a day, and decided to become a member,” Fuad says. “I think their whole idea is, they want to be closer to a lot of smaller companies here and they wanted this particular division to be away from where their typical office would be, to have a little more fun and innovative atmosphere.”

There’s no shortage of co-working spaces in Singapore, with independent facilities like the Great Room, Collision 8, and ecosystem staple The Hub, as well as corporate-run spaces like Level3. All these businesses are competing for similar clientele, which raises questions about their viability in a small market like Singapore. Regardless, WeWork appears confident there will be demand for its own offering.

Fuad says that’s because WeWork’s focus on its global network provides extra value for its members – the network effect, essentially. “Beyond just space, [WeWork is] a platform for all types of creators, for different sizes of companies, who come together and collaborate,” he suggests. “Enterprises want to be as agile as a small company and small companies want to learn from [them].”

See: An encounter with WeWork co-founder reveals a tussle between money and mission

The company’s own staff play matchmaker with members. Community managers assess each client to understand their needs and then try to bring the right people together. An online marketplace, meanwhile, makes it easy for members to ply their trade to others in the network anywhere in the world.

WeWork will also offer its co-working-as-a-service product Powered by We. This is basically WeWork applying its know-how and network to large organizations in their own facilities, setting up and managing their working environments for them. According to Wired, the company is already managing offices like Airbnb in Berlin and Amazon in Boston.

“We will actually design, manage, and build it for them, and now their own employees can experience what a WeWork would be at their own real estate,” Fuad says.

This is an additional source of revenue for the company that could prove to be a more efficient path to greater growth. This way, WeWork expects to add more paying clients without having to source new spaces itself, while still getting its brand to more traditional workplaces.

WeWork at Beach Center

Conveniently, one of the pantries can be found at the lobby and common area. Beer on tap included.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

There are all kinds of cozy nooks and crannies where people can have meetings.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

But things can get more professional, too.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

The design is partly inspired by Singaporean shophouses and food courts.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

This cute nook looks very relaxing.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

The common areas look par for the co-working course.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Office space takes up three floors in Beach Center.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Local treats await new tenants on their desks.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Several private offices are already occupied.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

This classroom-looking area can also be used for game nights and yoga.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Converted from Singapore dollars. US$1 = S$1.35.

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Southeast Asia’s tech firms saw a record US$8.6 billion in disclosed funding in 2017, destroying last year’s US$2.6 billion as well as 2015’s US$1.6 billion, the Tech in Asia Database shows.

Indonesia’s Tokopedia contributed a big chunk of that with its US$1.1 billion injection over the summer. Alongside Traveloka’s substantial investment, it was a bumper year for Indonesia’s tech industry.

Here’s the data from January to December 7, 2017:

NOTE: This was originally published on September 7, 2017. It’s now updated with the latest data.

Watch: Go-Jek’s Nadiem Makarim on being fearless

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Photo credit: Go-Jek.

Go-Jek, Indonesia’s first billion-dollar tech startup, has agreed to acquire three local fintech firms as it seeks to expand its grip on the digital payments market.

The deals involve Kartuku, a leading offline payments processing company in Indonesia; Midtrans, said to be the nation’s top online payment gateway; and Mapan, a community-based savings and lending network, Go-Jek announced in a statement today. The value of the deals were undisclosed.

Together, the three companies process close to US$5 billion worth of debit and credit card, as well as digital wallet transactions for users, service providers, and merchants.

“We are now taking Go-Jek to the next stage,” said its founder and CEO Nadiem Makarim, adding that it is a significant move in the company’s plan of dominating the payments space.

Go-Jek started out with motorcycle-hailing, then added private cars to take on rivals Uber and Grab head-on. As it forged ahead in Indonesia’s transportation battle, it also expanded into other on-demand services like food and medicine deliveries, parcel couriers, cleaners, and massages. Its digital wallet Go-Pay is what its customers use to pay for these services.

Grab has also branched out into payments with its own wallet, which was reportedly facing regulatory hurdles in Indonesia.

“When the acquisitions are finalized, the management teams and employees will continue to operate as before, but will benefit from synergies as part of the group,” explained Go-Jek president Andre Soelistyo.

The CEOs of the three acquired firms will take senior management positions at Go-Jek. Thomas Husted of Kartuku will become Go-Jek’s CFO, Mapan’s Aldi Haryopratomo will lead Go-Pay, and Midtrans’ Ryu Suliawan will lead the group’s merchant platform.

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Photo credit: Xpeng.

Online shopping giant Alibaba has invested in an electric car startup, it said today.

Alibaba confirmed the move this evening to Tech in Asia following rumors in Chinese media about it funding Xpeng (also known as Xiaopeng), which last month launched its first vehicle, the all-electric Identy X SUV.

The funding amount isn’t disclosed, but several Chinese media outlets said Alibaba was taking a 10 percent stake in the fledgling carmaker.

“As a clean energy vehicle startup, the investment in Xiaopeng Motors fits with Alibaba’s strategic focus in the automotive sector. Under our open-platform approach, we will continue to work with a range of automotive manufacturing partners to benefit Chinese consumers,” an Alibaba spokesperson told us.

The Xpeng Identy X has a lot of tech for a relatively cheap car, including this pop-up camera on the roof.

Photo credit: Xpeng.

Inside, it looks a lot like the interior of a Tesla, as noted by Electrek – from the shape of the digital instrument cluster to that massive vertical screen in the center console.

Photo credit: Xpeng.

Alibaba makes an Apple CarPlay-style system called AliOS, which it rolled out last year. Jack Ma’s company last week said it’s exploring a partnership with Ford that could see AliOS put onto the screens of Ford’s China-made vehicles.

Archrival Chinese tech giant Tencent has invested in Tesla, paying out around US$2 billion for a 5 percent stake. Tencent has also backed NIO, the Chinese startup that this week launched its electric SUV – though NIO’s will be a lot pricier than Xpeng’s.

See: China’s tech titans take the battle onto the screen in your car

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