Savvy expansion fuels growth at Love Bonito

Check out our top articles for the week. [Read from your browser]( Top Stories of the Week Welcome to Tech in Asia's free Sunday newsletter! Get full access to our subscribers-only premium content and other insightful analysis on the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community by [registering here](. Hello {NAME} Updating my closet has always been difficult for me, given how picky I am. That's why I often lose interest in buying new clothes and default to a plain black tee, plain black shorts, and whatever footwear's suitable for what I'll be doing (mostly hanging out with my dog). It seems that I'm part of the minority, though. The continued growth of clothing brands like Love Bonito highlights a market for people who love refreshing their wardrobes with the latest styles. Love Bonito’s revenue has been on the rise in the past few years. Riding on this growth, the Singapore firm also made big moves to bolster its offline presence – it has been opening physical stores in major overseas markets like Hong Kong and the US since 2022. Of course, this expansion came at a hefty price. The fashion platform’s cash and cash equivalents and investment securities narrowed at the end of 2022. This investment is well worth it for the company, however, as it plans to double down on global expansion. Yesterday, the brand launched its debut brick-and-mortar store in the Philippines. We'll be keeping an eye out if these international bets pay off for Love Bonito, of course. -- [Miguel Cordon]( journalist at Tech in Asia  --------------------------------------------------------------- TOP STORIES THIS WEEK 1️. [Love Bonito sees 45% revenue growth in 2022 amid costly expansion bet]( The Singapore company's total losses more than doubled in 2022. 2. [Behind India’s race to deliver everything, everywhere under 15 minutes]( Diversifying product categories and revenue streams are key drivers fueling the resurgence of quick commerce in India. 3. [Singapore’s data center crunch could drive sector’s AI focus]( Tech firms will likely leverage their presence in Singapore for AI workloads while shifting more traditional workloads to Malaysia and Indonesia. 4. [The Malaysian battery replacement startup supercharging to IPO]( Bateriku has attracted some of Malaysia’s largest institutional investors and is set on making larger bets, one of which is expansion to Indonesia. 5. [AI startup founder Anne Cheng said she has a Ph.D. from Stanford. She admits it’s not true]( Cheng's doctorate in “behavioral economics” turned out to be a misrepresentation of her educational background, based on records and her own admission. 6. [Octopus sinks amid unpaid staff wages, stalled acquisition talks]( CEO Moehammad Ichsan has been silent since mid-May despite telling an employee that the Indonesian waste management firm was making “good progress." 7. [Southeast Asia’s top-funded tech companies in the last decade]( As investors in Southeast Asia race to back the next industry leader, which tech firm will claim the region's funding crown? 8. [Error 404: Web not found, killed by Google’s AI search]( Google’s AI Overviews marks a major overhaul of how people search the internet, but there are concerns about how it will affect various businesses. 9. [VC secondaries: an underused tool in funding crunch]( By borrowing from the playbook private equity used after the 2008 financial crisis, VCs could unlock an alternative way to raise more liquidity. 10. [Singapore’s biotech sector is more successful than people think]( Over 20 years in the making, buttressed by billions of dollars in public sector funding, Singapore’s biotech sector has been a magnet for scrutiny. --------------------------------------------------------------- TECH IN ASIA’S FOUNDERS MEETUP: MALAYSIA ON JULY 25 This time it’s different - come see it for yourself. 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