Lazada and Grab go head to head over online grocery delivery

Check out the top articles for the week. [Read from your browser]( Top Stories of The Week Hello {NAME} This week, we published a story about [online grocery delivery in Southeast Asia]( (the first of a two-parter), which became the fastest-growing ecommerce category in 2020. The region’s online grocery space is in its early days, and many platforms are still struggling to become profitable. But last year, the sector experienced an unexpected windfall as Covid-19 put most Southeast Asian countries under lockdown. Both Lazada - via its RedMart unit - and Grab have upped the ante in markets like Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam. It will be interesting to see how the competition plays out because Lazada and Grab are cutting more into each other’s turf with this new push. In the coming weeks, we will look specifically at RedMart's operations and business model and explain how the brand became an integral part of Lazada's online grocery play. -- Nicole Jao, journalist at Tech in Asia  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THE BIGGEST STORIES 1️. [Online grocery wars: Grab challenges Lazada for dominance]( Lazada and Grab are betting on online grocery delivery. But does this mean the sector has a profitable future? 2️. [Why the time is ripe for ‘buy now, pay later’ in Asia]( BNPL, the unintended beneficiary of a pandemic that has accelerated digital payments and seen ecommerce surge, is growing unfettered this year. 3️. [The key logistics players and enablers of Indonesia’s ecommerce industry]( With ecommerce being one of Indonesia’s fastest-growing industries, it’s only natural that supporting verticals are also expanding. 4. [Gojek suffers $17m impairment loss over Pathao investment]( According to the financial statements, the Indonesian ride-hailing decacorn holds an 18.67% stake in the Bangladeshi startup. 5️. [Report: Grab CEO makes big demands in Gojek merger deal]( Tan wants significant voting power in the merged firm, veto rights over board decisions, and a say in his compensation, the report noted. 6️. [Alibaba founder Jack Ma is lying low, not missing, sources say]( This comes after reports speculated over Ma's disappearance from the public eye since Chinese regulators halted Ant Group's initial public offering and began a probe into Alibaba. 7. [Fintech firm GoBear to cease operations amid Covid-19 pandemic]( The Singaporean startup shared that it could not raise funds to continue operations as some financial products and services see weakening demand. 8️. [Gojek, Tokopedia in advanced talks for merger, report says]( The combined entity will have a value of over US$18 billion should a deal materialize. 9️. [Grab’s group revenues return to over 100% of pre-Covid numbers, president says]( Grab president Ming Maa said in a January 4 newsletter that the company’s total group net revenues jumped about 70% in 2020 compared to the prior year. 10. [Singapore-based healthtech firm Lumiere32 closes $379k venture-debt round]( The funds raised will be used to develop Pay32 Wallet, the company's buy now, pay later program.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  UNLOCKED PREMIUM ARTICLE Every week, we unlock a premium article for our awesome community. 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