Could ShopeeFood beat out Indonesia’s GrabFood and GoFood?

More: Uniphore raises $140m in its series D round, and China’s Qiandama is mulling an IPO [Read from your browser]( Daily Newsletter Hello {NAME} Like our copy editor Eileen, I’d [never ordered food delivery]( until the pandemic’s descent last year. As I’m writing this, however, two Shopee packages are en route to my doorstep - so I suppose I’m less of a Luddite than I’d once thought. In Indonesia, where millions of new users came online last year, ecommerce is a massive industry - and so too is food delivery, with GrabFood and GoFood as the dominant players. ShopeeFood has quietly launched in the country - so quietly that our journalist Putra Muskita caught wind of it only when he began to notice “more orange in the middle of all that green, especially near restaurants during mealtimes.” This got him thinking: Given the ecommerce platform’s success with ShopeePay, could its newest foray take off and redefine the super app in Southeast Asia? Today we look at: - [ShopeeFood’s hungry ambitions]( in Indonesia’s food delivery scene - Singapore fintech firm Atome Financial’s new acquisition - Other newsy highlights such as Chinese fresh food chain Qiandama’s possible IPO and an AI-powered speech recognition firm scoring big  ---------------------------------------------------------------  PREMIUM SUMMARY  Can ShopeeFood gobble a slice of Indonesia’s food delivery pie? Ecommerce giant Shopee has quietly launched its food delivery unit ShopeeFood in Indonesia - even as Gojek’s GoFood and Grab’s GrabFood dominate the country’s market share. But can it make headway in the space? - Growing appetite: Food delivery is hardly new territory for Shopee’s parent company Sea Group, which acquired Vietnam’s Foody Corporation in 2017 for US$64 million. While Sea was EBITDA positive in 2020, mainly thanks to its gaming arm Garena, diversifying its offerings beyond ecommerce and gaming could be a “sensible strategy,” according to a source who closely monitors one of the region’s ride-hailing unicorns. - Hungry for more: With 69% of Indonesians ordering food delivery at least once a week - and the fact that Shopee has over 40 million monthly active users in the country - the stakes could well lean into the ecommerce platform’s favour. - Getting a leg up: GoFood and GrabFood have an advantage over Shopee, however - and it’s in logistics. Given that the two tech giants began with ride-hailing services, branching into food delivery was a natural progression after they had built up their logistics fleets. Shopee’s in-house delivery fleet Shopee Xpress remains miles behind from its competitors in this respect - but the company’s financial strength could ultimately put it ahead of its competitors. Read more: [Will ShopeeFood bulldoze its way into Indonesia’s food delivery scene?](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  STARTUP SPOTLIGHT Atome Financial’s new acquisition Atome Financial, the parent company of “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) firm Atome, has completed its [acquisition of Indonesian financing startup Mega Finadana Finance]( although financial details of the deal were not disclosed. - The backstory: Atome Financial, which was founded in 2017, is comprised of two key business lines: Atome and Kredit Pintar. The former partners with merchants to offer consumers installment payment options, while Kredit Pintar is a digital lending app in Indonesia that’s licensed by the Financial Services Authority (OJK). - Opening new doors: With the acquisition, Mega Finadana Finance is renamed Atome Finance Indonesia, and this will allow Atome to grow its Indonesia business and better serve its partners and consumers through a range of tailored financing and lending options.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  IN PARTNERSHIP WITH The first step to digital transformation Remember your favorite store in your neighborhood when you were a kid? If it’s still around, you can probably find its shop online these days. Many companies have accelerated their digital transformation plans due to the pandemic last year. One of them is Singapore-based NTUC Enterprise, the holding entity of the city-state’s largest supermarket chain. Hundreds of thousands of consumers rely on NTUC Enterprise’s services every day. How did ensure a frictionless move for its customers, which range from young to old? To help with the transition and enhance the overall experience for consumers, NTUC Enterprise partnered with identity management platform Auth0. So how did NTUC’s efforts affect its businesses and what can others learn from its digital transformation journey? To find out the answers to these questions, Richard Marr, general manager of Auth0, and Winson Lim, vice president of core product development at NE Digital, will be holding a fireside chat at Tech in Asia’s Product Development Conference this year. You can [get your ticket]( to attend this talk and many others for just US$25 (the usual price is US$50). This special rate will be ending soon so don’t miss out on this offer!  ---------------------------------------------------------------  QUICK BYTES  1️⃣ AI-powered speech recognition is big business Uniphore, an [India-based AI-driven speech recognition firm]( has raised US$140 million in its series D round. Sorenson Capital Partners led the round, which saw participation from new investors Serena Capital, Sanabil Investments, and Cisco Investments.  2️⃣ Keeping things fresh Chinese fresh-food chain operator Qiandama is [considering an initial public offering]( in Hong Kong this year, and may push through with a potential shares sale that could raise between US$400 million and US$500 million. The company launched in 2012 and reported over US$1.07 billion in revenue in 2019. 3️⃣ Smile, you’ve got company BIlly Naveed, the former head of strategy at fashion marketplace Zilingo, has been named the [new chief strategy officer]( at Singapore-based tech group Smile Group. Last April, Zilingo laid off less than 5% of its 900-member global workforce as part of a restructuring exercise.  4️⃣ YJ Capital merges with Line Ventures Z Holdings’ subsidiary YJ Capital has merged with Line Ventures Corporation, with YJ Capital [rebranding as Z Venture Capital](. Along with this development, Z Venture Capital has launched a US$271.2 million fund, which it claims is one of the largest corporate VC funds in Japan.  5️⃣ Rise of SPACs in Asia? Asia’s bankers believe special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) [could finally catch wind in the region]( this year. Despite SPAC mergers amounting to US$210 billion globally in Q1 2021, Asia took just US$4.7 billion of the pie during the same period.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  EVENTS HAPPENING - Tech in Asia’s Product Development Conference on April 7 and 8 This year’s conference is centered around a single goal: helping companies build outcome-oriented products. With five tracks from strategy to analytics, we want you to come out of this conference with product and engineering tips to build a winning product. You can get the ticket at a [50% discount]( today for just US$25 (usual price US$50). Existing Tech in Asia Core, Live, and ID+ subscribers can RSVP at no additional cost [here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  WHO'S HIRING - [Senior Quality Assurance - Software Tester]( at Bitlabs Academy (Jakarta, Indonesia) - [Human Resource Business Partner (HRBP)]( at Bitlabs Academy (Jakarta, Indonesia) - [UX Engineer]( at Pintap (Jakarta, Indonesia)  ---------------------------------------------------------------  SHARE WITH YOUR FRIEND If you're feeling generous today, help us share this newsletter with your friends and coworkers so that they can keep up with what’s going on in the region’s tech scene. Feel free to [drop us some feedback]( if our newsletter today got you feeling smarter (or if it didn’t).  ---------------------------------------------------------------  Thanks for reading! Tech in Asia’s newsletters are handcrafted daily with love - and sometimes powered by good kopi (or tea). [ADVERTISE]( | [PREMIUM]( | [JOBS]( P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Was this forwarded to you? You can read this everyday when you sign up [here](. Don't want to receive these emails anymore? [Unsubscribe](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  Today’s edition is written by Rebecca Liew, with contributions from Putra Muskita and Miguel Cordon. It’s edited by September Grace Mahino. Copyright © 2021 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 51 Bras Basah Rd, #05-5061, Singapore 189554