Lessons from the Fave deal

Check out our top articles for the week. [Read from your browser]( Top Stories of The Week Hello {NAME} , Lately, I've been hooked on the show Silicon Valley. Based on the fictional journey of four self-sabotaging tech entrepreneurs working in Silicon Valley in the US, it portrays their attempts at scaling their startup Pied Piper into a tech giant by creating a new internet. For those of you who haven’t seen the show, spoiler alert: In the end, despite numerous attempts by Google- or Facebook-reminiscent tech giant Hooli to acquire Pied Piper, the startup ultimately ends up acquiring the former. While the show presented a story about a protagonist winning over the antagonist, in reality, an acquisition deal is not only about the acquirer and the acquired. It’s also about the latter’s investors, founding team, and employees. Case in point: the recent acquisition deal of Singapore-based fintech company Fave by Indian firm Pine Labs. With the US$45 million acquisition amount coming with a significant drop from Fave’s 2018 valuation of US$73.8 million, it got me thinking whether the deal was a win, especially for the company’s investors? Fave co-founder and CEO Joel Neoh told me that investors had [recovered their initial investment]( and will all be leaving with cash. While that seems good, this deal certainly isn’t the slam dunk that Fave’s investors had hoped for. What was more interesting about it was that Fave’s founders and key employees aren’t leaving empty-handed either, since they’re getting a mix of cash and Pine Labs stocks from the deal. And with the Indian startup looking to go public in the US by March 2022, these stock options could be worth a lot more pretty soon. -- Collin Furtado, news editor at Tech in Asia  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THE BIGGEST STORIES 1️. [Fave’s investors are getting all their money back, says CEO]( The recent Fave buyout by Pine Labs created speculation on whether investors got a good deal and whether it was a distress sale. We find out more. 2️. [Uncovering Southeast Asia’s hidden Grab and Gojek mafia]( A network of Grab and Gojek alumni is growing in the region, and the two companies’ much-anticipated public listings can potentially create a new wave of smart capital and tech talent for Southeast Asia. 3. [Lazada, ComfortDelGro tie up to offer taxi booking within shopping app]( The feature, called CDG Taxi, was already available on the Lazada app in Singapore as early as April 8 this year. 4. [Ruangguru’s outsourced workers allegedly paid below minimum wage]( Even as Ruangguru continues to raise huge amounts of money, it may have overlooked the welfare of its contract workers. 5. [SaaS startup Chargebee enters unicorn club with $125m round]( The round comes as the company claims to have tripled its valuation in less than six months to reach US$1.4 billion. 6. [Visual: Tracking Grab’s journey to a $40 billion valuation]( Behind Grab's recent SPAC merger lies a long list of milestones. Take a look at the ones that made history. 7. [Shopee’s rivals cry foul over its aggressive tactics to win sellers]( Amid the region’s ecommerce wars, merchants are caught between a rock and a hard place. 8. [The superpower behind Grab’s super app?]( While Grab is best known for its consumer app, its secret sauce may be its network of thousands of drivers and merchants. 9. [Indonesian edtech firm Ruangguru nets $55m after claiming profitability for 2020]( Ruangguru said it has driven significant growth in user volume and revenue throughout 2020, its first financial year of profitability. 10. [Eat Just, Foodpanda partner for home delivery of cultured meat in Singapore]( The two companies plan to announce collaborations with additional restaurants in Singapore within the coming months. ---------------------------------------------------------------  UNLOCKED PREMIUM ARTICLE Every week, we unlock a premium article so our readers who haven’t made the jump to a premium subscription can enjoy the investigative or in-depth pieces that our editorial team spent weeks (even months) to produce. We started this initiative with the hopes that our audience - whether you’re a cash-tight founder or a student aspiring to be a founder - can continuously get the best coverage about startups and tech in the region. Here's this week's read: [How LinkAja can help Grab and Gojek fend off ShopeePay](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  EVENTS HAPPENING - How to build digital products that customers love on April 28 In today’s digitalized world, how can you stand out from the crowd and build a product that customers love? Join us to learn how you can strengthen your product's user experience and bring it to the next level from leaders at Amplitude, Traveloka, and Viu. [RSVP today](. - *Live event* Decoding ESOPs in Southeast Asia on April 29 Startups talk a lot about employee stock option plans (ESOPs). But what exactly are they, how should a founder structure one, and what are the implications on shareholder equity? Join us in this Live event where Ravi Ravulaparthi, CEO and co-founder of Qapita, will answer these questions as well as discuss other topics including the state of ESOP culture in Southeast Asia, the different types of ESOP models, and many more. [RSVP today]( for free as a Live or Core subscriber. - Fintech CXO Roundtable on May 4 Sit down with Noah Pepper, APAC business lead at Stripe, and other like-minded C-level executives to discuss the building and scaling of a fintech startup. Look forward to in-depth discussions on topics like finding product-market fit, balancing product needs with business outcomes, recruiting the right talent, and many more. [Register to get your seat today](. - The intersection of user experience with user security on May 6 As companies increasingly conduct their businesses online, more and more information becomes vulnerable to cyber threats. But how can a tech startup ensure that its data is safe without compromising on usability and business goals? We have invited the region’s leading tech companies to discover just how their companies manage cybersecurity attacks and align security measures with business outcomes. [RSVP for free today](. - AWS Summit Online ASEAN, May 18 and 19 Join us and learn how to accelerate your business and build for the future. Choose from the summit’s 91 sessions that cover business and technical content; visit Startup Central and learn about AWS programs for startups,; take a technical deep dive into architecture and coding at the DevOps and Developer Community tracks; and discover the best practices in designing, deploying, and operating your infrastructure and applications. [Register for free today](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  WHO'S HIRING  [logo] [Product Manager]( at Transporta Jakarta, Indonesia [logo] [Frontend Engineer]( at Payfazz (PT. 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