Gojek + Tokopedia = GoTo

GenScript Biotech, Hummingbird Bioscience, Lenskart, and more startups raised money this week, too. [Read from your browser]( FOMO Saturday Hello {NAME} One of the biggest deals to happen this week was Gojek and Tokopedia’s merger, creating the GoTo Group. It’s been a long time coming: We first heard about this [at the start of the year]( shortly after Gojek’s reported [merger talks with rival super app Grab]( seemed to have fallen through. The formation of this new mega entity could have a huge impact on Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem. For one, Grab’s [recently announced public listing via a special purpose acquisition company]( has more investors from across the globe looking at the region as a hotbed of investments. This could intensify if the GoTo merger succeeds in accelerating both Gojek and Tokopedia’s plans for Indonesian and regional dominance. While the long-term effects of the GoTo merger remain to be seen, it’s clear that Southeast Asia’s ecosystem is reaching fever pitch, and it could usher in a golden age of innovation in tech and startups. You can find all other important investment deals that happened in the last few days in our [weekly funding news wrap-up](. Let’s dive into the biggest deals that recently took place. -- Nathaniel  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THE BIGGEST DEALS BY COUNTRY 🇨🇳 GenScript Biotech: The Chinese firm bagged US$150 million in series A money from Hillhouse Capital. 🇸🇬 Hummingbird Bioscience: The Singapore-based biotech startup scored a [series C funding round worth US$125 million]( from Affinity Asset Advisors, Ally Bridge Capital, Altrium Capital Management, Amgen Ventures, Droia Ventures, EDBI, Frazier Healthcare Partners, Heritas Capital Management, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and Morningside Private Investors. 🇮🇳 Lenskart: The Indian omnichannel eyewear retailer got US$95 million of late-stage funding from KKR. 🇮🇩 BukuKas: The Indonesia-based fintech startup [raised US$50 million]( in its series B funding round. 🇮🇱 Salto: The Israeli software-as-a-service startup bagged US$42 million from Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Salesforce Ventures. Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: [120 deals worth over US$2.1 billion](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  M&A'S 🇰🇷 South Korea-based ecommerce platform AplusB was acquired by online fashion retailer Musinsa for US$270 million. 🇮🇳 PhonePe, a digital payments platform owned by Walmart, [acquired India-based mobile platform Indus OS]( in a deal worth US$60 million. 🇰🇷 South Korea-headquartered NudgePartners was acquired by local software-as-a-service startup BusinessOn for an undisclosed sum. 🇮🇩 Indonesian ecommerce major Bukalapak [acquired Itemku]( an online marketplace for game-related digital products for an undisclosed amount of money. 🇮🇩 Jakarta-based super app Gojek and Indonesian marketplace Tokopedia have [merged to form GoTo Group](. The new entity has a combined past valuation of US$18 billion.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  KILLER PITCH DECKS 1️⃣ This deck helped a livestreaming social commerce app secure SOSV backing India-based Kiko TV allows users to shop, sell, discover, and access entertainment content on a single platform. Earlier this year, the startup used [this pitch deck]( to secure pre-series A funding in a round led by global investor SOSV. The pitch deck is neatly designed, with a proper balance of images and text, and points out some ambiguities that usually occur during the online shopping process that Kiko TV aims to solve.  2️⃣ A P2P learning platform landed US$1.7 million in series A money via this pitch deck StudySoup gives students a collaborative reading platform that can be accessed from any device on the cloud. In 2016, it presented [this pitch deck]( to obtain series A funding. The deck is simple and short, starting off by showing the increase in registered users per quarter on StudySoup’s platform, then describing the education-related issues that the startup aims to solve.  3️⃣ A banking app used this pitch deck to close a US$24.3 million series C round Monzo allows users to spend, save, and manage their money all in one place. The company raised US$24.3 million in series C funding from Thrive Capital, Passion Capital, and Orange Digital Ventures with the help of [this pitch deck](. It begins with Monzo’s mission statement before going through the problems that the company aims to solve, and then gives a glimpse of the machine learning technology that it uses. You can find more [killer pitch decks here]( including those produced by Shopback, Bukalapak, LinkedIn, Coinbase, and Revolut. And if you want to feature your startup's pitch deck, you can [do so here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  EXCLUSIVE LISTICLES  Lists of most active investors in the region [China]( | [India]( | [Indonesia]( | [Japan]( | [Singapore](  List of top-funded startups in Asia [China]( | [India]( | [Indonesia]( | [Japan]( | [Hong Kong]( | [Singapore]( | [Vietnam](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THOUGHTFUL READS  1️⃣ What makes an investor relations officer? CEOs today increasingly need skilled investor relations officers to bridge the gap between their companies and their shareholders. But what does it take to fill that role? [This Harvard Business Review piece]( discusses the new breed of investor relations officers that companies need.  2️⃣ Decentralize media could be more decentralized Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures mulled about [the phenomenon of decentralized media]( a trend that kicked off in the early 2000s. However, he wonders whether the state of decentralized media today isn’t as decentralized as it should be and if blockchain technology could be the answer to that problem.  3️⃣ The edge that startups gain by leveraging behavioral psychology Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Mercedes Bent wrote a [piece on Business Insider]( about the difficulties of changing human behavior and how that might be a barrier to many startups. But by harnessing behavioral psychology, companies could better understand and improve their approach to consumers.  4️⃣ How to start a VC fund, according to Reddit Redditor u/justdrastik asked the r/venturecapital community how to go about starting a venture capital fund. The all-knowing hive mind had a few bits of advice for the poster, including how much capital to start with and how to convince limited partners to come on board. Check out the full discussion [here](.  5️⃣ The danger of starting up as a “natural acquisition” David Frankel of Founder Collective took to Twitter to discuss why the phrase “this startup is a natural acquisition for…” could be a dangerous line of thinking for founders and VCs alike. Read his thoughts on the matter [here](. [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( | [HIRE]( | [FIND 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](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  Tech in Asia’s newsletters are handcrafted daily with love - and sometimes powered by good kopi. Today’s edition was written by Nathaniel Fetalvero. It’s edited by Eileen C. Ang. Copyright © 2021 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 51 Bras Basah Rd, #05-5061, Singapore 189554