Meet the NOC mafia making waves in Southeast Asia

More: Thailand gets its first unicorn and Line enters the digital banking line in Indonesia [Read from your browser]( Daily Newsletter Hi {NAME} Wait, how is it June already? I made a resolution at the start of the year to make US$1,000 off the internet. To date, I’m only 3.3% there. Yikes, I guess that means less TikTok-ing and more hustling for me in the next six months. While my goal still looks pretty far away, the journey has been fun nonetheless with the help of my supportive fiancé. Every day, I would wake up to a slew of tweets and messages about entrepreneurship and business-building from him. How romantic. So far, his advice has been great, and I could understand why. You see, during his uni days, he spent one year learning about entrepreneurship from this program called NOC, which has already birthed a couple of prominent founders in the region. -- Betty, Tech in Asia  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORY [Uncovering the NOC mafia, which is way bigger than you think]( PatSnap, ShopBack, and Carousell are just a few of the prominent startups born out of the NOC mafia.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  TRENDING NEWS You can read all trending stories on Tech in Asia [here](. [Bangladeshi ride-sharing startup nets $750k in seed money]( The company aims to make transportation more affordable and accessible for people in developing countries. [After entering Thailand and Taiwan, Line joins digital bank race in Indonesia]( To build its banking service in the archipelago, Line bought a 20% stake in the Indonesia branch of Korea’s KEB Hana Bank. [Logistics major Flash raises $150m to become Thailand’s first unicorn]( Flash Group raised the funding across its series D+ and series E rounds. [99 Group doubled sales bookings in 2020, eyes aggressive expansion]( It's also putting the pieces in place to chase bigger ambitions. [Tokopedia, Sea Group ranked among top retail firms in SEA by GMV in 2020]( The Euromonitor report forecasted that retail ecommerce sales in the Asia Pacific would nearly double and reach US$2 trillion in 2025. [Singapore’s Carro launches remote showrooms accessible through its app]( The company said the feature will be expanded to more malls in Singapore, as well as other countries in Southeast Asia. ---------------------------------------------------------------  LIVE EVENT The last few weeks have been intense for my colleague Regina Lin who’s a startup evangelist here at Tech in Asia. You see, she had to look through dozens of applications and decks in preparation for Tech in Asia’s Pitch Night that’s taking place this month. An average deck has 20 slides - that amounts to viewing around 1,000 slides from just 50 applicants. After reviewing presentations detailing “problems” and “our solutions” for the nth time, Regina finally picked out six amazing startups from around the region to pitch their business models and ideas before a group of investor-judges. It’s gonna be an intense battle because two winners will be walking away with cash prizes, the top one with US$5,000 and the other with US$2,500. Don’t miss the showdown on June 22. [RSVP today to grab your seat](  ---------------------------------------------------------------  EVENTS HAPPENING - *Live* [Workshop] Building an MVP: Southeast Asia vs. Global on June 10 While there are various resources that provide a framework for building an MVP, we all know that it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. So, how is it really like launching an MVP in a fragmented region like Southeast Asia? If you’re wondering the same, join us on June 10 with Joel Leong, co-founder of ShopBack, to discover exactly how you can build your MVP to launch and scale your business in this unique region. [RSVP today]( to save your slot. (Money-saving tip: Subscribe to Tech in Asia Live/Core to have unlimited access to all our Live events.) - Tech in Asia Pitch Night on 22 June After four grueling weeks, six rising startup founders have been shortlisted to make their pitches and impress a panel of judges on the upcoming Tech in Asia Pitch Night. Don’t miss this showdown if you’re an early-stage startup founder, a seed/angel investor, or an aspiring entrepreneur because not only will you get to watch how other founders have mastered the art of pitching, you can also capture emerging startup trends and meet prospective investors or future portfolio startups. [So grab your virtual seat for free today]( - ASEAN Fintech Forum on July 6 Want to find out how you can build and scale successful fintech businesses in ASEAN? We got you. We've brought together fintech thought leaders and technical experts from the region to discuss some of the most pressing and important topics in the sector, including the hottest fintech movements, regulatory trends and compliance, AI/ML in fintech, blockchain, and more. Seats are limited, so [grab your ticket]( for free today! - Formula 0001: Rapyd Fintech Grand Prix Hackathon - Submissions are open until July 8 Rapyd is inviting you to join a global Fintech Hackathon where you get to build a new ecommerce or fintech app using Rapyd APIs to be judged by an all-star panel of VCs and fintech leaders for a chance to grab US$250,000 in prizes. [Sign up, team up, and build the world's next PayPal here](.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  WHO'S HIRING You can post a job [here]( or search for jobs [here](. - [Community Engagament Manager]( at Tebengan Serpong, Indonesia - [Finance Staff]( at Payfazz (PT. Payfazz Teknologi Nusantara) Indonesia Bulk Terminal, Indonesia - [Product Owner Marketplace]( at PT Koltiva Jakarta, Indonesia - [SEO Writer Freelance]( at kumparan.com Jakarta, Indonesia - [Backend Engineer]( at Kargo Technologies Jakarta, Indonesia - [Senior HR Manager]( at Evermos Bandung, Java, Indonesia [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( 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. Don't want to receive these emails anymore? [Unsubscribe](.  Copyright © 2021 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 51 Bras Basah Rd, #05-5061, Singapore 189554