Spotting Indonesia’s Spotify rival

This week, On the Rise tunes into the rise of Noice in Indonesia’s audio-streaming space and analyzes how F&B startups are fighting downturn blues. [Read from your browser]( On the Rise🚀 Welcome to On the Rise! Delivered every Tuesday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in emerging tech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](. Written by Nikita Puri Journalist Hello {NAME} Friends, Romans, and countrymen: Pretty much everyone I know is either making a podcast, associated with one, or hawking one with relentless passion. Not that I’m complaining, as I stare down an ever-growing list of podcast recommendations on everything from science to true crime. So it’s no surprise that India, my home base, is among the top 10 engagement markets for Spotify. The Swedish audio-streaming site says that it has more than doubled its premium subscriber base in India in 2021. Subscriptions aside, advertising [reportedly forms just 15%]( of Spotify’s overall revenue. But India and Indonesia are among the few countries that see advertising as a larger share. And while Spotify has a number of audio-streaming services to compete with in India, a rising competitor in Indonesia is likely to give the audio goliath a run for the top spot. Armed with podcasts, audiobooks, and livestreaming, Jakarta-based Noice's hyperlocal approach can give it a leg up in what continues to be a fragmented market. But this advantage could be short-lived as Spotify continues to do what it has done before: get the best podcasters on its side, reports my colleague Shadine in the Big Story. The battle for Indonesia’s airwaves has only just begun. That said, can food and drink be far behind when there’s an abundance of music and conversations? Recent developments indicate that big bets are at play as the dining out and ordering-in scene in India and Southeast Asia buck the trend of recession-induced caution as startups and their investors double down. More on this under Making Waves. – Nikita   --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORY [A Gojek-backed firm’s rise as Spotify’s rival]( Audio platform Noice is in the right place at the right time. But can it take on an ambitious international goliath in Indonesia's podcast space?  --------------------------------------------------------------- MAKING WAVES Hot cuppas and food as panacea for downturn blues Here’s what happened: - Firms in the F&B space in Southeast Asia and India have raised funds. - Singapore’s Flash Coffee, India’s Chaayos, and Indonesia’s Ismaya Group have announced funding in the last week. - Grab bought and relaunched HungryGoWhere in Singapore. Here’s our take: Last month, Indian foodtech giant Swiggy announced [it had acquired Dineout]( a restaurant tech platform. The move would help it compete with its rival Zomato, which runs a similar service. Then last week, Grab [bought and revived]( HungryGoWhere, a popular food review and recommendation platform in Singapore that had [shut shop]( in 2021. These also happened last week: India’s tea cafe chain Chaayos [raised US$45 million in a series C round]( Singapore’s Flash Coffee [closed a US$32.8 million round]( Indonesian made-to-order drink brand Haus [announced its series B1 funding]( and East Ventures led [a US$18.1 million]( funding round in Ismaya Group, also in Indonesia. “For more than two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has left people being cooped up, creating a sense of pent-up frustration from lockdowns, work from home, physical distancing, and other restrictions,” said Ismaya Group CEO Bram Hendrata. Things are beginning to look up for the firm as its profitability has increased by at least 30% from March to May this year compared to the same period in 2019. Ismaya Group isn’t the only one to see the upward swing in its financials. Its Indonesian coffee tech counterparts - Kopi Kenangan and Fore Coffee - are both profitable now. While Kopi Kenangan’s earnings had slipped in the red in 2020, its co-founder Edward Tirtanata [recently toldÂ]( in Asia that he expects the company to see profitability levels from the pre-pandemic years as the country opens up. Similarly, after having to close half its stores in Indonesia, East Ventures-backed Fore Coffee is now banking on a combination of sizable seating spaces in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as well as affordable coffee as it plans to [open 100 stores within the year](. Meanwhile, Chaayos, one of India’s chai-cafe frontrunners, has also seen [“strong growth traction”]( lately. With layoffs hitting tech startups hard (see Tech in Asia’s [updated layoff tracker]( investors seem to agree that F&B tech companies could fare well at a time when the talk of [a global recession]( is coming in hot and heavy. These firms are likely to cash in on not just the pent-up demand after the lockdowns but also come out ahead as recipients of the [lipstick effect]( which refers to the trend of consumers paying for small luxuries during recessions and downturns. Notably, while these F&B firms have retail outlets and almost all of them are eyeing expansion plans, they are also strengthening their delivery capabilities. Ismaya Group is doing so with in-house efforts. Meanwhile, [Chaayos has signed up]( with Indian foodtech heavyweight Zomato for 10-minute deliveries. This omnichannel strategy of both online and offline sales is likely to bolster sales in a post-lockdown environment in what some [refer to as “revenge eating”](. For those who don’t completely tighten their purse strings, fuelling up on cafe-made coffee and chai is going to be as much of a social need as a guilty but acceptable pleasure. As The Wall Street Journal [noted in a report]( sales at food and drinking places rose marginally compared to other products, signifying how people are redirecting their spending away from electronics and furnishings to dining out. It could still feel like a recession for those “on the wrong side of the spending shift.” Clearly, celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme was onto something when he said, “You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food.” Silver forks or not, both F&B companies - and their backers - are signaling the comeback of dining out and ordering in.  – Nikita  --------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the emerging tech scene [here](. 1️⃣ Mohalla Tech, the parent firm of India-based social media unicorn ShareChat, has hit [a valuation of US$5 billion]( after raising US$520 million in a multi-tranche funding round. With its own short video platform Moj and the recently acquired MX TakaTak, ShareChat now runs India’s largest short-video ecosystem in a market that no longer hosts TikTok. 2️⃣ Vidio, an Indonesian over-the-top video platform, [has raised US$45 million]( from a subsidiary of local conglomerate Sinar Mas Group, a subsidiary of Southeast Asian super app Grab, and a subsidiary of local football club Bali United. Vidio raised US$150 million last year, a deal which put its valuation at US$900 million at the time. 3️⃣ Blockchain gaming unicorn Animoca Brands [has acquired Tel Aviv-based edtech platform TinyTap]( for nearly US$39 million in cash and shares. The deal will help Animoca establish a new business segment for user-generated educational content on the blockchain. 4️⃣ Singapore-based Ross Digital, a robotics firm for food and beverage products, has raised around [US$3 million]( in a series A+ round. The firm currently has at least 15 units deployed in Singapore and China and plans to deploy 40 robotic arms in the market by the end of 2022. 5️⃣ Asian Microbiome Library (Amili), a Singapore-based biotech firm, has [raised US$10.5 million]( in a series A funding round led by Vulcan Capital. Amili hopes to build the world’s largest multiethnic Asia-centric repository of microbiome data and samples, including Southeast Asia’s only microbiome bank.  --------------------------------------------------------------- FYI  [How GrabMaps plans to beat Google Maps in $1b sweepstake for SEA dominance]( Grab’s new B2B mapping service is well-placed to win market share, but don’t expect the numbers to move the needle, says this Tech in Asia story.  --------------------------------------------------------------- That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! Do also check out previous issues of the newsletter [here](. Not your cup of tea? 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