Sunseap’s tale of hope despite widening losses

This week, we analyze how Sunseap’s financials offer hope for renewable energy despite losses and look at Kopi Kenangan’s Malaysia foray. [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 Shadine Taufik Journalist Hello {NAME} Global warming has been a hot topic (no pun intended) in the past few years. The 2021 film Don’t Look Up satirized political sentiment and society’s reaction to the climate crisis, while Blade Runner 2049 painted Earth as a barren wasteland, set 27 years from now. Additionally, one of my favorite bands - The 1975 - lent the [opening track]( of their fourth album to climate activist Greta Thunberg and her poignant spoken word. Despite ideas around climate change entering the public consciousness, a real paradigm shift has yet to come as fossil fuels continue to be the biggest contributor to the problem. After all, most of the decades-old factories and plants in operation still require gas, oil, and coal for power. Even though alternative energy sources remain an option, [adoption has been slow](. This is bad news for firms such as Singapore-based solar power firm Sunseap. In this week’s Big Story, my colleague, Collin, explores the firm’s 2021 financials in a series of charts. After two years of profitability, the company has reported its largest annual loss in the last seven years. The firm’s total expenses in 2021 nearly doubled from 2020, while revenue only rose 15.4% within the same time span. Regardless, Sunseap’s revenue from energy supply has doubled in 2021 to US$62.3 million - making it the firm’s largest source of income. This marks a turning point, as two years ago, it was the smallest revenue contributor - its construction and maintenance of solar photovoltaic systems was its largest income stream before this. This indicates a growth in demand for alternative energy in Southeast Asian homes and businesses, and perhaps the inklings of a cleaner future. In other news, Indonesian coffee giant Kopi Kenangan has made its first foray abroad, into Malaysia. This week’s Making Waves features my colleague, Aditya, demystifying the move. -- Shadine  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORY [Sunseap records biggest loss in 7 years]( The Singapore firm slipped into the red in 2021 after two years of profitability. But its filings show Southeast Asia’s steady adoption of solar energy.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  MAKING WAVES  Kopi Kenangan’s hot cuppa now in Malaysia Here’s what happened: - Indonesia’s Kopi Kenangan has expanded to Malaysia under a new brand, Kenangan Coffee. - The coffee unicorn has also established a training center called Kenangan Academy in its new market. - After Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, are the next hot markets for coffee startups in Southeast Asia. Here’s our take: Last month, Kopi Kenangan, an Indonesia-based coffee startup, [opened its first international store]( in Suria KLCC, a shopping mall in Malaysia. By the end of this year, it plans to open four more stores in the country. The company, which entered the unicorn club at the end of last year, uses the brand Kenangan Coffee for its international market. Aside from Rocket Internet-backed Flash Coffee, Southeast Asia has seen [a rise]( in coffee startups that not only serve a single country but have also been eyeing international expansions. This comes as no surprise since almost 16% of the world’s coffee [comes from Southeast Asia](. Both Kopi Kenangan and Flash Coffee are chasing the retail coffee market in Southeast Asia that in 2019, was worth US$6.5 billion, with annual growth of around 6%. According [to a report]( from consultancy firm RedSeer, relatively newer startups like Kopi Kenangan and Flash Coffee have several advantages compared to existing brick-and-mortar-only coffee players, such as greater online presence, lower price points, and locations closer to residential areas that have resulted in faster coffee deliveries. However, Kopi Kenangan’s recent move to pick Malaysia as its first international market begs further scrutiny, especially since Malaysia is not a market high on Southeast Asia’s coffee business. Besides Indonesia, three coffee markets in Southeast Asian countries that are bigger than Malaysia: Vietnam, Philippines, and Thailand. Kopi Kenangan said in a statement that it chose Malaysia as there are many similarities between Indonesia and Malaysia people in “taste” and “interest to try new things.” In fact, the word *Kenangan*, which means “memories” in Indonesian, can also be understood by Malay-speakers. See also: [Kopi Kenangan’s financials]( and [Fore Coffee’s numbers]( Besides, expanding to Malaysia means Kopi Kenangan doesn’t need to directly compete with Flash Coffee, which currently operates in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Last year, Flash Coffee announced that it plans to enter Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia by the end of this year. However, the move hasn’t materialized. In Malaysia, Kopi Kenangan will have to compete with both big and small coffee chains, including the likes of Starbucks, which in partnership with Berjaya Food, plans to open [40 new stores by July 2023](. However, the startup has fared well with a similar profile of challengers in its home country. On top of that, the startup is likely to see competition from Zus Coffee, which expects to have [180 outlets]( across Malaysia by the end of the year and can be a significant competitor, considering its well-priced cuppas are available in areas Starbucks isn’t. Interestingly, Kopi Kenangan’s also built a training center called Kenangan Academy in Malaysia to train baristas and other employees that will be in charge of operation in its stores. The firm built a similar academy in its home country in November 2019, around two years after its inception. Six months after the academy was established, it had [trained a thousand baristas](. Setting up a skills academy is increasingly becoming de rigueur, as seen in the case of Malaysia-based Carsome, which has set up [similar centers]( in Indonesia and Thailand, besides its home country. Besides helping put the word out about a new player in town, these training centers also ensure a ready supply of skilled employees for these companies to open up more stores. After all, there’s no such thing as too much coffee. -- Aditya  --------------------------------------------------------------- FYI 1️⃣ [Indonesian agritech firm rakes in $2.5m in seed money to support middlemen]( PasarMikro enables transactions between farmers and traders while also providing them with working capital and a marketplace to sell their products. 2️⃣ [Indonesia’s Wahyoo eyes series B raise to bake in cloud kitchen ambition]( The restaurant enabler is turning its partners - including small eateries called “warteg” - into cloud kitchen networks for other brands. --------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the emerging tech scene [here](. 1️⃣ Indonesia-based Fishlog has raised [US$3.5 million]( in its pre-series A funding round. The fishery firm will use its funding to recruit more staff. 2️⃣ Software-as-a-service startup Chargebee [has laid off 142 employees,]( or about 10% of its total headcount. The India and US-based startup said it took these measures to increase efficiency and reduce expenses. 3️⃣ Propseller, a Singapore-based proptech firm, has closed its biggest deal to date on a [US$14.5 million property in Sentosa Cove.]( In a LinkedIn post, the firm’s CEO said that Propseller’s daily revenue from the deal was as much as it made in its first 501 days as a company.  --------------------------------------------------------------- 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? You can unsubscribe from this newsletter by going to your “edit profile” page and choosing that option in our preference center. See you next week! [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( | [HIRE]( | [FIND JOBS]( P.S. 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