Concung, Edamama, and the quest for SEA's dominant baby ecommerce firm

Check out our top articles for the week. [Read from your browser]( Top Stories of the Week Welcome to Tech in Asia's free Sunday newsletter! Get full access to our subscribers-only premium content and other insightful analysis on the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community by [registering here](. Hello {NAME} For working parents of babies, it is challenging to keep track of essential items at home. I live in India, and my go-to platforms for last-minute needs are quick commerce services like Swiggy's Genie and BigBasket's BBNow, which deliver diapers, wet wipes, and other baby staples within a few minutes. But when it comes to clothing and accessories for my kids, I turn to FirstCry. The abundance of options and affordable prices make it my top choice. Babies grow so rapidly that what fit them perfectly just last week might be too small today. That’s why I find myself browsing and buying baby clothes almost every month on FirstCry. When I started writing our piece on baby ecommerce, I felt like this was familiar territory… except that I did not know what the scene in Southeast Asia is like. Some research revealed that while baby ecommerce in the region is growing significantly, it is still a small market compared to India. This can be attributed to socio-economic, demographic, and operational factors, among others. While companies like Concung and Edamama have gained ground in their respective countries, a dominant platform akin to FirstCry has yet to emerge in the region. Maybe there will be one on my next visit to Southeast Asia, and its impact will be similar to Grab’s or Shopee’s when they launched. -- [Samreen Ahmad]( journalist at Tech in Asia  --------------------------------------------------------------- TOP STORIES THIS WEEK 1️. [FirstCry leads baby care ecommerce in India, but consolidating SEA a far cry]( Socio-economic hurdles and smaller market sizes make it harder for baby ecommerce startups to scale in Southeast Asia. 2. [The female founders and leaders behind SEA’s top-funded startups]( We put together a list of women at the helm of the region’s top-funded companies. 3. [Sea Group’s financial health in 7 charts]( These charts offer a snapshot of how Sea Group, the company behind Garena and Shopee, is faring. 4. [Vietnamese battery startups eye more green financing to power renewables push]( Local startups are looking at ways to develop battery technologies as Vietnam makes a push for green energy. 5. [Qapita’s revenue jumps to $8.9m in FYE March 2023, but losses widen]( The Singapore-based equity management platform aims to be profitable by March 2025, CEO Ravi Ravulaparthi tells Tech in Asia. 6. [Who is JTA, Investree’s lead investor in its $231m funding round?]( Tech in Asia could not verify some key facts about JTA, including its CEO Amir Ali Salemizadeh’s claim of having an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. 7. [Speed bumps ahead as Malaysian state investors grapple with startup funding]( Approach with caution as approvals are lengthy, a Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer tells founders. 8. [Cracking the code of Southeast Asia’s unicorn founders]( Our data shows that Southeast Asia is home to 38 unicorn companies, but what do their founders have in common? 9. [PropertyGuru’s financial health in 6 charts]( These charts indicate how PropertyGuru is performing. 10. [50 rising startups in Vietnam]( Check out this constantly updated list of startups in Vietnam who've recently raised funding. --------------------------------------------------------------- SILICON VALLEY INSIGHTS  Hear it straight from the man who catapulted companies like Dropbox to phenomenal success Sean Ellis, the man behind multibillion-dollar ventures like Dropbox and Eventbrite, is coming to Singapore. 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