Asia SaaS Weekly - June 9

Goodbye Sequoia

Author

Andrew Baisley
June 09, 2023

Welcome to the first edition of the Asia SaaS Weekly, written by Andrew Baisley. My goal in writing this weekly update is to give you a super quick point of view on the B2B SaaS ecosystem as it develops in real time.

I assume, as some point, I’ll insert some more personal takes & things will evolve over time, but for now… let’s just get into the things that jumped out at me this week from my network.

Aspire hits profitability

Co-founder and President of Aspire, Giovanni Casinelli, shared this week that the Southeast Asia fintech has reached profitability. This comes just a few months after raising a Series C.

You can read Giovanni’s announcement here on LinkedIn. (which, by the way, also mentions that they have over 50 roles open across the region)

Sequoia breakup

No doubt by now you’ve seen the news of Sequoia Capital breaking their US, India/Southeast Asia and China businesses apart into independent firms. The big points of discussion:

  1. this was handled rather well and this was a great comms effort resulting in positive, on-message coverage in Forbes (link is to the journalist’s Twitter post on the topic)

  2. this was likely driven by the behemoth US and China funds, leaving Southeast Asia (now called Peak XV) on the cutting room floor as collateral damage

  3. many believe that these changes were necessary due to geo-political tension between The United States and China, though Sequoia denies this as the reason (coverage in Quartz)

  4. whether or not any of this matters to Sequoia’s ability to source deals and grow startups is questionable. Rui Ma (one of my favorite Twitter follows!) has a good take on this.

  5. Peak XV, the new India/SEA Sequoia, is named after the original name for Mt Everest. If there was any doubt that this fund was always favoring India over SEA, this should make it abundantly clear that this is mostly a South Asia play.

Pieter Kemps (who, btw, is a super nice guy) will stay on as GP of Peak XV Partners, although I did catch in this weirdly contrived attempt to explain their new branding that his LinkedIn headline still says Sequoia Capital. Some other folks, like Piyush Gupta, have updated to the new name. I wonder how long it’ll take for folks to let go of that brand recognition.

Antler’s fresh funds

Popular venture builder Antler announced a new $285M emerging growth fund. Among my personal network, Antler’s reputation is mixed, but I think their venture builder model - where they stay relatively close to the operations of their portfolio companies - makes a lot of sense in the emerging markets of Southeast Asia.

You can find Antler’s Founder & CEO announcement here on LinkedIn.

Pindrop coverage on CNA

Pindrop, a voice fraud and authentication service run here in Singapore by the billiant Anurag Srivastava, was featured on CNA this week. The segment highlights their involvement with AWS and Singapore’s IMDA Joint Innovation Lab.

That’s it. Easy, right? If you’re reading this, you really are an early adopter and I appreciate you.