Last year, Southeast Asia minted two unicorns, and three more might hit the mark this year, said a DealStreetAsia spokesperson at the media firm’s PE-VC summit in Jakarta today. This is based on data that the firm collected for its upcoming Southeast Asia startup ecosystem report.
The companies that DSA believes reached the magic US$1 billion valuation mark last year are both based in Singapore: Real estate portal Property Guru, which received a S$200 million (US$147 million) capital injection from KKR in 2018, bringing its total funding to S$440 million (US$324 million). The second firm is Trax, a deep tech startup focusing on image recognition. It raised US$125 million in a private equity round from Boyu Capital in July last year, bringing its total funds raised to US$287 million.
For 2019, DSA predicts, three new unicorns might join the fray: sports media company One Championship, fashion startup Zilingo, and mobile marketplace Carousell.
They would join Southeast Asia’s “old guard” of unicorn companies, which includes ride-hailing and local services juggernauts Grab and Go-Jek, as well as e-commerce marketplace Tokopedia, which are now each considered to be worth multiple billions of dollars.
Editor: Brady Ng