Techsauce for Business : Thai Startup Investment Summary January - October 2020

Over the past 3 years, there has been an average of around 30-35 deals between various investors and startups each year. However, from January to October of this year, there have only been 16 deals executed with startups that have been made public.

Across these 16 deals, the startups have managed to raise approximately US$ 362.5 million. The majority of the funds that were raised this year was by startups that are in the growth stage and were fundraising for their Series A, B, C, as well as D rounds. The most notable activity this year was by a logistics startup “Flash Express” who raised US$200 million for their Series D fundraising round. Flash Express’s series D alone makes up a significant portion of the amount raised so far this year.

A trend observation that can be made in the Covid-19 period is that investors are investing much less into startups that are in their early stages due to the fact that there is a high degree of uncertainty and risk during this year of crisis. At the same time, due to restrictions placed on gatherings, there are no events or conferences in which investors and startups can network and meet in person like there were in prior years. A lack of events mean that startups of all stages are receiving less exposure to investors and vice versa. 

Thai Corporate Venture Capitals (CVCs) are most likely continuing to invest in foreign startups in order to find a strategic partner. Breaking down the US$ 362.45 million raised by startups this year by industry; approximately US$217 million was in the E-Commerce/Logistics industry, US$126.8 million in FinTech and the remainder US$18.65 million was in AgriTech, PropertyTech, and Insurance Tech industries.

Other than fundraising deals, there has also been a number of notable mergers and acquisition deals such as:

• Kaidee being acquired by the Emerging Marketplace Property Group (EMPG)

• Ascend acquiring Chilindo, an e-commerce provider

• Eko acquiring Convolab, a Chatbot and AI developer

Of the M&A deals this year, the most notable deal would be the merger between the food delivery service Lineman and Wongnai, the popular restaurant review community. At the same time, Lineman also received US$ 110 million in funding from BRV Capital, a Korean Venture Capital Fund. 

Another interesting deal this year was the acquisition of OmniVirt by Facebook. OmniVirt is a tech startup with a Thai co-founder and has had a number of Thai investors such as InVent.

Summarizing the biggest startup investment deals:

1. Flash Express raised US$200 million in their Series D fundraising round

2. Synqa (previously known as Omise) raised US$80 in their Series C round

3. LIGHTNET raised US$31.2 million in their Series A round

4. aCommerce raised US$15 million  in their Series C round

5. Finomena raiseed US$10 million in their Series B round