Whether steering the world’s most powerful nation or managing a fast-scaling unicorn, leadership matters. Decisions at the top can ripple far beyond borders and boardrooms, as this week’s events demonstrated.
It’s been a whirlwind week with Donald Trump returning as US president, signing off on major orders, including the creation of a cryptocurrency working group, making good on his promise to overhaul US crypto policy; delaying a ban on TikTok by 75 days; and announcing a $500 billion AI investment initiative.
Closer home, in Southeast Asia, we uncovered the extent of the alleged fraud at eFishery. Its former management allegedly inflated revenue for the first nine months of 2024 by nearly fivefold and manipulated its bottom line to appear profitable despite posting massive losses, according to a forensic report reviewed by our team.
eFishery is now reportedly leaderless as Adhy Wibisono has stepped down from his role as interim CEO. He had taken over when eFishery’s board suspended its co-founders Gibran Huzaifah and Chrisna Aditya in December.
Meanwhile, eFishery’s labour union held a peaceful emergency townhall on Thursday outside the company’s office in Bandung, West Java to voice concerns about the company’s future.
We continued to publish stories from the panel discussions at our recently concluded Indonesia PE-VC Summit 2025.
Just as the effects of Trump’s policies are being felt as far away as China, there are fears that the eFishery saga has dented investor confidence in the entire Indonesian startup ecosystem, where equity dealmaking has now been decelerating for 11 quarters on the trot. However, as this week’s deals show, some businesses are difficult to ignore, even in the beleaguered agritech space.
Startups in the news
Banyu, an Indonesian integrated seaweed company, raised $1.25 million in a seed funding round from Intudo Ventures. We spoke to Dodon Yamin, Banyu’s CEO, a child of smallholder farmers, who “witnessed challenges like limited market access and unsustainable practices”. The company collaborates with farmers, traders, and downstream processors to supply seaweed to global FMCG and ingredients companies for food production as well as emerging applications like biofertilizers, bioplastics, and animal feed.
Another startup in the agri space, Indonesian poultry firm Chickin raised $15.26 million in loans from Bank DBS Indonesia, to meet working capital needs.
We also profiled Bobobox, an Indonesian capsule hotel startup, which achieved its first profitable year in 2024, focusing on operational efficiency, sustainable growth, and customer-centric offerings to navigate a highly competitive market. Indra Gunawan, co-founder and CEO, told DealStreetAsia that 70% of its investments are financed through partnerships with individuals, corporations, and private entities, while the remaining 30% comes from internal resources.
Also read the profile of India-based Ati Motors, which makes industrial robotics mostly for the automotive industry. The startup raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by Bay Area investors Walden Catalyst Ventures (WCV) and NGP Capital (NGP). In an interview with DealStreetAsia, Ati Motors’ founder and CEO Saurabh Chandra spoke on the difficulties deep tech startups face in raising late-stage funding.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese EV maker VinFast said it will enter the Indian market with two premium electric SUVs, taking on homegrown rival Mahindra & Mahindra and China’s BYD, which already has a presence in the world’s third-largest car market.
Axiata Group, one of Malaysia’s largest telecommunications operators, is looking to sell its stake in Indonesia-listed Internet provider Link Net. The potential deal could fetch as much as $1 billion for controlling shares in Link Net.
Indonesia’s state-owned bank BTN, plans to acquire small-sized sharia bank PT Bank Victoria Syariah for $64.77 million.
iMotorbike, a Singapore-headquartered, pre-owned motorbike buying and selling marketplace with operations in Malaysia and Vietnam, has raised $10 million in a Series A round.
HongShan Capital Group has struck a deal to acquire a majority stake in Marshall Group in a deal valuing the audio equipment maker at $1.15 billion. The transaction would mark the Chinese VC giant’s largest investment in Europe, HSG said in a statement on Friday.
This week we also wrote about the trend of legacy FMCG giants in India snapping up digital-first startups to woo India’s younger, tech-savvy consumers. Underscoring this growing trend, HUL reported a $347 million acquisition of D2C beauty brand Minimalist, which could be one of the biggest in India’s beauty sector. Other examples include Marico buying a 45% stake in Beardo; and Godrej Consumer Products acquiring B:Blunt, a premium haircare and styling brand.
Earnings
Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery giant Zomato’s consolidated profit more than halved year-on-year in the December quarter. Heavy investments in the quick commerce division Blinkit‘s warehouses and dark stores took a toll on Zomato’s bottom line.
The food delivery giant is moving heaven and earth to stay ahead in the quick commerce slugfest with Swiggy Instamart and Zepto, which is seeking to increase its IPO size to $800 million to $1 billion from the initial target of $450 million, according to a media report.
Meanwhile, profits, not growth, were top of mind for One97 Communications, which operates the Indian payments platform Paytm. It narrowed its losses by 6.3% YoY to $24.03 million in the December quarter of 2024. Paytm curtailed its direct and indirect expenses in the period.
Data-led story
Deep tech, consumer, and green tech have contributed to China’s 10 biggest IPOs in 2024, a year that saw the number of IPOs by mainland China-headquartered companies across stock exchanges globally drop to 195, down 51.1% year-over-year (YoY). Their overall IPO funds raised plummeted 63.6% from the previous year to 144.3 billion yuan ($19.8 billion). Read this listicle of the top IPOs in China last year.
LP-GP updates
One of Southeast Asia’s oldest private equity firms, Northstar Group, is in discussions to sell its business to Wall Street behemoth Ares Management, the leading contender in a potential merger deal. TPG, which has been a minority shareholder of the buyout firm for over a decade, is also understood to be in talks to increase its stake in Northstar for a takeover.
Creador has closed its sixth fund at $930 million, exceeding a $750-million target. Creador increased the hard cap of the vehicle due to strong demand from both existing and new investors. Almost 95% of its LPs re-upped, while over $200 million worth of commitments came from new LPs.
Singapore’s Growtheum Capital Partners is considering raising around $600 million for the second instalment of its PE fund focused on Asia’s emerging markets. The firm is said to have informally discussed the idea of raising the second fund, dedicated to Southeast Asia and India, with its existing investors last year.
One of Asia’s largest alternative investment firms, PAG, put $2.8 billion in capital to work and delivered over $3 billion in liquidity to its limited partners (LPs) last year, said Lincoln Pan, partner and co-head of private equity at PAG.
Indonesian VC firm East Ventures has closed its inaugural continuation fund underwritten by secondary specialist Coller Capital. The GP-led transaction was designed for East Venture’s fifth seed fund, bringing the total DPI of the fund to approximately 2x.
Indonesian PE firm Novae Capital Partners has secured the first close of its debut fund at $100 million, a top executive told DealStreetAsia. It plans to close the vehicle at $150-200 million by end-2025, said the firm’s managing partner Elliott Setiawan in an exclusive chat.
KKR-backed, Mumbai-based financial services group Avendus Capital, which recently secured the first close of its third PE fund at $98 million, is all set to clock its maiden deal from the investment vehicle. “We made the first close [of Avendus Future Leaders Fund III] because we had to finance a deal… we plan to close it this month [January 2025] itself,” Ritesh Chandra, managing partner at Avendus Future Leaders Fund, told DealStreetAsia.
India’s Multiples Alternate Asset Management, led by former ICICI Venture veteran Renuka Ramnath, is eyeing a continuation fund with a target corpus of $300-400 million.
Private credit fund manager Vivriti Asset Management, a subsidiary of mid-market lender Vivriti Capital, is on track to close its third private credit fund—targeting $174 million—by mid-to-late 2025.
Vietnam-based asset manager VinaCapital is looking to close its third venture capital fund at $75 million this year. The fund, VinaCapital Venture Capital Fund III, has identified a diversified conglomerate in the Asia-Pacific region as its anchor investor.
Altair Capital, the Southeast Asian investment affiliate of Japanese buyout firm Polaris Capital Group, has announced the first close of its second fund. In 2022, DealStreetAsia first reported that the private equity firm plans to raise its second fund and might look at raising $160-200 million for the vehicle.
Youngtimers AG, the merged entity between Swiss-listed Youngtimers AG and Hong Kong tycoon Adrian Cheng-backed C Capital, will hit the market with a new Asia-focused growth PE fund with expanded investment and fundraising scopes. Ben Cheng, the newly-appointed CEO of Youngtimers AG, told DealStreetAsia that the company is likely to kickstart fundraising for the fund in the coming summer to focus on global businesses with a nexus to Asia Pacific.
Investcorp could consider a public listing in the next three to five years, its vice chairman said, as the Middle East’s biggest alternative investment firm targets a doubling of its assets under management to $100 billion.
Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd is rebalancing its portfolio to invest more in developed markets, with an eye on managing expected risks from the new Donald Trump presidency in the US.
