<article>The global health crisis has dealt a severe blow to businesses spanning industries. One sector that has been hit particularly hard is the hospitality industry.</article>

The global health crisis has dealt a severe blow to businesses spanning industries. One sector that has been hit particularly hard is the hospitality industry.
One chain, OYO Hotels and Homes, started in India and quickly expanded to China, Malaysia, Nepal, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Japan and the US, backed by big-name investors SoftBank, Sequoia, Airbnb, and Peter Thiel himself. But the budget chain &#8212; and its founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal &#8212; has since been forced to rationalise its operations after coming under fire from its hotel partners.
How will OYO recover from its troubles? <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdb6zI-ggos9T3t44eAZp0wr57mMFH-BwdfL6ENc6yqlbKZ6g/viewform">Join us</a> as Agarwal sits down for a no-holds-barred DealStreetAsia webinar on Thursday, June 18, at 2 pm Singapore time.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-192684" src="https://media.dealstreetasia.com/uploads/2020/06/webinar.png?resize=640,360" alt="" srcset="https://media.dealstreetasia.com/uploads/2020/06/webinar.png?w=800 800w, https://media.dealstreetasia.com/uploads/2020/06/webinar.png?resize=300,169 300w, https://media.dealstreetasia.com/uploads/2020/06/webinar.png?resize=768,432 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Major economies in the US and Europe, as well as parts of Asia, have reopened for business as restrictions are lifted amid concerns of a second wave of coronavirus infections. And it seems that some investors, who may have been on the sidelines waiting out the global health crisis, are stepping into the fray again.
The deal pipeline covered this week was healthy, with investors keen on education and tech, sectors that are proving to be resilient amid a crisis.
We started with <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/canadian-international-school-191606/" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/canadian-international-school-191606/">Deviana Chuo and Aastha Saboo&#8217;s exclusive </a>that Chinese investors have emerged as the top bidders for Singapore&#8217;s Canadian International School. The Southern Capital-owned institution, which operates classes from kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12), is believed to have been on the market since September last year.
In India, two companies, <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/cuemath-toppr-funding-191940/" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/cuemath-toppr-funding-191940/">Cuemath and Toppr</a>, are said to be in talks to raise around $30 million each to expand their operations. Cuemath, headquartered in Bengaluru, is an after-school math excellence programme for kindergarten to Grade 8 children. Toppr runs an app providing educational content for students from Class 5 to Class 12.
Separately, Hong Kong-headquartered Baring Private Equity Asia is <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/baring-private-equity-asia-byjus-192331/" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/baring-private-equity-asia-byjus-192331/">in advanced talks</a> to invest in Indian edtech unicorn Byju&#8217;s. The edtech platform, which offers K-12 programmes and helps senior students with preparation for entrance exams, is seeking to raise about $500-600 million for expansion.
In China, Matrix Partners China, a venture capital firm that has backed major Chinese tech firms at their early stages, <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/matrix-partners-china-fund-close-192367/" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/matrix-partners-china-fund-close-192367/">has raised $750 million</a> for its flagship venture investment vehicle, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
We also saw how fund managers are increasingly flocking to seal <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/venture-capitalists-seed-deals-190874/" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/venture-capitalists-seed-deals-190874/">early-stage transactions in Southeast Asia.</a> During the January-March period this year, as many as 23 Series A transactions were recorded in the region, compared with 14 in the corresponding period last year. The average deal value was around $10.4 million, almost a 50 per cent jump compared with the same period last year, according to data compiled by DealStreetAsia.
<h3>Indonesian unicorns get busy</h3>
A week after Gojek announced a major boost to its super app ambitions with the investment of Facebook and PayPal into its financial services arm GoPay, its video-streaming unit <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/gojek-goplay-zwc-golden-gate-191771/">GoPlay announced the close of its first independent funding round</a>. The financing, believed to be around $15 million, was led by ZWC Partners and Golden Gate Ventures and joined by Openspace Ventures, Ideosource Entertainment and Redbadge Pacific.
GoPlay&#8217;s game plan could go beyond streaming video content. After some sleuthing, DealStreetAsia&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/gojek-new-services-192070/">Andi Haswidi reported that Gojek is on track</a> to significantly expand its operations. The company has filed trademarks for new business entities that could see the super app giant expand into live video conference, financial management, corporate services and electronics repair.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that digital payments company OVO and digital wallet provider DANA have <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/ovo-dana-merger-2-192652/">agreed in principle to merge.</a> This is purportedly a development in response to Gojek&#8217;s GoPay.
Indeed, payments in Southeast Asia is the next prize for fintech giants. DealStreetAsia&#8217;s data research team has produced a report showing how the Chinese tech rivals Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings are <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/chinese-tech-giants-sea-ewallet-191849/">fighting a proxy war in the region.</a> Data compiled by DealStreetAsia shows that although the tech giants operate directly only in a few countries in Southeast Asia, they currently back at least 11 e-wallets in six key markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
<h3>High profile departures</h3>
The week started with news that consumer-focused private equity major L Catterton Asia has <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/l-catterton-191725/">roped in former TPG Capital Asia partner Scott Chen</a> to lead its team. Chen will be a co-managing partner at the PE firm with Chinta Bhagat, in the wake of the departure of veteran Ravi Thakran from the firm.
In another major development, Gojek group chief technology officer (CTO) <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/gojek-group-cto-ajey-gore-departs-192551/">Ajey Gore is stepping down from his role.</a> His departure caps a five-year stint at the firm, where he is credited with playing a crucial role in building and leading its engineering team during its early growth years.
<h3>Still troubling times are ahead</h3>
GoPlay&#8217;s scoring funding comes as yet another video streaming business, iflix, appears to be ending transmission. According to <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/iflix-sale-192056/">this report</a>, the Malaysia-headquartered video streaming platform is in talks for a sale to avoid a looming debt crisis and has appointed distressed asset specialists to its board of directors after the departure of its two co-founders. The shortlist of potential acquirers for a deal, targeted to be done by the end of this month, is believed to include companies based in Greater China.
Also <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/philippines-startups-survey-191918/">struggling are startups in the Philippines</a>, as a PwC survey showed, with four in five respondents reporting that they have less than a year&#8217;s worth of cash runway. The coronavirus pandemic has decimated demand for their products and services and dried up funding.

Gojek's video streaming unit GoPlay scored funding while another video streaming business, iflix, appears to be ending transmission.

Editor's Take: The Week That Was – June 8-12

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Editor's Take: The Week That Was – June 8-12

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