Recent startup boom across Southeast Asia
This figure is more than tripled than the total startup investment of $2.5 billion in 2016. This is far startling because investment in Southeast Asian startups failed to reach even $1 billion in 2013.
Consequently, unicorn startups, privately held startup companies valued at over $1 billion, has been emerging one by one. Lazada, an e-commerce platform in Singapore and Gojek, an Indonesian app-based ride-hailing service provider are well-known cases.
Recent startup boom across Southeast Asia
Startup boom deserves to be named as one of the hot issues in Southeast Asia these days. Startup markets across Southeast Asia have been rapidly gaining momentums. As a matter of fact, locally born leaders of the digital economy such as Grab in Malaysia which acquired the Southeast Asian business unit of Uber in early 2018 have been acclaimed for changing the conventional industrial map in the region.
According to Tech in Asia, a Singapore-based online technology media, startups in Southeast Asia enjoyed as much as $7.9 billion in investment in 2017.
Spread of mobility service and Indonesian cashless society
Of course, cashless society is still at its infant stage. A life without cash may not ring a meaningful bell to those staying in less-developed parts of Indonesia.
However, hopes are higher than ever that a cashless society primarily enabled by unprecedentedly fast expansion of mobility services will surely advance the national dream of digital Indonesia into reality.
Spread of mobility service and Indonesian cashless society
In other words, mobility services in Indonesia became more and more prevalent with no concern for possession of cash or credit cards. It goes without saying that such spread of mobility services accelerated by actualization of e-payment on mobile gadgets has raised the expectation of a cashless society in Indonesia.
As a result, financial environments without coins and bills have been realizing inch by inch. For instance, it is commonly observed that IT-savvy youngsters enjoy full benefits of a cashless society with Go-Jek or Grab on a daily basis.
Spread of mobility service and Indonesian cashless society
In contrast, Grab announced official business partnership with OVO, an electronic payment platform backed by Lippo Group and have it transplanted to mobile application in December, 2016.
In a country where less than 10% of the population holds credit cards, implementation of e-payment system on mobile devices served as a game changer for the leapfrog of the mobility market. As users can make payments within their balance in the mobile wallet, overall access to mobility services was considerably upgraded.
