Mobile Applications Developed by Unicorn Startups in Southeast Asia

Over recent years, Southeast Asia (SEA) has become one of the leading regions in the rising startup industry across the globe. This is due to a large number of funds being invested in the region as venture capital. In fact, a report by Bain & Company indicated that there were 524 investment deals in 2017 alone, four times as many as that of 2012 (See: Investing in Southeast Asia: What’s behind the boom? / Bain & Company).

Additionally, a study by investment company JLL found that US$4.8 billion of US$7.8 billion of global investments were injected into the region from 2013 to 2017. As a result of the interest and the continuous business, economic, and technological growth in SEA, the region is dubbed as a prospect investment hub and is expected to produce 10 unicorn startups by 2024 (See: 10 Unicorn Startups in Southeast Asia / Flexisource).

The surge in the growth of the Southeast Asian digital economy has led to the development of eight tech unicorns at present. These businesses have developed apps popular in the region and even worldwide. These startups are now leading in their respective industries on a regional and global scale: from e-commerce to gaming to ride-hailing (See: The six tech unicorns of Southeast Asia / ASEAN UP). Here are the apps developed by Southeast Asian Unicorns:

“Grab” is an all-in-one platform that provides transportation services in almost all ASEAN countries. Grab founder Anthony Tan conceptualized the idea behind the app after his classmate complained about how difficult it is to hail a taxi in Malaysia (See: Everything you need to know about Grab / TechEdt).

Today, the app’s services include ride-hailing, food delivery service, and cashless payment solutions. Similar to Uber, Grab allows users to conveniently book private cars and taxis from the region’s largest community of drivers, order food delivery from their favorite restaurants, and make cashless in-app payments and at merchants within the city (See: Grab – Transport, Food Delivery, Payments / Google Play Store).

The “Garena” app is developed by the Singaporean game startup Sea. The Sea Group, formerly known as Garena, has the largest gaming service in Southeast Asia and provided the platform for some of the industry’s most popular games like Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends, and Arena of Valor (See: 10 Unicorn Startups in Southeast Asia / Flexisource).

With the Garena app, users can play hit mobile games developed by Sea, use special features to win rewards for various games, check game statistics, as well as chat with other Garena users (See: Garena / Google Play Store).

“Gojek” was developed in Indonesia and started out as a ride-hailing app for motorcycles, locally referred to as “ojek.” Today, it has expanded to a full on-demand service platform which includes transportation, food delivery, logistics, payment, and daily services (See: The 10 unicorn startups in SouthEast Asia you should know about / TechSauce). Additionally, Gojek prides itself as an app with a social mission of helping improve the welfare and livelihood of the Indonesian people (Gojek / Google Play Store).

“Tokopedia,” whose name comes from “toko,” which means “store” in Indonesian, and “pedia,” a suffix derived from encyclopedia, is the leading online marketplace platform in Indonesia (See: The 10 unicorn startups in SouthEast Asia you should know about / TechSauce). The app allows users to shop for various items from trusted merchants, pay their monthly bills, buy and reserve travel tickets, receive interesting vouchers and gift cards, manage finances and investments, as well as find product recommendations (See: Tokopedia / Google Play Store).

“Traveloka” is an all-in-one travel platform that has established partnerships with roughly 100 domestic and international airlines, covering over 200,000 international routes. Unlike typical online travel agencies, Traveloka also offers other services such as trip booking, domestic airport transportation, and train booking (See: The 10 unicorn startups in South East Asia you should know about / TechSauce). The app also offers exclusive membership discounts and daily promos to its users (See: Traveloka / Google Play Store).

“Bukalapak,” blended from the Indonesian words “buka” and “lapak” meaning “open” and “a stall” respectively, is another online marketplace giant in Indonesia. The app serves as a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) buying and selling platform. With Bukalapak, users can easily open an in-app online store, as well as buy from any stores all over Indonesia. Additionally, the app prides itself as a reliable online trading platform with a 100% money-back guarantee if items are not delivered as promised (See: The 10 unicorn startups in SouthEast Asia you should know about / TechSauce).

Established in 2010, “Trax” is a Singaporean tech unicorn that develops computer vision technology for companies that manufacture and retail fast-moving consumer goods. The app is used to “collect, measure and analyze what is happening in physical shelves” (See: What we do / Trax Retail).

With Trax, organizations can reduce the time for manual auditing and maximize their sales. App features also include tools for task prioritization, automated KPI calculations, role-based task lists, reports highlighting gaps and opportunities, targeted questionnaires and surveys, historical store data, geo-located images, and offline reporting capabilities (See: Trax Retail / Google Play Store).

Established in 2012, “Lazada” is the most popular e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. A pioneer in the Southeast Asian eCommerce landscape, Lazada is home to 155,000 sellers and 3,000 brands and serves 560 million users through its marketplace platform. The startup’s services are backed by a broad range of tailored marketing and data service solutions.

Furthermore, the Lazada focuses on providing an excellent customer experience by offering comprehensive customer support, convenient return process, and various payment methods such as cash-on-delivery (See: About us / Lazada).

With Southeast Asia’s growing cluster of unicorns, the region has become more attractive to investors due to its remarkable value creation. As such, unicorn startups in the region are anticipated to increase. Here are some of the apps developed by startups in line to achieve unicorn status:

“iflix” is a free and subscription video streaming service headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The company is focused on providing services in emerging markets such as those in Southeast Asia (See: iflix user base hits 300,000, eyes further expansion / Philippine Daily Inquirer).

The app functions as a digital hosting and distribution platform for Asian, Middle Eastern, and Western TV shows and movies acquired through partnerships with more than 150 international studios and content distributors (See: iflix Claims 1 Mil. Members / Media Business Asia).

“Carousell,” a C2C e-commerce marketplace app developed in 2012, prides itself as “a simple way to sell the clutter.” With this app, buying and selling new or secondhand items can be done more easily and conveniently. Users can immediately list goods they want to sell and use the app’s chat feature to discuss transactions (See: Singapore’s next 3 unicorn startups / Tech Collective).

There have been several unicorn startups that emerged in Southeast Asia for the past years. The continuous economic and technological growth in the region is bound to provide new opportunities for promising unicorns in the coming years. As such, more tech companies will undoubtedly strive harder to reach this coveted position.

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