Grab's $40B Nasdaq Listing Highlights Southeast Asian Tech Firms

A big change is underway in Asia’s technology industry. As investors avert their eyes from the government-imposed nightmare engulfing China’s internet champions, a cohort of Southeast Asian counterparts is booming, The Economist reported.

Photo Insert: "This moment belongs to our users, #Grabbers, driver-, delivery- and merchant-partners that shone a spotlight on #SoutheastAsia, and powered new possibilities for our region," the company stated via Twitter.

Add up the value ascribed by the market to just three listed and soon-to-be listed consumer-app giants with headquarters in Singapore and Jakarta, and the figure approaches a quarter of a trillion dollars.

Add to that the $70-billion or so combined worth of a whole field of new unicorns—privately-held startups worth $10-billion or more—and Southeast Asia is surely fulfilling hopes, long-held, that a big emerging market consumer-tech sector would rise outside China.

Singapore-based Grab, a consumer-technology firm, listed on America’s Nasdaq by means of a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The record-breaking SPAC transaction is expected to value Grab at $40-billion.

Another giant, GoTo Group, formed from the merger of Indonesia’s Gojek, a ride-hailing firm, with Tokopedia, an e-commerce company, will follow in the first half of 2022.

Sea, largest of the three giants, and parent to regional e-commerce pioneer Shopee was the earliest to list in 2017. The company’s market capitalization has risen eight-fold since the end of 2019, to $160 billion, making it the largest listed company in Southeast Asia.

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