📌 MAROKO133 Hot startup: Indonesia's golden share in GoTo 🇮🇩. US$300B digital
Dear subscribers,
We’re back with your essential roundup of the latest from Indonesia and Southeast Asia’s digital landscape. This week, we’re covering key developments like the GOTO-Grab merger news, the digital economy growth, and shifts in the latest fintech investment.
We are also excited to invite you to an exclusive event: Indonesia Food Resilience Forum 2025. This forum will bring together key stakeholders to discuss innovative steps towards a sustainable food future for Indonesia.
Secure your spot at this strategic discussion by registering here: https://luma.com/75o04yki.
Best regards,
The DailySocial Team
🚨 What’s New
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Indonesia is reportedly considering a “golden share” scheme as a condition for approving the merger between Grab and GoTo. This plan would grant the sovereign wealth fund Danantara a minority stake with special rights in the merged entity’s Indonesian operations. This golden share would provide the government a direct voice in strategic decisions, including driver welfare and pricing, reflecting a desire to oversee a business that would dominate ~90% of the local ride-hailing and delivery market. While internal pressures, such as SoftBank’s push for a CEO change at GoTo, highlight the urgent need for consolidation, both companies officially state that no final agreement has been reached. For the government, this model represents a new approach to regulating a dominant digital platform critical to Indonesia’s gig economy. [Read more]
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Superbank, the digital bank backed by Grab, Singtel, and Emtek, is preparing for a potential IPO that could be the largest for a digital bank in Indonesia, targeting up to IDR5.36 trillion. This move is bolstered by its strong Q3 2025 results, where it booked a pre-tax profit of IDR80.9 billion, grew its customer base to 5 million, and saw credit disbursement surge 84% to IDR9.04 trillion. This robust financial performance, alongside its deep integration with ecosystems like Grab and OVO, strengthens its market position ahead of the listing. However, Superbank’s management has officially declined to comment on the IPO rumors. [Read more]
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NTT Group is launching a dedicated Southeast Asian investment vehicle, Synexia Ventures Pte. Ltd., based in Singapore and scheduled to commence on December 15, 2025. Managed by NTT DOCOMO Ventures and NTT Finance, the fund will target startups in key markets like Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, focusing on strategic sectors including AI, IoT, and smart city solutions. This initiative aims to accelerate open innovation and create new business ventures by combining funding with opportunities for co-creation across NTT’s vast network of telecom, data, and IT services. [Read more]
👏 What’s Exciting
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Grab has announced a strategic investment of US$60 million in Vay, a German company pioneering remote driving technology for driverless car rentals. This initial investment, expected to close in Q4 2025, grants Grab a minority stake and is the first part of a potential US$410 million commitment that could see Grab acquire a majority interest in Vay. The partnership aims to explore how Vay’s cost-efficient, “teledriven” service model—where remote operators deliver and retrieve vehicles for self-driving customers—can complement Grab’s long-term mobility strategy in Southeast Asia. Grab will also leverage its operational expertise to support Vay’s expansion in the U.S., while the driving data collected from Vay’s fleet could accelerate the development of AI for autonomous vehicles.
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Southeast Asia’s digital economy is on a strong trajectory, projected to surpass US$300 billion in GMV in 2025, sustaining a robust 15% year-on-year growth. This momentum is fueled by a decisive shift towards monetization, with revenue growth keeping pace with GMV. Key drivers include a resurgent e-commerce sector, where video commerce now accounts for 25% of GMV, and food delivery, which is on the cusp of profitability. Furthermore, AI is rapidly becoming a core competitive frontier, reshaping consumer journeys from discovery to purchase and driving operational efficiencies. The region’s massive, digitally-engaged population, which shows enthusiasm for AI that exceeds the global average, provides a fertile ground for this continued expansion.
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Standard Chartered has partnered with DCS Card Centre to power DeCard, a new credit card that enables users to make payments at physical merchants using stablecoins. As the principal banking partner, Standard Chartered will provide the backend infrastructure—including transaction processing, fiat and stablecoin settlements, and treasury services—to support seamless, real-world digital asset spending. The service launches first in Singapore, with plans to expand to other markets, marking a significant step in bridging traditional banking with everyday cryptoc…
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🔗 Sumber: dailysocial.id
📌 MAROKO133 Eksklusif startup: Green pilots & capitals emerge 🌱. Komdigi tight
Dear subscribers,
This week’s roundup brings a wave of momentum across Southeast Asia’s tech and innovation landscape. From fresh climate-tech funding in Indonesia and Vietnam, to QRIS preparing cross-border expansion, and regulators tightening digital compliance, the region is buzzing with activity. Southeast Asia is entering 2025 with stronger infrastructure, sharper innovation, and growing global relevance.
We are also excited to invite you to an exclusive event: Indonesia Food Resilience Forum 2025. This forum will bring together key stakeholders to discuss innovative steps towards a sustainable food future for Indonesia.
Secure your spot at this strategic discussion by registering here: https://luma.com/75o04yki.
Best regards,
The DailySocial Team
🚨 What’s New
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The Indonesian-Australian partnership KINETIK announced that five climate-tech startups from its KINETIK NEX programme have been awarded pilot‐funding after pitching at the [RE]Spark 2025 festival in Jakarta. KINETIK The winners, ranging from inclusive electric-mobility and solar water systems to solar-powered sago processing in remote Papua, will implement their innovations using a pooled fund of approximately IDR 1.6 billion. KINETIK The initiative underlines the focus on locally led green innovation across Indonesia’s diverse geographies.
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Vietnamese VC firm Touchstone Partners has launched a US $10 million “Green Transition Fund” targeting early-stage climate tech startups throughout Southeast Asia. The fund exemplifies the region’s growing appetite for sustainability-driven venture capital and aligns with global net-zero ambitions. Deployment is anticipated to begin in December 2025.
👏 What’s Exciting
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Indonesia’s digital payments system, the QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesia Standard), is set to expand cross-border into China and South Korea by 2026, according to Bank Indonesia. This move signals a major shift toward integrated regional payment infrastructure, enabling Indonesian consumers and merchants to transact seamlessly abroad.
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The Indonesian regulatory authority Kementerian Komunikasi dan Digital (Komdigi) has threatened to block services such as ChatGPT and Cloudflare, Inc. for failing to register as private electronic system providers (PSE) under national law. The notification issued covers 25 organisations, signalling heightened digital-sovereignty enforcement in Indonesia’s tech ecosystem. Non-registration could lead to service termination, putting major global platforms on notice.
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Logistics player J&T Express reported a record surge in parcel volumes during the year-end peak season: +78 % year-on-year in Southeast Asia and +83 % in new markets. The boom underscores sustained e-commerce momentum and logistical scaling across the region. Riders, fulfilment centres and tech infrastructure are all under pressure as growth accelerates.
Fazpass is positioning its Intelligent Authentication (FIA) as the future of OTP verification by addressing core business challenges with a shift to a Monthly Active User (MAU) pricing model. This approach offers companies predictable costs with unlimited OTPs, moving away from the variable, per-message charges of traditional vendors. Coupled with AI-driven authentication designed to improve success rates and reduce user friction, Fazpass aims to provide a more scalable, secure, and cost-effective verification solution for businesses in 2026 and beyond.For more capability information: https://fazpass.com.
🚀 What’s Next
The 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome highlights Southeast Asia’s accelerating momentum, with Jakarta jumping four positions to become the world’s #2 Emerging Startup Ecosystem. Unlike other climbers, Jakarta’s rise wasn’t driven by a major exit. Wuxi climbed to #1 after a 67% surge in $50M+ exits, and Riyadh leapt rankings thanks to rasan.co’s $1.1B exit. Jakarta’s improvement instead reflects broader, steady strengthening across early-stage activity, a rare organic shift in today’s exit-driven landscape.
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