DealStreetAsia Summit: Southeast Asia has two new unicorns, three more might hit the mark this year

Last year, Southeast Asia minted two unicorns, and three more might hit the mark this year, said a DealStreetAsia spokesperson at the media firm’s PE-VC summit in Jakarta today. This is based on data that the firm collected for its upcoming Southeast Asia startup ecosystem report.

The companies that DSA believes reached the magic US$1 billion valuation mark last year are both based in Singapore: Real estate portal Property Guru, which received a S$200 million (US$147 million) capital injection from KKR in 2018, bringing its total funding to S$440 million (US$324 million). The second firm is Trax, a deep tech startup focusing on image recognition. It raised US$125 million in a private equity round from Boyu Capital in July last year, bringing its total funds raised to US$287 million.

For 2019, DSA predicts, three new unicorns might join the fray: sports media company One Championship, fashion startup Zilingo, and mobile marketplace Carousell.

They would join Southeast Asia’s “old guard” of unicorn companies, which includes ride-hailing and local services juggernauts Grab and Go-Jek, as well as e-commerce marketplace Tokopedia, which are now each considered to be worth multiple billions of dollars.

Editor: Brady Ng