1. GRAB – Country: Singapore
Grab Holdings Inc., commonly known as Grab, is a Southeast Asian technology company headquartered in Singapore and Indonesia. In addition to transportation, the company offers food delivery and digital payments services via a mobile app. Grab currently operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. It is recognised as being Southeast Asia’s first decacorn (A decacorn is a private, venture-backed company with a value exceeding $10 billion). It is considered the biggest technology startup in the region, with it’s recent growth powered by it’s ‘super app’.
2. Sea Limited (Shopee, SeaMoney, Garena) – Country: Singapore
Sea Limited is a tech conglomerate headquartered in Singapore. Established in 2009 by Forrest Li, Sea was initially founded as Garena, a game development and publishing company known for its Free Fire title. The company rebranded itself under the present-day Sea brand in May 2017 after securing funding worth US$550mn, although the Garena brand was retained for its digital entertainment arm.
Sea currently functions as a holding company for Garena, SeaMoney, and Shopee, all massive successes in their own right. Garena is a leading advocate and organiser of Esports events in Greater Southeast Asia, SeaMoney is a leading digital payments and financial services provider and as of 2021, Shopee is widely considered as the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia with 343 million monthly visitors.
3. Tokopedia – Country: Indonesia
Tokopedia is a tech company that provides a C2C business platform for buyers and merchants.
Since its founding in 2019, Tokopedia has been a force that pioneers digital transformation in Indonesia, consistently building a bridge to connect millions of people, Tokopedia has now reached more than 99% of districts and empowers more than 10 million merchants across the archipelago.
Tokopedia is works alongside various strategic partners through the marketplace, logistics, payments, and financial technology businesses, while also providing more than 500,000 payment points across Indonesia, and offering more than 42 digital products that simplify the lives of many.
With more than 100 million users, Tokopedia claims to have contributed driving more than 1% of the whole economy in Indonesia.
4. Bukalapak – Country: Indonesia
One of the largest e-commerce companies in Indonesia, Bukalapak was the fourth unicorn startup in the country (reaching a valuation of a billion dollars). Bukalapak was the largest listing ever on the Indonesian Stock Exchange at the time of its IPO in 2021, when it managed to raise up to US$1.5bn.
The Indonesian ecommerce powerhouse said its revenue jumped 58% to 484 billion rupiah (around US$33.8mn) in the third quarter of 2021, following an acceleration in its Mitra Bukalapak business, which focuses on serving SMEs.
5. Lazada – Country: Singapore
Lazada claims to be the number one online shopping and selling destination in Southeast Asia – present in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The company helps more than 100,000 local and international sellers, as well as 2,500 brands, serve the 560 million consumers in the region through its marketplace platform, supported by a wide range of tailored marketing, data, and service solutions.
They are owned by one of China’s biggest companies, the Alibaba Group.
