Asia-based insurtechs raised $7.4B in funding between 2018 and 2022, fueling a group of startups across the insurance landscape — especially in personal lines coverage and distribution channels.

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The active investors were mainly from China and Hong Kong. Most of the investments went to companies based in the US, followed by Singapore and India.

Asia-based investors funding blockchain companies globally

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In our State of Venture 2021: Asia Report, we dive into Asia’s investment trends and sector takeaways, including:

• How much startup funding was raised in Asia, and how it compares with the rest of the world
• Which country in Asia took the lead in funding and deals in 2021
• The record unicorn count and unicorn births in 2021
• 2021’s M&A, IPO, and SPAC exits in Asia
• Asia’s top-funded sector in 2021

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For example, China-based livestreaming app Kuaishou went public a few weeks ago following stellar gross merchandise volume growth in 2020, while payment unicorn Klarna recently partnered with ShopShops to offer livestream shopping during its second virtual shopping event.

Livestreaming commerce has also captured executives’ attention recently, with mentions on earnings calls soaring in 2020.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• China leads the way: Livestreaming is expected to generate up to 20% of China’s total e-commerce sales by 2022 — doubling its share from 2020 — according to estimates by HSBC and Qianhai Securities. Chinese live video platforms such as Kuaishou and Bytedance are quickly adding commerce features, while e-commerce leaders such as Alibaba and JD.com have both ramped up their livestreaming efforts in the past year, including a push in Europe from Alibaba’s AliExpress.
• Livestreaming is slowly gaining traction in North America: Amazon has been experimenting with livestream shopping for some time and holds several patents in the space. During its Prime Day event in November 2020, the company actively promoted its Amazon Live feature by working with its network of influencers to promote exclusive deals on select products. More recently, US-based TV shopping player QVC debuted a livestream shopping channel on YouTube TV.

What’s next?

• Luxury brands and esports companies will move to popularize livestreaming outside of China: While luxury brands have been experimenting with livestream shopping in China, the pandemic has pushed a number of them to start livestreaming runway shows in other regions. For example, Burberry livestreamed its spring/summer 2021 collection show on US-based Twitch, a popular livestreaming platform among gamers.
• More social media platforms will make live videos shoppable: Facebook launched Instagram Live Shopping in the US at the end of 2020, making it possible for sellers to tag products when they go live for viewers to buy. Tiktok is also reportedly working on a livestream shopping feature, which could further boost livestream commerce penetration outside of China.
• Startups want to make shoppable content tech more accessible: Startups such as Mai and Instreamatic are using artificial intelligence to make it easier to add shopping features to visual and audio content respectively. These tools aim to help content creators, including brands and retailers, to offer livestream shopping experiences on their own platforms.
• Livestreaming technology partners will become essential for brands and retailers: As livestream commerce becomes more popular, brands and retailers — looking to boost their return on investment — will drive up demand for technology partners that can help offer high-quality streaming and convenient purchasing experiences.

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This included massive $1B+ rounds to companies including China-based internet logistics company Manbang Group, Indonesia-based delivery platform Gojek, and India-based telecom giant Reliance Jio.

Using CB Insights data, we identified the most well-funded VC-backed tech startups in the region, based on disclosed equity funding. Collectively, the startups on our map have raised over $61.4B.

See the full infographic below and the complete list of startups at the end of this post.

Our analysis ranks companies based on total disclosed equity funding and only considers private tech companies that have raised at least $1M of equity funding. Companies included have all raised equity funding since 2016. To give a robust picture of the top tech startups in the region, we include Hong Kong and Taiwan separately from China.

Please click to enlarge.

key takeaways 

• The most well-funded startup across Asia and the Pacific is India-based Reliance Jio, with over $20B in total disclosed equity funding, the vast majority of which it raised in 2020. In fact, the telecom giant raised more in 2020 than all India-based tech startups combined raised in 2019.
• Reliance Jio is closely followed by China’s Ant Group, with $19.1B raised. These leaders far outpace the rest of the region, with more than double the funding of the next runner-up (Singapore-based Grab, with $9.2B in funding).
• 5 of the 19 companies featured in our map are unicorns valued at $1B+: Grab ($14.3B, Singapore), Gojek ($10B, Indonesia), Lalamove ($10B, Hong Kong), Coupang ($9B, South Korea), and Airwallex ($1.8B, Australia). Note: Ant Group and Reliance Jio do not meet our “unicorn” definition, due to their relationships with Alibaba and Jio Platforms, respectively. 
• The Asia-Pacific region is home to 19 countries or regions in which the most well-funded tech startup has raised at least $1M in funding. Of those, 6 companies have raised more than $1B.
• The company with the least amount of funding on our map is Sri Lanka-based telemedicine startup oDoc, which has raised $1.1M in seed funding.

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Formerly known as Ant Financial, the Hangzhou, China-based Ant Group is aiming to raise $34B in its highly anticipated debut. The offerings value Ant at close to $313B, making it the most valuable fintech company in the world.

Against the backdrop of rising US-China tensions, Ant Group is planning to offer shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai instead of pursuing a US-based listing.

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While the region is considered to have relatively limited access to financial services — about 70% of consumers are unbanked/underbanked, according to a report by Bain, Google, and Temasek — rising smartphone penetration and rapid e-commerce growth are driving an increase in the use of financial services. Fintech startups in the region are already offering services like point-of-sale financing, merchant solutions, wealth management platforms, and more.

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From 2015 through the end of Q2’20, investors poured a total of $3.6B in equity funding into Japan- and South Korea-based fintech companies across 416 deals.

However, even as combined funding reached a new high in 2019, the countries’ storylines have begun to diverge, with South Korea appearing more open to financial services innovation than Japan.

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Recent economic uncertainty has impacted the CVC outlook, and some corporates may be holding back on investment until a return to normalcy. However, some firms are charging ahead.

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As the older adult population grows, senior care and wellness are receiving increasing attention. Since late 2019, news mentions of the topics have surged, according to the CB Insights News Mention Tool.

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VC DEALS TO US-BASED COMPANIES SEE QUARTERLY INCREASE BUT ARE DOWN 18% YOY IN Q2’20 

1,374 US deals take place in Q2’20, up from 1,336 in Q1’20. Despite the quarterly increase, Q2’20 deals fall 18% YoY.

Source: PwC CB Insights MoneyTree Report Q2 2020

ASIA SEES THE LARGEST QUARTERLY INCREASE IN DEALS AMONG GEOGRAPHIES 

Deal activity in Asia rises 20% in Q2’20, compared to 9% in Europe and 3% in North America. 

Source: PwC CB Insights MoneyTree Report Q2 2020

IPO EXITS JUMP WHILE M&A ACTIVITY FALLS IN THE PANDEMIC

After three quarters of declines, 24 US-based, VC-backed companies exit in IPOs in Q2’20, up from 15 in Q1’20. On the other hand, M&A activity sees sharp declines, falling to 120 exits in Q2’20 vs. 155 in Q1’20.

Source: PwC CB Insights MoneyTree Report Q2 2020

Access previous Venture Capital Funding Reports

• MoneyTree Report Q1 2020
• MoneyTree Report Q4 2019
• MoneyTree Report Q3 2019
• MoneyTree Report Q2 2019
• MoneyTree Report Q1 2019

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When the pandemic first broke out in China in January 2020, the country saw crowded hospitals and growing fears around the virus. This led many people to rethink how they sought medical care.

As a result, several Chinese telehealth platforms — many of which have raised hundreds of millions in funding — have stepped in to take on some of the most important roles within healthcare services, from triaging patients to fulfilling prescription refills. Though not a new technology, telehealth has seen renewed demand in China amid the crisis, with many companies like Ping An Good Doctor, We Doctor, and Haodaifu reporting significant uptick in usage.

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Those who are unfamiliar with the name ByteDance have most likely heard of its flagship product, TikTok. As of May 2020, the viral video app has been downloaded approximately 2B times.

The onset of the global coronavirus pandemic and the associated lockdowns have further accelerated TikTok’s trajectory. In Q1’20 alone, TikTok accumulated 315M new downloads worldwide — a record-breaking quarter for an individual app, according to Sensor Tower.

As of spring 2020, ByteDance operates more than 20 apps in spaces ranging from news and video to music and mobile gaming. Some, like TikTok, are international in scope. Others, like the news aggregator product Toutiao, have so far only been made available in China.

With each new product it launches, ByteDance leverages the same 3 key advantages it has cultivated in its core business areas like news curation and short-form video:

• A young and highly engaged user base. Like Facebook before it, ByteDance is leveraging an audience of actively engaged young people to facilitate its growth. In the US, 60% of TikTok users reportedly fall between the ages of 16 and 24. Worldwide, two-thirds are under the age of 30.
• Products engineered for virality. With TikTok, ByteDance appears to have tapped into something powerful in the way that users currently want to engage with content. The top 50 content creators on TikTok have more followers than the populations of Mexico, Canada, the UK, and Australia combined.
• Personalization and recommendation algorithms. One way to think of ByteDance is not so much as a creator of content platforms, but as an artificial intelligence laboratory that specializes in developing algorithms that can match users with content, from video and music to news and e-commerce.

ByteDance is jockeying for a spot alongside global tech leaders like Google, Facebook, Amazon, as well as their China-based counterparts Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba. But a permanent place in Big Tech is far from guaranteed.

Concerns about ByteDance’s approach to user privacy are mounting and established tech companies and startups alike are singling ByteDance out as a threat, launching products to compete with it directly.

ByteDance will have to prove its viral products are more than a craze.

In this report, we look at ByteDance’s expanding product portfolio, highlighting how its core advantages play out in each product. We’ll also examine how the company is expanding its geographic reach, focusing on its expansion in 3 critical markets: China, India, and the US.

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In its recent Q1 earnings call, NIO reported narrowing operating losses and an expected all-time high in vehicle deliveries in Q2. Separately, the company announced that it hit record deliveries in May.

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Last quarter, healthcare funding deals fell 6% compared to Q4’19. China’s healthcare deal count dropped to its lowest level since Q2’17. 

All signs seemed to point to sluggish healthcare funding activity in 2020 — but data from Q2 suggests it could already be rebounding. 

Below, we look at the Q2’20 global healthcare funding trends that point to a more promising year ahead.  

Q2’20 is on track to be a strong quarter for global healthcare funding

Healthcare companies around the world raised over $8.8B across 672 deals between April 1, 2020 and May 24, 2020.

At this pace of funding activity, Q2’20 could close with over $15B in funding and almost 1180 deals, which would make it one of the strongest healthcare funding quarters in the last 3 years. 

The projections, based on the current run rate, show a 6% jump in funding compared to Q1’20 and an 11% increase year-over-year. Deal volume could also see a 2% boost quarter-over-quarter. 

Funding to Asia-based healthcare companies could rebound while North America sees a dip 

Despite the global upward funding trend, the projected funding rebound for Q2’20 currently varies by continent.

In aggregate, funding to healthcare companies based in North America could see a significant quarterly decline. 

On the flip side, Asian and European countries could land a strong quarter — suggesting that re-opening and recovery efforts have positively affected healthcare funding growth. This could be a positive sign for countries in North America and other parts of the world that are further behind in re-opening their economies. 

For Asia, Q2’20 is projected to pull in the most healthcare quarterly funding for the region to date with $4.8B set to be raised, beating the record set in Q3’18. This boom is largely driven by $100M+ mega-rounds on the continent, especially in China, which has started to see economic recovery from the pandemic.

Five of the 14 mega-rounds raised from April 1 through May 24 went to China-based companies. This includes a whopping $1B round for MGI Tech, a BGI Genomics-affiliated manufacturer of DNA sequencing instruments. 

Meanwhile, US-based companies pulled in 8 mega-rounds over the same period, worth a combined $1.1B. Erasca closed the largest round from this cohort, raising a $200M Series B co-led by ARCH Venture Partners and Cormorant Asset Management. The company says it will use the funding to further its pipeline of oncology therapies. 

Global digital health funding is on the decline

For digital health companies, the mid-quarter data points to a different story: global digital health funding levels could see a 16% quarterly decline and a 31% nosedive year-over-year. 

Similar to the trend in global healthcare funding activity described above, the quarterly drop is driven by declining funding to digital health companies based in North America — which could dip by 25% from Q1’20.

Notably, US-based digital health companies are on pace to pull in just under $2.4B in Q2’20, an almost $800M drop from Q1. The associated deal count is also projected to decrease to 208 over the same period, down from 231 in the previous quarter.

The biggest deal to a US-based digital health company in Q2’20 so far was telehealth company Amwell‘s $134M round. Amwell has reportedly filed to go public later this year, adding to the momentum from the Covid-driven surge in demand for telehealth services. 

See more healthcare trends in our State Of Healthcare Q1’20 Report.

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The majority — 15 out of 20 — of Asia-based AI unicorns are in China. TikTok-owner Bytedance remains the top-funded AI unicorn, with $4.4B raised and an enormous valuation of $75B. Rounding out the top 3 are facial recognition giants SenseTime and Megvii (known for its Face++ services), which notched $6B and $4B valuations respectively.

The only startup based outside of China to break into the top 10 most well-funded, Asia-based AI unicorns is Trax. The Singapore-based company, valued at $1.3B, focuses on computer vision solutions for retail.

For more funding trends, valuation data, and geographic spotlights, clients can check out CB Insights’ interactive Story on AI In Asia: The Impact Of Covid-19 On Funding, Exits, Valuations, And R&D.

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Despite the market volatility wrought by the virus, China invested heavily in AI infrastructure to combat Covid-19. Tech giants like Alibaba and Baidu stepped up to hone diagnostics tools and virus analysis algorithms; and AI heavyweight SenseTime deployed contactless temperature detection software as well as a biometric identification system for people wearing masks. 

Below, we spotlight funding trends in the China AI space, top areas of investor focus, and the most well-funded AI startups in the country. 

Funding trends

AI startups in China saw financing jump by 63% QoQ with $545M raised — nearly half of all AI financing in Asia in the first quarter of the year. This increase comes after an 81% rundown since Q3’17, but funding is still down 59% YoY. Deal count hit a 3 year low, with 52 deals. 

Seed-stage deal share plunged to an all-time low of 13% in Q1, underscoring the effort to double down on later-stage bets. Mid-stage deal share also surpassed early-stage in Q1’20 to reach 50% of all deals.  

Areas of focus

The areas that have garnered the most investor attention over the past 5 years are: speech/NLP(G)/computer vision, which has garnered $6.1B across 163 deals; finance and insurance, with $1.3B spanning 88 deals; and healthcare, which has raised $585M across 102 deals. 

The US has recently placed China-based facial and voice recognition startups under greater scrutiny due to privacy concerns. In October 2019, the US government blacklisted top China-based AI startups from purchasing tech from US companies without approval. 

However, commercial opportunities for biometric AI startups have flourished in China. In addition to the biometric identification system, SenseTime also struck a partnership in Q2 with the People’s Bank of China — which has announced plans for a national digital currency — to build out AI-focused fintech solutions. 

Most well-funded AI startups

TikTok parent Bytedance, valued at $140B, holds the title for the top-funded AI startup, with $3.1B in total funding. In second place is facial recognition firm SenseTime, with $2.6B under its belt. Electric vehicle maker NIO, which went public in September 2018, is third on the list, with $2.2B (including pre-IPO funding). 

For more funding trends, valuation data, and geographic spotlights, clients can check out CB Insights’ interactive Story on AI In Asia: The Impact Of Covid-19 On Funding, Exits, Valuations, And R&D.

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Deals to Asia-based AI companies in Q1’20 fell 10% from Q4’19, hitting 171 and representing a 5-quarter low. Funding, however, increased by 5% QoQ to more than $1.1B, though still below recent highs.

Most of these deals — 66% — went to early-stage AI companies, though early-stage deal share slipped from 77% in Q4’19. Mid-stage deal share saw a jump in Q1’20 compared to the prior quarter, up to 27% from 14%.

Some of the most well-funded AI startups based in Asia include social media app TikTok’s owner Bytedance, with over $3.1B in funding, and AI startup SenseTime, with over $2.6B in funding.

For more data and insights, clients can check out CB Insights’ Story on AI In Asia: The Impact Of Covid-19 On Funding, Exits, Valuations, And R&D.

The post How Did AI Companies In Asia Fare In Q1’20? appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Funding to Asia-based fintech startups dropped nearly 70% in Q1’20 from the prior quarter, while deals fell 23%.

For the first time in 5 quarters, funding to India-based fintech startups exceeded that of China-based fintech startups. This was in part due to Covid-19, as China shut down first to fight its spread.

As such, the country saw its worst quarter for fintech funding since 2015, with 29 deals totaling $175M in Q1’20, down 41% in funding quarter-over-quarter.

Both China and India saw 29 deals to fintech-based startups, down 12% from 33 each in Q4’19. Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia also saw deals to fintech startups dip in Q1’20.

As the first country to fight and start to recover from the coronavirus, what happens next in China could be a gauge of what’s ahead for fintech as the virus takes its toll across other regions.

For more information and more insights on fintech funding trends in Q1’20, take a look at CB Insights’ State Of Fintech Q1’20 Report: Investment & Sector Trends To Watch.

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Search engine Baidu reportedly controls around 70% of the search market in China; e-commerce giant Alibaba accounts for half of all online retail sales in China; and gaming and internet giant Tencent is one of the world’s largest game publishers.

However, these 3 tech titans have also moved to expand beyond their core businesses, snapping up 158 companies over the last 2 decades across industries like autonomous driving and online food delivery.

Similarly, FAMGA (Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple) has also cut big checks — even amid Covid-19 — to grow their reach. We visualize FAMGA’s biggest acquisitions in this post.

Using CB Insights M&A data, we look at BAT’s billion-dollar acquisitions below.

Please click to enlarge.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Collectively, there have been 14 billion-dollar acquisitions by Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent to date.
• With 11 billion-dollar deals under its belt, Alibaba is by far the most active big spender out of the 3 giants. Tencent has inked 2 billion-dollar acquisitions, while Baidu has closed 1.
• The largest acquisition (by company valuation) on our timeline is Alibaba’s purchase of logistics giant Cainiao, which valued the company at $20B. Alibaba first acquired a majority stake in Cainiao in 2017, but upped its stake with an additional $3.3B investment 2 years later at an even higher valuation of $27.5B.
• Rounding out the top 3 acquisitions are video game developer Supercell, which Tencent purchased from SoftBank in 2016, and online food delivery platform Ele.me, which was acquired by Alibaba in 2018.
• Baidu’s purchase of Android app distributor 91 Wireless in 2013 was the first $1B+ buy from the trio.
• The most recent billion-dollar acquisition was Alibaba’s $1.8B acquisition of cross-border e-commerce platform Kaola. Alibaba announced at the time that it would integrate the platform with Alibaba’s own online retail arm, Tmall.
• 2019 tied with 2016 and 2014 for the most active year for $1B+ purchases, with 3 acquisitions each.

For more on tech giants, check out our infographic visualizing FAMGA’s billion-dollar acquisitions.

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In Q1’20, deals to Asia-based AI startups declined for the second consecutive quarter after a record Q3’19. Exits hit a 9-quarter low, despite countries in the region doubling down on AI-enabled solutions to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. 

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Deals to China-based healthcare companies fell 39% compared to the quarter prior, with just 100 healthcare deals in the country as Covid-19 pushed investment appetite down.

The number of mega-rounds ($100M+) to China-based companies also fell, from 8 rounds in Q4’19 to just 3 in Q1’20.

More specifically, the digital health space in China saw a large decline, with funding down 52% and deals down 51% quarter-over-quarter since Q4’19.

Telehealth companies, however, saw a spike in utilization for their services as patients turned to online visits.

The largest China-based digital health financing in the quarter went to Zhangshang Tangyi, a mobile diabetes management app that allows patients to record their own health data. It raised a $144M Series D in January from investors including Samsung, Talsy Capital, and SIG Asia Investments.

For more information and additional insights into healthcare funding trends, check out our State Of Healthcare Q1’20 Report: Investment & Sector Trends To Watch.

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