Sea Ltd, a leading Singaporean global consumer internet company and the owner of the e-commerce platform, Shopee, has committed to expanding its investments in Malaysia, creating more than 2,000 jobs in the process. Shopee is the largest pan-regional e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.
China-based e-commerce platform JD.com is said to be closing its e-commerce services in Indonesia and Thailand. JD.com will end its services in Thailand from March 3 and in Indonesia from March 31, its local websites showed. Both shopping sites will stop taking orders on Feb 15. The company will continue to serve global markets, including Southeast Asia, through its supply chain infrastructure.
Almost two years after its birth, Amplifica Capital, the first VC in Mexico to invest in startups led by women or focused on female products, announced the closing of its first fund for US$11 million. With this capital, they plan to add between 10 and 15 companies to the 10 that are already part of their portfolio. In each startup, they will be investing a ticket ranging from US$100,000 to US$500,000. Amplifica Capital currently has around 100 investors, more than 60% of them women.
Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.