With the recent US9.4M acquisition of food portal HungryGoWhere by SingTel, now’s a good time for us to take a look back at past acquisitions of technology startups in Southeast Asia. Here’s a cheatsheet of exits in the past few years, covering Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. Let us know if we missed out on any company, or if you have any feedback on how to improve the list.

Singapore

HungryGoWhere
A food portal with reviews and ratings contributed by users.
- Acquired for S$12M (US$9.4M) by SingTel
- Announced on 22nd May, 2012
- Founded in 2007
More info: SGE

Peekspy
The company’s site, Fanvenues, allows users to peek into concert and sports venues in 3D so as to make better purchase decisions about tickets.
- Acquired by eBay-owned Stubhub, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 8th March, 2012
- Founded in May 2008
More info: SGE, Wesley Oxenham’s blog

AdMax Network
Digital media network
- Acquired by Komli Media from Mumbai, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 29th February 2012
- Founded in 2006
More info: StartupCentral.in

OrSiSo
Social media dashboard
- Intellectual property rights acquired by SingTel, Terms undisclosed
- Announced on 21st September, 2011
- Founded in 2008
More info: SGE

BigDeal.sg
A daily deals site
- Acquired by NTUC Link, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 1st September, 2011
- Founded in May 2010
More info: SGE

Aktiv Digital
Ad network platform
- Acquired by Komli Media (Mumbai), terms undisclosed
- Announced on 4th June, 2011
- Founded in 2007
More info: SGE

JobsCentral Group
Jobs search portal
- Acquiredby US jobs site Career Builder,terms undisclosed
- Announced on 3rd May 2011
- Founded in 2000
More info: SGE

Brandtology
Online brand monitoring and business intelligence
- Acquired by Australia’s Media Monitors, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 17th February, 2011
- Founded in 2008
More info: SGE, Brandtology

Beeconomic
Daily deals site
- Acquired by Groupon, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 1st December, 2010
- Founded in May 2010
More info: SGE

TransferTo
Mobile payment transfer company
- 90% shares acquired for US$38M by payment and security specialist Ingenico, up from 35% stake
- Announced on 4th August, 2010
More info: GoMoNews, SGE, VentureBeat

TenCube
Mobile security startup
- Acquisition by McAfee estimated at S$6.8M (US$5M) or S$15M (US$11M)
- Announced on 29th July, 2010
- Founded in June 2005
More info: Digital Life

ShowNearby
Top mobile directory app in Singapore
- Majority stake of 53.13 percent at US$3.5M by Global Yellow Pages
- Announced on 9th July, 2010
- Started in November 2007
More info: The Edge Singapore

HardwareZone
IT Media company
- Acquired by Singapore Press Holdings for S$7.1M (US$4.5M)
- Announced on 29th September, 2006
- Founded in 1998
More info: SPH, Wikipedia

Indonesia

Gamesaku
iOS games review site
- Acquired by Indonesian company Apps Foundry, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 9th May, 2012
More info: TechinAsia

MakeMac
Biggest community website for Mac and iOS fans in Indonesia
- Acquired by Indonesian company Apps Foundry, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 16th February 2012
More info: TechinAsia

Detik.com
Online news portal
- Acquired by Para Group for US$60M
- Announced on 4th August, 2011
- Launched in 1997
More info: SGE, DailySocial.net

Rumah123.com
Claims to be Indonesia’s largest property portal
- Acquired by IPGA, which owns iProperty, for US$ 1.6M in cash and seven million shares
- Announced on 28th May, 2011
More info: iProperty, DailySocial.net

Rumahdanproperti.com
Indonesia’s third largest property portal
- Acquired by IPGA, which owns iProperty, for US$300k in cash and another US$200k subject to conditions
- Announced on 28th May, 2011
More info: iProperty, DailySocial.net

Disdus
Daily deals site
- Acquired by Groupon, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 6th April, 2011
- Launched in August 2010
More info: DailySocial.net

Rumah.com
Claims to be Indonesia’s top property website
- Acquired by PropertyGuru, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 7th February, 2011
- Founded in 2007
More info: PropertyGuru

Koprol
Location-based social service
- Acquired by Yahoo!, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 25th May, 2010
- Started in 2008
More info: eweek, e27

Philippines

FlowersExpress
Online flower delivery site
- Acquired by IslandRose.net, terms undisclosed
- Announced 30th October 2011
- Started in 2005
More info: YugaTech

Chikka
Wireless application service provider, known for its instant messenger
- Acquired bySmart Communications  for PHP750M (US$16M)
- Announced 10th November, 2009
Source: YugaTech

Sulit.com.ph
Leading classified ads site in Philippines
- 51 percent stake acquired by MIH at estimated US$1M
- Announced 3rd July, 2009
- Founded in 2006
More info: YugaTech

Entertainment Gateway Group
One of the leading mobile content providers in the Philippines, offering value-added services for mobile including music downloads, news & information, games, chat, and web to mobile messaging.
-Acquired by Globe Telecom for PHP351M (US$7.83M)
- Announced on 5th August, 2008
- Started in 2001
More info: YugaTech

Digiwave Solutions
Online gambling software developer
- Acquired by Philippines-listed entertainment group Premiere Entertainment Productions for P50 million (about US$1.24M)
- Announced on 29th Feb 2008
More info: CasinoMeister

Airborne Access Corp
Wireless fidelity firm
- 51% share acquired by ePLDT in 2005 for undisclosed amount
- Announced in 2005
More info: GMANetwork

Malaysia

Carlist.my
Car portal
- 50% stake acquired by Catcha Media estimated at around RM5M (US$1.5M)  in Dec 2011, complete acquisition on 23rd Feb, 2012
- Started in 2007
More info: Catcha Media, Entrepreneurs.my

Groupsmore
Daily deals site
- Acquired by Groupon, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 26th Jan, 2011
- Started in 2010
More info: Entrepreneurs.my articles here and here

Octazen Solutions
Contact importing from one service to another
- Talent acquisition by Facebook, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 19th Feb, 2010
More info: GigaOm, TechCrunch 

Thailand

Zest Interactive
Thailand’s leading games distributor and payment gateway company
- Acquired by Malaysia’s MOL Global, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 25th July, 2011
- Started in 2006
More info: SGE, Techielobang

Dealkeren and parent company Ensogo
Ensogo is a daily deals company headquartered in Thailand and operating in Philippines and in Indonesia as Dealkeren
- Acquired by Living Social, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 27th June, 2011
- Started in 2009
More info: DailySocial.net, Wikipedia

Original image: nanquimvirtual

TMG’s games can be found at mobile social networks mig33, kotagames.com, and Mozat. With the investment, they aim to produce 10 more mobile games and acquire 2.5 million more users.

Previously, TMG received a S$500,000 seed funding from Innosight Ventures. Their new investor, One97MobilityFund, was also involved in the funding of mobile security company TenCube, which was acquired by McAfee last year.

Event Details

When: Thu, 14 July
Time: 7pm-8pm
Where: hackerspace.sg, 70A Bussorah Street, Singapore 199483 (Map)
Register here.

The Award, started in 1975, is Singapore’s highest recognition for under 35s who have excelled in areas like entrepreneurship, science, and the arts.

TenCube was acquired by security juggernaut McAfee in 2010 for more than US$10 million (S$12.3 million). Their flagship product is the WaveSecure, which allows mobile phone users to protect their lost or stolen devices and the data inside them.

Darius now works as the director of consumer mobile technologies for McAfee in Singapore.

The other winners of the Award include youth community leader Terence Chia, geneticist Teo Yik Ying, and filmmaker Boo Junfeng.

• RIM’s run in with Saudi Arabia, India and Russia for the Blackberry: In the three kingdoms world between iPhone, Android and Blackberry, the secure server for RIM now gets requests from different governments that they need a local server.
• Thoughts on the resignation of Mark Hurd from HP and how it might impact Palm.
• FlutterScape gets $100k in seed funding: They raised 0.5M and is a e-commerce site set up by an Indonesian founder in Japan. We chat about what Flutterscape is about and make a guess who might be the possible investor.
• Google, Verizon and the Net Neutrality issue: With a big wildfire spreading across US tech pundits on the Google-Verizon proposal on net neutrality, the panel discussed the impact that it might have on Asia. Of course, we have also Facebook playing the nice guy for a change.
• Boot.HK: We have a brief discussion about the Hackerspace in Hong Kong.

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• Events: BlinkBl-nk 6, TenCube party & Blackberry Developer Event.

Note that the show ends at 48th minute. :)

• Google not blocked in China & Yahoo using Google Search in Japan: So, Google and China have come to terms and Yahoo Japan is using Google instead of Bing. Well, what’s going on with Google these days in East Asia? Why are they having difficulties in getting the market share in those regions?
• ComScore’s report on the State of Internet in Asia Pacific: How does these numbers tell us about the web and mobile scene in our region? The crew takes a cut on the issues involved.
• Google vs Baidu now in Mobile Search: With the Android platform being adopted by more Chinese handset vendors, developers and even telcos, Baidu is now seeking to turn Android on its head to Google. Will Google get a big market share for Android in China but not make enough money with the Chinese mobile-web scene making modifications to the Android OS and leaving Google out?
• Zynga gets US$150M from Japan’s Softbank: Yes, SoftBank in Japan has invested into Zynga and no guesses needed on social gaming. How does that impact Japan’s social games market and the strategy for Softbank overall?
• Long Queues for iPad, Starcraft II & iPhone 4: The crew talks about how Southeast Asians get their phones similar to the long queues in US for iPhones. We chatted about the scene in Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore and the psychology of the consumers in waiting for the product launch that they are willing to pay for.
• TenCube to be acquired by McAfee: The next big news since Yahoo acquired Koprol in southeast Asia, TenCube, a mobile security start-up in Singapore has made the news with an acquisition from McAfee. The crew discuss the history, trials & tribulations and milestones for TenCube in the past few years and as usual, make their own educated guess on the valuation to how much the company is sold with thoughts on the acquisition from James Chan, Neoteny Labs.
• Everyone is talking about where Smithy is these days: Seems that the tech blogs in Singapore and Indonesia is interested in where Smithy is checking in. We get some updates on Koprol and how it is like to be “stalked” by tech pundits
• Foound is officially released in Singapore iTunes Store for now: We look forward to be able to download in other parts of the world, like US and UK. You can download via this link.

With the WaveSecure locate, lock, back-up and wipe technology, Trust Digital‘s enterprise mobility management (McAfee acquired Trust Digital two months ago), McAfee will be able to “deliver the industry’s most complete next generation mobility platform”.

“Mobile devices have become an extension of our lives. Through this acquisition, McAfee can broaden its security capabilities and offer users protection and remote control of the phone whether it is in their possession or not. This means no more worries about the whereabouts of your phone or losing personal contacts, photos or messages,” Darius Cheung, CEO of tenCube.

WaveSecure is currently available in English, Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesia but McAfee will be expanding the language support when the acquisition is complete.

You may be interested to know that Darius Cheung was with the SGE team and wrote a brilliant piece titled The Gold Digger’s Pants back in 2006. I won’t ruin it for you, but it has a great takeaway, something it seems Darius himself has made sure he followed.

The five-year old company was founded with the aim of providing a solution to the problem of lost phone. WaveSecure allows phone users peace of mind–with this mobile security service, users can automatically back-up their data, remotely lock their phones or even wipe their mobile devices. WaveSecure is now available for five platforms (Android, Java, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile). While the Singapore Police Force was one of the first users of WaveSecure, its popularity and realiability has seen its adoption by leading phone companies, as well as by prostitutes and pimps to keep client data safe from cops!

tenCube goes to California

Silicon Valley has the reputation of being the leading high-tech hub because of its concentration of innovative entrepreneurs and engineers, as well as venture capital funds and angel investors. That tenCube can make a splash in such a crowd is something it should be proud of:

In May, tenCube wowed the crowds at the Plug and Play EXPO in Sunnyvale, California. The EXPO was a platform for promising startups from fields as diverse as media, mobile, wireless and clean technology to launch their offerings and/or seek further funding. tenCube was one of only three companies selected out of an initial field of 200 to pitch to a panel of top venture capitalists.

Following that, in June tenCube was further affirmed at the Launch: Silicon Valley Conference, when the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley Angels and Venture Capitalists selected it as one of 6 companies most likely to to succeed. tenCube was the award winner in the Next Generation Internet 1 catagory.

“Launch: Silicon Valley has grown to become a major Silicon Valley event showcasing the products and services from the most exciting of the newest startups from around the world,” said Chris Gill, president and CEO of SVASE.

According to SVASE, previous event finalists have gone on to raise more than $300 million (caveat: this is calculated from publically available information only). We believe that both Plug and Play EXPO and Launch: Silicon Valley Conference  the way for tenCube to reach out from its Sunnyvale offices into the wider international market.

• DeNA Reports USD100M On Quarterly Profit and focus on social apps business: We examine the landscape of mobile social gaming, and how the fight is now intensified between DeNA and Gree with a lawsuit over a fishing game on Japanese handsets.
• Google Losing Default Mobile Search Engine Position On Docomo i-mode Portal, A Gate To Half Of Japanese Mobile Web: Google is once again being snubbed and where do they go from here after NTT-Docomo, the largest telco dissed them for another mobile search engine. However, it did not help with Goo crashing on the first day when they realized that they could not handle the load.
• Japan’s next generation mobile application platform: NTT-Docomo is leading the way with Renesas Electronics, Fujitsu, NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Sharp to create a new mobile applications platform. We wonder whether they are planning to take the Apple iPhone head-on given their recent success in the Japanese market. We surprise you by where Apple might get the idea of the mobile apps store.
• TenCube, SG based start-up and winner of Android Developer Challenge 2 last year got an award in China. : So, where is TenCube going after traversing from India to China?
• Don’t miss out these major events too: Wordcamp MY, PyCon APAC 2010 and definitely, Echelon 2010.

China Mobile Research Institute hosted the award ceremony in Beijing. In his speech, Bill Huang, General Manager of the institute expressed hopes for greater collaboration, especially amongst the small and medium enterprises, to enable to creation of greater social utility and economic value.

The competition attracted wide interest from industry leaders in wireless technologies and is a positive step in encouraging further innovation in China. A further sign of interest in the Chinese market can be seen in the presence of Taiwanese companies at the award event, observing the new initiatives from their Chinese counterparts.

In their acceptance speech (in Mandarin), tenCube shared about their efforts to enhance mobile security through their flagship product, WaveSecure. This allows a user to protect data on their phone, track the phone’s location, and even remote-wipe the data stored, if the phone cannot be retrived. The popularity of WaveSecure reflects how well they have read the market’s demand for increased security–as they shared in Beijing, while the price of smartphones will continue to fall, the value of the devices will grow as consumers increasingly rely on them to manage their lives, and will therefore require greater control over what is stored on their phones.

SGE congratulates tenCube on their latest achievement. We believe that this is another step in the company gaining international recognition and increased traction. In the past six months, the company has attracted much attention with its flagship product, WaveSecure, winning the Google Android Challenge 2 in November 2009, as well as One97, India’s leading telecom applications service provider, making its announcement of making a strategic investment earlier in 2010. Given that this is only May, what else could be in store for this five-year old company? Watch this space!

(WaveSecure was also recently featured on Fox 25, where it was revealed that prostitutes and pimps were using the product to erase data when caught by police!)