Chinese tech majors could star in more S-E Asian unicorn deals

Singapore

BIG tech money from China surfaced in the minting of two South-east Asian unicorns last week.

In Ninja Van's US$578 million fundraise, Alibaba invested a whopping US$200 million, valuing the last-mile logistics company at US$2.2 billion, according to data from VentureCap Insights.

Over in Thailand, Ant Group contributed to the US$150 million Series C round of e-wallet operator Ascend Money, which it had backed earlier in 2016. This took Ascend's valuation to US$1.5 billion and turned it into Thailand's first fintech unicorn.

Both these investments did not surprise the market. Ninja Van has long worked with e-commerce giants, i…

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