TheSmartLocal’s regional push gets leg-up with acquisition of Malaysian tech firm

ORIGINATING as a hyper-local publication aiming to prove that Singapore was “not boring”, TheSmartLocal (TSL) has since broadened its coverage to other Asian countries, and is furthering its regional ambitions with a recent acquisition.

The acquisition of Malaysian software-as-a-service company StackIdeas is also part of TSL’s broader tech ambitions, founder and chief executive Bryan Choo told The Business Times. He declined to reveal the acquisition costs but said it was part of a wider, multimillion-dollar investment plan mooted in 2022 to transform TSL from a media company to a “media and tech” outfit.

StackIdeas offers paid “extensions” – tools that can, for instance, monetise subscriptions and create discussion forums – and templates on content management system Joomla, which TSL previously used for web publishing.