Southeast Asian tech giant Sea Limited’s e-commerce arm, Shopee, has failed in court to stop a former senior executive from joining Bytedance, while Singapore-based impact investor Silverstrand Capital has invested in US water-tech startup Porifera.
Shopee fails to stop former executive from joining Bytedance
Sea Limited’s e-commerce arm, Shopee, has failed in court to stop former senior executive Lim Teck Yong from joining Bytedance, according to The Business Times.
Shopee’s Singapore arm couldn’t successfully prove in court that Lim had violated non-competition restrictions in his terms of employment, added the report.
Shopee currently leads the e-commerce market share in SE Asia, followed by Alibaba-owned Lazada and Indonesia’s homegrown player Tokopedia. However, Bytedance’s TikTok Shop is catching up quickly in the region although it faces regulatory hurdles in SE Asia’s largest market.
Last year, Shopee introduced new initiatives including improved digitalisation of order scheduling and tracking as well as adding more delivery options to boost customer experience. In Singapore, the firm added 600 collection points across a variety of retail locations.
Silverstrand Capital invests in water-tech startup Porifera
Singapore-based impact investor Silverstrand Capital has invested in US-based product concentration and waste water management firm Porifera, according to a LinkedIn post.
Porifera plans to use the new funds to accelerate its expansion in new food-and-beverage category sub-sectors, reported Startup Rise.
Founded in 2009, Porifera’s processing technology has developed advanced membranes and systems for product concentration and waste-water treatment. Without pressure or heat, its osmotic membrane technology produces high-purity products from the most challenging sources, achieving energy savings of up to 80% compared with conventional evaporators.
Silverstrand Capital is a Singapore-based single-family office founded in 2018. Its impact investing mandate is focused on addressing the biodiversity crisis and aims for systems-level investment solutions that accelerate the wide-scale restoration and conservation of natural ecosystems.