Startups face fight to weather health storm

Record fundraising

In China, at the end of March, online education platform Yuanfudao announced its latest round of financing of $1 billion, the country's largest-ever fundraising in this sector.

Huynh, from InnoLab, said that the online learning platform Edu2Review in Vietnam has seen a surge in the number of users－a dramatic change, as it used to be difficult for it to attract customers.

It is good to see many startups adapting to the situation quickly, even though some may not be in sectors with high demand during the COVID-19 outbreak, Huynh said.

Startups in offline businesses or those affected by social distancing restrictions are also working to find innovative ways to maintain services, he added.

Harnal said it may be better for those startups that have to raise money after being badly affected by the pandemic to pause all business and use as few resources as possible.

In Singapore, an initiative called #SupportStartups was launched on April 1 by 500 Startups and other regional venture capital companies to support emerging regional businesses during the pandemic. Information about the promotional activities such companies are willing to offer is collated on a single website, with the aim of collectively increasing their public exposure and generating new business.

Harnal said there are plans to expand the initiative to other Southeast Asian countries, which will provide services in local languages to get more startups on board.