Monday, 05 October 2026 · SEA Deal Ticker

SEA Deal TickerMon, 05 Oct

Why is Nippon Paint paying US$1.35 billion for Southeast Asia's house paint?

AkzoNobel quits house paint in Southeast Asia: Nippon Paint pays US$1.35 billion for seven markets — DealStreetAsia · Permalink
Dutch paintmaker AkzoNobel is selling its house-paint business in seven markets, from Vietnam and Indonesia to Australia, to Japan's Nippon Paint, netting about US$1 billion after tax. Indonesia closes late 2026, the rest by mid-2027.
Positive-sum angle: Paint dealers carrying AkzoNobel brands will answer to Nippon Paint by mid-2027. A Jakarta or Saigon distributor should review its contract terms before the handover, not after.
AI that stalls after the pilot is a business: Singapore's OneByZero raises a US$20M Series A — e27 · Permalink
Jungle Ventures led the round. OneByZero places engineering teams inside banks, telcos and retailers across nine markets to put AI systems into daily use, and says revenue more than doubled each year for three years.
Positive-sum angle: Jungle Ventures just paid for deployment work, not model building. A solo engineer who can carry one company's AI pilot into production is selling the same service.