J. Angelo Racoma
EdTech platform Kyt plans MENA expansion with $5M Series A
Educational technology startup Kyt has announced that it has raised a total of $5 million in a Series A funding round. The investment was led by Alpha Wave Incubation, which is run by US investment firm Falcon Edge Capital. Aside from AWI, angel investors and companies including Titan Capital, January Capital, and Sequoia Capital India’s Surge contributed…
Indonesian AI investment advisor app Bibit secures $30M in Series A round
Robo-advisor mutual fund investment app Bibit raised $30 million in a Series A led by Sequoia Capital India. The funding round was also participated by previous investors EV Growth, AC Ventures, East Ventures, and the global early-stage venture fund 500 Startups.
Indonesia giants Gojek and Tokopedia reportedly in advanced talks for $18B merger
The tech rumor mill has been churning as two of Indonesia’s biggest tech start-ups have been surfacing in headlines. Gojek, Indonesia’s multiservice platform that highlights its ride-hailing and digital payment features, has allegedly been in talks with one of Indonesia’s e-commerce pioneers, PT Tokopedia.
Singapore-based FinTech company CoAssets to shut down its crowdfunding platform
A few days after the news about the company’s financial troubles surfaced, CoAssets, which operates its crowdfunding platform under the name CA Funding Pte Ltd (CAFPL), announced that it was officially shutting down CAFPL. “We regret to inform you that CA Funding Pte Ltd (CAFPL) is in the process of gradually winding down,” a note on CAFPL’s website……
IMC Group’s Heritas Capital set to secure $30M for its HVF II ‘impact investing’ venture fund
Launched in December 2020, HVF II was created as an “impact investing” venture fund aimed at helping early-stage tech startups. The fund particularly focuses on new but promising companies in the healthcare, food, and education sectors, which are deemed to be capable of delivering financial returns and offering social and environmental benefits at the same…
On-demand logistics platform Lalamove raises $515M Series E for China expansion
On-demand logistics company Lalamove has raised $515 million in Series E funding, as announced on its website (the company is known as Huolala in China). This round was led by Sequoia Capital China Fund, with participation from Hillhouse Capital and Shunwei Capital--all returning investors.
FinTech startup Finantier joins Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 batch, will expand its tech team
Finantier, a Singapore-based startup that specializes in open finance, is set to be part of Y Combinator’s W21 startup accelerator program next year
Daiwa VC fund manager DCI Partners launches $135M fund to accelerate drug discovery
Tokyo-based DCI Partners, a venture fund manager of Daiwa Securities Group, has announced the launch of Daiwa Taiwan-Japan BioVenture Investment Limited Partnership II, a $135 million (JPY 14 billion) investment fund intended for drug discovery.
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group seeks to raise at least $525M for SPAC in the US
SoftBank Group, Japan’s second largest publicly traded company, filed in the United States to secure up to $604 million for a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a shell company established to merge with an operating company to enable the latter to become publicly listed without undergoing the lengthy traditional IPO process.
Singapore-based travel-optimization platform Navisteps secures $1M in pre-Seed round
The travel startup plans to use this fund to expand and add new partner integrations onto its platform and look further into its current expense analytics model
