News

Singapore fintech firm Lendela secures $5M in oversubscribed Series A round

Lendela, the Singapore-based digital loan matchmaking platform, announced Thursday its successful $5 million Series A funding round. The oversubscribed round was led by Singapore-based Chocolate Ventures, with participation from Lendela’s seed investor Cocoon Capital.

Singapore’s Carro in talks to raise over $100M ahead of potential US IPO – report

Carro is also in the midst of securing “triple digit million dollar” financing from banks at around 5 percent annually.

UBS Optimus Foundation and Swiss Re Foundation invest over $2M to kickstart a new partnership with Terratai

Terratai, an Indonesia-based venture builder dedicated to driving investment into scalable nature-based companies, has announced a new partnership with UBS Optimus Foundation and SwissRe Foundation, backed by an initial funding of over $2 million to launch programs in Indonesia, with the potential to expand to South East Asia in future years.

Binance pleads guilty to US money laundering violations, CEO Changpeng Zhao steps down

Binance’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Changpeng Zhao, a Canadian national, also pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program, in violation of the BSA and has resigned as CEO of Binance.

Sam Altman will return as OpenAI CEO after staff threatened to resign

Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was "not consistently candid in his communications with the board", hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI, the statement added.

India’s Scapia raises $23M in Series A round led by Elevation Capital and 3STATE Ventures

Scapia, the India-based fintech company, has raised $23 million in its Series-A funding round, led by Elevation Capital and 3STATE Ventures. The round also saw participation from its existing investors, Matrix Partners India and Tanglin Venture Partners.

Hong Kong’s Klook supercharges innovation at scale with generative AI from Google Cloud

Google Cloud and Klook, Hong Kong's platform for experiences and travel services, have on Wednesday announced a collaboration to amplify Klook’s activity content and customer engagement channels with generative artificial intelligence (AI) from Google Cloud.

PropertyGuru posts net profit of $224,022 in third quarter

Singapore-based prop-tech firm PropertyGuru has returned to the black by achieving a net profit of S$ 300,000 ($224,022) in the third quarter ended September 30, 2023, as compared to a net loss of S$7 million ($5.23 million) a year ago. The firm's total revenues grew 13 percent year on year to S$39 million ($29.12 million) in the third quarter, as total…

Wavemaker Partners leads $1.5M seed+ funding round for premier Indian faith-tech start-up VAMA

Wavemaker Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Singapore, has led the seed+ funding round for premier Indian faith-tech start-up VAMA.app. Wavemaker Partners investment amounting to $1.1 million, marks its first in an India-incorporated tech company.

Singapore’s iFAST unveils digital hub in Malaysia

Singapore-based fintech platform iFAST Corporation Ltd. has announced the official launch of iFAST Global Hub.ai in Malaysia, a pivotal initiative in the group's three-year growth Plan to become a prominent global player in digital banking, wealth management, and pension administration solutions. As part of its strategic expansion, iFAST Global Hub.ai is…