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Malaysia's pension fund Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) [KWAP] has on Thursday announced the launch of Dana Perintis, aimed at injecting vitality into Malaysia's venture and startup ecosystem. With a commitment to invest up to MYR 500 million ($106.6 million) over the next 18 to 24 months, KWAP is set to empower early-stage companies, drive…

Google Cloud has on Friday announced that it has added 11 more of the most in-demand blockchains to the BigQuery public datasets program, while making improvements to existing datasets in the program. The 11 in-demand chains that Google Cloud is adding into BigQuery public datasets include: Avalanche; Arbitrum; Cronos; Ethereum (Görli); Fantom (Opera);…

Truckistan Technologies, the Pakistan-based tech-enabled less-than-truckload (LTL) company, has on Tuesday announced its successful seed fundraising round. The final amount is nearly $1 million with some late-stage participants yet to finalize their commitments.

HSBC has on Wednesday announced that it plans to make available $1 billion of financing to early-stage climate tech companies around the world. The financing is expected to support start-ups to create a range of new solutions, including electric vehicle (EV) charging, battery storage, sustainable food and agriculture, and carbon removal technologies.

Indian online visa application platform Atlys has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) and Elevation Capital. The round also saw participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Musical Duo Chainsmokers, South Park Commons, Pinterest Founders and other investors.

Bank Mandiri is collaborating with the fisheries startup FishLog to support MSMEs.

Singapore-based insurtech bolttech has raised $50 million in Series B round led by impact investment firm LeapFrog Investments. The investment adds to bolttech’s recent Series B funding round, now totalling $246 million, the largest ever Series B round for an insurtech.

Analysts of UnaFinancial has projected that share of fintech in the gross domestic product (GDP) of Singapore will reach 3.56 percent in 2027. In 2022, 0.32 percent of Southeast Asia (SEA)’s GDP consisted of venture and other investments in the fintech industry. By 2027, this share is projected to reach 1.65 percent, growing five times.

Terra Drone Corporation, a drone and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) technology provider based in Japan, has expanded into the precision agriculture sector by acquiring the business of Avirtech, a startup providing agricultural drone spraying and mapping service in Southeast Asia.

It was reported that the government plans to make Kuala Lumpur a regional hub for startup companies and the digital industry to attract investments and digital talents, with the goal of positioning Malaysia among the top 20 countries in the global startup ecosystem by 2030, the report added.