On location

Society Pass Inc. (SoPa), Southeast Asia’s (SEA) next generation, data-driven, loyalty, fintech and e-commerce ecosystem, plans to spin out two profitable business units Thoughtful Media Group Inc (TMG) and NusaTrip Inc (NusaTrip) into new publicly-traded companies via Nasdaq initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2024.

WORQ, a Malaysia-based coworking and flexible space provider, has successfully completed its latest fundraising round, backed by 14 follow-on investors. The global asset management firm, Phillip Capital, helms this round with its largest placement to-date and its third consecutive investment into WORQ.

In Southeast Asia, about 70 percent of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) started their business with seed money raised from their personal savings and from family and friends’ financial support, said a report published by Funding Societies, a Southeast Asia’s unified SME digital finance platform.

Nearly one in two businesses in Singapore expressed a strong need for innovative fintech solutions to tackle business concerns, according to a recent study on business to business (B2B) cross-border payments published by global fintech leader Rapyd on Tuesday.

ALIAVIA Ventures, the California-based venture capital firm investing exclusively in female tech founded startups across Australia and the United States, has on Tuesday announced the close of its first fund, raising AUD 13.5 million ($8.7 million).

Asia-focused venture capital firm Gobi Partners has become the lead investor in Malaysian reseller digital ecosystem Ejen2u's Pre-Series A funding round, alongside Artem Ventures. This investment was made possible through the Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Khazanah)-backed Gobi Dana Impak Ventures (GDIV) fund.

South Korean digital bank KakaoBank and Indonesian lender Superbank have announced a strategic partnership to drive digital banking innovation in Indonesia. In this strategic partnership, KakaoBank will acquire a 10 percent stake in Superbank through the issuance of new shares.

Southeast Asia consumer confidence on track for rebound as value-seekers embrace new “needs”, according to a report launched by Meta, Bain & Company, DSG Consumer Partners on Tuesday.

X-PITCH is delighted to introduce 2023 TOP100 startups. Chosen from a pool of over 3,000 startups around the world, this year's selection showcases a diverse and vibrant ecosystem of entrepreneurial talent. X-PITCH 2023 is driven by a shared commitment to accelerate deeptech innovation across four vital domains: Healthcare, Advanced Manufacturing,…

Circular, a Y Combinator-backed Singaporean subscription service focused on high end consumer electronics, has closed its seed funding round of $7.6 million. Led by AirTree Ventures, the funding round also saw participation from investors at YC Continuity Fund, Global Founders Capital, Partech Ventures and January Capital.