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🪓☠️ Covid-19: Southeast Asia tech layoffs and shutdowns

We're keeping this list regularly updated.

Singapore Heritas Capital Fund II

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…

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💸 Here’s a handy list of Southeast Asia’s newest VC funds

Updated regularly, here’s a rundown of fresh funding coming into the region.

Lalamove on-demand logistics platform

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.

Finantier Co-Founders Diego Rojas and Keng Low

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.

Amanda Tay, Head of Marketing and PR, along with Co-Founders Ken Tan and Charmaine Lim

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

Skuad raises $4M Seed round to ramp up global payroll platform

Skuad plans to use this fresh capital by investing in the growth team who will be located in different regions geographically and continue working on developing their remote working infrastructure.

VinFuture Prize

Vietnamese billionaire launches VinFuture Prize to support R&D and tech innovations, pledges $4.5M annual funding

VinFuture Foundation, a charitable trust associated with one of the biggest conglomerates in Southeast Asia, Vingroup, has officially launched The VinFuture Prize on December 20, 2020 coinciding with the celebration of the International Solidarity Day.