Asia

Golden Gate Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital fund founded by Silicon Valley natives, has on Monday announced the establishment of their first Middle East and North Africa (MENA) office in Saudi Arabia to strengthen ties between Singapore and MENA, and accelerate the development of the MENA startup ecosystem.

Kitchens@, an India-based cloud kitchen startup, has raised $65 million in Series C funding from Finnest, an emerging growth investment firm headquartered in London. The raised funds will be used for expanding the firm's hybrid model, Dinerium.

Whampoa Digital, the digital assets investment arm of Singapore-based Whampoa group, has partnered with South Korean gaming company Wemade for $100 million Web3 Fund and digital asset initiatives in the Middle East. The duo have entered into a strategic partnership to collaborate on the fund, which is to be established by Wemade.

Japan-based Sumitomo Life Insurance Company has entered into an agreement with TPG Inc. to acquire TPG’s 35.48 percent stake in Singapore Life Holdings Pte. Ltd. (Singlife) for SGD 1.6 billion ($1.21 billion). Together with the acquisition of additional stake in Singlife from Aviva Group, Singlife is expected to become a subsidiary of Sumitomo Life.

American alternative investment management company Blackstone has on Friday announced that it has inked deal to acquire a majority stake in Sony Payment Services Inc. (SPSV), one of Japan’s leading payment service providers. The private equity funds managed by Blackstone have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the stake with Sony Bank, a…

Singapore-listed transportation firm ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited has on Friday announced that it has acquired taxi operator A2B Australia Limited (A2B)for AUD 182 million ($123.35 million). ComfortDelGro's wholly owned subsidiary ComfortDelGro Corporation Australia Pty Ltd has entered into a binding scheme implementation agreement (SIA) to acquire all…

Riiid Inc., a Softbank Vision Fund-backed artificial intelligence (AI) education technology company, announced Thursday the acquisition of Qualson Co Ltd., a leading English language learning and content provider based in South Korea.

Japan-based investment firm Mercuria Holdings Co., Ltd. has partnered Singapore financial services group Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC) to launch a fund to finance sustainability projects in ASEAN.

Tikehau Capital, a global alternative asset management group, and Nikko Asset Management, one of Asia’s largest asset managers, have entered into advanced discussion to form a business and capital alliance. The contemplated strategic partnership would involve Tikehau Capital and Nikko Asset Management entering into distribution agreements in Japan and…

Bayanat AI PLC (Bayanat), a Abu-Dhabi-based artificial intelligence (AI)-powered geospatial solutions provider, and Al Yah Satellite Communications Company P.J.S.C. (Yahsat), a leading global satellite operator, have agreed a potential AED 15 billion (over $4 billion) merger.