Asia

Singapore’s Drive lah raises $5 million in funding led by ComfortDelGro

Singapore-based marketplace for car-sharing Drive lah has successfully secured a $5 million investment round. Singapore-based transport firm ComfortDelGro (CDG) has invested $2 million, establishing them as the lead investor for this round and the preferred fleet partner for Drive lah.

Indonesia’s J&T Express makes HKEX debut, raises $450M from global offering

J&T Global Express Limited (J&T Express), a global logistics service provider, has officially listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday under the stock code “1519”. The public offer price was HK$ 12 ($1.53) per offer Share, with net proceeds from the global offering amounting to HK$ 3.53 billion ($450 million).

Heidi Health completes $6.3 M Series A capital raise

Heidi Health, an artificial intelligence (AI) health-tech platform, has on Thursday announced the completion of an $6.3 million Series A capital raise to power its growth and product development. The raise was led by Blackbird Ventures - with participation by Hostplus, Hesta, Wormhole Capital, Archangel Ventures, Possible Ventures and Saniel Ventures.

Vietnam’s FPT partners US’s Landing AI to advance AI development and education

FPT, a Vietnam-based technology firm, and Landing AI, a United States-based computer vision platform and artificial intelligence (AI) software company, have on Tuesday announced a strategic relationship that will drive the application and education of AI.

Southeast Asia leads in digital economy growth at 15.8 percent for the next five years: report

Southeast Asia (SEA) is racing ahead among the region in digital economy, according to the latest report conducted by market intelligence firm IDC and commissioned by global payments platform 2C2P and Ant Group. According to the report, SEA leads in digital economy growth at 15.8 percent for the next five years, outpacing the United States (9.4 percent) and…

Australia’s Employment Hero raises $168M Series F funding for global expansion

Employment Hero, an Australia-based employment management platforms, has on Monday announced a Series F growth round of SGD 229 million ($168 million) to fuel its rapid global expansion. The funding follows the company’s 2022 Series E and takes the total amount of capital it has raised to over SGD 572 million ($419 million).

India’s Giga ML secures $3.6M in seed funding led by Nexus Venture Partners

Giga AI, Inc, an India-based company that provides large language models (LLMs), has raised $3.6 million in seed funding to further its goal of helping businesses safely implement on-premises deployments of large language models. Nexus Venture Partners led the investment round, with participation from Y Combinator, Liquid 2 Venture, and Y Combinator Chief…

Alipay+ partners LankaPay to enhance digital travel experience to and from Sri Lanka

Alipay+, the payment platform of China-based Ant Group, announced Monday that it has partnered LankaPay, Sri Lanka’s National Payment Network, to enhance digital travel experience to and from Sri Lanka. The duo have recently signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) towards enhancing inbound and outbound travel experience through cross-border digital…

Peak XV’s Surge unveils ninth cohort

Peak XV’s rapid scale-up program Surge has on Monday launched its ninth cohort of early-stage startups featuring 32 inspiring founders across 13 startups. Surge’s curated community of startups now includes nine cohorts, 330+ founders and 140+ startups across 16+ sectors in less than five years.

Patrick Grove-backed Proptech firm Sidespace seeks $1.6M funding

Patrick Grove-backed Proptech firm Sidespace is seeking AUD $2.5 million ($1.6 million) to disrupt commercial real estate. The firm is seeking the capital infusion from new and existing investors to fund its path towards AUD 12 million ($7.56 million) in annual revenue by 2026.