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EVMOS StayKing House, a decentralized finance protocol developed by engineers from Sooho.io, the South Korea-based DeFi infrastructure service provider, won the Grand Champion award of $80,000 worth of USDC and EVMOS at Evmos’ inaugural Momentum Hackathon.

Asean saw a total of 96 IPOs raising $3.8 billion, up 4 percent in deal numbers and a decline of 57 percent in proceeds YOY. The notable decline in proceeds was due to a lack of mega IPOs (IPOs with proceeds equal to or greater than $1 billion) in YTD 2022.

The IPO plan follows the $1.1 billion IPO of GoTo Group, Indonesia's biggest tech firm, earlier this year and the 2021 $1.5 billion IPO of BukaLapak.

The Southeast Asian economy is forecasted to grow by 4 percent to 5 percent annually over the next 10 years, with Vietnam leading the charge at a projected growth of 5 percent to 7 percent, according to a joint report by Bain & Company and Monk’s Hill Ventures’ Angsana Council.

Mastercard and Grab, the Singapore-based super app, announced Tuesday the “Small Business, Big Dreams” regional program to digitally upskill gig economy workers and small businesses in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Founded in 2017, Kopi Kenangan expanded to more than 850 outlets in 64 cities in Indonesia and officially became the first Southeast Asia company to achieve 'unicorn' status in the F&B category in December last year.

As many regions around the world enter an adjustment period, startup founders and investors have to adjust to a slower fundraising pace. Still, some investors see the adjustment as a healthy thing since it produces more reasonable valuations, weeds out unproductive firms, and forces founders to focus on creating real value.

Bolttech, a Singapore-based insurtech company, announced Monday Tokio Marine, alongside other shareholders, will lead its Series B funding round. The investment values bolttech at an up-round valuation of approximately $1.5 billion, one year after it closed the largest ever Series A funding round for an insurtech.

Indonesian smart farming startup Beleaf announced Monday its recently closed Seed funding of $2 million led by Alpha JWC Ventures, with participation from BRI Ventures’ Sembrani Nusantara, MDI-Finch Capital’s Arise, and several prominent angel investors.

In an interview, Rajentheran also shared about MiyaHealth’s plans and strategies moving forward. He also shared his views about the healthcare and HealthTech industry.