SEA

Eric Cheng, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Carsome Group

Malaysia unicorn Carsome seeks $200M in pre-IPO funding round – report

The Malaysia’s first tech unicorn is working with an adviser for the planned fundraising and aims to complete it as soon as in the coming weeks, Bloomberg reported.

AirAsia’s Teleport to raise $50M to $100M in Series A funding – report

Teleport is valued at $300 million in a deal announced in August where the firm acquired Malaysia food delivery platform Delivereat at $9.8 million.

Singapore-based Accelerating Asia announces fifth cohort with nine startups

The startups cover eight verticals: fashion e-commerce, agritech, FinTech, e-commerce, HealthTech, InsurTech, and EdTech, industries that are poised to grow significantly and capitalize on digitization trends across Southeast and South Asia.

Foodpanda Malaysia apologizes, updates its Wastage Policy amid several vendors’ protests & complaints

Foodpanda Malaysia’s statement came after local media reported that several vendors on the platform have called for protests against ‘hidden’ or promotion charges which caused them to incur losses.

AirAsia partners more airlines to sell competitors’ flights on super app

AirAsia's move to partner with more airlines and sell more flights on its super app comes as Malaysia and other countries in Southeast Asia are beginning to reopen their economies and tourism sector to welcome back tourists.

Grab expands merchant services for SMEs across Southeast Asia

This is in line with Grab Financial Group’s move to be more merchant-centric in its offerings and support its merchants’ business growth across the region.

ASX-listed Novatti acquires Malaysia FinTech firm ATX Group for up to $7.4M

The acquisition enables Novatti to scale existing ATX businesses while looking to introduce additional Novatti services to the Malaysian market, such as billing.

500 SEA expects more unicorns in Southeast Asia following successful exits like Grab, Bukalapak

The Southeast Asian fund will start expanding its investment mandate and investing more into countries like Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Bezos-backed Ula to scale up ‘pay later’ options for underserved small retailers in Indonesia

Indonesia’s retail market is estimated to be around $300 billion, of which 70-80 percent is traditional retail--with this market growing 8 percent year on year, the potential is enormous.

Standard Chartered to provide $500M financing to BNPL firm Atome for its expansion

This funding will enable Atome Financial to grow and connect a wider ecosystem of merchants to a larger customer base, improving product access and financial inclusion for consumers across the region.